Star Crossed [an old and terrible Star Fox fanfic]

C18 - Headache

The Great Fox made great haste towards Bolse, its massive figure turning skillfully on the shortest available path. It couldn't go too fast, especially considering its size, but it was the one thing that this entire venture could readily rely upon. It was the sole such centrifugal piece of the plan, after its stellar pilot was captured, feared to have been killed.

This possibility no doubt weighed unspeakably onto the minds of the team, who made little other conversation. Now was not the time for talk; A plan was underway, and every second was of the essence.

"Hey, Miyu?" Falco cawed softly.

"Mhm?" the lynx in question turned her head, as she trilled in response.

"How are you, uh... handling all this? I realize that this might not have been what you signed up for, and all," the bird elaborated shakily.

"Hey, hey. Big guy. It's exactly what we both signed up for," Miyu twitched an ear as she replied. "It's what Star Fox is all about, huh?"

"Yeah," the avian exhaled. "Yeah. It is."

Miyu, seeing the concern in Falco's teal eyes, suddenly stepped over to him. "We're in this together. Fox or not," she resolved, grabbing his arm and pulling him down for a kiss.

"Mmh... I love you..." he chirped sweetly, and gave her an even deeper kiss. They treasured it, both for the fact that they were outside of Corneria's usual jurisdiction, where they could potentially be criminals for it, and because it could very well be their last, before whatever might happen on Bolse.

Peppy looked out the window, after briefly observing this, and doing nothing to hinder it. He knew exactly what kind of dire circumstances these were, and silently prayed to Lylat that this would be the quick resolution an otherwise long and bitter war this would be. Whether or not Corneria itself would change was now out of the boundary of relevant and reasonable hope, but whether or not Bolse and Venom would fall was critical. He looked at the sheet of Sergeant Grey's advice, and recounted what key weaknesses would be needed to down this satellite before combat.

He also knew that another Star Wolf encounter wasn't out of the question. In reality, they weren't the main struggle. Sure, they were formidable pilots, but it was an even match between them, if not to their advantage. Even with a M.I.A. Fox, it was still four versus four, after all. Still, Peppy shuddered at the thought of facing them again, especially his former teammate, Pigma. That pig's laugh still loudly sounded in his mind. It was snorting, squealing... exactly like his initial reveling when he killed James.

Justice was long due for Star Wolf, this band of traitors and killers. This was mostly truth, but Peppy had a strange feeling about that captain, O'Donnell. Wolf was older than most of those Academy students, that much was certain, and yet he couldn't shake the idea that it was just someone whose desire for change led him to this foul course of action. It almost felt like Corneria's fault, in this indirect way, for not giving him the choice. He wondered what it would be like for that comparatively innocent wolf, to be boarded with some of the worst souls of the galaxy.

"Locked on Bolse. We should arrive in a handful of hours," Slippy detailed. "Still hard to tell, though."

"Brace yourselves, team," the rabbit simply said, not giving the specific orders yet. As much as he wished to buy more time, he knew that moments like these should be savored... especially considering they could always be the last.

• • ● • •

Andrew was writing down a few things in his planner of sorts, comfy in his room within Bolse. Pigma always poked fun at him for keeping this "diary", but the reality was far from this. The primate wrote down his ambitions, keeping details to his schemes that he found to be important. In a recent to-do list he made since becoming his uncle Emperor's right-hand man, he savored the action of checking off the penultimate item on it: killing Fox McCloud. Leon began the legacy of the vulpine family's demise, killing Fox's mother... Pigma cemented it, doing away with the then-mighty foe James. Now, though, it was by an Oikonnny's boot that Fox died.