Within Your Eyes Chapter 1 Through The Sea of Stars
On the opposite side of Corneria, in high orbit over the war-scarred world, The Vissago drifted silently. Formerly a mining vessel, the hulking old brown and gray boxy ship had been damaged in the fighting, but unlike most other ships, the sheer mass of the Vissago kept it in one piece through it all. It had been conscripted by the Cornerian army shortly after the war, but they soon realized it was too slow, too big, and too old to be much use to them. Changing hands several times in the following months, it finally found its way into the hands of a famous, heroic, and at the time, wealthy band of mercenary pilots for the tidy sum of almost everything they had.
Oh, how they regretted the purchase. Fox McCloud paced beside the large window of his bedroom aboard their new ship. He looked out across the sea of stars, and glanced down at the planet, still blackened and burned in places. It would be a long time before Corneria was the green and white gem of Lylat again. Those were better times, before the war, before the ravaging of the system… before his ship blew up.
The Great Fox had had everything going for it. It was sleek, fast, armed, well stocked, comfortable… and in the aftermath of the self destructive explosion that consumed it, probably scattered from there to Venom. It had been everything the Vissago was not. The Vissago was blocky, slow, rusted, unarmed, and miserably cramped with boxes from the last several owners, but it had been the only way to get off of Corneria when they’d bought it. Fox couldn’t stand to live planet-side, his home was in the stars… on the Vissago. Home, dysfunctional home.
Now broke, frustrated, and stuck waiting for his new employers in the Cornerian government to fix the Orbital Gate, Fox McCloud sat down on the corner of his small bed, still staring out the window. He was in the middle of removing his boots when there was a loud beep from his door, and he turned his head to face it. “Come in…” He already knew who it would be.
The door slid open and Krystal stepped inside, wearing her blue flightsuit. “Hello Fox.” She smiled. “We haven’t seen you all day, are you all right?”
“Yeah… I’m as all right as I ever am.” He looked up at her, then chuckled. “You look like you plan on flying somewhere.”
“I might be, if we’re lucky.” The blue vixen smirked at him. “Captain Roberts just contacted us about the mission and we-”
Fox shot up from where he sat; hopping on one foot as he eagerly pulled a boot back on. “We’re gonna get out of here?? Was that flash earlier the gate? It’s working again?”
“Yes, on all three accounts.” His exuberance on the matter gave her a chuckle as she nodded to him, picking up his flight jacket from the hanger in his closet and offering it to him. “I don’t think anyone wants to get out of here as much as you seem to, Fox. Why is that?”
Donning his jacket, he thought about the best way to answer, but she interrupted him before he could open his mouth.
“Home is where you make it, though.” Krystal paused, then laughed quietly. “Oh. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to do that. Sometimes I hear what you think so clearly I mistake it for something you’ve already said.”
“Hey, I don’t mind it.” Fox dug his headset and a blaster out of a nearby box and holstered the weapon on his belt. “Like you told me before, it just means we’re really close, right? I’m not gonna complain.”
This got a smile out of the vixen, and she nodded to him before turning around. “All right, I’ll take the lift back up and meet you on the bridge.”
Fox double checked to make sure he had everything, when he suddenly remembered, “Hey, don’t open the lift door, it’s full of-” He was cut off by the loud crash and feminine ‘Ooof!’ just down the hall from his room. “…Boxes.”
(So I see.) Krystal’s voice echoed in his head. (Mind helping with digging me out of here?) Her thoughts had a less than subtle tone of annoyance about them; it was obviously not the first time she’d been caught in an avalanche of junk on the ship.
“I’ll be right there…” Fox shouted back to her, shaking his head and closing the door to his quarters behind him.
… … …
Fox tripped over a stack of box lids as he entered the bridge, groaning from the blow to his shin. “Ugh… Can’t we just vent this junk out the airlocks and be DONE with it!?”
“Hey!” A high pitched voice called out from behind a tall console, amid the clanging of tools on metal. The unmistakable green face of Slippy Toad emerged from over the console. “It may be junk, but it’s OUR junk, Fox! We haven’t even opened half of it all yet, who knows what great stuff might be in some of these boxes?”
“I think you’re missing a key point here, Slippy.” The perpetually disdainful voice of Falco Lombardi echoed as he rotated his chair to face them. “If any of these boxes were worth ANYthing to ANYone, ANYwhere, then at least one of the half-dozen previous owners should have taken them all with them when they left! It’s ALL trash.”
“Well, you know, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure,” Slippy retorted.
“Treasure!?” The bird shot back, and then looked up at Fox and Krystal. “Hey, I’ll show you two some of this treasure we keep finding in boxes here on our big flying junkyard.” He stood up, looking for something in particular. “Where’s that one I opened this morning… Oh yeah, it’s over there!” He crossed the room to a large crate and lifted the lid, chuckling. “You two are gonna love this one, this is my favorite box so far.” He removed a large stack of flat-folded, new cardboard boxes from within, and his gesture indicated there were plenty more still inside. “Yeah.” He nodded to them. “It’s a box, full of boxes. You know, just in case you might need a few hundred more boxes to store even more useless garbage in, we’ve got extras. This whole ship is like some deranged quartermaster’s sick joke!”
“Enough, you two.” Krystal interjected before Slippy and Falco were at one another's throats any worse. “We’ll worry about the boxes later, once we have the time and money to do something with them. For now, we need to get moving; I think Captain Roberts will be hailing us any mo-”
“Good Morning, Star Fox.” A soft blip announced the communication channels opening, and the holographic image of Captain Roberts saluted them as he flickered into view. “I trust you are all well?”
Fox sat down in the captain’s chair of the bridge, saluting back. “Captain Roberts. We’re all fine here, better with the news about the gate.”
Roberts smiled a little, laughing to himself. “So you did see the flash, then. I suppose it goes without saying, we’re all set for you here. Bring the Vissago around the planet for gating as soon as possible.”
“Already on our way!” Fox continued working with a small set of controls on the arm of his chair, practically beaming with the thought of getting to leave for anywhere but here. “We’ll be at the gate in less than ten minutes.”
“You seem strangely happy about salvaging planetary debris, Fox.” Captain Roberts smiled at him from the viewscreen, “Getting stir crazy out here?”
“Just a bit, captain.” The fox replied, donning his headset and finalizing the course to the gate. “Falco, speed us up, will ya?”
“Gladly.” Falco adjusted the controls on the terminal he was next to, checking his monitor and confirming their speed. “The ol’ space slug is as fast as she’ll go, now, I doubled our speed.”
“…You… doubled our speed? …Dare I ask? Because… umm… We don’t seem to be moving.” Slippy poked his head up from behind a stack of boxes that obscured both the engineering terminal and himself.
“Yep. The readout said we were moving at ‘one’, and now we’re moving at ‘two’. That’s as high as it goes.” The ship shuddered slightly, and the power on the bridge cut out, closing all communications and bathing them in darkness as their momentum slowed down, now only carried by orbit, towards the gate.
“…Slippy…” Fox’s voice raised, at the end of the word, angrily.
“The rubberband on the engine broke again.” Falco piped in. “She just couldn’t take speeds like ‘two’.”
“I fixed it!” Slippy shouted in the darkness. “I know I fixed it!” The emergency power came back, and then full power a moment later, allowing them to move onward. “See? It came back!”
“Slippy. You’re absolutely SURE the warp drive WILL function once it’s been charged by a jump through the gate… right?” Fox inquired, more than a hint of worry in his voice.
“Yes! I checked it out five times already! There’s nothing wrong with it now.”
“There better not be,” Falco complained. “’Cause I don’t wanna walk home from… where are we going, anyhow?”
“Katina.” Fox and Kystal said, nodding in unison for a brief moment. The bridge fell silent, and Fox sighed a little, rubbing his forehead.
“Sorry Fox.” She chuckled a little. “I don’t mean to keep doing that.”
Captain Roberts regained the signal, his image reappearing on the small projector in the floor of the bridge. “Welcome back, Star Fox. I trust your ship is functionally prepared for gate travel?”
“Yes sir,” Fox nodded, casting a slight glare at his amphibian engineer. We just had a minor power cutout. We are riding orbit towards you as we speak.”
“Excellent. Correct the Vissago’s heading nine degrees starboard and you’ll coast right through the gate when you get here. Before I forget, though… Corneria City is hailing for you.”
“Patch them through to us, Captain.” Fox stretched out in his chair, trying to look professional.
“Good to see you, Fox!” The aged visage of Peppy Hare appeared on the viewscreen just moments after his greeting echoed over the bridge of the ship. “I was worried you’d leave before I could wish you well!”
“It’s good to see you too, Peppy.” McCloud smiled, standing up and half-saluting his old friend and mentor.
Krystal smiled. “Hello Peppy. I hope General Pepper is feeling better?”
“He’s recovering, and he told me to give you… all of you, his regards and well-wishes for your mission. He should make a full recovery, in time. Don’t worry about him, or me.”
“We’re gonna miss you out there, Peppy…” Slippy noted, his smile melting a little.
Falco crossed his arms, nodding. “Yeah, you sure you don’t wanna come along for one last mission, old man? Won’t be the same without ya.”
“I think…” The old rabbit paused, considering it for just a moment. “I think I’ve gotten a little bit too old, now, Falco. I’ll stay planet-side from now on. I want you all to be careful out there, we don’t know anything about the state of the system outside our limited scan range.”
“We will be, Peppy.” Fox assured him, sitting back down and relaxing. “It’s time for us to head out, we’re at the gate. We’ll talk in person when we get back home, okay?”
“All right, Fox. Good luck to you, Peppy out.”
Moments later, a holographic Captain Richards reappeared on the bridge of the Vissago, though he seemed more distressed now. “I’m afraid we just had a critical power failure in the third ring of the gate. We have enough charge built up to use it, but only once. If you still want to go through… we can send you, but there will be no rescuers sent if anything goes wrong.”
“Well…” As much as he wanted to go, he wasn’t about to risk anyone else if they were against it. Fox sweeped his eyes across the bridge at his three companions; Slippy nodded to him enthusiastically, Falco glared at him, obviously annoyed at the idea of scrapping the mission and Krystal, ever unreadable, simply arched an eyebrow at him and smirked, resting a hand on his shoulder. “We’re making our approach Captain, start the gate sequence now.” Fox looked over his friends and wingmen one more time, smiling. “Let’s see what’s out there.”
Richards looked over his shoulder and nodded to someone outside the view of the holographic cameras, saying something silently before turning to face them. “You’re clear for transit, maintain course and you’ll coast right through the gate.” He offered them a crisp salute, and bowed his head a little. “…Good luck, Star Fox. Orbital Gate, out.”
“This is it…” Falco leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the console in front of him and folding his arms over his chest as he looked through the bridge window at the gate, its large outer ring glowing blue as it picked up rotational speed, transferring power to the other rings. “Here’s hoping this thing doesn’t send us off to Katina in pieces.”
The first ring became a rippling blur as the middle ring began its own spin, plotting the direction that it would open a warp rift towards. They were closing on the gate now, and the blue light began to bathe the surface of their ship and invade the bridge with its serene glow. “Well, there’s number two.” Slippy commented.
The final, inner ring of the gateway picked up speed, set the distance to the warp’s exit, and delivered its charge to the open space it encircled. There was a roar of energy, a brilliant flash, and the portal formed, softly thrumming with light and sound as the Vissago drifted towards it. The entire bridge was bathed in blue, and their view was filled by the massive portal, looming just moments away. “It’s pretty, up close…” Krystal quietly noted, almost invisible amidst all the blue light washing over everything around them. “And brighter than I remember…” She shielded her eyes alongside Fox, Slippy, and Falco, as the nose of the blocky merchant vessel pierced the rippling energies of the gate and the bridge passed through subspace. The field of energy swelled, swallowing the tail of the Vissago as it passed through, then vanished with a loud electrical crackle, leaving nothing but dark, empty space in the rings.
The crew of the station cheered, celebrating their success amid the pop of corks and the claps of applause. Roberts took his cap off and ran a hand through his short white hair, graciously accepting a small glass of champagne from an aid. For better or worse, their job was done now. The hopes and dreams of Corneria and her isolated children now rested with Star Fox.
Now that the orbital gate is working again, Star Fox prepares their dilapidated new ship for what is expected to be a routine scouting and salvage mission into the depths of the ruined Lylat System.
(Fox McCloud and related characters are the property of Nintendo. Thumbnail icon graciously made by
As an amusing side note, I did not know it at the time, but Vissago is evidently Italian for 'Screwing, To Screw' An incredibly fitting name given their situation circumstances.
As an amusing side note, I did not know it at the time, but Vissago is evidently Italian for 'Screwi
Boxes, boxes everywhere, and not a place to think! I don't know what's worse: that they bought a cargo ship with a ton of unwanted crap, or that they kept it all because they were hoping to get some actual value out of it.
Boxes, boxes everywhere, and not a place to think! I don't know what's worse: that they bought a car
Hmm...very excellent work this is. I didn't catch the meaning of it, but it's the way it sounds & how it kept me excited is the main point. Good work, Chaytel.
Hmm...very excellent work this is. I didn't catch the meaning of it, but it's the way it sounds & ho
