Opening the main gate of the Katina outpost, Fox carefully peered around the corner. When the heavy, mechanical doors had slid open completely, he made his way inside.
"Something's not right..." he murmured while pulling out his blaster. "It's too quiet..."
He walked across the dusty yard of the outpost. In front of him was the big main building. Somewhere in here must be the survivor - or survivors - that had sent the distress signal. But Fox was more on the lookout for anything that might have caused them to send a distress signal in the first place...
Suddenly, a red light started blinking next to the entrance, and the heavy door closed itself before Fox could escape.
"It's a trap!" he realized. He ran back to the door, but it was no use, it didn't budge. Scratching sounds of metal claws made him turn around.
The yard was suddenly littered with dozens of mechanical creatures, metal bugs that were scurrying all over the base. Several of them were approaching the leader of the Starfox Team, waving their forelegs around menacingly.
"It's the Aparoids after all," he called into his communicator.
"So we noticed," came Falco's reply. "You might not have realized it, but it'S starting to get crowded up here."
Fox blasted two of his attackers with his blaster and dove behind a metal crate. Looking up into the sky, he could see that the three Arwings of his teammates were being chased by flying Aparoids.
"Looks like we've got our hands full with this mission," he said. "Take care of the skies, I'll try to find whoever sent that distress signal."
"You got it, fearless leader!" Falco replied. "All right, let's get busy! Krystal, take care of the enemies coming from the east. Slippy, the enemies approaching from the west are all yours."
"Uh-oh..." the little frog gulped as he saw three dark shapes approaching him from behind. "I've got some bogeys on my tail!"
"What, already?" Falco sighed. "Sheesh, you're such a pain..."
"I'll take care of them, Pilot Lombardi!" Rei said in her cool voice. Falco was once again surprised how emotionless she sounded.
But he was even more surprised when he saw the efficiency with which she cleared the skies. She didn't miss a single shot, and the Aparoids plummeted down to the ground like flies.
"Damn! How did Krystal get so good?" he muttered.
"Phew, that saved me!" Slippy sighed. "Thanks, Krystal!"
"Pay closer attention to the enemy, Pilot Toad!" Rei said. "On the battlefield, only the strong survive."
"Give me a break here..." Slippy mumbled. He knew he'd never be as skilled as Falco or Fox, but she didn't have to put him down like that.
In the meantime, Fox had cleared one quarter of the outpost's central yard with his blaster and a machine gun someone had left inside a crate. Hiding behind a corner of the building, he panted heavily. Lifting his communicator, he said: "Peppy, send me a Landmaster, will ya?"
"It's on its way," Peppy replied. "What's the situation?"
"Well, I've got my hands full, but what else is new?" Fox grumbled.
In a bright flash of light, a heavy vehicle with a long cannon attached to its front appeared in the middle of the yard.
"Done!" Peppy said. "Transmission complete! Here's your Landmaster!"
Fox sighed when he realized that the transmission had placed the heavy tank right in the middle of a huge Aparoid group. "Great..." he groaned. "Good to see the transmission target system's sterling as ever... Oh well, time to blast some bugs..." And he charged up his blaster.
The orange spacecraft was granted admission as soon as the federal soldiers realized who was aboard that ship. A landing space at the base's south side was being cleared right away. When the tall, armored figure stepped out of her ship, she was greeted by an officer.
"Good to see you again!" the Captain saluted. "Welcome back, Samus!" He noticed that Samus was carrying her helmet underneath her arm. That was kinda unusual for the famous hunter, especially when she was on a mission or on formal visits. "Um, nice hair color. Did you die it?"
Yui brushed her armored hand against her brown ponytail. "Um, no, I didn't..."
"Ah!" The captain nodded. So she wasn't really a natural blonde like everyone wanted to make him believe. He shook his head. "Forgive me, you must be in a hurry. The commander told me to inform you that he is very busy with inspecting the troops, and if it isn't terribly important."
"Oh, I guess I don't need to bother him," Yui smiled. "Say, um, Mr..."
Did she forget his name again? The trooper sighed. Obviously, he couldn't expect that the famous bounty hunter, Samus Aran, would bother with remembering the name of every single Federation Trooper she was working with. "Um, it's Cody, Samus! Captain Cody Connors..."
Yui smiled. "Nice to meet you, Cody. My name is Yu... I mean, Samus!"
"Yeah, I... already knew that. We met each other during your mission on Aether, remember?"
"Oh, I'm sorry... I must have forgotten. Um, say, Cody... when coming here, I noticed my ship was low on fuel... is there any way I could refill my tanks?"
"Consider the shop tanked up in less that 30 minutes, ma'am!" Cody saluted with a grin. "I take it you're just on a stop to restock your supplies, right? Are you on the hunt?"
"Well, you could say that..." Yui said carefully.
"I bet it's some crook with some high bounty on his head," Cody smirked. "Or are the Space Pirates busy again?"
"No, actually, I am..."
"Sammy?"
It took Yui some time to realize that someone had called for her... or rather, for Samus. By the time she reacted, she was already tackled by a gray-furred blur.
"It IS you!" the stranger squealed. "To think that I almost decided not to come here... let's take a look at you!"
While the woman who had hugged Yui so fiercely took a step back to look at her, Yui got a better look on her as well. She was surprised to see that the young woman in front of her looked like a cross between a human and a gray cat. She was wearing an orange vest, purple pants and a red bandana.
The feline female smiled. "Looking good, Sammy! How long was it, two years? I nearly forgot what you looked like. Hey, I like what you did with your hair!"
Cody chuckled. "Katt... I should have known it was you. Here to collect your bounty?"
"You bet I do! I take it the commander still isn't available?"
"Busy as always. But why wait for the commander if a handsome guy like me can give you the reward for Sylux?"
"Don't flatter yourself, captain!" Katt purred. "But I guess you'll have to do. But make it quick!"
"All right, but where is Sylux?"
Katt gestured over her shoulder with her thumb. "In my ship, tied up and ready for delivery. Tell your boys to fetch him quickly, though. I don't want him to make a mess in my beloved Catspaw."
After Cody had left, Katt turned to face Samus again. "So, Sammy, off to save another planet again?"
"Not really..." Yui said in a polite voice. Obviously, this young... woman was the real Samus's friend, and if she was now put into Samus' role, she saw no reason why she shouldn't try to have some friends as well. And Katt seemed to be a nice enough person, even if a bit feisty. "I'm searching for someone. Someone who is very dear to me... but I'm afraid I don't know where to start searching."
Katt was surprised. There weren't too many people Samus really counted as her friends. Her past was a close secret known only to her closest of friends, and she made it very hard for anybody to approach her. She then smirked. "Aww, do you have a new boyfriend?"
"N-no, no, nothing like that!" Yui replied hastily. "I'm looking for my son!"
Katt stared at her with wide eyes. All around them, the troopers and technicians had stopped doing whatever they were busy with and stared in their direction as well.
Katt regained her composure and glared at them angrily. "Hey, don't you guys have work to do?"
The dumbfounded men quickly went back to work. Even if she wasn't as legendary as Samus, Katt's temper was well-known among the residents of this base.
Turning back to Yui, Katt shook her head in disbelief. "Samus, you... since WHEN? I never thought you'd start something like THAT with anybody... I mean, how? Who? When? Where?"
Yui wished she could take back what she just said, but it was too late for that. "It's... kinda complicated," she finally said. "All I can say is that I haven't seen him in a long time and I want to find him, but I don't know where to start looking."
"You poor thing... what's his name?"
Again, Yui reacted without thinking. "Shinji. Shinji Ikari."
"Ah, gotcha! Must be his father's name. All right, leave it to me, sugar! I'll help you find your son, or my name's not Katt Monroe! Just let me make a few calls, and when both our ships are filled up, we'll fly directly to the Lylat System. I have a few friends from Corneria working for the Cornerian Army... with a bit of luck, I can arrange a meeting with their general, who's also one of the most important people on that planet. With his connections, he's bound to find out more about your son. And if he doesn't Fox and his team will be happy to help, I'm sure of it. You have heard of the Starfox Team, haven't you?" She winked.
"Th-thank you, Katt..." Yui stuttered. She didn't know what to say.
"Don't mention it! Besides, this is a great chance to finally see Falco again..." she murmured dreamily.
"Damn, they're all over me!" Falco grimaced. "Hurry before I'm smoked!"
A few shots from Krystal's Arwing, and the Aparoid chasers were history.
Falco whistled. "Krystal... girl, please make sure to leave us a few, you hear me? It's kinda depressing if you start to do our work as well."
"It's not my problem if you can't keep up, Pilot Lombardi!" Rei stated. "Successful completion of the mission is our top priority."
"She's starting to get on my nerves..." the ace pilot grumbled.
"Guys, do you see that?" Fox's voice suddenly came from the communicator. Falco looked outside and saw a huge amount of weird, ufo-like shapes descending from the sky. They landed on the building and the ground of the yard and anchored themselves with sharp iron spikes.
"Yikes! What are those things?" Slippy wondered.
"That doesn't look good..." Peppy murmured. "From what my readings tell me, these things are able to spawn more Aparoids. Fox! You've got to destroy them!"
"Got it!" Fox replied. "Krystal, can you use your psychic powers and tell me how many of them you can feel?"
There was a short pause.
"This isn't the place for jokes, commander!" Rei then replied. "There is no such thing as psychic powers."
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(Posted Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:03)
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