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Star Fox: Earthborn
1st Installment

Chapter 1: First Encounters
Time: 3 months after events on planet Sauria

"Everyone, report to the bridge. We have an incoming transmission from General Pepper." Peppy's voice filled the ship. In the simulation room, the team's close quarter battle training was forcefully interrupted by it.

"People, you heard him" Fox called out to his team. "Bridge, ASAP! Good training guys."

"I hope we get to shoot something" Falco Lombardi said.

The team hadn't had a mission for weeks and especially Krystal hoped for some good action. Every enemy she took down gave her the feeling of bringing her one step closer to the murderers of her parents, but ever since she joined Star Fox her quest for answers had been put on a hold.

On the bridge, Peppy looked thrilled by what he apparently already knew about what General Pepper had to say.

"Hah, you can forget your shooting now Falco" Slippy laughed by the sight of Peppy's face.

"Yeah, the old man is only in this state when a mission involves mapping or analyzing. When I first met him he was working on his maps and he still is today. A lost case I call it."

"General Pepper here" said a hologram figure appearing suddenly out of the projector.
Everyone sat themselves down.

"Star Fox ready for duty, General. What can we do for you?" Fox said.

"I have a mission for you Team Star Fox, straight from the Government's desk. Yesterday, our Space Research Facility discovered a new galaxy, the farthest ever discovered yet. This galaxy is forming around a central black hole and within one of its solar systems, an inhabited planet was found."

"That's nothing new, sir. What's the catch?"

"Well Fox, we know nothing of the life forms on that planet. They are completely new to us. What we do know is that one of them appears to have a certain form of civilization. By the looks of it they have launched satellites all across their galaxy, so they also have some sort of advanced technology. This was just about everything our scanners could get, due to the great distance, so I want you and your team to hyperjump to this planet and analyze it in detail."

Everyone knew why Peppy looked so thrilled. He loved analyzing, but he was alone in his hobby. Fox was a bit annoyed by the fact that the Cornerian Government always thought that he and his team could simply be hired for all sorts of missions.

"General, this is not what we normally do. With respect sir, we are a combat unit. And if I'm to believe these coordinates you are sending me, a hyperjump like that will cost us almost all of our fuel cells!"

"I know that Fox. And so, with your fee for this mission will be included a wealthy research bonus. Perhaps that will make it more of an assignment for you."

The digits that appeared on screen made everyone stare in amazement for a little while.

"Just look at all that kudos" Falco whispered.

With a fee now almost as high as their reward for saving Sauria, Fox didn't need much more persuasion.

"Alright General, we'll analyze your planet. What do you need? Just space imaging or also orbital reconnaissance?"

"Both, if you can. Find out what life form we're looking at, what kind of civilization they have. Military power, space traveling capabilities, you know the deal."

"Roger that sir. One last thing, do you suspect our presence to be considered hostile?"

General Pepper assured Fox that no hostilities were expected from this unknown life form…

Immediatly, the team got seated for the coming hyperjump. For a jump that far it would take the Great Fox almost fifteen hours to reach its destination, enough time to come up with a plan of operations. ROB's voice announced the blast-off.

"Hyperjump ready. Destination set. All personnel brace. Blast-off in three…"

Every member thought about what to expect.

"Two…"

Except for Falco, he thought about the fee.

"One… "

..

A little less than fifteen hours later, the Great Fox had reached the area of operation. Everyone walked to the windows of the bridge, to see what lay outside. As the ship continued on its usual steady pace, Krystal saw the team's goal: a bright blue planet, seemingly peaceful, with huge amounts of clouds moving over the continents. This was their objective.

"Okay team, here's the plan one more time" Fox said. "If we want to know this species, we'll have to tap into their satellites, their media, their international networks, etcetera. We'll also make recordings of the planet's surface. Slippy, you get the tech up and Peppy will take care of the mapping of this planet. ROB will then process and analyze all the intel we collect and he'll summarize it for us. We will station the Great Fox in orbit around the planet so we can do our jobs easily. Clear?"

"Clear!" the team echoed back.

"Alright then, let's get to work."

For the next three days, the team collected global information about the unknown life form and the planet it lived on. At first, they were amazed by the beauty of this planet. Its stretches of land, its deep oceans and the rich selection of animal and floral life. "Mother Nature sure did a good job here" Krystal had said. But the more they began to investigate the strange dominant species General Pepper wanted to know about, the more they began to dislike it…

In three days of investigating this Planet Earth, as it was called, the team had discovered the Humans. This species had an everlasting desire to fight each other since its first footsteps on the green soil of their planet. With astonishment Fox and his team noticed that humans who tried to do right were overruled by corruptive souls, persons who saw benefits in a worse world. As ROB summarized it: humans were destroying themselves. Global corruption, exploitation, poverty, immoralities such as the abuse of children and the very abuse of nature itself; it was all part of the human way of life. And even though crime, violence and war wasn't strange to the Lylat System, Fox or any other had never came across a species where war was in its nature. A species with such great potential, that was in the end doomed if it continued on that path…

Krystal in particular was struck by the evil she saw in the humans. She immediately believed that the humans could have destroyed Cerinia, but this was proven not true by the fact that humans weren't even half as technologically advanced as the Cornerians. They couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the annihilation of Krystal's home world. Still, she hated the humans for what they were. She made them scapegoats for what happened to her people. Unfortunately, she didn't see the good things humans could do or the respect many humans still had for their planet. Krystal only felt plain anger…

..

On the fourth day Fox decided that he would do a reconnaissance flight in the planet's atmosphere, just to collect some last data before they would leave this world behind. He felt no reason why he shouldn't: they had observed the human military capabilities and all assumptions showed that an object moving as fast as an Arwing wouldn't even be picked up by any of their radar systems. As Fox launched out of the Great Fox and breached the first layers of Earth's atmosphere, he couldn't have known that he was wrong…

After five minutes in the lower mesosphere, at sixty kilometers above ground level, the defense systems on Fox's Arwing began warning him of something trying to get a lock on him. Seconds later, his radar picked up missiles…

"What?! Peppy, this is Fox! I'm being fired upon! I have missiles closing in from all directions! Where did those come from?!" he yelled into his radio.

"I see it Fox! They appear to have fired land-based interception weapons! You have to descent! Descent, shake them off and pull back ASAP!" Peppy responded.

Far below, on the Central European continent, experimental NATO radar targeting systems had locked onto the solid hull of the Arwing. Hidden underground missile sites, used to repel nuclear strikes, had become active and fired multiple high-speed projectiles at Fox.

"Roger Peppy" Fox yelled, "I'm descending! Missiles are still closing in at supersonic speeds, forty kilometers AGL! I can't break the radar lock!"

"Fox, if these are anything like the atmospheric defense missiles we know, descending rapidly will break the lock! Take your Arwing in a dive!"

"These things are glued to my tail, I've let my guard down" Fox said in disbelieve.

"Do a barrel roll! Shoot them out of the sky" Peppy advised him.

The Arwing's steep nose-dive proved to be working, because for a second Fox seemed to be able to escape. But it was already too late: Fox dodged most of the agile missiles, but one of them detonated close behind his Arwing, taking out one of the Gravity Diffuser systems and damaging the engine.

!!BOOOOM!!

"Dang, I'm hit! I have lost most of the engine capabilities! I'm going down over land! I repeat: I've taken major splash damage and I'm going down! Currently on eleven kilometers AGL!"

"Fox, can you eject!?"

"Negative, Peppy: my canopy release's power supply is out so I'll try crash-landing, but you guys better come pick me up!"

"Roger that Fox! ROB, engage missile shielding! Team, weapons and ammo! Buckle up; we're going in after him! Fox, activate your location beacon as soon as you hit the surface! We'll home in on that location" Peppy yelled.

"Got it, wish me luck" Fox replied.

At this time Fox was in orbit above a small North-European country, called the Netherlands…

…

It was already getting late when David decided to put out the TV in his father's house. He'd been home alone that night, which meant snacks, drinks and an unholy load of movies ranging from 'John Rambo' to 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. After hours of watching, it was time for the young man to have some sleep. His bedroom was full of punk band posters, wildlife photos, antique weapons and much more. As David stepped into his room, he thought about what he wanted to do with his live. Here he was, twenty years of age and no idea at all about what to do. He had some ideas, sure: the marines, working for National Geographic, becoming a travel manager, nothing solid really. He spent his days training and working at the local supermarket, hoping some day he would know what to do…

As David walked into the bathroom, he heard a feint explosion, far away.

"Probably just some kids with fireworks" he thought.

Then, only minutes later as he lay in bed, he was suddenly startled by a noise that sounded like a jet plane going down. David ran to his window and his attention was immediately drawn to something that looked like a meteor, high in the sky. As this object came closer and closer, the noise kept getting louder until it was louder than anything he'd ever heard. Soon, he noticed that this object was some sort of aircraft, with a huge pile of smoke and flames coming from the rear. As David watched, he saw the thing steer for a wide open field near to his house.

"Whatever that thing is, it's going to crash!" David's mind raged like crazy while he watched the strange aircraft hit the ground, nose first. Its speed made it slide across the field while losing parts until it finally got stuck in the mud.

Before he knew it, David was out the door running towards the crash site, almost two hundred meters away. In the distance, the left wing of the aircraft started to catch on fire. When he reached it, he noticed that the aircraft didn't look like anything he'd ever seen. Then, he spotted movement behind the canopy. The cockpit had filled with smoke, so the only thing he saw was a hand banging on the glass.
David climbed up on the shattered right wing, which was stuck in the ground, to reach the cockpit. As he did, he also started to bang on the shielding.

"Hey! You inside! Hold on, I'm gonna get you out" he yelled to whoever was in there.

Inside, a muffled voice yelled something back at him, he couldn't hear what. The voice sounded angry but there was no time to lose, for David saw the fire spreading from the left wing to all over the aircraft itself. He tried to get his hands under the shielding but whatever he tried, it wouldn't budge, until he found a small dent right under the edge of the glass where he could put his fingers. With all his strength he pulled. The fire came ever closer to consuming the cockpit.

"Come on! I have to hurry, or we'll both fry!" The canopy opened just a crack at first, enough to let some smoke out.

"Almost there, I can't give up now" David said to himself and with the last bit of strength he had left in his muscles, he pulled. The hydraulic sealer of the canopy gave in and with a screeching noise the shielding opened, letting out a thick cloud of smoke.

David held in his breath and grabbed inside the cockpit until he got hold on something that felt like a body. He grabbed a piece of clothing and he pulled the now unconscious pilot out of his seat and over the edge of the cockpit. Both landed almost three meters lower on the ground. Gasping for air, David took a look at the person he just pulled out.

"What the…" His mind immediately started telling him that it just couldn't be that he pulled an anthropomorphic fox to safety. But what got his attention even more was the large bleeding wound on the fox's head. Without hesitation, David lifted the fox over his shoulders and started carrying him to his house. Behind them, the strange aircraft lay burning.

…

When Fox woke up, he found himself lying on a couch in a strange place. The last thing he remembered was, while trying to get out of his burning Arwing, hearing someone banging on the glass of the canopy and yelling at him.
Suddenly he realized that something was touching his forehead, where he felt a sharp pain and the warmth of blood. He looked to his right side, where he saw a male human sitting next to him. Fox immediately felt angry and nervous. He wanted to jump the human, but his strength had left his body. So instead of breaking necks, Fox opened his mouth.

"Human, what have you done to me? Where am I?" he grunted.

"Calm down," the human said in perfect common Lylat. "You're injured; I'm here to help you. You are in my home, it's save here. Don't worry."

There was something in the human's voice that eased Fox's mind, but not for long. He slowly felt his strength returning, so he grabbed the human's shirt.

"You shot me down! Why are you holding me prisoner?!"

"Lay still, I can't put the antiseptic on the wound" the human uttered. "You're not my prisoner and I most certainly didn't shoot you down. If anyone shot you, it must've been the military. They shoot everything they don't know. But I'm not your enemy."

His voice sounded so calm and relaxed, although Fox heard that this male was nervous as well. He'd probably never seen anyone like Fox. And Fox had never seen a human this close.

"You said I have an injury. Where?" Fox asked.

The human held a mirror over Fox's forehead, so he could see a deep cut running in a diagonal pattern over his head. The wound looked as if it'd already been cleaned.

"Did you clean my wound?" he asked.

The human nodded. "I just need to treat it with antiseptic and then I'll apply a bandage."

Fox thought for a moment. His first priority came with his ship.

"You pulled me out of my Arwing, right? How bad was it? I can only remember smoke" Fox said.

"Your ship? See for yourself" said the human as he pointed out of a window. As Fox looked, he saw his Arwing going up in a pillar of smoke and flames. If he'd been in there by now, he'd be toast.

"I'm sorry about your ship; I figured I'd take care of you first. Oh, and we're in the middle of nowhere so if anyone was tracking you, it'll be long before they're here." The human applied a bandage to Fox's forehead after treating the wound with stinging antiseptic gel.

After a while, Fox had enough strength again to sit up on the couch. He started to analyze the room they were in. It was a warm, cozy room, probably the living room.

"Well, if you saved my life, then I must thank you" Fox said while holding out his hand.

The human took his hand and shook it, making it clear that this tradition of common respect wasn't strange to him.

"My name is Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox team. Please forgive my suspicion" Fox said.

"I'm David Mulder; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise. How is it that you can speak our language?"

David looked surprised. "Well, here we call it English. People all over the world speak it."

"So, you don't have a common language on your planet? How strange… But what a great place you live in!"

"Well, thanks. But didn't you just mention a team? Are there more of you?" David asked.

In all the commotion, Fox entirely forgot to activate his location beacon. "Peppy must be losing his hair right know" he thought while taking a communication device from his belt.

"Fox to Peppy. This is Fox to Peppy, come in, over" Fox said in the communicator. After a second of static, Peppy's voice came blasting through the tiny speaker.

"DAMN IT, FOX! We thought we'd lost you! Where in Venom's name are you?" the hare yelled almost hysterically.

"I've been taken in good care by a local human male. He rescued me from burning to death while risking his life."

"You what? Alright, never mind… Activate your locator, we're coming in now and I mean NOW!"

Fox activated his locator and not minutes later, David heard a loud rumbling noise. He looked outside and he saw a spaceship the size of an aircraft-carrier coming out of the sky. It landed on the same open field as where the Arwing had crashed. As soon as it had landed, David saw a large ramp opening on the rear, revealing a hangar bay. Three figures came running out, going straight to his house.

"Let me do the talking" Fox advised him.

Seconds later, the door was kicked in and rushing in came a tall bird-looking man, a smaller one who looked like a frog and a very elegant, very angry blue vixen. All three had weapons pointed at David, but for some reason he feared the vixen most: a strangely beautiful being who was only an inch of trigger pressure away from blasting his head off. She looked at him as if she hated every molecule in his body.

Fox stood before them, putting his hands in front of him as a sign of 'hold your fire'. "Guys, don't shoot. This is the human who saved me at risk of burning to death himself" he said.

"What? Are you kidding me?" the tall bird said in surprise.

"Fox, you were fired upon more times than I can think of in my whole life while you entered the atmosphere!" the blue vixen yelled while taking even better aim at David's head. "These humans are hostile, he is one of them and you're telling us to HOLD fire?!"

"Damn it, put your weapons down! Now!" Fox said. His team finally listened.

"This young man saved my life. He dragged me into his house without knowing who or what I was. He took care of my wounds like we do for each other and he kept me save here. That doesn't look one bit like most of the humans."

Upon hearing this from Fox, his team looked as if they didn't know what to do. Then, the frog came forward and held out his hand to David.

"I suppose we owe you our thanks for saving our leader, tall guy" he said. David shook his hand.
"The name's Slippy" the frog said with his high-pitched voice.

"Hi Slippy, I'm David. Very nice to meet you" David replied.

Next, Falco doubtfully held out his hand too.

"Falco Lombardi. Guess not all humans want to shoot at us" he said while narrowing his hawk-like eyes.

The vixen refused to step forward. She was still looking at David with a look so furious that he could almost feel her desire to shoot him on the spot. Then she turned around and walked out of the room.
"I'll wait by the ship" she said in a clear Estuary English accent.

"What's with her?" David asked Fox.

"I don't know. Sometimes, she's like that among people" he answered.

"Fox, we'll wait for you in the hallway" Slippy said. "I think it's best if we leave soon."

Fox however wanted some time to talk to David. With the actual mission not forgotten, he now had the opportunity to collect some first-hand information. As they spoke for a short while Fox quickly came to see that this human was indeed a brave, respectful and righteous soul. When he mentioned his view of the humans, David said that there were still enough humans to make things better but that they only needed to wake up.

Suddenly Fox's communicator came to live and interrupted David. Peppy's voice once more shouted through the speaker.

"Fox! I hate to interrupt, but we have multiple unidentified incoming on radar! It looks like vehicles and helicopters! Those humans are coming after us but they're taking their time, so pack your backs and get back to the Great Fox now!" he said.

Right after, Fox, jumped up. Through the window, David saw the blue vixen already entering the large ship. By the looks of it, the wreckage of the Arwing had been salvaged. Falco came into the room and told Fox to hurry up.

"Time to go," Fox said to David. "Will you be able to stay out of trouble for this?"

David was a bit stunned by the sudden change of circumstances. "I… I think so. I'll just tell them I saw nothing, I guess."

"Good" Fox said while quickly walking out of the front door, following Falco and Slippy. David walked along to at least say goodbye.

As Slippy got on board, Falco collected some small leftovers of the Arwing before also entering the ship. Fox and David stood before the entrance.

"Thank you again for what you did, David" Fox said while putting his hand on David's shoulder.

"I guess I won't be seeing you anymore" David said, clearly a bit disappointed.

"Don't think so, we can't risk getting shot down again around here."

"Then I think this is farewell" David said while holding out his hand.

"Yes, take care of yourself" Fox said when he firmly shook David's hand.

Fox turned around and walked up the ramp to the hangar. But halfway up, he stopped and David saw him thinking. Then, Fox turned around and ran back to David.

"David, listen up. You are a good person and you know when to act. How would you feel about joining us? We could use a man like you in the Star Fox team."

David was struck. His heart said 'Yes' right away, but he thought about what he would leave behind: his family, his friends, his whole life. Still, somewhere he knew that this moment was what he was waiting for, what he was meant to be doing. He just had to do this, right here, right now!

"Well… Uh… Do I have time to grab some things?"

Fox smiled and grabbed his communicator. "Peppy, hold the take-off another five minutes alright?"

David started running back to his house and Peppy almost spitted his words back at Fox. "WHAT?! We have the entire human army coming down here to skin us right now and you want to wait five minutes?! What for?!"

"One last piece of cargo" was the only thing Fox said.

When David came back, he was holding a small suitcase and a plastic bag. He and Fox entered the hangar bay. As soon as Fox said "Peppy, we're clear" the ramp slowly lifted and David looked back one last time to the place where he grew up. The last thing he saw before the ramp sealed off the hangar was the nighttime sky.

Peppy's voice immediately came over the intercom. "All personnel, be seated and prepare for immediate full speed lift-off."

David saw Fox sitting down on one of many small seats in the hangar. The rest of the team was already at the bridge, so he quickly sat down next to him, strapping himself in the seatbelts. He saw a sign on the wall, saying 'In case you are in here during a full speed lift-off: Hold On & Don't Puke'.
The engines started charging up and the ship began to rumble.

"Missile shields up. Engines ready! Three… Two…"

"Hold on" Fox said.

"One…"

"Wait, wha-" David uttered.

"LAUNCH!"

The force of the lift-off pushed David further into his seat than the seat was designed for. His stomach felt as if it had the desire to exit his body through his mouth and all his blood rushed to his legs. David grunted, breathing heavily. Through a small window, he saw the darkness of the night turning into something even darker, but far more beautiful. Thick layers of clouds rushed by until there were only stars, billions of them. It seemed to last for minutes but before he knew it, the giant ship had forced itself back into space.

Fox strapped himself out of his seat and helped David do so as well, asking him what he thought about the lift-off.

"It was the most awesome thing ever!" David said while he tried to keep standing straight.

"Let's go to the bridge" Fox said laughing. "I think the rest of the team will freak out if they see you."

"I sure hope not" David mumbled as he remembered those furious eyes with which the blue vixen had looked at him.

He thought about his new life, which had just started. He wondered what would happen next. Worries about his family, what they would think of him. But deep inside, he felt a spark of happiness: he had finally found where he was looking for. And as he stepped into the elevator with Fox, he smiled...

"Whatever this new life will bring me: I'm ready…"

TO BE CONTINUED…