Earth Day

When the Star Fox team had started, there had been three pilots. When Fox took over, the count moved up to four. Now, the number varied, but at highest count, the team had eight. Fox McCloud, Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, Falco Lombardi, Fara Phoenix, Katt Monroe, Wolf O’Donnel, and Anna Winglite.
“Eight heads are better then four?” Falco had asked, which only brought on groans at his bad pun.
“Pepper doesn’t mind at all.” Fox kicked back in his chair on the bridge. “He seems to like that the team has doubled.”
“Yeah, more pilots to do his dirty work.” Falco retorted.
The radio channel General Pepper used buzzed insistently.
“Speak of the devil.” Said Anna dryly.
Fox chortled and picked up. “Howdy General, what’s up in the political world?”
“I don’t suppose you’ve seen the paper today Fox?”
“I never read the paper, you know that. The paper boys don’t exactly deliver to outer space.”
“That would be amusing to see.” Said Slippy, which got him elbowed.
General Pepper rolled his eyes, and his picture disappeared. That day’s paper came up on the screen, the front page. PLANET WITH INTELLIGENT LIFE FOUND OUT-SYSTEM.
“Aliens?” Peppy blinked.
The paper disappeared, and Pepper came back on. “Wonderful deduction skills, Pep.”
“What’s that got to do with us?” Wolf asked.
“CSP has a scientific expedition set up, but they want an escort. Guess what? You’re going to make some money for sitting on your tails and keeping an eye on lab rats.”
“CSP?” Wolf asked Slippy.
“Cornerian Space Program. Research and such.” Slippy replied.
“Sounds okay to me.” Fox told Pepper. “When?”
“Leaves two days from now. I’ll have it in writing tomorrow. Be careful, Fox. These aliens have never had off-planet contact before. Pepper signing off.” The radio screen went blank.
“So let me get this straight.” Said Falco. “We’re going to get paid for doing nothing?”
“Right. I don’t expect you to complain, Fal, I expect you to turn cartwheels. Last I checked you wanted a new motorcycle.” Said Katt.
“Yeah I do, and yeah you’re right, and unfortunately I don’t know how to do cartwheels.”
Two days later the Great Fox was pacing a large unarmed cruiser.
“Now I know why they wanted an escort. That thing is a prime target for raiders.” Said Peppy dryly.
“High Winds calling the Great Fox. You guys awake?” Asked the cruiser.
“Yeah, we’re awake. What do you want?” Said Falco.
“Want to hear what we know about Planet Earth?”
“Sure.” Said Fox. “I want to know who we’re dealing with.”
“The life in their system is contained to one planet. They don’t have decent space travel yet, though they’ve sent probes to neighboring planets and have landed on their moon. They’re fairly advanced otherwise.”
“Lylatoid?” Slippy asked.
“Yes, about the same size as us. Their weaponry is fairly advanced.”
“Define advanced.” Said Fox warily.
“No lasers, but they have weapons that could put your cruiser out of the sky, if it ever comes to that. Nuclear missiles are available to their use, as well as a number of planes and tanks. None of their planes are as good as yours, but they have a lot of them.”
Silence for a moment as he considered that. “How good is their space weaponry?”
“Besides missiles, I don’t think any weaponry could get to your cruiser, and besides, I doubt it will come to that. Their satellites will pick us up basically the moment we come out of hyper space and go into orbit, but unless they decide we have hostile intent, I doubt they’ll attack.”
“Okay.” Fox was clearly worried.
“Their language is greatly varied, several hundred dialects on one planet. However, one language, English, is so close to our language that we can clearly understand it. Their computers have a worldwide linkup called the Internet. A lot of information can be found on this linkup, we’ll be using that for part of our research.”
“Hey, we’re close enough to pick up their radio stations.” Said ROB.
“Turn it on.” Said Falco. “Try to find something we can understand.”
ROB nodded and scanned through the different channels, then settled on one. Music blasted out, the team blanched; then Wolf started tapping one of his feet. “It’s dance music!”
“Well I’ll be damned.” Said Falco, with a laugh.
“Hey Fara, care to see how close their music is to ours?” Fox asked.
“Sure.”
“The bridge is NOT a dance hall.” Said ROB slightly stiffly, watching Fox and Fara dance.
“Will you lighten up?” Said Falco.
“I’m unable to loose weight.”
“Sweet dreams of rhythm and dancing, sweet dreams of passion through the night, sweet dreams of taking over, sweet dreams of dancing through the night!” Sang Anna.
“Let’s see what else they have.” Said Peppy, changing radio channels.
“Country.” Said Falco in disgust. “Try again Pepster.”
“Right.” Peppy changed radio channels again.
“Rock and roll?” Asked Fox, sitting down. “I like it I like it!”
“What did the announcer call this group? Van Halen?”
“Let’s see what else they’ve got.” Said Slippy.
Peppy rolled his eyes and changed channels again. “Big band. This is swing.” He announced when the channel came up. “My type of music.” He changed channels again.
“Rap. Here we go.” Said Falco, grinning.
They continued going through the radio channels, keeping themselves busy through hyperspace.
“Coming out of hyper.” ROB announced, by now fed up with the team dancing around the bridge. “None of you can sing, with the exception of Fox and Anna.” This got a number of notebooks chucked at him, twanging off his metal head.
“Nobody asked you, ROB.” Said Fox dryly.
“Nobody ever does.”
“I’ll be damned, you have a sense of humor.”
“I do not.”
“You use irony, and puns, which indicates…”
“Shut up.”
“Fine then.”
The Great Fox came out of hyper, the scientific cruiser coming out beside them.
“It’s a pretty planet.” Said Katt, looking out the window at Earth.
“Yeah, actually.” Said Wolf.
“How quick do you think they’ll see us?”
“Have no idea.”
Some of the PCs on the bridge turned on and logged on to the Internet. Anna sat down at one; Falco and Slippy claimed the others.
Anna found a search engine and typed in the word ‘war’. The results didn’t make her happy. “Fox?”
“Yeah?”
“Look at this.” She clicked through the pictures.
“Seems to me that we’re looking at a planet with a warlike species.” Said Slippy, staring at a picture of a nuclear bomb going off.
Anna, deciding she had had enough pictures of concentration camps and such to last a life time, went back to the search engine and typed in, ‘Star Fox.’
“What are you doing?” Fox asked.
“I want to see something.” She replied, and gawked when a huge list came up.
“Fox’s Crew, Fox’s Den, WolfBlazers, the Cornerian Elite Force, the Cornerian Defence Force, The Lylat Alliance, The Lylat Oasis, Star Fox Oldschool…” Fox read all the names out loud. It was quite a list.
“How did they know?” Peppy asked slowly.
“I don’t know.” Said Anna. “It’s a video game, actually two games.”
“All RIGHT!” Shouted Falco. “Fox, we have our own game!”
“They don’t know we exist yet.” Said Fox.
“So?! We still have fans.”
Katt rolled her eyes.
While the other team members argued, Anna logged onto one of the many sites and found a message board. “Wolf, do you have a brother named Sean?”
“No, not that I’m aware of.”
“Just checking.” She typed a new message.
Greetings Earthlings. (I had to say that.) You might not believe me, but I’m sitting on the Great Fox right now, and wanted to know how Earth will react to our presence. We come in peace (yet another way-used line).
The team members took turns surfing the net, listening to radio channels in the radio room (tastes differed) and turning the TV on to Earth channels so they could watch the shows. Falco found out he liked a show called South Park. Fox watched movies, and found out that a lot had been done with the alien theme besides video games.
“Star Wars, Star Trek, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, Lost in Space, Independence Day, Men In Black…” He said out loud. “And half a million others!”
“Good grief.” Peppy said, shaking his head.
“I don’t like this.” Anna announced.
“Don’t like what?” Wolf asked, concerned.
“This planet is warlike and has never met aliens before. They have quite a few movies where they completely eradicate aliens! They practice animal testing too, and have you noticed we look like the animals the do the testing on?! I don’t know if this is a good idea. All I can say is, unless the government of this planet tells us they have peaceful intentions, I am not setting foot on this planet.”
“That’s true. But that video game…I don’t know how they knew, but surely their intentions aren’t all bad.”
“I don’t know, and until I know, I am not leaving this ship!”
Later on the team was informed by the scientists that Earth knew about them. Fox turned on one of the TVs and changed channels until he came to a news station.
The President of the United States came on. “Good afternoon.”
“Good afternoon, Mister President.” Said the news crews.
“I have some news that was just confirmed. The question about whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered. Early this morning two space ships came into orbit around Earth. They haven’t made an effort to communicate with us, but they do appear to be monitoring us.”
The reporters all asked questions at once, so the Pres. called on one. “Are they much more advanced then us?”
“From the pictures I’ve seen of the ships, yes they appear to be. We’ve also seen a number of small fighters.”
“WOLF?!” Said Fox.
“Sorry man. Went on patrol.” Muttered Wolf. “Falco and Pepster came with me.”
Fox shot a glare towards his other teammates then turned back to the TV. Wolf rolled his eyes, thinking that Fox had overreacted, and let Anna lean into him.
After five minutes or so, Fox tried another channel, and this time the news people were announcing it, along with pictures of the two cruisers.
“Well we’ve just been made into this planet’s biggest news report in a while.” Said Wolf dryly.
“Not a laughing matter. Think we should try to contact them?” Peppy asked.
“It’s a thought. Anna you posted a couple things around, anyone taking this seriously?”
“No. No one.”
“I’m almost done with our site though. It’ll be officially up tomorrow morning.” Said Slippy.
“Thanks Slipster.” Fox grinned. He wasn’t really sure about this. He had done a lot in his life and as a pilot of Star Fox but had never had to do this before.
“The scientists need an escort down to the surface.” Said ROB.
“WHO ARE THEY KIDDING?” Fox exploded.
“They’re quite insistent, and say that they will stay away from populated areas.”
“Oh. Great. Well what do they want to do?” Fox said, looking irritated. He was worried about the earth weaponry, and now the techies he was escorting wanted to go down to the surface?!
“Looks like they want to take a close look at the climate, at least some of them. The others want to look at the undersea life.”
Fox sighed, and shook his head. “Well what do you guys and gals think?”
“I say some of us should stay here and guard the ships, others should take the scientists down on the Blue Marine, and the rest should escort the climate team.” Said Wolf immediately. As a former team leader he did know some stuff, though he never wanted to lead a team again.
“Makes sense.” Said Katt. “Who goes where?”
“I’ll stay with the ships.” Said Anna immediately.
“I’ll drive the sub.” Said Slippy, knowing the most about the small fast attack sub.
They all chose missions and worked out the details.
“Fox if you don’t stop worrying you are going to end up with an ulcer.” Peppy told him.
“Is that why they call it bellyaching?” Falco quipped.
“Yeah I know I’ll try. In the mean time let’s get going. Slippy keep a close eye on your radar screens okay?”
Slippy nodded, and the group split up.
“Why’d you choose the climate mission?” Anna asked Wolf as she paced him.
“My Swoop speeder is in the docking bay. If we have to land to do this mission, I figure I’ll ask Fox if I can patrol on that thing. It’s armed. I doubt I’ll have any problems.”
“Speed fiend.”
“Don’t I know it.” He grinned, tugged on one of her wings, and went to the launching bay.
She rolled her eyes and went up to the radar/transmissions room. Fox called it a giant stereo setup with radar connected-at least that’s what he tended to use it as. He listened to his music while watching the screens. There was radio and radar on the bridge of course, but the really, REALLY good stuff was in the R/T Room. She sat down on one of the wheeled computer chairs and propelled herself to the stereo, flipping to some quiet music then pushing herself over to the screens.
“You up and running Anna?” Fox asked as the Great Fox hung low in the atmosphere. The scientific skimmer had already dropped and was cruising along at a respectable rate.
“Yeah…holy ****!” Anna yelped when a fast moving SOMETHING buzzed the ship.
“Don’t you blaspheme on this radio!” Said one of the scientists.
“What’s up Anna?” Wolf asked, slowing his bike down. He was over a savanna, pacing the land skimmer, which was loaded down with scientific equipment.
“Wolf buddy you won’t believe this, but a 747 jumbo jet just tried to crawl up this cruiser’s tailpipe, reconsidered, and bugged out!” Said Anna, looking at the screens in disbelief.
Laughter echoed over the radio. “Humans!” Said Falco.
Katt’s sugar-sweet southern accent chimed in. “They were probably startled, Fal.”
“Yeah but still…”
“You look to be all clear for now, but I’ll be on the lookout for trouble.” Said Anna. “We’re going to drop Slippy off in the Pacific and then go up to a respectable orbit.”
“Right.” Everyone agreed.
The Great Fox slowly lowered herself down to the water and sank partway in. The lower launching bay opened, and the Blue Marine launched.
“Falco’s right I do need to lighten up.” Said ROB dryly. “I look and feel like a pregnant swan!”
“All clear!” Said Slippy. “We’re shoving off into deeper waters! What’s the view look like, Anna banana?”
“Well Drippy Slippy, looks fairly clear but keep on your toes. There are subs of…American and probably Russian make just outside your radar range.”
“We’re covered Anna. Thanks. Blue Marine rigging for dive, talk to you guys later!”
The Great fox slowly lifted, water streaming from her launching bay as she hovered about thirty meters above the water’s surface.
“Can’t we get up to orbit?” Anna asked, watching the air screens. They had been stationary for five minutes.
“No. I have to get all the water out of the launching bay. You got something I should know about?”
“Just a squadron of F18s coming from one direction, Japanese MIGs coming from the other, and radar lock!” Shouted Anna as information flooded her screens. “Dammit! ROB, we have to get out of the atmosphere, and we can’t hurt those fighters!”
“I can’t get into orbit without dumping all the water!” ROB nearly shouted.
The Earth fighters buzzed and circled the cruiser, trying to examine it without running into each other. Anna dropped what she was doing, went to her arwing, and launched. “Come and get me!” She said to herself, buzzing the Earth planes.
“Well well well, look at this.” Said one of the American pilots, beginning to follow Anna.
“Yeah, that’s right, come and get me.” Anna said, weaving back and forth. “Follow me. ROB, how much time?”
“Three minutes and counting, but I can’t go much of anywhere without hitting any fighters.”
“What’s going on up there?” The Blue Marine shot out of the water and landed on the surface, it had done an emergency blow to get to the surface fast. “Oh my god!” Slippy cried upon seeing the fighters.
“Wolf, load the bike into the scientific shuttle and come on! We’re going back to the cruiser!” Said Fox.
“But!!” Said one of the scientists.
“Too bad. From now on we are not coming to the surface, until we have written treaties with this planet.” Said Falco.
By then about half the fighters, American or Japanese, had pulled away from the Great Fox to see Anna. Anna was buzzing the planes, shooting warning shots whenever they got too close. “ROB find me their radio channel!”
“Right.” Anna’s radio squealed, and she could hear the American fighters talking.
“Attention all fighters! Please retreat to your home base immediately or you will be fired upon!” Anna said flatly into the radio. “All American and Japanese fighters return to bases now!”
“Who is this?!” Demanded one of the American fighters. At the same time, one of the Japanese pilots asked the same thing, but in his own language.
“This is Anna Winglite. I am a Cornerian space fighter pilot. I’m the little fighter who’s trying to keep you away from the space ship, dummy.”
The pilots talked among themselves.
“Bug out now!” Fox shouted as he arrived on the scene, charging the fighters, shooting warning shots, careful not to hit the planes. “You aren’t supposed to be here! Leave us alone!”
“Yeah get a move on already!” Shouted Falco.
As Anna flew under the Great Fox, the cruiser dumped the last of the water at once, on top of her fighter. It knocked her shots off, and three of the planes, two American fighters and one Japanese fighter went down, pilots ejecting.
“Oh. Shit.” Said Anna with a groan. “Sorry Fox.”
“It happens.” He replied, watching the rest of the Earth planes panic and head for home. “Slippy pick up those pilots okay?”
“Right. No problem.” The submarine slowly went through the water, and some of the scientists walked down the top of the hull, pulling the Earth pilots out of the water as it went along.
“What the **** is going on?” Asked one of the American pilots, staring at his saviors in shock.
“It will all be explained once we’re onboard our cruiser. For now, will you please go below so we can dock? I promise you that no harm will come to you.” Said Slippy.
“What kind of bull is that?!” Demanded the Japanese pilot in a heavily accented voice.
“Me.” Said a bull standing nearby. “Come on, let’s go.” He led the pilots inside the submarine. Once all hands were below, the ship sealed up, but the Great Fox didn’t bother with a water release. Instead, ROB grabbed the sub in a tractor beam and hauled it up.
“MY GOD.” Said the Japanese pilot, once he was in the docking bay, looking around.
“Sorry about that.” Anna said meekly. “We’ll try to work something out with your governments. Rest assured, you aren’t hostages. We’re going to give you rides home if you like…”
“Or we would if we could get your governments to let us land a shuttle.” Ended Fox.
“For some strange reason, you look familiar.” Commented one of the American pilots.
Fox shrugged. “Would you be referring to a certain video game? I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“So, uh…where’re you guys from?” Asked one of the American pilots.
“I’ll debrief’em.” Said Peppy.
“Thanks Pep.”
“No problem.”
Anna went to the exercise room and looked around. Her accidental downings of Earth pilots embarrassed her, so she wanted to work some nervous energy off. Weight equipment, stationary bikes and treadmills, punching bags, gym mats. When you’re on a ship a long time you have to exercise to stay fit. Peppy admitted to becoming a little slack on his exercise.
Anna stripped off her uniform jacket and did some chin ups, ran on the treadmill, did some gymnastics, the whole time not thinking about anything in particular.
“For god’s sake, you’ve been in here two hours, girl! You’re going to overwork yourself.” Said one of the human pilots, poking his head into the exercise room.
Anna wiped sweat out of her eyes and crossed her arms. “It’s technically not possible for me to become overworked, though I do get tired. I’m genetically programmed to withstand large amounts of physical training. I’m not going to faint because I broke a nail or some such nonsense. The boys on the campus used to call me GI Jane.”
“They should have gotten it over with and called you Joan of Ark.” Said Wolf, coming in the other door, glancing at the human pilot.
“I was given permission to explore the ship.” Said the human. “What, is your friend here that good?”
“She passed SERE training.”
“Survival, exploration, recon., escape.” Said Anna. “You have a program like it. Call me a Seal. I’m one of the top soldiers. It’s a fact.”
“You, a Navy Seal?” Said the American pilot.
“Yeah.” Anna shook sweat out of her fur, nodding thanks when Wolf tossed her a towel. “I didn’t have many electives, I had about half of the normal number.”
“Her training program was one of the most grueling I’ve seen to date.” Admitted Wolf.
“Yeah buddy boy but it was worth it. I got on this team didn’t I?” Anna wrung sweat out of her wings. ‘The human pilots have run of the ship?’ She sent to Wolf.
He blinked. ‘Yeah they do. Sucks huh?’
‘Yeah.’ Usually Anna was known for flirting with Wolf, though she was serious only about half the time. No one cared. But it was different now. Humans had run of the ship. They had to try to be professionals. Which sucked even more! ‘Just because I’m a professional fighter doesn’t mean I have to act like one.’
‘I like it better when you DON’T act like one.’ He smiled a little. “Point for you Anna.” He said to her earlier question.
“All hands to the bridge. Anna get your butt into the shower first.” Said Fox.
Anna rolled her eyes. “Yes, sir. Meet you there Wolf.” She went to her room, showered and changed quick, and went back up to the bridge. “So what’s new?”
“There’s a place called Area 51. They want us to land and release the human pilots there. Thing is, from what I’m reading, that’s where they’re holding aliens and spaceships that crashed here.” Said Falco. “Course you can’t believe everything you read.”
“So can we trust them?” Anna asked.
“I’m not.” Said Fox after a moment. He leaned over Falco and typed/sent a message back.
“You’re nuts Fox.”
“Yeah. I’m also asking for them to trust us.” He snorted. “You’ve seen pictures of what their weapons can do, and now this…Area 51.” Fox shook his head.
“You can trust our governments sir.” Said one of the human pilots.
The computer chimed, and a message came up on the screen.
“So what’s it mean?” Anna asked.
“We’re landing at the same place they keep Air Force one. ASAP. Come on ROB, let’s get a move on.” Fox patted the robot’s metal shoulder.
“Yes sir.”
An hour later the President of the United States, along with a small group of diplomats, were being escorted onto the Great Fox. During that hour Star Fox had managed to get a treaty with Earth, and got permission for the scientific groups to go around unguarded.
“My god.” Said one of the diplomats, looking around.
“Commander McCloud, how old is this ship?”
“About 25 years Mr. President, give or take.”
“A lot of guns for a peaceful goal.” He remarked.
“We’re mercenaries, sir.” Said Wolf simply. “We carry those with us full time.”
“I hate that you guys use the launching as a storage bay though.” Said Slippy. He had ignored the diplomats and was tuning up his submarine.
“Well someone didn’t plan enough storage space.” Falco shot back.
“How long do you plan to stay?” One of the diplomats asked.
“The scientists requested two more weeks, so I suppose we’ll be here that long.” Fox replied simply.
“I’ve got a news briefing to do in two hours. I don’t suppose some of you could come along?”
“Certainly Mr. President.”
“Good. Show me around?”
“I could give lessons to tour guides.” Muttered Peppy. He had been on the ship longest, and therefore led the politicians around, explaining as he went.
From then on, Earth was on good terms with the Lylat system, trading and visiting back and forth. An orbiting space base was built above Earth, for defense.
“If Andross finds out that this planet is full of resources ready for the taking, kiss the humans and us goodbye. Lord knows what Andross would do or build.” Said Wolf.
“You’re right. The defense base is the best bet.” Agreed Fox. “We’re got to help our friends.”
Anna nodded. She didn’t like the idea of fighting the person who had given her life. But in the end, to stop him, she wouldn’t have a choice.

Email: ringshadow@hotmail.com