Beyond the Stars

by Onomonopia

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The ship turned at a thought. Boosted when she needed it to. Performed every single action she ran it through without so much as a moment of delay. Slippy was right. This starship was far beyond anything she had ever flown before.

"How's it feel?" Slippy asked over the comms.

"It flies like a dream, except even my dreams don't fly like this," Slipstream replied. "The handling's incredible, everything is state of the art and you somehow managed to get the right balance between speed and power. I've never flown anything like it!"

"Glad you like it. Try not to get it blown up," Slippy said.

Slipstream put on her game face as the simulator came to life...and immediately threw her in the middle of a raging war. Gunships everywhere, lasers painting the sky and enough explosions to illuminate all of space. She had a moment to take in the scope of the battle. Then the lasers started flying at her.

"Here's your mission, Slipstream. Those ships are guarding something on that planet down below. Get down there and figure out what they're trying to protect," Slippy ordered.

"On it boss," Slipstream replied. She pushed the Arwing forward and flew into the battle. Slipstream was confident in her reflexes but even they were being pushed to the limit from the sheer scope of the battle. Needing a target, she focused on one of the bigger gunships that had taken the center of the barricade. The Arwing unloaded with its canons, a laugh escaping her lips when the ship went down in a short barrage.

"One down," Slipstream muttered. Lasers whipped past her head and brought to her attention that she now had a daisy chain on her tail.

"This is what Falco calls the Slippy special," Slippy chimed in. "As much as I loathe the name, it is an apt description of a situation we find ourselves in often. How are you going to get out of this?"

Slipstream smirked before she whipped the ship around one eighty and fired a short burst into the oncoming fighters, tearing them to shreds.

"Smart. Practically no G's in space, so you can perform moves like that without issue. You're clever."

"I've had a lot of practice," Slipstream replied.

Now every fighter was focused on her and came raining down. Even with her skills, she couldn't avoid all of the laser fire that rained down upon her. Alarms started screaming that she was close to screwed and Slipstream knew she needed to do something quick.

"Do a barrel roll!" Slippy suggested.

"What? How would that help me in this situation?!" Slipstream asked.

"Spin! Just do it!"

With nothing to lose, Slipstream spun the ship and found to her amazement that as she spun a barrier formed around the Arwing that deflected all of the laser fire. Now that she had the fire off of her for a second, she kicked in the thrusters and raced ahead of the spacecraft.

"See? Spin to win."

"That was not a barrel roll. That was an aileron roll," Slipstream pointed out.

"What? No. Peppy's the one who came up with that move. Are you telling me that he doesn't know the difference between an aileron and a barrel roll?" Slippy asked. Slipstream could practically hear the smirk Slippy had before a laser nearly caught her engine, snapping her back into the fight.

A red circle with a B on it caught her attention and she knew what to do. With the last of her thrusters she raced ahead to snatch up the bomb, before glancing over her shoulder at the sea of starfighters that were on her tail.

"Got a power bomb, huh? Wonder if that will be enough?" Slippy casually said.

Slipstream knew he was right. Power bombs were strong, but not destroy all those fighters strong. Then she looked forward at the blockade of flagships that were moving to block her way. And a smile crossed her face.

"Hey Slippy, what's the average IQ of your standard henchmen?" Slipstream asked.

"About negative six. Why?"

"Watch."

Slipstream gunned it and rocketed towards the flagships, with the sea of starfighters still on her tail. Dodging the fire from both the starships and the gunships was tough enough, but then she realized that the gunships were trying to ram into her as well. But that suited her needs just fine.

She turned her ship sideways and flew dangerously close to the side of one of the gunships, a passing glance confirming that most of the other craft had followed her. The other gunships were still firing at her, and in turn their own ship, meaning that all eyes were on her. But more importantly, they were all closing in on her. Slipstream took aim at the gunships engine, smiled and flicked the trigger.

"And away we go."

The power bomb flew out of her ship and struck the gunships engine head on. The explosion detonated the engine of the gunship, which in turn detonated the gunship, which in turn created a colossal explosion that decimated everything nearby. The Arwing Slipstream was flying was fast enough to get away. All of the ships that had been chasing her were not.

"I cannot believe that worked," Slipstream chuckled as she looked back at all of the destruction that she had caused.

"I wondered where you were going when you asked about their IQ but wow, even I wasn't expecting that," Slippy added.

"Like moths to a flame," Slipstream said. The remaining gunships started to fire upon her once more, snapping her back into the fight. "Welp, time to go."

Slipstream fired the thrusters and headed down towards the planet, ignoring the other gunships. While she could take the time to destroy them, that wasn't her primary mission. And she had a feeling that she was being graded not just on how many ships she destroyed, but on her time as well.

"Pretty good flying out there, Slipstream. You dealt with the blockade far better than I thought you would," Slippy said. "But don't get too comfy. This is where the real mission begins. See that giant, bottomless chasm that extends into the heart of the planet?"

"Yeah?"

"That's where you're going."

S |>

"Did the clearance go through alright?" Fox asked.

"No, but the cloaking system is holding up, so we've made it into the Nebulan system without being detected," Falco replied.

"I'll take it," Fox said.

This wasn't his teams first tripped to the Nebulan system. The Star Fox crew had come here many times over the years. Once upon a time, they had even been welcomed here. But with assisting the Cornerian army repeatedly as well as the galaxies tightening down on crime, the Nebulan system had become a far more hostile and unwelcoming place. Especially to the group of heroes that had helped to clean the galaxy up.

"So where we heading, captain?" Falco asked in a mocking manner.

"The Pit," Fox replied. "If there is any place in all of space that would hold any clues about our mysterious fighters, it'll be here. All information eventually sinks down to this place, and there are plenty of loose lips."

"The Pit. Wow, there's a name that takes me back to the old days. Illegal races, smuggling and fights from day to night. Man, that place used to be so much fun," Falco chuckled. "So are you going to go down all by yourself, because I bet you'll be real popular down there."

"He makes a valid point, Fox. You cannot go down there. They will tear you apart on sight," Krystal agreed.

"You think I couldn't fight my way through the Pit?" Fox asked.

"Hardly, but we are not here to fight, we are here for information. And if we go down guns blazing, there is a chance that whoever is holding the information we need will slip out while you're wrecking the place," Krystal stated. Fox nodded in agreement. "You cannot go down."

"And neither can you," Falco added. "Sorry K, but you're just as recognizable as Fox is at this point. More so, considering that you're the last Cerinian. And if they see you, they'll know that Fox can't be far behind."

"Okay Falco, so if both Krystal and I are sitting this one out, does that mean you'll be going down alone? Or are you going to take Peppy or Slippy with you?" Fox asked.

"As if. Both of them would just hold me back. I'll go down, find your guy, find your info and be back before anyone has a chance to recognize me. Though that could be pretty tough, considering I'm the greatest and most handsome flier in the galaxy."

"Unless you trip over your massive ego," Krystal muttered. Falco shot her a look.

"Falco makes a valid point. You and I can't go down and I'm hesitant to send Peppy or Slippy down. Especially after what happened last time," Fox muttered. He crossed his arms and lowered his head for a moment, thinking it over. Then a smile crossed his face as he glanced back over at Falco.

"No way in hell," Falco cut him off.

"Come on, Falco. We're not sending you down there alone and nobody else can go down with you..."

"I'd rather have Slippy watching my back in a dogfight than go down there with her," Falco snarled.

"Fox makes a valid point. Slipstream is an unknown. Not only as a member of Star Fox, but in general. The lowlifes of The Pit would never suspect her to be a member of the Cornerian army, let alone a member of Star Fox. She would be a valuable teammate," Krystal added.

"Hell. No," Falco replied.

"Falco," Fox said seriously. Falco raised an eyebrow at Fox's tone, but said nothing. "We're running out of options. More and more Cornerian ships are being taken out. The death toll is rising and we are no closer to stopping these guys than we were when they first showed up. Right now they're attacking soldiers, but how long until they go after bases? Go after civilians? We need to stop them now, before their skirmishes turn into a full on war. Please."

Falco leaned back, started at the ceiling for a bit before letting out a snarl as he sat back up. "Fine. I'll take the brat. But make it abundantly clear to her that I am in charge of this mission. She will be following my lead and my orders. Any lip and I'll send her back to the Great Fox in a flying dumpster."

"I can agree to that," Fox said. "Go get ready. I'll grab Slipstream. And Falco...thanks."

"Yeah yeah. Can't believe that I went from being the best pilot in the galaxy to having to babysit a magic horse. Can't see where the rest of today goes," Falco grumbled. He got up and walked off to the armory while Krystal placed a hand on Fox's shoulder.

"Fox...while I agree this is tactically the best decision, are you sure it is the right one? Slipstream is an amazing pilot, but she knows nothing of space, of how cold this galaxy can be," Krystal warned. "Sending her into the Pit for her very first mission...is that a good idea?"

"No, but like you said, it's the best option we've got," Fox said bitterly. "If we had more time or more information on these guys, there are a dozen different ways we could go about this. But we're short on both. They have a massive advantage over us and we need to close that gap as quickly as possible. This is the best way."

"Very well. I trust your judgement."

"And besides, she's with Falco. She'll be perfectly safe," Fox said. Krystal gave him a look. "Come on, we both know that Falco would sooner try to fly a turtle than mess up when we're all counting on him. He's cocky, but he'll get the job done and keep Slipstream safe. That I know."

"You place a lot of faith in Falco."

"And with good reason. I trust him with my life. I trust him with all of our lives," Fox said. "He'll get us the information we need."

"But can you trust him to not shoot his way out after he gets that information?"

"Look, no one's perfect."

S |>

Slipstream was getting ticked off. It wasn't the meteors being thrown at her that was doing it. It wasn't the unfair amount of lasers and blasts that were being hurled her way. It wasn't even the black hole that sometimes tried to suck her in when she really wish it wouldn't. Not even who she was facing. She could handle all that.

It was the mocking laughter. The laughter that sounded every time she got hit or made a mistake. And Faust knows she was making a lot of them.

"Just stay calm and focus. It's not that big a deal," Slippy suggested.

"I'm fighting freaking Andross! How is that not a big deal?!" Slipstream screamed in reply.

More meteors exploded around her and the alarm system blared to life, informing her that she had lost a chunk of her wing. Her engines were basically on fire as she had been pushing them past their limit and she had missed every single bomb that she fired. Or rather, the bombs were having no effect on the giant, bodiless monkey being.

"We've fought Andross a couple of times now. Trust me, he's not that big a deal."

"Not that big a...Slippy, you are not helping!" Slipstream snarled.

She whipped the Arwing to the side and fired into the eye of Andross, a dark smile crossing her face as one of his eyes exploded. That smile turned into a look of horror as two, giant hands, which started to shoot even more lasers at her. Her other wing went and the ship started to death spiral, while Slipstream fought with everything she had to keep herself from crashing. To add insult to injury, Andross opened his mouth and started to suck her ship in one last time. Slipstream noticed she had one bomb left and narrowed her eyes.

"You hungry, big guy?" Slipstream asked, waiting until she was directly in front of Andross's mouth before pressing the trigger, firing her last bomb into his mouth. "Choke on it."

The bomb exploded and everything went black...before the cockpit opened back up, letting Slipstream out. Slippy held out a hand and helped her out of the ship, chuckling as she crashed onto the floor.

"Thank you for riding the Arwing experience. You can pick up your photos at the ticket booth. We hope you enjoyed the ride."

"That...wasn't fair," Slipstream managed to spit out.

"Of course it wasn't. Andross never plays fair. That's why it's the hardest test we have," Slippy pointed out.

"Has anypony every passed it?" Slipstream asked.

"Well, it's based off of when Fox faced Andross, so obviously he could do. Falco also managed to pull it off and he did it quicker, but he was so busy celebrating his record that he got caught by Andross's final desperation attack. That was a good day," Slippy said with a chuckle. "But don't feel bad. No one else besides those two have managed to do it. Not Peppy, not Krystal and certainly not me."

"...one day. One day I'll beat him," Slipstream swore.

"I'm sure you will. But until then, looks like you're going to be getting some on the job training," Slippy said. Slipstream followed where he was looking and glanced over to see that Fox was approaching. She snapped up to her hooves and saluted him, getting Fox to chuckle.

"I told you, there's no need for any of that here," Fox said. "Slipstream, I know you haven't been here long, but we need-"

"I'm in," she said. Fox raised an eyebrow, but couldn't hide his smile.

"Really? Just like that? Not even going to hear what I have to say?"

"Knowing team Star Fox, it's likely insanely dangerous, has a near zero percent chance to work and will most likely involve all of us fighting for our lives. I'm in," she repeated with a smile.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far, but you are right about one thing. It is extremely dangerous," Fox agreed. "But if you're sure..."

"I am."

"Alright Slipstream, then time to get ready. You're going on your first mission as a temporary member of Team Star Fox."

Comments

[Norwegian boy]

Do a barrel roll.

[badninja]

I see you added that iconic line and used it the best way possible. Now how will that get a call back and save someone?

[JediAlexColbent]

Now I know I said back in my post last October that it would be the last you ever heard of me…. but I’m breaking that rule to ask what’s up with your stories as of now. Also, are you ok? You’re kind of worrying a good amount of people by disappearing for at least a year. Having done that several times with my own projects because of burnout, I can kind of understand if things are becoming overwhelming.

[JediAlexColbent]

Ok, now this is going to be the last time I ever talk to you.

In some ways, I’m sorry for the petty crap I had with you about an almost 10 year old fanfiction and in other ways, I’m not.

But I was able to post my response piece and the fact that you haven’t had it taken down or even responded about it is good enough in my book. I said what I wanted to say, and there’s really nothing left to say as far as I’m concerned.

My only further advice to you going forward if you choose to ever take up writing again is to let people write what they want to write. Because they may just surprise you with what they have to say.

Take care of yourself, Ono.