Mission: Astro

by Robert Emerald Fountain

The Rescue

Once all of the Agents had met up, the Captain explained the layout of where the starship had splashed into the water.

“The ship crashed near a reef thirty miles away from the shoreline. Safety floats have deployed, and the footage from the satellite we built after making peace with the Octarians shows that the ship has not drifted very far. Marina has told me that she scanned the ship and found that the crew only consists of seven members.”, she explained.

“That doesn’t sound too bad. The rescue should be fairly easy.”, said Michael.

Callie agreed with Michael and said that they could use a helicopter in conjunction with Octavio’s octo-bot to lift the ship out of the water.

“That’s a great idea, Callie. Once we have the ship on dry land, we can open the hatch and get the crew members out safely without falling into the ocean.”, said Andrew.

All of the other Agents agreed and then the Captain alerted Octavio that his assistance was needed. Once everyone was airborne, they flew to the site where the Alicorn had touched down.

**

On the Alicorn, all of the crew members were starting to wake up from having passed out when they heard the rescuers’ vehicles outside.

“We’re saved.”, Flurry said hoarsely.

After attaching strong cables to the ship, the Agents lifted her from the water and carried her to shore. Once the Squidbeak Agents had found the main hatch and opened it, they started searching for the crew. They didn’t have long before they started finding crew members, because they had managed to consolidate on the bridge. After the crew had introduced themselves, the Agents started getting them off the ship and taken to a hospital to recover from their injuries. Silverstream had managed to get an accelerated healing serum from the medical bay before they were rescued, and gave it to the doctors to use. Thanks to this, all of the crew members were back to normal after only three days, and ready to be checked out. After being released, they met Callie and Michael outside, who took them to their home to meet their son, Taylor.

“He looks just like you, Michael.”, said Yona.

“Yes he does.”, Michael replied as Taylor smiled and waved at the crew.

“There is one Agent that was not present when we rescued you, which is my cousin Marie. I will take you to meet her.”, said Callie.

Flurry accepted the offer and they headed across town to meet Andrew and Marie. On the way, Callie explained that Agent 3 had only seen one spot on the ship that needed repairs, which was the panel that Gallus had slammed into.

“Don’t sweat it. We can fix that in a flash.”, said Smolder.

Arriving at Andrew’s house, Callie rang the bell and they were let inside. After a handshake with Andrew, they met Marie and their daughter Lizzie. As soon as the crew saw Marie, they realized why she was unable to help out with the rescue, which was the fact that her stomach was bulged out.

“You’re pregnant.”, squeaked Silverstream.

“Yes I am. Doctors have said it will be a boy. Lizzie is going to have a little brother.”, said Marie warmly.

While Flurry explained who they were and that they were on a mapping mission, Ocellus played with Lizzie for a bit.

“We are going to be mapping out your world as well, but the crash delayed our start. We will get going once we reboot our ship’s systems.”, said Gallus.

“Sounds cool.”, giggled Lizzie.

“Good luck.”, said Andrew.

After returning to the Alicorn, the crew restarted their systems and took off to start mapping Earth. They started with Inkopolis to learn about the origins of both the Inklings and the Octarians. In this area, they also met Callie and Marie’s grandfather, Craig Cuttlefish. He was the original leader of the Squidbeak Splatoon, but now he was retired. Flurry was shocked to hear that the two races had once been at war with each other, but she was pleased that they had declared peace.

Octavio and his Octarian troops were very friendly as well and welcomed them to take a tour of their base, along with getting an up-close look at some of their vehicles. When meeting the Agents, they were impressed by how they had saved the world four different times. The Captain was the original Agent 3, but took the Captain’s role when Craig retired. She had saved Inkopolis when the Octarians had stolen the Great Zapfish, the city’s main power source, at one point, then Agent 4 did the same thing two years later when Octavio had also captured and brainwashed Callie.

Agent 8 was an Octarian herself and had protected Inkopolis from something more dangerous than the Octarians. She and Craig had somehow ended up in an underground train station and almost perished when lured into a giant blender that was powered by a strange sentient phone. Luckily, Agent 3 saved them and Agent 8 made her way to the surface. However, Agent 3 got brainwashed temporarily by the phone, which was actually housing an AI called Tartar. This AI was disgusted by the Inkling and Octarian culture and attempted to destroy all of Inkopolis by shooting a mass of sludge infused with DNA at the city to create a form of life superior to both the Inklings and the Octarians. Thankfully, Agent 8 stopped Tartar in its tracks, and a pop star named Pearl used a powerful megaphone to blast the statue that the AI was inside of, destroying Tartar completely.

The new Agent 3 protected the entire world from a mysterious giant bear named Mr. Grizz that tried to use a huge mass of fuzzy slime to bring back the mammals that existed on Earth before they were wiped out by rising water levels. Flurry and her crew were floored by the stories that they had just been told, but they continued to map out the Earth until they reached a neighboring city called Splatsville. This was where the new Agent 3 was recruited when the Great Zapfish disappeared for a third time. Octavio was thought to have been the thief again, but this was when it was revealed to be Mr. Grizz. At that point, Octavio helped Agent 3 recover the Great Zapfish by battling Mr. Grizz in space.