Newcomers and Nightmares

John took one last look at the city as he boarded the pelican to get off of Venom. He had been stuck here for a week, yet he already hated it with a passion. It was too dark and gloomy, and had taken a chunk out of the morale of the forces stationed on the planet. The constant attacks from the bat things in the city �" which had been given the name 'Loma' �" had been following patrols back to base and attacking, dropping morale ever further.

Command had decided to just leave the planet. It was taking too much for almost no tactical gain, deciding on just using the planet's orbit as a staging area. Several mobile docks and shipyards had been jumped into the system, turning the atmosphere around the quarantine planet into a naval yard and headquarters for the assault into Lylat.

John felt the dropship accelerate out of the planet's atmosphere, allowing him a relaxing sigh. Eventually, he felt gravity take hold again as the ship docked with one of the shipyards. The Spartan stood up and moved to the rear of the bay, waiting for the door to open up.

He was greeted by none other than a smiling Cortana. The former AI wore the standard naval technician jumpsuit, but this was an odd color: purple, rather than the normal blue, orange, and yellow suits. She shrugged as the chief cocked an eyebrow at her. "What? I like purple"

John only smiled and shook his head. "I figured as much, seeing as how you spent the majority of your life as a shade of purple."

Cortana puffed her cheeks out in annoyance at the comment, blowing the air out explosively, John already able to tell he had annoyed her, yet in a way that she had grown accustomed to in the man. "You're lucky you're bigger than me..." she said, pouting.

The Chief couldn't help but let a laugh escape from his mouth. "You can be such a tomboy at times."

Cortana smiled at him, her eyes narrowing in a playful manner as a few strands of jet black hair fell over her right eye. "Yes, but fortunately for us, you love it" She exulted an air of confidence in the comment, smirking at the NCO.

John rolled his eyes, a smile still plastered to his face as he stepped forward and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Alright, fine, I do, happy now?"

Cortana nodded. "Yes, very..." Her nostrils flared as she began to smell something, then quickly covered her nose and mouth. "You stink! When did you last have a shower!"

John thought for a moment, then shrugged, eliciting a groan from Cortana. "You need a bath, and you're not getting any love from me until you stop smelling like crap."

The Spartan only grinned and pecked her cheek before taking her hand and leading her out of the hangar.

(Transition)

Fox pulled hard on the flight stick, pulling into a dive and barely evading a shot that would have punctured his cockpit, and likely torn him in half. He recovered from the dive and angled the nose up, bleeding as much speed and momentum as he could by performing a pugachevs cobra type move, the enemy ship rocketing past him.

The Colonel pushed forward on his flight stick and followed after the enemy ship, the crescents blazing on the wings. He jammed the firing stud on the yoke, sending dual blue lasers after the ship, but all of them missing as it barrel rolled through the incoming fire.

Fox noticed the enemy fighter continued to accelerate towards the capital city, a large missile hanging off one of the wings, flapping about in the slipstream. "What's the matter? Can't drop your bomb?" Fox knew the enemy wouldn't be able to let the bomb go from a distance, as it's tail had been knocked off in an earlier encounter, forcing him to hold it until he was closer or risk missing his target.

"Oh yes, but I'm going to destroy you first, Colonel." The last word out of the enemy pilot's mouth was filled with malice and contempt. Fox was having trouble keeping up with the enemy ace, somebody that was finally giving him a challenge.

Fox's communicator exploded into static. "Colonel McCloud and Solomon are off radar, it's a battle between aces now." He knew it was a member of the command staff telling the rest of the air force what was happening.

Solomon fired his engines and rolled out of the way, Fox's Arwing blazing past and right into the hail of fire Solomon had just released. Fox pulled into a turn, dove towards the surface of the planet �" Corneria �" and pulled out at the last moment, literally skimming mere inches over the water.

Solomon followed him as Fox pulled another pugachevs cobra, the crescent warrior shooting past him.

Fox was just about to pull the triggers when the ship disappeared, and was replaced with a familiar Arwing. Confused, he gunned the accelerator, catching up and looking inside. He saw Krystal smiling at him. He smiled back at her, and didn't notice the roar of the engines as the crescent fighter came up behind. Fox turned in his seat just to see Solomon launch a stream of laser fire...impacting Krystal's Arwing and turning it into a fireball.

Fox was frozen in horror as the remains of the Arwing and Krystal hurtled toward the ground, hitting it and exploding. When Fox finally looked up, he saw Solomon heading straight for him, and he closed his eyes the moment he saw the green flash of laser fire burst through his canopy and destroying him as well as the woman he loved had been only a moment before.

(Transition)

Krystal was awake the instant that she heard Fox yell. She looked over at him and began slapping him, shaking him, anything to try to wake him up. He was covered in a cold sweat, and his heart was racing, Krystal felt his thought patterns going wild, and erratic enough to cause her to lose focus. She couldn't keep up with his mind.

She eventually he;d his nose, finally getting him to wake up and bolt up in the bed. He began frantically looking around, and upon seeing the blue vixen, wrapped her into a tight embrace. "Fox? Why were you screaming just now?"

The vulpine almost didn't hear her. "It was a nightmare. I don't want to try to remember it. I'd rather fling it as far away from my mind as I can..."

Krystal cocked her head. She knew that she could have probed his mind to see what it was, but decided not to. If it had Fox this upset, then she knew she wouldn't last long against the vision.

"Are you going to be okay?" She asked, rubbing his back and making him lay his head on her shoulder.

Fox sighed and closed his eyes. "Yeah...just a nightmare..." Krystal could only comfort the vulpine after the upsetting nightmare. She held him close until she felt the slight trembling stop and his breathing slowed back down.

When she looked at him, she found that he had fallen asleep again. She slowly and gently let his head go back to the pillow, closing her own eyes and laying next to him, eventually falling asleep.

(Transition)

Solomon sat alone on the bridge. He was in a sour mood today. It had only been three weeks since the Halcyon forces had taken Venom, but already their forces had spread as far as Katina and retaken the Army base there. He had already lost thousands of troops in the face of the Halcyon onslaught.

His losses continued to grow even as he contemplated them. The enemy forces had been growing all the time, almost as if every soldier he lost gave the enemy one extra troop to gun for him. He sighed and stood up, watching the looping hologram showing the force control of Lylat. The originally all red system, controlled by the Cornerians, had dwindled to a sea of green as the Serpentis armada had blitzed the Lylatians. Now, the sea of green was being encased in a landslide of red. The hologram looped over and over, as it had been doing for the past hour.

Solomon tapped a few buttons, sending out an order to all of his forces: He was recalling all of them to bolster the defenses at Corneria.

(Transition)

Falco couldn't sleep. He was sure most of the personnel on the carrier were stuck in the sweet embrace of a dream, yet he couldn't say he was getting the feeling. The avian kept glancing down at a picture in his palm.

The picture showed a blue falcon, of course it was Falco, and a black feline next to him. "Kat..." he muttered unconsciously. He hadn't heard anything from her since Corneria had come under fire and been evacuated.

Falco kept having dreams of her. He had been telling himself that he didn't like her, and that he was too busy with his life to get dragged down by the girl that had once been the second in command of the Hot Rodders, a gang he had once led.

She continued to find him wherever he went, always flirting with him. Even in the middle of war zones, she would still find time to try hitting on him. It had once occurred on Zoness, during the first Lylat wars. She had come out of nowhere, aiding the team in assaulting an enemy base under the enemy radar, destroying searchlights where the rest of the team couldn't get them.

Falco sighed as he got lost in his thoughts. "Where are you, Kat?" Falco slipped the picture back into his pocket and looked out one of the windows on the ship. He thought he saw a sparkle in the distance, a sparkle he had seen only once before.

(Transition)

Kat's eyes watered. They were getting irritated from staring at the radar screen in her ship, The Cat's paw II. She had stolen it from one of the enemy manufacturing plants that had been erected on Corneria after the Cornerian military had retreated.

She yawned and tried to stretch, but couldn't while still in the seat. Standing up, the black feline slipped out of the seat and back into the rear of the ship. It was a prototype, used for long range bombing missions where a fleet or battlegroup or even a single carrier would spook the enemy and make a stealthy bombing impossible. The ship had a rear hallway, leading to a bathroom, sleeping quarters, and small kitchen.

Laying in the floor, she tossed and turned to multiple positions, stretching and hearing a few cracks as she got what she wanted. Sighing happily, she began to stand up, but a rumbling sensation started to go through her. Kat's organs began to vibrate and her ultra sensitive hearing picked up a barely audible thrum.

Her breath caught in her throat as she scrambled back to her seat, her paws a blur as she tried to power the ship down. The lights went out, the displays went dead, and the vibration in her feet disappeared as the engines stopped.

The ship was completely dark, save for the glow of the radar. The little green dot that was the Cat's Paw being the only thing in view, then a large silhouette showing up. Kat slowly turned to look out the viewport.

A colossal ship passed by mere feet from the port. Kat's eyes widened to unbelievable sizes as the whale-like ship moved her tiny fighter-bomber just with it's presence. It seemed like forever before the carrier finally slipped by and let her see the blue glow of the engines. She finally released her held breath. The thrum of the engines continued to grow, however, even though the carrier had passed. She looked back down at her radar and stopped breathing again.

The radar was covered in blips. Her viewport was filled with battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and the carrier from before. Kat wondered why she hadn't been found yet. This many ships had to have strong detection gear, and normally a ship like hers, despite being made for stealth insertions, would be picked up by this many ships.

Worse: she didn't know what side these ships belonged to. She sat there, waiting. "I'll wait until they leave before I jump out of here..." Kat muttered.

The ships in front of her began to slow down, their engines dimming to a faint glow as they powered down to station keeping levels. Kat groaned and put her head in her paw. She was stuck here until the ships moved on.

(Transition)

"Shipmaster, I recognize that silhouette, I need to get closer to see if my suspicions are correct." Falco stated. The white armored Elite in front of him tilted his head and clicked his two remaining mandibles.

"Alright bird, but your time is short." The Elite sat back, stating that Falco's time was already ticking by.

The avian rolled his eyes and sprinted off to the hangar to get to his Arwing.

(Transition)

Kat sat there, tapping her foot, killing time until the fleet left. She heard a ping and looked back down at the radar, seeing a small dot �" about the size a single ship would be �" and wondered what was happening now.

She looked out her viewport and saw a sparkle in the distance. It was getting closer �" and it was moving fast. She didn't dare power her ship up until she knew what was happening.

It took only a few seconds for it to close on her, and then she saw a blue and white blur rocket past her. She tried to turn to see what it was, but the ship wasn't moving. If it had wanted to destroy her, it would have fired on her when it passed, and she knew that color scheme. She brushed her paws across the control panel and powered her ship back up, turning to see the other ship right in front of her, a cocky looking blue falcon staring at her with his feet on his control panel, as if he had been waiting forever.

"Falco?"

(Transition)

"Dad...Fox has been having an abnormal amount of nightmares lately...do you know anything about why nightmares occur?" Krystal was with Damon, he had been tuning his fighter, attempting to perfect it for any battles he would be needed in.

"I can't give any advice unless I know what they're about. I have, however, noticed the nightmares." Damon stated, tightening one more bolt and firing up the engines.

Krystal's eyes narrowed slightly and she crossed her arms. "Are you sure? I mean...he's not been getting much sleep because of them lately, Bags are forming under his ey-" she was cut off as a roar filled the hangar bay, the shields that covered the bay entrance flaring as two ships passed through. An Arwing glided in to land next to Damon's Raptor MKII, and another ship, colored an odd purpleish-pink and much larger than the bright blue and white Arwing.

It took only a few moments for them to land, but when they did and Falco jumped out to go to the other pilot, Krystal smiled on the hunch that was forming in her mind. Her suspicions were correct when the bay door to the fighter bomber opened and Kat Monroe stepped onto the deckplate.