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Krystal and Chase: Hidden Threat

Part one: Array

Chase stood impatiently as the techs worked. The fox's tail flipped back and forth in annoyance at his latest orders. But being completely unarmed aboard an orbital outpost without any way to tell if an attack was coming was a lot more nerve wreaking than what he had to do.

"Look, how long is this going to take?" the fox asked, "I've got a job to do in a few hours and I'd like to have my armor."

One of the techs, a tan mouse girl with curly, brown hair, looked up at him, "It'll take longer if you keep pestering us. Didn't your CO tell you why we have orders to renovate your battle armor?"

"Yeah, he did." Chase sighed, rubbing the black scorch mark on his muzzle.

"Then let us do our job. Then you can do yours, mercenary." The mouse replied sharply.

Chase thought of a smart reply, but instead held his tongue. Hiigan had been given orders for most of his mercenaries to keep their AI units with them at all times. So, instead of remaining behind in his beloved Phoenix GX4 interceptor, his AI unit would be able to be moved into his battle armor. According to the higher ups, AI units were getting too expensive to keep losing in combat, especially with the Sev`fel forces continuing to assault corporation colonies throughout the Lylat system. If an AI fell into their hands, it could prove disastrous.

But that didn't stop Chase from being annoyed when Hiigan told him to report to the techs for a battle armor upgrade. For one, he didn't like a lot of the techs. Many of them were too stuck up for his tastes.

"Krystal's lucky she doesn't have an AI to look after." Chase thought, "At least she doesn't have to go through this. Then again, I think the only time she ever had an artificial unit was with Star Fox. ROB 64 was a good unit, but I think Jen surpasses it easily."

As the fox thought of his partner, he realized something. While Krystal knew he was getting his armor upgraded, she hadn't been told why. Chase sighed, knowing that he couldn't talk about the upgrade yet. Hiigan would be the one to explain it.

* * *

About two hours later, Chase and a blue furred vixen sat in a meeting room. The gray walls around them did little to lift the tension in the room. As they waited for their commanding officer, Krystal's fingers drummed on the oak table. The blue furred vixen glanced over to her partner, smiling slightly as her emerald eyes traveled over his clean armor.

"Come on Chase," Krystal said as she looked to the doors, "tell me what happened."

"Sorry Krystal." Chase replied, "I can't talk about it yet. Just wait a few minutes ok?"

Krystal sighed and sat back. Usually, she could be a very patient girl. But for some reason, she felt anxious to know what they did. And it didn't help that Chase wouldn't tell her anything about what happened to his armor.

Chase patted her shoulder, "Besides, it's nothing big, just a slight modification to the internal interface systems."

"I thought I gave you orders not to tell Ronin-2 about the upgrade." A voice said from behind them.

Both Chase and Krystal jumped slightly in surprise. They turned around to face the human who had silently entered the room. His black clothing and sunglasses still hid his true body as he walked by and sat down at the other end of the table. But the bulge in his black coat told the two foxes that the human was armed.

"Hiigan, you have got to stop doing that." Chase said irritably, "One of these days you'll give one of us a heart attack like that."

"Then that day will be an unfortunate one." The human said without so much as cracking a ghost of a smile, "I would lose my best team."

"We're far from the best." Chase mumbled quietly, "We're good, but not that good."

Hiigan removed his glasses and typed in a command on a keyboard that flipped out of the table. Within seconds, a hologram of the Lylat system had appeared above the table. Every planet in the system slowly rotated, orbiting around a central point as the human stood up.

"Your victory at the Stone Ghost colony two days ago was well won." Hiigan began, "But, I am afraid things have gotten a little worse than last time."

With the press of a button, over half the planets changed to a green color.

"These are the planets we currently have colonies on. As you know, they are mining the precious fuel source, xalphidium." Hiigan explained as he typed at the keyboard, "As you can see, the corporation owns colonies on many worlds, including several around the capital city of Corneria, just outside the control of Lylat Command."

Suddenly, four of the planets changed. The four had become red planets. But worse was that two of the four were planets Krystal had been to with Fox McCloud and his team during the Aparoid invasions.

"This is the current situation." Hiigan stated, "As you can see, these are planets we had colonies on. Two were mining colonies, one is a test colony, and the last one is an orbital defense outpost that was overrun two hours ago. On the planet below it is another colony that we used as a trading outpost."

"I'm guessing that you want us to deal with them, right?" Chase asked.

"You are correct Ronin." Hiigan said, "The closest threat is this one."

Hiigan pointed to the defense outpost. Chase nodded, now realizing why Hiigan had told him to get the upgrade to his armor.

"The outpost controls a dangerous missile array. The first volley of missiles have powerful EMP warheads. As you two are aware, these are designed not only to take out defensive shielding systems of flagships and carriers. It also not only takes out any defensive guns and communications, but can also completely disable the fighters inside. The second volley from the array has been given high explosive warheads to finish the job. Besides all of this, the station also houses a sub orbtial mass driver cannon system that can strike with surgical precision anywhere on the planet below. With this combined force, the station has a lot of firepower they will not hesitate to use if the Sev`fel continues to control it." Hiigan explained, "As long as they have those systems we cannot get near the colony on the planet below. This is not a hostange crisis yet, but we are hoping that you can rectify the situation before that occurs."

"So we go in, retake the facility, and get out right?" Chase asked, "Easy."

"Do not overestimate your abilities Ronin." Hiigan warned, "The EMP missiles are equipped with very well designed tracking systems. Once they lock onto your craft, you cannot evade them easily."

Chase nodded, smiling at the challenge. Krystal, however, was nervous. It hadn't been long since she had last piloted anything, but the new generation of Phoenix interceptors, the GX4 series, were faster than Arwings or Wolfen crafts, and less shielded. If things got too hot, she might be blown out of the skies.

Chase noticed his partner's nervousness and patted her shoulder. Krystal looked to him and knew that he'd protect her if things got beyond her control. Of course, she'd still have to watch out for him if things got too complicated for the fox to handle alone.

"Chase, as you know, your armor was upgrade recently because of your objective." Hiigan stated, not noticing Krystal's nervousness, "Because of these upgrades, your AI unit, Jennifer, will be able to be removed from your craft and input into your armor. Once you are inside the station, you will need to upload her into the main defense systems on the control deck. Put her chip into any of the terminals there and she will do the rest. You are not, I repeat, not to destroy the station at any cost. The higher ups want that outpost in one piece. That outpost cost the corporation a pretty penny and our stockholders would not be pleased with the loss of it. Do you understand?"

Chase and Krystal nodded. They understood it perfectly.

"Alright, so go in, upload Jen, get out, and don't destroy the station." Chase summarized, "Got it."

"Good." Hiigan stated, "Ronins, go take our station back. We have very limited intel as to what to expect out there. But, we are sure of enemy robots inside the station."

As the two stood up and began to walk out, Hiigan said, "One last thing. You will not be using a carrier this time to get near the station."

That stopped the two in their tracks.

"So how exactly are we supposed to reach that place without a carriers warp core system?" Chase asked, looking back, "Fighter and interceptor cores can't take a jump of that distance."

"Just head to your crafts." Hiigan said, standing up, "You may like what you see."

* * *

Hiigan was right. As soon as the two walked into the hanger, Chase saw several techs standing by the twin Phoenix crafts. The sleek, swept-wing interceptors sat silently as the two foxes approached, the guns slung under the wings glistening silently. But one of the techs looked very proud of himself.

"Ok, what're you grinning about?" Chase asked the rabbit.

"The modifications have been completed." The tech replied, "Your warp cores can now reach well beyond their original distance with less use of elerctical power and fuel. Plus, we did a little something special for your partner."

With a nod, Chase climbed into the cockpit. He watched as Krystal looked over her craft before climbing into hers. Smiling to himself, Chase took the throttle in his hands. Once he had, a familiar voice came to him from the craft.

"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me." The female voice said, "Or were still mad about my having to put you out."

"Neither of the two Jenny." Chase smiled as a wolf girl appeared on his HUD, "Last mission was on the ground. And you know you're not allowed out of the Phoenix."

The female wolf giggled softly, the symbols that covered her holographic body speeding up. Once again, the wolf had appeared in a flight suit. Her different clothing was programmed by whatever apparatus she had been plugged into. Not only did this make her seem more appropriate for the mission, but also slightly changed her personality depending on her surroundings.

"That is only until now." The AI stated, "I have learned about your suits' upgrade and I can now be removed and placed inside it."

"Alright, open a channel with Krystal and keep an eye one her internal monitoring." Chase ordered, checking his weapons systems, "If things go bad, I want to know."

"Affirmative." Jennifer replied, closing her eyes.

* * *

In her craft, Krystal looked over the controls with awe. She had expected the controls of the new Phoenix GX4 to be different to her. But instead, the control were almost identical to the controls of the fighter crafts from her home world. As she touched the controls, something else happened. Quietly, the vixen murmured some of the commands she knew under her breath. Suddenly, the crafts HUD displayed a shield power level, weapons layout and ammunition levels, and afterburner cooler levels. Voice activated commands!

"This is incredible." Krystal thought with a smile as she slipped on her helmet, "I wonder if Hiigan told them to do this. Maybe Chase?"

As soon as his name came to mind, Krystal watched an image of him appear in the lower left corner of her HUD, beside the ammunition counters.

"Think you can fly that thing?" Chase asked in her ear.

Krystal gently tapped a microphone to the corner of her mouth, "Depends, can you keep up?"

Chase laughed, "All too easily Krystal. Tell you what, if you can get through this mission without any trouble flying or maneuvering, I'll buy you dinner."

"Sounds good to me." Krystal replied, taking the controls in hand.

"Since you're still new to the Phoenix controls, I won't ask you to do anything if you do have trouble." Chase added.

Krystal smiled, activating her ship's systems. As she did, the craft responded easily. Her nervousness faded as she realized what the techs had done for her. They must have studied the design of the last craft she flew and modeled the controls after that. Although, it definitely looked as if the Phoenix would have much better handling than the craft from her home world or the Arwings Fox and his team had used.

* * *

"Systems online." Jennifer stated calmly, "We are ready for departure to orbital defense outpost MA-Zero-Six."

"So the new warp core is working?" Chase asked, "Because last time things didn't go so well."

"I am certain that things will go as planned this time." The wolf AI replied, "I am ninety-five percent sure."

"And the other five?" Chase asked, opening the thrusters to maximum.

With a deafening roar, the two crafts left the stations hangar. The twin engines blazed behind the cockpit as Chase glanced to Krystal's craft. He smiled as she stayed near his wing.

"The other five percent is that we disintegrate before reaching the outpost, over shoot the drop zone and end up in the sensors range, or we simply blow up." Jennifer replied hesitantly.

"Alright, let's hope this works." Chase said, "Krystal, get ready to jump on my mark."

As if in reply, the vixen's craft wiggled sideways, moving a bit farther way incase the warp core blew out.

"Coordinates locked in." Jennifer stated, "Commence jump in three...two...one...mark!"

At that word, Chase told Krystal to activate her core. Within seconds, the two crafts were covered in a blinding light. Soon after, the two vanished.

* * *

About an hour later, the two reappeared. A flash of light blossomed in the darkness of space as the two crafts exited the warp tunnels. Once they had, Chase breathed.

"Looks like it worked that time." The fox said, trying to hide his nervousness.

"Yes, this time we were successful." Jennifer replied, noting the conditions of the Phoenix, "We are exactly where we are supposed to be."

With a sigh, Chase opened the channel to Krystal's craft, "You ok over there?"

"I think so." A female voice replied, a little shaky, "But that...that was a rush. Not quite as much as wing-riding, but still...wow..."

Chase smiled, but the smile was short lived. A sudden alarm went off inside the cockpit as a triangle appeared on his HUD, under it was a three digit number dropping fast. Then, another showed up, followed by two more.

"We have been targeted!" Jennifer exclaimed, "EMPs closing in, ETA ten seconds."

Chase gunned the thrusters and told his partner to do whatever it took to reach the station in one piece. In a blaze of power and a roar of challenge from his engines, the Phoenix bolted forward.

Quickly, the distance between Chase and the missiles dwindled. But just as they reached the tens, Chase twisted his craft into a barrel-roll. The missiles passed around him, one barely making it past his tail! The missiles sped off into the distance behind him as the fox gunned his afterburners, losing any chance of the missiles picking up a fresh lock as the afterburners heat levels skyrocketed.

Krystal, on the other hand, was considerably fancier. Once her systems informed her of the locked threats, the vixen took evasive action. Rolling the craft sideways, the first missile passed over her wing. As it did, the second missile blazed under her, darting past as it tried to re-establish its lock. Instead, the two missiles both locked at the same time, colliding with each other as they turned around. The resulting EMP blast missed Krystal completely.

A third missile shot past her canopy. But as it did, something occurred to Krystal. The last two that missed had been aimed at her. The only reason they missed was due to her evasive action. This one seemed to have missed on purpose.

Then, she saw the last missile! This one screamed towards her craft with deadly accuracy, the one before it having done its job. With a quiet curse, the vixen braced for impact.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed by her! The missile had been destroyed, torn up by pulse laser fire from the craft that swooped over her like a protective blanket.

"You alright Krystal?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, thanks." The vixen replied, breathing a sigh of relief.

With the EMP threat avoided, the two crafts raced towards the station.

The gray structure sat above the planet, a menacing, steel monster. Without the EMP missile array being successful, the second array of HE warheads hadn't fired. Instead, they sat in their cradles, the red painted tips poking out of the launcher array.

"Was that all it had?" Krystal wondered aloud, forgetting that she still had her com channel open.

"There should have been more." Chase replied, "Wait a sec....heads up, debris field."

Krystal maneuvered quickly, avoiding a large chunk of twisted steel. To her horror, the vixen saw something she would never erase. Before her were the remains of a large carrier, probably the same size as the Great Fox had been. Twisted chunks of metal and glass floated silently before her, all that was left of the craft and its crew. Burned out pieces of its hull and main guns forced her and Chase to avoid collisions.

Chase cursed over the channel, "Hiigan wasn't kidding about the firepower."

"Do you think that was one of ours?" Krystal asked as she flew by a large chunk of what used to be an aft gun.

"Probably." Chase replied, "But it could have been anyone. After all, this was a trading colony."

That thought worried Krystal. While she had broken up with Fox, feelings for him and his team had still remained. What if he had somehow been caught up in the fighting? Would he still be alive?

"Best not to think about that now." She thought.

With a lot of determination, she shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind. She knew they'd come back later, but for now, she needed to focus.

* * *

"I have picked up an open hangar." Jennifer stated calmly as Chase piloted around another large chunk of the carrier, "It is directly ahead of us. I also have found that the debris field will end soon."

"Any idea who this was Jen?" Chase asked.

"I do not know." Jennifer replied, "If there were any logs on board, they have been either found by Sev`fel forces or lost in the battle."

"That figures." Chase thought as he spotted the hangar, "Krystal, follow me in. Once we land, there's no telling what's in there."

"Roger that, Chase." The vixen replied, maneuvering so that she was right along his wing.

With a sharp burst from the afterburners, Chase's Phoenix lurched forward, the headlights mounted on the nose of the craft flicking on. In response, Krystal gunned hers, trying to keep up with her partner as she turned her lights on.

Within minutes, the two crafts entered the hangar. With the lights out, the darkness made it hard to tell how deep it was at first. But a sudden bright light pierced the darkness, lighting up the hangars interior as the Phoenixes landed, their headlight beams painting the far wall with the sickly white glow.

"Jen, what's the power situation?" Chase asked as he undid his harness inside the interceptor.

"Analyzing." The AI replied.

As she did, Chase grabbed his Stinger 9mm handguns from the compartment beside him. Loading them and strapping them to his side, the fox also grabbed several magazines of ammunition, a fragmentation grenade, and an electromagnetic pulse grenade.

"Power to the lower floor of the station is out completely, I am guessing some sort of security protocol." Jennifer stated as Chase activated the flashlight built into the shoulder of his armor, "But the upper level has power."

"Where's the control deck?" Chase asked as he slid back the canopy, clipping a recon HUD to his ears.

The device slipped around his head quickly, parting into a two pronged end with a green screen between the spaces. On this screen was his ammunition count and motion tracker.

"On the upper level."

"Alright, you ready to go?"

Jennifer took a glance around the cockpit of the craft. As much as she enjoyed the company of her pilot, the AI would have preferred to be inside the craft she was designed for. To her, it was more than just a ship, it was her body.

"I am ready." Jennifer sighed.

With that, Chase ejected the drive containing the AI unit. For a second, her world was gone. Then, a new one opened up. As her systems became one with the armor's new interface, the AI saw through the armor and the Recon HUD. In short, everything Chase could see, the AI saw as well. Of course, in the darkness, there wasn't much to see.

"This is certainly unexpected." The AI stated as Chase loaded his Stingers.

"What is?" the fox asked in return, watching as Krystal jumped down from her cockpit.

"The armor...it is very much like the interface of the Phoenix GX4." Jennifer replied, taking in as much data as she could at one time, "It is truly amazing."

"Just don't get any funny ideas, ok?" Chase said with a sigh, "Last thing I need is for you to activate the armors thief-prevention protocol."

Jennifer examined her new surroundings quickly before tapping into the motion tracker. While her placement was different now, and her life was literally in Chase's hands, she would not stop her duty. The AI had been designed to help in any way she could. And she was going to whether Chase wanted it or not.

* * *

Krystal checked over her weapons again before making sure she attached the recon HUD to her left ear. The S32 heavy assault rifle was full, all thirty armor piercing bullets in the magazine. With several more in a pouch at her side and two EMP grenades on her other side, the vixen felt ready. But despite her protective armor and weaponry, the vixen still felt naked.

Then Chase walked up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be I guess." Krystal replied.

Chase nodded and the two began their mission. But what neither one noticed was that the air nearby was slightly shimmering. Then, once they had left the hangar, the shimmer moved quickly, with an almost silent whirring noise. According to its orders, the intruders had to be dealt with. With a sudden golden flash of light from its eyes, the unit shot away.