Space Fox 1 Issue #1

SPACE FOX 1

By: Michael Wydock

Issue 1

On the planet Vulkahn in the Starlite system, creatures called Riptons are being hunted by space poachers for their wings and horns as well as for sport. These space dragons are the gentle giants of the cosmos and must be protected before they go extinct. These four armed space poachers live for the hunt as they drive their six wheeled moon cars with giant laser guns mounted on them. These Riptons may be fierce creatures, but they are terrified of these poachers.

“RUN THEM DOWN!” The chief poacher commanded. Lasers flew as the Riptons tried their best to flee. One of them managed to injure one of the Riptons as it fell and thudded onto the ground. The lasers stopped flying as the chief hopped out of his car and approached the wounded beast. He pulled out a laser heated machete as his fellow poachers had their guns trained on the poor defenseless beast.

“You would make for a pretty price. A million zenos in the bag baby!” As the chief was about to throw down his blade, a fox lady came up and caught his arm.

“Stop this madness at once!” She commanded. She was cloaked in a blue dress and a silver waist cloth with a green gemstone in the center of the belt. Two silver bracers she wore on her arms and a silver jeweled crown on her head. She had a heart shaped nose and black marks running down under her rich green eyes. The chief put his machete away.

“Princess Vixen, what is her majesty doing in Vulkahn? This is no place for a lady.” He smirked.

“Your sick games end here poacher! You’re hunting these poor innocent creatures for sport!? Well I won’t stand for it! I am putting a stop to this and shutting you down!” The poachers laughed.

“Shut us down? Do you think that’s going to stop us? These monsters pay for a pretty price on the galactic market my lady. One million zenos and I’ll be dammed if a giant hugger like you gets in my way! NOW MOVE!” He raised his voice, but that wasn’t enough to stop the stubborn princess. She blocked his path shielding the beast.

“I won’t let you! I will stop you by force if I have to!” The poachers laughed again.

“Oh really little lady? You and what army?” As soon as he said that, three star fighters came into view as one of them fired a laser destroying one of the cars. The chief grunted as he and his men shot at the ships. One of the star fighters shot a missile and destroyed the mounted gun on one of the cars.

“FALL BACK!” The poachers knew they were out gunned and fled leaving the Ripton alone. As the coast was clear, the starfighters found a spot to land. The window opened as another fox leaped out of the ship. He wore a red vest with silver ties underneath that black and blue leather jacket. He kept a gun holster on his left pant leg and black leather boots with silver straps. Two others came out of their ships being a jackal with purple fur and a Krystinite with golden mechanical legs wearing the same uniforms. Aside from the mechanical legs, his right arm was completely robotic and had the sleeves torn off of his jacket. They all approached the princess.

“Well, I say these poachers learned a little something today.” Said the fox as he crossed his arms.

“We certainly gave them a run for their zenos Trico.” The Jackal called him.

“They won’t be back anytime soon.” The princess approached the wounded beast and placed her hand on his snout.

“These damn poachers! Hunting these creatures for game. It is our job to protect these gentle giants from men like him. They’re going to run them extinct if this keeps up.”

“Don’t worry my lady.” Said the jackal.

“Space Fox One will keep them safe, I promise.” She turns to him and smiles.

“Thank you Titus.” She calls him.

“I have one more job for you. My sources told me that they located the space poachers hideout on the planet Tarth. I want your crew to go there and find any evidence you can to bring them down for good.”

“You can count on us. Don’t worry, we’ll shut them down. Let’s go guys.” Titus headed back to his starfighter. Before they left, Princess Vixen looked over at Trico as she smiles and winks at him. Trico smiles back before he gets into his ship. The three of them took to the skies and flew out of Vulkahns atmosphere in less than two minutes. They’ve approached a much larger ship which was their carrier, a freighter. They called the ship ‘The Defender’. They flew their starfighters which they call ‘Flying Fox’ into the docking bay of their ship. They initiated the landing sequence and hopped out of the cockpits.

“Set a course for Tarth!” Commanded Titus. Titus was the commander of the Space Fox crew. The Krystinite was the ships navigator as he immediately headed toward the bridge where the ships main control room was.

Meanwhile in another part of the galaxy, a massive ship was found roaming in a different region of the Starlite system hovering over the planet Zar. Inside the bridge of the ship was an armored Vulture covered in green feathers looking out the window of the ships control room. He had a cybernetic eye-patch over his left eye socket and a robotic right leg. Four tubes were connected from his armored collar to the back of his armor which power’s up both his armor and his jet pack. Two more bird-like lifeforms were operating the ships controls.

“These Zarkahn have been a thorn in my side for far too long!”

“Sir!” One of the soldiers called out.

“Incoming message from their commander!” Vulcan turns to them.

“Put him on!” The window turned into a screen and on that screen was the commander of the Zarkahn army. He was built and had an appearance of a brute. Yellow slit eyes and red reptilian skin that looked rough like an extra layer of armor. The large horns on its head pointed down instead of pointing up.

“General Vulcan Nebula, I recognize your foul stench anywhere!” Said the Zarkahn commander in a thundering deep voice.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, the commanding officer of the Federation! The extermination of my people will not go unpunished!”

“You’ve brought this upon yourselves commander! Your kind have brought nothing but bloodshed and barbarism throughout the galaxy! The Federation will not stand for this and will see you hanged before your people! You can either comply or risk open war! The choice is yours.”

“Si Ollu Boulo! Si Ollu Kalista! Si Poku Joel Ballista!” He responded to Vulcan in his people’s language. Vulcan was well knowledgeable in Zarkahn language. In tongue, the Zarkahn commander said ’I am general! I am commander! I will have war!’. Vulcan sighed.

“Very well, further extermination of your people it is. Cut the feed!” The screen turned off as he could see out the window again. The communicator on his arm was beeping as if he was getting an incoming call. He looked at it and turned it on. A hologram popped up via the projector installed onto his bracer. Another bird-like lifeform appeared in the hologram.

“Is it ready?”

“Negative sir! The weapon is not completed and we’ve got another problem sir!” Vulcan sighed in frustration.

“I am disappointed to hear that captain! What’s the problem?”

1 hour Ago....

The Defender had reached its destination and was now hovering over the planet Tarth. Space Fox one was determined to complete their mission. Soon the space poachers will be shut down and the Riptons will have their peace. The Space Fox crew headed for the hanger at the bottom of their ship. They hopped into their starfighters and jetted off into the cosmos. They entered Tarth’s atmosphere. The sky was foggy as it had made it hard for them to see ahead of them.

“I don’t like this Anubis.” Trico called Titus. All the members of the Space Fox crew had code names.

“It looks like we’re flying into a horror scene with all this fog.”

“Oh come on Todd, my sisters going to think less of you if you chicken out now.” Titus joked.

“Who said anything about chickening out? And I’m not doing this just to impress your sister.”

“Sure you’re not. I’ve seen the way she looked at you back on Vulkahn. It’s cool, you two would make for a cute couple.”

“Commander, shouldn’t we be focusing on the mission?” Said the Krystinite.

“Oh look, Titan speaks.” Trico joked.

“Welcome back to earth.”

“Trico, Rodriguez is right. Let’s focus on the mission at hand and worry about love later.” The Flying Foxes flew right over blackened water. What once was a vast ocean was now a blackened inky substance.

“I see nothing but blackened water as far as the eye can see. What is that stuff?”

“It’s tar. This planet was once an industrial city known as Targarion. This planet sized city was abandoned long ago during a galactic war and is now used as a waste disposal planet.”

“A city huh? I see no ci..... Oh.” In his view he could see a ruined city which was covered in tar in the distance. Factory’s, sky scrapers and other tall buildings stood behind a thick layer of fog and was all covered with tar. The radar in Trico’s ship was beeping, alerting him of danger.

“I’m picking up movement on my radar, you see anything?”

“Yeah I’m getting one too.”

“Guys, look down.” There was a spot in the ocean of tar that was bubbling as if something was about to arise from it.

“I don’t like the looks of this. Whatever’s coming out, it’s big.” A large beast rose up from the tar. It’s eyes looked as if they were hollow but they were glowing a bright orange like inferno. It’s mouth had the same glow. The beast looked like it was made out of tar and had four arms. It’s tail looked as if it was mechanical but was covered and dripping with tar. The monster swatted at them as if they were flies. The three starfighters split up trying to swarm the beast in all directions.

“What is this thing?”

“Never mind that Todd! We need to take it out! Give it everything you’ve got!” Trico circled around, firing his lasers at the thing. The beast’s mechanical tail swung around trying to hit Trico’s ship. He performed a barrel roll and dodged the attack. One of its extra arms barely scrapped Rodriguez’s ship as he flew directly under its arm pit.

“Still hanging in there Titan?” He circled back around and shot a missile at it, shooting off its arm.

“GOT HIM!” However, that did not work. The beast used the tar lake to regenerate a new one.

“Well, shooting off its limbs won’t work.” Trico fired another missile at its chest and blew a hole in it. As the beast was regenerating fixing it’s hole, Trico saw that there was a mechanical shell underneath the thick tar.

“Guys, I’ve got an idea! Cover me!”

“You got it!” As Titus and Rodriguez shot at the beast, Trico created another hole in its chest. He flew his ship inside of its chest before the hole closed back up. He was now inside the belly of the beast. Except that the beast was being controlled by a machine. He descended down until he saw the space poachers controlling the machine. The poachers looked up at the ship in surprise.

“Hey, how you guys doing?”

“OPEN FIRE!” The poachers took their guns and fired at Trico’s ship. However, their lasers were no match for the Flying Foxes thick layers of armor. Trico used a scouter on his head to assist him in aiming. He fired back as the poachers fell one by one by Trico’s deadly lasers.

“Now it’s time to blow this joint!” Trico planted a bomb in the center of the mechanical beast set to blow in sixty seconds. Trico turned around but his ship got caught. He looked back as a poacher caught Trico’s starfighter with an electrical cable. The electrical cable short-circuited all of the Flying Foxes weapons and thrusters. The starfighter fell onto the platform as Trico tried everything to turn the ships systems back online, but nothing was working. Five more poachers approached Trico’s ship as he panicked. They surrounded his ship with their guns trained, but Trico had a plan. He always carry’s an extra explosive on him in case he needed to get out of a tough situation, and right now was one of those times.

The window of his starfighter opened up as he quickly pulled the lever on his ejector seat, leaving the explosive in the cockpit. The poachers shot at him as he ejected but his jacket had a built in barrier that shielded him from the shots. The explosive went off as the Flying Fox exploded killing the surrounding poachers. Trico landed safely onto the platform shooting his Standard Issue One Blaster at any remaining poachers. He thought to himself that there must be another way into the machine, he only had forty more seconds to escape. There, up on the catwalk was an entrance to a tunnel, that was his ticket out of here. He ran as he shot down any poacher that got in his way.

Ten seconds remained as Trico used his acrobatic skills to get up onto the catwalk.Before getting into the tunnel, a poacher grabbed him from behind. They struggled until Trico kicked him off and shot him down. He got into the tunnel and closed the airlock just in time. The bomb went off, blowing up the machine. The monster of Tarth Lake exploded from the inside. Titus and Rodriguez never saw Trico come out.

“TRICO!” A few more seconds and they got a radio signal.

“Target has been destroyed.” Said Trico via wrist communicator. The others were relieved to hear back from Trico.

“Trico, thank Genesis you’re alright! Where are you, what’s your location?”

“Going through a tunnel underneath the tar. I don’t know where it leads though. Probably into the city.”

“Roger that. Heading to the city.”

“Oh, and one more thing. I’m going to need a new Flying Fox.” He cut off communication as he continued on foot. The tunnel went on for miles. The steel walls keeping the tar from leaking in and drowning him began to feel like they were closing in around him. The long stretched out corridor made him remember something long past forgotten. Something wasn’t right about this place. It was as if he had been to this planet before..... About two miles he made it to the end of the tunnel. A rusty grate was blocking the exit as Trico kicks it. The grate flew right off the hinges. Trico entered the abandoned city as Titus and Rodriguez landed to join him.

Trico observed the two ships as they landed. Titus and Rodriguez hopped out of the cockpits and joined Trico’s side. The air, it smelled bad. It gave off the scent of gas and fumes, polluting the air around them. Probably from the abandoned factories and facilities in the area. The team put on masks to help them breathe.

“Let’s find their base of operations and get off this damn planet fast. I can barely stand another minute here.” Titus commanded. The poachers base could be anywhere, it would take them at least a lifetime to find it, it seemed. But luck was on their side as Rodriguez was also a technical genius. He had created a device that detected Uranium to help narrow their search. The space poachers use this chemical element to fuel the lasers in their weapons and vehicles. They find the Uranium, they find their base. The device was beeping faster and faster as they approach the source.

“It’s here.” Rodriguez alerted them. But before they could open the reinforced door, the ground beneath their feet begins to quake.

“Earthquake?”

“No, this is no earthquake Trico.” They looked behind them as the monster of Tarth Lake rises again from the depths.

“Is there no way of killing this thing!?” He shrieked.

“Get that door opened now!” Rodriguez used all of his might to force the door open as Trico and Titus held off the beast with their blasters. He used his robotic arm to punch the door open one dent at a time. The lasers hardly did anything to the beast as it stretched out one of its arms to an incredible length.

“HURRY!” Finally with one final punch, the reinforced door had flown right off its hinges.

“GO, GO, GO!” The team quickly ran inside the building as the beast threw down it’s extended arm missing them. They were safe inside the facility.

“That was too close.” Trico said in relief.

“I guess blowing it up from the inside wasn’t enough huh?” There, laying on a desk on the other end of the building was a tablet. Titus walked up to the desk and picked up the tablet. The tablet’s screen turned on as it glowed blue upon his face. Inside the tablet were records and a receipt from the galactic market for Ripton wings and horns. Titus smirked.

“We’ve got ’em. Mission complete boys. We can finally....” As Titus turned to face them, he noticed that there was a hatch underneath the carpet under his feet.

“Where’s this lead?” Titus kneelt down and threw the carpet aside. He opened the secret hatch. Trico and Rodriguez approach.

“Well that’s not ominous at all.” Trico joked.

“How far down do you think this goes?”

“Only one way to find out.” Titus grabbed a hold of the ladder.

“Well, aren’t you ladies gonna join me?” He joked. Trico and Rodriguez looked at each other and decides to join their commander in discovering what was down the secret hatch. They descended down the ladder until they’ve reached the bottom and into a hanger bay underneath the facility. There were crates they hid behind as they saw the space poachers and bird-like lifeforms. A giant machine which looked like a canon was under construction.

“Who the hell are these guys?” Asked Rodrigeuz. Trico and Titus both knew exactly who they were, they had seen them before.

“Their Vulcan’s henchmen. It looks like the poachers are helping Vulcan construct a super weapon. It looks like an Eclipse Canon.”

“Wait a minute, if Vulcan is involved in all of this, it can’t be good.” Titus added.

“Right.We cannot let him fire that weapon. If it does, the whole galaxy is doomed.”

“So, how do we destroy it?”

“We don’t have to. We just need to take out the core.

“And how do you purpose we do that? There’s like fifty men down there.”

“I’ve got an idea. Follow me.”

1 hour later....

Vulcan stepped into the underground hanger bay escorted by two of his bodyguards. The head scientist in charge of completing the weapon approached him.

“Sir, we’ve just....” Vulcan grabbed a hold of the scientists beak as he stuck his two fingers into his nostrils. He lifted him a few inches from the ground as he looks into his eyes.

“What happened!?” Struggling to breathe, the scientist begins to mutter.

“The canon.... Almost complete.... But the core.... Is.... Gone.” Vulcan put the scientist down and pulled back his hand. The scientist was relieved as he rubs his beak from being almost crushed.

“You insolent fool! Who took it?”

“I... I don’t know sir.”

“Useless!” His two bodyguards approached the scientist as they grab a hold of his arms.

“Get him out of my sight!” Vulcan’s bodyguards dragged the scientist out of the room as he thrashed around. Vulcan turns away as he turned on a communicator installed into his cybernetic eye-patch.

“Commander! The core has been stolen from my Eclipse Canon. I want you to find whoever stole my core!”

“Understood sir!” Vulcan cut the feed. One of Vulcan’s henchmen approached him.

“Sir, I found this.” Vulcan turns to him and see’s what his henchman has found. A piece a black leather was left behind.He took it and scanned it with his eye-patch. He grins as if he knows who was here.

“Hunt down Trico and kill him!”

To Be Continued....