It appeared to be an abandoned ship, about ten feet tall by twenty feet wide and barely scratched. "That's odd," Krystal said, "you'd think an abandoned ship would be damaged or destroyed. This one looks almost new."
"You're right," Fox said, "it doesn't make any sense. Apparently someone else was here, but we don't really know where they could be, or what happened to them. Still, we need to look for a clue or two before we go back to our camp, as long as we're careful we should be fine."
The two of them approached the ship, surprised when its door opened without any problems. Slowly and carefully, they entered, being sure to watch every possible corner they'd run into. But only a few empty halls met them. The first step they took was to enter the cockpit to check for signs of life, only to find none. Instead, all around the ship were what appeared to be the possessions of whoever had landed the ship. There were a few shirts and pairs of pants, with a few of them reduced to torn rages, as well as an identification card from a shipping company. The previous owner of the ship had been a young delivery jackal, red-furred and grinning in his company ID. There was also a pull-out cot - when Fox and Krystal pulled it out, it appeared broken - and there was a hat left behind on the driver's seat.
Fox lifted it to sit down and study the ship when he was surprised to find a video recorder hidden under the hat. Intrigued, he called Krystal over, and they watched its contents.
It appeared that the jackal was a fan of video logs, and had been recording them for a while on the recorder. He mostly mentioned his new job shipping large orders across the galaxy and how happy he was to land the job. A few listings later, the jackal did a longer recording, noting that he had run out of gas before reaching his destination. To make matters worse, he was stuck there for two months before his company could send out a retrieval crew. To his relief, his company said the planet was nearly harmless based on their recon, so he'd just be able to hang out in the ship. He mentioned that in situations like this, the shipping company always included a freezer full of six months' rations on each ship they flew, plus he'd have access to any food-based shipments should those become compromised.
Over the course of the next log, the jackal talked about his boredom - he mostly spent each day playing video games or watching videos in the ship's employee brig. He also consistently mentioned food, each video mentioning his appetite growing with more time spent on the ship. About two weeks in, he had started eating two meals' worth at dinner, then about a month in, he had upped his eating to two rations per meal. He mentioned that he had looked in a few shipping containers and wasn't worried about running out of food.
As the videos went on, the jackal slowly but surely gained weight. In the first couple weeks, it wasn't too bad, but from there on it was off to the races. In two weeks he gained 25 pounds, then gradually saw the following weeks see more explosive growth. By the end of the first month he had gained 75 pounds, his uniform barely fitting. Another week later, he had grown another 25 pounds and had given up on clothing that fit, content to lounge around in boxers.
Suddenly, the video jumped ahead to the end of the second month, and the subject of the videos changed to a tiger wearing a protective suit. He explained that the shipping company had discovered an airborne pathogen on the planet, one that slowly but surely would make an occupant's weight rise no matter what they ate and even more if they ate a lot. To prove his point, he pointed the camera at the jackal, who had gained nearly 300 pounds since last video. Pushing 500 pounds, the tiger and two other workers had to lure the jackal out of the ship with food - he barely fit - and then quarantine him once they left the planet's atmosphere for a week. The ship had been left behind as it would have been too worrisome that the contagion would spread. Before he signed off, the tiger noted that he was impressed the jackal had finished all six months' worth of rations, but noted he was surprised that he hadn't even really started on the cargo.
"Well, that means one thing: we need Falco and the guys to get us as soon as possible," Krystal said. "Did they ever respond to our distress signal?"
Fox checked his messages for the first time in a day only to see Star Fox's report back. It would take at least six weeks for them to make it to the planet, Falco had said, and it was looking more like two months if the planet's orbit was as fast as they expected.
"That's not good," Krystal said. "So... we're pretty much stuck here getting fatter and hungrier for the next few months. Great. What do we do now?"
"I don't know," Fox said. "We can see if there's anything else useful on this ship, head back to camp or see if we can find a way to get away from the pathogen."
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
