The Great Fox was quieter than usual. Its engines no longer roared the way they had during the war. If anything, they had dropped to a quiet whisper, a shadow of itself, almost as if it is trying to relax in a postwar Lylat, against the wishes of its masters. The ambience was broken by the click of a projector's activation.
"Langley-class light carrier. Current 'owner' likes to call it the Chimera, but our client prefers to call it the IST Renaissance."
A certain fox adjusted a few settings on the projector. The image flickered, and changed to a close-up of the ship's defenses.
"Every turret on the ship's been swapped out with an autocannon. Six in total, all designed for breaking through shields. While we're talking about shields, the owner's replaced the standard merchant one with a Cornerian military-grade reflector system."
"And we're supposed to attack this thing head on?" Falco questioned.
"Pipe down, Falco." the hare corrected.
"I'll get to that, I'll get to that. Anyways, what we're dealing with isn't just some thief. This guy's got resources, a network maybe."
"Pirates?" Slippy asked.
Miyu was quick to respond. "No, wouldn't be. Aboard the Resonance, we'd try to stay away from nabbing Cornerian equipment. Too risky."
She looked around at the others. A year since Andross's downfall, yet evil has only increased since then. Too many are trying to take advantage of the desperate, those displaced by the war, those who've already lost everything. The lynx turned to Fay, who was eying the display carefully. Her eyes almost lit up upon the vision of such powerful turrets on a ship like this.
"Oh, this'll be fun," the spaniel mentioned to her. "I haven't seen a raid like this since forever!"
There was an atmosphere of dread throughout the ship. If Andross had already attacked twice, nearly destroying the Lylat system, what's to say he wouldn't again? Every mission Star Fox had at this point consisted of guarding some "critical" supply or ship or something. They were already beginning to see those trying to emerge from the power vacuum left in the farther regions of Lylat, perhaps the beginnings of tomorrow's Venomian Empire. Zoness, once a beautiful world, lush with life, had its recovery efforts from the first war destroyed in a matter of months. Macbeth, heart of Lylat's industry, now lays in the rubble of the military machine it was transformed into. Corneria's many cities lay in ruins. Those who once lived in brilliant spires, so tall they may as well have reached the sun, now sleep among the rubble of bombed-out defense turrets. Soldiers that promised they'd come home with medals aplenty now lie dead among their stations, to never be seen by their family again, if they even had one anymore.
Fay was the exception to all this. The anomaly. The outlier. She seemed a strange example of optimism, despite having seen the hell of war twice, as both a civilian and a soldier. It almost radiated off of her, in a way. Her cheerfulness, her bubbly attitude, it kept everyone alive, at least mentally, especially Miyu. With what she's gone through, Fay seemed like a blessing, an act of forgiveness from the world, her gleeful voice soothing the lynx's troubled mind.
"So, here's the deal," Fox explained, turning to Falco's side of the room. "Slippy, your Arwing has the most in terms of defense. You fly in, striking a few of the turrets on your first pass. Falco, you follow in, taking out the turrets while they're targeting Slippy. Rinse and repeat with Peppy and I, but on the other side. We must take care not to damage any more of the ship than necessary."
He turned to Fay and Miyu. "And then we've got our little interceptors over here. We can safely assume that they'll bring out something a little more 'personal' when their turrets are down, so we need you two to down any fighters they send after us."
"Classification?" Fay asked.
"If they can steal a Cornerian shield generator, you can bet they'll have something good. I'm thinking Seraphim interceptors." Slippy responded.
"After we take out any external defenses they have, that's when we board."
Falco was going to object, but stopped himself, much to the relief of Fox.
"Looking through schematics of the ship, thoughtfully obtained by Slippy, we can land at these hangars." The projector clicked, changing to a map of the Renaissance. "It'll be a tight fit, since we're talking about a light carrier here, but it should work. Once we board, we split up into two groups. Falco, Slippy, and Fay, you're group A. You guys make a distraction on the starboard side of the ship. Group B is Miyu, Peppy, and I. We sneak in, knock out anyone we meet, and try to clear a path for the both of us to head to the armory to restock on supplies. After that, we push through to the bridge, lock out anyone else there, and fly the ship to the designated pickup point from the Cornerians."
"And we piss off our client by making him pay 35,000 just for his stolen ship? Let's just bring it to him. Kill anyone on board. Not like we don't have fake ID transmitters should the Cornerians get curious." Falco replied. "Even if they found us out, they love us too much to hunt us down anyways."
"Correction: They love Fox too much. I'm pretty sure that if we weren't with them, they'd be after us in an instant." Miyu commented, playing around with her badge.
Fox sighed. It seemed that his team loved to disagree with him. As much as he appreciated Falco, at times he just felt like throwing him out the airlock. He sure had a way with words, he'll give him that. For better or for worse.
"And how are you so sure the Cornerians won't hunt us down just because I'm there? They're not gonna put me above their laws just because I've got 'McCloud' in my name, you know. Fay, you and pretty much everyone in your family's served in the Cornerian Star Navy, you're with me on this, right?"
She refused to comment. Peppy quickly stood up, noticing what was going on.
"All in favor of giving the ship to the Cornerians and leaving the thieves alive?" he asked, him and Fox raising their hands.
"All against?"
Four other hands shot up, as Fox sighed again, commenting on how it would be a "disaster".
"Fine, Group B takes the transmitter, we…kill any aggressors, and contact the owner. Happy?"
They were.
"Dismissed. We'll head back to the bridge and leave at 0400. Pre-flight preperations and checking begins at 0340. If anyone needs to review the briefing, ask ROB on the bridge."
The room was emptied almost immediately as everyone left, save for Fox and Peppy.
"I just don't get it. Why would they just want to cut through Cornerian regulations like that? It's not like them. And they just wanna kill everyone on board? Maybe Falco, Miyu a little less, but Slippy and Fay?" Fox complained, getting on a stool to turn off the projector. "It's like they just want to disobey me."
"Fox, you know they're better than that. Think about it. Two wars. At this point, everyone just wants to get their jobs done, and they're not afraid to cut some corners. Personally, I don't like the idea ever, but they outnumber us." the hare replied. "I see where Falco's coming from though. Our client contacted us and us only, and he'd probably want to keep it that way, too."
"I'm still pretty uncomfortable about using that fake transmitter though. If we're discovered, sure the Cornerians might still like us, but it would be scandalous."
"The Cornerian way isn't always the right way. I remember back during the first war, you'd take every chance you had." Peppy laughed a little, remembering General Pepper's mortified look when he stated he was taking the team to Solar.
Fox got off the stool. Peppy was right. What happened to the old Fox? What happened to the young McCloud who wasn't afraid of losing his life, let alone his credibility? He had to pull himself together if he was going to pull this assignment off. He bid farewell to Peppy for now and went down to the hangar, thanking him for his help.
Falco relaxed, preparing himself for the operation the only way he knew how. He was in his bed, staring up at the blank, grey ceiling. Grey as his Arwing's controls. Grey as the Great Fox's walls. The world he envisioned warped and changed around him as his eyes shut, the darkness of space enveloping his vision. And then, stars. Millions of potential worlds beyond his home. The hull of a carrier pulled up. The Renaissance. Suddenly, more light. The autocannons, tearing away at his team, and then at him. No, no, no! This can't be happening, not now. He tried to relax. He needed to relax. He eased his mind again, but then, he saw him. The same god-damned face he had seen a thousand times before. That same eerie smile, the smile behind the destruction of his home.
Falco was in his bed, staring up at the blank, grey ceiling.