AN: Greetings! PrimalTime here.
While I'm not new to writing FanFiction, as I have written a story previously (even though I deleted it due to me not being happy with how it came out), this is the first story that I'm writing seriously, with proper planning, so I hope you enjoy it!
I don't have a set schedule on chapter releases, but I'll try to update as soon as I can. Since it's summer, I'll have a lot of free time to work on the story(what are friends, amirite). I'll try to update at least once a week, but forgive me if I miss the deadline by a few days, or even if I end up posting more often.
Feel free to leave as many reviews that criticize the hell out of this story, because it would help me improve considerably, which is something I'd really like!
These kinds of missions were, without a doubt, the ones Wolf hated the most. There weren't any real dangers nor dogfights that could give him the rush of adrenaline he needed; they were simply tasked to provide assistance during an exchange of goods between two companies. Even though he normally refused these operations, he was left with no choice because of the lack of income they had to go through the previous month; a sudden drop in the amount of missions making them desperate for money.
And that's why the new Star Wolf team was looking around for any incoming trouble in Sector Y, flying in their rebuilt Wolfens. Even though they were currently down to three members (as Andrew Oikonny and Pigma Dengar had been removed and Panther Caroso had taken their place), the team was shining brighter than ever: all three of them had exceptional piloting skills and unmatched coordination. Bored out of his mind, Wolf O'Donnell (leader of their mercenary group) opened their private communication system, searching for a distraction.
"Panther and Leon," he started, "can both of you receive me properly?"
"Loud and clear, Lord O'Donnell." Panther's voice answered first, his feline form appearing through the communicator screen.
"Yes, Captain." Leon's soft voice followed right after, "Does something bother you?"
"Yes, this mission does." He grunted before continuing, "There's nothing interesting going on. Just a plain old business trade."
"As much as I'd love for..." Leon paused for a brief moment to think of what to add, "something to happen, we really need the money, Captain... After all, the Wolfens' repairs costed us a bit more than what we could afford."
"He's right. Furthermore, since the Lylat Wars ended, the amount of jobs that require dogfighting has gone down considerably due to the lack of conflict." The large feline added.
Wolf knew they were right; the Lylat Wars had caused unimaginable destruction, which made military funding for each planet go down. This caused brought conflict to a halt, as repairing, maintaining and fueling the ships was too costly for planets that had taken part in the war. This even affected his own team: because of the repairs of the Wolfens, they couldn't afford to damage them too much until they got enough money, which is why they were forced to take these easier missions. They payed well, but failed to excite Wolf as much as the fights he got used to during the wars when he worked for Andross.
"Even so..." Panther ended the silence once again, causing Wolf to look at the communicator screen, "Don't you think it's weird?"
"Weird? What's weird, Caroso?" Wolf asked, confused by the panther's words.
"This mission." The feline said, moving his eyes towards the two ships where exchange was happening, "I'd understand if we were the only ones who had been hired, but that's not the case: both companies hired a team of mercenaries each. Wouldn't one team suffice to protect both of them from external danger?"
"They probably didn't trust each other, so they each hired different mercenaries in case the other company betrayed them." Leon deduced, "It's difficult to trust anyone these days. Pigma is a perfect example of that."
"Powalski is right on that. It's not too strange for things like these to happen. Although, now that you have brought this to my attention..." Wolf paused, thinking about the situation at hand, "It is weird that, in the case they doubted each other, they'd perform the exchange in an isolated place like Sector Y."
In fact, if he really thought about it, it made no sense at all. Not only was the place they chose dangerous due to the mechanical rubbish floating around the area, but they also would have been safer in a protected planet like Corneria. That way they wouldn't have to worry about pirates and, by extension, they wouldn't have had to spend money on hiring mercenaries. Something about the operation didn't feel right to Wolf.
"We'll have to ask him when he contacts us back. If there is something going under our noses, I'm not going to let that old man put us in even more trouble." Wolf said to the other members of the team.
"I swear, if they were lying to us I'll break their goddamn neck myself." Leon said, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
As soon as Leon finished that threat, Wolf received a request to open a communication channel, which he immediately accepted. As soon as Panther and Leon joined the new communication channel, the voice of their employer was heard.
"Thanks for your assistance, Star Wolf." He said, directing those words to the whole team, "We just completed the trade, so you're now allowed to head back to your station."
"What items were traded?" Wolf said as soon as he finished speaking, his voice low, rough and full of suspicion.
"Is that any of your business?" He replied, narrowing his eyes. "We payed you for your protection, not to get interrogated by you. But, if you really want to know, it was only some materials the other company needed for their products."
As soon as he said those words, he ended the communication abruptly, not letting any of the Star Wolf members reply. This infuriated Wolf; even though he had asked his employer for information about the exchange, he'd only given him really vague information. Instead of clearing his initial question, he was left with another doubt on his mind on top of the ones he already had: what was traded inside those ships? Try as he might, without any evidence nor leads that he could follow, that question would remain unanswered.
"Let's get moving." Wolf told his crew with a rough voice, "We should head back to Sargasso soon, because I need a fucking drink."
Panther smirked at the anger in his captain's words.
"I think we've got some nice drinks back at the Space Zone." He said before quickly resuming his sentence, "Can't get the suspicion out of your head now, can you?"
"He certainly has got a reason to be worried about that, cat." Leon said, rolling his eyes, "What if it was a trap set out for us? Did you see how quickly he closed the communication channel after completely avoiding our questions? Something's seriously fishy."
"We'll start looking into and discuss this whole ordeal tomorrow. We all think- No, we all know there was something off with that trade, so we'll have to get to the bottom of this mess." Wolf said with a tone of finality in his voice, "For now though, let's enjoy the rest of the day at the bar in the Space Zone. Fucking hell, I need to get wasted to get rid of this anger."
"At our current pace, we should arrive in two hours, Lord O'Donnell." The feline said after a few seconds of calculations.
Sector Y was a silent place; mechanical waste covered the area completely. While he'd never personally been in this part of the Lylat System to fight in the war, the remnants of older aircraft showed perfectly how many battles occurred here. He personally preferred Meteo, where the Sargasso Space Zone was located in, as it wasn't nearly as dangerous. The great amounts of magnetic and radiation energy in the area made it impossible for ships to go through the sector without a shield that could neutralize it.
Currently, the area was home to several broken aircraft from Corneria's main battle fleet and pieces that originally belonged to Venomian robots. He could even recognize a few of the aircraft in front of him: the remains of the Saruzin Venomian flagship, some Cornerian Fighters, an Arwing...
"Wait, that can't be right." Wolf said, inching closer to the immobile Arwing floating near him.
Arwings were ships that only members of the Star Fox team used, as they were personally built for them, so it made no sense that one of them was in space, among the other broken aircraft. Furthermore, as he approached it, he noticed the wings of the spacecraft were missing, which meant it was completely disabled.
"What can't be right, Wolf?" Leon asked through the communication channel, unable to see the aircraft.
"Lord O'Donnell, have you found something?" Panther followed.
"I think it's better if you both come and see this yourselves." Wolf said with a low voice as he got close enough to see who the person inside the ship was. An unconscious and defenseless Fox McCloud lay in the Arwing.
Both of O'Donnell's teammates nodded, confused, and approached their leader's position. Their reaction upon seeing the Arwing with no wings was different, but carried the same feeling of surprise: Panther gasped and Leon clicked his tongue.
The fur in Fox's arms and legs was slightly burnt, meaning he probably had been knocked out by aircraft lasers, and the fur below his eyes was moist, indicating he'd been crying. However, he could see his chest occasionally rise up and down; he was alive, only unconscious.
"Leave him there. He'll die without anyone to help him." Leon said coldly, turning around his ship in the process.
"I mean, we could at least take the Arwing. It could allow us to decipher their communication channels or inspect their gear. Just imagine how useful-" Panther started, before he was cut off by Wolf.
"There's something in his hands."
Wolf inched closer to the on his Wolfen glass, trying to look at the piece of paper the vulpine was holding tightly. It looked as if it had been ripped of from a different paper, and he could only figure out a few words as the paper was too burned to make out anything else. However, those words he read were enough: investigate the illegal trade.
"He was investigating the trade we assisted with today." Wolf murmured.
"What?!" Leon, shocked, yelled through the communicator.
"Apparently it was an illegal trade. The rest of the piece of paper is too damaged to read, so I don't know anything else." He added after Leon's deafening yell, punching his communicator screen in the progress with incredible force. "Ugh, I knew it! They fucking lied to us!"
"Lord O'Donnell, I believe we should take him with us. If he knows something that we don't, it would greatly benefit us." Panther suggested.
Wolf stayed silent, considering the feline's words: If they left Fox there or killed him themselves, it would take away one of the many troubles they had; the Star Fox team. However, he had information they wanted desperately: he needed to know what illegal thing was traded in that operations, as to know what they were dealing with. If they had been informed beforehand something illegal was going to be done, he would have declined the mission, as he couldn't afford to get into even more trouble with Corneria right then, when they finally stopped bugging the Star Wolf team.
"Panther, Leon..." He started as he took a deep breath, "We're bringing him with us. We need any leads to stop that motherfucker."
"No way we're bringing that useless kid with us! Are you out of your goddamn-"
"I'll say it one more time, we're bringing him with us. I want to personally take care of the idiot who lied to us, and to do that I need whatever clues this fox has, no matter how much I'd love to blow up his damn brains right now." The leader interrupted Leon with a serious and strong tone, "Am I CLEAR?"
Panther silently nodded, agreeing with his leader's choice, as he turned around to start heading towards Sargasso. Meanwhile, Wolf activated the outer shield of his aircraft as he reached for Fox's neck, allowing the air to be kept inside so he wouldn't face any danger.
"...Yes, captain." Leon murmured, not wanting to anger Wolf any more than he already was, as that would only give him trouble.
"Good." Wolf huffed as he roughly dropped Fox in the space behind his seat, "Well then, let's go."