The setting sun smiled on the foreign friends as they trudged back towards the base.

Their arrival was greeted by two familiar faces. One of them was Slippy, their third counterpart from earlier. The other was an aging hare, looking at a glance to be about forty, and with a glow of experience that illuminated the whole room. He had a stark military look about him, and clearly was the most experienced of the quartet. He wore a nice suit riddled with scorch marks presumably caused by blaster fire. He had worn the suit for the negotiations with the planet's president, Carl Norman, but obviously, the negotiations had gone sour. Katt Monroe's words came back to Falco. It appeared her appraisal of the situation had been correct.

"Now Peppy, explain again what happened." Requested Fox calmly.

"I showed up at the presidential palace and met with Norman. Everything went as planned, until we came to his office. When we went in, there was a Venomian officer already sitting there. He looked familiar. I believe it was Colonel Grath, from the Aquas campaign." This intelligence was met with grim nods of understanding as Slippy documented the name on a small notepad for further research. Venomian presence on the planet would make it that much harder to escape, let alone do anything about claiming the planet. Once those assembled had contemplated this for a moment, the team's elder member continued. "They took me to a shuttle; the Venomian officer told me they were going to take me to an orbiting Venomian vessel and interrogate me to find out where you were hiding."

"How did you get free?" Asked Slippy curiously.

"He got freed by a rebel faction operating here on the planet. They sent him back to us to tell us they want to make an alliance." Said Falco, garnering confused looks from his teammates, most of all Peppy.

"That's right. A rebel named Silas Mansen freed me. Would you mind explaining to us how you know so much all of a sudden, Falco?" Demanded Peppy.

"When I was on guard duty just before you showed up, I tracked what I thought was an enemy scout into the jungle. She turned out to be an old acquaintance of mine. She's working with a group of rebels. She explained what happened to me, said we needed to team up, then left."

"Did she tell you where to meet up with them?"

"Nah."

"Alright, then we're ditching this shack and heading west."

"Now wait a minute Peppy." Interrupted Fox. "How do you know we can find these people in the west?"

"On my way down in the shuttle, I spotted an abandoned rock quarry a few days trek to the west of here."

"Woah woah, wait, you came down here in the shuttle? Then how come we're walkin'?" Asked Falco skeptically. Peppy looked at the three faces expecting his answer with tangible embarrassment.

"I crashed it, alright? It was a cheap Venom-manufactured piece of junk. The navigation system wouldn't respond properly!" The sight of the older hare frantically defending himself was really quite comical. His three teammates began to crack up.

"Great, the team's veteran pilot crashed his shuttle." Cracked Falco. Peppy shot him a glare before quickly changing the subject.

"Alright, I know it's funny and all, but we need to get going if we're going to get a good lead on Norman's people. Rest assured, if we stay put, they will find us. Now let's move out." The air of seriousness returned as the four grabbed their packs and scurried out the door. As they left the clearing and headed west, Falco took one last look back at the dilapidated wooden shack. It wasn't the most comfortable of arrangements, but Falco couldn't shake the feeling that it was a lot safer there than whatever was waiting for them where they were going.

Turning his eyes forward, his thoughts reached back to Katt Monroe in that clearing. What were the odds that someone from his past would turn up here, on this mission, on this Godforsaken planet? Not high. He hadn't seen Katt since the old days, growing up on Zoness.

#################################

"Mr. Lombardi, would you wake up, please?" The annoying voice pierced the young falcon's sensitive ears.

"What for?" Came the groggy reply.

"We are reviewing the concepts from the chapter. Can you give me an integral for this value and graph it?" She asked, pointing to a complex number value on the board. After staring at the problem for a moment, the avian replied "sure" and approached the board, looking first around at his class. They all looked coyly at him. A kid from the slums in the advanced calculus class? Most of them must have thought he was a total joke. True, he was no genius, but he did know his stuff better than anyone gave him credit for. After standing for a moment, he began working, as fellow students sniggered at his back. Their faces slowly turned to ones of mild surprise, however, as he slowly churned out the correct solution to the problem. At length, however, he stopped.

Falco looked in frustration at the problem. He had hit a part of the problem he had no idea how to solve. Embarrassed, he turned and looked around at the class. However, just as he was preparing to admit he didn't know how to go any further, and the teacher prepared to promptly send him back to his seat, Falco's eyes zeroed in on one particular student: Randy. The hound was mouthing something to him. A numerical value. Curious, Falco turned around and plugged the value into the equation. It worked! Falco confidently finished the final stages of the teacher's challenge, then immediately turned around and returned to his desk, where he sat down with a confident smirk on his face. After examining the work and the solution, the teacher glared at Falco as she begrudgingly ground out the words Falco awaited.

"That is correct, Mr. Lombardi. It seems my efforts with you are not entirely wasted. I'm glad you were able to solve the first problem from tonight's homework." She said, causing Falco's smirk to slowly fade from his face. "I apologize for the length of the assignment, but this part of the unit is one of the most often failed parts in all my years as a teacher. I want to make sure-"

"Done." Interrupted a student. The teacher, thoroughly shocked, looked at the student in question. She was a pink-furred young cat, and quite beautiful. She was elegantly dressed, sitting in her seat with legs crossed, her narrow, feline eyes looking back at the teacher through a small pair of glasses. Every ounce of her delicate body radiated nobility. She was the daughter of John Monroe, and heiress to the Monroe Corporation: Catherine Monroe.

"Katt, do you mean done with the entire assignment?"

"Yes, Ms. Lectus."

"Well...excellent, then. I expect the rest of you to return with it done tomorrow. Get to work."

After class, Falco caught up with Randy on the way to the cafeteria.

'Yo, Randy. Thanks for the save with Lectus today."

"No problem, man. That homework was not fun, I'll tell you what."

"You already finished it?"

"Right as the bell rang."

"So not as fast as that Katt Monroe, then? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius?"

"Other people say that. But that Monroe is on a whole other level from me." Explained Randy. Falco nodded in understanding.

"She's hot, too. I can't believe you haven't tried to make a move on her. She seems right up your alley."

"Evil heiress to a giant galactic corporation? No thanks. She'd probably bite it off, to be honest." He said. Randy chuckled. Falco was known for his way with the women. No one could imagine him being afraid of one. Falco didn't think he could be, either, and that made him all the more worried as to what that chick was all about.

"Well, whatever. You coming to Ramone's tonight with all of us?"

"I don't know. My parents are kinda iffy about me with some of the guys, but I should be fine. See ya there, hopefully.

"Alright, see ya there."

#####################

The group had been trudging for nearly two days now. Peppy estimated it would be another day before they got to the quarry, but Falco was dead tired already. He was just getting ready to voice his complaint when a rustling was heard in the bushes up ahead. The four all trained their weapons on the foliage for several minutes, during which the air felt like lead from the tension. Finally, a distinctly accented voice rang from the bushes.

"Don't shoot!"

"Show yourself!" Ordered Peppy. "Come out slowly with your hands in the air!" Little by little, the bushes' occupant came into view. He was a wolf, probably several years older than Falco, Fox, and Slippy, but not as old as Peppy. As he stepped forward with his hands in the air, more details could be determined about his appearance. He was muscular, bearing the build of a soldier, and sported a scar vertically crossing his left eye, which was covered by a black cloth eyepatch.

"Please, my name is Wolf O'Donnell. I'm here on behalf of Silas Mansen. You're Peppy Hare's squadron, correct? Silas sent me here to bring you in. I'm one of the good guys."