Fox looked around the drab office. It was functional, certainly, but it wasn't very impressive. A plassteel desk stood at the center of the room, shifted slightly towards the rear wall. It was flanked with two shelves, each containing various binders. Fox examined the binders, and saw that most of them regarded financial situations, rather than the tactical ones that he would have expected. Suddenly, he wasn't so sure that Pepper had been chosen as his liaison due to his tactical knowledge.

"Fox! How are you?" Pepper said, entering the room.

"Things could better, general. And you?" Fox replied, as cordially as he could.

"About the same as you, it seems. These reconstruction efforts require more resource management than I had to do at the peak of the war! On top of that, we've had reports of growing pirate and mercenary activity across the system." Fox noticed that Pepper looked a few years older than when they had last met. Strangely, that was only a few months ago.

"Sorry to hear that general," Fox replied, not knowing exactly what to say.

"Yes, well, that's why you're here. We need somebody to carry out an extremely sensitive mission," Pepper began, "Our forces are stretched thin. Not only have we had to manage massive reconstruction efforts on our own planet, but several other planets in the Lylat system have contacted us for aid."

"We'd be happy to help, general," Fox said, hoping Pepper didn't notice just how desperate he sounded.

"Well, I guess we'd better cut to the chase, then," Pepper replied. He selected a few binders off the shelf to his left, and dropped them on the table in front of Fox.

"These are... from our last mission?" Fox said.

"Yes. I'm afraid I have some bad news. Remember the markings you saw on that wrecked ship?" Pepper asked.

"Uh-huh. It looked like the colors from Andross' empire. I figured it was probably just some surplus ship that the pirates stumbled onto."

"I wish that were true," Pepper pointed to a photograph of one of the damaged ships. "See these symbols? They're different from the ones used by Andross' forces."

"What does that mean?" Fox asked, suddenly feeling very cold.

Pepper took a deep breath. "We believe that some of Andross' forces have regrouped, and have formed a faction known as the Andross Loyalists."

Fox felt as if he had taken a punch to the gut. He couldn't believe his ears. Nearly all of Andross' allies were imprisoned after the invasion, one of the few instances where a defeated army was not granted a political pardon.

"Was that-" Fox began.

"Yes, those were the forces you encountered. We suspected they were ransacking supply shipments in the area, but we weren't sure if they were serious military forces or just a few well-equipped pirates. That's why we sent you in."

"What! You put me and my team in danger just to see whether or not some pirates were militarily trained!" Fox nearly yelled. He struggled to contain himself.

"Yes. We knew that you could handle it. And, we had a patrol in another system on standby if you sent out a distress signal," Pepper replied.

"Fine," Fox said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm himself. "Why do you need me now?"

"We've tracked the patrol back to the planet Halcyon. We've been monitoring it for several days, and it seem like various forces are arriving and going down to the surface of the planet."

"Do you know how many ships are already there?" Fox asked.

"No. Every patrol we've tried to send onto the planet surface has disappeared. That's why we need you. We want you to perform surveillance on the planet, relay the information back, and attack. I realize that you may be seriously outgunned if you attack on your own, but we have absolutely no forces to spare," Pepper said.

"Alright, we'll do it. But, I want triple our normal fee. These ships are extremely advanced, and pose quite a threat to my team..." Fox began his usual 'We're in great danger, we need decent wages' act.

"I've already talked it over with my commanding officers. You'll have four times your normal fee, compensation for repairs, and a small amount in advance to get your equipment in fighting shape. Will that do?" Pepper asked.

"Uh, certainly. We'll head out as soon as we get repaired and rearmed," Fox said. He was surprised at the large payment Pepper was offering. While he wasn't complaining, it did bother him a bit at how important Pepper thought this mission was.

"Excellent. I'll contact you every two days for mission updates," Pepper said. "Oh, and Fox," he said as Fox was walking out the door.

"Yes general?" Fox asked.

"Be careful. These are trained soldiers you're dealing with. They have years of experience and extremely advanced equipment."

"Don't worry general, we'll be able to handle it."


I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It slows down quite a bit here, but the next chapter will be pretty interesting. Fox might not be able to deal with what he finds at the planet...