The Great Fox was on a course to a radioactive debris field near Macbeth. Slippy had checked that the team's arwings were fully operational. The whole team was very anxious at the possibility of shooting at something for the first time in four months. The Great Fox was now arriving at the area indicated by the admiral where they would have the opportunity of earning some much needed money.
"Rob, check the long range sensors for fighter sized ships" commanded Fox
"Affirmative, long range sensors are being jammed by radiation coming from the debris field"
"What about the short range sensors on the arwings?" asked Peppy.
"Short range sensors on the arwings are functional only up to 200 meters"
"That should be enough; if we stay close to each other we could scan the entire debris field in just an hour" said Slippy
"Rob, is the arwings communication system range limited by the radiation?" asked Fox.
"Negative"
They left the ship just outside the field; the four small arwings came out of the ship. The team assumed a diamond formation with Fox at the front, Falco to his right, Peppy behind, and Slippy to his left. They were surrounded by pieces of destroyed ships, remnants of the war, and asteroids, both of which were emitting the radiation. The shields of the arwings protected the team from the deadly radiation. They scanned an area and then moved to another one. Suddenly Falco broke formation.
"Falco, what are you doing?" asked Fox, worried that Falco was about to do something stupid.
"I saw something; I'm going to check it out"
"Damn it Falco!" thought Fox.
"Peppy, Slippy, wait here I'm going with Falco"
"Roger Fox" responded the hare and the frog in unison.
Fox increased the power to the arwing's thrusters in order to catch up with Falco. He carefully but quickly avoided the pieces of debris that were in his way, following the speeding blue light that was Falco's arwing.
"I see it, is a small fighter… What the!" said Falco through the communicator." He is engaging me!"
"Falco hold on, don't try anything stupid" said Fox
"I can take care of it Fox!"
Fox could see Falco on the other fighter beginning to engage in a dogfight. He could only see the blue exhaust of Falco's arwing and the yellow exhaust of the other fighter. Falco was having difficulty in staying behind the other fighter. Fox couldn't catch up with Falco and the other fighter; the two fighters were flying in the same direction and at the same speed as Fox.
"Peppy, Slippy try to catch up to Falco"
"Shoot he is right behind me!" screamed Falco through the comm channel that went through all of his teammate's arwing's.
Just when Fox taught he was never going to see his friend again the other fighter disengaged and went into hyperspace. The four arwings then regrouped.
"What the heck was that!" said Falco.
"I don't know but that sure wasn't a pirate ship, he was too good and too well equipped." said Fox.
After a couple minutes of discussing who or what that fighter could have been the team continued to search the field. Then they came into an area where there seemed to be a hole in the field since there were no debris, it was a rather odd scene.
"This is weird" said Slippy.
"What's weird Slip?" asked Fox.
"I'm detecting a strong gravity signal directly in front of us; I think it might be a jammer."
"I don't see anything Slip" said Peppy.
"Yeah me neither" said Falco.
"It could be cloaked or…"
"Attention you dirty merc scum. This is the territory of the Dark Flame Pirates; if you want your lives to be spared you will leave this area immediately." Interrupted a voice through the comm channel of the arwings. As the voice said this two red and black painted assault gunships and several fighters de-cloaked and emerged surrounding the Star Fox team. They were surrounded and underpowered. Fox responded to the pirate's threat.
"Pirates, we will leave the area as soon as we can."
With these words Fox set a course away from the debris field and towards the Great Fox, he pushed the thrusters on his arwing forward and the arwing accelerated at a great speed. The rest of the team followed him and the four arwings formed a diamond shaped formation. The pirates went dispersed and they soon disappeared into the debris field again.
"Fox why did we leave we could have easily defeated those guys" said Falco.
"I know but our mission was to scout the area and we got some pretty good data for the admiral"
The team arrived safely to the Great Fox. Fox told the rest of the team that they could take a rest and that he would de-brief the admiral. He and Slippy headed to the bridge, Falco went to his room and Peppy went to the common room. In the bridge Slippy went to check the ships status and Fox sat in the captain's chair. He called the Admiral via his computer; the computer screen had an integrated camera so that he could talk directly to the Admiral.
"Ah Mr. McCloud, I was waiting for this message. What is the situation in the area?"
"Admiral, me and the team encountered a group of pirates in an area of the debris field were the debris weren't as densely packed…"
"Did the pirates give you the name of their group or person to whom they work for?"
"Yes, they claimed to be 'Dark Flame Pirates'"
"We have had problems with this specific group for a couple of months now. Can you tell me what their strength is?"
"They have a couple of Venomian light gunships and around fifteen fighters; they seemed to me as Cornerian fighters and were also equipped with a device that seems to cloak their ships"
"All this information is very useful; your fee is being transferred as we speak. On behalf of the Cornerian Navy I thank you and your team."
"You can call us anytime admiral"
With this the admiral finished the conversation and Fox began to check if the fee had been passed. Sure enough he had ten thousand more credits than he had in the morning. The other ten thousand that had been given to the team had been divided into four equal amounts for each team member. Every time they were paid an amount fifty percent went to their personal needs and the other fifty to the team's needs.
"Slippy, make a list of what we can buy with the ten thousand for the ship"
Another short chapter, I need to get into the habit of making huge chapters. Remember to review.