The first day aboard the Eagle was relatively uneventful for Peppy, Fox, Slippy, and ROB. For a while they sat in the cockpit with Falco, listening to him boast about how many Venomian fleet ships he had outrun in the Eagle, how many bounty hunters he had managed to avoid as a mercenary, and some of his smuggling runs with a space gang he used to be affiliated with called the "Hot Rodders".

Fox guessed that most of the tales were either fabricate or exaggerated, but he really didn't care anymore. He became used to the blue bird's behavior soon enough.

Peppy would spend countless hours talking to Fox about the adventures of team Star Fox, of how Andross had organized a rebellion against the Cornerian republic, the epic space battles he and James McCloud had taken part in, and the eventual exile of Andross to planet Venom after the war.

"And James," Peppy remembered, smiling. "James would laugh at the sight of all those explosions in space, the laser beams crisscrossing throughout the battlefield, and he'd say, 'Come on, we don't want the battle to end before we get there, do we?'" the rabbit grinned. "And do you know what the most remarkable thing about James was?" he asked Fox.

"No. What?" Fox asked, leaning towards Peppy excitedly.

Peppy grinned. "In all his time as a pilot, I don't think I ever saw James use an auto-targeting device. He fired every bomb, missile, and laser manually. He trusted his own instincts as a pilot. I believe he had the will of the Cornerian gods on his side," he said.

Falco, who had been polishing his blaster in the corner of the lounge room, looked up. "Wow, those are some pretty amazing stories, old man. But no offense, gods and instincts got nothing to do with anything. When you're in a tight spot, nothing beats a load of luck and a good blaster at your side," he said.

Peppy shrugged. "Believe what you want to believe, then. Personally, I don't believe in luck or miracles. I think that everything is predetermined. We must have made a certain decision for a reason, and not just because we felt like it, right?" he asked.

Fox believed Peppy, but Falco just shrugged and resumed polishing his blaster.

In the corner of the room, Slippy and ROB played a game of virtual chess, with holographic chess pieces on the board. Slippy seemed to be on the edge of losing.

"Hey!" the toad cried as ROB commanded his rook, a giant lava creature like those living under the surface of Solar, to attack Slippy's queen.

ROB examined the board, then looked up at Slippy. "If I am correct, I believe that is a checkmate," he said.

Slippy looked down angrily to see that it was indeed true- he couldn't move his king without the rook taking it. "Fine, you win," he muttered.

The next morning, Falco assured them that they would be at Fortuna that night at the latest. Then the bird grimaced as he checked one of the readouts on the control panel. "Scratch that, it might be another day until we get there. We must have burned up most of our fuel trying to get there in such a hurry," he said.

"Well where can we refuel?" asked Peppy, rubbing his whiskers thoughtfully.

Falco checked the computer readout of the Lylat System on the control panel. "Looks like the closest inhabited planet is Zoness. I guess we should stop there for a few hours, if the empire isn't there. Otherwise we're toast," Falco said grimly.

***

The imperial officer hurried toward the command bridge of the Venomian flagship, mixed emotions of anger, fear, and shock apparent on his face. He entered the command bridge and approached captain White, who was staring down at Zoness below them.

"Sir," said the officer, "our scouts searched the entire planet. They've found the remnants of a rebel base on one of the islands, but it appears to have been abandoned long ago."

White blinked at the officer. Slowly, a look of rage began to contort his face into a hideous snarl. "She lied! She lied to us!" roared White. His red eyes gleamed with fury, his tiny, balled fists shaking. "Send word to Venom the mistress Krystal will not be arriving. Tell them that she has already been executed for high treason," he said.

The officer blinked. "And the girl?" he asked.

"Terminate her!" shouted White furiously.

***

"Alright, coming up to Zoness right about now," announced Falco, glancing at the readouts on the control panel. "ROB, ease us out of slipspace, will you?"

"Yes, captain Lombardi,"said ROB. Slowly, the green glow of slipspace outside subsided, and the Eagle emerged into the Lylat System once more, just outside the atmosphere of Zoness. What they saw there terrified them.

"Turn us around, we can't land here!" shouted Peppy as the Eagle flew closer and closer to the Venomian flagship.

Falco wrenched at the controls, but the ship wouldn't budge.

"What are you doing, get us out of here!" Fox cried.

"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do? They must have sensed us coming out of slipspace, they've got us caught in their tractor beam," Falco said grimly.

"What does that mean?" Slippy asked.

"It means that we're being towed into their hangar," said Peppy grimly. He glanced at Falco. "Falco, you're the pilot. Do you have a plan?" he asked.

Falco looked thoughtful for a moment, staring intently at the quickly approaching hangar of the Venomian flagship. "Yeah," he said at last. "I got an idea."

As the Eagle's Eye was slowly dragged into the hangar of the flagship by the tractor beam, Two figures quickly marched into the hangar, one a small mouse with white fur and red eyes, the other a tall, cyborg-like creature in black armor.

"What is this, where did this pathetic excuse for a ship come from?" snapped the already infuriated Captain White to a deck officer nearby.

"We picked it up approaching in slipspace, sir. While we were towing it in with the tractor beam, one of the troops identified it as the same ship that blasted out of Katina only two days ago," said the deck officer.

White looked up at the Eagle, scowling. "Have a team search the ship with thermal rays. If there are any passengers onboard, android or living thing, I want them brought to me alive. Is that understood?" he asked.

The deck officer nodded and quickly departed to find a suitable search team. White left the hangar, but Cain stayed, staring at the ship intently. After a while, he too left.

In a few minutes, a team of three officers were inside the Eagle, searching every nook and cranny. After a while they found the ships log, which indicated that two escape pods had been jettisoned from the Eagle just minutes after they had come out of slipspace.

Unbeknownst to them, Peppy, Fox, Slippy, ROB, and Falco were still onboard the ship: they were hiding in secret smuggling compartments underneath the cockpit completely impervious to both heat and motion detectors. After the search team left the ship, a metal panel on the floor of the cockpit slid aside, and Falco, Fox, Peppy, and Slippy all climbed out. ROB came out afterwards with the help of Slippy.

"I've been using those for smuggling for as long as I've had this ship," Falco mused. "Never thought I'd be hiding myself in them," he chuckled.

"So now what do we do?" asked Fox, dusting himself off.

"Well, it's pretty easy. We deactivate the tractor beam, get back to the ship, and fly on outta here," said Falco, peeking out the cockpit window at two shock troopers waiting outside the extended entry ramp.

"I know, but how?" asked Slippy.

"There has to be a computer terminal somewhere," said Peppy. "If we can get ROB plugged into it, he may be able to remotely shut the tractor beam off. See up there?" the rabbit asked, pointing out the cockpit windshield at a window overlooking the hangar. "That's where they monitor all the ships that come in and out of the hangar. There has to be a computer terminal up there."

Fox frowned. "But how do we get up there? We step out of this ship and they'll kill us!" he said.

The grimace on Falco's face slowly turned into a grin. "Anyone else have a blaster?" he asked.

"Fox and I do. Why?" asked Peppy.

Falco pulled his own blaster out of it's holster and set it for stun. "I've got an idea," he said.

Outside the Eagle, the two shock troopers were muttering to each other under their breath about the safety regulations. Apparently an electrical reactor had fried not one, but three mechanics that very month.

They looked up the entrance ramp of the Eagle curiously upon hearing a loud bang come from inside.

"Hey, guys!" shouted a voice from inside. "I got hung up scanning this place, and the other guys left. Can you gimme a hand carrying this case?"

The two troops shrugged at each other, holstered their weapons, and hurried up the entrance ramp. Two quiet spaks of blaster fire were heard, followed by soft thumps of the troops hitting the floor.

A few minutes later, one of the officers in the monitoring room above the hangar sauntered over to the window and looked down at the Eagle, frowning when he didn't see the two troops outside it. He picked up a small radio from the control panel and spoke into it. "Troop 78543, why aren't you at your post?" he asked. No answer. Angered, he raised the radio to his mouth again. "Troop 78543, where are you?" he said loudly.

Slowly, an armored shock troop clumsily stumbled out of the Eagle. He looked up at the window, then tapped the side of his helmet and shrugged, indicating that his radio link wasn't working.

The officer shook his head in disgust. "We've got a defective helmet, call it down to the maintenance androids. They'll send a new one down there," said the officer.

One of the raccoons at the monitors nodded and stood up, heading towards the exit to the control room. He opened the sliding, steel door to come face to face with another troop. "Move, soldier, I have business to attend to," the raccoon said. He peered past the soldier at an android, a rabbit, and a toad behind him. "Hey, who are–"

Spak! The troop raised his blaster rifle and shot the raccoon in the chest. The officer reached down and pulled a blaster pistol from his belt, but was shot by Peppy before he could shoot. The final raccoon reached for an extra blaster on the wall, but was shot before he could grab it.

The troop, Peppy, Slippy, and ROB hurried into the room, dragging the bodies into a supply closet. Slippy scavenged a blaster rifle from the dead bodies.

The troop that had tapped his helmet down in the hangar took a service elevator to the second floor, then hurried into the monitoring room. He closed and locked the door behind him, then pulled off his helmet, revealing himself to be Fox.

"Stars, could you have made more noise? I'm surprised the entire ship isn't down here after that!" Fox scolded the others.

The second troop lazily tugged his helmet off his head, revealing the face of Falco. "Well bring 'em on, I prefer fighting to sneaking around anyway," he snickered. He holstered his blaster, set his helmet down on the control panel, and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the controls.

ROB clanked over to a plug in the wall and inserted his index finger into it. "Scanning in process. This should only take a moment," he said. After a few moments of communicating with the computer, he looked at the others. "I'm afraid the tractor beam is not connected with any computer system on the ship. The computer says that the only way to shut it down is by manually deactivating the power generator it is liked to," he said.

Falco rolled his eyes. "Great. More work we have to do. I'm charging you extra for this, you know," he told Peppy.

"If we don't get out of here, that won't matter," said Peppy slowly. He walked over to an electronic map on the wall showing the layouts of every level of the ship. "You four stay here. I'll take care of the tractor beam," the aged rabbit said.

Slippy blinked. "Wait a minute, you? Shouldn't we go with you?" he asked.

"I can handle this myself. You three need to guard ROB at all costs," said Peppy.

Before anyone could protest, Peppy opened the door and hurried back out into the ship, leaving the four of them alone.

***

Cain stood with his hands folded behind his back in the control bridge of the flagship, his breath hissing in and out of his helmet. He'd had a feeling when near the Eagle's Eye. A very strange one. He almost felt as though he were sensing the presence of another being that he had once known, a very long time ago.

And suddenly he remembered.

"You seem troubled, Lord Cain," said Captain White.

Cain looked at the captain. "It's Peppy Hare. He's here," he said.

White looked alarmed. "Peppy Hare? Of the Star Fox team?" he asked. "How can you be sure?"

"I know his tactics. He has used the trick of jettisoning escape pods in a ship before to make enemies believe he is no longer on a ship. I know him well. This is exactly the type of plan Peppy Hare would use to infiltrate our ship," Cain said.

White frowned. "Should I order troops to begin searching for him?" he asked.

Cain stood in silence for a long moment. At last he said, "No. I'll handle him myself." With that he turned and hurried out of the hangar, thoughts going through his mind of where Peppy may go next.

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Author's Note: I'm excited about writing the next few chapters, they're really exciting! Thanks for reading!