Chapter 10

Dealing with the Dark

Great Fox II, Fox's Quarters

August 5th, 9:10 AM, Lylat Standard Time

"Oh sweet good lord in heaven" Fox thought to himself; for two days he had been safe from the accursed beeps. Two days where the idea of peace was nearly assured; the vulpine had at last believed he had conquered the mind busting sound. Without the pouncing of a prepared predator, he shuffled off of his bed. Despite his stupor-like state he realized a couple of irregularities. One, the blue angel wasn't beside him this time, and he couldn't feel his left leg.

He didn't care though, hobbling over to the far wall, the source of the beeping, he hoofed his imaginary left leg at it with all the strength he could muster; and to his surprise, there was an impact.

His mind at last began to become aware of what was going on. He did indeed have a left leg; the artificial one that Slippy had built for him only the day before. Only now, it was lodged in a sizeable dent in the thick metal wall in front of him. His confusion on how he pulled off such a strike was over lapped by his sleepiness. It took a bit of effort to pry his leg out of the wall, and he grumbled to himself. Idiot him had gone and tried to kill the communication alarm a third time.

"What is it, ROB."

His blue angel's voice emanated from the wall instead. "Actually it's Krystal, love. I think you should come down to the docking bay."

It was then he remembered; it was August 5th, his thirty fifth birthday. He grinned to himself, walking over to his closet to get some clothes on; he wasn't going to present himself to his crew in his boxers. "I'll be down in a minute, Krys, just let me get dressed."

He got on some decent casual wear; a black long sleeved T shirt and blue jeans, he wore the classic belt given to all Star Fox members, featuring three interlocking golden triangles. He also thought it was fitting to wear the previous years birthday present, his combat boots.

With a jog to wake him up, he hauled ass to the docking bay. His curiosity got the better of him; most of his instincts said it had something to do with his Arwing, which both delighted him and worried him at the same time. He liked his Arwing just the way it was.

The Docking Bay

All of the members of the team were waiting around Fox's Arwing in the bay; Skye was sitting on the wing with his laptop, he had uploaded the data from the ships security and was tracking Fox all the way to the elevator that would bring him down to the bay. Krystal was almost giddy, she liked Fox's birthday almost more than her own, mostly because it was extremely gratifying shocking him in one way or another. Eventually the novelty would die down; but not until she had lots of fun with it.

Skye smirked. "Target has entered the elevator."

Krystal grinned in turn. "Lights!"

Main Elevator

Fox leaned against the side of the large circular elevator as it descended into the docking bay. Suddenly, with a snap, the elevator turned pitch black, but kept moving. His heart rate quickened.

"ROB? What just happened?"

No response. "Team, come in. Fox to anyone that can hear this!"

It was then he started to get really worried; the lights were directly infused with the life support. He may have begun running out of Oxygen soon; he would have to conserve. It was then however that the elevator stopped, and he heard the door slide open at the far end of the room. He had reached the docking bay, but it was still pitch black. There was no light at all.

He stumbled cautiously out of the elevator, careful not to trip over any crates or wires.
"Krystal? Anyone there?!" He went by pure memory towards his Arwing; maybe he could use its comm system to contact someone.

Suddenly the lights came on, not only were his eyes overwhelmed by the sudden light, his ears exploded with a big cheer in unison...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOX!!!" The cheer knocked him right over onto his ass.

He was dumbstruck. How could he have been so retarded? The entire team stood before him, even ROB had his robotic arms in the air. Katt was holding a big chocolate cake, and Krystal, a cylindrical gift wrapped object. The team was all clapping, Falco, Skye and Slippy all had tears in their eyes laughing, Falco had almost fallen over.

"Whoa, Thanks everyone!" He stood up and walked towards them, Falco was the first to slap his back in congratulations. "Live the most suicidal life possible and you lasted thirty five years."

He grinned, realizing just how much of a feat that was. He had his life on the line hundreds of times starting when he was but 18 years old during the Lylat War, and he was still standing. Krystal walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek, handing him the long cylindrical package. "Here Fox, enjoy!"

He wasted no time tearing the wrapping off; and he was absolutely stunned. Inside the package was a staff; even more brilliant than Krystal's old one which he had become so accustomed to on Sauria. The shaft was a deep blue, with symbols and ancient writing delicately carved all along from foot to toe. The head was particularly interesting; a sparkling white gem was at the top, much like Krystal's own, but a silver blade enveloped it all around, closing to a point at the tip like a thick spearhead. Golden metal strings of what looked like tied leaves spiraled from the base of the crystal down to about 4 inches down the shaft. At the foot of the staff, there was a beautiful golden representation of an Arwing, with the nose and each wing with sharpened ends. He tried bending the tail piece to no avail; it looked like genuine gold, but was certainly not, it was actually extremely hard.

Krystal explained. "In Cerinian culture, it is customary for the woman of a relationship to craft a tool that best fit the males trade, in your case, I thought it would be fitting to make you your own staff considering how effective you used it all those years ago on Sauria. Do you like it?"

He was stunned. "I... I love it!!!" he swung it, and it extended at his will. He took a couple of steps back from Krystal, and exercised some of the tactics he could remember when he still used the weapon so long ago. He tried spinning it through the air, and almost dropped it. Krystal giggled at his attempts. "You'll get used to it."

He was confused. "Your staff it was almost easier, as if it was guiding my movements."

She explained that as well. "You see, the crystal is a very special material, you can interact with it with your own mind; as my staff taught you how to fight. The trick is, your staff doesn't know how to fight yet; you need to teach it what you want it to know."

Skye was watching the crystal with a great amount of interest. "Now that is indeed impressive."

He folded his laptop and walked over to Fox's side. "If you are ready Fox, a second present, one from me and Slippy."

He stopped swinging his new weapon, and with a will, it contracted again. He held it in his paw, not having a holster for it. "Oh, really?"

He nodded. "It may not be so thought out as that incredible staff, but we figured you would appreciate it all the same." He turned to Fox's Arwing. "Notice anything different about your ship?"

Fox looked long and hard, but no, he could not. "What'd you do to it?"

Skye smiled, two words were all that were needed to explain the upgrade. "Hyper lasers."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" He yelled, almost dropping his staff. He ran up to his Arwing and observed the cannons that were now mounted underneath the wings. "Yes... YES!!" He spun on his heel and looked to Skye and Slippy, who were both smirking. "I... I love them!"

Slippy laughed aloud, and his reaction also pulled a smirk from Fox. "We thought you would. I knew you said you didn't like plasma shots, so we thought of a way to increase your firepower without going to that extent...

Skye finished. "So we discovered a way for your ship to permanently be able to supply power to hyper lasers. You will never have to worry about power reserves using them like you used to."

Fox spun around again to look at his Arwing. "Oh god, thanks guys! This is awesome!" The Arwing had originally been designed to attract access compatible energy left from explosions to temporarily upgrade the lasers; and at a rare occasion it was enough to bring his lasers temporarily to hyper mode, and what an amazing feeling it was having the punch to tear battleship armor asunder with a primary weapon. Fox was giddy; all previous feelings of shock and fatigue were completely obliterated. Fox truly felt sorry for the guy under his guns; no matter what size of ship they were riding.

Skye patted him on the shoulder. "You deserve it. If we actually kept a running tally of your kill count; who would argue you were to have access to the best of weaponry? Besides, the schematics for the permanent hyper lasers should bring in a bit of extra income, should the Cornerian High Command take the bait."

Katt interrupted the soiree; "Now let's have some cake! We have plenty of time to relax before we hit Macbeth, let's use it!"

Aboard the Executor

Wolf O'Donnell's Quarters

10:13 AM Lylat Standard Time

11:53 PM Kew Time

Wolf O'Donnell sat back on the luxurious black leather couch in the middle of his room aboard the Executor; the room was like a quarter-pipe, the curved end one large window with a commanding view of the purple industrialized planet below. As he looked at the slowly rotating ball he considered whether he was in a hurry to complete his next objective.

A black furred fox named Jim Draigan resided in the Ace of Hearts night club down on the surface. This particular fox was one of Wolf's main sources of income and resources, through either trade or jobs. Jim always needed something done, be it an assassination or a cargo ship escort, and he knew damn well that Wolf was the best man for the job. They were the best pilots in the system before Star Fox, and unlike them, Wolf asked no questions about the morality of his target. He got the job done, no matter how dirty.

He was going to ask for a job that Kewian night; one that he would be rewarded with a new base of operations. Draigan had owed him a few favours, on top of an extra mean job for free, he was sure he could get the location of one of his spent hideaways or mining operations. It was through this same fashion twenty years prior that had got him the Sargasso station in the asteroid belt.

He decided now was a good time; he was freshly showered, and the club would just be getting to its busiest hour; it was almost midnight down on Kew. Wolf was shirtless at the moment, wearing naught but a pair of blue jeans and black boots. He wandered over to his closet and pulled out a black leather jacket. He didn't bother with an under shirt, he was a killer, not a businessman. Jim knew this and wouldn't care; anyone who did could go to hell for all Wolf cared.

He wanted the excuse to kill someone tonight anyway; wipe off the reputation for good he had earned driving off the Venomians. Catching someone staring at him the wrong way was the perfect guise for such an act.

As an extra tool of intimidation, he picked up a bullet-fed high caliber pistol that had been laying on the end table next to the door on his way out. Bullet weapons were infamously brutal, and a symbol of brutality. However sometimes Special Forces officers were allowed to use them; it's kinda hard to silence a laser, not to mention hide it.

Beside the gun was a belt, he slid it on quickly and tucked the pistol in the attached holster. Out of his pocket on the way out the door came his eye piece, which he fit comfortably above his ear. It clicked into place on his fur, and his left eye was gifted with the high detailed HUD he had become so fond of.

As he walked down the main corridor of the cruiser, he slammed a fist on one of the doors he passed. It slid for him automatically, and he shook his head at what he saw. Panther told him he planned on going with Wolf down to the night club; but it appeared that Panther had a rather heated date with one of the girls down in engineering instead. Panther looked up over the brim of his couch at him with his eyes wide open, various articles of clothing and underwear (male and female) were strewn about. A female voice came up. "Panther honey, what's wrong?"

Wolf just backed off and let the door slide shut. The cat could stay in there for all Wolf gave a damn.

He amused himself with his HUD while he walked towards the fighter bay. One of the medic girls was walking towards him going the opposite direction, and as Wolf looked at her, the HUD began to churn out information.

Name: Melissa Hunt

Race: Mouse, brown

Age: 25

Height: 5'6

Status: Nurse aboard the SWS(Star Wolf's Ship) Executor

Breast Size: 42D

Hostility: Green

He grinned to himself; the breast size indication was a modification he had made personally by one of the engineers in his hire. She winked at him as she passed. Finally coming up to the docking bay, the doors hissed open for him automatically giving him way to his fighter. He had alerted the docking bay engineers to have the fighter warmed up for him; and as always his orders were followed to the letter.

The canopy of the Wolfen was already open for him, gesturing for him to leap into the pilots couch. He felt at home no where more than his cockpit; the only one that sat in this seat was him; and as long as he was at its controls, there was no where in the galaxy safer. The canopy quickly descended and sealed as the Wolfen hovered over the docking bay deck; and he drifted safely out of the ships mag-con field before jamming his thrusters to full.

Maneuvering past docked ships all about the Orbital Docking Station, he made his way down into the atmosphere of the planet. The Ace of Hearts night club had a landing pad on it's roof that was reserved for "VIP" visitors, such as the Wolfens of him and his team.

It wasn't long before he was powering down his engines on the roof of the large building; it was bigger than most night clubs, the primary reason was that it also doubled as Draigans downtown estate, 16 car garage and goon barracks. The building and it's premises took up an entire city block all on it's own.

Two black suit clad guards awaited him on the roof, a white feathered duck and a grey furred raccoon. They lead him down into the door leading down into the building without a word; they knew by now who Wolf was, and knew he was cleared for business with their boss.

The staircase lead right to Draigans office. It was a small room, but was quite luxurious; rare potted plants were scattered around the edge of the room, pictures of both himself and gorgeous swim suit models (and no suit models) were all over the walls, and there sat Jim Draigan behind a dark wooded desk, his laptop and stacks of credit chips and papers strewn about it. Two more black clad guards were to either side of him, both carrying sub-machine laser pistols in loose grips, flanking their rich boss. The black furred fox was dressed in an extravagant house coat, purple with a golden trim. It appeared to be made out of a lustrous silk. His all business voice broke over the sounds of Wolfs escorts leaving the room.

He stood up. "Ahh, Wolf O'Donnell, it has been some time. To what do I owe this pleasure?" He stuck out his paw beckoning Wolf to shake it. He complied, and Wolf showed as he usually did who had the tougher handshake. As he sat, Draigan gestured towards a black leather seat just in front of his own desk. "Please, have a seat."

He did, crossing his arms. "I can imagine you know why I'm here, Jim."

He smiled. "Right you are, it's my business to know these things after all. You are here because you require a new base, something happened to good old Sargasso. You wish to exchange a few favours in for a new location."

Wolf decided to put his knowledge to the test. "Can you guess what happened that drove us out?"

He rested his chin on his paws, elbows on his desk. "Well, I imagine it wasn't because you had gotten tired of the place. You must have been driven out. Also, I imagine not only would you have easily countered a ship based assault, I can only surmise that you and your gang were driven out of the premises from a large barrage of missiles from none other than the Venomians. Knowing that you were assigned the task of killing Star Fox, and that you obviously failed due to the fact they are still alive, he wished to make an example of you."

Wolf clapped. "Very good, Jim. You always were a quick thinker."

He pointed his palms up in a gesture of modest acceptance. "I simply used the facts that were on hand to me. If it was a mercenary attack, I would have heard about it. That left the Venomians, and there are only so many reasons they would want to kill off a mercenary group so willing to take on their insane contracts."

"Anyway, the reason I'm here?"

"Right, down to business as always." With a few key taps, he turned the screen of his laptop to face Wolf. What he saw was a picture of a dilapidated research station, it looked almost like the one that he had been sent to defend from Fox's gang of merry men not a week earlier. "What you see here is the home of some very troublesome pests; they have been raiding my supply shipments, stealing cargo and making off with it. The most interesting part, is they only took basic rations like food or raw materials, ignoring their value. They have never tried to sell any of the stolen goods off, either, or I would have learned of it. I don't know what it is with these pirates, but I want you to find them, and take care of the problem."

"Whacking a gang of upstart pirates, sounds like a breeze; and the reward?" Wolf asked with a furrowed eyebrow.

"I happen to know of a location that would fit your purposes excellently. Out of the way, well hidden, unsuspecting and best of all, plenty of room for cruisers and cargo ships, of which a few you seem to have acquired. I cannot give you any more details on the location until you complete your task, unfortunately."

"Fine by me." Wolf stood up to go, and Draigan called out to him as he walked out the door. "I have sent the coordinates to the Executors main computer already!" No more words were required; Star Wolf was on a contract, and he had all of the information he needed. It was game time.

Cerinian Colony Station

8 Hours Later, 6:46 PM Lylat standard Time

The Executor dropped out of hyperspace only two kilometers out from their target station; Wolf had only a vague idea of what to expect from their targets. He knew they were fighter pilots, and he knew they were pirates. He didn't know what mercenary group was responsible, how good they were, what they flew and why they only took tangible goods. Draigan would have told him everything he knows; Wolf could see no reason for him to back out information on the matter. If Jim Draigan didn't know anything about the targets, then no one did. That made the situation that much more dangerous.

It also made the situation all the more fun.

What surprised him the most about it, is that no fighters jumped out to greet the four Wolfens and the cruiser as they shot out of the Executors hangar. It was a ghost station; or so it seemed. He wasn't ready to believe that quite yet. "Guys getting anything on radar?"

Ben sounded annoyed. "Nope, nothin. This had better be for real, 8 hour trip for nothing? Damn."

Panther seemed more optimistic. "Perhaps they have simply failed to detect us yet?"

Bryce answered that for him. "I doubt that, they were tracking cargo ships as far as 10 hours in warp from here. They have to have some mean sensors or another on that wreck."

Wolf was zooming to the docking bay he say protruding out of the side of the disc-like station. "He's got a point. Let's get in there and see what the deal is; keep your guns ready."

They landed not two minutes later in the run down docking bay. Wolf looked left and right jumping out of the cockpit, the ships he saw could only be described as dilapidated wrecks. He could almost recognize some of the ships from the Lylat War, but they were covered in modifications of differing age; parts as new as the Arwing II blaster mount to the old Invader I cockpits.

Something definitely wasn't right about his surroundings; these ships have obviously been active if they had been attacking Jim's convoys, but the station appeared abandoned, and some of these ships were decades old, minus the new parts. There was obviously someone based here, but Wolf began to wonder as he wandered about the docking bay; was anyone home?

He was wearing a simple microphone equipped headset that was tuned to their team frequency, he made sure each of his pilots was wearing one before they left. He hit a button on the ear piece as he wandered about the expansive chamber. "You guys spot anything?"

He heard four "Nothings". "Alright then, lets search deeper in. Arm yourselves and follow me." The four headed single file into the hallway just off of the docking bay.

The team was aptly armed; Wolf had one blaster in his paws and another in a holster on his belt, a combat knife was sticking out a holster on his boot. He also had his heavy pistol in the other side of his belt. Bryce barely armed himself; he didn't even have a shirt on. He had a spread blaster hanging loosely off his side via a strap that was the only thing protecting his chest. His fists were more than lethal weapons in a close quarters situation, the shotgun was for when the bastards just weren't close enough. Ben was lugging around a repeater blaster, a heavy handheld machine gun. It was the biggest you could get before just switching to a handle like a chain gun, Bens was more like an assault rifle. Panther had a weapon that Wolf had always wondered about; an old crossbow. The highest technology it boasted was the scope on top and the mechanized loading that allowed nearly semi-automatic fire. A well organized quiver on his back held several kinds of bolts; from tranquilizer, to deadly poisons, to explosives. He also had a blaster for point blank encounters strapped to a holster on the side of his vest.

Entering the dark hallway, Wolf looked both ways. "Alright, Ben you're with me, Panther and Bryce go right."

They complied without a word. "If you spot anything, call it, and don't you hesitate."

Still no words, Wolf wandered with Ben close behind him. Having a bad feeling about the situation, Wolf drew out his other blaster, holding them loosely pointed at the floor as he walked. He examined the roofs and doors he passed; it was extremely similar to the place he had to guard on Solar, and he remembered walking through these halls past the active Venomian scientists, walking them straight to their deaths by deactivating the containment field on the mutants with a code that Dash had given him.

Panther and Bryce kept close, with Bryce ahead. They paid careful attention to their surroundings, looking for the entrance to the center chamber. That was when Panther spotted it; a black blur faster than anything he had ever seen. "Hostile here, engaging."

Panther had his crossbow already loaded with a tranquilizer bolt, Bryce pulled his blaster out with one hand and was scanning the roofs. "Quick bugger, where'd he go?!"

His question was answered as the figure dropped from the roof right behind Bryce, striking him over the head with a long shaft of some sort. Panther cursed at not having a clear shot; based on how quick the figure moved, it would dodge the arrow he fired at it, and it would hit Bryce.

Bryce reacted with the impact in a different way than his attacker expected entirely; rather than drop unconscious, he swung around and managed to get a grip on the assailant. He got a good look at it; it was a male raccoon in a brown leather jacket with black jeans; what was strange about him, is that his fur was a dark blue.

Instead of giving up at the vice like grip of Bryce, he swung his staff towards the brute, and a pulse of red energy took him right in the chest. The gator leaped back in a fury, screaming in pain; but this was the chance Panther had been waiting for. The tranquilized bolt punched into the raccoons skin like a pin in a drywall surface, and after two seconds flat of it struggling to reach Panther, he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Bryce was sitting against the far wall of the hall, clutching his chest, wincing in agony. As Panther rushed to his assistance, he amazingly stood back up.

"Just a burn" he coughed.

Panther was looking up at the tall gator in amazement. "My oh my, you are a tough bastard aren't you."

Coughing, Bryce smiled. He crouched beside the offending raccoon, who had an arrow sticking out of his arm, limp as a corpse. "Now what the fuck is with this thing?"

Panther was amazed. "He is of a former team member of ours' race; a series of telepaths known as Cerinians. Amazing creatures; now I am truly curious as to how many are here."

It was as they had this chat that 4 more attackers silently crept up behind them, and with an impact to Panthers skull and 3 to Bryce's, they both dropped limp with little incident.

Wolf and Ben had been running back to Panther and Bryce's position, when they got where they had received their last transmission, there was nothing. Wolf noticed blood on the outer wall. "Well, fuck."

Ben was facing at Wolf's back. "Now what the fuck do we do? These guys must be like fucking ninjas."

Wolf gestured for him to follow, facing back forward again. "Entrance to the center chamber's near by, we'll find em."

He started walking, but there were no footsteps following him. Wolf gritted his teeth, whipping around and looking behind him, and there was nothing. Not even Ben."

Wolf pointed his blasters in either direction, yelling at the top of his lungs. "What in the HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

That was when he felt an impact from above, and he was unconscious.

Unknown Amount of Time Later

Wolf felt excessively groggy as he awoke; his head was sore as hell. The only thing on his mind was to find the bastard that hit him and rip his spine out, and beat his friends to death with it. As he regained his senses he realized that they probably kept him prisoner if he was still alive, and that search might have already been over.

His eyes cranked open, and what he saw drained the will to rip spines out of him immediately. A gorgeous light blue furred wolf sat on a bench across from prison bars in between them, she was wearing a black sleeveless wool turtleneck and green camo pants. A black staff leaned against the wall. She spoke to him in an accent not unlike Krystal's. "You're finally awake, Wolf O'Donnell."

He smirked, ignoring his headache. "Heh, so they know my name way out here in the outer rim too?"

She gave him a look of disgust. "No, actually, I pulled it right out of your mind. Knowing Krystal, you should have realized this."

His mind was spinning; did she read his entire mind while he was out? "Find anything you like?"

"I found out that you willingly sacrificed your home allowing Star Fox to crush you at Solar, out of a respect for Fox McCloud, and that act alone is the reason we didn't string you up on public display."

"Heh, lucky me. My team mates?"

She crossed her arms. "Still out, in separate cells, obviously."

"Heh..."

He sat up, looking at her with a pained, tired look on his face. There was no point in him lying or pretending to be in the upper hand in this situation, she had his entire mind laid out before her like a map. "So, what's the deal?"

She stood up and walked over to him. She unlocked his cage, and sat in there with him. He tried to shuffle, but his paws were bound, he decided it was an idiotic idea anyway. "We are going to give you a job. We need a steady source of supplies in a non hostile manner, and we want to find your Jim Draigan and offer our services as mercenaries and escorts in exchange for material goods we can use to flourish our little colony here."

He scoffed. "One, I don't get a new base that way. Two, he's more likely to have your head on a silver platter, not to mention mine, than deal with the pirates he sent me to butcher. Lastly, I don't know what's possessed you to think I'm going to turn around and work for the idiots that half brained me and threw me in a cell!"

Ignoring his tangent, she smirked at him. "In exchange, we will extract the location of the new base for you straight from his mind, and wipe any reminder of its existence from his memory."

The idea was stunning, he was actually intrigued by the deal. "Huh. Alright, what should I tell old Jimmy?"

"That little detail won't be a problem, I will be coming with you. We just need you to vouch for me."

He liked this deal a lot, despite the honor it cost him. He would be making an even stronger ally than Draigan, and getting the base, all for extremely cheap as far as labor went. He remembered the Executor in orbit. "Has my ship been informed of my status?"

"No, but it has only been two hours, and it remains in orbit of the station waiting faithfully."

"Fine, I'll do it."

She stuck out her paw, and he felt the shackles holding his paws together click loose. "Name's Dawn, pleasure to do business." Wolf felt exhilarated, as though a more passive kind of adrenaline had just poured through him. He could stand all of the sudden, and his headache was gone. He took her paw and shook it. "I doubt me or my boys need any introduction."

She led him out of the scrap metal house that he had been held captive in for the last two hours (apparently). The Cerinian Colony was bustling as though it were a full on city; shanty homes stacked on top of each other, series' of bridges and ladders crisscrossing here and there, all kinds of metal and material was used. Despite how poor it looked, it was ingenious; a marvel of a sight, even if it were on the edge of poverty. Mammals in different shades of blue made their way left and right, getting on with their days.

Dawn led Wolf to where his comrades were standing under heavy guard; several differently shaded buff Cerinians were pointing staves at them, even Bryce didn't dare tempt his chances. Bryce's burn was completely gone. Panther turned to him in annoyance. "Wolf? What is going on?"

"We just got a new job."

Near Kew, in Hyperspace

SWS Executor Officers Council Room

6:21 AM Lylat Standard Time

9:10 PM Kew Time

(Kew time is quite a bit quicker than Cornerian)

Wolf sat in the extravagant captains chair in the oval room that was directly under the bridge of the Executor. 10 leather seats were spread evenly around the oval table matching the shape of the room, with a flat screen display behind Wolf's seat. With him across the table were Captain Halsey, Dawn, Panther, Ben and Bryce.

Wolf had one leg crossed over the other and was leaning back. "Alright, so before I go piss off one of my closest employers, let's go over the details of just exactly what the hell is going to happen here again."

"Me and Dawn are going down to the club, I am going to talk him into taking the Cerinians as his goons. Ben is going to be in the building ready for Dawn to send everything she learns right to his head, and he gets it on his laptop, sending it up to the Executors nav room. Depending how well the meeting goes, and it won't matter either way, we all get out. Bryce and Panther will be waiting in case Jimmy is a little angry at me bringing one of his targets back alive. Any questions?"

The room was silent.

"Good, I hate questions, they make me cranky!" The ship suddenly gave a giveaway jerk; they had arrived at Kew. Halsey got up first to head back to the bridge, and the rest followed, heading to wherever they needed to be.

Ace of Hearts Night Club

Half an Hour Later

Wolf again stood in the regal office of Jim Draigan, Wolf and his hooded companion accompanied by four black suited guards to either side of them. Draigan looked absolutely infuriated. "Who the hell is this? I know you didn't deal with those pirates, or I would have heard about it. You want an entire fucking base of operations and you can't even deal with a god damn pirate problem? You better have a good fucking excuse."

Wolf frowned, this was not starting well. He was in the right mind just to tear it off, but then it would be of no use to him or Dawn, who was probably raping it for every scrap of info she could. He needed to play Mr. Nice guy until Dawn gave him the signal. "Well, I saw a good business opportunity come out of the situation, unlike me I know. Before killing them off, they offered me a deal I thought you couldn't resist, so I decided to let you have the opportunity to make that decision yourself."

"Oh yeah? What could I possibly want from those scumbags?"

"The best damn goons you can hire, and they'll do it for cheap. All they need is regular food and equipment shipments, and nothing expensive."

Jim laid back in his seat, and fell into thought. Wolf was delighted; this was working way better than he had thought. They may not have to leave the building guns a blazing just yet; maybe they could pull the deal off. "Take it from me, Jim, these guys are the real deal. Haven't seen such competent pilots since Star Fox."

"That good eh? What, they whoop your ass?"

Now Wolf was starting to get extremely cranky. He was this close to tearing the vulpine's head clean from his shoulders. If he hadn't known Jim for as long as he did, everyone in that building would already be dead. "On foot, they lured us onto their strong ground."

"You must be getting rusty, Wolf."

Wolf made a nervous look to Dawn, he was very close to snapping. Suddenly a thought, not his own, filled his head. All of the info is secure; now remember your part of the deal.

It was hard just not to kill the arrogant ass in front of him, let alone offer him a deal that was an obvious huge cost of Wolf's honor. The plan looked so much better on paper.

"Are you game?"

He was looking at Dawn. "Let me see your friend, first."

Wolf gave her a nod, and she pulled her hood up. What Jim saw wasn't a blue furred Cerinian, it was a perfectly normal black furred Wolf. They had decided it was safer to dye the fur of any Cerinians that were to come in direct contact with their new employer as to not sacrifice their secret. "My name is Dawn, representative of the Black Hand, at your service."

Jim cracked a smirk. "I like this. I like this a lot. Tell you what Wolf, I like this enough to take the deal, but fuck giving you the.... Giving you... What was I giving you again? Fuck, it's not like me to forget."

Jim looked utterly baffled, and Wolf was taking his silent revenge on the Fox in his own mind. Dawn had erased all mention of the new base from his mind, and Wolf decided to leave that victory the way it was. He didn't need any more jobs from him anyway; he could take bounties from the Cornerian government to get shots at Venom for fucking up Sargasso, and bounties from the Cornerians were always the best pay. They often put him next to McCloud, and that was the only reason he didn't take them more regularly.

This time however, the two rivals shared a common goal, and it would be worth making that monkey pay.

Without another word, Wolf and Dawn left the office. As they headed up to the roof, Dawn worked her magic. She told the rest of the team telepathically that it was time to go; and then the guards to stop following the two lupines. Wolf grinned in amazement as they veered off, suddenly remembering other business. Wolf and Dawn made their way up to the roof, back to their fighters. Dawn's was one of the older dilapidated wrecks that Wolf could remember from the docking bay at the Cerinian Colony; the disc shaped body of the Invader II, with Arwing Mark I wing pylons instead of the usual flaps at the back of the ship. Twin laser cannons were mounted on either side of the cockpit, and Wolf couldn't even tell what kind of thruster it was; it was just a cylindrical booster of moderate size. He had no idea how capable it would be in a fight.

The other three Wolfens joined them as they rose back up into the atmosphere, and once back in their fighters, it was safe to talk. Wolf was relieved. "Well that went a lot better than it could have."

Dawn seemed exhausted. "If your ships are going to depart immediately, I would like to get back to my temporary quarters on the Executor and get rested. My telepathy takes a great deal of energy, especially when used for such a prolonged amount of time."

Wolf cocked an eyebrow at the image of the now black furred Dawn on his comm board. "Don't you need to get back to your colony?"

"The tribe leader didn't send me all the way out here just to establish a cargo line, Wolf, he wanted me to help you."

Now he was really confused; and as such, cranky as hell. "What the hell do you mean help us? Help us with what?"

"He knew you meant to join this war, and that the Venomians are a threat not only to you, but to everyone in Lylat. He wanted me to fly with you against them."

He could have laughed, she meant to demand entrance into the infamous Star Wolf over a lucky hit in close quarters with a pilot. He almost lost himself in a mix of hilarity and rage; it was so ridiculous, how could she have been so arrogant? Then it dawned on him; that was exactly the kind of guts and attitude he needed on his team; he needed everything she was. She was a telepath, a ground specialist, and a ruthless bitch. Best of all, she was hot. "Heh. I guess you read my mind already?"

"I did, while I appreciate the gesture, I have no intention of letting on me."

The comm board burst in laughter from his team mates. "Shut the fuck up, all of you!" He was beginning to regret his decision already. "Fine, but stay the fuck out of my head. Are you going to want a Wolfen?"

"I can teach you how to block it out myself, and yes, if one is available."

It so happened that he had an extra Wolfen available from when Andrew Oikonny left the team so long ago; he kept it in storage, and one of the cargo ships he owned must have picked it up from Sargasso in their quest to salvage anything valuable they could. Luckily for Dawn, there wasn't many upgrades in the Wolfen since that date, and it should still be perfectly useable.

"Yeah, I think we got one. Now, Ben, you got those base coordinates right?"

An image of the hare appeared on his comm board. "Yeah boss, a hollowed out asteroid that has a mining base built into it, its out near some backwater planet called Sauria, or some shit like that. Its about 3 hours warp from where Aquas is right now. Not as close to the core worlds as Sargasso was, but who's complaining?"

One thing was for sure, Wolf wasn't. Cornerian troopers out to make a name for themselves often frequented the asteroid fields, often having Wolf wake up at an ungodly hour in the morning to deal with the pests. A quiet place to stay would certainly be a change for the better. "Sounds good to me, lets get to the Executor and get the rest of the ships awake. We'll head out right away."

Meanwhile, Dash's Quarters

Dash was at his computer in his quarters, in a fittingly regal house coat looking over some of the data of today's excursions. Star Fox was heading back to Macbeth early; another speck of time they had regained in their favour.

"Grandfather, at this rate, we may run out of time. Should we deploy Omega group?"

No! Deploying them too soon would put their effectiveness completely to waste. Other than that, we can either improvise a new distraction now, or activate our little pet.

"The bug grandfather? I thought we were going to wait longer, at the last throes of the war!"

It must be now, before it is found. This is the best time, and the last chance we will have to use that powerful weapon. Activate it at once!

Dash got busy immediately brining up a communication command shell with what they called "The bug." A simple command would start the process; one more dangerous to Star Fox than anything in the past had ever been.

BUG1; ACTIVATE

COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED

STARTUP SEQUENCE INITIATED

ROOT PASSWORD?:

Dash typed in his password, a long 20 digit code he had memorized for this occasion, one that would protect the bug from tampering had it been found.

ACKNOWLEDGED

RUNNING PROGRAM /VENOM_ALPHA

DATA UPLOAD COMMENCING

5 Hours Later

Orbit around Sauria

The Executor, and the other 5 cargo ships and 5 cruisers under the ownership of Wolf jumped into orbit of the gorgeous Dinosaur Planet. Wolf was standing on the bridge of the Executor beside Halsey's captains chair, which Halsey was in. He took the liberty of making the preparations. "NAV, have you got a lock on the asteroid we're looking for?"

An experienced (scarred) looking bull dog turned to look at his captain. "Aye captain, its plenty big, we'll have no problem hiding all of the ships in there. It could almost be a moon for this planet."

Wolf smirked, Dawn had played her part well. "Lets get in there then, check out the place."

The asteroid was indeed as big as the Nav officer described; an irregular but still nearly round ball of rock with a huge pit in the side that 4 cruisers side by side could fly through. So far, it looked great, but he was infinitely more interested in the inside of the base. The Executor glided in the hole slowly, and what Wolf saw made him grin even more. A docking yard that could easily fit 15 large ships was inside the facility, all built into the walls of the hole they had entered. The building itself looked huge; it would make a perfect refuge, just the kind of place he had expected from Jim.

The Executor wasted no time docking with the building, and the following ships followed suit. All 11 ships fit in nicely. "Alright, lets check out the interior. Safe bet that life support wasn't left on so we should get bio hazard suits. Get a team of troops ready."

10 minutes or so later, Wolf, Dawn, Panther, Ben and Bryce were followed into the facility with 10 troops, all were wearing air-tight environmental suits. A transparent mag-con shield emitter was built into the neck of the tight orange suit that would allow atmosphere to be contained around the wearers head, without actually bothering with the annoying glass or transparisteel helmet.

Immediately deeper in the rock than the docking bays was a huge cargo bay, it reminded Wolf of the Sargasso station as much as it could. There was a hole more than large enough for fighters to pass through, and more than enough room to land the Wolfens plus all of the cargo they had to store inside. At the other side of the cargo bay, the 2nd floor had the entrances to the barrack hallways, and the bottom floor had hallways going to the various systems. While half of the troops went with Panther, Ben and Bryce to find to life support generator, Wolf, Dawn and 5 other troops went upstairs to check out the barracks.

It wasn't long before they had life support up and running, and everyone there began the long job of moving everything in, and making themselves at home.

((Yawn, boring chapter, sorry it was a bit shorter than the rest. I'm just glad I got it done now, it was mostly to introduce the newest character, who is of course Dawn. Review plawks!))