Ha Ha! I return! I'll let you get right into it, I think you should all enjoy this chapter, or at least, I hope you do. Enjoy!


- | - SF War Saga: The ReArmed Conflict - | -Chapter 11: Revelations - | -


Falco glanced around the small hanger as he brought his ship into land, Bill landing his Arwing II near by. Falco finished shutting down the ship before he twisted around in the cockpit and pulled open the hatch behind his seat. He reached in and pulled out his modified revolver and a heavy blaster, as well as two belts to attach the weapons to. He set the protection systems on his ship before he released the canopy which slid forward on rails. He hopped out of the cockpit and took a moment to secure the belts around his waist, his canopy closing as he did so. Falco checked the rolls of ammo that he had strapped to one belt, the ones that he had found in the Remnant base. The guards have taken most of them but he still managed to keep three hidden. The other belt held charge packs for his C-23 Heavy Blaster.

He tested the aim on the blaster before he turned to face Bill who was just dropping down from his Arwing. Where as Falco was dressed in his usual red battle armor, Bill was wearing only a light amount of protection. He had a laser resistant vest strapped over his green combat fatigues, which were armored on the elbows and kneecaps. His boots were reinforced and he had a large knife strapped to his left thigh, and hanging from his right was a standard issue Cornerian C-15 Blaster, the younger brother to Falco's own heavy blaster. Although Bill's had been modified with a silencer.

Bill jogged across the small space between there two ships to meet up with Falco. He reached for his blaster, taking off safe before aiming the weapon at the ground. "So where to next?"

Falco glanced around the hanger. "Not really sure, Slippy and Fox were the ones who got to have fun in the base last time we were here." He pointed towards a doorway that had a stairwell icon on it. "I suggest we start there though, we landed pretty far down, and I know there was a large hanger that's in the middle of the base. If we can get up to there, we can grab an elevator that will take us up to where Wolf's office is and see about digging into his computer." He glanced at Bills weapon. "Is that all you brought?"

Bill glanced at the weapon "Why would I need anything else?"

Falco shook his head. "Tell me it at least has a charge function."

Bill shook his own head in response. "No, I didn't realize I would need one."

Falco moved towards the doorway, Bill following him. "You may not, but when Fox was here last time he ran across a bunch of armored ruffians, external shields that can only be over whelmed by heavy fire, or a charge shot." Falco hefted the weighty weapon currently cradled in his arms. "Hence this thing."

Bill glanced down at his blaster in distrust. "I didn't realize I would be fighting thugs like that, I always thought Wolf's Ruffians were a rag-tag group."

Falco frowned over his shoulder at Bill as they reached the door. "Who ever let you believe that? They may be a rag-tag group, but Wolf's Ruffians are usually carrying top of the line weapons and gear. How else do you think they stay ahead of everybody who's out there gunning for them?" Falco shook his head again as he hit the switch to open the door. "I swear, Corneria has the worst Intel in the world. The guys above Macbeth thought the Remnants were 'rag-tag' as well." Falco led the way up the stairwell while Bill frowned in thought.

They had only made it up a few decks before the ran into trouble. Just as Bill was walking past a door, one of the Ruffians barged into the stairwell.

"Hey, Joel! You in here? Wolf wants all hands on deck." The Ruffian froze when Bill spun around, aiming his blaster at his face. The Ruffian's hand twitched to reach for the assault blaster on his back, Bill saw the movement though and gave a slight shake of his head.

They were both silent for a moment before Bill spoke up. "On your knees, lets do this quietly."

The Ruffian dropped to his knees and Bill moved closer to knock him out, Falco watching out of sight from the landing above. Just as Bill got close though, they heard another voice.

"Frank? You were calling for me?"

Frank turned his head quickly and started shouting. "Joel rai-" he didn't get any further though as Bill hit Frank hard in the side of his head with his rifle, knocking him out.

"Frank?" Joel started running down the short hallway, as he got close and saw his friends body knelt over backwards unconscious, he stumbled to a stop. "Oh sh-" Bill popped around the corner and let loose a flurry of four shots, each one striking Joel in the chest. The lupine dropped to his back with a dull thump and Bill took a moment to listen for anybody else.

When it all seemed clear, he lowered his blaster and went out into the hallway to find someplace to stash the two ruffians. Locating a closet, Bill and Falco quickly stashed the two unfortunate guards before the continued their climb up the stair well. As they approached another landing, Falco stopped on one side of the door and Bill stacked up on the other end.

Bill glanced at Falco. "You think this is the deck?"

Falco shrugged. "Dunno, we've been climbing for a while now, figured we got to be close right?"

Bill rolled his eyes. "Oh, that's great news. Don't you have a map or something?" when Falco shook his head, Bill sighed. "What about Danielle? Can't she scan the station and beam us our location?"

Falco frowned. "You've never run a quiet mission before have you Bill? She does that and everybody on this station will know they have intruders, and once they lock down her signal, they'll know the Great Fox is hanging near by, and then they'll trace the signal straight to us."

Bill glanced around the station. "They have tech like that? I thought only Military had access to that."

Falco just shook his head again and hit the switch to open the door. "I don't have time for this, we'll catch you up on the real world when we get done with this. Lets just get off here and see if we can find a map."

The two of them entered the hallway and walked side by side down it, Falco covering the left, and Bill covering the right. They stopped and searched rooms as they went by, but had no luck in finding a map. At least until they reached their eighth junction.

When Bill opened the door, it was just in time for a cargo elevator to open at the back and discharged one of the Powered Armored Ruffians who stepped out with a heavy metal foot, glancing around the room. His heavy Gatling gun was handing loosely from one of his armored hands. He stopped when he laid eyes on Bill, who brought his weapon up and fired a flurry of shots as he entered the room. He was dismayed to see each shot bounce off the shield that appeared out of thin air to ricochet harmlessly into the ceiling.

The Armored Ruffian moved forward, reaching out a large hand towards Bill as Falco entered the room and braced his legs before he raised his blaster to his shoulder. He pulled the trigger starting the weapons overcharge function. He gave a shrill whistle as it charged. "Hey, dumb ass, over here."

The Ruffian turned to face Falco who just grinned and pulled the trigger on his blaster. The powerful laser screaming out of the barrel and shattering the Ruffian's shield before burning through his helmets armor plating and killing the driver before continuing to drill a hole in the back of the helmet and into the ceiling behind him. The now powerless, and driverless suit fell heavily to its knees with a loud thud before falling to its side in a cacophony of noise.

Falco glanced around the room before he lowered his smoking weapon and moved towards Bill. "You okay?"

Bill glanced at the wreck of the armor before nodding. "Yeah, thanks to you. That was one of his armored units?"

Falco turned around. "Sorta, that one only had basic gear on, the armor itself. The bigger ones have full siege load-outs, rockets, auto targeting blasters, the works." Falco shook his head. "Not to mention Wolf's elite unit. Those guys are the things of nightmares, their armor is heavier, but they are actually trained in the use of them, a small squad of Wolf's elite can take out an entire cruiser from the inside out on their own."

Falco moved towards a set of double doors, Bill following him. "How many are in one of Wolf's elite squads?"

Falco looked at Bill as they took up positions on the door. "Four."

Bill whistled softly and Falco glanced back at the fallen armor as he hit the switch to open the door. "You don't think anybody heard the guy fall right? We want to keep this quiet for as long as possible."

Falco and Bill both swung through the doors as they opened only to stop in surprise.

The Ruffians in the Barracks were just as surprised to see the canine and avian. There was silence for a count of three then Falco and Bill both dived backwards as the Ruffians all opened fire, some with their rifles, some with the heavy weapons stored in their lockers, while others ran for their armored suits.

As Bill shrank away from a stray shot on his side of the door, he called out to Falco. "So much for quiet huh?"

Falco just nodded as he started charging his weapon again. "Yeah. Shit." Falco cringed as a blaster shot smashed into his side of the bulkhead. "I hope Fox is having better luck!"


"Fox!"

Fox groaned out loud as his cockpit shook from another barrage of hits. He wasn't sure if it was Wolf or Panther, or if was even one of the other countless fighters swarming around outside the Sargasso base, all he really knew is that he couldn't take that much more abuse with out some help. He checked his radar and saw three fighters tailing him, Fox trigger his booster and aimed his ship at the Sargasso station, heading for it at max speed. The three fighters followed him and Fox grinned, he made sure his bounce system was active and kept his boost up until right before impact with the space station walls, he turned at the last second and his bounce system fired off, shooting him away from the wall, he he continued his turn in time to see the three Wolfen fighters that had been following him smash into the wall.

The fighters missiles exploded on impact, along with the engines, exposing several decks of the space station to the cold vacuum of outside. Fox grinned to himself for a moment only to frown when a blast lanced across his front shields.

"You'll pay for that pup!" Wolf's voice cut through into his radio. "It costs me a lot to fix that place!"

Fox just shook his head as Wolf settled in behind him for another barrage of hits. Before he could start to worry about the status of his fighter though Krystal called out again. "Fox!"

He glanced through the top of his canopy to see Krystal come shooting across the darkness of space, heading straight for Wolf's Wolfen. She waited to fire until she was almost about to pass him, but at that range her lasers were at their full power and Fox saw Wolf's ship actually rock from the force of the lasers that splashed across his shields.

Wolf pulled away from Fox to try and chase after Krystal and Fox shook his head, knowing how pointless that was. Fox triggered his boosters again and shot through the conflict to the outskirts of the system, he reached the edge where the radiation started to affect his systems before he turned his Arwing back towards the fight, studying the action going on in front of him.

When they had first gotten here, they had found the Ruffians and the Legion pretty much on even fighting terms, but now that Star Fox had shown up and tipped the scales by destroying quite a few ships, Wolf's Ruffians seemed to be on the back foot in the defense of their station. This was mainly due to the fact that all of Panthers Cruisers were still sitting at the edge of the battle, hammering away at the Sargasso Station, and providing cover from their own fighters when they needed repairs or ammo with the many anti-air cannons that dotted their hulls.

Fox opened a line to Slippy. "Hey Slippy, how long would those cruisers be able to keep all these fighters resupplied?"

The frog was quiet for a moment while he launched the scan on his computer and finished off the two fighters he had been dealing with. "Two days, Easily."

Fox frowned, that would drag the fight out way to long, the ships his team was using were good for another few hours at most. It would be hard to extract back to the Great Fox II while all this was going on. Fox moved his Arwing behind some of the outer lying asteroids and opened up a line to the Great Fox II. "Danielle."

Danielle's voice was quick to respond. "What do you need Fox?"

Fox looked at his radar to see if anybody was heading his way. "When you guys were doing the overhaul on the ships main cannon. Did you manage to increase its firing range at all?"

Danielle was silent for a few moments. "Hang on Fox, I'm checking with Xena, the guns were Saz's thing, but Xena should be able to figure it out, what did you need us to hit?"

Fox watched as one of the burning outposts that was anchored to the rock he was hiding by moved past him with the rotation of the asteroid. "One of the Legions cruisers that they have here. There's a lot going on, and I'm not sure we'll be able to extract easily, but if one of the Cruisers was to suddenly explode..."

Fox trailed off and Xena cut into the line. "I see where you're going there Si-" she paused. "-Fox, I think it can be done, it'll be a tricky shot from this distance, and there's a good chance the explosives could detonate before they reach the ship. But the beams should still have enough kick in them to rock the ship at the very least."

Fox grinned to himself as he started moving away from the fighter as a red dot started closing in fast on his location. "Leave the firing to ROB, just stand by for my orders, just in case."

"Copy that." Xena killed the line on her end and Fox focused back on the fight as he entered into it again.

He was only in it for a few moments before the dot that had been heading his way caught up to him and a red Wolfen flew by, putting a few rounds into his shields as it circled around for another pass. "Thought you could hide from me Pup? Think again. I warned you to stay away. Now its going to cost you your hide."

Fox couldn't resist responding to the jibe. "You say that every time we fight Wolf, and every time, I send you packing with your tail between your legs."

Wolf growled while he responded. "Guess we'll see!" as he finished talking, he launched another barrage on Fox's fighter that brought his front shields down to critical status. Fox frowned as he pulled an S turn to get behind Wolf as he flew by him. He lined up a shot and charged up a shot on the tip of his ship. He waited until his computer beeped a lock before he fired the laser charge, as it left his nose, he thumbed open the launch button on one his two missiles and made sure the lock was still good before he fired the missile as well.

Wolf barrel rolled away from the small explosion the charge shot made, but was unable to avoid the full effect of the missile that detonated just a few moments after words. The star shaped explosion briefly touched on his shields, overloading them in an instant and causing his wing left tip to char black with damage. Wolf pulled away from the explosions, trying to break away from Fox who was taking the time to hammer away on Wolf's exposed ship, one of his shots shearing off Wolf's left wing.

Before Fox could finish taking Wolf out of the fight Panther showed up and rained down a series of blows onto Fox's rear shields. Before Panther could do too much damage, he was chased off by Typhon and Jennifer, but the distraction gave Wolf that time he needed to escape.

Fox opened a line to the two first flight pilots as they fell in behind him. "Thanks you two. I don't suppose you saw where Wolf got off two."

Jennifer was the one who responded. "No, and I lost Caroso as well."

Fox shook his head. "Damn, and my shields are pretty low, I need to take a moment to try and charge them before I can get back into the fray. Cover me for a few minutes will ya?"

Typhon was the one who answered this time. "We've got you covered McCloud, do what you need to."

Fox thanked him before he closed the channel and triggered the back up shielding system, using it to charge his main shields. The system didn't have enough juice to fully charge them, but it did manage to bring them back up to a high 60%. Fox nodded and spoke to himself. "That will have to do."

He was about to charge back into the fight to find Wolf and Panther when Slippy cut into his line. "Fox, I'm picking up something from the base, you need to hear it."

Fox glanced outside at the fighting. "Patch it through Slippy, make sure we can all hear it."

"Boss! We've got intruders in the base, two guys, a dog and a bird, they've already taken out the D-Wing barracks and are moving across the main hanger heading for one of the cargo elevators. We don't recognize the dog, but the bird matches pictures of Lombardi! We're trying our best to take them out, but they keep cutting through our defense lines."

Wolf's voice cut into Fox's cockpit. "I was wondering where your loud mouth bird had gotten off to. Trying to sneak onto my base Pup? Distracting me out here? You should have known better. I'll make sure Lombardi or his friend don't leave my station."

Wolf's voice cut out and Fox opened a line to Falco. "Falco, Wolf knows you and Bill are there. I have a feeling he'll be sending in his elites to back up his guys in there."

Falco's voice was tense as he answered. "Jeeze Fox, keep up here, the whole base has known we've been here ever since we trashed their barracks. Thanks for the heads up on the Elites though, we'll keep our eyes peeled."

Fox nodded as he led Typhon and Jennifer back into the fray. "Right, just makin-"

Bill took over the conversation "We've get it Fox, but we're a little busy right now. We'll call you when we reach the control room." Bill cut the connection before Fox could respond and the vulpine frowned with worry as he became distracted by the space fight outside again.


Bill ducked behind one of the crates that littered the upper layers of the main hanger bay as more laser fire poured into the heavy steel. Bill leaned out to return fire only to stop when he saw of the power armor Ruffians round the corner and aim their repeating cannons at him. The heavy laser slugs causing the crate he was behind to push back with every round they sunk into it. He glanced over at Falco who was using his heavy blaster to take down another powered Ruffian.

Bill frowned before he called out. "Falco, I've got two over here, I need the blaster!"

Falco glanced his way before nodding and sliding the weapon across the exposed area to Bill's waiting paws who grabbed the weapon and readied its charge. He waited for the deck plates beneath his boots to vibrate slightly from the heavy steps of the mechanical suits before he swung around the corner and pulled the trigger.

Luck was on his side as the two Ruffians were lined up perfectly with each other and the charge round burned right through the chest of the first Ruffian before it continued upwards to drill through the helmet of the last Ruffian. Both armored units fell to the ground and Bill turned back to slide the weapon back to Falco. He felt his eyes widen as he called out. "Falco! Behind you!"

Falco reacted more on instinct then real thought when Bill called out. His right hand flew down to his hip where the modified revolver sat in its holster. In a flash he had flicked the small piece of leather that kept the weapon secured free, and pulled the heavy weapon out and spun around, leveling it at the head of the Ruffian was behind him.

Time seemed to slow down for the bird as he tightened his finger on the trigger. It was then that he realized the Ruffian that was reaching for him was one of the powered Ruffians. The mechanical hand was only a foot away from the birds chest and Falco felt his mind rush through several thoughts.

"This is it for me. This gun isn't going to pierce his shield." Then "There's no way Bill can get the gun charged in enough time to pull off a shot. Not to mention the round would fade before it reached me." Lastly "I hope he gets away clean at least."

Then his finger finished pulling the trigger and he felt the more then saw the hammer on the back of the revolver fly forward to strike the cylinder. When it did he saw the blaster tech that had been wired into the barrel start to glow. Normally it just fired with out the light show, but this time the green was obvious. A moment later he felt the kick of the black powder explosion that powered the bullet start to draw his arms up.

Then he blinked.

The bang was deafening at this range, louder then any laser based weapon he had fired. His arms felt the recoil from the weapon fly up them to settle into his shoulders. The Ruffian that had been reaching for him tumbled over backwards as the laser coated lead round drilled through his shield and flattened into his helmet. The impact knocking him off balance before the small explosive in the tip of the bullet exploded with a second bang that caused his helmet to shatter, pieces flying into his head to kill him.

Falco blinked again as he glanced down at the revolver in his hands. He grinned and stood up, quickly aiming and sinking two more shots into the remaining Ruffians. Both had armor, and both fell just as easily to Falco's weapon as they fell to Bill's. With their heavy support dropping around them, the remaining dozen Ruffians backed up into the corridor, taking pot shots and allowing Bill and Falco to make a break for the elevator.

When they reached it, Falco was glad to see that it had cover this time, instead of just being a bit of exposed glass like when Fox was here. The two pilots rode the elevator up to the top decks of the station. When the elevator settled to a stop in the corridor, Falco and Bill stepped off, keeping their weapons pointed down the hallway. Bill made to move to the right, but Falco stopped him and gestured to the left.

Bill lowered his voice since they weren't being shot at yet. "How do you know where to go?"

Falco led the way down the hall as he responded. "Fox told me about his little jaunt up here when we were after Pigma. He said he passed a doorway on his way back that led to another part of the upper area, and that he bet that's where Wolf's office was." Falco stopped in front of a door. "Here we go." he pressed the button to open the door and glanced down the small hallway, quickly drawing his head back in.

Falco lowered his voice even more. "One of Wolf's elite is guarding the door."

Bill shrugged "So?" he shoulder the heavy blaster "We just hit him like we hit the rest of the armor."

Falco shook his head. "May end up dead that way, their armor is way thicker, and denser then the guys we fought so far. It takes a lot of blaster fire to melt through it, even with that thing."

Bill was silent for a moment. "Well, your gun then, it seemed to be pretty effective against them."

Falco peeked down the hallway again. "Yeah, but if he doesn't go down with the first shot, I don't know how effective the rest will be." Falco pulled his head back, reaching into his belt and grabbing three of his spare shots for the revolver and taking a moment to load them. He glanced at Bill. "If it doesn't kill him, it'll piss him off at least, hopefully he'll leave his post and you can get in at Wolf's computer."

Bill nodded and Falco grinned, as cocky as ever. "Well then." he snapped his weapon to the side and the cylinder made a loud clacking sound as it locked into place. They heard the the pilot call out. "Who's there?"

Falco glanced one more time at Bill as they heard the heavy foot falls of the armored elite make his way down the hallway towards the door. Falco waited until he was sure the Ruffian was close before he spun around the corner, firing as he set eyes on the Ruffian.

Unlike the rest of the Ruffians they had fought so far in the base, who were always armored in various shades of red. This guy's armor was painted a dark black with red stripes that ran along his arms and legs and forming the paw mark over his helmets top. His armor looked was covered just as much of his body as his lesser counterparts, but his was obviously thicker built, even under the black paint. His heavy repeating blaster was mounted to his arm and aimed at the floor, so Falco caught him with his bullets first.

His first round missed, and detonated on the wall next to the elite, but his other four all made solid contact with the armor, one in the chest, and the other three denting the helmet a bit before all four exploded one right after the other. The one on his chest sent him stumbling back a step, but didn't do much visible damage. The other three on his helmet appeared to do the same amount of damage, warping and denting the armor a bit, but not actually wounding the pilot inside.

Which is why Falco was slightly surprised when the elite dropped to his knees before falling to his side when his suit powered down. Falco waited a moment, his ears still ringing after firing the five shots, his breath slow and heavy as he counted to see if the elite would get up and end his life.

After a count of five, Falco moved forward and walked around to look behind the elite, and that's when he saw that one of the explosives had managed to sever a cord that led to the main power unit. Falco shook his head at his luck before motioning for Bill to join him.

"What happened?" Bill asked as he got close

Falco pointed at the severed cord. "I got lucky, now go and get the info, I'll keep you covered, somebody is bound to come running after the noise I just made."

Bill nodded and held out the C-23 Blaster "You might need this."

Falco shook his head and crouched down behind the collapsed armor. He rapped on the helmet twice before he checked the blaster that was mounted to the arm. After a little bit of pushing, Falco was laying down on the armor with the stock of the blaster tucked into his shoulder. "This cannon has an internal power source, I can use this like an entrenched position for a bit." he paused and grinned at the helmet. "You know, as long as this guy doesn't mind." He glanced up as the sound of footfalls reached his ears. "Go on, I've got this covered."

Bill nodded and ran into Wolf's office, closing the door behind him. He looked around at the sparse office before he spotted Wolf's computer and moved over to it. He sat down at the computer and a screen inlaid into the desk came to life, showing off a digital keyboard. He tapped a button only to see a lock screen come up on Wolf's display. Bill frowned before he opened a comm line to the fight outside. "Hey Slippy, Wolf's computer is locked and I don't know the password, anything you can do?"

There was a pause before Slippy answered. "Sure, just give a minute to get away from this guy behind me. While I work on that, plug you comm unit into the computer there should be a port somewhere, I can use that to get in."

Bill pulled the unit out from under his vest and looked for a place to plug it in. He had just managed to get it connected when he heard the loud sound of the blaster that Falco had decided to use sound through the closed door. He glanced at the Wolf's computer just in time to see the screen unlock.

Slippy spoke up a few moments later. "Okay, I am in. Give me a second to start a download to my Arwings internal computer." Bill watched a progress bar pop up and start to fill as Slippy started the download. A few moments later he heard Slippy's voice again. "Hmm...That's odd, Wolf was running a scan on his computer for something."

Fox's voice cut in "Did it find anything?"

"Uh, yeah it did actually, there was a program linked into the comm system in Wolf's computer that was broadcasting its location." Slippy paused "I bet you anything, this is how Panther found Wolf's base! The only question is how he got it onto Wolf's computer in the first place."

Falco cut into the line as he fired another round into a Ruffian who charged down the hallway. "Figure it out later. This gun is running out of power and Bill and I need to be gone before then."

Fox spoke up again "You heard them Slippy, finish the download. After that Falco, Bill, you two need to get out of there quickly."

Bill looked around the room as the download finished and Slippy locked the computer. As he grabbed his comm unit and plugged it back in. "How are we supposed to get out of here exactly? This is a dead end hallway and we have a bunch of Ruffians between us and the exit." Bill moved out into the hallway and fired off a few shots as he moved forward to crouch down next to Falco.

Falco glanced over at him as he reached down and pulled a container free from the elites armor. "I've got our exit covered. You might want to cover your ears."

Bill blinked before he crouched down further behind the armor and covered his ears. Falco twisted a dial on the top of the grenade and held it for a few moments counting under his breath for a few seconds. When he reached a count of three he tossed the container out into the hallway and covered his ears as a moment later the container exploded in a blinding mixture of light and sound that rendered most of the Ruffians out in the hallway incapable of fighting for the next few minutes. The two pilots got up from behind their cover and charged down the hallway, putting a few shots from their weapons into whatever Ruffians were starting to already recover.

They reached the elevator without further incident and rode it down where after a brief firefight against two Ruffians the two made it to a stairway and headed down.


Outside, things were faring better for Fox and them team, as the wore down on the fighters around them. The team was still massively outnumbered, but they had managed to shoot down a good number of ships, granting the team the ability to find moments where they could fly off and recharge their ships are just take a small breather.

Fox was slightly worried since he knew that they needed to pull out soon to at least refuel the Arwings if they were going to keep fighting. He shot down another fighter that he had been chasing just in time to have a few bolts glance by just over his shields. Fox checked his rear camera to see Wolf following him again.

Fox was just getting ready for another dogfight between him and Wolf when Panther's voice cut into the comm net. "O'Donnell, my employer would like me to pass something onto you."

Wolf couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. "What? What employer?"

Wolf fell silent and Fox frowned before he opened a closed line to Slippy. "Slippy."

"Way ahead of you Fox, it's some sort of data file, from what I can tell so far, its encrypted, and not with something I can bypass with the Arwings computer. I'll need to take a copy with us to the Great Fox."

Fox nodded to himself. "You can copy it then?"

Slippy was quick to respond "Already done, I'll get to work on it as soon as I can."

Before Fox could respond, Falco cut into the network. "Bill and I just made it back to our ships, doesn't look like they ever figured out where we came in from. We're getting ready to pull out."

Fox glanced behind him and frowned again as Wolf suddenly pulled away and flew towards the upper part of his base. "Alright, good job guys. We did what we came here to do, everybody get ready to pull out." Fox was about to open a line to Xena to tell her to fire when Wolf cut into the open comms again.

"All Ruffians, retreat to Sector C and prepare for a warp jump to the fallback point. All units in the Sargasso base, you have five mintues to get your asses to your ship or a evac pod or we're leaving you behind."

There was a pause before one of the Ruffians spoke up "Boss...are you?"

Wolf paused before he answered "We're evacuating the Sargasso Base, its no longer secure."

There was another pause in which Fox felt his eyes widen as he realized what Wolf was saying. He heard another Ruffian speak up "Sir, there's a cruiser in the middle of the C sector, it will block all escape routes."

Fox actually heard Wolf growl as he responded. "There won't be for long. If this is how they want to play, we'll change our game too." Fox blinked again when Wolf spoke up again, this time directly to him. "We'll finish this later Pup, count on it."

The line fell silent and Fox focused on the Ruffian ships that were pulling back towards one of the edges of the fighting, swarming over the defenses of the Legion cruiser that was sitting there. The fighters hung back out of range from the ships guns, dog-fighting with the Legion ships that followed them.

Panther cut into the line. "You give up that easily O'Donnell? Are you submitting to the Legion?"

Wolf snorted before he responded. "As if Caroso, You have twenty seconds to move that cruiser before I move it for you."

Panther chuckled darkly as he responded. "And how are you going to do that? Strafe it with your fighters? That won't get you very far."

Fox watched as Falco and Bill's ships flew out of the landing bay and headed for the edge of space. He turned to join them, but still payed attention to the conversation between Panther and Wolf. When Wolf spoke up next, Fox could almost see the grin the was no doubt on his face. "Hey, Caroso, let me ask you something. Have you seen Leon recently?"

Panthers confusion was obvious "Powalski? Why would I have seen him?"

Now it was Wolf's turn to chuckle. "Leon, why don't you show him what you've been up too since Caroso showed up?"

Leon's cold voice cut into the network with a small laugh. "Gladly. You may want to cover your eyes."

Before Panther could react to the statement, one of the cruisers on the far side of the area that had been moving towards the fighting suddenly exploded, the sphere of light erupting from its middle and consuming the entire ship down to its smallest debris, leaving the hulking cruiser torn in half by the violent explosive. Before the light from the first explosion had faded, another one erupted on a second cruiser, this one on the back end of the ship, devouring the engines and most of the rear of the ship in a matter of moments. Then a third one went off this one taking the bridge off the third cruiser, there was pause as all eyes were drawn towards the last cruiser, just in time to watch another explosive go off, tearing the last of the Legions main force in the Sargasso region apart like they it was made of flimsy paper.

Panthers shocked voice came over the net "What...what did you do?!"

Leon sniggered "I used a few new toys of mine to make sure you would lose this fight no matter what. Maybe that will teach you to betray Wolf."

Wolf chuckled as well as the Ruffians all blasted into a warp "Think on that next time you come after us Caroso. Ruffians, fall back." with those words, Fox watched as Wolf's fighter flashed into a warp after his other ship.

A moment later Panthers stunned voice come back over the air. "All Legion ships, fall back to base..."

Fox and his team moved towards their warp point as well, the silence thick between them as they thought about what just happened. They had just exited their warp jump back to the Great Fox when Falco spoke up. "Fox, those explosives..."

Fox nodded to himself again. "I know, it was just like the Remnant ships over Macbeth." he paused for a moment before he continued. "Bill have you ever seen explosives like that?"

Bill was quiet as he responded "No, as far as I know, Corneria has nothing to match that fire power, and you say the Remnants have that type of technology?"

Falco was the one who responded "Yeah, we saw it over Macbeth, it was what they used to destroy their convoy."

Bill fell silent as they headed back for the Great Fox, Danielle hailed them as they landed. "Hey Fox, look's like you didn't need that distraction after all."

Fox moved the conversation over to his gauntlet as he shut down his ship and hopped out of the Arwing and moved over to wait for Krystal to get our of her ship. "Yeah, Wolf took care of that for us. As soon as everybody is aboard, get us out of here."

"Where do you want to go?"

Fox paused as Krystal's canopy opened. "I don't know, Papetoon I guess. We'll leave the ship in dry dock to get refueled and take some time for some rest and relaxation."

"Roger that, I'll have ROB get on that."

Fox closed the line as Krystal dropped down next to him with a frown. The two of them headed for the exit to the hanger as Slippy and Falco brought in their fighters. "Something wrong Krystal?"

Krystal was quiet for a moment. "I'm just trying to figure out what Wolf was planning, surly those explosives were a last resort thing to do. Also, I'm trying to figure out who Panther was working for." Krystal paused to rub her fingers on her temple. "These headaches aren't helping my concentration at all." she sighed and leaned up against Fox as they walked towards their room. "At least we can take a few days off, maybe that will help."

Fox wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled him tight to her as they walked. "Yeah, who knows, after everything that's happened, a few days of R and R might just do us all some good." He paused as they reached their room and Krystal opened the door with a swipe of her paw. "That reminds me." Fox took a moment to open a link to Slippy's gauntlet. "Hey Slippy, send that data that you pulled from Wolf's computer to Peppy so that he can deliver it to Pepper for us."

"Will do Fox. What about that files that Panther sent to Wolf?"

For frowned. "Whatever was in those files set Wolf off, lets hold onto them until you get them decoded, then decide what to do with them after that."

"Alright Fox, Danielle said we're heading to Papetoon? Are we heading for the Den?"

Fox nodded as he and Krystal sat down on their couch. "Yeah, we're going to take a few weeks to drop off the grid and relax."

Fox sighed as he took off his gauntlet and leaned back into the couch with Krystal snuggled up next to him. She yawned once before she spoke up. "You guys have a base on Papetoon?"

Fox nodded. "Yeah, an old base, from back in the day. We go there when we need to relax for a while, the town that its in is friendly to me after something my father did for them back in the day. They keep it quiet when we land there so that we can actually relax."

Krystal hummed softly in her throat. "Never been to Papetoon, should be fun."

Fox chuckled. "Yeah, we'll see."


- | - Two Weeks Later - | - Wolfs Paw - | - Wolf O'Donnell's office - | -


Wolf was pacing, something he had been doing too much of lately. He kept thinking back on the events of the past few weeks, everything that he had found out, and it was hard to keep his temper in check. He focused on his computer as it beeped and the projector kicked into life, the cubes spinning around to form a room in front of him, he focused his gaze on the female who was standing in the middle of the holographic room.

"So, you're Kursed?"

The female chuckled. "No Mr. O'Donnell, but I am as close as you are going to get to her."

Wolf frowned as he continued pacing, the female following his movements with her eyes. "So Kursed is a female, figured as much. But lets move onto more pressing maters. I had my tech pull the information from my computer in Sargasso, and he found out something interesting. Turns out that there was a program that was broadcasting my location to someone." Wolf pointed a finger at the woman. "He says the program showed up after I talked to your boss via that little chat. Isn't it interesting that Caroso found me just a short while after?"

The woman smiled. "Not really, since Kursed is the one who gave him the key to access you location."

Wolf snarled. "So you admit that you sold me out to Panther!"

The female held up a hand. "Relax Mr. O'Donnell. There was a good reason for what we did."

Wolf stopped and crossed his arms. "Oh, and what the hell would that be?"

"Simple, We needed something on the planet where Caroso had setup base. We had tried to contact him before, but he proved...unwilling to cooperate with us. So we sought other methods to gain access. Since out plans couldn't continue until we had access to his planet, Kursed came up with a plan to get him off the planet."

Wolf took over for her. "You told him how to find me, knowing that he would take the bulk of his forces and leave his base almost unguarded, Caroso reigned on the planet like a king, controlling the locals through force, and he made sure he was the only power on the planet. Remove him from there, and the planet is yours."

The woman clapped her hands. "Very good, Mr. O'Donnell, right on the money. What was left of his Legion tried hard to defend the planet, but they didn't last very long against us."

Wolf resumed pacing. "What about Caroso himself? I'm sure he retreated back to Raydon after I left."

The woman nodded. "That he did, and I have to take a moment to congratulate you on taking out his remaining cruisers, that made the fight much easier when he returned. Kursed personally told me to make sure you knew that she was proud of your work."

Wolf scoffed. "Yeah, I'll pass the praise onto Leon. He did all the hard work. But you didn't answer my question: What happened with Caroso? Is he dead?"

The woman frowned. "Sadly no, he has escaped out capture with a couple of his lieutenants. We know he is somewhere on the planet, and we have locked down all means of leaving Raydon. His own fighters are locked away in my personal hanger, so he's not going anywhere. I'm also going to be joining the search for him shortly, and I guarantee you that he won't last long after that."

Wolf snorted. "Right, you let me know when you've caught him."

The woman nodded with a small smile. "Of course, is there anything else you wished to discuss?"

Wolf stopped pacing again and leaned up against his desk. "Yeah, what am I supposed to do now? All I have is the Paw, which is still sitting in Sector Y where you told me to put it."

"You'll receive new orders shortly about where you need to move it, now that we have the planet under our control, we can proceed with our plans."

Wolf nodded. "Alright, just a few things left then."

"Such as...?"

Wolf raised a finger. "First off, my tech tells me that Star Fox got a copy of my hard drive from Sargasso, no doubt they sent a copy off to Corneria. There was nothing about what I have the Paw doing, but there is still enough there to be damaging."

The woman waved a hand through the air. "We've taken care of that already, don't worry about it."

Wolf raised his second finger. "Second, since you hired Caroso, you were the one who gave him the files he sent me then. I just need to know if those things were true. I evacuated the Sargasso base because of them."

The woman nodded. "One Hundred percent, I pulled them from Cornerian servers myself. No doubt you save your operation by doing so."

Wolf snorted softly before he held up a third finger. "Finally, what's your name?"

The woman smiled. "That's need to know Mr. O'Donnell, and you are not on the list of people who need to know."

Wolf scoffed again. "Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway." He pushed himself off his desk and pointed at her. "I know who you are, it took me a moment to remember where I had seen you before. You're one of the toe the line good guys that ran with Star Fox back in the day, and you work for Corneria now, how am I supposed to trust you?"

The woman's smile grew bigger. "I was wondering if you would figure it out. Rest assured my loyalty is to the Remnants. No matter what else you may see in the coming months. Oh, and one last thing, Wolf. We'll be keeping in touch now, the board is set up and all the pieces are in play now, it won't be long until it all starts."

Wolf frowned. "You're really going to do it, aren't you?" he shook his head. "I've got to be crazy to go along with this."

The woman sat down in a chair and crossed her arms. "Relax Wolf, you choose the winning side after all."

With that, the hologram faded from sight and Wolf moved behind his desk, sitting down in his chair and crossing his arms. He closed his eyes as he thought about what was said, and what didn't get said during the conversation. He leaned forward and pressed a finger to the side of his head piece. "Leon, things are starting to escalate, I think its time we pulled Saz out of the military and bring him back here."

"I'll do it tonight. Are you worried about something?"

Wolf was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure right now, I just want people I can trust around here right now."

"Alright, I'll see you in a few days."


- | -Two Weeks Later - | - Papetoon - | - The Den - | -


Fox sighed as he sat down at the table across from Krystal who smiled up at him as they ate breakfast together. The had taken to waking up before the rest of the team and eating breakfast together before they headed out to visit the local town, as well as stop by some of the sites where Fox did a lot of his early missions. Today was no different, at least at first.

Right as they finished eating, Slippy walked in looking worried. "Ah, Fox, good you haven't left yet."

Fox keyed in quickly on Slippy's tone. "Whats wrong Slippy?"

Slippy glanced around the room. "I've been working on decoding those files while we've been here, and I broke through just a few minutes ago."

Fox nodded "Okay, and there is something bad in them then?"

Slippy nodded. "Yeah, I've got them here." Slippy held up four data-pads as he sat down. "But I'm waiting for Falco to get up."

"Wait no longer, I'm here." The tired looking avian walked into the room and sat down at the last remaining seat at the table, he leaned his chair back and kicked up his feet onto the table. He stretched once and yawned before he glanced at Slippy. "Now what was so important?"

Slippy opened a file on the data pads and set them in the middle of the table. "This." Fox and Krystal leaned in to look but Falco stayed in the potion he was, staring at the ceiling of the Den. "Let me know what's on there."

Fox was quiet for a moment as he read through the files. He frowned as he read, using his fingers to swipe through the files. What he saw already worried him, but before long he came across a file that shocked him to his core. He looked up at Slippy. "Are these...?"

Falco glanced up at Fox's tone before he dropped his feet and leaned in to look at the files. "No way." he said softly.

Slippy meanwhile nodded at Fox. "These are detailed mission files on how to take out Wolf's Ruffians, Panthers Legion...and...us." Slippy reached forward and swiped through the files. "They have plans on every mercenary unit in Lylat, and some even further out." he opened another file. "and look at this, this one, for us, the details how to attack the Great Fox II, covering everything, including the modifications I made that have no blueprints on record." he pointed to a note at the bottom of the plans. "Right here, it says that this plan is on suspension as long as Star Fox remains useful." Slippy shook his head. "Fox, they have plans for how to counter our new ships, what best way to removes us from the public eye. Everything." Slippy lowered his head. "I don't know what to make of this, and that's not the worst of it."

Fox glanced back down at the files. "It gets worse?"

Krystal gasped softly and covered her mouth with her paw. "Oh no."

Fox looked over at her. "What?"

Krystal looked at him with a shocked look. "Fox, these are signed by General Pepper."

Fox turned back to his data pad, locating the authorization signature. He shook his head. "This, this can't be." he looked up "They have to be faked, Pepper said he was worried the Remnants had infiltrated Corneria. This has to be them."

Falco shook his head as he studied the files, all signs of his lack of sleep gone. "I dunno Foxy, he could be lying about all that."

Fox shook his head. "I refuse to believe it." He set his data pad down and looked at his team. "Look, for now, we keep this to ourselves, don't tell Bill, don't tell First Flight, and don't tell Xena or Danielle. I want to get to the bottom of this first" He looked over at Falco "See if you can get in touch with Peppy and tell him we need to talk to General Pepper in person as soon as possible." Falco nodded.

Before the conversation could continue any further, Krystal set her pad down and shook her head, rubbing her temple. "I'm with Fox on this, I say we hold off until we know more." she pushed her chair back and stood up. "I'll be in my room if anybody needs me."

Fox placed a paw on hers before she walked away. "Everything okay?"

Krystal nodded. "Yeah, I just need to meditate on all this I think."

Fox gave a small nod and let her walk off before he turned back to Falco. "Let me know when Peppy gets back to us." He turned to face Slippy. "Go through these, do whatever you can to check that they are for real."

Slippy nodded. "I will. What are you going to do?"

Fox stood up. "I'm going to go the Great Fox and tell the rest of the team that we'll be leaving soon."

Meanwhile, inside the room she shared with Fox, Krystal was panting and shaking as she leaned over the sink. The pain from her headaches kept getting worse, and nothing she did seemed to get rid of them. No pain killers seemed to affect it. But what worried her, was ever since they started, sometimes she would wake up and be in a different place then when she fell asleep. She wanted to tell Fox what was happening, but she didn't want to worry him.

She looked up at the mirror in the bathroom before she reached down and ran some water over her face. "What's happening to me?" she asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. She stared back in the mirror, studying her reflection, and that was when she noticed the figure in the background, as she made eye contact with it, she felt another wave of pain wash over her and she blacked out as a voice thundered through her head.

"Let me out!"


Well, suffice to say, it looks like things are starting to pick up quickly. Hopefully you're all still following me on this little trip through the twisted paths of my mind. So, before I get into Guest reviews, I just want to let you know why I'm updating today for this story. Its for a simple reason actually. My one shot Collection, Star Fox: Destinies just broke a hundred reviews yesterday, and it put me in such a great mood that I finished up the last few pages for this and wanted to upload it. So I hope you enjoyed, and if you haven't checked out Destinies, you might want to give it a look. Just saying.

So, on the Guest Reviews, only one this time.

Star Wolf 2.0: Well, here is your update, and Dead Planet has its first act finished so its done for now. As for Panther, he isn't gone yet, he still has a few more bits to play, but he will be done soon.

I think that should be it, again, I hope you're all still enjoying this, and if you want, feel free to drop me a review to let me know how I'm doing, as most of you know, I respond to all of them. Speaking off, I should get on those responses for Destinies.

Till next time!

Peace,

- Emile