Author Note:

It's been far too long, and I have no excuses. I wouldn't want anyone to read anything I wouldn't enjoy reading myself, and this chapter was definitely one of the biggest challenges for me to write. I hope you can forgive me for being as thorough as I have been. Your feedback is most welcome.


Thieves and Beggars

The officer on the other end of the A/V comm monitor, clad in the slate gray uniform of Interplanetary Patrol, was a slender needle-nosed canine woman with long silky chocolate-brown fur. She carried herself with a cool air of authority, tempered by an underlying core of experience.
"Okay McCloud, let's go over the game-plan one last time."

The Vulpine pilot sat in the cockpit of the Comet Mk II graciously provided by Axiom Technologies. For James it was like an old friend cleaned up. Its controls and instrument configurations were quite familiar, but they also more refined, and boasted a suite of more refined hardware on the other side to compliment it. For everything the original Comet did well, the Mk II did one better, and for every weakness, an effort to mitigate it. The vulpine pilot was glad to have this comrade back under his command, especially since it didn't require rigorous taming to be fully utilized like Fang did...

Pigma was the first to respond over the comm channel.
"Look lady, we know what we're supposed to do here, so give us a second to focus why don't you?"

Other than comm chatter and the quiet song of instruments, the fighter was silent as it lay dormant in standby mode. Outside the canopy was a bizarre sight for inside a cockpit – the interior of a large cargo hold, dimply lit by a smattering of lighting fixtures that revealed only shapeless shadows.

James answered the officer, reciting the 'game-plan' as easily as breathing.
"Some pirates know this freighter is coming and they know the cargo is supposed to be a covert arms shipment. They're planning to yank us from our route as we pass by Solar and attempt to take the ship. Star Fox springs the trap, we shoot to disable, and InterPatrol brings the pirates into custody for further questioning."

"That's right..." Doyle responded. "Remember these aren't some random highwaymen, the Macbeth-Corneria hubshot route isn't highly used and so not highly pirated either. These guys are hardened pros who've been planning this motherload heist ever since we slipped them the bait. They're ruthless, cunning, and very efficient."

"Which is why you called us." Peppy chimed in.

"Which is exactly why I called you..."
The entire ship began to shake around them as it decelerated from its hyperspace trajectory, cutting the officer off for a second. After everything came to a relative calm again, she continued over the comm.
"Looks like they've nabbed us, you guys all ready down there?"

Scott was the first to respond.
"Took 'em bloody long enough, I was starting tae think they might've forgotten."

"Powering up..."
After James entered a command sequence into his controls, the fighter's reactor thrummed to life and the cockpit's instruments lit up.

"Opening the doors now."

The cargo hold was instantly flooded with a deep crimson light as the main hatches split open into space. Far below was the endless fiery surface of Solar, smoldering in its angry red clear to the distant horizon. Above was a canopy of black nothing – the stars having been fudged out by Solar's glowing surface...

James thrust the throttle forward, and the Comet Mk II replied with a confident forward surge out over the infinite blood-red hellfire below. The environmental readouts showed plenty of heat and higher gravity, but thankfully sparse of high-energy radiation. At this close distance, a more robust star would've incinerated most anything under a relentless barrage of electromagnetic radiation and escaping plasma. A star, for all intents and purposes, is an ongoing fusion bomb detonation contained only by its gravity...

"Look sharp! We've got some company!" Scott barked over the channel,"An' it looks like they're packin' more than a wee wallop."

Sure enough, a group of about a half-dozen assault fightercraft were closing in fast. As expected, most were sluggish heavy-weapons platforms meant to take down larger prey. Though it put the comparatively more agile compliment of Star Fox at an advantage, getting caught in the crosshairs of that kind of firepower spelled a quick death, no matter how durable the shields or hull was...

"Let's go to work!"
The vulpine pilot twisted his fighter around under his guiding hand toward his adversaries, and his three comrades followed...


Alarm sirens screamed through the ship's corridors. The intricate ornamentation meant it wasn't a military or freight vessel – it was a passenger-bearing ship...

"Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking. There has been a malfunction in the oxygen supply. Please remain calm and return to your cabins. If you aren't near your cabin, a member of the crew will direct you to a designated safety area. There's no need to worry, our backup systems are operating normally and we'll have the problem fixed as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

Security officer Jared Karrde -a smooth-skinned salamander- jogged though the ship's normally charming corridor, past a number of anxious-looking passengers who just heard the captain's announcement. Any shipboard malfunction is bound to cause panic among the passengers, and the presence of authority was needed during such times. But since this was a failure of the ship's oxygen supply, emergency protocol and common sense dictated that essential personnel must don respirators before returning to duty...

Karrde arrived at the ship's armory checkpoint: a secure door with a desk just outside, and another officer behind the desk waiting for him. This officer was a larger feline species, but his face was covered by a respirator mask.

"You finally made it!" the other officer exclaimed, "Better get in there Jared, everyone else is already gearing up."

"Sorry," the salamander responded, entering an access code into the wall panel, "I had to break-up fight over an oxygen mask on my way here."

"Figures."
The masked feline puffed out a sigh through his respirator.
"The passengers are bound to get real antsy real quick, especially this close to Solar."

"No kidding..."
The code Karrde entered was verified, and the door slid open for him before he ducked inside, leaving his fellow officer to himself.

The corridor outside the checkpoint was quiet. Of course there were alarms screaming all through the ship and the distant scramble of movement, but this was a different breed of quiet altogether. Up and down the entire length of the passageway, there wasn't a single panicky passenger to be seen or heard within earshot...

"Hey, got a second?"
It was one of the passengers, another feline of similar build to the security officer on watch.

"Of course."
The masked officer let out a relieved sigh, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The feline passenger came up to the checkpoint desk. There wasn't anything immediately remarkable about his appearance. He had a short shock of a lion's mane, but with dull tiger striping on the sandy background – a likely hybrid breed by his looks.
"I heard the captain say we should go to a safety zone, but I don't know where they are. Can you help me out?"
Though a little nervous, the passenger appeared to handle himself fairly well considering the frantic atmosphere.

"Certainly..."
The officer gave a nod an leaned over the desk to point the way.
"You just head down this corridor here and~"

The feline passenger yanked the other closer by his arm and slashed through the masked figure's throat in a single motion. The killer let his gurgling victim slump forward, revealing the blood-smeared steak knife in the hybrid feline's grip.
"Thanks officer, I really appreciate it..."

Jared Karrde stepped into the armory security officer's locker room. The place was busy, packed with what looked like most of the ship's security compliment as they burst open their designated lockers to retrieve necessary equipment – respirator masks in this case. The smooth-skinned salamander came to his own locker and immediately entered his passcode, then stopped...

Something didn't feel right – an extra weight in one of the pockets. Karrde felt around and did indeed find an object in the thigh cargo pocket of his pants. He unzipped the pocket, removed the object, and saw that it was a small explosive charge.

"Holy~"

*BOOM!*

The blast was loud, bright and over very fast. Everyone in the room dropped dead in almost an instant, yet with very little bloody carnage or damage to the room itself. The explosive blast in an enclosed space killed the shipboard security officers quickly and cleanly with sheer pressure shock...

The door opened, and the hybrid feline burst into the locker room armed with the handgun from the officer he slew only moments earlier. Meeting no resistance, he made a beckoning gesture into the corridor behind him. A large group of otherwise innocent looking passengers flowed into the room and precoded to ransack the armory...

"This is the captain, it appears that we have hijackers aboard the ship..."
The voice sounded nervous, but with a vestige of calm control stretched out over it.
"For the time being I urge you to please remain in your cabins or designated safety zones. If you encounter any of the assailants, do not attempt to resist any demands they make or do anything that may provoke them. There is reason to believe that these particular hijackers are armed and extremely dangerous, and so should be treated as such. I understand this is a difficult situation, but I assure you the crew and I are doing everything in our power to keep all of you~"

The captain's voice on the loudspeaker cut out.

"Shit, it just gets worse and worse..."
He was a golden-haired baboon with a long dark face, dressed in the clean-cut uniform of a crewman.
"First we lose oxygen circulation, then security gets neutered, and now we don't even have communications."

The nervous ape sat in front a computing terminal in a control room. Outside a large observation window was the deck of a shipboard hangar, with only a single shuttlecraft docked.

Another crewman, a coyote, stood over the ape's shoulder.
"What about loose traffic? Any signal on the headsets?"

The baboon raised a wireless headset to his ear, only to hear static come through the speakers.
"It's all noised-out, and the personals aren't getting any signal out here either..."

An uneasy quiet fell between the two crewmen. The ape sat leaning forward with his hand scratching his head, while the coyote stood to the side, gazing intently over the hangar deck until he finally broke the silence.
"Maybe we should get out of here, we can take the shuttle."

The baboon stood up from the terminal to face his fellow crewman.
"And leave everyone else behind? Are you insane?"

"What can we do, Kruger?" the coyote asked, "There's got to be hundreds of passengers aboard, the escape pods aren't going to do any good this close to Solar, the shuttle just can't carry enough and if security's toast then we're all going to be toast too before long..."
He turned around, revealing the determined face of a mind made up.
"But if we make a break for it, we might be able to find help."

Kruger glanced back and forth, between the shuttle on the hangar deck and they coyote in front of him.
"I don't know Jack, what if~"

*Bang! Bang!*

Someone knocked at the door, and shouted in with a muffled voice.
"Open up in there! I got things to do and making me wait really isn't a good idea!"

Jack grabbed the baboon by his arm and pulled him back to the control room's main terminal.
"The hijackers need this space and the only thing in here is the shuttle, which they're probably going to use as a getaway. Take the shuttle away and~"

"You'll piss them all off!" Kruger cut him off.

"And you will play right into their plans!" the canine crewman shot back, "If we throw these thugs for a loop, we'll be in a much better position to get everyone out of this jam alive."

The gold-haired baboon eyed Jack with a suspicious glare.
"How do I know you don't just want to scram and save your own skin?"

"Okay then, we'll do this the hard way..." the voice from before called back through the door, sounding somewhat agitated, "If this door isn't open in the next thirty seconds, there's a lovely little hostage right here who's gonna die because of it. You don't want that, do you?"

"Do what he says, please!"
It was a young woman's voice, terrified.

"Dammit..." Kruger cursed, "God-fucking dammit."

"I invited my girlfriend Rihana aboard for this trip, she's in cabin 090. Ask her if you can't trust what I'm trying to do..."
Jack turned away, out the observation window overlooking the hangar deck again.
"I don't know about you Kruger, but I am not just going to sit here and take it up the ass from these bastards. I am getting off this ship, and I am going to get help – for her and for everyone else."

"I'm not leaving." The primate crewman replied coldly.

"What?"
The coyote whipped around, and found Kruger typing furiously into the terminal.

"You've got fifteen seconds!" the voice outside reminded them.

"The shuttle's cleared for launch, I'll stay here and see if I can buy you some time..."
The baboon entered one last command into the terminal, and the hangar doors began to open, revealing the glowing red Solar far below.
"Move it Jack!"

Without wasting another moment, the canine crewman bolted out of the control room and onto the hanger deck. Meanwhile, the agitated voice behind the outer door grew more agitated as it counted down...
"Ten, nine, eight, seven~"

"Alright! I'm opening it up..."
Kruger stood up from the terminal and headed for the door to the rest of the ship's interior.
"It'll just take a few seconds to disengage the lock."
He waited until Jack was inside the shuttle and out of sight before finally opening the door.

On the other side was a group of passengers, but all armed and all wearing respirator masks looted from the security armory.

"That's more like it." the group's hybrid feline leader said in mock-relief as he released the terrified hostage, who slunk away from the hijackers. Once she was gone, the masked hybrid feline brought his blaster to bear on Kruger and made his demands.
"Now, you're going to be a real help and give me access codes, keys, authorization and anything else I need to make that shuttle over there fly."

"Sure, just give me a second..."
The gold-haired baboon crossed slowly to the control room's main terminal – feeling the pressure of the blaster's muzzle hovering mere inches away from his skull...

On the hangar deck outside, the shuttle rumbled and lifted off in its startup sequence.

The lead hijacker gripped Kruger by his shoulder and shoved him into the terminal, pressing the blaster against his head.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!"

"I swear it wasn't me~"

"Call it back!"

"I don't have control! There's nothing I can~"

*Blam!*

A blaster shot ripped through Kruger's head, never giving the ape a chance to finish his plea. The masked hybrid feline tossed the crewman's lifeless body aside and bolted onto the hangar deck, where the shuttle was turning to exit. In a rage, the lead hijacker took aim and opened fire on the escaping spacecraft, letting loose a blazing torrent from his blaster handgun until the charge ran dry.

The shuttlecraft was gone, skimming over Solar's boiling red surface away from the imperiled passenger ship. Accepting these new circumstances, the hybrid feline let his rage simmer down to a bitter discontent.
"Heroes, you just have to go and make these simple things complicated don't you?"

One of the other hijackers came up slowly from behind.
"Well Hack, what do we do now?"
He was a jay with blue and white patterned plumage, and looked like any other passenger save for the fact that he too was armed.

"First things first Jay," Hack grumbled in response as he swapped out a fresh magazine cartridge, "we need to secure the bridge, fast."


Pigma Dengar flew Gizmo in close pursuit of one of the attackers' large assault fighters. The thing was an absolute monster – dwarfing even Scott's Nessie heavy fightercraft. This one in particular was armed with a suite of frighteningly heavy weapons, high-output thrusters, and a rear-mounted turret that sprayed the swine's flight path with blaster-fire. Despite it's sluggish handling, the assault fighter didn't seem to mind easily absorbing what few shots Pigma managed to throw its way...

"Gotta be careful – these jugs are built to take down cruisers, which means they'll rip through our wings like toilet-paper..."
That was Peppy over the comm, and flying circles through the fray. His interceptor wasn't going to do any appreciable damage against the pirates' assault fighters, so the hare instead took to swatting at missiles before they reached their intended targets.
"So whatever you do, don't get caught in their main weapons' line of fire."

"Well no shit Pep!" Pigma shouted back as he weaved Gizmo in and around the oncoming blaster fire, "But what about these bigger nastier ones with the tail-gun? I can't swap spit-wads with this flying tank all day you know."

"I see it lad." Scott responded,"Ye just stay on her fer now, I bet I know what stunt she's aboot tae pull on ye."
Of all the Star Fox pilots, Aberdeen would've had the most experience with heaver powerhouse type spacecraft.

The assault craft Pigma was pursuing suddenly fired its thrusters hard, surging the juggernaut forward on its monstrous engines. The shock from the thruster-wash nearly blasted pursuing Gizmo aside, but Pigma was able to keep control and keep pace. With the assault fighter on a straight path, the swine took the opportunity to lay down a steady stream of fire – a break at last...

Without any warning, the assault fighter threw its mammoth thrusters into reverse, practically stopping the behemoth on the spot. The sudden move caught Pigma by surprise, making him completely overshot his target and land squarely in the line of fire.

"Drop doon!" Scott shouted as he swept Nessie's bulky frame straight at the swine.

Not wasting an instant, Pigma disengaged Gizmo's G-diffuser. The fighter plummeted away when Solar's powerful gravity took hold and pulled Pigma to a moment of safety. The assault craft hesitated, which gave Scott all the time in the world to fire a surgical strike. The target's right side thruster nacelle broke clean off – the heavy assault fighter wasn't destroyed, but out of the fight.

"Hold on guys, I'm getting some funny readings here..."
James McCloud was tailing another one of the assault fighters, easily weaving through the as he responded with a steady stream of laser-fire.
"They're charging for a jump, but these pirates seemed like they still had some fight in them – something's not right about this."

Against the fox's relentless torrent, the heavy fighter took the battle tactic of dumping more power into its shields rather than simply take it. Coupled with increased G-diffuser output and charging the jump-drive capacitor, the heavy fighters' systems couldn't handle it anymore and overloaded. The shields failed, the G-diffuser gave out, the jump-drive was crippled – yet fired anyway...

The power stored up in the damaged jump-drive's capacitor sent the spacecraft flying in a hundred different directions instead of just one. The result was a catastrophic explosion that blew the heavy assault fighter into thousands of shrapnel fragments...

All the other pirates all made successful Jumps, and James McCloud was more then eager to pursue them.
"Track their vectors Peppy, we're going after them!"

"Stand down, Star Fox..." the InterPatrol officer commanded.

"Your targets are all getting away, and you want us to just give up?"

"I said Stand down!"
Once she was sure James wouldn't snap back, the canine officer continued.
"We picked up a signal while you were duking in out, and I'm afraid the circumstances may have just changed for the worse..."

Another signal was channeled into the mix for the Star Fox mercenaries to hear.
"...static... Dammit! Can any ...static... hear me? The Lady Vain's been hijacked, she's a passenger cruiser with hundreds of people ...static... anyone out there?"

The officer wasted no more time than was absolutely necessary.
"This is Captain Catherine Doyle of InterPatrol responding to your general distress signal. Tell me everything."

"Jack Lateran, shuttle pilot f ...static... space-line cruiser Lady Vain ...static... she's been hijacked."
The coyote's frightened face between the static.
"Our shipboard secur ...static... pliment is all dead and I think the passengers are be ...static... hostage. I only just escaped, you ...static... to do something..."

"We're getting a lot of interference from Solar Jack. Rendezvous for our location as quickly as you can and we'll continue this, I'm transmitting coordinates now..."

"Understood ma'am, I'll be there shortly."

"I don't like it." James responded in the sharp tone of a skeptic, "This cleverly timed coincidence has 'trap' written all over it, I'm not going to jump in on this blind."

"I appreciate your concern McCloud, but as far as we can tell his story holds up. The ship he's talking about was scheduled to pass by Solar, and she hasn't responded to any of our hails..."
Captain Doyle spoke with the grim certainty of one who knows the worst possible truth.
"There's far more at stake now than just a few wayward pirates, we have to respond."

Another signal burst into the channel – from the crippled pirate assault craft drifting nearby. The speaker was a squat-faced hyena with a black smeared muzzle, and a less than sincere smile on his face.
"Sorry to interrupt all this, but I couldn't help overhearing the little conundrum that just exploded in all your faces~"

"Stuff it ye thieving wretch!" Scott growled, "You're lucky tae be so much as breathin' given the circumstances."

"That's not very polite of you, especially toward someone who might be able to help with this little hostage situation..."

"What exactly do you know that could be of use?"
The commanding InterPatrol officer wasted neither her words nor her time.

"Hijacking the Lady Vain and raiding this transport was supposed to work together – in tandem..."
The hyena answered hurriedly, seizing his chance.
"I'll tell you everything you need to know: coordinates, bearings, personnel, hell I'll even get you in on our modulating comm frequency. But I want full InterPatrol protective custody for being your insider snitch. I don't want these guys gunning for me when it's all over."

"Why should we trust you?" James asked, far from convinced, "You just tried to kill us."

"Heh, funny that..."
The pirate forced a laugh, betraying his quiet desperation.
"Okay, so maybe I'm just a shifty sleazy opportunist, but right now the opportunity to avoid death by incineration is awfully appealing. What more do you goddamn tightwads need?"

"That's enough McCloud, I'll take him from here..."
As Captain Doyle spoke, the InterPatrol 'bait freighter' maneuvered its cumbersome hulk to where the pirate drifted helplessly through space over Solar's surface...
"I'm going to bring you aboard my ship, and you will assist my people with all necessary information regarding the situation at hand. Screw this up, and my report will say you were killed resisting arrest. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sure do ma'am."


The Lady Vain's bridge had a fairly typical civilian layout, but with more lavish and ornately decorated systems. In place of a standard bridge crew however was a motley collection of casually clad hijackers. Among them were the hybrid feline called Hack, and Jay. The main forward veiwport showed the spectacle of Solar's glowing red surface below, the starless black sky above, and the points of several spacecraft closing fast from the distance.

"Shit, it's those mercs again!"
The channel was audio only, from one of the assault craft circling the Lady Vain.

"Stand your ground and fight!" Hack bellowed back, "Nobody goes nowhere!"

"Fuck you! I'm getting outta here!"

The hybrid feline stood towering over one of the bridge stations, fuming into the comm system.
"I swear when I get off this ship, I am going to hunt down each and every one of you spineless cowards, and then make you wish you've never been born!"

"I know when I'm beat, and I'll take spineless coward over brainless idiot any day."
The other speaker cut-off the channel, and the few remaining pirate assault craft made their jumps away.

In that time, the arriving ships came into clear view. Four were a variety of fightercraft, one was a medium-sized freighter, and the last Hack recognized as the same shuttlecraft that escaped the Lady Vain's hangar deck. The sight of it brought him to a quiet rage, but with internal calculations already underway...

"Lose something?"
The needle-nosed InterPatrol officer's smug face appeared on the ship's main audio/visual comm system.
"By the authority of Lylat Interplanetary Patrol, you are hereby placed under arrest under charges of piracy ."

Hack stepped closer to the viewscreen, eyeing the chocolate-brown canine on the other end under sharp scrutiny. When he did speak, it was with a condescending tone of mock-civility
"I don't think I recognize your face from InterPatrol's personnel files, are you new here?"

"Captain Catherine Doyle, and yes I was recently given this command. The rest is frankly none of your business."

"Ah, that would explain the new underhanded tactic, it's very unlike the others' methods. Well played Miss Doyle, I'll have to keep you and your ways in-mind for the future..."
The hybrid feline continued in his patronizing facade
"Now if you'll be so kind as to lend me and my men a shuttlecraft, we'll be on our way and out of your fur in no time."

Captain Doyle remained unmoved, and simply shook her head at Hack's demands.
"No sir, I'm afraid the only way you're getting off that ship is in my custody. Surrender yourself, and it won't have to get ugly."

"Oh please, spare me the usual policeman's dogma." Hack scoffed, "Did you forget that I still have a whole shipload of helpless hostages? I'm more than happy to leave them all unharmed, but if you'd rather play hardball I'm afraid some innocent people are going to get caught in the crossfire. Lets avoid that mess, shall we?..."
The hybrid feline swaggered over to the command station and cut the channel.
"She's not going to bend, so we'll have to break them instead."

"And what exactly do you have in mind, Hack?..."
Jay was at one of the bridge's operation stations, and more than a little nervous at their situation.
"The ship is liable to crap-out down here, the hostages are starting to get antsy, and our own guys are starting to second-guess you. We ought to just ditch the whole thing and turn ourselves in, we can fight our way out from there."

"With what I'm planning it won't have to come to that..."
Hack retrieved a headset from the command station and fitted it to his head.
"Keep me patched in up here, I need to check up on a very specific passenger."

The star Fox fighters, InterPatrol bait freighter, and shuttlecraft held position over the glowing red surface of Solar. The passenger crusier Lady Vain stood several hundred meters in front of them, even closer to the . Occasionally, a few fingers of charged plasma would flash against the ship's strained shielding.

Captain Catherine Doyle's face came in over the channel as she hissed out a sigh of frustration.
"It doesn't sound like they're going to come quietly."

Jack Lateran wasn't giving up yet.
"There's gotta be something we can do."

"Believe me Mr. Lateran, when it comes to these goddamn hostage crises, there's really never an ideal option available."

"That's not good enough!" the coyote snapped.

Hack's voice burst onto the channel in the middle of it all, audio only.
"Pardon me everyone, but I'd like to negotiate terms now."

The canine officer shook her head in silence before giving a reluctant reply.
"Alright, I'm listening."

"No, not with you Miss Doyle..."
A deep rumbling chuckle sounded over the comm channel.
"Jack Lateran's the name, isn't it?"

"What's it to you?"

"I feel I should thank you Jack, you just made these next few minutes a hell of a lot less stressful, for me anyway. Maybe you'll recognize her voice..."

"Jack!"

"Rihana!"
The coyote shuttle pilot shifted gradually from outrage to utter terror when he heard the frightened woman's voice.
"What the hell did you do to her!"

"Hasn't anyone ever told you to be more careful with personal information?..."
The feline pirate let out a full-throated over the comm channel.
"Anyway, we're all a little short on time here so let's keep this simple. I really need that shuttle of yours Jack, I'll start to get bored if I don't get it soon and well – a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do right?"

"Let them have the shuttle Jack, please!" Rihana's voice pleaded, "All they want is to leave and get out of here, that's it."

"You heard the lady, and come alone. If any of those beat-cops tag along with you, shit's gonna happen..."
"The hangar deck will be open for you, you'll know what to do."

A tense silence came over the channel once Hack cut out. Nobody moved, nobody said anything – the only sounds were that of the Comet Mk II's cockpit instruments, and the quiet breathing of anyone not holding their breath...

After a few very long seconds, Jack Lateran finally broke the icy silence.
"I'm going in."

"You are not going aboard that ship, not without backup." the canine InterPatrol officer ordered, "At least come aboard the freighter first so I can send some of my people with you, you'll catch them by surprise~"

"They'll kill Rihana and maybe everyone left aboard too if I do..."
The shuttlecraft fired it's thrusters, and began to move in toward the Lady Vain.
"I'm sorry Captain, but this'll to have to be your ideal option – what's more important after all? Catching a few pirates, or saving innocent lives?"

"No Jack, listen to me! That thug is trying to pull a fast one on you. As soon as you're not of any value anymore, he'll~"
Captain Doyle stopped her explanation short.
"Dammit! He's shut off his comm."

"Then we'll just have to communicate by other means..."
After sitting on the sidelines this long, James McCloud sprung into action. He launched his fighter toward the Lady Vain, easily overtaking Jack's shuttlecraft. Once he was within a hundred meters of the much larger vessel, James brought the Comet Mk II to a full stop, turned it around. With his nose toward Lateran, the vulpine pilot fired off a volley of warning shots harmlessly past the shuttle's right side...

The shuttlecraft did not alter course, but accelerated even faster, straight at McCloud. He could see into the shutle's cockpit as it closed in, with its unflinching pilot at the controls diving headlong into the Comet Mk II. James jammed his fighter's control column to the side trying to shift out of the way, but it wasn't enough. There was a slam, a lurch, alarms...

The vulpine pilot regained his senses inside the Comet Mk II cockpit. His body was physically intact but shaken, a number of alarms were still blearing, but the most drastic change was the view outside...

"McCloud? Are you okay in there? We're not getting any response from Jack, he must've taken it pretty hard."
Captain Catherine Doyle's voice rang nervously through the headset, but the fighter's comm system was deactivated...

"I'm okay, more or less."
James McCloud was no longer piloting a fighter through the vacuum of space, but sitting motionless on the floor of the Lady Vain's hangar deck. Jack's shuttle was nearby, dented and lightly damaged as it skidded to a halt on the deck. The coyote must've rammed straight into the fighter, shoving James into the hangar along with him...

"There's been some new developments, and we could use your assistance if you're able..."

"What's happening?..."
He ran a quick diagnostic on the Comet Mk II and found most of the damage was mostly superficial. The impact shields overloaded the primary power grid from the collision, but a simple restart would fix that. Otherwise the structure and vital systems seemed to hold up pretty well, like most tech made by Axiom...

"Apparently, the Lady Vain's captain and command crew have overpowered their captors and are putting up a stiff resistance from inside. We're going to try and dock with her to send in some backup."

"What do you need me to do?"
The fighter grunted back to life after its power grid rebooted, at which point James engaged the landing gear.

"Keep their leader from leaving the ship, he's that brute you saw and heard on the comm – goes by the alias of 'Hack'. We suspect he'll try to make a break for it while everyone's distracted with the fighting. Do whatever you have to to stall him until we can get there, we'd like to have him alive."

Once everything was in relative order, the vulpine pilot popped the canopy, put his wings into standby, and began undoing the restraining harness...
"My team's right outside, cant we just~"

"They're back!" That was Peppy, taking point in Jame's absence outside, "Everybody form up and pick a target!"

"Goddammit, that changes everything." Doyle hissed into the headset, "Take evasive action! Move!"

When James looked , he saw a few of the pirates' assault craft make a pass across the hangar's outer entrance, eerily silenced by the vacuum of space between.

"I'm sorry McCloud, but I just don't know what to tell you anymore..."

James McCloud immediately reached for the controls in front of him, but hesitated. With the comm chatter now silenced, he could hear the muffled clamor of a firefight nearby within the ship: a few cracks of blaster-fire, shouted orders and occasional cries of agony, all the telltale signs of armed conflict. Jack's shuttlecraft was still laying quietly nearby, but the angle didn't show the pilot or what his condition was. Though damaged and dented, there wasn't any sign that the shuttle wouldn't run, and that's what the hijackers had demanded. The fox felt for the blaster on his hip – it was loaded, and he carried enough magazine charges to last a few reloads if it came to it...

"Are you still there?"

The doorway to the rest of the ship opened, and someone entered hangar control. It was only one and was too far to make out any detail, but the figure's stance looked worn and weathered, likely from the nearby fighting.

"Hold that thought..."
James shut off his headset's comm, and vaulted out of the fighter's cockpit as silently as he could.

Hack entered the Lady Vain's hangar deck cautiously, with his blaster handgun drawn and ready. The shuttle was there just as he'd hoped, but it was damaged from a collision, and then there was the matter of the uninvited fighter. The hybrid feline stopped a moment, and listened – just the distant firefight behind, the quiet rumbling of ship systems, and an uncomfortable silence on top of that...

Hack raised his blaster toward the hangar deck's ceiling and fired three shots that echoed throughout the cavernous space for several seconds. There was still nothing...

He glanced hurriedly between the shuttlecraft and the fighter. The shuttle was damaged, though it appeared it would still function. The fighter on the other hand was in much better condition, looked ready to go, could be defended much more easily, and was totally unoccupied. No matter how one could slice it, the fighter was a better choice, and so he moved to take it...

The fighter's hull bore the markings and of Star Fox. From what he knew, they were an upstart mercenary band that catered to high budget big shots all across Lylat. Beyond that was little more than unreliable hearsay as they've only been active for a few years...

Hack slipped the handgun into his belt as he prepared to climb up and into the sturdy fighter's cockpit. He reached out, barely an inch from touching the fuselage, and was stopped when he felt the hard muzzle of a firearm press against the back of his skull.

"Twitch and you're dead."

"That so?"
The hybrid feline brought his hands up in a nonchalant gesture of surrender.
"I figured you'd want someone like me alive."

The fox guided Hack away from the fighter, never breaking nor bending the soldierly intensity of his actions.
"Captain Doyle wants you alive, I really don't give a damn."

"That's right, you're only doing this for the money..."
Though James stopped, Hack dropped his arms and continued away toward the shuttle nearby.
"I'm sure you'll still get paid if I get away, you did your best after all~"

*Blam!*

The shot echoed through the hangar deck for several tense seconds, and the noise diminished into far too quiet a silence afterward. Both James McCloud and the pirate known as Hack remained stock still through it all. The fox stood with his weapon held out in a firm grip, while the larger hybrid feline stopped dead in his tracks.

"I don't give a damn if you die."

After a thoughtful second or so, Hack reached up and felt the line of smoking scorched fur across his jaw. The fox's shot grazed far too precisely to have been a simple miss – it was a warning, and the only one he'd likely give.

In light of the hurriedly reevaluated circumstances, the hybrid feline removed and dropped his own weapon to the hangar floor, and finally kicked it away for good measure.
"Just how much are these InterPatrol blowhards paying you?" he asked as he turned to face the stubborn mercenary holding him at gunpoint, "The way you're acting, you must either making bank on this job or broke. Maybe you and I can come to some sort of monetary understanding."

"Or maybe I believe in something more important than money..."
James closed in on the captive, slowly circling behind him.
"Do you have any idea how many fake wars are being fought because of filth like you? Petty little political squabbles are exploding out of proportion across Lylat, all because state-of-the-art weapons and military gear are finding their way into the hands of these dumb little fringe groups. The arms dealers have to be getting there wares from somewhere – from pirates like you."

Hack rolled his eyes, hardly fazed by the mercenary's extensive extrapolation.
"Is that what Miss Doyle told you when she bought your allegiance, with money?"

"Shut up, get down, and keep your hands behind your head where I can see them..."
The vulpine pilot did his best to ignore the jeering, but the latest taunt struck a nerve, threatening to crack through his discipline.
"Now!"

Hack dropped to his knees as commanded with his hands behind his head, but still continued to speak.
"Miss Doyle wants me alive because I know things, things that she and all the other little hunters won't ever have the chance to know if I'm dead because if I'm dead, I'll just be another number on the bodycount. If you really believe in things worth more than mere money, then I'm sure I have something that'll be of value to you."

The fox considered his options – lacking any means of restraint, he had the pirate is about as secure a position as was feasible. If only to stall for more time, he indulged in Hack's little game.
"What things do you know?"

"So you all think this is the jackpot?" the larger hybrid feline replied with a low rumbling chuckle, "Do you really think taking hostages and ripping off cargo freighters is where real value is at these days? This is like a little day-job for me~"

James jammed the muzzle of is blaster handgun against the pirate's temple, cutting him off.
"You haven't answered me yet, what do you know?"

"Cerinia: the things going on out there will blow your mind..."
With his bait presented, Hack made his move.
"Let me pass, I'll be glad to fill in the details for you another day under better circumstances."

But James didn't bite.
"Nice try, but that's not going to happen."

"Your loss..."

In a lightning quick motion, Hack sprung his hands from behind his head to the barrel of Jame's blaster, and yanked the weapon forward over his shoulder. The fox knew he couldn't hang on to it, not without losing balance, and made the tactical choice of ejecting the magazine cartridge barely an instant before his grip gave out.

The hybrid feline burst to his feet and threw an elbow behind him where James was, continuing his relentless aggressive assault. The vulpine pilot ducked under the elbow, and quickly used his left arm to grapple across Hack's chest, redirecting the aggressive momentum to trip him over a leg and onto his back.

James moved in to pin him down, but his opponent was already recovering with a whirlwind of kicks as he twisted his head and shoulders against the deck floor. One of these flying feet caught McCloud by surprise and knocked him staggering back with a bleeding cheek, allowing Hack the split-second he needed to kick-up back to his feet.

The fox wasted no time, and quickly advanced on his opponent with a flurry of aggressive kick maneuvers. Though more cumbersome than other footwear, the hard heavy tanker boots of a pilot granted the wearer extra protection, extra force, and extra impact which James had learned to utilize in hand-to-hand combat.

Hack stepped back, somewhat surprised by the speed and tremendous force behind his smaller opponent's kicks. Despite the constant barrage from the mercenary, he was able to receive the blows easily enough while he looked for the opening.

After pummeling on the hybrid feline's defenses, one of Jame's kicks was caught under his opponent's arms in a grapple. Hack moved to sweep the other leg out from under the fox and land him on his back, The mercenary saw the takedown coming and twisted his body to avoid it, sending his free leg crashing into the side of Hack's head.

The blow sent the hybrid feline staggering back a few feet, allowing a momentary pause in the fighting. Both James and Hack spotted the loaded blaster which the pirate dropped earlier, but McCloud was closer. James started toward the weapon, but a small object was flung his way – a comm headset he realized. He ducked the improvised missile easily enough, but it was simply a distraction. Hack was already lunging toward the fox, and with no time to dodge out of the way or prepare a normal counterattack.

From his crouching position, just as the larger hybrid feline was pouncing for the kill, James McCloud exploded into rising backflip and kick. The wheel-like blow sliced between Hack's outstretched arms, and the heavy steel toe of Jame's boot smashed into his opponent's jaw and throat with an unimaginable upward force. The sheer impact stopped the furious pirate in his tracks, but the odd nature of the attack left the fox landing on the deck at an awkward side angle, taking its heavy toll on both combatants.

By the end of it, they were both beaten, bloodied, bruised and sprawled on the hangar deck's floor. The two of them scrambled to their weary feet as quickly as their bodies allowed, but James was the quicker. While Hack was still wheezing and gasping through his battered throat, McCloud was able to limp over to the blaster, seize it, and turn it on his hapless opponent.

"I... don't have time for this." James managed between heaving breaths.

The fox was about to pull the weapon's trigger for the coup de grâce, when the entire hangar deck bucked violently. The unexpected tremor knocked McCloud clean off his feet, and the blaster out of his hand. By the time he'd gotten back on his feet with weapon in-hand, Hack was already sprinting the short distance toward Jack's battered shuttlecraft.

"Stop!..."
James pursued him on uncooperative legs across the swaying deck, firing haphazard shots against the pirate that all missed by miles.
"You son of a bitch!"

When he got to the shuttle's boarding ramp, a limp body was hurled out and landed squarely on top of McCloud. The fox buckled under the sudden force and collapsed under the dead weight. The body was that of Jack Lateran – breathing, but not conscious. He'd live.

By the time James pulled himself out from under Jack, the shuttlecraft had already closed its boarding ramp and was going through its startup sequence. The vulpine mercenary reactivated his headset, and addressed his comrades.
"McCloud to team, what's the situation out there?"

"We've dispatched the last of them oot here. We were just about tae head in to assist."

"Well scratch that! Hack has control the shuttlecraft Jack brought in, and he's about to..."
James heard a sound he shouldn't have been hearing, at least not here and not not now.
"Oh no."

"What the hell is going on in there?"

The shuttle was only a few feet off the hangar deck, in taxi mode as it was supposed to be, but something was off. The normal rumble of the craft's reactor wasn't constant as it should've been under the circumstances. It was instead escalating both in pitch and volume – the powering up of a high-load capacitor.
"That crazy bastard! He's gonna make a jump from inside the hangar bay!"

With Jack Lateran still limp and unconscious, James dragged the limp coyote across the hangar deck as hard as he could toward toward the safety of hangar control where a number of worn out crewmen were waiting inside. Two of the crewmen dashed out to take Jack, allowing them to make it into the crowded control room in time.

*Crack!*

Like a lighting strike in sound and appearance, a blinding flash of light engulfed the Lady Vain's hangar deck, but only for an instant. As suddenly as it was there, it was gone, leaving no trace of the shuttlecraft that made the jump.

While the crew around him went busy, James was the only one standing still. He simply stood by one of the control room's wide windows, staring to the outside with his arms folded across his chest.

After several seconds, someone came up behind the fox and questioned him.
"You're the mercenary, James McCloud?"

"Yeah." the fox responded flatly.

"We need you and your fighter off this ship, now."

"I'll bet."
He just shrugged, still focused on the empty space in front of him.

"It's unfortunate that he got away, but we can't afford to indulge your sulking right now..."
James didn't look to see who he was talking with, but the voice carried on anyway.
"There's been a partial failure of the G-diffuser array, and it's making us sink into Solar's surface. The ship and everyone aboard can still be saved, but to do that we have to lose every gram of excess mass and take the load off what's left of our G-diffuser systems. That fighter of yours represents several tons of excess mass we can't have weighing us down~"

"Right, I'll get on it." James interrupted.

Without interacting with any of the crew, the vulpine mercenary jogged out of the control room back onto the hangar deck to where his Comet Mk II waited for him. The deck was quiet, with only the sound of Jame's echoing footsteps and the background drone of ship's systems making noise. The air did however feel much hotter than it should've, and the bloody glow of Solar was far brighter than it was before.

The fox clambered up into the cockpit of his fighter and set it through the takeoff sequence without any difficulties. Upon exiting the hangar bay, he noticed a whole slew of items streaming out of the Lady Vain along with him. Cargo containers, spare parts, empty escape pods and other objects too small to be clearly discerned – anything that the ship didn't need in order to function was being cast off to lighten the load...

At the same time though, the massive passenger liner angled its bow upward away from Solar's surface. When the Lady Vain's structure reached a roughly perpendicular angle, she fired her engines as hard as they'd flare, combating the dwarf star's gravity grip with sheer thrust. The ship's descent slowed, stalled for a few seconds, and the struggling vessel began to rise up away from the sea of blood-red flames...

Something failed, and the Lady Vain began to veer off to one side, cutting at an angle instead of straight up. The ship twisted itself about to compensate, and despite the setbacks it looked like she'd still pull out of it alright. Then there was another failure – one of the engine thrusters popped with a small explosion, and began spewing smoke and debris from its wound...

The strained vessel could no longer handle it. A torrent of small failures chipped away at the ship's systems, culminating in one dire fact: she was snared in the unforgiving grip of gravity, and there was no escape. Like a great beast trapped in a tar pit, the Lady Vain succumbed to her fate, collapsing down into the endless sea of blood flames.

After only seconds of contact with Solar's photosphere, the shields gave out, and exposed the hull directly to the elements. The exterior plating peeled away piece by piece, punctuated by quick flare-ups of real fire where the oxygen from the ship met the dwarf star's superheated hydrogen. With the escaping air came also escaping objects from within; scores of small of tiny black spots too far to be seen clearly...

The spots were people, they must've been, it couldn't have been anything else. The Lady Vain's passengers, crew, men women and children across the spectrum of species – all swept out of the vessel's crumbling safety to a grisly death by incineration. There would be no bodies, no shipwreck, not even a shred of drifting refuse would escape the blazing crushing depths. Her one and only possible survivor would be the pirate by who's hand she was doomed in the first place...

And so the fires of Solar consume all.


The living room's lights were dark, and the windows to the outside showed only the black sky of night. Light came instead from the wall mounted display screen, casting its images' shifting diffused glow across the space. Vixy sat curled on the couch with a cushion clutched in her arms, watching the display screen in front of her with the silent cold terror of uncertainty...

"We've... we've just received received an update regarding the whereabouts of the hijacked passenger cruiser Lady Vain..."
The screen was showing a Lylat Tribune breaking news bulletin, anchored by the blue-gray dove Victoria Goura. The avian journalist was clearly distraught in her position, but that wasn't going to stop her from carrying out her duty.
"According to our latest report from Interplanetary Patrol, after a misaligned jump made by the hijackers that brought the Lady Vain dangerously close to Solar, her G-diffuser systems suffered a catastrophic failure under immense gravitational strain, and she fell into the dwarf star..."
A chilling silence came over the broadcast, accompanied by and equally chilling stillness on screen.
"No survivors..."

A bright beam of light cut through the living room from the bay window that looked out onto the street. It was a pair of headlights pulling into the driveway, and the engine's distinct rumbling purr identified the vehicle as Jame's preferred muscle car. The engine stopped, the headlights extinguished, and a few quiet seconds later the front door slid open.

James McCloud was there on the other side, still adorned in his flight suit and jacket along with all his other equipment. Though returning home in full combat regalia was unusual it itself, what was even more out-of-place with the vulpine mercenary was the haunted, glassy, thousand-meter stare in his steel blue eyes. The fox stepped slowly into his home, weighed down by his silent burden...

"James?..."
Vixy rose up from the couch to cross to her husband, and saw the fox's ghostly mask for herself.
"My God, what's wrong?"

He didn't answer immediately, and instead drifted to the coffee table where the display screen's remote control lay. Without picking it up, James reached down and entered a command into the remote control to freeze the news program. The screen at the time was showing stock footage of the Lady Vain under far better circumstances from its past.

"I can hear them..."
He turned his distant gaze toward the silent and motionless display screen.
"That ship, and all those people... I was there and there was nothing I could do to save them. I had to stand back, watch as the ship and everyone aboard got torched alive. The screaming, the wailing, the cursing – I wasn't on the ship, but my head put voices there and... I can hear them."

Vixy had no vocal response, and instead took the traumatized pilot in a sympathetic embrace. James returned the gesture, wrapping his rigid arms around the vixen's waist an let her lean more on him. He was in a place far beyond the reaches of emotion, where neither tears nor rage could manifest. For a short while, the two of them remained in each other's arms and let time slip away...

"Daddy?"
The innocent little voice shattered the silence.

James and Vixy separated from each other, and found their tiny toddler of a son at the foot of the staircase, dressed in his favorite spaceship pajamas.

"What are you doing up Fox?" Vixy asked, "Bedtime was hours ago."

"I see Daddy come home."
He pointed at the front door.

"Well Daddy is very upset right now, and he needs quiet time for rest."

"Why?"

"Because something very bad happened at Daddy's work."

"Why?"

James McCloud froze in place with bated breath. Such a simple question 'why', but one without an answer.

After a few seconds, Vixy let out a quiet sigh and moved in toward her son.
"Come on Fox, let's go back to bed."

"No wait..."
James grabbed her arm, gently holding her back while he advance in her place.
"I'll put him to bed."

"James."
The vixen placed a hand on his shoulder as she voiced her concern.

"Let me do this, please."
He glanced back over his shoulder to his wife, and in his eye was a telltale spark of life that wasn't there before.

With some reluctance, Vixy let him go. The weathered vulpine mercenary bent down as he scooped young Fox up on to his shoulders, and carried him up the stairs to his room. Under other circumstances, he would've likely remained cold and stagnant, but the opportunity and responsibility gave him enough motivation to keep going. Though not lively by any measure, it was a start.


You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

-Maya Angelou-