Chapter 2 and 3 are combined into one, forming chapter 2. Chapter 3 sees the story slowly developing and thus beginning the interaction between James and Wolf, sparking an eventual friendship-turned-romance between them that comes in the later chapters. I estimate about 40 chapters or so. You can find this on A03 and sofurry as well. Info on my profile page.
Also, I dropped out of college and am now working two jobs. Best of luck to me (Yay!).
Chapter 2
Wolf O'Donnell, rogue mercenary extraordinaire, notorious for her unforgiving and intolerant nature, is now a guinea pig for the CDF, serving as a 'licensed mercenary' for none other than General Pepper himself.
Wolf was just a normal lupine, with a grey coat of fur, white underbelly fur that ran from her muzzle just below her stomach, a bushy tail, short pointed ears, and a mane of fur that acted as hair and was pulled back into a ponytail. She also wore an eyepatch over one of her eyes; a grim reminder of a past she was trying so desperately to forget. Wolf wore a purple vest, a pair of dark grey pants, a black tank top that reached just above her stomach, showing off a bit of her midriff, and a pair of grey boots. She had killer looks, as in, if it weren't for her past reputation, she'd have a significant other to come home to like so many Cornerians in the Lylat.
But, as a mercenary under the supervision of the CDF, this was her only chance to right all the wrongs she has ever done, so she didn't bother wasting the time to find the 'perfect someone' for herself.
Since Star Wolf was allowed to be reinstated and continued, General Pepper gave Wolf a handful of CDF recruits, fresh from the academy, to fill in the missing slots left by Panther, Leo, and Andrew. Wolf rejected all but three recruits - all female - and enlisted, with permission, the help of Miyu and Fay. A lot of Cornerians were still upset that O'Donnell was allowed to walk free, and now that she's recruiting CDF cadets and Star Fox members to do her dirty work, a lot of civil unrest had fallen upon the entire planet and Lylat System where several things have happened as a result, including an assassination attempt on O'Donnell herself; the offender was eventually apprehended, tried, and put in prison. The recruits were not entirely happy about the fact that they were working for the 'Terror of Corneria', but at least Miyu and Fay were there to keep an eye on her. They were also surprised that she would pick them out of all the thirty cadets who graduated in their class. What was their significance to her?
Regardless, Wolf had chosen her team and was ready to begin her new career. The only problem was that she no longer had a ship to operate from-not that she had one, to begin with. To solve this, General Pepper ordered the CDF to provide Wolf with a ship for her base of operations. Despite his direct orders, half of the naval commanders under his command were either demoted or suspended because they instead gave Wolf an old, beat up blockade-runner. Rather than being upset, Wolf surprised everyone by gladly accepting her ship-but on the inside, she was curled up on the floor of her conscience trying not to cry.
Wolf was currently in the ship's cargo bay, which was rather large in contrast to the actual ship and could serve as a makeshift hangar, deploying the team's fighters from a series of rafters above. The rafters were a series of catwalks with gaps large enough for the Arwings and one Wolfen to be stored. O'Donnell was trying to buff out some dents her Wolfen suffered from recent 'job opportunities' where several times she was almost blown up by intentional friendly-fire from CDF anti-air. The commanders in charge of those ships and their AA batteries dismissed the accusations, but since this 'incident' had occurred more than enough times to be not an accident, and the fact that there was supporting evidence against them, the commanders were removed from their positions by Pepper effective immediately. He declared that the CDF was to assist Wolf O'Donnell and cooperate with her, not find inexcusable excuses to kill her. He also stated that, should anyone willingly disobey these orders, they would be discharged from the service.
With Pepper watching her back and her every move, Wolf didn't have much to do besides sit around and be lazy all day. Or in this case, working on her battered Wolfen. The lupine sat on the nose of the aircraft, wiping the glass canopy to clear it of smudges and scorch marks it obtained in the past twelve years she's had it. She didn't do 'calm and peaceful', so to break the silence, she played some music from a weak transmission she intercepted from deep space. But it wasn't that different from Cornerian music, and it was just as catchy.
The hangar was filled with the heavy guitar solo of a song from a heavy metal band whose name slipped her mind as she was too focused on the repairing of her Wolfen I. The song, however, was cut short, much to Wolf's frustration. She grabbed her cleaning supplies and jumped off the Wolfen, landing on the catwalks with a grunt. Putting down the bottle of window cleaner and the roll of paper towels, Wolf walked over to the console and tried to bring back her song, only to be met with the face of the last person she wanted to see.
"Fox McCloud," she sneered with malice. "What do you want?"
The vulpine kept a straight face and said, "Enough of that, Wolf. General Pepper wants both of us for this."
"Why? And are we getting paid?" Wolf asked, wiping her paws on the sides of her pants.
Fox rolled her eyes, but replied, "I'm getting to that, and yes. Yes, we are. And in case you were wondering how much, it's fifty-thousand credits per team member."
"What's the occasion, Miss Know-It-All?"
"Captain Casey of the Third Fleet discovered a ship of unknown origin on the edge of the system. He claims that it was attacked by Venom."
Wolf stiffened and her sneer was wiped off her face. "But...but I thought they were gone? Kaput. Does this, Casey, have any proof?"
Fox nodded. "Yes, yes he does. It also shows us who Venom attacked. But first, you have to come aboard the Acolyte, Captain Casey's ship. We'll know more from there. And bring everyone on your team as well. McCloud out."
The screen switched off, leaving an empty hangar and a silent, grim Wolf O'Donnell. Her mind processed the information she'd just received from Fox. If what Casey said was true, then Corneria might be dealing with a new Venom leader, as well as making first -contact with a new alien species. She scoffed at the first part. 'Please', she thought as she cleaned up her working space and put on her vest, not bothering to zip it up. 'If Venom was under new leadership, then I would've been the first to know about it'.
Despite General Pepper's strict monitoring of her activities, he failed to tap into her comms, which were still connected to the Venomian battle net. The only ones who know about this currently were her team. She didn't trust anybody else but herself and her team. She turned and walked away from the console, deliberately forgetting about her Wolfen as one thing dominated her thoughts: money.
Fifty-thousand credits per team member for both Star Fox and Star Wolf. O'Donnell saw this as an opportunity to finally get some stuff done around the Radiance, such as new updated equipment, some defensive weaponry as well as offensive, and maybe, just maybe, a new fighter to replace her old Wolfen.
The CDF was constantly coming out with new tech and gear, including a state-of-the-art fighter prototype that was expected to be on the frontlines in a few days. Wolf wanted one of those older, but reliable, craft that was still in service today. She'd customize it to fit her personal preferences, and probably make a few tweaks to upgrade its performance.
Lost in her train of thought, Wolf didn't notice Fay rounding a corner and the two canids collided. "Oh!" Fay exclaimed. "I-I didn't see you there. Sorry." The white spaniel turned a beet-red as she nervously fiddled with her paws, eyes fixed on the grated floor. Wolf had always found Fay's shy nature amusing and somewhat adorable. But in the thick of battle, Fay proved herself to be an excellent pilot and marksman.
Wolf smiled kindly and pat Fay on the shoulder, then gestured for her to follow. "Don't worry about it. Come on; we've finally got a job to do. Fox just called in and said that some CDF captain found an 'unknown ship' that was supposedly attacked by Venom."
Fay's eyes widened slightly. "Really? But I thought-"
Wolf cut her off. "I thought they were gone for good too, but they're not. Let's talk to the team about this before we get into too much thought about it."
Fay nodded. "Okay. What do you think they'll say?"
Wolf shrugged. "Who knows? But I do know that they'll agree to this job once I tell them how much we're getting paid for it."
"How much are we getting paid?" Fay asked.
"Fifty-thousand credits?!" Sylvia Blackwood, a German Shepherd, exclaimed in surprise. "For each team member? That's...that's unbelievable. Are you sure that's what Fox told you?"
Wolf sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes," she replied with slight annoyance. "I am sure."
"So, let me get this straight," cut in Anya, a serval, "we're going to an abandoned alien ship and boarding it?"
Wolf shook her head. "No, no, no! You don't understand. Fox McCloud said that we'll know more once we get aboard the Acolyte. Please don't ask any more questions about it because I don't know anything except for the fact that Venom might be behind the attack."
"Do you think that they're back now?" Miyu inquired. "That they're under new leadership?"
Wolf shrugged. "Beats me. I haven't gotten anything from my 'mole' here." She indicated to her wrist comm. "But I have a hunch that they are under new leadership. I could be wrong, though."
"So," Sylvia crossed her arms under her chest. "When do we leave?"
Wolf smirked and said, "Right now."
As the Third Fleet prepared to launch a search-and-rescue team, the USS Einstein drifted in the empty vacuum of space, the barren, stricken hull rolling on its axis at a constant rate of ten-degrees-per-hour. The Acolyte had scanned the ship and found that a single life form was onboard, but a vital-signs scan showed that there was a significant decrease in its food and water intake; two or three more days after the CDF showed up and it would have died. Good thing that never happened and the CDF showed up when they did. Casey deployed SFC Fara Phoenix as head of the rescue team. Fox and Wolf would provide back-up if Fara's team needed it.
While all this was happening, the last remaining survivor aboard the Einstein, James Beckham Hayes, roamed the halls of the once-bustling wreck that was his home away from home. James had survived the attack of lizards and apes through craftsmanship, wit, and the vents of the ship. One by one, he picked them off, until they decided to leave what they deemed as a haunted ship. He cremated the bodies of the Einstein crew, but jettisoned the attackers out the airlock; they had no honor in attacking a civilian ship, and therefore didn't deserve a proper sendoff. He also found a recording the captain had made before he was taken captive by the attackers. It was damaged, but James managed to clean it up and send it out via the USS Einstein's long-range transmitter in hopes of help arriving soon.
The attack damaged the main power unit, and despite James and Tim's efforts to fix it, they were only able to restore about twenty-five-percent of the normal energy output. That, plus the auxiliary, only added up to forty-five-percent effectiveness. The food dispensers, refrigerators, coolers, freezers, etc., all ran on the main power and did not work below seventy-five-percent. Soon, the frozen meat would thaw out and become rotten, so James had to be careful of opening the freezers and refrigerators to keep the cold in as much as possible. The A/C units were offline as well, and only the heater worked. But with space being cold all the time, the ship was nice and warm and cozy enough to keep James from freezing to death. The water still ran, but with the food starting to go bad after five days, James was stuck with MREs and mild constipation.
James spent the majority of the five days in the simulators, developing his fighting and piloting skills to have a better chance against the ones that attacked his ship and killed the entire crew, just in case they ever came back. He became pretty handy with a gun; in fact, he was skilled with sidearms, rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, and shotguns, as well as hand-to-hand combat; armed and unarmed. His flying skills were so-so, with over three-hundred kills to four-hundred-seventy-one deaths, an accuracy of forty-three-percent, and a crash rate of fifty-two-percent. 'Not bad for a rookie', he thought to himself, one day after a round in the flight simulator.
Then, on the fifth and final day, James was working out in the ship's gym when he noticed a huge fleet of blue and white ships approaching the Einstein, and he nearly tripped and fell off the treadmill.
He got dressed into his engineer uniform, attached a holster for a sidearm to his right thigh and placed an AS-95 Tactical Handgun into it, and prepared for whatever could happen next. Tim, his drone companion, had attached himself to a ledge on the back of James's jumpsuit, and James wore the bot like a backpack. All James had to do now was to wait for whoever was out there to board and see if they were friendly or hostile; he hoped it was the former.
Sergeant First Class Fara Phoenix anxiously tapped her foot on the floor of the dropship, deep in thought. She was worried, anxious, and downright nervous. She had seen the video that was sent and shown to the entire Third Fleet and, to say the very least, she was shocked. The fact that Venom was still active and wreaking havoc shocked everyone, but Fara was more so when she found that whoever was attacked was a whole new species of an intelligent alien species. She felt bad for the people on the...whatever the ship was called. They were unprepared and outgunned by the Venomian forces, but at least they didn't go down without a fight. Whoever was left on that ship must have gotten lucky enough to get away and deal with them from the shadows, because as the shuttle made its way towards the alien ship, the shuttle pilot announced that there were numerous Venomian bodies drifting around lifelessly in the vicinity. Fara didn't know whether or not to feel joy or feel…frightened.
Fara was a fennec fox, about thirty-years-old, and was single. Being an NCO (non-commissioned officer), Fara didn't want to take the time to find her 'significant other'. She liked her job, more or less, but sometimes her subordinates and team would get on her nerves.
"Sergeant? Are you all right?" Fara looked up at one of the newest additions to her team, a young female maned wolf. "You seem a little nervous."
Fara smiled at the recruit. "Don't worry about me kid. We're all a little nervous here. We're about to board an alien ship, so I guess that's a good reason to be nervous."
"Do ya think there's anyone on it, Sarge?" a male panther asked in a slight Southern drawl.
"There is. But they're slowly dying from lack of food and water," Fara replied. "Luckily for them, we're going to save them before they do."
"What does the alien look like?" the maned wolf asked.
Fara shrugged. "We'll find out eventually."
The dropship entered the wrecked hangar of the alien ship, slowing down its approach and landing gracefully in an open spot cleared of any strewn equipment. The back hatch opened and lowered to the hangar floor, and Fara's team poured out and secured a perimeter around the dropship. Fara then signaled the team to move out and they cautiously followed her through the hangar that was filled with the strange-looking craft. The majority of the machines were large and bulky, with large engines and a payload that was enough to take out an entire small village, and were either painted in a dull grey or an olive drab color. Some other crafts were smaller and more streamlined, appearing to be fighters with swept or straight wings, and tons of ordnance strewn across the hangar floor.
Fara and her team were awed at the sight but later refocused themselves on the current mission at hand. They soon left the hangar behind and entered the empty, desolate corridors of the ship, where they found numerous telltale signs of a fight that had occurred before their arrival. "Plasma scoring," Fara declared, inspecting the scorch marks on the walls and floor. "Venomian weapons too." She turned to her team. "They are definitely behind this. Let's head to the bridge and see if we can find anything else there."
Nothing. They found absolutely nothing on the bridge save for the plasma scoring from before, some pools of dried blood, and oddly-shaped brass pieces that smelled faintly of gunpowder. Fara tried to turn on the main console monitor but with no luck. Venom shot up the entire system. But the maned wolf, Private Mara, discovered that someone had very recently been up here and took some needed parts from the consoles. The team left the bridge and explored the rest of the ship, where they encountered their first alien muzak; it was not that dissimilar from their own. They found the engine room, which was the largest part of the ship; the reactor, which had been completely disabled, possibly during the attack; the cafeteria; a simulator; then, finally, the Sublevel Deck, aka the guts of the ship itself.
"Ugh," groaned Mackenzie, the panther. "This place stinks and gives me the creeps. What is this exactly?"
"Cut the chatter, Mackenzie," Fara ordered, holding up her paw in a fist to halt the team. "I thought I heard something." They fell silent and listened; nothing but the hissing of steam and the creaking of the ship reached their ears.
Mackenzie gulped and began, "It's probably no-"
Crash!
Fara and her team primed their weapons and aimed towards the source of the noise. "Hello? Is anyone there? Show yourself!" Fara shouted. "Mara," she called over her shoulder, "with me. The rest of you split up into equal groups and search for whoever is here. Keep your eyes peeled and blasters ready. We don't know if this alien is a friend or a foe. Move out."
"...The rest of you split up into equal groups and search for whoever is here. Keep your eyes peeled and blasters ready. We don't know if this alien is a friend or foe. Move out." The heavy thumping of boots echoed in the halls of the Einstein's bowels and soon faded in the distance. James hid in the maintenance corridors below, waiting for the intruders to leave. Once he was sure they were gone, he carefully pushed a panel up from the floor and slid it open, allowing him to pull himself out of the restricting and claustrophobic maintenance corridor. He crouched low and slid the panel back into place, then looked around for any sign of the intruders. Finding none, he started in the direction that the fox-looking thing ran off with another canid creature. If he were to show himself to these aliens, then he would have to start small with the two that were by themselves together.
He slowed his pace to a walk and took care to take as light a step as possible, so he wouldn't give himself away sooner than he wanted to. But despite his best efforts, the boots he wore, along with the weight of Tim on his back, clanked on the grated floor. "So much for stealth," he said to himself. Tim shuddered at the nearly-empty silence, and James would jump now and then at the occasional hiss of steam. Then, he heard voices, and he stopped at the corner and poked his head around it.
He had found the duo, and up close, they were way more than what he was expecting: the leader was a big-eared, bushy-tailed animal of some sort, and they were talking to what looked to be a maned wolf, judging by the fur coloring and markings. Both 'aliens' appeared to be female, judging by the way their bodies were shaped. James shook his head and ducked back behind his cover and attempted to come up with a plan on what to do about these aliens. Tim detached from his perch and hovered next to him; his optics fixed on him. James looked at the bot questioningly, as if asking for a suggestion. Tim responded with a shrug. James shook his head with a quiet sigh before sneaking another peek around the corner at the two aliens, only to find that they had disappeared.
His eyes widened in a panic and he rushed out from behind his cover, only to kick a toolbox that had been conveniently left out in such a way that one could not see it as they rounded the corner until it was too late. The resulting clattering and clanging of the tools as they fell onto the grated metal floor echoed in the corridors for several seconds. James had flinched and was bracing his shoulders up as he waited for something else to happen. But nothing did. No sign of the aliens. He relaxed and let out a sigh of relief as he turned to Tim, but he was nowhere to be found. "Tim?" He whipped his head left and right toward either end of the hallway in search of his friend. But he had disappeared. James immediately became worried and he began a physical search for the little bot. He first headed towards where he last saw Tim, but no one and nothing was there. Then he went for the other end of the hallway where he had seen the two alien females and took a right. But when he rounded the corner, he ran face-first into the chest of one of the aliens.
He took a step back and looked up and gulped. It was a wolf of some kind, with grey and white fur, an eyepatch over her left eye, a ponytail draped over her right shoulder, and a rather menacing gaze as she glared down at him with her single violet-red eye. Panic set in once more and James turned on his heel to run the other way, but his arm was grabbed by the wolf and she pulled him back with a growl. "And just where do you think you're going?" James halted in his attempt to escape from her grasp and looked at her in disbelief. She gave him a strange look. "What?"
He couldn't believe it. He could understand every single word she was saying. Either he was imagining it, or she truly spoke full English. Her, an extraterrestrial being from another planet. What are the odds? Slim to none. And yet, here he was, being held by an alien wolf-thing, who looked more like a pirate than anything, that spoke one of humanity's main languages without any trouble. This day could not get any weirder. "Wolf?" Him and his big mouth. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back-up in case anything went—"
'Wolf' and James directed their attention from each other to who was speaking. James instantly recognized as the large-eared fox he was observing from afar. But what upset him was the fact that Tim was right alongside her. "…Wrong," she finished her sentence after an awkward silence. She then pointed at the human and the alien lupine without lifting her arm. "Why are you holding him like that?" After a brief silence, James felt the pressure on his forearm lessen and 'Wolf' took a step back.
James rubbed the sore spot on his arm and stared at the large-eared fox, which he deducted to be a fennec fox of some sort. The maned wolf from earlier was also there, just out of sight behind the fennec and Tim. The droid warbled something to the fennec, who looked at him and smiled. "Of course," she said, surprising James even further and prompting his jaw to drop slightly agape. The droid then made his way to James's side and place his wiry appendages on his back and push him towards the fennec. James resisted the droid and he hissed at him in German, something he had picked up in his spare time on the ship. Tim responded with a metallic growl and zapped him with a prick from his taser arm. James yelped and the brief break from resistance was enough for Tim to be able to shove the human forward and straight into the arms of the fennec, who caught him just before he fell flat on his face on the grated floor. When he looked up into the canine features of his 'rescuer', he was at a loss for words.
She had the brightest green eyes he had ever seen. Up close, that is. They stared down at him widely, taking his appearance that was – to their owner – strange and foreign. The fennec herself appeared to be unsure about what to make of him, her mouth opening and closing in an effort to form words to communicate with him. But, like James, she was at a loss for words. The lupine who was holding him captive earlier, however, had something to say. "Hey Phoenix. First non-homicidal alien you meet and already he's putting the moves on you." She followed up with a snarky chuckle. The fennec, 'Phoenix' as indicated by the lupine behind James, looked up from the human and glared at the lupine.
"Shut up O'Donnell. You looked like you were about to put the moves on him yourself." Amidst their exchanging of words, James realized something. Phoenix called the lupine 'Wolf' when she had a hold on his arm, and just now she said 'O'Donnell'. He put the two words together and got 'Wolf O'Donnell'. He frowned. How original. This was probably going to the most boring 'first contact' humanity will ever have. And by 'humanity', I mean James. He was expecting a name like 'Jar (Yar) L'ahar' or something similar. Instead, he has 'Wolf' and probably 'Fox' somewhere out there. This 'Phoenix' was probably 'Fennec Phoenix'. He wouldn't be surprised at this point. He wondered how many more of these 'animal aliens' were named after their Earth namesakes?
Regardless, James used this brief break in their attention on him to make a run for it. Before either of the aliens could stop him, he had disappeared down the corridors and made for the elevator. He was about 20 yards away when he was suddenly clothes lined and fell flat on his back, gasping for breath as the wind was knocked out of him. Standing over him was a pair of glaring, deep-blue eyes that belonged to a female lynx. As his lungs began to reinflate with air and he slowly recovered, a trio of heavy footsteps approached him from behind before coming to a stop and the wolf, fennec, and maned wolf stood over him. When he was able to breathe normally again, he managed to gasp out a single sentence: "I guess I got no choice than to go with you guys, right?" He added a weak smile, but when no one else joined him, he decided to black out then and there. What a day...
There. It's over for now. Time lapse for the next chapter! *phew*
Phantom out.
