"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." - Teddy Roosevelt

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 3, The Unknown

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Unknown Location

"Michelle…" a voice called.

Michelle looked around. She couldn't see anything. Wherever she was, it was pitch black.

It called again, "Michelle."

"Jim!" she shouted, "Jim!" she called again. Michelle spun around. There was nobody there but her. Was she going crazy? Or was someone fooling with her mind?

"JIM!" she shouted. Surely, he had to be here, "Kiara! Hawkeye! Falcin! Rayn!" She must be going crazy, why would she call Rayn? "Somebody!" she screamed. For the first time she could ever remember, she was scared. What in God's name was going on? Where was everybody?

"SOMEBODY!" she screamed again. Michelle crouched down into a fetal position and put her head in her arms. She silently cried.

Michelle had once thought herself fearless. She had a gun held to her face in the hands of the enemy. She had piloted a burning battle ship through crossfire in a burning nebula. Yet, here she was, scared of the unknown.

The unknown…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Great Fox-B

Michelle looked around her room. It was pitch black. She hurriedly reached over to turn on the lamp next to her bed. She looked around in the dim light. It was her bedroom.

Michelle reached to pick up the covers that were on her. She was herself. Naked and alone. She let out a long sigh, "It was only a dream." Michelle buried her face in her hands and let out a dozen tears, "Oh Jim…"

"Captain. Please report to the bridge." ROB's voice came through the intercom, "Captain. Please report to the bridge."

Michelle was in no condition to command at the moment. She picked up her COM unit from her flight jacket on the floor and said, "Max has the con." She went back into her bed and wrapped herself in the covers.

On the bridge, ROB turned his upper body 360 degrees and said, "Captain says 'Max has the con.'"

"All righty then." Max reached to his COM unit, "Hawkeye, Falcin, let's slow down the warp engine. We're coming up on Titania."

"Roger that." One of the Lombardi twins said.

In the engine room, Falcin reached over to the control panel and punched in a few numbers before he pressed 'enter.' The fusion reactor core started to freeze the fusing particles.

Hawkeye was loosening a few valves on the right side of the engine.

"Full stop in 10 seconds."

Falcin counted to ten on his fingers. Hawkeye watched him and held the last valve in his hand tightly. Finally, the last finger went up and Hawkeye released the valve. Falcin pushed the big red button on the control panel.

The fused hydrogen atoms ejected from ship's engines. The main body of the Great Fox was propelled forward due to inertia and the atoms released their final expulsion of energy with a small atomic explosion that was left behind as the trail of the Great Fox. The explosion was neither heard nor felt in the Fox. Shortly after they were a distance away from the microscopic star, the Fox's breaks went into gear bringing the Dreadnought to a full and complete stop.

Before them lay a ringed desert planet. Titania.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macbeth Western Front (Cornerian Zone)

Jim suddenly remembered that he had a grenade locked into the launcher in his rifle. It was already shouldered and aimed at the Landmaster that had its cannon pointed at him. He looked around.

"Put down the weapon!" one of the Cornerians aiming a rifle at him said.

Jim didn't move.

"Put it down!" he said again.

Jim looked over at Jewel. She had her sights trained on the one who had his gun on Jim.

"Five…"

Jim pulled the trigger. The front of the Landmaster exploded and it crashed to the ground. The two soldiers next to it were thrown several feet and landed on their faces.

Jim turned his rifle to the left and Jewel turned hers to the right, they opened fire simultaneously planting bullets into the heads and bodies of the Cornerian soldiers.

One of the soldiers ran sideways while firing at Jim. He heard bullets whiz past his ears and body until three skimmed his shoulder at almost the same time. Jim got tired of trying to fire 360 degrees around. He primes a grenade and threw it to where he calculated the soldier would be in the next two seconds. He was dead before he took another step.

Rayn stared down the gunner on top of the Landmaster that was in front of him. If the driver of the Landmaster had a heavy foot, Rayn would be killed despite his shields. If he just stood there, the gunner would get an itchy finger and his shields would deplete enough for another soldier to head shot him.

Finally, he made his decision, Rayn stepped forward and threw himself on the ground. He took hold of his rifle. The Landmaster drove forward. Rayn closed his eyes and hoped he was low enough to the ground.

The light tank drove right over him. Some of the armor underneath skimmed his shields. Rayn stood up after it passed while they shimmered a bright blue. The Landmaster swerved to the left and stopped when it was facing Rayn almost ten yards off. The gunner fired the cannon. Rayn jumped and was thrown back by the force of the blast. His shields were completely depleted. When he finally got his gun arm up, he fired at the gunner while the cannon was still recharging. It aimed for another shot.

CRACK!

"Thanks, Bentley." Rayn said into his COM.

Rayn rejoined Jim and the others after he had gunned down two more Cornerians, "Jim, we best be heading off. The Landmasters still have their drivers. The other two. They'll-"

"Be heading back to base and reporting to their hive masters that there's a team of Confederates heading their way. Most likely the base will be more heavily guarded than we expect it to be." Jewel finished.

"You bleeding, Captain?" Jars asked.

"Yeah, nothing. I see you got hit." Jim said, holding his shoulder.

"Just a skim, Cap." Cody said.

"Bentley, c'mon down here." Jim said.

Kave automatically ran over to Jim and Cody when she found out that they were hit. She took out her med kit and bandaged them up in under a minute three seconds.

"Thanks, Kave." Jim said, "All right, we'll need to move fast and silent. Hand signals only. Kave, you're in the middle. Bentley, Jewel, Cody, you guys take up the rear. Rayn, Jars, and I will be lead. We'll follow this trench. It's covered mostly by hills, eventually we'll need to crouch down with some lookouts. Let's move."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Great Fox-B

Finally, Michelle got out of bed and put her clothes on. Not exactly the most appropriate for the situation, but frankly, she didn't care. She instantly saw that the new guest on board was satisfied with her choice in attire. That made her smile a bit. Michelle sat in the command chair and looked on the navigation screen.

Titania. No better place to find an entire army of murderers, mercenaries, and hit men than a dust ball that still resorts to the old ways of slavery. The war must really be going badly for General Pepper to have actually hired criminals to fight the war.

Well, StarFox II was hired. Never mind. She thought.

"Captain," Amber said, "the Titanian 'army' has shown us the contract deal that General Pepper signed. I'll forward it to you."

Michelle didn't bother to read the whole thing, but she did skim it to check for any obvious loopholes. Well, at least they weren't getting paid to the point where it was desperation. But they did get the 400 troops that the Great Fox could hold. Maybe it was a good deal after all.

"Luke O'Donnel." Michelle ordered. She stood from her chair.

The lupine leaped the steps that led to the Captain, "Yes, ma'am." He said standing stiff as a board.

"I hereby promote you to Gold Commander O'Donnel. You are now in charge of the 400 criminal turned soldiers that will soon be loaded into the hangar bay."

"I accept the responsibility with honor, ma'am." Luke said, bowing.

"Good. You are to use any means necessary to make sure that they don't destroy the ship or even leave deck E."

"Any means necessary. Roger, Captain."

"Head to the hangar bay and wait for their arrival."

"Yes, ma'am." Luke ran off to fulfill his assignment.

Michelle could tell that Luke wanted to say more, but she needed to get him into the commanding officer attitude before he could take any part in this war.

Michelle chose Luke for three reasons: one, he looked like a commander of a ruthless mercenary team. And as far as Michelle was concerned, this was one huge mercenary team. Two, Michelle was certain that Luke would get every single one of those hired guns under his control even if he had to kill every single one of them himself, which she was certain he could do. And third, none of the other team members on board had the same qualities that Luke had. Michelle was very grateful that Luke miraculously found his way to the Great Fox.

A holographic image appeared in the projector, "Captain McCloud." The one speaking was a gray coyote with a cybernetic eye. He had a black leather jacket and a DC-15B rifle strapped to his back. Hanging from the belt underneath the jacket was a strip of leather that carried five grenades.

"One out of two." Michelle said.

"You seem a tad out of dress."

"It's casual day."

"Hehe. Well, the order you asked for is ready. My army awaits your clearance for boarding."

"We're ready for you, Mr.…"

"Lieutenant Jackson."

"Lieutenant Jackson. Well, we have an official commanding officer aboard who'll be your temporary superior for the remainder of the war. Gold Commander Luke O'Donnel."

"Whoa, whoa. Let's get one thing straight, my troops answer to me, and me alone."

"Lieutenant, I will not have your criminals running over my ship like a swarm of locust. Commander O'Donnel is a well placed leader and I expect your men to respect him or else he will have to resort to drastic measures."

"Fine, but I expect to be placed among the ranks of your little Confederacy as well."

"And you will Second Rank Lieutenant Jackson."

Jackson just rolled his eyes before his form on the projector disappeared.

"The four C-26s are docking. You think Luke can handle them?" Amber asked.

"We'll find out." Michelle decided that she'd better be dressed more proper.

Gold Commander Luke O'Donnel watched as the four dropships docked with the Great Fox's holding arms and gently lowered them to the hangar floor. He saw legions of Titanian troops, no where near uniformed, file out of the C-26s. Eventually, the dropships had ferried approximately 411 troops to the Great Fox.

Finally, a coyote that had a cybernetic eye approached the stairs on the left side that led to the upper part of the hangar. Luke stood in front of the gate that led to the rest of the Great Fox.

"Welcome, gentlemen, to the Great Fox!" he said with great pride. Luke began walking down the stairs, every step pushed the coyote, along with the rest of the Titanians that followed him, back down the steps.

"I hope you enjoy you short stay here aboard our newly refit vessel, as we take a ride approximately 8 hours long, to the planet of our employment: Macbeth. I ask only that you remain here in the hangar in an orderly fashion."

"Says who?" the coyote asked.

"The Commanding Officer of our vessel, Captain Michelle McCloud-Grey."

"Who do you think you are? Giving us orders?"

Luke pulled his pistol from his holster, "I'm not sure who I am," he pointed the gun at Jackson's forehead, "but my father was Wolf O'Donnel."

Five minutes later, Michelle found her way to the hangar. She wore her StarFox II uniform and made sure she had a standard pistol at her side. She decided not to look around the hangar until she was at the bottom. Already she was surprised to hear silence. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was amazed by what she saw. Four hundred Titanian mercenaries stood perfectly still in perfect lines and rows. In the front row was Commander O'Donnel. Next to him was Lieutenant Jackson.

"Officer on the deck!" Luke shouted. Every single arm in the room shot up to greet the Captain.

Michelle smiled at Luke. He winked to her.

"At ease." She said. The arms went down, "gentlemen," she couldn't believe she used the term to describe them, "I ask that you do not venture beyond the doors of the hangar that lead astern. Nor the ones that lead to the port and starboard sides. The ride to Macbeth will be short and you are to be ready as soon as we reach the Macbethan Space Zone. You are free to use any of the facilities in the hangar and use any of the ammunition from the small armory we have down here, but please don't take anything unless you absolutely need it." She couldn't think of anything else to say, "Thank you for supporting our cause."

Michelle made her way back to the bridge.