The Lylat System was home to several dozen mercenary hideouts.

The Sargasso Space Zone was the largest (and only) mercenary hideout in the Meteo Asteroid Belt. Most of the other known hideouts were established at a much greater distance from Corneria, and a few weren't even technically in the Lylat System. Either the Cornerian army was ignoring Sargasso's existence, or they genuinely didn't know about it, due to the space station's well-hidden position within the belt.

Sargasso, like all other mercenary space stations, had belonged to one family for generations. Long before the War, and long before Corneria began regulating all of the planets in the Lylat System, the notorious Hare family built the massive space station to establish a home base for space pirates and criminals. Peppy was the last living descendant.

In the past, Sargasso was constantly teeming with activity, often housing more than fifty individuals at once, but as time passed and the Cornerian force became stronger, mercenary activity in the Lylat System dwindled. By the time Peppy inherited the station it was somewhat run-down. He was fiercely proud of it. He was even more proud of the small crew that he had gathered to help him run it.

Peppy owned Sargasso and acted as its manager, but he had appointed two leaders to manage two separate teams: Star Wolf and Star Fox. Even though the teams worked from the same base, Peppy encouraged the widespread opinion that Star Fox and Star Wolf were rivals because it made it easier to swindle clients. Keeping a giant space station and several specialty spacecraft functional was not cheap, and if money was running low, Peppy would have Star Wolf create a "problem" that Star Fox would have to "fix". For a price, of course.

Team Star Fox mainly dealt with Cornerian clients as a gun-for-hire, although it wasn't unusual for the team to pick up odd jobs all over the Lylat System. Fox was the leader of the team due to his exceptional piloting abilities, and his disarming demeanor made it easy for him to charm clients. Slippy looked harmless, which comforted twitchy government officials. Peppy was an old friend of General Pepper, from the days when Fox's father James had been the leader of Star Fox. Falco had just shown up one day and situated himself on the team.

The Star Wolf team hardly ever set foot anywhere near Corneria. Their business was openly and whole heartedly seedy, which took them everywhere from Sector Y to Venom. Wolf, who was as talented a pilot as Fox, was the leader. He dealt fairly with other space criminals and was well respected by all who did business with him. Leon was brought onto the team by Wolf, who insisted that he would be an asset (something Leon proved over and over again.) Andrew thought fast and talked faster, often getting the team out of sticky political confrontations.

The War limped along for decades, but the Venomian army had recently kicked their efforts into high gear. General Pepper, desperate for discreet help, contacted the only mercenary team he fully trusted, with the promise of large payment. Team Star Fox accepted.

The plan, simply, had been this: make as much money off of both sides as possible. Star Fox took the side of Corneria while Star Wolf offered their professional services to Venom. They carefully planned each confrontation over a private commlink connection. When Star Fox was assigned to bomb a Venomian supply base on Titania, and Star Wolf was stationed to protect that supply base, Star Wolf pretended that they had been bested. When Star Wolf shot down a Cornerian ship carrying a battalion of soldiers, Star Fox was conveniently occupied elsewhere. The plan hadn't been to let the whole thing drag on for several months. The teams were getting too involved, entangled in the politics.

Venom was supposed to be the end of it. Up to that point, Star Fox had kept its distance from Andross' planet. General Pepper had asked them to do another bombing run, this time on Venom. Star Fox contacted Star Wolf. The final agreement was that Star Fox would complete the bombings (which they did), have a small confrontation with Star Wolf, and leave. After collecting payment for the mission, they would remove all contact with General Pepper, keeping a low profile. Star Wolf would remain on Venom for a short period of time before disappearing quietly.

Needless to say, it hadn't gone according to plan.

"Holy shit, you really are alive!" Andrew exclaimed.

The Star Fox team had just walked into the spacious lounge of the Sargasso Space Station. Team Star Wolf was waiting for them.

"Of course I am, dumbass." Fox stood in the center of the room with a stony countenance, the rest of his team behind him. Andrew walked up and puffed out his chest.

"What did you call me?"

"Dumb. Ass."

They stood facing each other. Andrew's eye twitched. Fox remained impassive. Andrew crinkled his nose. Fox didn't budge. Finally, Andrew couldn't take anymore. He started laughing, pulled Fox into a quick, fond embrace, and held him at arm's length to inspect him thoroughly.

"God, you are so much better at keeping a straight face than I am."

Fox was grinning now, too. "I dunno, that was some great acting back there on Venom. We were almost convinced that you were really fighting for Andross."

"You liked it, huh? It was all Andrew." Wolf was lying back on one of the sofas with his feet propped up on the armrest. His eye was closed, the other covered with the eyepatch he used when not piloting. "He scripted the whole thing."

"Fuckin' amazing." Falco muttered appreciably. "Absolutely beautiful."

Andrew chuckled. "'Bow before the great Andross!' Psshh. The sad thing is, the Venomian troops legitimately talk like that."

After Andrew gave everyone a hug, Wolf and Leon (who had been sitting quietly) stood to greet the crewmates they had hardly seen for four months. Wolf shook everybody's hand. Leon nodded politely.

Peppy seemed a little on edge. "Really, though. We did think you might seriously be working for Andross. You stopped returning our messages shortly before we arrived on Venom– "

"Erm, yeah, you wouldn't BELIEVE how closely the Venomian officials monitor their troops. We were pretty good about evading their efforts, but we were sure they bugged our devices shortly after that whole thing you – we - did to the satellite. They were getting pretty suspicious of us, so we thought it would be safer if we didn't contact you for a while. We acknowledged the message you sent after Venom, didn't we? We all survived, didn't we? No harm done." Andrew explained.

"Are you still bugged? Did you lead them here?" Peppy asked with concern.

"Leon wiped all of our equipment. He would have done so earlier, but we didn't know just how closely we were being monitored." Wolf replied calmly.

Slippy stepped out from behind Fox, his usual spot. "Did you save any of the gadgets they gave you? It would be interesting to inspect –"

"No. We disposed of everything they gave us." Wolf cut Slippy short.

"Hold on. Why did you vanish when Fox…when Fox confronted Andross? Why didn't you stay to help us look for him? And why," Peppy's eyes narrowed "was Pigma Dengar flying with you on Venom?"

"Ah. Pigma was not our decision. He was thrust upon us unexpectedly." Wolf said.

"And I didn't script his lines." Andrew snorted derisively. "He really talks like that."

"Really?" Falco held back a guffaw.

Wolf ignored the two of them. "As for why we disappeared, well. You didn't really stick with the original plan, now did you?" He was addressing Fox directly. "We figured you were dead. Nobody on Venom dares go near those black holes. We 'vanished' so as to eliminate Pigma as soon as possible. Didn't want him reporting back to the officials."

"Did you kill him?" Fox asked.

Andrew jumped in. "Hooohh, yes we did. You should have seen it. Leon tinkered with the self-eject in Pigma's Wolfen while he wasn't looking, AND he disabled the commlink, so even though Pigma thought he was sending messages, he wasn't doing jack shit. We convinced him that we needed to report back to headquarters personally, flew him out over some rocky terrain, and then Leon" Andrew patted Leon's back. "Leon here just – poof! – remotely ejected him. Without a parachute. Was beautiful. Lost a good Wolfen though."

"Oh." Was Fox's nonplussed reply. Peppy also seemed a little deflated.

After briefly weighing the situation, Wolf gestured for Fox to follow him.

The Sargasso storage hangar was truly massive; five wolfen, six arwings, the unimaginatively named Great Fox, and the Zephyrus (Star Wolf's mother ship) were all housed comfortably within it, with room to spare.

Wolf was crouched on top of one of the wolfens, fiddling around with some minor exterior repair work.

"How much did your team make? Peppy's message was brief. He just mentioned that you survived and that you would be making a quick stop on Corneria." He asked.

"Total?" Fox sat on the wing of the wolfen. "Adding up all of General Pepper's payments, plus the few extra side jobs, we made about five million. Total."

Wolf winced. "Shit. Even after you got rid of Andross? We were hoping they would be more generous."

"So were we."

"When those black holes collapsed – congratulations, by the way, nobody was expecting that – we had to get out fast. We were on our way back to headquarters and the troops went ballistic. They worship Andross…we were lucky to escape with our lives. Didn't get paid for repelling you off of Venom, obviously. You screwed that part of the plan over."

"I'm sorry. I didn't expect it either, really."

"S'alright. Hell, we needed to get out of there soon, anyways." Wolf's laugh was low and gritty. "Honestly, the whole thing was shot to shit back when we helped you take down the Bolse satellite. When they bugged us. Our fault - got careless. They were starting to catch on, I think."

"How much did your team make?"

"Nowhere near as much. Three million, maybe, and building a new wolfen will cost at least a third of that." Wolf paused. "About Pigma…" Wolf, and the rest of the crew, knew exactly what role Pigma had played in the death of Fox's father. "I'm sorry that we killed him. It was…necessary. If any of us were going to get off of Venom alive."

Fox shivered, pulled his piloting scarf up, huddled into his jacket.

Wolf glanced at Fox. "Are you cold?"

"No." Fox shivered again.

Wolf put his tools down and sat with a huff. He noticed that the Great Fox was also in need of repair, which wouldn't be cheap.

"This wasn't a good plan." He stated matter-of-factly.

"Nope."

"We're kind of fucked."

"Yep."