"And that's what happened..." I said, finishing my report to General Pepper in his ready room, my squadmates surrounding me.

Pepper shook his head. I'd known him for years-for what it's worth, he was the one who persuaded me and the rest of the team to fight on the right side of the tracks for once alongisde the CDF. I'd seen that look in his eyes before...and it wasn't good. "Our finest ship...gone in the blink of an eye. What power could we be up against?"

"I don't know, sir." I replied. "To have a ship of that magnitude, destroyed with the speed of a thought..."

"Actually..." Peppy spoke up. His fur was still white in some spots-he hadn't completely recovered from what he'd seen out there, "that's precisely what hit the Liberator."

"A thought?" General Pepper replied, astonished. "Explain, please."

The old hare nodded. "Psionic amplification. We knew Andross was working on such a device when we launched our final offensive on Venom..." He sighed. "A brilliant mind...given over to chaos and madness...one would easily forget that at one time, he was one of our most highly regarded scientists..."

"Yeah, yeah...who, coincidentally, is also the very reason I was raised an orphan...," I shot back.

"Credit where credit is due, Fox." Peppy rebuked me.

I just shook my head, then continued, "I saw it destroyed. In fact, if I do recall, I was the one that took the device out. Plus, Andross decided to blow himself up in the bargain."

"Indeed. However, scans we took after the final defeat of Andross show that not all the tunnels and complexes on Venom were destroyed when Andross activated his self-destruct order. After all, he had a vast network of research labs, storage areas, and the like scattered virtually planetwide."

"So you're saying that there may have been another of those damned devices down there?" I asked. It was plausible. Andross wasn't unknown for keeping a whole deck of cards up his deranged sleeves.

"Yes. Not only that, but made it more powerful, from the apperance of things."

I had to agree with that. The device I took down on Venom wasn't capable of affecting objects more than a few hundred kilometers off the surface , let alone ten klicks in orbit.

"So, then the obvious course of action is that Star Fox must go destroy it..." Pepper answered.

I shook my head. "Sorry, General, but not until I get more intel on that damn thing. What's it's maximum range, who's pulling the trigger, things like that. I'm not going to send my team on a suicide mission."

"Fox..."

"Need I remind you that our work for the CDF is by contract only, as well. I, as the leader of Star Fox, reserve the right to refuse any request..." I added. Okay, so it was being an ass, I know. It wasn't that my team wasn't good, or that I didn't think they were up to the task.

Still, going into battle not knowing anything about the foe I was up against was stupid. So they had a psionic superweapon. That only told me they could blow us up from halfway to Fortuna, if they chose.

Who was the 'they'? What did they want? I was a merc-I understood money and demands quite well. Those were things that a regular army wouldn't really get.

"Then I'll send Husky Squadron..." the general started, but I cut in.

"Permission to speak freely." I requested.

"Granted."

"Sir, did you not hear what I just said? Without intel, we are blind and deaf, and we're just throwing good men and women into the teeth of a monster to whose identity we do not know."

"But we have to do something?"

I stopped and thought for a moment. "Why did they not destroy the Great Fox or my team?" I asked?

Peppy thought for a moment, but it was Falco that offered the answer. "Simple, really. We don't run with CDF markings. For all anyone knew, we were just pirates showing up to scavenge the wrecks around Venom."

"Yes, but it isn't like Star Fox isn't known throughout the system for their work for the CDF during the war."

"They also know that we're still mercs. Doesn't matter." Falco replied.

"So, whomever it is, they have a grudge against the CDF. That could be the Venom army...but they have more than enough firepower still to be a threat to a single cruiser. The Liberator was there for deterring pirates with access to capital ships-not a full-scale assault."

Peppy nodded. "Plus, our intel on their forces didn't include many with known psionic abilities. And this would have required a very strong user."

"Because our weapons can charge in a relatively short period of time, we also didn't run with our weapon systems hot." Falco added. "By contrast, a capital ship like the Liberator has to charge theirs to some degree, else they'd be useless in a fight. It's also why when flying into a combat zone, most ships deploy fighters as a first line of defense if they're not already running with their cannons hot."

"So, it may have seen the ship as a threat?"

"Possibly. That means we may be able to approach it in the Great Fox or with our Arwings-so long as we don't have to shoot our way down there."

"It's a gamble, all right. But it's not like we're left with any other choices in the matter."

"Very well. Fox...will you do this for us?" General Pepper asked.

I nodded. "We'll need a bit to prepare." Then, I turned and walked out of the office. There was one more person I needed to visit...and she would probably not be happy to know that I had to leave again.