He's back again! And in record time! Chapter 6, Enjoy!

-2 days later-

"Well it's nice to see that some things never change." Shattered leaned back in his chair as the familiar debris of Sector X began to surround his ship. All of his systems began to blink rapidly and give obscure readings. "Yup, this place still fucks around with electronics." He grabbed the controls and took off the automatic pilot. "Rob, we're going into VFR mode. I'm going to try and put us near one of the bigger pieces of the old Cornerian base until Jay contacts us."

"Affirmative." Rob replied. "Diverting excess power to shields and life support."

Shattered easily flew around the long abandoned base. Feeling waves of nostalgia hit him as memories of his old life flashed in his mind. Before he had locked up his emotions he might have longed to return to those times. Now however he barely twitched at the thought of Star Fox.

After a few more minutes of easily flying he landed his ship near an old assembly line. He looked outside, waiting for something to move. "Wonder if there was more than one Spyborg kicking around here." The thought made him smile, violence was one of his few pleasures left. "At least back then we had an endless army to destroy."

The door to the cockpit suddenly opened, making Shattered place a hand on his blaster and turn to face the only other person on his ship. The vixen shook her head. "Calm down, I come in peace." She casually sat down at the co-pilot's seat sporting a small grin. "I assume we're here then."

Shattered slowly released the handle of his blaster before speaking. "Yeah, welcome to the five star resort called Sector X."

Kursed's smile widened. "From what I've heard of this place it's more of a graveyard than a resort. But to each their own." Shattered smirked at her comment. Kursed turned her gaze outside. "Any idea when the last Cornerian scouting party came through here?"

Shattered pulled down a screen and tapped it twice. The screen played white noise before a few faint images began to appear. "I checked before my instruments got messed up by the electromagnetic pulses. Since the Anglar wars not a single Cornerian has been near this Sector. Fear of some sort of bio-weapon or some shit."

Kursed nodded. "I heard Peppy started that rumor so he could turn this place into a scrap yard for old or destroyed ships. I wonder if you could find some sort of upgrades for this chunk of metal." She patted the hull gently.

"Don't you worry about this ship. She's got it where it counts." Shattered folded his hands as he rested them behind his head. "So, what's made you in a conversational mood all of a sudden? Last time you stormed off like a little girl."

Kursed's smile faded immediately. "I don't like being close to anyone for an extended period of time. It feels similar to being tied down." She moved around in her seat, feeling very uncomfortable. "Besides you said it yourself we only really talk to our employers and our targets."

Shattered nodded but didn't reply. He was trying to figure out if she considered him a target. He had overheard rumors that there was a bounty on her head. And the price tag was something he had even considered taking. But now that Kursed was sitting in front of him; it seemed too great a risk. He realized he was staring and turned his head away from the vixen.

"What?"

"Nothing." He lied. "I was just thinking is all."

Kursed chuckled, causing the vulpine to turn to face her once more. "Did you start doing that before or after you pushed me out of the way of a grenade?"

Shattered grinned. "After. Figured I'll live longer this way."

Wolf jumped out of his newly improved Wolfen, hitting the ground close to where a group of soldiers stood around the blast hole in the roof of the base. As he walked closer to it the soldiers moved to let him through. "Panther, Leon. I'm taking the roof, I want you two to start at the hangar and move backwards. Camera feed showed at least one Bounty Hunter here. Let me know if you find anything interesting. Wolf out."

Without bothering to wait for a reply Wolf jumped down the hole, landing gracefully. He pressed a finger against his ear. "Have we finished the virtual copy of this base?"

"Yes sir, program is loading now."

"Give me this entire place just before that bomb blew." Within seconds a brilliant blue light covered the entire hallway. After a few moments of blindness Wolf was looking at the carnage as if it had just happened. He walked towards the first two victims, leaning down to examine their wounds. "One shot, one kill. Whoever shot these guys knows how to use a blaster."

"Whoever did this certainly had access to a lot of firepower." Panther said with a bit of jealousy. "It's not legal, whatever it was."

"I count thirty grenade blasts, and those are just the isolated blasts, the closer I get to the hangar doors the more marks I see, it'd be impossible to get an accurate count." Leon hissed. "We'll get the scan finalized and sent to the General."

Wolf had just made it down the stairs. "Start making your way towards the main office. I'm headed to the interrogation room. See if this program can't load our partial image and get us a positive I.D. I think we could use the bonus." Wolf passed by the pile of bodies near the stairwell, not needing to know how they met their fates.

Wolf pushed open the door. "Feels like home." He thought out loud as he saw a single chair under the low hanging light. He pulled a hologram out of his vest and looked at it. Trying to figure out what angle the screen grab was from. After turning and adjusting, Wolf had finally found the angle he wanted. "Tech, bring up the security footage just outside the interrogation room. I've got sights on where the partial originated."

"It's a hard angle sir, the cameras mostly point away from the room. Likely because whoever ran this place didn't want any record of what happened in there." The techie was silent for a few moments. "Got it, you should see all the data available for that room now."

Wolf grinned, this was an easy paycheck indeed. The image loaded and he saw a few more inches of the bounty hunter. He put the hologram back in his pocket and walked towards the still loading image. "Can't you make this thing load any faster tech?"

"Sorry sir, but that's all we can get."

Wolf growled. So much for his bonus check. "Damn it. Send the information to General Hare. Panther, Leon. I've finished up here, how your end?"

"Wolf. We've got a survivor." Panther replied. "Says he'll tell us all he knows for a chance at revenge."

Wolf smirked. "Well, revenge is something we understand. What's his name?"

"Only name he gave us was Beast." Leon said. "And as far as I know he's worth quite a bit to our bounty hunter friend."

"Let's get him to Corneria. He should more than earn us our bonus check." Wolf grinned and made his way towards the hangar. "Let's close it up tech, we're heading back to HQ."

Shattered yawned. He had been awake for the better part of the night just watching the vast nothingness of space. Kursed had retired for the night some hours ago, leaving him alone with his ship. "Guess I had better go to sleep. Kill a few more hours anyway." He stood up quickly, causing his recorder to fall to the floor. He stared at it for a few moments, having forgotten he ever had one. He picked it up, studying it as he made his way to his room. 'That's right, I wanted to record this mission.' He slipped the device back into his pocket. "Rob, I'm going to sleep for a while. Wake me up if anything-"

"Ship detected!" Rob blared over the PA. Shattered growled and jogged back to the cockpit. "Scanner's indicate it is a juggernaut class warship. Cornerian model GF-02."

Just as Shattered realized what model it was he saw the vessel. "No..." He didn't even hear Kursed come in until she gasped.

"Is that?"

Shattered nodded. In front of them loomed Star Fox's old command ship Great Fox 2. It almost looked like a ghost ship, many of its major parts had been salvaged. The main guns had long since ceased to function years of rust had taken its toll. The once great flagship of Lylat had been reduced to a rusted frame. "I'd never thought I'd see the day Corneria put it to rest."

"It won't last long out here that Star Fox symbol alone would be worth four bounties." Kursed seemed uncharacteristically emotional, not that Shattered had known her long enough to judge. Maybe it was the fact he too felt those old feeling burst through at the sight of old ship. "Somewhere Fox McCloud is rolling in his grave."

Shattered shook his head. "James McCloud too." He chanced a look over at the vixen, thankful that she was too enthralled by the sight to see him wipe his eyes. "Rob, once the escort vessel takes the warp gate take us to the Great Fox. We'll make sure no one else will recognize it."

Kursed raised an eyebrow and looked at Shattered. "What's this we shit?"

Shattered gave her a harsh glare. "I'd rather give that ship a proper disposal than let some damn scavenger profit from a lucky find. Since we've got nothing else to do I figured you'd want to help out."

Kursed matched his glare before looking back out to the Great Fox. With a sigh she nodded. "Hope you've got a spare helmet."

Beast is alive, how is Peppy going to react when he finds out he's got two Bounty Hunters to deal with? And why did he retire the Great Fox?

In a reply to:

Troygroomes Maybe, but you'll have to wait and see!

bryan mccloud In this story Rob has already been programmed to keep Fox's identity a secret.

H-T