With correspondence of Fanfiction's ratings guide, I have to inform you that this chapter has a LOT of swearing in it.
Also, there is some french in here as well. Don't worry, you can Google Translate the heck out of it.
Enjoy!
Kursed didn't know how long she was starting at the still unopened letter resting in her hands. Each time she made up her mind to open it she hesitated. "Just do it." She told herself for the umpteenth time. "It's not he'll jump out of it."
It took her a few minutes longer before her impromptu pep talk finally worked and she ripped the side of the envelop. Kursed quickly turned to see if Shattered was coming in. The quiet hum of the ship was her only company.
Feeling content that she was still alone Kursed pulled the letter out of the envelope, noting the oxidation of the paper had given it a yellowish tinge. With a steadying breath she finally unfolded the letter.
'Krystal,
If you're reading this than I'm no longer around.
This isn't going to be an apology letter Krys, we both know what's happened and we're both dealing with consequences. In fact, I'm writing this letter in parts. I want you to be able to feel the emotions I'm dealing with. I want you to know this is from the heart, what's left of it anyway.
I'll start with the obvious. I'm a fucking idiot for forcing you away. But how could you not see what I was trying to do? We were a team of two Krys, trying to do the work of a god damn army. I was worried for your fucking safety. I know how good you are in an Arwing, hell you were great with everything at the Star Fox team's disposal. It wasn't a decision I made lightly either. We had been taking increasingly difficult jobs, and for what? We had to travel outside of Lylat to find anything remotely worth our time. We flew in sectors we had never scouted before.
And then we had that close call. That fucking close call that nearly cost us our lives, not to mention the Great Fox. Out numbered ten to one. We only survived that because Rob sent an S.O.S to Peppy.
After that I couldn't look at you without seeing your face just before help arrived. True fear, true sorrow, hopelessness. And not a DAMN thing I could do about it. I made up my mind that night. I knew you wouldn't like it, hell, I knew you'd be upset.
But I never expected you to leave.
Moving on to the Anglar Blitz. You did something I never expected, you joined Star Wolf. Admittedly, it hurt me more than I let on. You despised me, for good reason I guess. You started up something with Panther, something I guess I'll never understand. You even tricked me into giving Star Wolf the one thing they needed to become Lylat's newest heroes. I was left with NOTHING. After that, everyone else left. My father's once great team now consisted of me and Rob.
Now I wont say you're to blame completely for Star Fox disbanding permanently. But you played a big role in it, and so did I. I knew I couldn't be the leader the team needed anymore, but I refused to give up the team to Falco.
No, I just packed up what I wanted and went into seclusion. The Great Fox will remain docked in Corneria until Peppy decides to have it decommisioned.
But now I'm hearing that you left Star Wolf, even left Lylat completely. Why? Was it the media? The people? How did it feel to be labelled a traitor? I knew the truth, you didn't betray Star Fox. You were forced to leave. But we were alone then, and the media didn't tell the public anything other than us breaking up.
I miss those times we had on Sauria.
Maybe I'll come looking for you. See if we can't fix things between us. If not, well. At least we tried right?
Who am I kidding, like I said at the beginning of this letter; If you're reading this than I'm already gone. Dead. Lost to this world. I figure by now you'd be over me and moved on. If so I wish you all the best.
But I haven't moved on. I still love you, and I only wish I had the chance to see you one last time.
-Fox McCloud
"You..." Kursed tossed the letter to the ground, gritting her teeth as she fought back tears. "Damn it Fox." She had forgotten all about that sneak attack. Fox had been very weary about the job to begin with. But she had insisted that they take it. Star Fox needed the money to pay for the newly upgraded Great Fox. She shuddered. Had the Cornerian military not been there...
Kursed shook her head. "I wish I could have seen you too."
"Hey, you ok?" The vixen turned to face Shattered, and nodded. "Jay is calling us."
Kursed stood up and walked past the vulpine. "Then let's not keep him waiting." She quickly wiped her eyes and made her way to the cockpit. Shattered watched the vixen for a moment before following her.
"Ah, Kursed! Shattered! I see you two haven't killed each other yet. That's certainly a plus." Jay chuckled. "Ok, I've got a job for both of you. Sorry Kursed, looks like you'll be sticking with Shattered for a bit longer."
Kursed scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. "Figures."
"The pay is double what I normally give both of you." Jay smiled, knowing that would keep their attention. "Alright, I've already sent you the files you'll need Shattered."
"Copy that. Anything else?" Shattered replied.
"Oh, you'll see. Good hunting."
"I love it when he says that." Kursed muttered before she left the cockpit. Shattered sighed and followed the vixen. "Which way?"
"To your left." Shattered walked ahead of the vixen, opening the door to the small briefing room. Once inside the computer instant turned on, and began to load the file from Jay. It only took a few moments for the vulpine to realize Jay had meant. "Great."
"What?" Kursed looked at the screen. All the info Jay had seemed to be in another language. She gazed over at Shattered, who seemed to be reading it just fine.
"Do you understand Zonian?" Kursed gave Shattered a confused look. "The language the locals of Zoness speak? Cornerian isn't their primary language. Before the Lylat wars that planet was bringing in all the higher class people from around the system. This hit is going to go down on Zoness." Shattered tapped a few keys, spreading all the information into four parts. "Computer, load the attached video."
"Confirmed."
They waited in silence until the video began to play. It showed to shadowy felines sitting across from the camera in an empty bar. For a few minutes there voices were hushed, as if they knew someone was there. But soon, they were confident enough to speak loud enough for the microphone to pick up.
"Mais, où est l'expédition? Vous savez ce singe déteste faire attendre." The first feline spoke. He sounded male, but was clearly an underling for someone.
With an aggravated exhale the second feline replied. "Câliss, ce fils de pute. Je l'ai déjà dit personnellement s'il veut que ses armes, il va falloir venir à moi-même. Je suis malade et fatigué de lui envoyer des nullités comme vous."
The smaller feline hissed. "Il m'a averti que vous feriez quelque chose comme ça." He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. "Il m'a demandé de vous remercier et à vous dire que vos services ne sont plus nécessaires."
Before he could speak the feline slumped in his seat, blood pouring from a blaster wound. The two hunters barely flinched at the sight. They had both done something similar to one of their targets.
Shattered turned to Kursed. "Seems like shit's going down on Zoness. The translation program should be just about done."
"I understand the language when someone speaks it. But to read it..." Kursed shrugged. "Haven't been able to figure it out. But I do know it isn't only spoken there."
Shattered nodded. "No doubt. I'm pretty much fluent in it now, but that's because I had a few friends teach me it."
"Normally I rely on body language for my hits. We should start heading towards Zoness. I'll read the file once the translations are done."
"Rob, set a course for Zoness. We're going to have to avoid Solar."
"Confirmed."
Shattered looked over at Kursed. "At a glance, this looks like a really easy job. But those normally turn out to be real shit shows."
Kursed smiled. "Don't worry, those are my speciality."
"General!" Peppy turned to see a middle aged husky running to catch up with him and stopped. "Sir, we've got some updates for you regarding Kursed." Peppy nodded and looked over at Wolf.
"Get to your Wolfen. I'll send the data to you as soon as possible."
Wolf grinned. "General." He said before turning on his heel and leaving. Peppy turned his attention back to the husky.
"Name and Rank solider."
"Second Lieutenant Anner, sir!" Anner replied with a salute. Peppy snapped to attention and returned the salute. "If you'll follow me sir."
"Of course Lieutenant." Peppy motioned for the husky to lead him.
It was a short walk to the comms room. But the site always made Peppy shake is head in wonder. Inside the large room was nearly two hundred computers each manned by the best Corneria had. On the upper part of the walls were countless screens with thousands of images from throughout the system. Just underneath them was variously sized glass rooms. Each with it's own group of officers constantly debating their designated planets safety, status, and security.
"General on deck!" Anner yelled, causing the entire room to freeze and become deathly quite. Every single solider or officer stood saluting their general.
"At ease people." Peppy smiled as work continued as normal. "Were are we located?"
"On the far room on the right, sir." Anner lead Peppy down the metal walkway and placed his hand on the scanner before stepping aside to let the hare in.
Before he spoke, three screens appeared before them. The one to the left was streaming video surveillance of Kursed as she made her way around Lylat. The screen on the right listed potential crimes, as well as general information about the vixen. The middle screen seemed to be loading a live camera shot of her most recent location. "As you can see sir. We have been successful on tracking down Kursed. Though it did take longer than anticipated. She has changed her ship to something we've only seen once before."
As if on queue an image of the ship in question appeared on the middle screen. Peppy quickly cleaned his glasses before moving close to get a better look. "It's clearly a custom job. Looks like a medium sized transport ship."
"That is correct sir." Anner moved to stand beside Peppy. "As you can see, extensive modifications have been made. From what our top engineers could tell, the shields on this ship are one point five times as strong. The nav system is AI assisted, and the exterior plates have been reinforced with a metal similar to our Juggernaut class warships."
"Impressive for a simple bounty hunter. How could she afford one plate? Let alone an entire ship?" Peppy rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. "What else have you got for me on Kursed?"
The husky hesitated for a moment. "Last known location is sector X, beside the recently dismantled Great Fox. We've only got a few functioning satellites in the area but we were able to grab theses shots." The screens quickly changed to show the photos. "The first one shows this ship blasting the old Star Fox logo. The second shows the ship leaving the Great Fox's landing bay. And the third..."
Peppy leaned closer. "Is that?" The photo showed the semi detailed cockpit of the ship. The AI looked familiar, too familiar. "General Peppy to Star Wolf."
"Go ahead General." Wolf replied, his face appearing in front of Peppy.
"I'm sending you the co-ordinates of the last known location of the Bounty hunter Kursed. Take her into custody. I want her alive Wolf, so disable her ship. We'll discuss payment later, Peppy out." Peppy stepped back watching the screens turn off before turning to Anner. "What have you got on this Jay character?"
"Nothing yet sir, lots of empty leads. Whoever 'Jay' is, he's good." Anner saluted Peppy before quickly leaving.
Peppy watched the husky make his way down the steps and into the sea of people running amok on the floor. "Perhaps it's time I called in a favour. He was always much better with computers than the rest of us."
"Wolfens are a go for launch. We'll be back with your bounty hunter quickly General." Peppy nodded, a useless gesture as Wolf had already cut the transmission between them.
So the letter in this chapter is meant to be over the top raw emotion. Also, we're about to start a very interesting game of cat and mouse.
H-T