Chapter 2

Jeeps sped towards the research building, all of them screeching to a halt and surrounding it within minutes. The Cornerian soldiers within piled out, forming a perimeter and training their weapons on the doors and windows. A gunship hovered overhead, training a spotlight on the broken glass entrance door.

One more jeep pulled up amongst the others. A four man team in heavy body armor and helmets climbed out. One of them, a Dalmation, stopped to look at the surrounded research building.

"Wonder what's going on in there…" he muttered, as he checked the charge on his laser carbine. "Who'd be crazy enough to try attacking this place?"

"Good question, Sonny." A brown hedgehog stepped up next to him, grimacing. "We'll soon find out. I'm in no rush."

That was Maurice, the point man of Sonny's four-man squad. Sonny himself was the element leader. Instead of a carbine, Maurice held a metallic shield in one hand and a handheld blaster in the other. His shield contained miniaturized version of deflector shields from military spacecraft to deflect blaster shots. The field could be expanded or shrunk just by rotating a dial. Maurice would go in first and provide cover in front for Sonny and the others.

Sonny stood around with his unit, waiting for the order to go in. However, Sonny didn't feel all that afraid. He was a veteran of the Lylat Wars after all. What could this be compared to that? Some nutjob shooter with a deathwish? If so, he'd be dangerous, but also crazy and stupid, so not difficult to subdue if appropriate measures were taken.

"All armored teams!" Sonny's radio squawked. "Sweep the building! Repeat, sweep the building! Use caution. Unknown number of assailants."

"You heard the man." Sonny flicked the safety off of his carbine. "Double time it!"

Sonny's squad rushed across the open ground between the perimeter and the building itself, along with several other teams moving into the building through other entrances. Maurice ran ahead of them first, bringing up his shield and setting the deflector to a low setting as he passed through the broken glass door. Meanwhile, Sonny and the other two in the back covered with laser carbines. The sound of clomping boots echoed through the hallways, along with occasional radio chatter over the mics. Sonny's team was only inside for a few moments when someone called out.

"Help! Help! We've got wounded here!"

Sonny held up a fist to signal for the group to stop. If he recalled the layout of the building, the shouting came from the lunch room. Sonny pointed at Maurice with two fingers, then pointed down the hallway towards the canteen. Maurice, take point. Then he faced the other two and pointed up, spinning his fingers in the air. You two, on me. Maurice nodded, turning the setting up on his deflector shield. Sonny and the other two fell in formation behind Maurice, Sonny covering ahead while the other two watched the flanks. The lunch room door was just ahead at the end of the hallway.

Someone pushed the doors open before they could get there. The four man group stopped, Maurice ducking down in front so the other three behind could aim their weapons over him. No fear touched them, no hesitation to get into formation, their training taking over.

"Stop! Identify yourselves!" Sonny called out.

Three Cornerian canine soldiers stood there, a gray and white one using his shoulder to support a scientist.

"Hey… That's Beltino," Sonny whispered. The Dalmatian knew that the toad loved working late.

One of the three unknown soldiers stepped forward, raising his hands up and letting his rifle hang by its shoulder strap. He looked like a husky by the tail. "Don't shoot! Beltino's been shot! He needs medical attention ASAP! Let us through!"

Sonny wondered who these three grunts were, but then again Beltino looked to be in really bad shape even at this distance. Red blood stained most of his white lab coat a dark shade of crimson. He needed medical care fast.

"Okay," Sonny said. "Let them through."

The team stepped aside, allowing the three soldiers to hurry through with Beltino. Sonny watched them as he left, frowning. Nonetheless, he brought his headset's mic up to his mouth. "Be advised. We've got a civilian worker down. Beltino Toad. There's three soldiers escorting him out of the building right now. Get a medical team down here fast."

Sonny watched them leave. He wanted to find out more about what happened from them, but they still needed to clear the rest of the building of hostiles. Ah well. Maybe the perimeter guard would question them and then they'd get updates over the radio. The Dalmatian signaled for his team to keep searching.

~X~

As Wolf and his two cronies turned the corner, Wolf sighed with relief. The plan was working…so far anyway. As long they kept up this act, no one was going to get in their way. They could just breeze right out of here. But it was too early to celebrate. They encountered other teams as they left, Harry or Franco repeating the same excuse of getting Beltino medical attention. Wolf thought his voice might be recognized, so he had decided to let the other two do the talking. All of the soldiers took the bait, but Wolf couldn't breathe every time they had to stop. They finally reached the broken glass door they'd used to enter the building. Spotlights bathed the pavement outside the door in blinding light compared to the building's dark interior.

"Okay pups, here we go," Wolf whispered. "Harry, you know what to do."

Harry took a look at the perimeter surrounding them, a tense but composed look on his face. He turned back to Wolf, nodding. The husky walked out first, again holding up his hands so no one would shoot. Franco walked out after him. Taking a deep breath, Wolf turned his head down and brought up the rear, shouldering Beltino and praying that the helmet and visor would be enough to conceal his identity.

Wolf glanced upwards, and then wished he hadn't. The headlights of the jeeps almost blinded him, the searchlight from the gunship overhead making it even worse. And the sheer number of soldiers, just barely visible past the lights, sent a shiver down his back. Nonetheless, he kept his face blank and marched forwards, looking down towards the ground. It felt like it took hours to cross through the light to the perimeter, Wolf feeling very naked and vulnerable under all of the eyes.

At long last they passed by the circle of jeeps. A terrier soldier rushed up to them, a white armband bearing the red cross on his shoulder.

"Here!" the terrier shouldered Beltino's other arm, helping Wolf to move him. "Just follow me. We've got a field ambulance over this way."

They walked through the crowds of soldiers, the terrier calling for them to make way. After a few moments, they were at the ambulance. It was a jeep like the others, but modified to provide medical care in the field. Wolf helped the terrier settle Beltino down onto a nearby stretcher. The terrier and another medic, this one a squirrel, went to work.

While the other medic collected supplies and looked over Beltino, the terrier questioned them. "So he was shot? Any other injuries?"

"Uh…" Harry paused, looking frozen in place. Suddenly he turned to look at Wolf, perhaps for guidance. Wolf felt a sharp terror shoot right up his back, as he averted his eye to look at the ground.

Don't look at me! Don't look at me! Or then they'll look at me!

"Yeah…" Harry recovered. "He looks like he hit his head a couple times. You may want to check for concussions."

The terrier nodded, looking back at Beltino on the stretcher. "Ok, we'll take good care of him. Are any of you hurt?" He looked back up at the three.

"Oh no, no!" Harry laughed, maybe to cover up the pants-crapping terror Wolf figured they were all feeling. "We're all fine!"

"You?" The terrier looked at Franco, not picking up on Franco's nervousness. "You hurt?"

Franco just shook his head no, not saying anything.

Then the terrier looked Wolf in the eye. "How about you sir?"

Wolf felt his body trembling, but tried not to show it. He couldn't speak for a moment. The terrier raised an eyebrow.

"PTSD?" the terrier smiled. "It's OK, you're safe now buddy. Nothing's gonna get you here."

Blissfully ignorant of the irony of that statement, the terrier patted Wolf on the shoulder. The lupine almost jumped out of his skin at the surprise physical contact. Nonetheless, Wolf forced a smile and nodded at the medic.

The terrier didn't seem to notice, as he returned his attention to Beltino. "You better stay here with me. Bet they'll wanna debrief you. I'll call the base commander and let him know you're with me."

The medic walked towards the ambulance, reaching for a radio handset…

"That's fine, that's fine!" Franco put a hand on the terrier's shoulder, getting him to stop. "We'll just go see him right now."

Wolf held his breath. The terrier frowned, looking between the three of them. Nodding, he reached for the handset again. Franco was about to reach out again, but it was too late.

"Hey, I've got the three guys who saved Beltino. They're…uh…" The terrier looked at the nametags on their uniforms. "Sandusky, Schmitz, and Smith." The medic spared a laugh. "Hmm. How about that…all S's. Okay. They'll be at your office soon." He put away the handset. "Okay. You're good to go."

And just like that, the terrier went back to his work, talking to the squirrel as they took off Beltino's shirt so they could get a better look at his wounds. Wolf looked at Franco and Harry, nodding his head in the direction of the airfield. And then Wolf started walking that way, the other two going with his cue and falling in step behind him.

"Hey, hold on!" the terrier called out.

Thinking his face must look as white as a sheet under the fur, Wolf turned around, eye wide in terror.

The terrier was smiling at them. "You did a good job. Thanks for saving Beltino. He would have died if you hadn't brought him out like this."

Wolf would have laughed at the irony of that statement if he wasn't scared out of his wits right now. Also, this reminded him a lot of how he'd first met Rachel all those years ago, right after the Lylat Wars ended.

"Don't mention it." Harry nervously grinned. "I hope he sleeps peacefully tonight."

"Yeah, I'd like that too…" the terrier's smile faded. "But I hope he wakes up soon. We need to ask him about what happened."

"Yeah…" Franco replied, sounding distant in his voice. "Well, we better hurry up and talk to the commander. See you."

"Bye." The terrier turned back to assist the other medic.

As soon as the terrier looked away, Wolf started walking, moving as fast as he could without it looking suspicious. Franco and Harry followed from behind again. They walked behind a storage building of some sort. As soon as they were out of sight, they all collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh…oh oh oh…" Wolf rubbed the back of his neck, feeling dizzy from the terror he'd just gone through. He felt as happy as hell to finally be out of that mess. It was like that feeling where you had a near death experience, and then every little thing afterwards felt wonderful and amazing. The cool night air felt like euphoria. "All right… All right…" Now that he'd semi recovered, he looked over to his compatriots. "Okay…dropship." He paused, breathing heavily. "Fifteen minutes. Be there."

And with that, the three of them separated. Despite all the close calls, Wolf felt pleased with the performance of both Franco and Harry. Normally he would have brought along Leon or Panther, but that would have just been too dangerous for a job like this. It would look suspicious if a wolf, panther, and chameleon happened to be hanging out together in this base, when a wolf, panther, and chameleon known for hanging out together also happened to be some of the most wanted men in the galaxy. So instead for this job, Wolf decided to bring along some of his lesser cronies who also happened to be canines. Wolf knew they would blend in much better in a Cornerian military base. Most of the Cornerian military was dogs after all. Looked like the strategy had paid off.

Wolf allowed himself to relax as he strode down a roadway towards the air field. It was all the better for his cover to relax, after all. There was no need to lurk in the shadows with this uniform. He nodded towards some off duty airmen as they walked down the road the other way.

Don't mind little ole me. Just some patrolling grunt out on the graveyard shift…

Nobody seemed to have noticed the backpack yet, and definitely not the case within. Again, Wolf thanked his gods that they didn't have to steal anything bigger than that case. And he also thanked the gods for Giichi, the hacker who thwarted the security system. Stealing a head admin's username and password was the easy part for him. After that, Giichi spent months studying the system and making sure he wouldn't get tripped up by the safeguards. But it looked like all that hard work was about to pay off too.

Several minutes passed, and before long he saw the massive hangars of the airfield looming up ahead. As he walked past one of them, he couldn't help but get a little anxious. Sure, everything was going good now, but all kinds of other things could still go wrong. What if he turned the corner and their dropship was surrounded by soldiers? What if the dropship was just gone? What if Franco and Harry weren't there? Taking a deep breath, he stepped around the corner.

Ah, thank goodness. Their dropship was right where he'd left it. It was a stolen Cornerian shuttle they'd used to sneak into the base, painted white and green. She wasn't much to look at. Basically it was a metal tube with a cockpit on one end, an exit ramp on the other, and wings in the center with hoverjets attached. When they stole it, it also came with a few uniforms and military-issue weapons, which they used to complete their disguises for this job.

Wolf noticed he was the first one back. He strode up the rear cargo ramp and took a seat on the bench. After setting down the backpack, he checked his watch. So far, eight minutes gone. Looking up, he stared at the wall on the opposite side. To pass the time, he decided to take the case out of the backpack to look at it. Wolf continued to ponder what was inside of this thing and why it was so valuable to his client. But that only occupied him for so long since he couldn't open it. Sitting here with nothing to do but wait was torture. The seconds passed as if they were hours. Every time Wolf heard a sound outside the ship he felt like he was going to jump out of his fur.

At the ten minute mark, Wolf heard footsteps approaching the rear cargo hatch. He turned his head towards the exit ramp, gripping one hand around the blaster at his hip. It was just Harry.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Wolf slumped back into his seat and let go of the gun. "You seen Franco?"

"No sir."

Wolf frowned. "Damn…" He checked his watch every couple seconds. Eleven minutes. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fourteen and a half. Rapid footsteps could be heard approaching. Both Wolf and Harry looked at each other, ready to draw and shoot at anything that ran up the ramp. It was Franco.

"'Bout time," Wolf muttered, as he walked to the cockpit.

"I'm not late! I checked my watch!"

Wolf wanted to cuss him out for nearly giving him a heart attack, but then remembered that would just slow them down in leaving. Besides, Franco was right. He wasn't late, and the two of them had done pretty good. Not bad at all, everything considered.

Clearing his head, Wolf withdrew an explosives detonator from his pocket. "Okay, the final touch." The lupine held down the arming button, and squeezed the trigger.

Two explosions ripped through the base. One destroyed the radar tower used to track aircraft around the base and in orbit. That would allow them to fly away without being picked up on radar. The other ripped through a server building, which ran the security and surveillance network of the base. That would destroy any surveillance footage with them on tape, and hopefully all traces of their hacker's meddling. They'd planted the bombs prior to intercepting Beltino to cover the final escape.

Wolf turned around and walked through the cockpit's door, settling into the pilot's seat. The engines spun up, their humming very soothing and relieving. Within moments, he was flying the shuttle out of the airbase. Everyone was silent and tense, expecting a laser blast or missile to strike the ship at any second. But Wolf continued to push the ship up, farther, and farther, and farther, until they were leaving Corneria's atmosphere behind.

As the blue ball of Corneria faded into the distance, Harry rolled a hidden cooler out from underneath one of the jump seats and opened it up. He and Franco let out a loud cheer, as they both grabbed a beer and popped them open. The bumpy ride caused them to spill some of the foamy liquid over themselves, but they didn't care. Wolf didn't care either. They'd done it! They'd gotten away with the multi-million case! Wolf grinned and chuckled, and then Franco stepped into the cockpit offered him a beer. He was flying an aircraft, but…

"Thanks." Wolf smiled as he accepted the beer from the jackal and took a little sip, before he put it down in a nearby cup holder.

Corneria fell further and further behind, becoming nothing but a sapphire speck in the distance. In the meantime, the asteroid field Meteo came up into view. Wolf maneuvered the shuttle around the flying rocks like he was just flying his Wolfen. Even after all these years, Wolf still loved the simple pleasure of just flying. Sometimes it felt like nothing else existed while he was doing it. It was the perfect way to relax after a successful infiltration. He was about to take another swig and-

"Attention, stolen Cornerian shuttle!" the radio barked at him.

Wolf pulled the bottle away so fast he spilled some on his lap by accident. Wolf stared at the radio, unable to believe it. They'd come so far, and worked so hard to get to this moment. Surely fate wouldn't take that away from them now. He prayed he'd just imagined that and-

"This is Commander Bill Grey from the Katina frontline base! We know you're that shuttle that snuck out of the CCSNB!"

"No…" Wolf's shock turned to anger. "No. No. No. No!"

Up ahead, a few Cornerian fighters in their signature green and white paint could be seen. They flew past the shuttle and took up formation behind.

"You will divert your course back to the CCSNB or you will be shot down! You have one minute to comply!"

Growling, Wolf dropped the beer bottle, letting it shatter on the floor. He clenched his hands around the flight stick. He had not come this far only to get captured by some lowlife hack pilot of the Cornerian government. There was no goddamn way he was going to let it end like this.

"Hang onto something you two! This is going to get rough!"

Wolf put on the thrusters and accelerated full blast through asteroid field. It was dangerous to take a large ship deeper in there, but out in the open they would be sitting ducks. They had no other choice. The asteroid field also had a number of warp fields. Wolf intended to take one that would get him out of this sector and some place safer.

"Last warning!" Bill shouted over the radio. "Divert or you will be shot down!"

"Screw you," Wolf snarled, and then he broke the connection.

Bill answered back with laser blasts. They flashed past the hull, illuminating it and nearby rocks in a vivid green color. Since the shuttle was unarmed, Wolf put as much power as he could spare on the rear shields. It wasn't a moment too soon, as a few laser blasts pranged off the back of the ship. The shield status briefly flickered between green and yellow on the ship's displays. They were holding…for now.

Wolf slammed the stick forward, sending the ship into a dive. Two massive asteroids closed in on either side. Instead of slowing down or turning away, he aimed directly for the shrinking gap. The shuttle passed through close enough for Wolf to see the asteroids' rocky texture in minute detail, before the boulders smacked together.

However, the radar showed Bill catching up again, as more laser blasts struck the rear of the ship, sending the shield status into yellow. Wolf cursed having to fly this oversized lump instead of his usual Wolfen. If he had that today, it would be Bill running away instead of him.

Wolf continued to dodge and weave as best as he could, cutting very close to the asteroids and daring the Cornerian fighters to follow. However, he noted with irritation that Bill appeared to have figured out the strategy. Instead of following the shuttle directly, Bill used his craft's superior mobility and speed to take longer but safer pathways through the field, while keeping Wolf in his sights. Every time Wolf tried a daring maneuver through a cluster of rocks, Bill would simply fly around the cluster and catch up again at the other side. More laser blasts lit up the rear of the ship.

Wolf found his shields getting chipped away the longer the chase went on. The shuttle's shield display switched from orange to red. A few more shots and Wolf would have no more shields. Franco and Harry were getting anxious in the cargo bay, as they looked through the open door at Wolf's instrument panel. All of the gauges and instruments slipped into the red, and alarms began to echo through the cabin.

"Boss…are we—" Franco started.

"Quiet!"

Wolf knew that there was a warp field up ahead, as both his robotic eyepatch and regular eye scanned for the telltale blue aura. That was his planned escape route once they left Corneria. Once they were in the warp field, everything would be fine. He let that thought be the anchor for his calmness.

Sure enough, a few moments later he saw the blue warp field's aura up ahead, and guided the shuttle for it. Bill lit up the back of the ship with several more laser blasts. The rear shield's indicator changed to black, indicating the rear shield was now down. Bill's shots started to strike the shuttle dierctly, causing a shower of sparks to spit out of the back cargo hatch. The shuttle shook and vibrated as the lasers made contact. Ignoring the alarms, Wolf hit the thruster as hard as he could, willing the ship to go faster towards the warp portal. Bill let out one more stream of blasts, but by then the shuttle was through the portal.

The blackness of space became a blinding whiteness. Wolf shut his eyes against it, but before long the white melted away to reveal a rainbow-colored aura surrounding the ship. They were in the warp zone now. Wolf checked the radar, but Bill and the other fighter were no longer with them. Wolf laughed in triumph.

"Oh wow…" Wolf took his helmet off, wiping his brow. "Getting too old for this shit."

"Boss, sorry to ask this but—"

"Don't worry about it. Just ask." Wolf chuckled.

"Are we really safe this time?"

"Yeah…this time we should be. We'll be long gone by the time Bill can follow us through that portal. It's closed up again now." Wolf looked ahead, guiding the craft through the rainbow-colored dimension and dodging the psychedelic asteroids. It felt very soothing and relaxing after all they'd been through.

"All right… Fortuna here we come."

Sometime later, a bright flash of light illuminated the space over Fortuna. The stolen Cornerian dropship emerged from the warp hole. Wolf maneuvered the ship into orbit around the planet, heading for Fortuna's nearby moon, Genma. The dropship floated peacefully past the vast green jungles far below. Sure most of the gauges were still in the red, but they were almost back to the Retribution. It was Wolf's mothership, and Star Wolf's new home after being driven out of the Sargasso Space Station a year ago by Cornerian forces. Normally thinking about that caused Wolf to fume for a while, but he was just too tired and relieved about this job coming to an end to care-

Metallic shrieking filled the rear of the cabin. Wolf turned around, looking through the cockpit's door. The rear hatch. Wolf could see it buckling and twisting, spitting sparks everywhere. Its structural integrity was compromised from the chase before. Franco and Harry stared at it, frozen to their seats. With a mighty howling and screeching of metal, the rear hatch completely blew off, exposing the inside of the ship to the vacuum.