Teerts Station

Cad Bane was stirred from his sleep by the nearby sounds of snoring and purring. Reaching from under his duster and lifting his hat up from over his red eyes, the Duros caught sight of Panther passed out face first on a nearby cot.

Taking stock of their shared quarters aboard the criminal outpost, Bane saw empty and partially empty beer bottles littered across the floor, including one of the latter on the nightstand.

"Might as well get the day started," the Duros muttered as he picked up the bottle and began draining the last of its contents.

Finishing up, Bane slammed the now empty bottle down on the nightstand, causing Panther to wake with a jolt.

"What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed.

"That," Bane dryly replied, "Was a Duros wake up call."

With that, the bounty hunter stood up from the cot and threw his duster on before leaving the room, Panther not far behind.

Entering the corridor, the two of them soon caught sight of Wolf, Leon, and Algy in conversation.

"Ah, glad you could join us," the lupine remarked upon noticing the two.

Bane met his gaze and replied, "What're we doing today, Wolf?"

With a toothy grin, Wolf stated, "We'll talk about that after breakfast."

From there, the five outlaws ventured towards the station's cantina and grabbed some food for themselves before returning to Wolf's quarters and filling their bellies.

"Alright boys, we've got a job from Carlo Galtieri," Wolf explained after they were finished.

Typing some commands on his wristcom, the lupine was greeted by the hologram of an orange scaled salamander with blue eyes and dressed in a black business suit and necktie.

"I see that you got my retainer," the lizard said in a scratchy voice.

"Indeed we did," Wolf replied, "Now all we need are the particulars."

Galtieri cracked a smile before pressing a button offscreen. His image was replaced with a hologram of a building.

"The Masonian Museum on Papetoon is showing off the Moonstone. I want you to steal it and bring it to me on Aquas. An artifact that rare is bound to snatch a high price on the black market."

Studying the layout of the museum, Wolf asked, "What sort of security can we expect?"

"The usual, and then some," Galtieri replied, "They've doubled the number of guards and brought in a contingent of Planetary Police to watch the perimeter. Most importantly, they've hired the Fire Birds to fly air support."

"The Fire Birds eh, very interesting," Wolf remarked.

"In any case, contact me when you have the gem. We can discuss your payment on Aquas."

"Will do," the lupine said before ending the call.

The quintet then spent the next few hours studying the hologram for a possible way to break in.

"Well, the vents are out," Leon stated, "Even Algy's not short enough to fit in those."

"No argument here," the lemur replied.

"Three of us will need to draw off the Fire Birds," Wolf put in, "And at least one of us will need to distract those cops. The question is, who's grabbing the Moonstone?"

The sound of the door opening brought the quintet's attention away from the hologram and towards the entrance. As Todo floated in, something clicked in Bane's head.

"What is it you were saying about the vents, Powalski?"

Todo stopped in midair as he saw the devious smiles that the others were sending his way.

"What seems to be the problem?"

After a few seconds of silence, the techno-service droid lowered his head.

"Oh dear."

Later

Thurston, Papetoon

Above the Papetoonian capital, three starfighters flew in a delta formation. The lead ship was an Arwing that was painted black with orange lines along its fuselage. The two behind and beside it were very similar in appearance to the Arwing, but were physically smaller and had their wings swept further back. One had the usual blue colours for its G-Diffuser pods while the other had them painted red.

The two ships were prototypes of a new Arwing variant known as the Light Arwing. Meant to serve as an interceptor, it had far greater speed and a quicker charge rate for its homing laser, though both were tempered by the craft's lower shielding.

Within the cockpit of the black Arwing, the pilot kept her head on a swivel and an eye on the radar. She was a brown furred Fennec fox and was wearing a white bomber jacket and a pink and green flight suit.

Rubbing at one of her green eyes, Fara Phoenix let out a sigh and muttered to herself, "At least we're getting paid by the hour."

Keying her comm, Fara asked, "Fay, Miyu. Anything on your end?"

"All clear, Fara," replied Fay, a white furred cocker spaniel.

"I've got zilch," said Miyu, an orange and white furred lynx with black stripes around her facial area and black spots speckled across her fur.

Clothing wise, both of Fara's wingmates were dressed similar to her, though Miyu's flight suit was purple and Fay's was light-blue.

Miyu's blue eyes suddenly dashed towards her radar.

"Wait, I've got something faint coming in."

Fara checked her own HUD and saw three signatures on an approach vector. As they got closer, her ship's scanners determined what type of craft they were.

"Wolfens," the fennec said with narrowed eyes before keying her comm again.

"Heads up, girls. Star Wolf is inbound."

"Weird, I thought they were up to four members," Fay mused.

"I heard it was five. And that the new dude's an alien. Doesn't matter, we can take 'em," Miyu put in.

As the Wolfens entered visual range, Fara found herself being hailed. She was expecting the caller to be the infamous Wolf O'Donnell and was surprised when she was greeted by the image of his second in command.

"Hmh," Leon hissed, "Looks like the Fire Birds need to have their wings clipped."

"Three lovely ladies. I can't believe my luck," Panther purred.

"I live for the days when I get to take a trust fund brat down a few pegs," Algy said with a wicked smile.

Undeterred by Star Wolf's threats, Fara pressed her foot down on the boost pedal.

"Let's give these lowlifes hell, girls."

Elsewhere

Bane was seated in the passenger seat of one of Star Wolf's recently acquired ATVs, listening to what was known to the inhabitants of Lylat as a country song.

So far, all the Duros could make out from the lyrics was that the narrator had been walking the streets for a long time and expected to face a load of compromising in his future.

Turning to Wolf, Bane asked, "Is there anything else on?"

Meeting his gaze, the lupine replied, "Out here, it's either this, talk shows, or radio preachers. Personally, I'd rather hear somebody who's either dead or nearly dead sing than hear a bunch of old guys talking about a topic they know nothing about."

"I agree with the second part," Bane stated while resting his feet on the dashboard.

A short time later, Wolf's wristcom blared as Leon contacted him.

"Boss, come in."

"Leon, what's your status?"

"McCloud's ex and her girlfriends are taking the bait. Everything's going to plan on our end."

As if on cue, Bane's wristcom also chirped.

"Mr. Bane, I'm in the vents."

"That's our cue," Bane said as he strapped himself into the seat and drew one of his blasters.

Wolf did the same before pressing his thumb over the start button, causing the engine to roar to life.

"Let's ride!" the lupine shouted before putting the ATV in gear and pressing his foot down on the accelerator.

With a screeching of tires on pavement, the ATV roared out of the empty backlot and zipped through the alleys and streets of Thurston. Soon enough, they found themselves coming upon the police cordon near the museum.

Seeing the barriers, Bane raised his LL-30 and fired a few shots in the direction of the cops. He wasn't sure if he'd hit anything, but as Wolf slammed on the brakes and quickly u-turned, he heard the sound of sirens and saw several police cruisers giving chase.

"Hopefully, that robot of yours holds up his end of things," Wolf remarked.

"He'd better," Bane replied as he tossed a thermal detonator out of the ATV.

"Or he's gonna hear about it from me."

The Masonian Museum

Todo flew through the building's air vents, unnoticed by the guards. Following the map that had been downloaded into his memory banks, the techno-service droid soon came upon a grate that overlooked the so-called Moonstone.

The gem that Mr. Bane and his current cohorts had been hired to steal was blue in colour and had very jagged and uneven edges. As befitting its name, it had been discovered on one of Papetoon's two moons.

Todo glanced about the room, his photoreceptors able to see the laser beams that most organics could not. There were none on the Moonstone itself, but Algy had stated that the gem was likely on a pressure sensor.

Hence the bag of rocks on Todo's back. Nobody knew for certain how much the Moonstone weighed, but it was worth a try.

After making certain that there were no guards nearby, Todo removed the grate and floated down into the room, keeping himself well above the laser beams.

Removing the bag from his back with one metallic hand, Todo placed the other on the Moonstone, careful not to disturb it.

"Well, here goes nothing."

Todo quickly lifted the gem off of its pedestal and placed the bag of rocks in its place. He waited a few seconds and then turned around, prepared to make his escape.

"This was easier than I thought."

The techno-service droid was quickly proven wrong as he heard the sound of alarms.

"Looks like I spoke too soon," Todo murmured as a group of security guards entered the room.

"Hands up!"

Todo simply boosted upwards, only to discover that the vents were now sealed. The same could be said for the windows.

"Well this is hardly fair."

"Get that robot!"

Boosting away from the guards, Todo flew through the hallways of the museum. He was surprised not to see laser bolts cracking past him, but quickly determined that the guards didn't want to damage the Moonstone.

The techno-service droid soon detected another group of guards headed towards him and quickly hatched a plan. Positioning himself at a blind corner, Todo waited for both groups of guards to converge and then boosted up at the last minute.

Chuckling as the guards all fell into a heap, Todo took note of a red fire alarm on the door and quickly pulled it, setting off the sprinkler system and causing the blast doors to lift.

"Sorry to jet, but I'm in a hurry," the droid said before boosting back up into the vents.

Elsewhere

"Mr. Bane, I have the Moonstone."

"Good, meet us at the rendezvous point."

Lowering his wristcom, Bane turned around to take more potshots at their pursuers only to see that they were backing off.

"Well, they're giving up pretty easily," the Duros remarked, now noticing that they were in the city's outskirts.

"Probably terminating the chase in the name of public safety," Wolf stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The duo continued to drive away from Thurston and towards their rendezvous point. Wolf thought that they were in the clear until he caught a glimpse of something in the rearview mirror. Reaching out and adjusting it, the lupine caught sight of three airborne vehicles closing in fast.

"Ah shit! Gyrocopters!" Wolf growled before turning to

his passenger.

"Bane, you're gonna have to use the machine gun. Get it ready!"

Holstering his blaster, Bane unbuckled his harness and climbed into the back, quickly grabbing hold of the mounted machine gun and rotating it towards their pursuers.

The Duros quickly centered the holographic sights on the central gyrocopter and squeezed the weapon's trigger, sending a flurry of laser bolts skyward.

In response, the VTOLs opened fire with nose mounted cannons. Thankfully, Wolf proved just as good a driver as he was a pilot, managing to swerve the ATV out of harm's way.

As the laser fire from the gyrocopters kicked up plumes of desert sand, Bane kept firing at his target and was soon rewarded when smoke spewed from one of the engines and the gyrocopter began spiraling towards the ground.

One of the VTOLs hung back, presumably to check on its fallen comrade, while the other kept up the chase. Throwing a glance over his shoulder, Bane saw that they were approaching a rock formation, including a particularly tall one, and got an idea.

As Wolf turned behind the pillar-like stone, Bane activated his rocket boots and flew up to just below the gyrocopter's height. As the VTOL banked around the formation, the Duros flew up to the side door, catching a tortoise by surprise.

The man brought up a blaster, only for Bane to grab his arm and yank him out of the vehicle. Ignoring the scream, the bounty hunter grabbed a thermal detonator off of his belt and tossed it into the gyrocopter's passenger bay.

Bane didn't look back as he flew away from the VTOL and heard the explosion. As the alien landed back in the ATV, Wolf couldn't help but think to himself, "This guy's nuts."

After several more minutes of driving through the desert, the duo came upon their ships, Bane noting that the Justifier had landed after completing its scan of the planet.

Shortly after Wolf parked the ATV in the Justifier's hangar, Todo arrived.

"Mission accomplished," the droid droned while holding up the Moonstone.

"Good, I'll take that," Wolf said before holding out his hand.

After receiving a brief nod from Bane, Todo handed the gem to Wolf.

"C'mon," the lupine spoke as he walked towards his fighter, "Let's go see what the rest of the boys are up to."

Elsewhere

"I wonder how much mommy and daddy would pay to get you back, Phoenix? Especially from me," Leon taunted.

Ignoring the lizard, Fara pulled a loop and got behind his Wolfen.

"Eat lasers, psycho! I'm taking you down!"

Panther meanwhile, kept firmly on the tail of one of the new fighters, which was proving both faster and more maneuverable than his Wolfen, resulting in the jungle cat struggling to land a hit.

"I see that your reputation is overblown," chided the lynx pilot.

Panther was undeterred and suavely replied, "Ah, a Titanian. The most wonderful accent in all of Lylat."

The lynx rolled her blue eyes.

"You don't have a chance, not even in your dreams, you oversexed Fortunan."

Where Fara and Miyu were holding their own against Star Wolf, the same could not be said for Fay. The spaniel grit her teeth as her Light Arwing took another laser blast from Algy's Wolfen, lowering her already weak shields.

"Hey rich girl, why don't you make like a tree and fly back to your mansion?"

Narrowing her blue eyes, Fay hit her air brakes and let the sportive lemur overshoot her.

"It's leave, jackass!" the canine retorted, "Make like a tree and leave!"

"Whatever."

Fay only managed to get one shot off at Algy before picking up a couple of new signatures on her radar.

"Oh crap, we've got company."

No sooner did she say that, than another Wolfen was on her tail and opening fire.

"Ahh, I'm hit!"

Hearing her friend's cries over the comms, Miyu broke off from Panther and went to assist. Suddenly, the lynx caught a green blur out of the corner of her eye and swerved to evade.

But it proved to be no use, as the bogey already had her in his sights and opened fire. Miyu let out a series of curses in Titanian as her Light Arwing shook from laser fire.

As the green, H-shaped fighter zoomed over her, the lynx took note that her shields were just under halfway depleted and flipped a switch on her console, activating what was known as a Super Shield.

Said shield was impervious to anything short of a Copperhead Interplanetary Ballistic Missile, though since it drew power from the rest of the Light Arwing's systems, it meant that the ship moved slower and had weaker weapons for as long as the shield was active.

Seeing both her teammates activate their Super Shields, Fara broke off her pursuit of Leon and u-turned towards the other members of Star Wolf, only to notice that they seemed to be disengaging from the battle.

"I wouldn't think about following us if I were you," Wolf snarled over the comms before holding up an object that made Fara's heart sink.

"Break off the pursuit," she ordered, "They've got the Moonstone."

"And it's three against six," Fay put in.

"Oh come on," Miyu complained, "We've had worse odds."

"If that thing gets wrecked, we're gonna be the ones paying for it!"

That seemed to calm the lynx down for the time being. In the meantime, the Fire Birds watched as the six ships sped out of Papetoon's atmosphere.

"I think I need to make a call," Fara thought to herself.

Eladardian orbit

Great Fox II

There was a hiss as the bridge doors opened to admit Peppy Hare, who was carrying a mug of coffee owing to the early morning hour.

"Good morning, Peppy," ROB droned from a corner.

"Morning ROB," the lepus replied as he seated himself at the navigation console.

For several minutes, Peppy went over the mothership's map charts while occasionally sipping from his coffee, until his attention was grabbed by a beeping sound.

"Incoming ship," ROB droned, "Tracking signal matches with Agent Dortmund's device."

"Odd that they would come back here," Peppy muttered to himself before turning towards Star Fox's mechanical caretaker.

"ROB, get everyone up."

"Affirmative."

The robot then proceeded to send a ship wide alert telling all of the crew to report to the bridge. One by one, they arrived, all of them looking bleary eyed.

"Couldn't let us sleep for a few more minutes, could ya gramps?" Falco moaned.

Fox meanwhile, raised an eyebrow upon seeing the signal headed towards Eladard.

"This is an odd play, even for Wolf," the vulpine mused.

"Maybe he thinks we've left," Slippy wondered aloud.

"Or he's come back to finish the fight," Amanda put in.

Krystal put a hand on her temple in an attempt to pick up thought patterns from the incoming signal. Though she detected them in short order, none of them belonged to Star Wolf or their alien ally.

"It's not them,"

As the others stared at her in confusion, ROB confirmed the vixen's statement.

"Incoming ship identified as the Iron Claw."

As the aforementioned ship, a cruiser with three metal prongs on the bow, appeared on the Great Fox II's displays, Fox murmured, "Franz Von Erich," before turning to his team.

"Get to your fighters. Might as well make this worth our while."

As the mercenaries ran towards the lifts, Louise took a seat near Peppy and began massaging her temples.

"Fuck," the jackal muttered to herself, "I can't believe they found my tracker."

"Don't beat yourself up too much," Peppy said, "This isn't the first time Star Wolf's given us the slip."

Meanwhile, out in space, the Star Fox team boosted out of the hangar and got into formation. And not a moment too soon, for the Iron Claw dropped out of hyperspace.

Seeing that he was being hailed, Fox answered and was greeted with the visage of a grey furred mongoose.

"Star Fox, this is a surprise," the herpestid growled in a guttural accent, "Have you come to pay your respects to the Baron of Eladard?"

"This guy's got an ego the size of Andross' brain," Fox thought to himself before replying, "Franz Von Erich, power down your engines and prepare to be boarded."

Scowling, the mongoose snarled, "I'll take that as a no. Boys, blast this mercenary scum into spacedust!"

Even as the Iron Claw began to deploy fighters, Fox was already forming a plan.

"Slippy, Amanda, clear out their surface turrets. Krystal, Falco, with me. Pick your targets and go!"

The team split off, Slippy and Amanda making a strafing run on the Iron Claw while the rest of the team engaged the pirates' fighters. Fox blasted a pair of them into scrap metal and then barrel rolled to deflect fire from several others.

Sensing a pair of fighters on her tail, Krystal hit the brakes, letting them overshoot her, and charged up her homing laser. Quickly locking on to one of her quarries, the vixen fired a green bolt and turned the two pirate ships into fireballs.

Falco easily outmaneuvered the old Invader I fighters, quickly losing count of how many he had shot down. Glancing over at the Iron Claw, the avian saw a flash of light as Slippy and Amanda took out its engines with Nova bombs.

"She's dead in the water," the toad confirmed over the comms.

"Roger," Fox replied before hailing the pirates again.

"Last chance, Von Erich. Surrender now, or be destroyed."

"Fox, he's not onboard. He's escaping in a stealth ship," Krystal interjected.

Nodding in acknowledgement, the vulpine said, "Lead the way, honey."

Staying on his girlfriend's wing, Fox watched as she fired into seemingly empty space. But soon enough, a Venomian stealth ship was revealed. Fox quickly flew over the ship and fired his Arwing's tow cable.

After getting a hold of Von Erich's ship, the vulpine contacted the Great Fox II.

"Peppy, call the Eladardian Planetary Police and tell them that they can come pick up Franz Von Erich."

"Will do, Fox."

Later

Within the Great Fox II's hangar, Falco watched as a handcuffed Franz Von Erich was led towards a shuttle by several members of Eladard's Planetary Police.

"Hey, Von Erich," the avian called out, "I hear that Corneria is planning to extradite your ass. Maybe they'll give you a cell next to your psycho son, Kenny."

Von Erich stopped and shot the pheasant a glare.

"You're nothing but Hot Rodder trash, Lombardi. You and that floozy, Monroe."

Falco narrowed his eyes and balled his hands into fists.

"Get him out of here," the avian growled.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Fox smiled as he saw money being transferred to the team's account.

"Now to get back on Wolf's trail," the vulpine said to himself.

Suddenly, everyone's attention was grabbed by ROB droning, "Incoming message from Fara Phoenix,"

The last part caused Fox to do a double take at the robot.

"Fara," he mumbled before regaining his composure.

"Put it through, ROB."

"Affirmative."

The fennec's image appeared over the holotable, with Fox being the first to greet her.

"Fara, it's been a while."

The vixen nodded before replying, "I wish this was under better circumstances, but here's the deal. Star Wolf and their new pal swiped the Moonstone from the Masonian."

"Shit," was all Fox could manage.

"That's the bad news. The good news is, I may have a lead on who hired them; Carlo Galtieri."

Fox tilted his head to the side.

"I have a feeling that you didn't call just to tell me that."

Fara nodded before replying, "I'm thinking that our teams could partner up and split the bounty on these guys."

Fox put a hand on his chin and nodded.

"Fine by me, but we'll need to get a location on Galtieri. Guy does a pretty good job of covering his tracks from what I hear."

"Good, but not perfect," Louise put in before handing Fox a datapad.

"The last couple of communications put Galtieri on Aquas."

"Then that's where we'll head," Fox said before handing the device back to the jackal and turning his attention back to his ex.

"Fara, it's imperative that we capture the alien alive. He's mapping the Lylat system on behalf of a foreign power."

Nodding solemnly, the fennec said, "Okay, we'll see you on Aquas."

After ending the transmission, Fox turned to his team.

"ROB, set course for Aquas. Everyone else, get some rest. We're gonna need it."