Author's note: Star Fox belongs to Nintendo.

This story is rated T for violence and some profanity.

Comments, suggestions and reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!


"NOVA BOMB ON ANGLAR CRAFT! WESTERN EDGE OF CITY! ATTACK DIRECTION EAST! BOMB IS HOT! REPEAT, BOMB IS HOT!"

"Copy that. All nearby pilots engage Anglar delta formation at western edge of Corneria City!"

Within seconds, four Cornerian aircraft were firing their lasers at the delta formation of Anglars headed toward Corneria City. This was definitely a suicide strike, and a very conspicuous one at that. Eight Anglar aircraft were in a tight delta formation. One in front, six forming the wings of the "V" and the eighth craft was directly behind the front. It was protected, at least for a little while. And it was the aircraft that held the nova bomb, ready to detonate.

As the first volley of lasers hit true on a flanking Anglar aircraft, the four pilots on the rear of the formation immediately broke off and turned their attention toward the advancing Cornerian pilots, whose numbers had grown to thirteen.

"I've got an angle! Approaching from below, eighteen degrees south of bomb's current location!"

"Take it out now!"

The Cornerian pilot squeezed the trigger, unleashing a quick volley of lasers that marched across the sky. Somewhere in the middle of the salvo, one of them hit true on the protected Anglar craft. Seconds later, smoke began billowing out of the Anglar craft's underside. It broke away from the formation in a shallow dive toward the city.

"BOMB STILL ARMED! ANGLAR HAS PULLED INTO A KAMIKAZE STRIKE!"

The pilot who crippled the Anglar craft nosed his plane upward, seemingly with a death wish. At the last second, he ripped the yoke to his left, pulling the craft into a barrel roll. One of his wing tips gutted the Anglar's engine and collided with its left wing. The tip of the Cornerian pilot's wing was sheared off, but it was enough of an impact to send the Anglar reeling to its death in an inescapable dive.

"BREAK FORMATION! NOVA BOMB EXPLOSION IN TEN SECONDS!"

The Cornerian pilot shoved his yoke down in an effort to gain enough speed to get away from the impending explosion. He pulled back with the yoke and realized with a startled gasp that his aircraft was rolling hard right. He guided the craft with the roll slightly, trying to level out the flight just as the doomed Anglar met the ground with the bomb.

A blindingly bright white flash covered the area, followed by a massive explosion and a visible shock front. The blast quickly caught up to the fleeing pilots, disintegrating their aircraft in milliseconds. The one fleeing Cornerian pilot felt his craft lurch as the blast front caught up with him, his head colliding with the seat behind him. He grunted in shock from the force of the blow. Several alarms on his holographic display began flashing red, indicating catastrophic damage. He noticed the engines were blown open, but somehow, the fuselage of his craft had survived the explosion, if only barely.

There was no way to land the aircraft, so the pilot quickly yanked on two levers on either side of his seat. The cockpit glass flew open, and the seat ejected from the aircraft, where it quickly spiraled into the open land below, ending its flight in an explosion that paled in comparison to the nova bomb.

The pilot was met with a wave of searing heat. His parachute opened, and he turned toward the billowing mushroom cloud that was once an Anglar craft. There were no aircraft in the immediate area, Anglar or Cornerian. The explosion was close enough to the city that most of the western district was leveled or gutted.

There was no warning for the bomb. But that's exactly what the Anglars wanted. Zero warning, total destruction. Somehow the pilot had staved off a small fraction of what the bomb could have done to Corneria City, but was it worth it? It didn't look like there were any survivors other than him.

I killed my friends, he thought. I'm a coward, and I'm the reason they're dead.

Unable to comprehend what he had just done, he passed out just as his feet hit the ground.