Rain, a flash of lightning, the boom of thunder, screams and gunshots echoing in the distance. Two figures emerge from the darkness, one holding what appears to be a very young child. They run to a third figure, all are nothing more then shadows against the night sky.
"There's too many, we can't hold them off much longer" said the first to the third.
"We have to evacuate, get everyone on the ship" said the figure holding the child, who was now crying loudly.
The third figure nodded in response "Yes maim, but what about you two?", he spoke uneasily.
"We'll try to buy you more time, take Johnathon with you…make sure he gets out of here".
The second figure gave him the child "Good bye….my son…I love you…" she kissed his forehead.
" I cannot allow you to do this sir, there must be some other way!"
"No there isn't, we are the only ones capable of holding them off long enough for the rest of you to get out of here, now go we don't have much time!".
"But sir…"
The two figures begin to melt into the darkness, but a flash of lighting reveals their faces one last time to their son.
"Take care of him Joseph…. now hurry"
With that everything faded into darkness.
Johnathon awoke in a sweat, rubbing his eyes he looked at his watch; it was three in the morning. He got out of his bed and started to walk to the door. He got five feet until Edgar rushed into the room
"John we're being attacked again".
Jonathon yawned "Who is it this time?" he walked up to Edgar.
"It's those damn pirates again"
Edgar Corvus was a raven, with pitch black feathers, and tired eyes, who always spoke in a strong respectful voice. He is an expert pilot, but he'd rather read much more often then fight. He serves the Steel Haven by giving intelligence, as well as being Johnathon's right hand man.
"Tell the team I'll be there in a sec" Edgar nodded and quickly left the room.
Johnathon went to his closet and got his combat suit out. Before closing the closet door he looked into the mirror. He was a young fruit bat with dark brown almost black hair, his green eyes also looked tired, sleep on board the Steel Haven was rare and fleeting. He stretched his arms and the small wings that hung from them. He put his clothes on and walked into the main room where the rest of the team was waiting.
Edgar was sitting at the table which was in the center of the circular room. Next to him was Richard Pantera III a handsome young lion with noble blood, who fled from his planet when it was being destroyed. He was one of the royal family who ruled his peaceful planet Leo. When it was attacked by pirate raiders, only he and a handful of others managed to escape. They ended up at Steel Haven where Richard became a pilot. Standing opposite of Richard was Joseph Silverback. Joseph was a large gorilla whose hair had turned silver in his old age. His face was hard and weathered, with a scar over his right eye. He was a veteran of many wars, and had scars and awards to prove it. He was one of the founders of Steel Haven with the others being Johnathon's parents. He serves as the weapon specialist on the team, as his knowledge is unmatched in that category. He took care of Johnathon from a young age and served as a father-figure to him.
All together they formed the Steel Haven attack force.
Steel Haven is a colossal spacecraft, roughly the size of a very large city, that takes in refugees, people lost in space, and victims of war, giving them a place to be safe and restart their lives. Thousands of people call this ship their home, and most would give their lives to protect it and its people. Unfortunately because Steel Haven takes in war victims and refugees it is often a target of attack. It's large size also attracts a rather large amount of space pirates seeking to plunder it's resources. It is because of these attacks that Steel Haven is always on the move, only stopping to gather supplies.
"What's the situation out there?" Johnathon asked calmly.
"About twenty unidentified ships have been spotted on the radar, they're approaching rapidly" Edgar replied in the usual respectful tone.
"Twenty!? That's it? Personally I find that insulting…how much time do we have?"
"Approximately five minutes John" replied Richard.
"Well I guess we better get going…everyone to the hangar."
They then proceeded down a narrow hallway to Steel Haven's hangar which stored not only the Attack Force's ships, but also all the citizens.
When they arrived they all went to their ships. Edgar's ship was a small, pitch black, sleek ship that was designed by him. It was built for speed with modest attack power; it has excellent handling, but lacks any real armor. Richard's ship was very fancy, when viewed from the front looked like a lion with two outstretched arms. He received it as a gift from his family back at his home planet. It flew gracefully with modest attack and defense but lacked in handling. Joseph's ship was essentially a flying tank designed to look like the face of a gorilla wearing a red necktie. It was slow, powerful, durable and handled well. Finally Johnathon's ship is a sleek black mid-sized craft that when viewed from above or below gave it the appearance of a bat in flight. His was specially modified to have two fanglike clamps in the front which he can use to attach to enemies. When attached to an enemy ship, provided he clamped on the appropriate spot, a metal tube pierces the enemy's hull and drains the fuel, adding it to his own. They all are equipped with their own variations of the standard twin lasers and missiles.
"Everyone ready?" Johnathon asked.
They all answered back "Yes".
"Well than, let's do this!".
One by one they all took off into space. They were flying along the western side of Steel Haven when they saw them. Just as Edgar said there was about twenty. Their ships were mostly solid black with a lot of chrome accents; however they looked different then any other pirates' ships the team had ever seen.
"Who the hell are they" asked Johnathon. A grotesque glutton of a bulldog appeared on Johnathon's screen.
"Mumphahaha…snort…hahaha…. what puny little flies, surrender your ship or I'll take pleasure in ripping off your wings...Mumphahaha" the bulldog wheezed when he talked as if he had been smoking for years.
"I'm sure we'd all like to see you do that" replied Joseph.
"Fine…come'n boys lets get'm little flies…Mumphaha."
With that the twenty ships charged forwards, and Steel Haven charged back. Edgar got the first shot, he managed to hit one of the ships wings causing it to spin out of control. The Bulldog's ship, which was slightly larger than the rest, tried shooting Edgar but he missed and instead started chasing Johnathon around. Joseph rammed into two of the ships, causing them to explode on impact.
"This is too easy" he said as he shot another one down effortlessly.
Richard was being chased by several ships, barrel rolling to dodge the shots being blasted at him. Johnathon seeing this did a one eighty and shot down two of the ships chasing Richard.
"Thanks, but I think I can handle it from here" he also did a one eighty, got behind the remaining ships and shot them down in one big explosion.
The bulldog got back behind Johnathon and fired a few shots which Johnathon barrel rolled out of.
"You're not very good at this are you?" Johnathon said to the bulldog.
"Shut up you maggot I'll squash you yet Mumphaha…snort."
Edgar was weaving in and out of the enemy ships leaving broken pieces of them in his wake.
"This is rather boring" he shot down another and yawned.
An enemy ship tried ramming into Joseph at high speed. There was a big explosion and Joseph emerged unscratched. Richard was now chasing down the final five ships that were left, he launched a bomb at the cluster and took out four of them, the last managed to get away. The bulldog not landing a single hit realized the trouble he was in.
"How does such tiny insects defeat my troops…the captain shall here of this…Mumphahaha…snort…hehe".
"I'm getting tired of that stupid laugh" Johnathon said as he turned around
. Before he could get a shot in the bulldog fired a smoke bomb at him. Johnathon couldn't see anything. He did a barrel roll to clear the smoke, but he was already gone.
They all went back to the ship. When they got back to their headquarters they sat down at the table in the center.
"That was really annoying" said Joseph.
"Edgar, who exactly were those guys anyway? I didn't recognize their ships." Johnathon asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know anything about them. It's weird you think someone would have reported attacks by them, but there's nothing. I'll check the databases again."
"Thanks Edgar, now where are we headed for supplies?" Johnathon said.
Richard went up to the computer "We are currently headed for…um…let's see…ah Corneria in the Lylat system"
"John, do you think it's a good idea to dock now, the dog said that his captain would hear of their loss. He could come back with reinforcements." Joseph said.
"I'm sure it was just an open-ended threat, and if they do come back we are more than capable of handling it.
"Whatever you think is best"