Chapter 7: Let The War Begin!
Upon hearing Corneria would be attacked, Shadow thought it best to let General Pepper know about it. Even though he hated the military and all in it, especially General Pepper, it would be in everyone's best interests to let Pepper know about the attack. Shadow got on the comm. and called for Shock, Ice, and Fear, who arrived at the bridge in five minutes. After they showed up, Shadow opened a channel to General Pepper's office at the military HQ on Corneria.
"General pepper here," the old hound said, turning to his vidscreen, being greeted by the five individuals he had been after for so long, "What do you want?"
"We have something you're going to wanna hear," Shadow replied to the holoscreen that appeared in front of the window in the bridge, "We have solid information that a group is going to attack Corneria, we don't know when, but we know soon."
"You think we're going to surrender to you five," General Pepper asked.
"It's not—"Shadow tried to respond, though he was cut off by Pepper.
"We're not that easily defeated," Pepper told him.
"We're—"Shadow tried to say again.
"You're going to fail," Pepper interrupted.
"Shut the fuck up, you wrinkled mutt," Scythe yelled. Pepper was caught off guard, and did, indeed, remain silent.
"We're not the ones attacking, we won't waste our time killing off your worthless soldiers," Shadow said, "If it wasn't for this attack, we wouldn't be talking at all, so since we're talking to you about this you better take us seriously!"
"You're lying," Pepper responded, "Pepper out."
Once Pepper had finished, he ended the communications. Shadow sighed and waved his left hand in the air, letting the others know they were no longer needed. Fear, Shock, and Ice left the room, leaving only Scythe and Shadow.
"If the mutt won't listen," Scythe said, "Then we won't help…they're on their own."
"Of course…if they do not want our help, we will not give it," Shadow replied.
"Let's get off this rock," Scythe told Shadow, "We'll wait and see what happens."
Shadow entered the coordinates into the ship's computer and it lifted up off the ground. It then soared into the sky, soon after leaving the planet's atmosphere. It then flew a ways away from the planet, far enough patrols and scanners wouldn't easily pick them up. While the ship was making its way to the destination, Scythe left the bridge and began making his way to Falco's room. Once there, he unlocked the door and entered.
"What do you want," Falco asked.
"To tell you about the Cornerian government, it would be best if you knew," Scythe replied.
"Knew about what," Falco questioned. Scythe then began to explain about the corruption of the Cornerian government, how they treated everyone, how they really ran things, he told Falco everything, nothing was left unsaid.
"You're lying," Falco said.
"Fine, don't believe me, go ask Fox and Krystal yourself," Scythe told Falco, getting up and making his way over to the door, "They've seen some of the corruption."
"I will," Falco said, getting up and leaving the room. Scythe went on to tell Slippy as well as Peppy what he had told Falco, each time he would get the same reaction and give the same answers.
Eventually, the whole Star Fox team was told about the attack on Corneria, and the team agreed to fight alongside Shock, Ice, Fear, Scythe, and Shadow in order to help Corneria through the fight, assuming the five decided to help Corneria. Currently, the coin was still in the air, and so it was anyone's guess as to whether or not the five wolves would fight for Corneria or watch it be torn apart by this unknown group.
A few hours later, Scythe was in the shooting range, testing his assault rifle's performance, firing only single bolts to see how effective it was. The holographic figures were easily disposed of, their lifeless bodies falling to the ground after a couple shots. Thirty minutes passed since he first entered the room. Five minutes later, Krystal entered the room. He heard the door slide open and close behind him, quickly getting up from his kneeling position and turning around.
"What do you need," Scythe asked, aiming the assault rifle to the left and down at the floor.
"Oh, sorry," Krystal replied, "I was going to test my pistol, but, you're already using the range, so…"
"Come here, I'll set you up some targets," Scythe said, walking over to the computer terminal.
"You don't need to stop on my account," Krystal told him.
"I'm not, I'm satisfied with my weapon's performance," Scythe replied.
"Oh…well, thank you," Krystal said.
"You're going to want to really practice if you're going to go through with stopping the attack," Scythe spoke.
"I'm sure," Krystal said, sounding a bit distracted as the holographic figures reappeared and she began firing. Scythe waited until she ran out of ammo in the first clip to say anything.
"I recommend you bring the others in here and set up a defensive program," Scythe told her, "Except that old rabbit."
"Any particular program," Krystal asked.
"City defense, and if you aren't going to defend, city assault," Scythe replied, "Both on level ten."
"I'll remember that," Krystal spoke.
"And while you're at remembering, try to remember this," Scythe told her, "The best defense is a good offense."
"True," Krystal replied, firing a couple more rounds at the targets.
"Let me know when you and the others are ready and I'll come set it up," Scythe said, and with that, he left. She went and got him about an hour later. He followed her to the range and set it up to switch between assault and defense, the program switching to the other when the team was finished with the one they were currently on, and then he left. He made his way back to his room to take a shower, since he hadn't gotten to take one today. He entered the bathroom and began to remove his clothes
He then turned on the shower and stepped into the warm water. After he had taken his shower, the rest of the day seemed pretty boring, nothing interesting happened. Everyone ate, trained, and finally slept. To some, it would be classified as an interesting day, to him and everyone else on the ship, save the Star Fox team, it was completely boring.
Several days passed with nothing happening. The group hadn't attacked Corneria yet, so for now, things were quiet…though things wouldn't stay that way. After five days, nine carriers dropped out of hyperspace. They proceeded towards the planet of Corneria, small fighters flying out of the hangers and ahead of their carriers, destroying any resistance in their way. The fighters entered the planet's atmosphere before the Carriers managed to even get close and eliminated all aerial threats.
Once the attacking fighters destroyed the Cornerian fighters, they began to strafe the streets, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. As the fighters killed the civilians, the carriers landed as close as they could to the Cornerian HQ. Luckily for the military, General Pepper had already escaped and went underground in order to remain alive. In the deepest level of the hidden base, he attempted to contact the five individuals who had tried to warn him about this.
Shadow was in the bridge at the time when Pepper called, like he usually was.
"Are you receiving," Pepper asked as his face appeared on the screen.
"What do you want," Shadow asked, not looking away from the computer console he was working at, "Wanna beg us to help you?"
"Please," Pepper begged, "For the sake of Corneria."
"So the same planet that drove us away wants our help," Shadow spoke, "Forget it…though Star Fox might be interested."
"We can't get through to them, they're not responding," Pepper replied.
"That's because we have them, we'll give them transportation, but that's all," Shadow told Pepper.
"You won't help," Pepper asked.
"Are you fucking deaf," Shadow growled, turning away from the console he was at and looking at the screen, "You've wanted us dead for years and now you want our help, you expect us to just forgive all you've done to us and help you…no…not unless you swear to me you'll clear our records!"
"I don't know if I can—"Pepper tried to say.
"Then you're on your own, I doubt just four foot soldiers could take out that army you're dealing with," Shadow barked, "You either clear our records or you can all die down there at the hands of these pirates, it's your choice…I recommend you grow some brains and do the smart thing."
"Fine," Pepper replied.
"Good, we'll head down there as soon as we can," Shadow told Pepper.
"Thank you," Pepper replied, ending communications. Once he was off, he left the room. In reality, he had only said he would clear their records, when this was over, he was going to have them captured at best, but more likely killed…the things they'd done would never be forgiven…they would, ultimately, be punished for what they've done, even if everyone thought otherwise.
"Everyone, get to the armory," Shadow's voice rang from the speakers inside the carrier, "I'll meet you all there, and no excuses, we've got a new job, and the prize could very well be something worth far more than money." Shadow stopped speaking and quickly left the bridge, wasting no time in getting to the armory. He was the last one to arrive there, but not the last to get his equipment ready. He grabbed his katana, weapon stock, and pistols in almost no time at all.
"So what's this pay," Falco asked, "What are we gonna get?"
"Star Fox will probably just get a few credits, we won't," Shadow responded.
"And that is…?"
"Clean records, though it's not a guarantee, it's better than nothing, rather have a clean record than the one I have now, least I won't have the whole system after me."
The others were equipped in about as short a time as Shadow. Everyone was armed to the teeth, all having at very least Energy Assault Rifles and Desert Eagles, save Ice, who was simply equipped with a Desert Eagle.
"Think that's gonna protect you," Fox asked.
"I'm not going in on the ground with you," Ice replied, "Air Superiority, moron, if I don't clear those skies for you; none of you are getting in."
"He's right, McCloud," Shock said, "He's probably the most important member right now."
With that, everyone left the armory and headed for the hanger. In the hanger, two vehicles were ready, a UH-120 Black Hawk and what looked like a Standard Cornerian Starfighter, though its looks were deceiving. The Black Hawk looked almost exactly like the UH-60, only bigger and had the ability to travel through space thanks to the small engines on the bottom. Other than that, it looked exactly like the 60.
Shadow was the first into the Hawk, being the pilot. He strapped on the helmet and turned the troop transport on, the engines jumping to life and lifting it off the floor about half a foot. Ice went behind the spacecraft and jumped in his fighter. Shock, Fear, Scythe, Fox, Krystal, Falco, and Slippy quickly entered the Hawk and took a seat. Once everyone was ready, Shadow took the Hawk out of the carrier, quickly followed by Ice, who flew ahead of them in order to clear out the skies as much as possible before they arrived.
Ice easily reached the planet first and was immediately greeted by a ton of fighters, though none were near as good as him, lacking much air time. Many of them were in the air for the first, and last time. Ice fired off a few missiles, the weapons impacting the canopies of the fighters they were fired at and exploding, sending all of the fighters down to the streets of Corneria in little bits and pieces.
The surviving fighters began following Ice, firing off their weapons as soon as they thought they would hit him. Of course, with the fact they were in the air for the first time, they all missed. Ice didn't want to waste his time firing at these amateurs, so he decided to deal with them by doing some stunt flying. The first thing he did was fly in between two buildings sideways, several fighters crashing into one of the two buildings, removing some good chunks from the buildings.
Three fighters were all that remained, the only ones smart enough to go over the buildings and not try to follow Ice in between them. Unfortunately, they lost track of Ice once they were over, since he didn't continue straight but instead took an immediate right. Ice had managed to get behind the three fighters before they could find him and fired off his pulse cannons, tearing them all apart, sending each down to the streets in a burning inferno.
The skies were far from friendly, though, twenty-five fighters weren't enough to so much as scratch the enemy air, though it did get their attention. Twenty-nine fighters were quickly drawn into a fight with the Cornerian Fighter, though these rookies were no match for this ace. Ice pulled several extremely difficult stunts, nearly slamming into the ground a couple times, in order to lose the fighters, most of the enemies on his tale actually losing control and flying into buildings and billboards, one of which advertising a strip club, 'the naughty vixen,' and one of them actually being 'the naughty vixen' itself.
When a fighter flew into the billboard and exploded, the attractive vixen on it was transformed into a burning figure, no longer recognizable, the club itself was severely damaged. Several craters were created in the street, though none were very large, though one would argue the opposite if they weren't in the air. While Ice was busy dealing with the enemy air, Shadow had finally arrived and piloted the Black Hawk over to the Cornerian Military HQ, landing the troop transport on the street in front of the building.
The front of the building on the first floor was nothing more than glass, and so everyone could see inside. A large group was in there, their attention quickly drawn to the Black Hawk. Though, their expressions turned to horror as they watched the others drop to the floor, dead. Scythe had gotten on the machine gun on the left side of the Black Hawk and began firing inside the building, glass shattering into what seemed to be billions of tiny pieces.
As he continued firing, the pirates dropped like flies, each one was filled with what looked to be a hundred bullets, although that wasn't how many times they were hit exactly. Some had their torsos torn up, falling back and bleeding to death if they were unlucky enough to survive the initial hits. Some were hit in the face; others had severely damaged limbs and simply bled to death from the limb shots and possibly several torso shots.
Once Scythe had finished firing, he quickly assembled his assault rifle, as did everyone else, save Shadow. The seven soldiers all jumped out of the Black Hawk and proceeded inside the Military HQ. Upon entering, Scythe took a moment to look around and admire the mess he had created on the first floor of the building, firing his assault rifle at anyone who seemed to have survived his assault before he spoke.
"Damn I love my job!"
