Lights Outcast Shadows Chapter 11

Fox stood staring at his arwing in deep thought; he had readied his mind completely for the time when he would have to touch down on hostile Corneria, and yet here he was packing his arwing full of stuff he would need in the coming assault, confused as to whether to take more rifle ammo or to bring another weapon with him. The argument was still being played out in his head when Falco came down onto the otherwise empty docking bay. Falco saw the confused look on Fox's face and offered his advice. "Take the ammo; we don't know how long we'll be down there."

Fox nodded and put the extra magazines into the cargo space of his arwing. "I'm really hoping we don't need to use the heavier weapons though considering we plan on this being a stealth mission more than anything else."

"Yeah but you know it never works out that smooth, there are gonna be kinks in the plan and that gun might be necessary. I'm packing for stealth but not exclusively, I still got some heavy guns in here." Falco said patting the side of his arwing. "I agree with you though, I really wish it would go smooth."

Fox smiled a crooked smile. "Don't wanna bust any bad guy face today?"

Falco frowned. "No, not when there's so much at stake."

Fox was surprised by Falco's solemn demeanor and made it a point to keep busy to avoid an awkward conversation. Soon Fox and Falco were joined in preparation by Krystal, Blaze, and Starwolf. Everyone was packing up in stoic silence except for Wolf who was chatting animatedly to Panther and Leon about how much they were going to make once they pulled this job off. Soon ordinary troops were filing into the docking bay and prepping up their fighters as well. Fox, Falco, Krystal, and Blaze were checking their communications lines and their g-diffusers When Bill walked up to the side of Blaze's arwing and rapped a knuckle on the cockpit. Blaze lifted the canopy and looked intently at Bill. Bill stared back deep into his eyes. Blaze nodded. "I have complete faith in that device, and I want this just as much as everyone else."

Bill nodded and walked away from Blaze's arwing and towards the biggest ship in the fleet, where he would be commanding the "Maneuver". "I really hope you do."

Jensen lounged back in his chair with his feet on the desk and his hands behind his head. The picture of peace on the outside, while his mind was in utter chaos. Thoughts of the rebels and the commander haunted his mind; he had not slept in days. He had almost fallen asleep in his chair when the commander walked into his office. He snapped upright in his chair immediately alert. "What is it?"

The commander smiled at him and Jensen could feel his eyes burn into him. "You will be happy to hear that the entirety of the Titanian rebel base is coming to fight Corneria, they number just as many as we counted there, give or take a dozen."

Jensen smiled. "They don't know they're outnumbered? What fools! We can crush them now! Bring whatever force we need to meet them, destroy their forces and this could be the last battle we need to fight!"

The commander nodded and left the room. Jensen grinned even larger. "And hopefully you will die along with those rebels!"

Bill stood on the bridge of his ship and watched as he slowly approached Corneria. He could see a sea of black dots coming towards him through space. "Hold here for a moment, let them come to us."

The enemy ships approached and when they came close enough for communications The Commander appeared on the screen in front of Bill. The Commander smiled conceitedly. "Are you ready for your surrender?"

Bill wiped his brow and shook his head slightly; the pilots saw his signal and turned the ship around. The Commander watched as the entire rebel fleet turned their back to him. "What could they be thinking, coming out to meet us and then fleeing? No doubt they want us to follow them. But I don't think they expected that our ships are outfitted with such superior jets. We will catch them and make them pay for testing my patience as they have."

Bill looked back even though he knew he couldn't see the incoming fighters. "Are they following us?"

One of the pilots responded. "They're following us and gaining fast! They're covering distance much faster than anticipated!"

"Evasive maneuvers get this ship where it needs to be!" Bill barked. "Well," Bill thought. "I guess they are doing what we want them to, but no plan is perfect."

The Commander barked out his commands quickly. "Tell the whole fleet to follow, and overtake them if possible." His pilot started to reach for the flight stick. "No, not us, we will stay back here to overlook the battle." Although this was not his actual reasoning, he knew they may be led into a trap. Self-preservation is the best motivator.

Four arwings flew toward the white ball that was Corneria, followed fast by three wolfens. Fox pushed the flight sticks hard as thoughts of what awaited him flooded his mind. Fighting against Corneria, on Corneria. "No," Fox thought. "I cant think like that, this person is evil and that's all there is to it. He killed Pepper, brought Corneria into turmoil. No I'm fighting the enemy of Corneria just as I always have been. He deserves what I'm bringing him."

Fox was broken from his vengeful thoughts by Krystal's voice. "Fox, where are we going to land?"

It was a simple question, and like so many other simple questions it had been completely overlooked until now. Fox racked his brain for a quick second and came up with what seemed like a good idea. "I know a good spot, it's open enough for us to land and close to the capital building. Plus no one ever goes there anymore that I know of."

Falco responded immediately. "I know exactly where you're thinking and it's the perfect place. The last time I was there it was even more overgrown then when we left it."

Fox nodded to no one. "Alright then everyone follow Falco and I, we'll lead you to the LZ."

The grove of trees left no reason to believe civilization had ever so much as seen it besides the small makeshift tree house on one side. The tree house was extremely overgrown with vines seemingly trying to rip the feeble structure apart. It was as serene as imaginable, with no noise penetrating its thick wooden walls. Slowly the long grass began to sway, and a humming noise reached the grove. The grass began to sway violently now as an arwing came to rest on its surface, followed by three more of both arwings and wolfens. Fox jumped out of the cockpit and landed softly on the grass of his old grove. He always thought of it as his because he was one of the few to know of it, the others being his friends Falco and Slippy. But seeing as it was nearest his house no one questioned the fact that it was his. Fox took in the scenery a moment looking around at the changes that had taken place in his grove, it was still as beautiful as ever and the only change he could see was in his old tree house.

Krystal walked next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's beautiful Fox."

Fox put a hand over hers and grinned. "I'm glad you think so, maybe we can come back when this is all over, right now we have to get back to our mission."

Falco was already clambering around inside his arwing, grabbing weapons and equipment. "A truer statement has never been spoken, let's hurry up and hit that capital building."

"Well hold on, we need to make a plan. There are probably still guards; we can't just throw caution to the wind." Fox watched as Wolf, Panther, and Leon walked away from him as he spoke. "Where do you guys think you're going?"

Wolf glared at Fox venomously. "We don't need to listen to you, pup. You go about this however you want, we wont bother you but we're doing it our way." Wolf continued, followed by his team mates; as he was leaving the grove he called back over his shoulder. "I hope you live through all this, it wouldn't be right if you were taken down the one time we ever helped you."

As team Starwolf disappeared into the dense forest Fox turned back to face his crew. "Well we're probably better off without them anyway, so does anyone have any ideas on how to get in there without being noticed?"

"Yeah I do," Falco stated flatly. "And so do you. Don't you remember the back way we always used to go?"

Fox's eyes lit up and he grinned broadly. "You mean when we used to watch my dad get briefed on missions?" Fox laughed at the distant memory. "Yeah that'll work perfectly. Let's get our gear and head out."

Bill stared at the spatial rip that he was supposed to fly through. The pilots of his flagship were running around and yelling to each other, using all of their flying prowess not to be overtaken by the enemy ships. A voice just barely caught Bill's ear. "Sir at this rate they will just fly right through the rip with us!"

Bill thought to himself. "They need to be slowed down, and the only way I can think of doing that is… no that's too dangerous… but it's our only chance we'll have to do it." Bill called back to the pilot who yelled to him. "Tell all of the crafts to begin leaking their plasma out of their jets."

The pilot gawked at Bill in disbelief. "But sir, if we do that we'll lose all power to move. We'll be sitting ducks!"

Bill glared at the pilot. "Yes well that's what we'll be anyway if we don't slow them down any. Do the same for our ship, we need to knock them off course."

The Commander watched in horror as the ships closest to the rebel fleet began to explode. The highly volatile plasma connected with their ships and shot debris everywhere as the ships exploded. The ships behind the others had to fly in odd patterns to avoid debris and plasma. The pilot next to The Commander quietly asked him what his plan of action was. The Commander responded with a cackle. "Keep going as planned. They'll be out of plasma in a minute, and then we can destroy them."

Bill watched the little dots on the motion tracker back off of them as the spatial rip drew closer. "Fire the spatial stabilizer!"

The small ball-like object shot from the front of their vessel into the rip turning it an odd shade of blue. Bill yelled out. "Quickly into the hole!" The rebel fleet followed after the device into the spatial rip.

The Commander watched as the rebel fleet flew through the rip in space-time and called the orders to his pilots. "Send all vessels besides this one through that hole, send us back to Corneria."

The pilots obeyed their commands and as The Commanders vessel turned from the spatial rip he knew that none of the soldiers flying in would come out alive. "All the better." He thought. "May as well kill two birds with one stone, I definitely have enough time now."

Fox, Falco, and Krystal walked briskly through the serene forest, hurrying along much too fast to take in the scenery that would have normally ensnared them. They were rushed along by nothing more than thoughts and memories of their loved ones and the peace of the past. Soon their rapid deep breaths were accompanied by the sound of a bustling city and the city skyline came into view over the horizon. Just as they reached an end to the seemingly endless forest a weight seemed to fall on their arms and legs and their pace slowed. Finally they came to a complete halt at the edge of the forest. Fox tried to yell to his companions to ask what was going on but when he did so nothing came from his mouth. For a few moments they all stood there in complete motionlessness. Then a figure cloaked in black appeared out of the vegetation in front of them. The hood cast a shadow on his face so he was completely indiscernible. A gruff voice came from the inside of his hood. "I'm going to give the freedom to speak again as long as you don't abuse your privilege, most people don't get to understand what's going on before they die."

Fox could feel his mouth become free again. "Who the hell are you?"

A chuckle was let from beneath the hood. "Very appropriate wording, but I can not give you full details just yet. But I will tell you this; I am a servant of death. It seems you are much overdue for your appointment."

A huge weight sank in Fox's heart as all life seemed to be sucked out of him. "I'm sorry, but we're going to have to reschedule this appointment as I'm already late for an appointment with one Mr. Ferrier."

"Oh don't worry yourself he has already been taken care of by Starwolf; for once charge in without a plan was the right plan." The hooded figure chuckled and as he noticed Fox looking sadly towards Krystal spoke up again. "Now this is no time for sad goodbyes you've still got a chance to live. Fox looked away from Krystal with a glimmer of hope back in his eye. "Let me explain further." The cloaked figure said. "I was picked especially for this job by death himself. He wants a little bit of a show so you get to fight for your right to live. Kill me and you get to live."

For the first time the cloaked figure removed his hood and Fox was able to see his face. It was horribly disfigured and he could see what he recognized as bits of aparoid on his head and face. There was something oddly familiar about the face that he couldn't quite place. Then it dawned on him. "No way…"

A/N: Sorry sorry and all that you get the idea after how many times I've said it. Yeah got caught up in life as it seems to happen a lot but finished this chapter up eventually. No promises for the next one cus that'll just get me in trouble. Busy playin cod 4 and 5. either way I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the first of two climaxes is coming in the next chapter. And just gunna let you in on some good listening material to end this one. Crack the skye by mastodon, and see you on the other side by KoRn. Crack the Skye provided some of the motivation for this story so give it a listen when it comes out in march.