Ch. 28
The Counter Strike plan
The chopper made its way to the hanger of the Great Fox, once it landed the Soldiers got out and were met by R.O.B, Josh stepped out and noticed the medics were wheeling the bed Krystal was on to the robot asking where to put her, he told them the med bay and went to take them there. Later the Arwings made their way into the hanger and landed on four separate platforms, once one of the pilots got out of their Arwing, the platform lifted up and then the Arwings were magnetically hooked up to magnetic rails which kept them suspended in the air.
Fox spotted Josh and made his way to the human, Josh noticed and approached the Vulpine, deep down he was still angry at Fox for what he did with Krystal…But now was not the time to let his personal feelings get in the way. Earth was being attacked and if he was going to help he needed to have a clear mind.
"You good?" Fox asked, Josh nodded.
"Yeah…Thanks for the rescue back there…What did the council say?" He asked.
"At first they weren't going to help." He said, suddenly Josh dropped his shoulders.
"Why wouldn't they?" He asked
"They didn't want to involve Lylat into someone else's war." Josh gritted his teeth, unable to believe that they would have sat back and done nothing to help his planet.
"Well, I'm sure you were able to convince them." He said, Fox shook his head.
"I didn't, Krystal did…However Earth will have to become part of the Lylat system, it is the only way for them to send aid without breaking their neutrality."
"That seems fair I guess, you can't ask for something for nothing." Fox nodded.
"Truer words haven't been spoken." He said, "Come, we need to come up with a plan of attack until the Cornerian fleet arrives." Fox spoke and made his way to the hangers exit, Josh followed behind.
"Cant the Great Fox take that thing out?" Josh asked. Fox shook his head.
"No…The Great Fox doesn't have the necessary equipment to damage the war ship." He said and then they made their way to the command bridge where Col. Ryan was at, he looked over when the doors slid open and his gaze landed on Josh. Josh noticed the old man smile while letting out a relieving sigh.
"Glad to see you're okay Grant." He said, Josh nodded at the older man and made his way closer to Fox and the others.
"Now then." Fox said and made his way over to the pilot seat and sat down, he then started to tap on the screen and suddenly a holo screen appeared with many sections that had different texts on them. Fox clicked on one and more texts appeared, he clicked on another and suddenly a holo image of the Gorton War Ship appeared. He took one quick look at everyone inside the command room which was, Ryan, Josh, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy.
"The Gorton fleet clearly hasn't arrived yet, according to what the database knows about them. The fleet it's self is not as powerful as the War ship, but they can still be a handful. Especially with the War Ship around, so if we can find a way to destroy the War Ship, the Cornerian fleet will stand a much better chance at driving back the Gorton fleet." Ryan stepped forth and started to speak.
"While everyone was out fighting I took the time to get in touch with President Rushford to find out what all had happened with the battle, according to him…nothing we have has seemed to scratch it."
"Well how is that info going to help?" Falco asked, Ryan turned to the bird and pointed at the holo screen.
"We can't harm it from the outside…So what if we could harm it on the inside?" He asked. Falco raised a feathery brow.
"How? It's not like we can just walk inside of the ship." He said and crossed his arms. Suddenly Josh got the realization of what Ryan was talking about.
"Their power canon…It's their most powerful weapon right?" He asked.
"That's right." Slippy replied and walked over to the holo map and clicked on the ship's Power canon, the canon was then highlighted in red and a text box appeared. "The Power canon uses energy from the sun to charge its weapon and uses that energy to create enough power to unleash a beam of energy equal to that of a red sun."
"What are you getting at?" Peppy asked. Josh pointed to the Power canon.
"Have you ever heard of the saying; your greatest strength is your greatest weakness?" He looked around and a few of them nodded, Josh then looked at Ryan. "You said nothing can hit the surface, and we can't just walk in…So what if we turn their Power canon, their greatest strength into their greatest weakness."
"How?" Fox asked, Josh turned to look at him.
"If we can set off a big explosive inside the Canon the blast will travel into where they store all that energy, I'm sure whatever energy they charge will be unleashed and damage the inside of the ship, possibly even destroy it." He said, he then searched everyone's faces to see if they were thinking the same. Slippy then spoke out.
"What kind of explosion?" He asked.
"A laser guided tactical nuke should work out nicely." Ryan answered, "However that would mean someone would have to be on the ground to aim the laser for the fighter jets to launch the nuke."
"I can do it." Josh instantly called out, Fox and the rest of Star Fox looked over at the human, they were amazed at his inspiring courage, Ryan nearly chuckled.
"I figured you would want to, however we would need more than just one laser, we will need multiple lasers." Fox knew this was the plan they were going with, well he sure wasn't going to miss out on it.
"We will help out as much as we can." He said.
"Given a few moments I'm sure I can make the Arwings fire these nukes you speak off." Slippy added
"We and the fighter jets will distract all aircraft forces away from the soldiers on the ground so they can use this laser you speak of." Fox said, suddenly there was a beeping sound in the command room.
"What's that?" Josh asked, Fox made his way to the front windshield and noticed the War Ship was gone.
"The War Ship is gone!" He shouted, everyone in the room rushed to the windshield to look out, and sure enough all that could be seen was the destroyed city. They then heard another beep and Fox looked over to the holo screen, it was replaced by an image of Earth, the United States was highlighted red. Fox quickly made his way over and clicked on it, suddenly and area was colored red, it was in the upper right area next to the sea. Fox clicked on it and a holo video of the War Ship attacking another city was shown. Ryan instantly recognized the city.
"They're attacking New York city." He said and turned to look at Fox, "How long will it take for this ship to get us there?" He asked. Fox quickly made his way to the pilot seat and took over the controls.
"No more than fifteen minutes." He said and started to steer the ship toward the coordinates of the city under attack.
As the Great Fox made its way to New York city, Ryan got in touch with President Rushford and told him about their plan and would need as many fighter pilots and tactical nukes, and Laser markers along with men for the ground job. Rushford assured him that he would have what he needed.
As the City came into view everyone could already see the damage done just by the Gorton Star Ships. The Great Fox landed at the base Ryan was told to land at, everyone made their way out of the Great Fox hanger and made their way into the base. While they settled a bit and started to talk with every one about their plan, Slippy was hard at work trying to outfit the Arwings with the Tactical nukes.
Aboard the War Ship Ashtark looked at the fresh wound on his chest, the thought that the human responsible for killing his eldest cousin and almost killing him made him sick with anger. He tightened his fist and slammed it on the med table hard. He shouted in anger and stood, he would not be confined here in this room until his wound healed. He was a warrior and needed to be out there destroying the humans.
He made his way out of the med room and began making his way to the hanger, if he was going to die, then he wanted to die on the battle field, he wanted to kill humans, and that was what he was going out to do. Every human he would kill, he would be sure to picture his eldest cousin's murderer.
Josh and Fox made their way to the helicopter in the base hanger, Josh had changed into a Marine combat outfit, Fox kept his outfit just the way it was.
"I hope your General is able to make it before the main horde arrives." Josh said, feeling fear course through his body. It sent an all too cool chill up his spine. His thought drifted to Krystal, he kept saying a prayer in his head begging God to let her be alright. The thought that she might be dead made his knees weak, something he didn't need at this moment. It took all his will power to force the blue Vixen from his mind and on the mission at hand.
"Don't worry; General Pepper has never let me down before. I have faith they will arrive." Fox replied, not willing to admit his own fear of the worst case scenario. Fox looked up at Josh and admired the courage of the human. A smile appeared on Fox's face.
"You're a good man Joshua Grant; I can see why Krystal cares about you." He said, as much as Josh appreciated Fox's complement, he was just able to get her out of his mind. "Krystal is a survivor…As long as she has a say in it, she won't go out without a fight." Fox and Josh looked at each other for a few seconds before shaking hands, the gave the other a nod and then went their separate ways.
Josh stepped into the helicopter with a few other Soldiers. He looked over and saw a few pilots enter their aircraft; he then noticed Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy entering their Arwings which Slippy was able to fit with the Tactical nukes. After a few seconds Josh felt the helicopter come to life, some Soldiers came by and closed the sliding doors. The helicopter started to lift off the ground and made its way out of the hanger as did the other two dozen helicopters.
Fox pressed the green start button on his Arwing and it came to life, He then flipped the landing gear switch and the legs went inside the aircraft, now floating a few ft. in the air Fox placed his left hand on the thruster lever and pushed it forward and shot out of the hanger. He looked at his rearview screen monitor and watched the other three Arwings come out of the hanger, along with ten human fighter jets.
Josh looked over to his right and saw Fox staying close to his helicopter. Josh pressed the earphone button in his ear and opened the radio to the four aliens.
"Good luck you guys." He said, he removed his finger and a few seconds later got multiple responses.
"Same goes to you." Said Fox.
"We'll show these bastards how tough we are." Falco proudly stated.
"We won't let you down." Slippy called out.
"Onward and forward." Peppy spoke.
"Let's go team." Fox said and pushed the thruster as far as it would go and shot forth breaking the sound barrier within seconds. Josh watched as the human fighter jets increased their speed and flew ahead.
"Approaching target in two minutes." A human pilot called over the radio.
"Looks like they already sent out the welcoming party." Falco said, Fox looked and saw many red Gorton ships heading for them.
"Engage hostile." Fox said over the radio and flipped the safety off, activating the green holo aiming system.
"Their playing my number." Falco called out and flipped his safety off. Fox placed his finger on the twin Gatling trigger, and once a Gorton ship was in sight he squeezed the trigger. Green plasma filled the sky, round after round punctured the enemy ship and it exploded in red fire. Within seconds Fox and the others were in a dog fight in the sky.
Falco barrel rolled to the right missing a missile headed for him, He moved the steering stick back to the left and squeezed the Gatling trigger, hitting a few ships and bringing a couple down.
The human fighter jets artillery were not as powerful as the Arwings, however they were still able to bring enemy ships down. One fighter jet was locked onto target and fired his bullets. The bullets shredded through the enemy windshield and tore into the Gorton's body, blue blood quickly filled the cockpit and the ship went soaring down to the ground.
Peppy noticed two enemy fighters on his tail, he tried to out maneuver them but they stuck on him, they soon started to fire at him.
"Blasted all!" He shouted and tried to get out of the red plasma rounds way.
"Peppy, do a barrel roll!" Slippy called out, Peppy face palmed himself.
"Of course how could I forget that?" He said and preformed a barrel roll, he then preformed a backflip and was now behind the two enemy ships, he squeezed the Gatling trigger and destroyed one and was about to destroy the other, when a plasma missile hit it.
"What the!?" He said and looked to find Falco fly by. "That was mine Falco!" Peppy snapped.
"You're getting to slow old man." Falco replied. Peppy's eyes went wide.
"Old? Old? OLD!? I show you old!" He said and quickened the Arwing speed, "Move over hipster and watch how its down." Peppy snapped.
"Careful old-timer, don't break your hip." Falco replied. Peppy snarled at the remake and saw a few enemy ships closing in. A smile appeared on his face, and flew straight to the enemy ships. He fired his Gatling at some of them damaging them, as he flew past them he noticed some of them turned around to go after him. Peppy smiled and pulled the thruster all the back stopping the ship. The four enemy ships flew right past him.
Peppy moved the thruster forward and shot forth breaking the sound barrier. He locked on to one of the ships and fired a plasma missile at one. The missile hit and exploded the enemy ships' left wing causing it to spin and crash into another ship; both spun out of control and blew up. Peppy came up to the third enemy ship and fired the Gatling blowing the ship up, the fourth ship back flipped and was met with a missile peppy launched. Peppy could see Falco's shocked expression through the visual video screen to his right. He laughed to himself and flew away.
