Chapter 4
General Pepper regarded the face on his monitor gravely. Commander Grey was a trusted friend, yet he was not permitted to release any of the information Bill sought.
"Come on, General, we know something's up. Don't make me waste the cash on this interplanetary call now."
Pepper slowly nodded. "It doesn't take much to see through it. But I'm sorry. I just can't disclose anything at all."
Bill sagged. "C'mon Jon, if it's coming for sure, at least we'll be better prepared. I…"
Suddenly, General Pepper's office door flew open. "General!!!" Pepper's leopard aide rushed in and saluted.
"What's that?" Asked Bill.
"Looks like trouble. We will have to talk some other time."
Bill sighed. "Understood General." Then he hung up.
Pepper looked up at his aide. "Now what seems to be the problem?"
"Communications from Venom…"
"Yes?"
"Well, we've lost them."
One minute later General Pepper was sitting at his console overlooking the situation room, the same one he had used in the war with Andross. Activity had increased threefold since he had last been in two hours ago, with sensor operators, communications officers and technicians milling around chaotically. Most of the communications officers were trying to contact bases or Navy vessels near Venom. No communications came back.
"Incoming message from Orbital Base Alpha Central, directed to General Pepper." One of the officers looked up from her console. Pepper signaled for her to put the message through.
A Puma's face filled Pepper's personal holographics display. "General, are you getting any communications from Venom?"
"No. I take it you've noticed the communications loss, Admiral."
"'Noticed'? We've lost all contact with the Vigilant, the Redoubt and the Freedom, not to mention around 15 smaller ships! What's going on?!" Admiral Verenski lowered his voice. "Anything to do with our 'mystery fleet'?"
Pepper heaved a deep breath. "I fear that may be the case. There's a unit from Macbeth en route to check it out. All scanner sweeps are being jammed, so it'll have to be a visual check. And I'm giving the Star Fox team notice of a possible job in the near future."
The Admiral nodded to someone behind him. "The fleet is on yellow alert…. Wait a second." He turned away from the camera again to confer with an excited sounding communications officer. "We have a communication! From a flight of starfighters leaving the Jamming zone around Venom."
Pepper was up standing. "Relay it to here." He pressed a few buttons on his console and brought the communication up on the main screen for all to see. Navy Command was already replying.
"… Go ahead Scorpion Lead. What's the situation?"
The main screen showed little else but shapes moving in static. "… VERY BAD … contact with CDF Forces… orbit… losing you…"
Pepper heard Admiral Verenski ordering relay satellites to new positions to boost the signal.
"… That's better, signal lock." The transmission cleared up, showing a beaver and the background of an LF-220 cockpit. Smoke could be seen wafting around above the pilot's head. "The situation on Venom is irrecoverable. A huge armada skipped in on warp drives, they began pounding the planet right away. 50% of the surface batteries were wiped out in the first five minutes. My squadron was one of the first scrambled."
"What's our fleet status?"
"The starfighters on patrol were wiped out. Of the 3 squadrons that were scrambled, I think we're the only survivors. Myself, two others from my squadron and one from Talon Squadron. They trapped most of the fleet using some sort of anti-warp technology, so we couldn't warp out. The Redoubt took most of the firepower from the enemy fleet. She's gone. Vigilant and Freedom regrouped with the destroyers and frigates, holding them off as long as they could, but there were too many of 'em. Vigilant blew pretty quickly, Freedom was taken down by seven enemy cruisers. She crashed planetside. I wouldn't expect survivors from any of 'em."
Admiral Verenski roared in anger.
"We barely got out ourselves, I've lost a wing, Scorpion Three's having engine trouble. Our range is limited to around halfway to Macbeth. Last we saw of Venom, hundreds of invasion ships were dropping in."
Verenski regained composure immediately. "Get the 4th Fleet over there now! Tell them to pick those fighters up ASAP. Transmit a fleetwide Red Alert. Move the 11th Fleet to Macbeth and the 5th Fleet to Titania…"
General Pepper started issuing orders too. "Mobilize every army, guard and militia unit we have anywhere. Put all squadrons on Red Alert, notify our allies…"
The words came forth as crisp and as professional as one would expect from a General. They were the same words he had barked out seven years ago when he had heard of Andross's moves.
It's happening again…
Again, after seven short years of peace…
We're back where we started.
"Well, at least this solves the issue of our mystery fleet. So much for 'not worrying the public'. Why didn't we see this attack coming?"
"I don't know General." Verenski was quiet a moment. "It's like our intelligence agencies have completely proven ineffective."
Pepper nodded. "They never recommended we call Starfox to scout. Commander Pontac said it was a bad idea, but I was going call today anyway."
"Does the invasion change that?"
"No. But they won't be going on a scouting mission anymore."