Shattered Lylat Prelude: Enter Black Wolf

Part 4: A Grim Assessment

Chapter 18

Same place as the last part, same year (2550)

"The mainframe is just beyond the next room." Said Jason Kage.

"About friggin' time" Mark Rendar answered.

"Well, let's get moving" Ed Wallace said as he moved towards the door that led to the next room. When he was 5 feet away from the door, however, and explosion tore the door off, and sent Ed reeling backwards. As the dust cleared, everybody could see an Imperial soldier readying his rocket launcher for another shot.

"Somebody shoot him!" Jason yelled. Nobody had their guns up, however, and the Imperial was ready to fire. Suddenly, he stiffened and collapsed forward, two bullets in his back.

"Where did that come from?" Fox asked.

"It came from me!" said a voice down the smoky corridor. "I'm coming out now! I mean you no harm. Don't shoot me!"

As the smoke cleared, everybody saw a white tiger walk out into the open, holding his 9mm pistol at his side. Behind him, a gray fox walked out into the open as well, nervously holding a K21.The tiger was wearing a business suit, and the fox was wearing a lab coat.

"Hey, who are you guys?" Fox asked the tiger.

"I, am Mike Wilson," the tiger answered, "this is Allen Jones," he said gesturing to the nervous gray fox

"Wait, the Mike Wilson?" Ed asked "The same Mike Wilson who formed Damocles Industries, and now serves as president, General of the Damocles Security Force, and one of the heads of R&D?"

Everybody in the CDF knew about Damocles Industries. It had been formed 5 years ago as a competing company to Arspace Dynamics. Its HQ was stationed on Macbeth. The company was well known for making new technological advances in warfare. When Andross attacked Macbeth, the DSF (Damocles Security Force) resisted his forces, until the evil Oberon Corporation joined the Venomian side of the war. In desperation, Damocles agents gave the coordinates of a Venomian train yard and weapons factory to the CDF, and Starfox blew it up. This action saved the company form certain destruction.

"The same." Mike responded. "But, actually, Allen here is the chief engineer and head of R&D. I just play more of a side role."

"Well, what exactly would the president of Damocles and the chief engineer be doing here?" Falco asked

"Well…" Allen answered "It's kind of top secret. We were running tests on a new weapons system for the CDF, but then the Imperials attacked and captured most of us. Mike evaded capture, and rescued me from interrogation. We were trying to get out when we ran into you guys."

"Could you tell us what the intentions of the Imperials are?" Jason asked.

"They're trying to steal the plans for the new weapons system!" Allen yelped. "I managed to lock down the files, but they've almost got it figured out. You better hurry. The mainframe they're using is in a room adjacent to the room behind us."

"Ok, but first we should get you two out of here" Mark said.

"Good idea," said Slippy "I'll escort them out, as I'm not much of a fighter"

"I'll go too," said Peppy "I'm getting a little old for this sort of thing."

"All right," said Jason. "I'll just check in with Marlowski to let him know you're coming up." Jason activated his radio "Marlowski, what's your situation?"

Ivan Marlowski's voice came back over the open channel "Marlowski here; we have succeeded all objectives with no losses. How are things on your end? Did anybody in particular die? Say, Ed for example?"

"No" Jason replied sternly "Ed is alive, as is everyone else. Ed just got wounded earlier is all."

Another voice broke in "HA! I win the bet Ivan! Give me $20!"

"Shut the hell up Odell!" Ivan shot back. "Look, what else do you want Commander?"

"We're sending up two Damocles Industries personnel back up, and they're being escorted by Slippy and Peppy. We just want you to direct them to where you are."

"Okay, we can do that. Marlowski out." Came the terse reply.

The comm went dead.

"What the hell is his problem?" Ed asked Jason as Slippy and Peppy escorted Mike and Allen out.

"I think it's because you cracked the code on the doors before he did, and the fact that you were selected to accompany us on this mission. He's kind of an elitist." Jason replied.

"Jeez," Damien Norris cut in "Are you all like that?"

"No," Dante Davidson replied. "Just Ivan and his buddy Doug Cronin, who's also a Corporal in Shadow Wing."

"Right…anyways, we'd better get to that mainframe before they steal the plans." Ed said as he opened up the door. Next to him, Fox charged up the laser rifle to its most powerful setting.

The door slid open, revealing 5 Imperial soldiers standing guard, weapons ready. Fox instantly fired at the nearest guard. The laser blew through the soldier's chest and out the other end, clipping another guard in the side. Both crumpled to the floor. Ed moved through the door, firing his twin omni-falcons with .45 ammo. He dropped two more soldiers. The last tried to run for the alarm box. But Mark put him down with a burst from his own omni-falcons.

"There's the main mainframe room!" Dante said as he ran to the door and tried to open it. "Damn, it's locked!"

"Is there anyway to hack into it?" asked Jack Vong.

"Negative," said Jenna Sandoval "They destroyed the network uplink conduits."

"Well, shit!" said Karl Riker, "There has to be a way in"

"There is" Katya Williams said as she pointed up at the ceiling.

Everybody looked up, to see an air vent, that was maybe only 2 or 3 feet long and 2 or 3 feet wide.

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to fit through there?" Mark asked

"It's obvious isn't it?" Ed said "We can send two of our shorter personnel through there. That should be sufficient to get the information. There should only be 1 or two Imperials in there. I personally think I should be able to fit in there. So I'll go. Anybody wanna come with me?"

"I'll go." Said Katya "I'm only 5' 8"

"All right then," said Jason, "you need to get in there, neutralize any hostiles, and recover the data. Also, no looking at the data, got that Ed?"

"You're absolutely no fun at all, Kage, you know that?" Ed replied. "Mark, give me a boost."

Mark boosted Ed up to the air vent, and Ed ripped the grate away. He then got a handhold on part of the vent and pulled himself up. "Okay, now boost Katya up." He told Mark.

Seconds later, Katya struggled up to where Ed was inside the vent. "Okay, now we just go straight ahead, and there should be another vent."

After they crawled for about 15 or 20 feet, they came to the vent they were looking for. Ed carefully removed the grate, and looked around.

"There's one soldier, and he's busy on the mainframe. I'll drop down and knock him out." He told Katya.

"Be careful," she told him.

Carefully, so as not to make too much noise, Ed got out of the vent so that he was holding on the edge of the vent. He then released his grip, and dropped down towards the soldier. Ed hit the chimpanzee in the back of the neck with a double fisted karate chop, and the Imperial slumped to the ground, unconscious. Ed searched the inert trooper, and found a couple of timed mines. He pocketed them for later use.

"Okay…" Ed said, "looks like he was in the middle of downloading the plans when I showed up, the copying is 90% done. These plans seem to be for a new weapons system called the Mechanized Assault Chassis, or MAC for short. I wonder what that is?"

"It's not your job to speculate, Ed" Katya called from the vent. "Just give me the disc."

"Okay…" Ed said as he reluctantly went to eject the disc. He then noticed that it was actually burning two copies, presumably for multiple commanders. Ed was at an impasse. Should he tell Katya about the second disc, or should he take it and find out what the MAC is all about? Ed decided that what Shadow Wing didn't know couldn't hurt him. As the plan file transfer completed, he ejected the first disc and tossed it up to Katya.

"Okay, I'm going now, try to get back up here or open the door." She said. When Ed was sure she had left, he took the second disc and sealed it inside his laptop case. Just then, the Imperial's radio crackled to life.

"Lopez…" came the voice "Whatever you're doing, take what you got and leave. We're retreating. A Cornerian force is systematically destroying us, and we need to leave. Lord Kerrigan won't be happy, but maybe the partial plans will be okay. We're meeting at Hangar Bay 2, where the shuttle is docked. The code to open the mainframe room's door is 1986. Got that? Sure hope you do, because we're leaving in a big hurry."

The radio went silent.

Ed walked up to the door's keypad and entered the code. The door slowly slid open, and he stepped out to where everybody was waiting for him. "We need to get to Hangar Bay 2," he told Jason "the Imperials are retreating there, and that's where their shuttle is."

"You sure?" Jason asked

"Positive," Ed replied "I heard the commander of the soldier in the mainframe room telling him about the retreat plans. We have to hurry if we want to catch them"

"Okay, we'll do that now," Jason said "The hangars are 1 km away from here, at the back of the lab, we have to take an elevator up at the end of the next chain of 5 rooms."

"Let's move!" Dante shouted as he took off in a run

Chapter 19

Elevator room to the Hangars, 5 minutes later

The past 5 minutes had been a mixture of fighting and running as the 11 Cornerian soldiers ran to the elevators, cutting down any unlucky Imperial forces that got in their way. Now, in the room containing the elevators that went up to the hangars. 10 Imperial soldiers were making a last ditch stand to stop the Cornerians. Three of them were killed by a grenade that Mark threw. Fox used his laser rifle to burn down two more. Falco shot one through the head, and Jenna dispatched two with her K21. The last two soldiers ran for the elevator, but Ed blasted them with his Omni-Falcons.

"Marlowski, we're heading up the elevator to the hangar bay. What's your status?" Jason radioed in as the 11 soldiers got on the elevator

"We can't get down to the hangar. We've met heavy resistance from a rear guard of Imperial troops. Both Cronin and Dupris have been wounded, and Odell is reporting that he's low on ammo." Ivan reported worriedly.

"Do what you can…and try to find the hostages. Kage out"

The elevator moved up a medium pace towards the hangars. When it finally ground to a halt, Ed, Mark, Fox, Falco, and Jason covered took positions in front of the doors. The doors slid open, and the Imperial troops were surprised to see the Cornerian soldiers, rather than their comrades. The troops tried to raise their guns, but the Cornerian response was powerful. The 5 K21s tore through the ranks of Imperials. As the enemy returned fire, the Cornerians broke for cover.

Ed dove behind some boxes as machine gun bullets tore up the floor behind him. He looked around, and saw that the Imperials were retreating to a Domo-class attack shuttle that was parked in the hangar bay. "There's the shuttle!" Ed yelled "We have to keep it from escaping!"

Ed broke out in a run towards the shuttle, firing at anyone that got in his way. To his right, Mark ran with him, twin gattling guns tearing apart Imperial soldiers. The rest of the Cornerians were also running towards the shuttle. When Ed was 100 feet from the shuttle, he saw that it was beginning to take off. Ed new there was very little time to react. Mark tried shooting the ship with his gattling guns, but the armor was too thick.

"Mark," Ed called out "Hold your fire! I'll handle this." Ed used his rifle's zoom to locate what he was looking for…a ladder leading up to a ventilation shaft for the shuttles fusion core. Ed scrambled up the ladder, ignoring the sounds of the engines igniting, ripped off the vent grating, and threw a timed mine in to the vent. He had set the fuse for 10 seconds. He leapt to the ground and started running back the way he came. The ship was starting to take off and escape

"What was that…a tracking device?" Jason asked as he started running alongside Ed

"No, a timed explosive" Ed said as he dove behind some boxes. Just as he did, the mine went off.

The shuttle had just cleared the hangar bay when the mine exploded. The explosion reverberated through the ventilation shaft, and damaged the reactor. The feedback from the blast also blew out both engines of the shuttle. The Domo wavered in the air for a few seconds, then dropped down to the ground. It slid in, carving a massive trench in the top of the plateau.

"That got 'im!" Ed said enthusiastically.

"We'd better get down there" Mark said "If we can capture their computers intact, we may know their troop deployments, and any special weapons projects."

The 11 soldiers rappelled down the side of the lab to where the shuttle had crashed. As they ran to the crash site, the remaining Imperials ran out of the ingress hatches and opened fire. Fortunately, the damage sustained to the reactor prevented the shuttles gun turrets from being used, so the Cornerians were able to take cover without incident.

"Attention Imperial scum!" Jason Kage yelled as he emerged from cover," You have no chance of escape! Surrender now and you will be treated civilly!"

The Imperial response was to send a stream of bullets at Jason, who only managed to duck in time.

"You try that shit again, Kage," Falco yelled "and I'll shoot you myself!"

Ed saw that the Imperial commander, a tall alligator, was waving his laser pistol and shouting for his troops to incinerate all available cover. The he stated firing on Fox's position.

Ed popped out from cover and stated shooting at the commander. The alligator dodged the shots, and shot back at Ed. This however, gave Fox the chance he needed. Fox raised his laser rifle and fired it at maximum charge. The red beam impaled the Imperial commander through the chest, and he slumped over, dead. The Imperial morale plummeted like a rock, and they started firing haphazardly as they ran back to the shuttle. Ed opened fire with his omni-falcons, and cut down the second in command as he was about to go through the main ingress hatch.

"SURRENDER!!" Jason yelled again as he kept firing his K21.

The shuttles external speakers crackled. "This is Captain Chavez of the 6th Imperial Elite Infiltration Unit. You're actions have reduced our battalion to less than a company. We know now that escape is impossible, and we surrender. We are coming out now.

The Cornerians emerged from cover and started walking towards the crashed shuttle. "I'll go in alone" Jason said

"Oh no you don't" Ed shot back. "You aren't keeping vital information from me this time!"

"Me neither!" Fox yelled as he ran up to them

"Fine…" Jason sighed, "but only this time. The rest of you…keep a watch on the prisoners."

Ed, Jason and Fox walked into the shuttle and towards the bridge.

Chapter 20

As the three soldiers walked onto the wrecked bridge of the shuttle, they saw Captain Chavez attempting to erase the mainframe data. Ed walked up and pointed his pistol at the back of the Captain's head.

"I would advise against doing that." Ed said

Slowly, the captain moved away from the computer, with his hands above his head. Fox grabbed the captain, keeping his rifle trained on him.

Ed then went to the mainframe's keyboard, and started typing.

"What're you doing?" Jason asked

"I'm trying to find their force deployments and secret weapons projects. It shouldn't take me long" Ed replied. After about 2 minutes, the Imperial force deployments were on the main screen.

"I'll download this to a CD, you try to find their secret weapons projects." Jason said

Ed continued typing and hacking. After 5 minutes of work…he located the Imperial Secret Weapons projects.

"Okay here we go," Ed said as he clicked on a file labeled "Invader IV" what he saw was a diagram and technical readout for a new Imperial Strike fighter. After looking through that, and a file on a new Tripod III ground attack fighter, he spotted a file called "Project PRISM"

"Wonder what that is?" Fox asked

"Let's find out" Ed answered as he opened the file.

As the data scrolled across the main screen, the three Cornerians could only stare in horror at it. Captain Chavez, meanwhile had a triumphant look on his face.

"Ed, download this data to disc…the CDF has to know about this right away!" Jason said frantically

As Ed began the download…a proximity alarm sounded.

"What the hell?" Ed asked

Jason ran over to the sensors. "Looks like that Imperial light cruiser is coming to destroy the evidence!" he reported "But I can handle it." He opened a connection to the Phantron. "Smirnov, an enemy cruiser is coming in on us…deal with it."

"Got it" Captain Robert Smirnov replied "Phantron going on station"

"Let's get moving," Fox said as he roughly shoved Chavez out the door.

The four of them exited the shuttle in time to see the Phantron fly overhead to engage the Dorisby II that was flying in. missiles and lasers lashed out at the Dorisby II, which took numerous hits…and then withdrew into orbit.

"Odd…maybe the Phantron was too much for it" Dante speculated.

"I don't know…the Dorisby II cantake a lot of punishment," Mark said.

Then Ivan and his team ran up, along with Allen, Mike, Damocles scientists, and 3 Damocles test pilots. "Hey, we rescued the hostages and were headed your way when the cruisers stated firing. What's going on?" Ivan asked Jason.

"Something that is much bigger than this raid, or even the battle yesterday" was all Jason could say in reply "Let's get out of here, and tell General Pepper to send in a salvage team to the crash site"

Chapter 21

Corneria Park, Corneria City, Corneria, June 16th 2550, 1300 hours "And so we are here to recognize the brave heroics of the soldiers here in the battle to protect our planet from Imperial invasion." There was large applause as Prince Davidson's speech ended. Ed, Mark, Damien, Karl, Starfox, Husky and Bulldog squadrons, and 50 other pilots and soldiers stood at parade rest in military dress uniform on stage at the CDF medal of honor ceremony. As each soldier's name was called, General Pepper and Admiral Collins handed pinned a CDF Medal of Honor on them, and saluted. Slowly, the procession moved down the line, until it reached Black Wolf Squadron. General Pepper pinned the MOH on Ed's dress coat, and saluted. Ed returned the salute. Then Admiral Collins pinned two more medals on Ed, next to the MOH. Ed looked at them, they were the Titanium Medal of Valor, and the Purple Heart. When he was about to ask…Admiral Collins answered. "It's for saving my life and my command, and the Purple Heart is for your shoulder." The Admiral said as he saluted Ed. "Thank you, sir." Ed said as he returned the salute. Soon after, the ceremony ended and the soldiers were dismissed

Black Knight, Corneria's orbit, June 16th 2550, 1315 hours

Ed was recuperating in his quarters on board the Black Knight, when the comm buzzed.

"Yes?" Ed answered

"Sir," said ROB-2 "We have a gray Arwing coming in to the docking bay. The pilot, who identified herself as Katya Williams, wishes to speak with you privately"

"Send her in" Ed said. Wonder what this is about? He thought. Maybe I can ask her about that Jack Vong guy. Ed had been pondering whether or not Dave Cheng and Jack Vong was the same person or not.

A couple minutes later, Katya walked into his quarters.

"Uh…hi" Ed said nervously

"Hi," Katya answered back. "So this is your ship" she said

"More or less," Ed said. "So what brings you here?"

"Well, firstly…I want to thank you for saving my life." She replied.

"ahh…it was nothing really…saving lives in battle seems to be a habit for me."

"Yes…but you didn't need to put your own life at risk to do so"

"Well, maybe I did."

"Which brings me to the second reason I'm here"

"And that would be...?" Ed asked

Katya suddenly pulled Ed close to her, and locked muzzles with him

HOLY SHIT!!!! Ed's brain screamed. He decided not to break away though. After about 5 seconds, Katya drew back from him.

"Uh…I had no idea at all…" Ed said

"Neither did I, until this morning" Katya answered "See, when you selflessly risked your own life for mine, I thought that you really had feelings for me."

"I did," Ed said "See…you're smart and attractive, and I just thought that if I didn't risk my life there, I'd never get to know you better"

"Well," she said "How well do you think you know me now?"

"I'm not sure" Ed answered, "I think I'll need to spend more time with you" and with that he drew the border collie to him. The questions about Jack can wait, he thought, as he and Katya locked muzzles again in a passionate kiss.

Just then the comm beeped.

Son of a… Ed thought "Hold on a second." He told Katya. "What is it?"

"We need you and your squadron to report to HQ for a briefing…right away." Said General Pepper

"All right…" Ed sighed. "Sorry, Katya, duty calls"

"I understand…call me when you get back."

"I will"

Chapter 23

CDF HQ, Corneria City, Corneria, June 16th 2550, 1335 hours

"Now that you're all here" General Pepper said as Ed took his seat "We can begin."

Ed looked around the room, and saw that in addition to his squadron, Starfox was also seated at the briefing.

"First," the General continued, "The matter of the warship you discovered in Sector Y"

"What about it?" Ed asked

"Did you ever wonder why it was there, and why it was broadcasting an Arspace designation?"

"Well, kind of,"

"Well, we have an answer. Last year, after Starfox cleared Corneria, Sector Y, and Katina of Imperial presence, the CDF Joint-Chiefs of Staff: myself, Admiral Collins, Lt. General Magnusson, and Vice Admiral Gestahl decided that we needed a super powerful battlecruiser to better defend Corneria. The end result was the Mjolnir battlecruiser, built by Arspace Dynamics. The Mjolnir was, is, a powerful ship with weaponry that was never before seen in the CDF. When it was completed, we decided to test its hyperdrive on a short jump to Katina. Something went wrong however, and the drive suffered a malfunction, causing a major course change. The test crew evacuated in time, but the ship jumped into hyperspace, and we lost all trace of it…until now."

"So, I am going to have to give the ship back?" Ed asked

"No, you may use the ship as your mobile base of operations for missions"

"Odd that you'd not want the ship back" Fox said

"Well, we got the blueprints back from the main computers, so we're planning to try to build new Mjolnirs soon."

"Ok, then" Ed said

"Right…" the General continued "On to the second part of the briefing, which concerns the data you captured from that Imperial shuttle. Our best scientists and military analysts have looked it over, and the results are shocking."

The General tapped a few buttons on his control console, and the plans for "Project PRISM" appeared on the screen.

"This is the Death Prism," Pepper said "It appears to be a gigantic rectangular shaped battle fortress. The dimensions say it is at least 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, by 1.5 miles high. From what we can determine, these pyramidal shaped structures are laser cannons of vast destructive power." He pointed to the pyramids on each face of the battle fortress. "Any one of the cannons alone possesses enough power to annihilate an entire planet."

How is that possible?!" Ed yelled

"From what we can determine, the pyramids act as amplifiers and magnifiers for the laser cannon housed beneath it. Our analysts have dubbed these cannons the Prism cannons."

"This has to be destroyed!" Fox shouted

"It will be." General Pepper answered. "We are asking your squadrons to fly in and somehow destroy this thing. It is currently undergoing final preparations before launch at Macbeth. If you can destroy it before the Imperials can launch it, we can end this war."

"Hold it," Mark cut in "What about the Imperial forces on Fortuna? If we go straight to Macbeth, they could catch us from behind."

"That's true…" General Pepper answered "Starfox, think you can handle the Imperials at Fortuna while Black Wolf can prepare for battle?"

"Wait a minute…why not send both of us?" Ed asked

"To be honest, I don't even want to send your squadron to Macbeth, but I see no reason to risk our entire attack force on Fortuna.

"That's insane!" Ed shouted "You forget, I have Black Knight, it has enough firepower to weaken the guard fleet at Fortuna!"

"That's all well and good, but I am unable to send normal military line units there at this time, since losses at Fortuna were already high."

"Fine!" Ed yelled "If you can't send me as a line unit, I will tend my resignation to the CDF and become a mercenary!"

"You can't do that!"

"Oh yes I can, there's proof right there!" Ed said pointing and Fox and his team

"Even if you do go mercenary, it'll be just you, and there's no way you'll get a mission from us!" the General shot back

"That's where you're wrong." Mark said, "I'll go merc too."

"As will I" said Damien

"Me too" said Karl.

"Well, General, what are you going to do now?" Ed said

END OF PART 4