Captain Whitcomb stared out the main view port where a sizable fleet of Brotherhood warships were roaring towards him as they decelerated from hyperspace, and even though they were too far away to see he knew hundreds of weapons batteries were swinging towards his fleet.
"All ships fire at will."
The room began to vibrate with a deep, reassuring hum as a storm of crimson and emerald laser blasts flashed by the view port towards the oncoming enemy, Whitcomb shielded his eyes as the Brotherhood fleet returned fire. The Brotherhood fleet accelerated like an army of medieval warriors charging into battle. A cascade of energy coursed over the ship's hull as a barrage of heavy turbo laser blasts slammed into the Defender's bow shields.
"Shield crews shift seventy-five percent shield power to the forward projectors."
"Sir General Pepper is demanding to speak to you immediately."
Whitcomb began shouting almost before the hologram fully materialized.
"General sir there's too many enemy warships, I need a full barrage from the anti-orbital guns along the leading edges of the Brotherhood armada, my people are already sending the targeting data to the command station!"
"Calm down Captain the anti-orbital guns are already charging. I will give you any aid I can but you must not let them get past you no matter what the cost."
The comm. uplink was terminated and Captain Whitcomb turned back towards the rest of the command crew as a shield breach alarm began to sound.
"Get ready to attack the Brotherhood fleet along the flanks that the AO batteries damage!"
A barrage of massive cerulean energy beams arced up from Corneria and tore into the Brotherhood fleet, punching through shields and piercing armor platting, several Brotherhood ships began to go into a lazy, uncontrolled role while several more were torn apart by chains of explosions along their lateral lines. Whitcomb cursed as the explosions ceased and more Brotherhood ships plowed unrelentingly through the debris, it wasn't enough. Another alarm began blaring… a proximity alarm?
Whitcomb caught a glimpse of at least a dozen of what appeared to be some kind of transport ships materializing from hyperspace barely a hundred meters from a group of Cornerian warships. The first ship slammed into the battle cruiser Sentinel, and as he watched Whitcomb could see the battle cruiser's bow crumpling back as the transport slammed into it at just under light speed. The battle cruiser vanished in a fire ball as a second transport hit it midship while the warships around it suffered similar fates, the enemy was using kamikaze techniques? The proximity alarms blared again and another group of ships materialized in the hole that been torn in the Cornerian fleet.
"Sir we have two heavy cruisers and two assault carriers dropping out of hyperspace."
"All ships fire, fire don't let them get through!"
It was too late. Even as a swarm of Cornerian warships converged on the small armada swarms of fighters and dropships were tearing out of the ship's hangers entering the atmosphere.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"
Even as Whitcomb was venting his anger the Brotherhood ships were maneuvering towards the hole in the Cornerian defenses even as Cornerian ships rushed to fill it and flurries of turbo laser blasts from the AO guns stabbed into the Brotherhood fleet in an attempt to push them back.
Sergeant Stevenson rushed out of his barracks as a platoon of Cornerian marines ran by and was almost run over by a light wheeled vehicle that was speeding towards the city. As he ran to where his own unit was assembling at the gate a deafening air raid siren drew his attention to the sky. Hundreds of fiery lines were burning there way through the blue Cornerian sky, the telltale signs of ships coming in steep, the Brotherhood was here.
General Pepper began to pace again, growing more and more nervous as the reports continued to come in.
"Tell all civilians to report to shelters immediately, scramble all available fighters, and make sure that all available ground forces are deploying."
"Sir the Brotherhood ships are coming into range of the AAA grid."
"Than what are you waiting for Lieutenant, give the order and send them all straight to hell!"
As General Pepper turned to the view screen-lined wall a storm of energy blasts and SAMs began to lance upward into the sky, shattering Brotherhood Wraiths and tearing through rows of bombers and dropships. As he watched the formation of aircraft broke up and scattered across the sky like some aquatic predator spreading its tentacles. Wraiths and bombers broke up into squadrons and screamed toward the surface to begin attack runs while the dropships broke into smaller groups and blazed toward the surface to deposit their cargos. God damn it where were the fighters.
At the Cornerian Air Defense base swarms of Broadsword fighters were taking to the skies, blazing out of their hangers to join their brothers already in the air. A pair of Arwings blazed out of hanger and screamed down the runway before pulling up and soaring up into the sky to join the swarm.
As Fox slid his Arwing into formation with the rest Broadswords he stared out at the oncoming enemy. It brought back bad memories to see the Cornerian sky full of hostile starfighters. General Pepper's voice crackled over the comm. as the massive cloud of incoming Brotherhood ships loomed closer.
"Attention all fighters, protect the anti-orbital batteries at all costs, any Brotherhood aircraft attacking these batteries are to be considered primary targets, secondary targets are the Brotherhood dropships and bombers. All other aircraft are to be considered tertiary targets and should only be engaged if all other targets are eliminated."
There was a pause and then the general shouted an old Cornerian battle cry.
"For your people comrades, do not turn your back on them!"
Fox reached over and activated his targeting computer knowing Krystal would be doing the same, and Bill and Falco for that matter… wherever they were. As if on cue Bills voice crackled over the comm.
"All fighters, fire your missiles and bombs on my mark, three, two, one, fire at will!"
The fuselages of countless Broadswords seemed to spout fire as swarms of air-to-air missiles and nova star bombs were fired at the incoming Brotherhood fighters, shattering Wraiths, ripping apart dropships, and tearing chunks from bombers. A swarm of lights flared at the edge of Fox's vision as the Brotherhood returned fire with their own missiles. Seconds later the two swarms of fighters collided and the battle devolved into a massive, chaotic dogfight.
"Break off into squadrons and engage the enemy as ordered!"
Fox fired a nova star bomb into a swarm of Wraiths as a hail of laser blasts tore apart the squadron of Broadswords in front of him, sending them spiraling down to crash into the very city they sought to defend. He spun his Arwing into a tight roll to unleash a burst of laser fire on a trio of attacking Wraiths. He rolled to port and put a charge shot up an enemy fighter's exhaust port and without waiting to admire his handwork rolled to starboard and blew a wing off another unfortunate Wraith. His HUD flashed a warning and he jammed down on the stick, an enemy air-to-air missile sailing over him before its targeting systems could acquire him. A Wraith settled onto his six and laser bolts flashed by his Arwing, some mere meters from the canopy as he jinked left and right before doing a barrel role to starboard and jamming the stick back. His vision clouded for a brief moment as his gravity compensator struggled to keep him from blacking out from the sheer G force of the maneuver. He spun his Arwing around and caught the enemy Wraith flat-footed, sending it down to dig its own grave in the streets of Cornerian City. Fox caught a glimpse Krystal's blue and gold striped Arwing blaze by in pursuit of another Wraith and barely dove in time to avoid a burning Broadsword. An anonymous pilot's voice crackled on the comm.
"Heads up, more bogeys coming in steep at two-o'clock!"
Fox glanced in that direction to find a second cloud of Wraiths screaming into the fray with lasers blazing and rolled hard to port to avoid a hail of laser blasts as the comm. suddenly began blaring cries for help, pilots shouting that their wing mates had been hit, and death screams. Something inside him screamed for him to break left, the kind of uncanny sixth sense that only the most experienced fighter pilots ever felt. Without thinking he jammed the stick to the left as a mass of superheated plasma missed his starboard wing by mere meters, suddenly the Wraith that had fired the shot burst into flames. Another Arwing flew through the explosion, Falco.
"Heads up we got another group of bandits at four-o'clock!"
Fox hazarded a look in the direction the pilot had said, the clouds seemed to part as a swarm of Wraiths and Brotherhood bombers came screaming in flying in perfect formation, some with their hulls still glowing slightly from the steep dive into the atmosphere. A flight of Broadswords rose to appose them only to plowed under by the sheer number of hostiles as the swarm of Brotherhood ships entered a steep dive toward one of the AO installations. Walls of laser blasts and SAMs arced up to greet them reaching for the ships with fiery fingers as the installations AAA gunners desperately tried to protect the massive gun turret mounted on a pedestal in the middle of the small base. The Wraiths hit first drawing fire away from the bombers, generating the ear-splitting screaming sound as they dove that gave the starfighter its name. They swoop in through walls of Cornerian AA fire while countless numbers of their wing mates vanished in balls of fire or spiraled down to their final resting places in Cornerian City. In unison the swarm of Wraiths opened fire with their lasers and missile launchers tearing apart gun turrets and SAM sites before pulling up and blazing off over the city. The bombers screamed in on their steep dives and doors on the bellies opened, releasing long lines of wicked looking bombs. The bombs slammed into the massive AO gun and it seemed for a moment to collapse in on itself before shattering in a massive fireball.
"God help us."
Fox heard himself say out loud as he grimly returned his attention to the dogfight.