In the next few chapters you'll have to excuse the strange way of changing scenes but Fanfiction is being temperamental right now and will not preserve any kind of marks between paragraphs.
(Break)
Katt sat in front of a narrow gash in the wall of the ruined building, a blaster rifle lying in her lap. She couldn't help but look out at the shattered buildings and rubble strewn streets through the crack in the wall and feel the burden of failure. When ever her gaze fell on one of the dead civilians, an equine male lying in the street where he had fallen with no one to bury him, she couldn't help but feel the icy tendrils of doubt both in herself and her comrades creeping into her heart. How long had it taken for the Brotherhood to overrun the outer planets? How long had it taken them to reach the very steps of the Cornerian capital? A commando's voice brought her out of her solemn reverie.
"Someone's coming up the southeast street!"
Katt raised her blaster rifle and clicked the safety off as she slid its muzzle through the gash in the wall, training it on the Southeast Boulevard. A voice crackled over the comm.
"This is Captain Grey; we're coming up on your position hold your fire."
Katt breathed a sigh of relief as Bill, Falco, Fox, Krystal, and Wolf came into view along with a very battered Cornerian marine. The group reached the entrance to the building and several of the commandos immediately helped the marine onto a small table that had been cleared of debris in preparation for the arrival of wounded. Katt reached the building's central room just as the four mercenaries and the Cornerian pilot entered and collapsed into the handful of chairs left in the building, Katt sat down next to Falco.
"I guess there was only one still alive?"
Fox nodded.
"The marine can't say very much right now. From what we could tell he's got some minor wounds all over his body, a nasty bullet wound in one of his arms, and an even nastier piece of rusty metal that pierced his chest plate and got lodged in his midsection, all we could do is inject him with some heavy duty disinfectants and hope that he doesn't have lead poisoning or whatever the hell that piece of metal might have had on it."
Bill spoke up.
"The medics said it would take them at least half an hour to patch him up completely, but after that were going to have to move out, this has taken too long already."
"Actually while you were away our comm. Specialist managed to tap the Brotherhood communication network and has gotten us a list of arrivals and departures of supply convoys in the area that are bringing fresh supplies to the Brotherhood frontlines."
"He's sure that the Brotherhood didn't pick him up?"
Katt shook her head.
"He said the chances of enemy technicians picking him up are slim to none as long as the power levels are kept low and the comm. unit is left on passive mode."
"Good, tell everyone to be ready to leave in about an hour."
(Break)
Captain Whitcomb stood in front of the main view port on the bridge of his flagship 'Defender' staring off into the stars and wondering how many of those distant systems had ever been engulfed in as many bloody civil wars as this blasted system. Some of those stars though were eclipsed by the Brotherhood fleet hanging in the distance and he was reminded that even civil wars weren't enough anymore, now they had foreign forces invading the system, as if with the intent of nothing more than keeping the bloody legacy alive. Indeed the Brotherhood behaved enough like one would expect a massive interstellar empire to but the cause of their holocaust against the Lylatian people continued to puzzle him. It also puzzled him that while the Brotherhood had his fleet surrounded and outnumbered they did not press the attack but merely kept them trapped within a circle of very large guns and a lot of firepower.
A chill went up Whitcomb's spine as he recalled a certain battle during the war in which Andross and his Venomian minions were defeated, when a group of Katinan ships had been surrounded above the planet they were defending but the enemy did not press the attack. As it turned out the Venomians had been there to keep them from escaping while Andross had something special planned for them. That something special had been that massive disc-shaped assault ship that had fired its enormous particle cannon into the midst of the Katinan fleet and wiped most of them out, then mopped up the survivors with a second shot, and all from outside the range of the Katinan ship's weapons.
"Captain we have an incoming transmission from Cornerian Command."
"Put it on."
Strangely the holo projector remained silent and for a moment Whitcomb wondered if there was yet another Brotherhood jamming field or some kind of interference. After a few moments one of the large display screens mounted just above the main view port changed from a rotating Cornerian insignia to a long series of symbols and numbers. Whitcomb sat down in his command chair and pushed a button on the arm, causing a computer screen and keyboard to extend from the side of the chair and swivel into position in front of him. Whitcomb typed in his personal access code and the numbers '5117 alpha' resolved from the jumbled mass of text. The leopard captain typed in the necessary pass codes and the message finally resolved into words.
"Be advised massive attack by friendly ground forces in thirty hours, be prepared to make a concentrated attack on the Brotherhood fleet at zero hour. Be prepared to use whatever forces you have left and do whatever needs to be done. The Brotherhood fleet must be defeated or otherwise held off at any cost, failure is not an option."
"General Pepper
Serial Number: 527-60"
Whitcomb slumped back in his chair. Attack the much larger fleet that had him completely surrounded, that was suicide! If he could somehow break through the fleet his ships could turn around and only be fighting the enemy from one direction but still after all the time he had spent staring at the screen showing the Brotherhood ship's positions he had not been able to find any weak spots in their formation. After a moment Whitcomb roused his computer from its sleep mode and began to once again study the Brotherhood ship's positions and compare them with their position's an hour ago as he had already done countless time before. He had thirty hours to come up with a plan to somehow make this whole thing work.
(Break)
One of the Cornerian commandos helped Stevenson off the makeshift operating table were they had patched up his wounds. A second commando injected him with a small cylindrical device complete with a retractable needle, nanomeds. The microscopic machines would flow through his blood stream and promote rapid regeneration of damaged tissue. The commandos stood back and allowed him to stand on his own. As Stevenson entered the building's central room he found that the group of commandos who'd rescued him were already waiting for him, the red furred vulpine and gray and white furred husky got up to greet him.
"Sergeant... Stevenson is it? I am Captain Bill Grey of the Cornerian Fighter Pilot Corps and this is Captain Fox McCloud."
Stevenson shook both men's hands.
"It's an honor to meet Captain McCloud, it's a shame that that bastard Andross couldn't have died a thousand times for what he did."
"I made his one death as painful as I could."
Bill interrupted the conversation.
"You were the only survivor in your unit?"
"Yes sir, we were ambushed by Brotherhood forces in the area where you found me. We tried to put a fight but we had already been too badly weakened from previous battles, even if we hadn't been I don't think it would've mattered much."
"I understand, don't worry though where we're going you'll get plenty of chances to avenge them, and you don't need to call me sir."
"Where exactly are we going?"
"I'll give you a quick briefing on the way but there's no time now, we've got a Brotherhood convoy to catch."
(Break)
The hyperspace reversion alarm echoed through the 'Peace and Unity's' main hangar as Colonel Bromley fired up the engines of his Wraith starfighter. The hangar doors heaved open and the signal light on each side of the massive doors turned green, Bromley activated retracted his Wraith's landing gear and coasted out of the hangar. His squadron split up into four fighter groups and spread out around the lumbering gray hull of the carrier, providing escort as it passed through the empty space separating the hyperspace jump point from the edges of the Brotherhood armada. Beyond the swarms of gray warships the enemy capitol world of Corneria hung in the distance, its surface bathed in lush green and blue and for a moment Bromley had to stop and admire the planet's beauty. As the planet continued on its rotation the green and blue surface was suddenly marred by a large dark gray spot, the series of war zones down on the surface spewing massive amounts of smoke into the air. Bromley brought his mind back onto the task at hand and maneuvered his fighter into formation.
(Break)
Bill raised his sniper rifle into position and brought its scope to his face. Coming up the street was a long column of Brotherhood vehicles, supply trucks, Armored Personal Carriers, and several Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The canine pilot raised his comlink to his face.
"McCloud the convoy is inbound get ready."
(Break)
Fox acknowledged Bill's message with a double click.
"Here they come."
The vulpine mercenary tensed and gave the signal to his comrades as the ground around him began to shake, Krystal, Wolf, Stevenson, and Falco nodded in acknowledgement. To minimize the risks of being detected and caught in a difficult spot the team had split into two groups and would stow away on separate convoys. The Brotherhood convey came rumbling up the street and came to a stop. Fox peaked out from his hiding place as three Brotherhood soldiers hopped down from the top of an APC, their gray uniforms and composite body armor nearly the same shade as the large concrete pillar that had 'fallen' across the road. The soldiers conversed among themselves for a moment before one of them walked over to the APC and returned carrying two heavy bags. As the soldiers opened the bags and removed several gray, brick shaped objects Fox gave the signal and darted across the few meters that separated his hiding place from the undercarriage of the last vehicle in the column, an APC that sported a wicked looking quad gun mounted near the front of the vehicle. As he slid under the vehicle Krystal and Stevenson joined him while Bill, Wolf, and Falco hid under the supply truck that was second to last in line. Fox pulled several straps ending in magnetic clamps from his pack and proceeded to strap himself to the undercarriage of the APC as Krystal and Stevenson secured their own straps. A high pitched rattling echoed up from the front of the column as the Brotherhood soldiers dismantled the concrete column with some kind of sonic breaching charge, a few moments later a heavy rumble shook through the column of vehicles as the drivers revved up the engine again. Fox gritted his teeth as the vehicle started moving again, another step of the plan had gone off without incident but he couldn't help but wonder how long their luck would last.