Okay, that took a lot longer than it should have. Here's to hoping that I can get out the next chapter far quicker than this one.
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Chapter 25: The Fight of Their Lives
If I ever meet the person who first said that space was
an exciting place, I'll throttle him. Space is nothing but large chunks
of emptiness with the occasional speck of something interesting. At least I'll
be able to fight today. It had better not be my last. – Falco
Falco looked around at the slowly moving stars as his ship hurtled through
space. It would have been an enjoyable view had he cared in the slightest about
what he was looking at. Instead, he turned his attention to the timer on his
computer screen, showing how long until he dropped right in on the doorstep
of the enemy.
It was the battle that invigorated the avian. The feeling of being only one
step away from death's door as he swooped and swerved around his opponent,
making sure he killed them all before they got to him first. The skies were
the only place that Falco was truly happy.
The final seconds counted down on his screen as he rubbed his paws together
in excitement. While he would have been happier destroying everything one by
one, he knew that even he would be overwhelmed by the enormous number of fighters
that they would be facing shortly. So in the end, dropping a Nova Bomb on the
lot of them would still satisfy him from the amount of carnage he would create.
With a slight jolt the nearby stars came to a halt as Falco's Arwing dropped
out of lightspeed. Much to his amazement, he was only a few thousand feet to
the side and underneath his target of one of the Imperial battleships. As he
kicked in his engines to get into position for the assault, Fox's voice
came over loud and clear on the com. "Starfox team, attack! Make sure
none of those fighters launch!"
Eager to personally fire off a Nova Bomb, Falco lined himself within seconds.
Grinning at the devastation he would be causing shortly, he flipped off the
safety and fired away.
After a short half-second delay, the Nova Bomb streaked out from its launcher,
the energy ball of destruction speeding towards its target. Falco spiraled away
from the battleship, making sure he put ample distance between it and himself
so he could watch the carnage.
He was to be rather disappointed with the result.
The Nova Bomb struck the shields of the battleship as expected. The result however,
was anything but. Instead of the ship being enveloped and disintegrated like
its partner was just days before, the shields simply flared up, changed color,
and fought furiously against the blast that threatened to destroy it. The lightshow
was almost blinding to the avian, but thankfully it was brief.
In the end though, the battleship was still there.
And it looked to be relatively unharmed.
"It…", sputtered Falco, stunned at what he just saw. "The
damned thing didn't work!"
"I know," was Fox's simple reply.
Knowing what was going to launch out of the battleship at
any second, Falco began attacking the launch bay with his blasters. "We're
screwed!" he hollered.
"I can't believe that didn't work!" said Fox as he furiously
thought of another plan of attack.
"The shields even held through that assault," said Peppy.
"They must have figured out how to tune their shields to resist the attack,"
said Fara thoughtfully as she engaged her target in desperation. "It's
the same principle that we have for defending ourselves somewhat against them."
An idea popped into Fox's head. "I have a plan. Everyone, recharge
a Nova Bomb. Fara, head over to me immediately. Peppy, you do the same towards
Falco."
"The Nova Bombs didn't work incase you were napping back there,"
complained the avian. "What do you think firing another one will do?"
"Nothing." Fox fired at the fighters that were beginning to launch
out of the battleship. "But I doubt that those shields will be able to
defend against two simultaneous shots."
"Good idea," said Fara as she sped towards Fox.
"And if you're wrong?" asked Falco as he dove out of the way
of the battleship's turret fire.
"We get the hell out of here."
"At least you have that part right."
Fox groaned at his teammate's comments. "Falco, you just keep those
fighters from swarming over there and I'll worry about the mission."
"Yes, boss."
Shaking his head, the vulpine continued his lone assault against the battleship,
waiting for Fara to arrive. Fighter after fighter exploded as they left the
launch bay, but while his combat skill was outstanding, there were simply too
many craft trying to leave the safety of the ship. On top of that, the battleship
was attempting to shoot him down, point defense turrets shooting wildly trying
to score hits. The craft itself even tried to destroy him as he made a pass
in front of the ship, the main plasma cannon firing and coming far too close
for comfort. All he knew was that he was getting overwhelmed quickly.
So when Fox heard Fara's voice came over the com, to say that it was a
relief was an understatement. "Fox, it's Fara. One Nova Bomb shall
be ready for delivery in about 15 seconds. Where do you want it?"
Fox risked a quick glance down at his radar, a few random blasts from the dozen
ships now flying around hitting his craft due to his lack of attention. "Fire
it from whatever direction you're coming from. I'll do the same
on the other side."
"All right. I hope this works."
"So do I. Otherwise this will be one of the shortest battles in Cornerian
history." Swerving away from another barrage of laser fire, he boosted
towards the opposite side of where Fara was coming from in preparation to attack.
Just as Fox got into position, Fara was ready to fire herself. "Firing
in 3…2…" Cutting his engines and spinning in place, Fox aimed
towards the battleship and launched a Nova Bomb as well.
Like twin suns, the two Nova Bombs streaked through the blackness of space towards
their target. The battleship attempted to shoot down the implements of their
destruction, but as the cannons weren't attuned to the Nova Bombs as the
Arwing's were, they simply passed through harmlessly.
As before, the shields flared in a desperate bid to protect the vessel, but
this time it was not to happen. Within seconds the protective sphere around
the battleship failed, allowing the Nova Bombs to detonate against the unprotected
craft to a devastating effect. The ship and the fighters nearby simply vanished
under the blinding glare of the twin strikes. When the effect subsided seconds
later, there was nothing left short of a few melted pieces of hull.
The few fighters that escaped the blast radius ran, not wanting to face the
Arwings after their carrier had disintegrated from the assault. The pilots were
pleased to see another battleship fall to their efforts. "Nice shooting,
Fara," remarked Fox. "One more to go."
As the pair swung their craft around to go after their other target, Falco's
overjoyed hollers were heard over the com. "Hell yeah!" he yelled.
"Take that you piece of crap!"
"Score one for the good guys," said Peppy calmly.
Fox laughed to himself at the disparity between the two pilots. "Good
job you two. Now go get that other one out of the picture the same way."
"You know that will deplete us of Nova Bombs," commented Peppy.
"I know. I doubt they'd be very effective against that monster of
a craft anyway."
"Not quite," said Fara. "While the crystals are rated for
only three uses, in my experience I have gotten four out of the occasional one.
You also might be surprised at their effectiveness."
"Good point Fara. I'll keep—" Fox's line of thought
was interrupted as he suddenly had to swerve out of the way of an incoming craft.
He was momentarily confused as he knew that he hadn't been shot at prior
to the engagement. As he returned to his original heading, he had to dodge once
more away from another fighter.
Fara was the first one to state the obvious. "They're trying to
ram us!"
The vulpine was too busy trying to make sure that he wasn't hit by one
of the suicidal fighters to respond for a few seconds. Finding a quiet moment,
he replied hurriedly. "I've noticed! Blast them out of the sky if
they get in your way! Peppy, Falco, watch yourselves, as our target's
fighter cover is attempting to ram us!"
If the two other pilots said anything in return he was too preoccupied to hear
it. On the other hand, Fara was in a near panic as in her years of being a pilot,
this was nothing she had ever trained for, much less ever thought would happen
to her. Desperately she fired at a fighter, causing it to explode and allow
her some maneuvering room as a pair of fighters crashed into each other where
she had been just moments ago. "There's too many of them!"
she yelled, terrified of the situation she was in.
"Concentrate," said Fox, attempting to calm her down while he jockeyed
for position himself. "Just imagine that you're facing a bunch of
asteroids that happen to be heading directly your way. You'll be fine."
Fara spun out of the way of another incoming craft, her blasters firing in an
attempt to clear some more space. Her aim was true as a fighter detonated from
the shots, the remains crashing into another ship, giving her a somewhat clear
flight path for a few seconds.
In their attempts to simply stay alive, the pilots had ignored what their overall
goal had been doing. The battleship had simply bided its time, waiting for a
chance to use its plasma cannon on the pair.
This looked to be the perfect opportunity.
Predicting a time when both Arwings would be near each other, the battleship
fired its main gun. The ball of energy quickly sped off, blowing through half
a dozen of the unshielded fighters before reaching its target.
Fox noticed the incoming shot first. "Look out!" he yelled, desperately
punching his boosters as he found a hole in the fighter cover. Fara dove through
an opening as well, but not quickly enough as the plasma came in close contact
with her shielding, draining its protective covering by 50%.
Furious at almost losing another Arwing in combat, Fara found the point of weakest
resistance from the fighters and unloaded her blasters as she simply punched
right through, relying on her speed to keep the hostiles off her tail. "Come
on, Fox," she commanded, "it's time to stop screwing around
and get this jerk out of the picture once and for all."
Amused at her sudden change in attitude, but pleased to see that she had worked
her way free of their swarming opponents, Fox found the hole he was looking
for as well to escape.
Right where the battleship had fired before.
Knowing it was a dangerous gamble, Fox boosted through the opening as the battleship
fired again, not wanting to miss such a simple shot. Passing by a pair of fighters
blocking his way, the vulpine swerved away from the incoming plasma and threw
his throttle all the way forward, his Arwing escaping critical harm by mere
feet. The craft that were following closely behind however, were not so lucky.
Letting out the breath he had been holding with a hiss, Fox moved to follow
Fara's Arwing, his boosters glowing brightly behind him. The fighters
behind and the battleship in front opened fire, both groups aggravated that
they had been unable to take down either of the pilots. The pair dodged the
firepower easily, knowing that nothing was going to stop them now.
Fox looked at the rapidly approaching battleship with anticipation, knowing
that its demise was just moments away. "I'll take port and you take
starboard?" he asked, thinking out a plan of attack.
"Roger," was her terse reply.
The pilots continued to maintain formation as they grew closer, each waiting
for the other to tell them when to break off. The battleship turned and fired
its plasma cannon once more, forcing the issue. The Arwings separated at that
point, each swinging off towards their goal. Somehow they both turned back at
the exact same time, the craft charging towards the battleship from either side.
Ignoring the fighters that had begun attacking them once more, the pair waited
until they were almost on top of the battleship before they launched the Nova
Bombs. The radiant balls of energy sped towards their target as the Arwings
formed up behind the craft to watch the impending destruction.
As expected, it only took a few seconds for the Nova Bombs to do their work.
Once the shields failed, the entire craft was enveloped in the explosive power
of the destructive weapon. As before, nothing survived.
What few fighters remained hurried off towards the safety of the capital ship
as Fox made sure that his teammate was fine. "Nice shot there, Fara. You
okay in there?"
Her reply was slow in coming as the Arwing made a lazy loop around what little
was left of the battleship. "Yeah, I'm fine." She slowed down,
coming to a halt next to Fox's Arwing, pointing towards their final target.
"Shall we get this little battle over with?"
"We will just as soon as we make sure the others—" With a
flash, the other side of the capital ship was lit up momentarily. The pair didn't
even have to guess what that meant. "Never mind then." He changed
a setting on his com as he continued. "You two okay over there?"
"Suck it down you jackass of a battleship!" came Falco's excited
reply.
Fox was at a loss of words for a moment as he broke out into a huge grin over
his teammate's attitude. "I'll take that as a yes then."
"A yes would be the proper answer," said Peppy calmly.
"And old geezer Peppy strikes again," interjected Falco.
"I'm sorry, Falco, but unlike you, I don't like living my
life on the edge. That and I found that the fact that these pilots were more
than willing to crash into us instead of a more honorable death in combat a
tad unnerving."
The avian groaned. "Just think of them as asteroids with a vengeance."
"They are far more than that and you know it."
"Excuse me you two," interrupted Fox, "we do have a war to
fight you know. Let's get to it."
As the communication channels quieted, all Fox heard was a single word from
Fara privately. "Males," she grumbled, forcing the vulpine to mute
his headset so he could have a hearty laugh without confusing the rest of the
team.
