Terachi Kaishaku: It was a hard decision but in order to make the story have some similarities with the game I decided that sadly his parents would die in the last chapter.
HailfireSano: I haven't decided if they're descendents but there will be similarities between him and the OoT Link, i.e his parents dying.
Shade89: I hope you don't find the rest of the story boring cause there will be more action, lots more
Harkinian Estate
The senator was going through intelligence reports concerning the movement and activities of IFC forces. One in particular caught his interest. A large number of IFC divisions were training, but not in tactics of suppression but rather tactics oriented towards the offense. In fact, the senator thought to himself there were enough troops to assault Hyrule itself and establish major beachheads on the planet. This tangential thought suddenly brought everything into focus. If one did look from that perspective, it did make sense. The only thing missing were these so-called rebels. Harkinian activated his direct line to the Central Command Intelligence Division office.
"Captain I need a copy of all intercepted IFC transmissions delivered to my home as soon as you can."
"Yes sir. We'll send a messenger with them as soon as we can."
Forward Observation Room Freedom's Cry
Nabooru stood looking out of one of the viewports at the void of space. The nothingness outside represented what she felt inside of her at this moment. Guilt wracked her mind as she replayed within her head the decision to send Link and Navi out that day. She continuously saw the images from the news broadcast of the two figures in the Hylian pilots' flight suits whose faces were no longer recognizable, and who had once been her friends.
Outskirts of Exocron City, Hill 583
The two strode past several IFC soldiers who hardly gave them a glance. All around them the ruins of homes were smoking and soldiers were rounding up civilians and loading them into trucks bound for an unknown fate. Finally, when they were out of sight of any soldiers they broke into a run back towards the forest from where they came. The two ran as hard as they could not looking back until quite a while later they decided to call a halt on top of a tall hill that was littered with large rocks.
"Lets stop here Link; we have to call the ship to let them know that we're alive."
The pair only had one radio now having left one behind to complete their deception.
Link pulled his out and thumbed the transmit button but nothing happened. He swore to himself and checked over the radio.
"What's wrong with the radio Link?"
"I don't know. The battery is ok and so is the antennae, it's just the speaker input that's shot."
"Crap, what are we going to do now?"
"Wait hold on, I think I know. I remember a long time ago they taught us that you could rig these things to send out a beacon signal."
"But it'll be transmitting in the clear and the IFC will eventually get a fix on our position."
"Well we'll just have to hope our guys find us first. Besides this is the only way to contact the ship now."
"Alright then let's do it. You get that set up and I'll keep watch here."
Navi left and perched herself upon a rock, eyes sweeping the horizon and the assault rifle that she stole from the dead IFC soldier at the ready. Meanwhile Link rewired parts of the radio and within moments, the radio began transmitting a pulsing beacon.
Bridge Freedom's Cry
At the sensors station, Saria was watching the screen when suddenly a pulsing blip appeared on the map, which was displayed on the screen. Tapping the keys on her keyboard showed that the beacon signal was coming from a hilltop and was being transmitted by a radio type consistent with the ones used by Hylian military personnel on the ground.
"Captain, can you come here for a minute?"
"What is it ensign?"
"We've got a beacon signal ma'am emanating from a Hylian military grade hand-held radio. I think it might be Link and Navi ma'am."
Nabooru called Impa over to look at what was going on.
"What do you think Impa?"
"It could be a trap ma'am but my gut feeling tells me that they survived and it's actually them."
"I agree. In that case then I will issue to order to launch the extraction mission."
"It would be wise to contact command first Captain."
"Excuse me ma'am but this signal is not encoded and the IFC is probably getting the same thing that we are." Saria interjected.
"Exactly, if we wait too long then they will die for real this time when the IFC comes after them. Impa I want you to tell Lieutenant Kitana to have her marines in the dropships in ten minutes. Ensign Ruto I want them launched in 15 minutes along with their fighter escort."
Impa moved off to tell the marine Lieutenant what was going on and within minutes thirty marines a mixture of Gerudos, Hylians, Gorons, and Zoras were jogging into the hangar bay with their weapons and into the waiting dropships. The hangar was a cacophony of noise as the high-pitched shrieks of the fighter engines warmed up accompanied by the lower pitched sound emissions of the dropships. Crewmen scrambled about to make the small craft ready for launch and within fifteen minutes the first two dropships shot off the catapults. Outside the ship, the three troop carrying dropships formed up into a tight triangle with a fighter on either side.
I.F.C.N Hammerhead Flagship Admiral Twinrova
"Admiral we've got something here. It's a continually transmitting radio beacon; signatures make it a Hylian military type."
This was what the admiral was waiting for. Already, orders from Ganondorf himself had come in ordering all troops and ships to prepare for the coming assault, which would take place very soon. She could now order in her troops and have those two pilots killed, ship them to the Hylians for identification and then launch her own attack.
"Order in all available troops now and wipe them out."
Hill 583
Navi was using a pair of binoculars she had swiped to survey the horizon, when something caught her eye. She brought the instrument to bear and focused the lenses on what she thought that she saw. In a few seconds it was clear, a large dust plume was rising on the road leading towards the hill. The cause of the rising dust was a convoy of IFC military vehicles and foot troops coming towards the hill.
"Shit, Link we've got a problem!"
"What is it?"
"IFC troops and vehicles heading our way, a whole lot of them."
"Maybe they're not looking for us, just out for routine maneuvers or something."
"Maybe..." Navi allowed.
The vehicles had formed up into a line near the base of the hill with the infantry set well in front, weapons at the ready, and eyes fixed on where Link and Navi were. Navi yanked the charging handle of the rifle that she brandished while Link did the same with his pistol, both hoping that their side would reach them first.
Dropship 1, designate Alpha One, Captain Rauru "Old Man" commanding
The middle-aged captain and pilot of the dropship kept his eyes on the scanners watching for obstacles to dodge and to make course corrections. Soon enough on the screen he could see the area on which the hill Link and Navi were on. At the base of the hill the scope showed a giant clump of blips that were identified as IFC military vehicles. The captain knew that the based on the proximity of the IFC and speed of the three dropships under his command there was no way that they could get to Navi and Link before the IFC did, but the two HF-29 fighters that were on escort duty did have the speed.
"Alpha One, to Alphas Four and Five, detach from main group and move ahead to RP at maximum speed." The captain ordered.
Accordingly the two fighters opened up their throttles and shot up ahead.
Hill 583
Looking down from their perch, Link and Navi saw a flash come from one of the armored fighting vehicles that was slowly crawling up the hill. Overhead they heard a whistling and then behind them they saw an explosion that threw up dirt, debris, and rock fragments.
"Well I think we can safely assume that they know we're here." Navi quipped.
The two tightened their grip on their weapons knowing that there was no way they could stop the force advancing towards them. As they ducked behind an outcropping of rocks they could hear the rattle of small arms fire and heard the bullets striking the rocks and felt the fragments that were being generated. When they heard a lull both of them rose up and returned fire from their weapons. Link fired as fast as he could at the advancing troops and emptied one clip in less than thirty seconds. He reached into his belt to grab another clip which he shoved into the butt of the pistol and yanked the action back one time to chamber a round before firing again. Navi had the rifle on full automatic and was blasting away at the targets indiscriminately. The two were forced to duck once more when the IFC began firing their mortars and cannon at them. They were beginning to run out of ammunition, and the IFC troops were getting closer and closer. When Link poked his head above the rock he could see the infantry troops much closer to their position than before. Unfortunately the heavy cannon fire was forcing him and Navi to keep down which would allow the infantry troopers to slowly creep up without the fear of being shot. Suddenly, Link heard a roar in the distance and when he squinted at the direction from where he thought that the sound was coming from he saw two blue and white twin-tailed fighters roaring towards him and Navi. The two fighters screamed over the two beleaguered pilots. From under their wings dropped several bombs which scythed through the ranks of the IFC ground troops. Navi and Link took a chance to look over the rock and felt a new sense of hope. The two fighters kept in tight formation and swept around, their beam cannon, and heavy machine guns flashing. One the ground, the IFC vehicles were exploded one by one as the fighters swooped down like hawks on their prey. But, something else became evident in a few minutes to Link and Navi. The two could see that the two fighters, while were destroying a large part of the attacking force, would run out of ammunition before stopping everyone. Sure enough, the fighters had used up the last of their bombs, bullets, and beam cannon energy, and all they could do was circle overhead in frustration. The IFC ground troops, having seen that their airborne tormentors had run out of ammunition were moving up the hill once more, feeling that the threat to them was gone. Link and Navi hunkered down once more thinking that it their time had come. Link only had half a clip of ammunition left while Navi was down to her last one also. The two rose up as one from behind their rock and opened fire, dropping several troops, but within moments both their weapons locked open on empty clips and the IFC troops noticing this were running up the hill, eager to kill their prey. Link and Navi also heard the footfalls of what sounded like a group of soldiers behind them and assumed that they had been surrounded. They heard the crackle of gunfire behind them and braced themselves for the bullets they felt sure would be thudding into their backs, but instead it was the IFC soldiers in front of them who crumpled. Link turned around in astonishment and saw thirty marines in Hylian battle dress standing at the top of the hill firing their weapons. Over the gunfire he heard Kitana shout.
"Come on you two, we can't stay here forever."
Link and Navi ran as hard as they could, now that they could see that freedom was in sight. The two reached the top of the hill and saw three dropships set down on the reverse side of the hill and ran towards the one where a crewman was beckoning them to hurry up. Behind them, the marines slowly fell back keeping up their fire to discourage any pursuit. Within minutes the marines were re-embarked onto the dropships whose engines whined as the pilots coaxed them into the air whereupon the fighters rejoined them. Now, among his comrades in arms once more Link for the first time in a couple of days felt safe again. On the field below lay the sprawled bodies of IFC troops and the smoking hulks of burnt out IFC vehicles. The five Hylian small craft angled upward and through the atmosphere. Within moments the dropship that Link and Navi were aboard had landed in the main hangar bay of the Freedom's Cry, where most of the ship's officers including the captain and much of the crew were assembled Kitana led the two off the dropship and held a first high above her head in a gesture of triumph and the assembled mass broke into a raucous cheer.
Harkinian Estate
The Senator had received the copies of transmissions that he had requested and so far, he had found nothing and was down to the last one. He read through it but it didn't make sense. It appeared to be a routine order for a group of ships to head to a shipyard for maintenance, but then why did it have a top secret classification. The Senator read through the numbers the message listed one more time, and then went through the recent list of IFC activities. Twenty Redemption Class Battleships and Ten Flanker class cruisers as well as four Hammerhead class Fleet Carriers was a lot of firepower but nothing showed that level of activity. When he looked at the report of the size of the rebel fleet that had attacked the Hylian base reality came crashing down on him. The IFC had pulled out a substantial amount of ships, repainted them and their fighters, staged the political moves then attacked the Hylians while maneuvering the Hylians into working with them and thus spreading out the already meager Hylian Navy even further in order to destroy them. Then, logically moving on then the IFC would attack the Hylian ships and launch their attack. The senator knew he had to get to the government building as fast as he could because it would not be wise to send this information by the standard communications lines as there existed the possibility that he was being watched. All he did was issue an emergency call for the senate to meet so that he could deliver the information in person. Then, he called his chauffer who fetched the limousine to take the Senator to the capital building, however for some odd reason that day, the traffic was terrible and all the Senator could do was wait and hope that he could make it before it was too late.
IFC Asteroid Colony 56C, capital of the Independent Federation of Colonies
Ganondorf was not pleased with Admiral Twinrova upon learning that the Hylians had slipped away, but there was no use to worry about something that he could not change. He instead transmitted the attack orders for Operation Sphincter to her and the rest of his forces to commence the attack. It would be over soon and he would stand one day in the ashes of Hyrule, as the master of the galaxy.
Author's Notes: Whew finally an updated chapter, so Link and Navi make it out ok, but plans of the IFC have been laid bare for all to see but unfortunately only a few know of its true extent. Hope you like, read and review!
Next Time on Legend of Zelda Freedom's Cry: The Freedom's Cry comes under attack from the IFC forces and Link, Navi, and the rest of the crew struggle for their lives. Meanwhile the Senator rushes to make the delivery of his message but not all turns out for the best, meanwhile the IFC forces begin Operation Sphincter.