Terachi Kaishaku:Thanks, I'm glad you liked the action. I don't know about the lines, like I actually put horizontal lines that are supposed to be there and I don't know what happened, I'll try something else this time and ill put some more space between sections.
Freedom's Cry CIC
Nabooru, Impa, Link, and Navi were standing at a console in the CIC where they were reviewing the pictures that Link had stored on the data disc that he had brought off the planet with him.
"We need to send this out to Central Command. These photographs prove that this entire rebel scare was a hoax that was perpetrated by the IFC which means they wanted to use this as a smoke screen for an attack." Link mused.
"It all makes sense then, by having their so called rebels attack and pretend to cooperate with us, they have our ships spread out where they can destroy them easily. But where is their main target?" Nabooru said.
"Hyrule, Ganondorf knows that is the key to the galaxy and that once he conquers it the colonies will fall soon enough." Impa replied.
"Ma'am IFC ships clearing far side orbit and are coming towards us at high speed. They're not responding to inquiries, and they're launching their fighters. So far it looks like one Hammerhead class Fleet Carrier, one Redemption Class Battleship, and three Cossack class Frigates, and from out estimates of carrying capacity, about seven and a half squadrons of fighters." Zelda piped up from her station. She then tapped her keyboard a few more times, bringing up what she was saying on the larger tactical screen so that Nabooru could see what was going on.
"Ruto, scramble fighters now! Saria, sound General Quarters!" Nabooru ordered. "Link, you and Navi get down to the hangar too, the mechanics will have had a replacement fighter ready for you by now. The two nodded and ran off through the bridge door. Impa strode quickly over to her chair in the weapons center and donned her headset, and began issuing orders.
"Bring all main gun turrets to bear on the lead ship, secondary battery stand-by for anti-missile fire mission. All missile batteries load and prepare to fire full volleys on my command."
"Saria, get a message off too command, tell them that we're under heavy attack. Helm, get us out of here at flank speed, weapons I need you to hold them off."
In the hallways of the ship crewmen scrambled as the call came over the ship's public address system.
"General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man your battle-stations."
The klaxon wailed as gunners, pilots, and other crewmen hurried to their stations. In several minutes Link and Navi reached the hangar and scrambled into the vacant fighter the mechanics had waiting for them.
"Bring this one back to me this time alright?" called out the chief mechanic Darunia.
Link smiled before snapping off a quick salute as he lowered his canopy. The hangar doors opened as the two catapults launched the ship's fighters into the starry never ending night of space. In the distance a the IFC ships opened their hangar bay doors whereupon a wave of fighters leapt off of their catapults and headed for the lone Hylian battleship.
Hyrule City, Capital of Republic of Hyrule
Ambassador Baldemar was aboard his ship, the Flanker class cruiser Bulwark which was still in the sky near the city having picked him up via shuttle from his residence a few minutes ago. He had received the orders that he had been waiting for so long just half an hour ago and now he would begin the first phase of Operation Sphincter. The cruiser remained inside the atmosphere, moving at high speed towards the capitol building when a series of transmissions came in over the channels ordering them to stop.
"Ignore them captain, proceed with the mission when you are ready."
Hylian Naval Central Command
"Sir the IFC Ambassador's Flanker cruiser is in the sky near the capitol building and is moving at flank speed to get there. It hasn't responded to any calls over the civilian and military channels."
"Damn it are their communications arrays broken, or an engine, or something like that? Get a flight of fighters up there to investigate and see if they can communicate visually with the cruiser."
Hyrule City, Capital of Republic of Hyrule
Two fighters rose from a nearby airbase in tight formation with orders to make a flyby of the IFC cruiser, check for damage, and then attempt to make visual communications with the vessel.
"Ambassador, two Hylian fighters approaching the port side, what do we do?"
"Let them pull up alongside and then shoot them down before they damage us before we can complete the mission. Prepare to launch our own fighters once we open fire."
Outside the cruiser the two Hylian fighters pulled up to the cruiser and neither pilots could see any visual damage, but what they did see was two weapons turrets swivel towards them and fire.
Hylian Naval Central Command
"Sir, they've shot down our fighters!"
"What!? Launch everything we can to stop them before they reach the capitol building, and alert the capitol defenses."
"Its too late sir."
"Do it anyways!"
Hyrule City, Capital of Republic of Hyrule
The cruiser stopped its movement directly over the capitol building and civilians for miles around wondered what was going one. Suddenly from the cruiser's main guns erupted a flash of light and in a flash the capitol building evaporated into a ball of flame and smoke. After a few more salvos, the cruiser began moving again, but this time angling out of the atmosphere of the planet and into space. Hylian fighters from the nearest air defense base were racing to catch up, but the IFC cruiser had deployed its own squadron of fighters in a screen in order to buy time for itself to escape. The cruiser rapidly ate up the distance between it and the freedom of space while its fighters which were evidently meant to be sacrificed in order to buy time for the cruiser to escape were effectively stalling the Hylian fighters. Most of the surrounding anti-air defense turrets were destroyed during the brief bombardment, and those that remained could not damage the enemy cruiser enough to get it to stop its skyward ascent. Once in space, the cruiser took a course that evaded most of the orbital battlestations of which only one got off a salvo which had no effect on the cruiser. Within moments the IFC cruiser had escaped and fled out of the range of the sensors on any of the three lunar bases.
Hylian Naval Central Command
"Sir, the capitol building is gone."
"That was the entire country's leadership in one place and the IFC burned them all down in one blast."
"Wait a minute sir, I have a call from Senator Harkinian who wants to know what's happening."
"Get him here now, he might be the only man that will be able to lead the country."
"We've also got reports from all our ships in the border worlds, they too have come under attack."
"What's the situation look like with that?"
"Most of the ships are either destroyed or heavily damaged sir, only a few managed to fight their way out."
"Send out orders for all ships that haven't already to withdraw from their border positions immediately."
Senator Harkinian's Limousine
The Senator was going over some more papers when looking out the window he saw the large shape of what was unmistakably an IFC cruiser hovering over the capitol building which he could see in the distance. And then, before he could blink twice he saw the capitol building vanish before his eyes. Dread and anger seeped through him. He was too late and the IFC plans had been laid bare but now he was the only member of the nation's government left, as the president, and all of the senators and other representatives were in the building. The Senator hit the key for the intercom to his driver.
"Send an inquiry to the Central Command and find out what's going on."
Several minutes later his driver replied. "They've confirmed what we've just seen sir. They also want you to reroute to their command facility to take charge of matters."
"Do it."
Bridge Freedom's Cry (Link and Navi are Flarestar Three)
Nabooru now stood on the bridge which was now ready for battle.
"Helm, what's the nearest base to out position?"
"Outpost L-32, ma'am, its several hours from here."
"Do we have enough propellant to get there?"
"Yes ma'am, plenty to spare."
"Do you have an estimate of how much those IFC ships over there have?"
"My best guess is about half of hours ma'am as they've been more active over the past few days than we have."
"Alright, we'll need to hold them off until we can charge the capacitors for the afterburners and leave these guys behind."
"Lieutenant Impa, firing discretion remains with you, Ensign Ruto deploy our fighters in a screen."
Pair by pair the six HF-29 Interceptors launched and whipped around the blue-white hull of the battleship to head towards the aft from where the enemy was approaching. The ship's six interceptors were in three flights of two in between the oncoming IFC ships and their own ship.
"Star One to Flarestars One through Six, eight IF-3s inbound with more launching, objective is to hold off and protect, not necessarily destroy, we need to hold them off for 15 minutes before we can get out of here safely."
The six fighters acknowledged the order and activated their weapons systems. Link could see the engine glow of the distant IFC fighters as they gradually approached.
"Time until they're in range Navi?"
"About forty seconds."
"All weapons armed?"
"Green and ready to go."
In the distance Link saw that the first wave of IFC fighters were in a compact formation much like a wall, which presented a smaller compact target.
"We're in range Link!"
"Open fire with everything we've got Navi."
Several missiles streaked from their launch rails leaving behind a trail of fire, while the bright blue lances of energy from the 40mm beam cannon pierced the surrounding space, and a stream of high caliber machine gun slugs reached for the IFC targets. After the initial volley the remaining IFC fighters closed in and it became a dogfight.
"Navi, you have control of all weapons."
Link put his fighter into a series of complex twists to place his fighter at a perpendicular angle to an IF-3 that was about to make a head on run with a HF-29. Behind him, Navi hit the trigger and sent a stream of tracers out towards the enemy fire, but Link was forced to haul back on the stick when he saw another IFC fighter trying to make a run on him.
"Shit, got one tight one me, could use a little help here!" Link called out over the radio.
The offending IF-3 followed Link through a rolling scissors maneuver, all the while spitting out a hail of slugs. Link was looking behind to see where his pursuer was when a missile streaked over him and hit the IF-3 right in the cockpit.
"Thanks, Four."
Link then banked his fighter around in a tight turn to acquire another target. He saw a pair of IF-3s dodging the streams of fire coming from the secondary batteries of the Freedom's Cry and preparing to launch missiles at the aft section of the ship. Opening his throttle wide he rapidly ate up the distance between him and the pair of IF-3s. Hitting the trigger once more, Navi sent a pair of missiles lancing out at the IFC fighters. One blew up as the missile exploded in the engine, but the second, warned by the death of his wingman, pulled up, rolled over, and then came straight at Link, who then chose to dive. Link brought his fighter mere meters over the surface of the Hylian battleship, forcing the IFC pilot to follow him while dodging the streams of fire that were trying to pluck him out of space.
At the same time the Freedom's Cry began to engage the main ships of the small IFC taskforce. The three turrets housing the six main cannons turned to bear, one on each of the leading Cossack Frigates and fired. The massive beams of destructive blue energy from two of the turrets impacted on their targets tearing out a large chunk of hull and exposing a large part of those ships to the vacuum of space. In turn the frigates returned fire with their own smaller main weaponry and several salvoes of missiles. The Hylian battleship absorbed the blows of the main weaponry of the frigates while the secondary batteries coolly plucked a large amount of the missiles from space yet a few still impacted on the hull, destroying weapons turrets and punching holes in the armor. Luckily the IFC carrier and battleship were still out of range as the faster frigates had been sent ahead to try and delay the Hylian battleship from escaping.
"Impa, damage report."
"Minor damage forward of bulkheads 2-A, and 52-C. Atmospheric leak on deck three. Four three inch beam cannon turrets are out of commission."
"Time till the battleship and carrier engage."
"Eight minutes ma'am."
"Time till capacitors are fully charged?"
"Five minutes."
Nabooru was relieved that they would be able to escape before the two IFC heavy ships arrived because once they did, they would heavily outgun her ship.
"What's the situation of our fighters?"
"Well we've lost two in exchange for three of theirs. The surviving five are retreating to back to the fleet.
"Covering barrage and recover our fighters. Keep those frigates at arms length."
Link was weaving up and down to avoid the fire of a pursuing IFC fighter. He cut the throttle drastically and applied the retro-thrusters which drastically lowered his own velocity and causing the pursuing fighter to overshoot where Navi stitched the engine assembly with a series of beam cannon shots.
"All remaining fighters return to refuel and rearm."
Link and the three other surviving pilots turned their fighters around to head back to the hangar bay as the remaining IFC fighters did the same. Looking out the canopy Link could see that his fighter had been damaged in the left tail with a shower of fragments, while a near miss from a beam cannon had charred part of the right wing, but otherwise everything was ok. Within moments the four fighters were back in the relative safety of the hangar bay while the Freedom's Cry continued to hold of the marauding IFC ships. One of the frigates was wallowing dead in space, her bridge gone and her fore section in flames. The second was missing several chunks but some of her weapons still fired, while the third had sustained relatively light damage. The Hylian battleship constantly fired her weapons at extreme range in order to keep her attackers as far away as possible until she could escape. She had taken moderate damage from the three enemy ships during the brief but sharp skirmish. Her long sleek blue and white hull was marked by impacts of missiles, bullets, and beam cannon fire while several small fires raged on the starboard side of the ship.
"Capacitors fully charged ma'am."
"Activate afterburners and set course for L-32."
Mido threw a switch on his console and the Hylian ship hurtled forward as it sped away from the reaches of the attacking IFC warships.
Hylian Military Central Command
The senator had gotten out of his car and was escorted inside the headquarters building by four armed Marines.
"What's the latest situation Colonel?"
"The capitol building is gone and we believe there are no survivors. Our ships at the border worlds have been attacked and are in retreat. We've also had reports of large bodies IFC ground troops disembarking from several disguised transports on various civilian spaceports worldwide and long range sensors on the Din Lunar Base are picking up a fleet consisting of warships and transports broadcasting IFC signatures at long range and closing."
"What do we have in the way of protection here?"
"There are the four Forger Orbital Battlestations, four Mediator Class Battleships, six Savior class cruisers, two Termina class Frigates, along with a multitude of fighter squadrons."
"Get the rest of the military activated, and issue the emergency mobilization orders. I want reinforcements shipped to the lunar bases right now."
Across the planet chaos reigned as news reports began outlining what was happening while members of the armed forces were torn away from their families as their activation orders came in. At various spaceports the bodies of IFC troops inserted via subterfuge established perimeters and dug fortifications to hold the spaceports and thus provide a landing ground for the follow up troops.
Authors Notes: Like? Please tell me what you think about this chapter and the story so far. Possible romance with Link/Zelda next chapter, but I'm not sure yet.
Next time on Legend of Zelda Freedom's Cry
The IFC fleet closes in on Hyrule and the Battle of Hyrule begins with the Hylians on the defensive. Meanwhile, the Freedom's Cry rendezvous with several other ships at the outpost of L-43 which along with many Hylian military bases around the galaxy fall under siege.