Disclaimer: See the Prologue
Chapter 22 – The Charge
If things were becoming bad on the ground, it was already worse in the air. Fox, Krystal and Falco were practically being swarmed by the Orkish/Venomian fighters, which were laying waste to the Cornerians fighters as they flew amongst each other in the clouds.
The screams of the Cornerians came over the coms, leading Krystal to question:
"How did the Orks sneak up on us?" she queried, her hand practically glued to her flight controls.
They didn't, Falco replied, It's obvious isn't it? The apes, scalies and the greenies are all happily working together in peace and harmony.
Thanks for that, Falco, Fox begun, We've got to take out those ground cannons over wise Jacques isn't going to stand a chance.
"We'll cover you, then," Krystal assured the vulpine.
The Arwings steered out and away from the battle and flew straight for the fortress and the trenches outlying it.
"Three bogeys on our six!" Falco reported, eyeing his radar.
Taking this in, Fox thought, 'What is going on here? Why are these things and Venom working together? This is all f#$#ed up!'
Sensing Fox's thoughts, Krystal thought to herself, 'No doubt about it.'
By then, the Orks were on top of the Cornerian troops, putting their axes and swords to use, where they already ran through a dozen soldiers…only to be driven back by a vengeful Space Marine armed with a Power Fist.
Swinging his glove, he sent several Orks flying, scattering their weapons and helmets all over the place. The Cornerians continued to fire their guns, a few brave ones going hand-to-hand with the butt end of their rifles.
One of which managed to dodge a Slugga-Boy's swing and deliver are crushing blow to the jaw, breaking it and sending him stepping back, where the soldier drove his rifle in the Ork's belly and firing, tearing it apart.
An unfortunate soldier felt an axe tear into his chest, slitting it open; as he fell the Ork brought his bloodied axe down on his head.
Jacques, in an impressive feat of strength, barged into several Orks, sending them flying and against a wrecked tank, breaking their necks and spines. It only took a bolt through each of their heads to finally finish them.
Soon, only left were two Nobz, who saw several dozen blaster rifles trained on them.
"Ya furry buggers!" one of them cursed, "Ya think' ya can' tak' on da Orks? Do ya?"
Jacques stepped forward, covered in Orkish blood, his power fist the most bloodied.
"As a matter of a fact," Jacques smirked, "We have."
The Nobz growled, "Ya stinkin' humie!"
They charged at Jacques, brandishing their power claws. The Cornerian stepped back and watched in pure amazement as Jacques took on both of these large Orks at once, ducking their clawas and struck one of them where it hurts the most…
…between the legs.
The Nob's eyes bulged out, before collapsing onto the ground and passing out; allowing Jacques to quickly stand up on his backside and grab the other Nob by the skull.
The Nob gave a muffled cry as Jacques crushed his head with his fist, before tearing if off, allowing the decapitated body to fall onto the ground, blooding spurting out of the neck.
The Cornerians watched as a Jacques stepped off the unconscious Nob, opened his fist and wipe the blood, brains and skull matter onto the nearest tank, before closing his eyes and exhaling softly, trying to breath the fire out of his lungs.
'Incredible,' the commander thought, seeing Jacques at his aftermath.
The Space Marine looked over at the Cornerians. Curious, even after the Orks apparent suicide charge against their guns and jumping on top of them, they were still standing.
'Just like the Imperial Guard,' he thought suddenly.
He then noticed that there were only a few dozen left, up to forty were still alive.
And not nearly enough to storm an enemy base.
Just as Jacques was about to say something, he noticed three Arwings descend out of the sky and towards the fortress, which he still noticed the battle that was a half-a-mile above them.
"Not much point in all of this now," the commander remarked, leaning next to Jacques against the wrecked tank, "With what we've got left, it's impossible to attack that damn castle."
Jacques looked over at the Cornerian and replied, "Impossibility, Commander? I do not believe in that word."
The commander sighed, "Whatever you say, Mortensen."
"O'Reilly," Jacques replied, reading his name tag and finally revealing his name.
Dodging the laser fire from the enemy fighters in pursuit of them, the Arwings headed straight for the ground cannons aimed at the Cornerian troops, which luckily weren't in their range.
"Take out the cannons!" Fox ordered, "I'll take care of these clowns!"
Roger, Falco replied.
Fox turned his Arwing sharply around and headed for the pursuing fighters. He opened up with his laser and blasted them out of the sky.
'That was easy,' Fox thought smartly.
Falco and Krystal had the trenches in their sights.
'Funny,' Krystal thought about the green horde, 'How they could dig in as quickly as they can.'
"Alright," Falco said, smiling, "Let's disarm those greenie sons-of-bitches!"
The Orks who were standing in the trenches, saw the Arwings heading straight for them.
"Incomin' furries!" a Shoota Boy cried, raising his gun, "Blas' doze f#$#ers!"
Tracer fire erupted from the trenches, which were interwoven around 6 high-powered ground defence cannons. Jacques and O'Reilly saw this some distance away.
"We should strike now," Jacques suggested, lowering the zoom-goggles from his eyes, "While they are distracted by the Arwings."
"With forty men?" O'Reilly asked, "That's madness!"
"You prefer standing here and doing absolutely nothing?" Jacques asked, eyebrows crossed.
"It's better than charging about six ground-defence cannons that could wipe us all out in half-a-minute," O'Reilly replied.
He then looked back over at his soldiers as he continued.
"And besides, the lives of my men are…huh!"
Jacques had disappeared from out of sight.
"Mortensen?" O'Reilly yelled, "Where are you?"
Suddenly, a driver was booted out the back of his APC, before the ramp closed up and the engine was turned on, letting out a throaty rumble.
'You gotta be kidding me?' he thought, alarmed.
"Sir," the driver cried, picking himself up from the ground, "That Marine just jacked my carrier!"
The APC then tore off away from the armoured column, leaving all whom looked upon it dumbfounded. Inside, Jacques glared as he worked the clutch of the vehicle, frowning for several reasons.
One, which was the hesitation and evidential cowardice of the Cornerians here; Two, which was how his advice was not heeded; and Three, that burning desire to charge the guns of his enemy and watch them die up close.
The Cornerian's didn't exactly share his thoughts.
"He must have flipped!" a sergeant cried.
O'Reilly shook his head sadly, "No, sergeant. He's just doing what he thinks he's right."
Meanwhile, Krystal and Falco scoured over the trenches, where they fired two bombs, each destroying are ground cannon and sending Orks flying.
"Two down," Krystal replied, before almost being thrown forward by the AA blazing around him.
"Pull up!" Falco cried, "We won't be much use if we're down."
As Fox flew straight for fortress, he noticed a lone APC travelling across the land towards the trenches. He sighed.
'Poor bastards,' he thought, 'They're not gonna last for long. Wait a minute…'
He quickly calculated in his mind: One APC minus the remaining bulk of the assault force equals…
"Jacques!" he exclaimed, before cursing, "Damn it!"
What's wrong, Fox? Krystal asked, luckily not sustaining too much damage from the trenches' AA fire.
"Jacques is going in!" Fox replied, looking down upon the lone APC.
"Come again?" Falco replied as he and the vixen flew away from the trenches and tracer, rocket and Surface-To-Air missile fire.
It was all true, and the Orks could see that, despite reeling from the Arwing strike outside the wall of the fortress. Orks ran through the narrow trenches towards the front, manning the machine-gun posts and readying their rocket launchers, all the while growling and psyching themselves up for more bloodshed.
"Oiright boyz!" a Mega-Armoured Nob cried, "Its may be one stinkin' furry truk', but we'ze gunna blow it ta pieces. Man da biggie guns!"
The Orks in the four remaining ground cannons steered the large guns towards the APC, where right away Jacques could sense they're all aiming for them.
"Oh shit!" Fox cried, seeing the guns aim at the APC as it drove closer towards the trenches, thirteen metres away.
Can't you contact him? Krystal cried.
The Armoured Nob smiled, showing a toothless grin.
"FIRE!" he cried.
The Orks all fired at the APC, the bullets ricocheting off it's armour. When the rocket sailed towards it, Jacques merely swerved to avoid them. The guns, however, charged up with devastating energy, before firing large balls of glowing death.
Jacques' eyes widened…
"Damnation!"
And steered towards the left side of the trenches, where one of the guns had been destroyed. He heard the massive explosions as the balls hit the ground behind them, making medium-sized craters; sending earth and dirt into the air.
"C'mon Jacques!" Fox cried, "You can do it!"
We have to make another sweep, Krystal said, He can't possibly take all those Orks by himself.
Suddenly, they all heard his voice, amidst the soundings of explosions; from either rocket, mortar or ground-defence energy blasts.
I will be able to take care of these Orks by myself, Jacques said over their coms, I will not require aerial support. You are needed back in the clouds.
Krystal couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"But," she begun, "It's suicide."
The APC was close to the end of the trenches, where it was on a crash course towards it. Jacques gripped the steering wheel, all the while thinking of what kind of damage and suffering these creatures had caused.
"I will be all right," Jacques finished, "Trust me."
A mortar landed next to the APC, sending it off the ground and landing square into the trenches, amongst several Orks and crushing many underneath it. And Star Fox watched all this from the air, and couldn't help but expect the worse.
In the trenches, the armoured-Nob cried out, "Dat truk crashed inta our hole. Kill any furry dat step out of it!"
The Orks cheered and ran through the network towards it, brandishing their swords and axes, intent on chopping up whoever sat in the. They pushed and shoved, wanting to be the first to claim any skulls from the vehicle.
Just as one Ork that were caught underneath it that survived crawled out, the ramp opened and lowered straight on top of him, crushing him. And out stepped was the Space Marine, who carried a laser minigun in one hand and whose other hand was power gloved; and who had a rather calm look on his face.
The Ork's eyes all widened, seeing Jacques unscathed and more than ready to take them all on.
"CHARGE!" the Mega-Armoured Nob cried out.
They all charged at the human, who held down the trigger and the barrels became to spin, before releasing red-lasered death, tearing though several Orks and downing them like falling leaves. The Nob felt lead tearing into and through his armour and piercing his tough flesh.
"Damn!" he cursed, before toppling over and feeling the Marine step over and off him.
Jacques walked through the trenches, gun still blazing, killing every Ork that got in his way. His face now changed to a more determined look as he continued to move calmly through the pathways towards the nearest cannon.
He aimed his minigun up at the gunner of the cannon, and fired.
"Wha' da…ARGH!" the Orkish gunner cried out, before exploding in a mix of green and red.
The Arwings, who were still flying nearby, saw Jacques carry out his wrath on the greenskins.
"I don't believe it!" Fox cried.
Believe it, Falco replied, Krystal's guardian angel also counts as a one-man army.
Fox smirked and said, "I only trust he'll take out the SAM carrying greenies as well. We've got to do something."
The remainder of the ground forces saw the smoke rising from the trenches, with Commander O'Reilly peering through his zoom-goggles.
"Lieutenant?" he called out.
"Yes, sir?" a vulpine ran up to him.
"Get the troops back into the APCs," he ordered, "We're joining the Marine."
The lieutenant nodded, then called out, "You heard the Commander? Saddle up!"
By this time, the trenches were filling up with splattered Orkish bodies, who had all charged Jacque's cannon, which soon ran out of ammo as he blasted the gunner of the third gun.
The remaining gunners abandoned their posts and pulled out their pistols.
"Blas' dat humie!" one of them cried.
They jumped into the trenches and hid around a corner, seeing the approaching shadow of the Space Marine. They readied their arms.
"Git readi'," one of them whispered to the other.
Their hearts beat loudly against their chests as they dove out of cover, crying out and shooting where Jacques should be standing.
"DIE HUMIE!" they cried, "Wha…?"
He wasn't there before them at all.
"Where'd he go?"
They then heard something clear their throat, before looking up at where they sun used to be, only to be obstructed by the large, armoured form of Space Marine Mortensen, looking down from outside the trench.
"Oh shitz!" one of the cried, before raising their pistols.
Jacques suddenly jumped on top of them, power fist clenched. He slapped the guns out their hands, before delivering a mighty punch to one Ork's head, breaking his neck and ending his existance. The other desperately pulled out a knife, before feeling Jacques punch him in the chest, breaking it and sending him flying against the trench wall, before falling forward on his face.
For the coup de grace, he stretched his foot out onto the Ork's neck, breaking it.
Before he finally realised it himself, he had single-handily wiped out an entire trench system full of Orks; thanks in part to his overwhelming faith to the Emperor, the incompetence of the Orks… and of the support of the Arwings…
…Star Fox to be precise.
'I must press forward,' he thought, 'I have to get to the absolute bottom of this.'
He then followed the trench, which lead under the wall and beyond it, where at the same time Fox, Krystal and Falco flew over the trenches.
"Hey," Falco begun, "Where'd he go?"
Fox was about to add to that when his communicator beeped again. He answered it.
McCloud, a Cornerian fighter's voice sounded, We've managed to take out the entire Venomian air power.
"That's…that's great," Fox said, surprised that the overwhelmed Cornerian's were able to defeat one-hundred-and-forty Venomian fighters.
The fighters piloted by Venomian's fled, the pilot continued, Seems they had other priorities. Further orders?
"Yeah?" Fox begun, "Prepare to sweep over the fortress."
He paused, before finishing with slight vehemence.
"We're going to get to the bottom of this Ork WAAAGH!"