Soldiers of Lylat

by Vantage77

During an anti-piracy operation, Corneria attacks the Sphere Alliance and causes a huge intergalactic incident. Now in an attempt to secure peace Corneria has agreed to let a small group of humans into the prestigious Corneria Military Academy as a show of inclusion and cooperation. However, how will a peaceful Lylat react to soldier born for war? OCx Multiple, OCx Multiple.

3. Chapter 3: A Meeting of Mercenaries

Chapter 3: A Meeting of Mercenaries

"We just lost the Solace!" one of the remaining human pilots shouted over the comm in shock as all the remaining defenders of Cerinia watched the civilian transport's reactor explode breaking the ship apart. Meanwhile, the Cera space station had a large hole blasted through it causing numerous secondary explosions and the entire station to begin a decaying orbit toward the surface.

Russ growled at the loss, not only had the Solace been only halfway done with evacuations but Cera station was the orbital command and control center run by the queen of the planet who was likely now dead. In addition, the beam of energy destroyed one of their corvettes or more specifically his contractor's corvette which meant he just lost his paycheck. Russ was tempted to abandon the fight and activate his slip space drive to escape, a decision that two of the remaining corvettes took as he saw them turn and open a slip space portal before entering and disappearing from the battle area. Russ shook his head before focusing on the readouts his sensors were displaying.

Examining his sensors Russ cursed as another large fleet began approaching the battle area from the same direction as the first. Unlike the first fleet which was charging toward their positions in a mishmash of forces with no formation this second fleet was holding back in a battle formation with two Cruisers and a smattering of corvettes surrounding what seemed to be a trio of cruisers that the enemy had turned into carriers judging by the streams of strike craft launching from the ships hangers. The other two battleships had split off from the center group and taken up position on either flank of the line with a smattering of frigate escorts. In front of all these formations was a line of corvettes and an occasional frigate that formed a defensive line that was swarming with fighters. Quickly coming to the inclusion that the charging fleet was enough to overrun their position Russ keyed his comm.

"This is Fenrir of Raven Squadron to King Dolis of Cerinia, the enemy has just destroyed both the Solace and Cera station. The enemy is advancing, and we cannot hold our orbital position. I'm taking over command of the orbital defenses and moving our remaining forces over Cerinia's orbital horizon to prepare long-range harassment fire." Russ relayed, after a period of silence King Dolis responded.

"…U-understood. Very well Fenrir does what you can I'll prepare or ground forces for enemy contact and move our remaining civilians to the shelters. Good luck." King Dolis said holding back the sorrow at the loss of his wife and daughter in the face of doing his duty for the people of his planet.

"Roger, same to you sir," Russ said before switching frequency to the orbital channel. "Attention all remaining orbital forces this is Fenrir. I'm taking over command, all remaining forces pull back over the north polar horizon and prepare for harassment operations." Russ relayed as he and the remaining human and Guardian fighters formed up and escorted the two remaining corvettes to the north. One of the corvettes captains relayed his craft was available for ammo replenishment and seeing that the enemy wasn't perusing them Russ gave the go-ahead for himself and other craft needing resupply to do so while the guardian fighters went planetside to resupply at a remote base.

X With the Cornerian Fleet X

"Sir enemy forces in retreat!" a jubilant sensors officer reported to Santiago who smirked as he watched the remaining enemy forces withdraw. Nodding his head Santiago ordered a general charge as his troop transports moved to disgorge their troops. His attention was grabbed however by another announcement from the sensors officer "Sir additional contacts approaching from our rear, IFF confirms them as the 1st Fleet!"

Santiago growled "Of course that damn Admiral Pepper would try to steal our glory! Tell the ground transports to land immediately and begin operations immediately. Communications after that put Admiral Pepper through and send my thanks to Dr. Andross for his assistance" Santiago ordered before resting in his chair. After a few minutes, the forward screen was replaced by the stoic form of Admiral Pepper.

The bulldog's commanding voice soon addressed Santiago "Acting Vice-Admiral Santiago just what do you think you are doing?" the bulldog demanded in a cold commanding tone that held whispers of the canine's inner rage.

Santiago huffed "I'm winning this battle sir and securing a planet for the Cornerian people from the hands of pirates."

Admiral Pepper growled "Really? It looks to me like you are engaging a small force consisting of two unknown species and invading their world. A fact that has been discovered by the entirety of Lylat thanks to the reporter aboard the Great Fox and intercepting enemy communications."

Santiago blinked a few times in silence before responding "Huh?"

Admiral Pepper's stoic countenance broke "Gods dammit swine get your head out of your ass and analyze the situation with whatever passes for your brain! The enemy is using technology far beyond our capability, has no craft that looks anything like what we have in Lylat, and exist outside known Lylat space on a garden world! They have the resources to never need to raid supplies and from what we can tell from their comms are speaking two very different languages!"

Santiago bristled at the bulldog's tone though inwardly acknowledged his points "Even if that were the case it's too late to just apologize now. We're so close to victory that we may as well finish the fight, secure the planet for Lylat while gaining a vassal the aliens for Lylat and seize their technology. We can still grab a glorious victory for our people!"

Pepper slammed his hands down on the arms of his command chair "Dammit don't you hear yourself Santiago? You are fighting and attacking a major civilian center, cease and desist dammit! We can still find a diplomatic solution to this mess!"

Santiago rose to his feet in anger "Have you forgotten the losses we have already taken? No, there can only be a victory for those that have perished for Corneria! For the Fallen!" Santiago shouted before ending the transmission and sitting back down in his chair as the bridge crew gave their own cheer.

"FOR THE FALLEN!"

X Great Fox, Command Bridge X

"ADMIRAL PEPPER SOLEMNLY REPORTS THAT SANTIAGO HAS REFUSED TO STAND DOWN AND IT ADVANCING TO BEGIN GROUND OPERATIONS" ROB reported to Jessica and her camera crew from his station by the sensors.

"But why is he continuing the advance?" Jessica asked in confusion as the group watched in both sadness and horror as the 3rd Fleet advanced toward the planet.

ROB turned before answering her "GENERAL PEPPER RELAYED THAT SANTIAGO BELIEVES THAT THE LOSSES ALREADY SUFFERED MAKES THE THOUGHT OF RETREATING NOW… UNAPPEALING. HE HAS DECIDED TO GO AHEAD WITH THE INVASION AND VASSILIZATION OF THE PLANET AND ITS PEOPLE FOR CORNERIA."

Jessica shook her head somewhat understanding the Vice-Admiral's point but heavily disagreeing with it. Deciding she needed to address the audience Jessica turned back toward the camera "Well viewers you've heard the situation and while I personally disagree with the actions being taken it's your right to decide what you think about the events happening outside of this window." Jessica turned to the window and saw the large transport crafts disgorging large amounts of transports heading for the surface. "As you can now see the ground forces heading for the surface. I'll turn it over to Jeffery O'Hare our embedded reporter with the 27th Cornerian Infantry Regiment. Jeff, can you hear me?"

X Cornerian Landing Ship T-1138 X

Jeffery O'Hare was not enjoying himself. He had been crammed into a barracks area inside the Transport ships for two days with some very rambunctious infantrymen. Now he was strapped to a chair in a small transport shuttle burning through the atmosphere with a group of STILL rambunctious marines howling at the ceiling.

"Okay, you sissies" the group's captain announced "Our navy boys took a beating plowing a way through to the planet for us so its time to make the aliens pay the piper. We're gonna land, set up a FOB, and then move to the enemy settlement five clicks to our north. Orbital imaging shows the area is jungle until the city outskirts which is a mix of small stone and wood homes mixed with rock pyramid-like structures with a lot of open ground. So, expect harassment in the jungle before we reach the settlement and then long open fields of fire. Our objective is the big fuck-off castle in the center that we tracked the transports arriving at, once that's secured the enemy will likely surrender. So, lock and load war dogs we got a war to win!" the captain shouted to the excited roar of approval of his soldiers. After another minute the transport touched down and the ramp opened allowing the thirty infantry out and into a chaotic mix of activity.

Jeff keyed his camera and filmed as hundreds of transports kicked up large clouds of sand as they landed their infantry, supplies, or equipment on a beautiful stretch of beach while the infantry moved about toward the jungle to form a perimeter while others prepared fortifications for a FOB. To Jeff's right, a transport dropped off one of the armies twenty tanks while another large armored carrier disgorged a squad of four anti-air vehicles. Hearing Jessica's voice turns the new broadcast over to him Jeff began to speak into the microphone on his headset. "I hear you, Jessica! The 26th 27th and 28th Infantry Regiments of Santiago's ground forces and myself have landed five clicks away from the enemy city and as you can see the soldiers here are wasting no time in setting up their positions."

"Hey reporter!" a voice shouted from a group of advancing soldiers "Let's go keep up or get left behind!"

Jeff quickly began running toward the soldiers "Jessica it looks like we're heading out, I'll get back to you when I can."

X Orbit over Cornerian, CERA Station X

Krystal groaned as she groggily stood up from were, she had been thrown from where a secondary explosion caused by the large beam of energy hitting the station. Gathering her wits, she glanced around and saw that the communications room was in a state of total disrepair with panels be collapsed beams hanging from the ceiling and small fires throughout the room.

She thanked the gods that their area was isolated from the area the beam had punctured and thus still had breathable air. Looking down she saw her mother also rising slowly to her feet clutching a wound at her side likely caused when the comm station exploded. Her mother had thrown up a hasty psychic barrier but some of the debris still got through.

Krystal bent over and picked up her staff before helping her mother to her feet. "Come on mother we need to get to the emergency shuttle." Krystal relayed to which her mother nodded before the two began to carefully make their way through the dark and smoking hallways.

After stumbling through the dark and debris filled corridor the two managed to find the emergency transport waiting in a hanger through to Krystal's dismay it had taken some damage from falling scaffolding which removed a few plates of outer hall. Thankfully they could still take off as the interior layers would keep their structural integrity though they couldn't get back to Cerinia. As Krystal powered up the ship after laying her mother in the copilot's seat Krystal glanced over the sensors and saw that though the enemy was closing quickly they still had some space forces left she could randevu with. Her course of action set Krystal gunned the engines and left the hanger and toward her allies.

XXXXXXX

Russ sighed as he viewed the tactical readout his ship was supplying him with a wary eye. It had been a couple of hours since the Cornerians had begun landing troops on the surface of Cerinia and fifty minutes since the out perimeter of cities defenses had reported contact. From what reports Dolis had sent the Guardians were holding the enemy back but were getting pushed back slowly despite suffering only a handful of casualties. The enemy simply had them outnumbers and outgunned in range and tanks with Cerinia not even having any armor at all. Thankfully some of the cruise ships security personnel that had been evacuated had joined the defense with their hard-light rifles and were pinning the enemy down with long-range sniper fire.

As for himself and the remaining orbital forces, all the remaining fighters had managed to rearm and had attempted to harass the enemy to great effect by running in to attack from max range before retreating before the enemy could react. Since the first enemy fleet had taken up a defensive area around the transport ships, they had proved to be very reluctant to pursue the human corvettes that haggard them. Still the humans and Cerinian's had not gone unscathed as two more human fighters and four guardian fighters were lost. Russ's forces were not down to the two corvettes, himself and four other Ravens, three other human fighters, and four guardian fighters. Eventually, the enemy had wised up and dispatched fighters to attack them from multiple directions stretching them thin to cover their flanks. It now was common that one of the better trained Raven's would have to cover an entire flank by themselves. Now however they had an additional problem in that the second fleet had moved closer to the area threatening to send its three hundred fighters and bombers to engage his smaller force if he attempted to bring his corvettes to again harass the enemy fleet.

Russ was brought out of his analysis of the battlefield by an emergency transmission on their tactical frequency "This is Guardian Krystal, I was aboard CERA station when it was hit but survived the blast. Queen Meridian and I managed to board an escape shuttle and escape the station, but the Queen is injured. In addition, the shuttle has lost structural integrity from the blast and we can't reenter orbit. Requesting escort to the friendly vessel for medical."

Russ looked at his tactical view and saw only himself and Raven 4 in a position to escort her without compromising his forces perimeter. "Understood Guardian, Raven 4 and Fenrir will move to escort stay current heading." Russ relayed before throttling his Dire-Wolf forward along with Raven 4's Xiphos interceptor toward the slow-moving target that was the escape shuttle.

XXXXX

Meanwhile with the Cornerian Fleet Krystal's distress message had been picked up by ROB and Jessica and then relayed to Admiral Pepper. The bulldog knew that capturing the queen of the planet would go a long way in securing the surrender of the planet's defenders and ending this whole debacle. So nodding his head in the decision he keyed his communications station "Star Fox and Wardog squadrons an enemy shuttle has left the damaged station. It is carrying an enemy VIP that we need to capture them ALIVE so disable the ship's engines and prevent the enemy from securing it." He ordered and quickly received acknowledgments from James McCloud and David Lupis who commanded Wardog squadron.

James McCloud released a steady breath as he and his two wingmen Pigma and Peppy flew toward their new objective. Soon they were joined by the fifteen fighters of Wardog squadron led by David Lupis. James knew Lupis, he came from a military family and was a remarkable pilot to a point that James had wanted to recruit him into Star Fox when his time with the military was done. Recently David had entered an arranged marriage with a girl from another military family that from what he heard was as beautiful as she was totally against the marriage the answer to both being EXTREMELY.

"David good of you to join us!" Peppy said over the comm.

"Ha good to hear your voice, you old hare! James, Pigma good seeing you both too." The confident voice of David replied with a laugh. "So, I hear we got some royal pain in the ass to capture."

"That's right" James responded "The vessel will reach the enemy if ten minutes unless we stop them. My scanners are picking up two enemy aircraft approaching the shuttle."

"Only two? Easy kills!" Pigma laughed happily.

"Don't let your guard down Pigma those two bandits are from that squadron that's been kicking our friendlies asses lately" James warned.

"So how do you want to do this?" David asked.

"My squad takes one and yours takes the other" James ordered with a chuckle

"Ha sounds like a plan! Dibs on the leader!" the wolf replied.

Pigma gave a disgruntled huff "You just want to impress that young fiancée of yours. What is she… ten years younger than you?"

"Fifteen and I really want to get back, her grandfather's arranged the wedding next month to celebrate our victory so we need to wrap this up today if possible." David relayed before looking at his radar. Heads up we are approaching the target. Okay, Wardog lets focus on the leader!" David ordered as they sped toward the pair of escort fighters which broke apart to engage the two squadrons.

XXXXX

Jessica Greymane was doing her best to keep the audience interested during the breaks between when Jeff could transmit footage from the ground. The battles in space had died down significantly with the only newsworthy development being the attempted capture of the planets queen which was currently underway. "ROB can you give us the play-by-play of the battle? We can't make out any details from here" she asked the robot who nodded.

"ACKNOWLEDGED. STAR FOX HAS JUST ENGAGED HOSTILE 2 WHILE WARDOG HAS ENGAGED HOSTILE 1. HOSTILE 1 HAS FIRED THREE MISSILES… WARDOG 3,5, AND NINE LOST. JAMES MCCLOUD AND PEPPY HARE HAVE PINCERED HOSTILE 2… ENEMY ESCAPED BY PULLING UP AND LEFT, PIGMA DENGAR HAS PICKED UP TRAIL AND IS ATTEMPTING TO SHOOTDOWN HOSTILE 2. ATTEMPT FAILED ENEMY BANKED LEFT AND ENGAGED PEPPY HARE… PEPPY DODGED. WARDOG HAS SPLIT INTO PAIRS AND HAS ATTEMPTED TO BOX IN HOSTILE ONE… ATTEMPT FAILED HOSTILE ONE ROLLED LEFT AND HAS FIRED A PROJECTILE WEAPON, WARDOG 2 AND 4 LOST. ENEMY SHUTTLE IS 10 MINUTES FROM ESCAPING. UPDATE WARDOG 10 LOST DUE TO MISSILE FROM HOSTILE 1… MY APOLOGIES ROB IS UNABLE TO UPDATE CLIENT ON BATTLE DO TO RAPID CHANGES IN STATUS AND INABILITY TO ARTICULATE EVENTS AT A SATISFACTORY RATE." Rob stated before keying the comm station "PROVIDING ACCESS TO SQUADRON COMMS TO ALLOW FOR ACCOMPLISHMENT OF CLIENT REQUEST."

Jessica and the rest of Lylat waited with bated breath as ROB adjusted the comm station eager to hear the progress of two famous squadrons. After a couple of seconds, ROB finished adjusting the station and the voices of the pilots flooded the area.

"STAR FOX hurry up and waist that guy we need some help over here!" Captain David Lupin's voice came through with a hint of panic.

"We're doing our best Wardog 1 just give us a couple more minutes!" James replied as he wheeled around and picked up the bandit on his tail. "Peppy Pigma saturation fire ten degrees to my port side on three. One, two, THREE!" James announced as he threw the stick hard right making his Arwing bank right followed by the bandit. Pigma and Peppy let loose with their lasers poring fire behind James craft and hitting the trailing bandit. The first couple of shots seem to be deflected or absorbed by the ships armored platting before the sheer amount of fire finally penetrated and ripped apart the enemy, reducing it to a ball of fire.

Onboard the Great Fox Jessica and her cameraman let a cheer as one of the most dangerous enemies were destroyed. Suddenly the comm station rang out "Fenrir, Raven 4 is down! What's your status?"

ROB spoke up "ENEMY COMMS NOW INCLUDED FOR CLIENT SATISFACTION."

"Almost done here, just finished hacking into the enemies comm. Sounds like they've cracked the Cerinian's comm encryption. All human forces switch to encryption channel Epsilon-Beta two-three-zero" a deeper voice announced that was slightly garbled.

James McCloud heard the transmission as well and cursed but internally filed the name of the second species as humans as he and his squadron wheeled around to Wardog's last position. "S-star Fox this is Wardog 1, c-come in." David's voice came over the comm.

"David we took out our bandit and are on our way just have your squad hold out a little longer" Fox announced before he was cut off.

"James, m-my whole squad is down. D-don't fight him, h-he's too s-strong." David's voice came back in near hysterics.

"David we're coming just hang on!" Peppy said as the group passed the floating wreckage of Wardog squadron having completely forgotten the escaping shuttle which quickly joined their remaining ships.

"I-I can't shake this guy, he's unreal." David's voice had more and more fear and despair with each sentence. James and his team put all power to their thrusters trying to get there before what they dreaded happening came to be.

"M-my squadron, he wiped out half in the first minute… the last of us were picked apart one by one." James could see two dots at the edges of his sensors one hostile behind a lone friendly that was desperately trying to shake his pursuer to no avail.

"H-he's in a perfect firing angle, why isn't he firing?" David whispered in fright. "Scared…I-I'm scared."

James could see them now David had ceased all evasive action knowing it was futile while the enemy craft mysteriously followed close behind not firing. "DAVID WE'RE HERE! BANK LEFT AND WE'LL" James began only to be interrupted by a whisper from David over the comm.

"He's a demon"

The enemy finally fired a streak of projectiles streaking forth and ripping through David's wing and fuselage which began to spin and leak flames.

"JAMES! STARFOX! ANYONE HELP ME!" David's terrified voice screamed before another burst from the enemy slammed into his craft causing it to explode and leaving the enemy to soar through the debris cloud.

Every Lylatian who had heard the transmission stopped and felt a cold pit form in their stomach even as ROB's voice announced what they all already knew "WARDOG 1 LOST." A silence settled over the comms before another voice began to speak.

"This is Fenrir enemy squadron eliminated, I'll deal with the other group now… well, well, well. Star Fox was it? I should congratulate you for managing to take down a Raven" the voice of the enemy announced.

James growled, "We'll get you for that monster!" The enemy only laughed through the comm.

"That's rich coming from a side that's invading a peaceful planet, attacked a civilian mining outpost, and then destroyed a civilian transport" Fenrir announced over the comm. "Besides he was a soldier is it really that surprising for him to die on the battlefield?"

James growled as Star Fox spread out to attack from multiple angles while Fenrir seemed content to fly directly toward them. "He had stopped fighting! He was sitting there in front of you with no resistance! You could have let him go and he would have retreated!" James shouted as the two groups merged and Fenrir dodged their enveloping fire by rolling up before performing a downward split-s as soon as he passed them and getting onto James tail.

Fenrir gave a dismissive scoff "Then he was an idiot as well. This is war, there is no place for weakness hesitation or compassion. It's become clear to me after watching your people that you are unused to war so here is a piece of advice. In war, there are two types of people those that are dead and those that kill to survive. So, Star Fox lets see which of the two you are!" With that Fenrir opened up with his GAT cannon that James barely managed to dodge by pulling up and banking right before Peppy managed to throw Fenrir off his tail by firing at the human craft for below.

Fenrir wheeled around and banked into Peppy sharply forcing him to overshoot before Fenrir reversed the direction of his turn and came in on Peppy's tail. Fenrir switched his selected weapon with a flick of a switch on the flight stick before firing a glancing shot at Peppy's rapidly accelerating fighter.

James watched in horror as a pair of green beams of light streaked out from Either side of Fenrir's fuselage near the cockpit and lanced threw space before piercing threw Peppy's wing and rear fuselage causing a small explosion as Peppy lost his left G-diffuser, wing, and left laser cannon.

"Ah, I'm hit!" Peppy screamed.

"Peppy get out of here retreat!" James ordered as he fired at Fenrir forcing the human to bank away from Peppy.

"Sorry James!" Peppy apologized as his heavily damaged ship banked away from the battle and toward the Great Fox.

James and Pigma split up to try a pincer maneuver but suddenly James saw a missile leave the enemy craft coming straight at him quickly banking right and firewalling the throttle James attempted to evade. "Pigma he's fired a missile at me abort the attack!" he warned as the missile closed.

"Fuck that! This guy my paycheck!" Pigma shouted as he continued to close with the bandit and fired at his underbelly.

James had his own problem to deal with and focused on dodging the missile rapidly closing in on his left. James waited for the missile to close before he through the stick back and applied as much rudder as he could yanking the craft in a drastic change in direction that the missile couldn't keep up with allowing James to sail over the missile which continued for another couple hundred feet before detonating after its warhead could no longer find a target.

Looking back toward the bandit James eyes widened as he saw then enemy cut its main engines before using its thrusters to do an impossible flip backward mixed with a roll reducing Pigma's shots to harmlessly pass inches away from its fuselage and canopy but more importantly locking Pigma in its sights as he sailed past.

"Pigma!" James shouted a warning to his remaining wingman.

"OH SHI-" Pigma's shout was cut off as the same beam weapons that hit Peppy now streaked forth and bisected Pigma's Arwing from nose to engine cutting it clean in half and it's pilot along with it.

As the two halves of Pigma's Arwing exploded Fenrir reignited his main engines and addressed the single remaining enemy "Greed is the highest mortality rate amongst mercenaries. So little kit you're all alone now, still want to try your luck?"

James just growled and shot toward the enemy firing his weapons. James didn't try to maneuver behind the enemy or lead the fighter instead he firewalled his throttle a second time in a desperate attempt to ram the human fighter. This seemed to surprise the human as his shields took enough hits to drop and soon a laser shot from James hit just to the right of the canopy leaving a burn mark but no real damage thanks to his fuselage's reinforced heat resistant plates.

Russ knew that he could afford to slack off now and submerged himself into a familiar state of being that had saved his life numerous times during the wars he had fought in. Time seemed to slow outside, his eyesight sharpened, the incoming lasers and the paths they would take became bare to his eyes, and the intentions of the enemy were laid before him like an open book. The intense G-forces asserted on his body felt like nothing as every thruster and the main engines themselves worked together to fire off and send his aircraft twenty feet forward before throwing all energy he had into a flat spin that brought his nose around to point at the Arwing that now occupied the space he had just vacated.

From James's perspective, the aircraft seemed to become enshrouded in green energy that his sharp eyes saw was from numerous thrusters located in various points on the aircraft. The human ship moved forward ethereally fast to the point of leaving a blurry outline along its path before it spun around fluidly like someone skating on ice and pointed its nose straight at James. James watched as two objects that James had assumed were G-diffusers like his own instead showed themselves to be cannons that fired a something at such speeds that James only saw a flash of blue before two objects plowed through his rear fuselage before exploding beneath the Arwing ripping off its wings.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" James screamed in panic and in pain as his console circuits exploded sending some shrapnel into his hands and arks of electricity directly into his eyes. Now nearly blind and in an aircraft, with no engine's or wings, James could only fight the pain as his Arwing spun out into space.

Russ watched the damaged fighter spin off into space and debated finishing it off to end the pilots suffering rather than letting the poor sod freeze to death or suffocate out in space before noting the odd-looking frigate ship amongst the enemy fleet change course to intercept the Cornerian fighter.

Shrugging but internally glad that the skilled pilot would make it Russ turned back to his sides lines before keying his comm back to the secured frequency "Fenrir here enemy squadron down. What is the status of our forces?"

His question was soon answered by Raven 2 "This is Cyclops, lifeboat secured. Remaining space forces consolidating on our position. Ground forces report heavy fighting and are being forced back to their last defensive lines. The enemy has brought in armored support, they are begging for air support."

Russ grimaced knowing he can't spare the aircraft at this point before an alarm on his sensors alerted him to an incoming long-range communication on all human frequencies. "This is Rear Admiral Steel of the Earth Sphere Alliance's 10th Patrol Fleet, we are five minutes away from the planet known as Cerinia. By the direct order of the Emperor, we are here to support our allies and secure our citizens. Any human forces in the area of Cerinia respond at once."

Russ gave a smirk in triumph before keying his comm "Rear Admiral Steel with is Fenrir a mercenary of Raven's Loft, I've taken temporary command of the remaining space forces over Cerinia. The situation is dire, enemy forces have smashed our previous lines and engaged ground forces who are in desperate need of reinforcements. I'm transmitting all relevant data to your ship. Recommend having your AI sort through and compile events for you to view. Also, be advised that we have a VIP in one of our remaining corvettes in need of medical. In addition, allied Cerinian communications have been cracked by the hostile forces."

Steel paused for a second before replying "Understood Fenrir. I'm placing all remaining human forces under my command and as an incentive to you, mercenaries am offering extensive combat bonuses for your efforts and continued prowess. We will be arriving shortly."

Fenrir joined all the humans as they let out a collective cheer some in joy at the reinforcement and some in the promise of good pay, some for both. Russ was just glad that this FUBAR mission was almost over… the money helped too.

AAAANNNDDDDD Done! Well this was a hefty chapter and like what was stated at the end the next chapter will be wrapping up this battle and we can get to the heart of the story. So a quick note I'm going to start next chapter with a quick Q&A so if you guys and gals have any questions to ask me about this fic go ahead and leave a review or pm and if its something I can reply with without spoilers I'll include it in the Q&A next chapter.

Anyway, till next time remember to stay frosty and don't forget to review!