Chapter 2: Mayhem
The Great Fox Assault Carrier was now in orbit around Corneria with other ships of the Cornerian Navy as they prepared for a hyperspace jump into their destination. For the time being, Fox and his squadron were in the planning room of the ship with a hologram screen of General Pepper briefing them on their destination, Area B7R, the Round Table. Standing before them was a bronze gold robot, ROB64. "Initiating briefing, target destination: Area B7R. General Pepper, you have a clear line to the Great Fox." ROB spoke in his signature robotic monotone to General Pepper. "Ah good. I'll fill you in now. Area B7R is our top priority. Without it our forces cannot proceed with the liberation of Planet Fortuna, Fichina, Zoness and Aquas. However, losses are mounting. Even if we don't lose pilots, any damaged craft is grounded and we have to cede control of the sector even further."
ROB then showed them a hologram display showing the damages of various squadrons were taking. Many of them had lost a third of their strength trying to either hold back the invading Venomian forces or launch futile counter-attacks that cost them even more. "Complete domination of this sector is paramount, but the furball is going to be a tough fight."
"So we need to break the deadlock," Peppy nodded.
"Nothing a strike in a key spot can't fix," Falco smirked.
"Alright, Star Fox squadron, let's move out!" Fox eagerly stated. As the briefing concluded they went to their hangars and perform maintenance for their Arwings. Slippy opened the internal weapon compartment for Fox's Arwing and pushed a trolley with missiles over. ROB then helped install the missiles into the Arwing's weapon bay, then program the weapon system. "Okay Fox, you now have missiles for Air to Air combat. Some of them are infrared, so you'll need to get close before you can lock on. The others are Beyond Visual Range, so you can lock on from beyond your sight." Slippy explained to Fox as he showed the vulpine ace a tablet display of his new weapon systems.
"Thanks Slippy," Fox nodded. "What are we expecting here?"
Slippy quickly brought up the enemy data that had been gained through the intelligence network. "Looks like we're up against one of the major fleets of Andross's army."
"Not surprising considering this is an important route," Peppy nodded. "Which one is it?"
Slippy looked further. "From the data the Cornerian Army provided us, looks like the flagship for the fleet in this area is the Salvadora, escorted by three Dorisby-class Battleships," he said, bringing up the ship. "Seems like the captain of this ship is Andrew Oikonny, Andross's nephew."
"Heh, so either he's pretty good or he got in just because he's Andross's nephew," Falco smirked.
"Let's not risk finding out its the first one just because we underestimated him," Peppy advised.
"Don't need to tell us that," Fox chuckled a bit before his expression turned serious. "Alright then, let's go!"
The quartet went to the bridge of the Great Fox and strapped themselves in as the ship was ready to warp into hyperspace. "Commencing hyperspace navigation in 3, 2, 1," ROB spoke before pressing a button on the ship's control panel launching the ship into hyperspace jump. They and the Cornerian fleet traversed through a hyperspace lane of blinding blue lights before arriving at Area B7R. "Enemy ships detected. Estimated fleet size, one space assault division. Preparing for Arwings deployment."
The four didn't waste any time, immediately going for their Arwings while ROB armed the Great Fox's defenses as the enemy fleet soon noticed them. The Venomian forces soon deployed their fighters against the Star Fox team. The Cornerian squadrons of Arwings soon fly out from their mother ships and swarm the Venomian in an all-out furball. The dogfights became a confusing showdown between the Cornerians and Venomians as Bill's Bulldog and Husky squadron clashed with various Invader crafts and Attacker types. Fox and his squadron took off and began to fly into the mayhem. "Glad to have you with us, Fox, these monkeys could use a red hot butt by now. And you're the hot iron!" Said Bill over their comms.
"Glad to provide," Fox said…though to anyone listening closely they'd have noticed the sharper edge to his voice when he said that. Either way nobody was in a position to point that out as everyone was thrown into the fray.
The Venomian fighters were going all in for the dogfight as the battlefield descended into pure chaos. Fox and his wingmen began to tear apart the Venomian crafts, on occasion, they saw the primate pilot flung into space, desperately clinging to their dear life as the cold vacuum of space took them. Fox charged up his laser blast and fired at a large wing of enemy fighters, blowing them to pieces instantly. "Thanks for the save Star Fox!" One of the Cornerian pilots excitedly spoke. As the Cornerian fleet moved in, they fired their massive laser cannons at the Venomian fleet, blasting the red rectangular ships apart. In the fiery exchange, they soon come across the flagship Salvadora.
"This is the Venomian 85th Space Assault Division commander, Andrew Oikonny! Surrender now or you'll be annihilated!" The ship commander, a white fur macaque with a slender red face defiantly spoke over everyone's comms.
"Not happening," Fox said point blank. "How about YOU surrender and we won't turn you into space debris," he said.
"Technically not your call to make, but yes," Bill said.
Oikonny growled a bit. "Fine then! Destroy them all!" he roared.
"Welp, there goes diplomacy," Peppy sighed.
"Yeah, like it was ever on the table, to begin with," Falco snorted as the fight resumed in full force. It was hard to keep full track of the battle, but suffice to say it was nothing short of chaotic. Shots were flying everywhere, and ships were being blown out of space. However amongst it all, Star Fox and the Cornerian Army were slowly pushing through.
"Do not let them break through!" Oikonny shouted the order as the operators on his ship signaled for the Dorisbys to join in on the battle as the large ships armed their laser weapons, aiming at the battle.
"Are they seriously going to shoot now?!" Bill gasped as he evaded a shot from one of the enemy fighters, but the sensors were warning him and everyone else of the energy build up that was heralding the lasers shooting.
"Everyone get out of the way!" Fox shouted, all fighters on the field doing their best to evade, right as the lasers fired, destroying any ship that was still in range be it friend or foe.
"Damn, that monkey's crazy! He even hit some of his own ships!" Falco said.
"Guess its anything to win in Venom, huh?" Peppy frowned.
"Okay, change of plans. We need to take out those battleships first, or we're going to be in big trouble," Fox frowned. "Slippy, do we have any options?"
"Not an easy task Fox," Slippy said. "Those battleships have strong hulls. We'd need to use Nova Bombs to destroy them, but we don't have that many on us right now."
"Any alternatives though?" Bill asked.
Slippy looked over the data they had on the battleships quickly and nodded. "There's an opening we can use! If we shoot them be it with a missile or a Nova Bomb right in the lasers as they're charging, the backlash should cause massive damage to the Battleships!"
"Hahahaha! You won't be able to defeat me! Andrew Oikonny! Nor will you be able to defeat my great uncle Andross! All ships open fire! Make way for the Salvadora!" the simian fleet commander cackled while rubbing his hands together. His fleet's batteries of high-power laser cannons began to charge up again, they aimed for the Cornerian's fleet.
But as the cannons were charging, Fox, Falco, and Bill flew down to the ships and launched Nova bombs into their barrels. The bombs blew up just as the cannons were about to blast, causing a chain reaction further down the ship's interiors. The various decks of the ship began to blow up, and rupture and fire spread across the hull as the first of the Venomian warship blew up in a spectacular fireball. "What!? How did you do that?" Oikonny flabbergasted in shock.
"They appear to be-" one of the operators started…right as the second warship took a massive hit. "...firing on our lasers while they're charging," the operator finished.
"Then what are you waiting for? Order all fighters to defend the lasers while they're charging!" Oikonny shouted.
With the order given, the Venomian fighters did as they were told, moving to defend the battleships while they were charging their main weapons.
"Guess they're not gonna make it easier for us," Fox frowned.
"Doesn't matter, we'll just blast through them then take down the battleships!" Falco said.
"Actually it is a problem. There's a small window for us to destroy the main weapons and the battleships as is. We'd have to time it perfectly to hit them at this rate!" Slippy said.
"Unless we have sharp timing like your tongue or nine lives, we're not standing much of a chance against that," Falco stated, annoyed but proceeded to try anyway. Falco and Fox made a dive bomb attack on another escort ship of the Venomian fleet, dropping their Nova bomb payload into its cannons as it was charging up and ready for another shot at the Cornerian fleet. Andrew watched in despair from his bridge as the ship blew up in the distance. The simian pouted and jumped up and down on the bridge before going to his communique, dialing the PA system up for the ship's hangar. "Deploy all fighters!" He shouted. "Star Wolf squadron get off your asses and fly now!" Andrew vainly ordered.
But in the hangar, a wolf, older than Fox by eight years, with an eye patch on his left eye, yawned uninterested and munched on his ham sandwich. He heard the P.A loudspeaker calling his name specifically with the ineffectual shouts by Andrew Oikonny coming through it. "Do you hear me Wolf? Take off and defend the Salvadora!" Said the simian while the lupine was swallowing his meal.
Wolf didn't seem particularly in a hurry as he took a moment to finish up. "Funny, I clearly recall you saying you didn't need our help when we took off," Wolf smirked a bit. "Whatever happened to that bravado?"
Oikonny's face turned a deep shade of red, both from anger and embarrassment at being called out. Steam vented out of his ears before he launched into a tirade against Wolf. "If you do not take off, I'll cut your operating fee immediately, mercenary!" He shouted, to which Wolf finally relented and sighed.
"Alright, you're the boss," Wolf shrugged…and hung up on Oikonny. "Alright Star Wolf Squadron, let's earn our keep," he said as he started up his ship. In the hangar area, he was in were two other ships that were identical to his, the Wolfen ships that were the signature ships of the Star Wolf mercenary group.
"I was waiting for this," came the voice from one of the Wolfens, the owner being a chameleon with a rather sadistic look in his eyes. "Let's get this slaughter started!"
"Bet we can charge extra too to clean up Oikonny's mess," another voice said, revealing to be a fat pig who seemed to be every bit the word 'swine'.
With that the three Wolfens took off and soon were entering the battle.
Back in the battlefield, another of the battleships had taken a direct hit and was losing its course as it was wracked with explosions and ultimately destroyed. However, the Cornerian forces didn't have time to celebrate. "We're detecting three more ships incoming!" Bill warned everyone.
"What's three more fighters going to do?" a rather cocky Cornerian fighter chuckled a bit, clearly on a bit of a high from their momentum…only to not live to regret his arrogance when his ship was suddenly blasted, killing him in the ensuing explosion.
"Lasky!" Bill shouted in shock. He had only a minute to glance over and saw a small squadron of three fighter crafts, Wolfen type with X-wings configuration and two sharp diamond-shaped hull stacked on top of one another. "Star Wolf Squadron, on my lead. Thrash them." Wolf coldly ordered as his wingman made a sunburst formation enveloping the Star Fox squadron. The wolf fired on McCloud, furiously trading shots with him as they jousted each other, their ships narrowly passing and missing each other. "Give me your best shot!" Wolf challenged over the comms.
"If you think you can TAKE it!" Fox growled as they continued their dogfight, the two ships dodging and weaving through each other's shots as they tried to shoot each other down.
The stray shots were flying everywhere, hitting friend and foe alike in the chaos, but through it all the Star Fox team was able to hold out taking minimal damage. Bill's squads fought their best, but eventually, they were taking major damage and forced to retreat, even Bill himself after sustaining significant damage from an attempt to shoot down Wolf, one that ended in a vicious counterattack that left him being forced to retreat.
Of all sides in the conflict though Star Wolf had taken nearly no damage, allowing them to mess up the Cornerian Forces' formation, turning the already dicey operation into a mess. The only consolation was that in the chaos, Andross's forces had also sustained heavy damage, the remaining battleships having been destroyed in the chaos as well, leaving only the Salvadora and a handful of fighter ships remaining.
"Can't let you do that, Star Fox." Wolf taunted Fox over the comms channel, the ace lupine jousted the vulpine as their ships flew at one another, narrowly missing each other by mere inches. One catastrophic error in inches could have ended their duel then and there.
"Bring it on, Wolf!" Fox snarled as he gripped the control stick, trying to control his Arwing in a tight turn to get behind Wolf's larger Wolffen craft. The larger craft had a larger turn to take, allowing Fox to get off a few lucky shots at him. In the meantime, Wolf's wingmen, Pigma Dengar and Leon Powalski were busy with Falco and Peppy. "Hehehehehehehe! Snort, snort! I'll make this quick for you Peppy, just like old times!" Pigma deviously chuckled as he chased Peppy. "Close, but no cigar." Leon taunted as Falco missed him by a mere inch with the laser blasts.
"I can see you're as disgusting as ever," Peppy frowned as he evaded several of Pigma's shots. "Too bad your skills haven't improved. You never were one to aim before shooting!" Peppy taunted, gaining an angry snort from Pigma who opened fire further…allowing Peppy to abruptly kill his engines after evading another set of shots, causing Pigma to fly past him, before Peppy opened fire, scoring hits on one of his wings which broke off. "And that's just the first of a LOT of things coming your way for what you did!"
Pigma growled as he fought to regain control of his Wolfen, while Peppy was about to shoot again. However, due to the loss of momentum caused by his sudden break and restart, it left Peppy open to a shot from Leon who had taken advantage of the opening he'd noticed.
"Not that I care if you roast Pigma or not, but it pays not to lose track of the battle around you," Leon laughed as he'd managed to temporarily break away from Falco and was looking to finish off Peppy…if not for Slippy suddenly opening fire, forcing Leon to evade and completely mess up his aim.
"You're not taking any of us out! Not if we can help it!" Slippy shouted.
"Annoying frog!" Leon snarled, about to counter attack…if not for a sudden barrage of laser blasts from Falco.
"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" Falco growled.
"Annoying bird! I'll make a garden decoration out of you!" Leon hissed while trying to dodge Falco's blast.
"I think you'll make a fine pair of boots, or a belt." Falco retorted, squeezing his trigger as he aimed slightly ahead of Leon, the burst of lasers struck Leon's Wolfen, damaging him slightly.
While that was going on, Slippy was flying alongside Peppy. "Is your Arwing still okay?" Slippy asked as Peppy did a quick system check.
"No good. Looks like I'm out of this fight," Peppy sighed after the results came back. "Can't believe I was so focused on Pigma I made a rookie mistake like that. Guess I'm getting old."
"Worry about that later. We gotta get you back to the Great Fox!" Slippy said as he quickly helped Peppy fly his ship back, though not before giving a quick message to Fox and Falco.
Receiving the messages, both of them quickly doubled down on focusing on their respective opponent, aiming to buy more time as they knew that Star Wolf would capitalize on a chance to shoot Peppy or Slippy down if they had the chance.
"Can you hear me? Fox McCloud? I live for these thrills!" Wolf taunted Fox over the comms. The lupine ace eagerly pulled his Wolfen into a high-G maneuver, before abruptly stalling the craft. While in the stalling condition, Wolf quickly gyrated the Wolfen to face Fox's Arwing before pulling his trigger, unleashing a hailstorm of laser blasts. "Can you hear me? Show me what you got."
Fox didn't say a word. Not surprising as he was too busy weaving through the hailstorm of laser blasts, managing to evade the majority of it, even if a few grazed him, but thankfully the damage was negligible at worst. Fox continued to move closer, looking for an opening, before he opened fire with his own barrage of shots. Some of the shots were intercepted, but several of them went through, hitting the Wolfen.
Wolf growled as his computer showed him warning signs. The damage wasn't extensive but the shots had hit some important components. Continuing to fight would be dangerous. "Caution! Caution!" His computer repeatedly warned in its robotic monotone. "Damn it!" Wolf snarled when he saw Fox's Arwing weave passed his craft. "Leon, Pigma, we're pulling out! We're too damaged to keep up the fight." Wolf heard Leon making a panicked, fidgety and flabbergasting.
"W-what?! Retreat? But I got the bird in my sight!" Leon protested.
"Negative!" Wolf shouted, "I won't be around to back you up if my craft falls apart! Disengage and withdraw." Wolf asserted. He dumped a flurry of flare before pulling away, flying toward a safe vector away from the battle. "We'll cut things short here for now, but make no mistake, this isn't over Star Fox! I'll be back to settle things with you soon enough, McCloud," Wolf said as his Squadron quickly pulled out of the battle, leaving only what little of Andross's forces survived and the Salvadora.
"Hey, come back here!" Falco growled, not liking the fact that the fight was left unfinished.
"Forget about them Falco, we still have to take down Oikonny!" Fox said, and though it was clear Falco didn't like letting Star Wolf go. Even so, Falco didn't argue and the two set their sights onto the Salvadora.
Inside the Salvadora, Oikonny was all but panicking. "What are you doing?! Fire all weapon on them! Destroy them now!" he ordered. The crew frantically did as they were ordered, triggering the Salvadora to fire wildly, but the two Arwings were able to weave through the attacks, countering with their own shots.
The Salvadora's armor held up at first, allowing the crew to resume another volley but Fox and Falco acted quickly, aiming instead for the weapons. Their shots struck true, causing damage that led to several of the guns exploding, creating gaps in the hull.
"Looks like we got a good opening," Falco smirked a bit.
"Then this is a perfect time to test out the new function," Fox said as he hit the boosters, zooming towards the Salvadora, and through one of the gaps. Once he was inside the ship, he hit a switch, causing his Arwing to shift, before transforming, going from a flying ship to what could only be described as a two legged walker mode. "Okay Walker Mode works," Fox nodded. "Falco, you coming?"
"And use that chicken walker? No thanks," Falco snorted. "I'll keep them occupied out here. You focus on tearing them apart from the inside!"
Fox sighed a bit at that, but didn't argue. Especially seeing as Falco was right. As such he immediately gunned the engine and began making his way deeper into the ship, shooting down any and all security that was triggered by his entrance into the ship interior.
"Alert! Alert! Intruder aboard! All security elements divert to intercept!" Andrew Oikonny shouted, jittering over the P.A systems. Fox smashed through the automated turrets with his Walker and sprinted forward, along the way, he sprayed and prayed against enemy tanks and automated flying saucers-shaped drones. Once he found himself inside the ship's reactor, the turrets mounted on the cylindrical-shaped reactor quickly trained their sights on him and fired. The laser cannons tried to splash the chicken-shaped Arwing walker, only for Fox to dash out of the way and quickly fired back a Nova Bomb against them, with two bombs expended, he blasted the core reactor's outer casing apart, revealing the interior. Fox then charged up his laser blast and launched the shot at the interior, blowing it apart.
The damage reaching critical began to trigger a chain reaction as explosions wracked the reactor. Seeing that Fox immediately shifted his Arwing back to its flight mode and flew out of the ship using the path of destruction he'd wrought. Nobody was trying to stop him on account of either all being blasted apart, or they were probably too busy trying to escape the soon to be destroyed ship. Either way there was nothing stopping him from leaving the Salvadora, which as he was leaving he noticed the explosion now wracking the entire ship, with a few escape pods getting away before the ship exploded.
"Heh, bet that'll put a dent in Andross's forces," Falco smirked a bit as Fox joined up with him.
"Don't get too comfortable. We're just getting started," Fox said, and though he couldn't see it…he had a rather vicious smirk on his face.
"Yeah yeah, just don't get overly serious about this," Falco said, frowning a bit. Even so he didn't say anything he didn't need to. This was always a loaded topic when it came to Fox.
From the Great Fox, Slippy and Peppy could see the escape pods launching out of the doomed ship one by one. The first to leave was close to the bridge, possibly Andrew Oikonny, "Uncle Andross, help!" Andrew screamed, as his pod cruised along a pre-determined vector thrust, heading for Venom or the nearest planet Andross control. Regardless, Andrew had thoroughly sunk his professional career as an admiral in the Venomian Navy.
"Should we go after them?" Slippy asked.
"No, let them be," Peppy said. "I think we've all had enough for this battle…" he sighed. With this battle there was truly no turning back. Star Fox was now very much involved in this war. He just hoped it wouldn't claim anymore people he cared for.