FLIGHT OF THE KITSUNE STAR STRIKER
Chapter 5: A Mid-Battle Reunion and Red Meltdown
In the desert region of the planet Katina, there is a pyramidical black and grey building surrounded by four tracks which serves as the front line defense outpost for the Cornerian army where multiple green starfighters marked with the Cornerian Army emblem is combating the invading forces of Andross's Army.
In one of the Cornerian fighters is a bulldog wearing a pilot's helmet as he shot at the enemies while communicating with his squads in a rather familiar voice "Hang on guys, help is on the way!" no sooner he said that did his radar pick up five starfighters heading his way and looked to instantly recognized them to be the Arwings and Kitsune Striker belonging to the Star Fox whom he had sent the SOS to.
"Star Fox to the Cornerian Army, we are here to help!" said Fox.
"Fox! You made it!" said the bulldog happily.
Fox's eyes widen in recognition of the voice "Bill!? Is that you? I can't believe it!"
"Yeah man, it's been ages!" said Naruto in agreement, especially for himself.
"We can catch up later, guys. After dealing with these guys," said the now named Bill.
"Sure thing buddy,"
Music Start: Star Fox 64 OST; Katina
The team began their onslaught against the invading forces of Andross's army, however they ran into a bit of a problem at the moment. They recognize the enemy ships to be invaders 1s, but these ones appear smaller and perform much better than before when they first engage, not to mention that these fighters have been painted with the colors of the Cornerian army.
"These guys are kinda different from usual," said Naruto.
"We've just scanned one of the fighters and discovered that they've been improved upon so be careful," said Julia.
"But it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad while they all have the same color," Slippy who was avoiding fire from one of the supposed enemies.
Peppy weaved around the fighters in the air before targeting one of them and opening fire to take it out from the sky "Enemy down…wait" but taking a closer look, his eyes widened in shock "That's one of ours!"
"Guys, use the targeting computers on your fighters! They're preprogrammed to differentiate between allies and enemies, which will solve your friendly fire problem!" said Levy.
"Thanks for the info Levy!" said Fox as he charged up a hyper shot and the reticle successfully locked onto the actual target and opened fire to shoot it down to the ground.
"These guys tried to plan to pull the wool over our eyes, now to show them that the plan's gone to moot!" Falco activated his boost to pull away from a disguised enemy then suddenly hit the brake for it to pass as he locked on with a hyper shot and brought the Invader 2 down to earth.
Naruto banked from left to right in order to evade from the laser fire coming from a pursuing enemy. He reduced altitude to skim across before performing a somersault to appear behind the enemy with an Accel Decoy serving as distraction, then he activated a combination of the boost and plasma wing blades to slice the enemy in half.
"Not too shabby Naruto!" said Bill "Husky unit, cover the base! Bulldog unit, don't let anything through!"
"Yes sir!" one of the Cornerian pilots responded.
"I got one!" said Slippy happily after successfully shooting down the disguised invader 2 accurately.
Fox was veering around the incoming fighters and charging up the hyper shot which locked onto an enemy for him to fire at and quickly performed a somersault to evade the one coming in from behind. That was when Peppy swooped in to take it down with a hyper shot of his own.
"This time I got the right one," said Peppy.
Falco was performing the barrel roll to deflect the incoming laser fire from his left side then hitting the brakes for the invader to pass by in front before taking a sharp turn with a hyper shot ready to take which it did "Scratch one bogey!"
"Keep it up guys, we're almost through with all of them!" said Bill, suddenly his radar started beeping again "Guys, the enemy mothership is approaching!"
"He's right, it's heading towards where you guys are! You should be able to see it," said Levy.
Naruto turned his ship and looked from the cockpit to see something approaching them from a distance. It was a heavily fortified assault craft in the shape of a concave saucer and is gargantuan in size.
"Just what is that thing? Any info on it Levy-chan, Julia-chan?" asked Naruto.
"Give us a minute…" said Julia, couple seconds later she called back "That's the Saucerer, one of Andross's most intelligent and powerful creations. According to Intel, it was rumored to have been developed on plans for a ship by an alien race outside the Lylat System that were stolen by Andross himself,"
"Not much of a surprise to us," said Falco "Any weak points?"
"We're still searching for more info but watch out for the four hatches which open to deploy more of the Invader 2s," said Levy.
"Got it," said Fox.
Soon enough, Saucerer flew overhead the Katina front line defense outpost and the four hatches opened from the underside of the mothership for the said Invader 2s to fly out of them, just like Julia and Levy forewarned the team earlier before.
"Here they come!" said Falco with his fingers itching to press the trigger.
"We'll need to destroy the hatches on the underside to prevent more invader 2s from overwhelming us with sheer numbers!" said Peppy.
"I'll keep an eye out for the hatches when they open after closing!" said Bill.
Fox was the first to charge towards one of the hatches with the other team members backing him up, he took aim and fired rapidly at the hatch with a volley of laser beams followed with a hyper shot before the hatches closed much to his annoyance as he flew away when some invader 2s went after him but Peppy moved in to defend him by shooting them.
"Just a little more and that hatch will be destroyed," said Fox, using a hyper shot to take down another enemy.
"Just wait till the hatches open again!" said Julia.
The group continued their aerial battle with the enemy while the Saucerer continued to fly around the area instead of remaining in a single location despite be impervious to laser fire.
"Man, there's just no end to these guys!" said Falco, taking down another invader 2.
"Guys, the hatches are open again!" said Bill.
"Got it!" Fox performed a U-turn towards the Saucerer to aim at the previously targeted hatch with Naruto flying alongside.
"I'm pitching in too! Tell your men to get clear Bill, I'm about to use a Nova Bomb!" said Naruto.
"Roger that Naruto!" Bill sent the message to his units as they hastily flew out of range.
Fox took aim at the targeted hatch once more and fired rapidly to finally destroy the first of the four hatches, at the same time Naruto carefully aimed at the opening of his targeted hatch and launched a red missile which resulted in its complete destruction before the other hatches closed back.
"Keep it up you guys, just two more remaining," Levy spoke up.
"Yeah, we're getting close to bringing it down," said Slippy while pursuing a disguised invader 2 and shot it down.
"The hatches are open, now's your chance!" Bill alerted the team after a while of waiting before the Saucerer operated once more.
"Falco, you and I will use our Nova bombs to take out the remaining hatches!" said Peppy.
"Gotcha!" Falco responded.
With Naruto and the other team members watching their backs, the duo activated their boost to quickly close in on their targeted areas and then taking aim before firing their Nova Bombs at the hatches, causing an explosion powerful enough to destroy both hatches with all four now destroyed and no more enemy fighters being deployed to engage the Cornerian Army.
"Ok, so now what?" asked Slippy. No sooner he asked that question, a compartment from the underside of the Saucerer opened up for some sort of weapon to protrude from it as the mothership was making its way to the base again "What's that?"
"That's the Saucerer's most powerful core weapon, destroy it before it fires at the base!" Julia quickly alerted them.
"I'll make an opening while the rest of you finish it off!" Naruto increased the output on his thrusters for a massive boost in speed to the point of appearing as a silver and grey blur while making a beeline for the core ground "Activating the Plasma Wing Blades!" blue blades made of plasma energy appeared on the sides of the Kitsune Striker as he flew at the core and sliced it open before getting clear of the incoming attacks "Alright guys, it's all you!"
"Okay team, let em have it!" Fox and Falco fired a charged up hyper shot while Peppy and Slippy launched their Nova bombs with all four projectiles racing towards the damaged core and destroyed it, with a chain reaction of explosions bursting through the supposedly fortified assault craft as it crashes to the ground with a final massive explosion.
"Yeeehaaa! You did it!" said Bill happily.
"Yeah, now let's clear out the rest of the stragglers," said Fox.
Music End
Afterwards, both the Cornerian Army and Star Fox team had taken out the rest of Andross's forces with a few which had attempted to escape but to no avail and are now currently flying in the air.
"Glad you guys showed up to help out when you did," said Bill.
"It's no problem for us to show up and lend a hand," said Fox.
"Yeah Bill, we've been buddies since the academy so there's no way that we would leave you hanging dry just like that," Naruto spoke up in agreement.
"Yeah well, you could imagine my surprise when I heard from Miyu and Fay that you had returned. But I knew that I could send for help from you guys when Andross's forces came to attack us," said Bill "So where are you all heading to next?"
"Not so sure, but it will definitely relate to stopping Andross and his army," said Naruto.
"You guys better take care of yourselves so that we could meet up again after the war and catch up on old times,"
"You too, Bill," said Fox.
"Be sure to tell Miyu-chan and Fay-chan I said hi," said Naruto.
The Star Fox team then took to the skies in direction of the Great Fox which was waiting for them with Bill and the remaining Cornerian Army seeing them off with a military salute.
As the Great Fox is in the midst of its flight, Naruto and the others were busy with several activities such as restocking the ammo on the fighters as well as applying any repairs needed beforehand with Slippy and Julia running scans for any hidden errors on the systems. Naruto was in his quarters mediating with his aura radiating from his body, Fox and Peppy were at the bridge having a discussion with Falco lounging around while Levy and ROB were currently piloting the Great Fox, Chopper and Lilli were also sitting around since Naruto and the others were able to return from the mission with no injuries. It was then that a call from General Pepper alerted everyone to gather around and listen to what he has to say.
A screen popped up to display General Pepper before them.
"Star Fox here, this Fox McCloud speaking," said Fox.
"Fox, I'll be needing you and your team to investigate an anomaly over at planet Solar," everyone's eyes widened in shock of what the commander of all of Corneria's forces just said.
"Solar? But that planet's entire surface is covered with molten magma, making it the hottest planet in the Lylat System," said Julia.
"Indeed it is, even our scientific communities believe that there is no possibilities of any life capable of living in such an environment. However we've scanned Andross's ships going to and from the star, only he would be foolhardy as to try to find military benefit in exploring a red dwarf like Solar. It's another situation we need to have you check out for us," said General Pepper.
"But can our starfighters handle the heat from Solar?" asked Falco.
"Not to worry Falco, our ships can take temperatures up to 9000 degrees so we should be just fine," Slippy spoke up.
"In that case, we'll be heading over to check for any Venomian activity," said Fox.
"Very well then, but proceed with caution," said General Pepper.
"Affirmative General," then Fox turned towards the others who look ready to go "Alright team, let's move out!"
A lengthy flight later, the Great Fox had arrived at its marked destination but was unable to get any closer to the planet due to the intense heat from its atmosphere. So the team deployed their ships from a distance and made their way into the planet as they flew over oceans of molten magma with arches of volcanic gases called solar prominence which jump out from the surface before falling back in.
"Man, this place is hotter than I thought," said Naruto.
"All units, keep an eye out on your shield gauge," said Fox.
"And don't fly too low, your ships can't take it!" Peppy alerted the others.
Music Start: Star Fox 64 OST; Sector Y and Solar
Naruto along with the others maintained a steady altitude over the magma with their shield energy slowly decreasing from the intense heat, a solar prominence jumped at him suddenly but he quickly performed a barrel roll to the right and leaving an Accel decoy to take the hit while preventing a further reduction of his shield energy level. More solar prominences began to appear with an increasing rate, making the team more hard pressed to avoid the heated obstacles.
"Guys, use a Nova Bomb if you're about to be hit. Its explosion will evaporate the volcanic gases from your fighters! But use them sparingly since the solar prominences are infinite over there!" said Julia.
"Thanks for the info!" said Fox, he swooped down below the arch of a solar prominence before quickly increasing altitude when the system was alerting him of his shield energy getting reduced a bit quickly from the temperature increment.
They continued to avoid the burning arches while advancing forwards when suddenly large chunks of volcanic rock started shooting up from the magma sea into the air towards them.
"Shoot the rocks before they hit us!" Peppy fired at one of the lava rocks with his laser cannon to blast it to bits, the others were quick to follow suit as they fired at the lava bombs which followed after the first clusters.
A solar prominence shot into the sky and was about to hit Fox, so Naruto quickly launched a Nova bomb then manually detonated it for the blast wave to evaporate the volcanic gases, leaving Fox undamaged.
"Thanks for the save Naruto!" said Fox gratefully.
"No problem, but stay on guard. We gotta hurry before our shield energy hits rock bottom," Naruto responded.
They continue to shoot at the lava bombs and avoid the solar prominences as they advanced but these fiery obstacles keep on appearing to obstruct the team.
"Jeez, things just keeps on showing up!" said Falco in mild annoyance.
Suddenly laser fire zipped by the starfighters and blasted the lava bombs to bits much to their surprise since neither of them were the one who shot the laser, suddenly a starfighter belonging to the Cornerian Army flew by and went ahead of them before a voice spoke through their comm links.
"Looks like you could use some use, Naruto, Fox," said a familiar voice which they had heard just recently.
"Bill?! What are you doing here?" asked Fox.
"Repaying a favor for helping me out back at Katina," Bill replied.
"But your ship won't be able to handle this much heat," said Naruto.
"Then I might as well make each second count before making my exit,"
"Ok then, let's go!" said Fox.
With Bill now joining in for the meantime, the team continued to fire at the lava bombs and take them down with much more ease than before whilst evading more of the incoming solar prominences which is now accompanied with large waves of magma. Suddenly something came from the magma and was making its way towards the group, it is a birdlike creature made of molten rock and was screeching like an actual bird as it flew towards them. Naruto was quick to fire a hyper shot and destroy the potential enemy before it got any closer to them.
"What the heck was that?" asked Falco.
"I think I've figured out what Andross is working on here, it seems like he was working on some sort of bioweapons," said Levy after looking over the scans on the computer.
"So the General was right to suspect Andross of seeking military benefit here in Solar," said Peppy "But to think he could create something that could actually thrive in this environment,"
"Hey guys, I think I've overstayed my welcome here so I'll be leaving the rest to you," Bill spoke up.
"Got it Bill, take care of yourself," said Naruto.
"Back at you Naruto," Bill turned his starfighter around and flew away, leaving the team to press on in their current objective.
A large wave of magma rose before them and a trio of those fiery avians called Gores appeared from it and flew towards them. Peppy and Slippy flew ahead and shot the first two down with Naruto locking on to the third and fired a hyper shot to bring it. Another wave of magma rose with a second trio of the enemies moving in, this time Fox fired a Nova bomb to destroy both the enemies and blow away the wave for them to proceed without impediment.
"Hey! I ain't your buddy, go away!" Falco was flying away from a group of Gores in pursuit and their heat was shaving at his shield energy.
"Hang on Falco, I'm coming!" Fox activated his boost to quickly catch up to them and fired with his laser cannon to take the Gores.
"Good riddance, I almost got burned!"
A wave of magma rose right underneath Slippy and a Gores burst out from it as the bioweapon chased after Slippy too.
"It's too hot, I can't take it anymore!" said Slippy.
Naruto charged up a hyper shot and shot at the Gores, destroying it and Slippy increasing his altitude to reduce the shield energy reduction "Pull it together Slips, just for a little while longer!"
"Okay Naruto,"
With more waves of magma followed with lava bombs, solar prominences and Gore, the Star Fox were able to traverse half of the planet when suddenly they heard a loud rumble and the magma rose much higher than the others on their way here before coming down to reveal something rather shocking that it also stunned the others on board the Great Fox. It is a vaguely skeletal humanoid monster with three mandibles and twin scythe arms, giving it a somewhat resemblance to that of a scorpion and judging scans of the team's computers, it was emitting the highest level of heat right now
"This is the enemy's bioweapon!?" said Peppy in wide-eyed disbelief.
"To think he could create something like this…," Lilli just couldn't believe her eyes.
Chopper hid behind Levy quivering with fright "S-scary,"
"Andross is an insane fool!" said Falco in anger.
"It was that obvious ever since that mad monkey got himself from Corneria, Falco!" Naruto growled angrily.
"Let's destroy this abomination once and for all!" said Fox.
Music Change: Star Fox 64 OST; Boss Battle 2
Vulcain raised one of its scythe arms and swung it at the team, specifically Naruto but the blonde saw the incoming strike and barrel rolled to the left with an Accel decoy in his previous position then followed it up with a somersault to evade a swing from the second scythe arm. Fox swooped in on the preoccupied enemy to rapidly with his laser cannon at the chest but to no effect.
"Darn it, the laser's not scratching it!" said Fox.
"Maybe the weak point is an arm, aim for the arms!" said Peppy before shooting at the right scythe arm with Slippy joining by firing a hyper shot back to back.
Fox complied with the advice and teamed up with Falco to attack the left scythe arm while Naruto continued to serve as the distraction with use of his semblance. The barrage of laser persisted till the left scythe arm was finally blown off with magma spewing from the stump, causing the Vulcain to roar out in agony and it wasn't shortly that Peppy and Slippy were able to shoot off the right scythe arm while leaving the monstrosity armless on both sides.
"Now aim for the head!" Peppy quickly spoke up.
Everyone proceeded to open fire at the Vulcain's head freely now that the monster has no way of retaliating…which was what they thought till it opened its mouth to spit lava bombs at them. Naruto took aim and fired a Nova bomb to destroy all of the fiery projectiles in one fell swoop as Vulcain then started spinning around to fling blobs of magma at the team from the stumps, which got them to take evasive action. Before quickly diving back into the sea of magma, causing a rolling wave to come at the team which they successfully avoided by ascending to the sky but by now their shield energy is drawing to a low level.
"Now where did it go?" asked Slippy, there was another rumble and Vulcain returned to the surface with two new scythe arms much to their surprise "Look! Its arms are back, and the head looks different!" like the young toad said, the coloring on the monster's head had changed slightly.
"It must have used the magma to help regenerate its lost arms and that might have had an effect on other parts of its body which is the head," said Chopper more bravely.
"So we'll just ignore the new arms and continue whaling away the head!" said Naruto, the team complied with his suggestion and resumed firing at the Vulcain's head but kept their guard up with the scythe arms as they evaded its wild swings at them. Naruto took aim at the monster and was timing his next attack to inflict a critical strike once the Vulcain performed a certain action…which was to open its mouth and spit lava bombs at the team "Eat this!" he quickly launched a Nova bomb straight into its mouth and then manually triggering the projectile to explode which caused the head to decapitate with the body exploding with a shockwave without leaving so much as a trace of his presence behind.
"Yippee! We did it!" said Slippy happily.
Music End
"We're leaving planet Solar, all aircraft report!" said Fox as he led the way back to the Great Fox for some serious repairs and rest.
"I'm having some slight trouble here," said Slippy.
"I've taken a few hits but I'm okay," said Peppy.
"I'm fine, are you okay over there Fox?" asked Falco.
"My shield energy is pretty, but all in all I'm good," said Naruto.
"All right, let's head back to the Great Fox and report back to General Pepper before getting some serious R&R," said Fox.
"Definitely with you on that one," said Naruto in agreement.
The team increased their power output as they flew into orbit where the Great Fox awaits them after one of their toughest missions yet and preparing for the others ahead of them.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, upon arriving Katina to respond to the SOS, Naruto and Fox reunite with their old friend from their Academy days, Bill Grey as they joined forces to defend the planet against Andross's army that was invading. Next destination was a planet with a heated atmosphere which the Star Fox had to traverse with extreme caution (while having Bill tag along to help out) in search of clues to Andross's activities which they found in the form of a grotesque bioweapon before destroying the abomination. Now the question is where to next?
I'm also setting up a poll for which type of story you would want me to publish next? Be sure to check out later on my profile page.
Be sure to read and review as always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.
