AN: Still alive! Thank you so much to everyone who has been reviewing, PM'ing or simply enjoying the story. We are getting into the Lylat War proper now, and I'm excited to write some full-fledged action for the 'human-in-lylat' category. Many of us liked to daydream about flying or fighting in the SF verse, and I hope to show that kind of experience to the best of my ability building on what we have from SF canon and the Halo-inspired human element. Ultimately this will be focused on the SF verse, with the Halo bits secondary to the plot. I will however say that several people have been asking about Spartans, Cernia and a number of other things, and all I will say is that there's an outline for the rest of the chapters and it covers quite a bit. Keep a close eye on some of the plot points you see cropping up, and see if you can guess what I've got coming for the team. As always, questions, comments and reviews are always welcome. Thank you for enjoying this fic.
Sector Y
1300 Hours, Spring 3rd, 1994 (Military Calender) / CCD Great Fox, CDF staging area in orbit of Sector Y
The digital klaxon was a relief to all that heard it.
Anticipation gnawed at the nerves before any engagement. Between those greenhorns who had never seen combat before and the others who had lost someone in yesterday's airstrike, every member of the CDF 6th Fleet was waiting with baited breath. The green and golden splash of the nebula spilled across the battlefield, punctuated by looming black shapes drawing ever closer.
Fox McCloud willed himself to relax as he loosened the death grip he held on his joystick. Glancing at his tactical map, he could see triangular markers designating the CDF 6th fleet arranged in the classic Battle Formation IV, in which every carrier and flagship was spread out with a screen of destroyers and corvettes. The intent was to act as a net, responding to a larger force with more options to maneuver.
CDF Command had a number of theories as to why the Nomies had chosen to launch an offensive through Sector Y, however the analysts couldn't agree on a conclusive motive. The Venomians had scarcely overrun Zoness a few months ago, followed by Aquas, and Katina was still contested territory; They were over-extended, and no one could figure out what the goal was, they would never be able to hold Corneria even if they pushed through Sector Y.
Unless there's something here we missed... McCloud mused.
Tapping a key, Fox saw the smaller red triangles on his map designate the ships in his squadron. Four were arranged in an arrowhead pattern fanning out from his position, and four others were holding position around the Great Fox; The tip of the spear was himself, Falco, Peppy and Slippy charging into the heart of the enemy fleet. The defensive screen for their dreadnought was Wolf, Logan, Miyu and Fay. Fara was overseeing the ship's Combat Information Center, while Katt was taking over comms, made clear by the sassy tones that piped over mild static.
'Fifteen seconds gang, smoke em' if you got em'.'
He took a deep breath, eyes scanning his system map as enemy contacts began to filter in intermittently. The radiation from the Sector Y nebula reduced visibility for most instruments, which would essentially force the fleets into knife-fighting range. That was where Star Fox would really shine.
"Wolf," McCloud keyed a channel to the other flight's leader, "Close the door if we have a draft."
"Copy, pup." The growl from the one-eyed lupine was steely calm. Only a few commands over their comms warranted code speak, in the event of enemy interception. In this case, they discussed the possibility of a Venomian ship breaking through the front lines to fire an IPBM past the 6th Fleet into Corneria itself. Wolf's flight served a dual function: defending the dreadnought and being able to respond instantly if there was any risk of a blockade runner while the others were tied up at the frontline.
'Ten seconds.'
Fox could see silhouettes moving now. Afterburners lighting up amidst the black, and the vaguely person-shaped profiles of the Venomian battle mechs carrying blast shields and laser cannons.
'Wait one additional,' Fara's crisp voice rang over their comms, 'We have a new contact bearing 186, inside our lines.'
A gunmetal grey slab rippled into view along the CDF lines, blue ether whisping off it's armor as the slipspace portal closed.
'UNSC Myrmidon assuming defensive position, sorry we're late boys. Traffic was brutal.'
Scattered cheers went up on the battlenet, and Fox couldn't help but smile as he saw Logan's confirmation light ping on his HUD. Judging by the carbon scoring along the charon-class frigate, the human volunteers had been busy.
'Five seconds...'
The system map displayed the red and green triangles drifting closer to each other, hundreds of armored ships and fightercraft racing into engagement distance. Reactors spun up and turrets swiveled to track incoming targets.
"Don't let any of them get through," Peppy chimed in from his left. Fox nodded, already mapping out the closest fighters approaching his range.
'All ships this is General Pepper,' the aged hound dog appeared in the comm display, 'Open fire on my command, secondary firing solutions are being transmitted now.'
Aboard the Great Fox, Fara began parsing the firing solution as it was streamed from the General's flagship. She toggled her confirmation light to Fox's console, verifying they were ready.
There was a heartbeat of silence as a hundred thousand miles were crossed with lightning speed.
'Fire.'
Twenty one thousand heavy laser cannons aboard Cornerian battleships fired in unison, lancing bright green energy bolts through space towards the Venomian front line, with a single heavy MAC round burning through space in tandem. In response, the Venomian lines loosed their own barrage of yellow laser bolts, criss-crossing through the melee towards the CDF lines.
"Time to impact?" Fox queried.
'Three seconds until first salvo impact,' Fara responded.
They were engaged before the bolts landed.
Fox jinked his fighter right, and fired a handful of laser blasts into a Venomian fighter trio that entered his range. The explosive decompression and engine rupture lit up their area, even as Falco ripped through four other fighters himself. The frontline descended into a whirlwind of confusion, highlighted by exploding fightercraft and the thunderous riposte of capital ships exchanging fire.
Through the mess, the four Arwings of Star Fox's advance flight cut through the Venomian lines in an unceasing charge forward.
"Somebody's gonna pay for all this," Falco swore, even as a CDF frigate tore in half and died, sputtering engines as it ripped to pieces nearby. Far too few lifepods drifted away from the wreck.
"Keep it together team," Peppy's wise words grounded the hot-blooded avain as they proceeded, destroying a pair of bipedal mechs the had ambushed them from behind a corvette. The team's combined firepower outstripped most of their opponents, although their shields could quickly be overwhelmed by the Venomian philosophy of quantity over quality.
"Whaaa Look OUT!" Slippy's voice warbled over the comm, just as a CDF destroyer pitched sideways, thrusters firing erratically as their reactor went critical. Fox cursed, and twisted his Arwing into a roll, the team pulling to the left of the dying vessel. Getting tunnel vision while pursuing targets in this battle would quickly get one killed.
"Surprise attack coming from above!" Peppy's warning preceded highlighted markers that pointed up along their HUDs, a squadron of the bipedal mechs descending with their hand cannons firing wildly.
"Sierra two," Fox growled. Peppy and Falco immediately pulled back a touch, while the vulpine loosed an AIM-99 'Smart' bomb at the center of the formation.
The ensuing crimson fireball expelled a shower of debris in every direction even as the blue and white starfighters ripped through the center unhindered.
'Venomian corvette on an intercept course Team One, Katt warned, We got missiles inbound!'
"Staggered line everybody," Fox commanded.
The arwings spread out, two ahead and two back. This positioning would allow them to pepper the incoming missiles with their lasers much more effectively should the first line miss any.
Micro-detonations rippled through the inky expanse before them, and the approaching hulk of the Venomian corvette began to fire pulses of glowing blue in response.
The agile fighters weaved in and out of the point defense systems, and with the press of a keystroke Fox directed Peppy to split below the ship with Slippy as he and Falco took the starboard orientation of the ship twisting sideways.
"Hold them! They're trying to get through!" Peppy warned, as he blasted a targeting array below the ship.
Fox flew a scant dozen meters above the deck plating of the Venomian ship, with Falco as his wingman. Their laser cannons barked an unending stream of fire, nigh-overloading their heatsinks as they cut through the armor plating far too close for the ship's shields to work.
Rippling secondary explosions accompanied a popping "bubble" of the energy shields failing on the corvette, and Fox highlighted the target ship to Fara for priority fire with the Great Fox main guns. A heartbeat later, twin lances of golden fury ripped through space to bisect the enemy vessel, erupting into a miniature sun behind the advancing Arwings.
'Scratch one tin can!' Katt crowed with triumph.
They were inside the enemy lines now, and the effect of Star Fox's initiative was showing in the battlefield dynamics. The Venomian line was collapsing as CDF vessels poured their fire into the vulnerable gap that they cut, momentarily blinded as a terrible swell of light wreathed a Venomian cruiser that had tried to fill the gap.
'Radiation! Are those humans carrying nuclear warheads?' Fara piped in as the light died out, leaving a debris field of the former cruiser.
'Keep your distance if you can, team,' Logan's voice drifted over the comm, 'Those are pretty hazardous fireworks the Myrmidon's tossing.'
Up ahead, Fox lead Team One in a criss-crossing attack through the Venomian ships scrambling to re-orient. Broadside volleys of lasers tore only meters away from the Arwings, as each starfighter blasted their way through turrets and hardpoints in an effort to cripple as much as they could for the cannon fire following up behind them.
"The enemy's coming from behind!" Peppy warned.
Fox hit the brakes, retro thrusters lurching him back into his combat harness. Several Veomian fighters rocketed past in a failed surprise attack, only to be torn apart by return fire from the Arwings. Fox stared at his system map, glaring at the large enemy contact that denoted the flagship lurking at the rear of their lines.
"Alright team, the head of the snake's up ahead. I don't want to give those monkeys a chance to show off another superweapon."
Their flight group crested the destroyer screen, speeding through open space towards the looming against the brilliant backdrop of the yellow and green nebula.
"We're gonna break through this fleet."
That was when his proximity alarm shrieked.
'Wolf, you need to see this.'
The lupine keyed his mic at Fara's prompt. Thus far their defensive screen was holding, even so far as offering support to the Cruisers adjacent to the Great Fox. Both Miyu and Fay were pushing their interceptors to the limit, the broken chevron shapes cutting across space wrecking havoc on the Venomian starfighters brave enough to test their lines. Logan might not have had the talent that the others did in the cockpit, but he was providing adequate support as his wingman and that was all Wolf could ask for.
"What is it, beautiful?"
The frustration the fennec girl felt at his improper comm procedure was hardly more than an audible sigh, 'Comm Scan is detecting excessive gamma radiation emanating from the enemy's flagship, they're running the numbers but command thinks they're carrying an IPBM.'
Wolf scowled, his eyepatch lending acute savagery to his expression.
Inter Planetary Ballistic Missiles were banned by galactic accord around the time of the Macbeth civil war. Planet-killers, they were called by those unfortunate enough to witness whole moons and space stations obliterated by them. While it would take a handful to truly destroy a planet, the resulting devastation of even a single strike would involve famine, ash clouds and permanent ecological harm to the rest of the world.
If Venom had developed IPBMs... that changed the entire strategies campaign. Andross could feasibly wipe out major resistance in a matter of days even over-extended as his forces were.
That's it.
Fara's quiet comment stilled his thought process, "What?"
'The flagship is accelerating. Fox's flight group is almost through the rearguard, but this whole offensive is the Nomies pushing close enough to hammer our home world. It's a decapitation strike!'
Wolf clenched the joystick and glared at his tactical map, "What can we do? That shielding and armor's too strong to kill it outright before it gets in range of a direct shot at Corneria."
'Wait one additional...'
The lupine flexed his clawed fingers, looking over at Logan flying next to him. The human nodded through his armored canopy, and he relaxed a touch. I'm with you, the look said, like a sports play in handball they knew he intended to intercept with Miyu and Fay holding the Great Fox defensive line. Their speed would be more prudent with a reduced escort. There wasn't time to argue with the threat of a ballistic strike on Corneria.
'Command says the Myrmidon is sending an ODST boarding party, we're to escort them to the flagship. We've got less than fifteen minutes till that ship's in range. I'm setting a waypoint now, good luck!'
O'Donnell grinned, and punched the accelerator as a white chevron appeared on his HUD, Logan flying close behind. From the melee of the ship-to-ship combat, the UNSC Myrmidon expelled a single Pelican dropship which began weaving it's way towards their target.
'Star Fox Bravo Flight, this is Whiskey 356. Thanks for holding our hands.'
Wolf didn't bother to key his mic, listening to Logan respond to the craft that surely held his brother, 'Whiskey 356 this is Star Fox Bravo Flight, tell Adrian I need a Nomie souvenir for my little stepsister back home.'
Laughter trilled over the comm, and Miyu's confirmation light pinged on the display. Falling into an escort position, Wolf and Logan prowled the immediate space around the Pelican rocketing towards the enemy flagship. A handful of starfighters crossed their path, only to be vaporized by the laser fire dished out by the agile Arwings.
'Ten seconds...'
The Pelican pilot's ETA statement was accompanied by the looming red shape of the Venomian carrier ahead. Point defense lasers began to cut through the black, and they jigged and wove their path along with the transport. Far off to the left, an explosion lit up the area Fox's Alpha Flight was fighting in. Wolf growled, they didn't have time to investigate, he'd have to trust the pup could handle himself.
'Five seconds...'
The Pelican's nose was outfitted with a serrated battering ram and some sort of explosives. O'Donnell couldn't imagine the engineer that would have suggested such a thing, let alone a pilot willing to smash their forward-facing canopy into an airlock. They started to pepper the waypoint centered on one of the Carrier's hangar bays with laser fire, and a number of defensive turrets exploded in angry orange blossoms.
'Three...'
A stray bolt punctured Logan's wing, pushing the starfighter off course as he fought the controls.
'Two...'
Wolf rocked back slightly in his restraints as his shield was hammered by a missile detonation nearby. He fought the urge to pull away, the Pelican had no such shielding.
'One.'
The grey troop transport smashed into the hangar bay. A cloud of atmosphere and thruster wake illuminated the gap as the broken blast doors failed to close. A comm transmission accompanied by the muted staccato of gunfire in vacuum signaled the successful landing, 'Thanks Star Fox, see you in a few.'
"Copy that, good hunting."
There was a clatter of debris along his fuslage, the CWIS fire drawing closer. Wolf pulled up along Logan and they hit their afterburners as they evaded the CWIS of the Venomian Carrier, arcing away as a mess of red contacts denoted the starfighters dispatched to engage them.
'Looks like we stirred the hornet's nest,' Logan said over the Comm as he blasted another fighter.
It was suicide to remain next to the capital ship for any amount of time. The pair gunned their accelerators, afterburners carving a blue comet-trail through their wake. Outrunning the Venomian pursuit was one thing, but the point defense of the carrier was becoming a problem. Logan's left engine took an errant shot and he had to twist in a sloppy evasion just to stay in the fight.
"We're running out of time, where's McCloud?" Wolf barked, glaring at the tactical map which was filled with far too much red.
There was only ten minutes left until the carrier was within range of an IPBM launch.
'Hold still so I can shoot you!' Falco's frustrated yell echoed with static across the comm.
The team had been intercepted by a pair of unknown configuration mechs, and while they didn't have the range or top speed of an Arwing, they were much more maneuverable than the starfighters. Thruster backpacks and hardpoint nozzles propelled the bipedal armored suits in a dizzying series of twists and turns, evading laser barrages and deflecting errant bursts from themselves with their gargantuan shields.
'Fox, we need a new approach.' Peppy's concerned voice chimed in, 'That carrier's almost in range.'
The vulpine forced himself to breathe, analyzing the attack pattern of the two agile mechs on his HUD.
"They're stalling us," He said over the team-wide comm, "Falco, Slippy, harass them. Peppy, pull back a klick and circle to flank them."
They snapped to their roles. Both Falco and Slippy's arwings fired ineffectually at the agile mechs, while Fox and Peppy arced wide to come back for a gun run. Zeroing in on the heat signatures, time seemed to slow for a moment as the vulpine's senses sharpened to a single point.
He fired a short burst, the twin lasers slicing through the dark with but a hair of lead time, smashing into one of the mechs and arresting its flight. Debris pinwheeled off into space, and the vengeful follow-up from Falco and Slippy catapulted what was left by secondary explosions across the expanse.
"Great job team, that's one down!" Fox crowed. Slippy could be heard cheering as they zeroed in on the remaining armored suit.
The second pilot became much more erratic, however without another mech to divide the team's attention he was outnumbered with too much heat to evade effectively. A trio of single shots punched through the heavy plating on the suit's limbs, and Falco ripped his craft through an impressive loop to deliver the killing blow from above.
"That's the last of them te-"
Fox gasped as he was smashed into the side of his cockpit, G-diffusers whining as his arwing was forced off course. The ringing in his ears subsided, and he twirled the craft through an Aileron roll to evade any follow up shots. Looking to the carrier, he saw a golden armored suit lowering an impressive space-borne particle cannon, thrusters lighting up as it taxied and was ejected from the ship's mechanized launchway.
'Don't party just yet...'
The sibilant growl came across an unknown channel, and the team quickly circled out to flank this new threat. Fox glanced at his shield gauge, wincing at the 30% decrease.
That was off kilter, a direct hit could knock out the shield generator at this range, he thought grimly.
Fox swung his arwing into an attack vector, jinking his wings as the mech pivoted away from his laser bolts. Feathering the thrust control, he goaded the enemy into a loop before killing his acceleration, watching the Venomian armored suit slip into his gun sights.
"Now you're mine."
A flurry of green smashed into the mech, superheated plasma boiling away armor and internal gyros in a fiery cloud that cascaded erratically from the armored suit's broken flight path. There was a garbled scream which blared over an unencrypted channel, before a miniature sun bloomed in the vacuum, and faded away into a glittering debris field.
Fox caught his breath, flexing his digits as he glanced at the timer on his HUD.
2:13:55
He grimaced as the milliseconds flew by and those last two minutes slipped away, eyes roving the shielded carrier, mind racing to come up with some way to deal with the threat before it came into range of an IPBM launch. Even targeting the limited unshielded portions of the ship, the reinforced emergency blast doors covering the pelican's entry point on the hangar wouldn't be penetrated in time, nor would the turrets offer a solution. There was no way to maneuver the Great Fox into position to try and alter course or slow the carrier's advance, and even so the ODST strike team were still aboard.
He was just about to key his mic when a transmission broke out amid gunfire.
'Star Fox actual, we're moving to exfil! Danger close on the target!'
He had to rack his brains for a moment, before he could connect the human radio chatter to CDF terms. McCloud barked into the team frequency with authority, "All ships! Disengage the carrier and fall back!"
0:62:42
He ignored Falco's squacks of disbelief, carefully watching the chevrons of his team zipping away from the enemy dot on the tactical map. A white unknown designator exploded from the hangar, picking up speed as the UNSC Pelican dropship did it's very best to melt their own thrusters.
0:12:39
Fox eyed the dropship's marker, silently willing the human craft to fly faster. They were almost free, they were-
He shut his eyes at the sudden blinding light that his canopy's autodimmer couldn't process, feeling his bones shudder as a massive shockwave roiled through local space. Cracking an eyelid, he witnessed a fiery eruption spreading almost four times as wide as the carrier itself was, secondary explosions rippling as his HUD flickered amid an EMP wave.
Nuclear, he thought staring at the vaporized hull fragments expanding outwards from the destruction, Those humans actually boarded and set a nuclear charge. That's nuts.
All across the comms were shouts of celebration and cheering. The Venomian forces could be seen withdrawing even as CDF ships moved to intercept, a mad scramble to escape to FTL before they were completely routed. It had been a close call, but with the failure of the IPBM launch there was no possibility of Venom holding the sector.
The team was likewise hollering on their own frequency, post-battle bragging and one liners flying as the stress from their brush with death bled off with shakes and good natured joking around. McCloud smiled, hearing their voices. They were alive, they'd made it.
There was a crackle of static and Logan's voice chimed through his command comm on a direct line to the Pelican dropship.
'That was some good flying out there Whiskey 356, tell Adrian to come say hello before he hops into cryo again."
...
'Whiskey 356 do you read?'
...
'Whiskey 356 to Star Fox Bravo 2, we'll get you landing clearance for the Myrmidon. You're gonna want to have your boots on the ground for this. Over.'
Fox pinged a green light to Logan's immediate confirmation signal. He watched his human teammate's Arwing arc after the grey transport, a weight forming in his gut. He didn't transmit an explanation to the rest of the team, even as Miyu was clearly hammering her own comm switch to his frequency for an answer.
He knew exactly what Logan was going to find.