A/N: Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I put a link to a playlist with songs relevant to this story on my profile. It'll get updated as the story goes along.
I've also noticed that I've been getting a bunch of guest reviews as of late. That is awesome! I also do encourage anybody and everybody, whether you're a guest, an anonymous viewer, or a well known figure, that you are welcome to leave your opinions. At the time of writing this currently, I have 22 reviews so far, and in all honesty, that's 22 more than I'd thought I'd get. You guys have blown my expectations out of the water and out into the stratosphere. For that, from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. Stay awesome you guys! ;)
You guys have a good one, and enjoy this next update!
"Sheila! Get back in formation!" a loud authoritative voice commanded as her Arwing dipped low to the ground.
"There's a guy locked on to you, I'm taking him out," she responded, barraging the ground with laser fire.
"No! Get your ass back up here!" he shouted again, this time diving his Arwing down, trying to persuade the copper husky to leave. She refused, and continued firing on the ground below; wasting any opposition she had.
"You're gonna get yourself killed!" he pleaded.
"Worry about your own hide," she spat, rolling to the left to dodge an oncoming rocket.
"I don't want to lose you!" he cried out, closely pursuing the husky.
"Wolf, I'll be fine, just let me– oh shit!"
"Sheila!"
Husky Destroyer
The copper husky jerked wide awake in a cold sweat, panting heavily. Her heavy red and black flannel blanket was wrapped tightly around her, and the heat from the blanket was only making her condition worse. She tore off the blanket, tossing it on the other side of her bed, and shot up to regain her breath. She flung her legs over the bedside and dipped her head low, still continuing to breathe heavily.
Her bedroom on the small Destroyer was as standard as standard could get. Only a bed, a small desk, a closet, and a very basic restroom filled the room. A dim light shot into her room from the windows; glistening off of her recently dampened snowy white and light copper fur. She removed her light sleeveless shirt and attempted to dry off her sweat permeated arms and face, then tossed the shirt on the other side of the room by the closet.
"You alright in there?" a faint voice called out, tapping lightly on her metal door. The husky couldn't say a word; not even a grunt of recognition. She continued to lay on her bedside, trying to remove the nightmare from her mind.
"Sheila?" the voice said with more inflection, with the bangs on the door becoming louder as well. Sheila bolted back up in a sitting position, but then sighed in relief as she instantly recognized the voice. She fell back on the bed, swiftly wrapped the flannel blanket tightly around her exposed frame, and closed her eyes.
"It's open," she said sleepily, then watched as a tall gray wolf gingerly stuck his head in the doorway, and chuckled at the husky.
"Hey babe," Wolf smiled as he walked all the way in the room, and shut the door with his foot. He chuckled at the husky, which caused her to instantly look into the mirror next to her bed. She gasped as she realized her fur was severely matted, and her long light brown hair was scattered erratically. She noticed that he was staring at her storm of hair, blushed noticeably, and wrapped a small blanket around her head haphazardly.
"You just had to walk in right now?" she groaned, muffled by the thick blanket wrapped around her muzzle.
"You don't need to be so self-conscious about yourself around me," Wolf said, sitting on her bedside.
"Yes I do," her muffled voice snuck out of the blanket. Wolf chuckled and attempted to pull the blanket off of her, but only moved enough of it to reveal one of her pale blue eyes.
"Hi," Wolf half-shouted, grinning from ear to ear.
"Wolf, please," Sheila whined, shaking her head around faintly. Wolf refused to take no for an answer and pulled on the blanket with more strength. He only succeeded in sliding the husky a few centimeters towards the edge of the bed.
"You coming out or what?" Wolf laughed, repeatedly poking his paw into her shoulder.
"Not until you leave."
"Fine, I'll just take the other blanket off," he announced, and put a paw on the thick flannel blanket. Just as the lupine planned, she swiftly transitioned her grip between the two blankets, which gave Wolf the perfect opportunity to yank the smaller blanket off of her head. In doing so, it caused the husky's hair to become even more of a mess as it drooped in front of her eyes.
"Gotcha!" Wolf said in triumph, and got a faint grin from the husky on the bed.
"Argh," she groaned, playfully backpawing the lupine's shoulder. Wolf again took the opportunity he was presented with by grabbing the husky's arm, and nuzzled closer to the canine. All she did was bury her head in the flannel blanket to avoid his ongoing playful assault.
"Sheila…" Wolf cooed slowly in a smooth voice. "You can't hide forever…"
The husky groaned loudly and revealed her matted face. "What?" she commanded with a smile, shaking the hair out of her face.
"I love you," Wolf chuckled, sneaking a kiss on the side of her maw. "See? Was that so bad?"
"I guess not," she smirked, then brought the lupine in for a longer kiss. "I love you too Woof," she giggled sleepily, then rested her muzzle on his shoulder. Wolf chuckled at the childish name that Sheila had just given him, then stretched out next to her on the small bed in her quarters.
"Why the big blanket, She?" Wolf asked, tugging at the red and black flannel blanket wrapped around her. Sheila glanced down at the blanket and turned almost as red as the blanket itself.
"Oh, I– um… I, uh," she stuttered, tightening the blanket around her torso. She made a faint glance to her closet, which Wolf tracked and he himself looked in that direction. He donned a cheesy smile as he noticed the bunched up shirt in the corner and lowered his voice.
"What'cha wearin'?" Wolf asked tauntingly, which caused Sheila's rosy cheeks to burn even brighter.
"Wolf, can I please get dressed?" she whined, glancing longingly at the lupine. "I've only got my– err…"
Wolf busted up laughing. "Oh, come on! It's not that big of a deal. Hey, we've been together for almost a week, maybe you should stop hiding from me so much," he winked, getting a grin from the husky wrapped in the blanket. Wolf noticed that she had been acting a bit jumpy and reclusive around him lately, so he inched closer to the husky and put his maw near her face.
"You're hiding something right now, aren't you?" he said slyly, trying to hide his grin.
"Wolf, please let me get my clothes on," she said, unable to keep a straight face. Wolf chuckled to himself and expertly exploited the husky's obvious ruse.
"You don't want to put them back on."
"Wolf!" Sheila whined like a five-year-old girl.
"And you don't want me to leave either."
Sheila realized her ruse had been shattered like glass, so she retreated into her warm flannel fortress. "Wolf, stop," she complained, but Wolf wasn't stupid enough to fall for it. He jumped back on the attack and stuck his muzzle deep into her protective filed.
"All you gotta do is ask, babe," Wolf cooed, flicking his tail wildly. "We both know what you're hiding."
"Wolf, I don't–"
"Don't you even try lying," he chuckled, wrapping his arms around the blanketed figure. "Lying isn't a good relationship booster."
Sheila stuck the tip of her muzzle out of the blanket. "I don't want to right now," she said pitifully, then retreated back into the blanket.
"Oh, not right now?" he echoed excitedly. Sheila fell for his trap, and instantly regretted it.
"Dammit Wolf you know what I mean," she snapped, but the damage had already been done.
"What you mean is that you want me," Wolf said, almost proudly and matter-of-factly. "And it's noticeable, Sheila. You wouldn't be trying to hide from me if it wasn't true." After a few seconds of Wolf pestering her by smacking her back with his tail, her rosy face popped out of her makeshift defense. She hesitated, but eventually rubbed her muzzle on his shoulder.
"Fine… You caught me…" she said disappointingly, then donned a sly smile as her pale blue eyes shot right into Wolf. "You're not planning anything later, are you?" she asked intently, twirling her tangled hair.
Wolf blushed noticeably and felt his emotions start to flare up. "Um, I don't– oh," he recoiled as she wrapped her arms around the lupine's neck. His arousal increased as he noticed what the husky was trying to hide; a very skimpy and almost translucent clothing article covering what Wolf had been attracted to all these years.
"I think we have a little bit of time," she said seductively, removing the blanket from her frame. Wolf instantly turned red faster than a traffic light.
"You're a naughty husky," Wolf responded in his own smooth voice as he felt her paws slowly work to his waist. Sheila started to pull off the lupine's shirt, but he stopped her halfway.
"Are you sure Sheila? I was just teasing you, you don't have to– oh maybe you do," he smiled as the rest of his shirt came flying off.
"Yes, I want to," she responded and pulled the lupine onto the bed. She instantly attacked Wolf's face and locked him into a kiss so long that is was on the verge of suffocating both of them. After the husky caught her breath, she gazed into Wolf's violet eyes with a sly smirk.
"Do you?"
General Pepper's Flagship
"How's the translator coming, Vinny?" Dennis asked, pointing at his numerous computer screens and the small gray device that was virtually taken apart piece by piece, showing all of the wires and chips. Vince grunted and made a glance to the raven.
"Good… good," he said faintly, then focused back on the screens.
"How far along are ya?"
"Umm…" Vince combed back his hair as he turned around to face the bird. "I've got most of the vocabulary down, but I'm still working on slang and different terminology. It's very tedious and time consuming work."
"I can tell," Dennis chuckled, then pulled up a chair and sat next to the fox. "Can I test it?"
Vince nodded and reassembled the transmitter quickly, then punched in a few buttons. "I actually haven't tried it yet," the vulpine admitted, continuously typing into the wrist transmitter.
"Better now than never."
He smiled as a faint beep resounded from the device. "Say something," he commanded, putting the wrist device up to Dennis' beak.
"You gotta be– Woah, what the hell?"
Vince laughed as the raven was rendered incomprehensible by the device. The translator addition took in surrounding words and processed them in a very small, but highly efficient chip in the processor. Before the sound waves from the person talking could make it to the ears of another person, the device would replace those sound waves with different pitches and frequencies, completely changing the dialect. It would still keep the same tone of voice, but all it would do is make communication easier.
"Hmm, that's what this 'English' sounds like," Vince chuckled, disabling the device.
"Ugh, that was nasty," Dennis groaned, ruffling his feathers. "Sounded like I was choking on my own tongue."
Vince again had another laughing fit at his comment, and continued work on the translator. "Like I said, I'm not finished yet. This is just a rough example. I'll have the full version hopefully in the next two hours or so."
"That's good. Pepper said we're about five hours out, so you got time."
"Awesome. Take care Denny," Vince smiled, swiping at the raven as he slowly walked away. Dennis waved as he wound the corner and made his way from the second story of the large flagship towards the elevator. A quick moment later Dennis was on the fourth story, and mere feet away from the main bridge. Right as the raven walked into the large room, a pale blue holographic vulpine popped on Pepper's screen, with the general himself standing near the screen.
"Hey Pepper. You got something?" James said statically, cocking his holographic head.
"I just have a quick question for you, James."
James nodded and waited for Pepper to continue. "So, I understand you and the rest of Star Fox will go in to the tenth sector a little after Husky Squadron's initial attack, but I'm calling to affirm your team's condition. I'm assuming you're not letting Wolf fly, correct?"
"Of course not," James responded. "He doesn't want to be a part of this, and I don't want him to be either. I actually offered Wes the open spot, if that is alright with you."
Pepper nodded slowly with a faint grin. "I don't blame you in the slightest. Wes is an incredible soldier, and Wolf has been a bit of a problem lately."
"You're telling me." James growled softly. "Don't get me wrong, sir, I love him to death, but I don't feel comfortable fighting next to him; especially in a situation like this. With his viewpoint on this upcoming war, I have a feeling he might turn on us."
"Is he on the Great Fox now?"
"Nah, he's aboard the Husky's Destroyer. I'm assuming he's working as a bridge attendant, but I have no idea. Probably just wanted to be with her," he said the last word with a very sour inflection.
Pepper grunted softy, then glanced back up at the vulpine. "Do you remember Jason and Alice? The Spitzs?"
"I think so. Why? What happened with them?"
"The same thing you are speculating about Wolf," Pepper stated, sitting down in the nearest chair. "We had an insurgent years ago… He fought on our side for years to gain our trust, and suddenly one day he went ballistic, killed about fifty or sixty people. Sheila's parents were two of those killed."
James suddenly had a change of heart. He instantly felt sorry for the husky, and understood why she had acted the way she did yesterday. She had understood what it was like to have family abruptly taken away at the hands of the enemy. He sighed and held a paw over his chest.
"What I'm getting at is that you could always have that one person that turns," the bloodhound continued. "I wouldn't directly label Wolf as an insurgent, but I would keep an eye on him if you do allow him to fight."
"Don't worry general," James assured. "I'm not letting him anywhere around me with a weapon. I don't trust him enough. Like I said, I'm replacing him with Wes for now, and once we waste this god-forsaken planet, I'll let him back in…"
"Good plan James… We're about five hours out, so– Oh hey Dennis, how long have you been standing there?"
"Just a while," the raven chuckled, coming into viewpoint of the holographic vulpine. "I came up to tell you guys that Vince is almost done with the translator."
"How's it sound?" James asked with a faint smile.
Dennis laughed and stuck part of his tongue out of his beak and started imitating the words he inadvertently said due to the translator, causing the two mammals to burst into laughter. Dennis waited for the two to completely focus back and spoke up.
"So general, you've got plans drawn up for all the others, what'cha got for me?"
"You're going in with Transport 2. They are landing on the surface on the main nation's capital, and we're expecting some tough interference, so I'd like you to command the entire group."
Dennis smiled and nodded faintly. "Love the plan general. Let me know when it's time," he said as he slowly backed toward the door.
"Alright Dennis, you get some rest," Pepper announced as the door shut behind his tail feathers. He transition his glance back to the holographic vulpine.
"Anyway, you know your plan, right James?"
"Of course… Tenth sector first, then move inward from there. Destroy anything and everything." Pepper nodded in approval with a slight smile creased on his muzzle.
"One thing I forgot to ask a while ago," James quickly added. "Why didn't we authorize more than just our small fleet? Couldn't have we just used more ships and just wasted the planet without having to go on ground?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, James, that was my first idea, but that would be too easy."
"Isn't that what we want?" James asked with a tilted head.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't, but we actually can't," Pepper explained, slowly pacing around the vulpine's vision on the screen.
"Did we not have enough pilots or ships?"
"Plenty of those, but not enough of the rest," Pepper responded. "I'm talking about resources… We can't just swoop in and carpet-bomb everything because it's a waste of our weaponry. A large portion of the army's resources were destroyed as a result of that damn missile, and we have a very limited amount for our missions."
"Oh, I understand now," James grinned. "We're only hitting specific areas, because we don't want to waste weaponry on areas that don't matter."
"Exactly."
James hummed curiously, then asked another question to the bloodhound. "Also, why are we isolating our attacks on this country? Shouldn't we spread out and attack the entire planet?"
"Well, shouldn't we start with the culprit first?"
"Culprit?" James echoed disbelievingly.
"Vince never told you?"
"Told me what?"
Pepper chuckled to himself and leaned on the hologram machine. "Vince was able to track signatures from that missile to that country. We don't know where it was exactly launched from, but we know for certain it was from there."
"Ahh, so that's why we're going after them first."
"Indeed. That's why we're focusing our preliminary assault there. After that country is nothing more than a parking lot, we move on to the rest of the planet. Simple."
James nodded, then a faint voice started yelling in the background behind him. James chuckled and faced the direction of the voice.
"I'll be there in a second Fox," he shouted, then faced the bloodhound again. "Alright, I gotta go. I'll let you know how the assault on my end goes."
"Okay, good luck out there James."
"Thanks general," he said, then turned to face the voice again. "No, Fox, not that! The other one!" James walked out of the view of the hologram machine, but his voice could still be heard in the background. "Fox I told you the–"
Pepper laughed as James was cut off mid-sentence as the holograph machine disconnected. He sighed, sat back in his chair, and then looked at his watch.
Alright humans… You've got a few hours to have your fun, then all hell will break loose. Clock's ticking…
Pepper's Flagship – Communications Room – 5 hours later
"Oh, screw your coding," Vince grumbled to himself sarcastically, scanning trough his triple monitor setup at his station. He had countless machines wired to a massive supercomputer, and basically had the entire network of anything and everything at his paws. He combed his paw through his snowy hair and continued murmuring to himself.
"Come on…" he growled softly, waiting for the auto-conversion mechanism to finish. "Can't do anything if I can't read anything…"
The machine beeped, and the incomprehensible lines on the screen pixelated, and were swiftly replaced with a recognizable language for the arctic fox. He smiled faintly as he mulled over his options.
"Alright… Doesn't look like I can disable it right away… bummer…" He punched in a few keys, then messed with a long string of computer coding.
"I can overload it… Maybe cause it to malfunction, then it'll shut down on its own… Perfect…"
He followed through on his own script, typing specific Cornerian counter-coding into the Earth satellite. However, unlike his seemingly perfect script in his head, the satellite stayed online and began transmitting many numerous signals.
"Shit. What'd I do? What'd I do?" Vince panicked, trying to assess his work. However, the satellite's sudden burst of other communications impeded his progress significantly. He attempted to type in every kill code or virus he could think of off the top of his head, but the satellite kept interrupting him.
"Oh come on," Vince grumbled a bit louder than he should have. "The Huskies are practically on top of them and I can't disable this damn thing?" He picked up his head and shouted across the room. "Travis! Kill the damn transmitters will ya?"
"On it," another voice shouted, and within moments the numerous signals froze in place. "Hurry up and kill it; I can't hold it steady for much longer."
The vulpine struggled for a few more seconds before finally finishing his implementation of a highly destructive virus into the satellite. Within a minute, the entire satellite grid was terminated, and communications on the planet's surface instantly ceased. He sighed rather audibly and sat back in his office chair.
"Well that worked just perfect," Vince grumbled bitterly, then raised his voice. "Hey Arti, did you catch anything they were transmitting?"
"Not too much, but quite a bit," a blue jay responded, not looking up from his screen. "They made a ton of calls, and a few people on the ground tried to reestablish connections."
"Did any of them go through?" Vince asked, walking over to the small avian.
"Only a few, but I was able to kill 'em off before they got to our grid," he responded proudly. "I was able to translate a call saying they authorized A-10's… whatever those are."
"Probably computer code terms... Don't worry about it. Good work Arthur."
Vince patted the avian's back as he turned around and sat back at his station. He growled softly and slouched back, eyeing the screens and caressing his muzzle.
"Hopefully it was as stressful for them as it was for us…"
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) HQ – Peterson Air Force Base – Colorado Springs, Colorado
"Uh, McChord base, we're reading fifty bogeys in your sector, heading south east of Vancouver, can you verify?" the main station controller called out, glancing at his radar screens.
The controller at the McChord base chuckled. "Very funny station. Scopes are clear. ACS might be malfunctioning, over."
The main station controller grunted and took a longer look at the radar. Ten red triangles were indeed on the scope in formation, quickly advancing on the McChord base. Something wasn't right.
"Station control, please run diagnostics on ACS feed, over."
Another faint voice came on the call in the background. "There might be a glitch in the module. Try running a quick reboot of the system."
The main controller was about to disengage the radar for a quick restart, but noticed something down lower on the screen. He gasped and quickly called another station. "Vandenberg station, we've got eyes on seventy more bogeys heading east north east in your sector, please verify."
"Uh, negative, station," The Vandenberg controller responded skeptically. "Skies are clear. Something's definitely bugged on your end, over."
The controller groaned and punched a few buttons on his screen. The red triangles kept flashing on the screen, and were quickly advancing on shore. However, from what the smaller Air Force bases' controllers were telling him, they weren't there at all.
"Running diagnostics on echo sector, scanning for malfunction," another person said across the room.
The controller backed up and spoke to another transmissions manager. "Why's it bugging out so bad? It never does this."
"Yeah, that is really strange," the Vandenberg controller agreed. "Usually ACS doesn't glitch out like this. Hopefully it was just a bit of solar interference. There is some heavy sun spot activity today."
"I sure hope your right," the main controller agreed, watching as the dots from both sectors kept inching closer to land. The room gradually became louder as more voices started piping up and machines started whirring louder.
"Diagnostics initiated, approximately three minutes."
"PAVE PAWS disengaged, over."
"Station Control, this is Nellis Air Force Base, scopes are clear in bravo sector, over."
"See station?" the McChord base controller said. "I don't know what to tell ya, you've got yourself some phantom dots."
The main controller called another main station. "Uh," he sighed loudly as he zoomed out over the entire continent on his radar screen. "Delta wing, we're reporting an ACS fault here, can you confirm anything in your sector?" There was silence for a few seconds. Too long of a silence. The controller repeated with more inflection.
"Dover Air Force Base, do you copy? Do you have anything on your scope?"
Again, another painfully long silence. The controller zoomed in on the New England strip, but saw nothing on the radar. Right as the controller was about to resend his message, a loud, muffled, static filled message silenced the room, and the sudden burst of red that filled the sector dropped the controller's heart into his stomach.
"They're everywhere!"
