The Lylat Wars- Combat Evolved
Chapter Two
Dynamic Cataclysm
"I don't believe it Fox." Said Peppy breathlessly. "Its been wiped out, all of it."
Below the two pilots Katina's cities laid in ruin. Its famous pilot training school was burning, the point of it laying inside the building proper.
Fox observed the carnage, dumbfounded, he'd never seen anything it before.
"Lets get the bastards that did this!"
Fox boosted, all fuel tanks operating at full capacity. He pushed his Arwing hard to the surface as he came nose to nose with several strange aircraft.
They were purple, their noses rounded at the front, their wingspan smaller than that of an Arwing, on each side two long rounded bars came to meet a longer flat surface, their propulsion systems on the extreme ends of each wing. Dual laser cannons, as well as what appeared to be missile launchers bedecked each wing.
Oddly, they weren't attacking. Fox, thinking quickly opened a communication channel; "who are you? What are you doing here? Are you responsible for this?"
The purple craft responded with a blast of blue laser fire. "Shit!" Screamed Fox as he banked hard to the left, the craft followed in a hard pattern. They weren't breaking formation as they fired, reigning lasers down upon Fox's ship.
"Fox you okay?" Asked Peppy, finally breaking through to planet surface. He saw the chase as it was occurring and boosted in behind the formation of purple craft. He fired his laser cannons, both of them spewing hyper-heated lasers. They impacted on what appeared to be an energy shield, never even touching the craft.
From behind Peppy a new purple craft appeared, it banked hard to the left of Peppy and came up just underneath him. "How'd he do that!" Peppy thinking quickly boosted hard and fast downward, the steel of his ship scraping and actually puncturing the energy shield. Peppy continued downward, pushing the purple craft down with him, moments later it scrapped along the planet surface, as it tried boosting away Peppy let fly with a missile, it tracked and hit the target square in the back wing, sending it flying off as it spun out and crashed into a pile of rubble.
Meanwhile, Fox was having his own difficulties. His Arwing, as loaded down with weapons as it was, wasn't as fast as it used to be. He barrel rolled and zipped around the sky, but just couldn't shake his attackers. Their heavy laser fire was beginning to really bust up his ship. As he came to Katina City proper he banked hard to the left, the purple craft stayed on him. High above the city streets Fox dropped several bombs from his payload, rubble from many inlying building crashed down as Fox prepared for a very risky maneuver. He flipped a switch to open a second, faster burning gas tank, and began to siphon fuel from his main tank as he boosted towards the streets , rubble falling all around him. The purple craft followed him under it, undaunted as the falling rubble simply bounced off their energy shields. Fox was shocked and dismayed, he fired a rocket at a billboard ahead of him, and flew between the "legs" that held the structure, the falling object crashed down on one of the purple craft sending it hurdling to the ground in a fiery explosion.
Three of the purple craft were left, as Fox rounded The Dymler Building, the largest building in the city. On his radar Fox saw that the craft were coming in closer, and closer. With his last bit of siphoned fuel Fox banked hard around the far right corner of the building, the bottom of his ship scraping its rocky surface. As two of the three craft approached him, Fox, via his radar saw the other sneaking up behind him. Fox banked hard to the left, almost breaking his flight stick in the process. He smashed through the heavy rock wall as the enemy craft followed him. Flying, quickly, from side to side Fox tried to lead the enemy into crashing into several heavy pillars, but it wasn't happening. They were too smart for that.
"Computer, target all main structural points in this building. Fire cluster missiles on my count of three."
"Scanning shows that you are in the building sir. Doing what you ask would kill you. Your command will be ignored until a more suitable course of action is commanded."
Fox was coming up on the other side of the building. "Computer, override self-preservation commands."
"Overriding." The computer voice droned.
To buy himself some time Fox released several canisters of black tar from his Arwing's rear weapons hatch.
The canisters exploded as they hit the enemy craft. The shields, as it turned out, only blocked energy attacks. Fox was right.
"Change of plans, switch to auto-pilot, open top hatch."
Fox leaned under his seat and grabbed a several full liquor bottles. He'd been saving these for a special moment. Here it was.
Fox also drew out a hollow projection unit. He tossed that out first, it projected a perfect faux-Arwing. Fox tore off several strands of his shirt sleeve and stuffed them into the open bottles. While the enemy was busy with the other "Arwing" Fox rose from the inside of his craft and lit the rags before tossing the bottles. They impacted on the craft, their alcohol fueled fire burning and spreading quickly before hitting the gas tank of one ship. It burst into flames and spun out taking the second craft with it. The third still advanced on Fox's six.
Fox, once again taking manual control of his ship braked and spun to face the third flaming ship. He fired with his custom built dual chain guns, cutting down the enemy in mid-flight. The broken ship screeched to a halt on the stone floor, coming to a stop a few feet from Fox.
"I've got to see who these guys are." Fox landed his ship and stepped out. Carefully he walked across the rubbled filled floor. Outside one of Katina's two suns was setting. It cast a dark shadow over the top floor of the building, a quiet cold wind stirred as Fox stalked forward, his natural animal instincts telling him he'd better not consummate his plan. He shook off his negative feelings as he reached the craft and pushed a button on the side of it opening the top hatch.
As Fox investigated he noticed that the underside of the hatch was splattered with something blue.
Fox rolled the creature over, it was hideous. Its face was split in four quarters by a bullet. Its mouth was like that also, but it appeared to be naturally so. Its body was covered in what appeared to be armor. The creature's feet seemed to be hooved, their curvature unique, like the back legs of a canine, or at least one before Fox's time. Its hands were clawed, in its death throes it seemed to clutch the steering device so tightly that its hands were cracking apart. Of course, it was also riddled with bullet holes and, quite dead.
"What the Hell are you?"
Shaken, Fox turned to walk away. He had to go, he needed to tell Peppy what he'd seen.
As Fox neared his Arwing the creature pounced. Taken unaware Fox barely had time to draw his blaster. He fired, several shots tore through the creature's energy shield, and another shot to the head put it down for good. Fox blew the smoke from the barrel of his weapon and re-holstered it. He felt like a total badass and offered up the snide comment of "Welcome to Lylat." before getting in and blasting off.