- Shattered Lylat: The Fragmentation War
DISCLAIMER Addendum 2: I own the Wolfhound fighter and the Landmaster Mk. II (not named now, but makes a small appearance)
Chapter 3
Revvin' up you engine
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension
Beggin' you to touch and go- Kenny Loggins, "Danger Zone"
***
Upper Atmosphere of Corneria, Sept. 23, 2550, 1130 hoursEd 's Arwing was still glowing from the friction caused by atmospheric entry when his radar lit up with numerous enemy contacts.
"How many dropships are there?!" He shouted frantically
General Pepper's response came back over the vidcom. "We estimate at least 400 dropships." Ed could see the general was very nervous and distressed.
"Crap…there's no way we can take out all of them, much less even a fourth of them…we need some kind of help here." Ed responded
Just, then General Mikhail Knight cut in "I may be able to offer some assistance. We have 8 Mobile Orbital Laser cannons, or MODLs. They can take out dropships pretty fast. If you can give us a vector, we can deploy them to the most dense area of the dropships, and take them out."
"I think they're coming in on the area of the sensor grid that was hit by the attacks" Mark said
"Looks that way" Ed replied "Ivan, what's the status on the repairs?"
"The grid is at 95% efficiency" Ivan Marlowski replied
"General Knight, send the MODLs at the damaged grid area, that will be where the Imperials will be concentrating their forces" Ed said
"Roger that," Knight said. Then his voice went out on the broadband channel "Famfrit Group, move to these coordinates and engage incoming dropships!"
***
Corneria Surface, same timeThe 8 DSF MODLs motored across the landscape, as they moved for the area designated by General Knight. Leading the charge was Colonel Alexander Kursk. As the 8 massive tanks neared the designated area, Kursk began to target the incoming Imperials.
"Okay, Famfrit Group, pick your targets and fire at will" Kursk said into his comm as his gunnery officer locked onto an incoming dropship.
***
Ed was reaching the target area when he saw two large azure beams slice through the air and hit an Imperial dropship. The beams punched right through the hull and blew out the stern of the dropship. The dropship tumbled end over end as it burst into flames
"Holy, shit!" Ed shouted "Those are naval grade particle cannons!"
"Close enough" responded General Knight as more of the MODLs began to fry the dropships "Their a slightly lighter grade than naval, but they can sure do the job in a hurry. I'd say now would be a good time to get in there and help us rack up the kills"
"Copy that," said Lieutenant General Rainier Davidson, "All right, all squadrons give a ready report and go weapons hot."
"This is BlackWolf-1, we're ready to go" Ed said
"Starfox-1 here, all systems go" Fox followed
"Phoenix-1 Reporting, let's get 'em!" Fara Phoenix shouted enthusiastically
"Shadow-Beta-1 reporting, we're all set over here" said Jason Kage
"Attention General Pepper," Rainier said "this is Alpha Defender, we're engaging the enemy!"
"Roger that, and good luck." The General said.
35 Arwings and 15 Wolfhound fighters flew towards the enemy dropships. Flying out to meet them were about 150 Invader III fighters.
"Incoming bandits dead ahead!" Slippy reported
"Phoenix Squadron, help me with the fighters." Rainier ordered "The rest of you get after those dropships."
Ed, Jason, and Fox acknowledged and their squadrons flew into the midst of the dropships, while the 14th ADW and Phoenix Squadron blasted away at the Invader IIIs. Ed brought his Arwing in line with an Aurora dropship and released a Maverick Torpedo. The missile slammed into the starboard engines of the dropship, rendering them useless. As the dropship started to list to starboard, Ed saw the bay doors open and 12 strange machines jumped out.
They were bipedal, at least 8 meters tall. Each one was carrying a big laser pistol in its right hand, and a shield in its left. Ed had studied the battle of Sector Y during the Lylat War, and he thought the machines resembled the war robots Andross used against the CDF in that battle, except they looked a little bulkier. Also, they were painted a dark red and gray, rather than the shade of green that Andross had seemed obsessed with.
"Mark, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Ed asked
"Yeah, I am," Mark responded, "Why would they be using those fragile combots?"
"Beats me, let's teach em a lesson!" Mark said with a light chuckle as he flew at the combots. Ed did the same. When Ed was in range he fired one charged laser blast at a combot. The bolt slammed into the combot, but instead of exploding, it just shrugged off the damage, and to Ed's surprise, returned fire. Ed barely had time to react, as he put the Arwing into a barrel roll, delfecting the three lasers sent back at him.
"Mark, they have better armor! I don't think these are the same combots from a year ago!" Ed shouted as he flew past the combots, some of which had shot at him.
"I agree, they seem, more powerful, perhaps even more than that Shogun Warlord that Starfox tangled with during the Lylat War." Mark said "Try taking out their jets, that should stop them."
"Got it." Ed said as he swung around for another pass. He lined up his sights on one of the combots that was presenting its back to him. He fired, and the jump jets exploded. The combot went into a wild spin as it fell over 20000 feet to the ground, flames trailing out its back.
Another combot swung around to face Ed, but Mark came in lasers blazing, along with a flechette Maverick torpedo. The assault tore the shield arm off of the combot, and the flechettes punched through the armor plating, setting off a few internal detonations. Ed and Mark watched as the head of the combot split open, and a pilot ejected from it.
"Mark," Ed said as the pilot began to drop by a parachute "Weren't the combots Andross fielded unmanned?"
"Except for the Shogun Warlord, it was believed that all of the combots were unmanned." Mark said "This is something very different. Good thing this is all being recorded."
"Keep recording until we end this fight." Ed said as he wove in between two dropships, hitting them with MIRV Mavericks and crippling them. More combots chased after him, lasers firing. One locked on, but then the alert tone faded away abruptly. Ed looked to see who had saved him. An orange and gray Arwing flew past him. Ed knew only one Cornerian pilot had an Arwing like that.
"Thanks for getting them off me, Captain Phoenix." Ed said
"No problem." Fara responded "And please, just call me Fara"
"Okay, Fara." Ed said as he swung his fighter towards the melee and flew back.
***
30 minutes later, the fight had ended. The MODLs had made a big difference in the fight, accounting for 75% of dropship kills. The MODLs had also managed to down 50 enemy fighters that were unlucky enough to get in the path of the Particle cannons. The dropships eventually managed to limp out of range of the MODLs, and used fighters to keep the CDF/DSF coalition at bay.
"How many did we get General?" Ed asked after he landed his Arwing at the command post.
General Pepper looked somewhere between enthusiastic and defeated. "You got about 230 dropships. That leaves 170. To make matters worse, those new combots you are encountering are unlike anything we've ever seen. There's another problem too, We believe the MODLs are now targeted for destruction by some of the Imperials. They may try to use the dropships in a short hop to hit the MODLs, and allow reinforcements. You will have to launch in 30 minutes to go back out there and defend the MODLs."
"Okay, how are the space forces doing?"
"Slightly better, the Imperials have been making minor attacks, we have gotten most of their lighter cruisers, but the Guardian and the Galaxian took heavy damage. We believe the Imperial Navy is making headhunting attacks against us now. They also got a lot of our Justice frigates, and a few of our Fenris cruisers."
"All right," Ed said as he absorbed the data "Back to the ground front. Here is a copy of the data on those combots." Ed said as he produced a CD and handed it to the general. "Try to find out what the armor strength is, and what weapons we can use against them."
"We'll get our best people working on trying to defeat these mechanized monstrosities."
Ed suddenly was hit with a flash of inspiration.
"What is it, Captain?" Pepper asked Ed
"Well, when you said mechanized, something clicked in my mind. I'm not sure yet, but I think I have a theory. Ask me again after I return from defending the MODLs."
***
Cornerian Orbit, same timeAdmiral Collins allowed a small grin as the Guardian blasted apart the hull of an Intimidator cruiser. This made the 6th cruiser of that class to fall in the battle. The Guardian had taken many hits, but the Leviathan class of ships was built to last. The same could not be said of the older Fenris class of ships. 8 of them had been either destroyed or badly crippled.
His communicator crackled "Yes?"
"This is ROB-2" said ROB-2 "The Black Knight is being overrun by 3…make that 2 Intimidators! Please assist!"
"You got it," the Admiral said "Tempest Group, assist the Black Knight"
***
The Black Knight shuddered as a naval heavy laser punctured armor on the starboard side. ROB-2 responded with Naval Autocannon fire, which dropped the shields on both Intimidators, and blew one of them in half. The other Intimidator fired all it's weapons, draining the Black Knight's shields, and causing major damage to the lower decks. Just then three bright emerald particle beams came out of nowhere and slammed into the Intimidator. The ship twisted and heaved as massive explosions tore it apart, and the fusion core detonated. Through the blast came three ships all the rougly brick shaped, with a pointed nose, each armed with a heavy Naval Particle Laser Cannon, and twin class-5 autocannon. The particle cannon took up most of the frame of the ship. The lead ship signaled the Black Knight, and the image of an orange tabby cat appeared on the vidcom.
"This is Captain Dan Hunter of the Zeus-class Particle Cannon frigate Tempest, and leader of Tempest group. You called for backup?
"Yes I did" ROB-2 responded "Thank you for the help. If its not too much trouble, can you cover me while I drop back so I can repair the ship?"
"No problem, we can handle that." Captain Hunter responded.
The Black Knight dropped back, while the three Zeus frigates covered the ship's retreat, using their autocannons to keep fighters at bay.
***
CDF Military Base Alpha, Corneria City, Corneria, 30 minutes laterEd was talking to the technician, a badger that was about Ed's age, who was servicing his Arwing. "So you're saying these missile pods will help us defeat the combots?"
"According to the intelligence, yes." The badger answered as he gestured to the two boxy missile pods underneath the Arwing's wings. "These pods fire 20 missiles at a target up to 1 kilometer away. You can also target multiple enemies, and the missiles will divide the targets accordingly. Intel believes that multiple missiles hitting the combots can get through their armor. Each pod has 12 reloads, which is why there is that extra bulk on your wings. We've also lead the Arwing with 2 Maverick Torpedoes and 2 nova bombs, just in case you need to take out a dropship."
"Okay, I guess I don't have time to debate that, let's just see if military intelligence was right for a change" Ed said as he climbed into his Arwing and started it up. When he was given the all clear, he flew out towards the position of the DSF MODLs, which were currently in the Corneus Canyon, a 30 mile long 'S' canyon with an entrance and exit at each end. Ed saw the other allied fighters take off and accelerate towards the location of the canyon entrance, 50 miles away.
As the 50 CDF fighters flew on, Rainier outlined the support mission details.
"Since most Imperial dropships have made landfall, we are recalling the MODLs to Corneria City. Unfortunately, they have to go through the Corneus Canyon to reach the city. This makes them prime targets for an ambush. We have to cover the MODLs until they exit the canyon. With the ambush opportunity gone, the Imperials should break off."
"Emphasis on 'should'," Falco said sarcastically. "I highly doubt the Imperials will just let us go."
"We don't have time to debate this," Karl Riker cut in. "Long range scans are picking up 3 Despot class dropships heading towards the canyon. They could be carrying up to 200 combots, and at least 100 fighters."
"Finally, a challenge" Damien Norris laughed.
"Okay, that's enough out of you." Mark said. "This is serious."
"Let's get those MODLs out of danger." Fox said. "We're coming up on the canyon"
Overhead, the three Imperial dropships were burning for the canyon as well. They were already starting to release the combots and fighters. The fighters flew at the CDF fighters, while the combots dropped down into the canyon. The MDOLs opened fire, but their particle cannons only managed to get 5 combots that were unlucky enough to be caught in the beams.
"Incoming fighters at 12, 11, and 1 o-clock!" Slippy shouted.
Starfox and BlackWolf took the lead, flying into the midst of the fighters. Fox pulled his Arwing into a dive, blasting away at the Invader IIIs and IVs that tried to shoot him. Fox wove in and out of the ranks of Imperial fighters, destroying almost 20 with his first past. Ed and Mark double-teamed the fighters, leaving 50 downed. Nova Bombs detonated all over the place. After the first pass, only 40 Imperial fighters remained flying, and they were breaking off. The CDF fighters were barely scratched.
"Okay, let's protect the MODLs!" Rainier said as he dove into the canyon.
"Attention CDF Wing Commander, this is Famfrit 1. We are pinned down by combot fire. Please assist!"
"Roger that Famfrit 1." Rainier responded. "Keep them busy while we take them by surprise!"
***
Alexander Kursk was nearly thrown from his command chair by a combot laser barrage. His MODL had lost nearly 40% armor. The medium laser turrets on the MODL for point defense weren't working well enough to stop the Imperial onslaught. Kursk rapidly thought about what to do. Then he had an idea.
"Famfrit Infantry Lead, what is your weapons status?" Kursk asked the infantry commander located in the APC-like hold of his MODL.
"We have 5 assault rifles and 5 Rocket Lauchers, said Sergeant Jeffery DelRoy, the Infantry Commander. Same is true of all other infantry guard groups, except for mine, which also has a light Machine gun."
"All right, I need you to dispatch all infantry to fight the combots. We need just a minute of time. Use the rocket launchers to breach their armor."
"Affirmative, Captain."
***
The infantry hatches on all 8 MODLs opened up and the 40 DSF infantry charged out onto the rocky canyon floor. Sergeant DelRoy had brought along both a Rocket Launcher and Assault Rifle. He commanded his squad to lock up an oncoming combot that was flying towards Famfrit 1.
"Fire Rockets!" DelRoy shouted.
5 Rockets arced up at the combot, shattering armor plating. The force of the blasts quickly altered the trajectory of the combot, and it slammed into the canyon wall. As the combot struggled to stand, DelRoy had his squad open fire with explosive assault rifle and machine gun rounds. A few bullets found there way into the internal structure of the Imperial combot, and put it down for good. But that was just one, and there was many more combots. Some of them which were now shooting as his infantry. One combot in particular leveled its laser pistol almost directly at DelRoy. Then suddenly, a white Arwing thundered down the canyon, sending 40 long range missiles into the back of the combot. The Imperial machine burst apart like an overripe melon as it's fusion core detonated.
"This is Fox McCloud," came a voice over the intercom, as more CDF fighters descended into the rocky pass, "Looked like you could use a hand there Sarge."
"Perfect timing, McCloud!" DelRoy responded "Now help us rout these bastards!"
***
Ed prioritized his targets almost immediately, as he fired missiles at the combots nearest to the MODLs. A couple combots fell under the first volley, and some shot at Ed as he passed over. Nearby, he watched Falco, Fox, and Damien work over an entire company of combots, the missiles tearing armor off the combots as if they were sheets of paper. Dead ahead, Dante Davidson and Jason Kage blew the legs of a descending combot, leaving it to slam into the rocky ground. All around the combots were taken off guard by this sudden strike of fighters, not to mention the deadly swarms of LRMs that the Arwings and Wolfhounds fired on the giant war machines. Everything seemed to be going well as the numbers of enemy combots slowly began to dwindle. The enemy dropships couldn't assist, as their turrets couldn't fire into the canyon. Just then…
"Holy shit! Incoming fighters and numerous combots approaching from the north…there must be at least 500 of them total!" Jason Kage squawked.
"How many of each?" Ed asked
"Um…at least 400 fighters and 100 combots."
"Damn it! This is insane! We are way too outnumbered here!" Ed shouted, frustrated, to nobody in particular on the CDF broadband channel
"Then perhaps we can even the odds" came a voice over the comm.
A shadow came across the canyon as a blue and white Aurora dropship bearing DSF markings flew across the canyon, dropping Landmaster tanks and launching more Wolfhound fighters.
"General Mikhail Knight on station and ready to kick some Imperial Ass!" the voice continued
"Good thing you showed up when you did, General!" Fox said over the comm.
"We groundpounders will handle the combots, the rest of you take on the fighters!" Knight continued.
"Okay, you heard the man, let's take out the fighters!" Ed said enthusiastically as he boosted out of the canyon, and at the oncoming waves of Imperial fighters, which were coming in a little faster than anyone had anticipated, which plunged the battle into a whirling melee.
***
The Imperial fighters had caught Falco off guard, and were now chasing him. He barely had time to escape their first assault, which cut down Phoenix-5's Wolfhound fighter…no chute.
Damn…Falco thought as he tried to evade the laser fire from three Invader III fighters, That's gonna be me if I can't escape these guys. Falco knew asking for support was pointless, as all of the fighters were trying to stay alive, same as him. Except that his g-diffuser was malfunctioning, and he couldn't barrel roll efficiently. He suddenly heard the warning tone of weapons lock. Well, this is how it ends, Falco thought sadly.
Just then there was a flash, and the warning tone suddenly ceased. Falco looked back and saw the three enemy fighters tumbling out of the skies. Who…?
A purple Invader-class fighter shot ahead of him, and his comm window opened. "Think I was gonna let you have all the fun?" Katt Monroe said.
"Katt, for once I am glad to see you!" Falco shot back. "Now let's see if we can go kill some more of these idiots."
***
Ed took a quick glance at the battle in the canyon. He saw the DSF Landmasters were holding their own, their lasers tearing through the ranks of combots. He also noticed a different DSF tank. It looked like a bulkier Landmaster with twin gun turrets and a machine gun on top of the turret. He decided to ask General Knight about the new tank after the battle. Then he noticed a combot leveling its laser cannon at him. He barrel rolled at fired a laser burst that ruined the pistol. Then the combot just snatched up a laser pistol from one of his fallen comrades and started gunning for Ed again. This time Ed used the LRMs to put the combot down.
Theory confirmed he thought.
***
Rainier Davidson flew his green and white Wolfhound fighter in between two wings of Invader IIIs and took them both out with a nova bomb. He then severely damaged another wing with his missile pods, utilizing the multi-target system to great effect. The lion looked around and saw the remaining combots were retreating to the dropships, and the 200 or so fighters were also returning to cover the escape.
"Alpha Defender to Famfrit 1, the dropships are hauling ass outta here!"
The three dropships began to lift off, their defensive cannons blazing. The CDF fighters tried to puncture the armor of the Despot class dropships, but there was little luck.
"Famfrit 1 to Alpha Defender, it's time for payback!"
The MODL named Famfrit 1 swung its particle cannons in line with one of the escaping dropships. Two more MODLs did the same. They fired almost simultaneously, and the results were devastating. The beams punched through titanium armor, as well as bone and flesh, leaving the beams to exit out the other side of the egg-shaped dropship. The dropship shuddered and fell down, slamming into the canyon wall before exploding, and sending combots sprawling everywhere. The other two dropships fled, being harassed by more MODL fire all the way.
"Area secured. All hostiles are breaking off" Jason Kage reported.
"Good," send General Knight "I'll bring in some salvage teams to pick up the combots and give us a better idea of what these things really are."
"I think I have an idea." Ed said.
***
Cornerian Orbit, same timeAdmiral Collins received a sitrep. It stated that the Imperial vessels were moving beyond maximum weapons range, most likeley to effect repairs.
"Let them go for now" the Admiral told all ships "They know we hurt them good, and we won't give them this planet's without a fight."
***
15 Minutes Later, Main Briefing Room of CDF Base Alpha"So, Ed, you claim you have evidence on the exact identity of these combots the Imperials have been fielding against us?" General Pepper asked
Ed looked around the large briefing room. Starfox, Shadow Wing's beta company, his own squadron, General Pepper, Lt. General Magnusson, and General Knight were all seated in the room waiting for his evidence. Also seated was Mike Wilson, Damocles CEO, and Allen Jones, the Damocles head of R&D.
"Yes, although you probably won't be happy about how I got it." Ed said as he produced a CD and slipped it into the data viewer. On the screen it showed the plans for one of the Mechanized Assault Chassis that were being made in Sec-Weap Lab 3.
"Aren't these the plans that we recovered from the lab the Imperials captured 3 months ago?" Jason asked.
"Yes…"
"So explain to me how you got hold of classified information if there was only one disc?" Ivan Marlowski vehemently demanded.
"Who said there was one?" Ed responded
Marlowski decided to keep his mouth shut.
"Look, how I got the information is a moot point, you just assumed there was only one disc being made. The fact is that I have the data, and it explains what we're up against." Ed continued "What you see are the blueprints for a Mechanized Assault Chassis, or MAC. There are more blueprints here as well, but this illustrates the basics nicely. All MACS range from 6.5 to 10 meters tall. They are armed and armored at variances dependant on weight, and designed to carry numerous weapons, or such is my understanding…since I don't work for Damocles Industries." Ed shot a sideways glance at Mike and Allen.
"Are you implying that I should've know the Imperials were fielding MACS?" Allen said
"No, I'm not, since the Imperial MAC, which I like to call the Gladiator, is not quite the same as a MAC. They kinda messed up a few things in design…since it doesn't have as much armor as it should." Ed responded
"Yet, you say this Gladiator, is a MAC…why?" asked Lt. General Magnusson.
"This is why." Ed said as he put in a disc containing the gun camera footage from the battle in the canyon. Everyone saw the footage of a Gladiator switching a ruined laser pistol for a new one.
"This is what confirmed my theory." Ed said as he switched back to the technical readouts of the MACS. "MACS were designed to switch the weapons they carried in their hands, instead of those handheld guns being hardwired into the system. What that Imperial MAC did confirmed my theory that the Imperials somehow managed to get the plans anyway and produced the MACS to be used to take over Corneria."
"It's too bad we shut down the MAC research program after the hostage crisis 3 months ago." Magnusson said "We could sure use some MACs of our own, besides the 60 or so Gladiators we salvaged."
"Oh, I think I can help with that" Mike Wilson suddenly spoke up.