Chapter 15
"El Lobo Solo"- The Richmeister on Steven Segal's character from SNL.
Black Knight
Fortuna, 2000 hours, same day as previous chapter
Ed Wallace was pacing around the bridge of his cruiser, his tail swishing back and forth out of fear and anticipation of a call he was dreading. His squadmates and a couple of the Revenants watched him as he did this.
"Ed, it's been almost 5 hours, Wolf is not going to call." Jason Kage said.
"He'll call," Ed growled. "He knows I know he has them."
"He's not going to call," Mark said.
"Yes he is," Ed restated. "He won't resist the urge to rub this in my face."
The vidcom beeped. "Told ya," Ed said as he went to answer it. He activated the broadcast screen so that everyone on the bridge would be able to see it. He almost regretted the decision as the screen displayed the battered and tortured Starfox team. Fox was obviously the worst looking of the group, it looked as if at least his arm was broken, and there wasn't a spot on his uniform that wasn't bloodstained.
Wolf walked in front of his prisoners. "Not a pretty sight, is it, Wallace?" he said with a grin.
"You don't waste any time, do you?" Ed shot back. "I'm pretty sure the Zoness Convention of 2520 protects prisoners of war from such atrocities."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was a war going on. I thought this was a crusade of some sort." Wolf leered. "Anyways, I'm calling for a very simple reason. You have 24 hours to surrender yourself to me. If you do so, I will set these four free. If you do not…"
Wolf took out his knife and made a jagged cut across Fox's arm. To his credit, Fox did not scream out in pain, but Ed could see his face contort from the feel of the blade cutting through his skin. Wolf withdrew the knife and continued. "I will execute one member of Starfox for every hour you are late. Good day."
The screen went blank. Ed slammed his fist on the bridge consoles in anger. "Son of a bitch! He's calling me out!" He turned to ROB-2. "Could you trace the call?"
ROB-2 nodded his metallic head. "Yes I did. The call came from an Imperial Firebase a bit larger than their Alpha Base. It's about 100 miles away from here, though."
"That's still within reach." Ed said as he began to move out the door. However, the others on the bridge blocked him.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Mark asked.
"I'm going to that base…I'm killing every last Imperial there, and I'm freeing Starfox." Ed growled. "Move."
"By yourself? Not a chance." Mark replied. "Besides, he'll know you'd be coming."
"Doesn't matter. I have a plan, and I have to do this alone."
"Why?" Jason asked.
"Does that really matter?"
"I think it does,"
Ed sighed. "Fine. I have to do this because I promised my parents I'd avenge them."
"What…?" Mark asked just before Ed finished his statement.
"Wolf O'Donnell murdered my parents."
Mark nearly staggered. "That's not possible…your parents were killed in an attack on Zoness. Wolf didn't-"
"YES HE DID!" Ed shouted. "HE KILLED THEM JUST AS ASSURDELY AS HE'LL KILL ME IF I SURRENDER!!!" He looked downwards. "Sorry about that. But he did kill them, and I have the proof." He turned to ROB-2. "Display archive video Wallace-13."
The main screen on the bridge displayed security footage from a hallway in the long-gone CDF Zoness Defense Base on Zoness. Red alert klaxons went off, and numerous pilots ran down the hallway. Ed hit the pause button, and zoomed in on a wolf with black fur similar to his.
"This was my father, 1st Lieutenant Johnathan Wallace, almost 2 years ago at the outbreak of the Lylat War." He said before he resumed the footage. "This was taken on the day Andross launched his assault on Zoness. I got this from archival data in the CDF records files." He paused the tape a couple seconds later, and zoomed in on a vixen pilot. This particualr vixen was different from most, in the fact that her fur was a strange iridescent green and white combination.
"This was my mother, 2nd Lieutenant Jade Wallace. Both she and my father were pilots in the CDF, both were assigned to Zoness on this day." Ed resumed the tape. It switched to a camera that was facing the hangars and tarmac of the base. CDF Greenwing fighters were taking off, only to fall before a fusillade of laser fire from an oncoming swarm of Androssian starfighters.
One fighter managed to emerge from the barrage, only to have it's right side sheared away from a shot coming from a Wolfen fighter that came into view. The fighter still fired, it's pilot laying on the trigger, damaging the Wolfen and downing 5 Invader II fighters before the Greenwing slammed into the ground and tore apart in a ball of flame.
Ed paused again. "That fighter was piloted by my father. Wolf's fighter was the one that downed him in that massacre of CDF pilots. Sure, it may have looked like normal combat, but they were barely off the ground, and nearly unable to fight back…save for my father, the short-lived sole survivor. As for my mother…Wolf took care of her too with what he did next."
He resumed the footage. The Wolfen piloted by the leader of Star Wolf flew over the base and dropped something. That something exploded in the center of the CDF base, leveling it and destroying the camera.
Ed closed the archived video. "Wolf dropped a low-yield nuke on the base. My mother's fighter was torn to shreds in the hangar while she was still powering it up. She was lucky that she died quickly, many others that day died slowly from burns or radiation poisoning. As of today, no more than 50 of the 600 soldiers, pilots, and CDF support staff at that base survived this holocaust, and that number continues to decrease. So you can see…Wolf murdered almost 500 people that day, including my parents." He stared down the others. "Any questions?"
Nobody looked as if they did have any, except for Damien, but he thought better of it at the last second and kept his beak shut. Finally, Mark spoke. "Listen, Ed…you know my parents died in the war too. But that doesn't mean that you can handle this on your own. We need to think of a plan…maybe get the Omega Batallion over here and have them mount a rescue-"
Ed cut him off "No, a large assault would be too risky, and besides, the Omegas are busy on Macbeth. Starfox gave us the opportunity to make something of ourselves, and now I owe it to them to make sure they survive this. I'm going to that base, and nothing anyone says or does will stop me."
Mark dropped his hands. "I'm real sorry you feel that way," then he lashed out.
The last thing Ed saw was Mark's metallic fist flying towards his face.
Imperial Firebase Bravo, Fortuna, 2 hours laterUsing parts of their tattered flight jackets, the pilots of Starfox had managed to patch up the injuries of their leader, including the new knife wound Wolf had inflicted on him. Fox was barely holding onto consciousness, and his speech was becoming incoherent.
"Goddamn it, Fox, don't you make me the sane one here." Falco said. "Focus damn it!" he probably would've slapped Fox across the face if he didn't fear it might kill him.
Fox turned and looked Falco in the eye. "The day I make you the sane one…" he rasped. "Is the day that you admit I'm the better pilot."
Falco laughed. "All right, looks like there's still fight in you yet then!"
Just then a voice came from beyond the cell wall that Fox was leaning on. "Starfox? They got you guys too?"
Fox weakly yet clearly replied. "Yeah…they got us. Who is this?"
"It's Lieutenant Tom Janson of Husky Squadron." Janson said.
"I thought all of you were captured on Katina. At least, that's what Lt. Black told us." Fox said.
"Bishop made it out?" Tom asked.
"Yeah, barely." Falco replied.
"Well, at least he's okay," Tom said. "Anyway, yes all of Husky Squadron was captured and imprisoned on Katina, but we tried to incite a riot to escape, so they split us up. I wound up here, alone. I don't know where the rest are, except that I know they left Bill at Katina." There was a pause. "We're fighting back, right?"
"Yes," Slippy said. "And so far we've gotten mixed results. We have forces on the planet, but of course we're stuck here…"
"Well, yes that's true." Tom replied. "Is anybody working on a rescue?"
"We…honestly have no clue…" Fox said.
Black Knight, 6 hours laterEd awoke in his quarters. His jaw hurt like hell from the knockout punch Mark had dealt him. As he got his bearings again, he tried to leave his quarters but found the door locked from the outside.
Damn it, they really don't want me to even try… he thought as he sat back down on his bed and put his head in his hands in frustration. He was about to try and get up to hotwire the door controls when the door slid open, and Jenna Sandoval walked in.
Ed was about to ask what she was doing there, but she put a finger to her muzzle. "Nobody knows I'm here, but I really wanted to talk with you." She said quietly. "I never knew that that was what happened to your parents…I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Ed said. "It's nothing you could've prevented. But now you know the story of my promise for vengeance and now you know that I have to handle this alone."
"No you don't," Jenna replied. "You have two squadrons at your disposal to help Starfox escape."
"Yes, but it's too risky. They'd see us coming. No…I had a plan to handle this alone but with plenty of support…and if I was just given the chance to implement it I know it will work."
"Really? And just what was this plan of yours?"
"You really want to hear it?"
"Sure, why not? Who knows? It could actually be a good plan."
Ed saw his chance to try and convince someone, and he launched into his plan. After 10 minutes of explanation of his entire op from start to finish, he looked at her and said. "So…how does that sound?"
She thought for a second before speaking. "It actually is a good plan, even though it's very risky."
"Any plan at this point would be…but surrender is not an option, and a full-scale attack would only result in a quicker execution. This is the only way, and not even attempting it would be the same as failure. But I'm stuck here and I don't think that having you on my side will convince them."
Jenna looked hurt, but she knew he was right. "I've got a better plan then." She drew her small laser pistol from her ankle holster and handed it to Ed. "Take this, it's set to stun, and get what you need for the mission. Then just get to your Arwing and go. I can disable the security cameras for you. By the time they realize you're gone, they'll have to implement your plan in order to keep you from getting killed."
Ed took the pistol and looked at it with curiosity. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because maybe I believe in you?" Jenna responded "Does it really matter? You've been given your chance…take it or leave it…but please be careful."
Ed seemed to wrestle with the decision for a second, but then he moved to leave. Just before he did he gave Jenna a quick kiss on the forehead. "Thank you, I'll be careful." He said. Then he was gone, making his way towards the armory. Jenna left in the other direction, using her PDA to interfere with the security cameras on the path to the armory and the hangar.
Ed reached the armory in only a couple minutes, staying in the shadows and avoiding anybody who may have been walking the halls of the Black Knight. He wasn't surprised to find the doors locked and rejecting his access codes. He activated his radio link to ROB-2.
"ROB-2, have you been told not to recognize my authority?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, yes I have Ed," ROB-2 said. "There is nothing I can do to help you."
"Yes there is," Ed said. "Your refusal to help me may very well kill the Starfox team, and we both know that one of your prime directives is to protect all CDF and/or Lylat Alliance assets, including mercenaries under contract with them."
There was a pause. "You know…I find it somewhat irritating that you're right."
"Trust me," Ed said. "That feeling will go away once I prove that this plan will work. Now please, open the armory doors for me. Nobody can blame you for what happens."
"Okay, Ed. I hope you know what you're doing." The robot pilot said as the doors to the armory slid open. Ed stepped in, grabbed everything he needed, and quickly ran out, now headed for the hangar.
Upon reaching the hangar 12 minutes later, Ed found that Mark was there, back turned to him, working on modifying one of the Arwings into an AeroMAC.
He still doesn't know I've left…damn it I'm going to hate doing this. Ed drew the laser pistol, made sure it was set for stun, took aim, and shot Mark between the shoulder blades. He collapsed unconscious.
Okay, I don't have much time, he thought as he made his way towards one of the unmodified Arwings. Just as he was about to power it up, the doors opened and Karl Riker stepped in. Ed took cover, so Karl only noticed the unconscious Mark on the floor of the hangar.
After checking Mark for a pulse, Karl activated his radio. "Riker here, Mark's been stunned, requesting back-" he stopped mid-sentence as Ed shot him with another stun bolt. Ed then got into one of the Arwings and began powering it up. As he was about to start the engines, the hangar doors opened again, and Jason Kage, Damien Norris, and Dave Cheng entered the room, guns drawn.
"Get out of that fighter, Ed!" Jason said.
"Sorry, Jason, but I have no choice here. I'm going to save Starfox, whether you help me, or not." Ed hit the canopy close button, and the bulletproof glass slid over him, deflecting the shots from the three other pilots. He activated the engines and flew off into the Fortunan night skies.
Jason put down his Omni-Falcon pistol, and scowled. "Who the hell let him out?" he asked nobody in particular.
ROB-2 suddenly came in over the internal speakers. "Sirs, I have tracked the location of the camera distortions to Lift C. My guess is that whoever is messing with the security systems is also responsible for allowing Ed to escape."
"All right, we'll be right over there." Jason said.
When they got to the lift, they found Jenna there, tapping away on a PDA. As soon as she saw them she raised her hands in surrender, and simply said, "What took you guys so long?"
They took Jenna up to the bridge, and Jason began asking her questions in rapid fire. "Where did Ed go, what is he planning to do, and why are you helping him?"
"I have my own reasons for helping him, where he's going is obvious, and why don't you ask him yourself what he's planning to do?" Jenna answered right back. "After all, it's not like you can't communicate with him. In fact," she pointed to the vidcom receiver, "he's paging you right now."
Jason walked over and activated the vidcom. "Ed, what the hell are you trying to accomplish here?"
Ed responded. "I think it's obvious by now. We can't wait for a regular army solution, we have to strike now and help Starfox get out of there…you saw what Wolf did to them, and it's only going to get worse. If we don't act now, then they'll be dead before the 24 hours is up."
"That may be, but you're going off on some sanity-be-damned mission with no backup, and I'm not about to let you do that." Jason turned to ROB-2. "Initiate auto-recall on his Arwing, I want it back in the hangar as soon as possible."
"Affirmative, sir." ROB-2 said. On the radar map, Ed's Arwing began to turn as the robotic pilot overrode the control systems and activated the auto recall feature. Normally, the feature was used to recover the Arwings of wounded or unconscious pilots, but it also worked at bringing back insane pilots too.
"Okay, fine, I can play at that game too." Ed said as he slammed down on the eject handle. The cockpit assembly blew away and lifted off from the rest of his fighter. "See you in about 18 hours…or less, weather permitting," Ed said. Then he discommed.
Jason cursed silently. "Great, now we can't bring him back."
"Has it occurred to you that maybe instead of trying to bring him back, maybe you just help him?" Jenna said. "After all, Shadow Wing was created for missions like this."
"Yes…but-"
"No buts, Jason," Jenna said. "If you don't help Ed, the odds that he or any members of Satrfox will survive the impending fight are severely decreased. If you even want to get a chance to shout at Ed for doing this, then I suggest you follow his plan, which he told me about."
Jason sighed. "I guess you're right…but it really doesn't explain why Ed just went off like this. I mean…he could've at least tried again to convince us."
Mark, just recently revived, spoke up. "I guess he thought that we wouldn't even want to listen. Besides, the fox part of his genetic code must have taken over on this."
Everyone on the bridge looked at him oddly, so he decided to elaborate. "Most hybrid species have at least a 60-40 combination in terms of physical and genetic traits from their parents. However, Ed is a rare hybrid. Almost his entire DNA and physical structure is more lupine than vulpine. However, some of his character traits still come from his mother's side of the family, including an occasional loner attitude, exceptionally cunning instincts, and a tendency to be a…well…a womanizer."
Damien snickered at that last comment, but Mark shot him a glance that quieted his squadmate. He continued. "Anyway…I suppose Jenna is right. Maybe we were too worried about losing more troops than we were about saving the ones that we can. But what I don't understand," he turned to Jenna "Is why you chose to help Ed? I mean, you two haven't exactly had the best history together."
Damien wouldn't keep quiet this time. "Oh…this I gotta hear." Mark was about to cuff him on the side of the head, but Jenna spoke up
"Very well, you shall hear." The female wolf cleared her throat, then began. "Ed has always felt a lot of pain as far as he and I are concerned. When I broke up with him, it wasn't only because he had some anger problems…it was also because I felt…different at the time. I wanted to explore the…'other side'."
"Wait…you were a lesbian?" Damien said. "Damn…"
Jenna shook her head. "Not exactly a lesbian…it was more of an exploration of sorts. But my desire to explore bisexuality ultimately led to our breakup…which I pushed for anyway. Ed got over it by the time I left for Shadow Wing…but I still feel bad for hurting his feelings like that. I'm helping him because I feel it's the right thing to do. Somehow I have to heal the pain I inflicted on him, and to do that I'll help him avoid more pain and suffering. If that entails me helping me rescue his friends and comrades from certain death, then I'll do it."
"Hard to argue against that," Billy Black said from the other side of the bridge. "So…what's his plan?"
"His plan is a complex diversionary tactic designed to allow him to sneak into the base while the base's defenders chase off a Lylat Alliance attack. Of course, we're not actually going to attack the base…just make it look like we are."
Jenna tapped a few keys on the bridge controls, and brought up a satellite map of the Imperial Firebase where Starfox was being held. "The base has a large radar dish that can detect even a solitary soldier approaching the base. However, the dish has a limited range of only 200 meters for its precision scan, which means anything beyond that point is not always a reliable contact, unless it's a ground or air vehicle. Point is, it can deter any sneak attack."
"How do you know this…wait…never mind, forgot who I was talking to for a second." Karl Riker said.
Jenna grinned slightly, then continued. "Anyway, Ed needs this radar shut down, and that's where the diversion comes in. using the patrol vehicle that Damocles lent Black Wolf, we can have a small team use the turret mounted rockets to destroy the radar dish, and draw out the base defenders."
"Then what?" Jason asked.
"Obviously you turn and run like hell, firing all the way. We need to have almost all defenders drawn out so Ed can get in and out with the Starfox team. Don't worry, he's going to arrange transport for them, and cover fire for the patrol vehicle as well."
"What's the base defender estimates?" Mark asked.
"At least 2 MAC squads, 2 Imperial Invader IV fighter squadrons, the Star Wolf team, that other merc group…'Vic's Vipers' I think it was, and at least 3 platoons of infantry with support vehicles. There might also be a few stragglers from Firebase Alpha being repaired at the base as well."
"That's a lot for one fast attack vehicle to draw out…" Damien said.
"Well, with enough rocket fire spread out over a large area, they'll think it's a larger force." Jenna said. "That, and with the destruction of their radar, they won't be able to tell how big the attacking force is. So who's going?"
Mark immediately spoke up. "I'll go. I need to atone for coldcocking him like that earlier. Anyone else want to come along? I'm going to at least need a gunner."
Damien stepped forward. "Anything to kill some Imperials." He said.
Billy and Karl also stepped forward.
"That should be fine," Mark said.
"What should the rest of us do?" Jason asked.
"Go out on patrol flights, make it look like everything is normal." Jenna said. "Assign some Damocles or Academy Cadet pilots to pilot extra Arwings so that any Imperial recon units won't know that we're planning this attack. I need to stay here in order to help Ed with the mission. I'm the only one with the intel on the base and his plans…thusly it stands that I should be operations control back here, where I can monitor everyone."
Jason nodded. "All right, that sounds fine. When do we move out?"
"Ed wanted to begin his assault at noon, only 8 hours before the deadline."
"Got it," Jason said.
Imperial Firebase Bravo, 0900 hours
Wolf O'Donnell was torn between two emotions. On the one hand, he was happy that he had captured Fox McCloud, and was soon to be rid of him and that pesky Ed Wallace. On the other hand, he was very pissed off that Emperor Caine had decided to send one of the Maverick Wing to help keep an eye on the base.
"As you can see, I do not require your help in this matter, Ocelot." Wolf said. "Everything is under control."
"That may be," Revolver Ocelot replied, "But Emperor Caine has seen it fit to assign at least 1 Maverick Wing operative at every major Imperial base. We're only doing this in case you require the help of a specialist."
"I don't need any specialists…especially those that might take credit for my conquests!" Wolf snapped. "Capturing the Starfox team was all MY work. Don't you forget that!"
Ocelot chuckled "Your paranoia is unfounded. Rest assured I have already informed the High Command that you captured Starfox before I arrived. I'm only here to help, not to take over. I offer my skills and services to you."
Wolf finally calmed down a bit. "Ok…fine. As of right now I don't need your help, feel free to patrol the grounds or whatever the hell you Mavericks do when you have downtime."
Ocelot saluted and left without a word.
Wolf pondered the situation. Ok, so maybe freak-boy can do some good around here…but I just don't trust him completely…then again I don't trust anybody completely. Right now I have to focus on that deadline I set…only 11 hours to go…heh heh heh.
Somewhere in the Fortunan Plains
6 hours and 15 minutes earlier
Ed looked around the general area of where the escape module of his Arwing had landed. It was almost pitch black, and a light snowfall was coming down.
All right, he said looking back at the unusable escape module, I'll camp here. Fortunately the survival pack built into the escape module had a couple blankets, and he had enough power left in the module's batteries to run the internal heating system. He wasn't exactly comfortable inside the cockpit, but he managed to get to sleep.
Soon Wolf…soon you will know my vengeance. He thought as he dozed off.
END CHAPTER 15