Chapter 16
"Revenge is a dish best served cold" –Klingon Proverb
Fortunan Plains, 1155 hours (8 hours and 10 minutes before the deadline)
Ed was walking towards the base, guns strapped to his back, and vengeance on his mind. He came to a small cliff that overlooked the base, but was well out of the pinpoint radar's scanner.
He checked his watch. Only 5 minutes until they hit the dish…assuming they came. If not, then I'm going for it anyway. Ed checked his K21 and was glad to see the cold weather hadn't frozen any components of the rifle. The Omni-Falcons and the laser pistol had checked out fine as well. Then he checked his watch again. The entire process had taken him only 1 minute.
Waiting is the hardest part. He thought with a slight grin. Then he took a quick look up to the sky. Mom, dad, Katya…I know you're looking out for me on this, so no matter what my friends decide to do, I'll still be able to complete this mission.
Just then his radio beeped. "Ed, are you out there?" It was Mark.
"Yeah, I'm here…well, outside of radar range of course. Where are you?"
"Currently heading to tear that dish down along with Karl and Damien. We'll hit it directly at high noon."
"Well, looks like Jenna managed to convince you all."
"Yeah, she did…but there was a little bit more to it," Mark said. "I'm going silent until that dish falls, so don't feel bad about me hanging up."
He did. That left Ed in the silence to count the seconds down.
2 minutes…he thought as he stared at his watch again. Each second seemed to take an eternity.
Imperial Firebase Bravo, same time
Wolf was unaware that anything was amiss that late morning. He was inside the communications building looking at the GPS radar map of the planet, and of the orbital area of Fortuna as well.
"So…our guard fleet is refusing to counterattack?" he asked the communications officer, a nervous looking raccoon.
"Yes Colonel, they are," the officer responded. "Apparently the overtaking of the repair yard has left them without the ability to repair their ships, and as such they have a distinct disadvantage over the Alliance fleet. And before you shout at me for not sending for reinforcements again, I already tried, but apparently the other fleets are tied up in a massive orbital battle over Macbeth."
Wolf growled in anger. "Damn it. What about my ultimatum?"
"Doesn't look like it fazed anybody on the Alliance side. Our scouts marked all the merc fighters flying about on patrols as if nothing had happened. One of the squadrons even went so far as to harry our scouts and take out a couple of them."
Wolf was now positively livid, but he managed to bring himself under control. "I don't like this…it's too quiet. Oh well, maybe I was expecting too much to ask for Wallace to be crestfallen. He's probably getting ready to turn himself in now, but not without a last hurrah."
No sooner were the words out of Wolf's mouth then a massive explosion shook the comms building.
Ed saw the twin rockets slam into the radar dish just as his watch turned over to 12 noon. The explosion consumed the dish, as well as it's supports, causing the charred remains to fall off the roof and slide down one of the walls of the comms building. More rockets and even some machine gun fire followed from the distance, hitting enemy vehicles and buildings.
"There's your distraction, Ed." Mark said. "Looks like we've got them riled up."
As those words echoed in the radio, Ed saw the various MACs and vehicles that were useable start moving in the direction from where the weapons fire had come from. A few fighters began to take off as well.
"All right, they're coming after us. So we have to get outta here. Good luck Ed."
"Got it…I'm going in." Ed said.
"One more thing," Mark called out over the radio. "in case I get fragged before you get back…I'm sorry I hit you earlier."
"It's ok…" Ed said. "The fact that your helping me now is apology enough. Now run like hell and don't look back."
Both of the soldiers disconnected their radios. Ed took a quick once-over look at the Imperial Firebase. Fire control teams were already putting out the fires caused by the attack, and Ed could see that one of the missiles had exposed the repair hangars where a few MACs and fighters from Base Alpha were being patched up.
Useful information for later, he thought as he continued across the cliff until he was at the "back" of the base. There he could see where the main hangars, if one would call them that, were. Right now they were nothing more than lines drawn in the snow with spray paint. Ed could see that the 4 Wolfen IIs belonging to Star Wolf were parked there, as well as the Invader IVs belonging to Vic's Vipers. The Wolfen IIs weren't up and running at all, but Ed could see that the Vipers were getting their fighters ready to pursue the Mudcruncher.
He had an impulse to fire on the pilots as they headed for their ships, but he restrained himself. They are not my enemy here, and attacking them would ruin the element of surprise. Instead he watched the mercenary fighters leave and fly off after his comrades.
Hopefully Mark and the others can rally some air support to them because it's going to be hard getting back with that many people after you. Oh well, right now I have to figure out how to get in quickly and quietly, and still keep the element of surprise.He noticed that there was a slope leading down to the base near where he was, and that there was a pile of scrap metal there too. Why the Imperials would pile scrap metal at the top of the slope he had no idea, but he suddenly got a plan, a plan that not even the two guards at the bottom of the slope could hamper.
1 minute earlier
Wolf was running about the damaged firebase, barking out orders. "Somebody find the wiseguys who shot up this place! And get the Vipers into the air!"
"I'm guessing this is Wallace's 'last hurrah'?" the comm officer asked
"Possibly," Wolf answered. "But I'm not going out there to fight him. No…I'm keeping an eye on my bargaining chips in case they try to escape."
Ed grabbed a flat rectangular piece of metal from the edge of the pile. Judging the angle and distance, he got on top of it, and started sliding down the hill on his makeshift snowboard. The guards still hadn't noticed him, and they didn't until after he caught air off of a small mound of snow. The two guards looked at the odd sight of seeing an armed wolf flying at them on a metal snowboard, and attempted to shoot him down. However, Ed already had his K21 ready, and mowed down the first soldier, and then kicked off of his "snowboard", sending it into the face of the second one as he came back down to the ground. Putting down the stunned soldier even longer with a stun blast from the laser pistol, Ed pressed onward. He took note that the building he was near was the base's armory.
Hmm…an armory. For the second time that day, another idea came to Ed's mind. Pausing only to take the light machine gun off of one of the dead guards, Ed entered the armory. He quickly found what he was looking for. There was a box of 10 remotely detonatable C4 charges designed to take out buildings. Stuffing the charges into a backpack and grabbing a detonator, Ed left the armory after pausing to place a charge inside the armory near all the ammunition.
Hopefully I've got enough charges for this, he thought. Taking a look back at the remaining craft at the hangars, Ed noticed there was a captured Nightshade parked there. Well, that's our way out, he thought as he headed in the other direction towards the repair hangars. Arming another two charges, he tossed them in through the holes in the wall opened up by the Mudcruncher.
As he turned away he suddenly saw a jeep, possibly a straggler from the pursuit forces, drive towards him with 3 very pissed off Imperial soldiers in the seats. Diving to the side as the enemy's VK assault rifles opened fire on him, he fired his K21 from a crouch and hit the driver through the windshield. The jeep flipped over, spilling the other two soldiers from it. Ed took care of them with two 3 round bursts from the K21, then he continued onward, pausing only to place a C4 charge in the middle of a field of fuel tanks near the motor pool.
A squad of 5 guards apparently tried to do the job their buddies in the jeep couldn't, but Ed handled them as well. 3 of the guards fell to blasts from his Omni-Falcons, leaving the other two to scramble into a building marked "Detention Center".
Well, thanks for pointing me in the right direction, guys. Ed thought as he headed to the door, but found it locked. Not one to be deterred by a locked door, Ed simply cut down a piece of C4 to a less potent size, and placed it on the door. Then he got around the corner, and hit the button.
45 seconds earlier
Wolf looked up to see two Imperial soldiers frantically run into the detention center and close the door.
"What the hell is going on out there?" Wolf asked
"There's some Alliance commando attacking the base!" one of the soldiers said in a panic. "Looks like the attackers that blew up the communications dish may have just been a diversion!"
"Any idea on who it is?" Wolf asked.
"Couldn't see much due to the fact I was trying to avoid death, sir," The soldier said. "But it looked like a wolf…only his fur was black."
Wolf's eyes widened. "You fools," he shouted "That was Ed Wallace!"
The words were barely out of his mouth when the door exploded inward. The metal door sliced into one of the soldiers, dropping him in a flash of blood and gore. The other soldier tried to open fire, but he was cut down by machine gun fire from an unseen assailant. Wolf, of course, knew who the assailant was.
Ed Wallace walked through the smoldering doorframe, stolen machine gun in hand. "Greetings, Wolf," he said dropping the weapon. Wolf thought that was an invitation to shoot Ed on sight, but of course he guessed wrong. Ed already had his left-hand Omni-Falcon up by the time Wolf brought his sidearm to bear. Neither one of them pulled the trigger.
"Think you can do it, Wolf?" Ed taunted. "Think that you can take me out with no depth perception? Come on, do it, open fire…kill me you son of a bitch! DO IT!!!"
Wolf seemed to struggle with himself to try and aim. Ed meanwhile kept his gun trained cold and level. For a while the two of them just stood there, staring each other down. Falco finally broke the silence by shouting down the hallway from where his cell was.
"WOULD ONE OF YOU JUST FREAKIN DO SOMETHING?"
Wolf turned to shoot the avian, which gave Ed the chance he needed. He fired one shot, which knocked the gun out of Wolf's hand. However, Wolf immediately rolled towards Ed, causing his next shot to miss. Wolf then popped up and kicked the Omni-Falcon out of his adversary's grip. The one-eyed wolf then threw a jab at Ed's face, but Ed countered it by grabbing Wolf's arm, twisting it, and kicking him hard in the chest, then following up with subsequent kicks to the shoulders and head. Wolf was staggered by the assault, but recovered quickly. Ducking a roundhouse from Ed he snatched up the Omni-Falcon.
"I'll show you 'no depth perception'!" he growled as he took aim at Ed. Quickly, Ed kicked off the wall, causing Wolf's shot to pass under him. As he came back down he caught Wolf right in the side of the head with a vicious kick, sending his adversary spinning in the air, and losing the gun as well.
Ed moved in to finish off his opponent, but Wolf quickly got back to his feet. Ed couldn't see the knife Wolf had drawn until it was almost too late. Wolf came up, and slashed Ed just above his left eye. He probably would've taken Ed's eye out had he not ducked back at the last second. Blood was running down the side of his head, but Ed didn't fall, or cower, or even put his hand to the wound. This startled Wolf, and he didn't move to attack for a split second.
Ed took the advantage of that momentary pause. He grabbed Wolf's arm, wrested the knife out of his hands by twisting the wrist, and picked it up while keeping Wolf immobile.
"You know what they say, Wolf," Ed said. "A slash to the eye is worth a stab in the thigh!" And he rammed the knife up to the hilt in Wolf's upper right leg. As Wolf yelled out in pain, Ed punched him in the forehead and cave a quick chop to the throat, knocking him unconcious.
I hope he has the key on him because I'm not going to go look for it. Searching Wolf's body, Ed found the keys to unlock the detention cells.
Activating his radio, he called Jenna. "I've got the keys, and I'm letting Starfox out. Seems theirs a Husky Squadron member here as well, so I'm giving him a ride home too."
"Got it," she said. "See you in a few minutes." Ed forgot to disconnect the channel as he headed back over to the cells.
He walked over to the two cells where Starfox and Lt. Janson were being held, and unlocked both cells.
"Why didn't you kill him?" Falco asked as he helped Fox out of the cell.
"He was down and out. If I shot him then, I'd be no better than he was. Just because he does evil things to others does not mean I must sink to his level in order to do so."
A voice sounded from the doorway. "Your ethos is sickening, Mr. Wallace." Ed turned, and saw an ocelot in a dark, black-and-red military dress uniform walking towards him and the others. From the distance, and despite the fact that some blood was starting to get in his eye, he could see the Maverick Wing logo on the ocelot's right shoulder and hat.
"Revolver Ocelot, I presume?" Ed asked.
"Ah, so you have heard about me. I guess General Carrington is willing to own up to his mistakes."
"Enough talk about blame," Ed said "What do you want?"
"I simply want a chance to duel you. After all, the mercenary pilot who has evaded death at every turn must be a good shot. Pretty simple, we draw and fire when I give the word."
Jenna decided at this point to let Ed know he had accidentally left the comm channel open. "Ed…just surrender! He's the best duelist that ever lived! Don't throw away your life like this!"
"What if I were to just surrender?" Ed asked as he rested his hand on the hilt of his other Omni-Falcon.
"Unfortunately, Emperor Caine was specific about ordering your death, so ya can't do that. At least I'm being sporting about giving you a chance to escape death…not that I think you will. Get ready…" Ocelot put his hand above the golden magnum revolver in his holster.
Ed removed his hand from the hilt of his pistol and left it hovering above the hilt. I'm not going to be able to outdraw him…he thought as he went into a deep state of concentration. Ocelot just thought he was squinting. Everyone else sought cover, ironically in the cells they had just vacated.
"DRAW!" Ocelot shouted as the gun cleared his holster. Ed was alredy moving, tapping into his combat training. He turned almost sideways as Ocelot fired, and the shot passed by him. As Ocelot began to realize that he had missed, Ed had his Omni-Falcon up and leveled. He fired once, blowing a hole in Ocelot's chest. The cat stared at his wound in shock, then fell over dead.
Ed holstered his pistol. "He wasn't wearing a vest."
Fox limped out of his cell, followed by the others. "Why not?"
Ed shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he's been in Shadow Wing so long, he thought he was invincible." He bent down and picked up the magnum. Checking the cylinder, he found it was empty. "He only had one bullet in here, too." He pocketed the revolver, then removed Ocelot's insignia and identification nameplate.
He turned back to the others. "I'm betting Carrington will want to know one of the Mavericks is gone."
"Seems like a good point." Fox said. He weakly pointed to the cut above Ed's eye. "You might want to bandage that up." With some difficulty the wounded Fox removed the bandanna from around his neck and handed it to Ed. "Use this."
Ed took the bandanna, and wrapped it around his head, staunching the flow of blood from his wound. While he did that, Tom Janson went over to the discarded machine gun and picked it up. "We'd better get out of here before reinforcements come"
"There's a captured Nightshade transport parked out back." Ed said. "It looked in pretty good shape."
"Wolf wasn't here alone," Falco said. "We should arm ourselves in case the other 3 stooges come looking"
"There's an armory right next door. If you're all mobile enough we can grab some weapons then get out of here."
About 30 seconds later the 5 recently freed soldiers were gathering up weaponry. Fox had secured himself a 9mm pistol, but wasn't taking anything else since he only had one good arm right now. Janson had the machine gun, and Falco and the others had taken VK assault rifles. Once they were all armed and ready, they began heading for the Nightshade. Crouched around the corner from the landing pads, Ed activated the radio again.
"Jenna, we're making our way to an escape vehicle."
"All right, be careful." She said.
"I will." He then changed channels to Mark. "Mark, what's your status?"
"Right now we're getting really lucky in the fact we haven't been hit yet." Mark said. "We've got the Vipers tailing us, as well as 3 MACs."
"All right. Keep dodging them, I should be by with some heavy support in just a minute." This time, Ed remembered to disconnect. He headed towards the Nightshade, his team of escapees behind him. About 10 feet from the gunship, the three remaining members of Star Wolf, plus a squad of troopers, leapt out in ambush.
"Shit!" Ed shouted as he opened fire with his Omni-Falcons. The rest of his rag-tag squad opened up on the enemies as well. 3 of the enemy troopers fell, while the rest scurried for cover. Ed wasn't sure, but he though he heard Andrew shout over the gunfire, "This was not a good idea!"
"Get in the Nightshade, I'll cover!" Ed shouted as he kept the enemies heads down with his gunfire. Then he threw a grenade, killing the other Imperial troopers and leaving only the 3 Star Wolf pilots to hassle them. After everyone else had made it into the Nightshade, Ed jumped in as well. As he moved to the pilot seat, Fox blocked his way.
"I'll fly us out." He said.
"You have only one good arm and you've lost a lot of blood. I'm flying us out."
"And you've been running yourself ragged for almost an hour. I'm flying us out."
Suddenly Pigma leapt up and fired a burst of gunfire from his VK. The shots deflected off of the windshield, but that still startled them. Ed jumped into the pilots seat and fired a stream of shells from the twin gattling guns in Pigma's direction. The shots missed the pig, but broke apart his Wolfen II instead.
"I'm flying. If you want to take the copilot seat, be my guest." Ed said flatly. Fox did just that without a word. Falco and Janson took command of the ventral and dorsal turrets, respectively. As Ed began to activate the gunship, Fox used the copilot controls to lock the missile packs onto the other Wolfen IIs, and fired on them. The three still under repair fighters burst apart in a chain of explosions, causing the Star Wolf pilots to keep their heads down.
"Heh, that's a nice set up for the grand finale!" Ed commented as he suddenly produced the stolen detonator and pushed on the button. There was a bright flash and a loud series of explosions off to the left as the repair hangar, armory, and communications building were consumed by fire and explosions. The fuel tanks went off as well, torching the garage and setting the detention center ablaze.
"There's a nice distraction," Falco said. "Let's get out of here!"
Ed did just that, he took the Nightshade up 100 feet and then slammed on the turbo boosters, sending them rocketing away from the burning remains of the firebase. He locked on to the Mudcruncher's radar signal, and then headed towards it.
"Where are we going?" Fox asked
"We're going to help out my diversion team." Ed replied. Just over the horizon he could make out the silhouettes of the Invader IV fighters belonging to Vic's Vipers.
Mark swerved to avoid a salvo of SRMs from a Hoplite MAC. Karl used the turret to return fire, sending a pair of his own SRMs into the scout MAC, blowing away most of its paper-thin armor. A barrage of machine gun fire tore apart the MAC's stabilizing gyro, causing it to crash headfirst into the snow as it fell. That didn't really do much, however, seeing as how there were 5 enemy fighters and 2 MACs still tailing them.
One of the Viper's Invader IV fighters moved in right behind the Mudcruncher and locked on with its missile packs. Just as the pilot, in this case Steven Johnson, was about to open fire, A barrage of laser and vulcan cannon fire cut the right wing off the fighter. The Invader IV slewed out of control and spun across the ground like a top, eventually coming to rest on a spot not completely covered by ice.
Mark looked up in time to see the Nightshade piloted by Ed thunder over him, the laser turrets taking shots at the enemy fighters and MACs. The gunship then used it's VTOL jets to quickly turn around, and come right back at the Mudcruncher's attackers. Missiles spat out from the gunship's missile packs, clawing two more Invader IV fighters from the air, their pilots ejecting from their stricken craft. Turret and vulcan fire downed a second MAC, this one a Flanker. The last Flanker attempted to open fire on the Nightshade as it flew over, but two SRMs from the Mudcruncher breached the cockpit and killed the MAC pilot. The last two enemy combatants, the two remaining Viper Invader IVs, turned and headed back to base."The enemies are bugging out!" Ed shouted enthusiastically.
"Looks like it." Mark replied. "We're heading back to the Black Knight."
"I have a better idea." Ed said. "The Nightshade can carry the Mudcruncher, so how about you 3 get out of the cold and come on board here? I'm going to land a few hundred feet ahead so you can get on."
Not more than 2 minutes later they had done just that, and the small attack force headed home, mission complete. As they flew on, a comms message came in to them.
"Hmm…it's not on any Lylat Alliance or Imperial frequency…" Ed said as he answered it. The vidcom displayed the face of "Viper" MacKenzie.
"This is Commander Vic "Viper" MacKenzie of Vic's Vipers," Viper said. "I would like to congratulate you on your successful rescue, as one mercenary to another. I have to admit it's amazing that a light attack vehicle and a gunship could take down three of my pilots and 3 Imperial MACs. It almost makes me wish I wasn't employed to kill you, Major Wallace."
"Thanks…I think…" Ed said.
"I look forward to fighting you again, farewell." Viper signed off. There was one long pause in the control cabin of the Nightshade.
"What the hell just happened?" Fox finally asked.
"I'm not quite sure but I think we just met a decent Imperial-employed mercenary." Ed replied. He simply shrugged it off and activated the comm system. "This is Major Wallace to Black Knight. We're 2 minutes out and are coming into land. We'll need a medical team, Starfox got roughed up quite a bit while incarcerated."
"Affirmative," ROB-2 said. "Contacting the Thames to bring in a medical team."
"While your at it, have them send a few loaded Collectors over to the Firebase and see if they can get anything. I have a feeling that the Imperials are going to leave it pretty soon."
"Got it."
Wolf woke up with his head pounding. He also felt cold. That was probably because he was facedown in a snowbank. The blast from the feul tanks had blown him out the back door of the prison facility, which was burning to the ground right now.
He got up and looked at the burning and charred remains of the Firebase. Holy shit…Wallace tore this place apart. He heard a couple Havoc gunships land in the middle of the wreck, and he limped towards it. The Sergeant in charge of the small squad of soldiers that debarked from the gunships saluted him. "Sir, we're pulling you and any other survivors out right now. We just picked up some incoming enemy craft, probably here to salvage the remains."
"I see," Wolf said. "Well, I don't think that there's anyone else alive here…except for my team." He said.
"In that case, get them on board and let's get out of here." The Sergeant looked around. "This place is a mess. What the hell happened…and is that a knife sticking out of your leg?"
Wolf looked, and realized that his own knife was indeed still there. The pain returned to his leg as he stared at it. "Um…let's just say I got blindsided and leave it at that…ok?" Wolf asked as he yanked the knife out and almost fell down from the pain invovled. "Now…" he said between clenched teeth. "Find the rest of my team and get me out of here."
5 minutes later the two gunships left. Another 5 minutes after that and two Collector class REMASC corvettes landed outside the perimeter of the ruins. 2 squads of DSF soldiers stepped out, along with a few salvage crews, and surveyed the damage.
"Wow…this is one hell of a mess," said the lead salvager. "Well, get to work everyone. Let's see if there's anything worth grabbing."
The Nightshade landed in the Black Knight's main hangar. The medical teams were onhand to assist Fox and the others to sickbay, while Ed and the rest of Black Wolf walked out of their own accord.
"Sir, do you need medical attention for that headwound?" Dr. Dorian asked Ed.
Ed waved him off. "Go tend to the Starfox team first. I'll be by later. It's just a scratch." He kept walking, away from the medical team, and started heading out the hangar. Before he could leave however, the doorway opened and Jenna appeared. She took one quick look at him and suddenly rushed at him, almost tackling him with her embrace.
"What the…" Ed asked.
"Why did you have to leave the channel open?" she asked. "When Ocelot showed up I was so worried he was going to kill you!"
"Uh…it's ok," he said. "I got out of it. And I'm sorry I forgot to disconnect." He was still a little taken aback by Jenna's sudden affection towards him.
"That's all right. As long as you're safe," she said looking up at him. She then noticed the bandanna wrapped around his head. "What happened there?"
"Oh, Wolf cut me with his knife while we were fighting. Don't worry, it's nothing major." He said.
"Are you sure?" she asked concernedly as she broke her grasp on him.
"Yes…" he said, "It's just superficial, I'll have the medics patch it up later."
"All right," she said. "Good to see your plan worked out ok." And then she turned to leave.
"Wait!" Ed said. She turned back to face him. "Thanks…for believing in me," he said.
"You're welcome," she answered with a small smile. Then she left the hangar, leaving Ed standing there confused. What the hell is going on with her? He asked himself.
Mark tapped Ed on the shoulder, snapping him out of his stupor. "What's with you?" he asked.
"Oh…nothing," Ed said with a small grin. "Everything's fine. We won…for a while anyway." Then he left the hangar as well, headed for his quarters to get some rest.
END CHAPTER 16