Star Fox Assault: Star Wolf Edition
Disclaimers: Rated T for depictions of violence and mildly strong language. Star Fox and all names and characters (save for the Wolf Pack) are copyright Nintendo, Rare, and Namco.
Chapter 6
Chino grumbled under his breath. He sat at his console on the otherwise vacant bridge of the Wolf Pack, glancing periodically between a display screen, sensor readout and a battle displayed before his eyes. The monitor next to him showed the status of the fallen Star Wolf members, while the sensor readout helped him to follow the battle between his team's arch-enemy Star Fox and some strange new enemy.
That was the strangest part of this whole thing: It was an enemy that had decimated the team. It left all three of them adrift in the Asteroid Belt with only the emergency life support systems in the ejection pods of their Wolfen fighters to keep them alive. Auxiliary power indicators illuminated the panel with a soft green incandescence.
On the main view screen ahead of Chino sat the image of the Star Fox squadron's mother ship. The Great Fox hovered only a few hundred meters from the Wolf Pack. Their cloaking device did well to prevent the detection of the latter by the former. Chino had also shut down the ships active radar and was using passive sensors to keep apprised of the battle raging beyond.
Once he got the opportunity, the pilot would move in and rescue the others, but if he made a move now he'd most likely be spotted. Being spotted meant being at the mercy of the massive twin guns prominently mounted on the bow of the Dreadnaught-class battleship. While the Wolf Pack was armed with laser turrets and guided missiles, they were obsolete and nowhere near a match for the firepower of the Great Fox. While fighters were usually the method of weapon against a cruiser, Chino knew he wasn't in the position to launch an unplanned offensive.
Just as Chino was pondering his next move, his sensors registered a series of massive energy discharges. They came from the base within the Asteroid Belt that Wolf and the others had tried in vain to reach. That turned out to be nothing more than an ill-fated plan to make it their new base following the attack on the Sargasso hideout by Star Fox. A few minutes later, an even more massive discharge was detected, followed immediately by an explosion that seemed to be on the scale of a small nuclear weapon.
Without warning, the base disappeared from his sensors completely. "What the hell? Did they just destroy that whole base??" said Chino incredulously. He shifted his weight, watching as the four Arwings of the Star Fox team departed the asteroids and returned to their ship only moments later. Their silvery, angular ship seemed to be powering up its engines; it departed the area once the fighters were all onboard.
Once the Great Fox was finally out of sensor range, Chino wasted no time using his ships maneuvering thrusters to reach the location of his comrades. He made use of the tractor beam to bring each of the precious cockpits into the vessel. He skillfully scooped up the survivors, leaving what was left of the Wolfens for scrap as he rushed to the shuttle bay to render aid to the others.
When Wolf O'Donnell came to, he was in the sick bay of the Wolf Pack. His head throbbed like he'd just gone ten rounds with the Cornerian Heavyweight champ. O'Donnell slowly blinked his singular eye open, squinting at the harsh fluorescent light that illuminated the room. As everything slid into focus, the pilot shook his head to clear some of the dizziness and disorientation from his groggy, weary mind.
Wolf tried to sit up and found himself held back by Chino's paws. The pilot's palms were upon O'Donnell's shoulders, aiding the gruff timber-wolf so he didn't worsen his condition.
Chino's voice held a concern that caused Wolf to quirk a brow. "Easy boss, you just had a concussion, don't move too fast," advised the Gorilla, stepping back a bit once Wolf was sitting fully upright on the bed.
The grey-furred Lupine then looked around, seeing Leon and Panther in the nearby beds. Panther had a device strapped to his right arm and was mending a broken bone. "What's our status, Chino?" Asked Wolf as his singular gaze raked over the unconscious comrades. The creator was merciful for his crew to have lived.
Chino quickly replied, "We're currently under cloak in orbit around one of Katina's moons. I managed to recover what I could of the Wolfens in the docking bay. I would have gotten to you sooner, but Star Fox showed up just after you guys were shot down. They ended up fighting off the Aparoids and destroying the base."
Wolf blinked, looking back to Chino, asking, "Wait, Aparoids?"
Chino nodded then continued. "I was able to listen in on Star Fox's communication frequency. From what I overheard, those enemies you encountered out there were Aparoids, and it seems Pigma was working with them. Apparently he had stolen something called a 'core memory' from Star Fox and they were chasing him down trying to get it back."
Wolf shook his head as he listened to Chino's account of what had transpired during his short bout with unconsciousness. "That Pigma never learned. Guess it finally cost him big this time. Just glad that idiot wasn't able to drag us down with him." He then looked back to Chino again, "I want you to take us to Titania. I've got some spare Wolfens stashed there and there's not enough time to rebuild the others." Chino nodded, leaving for the bridge to carry out Wolf's orders. Looking around at his still-unconscious team mates, Wolf sighed and clenched one of his gloved hands into a tight fist. "Nobody makes fools of Wolf Star Wolf and gets away with it."
A few hours later, Wolf was on the bridge of the Wolf Pack with Chino, the two looking over various readouts on monitors around the bridge as Wolf spoke.
"Com channels are going nuts, and the long-range sensors are lit up like a freakin' nebula."
"Looks like about 90 percent of the com traffic is maydays and distress calls, all of them about Aparoids. Those bugs are spreading through the whole Lylat system." added Chino.
Wolf nodded, looking at a long-range sensor readout almost completely filled with Aparoid contacts. "No joke. The sooner we get to Titania and get those Wolfens loaded on, the sooner we can show these scumbags the door."
"We're just about there now, boss. I was just about to take us out of warp." Said chino, the elongated streaks passing the main view screen in front of the two pilots returning to tiny pinpricks of light filling the void of space, the massive red sphere of Titania looming large in the center of the screen, encircled by dark rings of asteroids and other stellar debris.
"Take us into low orbit over the southern hemisphere and scan for any structures on the surface. The Wolfens should be in a group of bunkers outside one of the secondary research settlements." instructed wolf as he readied the ships onboard transfer device, configuring it to compensate for Titania's notorious dust storms.
Chino followed Wolf's instructions, using a combination of the ships sub-warp engines and maneuvering thrusters to ease the Wolf Pack into orbit several hundred kilometers above the surface of the planet, engaging the scanners as he searched for the structures Wolf described, locating them within a few minutes. "I found 'em, boss. I've readied the hangar bay and am establishing synchronous orbit."
"Transfer device online, disengaging cloak." responded Wolf as he keyed in commands on the console at his station on the bridge, the aging battleship shimmering into visual existence as the cloaking device was deactivated.
"I've got a lock on the Wolfens, ready to engage transfer sequence." said Chino from his station as he relayed the coordinates from the sensors to the targeting scanners of the transfer device.
Wolf nodded, bringing up an image of the hangar bay on one of the screens at his station via the ships closed-circuit camera system so he could monitor the process. "Engage transfer sequence." Seconds later, flashes of light illuminated the hangar bay, the light morphing into the shape of three Wolfen fighters as it dimmed, the four wings of each craft already folded along the sides of the fuselage in storage configuration. "Transfer successful. Take the transfer device offline and return power to the cloaking system." instructed Wolf. Chino nodded and did as directed, the crimson-hued hull of the Wolf Pack shimmering as it once more vanished from sight.
Wolf was just about to issue another set of instructions to Chino when an incoming message alert beeped urgently, garnering both pilots' attention. Wolf checked the source of the message and saw that it was a level one emergency signal bearing a Cornerian Defense Forces carrier signal, making it stand out from the plethora of other emergency signals littering the communications channels. Wolf raised an eyebrow at this, and opened a connection to the channel. The transmission he heard next made the normally cynical and seemingly heartless lupine's blood run cold.
"This is Commander Jefferson of the Third Fleet; the enemy has broken through our final defensive line and is over-running the capitol city! All units break contact and retreat to fallback positions immediately! I say again, all units break contact and retr…" The communication was interrupted in a burst of static as a metallic, monotone voice cut in.
"We are the Aparoids; you will cease all resistance and join us or face destruction. The Lylat system now belongs to us."
Just as the communication ended, Panther and Leon came onto the bridge, the pilots frowning as they faced the view screen on far side of the bridge, Panther being the first to speak, "What are your orders, boss?"
Wolf turned to face his comrades, bearing an expression belying a passionate, deep-seated resolve. "We may have fought against Corneria in the past, and I may not give a rip about their government, but I am not going to let these damned freaks destroy everything! Chino, take us to full battle readiness and set course for Corneria at maximum warp. Panther, Leon, we've just finished taking on replacements for the Wolfens, get them ready to launch the moment we arrive."
The other three pilots nodded as they were given their orders, the bridge lighting replaced with a crimson glow as the ship went to battle stations mode, the primate helmsman inputting commands into his console as the feline and reptilian pilots departed the bridge, their lupine leader close behind them as they headed to the hangar bay.
A few hours later, Wolf, Leon, and Panther had finished configuring their replacement Wolfen fighters and had a full load of Nova Bombs onboard each one and ensured both the power cores and blasters' power cells were fully charged up. Once all the main preparations were complete, the pilots focused on fine-tuning their craft, which for Panther included re-painting his signature red rose on the right side of the hull under the canopy. Wolf glanced over and smirked, shaking his head at his team mate's activity "Why do you bother with that? It's not like it makes any difference."
"Those freaks made a fool of me. I want them to know who it was that struck them down when we take our revenge on them." replied Panther with a sinister snarl, not looking up from his task as he carried on painting the decoration on his craft.
"You're not the only one that got their tail handed to them out there, don't forget that." chimed in Leon from the open cockpit of his own fighter, the chameleon going through the process of making minor adjustments to his control settings and targeting systems.
"From the sounds of it, we'll all have more than enough of those Aparoid freaks for all of us to get our fill of payback on." Wolf replied. He was just about to continue when Chino came over the intercom from the bridge.
"We've just dropped out of warp at Corneria; it's a goddamn mess out there. Not even Andross' invasions looked this bad!" stated the gorilla, his voice relaying an unusually emotional tone that made the other pilots raise an eyebrow.
Wolf then looked to the others as he keyed the com channel in his Wolfens cockpit, having also been sitting in it with the canopy open. "Got it Chino, prepare combat drill Epsilon seven. We're nearly ready to launch down here," the lupine then looked over to his wing mates as he continued, "Panther, Leon, wrap it up; it's time to show these bastards that no one messes with Star Wolf and gets away with it!"
End chapter 6
Author's Note: After several years, I finally completed a new chapter on this story! I had to put the story on hiatus for several years due to a combination of personal life causing distractions, as well as the laser in my Game Cube dying and making it unable to read the game disks, thus depriving me of reference material until I was able to get a Wii earlier this year. I almost started to write Star Wolf's involvement in the battle on Corneria wherein they join forces with Star Fox, but remembered that takes place in level seven of the game, and since each chapter follows one level of the game, the next two chapters will have the two teams joining up to kick some serious Aparoid butt. Please read & review and let me know what you think of my return from hiatus!
