A Wolf's Redemption Prologue: One Starry Night Chapter 3: Part 3, a star fox fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. All rights and characters (except my own) are reserved to Nintendo and the related companies that helped produce all parts of the game franchise. This work is also non-cannon, but does take place after Star Fox: Command, before Fox and Krystal decide to leave the team and start a new life together. Please support the official release.

"A Wolf's Redemption"

"Prologue: One Starry Night"

The time has now come.

Follow your instincts and trust

All of your senses.

Part Three:

In front of Lyall was one of the biggest battle cruisers he'd ever seen. Some of the Cornerian vessels weren't even this big. Turrets and cannons dotted the exterior of the ship and most were firing at small spacecrafts that dotted the starry space around it.

A distance away a Cornerian battle cruiser floated. It had an interesting design, the bridge of the ship connected to the main hull through a large gooseneck. Beneath the narrow connector were two cannons, which were pumping out blasts at the enemy as well. On the tail of the ship a simple insignia was painted – A blue fox with wings.

No way, Lyall thought to himself as he realized who was fighting. It was the legendary Star Fox. The group of mercenaries who'd defeated the mad man Andross three times during the Lylat Wars, saving the planet know as Sauria at the same time during the monkey's third return. They had also defeated the race of cyborgs known as Aparoids, and had stopped the Anglar Empire from taking over Lylat only a couple of years ago. But right now they were in trouble, and needed help.

"I got someone on my tail, Fox!" came the first voice again. Lyall looked over to see that the ship being chased was none other than the Sky Claw, piloted by the famous, and somewhat infamous, Falco Lombardi.

"Sorry, Falco. I've got my own problems over here."

"The main battery is almost ready to open fire," the R.O.B. unit warned.

"Thanks R.O.B. Think you can drop us some supplies?"

"Location confirmed… Sending supplies." A crate was jettisoned at high speeds from the cargo bay of the ship, the Great Fox II, towards Falco.

"Thanks, R.O.B.!" the avian replied.

But that wouldn't help him out of the situation he was in. If the bird didn't get help soon, he was going to be shot down, and more drones were pouring out of the enemy battle cruiser. Now was Lyall's chance. He didn't have the time to make any contact with them, so he charged his laser and fired.

Three ships had been dogging the Sky Claw, and Lyall made contact with the middle ship. The resulting explosion caught the other two enemy ships and sent them spiraling out of control, eventually crashing into each other in a burst of flames.

"YEEHAW!" Lyall shouted. He'd never really made an actual kill before, only destroyed the weak practice drones that they'd used back at CMA. This was so much more fun.

Lyall was about to respond when his Arwing shook. Three dots appeared on his radar as another volley of lasers flew by. The yellow-eyed lupine made a hard left turn and sent the old craft into a shaky barrel roll. "Damn P-O-S clunker!" he mumbled as the enemy drones flew by.

Lyall turned the ship around before the enemy pilots could find him again and he fired a charged shot at the drone trio, cursing when only the middle ship was destroyed and the wingmen only took some slight damage. He had forgotten that the old prototype he had taken was far weaker than the newer models he was trying to help now. "Screw this!" he shouted, and fired a smart bomb at his assailants. The two remaining drones dodged just in the nick of time and the bomb failed to go off when Lyall pressed the remote detonation button.

The smart bomb continued flying and eventually hit the side of the battle cruiser, causing a large hole to appear in the side.

"What the hell?" Falco's voice crackled in through the comm-link.

"Where did that bomb come from?" This time it was a woman's voice.

"Over there! It's… a piece of junk!" said the up-beat pilot.

Lyall looked over and caught sight of the two other pilots who had spoken: one flying a custom Arwing dubbed the Cloudrunner, and the other flying the heavy bomber model dubbed the Bull Frog. That meant the pilots must've been Krystal Fox, the team's newest member, and Slippy Toad, Team Star Fox's mechanic, and son of the genius Beltino Toad. "Hey!" he responded. "I'll have you know I've used this 'piece of junk' to outmaneuver three of the Academy's best graduates; though I do agree."

"Who is this?" The last one responded. It had to be the leader, Fox McCloud: greatest mercenary in all of the Lylat System. He was obviously under a lot of stress, and the lupine realized that any kind of quip would be the wrong thing to say.

"Cadet Lyall Tidus O'Donnell… or I should say ex-cadet. Formerly a member of the Seventh flight squadron of the Cornerian Military Academy, sir!" Lyall responded, the years of discipline smothering his tone and diction. "I noticed the dog-fight from the ground and—," Lyall paused a beat to dodged incoming fire and take out a few drones, then picked up where he left off, "commandeered this ship to offer you my assistance."

Before Fox could respond, the R.O.B. unit gave another, more urgent warning, "The cruiser's main battery is charged and primed to fire. Moving the Great Fox II out of range."

As if on cue, turrets and cannons began to unload on the small group of Arwings, not caring that even the drones were being caught in the fire. Enemy ships were being destroyed left and right.

The team scattered and two of them had to fall back. "Sorry, guys!" Falco groaned. "I gotta get outta here!"

The other, Krystal, was much more urgent. "Ahh! I'm sorry, but I can't take any more!"

"We must destroy the guns if we are to stop this battle cruiser," the R.O.B. unit concluded.

"But can we take on a ship this big by ourselves?" Slippy asked. Even he had lost some of his enthusiasm.

"I don't think we have a choice," Lyall asserted. "Though at the rate these guns are firing at us, they'll need to stop soon."

"Besides," Fox added, with gusto, "we've blown bigger fish outta the sky before!"

"Of course!" Slippy shouted, answering both lupine and vulpine. "How could I have forgotten? So many turrets and cannons firing at once will need to stop, or the ship's core will overheat!"

"So," Fox said, a little grumpy that everybody had pretty much missed his words of encouragement. "We just have to wait out this round and then attack?"

"In theory, yes. But—."

"Then we're gonna take that opening!" and Fox's Arwing II shot forward into the barrage, performing barrel roll after barrel roll to deflect as much of the flak as possible.

"I'm right behind you!" Lyall shouted, grinning, and followed. This time it was Slippy who groaned, and took up the rear.

As the trio advanced towards the enemy's cruiser, the barrage eventually slowed, and then stopped—only to be replaced by the surviving drones. A large beam then came from behind the remaining three pilots, destroying many drones and making contact with the battle cruiser. Lyall listened as Fox and Slippy cheered on their flagship, which was already preparing to fire another shot.

Lyall took the opening created by the GFII and shot ahead of his teammates; however, he suddenly felt his Arwing shake and handling take a dive as an alarm went of and an indicator began flashing red. "Dammit!" he shouted. "The G-Diffuser is fried. I can't… SHIT!" The enemy drones had noticed the old fighter struggling and began to target Lyall, connecting with several shots. One hit the thrusters, and Lyall began careening towards the cruiser—right towards the opening where his bomb had hit earlier.

Oddly enough, the hit to the thrusters had put his G-Diffuser system back into commission, and gave the young wolf an idea. "Hey. Do you think you could get some of this flak off me?"

"Yeah. Why?" Fox questioned.

"If we can't stop this behemoth from the outside, let's do some damage inside!" After that statement, Lyall fired his two remaining smart bombs at the same area where his first had accidentally made contact. Only one hit its target, but the opening was wide enough. Aiming the disabled Arwing as best he could without thrusters, Lyall whispered a quick prayer to every deity he had ever heard of and took a deep breath, bracing for impact while simultaneously drawing his blaster and putting one hand on the eject button.

As soon as the old Arwing made contact with the cruiser's hull, Lyall slammed the eject button and was sent flying into the hallway, not stopping until he slammed into a still intact door. He exhaled only for a brief second before catching his breath again. Lyall'd had about a minute of air. Now he only had about thirty seconds.

To the right was a smashed control module, a piece of shrapnel stuck through the keypad. Normal procedure called for a demo-squad, but there was no time for normal procedure. Lyall aimed his blaster and fired twice—once at the module, which, amazingly, caused the door to open, and once in the direction his first shot had sent him in the zero gravity of space.

Once through the door, Lyall quickly slammed the in tact keypad on the other side, and the door closed. A second later the passage pressurized and Lyall gasped, gulping down fresh air as his lungs demanded oxygen. After that, gravity was restored, and Lyall fell to the floor with a dull thud. Now came the hard part.

Author's Note: End of Part 3. Please review.

Ok, so I've edited it, and added quite a bit. Sorry for such a long hold-up, but it took me a while to get my creative juices flowing… that and Senior year of High School sucks, though I did get some good story-telling tips from my AP Lit class. The conclusion of the prologue will be in two, maybe three more parts, hopefully no more; after that, the main story will start.