6: The Battle of Katina

Disclaimer - I dont own it, no stop asking

Fox was asleep. This was the first thing that struck Peppy as odd. Not only was Fox asleep, but he seemed to be in a dreamless, perhaps even pleasant, sleep. As Peppy watched him, Fox smiled in his sleep, sighing contentedly. Peppy hesitated, wondering if he really wanted to interrupt what might be the first pleasant dream Fox had dreamed in a long, long time.

As it turned out, Peppy didnt have to. The alarm clock did it for him. It had been silent in the room, so the sudden noise made Peppy jump. Fox hit the alarm clock in irritation. Not "Hit" as in "Shut off" but "Hit" as in "Knocked into the wall". Fox groaned, then sat up.

"What're you doing?" He asked in irritation. He never was a morning person. He yawned softly, trying to wake himself up.

"I was coming to wake you up, because we're nearing Katina." Peppy explained. Fox threw on his flight suit and started to head for the hangar. Peppy shouted after him "Fox!"

"Yes?" Fox asked, turning around. Catching the look in his eye, Peppy stuttered.

"N-nothing, Fox." He diverted his eyes. Fox noticed, but didnt care enough to ask about it

.

The Battle began at dawn. The sun was just barely over the horizon when the first wave of Venomian fighters struck Katina's main army base. Swarms of small, quick fighters striking simultaneously. It was obvious that Andross intended to win this battle by sheer numbers. The Star Fox Team made ready. They had to strike soon, or the brunt of Katina's army would be lost. Fox and the others launched just after the Cornerian military. They nose-dived into the atmosphere, their shielding systems glowing red with the friction. When he was about two miles from the ground, Fox shoved the Arwing's controls, forcing it to level out. The rest of his team followed suit. They kept tight formation, quickly dispatching enemy fighters.

"Christ, how many pilots can there be?" Falco asked over the radio as he downed another.

"Keep your mind on the mission, Falco" Peppy replied as they swept over the main structure of Katina's base, rescuing the katinian pilots who were in trouble.

"Star Fox team" Came Fox's voice, "break formation on my mark. 3-2-1" They broke formation at the same moment, going in four different directions.

"Fox? Is that you?" a voice over Fox's radio asked.

"Bill?" Fox sounded elated. He saw Bill's fighter being followed by three enemy fighters. Fox fired three times, and the fighters fell out of the sky.

"Fox, nice to see ya buddy" Bill said happily, leaping back into the fray.

"Reminisce later, we have a battle to win" Peppy shouted at them.

The Problem was that there were enemy fighters everywhere. The sky was thick with them. There were so many that the pilots had to avoid crashing into enemy aircraft. There actually were a few such collisions. Fox weaved his way through the mass of fighters, shooting at any enemy that got in his way.

"There's no end to these guys!" Falco shouted. Fox looked up and saw another wave of fighters approaching.

"Right, here comes the second wave. Get Ready..." Fox looked for friendly units near the second wave of fighters coming at him. "Heads Up!" He shouted, punching the Nova Bomb. The bomb flared from his launcher, flying straight into the center of the enemy formation. There was a massive wave of light and heat, obliterating many of them.

"Fox... as blatantly reckless as usual, I see." A menacing voice said over Fox's channel. A voice Fox recognized all too easily.

"You..."

Wolf O'Donnel punched his fighter's throttle, the other members of his team quickly following suit. "All Aircraft, prepare for sortie." He said. There was a quick report of status by his team.

"This is Andrew, all systems are in the green."

"Leon here, everything's fine"

"Pigma reporting, all systems full power." Peppy, who had been listening in on them in curiosity with his radio, gritted his teeth with rage at the sound of Pigma's voice. Pigma the traitor. Then Wolf was on the radio again, on an open channel so that everyone in the battle could hear it.

"Star Wolf Team, pick your targets." The Star Wolf team broke formation.

"This is Leon, I'll take the bird." Leon's wolfen I streaked after Falco. Falco was surprised by it's speed, but managed to dodge the first barrage of laser fire.

"Pigma here, I'm gonna take my old 'pal' down." Pigma flew sraight at Peppy, and it looked as though the two might collide head on. Then Peppy pulled a quick roll under Pigma and put two laser shots into the bottom of Pigma's fighter.

"Leftovers are fine by me" Andrew muttered, going after Slippy. Slippy dodged, barely, Andrew's first shot, but the second dented his shields.

"That leaves you and I, doesnt it Fox?" Then Wolf Laughed. Fox's eyes widened in what might have been horror. Or possibly rage. With a sharp growl, Fox tore after Wolf, weaving through the enemy fighters as though they werent even there.

Meanwhile, the Cornerian and Katinian fighters were winning the battle... kinda. The enemy fighters havily outnumbered them, but were not all that difficult to down. It wouldnt be long before they were cleared from the sky. Meanwhile, The Star Wolf team and the Star Fox team had their own battle.

Slippy somersaulted over Andrew. Andrew's slower Wolfen I could not match the speed of the move. Slippy was not exactly an expert pilot, and could only get off two shots after pulling off the move. Andrew took one shot in the right wing, the other missed entirely.

Falco and Leon dodged the swirling fighters with expert precision. Leon was on Falco's tail. Falco couldnt help talking to his opponent, the first worthy opponent he'd had in a while.

"I know you... Leon the butcher, right? Battle of Macbeth?" Leon responded in the affirmative. Falco grinned.

"That means I have a personal reason to take you down." He punched his throttle to full, leaving Leon in the dust and performing a quick U-turn. He threw his fighter foreward with reckless abandon. It looked as if he was flying to collide with Leon. Instead he put two shots into the front of Leon's fighter as he blew past, and his shields took several of Leon's hits.

Fox chased Wolf like a cat chasing a mouse, and Wolf loved every second of it. They danced in the sky, an almost beautiful display of sheer skill. Fox's faster Arwing had obvious advantages in dogfighting, but Wolf was just too good to allow that to decide the battle.

Wolf found that there was nowhere to go. Fighters were on all sides, he was boxed in. Fox fired and he couldnt dodge. Swearing under his breath, he took four hits. Most of his systems were showing Red.

"Star Wolf Team, disengage, we've done our Job here." The Star Wolf team pulled out of the battle, but Fox realized that they had, in fact, done what they meant to do. All they had done was pulled Star Fox out of the battle for a while. In that time, the tide had turned. Most of the Katinian fighters were down, and the mothership was approaching. A massive, disk-shaped ship, with four hatches from which the fighters launched.

Fox tore toward the bothership, seeing if he could deal any damage to it and noticing that not even his Nova bombs seemed to damage it.

"ROB, can you fire on this thing?" ROB's voice answered over the radio.

"Negative, dealing significant damage to a ship of that mass from this distance is impossible." Fox swore. He tore across the bottom of the ship, and as one of the hatches opened he put a nova-bomb in it. That must have destroyed that hangar, but there were still three more, and he only had one bomb left.

"Star Fox Team, nova bomb the hatches to prevent them from launching re-enforcements."

Fox went for another hatch, putting his last Nova bomb up it. There were only two hangars left. Falco got one and, big surprise, Slippy got the other.

"We have an energy spike in the enemy mothership, they are charging their primary weapon. Their core is exposed, someone take it out!" Bill shouted. Then added, almost as an afterthought "One minute remaining"

Fox went for the core, firing at it with his blasters. He didnt do any significant damage on his first pass or on his second. "Fuck" he muttered.

"Thirty Seconds"

Fox tried again, this time attacking it from the bottom. He just couldnt seem to deal any damage to the core.

"ten." Fox turned around for one last pass.

"nine." He closed on it, firing the entire time

"eight" He punched the airbrake, slowing him down nearly to the point of falling out of the sky

"Seven." He fired, and fired, and fired. He seemed to be getting through the core's armor

"Six." He passed the core, praying that he had time for one last pass.

"Five" He performed the quickest U-turn he possibly could without crashing

"Four" Firing again, as fast as he could get the blasters to fire.

"Three" He was losing altitude from moving so slowly now

"Two" His blasters were almost in the red, almost overheated

"One" One of Fox's shots went into the core itself. The Core erupted into flames, which began to spread to the rest of the ship. It was exploding from within.

"All units, evacuate! Get out of the way!" Bill shouted.

The Mothership slammed the ground, burning down to it's frame.