Chapter 20:
In the Space Pirate command center in the basement of Mount Coronet, Space Pirate High Command made their final preparations for the defense of Mother Brain. Space Pirate Troopers installed force fields and other barriers to protect the command center, and Mother Brain. They even removed the power core from the now destroyed Heavy Freighter and used it as an alternative power source for the force fields and other defenses that were being installed. In addition to the force fields, the troopers were installing automated defense turrets as quickly as possible, along with a few Vigilance-class turrets as well. Mother Brain watched from her stasis tank as the Space Pirate Troopers were hard at work. They were down thirteen hands, for High Command had given General Weavel the order to prepare the evacuation transport for departure since the base had already been compromised. Mother Brain had not approved of this action. She had a feeling that they had taken the rash action of fueling the sole remaining warp capable transport and preparing it for takeoff should Samus manage to overrun the command center. High Command had disagreed with her sentiments. They felt that even if they did manage to defeat Samus Aran in a battle, that the Galactic Federation, Galactic Federation in Exile, or Earth's military, itself, would send a force to deal with them; and given the reports that were coming in, chances were that if Earth attacked, that the Space Pirates would quickly be overrun. The problem, that Mother Brain saw, was the fact that the transport was located on the other side of a small underground lake, with only a single bridge giving quick access to the ship. In addition, it was far enough away so that it would take at least a few minutes to walk to it. One way or the other, she and the other Pirates of High Command would have to take a stand against Samus, assuming that either Ridley, or her parents, did not kill her first. Still, regardless of Samus's fate, they were going to evacuate anyway.
While the other Pirates were setting up the defenses, the members of High Command sat in the command center's tactical chamber, looking over the reports and the map of the base that appeared on the various computer screens. They noted that there was severe damage to the upper levels of the base and that the technology had likely either been destroyed or heavily damaged. In a few short hours, the Space Pirates had gone from having a working base, all the way to having to scrap for survival and hope that the Federation ships did not shoot them down when they fled the base. They checked the automated life force scanners and radio transmitters of Ridley and the two Techno Lords and saw that the transmitters and scanners had gone dark for the two Techno Lords. Since the transmitters had been installed on the robotic spiders that were used to control the Lords, they did not know whether this was the result of the two human slaves dying in battle, or Samus managing to free them of their control, but regardless, they had lost the two Techno Lords. Ridley's scanners were sending back conflicting readings. His life force sensors indicated that he was hanging on by the thinnest of threads, while his radio transmitter had gone completely silent. Opening a channel to Ridley, one of the Commanders blurted, "Ridley. Ridley, do you copy?"
They waited at the station for a response, which came quickly. "This is General Weavel," the voice over the radio answered. "Ridley has been grievously wounded in battle and has been taken onboard the transport. He was in critical condition and is not expected to survive without first-class medical aid. To try to stave off his potential death, we have placed him in a stasis chamber until we can get some medics over to try to see him. How goes the rest of the defense?"
"We're managing, for now," the Commander responded. "Can you spare any of your troops?"
"Yes, sir," Weavel answered. "I can spare all of them if you need me to."
"Send them over immediately," the High Commander ordered. "We'll need them for the defense since it seems like Samus will soon be coming for us."
"Understood, sir," Weavel replied.
With that, the channel was closed. Now all the Pirates of High Command could do was wait for the Hunter to arrive, and hope that center's defenses, the fifty-five Pirates defending Pirates, and Mother Brain would be enough to destroy Samus. If it was not, then the legacy of the Space Pirates would end in the basement of this alien mountain.
Samus rode the elevator down to the basement level of the mountain, watching gray lines pass as she continued to descend further into the subterranean passages of the mountain. Looking at the metal walls, she suspected that these passages had been excavated by the Space Pirates. She checked her status and saw that she only had four Energy Tanks remaining, along with no missiles, six Power Bombs, and eight Power Missiles. The battle against her parents and Ridley had significantly drained her resources.
Eventually, the elevator reached the basement floor and came to a halt, its hum coming to a stop upon reaching the bottom. Sure enough, just as her parents had said, there was a recharge station close to the elevator. By the appearance of the lights, it still seemed to be fully functional. Stepping off the elevator, she looked around. The cavern was incredibly spacious, with a large amount of room for fighting, and even for flight, should there be any Space Pirate Aerotroopers. After she had looked around for a bit, she made her way to the station. Activating her Scan Visor, she scanned the recharge station, just to make sure that it was not a trap. It was not. She then stepped into the station and a wall of energy erupted from the floor, to the overhead roof of the station. She felt a refreshing sensation wash over her as her Energy Tanks, Missile Tanks, Power Bomb Tanks, and even her Power Missile Tank was refilled. After a few seconds, she was fully reenergized and rearmed. After she was fully recharged and rearmed, she exited the station and followed her map to the Space Pirate command center, and her expected battle with Mother Brain.
Not too far away from Samus, Space Pirate High Command watched the screens from inside their command center for any signs of the bounty hunter. The High Commanders, however, were not all that thrilled with the prospect of having to fight Samus, though, and were weighing the potential benefits and liabilities of doing so.
"She's all alone down here, and we outnumber her over fifty-to-one," one of the High Commanders shouted to the rest as they were arguing among themselves as to the plan of attack.
"And has shown that that doesn't matter at all," another High Commander retorted. "Need I tell you what she did to our comrades a few floors up?"
"It won't be the same, this time," the first Commander insisted. "We have Mother Brain!"
"You speak as if Mother Brain will be the deciding factor in this fight," another High Commander commented. "You sound like one of her cheerleaders," he scoffed.
"And you should be more respectful towards our strongest weapon," the first High Commander retorted.
"Why should we not be concerned?" another asked. "We have been unable to complete Mother Brain's android body, which means that she won't have the added power of the zero point battery we managed to steal from the N'Kren convoy we raided shortly before the Battle of Urtraghus."
Before the argument could drag on, though, one of the Space Pirate Troopers manning the sensor console spotted Samus on the screen emerging from the recharge station and blurted, "The Hunter has arrived! The Hunter has arrived! She's coming!"
"She's here!" another Pirate corrected as he saw Samus charging towards the first line of the Space Pirate defenses.
The rest of Pirate High Command looked over at the Pirate Troopers who were manning the consoles and saw Samus coming. She had come sooner than expected. "Alert Mother Brain and tell her to prepare for combat. The rest of you, get to your security posts. Squad One, you're to begin the evacuation of the base, immediately. Leave everything behind that we can afford to lose. Make sure, however, that you get the backup copy of Mother Brain's personality and her knowledge. In addition, take the DNA samples of Kraid and Ridley to the transport. We need to ensure that we manage to save them, so we can clone Kraid, and possibly Ridley as well, just in case," he added softly. "Also, tell Weavel that we can use his help in the evacuation as well. The rest of us will try to stop Samus, along with Mother Brain."
"Understood, sir," the Pirate Trooper responded.
The Pirates then rose from their stations and left the command center to carry out their orders. As they did so, the five High Commanders glanced at each other and the first High Commander said, "Call in all Pirates that aren't evacuating all essential matériel and DNA samples for cloning so that the Space Pirates could rebuild their forces. Tell them that we need them to make their last stand against the Hunter. We have to hold her off as long as possible so that those with the necessary knowledge will be able to escape and rebuild the Space Pirate army."
"Understood," the other High Commanders stated somberly. They then went about their duty, leaving the command center and heading towards Mother Brain, in the hope that they, combined with the organic supercomputer, would be able to stop Samus, once and for all.
Not too far away from the command center, Samus charged forward towards the Pirate command center, coming across two automated defense turrets as its first line of defense. The turrets zeroed in on Samus and began firing a series of blue energy pulses her way. She danced around the turrets' aim as she Seeing these turrets as nothing more than annoyances, she selected her Wave Beam and charged her beam as she continuously remained mobile, making it difficult for the targeting systems of the turret to get an accurate lock. She then fired on the turret. The trio of purple pulses almost instantaneously struck the turret and electricity arced across its metal form. The Charged Wave Beam caused the turret to malfunction and it spun around, firing wildly in all directions. Samus crouched so as to avoid any stray shots that may have come her way. After a few seconds of continuous fire, the turret exploded into a thousand metallic fragments. She repeated the process with the second turret. Just as with the first one, upon suffering a hit from Samus's Wave Beam, the turret spun out of control, wildly firing in all directions. After a few seconds, it, too, exploded in a shower of shrapnel.
The bounty hunter charged forward towards the command center in the distance, but came across an unexpected defense in the form of a force field. She skidded to a halt before colliding with the energy barrier. Not seeing a clear way to lower the force field, she activated her Scan Visor and scanned it. The scan came back, reading, Force field. A powerful force field produced from multiple micro power generators located on the floor. Shooting the generators will result in the lowering of the force field. Use Wave Beam for best results.
Samus searched for the reactors, which she soon spotted on the left wall and the right wall. She raised her arm cannon to the generator along the left wall and charged her Wave Beam. She then fired on the generator and disabled it with a single shot. She then targeted the generator on the right wall and disabled that one in turn as well. She then switched to her Plasma Beam and destroyed both generators with a Charged Shot for each. She then marched forward, and to the next force field. She followed the same procedure that she had done for the first force field, and soon, the second force field collapsed as well.
As she approached the third force field, she noticed that this area was filled with more automated defense turrets. These turrets, however, did not fire energy pulses, but explosive slugs. The slugs, if they managed to connect with Samus, would only inflict minimal damage to her suit, but when dealing with Mother Brain, every little bit of energy would be vital. She targeted the closest of the turrets and unleashed a charged Plasma blast towards the turret. The turret was melted by the plasma and only a glowing pile of slag remained, which fell from the ceiling and onto the floor. She then systematically destroyed the rest of the turrets in this area. Once they were destroyed, she focused on lowering the force field.
She approached the blue translucent energy barrier and could see the metal structure that was the Space Pirate command center. She tried to glance past the structure to see if there was any sign of Mother Brain or any of the other members of High Command. She did, however, spot the forms of several Space Pirate Troopers, though. She then backed away from the force field and promptly destroyed the other generators just as she had with the previous two.
Once the force field was down, she surged forward. The last line of defense came in the form of a quartet of Vigilance-class turrets. Four Space Pirate Troopers jumped into the turrets, causing the massive gray cannons to sprout from the ground and turn to face the bounty hunter. Samus immediately went evasive as the four turrets opened fire on her. Massive green energy blasts erupted from the turrets and streaked towards Samus. The first for missed her entirely, but their strikes against the ground created massive explosions that rivaled her Super Missiles in firepower. However, she was too far away from the blasts to sustain any damage. Still, she realized that with four cannons, it would only be a matter of time before one of them got lucky and inflicted some real damage to her. She needed to get rid of those turrets as quickly as possible. That task, however, was made more difficult by the appearance of the five remaining Space Pirate High Commanders.
She grimaced as she had to avoid the incoming fire from the five Space Pirate Commanders, in addition to the Vigilance-class turrets. The High Commanders opened fire on Samus, unleashing a hail of energy fire her way. She leapt into a Screw Attack and deflected the fire, sustaining no damage. The plasma blasts from the turrets exploded against her Screw Attack shields, but they were unharmed. She retaliated by surging towards the Space Pirate Commanders, using them for cover as she began to target the Vigilance-class turrets. The Space Pirates scattered from her, giving her a moment to focus on one of the turrets. She uncurled herself and charged her Wave Beam, hoping that it would have the same effect on the stronger Vigilance-class turrets that it would have on the automated defense turrets. She fired on the turret and the three undulating purple pulses collided with the turret, electricity arcing across its form. Just like the automated defense turret, the Vigilance-class turret began to spin around, firing uncontrollably in random directions. The Pirate operator did his best to keep the turret from firing on the troopers, but in his attempt to regain control of the turret, he fixed its location towards his own forces. The turret then unleashed blast after blast into Space Pirate High Command. One of the Commanders sustained a direct hit and was blown apart by the emerald energy blast.
Seeing that the turret was out of control, the rest of High Command turned their weapons on the disabled turret and fired on it. In the interest of self-preservation, and potential mercy from the Federation for "betraying" his people, he continued to fire on High Command, obliterating another Commander, and scattering the rest, forcing them to move away from the turret and go evasive in order to avoid its fire. This forced them to rely on the other turrets to deal with Samus.
Seeing her chance to divide the Space Pirate defenders, she targeted the second of the Vigilance turrets and unleashed a Charged Wave Beam shot at it. The blast struck the turret and, just like the first turret, the second turret began to spin around and fire randomly all over the place. Unlike the operator of the first turret, though, this Pirate decided to not attempt to regain control of the turret, instead, allowing it to fire randomly and hope for the best, not wanting to risk locking it into firing towards any of the surviving members of High Command. Unfortunately, he had the bad luck of one of his own energy blasts firing on one of the surviving High Commanders and blowing him apart with a single energy blast. His only saving grace was that his random fire forced Samus to be on her guard as well.
This did it for the operators of the other two turrets. They swiveled their turrets towards the malfunctioning turrets and with single energy bolts, destroyed them, killing the Pirates inside. However, this took their attention away from Samus, who punished them with charged blasts from her Wave Beam. She fired on the first turret and electricity arced across the turret as soon as the Wave Beam blast hit it. The turret spun out of control, firing randomly. The Pirate operator, knowing the fate of his comrades, wasted no time trying to regain control of the turret or sitting inside the malfunctioning weapon. He dove out of the turret before either his commanders, or his comrade in the other turret, killed him when they destroyed the turret. The Space Pirates could not catch a break, though, for as soon as he dove away from the turret, the turret spun towards him and fired a single emerald energy blast. The unfortunate Pirate Trooper was vaporized by the blast as it hit him in the back and exploded.
Samus then focused on the remaining turret, firing her Wave Beam on the turret. The trio of purple pulses left her arm cannon and streaked towards the turret. As the beam hit, electricity arced across the turret and it began to spin out of control and fire in random directions. Samus took this opportunity to switch to her Plasma Beam and charge her beam. Once it was charged, she opened fire on the out of control turret, destroying it after three charged shots.
Once the turrets had been destroyed, she focused her attention towards the two remaining High Commanders. The Commanders, seeing that they were without any remaining support, decided that it would be best to retreat and fight alongside Mother Brain and the rest of the support behind them, which had neglected to come forward to support the Pirates when the turrets had started going haywire. Samus pursued the Pirates, making her way past the abandoned command center. As they were fleeing the hunter, they occasionally turned around to take a few potshots at Samus, but none of them hit. She returned the favor with several blasts from her Wave Beam, hoping to short out their armor. The tracking blasts managed to strike one of the Pirates, phasing through his shields and striking his armor, disabling the armor suit and neutralizing the shields. Electricity arced across his body, but he continued to lug his form towards their final fallback point. The other Pirate High Commander did nothing to help his comrade, though, as Samus locked onto him, switched to her Power Beam, and charged it. Once the beam was charged, she fired a Super Missile at the Pirate. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and rocketed towards the Pirate. It struck him in the back and blew him apart, pieces of metal being propelled outward from the center of the explosion. Only one High Commander was left, not counting the gravely wounded Ridley and Mother Brain, who was still regarded more as an organic supercomputer than the Space Pirate leader that she had been on Zebes.
She continued to pursue the final High Commander until he arrived close to the edge of an underground lake. There, Mother Brain's stasis chamber sat. Surrounding the chamber were almost three-dozen Space Pirate Troopers, with several Commandos joining the group. Once he arrived, the Pirate High Commander turned back around to face Samus and grinned. "You've fallen into our trap, Hunter," he boasted. "With Mother Brain and the rest of our forces backing me up, you're gonna die, right here, right now."
Samus could only grin. She had them. She could end it all right now. All she had to do was take out Mother Brain and the rest of the Pirates here. She focused her gaze on Mother Brain and scanner her, the scan coming back, Morphology – Mother Brain. Subject is an organic supercomputer cloned from the original Chozo organic supercomputer located on Zebes. Subject is encased in a stasis tank that is powered by a zero point micro-reactor and is protected by shields invulnerable all but the strongest of anti-vehicle weaponry.
Not caring about holding back against the Pirates, and knowing that she would need a lot of power to penetrate the shield protecting Mother Brain, she readied a Power Missile and did not bother to zero in on any particular Pirate, merely aiming the missile at Mother Brain's stasis chamber. Once she was lined up with Mother Brain's chamber, she unleashed the Power Missile upon it. The missile rocketed from her cannon and streaked forward towards the chamber. Several Pirate Troopers ducked so as to avoid taking the missile to their own chests. It did them little good, though, for the missile was as powerful as a tactical nuclear bomb. It struck the shields of Mother Brain's stasis chamber and detonated in a sphere of fire. Samus Screw Attacked backwards, just to make sure that if the blast washed over her, that she would be uninjured. The Space Pirates, however, were not so fortunate. The sole remaining High Commander and two-dozen Space Pirate Troopers and Commandos were instantly annihilated in the explosion. Those who were on the edges of the blast suffered far less than the unfortunate Pirates closer to the point of impact, but were severely injured, some of them fatally. As for Mother Brain, the shields of her stasis tank collapsed due to the Power Missile's detonation and the glass had multiple cracks in it, but the glass did not shatter. A single missile would be sufficient to break the cracked glass and allow her to start inflicting damage on the brain, though. Mother Brain focused her eye on Samus, waiting for the point where she would shatter the tube, and the two enemies would be able to exchange fire with one another. As for the rest of the Pirates, those who were uninjured, or were only slightly wounded decided that they had no chance against Samus and the Commandos, who had taken command of the Pirates, commanded, "All Space Pirate forces, retreat to the transport! We have to get out of here, now!"
The surviving Space Pirates had no problem following the order and gave up the fight, fleeing from Samus so as to try to escape. Samus, however, was not so willing to let them go. She fired a Super Missile after the first batch of fleeing Pirates, locking onto their leader, a Commando, before firing. The missile struck the Commando and blew him apart. The rest of his squad was bunched close together, so they were also caught in the blast. Four other Space Pirate Troopers were killed by the Super Missile, with five others suffering moderate to severe wounds. The rest of the Space Pirates continued to retreat, many of them stopping to pick up some the survivors because they were members of Science Team and would be vital to the efforts of the survivors in recreating the Space Pirate forces. Still, four Space Pirate Commandos still remaining with Mother Brain to support her while the other survivors retreated.
As soon as the other Pirates began retreating, the Pirate Commandos laid down covering fire, unleashing vicious volleys of energy bolts and EMP grenades at Samus. She deftly dodged the incoming fire and retaliated by switching to her Ice Beam. She targeted the lead Pirate Commando and fired the Charged Ice blast. The blast of ice rocketed towards the Pirate and froze him solid upon impact. Knowing that the Pirate would remain frozen for some time, though, she targeted another Commando with her Ice Beam, and opened fire once it was charged. The second Pirate was soon frozen and now was the time that Samus decided to shatter the two frozen Pirates. Locking onto the two Pirates, she unleashed two missiles from her arm cannon. The missiles zeroed in on their targets and shattered them. As the Pirates were shattered, what looked to be a pack of missiles appeared over their shattered forms. Samus did not draw them in yet, though. She wanted to deal with the other Pirates before rearming herself.
As she was firing on the two frozen Pirates, the two unfrozen Pirate Commandos charged her using their dash jet systems and deployed their energy scythes, taking swipes at Samus in an attempt to weaken her shields. She managed to evade their attempts to kill her, charging her Ice Beam as they attempted to cleave her in half, and retaliated by freezing one of them solid. Once the Pirate was frozen solid, she shattered him with a single missile. Like the first two, this Pirate also had a missile pack rise above his head.
Samus quickly turned her attention towards the sole remaining Pirate and charged her Ice Beam once more. As she charged her beam, the Pirate activated his dash jet system once more in an attempt to charge her and damage her. She let loose her Ice Beam just as he was nearing her and she had to dive out of the way to avoid the now frozen Space Pirate as he fell to the ground but, seemingly miraculously, did not shatter. Samus caused the miracle to be short-lived as she fired a missile at the Pirate and promptly shattered him. The final Pirate also had a pack of missiles rise from his body. That left only Mother Brain for her to deal with.
Samus turned to face the brain and fired a single missile at the stasis tank. The missile leapt from her arm cannon and streaked towards the tank, Mother Brain making no reaction one way or the other. The missile struck the tank and blew a hole in the tank, shattering the front of the tank and sending in shards of glass to the brain, causing her to be pierced by some of the shards, fluids leaking from the breaches. The brain gave a slight groan at the injuries and closed her eye to focus on attack. Samus used this opportunity to turn back to the missile packs that had risen from the fallen Pirates and tractor them in by charging her Power Beam. As she charged her beam, the missile packs were drawn into her suit. Once they made contact, they were integrated into her missile complement and her missile total was brought back up to two hundred and fifty.
Once she was fully armed, she targeted Mother Brain and unleashed her Super Missile just as Mother Brain opened her eye to unleash a blue energy wave from her eye. Before the brain could release the attack, though, Samus's Super Missile collided with the eye, inflicting significant damage to it. Samus did not stop there, though. She charged another Super Missile and let loose at Mother Brain once more. Again, the missile struck the area of the eye, which was closed but made not difference since the missile still inflicted damage to the brain. With Mother Brain suffering damage to the eye, she was unable to focus on launching an attack on Samus. She was defenseless before the bounty hunter, who took advantage of her weakness by charging another Super Missile and unleashing it on her. Samus repeated the process several times, each missile not only inflicting damage to the organic supercomputer, but also to the tank, itself. The entire backside of the tank was soon blown out and the top part of the tank merely sat on Mother Brain's top. After a few more Super Missiles, the brain had had enough. After a final Super Missile was unleashed at the brain and connected, a series of explosions rang out around Mother Brain. The stasis tank collapsed and the brain fell to the floor, there to sit for a few seconds.
Over near the warp-capable evacuation transport, General Weavel ushered the last of the Space Pirate survivors onboard, some of them missing limbs, and other, more grievously wounded troopers, being carried onboard by other comrades. All in all, though, there were only a handful of troopers to be carried onboard a transport that had the capability of holding a hundred Space Pirate Troopers plus equipment. Looking through his visor, along with a Space Pirate Commando into the distance as Mother Brain's capsule exploded and the brain fell to the floor. While they knew that the battle was far from over, they both glanced at each other and nodded solemnly. Turning to go back into the transport, they went over to one of the surviving members of Science Team and asked, "Did you place the timed subspace bomb?"
The Science Trooper nodded. "Yeah, we set it before the call to arms against the Hunter. How are things going?"
"Terrible," the Commando said flatly.
"Get everyone onboard," Weavel commanded. "I'm assuming command until Ridley is fit to be able to resume his command."
The Pirates nodded and ushered everyone onboard, save for the Science Trooper. He gazed at the Science Trooper and told him, "Set the planet killer bomb now. Set it for a five minute detonation."
"Understood, sir," the Science Trooper responded. He then went down to set the massive bomb that was situated in a hole beneath the transport. Once he sat the bomb to five minutes, he flicked the switch and ran back onto the transport as quickly as possible. The moment he stepped on the boarding ramp, it began to close. Once the trooper was onboard, Weavel called to the command crew, "Alright, everyone's onboard. Get us the hell out of here!"
The Space Pirate transport then lifted off the ground, precious seconds ticking away as Samus and Mother Brain continued their battle. Pointing the ship towards the roof, the transport unleashed a volley of blue energy pulses at the ceiling. The pulses blew a hole in the ceiling large enough to fly the transport through. For a fleeting moment, the command crew of the transport considered opening fire on Samus on the off chance that they would be able to kill her or inflict serious damage to her. They declined the chance for fear of not inflicting sufficient damage and also destroying Mother Brain in the process. In addition, Samus had a Power Missile that was capable of damaging them and they did not want to draw attention to themselves, for fear that Samus would shoot them down if they did not kill her with the first shot. The shot through the hole in the ceiling and proceeded to rocket upwards, blasting their way through the ceilings of the other levels. Eventually, they came to the top level of the mountain and, seeing that there was already a hole for them to fly through, rocketed through the hole and into the sky.
Once they were in the sky, the pilot reported to Weavel, "We're clear of the mountain."
"Check for any signs of Federation activity," the general commanded.
The co-pilot immediately glanced down at his sensors and replied, "Sir, we're detecting a single Cornerian Arwing-class starfighter, along with a Landmaster Tank sitting outside one of the exits." Checking his sensors again, the Pirate Trooper amended, "Sir, I'm also detecting a Federation Heavy Assault Shuttle, along with two skiffs and half a dozen atmospheric fighters, Hellcat-class, on long-range sensors. They're still a few minutes away. We should be well away by the time they reach the mountain and detect our ion trail."
"Keep me posted and redirect power to rear shields should they come after us. As for now, get us into orbit. Once we clear the gravity well, jump us to warp."
"Yes, sir," the pilot and co-pilot answered.
The craft continued to rocket through the atmosphere, doing its best to not attract attention to itself. Long-range sensors indicated multiple air battles taking place in the Earth's atmosphere between Federation starfighters, and Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile aero-and-starfighters. The Earth and Federation in Exile fighters were more than holding their own against the Galactic Federation, getting the better part of every exchange, both in numbers, as well as percentages of forces lost. The Space Pirates did not know whether to be happy or concerned, for while they hated the Galactic Federation, during the reign of Keaton, and especially during the reigns of Elric and Cyrus, they had managed to get infiltrators into the Galactic Federation. However, they had been notoriously unable to do so with the Galactic Federation in Exile, or Earth. In fact, it had been the Galactic Federation in Exile that had crippled the Space Pirates, in addition to finding the infiltrators and traitors inside the Federation, with the exception of Cyrus, and eliminate them.
Soon broke through the atmosphere and approached the planetary shields, preparing to go to warp in order to breach them. The problem was that due to the fact that their sensors were cut off, they would have to revert back to normal space and calculate another jump before being able to escape the system, and given what the long-range sensors were telling them. Weavel kept checking his timer, and saw that there were less than two minutes remaining on the countdown clock for the Earth's destruction. Once they were ready to jump, a subspace window opened and the ship accelerated on through.
Not far beyond the orbit of Earth, another subspace window opened and the Space Pirate transport reverted back into normal space, in the middle of an exchange of fire between the Galactic Federation in Exile fleet and the Federation starfleet off in the distance. None of the ships of either side were visible, though, and only a wave of Federation starfighters was the physical evidence of the battle, besides the scarlet, green, and blue energy bolts being exchanged between the two fleets.
"Calculate a jump to an inhabitable unoccupied planet, now!" Weavel cried as the laser blasts were getting closer. Several starfighters flew past the Pirate transport but did not open fire. Given the fact that they were of the Rapier-class, Weavel suspected that they were Galactic Federation starfighters, especially since they did not fire on his transports.
Just then, the co-pilot cried, "Sir, we've got incoming missiles coming from behind!"
The pilot immediately went evasive, but none of the missiles followed them. Instead, the Federation fighters were the targets of the missiles, and many of them exploded off in the distance. Just then, bright flash lit up the view port a millisecond after a scarlet energy lance lashed out into the distance. One of the Federation ships had been destroyed. The Space Pirates paid no attention to the fate of the Federation warship beyond visual range as they continued to calculate their next warp jump. Just then, they saw missile flash past the cockpit of their transport and head towards a large Federation Claymore-class bomber. The missile struck port side of the craft, breaching its shields and shearing off a wing. Pieces of metal flew off of the craft and electrical sparks and smoke trailed the craft. The craft careened out of control towards the boxy Space Pirate transport. Weavel noticed the incoming bomber and cried to the pilot, "Watch out!" But it was too late.
The ship then lurched, knocking Weavel to the ground, as sparks erupted from the weapons console, either killing or severely injuring the Pirate Trooper that had been manning it. Weavel quickly stood back up and looked over at the pilot and co-pilot, both of who were strapped into their chairs. "Damage!" he cried.
"Damage to upper rear quadrant of the ship. One of our engines has been destroyed. Our makeshift sickbay is gone, and casualties have been reported."
"Can we still jump?"
"Yes," the pilot replied. "But it won't be a long jump, and it will be slow."
"Do it and take us as far away from here as possible," Weavel commanded.
"Understood, sir," the pilot replied. The ship then opened an unstable subspace window, and jumped to warp. As they jumped, Weavel gave a grimace. With the additional casualties, things were looking even grimmer than before. And if the casualties were from Science Team, or Medical Team, then the prospects of rebuilding the Space Pirates were looking grim.
During the Pirates' escape from Earth, Samus watched as Mother Brain began to rise from the floor and float. The brain looked even more organic than she had remembered from previous battles. Still, there were several technological components that made her reminiscent of Aurora Unit 313. Most notably, she had four spikes deployed to either side of her head. The brain issued a sinister laugh and opened her single eye, focusing it on Samus. Samus took this opportunity to scan the brain, her scan coming back, reading, Morphology – Mother Brain. Outside of her stasis tank, her weakness, her cerebellum, has been exposed. Attacks include four yellow laser attacks fired from mechanical spikes to either side of her head, a Laser Brain attack from her central eye, and an energy wave that is emanated from a deployed node.
Mother Brain tilted her eye down at Samus and said, "The time has come for you to die, my child. Regardless of the outcome of this battle, you will not survive."
Samus merely grinned. Mother Brain was arrogant, and she would make sure that it would cost the brain her life. Just then, a voice rang out around the cavern, alerting everyone here, "Time bomb set. Escape immediately!" A countdown clock then appeared, showing that Samus had five minutes to find the bomb and either disarm it, or evacuate the mountain. Opening a channel to her parents, she told them, "Mom, Dad, evacuate the mountain now! The Space Pirates have set a time bomb and it's scheduled to go off in five minutes. I'll try to disarm it, but don't hold your breaths."
A moment of silence passed before her parents responded, "We copy, Samus. Good luck."
She then closed the channel and turned when she heard the engines of a Space Pirate Transport roar. She saw the craft lift off from the ground across the lake and rocket towards the ceiling. She also caught a glimmer of metal and went closer to the shore to get a good look at the metal. Activating her Scan Visor once more, she scanned the device, her scan coming back, Object – Planet killer bomb. A bomb of N'Kren technology and design that opens a rift in subspace on a planet and destabilizes its core, causing it to explode. Raw power of said bomb allows it to be deployed in subterranean areas and still have the desired effect of either destroying a planet, or severely damaging it so as to render the undamaged portions uninhabitable. Also carries reactants to aid in a planet's total destruction.
This was bad. Checking her clock, Samus only had four minutes and forty-five seconds to get to the bomb and disarm it, or somehow send it away. She then remembered the N'Kren emergency teleportation device and hope entered her heart. She had a way to get rid of the bomb even if she could not disarm it. She rushed over to the bridge so she could get to the bomb and try to disarm it so she would not have to transport the bomb to the N'Kren flagship, but Mother Brain intercepted her, hovering before her. "I'm sorry, hatchling, but I cannot let you disarm or remove the bomb," Mother Brain mocked in an arrogant tone.
"You fool!" Samus retorted loudly. "You'll die too if that bomb goes off."
"But you'll be dead, Samus," Mother Brain countered coolly. "And besides, I was sentenced to death the moment the Space Pirate Transport took off."
Mother Brain then closed her eye and particulates of energy were being drawn into her. "Oh no," Samus said softly in dread as she leapt into a Screw Attack, knowing what was to come. Somersaulting towards the bridge, Mother Brain lowered herself to Samus's level, and then opened her eye, unleashing her Laser Brain energy stream. A rainbow cone of energy erupted from Mother Brain's eye and engulfed Samus, who was using her Screw Attack to protect herself. She knew that she was not going to be able to block the entirety of the blast, but she hoped to limit the damage and not have all of her ammunition drained by the attack like she did the last time she encountered this attack. So far, her Screw Attack shields were holding firm against the attack. Energy managed to bleed through the shields, but the damage suffered by Samus was less than half of what she suffered when having to endure a direct hit of her parents' energy streams on her Screw Attack shields. When the attack was over, she had only lost forty units of energy, as opposed to the full Energy Tank that her parents had drained from her.
Upon seeing that Samus was still standing and had suffered only minimal damage, Mother Brain swore, "Damn. Only a small fraction of the energy from the attack leaked through her Screw Attack shields." That did not deter her from preparing another attack. However, Samus had other plans. Focusing on Mother Brain's eye, she charged her Light Beam, seeing that since the missile had proven marvelously effective against someone like Ridley, that an organism as evil as Mother Brain would also be severely damaged as well if she sustained a direct hit. Once her Light Beam was charged, she fired a single charged blast at the eye. A pulse of golden light erupted from her arm cannon and traveled at the speed of light towards Mother Brain's eye. The light scored a direct hit on Mother Brain's eye and the brain cried out in agony, roaring and quivering as it fell to the ground, listing forward. The eye immediately closed and the brain blindly writhed and lashed out, firing numerous yellow laser beams from the spikes protruding from her sides. "Damn you Samus!" she cried out in pain and rage as golden light shown around the brain, inflicting damage despite not hitting her in her weak spot. Samus could only grin as she began to wonder if she was dreaming. There was no way it should be this easy to beat Mother Brain outside of her stasis tank.
She ran around to the rear of the brain and targeted her cerebellum. Charging her Light Beam, she prepared to fire a Light Missile in the hopes of inflicting tremendous damage to the organic supercomputer. Once her beam was charged, she fired the Light Missile at the brain's weak point. The ends of the arm cannon opened and the projectile rocketed out of her cannon at supersonic speeds. The missile scored a direct hit on the cerebellum and exploded in a display of light that was twice as powerful as a Super Missile in base power. However, the resulting damage to Mother Brain was far more severe than two mere Super Missiles. Since the brain was evil and had betrayed the benevolent Chozo species, forcing them off of Zebes and giving the planet to the Space Pirates, the Light Missile inflicted almost as much damage to her as it had to Ridley. Samus watched as a fifth of Mother Brain's life was depleted from the bar. Not only that, but the brain was rendered immobile due to the light's effect of stunning her as well. This gave Samus free reign to charge another Light Missile without having to fear any retaliation. Once the missile was charged, she opened fire once more. The missile struck Mother Brain's cerebellum and the brain cried out again in protest.
Mother Brain struggled to ascend and launch a counterattack against Samus, but it was to no avail. The bounty hunter's Light Missiles had her pinned, and without any Space Pirate support, she was defenseless. She felt another thump, and a burning sensation as the light spread across her entire form and a golden gleam surrounded her. She swore at the hunter once again. "Have you no honor Samus? Attacking an enemy while she's down."
Samus's only answer came in the form of another Light Missile. By now, she had taken Mother Brain down to only one fifth of her original health. Checking on her countdown clock, she saw that she had less than three minutes and twenty seconds to get to the bomb and disarm it. She considered making a dash for the bomb now, but she remembered that Mother Brain still had her Laser Brain attack, and would use it once she recovered, not caring about her own safety if it also doomed Samus in the process. Seeing that one more Light Missile would do the trick, Samus charged her Light Beam one more time.
Miraculously, Mother Brain managed to recover and rose, preparing one last Laser Brain attack. Before doing so, though, she issued forth four laser beams from the spikes, zeroing in on Samus, hoping to stop her from charging her last Light Missile. The beams were initially off their mark, allowing Samus to move around, evading them, and focus on Mother Brain's cerebellum. Once she had locked onto Mother Brain's cerebellum, and charged her Light Beam, she fired just as Mother Brain unleashed her Laser Brain attack and was about to sweep it towards Samus, and the planet killer bomb. The Laser Brain wave created a massive rend in the basement walls, causing the collapse of the ceiling in those areas. While Mother Brain swept her destruction wave around in the hopes of scoring a hit on Samus and inflicting severe damage to her, the missile tracked her cerebellum as she spun. The missile scored a direct hit just before her beam was about ninety degrees to Samus's position. As the missile exploded, Mother Brain was bathed in a massive glow of light and disintegrated in midair, screaming in agony for the few seconds she was still alive. Her scream faded as she did, along with the last shimmers of light. After her destruction, Mother Brain's form was replaced with numerous missiles, even a Power Missile, along with a few Red Energy Capsules. Charging her Light Beam, Samus drew in the missiles and Energy Capsules. Once they touched her and were integrated into her suit, completely restoring her energy and ammunition, she ran towards the bridge and crossed it, making her way over to the bomb. She activated her Scan Visor so she would have a clear image of the bomb as she crossed the bridge.
Once she arrived on the other side, she quickly located the bomb went over to it. Stooping down, she noted that there were two minutes and forty-five seconds before the bomb was scheduled to detonate. She scanned the device with her Scan Visor, in an attempt to shut it off, but the scan came back, reading, Subspace bomb of N'Kren and Chozo design. Computer security systems make it immune to hacking. Countdown cannot be stopped once initiated.
Crud, Samus though harshly. This was not what she needed. She saw the emergency teleportation unit that was still attached to her suit and grabbed it; quickly scanning it to make sure that it had not been damaged in the recent battles. Upon seeing that it was undamaged and functioning normally, she opened a channel to Admiral Dane onboard the G.F.S. Olympus. She told him, "Admiral Dane, this is Samus Aran. What is the status of your fleet at the moment? Repeat; this is Samus Aran to Admiral Dane. What is the status of your fleet right now?"
Onboard the G.F.S. Olympus, Admiral Dane stood on the bridge as the first volley of a new round of fighting had been fired. The fleet had been pushed back close to the Earth's planetary shields and could fall back no farther. It would only be a matter of time before the vastly superior numbers that the current Galactic Federation fleet possessed would reach firing range and begin opening up on the Federation in Exile fleet and the Defense Grid of Earth. As he was about to order another volley of energy cannon fire, the voice of Lieutenant Gates rang out over the bridge, towards Admiral Dane and said, "Sir, there's a transmission coming in for you. It's from Samus!"
"Put it on!" the Admiral blurted.
Gates then put the transmission over speakers. Samus's voice rang out over the bridge, saying, "Repeat, this is Samus Aran to Admiral Dane. What is the status of your fleet right now?"
"We're backed up to the Earth's shields, but we're holding the line, for the moment. Why?"
"Are there any starfighters launching sorties among the enemy fleet?"
"Yes," Dane answered. "Why?"
"Tell them to jump away from the fleet now, and if I were you, I'd get as far away from the enemy fleet as possible, too!" she answered loudly. "I'm sitting next to a planet killer bomb that the Space Pirates planted inside Mount Coronet. I have a N'Kren emergency teleportation device that will teleport the bomb to the bridge of the N'Kren flagship. There isn't much time left before it detonates. Even without the special planet-killing effects of the bomb, the subspace shockwave generated from the blast will be devastating and could possibly threaten the Earth, Luna, and ships in your own fleet. Alert Earth and Luna to raise their planetary shields to full power at once. I don't know how far the shockwave will expand."
"We're on it," Dane replied.
He then told Lieutenant Gates, "Alert Earth and Luna as to the situation and tell our fighters to jump away from the fleet now!" Turning to the helmsman, he said, "Lieutenant Commander Hastings, take us to the far side of the planet, now, and tell the rest of the fleet to join us. I don't know if that bomb is as powerful as Samus fears, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
"Understood, sir," both Gates and Hastings replied as they went about their work.
Among the Federation fleet, the Federation in Exile starfighters launching sorties in the center of the enemy fleet were continuing to launch their attacks. Several missile destroyers had been destroyed in the most recent sortie and they were preparing to make another run on a couple Olympus-class battleships when their new orders came in. At first, they could hardly believe the orders and the wing commanders said, "This is Defender Wing Commander, General Lee. Confirm previous orders."
"Order confirmation code Zero, One Omega," the voice of Lieutenant Gates came in.
"Order Confirmed," General Lee replied. Opening a channel to the rest of the wing, he said, "New orders from command. All fighters break away and jump, confirmation code Zero, One, Omega."
"Order received," the rest of the fighter pilots replied. The pilots then disengaged from the enemy fleet and numerous subspace windows were opened as the Federation in Exile fighters fled from the Federation fleet. The rest of the fighters from the Federation fleet that had been fighting the Federation in Exile ships tried to follow but were unable to do so, and their pilots could only hope that the fleeing fighters appeared on long-range sensors soon.
Back on the bridge of the Olympus Lieutenant Commander Bly reported, "Sir, all fighters have jumped away sir."
Admiral Dane nodded and then turned back to his private channel with Samus. "Samus everything's ready. You're clear to give that bomb to the enemy," he told her.
"Understood, sir," came her response.
Down inside the basement of Mount Coronet, Samus heard Admiral Dane's confirmation that the fighters were clear and that his fleet was moving behind the Earth. She looked down at the bomb sadly, knowing that she was about to sentence thousands of N'Kren, and possibly more than a million souls to death, but it was better than having six billion plus die if this bomb went off on Earth. She pressed the emergency teleportation unit to the side of the bomb, being careful to not set off any sensitive electronics and cause a premature detonation. Remembering Hi'Gor's instructions on its use, she turned the knob on the front of the device forty-five degrees clockwise, and then pushed the button. A field of energy surrounded the bomb and she saw it begin to fade away. Checking the countdown clock, she saw that there were still twenty-six seconds left on the clock. By the time the bomb had completely vanished, there were only twenty seconds. She then said a silent prayer that the bomb's detonation would not threaten either Luna, or the Earth.
Onboard the N'Kren flagship, the N'Kren fleet commander stood on the bridge as the fleet approached the Earth. The bridge was laid out like a temple, with the captain's chair in the center, and a series of consoles below the captain, fanning out. With Earth's moon behind him he focused his attention on the blue and green planet in front of him, along with the small dots that surrounded the planet. "Status of the Earth fleet," he bellowed.
A male N'Kren soldier, glanced down at his sensor screen and replied, "Federation fleet has sustained moderate damage. More than five thousand ships still remain in fighting condition, though."
The fleet commander gave a smirk. The Federation fleet and its allies had more than four times that number currently assembled. Cyrus had authorized the pulling of multiple planetary defense fleets, stripping them to the bones, to bring in a fleet that would be capable of overrunning the defenses of Earth. So far, only the superior range of the Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile's ships had allowed this match to be anything close to fair. He had felt that bringing in so many ships had been a waste, and that it had been unnecessary. They vastly outnumbered the forces at Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile had brought in almost their entire fleet to take the Earth. Now that they had taken the planet, they were desperate to hold it at all costs until Cyrus could be found and killed. He would not allow that to happen; and he knew that Admiral Breaz, commander of the Galactic Federation fleet now that Morg was dead, would not allow that to happen, either.
Soon, a transmission came in over the comm from Breaz. The Star Elf's holographic form appeared on the holopad and he said, "Fleet Commander Ka'Lok, we're making our big push. I want you to join the center ranks of our fleet. Keep back about half of your ships, like us and the Ylla. About ten thousand ships should be sufficient to take down the defenses of the Earth."
"I agree, Admiral," Ka'Lok replied.
"Good," Breaz answered as the communication was cut.
Ka'Lok the stared forward and ordered, "Take us to the center lines. Once there, open fire on the Earth Defense Fleet and Defense Grid."
"Yes, sir," the pilot answered as he took the ship towards the center of the Federation fleet.
As they began to move, a field of energy appeared on the forward section of the command deck just in front of the ship control consoles. Eventually, the field of energy faded and the planet killer bomb was revealed, twenty seconds still left on the timer as it continued to count down. Ka'Lok stepped down from his chair and told the others, "Continue to move the ship to the center of the fleet," as he stepped forward to examine the newly arriving package, not realizing that he was sentencing more than a million people to death with his decision. He approached the bomb and leaned down, glancing at the timer count down from ten seconds before he realized what the device was.
"Jump us into the Earth fleet now!" he roared to the bridge crew.
"Sir?" the helmsman questioned, raising his eye arches.
"Just do it! Fast!" he cried at the top of his lungs.
The bridge crew quickly went about following his orders, making the calculations for the jump as the timer ticked down, but they were too slow. The timer reached zero just as the helmsman reached for the lever to begin the jump and the bomb exploded, annihilating the ship and many others.
A bright light erupted from the center of the Galactic Federation fleet as the planet killer bomb exploded. The initial blast consumed and instantly vaporized more than two hundred warships, many of them powerful battleships and dreadnaughts. The resulting subspace shockwave was no less deadly, destroying thousands of starships of various classes, and damaging many more. The destructive shockwave continued to spread in all directions, shearing the hull of entire vessels, shattering them before their own cores breached and exploded. Entire fighter star forces were destroyed as the fighters were annihilated by the detonation. It was not long before the Moon was buffeted by the shockwave produced by the bomb. However, the Moon's planetary shields managed to hold against the assault and Luna suffered no damage from the shockwave, which was more than could be said about the Galactic Federation fleet and its allies.
As the shockwave continued to expand, it eventually got weaker, merely shattering the shields or burning off the outer hulls of starships, or merely rendering them dead in space, rather than shattering them on contact. Still, any ship that was not a cruiser or stronger was usually either destroyed or rendered dead in space with multiple hull breaches and most, if not all, of the crew dead. It was not until the shockwave nearly dispersed that some of the weaker ships, like the carriers and even destroyers and frigates, started to survive the shockwave, albeit not without taking severe damage. The Great Fox II, for instance, had suffered a complete shield failure and most of the outer hull was sheared off by the shockwave. When the shockwave had passed, the ship was rendered dead in space, with life support systems fluctuating wildly. The main reactor had needed to be ejected, and its explosions after ejection had afflicted most, if not all, of the surviving crew with severe radiation poisoning.
Standing on the bridge of the Lucifer, acrid smoke stung the eyes of Admiral Breaz as he stood back up after his ship had been buffeted by the outer edges of the shockwave. He checked the bridge and found that Ensign Teeta, his communications officer, was dead, her console having exploded in her face, shredding her with shrapnel. Scanning the bridge, three other officers were down, and judging by the fact that none of them were moving, he figured that they were either dead or dying. He moved back to his captain's chair and looked around the bridge. "Report," he bellowed. "What the hell just hit us?"
The officer manning the sensor station, a young Nalar, a blue-skinned humanoid that was noticeably taller than a normal human, checked the sensors and responded, "Sir, a subspace shockwave originated from the Bellot, the N'Kren flagship. The ship has since disappeared in its entirety. There's no trace of it left."
"Did it suicide attack us?"
"Impossible to say, sir," the sensor officer answered. "Still, the explosion was far too powerful to be a reactor core detonation, even for a N'Kren warship. Several other N'Kren ships were destroyed and we didn't suffer this type of damage when they went off."
"Damage to the Lucifer?"
"Relatively minor," the Nalar responded. "Our shields are down to eighty percent, but there was a power surge that fried a few non-essential bridge consoles." The evidence of that were the dead Star Elf ensign and a few other officers.
Breaz shrugged. "Well, anyway. Tell us how badly the rest of the fleet has been hurt."
The young officer looked down at his sensor screen and his eyes went wide, along with his face practically going white. This did not escape Admiral Breaz's notice. "What is it, Lieutenant? What's going on?'
"S…s…sir, four thousand ships are no longer appearing on sensors, with another four thousand plus appearing to be either dead in space, severely crippled, or are otherwise unable to continue fighting," the young Nalar said in a quivering voice. "More than a third of our fleet is either destroyed, dead in space, or otherwise too badly damaged to continue the fight. In addition, a few thousand more have suffered moderate to heavy damage and are not going to be able to fight at one hundred percent efficiency. In addition, any and all starfighters that were out have been annihilated by the shockwave. We are now extremely vulnerable to starfighter attack."
Breaz nearly fell into his chair at the statement. "Sir," the young Nalar said, "the Earth Defense Fleet is coming out from behind the Earth and is entering their weapons' range once more. I am detecting that the shockwave did not reach the lines of the Federation in Exile ships, or even the defense platforms and turrets."
"Damn," Breaz swore. "Assemble the remaining ships in our fleet and tell the others that we had hang back to get their asses up here now. We're gonna take the fight to the Federation in Exile fleet."
"Is that wise, sir?" the Nalar asked. "We only outnumber them a little more than two-to-one, and many of our N'Kren and Ylla ships have been destroyed. Not only that, but a good number of our remaining ships have suffered damage and are not functioning at one hundred percent efficiency. In addition, we've got the Defense Grid and the surface missiles from Earth to deal with."
"It's our only option!" Breaz retorted. We have to do something now! If we don't, then Dane will be able to send down more troops and to help locate Chairman Cyrus and kill him!"
"I see," the sensor officer responded, not liking the prospect of fighting the Galactic Federation in Exile in their current condition, but seeing that there was little choice, he turned back to his console and focused on his job. He only hoped that the Admiral was not being too rash. They were no good to Cyrus, or their other, true, masters, dead.
Back on the G.F.S. Olympus, Admiral Dane looked out the bridge window as the planet killer bomb went off and gouged a massive hole in the lines of the enemy fleet. He could scarcely believe his eyes as the explosion consumed the entire center of Breaz's fleet and continued to expand outward, destroying every ship that it washed over. Dane could not take his eyes off the scene as the enemy fleet was being torn to shreds by the tremendous shockwave.
After a few minutes, it eventually dispersed and Dane looked over at Lieutenant Commander Bly, saying, "Report."
Bly checked down at the tactical sensors and responded, "Four thousand enemy ships have been destroyed, with over four thousand more either being dead in space, crippled, or damaged severely enough to be unable to continue fighting. That's more than a third of their fleet, sir. And in addition to those casualties, several thousand more ships took moderate to severe shield and other forms of damage, meaning that they're not fighting at full strength; not to mention the fact that any starfighter that was outside the ships in the affected area were wiped out. To make things even better, all remaining N'Kren singularity dreadnaughts were destroyed in the explosion, with most of the other N'Kren fleet suffering severe losses. In addition, the Ylla fleet has also sustained moderate to heavy losses. The invading Federation fleet is now extremely vulnerable to a fighter attack and we have the edge of the Chozo and Luminoth ships still being relatively fresh."
"Then we'll take advantage of it," Dane responded. Turning to Lieutenant Gates, he commanded, "Tell our starfighters that jumped away but still have anti-capital ship missiles to jump back into the enemy fleet and soften them up even more. Tell them to focus on ships that have moderate to heavy damage, but to avoid ships that are already dead or are otherwise unable to fight. Then tell the rest of the fleet to remain just outside of the weapons range of the Federation fleet, while putting our front lines just within range of their own front lines. Have the formation be the same as it was before, battleships and battlecruisers with heavy laser and energy cannon complements up front, with missile ships in the back, well out of range of the enemy ships. Also, have the front lines focus on the stronger ships of the line, as well. We have a chance to cripple their fleet and throw them into complete chaos. Let's take advantage of it."
After a few moments, Lieutenant Gates informed Dane, "The fleet has responded and they've acknowledged the order. They're moving their ships into position."
The fleet did as was directed, bringing up the Olympus-class battleships and Archangel-class battlecruisers to the front and the missile frigates, destroyers, and cruisers to the back, where their superior range would allow them to hurl their munitions into the ranks of the Federation fleet without fear of facing any return fire from the Federation fleet.
Once the fleet was in position, Admiral Dane gave the order, "Fire," and the ships opened up on the Federation starfleet.
The Federation in Exile ships and the Earth Defense Grid unleashed a barrage of laser and plasma fire upon the front lines of the enemy fleet, while the missile ships unloaded their payload upon the deeper ranks of the Federation fleet. To Dane, it was very much like a medieval battle in space, but forcing a battle like this played to their benefit, since despite the disadvantage in numbers, their superior weapons range would force the enemy fleet to rush into the lien of fire and sustain damage. The first casualty of the counterattack was a relatively fresh Gehenna-class dreadnaught known as the G.F.S. Legion, who engaged the G.F.S. Michael, an Archangel-class battlecruiser and was annihilated by the battlecruiser without being able to inflict much shield damage before getting obliterated. It was soon joined in death by many Olympus-class battleships and Asgard-class heavy cruisers. And this was all before the Federation in Exile starfighters appeared in the center of the Federation fleet and continued to harry the Federation ships, finishing off those that had suffered damage, and inflicting as much damage as possible to the fresher ships. Almost a hundred ships were lost before the fleet managed to enter firing range, and when they did, they opened up on the Federation fleet and the Earth's Defense Grid. Admiral Dane watched as the two fleets finally engaged each other on relatively equal ground, his ship shaking from the impact of an energy blast. "Shields down to ninety-six percent," Lieutenant Commander Bly called out. Admiral Dane was calm, though. He knew that it was soon going to degenerate into a melee. He just hoped that the Federation fleet had suffered enough damage to allow his fleet a fighting chance, or Cyrus was found and killed before it was too late.
Back in Goldenrod City, on Earth, Cyrus stood inside his makeshift command center, waiting anxiously for the gunship that would carry him and the rest of the Team Galactic Executives to the Sinjoh Ruins, and its escort, and decoys, to arrive. As they were waiting, they were already looking over reports of Earth military forces, along with the Galactic Federation in Exile, sending troops into Goldenrod City in an attempt to retake the city. The perimeter defenses were already suffering damage and the primary routes into the city had since been captured by the Federation in Exile soldiers. "Come on," he said apprehensively. "Where is that freaking gunship?"
One of the soldiers, a Team Galactic soldier dressed in Galactic Federation Army Trooper power armor turned and answered, "It's coming in now, sir. And three starfighters from the Star Fox Team are escorting it. There are seven other gunships of the exact same design and markings following it, too."
"How long until they arrive?" Cyrus demanded.
"Two minutes," the soldier responded.
The two minutes that Cyrus and the others had to wait was quite anxious, for the map of the battle inside Goldenrod City indicated that the Federation forces were getting slaughtered by their Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile counterparts. Eventually, they saw the gunships coming in from off the ocean, to the west. The gunships looked like boxes with wings and cockpits. They were armed with two missile launchers, several weapons emplacements that were mounted just below the side doors to the ships, along with two forward firing energy cannons and a rear-mounted energy turret for defense against close-range aerial threats. They came in quickly, flying low so as to avoid being detected by surface scanners. Three Arwings and an entire wing of Epées came along with the eight gunships. Once the gunships landed, Cyrus and Team Galactic boarded the lead gunship, dubbed Gunship One once he and the other Team Galactic Executives boarded. Several other troops boarded the other gunships in order to maintain the illusion that they may have been holding the Chairman of the Galactic Federation. Once he was onboard, Cyrus commanded, "Take us to the Sinjoh Ruins as quickly as possible!"
"Yes, sir," the pilot relayed back to the Chairman. The gunship then took off, along with the others and once the ships had taken off, they rocketed in eight different directions, with many of the Epées following the other gunships, while Star Fox and a dozen remaining Epées flew escort for Gunship One. It was Cyrus's hope that the other gunships would lead away any pursuit, but he was not concerned should they not take the bait. He fingered the Arceus trophies in his pocket and grinned. If all else failed, he could still use them to deal with his enemies.