MEANWHILE]
Meanwhile at the great fox, Falco and Fox are at the nose of the ship discussing the information they obtained in order for the CDF to make their move. Although, both are having doubts about what they discovered. "It's somethin to think about fox...if the info we dug up is true, we'll have alot more to worry about than a few boneheads for hire" Falco says while tampering with his blaster. "A group noone has ever heard of, picks up every merc faction known to start a whole war? It's just not believable to me, this has to be some kinda ruse" fox says.
"Yea well, either way we did our part; best to let pepper sort all that shit out now. But Knowin you, im sure you're gonna do the exact opposite aint ya?" Falco says as he puts his gun back in his holster. "Better safe than sorry falco, even though I think this whole things a hoax, whatevers really happening could still be some serious stuff" Fox says. "So what are we gonna do huh? Only lead we had was pepper's, you sayin you just want us to blindly stick our necks out until someone catches us slippin and cut em off?" Falco says.
"What exactly are you getting at?" Fox says In an annoyed tone. "What I'm getting at, is that if we're gonna act; we should atleast have some sense of direction so we know what the hell we're getting into" Falco says while walking up to fox. "Whoever's doing this isn't going to wait for us to have a "sense of direction", you may be fine sitting on the sidelines but I-" fox says before getting cut off by an incoming transmission. A green light comes on in the middle of the navigation table and forms a hologram of general pepper.
"Fox! your assistant's is desperately needed!" Pepper says. "What happend sir?" Fox says anxiously. "The plan to send our units safely to Titania has failed, they must've known what we were up to way beforehand!" Pepper says. "Did your units pull out in time sir?" Fox asked. "I'm afraid not, their ship crash landed on the planet; and from what we can see on our end...nearly all of them didn't survive" Pepper says. "Nearly? So how many are left?" Fox asks. "This is why I've contacted you, there are only two that currently show up on radar. Our task is to not only get to them as quickly as possible, but to continue the mission as well" Pepper says.
He continues. "I want you and your team to eliminate the the enemies air patrol along side the squadrons we're sending, that way the infantry can get through without much resistance; then rendezvous with the other two operatives already in Titania." He says. Fox nods and gives a determined look, "You got it general, we'll get there as soon as possible and keep you updated" fox says. "Please do fox, General pepper; out" Pepper says before the hologram disappears. Fox looks over at falco with a serious expression. "There's your "sense of direction"..happy?" He says. "Briddled with goddamn joy.." Falco says while walking past fox, lightly bumping his shoulder before leaving the room. Fox roles his eyes as he also leaves to inform the others about the plan.
Back on Titania, Nathan slowly regains consciousness in the crashed ship. As his vision gets less blurry, he sees the dead bodies of not only sebastian's men; but his own unit as well. His hearing is completely muffled for a short period, it clears up the moment kitman limps to him from his side, "Nate...Nathan get up!" She says as she kneels down and starts to cough. She grabs his arm and puts it over her shoulder. Nathan proceeds to stand up along side kitman with all the strength he could muster, "F-fuck..how the hell did they...know..?" he says while keeping pressure on his waist wound. "Dont worry about that right now..let's just focus on gettin the fuck outta this thing" kitman says.
They exit out through a damaged wall on the side of the ship, kitman looks around to see a decent number of civilians gathered around the wreckage. The mixture of confused and afraid chatter can be heard among them, kitman then looks in front of her to see a small passage through an ally and proceeds to walk through it. "Whoever these assholes are definitely tried their hardest to keep us off planet, No doubt their commin to finish us off " kitman says as she looks around cautiously, she looks back at the ship wreckage and wonders if Sebastian is still alive before taking a left further into the ally.
"We have to..contact ge-...general pe-.." Nathan struggles to say before collapsing againts a wall, kitman kneels down and reaches into her vest pouch to pull out an orsin stim shot. "First I'm gonna make sure you don't die on me, hold still loose legs" kitman says. Before she injects the shot, she hears the roaring sound of thrusters. When she looks up, she sees a dark orange spacecraft materialize in mid flight before boosting forward. Unsure if the aircraft was the cause of the attack, she ignores it for now and puts her focus back to Nathan.
Back at the great fox, Fox is in the ship hanger along with peppy preparing to head to Titania. Peppy climbs up a mobile ladder to reach the cockpit of fox's airwing. "Well you seem really sure about this, how exactly are we gonna go about it though?" Peppy says. "We help pepper's unit clear the airspace, then investigate along with the infantry that gets through." Fox says while tinkering with certain controls in the cockpit. "What if these trouble makers call in reinforcements? With how fast they wiped out the last unit he sent, I dont really trust the CDF to run this dogfight alone" peppy says.
"They wont have too old man..." A voice says. Both fox and peppy look over to see falco walk up to the airwing. "Care to explain falco?" Fox says. "I go down there with the other numbskulls and see what these assholes are really about, while you four stick to the sky and do what we do best." Falco says reassuringly. "Well..that is an idea" peppy says while looking at fox. "Right...so long as you stick to the plan, we dont need any additional issues surrounding this mission" fox says as he gives falco a skeptical look. "The only "additional issue" I see is you worryin' too much, I'll be in an out..just in time to help you guys deal with the rest of the scumbags that's left" falco says as he walks away towards his ship. "Well, we best not waist anymore time then" peppy says as he climbs down the ladder, as fox starts up his ship; he begins to think about who could be behind this whole situation before closing the canopy.
Back on Titania, civilians are still surrounding the ship wreckage that kitman and Nathan fled from. One person in the back turns around to see four individuals in dark red armour and helmets that hide their identity. They push through the crowd and walk into the ship, one of them kneels down and checks the pulse of a CDF operative near them. As they gets back up, they press a button on they're helmet and begins to speak. "Noone seems to have survived" they say while continuing to look around, the person they contacted responds in a cold and serious tone. "Be absolutely sure, I don't want any of peppers men to leave this planet alive" they say. Before the masked person could respond, they're counterpart ready's they're weapon and aims at the front of the ship. "Noise came from the cockpit!" They say.
"I'll check it out, go make sure no CDF flith is still breathing" another counterpart says. They ready they're pistol while slowy walking up to the cock pit, the moment they get near the back of the chair they turn it around and aim immediately. They see the body of Sebastian lightly slumped over with his head down, the Individual lowers his gun slightly and looks behind them. "Just some dead mercenary, ships probably just falli-" they say before hearing the rising pitch of a laser. They turn back around to see Sebastian's eye open along with him holding a blaster in his left hand, Sebastian shoots the Individual slightly above they're chest; making them yell in pain.
Sebastian springs up and stabs the individual in the neck with a makeshift energy knife, pushing them againts the wall. The other three further back noticed the commotion instantly and ready their weapons to start firing, Sebastian grabs the Individual he stabbed and uses them as a sheild while firing his blaster. He eventually hits two of them straight through their head, but hits the remaining attacker in they're side; causing them to kneel down. Sebastian drops the body he used as a sheild then proceeds to walk over to the wounded individual. "I..really liked this fucking ship, you know that?" Sebastian says in a calm yet intimidating tone. He kicks the attacker, making them fall on they're back. "This is about the time you start telling me who the hell you work for...and I consider not cracking open that helmet of yours with two good shots" he says keeping the same tone.
"None of this concerns you, especially when you're a C-list mercenary... transporting cowards for chump cha-.." they say before Sebastian shoots his blaster, making the shot miss they're head by an inch. "Telling from what you just said, you must be workin for the Turric. Seems you guys aren't small fish either...givin how military grade that armor looks" Sebastian says, He walks around them slowly while keeping his pistol aimed at they're head. "You are right though, whatever quarrel you have with the CDF ain't my problem. But...the state my ship's in is" Sebastian says. He puts his pistol back in his holster and walks up to the hole of the ship kitman and Nathan went through before turning his head to the wounded individual. "Tell your boss they owe me a ship...if you dont bleed out tryna get back to em" he says as he walks through the hole and into the same alley kitman and Nathan entered.
[MEANWHILE]
The starfox team is currently on their way to Titania, as they fly in formation; fox is still in deep thought of who could be behind this situation. His concentration is broken the moment a beeping sound is heard and Krystal appears on a screen in his ship. " General pepper's fleet will be here soon, we'll lighten some of the load before they get here but not as much as we intended" Krystal says. "Roger that, atleast its something.." fox says in a disappointed tone. Krystal's camera feed minimizes, having slippy, peppy, and Falco appear on the screen as well. "Is there any update on who these guys are? They must be the real deal, too see right through general peppers plan so easily..." slippy says before Falco immediately follows up. "The only people that probably know somethin are the two still alive from that unit that crashed landed, soon enough we'll all know once I get down there" falco says.
"Just remember what I said Falco, no additi-" fox says as he gets immediately cut off by Falco. "Additional issues I geeet it I geeet it, jeez you're just like my mother; Always naggin but always quiet on my successes" falco says in an annoyed tone. "Was starfalco one of those successes?" Slippy retorts, peppy let's out a short chuckle before looking away. "hey! I'm not above wrapping your tounge around my thrusters smartass! Watch your mouth!" Falco says angrily. As falco hurls more verbal threats at slippy, fox starts to think to himself again. Back when him and Falco dug for more info around corneria, most mercs from various factions they eavesdropped on and or openly talked to seemed to only know the Turric by appearance and name alone; but never what their intentions were...except for one person.
Fox gets his concentration broken again by peppy. "Hey hey, simmer down you two! Something's not right..." he says to both slippy and Falco as he cautiously looks around his canopy. "The hell are you on about old man? Titania's right there and the airspace is clear.." Falco says. "Didn't pepper say these guys shot his unit down and forced them to crash land?" Peppy asks. "Yea, a bit after his other mercenary help...what of it?" Falco says. "That was half an hour ago, theres no way the whole fleet went on planet to check the wreckage...let alone take long to do it either...so where are they?" Peppy says.
The rest of the starfox crew sits in silence, all beginning to be just as cautious as peppy. Fox grabs the handle that controls his thrusters and looks at the radar in his air wing. "Slippy...I'm gonna need you to detonate that thing you told me about" fox says. "Now? I-it's not fully stable yet! Theres no guarantee it'll even shut down anything at all.." slippy replies. "We're gonna have to take that chance...team, the moment that thing detonates; scatter immediately" fox says while keeping an eye on his radar. "How the hell are we suppose to know whatever slippy's got wont take us with it?" Falco says. "Just trust me...slippy, do it" fox says while gripping his flight stick.
Slippy nervously presses a button next to his thruster handle, panels from each side of his ship opens up. They materialize blue particles before making thick, distorted, pulsating like sounds. As the sound speeds up, a suppressed explosion is heard; emitting a blue dome shaped field that expands rapidly. Fox looks down at his radar again to see over a dozen red dots appear, he looks up to see dark orange ships materialize in front him and his team. "NOW! MOVE!" fox yells. The star fox team breaks formation, dodging a plethora of plasma shots from the ships among them.
"Good call fox!" Peppy says as he struggles to avoid enemy fire. "Sneaky Goddamn rats!" Falco says angrily as heshoots at one of the ships tailing Peppy. "Guys! T-the blast messed up my stabilizers, I can't fly pro-" slippy says before getting hit with two plasma shots to the side of his ship. He let's out a yell on comms as his ship spirals. "Slippy!" Fox yells as he attempts to fly towards him but barrel rolls out of the way to avoid enemy fire. "We cant reach him fox! We're too outnumbered!" Krystal says aggressively as she destroys two ships before evading two others.
Fox ignores kystals comment and flies straight towards slippy while attempting to avoid getting hit at the same time. It doesn't last long however, fox starts to take too many shots; forcing him to break away. "Godammit! Hold on slippy..just hold on!" Fox yells as he tries to circle back around. Slippy manages to stop his ship from spiraling, the moment he looks above him; he sees two enemy ships speeding towards him. The fact that he knew it was useless to evade with the condition the ship was in, made him freeze up entirely. The moment the ships get close enough to start firing, Plasma shots out of slippy's veiw hit both aircraft's; blowing them up entirely. Fox looks to his right to see a ton of black and green ships approaching the dogfight, he then here's a beeping sound and sees A CDF commander on screen.
"Fox team, this is Commander Hullvard. Mind if my boys get In on this?" He says. "Help yourself commander!" fox says as he boost his ship foward to avoid more enemy fire, he gets behind a group of the orange ships before shooting a smart bomb; eliminating them instantly. Fox looks over to his left to see some of Hullvard's men head straight to Titania, "Falco you're up! We'll take care of things here!" He says. "On it! Dont let these knuckleheads show us up!" Falco says as he travels along side Hullvard's men.
"Peppy, have R.O.B send a repair rig for slippy! in the meantime...let's these guys know who we are" fox says. He is not only determined too win this dogfight, but also determined to know exactly what the Turric is actually planning.