RPG Starfox Adventures: Kareck Invasion

[Solo Tremaine]

OOC: Sorry if this seems a little rushed. I was excited ^_^; as well as having not much time.
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The Lylat System is under a new threat. Strange readings detected on the system's sun, Solar, indicates that it is growing, and this will endanger the lives of every life in the system. On top of this, reports have shown that strange ships have begun arriving in the far reaches of the galaxy. They appear to be similar to an ancient race which once lived in the Lylat System- large, dragon-like creatures known as the Kareck. Their intentions are unknown. It is thought that some have already reached Venom and could be using Andross' old weapons manufacturing plants to create new weapons of mass destruction...
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In a dark room deep inside the Cornarian Army headquarters, there was a tense atmosphere. Twelve army officials from the planets in the Lylat System all sat uncomfortably at a long, black table, all waiting for the speaker to address the situation.

General Pepper clutched at his cane nervously. Clearing his throat, he continued the briefing. "As we have seen, Solar's alarming rate of activity seems to high to be dismissed as a peak in fission activity-"

The Army official from Macbeth, an old ferret, leapt up impatiently. "We have seen these sorts of changes in the past. Why have we been called here?" he hissed. The commander sat next to him pulled him back into a sitting position to allow Pepper to continue.

"I understand your haste, General Sneta, but I am getting to the point, I assure you." he said coolly. "The activity we have been recording is not unlike that we last saw nine years ago when Andross' biological weapons were inhabiting the surface. he surface of Solar appears to be expanding."

The generals looked to each other worriedly. "How long will it be before it becomes an emergency situation?" one asked gravely.

"Fortuna is already experiencing a rapid climate change. In less than two weeks, the ice on its surface may have melted, and the entire planet would be flooded." He turned round and faced a large map of the system stuck hurriedly to the wall. Macbeth, Zoness, Aquas will be the next planets in immediate danger of extreme climatic change, but already Cornaria and Katina are experiencing problems."

"And you say this activity matches that of Andross?"

Pepper cleared his throat again. "It is possible, which is why we need to conduct an investigation into it immediately. If his forces have been re-activated then we could face another war."

The generals sat in silence, gravely thinking about the implications of this. Suddenly, the door burst open and a red-faced young cat creature sprinted in, carrying a crumpled sheet of paper. He panted up to General Pepper, gave a weak salute and then thrust the sheet into his hands.
"Priority One, Sir."

Pepper's jaw dropped in horror as he read the report. The others watched on in apprehension.

"Area Six has been reactivated." He croaked in shock. "Sixteen patrolling craft have been destroyed, and all communication with ground troops based on Venom's surface have been lost."

Angry, confused and frightened shouts filled the room as the generals conversed with one another about defending against such an attack. The armistice signed five years ago had meant the demobilization of a huge amount of vehicles. And hundreds of Andross' weapons factories had not yet been discovered. Venom, Andross' former base, was still largely uninhabitable to most creatures, and it was unknown how many munitions factories were still active. If his war machines had been secretly amassed over the last few years, they may not be able to withstand him again.

A sudden gunshot silenced them. Pepper lowered his pistol and replaced it into his holster. "We don't know whether this is Andross or not. Let's not jump to conclusions." A second sheet of paper unfolded from the back of the first. On it was printed what looked like a nonsense transmission caused by interference, but there was something about it he recognised. Ignoring it for the moment, he turned back to the rest of the group.

"Generals, I propose an emergency conscription of pilots on all planets. Anyone who can fly needs to be incorporated into our forces. A mass debriefing of the enlisted pilots will be held at the Central Arena in Cornaria City. I will call Starfox again and have them meet us there."

Quickly, they all strode out of the room to begin preparing for the attack...
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Sabre Keslain awoke with a start. Shaking his head groggily, he lay on his bed, dark thoughts flowing through his mind. He hated his team. He was sure they'd try and betray him at the drop of a flight helmet. Rubbing his eyes, he tried to remember what had happened the previous night. Something wasn't right about that drink. Lucily he'd had the sense to spill the rest before he finished it.

He grabed his electronic eyepatch from the table and clipped it into place over his left eye. A small HUD buzzed into view. Grunting in satistaction, he flopped back onto the bed.

Around him was a bleak room; uncomfortable even in comparison to the prison rooms he'd been used to for years. Rolling onto his side, he noticed a strange vapour emenating from the ventilation grate. Puzzled he wandered over to it and flicked on the light. Immediately, the stench of smoke and burning filled his nostrils. The base was on fire.

Coughing and growling madly, he slammed the 'door open' button. A red light flashed defiantly in his face. It had been jammed. Cursing, he grabbed his plasma rifle from under his bed and aimed it at the edge of the door. Punching the rifle discharge power to 'Maximum', he pulled the trigger. A burst of purple energy exploded form the barrel and blew the door from its hinges. Wrenching his sword from the wall, he leapt through the flames and sprinted to the vehicle bay.

The fire hadn't spread that far, but his Wolfen I ship had been badly damaged. Mutiny. They'd tried to kill him. Shaking with rage, he slammed his sword into a floor panel next to his ship. Ripping the panel from the floor, a small red lever was revealed. Slamming it down, he ran over to the other side of the bay. A section of the floor opened up and another ship rose from the bay. Luckily, they'd never known about his secret modifications to the base. Leaping into his ship, he slammed the rifle into the right control base of the cockpit. The barrel slid fully into place, leaving the trigger and handle poking out, forming the right joystick. Grabbing hold of the other, he slammed on the boosters and took off, leaving the base to burn behind him on the barren Macbeth mountainside.

When he caught up with them, he was going to kill them all. Perhaps he'd best let them know, just to taunt them with their incompetence. As he flicked on the communications panel, Genaral Pepper's face appeared before him.

"...and emergency transmission from the Cornarian Army. All fighter pilots with combat experience [i]must[/i] report to the Arena in Cornaria City. Further explanation will follow. It is imperative that you attend- we need you for the defence of the system! This is an emergency transmission from the..."

"Interesting." Sabre growled. Maybe revenge against his own team could wait. This could be a great opportunity to seek vengeance on a much better target. For when the Ary was in trouble, Starfox was always nearby.

Pulling his ship out of Macbeth's atmosphere, he prepared to warp to Cornaria...

[RicoTranzrig]

[color=darkblue][i]Dash was enjoying his afternoon snack during a visit to his parents house on the other side of planet Katina. The sun began to go down, the light reflecting off the blanketing smog across the city. They sat out on the balcony, four stories above ground, overlooking the cityscape.

He was still in uniform, recently excused for a carefully planned vacation to the outskirts of the Lylat system using the Scouter craft that was issued to him. His first stop was his old home after six months of training, away from civilization, and away from current events. He received a warm welcome from his father and mother, not blowing anything out of proportion, but letting Dash know that he was still part of the family. He was an only child; the only survivor out of the many babies his parents? had.

He hardly noticed the polluted atmosphere, his commanding officer claiming they could adapt and they would have the advantage in hostile environments. What he did notice were the advertisements and large posters all around the city when he flew in. They all promoted the military effort, as if some war was waging on again.[/i]

Dash: Mom, dad, what?s going on around this place?

Dash?s Father: Haven?t you heart? They?ve detected unexplained activity in Venom. Several other planets have already shown sabotage and terrorist activities, including our sun and an isolated section of Katina. But investigations couldn?t find any leads. Our planetary system?s leaders suspect another threat rising. I wonder why your officers haven?t informed you about any of this yet.

Dash?s Mother: Be careful when you set out tomorrow. I really want you to stay here, with us, or at the base where you?re not alone.

[i]Dash thought about the news he got from his parent?s and their advice to stay on the planet until they find out something, anything that was causing these events to occur. He also wondered why he and his new team of rookies were kept silent about it. However, now that he knew what was going on, it was hard to think about going back and telling them, risking getting in trouble.

He decided to stay. He headed upstairs, towards the roof, to unload his gear and settle in for the two weeks he would have used to explore space on his own.[/i]

Dash: I?ll be back. I need to get my stuff.

Father: Okay, don?t be too long?

[i]Dash rolled his eyes as he walked out of their parent?s place and upstairs to where his small craft was parked. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out the remote to his Scouter and unlocked the reinforced glass overhead leading into the cockpit. He reached in, checked his systems, and folded his seat forward to retrieve his bag of clothes and his standard issue survival knife.

His short stature gave him trouble when he reached for his bag and fell into the back of the plane. Just then, his ears stood straight up as he heard a loud siren in the distance. Slowly, he grabbed his bag, repositioned himself, and jumped out of the plane, his feet making a large thump on the roof. He looked out into the cityscape and noticed a thick patch of smoke rising up from the city?s municipal buildings. With eyes wide open, he locked up his ship and ran downstairs, back into his parent?s home.

They had been hit as well? [/i][/color]

[Defcon5]

Sorry I was busy this week. O and it was a little rushed, sorry again.
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Falco sighed as he sat in the cockpit of his Arwing waiting for it to come out of lightspeed. Once he got to Great Fox he could finally get some real rest and some food.

"We will read Solar's orbit in 2 mins" his computer informed him.

"Finally" he said with relief.

Falco sat up in his chair fastened his seatbelt and got ready to take control of his Arwing. Then suddenly a red light on his dash board started flashing, then his computer informed him that heat levels were reaching a dangerous level.

"What the?" Falco said with astonishment, "I know i'm close to the sun, but i'm not that close..."

Then his ship came out of light speed very close to the suns surface. Only about a mile above the surface. His ship started going crazy, alarms where going off everywhere, and then he lost control. His ship started to go towards solar losing more power along the way. Falco pulled back on the control stick as hard as he could in hopes that he could escape the sun's deadly heat. He started to ascend, but then was sent hurtling back towards the surface when somthing hit his ship sending it soaring in the air. Falco took this to his advantage and was able to pull the ship free of the sun. Back in control he looked down at the sun and wondered how he had gotten so close to it. Then he saw it, a green scaly thing sinking into the lava. Falco shook his head in disbelief and told himself he was just imagining it. So after he was a good distance away from the sun, he headed in the direction of Great Fox to see if someone there could tell him what had just happened. So off he went, towards Corneria, and hopefully some answers.

[Solo Tremaine]

EDIT: I made this more original- I realised that I was just doing exactly the same as Defcon, and that was rude of me. Sorry ^_^;
BTW, Fox et al are incidental characters and can be used by anyone as you like.
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In the Great Fox, a veteran pilot watched the Type III Arwing coming into the docking bay. Smiling at the thought at seeing his old friend again, the fox ran down to meet him.

The new Arwing stood elegantly in the docking bay. [i]Just like Falco[/i], Fox thought.

Waiting patiently, he watched the Aerian jump out of his new spaceship.
* * * * *

"Damn instument panel! What's wrong with you?"

Sabre punched the keys on the instrument panel, irritated that it had been playing up. The traitors must have altered its coordinates to get him to fly into it. He could feel the heat against his fur and the screen began to fog with condensation. As the tips of his wings began to turn black, he managed to wrestle control of the flight levers and pull away from the mini-sun.

Swearing to himself about faulty equipment, he noticed a metal object flying away across Solar's surface. It looked familiar. Adjusting the scope on his eyepatch, he zoomed in. The Great Fox... Not wanting to get caught up in a fight against the entire team, he silently sped off towards Cornaria.

[RicoTranzrig]

[COLOR=darkblue][i]A short period of darkness englufed the city, further agitating the tension in Dash's mind. During those few seconds, he looked up at the sun and made out a silhouette of large ships dangerously close to be prodoucing that kind of shadow. In a bright flash of light, The sky returned to normal again and the emergency situation in the city raged on.

Beside Dash were his parents looking out over the balcony. His communcicator went off and was automatically answered. Dash held up his wrist and the holograpic display came online with his commanding officer, sergent Tavelak.[/i]

Tavelak: Dash! I'm aware that you're on vacation right now, but we need you and your piloting skills to prepare for an upcoming invasion or possible attack attack against the Lylat system.

Dash: What's going on, the explosion...

Tavelak: I'll explain everything when you arrive. There's not much time...

[i]The transmission ended and Dash turned to his parents.[/i]

Dad: Go out there and save this place from whatever's coming, we know you're one of the best pilots out there.

Dash: Thanks dad...mom?

Mom: Come home safely, we have a vacation to finish.

Dash: Okay.

[i]Dash grabbed his bags headed back up towards where his Scouter was docked. This time, his parents followed him to wave goodbye when he took off. Dash unlocked his ship and threw the bag in the rear seat. He jumped in and began launch, powering the engines and putting on his helmet. The thrusters made contact with the roof and began to hover in midair. Dash took a final look at his parents before hitting 100% boost and left the city faster than he could be heard.[/i][/COLOR]

[Solo Tremaine]

OOC:Hmm. Might just be us, then... Ah well. We'll see how we do.
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The skies above Cornaria were almost in a deadlock of fighter craft, each fighting for a place to land. Barging his ship between two Army fighters trying in vain to keep some sort of order to the amount of craft flying around, he found a convenient crater on the outskirts of the city. He could see hundreds of mercenaries running towards the arena, some of which he'd had run-ins with in the past.

The arena was a massive Colusseum-shaped building set in almost the dead centre of the city. Having been a landmark for countless centuries, it was the hub of activity when the war was over. All sorts of celebrations, meetings and tournaments were held there. A perfect place for an assassination. Ripping the plasma rifle from his cockpit, he started running towards the city centre, as, in the distance a familiar starship roared through the atmosphere.

[Defcon5]

Falco pulled his ship into Great Fox's hanger slowly as to not almost kill Slippy again. He got out of his ship and looked around. Somthing weird was going on. He couldn't hear Slippy's loud annoying cries, or Peppy telling Fox about how he's going to get himself killed one day. It was silent. Falco pulled out his blaster from the side of his belt. He walked slowly towards the exit of the hanger looking all around to make sure nothing was following him. he approaced the door, opend it and quickly stepped to the side. He took a quick look in the room, it was clear, he stepped inside. He did this many more times until he got into the main lounge. As soon as he stepped in the room the lights suddenly came on surprizing Falco. He turned around to see someone standing infront of him. he was about to shoot when he saw that it was Fox. Falco pulled his blaster down in time and only shot at the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?" said Falco rubbing his eyes.

But Fox was gone.

"Where the..." Falco started to say when Fox reapeared in front of him, but this time fuzzy and disfigured.

"Falco...gone...General Pepper...Corneria...War..." Then Fox dissapeared again.

Falco bent down to where Fox was standing and examined the floor, it was where his gun shot had hit. Looking a little closer he observed a small glass dome in the ground.

"Damnit..." He muttered to himself "I hit the hologram projector"

Falco let out a big sigh and sat down. "Corneria and war, lovely"

[RicoTranzrig]

[COLOR=darkblue][i]Dash passed up the smoke rising from Katina's centeral building, a few miles apart from the city. He gave a sigh of relief, then the console screen in front of his dashboard began to flicker. It was his commander, once again. He was in a standard military fighter plane, specifically designed for both vacuum and atmospheric environments. The glass behind his commander shown a background of stars, signifying that they had already made preperations and done the difficult launch into space.[/i]

Tavelak: I wonder what you're still doing there, Dash. Emergency situtation. I've uploaded my location onto your map, you should be able to see it now.

[i]A picture-in-picture display appeared. The map dominated 3/4 of the screen, leaving his commanding officer's video feet in a small box.[/i]

Dash: What are my orders?

Tavelak: The obvious...Catch up with us!!! We're preparing for a jump to Corneria to meet up with the rest of the fleet. We're going to encounter resistance on the way there so get up here with us first and I'll brief you then.

[i]The transmission ended. Dash was heavily confused with the sudden change of plan. He only had a slight hint as to what was going on. Fron the looks of the posters and flags hung high in the city, to what his parents had told him, to the mysterious explosion and the sirens that followed after, it seemed like the entire Lylat system was at war, once again.

Once Dash hit the wastelands, he pushed forward his throttle to 150% and retracted his wings, turning his Scouter into a sharp diamond. He pushed down, plotting a crash course with the ground, the suddenly pulled up, using the G-forces as a means to bounce back upwards at extremely high speeds. Dash always hated going into space with the extreme turbulence and the sudden shift into zero-gravity. Without light.

He clenched his teeth and balanced the yoke and throttle to successfully breach the atmosphere. After the three minutes had passed, he felt his stomach churn and all of his insides turn upside down. He had made it, and his squadron held formation around him, making room. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the controls of his plane. Shutting off the thrusters, he extended the wings again, reset his gyro sensors and opened up a communications line with Tavelak.[/i]

Dash: I've made it in once piece...wasn't pleasent though.

Tavelak: No time to think about that. I hope your engines have cooled on this dark side of the planet.

[i]Dash looked at his temperature gauge and saw the readouts had negative values.[/i]

Dash: It's good...

Tavelak: Okay, this is it...prepare your engines for high-speed travel. We're on our way to Corneria to be briefed on the situation. It seems that place is the most secure for deploying ships in mass numbers. It's expected that we will encounter resistance along the way so I want you to stay sharp and dodge everything that comes at you. Your ships are designed for that.

Dash: Question. Who are we fighting?

Tavelak: We don't know yet...or at least I don't. There has been a large presence of these mysterious fighters in the astroid belt of this system. They're extremely hostile, kinda like they own the place. Our main objective is to reach Corneria, and eliminate any threat that comes close to our flight plan.

[i]Dash looked at his console again. They were planned to drop out of warp and go around the hottest spots. It was a sigh of relief for him and his teammates. But the sound of Tavelak's voice told them it was time to show what they've learned and developed.

The main engines were left at 50% and the warp drive booted up. They were left cruising until Tavelak hit the afterburner (200%), engaged the drive, and disappeared. The rest followed. White light surrounded them...[/i][/COLOR]

[9mm Avenger]

0_o...Sorry I coulden't post sooner...Busy.
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[i]Marth's ship[/i] The Flacon's Revenge[i] was slowly orbiting Zoness, idling on most systems to save power. For the third time this hour, Zoness patroll ships flashed by Marth's ship, checking it out. Even in it's decaying state, the warhsip was still impressive, and was run on only a minimum crew of Marth, a few old hands, and many hundereds of servitor robots.

Suddenly, the comm-system on Marth's command chair began beeping. Marth reached down and touched the red button lables "Comm".[/i]

[b]Marth:[/b]On screen.

[i]The incoming message was not a person-to-person call, but a news reel transmitted from Coneria by on of Marth's spys.

It showd great explosions over the capital city, and burning buildings. Another comm-transmission came in from Corneria, but Marth ignored it, and turned to the internal PA system.[/i]

[b]Marth:[/b]Attention crew! Refuel and rearm my fighter, and prepare for light...We're going to Corneria!

[i]Marth heard the crew's cheers of excitment before he cut the PA, and punched the light drive...[/i]

[Solo Tremaine]

OOC: that's okay. It's good to have you here ^_^
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Sabre walked casually down the dirty side-streets, looking at the buildings around him still partly scarred by the war. Scorch marks adorned the buildings like war paint, and bits of destroyed fighter craft lay in the streets, gathering dust.

As he turned down a side alley, he noticed a familiar figure lurking on the opposite corner of the street. Cocking his rifle, he charged forwards, full of intense rage.

The young stag looked round too late. Sabre leapt upon him and jammed the gun barrel against his neck, growling loudly

The frightened stag shivered in shock. "Sabre?!" he croaked.

"Yes, it's me you treacherous retch! You thought you could kill me, eh?" he snarled, jamming the gun harder into his windpipe.

The stag quickly moved his hand into his trouserleg and produced a knife. Sabre noticed and threw it to the ground, where it clattered into the street. "Sabre..." he gasped. "Wait... I can explain."

"Well, you'd better!" he roared. "Because if I'm not satisfied then I'm going to blow your pathetic brains out!"

"Okay!" the struggling animal squealed. his speech was slurred and hurried. "We received a tip-off that there was going to be a raid on our base. We figured it'd be best to leave you there so we could get away. We needed someone to take the fall. It was Oonah's idea."

"Arrogant slime. She thought she could do away with me?"

"She's hated you for years. She wanted you locked away so she could take over StarWolf."

"If she wanted me locked up why was the base burning?" he yelled, shoving the gun further into his neck. The deer gasped and spluttered for air.

"We had nothing to do with that. I don't know who started the fire." he choked.

There was a tense silence for a few seconds, broken only by Rowan's panicked wheezing. Sabre eased the barrel from his neck and took his knee from Rowan's chest. Slowly, the stag stood up, eyeing the wolf fearfully. As he turned to go, a pulse from the rifle burned the air. Rowan clutched at his hand as red liquid flowed from a burning hole in his palm.

"Take that to Oonah. Never double-cross me again."

Rowan ran off down the street hurriedly, hoping never to see Sabre again. The wolf hauled the blaster onto his back and spat on the floor in disgust.

Amateurs.

[RicoTranzrig]

[COLOR=darkblue][i]Time seemed to drift away in high speed. Conventionally, they would've taken months to reach Corneria, but they arrived slightly distal from the astroid belt when the proximity sensors kicked in and dropped them out into normal space.[/i]

Tavelak: Alright, stay sharp, we're going to navigate around this place, evading the enemy. This is going to be a strange formation, but follow my lead, single file, through all these rocks. Alter your course accordingly, but don't stray away from my booster trails.

[i]The sqaudron heard loud and clear. Dash waited since he was in the rear of the formation, and they headed out, Dash last, hoping that none of them would make an error in this complex course...[/i][/COLOR]

[Solo Tremaine]

Sabreleant against a wall for a few minutes. The streets were crawling with soldiers, all of them heading towards the arena. He'd overheard some of them talking about an assault on Katina, but he didn't want to wait around long enough to hear the rest of it in case he was seen.

Listening to the clatter of heavy boots on the streets around him, he clipped a sniper scope onto the top of his rifle. If Starfox was going to be there, he was going to exact his revenge.

As the scope snapped in place with a resounding 'click' a sudden thought flashed into his mind. What effect would that have on the war, he wondered. Eliminate the driving force behind a powerful factor, and you can get in for an easy win. But Fox was just one Lylatian. How could he make such a difference?

His thoughts wandered back to nine years ago, just before the end of the Lylat Wars. Fox had almost single-handedly given the Army all the support they needed while they combatted Andross' forces on Cornaria and Katina. He'd destroyed the command centres of forces in Sectors X and Y, destroyed bio-weapons on Aquas and Zoness, and managed to penetrate Area 6 and Venom itself.

He clenched his fist. That was where Wolf's life had ended. Growling in bitter anger, he slammed a fresh ammo pack into the gun. He didn't care about the system.

[RicoTranzrig]

[COLOR=darkblue][i]Navigating the dense rocky belt protecting Corneria seemed to be a piece of cake for this small group of rookies. Still, Dash could see the tension in his teammates' faces on his monitor as they scanned for rocks and talked to each other in close trasmission mode, preventing anyone from detecting their communication signals.[/i]

Emiko: Hey Dash, how are you holding up back there?

Dash: Bumpy ride, but I can take the pressure.

Noir: I hope we can get back early. I promised my wife and kids I'd be back as soon as possible to watch the Changing of the night sky.

Dash: Hehe, I almost forgot Katina had something that beautiful coming up this winter, when all the smog gets blown away and we can actually see the sky for what it really is.

Tavelak: Hey! Stay sharp. We'll be back to see that shift soon enough.

[i]Dash looked out from his window, seeing the rocks fly by at low speed. He looked ahead and saw the dark-blue sphere of Corneria becoming fuller as they neared the capital. Everything was beautiful and all, but something didn't seem right. Intelligence claimed that there was a presence of unknown hostile fighters. He hit the comm system again, asking their commander.[/i]

Dash: Don't you find it strange that the enemy isn't nearby?

[i]Tavelak listented closely. It was too silent. He expected the solar winds to strike against his hull and push him closer towards the direction they were going, but the only noise that he could pickup was the soft hum of their ion engines.

Dash looked out again and focused his vision on a nearby astroid.[/i]

Tavelak: Nothing...which is strange. It might have something to do with the activity in Solar.

Dash: I need to get my vision checked.

Emiko: What was that?

Dash: Eh, you know me...bunnies, degrading vision...

Noir: Not for a while, though.

[i]Noir and Emiko looked out as well at the same chunk of rock. Their vision seemed to blur as well. All around them, space seemed to blur up, like looking out of a cookie jar. Dash and his teammates slowly reached for their weapon systems and silently armed them. Heat signatures were detected all over.

Tavelak appeared on all their displays. He wouldn't dare speak a word about what they were about to do for fear that their pre-emptive strike would fail. He spoke in the Lylat sign language, a requirement for all Cornerian military personnel.[/i]

Tavelak: [i]Prepare to scramble and hit the afterburners all the way to Corneria.[/i]

[i]Huge tension rose as they drifeted past the first wave of cloaked vessels. Fear of battle, fear of death, they prepared to kick themselves and their ships into an energetic rush once the command was given to make the escape...[/i][/COLOR]

[9mm Avenger]

[i]The [/i]Flacon's Revenge[i] exited light speed on the opposite side of Coneria, away from the fighting. Marth, firmly locked into his Wolfen craft's cockpit, hit the throttle as soon as the clearance was given. The small tactical fighter rocketed out of the hanger, followed by five other craft, Marth's elite squadron.

Closing in on Coneria's atmosphere, Marth gave the signal for the squadron to skim the atmosphere, using the planet's gravity to slinghtshot around to the battle zone, a tactic most forces a reluctant to use.

Hitting the afterburners in the upper atmosphere, Marth's squadron headed in full speed....[/i]

[RicoTranzrig]

[COLOR=darkblue][i]Nervous sweat drenched the small scouting crew heading towards Corneria. The Kareck were able to match their speed without decloaking and Dash got more eager to hit the red hat button on his control stick when they got in range, the beeping sound of his targeting system grew quicker by the minute. It would be 15 minutes before they reached Corneria, dodging astroids and worrying about getting shot at.[/i]

Emiko: They're just following us, if they wanted to destroy us, they should have when we flew right next to them.

Dash: Should we open fire when they get in range?

Tavelak: No...we'll follow standard rules, no shots until we're shot at.

Dash: Understood.

Noir: We'll play around with them for a while.

Tavelak: Remember, we still have a healthy charge of afterburner fuel if we need it. We'll save our weapon energy for later.

[i]Several seconds passed and the cloaked ships increased their speed. Dash instinctively released the safety of his missile launcher and rested his thumb across the smooth red plastic...[/i][/COLOR]

[Defcon5]

Falco arrived on the extremly busy Corneria fighting his way through the crouds. He finally made it to General Peppers Head Quarters. He walked inside the building as was immeditaly stopped by a guard.

"I'm sorry sir but you can't be in here it's very busy right now." he said

"Get out of my way." Falco said as he pushed the guard out of the way and walking through the metal detector setting of at least 10 alarms.

"HEY! Get back here!" Shouted the guard as he chased after Falco "Stop that man!"

Falco boarded the elevator and everyone cleared off it getting in the way of the guard, the door shut and up Falco went to see General Pepper.

[Solo Tremaine]

General Pepper wrung his hands nervously. "Report!" he barked at a communiactions officer sitting at a computer terminal across the room.

"Skirmishes have taken place on Macbeth and Titania, while our forces have engaged some unidentified fighters just outside Sector Y. The attacks on Katina and the bases on Meteo have been suppressed and we believe the forces are retreating slightly along the Second Transport Route, towards Venom." the young husky called back, hammering at the keyboard in front of him.

Pepper shook his head. They'd appeared so quickly. "How many losses?"

"Only thirteen military fatalities so far, General. Civilian casualties are unknown as yet, although it is estimated that a surprise attack on this scale could have killed up to 6000 altogether."

Pepper held his head in his hands. memories of Andross' war flashed through his mind. "Six... thousand."

"That's only a maximum approximation, sir. It could be less."

Pepper slammed his fist on the arm of his chair. "It's still too many!" he yelled. "Why didn't our scanners detect them?"

"We still don't know, sir. It's possible their stealth technology is too advanced for us to be able to detect."

Pepper scowled at the monitor screen on the far wall. It showed Cornaria and the area of space surrounding it, including the inner layers of the Meteo asteroid belt. One of the batallions was on its way. He hoped they'd make it there safely. Once the fleet had regrouped here, he could assign those in the Arena to a military team and then organise a battle plan. The new threat had to be eliminated quickly before too many more lives were lost.

Suddenly, the door flew open. Falco stood in the doorway, several guards running up behind them. Pepper, a little rattled, gestured for them to stop. "Ah, Falco. Good to see you. We're just about to head off to the Arena to debrief the rest of StarFox and then make our announcment."

"What announcement?" Falco was puzzled, and still annoyed that he didn't know what was going on.

"All around you, officers are surveying battles around the system. A new threat has arrived. I'll explain the rest on the way." Pepper explained, leading him out of the room. Down the corridor, they entered into a set of double-doors. A large, rusty lift carried them down to a dank station where a grimy shuttle transport waited to take them to the Arena. The two of them entered the small unit and it sped off down the track...

---------------------------

A group of officers flanked the gates to the arena, each of them clutching a special issue pulse gun. Security here was tight. Sabre wondered what the emergency was. Pilots from all over the system were filing thorugh, having their weapon ammo confiscated and then ushered inside the massive Arena. Mercenaries, transporters, ex-officers, more than Sabre had ever seen at once. Hundreds of Cornarian Army jets were parked on the ground with their pilots sitting inside them, ready to make an emergency take-off, presumably.

Sabre quietly crouched behind a large piece of concrete dislodged by an explosion and considered his plan of action...

[Defcon5]

"Another full scale war? You had better not be kidding me!" Falco said slamming his hand on the table in front of him.

"I'm afraid it's all true. I really thought peace would have remained at least till I was dead. I'm too old for this Falco, I try to act like I have things under control but honestly I have no idea what's gonna happen to us." Pepper said as he heaved a great sigh.

"I'm sure it's not that bad" Falco said lying through his teeth

"I'm old, not stupid, there is a difference" Pepper snapped

"Well what did you want me to say? Yeah you're right were all gonna die?" said Falco slightly annoyed

"At least then you would have been telling the truth. I mean really, how can we fight an enemy that's faster than us, smart then us, and stronger than us? What chances do we really have? We thought Andross was bad, but he pales in comparison to what were up against. And the sun, of all time it chooses to start growing! This is too much! People look to me for guidance! Just look at me! I am in no state to be guiding anyone. Corneria is in it's darkest hour, and I assure you, it will be a very long hour." Pepper got up and stared out the window at the arena as they started to land.

Falco lay silent not knowing what to say. It seemed thing were worse than he thought.

[RicoTranzrig]

[COLOR=darkblue][i]The tension was at it's peak when Dash could see the ripples of the cloaked ship right above him. His hands were soaking with sweat as he pushed down on his yoke to avoid a huge chunk of rock. The ship matched course and speed. This was it. Once they saw the blue afterglow of Tavelak's rockets, Dash would launch and guide missiles into the ship directly above him, then drop a bomb set for a few seconds before hitting his own boosters.

They spoke in whispers.[/i]

Dash: Are we ready?

Noir: Yeah.

Emiko: Just make it out alive, we have our people waiting for us on the other side of this belt.

Tavelak: Check your scanners, Dash. Can you lock on?

[i]Dash looked at the information screen on his display. They really did a good job hiding themselves, except for the ripples in space. They knew they were there, but how many? And how big? If they ran, they could get in the way of their retreat. So he reached for another button, yellow.[/i]

Dash: Mark your scanners to their Tag feature. It's like sonar, it'll mark the locations of any object it can detect.

[i]A few seconds passed, what seemed to be an eternity.[/i]

Tavelak: We're ready here, Dash.

[i]His hands sweaty and shaking beneath his gloves, he hit the yellow button and a small object launched from his ship. It activated and lit up the entire area with light nearly as bright as Solar. Luckily they were wearing their helmets to prevent from being blinded.[/i]

Dash: I'm detecting ships as large as our own Carriers and small as spy probes. Numbers are reaching into the hundreds.

[i]The small team knew it. They were outnumbered.[/i]

Tavelak: Can you find a clear path?

[i]He checked for one. A small narrow path, which was devoid of Kareck, appeared on his scanner and the computer plotted the most sane course.[/i]

Dash: Yes, check your displays, we're going in![/COLOR]

[Solo Tremaine]

The shuttle transport glided into the station underneath the arena and slid to a halt. A solider waiting on the station obediently opened the hatch and Falco and Pepper climbed out. The soldier saluted the General stiffly and led him up a dark flight of stairs.

Falco looked around him. "So... why bring everyone here? Surely that's like saying 'Bomb this place'?"

Pepper cleared his throat curtly. "We need to make sure everyone available hears the address, and we need to be able to sort them inot batallions as soon as possible. We don't have time to waste on administration."

* * * * *

Sabre chanced a look over the slab of concrete at the fence the guards were flanking. Shouldn't be too hard to climb over. Although he'd need a distraction. He scanned the area for military vehicls. There had to be some kind of fuel around...

His ears twitched as he noticed a street sweeper grinding up the deserted street, its brushes clawing at the dirty road trying to gather up small bits of rubbish and metal. Smiling slyly, he took aim with his rifle and charged up the pulse. This would suit his cause well...

[Defcon5]

Sorry guys, but this is not my month for free time. I'll try to get a post in A.S.A.P.