FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

[b][u][center]The Lylat Wars: XXX

Part 7

For GlynWolf

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

It was hell, and there was no escape.

Falco’s screams broke up in his ear as the bird’s fiery Arwing went down on his left. Venomian fighters chased his wingman right to the ground, following him all the way into the dirt and crashing themselves into the dust behind him. It didn’t matter that they died in the process; they were making sure that Falco bit the dust.

“They’re on my tail! I can’t – I can’t get away! Fox, help! HELP!”

“I’m trying, Slippy, I’m trying!”

Fox looked up. The trench overhead was filled with laser-fire, and bomb after bomb went off, blowing white stars across the sky. Anyone that left the trench leading to the city would die in seconds, but Slippy was stuck up there. He could just barely see the G-Diffuser burning against the night sky.

“Slip! Dive, come on, dive!”

“I can’t! I can’t! I can’t remember how –”

Crackle.

The radio went quiet as the sky burned with molten metal and the explosion of a high-power engine. Fox stared at it –

The sizzling blasts of blue lasers shooting over the nose of his ship brought him back to reality. He gripped the control-stick, sliding slightly left, right, left, keeping the ships behind him from getting a lock. Peppy was right ahead of him, barely keeping up with the various pillars of rock that kept shooting out of the ground from the constant earthquakes. Yet, that was safer than the barrage above.

“How far?” he shouted.

“Two klicks, but we’re almost out of canyon.”

“Get ready to punch it.”

“They’re getting ready to punch us, sonny.”

“We can make it.”

“Fox –”

“We can make –”

One of the lasers got through and hit Peppy’s Arwing right up the exhaust port. The old man’s ship shuddered, almost recovered, only for the engine to blow out.

“Foooox!”

He stared at the falling ship, his palm pressed against the cockpit glass. Peppy spiraled toward the ground –

BOOM!

Only for one of the ships trailing behind him to get off a lucky shot. It exploded before it could hit dirt; there was no chance that the old rabbit got out of that one.

He was alone.

Completely.

Utterly.

Alone.

Fox stared straight ahead, seeing the city coming closer and closer in the distance. It loomed higher than anything that he had ever seen on Corneria, with buildings that looked pitted and open like insect hives. Trees ran through the city like some jungle run amok, and he could almost hear the screams of the monkey pilots running about. Missiles and rockets and bombs galore filled the skies at the end of the canyon, as if daring him to even try and get close.

Fox shivered and he lost his grip on the control-stick. Before he got it back, he slid to the right –

BOOM!

#

“Ah!”

Fox gasped as he jerked upright, one hand to his chest and the other to his side. The bedsheets were soaked with night-sweat, and his heart pounded so hard against his ribs that he could barely catch his breath. His eyes closed tight for a split-second, but the burning heat of the ship explosions forced him to open them again. Even thinking about it made his fur feel as if it was on fire, and he shivered as he slowly pulled himself back, his spine against the headboard of the bed to anchor himself to the waking world.

He pressed his hands to his face, forcing himself to keep breathing as his throat clenched down. His chest felt too tight, his stomach pulling in and everything trying to climb out at once. Every time that he managed to force some air down his throat, he had to fight to keep it in his lungs for more than half a second. Pain. Panic. Horror.

But little by little, the shakes eased. His arms stopped cramping, and his muscles slowly started to go back to their natural limp state. He was able to bring his hand down from his face, and he slumped forward, head against his knees.

[i]Figures…the day before it starts…[/i]

The nightmares had been relatively common in the two years that they’d been training together. It didn’t usually involve all four of them, but it was a rare week that he didn’t dream about someone dying. Usually more than once, to be honest.

[i]Keep breathing…keep breathing…[/i]

Slowly, the worst of the night-terror faded, though the stink of the nightmare sweat continued to pervade the room. He rubbed his nose as he lifted his head, resting it on top of his knees instead of behind them. As he focused on just keeping his breathing even, he looked at the far wall of his quarters, staring at the empty wall.

[i]Dad would have had something there.[/i]

It was a thought that refused to go away. Oh, he managed to ignore it, sometimes, but there was always some reminder, sometime, about what he should do with the room. He hadn’t put a single decoration up in the last two years, despite all the opportunities. The little missions that they’d done for cash to keep themselves going had given him plenty of opportunities for souvenirs, ranging from the posters that fans made of the team to the little pieces of wreckage that had been left behind after their victories. If he wanted, he could have arranged the room a hundred different ways and still had more options available for variety.

Instead, his quarters were blank. More than that, they were stark. He could leave tomorrow, and it would be ready for someone new that day. It was that empty.

The communicator panel beside the bed buzzed. Fox wrapped the blanket around his lower half, turning with a quiet sigh and tapping the wall. The screen came to life, revealing Peppy already up and dressed.

“Yeah, Peppy? What’s up?” Fox asked, rubbing his eyes.

“[i]We got about two hours before we’re over Corneria,[/i]” Peppy said, shaking his head. “[i]Figured you’d want to shower and get ready.[/i]”

“Heh, thanks for looking out for me, old-timer.”

“[i]Heh, you keep your eye on the skies, sonny. I’ll be waiting on the bridge.[/i]”

Fox nodded as the screen went blank. It was just the same as usual; Peppy would be up before any of the rest of them and attending to the details. Always had been, probably always would be. Until they got used to the life, at least.

Sliding his legs off the bed, Fox stumbled to his feet and walked to his door. It opened at his approach, probably because the whole ship was basically free-roam. There was little in the way of security, they’d found out early-on, and they’d never gotten around to fixing that. No point; the Great Fox never went into combat itself, and there was little reason to fix something that would cost [i]that[/i] much when they were barely scraping by as it was.

He trundled down the hall, tail dragging behind him as he stared straight ahead. He didn’t bother wrapping the towel by the door around his waist; Slippy had seen the damn thing up close, and they’d showered enough times as a team for him to know what they all looked like naked, and vice versa. No point in being shy on the ship.

Taking the hall past the other quarters to the elevator at the center of the ship, he rode it down to the level just above cargo, level 3.

[i]Bridge at one, quarters at two, rec and meals at three, cargo at four, engines at five.[/i]

Cargo and hangar, he revised mentally; that was where everything that they flew went, and where it all got repaired. Mostly by Slippy and ROB, though sometimes he and Falco threw in if they had the time and it wasn’t that complicated. Didn’t want to leave everything to the frog if they didn’t have to.

[i]Not that he seems to mind…[/i]

Fox rubbed his eyes as he remembered the training that they’d all gone through together. Falco had proven his flying chops pretty fast in Peppy’s eyes – though he was pretty sure that the pair of them still argued regularly over the merits of formation versus free-style flying – but the frog hadn’t done as well. Oh, Slippy was better than he used to be, by far, but at the same time…

Well, not even Fox could pretend that he was up at their level.

The naked vulpine sighed as he looked up from his hand, the elevator doors parting on the gym, rec, and shower area. He left the elevator behind and walked around the corner, already hearing the sounds of running water.

“Who else is up?” he called out.

“Oh, hi, Fox.”

Slippy, then. He smiled at the frog as he stepped into the shower, tossing the towel onto the hook by the hallway door, and joined his fellow pilot under one of the showerheads. Slippy’s face was already bright-red as he walked over, and it only got worse as he got comfortable under the hot water.

“You hear from Peppy yet?” Fox asked.

“Yeah, um…he said that we’re close.”

“Two hours out.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You ready?”

“I…oh, I don’t know…”

“Heh…I think you are.”

Slippy rubbed the back of his head. Fox just hoped that he wasn’t telling a lie; he could cover for Slippy to an extent – and they had gotten a lot better, all of them, not just the frog – but there was only so much that he could do on the battlefield. Slippy would have to do at least some of it for himself.

[i]At least I don’t have to worry much about Falco or Peppy,[/i] he thought, running his hands through his fur and slowly combing out the worst of the sweat-soaked bits. [i]They’ll be alright. Falco can fly circles around anyone but me, and Peppy’s got a lot of experience with this.[/i]

That said…

This was going to be their first real mission in a war-zone rather than just fighting off pirates or taking down some bandits that had been a problem in some colony space. This was the first time that they were going to be fighting real soldiers rather than just desperate, well-armed idiots.

It was going to be different. It was going to be very different.

“Fox?”

“Hmm?”

“You, uh…what about you? Are you okay? Are you…ready?”

He cocked his head to the side, looking down. Slippy blushed, looking down, but there was no missing the frog’s rising cock between his legs. He chuckled.

“What, not getting enough?”

“I’m just saying…I know it helps you guys…”

It wasn’t what Fox had anticipated, but Slippy had become sort of the ‘morale officer’ for the team over the last couple of years. The frog hadn’t quite become the ‘butt-boy’ of the team, but…well, it was a rare night when they were alone in space that he wasn’t giving someone or other company, as far as Fox could figure.

He’d shared a bed with Slippy at least three times in the last two weeks, and he was half-sure that Peppy was making use of that slippery green butt, as well. He doubted that Falco took it that far, but if the bird had completely turned down what Slippy could do with his mouth, he’d be surprised. Falco was as macho as they came, but a mouth was a mouth, and…well, loneliness was a real thing in space.

[i]Particularly in space,[/i] he thought, rubbing his fingers through his fur and dragging some soap through it as the water heated up a bit further. [i]At least on a planet, you know that there’s someone just over the hill or something. Out here? All you can see are stars. The nearest person is not miles away, but lightyears away, sometimes…[/i]

Of course, that made their friendship all kinds of weird. He shook his head –

“Mmmph…”

Only for Slippy to interrupt his thoughts with a hand on his cock. It didn’t take more than a few strokes for his shaft to start coming up, and the chubby frog blushed as he looked down at him again.

“Can’t help yourself, can ya?” Fox muttered.

“Well, unless you want me to get behind you…I remember how much you love my tongue under your tail.”

“That [i]is[/i] a specialty of yours.”

“So…”

“Tempting.”

If they weren’t so close to their destination, it wouldn’t have been just a temptation; he would have already been backing Slippy up against the wall and keeping him there for his pleasure. As it was…

“Hey, what are you two up to?”

Slippy’s halfway-there confidence melted up as Falco stepped into the locker room. The slender bird was as naked as they were, his cock swaying between his legs as he sauntered up to one of the showerheads, and he chuckled as he started it running.

“Did I interrupt a jerk-sesh?”

“Falco, you’re a real prick sometimes, you know that?”

“Least I got one.”

“We [i]all[/i] have one, birdbrain,” Fox said, shaking his head as he felt his erection fading away. “You know, you could have just not said anything?”

“Heh, and miss seeing if you’d both get harder for me? Fat chance.”

[i]Well, that arrogance hasn’t gone away…[/i]

Peppy had been all but sure that Falco would break down eventually, that the bird would bend the knee and start falling in line once he realized that there were other pilots out there as good as he was. Unfortunately, they’d found scant few, and Falco’s ego had soared outside of the training sessions between the four of them.

Pity. Really.

He could feel the last of the smelly stuff sliding out of his fur, and he stepped back from the water. Slippy did the same, shaking his head as he reached for the towel on one of the other showerheads.

“What, heading off already? Come on, I’m not that bad,” Falco said.

“No, but you are that late,” Fox retorted. “Besides, I just needed to wake up. [i]You[/i] need to clean up.”

“You saying I stink?”

“I’m saying one of us has to deal with just using his hand, and he ain’t being responsible about cleaning up after.”

And with that parting shot, he left the red-faced bird to his own devices.

#

The bridge of the Great Fox was where most of the money they’d earned had gone. The old consoles had been replaced, all the windows had been reinforced, and the whole place had cyber-security out the ass. There was no chance that any ship outside of the Great Fox would be able to hack into the bridge systems and fuck with them.

On top of that, there were hologram projectors almost everywhere, allowing them to display any sort of battle-map they needed at any size. Fed by the advanced sensors and battle-computers that they’d installed – and run by ROB to make sure that all the simulations weren’t being riddled with errors – it meant that they could enter any battle with more up-to-date intelligence than any opponent.

Fox had pushed for that. Even more than Peppy, he didn’t want [i]anything[/i] sneaking up on them. There would be no repeat of what happened to his father. He wouldn’t let something like that happen [i]ever[/i] again.

“So, what do we know?” Fox said, sitting in the command chair as the hologram projectors put together a map of the Lylat System. “What’re we coming into?”

“Well, sonny, from what Pepper told me, Andross declared war two weeks ago.”

“Back when we were still resupplying out of system,” Fox confirmed, nodding.

“Right. And in that time, well…”

Peppy gestured at the holo-map. Though the rabbit sat at the far end and Fox at Corneria’s, it was clear that the situation had gone tits-up about as badly as it could. The red dots that were Andross’s forces and fleets had already consumed both sides of the system, had a presence around Solar, and were pushing towards Corneria, [i]hard.[/i] The only planets still free were Corneria itself and Katina – thank god – while there were massive fights going on in Sector Y.

“Where’s the CDF?” Slippy asked, leaning over Corneria’s projection. “It shouldn’t be this bad…”

“Andross hijacked a third of the fleet near Venom. Most of the ships on Bolse and near Area 6 were completely taken over, and the rest barely limped away,” Peppy said. “As for the main fleet near Corneria, Pepper told me that they were lured away by the attack on Sector Y; Andross’s fleet was bigger than the old dog thought.”

It was always going to be. For all that Andross was a madman, he was also one of those madmen that knew how to attract people to his cause. Fox still remembered that talk that he’d had with Wolf two years ago, and how the other man had been completely convinced.

[i]There’d be more where he came from…[/i]

Still, looking at the holo-map, even Fox was surprised to see so many red dots flitting about the Lylat System. He’d known that Andross had to have a lot to throw at the CDF to dare declaring war again, but this…

“Do we have any idea as to their actual numbers?” Fox asked.

“Last I checked, the system said about 3k fighters on Corneria alone, a hundred carriers, and thirty destroyers,” Peppy said.

In other words, more than enough to outnumber anything Pepper had left behind by nearly ten-to-one. Even with some help, they were going to have a hell of a time breaking through that and making enough of a dent to push Andross’s forces off the planet again.

Fox tapped his chin as he walked around the map. Andross’s forces had pushed too far through the Lylat System for this to be a quick fight. If the ape had been slower, taking things piecemeal as he went through the system, then this would have been simpler; they could have blockaded him at the far side of the system and held there. Might have lost something, might have been a siege for years, but it would have kept the damage from spreading.

But at the same time…

Fox stopped at the Venom side of the map, looking down at Bolse and Area 6. Despite the fact that they had been CDF territory, they were sparsely defended. The initial fleets that had been kept there had been pushed further out.

“He’s expanding hard,” Fox said.

“Yeah…real hard,” Falco muttered, standing on the other side of the map. “If I was seeing something like this on the ground –”

“Someone new?”

“Or stupid, or angry,” the bird agreed, nodding. “He’s pushing too hard. He can’t hold everything that he takes.”

“Or won’t be able to defend it, if someone got behind his lines,” Fox added.

“Heh, pity that he’s holding the line so hard.”

“Well, sonny, course of the war doesn’t matter if we lose the next battle,” Peppy interrupted. “Let’s focus on Corneria first. Once we kick his bald butt off the planet, we can talk about what we do next.”

“Heh, you really think we can’t handle that monkey?” Falco chuckled.

“Sonny, you ain’t handled anything but rookies so far. Don’t get cocky on me now. You wanted a challenge, and you’re about to get it.”

“Easy, Peppy…”

Fox shook his head. The last thing that he needed was a pre-battle spat between the two. They were always on-edge with each other, and no surprise; they were as different as could be. Fox just hoped that they could fight the enemy as eagerly as they fought each other.

He looked down at Corneria again. The CDF was pushed back hard, centering around Corneria City and huddling under a defensive shield. Other than an orbital bombardment that was blowing up most of their infrastructure in the big cities around the rest of the planet, the Venomian forces seemed to be isolated to a slow-moving column that was dragging its way across the planet from the far side. They would be at the edge of the shield in, at a guess, three hours.

[i]Probably hoping to take it as a trophy for Andross,[/i] Fox thought, watching the fires on the map. [i]That many destroyers in the atmosphere could probably blow that shield to bits, but that’d damage the city itself. Andross wants to show Pepper that he can just take it from him, not obliterate it.[/i]

Which was the only thing that gave the CDF a chance to hold out until they could arrive. Those three thousand aircraft were keeping close to the ground column, ensuring that it could get close enough to the city without the local air force blowing them to bits.

[i]Explains why nobody from the Academy is registering on the scanner, too. They’re all under the shield. Probably waiting for everyone to come to them as a desperate last defense.[/i]

Fox clenched his hands into fists as he imagined Bill still being down there. If the bulldog was still at the Academy, if he hadn’t already gone to Katina –

[i]I’m not losing Bill. I’m not losing anyone else.[/i]

“Fox?” Slippy asked.

“Just thinking. And I think I’ve got a plan.”

“Yeah? What’re you thinking?” Falco asked.

He glanced at Peppy. The veteran nodded at him, gesturing for him to go ahead. No more help, it seemed. Peppy had been an advisor during some of the early missions, stepping forward and giving him a few bits of insight that he might have missed during the first few missions out on the rim, while they were still dealing with the idiots and the raiders. This one? This one was going to be a test for him, too.

[i]Well, here’s hoping all that late-night reading works out.[/i]

Fox pointed to the area of space just at the edge of the system, barely in Corneria’s orbit. A hologram of the Great Fox appeared, glowing blue against the red swarm that surrounded the planet.

“We’ll bring the Great Fox in behind the carrier cluster, here. We should have time for two, maybe three shots from the big guns. That’ll be enough to punch a hole in the carriers themselves, maybe take down one of the destroyers before they move and start repositioning,” he said, the map reflecting his words as the swarm of red opened a hole around the planet. “From there, we’ll launch the Arwings. ROB will bring the Great Fox back to a safe distance after that, keeping the rest of the Venom fleet from chasing it, while we punch through to the surface.”

The map zoomed in on Corneria City, the bubble of the defense shield glowing bright. Fox zoomed it out slightly, focusing on the shallow sea that bordered the city to the south and east.

“Whoever’s running the ground column, he’ll have to cross the water here,” Fox said, “unless he wants to circle around to one of the land bits further north or circle all the way around to the other side of the city. Probably won’t; once they’re that close, there’s enough ground defense in Corneria City that they can start taking pot-shots at his tanks, and I bet you that he wants to prove something to Andross.

“We’ll swing around from the south, take out any fighters that are probing the city’s shield and any scouts that have gotten to the city proper, and then hook east to find the leader. If we can take them out, and harry the rest of the air force hard enough, we should be able to get the rest of the CDF to come out and join us.”

“Heh, sounds fun,” Falco said. “So, obviously, that’s what I’m going to do. What are the rest of you going to do to keep busy?”

“Sonny –”

“Um, Fox?” Slippy raised his hand.

“It’s not the Academy anymore, Slippy. Just talk.”

“Right, um…uh, the thing here. Uh. The shield.” Slippy pointed to it. “They know we’re coming and they’re going to drop it, right?”

“We’ll have to radio in and hope for the best.”

“Oh…”

“We can manage that; Pepper will be in contact before long, anyway,” Peppy said. “But I see one big problem, Fox.”

“What’s that?”

“Where’s the leader?”

That [i]was[/i] a small fly in the ointment, as it were. For all that he knew that the leader had to be somewhere in the column, there was no clear way to pick him out from all the other mechas and tanks and everything else that was making its way across the planet. He leaned over the map for a moment before glancing at Slippy again.

“…Think you can find him?”

“Well, um, there’s the possibility that he’ll be putting out a unique signal,” Slippy said, nodding to himself. “Um, yes, that’s possible. A command transmission – oh, that’d make sense. Something that punches through all the other chatter, and – oh, oh, yes, override signals, shutdown commands, and – do you think that he’d have a jammer to keep orbital strikes from hitting him?”

“…Yes. Yes, he would,” Peppy said after a moment. “Andross’s commanders are cowards; they’d use anything they could to keep someone from shooting at them by accident. Or on purpose.”

“Then I can find him.” Slippy nodded. “I can track [i]any[/i] of those, but that jammer will be the biggest one. And if there’s more than one, I can narrow it down with the other signals when we get closer.”

“There you go, Peppy.” Fox chuckled. “All good.”

“Yeah…that’ll work…”

Fox restrained the urge to snap at the rabbit. For all that Slippy had come up with a good idea, it was something that he couldn’t have expected the frog to have. And if Slippy hadn’t had a way to pick out the leader from the column –

[i]But he did. He did. It’s fine.[/i]

Shoving any and all little fears that he could have sent them into hell with that little plan if that solution hadn’t been found, Fox stepped away from the map. It disappeared as he turned to look out the bridge windows. The star-lines of everything getting stretched out around them continued to slide by. Every so often, a different color would interrupt, reminding them of how far they’d already come from the distant system they’d left behind.

“How long until Pepper makes contact?” he asked Peppy.

“I’d say about twenty minutes.”

“And how long until we hit the Lylat System?”

“Fifty.”

“Fifteen minutes rest, everyone,” Fox said, nodding at the rest of the team. “Get a breather. Do whatever you can to get nice and loose. In thirty minutes, we’re flying into battle.”

#

General Pepper was as prompt as Peppy promised. Thirty minutes out from arrival, the bloodhound opened a channel with them. Fox took his seat at the command chair on the bridge, and Falco, Slippy, and Peppy sat just under him, just out of sight of the General but still able to see him.

He was surprised to see how bedraggled the old hound was. Pepper looked almost dead on his feet, his eyes almost disappearing into his facial wrinkles, and his jowls hung low as he stared at the camera lens.

“You look like you’ve seen better days, General.” Fox shook his head. “What’s the situation?”

“Not good. In fact…I’d say almost impossible.”

“Well, let’s see if we can turn that around. I’m coming in with reinforcements.”

“We’ll take whatever we can get. Even if you are…heh…we’ll take whatever we can get.”

[i]Same old Pepper; thinks the CDF is the be-all, end-all.[/i] He glanced at the map behind the General. [i]Even if he’s losing everything right now…[/i]

“We’ll talk payment after we clear Andross’s forces off the planet,” Fox said, leaning back in his chair. “For now, let’s just get everyone to safety.”

“At least you remember some priorities, Fox.” General Pepper sighed, looked over his shoulder, then leaned over his console, his dignity fading from his face. “Help us, Fox. You’re the only hope for our world.”

Fox sat up a little straighter in his seat, his breath caught in his throat for a moment before he could let it out. If General Pepper was saying something like that, then the situation was even worse than he thought. He nodded.

“Andross won’t have his way with me. Or anyone else.”

“Good. Good.” The bloodhound stood up again, and as if it had never gone in the first place, resumed his dignity. “What do you need from us?”

“Peppy will be transmitting the battle plans any second. Long story short, we’ll come in from the south and sweep the edge of the shield, and just under it. We’ll transmit a signal when we’re close, so keep an eye out for us. Once we clear any scouts and recon units they got, we’ll head east and hit their leader and air force. After we thin ‘em out, come after us.”

“If we fail, that’s suicide.”

“If you stay where you are, you’re dead anyway.”

“...”

“I’m trusting you to do the right thing, General.”

Fox nodded to ROB, and the transmission ended. He leaned back in his chair, taking a few deep breaths.

Twenty-eight minutes and counting…

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Fox and the rest of the crew come back from training, and get ready for their first real fight in a real war.

Tags: M/M, Shower, Fox, Slippy, Starfox, Falco, Peppy, Falcon, Rabbit, Frog, Masturbation, Nightmare, Teasing, Team, Series,