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Chapter 5: Freighter Raid

"Mind if I join you?" Contrary Heart Liger stood, lunch tray in hand, next to the table where Pace and Hugs were eating.

"Not at all," Hugs said.

Connie sat down and took a bite of her food, "Wish I could have been on the mission yesterday, I'm still behind Tenderheart on the board."

Pace winced slightly then gave his sister a concerned look but said nothing. Hugs caught on instantly though and took his hand and squeezed it. Pace looked at her then nodded. They'd had the argument several times but in the end it always came down to 'if we weren't out there fighting we'd already be dead'. Pace still had a hard time living with it.

Hugs sighed and put an arm around Pace's shoulder, "I wish we could have gotten together before the world ended."

"Me too, I wish I could have stopped being so nervous about telling you how I felt," he took her hand.

Hugs nodded, "I feel like we both wasted a lot of time on that, even patience can go too far," she gave Pace a kiss on the cheek.

Connie sighed then finished her meal, "I'm going to log a couple hours in the simulator, see ya later."

Hugs picked up her now empty tray, "I should join her. Heading to sick bay, nurse Pace."

Pace nodded, "I am. Good...luck."

"Thank you." Hugs and Pace shared a kiss before they headed off.

OoOoO

"There, the test model Psiwing is finished." Bright Heart stepped away from the ship in question to stand with Tenderheart, Slippy, Amanda and Fara.

The Psiwing test model looked much like an Arwing MK IV except for the two large psi-pods mounted on the hard points on top of the wings and the removal of the Nova Bomb launcher under the hull.

"You want me to test this thing?" Tenderheart turned to the others, "Is the psi-link system working."

Amanda nodded, "You got it, it's similar the interface I use to let cybernetic limbs works as though they were the originals. Ask Cheer if you don't think that's good enough."

Tenderheart couldn't help but chuckle, "Most days I forget her right arm and leg are metal." He took the psi-link headset that Fara offered to him.

"Lab tests all check out, good luck," Fara said.

"Thank you." Tenderheart affixed the headset around his head and stepped into the cockpit of the Psiwing.

Slippy's voice and face came over the comm as Tenderheart started the engine. "We only built it out of ceramic titanium so it'll feel sluggish compared to the MK V. We didn't have the resources for a laminate titanium build."

Tenderheart smirked, "I'll manage." The ship lifted off the docking bay floor and flew out into space. "Let me know if any empire ships appear on long range scans, I'm not endangering everyone for the sake of a test."

"Don't worry, Tender, I'll keep you informed." The voice belonged to Cheer Bear, which made Tenderheart smile before he refocused on the test.

Fara's face appeared on the comm. screen, "Alright, Tenderheart, you should be able to control the pods now, just focus on the pods and get them to detach."

"OK," Tenderheart closed his eyes for a moment. He felt his brain tingle, his psychic senses coming alive as he felt the headset respond. The two pods detached from the ship, "Alright, they've detached. Gonna try to move them now." Tenderheart focused hard into the headset and felt it respond, but slowly. The pods lurched slightly and wobbled alongside the Psiwing slowly but were unable to outstrip it; their movements were jerky.

"They performed better in the lab test, we need to compensate for movement in actual space," Bright Heart said over the comm. "we're going to release some of the rocks we had left from mining the other day, try to destroy them with the pods. Don't worry they aren't big enough to hurt the Fox."

"Affirmative," Tenderheart looked over his shoulder to see three rocks being launched out of the docking bay. Once they were out far enough, he focused on the pods and turned them towards the rocks. "OK, fire!" Tenderheart spoke the words aloud. Both pods flared to life for a moment, then dimmed.

Tenderheart grit his teeth and tried again "FIRE!" the two pods flared to life again and each fired off thin blue beam towards the rocks, and missed. Tenderheart focused and the pods wobbled and fired again, and missed again. Six more times, Tenderheart tried to shoot the rocks and missed every time, until the rocks were out of range.

Tenderheart sighed and leaned back in the cockpit seat, "I can't hit them, they barely respond." He focused hard on the pods and slowly guided them back to the Psiwing's until they attached to the wings.

Tenderheart was visibly sweating as he stepped out of the Psiwing's cockpit. "That ship isn't ready for combat," he said as he took off the psi-link headset and handed it back to Slippy.

"I guess it needs more work," Bright Heart sighed.

"In the meantime, how is your work on the nanites?" Tenderheart asked.

"We've learned how to manipulate them and how to make more, but progress is slow when we try to use it for manufacturing," Slippy said, "They would be prefect for manufacturing ships made from normal titanium but they can't handle ceramic titanium construction, let alone Laminate Titanium or Durabillum, which explains how they can have so many ships, and why they're so fragile."

"But we did have a breakthrough after we talked to Take Care and Get Well," Amanda said, her voice eager, "She thinks we can use it for advanced medical treatment, even to regrow lost limbs or damaged tissue, though it would require the person in question to be in a pod for days or even weeks. Take a look," Amanda brought up the data on a hand held data pad.

Tenderheart could only partly make sense of it but Fara understood enough and a quick telepathic conversation between the two brought Tenderheart up to speed.

"I doubt they ever even considered the potential for healing," Fara muttered.

"But we will." Tenderheart looked up at Amanda, "Tell Take Care and Get Well that they can start working on a healing nanite chamber as soon as they can."

"Alright, I will." Amanda took the pad and headed out of the docking bay.

Tenderheart's communicator went off. "Tenderheart, there's an incoming message from Peppy Hare of the resistance fleet."

"Thank you, we're on our way up," Tenderheart motioned for the others to follow him as they rushed for the Docking Bay exit.

Fara sat down in the commander's chair on the command bridge with Tenderheart standing next to her as Cheer put the transmission on the main view screen.

The old grey hare still wore his Star Fox team jacket over his Cornerian general's uniform as he spoke to the team. "Star Fox Team, I hope this reaches you safely. We've detected eight freighters heading towards Corneria. We're certain that some of these are traps but we can't pass up the chance to raid this convoy for supplies. I've sent you our sensor data on the freighters and their flight paths because I trust Souful's analysis on these matter and I need a second opinion before we try to attack them."

"Happy he recognises my skills in this," Soulful turned from the view screen back to his station, "I've already got the download, just give me a few minutes and I'll have an answer."

Tenderheart smiled over his shoulder at the fox, "Alright, Soulful, I know you can do this."

Soulful couldn't resist a smirk, "I know I can too."

It didn't take long, less than half an hour and Soulful had Tenderheart and Fara at his console. The fox pushed a button and crosshair appeared on one of the convoys, "That's the one we should attack. Its escorts are minimal but that's going to be the most loaded of the convoys, the best target for Star Fox to target; theses two," he tapped a couple more controls as crosshairs appeared on two more of the convoys, "Are the other two that are safe to hit."

Tenderheart shook his head and smiled, "I'm always amazed at how fast you can sort through this data."

"Me too," Fara's voice carried a hint of disbelief

Soulful glared at her then turned back to the screen, "The defenses on those are the proper amount for an escorted freighter, the other five either have too many defenders or too little. The ones that are minimally escorted are likely disguised carriers that will swarm any ships that attack them. The only reason they aren't all decoys is because they need to move supplies so they've put live bait out with lures."

"I agree," Tenderheart stood back from Soulful's console, "Cheer, send the data Soulful feeds you back to Peppy."

"Roger that, Tender," Cheer said.

Fara went to sit in her command chair, "ROB, change course to the freighter that Soulful has sent you."

"AFFIRMATIVE. CHANGING COURSE."

"Hope, Katt, ready all battle stations," Fara turned to the two on her right.

"Alright," Hope Bear said.

"On it," Katt said.

"We'll need to take the ship from the inside or we risk blowing it apart," Tenderheart said "Cheer, as soon as you send the transmission tell Defender and Cassandra to get the docking bay prepped for ground combat and everyone else to battle stations. We're launching the full squadron this time."

"Roger that!" Cheer turned back to the comm as Tenderheart departed the command bridge.

OoOoO

Tenderheart, Cassandra and Defender Bear strapped on their battle armor and pulled their weapons out of the armory in the docking bay. Tenderheart considered grabbing one of the swords he had been practising with but decided against it and strapped a gatling gun to his back, stuck a blaster into his hip holster and added a pair of spherical grenades to his belt. He looked over at the other two. Both Defender and Cassandra had strapped on the same body armor but had some of the limb sections lightened to increase their flexibility; the armor included lightweight laser dispersing silver vests, arm and leg plates and boots and a helmet with a similarly durable transparent material over the face.

Cassandra didn't enjoy how her ears were squished into the helmet but she didn't complain as she checked two blaster pistols before adding them to her hips along with four more grenades. She held up her fists and two long blades of light shot forwards, she nodded at the kinetic blades before dispersing them.

Defender Bear created one of his swords before he strapped it to his hip in the scabbard, forgoing the blaster pistol sidearm, then added a machine gun and homing launcher to his back harness and two grenades of his own.

Tenderheart finished the inspection of the team then strode out into the Docking Bay where Falco, Connie, Perfect, Slippy and Hugs stood ready in their flight suits and headsets, waiting for the ship to drop out of warp.

Tenderheart nodded his approval, "Alright, listen: The freighter we're raiding has a heavy escort and you'll have to do without us when the battle starts. These ships have a bad habit of engaging self-destruct when a battle doesn't go their way so while you're clearing out the fighters, Defender, Cassandra and I will land on the freighter and take control of the ship while Bright Heart and Soulful try to hack into its controls and prevent any self-destruct measures. Remember you have to clear the escort as quickly as possible or they may turn their weapons on the ship rather than give it up to us."

"Don't worry about us, we can handle this just fine," Falco said.

"Got that right. Maybe I'll even pass you today," Connie smirked at Tenderheart.

"Just don't get yourself killed," Tenderheart turned to face Defender and Cassandra, "Get in the assault shuttle and be ready to launch."

The assault shuttle was a small, blocky black vehicle made of durabillum that didn't even have the suggestion of aerodynamics. It was made for one purpose: to board and seize enemy ships through landing parties. It could only be piloted by Tenderheart, Defender or Cassandra and its construction made it impervious to small arms fire, the perfect boarding craft.

Tenderheart sat down at the controls as Cassandra and Defender strapped into the seats at the sides, all three ignoring the discomfort from the weapons they had strapped to their armor. Tenderheart flipped the starting switches, "Ready to launch."

The Fox McCloud dropped out of warp right next to the freighter and its escorts, Fara took in the situation at a glance and spoke over the comm, "There's one hundred and fifty fighters, five corvettes and a frigate."

"Gotcha, alright Star Fox Team launch!" Falco shouted as the five Arwings shot out into the fray.

"Damnit! How'd Star Fox get here." The freighter's captain, a gorilla shouted, "Take them out before I blow the cargo!"

"Bright Heart and I are on it," Soulful said.

"Here they come!" Falco shouted as he shot down several of the incoming fighters.

"Watch out for the frigate. Wait for the _Fox_to close in!" Slippy said.

"Yeah, five down!" Connie grinned before spinning into a shield roll.

"Incoming corvette!" Perfect turned to face the larger ship. He fired off a Nova Bomb that blew a chunk off the large ship.

Connie dove in after him and fired off her lasers into the gap until the ship exploded. "Got it! Corvette's count for five."

Tenderheart listened to the sounds of the battle outside and watched the report coming in on the assault shuttle's screens and comm system.

"Frigate in range, locking beam cannons," Katt's voice came over the comm. "Fire!" twin bright blue beams of energy shot out from the cannons over the docking bay doors. The large ship that just came into view was pierced straight down the middle by both weapons, violently exploding from the impacts.

"Great shot love," Falco said.

Katt giggled, "Remind me to kiss you when you get back."

"We've got the codes. We can keep them from self-destructing for about five minutes if they try to trigger it," Soulful Heart said.

"Alright. Assault shuttle launching." Tenderheart hit the accelerator and the shuttle launched, "Cover us until we land in the freighter."

"I'm on it." Perfect's fighter pulled alongside the shuttle.

"Me too," Hugs pulled her Arwing to the other side of the shuttle.

"Just stay with us until we land, we'll take it from there," Cassandra braced herself as a laser blast struck the shuttle's shields.

"I got this," Hugs pulled up and destroyed a group of fighters that were about to make an attack run on the shuttle.

Another explosion rocked the battle zone as two corvettes were destroyed by the Fox McCloud's beam cannons, followed by another explosion as Falco's beam gun blasted another Corvette's side off before Connie finished it off with a Nova bomb.

"I got this one," Slippy dove under the last corvette and fired off two nova bombs, shattering the armor.

"Only surface damage," Falco dove after him and fired off his beam gun into the breaches, splitting the ship in two.

"All the big ships are down. I'm going for the freighter!" Tenderheart hit the accelerator, though the shuttle's top speed was still slow due to it's weight. The freighter's docking bay was at the back of the ship with large containers in several sections leading up to the control bridge at the bow.

"Damnit, our escort's going up in smoke," the freighter's captain said as Tenderheart landed the fighter in the freighter's open docking bay, "Start the self-destruct sequence."

A couple tense moments passed as Tenderheart, Defender and Cassandra unbuckled from their seats ad the boarding ramp was dropped.

"What the hell. Why won't it start?!" The captain's voice was heard again.

"Five minutes until he breaks through the hacking, Tenderheart," Soulful's voice came over the comm.

"Then we'll take the ship in four." Cassandra was first down the boarding ramp as a salvo of lasers fired off at them from the security forces and robots in the docking bay. Cassandra jumped up and over, literally flying on the force of her aerokinesis, the light blades springing to life from her fists as she landed and sliced two of the robots in half. She became a living whirlwind as she sliced and diced living and robotic soldiers while Tenderheart and Defender unslung the gatling gun and machine gun and opened fired, perforating the security that Cassandra missed.

Cassandra sliced through the last of the security robots in the docking bay, "Security's increased," she said flatly.

"Of course," Defender said as he replaced the energy cartridge on his machine gun, "Just swap the cargo holds with barracks or robotics bays and this would be a perfect landing craft."

"Talk later, we have to get to the control bridge!" Tenderheart motioned for them to follow and took off towards the front of the ship.

OoOoO

"Twenty fighters left, clean them up!" Falco shouted.

"Ninteen!" Connie destroyed one and turned to a group that was turning away from them. "Where are they going?"

"They're attacking the freighter!" Slippy cried as one remaining group of fighters unloaded a salvo on the ship."

"Shit! Take them down fast!" Falco hit the boost and fired off a salvo of lasers, destroying six of the remaining fighters.

"Heading in," Hugs said, shooting down three more fighters.

Perfect shot down another two and Connie dove in, shooting down seven of the remaining fighters.

Slippy boosted in and fired off his lasers, blowing the last one to pieces, "Got one!"

"Alright, the area's clear," Fara sat back in her command chair, "Now it's all up to the landing party."

OoOoO

Cassandra tried to charge down the last hallway but was forced back by a concentrated barrage of fire from turrets and security robots. She had taken several his on her armor but was otherwise fine.

"Looks like they're doing their best to hold us back," Defender pressed up against the wall, "Only one minute left."

"Then we'll have to break through," Cassandra ignited the blades of light on her forearms.

"No!" Tenderheart's shout stopped the fennec from charging off. He holstered his gatling gun and closed his eyes. His senses extended outwards and he peered around the corner through his mind. "Too many for a direct attack." Tenderheart opened his eye sand grabbed one of the grenades off his belt. "Arm grenades and throw them down the corridor, once they blow we have to charge through. 40 seconds left!" Tenderheart threw his grenade at the wall, letting it bounce towards the barricade.

"Got it," Defender grabbed one of his own and hurled it after Tenderheart's, followed by Cassandra doing the same.

Three explosions rocked the corridor then Defender unslung his homing laucher and darted out, sighting an undamaged turret he fired off an explosive shot that further rocked the ship.

Cassandra jumped over Defender and charged in, wrist blades alight as she sliced up the last three guards. "Let's go!" she shouted before taking off down the corridor which forced Tenderheart and Defender to chase after here.

Thankfully the next room was the cargo hold and all it had were cargo containers and a larger robotic torso seated on treads with two large clawed arms. Cassandra stood ready for a fight when Tenderheart put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's just the loading mech, we need to get to the cockpit."

"No so fast Star Fox," the captain's voice came from directly ahead of them as the loading mech came to life, "you may have stopped the self-destruct but I'll make sure to rip you apart myself!" The loading mech's claws opened and it swung down at them.

They managed to dodge aside as the claw struck the ground, denting the metal floor. Tenderheart saw what was happening, "He's going to tear the ship apart!"

"And you with it!" The captain shot the claw out and tried to grab Tenderheart but he jumped up and over, unslinging his gatling gun and firing at the mech's armor. Across the bay, Defender pulled out his machine run and began firing at the machine, his shots not even making a dent in the armor.

"The armor's too thick for the machine gun," Defender dropped the gun as another claw shot at him and grabbed onto the wall. Thinking fast, he drew his sword and charged it with magical energy then sliced through the mech's arm in one slice.

"What the?! How did you cut that?!" the captain demanded.

"Like this," Cassandra's blades appeared again, wreathed in lightning.

"Oh no you don't!" the mech's remaining arm shot out and tried to crush her, but Cassadra literally flew upwards then dove down and sliced the arm off with the kinetic blades on her forearms.

"No! Noooo!" the captain tried to flail the now clawless arms around only for a fireball from Defender to melt the canopy off the mech's cockpit and Cassandra shot off a beam of electrified yellow light from her hands into it's torso, crippling it. Tenderheart saw his chance and drew his blaster, took careful aim and fired. The freighter captain only had a moment before the ball of energy blew off his head.

Tenderheart sighed and touched the comm link button on the side of his helmet, "Freighter secure, we'll bring it to a stop then bring in the Fox to collect the cargo." He turned and marched slowly to the freighter's bridge.

Once the freighter came to a stop it was a simple matter to offload its entire cargo into the Fox McCloud's docking bay. Bright Heat oversaw the transfer and took notes of what they gathered in a datapad.

Bright Heart looked up as the last container was deposited in the docking bay, back near the manufacturing plant. "I'm impressed, even for Soulful Heart this was an amazing read."

"So what can we do with this, Bright Heart?" Tenderheart pulled off the ground assault helmet, "Upgrades? Repairs?"

Bright Heart's smile lit up the whole bay, "With these resources we can finally upgrade every Arwing on the Fox to the Mk V and maybe even perfect the Psiwing, once we have time. Not to mention tinkering with a variant design I've been toying with and building the nanite healing chamber I told you about earlier."

Tenderheart put a hand on Bright Heart's shoulder and gave a single happy laugh, "That's great news. But slow down before you tie your brain up in knots."

Bright Heart sighed happily, "Sorry, I'm just excited about this. The first real overhaul we can do in five years. All we need to do is find a place and time to do it."

Before Tenderheart could respond, Cheer's voice came over the intercom. "Attention all crew, priority communication coming in from resistance fleet. Repeat: priority communication coming in from resistance fleet. Prepare to receive on docking bay console."

Tenderheart and Bright Heart shared looks then dashed over to the consoles on Bright Heart and Slippy's workstation.

"I'm here, Cheer, patch it through." Tenderheart said.

"Right, coming in," Cheer pressed a button and her face was replaced by that of Peppy Hare. Whatever ship he was on showed evident damage and Peppy's face was bleeding.

"Tenderheart, I know it's dangerous to contact you directly but we have a situation," Peppy's screen flickered in static for a moment.

"What happened, Peppy?" Tenderheart asked.

The static finally stabilized, "We sent other parts of the fleet off to secure the two freighters Soulful told us about and decided to hit a third he didn't indicate. It was lightly guarded and didn't have any real cargo exceprewrpwetwetpweqt," the visuals scrambled only to be replaced by that of a clown.

"I'm so sorry but this line has been cut, we expect the empire to give a good show soon!" He brought the severed head of a male cat into view before smashing the view screen.

Tenderheart and Bright Heart felt their blood run cold as the transmission cut off.

"The prank," Bright Heart whispered.

Tenderheart nodded then contacted the bridge, "Cheer, tell ROB to head to those coordinates right away, search and rescue mission be prepared for combat."

"All right," Cheer took a deep breath, the fear evident on her face.

Tenderheart touched the screen, "I promise I won't let that...thing anywhere on our ship."

Cheer nodded, "Alright. ROB, set course..."

Tenderheart turned back to the docking bay as he moved to pull off his assault armor and switch for his flight jacket, "Everyone get ready to launch fighters, we have an emergency!"