Foothold in Lylat

Fox was in the air over Corneria, staring at the falling slag heap of what used to be his Arwing as he parachuted away from a close call, and he could hear his own voice. "I've seen my death in my dreams...many times." He saw fighters swarming everywhere, a mix of Elite Seraph fighters, Cornerian MK II Delta's, UNSC Longsword heavy Interceptors, and the new enemy ships: Dracos. The Draco ships were heavy threats when faced in swarms. Their cannons could recycle faster than either Lylatian or Sangheilli fighters could, getting more shots in.

He noticed one was coming right at him, but it was on fire. The flaming hulk of scrap metal hurtled past him, the heat making blisters form on his skin, even through his flight suit. He watched the Longsword that had taken it out swoop around, choosing another target. His blood ran cold only moments later. A ship with a crescent on each wing shattered the sound barrier as it passed by only a few feet from the ejected Colonel. The passing made Fox's chute flap dangerously, almost losing it's air and causing him to fall to his death. The ship turned and fired a few shots, taking out one of the Longswords and coming back at him. Fox's eyes widened as the ship headed straight for him. He put his hand up to block it right as the fighter's nose plowed into him.

Fox whited out the moment the ship hit, and saw a fan spinning lazily in the ceiling. He could see it through the crevices of his hand, where his fingers were outstretched, as if to try and fend off the nightmare fighter. He looked around, seeing the inside of his quarters. He held his head in his hands, trying to clear it. Three sharp raps came on the door as Krystal's voice softly penetrated the bulkhead. "Fox? Are you awake? We need to get ready. The assault begins in an hour." Fox looked at the door, still trying to clear his head. "Yeah, coming..."

He stood and looked out the window, but couldn't see anything. There was nothing to look at in the alternate dimensions of slipspace.. It had been 2 weeks since the briefing about the mission had been given, and a fleet had been assembled to try and take back Lylat. The Colonel took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself as he put on his flight suit, strapping a blaster to his leg. The door opened in front of him when he came closer, stepping out into the hallway.

"Hey, Colonel!" Fox turned as he heard a feminine voice. It was Captain Gutierrez, one of the members assigned to the merged Star Fox and Star Wolf squadrons that had then merged with the fighter wing commanded by Damon. She was a dark black cat, about a foot shorter than Fox. Her eyes were a piercing yellow, and she walked with the slow gait of somebody that had spent a lot of time in space.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Fox shook his head. "No, it was just a nightmare." The feline thought for a moment then shrugged, as if she had wanted to pry a bit further, to see if she could help. She apparently decided not to, as they closed in on the hangar bay, the door sliding open and revealing a bustling bay full of ships from each force that was taking part in the assault. Fighters, bombers, helicopters, and multirole fighters.

Fox saw each squadron area, and eventually found his and the young captain's. When he arrived, he saw the members of Star Fox, Star Wolf, and Damon's Wings of Ragnarok squadron, all formed into the multirole wing of the attack force. Fox looked round at the members of his wing, as he would be taking co command of it, with Damon taking main command.

They had been stationed aboard the Sangheilli Super Carrier Frozen Ignition. Over half of the assault forces air units were stationed on the super carrier, a ship that was almost 30 kilometers long, 11 kilometers wide, and held hundreds, if not thousands, of ships in it's cavernous hangar bays, as well as a portion of the forward assault forces that would be deployed to the surface of Venom upon taking hold of air superiority.

Fox separated from the Captain to check his Arwing. It had been modified with Elite shield technology to improve survivability in a furball. The lasers had been supercharged by the engineers on the ship, creatures that could take apart and fix almost anything they got their tentacles on. Fox nodded in approval as he looked over the engines, which had been overhauled to give out over three times the original output.

All of the Arwings, and the Star Wolf teams Wolfens, had been overhauled in the same way, making the strike force that held the two teams the deadliest things in the air. Colonel Damon's flight had been composed of the best pilots in the Cornerian Air Force as well, also getting improved ships.

Fox heard footsteps, boots clinking on metal, and turned to see each member of the wing standing there, waiting for orders as Damon appeared at his side. Fox looked at the older officer, eliciting a small smile of confidence from the old man. Fox returned the smile and returned his gaze to the strike force in front of him and began reciting the plan to them as the ship began to decelerate, dropping out of slipspace and sounding warning alarms throughout the ship. The war for Lylat was about to begin

(Transition)

"Commander, reading warp signatures on the outer reaches of the system!" Solomon put his claws together, smiling behind his new command chair. So, the Cornerians had come to retake the system. As long as the recently promoted fleet commander was breathing, the system would remain his. He turned the command chair away from the bridge and stood, making his way to the sensor station commanded by Major Oslo Norales, a veteran of many naval engagements during the Serpentis civil war over 200 years before. The Serpentis lived to be over 500 years old, and both Solomon and Oslo were into their 320's. The Major's left eye was blind, a result of shrapnel from an explosion on one of his ships during an engagement when he had still been relatively inexperienced. He had refused to get it repaired.

The sensor screen continued to show hundreds of dots appearing near Venom. The Cornerian fleet was dropping into normal space just under 500,000 kilometers from the planet, and were most likely preparing for their assault on the system. The Fleet leader smiled to himself as he returned to his command chair and settled in. This was going to be a short war.

Krystal stood, watching as her commander finished his plan. They were to drop into Venom's atmosphere and shoot anything that wasn't an ally. The orders were simple and blunt, and Krystal was ready. The vixen felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw the black fox that was going to be the commander for the other half of the force, Damon. "Krystal." His voice was gruff as he looked at her, and as she looked into his eyes, she could sense that something was stressing him out. She began probing his mind, but couldn't find anything. The man was an expert at hiding his thoughts.

He started to motion for her to follow him. He nodded at Fox, who nodded back at him. As the blue vixen followed the much larger black vulpine, she got that same odd feeling of a memory that she had gotten at the ball when Corneria was attacked. The vulpine led her to a secure conference room. There was only one other person there. It was Damon's wife. The other vixen smiled at the younger pilot. Damon looked at his wife and left Krystal's side. The two looked at each other nervously and then back at Krystal. "You've grown into a fine young woman since Cerinia was destroyed Krystal." The vixen looked at the two of them. "What? I don't understand what you mean." Krystal's mind was flooded with confusion and questions as the question was asked. Damon sighed softly, a smile tugging at the corners of the veteran's mouth.

Damon's wife spoke of what her husband was about to say. "Krystal...your parents aren't dead..." the old vixen smiled at her as she finished her statement. "They're right in front of you" Krystal looked at them "My parents were killed when the planet was destroyed though!" Damon shook his head. "We left you in the care of your aunt and uncle, so we could try to find a better place tht would make living easier for you. Cerinia's resources were running low and we knew it would get chaotic if we were still there when everything collapsed. The planet was destroyed and we thought you had still been there when it happened. We were grief stricken when we learned about it."

Krystal's mouth hung open as she tried to process it all. Damon and his wife �" Krystal's real parents �" stepped forward with their arms open as Krystal flung herself into their embrace, tears streaming from her eyes as she was finally reunited with her parents.

The moment didn't last long, however, as the alarms began to sound again. The intercom blared out orders as they were given orders to launch fighters. Father and daughter looked at each other, nodded, and ran out of the room to get to their fighters. Fox and Falco were waiting for them as the two entered. "Where have the two of you been?" They asked. They didn't decide to wait, as Fox shook his head. "Never mind that, just get into your ships, we have to launch!"

The four pilots each got into their ships and blasted out of the bay, joining hundreds of others in a mass formation of fireballs streaking through the acrid green clouds of Venom's atmosphere. The wing dropped out of the clouds after a few minutes of freefall. Fox and Krystal formed into a two fighter formation, both flying at the head of the force.

They saw dots in the distance, tons of them. As the dots closed together, features formed onto the dots. Krystal saw laser cannons, wings, engines, and cockpits form onto the steel lumps. She looked over at Fox, who flashed her a grin and gunned his engines. Krystal grinned as well, and the two dove headfirst into the enemy formation, guns blazing.

The sky darkened before they got there, and a voice coming over the comm channel as a UNSC frigate dove out of the clouds upside down, the auto-cannons bristling on the ship opening fire and peppering the enemy ships with thousands of bullets, tearing though their hull, ripping their pilots apart, and obliterating their fusion reactors, causing miniature suns to flare up everywhere. "This is UNSC Frigate Grafton, providing close support to help you guys out a bit before the fur starts flying. Good luck down their boys, you've got a long day today. We'll let you finish up here, we'll be in orbit ready to provide more support if you need it, so just call and we'll come a runnin'. Grafton Actual out."

Fox and the rest of the pilot's grins grew larger as they knew how heavy the odds were in their favor. The Cornerian, Human, and Elite ships screamed through the sky, the sound of their engines and lasers firing almost sounding like a mass scream for the enemy's blood, all of them wanting the first kill.

The ships dipped and dove through the hail of return fire, dodging with ease. The Serpentis ships were heavily outnumbered, with lasers, bullets, and superheated plasma storming through the air and impacting all over the enemy ships. One enemy was hit by laser fire and exploded, while another took plasma hits in the cockpit, the steel melting in on itself and killing the pilot by crushing him with melting steel. Debris went everywhere as bullets tore open the Serpentis ships.

A Longsword formed along Fox's wing and unleashed a hail of 50mm rounds from it's guns, tearing apart a ship that Fox had his sights on. Fox raised an eyebrow as he realized tht they were actually keeping score from listening to the comm chatter from the Longsword. "Come on, Colonel, you can't be letting people take your kills!" The channel got a wave off laughing from the flight as Fox let off a cocky grin, returning to the old him from when he was younger, and fighting in the Lylat Wars. "You're on!" The vulpine smirked as he took the Longsword's kill next. The two ships formed together and competed for kills the rest of the battle.

After about an hour, the enemy ships became less and less organized, the invading force beginning to get easier kills as the ships also lessened in number. This was a mop up job now. Fox sent orders to return to the Carrier as he broke away, leaving anybody that wanted to continue shooting the enemy down to do as they pleased. The members of Star Fox and Star Wolf formed together with Colonel Ballard in the flight as well, all of them returning to the dark void of space and heading for the Frozen Ignition.

As the ships landed, Each pilot got out and grinned at each other. Fox started walking towards Krystal, the vixen smiling at him from next to her Arwing. "Good job today Krystal." The vixen grinned wider. "You're not so bad yourself." she teased. Krystal reached out and took his hand, her tail flicking around and wrapping around his. Fox blushed slightly, eliciting a small giggle from Krystal. The vixen winked at him as Damon watched from his fighter, smiling softly to himself as he saw his daughter with Fox. "You've got her heart Fox, now make sure it stays with yours" The Omega Colonel said softly to himself.

The Colonel continued to watch as the day wound down. Venom had been captured, and the Halycon forces had a foothold for the war. They wouldn't take long at this rate, and everybody knew it. Morale was already sky high from this victory.

Fox and Krystal smiled softly as they looked out of the hangar bay in towards the system's sun, seeing Titania in the distance and smiling at each other as they closed in for a kiss, their lips meeting and eliciting a cheer from the rest of the pilots in the bay.

The second Lylat Wars had begun.