[b][u][center]The Lylat Wars: XXX
Part 18
For GlynWolf
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]








Four Arwings went out. 

Four Arwings (mostly) came back. 

Fox bit his lip as the near-wingless craft struggled to maintain an even keel as he floated it over the hangar deck. Without the wings to stabilize it, it wobbled to the left, then the right, and back again. The wing lasers were gone, leaving only the nose-cone for blaster shots, and the white and blue along the sides of the ship were scorch-marked to the point that the ship looked like it was meant for the grill instead of the fight. 

And that was what was left. The rest of the squadron was in just as bad a shape, some of them worse. Slippy’s Arwing could barely keep the cockpit pointed upright, let alone keep from wobbling, and Falco? He wasn’t even sure that the bird could see through the cockpit windshield. Peppy was about as bad as his ship, cosmetically, but he hadn’t heard the hare say a word since they’d dropped to Solar; he only hoped that it was some kind of communications failure and not something wrong with the rabbit himself. 

“Drop…in three…two…one.”

Four near-simultaneous clangs rang out in the hangar. As soon as the hangar door closed behind them, Fox popped the glass off his head and hopped out. It felt almost freezing after the insane heats around the sun; shivers seized hold and he didn’t know if it was actual cold or adrenaline drop. 

The others were slower to hop out. Slippy had to kick his top open and roll out the side of his ship, his usually-green skin tinted pink and red. Fox shook his head; the poor guy had probably been cooking the whole time that they’d been down over the sun. 

Falco was next. While he was able to climb out normally, Fox saw the faint green tinge around his cheeks, and he held onto the side of his ship much longer than he needed. He didn’t know if he was sick from the maneuvers or something else, and he didn’t think that his wingman was going to be able to tell him. 

Then, Peppy. The glass come loose, and – 

“Oh, fuck, you okay?” Falco asked. 

“…Yeah,” Peppy wheezed, the rabbit’s blackened face cracking as it moved. “Just a lot of smoke…lotta smoke.”

“You look like you just got pulled out of a burning building.”

“Yeah, well, that’s how I feel, sonny. Gimme a minute to breathe the fresh air.”

“It’s…r-recycled,” Slippy said, panting on the floor. 

“Better than burnt radio smoke…”

It was an unmitigated disaster as far as equipment damage was concerned. All four of their Arwings were going to be out of service for at least a week to get all that damage fixed, and while the Great Fox could participate in a few fights, they couldn’t take it too far; the ship only had the big main guns in the front, with all other defenses relying on him and the rest of the squad. Without them, the big ship was a well-armed sitting duck if anyone attacked anywhere but the front. 

They’d lost momentum…but at the same time, it was worth it. Or at least, that was what he was telling himself. 

“Debrief in thirty,” Fox said, nodding toward the hangar door. “Whatever you gotta do to settle down, or calm down or…whatever…Get it done, and then we’ll talk about what happened.”

Slippy gave a thumbs-up. 

Falco nodded, vacantly. 

Peppy just looked at him. 

“…Make that sixty minutes.”

Fox turned on his heel and walked out. The more that he thought about it, the less that he wanted to be there right at that moment. Hell, if he’d been in their place, he’d be happy to be left alone for a while. Solar had been a nightmare. 

#

Ten minutes after landing, Slippy leaned against the shower walls down on the lower decks. Cold water poured over his head as he closed his eyes, trying to breathe as he cooled himself down. 

“It’s over…it’s over…I’m alive and it’s –”

A rumble in the pipes threw him back. He closed his eyes tighter, remembering the star-quakes that threw magma and plasma through the air in lethal patterns. He remembered almost passing out when one blast ripped through the heat shield in half a second, leaving him cooking in his own starfighter. He’d barely woken up in time to avoid plunging into the sea of burning plasma just beneath him, and even then he was barely conscious for the rest of the flight. 

Monsters. 

Bio-engineered birds. 

Creatures of stone and burning star-gunk. 

“Nnnngh…”

Fox had to save him. Falco had to save him. Peppy had had to save him twice. They were – they were always looking out for him and he couldn’t do a damn thing. He’d – he’d almost gotten them killed and – 

More flickers. 

More heat. 

He’d thought he was dying. Maybe he had been; his head felt cracked, and so did his arms and legs, like the heat had pulled all the water right out of him. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t – 

Slippy tossed his head back, meaning to yell, but all he got was a ton of water down his throat. He gargled, gasping and spluttering as he stumbled backward from the wall. Forcing himself to swallow through more gagging and coughing, he eventually managed to clear his throat again. 

“…Dehydrated,” the frog muttered between coughs. “Very…very dehydrated.”

He’d have to fix that later. When he could stop shaking. When he didn’t feel like he was going to die again. 

#

Twenty minutes after landing, Falco was seated on the foot of his bed, staring down at his fingers. He remembered the flight, the sun, the star – 

And he remembered going blind. 

Not permanently, obviously, but enough that he couldn’t see while they were flying for a third of the mission. Nobody had thought about how the sun would affect them besides the heat burning at the bottoms of the ships. Nobody had thought about the fact that they were flying over a fucking star, and how much that would fuck with their eyes. 

He blinked. His fingers still had after-images, but they weren’t so present as they had been. Not as bad. 

Maybe he’d get better. 

Hopefully he’d get better. 

His hands turned to fists, curled so tight that his arms hurt. Falco tried to tell himself that he was okay, that he’d made it back to the ship, that he could hit the infirmary and figure out how long it’d take for him to be better; not like they could do any flying with the ships all busted up the way that they were. It – it would be stupid. 

[i]But what if they say I won’t get better?[/i]

The bird shivered at that. Flying – flying had been his life. He’d never been much good at anything else. Pissing people off and being a hot-shot pilot: those were his only skills in life, and if he lost those – 

[i]I’m not. I’m not losing those. I’m fine. I’m going to be okay. I’m going to be better. Just – just need a little longer.[/i]

Even if he had almost shot Slippy, twice. Even if he’d thought they’d found the bioweapon when it was just a wave of plasma rising up toward them and kept shooting at it like a crazy man. 

He would have died if it hadn’t been for Peppy telling him to pull up and get out of the way. He still almost had, since he couldn’t tell up from down at the time. 

“It’s not…I’m not…”

This was different. Flying against Andross’s forces wasn’t that hard; they were almost all worse pilots than him and Fox, and he didn’t feel that threatened by them. Some of the big guys, sure, but that was more their big guns than anything else. Star Wolf? Those mercs were dangerous, sure, but that was something that they could handle as long as they didn’t fly stupid. Mistakes were punished, but they just had to keep from making mistakes. 

This, though…

He shook his head. This was worse. This was so much worse. And that was just one weapon that the fucking madman had been making for the war. What about the others?

Falco hugged himself. 

“I’m getting better…I’m getting better…”

And he would keep getting better until nobody could be good enough to hurt him like this again. 

#

Forty minutes after landing, Peppy finished changing clothes and managed to get his hands to stop shaking. More importantly, he managed to stop coughing. 

[i]Something in that smoke…bad stuff in the fire…[/i]

He’d been fine for most of the fight, but once the heat-shields went down and the ships started burning, he’d known something was wrong. The smoke coming from the wires and radio hadn’t been just the usual wood-smoke. It was different, tasted wrong, and it’d burned going down his throat worse than usual. 

He covered his mouth, feeling the little spasms in his lungs. One slow breath, giving it time to settle, then very slowly pushing it out again. Taking his time. Making sure that he didn’t overdo it. No over-stressing his lungs. 

[i]Ugh…that ain’t good…[/i]

If Fox found out that he’d done something to his lungs, he’d be off the squad, and fast. Couldn’t risk someone that might have a coughing fit and fall out of the sky at a moment of high stress. Wasn’t worth the risk to personnel and to equipment. 

Yet…it’d been worth it. 

He smiled despite himself, shaking his head. 

“Just gotta hold it together for a few more missions. Pigma ain’t gonna hide for long. And when he comes back…”

Long as he could take that pig down. Long as he could take a little revenge for James, then he’d be okay with getting grounded. He just had to last a little bit longer, that was all. And he could do that. 

He was stubborn enough for that. 

Course, that meant spinning a tale to tell Fox, but that wasn’t gonna be that hard. The boy was still all messed up with his grief and everything else that he was going through. Still, Peppy’d give it to him; he’d managed the Solar mission better than the rabbit had expected, and that was all that he needed from the young pilot. 

[i]Now we just gotta keep going…[/i]

Once his lungs stopped squeezing up, he tried walking around his quarters. A gentle pace was fine, but if he started jogging –

“Kff…”

He stifled it in the palm of his hand, shaking his head. No, he couldn’t just run around anymore. The most that he could manage was a slightly brisk walk; no more charging down the hallways to the ships anymore. 

He’d have to come up with some believable excuse to have his quarters moved nearer the hangar. Fox would have a hard time believing whatever he said with that, but maybe he could come up with something with Slippy. Pretty sure that the frog would like some help down there. Someone that’d keep an eye on him and keep him safe. And maybe have a little bit of other company…the kid had a bit of a wandering eye for that. 

Peppy shook his head, forcing himself to sit down again. Just a few more minutes and he’d head up for debriefing. For now, he had to square himself with the idea that his past was coming back to bite him, and there was really no more place for him as a pilot on the squad. Soon as he downed Pigma, he’d do the responsible thing and leave. 

But for now…

For now, he’d grieve the loss of a past that he hadn’t even known was coming to an end. Forty-three years old and he was gonna have to retire…

#

Sixty minutes after landing, Fox welcomed the rest of the squad to the bridge and the debriefing table. They sat down without a word, and Slippy didn’t even meet his eyes. He didn’t blame them; he’d spent the last sixty minutes sorting himself out from the mission, and he knew that he wasn’t feeling great about it. 

“That…could have gone better,” Fox muttered. 

“S-s-sorry about the h-heat-shield,” Slippy muttered. “I-I didn’t think th-that it w-would –”

“Nothing wrong with the shield, Slip,” Falco muttered, shaking his head. “We just all forgot that we were flying into a fucking star.”

“It – I c-could have –”

“That shield was all that kept us alive,” Fox said. “Could it have been stronger? Maybe. But you kept us alive with that thing. Without it, we would have been cooked in the first few minutes.”

And they’d nearly been cooked after it went down. It gave them a little time, but once it went down, Fox remembered the panic that hit him. It was…raw, almost overwhelming, squeezing his heart until it was almost impossible to breathe. 

He could only imagine what it would have been like for Slippy. The kid probably was as bad as he’d been after some of the early missions. 

And probably not that far from where he was now. 

“But we came back. That’s what matters. Right?” 

All around the table, all he got was nods, and not long or enthusiastic ones, either. They all said ‘I guess’ rather than agreeing. 

Fox sighed. 

“I guess…can’t blame you for feeling the way you do,” he said, sitting down on his side of the table. “…I don’t know what I was thinking asking for this mission.”

“Felt like you were trying to kill us all,” Falco muttered. 

“I wasn’t.”

Not anymore. Not since his argument with Falco, though with how that had left him feeling, it could have been done at a better fucking time. He’d finally started letting go of some of the things pushing him, and as a result…

Well, death was a lot scarier. A hell of a lot scarier. And he’d come so much closer than he’d ever imagined they could. 

“I-I thought w-w-we were supposed t-to b-be heroes,” Slippy muttered. “I-I feel like I’m g-g-gonna throw up…”

“Can’t become a hero in the middle of a war,” Falco muttered. 

“Heh, not to mention most heroes are dead,” Peppy added. 

“…And we’re not heroes. We’re soldiers,” Fox added, shaking his head. “And…soldiers have to stay alive to keep fighting.”

“You coming up with a reason to run away, Fox?” Falco asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because if you are –”

“No. I’m just…remembering something.” 

He pushed himself up from the table, pacing along one side of it. A stray memory had caught his attention, and he wanted to get the words right. Something that his dad had said, and probably Peppy, too. Something that they’d talked about when he was younger, something that had sounded so good for this. 

That was it. 

“There are two kinds of people in war. There’re soldiers, and there’s heroes. And while everyone wants to be a hero, the world needs more soldiers.”

“…Okay, gonna have to run that one by me again, Fox, because I’m not getting that bullshit.”

“A hero goes out and gives his all, even sacrificing himself for the greater good, and dies for the sake of others. Sometimes fighting a powerful enemy, sometimes stalling the enemy from chasing after the rest of his team, or any other kind of thing that leads to a grand, heroic sort of death. And sometimes they live; sometimes they do something heroic and then come back, but they all eventually either die or get injured so bad that they can’t do anything. Right?”

“…Can’t think of any that didn’t,” Falco admitted. 

“Me n-neither,” Slippy said. 

“Yeah, well…that’s great as a one-off, but how many heroes can you spend before you don’t have an army anymore?”

“…”

“Then you got soldiers,” Fox said. “And soldiers are the kind of fighters that will go in, do their job, and come home. They know that they’re valuable to the rest of the army. They know that their squad’s no good if they die and leave the squad a man short. So, they aren’t just fighting to beat the enemy; they’re fighting to get home alive. They don’t want heroes on their squad; they want people that get it. That know that they’re going to try and get home alive.”

“S-so what…what m-makes soldiers b-b-better than heroes?” Slippy asked. “B-besides n-n-not dying?”

“A hero dies and doesn’t teach anyone else to be better, sonny,” Peppy said, crossing his arms. “Sure, heroes get all the good press. They get held up as this brave soul that did the right thing, but that brave soul’s dead and gone. They did it once and they can never do it again. They might’ve even been stupid enough to be so brave that they were never afraid. 

“But soldiers? Yeah, they feel it. They feel it all the time, sonny, and they listen to it. They feel that and listen to what it tells ‘em to do. And that means that they live through the battle, and they can fight again when the next one rolls ‘round.”

“And what I’m trying to say is that…well, all of us feeling…kinda fucked up right now? That’s not a bad thing. It means that we…that I…want to get through this and get back to Corneria and…I don’t know. I don’t know what comes next, but I know that I don’t want to be fighting wars forever. And I don’t want to be throwing myself against something that’s pretty likely to kill me every time, either.”

“…S-so…n-n-not a c-coward?” Slippy asked. 

“Only if I am,” Fox said. 

“Not ruling that out, Fox.”

“Well, what about you, Falco?” Fox asked, cocking his head to the side. “You saying that you came out of that without any scars?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“So, we’re all in agreement. It’s okay…” He took a deep breath. “It’s okay to be scared out of your mind. Because holy fuck, we all are.”

“…Was it worth it?” Falco asked. “Going on that mission in the first place. Was it even worth it?”

“…Yes.”

Fox knew that they all knew that it had to be. The bioweapon buried in the star had been massive, bigger than the Great Fox by several times over, and it had been powerful enough to stir the star’s plasma against them. The fact that it was already manipulating how the star’s currents and magnetic fields worked meant that it was only a matter of time until that was turned against the Cornerian fleet, and if that happened…

Well, he doubted that Andross would have minded blowing up a star. That madman was willing to do anything if it meant that he’d win. 

“Yes, it was worth it,” he said. “Even if it takes us out of action for the next week, it’s worth it.”

“…I-I think I n-need some sleep,” Slippy said. 

“I think we all do, sonny,” Peppy said, shaking his head. “You want some company tonight?”

“P-please.”

“Yeah, you two give each other ‘company.’ I’m going to head to the infirmary. Check in on a few things.”

“You good, Falco?” Fox asked. “Not like you to –”

“I’m gonna find out. Leave it at that.”

“…Okay. Well, uh, you three do that,” Fox said, sitting down again. “I’m going to – I’m going to stay up here and think for a while.”

“Yeah, you stay and…think,” Falco said, getting up from the table and walking away. “But I’m gonna be a responsible ‘soldier’ and check on myself.”

Fox waited until the bird had left before shaking his head. 

“I don’t know what’s going through his head, but something tells me that we all walked away with scars this time. Anyone else wanna sound off?”

“Uh, j-just dehydration f-f-for m-me,” Slippy said. 

“Waiting for my scans to finish first,” Peppy added, shaking his head. “Could be something, could be nothing.”

“Alright. Let me know when you know, okay? That’s an order.”

“Heh, fine, fine, Fox. Alright, Slip. You ready?”

“Y-yeah. T-t-thanks.”

And with that, Fox was left alone on the bridge. He stared down the empty corridor for a few minutes, then slowly turned the chair to face out toward the stars. There was something about the grand emptiness of space that always held his attention, and this was no exception. Star after star shone against the black, reminding him of how big the universe was. Didn’t matter that they were in a large, many-planet system, or that they were only a little ways off from Solar itself; they were still well away from any of the other planets, and couldn’t even see them. 

[i]Hard to imagine how big the entire universe would be,[/i] he thought, staring out at the black as he swayed the chair from side to side. [i]Heh. Maybe that’d be something to see, when the war’s over.[/i]

Probably not. He didn’t think that there’d be any need to leave the Lylat System after this. And once Andross was gone and Pigma was handled, he doubted that he’d have any reason to keep flying, either. 

Well, other than it being the main thing that he was good at. 

He sighed. Maybe things would change. Hell, they’d already changed a [i]lot[/i] just from almost dying so many times, and from his dad dying, and from almost dying again, and – 

Fox blinked. 

“…I…I just thought about him dying…and I didn’t…”

There was still that sense of cold pain, but it was less agony and more just something that rolled by, almost like the way a guard dog would give you a look but not actually threaten you with a growl. It was just…there. 

He leaned back further in his seat. What had changed to let him free of that, he wondered? God…that was strange. 

He looked out at the stars again – 

BOOM!

And just like that, something hit the ship. Fox fell out of his chair and turned it into a roll, lunging for the scanner monitor. By the time he booted it up, he could see the problem through the windows. 

Star Wolf had found them. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” he hissed.

The ship rattled twice more, but only twice. Readouts gave him the damage reports. They’d just blown out the main guns, hitting them from the sides and darting around the ship. He half-expected them to go after the engines next, but then he realized that there was no point; the Great Fox couldn’t maneuver fast enough to get turned around before she was blown to bits, and she didn’t have guns to bring to bear. There was no point in wasting firepower on the engines. So why – 

One of Wolf’s four ships darted under the nose of the Great Fox, and he realized that they were going for the hangar. 

[i]Too late to shut them out, and they’d just blow a hole in the bottom of the ship if I did. Only thing I can do is put the whole place in lockdown.[/i]

Fox ran for central console attached to the command chair. The last of the enemy starfighters docked before he could hit the button, but at least he managed to set it off. Sirens started going off all over the Great Fox as bulkheads slammed shut, security barriers went up, and every automated defense that they had (which wasn’t many) came online. Fox jabbed a finger into the intercom button. 

“Everyone, we’ve got invaders on the Great Fox. Stay out of sight; if any of them break down a door, don’t engage unless you outnumber them.”

Fox wanted to say more, but before he could get another word out, the whole thing started crackling and screeching back at him. He took his finger off the button, shaking his head. 

[i]Must have brough a tech along. They’ve already cut into the systems.[/i]

Which meant that they weren’t going to be long getting through the various barriers. While the bridge had full control over the ship, he’d learned from his dad that most of the security functions had workarounds just in case someone managed to take the ship off their hands. 

The problem was, that meant that anyone with sufficient techy knowledge could get into the same backdoors and use them against Fox and his team. He gritted his teeth as he tried to think, tried to come up with a plan. 

[i]Blaster’s still back in my quarters. Can’t lift the lockdown up here without lifting it down there, and it’s an even bet whether they’d get to me before I got to them. Security doors are all that’s between my guys and them. Can’t fight them on my own.[/i]

And there was no way off the bridge without shutting down the lockdown. Now that he thought about it, triggering it early was a stupid fucking idea. 

[i]Okay. New plan. Wait by the door, hope that you can sneak out once they get up here. Not like they’ll go through the trouble of locking everything down again once they get through it. Long as you can get around them, then you can get yourself armed, and then…[/i]

Then he didn’t know. Then he’d just have to hope that Wolf and his thugs weren’t here to just blow the Great Fox up from inside. 

Fox nestled himself against the wall-strut to the right of the bridge. It wasn’t much, but it gave him cover, enough to avoid getting seen if the doors were open. He’d have to time this carefully; he’d have to let them enter the bridge, hope that they didn’t see him, then dart around the strut before the door closed. Once he did that, he’d be able to keep running all the way to his quarters and – 

Well, then he’d have to get the security door open, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. This was his ship, after all; everything here worked on his dime and…

[i]They’re close.[/i]

The footsteps were audible now, clanging down the hallway. He could just barely hear the sound of voices accompanying them, but they were too faint for him to make out on his own. They had to be Wolf and his team, though. Fox braced himself, one hand twitching near where his blaster would normally be hanging, and he forced himself further against the wall. Quiet, patient; if he wasn’t both of those, he’d be dead. 

A few seconds later, something beeped on the other side of the door and it slid open. Their voices were much louder now. 

“Well, McCloud, it’s been fun, but I think it’s time that we end this little game. Andross is looking forward to meeting you, so why don’t you just come out from the chair and we’ll take you on a little trip to see him?”

That made much more sense. They probably thought that he had some intel or codes to the Cornerian fleet that would be useful to their side. Maybe even some idea of where they were moving. 

The unfortunate thing was, they were right. Being trusted to work off-grid like this meant that they were trusted with codes that were far above their paygrade for intel networks and worse. If they caught him – and worse, broke him – then that would be in Andross’s hands. 

“I’m not in a waiting mood, McCloud,” Wolf said. “Either you come out, or we come in.”

[i]Fuck, fuck, fuck…come on…all of you…you gotta –[/i]

“Hehehehe, hang on a minute, Wolfy.”

Pigma. That was Pigma’s voice. 

“I dunno how much you know Foxy, but he’s not a big guy on staying where you think he’s gonna be. And if I know that kid – and I do – then he’s riiiiiight here!”

And just like that, he had a blaster pointed at his face. Pigma’s tusked head followed it, and the older man chuckled, lips wobbling ever so slightly as he took a step back while keeping his blaster pointed right at Fox’s face. 

“Hehehe, knew it. Kid was playing hide and seek. Probably waiting for us to get outta the way so that he could run off and hide somewhere else. Hehehe, good thing you had me here, Wolfy.”

“Shut it, Pigma,” Wolf said, walking into view. “That said, it’s a good thing that you were right. Looks like he’s already shivering in anticipation for what’s going to happen to him.”

“You think that I’m going to go quietly?” Fox muttered, shaking his head. “You might have to blast me.”

“Heh…maybe. Maybe if you were still on Corneria, if you were still like that angry little pup that I met in the bar. But something’s different about you now. You might still be spoiling for a fight…but you don’t want to die anymore, do you?” 

“…”

“And more than that, you don’t want me to tell Leon here,” Wolf said, nodding to the chameleon following him, “to put a command-virus in the Great Fox’s core that’ll blow the engines and the reactor to bits as soon as we’re off the ship. I mean, unless you’re keen to see all your teammates die.”

Fox’s eyes went wide. Leon chuckled. 

“Hehehe, I could do it. Easily. Your computers are completely outdated. There’s nothing to your security codes; I could get through all your digital defenses with one hand tied behind my back.”

There was no reason to lie, either. Fox could imagine that Wolf might order it anyway, even if he went along with it. It’d be [i]the[/i] way to get him to back down. And even if he fought back, once he was shot, or even dead, there was nothing stopping Wolf from blowing the Great Fox to kingdom come, anyway. The other pilot held all the cards, and the more that Fox tried to find a way out, the more that he realized that there wasn’t one. He was trapped. 

“So, what’s it going to be, pup? The easy way? Or the hard way?” Wolf asked. 










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

Summary: We skip the battle of Solar – because I don’t think we really need that action sequence – and move on to the post battle moments where Fox and the rest of the crew deal with the serious damage and the other problems that the battle brought up. Nobody’s immortal, after all, and fights have consequences. 

Tags: No Sex, Fox McCloud, Playthrough, Walkthrough, Diverging from Canon, Invasion, Fight Consequences, Injury, Series, Starfox, Starwolf,