Starfox: Ghost [Chapter 2]
#2 of Starfox: Ghost
Bursts of glaring red whipped past his canopy as Falco cursed, dodging erratically back and forth as rage welled up. A pair of hits shook the arwing. Panther meanwhile remained controlled, precise. A laser melted through one of Falco's wings adding it to the debris fields.
"You won't outrun death this time," The feline purred with delight.
"Ain't nobody running, ya pussy!"
Falco tried to bank, only to be cut off as Panther raked his path with laser bursts. The same was repeated in the other direction. Despite the bravado, Falco was thus far only bouncing around a tightening cage.
Slippy wasn't faring much better, being pursued over the face of a scorched black asteroid. Leon fired infrequent but precise shots to jostle the frog. But now he was looming closer and increasing the pace of his fire. Slowly turning up the heat. Hoping to panic Slippy and enjoying every second of it.
-
Blazing on a golden comet, Wolf's craft overshadowed Fox.
"How do you like my new starshine engines, Fox? Now I can rape your little feminine ship if I want to!"
The Wolfen rotated one way then the other, as if some kind of predatory creature turning its head to get a better view.
"Wolf, we don't have time for this!"
Fox yelled over the commlink, but turned his head up as if angry enough to be actually heard. Up above, behind his cockpit was the lupine face. Fangs emerged from the smile lit by his cockpit instruments as he hung above Fox.
The wolfen righted itself then edged lower until the spiky pylons cradled the arwing with a bump that shook Fox in his seat. One of the spikes pierced the arwing near its engine port, causing hydraulic fluid to leak before the system sealed itself off.
"You're already wet and ready for me! Good girl!"
Fox hit his brakes and spun the craft, taking them into a tandem barrel roll until the Wolfen was finally flung off.
-
Monitoring the transmissions, Peppy nodded to himself. They didn't have time five minutes ago. The hare's fingers flew over the controls as he studied the asteroid field. He had become quite the pool shark back on the Cornerian army base, impressing the old generals with his skills in the officer's rec rooms. It was about to pay off in earnest.
The main cannons of the Great Fox hummed with bright energy, waiting for the rocks to line up just right.
-
Falco slammed a fist against the side of the cockpit as he was shaken again with a hit. His arwing wasn't responding well and a glance outside revealed why. The other wing had been clipped.
"All too soon, the last petal falls,"
Beak clenched, Falco boosted ahead and passed through a pair of asteroids that would have been impossible with his normal wingspan. Panther's eyes widened. And then the wolfen sideswiped the rocks, destroying them but ripping the wings off in the process in a brutal, bone-rattling impact. The feline smashed his radar screen with his face.
The rosen wolfen's agility was hampered and Falco swung around with maniacal joy. He squeezed the trigger as if to strangle it. Falco didn't let up, lasers tracking every move. He shot through asteroids, leaving not a second for Panther to regain his balance. Molten craters lashed the hull. A hit on the engine caused it to sputter and blast out plumes of fire. But then the relentless assault stopped.
Falco clicked his trigger, getting no response. The laser cannon had melted down. Falco huffed, breaking away to limp back to the Great Fox.
-
Time was running out for Slippy. Over the scorched rock, a bristling shadow was gaining on his.
"Ugh...I've gotta think! What would Fox do?"
He snapped his fingers and then pulled back on the control stick, performing a perfect loop at just the right time.
"What the geck!?" Leon shouted, each eye on its own independent search for the frog.
Slippy was on his tail now, lasers plinking off his shields. A handful of hits to one side sent Leon spinning out of control. He drilled into a dense meteorite cluster and pinballed between them. These rapid impacts finished off his shields and he was soon leaving a trail of broken rock and metal debris.
"Phew!" Slippy breathed a sigh of relief as he slumped over the controls.
But then caught sight of something. Their timer was up. The radar net was minutes from regaining its coverage of the area. He would have to pull back.
A pair of turbolasers came screaming into the asteroid field, powerful enough that Slippy's control panels dimmed briefly as the balls of energy passed.
-
Wolf and Fox cirlced each other in a tightening spiral, their fight racing toward the icy planetary chunk. Arwing and Wolfen darted back and forth. One swooped on the other's tail only to have the situation reversed in a split second. The tone of a targetting lock spoke for itself, tallied up a silent score in a strangely serene battle more akin to a dance than anything else.
Against the backdrop of a runaway chunk of tundra, Fox cut a u-turn and the two faced each other head on now. Wolf's rival was in his sights. Now would come the hard part. A claw tapped on the trigger.
Their fighters whipped past each other.
Lasers charged into a bright ball in front of him, Fox swooped back toward the chunk as the Wolfen barreled through stray ice in the upper atmosphere. Locked on. He let the charge shot dissipate.
-
The turbolasers slammed into an asteroid seemingly at random. Half the rock was vaporized while the other half went plowing into another. Massive icebergs crashed and splintered as an avalanche began to build up and rampage its way through the field.
Breaking away from Wolf, Fox dodged the rain of oncoming rocks. They collided, bounced off one another or simply burst under the impacts in a chaotic storm. A group of larger asteroids hit the planetary chunk in quick secession. Icy plains were shattered and hurled up beyond the meager remaining gravity. A split formed across the entire chunk vertically as it ground to a much slower drift, stunned by the hammer blow.
Fox flew in close to the fragment, slipping along the last sliver of the route not exposed to enemy radar. He passed into the giant canyon that had formed in the chunk.
"Fox?" It was Peppy, "Ah! Thank goodness. I didn't have time to-,"
"It's fine. Still in one piece over here. Slippy and Falco okay?"
"None the worse for wear. We'll regroup and think of something,"
"Then I'll go it alone from here,"
Flakes spattered against his canopy, passing over the soaring mountains below- some natural, others cleaved from the latest apocalyptic damage dealt to the unfortunate former planet. It was snowing in space.