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Part Three: Assaulting the hive

Chase was leaning against a giant machine. His armored body was against a four-meter tall tire. The outside of it was layered in a light steel to protect it from any enemy fire. It was one of eight tires to be exact, four on each end. The tires supported the giant metal monster that they called the Frontal Assault Vehicle. The thing was huge, as long as a greyhound bus and twice as wide. The wheels barely held it off the ground. It was a heavy vehicle, designed for taking out masses of enemies without sustaining much damage to itself. The outer hull could withstand most any rockets, missiles, and bombs. The cockpit and turret canopies were made from a similar material that held a view screen to show what the outside world looked like. Armed with four minigun turrets, one center mounted missile launcher, filled to the brim with high explosive, fire and forget missiles capable of destroying almost every vehicle known, and did very well against ground infantry and fortified positions. But, folded up inside the goliath machine was a power secret weapon. Its only weakness was the vulnerability to aerial assault. But without any intel as to whether or not the aparoids had regained their aerial forces, Chase and his superiors were willing to run that risk. Other than that, the machine was supposed to be unstoppable. As Chase leaned against it, he was watching as Krystal lifted a minigun to her side. It was surprisingly lightweight, probably only about ten to fifteen pounds. It's long, rotating quad-barrel design allowed for accuracy as well as rapid fire that could easily be sustained for a long period of time. The handle on its side made lifting the large gun easier, as well as the trigger at the top of the gun instead of being at its side or under it. Bullet casings were ejected out of the opposite side so it didn't interfere with her sight or firing. Besides that it also had a secondary fire that could be activated by flipping a switch near the trigger. Instead of rotating quickly in a clockwise direction, the barrel would rotate counter clockwise at a slower speed. This firing rate was slower than the primary fire, firing one hundred bullets a minute instead of three hundred, but more accurate over distances. It was this setting Chase had advised they use to reserve ammunition. The vixen loaded the weapon and practiced a firing stance she had seen Chase using to steady himself so the recoil of the gun didn't affect his aim. Her feet were shoulder width apart, but she had one firmly placed behind her while the front foot could pivot her without much difficulty. Her upper body was forward a bit to deal with the recoil of the gun as it would slowly pushed her back up from sustained fire. Krystal may not be able to walk and fire at the same time, but, with any luck, she could easily keep her enemies at bay without needing to move too much. "Ok, we all know the plan right?" Fox asked as Krystal set the weapon back down and leaned up against the FAV with Chase. Chase nodded, "Yeah, go in, do some damage with this thing, place the bomb, home in time for dinner and a show." "What is for dinner anyway?" Slippy asked. "Whatever you can get from the station before we head back to command." Fox replied, "We're out of here once this operation's done." Chase shrugged, "Knowing my CO, I'll probably have another job soon after this. Either way, let's do it quickly. This planet holds a bad memory." A jolt told them that they had landed. Chase pulled out his sniper rifle, lowered his helmet's visor and took aim as the doors opened, lowering themselves to be a ramp for vehicles. As the visor lowered, a small circle appeared in the left corner of the HUD. This was his motion tracker that would be effective for ten meters in each direction. On it, four yellow dots blinked every few seconds. These four dots were the team. No other dots could be seen on the screen or out in the field. "Alright, time to kick some." Chase mumbled to himself. "Ronin, you're driving." Fox ordered, "The rest of us will be in the turrets." Chase pulled open a hatch on the side of the war machine. Slipping inside, the fox crawled to the driver's seat. When he did reach it, Chase strapped himself down with a harness and seatbelt before activating the engine. The sudden roar of the engines starting up startled the team, causing all of them to jump. Chase smiled slyly. It was times like these that he loved his job. The rest of the team climbed up into one of the four turrets, each one mounted on a corner of the FAV's main structure. Krystal took the controls and felt oddly comfortable. It was like the cockpit of her Arwing, but with more firepower. With a sound similar to the engines of the old Huey helicopters of the Vietnam war, the FAV slowly left the drop ship, digging its wheels into the soft ground. "Why does this look so familiar?" Slippy asked as the view screen showed the outside world around his turret. "From what I read on this thing before the op, the designers figured that a cockpit like design would make others more comfortable while in the turrets." Chase explained, "It's a mix between the Arwing cockpit design and the design of the interceptor I flew a few years back." "My compliments to the lead designer." Slippy replied happily. "Alright, let's do this." Falco said as he armed the turret gun. "Feeling more friendly towards mercs now, Falco?" Krystal asked. "You're still not off the hook." Falco replied gruffly, "When this is over, you're telling us everything." Krystal shrugged and said, "I've already told you everything I could. All I want to know is how you're still alive Chase." "Can't do that Krystal." Chase replied, "It's classified." "Classified my tail." Krystal huffed, "Is this because I quit?" "No." Chase replied honestly, "It's because it's highly classified by whoever saved me and the corporation that hires me. I don't have a clue what they did to save me or how much it cost them, but I owe them my life." * * * After the drop ship had left and the FAV had slowly begun made it's way to the hive entrance, Chase noticed something on the radar. A large object much bigger than the FAV or anything else he'd seen before. "I'm seeing a black mass ahead of us." Fox said, "What the heck is that thing?" Chase examined the approaching mass more carefully. His eyes widened. The motion detector and scanning systems that glowed in front of him told the fox all he needed to know about the mass. "Aparoids!" Chase exclaimed, and then in a more confused tone, "They're actually going to try to rush this thing with a full battalion?" "Open fire!" Fox commanded, "We need to hit them before they get within their firing range." "Let 'em try. They won't do much to this monster." Chase replied, "But you're the boss." Chase turned the FAV slightly diagonal to the approaching horde so all four of the turrets could get a clear shot. On each turret, a quad-barrel chain gun began to rotate clockwise, quickly picking up speed. But Chase fired the first shot. A single missile flew out of the rocket pod with a plume of smoke. It arced slowly in the air, picking a target that seemed like a weak point, and then slammed down into the center of the horde. The few parasites that weren't hit by the initial explosion flew into the air from the force of the blast and were quickly riddled with gunfire. As if a switch had been thrown, the mass surged towards the FAV, dropping in numbers from turret fire and the rapid-fire missiles. Chase decided it was nearly time to employ a weapon that would end this fight quickly. Unlike the rest of the team, he was on a timeline for this mission. He flicked a couple of switches and a panel on his left slid back to reveal a bright red button. Chase smiled to himself and fired a volley of missiles into the horde. "Is it just me, or are these things just plain stupid this time?" Falco asked as his turret's gun mowed down a row of parasites in the front lines. "It sure seems like it." Fox replied, "They're just charging us. No plan, just numbers." "Everyone hold on." Chase called as his fist pounded the button down, "It's going to get violent here." An alarm wailed inside the machine as the four turrets all swung out from the main body of the FAV as four support legs unfolded from the front, back, and sides to steady the machine. The main body then split open and the missile pods were rolled back as a large barrel like object rose up out of the body. It extended forward as four pronged ends rose up from the end of the barrel, each one lightly glowing blue from the energy that was now pulsing through the weapon. When it finally stopped its transformation, the FAV had become a massive energy cannon. "What the hell is that?" Falco asked in shock. "The FAV is equipped with a massive weapon designed to wipe out enemy bases in a singe shot as well as releasing a short wave EMP burst to disable enemy electronics." Chase explained, "But it also proved useful against hordes of enemy troops in the simulations. The good news is that it's got a blast radius of the size of that mass of aparoids. The bad news is that when it's deployed, the rest of the FAV is highly vulnerable to aerial assault." "Anything else you didn't tell us?" Falco snapped. "Yeah, don't be alarmed when we rock back a bit from the recoil of the shot. The support legs will keep us from rolling over." Chase grinned, "It's times like this that I really love my job." A bright blue beam shot out from the cannon and into the middle of the mass. As the beam grew brighter, a sphere of shifting energy began to grow from the ground where the beam was striking. The beam vanished, but the energy kept building until it was half the size of the mass of aparoid forces. Then, the ball violently exploded. The unfortunate ones trapped inside the energy detonation were wiped out of existence before they even realized what was happening. A light blue shockwave flew outwards from the energy, keeping parallel to the ground. Shortly after it, a second one left the energy blast, then a third. As they flew, the parasites around the epicenter of the blast were blown away in all directions from the sheer force of the blast waves. The earth below it was ripped to shreds as it gave up all it's force in that single explosion of power. The full force of the shockwaves hit the FAV. Shockingly, it didn't move an inch. Instead, the giant machine stood firm as the same force that swiftly destroyed the enemy mass washed over it. As the shockwaves faded from sight, the team saw that there was nothing left of the mass or the explosion, with the exception of a large crater where they used to be and the ringing sound in everyone's ears from the sound of the blast. The parasites had been destroyed in a single blast and the FAV had held its ground. The vehicle was still in place as the four support legs raised up and folded into the main body. "That went a lot better than I thought it would." Chase smiled as the vehicle pulled itself back together, "Everyone still alive?" He heard nothing from the others so he opened a second window on the consol beside him. This one showed the vital signs of the others in the turrets, each one labeled as a red line jumped every so often when their hearts beat. They were alive. "That...was...awesome!" Falco exclaimed with a childish glee, "When is this thing going to be available to us?" "Probably never." Chase replied, "I don't think the corporation's going to want to give this baby up. Not with how much it cost to produce just one of it." A rush of static came over the channel as Falco sighed. * * * As the trip continued there wasn't any sign of the remaining aparoid forces. It seemed like the mass they had taken out had been all of them, but Chase had been ambushed enough times to realize that wasn't the case. "I don't like this." Chase said, "I hate to be clichéd, but it's quiet. Too quiet." "I agree with Ronin." Krystal agreed, "Except for the quiet part that is. I don't know how they don't hear us. But, I'm not finding anything either. For a force that's trying to rebuild itself as a real threat, you'd think they would attack us more frequently to stop us." "Maybe their on lunch break?" Slippy asked hopefully. "Robotic parasites don't take a lunch break." Chase replied, "No, something's wrong here." "You think that force we took out was their entire force?" Falco asked as he swiveled the turret, scanning for targets. "I doubt it." Fox replied, "These things are usually smart. There's no way they would send out their entire force in one go. Keep your eyes open for anything that looks suspicious." The FAV suddenly stopped and Chase examined their surroundings. A building carved into the hillside with a worn stone entrance. It looked like a temple, but Chase knew better from the read out of the screens in front of him. The energy levels coming from deep within it were off the scale. This was the target. "We're here." The fox said as he undid the harness, "Orders?" "We are? This doesn't look like one of the strongholds I saw when I was here." Fox replied. "It's one me and Krystal stormed before you got here Fox." Chase replied, "In fact, this one was the one where Scales got away from us shortly before I was shot down. Now, orders?" "Just do what we came to do." Fox replied, "In, drop off the bomb, and out." Chase nodded and climbed out. After the others had exited the turrets, Chase opened a side compartment near the front wheels. The object he removed from the compartment was gray in color, roughly the size of a large laptop, and shaped like an egg with two handles on the sides to carry it. On the top were a digital read-out screen and a keypad to set the detonator. The series of wires that wound their way around the handles and down into other parts of the device glowed with an eerie sapphire color. The words "ONLY ONE, AND THE JOB IS DONE" had been traced on the side in red lettering. As he strapped it to his back like a backpack Krystal could only stare at him with disbelief. The fox was strapping a small-scale nuclear bomb to his back! "You're going to carry that thing on your back?" She asked in disbelief. "Someone has to." Chase replied as he drew his Stinger, "Might as well be the one who knows how to arm it, right?" "But on your back? Why not just carry it like a case?" She asked, worry showing in her eyes. "This is more effective if we run into trouble." Chase replied, slapping a fresh magazine into the Stinger and cocking it, "I can't dodge very well if I'm carrying the device like that." "But what if something happens?" the vixen asked quietly. "Nothing will happen as long as I get some cover fire." Chase replied with a sideways smirk, "Trust me." Krystal sighed, "Last time you said that was during the incident." Chase nodded and put a hand on her shoulder, a mysterious glint in his eyes, "Yeah, but last time we were only facing a maniac and his armies who almost destroyed the planet. This time it's only robotic parasites bent on our destruction by any means necessary. Plus, it's possibly hundreds, maybe even thousands, to five and I'm carrying a nuclear device strapped to my back. What could go possibly wrong?" Krystal gave him a lighthearted smile. Even over the years they'd been apart, Chase hadn't changed much. * * * The stronghold was dark inside. At least, it seemed that way. An eerie violet glow could be seen from deep inside the damp structure. It was towards this glow that the Star Fox team, and a mercenary with a bomb strapped to his back, now walked. A flashlight beam from Chase's shoulder illuminated the path in front of them. Although it was dark, it wasn't long before the team found the entrance to the hive. A soft violet glow came from deep within the structure. Fox slapped a one hundred round drum magazine, similar to the ancient Thompson submachine gun, into the minigun he was carrying. In his pack were three more drums like it. The rest of the team followed suit as Chase chamber a single round into his rifle. "Ronin, stay back here and cover our backs." Fox ordered, "After all, you're carrying the bomb. If you get shot, that thing could go off." "I realize that." Chase replied. He tapped the front of his chest and was soon covered in a soft red glow. "But you seem to forget that I still have my shielding system." The fox smirked. "Alright, but stay back." Fox replied with a sigh, "If something goes wrong with your shield, you're their first target." Chase nodded and crouched down behind a ruined pillar as the others moved up to the glowing room.