FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The sky was crowded today. Star Fox couldn't help but feel very cramped as they flew alongside the Star Dog team. Their Arwings were a little too close to Star Dog's Spiked Collars, their customized starships. The spacecrafts were shorter than the Arwings, and thinner too so it would give the team more speed and agility. As a result, the Spiked Collars had weak armor, and a few charged shots could take one down with ease. But the ships' bodies were somewhat similar to an Arwing's; the noses were more rounded, and the wings were curved, making them look like an upside-down "U" was about to form. All the Spiked Collars were painted brown and had white stripes along the body, and the team's logo was of a rabid-looking dog's head that was foaming at the mouth and had crazy-looking yellow eyes. The eight pilots descended through the skies as fast as possible until they could see the barren desert.

"The outpost should be just up ahead!" said Slippy.

"Be ready team. We don't know what Andrew's thugs have up their sleeves this time. Could be another trap," warned Fox.

"If it's another trap, we'll deal with it, like we always do," said Doogan.

"We can't exactly 'deal' with everything, Doogan," advised Terry. "If things look bad, we're pulling out."

Volcano snickered. "Fireflies got ya spooked, huh? It'll be eight against five! No way we'd lose to them, even if they are 'better' pilots!"

"It's not the Fireflies I'm worried about. What if--"

The eight pilots heard a massive explosion in the distance and saw smoke rising into the sky. They were only seconds away from the outpost now.

"We must be close to the outpost now!" shouted Krystal.

Doogan blinked. "Well, duh. We don't need you or some invisible entity to tell us the obvious; we have eyes."

Seconds after responding, Doogan saw red lasers flashing past his ship. By the time the outpost was in everyone's view, the skies were suddenly filling up with starcrafts, like locusts ready to swarm vegetable fields. The outpost was on fire in multiple sectors, and smoke was rising from areas that had already been eradicated. The base was bigger than most outposts on the planet, but it was still a vulnerable target since there weren't many troops stationed there. Most of the Corneria Defense Force pilots had been shot down, and the soldiers on the ground were fighting a losing battle, unable to defend themselves from the clunky dark blue tanks blowing holes into the outpost. All the enemy pilots were flying in standard flat starcrafts that looked like triangles from a bird's-eye view and had a small cockpit on top of it for the pilots to sit in. All their ships were dark green and equipped with advanced laser weaponry.

"Looks like we got here just in time!" shouted Fox. "Everyone split up and cov--"

"That's a stupid idea. Splitting up is what idiots do in horror movies when they wanna get murdered by the serial killer!" protested Doogan.

Fox was about to respond when someone snuck behind his ship and started to fire. He quickly somersaulted so he was behind the enemy and fired, blasting at the starcraft until its rear engine exploded and the ship spun around as it quickly nosedived into the ground. Fox huffed.

"Fine then. What do you suggest we do?"

"We break off into teams of two," said Terry. "We'll handle the ground forces; you guys can focus on clearing the skies!"

"You're not the boss of us, Star Dog. We can come up with our own--"

An irritated Krystal interrupted Falco. "You boys can measure the size of your phalluses later! Let's stop bickering and help those troops before it's too late!"

"Agreed. The longer we stay here arguing, the easier it'll be for Andrew's thugs to destroy this outpost! Everyone pick your targets and strike, now!" said Fox.

All the pilots knew what their assignments were, so they quickly broke off into four teams and started to shoot at the fighters. Doogan and Sid broke into one team, Terry and Volcano were another, Krystal and Slippy were the third team, and Fox and Falco consisted of the final team. Krystal and Slippy struck first, attacking a group of four enemy starfighters that were relentlessly chasing after a CDF pilot in a damaged aircraft. Krystal fired her single-shot green laser, downing two of the pilots when their ships took too much damage. The remaining two enemy pilots realized that they were being chased and broke away from the CDF fighter they were pursuing.

"Oh no, ya don't!" shouted Slippy, as he began to dish out his own amount of payback.

The CDF fighter, a scruffy-looking Labrador, exhaled after Krystal and Slippy saved him. "Thanks guys. Any longer and I would've been a goner!"

By the time Krystal turned around and started to hunt down the assailants, she discovered that Slippy had already shot them both down. Slippy regrouped with Krystal with a cocky grin on his face.

"Looks like I'm not too shabby after all, huh?"

Krystal chuckled. "Guess not."

Volcano and Terry were weaving between each other's ships as the clunky tanks on the ground fired at them. Some of them fired red lasers that pierced the sky, shooting up into the clouds as though to put a hole in the atmosphere. Other tanks launched missiles that followed the Spiked Collars for a few seconds before losing track of them. Eight tanks all rotated their turrets and charged up laser shots, the ends of each turret whirring and glowing bright red seconds before firing. Terry and Volcano shouted when the sky suddenly turned red, the devastating lasers flashing right across their ships. Both of them performed a U-turn and quickly flew low, aiming for the enemy on the ground.

"I've had enough of this!" shouted Volcano.

Terry and Volcano charged up their lasers. A few seconds later, they deployed a massive hot blast of blue energy from their ships' cannons. The troops on the ground didn't have time to scream before the charged laser shots made contact, creating two massive explosions that blew apart half a dozen tanks and killed three times as many ruffians. The leader of the tank squadron, a skinny baboon manning a tank's turret, shouted and turned away, shielding his eyes as smoke and gravel and sand blew into his face. He lowered his arm and coughed several times as his eyes burned from all the smoke. He could hear the fire crackling and his troops screaming as they were slowly roasting alive.

"Captain, we're under heavy fire! Requesting immediate assistance!"

The captain was a brute gorilla wearing shades and a combat jacket. He was sweating heavily as his own group of ape soldiers tried to destroy the outpost's defenses.

"You're on your own! We can't spare the manpower; figure out a way to outsmart them!"

"I'm not sure--"

The gorilla heard the baboon scream, and then all he heard was deafening static that nearly blew out his eardrum. The captain disconnected the channel and huffed.

"Uh, Captain? I think we just lost our first tank squadron," said a nervous red primate.

The gorilla growled. "Deploy the drill tanks! We need to breach this outpost now!"

Doogan and Sid intercepted the chatter on their comms channel and knew what they needed to do. "We're gonna take out those tanks. Cover us!"

"I'm on it!" shouted Fox.

Fox broke away from Falco for a brief moment so he could trail behind Sid and Doogan. The enemy pilots could see what Doogan and Sid were attempting to do and began to fire at them. They couldn't get close to the ground because the dark green fighters were busy firing charged laser shots at them, all of which the two canines had to somersault over so they wouldn't get hit.

"Anytime, Fox!"

Fox fired at one enemy starfighter and watched as it exploded in mid-air. He was just about to destroy the other one when Falco boosted out of nowhere and blasted at the starfighter until it disappeared into a giant ball of smoke and fire. Fox blinked.

"I had that one, Falco."

"You were taking too long," he retorted.

The Katina soldiers on the ground could see that Star Fox and Star Dog were clearing the skies, but they were still taking heavy damage from all of the enemies' ground fire. There were APCs that had most of the soldiers pinned down within the walls of the outpost, and the tanks were still blowing up the guard towers. Even worse, the drill tanks were slowly digging their way into the compound, using their enormous drills to tear through the fortified walls. The sergeant of the outpost got on the comms channel and alerted the two mercenary squadrons.

"They're about to reach our last line of defense! Take out those drill tanks now!"

Falco could see where most of the drill tanks were and blinked. He quickly boosted and flew low to the ground, readying a bomb.

"I got it. Deploying bomb now!"

"Wh--NO!! DO NOT--"

Falco didn't listen. He launched the bomb anyway. Some of the Katina soldiers had enough time to sprint away before Falco launched the bomb. But the drill tank drivers weren't so lucky, as nearly all of them were caught within the ensuing blast. Some tanks were incinerated on impact, lost within the scorching flames. Others broke apart into dozens of pieces, the charred bits of metal and whatever was left of the occupants flying in multiple directions. Some of the nearby ruffians had to duck or back away so they wouldn't get hit by the fiery debris. Despite Falco's risky maneuver, no Katina soldiers were gravely injured, albeit if he had launched the bomb any closer to the outpost, half of the Katina soldiers would be dead or missing a limb.

"What the heck was that?! Do you have any idea how close that was to the compound?! You might've gotten us all killed!" shouted the sergeant of the outpost.

"You're welcome," Falco snapped.

"This is about saving lives, not putting more of them at risk!" complained Slippy.

Falco glanced out his Arwing and could see someone following his teammate. "You are the last person who should be giving me this lecture."

"What--"

Slippy shouted when the starfighter pilot started to fire his red lasers at him. The laser fire nearly tore off Slippy's right wing, and it almost burned a hole through part of the Arwing's main body. Slippy hit the boost as he was subsequently chased by one of the enemy pilots. Volcano could see that his friend needed help and broke away from Terry temporarily, rescuing Slippy when he fired a few laser rounds at the pursuing starcraft. The frog sighed.

"Thanks, Rex."

"No problem buddy!"

Doogan and Sid were flying along the ground slowly, scanning the desert for more potential targets as they tried to avoid the Katina soldiers. Some of the ruffians' tank drivers were roaming, driving all around the ground and looking for other weak points in the outpost. One tank was destroyed by a soldier carrying a rocket launcher on the side wall. Two more tanks fired directly at the wall, blowing a hole into it and killing the five soldiers up there. The primate driving the tank laughed his final laugh when Sid charged up his laser and fired. The blast blew up one tank and caused the one beside it to catch of fire. The monkeys inside all shouted and screamed as fire and smoke erupted inside. They panicked and tried to climb out to freedom, only to die when Doogan fired more lasers at the vehicle.

"Back up, back up! They got a lock on us!"

"Fire," said Sid calmly.

Doogan and Sid released another charged laser shot. A group of five tanks tried to break away, but it did no good. Three were immediately destroyed by Doogan's laser shot, and the other two were set ablaze by Sid's laser. The monkeys in one tank were lucky enough to escape before their vehicle exploded. The others writhed around in their tank in agony, realizing they were trapped inside an oven that was only getting hotter. When the tank exploded, it knocked down the primates who had escaped and sent fiery shards into the air. One of them landed on a fleeing monkey, crushing his body with a loud thwack and crunch. One of the surviving monkeys activated the comms channel with the communique on his arm.

"Our...our second tank squadron has just been destroyed! How could this happen?! There's only a few enemy fighters up there targeting us!"

"When's the reinforcements gonna be here, Captain?!" shouted another ruffian.

"Just a few more minutes. We need to hold out until then!"

Doogan snickered. "They're panicking already. Just stay out of our way, Star Fox. Keep all those enemy fighters off our backs, and we'll be done in no time."

No one on Fox's team responded. They didn't feel like hearing his voice anymore; the less he said, the better it'd be for all of them. So Fox's team obeyed Doogan and let his team work on all the ground forces. The skies were becoming clearer as Star Fox mopped up more forces, rescuing any CDF pilots who were moments away from being shot down. Slippy performed a U-turn and flew straight towards a CDF pilot and the starfighter that was chasing after him. The pilot quickly descended, but the enemy pilot continued to fly straight. Slippy blasted the ship with his laser until it exploded in midair. The frog laughed as he flew right through the burning fragments, the smoke and fire dissipating as his ship blew the fumes away. Fox spotted a lone CDF ship being shot at by four pilots and had to use his boost to save the pilot. Having no other option, he charged his laser and released the blast of energy at all the ships. One exploded instantly, two began to spiral out of control after being caught in the blast, and the final ship lost its left wing after one of the downed ships crashed into it. The final pilot could see that he was in trouble and tried to fly away, but Fox didn't let him escape. He shot the enemy's ship four times and watched as the engine exploded, set the ship on fire, and then crashed into the ground.

"Whew! Thanks, Fox!" said the CDF pilot, a Dalmatian.

While the skies were steadily being cleared of enemy fighters, Star Fox and Star Dog couldn't rescue everyone in time. Two heavily-armored starfighters dropped strange-looking orbs onto the outpost that turned out to be bombs. They blew a hole right into the roof of the outpost's main building, trapping some soldiers beneath all the rubble. Terry briefly broke away from Volcano so he could save a CDF pilot, but by the time he started shooting at the assailants, the starcraft was shot down. Krystal and Falco could see that the bombers would be the outpost's biggest threat and started to gun for those ships instead. They were bigger, moved slower, and had purple stripes all over the body, but they also had a lot more armor. Krystal and Falco fired their lasers at the bombers over and over again and watched as sparks flew and pieces of the starfighter began to break apart, but the ships were still flying. The duo spent so long focusing on the bombers that they neglected the rest of the ordinary fighters polluting the sky, and were promptly fired upon. Falco growled with frustration before he somersaulted and got behind his enemy.

"Hold on guys! We're coming--"

"I got 'em," Falco interrupted.

Slippy and Fox didn't need to help. Once Falco performed his loop, he took down the ship that was chasing after him, along with the one tailing after Krystal. Terry noticed that the ground forces had been nearly decimated and headed over to take out the bombers.

"I got the bombers. You guys focus on the rest of the ships!"

Falco and Krystal didn't feel like wasting any more time, so they flew away and worked on mopping up the rest of the enemy.

"How many tanks are left?" asked Doogan.

"Approximately seven," replied ROB.

"I wasn't talking to you, robot."

"To be fair, you didn't specify a name. You just asked a general question. Heck, one of those apes on the ground could've answered you if they wanted to," Terry pointed out.

"I don't need any of your lip right now! Just tell us how close we are to eliminating the enemy!"

Peppy sighed. "Our radar is showing that over seventy-five percent of the enemy's gone. Once you take out their captain, they should retreat."

"Good."

Terry fired off a charged shot at one of the bombers and blew out its engine. The entire ship began to explode in multiple areas, causing bits of fiery metal to rain down onto the ground. It slowly veered to the right and groaned as it plummeted to the ground on fire. The bomber landed right on top of several tanks that had already been destroyed and disappeared within a huge fireball, the blast sending more debris into the air. By the time the fire and smoke began to dissipate, all that was left were three giant parts of the bomber resting silently on the ground.

"Hey, pay more attention, Volcano! You got one on your tail!"

The bulldog laughed. "I know I do. Watch this!"

Rex quickly boosted through the skies, and the enemy starfighter boosted behind him. Both pilots left streaks in the air as they flew up and down, barrel-rolling and twisting and turning. Rex flew straight ahead with a large grin on his face. What he was doing was idiotic, if not suicidal. But he wanted to have a little fun, and he knew his plan would work. So he accelerated as much as he could, hoping that the enemy would get closer and closer to his Spiked Collar. When it finally did, Volcano tilted his ship and veered to the left, flying right around the second bomber. The enemy starfighter was not so agile, and the pilot couldn't react so quickly. The pilot screamed as he hit the brakes and tried to avoid the bomber, but it was useless. He crashed right into it, killing both pilots instantly. Star Dog and Star Fox watched as the bomber began to spew out smoke, and then abruptly nosedived into the ground and exploded into dozens of pieces. Volcano laughed after witnessing the damage he had done.

"Hoo-yeah! Enemy bomber down!"

"Great work team! Looks like there's only a few more enemies left!" said Peppy.

The gorilla captain on the ground received a private message from reinforcements and snickered to himself. "D'ya hear that boys?! Sounds like the Devil Dogs--"

The gorilla was silenced when Sid fired a charged laser shot at his tank, killing him and all the primate soldiers around him. The giant mastiff slowed down and began to soar through the air aimlessly.

"Dang...did that gorilla just say 'Devil Dogs'?"

"Warning! New enemy squadron approaching!" warned ROB.

Fox grumbled. "How many?"

"Looks like four," said Peppy. "Guess that captain had these mercenary pilots on speed dial."

"This is the last thing we need," growled Doogan. "Take out the rest of the tanks fast! After they're gone, we're outta here!"

Fox blinked as he saw the blips on his radar approaching the area. He knew retreating would be the smart decision, but he had already suffered one loss and felt humiliated and sore about it. Katt's death was still hitting the team pretty hard, Falco especially, and since the Fireflies were still active, that meant they were free to harm hundreds if not thousands of innocents across the Lylat System. Fox knew there were more mercenary squadrons like the Devil Dogs and Fireflies out there; he couldn't turn tail and run everytime one showed up.

"We're staying."

Doogan snorted. "What?"

"It's four against eight. Even if they have more skill and experience than us, they're outnumbered. There's no way they can take us all down."

"Are you forgetting how 'well' your team did when fighting the Fireflies?"

"These guys aren't the Fireflies. If we run away everytime these aces show up, the enemy will take notice of that. They'll have aces fly alongside them during every single subsequent battle because they'll know we'll be too cowardly to face them head on! Let's see how Andrew responds once he finds out that we can take out his 'superior' and 'advanced' pilots."

As stoic as Sid was, the muscle-bound mastiff found himself smirking just a little after listening to Fox's logic. After all, the Devil Dogs weren't going to magically go away unless someone took care of them.

"He's got a good point there, Doogan."

Volcano laughed. "Yeah, let's show these punks what we're made of!"

"We do have numbers on our side. All of our skills combined should be enough to defeat these guys," advised Terry.

Krystal smiled. "So we're all agreed then?"

"Err, yeah," said Slippy reluctantly. "So long as these guys don't have some special weapon that can slice off our wings!"

"I'm not running away unless I absolutely have to. But feel free to leave if you're too chicken, Doogan," said Falco.

Now Doogan had to stay so he would save face. The Rottweiler snarled with annoyance as he began to regroup with the rest of Star Dog. "All right, all right then. I'm feelin' lucky today anyway."

Fox nodded. "I can see 'em coming now. Star Fox, engage!"

"Star Dog, engage!" shouted Doogan.

The eight ships all regrouped with each other, activated their boost, and zoomed through the skies so they could face the Devil Dogs. Somewhere in the area not far from the two squadrons, four starfighters were steadily flying through the air. All the starships were short, yet wide, packed with armor, yet still able to move very fast. All the planes had two short wings with a large tail. The bodies of the ships were flat, making them look like rectangular cardboard boxes from above and below that curved on the sides of the ships. The noses of the ships were rounded like cylinders, and the very tip was equipped with heat-seeking missiles. The bodies of the starcrafts were painted red, with four brown stripes going along the exterior. The edges of the tail and wings were also painted brown as well. The canines even painted a very crude image of what looked like a hellhound opening its wide mouth and showing off its grotesque and serrated fangs. It was painted in a way so that it looked like the mouth ended right at the nose of the ships, making it appear like the hellhounds were the ones releasing heat-seeking missiles.

The Devil Dogs could see the eight blips on their radars quickly coming their way. They weren't certain who their enemy was just yet, but at this point, they didn't care. All they knew was that none of them could leave this planet alive after all the damage they've caused.

"I see 'em now. Everyone got a visual?" asked the leader, a scarred bulldog who was missing part of his left ear.

"Dellyn here. Eight enemy starcrafts coming our way," said a fluffy Tibetan Mastiff.

The third member of the squadron, an old Irish Setter who looked like he was losing his fur, glanced down at his radar and saw the eight heroes coming towards them as well.

"Irvin reporting. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that's Star Dog and Star Fox."

The last pilot, a fox terrier with smooth black and white fur, giggled. "Good. Can't wait to watch as these cowards run away after we give 'em a fierce beating!"

"We're not letting them run away this time, Carmine. They've done enough damage here; none of us is heading back to base until they'll all shot down. Agreed?"

"Roger that!" said Dellyn.

"Gotcha," responded Irvin.

"Whatever you say, Captain!" said Carmine.

It only took a few more seconds before the Devil Dogs were within firing range of Star Dog and Star Fox. Once they got close, all of them chose their targets and locked on.

"Fire now," said the leader calmly.

Star Dog and Star Fox heard a very loud whoosh and watched as four missiles soared through the air and began to follow four of the eight ships.

"Oh crud, not this again!" whined Slippy.

"All units break! Break!" shouted Fox.

The eight pilots had to split up, with four of them being followed by the relentless missiles. Slippy panted as he boosted away from the pursuing missile, flying high into the air until the missile lost track of him. Volcano and Sid constantly barrel-rolled in case the missiles wound up hitting their ships regardless of how fast they were moving. Fox was just focused on speeding his way through the skies, hoping he'd fly past a Devil Dog and fool the pilot into running straight into the missile he fired. The bulldog with a maimed left ear saw the "pitiful" performance from Star Dog and snorted.

"Off to a bad start, Doogan."

"You shut your mouth, Jetert! Even a racecar driver in last place can speed his way to the finish line first!"

"...Your metaphors are repulsive. Stick with your usual abrasive attitude and comments will you?"

Jetert grunted when Doogan snuck behind his ship and started to blast him with laser fire. The bulky Rottweiler snorted as Jetert's ship took damage.

"How's that for abrasive?"

The four heat-seeking missiles eventually lost track of their victims, and Volcano, Sid, Slippy and Fox were able to fly freely. Krystal and Fox were about to seek out Irvin's ship when Falco intervened. The Irish Setter saw streaks of green laser fire behind him shortly before his entire ship shook. Irvin knew that he was being followed and began to boost through the air, with Falco still firing at him relentlessly.

"You came behind me reeeeeaaaal fast, bird!"

The fox terrier laughed. "Gotta watch out for them avians, Irvin! Always knew 'em for being quick!"

Irvin quickly somersaulted so he was behind Falco; Falco somersaulted almost immediately afterwards. The Irish Setter blinked and tilted his ship towards the left as Carmine covered him. Falco felt his ship shudder a few times as the fox terrier shot a few bursts of his laser at his Arwing. Meanwhile, Doogan was under fire from the Tibetan Mastiff. Dellyn watched as Doogan boosted, performed a U-turn, and then charged up his laser so he could fire it at the fluffy dog. But the moment Doogan fired, Dellyn descended, and the charged laser wound up making contact with nothing. Seconds later, Doogan shouted when Jetert came behind him and hit him with a charged laser shot. The Rottweiler scoffed and began to boost away until Krystal intervened and blasted a few holes into the bulldog's ship, causing him to break away.

"They seem to attack in groups of two. Stay alert everyone!" warned Krystal.

"See, Fox? Even your enemies are smart enough to know that splitting up is a dumb idea," sneered Doogan.

Fox ignored him as Peppy gave the team crucial advice. "Maybe you could catch them off-guard if you all try the same thing."

"Understood. Slippy and Sid can take out Jetert! Falco and I can work on Irvin--"

"I'm already on him, Fox. He's not getting out of my sight," the falcon replied.

Krystal shouted when Irvin, Carmine, and Falco all flew right past her ship so fast their wings could've cleanly sliced through her Arwing. Irvin was being chased relentlessly by Falco. Carmine was trying to protect his teammate, but he was failing miserably. The Irish Setter somersaulted and hoped he'd throw a curve ball at Falco, but the bird did the same. Carmine was going so fast that he flew right past them both and nearly ran into Terry, who immediately started to fire at his ship.

"Uh, Carmine? Little help here?!"

Carmine growled as Terry as well as Volcano began to tail after him, resulting in Carmine boosting and weaving left and right to avoid the two dogs' lasers.

"I'm kinda busy myself!"

The chubby bulldog flying alongside Terry grinned. "We'll keep the terrier busy, Fox! You and Falco can take out the Setter!"

Carmine and Irvin were both being chased, so Jetert and Dellyn had to step in and cover the two. Dellyn targeted Falco first when he noticed how relentless Falco was being. The bird was still chasing Irvin, even after Dellyn started to fire at him and damaged his Arwing.

"You've got an enemy on your tail! Do a loop!" advised Peppy.

The blue creature ignored him. "This guy's not getting out of my sight. Someone take care of the dog behind me!"

Krystal provided support and started to charge up her laser. But before it was fully charged, the blue fox shouted when Jetert blasted her with his own charged laser. Dellyn fired at Falco even faster than before, hoping the bird would grow a brain and break away from Irvin. But Falco was still chasing him, charging up his laser and firing it at Irvin's ship over and over again. The Irish Setter was beginning to panic. His ship was releasing black smoke, some of the paint had chipped off, various metal fragments had broken away, and he was having trouble keeping his ship stable.

"You're taking too much damage, Falco! Break away!" ordered Fox.

Falco grunted as Dellyn hit him a few times with his lasers. "I told you, this guy's almost down! Just cover me until the target's destroyed!"

Slippy, surprisingly, wasn't under enemy fire, so he supported his teammate. "I'll take care of it."

Dellyn was gritting his teeth as he prepared to fire another heat-seeking missile. He locked onto Falco's Arwing as quickly as possible and was about to hit the button to release the missile when his ship shuddered. Slippy started to fire at the Tibetan Mastiff, forcing him to break away from Falco. Irvin shouted when Falco released a charged shot at his ship, causing the engine to fail and sputter as sparks flew and the ship belched out more smoke.

"I've taken too much damage!" said Irvin over static on the comms channel. "I'm bailing out! I'm bail--"

The other three Devil Dogs heard Irvin scream over the static when he was hit a few more times with Falco's laser fire. Irvin's ship exploded from behind and began to spiral out of control as it headed for the outpost. There was nothing the Devil Dogs could do except watch as Irvin's ship crashed into one of the outpost's guard towers and exploded. What was left of the ship cartwheeled along the ground until there was nothing left except chunks of the starfighter scattered across the desert set ablaze.

"Irvin, respond!"

"He got out right? Someone saw Irvin eject before it crashed, right?"

"...Irvin?"

No answer. The Devil Dogs couldn't even see a parachute or anything indicating that the Setter had bailed out before it was too late. Carmine clenched his hands into fists while Jetert closed his eyes and shook his head solemnly.

"You're gonna pay for that," Dellyn snarled.

"Heh, so what were you saying about my team being off to a bad start?" teased Doogan.

Jetert immediately performed a U-turn so he was heading for Doogan. Then he launched a bomb, and the burly canine gasped.

"OH, CRUD!!!"

Doogan quickly tilted his ship left and boosted, shouting as he barely escaped being blown to bits. His ship was still caught in the blast though, and his entire ship shuddered so much he almost banged his head against the flight panel. Dellyn did a U-turn as well and started to fire at Slippy's ship, hitting him a few times. He locked onto another Arwing and fired one of his heat-seeking missiles without hesitation, watching as the weapon soared through the air and began to follow Krystal. The blue fox immediately hit the boost and ascended, gaining altitude as she got further and further away from the deadly missile. Carmine was the one who was going all out now, launching bombs, missiles, and charged shots at his enemy whenever he had the chance. He had lost Terry and Volcano and found Sid and Fox instead. The terrier launched a bomb at them, and snarled with frustration when they both escaped the blast radius. Terry quickly flew by his ship, and the dog began to chase after him until he locked onto his Spiked Collar and fired a missile. The Saint Bernard panted a few times as he tried to evade the missile, but he boosted a few seconds too late, and the missile wound up hitting the back of his ship.

"Dang it! This dog won't let up!"

Volcano could see the state of Terry's ship now. Smoke was coming out of it and the canine was having trouble keeping the Spiked Collar steady. A few holes were in the ship as well, most likely caused from shrapnel the missile released.

"Your ship ain't looking that good, buddy! Pull out!" the bulldog warned.

Carmine snarled as he locked onto Terry again. "That's right you stinkin' dog! Just hold still--"

The terrier shouted when Falco fired a charged laser shot at him. It gave enough time for Terry to fly away, and his attack distracted Carmine as well. The terrier growled as he veered to the left and began to fly after Falco.

"Oh, you want some too birdy?!"

Jetert sensed that something wrong was going on. "Stay on your guard! That bird could be leading you into a trap!"

"There's no one else following me, sir! I'm taking this giant chicken down!"

As Carmine began to follow Falco, the bird performed a U-turn and began to fly straight for Carmine, boosting with all the power his Arwing allowed. The fox terrier saw what the bird was doing and decided to play his little game. He grinned widely and boosted too.

"Oh, you wanna play, birdy? C'mon then! There's only one chicken here, birdy, and it sure as heck ain't me!"

Falco, surprisingly, didn't respond. He just kept flying forward, heading straight for a collision course with Carmine. The fox terrier had a missile locked onto Falco's Arwing, but he didn't move an inch. Peppy and the rest of Star Fox could see what the blue falcon was doing and started to panic.

"What are you doing, Falco?! Get out of there!" yelled Krystal.

"That dog's locked onto you! Evade!" warned Peppy.

"Relax guys. I know what I'm doing."

Falco and Carmine were dangerously close now. The terrier could almost see Falco inside his Arwing. He launched his missile and laughed, waiting for it to blow Falco's Arwing to bits. And then Falco swiftly rose into the air, dodged the missile as it flew beneath his Arwing, and then descended so he was flying right at Carmine again. Falco evaded the missile so quickly that someone wouldn't have even known what happened if they blinked. Even Carmine couldn't comprehend how he missed. Both ships were yards away from each other. Then feet. Then inches. Carmine was moving so fast he didn't have time to turn or even hit the brakes. All the terrier could do was open his mouth to scream, even though no sound came out. Falco rammed his Arwing directly into Carmine's ship, making sure that the tip of his starfighter hit the cockpit. For a very brief moment, Carmine could see the nose of Falco's Arwing as it shattered the glass dome of the cockpit and ruptured the flight panel. And then everything went black as the Arwing's nose crushed Carmine's head. His skull was shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, his brain turned into pulp, and blood exploded all over the inside of Carmine's ship, leaving a huge crimson mess.

It only took half a second for it all to happen, and then Falco immediately tilted his ship to the left and was flying freely in the air. Carmine's headless body twitched a few times as blood continued to gush out of the wound. His body then became limp, and he no longer had control of his plane. His body started to cool as the heat left it. His bladder emptied its contents, leaving a very large stain on the groin region of his flight suit. And then the ship just nosedived and landed on the ground, crashing and flipping over a few times as the starship wrecked. Jetert and Dellyn saw Carmine go down, and although his ship didn't explode, it was brutally mangled and releasing too much smoke. There was no way Carmine would've survived the crash, even if Falco hadn't already crushed his head.

"Carmine's down! What the heck just happened?!" shouted Dellyn.

Falco smirked. "Let that be a lesson to you all that I'm no chicken. I'm a falcon."

Jetert and Dellyn were starting to panic. They already lost two of their squad mates in only a matter of minutes, and they failed to shoot anyone else down. The mastiff and bulldog realized that attacking two-by-two wasn't possible anymore, so they had to split up. The moment they did, Jetert launched another bomb to try and take out a few members of Star Fox. But Fox, Slippy and Krystal managed to avoid the blast radius before their ships took too much damage. Dellyn immediately went for Terry since his ship was already heavily damaged. He armed a missile and prepared to fire, only to have Sid rush up behind the dog so he could block Dellyn's line of fire. But the mastiff launched his missile anyway so it would follow Sid. The muscle-bound dog grunted when the missile hit him only a few seconds later, and Dellyn started to fire his laser at the giant dog since he got in his way. Sid boosted forward as Dellyn chased after him, his ship damaged and leaving a trail of smoke like Terry's starfighter was. Jetert was trying to gun for Falco, but Doogan, Volcano, and Fox were all chasing after him and firing charged shots at him repeatedly.

The bulldog, despite his remarkable skills and experience, knew that numbers were not on his side. At one point, Jetert saw one of the CDF pilots joining in on the fight and shooting at him. He shot down the pilot out of frustration, and simply because he knew the regular pilots were rookies compared to him. Jetert somersaulted shortly after shooting down the pilot and got behind Fox. He immediately locked onto the fox's Arwing with a heat-seeking missile and fired. Fox somersaulted as well, and the missile eventually lost track of him and flew out of everyone's vision. Fox felt his ship shudder when Jetert shot at him a few times, but that all changed once Volcano fired a charged laser at the bulldog. Jetert shouted and heard something explode inside his ship. His flight panel was releasing a few sparks and the bulldog could smell smoke and burnt metal within his starship. Dellyn could see his leader was in trouble and snarled as he broke away from Falco, realizing saving him was more important. But even as he boosted, he could see that Fox, Doogan and Volcano were shooting lasers at him over and over again. More tiny explosions erupted from the red and brown-striped ship, and the right wing was severely damaged.

Doogan and Fox charged up their lasers simultaneously, as though they were racing each other to see who would shoot first. But they both wound up deploying bursts of energy at the exact same time. The blue and light green bursts of energy erupted from their ships' cannons and zoomed forward, slamming into the back of Jetert's ship. It didn't matter who fired first; the outcome was the same. Jetert shouted as he lost control of his ship and the engine exploded. The fire within the ship spread quickly and reached the fuel tank. Jetert's starfighter didn't even have time to hit the ground before it exploded in mid-air, blowing apart into four huge chunks composed of the wings and what was left of the body. Some of the debris rained down onto Andrew's troops still on the ground, crushing a few of them and narrowly missing a tank. Dellyn saw the blip on his radar indicating Jetert's presence go away, and as he flew around the outpost, he saw what was left of his ship lying on the ground.

"Our captain's down!" the mastiff shouted.

It wasn't until a few agonizing seconds later that Dellyn realized no one was responding. The rest of his teammates were dead.

"Oh no. This...this is impossible! Am I the last one?! This can't be happening!"

The Rottweiler couldn't help but snicker after hearing the fear in his enemy's voice. "S'matter, Dellyn? Upset that your captain isn't around anymore to hold your hand and change your diaper?"

Dellyn didn't know what to do. His right hand shook as he held the flight stick. He wasn't sure if he should flee or unleash all his fury onto Star Fox and Star Dog. But it was eight against one, and his ship was already partially damaged. He felt like calling for reinforcements, but he and the rest of the Devil Dogs were the reinforcements. No help was coming, and chances were he'd be dead anyway by the time they got there.

"Whaddya think, Doogan? Should we let him go or shoot him down?" asked Sid.

"He might know more about what Oikonny's up to, or the Fireflies for that matter. Why don't we take him back to the CCC for interrogation?" suggested Peppy.

"He's a fly. The only thing flies are good for is being swatted out of the sky," said Falco coldly.

Dellyn felt a sudden surge of rage building up within him. If he was gonna die, he may as well take this bird down with him. The Tibetan Mastiff shouted as he did a U-turn and headed straight for Falco, readying another heat-seeking missile. But Falco was prepared for this, and he charged up his laser cannon and locked onto Dellyn's ship. But instead of firing the bright green blast of energy, he released a bomb, which turned itself into a heat-seeking bomb. It slowly flew through the air towards its target, causing Dellyn to scream as his eyes grew wide. He panicked and hit the brakes, but it was too late. Falco shielded his eyes as Dellyn's ship disappeared in the ensuing explosion. None of the pilots could even see what was left of Dellyn's wreckage fall to the ground. The dog and his starfighter were incinerated in the explosion. Volcano watched as the flames and fireball dissipated and realized almost nothing was left. The Devil Dogs were no more.

"Whoa! What...you got him?!"

"Is that all of 'em? Are all the Devil Dogs gone?" asked Slippy.

"I'm not picking up any starfighters on the radar, and it looks like whatever ground forces are left are retreating. All targets down!" said Fox.

Terry sighed heavily. "I can't believe we actually did it!"

Volcano grinned. "I'd sure love to see the look on Andrew's face once he finds out what we did to one of his 'elite' squadrons!"

"What do you mean 'we'? Falco did most of the work here! I'm surprised, bird. You took out three of those dogs. And here I thought everyone on Fox's team was incompetent," said Doogan.

"While I will agree that your skills have impressed me, what you did today was reckless, Falco. You went after all those dogs on your own and put yourself at risk when we easily could've helped you!" said Fox.

"We all took care of the Devil Dogs without a single casualty, right?"

"Yes, but we could've brought that mastiff in for interrogation! Now how--"

"Then stop complaining. I'm fine, you're fine, Slippy's fine, and Krystal's fine. How we got the job done doesn't matter. The outpost is saved, and the Devil Dogs have been dealt with."

"Yeah, Fox! Take that big ol' stick out your butt and bask in your victory. Geez..." said Doogan.

Fox huffed with frustration and shook his head. "Fine then. All aircraft report!"

"I'm okay, nothing I can't fix once we head back," said Slippy.

"I've taken some damage, but it's not too serious," responded Krystal.

"My Arwing's fine, Fox," said Falco.

Fox glanced over at Falco's Arwing and noticed all the smoke coming from it and the fact that some fluids and sparks were spewing out the bottom of the starship.

"Your ship doesn't look fine, Falco. Another missile hits it and your ship could explode."

"I think I can manage flying to Great Fox before that happens."

Doogan ignored the brief argument going on with Falco and Fox and worried about his own team. "What about you guys?"

"We'll be okay, Doogan," said Volcano. "Terry and Sid got hit by missiles, but it's not too serious, so long as they don't get hit again."

"Good. The outpost is saved, we're all still alive, and the Devil Dogs are finally gone. Now let's get the heck outta here before more trouble shows up."

"He's right, Fox. If another squadron of aces appears, both teams may suffer casualties. Let's head back to the CCC and get everyone patched up," said Peppy.

The fox nodded. "Okay. All units, head back to base!"

There was no need for further discussion. The eight pilots all tilted their ships upwards and began to ascend into the skies so they could head back to their giant aircraft carriers. The remaining Katina and CDF soldiers were busy cheering or catching their breath as they finally realized that they were safe for now. As Fox flew higher into the planet's atmosphere, he kept glancing at Falco and his Arwing, wondering what was going on inside the falcon's mind. He really did wish the bird would open up to him and explain what was wrong; acting this reckless wasn't the way to deal with all the pain he was going through. Eventually, Fox just sighed and shut his eyes. He'll come around sooner or later, the vulpine thought. ...But I guess now's just not the time.