Tenderheart sat in the cockpit of his Arwing Mk V and turned on the comm, “Be ready to launch as soon as we drop out of warp. We don’t know what kind of situation we’re going to find.”
“I got’cha,” Falco flipped the starter on, illuminating the 360 degree monitors.
“ARRIVING AT COMBAT ZONE IN FIFTEEN SECONDS.”
“Be ready to launch!” Tenderheart gripped the throttle and counted down the seconds in his head.
‘three, two, one!’ Tenderheart hit the launch button the exact moment the stars reappeared outside the magnetic field and he shot out into the combat zone, followed by the other seven fighters.
The zone was littered with laser fire and punctuated by the bright flash of a resistance ship exploding. “What are those things?” Hugs asked as the attackers came into view, humanoid robots with monkey-shaped heads including huge ears armed with a laser gun and shield.
“Shogun attack bots, I thought they discontinued those after the Lylat wars,” Slippy said.
“Mobile suits,” Cassandra growled and hit the boost.
“Incoming!” Falco shouted as the machines turned their lasers on the attacking Arwings.
“Alright, our object here is rescue so destroy the ships and Cheer, send out messages to any surviving resistance ships to warp out once they’re clear,” Tenderheart said as he destroyed the first attacking Shogun.
“Affirmative,” Cheer turned on a wide range broadcast for the communications, “Attention all resistant ships, this is the Fox McCloud. We are going to clear away the enemy fighters and robots, as soon as you have an opening make a random warp jump and regroup later. I will repeat this message once per minute.”
“Incoming enemy carrier!” Defender Bear shouted.
“Katt, fire the beam cannons at any carriers that come in range,” Fara said.
Katt winked over the comm, “You got it. Cannons locked on and… fire!” twin blue beams fired out and destroyed the first carrier.
“Good shot, keep it up,” Tenderheart dove down and fired off his beam gun into a corvette that was attacking a resistance ship, shattering the already damaged ship. With the threat gone the ship suddenly lurched forwards into warp space. “One away, keep it up.”
“How many of them are there?” Hugs shot a nova bomb into a formation of nine V-ships, fragmenting them.
“As many as we need!” Connie’s lasers destroyed a dozen more ship.
“Watch out for the shoguns!” Perfect took a nose dive to avoid a hailstorm of lasers.
“Damn, they just keep coming!” Falco shouted as he dove into another formation, lasers firing away. Two more beam cannon shots destroyed a carrier and another alliance ship warped away.
OoOoO
Protected from the battle outside, Get Well, Take Care and Bright Heart had started work on the healing nanite chamber. Get Well checked a connection and called, “Pace, please bring tht canister of nanites here.”
“Got it.” Pace grabbed the canister and handed it to Get Well. He felt more like a gofer than a nurse at the moment.
Take Care stood up from where she had been leaning over and working on the bed inside the chamber. “There, I just need to sit down for a minute.” Take Care stepped away from the chamber and went to sit in her office.
“Not much else to do except the programming,” Bright Heart looked up from the computer screen where he was writing the program, “I had it in my mind to do this since the first nano monster Control unleashed on us.”
Get Well felt a strange twinge, “I’m gonna go check on mom.” She stood up and entered Take Care’s office.
Get Well was shocked to find her mother sitting in a chair and crying softly. “Mom?” She always put up a strong front for everyone, Get Well was one of the few who ever saw Take Care vulnerable.
“Oh, sorry,” Take Care wiped her eyes, “I just had to get some time alone for a moment.” She sighed and sat in silence for a moment. “I miss him,” she whispered.
“Who?”
“Independent Bear.” Take Care looked up at Get Well. “I never talked about it before, because things became crazy so fast, but almost every day while you were at college he came to visit me. He wasn’t sick or trying to get anything from me, but he thought Cautious Heart and I would be lonely with you gone.” She smiled, “With him around I didn’t feel lonely. He talked to me, read with me, even spent time with Cautious Heart and kept me company when I had to work late, though he stayed out of my way when I had to take care of patients. Somewhere along the way he became my best friend.”
“What about Bright Heart and Gentle Heart?” Get Well sat down next to her mother.
“They always were my closest friends, but when they started dating they spent more time with each other. I was happy for them but I missed their visits. Even then things were always… awkward.” Take Care shuffled in her seat, “I remember when they were young, I helped raise them, watched them grow and until everything went to hell I still held a position of authority over them. Even though we are friends I still feel that little awkwardness hanging in the back of my mind that I was an older sister and authority figure to them. With Indy it was different.
“I met Indy as an adult, got to knew him as an adult. I never saw him grow up, never had to teach him things, we were able to get to know each other on equal terms and he chose to visit me for no other reason than to spend time with me, even if we just sat in our secret reading spot in the forest and read. Even reading was different because we would talk and compare notes about the books we were reading. He was someone I could be friends with on equal terms, and that was something special for me.”
Get Well looked closer to Take Care, “Did you…love him.”
Take Care shook her head, “I don’t know, but it’s too late to think about that now. It’s not important how things could have gone now that he’s dead, but I still miss him.” Take Care shook her head and stood up her voice and face hardening to her usual demeanor. “Thanks for listening, but we need to get back to work.”
They stepped back into the sick bay as Bright Heart finished his program. “I think it’s all set. What do you think, Take Care?” Bright Heart slid his chair aside to let her look at the program.
Take Care scrutinised the screen and sighed, “Looks good, but it needs tweaking so we don’t accidentally grow extra limbs or mismatch body parts, that and the first test will need to be someone whose injuries didn’t result in any major loss of body parts.”
“Like Cassandra,” Get Well said.
Take Care nodded, “I’m going to get Tenderheart to take her off the flight roster after this battle, she needs this now.”
OoOoO
Another resistance ship took off once the Fox McCloud destroyed the frigate blocking their way. “How many more are there?” Hugs asked.
“That was the last one, now we just need to clean up the squadrons.” Tenderheart was about to turn when he heard a woman’s voice in his head.
‘Tenderheart Bear, Fara Phoenix McCloud, can you hear me?’
Tenderheart blinked then flipped the comm to Fara, “Fara did you hear that?”
“I did, it’s a telepathic message.” Fara’s said. “Try to contact them back.”
“Alright,” Tenderheart dropped back to let the other fighters engage as he sent out a telepathic message, ‘We can hear you, this is Tenderheart, who are you?’
The voice answered again, ‘Miyu Lynx, a member of the squadron on Peppy’s ship. I’m trapped near a disabled empire carrier with Faye Spaniel and we have Peppy Hare in an escape pod. We were forced to abandon ship in space suits before we could launch in our Arwings, but we only have 30 minutes of air left. We can’t risk a distress beacon or they’ll find us.’
‘I hear you too,’ Fara replied, ‘I can sense your location and we’re moving to retrieve you. The empire fleet is mostly cleared out.’
“Something’s up ahead, looks different,” Slippy’s voice brought Tenderheart back to reality.
“I’m getting some serious déjà vu here,” Falco shuddered.
A new voice came over the comm, “Don’t party just yet.”
“That voice!” Slippy started.
“It’s time to try our new weapon.” Directly ahead, the carrier proved to not be as disabled as Miyu had reported as a larger and more complex shogun stepped onto a launch catapult and took off into space.
“What the hell!” Falco was forced into a shield roll to dodge the incoming barrage of laser fire. “We killed you during the Lylat Wars!”
“And thanks to Quenos’ cloning technology, I’m back!” the Shogun Commander fired off several more volleys at the fighters, “I’m coming for ya!”
OoOoO
“What the,” Soulful turned his scanners to the rear of the Fox, “Fara, we have trouble!”
“What?!” Fara stood up and turned to Soulful.
“Shit! We have a dozen fighters and five cruise missiles behind us,” Soulful re-adjusted the scanners to show the targets to Fara.
“No time to get the other fighters back there,” Fara said. She gave Soulful a curious look, then an idea sprung to her mind, “Are there any fighters left in the docking bay?”
“Just the Psiwing Test model, but it only has two working plasma lasers,” Soulful Heart didn’t get to say anymore as Fara bolted from the command deck.
Cheer noticed and turned to face the front, “I’ll keep coordinating, everyone clear out the fighters, we have a salvo of cruise missiles approaching from the rear, please send anyone you can to intercept.”
“Sorry, we’ve got our hands full!” Defender’s voice sounded out, “The carrier wasn’t dead and we have a swarm of Shogun’s to deal with.” A flash indicated a hit on Defender’s shields but he retaliated and destroyed the attacker.
Fara ran into the docking bay and grabbed one of the comm headsets and jumped into the Psiwin. “Please work,” she pleaded as she turned on the machine, clutching the psychonite pendant around her neck as the fighter took off. Fara did a quick 180 and boosted towards the fighters and missiles approaching from the rear.
“Gotta be fast!” Fara saw the fighters speed up to intercept her. She pulled to the side and sent a volley of lasers into the fighters, shattering half of them. She pulled a U-turn and destroyed two more. The last four splitting up to chase her.
“Missiles getting too close,” Fara took a deep breath and avoided another attack from the fighters, “This has to work,” she closed her eyes for an instant as her psychonite pendant glowed, “go!” her shout was accompanied by the psi-pods detaching and flying off towards the missiles. Fara was stunned for a moment before a laser hit her shields and she pulled a summersault to get behind them.
Her mind worked feverishly as she directed the psi-pods, their beams slicing up one of the missiles and moving onto the second, then the third with a precision unseen in Tenderheart’s trial. Finally, Fara destroyed the last fighter then turned to face one of the last two missiles, “Got it!” she shouted as he lasers vaporized the missiles, behind her another explosion went off as he psi-pods destroyed the last missile.
Fara sighed in relief and flipped on the comm, “Missiles destroyed, I’m returning to the docking bay.”
OoOoO
Tenderheart scored a direct hit on the Shogun Commander and rolled aside to avoid his next shot.
“Cocky little freaks!” the commander shouted over the comm, “Let’s see how you like this!” The Shogun commander mech pulled back and its part rearranged.
“What the heck is he doing?!” Falco watched as the Shogun to the form of a large fighter that suddenly took off.
“A transforming mech,” Cassandra hit the boost as hard as she could and chased after the fleeing ship. “Damn he’s fast!”
“Cassandra, fall back,” Tenderheart’s voice came over the comm.
“I can’t let him escape.” Cassandra didn’t even notice the explosion of the carrier behind her as the Fox McCloud destroyed the carrier.
“What’s wrong? Is that it?” the Shogun Commander hit his breaks and dropped behind Cassandra’s Arwing. Cassandra took several hits before she hit a shield roll then pulled a summersault to try and get behind him.
“OK enough of this!” the Shogun Commander veered off, avoiding Cassandra’s lasers and transformed back to his robot form. He took aim as Cassandra and shot, taking off a wing.
Cassandra reeled and did her best to keep on target. “I need one shot,” a shimmering field of magic began to form around her as the critical shield alarm began to blare as another shot took off her other wing. “Closer. Closer. Now!” Cassandra hit the exit button and the cockpit of her arwing flew open. Cassandra was catapulted forwards as another laser blast knocked the fighter away from her.
“A cold death in space. Just the right thing for… what!?” The Shogun Commander’s celebration was cut short as he saw Cassandra, her black flight suit barely visible out in space as a bright blade of electrified light sprang up on her forearm.
“EYEAGGHHH!” he tried to hit the engine right as Cassandra struck the mech with her blade, the weapon piercing through the hull and impaling him through the head.
Cassandra grabbed onto a protruding part of the transforming shogun as her blade dissipated and hit the comm button on the side of her mask, “Shogun commander neutralised. You can come pick me up.”
Falco was the first to catch up to her. He circled the now pilotless Shogun Commander and stared at Cassandra, in space and alive without a proper space suit. “What the hell? How are you surviving out there?”
“Aerokinetics,” Cassandra replied over the comm, “I can create a stable, breathable atmosphere around my body so I can survive without a space suit.”
Falco sighed, “Alright. We just finished clearing out the area, we’ll bring in the Fox to pick you up. How long can you keep that up?”
“As long as I’m conscious,” Cassandra replied.
OoOoO
Peppy’s escape pod had been hauled into the docking bay, two passengers in space suits clinging to it’s hull. Both were immensely relieved when they were able to step onto the deck and remove their suits.
“Finally!” the first was a while cocker spaniel with a frayed red bow tied up in her hair, “I didn’t think I’d ever leave that suit, thank you.” She held out a gloved hand to Tenderheart, who had just stepped out of his Arwing to greet her, “My name is Faye Spaniel.”
“And I’m Miyu Lynx,” the other passenger removed her helmet to reveal she was an orange lynx with black stripes, one of which formed a downward facing arrow on her forehead, “I’m the one who contacted you.”
“Happy to see you’re both alive, what about Peppy?” Tenderheart turned to the pod, which had just been opened by Slippy and Get Well Bear, who had been called down in case of injuries.
Get Well only had to get one look at Peppy, and the blood on his forehead, before she called, “He has a head injury, maybe a concussion.” She concentrated hard and her tummy symbol lit up, conjuring a wheeled stretcher with some visible effort.
“I almost forgot you could do that,” Slippy said as he and Get Well carefully lifted Peppy onto the stretcher.
“I’ll get him to sick bay,” Get Well wheeled Peppy out of the docking bay and Slippy turned back to inspect the escape pod.
“Some blood on the console, must have hit his head there. What’s this?” Slippy reached into the leg spot of the pod and grabbed a large metal case, “A DNA lock,” he said as he inspected it, “I could bypass it if we want it open before Peppy’s up.”
“Wait for now,” Tenderheart turned to the next wrecks being pulled in, Cassandra’s wrecked Arwing and the Shogun Commander that Cassandra was still clinging to.
Once Cassandra dropped to the deck, Tenderheart was right in front of her. His eyes were hard as steel as he berated her. “Of all the stupid suicidal dangerous things you’ve been doing, this is the most stupid you have done!”
“I got the transforming mech back, Bright and Slippy could reverse-” Tenderheart cut her off.
“That’s not the point! Jumping into space without a space suit?! Falco told me everything, and I…” Tenderheart turned to look at her wrecked, wingless Arwing then took a deep breath, “You’re off the flight roster until further notice.”
Cassandra’s two tails started to twitch irritably, “You can’t do that! I’m the best pilot on the ship!” She pointed to the kill board where she had 5483 kills, right above Falco’s 5481.
Tenderheart didn’t back down, “You’ve just taken a giant and pointless risk and your Arwing is wrecked! I’m not giving you someone else’s just so you can go out and get yourself killed. End of discussion!” Tenderheart turned and walked away which left Cassandra standing there.
Cassandra sighed then turned to Slippy, who had come to look over the disabled Shogun Commander. “Can you make an Arwing that transforms?”
Slippy had been too focused to listen to what Tenderheart said, “Possibly, once I clean out the cockpit.”
“Mind if I help?” Faye had removed her space suit, down to just her pale blue flight suit, and walked over to the mech, “I think I have some ideas how to make this work.”
“Wait…Faye Spaniel?” Slippy turned to the dog, “You were the one who created the gel we use on the Mk V, to help with Laminate Titanium’s buckling issue.”
Faye smiled and extended a hand, “Dr. Faye Spaniel, nice to meet you.”
“Doctor?” Slippy gave her a quizzical look.
Faye nodded, “I have a doctorate in chemistry from the Corneria City University and a masters in mechanics.”
“So why did you join the military?” Slippy asked.
Faye chuckled, “To pay off my student loans.”
While they were talking, Cassandra opened the cockpit of the Shogun Commander and grabbed the dead pilot’s body out. Without anyone else stopping her she walked to the edge of the docking bay and hurled the body through the magnetic field that kept the atmosphere from leaking out of the bay. She turned away from the corpse that floated away and headed for the exit, passing by Bright Heart.
Bright Heart had come down to the docking bay as Fara exited the Psiwing, “I heard what happened, how did you get the psi-link system to work?”
Fara touched her pendant, “Psychonite. I felt it resonate when I used the psi-pods.”
Bright Heart touched the pendant, “Interesting, that’s a psionic enhancing crystal right? If we had more we could integrate it into the system and increase the number of pods we use.”
“I think I can help you there,” Miyu had retrieved the metal case from Slippy, after changing out of her space suit which left her with her purple flight suit, “The DNA code on the lock is mine, Peppy knew they’d think the lock was his.” She set the case down in front of them and put her finger on the lock, wincing slightly as it tested her blood. It cracked open and Miyu opened it for them. “We retrieved this a while ago, but didn’t have anyone who could really use it.” It was a football sized chunk of psychonite.
Fara stared, “That would take… thousands of psychics’ souls to create.”
“I know,” Miyu stood up and tapped the side of her head, “I can feel it too.”
Bright Heart looked between the two psionics, then knelt down and picked up the psychonite, “Are we going to us it?”
Fara nodded, “Yes. I don’t like it but we can’t throw away any advantage we have. Excuse me, I need to get to the bridge.” She turned to Miyu, “We only have two free quarters, and Peppy is probably going to get one of them.”
“That’s fine, Fara,” Miyu nodded then turned to where Faye and Slippy were talking, “Faye and I shared a bunk at the academy and in the barracks until all hell broke loose.”
“Good, excuse me,” Fara turned and headed for the command bridge.
OoOoO
“Sector X,” Soulful pointed to the X shaped nebula on his console, “That’s the best place to hide.”
Fara and Tenderheart stood in front of Soulful. Tenderheart nodded, “Alright. Durabillum can survive in the gasses so we can hide there to rebuild and upgrade everything.”
“I agree,” Fara said. “ROB, set course for Sector X.”
“AFFIRMATIVE”
“Good. Now then,” Fara turned to Soulful, “We should talk.”
OoOoO
Heavy footsteps echoed through the ship as a man wearing a heavy suit of metal armor tromped through the halls. The helmet looked like a gas mask with lenses that glowed with a bright blue light. Soldiers and workers alike stepped aside so he could make his way unimpeded.
A large double sliding door opened for him, into a room whose interior was covered in eldritch runes that crackled with purple electric energy, screens formed from magic all over that provided images of faraway places. In the center sat No-Heart, his old wizard’s robe replaced with high tech armor that was covered in glowing runes and still concealed his face, except for his glowing eyes.
The armored man knelt with a hand over his chest and spoke in a resonating and echoing voice, “You summoned me, Lord No-Heart.”
“Yes, I did. Stand, Mental Heart,” No-Heart raised a hand and the armored Mental Heart rose with it. “Have you heard the reports?”
“I have sensed what has gone on during my years of recovery but the details are minimal.” Mental Heart replied.
“Then I shall summarize: Andross’ progress is too slow for my liking.” No-Heart tapped his chair arm, “You will depart immediately in the cocoon of death and destroy the resistance, and what is left of the Care Bear Family.”
“At once, my lord,” Mental Heart turned and left No-Heart’s throne room.
Mental Heart entered the docking bay of No-Heart’s throne ship and everyone scattered, save for the hapless monkey mechanic that was working on a ship that looked like a full metal pinecone the size of a small bus.
“Is my ship ready?” Mental Heart asked. The terrified mechanic could only nod and pointed to what looked like a large metal caterpillar.
“Good.” Mental Heart walked over to the caterpillar as the ‘head’ opened and stepped in. Metal tubes connected to his suit as he sat down and the cockpit closed. The caterpillar crawled up and into the pinecone ship. A moment later the ship lifted off and flew out of the massive throne ship and into the distance.
