Confidence Heart Kitsune lay back on a bed in sick bay. She wore her new uniform except for the mask and jacket which were hung up by the door. Confidence sighed and stared up at the ceiling as Take Care sat nearby.
“Do we have to do this, Take Care?”
“Yes,” Take Care held up a paper notepad she was writing on, “I’ve seen you around the ship and I admit that you’ve made a lot of progress: opening up and engaging with your old friends and crewmates. But I can’t just let you back on the flight roster without proper therapy, Confidence. Though I am happy that you’re using your old name, sort of.”
Confidence sat up, “Hey, my daughter changed her species name to ‘kitsune’ when she grew her second tail, I think it’s my right to do that too!”
Take Care rolled her eyes, “Alright, that’s fair. But still I want you to tell me how you’re feeling since your operation, physically and mentally.”
Confidence Heart lay back, “Mentally? A lot more focused and clearer, but I don’t like being alone with my thoughts much since I think too much about the past. But I have been giving the Mechwing simulator my all lately.” She saw the annoyed look on Take Care’s eyes, “You only said I couldn’t fly real missions, nothing about simulators.”
“I’d still rather you didn’t.”
“When I get put back on the roster I need to be ready to go back out there. That’s why I’m here,” Confidence Heart said.
“At least you’re being honest about this.” Take Care looked back to her notes for a moment, “Is there anything else?”
Confidence smiled, “Yeah. Bright Heart and I are together.”
Take Care was startled by the news but did her best to hide it, “Together? In what way?”
“We’ve slept together and we’re spending our off-hours with each other, and Soulful Heart. I guess you’d call it ‘affectionate’ but not romantic yet.” Confidence Heart turned to Take Care, “Is that alright?”
“What you do in your spare time, and who you do it with, isn’t any of my business. Although, it is good that you’re opening up to such a relationship after everything that’s happened.”
“Thank you.”
“And how do you feel, physically, after your transformation,” Take Care pointed to Confidence.
Confidence sat up and looked down at her much more defined body, “It’s weird, but I got used to the balance and honestly,” she smirked, “I like how I feel.”
“At least you’re adjusting.” Take Care said.
Their session continued for a full hour and Confidence Heart kept surprisingly calm despite probing questions. It finally concluded with Confidence standing up and preparing to leave.
“So how long until I can be put back on the roster?” Confidence asked as she donned her flight jacket.
Take Care groaned, “Asking every session isn’t going to speed things up. I’ll tell Tenderheart when I think you’re ready.”
Confidence paused, her twin tails swishing back and forth as she picked up her mask. She didn’t turn around as she spoke. “Take Care. If we go back into battle and I can’t fight, it’s going to destroy me. If I can’t help us survive out here, if I can’t make a difference then I won’t be able to live with myself, especially if my involvement could have saved lives or ended this war.”
Take Care did her best to remain unmoved, “I’ll tell Tenderheart when I think you’re ready.”
Confidence donned her mask, then left without another word.
Confidence Heart found Bright Heart and Soulful seated together in the forwards observation lounge. She smiled and grabbed a sandwich from the replicator before she joined them.
“Hey Bright,” she gave the raccoon a kiss on the cheek then spied the datapad he had been staring at, “Working on something?”
Bright Heart smiled as she sat down and showed the info to her, “Yes. It’s an interface add-on for the Mechwing that reads the flow of your mana. In theory it should allow the Mechwing you respond to your actions a lot faster.”
“Like it was my own body?” Confidence removed her mask and set it on the table.
“Not quite. But when it’s combined with the magnetic coating it would make your ship the fastest responding in the squadron, in mech mode at least,” Bright Heart looked up at her.
Confidence Heart smiled and gave him another kiss, “I love it. How soon can you have it ready for testing?”
“A couple hours, it’s not that complicated to build I just need your help to calibrate it.” He gave her a kiss back.
Soulful just rolled his eyes at the public display, but at least after five years Bright Heart was starting to recover from his loss. “Aren’t you still grounded, Confidence?”
Confidence paused with her mouth open, the sandwich about to bitten into, “For now. But I need to make sure I can help when that ends.” She bit into her sandwich.
“Right.” Soulful said.
Bright Heart finished his soup and stood up, “I’ll head down to the docking bay to get started. See you there, Confidence,” he gave her a kiss on the cheek before he left.
OoOoO
“I want you to put Confidence Heart back on the flight roster.” Tenderheart stood facing Take Care, hands behind his back.
Take Care just stared back at Tenderheart, half in shock half in irritation. “I can’t do that. She’s finally making progress and I’m not going to let her start throwing herself into deadly situations again before she’s better.”
Tenderheart sighed and relaxed his arms, “I know, Take Care, and I understand she needs help, we all need help, but right now we need every pilot we can spare. We’re leaving the nebula in a few days, once the ships have been fine tuned, and we all need her out there.”
“And have you even considered the damage you’ll do to her psyche if she goes back into battle this quickly!?” Take Care was doing the best she could to keep her voice from shaking with anger. “I can’t release her until I know she’s better.”
“She’s never going to get better if we all die!” Tenderheart’s sudden shouting took Take Care aback and Tenderheart softened his tone as he continued, “I know she needs long-term help but long-term doesn’t exist for us in any capacity right now. When this is all over, when the Empire is gone and we can all just sit down and rest we’re all going to need that kind of help, even you.”
It stung Take Care to hear that, but she couldn’t deny it.
Tenderheart walked over to the nanite healing chamber and traced a hand along it’s instrument panel, “I’ve seen her improve drastically since she came out of this thing and I think with her new relationship with Bright Heart she’ll have every reason to keep on living.” He turned back to her, “and the more of us fight, the sooner this can all be finished and we can start healing for real.”
Take Care sighed and averted her gaze for a moment, then turned back to Tenderheart, “Fine. I’ll release her from her medical leave but I will be noting this is against the better judgement of the chief medical officer.”
Tenderheart smiled, “That’s fine. Pardon me but Fara said she needed to see me.” He turned and left.
OoOoO
Tenderheart spotted Fara as soon as he entered the rear observation lounge, she was seated at a table with a long object covered in a small sheet of cloth sitting in front of her.
“Is this what you wanted to see me about, Fara?” Tenderheart sat down in front of her.
“Yes.” Fara carefully uncovered the object, a longsword. The core of blade was black but filled with six tiny pink nodes on both sides that were connected by gold lines that looked like circuitry, the blade itself was silvery and 2 cm wide surrounding the core, the handle was long enough for a two handed grip and wound with a fake leather grip attached to the blade by a small round guard. “I made this for you in the docking bay,” she smiled, “I still know my way around the technology.”
Tenderheart lifted up the blade, surprised at its weight. “What’s it made of?”
“The core is durabillum to give it more striking power and the blade is laminate titanium. The circuitry is gold and the nodes are made of psychonite.”
Tenderheart gawked at Fara, then noticed she wasn’t wearing her psychonite pendant, “Did you use your necklace for this?”
Fara nodded, “I wanted to keep it, but you needed it more.” She touched the nodes on the sword, “If you channel psionic energy into the sword then the laminate titanium will project it outwards and drastically increase the cutting power of the blade.”
“Once I get used to the weight.” Tenderheart stepped away from the table and gave the sword a couple experimental swings, nearly overbalancing both times. “I just need some practise,” he turned back to face Fara, “Are you sure about this?”
Fara stood up and walked over to him, “It’s a moot point, I already did it.” She put a hand on Tenderheart’s shoulder, “Besides, I have enough in the Psywing for myself, you can have this much.” She handed him something else, a back sheath and belt for the sword.
Tenderheart accepted, “Thank you.”
“I see you’re getting prepared as well.” The voice came from Peppy as he entered the lounge. He looked the sword up and down, “That’s a fine sword. Looks similar to an old weapon design from when psionics were more widely studied.”
Fara nodded, “It is, but I modified the design with modern technology.”
Peppy extended a hand to look at the sword and Tenderheart handed it over, taking the chance to attach the back sheath. Peppy sagged under the weight a bit, “Heavy, but it feels balanced.” He handed the blade back to Tenderheart, who accepted it and strapped it to his back, “It should serve you well.”
OoOoO
Confidence Heart stepped out of the Mechwing’s cockpit and grinned at Bright Heart, who was monitoring the equipment from just outside. “It felt great, Bright. How does it look.”
“80% of maximum efficiency, well above projected levels,” Bright Heart looked up, “It should be all ready to go in a couple days when we leave Sector X.”
“Great,” Confidence Heart drew an arm up his side, “So unless you have more tests to do, want to call it a night?”
Bright Heart blushed, “I just have to fine tune a few settings, then I’ll come by.”
“Don’t keep me waiting,” Confidence Heart gave him a kiss on the cheek then walked away, swishing her twin tails provocatively.
Soulful Heart had come down to help Bright Heart with some of his calibrations and rolled his eyes at the display, “Don’t you two think you’re moving things a bit too fast?”
Bright Heart shrugged, “Maybe, but right now it’s a comfort I need and the way things are going I don’t know if there’s any chance we’ll have to do anything like this again.”
“I see your point,” Soulful turned back to his work, “If this war ends, will you two stay together?”
“Probably, especially if I get her pregnant.”
Soulful raised an eyebrow but continued with his work, “Just don’t be too crazy. We have no idea how long this war is going to last.”
OoOoO
In the command bridge, Tenderheart, Fara and Peppy stood next to Soulful as they went over their plans to leave Sector X. Soulful traced a path on the sensor image that had been taken right before they entered. “They’re likely expecting us to emerge here, the opposite side of the nebula where we entered. If we set out bearing 335 mark 2 then we’ll come out on behind their line. If we make a short warp jump then we can get the drop on them.”
“I see your senses are well honed now, Soulful,” Peppy nodded, “A large fight will prove risky.”
“But it’s the best chance we have to test out the new fighters in real combat,” Fara said.
“Alright!” Tenderheart clapped his hands. “We set out tomorrow at 0800 hours, at that moment I want us on full combat alert with every fighter ready to launch.”
OoOoO
The docking bay thrummed with activity as everyone prepared for combat launch. Confidence Heart and Bright Heart shared a kiss before she stepped into the Mechwing’s cockpit and donned her mas, which now had communications built into it.
Tenderheart powered up his Mk V and turned on the comm unit. “All fighters prepare for launch once we enter the battle zone. I’ll launch with the interceptors followed by the rest of the Mk Vs, then the Mechwing and bombers.”
“Clearing the nebula. Enemy fleet located on the lateral side of the nebula.” Cheer’s voice came over the comm. “Preparing to come about.”
“Alright, everyone be ready for launch,” Peppy said.
They all felt a sudden lurch as the Fox McCloud jumped into warp for a brief moment, popping back into normal space right next to the fleet as the docking bay door opened.
“Launch!” Tenderheart hit the button and show forwards alongside Miyu and Faye in their interceptors with the rest of the fighters following behind. Connie, Hugs and Falco forming up behind the three of them in their Mk Vs, Confidence directly behind them in her Mechwing and Fara bringing up the read flanked by Slippy and Perfect in the bombers.
“Soulful, can you give me the enemy fleet composition?” Tenderheart said.
“Coming in now,” Soulful checked his monitor, “Two carriers, one battleship, six corvettes and about 250 fighters.”
Faye whistled, “Looks like they really rolled out the welcome wagon for us.”
“Let’s not disappoint them,” Confidence Heart grinned.
“First wave incoming!” Miyu shouted, “Boosting in!” Both Miyu and Faye shot forwards as they hit the throttle, their interceptors easily outstripping Tenderheart. As soon as the first wave was in range their twin beam vulcans shredded through the first six fighters.
“Taste the charge!” Faye hit the charge trigger and a second later fired a large ball of plasma forwards, destroying nine V-fighters as they closed in.
“Now this is more like it,” Miyu followed suit and sent several plasma bolts hurtling towards the incoming fighters, destroying most of them.
“Break and attack!” Tenderheart gave the order and the fighters scattered, lasers and beam Vulcans shredding through them like tissue paper.
Contrary Heart gave a whoop of excitement, “So this is the Mk V. I like it!”
“Keep focused! Here comes the second wave!” Falco shouted as he pulled a shield roll to the side.
“Eat this!” Confidence’s shouted as she flew into the formation, plasma lasers and beam cannons firing in the waves.
“Incoming corvettes, leave this to us,” Slippy said. Both he and Perfect boosted ahead.
“Beam cannons locked…fire!” Perfect’s shout was accompanied by twin beams shooting out from the bombers and perforating the first corvette.
Fara watched the first corvette explode, then focused on the new system. “Psychonite system active. Deploying psi-pods.” The six psi-pods detached from the Psiwing and shot forwards, spreading out to surround the next corvette. Small beams lanced through the corvette from all angles. Tiny explosions burst all over the ship’s hull as it turned off course as one of its engines failed before it could even get a shot off.
“Nice shooting, Fara,” Tenderheart fired off a volley of plasma lasers at a group of moth drones, destroying them. “100 fighters and 4 corvettes incoming!” he shouted as his sensors went crazy.
“Let me handle this.” Confidence Heart shot forwards. “Alright, transform!” In just a second, the Mechwing transformed: the forward swept wings folded in, the legs with the engines in the feet extended, the arms under the wings unfolded, the nose cone folded forwards as the head popped up and the beam cannons on the back folded over the shoulders.
Enemy comm chatter spoke up, “What the hell! That fighter transforaaaaaaAAAAA!” His cry was cut off as the Mechwing surged forwards and sliced his ship in half with a beam katar.
“Handles like a dream, Bright Heart!” Confidence gave a shout of excitement as the beam vulcans popped out of her fighter’s arms and she dove into the next flurry of fighters, the beam vulcans tearing through every ship that came near her with her beam katars carving through any her guns missed.
“Damn! I’m never going to catch up to her on the board now,” Falco destroyed the next squadron of fighters with his lasers.
“Corvettes closing in!” Tenderheart destroyed another pair of fighters, “Focus all beam weapons on them.”
Beams from the fighters erupted towards the approaching ships as they opened fire in return. Less than a minute later they flew past the corvette’s husks.
“Whoohoo!” Faye shouted for joy, “Now that’s the kind of firepower we need!”
“Last wave ahead. Everyone stay focused,” Tenderheart said. “Slippy, Perfect, focus on the battleship first the loop around and take out the carriers from behind. Miyu, Faye, escort them in. Everyone else focus on the remaining fighters until we’ve cleared them out.”
Confidence Heart shifted the Mechwing back to fighter mode, “Let’s kick it into overdrive!”
Miyu and Faye rocketed past the incoming wave, with Slippy and Perfect right on their tails.
“Keep up if you can,” Faye said.
“We’ll guide you the whole way,” Miyu said.
“Just keep us in one piece and we’ll do the rest,” Slippy said, right as several lasers struck his read shields.
“Count on me,” Confidence rocketed past the six ships pursuing them and turned around as she transformed, vaporizing them with her beam Vulcans.
“The battleship has spotted us, its main laser cannons are targeting us,” Perfect said.
“Miyu, get ready to turn on the overshield and stay in front of them,” Faye said.
“Time to see if your invention works.” Miyu took a deep breath, “Now!”
As the battleship opened fire the interceptors were surrounded by large blue bubbles of energy. The heavy lasers bounced off the shields, none of them getting through or by the interceptors.
“Ten seconds left, how long till the torpedoes are locked?” Faye shouted.
“Five, four, three” Slippy counted.
“Locked on!” Perfect shouted right as the overshields dissipated.
“Fire!” Slippy shout was accompanied by four nova torpedoes, tipped with beam drills, flew towards the battleship.
“Take evasive action!” Miyu shouted as they wheeled around to face the engines of the carriers. She looked back over her shoulder through the 360-degree camera just in time to see the torpedoes impact. A moment later the four explosion blew the ship apart.
“Good shooting, now take out the carriers and we can mop up the rest of the fleet,” Tenderheart said.
Slippy and Perfect both rolled away from each other to target the carriers’ engines. The ships were much weaker than the battleship and a single torpedo from both each bomber crippled the engines while left them as sitting ducks for every ships’ beam weaponry, assisted by the main cannons of the Fox as it finally came into range.
In the docking bay of the Fox everyone was celebrating as they landed and stepped out of their fighters. Miyu and Faye were hugging and Bright Heart ran up to Confidence, who caught him in a hug and gave him a kiss.
Tenderheart could help but smile as he turned on the comm, “Soulful, any sign of more ships out there?”
“Nothing nearby, starting up long range scans.” Soulful said.
“That’s good. Peppy what do you think of the new ships?”
“Very well done, probably the best our team has done,” Peppy voice contained a hint of mirth, “Good job out there.”
“Thanks,” Tenderheart smiled, “Cheer, see if you can get in contact with the resistance and-”
“Distress call incoming! Too garbled to patch through,” Cheer cut off Tenderheart.
“Everyone prepare for emergency warp jump!” Peppy shouted, “Get ready to go back into battle!”
Relief turned to worry as everyone turned back to get into their fighters as the technicolor field of warp space appeared outside.
Peppy watched as the warp space dissolved and the first clear transmission came in, garbled by explosions and static.
“This is Bill Grey of the resistance fleet, we’re under attack by a large vessel composed of several po---” an explosion cut him off. Peppy and the rest of the command crew watched as the resistance fleet was torn apart by large scale-shaped pods that fired off volleys of plasma lasers, all seeming to come from what looked like a giant scaly cocoon just floating in space.
Inside the cocoon, Mental Heart’s suit was connected to every part of the control center and surrounded by monitors that showed him every part of the battlefield. He turned his head to face the Fox McCloud.
“Resistance flagship detected, Star Fox team present. Engage and…” he felt something ripple through his mind, “Power reserves at 15%, break off and return to capital ship for power restoration.”
Even as the scale-pods returned to the ship and re-attached, Tenderheart, Fara, Peppy, Soulful and Miyu felt a twinge of energy ripple through their minds. As the scaly cocoon disappeared, Tenderheart still felt an icy claw grip his heart.
“Everyone, gather on the command bridge,” Tenderheart shut down his ship and stepped out.
OoOoO
“It was Mental Heart,” Tenderheart said. Everyone stared at him except for ROB, who was still controlling the ship.
Confidence Heart removed her mask, showing the fear in her eyes, “Mental Heart? Are you sure?”
Fara nodded, “I’d never forget that psychic imprint, it was the same but much stronger and more volatile.”
Confidence’s face hardened for a moment then she caught Take Care’s look and she relaxed, “I guess we need to be on guard.”
“To put it mildly,” Peppy sat back down in the command chair, “Fara’s right, I could feel the overwhelming power coming from that ship, even more than Andross ever had. But a lot less stable. Whatever he’s capable of, we can’t let our guard down now.”
“If he’s that powerful, why did he retreat?” Cheer asked.
“I think I have an answer.” Soulful glanced back to his console, “I got enough time to scan…whatever that ship was and its power output was low and dropping fast. Best guess is that he had to retreat to recharge.”
“We’ll take this as a minor blessing if we can,” Tenderheart turned to Cheer. “Any survivors?”
Cheer went back to her console and shook her head, “None, nothing’s left alive out there.”
Tenderheart fell back against the wall, then sighed, “Alright. ROB, get us out of here and everyone get some rest. We could be back in a fight before you know it.”
