NH3: Come to think of it, this is probably the first space battle so far, or else I can't remember.

SAQ: I'll get some popcorn!

NH3: Plus, last chapter was the marking of 30,000 words! Jelly beans to all readers, door prizes to reviewers. Yay! Oh, sorry it took so long, I was playing Halo 3.

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Mission Six: Alderon. Chapter Twenty-Three: A Brutal Defeat. Start.

Nico was in his personal ship, upgraded by Slippy. Nico was leading an armament of thousands of star fighters and a huge battleship toward Alderon. This was his first flight mission with the team and he was worried he could still fly well. He had confidence with him, but not recent experience.

The makeshift fleet continued on toward the enemy. Several turned about to face them. A couple of brand new orbital guns were in place over the planet. Those would be a problem.

"Give me an analysis," Nico broadcast.

"There are thirteen starships over Alderon. Sensors are beginning to pick up star fighters, Wing," Slippy said. 'Wing' was his call sign. They had already decided it was too dangerous to give away their real names. So Fox had 'Canine', Falco had 'Ace', Slippy had 'Arrow' and Krystal had 'Smurf'.

"Alright, Arrow, now everyone give status reports," Nico said. A moment passed as the squad leaders checked in with their squads. Reports began appearing on his screen. All were present. This was just pre-mission protocols. Nico put targets over the two guns and a couple of particularly powerful ships.

"We have to destroy these targets before we destroy the rest of the fleet. They are too dangerous for us to leave alone," Nico said. "All ships accelerate to attack speed!" The fleet did and they were rocketing toward the enemy fleet. Star fighters came too meet them, but Nico quickly told the separate squads to ignore them until the targets were destroyed. Nico suddenly saw the guns glow a brilliant white.

"Look out! The guns are going to fire!" Nico yelled. No sooner then he finished, they cut large swaths across space, slicing through the fleet. Only two fighters were hit, but the explosions were powerful enough to send a serious shockwave heading their way.

"Forget the starships. Those antimatter guns need to be taken down now!" Nico yelled as they plunged into the fleet. Nico began to see problems: the guns were impervious to laser blasts! Dang!

"Smurf, we need to find a way in. Can you tell how we can destroy it?" Nico was telepathic, but he couldn't multitask that well. That was Krystal's specialty.

"It's in the cannon! Launch something down into the cannon!" Krystal yelled hastily.

"You have a bogey on your tail!" Nico yelled.

"I can't shake him!" Krystal yelled. She suddenly got hit. Her ship floated aimlessly, right into the path of the first gun.

"Krystal, get out of there!" Nico yelled, forgetting code names.

"I can't!" Krystal replied. The gun began to glow.

"Fox, get her!" Nico yelled. Fox flew through space and grinded his ship against hers. They moved out of the way. Nico fired a nova bomb into the cannon. The cannon fired and exploded in a fiery outburst that quelled in seconds. Nico understood why: the matter of the bomb reacted with the antimatter and it destroyed the orbital gun.

"Yes!" Nico yelled. He quickly uploaded the tactic to the other star fighters. Unfortunately, the enemy had more tricks up its sleeve. For one, they had gathered the entire fleet near the last orbital gun, which was also firing nonstop around the space. Second, the enemy fighters had made definite targets of Fox, Krystal and Nico, so they didn't have the expert chance to accomplish the destruction of the last gun. They were now counting of Falco and Slippy to get the job done.

But, as the battle dragged on, Nico finally realized that they were expected, so his tactic wouldn't work out so well. Nico vowed to next time create something akin to a complex formula as he destroyed a squad that was doing a poor effort to shoot him down. Nico noticed his hull was at half damage already. The many poorly-organized fighters were succeeding. Nico decided they were on the wrong side of the battle.

"All fighters retreat! I repeat: all fighters retreat!" Nico yelled into the com. He saw no change in his fleet's movements. Nico broadcast again, only to realize he wasn't broadcasting. Nico found that neither Fox nor Krystal were behind him. He now knew that the only reason the fighters were taking casualties was because Andross' forces had eliminated communications. How was a counterforce on this scale organized in the space of half-an-hour? At this question, many things happened.

First, the trail of fighters he was targeting broke to either left or right. Nico flipped and saw a lone Cornerian fighter get blown apart by a missile, but it didn't have any source. This intrigued Nico, and the reason for this entire counterforce came in a flash as his proximity warning sounded when only open space lay in front of him.

There were prowlers: stealth-ships that could destroy an entire fleet without taking a single hit themselves. It was the type of ship that was weak, but still had weapons and one other weapon: stealth.

Nico pulled up fast, at the same time releasing two bombs. They flew for two hopeful seconds…and made contact with an invisible surface. The cloak flickering, revealing the prowler in sight, radar, and thermal. This particular ship was isolating his communications. However, it soon stopped doing so, as Nico angled back and used two more bombs, finishing the prowler and opening his communication lines.

"All ships in the Cornerian fleet, the enemy have prowlers, which are sniping us from afar! Break up the orbital gun's protection and shoot at places they avoid," Nico broadcast. Mixed connections came through to his communications line. Finally, he heard the familiar voice of Falco.

"Nico, we have already lost half the fleet! We don't have enough force to continue this fight. We're just becoming sitting ducks!" Falco said. Nico saw from his radar that it was true. They couldn't keep fighting.

"All units retreat! This is too much for us," Nico broadcast again. It worked this time; all of the Cornerians broke off contact with their targets and rocketed off toward Saleticus. Nico followed behind. The orbital antimatter gun attempted to make more swings at the fleet, but thankfully, it was unsuccessful.

"Nico, I'm picking up heat wave signatures!" Slippy yelled.

"Where are they?" Nico questioned.

"They're behind the fleet!" Slippy yelled. Nico's ship then violently shook before his ship spun every which way, at four rotations a second. Nico heard more confused chatter as his flight suit adjusted to resist the pressure. Nico somehow managed to stop his ship's erratic motions as the ships were destroyed.

"I'm alright. Everyone should land on Saleticus now," Nico said as he entered the atmosphere with heat building up around him.

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OMG. I had to keep getting ideas, hence the long wait for the chapter. R&R please.