Wolf Squadron, Traitorous Intention
By DeeRock
Part 2

Chapter Eleven

“Here goes nothing.” Bumper commented as he steering the Corellian Transport into the immense hangar bay of the Masque.

The red-painted security battle droids turned and looked at the YT-2000, then they reached their weapons on their backs and started firing at the transport.

“Would you look at that!” Tricksy said jokingly, “They prepared a welcoming party for us.”

“Emkay, take over the control and turn the shield to deflecting mode.” Rina ordered, “Bumper, Tricksy, let’s get ready.”

“Yes ma’am.” Bumper replied as he getting up from his seat and walked toward to the boarding ramp.

“Good flying, pilots.” A golden retriever mix said, “I am Colonel Hunter.” Then he pointed at a female collie and said, “This is Major Colleen.”

“I am Captain Exile, this is Lieutenant Blitz and Chief Sergeant Shag.” A mid-aged Siberian husky said in heavy Russian accent as he pointed at a Doberman and a Komondor, then he looked at a Rottweiler and introduced and the rest of the commandos in private uniforms, “This is Corporal Muzzle and these are our people who volunteered this mission.”

After the introduction between the commandos and flight crew, Bumper, Rina and Tricksy grabbed their weapons and waited beside the boarding ramp.

Rina raised his forearm and spoke through her wrist comlink, “Emkay, try to take down as much battle droids as possible. Don’t forget to turn the shield to absorb mode, we don’t want to get hit by the stray fire.”

“No problem.” Emkay said as he linked himself to the lower quad laser cannon control console and started firing at the security battle droid on the hangar floor. Powerful laser bolts from the transport blasted the unshielded battle droids easily. The destroyer droids’ infantry-scaled energy shields didn’t provide too much protection for them. Soon Emkay destroyed the tougher droids as well.

When the Long Howl landed and deployed it’s boarding ramp, the commandos and crew of Long Howl rushed out and took positions to fight against the droid armies.

“Shall I wait here?” Emkay asked.

“Go out and help others,” Bumper said, “We will be fine.”

“See you later.” The maintenance/navigation droid steered the Corellian Transport out of the hangar and rejoined the deep space battle. In the same time, the rescue team started their rescue operation.

Inside a flight training center on planet Canis, a Norwegian Lundehund was briefing to a group of young flight cadets.

“Boys and girls, listen up.” The Lundehund said, “The invasion forces have already passed through the upper atmosphere. They will land and assemble their infantry and mobile units very soon. Right now, we are the only aerial support available for our ground forces. This means we are going to engage them right after this briefing.” His eyes swept the cadets, “Any questions?”

“Commissioner Drake.” A cadet raised his paw.

“Yes?” Drake asked.

The cadet asked, “How could we take down the armor mobile units with the blasters on our Coyotes?”

“Don’t worry. We will be equipped with dumb fired rockets this time.” Drake replied, “Just make sure that you hit the targets because a Coyote couldn’t carry too many ammunitions. Let’s move, rookies.”

Two minutes later, all the twenty-five V-24 Coyotes took off and headed to the landing site of Band’s droid army.

On the landing site, several wrecked vehicles and a crashed Landing Ship were engulfed by flame. In the air, two Snowflake light assault fighters were attempting to interfere the deployment of the droid army. Besides the battle droids firing at the fighters, there were numbers of Landing Ships that were deploying ground vehicles. Although Muk and Luk took out several Battle Tanks and a MTT (Multi Troop Transport) large transport, they couldn’t stop the whole deployment operation and they soon find out their shields were gone. Although the design of Snowflake was not aerobatic in atmosphere, the spherical hull design deflected most infantry weapon fires and gave the bears enough protection to escape from the battle.

“What we do now? Muk.” Luk asked with several hums.

“I don’t know. We can’t take them single-handed, especially without the protection of shields.” Muk replied, “We have to wait for the shield recharged a little bit.”

“Don’t worry, boys. We will help you.” A voice said.

“Huh?”

“I am Commissioner Drake of Canine Flight Training Center.” The voice said, “Join us now.”

“What’s the plan? Sir.” Muk asked while he and his brother joined the V-24 formation.

“We will soften the droid army up and our ground troops will play hit and run with them.” Drake said, “While they are playing hit and run, we will reload and refuel if needed. Otherwise, just bust the tanks with your rockets and turbolasers.”

The flight gained some altitude then started diving toward to the droid army. The main defensive turrets on the landing ships now served as anti-aircraft artilleries for Band’s droid troops. Laser bolts screamed past the Coyotes and destroyed one of them. Suddenly something caught Drake’s eyes.

“Trainee One to Six, follow me.” Drake ordered, “Did you guys see that Landing Ship which haven’t deploy anything yet? We are going to hit its wing tips to flip it over.”

The seven-ships formation soon approached the Landing Ship and fired rockets to its left wing tips. As soon as the rockets hit their marks, the whole ship started tilting. In the same time, the ship’s deployment doors just opened and a red-painted large transport slipped out and crashed on the ground as the large ship started tilting. Seconds later, the wing tips hit the ground and vehicles inside the ship jammed together.

The downfall of a Landing Ship didn’t let the emotionless droid army hesitate. As soon as more Battle Tanks deployed, the Canine fighters started facing intensified anti-aircraft fires. The secondary laser guns onboard the tanks started turning skyward as the tanks started turning like land-based turrets. Although these tanks were not designed to attack aircrafts, the amount of these vehicles increased the chances to hit the V-24 and soon another trainee sacrificed for his world. Suddenly, explosions occurred among the tanks and transports and blew up a few tanks.

It was the Canine landspeeders equipped with grenade launchers. The grenades were fairly effective on the tanks, but they couldn’t stop the heavily plated Large Transports. When these lightly armored vehicles entered the firing range of the droid army, they started suffering casualties by taking heavy laser fires from Band’s armored units.

On the other hand, the Wolf Squadron and Band/Viraxo fighters were fighting around the gigantic battleships while the battleships started moving toward to the Canine vessels. While the flame of battle was still engulfing the orbit, another group of droid fighters departed from the Overlord and headed straight to Canis.

“More droid fighters inbound!” Dixie said as she blew up an antenna with torpedoes.

“Uh oh! They are heading straight to Canis.” Kembala said as she was chasing a Viraxo Razor fighter, “They wanna take out our air support back there.”

“You should worry about yourself, pilot!” Steele said as several blast exploded harmlessly around his fighter.

“Come to papa.” Brudo said while he acquired a target lock on a Razor fighter and pulled the trigger. The laser bolts did the most damage on the Razor fighter’s shield and repeater blasts dig countless holes on the hull. Soon the hapless fighter rolled out of control and exploded. “That’s a kill for the Mad Dog!” Brudo commented proudly for his kill.

Just right after Brudo destroyed another Razor fighter with laser cannons and repeating blasters, two R-41s maneuver behind the V-40 and started firing.

“Bogeys on your tail, Brudo!” Walther said.

“I can’t shake them, help me!” Brudo swerved around desperately but the pair of R-41s stayed with him.

Although Walther tried to force the R-41s away from his comrade, the laser fire only expelled one of the pursuers. The other R-41 evaded Walther’s fires and delivered the fatal hits upon the Pit Bull.

“Avenge meeeeeeee!” Brudo’s Foxx exploded into a fireball and devour in the vacuum.

“Oh nien, we lost five.” Walther said mournfully, “Mad Dog didn’t make it.”

“Your death will be avenged, my friend.” He thought while he was putting the R-41 who killed Brudo into his reticle. When the R-41 trapped inside Walther’s crosshair, Walther flipped a button and pulled the trigger. All of the Wolf Wing’s laser cannons spitted the vengeance upon the R-41 and it soon devoured by explosion.

In the other side of the space combat, a Planetary Fighter was attacking a X-Wing.

“I need help ‘dere!” Nikki found out that he couldn’t keep Bitey away “I can’t shake him!”

“I have you now.” Bitey centered the X-Wing into the target sight and said coldly. “Chow time.”

A series of laser blasts flashed from the duel laser cannon and disabled Nikki’s flight control system. After lost the control, sparks flied everywhere and one of the sublight engines exploded.

“Mayday! Mayday! I am going down!” Nikki screamed while his X-Wing spun toward Planet Canis.

“What’s your status?” Balto asked.

“I lost my flight control and the gravitation force is pulling me…’static’” Another blast from Bitey’s fighter disabled Nikki’s communication system.

“Don’t you dare do that!” Star cursed while he was trying to get a lock on Bitey.

The reticle on Star’s X-Wing lit and Star pulled the trigger frantically.

Salvos of laser bolts scream through the vacuum and some of them managed hit Bitey’s Planetary Fighter. This forced Bitey pulled away and prevented him sending fatal blows upon Nikki. Despite Star’s effort, Nikki’s X-Wing spun helplessly toward to the canine home world.

While Star stared at Nikki’s X-Wing helplessly, a Razor fighter swerved behind Star and started firing laser fires.

“Evade!” Steele shouted through comlink.

Star made a sharp turn that caused the control stick squeezed his chest a little bit, but he managed to escape the laser blasts. While the Razor fighter attempted follow Star, Steele’s V-45 screamed toward to the Razor fighter and disabled it’s shield, but he couldn’t finish it. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a salvo of repeating blaster bolts swarmed the Viraxo fighter and cast the doom upon it.

“That was my target.” Steele said coldly.

“Not anymore, lad.” Scottie replied.

Inside Trade Federation Battleship the Masque, the rescue team had defeat most resistance from the security battle droids and arrived the hallway where connected to the detention quarter. Outside of the detention quarter held the Alpha Pair, a yellow painted battle droid (commander droid) was leading a squad of security droids patrolling the hallway. The rescue team hid

“We cannot alert them and let them back into the room to kill the hostages.” Hunter whispered.

“Draco could just shut down the central droid computer, couldn’t he?” Colleen asked.

“Nope, he need to access an override code to shut down the droids onboard this ship.” Exile explained, “If he do that, he will alert Band and the whole plan will be failed.”

“Any ideas for not letting any of them escape?” Bumper asked.

“I do have an idea, just wait and see.” Blitz the Doberman said.

Blitz knocked the wall twice and grabbed the security droids’ attentions. The commander droid and his squad turned their heads to the source of the noise.

The commander droid said to two security droids, “Go investigate.”

“Roger, roger.” Two red-painted security droid headed to the source of the noise.

Blitz extracted his war talons from his gauntlets and waited for his preys patiently. As soon as the pair of droids made the turn and disappeared from the view of other droids, Blitz’s talons cut through the droids’ metallic skulls and the security droids collapsed silently without firing a shot.

“Show off.” Colleen commented, “What we do now, Mr. Fluffypants?”

“I will do it again to thin down their number.” Blitz replied and knocked the wall again.

Another pair of security droids had been sent to investigate, suddenly the commander droid called back the investigating droids and made a series of orders.

“Take them down!” Hunter yelled and rushed out to engage the droids.

The rest of the rescue team rushed out and fired at the security droids.

Bumper half kneeled and aimed the commander droid with the scope on his bowcaster. The Saint Bernard pulled the trigger and a powerful bolt stroked down the commander droid. The downfall of the squad leader confused other security droids and gave the commandos precious second to destroy them.

“That was easy.” Rina commented.

A Chinook led a pair of wolves out of the detention room and greeted the rescuers.

“Your highness, we are going to get you outta here.” Hunter said. “You will be safe once onboard the escaping craft.”

“Good, I hate this place already.” The Alpha Male said.

Suddenly, two destroyer droids rolled out from two hidden hatches and deployed in seconds. Their blaster fires failed two commandos’ shield and killed them instantly. While the pair of commandos was struggling for their lives, the rest of Canines found their covers and fired back.

“Fire in the hole!” Bumper threw a thermal detonator between the pair of destroyer droids.

The energy field completely devoured the droidekas’ energy shields, but the heat couldn’t melt the heavy plates of the destroyer droids.

“Toss a concussion grenade! We will cover you.” Rina said as she fired back at the droidekas with her trusty DL-44 heavy blaster pistol.

Shag popped up from his hiding and fired at the droidekas with light repeating rifle. Several laser blast hit Shag and absorbed by Shag’s portable shield generator. In the same time, Bumper tossed the grenade right between the pair of droidekas. The concussion wave caused the heavy-duty killing machines lost their balances and gave the Canines chance to destroy them with concentrated blaster fires. After the threats were neutralized, the rescue team escorted the Alpha Pair and Draco back to the hangar bay.

Back to Planet Canis, a X-Wing fell toward to the planet surface while dragging its burning tail. The trail of black smoke and orange flame was visible from the battlefield.

As the flame kept burning Nikki’s X-Wing, R5-Z4 the utility droid extracted a tube and spitted foams to stop the fire. As the fire ceased, the R5 linked itself with the computer board in Nikki’s cockpit.

“Zed! Can you repair the flight control system?” Nikki asked.

The R5 unit whistled positively and extended several utility tools to begin the repair operation.

“You got to hurry, we are getting close to the ground!” The Chow Chow said as the starfighter kept losing altitude.

When the X-Wing reached three hundred meters above the ground, Zed whooped as he completed the repairing. Nikki pulled the flight stick as hard as he could and the X-Wing’s nose pulled up. Although Nikki successfully avoid crashing the starfighter with its nose, he couldn’t stop the X-Wing losing attitude and he crash-landed onto a glade.

As the battle rages all sides, Doc’s fleet and Band’s trio of Trade Federation Battleships started engaging each other in close range. Although the TFBs were not designed to engage ship-to-ship combats, Band place a huge number of turbolaser batteries on the Masque and Behemoth. Soon several frigates and corvettes were destroyed by intense turbolaser fire. Despite the arrival of Therma fighters, Doc and his colleagues were not able to turn the table around. Thanks for Kemo’s effort, the Canine fleet found several blind spots for Band’s turbolaser fire and managed to hold on.

Inside the bridge of the Overlord, Band was monitoring the whole battle pleasantly.

“I think I won’t need to use the Alpha Pair to force Doc to surrender.” Band said to his officers, “Tell Draco to execute the Alpha Pair to destroy our enemy’s morale.”

“Yes sir.” The officer twisted a knob and spoke through the comlink, “Advisor, the Governor want you to execute our hostages.”

There was no response from the other side.

“Try it again!” Band said impatiently.

There still no response after the officer repeated the order from Band.

“What the…” Band murmured as the officer kept trying to establish communication with Draco.

Suddenly, Band and his officers onboard the bridge heard a recorded message from Draco.

“I am sorry to do this to you, but I realized that being loyal to you is my greatest mistake. I tried my best to make you a popular and beloved politician, but I never realized that your true nature until you captured the Alpha Pair and revealed your plan. Now I will escort the Alpha Pair back to Canis. Farewell, my adopter.”

“So you are the snitch who let the transport get into the Masque. Well, that doesn’t matter.” Band turned to his officers and ordered, “Override the droid computer on the Masque and order the security droids to intercept the traitor and his friends in the main hangar bay.”

“Let’s see if you can escape from this, my apprentice.” Band grinned nastily.

Balto maneuvered his agile interceptor to a great shooting angle and fired lasers upon a hapless R-41 Starchaser. The shield of the R-41 failed after taking hits from Balto’s A-Wing, then more laser bolts penetrated its hull and the Starchaser exploded.

“Nice move, Balto.” Jenna said through comlink, “It’s my turn to show off now.”

Jenna linked all her laser and ion cannons and confronted another R-41 in head-head situation. The laser and ion cannon fire from the R-41 didn’t do too much harm on the heavily shielded B-Wing. Instead of destroying his foe, the R-41 pilot gave Jenna precious time to make two shots. Although the Starchaser was not destroyed, it was disabled by the trio ion cannons onboard Jenna’s B-Wing.

In ordered to avoid colliding with the disabled fighter, Jenna pulled away. Kaltag spot the chance and made the easy kill.

Suddenly, an urgent call from Emkay grabbed everyone’s attention.

“This is Wolf Six! Bandits on my tail! I can’t shake them!” Emkay said as he swerved the large ship desperately.

Despite of the droid’s effort evading enemy fire, the Long Howl still took many hits from the pursuing Planetary Fighter and others.

“I am taking hits! Shield at 50%!” Emkay yelled.

“Don’t worry. I am on it.” Walter said as he pushed the throttle and rushed toward to the Corellian Transport.

Walther flipped several switches and linked all laser cannons together. As he put a pursuing Razor Fighter with lowest shield reading into his targeting sight, he pulled the trigger and all eight different scaled laser cannons spitted death upon his target. All the laser fire hit the mark and blew the Razor Fighter into scraps.

“Die! You scum! Die!” Walther yelled as he switched the linking mode to single fire mode and fired a series laser bolts upon the rest of the pursuers. The Planetary Fighter and other fighters bugged off. Walther targeted a slower fighter instead of chasing the Planetary Fighter that can reach 140 MGLT. Soon Walther destroyed his second target as well, but he found out that he had become someone’s target.

“Oh nien! Bitey is on my tail!” Walther said as he commenced a series of evasive maneuvers.

Balto turned away his current target and selected Bitey as his current target. With the aid of Novaldex J-77 ‘Event Horizon’ engines onboard A-Wing, Balto reached the top speed 120 MGLT in matter of seconds. He soon caught up with Walther and Bitey. Before Balto fired upon Bitey, Bitey had already launched a pair of missiles from the wing racks and forced Walther pulled up. Although Wolf-Wing was quite fast, it was far lesser maneuverable than Bitey’s Planetary Fighter that had two large wings and four adjustable nozzles. Soon Bitey outturned Walther and fired a salvo of laser and ion bolts upon Walther. Although the Wolf-Wing equipped with Super Shield that rated 300 SBD, the Super Shield proved to be unstable after taking too many hits. Walther’s shield suddenly failed after taking a lot of hits and exposed the fragile hull under Bitey’s laser fire. Soon several blasts hit the Wolf-Wing and scrap and sparks flied away from Walther’s ship.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Walther screamed as sparks flying inside the cockpit and his craft turned into a fireball.

“Darn!” Balto cursed mournfully as he saw his ill-fated wingmate sacrificed for Canis. “We lost three.”

On the other hand, the rescue team and their protégés and protégé returned to the main hangar bay of TFB the Masque.

“It’s all quiet down here.” Exile said.

“Yeah, a little bit too quiet.” Colleen said, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Rina raised her arm and spoke at on her wrist comlink, “Emkay. Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear.” Emkay replied.

“You can come in and get us outta here now.” Rina said.

“I am on my way… uh oh!” Emkay said, “I am under fire! I need some time to get them off my tail. I will be here as soon as possible.”

“Let’s make a perimeter defense right here in case of more security droids come to get us.” Hunter pointed at storage area with many piled-up containers. “Speak of devils. Here they come. Move it! Move it!”

The commandoes led the Alpha Pair and Draco to the container piles and started firing back at the red-painted security droids. A destroyer droid joined the fight while the security droids and commandos were shooting each other. A thermal detonator rolled beside the legs of the droideka and exploded. The thermal energy field devoured the droideka’s shield easily and melted some components of the droideka. Muzzle spotted the chance and fired at the insect-like war machine frantically with his repeating blaster. After taking the fatal blows, the droideka collapsed beside the security droids. The rest of the security droids didn’t pose a great threat to the Canines and the Canines finished them off easily.

“Emkay, hurry up!” Rina said through her wrist comlink again.

“Wait, did you guys hear that?” Hunter said as his ears picked up something.

When the commandos heard something rolling on the metal floor, they realized that they were in grave danger. Six destroyer droids rolled out from several angles and deployed a line abreast formation against the Canine commandos and the Alpha Pair. Soon another commando was killed by the heavy firepower of the destroyer droids.

“I am out of thermal detonators.” Bumper said.

“Oh nien. We are doomed.” Blitz said sadly as the laser fires kept streaking through the hangar bay.

Chapter Twelve

As the ground battle raged, the Canine Army started suffering heavy casualties and began to fall back. Battle Tanks, Large Transports and battle droids marched through the plain and thin timberlands. There were also many Single Trooper Aerial Platforms (STAP) flying and scouting for any ambushes.

Inside the glade where Nikki crashed his X-Wing, Nikki struggled to get out the starfighter. When he used his right arm to support him to get up, he felt a sudden pain and collapsed back to his seat. The R5 unit wailed as he heard the painful groan from his partner.

“I am glad to see you alright, Zed.” Nikki said, “I broke my right arm during the landing ‘dere.”

The Chow Chow tried to eject R5-Z4 by pressing droid ejection button, but the electronic of this X-Wing was dead and Nikki was not able to free his droid co-pilot. Nikki unbuckled himself and kicked the cockpit canopy open. Despite the great pain from his broken arm, Nikki managed to get out of the wrecked fighter and grabbed his pistol and some first-aid from the cargo bay. He injected some relieving medicine to decrease the pain and sat down beside his X-Wing. Suddenly, Nikki heard noises produced by small repulsorlift engines.

A pair of STAPs flied into the wood and the droid pilots spotted Nikki. Nikki rolled under the wing of his fighter and dodged the first wave of lasers. He managed to destroy one of them after they flied past the bulky Canine. The remaining one made a sharp turn and fired at the Chow Chow. Nikki rolled under the wing again and did the same trick. The other STAP exposed its back to the Chow and gave him the chance to destroy it. Although Nikki was a right-hander, he fired as many times as he could and finally scored a hit. The flying platform lost control and crashed right onto a huge tree and exploded. Nikki sighed in relief and collapsed.

“Freeze.” A group of battle droid pointed their firearms at him.

The R5 wailed nervously as his friend dropped his blaster pistol and surrendered.

As the six destroyer droids kept approaching the rescue team and the hostages, a salvo of lasers blew away a destroyer droids and saved them.

It was Emkay and the Long Howl. “Sorry to let you guys waiting, I was a little strangled out there.”

“Better than never.” Rina said.

While Emkay was taking out the rest of the droidekas, the Long Howl’s landing skids and boarding ramp were extracted and touched the deck. After all droidekas were destroyed, the commandos led the Alpha Pair and Draco run toward to the Corellian Transport.

“Incoming security droids.” Bumper said as laser blasts swarmed from the other side of the hangar.

More red-painted security droids walked toward to their targets and started shooting without a second thought. Although the quad laser cannon destroyed the security droids easily, their superior number made Emkay’s effort almost useless.

On the other hand, Doc and his staffs were waiting for the information about the Alpha Pair anxiously in their stations. The only sounds in the battle stations were the sounds of communication and explosions in the battle. The pilots of Wolf Squadron and Husky Unit also wait for the news while they were still fighting against the enemy fighters.

“Shag! Oh nien!” Blitz yelled as Shag were struck down by a laser blast and laid on the boarding ramp, “Mutt down! Mutt down! Need some backup!”

“Go grab Shag! We’ll cover you.” Hunter said to Exile while he and others were firing at the security droids around the boarding ramp.

Although Exile was a very muscular Canine, Shag was too heavy and the mid-aged Husky had difficulty to drag him into the transport. Bumper holstered his bowcaster and helped Exile drag the huge Komondor to safety. As soon as everyone onboard the transport, the ramp and landing skid retracted as the ship lifted into midair and headed out.

“Wolf Six is changing callsign.” Rina announced the safety of the Alpha Pair, “Wolf Six is now the Alpha Ride.”

There was excitement on the bridges of Canine vessels and cockpits of Canine and Therma fighters. They cheered as they heard the news that the Alpha Pair were secured.

“Wolf Squadron, cover the Alpha Ride’s retreat to the Nenana.” Doc ordered, “General Boris, give them some cover.”

Inside the YT-2000 the Long Howl, the crew of the Long Howl were heading to their stations.

After helping Shag onboard the ship, Bumper ran through the corridor and headed to the cockpit. When he arrived to the cockpit, Rina and Emkay had already taken over the pilot and co-pilot station. Draco and the Alpha Pair were sitting on the communication stations while the commandos were taking care of their wounded comrade.

“I have the control, go handle the turret.” Rina ordered as she steered the ship past through the closing hangar door.

“Yes, ma’am.” Bumper turned away and climbed to the upper turret pit.

As soon as the Corellian Transport flied out of the hangar of the Masque, turbolaser and anti-starfighter fires swarmed at the YT-2000 and exploded around it.

“Rina! Our shield almost gone.” Emkay said.

“I know, Emkay! I am evading as hard as I can.” Rina replied as she piloting the ship through heavy laser fire.

Draco said, “Tell Doc and his fleet fly away from the Masque as far as they could. I got some surprise for Band.”

“This is the Alpha Male.” The Alpha Male picked up the comlink and adjusted the frequency, “Doc, take your fleet away from the Masque as far as you could. We got surprise for them.”

“Yes sir,” Doc replied as he ordered the fleet away from TFB the Masque.

Several seconds later, Draco took out a remote from his pocket and typed in a series of codes. After Draco finished typing the code, a light from the remote turned red with alarm sound, Draco pressed the enter button firmly and the reactors of the Masque exploded.

Band’s eyes grew wide as he saw the battleship started exploding and burning. Soon the whole ship was engulfed by flame and a final explosion blew the huge ship into scraps.

“Nooooooooo!” Band screamed angrily then shouted through the comlink, “ Engage the Corellian Transport now! Destroy it at all cost!”

The remaining droid fighters and R-41s turned away from their battles and targeted the Corellian Transport. Soon the Droid fighters started swarming the battered YT-2000.

“The Masque has been destroyed. All Canine vessel engage the Overlord now!” Doc ordered, “Alpha Ride, you may land at the Nenana or Snow Wolf at your discretion.”

Emkay compared the distance between the Long Howl and these two capital ships, and then said, “We will land at the Snow Wolf. Tell Commodore Kemo that we are coming.”

“This is Commodore Kemo of Assault Carrier the Snow Wolf. You are clear to land. Watch out for enemy fighters.” Kemo said through comlink.

Inside Bumper’s turret station, several droid fighters flied past the transport as Bumper swung from left to right to get a better attacking angle. The Saint Bernard pulled the trigger as soon as the droid fighters were visible for him. One of the droid fighters was destroyed instantly. Others broke their formation and flied to the other side. This gave Tricksy a good firing angle to take them down. Soon another droid fighter was destroyed by the female wolf/dog.

From out of nowhere, Bitey and two R-41s swerved right behind the Long Howl and started firing at the transport. In order to get into the Snow Wolf as fast as possible, Rina choose to yaw right, left and pull up and push down irregularly in a small angle. The Long Howl’s shield dropped to only 30% after taking a series of hit from her pursuers.

“Wolf Squadron, this is Alpha Ride. We are under attack! Where the heck are you?” Rina said through comlink.

“Stay on your course, we are on our way.” Balto replied as he started engaging a Razor Fighter that was attacking the Corellian Transport.

“Warheads inbound!” Emkay yelled as he saw a pair of flashing red/white dots appeared on the sensor screen.

“Are those warheads on us?” Rina asked.

“Where are they? Where?” Bumper swung his seat around the gunner pit desperately to find the warheads.

“I can’t see them either.” Tricksy said while she took down the last Razor Fighter.

“I see…” Bumper finally saw the unguided missiles, but that was too late. The missile not only failed the shield of the Long Howl, but also inflicted damage on the heavy armored transport. Unfortunately, the missiles hit somewhere near the turret pit and sparks exploded around the big Saint Bernard. The explosion force not only knock Bumper unconscious, several scraps also cut Bumper severely.

As Rina tried to regain control of the Long Howl, Bitey and his wingmates didn’t miss the chance and fired at the transport frantically.

“We are taking hits!” Rina said frustrated through comlink, “Get them off my tail!”

“I am going in.” Said Scottie.

The old Scottish Terrier flied right underneath the Long Howl and popped up in front of Bitey and his wingmates. Scottie linked his weapons and fired at one of the R-41. The R-41 exploded and forced Bitey and the other R-41 bugged off. Star came over and destroyed the other R-41 Starchaser by linking all four laser cannons together. Bitey twisted his fighter and pulled the throttle while Scottie was trying to get a good shooting angle. This act caused Scottie flied ahead of Bitey and turned the table. As soon as Scottie flied into Bitey’s targeting sight, Bitey pulled the trigger and salvo of laser bolts struck the agile yet fragile interceptor. Sparks flied around the hull V-40 Foxx as it started disintergrate.

“Farewell, my friends…” Scottie said mournfully as his Foxx interceptor turned into a fireball and exploded.

“Wolf twelve is down!” Balto said through comlink as he maneuvered his A-Wing right behind Bitey’s Planetary Fighter.

“Not so fast, you son of a…” Balto finally gained target lock on Bitey. When he heard the tone of missile lock, he pulled the trigger and a concussion missile rushed out of the launch tube and blew the Planetary Fighter off course.

Soon Bitey found out that he almost lost all his wingmen and the whole Wolf Squadron was engaging him. The Samoyed decided to return the Overlord for protection. He pushed the throttle to 100% and transferred the shield and cannon energy to the engine. Bitey reached the maximum speed in six seconds and left

“Sir, our shield is failing and we are losing antennas to control the battle droids and fighters.” A senior officer said.

“Retreat! Retreat!” Band ordered reluctantly.

The Overlord and Behemoth started turning slowly. While they were changing their course, the turbolasers on the Behemoth fired at the Trawler and a Beowulfe Corvette. The ill-fated corvette was destroyed by concentrated laser fire. Fortunately, Boris ordered his crew to evade in the right time and the frigate only suffered moderate hull damage. After taking hits from the Behemoth, the Trawler withdrew from the battle for safety. The remaining RCN ships and fighters didn’t pursue Band’s ships and withdrew from the battle as well.

After being captured by the battle droids, Nikki and Zed were walking right between two battle droids in escorting position. Both droids stopped in a sudden and Nikki bumped right onto the battle droid in front of him. After being bumped by the Chow Chow, the battle droid collapsed lifelessly. The R5 whooped and turned his sensor scope in 180 degree and looked at the battle droid right behind him. The R5 turned and pushed down the battle droid. After confirming the battle droids no longer functional, the R5 looked at his owner and whistled happily.

Nikki yelled joyfully and limped out of the wood, “Yes, we won! We won!”

When Nikki and his utility droid emerged from the wood, they saw Canine soldiers were cheering for their victory over the wreckages of droid fighters and droid armies while V-24s and two Snowflake Fighters flied past the sky.

Chapter Thirteen

As the Long Howl landed on the hangar bay of the Snow Wolf, a medical team rushed toward to the transport and waited outside the boarding ramp. When the Alpha Pair walked out of the transport, the medics rushed to the rulers of Canis for checking their condition.

“Go help the Komondor and Saint Bernard first.” The Alpha Female pointed at the injured Canines who were being carried out by their friends, “They are wounded.”

Bumper and Shag were put onto two wheeled beds and being pushed away by the medics. After the wounded been taken away, the remaining two medics were checking the health condition of the Alpha Pair.

On the other side of the transport, Rina rubbed her tears away from her eyes. Suddenly, a paw patted the Collie’s shoulder. It was Jenna.

“Don’t worry about Bumper. He’s one tough guy. He will be okay.” Jenna gave Rina a confident smile to relief Rina’s worry.

“I know he will be ok, but I just… can’t help it.” Rina shook her head.

“Ladies, we are going to the bridge. We have message from Endor.” Balto spotted the ladies on the other side of the Long Howl and said.

“Coming.” Jenna and Rina ran toward to Balto and headed to the bridge.

Inside the bridge of the Snow Wolf, a hologram message was being displayed in the air.

“This is a great day for the Rebel Alliance.” Admiral Ackbar said, “We not only destroyed the second Death Star, but also be informed that Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were killed onboard the battlestation as well.”

The Canines cheered wildly as they heard the great news.

The hologram figured turned to the figure of Doc.

“Admiral Ackbar. I am also glad to inform that we have driven away the invaders from our planet.” Doc said, “It turned out that one of our governors intended to start a coup in this crucial moment. They took our leaders as hostages. Luckily, both the Alpha Pair escaped safely and they are returning their thrones back to Port Zurriento right now.”

“I am glad to hear that, Vice Admiral Doc. Now Mon Mothma is going to hold a meeting for the declaration of the New Republic. We will see you soon.” Ackbar concluded the conversation.

Kemo turned to the pilots and said, “Wolf Squadron, you may returned to the Nenana now. Your friend will be sent to Nenana’s medical suite for further treatments. After that, we will report to Alpha Pair back to the capital city. Dismiss.”

Epilogue

Two days after the battle against Band’s fleet, the Wolf Squadron was holding funeral for their comrades on the hangar bay of the Nenana. Three coffins curved with the names of the dead pilots were placed on the deck of the hangar. The survivors were standing abreast against the coffins and saluted.

Balto said, “Although we won the battle and saved the Alpha Pair, we paid a huge price for our victory. We not only lost many comrades in this battle, but also three dear friends. Brudo, Scottie and Walther, thank you. We cannot be here today if you were not there fight along with us.”

The coffins started moving out of the hangar and moved past the force field. The pilots and technicians saluted as the coffins descended to the atmosphere of Canis and burned.

After the funeral, the Canines boarded the Long Howl and headed to the capital city of Planet Canis - Port Zurriento.

Inside the counseling hall of the Canine government, the Alpha Pair were already on their thrones. On the left side and right side of the hall were seated the senators and governmental staffs. In the center of the hall, high-ranking officers such as Doc, Kemo and Boris were waiting for the presence of the pilots from Wolf Squadron.

“First, I would like to thank all of you for your effort saving us.” The Alpha Female said, “Vice Admiral Doc, you trained your men well.”

“Thank you, your highness.” Doc replied with appreciation.

“Lt. General Balto, we have a gift for you and some of your pilots.” The Alpha Male said, “We are sorry for your parents died for an unfair law that prohibiting crossbreeding. What done is done, but we can change the law and make it up for you. The counsel has agreed to cancel the law prohibiting crossbreeding. If you wish, you may officially marry with Captain Jenna today.” He looked at Kaltag, Tricksy, Bumper and Rina then said, “I do believe some of your people would love to do the same today, don’t you?”

The three pairs of lovers were glad to hear the news and smiled at each other.

“Very well.” The Alpha Female said with a gentle but dignified smile, “The wedding ceremony will be held at 1800s. Go on and prepare for the biggest day of your life.”

1800s, inside the counseling hall of Canine Government.

Three pairs of Canines walked through a newly deployed red carpet in the middle of the hall. The brides were extremely beautiful and elegant in their wedding gowns. The bridegrooms were elegant and courtly in their formal suits. Although they were walking together slowly, they couldn’t hide their excitement in their facial expression. When they walked to the end of the carpet, they stopped in front of the Alpha Pair.

“We all gather here today for a great events of our history.” The Alpha Male said, “The law of prohibiting crossbreeding has been canceled and Canines of different breeds may be together without being charged. Now, my mate and I are going to declare the marriage between these good people who risked their lives to defend our world.”

“Jenna, Tricksy and Rina, will you take Balto, Kaltag and Bumper as your lawful husbands?” The Alpha Female asked.

“We do.” The brides replied.

“Balto, Kaltag and Bumper, will you take Jenna, Tricksy and Rina as your lawful wives?” The Alpha Male asked.

“We do.” The bridegrooms replied.

“You may kiss now.” The Alpha Pair said together.

The brides and bridegrooms kissed as the crowd cheered wildly.

After the kiss, the brides looked at each other and then said to their husbands, “Boys, you know what do we want next.”

“Oh, no! Not the puppy business again!” The bridegrooms thought.

In the edge of the Lupus system, two Trade Federation Battleships were cruising through the space while carrying industrial complexes with their docking claws.

Inside the bridge of the Overlord, Band was watching the starfield silently along with Bitey. Surprisingly, Bitey was the one who broke the silence.

“What now?” The Samoyed asked

“The Viraxos had cut off the deal with us because our failures in this battle, but I will find us another ally. I certainly will.” Band replied in a mysterious mood, “Draco will have his retribution for his betrayal on me.”

The Overlord and Behemoth shot into the hyperspace and disappeared from the starfield.

The End

Author note: Thank Cyberwulfe and Wolfman for their assistance, without them, I couldn’t finish this story. Special thanks Wolfman for letting me using his characters such as Band, Bitey and Draco. Hart and O’Gravey, the Canine commandos, they are twisted from famous anthro dog animation shows - Jim Henson’s Dog City and Road Rovers. Since I don’t get any financial profit for writing a story, they can’t sue me. =P

Glossary

Alpha Pair, The
- The leaders of Planet Canis. Although their political status is equivalent to human kings and queens, their policies have to go through counsel in democratic procedure. The Alpha Pair are respected and loved by the citizens of Canis and trusted by their ally Planet Therma.

Azzameen family, The
- Azzameens are the operators of Twin Suns Transport Service which operates in Outer Rim Territory. The founders of Twin Suns are Tomaas and Antan Azzameen. Tomaas, the older brother amongs Antan and him, has four children named Galin, Emon, Aeron and Ace. Galin, the oldest among all Azzameen children, is much like Tomaas and has same beliefs in the distinction between right and wrong that inspired a natural sympathy to the Rebel Cause just short of allegiance. Unfortunately, Tomaas and Galin were killed by the Imperials during operations of providing bacta to the Alliance right after Battle of Hoth. Emon is the middle brother of the family. A skilled pilot has hot temper sometimes affects his better judgment. Aeron, the older sister is well known as ingenious computer hacker and systems slicing expert. Ace, the youngest among all Azzameens who joined Rebel after the whole family were driven away from their home.

Ballistic Turbolaser
- A new capital ship weapon developed by Canis and Therma. This weapon has an optimum range of 15 kilometers and maximum range 25 kilometers. Although it is very powerful that it can knock out a Lancer Frigate easily, the targeting procedure requires at least 30 seconds and once fired, it will required one minute to recharge.

Band, Governor
- Band was an orphan and he had very little memory with his original parents. A wealthy Governor named Sennar adopted him and raised Band as his own. After the death of his foster father, Band inherited all the wealth and started using the money to help him be elected as Sennar’s successor. In the early era of Band’s political career, he showed much hope to the Alpha Pair and Counsel. Unfortunately, an Irish Setter named Rosalina married Band before Band showed his power-thirsty and dominate nature. The only witness of Rosalina’s death was Draco and Draco had no intention to testify Band. Even though Band’s reputation rotted for the mysterious death of his first wife, Band used his wealth to influence the counsel to keep his position of Governor. Band’s wealth also helped him to support a huge corporation and military force. Approximately 25 to 30 years ago, Band secretly bought the three Trade Federation Battleships and named them Behemoth, Overlord and Masquerade. His corporation not only provided the resource to support his personal fleet, but also gave him a chance to disguise one of the huge ships as a research/mining center in a dense asteroid field in the edge of Lupus system. Beside the disguise of the ship, there was also a war factory in the asteroid field. Despite of his reputation, Band still managed to get himself another wife, a Borzoi named Sherry. Actually, Sherry was the wife of an Army sergeant named Salem and Band forced her to be his mate. Besides his wealth and political power, Band was also feared by his fighting skill with vibroblade. The fight between him and Salem proves his fierce melee skill is not a rumor. Just like Rosalina, Sherry also been abused by Band and finally got burned seriously, but she managed to keep her life and she have never met Band again until…

Bitey
- Band’s personal guard and assistant. He is able to wield the dark side of the Force and throw large objects toward his enemies just like Darth Vader used force throw upon Luke on the Cloud City. Although Bitey is not a Jedi and he doesn’t have a lightsaber, he wields a force pike with stunning skill that rivals the Emperor’s Royal Guards. His crafts of choice are a modified Firespray Attack/Patrol Ship and a heavily modified SoroSuub Planetary Fighter.

Bowcasters
- The traditional weapon of the Wookiees of Kashyyyk. Bumper’s bowcaster was a gift from a Wookiee slave rescued by Bumper and Rina from a slave ship along with other Wookiees. The Wookiee who gave Bumper his bowcaster modified the weapon with a long barrel and automatic recocking system to fit the Canine’s strength. Besides the longer barrel, a sophisticated sniper scope is added to gain shooting accuracy.

Brudo
- An American Staffordshire Bull Terrier (pit bull) famed for his daredevil flying skill on a V-40 Foxx interceptor. During the battle against Jerec’s fleet, he scored seven kills that include 4 TIE Bombers and 2 TIE Fighters.

Draco
- Band’s trusty advisor. Years before he was “adopted” by Band, Draco’s siblings and mother were killed in an accident. Because Band adopted him and trained him to be his advisor, Draco has undoubted loyalty toward to Band. Although Draco is loyal to Band, his conscience always strikes him for helping Band to cover his atrocities.

Drake
- Commissioner and chief instructor of the pilot training center on Planet Canis.

Firespray-class attack ship
- Boba Fett’s the Slave 1 is one of the Firespray-class attack ships manufactured by Kuat Systems Engineering.

Force Pikes
- A two-meters-long spear-like weapon topped with a charged power tip. Weighing barely seven kilograms, it is light for its size, allowing someone with sufficient training to manipulate it with stunning swiftness. Force Pikes are the weapons of choice for the Emperor’s Royal Guards. With a vibrating power tip which can release a shock charge to knock the victim unconscious. This melee weapon could be the most powerful weapon manufactured by SoroSuub Corporation. *Bitey’s force pike has a longer tip than normal force pikes.

Kembala
- A female Husky/Malamute pilot who pilots a V-45 Wolf Wing. A TIE/Interceptor destroyed her ship during the battle against Jerec. Before the she ejected, Kembala managed to destroy three TIE fighters, two interceptors and two blastboats.

Ryyk Blades
- Another traditional weapon of the Wookiees. It weighs at least fifteen kilograms and require tremendous strength to wield. Although Bumper received a ryyk blade from the Wookiee craftsman who gave him his bowcaster, Bumper couldn’t wield it due to its weight. Because no one can use it, the ryyk blade has been placed onboard Long Howl as a souvenir for the victory against the Empire.

Scottie
- A Scottish Terrier. The oldest member of Wolf Squadron. This veteran has seen more battles than anyone else. Although he has much experience from two major battles against Imperials and several small scale skirmish against Ssi-Ruuk, he is not a really good leader and he prefer to hold a position such as second-in-command or advisor of the team.

Therma
- Another planet inside the Lupus System along Canis. The whole planet is covered by snow just like Hoth, but not as cold and inhabitable as Hoth. The inhabitants of Therma, the Polar Bears are known for their endurance and strength under cold weather. The only shipbuilder of Therma, Therma Fleet System is known for the technology of fighter and capital ship turbolasers.

Trade Federation Battleships, battle droids, tanks and other armaments.
- Trade Federation Battleships (See Star Wars, Episode One, Phantom Menace) were originally designed for cargo transferring, but the Neimoidians secretly modified these ships with hidden quad laser batteries and huge hangar bays house entire invasion force. With the immense droid army and droid fighters, the Neimoidians were able to “persuade” their future customers to cooperate with them. The entire invasion plan of taking over Naboo were foiled by a young boy named Anakin Skywalker who flied a N-1 Naboo Starfighter into the hangar bay of the controller ship. Young Anakin fired a pair of proton torpedoes to the exposed reactor core and destroyed the controller ship. This caused the droid army and fighters shut down automatically and turned the tide of the war. To prevent a situation like this happen again, Band’s design team added extra armor plates to protect the reactors of his ships. Besides extra armor, all of Band’s battleships are able to control the droid army and fighters. This design not only protected the whole force from being disabled by one shot, but also increased the AI and processing speed significantly.

Viraxo, K’Armyn
- The patriarch of the Viraxo family and head of the shipping conglomerate, Viraxo Industries. Viraxo is the prime enemy of the Azzameens, not only on the business, but also on political affiliation. The Viraxo have dominated the local shipping lanes for years, mostly due to their coercive tactics and close ties with the Empire. With the growth of Twin Suns Transport Services, the Viraxo family is not likely to give up their position without a fight. Viraxo’s main starfighter force mainly consists Razor Fighters that armed with duel laser and ion cannons, plus eight standard warheads.

Walther
- A Giant Schnauzer with heavy German accent. A veteran who scored six kills during the battle against Jerec with his V-45 Wolf Wing. Great logical thinking gives him talent to analyze the battle situation precisely.

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