Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.
Chapter Two: Hunted.
Date/Time : Unknown – early morning
Location : Unknown
Samantha started working at removing the survival kit attached to her seat as soon as it hit the snow. She took a quick inventory and wasn't pleased with her findings. She had about a week's worth of dry ratios, a couple days worth of water, a thermal blanket, a penlight, and her blaster – no cold weather survival gear. To make things worse, her flight suit didn't have much insulation. She was already starting to lose feeling in her arms and legs.
Samantha gathered her supplies a started walking away from the chair. She still had no clue where she should go, but for now the best thing she could do was simply put distance between her and that chair. Hopefully she could find somewhere safe to hide and plan, or, failing at that, she could at least make capturing her a nightmare for whoever tried.
Around midday Samantha found herself following a rough road cutting through the frozen landscape. At first she was apprehensive about staying so close to the path that any would be captures would almost certainly take, but Sam soon realized she could stay well hidden just inside the tree line and still see the road.
As she walked, Sam heard and low growl in the distance, steadily getting louder with every step she took. She instantly crouched down behind a tree and peeked around to see two armed and armored vehicles. Each vehicle looked like a normal truck with some armored plating covering the wheels and the engine, and had a pair of high caliber machine guns on top.
Sam watched as a group of ten men spilled out onto the road, five from each vehicle. Each of them was dressed head to toe in dark grey winter combat gear and most wore balaclavas over their faces. From what was visible Sam could tell that men all were more or less like her race; however, unlike the people of the Lylat system all these men had dark red fur and all seemed to be canine. Appearance aside, the men also possessed considerable firepower.
The soldiers carrier various weapons, including rifles, pistols, shotguns, and sub-machineguns. Most of their weapons seemed to use gunpowder technology – something Sam had never seen a working example of, but after her experience with the fighters earlier, she wasn't about to underestimate the weapons' power.
Eight of the men spread out in a rough circle around the trucks while two of their number sprinted off into the woods, just to come back out a few seconds later. Samantha used her psychic powers to scan the minds of the scouts to see what the soldiers were planning. She learned that the men had been doing this for most of the morning. They found her tracks by the road a few miles back and had been making hundred meter jumps looking for either a pilot or an end to the tracks, which meant they would be breathing down her neck in about five minutes.
Unbeknownst to McCloud or the soldiers, they were being watched. Three men clad in full arctic camouflage hid one and a half miles down and on the opposite side of the road, safely hidden behind a low mound of snow. One man watched from the top of the mound trough the high powered scope of a sniper's rifle while the other two waited for a report.
"The Legionnaires are out of the Fastback's. Hopefully they'll find something this time so we can get out of this damn snow." The man with the sniper's rifle muttered.
"They will sooner or later, Allen. We just have to be patient and be ready to intervene as soon as they find that pilot."
"I still don't like this idea of yours, Drew." The third man spoke up. "I still say we should attack now and track the pilot down ourselves."
Allen responded, "It easier for them to find the pilot, Nick. I don't like this anymore than you do, but it's easier this way. We let them find the pilot for us, ambush them when they head back this way, grab the pilot, and disappear before anyone's the wiser."
"What if they just kill the pilot?" Nick demanded.
"Then there will be a war." Drew answered for Allen. "Actually, I'm certain there's going to be a war even if the pilot survives."
"I doubt they'll kill the pilot if they can avoid it. They probably have orders to take him alive." Allen said, "More importantly, I see the pilot."
"You sure?" Drew asked.
"Positive. Blue and white fur, black bodysuit… obviously female – she's watching the soldiers through the trees right now." Allen reported. "Never mind. She just ran off through the forest. And… there go the Legionnaires. Looks like we need to get ready."
Samantha dashed through the trees. It was an impulsive decision, and she was now realizing it also was a very bad decision. Instead of losing the soldiers she had only succeeded in getting their attention. Now she could sense the entire squad following her and gaining at a rapid pace. Sam didn't get very far before she tripped over a tree root hidden under the snow.
Sam could already hear the soldiers through the forest, the snow crunching under their feet. It was only a matter of time before they found her and did who knows what to her. She knew running would only prolong the inevitable at this point, so instead she pulled her blaster out of its holster and hid as best as she could.
After a few minutes Sam could finally make out figures moving through the forest. They were in a loose V formation following her trail through the snow. Sam raised her blaster and steadied it with both hands, resting the sights on the pointman's chest. While she waited for her target to get closer she felt the something cold press against the back of her head.
"Drop the weapon and turn around, slowly."
McCloud complied, shocked that she didn't sense the man behind her. It wasn't just that she didn't notice him, but that she couldn't sense him. According to her powers, the man wasn't even there.
The man retrieved her weapon and quickly patted her down. Satisfied that she was no longer a threat to his squad, the man took a step back and ordered, "Put your hands on your head and start walking."
McCloud hung her head as the soldiers led her back to their vehicles at gunpoint. She felt disgraced to have been shot down and captured without even scratching a single enemy.
She continued to sulk as the soldier loaded her into the second truck and drove off. It was looking like the end for the young pilot. Disgraced, alone, and left with no hope for rescue – Samantha felt like a lousy excuse for a McCloud.
Fate – and more importantly three heavily armed men – had other ideas for her.
The convoy had only gotten a short distance when one of the men shouted. "INCOMING!" Sam was abruptly pulled out her self-pity as the front vehicle erupted into flames and was flipped on its side. An instant later she heard a massive crack followed by the sound of her truck's engine grinding to a halt.
"Get out! Get out!" The driver shouted as he started to open his door. "We're under att-" The rest was cut out by a third crack as a round punched through the door and the driver, blowing a hole in the man.
"SHIT!" The man riding shotgun yelled as he rolled out of his open door, followed by two of the men guarding Sam. The three men took cover behind to truck and returned fire even though they weren't sure were the sniper was. Sam watched as a man dress in full white camouflage and armed with a shotgun walked out of the forest line only a few feet behind the three gunmen. The newcomer fired several blasts, killing the three before they had a chance to fight back.
Only a few short, violent seconds had passed from the first shot to the last, leaving only one soldier, Samantha, and the mystery attackers left alive. The last soldier pointed his gun at her and ordered. "Get out."
Sam slowly slinked out of the truck on the side with the man with the shotgun and the soldier followed. She half expected to be killed as soon as she exited the truck, but instead the man lowered his weapon and glared at the soldier. The soldier grabbed Sam by her arm and kept her between him and the newcomer, and he kept the truck between him and the sniper.
"So you're after the pilot too?" The soldier spoke as he circled the man until his back was facing the woods. "What would you Raiders want with her?"
"None of your business, don't you concern yourself over the 'why' and just know we do." The man responded.
Now that Sam was facing the sniper's position, she could see that there were at least three men, the one in front of her with the shotgun and two more that were now advancing. One of the men had a rocket launcher resting on his shoulder, and the other had a huge rifle slung over his back and a pistol trained on the soldier.
The soldier aimed Samantha's blaster at the men then at her head. "Don't come any closer or I'll shoot." The men stopped, but they didn't lower their weapons. "Good, now listen up."
While the soldier started to go on about the Raiders letting him go, Sam mustered up her courage and prepared to regain her self-respect. The soldier finished laying out his terms, "So do we have an agreement. You let me go, and I'll release the girl."
Sam took a deep breath and said, "That's assuming I'm going to let you go." With that she hiked her legs up and behind the soldier's knees, knocking his legs out from under him. When they landed Sam recovered first and kicked herself up. She knocked the weapon out of the downed man's hand and kicked him in his side. She retrieved her blaster and pointed it at the soldier, ready the kill the man.
Before she could though, the closest Raider had already rushed over and stopped her. "Wait, we want this one left alive." He said. "That way he can tell everyone that the pilot is now protected by the Raiders."
The soldier sat up and looked at the Raider. "Thank-"
He was cut off by a sharp blast as his head was knocked back with a neat little hole between his eyes. The Raider wheeled on his teammates and roared. "What the fuck was that! He was unarmed!"
"He was still a threat Nick. He was about to trigger his transponder and bring all his buddies down on our heads. You would have seen that if you were paying attention." The sniper replied calmly.
Nick was about to say something, but Sam cut him off. "Who are you people?"
The third man answered. "I'm Andrew Ryan, and these are my brothers, Allen and Nicholas Ryan. We're the Raiders, or at least that's what the government calls us."
Sam studied her apparent rescuers. Allen was the group's sniper which stuck her as odd because he was easily the largest one of the three, at least a head taller than everyone else. Nick was the shortest of the three – shorter than her – and from she what had seen, the most impulsive as well. Both of them had red fur – Nick's maroon and Allen's crimson – and were roughly her age. Drew was the odd ball of the three it would seem. He was roughly her height; what made him stand out was that he was older, by almost ten years if she had to guess, and more his fur was a different color. It was blue.
Sam looked between the three and said, "Why are you helping me?"
"We'll explain latter, but right now isn't the best time. Someone probably heard the fighting, so we need to get out of here before anymore Legionaries show up." Drew said. "For now you're just going to have to go on faith Miss…?
"Captain McCloud. Samantha McCloud." Sam told him. "And doesn't look like I many choices other than to go with you three."
"Very well." Drew said. "Let's get back to the cars. Nick, take point."
Samantha followed Nick and Drew, wrapping her arms around her chest in a vain attempt to keep warm. Suddenly she felt like warmth embrace her as Allen caught up and draped a thick coat over her shoulders. When she looked at the coat she realized it belonged to one of the late Legionnaire soldiers. She felt a little sick from the thought of where the coat had come from, but she wasn't about to let that cause her to freeze to death. At least the coat didn't have any blood on it.
"Thank you." She said as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of the too large coat.
"You're welcome." Allen responded. "Last thing we want is for you to die on us after all we've gone through to save you."
"Yeah, about that." Sam started as Nick led the group through the trees. "Why did you save me?"
"Don't worry, answers will come." Allen said with a slight smile. "For now let's worry about getting somewhere warm."
Author's Notes / And so the story continues. For those of you who care, I have information on the primary OC's in this story on my profile page. The information is prone to change and more detail will be added as time goes on.
Also, thank you to all of you who left reviews. You're feedback was reassuring and helpful. Please review again. Please tell me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong.