"Alright, are you two ready?" Fox asked Krystal and Slippy. They both nodded. They were waiting for the Landmaster tanks to arrive.
Outside the wall of the capital courtyard where the team had landed was a mess. Wrecked cars and rubble scattered the street of Corneria. It was obvious from the noises from inside the capital that Andrew's forces had penetrated and were fighting the capitals remaining security and employees.
The Cerinian troops were giving the enemy hell in the air, so they needed to hurry and get their part done. But enemy troops were guarding the courtyard with scattered anit-aircraft and Flak9 guns. They were really meant for tanks and airships, but it didn't take much to point an AA cannon toward the ground, and the Flak9s would be a definite problem even with tanks. The Flak9s were powerful anti-tank weapons, usually used for more long range attacks, so they took a while to load. So a tank could dodge the foot wide slugs with the right timing. But the land masters hadn't even arrivied yet...
"Look, there they are!" Falco said pointing.
Fox followed his wing and spotted them. They were about a thousand feet and coming down fast towards the street. The tanks were literally dropped from the ship without anything to slow them down. If they had paracutes, it would make them a slow, easy target to shoot down. Instead, thay had shield systems that would activate right before impact.
"Uhh, Fox? When was the last time the Airdrop Sequencer calibrated?" Falco asked questioningly.
Fox shrugged as he started to walk towards Slippy's arwing for the Mobile Artillery pack. Then the comprehension of what Falco said hit him.
He gulped.
"I...don't know. Why?" he said turning towards Falco.
Falco said one word.
"RUN!!"
Fox looked up in horror as the whole team started to backpedal towards the buildings. The two landmaster tanks were a mere hundred yards away, hurtiling towards them at over ninety miles an hour. . Before Fox could say or think anything the tanks' sheilds activated as they hit the ground.
The first one missed the Arwings and smashed into the road and flipped once, then twice, leaving giant craters in the ground before landing securely in the rubble of a destroyed building a block away.
The second one landed, however, drectly on Slippy's arwing, slicing it in half before smashing against Fox's, clipping half of the left wing off and knocking it off it's support legs.. The three ton machine came to rest a half a block away in the road, closer than the first one since it had some, well, "assistance".
"What? How-... Awww, you gotta be kidding me!" Slippy moaned as he ran to the remains of his ship. Fox was at a loss for words at the terrible airdrop as he ran to his ship.
His heart lifted as he saw that most of the damage was superficial other than the wing. He punched a few commands in his wrist communicator and the ship re-righted itself, a few spare sparks flying from the busted wing.
Fox turned to Slippy's ship. At least half of it anyways. Fox walked over and found Slippy pullling some supplies out of the remains of the cockpit. Fox's sensitive ears could pick up some mumbling that was a little uncharacteristic of the toad.
"Stupid venom soldiers...grr...gonna rip their faces off...my arwing friggen' trashed...gonna trash them..."
He stopped his grumbling as Fox got closer and blushed a little.
"Oh, Fox...Heh. Just salvaging what I can. I think Krystal ran off for the Landmaster in the rubble over there, I'll take this one over here...And, uhh, your weapons are in the back half of my ship, or what's left of it anyways," Slippy said, mumbling the last bit.
Fox couldn't help but to laugh a little and the poor guy.
"Sorry about the ship pal. But you give them hell in that Landmaster," Fox said starting to run to the back half of the ship,"Remember, radio me once you're ready to go."
Fox reached the wreck to find Falco trying to pry open the dented rear compartment. Fox lent a paw and together they pulled the Mobile artillery pack from the remains of Slippy's arwing. It looked nothing more that a large, black trunk, but inside was an arsenal of some of the most state of the art weaponry . Fox threw open the lid and started handing out the weapons.
"Alright, here's my Blaster, and here's one for you. I'll take the gatling, you can take the machine gun and the sniper-"
"Whoa wait a minute," Falco interuptted as more explosions sounded from the capital courtyard,"Why do you get the gatling gun?"
Fox rolled his eyes. Was Falco really going to argure about it right now?
"Because there's gonna be civillians in there. And, you plus gatling gun equals lots of damage. This is the capital, and I think they want to be able to use it after this is all done."
Falco just shrugged and grabbed the machine gun.
"Whatever, you're the boss. But you take the sniper rifle. You know I suck at that."
Fox just sighed and strapped it to his back. He then hoisted the gatling gun out of the trunk and looked towards the road where he was greated by two ready to go Landmasters.
"Were all ready Fox," Slippy voiced over the com.
Fox nodded and motioned for him and Falco to move to the side walk, where the high walls of the courtyard were. The tanks followed close behind, their steel treads crunching shattered glass in the streets.
"I guess we're gonna have to go through the main gate," Fox said on the radio, "These walls look a little high, and I don't think me and Falco would be able to hang on to the Landmasters long enough so-"
"I got an idea," Slippy interupted over the com-link. He moved his tank ahead of Fox and pulled parrallel to the wall.
"Alright, Krys, get ready to provide fire and cover. You two guys take cover behing her so she can get you all to the capital in one piece. Look out, I don't know if this is gonna work really..."
"Wow, that's a good idea Slippy," Krystal said reading into his thoughts. Fox pushed the ear piece on his com into his ear more, not sure if he had missed something.
"Wait, what's he gonna do?" Fox asked asked.
But before Krystal had a chance to explain (Fox thought it was odd how things always worked out like that), Slippy pulled a move none of them had seen before. Using the Dodge move on the tank, he flipped the Landmaster sideways into the wall, the blow shaking the whole wall.
The ground shook as the Landmaster settled back on its treaded wheels. Fox grinned ruthlessly at the ingenious move a Slippy again rolled into the side of the wall.
The wall sprouted a huge crack as he hit it a third time.
"Alright team," Fox said into the com-link, "This one ought to do it. Slippy, as soon as you bust through, make a bee-line for the capital and we'll take cover behind you. Krystal, you'll have no problem with the Flak9s. On the ready team!"
Slippy rolled the tank a final time and as he crashed completley throught it Krystal was right behind him as the whole team moved forward into the main courtyard.
As the dust cleared the whole team was already moving. Fox could hear yells and alarms going off.
"Alright team, they know we're here. Let's move it!" Fox yelled as weapon fire started to fly towards them.
Slippy pulled his tank up along side of them, protecting them from the weapon fire. As they ran toward the main capital sevaral explosions shook the ground. Fox jerked his head in anxiety. But as soon as he saw what had happened he laughed out loud.
Krystal was busy pissing Andrew's men off. With her sixth sense she was dodging the shots from the Flak9s with amazing accuracy, much to the enemy's dismay. So much in fact, one team had gotten frustrated and had jumped the gun on the firing and had taken out one of thier own AA guns.
Fox turned and sprinted the remaining meters to the main building as Krystal dodged another shot and fired at the same time.
"Wow Fox, I'm really making these people mad. Heh, it's kinda sad really..."
"Okay Fox are you guys set?" Slippy said as they reached the building.
Fox looked for an entrance and found an emergency exit. He ran over to it and tried to kick it in. The door shudderd, but didn't open.
"Uhh, almost Slippy," Fox answered anfter Falco started trying to kick it in, "Want to do us one more favor? Open this door."
"Sure thing."
Slippy rotated his tank towards the door as Falco moved out of the way. Once again, Slippy didn't pull the obvious and blast the door away. Instead, he moved foward and knocked the door of its hinges with his turret.
"Figured you could use a quite entrance. See ya around," Slippy said as he rode off to take out the troops outside along with Krystal.
Fox walked into the hallway with Falco close behind. He looked around and was amused to find this section of the building absolutley untouched. The white hallway was spotless and all the office doors were shut and quiet.
"Dang, it's a little quiet in here," Falco whispered as they walked down the hallway, "Hope that doesn't mean we're too late."
Fox didn't say anything. His sensitive ears were picking up some voices further down the hallway. He pressed two furred fingers aginst his lips as they reached a corner. Falco nodded in acknowlegement and grew silent. Fox strained to pick up the conversation.
"-not that many places they can hide Captain, I say they've high-tailed it."
"You may be right, but keep your opinions to yourself. We don't do anything else untill Andrew says so. So shut up and quit whining. And besides, I think they're somewhere in this stupid building. Only God knows they've planned for something like this and have a few hiding spots. Just stick the objective."
"Yes sir, but I wish we had more with us. It's just me, you, and Jake, and he's only good at blowing stuff up."
Who Fox assumed was Jake spoke up,
"He's right. I'm just here to blow doors open."
And with that a small explosion sounded some yells were heard. Fox then sprinted around the corner towards the blown open door. He stopped and listened some more.
"Where is the General?" The captian yelled. A gibbering chorus of "I don't knows" and "Please don't kill us" followed. The captain snorted in disgust.
"Useless. Next room." He ordered.
Fox looked at Falco. He was ready with the machine gun and was kneeling in the middle of the hall way. Fox unstraped the gatling gun from his back.
The captain walked out first, unsuspecting and still disgusted with the whining creatures behind him. Fox swung the gatling gun straight down and knocked him out cold. He ran foward and in the same movement yanked the second soldier out of doorway and threw him to the groundkeeping his gun trained on him.
The captain was a horse, and was currently starting to come around. The one Fox had pinned to the ground was a rather large moutain lion.
The last one Fox had to assume was Jake. And just by the looks of him you could tell he was speaking the truth when he said he was only good a blowing stuff up. He was a green, scrawny lizard and was scared stiff.
"Hey pal," Falco said, keeping his gun trained on the reptile, "Wanna help us out here?"
The lizard got of his initial shock of seeing his whole team disarmed in front of his eyes and blinked.
"Uhh, hehe, no!" He said sprinting backwards back into the room.
Fox growled and ran into the room. In the far corner of the room the lizard was standing there, a grenade in one hand, and a small female hare in the other.
"Make another move and this poor baby's going down, plus everyone else in this room. Did you really think you could just walk in here and ruin things like you always do? This ain't no air fight-"
Before the lizard could monolouge any further the "poor baby" made her own moves. She ripped the grenade out of the lizards claws in one quick movement and elbowed him in the gut. Jake released his hold to try and catch his breath. The hare swung around round house kicked the would-be grenader in his jaw. He droped to the floor without a sound.
Fox chuckled. The hare turned and smiled.
"That was... fun. Nice to see you again Fox."
Fox nodded.
"Hey Lucy. Wish I could say the same about being here."
Lucy laughed.
"Yeah, I guess so. Umm, here, you take this," she said handing the grenade to Fox. The pin was out, so it was live. Fox looked at LUcy a nodded.
"Alright, you hang low and just make sure that guy doesn't cause anymore trouble. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where the ape is would you?"
Lucy rolled her eyes.
"He's in the confrence room about to make a speech on the news. The guys an ego-maniac. You should take him out halfway through his speech just to mess him up."
This time Fox rolled his eyes.
"That guy is ridiculous. Oh well. This'll be over before you know it. See ya around."
Lucy nodded and walked over to the lizard and started unhooking the reptile's explosives.
Fox walked out of the room.
"Hey Fox, what exactly are we going to do with these guys?" Falco said as Fax returned. Fox just shrugged.
"Stun them I guess. I don't really care. Kill them if you want to," Fox said flatly. He didn't really mean it. But it was a little part he always liked to add.
Falco smiled and the horse and mounatian lion grimaced. Falco flipped a swith on his blaster and shot them both in the chest. The beam was blue, a stun beam.
"I'm such a nice guy," Falco said as they walked down the hall. Fox rolled his eyes and coughed.
Falco saw him.
"You know what, one of these days you're gonna say that and I'm just gonna blow them away. And you'll be standing there ot knowing what to think."
Fox chuckled.
"Alright, if you say so. Let's just find the confrence room. We need to bring the ape down once and for all. I've got a plan."
Here you go. Though this is the longest chapter I think there are some very incomplete parts in it. I don't know why. It just feels like it.
Tell me what you think and all that stuff. I'll be listening. I'll be honest and say right now I have no idea what Fox's plans are, other than the fact that he's got some.
Funny how stuff works out like that huh?
