AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey, you remember when I said that this chapter was supposed to be an epic Godzilla monster of violence and mayhem? It still is. The only thing is that it was so big that I had to split it up into two different chapters so as not to screw with the pacing. I had a lot of fun with this one, it was good to do another action chapter after so much build-up and drama. This is also sort of the climax of what might be called the second act of this story, so there's sure to be interesting things to be learned and new questions to be raised, especially in the next half. Please do me a favor and review this chapter, I feel a little lost unless I know that people like what I'm writing. It also helps my thought processes when I'm writing the other chapters. Please? I love to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy the mayhem, and the second half of this chapter should be coming very soon!-TU
-The Hollow Men-
Fox looked back over to the figure sitting on the bed, his brow wrinkled in confusion, until there was another, much louder sound, like a clap of thunder. He could hear shouts from outside coming through the walls, along with a cacophony of popping sounds. Fox's tail went stiff, the red fur of his arms and on the back of his neck prickling like cactus needles as he suddenly realized it was blaster fire.
"Just stay in here," Fox instructed, more out of habit than actual concern for Zaius' safety, hurrying towards the door. The figure on the bed did not respond, nor did it attempt to stop Fox from leaving.
Fox jogged down the hallway, making it back to the concrete entrance room with his blaster carbine in his hands and ready for action. Fox noticed that neither Colonel Kurtz nor the two Remnant soldiers that had been guarding the doorway were present.
"Something's wrong," Fox said urgently as he swept through the doorway, Falco and Krystal turning around to face him.
"Oh really, genius? I'm guessin' tha' gunfire was your first hint?" Falco retorted, blaster carbine in hand.
"We have to get out of here, now," Krystal informed them, "The base is being advanced on virtually all sides. The perimeter mines and the hidden fences took out a few of them, but…there are a lot of them. And more on their way."
Fox glanced at Krystal, stopping himself from asking how she knew. His hand flew to his headset, activating the comlink and speaking into the microphone, "Peppy, the Remnant camp's under attack. We need any intel or support you can give us."
"Shit, I thought it was just animals or soldiers returning from patrol on the thermal scans," Peppy's voice came in over the comlink, "It's hard for me to tell how many there are and whose side who's on. Right now just stay low, work together and stay alive. I'll figure something out."
"Sweet," Falco remarked with irritation, "Anybody else got a bright idea?"
The muffled sound of an explosion and sputter of blaster fire from outside turned Falco's sarcastic grimace into an anxious frown, his azure tail feathers dipping slightly lower.
"Do you have the second disc?" Krystal inquired.
"Take a wild guess," Fox shot back dismissively, checking both his carbine and his side arm's battery and gas cartridges. He also took note of the single stun grenade he still had attached to his belt. Fox then glanced around the room, his ears perking up as if finally taking notice of the metal crates stacked all around. He approached the nearest crate and flipped the release clasps, throwing open the lid and finding an assortment of glowrods and power cells.
"Check the crates for stuff we can use," Fox instructed as a loud crash echoed through the metal walls, "Hurry!"
Both Falco and Krystal took a crate and went to work opening it as Fox grabbed another box and flipped the clasps. He looked inside to find a pile of assorted grey plates and pads with elastic straps.
"Body armor," Fox announced, slipping off his vest and fitting a breastplate over the upper torso of his flight suit.
"Found a pair of EMP grenades 'anna flashbang," Falco mentioned as he came over, holding a pair of grey spheres in his feathered hands.
"Keep them," Fox said, tightening a plate of armor over each forearm before putting his white vest back on, "And only armor up what you need to, there isn't much of it and it looks pretty cheap."
Falco fitted a pair of armor plates over his thighs as Krystal strapped a blast vest over her armorweave bodysuit, the crate now empty. They looked back at the door to the outside, the concentration of gunfire growing larger by the moment.
"So, what's tha plan here, Foxie? Sounds like tha' party's only gettin' warmed up," Falco prompted.
"Pretty simple:" Fox answered, "Stay close. Stay low. Use as much cover as possible. And, you know, don't get shot."
"Hey, ya' know, I was thinkin' the same thing. The only problem is that's more a set 'a guidelines than a plan."
"Yeah. There's room to improvise. We're good at that, remember?" Fox replied, trying his best to make light of the situation. Falco glared at him dryly, just as the crashing sound of an explosion made the ground shake beneath their feet.
"Shouldda known you'd get me shot one 'a these days, Academy boy," Falco griped flatly, "Told ya' we should've brought tha' chain gun."
"So, I suppose I just run out there with the two of you, unarmed and hope for the best?" Krystal prompted dubiously, "At what point do you listen to your survival instincts and give the guns back to the psychic girl with perfect aim?"
"About tha' same time we trust you," Falco returned, "Oh right, we did. Then ya' stole our stuff an' fucked with our ship."
"You've got armor. Stay close to us and keep your head down," Fox instructed her, "Use your powers to throw off their aim if you can. We'll protect you until we get back to the ship. Then the binder cuffs go right back on."
"Are you serious?" Krystal demanded, "You'll protect me?"
"Not like we haven't done it before," Falco shrugged, "You used ta' love gettin' rescued back when you were on tha' team, remember? Before ya' were a bitch?"
"Shut up," the vixen hissed, the blue fur on her bottlebrush tail stiffening as she turned to Fox, "Think about this, Fox. Three shooters are better than two."
"Not when number three shoots the other two in the back," Fox retorted with ice in his voice, "This isn't a negotiation. You either come with us unarmed or you're on your own unarmed. It's your choice."
"Eteyudo," Krystal forced out syllable by syllable, rolling her eyes in disgust. He ignored her.
"You ready?" Fox asked Falco, holding his carbine up as a crosshair display appeared on the green scouter over his eye.
The avian pressed the butt of the carbine into his shoulder, focusing on the targeting display through his scouter as he aimed at the door to the outside. The sounds of blaster fire grew louder.
"Bout as ready as I can be, fuzzball," Falco grumbled, the lower jaw of his yellow beak tightening.
"Famous last words," Krystal muttered flatly.
Fox kicked the door open and they stormed outside into a wall of heat and sound. Screams, explosions and the chattering pop of automatic fire filled the air as red and green blaster bolts whizzed through the surrounding trees in every direction. The three of them stayed low as they ran past the eighteen posts mounted with decapitated heads, taking cover against a huge tree trunk with Fox facing one direction and Falco facing the other. A Venomian battle droid with a square photoreceptor unit in the place of a head stormed past, indifferent to the flames that covered its back as it raised its arm-mounted blaster cannon and unleashed a burst of crimson blaster bolts. The droid went down as a hail of green blasts peppered its torso, and a group of three soldiers in green uniforms with brown armor pads rushed towards the building, running for cover as a pair of maroon-armored Remnant soldiers fired from around one of the building's corners. One of the rebel soldiers fell to the ground with a scream as the other two made it behind a tree stump and returned fire. Far off, Fox saw a soldier armed with an incinerator blasting a jet of flame into a dug-out defensive position, bathing the Remnant soldiers below in fire. Blaster bolts tore through the foliage like a meteor shower, spraying from all directions and plowing into tree trunks and dirt with puffs of sparks. The foggy, shadowed distances all around made it impossible to tell where the enemy was, the shots seemed to be fired by the mist itself. In another direction, Fox could see part of the camoflauge netting strung through the trees engulfed in flames, raining down fiery bits like glowflies onto the forest floor. Over his shoulder, Krystal shoved her back into the tree trunk with a scowl of indignant frenzy, scanning the area for possible threats and finding them everywhere.
"Can you distract or put off their aim with your powers?" Fox called over the cacophony of screams and gunfire.
"I'm trying!" Krystal barked back, her cyan eyes burning, "There's too many of them! Give me a weapon!"
"No!" Fox snapped, "Sense the safest way out for us, we have to get the fuck outta-"
"GRENADE!" Falco bellowed as a grey cylinder bounced across the ground and Fox grabbed hold of Krystal's arm, yanking her away from the tree and sprinting around the trunk with Falco, leaping over the maroon-armored corpse of a Remnant soldier.
Fox heard a bombastic boom just behind that stung his ears and filled them with a ringing that drowned all else as dirt rained down on them; the screams and crashes silenced in the temporary deafness as adrenaline surged through his veins and his heart slammed in his chest. Time slowed to a crawl in that moment of disorienting deafness, and Fox observed the scene around them with the disconnection of watching a holodrama: the smoking bodies of red-armored Remnants and green-suited rebels littered the ground as their living counterparts ran or fought on top of them, taking cover then charging madly forward with laser blasts spewing from their rifles. Flashes of blue, red and green streaked through the air, tearing into soldiers or tree trunks or lancing into the distant mists. A bolt of red grazed Falco's shoulder as the avian fired blindly in a wide arc in front of them, his beak wide open in a yell as he laid down covering fire. A Remnant soldier perched in a tree used his rifle to blow the face off a rebel standing a meter away from them an instant before rebels on the ground perforated the sniper with blue blaster shots. Further away, a camoflauged blaster turret sprayed green bolts into a squad of rebel soldiers, cutting five of them down seconds before a missile blew the turret apart in a cloud of fire and debris.
Time sped up and the ringing in his ears gave way to muffled sounds as the three of them took cover near an assortment of metal 200-liter drums stacked against a curving barracks building, with Krystal angrily pushing herself into a corner as Fox and Falco crouched on either side of her, trying to minimize their target profile.
Ragged breaths were coming out of Falco's beak as the avian scanned the frenzied fight scene, his eyes bulging with adrenaline and tension. The avian glanced over to the streak of blackened feathers on his upper arm where the blaster bolt had grazed him, dismissing it after a second.
"You want the reflector?" Fox directed, cautiously looking in the other direction as a Venomian battle droid fifty meters away opened fire on a group of rebels.
"You're better with it," Falco brushed off.
"If you can sense where they are, we need a safe way out," Fox growled at Krystal, "Just point us to the next area of cover; we'll move using short rushes."
"I can't do all of that and still direct their attention away from us, especially when I'm running around like a living target!" Krystal snapped, eyeing the twin pistols stuffed in the large pouch on Falco's vest.
"Yo, I'm fixin' ta' use you for a fuckin' shield if ya' don't shut it," Falco menaced, "Just get us tha' fuck outta here."
"Up ahead, across the path and take cover behind the hovertank wreck," Krystal shot out, "Hurry they've got assault skimmers com-"
A burst of sparks was the only warning that Fox got as a pair of crimson blaster bolts tore past his face and pounded into the durasteel building walls behind him, and he snapped his head in the direction of the shots to see a group of three maroon-armored Remnant soldiers opening fire from a catwalk mounted on the tree above. Falco cursed and swung his carbine up towards the catwalk, sputtering out three green blaster bolts as the Remnants fired back, red beams tearing into the dirt and walls around them when Fox pulled the trigger, the carbine in his hands jarring into his shoulder as green streaked into the catwalk under their feet.
A bolt of red flashed forward and there was searing heat in Fox's chest that threw him backwards into a storage drum, the air punched out of his lungs. Dazed and stinging, Fox stared at the smoking scorch mark on the breastplate under his vest and wondered if he was dying.
"You're fine, get up!" Krystal yelled, shoving him back onto his feet and bringing him back to his senses.
Fox fired his carbine, the blaster fire producing a series of sparks as they hit the catwalk, one of the Remnant soldiers letting out a cry as a green bolt pounded into the armor on his shin. He swatted the button on his reflector and the hexagonal blue shield flashed in front of him just as the Remnants fired. Their crimson blaster bolts bounced right back, hitting one in the stomach and another in the chest, throwing him over the catwalk railing screaming to the ground. The reflector field disappeared and Falco lined up the shot in the crosshairs on his scouter, firing a burst that hit the last standing Remnant soldier in the leg and stomach, then firing another that hit him square in the chest and dropped him to the catwalk in a heap.
"What tha' fuck are they doin shooting at us?" Falco squawked.
"They were attacked within an hour of our arrival; they probably blame us," Krystal replied.
"More reason to get the hell out of here!" Fox commanded, grabbing Falco's shoulder, "Take her and rush for the hovertank, I'll cover you. MOVE!"
Without looking back, Falco grabbed Krystal by the arm and bolted along the side of the building, coming up to the path as Fox stared through the crosshairs of his scouter, covering their rush. A green-suited avian with brown armor pads came out from behind a tree, bringing a cheap-looking blaster rifle to bear on Falco and Krystal as Fox lined up his crosshairs with the red V painted on the rebel's chest and pulled the trigger. The carbine spat a burst of three green bolts, hitting the red V with a burst of sparks and throwing the rebel to the ground as a pair of Remnant soldiers dashed behind a nearby tree with their backs to Fox, fleeing a hail of blaster fire from another attacker and spotting the blue vixen and avian.
Before the maroon-clad troopers could raise their long blaster rifles, Fox let off a series of three bursts into their backs that slammed them up against the tree and crumpled them into a pile on the ground.
Falco and Krystal reached the hovertank wreckage, taking cover between the black armored hulk and the tree it was propped against, and Falco fired a few shots at an assailant that Fox couldn't see before crouching out of the line of fire and giving Fox the thumbs-up signal.
Fox breathed as his wingman began taking potshots at any enemy in sight, trying to direct attention on himself so that the path would be relatively clear for Fox to join them. He wiped away some of the sweat soaking the fur of his brow as his heart thumped in his chest, and he could swear that he heard the loud whining of large servomotors somewhere up ahead. Gripping the handle of his carbine tight, Fox charged along the edge of the curving barracks building, his eyes darting in every direction looking for where the next threat was coming from, and he almost didn't notice the whine of servomotors growing louder or the stomping sounds as the ground trembled under his feet. A blaster bolt flashed through the air in front of him and Fox threw himself behind a generator, nothing between him and the hovertank wreckage but nearly seven meters of open path. He stared at Falco and Krystal, trying to time his sprint right as blaster bolts whizzed in every direction, then the ground shook again with a motorized whine as the bipedal Venomian fighting mech stomped into view, the words OUR MOTTO: APOCALYPSE NOW bright white on its leg as the sloping, beak-like cockpit chassis rotated to face over Fox's head.
The mech's chicken-like legs came to a stop on the path between Falco's position and Fox's, brandishing the missile pods and heavy blaster cannons mounted on both sides of its head as dozens of green and blue blaster bolts began to pound into its armor plating. Fox and Falco locked eyes, unsure what to do. The missile pods on the mech whistled and roared as they fired, streaking high over Fox's head and producing rumbling explosions in the distance. Unseen enemies from all around continued to pepper the mech with laser fire, and the twin blaster cannons unleashed bright green bolts into the depths of the rainforest and the camp, tearing skycar-sized chunks out of trees and boring craters into the dirt. As the mech's missile pods fired once again and Fox considered making a run for the hovertank between the two enormous legs, a rocket streaked through the air and plowed into the chassis under the cockpit with a cracking bang and a burst of fire. The mech stumbled a half-step backwards with smoke billowing out from the point of the impact, a loud grinding accompanying the servomotor whines as Fox spotted a rebel coming around the corner of the building less than two meters away from him. Fox shot the rebel in the chest and head with his carbine, dropping him to the dirt as the mech fired its lasers and emptied its missile pods in the direction of the mech ceased firing for a moment and another rocket soared through the air, piercing the mech's transparisteel cockpit viewport with another deafening blast of noise and fire, shearing one of the missile pods off its head and sending it tumbling down on Fox.
Fox gave out a yell as he dove forward into the dirt, rolling as the missile pod crashed into his former hiding place and the fighting mech staggered another half-step backwards with smoke and flames gushing from its head. Fox got to his feet and dashed towards the hovertank, making three strides before the dead mech fell forward with a grinding whine. He whipped around and bolted out of the way, twisting his ankle in the process as the mech crashed face first into the jungle floor at the foot of a huge tree. He didn't even notice the aching pain in his foot, near breathless as he realized he was both exposed and blocked from joining Falco and Krystal by the body of the massive war machine. Fox got down low and made a beeline back to the stack of drums against the barracks building as blaster bolts tore into the tree trunk next to him. He reached the drums and took cover just as he heard his headset crackle and Falco's voice in his ear.
"Fox! You alright?" the avian's rough voice came over the comm.
"I'm not injured and I've taken cover," Fox replied into the microphone, "Can you guys move from where you are?"
"Yeah, we're comin' to get ya' right now."
"Negative. We'd have to find a way around and we'd both be exposed too long. Stay with Krystal, I'll find a way out."
"Are you fuckin' crazy?" Falco demanded, "We had a snowball's chance when it was tha' three of us, you're not gonna make it alone!"
"That's an order to get the hell out of here."
"Fuck you and your orders!"
"I can't argue, Falco! Go! NOW!" Fox ordered, "Disconnect local comm. channel and isolate to Great Fox."
"Goddamn it! Fox-!" Falco yelled before his voice was cut off by a burst of static.
"Peppy, do you copy?" Fox called.
"I'm here, Fox," Peppy returned over the comlink.
"I'm separated from Falco and Krystal; I need an eye in the sky," Fox explained, shrinking into the corner to keep hidden as he looked up to the rainforest canopy above.
"The trees and humidity are obscuring the thermal scans, same thing with visuals," Peppy replied, "I've got yours and Falco's position, though."
"I need something to head towards! I'm just stuck here!" Fox yelled.
"Okay, G-anomaly scans are picking something up; I think it's an escape tunnel. It links up to what should be a building thirty meters southwest of you; that looks like your best bet. The batteries have a firing solution on the camp, just give me a target and I'll take it out. And I've already sent Slippy to the hangar to prep his Arwing," Peppy informed him.
"I don't need heavy artillery, I need a way out. Slippy flying in won't help extract us, it'll be just one more of us at risk," Fox countered, "Mark the tunnel access on my heads-up and let me know if anything changes."
"I'm working on ways to get you out of there, Fox; it's going to take a few minutes, just hold on."
"I'll be dead in a few minutes, Peppy! Just stay on the line and keep me updated! I've got to move! Fox out," Fox sent back, looking around the edge of the barracks building as a blue dot appeared on his heads-up display, marking a point somewhere in the distance of the camp that was currently thirty one meters away. The nearest point of cover was a group of large tree trunks, before opening up to another part of the camp that would doubtless be full of enemies.
Blaster bolts hissed through the air between the trees, lighting up the shades cast by the rainforest canopy overhead. Thirty one meters under these circumstances might as well be thirty one kilometers. Each step presented another way to die.
Fox gripped his carbine tightly, his heart thudding madly in his chest as he gritted his teeth.
He was not going to die here in this awful place. Not after coming so far. He darted out from behind the drums and took cover behind the nearest tree.
There was a reason Falco Lombardi was considered the ace pilot of Team StarFox: Despite his skills on foot in hand-to-hand combat, he was instinctively much more at home in the air, at the stick of his Arwing. No one could touch him in the skies. The same could not be said on the ground. The disaster at Club Glamorama had been manageable for Falco, but he still ended up getting thrown clear across the room and knocked unconscious.
Here, though he would barely admit it to himself, Falco was in over his head.
Still uncertain what to do after Fox disconnected the comms channel; he stared at the smoking wreckage of the fighting mech once more as a nearby explosion shook the ground.
"Which way now?" Falco demanded, looking at Krystal.
"It's just the two of us now. You said yourself the odds were bad when we had Fox, and now they're even worse. Hand me my guns back and we may have a fighting chance," Krystal instructed.
"Tell me where we're headed or I'm fuckin' leaving ya, bitch," Falco retorted.
Krystal rolled her eyes with a loathing purse of her lips, and then glanced around the corner of the hovertank wreckage, leering back at him disdainfully.
"Around the corner; there's a group of ferns between a tree and a sensor node. I want my guns," Krystal snarled.
"Shut up an' stay tha' fuck down!" Falco's beak snapped, then he slid out from behind the hovertank to behold a group of three Remnant soldiers charging in his direction mere meters away. Falco swore and pulled the trigger, blasting a three-shot burst into the chest of one of the Remnant soldiers as he lurched backwards. As their comrade hit the ground, the other two soldiers fired red laser bolts from their rifles, missing Falco by millimeters as he shot another Remnant in the shoulder and head before making it back behind the hovertank. The last soldier kept firing at the hovertank's armor near where Falco's position, bursts of sparks flying out as the red beams pounded into the metal. He was pinned down, and it would be moments before the soldier called for reinforcements.
Falco cursed, trying for an opportunity to return fire and finding none, his beak clenched together with tension when the blaster fire suddenly stopped with an oddly loud crack. He got low and looked around the edge of the hovertank to see the soldier limp on the dirt, his head twisted around far more than should have been possible, with Krystal standing over the body.
"I want my guns," Krystal snarled.
"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" Falco snapped.
"Do I look like I'm kidding you?" she shrieked, glaring into him with her cyan eyes.
They fumed at each other for a few more seconds as Falco begrudgingly considered that, as much as he distrusted her, they both very much wanted to get out alive. If it was near impossible for Fox to make it out on his own, it was even more impossible for him to do so while dragging along an unarmed prisoner. Working together, they had a shot. He opened up the pouch in his blast vest and withdrew the DC-15 blasters, the electrostaff and the combat knife that he'd confiscated from Krystal, handing them over. She attached the knife to her belt and put the electrostaff in the scabbard on her back, then twirled her twin pistols around her fingers before gripping the handles hard.
"Best decision you've made in weeks," Krystal smirked.
"We'll see about that," Falco returned, "Let's book."
Krystal nodded and they sprinted off towards the next tree, a scanning, multi-eyed sensor node visible in the distance as screams and gunfire filled the air. They'd barely made it a few meters before a burst of blue and green flashed across their path, and Falco dove behind the tree with Krystal. Blaster bolts whittled into the bark with muffled thumps as Falco edged around the trunk to see four rebels with ovaloid grey helmets on their heads and red Vs on their chest, all firing at the tree and shouting in accented Fortunan.
"Draw their fire! I've got them!" Krystal yelled over the loud popping of blasters, and Falco leaned out from behind the tree with a growl and let off shots in the direction of the rebel squad. The rebels drew back near a huge log, evading the verdant blasts from Falco's carbine before returning fire, chewing into the bark near Falco's face with bursts of blue and green. A streak of blue flashed in front of Falco's eyes, burning a chunk out of the tree and throwing sparks in his face. He cursed and drew back, squinting his eyes and quickly wiping the charred splinters off his feathers as Krystal leaned out from behind the other side of the trunk and fired off one, two, three shots from her pistols, nailing one rebel in the chest and face and grazing another one's shoulder. The rebels began firing at her position too, and Falco breathed as slid around the trunk to return fire.
"Look out!" Krystal shouted, grabbing Falco's collar and yanking him backwards as a red blaster bolt plowed into the space where his head used to be.
Falco glanced in the direction of the shot to see a pair of Remnant soldiers making their way down the path behind them, blaster rifles at the ready. Krystal's heavy blaster barked as blue light streaked out from the end, indifferent to the red beams flashing millimeters past her face. Still leaning back against Krystal's body, Falco brought up the carbine and shot at the other Remnant, firing the three-round burst into the armor over the rodent soldier's stomach. The rodent went down with a scream while his comrade limped to cover, almost making it to the shelter of a thick tangle of ferns before Krystal put a pair of shots in his back.
Breathing hard as Krystal shoved him back onto his feet, Falco edged around the tree trunk to deal with the three remaining rebel soldiers they'd been firing at.
"Queiimaz!" was all that Falco heard as he beheld the three rebels advancing behind a tall equine in brown armor. The equine rebel held a long grey gun connected by a hose to a pair of tanks on his back, and a jet of blue flame flickered at the end of the barrel.
"Fuck!" Falco yelled, falling back behind the tree as a large cone of orange flames burst out of the incinerator unit, flowing around the trunk like a river showering the tree in fire. The pungent smell of fuel filled Falco's nose as heat toasted his feathers, and he sprinted away from the flaming tree with Krystal, charging for the cover of a worn old stump as the blue vixen disappeared into the forest.
Falco swore and spat as she vanished into the trees, loathing the fact that he didn't just shoot her when he had the chance, as the rebels came around the flaming tree brandishing their weapons. Falco popped up and let off a burst of fire that plinked off the equine's thick armor, diving down into the dirt as the incinerator unit came up and blaster bolts streamed around Falco's head. A cone of flames burst over Falco's back, licking the air overhead before vanishing into a cloud of thick black smoke. His feathered fingers dug into the metal of his carbine as he coughed, rolling over and bringing his carbine up, mentally prepared for the rush of the other three rebels that would bring his death.
Two bright blue needles of light lanced through the trees, the first absorbed by the rudimentary deflector shield generator protecting the fuel tanks on the equine's back, the second piercing the fuel tanks themselves. There was a yell of panic before a crack and a whoosh of flame, and Falco peered up from behind the stump to see the large equine and two of the rebel soldiers covered in fire, stumbling and waving their arms wildly as the third rebel frantically slapped at his own arm to put out the fire on his shoulder. Krystal darted out from the foliage to the left, both of her pistols held out in front of her, and fired multiple blue shots into the nearest burning rebel. The rebel went down, his body still aflame, and Krystal kicked the third rebel in the chest as he put out the flames on his shoulder, throwing him off his feet. The vixen vigilante held up her guns, one to the remaining flaming soldier and another to the stunned rebel on the jungle floor, blasting each in the head as the tall equine collapsed to the dirt with a wail of agony, the stench of his burning flesh smelling to Falco like charcoal, sulfur and copper, with the greasy odor of burnt fat.
The avian got to his feet and ran over to Krystal, not bothering to thank her as they sprinted in the direction of the sensor node. The thundering sound of a heavy laser turret being fired rumbled through the humid air as they reached the sensor node, a quietly whirring dark metal mass of scanner lenses and antennas.
"How much more?" Falco inquired as he and Krystal crouched down in a fern-filled ditch between the sensor node and a moss-covered tree trunk.
"Not much; we're close to a section of the perimeter fence and the minefield. It'll be tricky to negotiate. It's a monofilament screen that's hard to see, and if we run into the wires they'll shred us like cheese. The minefield still has a fair share of mines left in it, and I can steer us around them but we'll be going too slow to avoid fire," Krystal explained.
"Where's tha' next cover?" Falco interrogated, glancing cautiously around as the sound of blaster shots continued to ring out around them. Krystal brushed a fern out of the way and looked into the distance, squinting for a moment before crouching back down into the ditch.
"About seven meters ahead. There's a slit-trench dug out a few meters before a hedgerow that wraps around the trees. The hedgerow is hiding a section of the screen fence," Krystal explained, gulping.
In a quick respite from the insanity blazing around them, Falco's eyes caught the soft, delicately featured face of the vixen in front of him. The small mouth with her pouty lips, slender jaw and soft cheekbones, the pleasantly rounded ears and the natural blend of blue and white colored fur on her face, all contributed to the comely visage that could play the roles of femme fatale and damsel in distress with equal aplomb. She reminded him of Katt, though Falco was sure there wasn't that much resemblance. Perhaps that was a reason Falco distrusted her so, knowing full well how much damage a female like Krystal could do to the male ensnared in her charms. For a moment, he regretted giving her weapons back, and wondered how he was going to disarm her when it came time to put the binder cuffs back on.
"Hello? Are you deaf? We can't stay here," Krystal growled impatiently, snapping Falco out of his reverie.
"That hedge's gotta be at least two meters high. How're we gettin' past tha' screen?"
"You'll have to think of that one. I'm drawing a blank," she whispered.
"Hell of a time ta' run outta ideas," Falco quipped as Krystal's eyes swelled in alarm.
"Run! Now!" Krystal yelled, bolting from the ferns as laser beams pounded into the sensor node. Falco leapt from cover, sprinting after Krystal as shouts and blaster fire sounded after them. He could see the sand bags rimming the slit-trench beginning to emerge through the mists up ahead, and he glanced quickly over his shoulder to see a handful of rebels of various species running through the trees after them, green and blue bolts flashing randomly out of the ends of their rifles. Up ahead, Krystal threw herself behind a tree as a flash of deadly green lanced past her hip, and Falco ran faster, his knees burning as a red bolt streaked past his side. He was almost behind the protection of the tree when something struck his back like a hammer made of fire, throwing him to his knees with an aching burn in his spine. Falco gave out a groan of agony for a moment as bolts swept through the air and blasted into the dirt around him, and he crawled on his hands and knees behind the shelter of the tree. He felt the smoldering scorch mark on the rear of his blast vest, still holding up, and dragged himself to his feet, feeling little more than a hot ache in the small of his back. Falco pressed up against the tree beside Krystal, who squeezed the handles of her pistols tightly as she gritted her teeth.
"There are nine of them, all with a line on our position," Krystal growled, "Soon they'll spread and outflank us. Now would be a great time to do your part to keep us breathing."
Falco shifted against the tree, peering out from behind the trunk to see the group of rebels beginning to fan out, maintaining their aim on the tree they were hiding behind. The thick, moist air around him was weighing him down, making it hard to think, the forest canopy above making the shadows around progressively darker. Falco could feel his chest heaving up and down as his mind raced, and he spotted the flashbang and the two EMP grenades he'd picked up clipped to his belt. Though most modern military-grade blasters were insulated against permanent damage from electromagnetic radiation, a pulse would still temporarily short out the inner workings of the blaster, requiring the removal and reinsertion of the battery in order for it to work again. Falco was willing to bet that such a circumstance would be especially beneficial if their enemies couldn't see enough to fix their guns.
"How's this for doin' my part?" Falco muttered, letting his carbine hang by the strap over his shoulder as he held up an EMP grenade and a flashbang and tore the pins out with his beak, "Gimme some cover an' get ready ta' cycle out your batteries."
Krystal nodded and leaned out from behind the tree with her pistols, firing bright blue bolts at the general direction of their enemies as beams of green and blue erupted from their rifles in return. Crouching low, Falco peeked out from the other side of the tree and lobbed both grenades into the air, getting back behind the trunk and hoping he'd thrown the EMP grenade far enough to affect their guns more than his. Krystal took cover with him and there was a loud, cracking explosion and a flash of white light, and the crosshairs in Falco's scouter became garbled and distorted as his headset comlink produced a high-pitched whine. The small battery gage on Falco's carbine went dark and he quickly ejected the battery from its housing in the gun's grip, slapping it back into place as Krystal fluidly snapped the batteries out of her pistols and put them back in. The crosshairs through his scouter returned to normal as he whipped out from behind the tree and beheld the group of nine rebel soldiers scattered before him, stumbling blindly from the effects of the flash grenade or blindly trying to fire at them, confused at why their guns weren't working.
His heart skipped a beat as he squeezed the trigger, not knowing what would happen, and a rush of joy flowed through him as the carbine spat out a three-shot burst into the nearest disoriented rebel. Krystal and Falco made quick work of the rebels, mowing them down with blaster fire in a matter of seconds before taking cover back behind the tree.
"Quickly, we have to get to the trench. Something's coming," Krystal informed him hurriedly. Growing louder by the moment, Falco could hear the gargling chirp of repulsorlift engines, and he nodded, sprinting off towards the sandbags of the slit-trench and the hedgerow beyond it. The distant explosions and pops of blaster fire made Falco begin to think that the battle was practically behind them just as the squeaking shriek of high-powered laser cannons fired twin red beams into the dirt between them and the trench, carving twin craters into the forest floor with a burst of soil.
Falco glanced over his shoulder to see a long, silver and black vehicle hovering through the air, like a G-Zero racer or a stripped-down starfighter, with a single cockpit seat sunken into the fuselage and a helmeted rebel soldier at the controls. On each side of the vehicle was a stubby silver wing angled downwards, tipped with a blaster cannon and a concussion grenade launcher. It was an armored assault skimmer, a light fast-attack vehicle that was designed for anti-personnel and hit-and-run tactics. There was nothing between the skimmer's guns and where Falco was running.
The skimmer's twin blasters shrieked, spitting out ruby beams over and over again as Falco tore towards the trench, feeling the heat each time a bolt streaked by his arms, the adrenaline slowing time down and making each gallop a graceful, measured stride. Out of the corner of his eye Krystal sailed into view, her teeth bared in a fierce snarl and a rabid burning in her eyes as she fired shot after shot from her pistols into the assault skimmer's deflector shields.
The shields became visible as a rippling transparent green bubble with every shot that hit, shrugging off Krystal's attacks as the cannons continued to open fire on Falco. Almost in slow motion, Falco saw a crimson bolt flash out of the skimmer's cannon and slice across his left hip, tightening his leg and sending burning pain up his side. His boot slid across the ground and he fell forward, crashing into the dirt with a grunt and burying half of his face into the soil. The grenade launcher on one of the wings belched as it fired, and then Falco felt the ground tremble under his body as he went limp, desperately playing dead. The skimmer rotated in the air to face Krystal as she holstered her pistols and tore her electrostaff out of the scabbard on her back. The metal stick in her hands extended to almost two meters in length, purple arcs of electricity crackling out of each end as the vixen whirled the staff through the air over her head with a howl, diving forward as the assault skimmer fired red blasts. Krystal rolled across the dirt underneath the skimmer, her hair writhing as if alive in the skimmer's invisible repulsor field as she stabbed one end of her staff into the skimmer's underside. There was a sizzling pop of sparks and the skimmer hopped a meter or so in the air, trembling violently before rising up towards the rainforest canopy and drifting backwards.
Krystal sprinted over as Falco picked himself up from the dirt with a wince of pain, the scorched black line across his hip burning dully.
"It's just stunned, it's coming back!" she cried urgently, leading him in the direction of the slit-trench as he half-ran, half limped after her.
"Don't stop, just go through tha' hole!" Falco ordered, gesturing to the open space that the skimmer's grenade launcher had blasted into the hedgerow and the monofilament screen that it disguised.
Krystal ran past the trench and leapt through the hole, followed quickly by Falco as he held his carbine in one hand and covered the searing blaster wound on his hip with the other. Already, he could hear the purring repulsor engines of the skimmer growing close behind them.
Falco stumbled across the ground through the tall hedge for a moment and glanced around with confusion before Krystal grabbed his arm and pulled him down behind the other side of the hedge, taking cover right by the gap. The avian hissed at the burning ache in his hip and opened his beak to yell at her for stopping when the skimmer was right behind them, but Krystal cut him off quietly, "We can't just run for it; there's still a minefield out there. We can't navigate it with that skimmer on our tail."
Falco slowly closed his beak and gave a single nod, shuffling into a more tolerable position next to her up against the hedge.
"So how we dealin' with that?" Falco whispered.
"I'll tell you when I think of something," Krystal murmured as the purring repulsorlift engine sounds grew louder.
The shrub began to shake and Falco could feel his feathers ruffling on their own as the assault skimmer floated three meters over their heads, slowly scrutinizing the scene and hunting for them. The skimmer hovered forward, the helmet of the pilot just visible turning to and fro as he searched for signs of his quarry, the ferns and sparse foliage of the ground writhing underneath the vehicle.
Falco breathed quietly, hearing his heart beat in his ears as his blue eyes locked on the skimmer. As his eyes drifted onto the plants contorting in the skimmer's repulsor field, a thought occurred to Falco and the fleshy corners of his beak turned upwards in a smile.
"Where's tha nearest active mine in tha' field?" Falco whispered.
"What?" Krystal mouthed, not understanding.
"Tha' minefield's right there, right? Use your hocus pocus ta' find tha' nearest one," Falco hissed.
Her brow furrowing, Krystal gazed out at the forest floor for a few moments, then pointed to a withering brown fern convulsing in the skimmer's repulsor field.
"It's right under there, I don't know if you can see it-"
"I see it fine; I got better eyesight than you, princess," Falco cut off, spotting the three-prongs of the mine's metal pressure fuse in the dirt under the fern with his keen raptor's eyes.
"Mark current target," Falco whispered into his headset, watching as a red dot appeared in his scouter over the mine's pressure fuse. He then instructed Krystal to point out the next two mines, and he proceeded to mark them with his headset as well, his mind always on the assault skimmer hovering mere meters away, still not aware of their existence.
"Okay, when I do this, ya got about four meters ta' get to the underside an' hit it like last time. Then we're runnin' like hell through that minefield with you guidin' me. Can ya do it?" Falco whispered.
"You know I could just run through the minefield myself and leave you to occupy the skimmer when it recovers," Krystal smirked, "That would be a lot easier, don't you think?"
Falco glared at her, his beak tightening.
"If we're takin' tha' easy way out, why not get that thing's attention an' let it fry both of us?" Falco growled, drawing his pistol and leveling it at the back of the skimmer.
Krystal's eyes were cool as ever.
"You're bluffing," she whispered.
The avian's beak came closer to her face.
"All that time bein' some hardcore badass, you musta forgotten why I was always tha' crazy one. I'm all for gettin' outta here alive, but if it's gonna be like that I'll die laughing just ta' make sure your ass comes with me. Look in my head an' see. My life don't mean that much. Especially when it comes ta' provin' a stupid point," Falco returned darkly.
The aloof look in Krystal's eyes faded, and the smirk fell just a bit. Falco suppressed an urge to laugh in her face.
"Right then. We'll do it your way," she conceded quietly.
"Then get ready ta' haul some ass," Falco smirked.
He looked over his shoulder to see the skimmer hovering in the perfect position, right between the three dots marked on his scouter, and he breathed, rose to full height and raised his blaster pistol.
Narrowing his eyes for a moment, Falco pulled the trigger with the crosshairs aligned on the closest dot, a blue bolt flashing from the end and pounding into the dirt. There was a dull thumping sound as the mine shot into the air out of the ground, coming to full height right next to the floating skimmer and blasting apart in a black burst of shrapnel. The skimmer shuddered in the air and Falco shot the other two dots with a snap of his arm, two mines vaulting up and exploding right next to the vehicle. He could hear the pilot yell in pain and alarm as the skimmer rocked in the explosion, and Krystal tore past him with her electrostaff sparking and ready. The vixen slid underneath the skimmer, thrusting the staff into the undercarriage and producing a spark and computerized alarms from the skimmer itself. The vehicle hopped up into the air, wobbling wildly as Falco grabbed onto Krystal's arm and they took off into the forest, zig-zagging through the minefield as the skimmer's blaster cannons and grenade launchers spoke.
Crimson blaster bolts tore into the surrounding trees as grenades plowed into the dirt and exploded, triggering mines that bounded into the air and blew themselves apart in clouds of black shrapnel. It was a miracle they weren't hit.
Krystal dragged him down another turn of their serpentine path, then let go and yelled, "We're clear of the mines! Just run!"
Falco didn't need to be told twice, letting go of her hand and sprinting into the trees next to her, grabbing the last EMP grenade from his belt and yanking the pin out. A ruby laser bolt tore through the air over his head, and he whipped around to see the assault skimmer sailing through the air meters over the ground, only to pause as it came to a pair of trees that were too close together for it to pass through.
Falco threw the grenade in between the trees, stomping his feet into the ground as he tore through the jungle, hearing a popping sizzle as the grenade went off underneath the skimmer, then a crash as the vehicle's repulsorlift failed and it dropped to the ground.
Falco and Krystal kept running, leaping over a log and splashing through a puddle before slowing to a stop with their hands on their knees, breathing heavily. They looked at each other, not fondly, but still shared the mutual relief of having escaped the camp. They said nothing to one and other. As Falco caught his breath, he looked back through the forest, where the sounds of mayhem and death could still be heard echoing from the camp. As much as he tried not to worry, he could not see how anyone, even Fox, could hope to escape it on their own.
"Yo, Peppy, I'm clear of tha' camp. I got tha' girl with me," Falco spoke into the microphone on his headset as they began their trudge through the jungle towards the landing zone.
"Good to hear from you," Peppy's heavy, raspy voice came over the comlink, "You injured?"
Falco examined the scorch marks on his upper arm and across his side. The surrounding feathers were blackened and twisted, and pus was beginning to well up from inside the burned flesh. The one on the arm had been no more than a graze and it had produced a light second degree burn. The shot he'd taken over his hip had been a lot more on target from a much more powerful gun. The tightness in his leg made him suspect there was some nerve damage.
"I'll need some provitate and synthflesh, but I'll live," he answered with a verbal shrug, "Any word from tha' fuzzball?"
"He's in the camp, but I found an escape route for him, and his headset's still sending out vital signs. He's still on his feet," Peppy returned, "Do you have Krystal in custody?"
Falco glanced over to Krystal, eyeing the weapons holstered on her body. She returned his gaze with an empty stare in her cold cyan eyes.
"I'll get back to ya' on that one, old man," Falco grumbled.
"Understood. Thermal scans for your area are clear; doesn't look like you'll run into trouble getting back to the LZ. Try to make it back as quick as you can, you might need to pick up Fox in the Pleiades."
"Affirmative. Falco out," the avian answered as he brushed by a fern.
They walked wordlessly through the jungle, the noises of the battle getting further behind them, and Falco glanced over to Krystal once again, eyeing her guns. He ran through various scenarios in his mind, mulling over the best way to disarm the vixen and get the binder cuffs back on her wrists. It had taken both him and Fox to bring her down before, and not without her very successfully fighting both of them off for a good while. And this time, he didn't even have a flashbang grenade.
"It's not easy to sneak up on a telepath, you know," Krystal remarked casually, "I can hear every thought in your head, as if you were shouting out your next move. You're not going to take my guns, so do yourself a favor and don't try."
"You could always hand 'em over willingly," Falco suggested.
"And why would I do that?" the vixen said, chuckling slightly.
"Step toward gettin' us ta' trust you again," he shrugged, watching as a white-furred winged lemur glided through the treetops above.
"I don't need your trust. Not anymore, at least," she dismissed, stopping and staring him down.
"Yo, just what tha' fuck is your deal, princess? I get that you're pissed at us. I was thinkin' seein' us again was tha' last thing you'd ever want. But why this? Why all tha revenge an' manipulation an' games with Fox's head? This ain't you. This ain't Krystal."
"Good, seeing as that's not the name I go by or the person I am anymore," the vixen retorted, "A year alone in an alien civilization tends to change a person."
"Fox kicked you off tha' team. You were tha' one who just up an' disappeared," Falco came back.
"I seem to remember being left, on a skybridge in the middle of Anaxes, with the distinct impression that no one gave a damn if I came back," Krystal snapped, her posh voice becoming shrill with what might've been anger, "But enough about me: what about you, the great Falco Lombardi? You're no stranger to disappearing from the team and coming back at a moment's notice. I wonder why that is…could it be that you just need a reminder now and then that you have no one else? That you've destroyed every other relationship you had, with your old gang and with sweet, devoted Katt Monroe, who used to love you so much?"
Falco's lower jaw felt loose and he could feel something white hot building up in his chest. He could feel her searching around in his head, finding the things that she knew could hurt him. His left eyelid began to twitch ever so slightly. He wondered if he could somehow catch her by surprise and take her weapons away.
"I ran into Katt, not so long ago," the vixen sneered, her bright eyes gleaming haughtily, "She's very happy with her new lovebird. He doesn't have a drinking problem, either. How is that, by the way, Falco? I suppose it went dormant while you were helping Fox pick up the pieces of his surrogate family, but now that the team's back together again it seems it's come back with a vengeance. Why is that? Does Fox bring out the worst in you, like he does to so many people he cares about, or could it be the pressure of having to be the crazy one all the time? Or is it something else? Something much, much worse that you won't even admit to yourself?"
Krystal finished with a hateful smirk and a dead hollowness in her beautiful blue eyes.
Falco could barely breathe; he could feel the fury boiling under his feathers. It was all he could do to stop himself from grabbing his carbine and pulling the trigger, let alone saying something.
"FUCK YOU, YA FUCKIN' CUN-" Falco bellowed out, totally unprepared for Krystal to lunge forward and shove him hard in the chest. He fell backwards, expecting to find his balance but instead feeling the dirt crumble beneath him as gravity pulled him down. Tripping over a clump of ferns, Falco let out a squawk of alarm as he tumbled down a steep natural embankment, rolling through dirt and moss and plants with his carbine flying wildly by the strap over his shoulder, coming up and hitting him hard in the face. He landed in a jumble at the bottom of the slope on a cushion of decaying leaves and foliage, his blue feathers matted with dirt and plant matter.
Falco sat up with a growl, glaring murderously up the slope with the blue-furred vixen nowhere to be found. He spat out a curse at his stupidity, letting her lead him right up to the edge of some drop without him noticing, then pissing him off so she could push him off the edge while his guard was down and get away.
"Real fuckin' professional Lombardi, ya' dumb gado," he mumbled furiously to himself, knowing that he'd have to be fast to catch up with her. He couldn't call Peppy and request that he track her using thermal scans from the Great Fox, he'd have his hands full trying to keep Fox alive back in the camp. Not to mention the embarrassment it would cause to admit that he'd let her get away.
Just as Falco was about to sprint up the slope in pursuit, he caught a whiff of something putrid, with the low buzzing of hundreds of flies behind. He turned around and looked down at the large rotting carcass of what must've been a massive opatum wombat in life, now little more than a yellowed collection of bones with the occasional hunk of rancid meat. It was only then that he noticed that the area he'd fallen into had a distinct bowl-shape and was completely clear of trees, allowing the sun to shine in and provide warmth. The whole place was covered in a profusion of decaying leaves and plant matter of different varieties, several without living counterparts anywhere in sight. Falco was just beginning to put it all together when the clutch of four bulbous green-brown eggs, each larger than his head, confirmed it.
Then the broad scaled head of a mother varanis dragon rose up from the ground and regarded him with black eyes and a flick of her long, forked tongue. Falco stood frozen as the eight meter-long monitor lizard stood up on four thick legs with clawed toes, her head level with his shoulder. The varanis dragon let out a raspy, hissing roar, revealing a mouth full of curved teeth dripping with slimy saliva, then she bounded towards him with her heavy tail lashing behind her. Falco yelled and brought up his carbine, firing a burst of green bolts into the monitor lizard's grayish-green scales as he sprinted around the curve of the nest basin. The varanis dragon let out a squealing hiss but kept coming towards him alarmingly fast, and Falco stumbled and almost tripped as the large reptile closed the gap between them. Jaws opened as the reptile lurched forward, then an azure blur sped past Falco's face and struck the varanis dragon on the nose with the sparking end of an electrostaff.
The dragon bleated and shrank backwards, swiping out with its tail to hit Krystal as the vixen leapt into the air with a primal cry. She landed on its back and whirled her staff through the air as the dragon's tail flailed wildly, then she stabbed the staff into the base of the creature's neck. The dragon yelped briefly as the shock overloaded her nervous system and rendered her unconscious, and she collapsed to the jungle floor with a meaty thud.
Falco was still gasping for breath as Krystal leapt off the varanis dragon's back and came right up to him, brandishing the crackling end of the electrostaff under his jaw.
"No," she rumbled, "Fuck you. And Fox. And anyone else who thinks I'm the same scared little princess I used to be, because I'm not. My name is Kursed, and I am the beast your world has made of me. Life is a bitch. Now so am I."