Chapter 21: Falling Sky

They played in the pool for a long time, but Fox eventually noticed storm clouds moving in from the sea. Falco swam over beside Fox, following his gaze across the sky.

"Those clouds don't look too good," he said.

"Probably just a mild tropical storm," Beltino assured them. He had moved his chair closer to the pool. "It will blow over soon enough."

"Hm, it would be a pretty nice way for Andross to strike," Falco said. "The shield is off right now, and he would have the storm to cover his ship's backs; they could easily sneak in through our fleet without us noticing them... until it was too late."

"I think you're just jumping to conclusions right now; the storm wouldn't hide them from our satellites."

Fox thought he saw a flash of lightning at the edge of the storm, but something didn't seem right about it... He squinted his eyes at the storm, now only a few miles off the coast; another flash of lightning lit the grey clouds, and he realized what was wrong; it was green lightning. "Beltino, watch for lightning; it doesn't seem natural."

Beltino narrowed his gaze at the storm until another bolt streaked across the sky. "You're right; that's no ordinary storm; it's an ion storm."

"Meaning?" Fox probed.

"Meaning our satellites can't see into it. Someone engineered that storm..."

But the sea wasn't the first place the enemy reared its head.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash in the sky as a massive fleet of cruisers pulled out of hyperspace; Fox recognized a few of the cruisers to be Andross's Draco Class Battleships, but the rest seemed to be new, and deadlier. The radio man seemed to get a command from his headset. He rushed over to the communications system, quickly setting it back on the military operations station. The urgent voice of Major Ironstripe came on.

"Attention all troops; Androssian forces have just arrived! All pilots, lug yer tales in your ships and take off! Ground troops, stand by for action."

The storm was now only a quarter of a mile off coast, the dark pillars of swirling grey towering over the ocean-side city. Another hum was heard as the shield generator started up for the second time that day, just in time to absorb several hails of laser fire from the Androssian Fleet, which was engaging the Cornerian and FTF fleets. Beltino rushed over to the radio man, who patched him into Major Ironstripe.

"Major; don't be distracted by the overhead fleet!"

"Eh, whaddaya mean? Why?"

"That storm is harboring a sea based fleet of attackers, probably so they can sneak in and destroy the shield! They're under the cover of an ion storm, so we can't detect them! They're right in the middle of the fleet now!"

"Right, I'll prepare the men at the docks and have the fleet search them out; get Fox and his crew over here with me as soon as possible!"

Beltino turned to the team, who were already climbing out of the pool, frantically. "You heard the Major! MOVE!"

They scrambled out of the pool and over to their piles of clothing, pulling it on without even drying off; they looked like school children about to miss their bus. Most of them stopped when they were only half dressed, skipping the rest of their clothes and pulling on gun and ammo belts. Fox lead the way out of the hotel courtyard as they sprinted a block to the dock yards that bordered the ocean. They ran another block down the shipyard to Major Ironstripe's position; he was ordering around his soldiers from a small storage building where most of his command equipment had been set up. A small messenger rabbit ran up to him, timidly saying something to the Major, who bent down to hear him better.

"You all dropped them WHERE!?" he angrily shouted. "Then, go GET THEM!" he finished as he lifted the unfortunate rabbit into the air and hurled him, pleading, into the water, reminiscent of their recent party. When he noticed the Starfox team starring at him, Falco grinning, but Amanda horrified, he let out an embarrassed cough. "Uh, sorry you had to see that. He's probably alright." He cracked his knuckles. "Now, what are your doing again?"

"You asked us to report to you," Fox reminded him.

"Oh, yes, thanks. Alright; split yourselves up as you see fit, and cover the water ways into the city; unfortunately, the shield generator is accessible by way of sea, so they can just sail right in an' blow it up if we don't stop 'em. We need the shield to last as long as it can before it collapses! Now off wit ya!"

Fox turned around to his team. "Slippy, Amanda; you stay here with Ironstripe, and stay out of his way, or you might end up like that guy;" he said, pointing to the rabbit who was just now crawling out of the water with a holocron device. "Falco, Katt, you take the northern sector of the docks, while Krystal and I will defend the middle. Any questions?"

Slippy immediately spoke. "Why are your pants on backwards?"

Fox looked down at his combat fatigues, which, sure enough, were on backwards. "Um, I will fix that momentarily. Now off wit ya!" he finished, mimicking the Major. Slippy and Amanda took up positions around the immediate docking area, while the other four began another sprint across the docks to the north, occasionally crossing draw bridges as they went. Roughly half way there, Fox signaled for Krystal to stop, waving Falco and Katt on to their sector.

"Good luck, Falco," he called after him. As they disappeared farther up the docks, Fox and Krystal took cover behind a wall of sandbags conveniently erected for them. They had stopped at the largest canal into the city, as this was where the Androssians would strike the hardest.

"Um, you can probably fix your pants now, Fox."

"Right. Don't worry, I'm still wearing that swimsuit," he added as he began fixing his pants. Krystal just laughed as she pulled out her blaster, attaching a scope to the top. She had hastily strapped her staff to her back, in case they ran into any close quarter combat, which she was sure they would. The storm was now upon them; it had drifted through the shield barrier while the ions just melded into the shield, unable to pass. The storm, in fact, stretched all the way to the ground like a fog, blocking her view from the army shrouded in its midst. There were several flashes of light; the FTF fleet must have found the Androssians in their midst, and were engaging them. But they couldn't block all of them from the city...

Suddenly, time seemed to skip a few seconds ahead:

A flash in the distance.

An explosion all around her.

A muffled scream.

And just like that, time returned. "Fox, watch out!" She cried as she tackled him. Sure enough, a battleship opened fire on them, a bombshell exploding not far behind them. The explosion still hurt, but they had been low enough to escape most of the force. Fox righted himself, thanking Krystal as he helped her up.

"We can't do anything right now; we might as well pull back a bit until they land. We'll let the soldiers do their work." With that, he pulled Krystal with him behind a large building that shielded them from the sea. They pressed themselves against the wall, Fox still holding Krystal's paw. They breathed heavily as flashes from the enemy bombardment lit the sides of the buildings in front of them. Finally, the barrage stopped, and they were able to hear the shouts and jeers of the Androssian soldiers; the landing ships were close... they might as well attack now.

Fox nodded to Krystal, who followed behind him as he jumped out from the building, blaster ablaze. He effortlessly hit several soldiers standing on the edge of an approaching ship; they clutched at their wounds and fell off the side of the ship, plunging into the water and saturating it a dark red. When the ship bumped up against the side of the dock, the rest of the soldiers jumped off the side, a few tying the ship down with a rope. As the soldiers unwisely turned their attention to eliminating Fox, Krystal took the chance to scale up the side of an adjacent building; she latched onto the gutter, crawling sideways until she was within jumping distance of the group; she pushed herself off the wall, drawing her staff from the strap across her back, and slammed the pommel into the ground. The whole block shook from the attack; the nearest soldiers were flung back several yards, while the farthest ones at least fell to the ground. They both took the chance to shoot the soldiers while they were down, easily dispatching them. Fox blew the smoke from his blaster, but Krystal quickly gestured to two more landing ships approaching the dock on either side of the first one. It was going to be a struggle to get out of this one...

"Come-on! We'll pull back to the one on the right so we aren't surrounded." They started a dangerous dash across the dock as the soldiers opened fire on them. But once they had reached the corner of the docks, it became apparent that they had no cover; ships had landed all they way down, as far as they could see. They stopped running on the middle of a bridge that spanned one of the canals into the city.

"It's too late," Krystal panted. "They've taken the closest docks."

"I hope Falco and Katt are Ok," Fox mumbled.

"And Amanda and Slippy," Krystal added.

"Oh, I'm not worrying about them."

"Why? Ironstripe?"

"Ironstripe."

Krystal couldn't help but smile. The Androssians wouldn't be able to take his side of the docks as long as he was there. Her ears perked up, and she turned to face the ocean. "Fox, there's a ship coming towards us."

"They must be crazy... they can't... the bridge is down, obviously; we're standing on it. They'd have to smash their way through."

"I think that's what they have in mind." Sure enough, the battleship only slowed down a bit so that it could better position itself to fit through the canal. As several lasers streaked their way, they quickly ducked behind the cover of the bridge's wall. "They're about to ram the bridge!"

"SPLIT!" Fox ordered. They dove off the bridge, Fox to the North side while Krystal jumped down the South, just as the small battleship smashed through it. Fox rolled as he hit the ground, finally coming to a stop. He looked up, a bit dazed from the impact. The battleship had passed them, probably sailing down the canal to destroy the shield generator at the center of the city. He next looked across the canal to Krystal, who had just made it to her feet and was looking at him, expectantly. He stood up, giving a little shrug, but he still indicated the battleship. They took off at a full run, rapidly catching up with the heavy ship.

How are we going to stop it? Fox heard Krystal's voice inside his head.

Try and board it, Fox replied.

As they caught up with the front deck of the ship, the soldiers aboard quickly spotted them and opened fire on them. Krystal used her staff's shielding ability, which formed a protective bubble around her that absorbed any lasers lucky enough to come close to her. Fox was forced to use his energy deflector while running at the same time; he skipped over several boxes and crates just as the soldiers fired upon him. He leapt from box to box, still keeping pace with the ship, swinging his deflector to block the lasers as they came towards his side. He took a quick look ahead of Krystal and himself, noticing two buildings on either side that ended the walkways by the canal; they would have to board now before they came up on the wall. Krystal made a flying leap for the boat, grabbing onto the edge, though struggling to pull herself up. The soldiers seemed to notice her, and hurried over to her side. The wall was directly in front of Fox now. He ran until he was as close as he could get to the canal without falling in, and didn't stop because of the building; instead, he performed a wall run on the side that bordered the canal. He took one, two, three whole steps up and across the vertical surface until he pushed off the side, landing on the ship. He ran over to the soldiers who had surrounded Krystal, giving several a quick shove into the water beneath before the rest could react. He ducked a swipe from a bayonet, head-butting the soldier in the stomach, then bringing his fist down on his head. By now, Krystal had not only finished climbing up the side, but had also dispatched the remaining two soldiers with her staff. Fox pulled a grenade from his belt, set it off, and dropped it down a hatch into the interior of the ship. A satisfying explosion followed, and the ship slowed down to a crawl, allowing them to safely dismount into an open marketplace.

"Hey, Fox," Falco's voice came over his intercom.

"What's up?"

"I think we have the north sector secure... how's yours?"

"I don't know, we got sidetracked following a battleship up a canal."

"Well, don't worry about it; the Lylatans here are moving into your sector."

"So, it sounds like you have a plan, Falco."

"Right; I'm thinking we should help the boys in the aerial battle; everything seems to be Ok down here."

"Are Slippy and Amanda done?"

"Are you kidding?" Slippy was talking now. "We beat them back awhile ago! No small part due to Ironstripe, that is."

"All right; I'll get ROB to bring the Great Fox around and pick us up." He pressed a button on his communicator, calling the Great Fox. "ROB, are you there?"

"Affirmative," came his mechanical sounding answer.

"Launch the Great Fox. Slippy and Amanda are in the southern sector of the docks, while Falco and Katt are in the north sector."

"And you?"

"Pick us up last; I want to make sure our sector is secure."

"Roger, Fox."

Fox let his arm drop back to his side, gesturing for Krystal to follow him with a nod of his head. "Come on; let's see if the Lylatans have retaken our docks yet." They moved through the market place at a slight jog, tired from their recent exertion. Suddenly, Krystal slid to a stop and pointed skyward.

"Fox, look at those!"

Fox trained his vision on a cluster of Androssian cruisers that had pulled off from the battle, closing in on the shield.

"It's a new type of cruiser..." Fox trailed off. The fronts of the cruisers had opened, pealing back like a banana, though Andross wouldn't have been pleased to hear that description. The insides of the fins that had opened up to face the shield glowed a bright red, and Fox realized they were cannons, cannons that lined the whole inside of the fins, all the way to the center where they connected to the cruiser. With a screaming burst, the lasers began firing on the shield in a steady stream, casting a red hue over the entire city; the shield was taking most of the punishment, but it seemed to be glowing brighter. A high pitched whine started, growing louder and louder, and higher and higher, until Fox was nearly blacking out from it. He and Krystal covered their ears, falling down on the stone street. When the whine became too high to hear, and the shield glowed as bright as the sun, the shield finally gave in. The energy particles from the shield collapsed back into the generator in the middle of the city, which exploded and sent a massive shock wave through every street and canal. Fox and Krystal, who were already on the ground, were blown a few feet down the street from the explosion, and market stands were forced on their sides, along with any hover-cars near by. Mortar and bricks fell in large chunks around them; one crashed right next to Fox's head, scattering bricks all over him, and knocking him out. His world went black...

"Fox... Fox... please wake up. Oh, Fox! Can you hear me?"

Fox's vision slowly returned to him as he came to. He was lying in the middle of a pile of rubble, Krystal propping him up and gently shaking him. "I'm... Ok..." he managed to say. He reached his paw up to his head, feeling a nasty bump he had acquired, his paw coming back sticky with blood.

"Alright, HANDS UP, CORNERIANS!" Fox suddenly became aware of Androssian soldiers surrounding them; they were standing a few yards away, slowly closing in on them.

"Are you Ok?" he asked Krystal as he sat up.

"I'm probably fine," she assured him.

Fox painfully stood up, reaching down to Krystal. "Can you stand?"

"I... think so." She took his hand, attempting to stand up, but gave a small cry of pain and slid back down. "I think my leg is broken." Fox took a moment to examine Krystal, noticing her other numerous wounds as well. Fox knelt back down beside her.

"I said, HANDS UP!" the Androssian squad leader ordered again.

Fox payed them no attention; not while Krystal was hurt. He opened up a small first aide kit Krystal had attached to her belt, and began tending to her wounds.

If they surrendered, they would probably be taken to Andross as fast as possible, and that wasn't a doom he would face. Fox felt around his belt, but his energy deflector and blaster were gone; they had been blown away when the shield collapsed. Krystal took he own blaster out of its holster and slipped it to Fox, a tear sliding down her cheek. "What do you plan to do?" she whispered.

"Just... stay down," he said. He gave Krystal one last kiss, and stood up to face the enemy.

"DROP THE GUN!"

"Get down, Krystal!" Krystal complied, pressing herself flat against the rubble.

Fox stood over her, defensively, and fired his blaster at the sergeant, killing him. The rest of the soldiers immediately opening fire on him. He leaned to the right and down a bit, dodging the lasers and felling two more soldiers with his own. Performing a side flip over some laser fire, he turned his attention to the soldiers behind him, shooting several more behind them. On laser grazed his side, and he let out a short grunt of pain. There was still a soldier behind him. In an instant, he kicked up a rock, catching it in his left hand, and spun around just as he heard the lone blaster fire. He set his foot firmly against the stone street, rock extended towards the blast; the laser shattered the rock, stinging his bare paw. Not hesitating, he fired his own blaster and killed the last soldier. But more were coming.

"Come on, Krystal, we gotta get out of here!" He helped her up and they began staggering away down the street.

Suddenly, the Great Fox descended from the sky with a roar of jet thrusters, landing a few yards behind them. Fox was supporting Krystal as they walked backwards into the hangar, blaster ablaze at the soldiers chasing them.

"Alright, ROB; take off!" he ordered when they stepped into the hangar.

"Amanda here; I've got the controls. Everyone's aboard!"

Fox eased Krystal slowly onto the floor as the steal doors lazily began to close behind them. The Great Fox lifted off the ground to begin its flight.

"We've got to get you to the med-bay, quick!" As he said it, Falco rushed into the hangar, worry etched in his face when he noticed Krystal. "Falco, give me a hand!"

But before Falco could make it over to them, the Great Fox suddenly shook from an explosion; Krystal was jarred out of Fox's hands as the ship tilted crazily backwards. Krystal rolled down the steep slope, screaming as she fell out the small gap that remained in the hangar doors.

"Oh, no, KRYSTAL!" Falco exclaimed as he slid to the side of the hangar doors, slamming his winged fist into the button that reopened them. As the ship righted itself, Fox rushed to the edge, looking out at the market place below; the soldiers were surrounding Krystal's crumpled form. They weren't too high up, were they? Fox used the blaster Krystal had given him to pick off some of the soldiers while Falco drew his own to help him. Fox didn't even flinch when an enemy's laser struck the hangar door next to him. The marketplace was getting farther and farther away from them.

"AMANDA!" Fox yelled into his com. "TURN US AROUND! WE DROPPED KRYSTAL!"

"Ok, I'm hurrying!"she replied. But as it pulled closer to their location, the Great Fox shook with several explosions. "Sorry, Fox; we have to pull out! The fire is too heavy!"

Fox was on a one track mind; Krystal. When Amanda didn't turn the ship around, he ran over to a pile of winged packs he and Beltino had used earlier to fly to the AWG's facility.

"Uh, Fox, what are you doing?"

Fox made no reply as he walked back to the open hangar doors, about to slip the pack on. Falco quickly stopped him, grabbing onto his shoulders and looking him in the eye.

"What the heck are you doing!" he said, more firmly, this time.

"Back off, Falco." He jerked Falco off of him, continuing to slip the pack on.

"Fox, don't be an idiot! You're gonna get killed if you go down there!" He could see tears streaming down his friend's face.

"I have to save her!"

"But you can't! There's no way! It's hell out there with all those soldiers!"

"DON'T TRY AND STOP ME!" Fox spat back as he stepped over to the edge. Falco grabbed onto the pack, whirling him around.

"Have you lost your MIND!?" As Fox shook him off and turned around, Falco just spun him around again, this time dealing a blow to his friend's jaw. "Sorry, Fox... you needed that."

Fox didn't even blink before landing a powerful blow in Falco's stomach. Falco recovered quickly, tackling Fox before he could jump out, and rolling dangerously close to the edge. Falco quickly pinned Fox, who was weighed down by his pack.

"LISTEN TO ME!" he shouted into Fox's face, slapping him with his wing. "YOU CAN'T RISK THE WAR BECAUSE OF SOME GIRL!" After a few moments of intense struggle, Fox finally relaxed, panting. "You're obsessing over her too much! It's not the end of the world! We can rescue her, just not now!"

After Fox calmed down, Falco got off of him, letting him get up. He stared at Falco hard, panting, but Falco couldn't look him in the eye after what he had done. "Thanks, friend," he spat. He whirled away, marching deeper into the Great Fox, while Falco turned away to watch Aquaries fall away from them, a tear of his own sliding down onto his beak. It was a hard decision, but it had to be made.

"Falco, is everything Ok?" he heard Amanda's voice over the com.

"Frankly, no."

An hour later, Fox was still in his bedroom. The rest of his team had knocked at his door several times, but he refused to answer; he needed to be alone. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking down at the floor where his tears had saturated the rug. He would occasionally glance up at a picture of Krystal on his dresser, but he couldn't hold his gaze there for long.

What's happening to me? He thought. Why can't I go on? But he knew the answer; Krystal was half of him, and with half of him gone, there was no way he could function.

Does a woman really mean this much to me? When she leaves, do I just... fall apart?

It was his fault she had been captured; he could have saved her. He could have stopped her from falling, jumped out after her immediately, or at least have had the brains to not stop in the hangar. But there was no use dwelling on that. He was wasting his time; he couldn't re-write the past.

He had to find her; there was no question about that. The war could wait. He would find her, and rescue her from the clutches of Andross, or bury her, if she was dead. He paled at the thought. How do I know if she's even alive? There's no guarantee she survived the fall, or that they haven't killed her yet... and if she's alive, what will Andross do to her? His only chance was that she was with the retreating Androssian forces; Andross would want her alive, no doubt. He would follow them, alone, if he had to.

He was going insane from not knowing! Was she alive? Was she dead? Will she die? Oh, what he would give for any information. He knew he couldn't live much longer under this torture.

Suddenly, his wrist com blinked.

He had received a message.

He wiped the tears from his face with his paw, and opened up his inbox on his watch. The new message was from... Krystal! He immediately grasped at the chance; this one string of hope. He opened the letter, which simply read:

63° 2' N, 29° 55' W

Zoness

It wasn't much; there was no way they would have allowed her to keep her communicator. He looked in his mirror.

A trap?

Who cares. He made up his mind to follow the message.