Miyu watched from the bridge of the Tadpole as the ship decelerated, the warp drive shutting down. Fox spoke and her attention shifted to him
"Alright, one last run through of the plan. Bill will remain in orbit with the ships while a shuttle takes Kyra and Dust to the surface." Dust had insisted on going with her. "Wolf, Fara, Falco and Slippy will fly over watch at the meeting point. Peppy is already there. Leon, Katt, Lucy, and Fay will be flying cover for the ground convoy taking Kyra to the building. Myself and Miyu will act as the main interceptors, if Kursed is spotted, we engage. Jasmine, you will remain docked to the Tadpole. If someone is shot down, you extract them. Any last minute questions?" no one spoke as Miyu glanced around the group. "Good. Star Fox, Phoenix Fire, Star Wolf. Move out!" she followed Fox out of the room and into the tail boom. She hesitated as the others all slid down into their fighters, her eyes following Fox before she did the same. She slowly fired up her systems before she finally spoke into her radio.
"Hey Fox, am I coming through loud and clear?" her fighter dropped away from the Tadpole as he responded.
"Affirmative Miyu. Just form up and follow me." She absently nodded as she did so. The group drifted apart as Fox flew in a wide circle around the area. Katt's group circled around Bill's fighter hauler with Bill and his fighters. Wolf's group shot off toward the planet, instantly headed for the meeting point. The shuttle arrived and Fox led the way, keeping almost two kilometers between themselves and the shuttle. Boredom started to set in already as Miyu followed Fox into the atmosphere. The shuttle landed without any incident and Miyu started thinking Kursed wasn't going to make any kind of appearance today.
"Anything Fox" she saw him visibly shake his head before he spoke.
"Not a thing." Bill's voice suddenly filled the radio, frantic.
"Kursed is here! She's already blown the Valiance apart, three of my pilots are already down!" Miyu was already pitching up and away as Fox responded.
"Rodger that Bill, on our way!"
Kursed only half listened to Matheson as she waited for the last few minutes of the Warp jump to finish.
"Alright, remember, General Hare is still your primary target, but, if you can kill Ashlyns daughter, it will go a long way too." She sighed as the timer dropped to less than a minute.
"I know, will you just shut up and let me concentrate?" he grunted down in the hold before he continued.
"Look, I'm sorry about making you uncomfortable when I tried to kiss you, it just felt right, okay?" she rolled her eyes again as she responded.
"We've been over this before, it doesn't matter. Just focus on the mission." Not ten seconds later, the strange red's and blues of FTL travel died away to show real space. Corneria loomed and she could already see the two fighter haulers ahead of her. She charged her anti-ship cannon and locked onto the more militarized ship and fired, watching it burst apart from the massive red bolt. Eight XO-2 Arwings vectored in on her as she doubled up her forward shielding. A high pitched whine filled her ears as the twelve anti fighter missiles her craft carried locked onto six of the fighters, two missiles per target. As soon as the enemy fighters started firing, she fired the swarm and pitched away, rebalancing her shielding. Three of the blips disappeared as she felt one of them talking.
"Kursed is here! She's already blown the Valiance apart, three of my pilots are already down!" she grinned at his frantic voice and dropped onto one of the remaining fighters. A few well placed blasts and he was ejecting. A pair of fighters dropped onto her tail as she ducked and weaved through the Valiance's debris. She waited until they were almost right on top of her craft before ramming the G-diffusers to full, stopping her craft. They split off, narrowly dodging her. One split apart as it collided with debris and she took off after the other. It didn't last long either under her fire. The last two were trying to bait her into going after the other, so one could chase her. She fired the anti-ship cannon at one and it vaporized. The last fighter chased after her as a scream flooded over the radio.
"I am going to kill you, Bitch!" it was the same pilot who had called for help. She grinned as his weak laser blasts splashed harmlessly against her shielding. After letting him chase her for a while, she suddenly pitched up slightly, killed her thrust, and pitched downward. His fighter came into view as her own kept drifting. He juked out of her line of fire just before the lasers could connect. A grin spread across her face as she chased after him. Whoever he was, he was very skilled, easily dodging almost all of her fire. But after a few seconds, his much weaker fighter spun out of control, dropping into the planet's atmosphere. She plunged in after him, quickly arriving at a city that she used to hide her location from the other pilots. Suddenly, the same strange Arwing that had beat her back above Fortuna came out from behind one of the skyscrapers, hovering as it fired sheets of laser fire at her. Lasers struck all across her shielding as she dived under him. His blip easily followed her as they ducked and weaved through the buildings.
"Miyu, careful with your shots in here! Don't want to hit the buildings!" a second Arwing swooped in from above her and fired a charge laser after her. She managed to shake the ball of energy, slamming it into one of the buildings.
"Doing my best here Fox!" the fighter disappeared from her RADAR, obscured by the buildings. She concentrated on trying to lose the first Arwing as buildings whipped past at ever increasing speeds. Suddenly, a red XO-3 Arwing appeared around a corner, too close for either of them to react. She was jolted against the safety harness as the wing and G-Diffuser slammed into the Cloud Runner, ripping a gouge into her hull and disabling her shields. Before she could react, lasers were pounding into her fighter from behind, blowing one of her engines out and sending her fighter careening out of control. It slammed into a building and ricocheted off, spiraling down toward a large plaza. She blacked out as the craft slammed into the ground.
Fox shot past the crash site, unable to stop as he gracefully looped around a building.
"Miyu, are you alright?" he flew back into the plaza as her flaming Arwing did the same.
"Landing is going to be rough but I'm fine. See you down there." Fox absently nodded as he killed the thrust and pulled the collective up, slowly guiding his fighter down to the wreck of the fighter.
"Fox to all pilots, Kursed has been shot down, co-ordinates to follow." He activated his beacon as the craft gently set down on the concrete. Civilians scrambled out of the plaza as Miyu's fighter crashed down on the far side, ripping through some vendor stalls. Fox raised his carbine as a cloaked figure crawled from the wreckage, a staff extending in her hand as Fox fired. The blue bolts bounced clean off her barrier, just before a red ball of fire shot at Fox. He narrowly dodged it, but wasn't able to bring the carbine back up in time as Kursed slammed her staff into Fox's weapon. It flew from his grip as he narrowly dodged another swing at his gut. Fox's pistol ripped out of its holster and fired. For a split second, he thought he had gotten lucky and nailed her, but the blast had done nothing more than cause the black veil she wore to float to the ground. Before Fox could react, Kursed had tripped him with the staff and slammed the bulbous end into his gut. He fought for air as he blearily watched the bluish tinted white Vulpine snout above him. She snarled as she raised the staff, about to plunge it into him when Miyu's blurred form rammed into Kursed, toppling them both sideways. Fox fought into a sitting position as he watched them. Miyu's tackle had caused Kursed's hood to fall down, revealing long blue hair, almost past her shoulders. Miyu was sent blasting over Kursed, where she had tried to pin her to the ground and aim a blaster at her. Kursed was on her feet and moving for Miyu when Fox's heart leapt into his throat.
"Kr-Krystal?" she had raised the staff, half obscuring her face. But the staff, the turquoise eyes, the fur, were all unmistakable to Fox.
"What did you just call me?" her face was unmistakably confused and furious.
"Krystal, it's Fox, I, come on you know me!" she still looked bewildered, but toke one look at Miyu lying in front of her and stabbed the staff deep into Miyu's stomach. Fox screamed as he rushed to her side, Krystal taking off down one of the streets. Fox slid to a stop, placing both hands on her bleeding stomach.
"No, Fox, don't worry about me, I've had worse. Kursed, or Krystal, go! Catch her before it's too late!" Fox nodded and grabbed his pistol before taking off after Krystal.