Ch. 3: Hard Drop

"Aww! Come on!" Fox pulled up on the control sticks of the small fighter trying to regain control. But it was falling so fast. The altimeter on the consol was slowly but surely decreasing. On the dashboard in front of him a small diagram of the ship appeared. And the whole rear section of the cockpit was flashing a blood red. Fox looked behind him through the window of the canopy. All he could see was smoke.

Something had hit him like he had never seen before. It moved so fast, that even to most seasoned pilot couldn't move out of the way. It was but a beam of light, and it had struck the aft of his Arwing.

The altimeter continued to drop. When it had reached 1500 meters the vulpine still hadn't regained control of it. Fox decided the best thing to do, was bail. He reached under the seat of the Arwing despite the awesome G-forces he had managed to get a grasp of the sniper that lie under his seat and clip it to his side.

The Arwing still spiraled and tumbled. If he was to pull the ejection lever at the incorrect time the ejection seat would launch downward and the Arwing would come toppling down over him. Fox rolled his paw over the lever, waiting. The altimeter now read 500 meters. It was now or never. Fox pulled the lever.

The canopy shot into the air with the vulpine in his seat behind it. The altimeter on the ejected seat freaked out. It automatically activated the parachute in the rear of the chair. It wasn't very often that a pilot had bailed this close to the ground. Not to mention it was extremely unsafe. The G-forces where so strong, Fox fluttered his eyes holding onto consciences a he and the seat decelerated. It was another minuet before the chair hit the trees with the unconscious fox in it.

Peppy sat at the control of the Great Fox his eyes were wide. This was not good. He had lost Fox. He was the one that had sent him down there. He couldn't help but feel guilty. But then dismissed the thought from his mind. He spoke into the communication system, "Uhh… Falco, Slippy could I get you guys to come up to the bridge please?"

It a matter of minuets, the two mercenaries stepped into the control room, "What do you want old man? You're interrupting valuable 'me' time," Falco was still as arrogant as ever.

Slippy was more polite though, "What's the problem?"

"We've lost McCloud,"

What do you mean 'lost'?" Falco crossed his arms.

"He just disappeared of scanners and contact!" Peppy sounded a bit more worried then mad, "He was just flying there and then he dropped. There's something else too. ROB sensors indicated a large rise in energy just before…" Peppy got cut off.

"Relax. I'll have him back for supper," Falco stepped out of the control room.

"Falco! You can't go down there!" Peppy replied with a stroke of anger, "There's obviously more down there then we can handle!"

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine."

"Fine, one last thing team, no one tells Krystal, the last thing we need is some one freaking out."

Krystal already knew, she had been reading the thoughts of McCloud as he was entering the atmosphere of the planet. She noticed a spike in his heart and then completely lost touch. She tried many times to regain the bond with his mind, but had failed. She didn't know if it was the thoughts of the others on board interfering with her sixth sense. It could also have been the ship's technology and her amazement of the new surroundings.

If it wasn't any this, which worried her the most, the fox was dead. Though she hadn't known the vulpine that long, she had already become quite attached to him. Not enough to trust him, but enough to know that see had been accepted. She would keep an eye on the situation, yes. One thing remained in her mind though, "Am I in debt to him?"

Falco hopped into the Arwing, it had been changed and modified over the years that he had been away from Starfox, but the original design still remained. It was agile and fast, but still had a tough look to it. He would find Fox and bring him back. There's nothing more to it. His hands danced across the panels of the starship. It powered out of the hanger and into the darkness of space.

Falco spoke to himself in a light, happy and sarcastic voice, "Crazy kid. It's just like him to go get lost while I'm trying rest. You just wait until I find you!" He hit a lever and the G-diffuser system on his Arwing flicker to life, automatically adjusting the wings and thrusters of the craft as if entered the atmosphere.

It was at about 3 kilometers above the ground when he received a message from the Great Fox, "Falco, the Great Fox is picking up major power signatures, I would suggest you move, Now!" When in no longer Falco pulled left on the rudder control a blinding beam of light rush past the place were he had just been, "Get out of there Falco. We can do something else to find him!" The voice came over the communication system. It sounded like he was being treated like a kid.

The bird slammed the control sticks forward heading straight for the ground. He had to find Fox, "Hey gramps, you'll never guess what I found. It looks like a whole base of bad guys," Falco drifted closer to the ground, gun and Anti-air fire erupted around him, "Whoa! Looks like these guys mean business!" He rolled the Arwing away from the base. In a clearing about ten 10 km away from the base Falco saw smoke rising from the ground, he couldn't help himself but to go investigate.

"Falco we're reading another power mass, what ever brought down Fox is about to take another shot!"

"Ok what ever! Just give me a minute ok?" Falco lowered his altitude just skimming over the trees. The light came again. It sliced through the air just above the Arwing. This made Falco laugh, "What's wrong little Foxxie can't handle a bit of action?" He approached the smoke streak in the sky, "Whoa! It's the Arwing!"

"Can you see Fox?" the radio blared.

"No sign of him."

"Falco we've got multiple targets on radar. I recommend that you bug out The AA fire is too strong. The targets alone are a very small threat but with the AA fire…"

"Yeah! I get it!" Falco sounded irritated from all the information he was getting. He hit the throttle and spun the fighter.

For the first time since they lost Fox, Falco felt like he has failed and was leaving him behind. He couldn't just leave him here. But he also didn't know if was here, or alive. But if he was here, Falco was probably attracting more attention to him then he already needed, "Alright Fox," he said to himself, "I'm going. But I'll be back for you ok? Just hold on," Falco's hands danced across the key board once more. The fighter was set to afterburners and they broke through the planets gravitational pull, leaving the bogeys that fallowed him in the dust.

"Alright," Slippy said to Falco and Peppy, "what do we do now?"

"Hmm…" the hare thought. He scratched the hairs on the chin, "We can't just leave him there. I'm going to contact the general. What ever is down there is more then we can handle. Maybe he can send us help," Peppy tapped at the controls when all of a sudden the vixen walled into the door of the bridge in Fox's clothes.

"Where is he? What's wrong?" She had look of worry on her face, "Will he be ok? When is he coming back?" She couldn't concentrate. It wasn't often that she had to ask so many questions, but with the new surroundings around her there would be a lot of that happening for a while. But now she genuinely feared for the health of the vulpine.

Peppy turned around in his chair glaring at the two mercenaries that stood before him, "Hey, I was down there looking for the guy. I don't have that kind of time," the falcon replied to this, looking offended.

"Don't look at me!" Slippy looked at Peppy, "I was on the bridge with you the whole time!"

Peppy turned back to meet the gaze of the worried vixen, "So, those roomers are true. You are physic," Krystal nodded her head and closed her eyes. General Pepper's head popped up on the display.

"Pepper here!" He said with a smile.

Peppy spoke with great honesty and clarity, "General Pepper, we've lost contact with Fox on Planet K6. He was after the distress signal there, and then he was shot down. Falco barely made it back. We have confirmation that his Arwing has crash landed. There are multiple supports there and the craft match the description of Andross's. We need back up!"

Pepper's smile quickly faded to a frown, "I'm sorry to here that. I'm sorry we can't send any forces to help you. We are still making our way out of a recent media crisis. Besides this is a time of peace. If we did send troops it would immediately kill the prosperity of the citizens of Corneria. I'm so sorry but, you guys are on your own this time."

Krystal could sense that Peppy was very angry with the answer that this Pepper fellow had just given him. But he still said, "Understood Starfox out," why had he taken no for and answer? She sure had a lot to learn about this new culture, "Well team?" Peppy mustered up the courage to speak, "What we need is a plan."

"A plan?" Krystal thought, "A plan? Fox is in danger! Why don't you just go? Go get him! Bring him back!" It surprised her how attached she had already grown to the fox. They had only known each other for but a day. Something about him was different. His mind was always calm. This made it relatively hard to find in a crowded environment. If he was unconscious, she could still have been able to find him. This worried her farther. It could possibly mean that he was dead. She had to leave, she had to try and find his brain waves again. She walked out of the bridge and headed back to the fox's room in attempts to find him once again.

The world came into focus. Fox was suspended in a tree 6 meters off the ground, still clipped to his seat. Still in daze he pressed the release button on the seat, and fell to the ground. He landed with a deep thud, he hissed, "That was dumb!"

Fox was glad there was no one around to see the decision he had made. Such a mistake could not be tolerated. If he had landed differently or had been higher this could have seriously hurt him. He remembered everything that happened. That wasn't very normal for a person that had just woken up from being unconscious. He lifted himself from the ground and expected his equipment.

The HUD lens on his eye had been cracked, but still data still scratched across the screen. Some of the tough fabric that composed his jacket was slightly ripped and torn. The LSR2 still clung to him, but it had a huge gash in the stock. Many of the rations and medical equipment was still attached to his backpack. And what had relieved him the most was that his father's Blaster was still in its usual place in the fox's holster.

But he noticed that a lot of things were missing or extremely damaged. The silver communicator on his arm was completely fried. No data scurried across it and the buttons and the screen remained dark. A bigger problem arose too. Only 2 bandoleers of the LSR2 sniper had stayed buckled to his jacket. During the quick ejection they must have been blown off. This only meant 10 rounds. That was bad.

At least they were the standard "shredder" rounds. These weren't as strong as the "tracer" rounds, but the tracer rounds left a long very obvious line through the sky from the sniper rifle's barrel to the target. If these had been tracer rounds, he would have had to been extra careful.

His body was in good shape though, besides having the wind knocked out of him when he foolishly decided to release himself from the seat. A few scratches across the face had originated from his fall through the trees. Over all his body was still in good condition.

Fox hoped that his Arwing had landed a good distance away from his body. What ever had shot him down would be soon looking for the Arwing, and looking for him. He had to get to the Arwing before they could find out that he had bailed out. Fox tapped at a few buttons on his HUD. It displayed him being a half kilometer away from his fallen fighter.

If the distress beckon on the Arwing still worked he had to activate it. He had to let the Great Fox know that he was still breathing. The vulpine stood, and turned to the direction his HUD had displayed. He loaded a round into the chamber of the LSR2 and flicked the safety setting on and counted allowed, "One," he had to move quick if he was going to beat whatever it was that shot him down to his own crash site.

After a minuet of running, the fox halted and glanced around. Something didn't feel right. Was it a trap? Fox had always been told to trust his instincts. And they were telling him something was wrong, "You can't just stay here! You have to go!" His conscience yelled at him. He knew to be weary of what his conscience tolled him. His father had said that your conscience is unfocused and that is what gets you killed.

But his instincts told him different, "Stop Fox! There's something out there. Slow down and be careful!" He decided to keep moving. What ever was out there couldn't put up that much of a fight. But then he thought back to the quick silver flash that had taken out his Arwing. Fox decided to stop. He peered down the scope of his sniper into the woods in front him.

The forest was mostly carnivorous trees. It was very bright. The sun shot through the tops and landed on the ground illuminating the white moss that grew there in small patches. A few deciduous trees speckled the forest. It gave it an odd open feeling. When the fox lay down on the ground to look through his scope he realized that you could see at least 100 meters.

He could easily see targets and if he wasn't well enough hidden they could easily see him too. Not a great environment for sniping, but it was all he had besides the short range Blaster. The sights were clean but he still moved slowly through the bush.

A bush far in front of him moved. Fox had been rewarded for his caution. He quickly fell to the ground placing the sniper on a fallen tree for support. He had never seen anything like this trooper before. Another one soon fallowed it. They were completely covered from head to toe in silver and red armor. Small round helmets covered their heads and reflective black visors coved their faces. The armor looked like a vacuum seal. Around their necks were small machine guns, Fox had seen these guns before, when he was with Bill. Many of Andross's troops carried these.

They were in between him and his Arwing. This automatically made the targets. Fox flipped the safety on his rifle off, and held his breath. He shook and lifted from the scope. It had been so long that he had taken a life this way. He hoped never to do this again, but it was either him or them now. He replaced his eye down the sights of the rifle and placed the cross hairs on the chest of the enemy. Snipers had always been taught to aim for the center of mass. On most targets this was the chest.

He pulled his eye away once more looking at the approaching soldier in the distance. Something wanted him to stop, to think. But then his training took over. Fox once again put his eye down the scope and read the distance on his HUD. He then whispered to no one, "I don't shoot men. I don't shoot people. I shoot uniforms and I shoot ranks," he breathed in, and pulled the trigger.

Krystal sat up in the fox's bed. She had just been lying down and getting up so fast gave her a head rush, "What was that?" She thought. Something had caught her attention. It had seemed almost like a remorseful thought wave. She tried to refocus her psychosis back on the thought. It was different from all the others on the ship. It had come from a long ways away.

It didn't take her long to find the mind that the thought had come from. It was now racing, like Fox's always had when she had tried to talk to him,"Is this him? Why couldn't I sense him before?" She tried harder to find him and go deeper into his mind. "Yes," she said allowed, "this is Fox. He's alive."

She got off the comfy bed and ran down the hallway to the bridge. When the door opened the three of them stopped talking and looked at her. It was like they were shutting out their thoughts so she couldn't read them. It made her feel awkward and unwanted. What ever, she didn't have time for this. She spoke with excitement, "It's Fox! I've found him!"

Falco was the first to jump off his seat with Peppy and Slippy slightly behind him. They all wanted to ask the same question but he beat them to it, "Where is he?"

"I don't know."

Falco sounded frustrated, "You don't know?"

"No," she paused, "but he is alive! I can feel it. I can sense it."

"Well what good does that…" Falco was soon cut off by Peppy with a simple paw gesture.

"Enough Falco, we know that he is alive and that's good enough for me. All we have to do is find out where he is and how to get him out."

"Well good luck! Even if we could get to him, the Great Fox is too big, and would get shot down in the Arwings. Besides we can't land it one the ground," Slippy said, "Plus the Arwings are too small to fit more then one person."

"That's right," Falco replied.

"What about Krystal's ship?" Slippy asked.

"No way frog boy! Even if we did know were he was that anti-air gun would simply shoot it down. You saw what it almost turned me into! Even I could barely doge that thing in the Arwing. You think that tank of a ship would make down there with her behind the controls?" Falco pointed at Krystal.

"If that AA gun wasn't there…" Peppy paused, "Then we could send you and Slippy down there in the Arwings to protect Krystal."

"Yeah ok. But what about that AA gun?" Slippy asked.

"That, I have not yet found and answer to. But I have found out the location of it. If we could get a hold of Fox maybe he would be able to take it out for us."

Fox's mind calmed. He rose up from the ground and headed towards the "uniforms" he had just shot. He hated to see them up close, dead, but he had to find out what was going on here, "These tropes are obviously Andross's. But why had they set themselves on such a peaceful planet?" Fox thought. Then remembering back to the Great Fox and what Peppy had told him. The foliage was too thick for radar to pierce.

It all made sense now. If they could just stay here without effecting the planets environment no one would notice and no one would come looking. But there were some things that still didn't add up. Like why there was a distress signal. Was it a trap? Or was their actually some thing else here that needed help? It wasn't likely that they enemy couldn't pick up the signals. But it was still a possibility.

The vulpine stood over the dead bodies, "Just ranks," he said to comfort himself. A symbol stood out on the shoulder pads of the troops. Yeah, it was Andross. He leaned over and picked one of the weapons up from off the soldier's chest. It was a small machine gun, just a little smaller then the P32 Machine Guns back on the Great Fox. It was very light and had an amazing rate of fire, but this was sacrificed for less accuracy and power. Fox didn't mind this though and plucked the weapon from out of the trooper's hand. He might need the fire power. He attached it securely to the outside of his backpack so no matter how fast he ran it wouldn't fall. The fox had only found one more additional clip for the gun and he had taken that right out of the duplicate weapon that the other one carried. It was foolish of them to carry such little ammo.

It was only about 150 meters to the small clearing in which Fox's Arwing had landed. Fox lay down right at the tree line, "There it is!" Fox's mind sang. But there was something else there too.

"What is it?"

"How am I supposed to know, you moron!?!" Two soldiers stood at a huge plane-like object that had pounded it's self into the ground. It had landed without a skid. This meant that it was falling almost straight vertically when it had hit the ground, "It looks like that thing that the Rail-Gun shot down earlier."

"Should we tell command?"

The ruder of the two looked at the other, "And risk getting our hides tanned? No way they'll come get the parts soon enough! What if it's just another straggler? The last time command got a phony call they freaked! You think I'm gonna take that risk you idiot?"

"Hey calm down. I'm sure that their interested in whatever information they can get," the more polite soldier stepped onto what was one the wing of the craft. It had been slightly burnt, "Besides, look at this!" He brushed a blue flap by the cockpit of the craft. An insignia began to appear. It appeared to a red quadruped with a long tail and wings.

"Outta the way!" The soldier pushed the other off the wing, "Lets see… WHOA! You know what this is? That's the Starfox symbol! This is one of their fighters. There isn't a seat in it either. The probably means that the pilot bailed out! Get command on that radio! You and I are up for a promotion! Haha!"

The other soldier jumped off the ground in agreement. And pulled the radio off his back and began to talk into it, "Command this is…" then silence came over the trooper as he fell to the grass in a heap of limbs and armor.

The other man was agitated by this. He jumped off the wing and yelled, "What are you doing? Stop joking around!" He was just about to kick his comrade in the back when his world became black. He felt a strong pressure on his chest then found himself tipping over and his feet rise from the ground. He hadn't lived long enough to hit it.

Fox burst from the tree line running at full speed to his Arwing. There would soon be more troops heading toward it. With the communicator being completely ruined the Arwing was the only way he could contact the Great Fox. He skidded to a halt at the hull. It wasn't completely destroyed. Most of the cockpit had remained intact during the fall and the consol didn't have to may problems.

A radio rest on the ground and suddenly blurted out, "2-4 this is command, did not receive last transmission. Please repeat, over," Fox nearly jumped out of his fur. It scared him so much. But they would be expecting a reply soon. If they didn't get one, they would probably know that something was wrong and send more troops. Fox couldn't risk this.

He snatched the radio from off the ground, quickly assessing it and learning how to use it. He pressed the button on the side and held the radio to his muzzle. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure if they used a special way of communicating. This meant if he said the wrong thing they could find out that something wasn't right. He wasn't about to proper Cornerian way that he been taught. They would surely come after him then. But he had to say something, "Command this is 2-4, nothing seen. We will be continuing our search," nothing came in reply. This scared him even more. It could possible meant that he had been, what they called in the business "made".

A crisp calm voice then came, "Roger 2-4, keep looking!" He couldn't be certain that they had bought it but what was done, was done. Fox flicked off the radio and tucked it into his pack that was now only starting to get full after his quick-drop. It might come in handy to eavesdrop on the comm. network.

It felt like eternity since he had been in the Arwing. He hoped the cargo-hold had held its self together. Fox tried to open the hatch to the cargo hold but it had been fused shut. Fox wielded his Class D Blaster and fired a trio of plasma rounds onto the latch. He ripped open the latch with an edge of the steel armor that covered his forearms so he wouldn't burn himself on the molten metal that had once been the lock. It plied open door to the cargo bay open and Fox looked in. There wasn't much left and a gaping hole had been left were the engine had been. There were a few things though. 3 more bandoleers of LSR2 ammo and 1 bandoleer of tracer rounds along with a few rations had remained, "doesn't matter, good enough," Fox said allowed, "What about the communications system though?" Fox closed the hatch and took a seat on the wing while reaching into whatever was left of the cockpit.

He pressed down on a pad, "Great Fox… this is Fox. Can anyone here me?" He waited, nothing came. He tried again.

"Great Fox this is Fox McCloud," it made the whole team sitting in the bridge jump. None of them expected to here anything from Fox.

"Fox!" Peppy turned to the control, "This is Great Fox! We can here you Fox!"

The voice came once again to the radio, "That's great guys."

Falco stepped to the controls nudging the old man out of the way, "Where have you been? I came down there looking for you and I didn't see squat! You ok?"

"Relax Falco, I'm fine. I just want to get out of here. This place is crawling with Andross's troops."

"Yeah I know. I think I saw their main base on the way down. I was big! I could see it through the tops of the trees!" Falco blurted.

Peppy pushed Falco out of the way of the radio, "Ok Fox here's what you're going to have to do…" he was cut off by the vulpine on the other end of the radio.

"What do you mean? Get me out of here!"

Peppy said with more urgency, "Look here Fox, we can't get you. Not right now anyways! So listen up!"

"Grrr, fine! What do I need to do?"

"You need to find the thing that shot you down and take it out. I have pinpointed its location. We can't come get you until you take it out."

Slippy budged in, "Fox I'm uploading the coordinates to you HUD now."

The HUD blinked then read the new data, "Are you guys kidding? This is over 40 kilometers away! What do you expect me to do?"

"Walk," Falco said.

"It's all you've got Fox," Peppy leaned back into his chair, "You have weapons right?"

Fox sat on the wing of his fallen fighter, "Yeah, yeah I got weapons," Fox was agitated, "But how will you guys know if I make it or not?"

Fox waited temporarily for the reply, it soon came, "Fox your survival is priority number one. I will know that you will make it."

"Hello! It took me all day to get just to make it here. How will you know if I am dead or just running behind?"

The radio scratched, "We will know when the power center is destroyed. You still have at least 1 D22 charge left right?"

"Yeah, I still got 1. But you guys have to keep your eyes open for the power spike. I can't have you sleeping on the job!"

"Relax, I will be here most the time. If I am not here, ROB will alert me if there are any unusual power spikes or one that resembles the D22 explosive charge," Peppy leaned back into his chair awaiting the reply.

"And have you guys any thoughts on how to get me out of here when the deed is done?" Fox asked.

"Yes," Peppy's voice came in return, "Krystal's ship has the capability to carry passengers. If you can destroy that AA gun we can send the other Arwings down there to escort her for picking you up."

"Peppy, this is going to be a long trip. I have encountered many enemy patrols already. I haven't even made it a kilometer yet!" Fox wanted to state this just to make sure that they knew how long it could take him.

"As of right now Fox, from General Pepper's command you have permission to destroy whatever gets in your way. As I said earlier your survival is key. You may use whatever means necessary to get your tail out of trouble and back on this ship," Peppy said.

"Alright," Fox smiled, he loved to be weapons free, "I guess I had better get started. But what do I do with the Arwing? Do I just leave it here? It has already been discovered but I killed the ones who had found it."

"Fox you have to activate the self destruct program. We can't let it fall into enemy hands."

"Got it, see you guys."

"Good luck Fox. See you soon!" Falco's voice came over the radio of the Arwing.

Fox got up from the wing of what had once been his Arwing, touched a few buttons on the consol. It read 10 minuets and started to decrease. He strapped his pack to his back and walked through the clearing toward the waypoint that had been put on his HUD. It was going to be one hell of a journey. At the edge of the clearing Fox stopped and emptied out every last item he had onto the ground in front of himself, just to see what he had to work with.

In the grass in front of him sat a small machine gun with one additional magazine. One LSR2 sniper rifle with 21 shredder rounds and 5 tracer rounds remained. It wasn't a lot of ammunition for a sniper but with the "one shot one kill" way of operation it would be enough, probably.

His Blaster had remained intact and working. It had unlimited ammunition but was only good to such a range. It was designed for close quarters combat on a ship. A medical and 4 ration packs still were clipped to him black jacket. No grenades but he still had a D22 sensor bomb. The small black radio that he had recovered from the soldiers he has shot earlier was also there.

The protective armor on his shoulders, forearms and knees was still there. Plus his combative boots and uniform was still in fairly good shape. It would be enough to conceal him. With all the futuristic technology, this wasn't that heavy. Fox knew that all this weight would slow him down slightly but it was still better then leaving it behind. He was not yet sure about what he was up against and what ever he could possibly carry may lead him to a huge advantage.

Not exactly what he would have chosen for a mission such as serious as your number one priority was survival. It would have to do though. The vulpine repacked everything to be more space conserving. Then he flipped the pack back over onto his shoulders with the LSR2 still wielded in his paws and the Blaster rolled back into its holster.

He watched the counter on his HUD slowly make its way to zero, covered his ears and the Arwing exploded. Fox knew that the enemy scanners would be able to sense this. There was no way anyone in a 2 kilometer radius couldn't have heard that. And they would soon come looking for what had caused it, and for him.

As far as Fox knew that there was no enemy alive had discovered his Arwing and they knew nothing of his existence. Always an advantage, especially for a sniper. He refocused his eye onto the cracked screen of his HUD, "Only 40 kilometers to go," He said swallowed, talking to no one. He spun in the direction of the target and started walking. The radio on his belt began to chatter with troops asking questions of the blast.

Fox smiled. These boys were in for a wild ride. Fox was down but he was not out for the count. And it was time to get a little vengeance. Fox snapped the bolt shut. Leaving the gun dry without a round.