Star Fox: Eclipse

Chapter 8: Darkness Falls

Krystal crouched beside Fox as blaster rounds flashed past their shelters. It seemed as if she and her wingman were outnumbered almost fifty to two, and the volleys of shots fired at them seemed relentless. The marksmen that ambushed them were not Corneirans; they were Oikonny's soldiers. They must have taken control of the base before Krystal and Fox reached it. Even more worrying, Falco and the rest of the Star Fox team were nowhere to be found. Krystal couldn't detect a trace of their mental activity as she scanned the area with her telepathic powers.

"We're sitting ducks out here," Fox called out through the noise of rapid gunfire. "They'll surround us if we don't do something."

Krystal approached the edge of the building she was hiding behind so that she could get a glimpse at their attackers. "Got any bright ideas?" She poked her head out from her shelter, risking a glance at her enemy and retreating immediately as a laser whizzed over her head.

Observing her inventory, all the vixen had to work with were her blaster, staff, and several grenades. Fox had the same, except for her magical staff. Krystal pulled a grenade off her belt and began charging it. "At least we can slow them down," she sighed as she hurled it in the air, over their shelter and into the mass of gunners firing from the Katina Outpost rooftops.

Fox threw a grenade to follow it. Both exploded with a blast and several of the monkey gunners fell from the rooftop, thrown off by the detonation. Another volley of grenades followed, leaving hardly a dent in the number of shooters firing at the pair of foxes.

"Well that was great," Krystal retrieved her blaster from her hip. "Several down, dozens more to go."

"Let's get cracking then," Fox wielded his blaster and the duo began firing shots back into the enemy swarm, flashing out from behind their cover and retreating repeatedly.

As a barrage of plasma rounds flew past Krystal, she burst from her hiding place and began firing at the nearest snipers. She took one out with a shot to the chest and then hid around the corner of the structure that Fox was crouched behind. She waited again for several shots and then repeated the process, taking out another nearby gunner.

"This is hopeless, Fox! There are way too many of them!"

"Hold tight, we can do this!" Just as Fox's reply came, the massive army of Venomian soldiers ceased fire. Several moments passed on in silence, and Krystal risked a peek out from behind her shelter.

A new figure had appeared on the rooftops with the monkey gunmen. The pilot strode out from the heart of the outpost, his footsteps echoing like the sound of thunder as he paced toward the edge to view his sheltering prey. Silence persisted and not a single soldier moved while the pilot's metallic boots clanged against the roof of the base.

Whoever this new enemy was, Krystal knew that it wasn't Oikonny. He was a fox with dark colored fur, tall and strong in appearance. He was armored with a metal chest plate covering his black space suit and two laser swords attached to a belt at his waist. He wielded a large red rocket launcher in his hands and a grey helmet covered the back of his head, connected to a visor that veiled his eyes. The Androssian soldiers turned to await his orders, as if he was their leader.

"That's not Oikonny!" Fox whispered. "Who is he?"

Krystal said nothing in reply, staring at her new foe in bewilderment.

The newcomer raised his rocket launcher and positioned it so that Krystal was staring down the barrel. With a gasp, she barely rolled to cover behind her building in time as a missile burst from the launcher and exploded into the ground where she had been crouched.