Star Fox: Eclipse

Chapter 17: A New Dawn

Krystal scanned Corneria City with her mind, desperately searching for another trace of the enemy leader's mental activity. I'm positive that he is in the city somewhere, she assured herself, but I cannot locate a source. Every time I think I have his position, he is nowhere to be seen. The vixen turned her ship to leave the middle of the fighting and flew toward the outskirts of the city, sensing stronger thought patterns in that direction. Aparoids scattered throughout the roadways and Krystal fired the Cloudrunner's alternating guns into the masses, hoping to take out a few of their numbers in her pursuit. She spotted a hatcher clutching the base of a small building and destroyed it with a charged beam, ensuring that less aparoids would spawn in the area from then on.

"Help, I've been hit!" The voice of a Cornerian pilot sounded from beside her.

Glancing out her window, Krystal followed the dog's ship until it crashed into the side of a skyscraper with an explosion, helpless to come to the pilot's aid before it was too late. She searched for the enemy that had shot him down, but could not identify the shooter. She thought she caught a glimpse of black in her peripheral vision but it faded before it could be seen clearly.

Then she sensed the thought patterns of the new leader of Oikonny's army. Again, he was close, but impossible to see among the masses of friendly and enemy ships mixed with aparoids. I must have seen a glimpse of his ship when he shot the Cornerian out of the sky, Krystal thought, but he is definitely using a cloaking device. How will I ever manage to shoot him down when he is constantly hidden from me? The vixen's mind wandered back to the top of the Krazoa Palace during her fight against General Scales. He also fought with the power of invisibility, but my telepathic senses helped me to predict his moves and counteract them, she recalled. Somehow, she would have to do the same again.

Maneuvering through Corneria's skyscrapers, Krystal cast her senses outward to foresee the enemy's next target. Wait a minute; his next target isn't another ordinary fighter... It's Fox! He's growing impatient on light fighters, he wants to hit us hard! Immediately she searched the skies for her friend, using her ship's boosters to propel her toward his marker on her radar. She found him destroying an aparoid hatcher on the top of Persimmon's, but could not read her enemy's exact position.

He is almost close enough to get a shot, Krystal thought as she approached Fox. He has him locked in his sights... "Fox, look out!" She cried. But before she could tell him what was happening, something slammed into the Cloudruner's right wing, rocking her backward and causing her ship to spin out of control. Fighting back panic, she opened her ship's cockpit and ejected from it, using her jetpack to escape her damaged ship. The Cloudrunner crashed into the ground and skidded along a road just outside Persimmon's. Its right wing snapped in half as smoke and fire rose from it.

Krystal landed atop the building, using her jetpack to slow her descent onto the rooftop. On the ground beside her aircraft, a thin black ship lay covered in dents and slices. Its pilot was gone, but the vixen knew that she had collided with the new leader of Oikonny's forces.

"Are you alright?" Fox asked frantically through her wrist communicator. "What happened?"

"I'm fine," Krystal assessed herself to be sure that she was not injured from the collision. "Although I think I found our pilot. He must have been so focused on taking you down that he didn't notice me intersecting his flight path. Even I didn't know we were so close," she admitted. "His ship was invisible, so I hit him entirely by mistake trying to warn you."

Fox soared over her head in his Arwing, assessing the damage while continuing the fight in the air. "At least you're safe," he breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you know what happened to him?"