Chapter 16

(I am so sorry for the long update...but things have happened. I planned to update sooner but was called away for business then, when I get home, I find my files have been deleted so I have to go to my friend's place just to get my back ups...Well I'm rambling so...here's ch 16 enjoy...)

Fox and the group of now six animals made their way carefully down the streets taking cover where they could...the flight academy was pretty far away yet. The streets were filled with the Cerinian soldiers, Krystal kept trying to contact them with her telepathy but, all she received in reply was mindless droning on and on about obeying...The Master. At one point she simply gave up as they hid behind an overturned truck and broke down into tears, she couldn't handle what was happening, not only was her new home being attacked...but nonetheless by her own people who didn't even seem to have control of themselves. Fox could only try to console her as best he could. He managed to calm her down after a moment or so but even that wasn't to last as Kaplain pointed onto the horizon...

"Sniper!"

Fox took Krystal by the shoulders as he caught the sight of the flash of light from the far off weapon's scope, and threw her to one side back to the cover of the truck. His motion to protect her however placed himself in that path of the high powered round that slammed into his right shoulder, which threw him to the ground making him slide several feet across the pavement. His impact with the heavy asphalt had laid him unconscious. The sniper didn't even see the round fired from the rifle Krystal had stripped from Emmerson's hands...apparently she'd finally snapped. She reloaded the weapon firing at another of the animals, she took down as many as possible before the weapon ran out of ammo. Finally she threw down the weapon and pulled out her own Gattling gun. There was no hope for the small group of soldiers that rushed toward them...the armor piercing rounds from the lightweight machine gun tore through the entire platoon. Finally someone pulled her back behind their cover and ripped the gun from her paws, as she wiped the tears from her eyes her sight returned to normal, instead of an empty blur, she now saw that Fox was holding her down, there was a large bullet wound in his shoulder but it didn't stop him from holding her as tightly as he could...

"Krys...calm down...please..."

Krystal wiped a new batch of tears from her eyes only to realize that her hands were covered in blood, "Fox...you're hit, and bleeding badly."

Maree called to his medic, "Floyd go check him out..."

The dark furred echidna rushed over to Fox and quickly started inspecting the wound. After a few moment he motioned for Fox to lay down, from his pack he produced a small green capsule and held it between his thumb and forefinger at Fox's eye level, Krystal seemed a bit curious even though Fox had no idea what he was looking at...

"Okay Fox...this is called a Fusion Pack...They just got released for military use." Floyd said, "Now brace yourself...these things hurt like a bitch."

"Can't be any worse that the bullet was..." Fox said, he was feeling a bit dizzy from his blood loss.

Floyd produced a small metal disc which was topped by a small dial, he set the disc over the wound and sharply turned the dial. The device made a buzzing sound and Fox let out a scream, he tried to pull the device off of his chest but Floyd simply knocked his hand away every time he tried. After a few seconds Fox's body went limp as he passed out and the disc made a slight metal on metal chime. As Floyd pulled the disc away Krystal noticed it's purpose, a bloody bullet was stuck to the bottom of the device. After this had happened, Fox managed to wake up just in time for Floyd to jam the small green capsule into the open wound ushering another scream from the vulpine as a strange liquid began to seep out of the wound almost instantly hardening...

"Thanks Floyd..." Fox managed to say as Krystal hugged the heavily breathing fox, who felt a bit nauseous from the pain.

As the two joined the group again Floyd reached over and stuck a small gun-like device to Fox's injured arm. Fox felt a stinging prick as the device released an airy hiss. His arm almost instantly went numb...

"You know...you could have done that before you tore a bullet out of my arm."

Floyd laughed a bit, "My bad..."

"How much further?" Fox asked somehow managing to get to his feet with Krystal's help.

"The flight academy is about two miles, north by northeast." Kaplain replied.

Maree looked around, "Emmerson see what you can do about getting us some transport..."

"On it sir." Emmerson replied rushing off into the bloody mess Krystal had left in her wake.

Krystal took her time examining the wound in Fox's shoulder, Wolf went over some things with Maree, and Kaplain and Floyd were keeping a clear eye on their teammate that was not far down the road with his head under the hood of a hover car. There was hardly a wait at all before Emmerson pulled up to the team's cover behind the half destroyed delivery truck...

"I hope someone here knows how to drive..." He said leaping out of the car, "...I'm not exactly trained for mobile artillery..." He said looking to their faces, "..Okay! I dive like shit, happy?"

"I'll drive..." Wolf said climbing into the driver's seat.

The vehicle was only meant to hand five but they managed with the seven of them, the soldiers on the street no longer mattered, any that were stupid enough to get in the way of the speeding vehicle were hit. The once long trip had now only taken them minutes, they found that the large training facility had been locked down. Maree's group covered the team as Wolf pounded on the door...

"This is Lieutenant Wolf O'donnel...unlock the doors!!"

There was a shuffling sound behind the blast proof doors and in a few moments, the doors slowly slid open allowing the animals to retreat inside one by one. The insides of the place were nothing like Fox remembered, there were dead and wounded everywhere; crying, screaming, whispering. Krystal grasped the side of her head and nearly collapsed only to have Fox catch her by the arm...

"Hey are you okay?"

"There's...so much...pain in here. I have...to get out."

Fox looked around for a moment then took her by the wrist, "Come on follow me."

Fox had spent enough time around her to know about how far from the people she needed to be until the feeling became somewhat sufferable. The relatively empty hanger seemed to be good enough as Krystal knelt over, the pressure from several things at once forcing her to throw up. Fox had always known how much this part of her telepathy hurt her, it wasn't the first time he'd seen it make her physically ill...

Fox rubbed her back hoping it would help, "You gonna be okay?"

"Yes...I should be fine Fox, thank you." She replied hugging him, "How do you go through this all the time?"

"Well this is your first real ground mission..." Fox said pulling her closer, "...unfortunately killing is one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. Give it time and it won't effect you so much, I just hope our kit doesn't have to go through all of this. I'd like at least one McCloud to grow up and never see this side of war."

"You and me both..." Krystal said releasing their embrace, "Fox...could the Great Fox land in here?"

Fox looked to the roof...the hanger to the Flight Academy had not changed, they used to bring in a Dreadnought class ship to demonstrate proper take off procedures and crew maintenance on a live ship. It was possible in fact they could get all of the survivors her out of the city and off the planet. Fox studied the place for a few minutes before he grabbed Krystal kissing her very deeply...

"You're beautiful and you're a genius." He said as he broke away from her turning to his communicator, "Yo...Sarah...can you get a read on Me and Krystal's location?"

It took a few seconds for a reply, "Yeah but, why?"

"Emergency evac...we need you to bring that thing right through the hanger roof of the Flight Academy you got that? Do NOT wait for the hanger door to open, smash through it."

"Rodger that Fox...give me ten and I'll be there. Sarah out."

Fox and Krystal rushed back into the main room where Fox tried to get everyone's attention but the talking was just too much.. "God damn it to..." He lifted his rifle and let off a stream of rounds evoking several shrieks of terror from those in the huddled masses. Their eyes all fell on the vulpine weilding the smoking rifle, "NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION!! THE GREAT FOX IS ON IT'S WAY THROUGH THE HANGER DOORS JUST DOWN THIS HALLWAY!! WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!! NO PUSHING JUST FILE THROUGH THE HALL SO EVERYONE CAN GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE IN ONE PIECE!! GOT IT?!...GOOD THEN LETS MOVE!! KEPLAIN, MAREE HELP THE OLDER SURVIVORS UP FRONT, WOLF SEE TO THE KIDS!!"

Krystal wasn't surprised at how fast Fox snapped into his role as a natural leader but, she was impressed at how quickly he get everything in order and all the animals lined up in the hall waiting for the Great Fox. Fox, Krystal, Wolf, and Maree's remaining group stood up front...

"Alright everyone..." Fox said as he could see the Great Fox still quite a ways up, "When the Great Fox comes through the roof get on as quickly and as calmly as possible. Don't worry if you hear gunfire just keep moving and everyone'll be fine."

A few more seconds passed and the roof sank inward shattering into thousands of massive pieces of stone and twisted metal. A few seconds after the ship touched down several of the dark armored Cerinians fell through the hole in the ceiling but were mowed down by Maree's men. Every second more and more of the attackers flooded in through the hole in the ceiling but regardless of how many came they were taken out by a steady hail of gunfire. Soon all of the survivors were on board the Great Fox and Fox's small group began to blaze a way toward the ship. That was when Fox heard a scream, he looked back to see Floyd as his body was riddled with bullets. Keplain who'd always been close to Floyd rushed the group that had killed his friend a disturbingly loud battle cry rushed from his lungs as his weapon tore through his friend's killers, a wound exploded from his head and his body fell on top of Floyd's his weapon still firing off several rounds as he went down. As Fox and Krystal made it to the ship something struck the back of Fox's thigh forcing him to the ground. Wolf moved to his side taking him by the arm while firing his weapon with his free arm, when he finally reached the opening to the Great Fox he turned and tossed Fox inside...

He lifted his communicator to his face, "SARAH!! GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE NOW!!"

"But you..." Her voice came back.

"THAT WAS AN ORDER DAMN IT!!" Wolf screamed as he kept firing his weapon.

Maree and Emmerson pulled up beside the gray lupine helping protect the ship, "If you're going down we're coming with you sir."

Fox had already lost consciousness from the blood loss in his leg, but as the Great Fox pulled out Krystal saw Wolf turn to the ship and smile just before, him, Maree, and Emmerson were overpowered disappearing in a sea of black armor, she could do nothing but hold Fox and cry for the life Wolf had given to protect them all...