Marcus shed a tear as he looked down at the old photograph of his late father's team. Five elite pilots, posing in front of one of their then-new arwings. Five names all but forgotten by the public.
The first to perish was Peppy. He was found dead in his chair by his daughter. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest. It was believed that whatever Pigma had done to him on Venom had shortened his lifespan by decades.
Next to perish was team leader Fox Mccloud. On what was supposed to be a routine mission, a glitch in the software caused him to lose control and crash. The ship's advanced safety features kept him from dying on the spot, but even they couldn't violate the laws of physics. After being rescued from the burning wreckage, he held on to life for as long as he could before dying in Krystal's arms.
Without their leader, the team didn't have the heart to stick together. After the second Star Fox team dissolved, they each went their separate ways. Krystal retired to raise her son, Marcus. Slippy started working for his father's company, inventing new technologies for Lylat's betterment. Falco slipped off the radar altogether.
A few years later, Krystal contracted a deadly mutation of the flu. Fearing a devastating outbreak, Corneria's top medical scientists got to work trying to develop a treatment. By the time they succeeded, Krystal had already passed away.
Slippy perished a few months later in an accident in his lab. They were working on a more efficient power source when the experimental core quickly grew unstable and exploded. Fragments from the metal containment sphere had pierced nearly every vital organ and cut into several major arteries. He didn't suffer long.
Last to perish was Falco. After coming to Marcus's thirtieth birthday celebration, he died in a motorcycle crash. He was sixty-three, the longest living member of the Star Fox teams.
The forty year old vulpine put the photograph in a new frame and placed it on his desk. It was then he decided to make sure his parents and the rest of the team were not forgotten. He would write a book. He'd commission a small monument. He'd even try to get a movie made. All so the Star Fox team could inspire countless generations to do whatever it takes to fight for what's right.
He'd start tomorrow. Today, he's going to tell his family the story of the greatest group of pilots the Lylat System had ever known.