A/N: Before you read this story, I think you should know that the Anglar Blitz never happened in this story. It does not, and will not exist, so if it seems I'm ignoring that plot, that's why. Though most characters from Command will appear in this story.
Star Fox: A Hero will Rise
Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox team, was sitting in the chair of his new ship, the Great Fox II; a dreadnaught-class cruiser, similar to the original Great Fox, but with major upgrades, the first being the ships new engine set up; instead of the three standard sub-light speed engines, the new Great Fox had four newly designed engines that made the ship capable of faster than light travel, with three smaller sub-light engines attached to the larger ones. The advantage of faster than light travel was that the Great Fox could travel great distances without the need of a warp gate, and it was also the fast cruiser in the galaxy when traveling outside of light speed, making it impossible to escape from, or catch up to if need be.
The next enhancement for the Great Fox was a cloaking device that had been added to the designs at last minute; thanks to enhanced light-bending and reflection technology, the Great Fox could turn invisible to the naked eye, and sensor jamming technology made it impossible to find on any radar. This made stealth missions a breeze for Fox's team.
The third enhancement for the cruiser was an upgraded weapons array; the original Great Fox had only one major weapon, and that was its duel forward mounted heavy cannons, which would devastate just about any enemy craft, but it wasn't of much help most of the time, it's only real usage being clearing a path for the cruiser in the Meteo system. The Great Fox II still had it's forward mounted heavy cannons, but that was no longer the ships only weapons; it had six rotating single-barreled capitol turrets, four on top of the ship, and two on the bottom, and was capable of devastating both an enemies cruisers shields and hull in just a few shots. The Great Fox was also armed with fifteen anti-air rapid fire tripled-barreled plasma cannons, which could wipe out squadrons of fighters in just a matter of minutes, if not seconds. The final weapon enhancement were the four missile silos that were added to the cruiser, two each on the port and starboard side of the ship; the missiles were designed to wipe out enemy ground bases and surrounding forces, though they could be used on a small enemy fleet that could cause massive damage to capital ships and fighters unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast.
The forth and final enhance to the Great Fox was actually its design; instead of sticking with the bulky design of the original Great Fox, the new cruiser was given a more sleek design, more like a wide, hexagonal arrowhead, with the 'tip' of the arrow head being caused by a sudden slant new the front of the ship, while the rest of ship was flat. The engines were also protected by this new design, since the ship split, in a way, and the engines were placed inside the split, making the engines harder to hit, even with agile starfighters like Wolfen's. The new ship was wider and flatter than the original, giving its new weapons the maximum range of maneuverability, meaning that there was no design flaw that would interfere with the weapons aim, or risk damaging the ship accidentally while auto-tracking a target, and shooting itself in the process. Also, instead of have the x-shaped wing layout, the new Great Fox two had no wings whatsoever. The bridge was located at the 'tip' of the arrowhead, and the hangers were located at the top of the cruiser, instead of the bottom. Fox was uncomfortable using the new ship design, since the original design was conceived of by his father when he first founded the Star Fox team, but his childhood friend Slippy convinced Fox that the advantages would pay off in the long run, and as much Fox hated to admit it, the toad was right, the ship's improvements in both technology and designed had actually saved his team more than the original Great Fox ever did. However, Fox was beginning to worry that the creation of his new mother ship was going to turn into the physical manifestation of irony at its finest; though the Lylat System was only seven months in after the end of the Aparoid War, there wasn't much need for big time mercenaries like the Star Fox team, and they had really only been on small time escort missions and to stop interplanetary skirmishes, and peace was starting to take over Lylat. Something like that was something that was supposed to be celebrated by ordinary people, but Fox was far from ordinary; he was a mercenary, some who lived off of battles and conflicts, and the battles and wars that seemed to have plagued Lylat for years, were all deep in the past, and nothing exciting appeared to be happening at all anytime soon, and as much as Fox didn't want to admit it, he was extremely bored.
Great Fox Bridge; flying through Quiet Space. 10:55 am Corneria Standard Time
Despite it being a little more than an hour before noon, a light snoring could be heard inside the bridge of the Great Fox. Anyone that knew the Star Fox team on a personal level would believe that it was Falco that was sleeping in the middle of the day, but it was surprising the ever alert Fox McCloud. With the captain and ace pilot having nothing better to do, Fox decided to take a nap in his comfortable captain's chair, since Krystal kept him up all night the night before. As much as Fox loved his fiancé, she would constantly bug him in the middle of the night until she got what she wanted from him, and most of the time, Fox was too tired to argue with her. Although Fox tried to continue sleeping, the hissing of the automatic doors leading into the bridge opening woke the mercenary leader up. Fox opened his eyes to see that it was Falco that had disturbed him from his peaceful slumber, but Fox took that as his cue to start moving around.
"Hey Foxie, Krystal keep you up all night again?" Falco asked, as he got a soda from the mini-fridge that had placed on the bridge.
"Yeah, she just kept poking me while I was trying to sleep. There wasn't much I could do, so I just agreed to go with what she wanted until she finally left me alone." Fox said, and Falco just chuckled as he got in his own personal chair on the bridge.
"Well, that's what you get for going beyond the point of no return. You have no one to blame but yourself buddy." Falco said, and Fox shook his head.
"It's not that I don't want to, she just chooses the most inconvenient times." Fox said, and Krystal walked in as soon as Fox entered the bridge, wearing a huge smile on her face as she looked at Fox.
"Good morning darling." Krystal said as she walked over to Fox and kissed the top of his head, but her initial response was just a yawn.
"Morning Krys." Fox said, and Krystal took a seat in a nearby chair.
"Sorry I kept you up all night Fox; I just couldn't keep the subject out of my mind." Krystal said, and Fox smiled.
"It's alright Krystal. I know how important this is to you." Fox said knowingly, and Krystal smiled again.
"I just want every detail of our wedding to be important." Krystal said, and Fox got out of his chair, walked over to Krystal, and kissed her on the cheek.
"I know, and I'm glad you're so excited about our wedding; when I asked, I was kind of worried you'd say no." Fox said, and Krystal just kissed Fox full on the lips, which lasted a couple of minutes before she separated, much to Fox's disappointment.
"Fox, that was greatest thing you asked of me. After asking me to join the team that is." Krystal said, and Falco began acting like he was barfing.
"Geeze, couldn't you two continue that somewhere else? Otherwise I'm going to throw up last night's supper." Falco said, and Krystal rolled her eyes.
"Always the sophisticated one, aren't you Falco?" Krystal asked sarcastically, and Falco chuckled.
"Heh, women find my wit attractive all the time." Falco said, and Krystal tried to contain her laughing.
"I don't think Katt falls under the category of 'women'." Krystal said, and Falco was shocked by the statement.
"What makes you say that?" Falco asked.
"Because women is a plural tense, plural meaning 'more than one'." Krystal said, and Falco rolled his eyes.
"Whatever." Falco said, and Fox chuckled.
"Face it Falco, most of the times, your 'wit' either gets you slapped, charged with sexual harassment, or in a fist fight with some woman's boyfriend, and sometimes her father. There have even been some occasions that happened twice, and I remember this one time you got beat up one girl's father twice, as well as the slap and harassment charge." Fox said.
"Twice?" Krystal asked, confused.
"She had a fraternal twin sister." Fox explained, and Krystal gave an 'Oh' sound before Falco scoffed again.
"I don't need this! I'm outta here!" Falco said frustrated, and the avian practically stomped out of bridge.
"He seemed rather upset. Maybe you should talk to him." Krystal suggested, but Fox just shook his head.
"He'll be fine; Falco is just letting his boredom get the best of him. Can't say I blame him; nothing exciting has happened ever since we destroyed the Aparoids." Fox said, and Krystal placed her hands on top of Fox's.
"Don't worry sweetheart, I'm sure something will happen. Until then, let's just focus on our wedding, we only have a month until the big day." Krystal said, and Fox smiled as he and Krystal went over the remaining details of their wedding.
Great Fox Hanger; 11:10 a.m. Corneria Standard Time
While Slippy was busy modifying his new personal Arwing, the Bullfrog, he heard Falco mumble to himself as he opened to cockpit to his Arwing, the Skyclaw, and prep the ship for take off.
"Hey Falco, where are you off too in such a hurry?" Slippy asked, but Falco obviously wasn't in the mood for pleasant conversation.
"None of your business froggy! I just need some time to myself!" Falco snapped, and he deactivated the lift lock around his ship and quickly took off into space.
"Well, he's certainly cheerful this morning." Slippy said to himself, putting down his tools and heading towards the bridge to find out what was going on.
Great Fox Bridge; 11:13 a.m. Corneria Standard Time
When Slippy walked into the bridge, he saw Krystal and Fox looking through a holo-zine of wedding related things, such as clothes and popular foods and drinks.
"Hey Fox, what's with Falco?" Slippy asked.
"Eh, he's just mad that Krystal and I ganged up on him a few minutes ago. Though I think he's more stir crazy than mad at us. Things are just getting a little boring for him around here. To tell you the truth, I'm starting to feel the same." Fox said admittedly.
"Falco will come back, right?" Slippy asked concernedly, and Fox smiled.
"Yeah. Let's just give the hothead time to cool off." Fox said, and before Slippy could reply, ROB chirped in.
"We are receiving a message from Corneria; Priority One." ROB said, and Fox immediately got into captain mode.
"Put it through ROB." Fox ordered, and the droid pressed a button on the console in front of him, and a holographic screen appeared, and an old friend showed up on the screen.
"General." Fox greeted, giving Pepper a salute out of respect.
"Hello Fox. I take it you are doing well." Pepper said, and Fox nodded.
"Indeed sir. It's nice to see you are recovering well; you had us scared for a while there." Fox said with a smile.
"Thank you. The doctors have told me I will make a full recovery within a month's time." Pepper explained, and Krystal walked into view of the screen.
"I certainly hope so General. Fox and I would be devastated if you missed our wedding." Krystal said, and the General smiled.
"Ah, I wouldn't let a little Aparoid infection stop me from mission my good friends wedding anyway. But now onto business; Fox, I have a new assignment for your team." Pepper said, and suddenly, a map of the Lylat system showed up next to the Generals head. "As you all know, there as been an abundance of planet representatives seceding from the Lylatian senate, at this point, it's almost a third of the entire system." Pepper explained, and suddenly a third of the planets in the Lylat system started glowing red; this includes the planets Fortuna and Aquas, as well as the colonial representative of Sectors X, Y, and Z. They believe that our government is too corrupt to lead the system, and although there have been many political arguments, there have been no official mentions of war, but that does not stop us from keeping tabs on these separatists." Pepper explained.
"What are you getting at General?" Fox asked.
"My spies have reported a rather large military fleet presence near Venom, specifically, Area 6." Pepper explained, and the planet of Venom was enlarged on the screen, and showed many red dots in Area 6. "There have been reported a total of six dreadnaughts, ten heavy attack cruiser, thirteen corvette class cruisers, and over three dozen troop carriers. I want you to investigate the area and see if they are planning to attack the loyalists." Pepper explained.
"Understood General. But I do have one question; do you believe that Venom itself is involved with this gathering of forces?" Fox asked, and Pepper shook his head.
"No; Venom colonial leader Dash Bowmen has declared that he and his people will remain neutral during the political conflict in case there is war. His colonies are still growing, ever since the military agreed to use his grandfather's designs of a device to neutralize Venom's acidic oceans." Pepper said, and Fox shook his head.
"I still can't believe that madman could actually come up with a design that actually had a positive result." Fox said, more to himself than to the General. "But that's beside the point; we'll head to Area 6 immediately General." Fox said, and Pepper nodded.
"Good. We're counting on you Star Fox; the information you'll give us will determine if there will be heavy losses in case the of a surprise attack." Pepper said, and the screen disappeared, and Pepper along with it.
"ROB, set a course for Area 6, and send the mission briefing to Falco in case he decides to join us." Fox said, and ROB immediately started following orders, while Fox and his team got ready for their mission.
A/N: Sorry about the lack of action in this chapter, there was just a lot of things I needed to get out of the way, like the Great Fox's II design, the fact that Fox and Krystal are engaged, and the current political situation in the Lylat System. I promise the next chapter will have more action.