Amidst the flurry of enemies and chaos overhead, Fox could barely focus on what was going around him, the people communicating at him, endlessly calling for help at every moment.
He had no time for them. He had an army of Aparoids ready to suck his blood dry. Fox kept shooting each one down with his sniper rifle, blasting them to bits, sending shrapnel into every direction. Pieces of shrapnel ricocheted off Fox's armour, but the pain from it barely registered in his brain, given the orchestra of terror ringing in the skies.
Fox managed to duck behind a wall, the last remaining thing standing in the building it once held up. He whipped out his communicator, taking a minute to take a well needed breath. "Peppy, what's the position right now?" he yelled out.
"Doesn't look too good," Peppy warned sternly. "Aparoids have encircled just about everything in sight here. We still have a few radar jammers left to take out before we can send in the Arwing."
Fox frantically looked around him, while also keeping low to avoid being spotted by the Aparoids. "Looks like there's a couple nearby where I can get them from. We shouldn't be too much longer before we can get radar back online again." He checked his sniper rifle and noticed that there were only a few shots left remaining before he would have to resort to his blaster. Fox carefully brought his sniper into view, staying low while trying to maintain his focus. A radar jammer quickly came into his sights, and Fox shot it down in an instant, not even giving it a second thought.
Suddenly, Fox heard the deafening shrieks of horror, the distinctive call of the Aparoids, with its wails chilling Fox up and down his spine. Fox turned around and saw three more aparoids closing in behind him, and Fox, having no time, shot the Aparoids down with the sniper, feeling the synthetic blood splatter onto his face.
"Dammit," Fox huffed, catching his breath. "That was my last shot on the sniper. I'm out of ammo." Fox then brought out his lone grenade in his vest, throwing it directly in front of another Aparoid. "You see any more radar jammers around me, Peppy?"
"There's one directly ahead of you in the distance," Peppy responded on the communicator. "Just get that one and we'll be able to send down an Arwing for you."
Fox immediately took out his blaster, shooting down the two Aparoids that had appeared in front of him. "I see it off in the distance, Peppy. I'll try to shoot it from long range." Fox charged up his blaster and sent a shot down towards the lone radar jammer, only for the shot to bounce off it. All the Aparoids noticed the shot and turned their attention towards Fox, standing alone in the open of what remained of Corneria City. Fox shot furiously at the army of Aparoids closing in on him, and managed to take down a few, but Falco swooped down from above and shot down the remainder of the Aparoids around Fox, leaving Fox stunned as his heart started to pace faster than before.
"Careful where you're going, Fox," Falco chipped in a playful manner.
"No need to remind me," huffed Fox, his head spinning from the numerous close encounters with the Aparoids. "Just tell me how to take down that thing without a sniper rifle."
"Where is it?" yelled Falco. "Maybe I can take a few shots at it."
"There's no point," sighed Peppy. "The radar jammers need to be taken down on the ground, and not from above where the jammers can see the shots coming. Use one of the rocket launchers, if you see one, Fox."
Fox noticed one of the Cornerian soldiers slumped over against a wall, and took the rocket launcher that had been cradled in his arms. Fox set up the rockets and after barely having time to aim the rocket, fired it at the radar jammer. When the rocket hit, the jammer fell a few feet, but stayed afloat. Fox took the rocket launcher and fired recklessly at the jammer, striking it as many times as he could before the jammer finally fell down and crashed into the ground. It still remained active, but limped around on the ground. Fox ran over to the jammer, staring directly at it as the jammer cracked and fizzled in front of him. He took out his blaster and shot it to pieces, and instantly, the radar popped open in his communicator, and the radio signals instantly became much more clearer by the second.
"Yippee!" Slippy screamed at the top of his lungs in childish glee. "The radar's back!"
"Thanks, Fox," Krystal replied in relief. "We can find the enemies much easier now thanks to you."
"Thanks, guys," said Fox, leaning back on a wall, sweating from exhaustion. "Peppy, send down an Arwing, please."
Peppy jumped around in excitement. "Almost forgot about it, buddy! Here you go, Fox, take down as much of the droids as you can!"
Fox happily noticed the Arwing appear on the radar screen of his communicator, and immediately ran to retrieve it. "This should make my job much easier," panted Fox, as he sprinted his way towards the Arwing. It was perched on top of a helipad, convenient enough for him to get on and blast right off into the skies.
Fox approached the Arwing, gearing himself to jump right into the cockpit, when the Arwing blew up right in his face, nearly blinding Fox as a fireball flashed in front of his eyes. Fox stuttered in exasperation and shock as the ground shook around him. "Damn... must have been distracted. Peppy, you'll have to send..." Fox checked his radar as he spoke, and stopped when he saw a dozen Aparoids closing in on where he was.
"Fox? What's going on?" Peppy shouted in confusion.
Fox looked frantically around him, speechless as the terrifying machines zeroed in to where he was. Above him, Fox could hear the familiar hum of a foreign ship, with its red livery contrasting with the pale blue Cornerian sky.
"Now what?" Fox stuttered, drawing out his blaster, only realizing the size of the Aparoids around him. He dodged around the Aparoid directly in front of him, as he got a closer look at the ship flying above him. "The Wolfen? How's that possible?" Fox fired his blaster in rapid succession at the Aparoids, slowly backing himself away from the army as they kept marching towards him. The Aparoids started firing back at Fox, and Fox took a few shots, moving backward in pain. After another hit, Fox tripped on the ledge behind him, only just noticing how high up he was on the helipad. Fox frantically waved his arms to try to grab the ledge, but couldn't stop himself from falling over, as Fox screamed in terror to the abyss of Aparoids below him, freefalling into a grave ready to bury him.
After what seemed like minutes of horror, a ship flew directly under where Fox was going to fall towards, and as Fox fell onto the ship and rolled on the wings, Fox instinctively grabbed onto the edge of the ship, letting the ship carry him over to safety, even as it flew up and above the buildings that once defined the landscape of the city.
Fox looked up into the sky, barely able to catch his breath, when he glanced over who was piloting the ship that had saved him from being eaten alive by the Aparoids. He looked at the pilot and couldn't help but notice the pilot be strikingly familiar, but also jarring at the same time, seeing the grumpy look on the pilot's face.
"Wolf? But..."
"Don't say anything about me, pup," Wolf growled. "Just get those damned bugs off my tail!"
Fox went to grab his blaster, but found it wasn't in his holster or in his hands. "I must have lost it when I was falling…" Fox found himself speechless, as the wind rushed into his face as the Wolfen started to slowly pick up speed.
"Well, hang on then," Wolf bickered. "I'm not going back to save you again if you fall off."
Fox nervously held on to the wing of the Wolfen, afraid to say anything or move suddenly. Fox could feel another Wolfen go up behind him, and as Wolf carefully turned his ship, the other Wolfen fired at the Aparoids trailing Wolf. Fox ducked to take cover from the lasers firing from the second Wolfen, and as the smoke cleared, Fox could clearly see Leon inside, glaring back at Fox as he followed Wolf's ship.
"Did we have to save this little twerp?" Leon quipped. "I'd rather get rid of him now while we have the chance."
"Be quiet," Wolf snapped back. "There's no time to talk about this. Just give me a clear pathway so I can quickly land this thing, and then Fox can jump off. I can't maneuver this while he's my wingman."
Leon moved ahead of Wolf without saying a word, then shot down two more Aparoids in front of Wolf, clearing the path ahead of both of them. Wolf then lowered his Wolfen to ground level, never stopping the ship but slowing it down enough that someone could easily outrun it if they wanted to.
"Get off here, Fox," ordered Wolf. "I'll take care of the rest of the Aparoids on the sky, just take care of as many as you can on ground level."
"Got it," Fox replied. "Peppy, there's no sense sending down an Arwing if I'm going to stay at ground level, so send me a Landmaster. I should be covered if there's any other Aparoids directly in front of me."
"Right away," Peppy responded, signalling down a Landmaster right in front of Fox. Fox jumped right inside the Landmaster and mowed down as many Aparoids as he could in front of him, sending a flurry of charge shots, taking down the Aparoids in as many chunks as he could. With Star Wolf providing backup in the air, Fox was able to carve his way through the Aparoid army, showing them no mercy.
"Incoming vessel approaching at high speed," buzzed Rob 64, distracting Fox from his battle. "Identity unknown."
Peppy glanced over at the radar screen. "That ship looks awfully familiar... Wait a minute! That's the General's ship! How could the radar not pick that up?"
"HELP!" General Pepper screamed, not giving any of the team a chance to react. "I've been attacked... the Aparoids... they're inside me already..."
"What?" Fox halted the Landmaster in shock. "That's impossible!"
"I'm afraid so," whimpered General Pepper. "There's nothing anybody can do now... just shoot me down while I'm still here, don't let the Aparoids take over my body..."
As General Pepper was saying this, his flagship flew over the city and started shooting at allies, hitting their ships in a flurry of rage.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Slippy yelled.
"What are you doing, General?" Krystal screamed.
Their pleas went unanswered, however, as the General kept firing away at both Star Fox and Star Wolf. Eventually, General Pepper found Panther scurrying away from the battle, and followed him closely as Leon tried to escape. The General then managed to hit the back of Panther's engine, sending it into flames. Panther held on to the controls of his Wolfen as much as he could until he got level with the ground, eventually landing hard into the pavement and crashing right into a building, plowing right through it without hardly leaving a trace, until finally screeching to a halt.
Panther quickly got out of the Wolfen and jumped out of the way of the burning wreckage he left behind. "Damn... that was my favourite cafe I just totaled. I'm never going to forgive myself for that."
Wolf saw Panther escape the wreckage and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, at least Panther made it out ok. Leon, make sure nobody's behind me while I shoot down the General."
Fox stopped his Landmaster immediately. "What? You can't do that, Wolf!"
"He's right..." the General sobbed, as his body writhed in his cockpit." My body's being taken over by the Aparoids... shoot me down before they take control of my life!"
Fox solemnly sat in the Landmaster, shaking at the controls. "No... I can't do that... not after what you've done for Corneria!"
Wolf shook his head. "There's no choice, Fox. It's either him or us. The Aparoids don't take any prisoners. If we shoot him down, there's no chance he'll spread his disease to anyone else."
Fox smashed his fist into the dashboard. "I can't do that, Wolf! I'll never shoot down General Pepper!"
"You must shoot me, Fox," groaned General Pepper, as his voice started to digitally crackle under influence from the Aparoids. "That's an order! Shoot me down before I completely turn into an Aparoid!"
Fox shook in fear, unable to speak or move, staring at the destruction in front of him...
"Fox! Look out!" Krystal screamed, snapping Fox out of his trance. An army of Aparoids encircled around Fox's Landmaster, and Fox was able to roll out of his way just in time to avoid their fiery barrage.
Wolf noticed Fox get quickly surrounded and growled in anger. "Well, if you can't take him down... I'll take him down myself."
"Wait a minute!" Fox rushed a few bombs at the Aparoids in front of him, frantically trying to clear some space to reach the General.
Wolf ignored Fox and the rest of his team, and sped directly towards the General's flagship, shooting as much as he could before General Pepper had a chance to fight back, as the General screamed in agony.
Fox could only look up towards the skies where General Pepper and Wolf were, helpless to change what was going on. "Why… is this happening?"
It soon became obviously apparent that General Pepper's ship was under great stress, with the onslaught of lasers from Wolf taking its toll on the flagship, and the Aparoids chewing up what remained. The flagship started to catch fire and careened downwards towards the sea, growing in speed by the second. General Pepper tried to steer the flagship as much as he could, but it was no use. "I never thought it would come down to this…" he cried out, his voice more metallic than ever. "Just let me defend my honour…"
At once, his intercom cut out, leaving no sound, not even static. Fox rushed over on his Landmaster towards the coastline, trying to prevent the inevitable. "General…"
Wolf then took once final charge shot at General Pepper's flagship, blasting it into pieces, as it smashed into the water, sending shockwaves all around the epicenter. The sound the flagship made during the explosion rang out throughout the skies, which was then followed by a deafening silence, nothing but the sight of destruction all across Corneria surrounding it.
The whole Star Fox team sat where they were, completely silent and bereft. Nobody dared speak into the intercom, lest they disturb the peace they were fighting for.
Fox, in particular, got out of the cockpit as the last of the Aparoids scurried away from the city, and sat on top of the Landmaster, emptily staring into the blood red sky as the sun started to set, with the sounds of the carnage burning away in the background.