Author's Note: Hello, and thank you for clicking on this story. I do not own Star Fox or any of the game characters featured in this story. Please review, but don't go too hard on me, this is my first fanfiction.
-------
Lylat Wars
From a distance, it would have appeared to be a shining topaz laying on a vast blanket of black cloth, with tiny pinpoints of light speckling the background. If observed closer, it would have appeared as it was– a large, semi-arid planet floating in the seemingly endless sea of celestial objects that made up the galaxy. This was Katina, one of the thirteen planets of the Lylat System.
Katina had long been subject to scrutiny by Cornerian scientists, who believed that the barren, desert planet could be eventually transformed into a thriving garden planet like its heavily populated sister planet, Corneria. However, plans for large-scale colonization on Katina had been aborted many years before under the circumstance that it was a low priority to the Andross Empire. They had much larger problems to attend to, such as the Cornerian Rebellion taking place throughout Lylat.
In fact, at that very moment a giant ship from the Venomian fleet was in hot pursuit of a tiny Cornerian space cruiser.
Slowly, two long, metal tubes running across the underside of the Venomian starship began to glow with a red light. In a brilliant flash, two laser blasts fired out of the tubes, searing through space. One of the shots missed, but the second collided with the Cornerian space cruiser, shaking the ship violently and burning an asteroid-sized hole in the hull.
Inside, a lanky android by the name of ROB 64 stumbled in a corridor as the ship rocked, almost crashing into three Cornerian rebels who rushed by, blasters in their hands.
"Whoops. Pardon me. Excuse me. I am sorry," the robot said in a monotonous, metallic voice. He tilted his head up at the metal ceiling, his red optical-receptors scanning the heat of the burns in the hull. ROB would have grimaced if his stiff features allowed him to do so. "Two hundred and seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit. This is not good," he whispered to himself, static rushing through the speaker on his face as he did so.
He looked back down the corridor and continued walking forward, trying as hard as he could not to be tipped over by more Cornerian rebels– or stopped because of any suspicion. ROB had to get to the maintenance corridors deep inside the cruiser at all costs. It was requested of him in an urgent radio transmission from a vixen named Krystal, who had joined the Cornerian rebels after her home planet of Cerinia had been destroyed by the Andross Empire.
ROB took two steps forward, then was thrown off his feet by another massive explosion in the underbelly of the ship. The Cornerian cruiser slowly came to a stop, its blown engine thruster crackling and hissing. The Venomian fleet ship loomed over it, then slowly descended.
ROB picked himself up and began hurrying down the corridors again, nearly running by now. He stopped momentarily and cocked his rectangular head, listening to a low snap-hiss coming from outside the ship. "We will be boarded," he murmured quietly to himself.
He continued shuffling down the long corridor until he at last came to a second doorway. He reached towards the access panel on the wall beside it and inserted his index finger into a small electric plug below the numbered buttons. The small computer scanned the data contained on ROB's memory drive briefly before a message reading ROB 64: Access Granted appeared on the digital screen on the control panel. The door hissed as the hydraulics holding it shut were released, and it quickly slid open.
ROB was about to enter the dark maintenance corridor when he heard a shout from down the main corridor. He swivelled his head about on his shoulders to see what was the matter. Further on down the corridor, almost a dozen Cornerian rebel soldiers had pressed themselves flat against the walls, taking cover behind any small outcropping they could find. All of them had blasters primed and ready in their hands.
Suddenly there came a piercing, ear-splitting screech of metal grinding against metal. The Cornerian rebels winced, and ROB had to temporarily mute his sensitive audio-receptors so that they wouldn't be damaged.
Suddenly a panel in the ceiling exploded, sending shards of hot metal flying in all directions. A dark shape clad in red armor dropped through the smoke that began to pour into the corridor, gracefully rolling to find cover. It spun out of range of a rebel laser blast, then shifted its own blaster and returned fire.
ROB knew that no android ever built, even by a maniacal genius such as Andross, could maneuver itself so quickly and efficiently. This was one of the Andross Empire's elite shock troops, trained to perfection on the planet of Venom.
The troop poked his head out of cover for a split second, peering through the smoke at the Cornerian rebels. That split second was just enough to kill him, as a laser blast seared through the monkey soldiers face, reducing his head to a mass of burnt hair and melted flesh.
ROB hurried into the maintenance corridor, dodging a laser from yet another shock troop that had dropped from the hole in the ceiling. He rushed into the darkness, leaving the explosions, shouts, and screams of agony behind him.
Suddenly a small, slender hand was placed on ROBs shoulder. He turned around to see Krystal the vixen, a dismayed look on her face.
"I requested the captain to come to Katina for a reason," she whispered in a hushed tone. "I have a message for someone on the planet. I know you're one of the most advanced androids on board, and I need you to deliver it for me," she continued.
ROB nodded. "I will do whatever you ask, mistress Krystal," he declared rather loudly.
Krystal held a finger over her lips to quiet him. She looked back at the main corridor, where the screams were beginning to subside. Cornerian rebels ran past the open doorway, some carrying comrades, some wounded, and some crawling away futilely.
Krystal looked back at ROB. "Good. Now here is what I want you to do..."
The rebels were fleeing. The shock troops didn't chase them, however. The rebels' demise would come quickly enough. Another troop dropped from the forced entryway in the ceiling, murmuring things to his comrades. They all looked at each other uncertainly for a moment, then rushed to the walls, standing at attention.
Above them, loud footsteps could be heard walking across the hull. Then, a large, black figure dropped from the hole, landing heavily but steadily in the corridor. A nervous shock troop stepped forward and pushed a dead body out of the way of the new figure.
Six feet in height, he towered over most other figures. Clad in dark, steel armor and an air-locked, full-face helmet over his head, looked more like an android than a living creature. This was the right-hand servant of Emperor Andross himself, known only to anyone in the Lylat system as Cain.
He strode forward, looking down at a Cornerian rebel with a hole burnt in his stomach. He clutched the bloody wound, shaking and gasping for breath. Cain raised his boot, then slowly brought it down, placing his heel on the side of the rebels neck. With one quick movement, Cain pressed his foot down. There a low crunch of breaking bones, and the Cornerian rebel fell limply to the floor.
One of the shock troops, the apparent leader by the blue "A" shaped symbol on his armor, stepped forward.
"What are your orders, sir?" the troops asked.
Cain looked around at the carnage, peering through the glowing, red visor of his helmet. "Find the telepath. Don't harm her, bring her to me. If our source was correct, she was the mastermind of the theft," he said, his voice hissing like ice cold venom through a voice amplifier in his helmet.
"Sir, she could be anywhere on board–"
"Then double the amount of troops searching the ship. I want her found, even if you have to rip every metal plate out of this ship to do it," Cain snarled. Then he turned back to the shock troop leading the search. "Oh, and bring me the captain, too. I want a word with him," he said.
On the command bridge of the Venomian fleet ship, one of the men, a nervous looking lizard, frowned at the monitor he was watching.
"Sir," he called to the captain.
"What is it?" the grizzled old captain asked, walking briskly to the computer monitor and leaning forward.
"One of the evacuation pods on the Cornerian cruiser jettisoned a few moments ago, but our scanners indicated that no signs of life were present inside," the lizard said. "Should I order it to be shot down?"
The captain squinted at the point of light on the monitor as it moved steadily towards Katina. "No," he said at last. "Probably just a malfunction on that old cruiser. Don't waste our power core. We've used enough energy getting those damned rebels to stop."
Inside the evacuation pod, ROB 64 sat cross-legged, humming to himself contentedly while he waited to land on Katina.