James McCloud, Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar all flew their Arwings down towards the surface of Vemon. James lead the other two over the bland landscape of the planet, following a small, beeping dot on his radar.
"The strange activity is coming from straight ahead." James announced. Pigma's Arwing began to pull back.
"Pigma? What you doing man? You're falling out of order!" Peppy shouted over his intercom. For a while all that came from the intercom was white noise. "Pigma?" Peppy tapped the device, was it broken? A shrill laugh materialised out of the intercom. Pigma turned around and flew off in the opposite direction.
"Where is that jack ass going?" James muttered. His question was answered almost instantly as an uncountable amount of laser fire erupted from the planet's surface. Millions of small robot crafts flew out of concealed holes in the planet. Peppy and James both began firing without a moment's hesitation. It was clear what was going on.
"The little bastard betrayed us!" Peppy shouted, while being attacked by an on slaughter of lasers. The two Arwings fired madly while flying all over the place. Despite the overwhelming odds against the two, they were doing remarkably well.
"Believe in yourself, trust your instincts." James ordered as he barrel rolled out of the way of a few lasers.
"We can't keep this up!" Peppy announced, rather pointlessly. Peppy searched for some kind of escape from the on slaughter. He spotted a large tunnel going down into the planet. "I can see an escape!" Peppy told James. Peppy headed straight for the tunnel, followed by James, and flew straight down it.
James and Peppy flew down the branching tunnel, towards an unknown goal.
"Where does this lead?" James muttered. Peppy remained silent. In the distance a green room appeared. "A dead end. Maybe we should try to get back to the Great Fox." James suggested. Peppy squinted.
"Is there something in there?" Peppy asked. The two entered the room, and came face to face with the twisted form of Andross.
"So this is the mighty Star Fox?" Andross was not what he was on Cornelia. Hehad turned himselffrom a mad monkey, into a twisted form which resembled a giant version of his ownhead.
"What the bloody..." James was taken by surprise as a giant hand collided with his ship. Peppy shot at Andross's face, but the lasers had little to no effect on him. Andross laughed at the pitiful attempts and pointed a finger at them. Purple lightning fired out at the two ships. Andross swung wildly at them with his other hand. James' ship lost a wing as Andross's hand chipped it. "This is madness!" He screamed. Peppy swivelled out of the way of the purple lightning, but only to get attack from behind.
"Bye bye bunny!" Pigma laughed. His Arwing flew around the suffering ships, taking pot shots whenever possible.
"You traitorous swine!" James shouted. Pigma responded by shooting off James' other wing.
"James, we don't have a chance! We must flee." Peppy exclaimed.
"Go Peppy. I'm done for anyway"
"What"
"Take care of Fox." Before any reply could be made, James flew at Andross in one final suicidal attempt to destroy him. Peppy could see that there was no way to stop James. Peppy tried to stop a tear flowing out of his eyeas he turned his ship around and flew for the exit. Pigma followed his former teammate. As Peppy rushed for the exit, dodging Pigma's fire as best as he could, he could hear Andross's voice erupting down the corridors.
"Your efforts are in vain! I will have Lylat in my grasp! Cornaria will bow to me! You will see!" Peppy flew out of the tunnel and towards the Great Fox. Pigma gave up the chase and returned to the planet. Leaving Peppy alone with his thoughts of James' final hour and how he will tell his son, Fox McCloud.
After this, Andross's armies began to spread out, taking over planets one by one, working towards Cornaria. When he finally got there a new Star Fox team had formed and defeated him. However, what if, as punishment for they're past treatment to him, Andross attacked Cornaria first? Without the help of a Star Fox group, the Cornarian army was overwhelmed. The battle was over before it began. General Pepper was brought before Andross and exiled to Venom on the charge of treason in a mock trial. Andross made Cornaria his 'capital planet', setting up numerous factories to manufacture machines of war. Many of the citizens of the planet tried to flee, but Andross banned people from leaving the planet, not that it made much difference as in a few years all of Lylat was under the rule of Andross, except Titania, which was a barren desert planet of no strategic importance. Andross had proved that he wasn't just mad. He was powerful. More so than anyone else could imagine.
Andrew, accompanied by a small group of soldiers, thumped angrily at the door of what could only be described as a shed. Andrew sighed and turned to one of the monkey soldiers.
"The old twit hasn't done anything for a good few years? Why are we still trying to smoke him out?" Andrew complained. He was a General. His job was to blast rebel ships to smithereens, not search for enemies who are nearly old enough to retire. The shed door opened a crack and a voice emitted.
"Who is this, and what do you want?" Andrew noted the voice did not sound like an ancient rabbit.
"I am General Oikonny and we have reason to believe that the criminal 'Peppy' may be hiding here. Obstructing our search can lead to serious consequences." Andrew recited the speech he had made too many times.
"Serious consequences? You mean like living on this planet any longer than I have to." The voice from the other side of the door sarcastically replied. Andrew was use to people not co-operating, despite having there spirits crushed by a cruel dictator, people still tried to defy those in power, just not normally to an extend that they could get prison. Andrew took his blaster out of his holster and blasted the hinges off the door. Andrew foolishly put his blaster back in the holster and pushed the door open. A laser blast came from the blackness inside the shed and hit Andrew on the shoulder.
"Holy shit!" Andrew retreated back into the group of soldiers, who all fired blindly into the shed. After half a minute of the random firing it came to a stop as Andrew pushed past his men to see what had become of the hapless owner of the shed. All he saw was a bullet hole ridden wall with an open door in the middle of it. "I think we can safely say Peppy was here." Andrew stated.
Fox McCloud ran away from the shed, pulling along Peppy with him. Peppy was wearing a red cloak in hopes of disguising himself from any of Andross's men.
"I swear old man, you'll be the end of me." Fox muttered. Peppy turned to look back.
"I can't see them, I think we may have lost them." Peppy claimed. He sat down on a near by tree stump and tried to catch his breath. Fox rolled his eyes.
"Come on, we..." Fox stopped mid-sentence as he heard several blasters charge. General Oikonny walked forwards.
"Peppy Hare, you are under arrest on the charge of treason and invading arrest." Andrew turned to Fox. "You are under arrest as an accessory to the crime of evading arrest. State your name." Fox remained silent. Andrew drew out his blaster and pushed it into Fox's chest. "I said state your name"
"Fox." Fox let a small smile cross his lips. "Fox McCloud." Fox grabbed Andrew's arm and twisted it around. He moved behind Andrew and wrapped an arm around his neck. With a swift movement of his other arm, Fox forced Andrew to drop his blaster and caught it. Fox fired into the group of soldiers. The soldiers returned fire on Fox. Peppy ran out of the way of the firing. Fox was unmoving, keeping Andrew in his grasp easily. In a matter of seconds the last of the soldiers fell to Fox's fire. Fox let go of Andrew, who collapsed to the floor; smoking from the amount of fire he took. "Andross isn't going to like this." Muttered Fox.
"I'm just sad it wasn't 'General Dengar' who just got shot down." Peppy kicked Andrew; as to check he was dead. Fox turned to Peppy, a look of anger plastered on his face.
"I'm starting to think you're more trouble than you're worth." Fox announced. Peppy smiled sheepishly.
"Fox, I will get us off this planet, then we could form a group to fight against Andross..." Fox threw his hands into the air.
"Oh yes, this master plan of yours! Wake up! Any vehicle that could break through Cornaria's atmosphere has been destroyed. Besides, Andross controls everything, our chances are less than none!" Fox shook his head. He began to walk off. "Come, we have to find some new place to hide you"
"The Arwings are almost operational." Fox stopped in his tracks and turned to Peppy. "I have been working with a trustworthy and skilled, albeit young, mechanic on repairing mine and creating one for you." Fox didn't do anything for a while then sighed and continued walking.
"It will never work"
"Still, isn't it better than being stuck here?" Fox once again came to a stop. He looked up at the black smog that filled the air. He looked down at the dead land he walked on. The foul stench that filled the air was unavoidable. Almost all of this thanks to the factories Andross had set up.
"Show me these ships then"
Slippy Toad picked up a screwdriver and began to work on reattaching a wing to a damaged Wolfen ship. When Andross got control over Cornaria he sent mostly all the mechanics to work in the factories. Slippy had dodged this fate by officially being a bartender and using a large, rusty, closed down garage near by for his work. His specialty was fighter crafts, and had many times provided ships for the numerous small rebellions. Unfortunately, none of these rebellions had got anywhere, the closest to achieving something was the 'Wolf rebellion', but that was completely wiped out by Andross's elite squad, the finest of his army. Besides, Slippy continued to work on the ships, living on the thin thread of hope that someone would be able to destroy Andross's armies. A tapping came at the garages door. Slippy walked over to a device that looked like a red periscope and looked into it. He could see Peppy and Fox. Slippy walked over to the door and unlocked it. Peppy and Fox entered the garage.
"Peppy! Been keeping out of trouble?" Slippy asked.
"Ha!" Fox replied. Slippy turned to look at Fox.
"Who is this?" Slippy questioned. Slippy's voice was already annoying Fox.
"This is my bodyguard, Fox McCloud." Peppy answered. Fox rolled his eyes.
"I'm not his bodyguard, I just keep him out of trouble." Fox corrected. Slippy's eyes looked slightly larger than before.
"Fox McCloud? As in James McCloud's son? I can't believe I get to meet..." Fox angrily pushed Slippy aside.
"What they say is not true. Andross does not fear me. Also I'm not on a one man rebellion to revenge him, the casualties are from protecting the old timer over there. I am just a Cornarian protecting Peppy for old times sake." Fox sighed. His dad had become a legend; as such some of the fame had passed onto Fox. A few stories had been invented about him out of peoples hope to become free again. Fox didn't met people often, but when he did it was annoying. Slippy still seemed excited.
"You must be here for the Arwings!" Slippy ran over to the back of the garage. "You're in luck, Peppy, your ship is fully operational!" Slippy pressed a button and the ceiling made a groaning sound. Two panels in the ceiling dropped down. On top of them were two Arwings. "The other Arwing is nearly complete, but the G-diffuser is a bit iffy." Fox walked up to one of the ships and inspected it.
"My god, these ships are amazing!" Fox looked over his shoulder at Peppy. "And they were around before Andross's rule!" Peppy nodded.
"They were way ahead of their times, but mass producing problems mean there are barley any left." Fox passed a hand across the smooth surface.
"My god..." Fox muttered. For a moment he was silent, then he shook his head and walked back towards the door. "No! We'll be shot down as soon as we take off." Peppy got in Fox's way.
"Fox! You know as well as I do this is the best course of action. Admit it, you want to do this as much as I do. I've seen you spending all your time in the training simulator." Peppy put a hand on Fox's shoulder. "We can do this"
"Yeah!" Slippy added. Fox and Peppy looked at him, slightly annoyed. "Sorry." Fox turned back to the Arwings. For a long time no one send anything. Fox smiled and shook his head.
"How do I let you talk me into these things old man?" Peppy laughed and slapped Fox on the shoulder.
"You may want to wait until I fix your other Arwing." Slippy suggested. A loud knock erupted from the garage door.
"Peppy! Open up, we know you're in there!" Fox recognised the voice.
"Oh shit! That's the elite squad!" He shouted. Slippy laughed nervously.
"Or maybe you take them both now?"