Prologue
Present Day Corneria
Today was the day of the invasion. It was an invasion unseen in the entire history of the planet Corneria and that of the Lylat system. The Evil Andross, a mad and marauding scientist, had declared war and invaded the entire Lylat system. Andross had achieved the impossible; he assembled a massive army of nothing but trained mercenaries and criminals that were hell-bent on taking over the Lylat system. There was no hope of stopping the attacks and winning this galactic onslaught.
It was evident to General Pepper what had occurred; there was a massive invasion of the planet Corneria and as Commander in chief of the Cornerian Defense force, it was his duty to take whatever measures necessary to facilitate the situation at hand. The General needed to make his way to the command room, but it was difficult for him, explosions could be heard throughout the base and some of those explosions were powerful enough to create miniature earthquakes. The General, even in the advent of danger, needed to remain calm, assess the situation, and determine the best course of action to achieve victory.
As soon as the General reached the command center, he immediately ordered a SITREP. There were multiple soldiers and officers within the room. It was their duty to remain up-to-date with whatever information the General needed. Each individual soldier was assigned his own communications line and the officers were assigned to watch over the live action 3-D layout of the presiding battle on Corneria. An Officer said, "General, as you may already know, Corneria has been invaded by Venomian forces, they are attempting to overtake the Capital city and, from what we are able to see here, they outnumber us three to one, sir."
General Pepper needed to think up a battle plan immediately, but this was not going to be an easy task. To be able to come up with a plan while dealing with a crisis on the fly proved to be impossible to him. The General began to think of a possible solution to the crisis, but his train of thought was interrupted by a soldier. The Soldier yelled, "General, Sector Y is being overwhelmed and is requesting reinforcements, sir!" This came as not only as surprise to Pepper, but it made him realize that this was even worse than what was originally thought. The Sector Y forces had not only failed to prevent an attack on Corneria but they were also requesting reinforcements! He knew that if the Sector Y forces needed reinforcement, then the invasion force was far stronger and greater in number than imagined. The General couldn't let the issue of Sector Y affect his judgments and immediately said, "We can't afford to give any reinforcements to them. Tell the Sector Y forces they will need to resolve the situation themselves!"
General Pepper needed to find a way contain the invasion forces and save Corneria, but this was proving itself impossible. Pepper never had to face a situation so dire, how was he supposed to come up with a solution? Pepper began to get distracted with his thoughts before another soldier had chimed in. The soldier said, "General! Communications with Planet Fichina have gone off-line, sir!" This was not only bad, but this was getting out of hand. Planet Fichina contained a vital Scientific and Military installation, code named "Fortuna". Why would they attack the base there? To steal all scientific and classified information that the base had contained! To know that all communications with Fichina are lost meant that the enemy had overtaken the base "Fortuna".
Pepper could feel himself tensing up, his heart rate increase along with his breathing too. Pepper needed to calm himself and began taking deep and slow breaths. If he was to "save" Corneria, he needed to remain calm and act like the General he worked so hard to become. It was at this point the last solder in the room yelled, "General Pepper! Planet Katina is under attack! From what they have said, it appears the Cornerian forces there are able to hold their own and are doing their best to repel the invading forces, sir!" While not something General Pepper wanted to hear, it was the best news the General Pepper had heard all day. While he had wished the planet of Katina hadn't been invaded, he was glad that the Cornerian Pilots there were at least able to contain invasion force. But the General knew that the enemy forces would eventually capture Katina.
The General was now facing the worst situation imaginable and all hope at this point was now lost. Any hope of reinforcements from neighboring Galaxies was completely futile; the allied galaxies would not be able to respond in time. It was at this point that the General knew what he must do.
He issued those in the command room to order each of the individual field commanders to keep fighting and to never surrender. It did not matter what those Commanders faced, they had to fight on. As soon as the General issued his command, he immediately left the room and made his way to his personal quarters. An officer had called to him, but Pepper ignored it. He wasn't going to let anything stop him from doing the one thing that may save Corneria and the Lylat system. But this trek he was making was proving difficult for him since the fighting outside continued to intensify and the mini-quakes became more frequent. The General, as he continued his trek, could see the fear intensify in those around him. He could tell just by looking at each soldier and officer that they were ready to surrender, ready to quit and lay down their weapons in the vain hope that they're lives may be spared. It was incredibly disheartening for Pepper but he could not let them know the fear he too was facing. He had to appear strong and brave, even in the face of danger. General Pepper, while not the wisest of hound dogs, was not willing to accept surrender. He would rather die than have to surrender to his foe.
As soon as he had reached his personal officer's quarters, Pepper wasted no time in starting his personal communications computer. While it began its loading process, General Pepper prayed that the message he would have to send would reach its intended receiver and be answered in time. If not, it was something he did not want to think about.