Hey guys so this is the re-done version of Guardians of Lylat. I wanted to go back and redo the story because I lost interest and was regretting not doing certain things earlier in the story so while most of this will be relatively the same I will be changing some aspects of the story a bit. So with that said let's get to the new version of Guardians of Lylat!
Chapter 1- A Crazy Idea
Lord Bowman, known as Dash to his friends, took a deep sigh as he looked out of his office window; one of the few perks of being the ruler of Venom was that his office overlooked one of the best views on Venom overlooking the river Styx. The river was named such by Andross, used to be nothing but acidic waste however since Dash deployed one of Andros's secret projects which was a device that had restored Venom's ecosystem to that which now rivaled Corneria in terms of beauty. The now blue clear river was now an awe inspiring sight helped in part by Venoms new capital city Sepina with its towering all white skyscrapers built along its banks.
Venoms population of mostly retired soldiers and refugees had rejoiced at their new home world creating a sense of pride for the formally nefarious planet. Of course restoring the planet's ecosystem and encouraging settlement of the planet where only two of Dash's major tasks and they themselves where rather daunting challenges to the old soldier.
Dash also had to work on encouraging trade with the other planets of Lylat as well as rebuilding Venom's army now called the Venom Defense Force or VDF. Rebuilding the army was a rather tedious task as resources for building ships were scarce and had to be brought in from off world sources until Venom found and claimed its own deposits, barring this fact and the rather low number of ships like destroyers, cruisers, carriers, and dreadnoughts that had survived numerous conflicts; the VDF had one thing going for them that kept pirates and slavers away and gave it a voice in intergalactic politics, this being that many of its fighter pilots and larger ship crews where hardened war veterans that had survived years of warfare against the Cornerian army and later the Aphids, some could even brag to have gone up against the Star Fox team and survived, this made the VDF's fighter core one of the best in Lylat and a force to be reckoned with.
The ruler of Venom stared out the window contemplating all the progress that was made and what still had yet to be done the former making him wince inwardly.
Dash himself looked older than his relatively young age would imply. The monkey's previously young and energetic eyes had darkened to a dark blue and a short white beard now adorned his chin. He wore an all green officer's uniform which style was similar to the late General Pepper. The font of the jacket was adorned with ribbons and awards on its left side and had golden buttons going up the middle.
However despite the striking attire the way the monkey slumped in his chair gave the impression that he had a great weight upon his shoulders. Of course there was a reason for the older appearance, after Bowman had assumed control over Venom he had gone about reviewing and analyzing all documents and evidence gathered about Andross's experiments and operations, the results where both surprising and revolting and had taken away much of Dashes previous energy. Especially one such experiment involving a black hole that Andross had not only used to fling James McCloud into but also (from what Dash believed from some initial evidence) sent Krystal's home world of Cerinia and its entire population into as well.
Dash shock himself from his train of thought he couldn't keep focusing on the past he had to look toward the future. Dash tuned toward his desk on which two reports lay, one of which was from the Venom intelligence agency and the other was a notice from Corneria.
The report from the intelligence agency was the cause for Dashes current stress, the report stated that many mercenary groups as well as pirates and slave traders had gone missing in the past two weeks, normally Dash would rejoice at this type of news however the way that all of the missing individuals belongings where gone as well suggested that they had packed up and gone somewhere instead of having been taken out by another group, that complied with the fact that so many had disappeared in such a short time left Dash with the belief that all of their destinations where in fact the same.
The conclusions from the first report led Dash to the contents of the second report on his desk from Corneria. Apparently General Peppy Hare had come to the same conclusions about the missing people as Dash and created a law that mandate that all future fighter pilots mercenary, military, or otherwise where required to attend the Lylat Flight Academy on Corneria to be granted a license to fly. General Hare had even extended this law to include mercenary teams already in existence that where acquired to attend or risk getting their flight status removed and therefor become ineligible to receive jobs. The Law had surprisingly been accepted by all other planetary governments, making it a galaxy wide law.
The Cornerian General had received dozens of complaints especially from his previous team, Star Fox, who were included in the new law; the General had placated them by telling them that the purpose of the academy was to teach current pilots new strategies and fighting styles of modern fighter combat. After all, gone where the days where enemies would simply come at you head on in groups, maintaining a straight line slowly firing at you. Now modern fighter combat was three dimensional and often a chaotic mix of laser fire and fighter craft turning and diving at each other. For new pilots, who could barely maintain control of their craft, this new battle scape often led to their deaths, looking back Dash remembered that even the Star Fox team had trouble adapting to this new form of fighting.
General Hare had offered an education at the academy to members of the military from all planets in Lylat causing many to see this academy as a way to show off their military might in front of public as the media had shown a great interest in the academy and had been allowed a degree of access to the school.
Dash himself had planned to send some of his pilots to the academy, although choosing which ones to send was still a rather difficult decision. Dash pressed a button on his desk and a 3-D image popped up with all 32 different squadrons of candidates displayed. All were exceptionally experienced pilots and Dash would hate to lose their services for any length of time but he wanted Venom represented well at the academy.
Dash's eyes were drawn to one particular squad in general or more specifically the squadron leader, unlike all of the others he had not been in the VDF for long but had even more combat experience than anyone Dash could think of, he was from a planet far outside of Lylat (the candidate had been a little vague about its exact location) and had come to Venom with his team to aid in the fight against the Aphids. If his kill count from back on his home world called Earth, was any indication (and if it was indeed accurate) he was possibly one of the most deadly pilots in Lylat currently and from what he had told Dash about his experience from his home world him and his team had fought almost all of their battles in what would be considered more advanced than what the people of Lylat thought as "modern" fighter combat. On paper he was the perfect candidate for the academy except for one fact that made Dash hesitate to send him… he and his team were Human.
Centuries ago (Pre-Andross) Humans and Lylatians had waged war with each other for years, the brutality and casualties on both sides where horrendous finally after years of conflict the humans had simply disappeared to parts unknown. Now all that remained of their legacy where the stories told to children at night to make sure they didn't misbehave and some references to them in the history books as almost mythological creatures of misfortune and disaster, still Dash worried about the feeling and actions the other students would have toward the humans if they were to suddenly amongst them.
Dash sighed and began to think what instead, might be gained by sending the Humans to attend the academy
"Well for one they could possibly make the other students overcome their predisposition toward their species, they also need to get out and meet other people instead of constantly taking missions. I've heard that the academy has a pretty advanced technology department so they would also get better acquainted with our tech and share some of their tech with us."
Dash chuckled to himself "They defiantly can't learn anything new about tactics the way they fly, hell they could teach us… hold the phone."
Dash's eyes lit up with a sudden idea, he quickly sent a message to General Hare telling him about the humans and his plan for them.
Dash then taped a button on his intercom to his secretary "Jessica patch me threw to the Commander of the 52nd Divisions 7th Fighter Group."
"Yes sir right away!" Jessica's voice piped back.
Dash waited for a while until a calm male voice came that held an air of authority to it "Commander Reaper of the 52nd Division 7th Fighter Group, designated Shadow Team you called Lord Bowman?" the voice asked.
"Ahh, Commander I wanted to inform you that I am sending your group to Corneria to…" Dash began before he was interrupted.
"Wait, you're not about to send me to that academy I have been hearing all the other pilot talking about are you?" Reaper asked in a disbelieving voice.
Dash chuckled at Reaper's casual interruption "That I am, but before you say anything I will be granting you a large amount of freedom while there. Since I trust you, you have my permission to represent Venom while there this means you can make trade agreements and be considered our diplomat. Also there is something else but I have to hear back from General Peppy first, oh and this is an order."
"But…I…you can't…fine." Reaper sighed in defeat from the other end of the call "You owe me for this Dash!" Reaper shot back at Dash before ending the call.
Dash leaned back in his chair with a smile on this face. "Get ready Lylat Academy, I'm sending something interesting your way."
: 1 week later:
(Fox McCloud's POV)
Fox McCloud sighed as he gazed at the front courtyard of the Lylat Flight Academy. Fox hadn't been too optimistic about having to re-attend flight school but his old friend Peppy, now General Peppy Hare, had said that the Star Fox team would benefit greatly from the new combat strategies taught as well as the new technology the Tech class could produce.
Fox took another look at the front courtyard of the academy, a large iron gate which was currently open connected to a white stone wall that stood 8 feet high and surrounded the entire campus. A wide stone path led from the gate toward the school buildings front door, the building itself was a shining white stricter that was a 5 stories and that was constructed in a giant O shape with the middle being a large courtyard for eating outdoors. On both sides of the path stretched the academy's immaculate lawn adorned with the occasional Lylic Tree (looks exactly like a Sakura Tree). Students walked to class and gathered in groups to talk around the area. Fox walked down the path into the school building and after a short amount of searching found his homeroom. The great Fox McCloud found himself and his entire squadron sitting in a classroom with many other students waiting for home room to begin. Because of the rather ludicrous idea of professional soldiers and mercenaries attending things like math and gym class most of them only had to pick from a broad list of the more combat oriented classes and one or two recreational classes they were interested in.
To Fox's great delight he had some familiar faces amongst the other students attending the academy. Fox's longtime friend Bill Grey leader of Husky and Bulldog squadron, also attended the academy as a representative of the Cornerian military; he had caught up with Fox and Falco on the first day and often joined them for lunch along with attending three of Fox's classes.
Falco's longtime girlfriend Katt Monroe had also decided to attend the academy. Sharing 2 classes with Fox and Falco as well as 3 with Krystal, the pink cat ate lunch with Fox and his group at lunch where she flirted with Falco. This was not distracting to the team at all because Krystal often did the same to Fox. Much to the enjoyment of the others as Fox tended to blush and stutter his response.
Katt had also convinced there long-time friends Miyu, Fara, and Lucy Hare to attend as well. Fox had lost contact with the three after high school as Miyu had become a civilian pilot and instructor while Fara had gone to work as a test pilot for her father's corporation Phoenix Arms a company that designed and sold weapons and ships to the military. Supposedly the company was suffering hard times which might explain why the usually over friendly vixen was more subdued than she had previously been. Lucy had become an astrophysics teacher on the planet Fichina during the Aparoid attack she had done a quite remarkable job at defending her home and wished to become an elite pilot.
Another face that Fox had recognized (much to his and the rest of Star Fox teams' dismay) was one Wolf O'Donnell of Star Wolf. Wolf was the only member of Star Wolf left now as Leon had retired to some resort planet where he ran a business selling swimming gear (nobody knows why or how that came to be) and Panther had left to form his own team Star Panther (very original I know). Despite Fox and Wolf's history the two teams where on decent terms as Wolf no longer worked for evil dictators and had helped in the fight against the Aparoids. He shared two classes with Fox those being Flight Tech and Modern Combat, however he mostly kept his distance from the other students and anyone in general.
"Can I have your attention everyone?!" The teacher a male Doberman called Mr. Burner called out as the last students came in and sat down. The students quieted down and looked toward the man. "Now that I have your attention General Peppy Hare is here to Talk to you about some rather… different students that will be your classmates this year." The teacher said looking toward the class room door as it began to open revealing one Peppy Hare in a dark red uniform that resembled that worn by General Pepper.
The General walked before the class before giving a glance at the back of the room at the few TV news reporters that where there filming the start of classes at the new academy. He had actually only allowed them in so that he could introduce the students to not only the class but all Corneria in general. The cameras and the students tracked the general as he made his way to the front of the room and stood before the class.
"Today" The old Hare began in an authoritative voice "I am here to kick off the start of the new Lylat Flight Academy as well as introduce to you a few classmates that are rather…unique in nature." The general announced as the cameras broadcasted him live to all Corneria and the TV's installed in all the homeroom classes. "These students are representatives of Venom's military like a few of you are from you own world military. I hope that you will all help me in welcoming the first of their species to ever attend academy in the Lylat system as well as the first of their kind to be in the Lylat system in centuries, ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you…Shadow Squadron." Fox and the rest of the class along with the cameras looked at the door and gasped as five strange creatures walked through the classroom door.
