Chapter 2: Invasion

He's going to attack soon. I know he is. We can't let him catch us off guard; the fate of this galaxy rests on the ensuing battle. There are millions of civilians to protect on this planet. Don't fail them.

-Message from General Pepper to his forces in the Cornerian Defense Fleet, transmitted from the Liberator, in orbit above Corneria, three weeks before the attack on Corneria.

Corneria City, Corneria

At first Fox couldn't believe his eyes. Enemy starfighters and assault robots were pouring from a fleet of warships into Corneria's atmosphere. Apparently Andross had finally decided it was time to take the last planet in the galaxy that was not yet under his control, and he'd brought his whole navy to help him accomplish the goal.

It was definitely time to get back to the Great Fox. Fox wasn't sure what he would do with Wolf, but for the time being he'd have to come along for the ride.

Fox walked out of the bar; Wolf's weight on his shoulder made it nearly impossible to run. A clunky Malice-class fighter flew overhead and hammered laser bolts into the bar's roof, causing the building to catch fire. As the structure collapsed, Fox stared wide-eyed at the burning flames and listened to the screams of the citizens he'd just been with.He shook his head to clear away the shock. Being in a daze at a moment like this was certain death. He had to get back to the Great Fox before the city was overrun. If Slippy had repaired his Firesplash, he could do some serious damage to this fleet.

The Cornerian City Spaceport would probably be a primary target. Fox began walking down the street leading to the Green Sector landing bay. Overhead, hundreds of starfighters buzzed toward the enemy fleet. About time the cavalry showed up.

The Cornerian Defense Fleet was finally responding to the invasion. They would fight back, hard, but Fox wasn't sure if their forces would be enough. They needed people like Fox, Slippy, Peppy, and….No. There was no and. Matt was dead and Star Fox was down to three. Well, even three could make a difference.

The Great Fox's bridge was lit by multicolored glows from the radar; a flurry of red, blue, and yellow blips, sometimes accented by white flashes that indicated the destruction of a vessel, filled the screen. The red outnumbered the blue, Slippy observed, although the blue were fighting back valiantly.

"It looks like Andross is focusing mainly on Corneria City," said Peppy. "He must want to cripple our main trade routes. Without resources, we won't have an army."

ROB poked a few buttons on the control console. A globe representing the entire planet of Corneria appeared. Indeed, the concentration of enemy fighters was centered around Corneria City, with only a few small skirmishes being fought in other continents. Several large warships drifted outside of Corneria's gravitational pull, releasing smaller fighters into the atmosphere.

"Negative, Peppy. The enemy focus looks to be on military targets, not economic centers. Two Cornerian Defense Fleet bases have been crippled already. Andross appears to want to render the entire planet defenseless. This is an all-out assault."

"Slippy," said Peppy, his ears standing on end. "Send a coded message to the Lylat Defense Forces posted in Sector Y and the Meteo Asteroid Belt. Tell them to respond immediately."

Slippy nodded grimly and walked over to the communication center. He knew how dire the situation was. If Corneria was overrun, Andross would be the emperor of the entire Lylat System. The Lylat Wars would be over and he would rightfully own everything in the galaxy. After all, warlords who conquered received the territory and everything in it.

"Lylat Defense Force, this is Corneria. Come in, come in, come in." Nervously flexing his fingers, Slippy waited for a response. Silence. "Lylat Defense Force, this is Corneria. We are under attack, repeat under attack. Request immediate assistance from all available units. Over."

Slippy glanced away from the communication screen in time to see Peppy's foot disappear through the doorway.

"Peppy!" Emerging from the bridge, he found Peppy waiting for him in the corridor. "What are you doing?"

"My ship's ready for action, right?"

"She's the only one that's ready, yes."

"Someone's got to stop these machines."

Slippy looked incredulously at the hare. "You're going by yourself?"

"You could come along for the ride, but your Firesplash doesn't look like it'd last long out there."

There was a long pause, broken only by a small quake and the groan of collapsing metal. The spaceport was under attack. After a moment of contemplation Slippy nodded. Star Fox was supposed to stay together, but right now Corneria needed as many pilots as they could get.

"Good luck."

"Don't worry about me. You can help ROB take the Great Fox into orbit once Fox is aboard. I'll see you in a few."

Slippy watched his friend vanish around a corner. He returned to the bridge and stared out the viewport. Somehow he got the feeling he wouldn't see Peppy again. He felt vulnerable. This was the first time in his life he'd wished he didn't have any friends to worry about. And he wasn't sure if he could handle another Matthew Hound.

ROB punched a button and the Great Fox's landing bay doors slid open. Peppy's fighter whined to life and shot out of Star Fox's command ship. Slippy watched the Firesplash fly into the distance until it became a tiny speck.

His eyes shifted focus and he found himself staring into his own reflection. He looked directly into his own blue eyes, unblinking. What kind of a friend lets a wingmate fly into battle alone? He could die out there.

Without another thought, Slippy left the bridge and headed for Fox's Arwing.

The burden was getting heavy and Fox was slowing down. He hefted Wolf's weight onto a more comfortable spot on his shoulder. Wolf had better be grateful when he wakes up…

The Cornerian Spaceport was only a few blocks away now, but even a few blocks seemed like an eternity. He found himself wishing more than ever that he was safely piloting his Firesplash, racing along at blinding speeds.

People began flowing past Fox. At first he thought they were only moving faster than he was because of his load, but then he realized they were running from something. Something close. He turned back to catch a glimpse of an enemy fighter just before it flew behind a building. The crowd was so thick now that he was forced along with them, backwards. He struggled to keep his footing. The last thing he needed was to be trampled to death.

A woman was screaming something in his direction. He threw a quick glance at her but he couldn't discern what she was trying to say. Something red appeared out of the corner of his eye. Looking back, he realized that it was the building, about to explode. His legs instinctively started moving and he ran for his life; suddenly Wolf didn't seem so heavy anymore.

The explosion resounded in thunderous waves as debris rained down on the mass of fleeing people. Fox's ears rang. He saw people falling under huge chunks of concrete and plastoid. The crowd rushed around the fallen chunks like a current flowing around protruding rocks, never slowing.

Fox risked another look back and realized that the enemy fighter pilot who had blasted the building was purposefully targeting the group of retreating civilians. The fighter rained fire on the crowd. Fox was glad he couldn't hear their screams.

The pursuing fighter was steadily gaining on him. He was trapped. Moving any faster was out of the question; he was part of the crowd. Feeling the reverberations of the starfighter's twice-mach speed, Fox knew it was over. He could feel the heat of the lasers now. He turned around. Better to face the man who's going to kill you than run away like a coward.

The fighter was almost upon him when it exploded, hit by Cornerian fire. Fox watched the friendly starfighter fly over the crowd and tip its wing in a salute. Fox's eyes widened in surprise at his sudden realization: that ship wasn't just any starfighter. It was a Firesplash. Star Fox was airborne. Fox blew out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and thanked the stars for the overwhelming sense of relief flooding over him.

That makes three. Peppy Hare tipped his wing to the civilians he'd just saved and pulled back on the yoke, gaining altitude. Corneria City was being torn apart quickly and ruthlessly. He needed to find the areas of the city that had the highest concentrations of enemies and save as many innocents as he could.

Below him, buildings crumbled, fires burned, and people died. He noticed three shuttles landing in the distance, no doubt carrying sapper machines. It was obvious to him now that Andross had no intention of keeping the city intact. Corneria City would literally fall if resistance wasn't strong enough.

A high-pitched beeping on the Firesplash's console caught Peppy's attention. He'd picked up a bogey on his aft, and not just any enemy; it was a Viper. Vipers were some of the most feared starfighters in Andross' forces. Sleek, agile, and well-armored, their names derived from their ability to rapidly spit lasers in what appeared to be a constant stream of energy. Such an ability was instant death to any mediocre pilot.

The constant fire began. Peppy spun the Firesplash hard to starboard, barely dodging the deadly energy. The Viper followed suit, and once again Peppy was forced to throw his ship into a rapid change of direction; he plunged his ship toward the ground, knowing that his only chance of survival was to lose the Viper in-between buildings.

Darkness crept into his vision as the G's went to his head. Glancing at his radar, he noticed that the Viper hadn't expected his sudden descent and was attempting a quick pursuing turn. For an instant he thought he saw a blue dot closing in on the Viper, but before he could confirm a friendly his head started to spin. He slowly leveled off the Firesplash; he certainly wouldn't survive if he was too dizzy to pilot his ship.

The Viper dropped in on his tail again. Those things were amazingly fast. Deadly fast. The constant stream of laser fire began once again. It lasted for all of two seconds. Suddenly the enemy exploded in a cloud of flame and shrapnel.

Peppy glanced down at his radar in astonishment. The blue dot had reappeared, but now….now it was firing at him. His ship jerked starboard as a laser seared the Firesplash's aft hull. "Check your fire- we're on the same side!" he yelled into the comm. Abruptly the fire stopped.

"Sorry. I got a little carried away. Are you all right?" came Slippy's voice over the speaker.

"Slippy? What are you doing out here?"

"I figured you'd need a wingmate."

Peppy smiled. "You made the right call, son. Thanks for the save."

"Sorry about the wing. Is anything wrong with your systems?"

Peppy sent his onboard computer into an emergency systems check. A red light appeared on the screen. "Shields are weakened and maneuverability's a bit off. Looks like you hit the G-Diffuser."

"I can escort you to a repair station-"

"We can worry about me later. Right now, there are too many enemies out here that need shot."

The spaceport had collapsed. Pillars, decorative statues, ceiling, glass…everything lay in a dusty heap. Fox had seen the building come down, luckily from a safe distance. The SAP-36 sapper robot had the place torn apart in minutes, or at least the northeast end. Now it had moved on to a different part of the spaceport, slowly making its way around the oval perimeter of the building.

Fox stumbled to the northeast entrance. Wolf's weight was becoming more of a burden with each passing minute. He kept telling himself he was almost there, almost to the Great Fox, almost…but the self-encouragement wasn't helping anymore. He was dead tired and about to collapse.

A familiar figure stood outside the entrance, staring at the debris. Fox couldn't remember who the person was at first, but his memory slowly began working again. A blue figure. Birdlike. Armed with a blaster which was still aimed at some sort of lizard. A bounty hunter.

"Looks like we've got two of a kind, Lombardi," Fox exhaled, shifting the weight on his shoulder once again.

"Yeah. It's Falco, by the way," said the bounty hunter absentmindedly. He continued to stare at the debris.

Fox's shoulder twitched. The lizard glanced at him and suddenly looked startled when he saw who Fox was carrying. Or was it something else…

"Is there any way inside?"

"The sap brought it down just before I went in." Falco squeezed his eyes shut. "This is horrible."

"Were there-"

"Yes. A dozen of them. People trying to stay safe, to live normal lives. They're still in there."

Fox gently set Wolf on the ground and walked over to a broken chunk of pillar lying in the doorway. He felt a hundred times lighter. "Give me a hand with this."

Falco threw a threatening look at the lizard. "Leon, I'll warn you once. Don't try anything or you die."

Leon nervously nodded in agreement. Falco holstered his blaster and grabbed the piece of pillar. Working together, he and Fox hefted the stone out of the way. A small opening leading into the building could be seen now. An opening with a body in it.

The body was a hound dog, and it wasn't just a body. The hound's head turned toward the newly revealed daylight, and his eyes stared straight into Fox's. "Help me."

Instantly Fox was back on Titania. He heard Matthew Hound's call for assistance. He knew his friend's life was in danger and there was nothing he could do. He saw the eruption of flame coming from the Firesplash…

And his back exploded in pain.

Fox groaned as he leaned back, reflexively reaching for the source of the pain. At first he thought he'd pulled a muscle while lifting the pillar. Then he saw his own gun pointed at him.

"Thanks for the lift, friend," Wolf growled.

So that was what the twitch on Fox's shoulder had been. Wolf had returned to consciousness and given Leon some sort of signal.

"Leon and I will be on our way now. We're both armed. You're not. Don't try to stop us."

Falco slowly reached for his blaster and realized that Leon had indeed stolen it. This was no bluff.

"Wait," said Fox. "Help us get this person out of here."

"This is war. People die and they're not worth the effort. The galaxy needs Star Wolf."

For some reason, that comment awakened a startling amount of laughter from Fox. "People are the galaxy!" he laughed as he shook his head.

"Nobody paid us to help," said Wolf. He and Leon slowly backed away, then turned and ran.

Falco let out a growl of discontent. "There goes my money."

"Come on," Fox said, waving Falco toward the hound.

Together, they removed several more large chunks of debris. They tipped the last chunk off of the hound's lower legs and helped him to his feet.

"Can you walk, old-timer?" Falco asked.

"Yes," the hound said meekly. "Thank you both."

Falco looked at Fox. "We need to get off this rock before we become permanent residents."

"Do you have a ship nearby?"

"If it didn't get crushed, yes. There's room enough for both of us."

"What about room for three?" asked Fox, jerking his head toward the hound.

"There's a storage compartment in the belly of the ship. We can get the old man to safety."

Fox nodded. "Want to tag along, sir?" he asked the hound.

"It's Chief. And I'd love to get out of here."

"It's this way," said Falco, crawling into the hole they'd just created to rescue Chief.

The other two followed suit. The passage was very dark, and occasionally Fox felt something sharp and seemingly invisible dig into his palms. After several minutes, they finally came out of the crawlspace and into a large, dark room full of debris. Fox's eyes were adjusted to the darkness by now, and he scanned the new surroundings. Immediately he wished he hadn't.

Bodies were everywhere. Dead bodies, all of them. Limbs protruded from pieces of fallen ceiling all around the room. Fox fixed his gaze in the direction Falco was walking and never looked back. Falco led them to a malfunctioned door; the door's sliding panel was locked halfway up its track. The trio ducked under the door and walked into a landing bay.

Falco's ship sat before them, glinting in the sunlight. It was an Avatar starfighter, and a highly modified one at that. It sported two rear blasters in addition to the customary four attached to the bow. Fox was sure there was much more to this thing than someone would notice at first glance.

Falco lowered the ramp to the storage space and Chief climbed in. Fox climbed into the rear-facing gunner's seat. The canopy lowered over his head as Falco warmed up the systems.

"Everything checks out. She's still in one piece."

Fox gave the thumbs-up as the Avatar lifted from the ground. "Patch me through to omega frequency six."

Falco punched a button. "You're on."

"Star Fox, come in. This is Fox. Repeat, come in."

A brief moment of static was broken by Peppy's voice. "Fox! Are you in the Great Fox?"

"Tell ROB to take off. I hitched a ride with somebody else. I'll send you our signal so you can patch it into the radar."

"Copy that. Are you headed our way?"

Fox looked to Falco, who shrugged. "I lost my bounty because of these guys. They'll pay for that."

"You hear that Peppy? We're on our way."