Chapter 8: The Final Confrontation?
The following day, Beltino confirmed that an enormous Tritan army was marching in straight for Corneria. Steven had been right; the Tritans found them. There could be no underestimating their intelligence…
Beltino said to Star Fox, "It looks like every single last Tritan has come here to attack us!"
Peppy scratched his chin and wondered, "How do you suppose they came here?"
Steven came forward and answered him, "Like I said before, they can sense the antidote source coming from this planet."
"Darn!" Slippy exclaimed.
"Everyone, relax," Fox said to all of them. "We'll be fine. But whether we're ready or not to face them, we've got to."
Falco turned to his friend.
"You know you're right. Let's put these creeps to an end!"
Fox grinned at his friend's confidence. He faced the rest and asked, "How about the rest of you?"
Slippy stepped forward and said, "I'm totally in!"
Krystal came next and said, "Let's do it, Fox!"
"I'm with all of you! If James taught me anything, it was to never give up!" Peppy said last.
Fox now knew that his father was alive on Katina from the letter, and was going to go find him after he finished off the Tritans and Andross. He still wondered how Andross could have possibly survived after their last encounter when he threatened Sauria… Fox had completely blown him up! How was it possible?
The Star Fox team and Cornerian Army departed their home, ready for the final confrontation in space. Fox, Slippy, Falco, and Krystal started off in the Great Fox with ROB and Peppy. Steven and Beltino traveled along in the Great Fox.
Beltino straightened his glasses and remarked, "Well, this is it, gang."
"Yah, no turning back now…" Slippy commented.
"Let's do this thing!" Falco shouted.
The gang saw the vast battalion of Tritan ships up ahead. There were hundreds of them, maybe a thousand… Peppy turned around to face the team.
"Are you all ready?" He asked them.
Fox shut his eyes gravely and assured him, "Ready."
Peppy nodded solemnly and said, "There are four generators total. This must be the last of the Tritans. A lot of the ships are targeting the Orbital Gate again. The remaining are still headed for Corneria. ROB, Beltino, Steven, and I will drive the Great Fox. We'll try to destroy a generator or two. The military will mainly be protecting the gate. Good luck."
Slippy stood up and remarked, "Hey, I thought you were going to retire!"
Peppy laughed and said, "Just because I'm gonna retire from the team doesn't mean I'm not going to help as the general."
Fox said to Peppy, "Wait. You knew that General Pepper was going to die, right? It was in Bill's briefcase. Is he still alive?"
Peppy shrugged and told him, "I don't know, Fox. He left Corneria the day he retired. No one knows where he is right now…"
Fox announced, "Well, we'd best be off now."
Peppy saluted his friend and said, "Good luck again, keep your wits about you, and like I said before; never give up, and trust your instincts."
Fox, Falco, Krystal, and Slippy dashed through the ship's corridor to the hangar containing the Arwings. Just like old times… It brought back memories to Fox when they going to stop Oikonny and his fleet. Only this time, these Tritans were a much larger threat…
The teammates jumped into their Arwings, ready for take-off. Peppy called in, "Launch all ships!" The hangar hatch opened, and the four Arwings took off into the battle.
They could see that the military and some Tritan ships had already begun to start fighting. The team wasted not a moment of time, steering their ships closer to the Tritans. War had commenced…
"Alright. Slippy and I will take out the generator on the far left. Falco and Krystal, you guys take the far right. The military should be protecting the gate. Good luck," Fox said.
Fox and Slippy headed right, avoiding enemy fire as best as they could from numerous Tritans. Fox and Slippy fired back at some of the ships and managed to eradicate a few. They moved on and eventually reached the generator. Once they arrived they saw that Falco and Krystal had safely reached the far right generator. But after checking on their friends, Fox and Slippy knew that they couldn't use up any more time on anything else.
Slippy launched a smart bomb at the generator, practically destroying it immediately. But it was partially still alive, and started to shoot out some Tritan ships. Fox rapidly used his laser-fire on the generator, barely able to kill it before it shot out another Tritan. Fox and Slippy exchanged sides and took out the leftover Tritan ships.
By now Fox and Slippy could see the Great Fox heading towards the generator next to Falco and Krystal. They saw that they had been able to destroy the generator on their side. This is easier than I thought it would be! Fox thought. From there, Falco and Krystal started destroying some of the Tritan ships on the battlefield. Fox and Slippy saw that the military needed help protecting the gate. It looked like the Tritans were about to enter the gate. If they escaped through the gate, they'd never catch them! Fox and Slippy used the highest gear on their Arwings and rushed theirs ships over to the gate while Peppy was working on the other generator.
Fox and Slippy immediately started shooting at the enemies closest to entering the gate. The Tritans behind the first ones in line noticed they were being ambushed and spotted Fox and Slippy.
"Quick, run!" Fox shouted to Slippy over the intercom.
Fox and Slippy split apart, the gunfire of the Tritans piercing through a now empty space that Fox and Slippy had used to be in. Fox moved towards the back of the line of Tritans, saying to Slippy, "I'll take half of them back here. You team up with the military and be sure to take out the ones in front."
"Alright," Slippy replied.
Fox shot out a smart bomb towards a few Tritans sticking together in the back. A few of them blew up, sending flying debris all over the area. Fox barely managed to avoid the broken ship pieces and shot at the remaining ships in the back. Meanwhile, Slippy seemed to have hardly any trouble shooting at the Tritans in front with the remaining military ships. Once Fox and Slippy cleared the Orbital Gate of the Tritans, they saw that Peppy had destroyed a generator and was working with Falco and Krystal to destroy the enemy on the battlefield.
Fox, Slippy, and the Cornerian Military all joined in to help clean up the remaining Tritans on the battlefield. It wasn't that easy from there on out… They lost many of the military ships; eventually, there were only a few Tritans and military ships left… After everyone had destroyed the Tritans, there were not a ton of military ships left! They moved in for the last generator dead ahead of them. This was it… With the Great Fox, the four Arwings, and the few military ships firing at the generator, there wasn't much of a good outcome for the Tritans. The generator had plenty of time to spit out some more Tritans though, giving everyone some more ships to worry about. After they destroyed the generator and the last of the Tritans, they were sure that they had won…
Fox cleared his throat and commented, "Well, that was long…"
"It was easy! We totally destroyed 'em!" Falco remarked.
Krystal said, "Yes, but how do you suppose they originally came about?"
Just then, a colossal creature appeared before them, with multiple cannons attached to it.
Peppy just stared at the sight and remarked, "Oh my…"
Steven came forward slowly and approached Peppy. Steven raised his gun above Peppy and brought it down on his head, knocking him the rabbit out cold! ROB and Beltino gasped and ran away from Steven, since they were unarmed. However, Steven shot Beltino in the leg, resulting in the toad doubling over in pain. Steven stepped forward to Beltino and retrieved the paper with the Tritan words on it.
"I'll take that," Steven said and started piloting the Great Fox himself.
"It must be the leader of the Tritans or something…" Fox guessed.
Falco, for the first time, lost his temper. He said, "That thing is huge! How in Lylat do we stop it?!"
Slippy laughed and said, "Wow! The mighty Falco looses his cool. This should go on the front page tomorrow!"
Falco grumbled and replied, "Shut up, frog! This is no time for jokes!"
"Both of you, calm down. What's the plan, Fox?" Krystal asked.
Fox closed his eyes in thought for a moment, and then said, "We use everything we've got. All of our bombs, our laser fire, and strength."
Without any more talking, all of them rushed at the giant Tritan and started firing everything they had. Smart Bombs, timed bombs, laser-fire, and some even committed suicide by driving their ships straight into the thing. Some more of the military ships from Corneria came to the scene, luckily.
The thing was so tough! Everything they sent at it seemed to barely effect it…
"Peppy, we need to use a huge shot containing the antidote!" Fox called.
No response. Fox became worried.
"What should we do, Fox?" Krystal asked again.
Fox responded, "Keep at it! I'll help out in just a second."
He called again, "Peppy! ROB! Beltino! Are you there?"
Fox heard a chuckle, then a response, "I'm afraid your friends won't be responding any time soon!"
Fox gasped and realized that the voice came from his uncle.
Fox asked, "Steven? What have you done?"
He heard another roar of laughter and Steven replied, "I'm afraid you won't be able to destroy the King of the Tritans. Without my formula, you can't do it!"
Fox suddenly became very confused and demanded, "Why are you doing this?"
Steven responded, "For a nice profit and to unite with the greatest power Lylat will ever know, Andross! You're too late, Fox! You can't do anything to prevent it. You have no leads, and Star Wolf has escaped!"
Fox growled and retorted, "You bet we do! We already know Andross is on Planet Titania!"
Steven laughed repugnantly and said, "No he's not, you idiot! He'd never make it that obvious for you! And I'm not James's brother; I just pretended to be him so that you would fall for the trap, and I could capture these fools! Andross managed to steal the formula from the real Steven a long time ago; I found out everything I could about him, so that I could fool you into thinking I was your uncle."
Fox growled again.
"But when we searched specifically for Steven McCloud, all we found was you!" Fox said.
"I changed my identity to 'Steven McCloud'; your uncle is dead! Anyway, hopefully you won't miss these guys so much! You'd better pray Andross keeps them alive!" Stephen cackled.
Fox exclaimed, "How dare you! How could you do this?"
Steven drove away in the Great Fox at full speed. Then Fox noticed that the Tritan King had escaped too, during the conversation.
"He got away!" Slippy reported the obvious.
Fox told them, "That's not even close to the worst. Steven turned out to be a traitor! I'll bet he's heading to Titania to find Andross; he was probably bluffing earlier! And if not, we have no other leads right now. He's going to hand the Tritan King over to Andross and kill Peppy and Beltino, too! We've got to go to Titania, now!"
