There are many advantages to having a ship painted like an Arwing, but it is safe to say that flying into Venomian airspace in such ships has no advantages whatsoever. No sooner had Star Fox entered the planet's atmosphere, the enemy troops had started gunning for all they were worth. Before they knew it, they were totally surrounded by a relentless barrage of laser fire.
"DO A BARREL ROLL!" Peter shrieked. But it was too late, as Lily's Arwing hurtled to the ground. Peter himself, who wasn't barrel rolling enough, it seemed, was next to go. Junior and Jet was glued at the wing; even Jet was shivering with fear.
"Jet, if anything happens to me, I want you to be team leader. OK?"
"S-sure thing, buddy - GAAAAAH...!"
What Jet also got was an Arwing full of hot plasma. Junior was all alone, covered by about fifty ships. In desperation, he charged at them, clipping his wing on one of them, but not doing anything that might send the enemy hurtling towards the ground. Junior was racing past what little wildlife the planet had to offer at a tremendous pace, frantically trying to shake the fighters. He had never been so scared in all his life. He saw a cliff face was fast approaching, so he tried a new tactic: he quickly made a U-turn, hoping that some of them would crash. Turns out Venomian troops were smarter than they looked, and they continued to pursue him.
It looked as though all was lost. Junior was now flying back towards the others. Suddenly, it was the Venomian troops who decided to use a new tactic. Although basic laser fire was good enough for shooting down the others, this time they decided to fire nova bombs.
At the same time.
All went dark...
"Junior?"
"JUNIOR?!"
"Oh, this is just unbelievable, Jet! My Arwing is smashed, your Arwing is smashed, Peter's Arwing is smashed, Junior's Arwing is on fire, I landed on my transmitter so it's wrecked, yours was in your cockpit so it's destroyed, Peter landed on his, Junior's is in his bag unharmed but he's unconscious and he's got the stupid thing LOCKED!"
Junior opened his eyes slowly. The ground beneath them was nothing but mud and dead plants, which was all he could see at that moment. Looking up, he could see a deep crimson sky and lots of metal. Junior remembered the kind of place from nightmares he'd had as a cub. As his eyes came back into focus, he saw his team-mates. Lily was leaning over him and Jet was sat some distance away with Peter wrapping a bandage round his arm.
"Are you OK? You were out for a while. We thought we lost you; Jet was going mental" Lily looked over to Jet, who did look incredibly stressed. "Do you hurt anywhere?"
"My back hurts a bit…" Mumbled Junior.
"I'm not surprised. When Jet woke up - he was first, you see - he saw you flat on your back. It must've been a nasty fall, He said they chased you higher up before shooting you down, so you went further than we did. One of them smashed his cockpit and he's covered in burns where laser fire just missed him. Peter's covered in cuts, his cockpit was smashed dead center, there was glass all over the place. You're cut too, on your face. Does that hurt?"
"Not -ow- really" He noticed that Lily wasn't hurt much at all, only a small cut on her arm and mud and oil on her clothes "What happened to you? Or rather, what didn't?"
"Oh, me? I was shot straight in the engine. Cut out my ship's power, made a few fancy sparks and flames, but didn't hurt me much. I was holding my transmitter, you see, I was gonna get help but when I fell I landed on it and it smashed. That's where the cut came from. Peter's was in his pocket so it got the same fate. Jet's ever so badly hurt. The both of you look awful, as though you've been in a war!"
"We have been in a war, Lily" Jet struggled to stand. "Whoa, Junior, what the heck happened?! I know I've got burns but you look like what, fifty nova bombs got you at once!"
"You don't know the half of it..."
The other three pilots crawled over and hugged their friend. "I'm surprised you weren't killed! Remember at the Academy, learning about nova bombs? They said a single direct hit could kill someone, never fifty!"
"Junior" Lily looked concerned "We have to get out of here. I'm sure you'll agree. Take your bag off in case you've injured your back, then get your transmitter and tell Prudence the whole thing. We're all to blame. We can't get home by ourselves, all our ships are trashed! Then when help arrives so will a force to help save the Colonel, Peter, we can't go on like we are." Junior shuffled off his bag, biting his lip to forget the stabbing feeling in his back. He grabbed the transmitter and unlocked it "I can't believe this, stranded on Venom! We can't stay here!"
"Looks like you're gonna have to, kiddies!"
Lily squealed when a huge alligator loomed behind them and grasped Junior's collar.
"Little Cornerian wannabes stirring up trouble, eh? You're going straight to Emperor Oikonny! French, get over here and take some of these brats!"
"Hold it, Saunders! Take a look at the ships."
The alligator dragged Junior with him as he went to inspect the wreckage. A hulking monkey stood by one of them, pointing at a small spot that hadn't been burned. A fed fox with wings was prominently shining through the damage.
"Star Fox... So, you're little Star Fox wannabes too. The emperor will be very pleased to hear this."
The monkey came over and took up Lily and Peter's collars. The alligator snatched up Jet and began dragging them along behind as the pair of troops headed to a large base nearby.
"He will, and once again, Saunders, we'll be tip-top of his list" The monkey grinned. "Stop squealing, it won't help anything!" They both tightened their grip so the team could hardly breathe, let alone escape. As the base drew nearer, several guards approached them.
"More Cornerian prisoners for the emperor." The alligator sneered.
"More?!" Peter wailed "Grandfather!" This resulted in the monkey tightening his grip even more.
After dragging them through several metal hallways, they took away their blasters and threw the four children into a holding cell. A dark presence lurked in the doorway behind them. The two men bowed.
"Emperor, we have more prisoners."
"Excellent work, Saunders. I always knew you'd get French involved in something useful. Aah, the perfect team, just who I need!"
The figure came through the door and made the four of them scream. It was an ape; despite being incredibly thin, lanky and shorter than the two hulking beasts in the room with them, he gave off a truly tyrannical aura. Junior had the impression that if they messed with him he'd have them executed. Maybe it had something to do with his red and yellow eyes - a family trait. There was definitely something unnatural about him.
He grinned at Junior, who was shaking with fear under the cruel gaze. "Take this one out of the cell a moment and cuff him, I need him out to star in my transmission. This will be fun. Wait, what's this..?" He snatched the transmission device from Junior's hand and laughed "Another transmitter, adorable! French, Saunders, go back to your air patrol. But before you go, Saunders…" He handed the alligator Junior's transmitter. "Take this and destroy it. I would, but I have my own transmitting to deal with." The men left and Oikonny began working with a large computer, like the one at High Command. While his friends sat in the cell, right up close to the door, Junior was slumped on the floor on the other side, handcuffed so tightly he thought his hands would explode, and filled with remorse.
"I'm sorry guys, I failed. I let you all down…" he lamented.
"Don't be like that" Lily smiled weakly "I'm sure someone will save us."
"Think of how big the fleet is. We're just another unit in that fleet. There are millions of pilots in the fleet, and then there's all the ground troops too! Nobody's coming guys, we're just another little unit…"
"We're not just any unit" Whispered Jet. "Not to Prudence…"
Saunders was, by this point, back in the air. Junior's transmitter was tight in his grasp; he was planning on throwing it from about thirty thousand feet or so. He was about to throw it when it beeped loudly…