Solar: Hundreds of fighters and warships whizzed by over the sun as the various factions amassed their fleets in preparation for a massive onslaught.
"I guess this is it," said Tobias looking out at the various enemy fleets all clustered around the sun. Powell nodded.
"The war to end all wars. The war that will decide the fate of the Lylat System," he said. A communiqué came across the comm. system.
"This is Jake. What we do here will decide the fate of the entire system. It's winner take all in a no holds barred match. When your last vehicle has been destroyed you obviously loose the chance to lead. Go," said Jake. Dozens of fighters all streamed towards each other as dozens of explosions rocked the area of space.
"Move us in. I'm going to my fighter," said Tobias.
"Sir you can't. We need you to lead us," said Powell. Tobias looked at him and then pointed out to the various fighters attacking each other.
"Our people are out there making decisions that will decide their fate. I won't stand by and do nothing but make my decisions out here. Decisions should be made by those fighting the battle not by those observing it. I'm leaving," said Tobias. Tobias marched defiantly out of the bridge and went to the hanger. He hopped inside his fighter and blasted off. He quickly fell in line with a wave of fighter craft.
"Alright folks this is Tobias. I'm leading you into battle. Follow my lead and do what I tell you and we might just survive this turn of events," said Tobias. The other CDF squads formed on him and they zoomed forward towards the large battle in front of them.
"Alright split up. Attack from different sides and weed out the weaklings. Any stragglers must be dispatched before they regroup. Let's hit them hard and fast," said Tobias. The fighter squads peeled off into different direction as Tobias and his three-fighter accompaniment zoomed straight into the middle opening fire.
"Form into a diamond," said Tobias. The fighters moved to their appropriate positions but one of them exploded under enemy fire and the remaining fighters made an odd triangle. Tobias then snapped his ship through several tight rolls while firing his lasers a few fighters exploded but more kept on coming.
"This is getting hopeless," said a pilot. Another fighter in the group exploded from weapons fire. Two CDF fighters rushed in to take the places of those already gone.
"Intel report," said Tobias. Another fighter took up a flanking position.
"Current projections. 35 fighters gone, 375 left. 1 warship lost, Zeram Class. 112 warships remaining," said Intel.
"Okay, you're free to go," said Tobias. The fighter peeled off and away while firing on enemy fighters. A large shadow fell on the fighters. Tobias looked up.
"Oh shit," he said. A massive battlecruiser was on fire and spinning out of control towards them.
"Scatter!" yelled Tobias. The four fighters split up as the battlecruiser zoomed by and exploded flinging debris everywhere.
"This is not good," said John. John had pulled his fighter squad alongside Tobias and his accompaniments.
"Yeah. Where the hell is Jason?" demanded Tobias. Another massive explosion went off and an enemy cruiser slowly started sinking towards Solar.
"I don't know. Orders?" asked John. Tobias consulted his radar.
"Follow your own instincts and go on the offensive. Take Husky and Bulldog units into the fray. I'll try and do my best to defend the fleet," Tobias responded.
"Right," responded John. His squad burst forward into the thick of the fighting. Tobias sighed and pulled his squad around to regroup with the fleet.
"Where are you Jason?" he thought.
Corneria: With small explosions dotting Solar in the background, The Hammer exited from warp.
"What're we doing here?" demanded Gary. Rob turned in his chair to face him.
"We need some files from the Corneria Army HQ," said Rob. Jason shrugged.
"I don't think you'll find them. Most of the files were destroyed during the war. The rest are on Katina," he said.
"Not these files. Prepare to enter the planet's atmosphere," said Rob. The ship zoomed down into the atmosphere of Corneria. They flew over the destroyed Alpha City.
"A shame," said Rob.
"Yeah," responded Jason. The ship then moved past it.
"Hey? Where're we going?" asked Bunny.
"There," said Rob pointing towards the viewscreen. The shattered remains of Coastal City loomed ahead of them. The cruiser landed just outside city limits. Rob stood up and motioned for them to accompany him.
"Why should we go with you?" asked Felicia. Rob turned to face them.
"There are things you must know before your fate has been decided," he said. Several robotic guards pointed their blasters at them.
"Fine. Let's go team," said Jason. The four of them accompanied Rob into the turbolift and it descended to the lowest level. They then marched out into the soaring heat and walked across the sand towards the city. A few feet behind them, a small group of robots with blasters pointed at them walked towards the city as well.
"You know that at one time this was a lush and fertile area. Not the desert it is now," said Rob. Gary walked close to Jason.
"What're we going to do?" he asked softly.
"I'd don't know but I'll come up with something. I don't intend for the Star Fox team to die so early in its infancy. Just wait for now," Jason responded. Gary nodded and backed off. Jason then looked up at the ghost city and sighed shaking his head.
Siward: Mantia, Cook, and various others were clustered in the main bay watching the battle via a viewscreen. They watched as thousands of explosions rocked the area.
"Beautiful," commented Cook.
"Yep," said Mantia shedding a tear. Cook looked up at him.
"What's wrong? You don't feel sorry for those pilots do you?" Cook asked. Mantia looked at him.
"What? No of course not. It's just that conquering the Lylat System was always a dream, an unachievable goal. But now it's looking more and more likely to come true," said Mantia. Cook nodded.
"Why do you do it?" asked Porpoise.
"Do what?" asked Mantia.
"Forgive me for I don't mean to be rude, but why do you continue to try and conquer the Lylat System despite the odds. Only Andross has ever tried to conquer the Lylat System with such obsession," said Porpoise.
"Perhaps its because we're practically one in the same," responded Mantia. Cook looked at him confused.
"I don't understand," he said. Mantia eyed him.
"It's very simple to explain actually. Back when I was first created, Andross knew that there was no way that any creature beside himself would ever want to continually try and conquer the Lylat System after defeat. Thus there was only one solution available to him. Andross injected some of his brain tissue into my own. It drastically increased my intelligence and made me want to conquer the Lylat System as much as he did," responded the bio-weapon. Cook considered this.
"Does that mean that you don't have any choice but to constantly attempt to conquer the system? What if you want to do something else?" he asked. Mantia shrugged.
"Do what? There's nothing that something like me can do besides try and conquer the Lylat System. I don't really mind, it gives me a sense of purpose in the universe," said Mantia. Cook shrugged.
"Whatever suits you," he responded. They watched as another explosion went off on the videoscreen.
Battle: "Scatter!" yelled Tobias. His four-fighter squad broke apart as a flaming warship came rushing right at them. The warship slammed into another one and they both exploded flinging debris everywhere. John's group was far ahead valiantly fighting despite the odds. However even they weren't impervious to the destruction around them and 1/3 of his squad's fighters were gone. Tobias was about to turn around when several laser blasts struck his ship he barely managed to avoid the rest and then he saw an object go rocketing away from his ship. Tobias quickly consulted his damage readout.
"Oh no," he said. The fighter was blasted away by John who had come to help out.
"What?" John asked.
"I just lost my G-Diffuser," Tobias responded.
"So? Go get it fixed," said John.
"I can't. That cruiser that just exploded was our main repair ship. The others can't possibly cope with the influx of damaged fighters and deal with mine in a timely manner. Besides, if I go down, I want to go down fighting," said Tobias.
"Right," said John. Suddenly several laser blasts flew right at them and John's ship exploded.
"Nooo!" exclaimed Tobias. A fighter rocketed by him.
"Tobias, you're all mine," said Jake Whitacre. Tobias growled.
"You just killed one of my best pilots. You won't survive this!" he yelled in anger. He fired at Jake only to have his blasts go flying off because of Jake's G-Diffuser. Jake spun his fighter around and fired on Tobias who jerked his fighter out of the way and did his best to spin through the large wreckage resulting from the space battle.
"What's wrong? After all, a G-Diffuser a day keeps the lasers away. Oh that's right. You lost yours. Well too bad. Bwahahaha!" laughed Jake chasing after him. His fighter fired constantly although his aim was constantly off. Tobias swerved left and right and did his best to avoid the shots although some hit his shields.
"I must escape. I cannot fall to the enemy," thought Tobias. He then saw his opening. Tobias slammed his engines for all they were worth and zoomed through the center of a warship hulk. He then stopped his ship and shut down all power to his ship. Jake's fighter appeared slowly out of the warship.
"Come now Tobias this isn't you. You don't hide from a fight. Don't worry, I'll find you soon enough," said Jake easing his fighter forward. He slowly coasted over Tobias' jet-black fighter and was right in front of it when Tobias quickly powered up his fighter.
"This is for John!" yelled Tobias. He fired a bomb at Jake's fighter and it exploded. The shockwave also flung Tobias' fighter away. Sparks flew and panels went dark and exploded as a result of the impact. Tobias' fighter then shut down as a result of the damage. Tobias sighed in the darkness waiting for the end to come. In front of him he watched the battle continue to rage as all sides continued to press on. The Tobias fighter was hit with a tractor beam and it was drawn into a warships hold. Tobias opened his canopy manually and hopped out onto the floor. He saw a dozen soldiers aiming their weapons at him. In the center of them was a tiger.
"Tobias Airbas you are now a prisoner of the Crimson Elite," said Lord Stronghold. Tobias was handcuffed and escorted off the deck to the prison holds.
"Destroy this thing," said Stronghold pointing to Tobias' fighter. The tractor beam reactivated and pushed the ship back out into space where it was promptly destroyed.
"Let us return to the battle and show off our new trophy," said Stronghold to the bridge via comlink. The ship moved forward to the large battle in front of them as another explosion rocked the area.
Coastal City: Rob pushed aside a large piece of rubble and he and the team emerged into a desolated main street that was full of dust. On each side of the street were buildings with windows blown out, metal creaking, and completely desolate. Rob looked around and picked up a sheet of metal partially buried beneath the dirt.
"Coastal City. The city of the future for next million years we guarantee it," said Rob reading the sign. He sighed. Jason placed his hand on Rob's right shoulder.
"They didn't have a clue did they?" he asked. Rob shook his head.
"No they didn't," he responded clearly sad. Jason noted that if he could have, Rob most certainly would have burst into tears.
"Let's get moving," he said resiliently. He walked forward with the team towards a large building in the distance. Halfway there he turned to their robot accompaniment.
"Go. You're no longer needed here. Return to the ship," said Rob. The robots nodded and trudged off. Felicia looked at Rob curiously.
"Why did you do that? You know that we could destroy you here and now," she said. Rob nodded.
"I do but I trust that you won't. I'm sorry that I have to regard you as criminals, but I'm bound to my programming and can't free myself from it. Come on. I have to show to obtain the information and present you with a conflict," said Rob. They continued walking towards a large castle. They walked across a rusted over drawbridge and entered the castle.
"This at one time was the residence of all presidents after Mantia's second attack on the Lylat System. Mantia had severally destroyed the Corneria City and the government had to be moved temporarily to a new city. However Mr. President loved Coastal City so much that it became the permanent location of the government of the Lylat System," said Rob. They proceeded to an elevator.
"There's no way this thing will ever work," said Gary. Rob pushed a button next to the elevator and the doors opened.
"I stand corrected," said Gary with his eyes wide open. They entered into the elevator and it descended to the lowest floor.
"Wouldn't someone of else have used this elevator?" asked Bunny.
"Maybe, but they wouldn't know any of the access codes to gain entrance to the lower levels. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Rob proceeded forward and activated a nearby panel. He typed in the access code and then produced a vial of blood.
"Hey. That's mine," said Jason. Rob slid it in and pushed a few more keys. A light on the console changed from green to red. Rob motioned for them to follow. The team caught up with him.
"Shouldn't the light have changed the other way?" asked Felicia. Rob looked at her.
"No. It was designed to give infiltrators a sense of superiority that the system had been left off. Be warned though. The following area may stink of rotting flesh," said Rob. They proceed down a couple of hallways when the smell hit them. Then all close their noses and still the stench wafted into them.
"It's awful," said Bunny. They turned another corner and the sight they saw caused them to nearly vomit. Piled everywhere were dozens of rotted corpses. The corpses flesh had been burned away by some unforeseen force and somehow flies had gotten into the level and begun eating the flesh.
"Horrible. How can you do this to people?" demanded Jason.
"What's done is done. They knew the risks coming in. Just ignore them and follow me," said Rob stepping over the corpses without a second thought. The team meanwhile just leapt over the pile of corpses. They then followed the robot into a room with a projector and a movie screen. Jason closed the door as to stop the stench but it didn't help because the room had been thoroughly saturated with it. Rob activated a fan and the stench fell to a more tolerable level.
"What I'm about to show you may make you loose all faith in civilization but you must be told the truth. It was one of my objectives that far into the future someone must know the truth," said Rob. He activated the projector. A sixty-year old President/Gen. Pepper showed up on the screen.
"If you're watching this than it means you've found The Hammer and Mantia has indeed returned to the Lylat System. I know you're probably expecting me to instill you with some confidence to defeat the beast, but I can't. There's a dark secret that a select few in the CDF have known for years, a horrible secret. It all begins a long time ago, about a 120 years before the Lylat Wars," said Pepper. The screen switched to show a large blue rectangular device standing lengthwise in the center of a room. A large table was in front of the room and around it where seated several generals, the president, and a strange alien that none of them had ever seen before. The creature was giving a lengthy speech although there was no sound and the whole image was in black and white. The creature finally displayed a drawing. The image stopped and it showed a large manta ray drawn on it along with the large word written beneath it. The word read: Mantia.
"It isn't possible," said Jason.
"It is," said Rob. The image reverted back to Pepper.
"The creature you see is of a species unknown to any of us. But that's not important. What's important is that this creature detailed everything that would happen for the next few hundred years. The worst part of it was that up to this point it is still true. Everything that creature said would happen has happened. The horrendous part is that we've known of Mantia's existence since long before it was created and we've failed to do anything about it. The alien said that if Mantia doesn't conquer the Lylat System, he would eventually destroy it. I know you don't want to believe it, but it's true. If Mantia isn't allowed to conquer the Lylat System, the system and everyone in it will be totally and utterly destroyed. I wasn't aware of this until I became president and now that I know, I'm afraid of the truth. If Mantia ever returns to the Lylat System, you must allow him to conquer it. I've resigned myself to this fate when I learned all of the truth and you should to. Mantia must succeed in enslaving us all so that we may live another day. Do this, I beg of you. You can't escape your fate. Mantia must win or else we'll all die," said Pepper. Jason growled angrily.
"NEVER!" he yelled. He grabbed a blaster from Rob's belt and fired angrily at the image. He then sat down in a chair angrily. Felicia's face was of utter shock.
"I can't believe it. All these years they've known and they didn't do a thing to stop it," she said in fear.
"I've never felt more helpless in my entire life," said Bunny leaning against a wall shivering. Gary didn't know what to think. Jason slammed his fist against the wall.
"I'm not giving up. Mantia can be defeated and the Lylat System will be saved. I'd rather die than live under his fate. Let's go," he said storming away angrily. Rob and the others followed him out of the room. They then got back to the ship and it blasted away from the planet.
Siward: "I think they've nearly destroyed themselves by now. Let's move out," said Mantia. He then flew out of the bay accompanied by twelve cruisers and the one heavy freighter that was Capt. Cook's. They flew out of the bay and out into space. From there they entered warp headed for Solar.
Solar: "Looks like The Nuke Knights won," said Stronghold. Every fighter from the opposing factions had been destroyed and every heavy cruiser despite Capt. Snow's was disabled. Snow had three cruisers, and twelve fighters left.
"Well. Looks like I've won complete control of the Lylat System once and for all. I hope you won't mind if I begin mercilessly destroying your fleets now. I don't want slave who'll resist me," said Snow. He had blasted two heavy cruisers into dust when suddenly Mantia and his fleet appeared from nowhere. Mantia destroyed two of Snow's heavy cruisers and disabled the third, which currently held Snow. The Star Wolf team meanwhile proceeded to chop up the remaining fighters. Mantia projected his image onto every remaining cruiser.
"Behold your true masters and masters of the Lylat System," said Mantia laughing. The remaining factions remained helpless as Mantia and his fleet remained helpless as Mantia and his fleet proceeded to carve up the cruisers engines.
"I've finally won," said Mantia.
Katina: The Hammer emerged from warp above the planet.
"Attention Tobias, are you there?" asked Jason. An image sprang up of an automated response system.
"Everyone is currently in hiding due to a massive battle for control of the Lylat System. If you wish to risk your lives to locate him just proceed to Solar," said the voice.
"Sounds like something big is going down," said Greg.
"Agreed, but I don't think it's good," said Rob. The Hammer reentered warp.
Solar: Mantia made several flights around the cruiser waiting for their response to his ultimatum ordering for their surrender or destruction. The responses had gone both ways and he was waiting only for the response of Stronghold. Finally the comlink activated.
"I'd rather die than ever serve under you," said Stronghold.
"Then that's the way it has to be," said Mantia. A split second before Mantia fired, The Hammer emerged from warp. Mantia looked at it with feigned interest and then fired on Strongholds ship. It exploded flinging debris everywhere.
"The CDF is gone. They've all been obliterated," said Bunny.
"Then that means," began Jason.
"Yes. This ship must be destroyed. I'm activating the self-destruct system for fifteen minutes. Get out while you still can," said Rob. Mantia loomed in front of the ship.
"Mantia's right there. Can you do nothing?" asked Gary.
"Nothing. My programming forbids it," said Rob.
"Then I hope you can live with the choice of condemning the whole system to Mantia's rule," said Gary leaving. A few minutes later the Star Fox team shot out away from the ship.
"Let's do what we can to stop Mantia," said Jason. The team was about to open fire when several Wolfen II's blocked their path.
"What the?" began Jason.
"Say hello to the original Star Wolf team Star Fox team. Mantia cloned us to deal with you and I've been looking forward to this for a long time," said Wolf. The Star Fox team split up and their counterparts pursued them from the Star Wolf team. The teams swerved left and right and just barely succeeded in destroying them with three minutes left on the timer for The Hammer. Inside Rob was combating his programming with his own. Finally sparks exploded and consoles blew as Rob overcame his programming.
"DIE MANTIA!" yelled Rob. He slammed on the engines to full burn before he shutdown. The Hammer slammed into Mantia and dragged the beast down towards the Solar. Mantia tried to escape from its grip, but at the speed it was moving, it couldn't escape. The ship plunged into the molten surface and finally emerged in the core as Mantia howled in pain.
"I may die. But I won't go quietly. IF I GO DOWN I'M TAKING THE LYLAT SYSTEM WITH ME!" yelled Mantia. Mantia summoned his energy and activated the only offensive weapon Andross had given him, a massive thermonuclear bomb. Mantia exploded in a thermonuclear explosion that detonated the core of Solar. Outside, a massive energy wave emerged as Solar exploded. The Star Fox team watched in despair as the wave came right at them.
"I don't believe it," said Jason in horror.
"What?" Felicia asked.
"The prediction was correct. Mantia couldn't conquer the Lylat System and now he has destroyed the entire system. After all these years and all his failures, he won," said Jason. The energy wave hit their fighters and destroyed them. The wave proceeded to blow every planet in the system into small chunks of rocks. Everyone died and throughout the entire universe a star stopped shining.