Chapter 1: Invasion of Corneria

Corneria, capital of the Lylat system, was under fire. Andross' invasion force swarm in from the coastal areas, catching the Army, Air Force, and Navy off-guard. Landing ships shaped like boxes and containers with rocket boosters landed on the beaches and open spaces in the city and unveiled Alpaca Tanks. Andross' air force swarmed the sky over Corneria firing wildly at skyscrapers and highways. The civilians, mostly dogs and canines, ran for bomb shelters or clogged the evacuation routes further away.

The Cornerian Air Force bases further away scrambled their airships and Arwing fighters to the air, a sense of urgency and panic prevailed over them as they tried to get their squadrons airborne as fast as possible. "They're swarming GHQ tower!" A message blared across their radio. "How did they get through!? Anyone seen General Pepper's shuttle?" Another fired back across the network. "Negative! Negative! He's still in there, the crabs got him cornered!"

As the Cornerian Air Force squadrons took off and formed combat formations, heading for the capital, their ships acted as forward bases and command posts. V formations formed and cruised across the lush green verdant farmlands and deep blue ocean towards the city. "All wings, we are now in a state of emergency, our capital is under attack by Andross." One command ship stated over the radio. As the Cornerian flew in formation, their radar picked up signals from an unknown ship entering their formation. "Wait, we got an unknown here…" They soon saw the Great Fox, a cruiser entering their formations and from its hangar bay, four Arwings flew out, entering formation. "Unidentified Arwings, state your identity and intentions or you will be fired upon." The command ship stated.

"This is Fox McCloud of Star Fox squadron. We are combat effective and ready to go." Fox McCloud replied over the comms. "This is AWACS Eagle Eye, you are not - I repeat - not an official part of the Cornerian military. If you are shot down in combat SAR will not come for you. Do you understand that?" AWACS Eagle Eye spoke cautiously. "That's why we're here." Fox replied.

There was a pause at that before AWACS Eagle Eye responded. "Very well. If you intend to join in then we won't stop you. We could use all the help we can get right now," they said.

"Don't worry, with us here Andross's forces will wish they'd never even tried coming," Fox smirked. "Star Fox, let's go!"

"Right!" Falco, Slippy, and Peppy nodded as the Star Fox squadron joined the fray.

Fox and his wingman flew into battles from the outlying coastal areas, they saw the city burning under the invasion force's reckless rampage. Fox went first for the Alpaca Tanks, strafing them from above, shooting off their legs first to leave them careening over their side and falling off. Not satisfied, Fox turned around and continued strafing, blowing up columns of tanks rolling on the highways of Corneria City. "Hey Einstein, you forgot your back!" Falco shouted over the comms, Fox had a double take seeing his radar showing three enemy Invader-II crafts were chasing him. He quickly flew down to the ground hogging speed, causing them to follow him. "That's right, keep following," Fox smirked while sweating, he flew through structures and buildings shaped like arches and gates, goading his enemies to pursue him. Then he hit the brake, flipping through the air in Kulbit maneuver before winding up behind his pursuers, and gunned them down.

"Nice shooting, Fox!" Slippy said.

"Don't worry about me right now. Slippy, can you tell us anything about Andross's forces?" Fox said quickly.

"They're attacking everywhere in the city right now. But most of them are gunning for GHQ Tower. That's where General Pepper is." Slippy replied while surveying the enemy forces present in the city. "We best head over there and help relieve the situation." Slippy suggested while switching on his missile. The internal weapon bay opened its doors and underneath the Arwing came out two bulbous missiles. Slippy careened his Arwing toward the direction of Andross' ground forces assaulting GHQ Tower. His targeting system locked-on and fired off the missiles, splashing multiple crab walkers. But much to his chagrin, the crabs exploded into violent blasts that left the buildings and streets around them in ruins. "Whoa! They're suicide walkers! Fox you need to take them out before they get too close to General Pepper!" Slippy blurted out, forgetting an important detail in the matter. "It doesn't matter if they're still in the city's limit!" Peppy reminded the frog.

"Then we need to lead them out of the city first!" Falco said.

"Problem is these things are probably being directed in some way. We'll need to find a way to get them to leave the city limits first," Fox frowned as they were still busy taking out the various enemy ships in the air.

"Actually, I might be able to do something about that," Slippy said.

"Well don't leave us hanging then. What's your plan?" Falco said, sounding a bit impatient.

"If I rework the energy of my weapons, I should be able to rig something akin to a scrambler. The problem is they'll still need a target, so eventually they'll go back to their original target unless we give them a new one," Slippy explained. "Basically someone's gonna have to be bait."

"I'll do it," Peppy said without hesitation. Fox looked like he wanted to argue, but Peppy cut him off. "The city needs all the protection it can get and Fox, you and Falco are our best pilots. The city needs the two of you more than anything. As for me, I've got enough experience to herd them out of the city, and if nothing else, Slippy is going to be there too, so its not like I'm herding them all out alone," Peppy said with a light chuckle, trying to add some levity.

Fox frowned a bit at that. On one hand it was a solid plan, but at the same time he didn't like having squadmates separating more than needed. Falco noticed and quickly spoke up. "Your call Fox, but we don't have all day!"

"Alright, we'll leave it to the two of you," Fox said after a moment. "Falco, we'll keep chipping away at the invading forces in the city!"

"Got it!" Falco nodded. "You two make it quick too," he added as he looked to Slippy and Peppy.

"I'll get it done as soon as I can," Slippy nodded as he began working on creating his improvised scrambler.

Fox and Falco soon boosted their speed and flew along the highway, Falco in the lead and Fox on his tail. As they approached the GHQ Tower, Falco saw some giant mechas with tank treads for feet tossing building chunks at them. "That's quite a welcoming committee," Falco remarked, he gagged and dived when the building flew at him. "On second thought let's take the back door," Falco spoke, guiding Fox with him through a ravine toward GHQ.

They saw some Arwings flying back and forth defending the GHQ tower against Andross's invading ground and air force. The tower itself was in bad shape with some portions blasted either by missiles or lasers. "General Pepper! This is Fox McCloud, are you still there!?" Fox called the general, he soon heard the general replying over the radio. "Fox! Thank goodness you're here, I'm holed up on the top floor, the elevator is broken. Can you help us repel the invasion?" He pleaded.

"That's exactly what we're here for, sir!" Fox nodded, before shifting his focus to Falco. "Alright Falco, you know what to do!"

"Heh, bet I can take out more than you can," Falco smirked a bit.

"You're on!" Fox grinned as they soon began flying around the tower, the two taking down all enemy ships and vehicles that were in the area.

As that was happening, Slippy had managed to rig his scrambler, while Peppy had prepared the signal that would make the drones come after him. Without hesitating, Slippy triggered the scrambler, causing the walkers to lose their target, and in that opening Peppy triggered the signal. "Ah'right! Follow me!" Peppy gleefully exclaimed as he flew out to the sea, drawing the walkers to follow him. "It's working Slippy! It's working! They swallowing the bait whole!" Peppy exclaimed, glancing over his shoulders repeatedly to see if the walkers were still following him. He saw that the walkers waded into the water following him, this left them open for Slippy to strafe their explosive heads.

The shots while not quite as accurate as if it were Fox or Falco, found their marks, causing the walkers to explode one after another harmlessly in the water. "Alright, we've taken care of the walkers, returning to the city," Peppy reported.

"Great work you two," Fox nodded.

"You'd better hurry or there might not be anything left," Falco said with a chuckle.

"Hey, Fox! Is that you?" A familiar voice barked through the comms to Fox. Blinking in surprise, Fox checked who was contacting him, revealing to be one of the ships that were helping with the defenses, and had been able to return due to the thinning enemy numbers, followed by the owner of the voice appearing on screen, revealing a bulldog wearing a green helmet. It was his old friend, Bill Grey. "Never thought I'd see you here but am I glad to see you!" The dog pilot stated.

"Glad to see you're still kicking. Guess this many of them would be tough even for you," Fox said with a half-joking smirk.

"Tell me about it. Any one of them could have landed a lucky shot on General Pepper. Eagle Eye, this is Husky-1 we've secured GHQ Tower, send a shuttle to evacuate General Pepper ASAP." Bill urgently spoke to the AWACS. He heard the operator there replying in a morbid cautious tone. "Warning: we've detected an unidentified vessel approaching your position." Said AWACS Eagle Eye.

"Uh, Eagle Eye? What's going on here?" Bill asked nervously. He saw his radar picking up a silhouette of a giant spacecraft emerging from the clouds beyond the city. It appeared to have a flying wing design with a massive mouth in the middle where its hangars were. From a distance, it looked like a flying manta ray with giant plasma cannons mounted on its back. "It's the enemy command cruiser! Unidentified model!" AWACS Eagle Eye shouted, catching the attention of Cornerian troops and Star Fox.

The cruiser then fired a barrage of its plasma cannons into Corneria City. The rounds flew overhead and detonated in the air, throwing shrapnels and fragments flying everywhere. The cruiser then launched its resident ace squadron consisting of an X-shaped wing configuration fighter craft with a blazing red simian skull emblem on their airframe. "Macaque Squadron, this is Aigaion, Sunburst launch successful. Corneria is ours for the taking." The cruiser commander spoke over their comms.

"Dammit, looks like Andross has been busy," Fox growled as everyone moved to evade the shots, though not all of them made it out of the fire. The lucky ones merely needed to do emergency landings. The others…went up in a blaze of glory.

"All Units that are still combat capable, respond!" Bill shouted, and while he got responses…the numbers weren't to his liking at all. Granted he was glad it seemed most of his squads were alive…but their ships were out of commission, meaning Husky and Bulldog squadron were functionally crippled for the rest of this battle.

"Macaque squadron, wipe those garbage from the streets." The squadron leader of the Venomian squadron coldly ordered. The hostile fighters swarmed in between the three Cornerian Arwings and began to sic three on each of them.

"Guess the Venomians are bringing their A-Game. Looks like we'll have to do the same," Falco said, even as a bit of sweat went down his brow.

"Just stay focused and we can make it out of this," Fox said.

"Just like the times we did those simulations on hard," Bill said with a bit of a nervous chuckle. "Though this time we'll have more than just a fail screen to worry about."

"Then we just don't fail," Fox said, right before the three of them fought back as the enemy ships opened fire on them.

The three ships dodged and weaved through the enemy fire, managing to avoid damage, save a few shots that managed to graze their ships, and their shields managing to protect them from the damage the shots would have dealt them. Likewise, they weren't standing idly by as they were shot at, returning fire and taking out some of the enemy ships. Even so they were greatly outnumbered, and if things stayed the way they were, even they would be overrun.

Fortunately they weren't alone here. "Sorry we're late, but the cavalry is here!" Slippy said cheerfully, even if he had a serious expression.

"We'll make an opening! Break through and regroup!" Peppy said as he and Slippy opened fire, catching the enemy forces off guard as they had been focused on the three. The ensuing attack created an opening that Fox, Falco, and Bill were quick to make use of, breaking through their encirclement.

"Thanks for the save," Fox said as they quickly regrouped.

"We could have handled it, but you made it faster," Falco said, putting up his usual airs, even if they could tell there was no real heat behind it.

"Either way this is an opening we needed. I'll help you on the counter-attack," Bill said.

"Alright, Star Fox, form up and take them down!" Fox signaled, and his Arwing led the way, forming an arrow as they charged back at the panicked and confused Macaque Squadron. Fox charged up his laser and locked on the first target he saw. He fired the laser blast at the incoming Macaque fighter craft. It struck the wedge-shaped craft with X wings, blowing it into pieces. "Splash one!" Fox cheered over the radio. Slippy and Peppy tag team on another pair of of Macaque fighters, Peppy launched a Nova bomb at them, blowing them out of the sky into pieces. The remaining crafts were chased by Falco and Bill, Falco nailed one at the rear while Bill hammered the lead craft as it climbed back to its command cruiser.

"This is AWACS Eagle Eye, all planes, direct your attack on the heavy command cruiser! Bring it down!" The AWACS operator ordered. While the Cornerian Air Force squadrons soon head for the Aigaion Command cruiser, while they threw all they could at the command cruiser, it was clear that their firepower could not hope to penetrate its shield. "Eagle Eye, how are we suppose to penetrate its shield? It's too powerful!" One of the pilots frantically asked as he banked left, avoiding the cruiser lest he crashed into it.

"Hmmph! This is not looking good, Macaque Squadron, retreat!" The cruiser commander ordered. The retreat was sounded as Macaque squadron fled back into the Aigaion before the cruiser took off, climbing for space and left planet Corneria. For now it would seem that the invasion of the capital was beaten back.

"Star Fox! Thank you for saving us in our darkest hours! Your actions today have saved hopes that we might be able to win the war against Venom." General Pepper thanked Fox, yet even as he did so he had a few tears dropping from his eyes. Even though he praised Star Fox for their actions, honoring the legacy that James McCloud started…knowing James's fate, Pepper knew that what was moving Fox down this path…was more than just duty. The young pilot was in this for vengeance as well…and Pepper could do nothing but push him down this path in his army's own failure to put an end to Andross in the last 5 years…

"No worries General Pepper. Andross won't have his way with me this time." Fox boasted, cruising his Arwing around the tower.

"For the Peace of Lylat, we're at your service," Peppy nodded.

"With a small fee attached of course," Falco added half jokingly.

"Not the time, Falco," Bill sighed even if he knew that they WERE mercenaries.

Pepper chuckled a little at that. "Of course," he nodded. "We'll iron out the payment soon enough. For now, I am officially hiring Star Fox squadron to augment the Cornerian Military's war efforts." Pepper stated nonchalantly with a proud smile on his face. He could see Falco throwing his wings in the air whistling and wooing in his cockpit. "I hate to ask your help so soon. But there are frontline positions that need plugging." Pepper stated, slightly apprehensive.

"Where to General?" Fox asked, not minding the fact that he had just arrived at Corneria.

"Area B7R, aka the Round Table. A hyper lane junction that we need to retake some fallen planets." General Pepper stated matter of factly.

"We're on it general. After we've made some repairs and maintenance." Fox nodded to General Pepper before flying his Arwings with his squadron and Bill back to the Great Fox for repairs and maintenance.

XXXX

A short while later, on the Great Fox…

"I'm glad to hear that you're all okay," Bill smiled as he was in the middle of contacting his squad. "Alright, I'll meet back with everyone soon. Just focus on getting back into top condition first," he said as he soon ended the call. Sighing a bit he smiled knowing that if nothing else his Squad was okay. Roughed up, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

"Your squad doing okay?" came Fox's voice, to which Bill turned to see his old friend walking up to him and nodded.

"Yep. A bit roughed up and probably grounded for a bit, but they'll be fine," Bill nodded. "Thanks again for coming to help. I really don't want to imagine what would have happened if you hadn't come," he smiled.

"What are friends for?" Fox chuckled. "Besides, it was about time we got on the scene anyway."

Bill…frowned a little. "About that…" he started. "Fox, are you…okay?"

"Nothing." Fox brushed the concern aside. "The money is the least of why you're doing this right?" Bill asked, his ears drooping. The hound could tell Fox's mood with his frowns and face looking downward that something more was going on in Fox's mind. "It's about your dad, isn't it?" Bill asked. And like a nerve spot button, he got Fox to shoot a stare at him.

"Yeah… I want Andross to pay and I want to be there to bear witness. He killed my parents, now I'll take his life." Said Fox, his hand balled into a firm fist as his voice almost cracked and his eyes grew glistened from tears as memories of his father and what little he had of his mother flashed through his mind. "He's going to answer for EVERYTHING he's done, and I want to be the one to do it personally," Fox said, before looking Bill in the eyes. "That a problem?"

Bill gulped and involuntarily took a step back at that. "...no, no it isn't…" he said, averting his eyes.

Fox looked at him for a moment silently. "Well, since Star Fox is now officially part of this war, you're free to use what we have to repair your ship," he said, before adding, "Of course, we'll add that to the bill," he said half jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Y-yeah, I think I'll do that," Bill said a little hesitantly, to which Fox nodded and walked past him. However, once Fox was out of earshot, Bill couldn't help but slam his fist into a nearby wall, hating himself for being unable to do anything for his old friend…