Falco entered a large building of a green and brown colour. The two soldiers at the doorway saluted Falco as he entered. Falco stuck his middle finger up in reply. He entered into a long emerald colour corridor. Soldiers littered every available spot. Two of the soldiers came up to Falco.
"This way General." One of them ordered, gesturing to a metal detector.
"Well no shit." Falco muttered. He pulled the blaster out of his holster and handed it to the Monkey. He then walked through the metal detector, but still set it off. All the soldiers' guns aimed at Falco. Falco sighed and reached into his boot. He took out a second blaster and tossed it over to the monkey. All the guns remained on Falco. The bird rolled his eyes and walked through the metal detector again. "Now can I go?" Falco asked. The soldiers withdrew their weapons. Falco continued through the corridor. It wasn't long until Pigma Dengar joined him. Pigma ran up to Falco, sweating constantly. Falco continued to walk.
"You're in serious shit Falco." Pigma claimed.
"Drop dead Dengar." Falco replied. Pigma ignored the comment.
"Not only did you let three ships escape Cornaria, one of which was on its last leg even before the fight, but rumours have circulated that Peppy was piloting one." Pigma told Falco.
"Their no rumours. The Hare was there." Falco simply announced. Pigma bit his lower lip.
"Oh shit. Andross won't like this." He muttered.
"Peppy is the least of our troubles." Falco claimed. Pigma raised an eyebrow (if he has them.)
"You forget I flew next to him, he is a major problem and I know it, more importantly, Andross knows it!" Pigma complained. Falco shook his head.
"The old man wasn't the one who took out most of my squad." Falco replied. The two reached an aqua colour door that occupied almost the entire wall in front of them. Pigma and Falco walked towards a near by soldier.
"Hello General Dengar, General Lombardi. Andross has been waiting." The soldier informed them.
"Like the fat twat has anything better to do." Falco muttered under his breath. The soldier took out a key and inserted it into a slot on the wall. The aqua doors swung open. Falco and Pigma proceeded to enter, Pigma muttering to himself and shaking.
Falco stood on a small metal platform in the room, which was completely composed of strangle green and black light that floated in random patterns around each other. Pigma, still in a state of worry, walked up beside him and bowed his body. The sweaty pig looked up at Falco as the large doors closed. Falco continued to stare into the large emptiness.
"What are you doing Lombardi? Bow!" Shouted Pigma, worry strangling his words. Falco ignored Pigma. "Lombardi!" Pigma shouted, but before he could say any more, a low laugh rumbled from the green and black nothingness. There was silence again. Suddenly a large hand swiped outwards and grabbed the side of the platform. Falco continued to be devoid of any movement, while Pigma fell over and let a shriek out in shook. Another hand followed suit. Lastly, out of the darkness, the large, twisted, undeniably insane head, which was now Andross, came forward. The monstrosity glared down at his two generals, one of whom stood straight, staring at him, while the other bowed down, shaking constantly.
"Get to your feet swine." Andross voice boomed out. Pigma instantly jumped to his feet. "Now what brings you before me?" Andross questioned. Pigma struggled to bring forward words, so it was Falco that spoke.
"Today three ships escaped Cornaria's atmosphere. Among them was the long sought after fugitive, Peppy Hare." Andross's unnatural face moved closer to Falco.
"Why didn't you stop them General?" Andross questioned. Falco remained calm.
"They destroyed half my squad." Falco replied, acting as if it was nothing.
"WHAT!" Bellowed Andross, his eyes bulging with anger. "You let such a small group defeat my elite squad?" Falco continued to show no fear.
"One of them was Fox McCloud." Falco explained. Everyone was quiet. Pigma's mouth dropped open slightly. Andross looked away and clenched his fists.
"McCloud..." He muttered.
"The tales they tell of him are mostly fictional, but he is still an annoyingly skilled pilot. He also owns a very durable ship." Falco claimed.
"Arwing I bet." Pigma added. Falco shrugged his shoulders.
"There all just metal boxes to me." Stated Andross.
"Maybe, but Peppy, Fox and the frog are still a threat." Falco exclaimed.
"You two will find and destroy them!" Ordered Andross. Pigma bowed low.
"At once master." Andross stared angrily at the pig.
"Get out you snivelling coward!" He ordered. The doors behind Falco and Pigma opened. Pigma darted out as fast as he could. Falco walked out calmly. The doors then proceeded to close. Falco turned around.
"By the way, your nephew's dead." Falco announced, just before the doors closed completely.
Two Arwings and one Wolfen flew towards a large docking station on the outskirts of the asteroid belt. Peppy's Arwing lead the other two ships. There was an awkward silence between the three ships, no one wanting to send a message, in case it would alert the dock and needlessly start an attack. When the three ships were a mere minute from the station, a monkey appeared on the communicator.
"Who are you lot? Identify yourselves!" He ordered. There was a moment's silence, and then Fox answered.
"We have been sent by Emperor Andross to inspect the repairs being done to the Great Fox." He lied.
"Please stand by while we run a scan over your ship to verify this story." The Monkey replied. Fox swore under his breath.
"Why bother? How else could we have got off Cornaria?" Fox asked.
"Regulations are regulations." The Monkey answered. Fox noticed a small red light coming out of the bay and running itself over the ships.
"When I boost you lot don't follow me." Fox ordered.
"What was that?" The Monkey asked.
"What are you going to do?" Slippy questioned. Fox didn't reply.
"Weren't you the bartender I barfed on the over day?" The Monkey asked Slippy. A siren suddenly began blaring out. "You aren't here on behalf of Andross!" The Monkey accused. As soon as this was said, Fox boosted off towards the docking bay. Fox headed directly for the entrance, which was a large metal enforced door. A few well-placed laser blasts sent it flying. The Arwing blasted through the entrance and through the hanger, which was full of laser gun wielding soldiers. The Arwing took a few pot shots at these monkeys, then blew open the entrance to the rest of the base. The Arwing just managed to fit as it flew down the corridor. Monkey's scattered as the Arwing flew by, many were hit by it and knocked flying. Others were blow apart by the ships laser fire. Fox realised that the corridor was rapidly shrinking around him, so he tried to land his Arwing. Unfortunately he didn't have nearly enough room to do so. Fox swore angrily, and then shut down his Arwing. The ship screeched across the ground as Fox relied on the friction to stop his Arwing from moving forward. The ship came to an abrupt stop as the corridor finally became to small and the Arwing got wedged into it. Fox jumped out of the ship, blaster in hand. Fox looked around as he touched down onto the ground. It seemed that all the nearby soldiers had been killed. Fox relaxed slightly and started playing with the frequency on his arm communicator.
"Peppy? Slippy? Can you here me?" Fox called into it.
"Fox! What are you doing?" Peppy's voice came out of the communicator, followed by Slippy's.
"They've sent troops out here! There's more than Peppy thought!" He worryingly exclaimed.
"You two hold tight, I'm going to go get the Great Fox and then we can all fly off." Fox claimed. He ran underneath one of his Arwing's wings and forwards. "I didn't see it when I went through the docking bay, so where will they have it"
"They keep the Great Fox in the Delta hanger. You should see it at the end of the corridor." Peppy claimed. Fox spotted some incoming monkeys and shot them as quickly as he could.
"Great. Always at the end of the corridor, never at the front." Fox mumbled, running towards his destination, and taking down any monkey he could see. The soldiers were obviously unprepared and all over the place. Most were only in groups of only three or four, sometimes even without guns. Fox had very little haste in wasting the troops. "This isn't right." Fox muttered.
"What's wrong Fox?" Peppy asked.
"Wouldn't Andross have this base better guarded?" Fox questioned, as he took down a soldier, who was smoking in the corner.
"I doubt they were suspecting someone to pull a stunt like yours." Peppy replied.
"I got one!" Slippy energetically interrupted.
"That was some meteorite debris." Peppy corrected him.
"Oh"
"Guys! Shut up." Fox shouted. Fox was hit in the arm by a laser. He winced slightly, then returned fire with deadly accuracy, taking out yet another batch of soldiers. "This is getting repetitive." He complained.
It was a short run before Fox finally reached the Delta hanger. The entrance was a bland and uninteresting as the rest of the base. The only colour was from the monkey blood Fox had spilled, and a flashing keypad next to the reinforced steel door that lead to the hanger. Fox studied the keypad for a moment, before holding his communicator next to his mouth. "Peppy, I'm at the hanger, do you have any idea how to get in?" He asked.
"You're going to need a code to get in. What that code is I have no idea." Peppy answered.
"Well that was extremely useful." Fox sarcastically claimed. Fox typed a few codes into the keypad, but none of them resulted in the door opening.
"Try Andross's birthday!" Slippy suggested. Fox shrugged and tried it. He knew which day the monkey overlord's birthday was due to the fact that he had forced grand celebrations on that day. Needless to say they didn't lift anyone's spirits. The code didn't work. Fox tried a few more attempts, all ending in failure.
"You're not even warm." Fox spun around, his gun held in front of him. A figure draped in full soldier uniform stood behind Fox. Fox recognised him instantly and put his gun back in its holster.
"So this is your mob Bill." Fox stated. Bill Grey nodded. Bill, unlike Fox, had stayed in the academy after Andross took over. Despite this, Bill remains faithful to the old Cornarian rulers, and has sweared only to ever obstruct anyone fighting for there return if absolutely necessary to keep his title of 'Caption' (we have enough generals) and only then if those fighting for the old rulers were being slaughtered anyway.
"The big monkey head doesn't trust me still, so I'm stuck with this untrained mess." He explained. "So what brings the great McCloud here"
"Me, Peppy and some frog are escaping this godforsaken system, and we need the ship you're keeping in there to do that." Fox claimed. Caption Grey nodded.
"Well, I would love to come with you, but it sounds like a fools dream." Bill remarked. "Now I am meant to kill you, but unfortunately, you figured out the code to get in," Bill typed a code into the keypad, opening the doors, "and then you flew the Great Fox away before I even got here." Bill gave Fox a sly smile. The grey dog then ran down the hall, shouting. "Hay! Are any of you losers still alive?" Fox smiled and shook his head.
Meanwhile, outside the base Peppy and Slippy were managing to hold their own against the opposing fighters, but were taking heavy damage.
"This hunk of junk won't last out much longer!" Slippy cried. A small group of fighters had decided to exclusively attack Slippy's ship. Lasers were firing from all sides at the beat up Wolfen.
"Do a barrel roll!" Peppy ordered.
"What the hell's a 'barrel roll'?" Slippy replied. Suddenly Bill's face appeared on the communicator.
"Guys! Come back into the base, this is just a distraction, the real threat's within!" Bill claimed. The ships all followed the order and flew back into docking bay, allowing for a clear path for the two small ships and the recently released Great Fox to make an escape. "Until we meet again." Bill muttered to himself, watching the ships disappear into the distance.