First, i ask that if you click on this story, don't be turned away by the Introduction. There's a bunch of new characters in this story and you don't know any of them. This is so you get to know the Characters and Setting. Second, here's a disclaimer for anything i don't own. Third, yes, this is the third time i'm posting this story because for some reason, my chapters got all screwed up and i wasn't able to see the only review i did get. So please, if you read this, i want to know how good it is so please take five seconds to give me an out-of-ten scale or your own personal comment.

Thank you, Silver Phantom 2

STARFOX II

SILVER PHANTOM 2

"Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."- Mao Tse-Tung

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Introduction

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Lylat System

28 Years following the Aparoid Invasion…

Fox and Krystal McCloud got married and had three children. Their oldest, Jewel McCloud resembled her mother and had her father's interest for adventure. The two younger twins, James Fox McCloud II and Maxwell Arin McCloud, were very different from one another. Jim's fur had the same color as his mother and shared the same natural beauty. Jim also inherited something of his mother's sixth sense. But Jim was more like his father in personality and shared the same love for flying and adventure as he did. Max looked like his dad. His red fur and natural speed gave him uncanny qualities, but was more like his mother in his search for knowledge and uncanny ability to just know things.

Jewel, Jim, and Max all learned the ways of the StarFox team at the same time. Fox called his class for StarFox recruits "StarFox High" because his trainees were all teens. Jewel learned between ages 16 through 18 and Jim and Max from 14 to 16. They all learned the basics and then their own personal skills. Jim eventually exposed his leader-like qualities and an exceptional skill for flying. He was definitely no fool with a blaster. Not so much better at flying was Jewel but she was definitely the future "public relations" of the team due to her accuracy and ruthlessness with a sniper rifle. Max's skill with computers proved useful as the team's technician.

Also enrolled in "StarFox High" was Bill Grey's youngest daughter Michelle. Michelle and Jim fell in love with each other and married once both were out of the "school." She was not so much as a fighter as a commander. She quickly grew accustomed to the cockpit of the newly built Great Fox- B and also created a single setting that would adjust the controls to her liking. Peppy Hare took his time to train the girl to such controls as those on the bridge.

ROB also received an upgrade that made him more compatible with Michelle's setting on the Fox. He was able to control the ship with greater accuracy and a speed of 10x that of the Great Fox- A.

Falco Lombardi met his sweet heart on the planet Zoness during the team's vacation directly after the Aparoid Invasion. The two avian lovers went on to have twin boys later. Falco brought them on board the mothership and enrolled them into Fox's academy. Falco was quickly disappointed when his sons showed no thrill for flying or shooting but rather, they preferred the engine room.

Falcin and Hawkeye Lombardi were so alike, Jim (who became the unspoken leader of the junior team) required Falcin to wear blue pants and Hawkeye to wear red pants. Not only did they both look like the splitting image of their father, but they also thought exactly the same. Both preferred the same mechanical settings and mechanical designs. They thought at the same rate and at the same time, most of the time finishing each other's sentences.

Eventually, Falco got to them by teaching them skills with a blaster. Both of them enjoyed the idea of putting holes through an object and both took a quick attunement to shooting. Finally, Falco decided to take his retirement and decided that he was now in the protection of his sons. He retired on Sauria with his wife, Falca.

Fox was quite surprised to find one day that a girl not a year younger than Jewel, had stepped aboard the Great Fox. This was indeed, Peppy's granddaughter. She had amazing skills with an Arwing. Fox immediately accepted her on the junior team.

The day after meeting Kiara Hare, another ship landed in the Fox's hangar. This time, a brother and a sister jumped out of the cockpit. Fox recognized them immediately. The girl was a red vixen. She was very beautiful and her figure was light as a feather. Fox knew the girl as Amber Clapp, his godchild and step-niece. Amber told Fox that she had inherited her mother's (Herzelied Clapp) telepathic abilities. She decided to use them for the StarFox team if they would accept her and her brother.

The boy jumped out of the cockpit: Rayn Clapp. Rayn took on his mother's black fur but had his father's facial features. Rayn informed Fox that his parents along with the rest of the Polaris team had moved to the Ganaris System to take care of local troubles there. The war going on forty light-years away was "too dangerous," Fox's step-brother Daniel Clapp, had told them, so they were to take refuge with Fox and his team. Fox introduced them to the rest of StarFox II and introduced them to their step-cousin, Jim.

Jim grew to be instant friends with Rayn. Both had the equal Arwing skills but Rayn had an overactive trigger finger. Jim put him on the ground team along with him and Jewel.

So, Jim introduced Rayn to Jewel. Jewel, was frankly impressed with Rayn's blaster skills, but not so much with his womanizing ways. Rayn fell instantly in love with Jewel. The harder she tried to suppress his love for her, the more he fell in love.

The final count up for the StarFox II team was:

Jim McCloud, lead pilot

Jewel McCloud, public relations 1

Rayn Clapp, public relations 2

Kiara Hare, ace pilot

Michelle McCloud-Grey, command chair

Max McCloud, technician

Amber Clapp, telepath

Falcin Lombardi, mechanic

Hawkeye Lombardi, mechanic

Finally, the remainder of the StarFox team took their retirement as well and joined Falco on Sauria. Fox and Krystal fell deeper in love and spent the rest of their marriage with an eternal passion and peace that they had been longing for since the beginning of Fox's adventure.

But that doesn't mean peace in the Lylat System has come yet…

Corneria, fourth planet of the Lylat System has spread to the planets Katina, Fortuna, and Fichina as a republic promising peace and prosperity. They constantly ask the Lylatian Confederacy on the planets Zoness and Macbeth to join their alliance to promise a greater life for all residents of the Lylat System.

But the Confederates were happy with their ways. True that they had fewer laws, but they had better people. People not corrupted by power, politics, and money. People who didn't require too many laws. The Cornerian Republic wanted to desperately make the Confederacy a part of their Republic.

But they had bigger problems to worry about at the time. A devastating war with the Venomian Empire depleted Corneria's military forces by 30. But the victorious war only gave Corneria's surviving troops greater experience and its military new weapons of war. Finally, all planets of the Lylat System were under Republican control. Save three.

Under the Saurian Independence Act of 18 ABC, the Republic was powerless to colonize the Dinosaur Planet, lest they feel the wrath of the Krazoan Secret Society. But the Confederacy was still there. Mocking the glorious reign of the Republic.

With one quick strike, General Pepper fled to Macbeth for supporting the Confederate cause. And a new general was put in place. General Tiderious Acknus was more ruthless than Pepper ever was. He struck the tropical world of Zoness without warning and caused the deaths of thousands of civilians and soldiers. He sent thousands of troops to Macbeth.

Macbeth was a cold planet, unfeeling, and unforgiving. It was the home of thousands of Ursine warriors. Soldiers not to be underestimated. The war on Macbeth claimed the lives of millions of Confederates and Republicans.

During the early days of the war, StarFox II had to commit to only one front. Jim chose the Macbethan front. But he was beginning to regret it…

"Remember this: you don't win unless your team wins. One person winning at the expense of the group means that you lose." - Chief Petty Officer Mendez, Halo: The Fall of Reach

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Prologue

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macbeth

Explosions reigned fire all around Jim. Behind him, he could hear a Confederate Ursine soldier scream before his call was silenced. Jim threw himself forward and took cover behind a rock. He looked to his right. He saw Jewel holding a sniper rifle over a crate and aiming at a Cornerian sentry post.

Machine gun fire came out of the chorus of war noises. Jewel ducked behind her cover just in time for bullets to ricochet off the crate and pass the space her head just vacated.

Jim pressed the COM link in his ear, "Jewel," he said, "I'll cover you."

Jim leaned out from the side of the rock and aimed his AR-2 Standard Assault Rifle at the Cornerian sentry post. There were three Cornerian troops waiting for Jewel to reveal herself again. Their guns were trained on her. Two of them held Cornerian MX-6 Rifles, one had a heavy machine gun. The two with the rifles were shooting at her cover.

Jim stood up and held down the trigger of his assault rifle. The first bullets killed the machine gunner before he hit the ground. The other two Cornerians trained their rifles at Jim and fired semi-automatic rounds at him. Jim ducked behind the rock again.

CRACK!

CRACK!

He lifted his head over the rock and watched both Cornerians fall to the ground.

"Thanks." He heard Jewel say over the COM.

Jim got up and ran up the hill. He looked back and saw that Jewel wasn't far behind. At the top of the hill was a Confederate bunker. A sniper in a nearby bush guarded the door. He was perfectly hidden, if Jim didn't already know he was there. Jim and Jewel both ran into the makeshift bunker and found Rayn and several other Confederate commandos aiming out of windows toward the west side. Most of them had AR-2s. One had a heavy gatling gun, and two of them had sniper rifles like Jewel's. Rayn carried an AR-4. It had the same characteristics as the AR-2 and 3 but it fired larger caliburs. Rayn was in the center of the bunker trying to get a Confederate COM officer out of his traumatic state.

"He's been like this all morning." Rayn confessed.

"Funny you call this darkness the morning." Jewel said.

"I'd do it myself but every time I take my hands off a weapon, a grenade finds its way in here and somebody's gotta' throw it out."

"I'll take care of it." Jewel snatched the communication's equipment from the youngster's hands and tried calling High Command.

Jim looked out the door with his AR-2 shouldered, "How's everything other than that whole 'grenade' issue?" he asked.

"Fine, fine. We were just waiting for you and Jewel to get back from your recon mission. You know, I should really go on those more." Rayn said.

"You specialize in heavy fire power, we need more of that here."

"Jim, General Pepper's on Line 1." Jewel said.

Rayn and Jim switched places as Jim went over to the COM box and connected his own link to it, "McCloud here."

"Jim, this is General Pepper."

"Something going on, sir?"

"We have a high priority mission that may give us the upper hand on this front."

"I take it the 43rd is up to the job?" Jim said, referring to his own team of commandos.

"That's right." Pepper confirmed, "You're going to need to sneak past enemy lines and take out their shield generator. We'll be able to send in air support and rain hell onto the Cornerian lines after that."

"Coordinates, General?"

"I'm sending them now."

The communicator on Jim's belt came to life and hovered at waist level. It displayed a holographic map of the coordinates that Jim was supposed to follow. The mission priority was displayed as: "Destroy Cornerian Power Core." Power Cores were supplies of energy that caused any thing electric within a radius of 100 yards to operate with 100-fold efficiency. Large shield generators that covered entire buildings, and in this case enemy bases, required these to function.

"All right General, leave it to us." He said.

"We'll send a new platoon of infantry to take your place in the bunker. I knew I could count on you, McCloud." The link went dead.

Jewel looked at Jim and said, "Well?"

"We have a new mission. They're sending reinforcements to take our place at the bunker.

"Where we going?"

"Behind enemy lines."