Chapter II: The War Begins

As Fox strolled down the hall, in the distance he could hear Krystal crying. He walked to her door and quietly knocked, "Krystal, are you okay?" There was no answer so he asked again, "Hey are you okay in there? May I come in?"

Krystal answered, "Yes, come in Fox." The vulpine gently opened the door to her room and walked in. The room's walls were covered with mementos that reminded the young blue vixen of her home planet Cerinia. Krystal sat up in her bed and motioned for Fox to come and sit by her, Fox honored her request and sat down on the left side her. Krystal then put her paw on his and looked up at him. Even though Fox didn't have psychic abilities like Krystal did, he could tell there was something wrong just by the way her beautiful green eyes gazed at him.

"Fox, there's something I've never told you before." The young vixen said with tears in her eyes. "I…never told you who was responsible for the destruction of my planet. You see, the person responsible for destroying Cerinia was Invictus." Fox's heart sank as he listened to Krystal speak her words, and tears too began to appear in his eyes. "Invictus is the most horrible creature you will ever meet in your life. He uses dark magic that is even more powerful than any of my psychic skills." Krystal once again started to weep and buried her head in Fox's chest. She went on to explain that Invictus was also responsible for the death of her parents. He took them prisoner and later killed them, because they refused to hand the planet over to him. After she had heard of her parent's fate she escaped from Cerinia in her spaceship moments before Invictus destroyed the planet.

As the blue vixen was telling her story Fox's grief slowly turned to anger. He could not believe that one sole creature could cause so much destruction. "I can't believe it. Damn, how could Invictus have that much power? It's unreal." Fox said while putting his other paw on his forehead.

Krystal raised her head off his chest and reached for his paw. "Fox, there's only one thing. If Invictus ever discovered that I am the daughter of the King and Queen of Cerinia he will surely come after me. If he should ever capture me he could use me as a hostage to get you to do whatever he wants."

Fox looked at the beautiful young vixen and grinned. "Don't worry Krys. I'll never let anything happen to you…ever. I will always be by your side to protect you, no matter the situation." Krystal then put her paws on the sides of Fox's head and turned it so it was facing hers and kissed him on his muzzle. The kiss was short, but in their minds it lasted for hours on end. After a few moments the young vixen and vulpine released each other. "Umm…Fox there's something I've always wanted to tell you." The blue vixen whispered while starting to blush.

"Yes? What is it Krystal?" Fox said smiling at Krystal.

"I…I love you." Krystal stuttered. She felt her stomach start fluttering and she looked at Fox who was smiling brightly at her.

"I love you too Krystal. I always have but I was just too shy to tell you how I really felt about you." Fox alleged. Ever since the two met after the crisis on Sauria they knew deep down from then they would be together forever. They didn't know if it was fate that brought them together or just coincidence. When they first met Krystal didn't trust Fox at all, but after he took her under his wing and made her feel welcome in his world their relationship began to grow ever so slightly.

Falco, Bill, and Slippy were all sitting at the table back in the kitchen, and Falco was gazing at the many various metals on Bill's uniform. Bill had at least 9 different metals dangling from the uniform. The young hound dog was the head and ace pilot of the Blue Star Army back on the planet Katina. He led a mission against a war that had just happened about 4 years back.

Falco was reclined in his chair with his silver boots lying crossed on the table and his arms folded. "So, you are the commander of the Blue Star Army huh?"

Bill glanced up at Falco, "Yes, I'm the head commander of the BSA, and its ace pilot."

Falco then grinned at Bill, and it wasn't just an ordinary grin, it was the same grin he always gives when he senses a challenge coming on. Slippy soon realized what Falco was up to and nudged Bill in the shoulder and nodded. It didn't take long for Bill to catch on to what was going on, but he has known Falco long enough to know that the avian is a very arrogant fellow and never backs down from a challenge. He also knew that Falco can't stand to be declared "second place". In his mind anything but first is unacceptable.

Bill rose from his chair and looked down at Falco who was still sitting in his reclining position. "Falco, I'd like to find out how well you fly an arwing. I challenge you to a one on one match in the flight simulator." Bill declared.

Falco then jumped up out of his seat and said, "You're on Bill!"

The two then made their way down to the simulator. Slippy stayed behind to see if Peppy needed any help researching on why Invictus had returned to the Lylat System. The pilots walked into the training room just across the hall from the control room. The training room was filled with equipment that teaches new recruits the basics to becoming successful pilots in the Cornarian Army. Falco was confident that he could defeat Bill in the simulator, and Bill felt confident that he could beat Falco. It was going to be the clash of the titans.

The simulator pods were facing each other, and were black with the StarFox decal on the left side. They were brand new, top of the line simulators with many different environment settings, along with other additions. Falco then opened his pod and Bill did the same, they both stepped into the artificial cockpit and closed the lids over themselves. The pods then activated and Falco chose the one on one option, and an asteroid field as their battlefield. They both put their hands on the controls and the match began.

The panel lit up just like it would if they were truly flying the arwing, and it was the most realistic thing they'd ever seen. The battlefield appeared on all sides of them and it was riddled with asteroids. The two arwings then faced each other on the screen, then Falco's voice came over the intercom, "Now don't think I'm going to go easy on you Bill."

Bill chuckled, "I don't expect you to, I expect you to fight me with everything you got."

Falco stroked his feathers on his head and chortled, "Don't worry about that, first to five wins go!"

They both pulled down on their levers and charged at each other at full speed. As they got within a few meters of each other Bill pulled up and just barely missed the falcon's arwing. Falco did a hard right turn and started to tail Bill who was weaving in and out of the asteroids. Then Falco started firing at the rear of Bill's arwing, and he missed every shot, Bill was moving to fast for him to follow. Suddenly Bill executed a looping u-turn and as he was hanging upside down he tilted so the cannons were aimed at the nose of the avian's arwing, he then fired into the nose of Falco's arwing. The damage level on Falco's arwing was rising and his ship could not hold any more mutilation. Bill then locked on to Falco's arwing and finished him off with a smart bomb, which blew him to smithereens. The simulated explosion caused Falco's pod to rattle and vibrate. "Don't tell me that's the best you've got Falco." Bill said laughing to himself.

The next round started and Falco opened with an onslaught of laser fire, which did quite a bit of damage to the hound's left wing and his left laser cannon. That didn't stop Bill, he grinned and started to lead Falco through the asteroids once again, only this time he had a plan. "What are you running for Bill? Are you giving up?" Falco arrogantly alleged chasing Bill through the meteors. There was no answer from Bill he just kept weaving in and out of the asteroids. Bill spotted a straight away in the gigantic rocks and hit the throttle. Falco once again started to fire at the left wing causing it to break off along with the cannon. This made it difficult for Bill to steer because once you lose a wing, controlling the aircraft gets more difficult. Suddenly Bill spotted a lone rock in the middle of the path, and the hound went full speed into a direct collision course with the asteroid. Falco was following close behind him and continued to fire into Bill's aircraft. Bill quietly snickered and suddenly performed a vertical loop only to reveal to Falco that a huge asteroid was just a few meters from him. "No! Pull up, Pull up!" the avian screeched as he desperately tried to avoid the meteor. No luck he smashed into the gigantic boulder causing another spectacular explosion.

"NO! How could I be so stupid? I can't believe I fell for that!" Falco shouted in a frustrated tone. The score was Bill 2, Falco 0 then the simulator suddenly stopped.

"Wha…what's going on?" Falco asked as the lid to the pod opened up above him.

Peppy was standing just outside the pod with his arms folded and a concerned look on his face. "We've received new information on Invictus and we need both of you to come to the debrief room immediately."

Bill turned to Falco and laughed, "Well Falco, I guess I won."

To Bill's surprise the falcon didn't get angry like he usually does. Instead he held out his blue feathered hand to shake Bill's. "Yeah, I guess you did." They shook hands then Falco continued, "Only because we didn't get to finish our match. Next time I'll defeat you and won't fall for any of your tricks again."

Bill smiled, "We'll see Falco. We'll see."

Falco then glanced at Peppy, "So pops what's going on?"

Peppy glanced back at the avian, "It turns out that Invictus is even more cunning than we thought, and he's declared war on the Lylat System." Falco's eyes widened and looked straight forward in silence as they walked the rest of the way down the main hall to the debrief room, where Fox, Krystal, and Slippy were gathered waiting for them to return. The debrief room was a particularly small room with a round table with the StarFox logo in the middle of it. There were 7 chairs around it and a screen hanging on the red and green striped wall. Peppy then walked to the front of the room and started pacing up and down in front of the screen. "Team, our researchers have found out that our enemy has been planning his invasion of the Lylat System for at least 2 years."

"What, two years?" Fox mused

"Yes, it turns out that Invictus has been feeding information to his troops from the Charian System ever since he heard of his sons defeat back on Sauria." Peppy said still pacing. "Our researchers have also figured out that he is not working alone. We have not yet been able to discover who he is working with but, we are certain it is someone who is very dangerous and intelligent. We've sent a spy to Katina to gather information on the war, as well as any weapons that Invictus has built or is building."

"Well, do we have any ideas to who could be working with Invictus?" Krystal said resting her chin on her clasped paws.

"No but…" Peppy was suddenly interrupted when the screen in the front of the room turned on, displaying a marmoset with a disturbed look on his face.

"Sir, General Pepper is on the video phone and wants to talk to you and the rest of the team immediately." The anxious marmoset said.

The screen changed to reveal the old wrinkled face of their beloved general who had a terrified look. "Members of StarFox we've just received information that the small army who just invaded Katina just a few hours ago has completely taken over the base. All except a few of Blue Star troops were killed in the vicious battle." The old hound dog said then looked down in disgust. "Also…the spy we sent to Katina to feed us information has been captured and is being held prisoner by the army. They fortunately don't know that he is from StarFox."

Every member of the StarFox team then looked at each other and Fox said, "Those beasts, Invictus will not get away with this."

"Fox, this may be a shock to you and the others, but Invictus was not responsible for invading Katina." Pepper said.

"What? What do you mean not responsible?" Falco mused. "If he wasn't accountable for that invasion then who was?"

Pepper sat in silence for a few seconds with his paws on his forehead, closed his eyes then answered, "It was Andrew Oikonny."

The entire team was baffled, they couldn't believe that Andrew Oikonny was still alive. Back when the aparoids invaded, his ship was destroyed right in front of their eyes. The aparoid swooped down and blasted its laser right into Andrew's ship. After the team witnessed that they were sure he had been killed, but somehow he survived.

"We need to rescue our spy Fox." Pepper said, "If Andrew finds out that he is from StarFox we will be in an enormous amount of trouble. Everyone needs to leave as soon as possible, we all know that Andrew is very intelligent and he will get what he wants one way or another."

No one could argue with what the general said there, Andrew is indeed a very sly creature and is almost as unstoppable as his uncle was. Back when he led the rebellion he was very close to succeeding at taking over Cornaria. If StarFox hadn't shown up to aid the Cornarian Army then he would have destroyed the army with his Stealth Squadron and taken control of Cornaria.

After a few moments of thinking Peppy formulated a plan. "Sir, I have an idea, I know for a fact that the security at the base will be extremely tight and there will be no way that the team can land without getting spotted."

"Go on." Pepper said tapping the left side of his muzzle.

Peppy continued, "Well, what if Slippy constructed a cloaking device that he could add on to the arwings? That way they could land on the planet without getting detected."

The general's eyes widened and clasped his paws together, he was surprised that he didn't think of that sooner. "That is a great idea Peppy." The general then adjusted his glance over to Slippy, "Slippy can you do that for us?"

The toad nodded, "Yes sir I can but it will take at least two days to complete."

"I'm willing to take that chance just get it done as soon as possible. I expect to hear that you all return safe and sound, good luck. Pepper out." The screen turned off and Peppy glanced at his team who were glancing back at him.

"Well team we know what we need to do so let's get right on it." Peppy said.

The team exchanged glances at each other then stood up and left the room. They all knew what was in store for them in two days and decided to prepare the best they could. Slippy immediately went to work on the cloaking device, and the others did what they thought was most important for preparing for the trip to Katina.

TWO DAYS LATER

Fox was standing in his room preparing for departure. He walked over to the closet and pulled out his green uniform with the red stripe down the center and his green pants and put them on. Then he took out his armor and slipped it on over his uniform. Fox sighed and then opened the top drawer of his dresser, and pulled out a pair of gloves, sunglasses, and his blaster. He stared at the gloves and glasses and remembered that his father had given them to his son the day he died. He then put on the gloves, hung the sunglasses on his uniform, and placed the blaster in its holder on the left side of his uniform and made his way to the control room where everyone was gathered.

Fox walked into the control room and saw Falco tapping his foot on the ground looking at his watch, "Where have you been Fox, we've been waiting here for an hour."

"Sorry everyone I just got a little sidetracked, and Falco, it's only been about 15 minutes." Fox said

"Well let's head down to the hangar so we can get this mission started." Peppy said with the up most confidence in his voice.

The team started making their way to the hangar where the arwings were waiting. The team members that were going to Katina are Fox, Bill, and Falco. The others decided to stay behind because Peppy is too elderly to fly, Fox feared for Krystal's safety because he remembered what she had told him about what would happen if Invictus found her, and Slippy decided to stay behind because he thought he would just get in the way. They arrived at the hangar and Peppy punched in the security code that allowed him to open the colossal hangar doors. They slid up only to reveal three arwings that were all sitting in a line and looked brand new.

"So, do you all like what I've done to the arwings?" Slippy said proudly.

"Slippy, what in the world did you do to the arwings?" Falco said staring at his ship.

"I'll be happy to tell you my friends. See it turns out that I finished the cloaking device the day it was assigned to me. I worked the rest of that day and all night designing and installing it into the arwing. When I finished I thought why stop there, I can make this arwing even better than what it is now. So I not only invented a cloaking device but I also refitted the laser cannons so they blast lasers three times as strong as before, I've increased the top speed the arwing can travel, I've made the brakes stronger, and I've coated the arwings with a special alloy that has made them more durable than ever." Slippy explained seeing that his friends were speechless and their jaws were hanging open.

"Slip you've really out done yourself this time, great job!" Fox said patting his friend on the shoulder

"Thanks Fox, oh and by the way the arwings are now even stronger than the Wolfens." Slippy added

"Well, I guess it's time to get going. We need to rescue our friend and get any additional information that he has." Fox mused

Peppy then reached for the code panel on the wall and punched in the code that unlocks the arwings. The lids to the arwings opened and Fox, Falco, and Bill climbed inside. Fox looked down from the cockpit to see Krystal's soft green eyes gazing at him. "Please be careful Fox, I expect to see you back here in one piece." She said blowing a kiss to the vulpine.

"Don't worry Krystal I'll be ok." Fox said blowing a kiss back to her.

Slippy suddenly called out to Fox, "Hey Fox, I almost forgot do you see that blue button just to the right of the panel? Push that to activate stealth mode, be careful though that device uses up a lot of fuel cells and if used incorrectly you could find yourself stranded in the vastness of space, so you need to decide when it's most advantageous to activate it."

"Thanks Slip I'll be sure to remember that." Fox said smiling at his friend. "Well my friends we'll be back soon, everyone take care."

Fox saluted to his teammates on the ground and they saluted back as they watched the arwings start hovering off the ground. The hum of the engines grew louder and Fox took his fathers sunglasses off his uniform and slipped them on over his green eyes then exclaimed, "Let's do this!" The three space fighters then blasted off disappearing into the clear blue sky.