Star Fox Redemption

by Enterprise F

The forces of Venom are attacking Corneria once more. Given the weakened military might of Corneria from the events of the Galactic Federation Civil War, it is being overwhelmed and needs the help of the Star Fox Team, who also had a bad outcome due to that war. However, with this conflict, Star Fox may be able to redeem themselves in the eyes of Cornerian people, and the galaxy.

1. Chapter 1

Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto do. It and all of its characters are the property of Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto and their respective creators.

Star Fox: Redemption

Chapter 1

General Pepper, a brown anthropomorphic dog wearing the red uniform of the General of Corneria's entire military force, sat at his desk in the Capitol Building in Corneria City and sighed. It had been a tough eight months since the end of the Galactic Federation Civil War; a war which Corneria had found itself on the wrong side of, both in terms of morality, though that was only discovered after the war had concluded, and in terms of the actual outcome. The Cornerian fleet had been devastated in the war, having suffered close to seventy percent losses when all was said and done, though not all of those losses came due to casualties. After the war, there had been a mass resignation form the Cornerian Army due to the events and revelations about the Galactic Federation Civil War. In addition, the former General of the Cornerian Army, General Peppy Hare, had been forced to resign in disgrace after the truth about Cyrus's Galactic Federation and his plans for the universe had been revealed, causing the Cornerian Army to call General Pepper back into service since he had since healed from his Aparoid infection.

Thinking back on his reinstatement, he realized that the Cornerian Army was not the only force to have suffered greatly due to the effects of the Galactic Federation Civil War. The Star Fox team, a team of mercenaries led by the heroic Fox McCloud also had been disgraced in the war, and that was part of the reason why Peppy Hare had resigned, though Fox had offered him a position back on the Star Fox Team, something that caused the people of Corneria to remain mistrustful of the Star Fox Team. Still, the general had the team on speed dial should Corneria need help against any enemy invaders, or long thought dead opponents. After all, a lot of other powers had been deceived by Cyrus, including Corneria's leadership, As such, General Pepper did not hold the events of the Galactic Federation Civil War against the Star Fox Team, especially since he, too, may well have made the same mistake given the circumstances and information available at the time.

Pepper continued to read over reports coming in from Cornerian Intelligence concerning potential invasions. While the months since the end of the Galactic Federation Civil War had been quiet, Pepper knew it would not last. Given the mass resignation of soldiers in addition to the losses incurred during the war, Corneria was weak, despite his best attempts at making recruitment drives. So far, they were far below the recruitment quota in every department from the Army, Seafaring Navy, Space Navy, Marines, and the Cornerian Defense Force. The good news, though, was the fact that there seemed to be no enemy forces making plans against Corneria or its holdings at the moment since there had been no reports of activity coming from Venom and most of the rest of the system was either colonized or had listening posts to report any strange activity. However, Cornerian Intelligence reported that Pigma Dengar had recently escaped captivity and the whereabouts of Andrew Oikonny were still unknown, especially since he had not taken part in the Galactic Federation Civil War.

Pepper could only sigh once more. The fact that no one knew where Andrew was troubled him. Andrew was the nephew of the self-proclaimed Emperor Andross, who had launched an invasion of the Lylat System from the barren and deserted planet Venom more than a decade ago. It had only been due to the assistance of the Star Fox Team that Andross and his forces had been defeated. The Star Fox Team had later defeated Andross once more, this time believed to be permanently, over Saruria after Andross had attempted to use the SharpClaw tribe to take over the planet. Again, though, while it had looked like Andross was finally dead, they had believed the same after the assault on Venom, where questions were raised as to the fate of the former Star Fox leader, James McCloud. He would think about that later, though. Right now, he had to figure out how to recruit more soldiers, for any potential attack by Andrew or the remnants of Venom were not the only issue on the General's mind. If Andrew were still alive, it would only be a matter of time before the remnants of Venom's forces would take a swing at Corneria. He would need all the soldiers he could to counter that attack.

Pepper was also concerned about the Kriken Empire. The Krikens were a race of insectoid warriors and conquerors who oftentimes sent their young to explore space and conquer weak planets or systems. Right now, Corneria would definitely qualify as being relatively weak. While Corneria could probably hold out against one Kriken or a minor taskforce, if an actual fleet attacked, it could be a different issue. In the past, the fact that the Lylat System was on the border of the Galactic Federation offered it some protection since there had been a mutual defense treaty between the two; the main reason why Corneria had gotten involved in the Galactic Federation Civil War in the first place. Now, with a lot of the frontier worlds seceding from the Federation after the Federation in Exile had won and revealed Cyrus's treachery, that protection no longer existed. If an attack came, Corneria was on its own as it had not formed any alliances with the former frontier systems since many of them had likely known about Cyrus's treachery and still harbored resentment and hatred towards Earth and the current Galactic Federation.

Pepper got up to make his rounds around the main building and make certain that all of the divisions were working well. As he did so, though, the base's alarm klaxons rang out, startling the general and immediately putting him on high alert. While the sudden ringing of the klaxons had initially startled him, he then let out a resigned sigh. It had only been a matter of time until someone had launched an attack. A part of him was hoping that it had been Andrew Oikonny and the remnants of his Venomian forces or even any remnants of the Anglar Empire since their numbers had been so heavily thinned out that even in its weakened position, Corneria would have a chance of victory. Had it been the Krikens or any of the former frontier worlds seeking to carve out a little niche for themselves, it could spell trouble for Corneria.

Wasting no time, he rushed out of his ready room and ran to the base's main command center. Upon entering the command center, he saw his subordinates hard at work at various consoles as they were bringing up data on what was happening. In addition, reports from all over the planet were sounding on various speakers. There were so many reports that it sounded like a jumbled mess. As soon as he had entered, he called, "What's going on?"

A gray anthropomorphic husky went up to him and answered, "We've got reports coming in from the whole orbiting fleet. A large Venomian fleet exited hyperspace not far from Corneria's orbit and disgorged numerous starfighters, transports, and landing craft. Our orbital defenses are thinning their ranks but for each one we shoot down, two more get through. It's a full-scale invasion."

"Are you sure it's Venom?" General Pepper queried. Ever since the first Lylat War, General Pepper and the Cornerian Army had set up a network of sensors over Venom and had constantly monitored them and upgraded them when need, especially after the Anglar Blitz. There was no way a Venomian taskforce could have gotten off of the planet without being detected, to say nothing of an entire fleet.

"Positive," the aide answered. "The ships and fighters are all of Venomian design, albeit of an older design."

"What's the status of our fleet?" came Pepper's next question.

"They're holding back the attacking fleet at the moment, but they won't hold out for long without help," the aide answered. "And to make matters worse, there's another fleet behind the one that's currently close to our orbit."

"How large is the enemy fleet?"

"We count at least two hundred capital starships of various classes, with many more starfighters, transports, and dropships" the aide answered.

"What's the status of our ground and atmospheric fighter forces?"

"We began scrambling our fighters the moment the fleet appeared but Venom is sending a lot of fighters down into the atmosphere. Even with our orbital defenses, they have more than enough fighters to break through and start attacking our surface defense batteries and ravage our cities. What should we do?"

General Pepper knew exactly what he needed to do. He needed to call the Star Fox Team. They had helped stop the first Venomian invasion over a decade ago and had stopped the Aparoid invasion as well as the Anglar Blitz so he knew that the combined might of the Star Fox team and the Cornerian Army, they could beat back this fleet. The issue would be making contact with them since they were currently flying in a repurposed fighter carrier that had suffered extensive damage in the second Battle of Earth. In addition, they had lost a number of their starfighters during the battle and were reduced to using older models. Still, those older models were still formidable craft and would help turn the tide of the fight both in the atmosphere and in orbit.

The other issue was the fact that since the Galactic Federation Civil War and its outcome, the Star Fox Team had been viewed as outcasts since they, along with Corneria, had fought for Cyrus, though no one had known of Cyrus's treachery until the end of the war. Still, when the truth about Cyrus had come out, it had made Corneria look bad, and Star Fox look worse. Many civilians had blamed the Star Fox Team for not alerting them to Cyrus's treachery or finding out about it in the first place, especially since several of Cyrus's military commanders had committed war crimes during the war. As such, the people of Corneria, and even a part of the current military, did not like the Star Fox Team. General Pepper, however, had no problems with them, looking past their one failing and at all the times they had helped save Corneria. As such, the answer was clear.

"Call the Star Fox Team," General Pepper answered his aid. "We'll need their help to dislodge any foothold they have on world and in orbit. Hopefully, they haven't set up any real bases so if we deal with this fleet, we'll have outright stopped their invasion."

"Yes sir," the aide answered, saluting the general. Apparently, the aide had no issues with the Star Fox team, either; or if he did, he was not letting them cloud his judgement. He then went over to the nearest communications console and told the officer manning it, "Contact the Star Fox Team immediately and alert them to the situation."

"Is the fee approved already?" the officer asked, looking back at the aide.

The aide then looked back at General Pepper quizzically, wondering about the fee for Star Fox's services. Despite being allies of Corneria, and most of the team being from Corneria, they were still a mercenary team. "What about the fee?"

"It's approved," General Pepper answered.

"Alright, you heard him," the aide told the communications officer. "Contact the Star Fox Team at once."

"Yes sir," the officer answered as he then input a series of commands into his console and went about making contact with the Star Fox Team, everyone present hoping that the Star Fox Team was not too far away.

Meanwhile, outside, alarm klaxons and air raid sirens sounded as all throughout Corneria City as Venomian starfighters, transports, and dropships were descending towards the surface, the transports and dropships preparing to deploy Venomian ground forces while the fighters flew cover and attempted to pick off targets of opportunity. The improved defenses of Corneria City proved to be more formidable than they had been during the first Lylat War, unleashing torrents of green and blue laser fire, as well as missiles, at the onrushing ships, managing to shoot down quite a number of fighters, transports and dropships. Assisting the anti-air defenses were wings of Cornerian starfighters, sleek and aerodynamic ships that could fly well both in atmosphere and in space. They consistently outperformed even the most advanced of Venom's primary starfighter forces and were only outmatched by Star Wolf's Wolfen starfighters. So far, fortunately, Star Wolf did not seem to be part of this assault.

The Cornerian fighters engaged the Venomian starfighters and consistently got the better part of the exchange, oftentimes shooting down two or three Venomian fighters for every Cornerian fighter that was downed. Another advantage for the Cornerian fighters was the fact that they had ejector seats and that their cockpits could be fully sealed and become escape pods should their fighters be doomed. This had wound up saving many Cornerian lives in the past and continued to do so to this day as most, if not all, downed Cornerian fighters had their pilots eject safely.

Still, despite the valiant resistance, some transports and dropships managed to land and deploy their ground forces, mostly consisting of APCs, tanks, and some mechs. The most dangerous of the ground enemies deployed were the Garuda robot-like mechs with treads on the bottom but having humanoid bodies, along with cybernetic claws on their arms that allowed them to topple buildings or carry large steel beams that could be used to swat a starfighter out of the sky that got too close to the mechs. Despite their size, though, they carried no ranged weapons save for any large steel beams they may have picked up, which was a liability when dealing with the skilled Cornerian pilots. The Cornerian pilots were smart and always engaged the Garudas from far out of range of the steel beams, demonstrating that the lack of ranged energy or missile weaponry on the mechs was a great liability, the fighters managing to take several of them down. Still, despite initial successes against the assault, the drastic numerical difference was beginning to tell, with new waves of Venomian fighters, transports, and dropships entering the atmosphere to take the fight to the Cornerian Defense Force. With the increasing number of Venomian units both in the air and on the ground, along with Corneria's own forces having woefully insufficient numbers to deal with increasing Venomian numbers, the Cornerian Defense Force knew that without reinforcements, it would only be a matter of time before they were overrun and the Venomian forces would either take control of Corneria City or destroy it.

Meanwhile, in outer space, over the planet Fortuna, the Great Fox II drifted in the planet's orbit as it refueled. The war raging over and on Corneria had not reached Fortuna, or any of the other planets in the Lylat System yet, it seemed. The gray humanoid robot, ROB 64, did his best to oversee the refueling of the ship from the bridge while the rest of the Star Fox team examined their fighters and did their best to keep them in working order. They had all been thankful that the people of Fortuna had been willing to hire them, even for a mission as simple as escorting a dignitary to and from the planet to Macbeth and back.

Back during the Lylat Wars, Macbeth had been the main manufacturing world for the Venomian Army until the Star Fox Team had destroyed its main factory by having the Forever Train crash into the base and explode. Still, Macbeth had many smaller factories that had since been liberated from Andross' control. Other worlds recognized the potential of these factories and had hoped to make alliances with the people of Macbeth so they could produce defenses and other ships for them. The people of Macbeth, of course, realized the potentially lucrative contracts that they could make with the rest of the system and had gone about making alliances and contacts with the other planets in the Lylat System. Fortuna was just one world that was trying to get a good contract with Macbeth so it could have some forces with which to defend itself should it ever be attacked since the fauna there made particularly dangerous potential bioweapons for tyrants like Andross or his nephew, Andrew.

Once the mission had been completed, the dignitary had offered the Star Fox Team their full fee despite the simplicity and ease of the mission. Fox had refused payment, not wanting to cheat them, even though the team was desperate for money. In the end, the Star Fox Team had agreed to let the dignitary and his company refuel the Great Fox II and the fighters onboard the ship, as well as supply them with some spare parts and give them a modest fee so they could get more fuel when they needed it, since the people of Fortuna knew that the Star Fox Team had been deceived by Cyrus in the Galactic Federation Civil War, just like so many others, Corneria included. As such, they were sympathetic to Star Fox's plight.

While ROB was overseeing the refueling of the ship, the Star Fox team was busy looking over their fighters and performing routine maintenance on their fighters. For his part, Fox McCloud was doing his final checks on his Arwing. He had just finished having twin Hyper Lasers installed on his fighter, a weapon that it had gone without since the end of the Galactic Federation Civil War. He was thankful for the added firepower since he was limited to two Smart Bombs for his Arwing with no replacements for the foreseeable future. In addition, he was thankful for the additional firepower since the Great Fox II did not have the same armaments as the original Great Fox, being limited to missile clusters and some heavy laser cannons that did not have the same firepower as those onboard the original Great Fox.

It was not long before Fox was finished looking over his fighter and performing routine maintenance on it. When he was finished, he gave a sigh, thinking back on how he and the rest of his team had gotten into this position. He had gone to the aid of his friend, teammate, and former teammate of his father, Peppy, during the Galactic Federation Civil War and had fought along his friend's side. During the war, he had come into conflict with the bounty hunter Samus Aran and had lost his previous regular Arwing and his only remaining Landmaster tank had suffered extensive damage and had been captured by the Federation in Exile. In addition, of the replacement Arwings sent down to battle, Slippy's had been shot down and Falco's had lost a wing and suffered damage to its G-Diffuser. While the damage to his Arwing had since been repaired, Slippy had yet to receive a new Arwing for himself, leaving him as mainly an engineer. Chances were that they would likely get a new Landmaster tank before a new Arwing could be purchased or built. Worse, though, was the fact that the events of the Galactic Federation Civil War had caused his girlfriend, or rather, former girlfriend, Krystal, to leave the Star Fox Team, taking her personal fighter, the Cloud Runner with her.

Fox did not resent Peppy at all for what happened in the Galactic Federation Civil War. Instead, he blamed himself. Krystal had warned him that the Galactic Federation had turned into a mockery of what it used to have been, stripping people of their rights and even committing war crimes. Still, he had not done his part to investigate them and had fought with them until his surrender had been all but forced by Krystal's supposed betrayal. He shook his head. The one who had been the betrayer was him. He had betrayed everything he had stood for. Peppy had been bound by a treaty to fight alongside the Federation. He, on the other hand, could have investigated the Federation and reported to Peppy that the Federation was not worthy of Corneria's assistance. He sighed again as he departed the ship's hangar to go back to his quarters to rest before they searched for their next mission.

Back on the ship's bridge, ROB 64 finished overseeing the refueling of the Great Fox II and went over to the helm as soon as the last of the fuel had been added to the ship. He was about to input a series of coordinates for the ship so the team could search for a new mission when the call from Corneria came through.

"Star Fox, this is General Pepper of the Cornerian Army, come in," the robot heard the voice of General Pepper call over the speaker.

Immediately going over to the communications console, he opened a direct channel to Corneria. "This is ROB 64 of the Star Fox Team," the robot answered in an almost monotone voice. "We read you. What is the issue?"

"We need your help Star Fox!" the general answered. "The forces of Venom are invading Corneria as we speak! Our army is doing its best to hold out against them but with the recent losses both in the war as well as the mass resignation, there's no way we'll be able to last long against the force that's arrayed against us. Hurry Star Fox!"

"I will relay the message to Fox McCloud at once," ROB 64 answered. "Understand, though, that the ship is understaffed and we are also limited in our resources as well. I cannot guarantee with absolute certainty that Fox will answer in the affirmative," he cautioned.

"We understand," General Pepper answered. "Just talk to Fox quickly and let us know whether…" but the transmission soon became garbled and static filled the line, indicating that the communications were being jammed.

"General Pepper, can you hear me?" ROB asked, inputting several commands in an attempt to reestablish contact with Corneria. Seeing that he could not reestablish contact with Corneria, he immediately activated the ship's intercom and contacted Fox and the others, alerting them to the situation.

"Fox, General Pepper reports that Corneria is under attack from Venomian forces. He requests our assistance in the battle."

Fox had been walking to his quarters when he heard ROB's message over the comm. The moment he heard the message, though, he immediately sprinted towards the bridge so he could get the full rundown of what had happened.

The door to the bridge slid open and Fox surged onto it, prompting ROB to turn back to him. "ROB, anything more the situation than what you reported?" Fox asked, immediately getting down to business.

"There is nothing further to add so far," ROB reported. "His current transmission is being jammed close to the source."

"Does Venom know that he made contact with us?"

"Unknown," ROB answered. "However, it would be foolish to think that Venom would not expect reinforcements to assist Corneria if a transmission was sent."

"Hey, what's goin' on!" the two heard the voice of Falco Lombardi call as he, Peppy, and Slippy entered the bridge.

"Corneria's under attack by Venomian forces," Fox answered.

"Venom?" Peppy gasped. "But we've heard nothing from them at all since the Anglar Invasion, and even then, it was mostly the Anglars that were the problem."

Fox nodded in agreement.

"What's the invading force look like?" Falco asked. "How many ships are there?"

"We don't know," Fox answered. "The transmission was jammed pretty soon after contact was established. All we got was the call for help."

"So we have no idea what we'll be facing or if Andrew is even leading the assault," Peppy concluded.

"So, what are we going to do?" Slippy asked. "We can't just leave Corneria to fend for itself. They'll stand no chance."

"Why not?" Falco asked. "Venom's forces aren't what they used to be. They'd be hard-pressed to take Corneria, even with the losses taken in the Galactic Federation Civil War and the later resignation of so many soldiers. I'm surprised that they're launching an assault like this in the first place."

"Apparently, they have more than we thought," Fox stated.

"According to General Pepper, Corneria would not last long due to a numerical deficiency," ROB added.

"So again, what will we do?" Slippy asked.

Fox looked at the others resolutely. "We go and help Corneria," he answered sternly. "Everyone, get your fighters ready. Slip, stay on the bridge and coordinate here. We'll likely need assistance from the Great Fox to penetrate the fleet attacking Corneria."

"Right," Slippy answered, saluting and taking his position in the command chair.

"The rest of you with me. We may be down a fighter, but we can still give Venom a fight it'll never forget."

"Right," the others answered.

With that, the group exited the bridge and made their way to the hangar bay so they could ready their fighters and enter combat. As they were heading to the hangar bay, Slippy and ROB maneuvered their ship towards Corneria. When everything was ready and the ship was aligned with the planet, the ship entered warp and jumped to Corneria.