Hello Star Fox fans! I appreciate you all reading the story so for and I appreciate all the reviews you guys have been giving me. I know many of you choose not to, but I appreciate you taking the time to read my story regardless. This is my first fan fiction I've done and I'm really happy it received as much attention as it did. You guys are the best Leave a review if you would like, and as always; enjoy the chapter!

27. The Belly of the Beast

~Total war had engulfed Venom. The Cornerian military was pressuring the planet from orbit, and the Star Fox team was attacking planet side. Following Axios's suggestion, Fox and Krystal proceeded towards the Black Suns base leaving Axios to deal with One. At the same time, Falco, Katt, Slippy and Amanda were attacking the Shroud.

Quickly approaching the base, Fox and Krystal flew to the coordinates that Axios had left them. They opened fire upon the hangar bay doors but they were unsuccessful in penetrating the fortress's shields. "How do we get past the shields?" Krystal asked as she and Fox turned away from the base. "Our lasers aren't doing anything!"

"We'll find a way." Fox responded. "The fighters have to exit through the shield somehow; we'll find a way in then." After a brief moment, Fox caught his opportunity. The hangar doors were reopening to deploy more fighters into the air. "There!" he called out. "The doors are opening!"

Fox and Krystal quickly piloted their ships towards the hangar doors. As soon as fighters from the inside were coming outside, Fox and Krystal shot down several of the exiting fighters and managed to get inside the hangar. The doors quickly closed as soon as they got inside and they brought their fighters into a hover. "Let's make sure the others can get in too." Krystal said.

Fox and Krystal rotated their fighters and opened fire upon the hangar doors from the inside. Their laser fire made a hole in the doors large enough for any other fighters to get through. After a brief moment on creating the hole in the doors, they noticed that guards were running into the hangar and they were opening fire upon their ships. "Time to get to work." Fox said. "Let's take down those guards."

"Let's do it." Krystal responded.

While Fox and Krystal were clearing the hangar, Falco and his team were working on destroying the Shroud. Despite the majority of the team attacking the Shroud, they were having difficulty on penetrating the Shroud's armor. "Slippy!" Falco called out as he fired at the Shroud. "This thing got a weak spot or what?"

"Our lasers aren't doing a thing!" Katt said in her frustration. "We're not even scratching the surface!"

"I'm working on it!" Slippy responded as he scanned the Shroud. "This isn't something I've ever seen before, this takes time!"

"Well work faster!" Falco called out as was fleeing a trio of fighters. "I can't attack a super weapon and keep bogeys off my tail at the same time!"

Falco flew within close proximity to the Shroud while trying to flee his pursuers. Along with its reinforced armor, the Shroud also had an array of turrets to aid in its defense; which were also harassing Falco. "This keeps up I'm going to get shot down…" Falco thought. To add to his tensions, his pursuers locked onto the Skyclaw and opened fire. "I could use a hand here!" Falco called out.

Katt quickly turned the Cat's Paw towards the Skyclaw and visually locked onto Falco's pursuers. "I won't let anything happen to him…" Katt thought. Katt managed to get behind Falco's pursuers and she locked on to the central fighter. She released a charged shot and managed to shoot down all three fighters. Katt formed up on Falco's wing and gave Falco a wink. "Now who needs rescuing?" She cheerfully said.

"All right pussy cat," Falco said, "I guess I owe ya."

Falco and Katt continued to fly amongst the Shroud targeting the fighters protecting it. Slippy and Amanda in the meantime were targeting the turrets on the Shroud and trying to find any weak points. However, something strange was appearing on Slippy's HUD. "Amanda!" Slippy as a new window appeared on his HUD. "I'm getting a major power reading!"

"From where?" Amanda asked.

"From inside the Shroud! I think it's about to fire!"

Slippy and Amanda could see the main canon of the Shroud open and there was a yellow glow as coming from within. As the Shroud started to power up its main canon, all the insurrectionist fighters quickly scattered. Falco noticed that the fighters were retreating and that the Shroud was powering up. Within a brief moment, he quickly had an epiphany. "GUYS! MOVE!" Falco yelled.

There were a series of flaps and panels that were opening up along the exterior of the Shroud. Falco, Katt, Amanda, and Slippy quickly flew away from the Shroud as it fired its main canon into orbit. The resulting blast caused a shockwave that staggered all the fighters within close proximity of it. Among those fighters were Falco and his team. Their fighters started to abruptly shake and their engines had stalled. "I… can't hold her!" Falco said in his struggle.

"This is turbulence at its worst!" Katt commented. "I'm losing control!"

"Use those G-diffusers!" Slippy called out. "Try to stabilize!"

"My ship can't stop shaking!" Amanda cried. "That blast was too strong!"

After a moment, the yellow hue of the massive canon disappeared and the Shroud was powering down. The insurrectionist fighters returned to engage the disoriented Star Fox ships. However, despite being shaken, Slippy noticed something. At the midpoint of the Shroud's exterior, four yellow cores rose from within and each one emitted a large cloud of steam. "There it is!" Slippy said as he regained control of his fighter.

"What?" Falco asked. "What is it?"

"Shoot the yellow cores! Those have to be cooling units! We take those down then the Shroud can't fire!"

"All right!" Katt joyfully responded. "Finally, something to shoot at!"

"Then let's not waste time." Amanda said.

As the four ships moved to engage the cores, they received a call from Peppy. "Falco!" Peppy coughed. "F-Falco! Come in!"

"Peppy! You all right?" Falco asked.

"The Shroud just took out the Dauntless destroyer. That ship was right next to mine and the explosion rocked my flag ship and we've taken some damage from debris flying everywhere!"

"Peppy!" Slippy called out. "You got to get out of there!"

"No! I need to stay and hold the line up here! Hurry up and destroy the god forsaken weapon!"

Falco and Slippy grew tenser and Katt and Amanda were feeling the same upon hearing the news. "We need to finish this now!" Falco said.

Falco slammed on his boost pedals and he targeted one of the cores. He was quickly joined by Katt and the two locked on to the first core. The Skyclaw and Cat's Paw opened fire on the core, and after a brief moment they destroyed it. Falco and Katt flew away from the destruction and Slippy noticed that the Shroud was losing power. "That thing is actually losing power!" Slippy said.

"Yea! It's working!" Falco cheerfully called out.

"We need to hit the other three!" Amanda said.

"But they just retracted back into the Shroud!" Katt said as she saw the cores retract into the Shroud.

The team turned away from the Shroud and engaged the nearby fighters to pass the time. After a few moments of destroying the enemy fighters, Slippy noticed the Shroud was powering up again. "Guys!" Slippy said. "It's charging up!"

"Then let's move!" Falco responded

The four ships sped away from the Shroud to the minimum safe distance they needed. There were a few insurrectionist fighters that could not escape the shockwave of the canon fire and their ships were shaken to pieces. After a brief moment, the cores were exposed again, and the team targeted them. "Now! While they're exposed!" Amanda said.

Falco and Katt targeted the second core while Slippy and Amanda targeted the third. With the combined barrage of the four fighters they were successful in destroying the two cores. Slippy scanned the Shroud again and saw that its power had dropped down to twenty five percent. "We've almost got it!" Katt said.

"Kill of those remaining fighters!" Falco said as he locked onto an enemy squad. "We can't afford to lose the next core!"

However, to add more pressure, they received another call from Peppy. "Team," Peppy said, "come in!"

"We're working on it gramps!" Falco hastily responded. "We've found the weak points and we're about to finish this thing!"

"Listen, we just lost the Renegade, and that was Steele's personal capital ship…"

The team was caught off guard, and was worried. "Peppy, you mean he's… dead?" Slippy asked in a low tone.

"Just take down that gun; Peppy out."

The team was disheartened at the news. They grew furious at the Shroud and they saw that it was charging up again. "Get clear!" Falco said.

The four fighters again sped off to the minimal safe distance and the Shroud fired its destructive canon once more. As the final core was exposed, the four fighters targeted it and unleashed a barrage of laser fire upon it. After a few moments, they destroyed the core and the Shroud's power level read zero. "Woo hoo!" Slippy exclaimed.

"We did it!" Amanda cheered.

"Peppy come in!" Falco said. "We neutralized the Shroud!" To Falco's surprise, there was no response in the radio. "Peppy? Come in!" he repeated.

They soon heard static in their radios and Peppy's scrambled voice. "C-come in!" Peppy said. "-vacuate n-now! Tor- shot dow- transferred the bom-!"

"Slippy, can you clean this up?" Katt asked.

Slippy pressed a series of button on his console and enhanced the strengths of the team's receivers. "Try it now." Slippy said.

"Peppy, can you hear me?" Falco asked.

"GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Peppy yelled. "Toran's destroyer was hit and he's going to crash it into the Shroud!"

"WHAT?!" Falco, Katt, Slippy, and Amanda all said in unison.

After a brief moment, they could hear Toran over their radios. "L-listen you fools…" Toran angrily said in his struggle. "I voluntarily signed up for this mission… Don't you dare spite me for what I'm about to do!"

The team could see the Toran's Deliverance destroyer entering the Venomian atmosphere. The ship was half destroyed, and smoke and flames engulfed the back of the capital ship. Within the bridge, there were multiple destroyed terminals and sparks and flames engulfed the bridge. "Toran you crazy fool!" Falco called out. "You've got the nuke on board your ship! You're going to kill us all!"

"HA!" Toran laughed. "You really think I'd do this with a 125 megaton payload aboard my vessel? The Hades Bomb was transferred to General Hare's flagship upon my vessel being struck by the Shroud. The damn canon only succeeded in destroying my engines, but my vessel is no longer combat worthy. I already evacuated my crew, and this commander will go down with his ship. This mission will still proceed as planned!"

The team noticed that Shroud powering up again. "Guys!" Slippy said as he read a power reading on his HUD. "It's powering up!"

"But we destroyed all the cores!" Katt responded. "How is it still firing?"

"I'm not sure, but it's going to-" Slippy noticed the Deliverance quickly approaching the Shroud as the canon was continuing to power up. He quickly realized what was about to happen and his jaw dropped. "Oh my god…"

"This is how you destroy something as massive as this…" Toran said. "I wish you all luck. Give One my regards…"

The team sped away from the Shroud as it was powering up. They looked over their shoulders and saw the Deliverance speeding towards the Shroud. Right before the massive canon could fire, Toran rammed the Deliverance destroyer right into its main gun. With no cores to stabilize the canon, the Shroud fired and destroyed both itself and Toran. The resulting explosion rocked the atmosphere and generated a shock wave that stirred all ships within a few mile. The Star Fox team's fighters were abruptly shaking upon the explosion, and they struggled to maintain their altitude.

Peppy looked closely through the window of his flag ship and saw a white spot coming from Venom's surface. The crewmen of the multiple ships in the Cornerian fleets were cheering at the knowledge that the Shroud had finally been destroyed. However, they lost all communication with Toran and the Deliverance. "Sir," a crewman said. "The Deliverance has been-"

"I know." Peppy lowly responded. "I know… All ships! The Hades Bomb is still intact, and is aboard my flag ship. Continue your assault and eliminate the remaining Black Suns ships!"

Despite the Cornerian's considering the Shroud's destruction a victory, there was still a battle to be fought planet side. Throughout the duration of the Star Fox team engaging the Shroud, One had been exchanging fire with Axios in the most heated dogfight they had ever had. "Corvo!" Axios said as he was firing upon One. "Just give it up!"

One used his warp drive to get behind Axios. As soon as he got a lock on, Axios activated his slide thrusters and aimed behind him. Axios fired at Corvo forcing him to withdraw and then Axios pointed his ship in the proper direction again. "My name is One!" One shouted as he locked on to Axios again. "I'm sick and tired of you trying to change that!"

One managed to get behind Axios again and he started to open fire. Axios banked to the side and put his ship into a barrel roll to evade damage from One's lasers. He activated his slide thrusters again and drifted backwards to fire upon One. "Your name is Corvo Faxton!" Axios angrily called out. "You were my brother! I looked up to you! I loved you!"

Axios managed to get the Nightshade behind the Archangel. He started to open fire but he did not lock on to One as he dreaded the thought of killing his own brother. "Your aim is pathetic!" One responded as he easily evaded Axios's laser fire. "Shoot me down! Don't try to fight passively!"

One pressed a button and activated his stealth drive. As soon as Axios saw him disappear he started to look all around the sky for any signs of a warp. "Corvo," Axios said, "You can't remember can you… You can't remember all those times where we stood up for each other? You can't remember the day our parents died?"

One simply flew circles around Axios listening to his words. One felt more and more conflicted throughout the dogfight. He bore his teeth in anger and lowered his head. After a brief moment however, he could hear Black's voice. "Kill him." Black said.

One raised his head and his left eye started to glow red. One turned straight towards Axios and Locked on. "Die…" he said.

One came out of his stealth drive and unleashed a barrage of laser fire upon the Nightshade. Axios tried his best to pull out of harm's way but his right wing was destroyed. "Argh!" Axios yelled as a minor explosion cracked his windshield.

Axios looked to the side and saw the damage. He knew he couldn't continue this fight and so he tried flying towards the Black Suns fortress. However, One locked on to Axios again and charged another laser round. Axios panicked, and he tried to speed away from One's lock on. However, he was unsuccessful. "Good bye, brother." One said.

"Are you really about to kill your own little brother? Are you going to kill me Corvo?!" Axios hastily asked.

Upon hearing those words, One froze. Flash backs of him and Axios training together in their child years and them fighting together as bounty hunters recurred to him. His head started to tremble and he heard a high pitch siren within him. He gripped his head as pain started to course through him. To put an ease on his pain, he heard Black's voice again. "Kill him One." Black said.

One gripped his flight controls again and locked on to Axios one last time. Before he could fire however, the Archangel was fired upon by the Skyclaw, Cat's Paw, Bullfrog, and the Tadpole. "Hands off my friend!" Falco said.

"What kind of man tries to kill his own little brother?" Slippy angrily asked. "You're a monster, you know that?!"

"You're going to pay for all the pain you've caused!" Amanda angrily said.

"This is for everyone you've killed!" Katt added.

One broke off his engagement on Axios. As soon as he was clear of the danger, he activated his stealth drive and disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Katt asked.

"Doesn't… Matter…" Axios said as he felt pain course through his body. "We need to get to the base; Fox and Krystal need our help!"

"Axios!" Falco called out. "You all right?"

"I'll be fine. Let's get going!"

One retreated back to the fortress as well. He could hear Black's voice in his head as he started his landing run. "Do not fail me, One." Black said. "The punishment will be very severe if you fail."

One approached the hangar of the floating fortress. "I won't fail." One said.

On the other side of the fortress, the remaining Star For ships found a large hole on the exterior of a hangar door. They flew through it and found the Arwing II and the Cloud Runner already docked inside the hangar. They also saw small arms fire from the ground as Fox and Krystal were exchanging fire with a squad of insurrectionists. "Surprise!" Slippy said as he was firing upon the insurrectionists from the Bullfrog.

As soon as the remaining insurrectionists were dealt with, the rest of the team landed their fighters and Fox and Krystal went to join them. "You guys made it." Fox said as he saw his teammates dismount their fighters.

"This fortress shook pretty violently a few minutes ago." Krystal said. "Was that-"

"Toran blowing up the Shroud." Falco said as he was dismounting the Skyclaw. "His ship took a hit so he crashed it against the Shroud. He transferred the bomb to Peppy before doing so."

"Then, Toran is…"

"Yea, he is." Slippy said.

"How is the fight up in orbit?" Fox asked.

"They're holding strong." Amanda responded.

"Without the Shroud, I'm sure they can handle orbit now." Slippy said. "It's all left to us at this point."

"So we just take out this base and then we're done." Katt said.

"Ok, then we'll-"Fox stopped as he noticed Axios dismounting his fighter. He noticed that part of Axios's combat armor was torn through and he had a wound on his side. He slowly approached the team with his blaster in one hand and his other over his wound. "Axios!" Fox hastily said.

The team turned to him and they rushed to his aid. "I'm fine." Axios said as he approached the team. "This is just a scratch."

"You might be tough but don't be dumb." Falco said. "You can't expect to come back from every enar death experience you run into."

"I got this." Slippy said as he turned and walked towards his Bullfrog. Slippy reached into his cockpit and grabbed a first aid kit and brought it to Axios. He opened it and pulled out a syringe along with a small silver canister. "This might sting a little…" he said to Axios

Slippy gently stabbed the syringe into Axios's arm and injected a pain killer into him. "That wasn't so bad." Axios said.

"That was just painkillers..." Slippy said. "THIS is going to sting."

Slippy opened up the small silver canister and pulled out a small tube filled with a think silver fluid. He opened the top and dropped the fluid on Axios's open wounds. Staying true to Slippy's words, Axios felt stinging and burning like no other. "Damn…" Axios said as he felt the pain. "This hurts!"

"Told you so." Slippy said.

After a brief moment, the fluids sank into the wound and then evaporated into the air. Axios's wound was closed and he felt no more pain. "Good as new." Slippy said.

"Thanks." Axios responded.

"All right," Fox said, "now that we got that sorted out, it's time to get to work. We're going to split up to bring this base down. Axios, Krystal and I will look for the bridge while Falco, Katt, Amanda and Slippy bring down this base's main shields. As soon as you complete your mission, get back to this hangar and we fly out of here before Peppy drops that bomb."

The team nodded their heads in agreement. However, Axios was feeling uneasy. He looked around the hangar of the fortress and noticed many similarities from the original Black Suns base in Corneria. Krystal looked at Axios and noticed that there was something wrong. "Axios?" Krystal asked. "Are you all right?"

Axios continued to look about the hangar as the familiar sensation took hold of him. "I've been here before…" Axios said. "This… This is the old base… But how did they get it out from under ground?"

"Underground?" Falco asked.

"The original Black Suns base was at a secret location in Corneria. No one was able to find it because the entire fortress was roughly ten stories underground."

The team was in shock. "So, that explains how they knew so much about us." Fox said.

Axios lowered his head and he came to a conclusion. "Listen," Axios said, "There's something I need to do here. I can't go with you guys."

His words put the team into shock. "Axios," Fox said, "This is really a bad time to go off on your own. If you've been here before, then you can guide us all to our destinations."

"You don't understand… There original Black Suns leader is here, in this base."

"Whoa, hang on a minute!" Falco exclaimed. "What do you mean "original" Black Suns leader?"

"Corvo was never the leader, only the second in command. There was someone else who had a higher authority, someone who…"

Axios cut himself off as he froze in place when a thought had just occurred to him. He remembered when he was first captured by the Black Suns and when Corvo revealed his mechanical self for the first time. Then he remembered looking through the monitor in Black's room at Corvo before surgery. Axios quickly connected the dots, and the reality sank into him. He finally realized that Corvo's cybernetic enhancements were placed into him under Black's orders. "Black!" Axios said.

"Black?" Fox asked.

"The original leader was known as Mr. Black. He is the one responsible for all of this! He is the one who corrupted my brother!"

"Corrupted?" Krystal asked. "What do you mean-"

Krystal was interrupted as she saw a grenade flying right in front of her eyes. Time slowed down for a brief moment as she saw a flashing light on the grenade signifying that the grenade was about to detonate. The rest of the team was frozen at the sight of it right in between all of them. Krystal quickly pulled out her staff and swung at the grenade knocking directly up into the air. She planted her staff into the ground and the weapon extended. After a brief moment, a blue field surrounded her and the rest of the team and as time returned back to normal; the grenade detonated yet the team was safe underneath Krystal's shield.

The team quickly came back to reality and pulled out their weapons to engage the insurrectionist troops that were quickly approaching them. They took cover behind their ships and opened fire upon the Black suns troops. "Proceed with the mission!" Fox called out. "We'll worry about that later!"

While it seemed hopeless before, Axios now felt a spark within him. The thought of being able to save Corvo had settled in, but before he could do that; he would have to confront his devil. "Fox…" Axios said as he was firing upon the insurrectionists.

"What is it Axios?" Fox asked.

"I need to find Black."