Fox returned to the team's headquarters, surprised that he was the last to arrive after receiving Krystal's important message. The Great Fox orbited Corneria just beside the Beltino Orbital Gate when he landed, finding all five of the other ships resting in the hangar bay. Krystal sensed that the pilot was hiding on Corneria all along, he thought, not once doubting the vixen's telepathic senses. I wonder what he was able to tell them about our mysterious new enemy.

As the leader of the Star Fox team took the elevator to the control room, he reassessed what he had found out on Katina. The outposts stationed throughout the planet seemed to be stable, as if the only base under enemy control was the base where he and Krystal were ambushed earlier. None of the other Cornerian lieutenants had any news to report, but Fox was hesitant to believe their words after his recent distrust in the Cornerian military.

Fox's search was brought to an abrupt halt after receiving Krystal's message. He immediately left Katina and contacted the others on his way back to The Great Fox. Unfortunately none of their searches turned out to be productive, either. It's strange, Fox thought, that the Cornerian pilot was hiding on his home planet... as if he wanted us to find him. Why else would he hide somewhere so obvious?

When he stepped foot into the control room, he noticed that Krystal was absent from the group. Falco, Slippy, and Katt were listening to a frantic Lucy while she tried to explain the events that have happened on Corneria.

"There you are!" The rabbit addressed him as he approached. "Now that everyone is here, you need to take a look at this."

Before Fox could ask her to explain, the computer monitor at the head of the bridge came to life, displaying the Cornerian News Channel. A red vixen with dark-rimmed glasses held a microphone, describing the horrific scene of the city behind her. Across the bottom edge of the screen, a message to the viewers scrolled sideways, repeating: "Mysterious Bombings Destroy Lunastone Hotel!"

"As you see behind me," the reporter began, "the Lunastone Hotel along the outskirts of Corneria City was destroyed just hours ago in a series of unknown bombings. As of now, we have not located any survivors. Beyond the hotel, you can see the bodies of multiple Venomian soldiers, suggesting the involvement of Andrew Oikonny. More details to come upon further investigation."

With a glance toward Lucy, Fox asked, "What happened down there? I thought you said that Krystal would be resting after all she has been through?"

She opened her mouth to reply when another voice interrupted her. "The pilot we sought was murdered, shot through the chest by the fox who ambushed us on Katina," Krystal answered coldly. "We tracked him to where he was hiding, the Lunastone Hotel, but our enemy must have known he was there the whole time. Venomians bombed the building shortly after I encountered the pilot; we escaped the blast, but found ourselves swarmed by enemies. Lucy and I barely escaped with our lives."

Fox spun around to face her, lost for words at the despair and loss reflected in the vixen's eyes. Her face was slightly red as if she had been crying, and she still trembled from the shock of the attack she had witnessed. Her purple space suit and boots appeared to be put on in a hurry, as if she changed into them just moments ago. "Krystal..." Her name was all Fox could say in reply. It felt as though she suffered greatly from the death of the Cornerian that betrayed them.

"After the sniper shot our soldier, he fled into the city using a jetpack. I could only follow him in my sights for so long before I lost him in the crowds. I'm sorry," Lucy sighed. "I think we escaped in time just before any of the news reporters reached the scene, anyway."

Fox was simply relieved that she and Krystal were alright. "I hate to ask so many questions," he apologized in advance, "but did the Cornerian pilot have anything to say before he died? Did you find out anything about the ambush on Katina, or about the encrypted aparoid files?"

"I never thought to ask that," Lucy admitted. "Did he tell you anything, Krystal?"

The vixen's head was lowered in defeat and anguish. She paused in silence for a moment as if she did not hear the question, and then lifted her head to stare straight into Fox's eyes. "You will not see him coming. He is one of us."

"What do you suppose that means?" Slippy croaked.

Falco stroked his beak, deep in thought. "Whatever it means, he must have said it for a reason. Does 'one of us' mean a Cornerian pilot, just a Cornerian, or something else entirely? Who knows?"

"What if it has something to do with the miscommunications involving Corneria? Maybe there really is someone on the inside, feeding us all the wrong information. What else could explain how the Cornerian military is always uninformed?" Katt was the first to suggest the thought lingering in Fox's head. The corruption of Corneria would surely spell out disaster for the entire Lylat System.

"Peppy seems to still trust the Cornerian military," Krystal replied doubtfully. "I spoke with him on the planet, disguised in a Cornerian Defense Force uniform. I wonder if he would change his mind after hearing what our pilot had to say."

Fox was curious as well, but he was more interested in the pilot himself. He wished that he was on Corneria with Krystal at the time of his death so that he could have spoken to him before it was too late. What were his motives for betraying them? They must not have maintained a mutual relationship, as the fox leader was willing to turn his back on him when he became a liability.

"The Cornerian claimed that he was forced to act against his will," Krystal answered his question, sensing his thoughts telepathically. "He was forced to lure us into the Katina ambush. From what I could read, he was telling the truth. We need to find out more about this pilot and how he was connected to this mysterious new commander. Then maybe we can learn more involving the cover-up of the aparoid files. I still have a feeling that we were lured to Katina because we knew too much, something our enemy didn't want us to know."

"Hmm," Falco murmured. "So you're saying that this Cornerian and the pilot who killed him have something to do with the aparoid files? Maybe they are somehow linked to Oikonny's reappearance?"

"That's correct. I believe the fox who ambushed us is the one trying to hide the aparoid files," Krystal confirmed. "There must be something important concealed among them; he tried to kill us after we learned that the files were locked down and conveniently took out the Cornerian pilot before he could tell us anything more."

Everything seemed to be pointing toward the aparoid files, Fox thought. Hopefully Beltino's covert team of hackers would be able to provide them with some information soon. The longer the missing information remained inaccessible, the more lives would be put at risk. Suddenly, a communications link sounded from the Orbital Gate, interrupting his thoughts. Fox approached the main controls and answered the transmitting signal, presenting the image of Beltino Toad on the computer monitor above.

"Greetings," the research director croaked. "I heard about the recent attacks on Corneria; is everyone alright?"

Fox answered, "Everything is fine with us. Fortunately we were not involved," he lied, hoping to keep the Star Fox team's involvement on Corneria a secret for the time being. Even though he trusted the research director, he didn't know who else might be listening to their conversation. He was sure that Slippy's father contacted them for another reason than just to check up on them, so he asked, "do you have an update on the aparoid files yet?"

"Actually I do." Beltino cast his gaze left and right, as if making sure that he was alone before he continued. In a whisper, he replied, "My undercover team has nearly cracked the code preventing us from accessing the hidden archives. I think we are just moments away from achieving success."

Slippy's eyes brightened at his father's words. "That's great news! Whatever is hidden in that data must really be worth protecting!"

A sudden alarm began ringing loudly in the background and the image of Beltino flickered with a red light. The scientist shot an alarmed look to his side as a dog dressed in a jet-black space suit approached him with frantic news. "It seems as if we triggered some kind of emergency defense system. The Orbital Gate's main computer is going haywire! The encryption locking the requested files is updating; rewriting itself!"

"Rewriting itself!?" The research director gasped. "Hurry up and get back to it, then! Don't stop until we recover that information!" The hacker vanished from sight and Beltino returned his focus back to the Star Fox team. "The entire space station is acting strangely! I think a virus was encoded into the aparoid files, triggering once we reached a certain point in our procedure." The toad's body jerked as the floor beneath him shifted. Before he could say anything more, the connection faded and the screen went blank.

"Uh, guys..." Falco prompted. "Take a look outside..."

Fox rushed to the side window, followed by his companions. To all of their astonishment, the Orbital Gate was moving, slowly rotating until its top side was facing them straight on. The doors to its hangar bay sealed themselves shut and dozens of round barrels protruded from its exterior, aimed directly at them.

"It's going to turn on us! We have to move the ship away!" Katt warned.

Slippy's eyes widened in shock. "But the Orbital Gate doesn't even have a weapons system!"

"Then what do you call those?" Falco pointed at the gun barrels that were now priming to fire at them.

"The Great Fox is too slow to maneuver away in time," Fox barred his teeth and returned to the controls, desperately forcing the spacecraft to shift sideways. He knew that if the gate fired at him, he would be helpless to defend his comrades. He would have charged the ship's lasers to fire back, but that would risk injuring the pilots and researchers aboard the station. It was not worth destroying the Orbital Gate and putting their lives in danger. As the Orbital Gate's lasers primed, Fox braced himself to take the hit when Krystal appeared beside him, her staff glowing purple in her hands.

A multitude of green laser beams fired toward them, but the vixen created a barrier of dark energy between the two ships, repelling the hostile fire outward into space. Another volley followed, glancing off the wall with the same effect. "Falco, Lucy, Katt, get to your ships and take out the gate's main guns," she ordered. "Fox, Slippy, and I will stay and fight from here."

"What are you talking about? We can't fire against the Orbital Gate, the Cornerians inside could be hurt!" Lucy argued. "We don't want to damage the research center. It's too risky!"

"If you only aim for the guns you should be alright," Fox reasoned while maneuvering The Great Fox away from the attacking space station. "Krystal can only hold them here for so long. We have to do something to nullify its weapons!"

Convinced, Lucy led the way toward the elevator at the end of the hall as Katt and Falco followed, leaving Slippy confused at the controls beside Fox. "What do you want me to do?" The toad inquired. "Why didn't you send me to fly with the others?"

Fox had something different in mind for the mechanic, realizing why Krystal had kept him behind. If he could hack into the Orbital Gate's controls manually, he could fight to destroy the virus and disarm its combat systems. "I need you to stay here and attack the Orbital Gate from within. Try to hack into its main computer and disarm its guns."

"I'm on it," Slippy croaked and went straight to work, rapidly pressing buttons on the control panel in front of him.

Falco, Katt, and Lucy appeared in their Arwings between the two enormous spaceships, preparing to engage the Orbital Gate's lasers. "Alright team, focus your fire on the main guns," Falco commanded as they spread out to focus on different portions of the research center. "Watch your fire; one wrong move and you could put the lives of those on the inside in danger."

Krystal released her shield from beside Fox as the Arwing, Cat's Paw, and Sky Bunny lured the enemy fire away from The Great Fox. "I had no idea that the Orbital Gate possessed a weapons system," she admitted, bewildered at the discovery. "I thought that it was a research center, not a battleship. Why hasn't anyone mentioned this before?"

"I'm not sure," Fox sighed. "But I'm starting to believe that there are many things we were unaware of previously." He guided the aircraft carrier into position at a safe distance from the Orbital Gate and watched as his friends fought to disarm its main guns. Hopefully Slippy or Beltino can discover a way to disarm the gate soon. The ship's guns appear to be difficult to destroy head on, he reflected. He felt helpless to assist as Falco weaved through the gate's interior and back out for another round of attacks.

"The gate is launching missiles!" Katt exclaimed as she rolled sideways, avoiding numerous rockets. They circled back around and sped after her in pursuit, gaining on her ship as she boosted away from the gate.

"Fly toward me, lay them out so I can shoot them," Fox suggested, readying the main guns aboard The Great Fox. As she soared past, he unleashed a series of powerful laser beams, terminating the missiles as they hovered in range. Another series of rockets followed Lucy and he fired a second round of laser fire from a distance, destroying them with a small explosion.

The frequency of lasers and rockets firing from the Orbital Gate began to decrease, signaling that Falco and the others were successful in destroying the ship's guns. "Most of the gate's offensive weapons have been destroyed," Lucy confirmed, "but something strange is charging at its lower extensions."

Krystal hurried to the side window and observed with a swift nod of her head. "The gate is generating energy as if it is about to transmit a ship to another location, but I don't think that Beltino is controlling it... Look out!" She shouted with a sudden burst of excitement. A stream of green light flashed toward them and Fox jerked the aircraft carrier sideways to avoid being hit.

"Fox, the gate is directing its fire at you again. We can't stop it unless we want to risk destroying its transportation device," Falco warned.

The lead pilot narrowed his eyes and flashed a glance at Slippy, who was still tinkering with the Orbital Gate's computer systems from beside him. "How close are you to disarming this thing?" He asked frantically. "We can't stay here and avoid its fire all day!"

"I almost got it, just hang on," the toad complained. "I just need a few more seconds..."

Another beam of energy exploded from the Orbital Gate's extensions, barely missing a wing as Fox slowly tilted The Great Fox diagonally. The three pilots inside barely kept their footing while the ship was slanted, leaning on each other and the control panel for support.

"Almost there... Got it!" Slippy affirmed as The Great Fox leveled itself out again. "I deactivated its emergency defense system and destroyed the virus causing it to malfunction! We should be able to contact my dad now!"

Fox breathed a sigh of relief as the gate rotated into its normal position and its few remaining guns sheltered themselves in its interior. "Good work out there team," he called to the three pilots soaring outside. "Is everyone alright?"

"Falco here, all good!"

"Everything is shipshape," Katt purred.

"I'm fine as well," Lucy confirmed. "We're returning back to base. Try to contact Beltino and make sure everything is alright on his end; I might have missed a shot or two and left a dent in the Orbital Gate's exterior..."

Fox shrugged. "It's fine. Everyone's alright, and that's all that matters." He sent a communications link to the Orbital Gate and Beltino responded almost immediately, reappearing on the computer monitor. The director seemed slightly dazed, but unharmed.

"Well done team," he applauded. "The Orbital Gate appears to be functioning at stable levels again and the virus that overrode its programming has been destroyed."

"Thank you sir," Fox replied, "but did you know that the gate had an emergency weapons system? It seemed to be in control of itself just moments ago; we were nearly shot down."

Beltino paused and adjusted his glasses. "I never knew about any weapons on this ship. From what I was told, it was strictly meant as a research and transportation system. Somehow whoever encoded the aparoid archives must have programmed the ship to malfunction once they were tampered with, but that doesn't explain the weapons that were deployed... They must have been here all this time..."

He is one of us... The thought echoed in his mind as Fox shook his head to clear it. Is it really possible for a Cornerian to be responsible for the strange events taking place? Pushing the thought aside, he focused his thoughts on the aparoid files. "Did you manage to finish uncovering the last of the files we requested?"

"Fortunately, after control of the gate returned, the encryption locking the files was deleted. We now have full access to anything and everything involving the aparoid invasion," the research director croaked.

"Excellent, send us everything!" Krystal urged. With a pause, she added, "Do you have any information on the Cornerian who was found dead at the Lunastone Hotel? We think that he might be involved in our investigation."

It was a lie that they only suspected his involvement. The truth was that he was practically at the source of it all. Fox knew that his friend kept the truth from Beltino to avoid suspicion and further questioning. The director knew about their desire to uncover the mystery of Oikonny's return, but their investigation surrounding their distrust in Corneria was an entirely different matter. The investigation could be considered an act of treason against Corneria itself.

"Sure thing, I will send you everything I have right away," Beltino nodded. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I think we can handle it from here," Fox dismissed him. "Thanks again for all of your help. Fox, out." With that, their communications came to a close. The image of Beltino disappeared, replaced on the screen by an entire archive of data pertaining to the aparoid invasion. Fox scanned the individual folders one by one, searching for one title in particular. Aparoid Hatcher... Aparoid Moth... Aparoid Queen... Finally, his eyes came across the correct file, titled "Fortuna Invasion."

The folder opened on command and a multitude of videos and images dispersed across the screen. Fox selected the video clip at the center of the monitor and it began to play. "This must have come from a surveillance camera outside the Fortuna Base," he noted based on its perspective. The camera was positioned along one of the base walls behind the Star Fox team as they chased Oikonny beyond the walls of the fortress and into the canyon beyond.

"I must bring an end to our relationship! Die!" Oikonny cried. His red flagship, closely resembling a Venomian carrier, transformed with a series of clicks and buzzes into an enlarged version of the ape himself. The ship was built to take after Andross, with nothing more than a head and two enormous hands hovering in the air. Fox watched as the Star Fox team combatted their familiar foe, swerving and dodging around his ship's flailing fists until he reached the brink of defeat; dark smoke rose from his ship's interior as he laughed, "Is that all you fools have got? I am the one and only true heir to the great emperor, Andross! The new emperor, Andrew Oikonny!"

But his words were cut short as a blast of energy exploded from Fox's Arwing, inflicting heavy damage on Oikonny's ship as it descended in sparks. "Uncle Andross!" The ape pleaded as his ship exploded, leaving nothing but a pile of debris along the canyon ground. Suddenly the skies grew dark with the shadows of hundreds of aparoid moths, swarming the planet's surface as the four Arwings fled the scene, leaving the Fortuna base behind them.

Fox gasped. "Wait a minute! Something about that video clip isn't right!" He paused the recording and turned to address his team.

"What do you mean?" Katt questioned. "I thought you said that you defeated Oikonny and then you were swarmed by aparoids soon afterward?"

Krystal paced toward the monitor and studied it closely, deep in thought. She puzzled for a moment with a dark expression on her face. "Fox is right. This is not how it happened a year ago."

"Not how it happened? But it's there as clear as day on the screen," Lucy argued.

Slippy hopped to the control panel and began punching buttons with his stubby digits. In seconds, a new message appeared on the screen, prompting for a passcode with nine characters. "Someone has contaminated the file. Whoever it was didn't expect us to come this far; hacking into it will be a breeze." As he progressed through his procedure, the nine empty text blocks cycled through thousands of password combinations as each letter became clear one by one.

Fox froze in horror as the password became clear. The first letter, D, appeared, followed by the letters R, A, N, and another D. He knew what was to come as the last four letters, R and O followed by two S's, appeared. "Dr. Andross," he whispered as the password was accepted and the video footage on the screen began to play again, rewinding itself to the scene before Oikonny was shot down.

"The new emperor, Andrew Oikonny!" He repeated, this time being shot down by a rain of yellow energy beams coming from above. "Uncle Andross!" He cried as his ship descended once again, replaced by an enormous aparoid moth that soared down from above. It let out a screech of fury as its eight purple and black wings fluttered through the air.

"Now this is what really happened," Falco recalled as the four pilots engaged the single aparoid, soaring past the base beyond view of the camera. Fox remembered the events as if they happened yesterday; after they defeated the first aparoid and collected its core memory, the rest of the swarm followed, barely giving them enough time to escape with their lives.

"There seems to be another video clip attached to this one," Slippy noticed and summoned it, bringing it up on the monitor. The camera that had taken it was positioned outside the Fortuna Base, on the opposite side of the previous camera. Dozens of Venomian ships were depicted, evacuating the base as a convoy led by a single Venomian fighter. A familiar voice called out to the following ships, directing them as they fled.

"The first aparoid has arrived as the boss planned. The Star Fox team thinks I am dead and left my ship in pursuit; we need to abandon the base before the rest of the aparoids arrive. He warned that they were unpredictable and could destroy the base in a matter of minutes." The Venomian army disappeared and the surrounding area became void of any signs of movement. Fox and his team were stunned silent, until a loud screeching sound rose in the air. With a shock, an aparoid moth appeared just inches from the camera, twitching its dark head while studying it. With a shriek, the insect-like creature destroyed the camera and the video clip ended, replaced by a fuzzy gray screen.

Fox's head began spinning as if everything he had ever known was collapsing around him. "This can't be right," he growled as he fumbled for his chair. He felt dizzy and nauseous as panic and fear consumed his thoughts. "No, Oikonny couldn't have known about the aparoid attack," he denied. "The aparoids were uncontrollable; they served allegiance to no one!"

Krystal crouched beside him with a worried expression. She reached her hand out to comfort him but he ignored it completely. "Fox, what is the matter? What can't be right?"

"Don't you see?" The leader of the team returned his friend's gaze. "If what we saw is true, then Oikonny knew about the aparoid invasion all along. He planned for everything to happen the way it did." Suddenly all of the missing pieces started coming together in his mind. The darkness that surrounded Corneria and the mystery of the locked aparoid files was finally starting to come to light. "Oikonny used the aparoids as a diversion to distract us from pursuing him! We never flew back to check if Oikonny was dead or not; we never went back to take him in because the aparoids invaded at exactly the right time!"

"I can't believe it," Lucy admitted, defeated by the new knowledge they had discovered. "All of this time the aparoid attack on Fortuna was a plan to help Oikonny escape."

Even Falco was baffled. He collapsed into a chair in front of the control panel and stared at the screen, wide eyed. "If what happened on Fortuna was planned, what does that say about the other aparoid attacks? Were they planned intentionally as well?"

Krystal rose from where she crouched beside Fox and paced toward the center of the control room. "I sensed that there was something strange about the aparoid attacks for a long time, but had no reason to question them until now." She paused and Fox noticed a glint of determination in her eyes. "The most devastating aparoid attack occurred on Corneria, followed by the level of destruction on Sauria; two priority targets near to our hearts. I thought it coincidence at first, but now I see it as strategic. Whoever was responsible for the aparoid attacks knew us well and exploited our weaknesses. It was no accident that the attack on Sauria lured us away from Corneria, leaving it vulnerable to the most devastating assault."

"Who do you suppose is behind all of this?" Katt wondered, lost for words at the unearthing of this terrible plot.

The aparoid files harbored a secret beyond anything that Fox had ever dreamed of. He and Krystal set out searching for the secret to Oikonny's survival, but uncovered something far greater; something that had put their lives in immediate danger multiple times just to uncover. In his mind, all of the evidence pointed in one direction. Once he discovered that the files were locked down, someone tried to have him killed. When Krystal tracked down the one loose end containing more information, the Cornerian pilot was killed and the hotel he took refuge in was destroyed. One enemy was desperate to stop this information from surfacing. Oikonny called him "the boss," but his name still remained unknown. He was the fox that led the ambush on Katina, the new leader of Andross' forces.

"Krystal," Fox beckoned as he rose to join her. "You know as well as I do who is behind all of this. He has tried several times to stop us before we found out, but now it's too late."

She nodded in reply, surely to have read his thoughts and agreed with him. "The commander of Andross' army must have been behind the aparoid invasion... If that's true, then he must be linked somehow to Oikonny, based on what he said in the recording. If we find Oikonny, we find the one responsible for everything."

"Yo, what about the Cornerian pilot he killed? Beltino sent us the information on him as well," Falco suggested, recovering slightly from his own astonishment.

Fox approached the control panel and replaced Slippy, who took a pace backward to allow his friend control of the ship's computer. He rid the screen of any information regarding the aparoid invasion and opened the file that was sent separately, titled "Bryan Grey." His heart almost skipped a beat, hoping that the pilot was not related to his close friend, Bill Grey. He and Bill flew and studied together at the Cornerian Flight Academy years ago, before he left to avenge his father's death. Bill graduated and went on to lead the Bulldog and Husky Squadrons stationed on Katina.

If Bill is his relative, I feel that we would owe him an explanation and apology once this is all over. Fox sighed as he reviewed the information on the deceased pilot. Name: Bryan Grey. Age: 22 years. Regiment: Canine Squadron. Station: Katina. The pilot's image was displayed beside his biographical records, displaying the young bulldog in a blue Cornerian Pilot space suit. "It is a shame to have lost him," Fox spoke with regret.

"He was so young," Krystal murmured from beside him. "I doubt that he really knew what he was getting himself into. He might have just been manipulated into betraying us; we can't really be sure from his information."

Slippy's bulging eyes, normally bright and cheery, were filled with sorrow. "Do you think he is related to Bill?" He asked, concerned for his friend. He shared the same connection Fox did with Bill during their youth.

"I don't know," Fox admitted, "but it is best we wait until this is resolved before contacting him. We don't want to put his life in danger by involving him, too. The pilot hiding this information must know that we have accessed it by now; he will come for us relentlessly without mercy, knowing that we alone know the truth. If he was responsible for the aparoid invasion, there must be a reason why..."

Gazing around the room at his team, Fox realized the fear and confusion surrounding them. The new threats ahead seemed larger and more real than ever before. With the deception spreading as far as the aparoid invasion, Fox worried for the safety of Corneria and those closest to him. A feeling grew in his mind that the aparoid invasion was only the beginning of a much greater and more dangerous plot to destroy the Lylat System.