PART SIX: RACE AGAINST TIME
It was General Scales.
"FWAHAHAHA! Ah, Star Fox. Weren't expecting ME, were you??"
"Wha... how the heck did YOU get up here?!?"
"Well. Remember in chapter one, how I was bound and gagged? Well, that was shown to the Cornerian Ministry of Defence, to gain their trust. I'm here, alive and well, with part of the reward given to Andross and, to cap it all off, I've got YOU stuck in here with your ship disabled! The only way you'll be getting out of here on THAT," (he gestured at Fox's Arwing,) "is by using THIS!" General Scales took out a remote from one of his pockets. He held it up for Fox to see. Aparently, that shut down the immobilising device. Fox had to obtain that if he was going anywhere.
Fox growled. "Give it here, Scales."
"Make me."
"Gladly."
Fox charged! Drawing his staff (which he had recieved in Chapter one from Krystal, remember?) he shot a number of Fireballs from his Fire Blaster. Scales dodged them and swiped at Fox with his sword, along the ground. Fox hopped over it, and brought his staff down on top of Scale's head.
"OW!"
Scales staggared back, fazed considerably by the blow. Fox took this chance to power up an Super Quake! He lept up high and brought this down on top of General Scales, who was blasted back into the opposite wall. Scales started to get up, when he saw a Cloud of Frost flying at him. Before he knew it, he was in a block of Ice. Fox took this oppertunity to pound on Scales with his Staff, eventually shattering the Ice and sending Scales hurling backwards yet again. Scales lept up, aggrivated. He'd had enough of this furball.
Scales charged Fox, and kicked him across the room into a stack of crates, which seemed to disintigrate into an array of splinters. Fox was hurt VERY badly, and was having trouble getting up. Not only that, but the Alliance was still stuck in the cage on the roof of that room. They cheered as Fox flew across the room. Fox glared at them, but then just charged at Scales again. Scales charged at Fox as well. Fox quickly activated his Rocket Boost and vaulted gracefully over General Scales. At which point Scales turned around, grabbed Fox by the neck, and chucked him across the room into a stack of steel drums. These drums fell on top of Fox, burying him. He took massive damage on top of the damage he had already accumulated! The Alliance cheered in their cage.
Scales marched over to the pile of barrels, where Fox was still struggling out. He grabbed one of the drums and brought it down on top of Fox as hard as he could! Fox was out cold. The Alliance cheered in the cage.
Scales picked him up and dragged him over to his Arwing. Tossing him inside, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the device. He disabled the field and the Arwing was once again mobile! Finally, he accellerated it towards a wall of the room, and jumped off. Fox was on a collision course! The Alliance cheered in the cage.
Fox woke up, with a furious gleem in his eye. He de-accelerated, turned the Arwing around, and blasted the hell out of the Cage the Alliance was in. They definitely weren't cheering anymore. Terrified, scarified, and (in Zelda and Captain Falcon's case) girlified screams emmited from those in the cage. They all fell to the ground, KO'ed.
Scales groweled. This was definitely NOT part of the plan.
"Okay, now to go after Andross... HEY!" Fox was stopped short. He hadn't removed the immobilising device from his Ship, and Scales had re-activated it, stopping the Arwing once again. Fox was furious, and started to go after Scales, but Scales literally hopped up onto the Arwing and... completely pulvarised Fox again. Fox was KO'ed for a second time, and there was no irritating Alliance to bring him to conciousness again. Scales grinned. NOW this was going according to plan. He got to work...
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Fox awoke. He was still in his Arwing. He was OUTSIDE of Andross's ship. You remember how it was in the shape of Andross's face? Well, the eyes suddenly lit up.
BUZZEEP! "HAAAHAHAHA! Look at this, Star Fox! We're still going to have that promised "Final Battle"! Only, it'll be between me, you, and a large ultra-ship that LOOKS like me, but really ISN'T! Isn't that IRONIC?"
BUZZEEP! "Actually, no, that's not. For two reasons. One, there's nothing at all ironic about what you just said. Two, you have the definition of "irony" wrong. It actually means..."
BUZZEEP! "Look, I didn't come for the English lesson! I came here to whup your arse! It's CURTAINS for you!!!"
Andross launched a few missiles at Fox. Fox dodged them, but with difficulty. He realised that he'd have to find some way to take the ship out. Otherwise, he'd never get anywhere. Since Slippy wasn't here to give him an analysis, he decided to start shooting the ship all over, to try and find a weak spot.
He couldn't shoot. Scales had disabled his laser canon, removed all bomb ammunition from his Arwing, and disrupted his BOOST power. He couldn't attack!
Andross continued to launch missiles while he laughed insanely. I mean, wouldn't you? He was about to finally finish off Star Fox once and for all!
Suddenly, something happened. Something that Andross, Scales, well, not even Fox expected. A trio of Arwings flew in and fired smart bombs at Andross's ship, doing sufficiant damage! Fox gazed in wonder, trying to figure out who had disobeyed his orders to go disable the bomb. It wasn't Bowser, or Ganondorf. It wasn't even Samus.
BUZZEEP! "Hey, Fox... different time, different place... but you still need Falco's help. As usual. I guess I shouldn't be surprised... good to see you, buddy!"
BUZZEEP! "Yo Fox! Look who we found!"
BUZZEEP! "Fox! Looks like you need some help!"
Fox was in disbelief. Slippy. Peppy. and Falco. They ALL came back to help him defeat Andross. It was just like old times.
BUZZEEP! "All right... Team. Let's take it to 'em!"
Slippy, Peppy, and Falco began to attack the exterior of Andross's ship. It just didn't seem to budge to their laser attacks. Finally, Fox contacted them again.
BUZZEEP! "Guys! This doesn't appear to be working! We can't waste all our Bombs at once, so don't shoot them just yet, but your lasers aren't working either. My weapons were kinda disabled... HEY! I have an idea! Shoot your bombs at the mouth all at once! I'm going back in!"
BUZZEEP! "No you're not. There's no way you're going back in that thing. You'll be taken apart!"
BUZZEEP! "Just blow up the mouth! Trust me!"
The three reluctantly agreed, and blew the mouth, AKA Cargo Bay access to smitherines. Fox sailed back into the Cargo Bay.
The first thing he saw was the Alliance, leaving on an escape pod, getting the heck out of the ship. Fox ignored them, and turned his attention to General Scales, who was looking at the opening in wonder. Scales then saw Fox flying at him, grinned, and pulled out the remote he used for disabling the Arwing... but, he dropped it by accident! He desperately picked it up and fumbled with it, trying to activate the device...
Too late! Fox literally smashed INTO General Scales!!! Scales screamed in utter pain as he was thrown against the back wall. Of course, he was KO'ed immediately. Fox landed the Arwing. He then took off the immobilising device and chucked it aside. Fox then re-enactivated his laser weapons and boosts. As he was about to re-stock his Arwing with the bombs Scales had removed, it dawned on him that he didn't have to use his standard bombs. He could find some other kind of large weapon to use. He had remembered the Bio-Bombs Slippy had used, and that Slippy had told him about other large bombs that they were stored with. He went to locate these bombs. It took him awhile, and he could still hear Slippy, Peppy, and Falco hammering away at the exterior of the ship, which unnerved him a bit. But he did finally find his treasure. A beautiful cache of very large, very powerful MegaBombs. He loaded these up into his Arwing (c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y...) and finally took off to rejoin his friends in the air.
BUZZEEP! "Fox! What took you?"
BUZZEEP! "Sorry, Falco, mon. I had work to do. It was murder!"
Falco decided not to ponder the significance of this choice of words.
BUZZEEP! "Ah, Star Fox! You've returned for more beatings, I see! Well, I shall hesitate no longer in testing out this ship's mega-weapon..."
A spot on Andross's forehead (okay, a spot on the part of the ship that looked like Andross's forehead) started glowing bright red, until...
BUZZEEP! "WATCH OUT, FOX!"
Fox, heeding Falco's warning, soared out of the way of a monsterous Beam of Fire! It followed him around, cutting off his flying range, but he dodged it succesfully. Suddenly realising he had these bombs (and that Andross would most likely NOT cease fire) he pulled his Arwing around and let loose with ALL THREE AT ONCE, all of them aimed at the top of the ship. It didn't take long.
BUZZEEP! "FLY!!!" Fox screamed into his communicator.
The bombs found their target.
BOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
The ship dissolved into a massive ball of fire! The bombs had connected perfectly with their intended target: the generator of the MegaWeapon. It backfired on Andross. There was no chance of either him OR General Scales having lived through that. Fox, Slippy, Peppy, and Falco Turboed towards the location of the Great Fox. They had precious little time before the device on Dinosaur Planet failed and carried out Andross's wish of destroying the entire Lylat System!
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The Star Fox Team flew on. They had almost reached the planet by this time, when Falco brought up the pressing, and rather uncomfortable question...
BUZZEEP! "Yo, Fox... you realise that we might get there to find nothing but a pile of Space Debris, right? We may not notice it, but the Lylat System could be flying out of whack right now.
BUZZEEP! "Yeah, I've thought that. We shouldn't be thinking negatively, though... gotta stay hopeful...
BUZZEEP! "But, Fox," Slippy spoke up, "Let's say for argument's sake that Dinosaur Planet IS gone, and the System is currently thrown out of balence. What happens with us? Where would we go?"
BUZZEEP! "I... I haven't a clue. We couldn't really go anywhere. Everything would just eventually be destroyed."
BUZZEEP! "I wouldn't worry myself too much if I were you, Fox," Peppy said. "Look!"
True to his word, Dinosaur Planet was still there. Chunks of it had once again broken off of the surface, indicating that the Power Level was indeed off the charts. The Great Fox was floating lazily beside it. Fox realised that his team was trying to channel some of the power from the planet to prevent an explosion.
BUZZEEP! "Okay. You three can dock in the Great Fox. I'm landing on the surface. ROB, get me a course to the Force Point. We're SAVING this System!"
The three obeyed silently. Fox swooped down to Dinosaur Planet, to check the situation.
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Fox had arrived at the Force Point, watching as his team hooked up some chanelling cables. Ganondorf noticed Fox and ran up to him.
"Fox! Did you defeat Andross? What happened???"
"I'll tell you later... how are we doing down here?"
"Erm... well... we're getting as much energy out as we can, but we're not sure how long this thing'll hold. We need something to blast this energy out with. We were thinking of using the Great Fox's main canons to shoot the energy out into open space. We have them hooked up, but we wanted to wait for your confirmation to..."
"We can't just FIRE energy out into nowhere, Ganondorf! We could kill someone... no, we could kill an entire Planet! There's no way we're just blasting energy mindlessly into space..."
"Of course we can! It's crazy, split-second decisions like this that SAVE LYLAT SYSTEMS, FOX!"
"Hey, don't start up with me..."
BUZZEEP! "Fox! Slippy here! The Alliance is back again! They escaped from Andross's Ship somehow and they're attacking! And they're not alone, either...
BUZZEEP! "What are you talking about, Slippy? Who's with them?"
BUZZEEP! "Well, do you remember back when Andross made a "Secret Weapon" that was like some kind of insane Robot?"
BUZZEEP! "Um, yes, vaguely..."
BUZZEEP! "And do you remember those monkeys in Space Suits that moved super-fast?"
BUZZEEP! "Ah! How could I forget?..."
BUZZEEP! "And also that... ah, screw that... imagine a whole slew of our large enemies combined together into one massive Super-Weapon."
BUZZEEP! "Okay... ouch! That's one ugly enemy!"
BUZZEEP! "Well... my point is that... it's here. Right now. Approaching our ship. Andross must have been building it in secret, and he must have ordered it to finish off the Planet before we killed him."
BUZZEEP! ".........." Fox stood stunned for a minute or two, then asked, "How long 'till they're in firing range?"
BUZZEEP! "About Five Minutes, give or take."
Fox turned to Ganondorf. "You said you have the Great Fox's Canons hooked up already?"
"Yes, but I thought you said that it would be..."
"What was that you said before, Ganondorf? Something about crazy, split-second decisions?"
"Oh, lord..."
BUZZEEP! "Slippy! Get the Great Fox's Canons into Hyper-Mode. We'll be fueling them with the energy from this planet. Let's take out that weapon, boys!"
* TO BE CONCLUDED *
It was General Scales.
"FWAHAHAHA! Ah, Star Fox. Weren't expecting ME, were you??"
"Wha... how the heck did YOU get up here?!?"
"Well. Remember in chapter one, how I was bound and gagged? Well, that was shown to the Cornerian Ministry of Defence, to gain their trust. I'm here, alive and well, with part of the reward given to Andross and, to cap it all off, I've got YOU stuck in here with your ship disabled! The only way you'll be getting out of here on THAT," (he gestured at Fox's Arwing,) "is by using THIS!" General Scales took out a remote from one of his pockets. He held it up for Fox to see. Aparently, that shut down the immobilising device. Fox had to obtain that if he was going anywhere.
Fox growled. "Give it here, Scales."
"Make me."
"Gladly."
Fox charged! Drawing his staff (which he had recieved in Chapter one from Krystal, remember?) he shot a number of Fireballs from his Fire Blaster. Scales dodged them and swiped at Fox with his sword, along the ground. Fox hopped over it, and brought his staff down on top of Scale's head.
"OW!"
Scales staggared back, fazed considerably by the blow. Fox took this chance to power up an Super Quake! He lept up high and brought this down on top of General Scales, who was blasted back into the opposite wall. Scales started to get up, when he saw a Cloud of Frost flying at him. Before he knew it, he was in a block of Ice. Fox took this oppertunity to pound on Scales with his Staff, eventually shattering the Ice and sending Scales hurling backwards yet again. Scales lept up, aggrivated. He'd had enough of this furball.
Scales charged Fox, and kicked him across the room into a stack of crates, which seemed to disintigrate into an array of splinters. Fox was hurt VERY badly, and was having trouble getting up. Not only that, but the Alliance was still stuck in the cage on the roof of that room. They cheered as Fox flew across the room. Fox glared at them, but then just charged at Scales again. Scales charged at Fox as well. Fox quickly activated his Rocket Boost and vaulted gracefully over General Scales. At which point Scales turned around, grabbed Fox by the neck, and chucked him across the room into a stack of steel drums. These drums fell on top of Fox, burying him. He took massive damage on top of the damage he had already accumulated! The Alliance cheered in their cage.
Scales marched over to the pile of barrels, where Fox was still struggling out. He grabbed one of the drums and brought it down on top of Fox as hard as he could! Fox was out cold. The Alliance cheered in the cage.
Scales picked him up and dragged him over to his Arwing. Tossing him inside, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the device. He disabled the field and the Arwing was once again mobile! Finally, he accellerated it towards a wall of the room, and jumped off. Fox was on a collision course! The Alliance cheered in the cage.
Fox woke up, with a furious gleem in his eye. He de-accelerated, turned the Arwing around, and blasted the hell out of the Cage the Alliance was in. They definitely weren't cheering anymore. Terrified, scarified, and (in Zelda and Captain Falcon's case) girlified screams emmited from those in the cage. They all fell to the ground, KO'ed.
Scales groweled. This was definitely NOT part of the plan.
"Okay, now to go after Andross... HEY!" Fox was stopped short. He hadn't removed the immobilising device from his Ship, and Scales had re-activated it, stopping the Arwing once again. Fox was furious, and started to go after Scales, but Scales literally hopped up onto the Arwing and... completely pulvarised Fox again. Fox was KO'ed for a second time, and there was no irritating Alliance to bring him to conciousness again. Scales grinned. NOW this was going according to plan. He got to work...
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Fox awoke. He was still in his Arwing. He was OUTSIDE of Andross's ship. You remember how it was in the shape of Andross's face? Well, the eyes suddenly lit up.
BUZZEEP! "HAAAHAHAHA! Look at this, Star Fox! We're still going to have that promised "Final Battle"! Only, it'll be between me, you, and a large ultra-ship that LOOKS like me, but really ISN'T! Isn't that IRONIC?"
BUZZEEP! "Actually, no, that's not. For two reasons. One, there's nothing at all ironic about what you just said. Two, you have the definition of "irony" wrong. It actually means..."
BUZZEEP! "Look, I didn't come for the English lesson! I came here to whup your arse! It's CURTAINS for you!!!"
Andross launched a few missiles at Fox. Fox dodged them, but with difficulty. He realised that he'd have to find some way to take the ship out. Otherwise, he'd never get anywhere. Since Slippy wasn't here to give him an analysis, he decided to start shooting the ship all over, to try and find a weak spot.
He couldn't shoot. Scales had disabled his laser canon, removed all bomb ammunition from his Arwing, and disrupted his BOOST power. He couldn't attack!
Andross continued to launch missiles while he laughed insanely. I mean, wouldn't you? He was about to finally finish off Star Fox once and for all!
Suddenly, something happened. Something that Andross, Scales, well, not even Fox expected. A trio of Arwings flew in and fired smart bombs at Andross's ship, doing sufficiant damage! Fox gazed in wonder, trying to figure out who had disobeyed his orders to go disable the bomb. It wasn't Bowser, or Ganondorf. It wasn't even Samus.
BUZZEEP! "Hey, Fox... different time, different place... but you still need Falco's help. As usual. I guess I shouldn't be surprised... good to see you, buddy!"
BUZZEEP! "Yo Fox! Look who we found!"
BUZZEEP! "Fox! Looks like you need some help!"
Fox was in disbelief. Slippy. Peppy. and Falco. They ALL came back to help him defeat Andross. It was just like old times.
BUZZEEP! "All right... Team. Let's take it to 'em!"
Slippy, Peppy, and Falco began to attack the exterior of Andross's ship. It just didn't seem to budge to their laser attacks. Finally, Fox contacted them again.
BUZZEEP! "Guys! This doesn't appear to be working! We can't waste all our Bombs at once, so don't shoot them just yet, but your lasers aren't working either. My weapons were kinda disabled... HEY! I have an idea! Shoot your bombs at the mouth all at once! I'm going back in!"
BUZZEEP! "No you're not. There's no way you're going back in that thing. You'll be taken apart!"
BUZZEEP! "Just blow up the mouth! Trust me!"
The three reluctantly agreed, and blew the mouth, AKA Cargo Bay access to smitherines. Fox sailed back into the Cargo Bay.
The first thing he saw was the Alliance, leaving on an escape pod, getting the heck out of the ship. Fox ignored them, and turned his attention to General Scales, who was looking at the opening in wonder. Scales then saw Fox flying at him, grinned, and pulled out the remote he used for disabling the Arwing... but, he dropped it by accident! He desperately picked it up and fumbled with it, trying to activate the device...
Too late! Fox literally smashed INTO General Scales!!! Scales screamed in utter pain as he was thrown against the back wall. Of course, he was KO'ed immediately. Fox landed the Arwing. He then took off the immobilising device and chucked it aside. Fox then re-enactivated his laser weapons and boosts. As he was about to re-stock his Arwing with the bombs Scales had removed, it dawned on him that he didn't have to use his standard bombs. He could find some other kind of large weapon to use. He had remembered the Bio-Bombs Slippy had used, and that Slippy had told him about other large bombs that they were stored with. He went to locate these bombs. It took him awhile, and he could still hear Slippy, Peppy, and Falco hammering away at the exterior of the ship, which unnerved him a bit. But he did finally find his treasure. A beautiful cache of very large, very powerful MegaBombs. He loaded these up into his Arwing (c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y...) and finally took off to rejoin his friends in the air.
BUZZEEP! "Fox! What took you?"
BUZZEEP! "Sorry, Falco, mon. I had work to do. It was murder!"
Falco decided not to ponder the significance of this choice of words.
BUZZEEP! "Ah, Star Fox! You've returned for more beatings, I see! Well, I shall hesitate no longer in testing out this ship's mega-weapon..."
A spot on Andross's forehead (okay, a spot on the part of the ship that looked like Andross's forehead) started glowing bright red, until...
BUZZEEP! "WATCH OUT, FOX!"
Fox, heeding Falco's warning, soared out of the way of a monsterous Beam of Fire! It followed him around, cutting off his flying range, but he dodged it succesfully. Suddenly realising he had these bombs (and that Andross would most likely NOT cease fire) he pulled his Arwing around and let loose with ALL THREE AT ONCE, all of them aimed at the top of the ship. It didn't take long.
BUZZEEP! "FLY!!!" Fox screamed into his communicator.
The bombs found their target.
BOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
The ship dissolved into a massive ball of fire! The bombs had connected perfectly with their intended target: the generator of the MegaWeapon. It backfired on Andross. There was no chance of either him OR General Scales having lived through that. Fox, Slippy, Peppy, and Falco Turboed towards the location of the Great Fox. They had precious little time before the device on Dinosaur Planet failed and carried out Andross's wish of destroying the entire Lylat System!
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The Star Fox Team flew on. They had almost reached the planet by this time, when Falco brought up the pressing, and rather uncomfortable question...
BUZZEEP! "Yo, Fox... you realise that we might get there to find nothing but a pile of Space Debris, right? We may not notice it, but the Lylat System could be flying out of whack right now.
BUZZEEP! "Yeah, I've thought that. We shouldn't be thinking negatively, though... gotta stay hopeful...
BUZZEEP! "But, Fox," Slippy spoke up, "Let's say for argument's sake that Dinosaur Planet IS gone, and the System is currently thrown out of balence. What happens with us? Where would we go?"
BUZZEEP! "I... I haven't a clue. We couldn't really go anywhere. Everything would just eventually be destroyed."
BUZZEEP! "I wouldn't worry myself too much if I were you, Fox," Peppy said. "Look!"
True to his word, Dinosaur Planet was still there. Chunks of it had once again broken off of the surface, indicating that the Power Level was indeed off the charts. The Great Fox was floating lazily beside it. Fox realised that his team was trying to channel some of the power from the planet to prevent an explosion.
BUZZEEP! "Okay. You three can dock in the Great Fox. I'm landing on the surface. ROB, get me a course to the Force Point. We're SAVING this System!"
The three obeyed silently. Fox swooped down to Dinosaur Planet, to check the situation.
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Fox had arrived at the Force Point, watching as his team hooked up some chanelling cables. Ganondorf noticed Fox and ran up to him.
"Fox! Did you defeat Andross? What happened???"
"I'll tell you later... how are we doing down here?"
"Erm... well... we're getting as much energy out as we can, but we're not sure how long this thing'll hold. We need something to blast this energy out with. We were thinking of using the Great Fox's main canons to shoot the energy out into open space. We have them hooked up, but we wanted to wait for your confirmation to..."
"We can't just FIRE energy out into nowhere, Ganondorf! We could kill someone... no, we could kill an entire Planet! There's no way we're just blasting energy mindlessly into space..."
"Of course we can! It's crazy, split-second decisions like this that SAVE LYLAT SYSTEMS, FOX!"
"Hey, don't start up with me..."
BUZZEEP! "Fox! Slippy here! The Alliance is back again! They escaped from Andross's Ship somehow and they're attacking! And they're not alone, either...
BUZZEEP! "What are you talking about, Slippy? Who's with them?"
BUZZEEP! "Well, do you remember back when Andross made a "Secret Weapon" that was like some kind of insane Robot?"
BUZZEEP! "Um, yes, vaguely..."
BUZZEEP! "And do you remember those monkeys in Space Suits that moved super-fast?"
BUZZEEP! "Ah! How could I forget?..."
BUZZEEP! "And also that... ah, screw that... imagine a whole slew of our large enemies combined together into one massive Super-Weapon."
BUZZEEP! "Okay... ouch! That's one ugly enemy!"
BUZZEEP! "Well... my point is that... it's here. Right now. Approaching our ship. Andross must have been building it in secret, and he must have ordered it to finish off the Planet before we killed him."
BUZZEEP! ".........." Fox stood stunned for a minute or two, then asked, "How long 'till they're in firing range?"
BUZZEEP! "About Five Minutes, give or take."
Fox turned to Ganondorf. "You said you have the Great Fox's Canons hooked up already?"
"Yes, but I thought you said that it would be..."
"What was that you said before, Ganondorf? Something about crazy, split-second decisions?"
"Oh, lord..."
BUZZEEP! "Slippy! Get the Great Fox's Canons into Hyper-Mode. We'll be fueling them with the energy from this planet. Let's take out that weapon, boys!"
* TO BE CONCLUDED *