It was dark at night. Up above Oddworld the moon with the mudkon hand hovered over the home of its hero. The mudkons a primitive race lived deep in the jungle living off of the land. The hidden forest where the mudkons lived was one of the few places that the Gluckon minions the sligs had not touched. It was deemed too dangerous to enter. Sligs who entered by themselves never returned. Scrabs and Paramytes roamed wild throughout the wilderness hunting at their leisure. The wilderness was beginning to turn against the Gluckons. They had come long ago and populated the planet, and now they were bit by bit withdrawing as each factory paid the price at the hand of the mudkon hero: Abe. The war was on. The once loyal mudkons were deserting their posts everywhere. Rapture farms was gone, so was the Freeco depot the Slig Barracks and most importantly the soul storm brewery. The profits for the gluckons were beginning to dry up… forever.

Abe looked out from the safety of the wilderness. Fellow mudkons were around him. In the distance a great smog field factory lined the horizon. Pies & tasty snacks incorporated was another of the Gluckon's food processing treasures. In the long run it had taken off where Rapture farms had failed. Fumes rose up softly into the air polluting the beautiful Oddworldian sky. The black cloud surrounded the factory like a puddle of oil on the surface of still water. Long ago it had been small, but steadily the factory had grown with the loss of competition and with it the cloud above it. Over time the smog had made its way across the land and now it was getting close to the forest. The gluckons there had out stayed their welcome. This was the land of the mudkons now.

"What's the plan pass it on!" whispered a mudkon behind a tree; its small pony tail shook from side to side.

"What's the plan pass it on!" whispered another behind a rock. Each one looked up with beady eyes and passed the message to the next on and on down the ranks. Their green faces looked dark and mysterious in the night with their bug yellowy eyes. Abe waited looking out mystified at the monstrosity that loomed on the horizon as the message reached him. The Mudkon next to him whispered it in his ear "What's the plan pass it on!"

Abe turned quickly to his left "What's the plan pass it on!" he whispered before with a look at his friend he realized that there was nobody to pass it on to.

"What's the plan?" whispered the mudkon next to him frantically looking at all the assembled and in waiting mudkons.

"Er… I dunno," shrugged Abe.

"He doesn't know," whispered back the mudkon the message traveling rapidly back down the ranks.

"Wait, wait!" hissed Abe waving his arms before mutiny broke out, but it was too late the message was already traveling. He sighed and stared up at the moon. It was as he did so that he noticed something unusual. There was a certain presence in the night sky, a darkness and it was coming closer. From the distance there was a faint noise, a bit like a wasps nest. He stared up in awe with a mixture of fear and wonder inside of him.

"What is that?" he whispered to himself

"What is that pass it on!"

"No don't you pass that on! Grrr!" he hissed clouting the mudkon on the ear.

"Saary" replied the mudkon patting Abe on the shoulder

"Ok" he replied with a sigh and stared back up at the shape. It was coming close and fast. In the dark he could only just begin to make it out. As he did so he became deadly afraid. Millions of red eyes loomed through the darkness overhead coming straight towards them across the sky. The buzzing sound had roared up into a huge whirring noise.

"Get down!" shouted Abe

"That's no plan!" whispered one but he was quickly silenced as a mudkon next to him pushed him down beneath the foliage. The mudkons were completely silent as the whirring sound rose to a torrent of noise. Finnaly with a great rush of wind a huge mass of flying sligs came across through the air, their choppers spinning round and round like crazy attached to their backs like cocktail son shades.

"Flee! Flee!" they called to each other in panic

"Don't shoot!" shouted another

"Get em!" said another.

They didn't even notice the mudkons below they just passed right over head into the forest.

"Here boy!"

There was quiet as the sound became quieter and quieter. The mudkons stirred and one by one their heads popped out beneath their hiding places.

"What was that!" whispered the mudkon next to Abe leaning heavily on his shoulder

"I no no!" he hissed back, "Sligs and lots of them I think!"

"Sligs where!" shouted one at the back.

In the distance Abe watched to see several lights rising out of the factory. Some blue and green and yellow quickly as they hovered up they all sped off in different directions faster than sound. Spacecraft of all kinds seemed to be fleeing from the factory. The air had a sense of panic in it. Something big was happening.

"They're afraid of us!" whispered a mudkon

"They're afraid of Abe!" said another, "Victory!"

And all of a sudden the Mudkons were up in arms celebrating and hugging each other round the chest and some of the females were kissing and the males were firing crossbow bolts up into the air and smiling and getting out drinks and one even began with a piece of flint to try and get a fire going.

"Quiet!" hissed Abe. They stopped all looking at him. There was complete silence and Abe suddenly felt very sheepish. He gazed one by one to each of their faces that had an expression of irritation and loss of the moment, "We can't be sure what's happened yet!" pleaded Abe, "They could be calling reinforcements or they could even be going out to attack us!"

There was silence and some of the frowns softened into fear or woe. He felt bad to spoil their moment but it had to be done. One face near the front however remained fixed "I think your just being nasty about a good thing. We should all be celebrating not feeling bad!"

"Yeah Abe what's your problem?" said another low voice, "First you didn't want us to drink and now you don't want us to party!"

"Aw come on!" sighed Abe, "That was soul storm brew! It was made from bones!"

The low voiced one was quiet suddenly realizing his blunder. The mudkons all glared at him for a long time. Abe was thankfully relieved that the attention was turned away from him at least for a moment. He'd lead them all a long way to get to the edge of the forest and personally he felt he'd have done better if he'd gone alone. But they'd all insisted upon coming. They all wanted to help out on the adventure. None of them had thought at first about the problems of food and the likelihood of death. Many of them were young mudkons from the forest who thought they were the best heroes in the world because they'd killed a Paramyte or two on their first hunt.

"What do we do now Abe?" sneered the frowning one "Since you're so full of good advice do you have any for what we should be doing now?"

Abe was silent and realized that he was in trouble. He hadn't had a plan of action. He was just hoping to walk in like last time and set everyone free using his powers. He realized his folly now that with a group this big, things just wouldn't work out like that. They'd be shot on sight before they could even enter the building. Plus of course there would be the problems of navigating the factory once inside.

"I no no" he whispered more to himself than the others but they all heard it "I no no!" he repeated woefully.

"He doesn't know?" chirped another mudkon

"He's been leading us on a wild Sleek chase!" roared the frowning one

"I say lets go back and leave him here!" said the low voiced mudkon

There were mutters of approval and all the mudkons glared at Abe who suddenly and for good reasons was wishing that he were somewhere else. One by one they each glared at Abe before passing away into the foliage. Abe stared at the floor a tear coming to his eye, but it was only a moment later that they were all backing his commands.

Suddenly the sky went red and all of their faces lit up crimson at once. They turned in horror to see the factory in the distance. A huge bolt of burning red fire had burst down from the sky itself. It crashed down on the building with a tremendous explosion vaporizing the ground and chimneys instantly. The entire metal factory with its black smoggy cloud exploded into a huge fiery mushroom cloud the black soot rising up into the air as fire and burning debree scattered through the air and across the surrounding landscape. The Linear blast from above faded away a second later and what was left of the factory was only the burning remains and the haunted looks that were captured on each of the mudkon's faces. The mudkons looked on in fear and horror watching with cold eyes and only half taking in what they had seen. The fire continued to burn and even now they could feel the left over tremors of the blast running up and down their feet.

"That was good wasn't it?" whispered the mudkon next to Abe with a quivering lip, "The factory blew up that's good right?"

Abe didn't speak for a long time. He gazed on in fear and anxiety speechless. When he finally replied it was with great sorrow and loss in his voice.

"There were five hundred mudkons in that factory"