Panic seized the Mother Brain when she read the thoughts of the zombified space pirates. "Ridley, organize all non-contaminated personnel in Tourian! Go up to Crateria and guard the elevator! The dead pirates want to eat me!"

Ridley rallied the troops in Tourian and rode the elevator up to Crateria to take his post there. The space dragon did not scare easily, but even he was unnerved by the sight of dozens of mutilated corpses running in his direction, foam bubbling from their mouths. "Brains!" they shrieked from their desiccated lungs.

"I see the crew," Ridley telepathically reported to Mother Brian, "but where's Kraid?"

The stone wall of the cavern burst inward to reveal Kraid, with a massive chunk of the Mother ship stuck in his torso. He, too, was howling, presumably for brains.

"D'ast!" Ridley swore in an ancient tongue.

"Aim for the heads!" Ridley shouted to his troops, reasoning that the dead pirates no longer relied on their vital organs to function (given that some of them had shrapnel where their livers, lungs and hearts should be), and therefore the only sure means of incapacitation would be through headshots.

This hunch fell flat on its face when he saw holes punched clean through the skulls of the undead… and they still kept coming. Thinking on their feet in spite of soul-crushing fear, some of Ridley's troops continued to shoot at the heads of the zombies in the front row until the skull was completely annihilated. The headless bodies became loping, flailing creatures almost as dangerous as their relatively intact brethren. Worse, complete destruction of a single skull proved so time-consuming that it offered ample opportunity for undead ninja pirates to leap onto their prey, crushing their skulls with their pincers and feasting upon the grey matter.

Meanwhile, the ki-hunters under Ridley's command flew over the horde, spitting acidic gobs at the zombies beneath them. This tactic did rather well until the flying insects had their wings clipped by the laser fire of the zombies. To the undead horde's surprise, they discovered that ki-hunters, as insects, had a decentralized nervous system. Therefore, to get all the brainy goodness from one ki-hunter body, they'd have to rip it apart. This fared very badly for the ki-hunters.

"Mother Brain, is there anything else you can support us with?" Ridley asked, "We're getting slaughtered up here!"

"What you see is what you have!" Mother Brain snapped, her agitation intensified by terror.

"Damn it…" Ridley muttered as he saw zombie Kraid slowly shuffle toward the entrance to Tourian. Fortunately the gargantuan reptile wasn't any faster in death than he was in life. He was a slowly advancing wall, crushing those too wounded to escape his path.

The gold pirates in Ridley's army fared better than their kin, because their armor could only be penetrated from the rear. But the scarcity of pirates who held that rank hampered their effectiveness, and there were too many zombies…

Ridley flew to the degree the subterranean environs would allow him, and bathed the advancing horde with fireballs. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air, and the flaming undead shrieked and panicked until they collapsed.

Ridley's troops cheered until the soldiers closest to the burning zombies were struck with unusually severe coughing fits, strong. Even after their comrades pulled them away, they continued to choke until their breathing apparently ceased.

Poison! Ridley's mind blared. Thinking quickly, he dropped to the ground and beat his wings fiercely, pushing the toxic smoke back to the zombie horde. "Put out those fires!" he called to his subjects. Those capable of such a task tried to do so, but that would mean getting close to the fumes…

Nonetheless, the volunteers held their breath and doused the flames before them with foam, even though doing so cleared a path through which the zombies could enter. It was suicide, but through either bravery or simply not considering the consequences, many impromptu firemen gave their lives for their people.

Ridley mentally crossed "fire" off as a possible means of destroying the zombies. If neither headshots nor body shots killed them, and ki-hunter acid was in noticeably short supply, the only method left would be complete bodily dismemberment. Ridley paused to consider how he'd go about doing that until Pirate Commando H-34 emerged from the elevator to Tourian, with two shaktools (robots used for tunneling purposes) at his side. "Everyone with a pulse, get out of the way!" the crimson-shelled Commando shouted. At that, he turned on the machines, and their blades whirred to life.

The shaktools somersaulted into the zombie horde, sending limbs and viscera flying with their digging blades. Ridley marveled at this clever, if messy, solution. "Those too exhausted to fight, make yourselves useful and bring more shaktools up from Tourian!" he commanded.

The space dragon's elation faded when a giant, fleshy missile sped through the Pirates' formation, impaling several troops on its spikes until it slammed into a wall. Once of Kraid's three navel-like orifices was empty.

Ridley scowled to the extent his draconian face allowed him to. Kraid's skin was so thick that the only practical weak spot to aim for would be his mouth, which Kraid opened whenever his massive lungs needed air. Now that he no longer needed to breathe, he would not expose himself in such a manner.

Zombie Kraid continued to advance, making the battlefield smaller with each step he took. Ridley wondered whether or not this was intentional, trapping the living so the dead could feast. Or, maybe it was just a mechanical impulse. Either way, it didn't bode well.

Of all Ridley's attacks, only his sharp tail inflicted any noticeable damage on Kraid, and even then the wounds were quickly clotted by body fat. The undead beast was nonetheless cognizant of its predicament, and…

*WHAM!*

…swatted Ridley out of the sky.

Immediately upon impact, several hopeful zombies leaped on the space dragon, snapping at his skull to get to his brain. Ridley had never seen mortality the same way most sentient beings did. His race had extraordinary regenerative properties, and even if he did die, he could always be cloned. But, if zombies overran Tourian, the equipment would fall into disrepair, and Ridley would be gone for good.

"I… could die…"

With that realization, Ridley shook the zombies off, grabbing the more tenacious ones and throwing them into the shaktools. Any undead sent sprawling on the ground were chopped up by his flailing tail blade.

Zombie Kraid continued to advance. Panicked pirates showered him with laser fire, even though in calmer circumstances they would have known it wouldn't work. Shots ricocheted off the metal chunk stuck in Kraid's torso.

"That's it!"

Ridley scrambled up Kraid's thick leg and yanked as hard as he could at the shrapnel, pushing aside the flesh surrounding it with his tail. As Ridley expected, Kraid swiped him off with his massive claws. Though he knew it would hurt, Ridley actually counted on this, clinging to the giant chunk of debris so the force Kraid applied to knock him off would pull it out.

*SHLORP!*

The gigantic piece of scrap metal dislodged itself from Kraid's abdomen, opening a cavern of flesh. Steeling himself for the disgusting task he was about to take, Ridley crawled into the hole.

Pressed on all sides by fat and organs that had recently lost their means of support, Ridley nonetheless managed to claw his way to Kraid's spine and sever it with his tail. It wouldn't destroy the giant zombie (Ridley still wasn't sure what would) but at least Kraid could no longer walk.

With difficulty, Ridley pushed himself out of Kraid's girth. The wounded behemoth swiped at him, but couldn't pursue him as soon as Ridley flew out of range. Shaking off the gore covering his body, Ridley was glad to see the shaktools and remaining ki-hunters making short work of the dwindling horde.

Then, Ridley heard screams coming from Tourian.

Tourian!

Ridley rushed to the elevator and descended, finding what he feared most when he reached the bottom.

The pirates killed by the toxic fumes earlier had reanimated.

Most of the medical technicians were dead, with zombies chewing their brains. Others were standing on top of recharge chambers, firing fruitlessly into the foes surrounding them.

Ridley roared, drawing the zombies' attention, then ran through the room. Knowing that a bigger body usually meant a bigger brain, the deceased pirates followed him. Ridley opened the locked door to Mother Brain's chamber.

"Commander, what are you doing? You're leading them right to-" a medical technician protested.

"I know what I'm doing!" Ridley replied.

Mother Brain was surrounded by protective barriers and moats of magma. Ridley destroyed one of the floating platforms and hovered above a magma pool. Heedless of the danger beneath them, zombies leaped toward him. Ridley swatted them down into the magma, effectively cremating them. Once the creatures were completely submerged, Ridley held his breath and went back through the door…

…Only to find out that not all of the zombies were stupid enough to jump into the magma.

Ridley was dog piled by several zombies. Feeling their pincers and limbs scrabbling toward his head, Ridley opened the door again. Weighed down by his aggressors, Ridley crawled toward the edge of the lava pool.

As soon as he felt one of those pincers squeeze his skull, Ridley took the plunge.

As a native of Norfair, Ridley was more used to heat and fire than rank-and-file Zebesians, but immersion in magma still hurt like hell. The zombies, fortunately, didn't have as much endurance, and released themselves from their quarry as they thrashed about in agony.

Ridley pulled his beet-red body out of the lava pool, threw the last remaining zombie ("B-86," its serial number read) in as soon as it lunged at him, and crawled through the door. He'd inhaled too much of the fumes; black vines crawled at the edge of his vision. It took a herculean effort just to open the door to the medical bay. After crawling in, Ridley was relieved to see that it was empty, so no one would breathe the poisonous gas except for him.

Him.

Ridley was getting drowsy, heavy. He could barely keep his eyes open.

Mother Brain respectfully shut the door behind him as he collapsed.