Luigi started refilling the clips he had emptied while defending the castle. Mario and Daisy began helping him. They refilled eleven clips so he could have one in his rifle and ten extra. Mario looked in the vault for ammo belts. He found four, he loaded one into the M-60 and put the other three over his shoulder.
Mario walked over to Yoshi and said "ok Yoshi, you're hurt so I want you to stay here. Man the .30 caliber incase any clones come back."
"No problem" Yoshi said.
Luigi cocked his rifle and said "ready?"
"Ready" Daisy said.
"Let's go" Mario said. They headed toward the hills that lead to Sarasaland.
"I'll go first" Mario said "I think I saw a clone on the top of the first hill, and he's mine."
Mario ran up the hill, he was immediately met by a clone pointing a pistol at him.
The clone stepped closer to him and said "We knew the green guy would suggest taking the hills because it is the best strategic choice. I was just supposed to call Tatanga on the radio if you came this way; but since you came up alone, you made it easy for me to kill you myself."
The clone cocked its pistol. Suddenly Mario heard a bullet whiz past his ear. It hit the clone just above its left eye, killing him instantly. Mario turned around and saw Luigi with his rifle pointed toward him.
Luigi lowered his rifle and said "I didn't graze you, did I?"
"Nope" Mario said "great shot."
Luigi smiled and said "thanks bro, are there any more clones up there?"
"Not that I can see" Mario said.
Luigi and Daisy walked up the hill.
Luigi scanned the hills through his scope and said "I don't see any more."
They continued walking along the hills.
"They must really think we're dead" Mario said "we've only seen that one scout."
Just then machine gun fire broke out. Mario, Luigi and Daisy took cover behind the hill.
"You just had to say something" Daisy said.
"Sorry" Mario said.
Luigi moved quietly to the side of the hill and peeked around toward the sound. He saw a machine gun nest but this time it was made of bricks. Luigi tried to shoot through the hole where the machine gun barrel was sticking out, but he couldn't get a clear shot. He made his way back to Mario and Daisy.
"Machine gun nest made of bricks" he said "I can't get a clear shot at the gunner."
"I can't burn through brick" Daisy said.
"I know" Luigi said.
He looked at Mario and said "Mario, that M-60 has enough power to punch through those bricks. I know what you're thinking, do NOT charge that nest. I'll distract him and get him to fire on the left side of the hill, then I want you to go to the right side and unload into that nest, I know it sounds like a waste of ammo but we can't take any chances against a heavy machine gun."
"Got it" Mario said.
Luigi moved to the left side of the hill and peeked out and yelled "I see it!"
The gunner turned the gun toward Luigi and began firing. Luigi scrambled back behind the hill. Mario moved out from behind the hill slightly, pointed his M-60 at the nest and opened fire. Bullets began ripping through the bricks. While he was firing, Daisy ran and ducked behind a rock ten yards away from the nest. After a minute or so, Mario stopped firing. When he did, Daisy ran to the nest, stuck the nozzle of her flamethrower through the hole where the barrel was sticking out and fired a burst of flames into the nest.
"Clear" Daisy called.
Mario and Luigi came out from behind the hill and walked over to the nest.
"Nice team work" Mario said smiling.
Luigi looked inside and saw a mechanical arm controlling the gun.
"Find cover!" he said "I think it was a trap."
They ran back behind the hill. A few seconds later, machine gun fire erupted from a group of trees; hitting the nest and the hill they were behind.
"Good call" Mario said "now what?"
"Hang on" Luigi said "let me think."
Suddenly they heard machine gun fire coming from the direction of Peach's castle.
"I think they are flanking us!" Luigi said.
Daisy peeked over the hill and said "they aren't flanking us, that's the cavalry coming."
Mario and Luigi peeked over the hill and saw Yoshi walking toward them, spraying the tree line with his SAW. Mario came out from behind the hill and walked next to Yoshi spraying the tree line with his M-60. When they were close enough, Daisy ran over began burning the trees with her flamethrower. Mario saw a clone running away.
"Looks like we saved you one Luigi" he said.
Luigi raised his rifle and shot the clone in the back of the knee.
"Nice shot" Yoshi said "but you didn't kill him." "I wasn't trying to" Luigi said "I just wanted to stop him from running so we could have a little talk with him."
"Ok" Yoshi said.
Then he turned to Mario and said "I know you told me to stay behind, but when I saw what was happening with the binoculars; I couldn't just stand by."
"Well, thanks for the help" Mario said "do you want to come with us?"
"No thanks" Yoshi said "my arm is really hurting right now, so I'm just going to go back inside."
"Ok" Mario said "thanks again."
Yoshi headed back to Peach's castle as Mario, Luigi and Daisy headed toward the fallen clone.
"Daisy, will you hold my rifle?" Luigi asked.
"Sure" Daisy said.
Luigi handed it to her as they walked. When they got to the clone, it was trying to crawl away. Mario grabbed it and rolled it onto its back.
"Hello" Luigi said "we wanted to have a little talk with you."
The clone reached for its radio, but Mario grabbed it and took it away from the clone.
"I won't tell you anything" the clone said.
Luigi drew one of his .45s and pointed it at the clone's unharmed knee cap and asked "are you sure?"
"Where is Tatanga's space ship?" Daisy asked.
The clone just looked at her. Luigi pulled the slide back on his pistol and let it slide forward then said "answer her."
"It's in Sarasaland" the clone said.
"What part of Sarasaland?" Daisy asked.
"In the plains close to the western border" the clone said.
"Thank you" Daisy said.
Mario kicked the clone in the head, knocking it unconscious. Luigi put his pistol away and Daisy gave him back his rifle. Then they all headed for Sarasaland.
"Why don't we take the warp pipe?" Mario asked "it's faster."
"It's not worth the risk" Luigi said "Tatanga might have placed guards around it to kill us when we come out."
When they reached the Sarasaland border, Luigi began scanning the desert with his scope.
"Ok" Luigi said "we've got two machine gun nests along the road, one along the old walking path, groups of five or six clones here and there and I see a few snipers."
He looked at a hill to their left and said "there's a machine gun nest to the left, about seventy-five yards or so away."
"Should we destroy that one first?" Mario asked.
"No" Luigi said "if we can kill the clones inside while keeping the nest intact, we could turn their own gun against them and hold the high ground."
"Great idea" Daisy said "how do we do it?"
"I'm still working on that part" Luigi said "it looks like that one can rotate three hundred and sixty degrees, which means we cant out flank it."
"Can you shoot the gunners from here?" Mario asked.
"I can try" Luigi said.
He laid down, slowed his breathing, took careful aim and began to squeeze the trigger. He fired, killing one of the gunners.
He aimed at the second and started to pull the trigger when he heard a voice say "don't even think about it."
He looked and saw a clone pointing a pistol at his head. Daisy started to draw her revolver. The clone quickly pointed his pistol at her and fired. Daisy's face twisted into a painful expression as she grabbed her right side and blood started to appear on her shirt.
"NO!" Luigi yelled.
He smacked the clone in the knee with the barrel of his rifle, causing the clone to fall to one knee. Luigi quickly stood up and smacked the clone in the face with the stock of his rifle, knocking him down. Luigi pinned the clone down with his foot and began smashing the stock of his rifle into the clones face over and over. Mario was checking Daisy's side.
Daisy looked over at Luigi, then she looked at Mario and said "Mario, get Luigi."
Mario turned around, when he saw what Luigi was doing, he immediately grabbed him and began pulling him away from the clone.
Luigi tried to shake him off, but Mario just tightened his grip and said "Luigi calm down! You got him! Calm down!"
"No" Luigi said "he shot my Daisy and he's gonna pay!"
Daisy walked over and put her hand on Luigi's shoulder and said "Luigi, calm down sweetie, I'll be ok. It's not necessary to do this."
Luigi stopped struggling and looked at Daisy.
Mario let go of him and asked "are you ok Weegie?"
"I guess so" Luigi said.
He looked at Daisy and asked "are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm ok" Daisy said "I'll be even better when you shoot that other gunner."
"You take care of the gunner" Mario said "and I'll take care of Daisy's side."
"Ok" Luigi said.
He laid down, aimed and shot the other clone. After he shot the clone, he stood up and walked over to Daisy as Mario finished bandaging her.
"Are you sure you're ok, Daze?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah" Daisy said "the bullet just scraped my side. The cut is kinda deep, but I'm still good to go."
She flashed Luigi a smile and said "now, let's get to that machine gun."
"I'll go first" Mario said as he picked up his M-60.
He cautiously walked toward the machine gun nest while keeping his gun pointed at it. When they got to the nest, Luigi opened the door while Mario pointed the M-60 inside. Both clones were dead, Luigi dragged them out. Mario manned the gun, Daisy stood beside it and got ready to feed the belts into it and Luigi laid beside it and waited.
"On you're go" Luigi said.
Mario started firing at groups of clones. As soon as Mario fired the first shot, Luigi began picking off the snipers. Once all the squads of clones were dead or had run away, Mario began firing on the other machine gun nests. He used the heavy machine gun to demolish the other three nests. Once he had done all the damage he could, Mario and Daisy came out of the nest.
"Ok Daisy" Luigi said "go ahead and burn it so they can't use it against us."
"Not a problem" Daisy said.
They moved about ten yards away, then Daisy sprayed the nest with flames, making it unusable. They continued toward Tatanga's spaceship.
"There it is" Mario said pointing to the very top of the ship, which was showing over a hill. Luigi cautiously climbed the hill. When he got to the top, he saw two clones guarding the ramp that led to the entrance. Luigi crouched down and put his elbow on his knee to steady the rifle. He fired at the clone on the left, killing it. The second clone pulled a radio off of its belt. Luigi quickly aimed and shot the radio out of the clone's hand. The clone started to run inside, Luigi shot it before it took two steps. He motioned for Mario and Daisy to climb the hill. Five clones began running toward them from the right side of the hill. Daisy turned her flamethrower toward them and began spraying them with flames.
Once the clones were dead, Daisy turned toward Mario and Luigi, smiled and asked "anybody up for fried alien?"
Luigi smiled and said "come on."
They started sneaking toward the spaceship entrance. Luigi looked inside and saw about thirty clones around the room.
He looked at Mario and Daisy and said "the welcome party is waiting."
Mario smiled at Daisy and said "I'll take the left, you take the right."
"Got it" Daisy said smiling.
"Wait here, Luigi" Mario said.
Mario and Daisy ran up the ramp. Mario sprayed the left side of the room with bullets while Daisy sprayed the right side with flames.
"Clear!" Mario called.
Luigi came up the ramp and looked around the room.
"You guys really know how to make an entrance" Luigi said smiling "ok, let's clear this spaceship one room at a time. We don't know where Peach is so we can't just kick the doors open and spray the rooms, we'll have to find a way to look into the room before we attack."
"We could try to look under the doors" Daisy said "Peach's pink tennis shoes look a lot different than the clones' boots."
"Good idea" Mario said.
They began checking the rooms the best they could.
They had been searching for twenty minutes when Mario said "this is taking too long."
"I've got an idea" Luigi said.
He walked over to a door, pounded on it and in his best Tatanga voice yelled "Open up! Tatanga wants Princess Daisy in the main conference room, now!"
"She is not in here" a clone said "she is in the prison wing, and why would he want her in the conference room?"
Mario walked over to the door, kicked it open and began spraying the room with his M-60. One of the clones ducked behind a file cabinet when Mario kicked the door open.
Mario walked over to him and put the barrel of the M-60 to the clone's head and said "tell me where the prison wing is, now!"
"Go to the end of the hall and turn right" the clone said.
"Thanks" Mario said.
Then he hit the clone in the forehead, knocking it unconscious. Mario, Luigi and Daisy ran in the direction the clone had told them. When they got to the prison wing, they checked all of the cells but they couldn't find her.
"Look" Daisy said "the pink scuffs on the floor. They must have dragged her out. If we follow the scuffs, they should lead us to Peach."
"That's my girl" Luigi said.
They started following the scuffs, which led them to a large room. Mario peeked into the room and saw Peach on her knees with her hands tied behind her back. She was surrounded by ten clones. Tatanga walked into the room and looked at her.
"This is not Princess Daisy" he said "this is Princess Peach. Go find Princess Daisy, the real Princess Daisy."
"What do we do with her?" one of the clones asked pointing at Peach.
Tatanga looked at Peach and said "kill her."
Then he turned and walked out of the room. The clone closest to her pulled out a knife.
Mario ran in and yelled "Peach! Get down!"
Peach threw herself down on her face. Mario opened fire, spraying the clones mercilessly. When Mario stopped firing, Daisy ran to Peach and untied her then she helped her up.
"Are you ok?" Daisy asked.
"Yeah" Peach said "thanks."
"No problem" Daisy said "now, I think we have a score to settle."
"I think so too" Peach said.
Luigi walked over to Peach and handed her one of his .45s and a few extra magazines.
"Thanks" she said smiling.
"You're welcome" Luigi said.
Mario walked over to Peach and kissed her then asked "did they hurt you?"
"No, I'm ok" she said.
"What's the plan, Luigi?" Mario asked.
Luigi pointed to the door Tatanga left through and said "follow him, find him and teach him a lesson."
One of the clones was only wounded.
It pulled out a radio and said "Tatanga, we need hel-"
He stopped when Peach ran over and put her .45 to its head and said "shut up."
Mario and Luigi walked over to the clone. Mario took its radio away. Luigi picked the clone up by its collar and slammed it into a wall.
Daisy walked over and put her .357 to the clone's forehead and said "you're going to get on that radio and you're going to tell Tatanga to come back in here."
"If I refuse?" the clone asked.
Daisy pulled the hammer back and said "I wouldn't recommend it."
Mario walked over to the clone, held the radio close to its face and pushed the button.
The clone looked around at the four of them and said "Tatanga, armed intruders on the ship, gather the remaining forces! Quickly!"
Daisy pulled the trigger. Luigi let go and let the body fall.
"That didn't go as planned" Peach said.
A clone with an AK-47 ran into the room. Peach raised her pistol and shot it three times. She lowered the pistol, walked over and grabbed the AK and all the spare magazines that the clone had.
She turned around and said "it's not a shotgun, but I guess it will have to do."
She tried to hand Luigi his .45.
"Keep it" he said "incase you need a back up."
"That's ok" she said smiling "if I need back up, I've got you guys."
Luigi took the .45 and put it back in his belt.
"We need to get out of here" Luigi said "take the fight outside."
"Why?" Mario asked "we've made it this far."
"The clones know this ship way better than we do" Luigi said "it's too easy for them to outflank us in here."
They began running toward the exit. Several clones came out of side rooms and tried to block their path.
"Mario, Peach clear the way!" Luigi yelled.
Mario and Peach began spraying the clones in front of them with automatic fire.
When they got outside, Luigi said "Ok, Mario on top of that hill. Peach behind that rock. Daisy, in that ditch, I'll be on that hill. Go!"
They all ran to the positions Luigi that told them to go to. Peach and Daisy positioned themselves so the only thing exposed were their gun barrels and heads. Mario and Luigi laid down on top of the hills to make themselves smaller targets. The clones began running out of the ship. Mario opened fire moving the barrel back and forth. Luigi kept killing the clones with heavy weapons. After a few minutes, Daisy popped up and began spraying flames up and down the ramp. Peach stood up and began firing into the entrance of the ship. When the clones stopped coming, Mario and Luigi began gathering ammo from the dead clones. Daisy took her flamethrower off and took a new one from a dead clone. Peach searched through the bodies until she found a shotgun, it was Mossberg pump action. Not the shotgun she was used to, but she was still happy to have a shotgun again. She filled her pockets with shells. Luigi put a fresh clip in his rifle and cocked it.
"Ready for the final attack?" He asked.
"Ready" Mario said as he finished putting a new belt in his M-60.
Peach pumped her shotgun and said "ready."
"Ready" Daisy said.