FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a change of pace for sure, being on the ground this time. It had been a while since the vulpine had ridden in the Landmaster, sitting in the confined vehicle as it rolled along the sandy road within the desert. Fox rubbed his nose and checked his radar. Nothing had shown up yet, short of his three squad mates and the secondary team deployed with them. But Fox knew that once they were in the clear, they would see the massive superweapon that was attacking the convoy and its surrounding city. He knew that something was off, especially since they were deployed to Katina not too long ago. Andrew and his forces seemed fixated on the planet, but he didn't know why. The fox tried not to worry too much, tried to focus more on his team members. But even then, he couldn't help but ponder. Falco was still bitter over what happened to Katt, and his attitude was taking its toll on his team now. Whatever Falco said to Slippy had upset him; the frog had been quiet ever since they left the CCC. Fox and Krystal were the only two who noticed it, and were hoping that they would resolve their problems soon.

Until then, Fox, Krystal, and Slippy were stuck with Falco until his behavior improved. All they could hope for now was that he didn't make any more reckless decisions. But even if he did, Fox wasn't too worried with the Lightning Lizards on their side. Like Star Fox, the four lizards had broken into two groups: two members covered the air, while the other two were on the ground. The lizards on the ground were crammed inside their Occult Serpents, two fast-moving, light green, sleek tanks with only one set of studded wheels built for all kinds of rough environment. From above, the tanks looked like simple green arrows pointing forward, the silhouettes bearing a similar appearance of an inverted V. But on the ground, the Occult Serpents were pointed at the very end; the bumper of each tank was no more than two feet off the ground. But the middle and rear of the tanks were much wider and thicker, exposing the more bulky section of the vehicles and giving them an allusion of a forty degree angle. The Serpents looked harmless from afar; the weapons weren't even exposed yet. But Star Fox knew that the absence of weapons was all part of the Lizards' plan.

"Everyone's engines okay?" asked Fox.

All the members of Star Fox checked their engines and their Arwings' power. "All systems stable," responded Krystal.

"I'm fine," barked Falco.

"Landmaster's A-Okay, Fox!" said Slippy.

Fox sighed. "Good. We don't know much about this superweapon yet. All the general told us was that it walks on land, and it appears to have some kind of laser defenses, so be on your guard. If we hurry, we can rendezvous with the convoy before they suffer too many casualties."

"Roger," responded Slippy again.

As the eight mercenaries continued to move forward through the desert, they heard loud booming in the distance, followed by faint explosions. Krystal grumbled and hit the boost, her Arwing propelling forward.

"Sounds like the battle's already started. We need to get to the city now!" she shouted.

They had no time to waste. As the mercenaries moved forward, they could hear the explosions growing louder, the sounds of missiles and laser fire rapidly filling their ears. The Landmasters and Occult Serpents rattled and shook as the drivers quickly zoomed down the sandy road, flattening any sand, rocks, and shards of metal from what used to be a heavily armored vehicle. The four creatures on the ground started to scan the environment and frowned. They saw several bodies lying in the sand; some of the corpses were clad in Cornerian or Katina military clothes. Others looked like they were wearing casual clothes, or something to combat the harsh conditions on the planet. Fox accidentally bumped his Landmaster into a massive truck that had been blown in half. The truck groaned and the back end of it tipped over, with a few charred corpses spilling out of it. The lizards in the Serpents looked left and right, taking note of all the smoke rising from the demolished vehicles.

"We're too late," said Slippy solemnly. "The convoy's already been destroyed..."

Fox stopped his Landmaster and quickly turned to the right, avoiding two massive copters that were lying in the sand, the airborne vehicles burnt to a crisp with the rotors bent and torn in half. The vulpine closed his eyes and shook his head. They had just arrived here and they already failed their mission.

"M-maybe some of them got out okay? Maybe they hid--"

"They're all dead, Slippy," said the monitor lizard riding in the tank. "There's nothing out here but burnt bodies and broken-down trucks and choppers."

"WATCH OUT!"

Slippy was so focused on the destruction around him that he failed to look up at the skies. A bomber swiftly passed by the group, dropping two bombs just above Fox and Slippy's Landmasters. The frog shouted and grabbed the tank's steering wheel, hitting two buttons before he jerked the wheel to the right. The frog shut his eyes and felt the world flipping around him as the Landmaster rolled along the ground, kicking up sand and crushing some of the blackened vehicles. The monitor lizard snarled and immediately swerved to his right to avoid Slippy. Fox and the other lizard looked up into the sky and could see more starfighters heading in their direction, all of them painted with red and gold stripes. The leader of the Lightning Lizards could see the starfighters swarming all around them, along with the huge superweapon that was gradually coming into their line of sight.

"Suppose it's too late to back out now," said the iguana. "Dailan! Blazer! Split up and mow down any ground troops you see! We'll cover you from up here!"

"Got it, Blodski," said Blazer.

"We're on it, sir!" said Dailan.

Fox watched as the lizards broke apart; Blodski and Lennert, the other lizard in the sky, fought together to take out the airborne soldiers. Dailan and Blazer, however, split apart as they started to move around the sand dunes. Fox looked at Slippy and the various bombers and starfighters above him and gave out his orders.

"Slippy, you go team up with Blazer, watch his back! I'll group with Dailan and the two of us will head towards the superweapon. Falco, Krystal, help out Darwin and Lennert; cover them until we all reach the superweapon!"

"So basically, do what we've been doing since we got here?" asked Falco.

Fox sighed. "No need to get snarky, Falco."

"Course there's no need. But I wanna be snarky, Fox."

The vulpine didn't respond. He knew he'd only be giving the falcon what he wanted by arguing. So he stayed silent and waited until the light green Serpent rolled beside him and began to travel down the sandy road with the Landmaster. Fox and Dailan both hit their boost, their heads immediately thrown backwards into their seats as their tanks zoomed forward. Fox and Dailan both rolled their way up a large sand dune, nearly shouting when another bomb was dropped mere inches from their tanks. The explosion rattled their vehicles, but left both of them relatively unharmed. It wasn't until they both reached the top that they froze and looked at the scene before them with wide eyes. The superweapon was right there in front of them, walking around in a small city--or rather, what was left of the city. The superweapon was a beastly-looking land-based carrier, big enough to hold and launch various small aircrafts. It had the appearance of a black, robotic, four-legged arachnid, walking around and crushing everything in sight with its immense, three-toed metal feet. Two oversized laser cannons were positioned at the front of the superweapon's main body; the controller of the weapon fired it twice in a row, causing bright red beams to burst free as they collided with what appeared to be an evacuated office building. The office building erupted with flames, and the building quickly collapsed and belched up a cloud of smoke and sand.

"That's the superweapon?" asked Dailan, flabbergasted.

Blodski growled as he looked around the skies, taking note of the various other fighters that were filling the air. "Darn it. We're gonna have our hands full up here. The four of you are on your own down there until we take care of this!"

Dailan huffed and shook his head. "You got it boss! I'm sure being flattened by that thing's giant legs won't hurt too much, right?"

No one else responded; they didn't have the time. The mercenaries all carried out their attacks, either moving through the sandy desert-like area or flying through the skies as they took out the bombers and fighters. Dailan and Fox rolled down the large sand dune and headed straight for the superweapon, forcing themselves not to panic. The closer they got, the more they realized how enormous the machine was, and how much it ravaged the city. Cars and tiny, small-time stores and shops had been crushed beneath the superweapon's feet, now nothing but a huge crater in the ground. Various skyscrapers had been torn in half by the weapon's lasers, with smoke rising from the building's torn area. The roads were completely ripped apart, basked with sand and ash from all the vehicles that erupted earlier. Fox rolled past three huge trucks that were on fire moments before a helicopter plummeted from the sky, rolling over on the ground as it burst into flames. Dailan and Fox heard an ear-splitting whine from the superweapon, the mechanical beast groaning as it started to lift its left front leg. It stomped down on another building very slowly, crashing through all the glass, concrete, and metal pillars and support beams. The ground began to shake as the building collapsed, emitting a fierce noise as rubble crumbled all around the ground.

Dailan and Fox were temporarily blinded as the giant cloud of rubble and sand was blasted their way, engulfing their tanks in seconds. Their vehicles rumbled as they were bombarded by all the debris, but they still managed to push themselves forward, rolling along the sandy foundation until the massive cloud dissipated. By the time the smoke, debris, and sand cleared, the Gila monster and fox found themselves only a few yards away from the giant superweapon. They stopped their tanks and looked up at the massive mechanical creature. Its main body whirred and turned itself around, revealing six oddly-shaped dots in the center that looked like eyes. Even stranger, the "dots" blinked twice as the body whirred and looked down at the insignificant specks staining the ground.

"Ah. You must be the legendary Star Fox team," said the superweapon's driver over the comms channel.

Fox looked at the comms channel and could see the burly black gorilla wearing a blue and green helmet, with a flight suit to match the color scheme. Dailan could see the gorilla's ugly mug and snorted.

"Don't forget about us, the fantastic Lightning Lizards!"

The gorilla looked at the Gila monster and raised an eyebrow. "I am unaware of your posse. Please be quiet so I can speak to my other opponent."

Dailan snorted and folded his arms. "Well fine! Screw you too!"

The gorilla ignored him and went back to focusing on Fox and his landmaster. "My name is Gryloc. And this beautiful contraption you see in front of you is the Golras. Quite a lovely piece of machinery, isn't it?"

Fox smirked. "Looks like a broken-down spider to me."

"Yes, well. This 'broken-down spider' has already destroyed the convoy that was trying to head to this city for safety. All the civilians and soldiers aboard it are dead. And as you can clearly see behind me, this city has fallen. Your team has already failed. You've lost, Fox."

"It's not a complete failure if we destroy you, and the machine you're currently riding. Maybe you did demolish this city. Maybe you did destroy that convoy. If that's the case, then it's our job to make sure you never hurt another innocent ever again!"

Gryloc snorted. "Golras is impenetrable. You cannot defeat me. It's impossib--"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard that before, buddy! Many times!" chuckled Fox.

Gryloc sighed. "I suppose you have. Maybe I'm just another cliche opponent, eh? Or maybe I'm capable of taking out your entire team. Did you ever think about that? If you don't want to unleash the full extent of this ship's power, I suggest you surrender. Maybe Andrew will merely torture you to death and let your friends go."

Fox smiled and closed his eyes within his Landmaster. "Whaddya say, gang? Should we surrender?"

"Never!" responded Slippy.

"It takes a lot more than a giant brute sitting inside a machine to intimidate me," said Krystal.

"Just hurry up and get rid of this guy. I'm already gettin' tired of his mouth!" snorted Falco.

The gorilla sighed heavily and pressed a red button within the ship's cockpit. In only two seconds, two metal sections of Golras' body spread apart, and two immense black and yellow rocket launchers whirred out of the ship and appeared near the ship's eyes. The launchers pointed themselves down at the Landmaster and Occult Serpent.

"Fine. We'll do this the fun way," said Gryloc.

The Golras fired two missiles at Fox and Dailan. The fox and lizard quickly went in reverse, aiming their cannons up at the missiles as they hissed through the air and quickly followed them through the desert. Fox panted as he fired various green bursts of energy from the laser cannon. Some of the shots made contact with the missile, resulting in the giant guided weapon exploding into pieces. Dailan waited until the moment was right, lining up his shot with the missile perfectly. Then he pressed a button within his Serpent, and a long stream of blue laser energy eradicated the missile in seconds. The Golras fired four missiles at the Landmaster and Serpent, resulting in the vulpine and Gila monster moving in reverse once again.

"Dang it. We're gonna be at this all day! Slips, you and Blazer try to take out the Golras' legs! If it's immobile, it'll be a sitting duck!"

"We're on it!" replied the frog.

The white-throated monitor and frog headed right for the Golras' rear legs, both of which were sticking out of a wrecked building with the armor clearly exposed. The frog and lizard controlled the cannons on their tanks, raising them high and aiming right for the walking vehicle's giant black left leg. Slippy spammed his laser cannon control, blasting several bursts of green energy at the leg, watching as the lethal weapon impacted the Golras' limb. But Slippy frowned when he noticed that the leg looked perfectly fine, seemingly unaffected by any of his laser blasts.

"Hey, Andy! How many bombs you got?" asked Slippy.

"Two."

"Use one of 'em on the leg! Maybe that'll weaken the armor!"

The monitor lizard nodded and switched weapons in his tank. His laser cannon spun around and whirred softly as it descended into the Serpent. Immediately afterwards, two massive launchers appeared from the sides of the tank, clicking noisily as they popped out and exposed a massive blue bomb on both sides. Blazer zoomed forward and aimed at the leg, waiting until his radar started to beep and confirmed that he was locked on his target. Then Blazer shot his bomb at the leg and immediately slowed down so he wouldn't get caught in the blast radius. The blue bomb slammed into the leg and erupted into a massive blue ball of flames, the blast kicking up so much sand that some of it was blasted back in Blazer and Slippy's faces. The duo waited for the cloud to clear, hoping they'd see the Golras' leg without any of its armor on. But to their dismay, the leg was perfectly fine and didn't even have a scratch on it.

"I told you," said Gryloc, "the Golras can't be damaged. Shame the same can't be said for any of you."

Slippy and Blazer watched as the Golras lifted its leg and quickly moved it forward, casting a menacing shadow on the ground.

"MOVE!" shouted Blazer.

Slippy and Blazer quickly went in the opposite directions, with the frog going left and the monitor lizard going right. They managed to avoid being crushed by the Golras' powerful foot just as it stomped into the sandy terrain, kicking up a colossal amount of sand. But both tanks were still close enough to feel the impact; the sand shot its way over to the Landmaster and Serpent, causing both tanks to flip over a few times as the vibrations shook the tanks right off the ground. Both drivers grunted and shouted as their bodies were rattled around; Slippy found himself upside-down, and the monitor lizard was groaning as his Serpent was stuck on its side. Both drivers managed to flip their tanks over and began to roll back towards the superweapon's legs. Meanwhile, Fox and Dailan were still busy trying to fend off all the missiles, which seemed like they were coming out nonstop at this point.

"This isn't working! We're just wasting our time down here. Falco, Krystal, we need you guys to see if its weak point is on the head!"

"We're a little busy up here. Y'know, with all the starfighters on our tails," said Falco.

"Relax, Fox. Lennert and I will take care of it," said Blodski.

Fox grunted as a missile exploded just in front of his Landmaster, shaking the entire tank. "Thanks...could you hurry?"

The iguana and black monitor both activated the boost in their ships, the Ethereal Serpents. Like the Occult Serpents, they were also mostly light green on the top and sides, and black on the bottom. They looked like arrows from above, sailing through the sky smoothly, cutting through the wind swiftly. The ships were tiny, only fit for one pilot; each plane's two wings were tiny, jutting out the sides. The one engine each starfighter had released fiery blue flames from behind as the spaceship moved forward. The Ethereal Serpents looked like standard fighting starfighters, with the team's logo of a massive lizard riding on a lightning bolt painted on the side. But there was also one key component that made the flying Serpents different from ordinary starfighters.

"Lennert, on three!" shouted the iguana.

"Yes, yes! Three is the magic number, ain't that right, Darwin?"

Blodski huffed. "One, two--"

"THREE!"

Both pilots flipped a switch, and only two seconds later, their ships vanished. Falco snorted after observing the reptiles' famous "trick," knowing that they were going to hog all the fun and glory once again. Blodski and Lennert stayed quiet as they boosted through the air, heading right for the Golras' main body. Gryloc was completely unaware of the ships' special ability, or that the distance between the giant mechanical spider and the Serpents was rapidly dwindling. One second Gryloc was firing missiles at Fox and Dailan. The next, he was grunting as blue lasers mysteriously appeared, heading right for the black eyes of the Golras. The three eyes on the left side of the body went out first, with each one emitting a small explosion and spewing out sparks. Then the other three eyes went out next, leaving the Golras completely "blind." Gryloc grunted again as the superweapon shook, rocking him backwards and causing him to jerk his arm down against two levers. The giant weapon took two steps backwards, knocking over a giant billboard, before a section of the Golras' body opened up like a mouth. Krystal and Falco started to fly right towards the Golras when they noticed the huge cannon and gasped.

"Wait, there's someth--Falco, MOVE!" shouted Krystal.

It only took the Golras a few seconds before the cannon charged itself up, gathering up as much plasma energy as possible. Then it fired an eerie-looking stream of red lasers from the cannon, the fiery blast aimed right for Falco. The bird shouted and gripped his flight stick tightly, jerking it downwards and forcing his Arwing to dip. The laser narrowly missed his ship, but Falco could still feel his ship shaking as the laser roared just above his vehicle. Krystal, luckily, was nowhere near the red blast, too fixated on dodging the various gnats still flying across her Arwing. She shot one down with only a few blasts of her laser, the ship exploding in mid-air right beside another starship. Falco and Krystal waited until the laser stopped firing before Falco tilted his Arwing back up and spotted the Golras' gaping mouth. He smirked and hit the boost, flying towards the ship's giant cannon as he switched over to his bombs.

"Hehe, you hungry there big guy?"

Falco launched a bomb right at Golras before moving his Arwing to the left, drifting away from the impending blast. The red bomb sailed through the air for a few seconds before smacking into the cannon and exploding. The blast was so great that Gryloc shouted over the comms channel and nearly felt himself falling out of his seat. The Golras creating a metallic groaning sound as the cannon was engulfed in fire, the weapon spewing out smoke until it loosened and started to slide down. The four pilots watched as the cannon slid out of the "mouth" and landed in the sand with a thunderous crash. Golras belched out smoke several times before what appeared to be oil dripped from the opening. Gryloc snarled as he flicked a switch in the superweapon and closed the opening.

"Now what was that about you saying this superweapon's impenetrable?" mocked Falco.

"Don't you worry, bird," said the gorilla, activating more buttons. "I have more lasers."

The eyeless robot started to grow its eyes back. Gryloc flipped six red switches formed in a hexagonal pattern in the Golras. Then he pressed down on the huge button in the center of the switches. Falco and Krystal frowned as the hollow sockets suddenly began to change. Something red and circular began to form where the eyes used to be, sliding forward as if the Golras spawned new red eyes from the back of its skull. The eyes blinked twice before three of them brightened. Falco shouted and instinctively tilted his ship to the right as three laser beams were launched his way.

"Dang it, that almost took off my wings! Li'l help here, Krystal?"

Krystal grunted as one of the starfighters took two shots at her ship. "I'll be there shortly! Still trying to get these fighters off my tail!"

The Ethereal Serpents suddenly appeared in the skies again, flying around and chasing after some of the enemy ships. "We'll take care of 'em. Just try to get rid of those eyes!"

The four pilots continued their assault in the skies while the mercenaries on the ground were trying to overcome another feat. After the cannon was taken out, a hatch on the underside of the Golras opened up, and two metal protrusions that had the appearance of mechanical claws came out. The protrusions flung themselves around the ground viciously, chasing after the two members of Star Fox and the Lightning Lizards. Fox and Dailan found themselves rolling left and right several times, grunting and shouting as their tanks clumsily moved around along the sand. Fox panted a few times and zoomed forward to avoid being snatched away by one of the claws. Dailan went in reverse, his body already rattled from rolling around. He charged his laser cannon twice and fired at two missiles heading his way, obliterating them with little effort. The panting Gila monster looked up at the Golras' rocket launchers and snarled.

"How many missiles does this giant thing carry?!"

Fox watched as the Gila monster blew up another missile shortly after it was fired from the launcher. The vulpine blinked and stared at the explosion before he glanced over at the other rocket launcher.

"Let me try something here..." the fox mumbled to himself.

Fox stared at the left rocket launcher and quickly pointed his cannon up at the weapon. He charged up a laser shot and waited patiently before the launcher finally blasted a rocket at him. Fox timed it perfectly, releasing his charged shot the second the rocket burst free. The laser made contact with the large missile, resulting in a huge explosion that was so close to the launcher that it wound up blowing up the missile launcher too. Fox grinned and started to back away from the Golras as a claw went straight for his Landmaster.

"Ohhhh, good thinkin' there, Fox!"

Dailan hurried along the sandy grounds, swerving left and right as he managed to dodge some of the laser fire coming from other sections of the Golras. He stopped his Serpent abruptly and moved his cannon to the right, aiming it upwards at the other launcher and taking aim. Like Fox, he charged up a shot and waited until the weapon fired off a missile before he released the large burst of energy. The laser and missile collided, and a second explosion ripped the rocket launcher to pieces, the flaming metal fragments falling onto the ground.

"YEAH! The rocket launchers are down! Now we--WAAAAAAH!!!"

"Dailan?!"

Fox turned his Landmaster around and could see that one of the claws had grabbed the reptile's tank. Dailan grunted and frantically pushed buttons and moved levers around in his Occult Serpent, desperately trying to free himself from the vicious claw. The Gila monster shouted as the claw violently thrashed itself up and down, smacking Dailan's tank against the ground as hard as possible. The Gila monster groaned and felt blood running down his head after banging it against the control panel; he yelped as the claw swiftly lifted his tank back up into the air.

"Hang on, Dailan!"

The reptile started to grunt and whimper, his tank spewing out smoke and sparks as a fierce crunching sound filled his earholes. The claw was slowly closing, clamping down on the Serpent in an attempt to crush the driver. Fox pointed his cannon at the claw's protrusion and fired off a few shots, causing the claw to drop its prey. Dailan started to pant and shook his head, glad to finally be back on the ground.

"You okay?"

Dailan growled. "Not really. I think it damaged most of my armor; some of the systems aren't acting right!"

"Fox! Those claws are coming back!" Slippy warned.

Fox gasped as he saw the two claws heading right for his ship. Thinking quickly, he fired a bomb at one of the claws. The claw instinctively clamped down on the explosive, unaware that it was about to explode. When it finally did, the two claws were blown apart, and fluids began to spew out of the protrusions the claws were attached to. The fluids happened to be flammable; fire soared up the hose-like protrusions, quickly moving in an upwards direction and traveling towards the underside of the Golras. The flames disappeared into the belly of the machine, and the four mercenaries on the ground had a front-row seat as a magnificent blast of orange flames and metal belched from the Golras. Gryloc shouted as the entire superweapon was rocked. Various warning lights flashed inside the cockpit, and a few of his secondary weapons suddenly went offline. The gorilla shook his head and stared at the monitor in front of him with wide eyes.

"No..."

Gryloc couldn't stop it. He kept pounding on the control panel in front of him, growling and huffing, almost kicking at the panel in frustration. Fox and Dailan watched as the black armor plates on one of the superweapon's legs suddenly fell off into giant clumps. Slippy and Blazer witnessed a similar event on the adjacent leg; all the armor was coming off, like skin breaking off of an onion. The tank drivers quickly went in reverse to avoid all the falling armor as it descended to the ground, creating huge tremors and blinding Slippy and Blazer for a moment as their tanks were smothered with sand. The Golras exploded a few more times, and the rest of the armor around the superweapon's main body started to fall off as well, exposing the spider-like machine's blue and green body. Falco looked at the armor-less superweapon and couldn't help but grin smugly as he stared at the beastly machine.

"Looks like all your armor's gone. Whatcha gonna do now, Banana Breath?"

Gryloc snarled as he banged on the control panel within the superweapon, activating more weapons. "This changes nothing! Golras is still capable of eradicating all of you pathetic worms! FIRE!"

The four pilots either rose into the air or dipped low towards the ground as all six eyes fired lasers at the airships. The Golras took two massive steps forward, its feet pressing down into the ground hard, only a few yards away from the heroes' tanks. Fox didn't let the irritated ape's voice and attacks change anything. He aimed right for the superweapon's left front leg and fired multiple times. The large burst of laser energy impacted the leg with ease, causing bits of metal to burst into flames or fall off the leg. Fox moved his Landmaster's cannon up and down, shooting at the leg relentlessly and creating more small explosions that slowly ruptured the leg's movements.

"The superweapon's vulnerable! Don't worry about any of the starfighters! Hit the Golras with everything you've got!" shouted Fox.

Gryloc was starting to panic. He was having trouble moving the superweapon's left leg now, and the right one was starting to come under attack as well. He snarled as he forced the superweapon to take two steps backwards, narrowly missing Slippy and Dailan again as he tried to stomp on them. The Gila monster started to get cocky and called Blazer over the comms channel.

"Hey, Blaze! Wanna show this punk our new magic trick?"

The monitor lizard hissed. "By all means, yes."

Dailan grinned as he stared at the Golras' right hind leg. He looked down at the meter depicting how much power he had for his ship's cloaking device and flared his nostrils.

"Now you see us..."

Dailan and Blazer pressed down on the green button that allowed their Serpent tanks to turn invisible, stunning Gryloc.

"Now you don't!"

The two lizards rolled their tanks along the sand as they dodged any laser fire that tore through the sandy terrain. Blazer shook his head after his tank was upright and looked up at the right leg as it rose into the air. He waited impatiently for the leg to slam down into the ground before he switched back to his launchers. The launcher on the left side of his ship whirred as it aimed for the leg at a diagonal angle. Then Blazer blinked as he fired his second bomb at the leg. Only this time, the bomb inflicted a severe amount of damage, exploding and blowing away a section of the structure in mere seconds. The monitor hissed as he saw the three-toed foot slowly crack and crumble, moments before it broke off and plopped in the sand. The Golras emitted a strange metallic groan, the superweapon shaking and releasing more smoke from the wound beneath its main body. Gryloc panted and tried to stomp down using the weapon's right hind leg, but without the foot to support it, the leg groaned and started to bend awkwardly. The tank drivers on the ground watched as the leg cracked and began to tear. More explosions erupted from the leg, rising up the limb and blowing out gargantuan chunks of the limb before the entire thing was torn in half. The lower half of the leg exploded and groaned as it tilted sideways, landing in the sand like a tower slowly falling onto the ground.

Gryloc was beginning to panic. He was down to only three legs, and all eight mercenaries were ganging up on him and firing at him relentlessly. Krystal wasn't even trying to take out the starfighters; she knew the pilots would retreat once the gorilla was gone. The gorilla watched as she fired her dual lasers at the Gryloc several times, the green weapon penetrating the armor and cutting through the superweapon's exposed body. More warning lights started to go off inside the superweapon; certain weapons were going offline, the Golras was running out of oil, and various fires had broken out that were spreading around the giant machine. Gryloc looked at all the screens, panting as he desperately tried to control the Golras without stumbling now that his ship only had three legs. But that proved to be difficult when Lennert weaved through the lasers coming from the Golras' eyes and flew close enough to his ship to launch a bomb at the giant beast. Gryloc shouted and nearly fell out of his seat, the bomb blowing a hole right through two of the Golras' eyes and rendering two of the six eye lasers inoperable. The black tree monitor snickered after damaging the Golras and flew right above the ship, taunting the gorilla.

"Lookit you now! Just a big ol' ape trapped inside a heap of metal you found at a junkyard and taped together!"

"I think that's enough taunting for now," Krystal warned. "You'd be surprised at how powerful a beast becomes when it's cornered."

Something inside Gryloc snapped. His left eye twitched as the gorilla became more and more frustrated. Snorting harder than a bull and nearly foaming at the mouth, the giant ape roared as he grabbed two levers and jerked them forward as hard as possible, nearly breaking them. The eight mercenaries all watched with shock as turbo boosts in the rear of the giant superweapon activated, sending the Golras several feet into the air. Fox, Slippy, Dailan and Blazer stopped moving around on the ground and stared at the spider, waiting for it to fall. Fox could see the looming shadows appearing on the ground, growing larger as the Golras began its descent.

"It's coming down now! EVERYONE BACK UP!"

The tank drivers didn't need to be told twice. All four of them turned around and hit the boost, panting as they rolled along the ground as fast as possible, hoping to get out of the Golras' range. The pilots did the same, turning around and flying away before they were hit with whatever attack Gryloc had up his sleeve. When the Golras finally hit the ground, the superweapon kicked up so much sand that a giant wave of it was launched into the air, spreading in all directions. The tank drivers all had trouble controlling their vehicles as the earthquake rocked their tanks and nearly made them lose control. Then the sand wave caught up to them, and the mercenaries found themselves shouting as the sand blasted their tanks around, causing them to roll over so many times that the tanks took some damage. Blodski and Falco weren't immune to the sand wave either; both of their starfighters were caught in the wave, engulfing them whole and ruining their flight capabilities as sand was caught in their engines. Warning lights started to go off as their ships tossed and turned around in the air, slowly plummeting towards the ground.

The blue falcon panted and shouted with frustration as he fought against the wind and sand, grabbing his flight stick and jerking his plane towards the right to try and stabilize it. Blodski was having more trouble, as his ship was smaller and easier to get tossed around. He used his brakes and found himself tilting down towards the ground fast. As the warning lights went off in his ship, desperately telling him to pull up, the iguana panted and jerked his ship upwards, moments before he hit the boost and started to fly forward. The giant sand wave eventually subsided, and the tremors ended in time for the mercenaries to gain control of their vehicles. But they still had to overcome Gryloc's fury as he began to fire all of his weapons at his foes.

"I. WILL NOT. BE BEATEN! BY WORMS! YOU ARE ALL INSIGNIFICANT BUGS! MERE LARVA! IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR ANY OF YOU TO DEFEAT THE GOLRAS! YOU CAN'T BEAT ME!!!"

Slippy sighed. "Well, at least we succeeded in ticking him off, right guys?"

"Shut up, Slip! This is not the dang time for--"

Falco shouted as a fiery-red laser nearly tore his Arwing in half. The falcon started to pant as he flew towards one of the glowing red eyes. Then he screamed as he hit the brakes and desperately tried to turn to his right, only for two more laser beams to soar through the air, looking like red lightning bolts. One of the beams clipped the side of his Arwing, tearing the wing to shreds and causing the side of his ship to explode. The falcon grunted and started to lose altitude, the smoke spewing from his aircraft. Krystal started to fire at the Golras, only to find herself swooping low to the ground and forcing herself to fly beneath the mechanical beast just so she wouldn't get hit. Blodski was starting to panic as he stared at his control panel, checking the cloaking power for his Serpent. Lennert and Darwin's cloaking ability had run out of power, making their ships visible again. They needed more time for the cloaking device to power back up.

"Keep your distance, Lennert! We get hit with that laser even once and we're done for!"

Gryloc was still snorting and foaming at the mouth, still firing off lasers at the tanks with the laser cannons from below and attempting to swat the Arwings and Ethereal Serpents from the skies. He aimed two eye laser cannons at Lennert, who found himself separated from the group. The gorilla snarled as he released two more lightning-like laser beams from the Golras, the fiery-red beams whooshing through the sky as they followed Lennert's path. The monitor turned in a half-circle, boosting as fast as possible as the laser followed him for several seconds. By the time it finished, Gryloc spotted Falco's damaged ship flying straight for him. The bird launched a bomb before quickly sailing above the Golras. The gorilla shielded his eyes as the bomb exploded right against the main body, rocking the whole superweapon and ruining more side weapons. Gryloc panted as he heard another explosion not far from where he was sitting. On the outside, the pilots could see that an explosion tore a hole right through the superweapon's central body. The gorilla grabbed his head with frustration as smoke filled his lungs and the various alarms kept ringing in his ears.

"DANGER: OVERLOAD! DANGER: OVERLOAD!"

Gryloc snarled and slammed his fists down as he looked at the glass panel flashing a warning sign in bright red and yellow lights.

"DANGER--"

"SHUT UP!" Gryloc screeched, punching the panel with his bare fist.

Gryloc howled in pain as he looked down at his right hand, which was now bleeding and covered in shards of glass. He grasped his hand with his other one and whimpered, shaking as he started to come to the realization that he had lost. But the gorilla didn't care. Even if he did lose, he could still take as many of the mercenaries down with him. So Gryloc went back to erratically firing his weapons at his foes. The mercenaries on the ground found themselves rolling back and forth as the laser and missiles continued to follow and shoot at them, missing time and time again and hitting the ground. The mercenaries in the air found themselves looping and zipping around, twisting their aircrafts around in circles and curves just to avoid a grisly death. Krystal narrowly missed behind hit with another red beam, while Falco was still trying to take on the Golras head on, firing at the laser eyes despite his Arwing missing one wing. Blodski checked his cloaking status again and saw that it was fully charged and green. He huffed.

"NOW! Go invisible now, Lennert!"

"Roger!"

The Ethereal Serpents disappeared from everyone's view again, giving both reptiles enough time to fly around the lasers and swoop up towards the face of the arachnid-looking superweapon. The lizards launched a blue bomb simultaneously before swooping out of the blast, and the resulting explosion took out all but one of the Golras' lasers. Gryloc wasn't sure what to do anymore. Almost all of his allies had either been destroyed or were retreating, not willing to risk their lives after the burly primate started to inadvertently kill his own troops. All eight of the mercenaries were still alive and well, and more than ready to destroy the giant spider.

"Looks like he's almost done for. A few more shots should do it!" shouted Fox.

Fox, Blazer, Slippy and Dailan all went for the Golras' right front leg and charged up their laser cannon, locking onto their target and aiming for the joint connecting the leg to the Golras' main body. While they were busy attacking, Falco, Krystal, Darwin and Lennert were locked onto the Golras' main body, either charging up their laser weaponry or readying another bomb to shoot at the superweapon's face. Gryloc breathed heavily as he looked at the four starfighters flying right towards him. Just about all of his weapons were offline. Explosions were going off all around him. The visor on his helmet had shattered, which left his eyes vulnerable to all the smoke filling the cockpit. The gorilla didn't do anything. He just stared and waited, his meaty hands shaking as they hovered over all the switches, levers and buttons. The tank drivers fired off their charged blasts, and the resulting explosion blew off the joint. The leg groaned loudly as it slowly tilted downwards and plummeted to the ground. And at the same time, the four pilots fired off their bombs or charged shots, hitting the Golras right in the face. Gryloc shouted as an explosion breached the cockpit, blowing him right out of his seat.

The tank drivers stopped moving and stared at the mighty superweapon as it groaned loudly and began to tilt backwards, heading right for some of the wrecked buildings. The immense spider crackled and groaned as its remaining two legs lost their footing. The tank drivers quickly backed away to avoid being caught in the resulting crash. As the giant tripped and fell, its head collided with a half-demolished skyscraper, finishing it for good as the metal exterior tore through what was left of the structure. The skyscraper immediately collapsed, disappearing in a massive cloud of sand and smoke. Multiple sections of the Golras exploded, the impact of the blast blowing the windows out of various small-time shops. By the time the Golras landed on the ground, it fell with such a tremendous thud that another small earthquake occurred, rattling the mercenaries' bones as they sat inside their tanks. Vehicles, signs, streetlights, corpses, and whatever buildings were still intact, were crushed beneath the giant machine as it toppled over and landed in the middle of the streets. As the earthquake began to cease, Fox closed his eyes and let out a long sigh of relief, glad that the battle was final over and done with. He was just about to check on his team when the comms channel opened up on its own.

At first the eight mercenaries couldn't make out the face, in large part because of all the smoke and how mangled the face was. But as some of the smoke cleared, they could see the black gorilla still inside the Golras, with blood and scars all over his forehead and cheeks. His nose was broken; blood was running out of his nostrils, nearly dripping into his mouth. Glass was spread all over his face, and a few shards got into his right eye, permanently ruining it. None of the mercenaries said a thing. They just stared at the gorilla as he gurgled on his own crimson. Fox could see that tears were streaming out of his good eye and blood was coming out of the other one. But Gryloc wasn't sobbing. He was giggling, emitting a horrible sound that was a cross between maniacal laughter and feral, beastly snarls and whimpers.

"Fools...you're all fools..." he whispered.

Gryloc emitted the same disturbing noise again and grinned widely. "You t-think...you won? H-huh? You think...Golras...is it? There's more...there's lots more..."

Fox and the others stared at the gorilla as he laughed one more time, and then his comms channel went dead. A split second later, everyone was nearly blinded by a tremendous explosion that rocked their entire demolished city. The Golras erupted into a gargantuan fireball of metal, smoke and fire; its impact was felt miles away. Buildings beside the superweapon were blown apart instantly, crumbling into a pile of fiery metal, wood, mortar and stone. The weapon itself disappeared in the blast, blown to hundreds of tiny pieces that soared across the desert, the flaming bits of metal slicing through the weak buildings with no effort at all. Another blast occurred, and the Golras' two remaining legs exploded as well, with the three-toed feet flying high into the air, only to fall back down into the desert, rolling down massive sand dunes. As Fox and the others' eyes adjusted to the brightness, they looked ahead and could see that a mushroom cloud was slowly rising into the air consisting of dark orange flames and acrid black smoke. None of them could tell what was left of the Golras anymore. All they saw were various fires that had broken out across the city, and dozens of pieces of armor that were almost as large as an average person.

"All units, report in," said Fox.

Krystal checked the damage to her ship and sniffed. "I'll be fine. Took a few hits, but it's nothing major."

"Lost a wing again. But I'm fine, Fox; I don't need you to come up here and kiss my boo-boos," said Falco.

"Landmaster's still in order. Only got a few scratches!" said Slippy.

Fox nodded and blinked. "What about the Lightning Lizards? Any of you took severe damage?"

"Doin' great, Fox," said Darwin.

"My ship's perfectly fine! But then again, it always is since I'm the one piloting it!" said Lennert.

"I'm all right," responded Andy.

Dailan scratched the back of his head and laughed meekly. "Uh, my tank's a little beat up after that claw-thing grabbed me. I don't know how damaged it is, but it's probably gonna be a while before I use it for anything this strenuous again!"

"As long as you're still breathing," said Fox.

"...You okay?" asked Blodski.

Fox paused, and then he sighed heavily. "Not really."

"It could've been worse, you know. We destroyed the superweapon, and no doubt just got rid of one of Andrew's high-ranking soldiers."

"After it destroyed the convoy and city we were supposed to defend."

"It happens, Fox. Get over it," snapped Falco. "We're not gonna save everyone everytime. All that matters is that we won. It's over now."

"No, it's not," the vulpine responded, remembering Gryloc's last words. "We're just getting started."