Trik and Gris both fell to the Weapons Deck floor. Trik mad a perfect two-point landing, Gris caught his foot on a ladder rung and swung face first and upside down into the wall.
Hakk spun around at the noise.
"You! How did you get past my swarm of minions?"
"I believe it's called the 'Stormtrooper Effect'."
"I knew I should have just left one... but it's of no matter. I just have to come up with a good monologue before I kill Trik... oh to hell with it."
Hakk flung the knife at Trik, still attached to the spinning wheel on the wall. It bounced off, missing Trik by a few feet.
"Your aim needs work." snickered Gris, who had finally shaken himself loose of the ladder.
Hakk flung a knife back. It struck Tekk firmly in the metal portion of his head.
"Odd... I smell burnt toast..."
"It's called 'lulling him into a false sense of security', idiot. I'll just kill him now if you're just going to mock me." Hakk flung a second knife-
-to have it collide in midair with the knife which had previously been imbedded in Tekk's head.
"I'm very good with trajectories."
"Enough of thi-" began Hakk, when a massive shock threw all of the penguins into a wall. Trik's wheel detached from the wall and fell to the floor, with the penuin on the bottom.
"What was that?" asked Gris, first to his feet.
"Visual!" shouted Hakk. The walls of the entire weapons deck went transparent. All around the ship were hundreds- no, thousands of ships. Unfamiliar ships. Suddenly, a transmission began on the ship's intercom.
"Greetings- we are the forces of Civilization Junction. You may call us the Junkies. The universe will be purified of all but Civilization. Are you Civilization?"
"What the..."
"Response negative. Scans indicate NES presence. Mutation of Civilization. Impure. Prepare for annihilation."
The ship shook violently as the bombardment renewed.
"Return fire!" shouted Hakk, "All penguins to defensive battlestations! Commence evasive maneuvers!"
"That would be more effective if you had a functioning crew right now. You just fried Pikt's mind, and we knocked out most of your crew during our raid on the ship."
"I see..." Hakk noticed a wing stick weakly out from under the heavy wheel near the wall.
"What's your plan for Trik?" asked Gris.
"Change of priorities. I can kill him later. Or, you know, he could apologize."
The three were silent for a moment.
"Apologize? Trik?" asked Gris incredulously.
"Death it is then." sighed Hakk, "Anyway, does anyone here know how to fly this thing?"
"I thought you did."
"No, Pikt did that."
"Damn... well, I can handle the weapons systems."
"I'll cover the rest. Hakk... try to revive Pikt."
Hakk jogged off. Gris raced to the targeting computer and began pressing buttons.
"You don't know how to use these, do you?"
"I've always wanted too."
Tekk rolled his organic eye and pre-emptively sent out a distress call. Just as he finished, an Irish fellow flanked by Leprechauns appeared on the communications screen.
"Hello? Hellooooooo. Is this thing on?"
"Sorry sir, let me turn it on."
The image turned off for a second, then flicked back on. The leprechaun was being throttled.
"You idiot, it was on in the first place... oh wait, that means it's on now. Ahem. This is Chip Sinton, Lord of the Leprechauns. I'm sending a critical message that will determine the future of our universe."
"Does it involve the 'Junkies'?"
"Oh good. At least one person's getting this message."
"Penguin actually."
"Ah these are the penguins I'm speaking to? How's BananaLee doing?"
"These would be the Penguinskan Penguins. Not the Lightbulbs. We work for Iggy- who's in fine health, as far as I know."
"Excellent. So yes, this does involve the Junction. We propose an alliance of all NESers and their affiliates, to fight off those which seek to destroy us."
"Sounds like a solid strategy."
"No need for sarcasm. What say you?"
"As the only penguin of any meaningful rank available, I accept this offer of alliance. I'll forward your message to my superiors to try and get more ships."
"Jolly good. Chip out."
Tekk closed the screen and looked outside. The heavy firepower of the Icetitan was devastating the enemy. And more Icetitan-class ships were jumping into the battle from the other dimensions.
The battle would soon be won. But the war was just beginning."