CLANG! CRUNCH! WHIRRRRR—SPLAT!
Inside the colossal three-mile-wide Raw Material Intake Hopper at the top of the World 15 Tractor Factory, chaos reigned supreme.
The moment the three hundred rust-plated galleons of the Black-Rust Fleet were yanked into the hopper by the orbital Magnet-Toads, Pei Xuan’s Intelligent Sorting Array flashed with green safety light.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
[WARNING: 30,001 UNWASHED BIOLOGICAL UNITS DETECTED INSIDE SCRAP METAL! ACTIVATING AUTOMATIC CREW-SHAKER & CAR-WASH CHUTE!]
Two gigantic rubber-padded mechanical hands dropped down from the factory ceiling, grabbed Bald Vulture’s thousand-foot flagship by the stern, and gave it three brisk shakes upside down like a housewife shaking crumbs out of a tablecloth!
“Waaaaaaaah! My gold-medallion cloak! My ship!”
Warlord Bald Vulture, First Mate One-Ear Jack, and all thirty thousand terrified scrap-pirates tumbled out of the cabin hatches and landed on a wide, bouncy Elastic Iron-Mud Conveyor Belt.
