He had fought in the Kremean War that had engulfed the continent a long while back, and as a captain he commanded many soldiers and led them to their deaths. He also lost his eyesight that way. Then he became a scientist and gave himself his eyes back.

That was Dr. Crygor’s entire backstory. He was a hundred years old, but this was essentially the only relevant bit of information about him.

All he wanted to know from this battle was... were his robotic soldiers worth mass producing? Let’s see.

As soon as they entered Dark Land, the Koopa Troop attacked. Having a giant floating fortress over the army’s head was probably not the best way to have a sneak attack, but that was not his matter.

A fleet of airships flew overhead and began assaulting the fortress, providing no cover to the ground forces below. Then it was time for Dr. Crygor to take advantage of that.

With a few presses of his remotes. His machines came to life and began attacking the Goombas and Koopas and Cheep Cheeps and all sorts of enemies that laid in their path. He was very glad he installed the laser beam option in the tanks, because they were mowing down entire rows of Dry Bones, incinerating them completely!

There were a few large explosions from Bob-ombs that had been hit prematurely, and Floating Mines that the robots had stepped into. There were so many robots that it completely overwhelmed the opening army, forcing a retreat almost immediately.

“Amazing! Advance, advance!”” Crygor shouted.

Penny, still sitting in the hovering chair beside him, watched the battle with some interest, but a little befuddlement. “Why is there such a small army here?” she asked. “Seems like this is a trap or something.”

“Oh, what do you know about traps?” Crygor scoffed. “I fought in the Battle of Moleville Hill. That was the biggest trap I’ve ever seen. And you know what happened? We won! I lost my eyes, but we won!”

“Grandpa, focus on the battle.” She pointed ahead towards the huge Chain Chomps that had been unleashed and were currently tearing into the robotic forces.

“Ah! I must call out our secret weapon--”

“No, never call out the secret weapon in the beginning,” Penny said. “It is unbecoming of a good scientist to waste her talents early.”

“Aww...”

Dr. Crygor let his hand off the SECRET WEAPON button and lowered his hand--

And accidentally pressed the button after his hand slipped.

“Oh, bother.”

Dropping from an orbital satellite position and crashing down onto the battlefield was none other than Smithy himself! Or rather, a reanimated robotic Smithy that followed every command given to him with perfect obedience. He stood tall, much taller than the Chain Chomps before him, and began bashing at them with his hammer. It was a battle of giants, and every crash sent the ground shaking.

It was a beautiful, horrible fight. Troops from both sides were being crushed by the conflict. Entire buildings were being blown up by stray debris of Chain Chomp chunks.

Wow.

“The arrogance of man,” said Dr. Crygor. “Is thinking nature is in our control and not the other way around. Let them fight.”

They continued fighting, all the way up until the Whomp Fortress exploded overhead.