Thought I'd never say it, but I was looking forward to getting back on the job. Sitting on my backside for 20 hours at a time was getting really tiring and I needed to do some more action. Yeah I was still stiff but after running a few miles in the dark I was pretty loose. Got a chance to see the others too before hitting the sack, they all looked good considering what happened.
Our new assignment was to help clear a large area of land that was the future site of a computer command center. It seemed the local monster population wasn't too happy about losing their space and were interfering with the construction work. I looked through the windows of the infirmary to see new patients being treated as Hans and Sean joined me to the weapons locker.
"Poor guy, 5th death in 3 days" Hans said. Apparently death is no longer a life-ending thing but a 'learning experience'. Makes sense I guess. You figure it takes about a good 6 months to train a trooper...death would waste it all away. Obviously anyone who could resurrect a whole army would have an unfair advantage...lest I was on the right side for once.
---------
It was a rather nice day, sun directly above us with a small gust of wind blowing through the prairie. I looked through my scope of the plasma rifle.
"Two args, at 11 and 12” I whispered. From the looks of it they were trying to damage some steel beams that were left on the grass from the last attack. I re-calibrated the scope and lined up for the shot. Wanted to zoom in further but the scope only went 8x. Oh well, shoot its head or ass I didn't care really. As I pulled the trigger I could hear the inside mechanics of the weapon come to life as super hot plasma liquid shot from the barrel and hit a perfect burn spot on the older Argos. Of course neither was pleased that I practically burned a hole in the one, so my position was quickly comprised. That's when Hans, Sean and Jared opened fire and were quite efficient shots, as the args didn't even get 10m from my position. As we approached the dead carcasses, I could see another group of mob bout half mile from where I stood. Normally I would’ve let it go but another figure was running towards them...couldn't make it out yet...
...Ah, it was Edward. One person who probably should have been left home, was always either headed for trouble or pain, his curiosity was too much for his own good. He was supposed to be cleaning armor; instead there he was, running towards the six mob group with only a low level harness and a handgun. Pushing away from MY mission, I reluctantly pointed out to the others of the approaching mauling that was about to take place. I fired a few rounds into the mix, but nothing could've stopped it.
We cleared out the mob once it settled down, and then slapped a transport device on what was left of Edward. Called back to command, "One mangled Edward to Infirmary, pronto." We already got sidetracked, back to work.
Was around 19:00 when we finished the sweep, was glad to be done with that...I had a few cuts from the other Argos and the other didn't escape harm either, but we came back in one piece. While we were out hunting we discovered a new fruit source, which would be good to us, seeing as noodles and beef was getting a bit tiring.
I went back to base to see if they had dug up any more Intel on the bot malfunctions. Nothing came up, but they were quite sure it had to do with the main computer core. Pfft, maybe the system wasn't set to y3k compliant?
----
For Discussion of this chapter or older ones,
Discuss here