Albion Village, two days' journey northeast of Stiix
"Alright, Ronin, where to now," Nya asked.
She, Jay, and Dr. X had followed Ronin from Stiix to a remote village, tucked among the mountains beside an abandoned manufactory. And now, they were far from the coastlines, having traveled farther inland than intended.
"Well, I'm not sure," Ronin sighed.
"Not sure," Jay whistled. "Not sure? You have got to be kidding me! You live in this region, yet you don't know where you are?!"
"Of course, I know where we are," Ronin scowled. "This is Albion Village."
"Then why exactly are we here, and not at the coast asking for a boat," Jay questioned.
"Because if we stayed on the coast, they would catch us," Ronin sighed. "Didn't you notice the patrols they sent out?"
"What patrols," Nya asked. "You never told us about patrols."
"Oh right, the patrols," Ronin sighed. "Well, turns out, the enemy's looking for us."
"So soon, after we blasted them to pieces," Nya questioned.
"These are the Retributionists we're talking about, not just some neighborhood bullies out for a stroll," Ronin retorted. "They're weaponized AI units, cold and calculating, able to track a dot in space and pursue it relentlessly. They don't eat. They don't sleep. They don't breathe. They only fight."
"And they never miss their target," Dr. X sighed. "Never."
"Oh, so we're cooked then, aren't we," Jay grumbled.
"Don't be so pessimistic," Ronin scolded. "You're the lightning ninja. You can fry them to pieces."
"Oh, that's reassuring," Jay sighed. "And you bet I can still shoot straight too, right? Well, guess what? I haven't used my powers for a year now."
"You're kidding, right," Ronin scowled.
"What'd you expect," Jay grumbled. "I'm a tea farmer now. I gave up the ninja line of work months ago."
"Don't disappoint me," Ronin sighed. "You'll come through."
"Since when were you the reassuring type," Nya chuckled.
"Don't expect much more," Ronin grumbled.
"Can we please focus," Dr. X asked. "We can't stand around and quarrel all day. The nindroid patrols will lock in on us as soon as they detect our presence."
"He's right," Nya nodded. "So, what's our play?"
"That old manufactory," Ronin gestured.
"What about it," Nya asked. "Looks abandoned to me."
"It is, but chances are there's some secrets buried within," Ronin winked. "Besides, it'd make for a great campsite."
"Are you sure it will be safe," Dr. X asked. "I do not want to attract the attention of the villagers, let alone the Retributionists."
"Don't worry," Ronin laughed. "I have it all under control."
Albion Village, night
"Ronin, there's nothing here," Jay whined.
Jay climbed through the rubble, stopping in the cleared part of the factory ground floor, where Ronin had started a fire.
"Oh, sure there is," Ronin winked. "You just haven't looked hard enough."
"I've been searching this place, top to bottom, for three hours," Jay retorted. "And yet you think I haven't looked hard enough!"
"Cool your jets," Ronin mumbled. "We don't want the whole village hearing us, do we?"
"As if a fire isn't suspicious either," Nya sighed as she stepped into view. "Won't the light attract wandering eyes?"
"And what sort of nitwit's up this late," Ronin questioned.
"You, technically," Dr. X chirped in.
"Ouch, that hurt," Jay laughed.
"You stay out of this," Ronin grumbled to Dr. X as Jay snorted. "Look, it's the middle of the night, and no one in the village knows we're here. And I sure bet you that no Retributionist picked up our scent so quickly."
"I'll take you up on that bet," Nya winked. "Loser tells his most embarrassing secret tomorrow night."
"Deal," Ronin chuckled, shaking Nya's hand. "Didn't think you were that type of dealmaker?"
"I'm not," Nya smiled. "That's Jay's sort of thing. I just smooth out the rough spots, that's all."
"And that's you married her," Ronin chuckled to Jay. "Her tongue's as sharp as her kick."
"And her beauty's as stinging as a bee's needle," Jay complimented.
"Aren't you sweet," Nya blushed, giving Jay a kiss on the cheek.
"Yuck," Ronin spat. "Keep that mush up and I'll lose my lunch. Anyway, did you find anything, Nya?"
"Not much," Nya shrugged, sitting down. "It looks as though the locals scavenged the place first and took almost everything. Everything, that is, except this."
Nya revealed from her knapsack a commlink, one half torn-apart and nearly severed in two. She held it up toward the light of the fire, then pointed with her finger at the buttons on the intact side.
"Looks like a commlink to me," Ronin whistled. "A busted-up one, but a commlink, nevertheless. Any idea who's it is, Dr. X?"
"If my memory serves me right, this is a Sirius XI, an older Retributionist model," Dr. X said. "The old Retributionists used these for communication between squads within a ten-mile vicinity, but they were too unreliable for long-distance calls."
"Just a piece of junk now," Jay laughed, tossing the commlink up. "Doesn't even work, I'm sure."
"Not for communication, I'm sure," Dr. X nodded. "It does, however, have a memory chip inside that I might be able to process."
"You can process memory chips," Nya asked. "I thought they stored information in computer stations still."
"Most of the data is processed online nowadays," Dr. X added, "but before the war, we carried newly-obtained info in chips, which were carried to special intelligence depots scattered about this region."
"You suppose one of those is close by," Jay asked.
"Not sure," Dr. X shrugged. "They all went offline when the war occurred, and after that, most of them were forgotten. We've only recently began rediscovering some of them."
Nya nodded, then pried open the commlink. She pulled out the square computer chip, then handed to Dr. X.
"Can you process this," Nya asked.
"I will try," Dr. X replied. "I don't know, however, if this chip will last long once I begin."
Dr. X's arm then opened at the wrist, revealing a port designed to handle computer-chip-sized hard drives. He grabbed the chip, then plugged it into his arm. Immediately, the arm closed again, with the port contracting back in.
"It's beginning to process," Dr. X observed aloud. "It…It's adding databanks about something…something like a location."
"A location," Ronin questioned. "A location for what?"
"A…an intelligence depot," Dr. X replied. "But that's impossible. There's no record of one ever being here unless…unless it was built after the war."
"How close are we," Nya asked.
"I'm getting coordinates now," Dr. X continued. "Northeast about five…ouch! It zapped my arm! It's…it's fighting my processor by zapping it! I…I can't access anything anymore except a homing device…Nya! Take it out! Now!"
Nya jumped, startled by the abrupt change of tone in Dr. X's voice. She immediately pried open his arm, then yanked out the smoking computer chip. It singed her fingers, causing her to yelp as she flung it to the other side of the building.
"That should do," Nya sighed, sitting down again. "It nearly burned my fingers off."
"And it nearly fried my processor," Dr. X gasped, glancing down at his smoldering port. "To think that it had a defensive tactic like…get down!"
Boom! As Dr. X and the others dived for cover, huge chunks of debris scattered every which way, and large cracks raced across the factory floor. Walls of mortar toppled, and clouds of dust filled the air. Then, huge sonic waves crashed upon them, knocking them all unconscious within seconds.
A few minutes later, they all awoke, utterly confused by the drastic change in their surroundings.
"What…What happened, Nya," Jay muttered as he sat up. "Where…where's our fire?"
"More like where's the factory," Nya whistled. "There's nothing left of it."
"Man, whatever that was, it sure wrecked the place," Ronin agreed. "Can't tell that this was a building at all now."
"And we're fortunate not to be like that building," Dr. X sighed, brushing dust off his arms. "That chip had a sonic bomb wired inside it."
"A bomb," Ronin questioned. "Of that size? That's impossible."
"Not entirely," Dr. X sighed. "Zytron was experimenting with sonic bombs the size of chips a while ago, but I figured he abandoned the project back then too. But, alas, he didn't abandon it after all."
"Well, whatever it was, it sure blew our cover," Jay whistled. "Look. There's a group of lights surrounding this place."
"Those aren't lights," Ronin sighed. "They're Retributionist soldiers, armed to the teeth and ready to kill."