Ch1: Refit, Repair...and R.A.T.s?

The blast door slid open with a hiss as I stepped through-the armor-a S.P.A.R.T.A.N. MKII Class battle suit-had taken quite a beating. Still have no idea what that acronym stood for, from what the Drill Sergeant, Henderson I think his name was-some smart ass in R&D had given it the stupid acronym. And then someone had asked if this was Sparta...

He threatened to jettison the whole squad out of an airlock if someone made one more 'witty' remark. Anyways-in spite of its size and sheer armoring I had very nearly not come back from patrol. Whatever had attacked me, it had almost gotten though. The door slid closed behind me and locked. The complex's AI rattled off something about my authorization level. I paid it no mind, heading to the armory. I needed to get out of this death trap. I passed a half dozen suits in their docking harnesses, coming to the final, empty station at the end of the line. I backed slowly into the harness watching as the mechanical arms moved down to assist in removing the suit. First the battered chestpeice-that involved an arm equipped with a fusion cutter having to remove it, my attacker having bent it to the frame.

Most of the internal structure was intact, with a few bits of the frame needing replaced here and there. After nearly ten minuets-I was afraid I'd be stuck inside the battered unit unless I went and found help-highly unlikely given my last encounter. I shook my head-now was not the time. I'm more tired than hurt, and need to get some sleep and food before my next run-and hopefully NOT wreck another suit; while my supplies weren't exactly scant-they weren't generous enough to risk a suit being destroyed needlessly.

The other task I had on my plate was a lack of intelligence; last night's encounter proved to me that the surrounding area was indeed hostile. Currently as it stood, I was the only one in the base-which was a serious danger unto itself, and now I had potential-No, I HAD encountered hostile lifeforms in the area, and they were dangerous to warrant a not so insignificant amount of caution. Of course, that meant...the use of THOSE things. One of the most dreaded pieces of equipment we had-one that was responsible for killing more of our men over the course of a single mission than an extermination mission...

The R.A.T.

xxxx

A hot meal, shower, and a good 5 hours of sleep later, I stood across from a machine-probably about the size of a small dog-yellow in color with cameras, sensors, a slightly slanted, boxy exterior with six wheels, and segmented at the first and third sets so it could turn. A Robotic Autonomous scouT, or R.A.T. Command used them primarily to scout derelict hulks to give us an idea of what the hell we were walking into. Problem was, as the Sarge had put it, is that "Amazingly, these things are dumber than you rookies." Something about the pathfinding protocols not being the best, and when they inevitably got stuck, the machine would set off a radio beacon, broadcasting a frequency that would give you a rough idea of where it was-the closer you got, the stronger the signal. That, while not the most precise method of tracking, it did the job. No, more often than not, it was WHERE it got lost at, usually in the middle of Fuck and You after having stirred up all the natives. Entire squads had been lost trying to retrieve the damned things. Still, the data it would provide would be invaluable-so long as the transmitter worked...

I picked it up-it was heavier than it looked, and counted-the base had about two dozen of them along with spare parts to keep them running for a couple months at least, longer if I didn't over-rely on them. Taking a deep breath, I set it along side two more, and began to punch in a basic protocol for a survey pattern-everything within a two mile radius over a 6 hour period-while a seemingly long period, under the circumstances it wasn't. Heading to the armor station-I'll be damned if I go out there without a suit.

A minute later, I was standing in the clearing just outside the base, watching as the trio of R.A.T.s began their scouting routine. I just know this isn't going to end well.

xxx

Back in the primary command and control center, I watched as the computer tracked the overall progress as a map was compiled from the data. So far it was from what was gathered is that most of the surrounding area was forest, although what looked like a large lake about 6 miles from here was located by R.A.T #1. R.A.T. #2 was following a long, cleared stretch of land-possibly a road of some kind-which meant possible intelligent life. Great, hostile and able to possibly maintain a functional roadway. This just keeps getting better and better. R.A.T. #3 had arrived back early after encountering issues with it's power system and wasn't able to give me anything of use beyond what I had managed to scout out earlier that night. Well, with two active units and no sign of any problems, this might actually work out.

The console beeped-all contact with R.A.T. #1 had been lost-no transmitter, nothing. R.A.T. #2 had initiated its emergency protocols, having somehow gotten turned around on a road and was now stuck what seemed to be a heavily vegetated area, no trees though, which meant just plant life.

Son of a bitch...alright. First things first, make sure that my suit's onboard teleport beacon is actually programmed correctly-if the coordinates were put in wrong, it could result in me being fused into a wall-I saw that happen once to a couple of guys, it wasn't pretty. Second I would need to figure out what kind of equipment I would need for the retrieval mission, especially concerning R.A.T. #1. If was just a case of it getting stuck somewhere where it couldn't transmit properly, then retrieving it would be doable, albeit a pain in the ass. In the case of it being destroyed however...

Well, I could just write it off, but I need that data. Particularly if it managed to get a glimpse of something it hadn't been able to transmit in time. R.A.T. #2 wasn't that far, estimated mile and a half to two miles, and given the fact that it was still in one piece retrieval would be considerably easier provided I didn't run into any complications.

I needed to figure out a course of action, and fast.