AN: Ok here we go, sorry for the long hiatus I had a bit of writer's block I had to get around, or rather writers flood. Too many ideas and not enough time to develop them all, which got me a bit depressed and not feeling well. Then life happened and I convocated last June, meaning I'm out of uni… and I am no longer a student… and now I need to job hunt. yay.
Ch 3. The Underland Train. Pt 2.The wind rushed past his gilded form, sending his flowing red robes into an almost hypnotic flurry behind him. The lone warrior stood before the sight of two dreadnoughts, each the size of a poor shanty hab-block, but Little Kitten knew better than to be lulled by something so insignificant as size.
In all his time perusing the halls of the great Black Library he had read many a tomb (some plausibly true and others no doubt fictional) of how mere lowly guardsmen or even the lowliest rat might be overlooked and situate themselves to press the one button that would undo all the machinations of chaos and disorder. No, he knew better than to discount them for their stature, especially considering the witchcraft these children could bring to bear upon this world, so he prepared. Stabbing his Guardian Spear into the hull of the Underland Train he removed the laz-rifle attachment from its end.
He had more than several minutes before the stumbling titans could reach him, ever ducking beneath the multitude of obstructions that their current environment provided, honestly he had to wonder whose grand idea it was to deploy them underground in the first place, but it was no matter. In a flash of nano-seconds he had retrieved the attachment he sought within his robes, a Boltgun attachment. A quick click of the mechanism and the slotting of two wires, 'red to red, blue to blue.' and it was ready.
The Custodes Shield Captain had thought to bring his Melta to bear but given the confines of the tunnel… yeah no, and the Destructor? Sweet Emperor no! Especially given the limited ammunition he had for them. Silently the immortal caretaker leveled his weapon at the oncoming metal walkers and prepared to fi-
"Bark!"
The happy sounding yip of the little fluffy creature at his feet threw Kitten's aim sending the shot wildly off course and into the tunnel walls. Turning sharply on the creature the Custodian was pleasantly surprised to find it was not an enemy but the dog that had come along with the children earlier. The cuty tiny thing having apparently stuck around to investigate him, sniffing his cloak.
"Uh, hello little… wolf- creature- thing." he greeted it, "Uh just stay behind me and keep yourself safe ok little guy?"
The pup barked a happy response leaving its tongue to hang out of the corner of its mouth adorably and the soldier returned to his aiming.
Centering his focus, releasing his breath, adjusting his aim to the two dreadnoughts that had made some impressive progress in the last few seconds (well, impressive given the circumstance). The behemoths of steel were almost within what must have been their firing range when he felt confident enough in his shot to fire.
As the bolt left the chamber and began its turning harrowing turn through the air of this alien planet the ageless protector heard the terrible ring of an innocent bark as he caught the sight of the children's fluffy companion go flying after the projectile, throwing its small squishy body right in front of the incredibly over engineered mass reactive grenade faster than even he could react. The moment was too shocking to prevent, it seemed to last forever before the round struck its interrupted target and-
Sent the adorable pup rocketing forward as he was enveloped by a swirling ball of fiery energy and shrapnel. Yet to his pleasant surprise, it did not perish. Taking on a from more like that of a purpose built homing missile than some small four legged companion, the corgi flew straight and true, right into the torso of the first dreadnought, sending it crumbing back into its twin which was forced to stabilize it, lest they both fall to the mercy of gravity.
Kitten blinked in stunned surprise at the sight as the apparently supernatural pupper came to a tumbling halt at his feet, panting lazily and entirely unharmed.
"Well," Kitten said, "that's terrifying. Uhhhh, sick em boy."
"Bark!" The little corgi responded as he bounded into battle with a dopey grin on his face, the perplexed and mildly terrified immortal following the bouncy creature's lead.
"Gods damn it, Perry! Get off me!" Trifa cried through the voice box of her Paladin, pushing her allies rig back onto its proper footing even as she steadied herself from a very deadly crash.
"Sssss-sorry," her fellow terrorist replied sheepishly, "the train is slippery."
"What's that supposed to mean?" the spider Faunus screamed.
"I'm sorry Trifa, in case you haven't noticed, trains aren't exactly designed for mech battles against flying rocket dogs!" the bespectacled terrorist replied.
"WHATEVER! Just shoot the humey bastard already!"
His orders received, the young pilot aimed his heavy machine gun towards the charging giant and his comically small companion and squeezed the trigger. It kicked like a mule through the massive compensators and the heavy frame of the machine itself. It crossed his mind that perhaps the word "experimental" in "experimental prototype" was more than just a product designation as he fought his own mechanisms to stay on target.
He missed. A lot.
The few shots that did make contact were easily deflected with but a wave of the human's ornate gun-spear. Perry panicked. He froze. The human didn't.
The human, in but a single bound leapt over the shock stiff amateur mech pilots, flueried his spear and in the same motion, cleaving the mech's right arm in half, its weaponry falling to the ground along with the bespectacled faunus's main weapon. In a panic Perry thrust his left at the spot where the human had landed, only for the mysterious giant to easily sidestep the clumsy desperate attack.
"Ugh, what are you, professionally useless?" The mechanized voice of Trifa chided from behind him, the foot of her own mech forcing him flat against the floor as she walked over her downed teammate, his mechanical arm thrust further into the traincar below.
Trifa advanced on the backpedaling supersoldier firing her gatling gun to maneuver him to an acceptable distance for the real attack. The exact second the computer noted he was in range she flicked the switch, her eyes glistened with glee in the light of a dozen fire dust rocket heads launching from the mechs shoulder mounts. The computer guided explosives swarming onto their target like a flock of starved Nevermore on a defenseless babe. The poor human had nowhere to run but the train his little friends were on, oh how she would enjoy watching this oppressor scum die in a fiery explosio-
Then he jumped off the train.
As the first of the rockets sailed beneath him and into the dark behind them he ran along the wall of the tunnel keeping pace with the train, a train that had to be going well over a hundred kilometers an hour by now, without any visible difficulty. A series of flips and jumps allowed him to evade at least two of the missiles but one was a bit too close for comfort, as the tunnel opened up once again into a more open passage, he lept atop the third.
He lept atop the missile. Riding it like the world's most daredevil surfer as he led the target seeking missiles into a mess of metal, rubble and wire, several catching on the walls or piles of debris and exploding harmlessly, others he sniped from the air using his strange gun-spear.
Trifa could only watch the display of sheer… sheer ludicrousness in front of her in utter shock. None of the missiles hit, none! He was- he was riding it? How!
She shook her head and refocused herself, years of in the field experience kicking in to adapt to the situation in front of her no matter how ludicrous it was. She looked over the various blinking control panels of the paladin and suddenly remembered, 'oh right the gun!' her hand flew to the stick and floated over the trigger, the targeting computer beeping its rhythmic harrowing tune as it slowly zeroed in on the armored human. The crosshairs tightening over the garishly golden figure on her screen as her finger began to squeeze th-
"Grrrr."
Trifa felt the hairs on the back of her neck explode in a vibrating symphony of terror, still in her seat, finger on the trigger, she turned her head to face the source of the growl. There, in her cockpit, growling at her with murder in its eyes, was the cutest little corgi she had ever seen.
'What?' she thought, 'how did it get in here?'
But the suddenly not so adorable corgi had no care for things like explanations… or mercy, Zwei lunged at the terrorist, his Aura infused fangs clawing for the spider Faunus's throat.
Perry lifted himself groggily from the console. He wiped the drool from his face that had pooled atop the console had been knocked out against when Trifa had trampled him. Only to see his superior's mech flail and bounce around in blind panic, her screams of confusion mixing with frenzied curses from the Paladins speakers.
His own confusion only magnified as the most graceful and composed operative in the White Fang he had ever known fell from the speeding train like a sack of bricks, a tiny adorable corgi to smash its way out of the cockpit. Leaving his only ally to her fate. Then the human landed beside it. An explosion erupted behind the tall imposing figure, the fading fiery light somehow only adding to his impressive aura of intimidation.
Perry was alone, his only ally now gone, he was out of ammo, and trapped several hundred meters below the ground in a damaged mech suit he could barely drive back when it was fully functional.
'Yeeeeaaaah…' Perry thought to himself, 'I'm not gonna win this.'
"Alright, I'll see myself out." he said aloud, just as he tilted his mech to fall off the same side as Trifa had. The motion pulled free his Paladin's trapped appendage from the train car leaving a gaping hole in the once pristine flat roof of the carriage as he tumbled down the dark tunnel in defeat.
"Well," Kitten said overlooking the tunnel where his mechanized opponents had vanished into the unquiet dark, "that was easy."
"Bark!" his canine companion agreed.
"Well done little one, I'm impressed how your diminutive size only aids your ferocity."
"Woof." Zwei replied.
"... and I am talking to a dog…" he said somberly, his mind wandering in the quiet that had settled over him. The rhythmic rattling of the speeding Undertrain and the distant growls of the monsters proving a balm to the fraying his nerves had sustained from being thrown across the galaxy to Emperor only knows where while on a mission to heal his necrotic lord.
His thoughts turned, surprisingly enough to his days guarding the Golden Palace, before Marcus had dragged him on his questings around the universe. He had been dying of boredom from the monotony of so much nothing, how even the many demonic incursions became just another part of the routine, all he had back during those quiet days was the library and its many books. Thank the Emperor, he had introduced its insane clown guardian to the concept of library cards so that he could take some to read during his centuries-long shifts guarding the throne room.
The more he reflected, the more he found himself missing… not the solitude but… the quiet. The stillness of the world. Everything had been happening so very quickly, so much activity and change, ever since his master had regained his voice. Not that he regretted it or anything! Serving his lord was his entire reason for existence after all, and he was proud to see his creator return to rule over his empire once again just like the good old days of the great crusade!
But still… the outside world was… noisier than he remembered.
The custodes musings were interrupted when his furry little companion growled in alarming fury, his snout firmly directed into the train car below. A cursory glance over the edge behind him revealing exactly what had the destructive corgi suddenly alarmed.
Yang!
The blonde boxer was sprawled out on the floor beneath where the massive fist had plowed straight through the roof above, no doubt struck unconscious by the mechanized fist. A figure clad in the peculiar guise of a black and red school girl uniform stepped ever closer to the downed brawler, a bright crimson sword swinging lazily at her side.
Immediately the ancient warrior activated centuries of muscle memory, and leapt down into the car. His eyes, honed to detect even the faintest shimmer of an invisible enemy scanned every corner and crevice of the box car for any sign of hidden enemies, and settled upon the strange swordswoman in a furious glare all before he had even touched the ground. Upon landing between the assailant and Yang he took a defensive stance from a style even he wasn't sure he remembered how to pronounce anymore and flourished his blade at the mysterious attacker.
"Halt!" the Captain-General commanded, his voice ricocheting off the walls of the surprisingly roomy box car and bled with violent authority. The figure naturally complied.
Kitten's genetically enhanced eyes scanned the woman, taking in every detail of her existence. The swordsman's attire was not wholly fetishistic, bits of armor, greaves and gauntlets, matching styles not uncommon to the Tau dotted her figure. But the most significant piece of her appearance was not her weapons or armor, but her helm. Black and red details over a sharp predatory bird mask, much like the mutant faction they had found themselves at war with in these tunnels.
Though the evidence was circumstantial, it seemed obvious that this woman was in league with them, if not one of their leaders given the stylisation of the mask. Still, he had very limited information, so he chose to air on the side of caution.
"I don't know who you are," He said, his staff-sights never wavering from her vitals, "or what master you serve, but these children are under my protection and if you or any of your misbegotten kind harm them I will ensure your end is long and suffered."
The woman visible relaxed at his declaration, as though threats of torture and death where… comforting. This did nothing to dissuade Custode's caution, the smirk he heard in her voice even less so; "I see Oz's little pawns are getting bigger these days… Mhmmm."
Her sword swung lazily in her grip as she made a show of backing away from the golden warrior and his charge, her snide superiority dripping from every sway of her hips. "Of course the bigger the pawn, the bigger the fool. You impress me giant. If ever you want to know more about your man in the tower up there, feel free to look me up." she said, her sword cutting the air to her right, literally cutting reality, leaving a bright red wound upon real-space which she did not hesitate to enter. "Oh, and the name's Raven by the way." she said entering the portal and leaving the train car to the deafening silence of a worried hound and the train's rhythmic passage.
Only when the energies wholly dissipated beyond his armor's sensory array entirely did he lower his weapon. His thoughts reflect on the bizarre encounter. 'Her powers are not unlike what I have read in reports of the Eldar warp-spiders.' he thought, 'hmmm, had I not been distracted by the Tau-ness of her armor perhaps would have better noticed her powers.' This was where the warrior chose to end his thoughts as he heard the faint sounds of a warrior stirring from forced slumber behind him.
"Uhg, uh… Zwei? Ohh, what hit me?"
The Custodes turned, helping the blonde boxer to her feet, there would be time to inquire about the strange woman another time. To learn just what the situation was on this Emperor forsaken planet, and who in the Warp was this Oz fellow?
So not a lot of worldbuilding for this part, i know its weird to wait this long just for another "to be continued" but i have been stuck on this stupid robot fight for too long trying to make it cool and funny at the same time and i'm honestly still not that happy with it but eh… at a certain point it doesnt need to be finished it just needs to be done. Next time we disembark the fight-train, stretch our legs and finally, finally paint the town red…