II: First Encounter
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It had all started so well...
It was a normal mission, by all standards; we were asked to go down to an uncharted part of Ragol, and place a transporter beacon once we made it safely to the surface.
We made it safely to the surface...no problems upon landing...in fact, we had landed near the waters' edge, on a tiny beach near a forest...
We spotted several loose creatures, namely a few Boomas who had strayed a bit from the forest's edge, and took them out with no problem...
And then, as our technicians began to set up the transporter, everything went wrong.
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-Flashback-
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"Yo, what's wrong with the power on this thing" the short, pudgy technician yelled, kicking the frame of the transporter unit as he shook his head. "It'll take me a few hours to get this stupid thing going..."
"Let's not make it worse by kicking it then, Alfred" the other technician, a blue-haired woman, chided as she began to rewire the power circuits.
"For friggin' sakes...these stupid things always piss me off." Alfred huffed as he sat on the sand. "They can never make them right, can they? Always something wrong..."
Meanwhile, we, the five Hunters, rested as the technicians began to do their work...
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-Interrupt Flashback-
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Oh, my apologies. Let me formally introduce you to our group.
Our leader (and yes, the target of my affections, however immaterial), was a HUmar we knew only as Brand. He didn't exactly say much, but he was the oldest, and probably wisest, of all of us, and we had no problems listening to his directions and advice. A wonderful musician as well, he would help to settle us all when we had to camp at night, playing somber melodies with his recorder, and he always had this way about being honest without hurting anyone's feelings. It was no surprise to me why he was felt to be the most qualified of us to lead...
Then there was Diane, the RAmarl, who was basically our support girl, and a very accurate markswoman. She always had this cheery disposition, but as we got to know her, we found it to be too superficial, almost shallow, and from many deliberations and gatherings, I found that it was because she too had lost someone she cared about while employed as a part of a Hunter group in a past mission. Her cheer was simply a way of drowning out the sorrow, and none of us could blame her for it. She always had something nice to say about everything and everyone, though...and she was funny, great at telling jokes. There was no one that couldn't get along with her.
Ordron was our FOmar, and although a pessimist, he was usually quiet, and so his lack of cheer rarely bothered anyone. He was probably our most destructive asset, and because of him, we rarely had problems with large-scale fighting. He was also one who seemed most cheery while blowing something to pieces with his Foie and Rafoie spells...gave me the creeps at times, as he was often a bit of what we'd call a "loose cannon" and was frequently close to nailing one of his allies during one of his "frenzies."
Kyrin, our frontline HUcaseal, was a new model bought by Brand recently. She was a state-of-the-art piece of work, with full battle calculators and targeting system, hydraulic power-boosters, emotio-system, and even a set of jumpjets, although after a preliminary trial, Brand pretty much told her never to use them. Her Durasteel armor was for superior to mine, and made her light, yet very thick when fighting at the front. I especially envied her beautiful blue sheen and her trimmer, lithe figure. She almost looked human, if not for her glowing green eyes. She was scary like that, but at times, she'd let them glow dimmer, and that usually meant she was in a more relaxed state, using her newer emotio-system features, and she smiled at times, which made me even more envious.
And as for me, the older RAcaseal, I was probably the second oldest in the group, since I couldn't exactly say how old Brand was. I was one of the state-of-the-art models too...when Androids were first introduced to the Hunter society...which made that almost twenty years ago. Now, I was what many would consider an old rust-bucket, barely able to withstand the shock of newer rifles, which had enormous recoil, and was far more inaccurate than the many new ones coming out these days. I guess someone really cared about me...I was given the newest Sentimentality Chip my system could handle, and then, one day, I kind of "awoke" by myself, in a street alley, probably discarded for being "too old." I managed to scavenge a charger from the pile then, and made my way to the nearest inn, where I snuck in and plugged in for a while. Over time, I managed to scrape a living from the discarded items on the forest floor, as well as find a Mag that an older Hunter had left behind, unwanted. We immediately bonded, both discarded for whatever reason, and we since joined this Hunter group, after we ran into Brand about two years ago.
So there, a brief history of us, before I continue...
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-Back to Flashback-
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"So what now" Ordron droned. "We just sit here..."
"Yeah, if you want to think of it that way." Brand threw him a drink from his backpack. "We're just hired escorts...if you know what I mean. Not exactly an action job."
"Besides" Diane added"we can spend a little time relaxing for once, just sitting on the beach, enjoying it..." She took a few steps away from the group and sat on the warm, yellow sand, stretching her legs out. "I just love this weather..."
"Yeah, whatever" Ordron said as he stretched out by one of the boxes they had brought down with them. "I'll just be snoozing, so just wake me when we're going to go."
"Alright" Diane responded, rather cheerfully. "We'll wake you if anything happens."
Kyrin and I were sitting on some boxes nearby, charging ourselves using the second power unit they brought, which they said wasn't strong enough for the teleporter...something about too much distance to teleport...
And then, I saw something fly from the trees.
BWOOof...
"RRraarrnnn..."
We all turned to the source of the sound.
Hildebears...
Lots of them.
I quickly unplugged Kyrin and myself, and drew out my trusty JUSTY-23ST, as we rushed to stop the stampede.
"What the..." Ordron said groggily, waking from his much-shortened nap.
TSsch...
TSsch, TSsch...
TSsch...
"Get up, Ordron" she shouted, shooting her rifle as she made her way toward the crowd. "Hildebears, coming from the forest"
I joined the firefight, as Brand and Kyrin rushed to meet the bears at melee range.
TSSchw, TSSchw, TSSchw...
TSsch, TSsch, TSsch...
Diane, who had began shooting before I had even unplugged, finished downing her third hildebear, whereas my shots, somewhat less accurate than hers, were at least a bit more powerful, and with two shots I managed to stop one of the Hildebears dead in its tracks.
Brand had already reached the front, and was swinging his modified Calibur with practiced ease, almost rending a Hildebear in half as he crushed through their ranks. Kyrin, wielding a beautiful Gungnir, was having much the same effect, as the two put up a wall of flashing Photon blades between the workers and the bears. Ordron, once up, slung Foie after Foie at the exposed flanks, hitting Hildebears one after another, careful not to use his Rafoie technique since they were too close to allies.
"Hildebear" Diane suddenly shouted, shooting past me, at my exposed left flank. "Five of them, at your ten"
I turned to see what she was referring to. Five raging Hildebears were tearing toward me, with blinding speed. I managed to hold back two of them with a loosely-aimed barrage of heavy shots, but it didn't stop them, and the lead one wound up, nailed me square, and sent me tumbling backwards.
As I struggled to get up, I tried to re-orient myself on what was happening. The three survivors who had gone after me were tearing up a few boxes I was standing in front of, and another four or so began following the example of the first few, running a flank to the now-exposed left.
"Your left, Diane" I voiced, shooting my rifle from my downed position. As a lucky shot sent the lead bear tumbling, I began to shoot loosely at the others, who slowed as their leader dropped. They quickly recovered, though, and seeing my shots first, they came toward me, charging hard.
It was then I realized something was wrong with my leg. A few loose cables usually didn't bother me too much, as all Androids were always at least double-wired...
It didn't matter much what went wrong, though. My left leg was dead.
Making me immobile.
Oh, hell... I cursed inwardly as I shot from my helpless position.
TSSchw...
whst-TSSchw...
whst-TSSchw...
I felt my hopes die away as I missed two of my shots. Even as I saw Diane's VISK take down one, there were too many...
I was as good as dead...
And as the Hildebear neared me, I braced myself...waiting for the hit to come...
Only to see it tumble forward as a large explosion behind it ignited, throwing it facefirst into the ground.
Rafoie...a damn close one too...
"Thanks, Ordron" I shouted, as I continued to shoot.
Fortunately, Brand and Kyrin were holding much better than we were at the moment. The Hildebears' front, all the time roaring angrily, swung madly at the two hunters, and with almost blinding agility, Kyrin jumped, danced, and dodged every attack, almost like a predator toying with its prey. Brand, although not nearly as agile, put up quite a force with his wide, lethal swathes, and after a Hildebear lost its hand to the Calibur's photon energy, they got the idea.
In the back, Diane and I covered each other from our positions, hers occasionally shifting, and between us, we downed the remaining six Hildebears rampaging through our stuff. Ordron lent an occasional hand, throwing a few Foie spells at the nearer ones, but he primarily stuck to helping the front line.
As we joined the front from long range, sniping at the ones who were exposed, we finally managed to drive the attack back, and in defeat, the last dozen or so retreated in panicked flight.
The leader of the bears, however, wasn't very happy. He took a last ditch shot and launched a fireball at Brand. Brand threw himself to the sand as it flew directly over his head, its angry orange mass missing him by inches...
And it flew past Brand...
...straight into the transporter unit, which incidentally burst into flames.
"Aww, crap" Alfred shouted after the last Hildebear retreated into the treeline. "We're in trouble now..." he said as he slowly crawled from the box he had been hiding in.
"It would seem so" his blue-haired companion noted, as she began to put out the flames with a small extinguisher. Ordron helped, casting a Barta or two on the surrounding boxes, cooling the surrounding areas so the fire wouldn't spread. Diane and Brand used sand and some sea water to douse the burning fragments of the wrecked transporter, as Kyrin helped me over to where the others were.
After assessing the damage, however, it was quite clear that the unit was unusable...
And we, for all practical purposes, were stranded.
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- End Flashback-
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- Flashback 2: The Next Morning...-
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"Hey, morning" Brand greeted her as he unplugged Kyrin. "How's the leg"
"I took it apart last night...I think I can get it working soon..." I replied, tilting my head to show my gratitude for his sympathy. I guess you could say I didn't have the "guts" to tell him that it was going to be broken for a while...and as I inspected the hydraulic pumps which allowed me my free motion, I felt my hope sink again. It was as good as gone...unless someone had some extra hydraulic line and a good set of replacements...
"That's good to hear" he replied, offering a warm smile to show his relief. He nodded over to the small machine beside me, which looked like one of the old "cellphones" that our civilization supposedly had many years back. "Any luck with the commo unit"
"Sorry" I replied downwardly. "I can't reach anyone up there. It might've shorted when I fell in the water..."
"Ah, well, figures" he said, grinning strangely and scratching his head. "Of all things...I guess we never figured something silly like this was going to happen..."
"Yeah, of all things..." I replied, showing my awkward android smile. "Stranded because our transporter shorted and our comms unit is broken..."
"Well, no use in whining over it" Diane added cheerfully. "Don't we still have the ship we landed in"
"I checked last night." Brand shook his head. "Since they came from that direction" he noted"they hit the ship before they got to us, and they broke the ship up pretty good..."
"So now what" Ordron broke in, disgusted at the lack of action. "We're not stuck here, right? Let's just find another transporter..." He gave us one of those 'uh, duh' looks as he began shaking his head.
"I wish it was that easy, Ordron..." I let the sentence die off. I waited for him to cool down, before continuing"There wouldn't be any other transporter on this island." I attempted to explain, taking out a small VR-map. "We were asked to place a transporter here because they didn't have one here, so"
"So that means we're stuck here" Ordron said in disbelief. "Just great..." he said, exasperated, rolling his eyes as he walked over to where Alfred and his blue-haired companion, Sheri, were sitting in the sand, scavenging for anything usable among the broken and ruined components scattered over the beach.
"Useless piece of..." Alfred yelled as he threw a burnt circuit board at an empty box, upon which it broke into several pieces.
"Ah..." Sheri began, but before she could continue, he had thrown another, this one landing in the sea water.
"Why don't they have the BRAINS to send us some spare crap when we NEED IT"
"Please calm down, Alfred...it's not anyone's fault, really. We were just unprepared" she tried to reason with him, getting up to pick up the damaged component he threw into the shallow water. She picked it up and began wiping it off. "This might still work. Let me clean it up a bit."
"Feh, great time to tell me, huh, Sheri"
"I didn't see it before you threw it...can't help that" she sighed, giving one of her "he's hopeless" looks to us as we approached the scavenging duo.
"Frig..." he said disgustedly, before resuming his search through the mess of scattered spare components.
As our group returned to the area where the three were, we each silently contemplated what we were going to do, since we were rather stranded now, on this island somewhere on the vast planet of Ragol...
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-End Flashback-
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