The Frontier Spark
Episode 4: Grub killers
-WITH BURKE, GIL, AND AGATHA-
"Now that we're not going to kill each other, do you have a plan rich boy? Because I don't think I can kill all those things on my own without some seriously heavier firepower." Burke said as he lazily twirled one of his twin pistols.
"We'll make our way to my lab, that should buy us time!" Gilgamesh replied.
"That sounds like a good plan!" Agatha chimed in.
"Fine by me, let's move!" Burke said as he took the lead with Gilgamesh directing them towards his laboratory in a desperate bid to reach it before the slaver wasps would break down the security door. Burke knew he just had to get through this day and he might get a chance to make it off the airship eventually, that is if his temporary ally didn't try to capture him after the truce was over. As they ran he briefly tuned out Agatha and the rich boy's talking to maintain focus on the objective. It wasn't the first time he'd been in a stressful situation to be sure, but it was however the first time he'd had to deal with monsters instead of machines and mercenaries. He started listening again when they finally reached the lab and hopefully a supply of items to use as makeshift weaponry.
"There it is, get inside quickly!" Gilgamesh said they arrived at the lab door. He and burke then worked together to close the door behind them, slamming it shut. "The door is sealed but we'd better hurry."
"Oh, ya think?!" Burke scoffed sarcastically, earning a slight glare of annoyance from the baron's son.
"Whew, that was scary. But we'll be okay right? Once we get to Gilgamesh's arsenal, those things shouldn't have a chance." Agatha said hopefully.
"My what?" Gilgamesh looked at her in confusion.
"Your weapons! Stuff you've built!" Agatha replied. "I never could find them so this'll be interesting. What about a good death ray? That'd be perfect!"
"I don't have a death ray!" Gilgamesh snapped.
"It's too bad I'm not on solid ground yet, cause if it's a death ray you want, I know a guy." Burke bragged smugly with his hands behind his head in a lazy manner.
"You know someone who has a death ray?!" Agatha asked him giddily.
"Sort of. You know what, we get out of this and you might get a little light show for the trouble as a bonus." The future soldier shrugged.
"That would be amazing!" The girl shouted as she quickly hugged him. She then realized what she was doing and blushed hard before letting go of him. "Err… sorry about that." She said with slight embarrassment.
"Ahem, am I interrupting something?" Gilgamesh said impatiently.
"Nope, but getting back on track, you don't have anything we can use to push these things back?! If that's true then why the heck did we run here instead of getting out?!" Burke turned his attention away from Agatha and started to rant at the son of the baron.
Suddenly the slaver wasps broke through the door and burke opened fire with his assault rifle to hold them off. The warfighter of the future let loose a storm of steel from his trusty rifle, gunning down several insectoid abominations in a row. One tried to attack him while he reloaded but Gilgamesh slashed through it with his sword. Burke nodded to the dictator's son in thanks before getting back to back with him to battle the beastly bugs. Agatha thought frantically as she watched the two boys slowly getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of creatures rushing them at once. Then at that moment a strange sound rang in the air and Agatha took on a look of determination.
"We can't hold these things off all day!" Burke shouted as he holstered his empty rifle and slashed an eager slaver wasp with his combat knife. Just as another one was about to hit him, Agatha killed it with a weapon she'd fashioned. "Thanks!" Burke shouted as used the opportunity to reload his weapons.
"Ha it works!" She said as she took down a few more before the tide of enemies briefly subsided. "Here Gilgamesh, you're the fencer."
"It's my lightning generator, sort of." Gil exclaimed while pointing at the gizmo Agatha had picked up and modified.
"Yes, the Heterodyne device can recharge them instantly." Agatha said proudly.
"Wow I knew it was a power source but I'd really thought there was more to it." The son of the baron exclaimed in surprise.
"Not that this isn't interesting but-" Burke said lazily before picking up a signature on his motion tracker. "Woah look out!" Burke shouted as he got between his unsuspecting comrades and a slaver wasp before, letting loose another burst of gunfire. The monster was mowed down by the assault rifle burst and Burke continued his barrage until magazine emptied, killing several more of them. Suddenly they vanished in flash of blue light before reappearing in another area. Burke decided not to focus on that and just deal with the battle.
"I thought you didn't fence!" Gilgamesh remarked as Agatha swiped at the creatures.
"This is isn't fencing, this is swinging wildly!" She replied.
"Couldn't you have used a longer cable?!" Gilgamesh shouted while he continued to fight the monsters.
"It's what was there!" Agatha snapped as she stabbed a slaver wasp in the face.
"Stop arguing you two and focus on fighting! These things are just going to keep coming after us, right?!" Burke roared pragmatically as kicked a slaver wasp upside its head and emptied a pistol magazine into its skull. He then tossed a frag grenade into the swarm, killing a large group. "We have to get moving and figure out where they're coming from! Its up to us to deal with it or we'll keep getting swarmed until we die!"
"We could try to find an exit!" Agatha suggested escape.
"No, he's right they'll never stop unless we destroy them." Gilgamesh agreed with his temporary ally.
"Then we have to destroy the hive engine!" Agatha replied.
"Alright let's go! We don't have all day!" Burke barked to his allies and the trio dashed for the hive engine's location. Burke focused his fire on the enemies at mid-range with his rifle while his compatriots used their makeshift shock swords to kill the creatures as they attacked. Burke threw out his grapple line and slammed a salver wasp into a larger group following it up with a grenade. In order to conserve ammunition, the pilot temporarily swapped to his dual pistols. While less powerful individually, firing both pistols in tandem was serving to be almost as useful against the slaver wasps. The creatures continued trying to eliminate their prey as the group advanced with Burke shielding his comrades repeatedly with suppressive gunfire. All the while though Burke felt annoyed that he couldn't solve this problem on his own which would be much faster although still difficult without his Titan to lend him some much needed brute force, intel, and a game plan. But those remained at the back of his mind as he focused on defending Agatha and Gilgamesh, though slightly less enthused about helping the latter.
Agatha couldn't help but be thankful despite the dire situation. Burke was proving to be more than she had originally thought as she saw him defend against the onslaught of the ravenous monsters that besieged them. Despite his somewhat abrasive nature the strange soldier was exceeding her expectations in combat as he bravely marched the group to where the chaos had started. With Gilgamesh providing directions to where he believed the trouble had started they would have a chance. She could say that Thomas had certainly proven himself reliable beyond a shadow of a doubt several times over.
Eventually they began to reach the area closest to the hive engine where the creatures were coming from. As they did so the Slaver wasps strangely seemed to back off from the fighting, assuming defensive positions rather than blindly attacking their enemies. This did not go unnoticed by Burke but he remained silent until finally the monsters had backed off almost completely making him very uneasy.
"Why are these things not trying to kill us anymore?" Burke said as he scanned his rifle across several of the creatures who only took defensive stances in response.
"Because we are going toward the hive engine." Gilgamesh replied.
"I thought they were defending it." Agatha said in confusion.
"To a degree. Mainly, they'll establish a perimeter and herd everyone inside toward the center." Gilgamesh clarified.
"Hold on there, you're not what I think you're saying are you?" Burke looked at him in confusion.
"We'll be taken over and then 'our' job, will be to defend it." Gilgamesh confirmed.
"One of you kill me first." Agatha said darkly.
"Right." Gilgamesh replied.
"*sigh*None of us are going to die like that if I have a say in it, count on that." Burke said in a dead serious tone.
"What makes you so sure?" Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow at the soldier's change in demeanor.
"One, because I said so, and two, because I didn't come this far to become some butt ugly grub! Got it?!" Burke growled as he pointed his finger at his two comrades. "Now both of you stow that talk, stop thinking about dying, and focus on staying alive!"
He was met with irritated silence from the baron's son and decided to take the silence as a reluctant yes. Agatha didn't know what to feel about the hardened soldier's harsh words of conviction, as they were condescending in one way but sincere in another. As the group neared the lair of the hive engine Burke's trigger finger started to itch. After an uncomfortable walk in silence, they finally arrived at the hive engine's lair to see the beast that had been formed around it.
"Holy crap." Burke remarked as he observed the mighty hive queen. "Look at that ugly mother*hish*" His helmet speaker cut out abruptly. He then smacked the headgear and it started working again.
"Look at that thing, how do we kill that?" Gilgamesh asked to no one in particular.
"Quickly." Agatha said with a look of determination.
"Agreed." Burke followed Agatha's lead. Just then the beast let out a call of some sort, alerting its legion of creatures.
SCREEEE!
"What was that?" Agatha said in fear.
"Bad news." Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes.
"And they won't let us out now." Agatha said as the creatures closed in.
"Obviously." Burke replied, readying his guns.
"Yes, we'd better-" Gilgamesh said as the slaver wasps closed in and were about to snatch away their weapons.
Burke reacted quickly and rapidly swapped to his pistols, blasting several creatures to bullet riddled bits. "You two figure out how kill this thing, I'll hold them off!" Burke roared as he jumped and spun in the air using his jump kit. He unleashed a flurry of hand to hand attacks mixed with his pistol fire. "Come get some!" Burke roared furiously as he battled the creatures. Making expert use of the large room, Burke jumped to the walls, bouncing between them and several crates as well skillfully dodging the attacks of the slaver wasps and hive queen. With a graceful leap through the air, time briefly slowed down as Burke fired both of his pistols at the heads of several slaver wasps. Their exploded one after the other as the bullets whizzed towards them and then out the back of their craniums.
The militia pilot valiantly continued his efforts to hold off the rising tide of carnivorous insects with all the tools at his disposal. He briefly disappeared using his cloak mode before reappearing and grappling a slaver wasp, then hurling it at the queen. The angered monster batted away the simple drone and showed even more rage towards the advanced warfighter. Burke just flipped it off and kept on blasting away the insects, covering his allies several times in the process.
With his options beginning to run dry, he threw a grenade at the large beast, the resulting explosion managed to hurt it. Dazed and confused from the blast, the beast reeled backward slightly and shook its head. Seeing an opening, Burke fired his rifle at its face causing it to focus on him rather than Agatha and Gilgamesh. Multiple rounds dinged and cracked the dome on its head, causing it even more pain. Suddenly Agatha's little clanks stormed the room to lend their aid in the battle. The entire trio was grateful for the distraction as they helped in combating the beasts with their sheer numbers. At that moment Agatha seized the opportunity and grabbed Gilgamesh by the arm and shouted at burke to toss another grenade. After a brief bout of confusion, the three of them attacked the hive queen together, killing it. The beast roared in pain one last time before falling to the floor with its mechanical parts hissing and sparking wildly before igniting in a loud and messy explosion from the grenade. Burke landed between the two of them and popped open his helmet visor to breathe.
"Well *huff* that was a load of fun!" Burke huffed in between breaths.
"Ha ha that was great!" Agatha shouted at the apparent victory.
"The warriors are just standing around, weird." Gilgamesh said just before both he and burke were swiftly kissed on the cheek by an overjoyed Agatha. Both young men immediately went bright red in the face from the sweet experience. Burke snapped his helmet shut again to hide the blush on his face as he had never been kissed before by a girl he liked. Gilgamesh stood there briefly stunned with a star struck grin on his face as he was in the same position as his fellow male.
"We did it!" Agatha shouted gleefully. Suddenly the corpse of the hive queen began to bubble up ominously, with the bulge quickly growing in size.
"Or not… MOVE!" Burke shouted as he grabbed both of his allies and hurled them forward. Surprisingly enough, both of them landed on their feet, breaking into a sprint. Burke jogged at his comfortable beside them while throwing shock grenades at the furious swarm of lethal insects. "Is your old man even more insane than I thought?!" The elite pilot shouted at Gilgamesh.
"I'm starting to wonder that myself!" Gilgamesh replied.
"Does that really matter at this point?!" Agatha shouted at the boys.
"NO!" Both boys responded.
"But this does, you got any more ideas rich boy?! A failsafe, emergency plan, anything?!" Burke asked his temporary ally.
"Yes, there should be an access panel hidden up ahead somewhere! It'll be disguised but handy!" Gilgamesh replied. "Yes here." He then immediately spotted the out of place panel and opened it. When he did so, a set of large steel doors loudly slammed shut behind the trio. "There that part of the lab is sealed."
"Correct me if I'm wrong but, the last time we hid behind steel doors, those things busted through minutes later!" Burke groaned as he frantically reloaded his weapons.
"They just have to hold long enough for us to activate the toxic gas! Once that floods the area they'll die off!" Gilgamesh answered.
"Wait!" Agatha slapped Gilgamesh's hand away from the controls. "Somebody activated that hive engine on purpose!" She said as she brought out her tools and went to work. "Let me look at this!"
"Got it! Oi, rich boy!" Burke shouted to Agatha and then to Gilgamesh.
"Will you stop calling me that!" The baron's son snapped.
"Then get a shorter name! Otherwise, quit your whining and help me cover her!" Burke retorted and started fighting against wasps that crawled from all sides.
"Grr, why you arrogant-!" Gilgamesh was about to respond but was cut off.
"BOYS FOCUS!" Agatha snapped at the two feuding rivals.
"R-right!" Both of them said sheepishly as they got to work killing slaver wasps that bypassed the doors for a few minutes.
"Agatha, how's that system coming along?!" Burke asked as he blew the head off a slaver wasp.
"Anytime soon would be good!" Gilgamesh shouted in agreement with his rival while and the soldier reluctantly worked together.
"Working on it! Someone rerouted the gas line to what I think may be main ventilator for this area!" She replied. "Everything but the hive lab would've gotten the poison." Agatha said as she worked quickly to undo the sabotage to the vent system. The sounds of battle and arguing between the two boys continued until finally she finished with the lengthy repair. "Okay its-!" Agatha was about to confirm her completion of the work but stopped when she saw a bright blue energy bubble obscuring the boys that they were strangely unaware of.
"Well?!" Gilgamesh shouted as he slashed through a slaver wasp with both shock swords.
"Uh, it's all set." Agatha replied, still put off slightly by the energy bubble only she could see.
"Then hit it!" Gilgamesh barked.
"What he said!" Burked agreed.
"Err, right." Agatha said as she activated the gas and the creatures immediately began to drop like flies while the toxic fumes were pumped into the right place. A glass barrier slid closed, separating the three of them from the deadly gas and dying monsters. Burke took a moment to sit back against a wall and relax for a quick break he felt he'd earned.
"It looks like it worked, I guess the baron will have an easy time mopping up, then." Agatha said as she watched the monstrous parasites die off behind the barrier.
"Yeah, you know from everything I've learned about slaver I would've thought that it would be tougher." Gilgamesh
"Heh, tougher? That wasn't exactly a stroll in the woods you know." Burke scoffed.
"Will you just-!" Gilgamesh was about to retort but Burke stopped him.
"Before you start, …I'm sorry." The future soldier apologized.
"Come again?" Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow.
"You heard me, you got guts. I'm sorry for a being a huge jerk okay. Can we cut each other a little slack, especially since it's been a rough day for all of us? I think we all deserve that much at least." Burke said in a tired voice and offered a hand to the baron's son.
"Alright fine, I accept your apology." Gilgamesh shook the pilot's hand.
"You still have a really long name though." Burke grinned under his helmet.
"Don't push it." Gilgamesh replied sourly.
"Oh, he's not so bad." Agatha interjected.
-END CHAPTER-