The Frontier Spark
Episode 6: A Walk in the woods
-THE NEXT MORNING-
After floating along through the night, the flying contraption began to descend, and Agatha woke up Krosp, then focused on Burke. "Thomas, Wake up!" Burke stirred from his sleep thanks to being shaken by an agitated Agatha.
"*grunt* What, I'm trying to sleep?" The pilot griped as he sat up from his resting spot.
"We're losing altitude!" Agatha said in slightly panicked tone.
"Huh?! Oh, damn that's right, that stupid loud mouth probably shot a hole in the balloon." Burke cocked his head in confusion. He then remembered what Othar had done just after Burke had smacked him the face, which threw him off the transport.
"I patched the hole, but it must have given out." Agatha griped.
"Figures with our luck." Burke grunted in agreement.
"Well look who decided to wake up." Krosp said in an unamused tone.
"Right, keep forgetting you can talk, still need to get used to that." The pilot grumbled under his breath, so even the cat king couldn't hear him. "So, I figure you know what to do about this, eh?" Burke shook his head slightly at the talking cat and put a hand to his helmet as he spoke to Agatha.
"Of course, we'll land once we clear this peak if we can." Agatha replied.
"Well looks like we'll be enjoying a quiet little walk in the woods then." Burke decided to be optimistic for what it was worth, at least he'd be on solid ground again.
"You're optimistic about us crashing!" Agatha snapped.
"Well panicking sure doesn't help a bit that's for sure! Look, just focus on getting us on the ground safely. You can handle that." Burke tried to keep a cool head as encouraged his orange haired ally.
"Easy for you to say, you're not the one flying!" The bespectacled girl retorted.
Burke then noticed that they were descending even faster though and began to get slightly unnerved. "We're coming in a bit fast, aren't we?!" As he said that, the ground started to get even closer at an even faster pace. "Agatha!"
"This'll be rough!" Agatha shouted to her companions.
"Aim for the field!" Krosp pointed at the large open stretch of grass.
"I'll Aim for the pond!" Agatha said as she tried to steer the falling airship.
"No, anything but that!" Krosp snapped as he wrestled the helm away from Agatha.
"What're you-?!" She tried to stop the crazy cat but was interrupted as Burke put his arms around both of his companions.
"HANG ON TO ME!" Burke shouted as he grabbed the two of them and leapt from the crashing contraption. Burke's HUD lit up red at the weight capacity limit for his jump kit, but he ignored the warning as he focused on protecting his two companions. The trio landed with a thud as Burke's boots cracked the ground and made a small pit. Burke growled in pain as his knees buckled from the drop and excess weight from his partners. Agatha and Krosp were unceremoniously dropped from Burke's grip and rolled briefly but the two of them remained unharmed.
"Thomas are you alright?!" Agatha said as she stood up and with a slight stumble before leaning on Burke for support. She then regained her footing and promptly dusted herself off.
"My joints and bones ache, *hiss* …but I'll live." Burke said as he stood up from the dirt and tried to walk off the impact.
"Good…. Now, are you insane?! What were you thinking?!" The orange haired spark snapped at the pilot.
"In that order, no, and I was focused on helping you and the cat, we did have a deal about helping each other after all!" Burke retorted and then pointed to the wrecked flying machine. "I certainly know it would've been a damn sight worse if I hadn't done that!"
"That doesn't mean you should just jump out of a crashing airship!" Agatha shot back.
"What does it matter, we're alive aren't we?! I'm the one with aches and pains!" Burke roared.
"He does have a point you know, he shielded us from the impact and getting wet in the lake." Krosp interjected.
"Yeah but that's not an excuse!" Agatha ranted.
"If it happens again, I'll warn you. So please can we just move on from this? After all, we have a power mad maniac chasing us, don't we?" The exasperated pilot tried to compromise with his ally for the time being and move on.
"*sigh* Fine, let's look around and see if we can salvage anything from the crash." Agatha said in a more agreeable tone as she began to sift through the wreckage.
"Agreed." Burke said firmly. With the argument over they began scavenging the wreck, and Krosp found a weapons locker that held an energy cannon inside. Agatha got to work tinkering with it and then with the weapon modified, she fired it at a nearby boulder. The rock was blown to bits from the blast, leaving Agatha grinning and Burke and Krosp making mental notes to stay on her good side while she held on to the tool of destruction. Krosp went about the task of covering up the wreck with any available foliage he could grab, taking more than a generous amount of help from Burke. Once that was done, the group went on their way, leaving the wrecked airship behind as they headed into the wild. The group soon debated about their supplies with Krosp flaunting his supposed natural hunting instincts, which Burke doubted the cat had.
After the morning's events no one had really said much as they had all focused on either hunting for food or finding a spot to rest for various reasons. Hours later, the group eventually made camp for the night in a comfortable clearing after a long day of walking in the woods. Burke sharpened his knife with a flat rock he'd found, taking great care to avoid cutting himself. Krosp was busy brooding that he hadn't managed to catch anything, but he hadn't said anything about it yet. The camp was silent except for the sounds crackling of the fire and Burke's combat knife being scraped against the rock while Agatha cooked a sausage in the fire.
She was a bit uncomfortable with the lack of talk, so she decided to be the first one to speak and offered a sausage to Krosp. When the cat did so, Burke chuckled slightly at the irony of the intelligent cat's situation. Krosp retorted to that with the fact that Burke had not been too helpful in that regard. Agatha suggested looking for a local farm for shelter, but both of her companions pointed out the folly of her idea. No one owed them, so they'd have no sanctuary from any settlers when the baron would come looking for them. They agreed to deal with the problem later as they had enough supplies to do so. Agatha then decided it was time she found out some more about her mysterious friend though.
"So, Burke, there's a few things I want to ask you Burke." Agatha said as looked straight at the pilot.
"Such as?" Burke replied.
"You said you're Irish so what's Ireland like?" She asked innocently.
"Never been there myself to tell the truth, my family is Irish, but I've just never seen it." Burke answered truthfully.
"So, you're from England then?" Agatha asked.
"Err, no. Let's just say that I'm not really from anywhere you'd know." Burke said evasively.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Agatha pried suspiciously.
"I would like to know as well just where you came. I haven't forgotten that militia you mentioned." Krosp said with his arms crossed.
"Fine, I'm not good at secrets anyway. Would you either of you believe me if I told you the truth though?" Burke sighed in defeat, he knew it was better to explain things rather than lie like an idiot and let it fester for later.
"Let's hear what you have to say then we'll decide. I'd say that's fair enough." Agahta said coolly.
"Alright then, three things. First, I'm from another planet-" Burke answered but was interrupted.
"WHAT?!" She shouted hysterically.
"LET ME FINISH!" Burke roared.
"…" She remained silent in shock.
"Good. Now secondly, I'm from the future. Lastly, I also came from another dimension. Now you can freak out and ask questions as much as you want." Burke continued his explanation.
"What's the future like? Oh there are so many possibilities all the advancements, the inventions! You have to tell me everything!" Agatha exploded with questions.
"Woah slow down there! Yes, I am but this world is a lot different from the Earth I know in my universe's history!" Burke tried to calm her down.
"What do you mean?" She tilted her in curiosity.
"I mean a lot of things here are just wrong, like that laser gun of yours. Those don't exist in my world, at least not like that unless you count thunderbolt launchers. Flying machines, well those seem out of place from the history I was taught. I know that baron guy isn't in it either and neither are those robots of his." Burke retorted.
"We have quite a bit to discuss then." Agatha said, taking in the facts.
"We do, but let's do it later. You need sleep, and I need to think." Burke said firmly.
With the discussion over for the night Agatha and Krosp went to sleep while Burke would stay up for a few hours and keep watch. Alone with his thoughts, the militia pilot wondered to himself about when he'd be located by doctor Valhen and return home from this strange dimension. He missed his partner, and he missed his own team of misfits that he'd been separated from for his punishment. The team was probably doing fine under the titan wars veteran Major Livingston, Burke knew he could trust the British medic to run things in his place. Lieutenant Marshall was probably driving him up the wall though with how much of a rowdy wise-cracker he could be, not to mention the cowpoke gunslinger did tend to disobey orders. He also hadn't forgotten Agent Tanaka, the very same simulacrum who'd been sent to keep an eye his team and reported his 'incident' to high command. While he was highly secretive and had ratted out his fellow soldier even for doing what was right, Burke couldn't deny the mutual respect he shared with the cybernetic samurai despite Tanaka's strict code.
It all seemed so far away now, his life, his team, his duty, he had to hope that the good doctor could pull him back, or at least send his partner VX through for support. He wondered to himself just what he should do, he was trained in survival tactics, but like he told the cat, he was no professional hunter. After a moment of thought on the matter, Burke went out into the woods to ty and hunt after he set his HUD to mark the location on its compass. In his own opinion, the next few hours of trial and error would be interesting to say the least.
-THE NEXT MORNING: SHORTLY BEFORE SUNRISE-
Krosp the intelligent cat stretched languidly as he woke from a deep and relaxing cat nap. He glanced at the orange haired spark to see that she was still sound asleep next the campfire that had died a few hours ago. The cat then looked around the campsite to figure out where burke had gone, seeing as he was no longer laying sitting upon the log where he had been sharpening his knife. Suddenly here was a rustle in the bushes and Krosp made a frantic grab for Agatha's energy cannon. With a tremendous effort for his stature, he hefted weapon onto a log and positioned it to fire at the bushes just as Burke stepped through.
'ZAPP!' The weapon discharged through the trees and into the sky as Burke had just barely managed to avoid getting his head blown off by the destructive beam.
"What the bloody heck was that for?! You could've killed me hairball!" Burke hissed at the bidpedal furball.
"What were you doing out there?! You were supposed to be keeping watch!" Krosp retorted as he stepped away from the cannon.
"I decided to be a good Samaritan is what I did, and this is the thanks I get! Here, fresh meat!" Burke growled bitterly at the cat and threw down a dear's corpse.
"And you said you were not a hunter." Krosp crossed his arms smugly
"I said I wasn't an outdoorsman." Burke crossed his arms as Krosp looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Don't get snippy with me my feline friend, just enjoy that I brought a meal back." The future solider pointed his finger at the cat and then at the dead creature.
"Fine, now… how do we cook this?" Krosp rolled his eyes and then rubbed his whiskered face in thought.
"…I thought you knew that." Burke slumped his shoulders and facepalmed.
-LATER-
Agatha stirred from her slumber to the rousing smell of roasting meat over a fire. "Morning sleeping beauty." Burke said casually as he held up a crudely cut slab of meat with his knife over the fire.
"Burke, where did you get this?" Agatha said in surprise as she gazed upon the meat Burke had gathered.
"A long night of hunting, trial, and error, with a heavy dose of beginner's luck near the end, with barely any sleep I might add." Burke replied with slight yawn as he turned the knife to cook the meat evenly.
"Riiiight." Agatha put her hands on her hips.
"If you want to be skeptical that's on you. Either way, this is turning out to be a fine roast. Of course, it took an hour or two to figure it out." Burke shrugged as he admired his handiwork.
"Ugh, what's that other smell?" She pinched her nose as the smell of nearby decay became evident in the air.
"Where I got the meat from, and probably the meat I burned as well." Burke said coolly.
"Oh, right… Hey where's Krosp?" Agatha said as she noticed the lack of the cat's presence and then glanced at Burke's knife.
"Rrrooww! My own breakfast! Yeah caught by me!" Krosp shouted as he held a squirming mouse in his paws.
"That answer your question?" Burke deadpanned and then looked to the cat. "Well you certainly proved you can hunt cat… mice anyway. But you're no king of the beasts." He said in a snarky tone.
"Says the one who burned more than he cooked, you should learn to eat it raw!" The self-proclaimed cat king retorted.
"Uh no. If humans eat raw meat, we get sick." The soldier deadpanned again.
"Wait how much did you burn?" Agatha ignored that and inquired about the meat.
"Why does that matter Agatha?" Burke said as he turned his head to face her.
"I want to know." She said firmly.
"A lot. Here, enjoy it. Hopefully it's not too crispy." Burke replied bluntly and handed the girl a piece of well-cooked meat. She took the piece in her and then bit down on it, her face lighting up as she savored the taste of roasted deer meat.
-ENDCHAPTER-