The robot is complete, and Maia gets a little carried away testing it. Sorry for the shortness of this chapter. At least, soon things will really start to happen.
Chapter 15: First Flight
Their progress on the robot continued, and as the enhancements were added, it began to take on a truly sinister form. All manner of weaponry and armor had been incorporated into its design. New guns and missiles and bombs, of all shapes and sizes, were built into its limbs and even its back. The two even managed to create a Dark Eco cannon that comprised one entire forearm, powered by a Dark Eco crystal they had managed to create quite by accident. In addition to weapons, they also added armor in the form of scraps of Precursor metal and sheets of Dark Eco crystal that would make their newest creation all but indestructible. Gol made several, last-minute adjustments, including some that were for solely aesthetic purposes, and once that was set, they flew a short distance away to observe their handiwork.
"I like it," Maia said.
"So do I, dear sister."
At this point, the huge machine no longer looked so much like a Precursor robot, aside from the long, thin downward pointing snout protruding from its head. Now it was a downright wicked looking contraption, bristling with countless weapons for the sole purpose of bringing their enemies to their knees. All this extra weight was counterbalanced by additional boosters in its back and legs, which would, if he had calculated correctly, allow it to fly unhindered. Due to the substances comprising its outer carapace, the robot was a patchwork of Precursor metal bronze and the deep black and brilliant purple of Dark Eco. (Gol had grown rather fond of purple. It was not a feminine color like people said.)
"We must test it out!" Maia said, clasping her hands in anticipation.
"We certainly—"
She zipped off towards the robot, and he followed suit. She could never let him finish speaking lately. But, he couldn't hold it against her. He was eager enough to observe their robot's powers, and she was always the more excitable. Once inside the robot's head, he found Maia looking at the controls like a child in a candy store.
"Maybe you should stand back," the Sage said as he closed the hatch. Seeing the glint in her eye, he worried she'd press something and blast apart their own citadel.
"Let's go kill something!" She was nearly jumping in excitement.
"Not yet. This is just a test."
"That doesn't mean we can't kill anything."
Taking his place beside her at the controls, Gol pressed a combination of buttons and switches, and the robot hummed to life. Even though he had heard that noise before, it still gave him the same thrill every time. To be absolutely surrounded by all this raw power. It felt like they could do anything they wanted. Anything at all.
"Come on, let's go!" his sister said.
"Wait a second!" He went through the initial diagnostics. This was the robot's first flight since it had met its unfortunate fate in the Catacombs. Such a shame it would be if, after all their hard work, the robot crashed. Or blew up even! Not that he doubted his craftsmanship, but he was in no mood to find himself in pieces, either way.
After everything checked out, he pressed another button, and a rumble could be heard from outside as the ceiling split in half and began to slide away, dust and sand raining down. A vital addition he had nearly forgotten, a door to get the robot out of the citadel to begin with. That would have been a most embarrassing mistake, and one that Maia never would have let him live down. What a feat of engineering it had been, though!
He then grabbed a particularly important lever and pulled it up, slowly, and the view of the room outside began to descend. Either their citadel was sinking, or they were flying. He guided the robot up through the ceiling and into a hall above where the roof had collapsed with age. The sky could now be seen, allowing him to take notice of the sun sitting directly overhead, signaling noon. But, they had begun work on their final preparations in the evening! Had they really worked all through the night? And this bright sunlight would do nothing to keep their actions hidden. Well, he supposed, if someone did spot them, Maia would get what she asked for.
"What shall we blast first, dear sister?" Gol asked.
She gazed out the view screen. Resting her hands on the console, she leaned in further, squinting her eyes. "There's nothing alive out here," she said.
"No, and for the sake of our own secrecy, it's for the—"
"Not if they're dead."
"Anyway, if you won't choose something, then I will," he continued.
"I'll think of something. Fly around," she pointed off in an arbitrary direction, though the intensity with which she did so making it seem almost as if that direction wasn't dictated by mere whim at all, "that way."
The Sage did as he was told, and they watched as the desert sped by beneath them. A more desolate place couldn't possibly exist. Sand and mountains and the occasional cactus. And more sand. Not even a small town to massacre, to please Maia.
When nothing satisfactory could be found, Maia huffed and pushed him out of the way. "Let me look!"
She steered the robot around, in really much the same manner as he had, an expression of deepest and most dire concentration clear on her face. This was just a test. They could destroy plenty of people later.
"What a positively boring place!" she said, stopping in a location with the most promising features they had seen thus far, scatterings of cactus patches. She let her anger out on one particular patch, setting it ablaze with a Red Eco laser. She laughed. "Well, that was a little fun."
She directed her sights on another group. The way the cacti were shaped, it looked like they had their arms up in surrender. She pressed another button and wiped them from existence with the Yellow Eco cannon.
"That's really quite enough, dear sister," Gol said. He attempted to move her aside, but she swatted him away.
"You always get to control the robots! It's my turn now!" Her finger hovered over another button, and the Sage's eyes widened.
"That's—"
But, she had already pressed it, and there was a loud bang outside, the sheer force of the blast sending them reeling backwards while the view screen filled with dust and smoke.
"Which one was that, dear brother?" she asked as she steadied herself.
"It must have been the Dark Eco cannon." He had known it would be powerful, but he hadn't expected that. Once the dust cleared, a large, smoking crater could be seen before them, sand scorched and turned to glass.
Maia smiled at him. "You've done well, dear brother." She clapped one hand against the palm of the other.
"Can I have the controls back, dear sister?"
She stepped aside. "I want to see our lovely Dark Eco cannon in action again. I wasn't prepared last time."
"Let's see what we can find." They resumed their search for a proper target. He, too, wanted to see what damage their Dark Eco cannon could cause, and they would need another target to better judge the cannon's effectiveness.
"That," Maia said.
"What?"
"That!" She pointed straight ahead.
"That appears to be a mountain, dear sister."
"Precisely."
"I think you overestimate the cannon's abilities."
"Just do it."
He aimed the cannon directly at the mountain in the distance and fired. A black and purple beam, a foot in diameter, shot out and struck their target, and shortly after, a blotch could be seen in the face of the mountain, a plume of smoke beginning to meander out from it, as if staggering away in shock from a most traumatic and unexpected scene.
Maia clapped again. "Bravo, dear brother!"
He chuckled. "I thought it was typically men who liked explosions."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you calling me a man?"
"It is quite clear you are not, so no."
"So what next?"
He thought for a moment, thinking over the long list of things he'd love to destroy. Well, most of these things consisted of people who were long dead. But, there was one thing…
"I've got the perfect thing in mind, dear sister."
Can you guess what it might be? Please review.