"Obviously!" Alfa muttered in reply as it took in the sight. "But don't ya get your ears in a twist cony. They ain't no GUN and neither are they here."
Well that much was clear, there was no sign of the typical black and blues of the Guardian Units of Nations soldiers. Though I wasn't exactly expecting them on this part of the continent. Ostensibly all human nations on the planet were part of the United Federation, one needed the supply and funding of the globe just to begin to contest Robotnik. Which made all those trillions in funding questionably spent when you considered the fact that not once had GUN decisively won against the Eggman Empire. Which in turn had an effect on the reality of GUN's presence in the world.
As it was, support and the freedom of movement and operating ability for GUN waxed and waned with attacks and stretches of peace from Robotnik. Some places GUN was the state, whereas others GUN had to ask permission to shit their pants when the Badniks came calling. That much was clear in my travels and word of mouth.
No, GUN's presence here in the middle of nowhere was the least of my expectations.
That didn't make the small prospector town set up against the side of a mining pit any more of a pleasant sight.
The prospector town was something out of the old pioneering age of the UZA, a real duel at high noon type of town. Which didn't really make sense to me since the Frontier Canyon Zone wasn't exactly known for its vast lush forests that one can readily build towns out of. Pointless money wasting aside, just like a pioneering town everyone here was armed.
Everywhere I looked, human men and women were going about their work or life while strapped with at least one firearm. That fact didn't surprise me, the local goat mobians regularly attacked them afterall and from the freshwater and green grass I could see why. But besides examples of typical human squatters driving out mobian natives, what really surprised me was the many children present as well.
Squinting my eyes I marginally lifted my head higher over the ridge line and spied children running about, wearing sturdy work overalls. Mostly they appeared to be handling the near harmless work of transporting wheelbarrows full of mined rock and ore. But they were armed as well. It wasn't guns but they did have large knives or hatchets strapped to their waists.
Really? These humans go into a region widely known for highly aggressive mobians who have had a history of clashing with invaders since time immemorial and what do they do? They bring their children along! Instead of leaving them somewhere safe they bring them into a place where they will inevitably get attacked and just hand them a small weapon as a stopgap.
Do humans teach their children the fine art of aggressive expansionism from birth?
"Hey! Keep your head down, cony!" Alfa said in a harsh whisper, its large metal hand suddenly grabbing the top of my head and pushing me down. "You want it to get blown off? You're too busy staring at the big picture, ya need to start looking at the little details."
To my surprise my temper had risen and I had gotten distracted by my own thoughts. Reigning myself in I looked in the direction Alfa was pointing in and frowned in consternation with myself. The robo monkey was right, I was so distracted by the wider image of a human encroachment that I failed to notice the manned guard towers.
There were three of them, each one had at least one human with a long rifle scanning their surroundings for threats. They were positioned in a triangular formation around both the town and the dig site. Looking along the ridge I wondered for a moment why they hadn't put a tower up here when I noticed the wreckage of a tower smashed upon the ridge face.
Apparently they had put up a tower but failed to build the foundation correctly.
"Alright, boss rabbit, what's the plan?" Alfa asked suddenly with an expectant look.
Huh? Oh right I was supposed to be in change wasn't I? I could already imagine what the little murder bot's reaction would be if I didn't have an idea what to do. Thankfully though I was hardly some experienced commander I did have an idea. It was dependent upon Alfa though.
"Can your model still produce explosives like the later ones?" I asked him.
"Course!" Alfa replied, voice an insulted tone.
"Good." I made sure to answer quickly to head off any kind of rant. "I need a veteran unit to go on something of a commando raid and blow those watchtowers. If you can set your bombs to go off at a specific time I can lead the badniks down in a rush."
"Oh… you need them all to go off at the same time?" Alfa said in a suddenly unsure tone, face twisted with sudden self doubt. Suddenly it was gone, replaced by firm resolve. "Yeah I can do it. You want me to sneak on over now?"
"Yes, I'll get the badniks up here and ready to charge the moment you destroy them all."
With that, Alfa slunk along the ridgeline and soon disappeared behind a rock. I found myself spending a moment just staring down at the horde of murder machines I'd have to lead in an attack upon a settlement. Many had lifeless colored lenses but many more still had those almost doll-like eyes as they all stared up at me in silent expectation.
There was a sudden urge in me to order the horde up and over the ridge to immediately attack the town while I ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction. Just hope I'd avoid a vengeful Robotnik, suspicious fellow mobians and hostile prospectors as I made a mad dash through the mountains for home.
I crushed the urge down immediately, that was the path of certain suicide of that I was sure.
My descent back down the slope was anxiety inducing as I did my absolute best to avoid dislodging too many rocks. But eventually I made it down and ordered the machine horde to follow me back up at a slow pace. They were only a third of the way up when I made it back to the ridgeline and carefully spied on the prospector town again. Alfa hadn't been noticed yet and despite me knowing to look for it I hadn't managed to spot anything monkey shaped slinking around. The horde had nearly reached the ridgeline themselves when I finally noticed movement on a rooftop.
Making out exact details from this far off was too much for me, carrot eating rabbit or no, but the faint figure's proportions weren't right for a human. It clambered about on a rooftop in the middle of the prospector town. I was beginning to get worried about what was taking so long, if I could see Alfa from here the much closer guard towers definitely could and no doubt would at any moment.
Suddenly the figure leapt up and spun midair, three objects flying from it in that same moment. I watched as all three objects sailed through the air and struck each watchtower, exploding the instant they made contact. The wooden struts making up the tower bases wasn't exactly made to withstand bombs and each disappeared in clouds of fire and splinters. Screams and shouts of alarm filled the air.
It was time.
"Up and over the ridge!" I gestured with my short spear. "Get at them! Drive them away from the mine!"
The machine horde rushed forward the instant I finished shouting. I lay there behind cover for a moment longer, content to have the armor plated war machines to take point while I heroically lead the charge from the rear. Or villainously as the case was.
Soon I joined the charge with a leap, making up the distance and well within the rear ranks of the charge. It was a good thing too because a moment later gunfire filled the air and the sight of ricochets scattering into the dirt had me looking for much more reliable cover. Spotting a stacked pile of thick timbers I leapt atop the nearest badnik, not wanting to get trampled by the machines I started rapidly leapfrogging over them for cover. Not exactly the smartest thing to do at the moment as it made me something of a target as the precariously whizzing bullets attested but I was only briefly vulnerable. With a final leap I rolled to safety behind the wood stack.
Releasing a relieved breath I grimaced before pulling both ears down, the noise was horrendous. Distant explosions were becoming nearer so clearly Alfa was returning to the group but wrecking his own havoc along the way. Around me the sound of energy weapons whining as they charged and fired rose to a painful keening. And the bark of mundane guns also filled the air as the human prospectors desperately fought back.
From my position I knew absolutely nothing of what was going on, only that everything and everyone was shooting at each other. Something in me quailed at the thought of glancing over the wood stack but for all I knew we'd have to pull back and I'd be the last to know. Hoping that any meandering bullets hit my helmet instead of my face I turned around and carefully peeked over the wood stack.
We were… doing well I think. The badnik horde had started to spread out their line to drive the miners out of the pit and most did manage to escape the badniks, the rising spiral nature of the mining pit however meant that many were caught dead to rights as the war machines dived in. Bodies both smoking and crushed bloody by the murder bots were left where they lay as the machines passionlessly went about their work.
Not every human was trying to make a run for it though.
Over by the border between town and mining pit I could see dozens of miners with long rifles and revolvers making a stand. Behind them the woman gathered the children and made for safety though they did so while also wielding guns and making a fighting retreat of it. Above I could see Alfa hopping from building to building, dropping bombs with every stop and destroying as much as it could. Ducking back down I took a moment to think.
All I had was a spear and no doubt these humans would have experience dealing with mobians armed with spears. Simply charging with the machines would be a quick way to getting shot as I'd be the only target really vulnerable to guns. But if I just stayed here and did nothing I'd have to answer to Robotnik for it. He said he'd be watching for how loyal AND useful I'd actually be. If all he saw was me hiding the entire time a fight was happening instead of taking part I'd might as well go charging like an idiot and save him the trouble of killing me.
'Stick with the machines!' I told myself as I went into a crouch. 'At least look like you're trying!'
Leaping over the wood stack I went into a dead sprint to rejoin the line. I kept low as I ran, ducking and weaving between every solid looking object I could see. The humans didn't remain ignorant of my presence for long. Jolts of freight ran up my spine as bullets whizzed by and impacted the cover I ducked behind as I sprinted.
To my absolute relief I found myself collapsing into a face planting sprawl behind a pile of bags full of sand and gravel. They were still shooting at me as the clouds of little rocks and sand attested but I was currently safe despite being at the frontlines. Suddenly I had to rethink that idea as I looked around and realized my little patch of cover didn't have any nearby badniks to draw gunfire from me. Blanching I also realized that in my mad dash I hadn't exactly paid attention to where I was going, focused on keeping my head down and not blown off. I resolved to take a quick glance again just to make sure I wasn't about to be the victim of a stick of dynamite.
Quickly poking me head around the side of my cover the sight of a line of desperately fighting humans met my sight. They had taken cover behind vehicles and piles of rock, doing everything they could to be a living wall between the badniks and their retreating families. More importantly however was the pair of humans behind the crates directly opposite of me, a young one and an older one with a full salt and pepper beard and wide brimmed hat. My eyes boggled at the older human sighting me down his double barreled shotgun and I quickly made to duck back behind cov-
BANG
I was too late.
My head whipped back and my motion to move back had me sprawling onto my back. My vision was still there, thank the spirits of my ancestors, so I at least hadn't been shot in the face. A dull ache throbbed along the front of my head so I've been hit in the head but at least my helmet caught it. What really concerned me however was the absolute burning piss awful agony in my ears.
"SHIT! FUCKING SHIT!"
Curses involuntarily left my mouth as my probing hands found my ears and only caused the pain to suddenly worsen in a vision whitening blur. Adrenaline surged and I was able to power through the pain. I pulled my ears down and was somewhat relieved to see I still had them. Bloody wounds covered my ears as shotgun pellets had torn right through but worse still was that I had several holes large enough to see through now in my ears.
"They're just holes, they'll grow back! They're just holes, they'll grow back! They're just holes, they'll grow back!" Panic started to rise and I found myself repeating the fact of the somewhat regenerative nature of my ears to reassure myself.
"Woo! Got that one! Ya see boy!?"
Rage, burning white hot and drowning out the pain filled me. How dare some money grubbing piece of shit shoot me?! I rose, determined to not just be another demographic in the long recorded history of human, mobian species tensions. There was no clear idea of how I was going to retaliate against someone with a gun while I only had a spear but in that rage filled moment I didn't care
"FUCK!"
Instead of releasing some kind of glorious warcry or even something half clever I ended up cursing mindlessly as I immediately tossed the short spear at the humans. It flew true in that it was going to hit the old human I had aimed at but that was it. The younger human reacted on instinct. He pushed the older man to the side and took his place, fully expecting a spear plunging through his chest from likely previous experience with the goat warriors.
What he didn't expect was that I was hardly an experienced spear thrower and had been lucky enough that my thrown weapon was going to hit my target.
The young human released a startled cry of pain as the shaft of the short spear whacked into his face and had him fall stumbling back in surprise. Fumbling his reloading due to being shoved aside the older man looked back towards me only to find me sprinting across the gap and leaping directly at him.
Both my feet impacted his chest, interrupting his desperate attempt to aim his frantically reloaded weapon. He fell on his back with a loud grunt and I quickly wrenched the shotgun out of his grip, the length of both the stock and the barrel making it rather unwieldy in my grip. Blinded by anger I was fully intent on shooting the human in the ears as revenge when a shape blurred towards me out of the corner of my eyes.
"NO!" The younger human shouted and his pistol whip impacted the side of my helmeted head.
The impact registered with added pain to my already present headache but did nothing more. With a scowl I repaid the attack with a kick to his stomach and sent him flying back into a power pole. He folded backwards and bones broke audibly over the din of combat, his scream of pain suddenly had my blinding anger guttering and about to die.
"YOU SONUVABITCH!" The old human screamed and I barely avoided getting my ankles slashed by his wild swing with a knife.
Anger surged again and with a snarl I lashed out with a kick. My blow caught the side of his head and immediately there was a snapping noise along with a crunch as part of the man's face gave way along with his neck. His death wasn't immediate though and his choking gurgles had my rage rapidly bleed away.
"E-Earl…" Thanks to my enhanced hearing the weak pained voice reached me and I looked over just in time to see the younger human aiming his revolver at me.
I held the shotgun before me like a shield in a desperate attempt to ward off the bullets just before he fired. His first two shots went wide of me, likely thrown off by his position on the ground and pain from his injuries, his third shot however found its mark and my head once again whipped back from a gunshot impacting my helmet. To my utter relief I heard clicking noises as his revolver ran empty.
Once again raging at the audacity I've had to deal with today I wrestled the shotgun into the best firing position I could manage. The young human was busy fumbling with retrieving more bullets when I fired. My poor grip had the barrels rising up skyward but my shots landed all the same, making an utter red ruin of the human's face and chest.
My breathing came fast and heavy as I slowly turned away from the younger human and back to the older one. He was as dead as the first but that didn't stop the sudden spike of hate I felt for him. My foot found the side of his head again and was slightly gratified by another crunching noise.
May the earth find you wanting and may it deny you its bounty, may the sky turn away in disgust and may it withhold its tears. Rot in the shit of your ancestors, scum.
I honestly could have stood there for the next hour recalling curses both recent and traditional for this human when an explosion suddenly reminded me of where I was. Ducking and darting back to hop behind the cover of the crates the humans had been using. I pulled down my ears despite the pain and carefully looked out.
As expected against a force of warmachines covered in armor plate a bunch of humans with mundane firearms wasn't going to accomplish much. From my position leaning out I could see well over a dozen bodies scattered about in various states of death. Some of the badniks were giving chase and making sure the survivors weren't coming back anytime soon. Alfa had clearly done its work, the entire town was aflame and in ruin.
"Quick learner ain't ya, cony!"
Speak of the Doctor…
Looking up I saw the smirking face of Alfa standing atop the crate. Again I found myself reevaluating Alfa's threat level, you'd think a heavy metal robot would have made noise no matter what it did. Apparently not since even with my hearing I didn't notice its presence until it spoke. There was a conflicting level of reassurance and wariness his presence brought me now. Twice it was in the thick of it, twice it came out little worse for wear. Sure we weren't exactly facing a GUN commando squad but I at least expected to see a few dents courtesy of errant bullets. Knowing a machine of its capability was helping me out was somehow both a balm and an anxiety inducing concern.
"Well, trial by fire can bring potent results and knowing I had a veteran gauging my abilities encouraged me to excel." With a sigh I stood up.
The shaking was back but thankfully my hands were too busy holding the shotgun to betray me. Alfa was looking at me in consideration, giving my newly acquired but poorly fitting weapon a critical stare.
"Ya fought two at a time and didn't need these rust brains to help you either time." Alfa puffed out its cheeks before making a popping noise with its mouth. "I think… I think this is a sign you ain't worthless. Which is great considering the Great Doctor Eggman throws away useless things. How about you loot some stuff for yourself from these humans while I round up everyone?"
"No choice if I want to actually use this more than once." My fingers fumbled briefly before I opened the breech and ejected the two spent rounds.
That had actually been the first time I ever used a firearm. All previous experiences with the things had been either in books or human farmers running me off what was apparently their land. Considering that, I was rather lucky I had managed to hit something… on second thought I had fired a shotgun. These things weren't exactly known for their precision. If I wanted a true test of my aiming ability I'd need to try the revolvers.
I began looting, first was the older human. Briefly I paused at the knife and considered it for a moment before ignoring it. There was a perfectly fine short spear lying around and more importantly it was mobian made. Digging in the human's pockets I managed to find a full box of ammo and some spare rounds, leaving me with about two dozen shells. Saying my goodbyes with another kick I made my way over to the younger human, making sure to pick up my short spear on the way.
Standing before the younger human I had killed… no, murdered. I'm not going to hide behind my hatred, the death of this human was the same as the goat mobian. My… prejudices may want me to just think of it as a fate well earned but that didn't change the fact I shouldn't be here! It was obvious that no matter what this attack would have happened anyway, these people would almost certainly still be dead. The only difference my presence had on events was that some of this death was now my fault.
With a sigh I reached up with my hand and probed the damage the bullet had left on the helmet.
'That was a good shot, had I not been wearing my helmet you'd have me dead to rights.' I thought and hesitated a moment before kneeling and reaching a hand towards the dead human's face. 'Rejoin the earth o defender of kin and hearth, may the rains carry the proud tears of your ancestors and may the winds bring your spirit to them.'
Straightening the body from its position curled around the pole I laid it out straight. Now that I was giving it the barest level of burial rights I could manage I found the human's bare hands discomforting. The human hadn't had a pair of gloves of any kind on or near him so I simply tucked his hands in his pockets. Looking over I picked up the revolver and considered taking it… shaking my head I laid it on his chest. It was far from the only revolver lying around.
This was honestly the most respect I had ever given any human both in action and in thought…
Greatly discomforted, I got up and turned away to loot a revolver and some ammo.
It hadn't taken long at all to find another revolver. I had even found some useful belts, a holster for said revolver, an ammo belt to hold revolver rounds and another for shotgun shells. Replacing my makeshift belt with an actual one I also put on a stachel I found. In it went a number of other belts I looted, with these supplies I'd eventually fashion another holster for my shotgun and something to safely strap my spear to. Something better than just me strapping it to my thigh with another belt anyway. Everybit of remaining space I had on me was filled with whatever ammunition I could scrounge up, which wasn't very much. Still it was enough to fill my belts and to leave a few spare in my purloined satchel. The next fight I was in I should be perfectly fine trading fire from a distance, though no telling how useful I'd actually be doing that.
Better than trying to close the distance.
"Ya done strapping yourself down yet?" Alfa demanded on my approach, it frowned at the sight of me struggling with my weapon. "What's the matter now?"
"This is a bit longer than I'm able to comfortably use." I admitted and began looking around. "Do you think the power is still working? Maybe I can use a saw to chop it down a bit."
"Meh, don't bother!" Alfa said before whistling and waving at something. "One of the first things I blew was their generator."
A crabmeat scuttled over, an older model too and rather battle damaged at that. It's dented and scratched form still functioned well enough however and it reached toward me with a pincer. Taking the hint I held the shotgun towards it and it quickly snipped off some of the barrel and stock. Not quite leaving me with a sawn off but now I had something far more comfortable to use.
"Problem solved!" Alfa said, brushing its hands together. "Now all that's left to do is check this place out. I already saw the town and there isn't much there anymore. Only one other place to check!"
Following his pointing finger I saw the mining pit and the tunneling holes dug into the rock walls by the prospectors.
I grimaced.
Oh how wonderful.
Now we get to see how greedily and deeply the humans dug into the earth.
-TBC-
Author Note: We are currently stuck in one place of the world but I eventually intend to bring the story to other places, do a bit of world building along the way and more importantly, develop Reginald as a character.