Author's note: I do not own the characters except for Zeera. I do not own the game Kenshi.
Beep The Happy Little Drone
Mongrel, a place in the center of the entire Fog that is full of danger just to get to the gate of the city. Screams of pain and bones crunching echo in the fog along with the sounds of crunching bones. Nearly day and night there are waves of creatures called Fog-men or dead-hivers, trying to get past the guards at the gates. A tall person in samurai armor, a neck harvester on their back and a bone-wolf helmet. Piercing blue eyes glared out from the sockets of their helmet, lips pursed as they scanned their surroundings. Of course, they made it through the fog but with some bruising from the fog-men. Fog-men…damn nasty hivers, slaves to the parasites in their head.
Narrowing their eyes, they reached up to remove their bone-dog helmet revealing a shek woman beneath it. The bone-dog helmet custom made to make holes for her horns. Zeera made her way toward the Mongrel Bar to get something to eat and drink while she listened to stories of other travelers.
"I swear, I escaped with my life, but those dead soulless eyes will forever haunt me…" commented a customer.
"Before I got here, I swear I saw a normal looking hiver get taken in by the fog and I saw something burrow its way into the bugman's head. It was terrifying!" Said another.
Hearing that was enough to send chills down her spine as Zeera ordered herself a meal and a drink then made her way to an empty table. She sat back with her arms crossed as she watched the other patrons come in and out of the bar. Some drunk out of their skulls that they had to be helped to find the door. Some just brooding in the corner and others just passed out drunk also drooling on the table they slept on.
She rolled her eyes then looked over toward the door to see a little drone come into the bar. She tilted her head as she observed the little hiver try to join a group of warriors, mercenaries saying they could learn to become strong like them. She felt for the little drone as she used to be the same way but she had to find her own path. Perhaps…she could aide the drone on his path. Looking up she took notice of a server coming to drop her food off, gohan and rum. She nodded her thanks, gave them the Cats to pay for it and started in on her meal a little at a time after they left. She placed her gaze on the drone again, watching him move from one group of mercenaries to the other. The little bugman begging to join them in their group but he was pushed to the ground, the poor guy.
She grunted a bit then went back to her meal while she watched the hiver get up and dust himself off. Soon enough all hell broke loose in the city as an alert sounded nearby then a shout of warning, "THEY BROKE THROUGH! THE FOG-MEN ARE IN THE CITY!" Zeera stood up along with the other fighters in the bar, she grabbed her neck harvester and helmet then took off out the bar. She looked around, taking notice of the shops closing to prevent the fog-men from getting to them but that didn't stop the biggest one from trying to take a club to the door to get through. These fog-men only had one thing on their mind, food. She narrowed her hues, put her helmet on and started in on the fog-men, though the small ones are easy it's the large and tall dumb ones that are the brutes of the fog-men.
Zeera kept at it with the small ones till she heard a shout for help. She turned her attention to the little hiver on the ground trying to defend itself from a fog-heavy and about to get more attention from the others around it. She narrowed her eyes, kicked her current opponent out of her way and ran towards the hiver on the ground. "Dead-hiver!" She shouted which got its attention. It gave a screech, as if shouting how dare you! She didn't like the thought of that thing actually talking, she prefers it brainless and starving.
It fully turned its attention to her and charged with bone club raised to mindlessly fight her. She didn't give it a chance to connect as she tackled it to the ground. Turning on her knee, she swung out her harvester scythe just as a fog heavy was going to bare down on her with its serrated teeth. She had no time to think as she brought an armored fist up, bashing its jaws shut before it could bite her.
Blue blood sprayed along the ground as she dispatched one dead-hiver after the other, leaving a mini massacre of bodies around her. She snatched up the little hiver off the ground and brought it behind her. The poor thing clung to her leg, beat up and bruised. She knew the little guy was not cut out for heavy fights like this, but she couldn't think about that right now.
More dead-hivers were coming but they seemed to start dwindling as guards finally gained their footing from this large onslaught. She started to beat more of them back with them though none of these dead-hivers had a sense for survival and kept trying to swarm her with a weak hiver clinging to her hips. Just eat! eat! eat! Hell, one even stopped to eat a fresh corpse on the ground twenty feet from where she stood. She shuddered the thought of nearly becoming that corpse not moments ago.
"Beep sees dead hivers retreating with corpses and live people!" The little hiver pointed out. So that's the little guy's name. She kept that mental note, "focus!" She shouts as she grabbed him by the waist of his pants when a heavy dead-hiver grabbed him thinking she wasn't looking. She twirled around, her weapon gleamed in the light as the soulless hiver's head rolled away from its fallen body. She snorted then placed Beep back on the ground and looked at him once they were safe, she let the guards do their work now that there is no longer alarm for dead-hivers coming through the gates.
Beep stood there down casted and kicking a little pebble around, hands behind his back. Zeera took a deep breath and released it as she watched him, gears turning in her head as she thought of what to do with him. She took in his appearance, he looks pathetic, but I can't really talk… She groaned then rubbed the bridge of her nose; her eyes shut tight as she tried to think. I did think about helping him…oh boy, I hope he learns fast… "Alright Beep, you're weak when it comes to face-to-face combat but…there's probably something else for you to work on that gives a less likely chance to die…" She says to him which brightened up his features when he looked up at her excitedly. "Beep can join you?!" The hiver wanting to make sure he heard her correctly. Zeera nodded, "yes but you will have to learn a different way of staying alive, just not close combat, alright?" He nodded profusely and hugged her around the waist not knowing what personal space is as well as not releasing her while she's trying to push him off but to no avail. "I won't be the one to teach you, but I will protect you. We'll head back to the Hub soon. I've got some friends there that will teach you some other useful things to survive." Beep squeaked when she snagged him by the waist of his pants to be eye to eye with her, "now stop that." She drops him and he quickly got up to follow after her like a puppy.
"What about the live people that are going to be food?" Beep asks as he looked up at her with big round eyes. Zeera shrugged that's when the blood curdling screams began. She looked at Beep, "survival comes in all forms..."
Author's Note: Phew! I been working on this chapter as a one shot and there will be more one shots to come. Please be patient as I will do my best to post the next one shot next Friday, if not then at the latest on Saturdays. Feel free to give me some feedback on what I could work on to improve my work. Thank you and I can't wait to post the next one! ^_^