Gemini fired dual soundwaves at the ram’s left flank, with similar results. Ini’s waves bounced harmlessly off armor, and while Gem’s tagged him in the fleshy side. The wind lessened the impact, leaving only a shallow flesh wound.
Major leapt out of hiding and jaws clamped onto the ram’s hind leg. The monster bovid didn’t even break his stride and the poor cyworg got lightly trampled for his trouble. Major stood and shook himself off before resuming pursuit.
Orion frowned. This was going to be another tough fight. The mask and goggles helped him see but his ears were ringing from the near constant claps of thunder overhead. He saw and even felt the ground shaking as the multi-ton ram barreled towards him. As it neared, Orion swung back with Sunflare to try and knock it off course.
Steelwool’s head suddenly fired toward Orion on an extendable neck, hitting with the force of a cannonball. The unprepared warden wrapped around the metal skull like the hood of a car around an errant telephone pole. Bones shattered and the only thing that kept the Org from being instantly paralyzed was his reinforced cybernetic spine. Orion was propelled back and smashed into the side of a building hard enough to dent the wall behind him. At the same time his sledge slipped from suddenly numb fingers and scythed through the air, taking out a nearby spire and dislodging several battersheep.
The panicked bleating of the falling ewes distracted Steelwool, who turned his body slowly to watch as they fell. They landed heavily, kicking up dust clouds that were quickly swept away by the wind. Uttering a cry of distress he bounded over to the ewes to try and nudge them to their feet.
Orion finally slid down the wall as gravity overpowered the air current, landing heavily. He stood on shaky legs, recalling his hammer. Shaking the feeling back into his hands he looked at the phoenix circling him worriedly.
“I’m sorry, Sir!” Apus squawked, “I really didn’t see the Boss Mob until I met up with you!”
Orion coughed blood onto the back of his hand, “It’s fine. Just scan it for weaknesses.”
Apus squawked, “I can’t! He’s too high a level for me to see anything useful!”
Orion groaned, “Just keep trying.” While their opponent was distracted, he nodded to Gemini and Major. As one they charged, Orion with a raised hammer and the others with teeth and claws.
Orion brought down a full overhand swing that smashed a cylinder and splashed purple goop everywhere. The explosion of fire from the hit was enough to turn the armor red hot for a brief moment. The ram’s knees buckled and he went down. The tank of a sheep started to push to his feet, but Gemini collided with his legs. Their tail caught the back of a knee and they drove in circles, entangling him. Unbalanced, the ram took the full brunt of Major’s attack, teeth and claws trying to shear through the metal like a can opener. Blue blood squirted from the wound and the ovine bellowed with rage.
Orion took advantage of the restraining ratillacs to swing again. Steelwool saw the movement and stomped down with his front hooves. The force of the metal legs striking the ground caused a pillar of stone to push out of the earth, creating a wall that blocked the hammer blow. Cracks formed along the slab as Sunflare connected with it, causing Orion’s hands to sting from the ringing blow. The ram’s head smashed through the weakened barrier, sending sharp chunks of rock at the Org. Shards pierced him in the thigh, bicep and several places along the chest. Orion was forced to step back and pull the shrapnel out of his body.
Apus landed on his shoulder, “That was a Geo elemental attack. We’d need Hydro to stop him! Pyro won’t be effective!”
Orion cursed, “Dammit!”
Steelwool tried to move forward but the two animal companions halted his movements. The massive ram whipped his body sharply and finally flung the desperately clinging cyworg away with a yelp. Steelwool looked between his legs and saw Gemini huddled together, their tail a tight noose around the Ram’s knees. Gem gave him a nervous wave.
A chill went down his spine as Orion saw cold intelligence calculating in the piercing violet eye. Shifting his weight, the ram lifted his back legs, causing Gemini to dangle helplessly. This lasted mere seconds before he leaned back and the thick hooves came down on Ini with a sickening crunch! Gem barely had time to wub out in pain before the Rattilac King pixilated and teleported back to the Stables to recover.
“My babies!” Orion roared, throwing down a bloody sliver of stone.
Orion shifted his weight, and Sunflare went wide in a full baseball swing, colliding with the Ram’s metallic side. The metal caved in, and the flame burst ignited fur patches. Major danced back and snapped his jaws forward, metal fangs clamping onto the segmented neck. While this itself did not do much damage, the canister attached to the side of Steelwool’s face came loose.
In a desperate move, the wounded animal jerked his body to the side and pistoned its neck forward. Still latched on, Major was jerked off his feet. When the head suddenly stopped, sparks kicked up as the cyworg's teeth scraped the neck before he was flung away. Major rolled to a stop, but Steelwool didn't let up. The horned head pulled back into the creature's body as it bolted forward, the ground thudding with its heavy tread. Before Major could fully return to his feet, the anvil-like skull collided with the prone canine. The blow sent Major flying, parts dislodged from his front legs, and the shoulder joint crumpled under the impact.
Major struggled to get up, but every move caused the cybernetic prosthetic to pull away from his body, only wires and a few determined screws keeping the front leg from completely disconnecting.
"My son!" Orion roared.
Assessing that the cyworg was no longer a threat, the dented, leaking ram turned to face Orion. It pawed the ground, snorting against the howling wind. Orion's grip tightened on the battle sledge. He felt a rib pop back into place as his combat regeneration worked overtime. Pulling his mask down, Orion pressed a thumb to his nostril and blew a bloody globule out of his nose. A literal fucking tumbleweed had the audacity to roll between the two combatants during their sudden high noon showdown.
"This town's not big enough for the two of us, pardner." Orion cracked his neck. Shadows gathered around them, and the rest of the herd formed a circle around them. Purple eyes peered through the dusty air, watching the battle drag on. The Org and ram stared each other down, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Not a muscle moved, not a single twitch.
Despite the breeze, Orion felt himself sweating. Then, as if on cue, lighting bolts struck all five buildings around the makeshift arena and filled the clearing with blinding light and deafening sound.
Steelwool surged forward, but Orion was already activating
Steelwool's neck clicked and shot out when he got into range. In that split second, Orion dodged to the side, dropping Sunflare and grabbing for the horns. When his fingers wrapped around the crystal, Orion heaved with all his might and twisted the skull like a steering wheel. Steelwool’s eyes widened with surprise as his momentum put additional pressure on the extended neck. Metal creaked as internal pistons twisted and bent, the body forced to follow or have its head completely ripped off.
The batteram tilted and crashed to the ground, causing deep furrows in the dirt as it skidded to a stop. Its neck was bent at an angle, and the wounds leaked viscous black and purple liquid over the scarred body. Steelwool seemed to be panting heavily, laying there defeated. The battersheep around them started bleating in protest, cries of fear and anguish at their fallen leader. It sounded like a parking lot full of car alarms going off simultaneously.
Orion summoned his hammer back to his hands. As pathetic as the downed creature looked, this one was too dangerous to leave unsupervised. He walked closer to the beast and stood over it. The violet eye stared up at him defiantly, the legs digging at the soil to try and right itself. Orion shook his head sadly.
"Sorry, big fellah, but you're a danger to my people." Orion raised Sunflare over his head, overclocked muscles bulging with an almost audible creak.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
A tiny blue batterlamb suddenly plodded in front of the suffering animal. It has a similar design, a little extendable neck, and a baby skull head with amethyst nubs for horns. It bleated like a bicycle horn at him. It pranced nervously, little poofy tail waggling frantically. Too brave for its age, it bounded forward and shot his little head forward, bonking Orion's knee with as much force as a thrown tennis ball. It honked again and bounced more before the poor thing's legs locked up, and it tumbled to the side like an overturned table.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Orion lowered Sunflare and glanced at Apus.
The phoenix preened unconcernedly and answered the unasked question, "At your level, you can have only two active combat beasts. However, you can retain up to twenty partners in your stables."
The hammer was tucked away in the weapon wheel, and Orion scooped up the honking baby ram. With the protesting tyke tucked under his arm, Orion knelt before Steelwool. The heated glare turned into concern, the boss batteram's gaze flicking from the Org to the struggling batterlamb. Orion smiled and held out a hand.
[Orion Starbeard would like to form a partnership with Steelwool]
Two days later, Max was overlooking the crater. His Colony map was open and expanded to overlap the crater with the translucent screen. He tapped dark spots on the map, marking locations for downed sonic mining tanks. If he could get his hands on some of those, they could scrap them for parts, fix them for mining, or even convert them to sonic turrets. He was interested in the latter, hoping to increase their defense in case of another robombie swarm.
Or if case any of the terraworms got too feisty and decided to hunt closer to home. He wasn't sure what kept the worms from leaving the crater, but the few times he saw one breach the surface made him grateful they stayed put. He didn't relish facing off with one of them, even if Orion was here. Unfortunately, he was running out of options. Eventually, he'd have to brave the crater to retrieve the vehicles. That was assuming any of them were still functional.
That would have to come later. Max was recovering well, but his movements were still sluggish. On top of the shattered ribs, he'd dislocated his knee in the stegosaurus attack. He was wearing a high tech leg brace, basically an armored exoskeleton, but it still hobbled him. In any case, he'd promised Junip to take it easy, take more of an administrative role in the enforcement of law in Phoenix.
Junip insisted that Ssteev accompanied Max to keep an eye on him, and the Jrassk youth was smart enough not to refuse. The lad proved himself to be bright, if skittish, and Max found that he enjoyed his company. He was one of the youngest inmates on the planet, but he showed promise. If someone just took Ssteev under their wing, he might flourish out here.
He'd have to talk to Junip. Ze'd been talking about starting a family after all, maybe-
"There's another one." Ssteev interrupted his thoughts, pointing to movement.
Max slid the map to the side and pulled up another window. He scanned the bulge in the silt as the terraworm's back rose to the surface. The computer compared the cybernetic patterns on the body to the others he'd recorded, and the screen went red, X-ing out the image. No Match.
"That makes at least five unique adult worms," Max frowned, "I don't like those odds."
"I don't even think Mr. Starbeard could do it," Ssteev added nervously. "Those things are bigger than a brontosaurus. And we wouldn't even see them coming."
Max agreed, "We need to be smart about this. Maybe we could get some kind of winch and drag the sonic cannons up."
Ssteev pulled up the colony menu, "We could try building a vehicle hangar. If we could get a hover barge made, we could try to lift them straight up. But our colony must be level three before we can construct heavy equipment."
Max pulled up his crater map again and continued scanning, "Who knows how long that will take? Phoenix isn't even level three yet." Before he could close the window, a notification popped up with a Colony Announcement.
[Phoenix Colony has reached LVL 3!
You have introduced cattle into your community, increased your long-term sustainability, and now have access to new Building Recipes!
Building speed decreased by 10%! Buildings require 5% fewer resources!
Rewards:
+1 Colony Leader Unlocked!
+10 Guards added!
+75 Colonists added!]
"Are you kidding me? Cattle? Wait, does this have anything to do with those microraptors you spotted in the zoo? The ones you sent Gunmetal to fetch?" Max muttered, "Are you sure those weird lizard birds are suitable egg producers for the colony?"
"Oh yes, Sir! That was a lucky find! The Jrraassk section had domesticated dinos in the petting zoo. Microraptors are similar to your Terran chickens, meant to thrive in all sorts of environments as a food source. Good starter livestock. Dumb as a brick, and they bite, but really tasty." Ssteev pointed behind Max, "But as for the cattle, I think it has something to do with that."
Max turned to see what Ssteev was looking at. Trotting across the bridge towards Phoenix was Orion, riding on top of Major Canis. Behind him, causing the bridge to sway under its massive bulk, was the biggest ram Max had ever seen. Its fur was patchy white, and both the metal plating and furred flank were pockmarked with scars. It looked like a pickup truck with hooves. Following in a loyal line behind the monster was a parade of smaller, less threatening sheep.
These woolly critters had fewer metal bits and light pink fur, some even had heavy lavender udders swaying beneath them. The older ewes were fiercely guarding a few playful lambs who stumbled and played, some of them headbutting each other with extendable necks.
Max's jaw dropped. As Orion got closer, the digital map screen flicked to black, reloaded, and then updated itself. Max pinched the screen to minimize the crater and saw that some of the fog of war had cleared. Most of the outline of the crater could be seen now, but more notably were the two new areas.
Symbols of a skateboard on a ramp and another with pointed rocks appeared, the names ‘Boltsoda Swamp’ and ‘Lightning Spires’ labeling them. The swamp has a silhouette of some kind of bird which, when selected, brought up a CODEX entry for flairmingos.
"Well, it seems like sending our little explorer out into the world is already paying dividends." Max closed the map. "Let's go greet the conquering hero, son."
"Sir?" Ssteev asked uncertainly.
Max waved the slip away, "Just a term of endearment, soldier. Pay this old man no mind." Even with his limp, Max was able to get ahead of the procession.
As Orion spotted Max, he reined Major in and slipped him off his back. "Show them the way home, boy." Orion gave the cyworg ear scritches and then patted the scarred hide of the batteram. "Aries, follow your brother. He'll take you to someplace safe for your herd to live."
The huge ram snorted and honked at the gathering flock, then rumbled after Major with the unconcerned air of a king among beloved subjects. More royalty of the animal kingdom had entered Phoenix, bowing only to the colony's own monarch.
Said monarch yelled after the retreating batteram, "And you better apologize to Gemini when you see them! I don't want you two fighting!"
Aries looked back with a haughty expression and bleated softly.
"I mean it!" Orion folded his arms, "They were just doing their job."
Aries nodded and continued trudging forward, tail drooping.
Orion smiled at Max, "He's a good boy. Very protective, I think he'll be a good fit. Good to see you up, Max. How did you get so badly hurt, anyway?"
"It's not that bad," Max protested, folding his own arms defensively.
Ssteev blurted, "He was attacked by a stegosaurus in the zoo, Mr. Starbeard."
"There's dinosaurs in this ga-planet? Wait, we have a zoo?" Orion threw his arms out, "I'm a warden, and no one thought to mention there was a literal zoo we have access to? Where is it?"
Max narrowed his eyes at Orion’s slip of the tongue. Ignoring it for now, he took the opportunity to deflect attention away from his injuries. "It was the big domed building you helped us secure down below. There's a zoo with flora and fauna from six different homeworlds. We also discovered information about how the dome affects the Cy-Orgs."
Orion’s brow creased. "Cy-Orgs?"
"Gunmetal coined the term. It's what he's been calling the things you call robombies," Max explained. "It sort of anthropomorphizes them. Makes ‘em feel less like robot monsters to take down and more like victims of a computer virus. It's curtailed the guards from taking them out indiscriminately."
Orion put his hands on his hips, "Cy-Orgs, huh? Yeah, that…that's heavy. Oof. Now I feel bad for taking out whole city blocks of the things."
"You did what you had to do to protect your people," consoled Max. "That's war. You never instigated a fight, and you were the one stopping us from doing so, too. You're a good guy, Orion."
"If y-you say s-so." Orion stuttered, his body jerking. He looked down to see a little blue batteram headbutting him in the knees. Orion scooped up the baby batterlamb and patted his wiggling back. "Personally, I feel like a monster."
Several of the pink battersheep had settled down near him, relaxing in the waning sunlight. Apus flew down from the sky and landed on Orion's shoulder, fluffing his feathers. Gemini came running up the hill with their cyworg pup friend riding on Ini's trunk. The Ratillac King ran to hug the Org's legs, joyful symphony music playing through their speakers. The cyworg puppy jumped down and rolled over at Orion's feet, demanding belly rubs.
Ssteev looked Orion over, "Well, you look like you're about to break into song and clean your house with the help of your animal friends."
Max busted out laughing. This was painful and caused him to double over as his ribs contracted. By the time he finished wheezing, there were tears in his eyes. Whether from pain or laughter was anyone's guess. He waved off their concern as both men tried to help ineffectually.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Worth it, that was hilarious!" Max took a steadying breath, "But Ssteev's right. You only ever did what you had to. Being a leader comes with hard decisions. Now, come along. Get some rest, it looks like you need it. Tomorrow's Sanday, I can fill you in on what you missed, and you can tell us about your adventures."