“How about infect bricks?” transmitted a robotic voice.
Explosions start appearing in the distance. If she looks up at them, she would see an orange Minifig-shaped figure flying around erratically. It held a massive gun, briefly turning around to fire off explosive energy blasts at its pursuers before resuming its retreat.
The things chasing it were two Stormlings. Looked like the Maelstrom had infected some old space drones and they were viciously trying to tear the orange figure apart.
Blacktron 6 would find plenty of good news this morning. The Pluuvians had gifted Planet X2 1/2 to them and, with a bit more pushing, might give themselves up entirely to the Blacktron Empire. They were among the last enemies of Earth to not stand with them. The invaders of Mars were already taken and it seemed their puppet was still in control of Zotax. Holox was still not theirs, but the bugs were at least keeping the Zotaxians busy. No word on their status yet.
Status on the military looked good. Everything was producing as foreseen, no major delays. Seemed that Hero Factory had not caught on to their copy of their factory and designs. That brain attack fiasco worked surprisingly well and the Star Justice hasn’t suspected of any other copy facilities. Otherwise, if they really wanted to, they probably could take Mars easily.
The only bad news was some colonies reporting an increase in Maelstrom activity. That was the case everywhere. Infection was spreading and at some point they would have to deal with it. For now, it was a manageable threat. @Keplers
The spider jumped back and looked quite unnerved as she yelled out in her own robotic wispy tone, “Hey! That’s…that’s messed up!” she shivered as she walked back, “Who just shows someone something off of Brickleak like that? That’s not right, no no no, who are you? Where are you?” she shivered looking around with a paranoid glare at the bricks slotted into their places.
She twitched her mandibles nervously chittering as she looked around. Was he here? Was it a game?
Her hands shook a little as she looked back at the computer screen, “Are…are you here? What…do you want?”
“Assistance would be appreciated,” the robot says, this one clearly coming from the flying orange one as it flies over her home.
It gets a lucky shot and explodes of the Infected Probes to pieces. Though the other now spots her place and gets distracted by all the stuff it could snag.
Ib saw the pod fall from the sky. Whatever it was must have had an interesting power source, and it had been too long since she tasted something new. She followed its trajectory, using the cover of the trees to mask her approach. She arrived in time to see a cowboy and an alien free another alien from the pod. She stayed in the trees trying to hear what they were saying to one another.
There’s a small hum, a mechanical whirl of light and delight. The asteroid’s surface opened up with a large grey, and the black machine lifted from the surface with a heavy click.
Glowing orange light, practically radiated off of the thing as it hummed louder. Energy practically crackled off its surface in thin lightning streaks as the spider tapped on a laptop. Shields beacons lit up around the base, round large canisters sending orange light straight over vital locations on the asteroid.
Then there was the snap, the loud ear-popping snap. Two large rectangular cubes lifted from either side of the now very obvious rail canon. Each snapped out large tractor beams to the two beings one on the astronaut and the other on the maelstrom menace.
It was at this point. The railgun slammed back, letting a shattering boom that echoed through the artificial environment. The swirling fusion of energy practically screamed before snapping out in a large tendril of sheer power at the Maelstrom drone sending out enough energy to crack through a ship’s shields at it.
The Infected Probe is quite easily vaporized. The orange robot continues to fly past, trying to make sure the “civilian” wasn’t going to vaporize him too.
“Thank you for assistance. Is ownership of that weapon approved?”
Perhaps they might spot them, but most will notice as the fog creeps in and the area grows cold. For those that can see them, yellow glowing figures were floating towards the crash site.
“Uhhh, yeah,” Olivia says. “I’m asking for your name. You know what that means, don’t you?” Bjerk leans forward, scanning her collar.
" ‘Pilot, Rank Five: Khimon,’ " says a tinny voice from the brick in his hand. “I believe that makes your name Khimon, yes? A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“How the brick did you figure that one out?”
“It’s written on her collar in a Zotaxian dialect. By all evidence, she is a Zotaxian, a pilot in their military.”
“Well that’s-”
“-nice.” Olivia shivers. She steps away from the others, looking in worry as the fog creeps in.
“Hey Bjerk?”
“Yes Olivia? Is there something amiss?”
“Get in the suit.” Bjerk turns as well, examining the fog.
“Is such inclement weather unusual? I had assumed that this was simply a product of this planet’s unique climate.”
She chittered, “I have heard no complaints myself about it. Quite handy when bandits come clambering about where they aren’t wanted you see,” the x-podian said with a chuckle.
The robot stops its flying pattern as it seems the civilian was friendly. He floats towards her direction, given her a better look. It appeared to be one of the Galaxy Squad robots, the last generation of the smaller Roboforce androids before being discontinued by the advent of Hero Factory. Though it’s helmet was different from the typical Orange Team robots.
“Cannot disagree. Big firepower is an excellent deterrent. If it is alright, may I do a bio-scan on you? It is part of my mission.”
Khimon looks past the two strange people, eyes draw to the luminous shapes a ways away. The infantry suit around the pilot’s body is beeping, internal readings warning of nonphysical entities being near.
The pilot is not paying attention. They are trying to reach out toward the others, trying to pry and pick out any thoughts that might drift to the outermost bits of the strange nonphysicals’ minds. Something, anything. An identifier, a random memory.
The effort feels like pins and needles inside Khimon’s head.
“Please, do not strain yourself,” comes the tinny voice from the brick. “If a problem occurs, myself and my associate are more than capable of handling it.” Bjerk puts up a hand, gently trying to hold Khimon in place. Olivia pulls her pistol from her belt, pulling back the hammer. She isn’t paying attention to the others, looking out into the trees beyond.
At least one word constantly floats around in Khimon’s head as they try to look inside: wild. However, it isn’t long before they could be heard and more properly seen.
“I told you it was more spacemen!” Exclaimed a male sounding voice. He had messy short hair, glowing spectacles, a lab coat, a sweater with a bowtie, and was holding some sort of a controller.
“Fine! You were right! Let’s get rid of them.” The other grumbled, more feminine sounding. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, had clear googles, a lab coat with some button-down ■■■■■ underneath, and was holding a tablet.
The two yellow ghosts were coming much faster now, with the male charging up a blast. Though a third yellow ghost suddenly appears not far to the group’s left. This one had a graduation cap, some ceremonial robes/coat, possibly a full suit underneath, and held a ruler.
“You space rangers never learn! Lady E said no!” This third ghost exclaimed.
The spider materialized in front of the robot using some sort of retro teleportation technology that had a very obvious orange hue. The spider paused mandibles twitching as the Minifigure half crossed her arms, “Er, may I ask why? Seems a bit odd to be honest with you here…”
“Okay, hold up; let’s calm down and talk this through.” Olivia holds up a placating hand, though her gun remains at the ready. “Never heard of a ‘Lady E’ before, so I think this is all a misunderstanding. Let’s just take a minute, chat it out, and if you want us to leave, we’ll leave. Simple, right?”
Bjerk stays quiet, turning away from Khimon and slowly inching back towards his suit. If people were going to start shooting… well, he didn’t want to be out here.
“To ensure no Maelstrom infection has entered your system from the battle and [classified]. However, I will not perform the scan without your consent.” The robot answers.
“And classified hm?” She chittered with a chuckle, “Very formal, very formal, what’s a classified?” she said with mirth in her chittering as she continued, “Very strange little bot you are, very strange…”
Words. Names. Colors and lights they are getting closer and they are fighting.
The pilot skitters backward, until bumping into the back of the pod with a clang. They crane their head up toward the ghosts, raising a hand as if to ward off the oncoming threat.
Repel them. Enemies. Repel.
The pilot’s other hand moves upward to join the first, as if by this one gesture they could repel the ghosts.
Oliva’s claim does give the ghosts pause. Not enough to stop the initial two from getting within ten feet of them, the one still holding a charged blast, but they don’t attack. They look amongst each other confused.
“You’re lying!” The screeches the cap wearing ghost.
“Never heard? How. This is her lands. No living are allowed without being gloomed!” The lady ghost adds.
“Unless you have a–Where are you from?” The controller one asks.
“No! You can’t be serious. We aren’t entertaining this. You know what she’ll do if she finds out.” The cap one rebukes.
“Information my programming is preventing me from sharing, due to its sensitive nature.” The robot responds.
“Very ominous,” she chuckled, “But I’d like a bit more information before I start sharing myself. Who do you work for little one?” She exclaimed, now making it very apparent that she was a lot taller than said bot, “Bit odd for strangers to come requesting full body scans so I trust you understand my apprehension yes?”
