“Dat the best you can do, ya wet sock grifter?” Jackson mocked, as Ronin got back to his feet again. “Whuts da matter, to dizzy in a dame to chisel a win? I bet ya…” He let the words wash over him, in a steady stream of half understood invectives.
Ronin and Jackson were in the engine room, where he’d set up a short-term base camp for himself. His intention was to work on the armored suits round the clock until he had them all working again. He’d had a quick conference with K6, Karr, K3 and Elyria before Karr took his, now diminished, squad and boarded the hard-won SWAT craft. Where they would follow along behind and get Ronin an accurate count of what was on board.
He’d wanted to know who the best candidates for the armored suits would be, once he got them working again. The vote had been unanimous on the part of his people. Ronin would wear, or pilot, the first suit he fixed from then on. Ronin had been shocked at that, thinking someone with more training would be a better fit for the job. It was Elyria who convinced him in the end.
“Look, White Flame,” she’d said after a brief discussion, Ronin refused to call an argument. “Like it or not, your life is tied to our world, and all the people you are fighting so hard to save. Unless Owl Two finds a way to disconnect you from that, your death ends the world we came from. So, shut up and wear the damn armor. If you think someone with more training would be a better fit, then practice your ass off.” Ronin had done just that, diving headfirst into repairing the least damaged suit, so he could become proficient in operating it as quickly as possible.
“Get ur head in the game, Crumb.” Jackson said, landing a gauntleted fist on his unprotected face. Ronin shook his head to clear the stars from his vision and brought himself back to the present. K3 had shown up with Jackson some six or seven hours after Ronin started working on the armored suits. He’d told Ronin he’d spend one hour in four, learning how to take a beating, at least until he could defend himself.
Jackson had been the perfect choice for the job, assuming the job was to beat Ronin within an inch of his life. The street brawler harbored some serious anger over the fate of her leaders, and her boyfriend being left behind. Ronin didn’t think there was anything she wanted more than to beat him to death for his part in what happened. Unfortunately, despite her skill level, she wasn’t strong enough to put him down barehanded. At least not before K3 stepped in to stop her.
“Time,” K3 called. A good thing too, because Jackson had gotten Ronin on the ground and was pounding him relentlessly with her armored fists. The beating had gone on for at least three minutes, and Ronin hadn’t been able to find an opening to escape. When time was called, the gangster got in a few more blows, before she reluctantly got off a beaten and battered Ronin, not offering him so much as a hand up or a goodbye before she left the compartment.
“You ok boss?” K3 asked, as he helped a groaning Ronin off the floor.
“I’ll live,” Ronin said through split lips. “I’d live a lot more comfortably, if I could use the med unit, or a shot of health potion though.” He said, referring to the pink enhanced nutrient fluid. That had been his fifth session. At a rough count he had five more to go before they arrived at the mountain. The pain of being beaten bloody every four hours was starting to add up.
“Sorry boss,” the kaldarr said, not giving an inch. “You need to learn how to take a hit, and how to work through that pain. If you got healed up after every fight, the lesson wouldn’t stick as well. Besides, we won’t always have access to the med unit, or the enhanced fluid. I think putting the whole troop on a diet of straight tree sap from now on will be beneficial to us in the long run.
“Aahhhgg,” Ronin groaned in frustration. “Fine, do it.” He said, resting his palms against the puffy sides of his face. Their bodies could live off the straight tree sap, but it wasn’t as effective and required them to ‘eat’ more often. The beetles had gotten around that with their harvester machines. Like making maple syrup, it filtered out all the unneeded filler and left behind only the thickest, most potently distilled nutrient drink. Reducing the amount needed to fuel a body by quite a bit. Again, however, if they were forced to work in the field for an extended period, they wouldn’t have access to a harvester, or the distilling functions it provided.
“Here,” the giant said with a chuckle, tossing Ronin an aphid’s crystal core. “Suck on that. It will take the edge off, and they are readily available in the field.” Catching the pink crystal, Ronin looked it over thoughtfully. He’d almost forgotten about the cores, with everything that had been happening lately. They were a ‘naturally occurring’ distillery. Where the sap was filtered and condensed into its purest form and stored in the tree bug’s head. There were numerous uses for the things, but they were mainly used to power shipboard equipment. They could also be eaten. The condensed sap would dissolve in their saliva, like a hard candy, giving a boost to the body. Acting similar to a healing pill from a cultivation novel.
“Thanks, big guy,” Ronin said gratefully, popping the pill into his mouth. “It never ceases to amaze me just how thorough the elder race was when they designed the beetles.” He stretched his arms and legs, shaking out his cramping fingers as the slowly dissolving crystal boosted his body’s recovery rate.
“That’s true.” K3 said with a nod. “It makes me worry though.”
“Why’s that?” Ronin asked, taken aback. “The inventions have been incredibly convenient so far.”
“Because the ancients, or the elder race, made the lizards too. It would surprise me, if they didn’t make their tech just as comprehensive and, convenient, as they made the beetles.” Ronin nearly choked on the crystal pill when he heard that. A dreadful thought he hadn’t even considered.
When he’d first heard about the lizards, he’d made a few assumptions that had proven to be a little off, once he’d taken the time to read Owl two’s notes. He’d assumed the lizards were an entirely different form of life from the beetles, and that when they came to earth, they’d terraform it again for their own needs. A foolish thought in hindsight, because why would the elders make multiple races who couldn’t all breathe the same air as them?
“That is actually really terrifying.” Ronin said as he thought over the entry he’d read on the elders. They were an old race, who’d outgrown their own planet and turned expansionist. There was a lot of minutiae to read through, but in summary, they’d run out of empty planets to colonize. So, they made the lizards, to wipe out the species already living on the planets they wanted. Then, they made the beetles, to terraform the conquered worlds. By the time they showed up in person, the planets were already a paradise for their race.
It was a good strategy, only they got complacent. Ronin didn’t know the details, but eventually, the lizards had turned on them, wiping them from existence. Before turning their sights on the rest of the galaxy. They’d been doing their best to wipe out all life ever since, over the however many thousands of millions of years had passed since they went rogue.
The beetles, along with the other races the elders had made, continued to do what they were designed for. In the beetle’s case that meant colonizing new planets, then moving on. They had spread out, further and further into the empty void of space to find the rare planet, or moon, which had atmosphere but wasn’t already inhabited by sapient life. It made Ronin wonder just how many planets there were now, made into the ideal paradise for the elders, who would never inhabit them. Shaking his head, he turned to K3.
“All the more reason for me to get back to work on these suits then.” He said, noting thankfully that the swelling in his mouth had gone down, thanks to the crystal core. “Beetles might not have been designed to fight, but humans, kaldarr, elves and, well all of us really, don’t share that problem. We’ll learn and adapt. We’ll have to retreat this time, but that won’t always be the case.” He was speaking with confidence for his follower’s sake, more confident than he felt if he were being honest. Still, it’s what K3 said he needed to learn, so he’d do his best.
The kaldarr nodded in understanding, leaving Ronin to his work. It was harder to focus now than it had been the day before, thanks to his many beatings. He chose to look at that as additional training, however, and pushed through the pain. Moving back over to the large fabrication unit, Ronin accessed the digital rendition of the suit he’d made, using the fabricator’s scanner, once he’d removed the armor plates.
He loved how easy the beetle tech was to use now that he’d forced himself to learn. His ship given knowledge helped with his understanding as well, as long as he didn’t think too deeply about it. The armored suit was actually fairly simple in design, not much different from the exosuits Ronin had captured from the color force. The main difference being the armored plates themselves, and the more robust hydraulic pistons that powered the suit’s movements. Ronin hadn’t been overly surprised when he'd found out the composites that comprised the armor and the frames, were crystal tree products. Nor that the liquid they’d used in the pistons had been distilled from the trees. Heck, even the wiring had been made from conductive materials harvested from the wasps.
He had half expected to find the battery running off some strange form of energy the trees produced as well. There at least, he’d been disappointed. The suit’s power unit itself was a solid-state battery composed entirely of crystal, but the energy it stored was run of the mill electricity. Feeling curious, he popped the cover off his rifle compressor to find it held a similar battery. Plain though electricity may be, the sheer amount of power these batteries held astounded Ronin, who’d only ever known his USB external battery back home in the caves.
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Reading through the component list, the scan, and the many samples the unit had taken using small tentacle arms, Ronin was astounded to realize all the materials were easily accessible from the crystal trees. As his enthusiasm ramped up and he began seeing his whole crew wearing these heavy suits in battle, however, he noticed the rarity of some of the conductive components, not to mention the battery itself. The skeleton and the armored plates were easy enough to come by, even the pistons could be quickly produced. The resources needed to create the system that actually powered it though… he’d have to strip-mine thirty crystal trees to make just one suit.
Ronin had to think about how it was possible to make them at all for a while before he realized it didn’t have to be all or nothing. If he had several people slowly harvesting resources from several trees at once, all the time, then after a certain point he would just always have what he needed. That must be how the beetles did things, just taking a little from every tree, over centuries of time. When one could just download their brain into a world of their own creation, and change the flow of time inside, what did time matter anymore? Just pop out in one hundred years when the trees had made what was needed.
Although he would have to put his plans of an armor suited army on hold, Ronin didn’t have to worry about fixing these four sets. The power systems were intact, so all he had to do was remove all the damaged pieces and print new ones to replace them with. It was still going to be a matter of time, but only days or weeks of it, instead of years. For now, at least, his focus was on taking the suits apart and scanning each piece into the fabricator. He also saved a copy onto his tablet, just in case. Then once everything was saved, he could start printing.
“Boss, it’s time for your next lesson.” K3 said, voice interrupting Ronin’s concentration as he was removing a panel, and he fumbled with the screwdriver, causing a bolt to go rolling away. Before he could scramble after it, a large black boot lightly stepped down on it, halting its roll. “Sorry boss, didn’t mean to startle you.” The giant said, stooping down to pick up the bolt and handing it back to Ronin.
“Thanks,” Ronin said, accepting the bolt. “Wait, did you say it was time for my next lesson?” He asked incredulously. “It’s only been an hour, tops. What are you on about?” Glancing down at the display on his tablet, Ronin frowned. Sure as anything, three hours had passed without his even noticing. “Really? There’s no way…”
“Ha-ha, it’s alright boss, if three hours passed that quick than the next one hour of training will go in a flash.” K3 said, motioning towards the scowling Jackson, who was already standing in the sparring circle, waiting for him.
“Somehow, I doubt that.” Ronin said, putting down the screwdriver and moving over to take his beatings. Perhaps this time at least, he’d be able to get a hit on the vindictive woman.
An hour later, Ronin went back to work removing armor plates, sadly disappointed in his desire to get a hit on Jackson. It was incredibly frustrating, and he bit back curses as he loosened another bolt. He’d watched Jaya take Jackson apart in their bout the other day. What was worse, Ronin knew he was stronger than her by quite a bit as well. None of it mattered. She still put him down early and kept him down for most of the fight.
He winced in pain as he moved, feeling it even more after this fight because K3 had refused to give him a crystal core. Ronin understood why, from an academic standpoint anyway, but having to experience pain like this made it hard to take. Finally removing the last armored panel, he grinned through split lips and set about programming the fabricator, for the parts he needed replaced. He’d barely hit the print button when he heard the landing song playing throughout the ship.
“Looks like we made it,” Elyria said, from the box she’d been leaning against as she watched him work. She’d been there for the last few hours, ever since he’d been beaten by Jackson again. He’d acknowledged her, but they hadn’t spoken. “We should have beaten Leo here by a good three days, so how do you want to play this?” She asked, pushing off the wall and walking over to stand beside him.
Ronin felt the tension between them, now that he knew for sure she felt things for him too. Maybe it was in his head, because she wasn’t acting any differently, but he still felt something had changed. He wasn’t ready to deal with that yet, so instead he focused on her question.
“Leo and his people are absolute beasts in close combat.” He said, trying to think on the positive side. “I’m sure they will be here in three days… So, I’m thinking we send out the scouts, and dandelion, to get a lay of the land. Then if it’s all clear we can check out the old human mining city. I’d like to get this suit put back together before that though.”
“Ok, we’ll have the scouts check out the area while your armor prints… Sounds reasonable.” Elyria said, with a nod. Not mentioning Leo’s odds at all because they were all worried about him. As much of an offensive beast as he was, the lionid didn’t wear armor. They didn’t carry guns or do much in the way of stealth fighting either. If they faced a SWAT team armed the same as the one Ronin’s crew had met… Well, Ronin didn’t like to think about how that might turn out. One volley could cut them all down before they even reached the heavily armored soldiers.
“I’ll get the scouts out boss,” K3 said, breaking the awkward tension that had crept into the conversation. “You can hop in the med unit once your armor is done printing. It should take the scouts a few hours to get a good feel for the surroundings, so if you’re ready to go by then we can go check out the city.” The thought of relief for his wounds coming soon, actually made them ache more than they had a moment ago, but Ronin only nodded. Having decided to follow K3’s training program, after he’d expressed a desire for more training.
“Think I’ll join the scouts,” Elyria said moving away from the two men. “Part of why I have these wings after all. I’ll catch up with you when we go exploring.” She’d exited the compartment before either of them could reply, but that was ok with Ronin. He still wasn’t sure what to think about her right now.
“There you go boss,” K3 said, patting the startled Ronin on the back. “Just keep acting casual, before you know it, it won’t be an act anymore. Now, I’m off to get the scouts moving. Let me know when you’re ready to go, ok?” With those parting words, Ronin was alone again.
“Everything about that conversation was awkward,” he muttered in dissatisfaction, as he watched the fabrication unit laying down liquified plant matter that quickly dried into hard plates. Then a cutting head came down to do the final shaping processes. Ronin was fascinated by the whole procedure, and for the first time could appreciate how excited Owl Two could get about his experiments. Not that he would ever tell the android that.
Checking the clock on the prints, Ronin noted that he had a little over two hours to wait. It was time to start the second print on a portable unit. That done, Ronin had plenty of time to go over the armored suit’s skeleton frame one more time and double check every piston, joint, nut, and bolt on the entire unit. There was no point going into battle without being one hundred percent confident in his equipment.
That done, he moved over to the gatling gun. It was a fascinating invention, completely air powered but as powerful as any pre-fall machine gun. It had six PCP .25 barrels, each barrel connected through a hose to a backpack unit that held twelve tanks and a compressor. Each barrel was hooked to its own tank, allowing for the pressure to build back up between shots as the other five barrels fired. As a tank would run low, a pressure switch would activate, forcing the gun to use the backup tank, while the compressor was filling the first tanks.
The gun was fed ammunition through a hopper that held quarter inch pellets and was attached to the top of the gun by a quick disconnect. The suit had an equipment rack that held four of the hoppers, each holding one thousand pellets. Thanks to the gun being powered by air, overheating wasn’t a major concern. So, the weapon could be fired as much as one had pellets to shoot. The cycle rate was slower than earth’s propellent powered miniguns, only pumping out 1,500 rounds a minute. Even so, that was an empty pellet hopper in less than a minute if one wasn’t careful with their ammunition usage. Ronin would have been happier if the gun had held PCP .50 caliber rounds instead of the much lighter PCP .25 rounds. If it had though, they might not have survived the encounter. Still, now that he had the plans for this weapon, he could always make one himself when he had more time and materials.
He took a moment to look over the giant cannons that had taken out one of his own quickly shielded suits with one shot. They had been damaged too badly to be used right away, but he was hopeful that, again, with more time and effort he could piece them back together. It was only a matter of time. Unfortunately, time was something he didn’t have a lot of. Even so, he’d scanned the broken guns into his tablet, along with the plans for all the weapons and armor he had access to. He wasn’t sure if it would matter, but he wanted the information handy just in case.
The ding the fabricator made when it finished the plates drew his attention away from the guns. Had two hours really passed already? He thought about Owl Two again, maybe Ronin’s place wasn’t on the battlefield at all, but in a lab creating things. Pulling the freshly printed plates out of the fabricator, Ronin began the slow process of bolting them onto the suit’s skeletal frame. He’d nearly finished, when the portable unit he’d started also dinged.
With a smile, Ronin finished bolting on the plate he’d been working on and went to gather what he’d just finished in the second fabricator. It was heavier than he’d expected, and he staggered under the weight of the object as he lugged it over to his armored suit. Stepping up onto a stool, Ronin draped the white cloak made to resemble a goat’s hide, complete with head and horns, over the suit.
Standing back once it was clipped in place, Ronin admired his handiwork. He couldn’t help but grin as he wondered what Elyria would say when she saw the suit. He’d redesigned the armor plates digitally on his tablet before printing them, as well as change the color from the dull grey they had been originally. It had been so boring he hadn’t even noticed the color before. Now though, it was proper white flame black.
The nine-foot-tall suit had originally resembled a medieval knight’s armor. Now, it was a near perfect replica of Ronin’s own armored body. Right down to the goat headed helmet and the white goat hide cloak that fitted to the armor and fell to around knee level. He’d even replicated his kanabo and buckler, though the kanabo was a little longer now, coming in at a solid eight feet long. The club was as big around at the end as K3’s thigh and weighed too much for Ronin to even lift without the suit’s powerful pistons aiding his movements.
“Alright,” he said, slapping his palms together and rubbing them excitedly. “Let’s take this puppy for a test drive.” Flipping each lever in turn to open the plates enough for him to crawl inside the suit, Ronin wiggled his way inside. It was harder than he’d expected, and once inside, resealing the levers was nearly impossible. He managed, after several minutes of curses and struggle, but it was a job better suited to two people for sure.
Picking up the Kanabo and buckler, Ronin slowly clipped them onto his built-in equipment harness. Another accessory he’d added, which hadn’t been there before. It also held a few more hoppers of pellets, just in case five thousand wasn’t enough to get the job done. Smiling at how smoothly everything was going so far, Ronin lifted up his right foot to walk the three steps it would take to grab his gatling gun… and promptly fell flat on his face.