The 2 and a half, up to 3 meters metallic soldier, Billy, dragged his feet to keep up with two mildly average humans, neither having installed speed enhancements into them nor some prosthetic that made them strode in large paces. If the C.T.D. could breathe out of a mouth and nose, he would be wheezing like a pug just from the effort of walking.
Billy-“ Are… I mean, my sensors aren’t that reliable. What about yours?”
As this was the third time his sensors “stopped working”, both were almost at the edge with their patience with the cyborg. Zarrin even started regretting calling for a back-up; even felt disgusted with herself that this was what became of the “champion!”.
Simo-” Excuse me? Maybe...”, the sniper turned to his colleague, tilting his head- “maybe you should park here…uhm, while I and Zarrin scout the area, and you can troubleshoot that issue?”
A loud bump scared off the tiny animals surrounding them, reverberating over a long area. The fact that he just carelessly let himself hit the ground without any breaks was the last straw. Billy laid his head to the sky-dome, pretending to use his internal software to check for bugs, while in truth he was waiting for the substance to be filtered out of his system. It was working…slowly, and the side effect was that he himself started to slow down. A bit of haze to cloud his thoughts.
Zarrin- “ Right. Sure. Why not yell out our position if we were at it?” Her whispers were almost wisps in the air, like thoughts that broke out of her, but Billy could still catch them. And he didn’t blame her for her words. “ We’ll be leaving now, ugh, sir?and return in 30 min or so. Or even better, finish this without him.”
The C.T.D. only waved as a reply, still laying down; the wind barely existed there, and the night was filled with the cacophony of critters and loud insects. It was different, so much different from the broken up landscape from which he grew up. Right, that place. Billy has mostly ignored his past ever since Savan dug it out for him, only thinking about it in passing mirages. The clopy’s presence there was also like that, a mirage, a realization that all of a sudden brought another thing to light.
Billy-“ There wasn’t anyone there, was there?”
A rustle in the bushes distracts him from his intrusive thoughts; the cyborg is slow to rise, even slower to turn his right hand into a rifle. His sensors are still not working properly, but they catch the distinct sounds of stomps into the ground. Light ones though, unexpectedly. Whatever is coming his way, it was a master of concealing their presence, as the noise it made was too close for it to have escaped Billy even in his state.
The cyborg called out for whoever it was to show itself and be warned, as he was armed and “trigger-happy” in the most authoritative slurp of words possible.
????-“ Is that right, champion?”, asked the shadow. “ While I am happy to hear that you haven’t lost your touch, being shot by you isn’t on my bucket list.” The voice was recognizable to the cyborg, enough to convince him to put his weapon down.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Billy-“ Amazingly, you managed to startle me like I haven’t been in a while. What are you doing without an escort, Fabius?”
…
Simo and Zarrin covered more ground and got closer without a barely walking tank behind them; unfortunately, even though they found what appeared to be the starting point of the intruder, it left them with even more questions. All the trails and marks brought them in the middle of empty land, covered in murky soil and nothing else. Still, that only left the sniper without the need to search for cave entries or secret holes in the walls.
Zarrin-“ Checked that off the list. So…the ground?”
Simo-“ The ground.” The two then marked the location on the map and shared it with the rest of the team. Neither wanted to take the chance of getting ambushed, so the two set up a camp on the nearest high point and dropped all kinds of trackers around.
As for their next task, Zarrin put on a set of special glasses while a small drone flew from the bag. It was quiet, slow and with enough fuel to check the topography of a small area. The drone flew in rotation patterns, sending different types of recreations of the ground to Simo’s computer: overview images, 3d of both the upper area and the layers, seismic movements- or at least, that was the intent.
Simo-“ Nothing. Zarrin, is the mosquito broken? Everything I get is white noise-for everything.”
Zarrin, clenching her teeth in frustration of already going through the reset processes, called her drone back. “ I’m sure it’s fine, had it checked before leaving. If I’m right, though, the problem isn’t the mosquito. It's the soil.”
Simo- “The soil? Oh… Oh, no. You don’t mean-” Before he could finish, a loud crack followed by a short tremor startled the two into arming themselves and dropping as down as possible.
In front of them, there were wetlands for a moment, then barren lands in the next. A drill came rushing from underneath, forming a sink that drained the land of what little puddle stood on it. Whatever metallic being was attached to the drill didn’t need to show its full body to send a sense of dread into the two snipers.
A ring started to rotate on the visible part of the orange metal skin, and while invisible to the normal eye, Zarrin and Simo were able to see the unseen white rays check the surroundings, systematically covering the whole area.
Fortunately for them, their area was steep enough to shield their forms from the search. Unfortunately for them, the invading C.T.D. came to the conclusion that the optimal hiding spot was only their location and locked in on it.
The drill homed in on the ridge and after charging for a few seconds, it flew from its hands, smashing through the granite, throwing hundreds of pebbles into the air. Neither Simo nor Zarrin had any time to react and flee more than a few steps before small rocks, at the speed of bullets, to pelt them behind.
Their backpacks filled with gear protected them from the mineral rain, but it also left the two with the option of fleeing. The ring’s detected their steep steps while they ran, digging a pathway underneath them and quickly taking the lead to stop them with a large crack in the ground. The snipers stopped right in time, but another fissure tripped Zarrin and caught her leg between the rocks.
Zarrin- “ Help”, she muttered in whispers, then her senses felt like vinegar was dropped on an open wound, firing up instantly- “ GET ME OUT SIMO!”. She screamed and grunted, desperately trying to drag her foot out, during which her partner dug with his bare hands. For them, it felt like tens of minutes, but in fact it all happened in an interval of 10 to 15 seconds; enough time for the C.T.D. to reappear.
The ring spinned, faster and faster, covering more ground than before - this time, it easily located its target. The being prepared to fire its drill, while the snipers frantically tried to load more powerful bullets; useless though, as this C.T.D. 's armor was specially designed to withstand the pressure of the underground. Among the two, up to twelve shots were attempted, and neither could find a weak spot.
Zarrin- “Simo…run”, the sniper turned around, shoving her partner aside. “ Run Simo, save yourself now.” But he ignored, and the second the drill was fired he tried a last attempt for them to at least evade it by dropping both to the ground.
The projectile changed its trajectory mid-flight, getting closer to the ground and, in turn, leaving the two with no way to escape it. Then, as if lady luck remembered who they were, they saw the drill move erratically, losing speed and dragging on the ground, centimeters before hitting them.
Simo turned around and saw Billy in a throwing posture, which the sniper understood what happened - the soldier used his magnetic grenades to save them. “Thanks”, Simo said out loud, still in shock. Billy ignored him and went to dig Zarrin out, and told them to “leave it to him.” The two didn’t need more to do as they were told, and hobbled out of what would turn into a thrashing zone between two C.T.Ds.