“What do you mean you’re not a tow bot?” Carter held his hands at his hip. CAB-H whirred and beeped.
“Not designated? To tow?”
Another beep.
“I’m not saying you are; I just didn’t know there were so many different equipment variations. Where can we find a tow bot?”
This time, a whirring and whining sound.
“Wait, so you can tow, you just need the proper parts and data?”
A beep of affirmation.
“Then why didn’t you just say that?” Carter walked as CAB-H followed close behind, maneuvering in an S-shaped trail, as it only had two speeds, Safewalk and the GAUSS construction standard. GAUSS, or the Global Alliance Unit for Space Study, was the leading powerhouse for space exploration and colonization efforts. GAUSS had created its construction units with two set speeds due to not just the limitation of the programming but the simplicity and fluidity of the construction process itself.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
That, and they didn’t put much effort into it either.
“So where can we find them?”
Carter flexed his hands, an unconscious action as he thought of what to do. He needed to get his transport working, or at least in a manner that it could be towed. CAB-H beeped a tune and reached an arm out for his tablet. When he handed it over, it typed in coordinates and returned it to him. He looked, and sure enough, there was a distress signal for a crashed cache of tools.
“Alright. Load of boxes 2-A and 8-B, we gotta move quick.” Carter looked to the sky, eyeing the newly risen bug ship.
Since the earthquake, there have been several bug ships in the sky. They were colored a mottled brown and segmented like the bugs that piloted them. They were also massive, easily the length of the star carriers he would stow away in before he crashed onto this planet.
He blinked. Had he crashed? He couldn’t remember the incident.
Carter needed to move and find a more secure shelter once again. He had already dug out and deactivated the mines. Now he would need to spend the next few hours fixing up his damn ride.
It was something of his own making. A heavy hover vehicle designed to carry small trailers, something light but still able to carry a load. It sat crooked, its ability to hover now limited. Carter needed to find new sensors to replace the undercarriage, but he didn’t have any with his current equipment.
It was then a strange sound reached his ears. It wasn’t new, nor was it alien. Harsh and sudden. It echoed out, pop-pop-pop-pop.
Gunfire. Carter grabbed his rifle and ensured CAB-H had loaded the ammo boxes correctly before taking off at a jog, his mechanical companion close behind.