“Okay!” I cried.

I swung the pipe at Sparky's arm. He grabbed it mid-air and bent it sideways, violently flinging it onto the deck. Clouds circled overhead watching as I gaped in horror at my foe.

“Your responses may be more than ample but you must remember… On Maol everyone has weapons except for in the heart of the great cities themselves. One must know when to run and when to fight"

He walked forward as he spoke, metal feet clanging against the hull.

"Almost every bandit from here to the city has combat training and they know what to do when a hotshot pumped with code like you comes by. They do a barrage, basically, flush you out with firepower. Luckily only 534 people had C-52 programs as intense as yours loaded into them. So from here to the city, only five or six people will be able to beat you at your maximum skill. Currently, I could easily decapitate you. Why?”

He moved forward as he questioned to lean back against the ship's railing.

“Why?” I muttered.

“Your mind is but your body is not ready for speed, endurance and simply not muscular enough to perform some moves. So today I want you to fight.”

Sparky straightened up, sun glinting off his metal frame. I stood gasping for breath and awaiting his instruction. I readied my fists and dug my feet into the hull preparing for the worst.

  Turning to the box behind he pulled out a long wooden stick and came forward. Using all of his robotic might he heaved the weapon above his head and swung. I attempted to block the attack, muscle memory performing a backhand strike but I was too slow. The wood caught me in the middle of the chest, breaking in half and sending me spiralling across the floor.

"You okay?" he asked.

Splinters of wood had been cast across the deck as I clutched my side groaning.

"Yeah just warming up" I wheezed.

  He waited for me to get to my feet before charging again. Using the second half of the wood he charged forward attempting to hit me in the shoulder. I ducked sliding behind Sparky and with lightening fast reflexes kicked him in the back. Groaning in pain I clutched my leg as I screamed.

"I'm metal remember" He replied almost smiling.

I sprinted forward using a side strike to knock him off balance and grab ahold of the wood. Using the splintered half I stabbed his chest perfectly blocking his counterattack. Chunks of wood flew through the air as I propelled myself forward, heaving all my power into the strike. Sparky grunted for a moment before attempting to trip me but I was too fast. I jumped towards the railing and used it to propel myself onto him knocking the robot onto the floor. I raised the wood high above my head and was about to hurl it crashing down when Sparky jabbed me in the rib knocking me backwards and into the ship's entrance.

  A cut ran on my hand as I slid, trickles of blood spilling from the wound. I grunted and cast a glance into his metallic eyes. A smile danced upon my lips as my mind raced. Leaping off the group I was midway through performing a dropkick when my ankle buckled. I slipped on the metal and the robot performed a mid-air uppercut. All semblance of air fleeted from me as I sank to the group wheezing in pain. I sat limp, mouth wide open as I gasped.

Sparky sat down on the deck folding his metallic legs.

“If you had performed that correctly… maybe you would have won. But your overcalculated you see your mind doesn't know your body isn't strong enough, some moves could even kill you or worse make you completely paralyzed. From now on you can win using one thing. Guns…”

He threw me two energy pistols.

"Can this wait?" I replied still passed out on the deck.

"Here just take this, it'll help" he replied.

The robot handed me a metallic syringe with the same liquid inside as I had seen during my crash. I took the needle and plunged it into my leg letting loose a sigh of relief. I felt the cut on my hand slowly heal, my strength returning to me.

Sparky tapped on the guns infront flicking them with his robotic finger.

I scanned them with interest.

“Duel wielding seems to be a favourable option and since you were the one who repaired me I do believe I would not like to see you killed”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He polished his own metal as he spoke, trying to remove a scratch where the wood had struck.

“Thanks” I replied groaning.

For the next three hours, I fired repeatedly at the target. Once in a while Ellis or Sparky would come from below and comment, in the end, I had hit the center multiple times and my aim was improving.

The blaster however overheated releasing a multitude of steam from the barrel forcing me to find other means of improvement. Apart from training I also scurried below deck and helped repair the vessel. It was a medium-sized light tanker. If not for cybernetic improvements the ship would have had to have at least four people to control. Some of its lighting fixtures were broken and a few scraps of the hull seemingly were welded and patched from different types of metal. Entire panels were stitched into the frame and held together with the barest of scrap.

  The rest of the day was spent firing at targets, building up strength, assembling radio's and learning about the factions and robots which inhabited the planet. There was no telling how far the deserted sands went, an endless void populated by an endless horde of those who were forgotten. The commander of the ship made me do close to 100 push-ups and various exercises a day, in hopes to broaden the combat I could handle.

  We passed over many structures and areas on our journey, most of the land wafted a putrid smell making me glad I was above the heavens and unable to fully appreciate the stench. Radioactive waste and ground forced us to remain indoors when passing crashed ships and piles of compacted garbage.

  Towers of square cubes of waste of all sorts formed massive cities and pillars of the unknown. The only civilized inhabited structures I saw were scattered salvage ships like the one I rode, a few had slowed down to raise flags spreading the news, and sometimes I would hear chatter on the radio, or pick up various snit bits of communication. Once after a series of gruelling training sessions which resulted in my hand splitting open with a visage of blisters, Ellis walked by and cast a long look into the depths of my sweaty palm.

“I came here to give you something, something which I feel you will enjoy, something which I do not wish to give but it seems you have earned its grasp” he motioned towards the target, every shot I had fired dead center. I once knew a man with the same determination, he stroked his fingers across my wound, causing me to slightly reel back.

  His name was Cantus Aex, a famed soldier from a time away from time. He led a revolution against the collective, leading a large force of thousands against an enormous enemy of incoherent power. He was an infamous gunslinger as well, many perished to his iron bullet. This is his gun.

Ellis pulled out a thin blue pistol, it was intricate and elegant wrapped carefully in a thin silky cloth.

“It took me a while to find it, I came across the pistol in the belly of a crushed battlehind, supposedly his forces fled with the item as a memento of their leader. Sadly the battlehind’s pilots had not been observant and were taken out by a bandit trap long ago.”

I reached forward and touched its shimmering hilt, the gun was smooth and light, I was able to flick it around and twirl it around, it danced upon my fingertips with ease.

“It feels” I replied stunned.

“Good?” He asked.

“The gun was forged in the heart of an Aquir armoury, the finest weapons in the galaxy come from that planet's smoke-scorched strongholds. The metal, its illuminate, possibly the strongest known to the existence, the guns you trained with, and the guns you will encounter will never have such sheer potency as this”

“With such a weapon at his disposal, it is a wonder how Cantus could have died?”

Ellis took in a deep breath.

“He was, he thought too kindly of his friends and believed in his allies when he called them to battle, none came, and eventually his own forces turned against him”

I eyed the gun with intense curiosity, toying with it in my hand.

“Try it out” he gestured.

I raised the pistol and stared down its iron sights, it was incredibly light, firing a spurry of blasts I noticed it had no recoil and almost fired as fast as I could pull the trigger.

“It, well it is truly delicate, fascinating to the touch” I exclaimed.

“I am glad you think so” he replied.

“What of your gun? what name does it bear?”

Ellis turned away and glanced into the horizon.

“Guns are renowned for the feats they do in battle, and mine is a fabled arm, but it did not belong to a hero but rather a butcher. Marcus Join was his name, and his gun, I took this gun off of his cold entrails"

“Why do you carry it?” I inquired.

“To refuse the aid of such a weapon in this world, on this planet, would be unwise” He responded cooly.

He twirled it on his finger as his eyes gazed off into the endless horizon.

“May I see it?”

“Fine, but be careful”

He opened up his holster strapped to the side and placed a brown and orange pistol into my hand. A blur of colours swept into my palm as I felt a cool glow throughout. It was beautiful, the craftsmanship exuding from the piece alone was almost incomprehensible. I swung the weapon through the air appreciating its light yet seemingly strong frame. Sun glinted off its hilt as I flicked it through the air. The entire body shimmered with a radiant glow. The gun felt perfect in my palm, elegant, intricate and hardly something you would expect in the drudges of the waste. I placed it back into his hand, startled by what I had just witnessed.

Ellis placed it back in his holder and let it loosely hang as he helped me to my feet.

He then left without a word, disappearing into the hull below.

  Nothing happened for the rest of the day yet when passing over a large patch of wasteland and into what seemed to be a vast forest I noticed a minuscule railway carrying robotic train cars across the horizon. It seemed to span for miles crossing into the depths of the planet. The train cars glinted in the hot sun as they plowed through the rails, mere ant's in my intrepid view. When I asked Ellis who owned the rails he responded by pointing a slender hand into the sky.

Three days later we arrived in a town. A slum hovel only known as West Arrakis.