"Get an angle on it Pathfinder!" blared on a lone Sharpshooter's Radio.

A Ranger's Duty had always taken David Pike to so many corners of the Wasteland of the fallen United States, from the twice-defined urban jungle that was the ruins of Los Angeles, desolate the Mojave Desert and the unforgiving cold of the Colorado Rockies. A veteran who fought uncounted numbers of raider bandits, mutants, and other abominations in the Wasteland. His Carbine wielded the power of the 12.7 millimeters that had ended the lives or in the case of today, ended the rampages of robots alive.

"Neutralization Protocols activated!" stoically stood sentinel, a giant of a robot, a Rob-Co Government Issued Sentry bot to be exact that wielded a Gatling gun on his right arm. He could thank the ravages of time, that it didn't wield a second one on its left or he and the rest of Team X-Ray would have all been reduced into human Swiss-cheese.

Having gone off from his team under their leader's orders to a vantage point up the dilapidated NASA 905 Shuttle Carrier of the ruins of Space Center Houston. Below him the ground battle on Independence Plaza raged onwards with Robots and Humans alike shedding blood, oil and bullets across the concrete floor.

"Foolish Rangers! You will not stop Doctor Commander Cold-Irons from succeeding on his plans to take over... THE WORLD!" an egoistic voice taunted the Arizona Desert Rangers from the Space Center's Public Announcement Systems.

"I can't fuckin' wait to shut his ass up for good." David's Radio chattered.

"Careful!" reprimanded Team X-Ray's Leader. "The Round Table demands that he lives." She reminded the team.

"Even after what he and his people done?" David questioned.

This 'Doctor-Commander' was the last surviving remnant of an infamous Clan of Robot-Tinkering warmongers within the Texan Lands called the League of New Pioneers. Commanding swathes of Robots of varying qualities ranged from scrapyard resolvers, to re-programmed mechs of the Old World, this Clan cast a literal iron fist upon as far as Houston to south of Monterrey. They tithed the land dry of people, resources and worst of all knowledge of the old world in a library that could make the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel and the Followers of the Apocalypse green with envy. The Round Table, consisting of a coalition government between the Patriarch Buchanan's Dominion of Colorado with the New California Republic, likely the only remnants that can be argued as a continuity of the United States of America of Old, had mandated a Total War Campaign against the Pioneers. They had deemed this warmongering Roboticist Clan to be no different than the previous tyrannical threats of the Cochise A.I., Caesar's Legion and the Kansas Savage Council.

For Team X-Ray, they were tasked to help maintain a new order of calm within this plane of the Wastelands whilst hunting down remnants of the New Pioneers. Which they only had done themselves, at least for the living flesh and blood members of the Clan who chose suicide over yielding to the Round Table's dominion. It had been a year or so after the fall of their last major stronghold but reports from the settlers of the region had spoken of their Mechs still roaming about loose amongst the Wasteland's of Southeast Texas extorting goods amongst the folks. The Radio Signals that these robots had followed to was amongst the ruins of Houston Space Center.

A long time ago, this place would have been the vanguard of many wonders that was poised to be a benefacting gift for all nations, strangled upon its first breath when the apocalyptic trumpet-call of when the Bombs fell upon the Old World. Now, all the Rangers saw was a hideous parody of its once magnanimous promise. Robotic production lines and moving cogs that once produced machines to serve, were now being made to produce those that bring others to heel.

"Beginning the Neutralization of all threats within the perimeter." The Sentry Bot rolled its gatling gun towards the nearest few Rangers in its vicinity who didn't manage to take cover fast enough. They were torn to shreds in milliseconds, their armor protecting nothing from its barrage of attacks.

"Hurry up Pathfinder, we're sitting ducks here!" X-Ray Leader yelled.

"I am working on it!" David gritted his teeth as he climbed the interior of the 905 Carrier. The League had stripped many of the working parts of the Plane and Shuttle for their own designs within the Center's Interior, turning the structure into a condemnable Jungle Gym of rust. He had to take his climb slow and steady lest he fell off.

He was in his Late 30's at the decline of his physical Acumen but compared to the rest of Team X-Ray he was the most physically experienced when it comes to more... difficult terrain, hence his nickname being 'the Path Finder'. It took another solid wind of exertion to reach the top but he had made the ascent atop the tombstone shuttle safely with a commanding view of the battle below Independence Plaza below. He couldn't sigh a relief and enjoy the view now, however. His old lungs notwithstanding from the ravages of the Wasteland. He has some 'Bots to turn into scrap metal.

Setting down his Carbine, a piece of refurbished steel with mercantile scavenger restored to a somewhat sportsmanlike quality he took aim amongst its magnified sights. The shot was a long one, but not impossible within his abilities as a marksman. Grabbing a pack of ovoid stones on his pocket, a little hunting trick he had learned to keep the focus on his breathing and still his beating heart for the perfect shot. He took one of the rocks and placed it in his mouth between his teeth on his shooting side, that being the right hand, and bit it down for dear life.

This wasn't his first time taking down such rogue mechanical monstrosities, albeit he is more inclined to skirmish lone targets isolated from its host rather than in upfront battles, let alone with other Ranger's lives on the line he aimed for the section of its torso that housed its AI Control CPU.

He squeezed the trigger and unleashed the 12.7mm loose.

Hitting the mech on its intended target... but not puncturing fully through its ablative armor. Leaving only a noticeable gap on its armor.

"It's still shoo—urrk!" one Ranger cried before she was gunned down violently by the Sentry Bot's Gatling Gun.

"Keep your heads down damnit!" David spat out his biting stone and refocused his sights on the rampaging robot. Sweat fell off his wrinkled brow as he continued to climb up the Shuttle. He had grown very distant with loud shouts coming off his radio throughout his career as a Ranger. Focusing more on the next few ledges ahead that would take him to the top.

"The 'Bot is closing in on us!" X-Ray Leader exclaimed. "It's now or never!"

The Bot had moved his torso slightly to its left as it began to zero in on the rest of his teammates. Calming his breath once more, he locked his eyes on the small gap on the Sentry Bot's chest and fired one more 12.7mm shot.

"Eliminating ---- Elim---- Error! Error! Error!" the Sentry Bot's voice frizzled into a cacophonic fluster as its CPU was directly damaged. The discordance of wires and gold plates overwhelmed the robot's body into an equally lethargic stature. It began to act sporadically, no longer acting as a sentinel against intruders but as a rabid child on a temper tantrum. It hysterically sped away into a waiting graveyard of broken-down robots of its misbegotten kind, crashing into scrappy bits upon contact.

"All... Clear now..." X-Ray leader sighed in relief.

"Wha-What are our casualties?" David asked.

"Rachels, Sampson, and Officer Jason..." X-Ray Lead answered. "They're gone."

"We need to see what's going on here. We get this son of a bitch back to H.Q. today." David sighed. He began his descent down the 905 Shuttle to regroup with the survivors of Team X-Ray.

It was a mix and match team of Ranger Regulars, NCR Volunteers and Dominion Levies tapped from California to Colorado. More in-tuned for skirmishes and one-off adventures into the Wastes beforehand rather than extended Skirmishes such as the more robust Team Alpha, Echo, and just recent years, Team November. They were battered but in no way defeated just yet, not when they are so close to ending this war with the League once and for all.

"David, Door is a Vault-Tec. Get your Pip-Boy out." X-Ray Lead ordered him.

From his left hand, David turned on his gadget, the Pip-Boy 3000 'G.I.V'. An off-shoot of its parent 3000 but with a few differences designed for the late United States Navy SEALs. It has a Map capable of Geo-Location through Satellites though not as useful as using a Sonar Emitter to produce a 3D Image of his surroundings of up to 10 kilometers on its own when Satellites are unavailable. Replacing a regular electrical battery with a Solar Panel for recharging meaning unless he is stuck within darkness for extended periods of time, David's Pip-Boy could theoretically operate indefinitely. Instead of a Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System or V.A.T.S, it has a much more tactically impactful evolution custom made by the late United States Army officially called the Software for Telegraphing Ranges in Insurgent Communists and Enemies or 'S.T.R.I.K.E'. This Software expands on the Pip-Boy's V.A.T.S by relaying additional information from user-to-weapon-to-target in real-time for the most effective application of force possible.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to use either feature today outside of the 3000's Vault-Tec Door that guards the entrance being probed open by the Pip-Boy's built-in Lock Opener for Vault-Tec Reinforced doors from the giant-sized seals that stood as bastions of the safety of the many numbered Vaults around the Wasteland to much more man-sized security doors that the Old-World corporation had sold to its elite clientele.

The Door opened within a few seconds of inputting the Lock Opener onto its designated console allowing Team X-Ray to move inside smoothly.

"T-t-this place is pretty huge! Never seen a factory this... what is the word... 'Ro-Buts' l-like this since I left home." Stuttered a fair-haired but bucktoothed Ranger that easily towered everyone else in the squad. His accent was thickened with a strange primitivism to his speech, more akin to the more insular of Old America's once numerous countryside civilians. If David recalls his history, people like him are called 'Hillbillies' as the ancient languages of the Old would say.

"'Robots'?... Oh, wait, you mean 'Robust', Isaiah." David rectified him.

He has to also admit, such a factory like this would have produced thousands of Old-World goodies in its heyday. If the Rangers could save this relic, perhaps he could gorge himself on its many histories and stories locked within these hallowed halls. Too bad right now, he must stifle his enthusiasm. These so-called 'Temples of Technology' of the Old-World had been desecrated by those who seek to use these powers for ill.

"Yeah! Kinda like home!" He let out a snaggle-toothed smile to David with a soft red blush from his cheeks. The Nostalgia of a place like his old home that is now so far away lulling his head.

"You are one of the Patriarch's folks right? Steeltown? First outing?" asked X-Ray Leader. "Heard it a settlement surrounding some big factory? David here recommended you." He remarked to him.

"Isaiah W-Welder sir!" the tall man saluted awkwardly, as one expected the greenest of recruits who had only just been thrusted into more disciplinarian services would at best display.

"What can you tell us of a place like this?" he asked him.

"B-By the looks of all this, he has built up a f-fortress or something in these ruins," Isaiah answered as he turned on his flashlight and observed the first chamber of the Space Center.

"Well boy, hope you can keep up with us Rangers." David gave an encouraging nod to the kid.

The Houston Space Center, unlike most buildings in the Wasteland, was built from the ground to lowest levels, with a great Chasm below them that vaulted many of Old World Lostech the likes of which the Rangers had ever seen before. But equally so, these many pearls were guarded by an equally strong oyster. The entire facility was packed to the brim with defenses, from turrets, traps and all guards roaming about. It would take a considerable assault to even hope to pierce such defenses to reach its heart. Something nobody in Team X-Ray is confident they can just do about it right now. They had to give credit where it's due, the League of New Pioneers had done an excellent job at keeping many of these technologies as maintained throughout the century of the Post-Apocalyptic world.

"My say... we-we'll need a ton of T.N.T. just to even get through all of this mess." Isaiah shook his head.

"Forget that! Is it not too late for us to call them Brotherhood boys to send some Paladins to help us deal with this? Them tech-bangers would probably howling to sink their teeth into all of this Lostech." One Ranger commented. "I guess we can split'em fifty-fifty?"

"This factory however looks way too deep for us to push through with what we have right now. We will have to call in HQ back at our Land-Roamer that we may need to have more men and firepower in case more of those 'Bots try to ---" X-Ray Lead assessed the situation only to be interrupted by the Space Center's PA System.

"A fortified Robotic Manufacturing Site and Remote Command Broadcasting Center to be exact my inbred philistine and the rest of his uncouth entourage." The Voice of the Doctor Commander bellowed from its speakers. "In fact, what is meant to be our final bastion in the event our home in Rocket City had fallen... of which you all saw through its extermination!"

"Security Lockdown Initiated!" the Space Center's PA Systems alarmed.

The doors and windows of the facility began to seal around the Rangers. A red and blinking glow dreadfully emits amongst the low ambient lights of the chamber and those hallways beyond. Cold Iron had sprung his trap, that they knowingly walked themselves into like lambs ready for the slaughter.

"No!" one Ranger panicked and attempted to run for the Vault-Tec Security Door, only for his body to be caught in the middle of it being closed. He was instantly cut into two, its reinforced heavy steel layers creating a reverse guillotine. His disemboweled half body still within the Space Center's interior fell limply into the grey ground, with blood pooling out of him.

"We are trapped!" Isaiah froze into a jumping sweat. His hands jittered his Crossbow as the cracks on his young face began to form.

"Calm down kid." David immediately consoled him. Holding his arm gently but firmly to show that there is someone out for him in this cruel outside world. "Your Techy Skills should get us out of this. I belie—Ruth believes in you." He invoked his mother's name.

"Yes... Yes... I can... I can do this." Isaiah's breathing calmed.

David had been an amiable family friend of the Welder Family after he was made the Ranger's attaché to Steeltown back in Colorado after a double whammy that was the Worker Uprising and the Savage Council Crisis. He had befriended the young man and his widowed mother in all those days needed to heal from the Uprising.

"You will not get away with this!" X-Ray Leader raised his fit to the PA System's Speaker. "You will answer for your League's atrocities."

"Answering implies yields Ranger!" Cold Iron berated him. "Your people think that you represent a corpse? For ideas of a bygone era! 'Freedom'? 'Democracy'? The NCR, the Patriarch? They are but temporal creations doomed to fail by their own weight and both are too lethargic to realize it! Experiments in Insanity, expecting things to truly change by literally doing the same thing over and over again. Do you know what is the fate of people like you who don't do what it takes? What NEEDS to be done? Look out the window... oh wait... I closed it... you know what I mean!"

"Like I heard that same shit from someone else too!" David scowled. This successor of Wasteland Tyrants was like all of those before he had heard stories from past travels.

"Well, you trapped us now! But don't think you won! We will take all of your hordes Cold Iron or die trying!" X-Ray Lead remained defiant. "Even if one of us goes down... more of us will come to eventually destroy this fortress you have held yourself in!"

"That is Doctor--- COMMANDER Cold Iron, Rangers!" the evil Roboticist corrected. "And second, who says I will kill you all in the Lobby now? Fun it is to see H.E.N.R.I. squish all of your heads like eggs... no that would be too simple, too quick... no satisfaction. And as you said... will get boring once the next group of Rangers decides to pick up from where you all left off..."

All the surviving Rangers right now in that room were already dying to want to shut this smug Warlord's mouth off. Their guns and weapons itching to be the first to bring him down from his cravenly high tower. Some of the Rangers tried to find a dent in these old armored seals of the Space Center for a crevice for salvation but to no avail.

"Us Pioneers are better than that!" Cold Iron scoffed at them. The mic of his started to ring "I want you to feel... what I HAD felt when you brought down the Walls of my Jericho! My Troy! My-my Rome! My-my -my... Pioneer Bastion Home!"

"Hadron Collider Activated. Power Rerouting to: Project Battle Master." The PA System declared.

"What are you doing?" X-Ray Leader demanded Cold Iron explain what he is doing.

"The Old-World United States Government you so desperately wanted to be its successor of? They had built many technical marvels of its day... Nuclear Generators, Power Armor and of course Robots such as Liberty Prime, the Cochise A.I., Synths... and now Project: Battle-Master!" Cold Iron explained. "I lost my home because of you. To make things even, I will make you lose yours!"

Below them... beneath the chasm of the Space Center lights began to flicker open, revealing the Space Center's malicious secret. Below the Rangers at the deepest depths, slept a Titan. An ancient power of a bygone era. The metal beast sported in one hand an elephant's snout that ashen death sprouted forth from it. On its shoulder across its blackened insectoid head was a second head. This polycephalic monster had two heads differing heads, the first head is of an insectoid's many irises that is to be its cockpit, the second was a honeycomb of which its gaze herald's annihilation. Across its torso and down to its bipedal legs hinted of the beast's singular purpose, awakened to bring forth a second Apocalypse into this ravaged world. The likes of which majesties could rival Liberty Prime or the Scorpitrons.

"Stare down to this abyss Rangers, and witness your Reaper and DESPAIR... or be afraid... or... shit yourselves... You know what I mean!" he proudly declared before he gagged slightly by his tongue twisting from overuse.

"It's a Huge Ass Mech..." Isaiah's eyes widened and teeth chattering nervously. He had only ever heard of such marvels in stories or antique comic books that dated back from the Old World. Of Giant Mechanical Knights built forth that smites any foe it comes across its way.

"As the Bible and so others speak of that faith... There are two floods! One of Water, the others of Fire. Now I shall bring forth... a Third Deluge! That of Steel!" Cold Iron excelled with pride. "100 tons of Metallic Murder to exact my revenge upon the Wasteland! Built by the blood, sweat and tears of my forefathers... that you had murdered!"

Beneath his inner sanctum, below the very feet of the Mech, the Doctor-Commander flipped several switches from his control board readying to arouse the Battle-Master from its slumber. The Hadron Collider that wrapped the Space Center Facility arose from its slumber. Lights of sinister azure glowed across the edges of the chamber charging forth deeper and deeper into the depths of the Space Center.

"You are going to kill us with that? Huh?" X-Ray Leader smirked.

"Master." Shouted another robotic voice.

"H.E.N.R.I.? I thought you were double-checking the Power Cables?" Cold Iron spoke to the new voice. The voice being his part-bodyguard, part-caretaker, part-assistant, and ultimately his partner in Crime, the Custom-A.I. the Helpful Entity for Numerically Related Industries or H.E.N.R.I. for short. Something, someone that Cold Iron had managed to save when he had fled Rocket City before the Desert Rangers destroyed his home.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"I have accomplished what you asked. Power Cables have been plugged into the Battle-Master and is now receiving power from the Hadron Collider."

"So that is your plan?" David called the Robotocisist out. "Power up the Mech and then blow us to smithereens with it?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't waste its ammo on seven brave knights coming to slay the evil techno-wizard guy. Nay, I want to share what I had felt when you razed my home to the ground. You will march after me like the rabid dogs you are only to be cut down by the 300 Spartans that are the last of my kind. And when the last of you falls, I will have my robots drag your broken bodies to me so you can witness first hand your world crumble before your eyes." Cold Iron shook his head. He flipped several of buttons of his Control Board open, semi-releasing several of the lockdown hallways and corridors in the Lobby, only all roads lead further deeper in the Space Center. "I am going to subject you to a high-pressure scenario that involves navigating through a timed-coursed gauntlet that risks of overly theatrical and exotic deaths."

The Rangers looked at each other with a mix of emotion. Most Pioneers they had Encountered beforehand were more logical or cold-blooded. This self-proclaimed 'Doctor-Commander' aired a sardonic panache to his voice.

"And then I kill you..." he clattered his teeth. "Chop-Chop! The clock is ticking Rangers!" Cold Iron quipped.

"Cycle Charge Rate... Fourteen -Percent." Space Center's Voice alarmed.

"This action of yours... confuses me." H.E.N.R.I chided the Doctor-Commander. "Is this wise?"

"You... you won't get it... just... shut up and help me get the Battle-Master ready."

"Master, your microphone is still broadcasting." H.E.N.R.I. pointed out.

"Oh fu---" Cold Iron cuts off his voice from the PA System. Cursing his wayward brain of the juvenile error.

"Shit, looks l-l-like we don't get a choice!" Isaiah seethed. "We can't let that Mech out of this damn house."

"We have to stop him! Let's go Rangers!" X-Ray Lead rallied.

"But how do we stop that thing from waking up?" David asked.

"There has to be some kind of console where we can make it siphoning power from." X-Ray Lead reasoned.

"Look over there! Those Yellow Giant wires look like they may be it." Isaiah's keen eye for Tech pointed out on the snake-like glowing cables that overwrapped the facility. "Let's follow it."

Seeing these artificial stars guide them. The Rangers followed Isaiah's lead. Their weapons, from firearms to barbaric melee gear of autoschediastic qualities at the ready for whatever hordes and more horrors the Roboticist Cold Iron has lurking for them.

"Down these stairs, quick!" David called out just as the Yellow Wires began to descend deeper into its depths.

The next chamber was a nexus area of sorts, filled with dilapidated cubicles and office spaces. Across the Hall was a large security door that the Yellow Wires led down to the Space Center's Engineering Bay.

"Deploying Security Forces for ----" the Space Center's PA System automatically announced. "Kill the BARBARIANS!" the corruptive influence of the revenge-filled Pioneer blared out.

The still functioning elevators that once deployed servile robots for the original inhabitants of the facility had been repurposed by Cold Iron to deploy his robotic monstrosities their way. They now menaced the Rangers from below its depths to meet head on above.

"Fight through them!" X-Ray ordered.

And so, the Rangers attacked, the Robots were of average quality, nothing their weapons could pierce through, but what they of mediocre constitution makes up for their unending numbers. When one falls... two more take their place. Two humanoid-shaped robots, had just then brutally beaten down one mohawked warrior to his red-pasted end with their bare-knuckle fists of several tons of force crashing into his face. Another, of small threaded stature, sliced the torso of another clean off with a blast of superheated energy from its Laser Canon.

"To brag, but it's quite a familial achievement. my forefather had this facility running at about 78% efficiency for the past... wait... December... then ... November... Thirty-Three years!" Cold Iron taunted them. "I have no shortage of minions to drown you all."

"Son of a bitch!" David cursed. "We can't go through them like this!" he fumbled as he reloaded his Rifle for another Magazine. He was down to about only one more spare before he ran out.

"Over here!" X-Ray Lead kicked the door, its faded out signs still bore its designation as the Custodian's Room.

The Survivors quickly rushed in, barricading the door behind them as the Robots pursued them. It was a tight room, not an isolated corner in the facility.

"Cycle Charge Rate: Forty-Five Percent" the impending cataclysm of the Mech's awakening continued to rise.

"What are we going to do now? Clock's ticking" One Ranger asked. "We're trapped!"

"We just need to break out of here somehow," David observed his Pip-Boy. If they can just get rid of all of these Robots all at once they can just sprint to the next chamber and lock them from the outside so they won't be tailed.

"These many bots mean t-they need lottsa power right? This room is pretty stocked." Isaiah observed.

There were several salvageable goods inside the Custodian Room, ranging from usable threads of Acid-Resistant Suits, Cleaning Chemicals of various volumes, Assorted Electronics, and Copper Wirings. As the Rangers pondered their next actions, the young, buck-toothed recruit palpitated.

"Now is not the time to loot right now!" X-Ray Lead reprimanded him, sweat falling coldly from his heavy breathing neck.

"Shhh..." Isaiah shushed him. As he reached out several Fuses, a Jumper Cable and a wheeled Power Bank the size of a small engine block hidden above a scaffold. He examined these electric devices more closely. To see if there was still a chance, he could harness its power for himself in this now dire time. "Yup-Yup! Perfect!" he childishly beamed as he brought the electronics down.

"What are you doing?" X-Ray Lead asked.

"Something my momma and dadda taw'me. In case any of our machines gets mad at us for some raisin." Isaiah knelt down to the floor to the Electronics explained. "How'zit sayin? Gimme some Copper Wires over there now!" he asked of his teammates.

Taking any gambit that could offer even a sliver of hope of getting out of this alive.

"Imma need some Ducky-Tape or something to stick'em together!" the Green-Boy asked. "Make an... An... Ehm Pul Bomb!" he explained what he is trying to accomplish.

"Ehm-Pul? EMP Bomb?!" X-Ray Lead sighed. "This better damn work!"

"Shit we don't get anything else that can... Uh... Hold on..." David answered only for something to catch his eyes within the Custodian's Locker.

Three packets of Super Glue.

"Will these do?" David threw them to him.

Time was running out as the barricade used to seal the Rangers in the room began to break down by the might of the brutish robots.

"Sorta... Eh... Uhm... String! String!" Isaiah caught the packets and examined if the Liquid after all these years still can be adhesive. With a light pinch, a sliver of this powerful concoction sprouted forth. One Super Glue Packet was enough that he needed, however.

"Take my shoe!" X-Ray Lead quickly removed one of his boots.

"Give both of them!" Isaiah demanded.

Taking off the other shoe and passing them over to him, Isaiah had all the pieces he needed, and then some to create his intended device. Wrapping the Shoestring, sticking a few careful applications of superglue together with the Copper Wires and Jumper Cables there and he had done it. A Power Bank with a Copper Halo surrounding several fuses together. This makeshift device built with spit and his own grit is going to be their salvation.

"Let them all in!" Isaiah tells everyone. He knelt down to furiously pull the generator's wind-up string.

The Rangers reluctantly removed the last shreds of defenses the door had before it was breached by the besieging Robots.

"Hit it!" David cried.

"Shit turn on! Turn on!" Isaiah's heart beat quickly as the old Power Bank was taking much longer than anticipated.

This moment of hesitation was barely enough time for one robot to grab hold of one of the other Rangers in the Room and crush his neck in one close of his rusted clasps. By then, just as the Rangers were about to become live Robot Weapons Testing, Isaiah's makeshift EMP Bomb sparked to life.

"Eat this!" Isaiah kicked the pulsating Power Bank towards the robotic horde.

The bomb radiated a wave of its anti-electronic aura on the Robots. Due to their poor shielding due to years of neglect and improvised repairs, they were easily fallen prey to the Electromagnetic Pulse's effects. They short-circuited and collapsed harmlessly to the ground.

"That was close!" X-Ray Lead sighed in relief. "David, this boy of yours is good. He is definitely something else for a Rocky Mountain Boy." He gave his regards.

"Steel Town." Isaiah smiled as he wiped the sweat off his brow. "Born and raised."

"Why don't you have one of those... Exo-Spine thingies though? I heard you all use that for work." X-Ray Lead asked.

"Isaiah here, was recruited into the Rangers just before his 18th Birthday. He has all the knick-knack of any of them metal-monkeys over at Steel Tank without all of the... cyberstuff to show it. I saw it in him that he got to Colorado Springs." David explained. "Let's get moving."

The surviving Rangers pushed forward. Weaving through the metallic massacre site of deactivated robots as the ominous Red Alert lights and the impending doom that is the Activation of the Battlle-Master loomed over the horizon.

"Cycle Charge Rate: Seventy Percent"

The Rangers found themselves across a long hallway filled with a wide assortment of junk and metallic scraps segmented neatly across each other as if it was some sort of professionally organized storage depot.

"Oh Hello, Rangers, it seems the robots weren't enough to kill you all isn't it?" the taunting voice of Dr. Commander Cold Iron spoke to them.

"Just a bunch of kill-bots? Nothing I've seen before." David snarked.

"And I thought you wanted to kill us 'exotic' like?" one Ranger added.

"When you seem to think everything is going well for you right now, you are missing something. This... is that 'something." Cold Iron retorted.

Breaching the quiet storage room's silence was a dreadful beeping noise followed by a rattling shake. Isaiah's heart dipped as he realized what trap they had fallen into once more by the nefarious Doctor Commander.

"Take cover!" he ducked as the shrapnel of bottlecaps, rusted tool kits, and dilapidated acids imploded around them.

Cold Iron had rigged this room to produce a hurricane of razor-sharp improvised explosive to tear through the Rangers. Metal hail rained down upon them, cutting any flesh into ribbons by its touch whilst sending much heavier objects flying across the room. It was a lethal chorus for the Last Pioneer, a sickening gamification with these Rangers' lives. He toyed the explosions to match the rhythm of 'the Final Overture of William Tell' by Rossini on his music player next to him at the safety of his Inner Sanctum. The serpentine symphony of explosions catching the one offending ranger into his prophesied 'exotic' death.

"This isn't looking good!" X-Ray Lead nervously chattered.

"G-Get them robo-bodies!" David pointed to some of the scattered remnants of robotic shells that surrounded the last three surviving rangers. "We can use them as shields."

"Good thinking Pathfinder!" X-Ray nodded. Timing the explosion to the pauses of rhythm the grandiose roboticist had arrogantly played, the Rangers grabbed the shells of three discarded robots from the ground and formed a tortoise formation around themselves.

"Stick together!" David yelled. "Push to the exit!" his eyes targeting the opened door across the room.

"Keep your legs low too!" X-Ray added.

A grueling crawl that did much to delay as much as to try to attempt to wound the Rangers from where they entered to where they exited the deadly chamber. Some of their own blood, sweat and tears bled through the chassis as the rangers fell down on their knees and backs from their harrowing ordeal.

"I... I took one!" Isaiah's eyes narrowed as he saw the blood and torn lacerations on his right shin tap forth from his left leg.

"I got ya kid!" David pulled out his spare bandages and disinfectant from his pockets and immediately wrapped them around his wounds.

"Ah! Not so tight! That's my good leg." The Young Ranger recoiled as the bandages and healing powder made of Broc Flowers and Xander Roots stung his wound.

"Tis' jus'er flesh wounds, it will heal!" David reassured him. As he gritted his teeth too and bandaged his own wounds around his right bicep where alone saw had nearly bisected his arm if it weren't for the tortoise-like shield formation the rest of his two surviving comrades held together with him.

"Pathfinder... Sergeant Pike! We have lost too many Rangers." X-Ray Lead addressed David by his name. "It--- It's just the three of us now."

"Cycle Charge Rate: Seventy-Seven Percent"

"Son of a bitch!" Isaiah cursed as he heard those words again. There was not much time left. His heart rate palpitated with a growing dread the closer that verbal gauge reached one hundred. There was no way in hell that they would have the equipment to even tussle for a second against that mechanical monstrosity just one floor below them. Many of their rangers died by Cold Iron's cruel machinations. And soon they will be the lone witnesses of the Mad Roboticist Apotheosis.

"We have to... continue on." David breathed heavily. "We can't now... we have to stop him."

"No... No... this can't be happening!?" Isaiah began to hyperventilate. Curling himself into a ball and tilting his body back and forth.

"Kid! Kid!" David knelt down to the rookie Ranger. "Get a grip boy, we can still get over this... We just need to find the Power Room and cut it off from the Mech." He reminded him.

"These wires are starting to converge now..." X-Ray Lead noticed. He scouted a few feet ahead around the corner of the next hallway as the Yellow Glowing Wires became thicker with girth. He had a hunch that they are just only a light dash away from the source of the power.

"Over there!" X-Ray Lead yelled as his eyes caught a yellow metal door with the Electrical Bolt sign designated above it. The Yellow Wires too had converged themselves through the room. "The Power Room!"

Hope resurrected once again as Isaiah purged himself of his stupor as he stood up and grabbed his Machine Crossbow once more. The surviving three Rangers hurriedly galloped to the Power Room's door and breached it open.

"This has to be it!" Isaiah exclaimed as they made it into the Power Room. As anticipated by the Ranger Team, they have found a console that is connected to the Hadron Collider's controls. "Hot damn, a fully functioning Hadron Generator. And I thought these were only just stories." He began to fiddle his fingers around the computer console.

The Hadron Collider was a marvel of the Old World. Circling like a crown to coronate the Space Center's many experimental facilities. Circling around heavy ionic energies of azure power. It was a testament to both the Old World's technological might and of the prowess of the Rocket City Pioneers in maintaining such a high-tech place.

"Can you turn this thing off?" David's eyes blinked irritably as he saw the bright blue electricity that bolted across the room like an enraged beast.

"Just need to find the button that says... power and... here... and..." Isaiah's eyes hovered hurriedly over the computer screen until he saw the computer option 'Hadron Collider Cycle Charge Sequence: Activated.' Without any hesitation.

'Biometric Identification needed Director: Posidonus Winters' was all the screen produced, all that was demanded. No matter how much the techy boy from Colorado could do to bypass it.

"Did you, ACTUALLY! Believe it would be... THAT easy? Just flip a switch?" Cold Iron mocked them. "Come on, do more, do better! I honestly should have expected such savages like you to think so simply."

"No! No!" Isaiah cried as he smashed the keys of the console computer. Hopelessness was now slowly gripping his heart as the Cycle Charge Rate loomed ever closer to one hundred percent.

"Fuck these damn machines!" X-Ray Leader wailed loudly as he stormed out of the room.

Nearby, was a glass case of fire emergency equipment ranging from a coat, a mask, and a fire axe. Desperation gambled the Ranger Leader as he smashed the case open and pulled out the axe.

"What are you doing?" David asked him.

"I am cutting the power from its feed. It can't charge without power!" X-Ray ordered. "I saw some more fire axes across the hall. Grab anything and cut these fucking wires off!"

"You want to... PHYSICALLY sever the connection?!" David stuttered to protest. "That's dangerous!"

"You got anything else?" Lead answered back.

"Fuck it. Come on Ice." David urged the young recruit to follow him. The Pressure cooked the Rangers' head as they rushed down to a narrow corridor, grabbing whatever heavy equipment they could muster within those critical next minutes. Axes, Sawblades, Explosives and whatever the two could reasonably think of under such dire demands.

"Cycle Charge Rate: Eighty-Seven Percent."

"Come on... Come on!" X-Ray Lead prayed beyond hope that his desperate gambit shall come to fruit as he hammered the connecting electrical cords with his Fire Axe.

"Let's go!" David urged Isaiah to as they started picking away at the wirings. Little by little, the Rangers were able to pick off the rubber wire coverings of the Collider's Power Lines. They had a lot of ground to cover now that the clock reaches ever so closer to midnight. Like prospectors drunk with greed they picked off those Gold Veins. The first about to strike gold being Team X-Ray's Leader had a head start already about to expose the delicate electro-conductive wires within them.

"This end.... ZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!" X-Ray lead was just about to cut down his end of the wire when suddenly a barrage of electrical bolts.

"No!" Isaiah tried to reach out for the Team Leader but David stopped him just short of having him be electrocuted by the loosened tendrils stings with a lethal singular kiss.

Instincts kicked in for David as he dragged Isaiah to safety, which was any distance away from this garden of electrical snakes.

Not taking care behind him, David's feet fell down to a flight of stairs, dragging him and Isaiah down a harrowing descent down its slope.

"Dave!" Isaiah's eyes teared up as he looked at his comrade in arms. "The Power Lines."

"New Plan kid!" David grabbed hold of the rookie by his shirt and pulled him back up. It was now or never and he has to take charge of this situation before it is too late.

"We ain't ever gonna be able to cut the power of that bot off. Cold Iron designed every damn part of this place to kill us all one by one." He sternly explained. "The lowest levels are only downstairs from here. He's likely there getting ready to activate the Battle Master once that Cycle Charge hits One-Hundred."

"What are you saying?" the Rookie asked. "Lead?" realizing now he has to follow his orders now.

"I am saying that this Bot needs a person to operate it. Cut the person off..."

"And the Robot is useless!" Isaiah followed David's train of thought.

"Come down these stairs. Let's catch him by surprise." David placed his index finger on his lips as the Rangers stealthily came down the stairs. Their eyes glistened like predators stalking their unexpecting prey who had assumed he had finally gotten away from its pursuers.

Cold Iron grandiosely stood in an open platform overlooking the Battle Master Mech who is being fed the energy it needs to ready for his grand revenge upon the world. The monstrosity was built three houses tall with its upper torso being visible from its cradle. Its legs were deeper into the bottom-most level of the Space Center designated for the maintenance of larger-scale projects.

"Cycle Charge Rate: One-Hundred Percent. Power Generation complete! Awaiting activation."

"And so, my revenge begins..." Cold Iron's steel tentacles were about to activate the Remote Control that would awaken the mechanical monstrosity of Battle Master when the Control Board was shot away by the deadeye marksmanship of David Pike.

The Inventor stood resplendently in his custom-made exo-armor and crowning his brazen display were the weathered vestments of an Old-World Officer of superior repute. His back was rigged with a pair of three-fingered mechanical arms of full opposability. On the right arm held a rectangular crystal that displayed a miniaturized hologram of the Battle Master Mech. It was the Activation Key. Without it, David knew that the giant Mech would not work. On Cold Iron's left exo-arm, however, was arguably more threatening than the Key. He carried with him a larger shoulder-launched rocket launcher with four tubes that spat fiery death from its hateful breath. He had heard stories of such a terrifying tool of war but thought only existed in Old World Schematics.

His robotic assistant, H.E.N.R.I. meaning Helpful Entity for Numerically Related Industries was at a much thinner chassis. His body was thin yet humanoid enough to allow full articulation of his limbs. He sported a singular green eye that acted as his optics when it comes to interactions related to his duties, whether is the basic caretaking of his master or the distribution of orders for the hordes of robots Cold Iron had under his literally iron-fisted disposal.

"Stop right there!" David yelled.

"How da---" Cold Iron stopped himself short from lashing out from what should be his most auspicious moment being ruined by the arrival of the surviving Rangers but he composed himself. "H-How tact of you to show up. I hope you had been enjoying my... 'hospitality' as of late?" he cracked a hasty smile as he surveyed the two of them.

"The food and entertainment could have been better." David shrugged. "I give it... I don't know... one-star... one big fat Ranger Star. Winners of them get a one-way ticket to Colorado Springs!"

"But I see two Ranger Stars though... Funny... would I win more if I had let some of your colleagues survive?" Cold Iron wittily pointed out. "But alas! It seems I must get my hands dirty... very dirty. Sorry H.E.N.R.I.!"

"Scheduling request for additional Abraxo Cleaning Liquid to all Scavenger Drones immediately, master." Cold Iron's artificial sycophant nodded.

"Prepare for power!" the Roboticist cried forth, unleashing an arrow from his Rocket Launcher.

David and Isaiah rolled away in opposite directions in barely a nick of time as the rocket sped past them to blast the door opposite behind them to rubble.

"Give it up Cold Iron!" David shouted behind his cover. "It's two against one!"

"Dave." Gritted as quietly as his lips could allow him to talk to David from afar. He gestured his hands into a gun shape with his thumb and index figure before shaking it to indicate he would provide suppressing fire.

But David shook his head, gesturing back by lowering his hand palm facing down. He can't risk the rookie Isaiah sticking his neck out right now. Not against such a dangerous opponent as the Mad Roboticist Cold Iron is with that Rocket Launcher. He made a promise to his mother he would come home safe. Adding to his gesture he signaled to Isaiah that he will circle around him and try to attack him from the back behind all of the cover they have already. He had a much softer foot than the Rookie that is indeed for sure of him.

Isaiah grumbled but he accepted the overruling order of the now acting leader of Team X-Ray. A gripped his Machine Crossbow tensely as he sank deeper into his cover of old metal storage boxes.

"Come out and play!" Cold Iron teased him.

But it would be a fool to think that Cold Iron is fully in control of the situation. He was only armed with his trusty Rocket Launcher that had four, now three units of ammo he can fire right now alongside his two Exo-Arms for his own offensive defense. He cursed himself that he should have brought a spare fallback weapon but his grief-filled bravado had clouded his head too much ever since that tragedy of his homeland had befallen to him.

He needed to be rid of these vermin from his home now or his revenge will never take fruit.

David hid amongst the shadows, using his years of seamlessly weaving the wasteland wildernesses and ruins to his advantage to sneak around Cold Iron. He now was opposite behind him, nearing the Mech's Activation Key just a distance away. He was tempted to get the Key, but David knew he needed to keep his head back into the game, Cold Iron was the true enemy in this board. As his back is turned, David aimed his rifle's iron sights towards the Inventor and unleashed a volley of his remaining ammunition towards the malefactor.

Seven bullets struck Cold Iron's back... yet none pierced through. Merely only able to ricochet harmlessly or flatten upon contact. The Roboticist roared as he turned around, Rocket Launcher and metallic cutlery for hands towards David and opened fired two rockets from his Launcher. David tried to strafe away, the Rockets meeting only several parts of the wall and also several parts of the electrical wiring used to power the Battle Master Mech. The resulting twin explosions caught his reflexes wanting, getting knocked down onto his feet.

"Dave!" Isaiah cried as he rushed through the smoke.

"Kid!" David, covered in light debris and obscuring dust, grunted. "I thought I told you to stay in cover and let me handle him." He abruptly reprimanded him.

"Rangers don't leave any man behind!" He repeated one of the Oath of the Desert Rangers to him.

"Where the fuck is Cold Iron?" David sulked as he coughed away the dust from his old lungs.

"How charming!" Cold Iron's sinister voice emerged from the dust. "Like father and son, or brother and brother... if only I still HAD THEM!"

As the concealing smoke cleared, there stood the Doctor-Commander, unharmed, dusted but ultimately unblemished by their failed assault.

"Two Rangers-in-One... what a bargain!" He aimed his rocket launcher at the Two Rangers.

David turned to his pockets and grabbed hold of his .45 Auto Pistol from it and aimed his pistol at Cold Iron. The dust still stuck on his eyes impaired his aim slightly as he fired one last ditch strike to stop Cold Iron once and for all. The bullet zoomed across the five feet of distance between them, striking through the barrel still filled with one rocket readying to fire.

A minor flame began to erupt from Cold Iron's Four-Barreled Rocket Launcher before sparks erupted from its firing chambers.

"Oh... shit!" Cold Iron, in a split second commanded his twin exo-arms to dislodge the about to misfire Rocket Launcher from his shoulders.

The Arms had barely gotten to dislodge the Rocket Launcher from his shoulder before the rocket improperly ejected from its barrel. Spiraling madly towards the ceiling and shooting a huge chunk of the Space Center's roof and surrounding floors to fall onto the bottom.

The sheer weight of the falling debris that rained down on them has caused the floor to collapse, spiraling David, Isaiah, and Doctor-Commander Cold Iron into the bottom-most-maintenance floor.

The grizzled Ranger groaned in pain as his head spun and rang. He had a bit of blood leaving his head. But as he tried to reach in for a pair of bandages on his pocket, David realized his legs were pinned down by some metallic and concrete debris from the flooring above them. The Ranger desperately attempted to push the rubble away from him but with every attempt to try and lift them up, he winced in pain. His injuries sapped whatever attempts of athleticism he could do.

"Isaiah..." he murmured. Eyes darting across his surroundings to look for the young Ranger, happening to spot him laying right next to him just within the reach of his arms. Amongst the maze of debris that separated them.

David checked on the kid for a breath, hovering his hand over him, he was relieved that Isaiah still draws breath albeit his injuries foresee a long time of sittings of oatmeal over a straw atop an Infirmary's cot for a month. He didn't wish for Isaiah to be so battered up like this on his first mission. He promised his mother he would protect his only son. "I... I am so-... sorry."

"Good... but not good enough!" Cold Iron's grandiosity betrayed his survival from their final gambit.

The Inventor was as at a worse for wear, even if he didn't want to blatantly acknowledge it. His once grandstanding of clothes lay burnt along the right side of his face that singed from his arm upwards. His Exo-Arms, although somewhat blackened by the misfired rocket launcher, were resilient enough to still be in operational shape.

Heart beating yet teeth stubbornly gritting that he could still save everyone. David spotted his .45 Auto Pistol laying just a few inches away from him. He reached out. He let out one final groan as he allowed the last breath of his second wind to grab the pistol onto his left hand. The Pathfinder then tried to attempt to aim his pistol onto the Roboticist. But his weakened body was too slow to the draw, Cold Iron easily stomping on his hand with his heel before the .45 Auto could align its barrel towards him. The one bullet that could have saved all that he held dear was discharged harmlessly to the side.

"Naughty boy!" the Roboticist admonished him. Picking up the pistol from his now frail hands and then allowing one of his exosuit's tentacle arms to grab hold of it firmly. With an agonizing rattle, he allowed his exo-arms to crush the pistol into scrap metal.

"Too slow." Cold Iron shunned him. Before leaning down and grabbing his head gently. His vengeance filled-eyes staring between theirs with a soul-piercing gaze. "Nothing on this Earth will save you, Ranger..." his voice oozed with a marriage of stoicism and triumph.

Walking away from the defeated Rangers, he held the Activation Key in his hand as he stood before the now slowly awakening Battle-Master War Mech. He let out a smug smile before turning sour when his robotic advisor leaned over to his ear.

"Damage to the Electrical Connection integrity is unstable Master. In addition, I must also ALARM you are suffering third-degree burns on YOUR BODY! We must postpone for structural repairs and medical triage." H.E.N.R.I. bleeped concerningly for his master with a cautionary tone.

"The Star-Spangled Marauders must be driven away from Rocket City first! Then we can repair what vandalisms they had made. Besides, by all the noise we have been doing, more of those Rangers and their Cali-Bear thugs would have heard all the ruckus miles off. We must strike now before these marauders realize what is happening." He turned his advisor down. Whilst silently enduring the aching pain his newfound burns had brought him. "On this day! I Doctor-Commander Cold Iron, last of the League of New Pioneers hereby declare a New World!"

The triumphant villain raised his hand towards the soon-to-be-revived Battle Master Mech and pressed the Key's Activation Button.

"No!" David cried forth as an ever-brilliant white light fully engulfed the room.