Seeing Kowalski turned into a fine red mist didn't seem to deter the other ground swimming, teeth having, murder birds, however. Worse yet, they seemed to have at least some rudimentary understanding of group tactics (being pack hunters and all). The next moment, five more of the large, penguin-like creatures burst from the ground, each from different angles with their own target.
Against any other opponent, the tactic might have been effective, especially if they had no way of seeing into the ground.
Unfortunately for them, Alpha was far from any ordinary beast.
The moment the penguins neared the surface, the TAWP jumped several dozen meters into the air, then using his 3D maneuvering thrusters, flipped the metal war-machine so that each of his Point Defense Turrets had a decent angle of the ground. The next instant, the murder penguins burst from the ground, their eyes open wide in shock at having lost their target.
The shock didn't last very long, however, what with the hail of 7.62 mm Armor-piercing bullets that rained down on them from above. Another quick burst of his thrusters to compensate for the recoil of his turrets, Alpha righted the TAWP just as he landed several meters outside of the encirclement.
Having been designed for both above and underground operations, then later modified for low gravity bodies such as asteroids or debris fields, the TAWP was famous for both its versatility and agility. Though a Human operator might not be able to make full use of its functions.
But to an AI like Alpha who could run through such simple calculations in the time it took for a person to draw a breath? The TAWP was the ultimate Anti-Infantry weapon.
As he landed, Alpha shifted his main gun's setting; Instead of the destructive Ionized beam, the new setting would send out a powerful EMP pulse that was normally designed to disable the electrical equipment on Cruiser sized Ships. Over the years, Alpha had discovered a very interesting... alternative use, for the weapon.
With a blast more akin to a lightning bolt rather than a beam, the weapon fired into the ground near the highest concentration of underground enemies. As the energy blast designed to disable a quarter kilometer size war machine spread out through the ground, the underground penguins screamed as one. The sound shook the earth and was even picked up by Alpha's audio sensors.
Several bodies even "floated" (how the hell did that work?!) to the surface, belly up, their eyes white and feathers charred.
Taking that as his signal to get out of dodge, Alpha turned the TAWP towards the mountains and shot forward at top speed.
It didn't seem like the penguins were quite ready to give up just yet, however, as one by one they began to recover from Alpha's attack and race towards him. It looked like they weren't in top shape though, as their speed had sharply declined.
[Alpha] - "Fine, you want to be that way?! I got the newest Class-V Mobile Armor Power Core installed last month! I can literally do this all day! COME AT ME, BRO!"
Alpha may have slightly regretted not keeping his big mouth shut, as at the next moment his sonar picked up a new signal heading straight for him. Where the Penguins were only the size of a small sedan, his new guest was easily the size of a Semi-Truck, trailer and all.
[Alpha] - ".... Wait, how about we talk this one out, friend?"
Normally Alpha wouldn't be too worried, but he was already damaged from landfall, and his ammunition reserves weren't infinite. There's was no telling what else would come his way before he managed to find a suitable mineral deposit and start repairs. So suffice to say, fighting a Class-C Underground Lifeform was not something he wanted to do at the moment.
Didn't look like he would have many choices though, since the ground several hundred meters behind him erupted in a fountain of dirt and stone. The Godfather of all Penguins soared gracefully through the air, before landing with an earth-shaking thud.
Using its forward momentum, the creature began sliding on its belly, traveling at speeds that nearly matched Alpha's own, as it glared hatefully at the AI.
It roared (Alpha learned on that day that Penguins could roar), and somehow accelerated, slowly gaining on the (slightly panicking) AI.
Switching his Ion Cannon from "Stun" to "Punch a hole through that mother fracker", Alpha swirled turret head to face behind him and fired.
To his (and all of his Sub-AI, who momentarily stopped functioning in shock) surprise, in between the instant that the weapon charged and fired, something totally out of his expectations occurred. Almost as if by magic, the very ground itself rose and surrounded the giant(er?) penguin, encasing it in thick armor of Stone....shaped like a penguin.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The supercharged Ion beam struck the giant stone penguin, now twice its original size, and dug a shallow, molten grove into its surface. The Penguin for its part didn't even seem phased as it continued to gain ground.
[Alpha] - "What the hell?! Now that's just unfair! I take it back, this place sucks!!!"
The 4th Gen Nitrogen Ion Cannon "Gungnir", was a Class-III (Anti-Ship) weapon designed to punch through 2 meters of Battleship-Grade armor.
[Alpha] - "Are you telling me that the rocks around here are more durable than battleship armor?! .... No, no, something's not right here..."
Alpha had been taking samples and readings from the moment he woke up (as per standard Landfall procedures). As far as his equipment could tell, the soil was about as commonplace as you could find. Then what was going on?!
Now that he thought about it, how was this thing even chasing him? Or how did these creatures move so swiftly through the ground? The energy expenditure for a biological life-form to do those kinds of things should have been astronomical. That was one of the reasons the Cyborg program had been shut down; AI operated far more efficiently and effectively in a fully mechanical body.
Was it some kind of ESP? In the thousands of worlds, the Federation had conquered, they had encountered a few instances of so-called "Psychic" powers. However other than almost exclusively only manifesting in Sapient species, their use, range, and power were also severely limited. Even the most powerful of them, a species of psychics call the Elderon, were limited to short-range telepathy and psychokinesis capping out at around 1/10th their body weight.
The Federation had thoroughly studied this "Path of the Mind", as the Elderon called it, but ultimately deemed it a novelty at best.
Whatever was going on, Alpha would have to figure it out later. Because at that moment, the stone back of the Penguin rippled, and a dozen, meter-long stone spears launched into the air, striking the ground around Alpha with surprising accuracy, considering the speed both parties were moving at. Taking evasive maneuvers, Alpha aimed his main Gun once more and fired. Even if the Penguin had a tough head, experience told Alpha that if you shot something enough times, eventually you'd hit something squishy.
A few more blasts proved that strategy to be ineffective. The high energy weapon could do nothing more than carve a few deep grooves into the Stoney armor. And even this damage was quickly repaired, as fresh stone and soil churned up by the penguin's charge, filled in the gaps. This was getting him nowhere. If he was going to survive this, Alpha had to change up the rules a bit.
Thankfully, he had just the toy to do so. But he only had one shot left, if he used it here it would be a while before he could restock. There was also the possibility his damaged systems might not be able to handle the stress. Still, glancing at the Giant stone murder bird slowly gaining ground on him, he decided to risk it. No point in holding back if you're dead otherwise.
With a thought, the Ion weapon rippled like water and melted away, as nanobots that made it up were pulled back into the TAWP's main gun mount. 30 seconds later (though when dodging giant magic stone spears, it felt like an eternity) the new weapon emerged.
Unlike the sleek, futuristic design of the Gungnir, the new weapon had a minimalistic design with a slight industrial flavor. Little more than a 5-meter long square barrel with 4 electromagnetic rails running down its length at each corner.
It's simple design belittled the complexity and power packed with it. It was his baby, the very first Federation-Approved, Class 4 AI designed Heavy Ordnance delivery system.
The M8-223-Railjack.
This monster of a Gun had been nicknamed "God's pinky finger", and was the little brother of the Sub-orbital Kinetic bombardment platform. It delivered a bunker-busting 50lb cobalt alloy rod to its target at speeds exceeding Mach 12. Once it penetrated deep enough into the enemy bunker, the (very tiny) nuclear warhead loaded onboard would detonate, insuring total destruction to all but the absolute best-fortified locations.
This wasn't an Antitank or Antiship weapon. It was an AntiBASE one.
Much to Alpha's regret, however, he rarely got to use it. The high cost of the projectile meant that he needed the Ok from at least a vice-admiral level supervisor to fire the thing.
Fill ONE space whale with explosive gel, and suddenly they're counting every bullet you fire...
Disconnected from the Translight network, however, he was free from those restraints. This was going to be fun.
Once the weapon had fully formed, Alpha did some quick calculations; 500 meters away, it was a stretch, but he could make it work. In the next instant, the TAWP came to a sudden stop. Anchors in its legs shot deep into the ground, and the War machine lowered itself so that it was barely touching the ground.
The Railjack swerved on its mount and aimed directly at the fast-approaching target. The Stone penguin went wide eye and opened its mouth to roar, but before it could even blink, the massive gun fired.
The 50lb slug broke through the sound barrier, producing a massive shockwave that nearly ripped Alpha from his anchored position. It covered the distance between the two in less than 1/10th of a second, concentrating an unimaginable amount of force onto the tiny point of the rod.
The rail-slug pieced through the penguin's stony armor like tofu, transfer enough force to collapse and pancake its entire front half. The next instant was followed by a blinding white flash, as the warhead exploded into a 100-meter wide ball of nuclear flames.
When Alpha's overloaded optical sensors came back online, he could see that nothing remained of the giant stone penguin, only a 100-meter crater and a ring of glassed earth.
Alpha started at the scene in silence for a moment, before turning back to the Mountains and continuing on his way, whistling as he went.
What? What giant crater? Alpha had no idea what you're talking about. It totally wasn't HIS fault.
As he drove away, Alpha's Targeting Computer Sub-AI cheered and added a tally to the "Times Alpha used to much Overkill" scoreboard. The other Sub-AIs could only groan and transfer the Fed Credits.