The wind howled across the dusty plain, kicking up little whorls of dirt and dead tanglebrush, sending it skipping and dancing across the parched red earth until, freed from the breeze's grasp, they fell silent and still. The sounds of the wind gusts was overlaid with the low, tenebrous thrum of the massive power generators that stood on the perimeter of the base.
A sudden blast shattered the calm, as an A4000 warbot security droid's chassis let go in a tremendous explosion, sending burning chunks of metal, plasteel and electronics falling to the ground. As the bits of what was once a fearsome hunter-killer droid continued to waft from the sky, another took it's place, the gun barrel that formed on of it's arms rotating and slamming a shell into the breech, as it's sensor relay blinked and trilled, until it picked up it's intended target.
Bunnybdoc looked at the droid and sighed, hefting her gun into the crook of her shoulder and taking careful aim. With the seeker unit on top of the droid's shoulders squarely in the crosshairs of her implanted targeting device, she smoothly squeezed off a single shot. The massive shell sped straight and true to it's target, impacting the hard armor casing of the droid several inches before exploding. With her aim dialed in, Bunny then fired off a short burst, sending a half dozen shells into the same location, now marked by a smouldering hole in the front of the robot's head. Each shell fired true, and they exploded at once, pulverizing the top of the robot's chassis. The lower half tottered for a moment, and then fell crashing to the earth.
Bunnybdoc trotted over to the wreckage of the two robots and began sifting through the remnants, until she found what she was looking for - an oddly shaped antique gun, used by the first arrivals to Rubi-Ka. Although the gun was inoperative, and even if it had worked, was about as good as a stern shout when compared to her own fully advanced weapon, she tucked it into her backpack anyway. There were black market collectors of antiquities that would pay well for guns like this, and, recent events surrounding the assassination attempt on Omni-Tek CEO Phillip Ross nonwithstanding, making a living was the primary objective of most of the citizens of Rubi-Ka these days.
Bunny tilted her head and looked across the dusty ground at the remains of what was once a mighty Clan base, tucked far in the wild northlands of the inhabitable part of Rubi-Ka. These days, the base was nearly abandoned; the Clan, capitalizing on the avarice and prosperity of Omni-Tek, had made a massive offensive toward the Omni seats of power in the south. Entire cities had fallen to the Clan onslaught, and with them, the precious notum fields as well. But this new Clan offensive was not borne from the same fires of revolution that had spawned the Clans in the first place. An uneasy peace had existed between Clan and Omni since the discovery of the Kyr'Ozch aliens, and the subsequent invasion of Rubi-Ka by the Kyr'Ozch fleet. No, this new Clan push was simply a push for avarice, a grab for more resources that would allow the Clans to grab more wealth, exploit more Kyr'Ozch warships for the technology they held. While the appearance of the aliens had been harrowing, the combined martial forces of Rubi-Ka's three factions had managed to push them back out of Rubi-Ka's orbit, and now only exploited their scout ships and their forward recon forces to capture more alien technology, which was now driving the economy of both Omni-Tek and Clan.
It had been a long, strange time, since she had settled on Rubi-Ka, one of the many of what had been the second great migration to the planet. In those days, Bunny had been young, full of iealism, ready to support the military forces of Omni-Tek as they reclaimed this precious planet from the anarchists of the Clan. In the years that followed, she fought and bled and struggled alongside her fellow Omni officers, battling both the Clan and the abundant natural dangers of Rubi-Ka's shadowy native elements. She had been one of the first through the strange metaphysical portals to the Shadowlands, and had been a General by the time Rubi-Ka decided to take the fight to the Kyr'Ozch invaders. She had watched the world transform, from a cauldron of civil war, to the fresh excitement of discovery, to the shared bond of a people fighting foreign invaders to preserve their own home. She had seen it and done it all, and now, after all was said and done, she was standing in the dusty remains of an abandoned Clan base, searching for antique guns to trade on the Omni black market, illegally trading them for official Omni merit commendations. It was a sign of how stultifying the world had become - the massive beauracracy of Omni-Tek had groan even more bloated in the time of relative calm, and now, getting a merit commendation for any action would take months to go through official channels. A band of traders had apparently managed to steal a warehouse of commendations that had not yet been issued, and were using them like cash to obtain Rubi-Ka antiquities.
The thought had struck her many times before - what was the point? She had seen and done everything on the planet, in the metaphysical realm, and against the alien invaders. Bunny knew she would not advance much further beyond her current rank, and the prospect of filling her remaining days fighting meaningless battles for greed and ego filled her with a quiet dread. Perhaps retirement would be in order. Long quiet days filled with peace and calm, instead of spending endless hours scratching out a living beyond the official gaze of Omni-Tek. She had fought well, and deserved a break.
A shout broke her reverie. Bunnybdoc whirled around, instinctively ducking. The smell of burning ozone filled her nostrils as a massive shell slammed into the earth ten yards in front of her. As she looked up, she knew what she would see: another A4000 security droid firing another shot. Without thinking, Bunny stood, and closed her eyes, sending instructions from her own cybernetic neural implants, tapping into the swarms of nanites that made up the nervous system of the A4000 CPU, instructions that would confuse and slow the giant robot, forcing it to reboot it's targeting and logic system before taking another shot. With the big robot confused, Bunny sent out more instructions, forcing the nanites in the robot's control and maintainence systems to slowly self destruct. The A4000's CPU attempted to counter the destruction within itself by creating new nanites and sending them to the points at which it was being attacked, but the confusion in it's CPU was hindering it's self-healing process.
A fat Atrox ran by the corner of Bunny's vision, and even in the midst of the chaos, she was amused to see that the back of his armor was still smoldering where a shot from the A4000 had grazed him. With one thought, she sent a self-repair program to the nanobots in the Atrox's nervous system, where they would begin to repair the inernal damage done to the Atrox's body, restitching cut skin, knitting together torn muscle, and and mending broken bones. In the same instance, Bunny's gun was in her hands, and without taking the time to take a measuring shot, she squuezed off a full clip of shells into the center of the A4000's chest. The resulting explosion tore apart the A4000 in a thunderous crash of destruction.
At first, the Atrox thought he had gone deaf. Or maybe blind. Probably blind, since he couldn't see. Not deaf, since he could hear footsteps. He decided to look up at the footsteps and was astonished to see that he wasn't blind - he just had his hands over his eyes. He looked up at the Opifex who had saved him and grinned. It was a doctor. The doc was alive. The Atrox was happy. Doc lived because of him. Monster angry. Doc lived! It was a good day. It would be better if he could find his sword, and if his rear end didn't feel like something was poking it, but he wouldn't complain.
Bunnybdoc smiled. She had been around enough Atroxes to guess that this one was pretty pleased with himself for killing the bad guy and keeping the doc alive. She had seen the look a thousand times in the past, but this time, oddly enough, the look made her smile. Maybe it was just the adrenaline rush of seeing someone who had really needed her. The Atrox looked young, like he hadn't been out of the lab for too long. His equipment too, looked of hand me downs and scavenged gear from some higher-ups trash bin. Maybe it was seeing the genuine joy on his face, instead of the grim, tight lipped grimace of someone who took what she did for granted. Maybe it was just the realization that there was a third option between fighting endless meaningless battles with the others who had set themselves up as gods on this planet, or giving up and retiring. Maybe she could help people, give them advice, help them work issues out, be a caring voice for those who were alone and struggling to fit into this brave new world that had been constructed here.
The Atrox had stood up and was grinning at her.
"Would not have needed doc heal," he said, "but sword not work for some reason. Worked yesterday, but now it won't. Can you help me?"
"Of course," Bunny said. "First off, let's have a look at it........"
FINI
