Junior saw a bright blast of light from the weapon mounted and then everything went frighteningly dark, so dark in fact that for a second he thought he'd been killed.
Then he noticed there was still light from his control board. Out of habit he checked his power levels. For another second, he again thought he'd died.
Every meter on over part of the Beater read over 1000% charged.
Junior thought about the amount of power it took to reach 100% charged on all limbs. Then he thought about ten times that amount. And he thought about the man who'd fired that amount of energy at him.
The man who had stood his shiny, undamaged, custom Beater up and was standing smugly before the stationary Firebird.
Before Junior could even think about it, he punched him.
Now, Firebird was never a gentle machine. Two massive blocks of raw metal are anything but delicate. After the impact, which Junior hadn't considered particularly vigorous, the power meter for his right arm read "65%".
Blisteringly hot sparks erupted from the impact point and the black Beater was knocked off its feet and back a good distance. It hit the soft dirt of the crater floor and slid, digging a deep furrow and spraying think waves of soil into the air.
Junior wasn't done, not by any means. He stalked after his target, moving through the thick clouds of freshly agitated dust.
When he arrived at the fallen machine he noticed a jagged crack down the middle of the central armor plate. There was oily black, noxious smoke escaping from several smaller crack throughout the immobile suit. Junior unstrapped his safety harness and stepped down to see if he could pry Scooter out of the remains of the machine.
There was no movement within the shattered hulk, unlike Bessy. Junior could see Big Roy pulling himself out of that mess. He seemed surprisingly uninjured if completely angry.
As Junior wondered exactly why the healers hadn't rushed down to help him, he crouched down and reached into the cockpit of the black Beater. He felt around and his hand came back wet with blood.
He felt someone move in behind him before he heard Dank's voice.
"Junior," he sounded awed, "What did you do?"
"I killed Scooter, Dank," Junior saw the matching black Beaters moving in from all sides, "I killed him."
"That wasn't Scooter," Dank began, but by the time he would have finished, the two were surrounded by fifty identical black combat suits.
The weapons pointed at them whined in anticipation.
Chapter Twenty Four Interlude
File: Datanet Core Server Beta Delta Forty Two, Galactic Current Events, Era: Modern -0, Headlines, Data source Benevolent States United Sanctioned News Feed
The BSU vessel G5493, on a mission to secure a new energy source for the Faithful citizens of Earth Prime, has been lost. At last contact, the vessel reported the investigation of an abnormal gravity well. This investigation was not sanctioned by the BSU and is in direct contradiction with the Truth.
The crew, recently certified Un-Faithful by official proclaimation, are all considered lost.
All properties, rights, titles and authority have been transferred to Benevolent States United officials until they can be reviewed and distributed to the Faithful.
Of note, recently promoted Fleet Colonel Martin Stevens has been stripped of all command rank posthumously.
"Who are y'all?" Junior asked, trying to decide if he had enough time to get back to Firebird before these people blew him up. He decided fairly quickly that running would be a bad idea.
None of the black-suited figures spoke, but one man popped the hatch of his Beater and climbed down to examine the wreckage. He held his nose.
The crowd had started to file amazingly efficiently through the exits, but Junior caught sight of Scooter making his escape with them.
Trixie May forced her way through the troops surrounding Junior and Dank and knelt beside the figure digging through the wreckage, her face grim.
"I said," Junior tried to sound forceful, "'Who are y'all?'"
He was again met with maddening silence.
He'd gone from feeling guilty to feeling afraid and straight through feeling angry and confused.
Now Junior just felt tired.
He sat down on the leg of the black Beater which was jutting out of the shallow trench.
Trixie May stopped her search through the wreckage and sat back on her heels. She looked up at Junior and shook her head slowly.
The man who had been also examining the downed Beater pulled a tiny data terminal out of his uniform and typed a few short commands.
He scrolled through whatever data was returned while Dank, having temporarily forgotten their mortal peril altogether, stared in wonder at the device.
The man touched a separate part of his screen and a semi-transparent set of keys appeared in the air around him. He stared intently at some point in space in front of him and entered sequence after sequence of keystrokes.
Dank fairly drooled, but Junior began to become more and more impatient.
Finally, with a wave of his hand, the man dismissed the keyboard and turned to face Junior.
Junior stood to face the man, who was a solid four inches shorter than him. He had short cut, brown hair and stood in a suit that looked to be made of rubber all covered with wires and winking lights.
His eyes were bright and clear, and he seemed to stand at attention almost without thinking.
"My name is Specialist McComb of the Benevolent States United carrier vessel G5493," he began, "We are a part of the Earth Prime Protection Force, sent here, to EcoHope 11, to this crater, to gather a rare mineral compound needed on Earth Prime.
"My readings indicate that not only is the ground around this site rich with this mineral, but your robotic device also contains a significant amount.
"As you witnessed, the mineral as applied to your robot absorbs energy and discharges it. This chain of events can be controlled, regulated for the safe dispersal of power to the citizens of Earth Prime."
"That's nice," Junior tried to sound as polite as possible past his spinning head, "But why are you tellin' me this?"
"Because you need to know," Travis replied.
"Why would I need to know that?"
The man smiled impishly, "Because, even though the latest feed indicates we are technically 'out of command' at the moment," he tapped the side of his terminal in a very Dank-like manner, "According to the Truth of Earth Prime Protection Force regulations -- You, Sir, are our new commanding officer."
