The gravel cracked under their feet as they walked through the rail yard. It was an older one that didn’t run people through anymore but many of the trains that were still around carried either cargo or sometimes live stock on long journeys. And there were still plenty of just old cars that just weren’t going anywhere anymore.
The radio tower though was just past the railyard and even from there they could see the weird glowing coming from the base of it. Some of the light was bright white but then there was red and the occasional blue as well.
“That doesn’t look suspect at all,” Cal shook his head. “Another Scout?”
“Maybe. Whatever it is we’ll smash it,” Jack put his hands on his head.
“Confident, isn’t he?” Seth muttered.
They continued their trek forward leaving the trains behind. The gravel ground transitioned to just flat out dirt. Cresting over a hill they saw the cause of the light show and it was definitely one of the Taq-Law. It was four-legged plodding around on its crab legs but unlike the other ones this one had a torso and a floating orb of a head. It had a red dot in the center that circled around its head as well.
It had two arms hands ending in points, bending and turning around. It wasn’t looking at them though. It was facing the radio tower and had another arm jabbed into the tower itself and that’s where the flashing lights were coming from. The connection between the machine and the radio tower was sending sparks and lights high into the sky.
“What’s it doing?” Sarah asked shielding her eyes.
“Trying to hack into the radio tower from the looks of it,” Kathryn said confusion tinting her voice. “Which doesn’t really make sense. It’s supposed to be an alien, right? Way ahead of us.”
“I mean, we could ask right?” Cal shrugged. “Worth a shot?”
“Well? Go ahead and ask then if you want to try,” Seth said taking a step back and putting up his hands. “I wanna see this.”
Blowing out a breath Cal stepped forward and stared at the machine as it worked, “Hey! Giant robot. Thing!” it continued to work without looking at him and he sighed. “We don’t know why you’re here but if you’re causing trouble we need you to stop!”
The machine continued to work but its head spun around slowly and the red dot focused on him and then the other four. A voice echoed from it like a more advanced and emotionless siri. “Humans. Five gathered together. Threat nonexistent. Continue with the operation to establish more advanced contact.”
“Well that was educational,” Seth commented fighting his snort. “I could’ve called that.”
“Shut up,” Kathryn said throwing a glare his way and he shrugged in response. “It was worth a shot Cal.”
Jack walked over to him and wrapped his arm around his neck and pointed. “You heard the robot. It thinks we’re a nonexistent threat. Let’s show it how wrong it is.”
Cal sighed but stepped back and nodded. “I agree. The other three of these things have been bad news. I can only imagine what advanced contact even means.”
Jack nodded, “Alright team. Let’s go to work.”
Getting their stones out one by one, they each squeezed them and on command the power rushed through their hands. One by one the armor formed around their hands, feet and heads and then the suits connected them together. Each of their bodies hummed with a power that none of them had ever felt before.
“Whoa. Now this is cool,” Jack said and turned to the others. “Anyone else feeling way more ‘powered up’ than the first time?”
“Must be because we’re all together,” Sarah said. “The celestial did say once we were together we’d be stronger.”
Seth walked forward cracking his knuckles. Breaking into a run he leaped at the robot and slammed his fist into its head. The explosion of force from the blow sent him flying backwards while equally breaking the connection the robot had with the satellite. He landed roughly and watched as the robot turned to face them.
Pulling itself back to its feet slowly it stumbled before writing itself and its head direction. It scanned them one by one and this time said, “Humans. Transformed. Celestial technology. Threat high. Termination required.”
The arms spun to life and opened revealing glowing barrels of energy. It rattled off plasma rounds that tore across the ground and raced to them. Kathryn stepped in front and threw up her hands, a shield appearing in front of the five of them and absorbing the bullets.
She stared at the glowing oval of a shield and smiled, “Cool.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Jack shouted swinging his arm down and the scythe formed in his palm. “Cal. Sarah. Follow my lead!”
Running at the robot he darted to the side avoiding a hail of plasma fire. Jumping again he leaped forward and spun the scythe overhead. The robot raised it guns focused on him when the ground glowed purple and one of its legs sank into the ground. Its guns fired into the ground missing the mark.
Cal sprinted into striking range and his sword came out, cutting a leg off entirely and sending it crashing to the ground. An arm spun around catching Cal in the chest and sending him flying back with a thud.
Jack came down and dug his scythe into its head as deep as he could. Standing on the shoulders of the robot he yanked the scythe back but it raised both arms and the energy bullets slammed into his chest blowing him off but leaving the scythe behind.
Sarah spun her axe and whipped one straight at the body of the robot. The first axe thudded into it and the electricity raced across its body locking it in place for a moment. She came up behind that first axe and swung with both hands. With a few swings she hacked the torso clean off. Its legs wobbled back and forth before it sank to the ground in a heap of metal.
The five of them got off the ground and stared at what was left of the Taq-Law scout and then looked at one another. “Okay that wasn’t perfect,” Cal said. “But it wasn’t bad either.”
“I think the celestial has a few more questions to answer,” Seth replied shaking his head.
“Fair but,” Jack pointed at each of them and smirked. “We were pretty good, weren’t we?”
The Harlequin Library 