Blacklash: The pod and its contents

Chapter 3: No longer safe

I shut the door from my house into my garage, tossed the box onto the ground, and pressed the button on the top causing it to expand and unfold till it was full size and prepared to startup. I walked over to the side of the garage where I had left the pod. I stared down at the pod in front of me, was I really gonna bring a find like this to HQ? there is no knowing what they will do with it or even if they will let it take part in training to become a mercenary.

I put my hands on the pod to start moving it onto the transport, and my hand brushed something jutting out of the side of the pod. rubbing off what I could of the rust I saw a nameplate on the side of the pod. It read Subject_Hinerich, which must be the name of the protogen inside. I put my hand on a different part of the pod and forced it onto the transport.

how did Roland get it through and over the sand to his tractor, well actually its probably easier for him being younger than me by a lot.

I straightened out and slapped the button on the side to start up the transport. I turned to the garage doors and moved to the control panel for them. Hitting the open button I turned towards the wall that the panel sat on, and my eyes settled on where I hung my armor that I would use during jobs. I moved to the wall and took the armor off of the hang-stand and run my hands over the marks and wounds on it. I felt the mark of the Blacklash armor smiths over then heart piece. Put my fingers through the hole left by a sniper round in the right thigh plate. rubbed my fingers over the slashes, cracks, and flecks left over from years of intense battle.

I picked up the personal shield generator I had sit on my back during each job that I had the risk of getting shot. The shield would fold down over the exposed areas, shrinking to fit the shape of the body. It would fit the bottom of the chest plate and would link up with the leg armor providing full cover for the vital organs.

I put my armor and shield generator ina box on ontop of the pod before I left and shut the garage. Walking back pushing the transport I got a few odd looks, maybe one or two hostile glances, but nothing serious. I walked into the hangar and stopped dead in my tracks. No this couldn't be happening, it could NOT be happening, but they were right there. A group of XE-D bots, standing over the dead body of the hangar owner. One of the bots turned their head towards me and said in a synthesized voice,

"Gibalh V. Yid you are under arrest for the mass murder of the Kyltch clan and for multiple transgressions of galactic law. Your fate has already been decided, your punishment for your transgressions is death."

With the end of that sentence, each other bot turned towards me and slung the plasma rifle off of their backs. I knew I had about 15 seconds as the rifles charged up before they started to fire at me.

I grabbed the box containing my armor from on top of the transport and dove for cover so that I could have the time I need to put it on and start up the shield. I heard the rifles whir and finish heating up as I just finished getting on my legs and chest plate armor. Their metal feet clanking towards me I rushed just trying to get the rest of my armor on. With a click, my helmet set down onto the neck plate and started up.

I sprinted from cover so I could get the rest of the time I would need to get my armor running to fight the XE-D bots. Hot, searing, burning pain in my left hand as one of the bolt hit my hand. I clutched my hand in towards my chest as I ran out and towards the Bazar where I could disappear into the crowds until I was ready to fight them. I heard the tearing of metal and I wove my way through the crowds and realized that without fingerprints they had to rip open the door, not good for me, they have extra strength.

I turned into an alleyway and hid behind a trashcan so I could get my shield generator set up along with the small gauss cannons I had mixed with the armor. My shield generator hissing I peeked over the can and saw the robots pass outside the alleyway. One of them peeked into the alley and stared directly at me. I fell down back behind the dumpster glancing at the shield generator, not good a few more minutes till it was ready. I jumped as the robots tossed the garbage can to the side and reached for me. I threw my eyes around the alleyway looking for anything I could use as a weapon on till the shield generator can finish starting up.

My eyes landed on a loose brick a couple of meters away at the end of the alleyway. I rolled to the side to avoid their grasp and flipped onto my feet breaking into a run. Another blast of searing hot pain as a plasma bolt hit my left shoulder. Stumbling with blurry vision from the pain I reached the wall and pried the loose brick out, I don't know how its gonna be helpful but it's better than nothing. I pulled my good arm back to smash it against the head of the first bot that came within reach, one more step closer... wait for it... wait for it... NOW! I brought the brick down with as much force as I possibly could on the top of one of the bots hoping that at least the bot would be stunned from the impact. The brick shattered apart from the impact and the bot just soldered on pining me onto the ground.

I struggled against the bot as much as I could kicking and punching it anywhere I could reach, but it just took the hits as it continued to hold me to the ground. I stared up into the sky as the bot picked my up off the ground and leveled its plasma rifle at my stomach.

"Any last words?" it asked me with no warmth in its voice.

"No no-," I was saying as I dropped my eyes from the sky to look into its cameras before I was interrupted by my shield generator powering up" actually yes I do have some last words."

"what are they?"

"good luck."

With a smirk on my face, I twisted my body so I could kick the plasma rifle from its grip up into the air, where I caught it and blasted the AI core of the bot. I landed on my feet, blasting another bot hopefully hitting its AI core as well, and dashed out of the alleyway. I hard metal feet clanking after as I ran blindly through the streets waiting for my vision to return to normal. Screams started to erupt when the bots started to fire on me because with every missed shot they killed a person on the street. My vision started to clear as I turned into another alleyway by accident and I was cornered by the bots. I turned to face them, rifle up and aimed, but I saw nothing there. Wandering out onto the street I saw a person standing over the dead husks of the other XE-D bots.

I approached them slowly with my hands up.

"Who are you and why did you help me?"

They turned around and stared at me through the eye slits of a face mask, their voice sounding from a garbled speaker on their chest.

"You saved me years ago, now we're even."

They turned, tossed something over their shoulder which opened a portal looking thing and walked over the carcasses into the portal. I just stood there dumbfounded at what just happened before me I gathered my self and headed back towards the hangar.