Bestial Planet

By AT3chnicality

272 0 0

I'm an artist with words, not book covers... Android Captain Lancieta Steegle, and an engineer from Earth nam... More

Chapter 1: Spearhead Eulogy
Chapter 2: The Comet
Chapter 3: A Forlorn Stand
Chapter 4: N.R.E.M.
Chapter 5: Morning Drive
Chapter 6: Side Track to Perseverance
Chapter 7: Unforeseen
Chapter 8: Regroup and Reassess
Chapter 9: Electric Sheep
Chapter 10 : Controlling Instinct
Chapter 11: They Come in Peace
Chapter 12: An Understanding
Chapter 13: A New Beginning
Chapter 14: Magnetic
Chapter 15: Journey to the North
Chapter 16: The First of Their People
Chapter 17: Diversions
Chapter 18: What's the Plan
Chapter 19: Discomfort Zones
Chapter 20: Breath/e
Chapter 21: Preponderance of Talved
Chapter 22: Report and Respond
Chapter 24: The Immortal
Chapter 25: Negotiations
Chapter 26: Moving Forward
Chapter 27: Prisoner Transport and Luncheon
Chapter 28: Deep Space Dreams
Chapter 29: Bombastic Infiltration
Chapter 30: Stadium City
Chapter 31: Failure Report
Chapter 32: Court
Chapter 33: Home
Chapter 34: Metamorphosis
Chapter 35: Testing
Chapter 36: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
Chapter 37: Compendium
Chapter 38: The Horror of Dissonance
Chapter 39: The Archaeologist and the Fighter
Chapter 40: Restoration
Chapter 41: Test Flight
Chapter 42: Make it Up as You Go
Chapter 43: Emissary of War
Chapter 44: Reconstitution
Chapter 45: Lucid Reality
Chapter 46: Third Time's the Charm
Chapter 47: Military Training
Chapter 48: Back Water Reconnaissance
Chapter 49: The Ship Named Croatoan
Chapter 50: The Question
Chapter 51: Declaration

Chapter 23: Gridt your Teeth

2 0 0
By AT3chnicality


"Dude, you hear that?"

"Hear what? I don..."

Panzer stopped talking as he noticed metal banging against metal and what sounded like a minigun. He took off instantly and ran as fast as he could back to Section 6 with an agility and speed unknown to panthers in the old world. Catty followed behind as closely as she could but Nik was having trouble keeping up all together with his shorter legs. As Panzer got closer he felt a shockwave, followed instantly by the sound of an explosion. He slammed his paws against the ground harder, increasing his stride. He was practically a battering ram.

As he cleared the tree line he saw a massive mech suit that didn't look like any of the Androids' Guardians. He corrected his course and continued barreling forward at full speed. He wasn't sure if his plan would work but he wouldn't crack his skull open... right?

His head makes contact with the suit's leg, denting it and making it fall over. Tumbling off to the side he and the mech struggle to regain their bearings. He shook his head and as his vision cleared, he could see the pilot of the mech. She looked reptilian and not at all pleased with his attack. The mech's non-weaponized limb bent backwards in an attempt to right itself as it's pilot aired her irritation.

"Who the hell are you? Stay out of my way!"

She raised the minigun-arm and loosed a volley of rounds at him. The low hum of the weapon was terrifying to everyone around except Panzer. He glared at the woman in the mech and as the bullets ricocheted off his fur he growled. The pilot stops firing, waiting for the dust to clear and reveal the corpse of the irritating human. The mech's off-limb pushed against the ground and stumbled as it was still attempting to regain it's balance; a flashing yellow symbol appears on her display.

Slowly, Panzer's silhouette peeks through the cloud of dust, disappointing the pilot. Before Panzer could see the mech clearly he took off towards it again. He lept up and slammed his claws onto the mech's cockpit as hard as he could. The flashing yellow symbol on the cockpit turned red as the mech fell over again. He glared directly into the eyes of the Reptilian woman and it finally clicked.

"Halgred." He said out-loud.

"My name's Gridt and you aren't as soft and squishy as you look."

She rolled over and tossed Panzer off. He sailed through the air and landed not-so gracefully. Gridt practically jumped up this time, stomping towards Panzer and swung her empty arm. An energy blade appeared out of the hand just in front of him, giving Panzer almost no time to dodge. A clumsy roll saves him as the blade sinks into the ground shaving off a few hairs in the process.

"If you've got armour hide I'll just have to cut you open."

Panzer got back to his feet and as the minigun arm rushed at him he lept onto it and vaulted behind the mech. He threw his body at it again, causing it to fall to its knees. Gridt yelled in annoyance as she bent the mech arm backwards and grabbed Panzer by the tail.

'Cut it out!'

She whipped him up and slammed him into the ground without letting go. Panzer tried to use his armour to absorb the impact but the strain on his tail hurt just as much if not more. She slammed him into the ground again and; Panzer finally let out a pained roar. He hit the ground so hard he bounced and swore he felt a few bones break. Gridt lifted him again, swung him over her head and slammed him into the ground once more. The pain was unbearable and he could feel his tail starting to tear. He struggled to get free but it was of no use. Gridt held him in front of her and smiled.

"Aww looks like your tail can't hold up as well as I thought."

She fixed her grip on his tail and flicked him as hard as she could. It finally tore free from his body and he sailed through a wall of a nearby building. As Gridt turned around to start working on the air-lock again, the ground began to shake. A rhino crossed with a horse was stampeding towards the mech and knocked it over again. The ground continued shaking and started to split apart beneath Gridt, making the act of regaining balance more than a chore. Gridt looked to her side and something invisible crashed against her cockpit, causing a crack and sending her back to the ground.

Another, more desperate, warning sensor went off and a red dot was flashing erratically on the right side of her HUD next to the yellow one. Something hit again and the crack raced along the glass. She pressed a button and swatted in front of her with the mechs empty hand which connected with something.

"I thought I activated my energy blade!"

She grabbed a rock with the extra, utility-limb, wanting to save ammo for the Androids and their ship. While she was looking for the invisible threat she rolls over and sees Yora aiming a rail-gun right at her. Gridt hurls the rock at Yora, hitting him square in the head. He fell to the ground unconscious and the rail-gun bucked up, firing uselessly into the sky.

Before she could regain her bearings the rhino charged her again and shattered the glass of her cockpit. She took a deep breath and the Earthen air stung in her lungs. Gridt let out a battle cry that rattled and boomed through the air. It sounded like the hissing-grumble you'd hear from a pissed off crocodile. The cry caught Catty off guard causing her to unintentionally de-cloak.

At that moment the air-lock doors of Section 6 whined, intending to open but the damage Gridt had done trying to get in made it impossible. Gridt, the Rhino-horse and Catty stood still, unsure of what was happening. They whined again then a series of beeps faintly sounded before an explosion blew the doors open. Gridt ignored the neo-humans that were proving to be more than a handful, stood up and squared off to the doors. Two patch-work Guardians and an Android Combat suit walk through the dust and out of Section 6. While Gridt was focused on the guardians, Catty and the Rhino-Horse charge her again.

"Stay back!"

Lancieta yelled as the energy blade lit up, headed directly for Catty. The light from the blade reflected in her eyes but fizzled out just before connecting, making the attack just a punch to the face, which still hurt like hell. Gridt turned back to the other neo-human as a piece of a warning icon showed up on her busted display. The Rhino-Horse almost made contact but Gridt stopped it with one hand of her mech. They slid to a stop and she lifted the Rhino-Horse over her head and tossed her to the side. The rhino-horse sailed at least 20 feet before landing with a crunching thud. A railgun shot narrowly missed Gridt's Mech as she turned around.

"Vould, you're not aiming correctly!"

"Shut up Tould! I've never had a body before."

"Focus you two!"

Lancieta exploded forward. The jets of her combat suit at full power as she collided with Gridt, the metal of their suits grinding in protest. Gridt went to activate her energy blade but when she made contact it didn't extend.

"How is it overloaded again?"

The hit connected with Lancieta's leg making her buckle. Her jets, still active, propel her underneath the mech and away from it as another Railgun shot flew by Gridt, closer this time.

"I told you it wasn't easy Tould!"

Vould was running full tilt toward the action with his minigun spooling up.

"Oh shit." Gridt turned around as fast as she could before the bullets started racing towards her from the minigun. She raised her own and loosed a volley of ammunition at Lancieta as the Android glided across the ground, narrowly avoiding the shots. The bullets stopped mushrooming on the back of Gridt's mech just as Vould made contact.

"I can't miss if I'm this close."

His railgun sparked to life and Gridt's eyes went wide as all the warning sounds went off in her cockpit. She tried to ignite her energy-blade but nothing happened. Another emergency sound screamed at her as she forced her minigun to recoil into the arm, then it bent backward to try and get a grip on Vould's rail-gun.

"Come on! Charge faster!" Vould was panicking.

Gridt got a grip and crushed his rail-gun, causing it to explode, sending the both of them flying in opposite directions. Vould looked like a turtle on it's back, trying to get on his feet with his one good arm and the stump that used to house his rail-gun. Tould took the opening his brother created and loosed a chaotic volley of minigun fire. Gridt turned away too late and 5 bullets managed to sink into her right arm and leg.

As she turned Lancieta was already rushing at her. Gridt tried dodging out of the way to let the hail of gun fire from Tould hit Lancieta instead but the Captain read the movement and adjusted her course and closed in. Before Lancieta could get a hand around Gridt's neck she felt a searing pain in her gut. The mech arm flashed in front of her and her attack turned into a failed dodge, making her tumble to a stop with parts snapping off her suit while clutching at her stomach. It took her a few seconds to realize what exactly happened. Gridt raised her energyblade, prepared to split the Android in half but when she brought the blade down it fizzled out again.

Gridt heard clanging against her mechs arm like something was running on it and before she could react something was standing on top of her. How did it get inside the cockpit without her realizing? Gridt was overtaken by confusion as the invisible enemy was already digging its teeth into into her already shredded right arm. She punched wildly with her left at the invisible thing trying to tear her shoulder apart and she thought she heard a few of their bones break. The thing let go of her shoulder and jumped out. Then something hit her from behind causing her to fall over.

"Fuck this! None of this was in the intelligence report! Extraction!"

"Inbound."

Gridt spooled up her minigun and fired wildly around her. Trying to keep everyone away from her. She caught sight of the Panther whose tail she ripped off and steadied her minigun at him. He was standing in front of Lancieta and a limping White Tiger. She tried to hit at least one of them but the Panther kept blocking her fire, the bullets bouncing off it's fur like a child's toy.

Another rail-gun crackle echoed through the air and Gridt looked down at a new warning noise as the energy beam fizzled out from beneath her mech. It was now missing it's left leg. She punched at the ground with her mech's damaged minigun arm to steady herself and two loud, comforting booms sounded from behind her. The first knocked over Tould who was readying another shot and the second kicked up dust in front of her while knocking Captain Steegle and the humans away. She felt her mech being lifted up into her Break-ship and when she got aboard she fell out of it's cockpit and raced over to the arm-cannon.

"First - aid..."

The cannon slithered onto her right arm and started to seal her wounds.

"Unknown poison hindering natural clotting process."

Gridt felt her consciousness drifting and barely spoke her next command.

"... Dock."

The ships computer plotted a course to the main hub of Kraken and took off at full speed, up and out of the atmosphere. In only two minutes she was in the upper atmosphere and before she lost consciousness all of the warnings in her break-ship went off.

"Enemy vessel detected. Munitions fired, evading."

Gridt looked helplessly at Kraken as she blacked out from blood loss and poison.

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