Bryke

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  Bryke looked up at where Zevortro had and felt his heart clench. Above them, another door was opening five feet up. As he watched, a purple robot walked onto the wall. It had a slim rectangle body, and six stilt legs that each ended in spikes. It used them to grab onto the wall and it moved a single eye stalk at the middle of the rectangle to look down at them.

  “AIM!” Jessie barked, and as one he, Zevortro, and Bryke all aimed at the robot.

  Bryke saw Terra and Dalila aim up at the robot as they stepped in front of Vivis.

  “Do we fire!?” Zevortro asked, an edge to his voice.

  “Keep moving apart and back slowly. This thing might be on autopilot. Don’t attack unless it does,” Terra said slowly.

  Bryke held back a snort as he listened to Terra. He understood what she meant, but he didn't agree. This thing had to have come here because they had broken in. And that stalk was probably a weapon, not a sensor. But why was it here? Did it come for them or was this some kind of preprogrammed route?

  For a few moments, nothing happened until Vivis spoke up. “What is it doing?”

  The robot was moving its eye stalk around the room, bathing the chamber in a blue light. But as soon as it came onto Bryke, the light stopped. A moment later, the light turned red and light started to gather in front of the stalk.

  “Weapon, move and fire!” Jessie barked as he hired.

  Bryke threw himself to the side and fired his pistol before he rolled into a ball. He heard the sounds of the shots hitting as he landed. He looked up as he heard a crash, and saw the robot had fallen to the ground.

  For a moment he felt a little lighter, they might have destroyed the only defender this thing had. Then five more of the robots came out and stalked onto the walls, firing at them as they moved.

  Bryke moved, dodging the blasts sent his way by an inch, feeling the heat from them as they passed. He kept firing and hit one of them in its eye stalk. It started to glow before it exploded a second later.

  “NOVA! Terra, go all out! We need salvage!” Jessie barked as he kept firing and moving.

  “Got it! Shot Enhance; Ice!” Terra bellowed before a blue bolt hit one of the robots. It fell and to the ground.

  Bryke meanwhile fired again, this time hitting one of the robot’s legs. It fell to the ground and then its eye stalk started to glow again.

  Before it could do anything, another shot from one of the others hit the stalk. This time, the explosion was larger and released a louder boom that shook them. The shockwave caused Bryke to be thrown into the air.

  He hit the far wall to the right and slid down the wall painfully. He moaned and looked up, seeing there was a twenty-foot-long hole five feet wide in the floor before him. As a piece of the wall dropped down through it, they all heard a splash down below.

  “Water?” Bryke muttered as he stood up. Looking around, he saw that Dalila was on the other side near the edge of the opening back to the clearing. To his right was Terra and across was Zevortro and Jessie. As he tried to look around, he heard Terra moan as she got up.

  “What was that?” Terra was able to say slowly.

  Bryke just chuckled and shook his head. “Those shots must have hit it just right. I haven’t seen anything like that before out an explosive!”

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  Jessie

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  Jessie blinked as he looked around, getting back to his feet. He heard Zevortro roll over to his right, and he ignored him.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Looking ahead, he saw the hole and the three feet in front of them.

  He looked down into the darkness and saw a wall a foot below the hole that seemed to cut the space beneath them in half. His eyes widened as he looked up, trying to find any other robots. But thankfully, all of the enemy had been destroyed. Looking down at the hole, his light went down ten feet.

  “Everyone! We need to leave now!” Jessie barked and reached down to grab Zevortro. “That hole and the rest makes moving deeper impossible. We need to set up a firing line to hold these things off!”

  “I’ll tell the Chief!” Vivis called out, and Jessie nodded.

  “Why the nova…. Oh. That’s a deep hole,” Zevortro said with a soft voice.

  Jessie nodded as he looked ‘up’ at the door. He cursed himself from the depths of his soul. How had he been so stupid!? Why in the name of the Stars and Homeworlds did he think that this thing was right side up!? That was the kind of mistake that rookies made! He was an experienced Hunter, he should have known! “Yeah, and we don’t know how hard the floor is with that damage. So move slowly, and carefully. That goes for all four of us!”

  Across from them, Bryke helped Terra up and he nodded at Jessie. “Slow and steady man!”

  Jessie looked at the ‘ceiling’ and tried to understand this thing. The fact that the entrance was at the bottom was worrying. This whole thing was so advanced but it was like the people who made it hadn’t been into space before. Even now, he could barely see anything that might open the door. The more he saw, the more he grew worried. Then a thought hit him and he felt his eyes widen. He looked up and started to cycle through frequencies and then after a few moments he had to close his eyes.

  “NOVA! This explains everything!” He exclaimed and he started to laugh a little. He couldn’t believe that he had missed something so obvious, he really couldn’t.

  “What is it?” Zevortro asked.

  Jessie was about to say something when he detected the sounds of movement coming towards them. “INCOMING FROM THE DOOR!”

  “What the nova do you mean!?” Bryke snarled.

  But before Jessie could explain, he understood what he sensed. Without a thought, he tackled Zevortro moments before a blast flew over their heads.

  Rolling off Zevortro, Jessie started to fire at the doorway. Floating there were five strange robots. They were three half-foot-long pyramids that were joined at the base around a sphere. As he fired at one, the light started to gather in front of the sphere.

  “Keep firing!!” Jessie roared as he stood up, and for a moment, he thought they would win this. But then three more of the robots appeared from the door. They flew over the human's heads, angling towards the opening to the clearing.

  “NO! Stop them!” Bryke cried out.

  For a moment Jessie almost turned when he detected three more of the robots coming towards the door. He had to hope that the others could handle them and that they weren’t connected to anything wirelessly.

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  Duncan

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  Duncan looked down at the opening, debating if he should send people down there. The idea was that they would hold the high ground, but the screams and blasts from within made him pause.

  He was about to order the defenders to move in, when Dalila and Vivis came out of the opening, firing as they moved.

  “I GOT ONE!” Vivis screamed in glee.

  “Good, keep up the fire!” Dalila screamed rage in her voice.

  Before Duncan could wonder what they were firing at, he had an answer. Over their head, a robot that had three pyramids flew around an orb flew out. Before he realized what he had done, Duncan drew his pistol and fired, the bolt going through the orb.

  As the others all looked at him, Duncan looked down at his hand holding his pistol. He looked up and grinned at the looks he was getting. “Guess the old instants are still strong!”

  “SIR!” Dalila called out as she ran towards him. Once she reached him, she saluted him before speaking. “The way in is blocked sir, that thing is upside down! That’s the bottom on top!”

  Duncan blinked and then he looked at the opening, his mind racing. That one piece of information changed everything, and it made him worried. That meant that they were looking at the bottom of the ship, and the thrusters weren’t even there! He had sent them down there for no reason beyond his paranoia! But that was the past, he had to deal with the future.

  “Start figuring out a way to close that hole! I want a firing line now! Vivis, tell me everything you found out about that chamber! I want to know everything that you all learned!” Duncan said with a snarl on his face. He would make sure that everyone was out of that place as fast as he could!

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  Terra

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  Terra fired another bolt at one of the robots, her Power active. As soon as the bolt hit, the robot was encased in ice. She grinned and ducked, dodging another blast. So far, she and BRYKE had only made it around three feet, and lost two! They were almost as far from the door as they were before, and there were more robots, a total of seven. Some of them tried to get by, but they had been able to hold the line.

  She looked at the frozen robot, and she heard a splash from below. She couldn’t see the water but it had to be close. She had no idea how that was possible, and she was worried. Nothing about this wreck made sense to her, and she was starting to get worried. But the most scary part was that she had no idea why she was worried. But it was there, at the edge of her thoughts.

  “We need to do something, we need to leave!” Bryke said as he kept firing, taking a step back.

  “Just keep it up, we’re going to make it!” Terra called out, hope in her voice.

  Terra looked up at the door on the ‘ceiling’ and tried to believe her words. She knew that the best thing to do in these situations was to keep morale up, but that trick never worked on the person using it. All in all, she had to face facts, the chances they would live were slowly falling. And if Bryke was smart, he would know that.

  “Yeah, maybe we can do a leap fall?” Bryke said with a scowl as he looked at Jessie and Zevortro.

  Terra looked at Bryke and almost asked what when she saw five more robots appear, these were the Wall Walkers. As the walkers moved towards them, the flyers started to fire shorter blasts. Terra understood just what they were doing in an instant, but why were they doing that? Were they ordered to do it, or did they program with that tactic?

  “They’re guarding the Wall Walkers!” Jessie roared from the other side.

  Terra almost rolled her eyes, like she hadn’t figured that out. But then Jessie was saying that for the other two.

  “I’ve got it!” Terra called out as she fired another bolt, this time at the wall. As soon as the blue bolt hit, ice spikes grew out and hit the front Wall Walker. For a moment, Terra grinned, and then the Wall Walker glowed and exploded. The explosion caused the ground to rumble, and then the ground she and Bryke started to come apart. Before she could even move, the ground beneath her feet crumbled.

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  Jessie

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  It was all Jessie could do to stare in horror as Terra and Bryke fell into the depths of the wreck. “NO!”

  “You know we’ve gotta go after them, right?” Zevortro said with a hard edge in his voice.

  “You never leave anyone behind! That’s the Planetary standard. But we gotta go now! Hold on!” Jessie said as he grabbed Zevortro and moved. For a moment, he glowed green before suddenly the two of them were falling down the same hole that Terra and Bryke had. Jessie had no idea where they were going, but he refused to leave a friend in danger alone.

  “Cowabunga!!” Zevortro roared as they both dropped down.