REPO: THE RAYGUN SAGA -1- ANOTHER JOB END, ENTER RAYGUN BEGIN
After being ambushed by monsters, MEAR heads off to the service station to re-supply the truck, pick up some upgrades, and rest for the night. But one of their newest members finds something strange in one of the secret rooms…
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Panic. Truck. Panic. Headman. Feeva hurt. Panic.
That was all that had crossed his mind as he raced the cart back to the truck.
His friend was dead. No, not dead-dead. Her head was in the cart. Still a chance to save her. She was “hurt”, is what Peng called it. If he could get her back to the truck, then Rita could revive her and they could get out. It wasn't death if he could bring her back.
Peng was a semibot; no, not a normal one. Something that was new, if four decades since public reveal was still considered “new”.
A “guardbot” was what he was called.
It looked like a normal semibot; well, one side of it, one form and shape was. The other? Close. Definitely semibot, but it was a little bigger. It had a third eye, a row of teeth that created a beartrap-like maw. His left arm was a large talon, his right arm a gun, and in this form he had a prehensile tail in place of a traditional tractor beam.
They were made to protect and defend. Most think they attack the threats first. Peng was trained to go to safety first. And if he could get to safety, then he wouldn't have to attack.
Peng was in guard form, ready to attack and defend the cart; after all, feeva was still in there. He keeps the photon blaster on his gun-arm ready, his claw pushing the cart. He could hear Rita come over the radio from the map his tail held onto.
“Listen, don't worry about the extraction!” she said, “Just get feeva to the truck, kill any headmen you see. You’re almost there.”
The building was intricate; a “school” was what they called it. A building with two floors, many rooms, and even a place where humans ate and people cooked. There were walls full of rusted lockers. There was a looted library with mostly empty shelves. There was even this huge room with lines on the floor and strange boards with nets on the bottom and this painting of-...
…No. No. He had to focus. Feeva would explain the rest once they were in the safety of the truck. She was the one most excited about coming here; now she’s hurt. He was almost there; just a left turn, and right there would be the school entrance where Rita was waiting.
Yet, as he drew closer to where he needed to be, just when he hit the corner of the hallway, he sensed danger once again. It was instinctual: he stopped right in his tracks, if only to see where the sense of what that danger even was.
He turned around. He hoped it was something small. Something that could be distracted or scared away. From another hallway he had just passed, he could see it.
It was big. A pale-skinned floating object with wispy strands of grey hair, and glowing yellow eyes sunken into its skull. It looked like the decapitated head of an old, human giant.
A headman. One of the most dangerous, territorial, and intelligent monsters out there; or, so beryl had put it. It wasn't the same one that they encountered; its eyes were slightly whiter and hair longer, but it was a headman nonetheless.
Him and the monster locked eyes. It was clear that the headman noticed him rushing past, and came to take a look…
…And it was not pleased that he was there.
As the monster began to bear and click its teeth, it made a deep, rattling hiss. Peng got between the cart and the headman and began to back away, his tail pushing the cart right the in corner area where the two halls met. He raised his arms, ready for either of them. He did not want to fight the monster, he didn't want to kill it. But he knew it might be the only option.
The head opened its mouth, and began to shoot towards peng.
He stood still. He let the monster run right towards him at full speed. He allowed the headman to think it was gonna win against him. He let the monster get within what had to have been no more than ten or fifteen feet in front of him.
In one quick move, peng shoved feeva and the cart out to the other hallway on his right, whilst he simultaneously jumped to his left.
With a loud crash and a thump, the headman had just slammed right into the wall at full speed, falling straight towards the ground. It was dazed just long enough for Peng to get back on his feet and ready himself for the next attack; this time, he knew he had no choice.
The headman floated up once more, shook off the pain, and once more it clicked its teeth before making its notorious hiss. Peng readied his gun, ready to aim, ready to fire.
And yet, just as it was about to lunge once more, something else quickly caught the headman’s attention. It turned its head towards the other corner where the cart was pushed.
It was quick. A sound of rushing footsteps, a blur of red, and a quiet yet audible shot from a gun.
The headman was down. A tranq bullet lodged into the side of its head. It tried to get up, but quickly it fell back down, finally knocked out. A familiar semibot, red with deer-like modifications, stood next to the headman as it drifted off into a tranquilized slumber.
It was Beryl. In her arms was another teammate's head; brown in color. Definitely tanner’s head.
“There!” the semibot spoke in a British accent, looking down at the monster before back at peng. “That should buy us a good few minutes. Let’s get back to the truck before they wake up.”
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Feeva yelped and stumbled forward as Rita hit the gas and drove off, tumbling onto the ground and rolling towards the back of the truck. She could hear tanner muttering something in german, as she caught a glimpse of him walking away.
“Welcome back, Feeva!” Rita, the truck herself, greeted feeva from the TV’s speakers. “Glad to see we all came back with our heads intact.”
She laid there, trying to gather her thoughts about what just happened.
One moment, she was in the library, gathering what books were left to send to the extraction so they could be sent to the local underground settlement. She was excited about this particular location because of the library; if she was lucky, she could find something worth keeping herself and bringing back to headquarters. Yet, she can recall peng sensing some kind of danger. And somehow, in the labyrinth of half-empty shelves and moss-covered desks, one wrong turn later and a floating head was racing towards them.
She tried to fly away. She tried to use the advanced tumblewings. The wings betrayed her, or maybe she was just panicking and forgot how to fly. And of course, she would end up being the one killed by the headman.
Feeva was snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Peng standing over her. This time, not in guard form, but instead back to “normal”.
“Feeva ok?” Peng worriedly asked.
The voice was klattersynth; an old, archaic yet still used robotic text-to-speech. Not the nicest-sounding, but he manages to bring out emotions and expressions in spite of the limitations.
Feeva righted herself and stood back up. “I think so….” she replied. Peng moved out the way as feeva walked towards beryl, before turning around to let her bring her health back up, “i’m alive, that counts….”
“I had just enough health to get the two of you back to full. Tanner’s getting some healthpacks from the back for the rest of us…” Beryl placed her tractor beam onto feeva’s health indicator. It didn't feel like much; just a weird, slight sting that barely was noticeable. but she could see her health rise back up on the health indication within her left eye's vision.
Beryl let go once feeva was back at full health, and walked back to tanner who held two large health packs in his arms.
“We all got ambushed, didn't we?” she asked.
“Pretty much….” rita responded. “Headsmen don't really leave much in terms of evidence of their presence. I don't blame the research crew that came here before because of that.”
Beryl took the large health back. She pulled out the small cable attached to it and put it into her mouth, effectively “drinking” the energy from the pack.
“UUGH! this is gonna SUCK if we find out they’re sapient!” she exclaimed as she finished the healthpack, “I already feel bad having to try and defend myself from them; they’re such interesting monsters! I wish we were able to learn more if they weren't so difficult to try and study…”
“Well, I guess those bastards better start acting sentient and not mindlessly trying to kill everything!” Tanner remarked. Though, a quick annoyed glance from beryl made him back track.
Beryl sighed “i swear you do this every time”
“Well my point still stands-”
“Let’s not argue this time.” Rita interrupted, clearing not wanting to deal with the two of them arguing again.
The avatar on the screen, a minimalist rat-like rodent, turned its head to face everyone.
“Anyways, despite the ambush, all the camera traps have been successfully set up. I’ll notify the city council when I can about the headsmen, but other than that, our job was about as excellent as it can get. Now, let’s get to the next service station so we can get some upgrades and rest for the evening. Shouldn't be a long drive this time.”
Feeva looked over to peng, who seemed to have spaced out a bit, probably still upset about the whole ordeal.
“Hey peng…” she said, grabbing peng’s attention, “let’s head to the back so i can show you the pictures i took.”
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Feeva sat next to peng inside one of the bunks of the truck’s sleeping area. She flipped through the minitablet’s photo album with the stylus, showing each and every part of the school that took photos of. She normally would’ve used her camcorder to take photos, but the camera was still shot and it could only record audio; thus, her minitablet was the next best option.
She pulled out the first of several photos of the big room peng had asked about, and began to explain what it was.
“This is the gymnasium.” She said, as she flipped through the images “It's basically the school’s sport’s facility. Those boards with the hoops are for basketball. You know what basketball is, right?”
Peng nodded. “Sport where humans throw balls into bottomless baskets.” he then pointed at the image of the basketball hoops, “But that is not a basket. That is a net. Peng and feeva should call it ‘netball’ instead.”
“Well, it’s obviously pre-armageddon.” she responded, “back then they used nets. Not really sure why though. Wouldn't surprise me if it was due to budgeting reasons though.”
She looked back up from her tablet and towards peng. “Say…were’nt you homeschooled or something? I mean, I guess I'm just assuming stuff, but you’re pretty well-off for a guardbot.”
Peng was silent for a moment, before he hesitantly answered.
“...the princess was homeschooled…but peng was there and the queen taught peng too.”
Peng was quick to change the subject, pointing at the preview of the next image. “What is ‘mega mechos’? Peng never heard of a mega mecho…”
Feeva pulled up the image of the gym’s mural. It was a humanoid-ish robot, only seen from the torso up. The head had a hinged jaw, its eyes cylindrical with glowing green centers. The neck and arms were ridged and pipe-like, and their torso was triangular with two stylized “Ms”; one red, one blue, side-by-side. In the background of the mural were multi-story buildings, a water tower, even a fighter jet flying above the robot, clearly joining the mech in whatever battle they were ready for.
A classic giant mech, truly invoking; no, embracing, the popular retro-futuristic aesthetic of the era.
“Looks like a school mascot,” she responded. “If I had to guess, based on the buildings and perspective of the painting, I assume it was supposed to be a giant robot; mega-mecho must be the name they used. Those became pretty popular for school mascots back in the days it seems... must be preparing to fight a giant monster there.”
“Were there giant robots before Armageddon?”
“Eh….not really…” she responded. “You can only get a robot so big before magic needs to get involved, and well, you know how magic was before Armageddon.”
“Does feeva know if giant robots exist today?” he asked, “they must be now that magic is everywhere….”
“Probably not,” she respond, “Especially for something like mega-mechos. They’d still be expensive and inefficient. I don't think there’s really even any monsters out there that would require a giant robot anyways…. at least at the scale of what mega mecho was supposed to be. Now, let’s see here… there’s a couple other murals I wanted to show you that have some extinct animals here…”
As feeva flipped towards the next photo, searching for the mural with the tiger on it, she could overhear the three other members talking about what had happened earlier.
“-Well, I tried to actually sneak into the room while tanner jumped in.” beryl said “that’s when we saw the headman, and that’s when you warned up about the other headmen. And since there was one as we were heading back, that’d make it three. Either they were unaware of each other's presence, or they were grouped together for hunting or protection.”
“I don't blame the ambiguity of them, though” rita responded, “didn’t you say most of what you guys know about them are from deceased individuals for the longest time?”
“Practically, yes…” she explained, “We learnt that they had polyphyodont teeth and speculated to have a strong bite before they were observed eating bones and hard-shelled organisms. It would partly explain why they go after semibots frequently too.”
“Well,” Tanner interjected, “in any case, the guardbot is gonna need some health upgrades if he’s gonna make it through this round alive. Can't believe pansy over there gots the strength of beryl yet the health is still stuck at 300..."
“Tanner,” Rita said, “you are right on the upgrade part but please refer to him by his name and don't call him that.”
Still, Tanner continued, “he’s weird for a guardbot, that’s for sure…no other guardbot I've seen looks or acts like him.”
“That’s because you’ve only seen…what, like, three in your life? Maybe four in your time as a semi-medic?” beryl responded, “i’m certain there’s more like peng out there…”
Tanner was an asshole to Peng. Maybe it was because he viewed those who came from “the Taxman” a bad omen; and the Taxman was the last person at the service station where peng came from. Maybe it was jealousy. Or general hatred. He did mention how all the “big and important people” had guardbots, and said people were also less than forgiving. Maybe he was just following the stereotype of guardbots being hyper-aggressive and emotionless.
But tanner…..tanner had a point about peng.
For one, he was much smaller than other guardbots. She knows they often sit between five or seven feet tall, and feeva heard rumors about some a little larger than that. Peng was smaller; much smaller. Barely taller than tanner or beryl. That was only his guard form, though; his default state made him the shortest among the crew.
He didn't live up to the scary & dangerous reputation that guardbots had, either. He was very much way more afraid of them when they first met him. Whenever in guard form he frequently kept his arm close to his body, and whenever they were back in the safety of the truck he always hid either under the bench or in one of the bunks. Always tries to focus on getting to safety first as opposed to fighting, never wanting to fight in the first place unless he had to.
And… the gun. His arm-gun wasn't set on a single weapon like guardbots typically were. It acted more like a pseudo-inventory space; copying weapons and using stamina to re-charge them. She wouldn't be surprised if another guardbot was built with similar weaponry, but for now Peng was the only one with that ability that she knew of.
She looked up from her tablet to see peng looking over to that very side of the truck, also seemingly listening in on their conversation.
She was quick to respond. “I mean, I'm alive, aren't I?”
He nodded. “But feeva still got hurt.”
She snickered. “I literally am always the first person to die anyways, peng. I’m still the weakest here. Also…it’s not the first time things go wrong on these jobs. It happens at least once every time.”
He turned back to her. “Feeva needs….that upgrade that makes heads talk…”
“Death head battery…” she sighed, “I have one, it just needs the upgrade to get activated-”
“By the way you two, in the back!…” rita shouted from the other side of the truck “we’re almost at the service station.”
“Let’s hope this one has it…” feeva closed the photo album and turned off the tablet.
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It was a small service station, not unlike that of the ones Peng's been to countless times. Dirty, barely-lit, and lots of cobwebs. variously sized and shaped racks and broken coolers half-full of random assorted items; some useful, others clearly junk left behind by the last group of semis.
As Tanner and beryl stayed back in the truck to check inventory, him and feeva began to search the station for any death head upgrades.
One rack had weapons, ammo and recharge crystals. Another had all the utility drones, single-use defibros, walkie-talkies and other assorted items. Then there was the much smaller rack that had only paper magazines, random assorted electronics, and seemingly whatever else the last group left behind.
“There has to be one here….” he heard feeva quietly speaking to herself.
Rita watched the two of them from the shopkeeper that hung from the ceiling above what peng now knows to be a checkout counter. The robotic camera tracked them around, not out of malice or control, but rather instead as a bystander. The eyes mimicked that of the truck, with one central eye and a smaller eye placed on the top right of the main one. A minigun was attached below it, ready to shoot down those that misbehave.
It was unnerving to be observed by something like that. It would’ve been much more terrifying if it wasn't Rita behind it.
Feeva looked to rita. “Can you see any potential secret rooms from here?”
The shopkeeper seemed to look around. “Well, this shopkeeper isn't really great…” she said, her voice crackling with static from a hidden yet half-broken speaker, “...but I think there’s one in the corner where the coolers are. The two tiles on the floor look kinda weird from where I'm sitting.”
They looked over to that corner. Indeed, the two tiles there did look off compared to the rest of the floor. They looked worn, but differently worn than the rest of the tiles on the floor. They looked rather loose, yet the two of them seemed connected to each other.
He saw feeva slowly walk over to the corner. She hadn't checked the coolers, much less inspected the floor while she was looking for the upgrade.
She began walking towards the corner, peng quickly following her. For a second, she stood over the two tiles, seemingly examining them. Almost as if she had an idea of what was below there, as if there might have been more than it being a secret room.
she pulled the tiles from off the floor, revealing what was inside.
It was a staircase; one that led to what looked like yet another dimly-lit room like the station.
From where he stood, it didn't look like much; just a basement of sorts. Yet, feeva’s face began to show shock yet recognition over what she was looking at.
“...dungeon” she whispered.
“....A…. dungeon?” peng asked.
Feeva turned to him. “Looks like it. Not sure though unless we go down there ourselves”
He glanced down the steps. “Peng will go first.” he said, as he switched to his guard form and descended down the steps. He could hear feeva trailing close by.
The room that was at the bottom was a damp, cold hallway, with entrances to tiny rooms on either side. As he walked further down, he looked inside one of the rooms; a bed and what looked like where a toilet once sat.
“No this is a dungeon!” feeva excitedly shouted as she past him, looking all around the room, “I mean, refurbish sure, but it’s a dungeon! Look, you can actually see where the cell doors used to be!”
Before he knew it, feeva had begun to run back upstairs. “Hey, find me a death head upgrade down there! I gotta grab my tablet so I can take some photos of this!”
He….still didn't quite know what she was talking about. Dungeon? Why does a service station have (or once had) a dungeon? why would feeva be interested in this anyway?....
He began to inspect all six rooms. It was less about finding the upgrade and more so making sure there wasn't anything that could hurt anyone; though that would’ve been a bonus. Secret rooms, from his knowledge, weren't exactly as “secret”; almost everyone knew they existed. He remembered how rita said that they were only called “secret rooms” and kept mostly hidden out of tradition.
First cell on the left. Nothing.
First cell on the right. Nothing.
Second cell on the right. A grenade. Not the upgrade though.
Second cell on the left. nothing.
Third cell on the right. Nothing, once more.
Third cell on the left…..
Something white. White, red, black.
A gun. A weird gun. It was long, white, elliptical, with a small red sphere at the tip, a red stripe going down the side of it, and black handle with seemingly no trigger. There looked to have been a black screen on it too.
He looked around the room some more. On the bed he caught sight of something tiny. No, a handful of tiny things.
An hourglass, one that was purple-ish in color. A white-colored figure of a horse. A skull of what looked to have been a dragon’s. A golden figure of a gryphon.
As he walked over to the bed, he switched his right arm back to normal so he could get a better look at the hourglass. It lit up, only for just a couple seconds, before it dimmed back down. He held it closer to his face; all the details seemed quite intricate for what must’ve been someone’s leftover trinkets.
He placed the hourglass back onto the bed and looked back at the gun that was on the floor. He tries to think of what other kinds of guns or items looked like what was in front of him; closest thing he could think of was a pulse pistol, but even he wasn't exactly sure on that.
“Hey peng! You still down there?” Feeva shouted from the top of the steps.
“Peng still down here” he responded, as he continued examining the items in the room.
he might take it with him tomorrow. it was something at least.
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character introduction story time. wow, what a weird item to end on. i wonder what it does?....
the G/t starts in the next chapter, and also I'll try and give some extra characterizations there as well because i think i kinda fell flat here.
