Days passed with nothing to do except get the new
army moved in. They had to build over
forty new houses that were seven bedrooms each, and each bedroom had two
bunkbeds in them, and there was one bathroom for each bedroom, and the kitchen
was puny compared to the rest of the place.
A week went by as everyone helped out to build the new homes. It was the first day of the second week that
they saw any sign of the enemy. Babe had
been scouting at the time, and had seen a lone robot advancing toward the
city. He destroyed it, but not without
difficulty. The robot had been made of
the same metal as himself, and he had scanned it to see it had everything he
had except the arm mechanism. When he
told Mitchel about it, Mitchel just shrugged.
"I've outfitted the tanks
with a modified version of that napalm gun Steve tried to use. It should do enough damage." "Wait.
What do mean when you say 'modified'?" "Simple.
I made it go farther, faster, and stronger. It can only get one robot at a time, but at
least it can get them. Here." Mitchel handed him a rifle. "I
made three of these for you, Max, and Chris.
Steve's original rifle was put on one of the tanks. I made these so you could get the robots
faster." "Umm... thanks..." The alarm system went off, and they checked
the moniter to see what was happening.
This time there were three robots, each one exactly like the one Babe
had destroyed. This time, Chris, Max,
and Babe each took out one, testing the new rifles in that battle. Babe high fived his friends at the easy
victory and walked back to the village.
From then on, each day they had robots to battle. Sometimes the battles would be simple, with
only a few robots to destroy, while other times there were so many robots out
there that there was at least one for each tank, fighter, and villager. A month went on like this, creating a sort of
routine for everyone. Chris, Max, and
Babe became widely accepted in the village, and they were soon each called the
Protector. Babe smiled as Max's name was
shouted; they still came to him for instructions, but he always sent them to
Jesse. Chris had become a huge favorite
among the children, since he, along with Babe, treated them like the full grown
adults they wanted to be. Jesse was
walking without crutches now, and he was happy about it. Soon he'd be able to take the bandages off,
and his feathers had grown back completely.
As a given, no one mentioned his missing wings to him, for which he was
even more grateful. At 6:30 exactly,
like every other day for the entire month, the alarm sounded. Babe, Max and Chris flew out to see what the
robotic army looked like. Three robots;
no problem. They destroyed the robots
quickly and flew back to the village, right as they heard a thud off in the
distance. Babe, confused, scanned the
area ahead of them up to a mile, and found nothing. But as he shrugged and turned back, there was
another thud, this time accompanied by a very slight earthquake. "An
earthquake?.. No, he was
destroyed." Babe frowned and
began walking to the welding shop, which was now the main weapons factory for
every fighter there. He was reaching for
the door handle when another thud, and a much larger quake went through the
village. He turned his head slowly, not
wanting to believe what he feared.
Player, now completely robotic, was walking toward the village. His head had just appeared over the
horizon...
Kent smiled and made Gargantuan walk forward another
step. He was sitting inside Gargantuan's
head, watching through the eyes. Another
step brought them two hundred yards closer to the last of the resistance. They were less than a mile away now... Almost instantly the Gargantuan's radar
picked up three signals, just as he had hoped.
Once those three were out of the way, he would rule. The first, a red dragon, shot a rifle at the
left leg. Kent laughed at the feeble
attempt to break in. They had improved
the super-metal, making it completely flame resistant. The metal was also thick enough to withstand
the cannon blasts of those improved tanks the resistance held. The only weak spot on the entire robot was
between the eyes, but that spot was protected by lasers placed all over the
forehead. If the renegades tried to
attack that one spot, the lasers would easily stop the blasts. It was hopeless for the resistance now...
After scanning the immense robot, Chris put down his
rifle. It wouldn't be any use unless
they found a way inside. He signaled to
Babe, and they rocketed toward the giant together. The robot lifted an arm and activated a
cannon so huge it could destroy a quarter of the village without trying. The shots they fired at the robot didn't do
much more than scratch the surface, but the shot that the robot was about to
fire would kill hundreds if he didn't stop it.
He flew up as high as he could, watching as Babe followed him. The robot followed them up, making Chris sigh
in relief. If the giant fired, it would
touch the village now. He shot at every
spot he could, searching for some sort of weakness in the foe before him. One particular shot to the forehead was
disintegrated by small lasers... "Babe, did you see that?!!!!!" Babe was staring at the spot with such
determination that Chris had no doubt he had.
Chris turned to Max, waving then pointing toward the forehead. Max nodded and flew toward it, provining the
distraction Babe needed. Chris buzzed
about the giant's nose, being as annoying as he possibly could to make the
robot look anywhere but at Babe. Babe
made it to the forehead and activated his arm mechanism by bringing out a
chainsaw. It roared to life and started
cutting at the spot. The lasers Chris
had seen earlier came out and fired at Babe, forcing him away. Chris was able to destroy one laser turret
before they slid back into the giant's forehead. Max seemed to catch on and dove for the weak
spot, bringing the lasers out again.
Babe and Chris destroyed more of the turrets, then Chris dove in. The shot he fired at the forehead nearly made
it through to the weak point. Max and
Babe shot at and destroyed more lasers as Chris flew away. Babe dove in again, and in this way, they
were able to destroy every turret on the forehead. The next shot fired by Chris made it to the
surface, blowing a small hole in it.
Babe couldn't stand it any longer. As soon as Chris' shot hit the metal, he
reactivated his arm mechanism and cut his way inside. He was met by another layer of metal. Two more layers had to be cut off before he
made it inside. He crawled in and looked
around. He saw the human right before a
napalm blasted in his face. Babe
screamed and shot backwards. Max and
Chris made it inside, firing at everything they could reach, including the only
living being inside the robot. When Babe
next tried to get in, nothing stopped him.
The human controlling Player was too busy laughing at Max and Chris to see
him come in. Every time they shot at the
human or rammed him, a force field surrounded him, repeling them back. Babe ignored them for a moment and scanned
the inside of Player. Everything had
been made out of Mitchel's super-metal.
He scowled and cut at everything he could reach. As before, rods and other pieces of machinery
started falling down, though this time there was an addition. Every time something was destroyed, it gave
off a strange mist. It hit Babe only
once before he decided to stay away from it.
The mist was an ultr-corrosive acid that ate away most of Babe's hand
before he detached it. The acid also ate
a tiny hole in Babe's chest, but not a huge one. Babe ignored it and concentrated on
destroying as much as he could. He went
up and down each leg, making them hollow as he worked his way down. The arm were next, taking a little longer
because they moved so much more. The
human was still safe behind his force field, but he was not laughing
anymore. Babe smiled at him and worked on
destroying the things in the chest. One
metal rod accidentally hit him in the chest, nelting away the protective
covering. The human looked furious as
Babe flew back up into the head. Babe
landed, glancing at Max and Chris, who were wearing themselves out still trying
to break through the shield. Babe sighed.
"Guys, go make sure there
aren't any other robots destroying the village!
I'll take care of this monster." He stared at the human as he spoke. Chris left first, followed by Max. Babe could hear tanks firing their cannons,
so there was a battle of some kind going on outside. "I
hate you." The human
grunted. "The feeling is mutual. I
never thought the defenses of Garagantuan could be breached, and for proving me
wrong you must die today."
"Then bring it on."
Babe instantly regretted saying that as the parts he'd destroyed
suddenly shot toward the human. He could
feel the magnetic pull forcing the metals to converge at that one spot. A huge hole opened up as a segment was torn
away, by the strange magnetic pull. Babe
flew out and watched as the robot changed.
There was a pattern in the way everything changed. He soon was facing a slightly smaller version
of Player, but it still was huge. Babe
screamed as he charged the mechanical monstrosity.
Jesse watched the battle with growing horror. "Dana,
we have to do something and help!"
Dana barely glanced at the screen, then started walking toward the tank
garage. Jesse followed her. "Dana,
what are you doing? Every tank has been
taken for the battle." "Not
every tank. MITCHEL!!!" Mitchel came running up. "It's
finished, Dana. Remember, the cannon on
that tank will do practically nothing since I built it only for
speed." "Whatever. Are there any napalm guns left?" "That's the cannon. I was in a hurry!" She smiled and jumped into the vehicle. Mitchel described a few things as Jesse
climbed in as well. "Look here. The cannon has
a targeting system that's pretty basic, so if you want a perfect shot you'll
have to aim it manually. Other than
that, it has two modes. The slower one
gives you sharper turnes while you drive.
The faster one, though it's a lot harder to turn, goes twice as
fast. It's set to the slower mode right
now, which is about one hundred miles per hour.
Be careful out there..."
Jesse buckled himself up and took the controls for the cannon while Dana
drove. They used up their napalm cannon
almost instantly, but managed to destroy many robots. All they could do after that was provide a
distraction for other tanks as robots were destroyed around them.
Babe breathed heavily, actually tired from his
exertions. He had used up his first tank
of energy, and was nearly halfway done with his second. The robot was down to an egg shape now, held
together only by the forced field that protected the human. There was one flat piece on the bottom of the
egg, where Babe was sure the controls for the force field were being
protected. He took in a breath and
rammed the egg. One piece of metal fell
off, but it shot back into place before Babe had a chance to cut it to
pieces. He grimaced and changed his arm
mechanism to his old claws and slashed at the metal, cutting it into pieces too
small to use. Soon it was just the force
field, the human, and the chair that was bolted to the square piece of metal. Babe could see the control panel, wished he
could get at it somehow. The human
suddenly smiled and brought out a napalm gun.
"I still have this, you
know." He shot, which crashed
and blew up right by Babe. His left leg
was caught in the fire, melting the curcuits so badly that he could move his
leg anymore. The human fired another
shot, and Babe saw something... "Every time he fires, the shield has to
come down..." He mumbled to
himself. "If I can time my shot to hit right as he fires, it'll destroy the
shield and him with it!" Babe
activated his wings and started firing at the shield as much as he could. The human doubled over with laughter. "You
robots are all alike! Your damned shots
can't break through here, you're finished!!!!!!" He fired a napalm at Babe, gasping as he did
so. Babe smiled as the shot he'd just
fired killed the human and blew up the last remaining piece of metal. The napalm that the human had fired had
passed by him, so Babe hadn't worried about it.
When he turned around to help get rid of the last robots, he saw the
napalm turn toward him and hit him directly in the chest. His eyes shorted out...
----
*Note: From here on, The Life After was made by
Poseidon Simons.
They
were in the vehicle driving all across the desert, trying to find their
friend. After the long fight he was
nowhere to be found. Dana’s heart was
beating fast as she watched the ground outside her zoom by faster than any
other time in her life. She sensed that
there was something wrong. “Oh no…”
She heard Jesse whisper. She tuned to see him. “What is it?” She asked.
She didn’t need an answer. She
saw it as she turned her gaze forward: Glaring at the sun, and smokes coming
from it, her friend's body was laying in the sand, slightly twitching. With the extremely fast speed Mitchel had made
for them, Jesse’s vehicle approached Babe’s body and stopped a few meters away
from it. Dana was off before it even
touched the ground. As soon Jesse turned
off the engine, he got off and ran towards Babe, Dana was already above him,
touching him slightly on the chest. “Babe…? Babe…?” He was clearly in very bad shape. His chest and part of his waist was blown
away, and wires were sparking almost all around his body. He was twitching and could hardly talk. “T-t-taaaak-e
ittt o-o-off-f” He meant his
helmet. Dana slowly held the helmet in
her palms when she heard a click. She
lifted his head slightly and Jesse pulled the helmet slowly away from Babe’s
head. His eyes were wide open and his
pupils were tiny. He could not see. No more error messages flashed through his
eyes and he could feel every system in his body, slowly but steady, turn off. “Oh
my god… Babe….” Dana was trying to
hold her tears back, but she couldn’t.
She let her palm gently touch his face.
“We-we can fix you… we can try…” Jesse said, still shocked, but Babe
grabbed his arm. “NO! Pleeeea-ase nnno”
“B-but…” “P-lse… I…wa-a-an-t t-to
diiiie…” They could see in his eyes
that he was being serious. “No Babe.. Don’t say that. We can fix you.
We have a lot of people that know how…” “Ple-eassse nnno… I-I want to… I’m so
t-tireeeed….” His hand fell through
her hair. “One hhhund-dred fifty years…
I’m sssso t-tired I-I wanna d-die… Mmmy time is over…” Jesse took of his sunglasses and whipped out
a tear. He rested his arm on his knee
and lowered his head. He could
understand why Babe wanted to die. And
besides, he knew they could do nothing to help him. “But…
what about Jimmy?” Dana asked. “T-tell him that… I… I wanted t… to go to
mmmy fa-a-amily…He’ll understaaaand”
“What about… what about me?!” He
smiled at Dana and then turned to Jesse.
He was still looking at the ground, but he was crying now with quiet
sobs. He touched his hand and Jesse
looked at him. “You have… J-eesee… Takefghhggggg…" Almost 90% of his systems were off. He
could hardly talk now and his voice was fading away. He tried to calm down and
continued. “T-ake c…re of …er…. I-I l…lll…ve both…” There was silence for a while as Babe’s
hand slipped from Jesse’s and hit the ground.
Then nothing. No more twitching,
and the only movement was the smoke coming out from his chest.
----
Time passed away and still the two were with Babe’s
body. Jesse had stopped crying and was
now trying to help Dana. “What are we gonna do with the body?” He asked as he stood up and put on his
sunglasses. Dana looked back at
him. “We’ll
burry him the same way we burry the rest of our kind. He was just like us and
we will treat him like one.” Jesse
nodded and helped Dana carry the body into the vehicle. Jesse seated himself behind the wheel and put
his finger on the fingerprint ID-device.
Dana sat in the backseat holding Babe’s limp body into her arms. One last look behind, and Jesse took off
towards the village.
------
They had won one of the most difficult battles and
all with the help of Babe. But the war
wasn’t over yet. They still had a lot to
fight and they would do just that, using the strength that this robot has put
into their hearts. A robot so different
than the rest, more anthro than most anthros.