"One-"
Small leap, let the shot go past me now that I'm on level ground.
And a giant leap for Shadoen cosplay.
"-second!"
And it does but from behind as the new cyclops takes a shot!
Well, at least Sh'lainn's predictions are accurate timing-wise.
"-get outta there."
Wait. The shadoen were happy using biotechnology, but they didn't just use biotechnology. Their ships were recognisable, if more advanced than anything Earth had seen before. That second cyclops… It's… Patched up with shadoen technology.
Huh. wonder if it was subverted, corrupted or just tried to perform field-repairs?
"Not sure I can, sir."
I make my meat container scrabble away from both of the giant robots as fast as I can. It could be a problem if the pure titani cyclops stops to consider why a cyclops rebuilt by the shadoen would shoot at a shadoen, but if they'd just start shooting at each other-.
If the old myth holds true, they'll do just that.
The shadoen model raises its hands, burning red beams blasting from each of them and… Hitting first cyclops directly in the chest.
"Okay, that was underground for thousands of years." Senior Agent Fitzsimmons sounds puzzled. "How come they didn't destroy each other back then?"
Not the best time to be asking that question, Fitzy. Shoot first, ask questions later.
"The myth don't say one killed the other. In some versions, Fionn mac Cumhaill tricked Benandonner int' runnin' awey instead."
Cyclops 1 takes a shot at me, but aborts it rather than swinging the beam at me. It then gives the other cyclops its full attention and starts marching closer.
Presumably the corrupted one ran, buried itself and went into a self-repair hibernation until the other came looking.
"Sirs? What do you want me doing?"
"He's your sidekick, Sh'lainn."
Oh, yes. As if this makes any more sense to her? Her
mother was the expert.
"Oi'm t'inkin' about it."
A beam from Cyclops 1 hits Cyclops 2 in the shoulder, causing it to stumble back slightly. Cyclops 2 then returns fire with its undamaged arm, hitting Cyclops 1 in the chest. I can see the armour melt and crack where it hit.
"Sir, might I suggest that I wait for one to win and then finish them off? Perhaps keep things balanced?"
Definitely a case of 'Let them fight', all right. And a careful shot her and there to avoid pulling aggro.
Cyclops 1 takes a shot again, hitting the same arm as the first shot. The armour is visibly molten now, the material making up its muscles increasingly visible beneath. Cyclops 2 charges its other hand to fire again, only for the lower eye of Cyclops 1 to shoot the charging aperture and cause a misfire. Electricity arms around that arm, Cyclops 2's head dipping down for a moment to examine itself.
Well, that's one weapon down, out of a minimum of three...
And then it looks up and charges!
The first two steps are awkward, clumsy, almost like it's falling. But once it gets some momentum it stabilises, bounding-
Given their size,
any quick movement is more like a controlled trip.
Cyclops 1 tries to shoot it in the leg it's balanced on but misses with its upper eye. The lower eye hits and makes it stagger, but Cyclops 2 recovers as its second leg goes down-.
It's armour is regenerating, techno-organic plates sliding into place over the wounds.
A side-effect of the Shadoen parts, I would assume. GK Better keep his distance in case it jumps to his puppet.
I take aim, a green target reticle appearing in my field of view. Targeting the weakened part of Cyclops 2's arm I fire. A hit, and the arm parts company with the torso and falls to the ground.
"If they're jus' here t' fight each other, why don't y' use yer ring?"
Carving bits off here and there is probably the safest option. Who knows how the corrupted one will react?
That's… Not a terrible point. But…
"Because they might be sending reports back to a central computer, and I don't want titani artefacts in general to register me as an enemy."
Bit of a stretch, but a reasonable plan. Don't show any card you don't have to.
Cyclops 2's torso undulates, plates of something that looks like shadoen carapace extruding through the outer armour around the torso. It pulls its remaining arm back, letting the new armour soak the incoming eye blast.
"What titani artefacts?"
Second one's still down an arm, so that's a solid win, and the first one can burn the armour away given time.
"Whatever artefacts there are that we don't know about."
"Yer Master fought it alongside my mother."
Also a good point. The first cyclops certainly remembered 'you'.
"I'm a little taller than him. Sir, if you're trying to give me an order-."
"No skin off my back if y'don't use it."
Sh'lainn isn't really used to providing
leadership, is she?
"Sir, your senior rank isn't just an official permission to give me orders. It's an outward sign of your experience and proven judgement. If it is your view that I should use the ring, then I will do so. This isn't an ego contest. I trust your judgement, and will take no umbrage."
But in the meantime, I aim at the first cyclops, right on the chest where the second one hit it. I need to move position to get an angle, but I think-.
Hopefully they're more aggressive to each other than they are to you.
The first cyclops ceases its advance and takes a step to the side as the crab-shelled shadoen model enter melee ranges and slashes with its claw! The first awkwardly raises its hands but it clearly wasn't programmed with close combat in mind. The claw sinks into the torso, cutting through the armour and into the interior mechanisms, the light in it's lower eye fading immediately as.. some sort of interior liquid begins dripping out of the wound. The claw appears to be stuck however, and Cyclops 2's efforts to remove it are met with failure as Cyclops 1 charges its remaining eye.
Ah, one oversight of a ranged-focused build. At least the first one's primary weapon is offline...
At the last moment Cyclops 2 tries to twist out of the way, throwing its whole body into the action. It turns a point blank shot into a partial hit, the beam burning through the side of Cyclops 2's head and out the back!
Alright, target the breach in Cyclops 1's armour and fire. Hit! And Cyclops 1's eye flickers as it tries to line up a second shot, something in its internal mechanisms failing. Good. And now run across the landscape, trying to draw a bead on the gap in Cyclops 2's head. It'll take a few moments to get into position, but as long as it doesn't-.
Not a critical injury, from the sounds of it. Guess they keep their thinking parts tucked away somewhere safe.
Explosions erupt from the robots! I stumble to a halt, trying to work out where they-. Overhead. Three F-35s, each with an empty wing hardpoint where an air-to-ground missile used to be. There's a second flight incoming from the south, this one comprised of Harriers. The first three are showing American markings while the second are British. I see the moment the British planes release their missiles, all hitting Cyclops 2 in the side of its torso a moment later.
Huh. Combined effort. I'm guessing the former are from a nearby American airbase, while the other are Royal
Navy Air Force.
"Sirs? Did we request assistance from the military?"
"No." Senior Agent Fitzsimmons sounds just as confused as I feel. "We told the British and Irish governments what was happening. Guess they decided to join in. Without telling us. Ah, is it working?"
Could be a worry in future, if they keep jumping in boots-first into delicate situations. This time, it worked, but...
Examining their structures…
"A bit? I-."
Most of the blast would just scorch and scar the armour, I expect. Some concussive force would hit the internals, and any open wounds would be worsened...
Cyclops 2 points its remaining arm at the departing Harriers-.
Aim and fire!
Yeah, bad show to let the brave human pilots cop a packet from the big guys.
My plasma bolt hits him just as it's about to fire, breaking its containment field at the optimal moment and causing a blowback which wrecks the forearm! Now aim at Cyclops 1's chest wound, which.. does appear to have been made worse by the missile impacts-.
Cyclops 1 manages to get enough power to its weapon capacitors to fire another shot into Cyclops 2's cranial cavity. Cyclops 2 goes limp almost immediately, collapsing to the ground. And then I fire, my plasma beam boring into Cyclops 1's chest and knocking it to the ground.
Okay, one down and the other hurting bad. Looks like this fight is done.
I wait for a moment, but there's no further activity-.
Then the planes hit it with missiles again.
I wince inside my shadoen-meat-covered frame. "Sir, this feel like it's about to become an inter-agency mess."
On the upside, it's KO'd. On the downside, I doubt there's much left to examine of either of them.
"Sure does! But don't worry. I'm proud to say that out of the thirty seven inter-agency sausage-measuring contests I've caused, I've come out ahead in twenty three! You just head back to the starting line and hand that thing over to the bio-containment team and leave this mess-" He points his right thumb at his chest. "-to me!"
Sixty-six-ish percent win-rate isn't
too bad? Better him than the juniors, at least.
Yes. Need coffee, and food.
Minus the rampant racism, though.
Then again, if Savage wants to keep the ship...
