Myco calling in others to the location had Drake scrapping his plans for a lab, after all the number of times he had gassed and cloned Patrick made having a location he could be found problematic at best. Drake climbed into his Antithesis; powered the weapons just in case, and moved off to the side, coincidentally blocking the path that lead to the gate.
“My apologies Drake. I’m still training Giga Rex and needed my clan leader’s help taming him.” I explained the rationale behind my choice. “I’d tried installing some cybernetic behavioral inhibitors in Giga before but his immune system rejected them; didn’t have the desired effect. Rather than functioning as controls, those mods made it so he and I can communicate without direct mech/pilot interface though instead, as you’ve undoubtedly by now noticed.“
I pat part of Giga Rex’s snout trying not to unintentionally put my hand up the tyrannosaurid’s nostril in the process. How his body managed to rewire the components and incorporate them as a vocoder was not something I’d have been able to predict, but it did make matters of communication a great deal easier.
“As for Patrick, his Jadoon happens to be very ancient and knowledgeable about things in this galaxy. I was hoping he could get it to shed some light on our find here. If he can’t, which it is sounding like the way things are turning out, we might still get some information from Apocalyptor, which happens to be in his fleet. The ‘First’ Jadoon, from which all subsequent ones were cloned.”
Giga Rex: “I don’t like the big brainbugs.”
“Most beast mecha don’t. Believe me though Giga, the feeling is mutual. I’ll never replace you with a Jadoon though buddy, so don’t worry.”
Giga Rex snorted. He turned his head to the Antithesis and cryptically addressed Drake “Not Forerunners. NoRunners.” Then Giga went back to being silent.
“Drake, what’s a NoRunner? That’s the first I’ve heard of one. Did that codex artifact I found you on Mars make any mention about those?”*
Drake frowned, “hmm… there might have been a brief mention of the word I thought it was a messed up translation, but I may now need to reexamine the artifact with these new parameters.” Drake felt better that Patrick was not going to arrive any time in the near future, maybe he would build a lab, one of his more explosive research ones that had a proximity function….
“This metal seems unusual too…” I say, rapping my knuckles against it. This causes a tone to reverberate briefly and almost musically which in of itself isn’t odd but the sound dies off a bit too quickly, as though the kinetic energy of the sound was being actively absorbed by the metal.
A light blinks on the otherwise smooth surface as though underneath, disrupting the otherwise uniform albeit moderately scratched surface of the mech skeleton. It had reacted to my touch? “Perhaps some sort of a beacon?”
There is a slight rumbling on either side of it, as though to answer me. Two smaller mecha (the Shawg is 85 tons or so, these are 75 tons) burst from the rock face with movement of carcinian claws, going through some form of completely automated guardian protocols then sit on standby… deeming neither Drake nor I to be a threat, perhaps due to a glitch.
Giga Rex: “Humans dumb; Gigus mark… tell Meegs Shawg is dead.”
Sick of having to guess so much at what my Gigus kept alluding to I ejected from Auger and went inside Giga Rex. A painful experience, as per usual but on integration things became clearer to me as the Oggun below us slumped over and powered down. First there was getting swallowed and shunted through the tube, then came the goo and last the forceful nervous system connection.
“Drake, probing Giga’s brain tells me based on their behavior that these mecha are or were guarding something. When were you thinking of telling me about that… Either of you?” It was hard to tell from outside the Gigus but inside it, under the partially masked plate of my Neural Recalibrator helmet I was glaring.
“Well um, I didn’t pick them up on my sensors, getting some interference down there, going to have to do something about these sensors if I want a lab, can’t have mecha coming up below me.”
“When Giga Rex peed, he saved us. Apparently Meegs will not try to protect a Shawg they think is dead. That’s all I can get from him though. Unless you want to count that the formation of one Shawg with a Meeg unit on either side is called “sentry”, which to me sounds useless… unless they were guarding something further up or down from here on the mountain. Any idea what that might be Drake?” I relax, Giga Rex cocking his four arm mounted Smelters and the display asking me if I’d like to use the Diablis Nozzle in his chest. I decline and indicate he is not to fire The Smelters. Things trying to kill us is normal for when Drake and I go on these sorts of expeditions. Giga internally asks me what about his numerous Death Head missile racks. No Giga, you are not to launch Death Heads at Drake. He is a friend. Nor the mechas we’ve dug up. They are valuable. And no, you can’t shoot the pair of Plutocracy missiles on your back EITHER.
Fine, fine, if you must, burn your Rupture Shots at a FRACTION of normal power to light a campfire.
Submitted by Mycobacter, Drake Novum Scientist#712744, #706289