Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Grimdark Metal Soldiers: Into the Volcano

[Mech]

Things had gone well. Guntop and Gunpants performed exceptionally well, and the new improvements to Talwar greatly increased its capabilities. Shrike became Mockingbird, dropping in size and increasing in specialization.

Then Came Operation Madrigal. FANG was called upon to retake an Island from the Aliens,and eagerly accepted the challenge. The entire Island was defened by a new type of Alien, the Medusa. These jellyfish-like aliens could shoot jets of water so strong they could shoot down orbiting sattelites.

Under the umbrella of cruise missile strikes, FANG's robots sortied in rocket modules. The Mockingbird rode on the Tesseracht and Spoonbill rode in with Talwar.. and got lost in the water on its rather rough splashdown.

The now 3 robots spent the next two hours doing recon and fending off two more types of aliens, the Capricorn Marine, a dramatically upgraded form of the Capricorn, and the Flakasaurus, a decidely anti air unit bristling with obsidian spines it could fire from its back at any angle. The Avenger proved more than apt to handle these things. Talwar took several penetrating hits, but nothing vital was damaged.

Vernon in the Mockingbird was set out to recon and discovered the Catmonkeys, They looked like giant cats, crossed with primates and were exceptionally agressive.

Vernon also found the most telling suprise, an underground cavern literally covered in gold. Mockingbird and Talwar made their way with the recently returned Spoonbill made their way inside through several means. They found four pair of Capricorn Marines, and suprisingly a recovering Metal Soldier. The Tesseracht followed a mountain trail and Came in through a vent in the roof of the Cavern. The Metal soldier was already in motion gathering up eenergy and had been hotspurred by Vernon early on. Steve knew they had to act fast.

Talwar at full run is an utterly fearsome thing, much moreso with its massive axe in hand. One massive swing brought the Shield down and that was all Steve needed. The Tesseract planted its broad feet and the Avenger filled the Cavern with its highpitched whine Just before unleasing a truly ungoddly storm of metal. The Avenger delimbed the Alien, mortally wounding it. at the same time the Capricorns by Steve wreathed him with Laserfire, but Talwar and the others were already moving in, with them cutting through the marines with incredible alacrity. Vernon in particular managed to shove the Mockingbird's tank epee through the skull of one, earning a nod of approval from Steve. Steve lined up to finish the soldier just as a massive warpgate opened. A huge claw as big as Tesseract emerged, followed by the massive beak of Gravehawk, one of the most feared weapons the Invaders had used. Steve Fired, killing the metal soldier. In the same moment, So did Gravehawk.

Gravehawk only hit with two of the massive spiral drills, but the hits completely destroyed Tesseracht's head and Right bicep. Steve Dsconnected the Avenger from the right mount and brought it around to the left, preparing to fire onehanded if need be. Gravehawk was however drug back into the collapsing portal, leaving only a pair of marines. Talwar and Mockingbird made short work of them. The Volcano then gave signs that it was about to errupt. Mockingbird and Spoonbill zoomed out of the cavern, whil Talwar clamped the Metal Soldier arm to its back and began crawling out the access tunnel. Steve began turning to go and found literally hundreds of catmonkeys appeared nd were surviving the inferno. Backing into the tunnel opening Steve kicked off the Armored magazine for the Avenger with its remaining ammunition. one last shot from the chest mounted vulcan caused the ammo to explode, sealing the tunnel behind him and he began following the Talwar. The molten lava from the Volcano caught up to them quickly. melting Tesseracht's feet into solid chunks of metal, and detroying alot of the foot and lower leg armor on Talwar as well. They made their way out and quickly called for pickup. It wasn't until much later that they would realize something remarkable. The entirety of Tesseract and Talwar were coated with pure gold, Roughly ten metric tons after it was collected. Steve chuckled afterwards. "Well at least we won't have funding issues anymore."