[Complete] the Mana-Wilds #1: A Cataclysmic Conjunction

Chapter 1

"Get an angle on it Pathfinder!" blared on a lone Sharpshooter's Radio.

A Ranger's Duty had always taken David Pike to so many corners of the Wasteland of the fallen United States, from the twice-defined urban jungle that was the ruins of Los Angeles, desolate the Mojave Desert and the unforgiving cold of the Colorado Rockies. A veteran who fought uncounted numbers of raider bandits, mutants, and other abominations in the Wasteland. His Carbine wielded the power of the 12.7 millimeters that had ended the lives or in the case of today, ended the rampages of robots alive.

"Neutralization Protocols activated!" stoically stood sentinel, a giant of a robot, a Rob-Co Government Issued Sentry bot to be exact that wielded a Gatling gun on his right arm. He could thank the ravages of time, that it didn't wield a second one on its left or he and the rest of Team X-Ray would have all been reduced into human Swiss-cheese.

Having gone off from his team under their leader's orders to a vantage point up the dilapidated NASA 905 Shuttle Carrier of the ruins of Space Center Houston. Below him the ground battle on Independence Plaza raged onwards with Robots and Humans alike shedding blood, oil and bullets across the concrete floor.

"Foolish Rangers! You will not stop Doctor Commander Cold-Irons from succeeding on his plans to take over... THE WORLD!" an egoistic voice taunted the Arizona Desert Rangers from the Space Center's Public Announcement Systems.

"I can't fuckin' wait to shut his ass up for good." David's Radio chattered.

"Careful!" reprimanded Team X-Ray's Leader. "The Round Table demands that he lives." She reminded the team.

"Even after what he and his people done?" David questioned.

This 'Doctor-Commander' was the last surviving remnant of an infamous Clan of Robot-Tinkering warmongers within the Texan Lands called the League of New Pioneers. Commanding swathes of Robots of varying qualities ranged from scrapyard resolvers, to re-programmed mechs of the Old World, this Clan cast a literal iron fist upon as far as Houston to south of Monterrey. They tithed the land dry of people, resources and worst of all knowledge of the old world in a library that could make the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel and the Followers of the Apocalypse green with envy. The Round Table, consisting of a coalition government between the Patriarch Buchanan's Dominion of Colorado with the New California Republic, likely the only remnants that can be argued as a continuity of the United States of America of Old, had mandated a Total War Campaign against the Pioneers. They had deemed this warmongering Roboticist Clan to be no different than the previous tyrannical threats of the Cochise A.I., Caesar's Legion and the Kansas Savage Council.

For Team X-Ray, they were tasked to help maintain a new order of calm within this plane of the Wastelands whilst hunting down remnants of the New Pioneers. Which they only had done themselves, at least for the living flesh and blood members of the Clan who chose suicide over yielding to the Round Table's dominion. It had been a year or so after the fall of their last major stronghold but reports from the settlers of the region had spoken of their Mechs still roaming about loose amongst the Wasteland's of Southeast Texas extorting goods amongst the folks. The Radio Signals that these robots had followed to was amongst the ruins of Houston Space Center.

A long time ago, this place would have been the vanguard of many wonders that was poised to be a benefacting gift for all nations, strangled upon its first breath when the apocalyptic trumpet-call of when the Bombs fell upon the Old World. Now, all the Rangers saw was a hideous parody of its once magnanimous promise. Robotic production lines and moving cogs that once produced machines to serve, were now being made to produce those that bring others to heel.

"Beginning the Neutralization of all threats within the perimeter." The Sentry Bot rolled its gatling gun towards the nearest few Rangers in its vicinity who didn't manage to take cover fast enough. They were torn to shreds in milliseconds, their armor protecting nothing from its barrage of attacks.