Bestial Planet

Chapter 16: The First of Their People

The sun was rising on Africa but it wouldn't hit Section 10 for another hour or two. Layrok was working on her plane and the Stroms (Haelstrom and Vaelstrom) were sparring. Even though Haelstrom was quiet and commonly put himself in the assistant role he liked to spar with his brother. Vaelstrom had upgraded his body for physical combat but after being stranded on Earth for so long he wasn't able to maintain the upgrades. Now he and his brother were just sturdier than average Androids, with combat knowledge.

Haelstrom was terrified about doing anything different from his brother. The fact he became a Sim Engineer was the basis of constant anxiety for a few years. The Brothers square off after Haelstrom recovers from a throw.

"How long have they been asleep for, now?"

"Bout 3 years."

"It's amazing that this planet kept them alive for this long."

Haelstrom dodges a roundhouse from his brother with ease and as Vaelstrom sets his foot down he pauses, his brother's statement forming a question in his mind.

"There are other planets that do things like that for their inhabitants, right?"

"I don't know but the Universe is expansive so, Earth can't be THAT special."

"Yeah I gu.."

Haelstrom lands a front kick square into Vaelstrom's diaphragm, making him fall over. He lands on a knee and holds a hand out in front of him as he catches his breath.

"Nice kick. Solid contact, really quick. I didn't see it coming."

"I'm still not your equal."

"Ugh, we've been over this. Just because we're split from the same AI doesn't mean we have to be the same. We are allowed to be different."

"But I am improving."

Vaelstrom sighed. "Yes you're improving."

Haelstrom looked relieved, but then they heard what sounded like massive hunks of metal falling onto each other, groaning like some kind of leviathan. They took off worried, running towards the hangar where Layrok was working.

"What fell?!"

"Are you alright?"

When they walked in Layrok looked bored. She was holding a chain in one hand which was connected to two massive hunks of metal with some kind of electrical field around them.

"I'm just compacting ammunition."

"Oh. Oh good."

"Why're you doing that? This isn't exactly an active war-zone."

"You two should know, the Halgred don't like to leave anyone alive. Sooner or later they'll send someone here to find those of us who survived and terminate us."

Haelstrom's stomach tightened as another loud collision rang through the hangar. The machine Layrok was using had been scrapped together. There was a platform suspended by an anti-gravity field. A large hunk of alloy with an almost perfect 5 foot diameter, was on top of the hovering platform. Suspended above that was essentially an over-sized hammer surrounded by a field of light. When the hammer dropped, the light shot forward, in front of the hammer's face, surrounding the hunk of metal and half a second later the hammer was flush with the face of the platform beneath it. When the hammer lifted it revealed a round of ammunition no bigger than a vitamin bottle. An arm swung over, picked it up and dropped it into a magazine with a green light coming from it.

"So that's how railgun ammunition is formed."

"I thought you knew that Vaelstrom, since you're a combat soldier."