Reclamation

Chapter 2

"Where is she? We should be out looking for the others not stuck sitting around waiting on a human to repair us. Go tell her to get out here," Joy heard Lockdown saying as she approached the barn.

"From what I've learned about humans they need more recharge than we do, if they don't get enough it can affect their ability to function. Do you really want me to go wake her when she hasn't had enough rest and risk her trying to fix you and ending up making it worse?" Sunfire asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'm already awake," Joy said as she walked into the barn.

"It's about time," Lockdown said.

Joy deliberately ignored him as she kept her attention on Sunfire, "His head and neck are split in half, why can he even still talk?" she asked.

"Luckily his vocal processor wasn't damaged, he may not be able talk normally, but he can still speak through his comlink system and make that audible. Sort of like one of those cell phones you humans use that can be set so only you can use it or set to a speaker setting," Sunfire explained.

"I'm not so sure his vocal processor not being damaged is really a good thing," Joy said.

"Are you in a hurry to die?" Lockdown ask her.

"Why, are you going to kill me and leave yourself with no one to repair you?" Joy asked.

"I'm stable now, we don't need you, our bodies will eventually repair themselves," Lockdown told her.

"And you'll go crazy waiting to heal, plus if my dad found you out here he'd drag you back to the lab he works at and dissect you," Joy said shuddering slightly, "You wouldn't be the first of your kind he's done that to. The others were already dead, but I'm sure he'd love to get his hands on a living specimen," she said then turned to Sunfire, "So what do I need to do next?"

"We need to start repairing his internal support system, it's basically equivalent to human bones. My tools would be too big for you to safely use, do you have anything to weld with?" Sunfire asked her.

"No, my brother might, but if I ask him, he'll want to know what I want it for," Joy told him.

"Then just go and buy what you need, and do it quickly, being stuck in here is getting annoying," Lockdown said.

"Do you have any idea how much that would cost? Because I'm not sure, but I'd have to guess it'll be pretty expensive," Joy pointed out.

"Sunfire take her to the vault, I believe gold is of value on this planet," Lockdown said.

Joy looked up questioningly at Sunfire, but he just smiled at her and said, "Come on," then led her out of the barn as the ramp into the spaceship appeared.

"This is amazing," Joy said as she followed Sunfire deep into the ship, then gasped and jumped back as some type of strange alien creature lunged at the bars of a cage as she passed it, "What is that?"

"It's going to be the pet of a very rich ruler of a planet a couple galaxies from here," Sunfire told her.

"So you're bounty hunters and pet wranglers?" Joy asked.

"We have our main quarry, but they're getting harder to find so we hunt down other people or in this case animals for whoever is willing to pay well, it keeps the boredom away. Plus nonsentient animals are a lot easier to catch, most of the time," Sunfire explained, "And this is just some of our payments from those jobs," he said as he opened a large door.

Joy stood in a state of shock as she looked around the huge room, piles of various metals were stacked to one end of the room, while shelves along the walls held dozens of gems, most unlike anything she had ever seen before, some fashioned into varying sizes and styles of jewelry. Other shelves and cases were filled with hundreds of different types of weapons and things she couldn't even begin to identify.