Gears Keep Going... Even If They have To Stop

The Grinders head blew apart in a slew of gore as I pulled the longshot away from my eye, and ducked back down behind the pile of wooden rubble. With practiced precision, I pulled the bolt back, threw a round into the chamber, and slammed the bolt home. Popping back up, putting the scope back up to my eye, I sighted a Theron pointing at my position from down the street. His helmet went flying as the round tore apart its face. Ducking back down again to reload, I peeked over the rubble pile to see all of the grubs move behind cover. Finishing the reload, I switched to my Retro.

Five grubs moved from rubble, to knocked over cart, to doorway, making fast approach to my position. The rest ran behind the buildings at the end of the street. The Armored Kantus came out from around the wall of a building to my left, and opened fire with his recently acquired  boltok pistols, taking down one of the grubs. Standing up myself, I targeted one of the grubs changing cover, and unloaded into his side. Blood flew out as the heavy rounds tore into, and out of the ugly bastard.

"Frag out!" Yelled one of the grubs, as a frag was thrown towards my position

As it flew over my head, I rolled to my right into a dead end alley. As I came out of the roll and onto my feet, the frag went off. Rocks and pieces of wood dinged of the back of my armor, a few buried themselves into my shoulders. With a growl of annoyance, I threw my back into the wall of the building, and slide over till I was at the edge of it. Looking out at the street, I saw the Kantus dive into a roll and shred two of the assaulting grubs who were dumb enough to charge an armored Kantus. Popping out from behind cover, I sighted the third turning to run. Brining my retro up, I fired into its legs, bringing it crashing face first onto the cobble.

Looking down the a street, and listened for anymore grubs. Besides the grunts of the injured grub trying to crawl away, the rumble of thunder, and the slight drizzle, the area had gone quiet.

"Clear," The Kantus rasped out as it stalked forward, lowering the boltoks to its side.

With a grunt of acknowledgement, I lowered my retro, and fell in behind it.

"So...," I said, as I rubbed the stubble forming on my chin with my free hand. "Do you mind going over all that shit again?"

"Is this human deaf? How many times must it be repeated?" The Kantus rasped out, while giving my a sideways glance.

"Forgive me for not trusting something I've been at war with for the past twelve years..."

The Kantus turned its head back around, and gave off what sounded like a cross between a sigh, and a cat hacking up a furball.

"I do not wish to do harm to this land. My brothers do. They saw food, I saw innocent, powerful, creatures. I warned them, do not kill." The Kantus walked by the downed grub, and aimed one of its boltoks at its head. "They kill the creatures," He fired, spraying its brains all over the ground. "I kill them." It said as it started to reload both of its pistols. "You kill my brothers as well. We have same goal. Two are better than one, than one against many. Is simple," It gave me a sidelong glance as it kept walking down the street. "We kill all of my brothers, then we fight to kill each other when done. Is simple."

I gave a long sigh at its reasoning.

"I will admit, you did heal me back there,and stop... whatever the fuck that was, from messing with my head. But I won't trust you, ever."

"The human would be very stupid if he did." The Kantus rasped out as we reached the end of the street.

Looking both ways down the T-junction, I expected to see grubs waiting for us, but to my surprise, there weren't any in sight.

"I have a name," I growled out. "Its Dedric, got it? I'm not 'the human', makes me sound like a fucking egotist."

"Names are not important among us." The Kantus hissed as he turned left, me following a short distance behind.

"Really?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Yes... I say words, but the Deerick doesn't understand..."

"Makes sense, I guess. Seeing as they're a shit ton of you. And its Dedric."

"That is exactly the reason, Deerick."

I suppressed a groan as the Kantus said my name. A silence fell over us as we made our way down the street. The clank of our armor, and the constant downpour was all that was heard as marched on. After about five minutes of walking, lighting struck a few blocks ahead of us. The lighting itself wasn't a cause for alarm, it was to be expected with the rain.

What wasn't expected was that it kept striking the same area over and over again. The Kantus stopped walking to stare at the sight. I jogged up to stand next to it, as the lightning struck again, and again.

It was then, that the gunfire started. Red streaks flew from the ground with smoke trails and disappeared into the clouds.

Sharing a quick glance, and a smirk from me, we ran towards the gunfire and lightning.

This day is going to be a weird, fun, day.