Thud!
With APC’s doors slammed shut, both Arron and Kix were feeling a bit more cramped than usual.
[Arf!] [Grr.]
Both Spike and Chewy were too big to fit in the small space behind their seats… so their lower half was sitting on the floor between Arron and Kix’s legs while the upper half was laying on their new partner’s lap.
“Spike move your head to the side, you’re poking me in the stomach,” said Kix.
With the collar spikes pressing into his armored chest and legs Kix was having a hard time holding onto the steering wheel to control the speeding APC as it shot down different roads.
Spike turned his head to look out the window while trying to keep out of Kix’s way.
Arron had no problem with pokey parts on Chewy as the energetic robo-dog was still noisily chewing on the scrap pipe while its head was swinging back and forth trying to capture every sight outside the window that flew past them.
“So this is ERF’s real purpose, babysitting prototypes,” said Arron.
“It could be worse… we could have been the ones that had to test the first generation prototypes years ago,” said Kix.
Crunch! Pa Ta.
Arron looked down and saw that a large portion of the parasteel pipe had fallen to the floor while Chewy continued to energetically chew on the small piece still left in its metallic mouth. By the sounds coming from Chewy’s mouth, the parasteel was getting pulverized into small bits.
To Arron’s surprise. Chewy swallowed the small bits.
“Ah crap! Chewy, open your mouth!”
Chewy looked at Arron, its head cocked to the side in confusion.
Arron just reached forward and opened Chewy’s mouth and took a look inside. All he saw was a black hole at the back.
“Why is there something like this included? Did we just break it not even an hour into the test?”
“What did you do now?” asked Kix.
Arron quickly turned his attention away from the confused Chewy and began to search the documentation on Chewy to search for any information on this matter.
“…weird. I thought they said that the only upkeep was wireless charging.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It says that if the situation calls for it, you can feed them other treats if you want. It has a built-in experimental energy converter that can refill its used power if there is no available connection to a power source.”
“Impressive is that only for Chewy or do you think Spike has one as well?”
“Probably.”
“These prototypes are getting more and more interesting. If this works out, it could change the way the police, M1, and even the military go about certain things.”
“I’m more interested in the new armor they were talking about. If we could get several sets of it we would be far safer.”
“Don’t hold your breath. If we’re lucky we’ll get to test one or two sets out. But by the time we are finished with the live tests, they will be put through the wringer to see how much they can withstand. We’ll be lucky if they allow us to keep the scrap,” said Kix.
A low robotic whining caused Arron to look away from the scrolling document and focus on Chewy.
“What’s wrong?” asked Arron.
Chewy looked directly into Arron’s eyes and whined a few more times before looking at the chunk of parasteel pipe on the ground.
“What?…”
[Arf,] Again Chewy looked at him and then at the chunk of scrap pipe on the ground.
“…wait. You pick it up yourself you spoiled brat, it’s right next to you.”
Chewy continued its robotic whining, its electric golden eyes pleading with Arron.
“Why are you arguing with a robot dog?” asked Kix. “Just pick it up and give it to him.”
With a sigh, Arron did just that. Chewy stopped its whining and bit down on the scarp pipe and continued chewing while watching the passing scenery.
“Where are we going today?” asked Arron.
“We were given several missions involving searching for suspected Separatists and several wanted troubled SCS D ranks. I picked what looked like an easy one for our first test. One or two Separatists are hiding in a local warehouse so we have to sniff them out.”
“Why do they always go to the warehouses? Don’t they know it is one of the first places we go to?”
“Where else can they go? Every other place is teaming with thousands of people. Unless they bribe the locals or have one of the underground organizations hide them, they have little hope of hiding from us anywhere else.”
As he finished talking they pulled up to the side of the warehouse that was 24 or 25 stories high and came to a complete stop.
“Tooth, you got the information on this warehouse?” asked Arron.
“The warehouse is a major part supplier for several of the manufacturing factories in the other sectors, so there is a lot of expensive material there. I’m Sending the building’s blueprints to you right now.”
Ding!
A moment later Arron activated the new file and a 3-d holographic wire blueprint of the building overlapped the building showing them all exits, entrances, and other important places.
For such a large building there was still only one exit and one entrance. A large cargo door at the front of the building for hover-semis, and large drones to transfer products, and at the rear of the building, there was a set of metal ladders and zigzagging stairs that led to a door connected to a catwalk and a small office high above the large open warehouse.
Kix looked to Arron and asked, “You want to take the ladders and stairs or guard the entrance.”
“You sure we should be splitting up?”
“How else are we going to be able to test the prototypes? They are supposed to be a second partner that will help lessen the strain on the lack of manpower needed to patrol the entire first level.”
Arron looked at Chewy and then said “It would probably be better to take the stairs, no telling what will happen if Chewy sees all those parts up close.”
Tooth’s head popped back up on the top corner of their helmet’s visor, “New orders from Chief. If you encounter the separatist target you are to let your prototypes take them down. Only use your weapons if your life is in danger.”
“We understand,” said Arron as he led Chewy toward the rear of the small warehouse while Kix headed to the front entrance with Spike.
When Arron reached his destination he sighed as he looked at the ladder that hung down from the set of metal stairs.
He looked to Chewy who cocked its head at Arron wondering what they were doing here.
“Don’t move too much,” said Arron as he bent over and picked up Chewy with both arms.
“Hmm, you’re lighter than I expected…” Although Chewy was still over 100 pounds and not light at all, he was light enough for Arron to carry in one arm while he climbed the ladder to the metal stairs above them.
Chewy did not like being held with one arm and hanging in the air without any footholds and began kicking trying to find something to stand on.
“Stay still! The faster I get up the ladder the faster I can set you back down!”
It took longer than it should have to get up the ladder.
“You okay back there? What’s taking you so long?” asked Kix. “Sounds like you’re having a fun time.”
“You try carrying several hundred pounds in one arm that is wiggling while also trying to climb a ladder then tell me how fun it is,” said Arron.
“The front entrance is already open with several drones entering and exiting. So far I don’t see any movement or heat signatures of the target. Be careful the target is probably in your direction.”
As Arron quickly ran up the steps with the energetic Chewy, he pulled up the picture of the separatist on his wrist data-pad and showed it to Chewy.
“If you see this man,” said Arron pointing to the hologram. “You can bite him to stop him from getting away.”
[Arf!] said Chewy energetically.
“We have reached the back entrance. Tooth, did you get the warehouse owner to unlock the doors?”
“Should be,” said tooth.
Since there was no handle on the door and only a holo-lock Arron lightly pushed on the door to open it as quietly as possible.
…but it only opened an inch or so before stopping.
“Somethings blocking the door. The target barricaded the exit. I doubt I’ll be able to get in quietly. What do you want me to do Kix?”
“Go for plan B. Flush him out of his hiding spot and Spike and I will catch him.”
“Alright. Chewy help me open this door!” said Arron as he slammed his armored shoulder into the door.
BAM!
The loud noise definitely would alert anyone inside but Arron did not stop. With the help of Chewy, he was able to slowly push the door forward opening the gap inch by inch.
It only took a minute to get the door open wide enough for him and Chewy to squeeze through.
As they stepped onto the overhang walkway hanging high above the open warehouse Arron heard Kix shout over the Secure comms.
“Get him Spike!”
Arron turned his attention toward the front of the warehouse and started running toward the noise. Due to not being obstructed by the towering rows of shelves holding parts he and Chewy were able to reach the stairs leading to the ground floor.
“Owww! You pierced my arm!” shouted a man.
“OWWWW! Get your dog off of me! He’s going to rip my arm off!”
“Spike, good job! You can let go now.”
As Arron descended the steps to the ground floor he kept his hand on Chewy’s collar to hold it back from chewing on any of the nearby parts that it was staring at with longing.
“No Chewy,” said Arron. He manually turned Chewy’s head away from the parts toward the separatist suspect that was on the ground crying in pain.
Spike was still biting down on the arm of the separatist and shaking his head back and forth, roughly dragging the separatist from one side to another.
As Arron watched Spike’s tail which looked normal changed as the tip expanded into a small ball with several Spikes. It swung forward and slammed into the separatist’s body repeatedly.
“OWWW!”
“Spike let go! You already caught him,” said Kix, as he grabbed onto Spike and forcefully pulled him off of the separatist.
“GRR,” Spike let out a menacing growl clearly threatening the howling separatist.
The separatist managed to sit up and angrily turned towards Kix while holding his bleeding arm. “What are you crazy people doing attacking me!?”
As his face turned around Chewy clearly saw it and bolted forward dashing towards the separatist man who was now halfway standing up and…
“OWWW~!”
… bit him in the butt!
“Chewy no! Don’t bite him he’s already caught!” said Arron as he rushed forward to pull Chewy off of the moaning separatists.
“Arf!” said Chewy, looking to Arron for praise after successfully biting the target like he was ordered to.
“You guys are crazy! This is brutality! You will be hearing from my AI lawyer for the damages you have caused me! Look, you totaled my mechanical arm! It’s ruined!”
Arron looked at the man’s arm and saw it was indeed in tatters almost all the way torn off his shoulder.
“A ruined mechanical arm is going to be the least of your worries,” said Kix.
“What?”
“Under the order of the Office of Reason, you have been deemed to be a Separatist.”
“I’m not a Separatist!”
“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”
“Save your sob story for the Office of Reason agents. I’m sure they will love to chat with you.”
Arron turned his attention to Spike who still had his spiked club tail out wagging back and forth.
“That’s a cool special skill Spike has… Chewy, what is your special skill?” asked Arron as he turned to Chewy who was sitting next to him…
… or was supposed to be.
“Chewy! Stop chewing on those parts!”
