FSE

Furry search engine

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"You are hunting a murderer," recounted Dronin, "despite the fact you are not an authority."

"Well a reporter's TECHNICALLY an authority right," said Jack rubbing his neck with a wider croc grin, "gotta tell the news and report it, I'd say that makes me pretty authoritive!"

"Perhaps. Who is this murderer?"

"Aaaah I've already told ya too much to be honest," said Jack waving his hand.

"You have no obligation to inform me. But as a civilian model do you believe that your chances of success are satisfactory?"

"Well," he pushed himself up onto his feet, "only one way to find out!"

"Wh-where are you going?" asked Barkclaw to the gator.

"He is hunting a beast," replied Dronin.

"Oh! Another stonebeast?"

"I believe so."

"Wait wait hold up." The croc looked between the two. "Did you just like talk to him?"

"I am equipped with a feedback program for advanced linguistics with feral species," said Dronin tapping his head.

"Huh, well, damn that's kinda cool what was your original function?"

"Enforced combat against intruders."

"And now you like...talk to animals?"

"I protect Barkclaw as his guardian. I protect and preserve nature as it exists."

"Hah, hahaha wow I was right you really are a garden reploid-uhhh, badnik, bot...thing."

Jack reached forwards with his hand to shake but then suddenly decided against and stroked his scalp.

"Well it's uhhh been real so thanks again for fixin' me up but I got a murderer to bring to justice."

"What evidence do you have that he is a murderer?" asked the mantis rubbing his chin.

"Well uh...wait, are you a cop?"

"I am not a member of authority, I am a badnik."

"Oh...okay sooooo why you wanna know?"

"Because I am uncertain as to the truth of your statement without sufficient evidence."

"Weeeellll I guess you got a point, I COULD just claim anything huh? Alright, well, lucky I DO have evidence and this is a great opportunity for me to run my spiel through for when I take this guy to justice so uhhhhh, you mind if I run this all by you just to make sure this all sounds good for later?"

"Please, show me."

He motioned Barkclaw over to sit down with him, the raptor wiggling his rump to sit on the grass as the reploid opened up his shirt and peeled back his chest cavity. A rectangular pad was tucked inside as he clicked it on to show at first a sheet of statistics.

"First lemme take you back to around two years back. I work as a reporter, but my job's actually compilin' all this boring stuff like graphs and statistics and stuff. I was asked by my bosses to make a fluff piece about reduced drug crimes yanno, give a li'l boost to the police and all that."

"What is he doing?" asked Barkclaw.

"He is telling us how terrible this beast is."

"OH, alright."

"Now that's all fine and well," continued Jack, "but then I noticed somethin' weird. It was kind of an accident honestly but that's like a lotta good things right?"

He slid his finger across the screen as Barkclaw leaned forwards at a large map with several different dots.

"Now the red dots are all the drug busts that the police've done. The smaller purple ones are people that went missing in those same areas."

"Missing?"

"Yeah, see I was gettin' a lotta schtick from this other reploid, Wallace, he thinks he's hot shit just cuz he managed to get a scoop on the Bludschwartz Conflict and called me a cheap calculator, and I don't take that shit so I thought I'd one-up him by cross-referencing social stuff, gettin' down wage brackets and class areas, yanno see if there was any like correlation goin' on with these drug busts. Anyways that's when I came upon the missing people an' I thought 'huh that's weird' so I went looking further on it and yeah, all these people were reported missing."

"Were the ones producing drugs also kidnapping?" asked the mantis tapping fingers down his own chest.

"That's what I thought, but the weird part is all of the people that've gone missing were reploids. So I got myself a police radio, waited for a drug bust nearby and watched from the scene."

Sliding across the image he showed various short videos taken on a high-zoom lens of different arrests, both human and robotic criminals being forced into vans and driven off with shouting protests.

"The next five arrests that I seen loaded up more people in those vans than they claimed to have arrested. Now I didn't jump to conclusions, I thought maybe some people got let off, they made a deal or even there wasn't enough evidence to hold some of 'em but nope, I checked reports, they say stuff like 'four people arrested today' when there was actually like ten and those six others were just never seen again. Now class what do you think happened?"

The mantis looked at Barkclaw as he cocked his head curiously back at him.

"Wh-what is happening now?"

"I believe he is expecting us to know what happened."

"But I do not understand him, how would I know?"

"We do not have enough information to decipher their disappearance," said Dronin admittedly.

"That's good!" the croc reploid waved a finger. "Seeeee don't jump to conclusions, unless you work for Windbox News which I don't so, anyways I tried talking to the chief of the vice squad."

Tapping a few more buttons Jack pulled up an audio file showing a waveform length where two voices communicated.

"Thanks for meeting me sir," said Jack on the recording, "I know you got a lot on your plate."

"Not a problem," said the other deeper voice, "you just need a few quotes about the drug busts we made, right?"

"Right," sounds of scraping chairs and creaking leather, "so let's get started cuz I'm sure you want me outta your fibres soon enough."

"Hahaha, well fortunately I do have some time today, I feel it's good that the press and the police have a good rapport with each other since after all you are our PR essentially."

"Right, so uh tell me how did your squad manage to radicalise such an efficient workforce in the space of months?"

"A new training regimen was established at the station," began the chief, "encouraging faster bandwidth-scanning at an overall pace of forty percent, we also managed to secure the recent police budget in refitting our vehicles for a faster response time."

"But even with some new tech the sudden number of drug busts just went through the roof, that must take some incredible coordination."

"I managed to hit onto a common theme that exposed a network of individuals. For the purpose of security I cannot tell you what exactly that is but suffice to say, we became very skilled in finding flaws in their system and pulling all the rats out of the wall."

"You say there's a network of individuals," Jack creaked forwards in his chair, "but a lot of the drug busts cover a wide range of narcotics that normally aren't produced next to each other. Is this network truly that big?"

"You'd be surprised," said the chief, "business is after all still business and these criminals still commit transactions that once we managed to uncover, we can trace through various buyers that either share storage, equipment, or individual workers between them across a black market."

"Do these criminals also deal in other transactions like say, kidnapping?"

"I...not that I know of-"

"Just that in all the drug busts you've made for the past two years there's been an odd spike in missing reploids around those same areas."

"Ahhh..." the chief leaned back slowly in his seat, "of course, well as you know narcotics is a scourge of society affecting many members of the public by its suppliers exploiting their ills and vices. Peer pressure, anarchist tendencies, rebelling against authority, some perverted notion of free will and as we all know the usage of narcotics is a gateway to becoming a maverick."

"Right," said Jack in the past, "so what about the people you brought in and arrested?"

"Well they are the suppliers themselves-"

"I meant the number of people you arrested don't match the NUMBERS of arrested suspects that your department claimed publicly."

"What are you talking about?"

"The past five arrests that you made, all of which were in Teslaburg, forty-nine people were arrested and taken from the scene, but your department only publicly stated that nineteen of those people were arrested."

"Well obviously some were release-"

"They were not. I watched your station and at no time did I see any of the other thirty suspects leave. There were no reported deaths, no accidents on-site, no prison transfers besides the nineteen you already claimed so, sorry for askin' this but, what happened to those other thirty?."

"...mister, Jack, was it?" The chair leaned forwards hard with a groan of a wooden desk. "If I were you I would start thinking about your next words very carefully."

"Meaning what?" asked the reporter.

"You know as well as I do that libel against the police is a battle you shall not win."

"Only if I accuse you of somethin', which I'm not detective I'm just simply askin' a question-"

"I do not know anything about missing reploids, so I would advise that your words accusing me of unfaithful reporting would be immensely unprofessional."

"Which is exactly why I came to you," retorted Jack with a clank of his legs crossing, "to ask you to clear up the numbers for me just cuz I don't wanna make either of us look bad by gettin' a few ones and zeroes wrong."

"Unfortunately I cannot offer explanations for every single number that comes and goes, I am not the receptionist-"

"But you ARE the chief of vice and those arrests were made on your orders so I just wanna know-"

"My apologise but this interview is over. I just received an important call and I must ask you to leave."

"Oh alright no problem then. Thanks for your time, detective Renbie."

The audio file clicked at its end. Jack spread his hands curious for what they would think as Barkclaw remained nonplussed with a gentle purr whilst Dronin hazarded a guess.

"Do you suspect this detective Renbie to have kidnapped reploids for his own means?"

"That's the conclusion I've come to," said the croc-reporter crossing his arms, "at first I thought he was just being light-plated but then I realised that in the interview he mentioned missing reploids. I never mentioned what species the thirty missing were, and if that wasn't enough I got messages to my apartment warning me to drop my investigation."

"Messages?"

"Yeah, like someone managed to hack into my emails and slip in a trojan that just opened up warnings to 'drop this case now or else you'll get deprogrammed'. I tried to talk to my boss about it, but he just said that's what you gotta deal with as a journalist and I not stick my neck out over some dumb statistics so just 'finish the damn report at any cost', those were his exact words. And well if he gave me an order I can't really deny it, you know how it is as a robot an' if they wanted a report then I was gonna give them a report, so I called in a friend of mine from another news station, we went to the same program school and he taught me all the ropes to become a reporter."

"Did he find anything concrete?" asked Dronin scratching his neck.

"No, and frankly neither did I but we kept on the story. I started with tryin' to trace back the trojan with all the usual ways like reverse queries and tracerouting an' all that, but I only managed to narrow it down to the same country as me. BUT, and here's the kicker, I always found one weird proxy that all my queries kept ending up at."

Jack brought up yet another map, a larger one showing continents with bouncing signals coloured differently with one point in the ocean shared by every colour.

"Ah, the island base," noted Dronin looking towards the sea.

"Right, exactly, so long story short I managed to find out the only thing in that area was a base being built by some construction company that doesn't actually exist, and that's why I'm here."

"But you have not proven that he is a murderer."

"Not yet. You want your proof, here it is."

The last video Jack showed was a roaring fire from the windows of an apartment building. Black and blue steel shone with the flickering amber lights as firefighters both human and reploid were trying to control the flames with trunks from elephant-mechs, blasting back the surging heat as the camera's view shook slightly to keep focus. Slipping into a corner the camera turned towards a lone member of the vice squad, a lion-robot in the shadows speaking on a communicator.

"It's done...yeah, there was no one else, just him, they'll call it faulty wiring soon enough......no he had no friends, I checked, none of the news station people are gonna wanna get involved after the wild gearloose chase he went on...alright, see ya chief."

He clicked off and the video ended four seconds later after freezing on a good shot of the lion.

"I know what you're gonna say," said Jack putting a hand up, "this is getting personal, your friend died but that still don't give you any power, don't be a vigilante, well I can tell you now that this dude was definitely in Renbie's squad, cuz guess what?"

He brought back the videos of the arrests, focusing the police forcing suspects into the van as Barkclaw suddenly pricked his head up.

"OH, that is the same beast!"

"My friend has come to the same conclusion," translated the mantis.

"So now you understand why I gotta do this?" the gator said putting his pad back into his chest. "Sorry for the long-winded show-and-tell but you DID ask."

"Understood. But you are planning to still infiltrate that base despite your lack of combat capabilities?"

"Well not so much a LACK just uhhhh limited, but...yeaaah like I gotta tell you," he gestured to his banded leg whilst Barkclaw stood back up, "thanks by the way for fixin' me up, didn't mention that before."

"It is fine. However, your mission is impractical and unplanned, you have no knowledge of what you shall face."

"Yeah I know but someone's gotta do it." He started limping off towards the sea. "Someone's gotta bring that guy in, whether or not it's Renbie but someone's definitely connected and I can't let them get away especially when they're out in another dimension like this......nope, still not weirded by that, huh weird well gotta go-"

"A moment please." He brought a hand up in front of Jack. "I wish to accompany you."

"Oh yeah cool I guess you could-wait...what?!"

"You are not built for combat, your chances of success I cannot estimate for the lack of information you possess on this base."

"Do you...talk like that all the time cuz seriously you sound like an ATM-"

"I wish to assist you, Jack, in discovering the truth of your mission."

"Woa-woa-woah I didn't ask for any help!" he threw up his hands waving. "I mean not that I don't appreciate the offer but-"

"If a suspected criminal has landed in this world that can potentially endanger others, then it is also my mission to protect this world from them."

"I thought you said you weren't a cop."

"I am not, I am not any authority. But I am a guardian, and I must protect this world."

"...wow, alright sure," Jack rubbed his neck with a sigh, "I mean I really would appreciate some help on my personal quest for justice-slash-vengeance so that'd be great."

"Do you accept my assistance?"

"Sure! I mean you already fixed my leg so I can't thank you enough for wantin' to help me."

"You will require a vessel for the sea," the mantis headed east with Barkclaw following instantly, "there is a settlement that can build you one, this way."

"Oh awesome!" the robot gator grinned and hoofed it alongside him. "Alright just lead the way then-"

"I must however ask for three days waiting so I return Barkclaw to his home."

"Oh, right of course, yeah I guess we're not goin' anywhere soon so that's fine."

"Until the humans discover this anomaly, after which they shall investigate and communicate with the base then take action accordingly."

"Are these humans good?"

"They have no interest in the domination of others. Regardless of their diplomacy, they will most likely send you and this base back to your home dimension by reversing their spatial technology."

"Oh good I was worried we'd be stuck here or somethin'."

"Where are we going now?" asked Barkclaw skirting round in front.

"We are taking him to the starbeasts' nest," said Dronin, "he must stop a new beast that is hunting on the sea."

"Oh, but can he swim?"

"No, that is why he will need help. I am going to help him hunt this beast."

"What?! Why?!"

"Because this beast has killed his friend and is very dangerous, it must be stopped before it can kill other beasts."

"Why? We kill other beasts too."

"Only to feed, not like this one. This beast hunts for greed."

"Oh...that is awful but...wh-what do I do?"

"I shall take you home before I hunt with him." He patted Barkclaw's head softly. "Our plan remains the same, I will not change that."

"A-alright, thank you."

Despite his gratitude, Barkclaw still pawed the ground nervously as they made their way to Mohberrin Village. A wall had been formed from terraforming the nearby hills in the village's expansion, with guards at three different chokepoints acting as the entrance as the hillocks were lined with barricades formed from logs sharpened into stakes crossing over each other. Since his last visit to the place, the village appeared to be more solid with the raised huts as well as a few machines here and there acting to purify the water and efficiently recycle biofuels for the crops. There was however one new sound that he had not heard before. The sound of children laughing as he spied through the entrance a few lizards and piglets that waddled around with joyful screams in the watery soil between huts.

"Halt." A lizalfos pair stepped in front of them. "What business you have here?"

"I am a friend of your leader," said Dronin in their tongue, "I wish to ask for your assistance in making a vessel to help us travel across the sea."

"A vessel? Like a boat?"

"Correct."

"Uhh well I mean, I KINDA remember you but I don't remember the other two."

"Yeah we gotta be careful," said the other guard, "dangerous place out here especially with the li'l uns out and walkin'-"

"OH, HELLOOOO DRONIN!" A black bokoblin with a purple earring sauntered up. "I haven't seen you in aaaaages how are you dear?!"

"I am well miss Bokorie," he bowed courteous, "how are you?"

"HohohohoMISS, ohhh you sweet thing I am doing wonderfully, are you needing something?"

"We wish to speak with sir Lizanaich so as to build a vessel to cross the sea."

"Oh, I see, on a fishing expedition are we?"

"We are hunting a new anomaly that could potentially endanger this land."

"O-oh...well that's no good," she trembled her fingers across her lips, "I'll just get him for you then, won't be a tick!"

Hurrying off across the village grounds the three waited patiently as Dronin relayed what had transpired to both Jack and Barkclaw. Eventually Lizanaich appeared in his feathered cloak with a smile across his scaled lips.

"Heheyyyyy we gotta stop meeting like this."

"My apologies for the intrusion," said Dronin bowing again, "has miss Bokorie explained our request?"

"She did yeah, but uhhhh..." he looked over to Barkclaw and Jack, "I can't really invite all of you in cuz firstly, I don't know who the green one is and secondly, last time I saw your raptor friend he was tearing the shit out of a dead body and uh we got kids here now."

"Understood, as leader of this tribe you have the right to refuse entry. However, we do not need to enter for us to request a vessel."

"Right, so you just want a boat for seafaring that can carry three of you?"

"Correct."

"Alright that shouldn't take long, just give us a couple hours, no problem."

"Thank you sir Lizanaich, we shall return soon."

The mantis turned and left back towards the forest as Jack and Barkclaw followed him, the raptor on one side and the gator on the other.

"Soooo what'd they say?" asked the croc.

"They will build us a vessel, it will be finished today."

"Wow really, just like that?!"

"Yes."

"...damn people are so nice around here, I was totally expectin' like some kinda trade quest or somethin'!"

"I am acquainted with the Mohberrin village as a fellow immigrant to this world."

"Wait, you're not from this world either?"

"Correct. I chose to remain here along with several other badniks who now reside at the human base."

"You kinda mentioned that before, what exactly do these humans do?"

"Research into the spacetime continuum," said the mantis sitting in a perfect spot of sun at the edge of the forest, "their experiments create portals through dimensions such as the one you fell through."

"Well as long as they can send me back that base ain't goin' anywhere," said Jack sitting against a tree apart from him, "so I guess I can just relax."

"Are we resting?" asked Barkclaw prodding Dronin's head.

"We are, you should rest too."

"Are you really going to help the starbeast hunt?"

"Yes," Dronin nodded looking up at him, "I do not want a dangerous beast, from the stars or otherwise to be left unseen when it could endanger others."

"Yes...a-alright."

"I will take you home first, do not fear-"

"I-I KNOW! Sorry." He cringed from his sudden shout. "I...I-i will wait."

"Did you enjoy watching the stonewings?"

"Yes, I did, they were beautiful, did you enjoy it too?"

"I did," the mantis said without a hint of emotion, "are you thirsty?"

"Um, a little."

He pulled out his bottle and gave Barkclaw more to drink, the croc watching them curiously as his tail tucked up between his legs to almost ball himself up at the foot of the tree.

"So, were you like assigned to be his bodyguard or what?" asked Jack.

"I assigned myself," said Dronin tipping the bottle carefully, "I found Barkclaw when he came to my island and helped him return to his family."

"Awww...that's sweet, that's all you really do?"

"I protect nature."

"Right I get that but, protect it HOW?"

"By fighting intruders with malicious intent towards this world and its machinations."

"Oh right so just-yeah basically a guardian okay I thought there was somethin' more."

"I also perform duties as translator between species when needed," said the robot mantis putting his bottle away.

"Yeah I noticed that too," said Jack watching Barkclaw curl up next to the badnik, "I mean if it's your mission to stop threats to your world I guess we got the same agenda!"

"Correct."

"You guys alone, or is there like a colony?"

"There is a colony yes, far from here."

"Cool, sorry for all the questions by the way just, yanno, reporter it's in my programming hah." He swept his hands up to his face with a grin. "At least, now it is I mean it wasn't originally."

"What were you originally?" asked Dronin politely.

"I was a traffic monitor." The croc thumped his tail on the ground idly. "What about you?"

"Enforced combat against intruders."

"Oh, that was your original build too?"

"Correct."

"So who told you to start guarding this uhhh, dinosaur?"

"I chose to," said the mantis looking down at Barkclaw whose head was now in his lap.

"You...y-you chose to?" Jack reared back. "Nobody like, gave you clearance or like escalated your authority?"

"No, I have no master."

"...damn. Are you like...a...a maverick?" The croc suddenly became nervous fiddling his thumbs. "I mean I haven't met lots of 'em not personally, I mean I covered crimes an' such but-"

"I am not a maverick, I am a slicer-class badnik."

"Y-yeah but...no, yanno what it's fine just, yanno, different programming and all I'm sure that's like not the same but uh, just to make sure."

He tapped his fingers together carefully to try and best form his next sentence.

"Have you ever wanted to harm humans?"

"No."

"Have you ever hurt or killed a human?"

"No."

"GREAT, alright yer not a maverick then HOOO!" Jack swept his brow of non-existent sweat. "Sheesh ya had me worried there for a moment alright we're good!"

"Do you have a master?"

"Uh...yanno...I'm gonna get back to you on that first we should probably rest up a little, I only got so many E-crystals on me so, ya mind if I just sleep mode a bit?"

"Not at all, I will do the same."

"Alright then have a good nap."

Dronin turned off his visual unit and went into a brief sleep, Barkclaw cozying up against him whilst Jack sighed and laid his head back against the hard wood. Barkclaw envied how much of a deep sleeper his friend was for the moment his eyes clicked off he was out like a light, the raptor shivering to himself full of worries and frought decisions as he fidgeted trying to get comfortable. Eventually he settled down and for the next hour they all rested themselves in the soft prehistoric breeze beneath the swaying of trees and the sweet gentle rustlings of grass. Wherever he may roam, so long as he found a tree or six to nestle underneath, he always felt like he was back home under the shade which helped soothe his troubles for the time being. He was however the first to awake anytime there was a noise too unusual for his mind to process. It was a gift and a curse, depending on who you asked.

His eye snapped open against his will, hearing something at the edge of his senses as he raised his head with a soft snort. Two voices, different pitch, same inflection as the newcomer's approaching from the north.

"Stonevoice. Stonevoice wake up!"

"I am awake." His eyes relit themselves to his voice.

"Strangers nearby, two to the north."

"Friend or foe?"

"I do not know, they sound like him."

He nodded towards Jack as Dronin stood up and carefully roused the gator with a tender shake.

"E-ehh, what?!"

"Shh. Strangers are near."

"Wh-what? What're they like?"

"Listen."

They cocked their ears and aural units towards the north hearing the two voices come closer.

"Ugh I hate trees."

"Hey it's good to get some walking now and again."

"I don't NEED to walk that's why I got wings."

"Yeaaaah but, sometimes it's just nice to stretch your legs."

"I would rather be stretching my pinions."

"Alright what the hell is your problem?!"

"Nothing I just-ugh, these freakin' bugs, why do we gotta be on net duty?!"

"Because we are, you read the rota you knew it was coming this week!"

"We got sucked into the sky and landed in another freaking ocean, what's the point even if the bugs are different here!?"

"Oh come on girl every bug is the same when we're done with them."

Stepping into the clearing were two reploids with dark shining beaks and feathered limbs that wrapped round their fronts like an armoured cape. One was a deep black whilst the other was snow white with long corvid claws that scraped the soil in each step as their heads were crested by a small crown each. One of them slapped the air around her with snarls and stutters, whilst the other one smirked with a crease in her beak as both of them carried nets slung over their shoulders.

"Need any bug spray?" asked the white bird.

"Sh-shut up-NNNGH freakin' ASSHOLE!"

"You could just like, rub something on yourself that the bugs hate?"

"Like what?!"

"I dunno I'm not a bugologist."

"It's ENtemologist how do you not know that?!"

"How do you know what that is and not know how to keep bugs away?!"

"Sh-shut UP, GAH!" She swung her net out behind her to scoop up a small collective of insects. "Alright, how about some like caterpillars?"

"Yeah there's some over here."

They started scouring the forest clearing for any and all insects, slipping them into the net which started to crackle with a tingling current that made the bugs suddenly collapse within. Flapping frantic wings of butterflies and dragonflies fell quickly silent, along with caterpillars and beetles that they plucked from every nook and cranny within reach. During this the raptor and the machines quickly slipped round them between bushes and trees in a constant observation, Jack giving signals to watch and wait as they kept collecting critters. Barkclaw however was struggling, twitching in frustration with every new bug they hoovered up.

"I never seen these things before," muttered the black rook.

"Me either," said the white bird, "but it definitely means we're in a new place."

"What kinda tech coulda taken our entire base up in the sky an' drop us down somewhere else?!"

"Better yet why us, nobody knows about our base!"

"Hold up...what is that?"

Pointing towards a crumpled body at the foot of the mountain, the dark bird hurried over along with her friend.

"Is that...Bishop?" muttered White.

"Seems like it," said Black, damn he's all busted up like crazy."

"Any chance of repair?" her friend asked.

"Well I dunno his head's freakin' caved in what do you think?!"

"You think he like fell down the mountain, maybe he got sucked up too but was outside and uh, damn that's a big mountain way up here."

"Musta been a hell of a drop to cave that thick-ass skull of his in."

"What the HELL is wrong with you?!" the white one shoved her away. "He was our friend you dumb bitch!"

"Don't you call me a bitch!" snarled the black rook.

"Bishop just died and you don't even give a damn to not suck in your crap about him for ONCE in your damn life!"

"Well I ain't dragging his ass back!"

"Fine just get his ID and we'll get back."

"Hold up...look at that."

They looked up towards the sky and saw a small flock of silver-winged butterflies rustling through the trees, smothering the air with their shining grace like a cloud of steel dust as they clicked their nets free to extend out further than before. They both gave a look to each other and started following after, sweeping up a good half of the flock in each net as their nets spasmed and shuddered with the frenzied gasps of insects before they slumped.

"N-NNNNNHHH!"

"WH-what was that?!" the white bird turned fast.

Making a silent motion to keep quiet to her friend, the dark rook carefully stepped over to the source of the sound with creeping steps, mechanical joints in their bird-legs creaking softly. Across the clearing they went with bended knees as they came closer to one particular tree, winged hands reaching out silently before they heard a sudden rustling in the bushes. The moment they turned their heads in reflex Jack came out from behind the tree with a left hook cracking into the pale rook's jaw.

"GAAAARGH!"

"WH-WHAT THE SHIT?!"

"Sorry," said Jack, "I get kinda jumpy when people start sneaking around."

"Wh-what...what the-wh-who are you?!"

"I'm the guy that crushed your friend's head over there. I know what you're up to."

"Oh shit you a cop?!" squawked the black bird reeling back.

"No, worse, now you're gonna answer some questions for me or else I'll put you in the bottom of the sea."

"Or else what!?" snarled the pale bird. "You think you can match against the Rooks on yer own?!"

"Guess there's one way to find out." Jack cracked his knuckles with a grin. "I'm getting on that base and you ain't gonna stop me from meeting your boss."

"What beef you have with our boss?" the birds started locking their nets shut and placing them up on trees.

"He killed my friend and kidnapped a buncha reploids so don't screw with me, now we gonna fight or am I gonna have to build my own little scrap heap on top of your friend's parts?"

"Wh-what, you killed Bishop?!"

"OH YOU DEAD NOW!"

The white bird came first with a lunging sweep of her fist, wings stretching out in a haymaker as Jack swerved his body like a serpent to evade before the second punch knocked him back. The black bird came rushing to him in his stagger to land a hard kick on his chest, sending him down as he rolled to the side and swung out his leg to trip her before elbow slamming down from above to crush her beak. Her pale friend grabbed him by the throat and drove her knees into his gut one after the other with a hard gasp from his throat, before he wrapped his hands round her waist and tried to slam her back against the tree.

The croc-reploid slammed her twice before she let go, pulling back to drive his fist in her eye as she yelled and shoved back before the dark bird stood back up to shouldercharge into him. Knocking him down in revenge the rook piled on top of Jack and started pounding his face with reckless frenzy, slicing across his steel skin with the bladed tips of her wings until Jack crossed his arms in a guardlock to drive both his fists into her face. Reeling back from the handblast she was left open to a hard boot in the gut, throwing her off of him as he pushed himself up to immediately whallop the pale rook with an overhead crush, except that she dodged fast enough for him to end up only splintering wood from the tree behind her.

"YOU WANNA MESS WITH US?!" She spunkick him hard across the back of his head. "THEN YOUR HEAD'S GONNA GET CRUSHED NEXT!"

"GA-AAAAARGH!"

His snout crunched into the bark as she kicked him hard again, stunning him briefly as he stumbled enough for the black rook to slam her clawed foot into his crotch, gasping with a spasm through his leg circuits as he stumbled and swung clumsily towards her when she dodged back to double kick him in his long chin. Staggering back into the white crow's range he almost suffered a hammerblow to the back of his head until he leaned hard forwards to steady himself and feel the whoosh of a doublefist swipe past the nape of his neck. The night-feathered crow tried to make another rush for him but Jack smiled and tapped his cheek.

"SMILE!"

"AAAAGH!"

A blinding flash clicked from his forehead, the sound of a camera shutter snapping as the black bird staggered from the light overload in her eyes giving Jack time to turn hard and dodge the next haymaker from the alabaster rook, driving his arm straight forwards into her gut to send her crumpling to the ground before he swung his tail like a serpentine club to send the other bird down on her knees. Both bird-loids looked at each other with a nod subtly before they leapt up almost simultaneous to tackle him at once, the gator frantically backpedalling to avoid until one of them grabbed his leg to pull him down and send them rolling across the clearing.

The eggshell rook began pounding her fist into his face but Jack quickly rolled her off with a grab of her shoulders and countered back with his own fists cracking across her beak, pushing himself off quickly before the shale rook yanked his arm to come swinging with her wing that scarred across his shoulders and neck before he responded with a ferocious uppercut.

"SHOOOOORYUKEN!"

"GU-AAAAGH!" The raven stumbled with her head cracking back hard against a tree. "Nnnnffff...you, you definitely screwed up you shiteating PUNK!"

"Takes two to know one," snarled Jack with wide-open arms, "now come on, try me again unless you wanna keep your beak."

"SHUT UP!"

Spinning her body in a full circle her wings came out exposed with razor-sharp tips to try and sever his limbs in a wild dance as he backed away from her, failing to see one of her hands open its palm and expose a thick short gunbarrel that fired an energy blast to send him tripping over his feet to try and swerve his body from the shot. His fall was then preyed upon by the white rook who grabbed his tail and stomped on his back, claws raking across his smooth steel and tearing up grooves in the shoulderblades of his suit. Covering his head to protect it from the curbstomp, he croaked from the hard crush of her foot upon his body before he lurched his body upwards in an n-shape to push her back and spring himself forwards at her friend before she could get a chance to attack.

"GUUUUH! G-GET, OFF!"

"What's the magic word?!" he mocked grabbing her face.

"YOU SH-SHITHEADED-AAARGH!"

She threw him off after he managed to punch her once, rolling quickly as he could to get away from her reach before both of the rooks leapt into the air and spun to send out feathered blades across the earth, forcing Jack to put up his hands and take some of them deep into his triceps with piercing cracks before they advanced towards him. The light of his forehead blinked and a flash shot forth to blind both rooks quick enough for him to make a driving clothesline attack with both his arms colliding into their necks, sending both of them down before he focused on the pale bird with a vengeful foot, stomping and kicking her face with reckless abandon before her friend launched up into a pounce and tackled him to the side.

Grabbing his arms behind his back she hoisted him up onto his feet, leaving him wide open for the white bird to go to town on his scaled ribs, pummelling him with slicing wings and rabid knuckles that threatened to dent him further as he coughed and wheezed with effort before he managed to throw one of his legs forwards and crack into the pale rook's beak.

"HNNNNFH! You, piece of SHIT!"

"GAAAARGH!" Another driving fist drove into his metal gut.

"WHO SENT YOU HUH?! What are you a fed?!"

"Naaah he ain't," said the black corvid, "they fight a lot better than this idiot, plus they actually come armed."

"Good point." The other rook brought up her hand with palm exposed to show a small gunbarrel stretch out of it. "Here's the deal, if you tell me who sent you we'll take you in and treat you right. If you don't, your head comes off so which is it?"

"Why don't you ask Renbie?" snorted Jack. "Tell 'im a gator in a nice brown suit's comin' for his ass."

"Pah, you kidding I seen better suits in a sweatshop."

"Like the one they made you guys in?" His response was rewarded with an open slap across his face.

"LAST. CHANCE, WHO SENT YOU?!"

"I think the better question you oughta ask is, who am I gonna send to you?"

"What-SH-SHIIIIT!"

"RAAAAAAAIIIIRGH!"

From the bushes unseen came a large raptor that piled onto the white corvid, crushing her beneath the weight of his body as his jaws came straight for her neck to wrench and twist it from its roots with a bestial force, crunching the metal beneath his savage teeth before the wires began to show like sinew. In a shock transparent the black bird loosened her grip on Jack's wrists as he pushed her away before she recovered enough to slash forwards with a savage wing that instantly clashed against cold steel.

"Wh-wh...WHAT?!"

"Desist." Dronin stood before her with blade crossed against her wing.

"Wh-who the-WHAT ARE YOU?!"

"I am Dronin. Desist."

"Over my dead chassis, RAAAARGH!"

She backed off to swipe at him again, the feathers folding against his blade before they both recoiled and struck again with an X-strike. The mantis twisted his sword fast enough upon the third clash however to surprise the rook and deflect her wing hard to his left, swinging his sword in doubleback to strike at the back of her shoulder exposed and sever it completely from her body.

"A-AAAAAAARGH!" The crow shuddered trying to clutch her stump. "G-GAH, DAMMIT!"

"I warned you to desist," said the swordsman.

"Y-y-you...who are, who are you even?!"

"I am a guardian of this land. You will cease combat or else suffer the fate of your companion."

"H-hohhh jeez!"

She looked past him to watch the raptor desiccate the white raven's throat, shredding cables in his teeth as sparks popped and crackled enough to frighten him off of her ruined body with throat severed in half and clawstains raked across her chest. The dark rook gripped her shoulder in the same state, feeling fluids drip down her fingers.

"Now let's try again," said Jack making a bow, "who is your boss at the base and what are you guys up to?"

"Y-you think that...th-that I would tell you anything?!"

"I got a samurai and a dinosaur on my side, what do you have?"

"I got an army worth of reploids over in that base, m-more than either of your stupid friends can manage."

"We'll see about that, but why don't you tell me about Renbie?"

"H-hah...if you wanna talk to him, you go meet him yourself."

"So he is here then?!" He stepped forwards with a clenching fist.

"We're always looking for new farmers," she said with an eerie grin, "you and your friends can join the harvest IF you wanna take the fight to us."

"Wait...what?"

"Peanut earwax ninety-five, peanut earwax ninety-five-"

"W-w-wait, WAIT WHAT ARE YOU-"

"Peanut earwax ninety-five, peanut-earwax _n-n-nine-NINE- nine-nine-NinEtY-fiiiiiiive." _

Her voice suddenly began to skip like a broken record, warping and distorting itself until her cranium suddenly overheated to burst itself open with a pop of smoke and flame that frightened Barkclaw sending him skittering back behind a tree. The rook fell down with a smile on her face, her processors twisted by heat to send hot fluid that came alight with sparks until Dronin stamped it out.

"Dammit," muttered Jack, "they got killswitches too?! That's messed up but I guess we gotta go in blind."

"Infiltration would be best," said Dronin nodding, "without prior information our chances of success will be minimal."

"Okay pal don't get all calculon on me I know it's not a great plan."

"It is only a plan if there is planning, Jack. A plan would be preferable to the lack of one."

"Wow maybe you oughta tone down your sarcasm chip," the gator bent over the remains of the other rook with torn throat, "I think your maker jacked up your settings too high."

"That was not sarcasm, that was fact. I am incapable of sarcasm."

"What do you mean incapable?!"

"I lack the emotional capacity to construct sarcasm."

"Emotional...wait." He stood up to face the mantis. "Are you saying you don't have emotions?"

"I do not possess an emotion chip, mine was too damaged and had to be removed."

"Wow...that...that really sucks, how do you even process stuff without emotions that's like being a mechaniloid!"

"I am capable of my tasks without emotional capacity."

"Y-yeah but-...no yanno what never mind I gotta look into this rook first."

He hunched down over the white rook and popped her skull open, seeing the chips were still intact as he clapped his hands rubbing with glee.

"NICE she's still good, hey uh dinoboy thanks for stopping her I think we got a way in!"

"He thanks you for killing this stonebeast," translated Dronin

"Th-they, they, th-they were hurting the smallwings!" shrieked the raptor. "H-help them please!"

Dronin sprung up onto the tree and swiftly pulled down the nets, unlocking them to reveal the pile of limp-winged moths and crumpled caterpillars that he gently pulled out onto the ground. Barkclaw sat down beside them whimpering as he sniffed over their bodies whilst Dronin examined the net.

"Jack, do you know what these are?"

"Oh uhhh yeah," the croc looked up from uncoupling the rook's skull, "that's a Trappent, people use 'em to catch bugs and it uh electrocutes them."

"Electrocutes?"

"Well, more like it gives a reeeal tiny shock to the system and just knocks the bugs out, they'll be fine in a bit."

"Why were they catching insects?" asked Dronin turning the net in his hands.

"I don't know," said Jack gently pulling a chip from the skull of the rook, "it's kinda off-base for a crooked cop dealing in some shady business."

"Allegedly."

"Right, allegedly, HEY UH ANY LAWYERS OUT THERE FOLLOWING WE'RE NOT ACCUSING ANYONE YA HEAR?!"

Jack cocked the side of his head with a hand out like a horn listening for nothing. Barkclaw still sat with the lifeless insects nudging them gently and starting to whimper much louder than before as Dronin hurried over to sit down beside and tend to him.

"Th-they are dead, S-stonevoice th-they KILLED THEM!"

"They are not dead," said Dronin calmly, "the stoneleaf told me that they are only asleep."

"A-a-are you sure?!"

"That is what he told me," he pointed at the nets, "those things do not kill, they only put smallwings to sleep."

"B-but...but it made them hurt, I-i-i heard them scream!" he stuttered with tears.

"They will be fine, we shall wait until they recover."

During this the croc opened a slit in the side of his head as he took one chip from the black rook's corpse and slid it in where his mind started to read through the data. His eyes blanked briefly as he parsed through millions of bits with a smug grin growing across his lips.

"Alriiiiight this is PERFECT!" He clapped his hands with squatting knees. "So this lady was one of the Rooks, she's one of the guards for the top level and I just got all her access keys."

"You are able to scan her memory?" asked Dronin.

"Most reploids got MD cards for backup data, but the only way you're gonna get one is either they allow you to take it or you kill them for it. So yeah, I know all the data we need for the first couple o' floors."

"How many levels are there?"

"Apparently six, but she's only allowed for two of them so we need to get inventive once we're in."

"It will increase our chances of success," the mantis nodded sitting back down against a tree, "do you now have a plan, Jack?"

"Gimme an hour or so I think I can whip up something before we leave."

"Good. OH, since uhhh you were asking about the bugs, it seems like they're collecting them to grind into lubricants?"

"Lubricants?"

"Yeah like, back in my world there are places that catch whole colonies of bugs and crush 'em down into this type o' lubricant. Some places still do it an' they're trying to outlaw it because yeah it's basically farming and killing creatures but, yanno how hard it is to push bills on these sorta things sooo I guess this is their technically-legal side o' things."

"Understood."

"Stonevoice?" Barkclaw peeked out behind his tree. "Can I speak with you?"

"Of course," said the badnik, "what is it?"

"I...do you...u-u-um-"

"Is something wrong?"

"N-no. No I..." he sat himself down beside the mantis, "do you truly believe this other stonebeast, the stoneleaf, that you have to stop this...hunter?"

"Yes. The two stonebeasts that just attacked him have proven that."

"A-and they...they hurt the smallwings."

"They did, I just learned from Stoneleaf what they were catching them for."

"What?"

"They were going to kill them." Dronin tensed himself for what he knew would upset his friend. "The stonebeasts were taking smallwings and crawlers to kill them and make a new stonewater for themselves."

"S-stone...water?" gasped the raptor.

"Some stonebeasts have pains in their limbs, which require a special type of water. I also use a different water to keep my limbs strong, but I never use anything involving the blood of beasts."

"B-but...those other stonebeasts they...they want to kill smallwings just to make that stonewater, for themselves?"

"Yes. That is another reason I must go to stop them."

"Then...I-i want to come with you, and help."

"Are you certain?" asked Dronin. "You do not have to-"

"N-no, I know but I want to."

"...DO you want to?"

He sensed the raptor's fretfulness, fiddling claws and snuffling gasps from his throat as he tried to clear his mind.

"No. I do not want to. But I have to. I-i have to help, the smallwings a-and the crawlers they have taken."

"I will set them free, I will still take you home-"

"NO! I-i have to do this, I cannot, I MUST, l-let me help you, I want to h-help the smallwings Stonevoice!" Barkclaw shivered with a rumbling in his throat trying to nudge one of the crawlers awake. "Do you...remember when Oddclaw went to the Greatbeast's Spine, when the hairless fell from the sky?"

"I do."

"But he did not want to, he had children being born soon, he did not have to go find his friends but he did."

"What do you mean?" He leaned forwards as Barkclaw bit his lip.

"I do not want to do this. But I have to, because that is what my brother would do. Th-the smallwings...they are my friends, a-and if they, if those stonebeasts want to hurt them I cannot let them!"

"You are not your brother Barkclaw-"

"I know, but I should be! I am not...I wish I was...I-i am not a great hunter like he is, I am a scout but I am frightened of skyfire l-like a child! I do not want to be, but I am and I, I, I-i want to be more, I want to be brave like my brother is against these starbeasts! That is why I have to do this, I have to help you even if I do not want to."

"I understand." He petted the raptor's head gently. "But you do not have to prove anything to your brother or me."

"N-no, no I want to prove it to myself, th-the smallwings need me I have to help them, I-i cannot leave them!"

"Then I ask you again." He leaned closer in with his gleaming eyes. "Are you certain you wish to come?"

"I am."

"We do not know how long this hunt will be, and there is a risk that we may die-"

"But I HAVE to." He shuddered and pressed his head against the cold steel helmet of his friend. "I have to. If I-...i-if I do not help them now...I-i would never forgive myself."

"Alright. But no matter what we fight, I will protect you."

"I know. I trust you." He licked and purred along Dronin's cheek. "Thank you Stonevoice."

They settled down together and waited until the next hour was up, whilst Jack began scribbling plans into the dirt with what layout he was given from the rook's memory. Once the hour was up as Dronin noted the gentle pass of the sun in the sky that softly turned the shadows from his sight, both the mechanids walked back to the village whilst Barkclaw stayed behind to keep watch over the insects. The croc and the mantis were met at the gate by a tall black moblin with one eye alongside Lizanaich with a makeshift canoe between them.

"Alright s'all ready," said Liz patting the side, "we had to make a new one since we don't really have any others to spare."

"Your craftsmanship is exceptional," said Dronin running his hand along the rim, "in such a short space of time you made this?"

"I did," said the moblin towering over him, "I am Mobenheim, chief quartermaster of this settlement."

"I am Dronin," he shook the thick hand that squeezed his steel fingers, "thank you for building us a vessel."

"My pleasure, we have also packed food for your friend inside it."

"That is very kind of you, sir Mobenheim."

"I will take the vessel to the sea for you."

"Allow me to assist then."

Lifting the canoe between their three hands, the moblin took up the back whilst Dronin carried the front as they headed towards the sea. The journey to the northern coast was much longer than Jack had anticipated, before they took a sidestroll through the forest where Barkclaw was still sitting patiently by the trees where the clearing was now devoid of all insects.

"S-stonevoice, Stonevoice the smallwings woke up, th-they all flew away!"

"As I said they would," Dronin nodded, "are you still coming with us?"

"Yes yes, I have to save the rest of them!"

"Very well, come then."

Despite his initial joy at the former hostages recovering, the raptor still felt an urge of frustration building up inside that he forcefully swallowed as best he could. The longer the journey took the more he struggled, his breaths shook in a rasping snarl as he tried to shut out his thoughts with stamping feet, worrying the croc beside him as they traipsed through the forest and over the marshy hills.

"Hey uh Drone your friend alright?" Jack pointed at the beast. "He's not got like, rabies or somethin' right?"

"He is coming with us."

"Oh okay cool so-wait-WHAT?!"

"Barkclaw wishes to help you, he is worried about the insects that the base may have captured for processing."

"Wow...really likes bugs don't he?"

"Correct, he is forcing himself to break through his routine which is mentally stressful to him."

"But...okay, I appreciate the help but he does NOT look like he's having fun."

"This is not fun for him, but he is choosing to help you in order to better himself and defy his own limits."

"Ohhhh I see this is like uh testing yourself," the croc nodded as Barkclaw unstiffened his muscles, "thanks again for all this."

"The chief spoke to me of your hunt," said Mobenheim in Hylian, "an anomaly that can threaten the land?"

"Correct," responded Dronin setting foot on a hillock, "a possible team of robotic criminals."

"Truly?" The boar lifted his end higher as they ascended the slope. "I have never heard of machines committing criminal acts."

"Did you not have machines back in your homestead?"

"Yes, but never criminal. To call something criminal would mean that one comprehends the laws of the land, whereas the Guardians were but soulless husks. Soldiers of Ganon yes, but mindless nonetheless."

"I too am a soulless husk, but I understand the concept of morality."

"Then you are unique," the moblin nodded respecfully, "whoever designed you had a heart to bear upon you."

"He had a heart," said Dronin, "but one not of kindness."

"Then you have sculpted your own heart, much like the child who rejects a cruel lineage to better their future." They started to descend the other side of the slope. "Do you require further assistance?"

"It is an unknown mission," said Dronin locking his legs so as to not slip downwards, "the number of enemies and the layout of this base is so far unknown."

"I see. I would join you, but the vessel is limited in space whilst my duties also forbid me."

"I understand, you are the guardian of your village and you must protect it at all cost."

"Indeed."

Through the forest they went gently turning the canoe between them, slowly navigating through the spatious wood as whooping cries rang out above them from strange beasts that sometimes Barkclaw responded to with little chirrups. Occasionally there were bugs, some of which landed on his head and he purred sweetly from the reassuring touch of feelers and legs creeping all over his face whilst Jack reeled back and pushed them away from himself. Soon it became the late afternoon by the time they reached the shore, the sun setting behind the Deep Mountains to cast the greatest shadow across the land. The shore was dark with silt, blackened soot and granules that had long since shed themselves from the mountain cliffs as Dronin and Mobenheim placed the boat upon the waves.

"All aboard," said the moblin holding it still, "oars are inside, the food for your friend is in the box under the seat."

"Thank you," the mantis nodded as he motioned Jack and Barkclaw to get in, "we shall not take long to return."

"I cannot wait, but I will return this time tomorrow and the next, or send scouts to keep watch."

"I bid you farewell sir Mobenheim."

"Take care sir Dronin."

They bowed as warriors and left each other, the mantis climbing on as Barkclaw struggled to sit like a dog trying to fit in a box too small.

"H-HEY, HEY, CALM DOWN!"

"A-aaAAAAH!"

"Barkclaw stop moving," said Dronin.

"Th-the log is, it keeps moving!"

"Stay in one place and lower your body."

The raptor eventually calmed himself and tried to sit between the seats as Jack took up the oars and started rowing north. The wash of the sea cradled the boat back and forth, making Barkclaw shiver with its movements that would constantly upset him, rocking himself back and forth to try and counter it. The reploid sighed shaking his head at such a motley little crew he had amassed as Dronin gently stroked Barkclaw's head to keep him soothed. Once they had managed to leave the shore the waves began settling themselves and the boat's rocking subsided enough to calm the raptor into its soft ebb and flow.

"Damn you're like some dino whisperer," said Jack chuckling, "never seen anybody tame a dino as good as you."

"He is my friend, not a pet."

"I know I didn't mean that, just sayin' you got a way with them."

"I have compiled their linguistics and body language to become a member of their pack."

"And they really don't mind you at all?"

"They sense no harmful intent from me, due to the lack of physiological chemicals I possess."

"Didn't stop your buddy ripping that rook's throat," the gator said still rowing in perfect circles, "what chemicals were they packing?"

"I told him to attack," said the mantis, "normally raptors can sense through body language and vocal tones when scents are unavailable. Barkclaw has difficulties with such, but he was already antagonised by the fact they were harming insects, of which he is fond of."

"Oh, right yeah I guess that makes sense." The gentle smacking of oars came either side of the boat amidst sloshing waves, "yanno I never rowed a boat before, back home all the boats we have are like engine-powered."

"Our boats were powered too, by engines or by badniks with rotor functions."

"I take it you're not waterproofed cuz neither am I."

"We would cease to function in water yes, Barkclaw too is unable to swim."

"Right so, no pressure then!" Jack cracked a smile keeping his rowing the same pace. "So, you ready to hear the plan?"

"I am."

The reploid began to lay out his plan as they rowed across the sea, the tender lap of the waves against the boat cradling it towards the thin silver gleam beyond the shore. Forty minutes of rowing kept Barkclaw awake and nervous as Dronin gave him some of the meat from the box beneath his seat until they finally hit the dock of the mysterious base. At first glance it seemed to be an oil rig still in development with half-finished struts and steel plates left across the platform where small orb-shaped robots wandered around with construction hats covering most of their body that consisted of short waddled feet and a pair of eyes peeking underneath the helmet.

"Just follow my lead," muttered Jack, "only thing you have to do is make sure your friend don't cause any trouble until we HAVE to fight."

"Understood."

"AHOYYYY!" The croc leapt onto the dock. "Sorry sorry, just had to give our new buddy a test run, you don't mind do ya?"

The dwarfed robots looked at him bleakly, saying nothing with one or two of them having pickaxes grow from compartments in their hats to chip and straighten out plates.

"Yeaaaah thought so I'll just get out your way, Dronin come on let's get 'im back down to test labs."

"Of course."

Stepping off the boat Dronin gently pulled Barkclaw up as the raptor stiffened up his legs and walked with autonomous gait. The small bots ignored them with only cursory looks as they went to their routines to crack struts of steel with their picks to break them apart, then commenced to rebuild the struts again and dismantle them once more in a cycle. Jack approached the centre of the platform where several portable cabins sat, one of which he walked into to find a basic desk with boring shelves of paperwork detailing pieces of construction in a legit fashion.

"Did I do it right?" asked Barkclaw.

"We shall see," said Dronin, "when we find more stonebeasts remember to mimic me."

"A-alright."

"Did the guards did not register us?" the mantis asked the croc.

"Nah they're mechaniloids," said Jack, "they don't got the function to alert anybody, they're all just keeping the appearance up that this place has some building to it so nobody looks at it. Alright lessee..."

Recounting the memory of the rook, the reploid searched the desk until he found what seemed to be a broken microphone in one drawer.

"Shabang, oh no, tuxedo cat."

Something clicked. The room vibrated with an immense hydraulic shudder as the walls started to lift upwards from around them making Barkclaw stagger against the wall. Then they realised it was the floor itself actually lowering into the true base.

"Wh-what is happening?!"

"Calm yourself, we are moving into a cave."

"Inside the SEA?!"

"A cave that no water can reach, think of it as your special place in the Dry Mountain."

"U-um, alright...this sound is so odd."

"It will be fine, just remember to mimic me."

Barkclaw took a deep breath and stiffened himself once more to copy Dronin's movements, the floor gasping and grinding with the desk in tow as pure steel opened up around them as impenetrable walls of thick rivets that scaled past them. The pressure changed and Barkclaw felt his ears pop which worried him slightly, the robots unaffected as they waited patiently for the lift to reach its end. As they came closer to the bottom, the sounds of machinery could be heard amidst deep rumblings of the subaquatic world, the ocean pushing against the hulls stronger with every twenty feet that they went according to the numbers on the wall. Once they found 80ft, the base revealed itself as a mechanical labyrinth of gears and circuits, a bizarre convection of both steam and kinetic energy when they saw pipes trailing all over to puff out thick clouds of vapour that would pass through the air and enter ventilation ducts to keep the floor de-misted.

Many robots could be seen wandering in their tasks, most of them less sentient like the workers above for how their refusal to acknowledge the newcomers' existence. A few of the workers however were more alert, directing the machines through the processes of what appeared to be recycling cheap metals. Barking orders could be heard left and right as Jack carefully led them out of sight.

"HEY!" A walrus-mech stomped his way forwards on powerful iron legs. "Where you goin'?!"

"Whatsit look like?!" snapped Jack at him. "Testin' this new mechaniloid we got."

"Eh?!" The portly brown reploid peered at Barkclaw scrutinous. "I don' recognise this one."

"Well yeah he just started, got 'im all purposed an' gave him a walk yanno, test his cycles."

"I never heard anythin' about new mechaniloid tests."

"Yeah well I never heard anythin' about you snortin' kyte, doesn't mean it don't happen now does it Mort?!"

"WH-UH-" the walrus blustered with a steel-wool moustache, "wh-who said anything about that?!"

"No one, unless they'd rather pass it onto the discipline group so you wanna waste my time or you wanna let me get on with my damn job?"

"Y-yes...sorry sir."

Slinking off with heavy shoulders he turned and left them be whilst Jack directed the infiltrators onwards. The croc took a devious path in the shadows through the forest of silver pipes, monstrous gears crunching and shuddering as Barkclaw felt the intensity of the noise reach almost too much. Dronin however sensed his upset quick enough to bring out the moss earmuffs and gently stuff his ears, the raptor sighing as the squealing grinds became a muffled groan as they kept following the reporter. Two other animal-based reploids besides the walrus were keeping check on the machines, a hawk and a catfish that glibly looked on at their less-intelligent standard robot types who looked far less remarkable and more actual mechanical.

Too loud were the engines for them to speak between each other as Jack bade them wait with a hand gesture before climbing up onto a set of pipes and opening his mouth with an automatic creak. His uvulal wall slid open to reveal a sharp smooth camera's lens that rotated its lens and whirred towards an assembly line between the gears, his left eye opening up in turn to show a smaller camera lens that clicked with a shutter function.

All along the conveyor belt were boxes of some mysterious electronics wrapped and processed into a storage room under the name of MALTPORT. The croc kept his lens focused to get several good images and a running feed of the name and serials before he clambered back down to his friends and motioned them towards a quieter area near the entrance to the second floor.

"What are they packaging?" asked Dronin peering towards the row.

"I'm not sure," said Jack, "probably electronics, nothing too bad so far but I just took pics to make sure."

"Let us continue, how far below can your plan take us?"

"Another two floors, beyond that I got nothing so we'll have to wing it best we can."

"Can Barkclaw and I assist in any fashion?"

"Just keep doing what you're doing, I think we can fool 'em into thinking dinoboy's not one of them, long as they don't touch him."

"Understood."

A set of stairs welcomed them to the second floor of the first level, with another line of machines obediently putting circuit boards into the boxes that would be packaged above them. Thin green and black rectangles with chips planted on them by the mechaniloids, servile bots without emotion piecing them together with hands of surprising delicacy before placing a certain amount into a box and shifting it down the row to start on the next set. Another small group of reploids kept watch, mostly canines but this level had bugs helicoptering around the perimeter to make things more difficult to pass through undetected. Drones fluttered past shaped like wasps alongside chopperbugs as the gator led them beneath the less-ventured parts of the room, with Barkclaw more curious about the beasts to the point that a part of him tried to veer over towards them, before Dronin pulled his head back to refocus on the mission.

Jack once again climbed to a higher point and take pictures with video of the operations, climbing back down and descending to the second level through a large door in the corner of the room that opened once Jack keyed in the right combination from the rook's memory still present in his processing unit. Level two was much more open, another assembly line where the circuits were being scratched into the actual boards through elaborate lasers connected to large servers on either side of the room. No mechaniloids were present on this floor, nor was there as much steam from the distinct lack of piping, but offices could be seen across the hall where reploids were filing out receipts behind desks in cozy little rooms with windows overlooking the place.

"Never seen lasers attached to computers that big," said the croc clambering down from his perch.

"Perhaps a complex data feed," said Dronin, "transferring information to the circuitry."

"I guess, but...yeah I gotta be honest I've never been in an electronics factory so it seems legit."

"You are doubting your mission?"

"N-no, no I just...I mean if it was legit the rooks woulda said and my trail led me here, if it was legit why would it hide behind shell accounts?!"

"I do not know. Let us continue."

"That may be a problem," said Jack leading up to the third floor's sealed entrance, "rooks only had clearance to the first two, beyond that we gotta get inventive."

The door that stood before them was in a clean corner of the room, the light above it blinking green as a clear signal of entry with a small circular hole in a panel right of the door.

"Hmmmm..." the gator rubbed his chin peering closely at the slot, "looks like we need some kind of jack to get our way in."

"Is there no means to short-circuit it?" asked Dronin.

"Nah this is a Hikari model, it has to read the exact type of jack like an electronic key."

"Perhaps the ventilation could offer us deeper access."

"You kidding the vents here are way too small for us to get through, even without your huge hat and your big-ass dino friend!"

"HEY!"

A boar in deep red stomped his way towards them as Jack gave a look to Dronin. The croc stepped up to the pig with a dismissive look.

"What, I'm busy."

"What the hell's this thing?" the porcine mech jabbed a finger towards Barkclaw who reared back confused.

"Ugh I just told the guy upstairs is everyone runnin' on beta here or what?! It's a new mechaniloid an' we're takin' him for a walk to get his functions sorted!"

"I never got any reports on a new reptilian model, what purpose is he gonna be?"

"He is a scout," said Dronin patting the raptor's head, "a new design we are processing to develop a swift-response observer to implant into the new environment."

"New environment?! Whut?!"

"Did you not observe the anomaly that sent this place to a different region?"

"Well uh, yeah, we got reports of it but we already making a plant in the area?!"

"Ah huh," snorted Jack crossing his arms, "what you think we're idiots, we had Bishop confirm the new wildlife so we need to put in someone that can blend in."

"You telling me dinosaurs are out there right now after we got teleported?" The pig scoffed and thrust his belly forwards. "Think I'm gonna fall fer that?

"Fall for what, why you being so suspicious?!"

"Cuz I'm the security officer of this floor an' I don't recognise either of you. What's your serial numbers?"

"Can't even be that good at security if you don't even know what's outside, you wanna waste our time?!"

"Identify yourself." The boar raised his hand which pulled back into his arm and reveal a cannon. "You got five seconds."

"Alright alright just cool it!" The croc raised his hands. "Mine is two-eight, one-zero, one-nine-nine-eight."

"Right, and you?" he turned to Dronin who stood promptly with hand behind his back.

"Zero-one-zero-one-zero-zero-one-zero, zero-one-one-one-one-zero-zero-one, zero-one-one-zero-one-one-one-one-"

"Uhhh, wh-what?"

"Zero-one-one-one-zero-one-zero-one, zero-one-one-zero-one-one-zero-one, zero-one-one-zero-zero-zero-zero-one."

"...I don't think we have that number on our records."

"I am catalogued in a different database," inferred Dronin, "you are not authorised to access such records."

"The hell says I ain't?!" barked the pig stomping a foot towards him.

"If you do not recognise my serial number, then you do not have access to the records for which we are in."

"Alright what's HIS number then?!" he jabbed at Barkclaw again as he snorted at his finger.

"Zero-one-zero-zero-zero-zero-one-zero, zero-one-one-zero-zero-zero-zero-one-"

"Oh COME ON are you serious?!"

"You asked bud," the gator shrugged, "now you wanna stop botherin' us and let us get on with the job?"

"Whatever just, stay out o' the way alright?!"

The porcine guard threw his hands in the air and walked off in a strop leaving Jack to wipe his brow of nonexistent sweat.

"Phew...alright that was good thinkin' there Drone."

"I have learned that people have little patience for binary," said the mantis.

"Soooo any ideas how to get through this door besides just waitin' for someone?"

"Barkclaw."

"Yes?" the raptor snapped to his attention.

"Could you smell this for me and help me understand it?"

"Um...alright."

The raptor sniffed at the circular slot before reeling back with a snorting cough.

"UGH, u-uuugh it smells AWFUL!"

"Could you find one of the stonebeasts here with the same scent?"

"Wh-why, it smells bad!"

"We need the stonebeast with the same scent to reach further into this cave."

"Oh...I see, alright then."

"He has picked up the scent," explained Dronin.

"Alright!" Jack clenched his fists. "Nice work big guy just lead the way!"

Taking a reluctant whiff for a second time the raptor memorised the scent of the steel hole and started to sniff underneath the door, before turning his head towards the rest of the factory floor and lifted his snout in trying to isolate the source. They wandered throughout the place between grinding machines and hammering pistons that pumped steam through the vents, weaving through and circumventing around the conveyor belt at least once before they made their way to the offices above.

"Aww jeez," the gator sighed, "don't tell me it's one of these guys."

"It would appear so," said Dronin stroking his chin, "shall we practice our obfuscation?"

"Yeah I got an idea, just follow my lead until your friend gets a bead on who the jack belongs to."

Heading up the stairs into the office Jack knocked politely on the door to see four reploids turn their head towards him, a surprisingly mild office with fake plants, a blue carpet floor and a set of cabinets with desks spread out along the windows.

"Heyyyy there uh you guys got a minute?"

"What is it now?" the boar snorted from the back.

"I uh, we're having a problem with our mechaniloid here."

"Your what?" said a cobra-headed mech.

"Yeah my mechaniloid, well not MINE but yanno, boss' orders it's a new scout and we're tryin' to test its program out."

"You know anything about this?" the snake turned to the pig.

"Yeah they told me the same thing," said the boar tapping his foot, "I thought you guys were heading back down!"

"He has detected a scent," said Dronin approaching with Barkclaw sniffing around the room, "we must let him complete his program, apologies for the inconvenience."

"Ugh, fine just don't let it mess up our systems."

"What is this?!" a bull laid back in his chair with arms hanging back. "We're babysitting mechaniloids now?!"

"Listen I don't make the rules these guys aren't even in our database!"

"Wait what?"

"Yeah I didn't recognise their serial numbers, zero one zero one yadda yadda."

"That...that's just binary," said a rooster from the back standing up from his seat, "what's your serial again?"

"Zero-one-zero-one-zero-zero-one-zero," repeated Dronin as Barkclaw sniffed through the desks, "zero-one-one-one-one-zero-zero-one, zero-one-one-zero-one-one-one-one, zero-one-one-one-zero-one-zero-one, zero-one-one-zero-one-one-zero-one, zero-one-one-zero-zero-zero-zero-one."

"...so, Ryouma?"

"Wait what?" the pig looked between them.

"That's just 'Ryouma' in binary, like a name, who are you?!"

"Are you kidding me," ranted Jack throwing his hands, "I JUST explained it your security over there what do I gotta put out a spreadsheet for you jackasses?!"

"Hey-ey DON'T talk back to us, we're the supervisors of this floor and unless you can prove which level you guys actually belong to, then I'm calling the Queen."

"Alright I mean if you wanna waste her time, we told our numbers, we did everything by the book, but if YOU WANNA GO AHEAD and look like idiots who do nothin' but push data around all day-"

"Shuddup!" the bull slammed his desk. "If you don't understand the finer points of venn diagrams then you don't get to talk SHIT!"

"A-AAAAAOW!"

The cobra shrieked when he felt something wrench his hand clean off with a hard twist, snapping the joint to leave wires shooting sparks as Barkclaw ran straight for the door.

"S-stop, STOP, THAT LITTLE FREAK TOOK MY HAND!"

"HEY, GET BACK HERE!" The croc and the mantis headed after in pursuit. "What the shit is wrong with you?!"

"He must be malfunctioning," said Dronin, "notarise this in the report!"

"I'm on it, HEY DON'T CALL ANYONE THIS IS JUST A TECH FAULT ALRIGHT?!"

"THAT BITCH TOOK MY HAND," screeched the cobra, "HOW IS THAT A TECHNICAL FAULT?!"

"SORRY WE'LL BILL YA A NEW ONE!"

The boar chased off after them whilst the bull and the rooster crowded round their serpent friend to help. Barkclaw tossed the severed hand for Dronin to catch as he exposed one of its fingers to reveal an audio jack, driving it into the slot beside the door as it opened with a hearty beep.

"H-HEY, WAIT WHERE YA GOIN-AAAARGH!"

"Smile, you're on camera!"

The croc flashed their pursuer with a blinding shot as the pig stumbled back briefly, struggling to run forwards but by the time he managed to reach the door the three had already gone through with it closing behind them, severed hand and all as the boar slumped against the wall.

"D-dammit..."

"What the shit happened?!" cried the rooster heading down the steps.

"They uh, the mechaniloid got away they musta gone after it."

"And the hand?!"

"I uh, guess they ran off with it."

"IDIOT!" The bird slapped his steel-feathered hand across the pig's face. "I'm calling the Queen, if they're not who they say they are then they have to deal with her."

"B-but what if they are?!"

"Well it's not my problem anymore is it, but if they get to Renbie first, then your ass is DEAD!"

Stomping back to the office he felt the boar struggle on after him with a nonplussed look on his snout. The metal bird grabbed for what appeared to be an old black landline phone on his desk with a wireless antenna on the receiver.

"Cluckson here, got a potential threat coming your way, they just passed us. One of 'em took Serpson's hand and bypassed the lock, tell the Queen to get ready. Leave one alive at least, just so we know whose tracks to cover."

He clicked off and sat back in his seat pressing his wingfeathered fingers against each other in a tent.

"If these jackoffs screw with my pay then I'm gonna kill 'em myself."