Hamster Kin
A Starshatter story
(Art by Neutronboar)
My fellow Terrans, it is Terran-Tuesday and since you loved this little fuzzy fella so much, I am giving you another chapter :D
Enjoy!
Index: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 8
Chapter 7
Dawn of the Deadleh Squeakers
Bloop had just completed a number of upgrades and inspected his work. Gor, once but a pile of inactive machinery, gathering dust and laying forgotten, stood up on its mecha feet, a fresh coat of dark-green paint from armored head to steely toe. The skilled Terran was beyond what locals would call a “hard worker”, Looc and Yuik had finally realized as they observed him work. The hamster did not just fix all the damage, but implemented a plethora of massive improvements.
Looc fondly remembered all of his mech’s design imperfections, which he had to compensate for with apt piloting. Yet, by having access to sufficient amounts of salvage, mostly piles of looted cyber-gear, Bloop was able to fashion superior mecha systems. However, it was the heart of the mech, its fusion core, which received the greatest boost. He had to install a brand new gage since the old one was no longer capable of measuring the power output.
“Good sir landlord.” – Bloop addressed the oldster with a grin – “Your wonderful metal boyo is quite ready to do peace, if I can say so myself.”
“In my day, we had a small team of mech technicians who did what you just did, but even they were not capable of such speed, such... mastery!” – said Looc and touched his mecha’s brand new armor-plating.
“I knew two of them quite well since they worked on the star docks. One taught me how to operate big machinery, like grav-cranes and such.” – agreed Yuik as he helped Looc climb inside the cockpit and his face shone with old, happy memories – “As a young kid, it was Looc who learned me how to pilot a walker. Remember, you told me to sit in the cockpit, showed what each instrument did and how to move around.”
The old man sighed, water in his eyes, and caressed the mecha’s instrumentation panel. Bloop had not changed much, only a couple of gadgets and gages looked brand new, the rest was covered with tiny scratches, dints, and the odd splatter of space paint. Gor was, after all, a much used worker’s mecha; one which participated in many a construction project. In the end, the “metal boyo” as Bloop called him, died during the first and last uprising against the Corpos.
“You will notice, good sir Landlord, that Gor boyo has a duo-phasic energy shield generator. Phase one is general shield bulb, nothing strange there.” – chimed the hamster and floated up, joining them inside the open cockpit, clicking on the power button.
In a flash, the machine was shrouded in a thick, transparent energy field.
“Wait,” – said stunned Yuik as he watched the unwavering field – “this one does not even buzz, nor wave!”
“Terran engineering.” – squeaked the hamster with a cozy grin – “Just look at the field harmonics before I switch to phase two.”
Yuik and Looc gazed at the holo-gage which did indeed display field integrity of 98.9% and near perfect harmonics.
“Who are you even?!” – Looc exclaimed, just as Bloop switched the energy shield’s actuator to Phase two.
The energy shied did not vanish, nor did the mech become invisible. Instead a much stronger field appeared; with another flick of the lever, it could be localized forwards, aft, left or right. The gauge showed about two-and-a-half time greater field cohesion! More, with another click of the adjacent lever, this extra strong shield could be retracted or extended a few feet. This transformed it into a devastating weapon on itself.
“Why, I am just a Solace Tourist, my good sir Landlord.” – grinning replied the hamster and, following the deactivation of the energy shield, floated back to the floor.
A number of localized explosions cracked on the streets outside, followed by the roaring hiss of beamfire. This signified that people were still actively battling what was left of the Corpo and gangster goons. Looc and Yuik shared looks full of hope and fear. The oldster knew failure and life under the bootheel of a foreign economic force, but the young docker, despite a childhood of gloom, he was quite hopeful.
Looc knew full well where the source of that hope came from and he repeated his question – “I refuse to believe that a simple tourist is capable of fixing and upgrading complicated machinery! Please, tell us who you really are... when you are not on a tourist trip that is.”
The hamster pitter-pattered around the mech, whistling a catchy alien melody. There was a hint of cute sadness in his eye, as if he was a tad bit hurt that the two men would not accept his solace tourist identity. This lasted for a few seconds and, wide smile forming on his snout he proceeded to sit upon one of Gor’s open hands, raised his goggles and mumbled something unintelligible.
“Captain Bloop, Cav’s mechanical engineering corps. If it flies, walks, rolls, or rumbles, we can build and repair it!” – cited the small Terran and there was immense happiness in his voice when he added – “I am also a junior hamsternator.”
“The first, I suspected, but what the frakk even is a hamsternator?!” – Looc shouted out, giving his younger protege, one who knew far more about aliens, a questioning look.
The docker, his eyes wide with surprise, shook his head.
“Why, my good sir Landlord, ain’t I a hamster? One who terminates baddies of the most sodding, deranged kind?”
“Uh-huh?” – Looc was only able to mumble and nod.
“There you have it!” – concluded the Terran, one little finger pointing straight at the oldster.
“I only heard broken rumors of the Terrans,” – began Yuik, gripped by utter confusion – “and how great they are against the Corpos and their underlings. But... I still struggle to believe what I saw you do.”
Bloop shushed him with a marvelously cheeky grin – “Secrets are to remain secretey. All I can say is—we have our speshul goodun guns and kablooey things.”
The three remained silent for a couple of minutes, until there came a link on Yuik’s device which notified him of another delivery. He was not aware of one, but the hamster’s overpoweringly cute smile grew wider when he told him.
“Good! One cannot win an uprising intended to reconstruct normality and restore what was stolen from kin and progeny without proper military hardware.” – Bloop explained as he floated to the cargo elevator, yet another thing he had easily and quickly repaired utilizing salvaged cyborg limbs – “I asked our marvelous smuggling friends for something and, oh, it is quite the fit for your metal boyo, good sir Landlord!”
“Come, yes, here, leave it here my dear merchants of peace.” – squeaked the hamster, watching a team of four black marketeers deliver a bulky crate branded with old military markings via a grav-pallet cart.
The four left and were immediately replaced by one of the old soldiers Bloop had repaired the gear of. Grizzled, perhaps even more than old Looc, this veteran’s perpetually burdened with sadness, crisscrossed in battle scars face, appeared rather lively. This was the merc’s chief and he gazed upon Gor, eyes aglow with vicious, killing hope.
“Thanks to ye, we schlocked them Corpos good! OBP and various gangsta’ fokks be dying in their thousands across Boklik city.” – grumbled the man and shook Bloop’s tiny hand as he patted the mech – “But, dey still haff more, armed and lacking in chrome department underlings. Armored fighting vehicles, light tanks, a couple mechs even, and them we can only scrap wiff this!”
Bloop didn’t have to ask Yuik, who expertly operated the grav-crane, lifted the big box, placed it near the mech, and opened it. Inside, there was an old set of mecha weaponry, which bore the letters prototype and obscure numbers. Unknown to the oldster, he proceeded to examine everything as soon as Yuik helped him climb down from Gor’s cockpit.
Their questioning looks prompted a simple explanation from the soldier:
“As ye see, ‘tis experimental. Back in the day, our army brass thought we best start developing proper weapons for these mechs. Problem was, them Corpos convinced everyone in our general staff dat we no need no army, no ships, no nothing. That dey gonn’ proteck us all. At least someone up there had a working brain and did not fully scrap that weapons program. Prolly should’ve done more, saved all specialist systems, but, here we are...”
They saw a simple loadout; for melee, the crate offered a shortish vibroblade. The short range weapon of choice was a high-powered beam pistol, but the long-range armament drew everyone’s eye. A twin-barreled cannon, possibly repurposed point defense system or a starfighter’s armament, the thing was derived from alien gyro-jet tech. The engineers slapped two together, linked their firing mechanisms and improved the ammunition feeders. Essentially, the beastly gun fired bursts of caseless, advanced rocket powered munitions with great degree of accuracy.
“I was so happy when you told me about this!” – giggled the hamster and straight on hugged the cannon, once more muttering something unintelligible.
To the three locals, it almost appeared as if this small Terran was having a conversation with the weapon, yet they quickly convinced themselves that was a balmy notion. In the short time they knew this person, he had demonstrated his wacky attitude about pretty much everything. However, he had so far been so successful in doing said everything, that crushed people like them simply assumed it was a quirk of character.
Right now they needed the hope he radiated like a sun, and they needed it more than the air itself.
The insides of the soldier’s helmet became aglow with combat links, his earpiece grumbling with reports from various battles outside. What semblance of cheer he had was suddenly gone from his wrinkled face and, urgency in his voice, the man said:
“Some smart Corpo just mobilized a squad of mechs. These were being transported off planet, but were diverted back and are soon to land at the docks! So far, my men and the rebels, we haff been barely containing their other mechanized assets with ad-hock barricades and jerry-rigged hand bombs. If dese mechs are not stopped... well, everything... everyone’s basically schlocked!”
“I cannot pilot it!” – Looc said as he looked at his trembling hands – “Me hand nerves were damage in that first battle.”
Bloop kept nodding, patting the experimental cannon. He did not appear concerned nor afraid and if possible, the grin on his shout had widened more.
“Mechies and tankses will not be a problem.” – and the hamster floated near Yuik, poking him in the chestplate – “Smart Yuik will fly your marvelous metal boyo Gor.”
The docker did not look at Bloop for long, but climbed back into the mecha’s cockpit. Wasting no time he flipped the main power supply switch, yet his voice trembled a bit when he said – “I will do everything that I can, but... I have no experience!”
The hamster floated inside the cockpit and somehow shoved himself and his backpack behind Yuik. The docker was about to close the hatch, but Bloop squeaked at Looc:
“Good sir Landlord, you sit behind that mainframe and give Yuik advice! I will guide him to a point but then I haff’ta leave for kablooey action, take some of them tankses out.”
Clanging with a loud metallic clank the cockpit slammed shut. All systems became operational and, without wasting time, the docker turned mecha pilot grabbed all weapons and munition packs, mag-locking them to his machine’s frame. As the mech walked into the cargo elevator, Yuik noticed one of the new gages and got a pat from Bloop, urging him to activate it.
“Main engines operational.” – said the system with its pre-programmed voice, making Yuik let loose a cry full of enthusiasm – “We can fly to the star docks in a few minutes!”
“Ihihihiii!” – squeaked the hamster and clapping his hands, announced on the codded channels which all rebels were logged on – “Greetings one and all! Bask in this glorious sunshine, for the dawn of the Deadleh Squeakers is upon us!”
Dear friends, if you like to support me and enable many a future writings, grab a copy and have a read!
Love the hamster!
Good sir Landlord: please continue with this series.