Echo-1 The Whale

35: The Warriors of Woad

At our maximum cruising speed, the Magus would overtake us in less than a week. 

Uzi moved his entire operation to the shielded computer section. It was much smaller in there and it certainly didn't have a view. There was only one way in or out, that a humanoid sized being could use. Stone Face and Punchy were posted outside each armed with rust cannons. All Banga windows, blast shields, and hatches were closed. Manual controlled diamond missile launchers were stationed at the large hangar bays on both sides of the ship. All non-essential vehicles were powered down. As were non-essential computer systems. 

Zandar Vandar Blunt spent his time with a division of 40 pilot synthetics who shared twenty rust-blade assault rifles. I was reminded of stories from the Russian front during World War II when they had more men than guns. If one soldier died the other picked up the gun and kept firing. Each team of two was taught to handle a bull mammoth. Blunt worked his magic on the wooly elephants and the teams drilled until they worked together in perfection. They charged around the decks, steering the prehistoric mounts with their legs, leaving hands free to fire rifles. They kept a team of attendant droids busy cleaning up after them. 

The truth was they were incredibly slow for the distances that needed to be traversed, so in the end, they were split into two teams and sent to patrol the main highway routes between the port and starboard hangars and the computer room. 

Werner and Forklift rigged up four flatbeds, jammed the controls on hover, and destroyed the guidance mechanisms. They figured they could pull two and attach the other two behind the rust and diamond gogos. This way they could more effectively move troops around the ship as needed. 

Sunshine and Dixon holed up in Dixon's submarine spacecraft and powered down. It got cold in there fast, so they took to wearing spacewalk gear sans the helmets. 

Dr. Death drilled with Nidi and the ten grunts armed with lightning rust swords. Nidi was a natural, after all, she was bred to be a shock trooper. She quickly matched Death in swordplay. A camouflaged hulk sword fighting the she-werewolf, if only I had time to watch them train!

Charlie was working on a mount for Vronsky and I was asked to meet Mox at the Brick. When I pulled up, they were packing the cargo hold full of our humanoid robot crew and as many attendant droids as they could stack in there. Mox signaled me in. I rode my gogo up into the cargo hold. He also had two fully armed fighters and two transport flatbed vehicles inside.

"Park your gogo against the wall and leave your droids. No reason to let the Vedma have them. They'll be safe here." 

I said I was going to keep them on the scout. 

"Suit yourself. I'd like to go with you to see the Chieftains. I'm not going to pass up the chance to meet such an ancient race. I had no idea they were aboard. You know, I once saw them on display during a gala hosted by the last Emperor of the Seven Systems. Before he disbanded the empire of course. He was a man of peace you know. He literally cut off his own right arm to end the interstellar war. They just don't make them like him anymore." 

I had no idea what he was talking about. The history of the galaxy still had plenty of holes when it came to my understanding of it. My new brain was good, but I could only learn so fast.

Mox had both the rust armor suits outside the Brick. 

"We'll use these to make us appear bigger and to shield us from the sound and the gravitational elements." 

I sent Wingus and Dingus to the Blue Hand Scout. Mox and I suited up. The interior of the rust Robo-combat suit was similar to others I had used, but it had a kind of strange smell inside, that left a metallic taste in your mouth. We rocketed off toward the back of the ship. The Rust-robo-coms had small but powerful builtin propulsion units. It didn't take much getting used to and was completely thought-controlled.