Stella Vir: First Flight

The guards walk at a steady pace and bring DR3D1 over to an old army tent before which another two guards stand. The tent is made of a thick coat of heavy vinyl-coated polyester fabrics that are securely insulated to maintain coolness during high temperatures, it is also coated with a special energy seal to prevent most weapons piercing the material. This material is a special fabric that has flame-retardant, UV-blocking, waterproof, and anti-tear features making it a perfect place for leaders to gather to discuss important matters without worries of a potential ambush. One of the guards opens up the flap of the tent and inside Dre walks in with the two guards. Within the tent the contents are pretty simple, there’s an advanced circular war table that possesses holographic capabilities as well as glass screens all around the walls that at the moment produced live feed to different areas in the city. At the table where the presumed leaders are sitting are six different individuals, the guards place Dre at the head of the table before they are dismissed to wait outside. A man on the opposite side of Dre had long twisted hair, a beard around the mouth with slightly greyer hair, slightly older than middle age with a sharp jawline, hazel eyes and a darker complexion said to Dre: “Hello do you understand the European dialogue?”

Dre rolls its eyes and says: “Of course I understand what you’re saying, I am a far more intellectually advanced being then you can ever imagine”.

The leader at the far right of the table clears his throat, he’s a young pale skinny man with short hair, almost to his scalp and slouched over the table trying to hide his broad shoulders and his height, which seemed odd to Dre as typically animals and various creatures liked to show off their size. Dre takes a note of this instance in its extensive database. The man glances over at Dre.

After a brief inspection the man snickers: “How did such an advanced being such as yourself end up without one arm, our prisoner, and virtually useless”.

Dre’s quick to fire back: “Because I wanted to see what would happen if I was thinking at your species level, clearly no good came of it. So if I’m useless to you, why keep me prisoner, why not let me go free and you continue your crusade against whoever put you here.”

The one sitting on the far left stands up abruptly and exclaims at Dre: “BECAUSE YOUR PEOPLE CAME HERE AND ATTACKED US FOR UTTERLY NO REASON!!”

This was a man of shorter stature but stocky build like he would be difficult to move if you were to combine the skinny man and this man you might actually get two normally proportioned humans, but that’s not the way nature intended. He had long curly ginger hair, a full beard, hazel eyes and red dotted like pigment on his face, he looked especially hairy as his arms were like a forest of hair. He was also on the older side of his life expectancy and you can tell he’s experienced a lot by the lines across his brows.

Dre replies: “We did not attack although we have every right too…”

The skinny pale man stands up revealing his lengthy height and broad shoulders yells: “LIAR DON’T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE!”

The stout man also pops up and yells at Dre: “WE OUGHT TO TEACH YOU A LESSON ROBOT!”

The lady sitting next to the tall thin man grabs his arm with one of hers and yanks him down with full force whilst shutting him up by saying: “Relax Jefe sit down”.

She turns her attention to the short hot head and says: “And we don’t know everything Anker, we need to settle down and let the Automaton speak before we can come to a conclusion, we’re here to get answers and develop a course of action. You know I would have expected more composure from our oldest member although nothing new from Jefe”.

Anker mumbles under his breath: “Fine fine I’ll settle down…”

Jefe gets comfortable in his seat but looks displeased with being called out by the other leader and sulks in the chair disinterested in the immediate conversation that follows.

The lady keeping the peace was younger, probably had only lived a third of her life at this point. She had amazing skin that was smooth without any wrinkles and she had short curly blonde hair, her eyes were lively, and she had a constant smile on her face so you can tell that she was happy with life despite the way that the current situation was playing out.

The lady spoke in a calm manner with a steady tone: “My name is Em I am leader 5 of this camp or compound however you wish to address it, this hothead to my left is Jefe he is 4. The man in the middle that you spoke with first is Kaner he is 3, the silent one to the left of him is Kronos he is 6, and at the other end of the table the other hothead is Anker he is leader 1. We each have a number stitched into our jackets and are responsible for a group within this community. Together our community makes up the west sector of the Tardigrade Resistance. Any questions?”

Dre does a quick calculation in its head before saying: “You skipped leader 2 why?”

Em chuckles a bit and says: “Ahha my bad I forgot to mention it’s the lovely young lady sitting next to you, her name as you might already know is Izabela. So tell me robot what’s your name?”

“My serial number is DR3D1, but to make it easier for you you can call me Dre. We prefer autonomous to robots, we don’t rely on anyone”. - responds Dre after a brief hesitation.

Jefe tunes in for the end of the sentence almost as if sensing Dre is going to say something that he finds amusing.

He laughs and says: “Well clearly you aren’t that self sufficient and are quite reliant on us as it currently stands… robot”.

Kaner interjects: “Jefe stop slighting the being and let it speak. Go on, tell us what you know”.

Dre gathers itself and after collecting its thoughts goes on and explains how the Automatons were living peacefully on Mars, about how the Minerau invaded them on their fleet of intergalactic ships. Then about how after they had invaded them they took over the planet quickly and one last stronghold is left on Mars to which they are trying to drill towards to conquer the planet. How the Minerau fleet had taken the surviving Automatons that they had captured, placed them in their own ships, locked the navigation systems on course for Earth while disabling the landing systems. Then when the ships were entering the atmosphere they were met with the few remaining photon canons that were operational, and once they hit the surface of earth the peacekeepers came after them so the injured morally broken Automatons were forced to fight against them. Then after two days of that where they hit major cities, half of the Minerau fleet arrived on Earth to finish the job and complete the invasion and crush the human race to turn them into servants of the Minerau to their own demise. Similarly to what had occurred with the Automaton people of Mars.

“Something you should be accustomed to given your own peoples barbaric past” - Dre says as it ends the recount of events.

After listening to the entire situation from Dre’s perspective, Kronos speaks quietly: “I don’t know if we can believe everything Dre said but it would explain why our scouts found a Minerau ship at the northern side of the city, as well as why we are getting reports that more Minerau are patrolling the streets. We thought that this could be a joint invasion but if what Dre is saying is true then this could be a benefit to us. We must remember that although we have had bad blood between our people in the past, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, or at least a potential collaborator”.

“Do you really believe this? The robot’s just trying to save its own skin!” - exclaims Jefe.

“WE OUGHT TO KILL IT! IT CANNOT BE TRUSTED!!” - adds Anker with a huff and deep yell.

Before they continue the two female leaders exchange a glance and look at the Automaton to inspect its body language. It didn’t appear to be cowering or showing any lack of confidence despite what Anker and Jefe were saying and yelling. Perhaps it was just the way of its species but almost telepathically Em and Izabela look back at each other and nod to one another.

“Enough from the two of you, it’s the first lead we’ve had in over a month and this how you want to proceed? We’re not killing someone who potentially has situation altering information!” - says Izabela in a stern voice.

Jefe teases her: “We still got your boyfriend waiting outside, we can ask him and use the bot as an example. Sorry does bot work for you?” Before Dre can reply Jefe snickers: “don’t worry I wasn’t asking”.

Em loses the smile that she had previously employed and takes on a serious tone to: “Jefe can you sit down and shut up for once?” She holds a finger up to him and turns her attention to Dre to continue: “Do you know if there are any captors being held captive currently? As our scouts have currently struggled with finding any sign of captives, though the death total doesn’t match nearly anywhere close to the total of the population of Rome”.

“Yes but it's extremely dangerous, I was actually taking Razzo there.”

After hearing the name of Dre’s companion Jefe breaks out into laughter, a couple of the other leaders smirk but keep their composure.

Jefe wheezes and says: “That ape's name is Razzo? What a joke, where did you find him?”

Izabela interjects: “Jefe take a look at yourself before you start calling people names!”

Dre adds to the insult: “It’s okay Izabela, Jefe’s brain clearly has some catching up to do with his body, hell even his body hasn’t caught up with his body. After all what’s the point of being so tall and big if you have to worry about a gust of wind knocking you down”.

Jefe locks eyes with Dre: “Keep that same energy when I take the rest of your limbs, one down three to go…”

Jefe then turns his attention to Izabela: "I brought my people here safely, and without losing too many on the way how many of your people are left? Last I checked, losing more than half your faction isn't considered good leadership or caring about others, so how about before judging others you take a look at yourself… girl”.

Izabela, already fuming like a pot ready to explode, gets stopped by Em before she can say another word. Em takes a moment to pause before Kaner begins abruptly.

“Enough we haven’t got time to bicker!”

Em says in a calming stern tone: “No more taking shots at each other we won’t succeed if we start to divide amongst ourselves, now just focus on the information being presented. You are the leaders of your factions and your people rely on you to be adults and come up with solutions not cause more problems and fight like children. Now stop the nonsense, and stop with the snarky comments Jefe”.

Em says: “Go on Dre finish telling us where they are currently keeping people contained?”

“Like I was saying before, I was taking Razzo there before we crashed and were taken here by your people. Razzo had the crazy idea of wanting to free everyone himself, so I’m slightly questioning my analysis as to why I agreed to take him there as that would have only ended poorly. Anyways the location that they are being held captive is in a facility that the Minerau dug out and built underneath the one of your prized landmarks I believe its called the colosseum?” Kaner nods in agreement as Dre continues: “I still don’t know the purpose behind it and what they hope to accomplish but that’s where they are currently gathering people”.

“Well that’s good to know we will send a couple scouts to confirm the information that you have presented us, hope for your sake that you’re right because if you’re lying to us we will make you pay the price in the way in which you wouldn’t want to find out” - replies Kaner after a moment of pondering the information presented.

Em looks down and up at Dre and says: “One more thing why do you think the Minerau are doing this?”

Dre shrugs: “I’m not totally sure, that question is beyond me. I imagine it could be a conquest for resources, could be an internal leadership change, there could be a multitude of factors at play which are not entirely important for us in these circumstances. The issue that currently stands is that we have this problem and we must address it”.

Em snaps out of her thoughts and says: “Okay thank you for telling us Dre, we will be checking out all the information that you have presented us with and get set our next course of action, for now we have to talk a few things over amongst ourselves”

Anker signals to the guards outside one of them comes in and grabs Dre by the one good arm and stands up with Dre.

Dre shrugs off the guard's arm and says: “Well that’s rather unnecessary I can walk by myself, you don’t need to hold me”.

The guard about to hit Dre looks over as Izabela puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes her head letting him know that he probably shouldn’t act rash. The guard, frustrated, puts his arm down and walks out of the tent signaling to the other guard to walk with him as they take Dre back to his cage and lock him up in there. Dre looks over to the edge of the bubble and sees that Razzo has been given a cot and has the two medics tending to him as he remains lying down in the cot most likely asleep. There’s a towel covering his torso but otherwise the medics are giving him a sponge bath while he rests. Then the medics finish leaving him with a bucket and a sponge as well as a metallic suit that they were wearing outside when they captured the two of them. The medics walk into the bubble walk by Dre’s cage.

One of the medics turns to him and says: “When your companion wakes up let him know to finish washing himself and to put on the suit, and only after, pay attention, only after he puts on the suit can he come into the bubble. Right now we’re going to grab a couple reflectors and put around him to give him some privacy while sleeping and changing. Any questions?”

“Nope I’ll let him know when he wakes up but I’m a little low on power so I’m going to charge up while he rests” - replies Dre.

“I don’t remember asking, look I’m tired and want to get some sleep and rest before I start up tomorrow can you just do this okay?”

“Yeah whatever…” - grunts Dre and turns itself off before the medic can say anything back to it.

As Razzo wakes up and looks around himself and there is a shiny suit lying next to him and reflector panels all around him so naturally he’s a bit confused and thinks maybe he’s still in a dream. He sits up and calls out: “Am I dreaming?”

Razzo thinks he’s trapped in some sort of optical illusion, but after looking up realizes there’s just reflectors put around him. Razzo decides to stand up and look over all the reflectors. He stands up, tightens the towel around his waist and carefully balances himself as he stands up on the cot. As he looks over the panels and sees Dre in the cage inside the bubble.

He waves over to Dre who rolls its eyes and says: “Finish washing yourself off, put that suit on that they gave you and come in the bubble. Maybe you’ll be able to convince them to finally stop treating me like a wild animal and treat me like a guest”.

Razzo quickly washes himself off and while he’s getting dressed asks Dre: “So what did they ask you when they took you over to speak with the leaders?”

“They introduced themselves, they asked me what’s going on, tried to figure out what I was doing here, why my people invaded your planet, where your people are being held captive. You know the exact same questions that you were asking me when we first met. Except they were more serious, as well as more judgemental of your name for some reason. Can you believe they didn’t even ask me how I was doing or how I was feeling, although maybe they knew I didn’t have feelings but I very much doubt that!” - replies the robot with a hint of sarcasm.

Razzo pops his head up and says in a concerned tone: “What’s wrong with my name?”

“That’s what you’re wondering about of all the things I said?” - replies Dre.

Razzo frowns at first and adds: “Oh sorry how are you feeling? But yeah it concerns me, why wouldn’t it interest me!”

Dre rolls its eyes annoyed - “I just said I don’t have feelings, selective hearing much? I don’t know your earthly squabbles make little sense to me, it doesn’t matter what your name is but what you choose to accomplish with yourself is what matters”.

“That’s a good thought but I still want to know what’s wrong with my name” - replies Razzo after taking a moment to stop and reflect.

“Fine, go ask them yourself!” Dre turns away from Razzo and wanders its gaze around the human base camp.

The next few moments pass by in silence as Razzo finishes getting ready and has a hard time letting go of the fact that someone ridiculed his name. After a brief moment of being upset Razzo focuses more on getting ready and figuring out a way to get Dre out of the cage. Thinking to himself ‘maybe once he’s out he won’t be so sassy’. Razzo finishes putting on the suit. It's a bit uncomfortable as it wasn’t tailored to his size and is a little tight in certain areas, he moves the reflector panels out of the way and steps towards the bubble.

Razzo mumbles under his breath: “I should have just gotten my own from the factory”.

He steps through the bubble and his mind begins to race with all the questions he’s going to ask.