Writer’s spot: Greetings friends! Some action and a bombshell of a revelation today!

SO, the story is taking a turn to being dark, but I don’t plan on keeping it all the time and most likely will go back to the foolish humor of always. Still, it’s good to write something serious for a change.

BESIDES, Happy birthday to me! I WANT MAH VIRTUAL CANDIES! GIMME MAH PRESENTS NAO!

BESIDES(II), So, the next days might be a bit rocky and might not have regular updates, lasting up to Saturday, so if I don’t update anything, forgive-me. I will try to keep up at least some small chapters up.

BSIDES(III), I plan to close this arc before going back from the break, but if I can’t do it, I will probably alternate Insania and Reinstall updates until I get a decent closing to the arc.

Beep, and enjoy your story!

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The trailer was in an eerie silence this time, with everyone but Volgoff standing close to the door, weapons in hands and standing ready. Gaz and Red, who were new to this whole mercenary thing, were both fidgeting worried, not knowing how to react and unable to sit down and wait. The cat, paying respects to the ones back on his earth, didn’t care at all and simply napped on the other robot’s back.

At the very least, they caught no sight of the dwarf they had left in here with Lunn earlier, knowing that whatever had happened to him wouldn’t do any better to their states.

Taking a deep mental breath, Gaz reminded himself from Ross’ earlier words.

“Dorran is a retard.” He had spoken almost with a laugh. “Know a few tricks and knows who to praise, but not much else. That’s how he got his Black steel rank, but is stuck doing this titanium rank job.” He said while laughing loudly, as if mocking the man. “Think he got the good job, but everyone knows he is a sore, so they keep telling him that this is the good job.”

“Since his rank is higher… Does this mean that his troops are better equipped?” Sorius asked.

“Nah. Guy’s an A.hole. Got himself a tier three mobile armor, but left his escorts without a single decent gear.” He said while extending a finger. “They should be no better than trash. BUT, they are numerous trash, and that could get a wee bit annoying.”

“A tier three? That’s troublesome.” Sorius said while thinking. “But I think my rifle should break his armor.”

“That is if he give us time to make our move. That’s not his style at all.” Ross said while shaking his head. “He like to see things go his way. Or what he think that is his way. Not a very smart fella, so we can play around that.”

“You have a plan.” Yllivia stated. It wasn’t a question. The dwarf simply smiled.

A quick static on the radio told them that Volgoff had seen something, and everyone tensed up on their seats. A few seconds later and another burst of static confirmed that it was the blacktriggers.

Gaz heard as the truck slowly came to a stop and the troll started to talk with someone who had a cocky tone. Immediately after came a few slaps on the trailer’s carcass and a loud laugh, startling the young Red. Yllivia quickly nodded towards Gaz, and the VIP agreed, standing close to the robot while pulling up her hood.

The trucks back door slowly opened, revealing a fuming Volgoff followed by a few dwarfs. The dwarfs signaled for the group to come out while sporting mocking grins. The group-nodded discretly as they all walked down with their hands showing. The moment they got out, Red and Gaz became shocked.

A robot, around four meters tall, dwarfing even the large troll, stood beside the truck. It had a fairly humanoid shape, but with no head. In compensation, it had a huge torso and ridiculously thick arms, with half a meter of diameter, sprouted from each side.

Gaz couldn’t help but think that such a large guy could easily smash the truck in the middle should it want to.

[That’s… Not a robot, Gaz.] Ekis said shocked, making Gaz confused for a moment.

“Goddammit Dorran. Your bad tastes never changes, does it?” Ross said with clear disgust in his voice.

All the dwarves suddenly stopped and looked towards the fully armored Ross in shock. Some of them gasped in surprise after a few seconds, while others looked clearly confused. Gaz somehow couldn’t help but feel that their dwarf had a small smirk beneath the helm.

“Ross…” A rough voice came from within the large robot, it sounded extremely cocky. “To think that we would meet here again…” He said with a laugh. “This must be GODSENT! I get to finish the job that not even Bellam managed to accomplish! WONDERFUL! I might even get to Mithril this time!” He said with a loud laugh as the armor slightly crouched down, as if to get a better look at him. “Yet, look at you now… Such a wimpy armor. I remember you having a slightly better equipment than that last time. Bah, no matter.” His voice dripping with sarcasm as he put himself upright again. The robot lifted one of its huge arms and made a sweeping motion. “Men. Kill him. Afterwards we get to deal with the others.” He said in a victorious tone.

The other dwarves snapped out of it, but their reactions were varied. The ones that were confused earlier started to advance while taking out their weapons, as if preparing for an execution, yet the others that were shocked started to look at each other confused.

As Gaz started to worry around what was happening, Ross burst out in a loud laughter, making all the other dwarves stop once again confused. During his outburst, Volgoff quickly murmured to the Sorius.

“Four drone hounds. Fast scout types, but with some light weaponry.” The troll said and the Elf grimaced, giving a quick look towards Beepy. “They are at the front of the truck. He have the head start.”

Sorius nodded slightly as Ross laughter died down.

“Have you finally gone mad, Ross?” Dorran asked mockingly, but Ross simply shook his head while supporting his arm on his knees, recovering his breath.

“Sorry buddy… I just never expected that I would see THAT Dorran being so selfless.” He said while straightening himself.

“…What do you mean?”

“Well… You are giving your henchmen the chance to take on THE Ross, instead of doing it yourself!” He said with perfectly clear admiration in his voice. “To think that you would give them the chance to get such a rank-up! You have really changed, Dorran!”

There was a brief moment of silence as his words sunk in. Just as the dwarves with their weapons out started to get some shine in their eyes, the huge armor took a step forward, making the whole ground rumble.

“Men. Step back.” The armor suddenly said with its booming voice. The dwarves expression clearly darkened as they noticed what was about to happen. “Ross. I challenge you to a duel of honor!” It was almost imperceptible, but the dwarves mood once again made a full turn. For a brief moment they smiled wickedly before going back to their sullen faces.

Luckily, it seemed that the others also noticed this, as they became clearly relieved. Gaz’s memory went back to the small strategy meeting they had.

“He will probably start with trying to kill me the moment I appear. But I can trick him into a askin’ a duel of honor.” He said with surprising confidence. “If I ask, he would refuse, but it’s easy to guide the rusty-bolt into thinking that HE wants the duel. But, as I said, he’s a dirty A.hole, so it won’t stop there…”

Gaz gave a quick look around as he saw the movement of the dwarves, who started to open space between Ross and Dorran. He heard Ross mutter something about honor duel against a mobile armor, but he didn’t show it for too long, putting back his smirk.

He took out his shield, putting it up ahead and taking out his over-sized revolver and started to walk forward while the armor simply stood there waiting.

“Let’s get on with it then.” The dwarf said.

Barely had his words left his bearded mouth, the armor lifted one of its arm, revealing what looked like a Gatling gun and aimed at the dwarf, not even bothering with the fact that the others were right behind him.

But Ross was a bit faster, lifting his revolver and firing a single slug on the robot’s weapon. A loud bang came out as the slug exploded, damaging the weapon and making it break down the moment the first bullet started to come through.

“Still a fool… Don’t bring a slow weapon to a duel!” Ross said in a scolding tone.

A cry of frustration came from the robot, as it immediately rushed forwards swinging his arm. The dwarf quickly ran away to the side, making the robot chase him for some moment as the guy raged at him.

Every few seconds, the dwarf would land a shot at the huge armor, but besides the first shot, made with an explosive shot at a fragile part, his other shots didn’t have much impact, as the armor’s other arm was made for punching, so it was made a lot more resilient.

“I… Didn’t expect him to be that bad…” Sorius murmured to the group, and the others nodded.

“It’s like giving a rifle to a kid.” Lunn said with a nod.

“Still dangerous.” Yllivia finally added.

“If only we weren’t outnumbered…” Sorius said with a sigh while looking at the twenty or so ill-equipped dwarves who were watching the duel while discretely checking on their group.

The two dwarves kept their cat and mouse game while running around, with Dorran unable to reach Ross and Ross unable to damage his armor. And while this was frustrating the Blacktrigger, the other dwarf was smiling widely.

“He’s unable to even use his armor correctly, so I can drag the fight around.” Ross told them earlier. “When he gets frustrated, he will say ‘damn honor’ and then start playing dirt. That’s when we strike.”

“Guys, get ready.” Sorius said with a warning tone, and the others nodded slightly while Beepy lightly revved up his motors.

Almost as if waiting for those words, Dorran shouted in frustration while turning towards his dwarves.

“Get the girl and kill those bastards! Then kill THIS bastard!” He said. “But the credit is mine, you hear?”

The dwarves all smiled wickedly, as if they were waiting for this, and turned towards their group. Only to be met with gunfire from Lunn and Yllivia and being shocked by Sorius. With that alone three of the blacktriggers fell dead. Shocked with the unexpected reaction from their victims, the dwarves hesitated for a moment. Enough moment for the Red to sit down on Gaz, who held her in place using his repair arms.

“Lunn, Beepy, Vol, Get the VIP to safety. NOW.” Sorius shouted while running to one side.

Right as he said that, Volgoff turned to the dwarf besides him, grabbed him by the head and smashed it down on the ground, leaving a small crater on the place.

“NOBODY HITS MY TRUCK!” He shouted on the dwarf’s ear before turning away and running.

Lunn released some shots towards the dwarves, mostly to make them run for cover than to hit them and ran besides Gaz, who was already accelerating behind the troll. Seeing the chaos as his plan went downhill, Dorran turned back and started to run towards Red.

“What the hell are you doing you retards? Get the girl!” He said while charging behind the group, but the moment he turned his back to Ross, the armor’s left leg gave in as a one of Ross’s shells penetrated its unprotected behind.

Dorran roared in anger while turning back to the armored dwarf, his armor swinging its arm in a wide circle and slamming the dwarf’s shield, launching him backwards with a grunt as he fell on his back and rolled a few meters on the ground.

While Ross kept the huge armor occupied, Yllivia and Sorius kept firing at the other dwarves, keeping them in place as they searched for cover around the road. After a quick look around, Sorius called up Yllivia to head towards some broken vehicles a bit ahead on the road. Probably other mercs’ who were unfortunate to cross this road.

Taking cover behind these vehicles, they kept up their cover-fire so that the elf, the robot and the others could open some distance from them and hide the VIP while they took care of the situation here.

“You retards! Send in the hounds!” Dorran shouted as he tried to lift his robot from the ground, but the leg grinded in complaint.

One of the other dwarves, one of the few who had a body-armor, took out a whistle from his pocket and blew it with all his strength. Brief moments later, three robots came from the other side of the truck, with long legs and lean body and a featureless head.

The dwarf pointed towards Beepy and the others, who already had a good head-start. Sorius quickly pulled out his rifle and landed a shot in the middle of one of the robot’s core. He quickly readied another shot, but the robots darted away right before he could shoot it, so it missed and simply landed above its left hind leg.

He grimaced and prepared another shot, but he met face-first with the ground as Yllivia pulled him down brief moments before the other dwarves opened fire against him.

“Thanks, Ylli.” He said a bit pale. The girl simply nodded as she got out of cover and shot a few rounds.

“Not much ammo.” She said as she got back into cover and exchanged the cartridge. “Hope they get back soon. Don’t want to do that…” She said with a grim tone, making Sorius pale even more for a moment.

“How’s Ross? Think he can hold until I get a full charge?” He asked while some sparks started to jump around his gun.

Yllivia quickly glanced at the dwarf as he raised himself from the ground moments before the robot landed a punch on him, it’s legs creaking with the effort. She turned back to Sorius and shook her head slightly.

“He’s limping. Last attack seemed to hurt a lot.” She said with a frown. “Five minutes at max.”

The elf clicked his tongue hearing that. If he wanted a good shot, he would need at least eight minutes to get a charge strong enough to pierce that armor. That and there were the other dwarves to keep at bay.

As he grimaced and considered his options, a loud shout of pure rage echoed through the air.

“YOU WILL PAY, ROSS!” Shouted Dorran as he ran after the dwarf. “I WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU STAY DEAD THIS TIME, ROSS BLACKTRIGGER!”

And with those words, the battlefield froze.

“Just as Ross said… A bloody fool.” Said Sorius, seeing as confusion spread through the enemies’ lines.