Machine Story

Surrounded

Once everyone got off, Jovin petted Rocky, showering him with praise on what a great work he did carrying everyone. It was clear that these two had a very close bond. Jovin knew exactly when his companion needed rest and now was the time.

Jovin made sure the area was secure and not teeming with venomous animals before everyone settled down. After Jovin was done with all his assessments and announcements, Shaan rushed over to David with Mya.

“Are we finally cool enough for you to join us again?” Niall fired off. Shaan was a bit nervous and he tried to explain. David on the other hand, was more intrigued by the new face that Shaan had brought over. Mya quickly introduced herself before jumping to the point.

Unfortunately, their conversation would come to a halt as they heard screaming coming from the other passengers. Jake was yelling for help. A giant hawk wasp, the size of a fully grown human, was buzzing around Jake looking for food. When it sensed Jake was near, it had its stinger ready to strike.

As the stinger was about to hit Jake, Jovin drew out his claymore and without warning, dismembered the threat. Jake had been saved by Jovin but that was not the last. Jovin turned around as he heard a loud buzzing noise coming from behind him. There was a whole horde of hawk wasps surrounding the camp.

Jovin instructed everyone to get behind him as the giant wasps slowly closed in. Seeing that Jovin was vastly outnumbered, David joined him on the front lines ready to fight. “Listen rookie, I appreciate you trying to help but these creatures are extremely dangerous and..” As Jovin spoke, David's right hand transforms into a cannon and he exterminates one of the buzzing critters.

After what he had witnessed, Jovin shut his mouth and accepted David’s help. Not wanting them to have all the fun, Shaan drew out his sniper rifle. Niall began to pulled out his weapon with his left hand but before he could move further, Shaan held out his hand. He reminded Niall that his right arm was still heavily injured and couldn’t be used. Shann recommended that he conserve his strength and guard the other three passengers instead

Niall reluctantly agreed to stay behind and baby-sit the three passengers. He watched from afar as his comrades, David and Shaan took out the hawk wasps from the front alongside their new ally, Jovin.Shaan shot down one from his left and one on his right, Jovin drove his sword through another and David slammed two wasps against one another.

“How many are there?” David asked Siri. “Ten, wait no fifteen, I mean eighteen, ahhhhh! I can’t keep track of them all!” They continued to battle on but it felt every time they took one down, at least two more would appear. Eventually, the three of them got so preoccupied on the front lines, a few of the hawk wasps leaked through.

Two hawk wasps appeared before Niall’s eyes. One flew straight towards Mya and the other towards Jake. Niall intercepted the one that was headed for Mya and saved her from the stinger of the bug. While he was holding off the stinger with his blade, Jake began running and screaming, “PLEASE HELP! THERE IS A GIANT WASP AFTER ME!”

“Jake, please, it's not very nice to disrupt someone’s work in progress.” Niall tried to hold back from laughing at the irony of the situation. “I’m sorry for being rude earlier! Please help me!” he begged while running in circles.

After hearing the apology, Niall powered through the wasp he was deadlock with by slicing through it. He then quickly jumped on the wasp that was chasing Jake. He grabbed a hold of its antenna to steer it out of control and away from everyone else before crashing to the ground and finishing it off.

Once he made sure the wasp was dead, he retrieved his blade to see Jake waiting. Niall walked toward Jake before stopping in front of him. “Happy? Well have a nice day!” and he walked away and joined his comrades on the front lines.

As Niall arrived to join the fray with David, Shaan, and Jovin, the hawk wasps suddenly stopped their assault. Slowly, they turned their bodies around and flew in the opposite direction. The four fighters were left in confusion.

“What just happened? Why did they retreat like that?” Shaan inquired out loud. “They probably saw me coming and realized that the talent was way too much for them to handle!” Shaan facepalmed as he couldn’t believe what Niall had just said. David turned to see if he could get some answers from Jovin but he was already making his way back to his other passengers.

Once Jovin arrived at where Mya, Jake and the other person were, he began questioning them. “Alright, which one of you broke my rule and brought candy on board?”

Mya was extremely calm and kindly replied that she didn’t carry such items. She even emptied out all possible pockets and places she could have hid it. Then there was Jake, who adamantly refused any possibility that he had sugar on him. He cleaned out his bag which contained only scrolls and equipment for painting and drawing. That left only one person, the person underneath the hood.

While all this was going on, David was still worried about why the hawk wasps suddenly disappeared? As David continued thinking, Siri snapped him out of it. “David, my sensors are picking up some heavy seismic activity beneath you.”

The girl in the hood was asked to stand and after she stood up straight, candy began to fall out of her clothes. As it all fell, her hood came off and it was a face that Jovin recognized. “It's you! One of the most wanted thieves from back in the city, Atana!”

“I know it looks bad but it's not what you all think!” Atana tried to defend herself. Jovin was not buying her alibi. “You disobeyed my rules and have put us all in danger! I hereby exile you from the…” as Jovin was about to finish his sentence, David jumped in.

“I’m sorry I know this is an extremely bad time but we have to deal with this later.” It was clear David was in a rush to get everyone out but Jovin would not let the issue go. Others wanted an explanation from David as to why he was rushing them, but the sand beneath them began to shift violently.

Everyone’s feet began to stumble as the foundation beneath them shook profusely. They did their best to avoid falling and being buried into the sand. Bursting out from beneath the sands was the most terrifying creature in the entire desert, the sandwurm.

The creature was 400 meters long and 40 meters in diameter. Its eyes could not be found but its mouth was wide open, filled with razor sharp teeth throughout. And to add further problems for the group, the body of the sandwurm was covered with Metadross Armour.

The giant beast scanned around and noticed Atana’s area was littered with candy. Worse of all, it was the candy that provoked sandwurms the most, gummy worms. It unleashed a deafening roar to prevent anyone from moving. It then used its entire body to encircle everyone, making sure there was no possible escape.

Trapped within the confines of the sandwurm were David, Niall, Shaan, Mya, Jake, Atana and Jovin. The monster ran its mouth straight for Atana but David quickly swooped in and carried her out of harm’s way. As the sandwurm pulled its head from the sand, Shaan began unloading a few rounds on the wurm but it's armour was too thick to pierce.

After witnessing the results of Shaan’s attack, Niall realized his weapon would be useless against this opponent. In fact, engaging the enemy would be an atrocious choice for them. He told David that their number one priority should be to escape from their enemy.

David got Siri to run a quick simulation calculation to see what their best option would be. It took her a few seconds to come up with the best course of action and David began to tell everyone how to proceed.

Shaan began firing a rifle round to draw the beast’s attention away from Atana. With its focus on Shaan, Niall climbed onto the beast’s back and began running up towards its head. The wurm saw Shaan’s attacks as a minor annoyance so it swept a wave of sand towards him, splattering it across his body, but more importantly, his eyes.

Now Shaan was blind, he couldn’t fire his weapon wildly as he could risk hitting one of his allies. Without the nuisance of bullets coming at its face, the sandwurm pursued Atana again. It prepared itself to lunge its whole body towards her. Seeing this, Niall quickly found a spot near the neck of the wurm that wasn’t plated and drove his sword into the area.

The wound was not deep but the wurm could feel discomfort as Niall's weapon pierce through. It was similar to a mosquito biting a human on the skin, not painful but extremely irritating. The slithering beast shook itself to force Niall off its body. After taking his weapon back from the creature, he jumped off and landed on his feet signaling David, “NOW!”

David had been waiting to charge his energy and when he received the command, he unleashed a focus blast of energy from his cannon right into the mark left by Niall. This attack caused the sandwurm much pain. As it began to let out a screech, the rest of its body began to uncoil, creating an opening for everyone.

Jovin could now see Rocky from the other side and whistled him over. Rocky rushed over and lowered himself to let everyone on his back. Everyone got onboard while David was slightly behind. As David turned around and made his way to Rocky, the sandwurm regained its composure and slammed David hard into the sand.

Jovin gave the order for Rocky to run towards David, but David immediately held out his hand to decline. He told Jovin to get everyone away from the desert first and he would find his own way out.

As David flew back into the fray against his monstrous opponent, Jovin gripped the reins filled with hesitation in his mind. He wasn’t sure what to do, he couldn’t put the rest of his passengers in danger but he didn’t want to leave David behind either. While he was still contemplating, Shaan and Niall hopped off.

“We will make sure he is okay.” Shaan announced. “Just make sure you get everyone else to safety, yes, even Jake.” Niall jokes. And they both ran to help their comrade.

David got Siri to activate every single arsenal in his system. Both of his arms had multiple cannons coming out while missile pods appeared on his shoulders. Not holding back, he unleashed everything onto the desert predator. The impact caused massive explosions and a huge barrier of smoke but once it cleared, the Metadross Wurm still stood in its place.

David attempted to fire another barrage but Siri informed him that his body could no longer handle it. The wurm prepared to strike back but Shaan began firing a few rounds to divert its attention.

David was shocked but also grateful that his friends came back for him. They stood together ready to strike the beast simultaneously but their efforts were thwarted. The beast slammed its tail against the ground, creating a massive sand wave that engulfed the trio. The three men were buried in the sand up to their necks. They struggled to get themselves out while they were surrounded by the sandwurm, waiting to have its meal of the day.

As the wurm was about to take a bite, Atana screamed to get the creature’s attention. The beast turned to look at Atana standing by herself in the open desert. Atana pulled out a couple of gummy worms, then took a bite off the one in her right hand, provoking the monster to charge towards her.

David, Niall and Shaan were yelling for Atana to run away but she stood still waiting for the predator to come closer. When the mouth of the wurm was wide open to devour her, Rocky jumped in between with everyone else on his back.

Mya had a few bottles of mysterious liquid that she threw into the beast’s giant mouth. Right after her was Jovin who held a torch in his right hand. Once he saw the bottles that Mya had thrown shatter and spread through the mouth of the wurm, he flung the torch right into the jaws of the beast.

When the torch made contact with the mystery liquid, it ignited and caused great affliction on the sandwurm. Its intestine began to burn and it whipped itself uncontrollably before collapsing onto the ground. The mighty sandwurm of the desert had been defeated.

Rocky quickly dug out the three men that were trapped in the sands. Each one of them dust themselves off once they have been pulled out. They were grateful that they all returned and somehow pulled off a rescue that seemed unlikely to succeed.

“That was awesome! But also kind of stupid if that didn’t play out how it did.” Shaan pointed out. “Well, you and your friends risked your lives first so I don’t see any difference in what we did!” Mya answered. Shaan didn't reply knowing Mya had made a very valid point.

Niall was curious as to what was in the bottles that Mya had thrown into the beast’s mouth. She revealed that she carried around some cosmetics and fragrance that were highly flammable. Combined that with Jovin’s knowledge about one of the sandwurms weakness being fire, and they were able to defeat their foe.

David went up to both Jovin and Atana to give a direct thank you. “Awww you don’t have to say that. It was sort of my fault that the wurms appeared.” Atana laughed nervously. “Actually the one you should be thanking is Jake, he was the one who came up with the plan!” Jovin credited.

“Wait Jake? The artist who screamed and ran around in circles when the hawk wasps attacked?” Niall asked for confirmation. Jovin, Atana, and Mya nodded their heads in unison. Niall slapped his arm around Jake, “Well what do you know? Guess you got more talent than just drawing some goofy pictures.”

Jake received the backhanded compliment and replied. “You know I can illustrate drawings of what happened today and they could end up in history books one day.” Niall gave Jake a confused look. “Would be a shame if perhaps I left you out.” Niall began to jump towards Jake, “Why you ungrateful little!” and processed to chase him around in circles.

David and Shaan could only cover their faces in embarrassment while Mya, Atana, Jovin, and Rocky, laughed until their stomachs hurt. It was quite a priceless moment but it would not last for long. Shortly after, the ground began to shake again, and everyone slowly turned around to face the sandwurm they thought was finished.

The sandwurm was still unconscious but from the ground sprouted out two other sandwurms even larger than the one they had fought. Immediately, Jovin knew that the two wurms that had appeared were the parents of the injured one. The parents were enraged and were ready to strike the culprits who harmed their offspring.

Everyone rushed onto Rocky’s back, and when everyone got on, Jovin commanded Rocky to run as fast as he could. However, it didn’t take long for one of the sandwurms to intercept their escape. When Rocky turned around he was met with the other sandwurm blocking his way.

Surrounded once again, Atana thought about using some of the gummy worms to distract them but that would not work this time around. These wurms didn’t want the sugar, they were out for blood.