If he were being honest with himself, Damascus felt more than a little nervous as he crept deeper into the maze of tunnels carved out within the giant asteroid, lair of the conjoined twin mechanica nicknamed ‘Gemini’ due to their appearance.
Gemini were an ancient gold- and red-plated bio-mechanical automaton created by a long-dead civilization. Left without direction for years without end, the conjoined twins’ programming became corrupted and faulty, and they began waylaying passerby and causing other kinds of havoc. Most recently, Gemini had taken to lurking in the maze of tunnels in which Damascus now found himself.
—And now Damascus found himself at that moment rounding the corner into the heart of Gemini’s lair. He paused instantly and cautiously peered out into the room beyond, where he could see the hulking automaton. It was currently crouched near the far end of the chamber, both heads snapping and growling at each other in what sounded like a heated argument about what galactic quadrant to target next.
Gemini were even more terrifying seen with his own eyes, not just the image on the bounty that he had been assigned. Their sharp claws and fangs looked almost rusted in the dim light, curving in vicious sneers, and their voices sounded like shifting gravel. Their skeletal frames were pitted with long spikes, which glinted in the dim light, and halfway up their back, a giant spear protruded. The lance had no doubt been buried deep within their bio-mechanical body from some past foe who had encountered Gemini in the past and had tried — clearly futilely — to defeat them.
Damascus skulked back against the wall of the tunnel and tried to strategize, even as his heart sank. If a great warrior had not had a chance at defeating Gemini in the past, what chance did he, only half-trained as he was?
But then, just as he peered out into the room again, Gemini shifted in such a way that the light caught directly on the giant spear in its back, enabling him to see it clearly. And with the added light, he could suddenly see — the spear was in fact not a spear at all, but a giant key, embedded deep into the back of the mechanical dragon. The fearsome Gemini, who had been terrorizing this section of the galaxy, was nothing more than a giant wind-up automaton, like a kind of giant’s toy! As soon as Damascus removed the key from its hide, it would fall dormant.
Of course, Damascus reflected mere moments later as he clung to the skeletal back of the automaton and tugged at the stubborn key, trying to pry it loose, this didn’t make it any easier trying to avoid Gemini’s sharp claws — and both sets of sharp teeth — that were none too happy with him jumping onto their back. He yelped, pulled harder at the wind-up key, and winced at a lucky swipe that caught one of his wings.
A few hours later, Damascus limped back into the Star Station looking much more bedraggled than when he had left. He had stopped along the way to patch himself up with some bandages on the worst of his scratches, preventing any of his internal energy supply from leaking out, and they would no doubt heal in the next couple days, but in the meantime they still stung. Still, he greeted Solaire and Ria again courteously, mindful of his manners despite his tiredness. On the plus side, he thought to himself, at least he was tired enough he wasn’t really feeling shy anymore.
He carefully deposited the video log of his adventure and the giant, detached wind-up key that he had taken from Gemini on the desk. “The bounty has been cleared,” he informed them. “The full details are housed in that data file, it was linked to my visual processor unit over the course of the bounty. In summary: The rogue bio-mechanical automaton Gemini has been successfully encountered and de-activated by means of removing this wind-up key from its back that powered it.” Here he indicated the key lying on the desk.
“May I request a
Mesa Mechanojets as a reward for the bounty? The mechanical jets will help me move around more easily while the auto-mechanics on my legs finish self-repairing — they got a bit nicked up in the skirmish with Gemini. I’d greatly appreciate it!”
Added note: Intriguingly enough, when you mirror the images of the abberation, the way the mane overlaps it really does look like there's a small keyhole in between them where a wind-up key might be inserted!
Boop? BOOP!