Grocery Shopping

As the fighting broke out around them, led by what looked like a headless chicken-legged robot birthing spider-guns from it’s belly, Brett ran into the rows of supplies. He picked up a datapad and powered it on. Inventory lists popped up and he quickly began to cycle through them.

He selected a number of foodstuffs and dragged them over to the <SHIP OUT> cart. He found all the meat supplies, thankfully packed in micro stasis units as well as milk, grain, spices, fruits, vegetables and better yet, not a pot noodle in sight. Having seen the state of the crews mouths he figured they were in some need of citrus fruits.
“Holly.” The image of the balding middle-aged man flashed up on his right lens of his holo-specs, slightly transparent as not to to interfere with his sight.

“Yes Brett? Wot’s ‘appening?”

“Oh, y’know. Killer robots, land sharks, video game characters come to life.”

“I hear that.”

“Given the size of these stasis cubes, how many could we fit in a Starbug cargo hold?”

“You’re looking at ninety-five, Brett.”

“That many?”

“Yes Brett. The Starbug was meant to carry mining supplies and crews much larger than the stasis cubes, down to moons for the excavation of materials....”

He let Holly drone on, already figuring out dinner plans and menus for the coming months. This was brilliant. Considering if they didn’t have to share with the vermin and as long as there wasn’t many other crew members unaccounted for still on Blue Dwarf, Brett figured they had at least eighteen months of supplies, probably more(with some rationing). Surely that would last until they could find more at a later date.
Brett cycled up the receiving droids. It would only take the push of a button to start the mini-forklift robots scurrying to gather the cubes to ship out, they’d even be on a platform with repulsors to push them out of the bay if Starbug couldn’t land. They just had to deal with the current security/debt situation.

Brett felt a nudge on his foot. He looked down and saw a small dustpan trying to scoop up his foot.
--Dust-Dust-Dust-Dust-- it kept repeating. Brett nudged it away but it came back with more vigour.
--DUSTDUSTDUSTDUSTDUSTDUSTDUSTDUST--

Brett charged up the cattle stun prod and gave the mechanized dust pan a tab. There was a large crack, a bright spark and the pan stopped moving.
“Sorry about that. Well then, Brett 1-Cleaning Droid 0. I’ve done my part for the fight.”

<snip>As lil Max hosed down the floor and mech feet Jaxx began to see the mechs loosing their balance as they easily began slipping on the floor and were unable to get up due to the lack of arms. On the other hand the the mega mech's defense grid was not designed for a soapy floor as it found itself dropping to the splits and landing face down. It struggled to get back up but the ground was too slippery to get a proper grip.</snip>

“Well, unorthodox but effective.” Brett was impressed. The chicken mech was down and the spider-guns were doing an impersonation of a first time rollerskater stepping onto an ice rink. He pressed the <SHIP OUT> button and a dozen forklift bots came to life and began to retrieve the outgoing cargo.

<snip>“Kelly..” he said to the on board computer. “Has Cass’s team opened the doors yet?”
“Negative Jay” replied Kelly “Scanners indicate they are under fire in the cargo bay…”
“Forcefields in place?”
“Confirmed..”
“Good…Looks like we’re blasting our way in after all…”
He flew around to the cargo bay door, and opened fire, blasting them open……</snip>

The doors imploded with fire and flame then were immediately sucked out into space before the forcefield winked on to keep everyone from hurtling into the black. Then a Blue Midget came hurtling in and set down atop the chicken mech, who, impressively and without arms, managed to right itself on the soapy floor, only to be crunched into the deck by the bulk of the ship.

The side door flew open moments later and a smiling Jay appeared.
“YEAH! Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!” He seemed very pleased with himself.

A cheer came up from the crew. “What an entrance! Right on time! Gnarly dude!” Was some of the exclamations directed at the starpilot.
Brett came out from behind the cargo. “That was some good timing Jay.”

“Thank-you, thank-you,” he grinned.
“Alright, so, let’s get the Starbug in here, I have ninety-five stasis cubes being prepared, this will last us over a year if we’re careful.”
“Starbug?”

“Yeah, we need Starbug to haul this out.”

“Well, this kinda IS Starbug.”

Brett looked confused. “What do you mean?”
Jay explained what had happened with the Archive weapon and how it changed the Bug to the fortified Midget. Brett’s features fell.

Cass approached the scene, looked at the rapidly building cargo, then back at the much smaller ship-to-surface vehicle, then to a crestfallen Brett and finally then to the rapidly-dawning-on-him pilot. “Jay. We can barely fit four people let alone the cargo, into that shoebox.”

<TAG Anyone> Well, this IS a pickle. I’m gathering the Archive weapon-ship transformation was a fluke and can’t be undone. And it will probably take some time for Holly to prep a ship from Blue Dwarf and fly it down to us. Any other options crew? Also, there is still a spider-gunbot functioning but having difficulties with it’s upright mobility.