Another signals source.

The morning light came over the edge of the mountain range they were headed towards. Nick clutched at his cloak trying to stop it from flapping in the morning wind. Nick walking in the lead then turned to Hasso to walk beside him. "Not needing to eat or sleep is nice. But now I have no excuse against constantly and slowly walking towards the signal. Like a zombie looking for brains."

"I never got in to the whole zombie craze."

"Really? Have you seen Night of the Living Dead at least?"

"No, and I don't expect to anytime soon."

"I think you are missing out."

"Have you ever read works by Goethe, Dante or Shakespeare?"

"I watched Hamlet once in school."

"I think you are also missing out."

"If we come across any copies of their books, I will try and read them."

"And I'll do the same for that movie. If we ever find a copy."

They both became quiet and Nick looked slightly south of their direction in to the distance where the rising sun was still banishing the darkness. "We are getting closer to that other signal. Should we go after it?"

"I don't see why not. It is on our way, after all."

- - -

The wind died down quite a bit by the time they approached the signals source which looked like a small crevice between two flattish boulders leaning on top of each other in a rocky area of the desert. Nick clutched his weapon and looked over to Hasso. "Still worth it?"

"Maybe if we split up. If something comes out, you run and I got your back."

"So I am the bait?"

Hasso bent picking up a few stones. "If anything's in there? Yes. It could be empty, but better safe then sorry."

"Ok, lets do this."

Nick quietly inched his way towards the crevice as Hasso silently climbed up the back. And a large growl reverberated from the crevice. Nick got ready to run and Hasso got a rock ready to through as a large wolf like creature slowly emerged from the crevice growling at Nick looking ready to pounce.

Nick slowly dropped the boards and raised up his arms maintaining his elbows in his cape to help himself look bigger. Not to intimidate but hopefully to hide his vital points better. He started to back away quietly realizing running was not a viable option at this point. But he was coming up with a plan and and tried to use his hands to signal to Hasso.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Shh, don't give away your location like that."

"Idiot, this is a radio broadcast, only you and I can hear it."

"Then quickly throw a rock over there." Nick heavily indicated with his hand and Hasso complied.

As soon as the animal was distracted Nick turned and broke in to a sprint but he knew he wasn't going to out run that beast. "Get another rock ready."

The beast took a few seconds to get up to is max speed but that was still little hope for Nick. He was out matched by at least two to one. But the one thing all fast animals had in common was a large turn radios to compensate for that speed. And as Nick took a sharp turned around a large bolder the beast had to turn farther down and by the time its site lined back with the bolder it didn't see Nick anymore but Hasso on top of it's home.

Hasso threw the rock at the beast making it more angry. "I understand your plan, now."

As the beast ran past the bolder Nick flung his cloak over its face. "Did you have to say it that way?"

"I didn't have to, but I wanted to. But now's the time to run."

The beast was flinging its head from side to side trying to dislodge the cloak from its face while slowing down. and accidentally smacking its head on a bolder knocking its self out.

Nick looked on with surprise. "Is it dead?"

"Why don't you go check."

Nick picked up the boards again "Fine, you check the beacon."

Nick slowly walked up to the beast and touched it with the end of a board, and it made a groan. "It's not dead, hurry before it wakes up. I'll keep watch."

Hasso entered the crevice to find a bunch of cubs in a corner yapping and wining. And in the other corner was a robot missing its bottom half. Analyzing components gave back some interesting information. This robot had weapon components in its arms, hand and head. "We got a robot with weapons in here."

"Great because unless I am seeing things we are going to need a long range one right about now."

Hasso started to take off one of the hand weapons and one of the cubs started bravely barking at him with the others behind. "What do you mean?"

Nick looked up while standing beside the beast "Something blocked the sun a few times, that usually means a bird is going to dive bomb for food or something shiny."

Hasso finally got the weapon module out of the dead robots hand and saw the brave cub still trying to protect its siblings he turned his back to it and ran for the crevice ramming the module in to his wrist. "Connect and register you damn thing."

Hasso saw a few flutters in the sun light when he reemerged from the crevice. Seeing that Nick was over three meters away meant this was a monstrously large sized bird.

- - -

The bird was flying in some thermals when it caught sight of something shiny in the distance. With its keen eye sight it saw the target and its surroundings clearly. A juicy beast and a shiny treasure both ripe for the taking. It headed for an area where it could attack with the sun at its back because it was too large to come in undetected any other way.

It took some time to get in position and by that time the shiny treasure moved over to the other side of the bolder the juicy beast was up against. But it did not mater because it could grab the treasure after making sure the beast was dead.

Everything was perfect so it started its dive and as it closed in it saw another shiny treasure. 'Great more treasure for me.' it thought getting closer and closer then it opened up its wings to slow it's decent enough to not die on impact but then it heard a loud noise and was struck with pain and when the the pain started to fade it all went away.

- - -

Hasso noticed the dimming of the sun stop and he knew it must be diving giving him just moments to get as close as he could to the bolder where Nick and the beast were. He knew the closer he was the greater his chances of seeing where to hit.

So he sprinted towards the bolder with his arm outstretched to the sun. Almost begging for the weapons module to register his will and destroy that thing. Destroy the thought that he might have to walk this journey all alone.

He watched the module spread its components over his hand filling in some gaps and making his hand more complete to just slither towards his palm and manifesting the desired power. At the same moment the sky was filled with the shadow of wings opening as if the angle of death manifested to taunt him.

Hasso may have feared, but he did not hesitate and six loud bangs reverberated through out the desert air. And with that the bird fell from the sky on to the bolder as Hasso fell limply to the ground.

- - -

"Hey Hasso, you there? please respond. This isn't the time or place to relax."

"Man, my head hurts."

"Yeah, you completely drained your battery. If I didn't try and Jerry-rigged this thing you would still be out of juice."

Hasso looked and saw some wires connecting Nick's battery to his own. "Thank you."

"No need to thank me, we're in this together. So look and see if your battery has enough juice to charge its self."

"Yeah, it does."

Nick started to detach the wires gently "Good, what's the deal with that weapon any way?"

Hasso realized he was still holding on to the weapon in the shape of a gun. Releasing his grip turned it back in to the components making up his hand. "It's a weapon that shoots energy."

Nick finished up the wire work "That would be great, if it wasn't attached to your battery. And cool that it goes in to your hand."

"How long was I out?"

"Just about five minutes or so. The big beast is still out cold."

"So big beast is what we are calling it?"

"It's a brown wolf the size of a bear. What do you want to call it?"

Hasso stood up "I don't know. Let's just get the remains and get out of here while we can."

Nick fallowed over to the crevice "That hawk was a surprise."

"Hawk?"

"Yeah, look at its beak. Do you want to have the beak as a souvenir?"

"I want nothing from that bird."

Nick took a dramatic pose "Nothing but its life."

"I didn't want to kill that thing"

"Then why did you?"

"What were you doing when that thing dive bombed?"

"I... I froze in fear, like with the toad."

Hasso points to on of the boards "I see dirt caked on the nails. Were you trying to dig a hole?"

"N.. No, that is from when I drooped them before. You know, your plan to run away."

Hasso stopped at the entrance of the crevice "Right. let's just get the remains and leave all this behind us."

Nick fallowed Hasso in to the crevice. "You didn't tell me there was a whole litter of those things."

Hasso bent over to pick up the remains. "Just leave them alone."

Nick looked at the brave cub still trying to protect its siblings from the unknown threat "That's a good boy. I'm going to stay away from you. They are so cute at that age."

Hasso turned to Nick. "Can you carry this for me? my battery is still recharging."

Nick took the remains from Hasso "Yeah, I got it."

Hasso and Nick exited the crevice and the brave cub fallowed in tow barking lowdly as they were leaving.

A noise came from the beast that got the attention of the cub, Hasso and Nick. But their reactions were vary different. The cub walked towards its mother while Hasso and Nick rushed to the nearest bolder to hide behind it. Noticing the pair running off the cub gave chase barking the whole way.

Nick looked at Hasso "What are we going to do?"