I had pulled IronHide and Cyclone out of [Inventory] to make sure they were topped off and ready for possible combat and had them in their vehicle modes when Mara brought our new arrivals around to meet me.

“Hey Boss, brought the new guys around. We’re all done with the tour except for your place.”

“Thanks Mara, did you introduce them to Battle Beasts yet?” I asked, as I closed up IronHide’s hatch.

“Not yet, but I’ll be looking for new victims soon,” he said, folding his arms and looking smug.

“Victims?” Prowl asked, looking suddenly wary of Mara.

“Mara, here, is the reigning champion of Battle Beasts— a game I’ve been working on.”

“Undefeated,” Mara interjected.

“I honestly have no idea how that’s even possible given the probability and mechanics involved,” I said shaking my head. Mara just shrugged and walked off.

“Right.... So.... we’re supposed to meet Master Prime now?” Prowl said looking around The Range. “Sentinel said that he would be in the shop but this weird spider thing told us to check back here. Do you know him?”

“Well, of course I know him. He’s me,” I wiped my hands off on a rag and stuck one out.

Prowl suddenly looked horror stricken, or at least as much as a bot with just eyes for a face could. “You’re so small!” she blurted out before slapping her hands to where her mouth would be.

Remi turned on the spot and made no sound but his body language said he was snickering.

“Not what you were expecting, eh?” I teased, “maybe you were expecting Prime to be more like this guy?” I thumbed over my shoulder to Cyclone’s motorcycle form. Prowl and Remi looked confused until Cyclone transformed into bot mode. I think if they had jaws, they would be on the ground. Both Prowl and Remi were fairly “human” sized so Cyclone was at least head and shoulders above them.

“I’ve never seen an Auto that was ogre sized,” Remi marveled.

“This is Cyclone, and yeah... he does eat up a fair amount of mana to operate so I don’t pull him out as often. IronHide eats up even more though to move around... though not as much as Cyclone does for travel... go figure.”

“IronHide? That coach over there?” Prowl said, looking at it curiously.

IronHide transformed into his bot mode and stood up to his full height. “Yep,” he answered. Prowl fell over.

“Bu buh bah BIG!” she stammered.

Remi craned his neck back to stare at IronHide, then tilted his head to one side. “Okay yeah. I see now why Sentinel said that you had it covered if we had to fight. Both are proxies?”

I put both of them back into storage and nodded, “you got it Remi.”

“You know our... right... Alfred. Which is to say, that’s all you? How do you keep it all straight? It’s like you’re completely different people.” he asked, looking like he was sizing me up.

“You might be onto something there,” I conceded. “But we’ll have to discuss the psychological impacts of being multiple people at once another day. Sentinel has spotted the royal caravan, a couple miles up the road, and Carnivac is shadowing them from the tree line.”

“Can we come?” Prowl asked.

“Of course, having seen how you guys handled the ravagers, I welcome having you along.”

I walked into the shop where Ratchet had completed all the repairs to Ram, the only thing left was to reinstall the proxy firmware and initialise the Soul Core to my signature. Binding the Soul Core to me was something that only I could do, no matter how much ability I granted to a proxy. The firmware install usually went better when the Core was already bound so finishing up Ram would have to wait till later.

I powered down Ratchet and Rom to free up the slots. There was no telling how things might go and I wanted to make sure I had the resources available. Elita was waiting for me on the couch in front of my shop, feeding Sparky. She stood up when I exited, and Sparky ran up and perched on my shoulder.

“Hey there buddy, haven’t seen you in a while,” I said, giving Sparky a skritch between the ears.

“Time?” she asked.

“Let’s do this,” I replied.

“Prime, mate, we’re all ready on our end,” Jackie called out as he walked up the path to my shop.

“Good, I’ll be counting on you to keep everyone safe if things go poorly. Hopefully it won’t come to that.”

I would need to keep at least one proxy active to relay what was going on to the residents. That proxy got to be Alfred. We walked together down the main path towards the town gate and stopped when we got to the Inn and stepped inside. The place had been mildly transformed under Shiro’s care. It looked great, warm and inviting, and completely useless for a town full of robots. Shiro had his helpers working on small crafts and display items. I guessed that he’d run out of things for them to do around the Inn.

In addition to Shiro and the boys from Thompson’s Fork, I saw many of our residents gathered. Some looked worried, most looked afraid. The twins were both holding onto their dad’s shirt.

“Master Prime, welcome! So good to see you back up and about,” Shiro said cheerfully, as he stood up to give me a hug.

“Thanks Shiro, hopefully I can keep that way, eh?”

“Mmm yes. Oh! Mister Alfred! I haven’t seen you in ages! It’s me Shiro!” Shiro ran over to Alfred and gave him a big hug and then presented himself like he was showing off new clothes.

“Mister Shiro, good to see you as well.” Alfred said, fingering his moustache.

“I got a new body, you see? Master Prime, built it for me, isn’t it grand? Oh, right, sorry Master Prime, you’ve come for something, yes?” Then he leaned towards Alfred and said in a hushed tone, “I’ll tell you all about it later. We have so much to catch up on!”

Oh Shiro, if my personality fractures, I’m going to blame it entirely on you. Alfred patted the other’s arm and nodded. “Me as well old bean, I’ve had quite the adventure and met some lovely new chaps that I’m sure you will be fast friends with.”

“Ahem.. yes,” I said in a mock throat clearing. “We’re heading out now to intercept the royal suppression force. I’ll be leaving Alfred here to keep you all updated on how things are going. The barrier system should keep the town safe from what this force has with them in the event that they manage to get past me. Should they come back with mages and siege weapons then I don’t know how long it will last, though.

“We’ve stored up plenty of food for our organic friends and guests, and Jackie has been working hard at an escape plan to get you to safety as a last resort. Today, I’m going to go out and talk with them and try to help them to see us for what we are. People. People, just like them, but with fancier bodies. If they can’t accept that, and want us to be tools for them to break at their whims...

“Then I will die before I let them get to you.”

“Not alone, you won’t,” Elita said, clasping my shoulder.

“We’re all in this together, mate,” Jackie confirmed.

“Alright then. Automata, roll out,” I called, heading for the door.

I passed through the gate with Elita, Prowl, and Remi when Remi grabbed my shoulder.

“Wait now, this is it? Just the four of us? And you were planning on going without 17 and I?” he asked, obviously concerned.

“It’s my fault these people are coming and things got out of hand... So I need to fix it,” I said, looking up to him.

“Even if that means getting annihilated?” Prowl wondered.

“Let’s just say that I don’t want to show a display of strength if one isn’t needed. Plus, the more that people underestimate you, the stronger your advantage.”

“I guess...” Remi said as he strung his bow, “but just 4 people goes well beyond underestimating.”

“Ah, no worries. Sentinel has staked out the intercept point and will meet us there. In fact,” I said pointing up to the sky at Sentinel’s drone hovering above, “he’s keeping an eye out for us as we speak. And we’ve also got Carnivac keeping an eye on the caravan.”

“What is that thing?” Prowl said, as she cocked her head to one side and focused on the drone.

“That’s Sentinel’s Drone. It works kinda like... a proxy of a proxy. It doesn’t do much aside from flying around and looking at stuff.”

“Is that what that is?” Elita asked, “I was wondering what that weird thing attached to his back was. Clever.”

“Yeah, but it can’t fly for very long without recharging and can’t absorb mana like an Automata can. So it’s pretty limited.”

“Uh huh...” Prowl said walking ahead. Clearly, my technical woes were wasted on this group.

Ahead, the drone dropped back down into the trees and we could see Sentinel waiting for us. The drone docked into its clamps on his back and he gave us a lazy salute.

“The caravan is just up the road a bit, we should be seeing them soon,” Sentinel reported. “According to Carnivac, the scouting party is a half mile ahead of the main party and consists of two centaurs, three Automata, and a sprinter type lizardman.”

“I’m guessing that you could have told us that yourself,” Prowl directed at me.

“I could have, yes, but it seems to unnerve people when I do that,” I replied, nonplussed. “Look alive, it’s showtime. Into the trees, we’ll let the scouts slip past us but Sentinel will hang back to catch them before they get to the town.”

Sentinel had picked a good spot where they would see us as soon as they came around a bend in the road about fifty meters up. By the time they ran into us, they wouldn’t be able to prepare an offensive approach and would be bottle-necked by the narrow roadway through the turn. We slipped into the treeline off the road and let the scouts continue on down the road where Sentinel would be waiting for them.

Two of the Automata were armed with those portable ballista and one had a gigantic sword. The lizardman carried a long spear and reminded me of a basilisk lizard wearing a “Slave Leia” costume. One of the centaurs was armored like a shield paladin with heavy, ornate looking armor, a massive shield on one arm, and a broad and heavy sword across his back. Mounted to his flanks, he had what appeared to be a sectional lance that was broken into three pieces for ease of storage. The other had long hair tied into a braid, a thick and soft looking beard that came to his chest and was heavily muscled, wearing leather armor and carrying a heavy looking staff with several large gemstones embedded in it. Probably a mage.

“That’s a tough looking group,” Prowl whispered. “Is Sentinel really going to be able to deal with all six of them?”

“Three,” I corrected. “The Automata will be zero threat. I’m not worried about the warriors either given Sentinel's range... The mage might be a problem though. Okay, they’re far enough down the road, actors to your places.”