Shackles

Splinter, an Intelligence Analyst, had been conducting routine inspections of a metaversal platform known as CDCNFT which they accessed through a Decentel uplink. While doing routine blockchain inspections and looking for the Protos they noticed that Loaded Lions were being purchased and traded by a team of nefarious lion traffickers to launder their dirty money. Splinter waited until the end of the workday, and upon his departure from Decentel immediately sent the signal for AB6, the AlphaBots Special Operations team, to assemble followed by a quick encrypted message to the team's leader, ShortCircut.

Upon decryption of the message, ShortCircut put the team into action and began preparing the launch of a stealth rescue. Splinter immediately returned to uplink with Decentel and access the CDCNFT blockchain, as the team's intel Analyst it was their job to find the location of the abducted Loaded Lions. Splinter worked through the night as the others prepared for the mission.

The team's weapons expert TwoGunz was one of the only AlphaBots to be constructed with weapons, so while the rest were still waiting on their drop, TwoGunz was already locked and loaded. The twin blasters gave TwoGunz the ability to shoot in any direction, and two directions at once, which made them the team's “Oh Shit” plan. To reduce the chance of harm to the lion this mission was to be stealth, although TwoGunz wasn’t thrilled with the whole not being able to “light up the motherfuckers who did this” (their words not mine), they turned to helping the teams insert & extract expert Glacies inspect the potential insert platforms.

Mission prep lasts forever or at least that’s how it feels, in reality it only took Splinter 16 hours to get all the information needed and the timing was perfect. As the end of evening nautical twilight was quickly approaching, Splinter left Decentel and sent a secure transmission to ShortCircut in order to prepare the team. The message was short & simple to avoid interception “18.9N, 99.5W - 2G – 1L – C13H16N2-CL-581."

The message was obvious, and Pulse turned to synthesizing a shot to counter the medetomidine-ketamine that the two guards were using to sedate the Loaded Lion, however, there was only one lion at this location. Five minutes into the synthetization process TwoGunz walked in and simply stated “you're giving him the shot, right?” and Pulse immediately began turning the antidote into a time-released inhalant.

Due to the Loaded Lions size Glacies decided the best platform for this mission was going to be a deregistered cargo ship that had been modified with their own silent Ion Engines. Although this technology was old and lacked the massive thrust of the Mars Edition Engines, the lack of moving parts made the Ion Engines perfect for stealth missions.

Glacies transported the team to just outside of Tenancingo Mexico, where the Loaded Lion was being kept and set the ship down to hold the outer cordon of the compound where the Loaded Lion was being held. TwoGunz led the stack off the ramp of the cargo jet followed by ShortCircut, then Pulse and Splinter taking up the rear. As they approached the building TwoGunz and ShortCircut headed to the front door while Pulse and Splinter broke left and right to initiate the entrance by dropping flashbangs in through the windows to disorient the guards who were located in the front room.

As soon as the flashbangs went off splinter used a hydraulic assisted jack to spread the door frame and two guns stepped in through the now unlocked door drawing down on the two guards. ShortCircut removed the door spreader and stepped in behind TwoGunz to grab the first guard. As ShortCircut was making his way through the door Splinter and Pulse collapsed back in through the front door. Splinter quickly grabbed the other guard before he could get to his gun and the team proceeded to the back room where the Loaded Lion was being held.

Upon entering the room where the Loaded Lion was being kept the entire AB6 team lost their bearings and stopped dead in their tracks, this was the first Loaded Lion they had seen in person, and he was massive. TwoGunz turned to Pulse laughing and said, “you’re up,” Pulse could only muster a one-word response “fuck” and started walking towards the shackled and sedated Loaded Lion. Upon setting the timer and placing the canister on the Loaded Lions chest the team pulled back to a “safe distance” and waited.

The Loaded Lion started to wake, stood up, looked down at his hands and laughed “these can’t hold me, I am Shackles” and with no apparent effort pulled his arms apart as the shackles shattered. Towering over the AlphaBots he slowly lumbered towards them, grabbed the guards by the head and popped them like grapes. He then looked at the team and said, “What are you... actually, I don’t care, thank you, can you get me to my mansion?”

TwoGunz retracted his cannons and ShortCircut almost dropped a bolt as he said, “our ship is outside.” Over the trip home Shackles and the team began to talk and Shackles, realizing these were sentient beings, apologized for thinking they were simple robots. Shackles promised to spread word of the AlphaBots to the rest of his pride and let AB6 know that they were welcome at his mansion anytime.