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Dean was alive, but he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. He tried to control his breathing, as he floated down, quietly, under his air force issued brown canopy. The flaming wreck of his plane was visible in the distance; it had smashed into a factory miles away in an industrial site, which was situated in a large town west of Berlin. All his fellow crewmen were dead, either not able to get out in time or killed by fighter fire. He hated that he was unable to help his friends.

Another bomber that had been shot down had cut their plane in half on its way down. Cutting him off from his friends, who were in the front of the plane, while he was in the tail section the plane, these issues were pressing. But he would have to think about these things later, because first of all he would have to try to land without getting himself killed.

That’s what he did, he landed straight into a well-placed thorn bush, after tearing himself to ribbons, he found a place to hide, in case there were any patrols out and about. What he could gather from his surroundings was that he was in a park, big garden or in a piece of vacant land. He was in a situation, he hoped that would never have happened to him. He was miles away from help, no water or food, and he was in the middle of enemy territory.

Dean felt it was best to stay where he was until morning, and then see, where he could go from there. So he laid down on his back, and watched the sky above. The roars of the airplane engines were long gone, and the air raid sirens were dying down around him. The sky was remarkably clear that night and the stars were making a good showing. Then about an hour later or longer something came streaking through the sky above him, maybe a hundred or two yards above him and it nearly made him jump out of his skin in surprise. It had been deadly quiet before.

At first glance it looked like a downed aircraft coming down for a bumpy landing but there was something strange about it. A few seconds later he felt the vibrations as it smashed into the ground, about three four hundred meters away. Dean decided he wasn't just going to stay where he was and leave the crew of the airplane to die, so he headed off towards the flames.

There was no footpath to follow, so there was a few obstacles to get past and it was hard to see anything. Within a minute or two he reached the clearing which wasn't a clearing a few minutes ago. Still a lot of smoke rose from the ditch, blocking the wreckage from view. He still had a little hope that there was some survivors, because two or three heads are better then one in a place like this. He took a crouching walk to the edge of the crater. His body still was shaking from being shot down and loosing his friends.

Dean then decided he had nothing to lose and started to go down the slope at a slow walk. The wreckage had a danger of exploding and he wanted to get the people out before that. On the way down his foot slipped on a loose stone, sending him careening headfirst down the slope, until he slammed into something hard and metallic at the bottom, cutting his lip.

Smoke twirled around everywhere making it hard to see. The thing he had hit was like a metal wall, then he heard hissing and the wall or panel started to come down, like the flap on the back of a truck.

Dean pushed himself away and stumbled backwards, just as the panel hit the ground, where it would have squashed him if he had not moved. At first glance the inside of the machine or whatever it was, was dark, and total mystery then lights came on all around the cabin. For the size of the impact there wasn’t much damage done to the inside. The next thing he saw was movement in the shadows and when the person moved out of the shadows. Dean saw it wasn’t a person at all, as far as he could tell but he wasn’t going to stick around to find out. He dashed away and up the slope. He struggled to find grip on the sandy bank. Whatever he had seen that darkened ship was now following him close behind.

About three-quarters of the way up, he felt a glancing blow to his leg, as if somebody was trying to grab him and pull him down but he managed to get free. As soon as he reached the top he looked for the nearest climbable tree and went for it. Dean, ran, jumped and caught the lowest branch and started to pull himself up. He scrambled up the tree as quick as he could, and as far as he could go, before he bothered to look down again. In the clear moonlight night he could see four figures down below him, but it was too hard to tell who or what they were. They seemed to be arguing as to who would go up after him. Of what he could see they looked like men in olden age armour like a medieval knight, but the armour these four wore-looked as if it was made of tank armour. He wondered if they were some kind of enemy experiment or something of that nature, but people of lower rank like himself weren’t told things like that anyway.

One of the four started up towards him, its armour was a red and it didn’t bother to use the branches on the way up, it just made its own footholds and hand holds by digging its hands into the hard wood. Dean contemplated jumping but he liked his body all in one piece and he didn’t want to look like a coward even if no one was watching, so he wrapped his arms around the trunk and hoped for the best. When the red armoured man came up beside him. Dean closed his eyes and tried to lash out at it, but it was useless. His blows weren’t even noticed. Dean opened his eyes and saw it was more a machine then a man. It was like a robot in one of those weird moving picture shows. The red robot then reached out and grabbed him with its left hand-by the collar and pulled him off the tree and then proceeded to go back down the tree, with Dean dangling in the air, feeling totally useless.

Dean hoped they wouldn’t do anything too badly to him.

Hopefully they would kill me quickly and get it over with. Dean thought. At the moment he was too amazed at how complicated and advanced these robots were to really think properly.

When they reached the bottom. He was placed against the tree trunk and the four robots then started to communicate to each other by making strange noises like beeping, whistles and static noise like that heard when tuning a radio. While this was going on, Dean was thinking that he might not have gotten away from the plane after all.

Dean relaxed and studied his captors because he felt he had nothing to fear of if it was a dream, all four were similar except the brown one, which spoke in a different language to the others and acted differently. At least they weren’t speaking German, which would have confirmed that they were experiments. The four seemed to be near to human in shape and size, smooth metal round heads, with reflective eyes, angular nose and square jaw. They didn’t seem to move their mouths to speak but when they spoke it sounded almost like the sound you would hear from your wireless. They wore nothing to cover their metallic bodies except for some loose fitting cloaks that flapped in the wind. Every few moments they would look at him and then carry on talking. He still didn’t know if they wanted to kill him or not.

The blue robot then separated from the others and carefully moved towards him and placed its hand on Dean’s head; he flinched but did not panic. A light electric pulse shot through his brain, making his teeth feel horrible and tingly and it also made his toes twitch as if he was being tickled. He could almost feel the shock waves moving through his brain as if probing it, seeing what made him tick. His motor functions seemed to have ceased, he doubted if he could even move his finger. He was also starting to think it wasn’t a dream after all but it was hard for him to tell. Then he felt the sudden urge to rest, and did so with the blue robot looking directly into his eyes.

The brightness of the dawning day awakened Dean from his slumber. An inviting smell of cooked food also drifted past him. Dean opened his eyes and saw a strange sight, he was lying next to a small fire in a small campsite, and one of the robots, the blue one was cooking eggs over a the fire in a frying pan, moving the eggs around with a spatula.

Dean knew now for certain this was real because the backs of his legs were freezing like he had been sitting in a bucket of ice while his face and chest was were hot and sweaty. Dean swung his legs around and sat up, even though his muscles protested against every move.

"Where the hell did you get the frying pan?" asked Dean expecting beeps and whistles for an answer.

"Oh, good morning, Dean," said the blue robot to him in perfect English. The robot even said it in a cheery manner. The others sat on logs that had been placed around the fire.

Dean stared on slack jawed.

"How could this be? You ask?" asked the blue robot "When you came down the tree, I scanned your thoughts and copied what I needed. It was rather a lengthy download but I cut it down a bit because you didn’t like the experience and it was surprisingly easy to find what I wanted."

"Right," said Dean still confused. "So you’re not going to kill me or something?" asked Dean looking around at all the robots, which he could see in greater detail in the morning sun. A green robot sat on a bigger log because he was slightly larger then the others.

"Oh no, we wouldn’t do something like that."

"Then who or what are you?"

"Just think of us as explorers for the moment, until we know each other a little more."

"I know almost nothing of you but you read my thoughts and know all I know," said Dean getting to his feet.

"Not true or not totally true, I just took enough so we could get along and a bit about this war you are in, but if I tried to take all your thoughts and memories, I risk hurting you, me or both of us."

Dean was given a plate with bacon and eggs on it, which looked quite while cooked as if it had been made by chef who worked in a fancy hotel.

"Where did you get this stuff from?" asked Dean munching away.

"I figured that you would be hungry, so I let Ohm look after you, while I, Neutron, Proton and Atom went to look for some food. We found a huge house near the lake and borrowed some stuff."

"Did any body see you?"

"No."

"So," said Dean scraping all the last crumbs into his mouth "What are you going to do now?

"We don’t know you tell us," replied Neutron. He just wanted see how the natives acted on this planet and how they dealt with conflicts. Their master always did like a good old war.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Dean as was passed a glass of orange juice, which was cold and tasted surprisingly good.

"We have come to observe, and we will watch you in your environment."

"The first thing I want to do is get out of here but I don’t see how that will be possible."

"We can be of assistance," said Neutron who wasn’t afraid to get involved and the fellow seemed nice enough.

"So you will be willing to help me?"

"To a certain extant, yes."

"Okay so you are Neutron?" Asked Dean who wanted to get the robots names right.

"Yes, I’m Neutron, and my brothers are Ohm who helped you out of the tree, next is Proton," said Neutron pointing at the green robot. "And this is Atom." Added Neutron pointing at the brown robot that seemed to speak differently from the others.

Afterwards they packed up their goods, which Dean saw also included a small tent, a rucksack and a few other things. Dean decided they should go south west, which was at least in the direction of London, he also knew that they would have to be very careful not to be seen and maybe look for disguises. Dean found all this weird, but he was happy he wasn’t alone, besides it was kind of exciting. The robots were surprisingly quiet; he didn’t hear any motors or gears, just the sound of their footfalls. About ten minutes later they came to a dirt road, which was lined with trees on both sides.

As they were about to cross, Dean heard that there was a car coming up the road and signaled the others to stop.

"Is it a motor vehicle?"

"I think so."

"Should we wave them down and ask them for a lift?" asked Neutron looking at Dean as if it was a good idea to ask a lift from an enemy.

"Er, no the car is most probably full of Nazis, I was rather thinking of taking the car for ourselves."

"How are we going to do that?" asked Ohm with his arms folded.

"I have an idea," said Proton.

"It had better be a good one," said Ohm. The red robot knew how well Proton’s ideas normally worked out, but he didn’t feel like arguing or coming up with a plan of his own. The dust from the dirt road was clogging up his air filters and that didn’t make him happy.

It was the first time Dean had heard the others talk, they had obviously shared his thoughts and he was starting to find that these four were very different in personality.

"All right just remember to keep the vehicle in one piece," said Dean who had witnessed their vast strength.

"Okay," said Proton "I want you, to hide here, there, here and there. "Added Proton pointing at bushes, shrubs and trees around them. "And when I give the signal I want you all to come out swinging."

Everybody quickly got to their hiding spots and then kept quiet. The car was almost on top of them. Then when the car was about fifty meters away, Proton started making fighting noises and sounds like gunfire, shouting, screaming and loud bangs. All of the noises sounded very real and lifelike. When Dean first heard them he almost jumped out of his hiding spot and ruined the plan.

The saloon car skidded to a halt and three German soldiers scrambled out of the car, wondering what was going on. Another higher ranked soldier stayed by the car, standing half in it and half out it. When the three soldiers came into the area, Proton gave the signal and everyone jumped out and attacked. Ohm just stepped out from behind a tree and whacked one guy senseless with one blow, while Proton threw one into tree. Atom cried out in his strange language, and attacked the third, rendering his opponent useless in a few seconds. All this happened rapidly, giving Dean nothing to do, so as not to be left out he charged for the last one standing by the car with a fallen tree branch. The soldier pulled out his gun and shot.

Luckily Neutron was close by and pushed Dean out of the way at the last second and took the bullet for him, which bounced off harmlessly. The blue robot then slugged the slack jawed soldier out. Dean stood there shaking, after his second brush with death in so many days.

"You okay, Dean?"

"Yeah, I’m all right," said Dean pulling himself together "how would you guys like to try on some clothes?" he asked.

Atom and Proton gave him dirty looks, but they all finally agreed that it would be easier to move around if they didn’t look so much out of place. Pretty soon they were all in the car, with Ohm behind the wheel. They had a hard time putting the uniform on, with rips in that jacket under the armpit, stretched pants and bulging shoes. Dean secretly thought that they looked kind of funny, but he didn’t tell them that. Luckily the metal helmets fitted. Now they wouldn’t stand out too much, at least from a far. Dean didn’t know where they should go from there, so they headed south down the road. Ohm turned out to be a rather good driver. It just seemed to be forests around them at the moment.

"What about your spacecraft? Are you just going to leave it there?"

"Yes, It was just a drop ship which we only use once."

"But what if somebody finds it? And how would you get back?"

"Don’t worry we covered it up and made it look like not too much happened around the landing site, it was just a shell to use in planet fall, like we have used many times before and in a few days it will have rusted away. As to how we will get back we have a ship in orbit, which we can use to pick us up whenever we are ready to leave."

After a few minutes they came to a small village, which they drove through unnoticed. Dean did see a soldier walking into a building but the man had his back to them. Then a mile or so out of town Dean saw a factory with three very large sheds, which seemed familiar to him, then he realized it was the one from the briefing. The factory and launch site they were supposed to have destroyed but the place was very much intact.

"Damn it!" cursed Dean.

"What is it?" asked Neutron.

"See those three sheds. My flight were supposed to have destroyed them," said Dean.

"Why did you have to destroy it?" asked Proton.

"Because," Dean looking at his watch. "In a couple of hours or so they are going to launch three zeppelins, which are going to bomb London and kill innocent people." said Dean remembering the approximate launch time from the briefing yesterday morning.

"The capital of your country," stated Proton

Atom then spoke in his strange language and waved his hands animatedly.

"Why does he talk like that? And what did he say?" asked Dean from the back seat.

"On a planet we were exploring and documenting, a long time ago, we needed some information from one of the locals in hurry. Atom was the best at reading minds and getting what we needed, so he started reading the thoughts of an old man and just as Atom was about finished. The old man died causing a whole horde of problems. Their minds merged in Atom’s head, fusing them together forever. Now they sort of live together, and Atom can only communicate in the old man’s native tongue, but he can understand what we say. Oh, and he suggests we help you stop those blimps," said Neutron from the front passenger’s seat leaning on the headrest, and looking towards the back of the car. Neutron also toned down the language of Atom’s suggestions of what they should do to the blimps.

"Sounds good!" said Dean.

Ohm then drove up the side of the perimeter fence about twenty yards from it, and parked by a clump of trees. Dean then tried to get out of the car but Neutron stopped him.

"You wait here its too dangerous," said Neutron who was planning on disabling the three blimps peacefully, but Proton and the others normally had plans of their own.

"Argh!" Protested Dean.

"Okay, we will sort out the sheds on each side and then the one the middle," said Neutron to the others, pointing at the very tall and long shed that stood in the large field next to them. The three sheds were at angle so they could see the fronts of all of them. The four robots then sneaked away from the car, trying not to be spotted by the sentries.

"I’ll wait here then," muttered Dean under his breath. He was more then a little disappointed but he couldn’t complain they were helping him in the first place. So he leaned back and got comfortable and watched what was in his view.

A soldier and a German shepherd went along the barbed wire fence, then the four robots hopped over the fence about fifty yards behind them without alarming them, then they darted across, to the nearest shed. They then four split in to two twos, with Proton and Atom going around the back of the shed and Neutron and Ohm heading to the front. Dean then expected Neutron and Ohm to go around to the front and try to get in through there but he was wrong, Ohm seemed to run his hand along the side of the metal wall in a rectangle type pattern.

Neutron then pulled back the steel like a door and then both robots entered and closed it behind them. From where he was sitting Dean could see no trace of the opening; his new and strange friends never ceased to amaze him.

Dean felt something cold pressed against his neck; it was a gun barrel of an MP 40, a German machinegun.

"Out the car!" said the soldier in broken English-his words laced with venom.

Dean’s heart sank as he climbed out of the car and faced the two soldiers, cursing him self for not being a better lookout. The soldier with the gun then got ready to shoot but the other stopped him-and said a few words followed by the soldier making a noise like a bomb exploding, Dean didn’t take this as a good sign, the two soldiers the laughed at the apparent joke.

Dean was then driven in their hijacked car to the middle shed at gunpoint, Dean tried to spot his friends on the way, but he couldn’t see them anywhere. He was then taken to an officer inside the zeppelin, the officer also laughed when they told him what they wanted to do with him. Dean was then tied tightly to chair, and locked into a small bare room, somewhere on the blimp. He was left all on his own. Dean hoped his friends would come help him out soon and hopefully before the robots sorted out the blimp he was in, he didn’t want to be mistakenly killed by his own friends. Dean also didn’t like what they wanted to do to him, even though he wasn’t a hundred percent sure what it was.

But his hopes were dashed when he heard the engines start up about an hour later. The small porthole to his right was of no use because the zeppelin to the right of him was now also leaving its hanger, with men walking along side it, holding guidelines, which held the huge flying machine down. In a short while, the three blimps were sailing through the sky in formation, heading southwest. Still no one came to check on him but it didn’t help, he still couldn’t get out of his tight bonds, which were really making his hands and feet numb.

The two soldiers who had caught him, barged into the room and carried him and the chair away, wordlessly but with smiles on their faces, towards the back of the ship. It was the most humiliating time of his life. Other crewmen on the ship also smiled or laughed at him as they went past. He was then dropped in a room right at the back of the airship, which he soon found out that it was the bombing room. It was where they dropped their devastating bombs. Dean was starting to figure out what they wanted to do with him. It was just too horrible to imagine.

The officer from earlier walked and spoke to Dean in English, clearly enough to be understood. The two soldiers picked him up again.

"What the hell, are you going to do to me?" asked Dean as he was tied to the back of a huge bomb, which was waiting to be dropped out of the bomb bay. Their actions also confirmed his fears of what they wanted to do to him.

"We’re going to give you a front row seat, for today’s spectacular show. I hear it’s a real eye opener and it sure to have you bursting at the seams!"

"You wouldn’t!" said shaking his head, thinking the man’s joke was very weak and in bad taste.

"Oh, yes, we would."

Of the two soldiers who tied him up, one backed away and the other went for the release lever by Dean’s side.

"Helmlick..." started the officer.

"Wait, let me get my camera," said the soldier that had backed away. "All right." Added the soldier with his camera ready.

"Now, Helmlick," ordered the officer.

"Oh, crap!" said Dean, but nothing happened.

"Helmlick?" asked the officer, but the soldier ignored him and looked out the window, pointing with his jaw wide open at the window.

The officer, the other soldier and Dean then looked out the window, the blimp to the right of them was on fire and there was explosions all around it. The zeppelin was going down. Dean smiled and looked to his left, and saw the same was happening to the other blimp. At least now he had proof that he wasn’t imaging things.

"What ze hell?" asked the zeppelin officer dumbfounded. "Quickly to the control room!" he shouted.

The other soldier ran for the door but went flying back when the sturdy door was smashed to pieces. Proton pushed his way through the wreckage that was the door-he was closely followed by the other robots.

"Pull ze lever! Pull ze Lever!" shouted the officer as Ohm floored him in one mighty punch.

The soldier was jerked out of his trance by the barked orders of his superior and yanked on the lever. Atom shot something at the soldier at the some moment, freezing him on the spot as if was instantly paralyzed, but it was too late Dean was falling down, strapped to very heavy and explosive bomb.

"Close, but yet so far," said Dean as he fell rapidly.

He then saw that there was something following him out of the bombing bay. At first he thought it was the officer who had been thrown out but when the object came closer he saw it was Neutron. And the blue robot was getting closer, but he knew that he was impossible, because science was his favourite subject back in his school days and he knew most the laws of physics. He could also see other two Zeppelins going down, like fiery balls of fire. The ground was getting too close for his liking.

Neutron was then up. beside him, ripping him and the chair from the bomb and cutting his bonds. Dean now saw the flames from the robot’s jetpack, which had been hidden before, Dean had heard reports of the army testing something like that, but what the robot wore looked way to advanced to be anything manmade.

"The bomb?" asked Dean who didn’t want it to land on his allies camped down below, in their fortifications.

"Oh, right," shouted Neutron over the rush of the wind, and pulled out a gun and vapourized the bomb in a single shot.

The zeppelin-he had been in a few seconds an ago was also now exploding, mainly near the back of the ship by the bombing bays. Dean hoped the others had got out in time, then as if to answer his question, they landed on something hard. From what he could see, it looked like an airplane, which he deduced that it must be the robot’s spacecraft that had been orbit. Ohm then stuck his head out of a seamless hatch, calling for them to come in inside. Gale force winds almost swept them off edge but Neutron held both of them in place. Within a few seconds the pair of them were through the hatch.

Dean didn’t know what to expect to see inside the craft, but of what he saw of the outside, he knew it was going to be big, at least two or three times bigger then his bomber. Almost rivaling the blimp in size. He was the last one inside, the inside walls were light gray almost silver in color, the cockpit could be seen in front, with Proton and Atom at the controls, which wasn’t that much different from a conventional craft. Except there were a lot of screens with images and data displayed on them.

"Thanks guys, you were great!"

"We should be thanking you, it was the most excitement we’ve had in ages," replied Neutron.

"So this is your ship?"

"Yes, what do you think?" Asked Ohm.

"Looks amazing and lightweight, and I can’t hear a sound, what do you use, to make this thing move?" Asked Dean moving into the spacious control room.

"That would be hard to explain."

"Are you the only people who run this ship?" asked Dean who was bursting with questions.

"There is one other," stated Neutron.

"Who is it?"

"Our master and creator," said Neutron.

"Can I meet him?" Asked Dean who wondered if their master was a robot like his friends or alien, and if he were an alien, he would really like to see him.

"Won’t be possible at the moment, you see our master is a carbon based life form like you and is very old, he has to spend most of his time in a hibernation type state and can only be awake for a few hours at a time. Before our master grew old, he was a great explorer and pioneer, visiting many other planets. At first we explored side by side, but now it is our job to explore for him, as it has been for many, many years and when he is awake, we report to him, and tell him our findings. He is a kind master a treats us well."

"He sounds like a great man," said Dean wondering what it would be like to have seen so many different places. "What are you going to do now?"

"Our time period on your planet is nearing a close and we will have to be leaving soon," said Neutron who was starting to like Dean and his people’s unusual ways. "In fact we have landed on the white cliffs of Dover. We know that you don’t live too far from here."

Dean was surprised that they had traveled so far so quickly, and he didn’t even hear the ship land. It was going to be sad to leave his friends, but he did want to see his family again. Within a few minutes they were on the ramp that led off the ship.

"We have prepared something for you, to thank you for being our friend but we ask you to open it while you are by yourself and not to show it to anyone."

"I will," said Dean was handed a silver case that was about the size of a brief case.

"And we trust that you won’t tell anyone of our visit?"

"I promise," said Dean who really meant it. "Will I ever see you again?" asked Dean.

"It is possible-but the universe is big and wide," said Neutron.

"Well if you ever need to find me, you can use this." said Dean passing the robot his business card; he was a painter by trade. Neutron took it and placed it in his pocket by his chest.

"We just might," said Neutron. "Farewell, my friend," added Neutron and the others as the ship rose up into the sky.

"You too my friends," said Dean who then sat down and watched to ship shoot through the star filled sky and out of sight.

The End