Motivated by the recent experimental interest in honeycomb molybdates A₂Mo₃O₈, we return and develop the minimal models to capture the essential physics for Fe₂Mo₃O₈. It is pointed out that, the magnetism in these materials arises from the mutual induction between the spin-orbit coupling of the tetrahedral sublattice with active orbitals and the superexchange with the spins from the octahedral sublattice. Essentially, the superexchange between the tetrahedral and octahedral sublattices directly drives the ferrimagnetism, and the residual spin-orbit coupling on the tetrahedral sublattice induces the complex orbital order. The hybrid magnon-phonon excitations are further explored together with their resulting Berry curvatures and thermal Hall effect. We discuss the experimental relevance with Fe₂Mo₃O₈, and the framework can be extended to FeNiMo₃O₈, Ni₂Mo₃O₈ and other isostructural magnets.