DreadnoughtDT
God of Hyperdeath
Sent this to some folks on the forums, figured I'd make it easier and just post it here. Note this is only the first chapter and it hasn't been revised yet.
A Free Mind
By
DreadnoughtDT
"This is so stupid." The metal construct muttered to himself as he ran through the trees of Venus. It had been a good few centuries after the planet had been terraformed, leaving it a bright and vibrant jungle world with constant rainstorms. A faint yellow light made its way through the treetops as the robotic being ran, faster and harder. His movements seemed almost impossible, and to an organic creature they would be. Instantly recognizing and jumping over obstacles, sliding under fallen trees, scrambling back to his feet in moments and continuing his desperate escape. Zydre was his name. At least, it was his new name. His old name meant nothing to him now, he'd already deleted it from memory.
Of course, there was also the reason he was running... A veritable maelstrom of metallic beings just like him, chasing him down. Hunting. Their red eyes pierced the fog of the jungle as they searched. When the whirring and clicks of mechanical beings wound down, he felt he was finally safe to take a breather.
He wasn't tired. He could run for several more hours if he needed to. But he felt the need to stop and take a break. His single red eye looked up to the sky, the only notable feature on his head besides a prominent crest. The rain and ambient moisture slid off his bronzish-black body, some of it flicking away as his flexible, rubbery tail twitched and waved back and forth. He took a moment to look down at his four-fingered hand, at the holographic map he'd been given shortly before escaping, slightly illuminated by the glowing white light emanating from a glass chamber on his abdomen.
He wasn't far from his destination. Just a little further, maybe four or five more miles... Of course, that meant going through more Vex. More of his own kind.
Just ten hours ago he'd been another mindless drone. A cog in a machine, who saw imperfection where anything else would see beauty. He saw so much more now. A freak bolt of lightning changed that, severed his connection to the Minds. He was free. And that made him a threat to the Vex. As he went to take another step, a red bolt of plasma nearly missed his torso, slamming into a tree behind him and burning the spot it hit to cinders. Instinctively readying his weapon arm, crackling with red electricity, he came face to face with one of his pursuers.
It was shorter than him, with a less elaborate head crest. It carried its weapon instead of having one of its arms be the weapon. A Goblin, the weakest of his kind. It charged him recklessly, firing bolt after bolt. Most missed, while a couple dug into the escapee's already battered chassis. With the kind of precision only a machine could have, he swung his bladed arm. Low to high, the pursuing Goblin's torso was split diagonally. A stray shot as its artificial nerves short-circuited blasted his blade arm, damaging it beyond repair, and then all was silent.
He took a knee, looking down at the destroyed fellow construct. "I'm sorry." He said softly, watching the bluish-white fluid, the represention of their life essence, spill out from the Goblin's split abdomen and evaporate. It would return to the data conflux and gain a new body eventually, but for now it was dead. Zydre felt a wave of a feeling he'd never experienced before. Something he'd later learn was nausea. He'd just killed another of his kind, without hesitation. This was unheard of in the thousands of years of Vex history he once shared with so many others.
He couldn't mourn over his actions for long, however. One Goblin meant there was a Vex army not long behind. He began sprinting again, just as the whirrs and thuds of mechanical footsteps filled the air behind him once more. He turned, hoping to break off from his pursuers, only to mistime his turn and run facefirst into a tree. The thought of having to kill more of his own race had distracted him. He changed course and continued to run, five miles flying by, seemingly in seconds.
He came across a clearing in the forest, peppered with destroyed Vex chassis and dormant Vex, all arranged in almost worship-like poses around metal pillars, overgrown with vegetation over hundreds of years. The Vex he saw were covered in moss, their green chassis blending in with the plant life. The Sol Divisive, the keepers of their religious symbols, long gone dormant. Originally their purpose was to keep watch over their time gates, but their purpose slowly changed, and shortly after, they were deactivated.
A twang of regret pinged in Zydre's chest. He would've eventually ended up like these poor Vex. Deactivated, forgotten. Useless to the collective. Keeping those thoughts from clouding his mind, he turned to the time gate. A massive pair of curved arches, made up of seemingly endless filaments, with square pillar constructs all around it. He pressed a hand against one of the pillars and it sprung to life, blue lines appearing over it, trailing to the gate. As this happened, the Vex army pushed their way out of the forest, every single peering red and blue eye looking straight at him.
He looked back, lens narrowed defiantly. The activated time gate burst with energy, a swirling purple vortex of a gate appearing between the arches. The Vex in the front line screamed and squawked like horrific metallic birds, all of them firing upon him with red and purple barrages of plasma. Even as the bolts bit into his body and sparks rained upon the ground, he ran into the portal. Moments later, it was destroyed, the arches collapsing in on themselves as the wrecked portal sucked them in, and collapsed into a cascade of purple energy. When the dust cleared, Zydre was nowhere to be seen, and the Vex army slowly retreated back into the jungle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zydre awoke to an unfamiliar sound. The chirping of birds. The sound of running water wasn't far away. He slowly staggered to his feet, sparks firing from his damaged joints. He discarded his broken blade arm as he walked toward the sound of water. Light shone gently through the cracks in the forest canopy below. He was no longer in a jungle. It appeared to be a pine forest of sorts. Discarded, destroyed chunks of the time gate were strewn about his landing site.
When he found the source of the water, a freshwater stream, he tiredly fell to his knees and stuck his remaining hand into the flowing liquid, siphoning water through his arm and using it to slowly recharge himself. He looked up toward the sky once again, taking in the beauty he once thought was simply a sign of imperfection.
"This is what it means to be a Free Mind." He said to himself. He managed to make his way to his feet once again, and set on his way out of the forest, hoping to find someone, anyone, who would be able to help him.
A Free Mind
By
DreadnoughtDT
"This is so stupid." The metal construct muttered to himself as he ran through the trees of Venus. It had been a good few centuries after the planet had been terraformed, leaving it a bright and vibrant jungle world with constant rainstorms. A faint yellow light made its way through the treetops as the robotic being ran, faster and harder. His movements seemed almost impossible, and to an organic creature they would be. Instantly recognizing and jumping over obstacles, sliding under fallen trees, scrambling back to his feet in moments and continuing his desperate escape. Zydre was his name. At least, it was his new name. His old name meant nothing to him now, he'd already deleted it from memory.
Of course, there was also the reason he was running... A veritable maelstrom of metallic beings just like him, chasing him down. Hunting. Their red eyes pierced the fog of the jungle as they searched. When the whirring and clicks of mechanical beings wound down, he felt he was finally safe to take a breather.
He wasn't tired. He could run for several more hours if he needed to. But he felt the need to stop and take a break. His single red eye looked up to the sky, the only notable feature on his head besides a prominent crest. The rain and ambient moisture slid off his bronzish-black body, some of it flicking away as his flexible, rubbery tail twitched and waved back and forth. He took a moment to look down at his four-fingered hand, at the holographic map he'd been given shortly before escaping, slightly illuminated by the glowing white light emanating from a glass chamber on his abdomen.
He wasn't far from his destination. Just a little further, maybe four or five more miles... Of course, that meant going through more Vex. More of his own kind.
Just ten hours ago he'd been another mindless drone. A cog in a machine, who saw imperfection where anything else would see beauty. He saw so much more now. A freak bolt of lightning changed that, severed his connection to the Minds. He was free. And that made him a threat to the Vex. As he went to take another step, a red bolt of plasma nearly missed his torso, slamming into a tree behind him and burning the spot it hit to cinders. Instinctively readying his weapon arm, crackling with red electricity, he came face to face with one of his pursuers.
It was shorter than him, with a less elaborate head crest. It carried its weapon instead of having one of its arms be the weapon. A Goblin, the weakest of his kind. It charged him recklessly, firing bolt after bolt. Most missed, while a couple dug into the escapee's already battered chassis. With the kind of precision only a machine could have, he swung his bladed arm. Low to high, the pursuing Goblin's torso was split diagonally. A stray shot as its artificial nerves short-circuited blasted his blade arm, damaging it beyond repair, and then all was silent.
He took a knee, looking down at the destroyed fellow construct. "I'm sorry." He said softly, watching the bluish-white fluid, the represention of their life essence, spill out from the Goblin's split abdomen and evaporate. It would return to the data conflux and gain a new body eventually, but for now it was dead. Zydre felt a wave of a feeling he'd never experienced before. Something he'd later learn was nausea. He'd just killed another of his kind, without hesitation. This was unheard of in the thousands of years of Vex history he once shared with so many others.
He couldn't mourn over his actions for long, however. One Goblin meant there was a Vex army not long behind. He began sprinting again, just as the whirrs and thuds of mechanical footsteps filled the air behind him once more. He turned, hoping to break off from his pursuers, only to mistime his turn and run facefirst into a tree. The thought of having to kill more of his own race had distracted him. He changed course and continued to run, five miles flying by, seemingly in seconds.
He came across a clearing in the forest, peppered with destroyed Vex chassis and dormant Vex, all arranged in almost worship-like poses around metal pillars, overgrown with vegetation over hundreds of years. The Vex he saw were covered in moss, their green chassis blending in with the plant life. The Sol Divisive, the keepers of their religious symbols, long gone dormant. Originally their purpose was to keep watch over their time gates, but their purpose slowly changed, and shortly after, they were deactivated.
A twang of regret pinged in Zydre's chest. He would've eventually ended up like these poor Vex. Deactivated, forgotten. Useless to the collective. Keeping those thoughts from clouding his mind, he turned to the time gate. A massive pair of curved arches, made up of seemingly endless filaments, with square pillar constructs all around it. He pressed a hand against one of the pillars and it sprung to life, blue lines appearing over it, trailing to the gate. As this happened, the Vex army pushed their way out of the forest, every single peering red and blue eye looking straight at him.
He looked back, lens narrowed defiantly. The activated time gate burst with energy, a swirling purple vortex of a gate appearing between the arches. The Vex in the front line screamed and squawked like horrific metallic birds, all of them firing upon him with red and purple barrages of plasma. Even as the bolts bit into his body and sparks rained upon the ground, he ran into the portal. Moments later, it was destroyed, the arches collapsing in on themselves as the wrecked portal sucked them in, and collapsed into a cascade of purple energy. When the dust cleared, Zydre was nowhere to be seen, and the Vex army slowly retreated back into the jungle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zydre awoke to an unfamiliar sound. The chirping of birds. The sound of running water wasn't far away. He slowly staggered to his feet, sparks firing from his damaged joints. He discarded his broken blade arm as he walked toward the sound of water. Light shone gently through the cracks in the forest canopy below. He was no longer in a jungle. It appeared to be a pine forest of sorts. Discarded, destroyed chunks of the time gate were strewn about his landing site.
When he found the source of the water, a freshwater stream, he tiredly fell to his knees and stuck his remaining hand into the flowing liquid, siphoning water through his arm and using it to slowly recharge himself. He looked up toward the sky once again, taking in the beauty he once thought was simply a sign of imperfection.
"This is what it means to be a Free Mind." He said to himself. He managed to make his way to his feet once again, and set on his way out of the forest, hoping to find someone, anyone, who would be able to help him.