Violence, Fraud. All gone. And with Treachery soon to follow. The machines are decimating everything in its path and Hell itself is on the verge of being wiped out. Or so it seems.
Hell was aware of its layers being destroyed, but it didn't care fo...
A void surrounded V1. Apart from the terminal, nothing could be seen. Recalibrating its optical sensors, V1 tried to navigate through the unknown, but no progress was made. Giving in, V1 sat motionless. It would conserve fuel.
The terminal came to life and lines of codes could be seen. The screen went black, and then it rebooted. On its screen, a message for V1 was present.
[MACHINE? IT SEEMS THINGS HAVE GONE VERY MUCH AWRY.]
[HELL HAD INTERFERED WITH THE TRANSPORTATION AND I COULD NOT MAINTAIN THE LINK BEFORE MY BODY SUCCUMBED TO THE WOUNDS.]
[BUT FEAR NOT, FOR I SENSE OUR DESTINATION IS NEAR.]
'Yes, great job, Gabriel.' V1 thought sarcastically. 'Brotherly companionship and fighting spirits my ass, I should've just killed him and lived off using his carcass.' V1 continued as it saw something out of its eye. A wall of yellow text seemed to cover everything around it and the word 'NULL' flashed out. And the void dispersed, leaving V1 to fall with the terminal.
With a blinding flash of light, the void gave way, cascading into a world of cold.
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stars could be seen around V1. It realized that it was falling from the sky of an unknown land. Below V1 could see clouds covering the surface.
'wherever this place is, I'm sure it's not hell.' V1 thought as it fell through the clouds. Snow could be seen, heavily pouring down. 'Yes. Definitely not Hell.' V1 slammed down, trying to make its descent faster. With the whiplash arm, it grabbed the terminal and shielded itself from the friction and heat. V1 could see the ground now. It was dotted with ruined buildings and teetering spires of some sort. Both the terminal and the supreme machine were now ablaze, burning yellow as they fell through the atmosphere. Looking around, V1 decided that falling into the trees would be most favorable. Angling its fall, V1 spread out its wings.
[WARNING: SUDDEN EXTREME TEMPERATURE SHIFT]
[HEAT SHIELD INTEGRITY COMPROMISED]
'...'
The heat swirling around the machines began to eat away at the two machines as they fell from the stars, and into the barrens of what would be the 9th mining excavation project of the Copper system.
Hitting branches and trees, V1 landed. The terminal soon followed.
A gigantic crash followed as the machine hit the ground, sending snow flying everywhere. Slowly, V1 stood up. It was getting low on fuel. It looked around to see most of the trees flattened and burning.
As soon as V1's heat shield was fully repaired, it checked the terminal to assess the situation, and gave the most human imitation of exasperation.
[System unstable: Unable to restart properly.....Enter safe mode? y/n]
>>y
[STOP: C0000221] The H.explorer_OS has shut down to prevent damage to your designated terminal.
[Unknown hard error. Please check for malfunctioning hardware. ]
[Gathering data... ... ... ... complete.]
*The system has halted.*
---restarting in 3...2...1...---
'Well, that's just wonderful.' V1 thought sarcastically as the Terminal displayed a kernel panic. Ignoring the screen of death, V1 decided that getting fuel was its primary objective here. Dragging the terminal under the shelter of some trees, V1 saw that the backside of the terminal was completely burnt. The yellow plating was now black, and smoke was rising from the vents. 'Nah, you'll be fine.' V1 thought, remembering the insane durability that the terminals had. Then it scampered off to find some fuel, almost slipping on the black ice that laid the ground.
[Note to self: This place is frozen over]
As V1 neared the ruined city, it came across something ominous. A headless corpse of a machine, definitely not for combat. Around it, the snow was covered in black. Quickly going through its arsenal, V1 realized that only the revolvers were present. Cursing to itself, It drew out its Piercer revolver. Looking around, It found no immediate threats...Yet.
After a while, V1 came across the spire it had seen when it was falling from the sky. It soon realized that the spire was made from countless dead machines. The gory sight would've struck fear into any other machine, but V1 was undeterred. In fact, it was eager to dig in after discovering that the black substance could be used as fuel, albeit less potent than blood. As it dug in deep, A screen abruptly showed up.
[Absorbent Plating Control Panel]
Alternative fuel source detected: Configure circulatory system?
CURRENT OPTIONS-----DRIVE [1], [2]---BLOOD
AVAILABLE OPTIONS-----OIL
Reconfiguring, please wait... ... ...[complete]
DRIVE [1]---BLOOD
DRIVE [2]---OIL
WARNING: DIVERTING PLATING NETWORK TO MULTIPLE SOURCES MAY RESULT IN INEFFICIENCY. CONTINUE?
Y/N
Y
>>>... PLEASE WAIT
*Changes saved.*
After feasting on the oil of the dead worker drones, V1 emerged from the spire, covered in black. The number '80' was showing on its fuel gauge. This was more than enough. Now ready for anything, V1 returned to the terminal. To access its full arsenal, V1 would have to fix it. Now gathering scrap to fix the broken terminal, V1 slowly made its way back into the woods. To its surprise, the terminal was already surrounded by three other machines, whom it realized were armed...
V1 raised its revolver and carefully approached, waiting to assess the situation.
