Metal Organism Designed only for Cuddling

MODOC: Part 18 - Conquered

              The Other's fliers finally cross the lunon of the conqueror on a road eighty miles from its main body. The central organism had sat still and cooled. It resembled a large boulder on the side of the road. Native animals stayed away from the strange metallic smell of the Other as it vented steam and waited. The lunon was fresh and the trail was less than an hour old. The flier also found one of its kind nearby, likely struck by the primitive vehicles of the humans. It stopped to consume its kin, adding its molecular mass and lunon to its own. Tearing into the flesh of the flier, passersby on the freeway assumed they were having a nightmare and speed up, hoping to draw no notice from the unknown creature. Locals knew there were chimera left from the war and knew they did not always recognize the monsters that came from the forest, but this one was strange even by chimeric standards.

              After its violent repast, the flier took to the air and could see the trace on the freeway heading toward a river. The Other began the chemical processes required to move its monstrous bulk. Several trees were gripped by large tentacles and their chemical energies were added to the creature as it ground them into splinters and the cracking and exploding sounds echoed in the nearby forest.

              In fifteen minutes, the Other was reheated and active. Fallen snow around it melted and it slowly moved across the surface of the ground, rolling like a tumbleweed made of iron. Its thunderous sounds caused birds to take flight and humans as far away as twenty miles assumed it was the sound of a train or other new machine created by the Plutocracy. They tightened their shutters if they had homes, or vanished into the forest if they didn't. No one wanted to see the latest war machine of the Plutarchs.

              They could not have been more wrong. As it picked up speed, it began to glow, a dull red at first, like a smoldering coal, heating and glowing brighter until it was red hot, ripping a molten path in the Earth as it headed toward the river and the facility where the Conqueror's lunon was headed.

# # #

              The driver pulled up to the gate of the processing plant and a security drone checked his license plates and scanned his retina pattern before recognizing him and allowing him access. No question was made of his cargo. Security drones are lacking in curiosity. The driver knew this route and had made several trips in the past. Past this point, he knew was not to leave his vehicle for any reason or he would share the fate of his passengers. His partner, Shotgun was also familiar with the rules and locked the doors to make sure no one might try and make a break for it by taking the truck. It had happened before and he wasn't trying to take that risk.

              Security robots were already massing at the door, armed with stunners and prods to move their product along into the factory. The driver hated this part and backed the vehicle up using the mirrors but once he stopped he turned away from the mirror and proceeded to drink some homemade moonshine, an evil tasting brew guaranteed to have him blind drunk within the hour. When he pressed the button to open the door, he was already deep into his second pull and the burning in his chest masked his feeling about the people he was sending to their deaths.

              When the door opened, the robots shined lights into the vehicle, illuminating every crack and crevice. Most of the time, the products were already injured or damaged in some way, but this group seemed to be in even worse shape than most. Many had physical injuries cursorily repaired, but there was more than one of them in the throes of vomiting and many of them were discolored with strange lines crossing their faces and hands. Several of them indicated an elevated temperature but they were within the specifications for processing, so the lead robot proceeded to move them off of the vehicle. The robot AI considered it rather strange that no one attempted to run from the scene. At least one would always make the initial attempt and after stunning the runner, the rest would comply. The AI waited but no such attempt occurred. This group seemed detached and almost unaware of their surroundings.