Struggles of a machine (The Forever Winter x RWBY)

Chapter 1: War

Year: 20XX

Place: City of Lost Angels - American West Coast

The Battle of Lost Angels. A front between the defenders of Europa against the attacking alliance of Eurasia and Euruska. The nukes had already fallen but no one knows where they struck or when. No one knows who shot first. No one knows when the war started and the politicians who started the war are all long dead, having most likely been the first targets to be struck by the nukes. But no one knows for sure.

The city of Lost Angels, once the home of several millions, is now just a dusty carcass of concrete and steel, falling apart by the elements and destruction of war, only to be rebuilt over night by autonomous AI builder units who 3D print entire districts. But the shapes are broken, melted together like wax with the original design and purpose behind the shapes forgotten and corrupted by the AI's systems.

The earth is charred and uneven with craters from artillery shells and mountains of skeletons from man and machine. Skulls planted on spikes and tank turrets planted into the ground by the barrels in mimicry by mech pilots. The land is divided into zones by trenches stretching as far as the eye can see, all with varying sizes and depth. Shallow trenches for infantry and hull down positions for tanks up to massive chasms tens of meters deep and wide meant for giant walkers and mechs.

Traversing one of these smaller and older trenches is a Europan Tank and its escorting infantry squad patrolling the sector after the men defending the zone had mysteriously disappeared.

The roaring humming of the large tank's engine overrode much of the noise coming from distant explosions and gunfire, the high pitched creaking of the tracks moving breaking up the constant noise. The men wearing thick armored jackets and helmets painted dark brown and black at this point by mud, ash and dirt provided some camouflage by matching the dirty and torn landscape with only their movements and glint from the sufficiently cleaned metal parts of their weapons distinguishing them from the terrain.

As the small convoy starts closing in on the target position with a run-down apartment building in the background the infantry squad leader notices something. He signals for the convoy to stop as he investigates. He approaches the thing he saw and as he gets closer he fully realizes what it is. The dismembered body of the officer that was supposed to lead the defenders stationed at the bunker they are currently standing outside of. The squad leader, filled with unease is about to turn back to his men to call a retreat when he suddenly is no more as a burst of 14.5mm HMG rounds tear his body to shreds.

The men panic and the tank's driver hastily puts the tank into reverse but it doesn't get far as an 80mm AP round whizzes through the tank's side and in a split moment the ammo explodes and the turret is sent flying and spinning several meters into the air like a launched burning flare. The panicked men turn towards the fall-ready apartment and what meets their gazes is a nightmare of steel. Several red eye lights coming from a hidden mech in the rubble, the smoking barrel of an Anti-Armor cannon peeking out from the shadows into the light. The stare off doesn't last long though as the mech moves from its ambush position towards the hopeless men. It was time for cleanup.

At the end of the massacre only one meek soldier is still standing, or more accurately lying as he desperately tries to crawl away from the automaton who had just kidnapped his comrades and shoved them into sacks hanging from the mech's back and those who didn't go into the bags were just killed. They were either shot, trampled, torn to pieces or any other brutal execution. The mech was at the moment facing away from the soldier, seemingly scanning the horizon for any potential reinforcements or new challengers but it quickly turned around and zeroed in on the crawling soldier. The machine was swiftly upon him and suddenly the man was lifted above the last empty body bag. The man screamed, pleaded, cried and thrashed around trying to get out of the machine's grasp. Through the tears the man could make out a serial number etched into the robot's neck guard, reading "TOR-4C-402-37". The man was not left hanging for long as he was dropped into the bag, which quickly sealed itself tight and started to administer chemicals to the new body, inducing a coma so that the victim would not resist.

With the one-sided skirmish now over, the automaton did a quick scan for any stragglers even though it was sure it had left none before getting onto the next task. The machine's thumping steps created ripples in puddles of rain and blood as it approached the wreck of the lone tank that had been destroyed in the beginning of the ambush. The machine was about to investigate in case it could salvage anything from the wreck such as armor or weapons before suddenly the ground shook. The robot's stabilizers and gyroscopes quickly calibrated to counteract the unexpected tremble so the frame wouldn't fall. The mech looked around confusedly for the source of the rumble before it started again violently much like an earthquake. The machine was about to make a leave to try and get away from the anomalous situation before suddenly what appeared to be a crack in reality appeared under the robot and the tank it was standing next to as both fell. The mechs sensors were glitching out and flashing from information overload with one last scrambled image being registered before complete darkness took over. The image of a broken moon, a thick forest which shouldn't be possible after the nuclear winter of the war and small, black dots surrounding a singular figure.

End of chapter.