Realms of Sci-Fi

Targeted for Termination

The horse drawn carriage rolled down the street, the horse's hooves clopping loudly against the cobblestones. When it turned the corner, the street was left completely empty with no one to see the brilliant arcs of electricity as they began to extend outward from a central point above the roadway. The disturbance expanded into a sphere with tendrils of energy peeling off from its surface. The sphere abruptly vanished in a bright flash of light, leaving a melted depression where the lower edge of the sphere had touched the cobblestones.

Sitting in the middle of the crater carved in the street was an egg shaped orb. A copper hand of gears and pistons punched out through the orb, rupturing the living casing in a spray of blood. A second hand emerged and took hold of the edge of the opening created by the punch. Pistons hissed as the construct tore free of the imprisoning shell. The destroyed orb began to rapidly decay in the street, its temporary purpose completed.

Coppery panels were riveted to the skeleton to give the machine a more human appearance, but enough of the internal mechanics and support structure were visible to clearly reveal its artificial nature. Glowing red eyes resided within the deep sockets of its metal skull, and gear driven rods surrounding each eye controlled thin panels for constricting and opening an iris for additional focusing power. A narrow smoke stack from the machine's power source, a miniaturized steam engine, protruded up behind its left shoulder.

The construct began walking down the street with purposeful steps, its smoke stack leaving plumes of black in its wake. Climbing the steps to a private residence, the machine raised a fist to punch down the front door, but prior to any action it might've taken, the door exploded outward in a large fireball. The machine was hurled backwards, clanging loudly as it tumbled across the road, only stopping when it impacted the far curb and a gas powered streetlight.

Standing in the burning debris of the doorway was an identical machine, but it carried a cannon as long as its arm with two barrels mounted one on top of the other in a vertical line. Pressing a switch on the side of the weapon, the robot caused the barrels to rotate positions, bringing up a loaded chamber. Firing again, the robot inside the doorway obliterated the one in the street.

The smoldering gears plinked down in a rain of broken metal pieces. A man in a long coat and top hat had been approaching down the sidewalk, but when he saw the destruction, he halted in place and stared in open mouthed disbelief. The victorious machine clomped down the steps and approached the man while reloading its cannon. It paused in front of the man, extending an open hand before speaking in a highly mechanical voice.

"Come with me if you want to live."