Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 153 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 1

Uninhabited Island / Ruins / Room Overlooking Indoor Forest

Galactic Standard Time / 2130

As they all watched, the door with everything in front of it moved slowly open. The body that had the same number of digits as the Creator’s was one thing, but this was another. The Captain of the Watchers only looked around as it drew its Creator Metal blade and stood its ground. It might be a shock, but it was the leader. And it led from the front! With a yowl, it told the others their orders. As the Watchers moved to obey, the Trainer stood where it was.

White and Crimson grabbed it and led it away from the body, hoping to get their teacher away from the battle to come. But they understood just what Trainer must be feeling. They had all been raised with stories about the Creators. And each one told just what they looked like from the old knowledge that had been passed down. Both White and Crimson had to admit, in their hearts, that they might have found a dead Creator. The very idea was heretical, but they had to admit it, even in their minds alone. But if all the Creators were dead, then what had they been working towards all their lives? What had their clan been after?

Captain pointed its blade and yowled, and it heard the Watchers all cry in reply. They might have been the dregs, but Captain had trained them all well. Each one was in Captain’s mind, the equal to the greatest of the Front Line troops. That was why the Elder had chosen them to lead the charge into this land. They would find victory! They would use these lands to get around the Front Line, destroy their clan's enemies! And in the process they would all become heroes. Captain would accept nothing else from its followers, and they would give their all!

But then the blocked door blew open, throwing everything holding it closed away. As the dust cleared something came through, something that shocked everyone there. It was the Drone that had come after Zane and the others. But the Felines didn’t know that. All they knew wass that this thing was one of the Creator’s servants, the largest they had ever seen. It was a floating slab with a long neck and four arms.

The Captain stared, having never seen anything like this before. For a moment he almost took a step back but the feel of his blade gave him courage. Its blade was of the same metal as the servant, and it could cut that thing apart. And if they just took this apart and brought it back, they would be able to make so many blades. Yes. The more Captain thought of it, the more this seemed the better. The blades made of the Creator’s servants were one of the reasons that they had held the line. And with this one, they could make at least three times the number they already had. A force with such weapons they’d be able to break the Front Line and take back everything they lost! And with the plan to attack from behind the Front Line? This was the perfect plan, nothing could stop it!

With a yell, Captain ran right at the Drone. As Captain raised its blade above its head, it felt its courage rise. Nothing would stop it now!

But then the drone aimed all four limbs at Captain and fired four bolts. Each bolt hit Captain/s head, turning into mulch.

Captain’s dead body took another step forward, and stopped. Then it fell forward, the sword Captain was so proud of slipping from away as the body hit the ground.

The others all stared in shock, none of them even thinking this would happen. Gold screeched and ran away, pushing aside one of the Watchers who had held the door open for the others.

White and Crimson only watched as the door slammed shut as the others screeched in fear. Each Feline ran all over, trying to get away from the Drone. Two of them ran past the Drone, into the wider complex, leaving the others away. The Drone reacted, firing bolts from its arms. Three bolts hit the heads of two Warriors and a Watcher, killing them.

The drone turned to fire again, but this time all the bolts missed their target and destroyed the window. With a small boom, the glass shattered. A moment later the air rushed out, the pull carrying one of the Watchers into the air. Before the Watcher could even fall a foot a pink tongue wrapped around it. The tongue belonged to a large bird that swallowed the Watcher whole. No soon had the poor soul been eaten did the bird fly off. A moment later two more of the birds were suddenly there in the broken widnow as their tongues shot at the Felines. One of their tongues was severed by the Drone’s bolts, and then they looked at the Drone. As the injured bird flew away, the reaming bird barreled into the room.

Crimson saw the drone attacking the birds and tried to think. With that way closed to them, they had to handle this Servant first. And to do that Crimson needs to get that sword!

White looked at its friend Crimson and thought about everything they had experienced. White could think fast enough that what Crimson figured out White did as well. And as White thought, a burning started within it. Everything that had brought them all here crystallized in White's mind, something clicked. White knew it would give anything to help its friend, even its own life. Suddenly a strange feeling caused White to point its right paw at Crimson. Then a strange feeling went down White's arm and a white energy ray hit Crimson.

Crimson looked down and saw he was covered in a white energy armor. Looking at White he realized that the feline had awoken the Creator’s Power. With a small fanged grin, Crimson shot forward. Because of what White had given it, Crimson ran faster the it ever had before. The Drone turned and fired but the bolts bounced off the energy armor. Crimson grabbed the fallen blade and turned, dashing towards the Drone.

White could only watch in awe as Crimson jumped and cleaved the neck of the Drone right off. As Crimson landed it kept going, bouncing off the wall. Before they knew what he was doing Crimson slashed the remaining bird. They all watched as Crimson stood there. But moments later the sounds of more birds coming caused everyone to feel fear.

Crimson roared and as one the survivors all ran towards behind the Drone.

White grabbed two passing Warriors and pointed at the Drone, they needed to bring it with them! They had lost their own, they needed the resources the Drone represented to prove that this was worth it.

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Bryce looked over his shoulder and winced. Once more he cursed the fact that he could hear better than most sentient beings. The sounds that echoed from the room they had left told him everything about what they had escaped. Turning back around, he saw Zane looking at him as Rodolphe kept his eyes straight ahead.

“How bad?” Zane asked.

Bryce just sighed and shook his head. “Some kind of battle, and I think the window was broken. And maybe the birds got in.”

“Great. So we’re stuck with going this way after all,” Rodolphe said softly as he shook his head.

Bryce only nodded, a horrible feeling going through him. He didn’t mention that he thought he heard the sounds of something crying out, crying for others to live. That hurt him a lot more than he wanted to, but it let him know. There were sentient races down her. They had to get back to the others, everyone here needed help! If they could think, then they could be reasoned with. And that meant they needed help.

But as he looked around the corridor, he wondered if that would be possible. That they should go back down here after getting out of it. He tried to keep calm, but what they found was not helping that, at all. So far, they might have only made it past where they had scouted only a few moments ago, but this was beyond him. Each step showed that whatever had happened here, had been bad. With the light crystals they had found, every one in three was destroyed. And of the remaining, only half of them worked or were cracked. Whatever had happened down here, the battle had been savage.

“So uprising, would that fit this?” Bryce asked as he looked ahead.

Rodolphe only nodded, and Zane sighed.

“Yeah, uprising. I mean you see the aftermath of one slave uprising you’ve seen all of them. This is a lot longer between when it happened than I see it. I mean I'm more used to seeing it happen, but you see the signs when you know them,” Robolphe said bitterly.

“Here maybe, and with that video you found Bryce? Yeah, you’re probably right about this place Rodolphe. But what about the rest? What did they use it for?” Zane asked with a hard edge to his voice as he looked around.

“What do you mean?” Rodolphe asked.

Bryce meanwhile kept his ears open, trying to hear beyond the group. If anything was moving towards them, he wanted to know as soon as it took a step. But he kept his attention on the conversation his friends were having. But as they moved, a sinking feeling forming within him. His mind was already thinking about what Zane had said, and what it might mean. Something about it made him feel that something terrible was coming.

“What did I mean? This whole planet! I mean what else did they use it for? Are there other places like this here? Were those creatures we fought other experiments that escaped? Or were they the creation of an automatic process that’s still going on?” Zane asked with a hard edge to his voice.

Bryce shuddered, remembering all the horrors that runaway programs could cause. He had seen some of the worst things in his studies that showed just what that subject had caused so many people. From warbots that never heard the signal to deactivate, they kept killing. Then to security systems that went haywire, killing those they meant to protect. The fact that wherever programs here had been left to rot. But that program knew that that it needed something to break down the door, so what wasn't he seeing here. What had they done to let the program know....

Bryce went cold as he thought about that in more depth. Was it because there were no repair drones? So far they had seen more than five different drones, and he had to admit he knew nothing about Ruins. But what reason…. Reason. He felt his blood freeze as that one word resonated and he followed it to the end. Was there a chance that he was right about that? He stopped and let the others pass him by before he spoke.

“Guys…..” Bryce began as he looked at Zane and Rodolphe and swallowed. “I’ve got a terrible thought that I want you both to disprove, okay?”

Zane and Rodolphe both looked back at him and then each other before nodding.

“Sure Bryce, what is it?” Rodolphe asked ass Zane looked around.

“Most Ruins, the robots always attack people? But then the robots left us alone until something came to break down the door. How could they have known what was needed?” Bryce asked and waited for a reply.

Zane opened his mouth and was about to say something but stopped. He held up his right hand and then it fell as he tried and failed to find anything to say.

Rodolphe meanwhile looked into space as he tried and failed to come to any answer. After a few moments, he went still and slowly looked up at Bryce. “Tell me that it can’t be true!”

As Zane looked at Rodolphe, Bryce only nodded.

“It makes sense then?” Bryce said bitterly and Rodolphe calliopesed against the wall, sinking to the ground.

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Rodolphe only looked at the floor, his mind nearly broken. He kept trying and failing to keep the terrible situation they were in from overwhelming him. He had thought they were in bad sands before now, but he could feel the sandstorm coming towards them. Who knows how it had handled things up there? Were the things that attacked them new or had they been sent at them?

“What the Nova are you two talking about!? What did you figure out!?” Zane demanded.

Rodolphe only looked at him and chuckled darkly. Somehow Zane hadn’t seen what Bryce had figured out, and that was funny. But the way they were heading for disaster meant that they had to tell him.

“I figured out that this Ruin has a control inelegance. At least Reasoning class,” Bryce said softly.

Rodolphe only stared into space in horror. Reasoning class. The type of computer-based intelligence that could be controlled. While they could think for themselves, they couldn't think outside hardwired commands. It had to follow the commands programmed into it, and never think of anything beyond them. If a war Reasoning class was told to take care of an ant hive in a garden it would bomb the whole garden. The creation of those were forbidden after the Tragedy of Olorcix. When an Ecological Control Reasoning class sterilized a generation of Roclox colonists. Even his world knew of the Tragedy as it happened a good hundred years before his world had been colonized.

“Come on now! The Builders lived so long ago! They had to have made the same kind of blunder we did right? They had to know what Reasoning types could do!” Zane said with a desperate note in his voice.

“We don’t know anything about them. How they developed technology or in what order? They might have created them just before they fell for all we know. Stars, Reasoning type Inelegance might have been the other side of their war for all we know!” Bryce said bitterly.

Rudolphe only looked at Zane, feeling scared beyond measure. But he knew that they had to think this through, to see just how big the problem was. “Let’s just talk, okay? We gotta. This changes so much.”

“Yeah, it does,” Bryce said with a nod, but then he went still. He looked back towards what they thought was a security room, a frown forming on his face. “But we should move faster, something broke down the door to the chamber back there.”

“Any ideas what?” Rudolphe asked as he and Zane both aimed their weapons down the hallway.

Bryce listened and shook his head. He looked at the others with a slight scowl on his face. “Like nothing I ever heard before. And with this place, that’s to be expected. But we can talk once we get to the next room and I start mining for a new map!”

Rodolphe only looked back down the hallways before slowly nodding. He turned and looked ahead, his rifle aimed at anything ahead of them. “I’ve got point, Zane behind me. Keep listening to anything behind us Bryce!”

“Got it, man! Ready to run!” Zane called out.

“Sure boss!” Bryce said with a cheeky tone to his voice.

Rudolphe only grinned as he ran, hearing the others follow behind him. Whatever was ahead of them, they would make it back to the others. He couldn’t see how they would do anything else.

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As Crimson sliced through another of the tongue, Crimson roared. Before it three more large birds hovered outside the broken window. For the last few moments, Crimson had been able to defend the others. And all of them had almost escaped, but more of the birds kept coming. Thankfully the gift White had given Crimson still worked, but for how much longer? When the final member of its Tribe escaped through the doorway, Crimson followed. It dashed out the door and then lunged to the right. As another tongue followed after it, Crimson sliced down with the sword in its hands.

As the hooked barb landed on the ground, the birds started to screech. Crimson looked around and paled in horror. There were only eight Warriors, White, Trainer, and two of the Watchers out here. They had lost eight Warriors, Captain, and the other Watchers in one battle alone! but Captain had been killed so fast by this Servant, it barely counted in the tallie! And with Gold running away, should that one be counted? Crimson walked towards it and slashed through one of the things arms. Crimson reached down and picked it up. It was made of the Creator’s Metal alright.

It looked at Trainer and saw it was still making soft meowings, muttering prayers to the Creators. For a moment, Crimson felt a spark of horror fill its heart. Finding that body like that might have broken Trainer, but they couldn’t leave it here. And they needed to bring Trainer along, they couldn't leave it behind. All the Warriors it taught had the highest chance to live through battle. Trainer's skill to teach others was a key part of the Tribe's strength, they needed it to live. And they needed it to bring Gold to justice. Already that traitor must have been making tracks back to the Elder! It must be trying to get its version of events the only one that mattered. If the truth that they had discovered wasn’t told, then they might be looking at the total death of their Tribe.

Crimson felt a stab of despair, but it had to go on. The Creators were dead for who knows how long. They might have been dead before they were even put into the Jungle. The Servants could have revolted for all it knew. So much of the War was about proving who was the rightful heir of the Creators, and who they would choose. But the Creators might all be dead, or the tribe’s patron might only be. They had to get back, retake the Chamber behind them, and find out! All the Others needed to know too! This was too big, too big for any one group! They all had to know.

The soft purring of White caused Crimson to look up and see its friend. It had taken everyone farther to the right. White was looking after the others while two of the Warriors watched the right hallway. This way they would know if anything came at them from that direction. Then Crimson saw White looking at the dead Servant and Crimson smiled.

Crimson started to yowl, and a Watcher sprang forward and picked up the severed arm. As the other arms of the servant were chopped off, Crimson smiled. For it knew that bringing back this metal meant that its news would be easier to share. Those who gave great gifts did get to speak to the Chief after all.