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(BUS)Chapter 3: Robots for a thousand
🕑 Added 2024-08-04 16:01:54 +0000 UTCIt wasn't a lot of ammo but I didn't exactly have anything else to store the stuff in which was sort of my bad since I forgot to ask for something like that. I found out why nothing lived in this cave fifteen minutes into walking through it as I met my first one of THEM, strange anorexic looking humanoid robot things that had featureless faces. [Seraph Slasher] the thing was named which I found odd until it saw me and made this weird electronic screech and two blades of reddish pink energy extended out of it's forearms.-
"FUCK!" I yelled and immediately raised my gun and shot at the ghostly gliding robot alien thing.
When the first shot hit it I was thrilled since I thought it was over like that only for my day to be ruined as a whitish colored film of energy rose over the spot I shot preventing any damage.
'It has a shield!?' I thought in horror and took off running while pointing my gun in the general direction of the thing chasing me and pulling the trigger over and over until I needed to reload.
Three of my five remaining shots hit the thing which was pretty good in my opinion since I had only been taught how to fire a gun while standing still. The things shield cracked and shattered like energy glass with two shots and it staggered from the impact of the third shot which I used as an oppurtunity to pop out the ammo cylinder shake out the cases and fumble in seven more before pushing it back in. I then immediately had to duck as one of those buzzing energy blades cleaved through the air where my neck was a moment prior.-
"Eat lead bitch!" I screamed as I unloaded at point black into it's face which did the trick.
Let me tell you my adrenaline was PUMPING after that near life and death struggle and I was out of breath.
'Fuck I'm so used to the stamina I built up over the years that being in a younger less trained body is going to be a problem if that light workout was enough to get me winded.' I thought grimly.
I decided to pull back from my trip through the cave and grabbed the "corpse" of the Seraph slasher and started dragging the surprisingly light thing back towards the entrance of the cave.
Why you may ask? Because I wanted that fucking energy blade that's why! It came from the things arm so I had hoped that destroying it's head hadn't ruined whatever made it work and a little bit of electrical work would fix it right up. As I said previously us adrenaline junkies were a strange bunch and thanks to my experimentation I had learnt a bit of electrical engineering since I heard from a friend of a friend that the rush of working around enough electricity to kill you in an instant was a great high.-
At first that was indeed true as I got that high from sheer fear of fucking up and frying my ass while messing with live wires. Unfortunately after I got good at the stuff that thrill was gone since I had nothing to fear save freak incidents. Still the skill was still there so I figured alien robotics couldn't be that different right? I literally couldn't have been more wrong.
'The fuck is that!? The fuck are those!? How the fuck did that even work!?' I mentally screamed in confused rage after I managed to pry the metallic casings off the torso and limbs and got a good look at the power core and "wiring".
It was not anything like what I was used to back on earth. For starters the power core was a literal ball of silver metal with glowing blue squiggly lines all over it. If it wasn't literally thrumming with energy I probably wouldn't even have known that it was the power core. The "wiring" was even more confusing or rather the utter lack of the stuff. You could have told me this thing ran off hopes and dreams and I'd probably fucking believe you with how much sense this shit made.-
The only part of this entire thing I understood was the blade deployment mechanism in the arm and even then only because it was fully automated and just needed a flow of energy to activate. There was this tiny connector piece in the shoulder area that regulated the flow of energy to and from the movement mechanism in the elbow and from there to the forearm that was actually one stiff piece that created the glowing energy blade. All of this to say I just needed the forearm and the power core technically.-
The trick was figuring out how to create a switch to regulate the energy coming from the core to the forearm blade. I was rather destitute of tools and spare parts at the moment so besides the robotic body, my gun and shield I had nothing to work with. Frustrated I could only grumble at the waste and ditch the entire idea for now. That said it wasn't a complete waste of time as I could still use the protective plating that I had pried off the thing to cover my vitals in case my shield gets busted through.-
An adult wouldn't get enough coverage from the stuff but I was a small and fairly skinny kid at the moment so it was just barely the right size for me. I had to pop four holes in the corners with my gun which was harder than you'd think but not surprising. It was meant to protect the power core and movement mechanisms from damage so naturally it was pretty damn tough. Not by any means bulletproof but highly resistant which was good enough for me. Something I was coming to love about my guns bayonet is that despite the abuse I was putting it through the thing was still good as new and as sharp as a razor.-
Thanks to that wonderful implement of murder I had a very useful tool for survival and to a degree crafting purposes. In this case I used the blade to cut down some sort of purple thin grass that I proceeded to weave into grass ropes to fasten the armor casing to my chest, arms and legs. It was sloppy and had gaps and weak points but it was better that having no shield and only casual clothes between my squishy self and whatever was trying to harm me.-
'I've got a year before I leave for wherever I'm supposed to go so after I get this gift I'm going to go find some form of civilization. So long as they have tools or tech I should be able to rig up a decent set of armor. If I'm lucky that energy blade as well as the thing that let the robot sort of glide over the ground like it did, I'll settle for the blade if I have to though.' I thought as I headed back into the cave with a bit more confidence with my makeshift armor.-
I reached the point I found the first Seraph and started to move forward a lot more slowly as the rough brown stone walls of the cave began to give way to clean cut white stone walls with glowing lines going through them. I paused soon however as I spotted another Seraph but this one was flying and had a hollow forearm segment that even an idiot could figure out the purpose of. I hid behind one of the larger blocks and took aim with my gun for the glowing point just under it's head that i assume must be important.-
"BANG! X7!" seven shots rang out back to back with no real pause between them.
The Seraph named [Artillerist] twitched as it detected the sound but by then it was too late as the seven bullets all hit within three inches of the dead center of the things glowing neck area. Turns out I vastly overestimated how vulnerable an area that actually was for these things as the first bullet shattered the shield of the thing and the rest killed and overkilled it as it fucking exploded in a shower of blue flamy goodness.-
'Note to self, shoot the big obvious weak points.' I thought with a chuckle.
Admittedly it wasn't much of a design flaw since unless you snipe them like I just did hitting that spot while the things were trying to murder you tenderly was probably really fucking hard. Even hitting a moving target at the range with any sort of accuracy without taking forever with each shot was already hard. But to get a bullseye while dodging an unpredictable target when you and it were moving quickly? That took skill I didn't have, yet.-
I knew my way around a gun since any adrenaline junkie worth a damn did but it wasn't my bread and butter, that was up close and personal type brawls. Put me in a fist fight against damn near anyone and I would dismantle them in at least three different ways. Still while I don't remember anything about this universe if I of all people asked for a gun it meant that I truly understood that the things were vital to survival. I am willing to bet everything I'd be dead against the first Seraph I came across after trying to punch through it's shield.-
This meant that unless my gift turned me into superman or some shit guns were probably gonna be the most viable way forward for me. Moving on from the still chunks of my victim I only came across one more Seraph before I found myself in a massive chamber with huge statues with sharp angles that reminded me a bit of the robots I killed and a broken stone archway at the far end that had a platform and an object laying right next to a raised pedestal.-
Walking up to the platform I looked at the object next to the pedestal closely.
[Name: Baal 3 vault key
Description: a strange Eridian object with the power to open the vaults on Baal 3.]
This vault key was in fact three pieces fused together into the shape of a ring about a foot across. I picked it up and I felt the rough metal that hummed with barely contained power.
'Welp time to make yet another questionable life choice and release a monster to get super powers promised by what is more likely than not some cosmic horror that decided watching me do this shit with a single gun was amusing.' I thought with a sigh and placed the vault key in the pedestal.
It sank right into the perfectly shaped divot and the pieces of the broken archway began to float up and slot themselves in place perfectly repairing the thing. Immediately a black and purple swirling "sheet" filled the whole archway's frame. Seconds later a massive three fingered clawed paw reached out from within the "sheet" and grabbed the archways side and pulls as the rest of the body attached to it appeared.
The monsters full form was similar to that of an ape from earth in that it had a single head, two arms and two legs but that was the only similarities shared. Each "hand" had only three claws and no thumb and it's skin was like that of a crocodiles with ridges and spikes of bone along it's length. The creatures head was also a massive crooked fanged thing with a huge red slitted pupil eye in the center of it's head.
{ COLOSSUS}
"Well that's not good."
Comments
SilverWolf
Thanks for the chapter
Loskro
It looks like a bad version
Troy Malloy
Thank you very much
Christian Jeffress
Thank you very much for another entertaining chapter, it certainly gave me a few chuckles as well. The technology was interesting, and I’m excited to see what he might eventually accomplish if he can understand and steal some of it for his own use. Lastly, the enemy he hast to face is certainly formidable, but I’m also looking forward to what power he will gain. Oh, are you going to watch the upcoming Borderlands movie or does it seem like a bad version of it?
