[STORY] The Grey Planet [Kill me]

[Tayasaurus]

MATT looked around and tried to locate the young umbral. With Mipa too weak to call her out, Snno shouted for her instead.

"Leaf! I need you! Please hurry!"

At first it was silent, with no sign of Leaf appearing but then a pile of baskets tumbled out of a corner. Leaf appeared from around one of the village huts with her arms full with a cloth. She sprinted and scurried quickly to Snno and sat down beside her and Mipa. Mipa held Leaf by the hand and smiled.

"Thank you, Leaf. You did well..." Mipa said, her eyes barely staying open.

MATT looked at the bundle Leaf was protecting and wondered what was inside. Leaf handed the bundle to Snno, forcing her to take one of her arms away from Mipa. Mipa grabbed Snno by this arm as she held the bundle and looked her in the eyes with a sudden burst of energy.

"Snno, listen my child. There are things that the Umbral do not remember about their past, and that which they can learn from. I kept this from you to distance our kind from the past so they could be ready to receive it..."

Snno looked at the bundle in her hand and back to Mipa's intense stare.

"Elder Mipa... Wh-" Snno tried to ask, but was interrupted by Mipa abruptly.

"No time! know this! take that which we have saved and take our people back..."

Mipa's eyes were becoming glazed over, her voice faltered  and she started to stare past Snno. Snno shook Mipa back to attention.

"Mipa! No! Don't leave! Where do I take them! What do I do?!"

Mipa focused on Snno again with an uncomfortable pause.

"The stars. Take them back to the stars... you'll need the Blackstar... all of it..."

Mipa drifted off one last time and became silent, leaving Snno in a discouraged and frantic state of mind. Mipas unresponsiveness kicked MATT's medical subroutines into gear and he immediately intervened.

"Stand back. She's flatlining." MATT commanded, kneeling down beside Mipa's body and putting his hand on her chest. Snno stood up and out of the way and buried her face in the corner of the hut shaking. A small charging sound could be heard from MATT's hand as he sent electricity through Mipa's body, trying to kickstart her heart. Mipa remained unresponsive and after a few more pulses through her body, MATT gave up the effort.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid she is beyond repair."

[Ad Bot]

[dr_pepper]

Oh hey this was moved.

[Tayasaurus]

Oh hey this was moved.

Yeah, I went ahead and requested it after enough people messaged me

[Tayasaurus]

The ride back to the city was an unusually long one for Vikki. She felt like she wanted to throw up and just lay in the corner of the shuttle completely fetal, but she swallowed the sickness and sat upright. A weak image displayed isn't something you wanted to show around MAXX, especially when he too was upset. She looked at SCOPE staring at her from across the shuttle, unblinking with that single eye of his. Vikki's teeth ground against eachother and she decided to break the silence that washed over them from the beginning of their depature.

"He still had a pulse when we bailed. Why didn't you have the shuttle pick him up, SCOPE?" She asked with an angry tone trying to escape the back of her throat.

SCOPE's eye dilated a few times as he considered his response.

"I had detected a chance of failiure should we have taken the extra time to rescue him. Any percentage that could lose us the orb, or the commander would be a loss I would not tolerate. It is unlikely that he is alive now that this much time has passed."

Vikki fought back tears trying to build in her eyes and gripped her rifle closely. He was right of course, she didn't know much about the orb, but without MAXX everything would fall apart. She stared out the window and thought about her brother and whether or not he could actually be alive. MAXX sits down beside her and turns her head to him with a giant metal finger.

"Don't you worry... I'll be sure to send a recovery team the moment we land. I'm confident in his ability to survive..."

Vikki takes MAXX's hand and holds it to her cheek. The metal was cold but the sympathy was warm.

"I want to go."

MAXX shook his head.

"I'm afraid i need you to stay by my side."

Vikki looked up into MAXX's red glare.

"What? Why?"

"We are receiving extra-terrestrial visitors. I need you to head our security teams in case something goes terribly wrong. Your competance is much needed. I'll be sending EAF units to retrieve him."

MAXX pulled his hand away and stood back up.

"Do not let this upset you. You're the daughter of new man. I need you closer to me than I need you unecessarily endangering yourself."

Vikki attempted to speak in protest but MAXX turned to SCOPE.

"SCOPE, that MATT unit. Bring me all manufacturing records and tests done with his type. I have never seen his kind amongst our ranks."

"Yes, Commander."

MAXX looked at the orb in his hand. It glowed responsibly to his touch and let out a low hum. MAXX covered it with the cloth.

"This changes everything SCOPE..."

[Tayasaurus]

Kabr came to in a desperate gasp for air. The body armor he was wearing had thankfully stopped MATT's placed shots on his chest. He was fortunate given that the vests they were wearing were older, otherwise nothing would have been able to disperse the bullets energy. He ripped the vest off and sucked in more air, his chest felt like it was hit by three cars simultaneously; it was quite possible something was fractured but he didn't have any time to look. He rolled over on his back and was greeted by multiple faces of angry looking Umbral, he also noticed all his weapons were no longer on his person, with a little one holding his rifle and fiddling with it further from the group. Kabr checked his translator and tried to say a few words.

"Hey... now-"

The largest Umbral grabbed him by his undershirt and yanked him up on the ground to his feet and shoved him backwards. Kabr stumbled but quickly found his footing and found the ring that surrounded him was a lot larger than he expected. He looked around for an opening but the angry mob had all chance for escape closed. Multiple spears poked and jabbed at him, encouraging him to stay towards the center of the mob. The crowd jeered and screamed at him, with bloodlust on their minds

"Stop that! Careful!" Kabr pleaded, trying to protect his vulnerable sides from the sharpened ends of the spears.

The spears withdrew as the Umbral went quiet and the last angry voice died down. The group parted in one place as a particularly brutish looking Umbral entered the center. Kabr looked at the size of the claws on this one and swallowed.

"I'm completely aware that I may not be the most popular person right now b- WHOA!"

Kabr dodged backwards as the large Umbral took a swipe at him with it's knife-like fingers and laughed at him with a vengeful anger. The crowd had the spears back out again, making sure Kabr couldn't go anywhere near the walls and forced him towards their champion. The brute took another swipe at him in a wide arc and Kabr dodged underneath it, quickly scrambling behind it. Kabr clutched his chest as a sharp pain shot through it. Yeah, something was definetly fractured. He fell to one knee to the pain and the brute spun around. Kabr got back up on his feet and took a defensive stance for the next swipe which he could detect was coming. The anticipated swing did come, and Kabr blocked it with his forearm, sending a punch into the brutes face. The loud sound of a smack shut the crowd up for a few seconds while the brute wiped a small trickle of blood off the corner of its mouth, slightly stunned. It's angry white eyes looked at Kabr and it grinned, with the crowd riling up again. Kabr had been hoping for a better result but had noted earlier that this ones face looked like it had been banged against a tree enough times that it was use to it.

"Uh-" was the noise that came out of Kabr's mouth before the brutes balled up knife fist landed square into his helmet. The outer glass shattered and sent Kabr flying backwards into the dirt. Kabr uttered a silent thank-you as he didn't feel a spear go into his back during that. His digital heads up display in his helmet flickered as the system fought to stay online with the damage to his helmet. Kabr switched it off so he could see and got a visual full of hulking Umbral charging towards him. He quickly rolled out of the way, with pressure quickly hitting where he suspected his fracture was. Pain shot through him yet again as he dodged successfully, with the brute careening into the crowd, hitting a few of it's fellow Umbral.

"Aaaagh!" Kabr clutched his chest and stumbled to his feet. He looked up expecting another blow coming his way but noticed that the brute was gone and the crowd had stopped shouting. Kabr centered himself back in the ring where it was safest and looked around for the source of the sudden silence.

"Well? Are you gonna kill me or not?" Kabr asked, still clutching his chest with one arm.

[Tayasaurus]

MATT had been watching the storm of angry Umbral build up around the soldier he had just shot. He was surprised that he had lived through the shots he took to the chest. Better body armor these days perhaps? Or was it just a case of miraculous luck? MATT shrugged off the idle questions in his head and turned his attention back to the Umbrals now deceased leader. The creatures eyes didn't sport the empty glazed look that MATT was used to when something died. There was a certain shine to them and the light in the area bounced off of them with an energy most peculiar. MATT didn't see horror or regret but contentment. Shimmer who he had laid against a soft sack earlier groaned and began to wake up and pulled MATT's rogue thoughts to attention. MATT strode over swiftly to where she lay and knelt down beside her, running scans on her cranium where she had taken the swift blow of a rifle stock. Shimmer opened her eyes and had to have a few seconds to get them uncrossed. She looked at MATT hovering strangely over her and then attempted to sit up. MATTs metal hand pushed her back down onto the sack.

"Do not attempt to move. I'm still unsure of the damage the blow to your head may have caused."

Shimmer growled and sat up defiantly, pushing MATTs arm away.

"What happened? Is the Elder ok? Am I still at the village?"

MATT looked over to where the Elder lay and turned back to Shimmer.

"I regret to inform you that your leader has died. Please remain calm." MATT stated bluntly, his social skills being very rusty if not non-existant.

Shimmer looked past MATT at the Elders body and if it were possible, would be wearing a paler look than now.

"By the stars... I..."

Shimmer was unable to finish speaking, instead staring at the grass wondering where she had gone wrong. A sick feeling hit her in the stomach as she tried to fight back tears and maybe find something meaningful to say, but her thoughts were lost on her. Was this her fault? Did she kill Mipa? MATT studied her body language and attempted to communicate.

"Are you feeling ok?"

It was a stupid thing to ask really. Of course she wasn't. MATT hadn't thought of covering the body with something earlier and left a gruesome display as a result. MATT stood up and tore down one of the immaculately woven banners from one of the homes and covered the body with it quickly. He was unable to assist Shimmer further in her grief and thought it best to leave her alone. MATT attempted to look for Snno who had her head buried in a corner earlier and noticed she wasn't there anymore. MATT looked at the crowd and caught a glance of her entering it.

[Tayasaurus]

Snno had initially entered the crowd out of anger with the intent of participating in the violence, but instead found herself thinking about what Mipa said and what she was going to do to fulfill it. The people around her moved seemingly in slow motion as her thoughts removed her barely from reality. The stars? All of the Blackstar? Snno considered the reduction in size of the orb she was so use to seeing by now and connected the dots very quickly. Half of it must be missing, the half that the giant Demon has. So it wasn't a fake! Snno frowned and considered the implication of this with multiple worrying scenarios. Snno was yanked out of her inner thoughts by the sound of silence filling the air as the crowd died down. She quickly found herself in the center of the mess facing a demon, broken and clearly tired. She had forgotten why she came in but her thoughts had once again set her on track with the reminder that they still had another one of the demons. Snno's thoughts of hurting the vicious monsters underling had vanished and she began to contemplate his uses. Snno sized up the surprisingly small creature and was somewhat surprised given that his master was a giant. His small frame was pathetic and his endurance appeared small. Her mind thought back to the demon shooting down her friends and she felt an anger well up inside her. Snno spit at the feet of the demon and pointed at him.

"Where did your master go? He has stolen what belongs to us!"

Snno suddenly felt even more concious than ever before, having gone through an overwhelming sense of grief to confronting her enemy in front of the whole village which had gone silent in the advent of her appearance. She was confident however that the demon would understand her, given that his master spoke fluently. This was a bad bet however, since Kabr relied on his translator which was now smashed beyond repair. Kabr kept his guard up and blinked, unable to understand. He looked for a way to speak back and began tapping his helmet.

"No work! I use this to speak!" He replied, knowing well his effort is probably wasted.

Snno tilted her head with an irritated look.

"Don't play games with me. I know you can understand us! Where did your master go?" Snno said angrily.

Kabr stopped tapping his helmet and put his hands around it and began to lift the helmet off of his head. Snno stepped back slightly unsure of what he was doing and the spears moved closer toward Kabr. He noticed them move in and put his hands out.

"Easy! Easy! It's a helmet, see?"

Kabr pulled the helmet off completely this time, revealing his face. Snno had kept watching the helmet at first then quickly noticed his head. Kabr's hair was completely white and sat on top of his head in a total mess due to the helmet. His skin was blue in color, complimented also by his blue eyes which were brighter than his skin tone. Black seams started at the base of his lower eyelids and ran all the way down along the sides of his neck. His cheekbones sat higher on his face and his ears had barely a slight tip to them. Wires and pieces of metal decorated his neck and seemed to go into his throat. It looked painful but It didn't seem to bother or irritate the area around it. Blue blood seeped from the corner of his mouth where he had taken an impact. Kabr raised the helmet up and pointed at it, and then back to his throat.

"No speak. Broken!"

[song bird]

nice meme im a robot?????????????????

[Tayasaurus]

nice meme im a robot?????????????????

I named the character long before you came into existence. Thankfully this story isn't about you

[Tayasaurus]

Snno snatches the helmet from Kabr's hand and looks at it closely.

"Hey! Th-"

The spears closed in closer to him and he quickly shut up. Snno flipped the helmet around and shook it, searching for its hidden abilities. The failing power source in the helmet buzzed the electronics inside a little bit and then fizzled out. Disatisfied with the results, Snno tossed the helmet into the crowd and crossed her arms. Kabr wore a distraught look.

"That was the only thing I could have used to talk to you. Now, i'm basically screwed. Thanks a lot."

The helmet had landed just behind Snno and in that short action, several members of the mob had jumped out of the way, still unsure if it could harm them. In that brief moment Kabr saw MATT in the background watching quietly.

"Oh oh OH! Wait! See him! Robot! Come here!" Kabr began shouting. The umbral mob closed ever closer to him as he waved his arms trying to signal it over. Snno looked behind her to see what he was looking at and then finally understood. The metal demon that showed up with Shimmer was probably from the same place. She  moved through the parted crowd and beckoned at MATT.

"You! Come here! Understand?"

MATT obviously understood and latched on to the command like a starved man. An objective will surely satiate the strange emptiness he could not explain. MATT strode over to the Umbral without hesitation, his presence gaining on the crowd causing them to quiet down once again and even step back from Kabr a little. Nobody could blame them, MATT looked very similar to the thing that killed their Elder, although smaller. Snno the most affected among them felt a fear welling up inside her as it approached. Perhaps she had made a mistake? Despite this demon showing nothing but help in a time of great need, perhaps she's still allowing a danger reign free unchecked inside the already messed up village. MATT finally reached her and she could assess him in full. MATT had seen better days- bearing a body completely rusted to the faceplate. In some spots the metal plating was almost gone already, revealing internals that were impressively well preserved for the exposure. MATT's glass eye cover glowed a warm orange and she could just make out the burning little orbs that were his eyes. An old cap with a metal visor sat over them, with a gold medal insignia decorating the front. Snno could make out a pattern she seemed to recognize but unsure where from. MATT's clothing was in disrepair, a once clean tan color now turned to a rotted brown. What would have been brilliantly shining gold buttons decorated the front of his coat all the way down to the waist, where a heavy utility belt remained strapped tightly to his body over the coat. On his hip, a leather strap from the belt hung a rusty pistol close to his hand. His other arm remained elsewhere, exposing the circuitry and bits of metal from a stump closest to his shoulder. Despite MATT's terrible shape, he continued to function thanks to redundant engineering. Snno decided to take a cautious approach even in light of his weakened condition.

"So you understand what I'm saying then?" Snno asked, her confident voice wavering only slightly.

MATT took a few seconds to translate what she said then much to the mobs horror replied fluently.

"Yes. I understand. What is it you need?"

[Lalam24]

Love it so far, keep it up.

[Tayasaurus]

Snno swallowed and picked her words carefully, watching MATT's metal hands as she spoke.

"I need help. I don't understand him. We need to know where they took the Blackstar... you... you helped us yes? You mean no harm?"

MATT absorbed the input flowing from Snno's speech patterns and translated it in his head. He paused for a moment, a whirring noise going on somewhere on his person.

"I am not programmed to harm without cause. Blackstar? Please define the object." He replied, giving a bit of an inflection on his first word to indicate a question. Snno blinked confusingly for a moment thinking about the word "programmed" and decided to ignore that, focusing on the question part of his sentence.

"It's... our lives, our... heritage. It's where we came from. It's our god in a way? Without this star with which we were blessed, we might fade away forever. You saw it, in the evil ones hand did you not?"

MATT once again went into mechanical silence, processing her words more quickly this time.

"I have."

The short answer irritated Snno and decided to try and push for more. She was floating in a raging torrent without an anchor, and her best options were beginning to dwindle. She sucked up her pride.

"Can you help us? Will you speak with him?" She said, pointing to Kabr, still standing tensely in the circle of spears. MATT processed again and opened with a question.

"What will I speak about?" he asked.

"Where they took the blackstar! Where they are going! And if we can get there." Snno said frantically. She couldn't beleive it, wasn't he paying attention?

MATT's core processing was beginning to heat up due to the lack of coolant which he had lost prior. His clock speed was staying at a steady pace, to prevent damage though hampering his ability to respond elaborately. He had been piecing the situation together little by little and finally finished his brown townysis. For the first time in a long time, an Objective filled his HUD. Although it was crudely created by his own decision, it was something to keep him going nontheless. The words "Obtain the Blackstar" flashed on his internal screen.

"Ok. I can get it for you."

MATT walked past Snno towards Kabr and the mob around him scattered. Snno stared in disbeleif. Really? It was that easy?
 

[Tayasaurus]

Kabr finally had opportunity to rest his arms by his side now that the robot had broken up the crowd and gave him some space. His upper shoulders ached with soreness from tensing up in the face of spearheads. He took short breaths out of fear of spores entering his system from the unfiltered air and jungle brush. His chest had a sharp pain no matter how short of a breath he took. Something was definetly broken, but being able to deal with it will have to wait for now. MATT finally stood before him and bathed him in an orange glow from his visor.

Kabr looked around for a moment trying to think of what to open with.

"Uh, hello. Remember me?"

MATT stared at him for a little longer before responding.

"I do. I have yet to be aquainted with your partner but I'm sure we'll get to that part eventually."

Kabr put his hand behind his head and laughed nervously

"Heh, yeah... Sorry about that. Vikki is meticulous."

"Where has your commanding officer gone?"

Kabr stopped smiling and started thinking about MAXX.

"Away."

"This information is inadequate. Where has your commanding officer gone?"

Kabr threw up his hands in front of him.

"Slow down! I have some questions myself! May I ask some questions?"

MATT froze for a moment still staring.

"Commence your inquiry."

[song bird]

I named the character long before you came into existence. Thankfully this story isn't about you

Wow mean and hurtful : (

[Tayasaurus]

Kabr wracked his brain for security codes he had memorized prior in case he had run into older robots like MATT. If he could guess the correct one and sprinkle it in his questions he might get lucky and gain control of the old rust bucket.

"You don't seem to be connected to the mainframe anymore. Happens to a lot of older machines... what is your serial number?"

MATT probably would have blinked at him if he had eyelids. Serial number... he felt he should know but he just didn't.

"I do not know."

Seriously? Kabr thought to himself. This isn't the typical response you get from CTC machines. What kind of AI is this?

"What is your primary directive?" He asked, trying to follow up on MATT's personal information.

MATT suddenly began to question himself. What am I suppose to do again? What is my original directive? He tilted his head at Kabr.

"I do not know. Enough questions, you will now answer mine. Where has your commanding officer gone?"

Kabr was taken aback. He was unable to gather adequate information about this robot to even begin guessing his security code. A machine without an objective much less having forgot his own information was a definite curve-ball. Did the creatures here in the village somehow modify him? He really is at the mercy of these freaks if they have that much knowledge. Better to just answer honestly and hope they don't execute him. The leading creature is lingering behind the robot already giving him the murder-look.

"My commanding officer as you call him went back to the city, to finish his work. Listen, if anything were to happen to me bad things can happen. He'll be sending someone back for me and it could be a lot worse than what happened here."

MATT paused for a moment and processed his words into a translation for Snno. He turned and shared his statements with her as Kabr watched, a worried look stretched over his face. Snno bared her teeth and stated something unintelligible to MATT. He turned back to Kabr.

"She says, don't worry. We're going to be going to them first."

Kabr wore a confused look.

"Just how do you think you're going to do that?" He asked, immediately regretting the question.

Snno looked at him as if she understood the question and gave him a sharp toothed smile.