Book 5 - Chapter 105 Beasts of Steel and Circuits (2/2)

A Master Demonhunter, proficient in dimensional power. Cloudhawk had arisen as an indestructible force!

Stepping through the portal, the Wendigo King and Coal found themselves standing amid a vast blasted landscape. Every week they opened the portal once so that more people and supplies could be delivered. Now that they were here, the first order of business was to settle in.

Stony Plains was desolate and barren. It was nothing but dark red stone and dirt for as far as the eye could see. The air was hot and dry, and gravity was harsher than on the world they’d come from. But the atmosphere was suitable and there was enough oxygen. In fact Hellflower had carefully gone over the data collected about this place prior to sending pioneers out and had come to a conclusion.

Whether it was Spore World, Stony Plains of the jungle planet, most anywhere Cloudhawk could phase to had many things in common. Atmosphere, the size of its parent star, intensity of sunlight, temperature… there were slight differences but overall they were perfectly suitable for habitation. It certainly wasn’t a coincidence. What she didn’t know was why.

Out in the infinitely vast cosmos, finding just two habitable planets was one chance in a million. How could it be that time and again Cloudhawk was plucking worlds amenable to life like it was no effort at all? Hellflower had no way to explain it, just like she had no way to explain their destruction.

It didn’t matter, there were more pressing questions to be answered. If people could survive here, that was enough for now.

Coal commanded his tribesmen to begin laying out the foundation. The Wendigo King selected a number of intelligent birds and had them scout the area.

The resources and equipment selected for this group of two thousand was plentiful. They would have a functioning, if temporary, base of operations in less than ten days.

While it was being erected, wargs spread out and learned what they could about the surroundings. During the process they gathered the scant flora they found as well as unfamiliar minerals. Several dozen unique ruins and crashed aircraft were mapped out for later exploration. Beyond this, there was nothing else of note about where they were settling.

That was, until the Wendigo King received an explosive scouting report.

One of his wargs spotted a mechanical creature running at high speeds across the wastes. Its neck alone was three meters long like some sort of giraffe from the ancient world.

This didn’t make any sense to the Wendigo King. How were there robots in this place? As far as anyone knew this place had been destroyed ten thousand years ago. Whatever civilization had existed had long since perished. He might have believed it somewhat if the warg had told him it was a proper giraffe, but a mechanical one? That didn’t seem possible.

He was still mulling it over when Coal came running up to him. “Something strange has appeared near our base. It looked like a bird, but it was not. You should see for yourself.”

Indeed, overhead there was circling a creature that looked to have been modeled after some monstrous misconception of an eagle. It had two heads and one tail. Its two pairs of eyes were dark red and shined with electric light. Every inch of its body was made of metal and countless years exposed to the environment had caused parts of it to rust. Something had damaged its chest, revealing circuits and wires which sputtered with sparks. Long story short, it was a mechanical bird!

The reports were right! Operational machines! The creature circling above them was a highly complex system of circuits still functional after all this time!

It circled the base a few times until breaking into a steep dive. A small rocket emerged from its back and spat fire, increasing its speed by four or five times. They watched it tear passed the base, uninterested in them, and instead snatching up something from the ruins nearby.

The pioneers all watched, transfixed. The bird rose again with a strip of something in its talons, something that looked like a snake.

Of course that was just how it looked. The snake was made of the same material as the bird which had captured it. Another complicated machine. It wriggled against the nail-like talons and tried to belch fire at the bird but to no avail. The bird ignored its desperate attempts and carried off its prize. It paid the outsiders no mind.

What the fuck?

The same thought hung in everyone’s mind as they watched the scene unfold. Sandspire’s scientists were especially stunned by what they’d witnessed.

Two machines living and acting as fluid as real creatures. This sort of technology was centuries ahead of anything Sandspire could produce! It was incredible that they should act out roles of hunter and prey, for what need did machines have to hunt? Robots were not real living things! Yet another inexplicable mystery in this strange world that left the newcomers baffled.

1. They were supposed to have been obliterated. I guess they reproduce fast.

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