NationStates Jolt Archive

Sisgardia.
Eastern Shattering.
Isle of Caucasus.
Former Cybrid city of Oceanus.
Military and science outpost of the Enduring Empire.



12.06.4012 GK

Stench. Prohpets this place stinks of death, chemicals and heavens knows only what else. The area is filled with the ruined remains of once enormous factories and warehouses, just as they are littered with the corpses of the people who once lived here.

Can I even call them corpses? Intelligence has told us these machines, these robots that litter the land everywhere were the ‘people’ of this place. Called themselves the ‘NEXT’ or Cybrid’s according to what we have succeeded from prying from the few intact databanks we have found so far.

Good thing they mainly seemed to use English.

Were not entirely sure what happened here, but from the looks of it some kind of civil war broke out amongst these machines, the end result of which appears to be complete genocide of their own race.

Guess the science fiction movies were wrong after all, they don’t go after the humans, they rather kill each other. How… human of them.

Today I and my squad went and examined a factory that seemed to have been designed purely to develop chemicals. Managed to find a few references to project ‘Darmok’ again. Not sure what it’s supposed to be and if Intelligence knows anything about it, they sure aren’t sharing.

The name bothers me though, these Cybrid’s seem to mostly use Latin or English names for their projects and developments, this Darmok certainly isn’t English, and I am reasonably sure it’s not Latin either. Ah well, not my concern.

We also found a few intact military vehicles. We think the Cybrid’s were attempting to emulate the Hoverdynes that are used by the Vortex Corporation. From the looks of it they didn’t succeed in the whole gravity engine hovering, but the weapons attached to the vehicles managed to make the science crew happy, probably some more lasers, though the design was somewhat different from the others we have found so far…

“Javrieel, time to move out again. We got another scout mission.” Looking up from his journal, Javrieel saw his Arn Usela, his squad’s colonel, already moving out the barrack he briefly entered to call Javrieel.

“Never one to waste time on pleasantries.” Chuckling, Javrieel closed his journal and packed his equipment, it was supposed to be his time off, but if the higher ups call, the expendables have to response. Not that most active ground forces these days thought of them as expendable, but it was an old line of thought.

Besides, macabre as the enormous, dead machine city might be, Javrieel was more then curious to see what else was here in these dark ruins.

………………….

The sound of gravel crumbling beneath boots seemed unavoidable no matter where the six men and women tried to walk. Clouds of dust rose up when the accidentally stepped on some loose rubble to harshly.

“Respirators working?” Usela’s voice echoed softly between the ruined street even as his squad checked and confirmed about the functionality about the simple respirators that covered the bottom halves of their face. The air wasn’t deadly here, but some of the chemicals that had become airborne and remained hanging around caused a almost painful burning in the nose, throat and lungs when inhaled.

“Six months. And were still checking this ‘city’. Can’t we move on to more interesting places by now?” Looking from the corner of his eyes, Javrieel grinned from behind his respirator mask at private Delien Varatz. The young women was clearly from the East Land, impatient, aggressive and prideful. Javrieel was pretty certain however that the woman was exaggerating to make herself seem more confident in front of her superiors, Javrieel certainly did when he was the rookie.

“It is a big place, private. Bigger then most of your own cities, especially when you take in the fact it goes down as well. No, I think were going to be stuck here. This place seemed to have been the main harbor for these people, both military and industrial.”

“Maybe, sir. But this place is killer on the skin. I’m paler then a West Land whore right now. Why can’t we be stationed at the exiting places? I hear that temple city thing is damned impressive too look at.”

“Caucasus. The place has the same name as the whole island. And yeah, I seen it on a quick trip with a transport plane to supply the men there. Creepy too, damned big pyramid forms the entire center of the city, and prophets know how many fortifications are around it too. Blacker then night.”

Varatz looked briefly at Javrieel, then shook her head softly and turned her attention fully to the area around them again as they ventured further away from the base camp and towards the towering factories ahead and dark clouds filled with rain that can only poison the land.

*tag*

“Carefull down there!” Private Erun’s voice called from above as he removed some debris from one of the factory’s upper floor, and promptly causing a piece of machinery of some form or another to fall down in a torrent or dust, rust and several sheets of metal and sending an echoing noise throughout the chamber.

“Everything alright up there, privates?” Usela’s voice barked up as he glared at the machine that had nearly fallen on top oh him.

“Yes, sir! Just trying to get to that door, sir.”

“Well perhaps you can do that without trying a forced promotion within the squad? I rather like having my head attached to my torso, clear?”

“Yes sir!”

Shaking his head, Usela turned his attention back to Javrieel who was working on a small computer console build into the wall as private’s Erun and Varatz continued to try and work their way past the debris above towards a sealed off chamber.

“Any luck, Javrieel?”

“No, sir. Sorry. I have been finding out some things similar to most of the other factories, but the majority of information here requires special clearance. And I don’t think it would be smart to try and have a layman try and hack his way in. Especially what had happened with the 12th Jecunder at Caucascus.”

“No need to remind me of that, Lieutenant. I was at the info session as well. But what have you been able to recover?”

“Sorry, sir. What I did manage to find out was that this factory, like most of them, was run by the ‘Redactor’ sect and seemed to produce narcotics of some kind.”

“Narcotics?” Furrowing his brows, Usela leaned in a little closer as Javrieel gave a few commands on the console to show some of the orders.

“There, sir. According to what I read here the original samples were acquired from a nation called ‘Brave New Ford’. The drug itself appears to be a form of pacifier, creating a sense of bliss in the subject using it. It was being mass produced for thousands. No indication what they did with it though, maybe they sold it to foreign nations for money? I doubt machines would be able to use the stuff.” Javrieel watched his superior from the corner of his eyes as he displayed more of the information on the screen.

“Odd. We’ll have to make sure to report this during de-briefing. Keep looking for more information. But don’t try to get past any secured files. I really am not in the mood for any accidents.”

…………………………

Carefully making their way between the excessive ruble and debris, privates Erun and Varatz both kept uttering muttered curses. Their skins itched, there eyes burned and even the respirators couldn’t stop them from knowing the stench that hanged around them in the air.

The fact that they nearly decapitated their superior officer really wasn’t making them feel better either.

“Stupid machines. Stupid city. Stupid a… Ah, Varatz, gimme a hand here.” Standing in front of a large sheet of steel, Erun patted it twice to see if it was relatively stable before trying to move it together with the other recruit. It went slowly, but the two recruits managed to move the large sheet out of it’s position to reveal the sealed door that they were after.

“Alright… See if you can open the door.” Swallow some saliva down, Varatz wiped sweat from her forehead as she finished giving a few last pushes to the steel sheet, making certain it wouldn’t accidentally fall down on them, or on the men below.

“Sure, sure.” Approaching the three meter high door, Erun examined the door control briefly before giving the basic open command that worked on the majority of doors they had found so far, and did as well on this one.

Silently the door slid up into the wall, revealing a rather small room stuffed with computer terminals, both build into the walls themselves as well as placed on several large tables. But it was the figure standing in the middle of this room that drew Erun’s attention.

A little over two meters tall, the figure reflected the light from Erun’s torch, it’s entire body seemed to have been composed of a single block of titantium, molded into a form that carried the slightest hints of feminine appearance. It’s head was devoid of any facial signs aside from the light bump that resembled a nose. The only part that detracted from the flowing lines and almost ethereal nature of this figure that almost seemed a statue was the presence of a hold ripped through the stomach and back, allowing clear sight into the figures insides, and showing that even without any discoverable joints, this was indeed a machine rather then a statue.

“Varatz… Can you call the colonel? I think he might want to see this…”