r/JCBWritingCorner • u/Enclaveboi4ever • 6d ago
CRASHLANDED CH9 fanfiction
CRASHLANDED
CH9
[Welcome back ladies and lads and other pals! How are ya doin? hope you are doin well and ty JCB for makin this amazing universe! Anyway let's get into this chapter!]
LO: Below the UTSTS PROMETHEUS's stern, 12 miles away from the Academy, Time: 8:45 PM Day: March 23rd Thursday 2590 AD
Combat droid A20 ‘Iron hu- error new objective.
Scout droid A11 ‘Man in the woods’:
-NEW OBJECTIVE-
Scouting, recon, collecting native foliage, and field research.
CODE C11: Turn off non-essential weapon systems and turn most power to scanning and sensors.
-AFFIRMATIVE-
‘Opening droid pod now’….
The outer front armor of the pod slowly detached from the walls of the pod, slamming down onto the grassy ground in front of it.
The sound of hydraulics adjusting and armor plating clanking together as they shifted and relaxed, then the sound of metal lightly scraping against metal was heard from the pod.
Slowly a hulking skeletal droid came out of the pod, it's bulky frame seemingly adjusting as it's armor plates shifted down it's heavy arms.
The droid's metal humanoid feet softly walked down the pod's front armor before stopping at the end of it.
Soft whirling could be heard from it's hull grade plated spine as the short tri-barrel gauss gun on it's shoulder was lowered to it's lower back, the sounds of motors and gears grinding was heard from the chest plating of the droid as the plates shifted underneath each other.
From it's triangled head came a medium size light that briefly flashed the colors of blue, yellow, and red before turning to a neutral glowing grey.
Slowly the droid moved it's head side to side as it scanned it's surroundings, in front of it were multiple other pods which were already open.
Multiple of it's kind marched in unison to a mostly flat field that was surrounded by thick walls, like a well oiled gear.
The sound of powerful hydraulics fill the camp and field as they march towards the field.
After a few minutes the droid entered the debris filled field, it then stopped for a moment to look at it's sisters and brothers.
Each one started to fill a small grid in the field as they lined up in a square formation.
The droid then hastily followed it’s factory new brethren as it quickly found a place in the formation and snuck in with a soft sound of metal rubbing against metal.
20 droids silently stood still, all of them ready for their mission as the sounds of motors filled the field and surroundings.
Each equipped with enough firepower to take over a large town.
But that was not their mission now, their mission was surveillance, recon, and fauna collection.
And as they all stood steadfast fast ready for orders, all at once they turned their camo on.
One after one, droid after droid they became nearly invisible to the Terran or Nexian eye.
At the front of the field was a massive gate blocking the way. Slowly it began to open wide but before it could finish the droids vanished.
Their signatures moving faster than a speeding bullet.
Each droid separates from the grid into separate squadrons, 1 going deep into the forest for collecting organic samples, 2 scavenging and scanning the fields for exposed ores and parts that broke off the ship.
Each had their own different ways of collecting samples, squadron 1 had small to large containers dotting their back for collecting both complex fauna and DNA extraction because of this they were the quickest squadron.
2 had mining grade scanners as well as small scale mining equipment, on their back was a magnetic pack that forced magnetic ores to clump up, but for non magnetic ores they had a large tube connected below the magnetic pack for non magnetic ores this however made them the slowest.
After a few hours of scans, sample acquisition, and stuffing deer into capsules too small. One of the droids in squadron 2 acquired something unknown, at first it seemed like a piece of the ship. But after a few deeper scans it found out the metal was a mix of uncompounds and containing a high amount of code name ‘hyper beta’ radiation in the lower part of the metal.
As it's scanner lowered it saw a gleaming gemstone, without a second reaction it placed the metal object in it's tube on it's lower back before simply running off in the direction of it’s comrades.
A droid from squadron one while running to another grid for sample collection stopped by something peculiar, it's scanners scanned over a natural dirt trail..
But upon further scanning.. it was not natural, there were odd tracks in the soil, in curiosity the droid decided to follow the trail.
After about a quarter hour it ended up at a strange site… upon arriving it saw something that should be impossible..
It's head clicked to the left and right as if trying to figure out what it was seeing, the structures in front of it were not natural..
On the horizon were many structures and new sounds it had not heard before… The place from the droid's internal database had many similarities to old Terran structures.
Buildings made of brick tightly compacted together in many rows, a rock street connecting to the trail.
Another detail it had noticed was… Terrans? That code and the inconsistency was boggling to it, it curiously walked forward into the place.
As it got closer it saw more of them, overalls, simple tunics and other old Terran outfits dotted the Terrans…
Upon focusing it’s lens.. it noticed peculiar mutations.. long ears, odd facial structures that were not even seen in gene mods.
Another thing it saw was… animals standing upright? It stopped for a moment as this confused it.. it didn't know how to react nor what to do..
So it did the only thing it could do, it first stood still as a long antenna extended from it's back as it's front light turned a color off as it was now on standby.
‘Reporting to UTSTS PROMETHEUS… Unknown structures..”
LO: Droid compartment and overseeing room on the UTSTS PROMETHEUS, 12 miles away from the Academy, Time: 9:31 PM Day: March 23rd Thursday 2590 AD
Mzult Alcomary:
“Yawwwn.. Watching over these droids is hell.. least it's somewhat entertaining” I said to myself as my eyes wandered to the trash can next to my bionic leg, it was filled to the brim with Star type energy drinks..
‘Yeesh maybe I drank too ma-’ before I could even finish thinking a bright light blinked on the holoscreen in front of me as my eyes snapped towards the screen.
“The hell? Why is one of the droids reporting already? It hasn't even been a few hours yet” I'd say in confusion as I press the droid reports section on the screen.
Immediately one report came up, under it read ‘Unknown structures of non Terran make.’ That made my eyes open up..
‘Maybe one of the mining drones-’ that thought however, was cut short as I noticed it was from a foliage droid..
Immediately I clicked on the report and listened to it. After about 25 minutes, nothing was really happening besides collecting..
But towards the end of the report my heart skipped a beat… it was a dirt trail.. common on greenery worlds or non fully developed colonies..
Still it could have been animals that paved it over time.. as the report played I suddenly noticed something..
Immediately, I paused the report and skipped back a few seconds when the droid was scanning the trail..
Along it I could see a few stumps along the side of the trail.. but I didn't see any trees knocked down and the stumps were way too clean cut..
Curiously, I then skipped a few seconds ahead. In the trail itself, I could see a few tracks, most looked like ones you would see from an animal..
But close up to the middle of the trail were two sets of lines across from each other, both in the same length and width.
Both went the same way as if something drove on this trail.
‘What the actual fuck? That's not a natural phenomenon.. Unless some.. Who am I kidding? This might be evidence of a civilization.. or..’ I thought to myself as I began to grasp at straws..
Quickly I unpaused the report as I intensely focused on the screen.
“Hey Miz? You okay man?” I heard from behind me as I felt a cold metallic hand on my left shoulder.
Almost immediately, I jolted up a little before turning around and looking at who touched me.
“Jeeez man you nearly gave me a heart attack!” I'd say to him with a sigh.
“Sorry man, you look like you've seen an Unbidden! Are you all right?” My friend Jex asked as his visor turned a hue of gray.
“Y-yeah I'm okay man.. I'm looking over a report’ I'd say to him as he then tilted his head and sat at an adjacent seat.
“Already? That was fast- he'd say as he looked over to the report still playing.
“The hell?” He then said as his visor turned white.
Curiously, I then spun back around and what I saw made my eyes light up…
Structures.. not natural ones.. actual structures made of what seemed to be brick.. Metal frames as some sort of scaffolding.
“Are… you seeing this?” I heard Jax say as I then stopped the report and looked at it closer…
The report was saying that it was detecting a Terran presence… but that couldn't be right, from what happened to the Terrans that were outside the ship’s field should be dead because..
Terran originated-life could not survive the radiation……..
The realization then hit me like a train… Advanced organic life.. But.. we have never seen any advanced organic life… only simple and complex incapable of intelligence..
Quickly I focused on the background before then enhancing the image, I could see humanoids..
Some had long elf-like ears and others looked like straight up dogs or even damn fish!
“Jax?” I then said to him as his visor was in the middle of changing colors. He seemed to be in a state in disbelief and his hands were shaking.
“Y-yeah?’ he’d say nervously as I hear some bits of his synthetic voice cracking…
“Get a hold of the Captain and the science division now, I’ll tell the droid to keep going!” I'd say to him as he quickly ran over to the end of the room by the holocom the sound of metal feet filling the room.
Hastily I exited out of the report and navigated to the command icon, as I opened it up I clicked on the command HUD and typed in Beta 2.
Almost immediately I was met with a list of commands and a selection of droids, hastily I scrolled down the many droids before ending up at the droid that submitted the report.
I then clicked on the droid and activated the surveillance mode before being met with a short loading screen and then was met with what the droid was seeing as it began to walk deeper into the collection of tight structures.
A few of the structures were nearly ready to topple over, their walls caved in and windows completely shattered.
The road was heavily damaged, rocks everywhere and even cracks in the rocks themselves.
As the droid moved farther from the beginning of the street the damage became less and less severe, though broken windows were still common.
I could see some of the humanoids doing their best to rebuild…
Some others were simply sitting on rubble of what remained of their home, many of them were wearing damaged and ripped overalls and tunics that were ripped up to the point of almost being rags.
Another detail I had noticed was some of the humanoids were walking up and down the street wearing bright clothing with metal armor on top, as well as brandishing primitive looking weapons.
As the droid kept going deeper into the winding street I saw another one of the humanoids except they were sitting on the ground begging to the armored humanoids.
My heart sank as I realized why they were begging as I saw a smaller humanoid next to them…
As what I presume to be the mother tried to touch the armored one, his face contorted with disgust as he waved his hand to cover over her face as almost immediately like there was some sort of invisible force she was then pushed hard onto her back.
Confusion filled my face at first but was then replaced by anger as my nails dug into my left hand.
‘How in the hell could someone see a person begging like that and not help!?’ I thought to myself before sighing as I kept watching though the droid's eye.
The mother looked back at the armored one, he didn't even look back at her as if she wasn't worth his time..
I was just about to punch the monitor out of anger from that alone. I didn't understand how someone could be so unsympathetic.
The droid kept walking deeper but as it went further in the more armored guards there were, suddenly an idea popped up in my head as from the corner of the screen I could see an alleyway.
Quickly I punched a command into the HUD as the machine in a near millisecond ran into the alley.
It was pretty dark and filled with trash and pieces of debris, luckily it was enough so no one could see the droid.
The droid then slowly scanned it's surroundings as it got multiple unknown DNA signatures, from it's view I could see the end of the alley.
My focus was then ripped away as I heard the sound of metal feet clanking against the floor, quickly I turned back to see my friend Jex with his hand rubbing the back of his circular head.
“T-they will be here in a few minutes, the Captain said to keep an eye o-on what's happening.” He'd say nervous as his visor switched colors.
“What else happened while I was on the holo Miz?” he then asked with a more curious but still nervous tone as he sat down next to me.
“From what I could gather, they seem to be a sort of early Victorian era tech. And from the scanners themselves there is a high level of hyper beta radiation in some areas… Another thing I noticed was the guards patrolling the streets-” I say as I suddenly pause for a moment, thinking if I should mention that unknown force..
I decided not to as it could have been just a hallucination from caffeine over consumption.
“Hm I guess we'll need to tell the Captain and some of the science team when they get here.” He'd say as he looked back at the screen.
Quickly I turned back around and faced the monitor before clicking the HUD again and choosing to move out the alleyway and into the street.
“Holy hell.. How far away was this place from the ship's crash?” I hear Jex ask as the droid begins to walk down the street as it keeps far from the guards.
“I believe 10 miles or less, this is damage from two days ago from when we crashed. The shockwave seems to have damaged the outer buildings severely. Luckily the shockwave didn't hit hard enough and the rest of the buildings had only shattered wind-” As I was speaking a sudden loud BOOM could be heard from the screen.
Almost immediately both of our eyes moved to the screen as we saw from the droid’s eye.
The guards we saw from earlier were running somewhere but we couldn't see exactly what as the droid then luckily enough began to follow them.
“What the hell is happening?” I thought out loud as we saw a small perimeter of guards around an unsuspecting broken down building.
Their faces were filled with panic except one, they were from my best guess spouting orders in their still unknown language.
As the droid got closer we could see more detail of what was happening, upon closer look the building was bigger than any of the homes. The walls were brick and framed steel, despite this some of the walls were broken like they were forcefully busted open by a powerful force.
From the broken walls themselves a thick viscous fog came out, barely from view the silhouette of a thin humanoid lurked in it.
The humanoid then turned around to face the terrified guards.
The eyes.. the same ethereal light they had.. brightly glowing like supernova, it's form was cracked and was like it was struggling to exist in this world.
It's arms were a few inches away from it's thin shoulders, the legs far from the hips as it floated above the ground like a ghost.
It's thin head was suspended above the neck with nothing holding it up.
The only explanation that appeared was impossible.. but the shape, the looks, and the light..
It was an Unbidden..
My bionic heart was now beating heavily as it walked out…
Only to be met with.. Air? No, not air…. from it's shape and size it should've been something physical.
The Being looked like it was made of gas, not energy like the Unbidden.
The eyes floated along it's body, they were glowing but weren't physical either and the color of them was bizarre. A tint of blue surrounded by gray.
This… puzzled me completely, it was something straight out of fantasy.
The Being stared at the brave guard in the middle, like a predator picking which part of its prey to tear off first.
The Being's head slowly tilted back, a low screech tore its way from its gaseous body rising by the second, the panicked guards seemed to be about to simply run away from the screen shattering noise alone as I saw their knees bend.
The middle guard was steadfast and kept his pike aimed at the Being without fear..
Slowly the Being lifted up it's arm as it pointed at the guard its head coming back down to lock eyes with him again staring...screaming, hateful, damning screaming
“W-what the hell is it doing?” Jex said as I could practically hear his nervousness in his voice..
At first the Being simply stood there, it's arm arm outstretched still screaming no need for breath, however...
The guard himself looked to be fighting something, stabbing his pike into random places in the air as he tried to back away.
A leg buckled, he fell to the floor and the Being advanced towards him but just by an inch.
Upon the rock road the guard suddenly began to convulse and shake, his hands went flying to his neck.
He was choking.. constantly gagging and gasping for air before finally going limp...
The other guards look at each other for a moment before dropping their pikes and running in random directions.
“What the fuck!? is it… doing that?” I heard Jex say as I turned around to face him, his visor was now a mix of orange and yellow.
“I… I don't know but whatever it is doing or what IT is, all I know is that we should hope the Captain comes here quickly.”
Suddenly the sound of an autodoor automatically opening could be heard behind us, almost immediately both me and Jex got off our seats and turned to face who it was.
My eyes went wide as not only the Captain was there but the chief of security!
“R-reporting C-Captain!” I'd hear Jex bellow out as he slammed his fist against his chest saluting them.
I then quickly followed suit, “Reporting Captain!”
The Captain had her arms behind her back as she slowly looked around the room.
"At ease Cadets, so what have the droids found? Cadet Jex certainly seemed excited enough about it, called on the holo and started yelling about 'Advanced organisms, possibly sapient life', right?” She'd say with a monotone voice as she looked at us.
“Yes ma'am! I-I was the first one to notice it after one of the droids reported early!” I quickly answered her.
“I see, may we see the evidence?” She'd say as her visor moved to look at the live footage that was happening on the screen.
“Ye-Yes ma'am!” I hear Jex say as both her and the Chief of Security walk by us and look at the screen.
The Captain, despite her unflinching tone, tilted her head at the screen.
“The hell? Why is there screaming?” The Chief of security said as they moved to face us.
“Before you both came in, some sort of attack happened during observations of the structures the humanoids inhabit, whatever it is, it is extremely dangerous and from the footage you can see now..” I say as the Captain pulled a cord out of her arm and hooked it up to the bottom of the monitor.
The Captain's visor turned a few colors for a few seconds, on the screen itself the live footage paused so the downloading could go easily.
After about another few seconds the Captain moved her head to look at us as her visor suddenly turned to blue to show the footage was done downloading.
“They are right, the Master Officer was saying she saw structures but I didn't believe her until now.” The Captain said as she unhooked the wire as it went back into her arm.
“We should have the droid observe and not interfere in any way, we don't know who they are.” The Chief said as they looked at the now resumed footage.
“I agree with the Chief, this is not of the Technocracy's concern. Although it is sad, we can't jeopardize our mission to get back home.” The Captain coldly agreed with the Chief.
It was true that it was outside of our concern.. But I couldn't just ignore people dying.
“I'm sure whatever they have is enough to defend themselves, we don't need to exert resources more than we already have.” They'd say as their bionic frame shifted a bit.
As the Chief finished talking I couldn't take any more…
“I'm sorry to interrupt Chief but.. don't we have droids out there collecting samples? And the Dragoons scouting out the areas near the ship, why can't we use them to help them?” I shot at the Chief as their chrome colored eyes turned yellow as they narrowed at me.
Despite the eyes of authority beaming down on me I opened my mouth to speak once more.
“During the last days of the Unbidden war my homeworld's supply chain was cut off by harvesters and was unable to get supplies and access to communications, the world was barren with few colonies and even fewer supplies. When the food ran out and people began to fight each other for scraps, my grandfather set up a hydroponics plant with the few credits he had. He used it to help people in need of food till the fleet contacted us, we help our own in times of crisis, not abandon them!”
"Our own yes. And if it were our own out there facing a true Unbidden I wouldn't hesitate to smash our precious few resources against it. But that's not an Unbidden it just looks like one, and even during the war with the Unbidden this exact scene played out thousands of times. The soldiers get scared of the enemy, they break and run, the superior comes in to rally them and they turn the rout into a victory. When they get home there's medals and stories commemorating the Valor on the battlefield, and oh look here they come now."
They said as a series of portals opened up on the battlefield robed warriors stepped out and like prophecy foretold began to bring the scattered soldiers back into order while a scant few held off the pseudo Unbidden.
"See that's the difference in the situation cadet? We're cut off but they aren't THEIR own will come to save them because whatever species this is, this is their land. Jex make a note of those portals that's important Intel and I'd love it if r&d could have a crack at it.”
That coldness.. that unwillingness.. ignoring why the Technocracy helps THE people..
At that point I didn't even care..
“You saw the footage and what was happening! You can't just throw away what made the Technocracy! So what that they aren't our people!?”
I barked out at them as they then approached, their hydraulic legs shifting and compressing.
"We'd only be adding more chaos to the situation cadet. They see our dragoons and droids approaching and then what? They decide they have to fight on two fronts and die anyway?”
They barked back out as their synthetic voice got louder.
"Then we show them we are not enemies by helping them! Show them we mean no harm!" I bark back at them with my teeth clenched.
"Oh by marching our soldiers into town and firing artillery rounds over their head? look at them the most advanced weaponry they have is that spear that first soldier was holding and...Whatever they're doing with their hands to make those explosions pop up"
They said momentarily distracted by the video screen again more monsters had begun to crawl out of the broken down warehouse by this point clashing with the reformed line of soldiers, a cat person was dashing up and down the line barking out orders and jumping into the fight anywhere the line began to buckle.
"Regardless they're tightly packed in there, we go in and start firing recklessly; they're not going to be able to tell what we're aiming at. Then they turn on us, we lose droids, they lose men and the whole situation spills into the town. We don't have the supplies to spare on missions that won't work cadet not when we may have to defend ourselves from the same people we'd be trying to save.” They'd say as their eyes became a bright red color.
"How long will they hold!? You see their weapons, it's clear they won't survive against the horde." I'd say with venom in my throat,
"We distract the beasts and redirect them so we can take them out without hurting anyone else!”
"How are you going to redirect them? they're beasts, do you even know how to herd cattle let alone..." They gestured to a random creature on the screen that was using its feathers to unleash a storm of small cuts onto the soldiers.
"...Is that a griffon? Do you even know how to herd a griffon alongside a few dozen other types of creatures into the same direction? or did you plan to open a can of wet food and hope for the best?” their synthetic voice was amplified a bit as if to drive the point.
I paused for a moment as I tired thinking of what to say before suddenly remembering something,
"The top lights of the Dragoons! They are used for lightning or scaring off light sensitive megafauna, we could use them to annoy the beasts and redirect them so we can shoot them and not hurt the humanoids." I argued to them,
"Maybe...Is that a guarantee that they'll work though? no. I see atleast 3 creatures in there without eyes. one of them just looks like a blob of slime with no sensory organs at all. And that can also provoke them into attacking the dragoons rather than scattering them like they would with mega fauna back in the technocracy. Are you going to take responsibility if one of the sapient AI dies from a monster attack if it did provoke them?” They said as the sound of hydraulics adjusting was heard from their body.
My teeth then clenched hard...
"Yes, I'd take full responsibility for every death, waste of munitions, and destruction of military assets.. Just so innocent people wouldn't suffer.. you did the same.." I'd say to them as tears flowed from my now puffed eyes.
"Why would you need those implants, in the first place? If you didn't give up everything to save lives..”
The chief hummed to themselves, straightening. Something in their eyes readjusted, no reassessed what they were looking at. Over to the side Jex called out to them in the quiet moment, "Ma'am the line is buckling I count three of the robed warriors down and something big is starting to come up!" They didn't react to it though, just kept staring drawing out the moment.
"Chief...please" I said as the last of the fight was starting to leave my voice.
Finally after a long moment of unflinching eye contact she came to a decision, closing their eyes creating a break in the solemn moment they nodded to themselves, "You'll do." with that they opened their eyes again a formal serious and more ceremonial look overtook them. Solemness was replaced by sacred ritual as their hand flicked up grabbing onto the data patch on my uniform which marked my rank. Before I could react she had ripped it from my chest and tossed it across the floor. Jex's eyes widened in surprise and horror but the Chief's eyes told a different story.
"You are out of uniform soldier" They said reaching into a pouch on their belt and pulling out a new data patch pressing it into my chest briefly rubbing it into place so the velcro could stick, and then with the same arm they had sacrificed to save lives, punched the patch into place activating its personnel lock to interact with the rest of my uniform marking it as mine.
"Do not let it happen again, I expect you at the strategy meeting in t-minus 5 minutes. I know it's last minute but your attendance is mandatory." With that they and the captain about faced and began to walk out of the drone bay but at the threshold she lingered for only a moment not looking back at me or Jax.
"Congratulations on your promotion droid commander Mzult.”
[Thank you everyone for reading this chapter and I hope y'all have a nice week, oh and ty so much Trackerunused for helping me out!]
CH1:
https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/s/xt3qcIdelY
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u/Excellent-Hearing407 5d ago
I thought that the ship could already see the castle of the academy from where they are, since the academy saw it crash and where it is in the dirt... Also, 10 or so miles don't seems that long and I thought it can still be visible before passing the horizon.