Heavy echoing steps thunder down the long hallway as the giant construct, built like a suit of armor, slowly walks down the ruined corridor; opting now for a slower and more methodical pace, as the head turns to survey the damage around himself. Pen isn’t sure how she can know this in her slumber, but as she slowly returns to wakefulness, her body drenched in sweat and crusty blood, she knows that that’s what’s happening. It’s as if she had a feeling for the motions of the giant body that she is nested inside of.

Heavy Encroacher Unit

Terminal Nullificaiton

Est. Hull 90/100

>>> Analyzing Combat Data...

>>> Uploading...

Failed!

>>> Storing Data On Local Database

Please wait.

A wave of panic comes over her in a second, as events of everything that had just come to pass all catch up with her at once. Pen jumps up and hits her head on the roof of the cabin, thunking back down to the damp seat with a yelp, as her feet impact the metal near them, as the glass is touched and pushes in just a little deeper into her soles.

“Can you not make a mess? I need this thing to keep working,” says the man’s voice, ringing out all around her. It sounds calm, but also has a tinge of annoyance. Like that of a well-meaning, but worn thin, older sibling. Pen holds her head with one hand and one of her bloody feet with the other.

Combat Data Analyzed!

Error: Operating pilot not found in local database

License pilot in local list?

Y/N

>>>Licensing

>>>Saving Combat Data To New Listing

Congratulations [INSERT NAME], you are now licensed to operate 3RD.S. - T.A.N.G.O - Heavy P. UNIT !

“Let me out!” she shouts suddenly, turning around in that same panic as before and grasping for the hatch behind herself. Wrapping her fingers around the lever, she twists it. The bot stops walking. It’s harder than she thought to move the heavy metal plate, it somehow felt heavier now than it did before. So much heavier than when she was fueled by a desperate urge to survive. But slowly it turns and then it turns faster and the girl presses her weight against it. The hatch swings open wide and she presses herself out of it, crawling like a worm, emerging from the dirt.

“Hold on,” says the man and they move again, this time kneeling down low. Pen slides out, crawling from the inside of the cabin, out into the world. She lands down onto the cold, dusty stone floors where she falls, panting and retching. Covered in blood, sweat and bile on her hands and knees, her body convulses and tries to purge again, but this time, nothing comes out except for a series of strangled, dry gasps. There is a soft hissing noise as the knight stands back up, the hatch closing, as if on its own and the bot turns to face the small, wretched creature before itself.

Turning around at the noise, she looks at it, her still alarmed senses telling her that she’s standing literally in front of a bot, and instinctively she falls over backwards, scrambling against the wall behind herself. The suit doesn’t move and they stare at each other for an awkward time, neither of them saying anything. The bot raises its hands and Pen flinches, covering her face behind a bruised arm. Nothing happens. She looks. The bot is standing there with its hands outstretched, its palms held open and forward facing.

They sit for a little longer. But now she is starting to feel the biting cold gnawing at her again; having finally found her after all this time. It bites and chews and digs into her skin. The icy chill taints the glass shards and numbs her feet again, almost to her relief.

“What’s your name?” asks the entity.

Pen’s eyes go wide as she stares at the odd construct speaking to her. But as she processes its question, she turns away to the side and instead of answering, lifts her foot up onto her knee and grabs hold of a shard of red tinged glass and pulls it out with a quick flinch, before tossing it to the ground, where it rings out in a clamour; the impact breaking the heavy silence in the air. She winces and then goes for the next one, as a fresh stream of red blood breaks through the crust that had built itself up on her sole.

“Are you going to kill me?” asks Pen rather abruptly, her hand hovering above the second shard embedded in her foot.

“Why would I kill you?” asks the voice, confused.

In a way she had almost feared something like that being the answer. Pen closes her eyes and pulls it out in one quick motion, clenching her teeth and letting out an exasperated cry through her pursed lips. The bot lets out a series of hissing and whirring noises, as it watches her. “You’re pretty banged up,” says the voice, somewhat concerned.

“So are you,” replies Pen. The bot turns its hands around to look at them, inspecting itself closely to see if her statement was true, as if it wasn’t sure itself.

“Ah, don’t scare me like that,” it says a moment later and then lowers its hands again. “We only get one body, you know? It’s important to take care of it.”

Pen rips the last shard of glass out of her foot. Her leg looks like a mangled mess. The bloodied, filthy rag-bandage above her ankle is almost a cut-off point as everything below that is red, bruised, frostburnt, cut or raw in some fashion.

They look back to each other.

“What are you?” asks the girl.

“I’m… -“ the bot twitches its fingers, as if checking to make sure it was true “- alive.” They stare at each other for a time.

“That’s dumb,” replies Pen, breaking the strange silence as a cold draft wafts by them. She wraps her bloodied arms around herself to keep in the little warmth that she had absorbed from the crystal. The crystal that is…

Her eyes shoot wide open and she hastily points at the bot.

“Give me back my crystal!”

“- Crystal?” asks the bot.

“Don’t play dumb!” Pen rises shakily to her hurt legs, one hand bracing herself up against the wall. “The yellow bi-refractive-shard! I left it in you! I want it back!” she shouts pointing at the giant.

“Bi-re-what now?” asks the bot, scratching its head as if mimicking a confused person. “Oh! You mean the rad-frag?” it asks, realizing what she means, as it pounds its fist into an open palm. A hiss escapes the sharply angled joints as it gesticulates.

“The… what? No, the crysta- Look! Just give it back!” she shouts, limping towards the bot, which towers high above her.

“Woah, woah. Easy there,” replies the bot, raising its palms again in a slowing gesture.

“Give it back!” she shouts again at it, undeterred by the difference in their stature.

“I can’t.”

“Give it back!” she protests, hitting one of the large metal legs with a fist. A dull thud echoes off of the stone walls and travels down the long hallway.

“No, literally I can’t. First off, it’s inside the cabin which means I can’t reach i-”

Pen steps back as she hears the words of the bot, her mind processing for a second. Before the bot can finish its sentence, she jumps up onto its leg, clambering up the body around and towards the hatch, her mangled foot smearing blood over the old, dusty metal. “Hey don’t- Hey! Be careful!” protests the bot, as the girl climbs over it. Its movements stop, as if it were frozen in place, as she climbs up onto it. A wave of heat comes out and blows past her, disappearing into the cold ruin.

Grabbing the hatch, she pulls on the mechanism again and tears it open, a dull humming warmth emanates out and touches her cold, pale face, as she pulls herself back inside of the tiny space. “That’s dangerous you know, if you got pinched between my body, you’d be crushed in an instant,” it says with worry.

“Shut up!” barks Pen, with her legs sticking out of the back of the bot as she wiggles her way inside of the space, her hands reaching down past the seat for the small hole, out of which radiates the dull heat and warm yellow light.

“Secondly, I’ll die,” says the man’s voice around her.

Pen stops for a moment with fingers grazing the surface of the top of the sleek, glassy crystal.

“If you remove it, I’ll die,” emphasizes the bot. “Please don’t.”

She snaps at the voice. “So what? Just because you can talk doesn’t mean anything! You’re not even a real person! What does it matter if you die or not?!” The crystal pulls free, as she begins to lift it out, the sleek edges making a scraping noise as she pulls it free.

WARNING!

Please complete a full shut-down before deactivating the Power Supply Unit

The very familiar words that she had just spoken, the ones that someone had told her once too, echo around her in the enclosed metal space, but she ignores the reverberation coming back to her like a ghost from the past. The voice grows quieter, almost slurring as the crystal now slides free, almost entirely removed. But her senses are only focused on the warm crystal touching her skin and the promises it offers. It‘s just one. But she can leave town with just one. It isn’t enough to get there, all the way to the city. But it’s enough to leave here. She can figure out the rest then, thinks Pen, as she pulls the crystal out of the socket.

Power Supply Removed

Power drained in (10) (9)...

She could figure out how to get to the city th-

“You need to go left.”

She stops.

“Once you go down this launch tunnel, take the left turn. There’s an emergency exit to the surfaaaaaaaaa-“ the voice buzzes, the audible sensation of the words turning into a strange electronic buzzing, that then too fades away into silence, leaving only the noise of the crystal resonating around herself. A lurch shakes the body of the metal giant, as all of the bright lights and systems shut down again. The man falls back into whatever deep sleep he was roused from.

“Thanks,” she murmurs. Holding the crystal in her grasp, she looks at it and then slides out of the hatch, climbing down the back of the metal legs and looks down the long, dark corridor still before herself. Wincing as she limps forward, Pen holds the buzzing crystal tightly pressed against her core for warmth, doing her best to fight the urge to look back behind herself.

Stopping in place, she thinks for a moment.