John awoke in a ruined landscape, red skies hanging overhead bringing back dreadful memories. He wasn’t sure what happened, last he remembered he was trying to hold onto consciousness and judging by the fact he was here, it probably wasn’t successful. He took some deep, useless breaths. He didn’t think he needed to breathe here, in fact, he wasn’t really sure if this place was real in any capacity, but it was good to focus on the things that made him feel human. The things that kept him grounded, for the time being.
He touched the side of his neck, feeling cold metal, and forced himself to breathe harder. The rusty metal lying around this place was hardly a good mirror, but he could feel it, the unfamiliar weight tugging at his shoulder up to his neck. The metal, at least in this dream reality, had grown like some strange plant, the grasping roots of some great tree that had just begun to stretch out into the soil.
“What’s happening to me?” He asked, well, nobody in particular. Last time he vaguely remembered ARTOS being present here too, and he had a distinct feeling that there was a third time as well in which his passenger was involved. Now however even the clearer memories of the recent past felt hazy, nothing but an endless present stretched before him. Without much better to do or more to seek answers from, John began to walk.
An eternity felt like it had passed as he wandered through piles of rubble and rust, no real landmarks to guide his way except the occasional pile of particularly intact or interesting rubble, and the distinct scent of rot seemed to rise over the horizon. A decay without evident source that was at once all encompassing and yet always slightly beneath passive awareness, but unmistakable once the mind had settled on it and recognised it for what it was. John wrinkled his nose, well not really nose, he wasn’t really certain if any part of his body here actually corresponded to anything but his own imagination.
There was a cloud on the distant horizon, and very vaguely John felt this was unusual. He didn’t really remember well… anything of value at all… from the last few times he had been here but the sky had always been the same endless clear bloody red. Blue lightning flashed in it, and occasionally he could make out the vague outlines of a face.
He didn’t have much time to dwell on that though, for soon after he felt an itching inside his skull, at first minor but building to an intensity that he could simply not bear. Collapsing to his “knees” he screamed soundlessly as what felt like his own memories experienced in third person flooded through his head, unfamiliar things that felt more like looking upon a play than actual experiences.
“My body…” He gasped uselessly. “For… krack me… that’s where you are ARTOS… sly bastard…”
Flickers of a hazy not-quite form flashed in front of him, along with distinct distortions in the surrounding space. What looked to be small pieces of rubble blew into whatever this was, and somehow John got the feeling those bits of rubble were more real than he or the rest of this world was.
“HEY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE!” He yelled, to no response. It didn’t end up mattering though.
Soon he received his answers, though in truth it was closer to different questions.
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The first thing Cobalt noticed was it wasn’t dark, well that probably wasn’t the right way of saying it… it was dark but it wasn’t the pitch black you would expect for a long abandoned ruin wedged nearly a mile below ground. It didn’t take long to identify the source of the glowing as being from beneath a large door on the other side of the hall, streaming in through the cracks like some sort of malignant grasping tendril. The geiger counter was screaming, but Cobalt didn’t need it to feel the warmth burrowing into her meridians, clawing at the containment of her body. If this wasn’t the place, nothing would be. Slowly, almost reverently, she walked forward. The metal floor beneath was pitted and cracked in various stages of corrosion and decay yet was remarkably intact for something half submerged and left to rot for centuries, on the left wall was a metal etched map barely visible by the dimly lit light streaming in. It proudly displayed in distinctly decayed navy blue the full extent of the empire of the Ancients, labelled in now illegible text, stretching far beyond the familiar borders of the Empire to the uninhabitable fungus-choked north and even several islands across what seemed to be the Western Ocean. A reminder of where this place came from, that alien time when wonders were so mundane as to be used in the homes of the common folk and according to legend not even the Moon above was beyond conquest.
Jo- Artos, for it was still Artos no matter how normal its movements seemed, at least until proven otherwise, walked forward silently towards the main door and then a small distance to the left before pointedly staring at her. Picking up on the implication Cobalt followed shortly behind, though if it felt anything Artos didn’t express a single emotion on its face. Instead, once it seemed to have judged Cobalt’s position as adequate, it extended its metallic arm an incredible length and opened the door from a good fifteen or so feet away. Protected by the newly opened door and the shadow it cast, the duo would be slightly safer against any ancient technological horrors that were waiting there to reactivate. Well, ancient horrors that weren’t occupying a friend’s body.
Focus Cobalt focus… there was a job to do.
Seeing as they were not immediately assaulted by hidden traps or anything of the like, first Artos stretched his eyeball studded arm over the corner to Cobalt’s great shock.
“You- you can see out of those?” She asked.
Artos turned his head and looked at her with John’s two familiar cracked eyes like she said something incredibly brainless. “Of course.”
“But John- He ne- nevermind…” She sighed, accepting that she probably already knew the answer and wouldn’t like the confirmation. “Is the coast clear?”
Artos nodded. “In so far as I can tell.”
“Great.” She responded simply, before heading into the unknown.
The area was… shockingly pristine. That was except for the conspicuously broken vials of something doubtlessly radioactive, water damage staining an entire corner of the vaulted ceiling and tendrils of something not-quite fully organic but distinctly not inorganic coating the area like false veins. There were piles of tech she could never make heads or tails of, likely many that could save more lives than she could imagine if only their secrets could be figured out. Though likely if the Empire or the Khan before them didn’t loot these scraps that meant these secrets were either beyond deciphering or not worth deciphering in the first place, as much of a chance to be a curse as they were a blessing. It felt almost wrong to contemplate destroying this place, like desecrating a shrine, but what else could they do? With a heavy heart, she extended her claws and began to crush whatever strange machinery she could find. Artos, following along, shifted its arm into a vicious set of claws for much the same purpose. This continued for a good two minutes or so until.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“ARTOS HOST DETECTED. BIOMETRIC ACCEPTED. INITIATING INSTALLATION OF -13—2-STO-AGE RING” A shrieking electronic voice cried. Too late did Cobalt notice Artos in the body of John poking around the fleshy cords coating one of the tables.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” She screamed as she sprinted forward. But even her supernatural speed wasn’t enough as ancient cords fired to life and twisted around the metallic relic covering John’s right arm, sliding what looked like a ring of above average girth around the fourth finger which came to life like some sort of wretched insect and drilled into the flesh to fuse with the metal. Before she could think she knocked the parasite puppeting John to the floor, and watched in equal parts fascination and shock as bits of rubble were sucked into the ring.
“To answer your question: I did not intend for this outcome Cobalt, but it appears this was designed for me. How curious, I do not recognise the mechanism however, but I think…”
A large chunk of steel and concrete jettisoned out of the ring through a hole in the world, smacking Cobalt’s slack jaw right under the chin forcing her off with a violent hiss. She almost instinctively tore Artos apart, before remembering whose body it was using.
“Ah, my apologies. I truly didn’t mean that.” Artos apologised.
“WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT SPIRIT WAS THAT!” She hissed.
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling it is related to that structure over there.” Artos answered, pointing at a massive ring-like structure once overgrown with the weedy faux organic cables choking this place flaring to life with alien light.
“Shit! What the fuck is that thing!” She cried.
“I have no idea, but I assume based on the energy signature that-” Artos attempted to answer before he suddenly went silent.
“That what?” She asked, before the thing flared to life violently outputting so much Si it left her lightheaded.
“WARNING! DIMENSIONAL BORE CONTAINMENT RING UNSTABLE! PLEASE VACATE THE PREMISES!” A booming mechanical voice droned. The contents of the tech cache started to get sucked into a violent vortex in the centre of the ring, her and Artos included.
“Wait! No no! I can’t!” She screamed as she struggled to fight the hungry vortex, extending her claws and digging into the ground. She tried to crawl to the door, but as the metal beneath her bucked and gave way she found herself falling inexorably into the hole.
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It started with a tiny shimmer in the air, a little disturbance in the sky which grew into a full blown ring of warped space. Piles of twisted steel, rust and more unusual things were thrown around at frightening velocity. John braced himself to get hit by the rubble, but strangely nothing managed to make contact, instead phasing through him with an incredibly disconcerting feeling as though he was made of air. He checked the floor beneath him, solid, touched his own chest, solid again, and then tried one of the fresh bits of rubble. The limb managed to phase right through the material that looked no less solid than all the rest, though this time there was resistance, as though he was pushing through a very loose liquid. It was overall an extremely confusing experience, and it was only to get worse.
John looked on in disbelief as… himself fell through a hole in the sky. It was like looking into a mirror… no… a mirror could not hope to be so clear, feel so real. It was looking at himself, only he knew for certain it wasn’t him in there. Because he, whatever ‘he’ was, happened to be right here. And then, before he could even dwell on that, a second figure fell from the sky. Cobalt, expensive blue robes caked in enough dust, blood and debris to look a ruddy brown, carrying a large rucksack on her back and looking as lost as he felt.
“Wha- where am I?” She asked. “Artos… what the fuck did you do?”
The one in his body, apparently Artos, was silent, simply staring at John. Suddenly a wave of anger rushed over him and he rushed forward to punch the imposter, only for his fist to fall straight through.
“What the fuck?” He managed to say.
Cobalt looked forward at him, eyes narrowing distrustfully. Heat and light flared off her as she expanded in size, vicious blades raised at the ready. “What the bomb is this?”
“Cobalt! It’s me! John!” He cried out. Cobalt blinked disbelievingly for a moment before laughing madly.
“I must be dead, or I must have been knocked out and am now dreaming!” She laughed before her expression soured and a vicious grimace spread on her face. “What’s going on!? Why did you say that! Who the fuck are you really little spirit?”
“What do you mean little spirit! Artos… why are you in my body!” He practically screamed, though now that he had other voices to reference his own voice sounded muddied. Almost as though it was an echo of itself.
“I… I apologise John, I have been keeping things from you.” Artos admitted, though readily reluctantly and only after Cobalt joined in glaring at the machine. “Fear not, I have no intention of keeping you from your body. I may have just… neglected to inform you of some things… I wasn’t sure how you would react this time around…”
“WELL WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT! I AM NOT HAPPY!” He yelled, before forcing himself to calm down. “Whatever… not like I can do anything about it and I have more questions than I have the will to squeeze you about it… how did you two get here?”
“We were sucked into a strange circular machine, it was covered with fleshy wires kind of like the cables on Artos and we ended up… here… where is here?” Cobalt answered, before trailing off in confusion.
“To be truthful, I probably have even less of a clue than you.” John admitted. “But you need to get out of here fast, the objects that flew in here are starting to become solid to me, I don’t exactly know what that means but I don’t think it will be any good for either of you!”
Cobalt probably would have paled given her expression if she had any pigment at all currently. “I- how do we get out?”
“You mentioned some large circular machine that got you in here right?” John asked. To the nods of both the imposter and Cobalt he continued. “Is it sort of like that big chunk of debris behind you?”
Cobalt and Artos turned around to look at the aforementioned chunk of debris, presently swallowed up by all the rubble that had been spat out. “76% match.” ARTOS said mechanically.
“I think I have seen a few of those around, it’s a bit of a long shot, but I think we should get out of whatever here is sooner rather than later. Usually, I get out when I wake up, but given who is using my body right now and the fact both you and my flesh body are in this strange place…”
“No chances…” Cobalt said with a gulp.
“No chances.” He concurred. “Now come on, I think I remember where the nearest one was, it’s right over…” John trailed off as he looked to the horizon.
Where there was once a cloud now lay a truly gargantuan skeleton coated with a slimy layer of what looked to be rotten flesh, one that must have been the size of a mountain. From its hollow sockets one empty eye lolled around, clouded and still leaking a trail of what looked like either black tears or writhing insects.
Yet John couldn’t escape the feeling it was looking right at them.