Sergeant Major Eleanor Usaldo
Forest Glade
“A simple farmer you say?” I said smirking at the thing. It was a pitiful attempt to come up with a cover story, But there was something bothering me though. He was wearing nothing but rags, like some iron-age peasant. Of course no one would wear such stuff like that nowadays besides cosplayers and the such, but there was something else, “Ok then, if you are a human, then what’s with the ears? It looks like your simulation suit malfunctioned when rendering those things.”
He returned the most confused look ever, as if he had not understood a single word I said. "H-Human?" He said with a questioning look. I sighed, waiting for the droid to finally give up this facade. But… just in case. “ATLAS what language are we speaking in?”
Language: Unknown.
“Then how am I speaking it?”
Translation Algorithm was developed during hibernation.
This was something that needed further explanation, but now was not the time.
“Listen, I think there is some big misunderstanding here. Why don’t we just talk it out… and put down our blades.”
Its as if the thing was trying to antagonize me. But, something was off about this whole scenario. How did I get into this wasteland? Are those trees off in the distance? Why are none of my sensors picking up anything metallic or any augmentations about whoever this is? And finally, who or what is that behind him?
Lots of questions and none of the answers, I definitely need to figure out what's going on.
So I decided to lower my arm and the spike I made retracted back into my cells, I was still on high alert but I could tell at the very least that this creature in front of me was not a threat.
“Fine then, lets talk it out. First answer this, where are we and who are you?”
I said it with the vigor befitting a person of my status. He seemed to lower his guard as well, even dropped the sword to show compliance. Wait… a sword?
“G-Gladly, my name is Dennis and this is George,” He paused motioning to the person behind him. “You are currently standing about 50 miles from the capital of Acomore, Acomore City.”
A city? We should be standing on a barren rock ridden with nuclear explosion craters and radiation, no recorded civilisation has ever been found here, at least not an advanced one. Just what the hell is going on?
Note; the magnetic field and gravitational pull suggest this is an undiscovered planet as no UAE planet has identical specifications.
“When did we get off of proxima?” I asked hushed under my breath.
Approximate time of transference would be the moment we stepped through the portal, or 25 EST hours ago.
That's right, I was injured and running from that thing. By god did it take me off guard. Anyway, I think I need to get a birds-eye-view of the area.
I raised one of my hands again and formed a ball, before shooting it off into the stratosphere; this did nothing but make their faces even more confused.
10 minutes until drone recovery.
The two looked star-struck looking at the sky, following the drone all the way until they couldn’t see it anymore. I know now, I am almost 100% certain that I am not on Alpha Centauri anymore, and whatever machine that the new soviets were working on is entirely functional. I need to get back to base to report this, but I don’t even know how the machine works in the first place…
Answer: It appears to use an exotic form of dark energy to expand a subatomic string theory based wormhole, stabilize an end of said wormhole and force the other to shrink to one planck length. The New Soviets believed that there was a subatomic universe that could be discovered simply by using this method over and over until they found where this subatomic universe was.
I think it's safe to say that they found their universe, now I just need to get the hell out of it. If the scientists were successful then they might be here somewhere, I looked around, scanning for anything metallic in this forest at all, to no avail. Well, these two look like humans, save for their ears, maybe they know something.
I need to know more before I think about returning, this universe did catch the attention of two major organizations, the GWHA and the Vlandeer.
“Alright you two, I am sorry if I caused any harm to anything or anyone, but could you direct me towards this city? I promise that it’ll be the last you ever see of me.” I was trying to be sincere with them, to appeal to their humanity, but they just exchanged glances between each other.
“I believe that would be a bit difficult. You see, you don’t exactly look… Elvan.”
“Elvan?” I parroted back,
“Y-Yeah, what we… are” He gestured to himself and the other behind him.
“What exactly is different?” I asked making a sweeping motion with my hand over my ears, making them pointier and more like their ears.
They both took a step back in visual disgust, almost in unison. The kid seemed to be the one who was the most disgusted, though I feel that it wasn’t directed at the way I made the ears but by something else.
“I-I guess… that’s alright if you want people to think we’re related.” George said almost with amusement.
“Wait, what?”
“Yeah, those ears look exactly like ours.”
“What's wrong with that?” this time Dennis responded to my question.
“Our ears represent what house we belong to, and how much respect that person should garner.”
I suppose that makes sense, something like that could work for a fantasy creature's civilization. But I don’t exactly know what other ears would look like.
“I can’t change it until I see a different variation, so you’ll just have to deal with it for now.”
I said, trying to reassure them that it will not be permanent. They both still looked disgusted with something for some reason though. I sort of wanted to get going immediately but... I need to break the tension in the air first.
“Listen, I am terribly sorry about the damage I caused to the area but please let me assure you that I don’t mean either of you any harm. Here let me make it up t you guys, is there a way I could pay for the damages?”
I assumed that this was an area that he owned, or at least uses. And the destruction that can fall from an unsupervised ATLAS unit can be extremely unprecedented. Like, I remember when they first injected me with the nanites, the unit lashed out rejecting my body. The strain caused me to be knocked unconscious for a few days, and when I woke up I was floating in the middle of space. The moon they were using as a research base was all but reduced to rubble.
Now that I think about it, I have been stranded in space more times than I can count. All for various reasons but slightly similar in a weird way. It always ends up with me in space surrounded by the debris of whatever ship, moon, or space station I was in.
They seemed to like my comment about paying for the damage, but before they had the chance to say anything,
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“ROAR!”
A loud roar resonated throughout the forest, reverberating off of the hills and coming back for round two. It was strange as well, ATLAS couldn’t make heads or tails of it, like a cross between a lion, and a polar bear. With a little bit of rocks shuffling mixed in.
“Dear god, it's got to be the forest.” I heard one of them say, ATLAS letting me know that it was Dennis.
“What do you mean? Explain.” I looked back at them to see the same look of horror as if they are looking at a nuke pointed directly at them.
I need to see what is happening,
ATLAS, send the drone back. I commanded.
I looked up to see the tiny black sphere shoot down from its cruising altitude. The other two were too scared of whatever made that roar to even notice me catching the ball and it being absorbed back into my hand.
Data recovered, processing…
I watched as a small square in my vision turned to the drone footage, it revealed a vast forest in all directions. Off far in the distance though there were some signs of an abnormal amount of fire burning, but that was so far off even the drone couldn't see it, just the effects of the fire.
Highlight origin of any noise above 110 decibels.
Processing… one instance found to fit description, highlighting now.
What I saw was unreal, far off into the forest, it looked as if someone had taken a blender to the ground and turned a section of the forest into a gigantic bowl of stew. But what was even weirder was that the thing stirring the ground was the ground itself, I could tell because I can see tendrils of earth shooting out to gather more trees and rocks into the undulating mass. The footage cut off before I could see what happens next, I can only assume the worst.
“We need to get out of here.” Dennis said, and I couldn't agree more. Whatever is happening, I don’t want to get near it without knowing its strengths; and most importantly, it's weaknesses. Before I even took a step from my spot the two had finished gathering their things, and Dennis shot me with a stinky eye.
“Come with us if you want, that things most likely after you but as long as you lay low and don’t damage the forest any more than it should go back into hibernation.”
So he knows what it is then. It might be helpful if I head with them to get more information. But they might just be leading me to a trap… wait, no, this isn’t a warzone or even a war at all. This is just a simple matter, and all I can do is go along with the one person showing me kindness and giving me the opportunity to get information, but, just in case, I should be prepared to defend myself.
I nodded my head,
“Thank you, I have nowhere else to go, so I guess I shall follow you for now.”
He gave me a tentative nod in return. I can tell he is uncomfortable with my presence, but this is my best chance to get some of that sweet juicy intel. Oh yeah, almost forgot.
“By the way,” I said walking with them now, going in the complete opposite direction of the monster. “I don’t believe I have said my name yet.” I paused, and George decided to take up the opportunity.
“Oh? I thought monsters don’t have names.” I can’t tell if he is being sarcastic or just plain rude.
“Well, for starters I am not a monster, I am a human. My name is Sergeant Major Eleanor Usaldo.” George gave me a confused look,
“Sergeant Major? That sounds like a military title. Aren't you just a kid?” I think this is the first time he has addressed or even spoke directly to me. But there was something he said that was more important.
“What? kid, how old do you think I am?”
He looked me up and down before continuing, he might think he offended me. Though he really did not, I get that from people all the time. Saying I look like I am a teenager, my body stopped growing when they emplanted me with the ATLAS unit. It was a security measure so that my body doesn’t do anything stupid while focusing energy on growing. Now the energy is diverted to getting faster, stronger, and smarter.
“I-I mean…” He trailed off, “You appear to be around my age so I would guess… about 40?”
40? In what universe is a kid considered 40?
“How old are you?” I asked curiously,
“43.” He was looking at the ground and kicking a rock when he said that, but based on what he said I assume whatever species these guys are they must have very long lifespans.
“And how old are you sir?” I said directing my attention to Dennis who was walking in front of us pretending to not eavesdrop into our conversation.
“I am 103 years old.”
The kid looks to be about 16 or the age where I stopped aging, and the other dude looks late 30’s to early 40’s. I guess it would be natural to assume that they can live up to 200.
“Oh, well, to answer your question from earlier. My people live usually up to 150 years but I… am not a usual person.” I received questioning glances from them.
“I have lived for exactly 636 years. My birthday is in about a month, now that I think about it.” I trailed off, as both of their eyes went wide with surprise,
“6…600… 600 and 36.” George restated. But to my surprise Dennis did not have the same reaction. His was more calculating, as if he has heard of people that age before.
“How are you able to get that old when your species can’t?” He asked curiously,
“We are able to specially augment ourselves to live longer, in fact I think that the oldest person to date is about 800 years old.” Of course said person scanned his brain into an AI and can theoretically live forever but they would not understand something like that. The very concept of AI most likely doesn’t exist here.
“What about you guys how old can your species get?” I asked trying to seem curious when in reality I couldn’t care less, I just want to get them talking so I can gain intel.
“Well, I don’t know the exact number but I have heard that some of us can live up to 300 years.”
300 is old, like really old, even for the human race as it is now. Most people prefer to stay in their regular squishy bodies their entire life, but some people, those of us who lose a limb or something can slowly over time get more and more mechanical as time goes on. But still, the only thing known to prevent a person from ever dying in their original body, is an ATLAS unit. But there is only one ATLAS unit that is still operational, mine. All of my predecessors died in battle, and I was the last test subject.
We continued talking for about an hour, and I found out that this place is a lot more expansive than I originally thought. This planet is about two times the size of earth (From ATLAS's calculations) and it has about the same land mass as ocean mass. Which is strange for a life bearing planet. Their society is run like a feudal system with a monarch at the top.
“King Pheladine V.” Is what they called him.
My cover-story for being here was that I fell through a portal in my house and was sent here, they did question me about the military title and the whole nanobots thing, I tried to explain everything to them as best as I could without rising much suspicion, to some avail. They seemed to get some of it, enough to get a picture at least, and I was able to cover how much tech the human race has without getting too into the detail. But as I was telling them about earth (I mostly spoke of that planet to avoid telling about others.) something happened.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM.
“Those sound like footsteps.” I said looking curiously into the direction it was coming from.
“That's because they are,” Dennis said, I looked back at him to see his face stricken with a look of abstract horror, the one you see when a character in a horror movie knows they are about to die or is about to run as fast as they can away.
“We need to get out of here, NOW.” He grabbed George’s hand, thinking that I would follow in suit he ran off.
“ATLAS, what is it?” I queried the VI.
It appears to be an amalgamation of dirt, stone, grass, and trees being held together through unknown means. It took the form of a humanoid of sorts and is slowly walking this way.
I immediately knew what the thing was, it is the forest, that thing that Dennis was so afraid of.
Well, I guess I can see how I fare against an opponent like this, the literal embodiment of a forest.
I watched as it slowly came into view, the thing was about a hundred feet tall and looked like a human with no head and strange elongated arms. it had trees inside of it that most likely served as some strange bones of sorts and rocks that served as muscles; the grass and greenery seemed to be the thing that bound it all together, being mostly inside of cracks and gaps in its form.
As soon as it came fully into view I also noticed that it has something that looks like a core inside of its chest, it wasn’t visible but I could see the effects of the energy radiating from within.
Then, it noticed me.
The thing fully turned its ‘front’ towards me and let out the most ear piercing war cry I have ever heard, ATLAS even had to intervene by lowering the sound I could hear.
“Heh, alright, lets see how this goes.”
I told ATLAS to go into battle mode, the VI confirmed the request and started building me a set of armor. The armor itself was incredibly cyberpunk looking with sharp corners in spots that don't look like they should have any. In my right hand I created a sword imbued with small parasitic nano-particles that if even one got into your body, you would be paralyzed for life. If more than one particle got into your system, well you can say goodbye in about ten seconds.
The beast swung one of its long arms at me, in my opinion, a pitiful attack. I dodged with ease and swung up with my sword to sever the arm.
The creature reeled back in pain, screeching loudly (ATLAS let me know that it was over 300 decibels). It started to caress the open wound, and slowly started to regenerate.
“So, you got some healing powers, huh?” I remarked with admiration.
To my surprise the thing lowered his arms in a sort of lowering its defense, but also in a strange pouty way. I believe it really wanted to kill me, but realised it couldn't.
“I hath banish thee from thy forest, leave immediately or serve the punishments.”
Well, that was unexpected.