The engineer feels a ripping sensation as something is torn from him. his mind becomes nothing but agony and he can only vaguely register his suit hitting the floor back first, he can feel nothing but shredding pain and no coherent thoughts can be formed.
As he lays on the floor he feels something trying to dig into his side. “Is it biting me?” A sharp jolt “hostile entity detected, engaging countermeasures” a bright flash of light hits the tunnel as a sphere of lighting surges forth from my suit. The lighting hits the creature, which screams before dying. “Hostile entity terminated, resuming passive scans” “I have to get up, the bugs are after me”.
His fractured thoughts and senses can’t even begin to figure out where his body actually is, much less moving it but “maker compromised, initiating automated functions” with another jolt his body begins to rise, sending agony through what's left of his mind, which isn't even enough to scream.
“Calculating route, establishing communications with minds - attempt failed, secondary priority established - regain connection with minds, resuming independent function, contact with radar network - negative, engaging suits internal radar, calculating route.”
With oddly graceful steps the suit of armor begins to walk its head panning from side to side constantly observing its surroundings, “current location - Unknown, estimation - bitter subterranean tunnel system, calculating, new tasks assigned - discover route out of tunnel network - reestablish contact with minds - avoid or eliminate hostile entities - ensure makers physical integrity, calculating, possible route found”
With a sudden lurch the armor suddenly begins sprinting at a rapid speed, dashing around tunnels and doging around any outcroppings of rock, after 10 seconds of running a loud crack is heard as part of the wall shatters and six white rabbits burst out, the suit of armors head rapidly turns to face the creatures “ hostile entities detected - unknown bug variant, calculating, small size indicates sabotage or swarm tactics, avoid direct physical contact - make uses of explosives and discharge defense”
With another jarring movement the armors momentum shifts and it lunges away from the creatures, 6 bright beams lance from the suit before they instantly strike a rabbit each, succeeding in doing little but burning their fur, a millisecond later a small round object is launched from the suit before detonating mid air between the creatures, shredding them.
“Hostiles eliminated, calculating, hostiles were not detected, stealth variants present, resuming course,”
The rubble from where the rabbits emerged has yet to even settle before the armor begins its sprint yet again, the tunnel begins to slope upwards at an ever higher angle but the armor shows no signs of stopping, more openings appear and without slowing the suit dashes through a seemingly random one, it continues on like this, with the armor sprinting at an ever upward angle and taking random detours for seemingly no reason before the wall once again begins to crack.
“Hostile incursion detected, deploying countermeasures” the suit points its arm at the wall within moments and there is a loud whoosh as a pillar of fire rockets from the suit, hitting the wall before erupting in an explosion similar to but much larger than the one that wiped out the rabbits from before. The wall explodes but the armor does not turn away, instead running backwards while more beams of light arc into the smoke, burning holes through the debris, a large rock then rockets form the smoke, and the armor does not flinch as the rock is burned away before reaching half distance, 3 more rockets fire from the suit and hit the target in the cloud of debris.
After the 3 successive booms finish a loud thump is heard as something tall topples over, and if you had the advanced sensors of the armor you would see a large minotaur with a gaping hole in its center, each missile had hit the same spot one after the other, coring the beast.
Without a second glance the armor continues its journey, and any unfortunate monster in its path is summarily destroyed, the environment begins to shift and a faint fog can be seen coating the floor, still the armor does not react to this change, continuing its relentless charge
The rooms are now larger and more open, making the armor's path clear, as it runs around or dramatically changes course to avoid nearing any groups, well before meeting them especially with the mist obscuring most forms of sight. The few occasions a group nears to close or blocks the path forward a barrage of explosives hits them, and unlike a few of the previous creatures these do not survive the first explosion, with the armor not even slowing down to avoid entering the clouds of shrapnel its weapons leave behind.
The fog begins to thin and a faint light begins to hit the armor, showing off its silver color while the various gems adorning it begin to sparkle and glow, before that glow rapidly intensifies as beams of light lance from them cutting the monsters in front of the suit into tiny pieces, where some of the creatures seemingly disintegrate, the engineer, which at this moment is only technically a thinking creature notices this sunlight and urges his suit onward, with nothing but the vague instinct to seek light guiding this action, and the armor once again increases in speed, almost but not quite a blur as it rapidly ascends.
This new pace rapidly sends the armor to the next zone, where the tunnels shrink in size and the light begins to fade once again, the engineers fragmented mind notices this, and driven by fear, pain, and a profound sense of emptiness and loss tries to urge the armor back into the light, still the engineer is not capable of coherent thought, much less forming an actual order for the suit to follow, and his wishes are ignored as the armor once again plunges into the darkness.
This new zone was proceeding much the same, the armor calculating a route that both avoided almost all the the monsters while also leading upwards, when a new “bug variant” struck, a vague black shape rose from the floor, and was summarily hit by a missile, it dashed through the missile and managed to land a hit on the armor, which did not even scratch the suit, before 40 beams of light launched forth and disintegrated the living shadow.
The rest of the trip through the tunnels continued identically, and instead of explosions lashing out to destroy the few monsters the suit encountered beams of light issued forth, carving neat holes through any monsters it encountered, before it finally reached the surface, emerging out onto a dark street sans any people, though even this did not warrant anything but a decrease in speed.
“Pathing complete, attempting to reestablish communications - attempt failed, maker status - limited brain scans show intense pain, no external damage detected, deployed painkillers show no signs of effect, calculating, new course of action, find secure shelter till contact is reestablished or new orders are issued, calculating route”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
----------------------
The suit of armor was jogging through the streets of orario at night. The few people that were walking about were avoided or ignored and the armor was heading for a less populated section of the city, it was heading there to avoid drawing excess attention, making use of some of the courier drones behavior patterns to avoid aggravating any buildings, or in its synthetic mind ‘hives’, less dense and developed buildings meant getting near the edge of the hive, where it could escape.
This plan came crashing down as it tried to jog past a small woman wearing a white dress, the moment the suits visual sensors landed on the woman the engineers mind, which had largely been quiet since they had left the dungeon, experienced a flurry of activity, and managed to colace into a single feeling of “home” the disparate shards of his mind for a few moments had a unified goal, “return home, return to myself” and well, hestia is a goddess of hearth, home, and family.
The engineer, a creature currently operating on nothing but emotion, could feel these concepts emanating from the small woman, and with a burst of will he took control of his armor for the first time since he arrived in Orario and the armors smooth gate shifted into a barely controlled stumble in Hestia's direction, quickly drawing the woman's attention.
----------------------
Hestia is not just a woman, she is a goddess and she can see into the hearts of all mortals, their wants, dreams, motivations, and intentions all lay bare before her gaze, and even if she did not often use this power a large man in a suit of armor suddenly stopping his sprint to stumble in her direction caused her enough concern that she used a tiny fraction of her godly power, not near enough for any other god to notice but enough for her to feel the barest of the man's intentions and mind.
Hestia’s concern about the man’s intentions with her rapidly shifted to concern for his health after she had glimpsed at his soul, his mind was nothing but pain and a longing for his home, it felt as if he had been ripped from his family and then had ever agony imaginable inflicted upon him, she wasn’t even sure how he was even moving, much less how he had been jogging before. Still with his mind in such shambles it was no wonder he was approaching her, any animal could feel her godly domain and any human in that much agony was certainly reduced to an animal.
With his mind in the state it was he wouldn’t have been able to hurt her even if he wanted too, at least if she disregarded how he had been sprinting before, and with how his stumbling was getting worse she doubted he would even make it all the way to her, just as she was about to take a step forward to try and support him his stumbling walk came to an end, as he crashed to the floor with a loud thump.
Rushing the last few feet to the man Hestia tried to help him get up, but he didn't seem to be trying at all, and with his armor on she couldn’t even one of his arms, still she was not one to quit, so she spent the next few seconds trying to lift him while continual berating the man for being unhelpful.
It was with a fair bit of surprise that Hestia watched the man smoothly get to his feet from where he had been crumpled on the road, and her worry ratched even higher when he just stared at her unmoving, so once again using her power to per into the man's mind …. It was exactly the same, maybe even a little worse, how was he standing like that? A skill or an ability?
Still she couldn’t in good conscience let him walk around town like that, and they were close enough to her house, so it wouldn't be too much trouble to walk him there, and there was always a chance he wasn’t in a familia, even if the armor made that unlikely…..
--------------------
The armor was experiencing conflicting orders, it was both instructed to kill anything that threatened harm to the maker, and it was now told by the maker that it was not allowed to harm the odd bug repeatedly tapping the top of its head, the order by the maker superseded an order by a mind yes, but the makers cognitive functions were impared, bringing the makers decision making abilities into question.
So the armor was at an impasse, still the level of force wasn’t enough to cause harm, even without the shielding, so the armor had no need to take immediate action, and so the conflicting orders were not yet pertinent.
After what its internal clock registered as an hour the light patting slowed down before stopping entirely, the bug had apparently grown tired over the course of its attack and did not possess the endurance needed to break through the shield, the armor noted this and continued its passive observation of its surroundings, the maker was still indisposed and so emergency mode was still in full effect.
The armor's visual sensors were pointed at the ceiling, and it was not permitted to move while the maker was asleep and not in immediate danger, even in emergency mode, so the armor had to resort to more exotic sensors, the radar was the go to, even if other more specialized sensors were present.
it showed a clear if indistinct picture of the room, a small underground shelter, containing one bed and a few other appliances, of overall poor quality, the buildings structural integrity was not up to standard, and was barely reached the minimal threshold before evacuation and demolition, this caused the temperature in the room to be moderately low, but the armor was more than suited to protecting the maker from the elements.
The same could not be said for the bug, which would normally be within its bed, instead the bug was sitting on the floor, resting its torso across the armor while the armor was resting on the bugs lap, the armor was not actually cold, its metal was above the rooms ambient temperature, but the small insect was still shivering, after a few moments of processing the armor came to a conclusion, it was not allowed to harm the bug, the bug currently posed no threat, so there were no conflicting orders, the bug was being harmed by the cold, the armor could prevent that, by inaction the armor was harming the bug. With a light rushing of air the vents on the armor began to intake cold air while outputting heated air.
Within a few moments the bug stopped shivering and the armor resumed its passive scans, there was no telling when the building's structural integrity would pass the safety threshold, and more hostiles it was actually allowed to engage could show up, so the armor would continue its vigil.