Chapter Plot – Core is falling of of Port Royal and Falling onto the Planet Aeth’eron, Drone is looking for his crash site while distracting the Golems and local authorities
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”
The Core fell through the air, screaming in panic as he did so. His screams filled the air, the only other sound the whisper of his passage through the sky. He frantically attempted to boost his thrusters, trying and failing to get enough thrust to control his fall. Nothing he could think of in his panic was able to stop his fall, and so, he continued falling. He kept on falling, and falling, with nothing but clouds around him. After falling for what seemed like hours, but his internal clock said was only a few minutes, he managed to get enough control over his fear to accept his fate.
“I am falling to my death, this… this is fine. There’s nothing I can do to stop it…. Or is there?”
The Core had an idea, the System had said his thrusters were insufficient to counter the Planets Gravity. So if he improved them, he should be able to stop his fall, Right? That was his idea, at least, and so, he focused his thoughts, gathered his scattered mind, and opened the console that would let him upgrade his thrusters. What happened instead left him frozen, confusion and terror holding him in their iron grasp.
System Update in Progress
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“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”
The Core started Panicking again, this wasn’t supposed to be happening. He was the Main Character right? Main Characters aren’t supposed to die falling to their deaths, they were supposed to miraculously survive by exploiting something or doing some superhuman feat. He was about to die, falling to his death, because his System had started to Update, which he didn’t even know it could do.
The Core kept on denying what was happening, even as he left the cloud bank he had been in. A stream of smoke trailed behind him as he fell further and further. Far below him he could see the surface, a gorgeous vista of forests, mountains, and farm fields. In the distance he could see a massive city, covered with massive spires and spewing clouds of steam. Of course, the Core did not see any of this actually, having shutdown his visual systems, not wanting to see the ground approaching.
Having “Closed his Eyes”, he missed seeing what would save his life, as he kept falling closer and closer to the distant ground. He had gained a significant amount of speed, and directly in his path, growing larger and larger was the distant city. He was headed straight for the center of it, towards a large tower covered in glowing golden runes, topped with a Massive white crystal. What he didn’t know, was that this crystal was the Focus of a Massive enchantment, designed to protect the city against Port Royale. Anything falling from such a height would cause a lot of damage when it hit the ground, and so the creators of the city had forged this Enchantment to stop this.
As the Core fell, the Crystal lit up, glowing a bright red, and it projected a stream of bright red lightning towards the Core. The Enchantment seemed to miss at first, the Lightning passing by the Core, until the stream twisted in Midair, forming itself into a massive red snake, flying through the air as it twisted back towards the Core. It flew past the core again, its beady eyes examining it, and with a casual ease, it caught the Core Midair. Now, the Enchantment that the Ancient Artifacts was quite simple, it had been designed for long term stability, therefore it wasn’t designed to stop anything that fell from the floating city above, only to deflect it.
The Flying snake caught the core, projecting a stream of lighting from its back, and using that lightning, it steered the Cores trajectory away from the City Center, but towards a distant Lake a couple miles away. As soon as the core seemed able to make its crash, the Snake released its Lightning Cage, and flew back into the Crystal, to await the next falling object. The Core meanwhile, had already shutdown, the feedback from the Lighting overloading its relatively simple systems not designed for electrical shorts. It fell, uncontrolled and ignored by the city below, until it plopped into the lake, skipping across its surface, until it caught a wave and sank.
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The Core sank deeper and deeper, nearly deep enough to crush its hull that was designed for the vacuum of space, and not the crushing depths of a small ocean. It sank, its hull popping, until it sank to the very bottom of that portion of the Lake. Small bubbles from small cracks that had appeared on its surface showed that it barely was able to survive the depths, but that going any deeper right now would likely destroy the Core. After it settled into the mud and silt at the bottom of the lake, green plants waving in the murky water around it, curious fish began examining it, before ignoring it in their eternal quest to eat and avoid being eaten.
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The Drone did not feel any of the feelings the Core did as it fell to the Planet Far Below. Despite being in a far worse situation, being trapped underneath a 5 Ton Stone Behemoth, The Drone simply did not have Emotions to feel. After determining that it could not free itself from the Stone Behemoth, it simply recorded its experience, one Day it would upload it to the Core for Analysis, but not today.
The Drone watched as the Group of Stone Behemoths fell through the clouds, the sunlight glinting off their stone skin, showing off all the veins of minerals that went through them. The Drone designated them by what mineral its scanners detected in each Golem. The Drone was currently trapped underneath Granite, and while it couldn’t see much from its position wedged into its stony abbs, it could see enough. Granite was shaped in the form of a Large Muscular Human, crafted from Granite, and with a face as hard as the stone it was Made From.
Along with Granite, there were 4 other Stone Golems, One a slender woman statue made of a delicate looking pale sandstone, Another was an armored Beastman made of jade, with its foxy ears and tail balanced by the Oriental Armor made of steel. The Last were a mirrored pair of Dwarven Twins, still as large as the rest, but made each of Obsidian and Marble. None of these Stone Golems made a sound, or even seemed to react as they fell through the Air.
The Drone recorded all this in Silence, wedged in between the Granite Golems stony abbs, and so it was able to watch as the Stone Party broke the cloudbank, revealing the City Far Below. This time, instead of glowing red and releasing the massive lightning Dragon, the enchantment over the city responded differently. The Crystal focus glowed Green and Blue, as a flock of Green and Blue birds, as large as building, flew out of the crystal and towards the Falling Golems.
These birds swiftly caught the Golems, and carefully guided them to the Ground in front of the Cities Gates. The Drone recorded all of this, until a careless claw from the bird that caught the Granite Golem knocked it free from its stony prison, and it flew apart from the group. It fell until it determined it was far enough from the Golems that it wouldn’t be noticed anymore, and then it caught itself midair. Unlike the Core the Drone was actually able to maneuver in the Planets Gravity, so it hovered midair above the City.
The Drone examined the Region, noting the Roads heading to the Central City that it hovered over. It noted the Forests to the North and the Southwest, marking them as sources of Organic material for the Core. It analyzed a Mountain Range to the Northwest, with a small settlement at its base, likely where the Miners Lived. The Drone scanned its frequencies for the Cores Locator Beacon, and found it to the Southeast, where there was a Lake. The Drone started to move over to regroup with the Core Again, when it detected something coming from above. It quickly dived down, and hid in the town, as it watched a small flotilla of ships, these ones lifted by massive Gas Bags, but crewed by the same sort of Pirates as infested the Station above.
The Drone didn’t stick around then, it had to regroup with the Core, but if it had it would have been very concerned… if it could be concerned. The Flotilla landed near the Gate to the City, where the Golems had landed earlier, and there the scurvy crew of Pirates picked up one of the Golems, the one made of Sandstone, and a Platoon of Armored Figures. They then lifted off, and the Flotilla split up, each one of the five ships heading a different direction, with a sixth mirroring the Drones path toward the Lake.