Novels2Search
Plasma and Fire
2: Bearings

2: Bearings

He found himself examining his surroundings once more as he scowled at the pain from the burns covering his body. At the very least he'd hopefully find something to salve over them before his armor finished it's self repair. He frowned as he looked down at his RIGHT leg, it'd said there was a storage compartment built into it right? And just as he'd thought about there was a hiss as the compartment popped open. It held a slot for a sidearm roughly the size of the one he'd scavenged, and 3 small slots that were similar to those for the power cells in his left leg but thinner and narrower. Interesting. He slotted the pistol into it and it closed at just a thought as well. Good news.

"So the armor is connected to the Implants, which read my mind to send commands?"

As soon as he'd muttered the question to himself another set of words began to display to him.

M.I.U: Kelxath is offline due to severe damage to neural matrix that self repair was unable to fully fix. It is currently reconfiguring but most basic subroutines including thought control of armor and connected equipment are accessible.

Warning! Detecting severe corruption in M.I.U Kelxath Neural Matrix! Drift from Imperium protocol is likely upon full reactivation. Advise immediate report to nearest Imperium base to initiate M.I.U Reset.

Well that sure was useful. Not. If anything it was more worrying, whatever an M.I.U is, it was connected to him enough to read his thoughts and corrupted. He'd need to be careful of it. A thought had the compartment on his shoulder pop open, and it was much smaller then the leg compartment. It held a slot where he could store the knife he'd found at least, it was a bit of a pain since it was atop his only arm, but he made it work. His armor was noticeably more advanced then that of his supposed men in arms from what he could see. Less interlapping plates and more highly flexible alloy, also sleek and colored a stark white with black stripes. At least on the parts that'd fully repaired already. He willed the compartment to shut and stood up from the corpse he'd looted earlier.

It could also connect to equipment, from what it had told him, leaving him wondering if he even had any. On cue, in came the lines of text across his vision to crash any dreams of something useful.

Error! Equipment issued for this deployment not detected! Please locate! Failure to do so will result in level seven punishment.

Lovely. Well he hoped at the least that whoever would be punishing him would go easy, considering the massacre here. He began to move between the other corpses checking for anything useful as he considered his situation. Digging through their armor and seeing if there was anything left was difficult but he managed. Most everything was destroyed, melted or broken into pieces. He managed to find two vials filled with a grayish sludge. The labels on them read out as 'Field Rations' and to his surprise and despair, they fit into the slots in the leg compartment. At least he had found something to eat, if you could call that food.

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By the time he'd finished, night was beginning to fall not that it mattered when he discovered he could see quite well through it darkness. It was as if it was there but not, so that he could make out light in the darkness but also see in it as if it was day. A lucky break he considered, since he could now make out lights in the far distance. A sure boon, considering it gave him a direction to walk. Even if it would likely take a few days to reach it.

A quick check over of what little he'd gathered, and he set off towards the lights in the distance to hopefully find someone alive. Whoever it was they'd at least be able to tell him more then he knew now.

Even as he traveled he didn't see any signs of real life, corpses with holes burned through them or parts sliced off. Destroyed vehicles, walkers, and suits of giant armor that were slumped over all around. He passed by a square filled with six to seven dozen corpses that were covered in a light chitin and made him feel uneasy. They wore uniformed armor as well though it was different to that of the Imperium. Brown and covered in red markings. They were the only ones aside from the Imperial corpses scattered around that wore uniforms, the vast amount of bodies wore mismatched armor that rarely matched. With the unease he felt he pulled himself away and kept walking without looking further into it.

He did manage to find some sort of salve eventually inside some sort of walker that had been designed for carrying troops clearly, four shattered and melted spindly legs holding a massive bulky box, with armor plates covering it and what appeared to be a giant red mechanical eye on it's front. It was laying on it's side in what had likely been a house of some kind. Once he'd pried the hatch on the back of the thing he'd been treated to the smell of cooked flesh. The hold was filled with corpses bearing the Imperium's symbol, their armor was melted as well and almost fused to what skin was left on them. Most of it had sloughed off to whatever it was that cooked them alive inside their transport. Most were buckled to the wall with metal braces, hadn't even had the chance to get out.

He managed to find a small medical kit inside that hadn't been completely ruined by the heat. A few injectors with labels that denoted them as painkillers and antibiotics, and a single tube of salve that was 'rated for pulse plasma burns.' The rest of it's contents were blackened and ruined, likely bandages and seals. The relief when he started spreading the salve over his burns was almost instant, a cool and soothing feeling as he used the entire tube on himself. There was a rather annoying itch he could feel all across the injuries, including the stump of his missing arm but at least the pain was finally gone. The small kit itself magnetically hooked to the belt on his armor, which was a relief.

He didn't bother searching the corpses and left as quickly as he could after, the smell driving any thought of it from his mind as he started walking again. He finally stopped several hours later as the sun rose again and slowly made the beacon of light rising into the sky impossible to make out. He set up in one of the less ruined buildings around him inside of some kind of office to get some rest. If he could only see it at night then he'd walk at night. He didn't take the time to let himself dwell on anything he'd seen and just slept straight out, it'd be a problem for when he woke up.