The previously opened casket held nothing but darkness at first. The robot woke up en route to Ia'Annerth when the frame noticed a series of jolts on the wagon and booted up its inhabitant.
[/WARING: Severe movement detected. Possible danger expected.]
[/Initiating boot sequence...]
The usual procedure followed: fans starting up, eye-lights glowing, and the loud beeping sound.
BEEP.
Thankfully, the people who were transporting him did not hear the noise over their banter, the clopping of the horses, and the rattling of the wooden wagon. Unfortunately, the robot woke up with its first image of the doors of the casket and the banter of numerous sounds outside the frame. He was confused.
Um... what the hell happened here?
The robot tried to pick itself up, but due to the rocking of the cart on the uneven road, stumbled, and then banged its head on the ceiling and the sides of the frame. One of the key features of the sentience module was a sense of pain, used as a way for the AI in the robot to detect any malfunctions, injuries, and other sorts of limits, such as intense audio input and part breakdowns. And the similarity between pain in animals and this AI also meant that this "pain" could also linger; just not enough to permanently disable itself. The pain that the robot now experienced was due to its full weight causing it to smash itself into the frame, a few hundred pounds of metal smashing into a metal wall. The robot never felt "pain" at such as high level before.
The damaged motors and armor made it feel some pain, similar to muscle soreness for humans, but for the robot, it felt as if he was being roasted alive. It was even worse when he tried to walk, but his curiosity got the better of him before. This new, intense pain made it nearly black out, another side effect of near-human sentience. After the "pain" went away, it did what other people would do: it cussed. It cursed in all the languages it knew: "fuck", "motherfucker", and "dick" in British English, cuss words in Hindu, similes, and metaphors in Chinese, Japanese, and other various languages. But all that came out of its speakers was broken static. The robot was shocked.
Damn it... one more thing that's broken and needs to be fixed...
Good thing the beings outside didn't hear his cursing. The robot felt depressed at the realization. Not only could he not use any of his advanced sensors, he couldn't even verbally communicate! Even if he somehow managed to make contact with sentient beings (he was sure of this because he found a small pile of garbage strewn in a patch close to the clearing), he couldn't communicate. The continued rocking and the closed hatch helped to confirm one of his worst scenarios: A sentient being has found the frame and the frame was being sent to who-knows-where. That, and he was still on his knees because the fucker who was transporting him decided to put the frame on its side. What was the chance that they would the hatch facing the ground? That left a last-chance survival plan: the "don't-get-dissected-whatever-you-do" plan.
He cursed again, even though all that he could do was emit broken static. That left a last-chance survival plan: the "don't-get-dissected-whatever-you-do" plan. Not that it needed much explanation. Burst out of the frame and try not to get injured. That should be easy; his battery was full and his armor, although rusted and scratched, should deflect some of the projectiles that would come his way, if there were any.
So he lied down and waited... Waited until he could probably get out. That was a pretty big if by the way. Most likely they would take an x-ray of the casket, find him in it, and blast him to pieces. All in all, desperation.
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Later, the sounds of voices increased exponentially. First, it was constrained to a few collections. Then a few more. After that, it slowly increased into a crescendo, a multitude so vast that the robot had trouble keeping track of them all. The robot noticed a pattern between the sounds. Some were grating and loud; others meek and soft, and even a few rumblings and what sounded like air being inhaled into a vacuum. All this happened through a series of stops and accelerations, which the robot presumed to be either traffic, rest stops, or... whatever the beings did. He reasoned that life would be different here. Sure, the "trees" were green and had leafs, and the environment looked similar, but this did not mean that it was similar to Earth. For all the robot knew, the "leaves" could be made out of radioactive uranium and the "trees" could be rocks, with the ground being alive. He couldn't tell until he could create better machines, anyway. A chunk of unrefined uranium could look like jade to the naked eye.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The robot did not realize that the sounds were the voices of people as they made their way to the city, Ia'Annerth, through the various roads that they crossed. Some time later, through the braking and the acceleration, the transport that he was on stopped for the last time. After the collection of sounds reached the robot, he noticed it was mainly the first ones that he heard and a new sound. It was more varying and mainly at a higher pitch than its original octave.
He did not realize that the sounds were the voices of people as they made their way to the city, Ia'Annerth, through the various roads that they crossed. Some time later, through the braking and the acceleration, the transport that he was on stopped for the last time. After the collection of sounds reached the robot, he noticed it was mainly the first ones that he heard and a new sound. It was more varying and mainly at a higher pitch than its original octave.
Soon he was placed upright at a place. He could now see through the crack of the frame's doors a reflection of fire on what looked like wooden walls. He was amazed: it was like he was at a house on Earth! Still, though, he was not sure if it was wood and actual flames, but it was close enough for comfort.
A collection of sounds then clustered around an area directly in front of him. To his utter surprise, the sounds belonged to humanoids! One was short and bulky, with red-orange hair and medieval protective wear. Another belonged to an old man in slippers and a white, dirtied lab coat. Another belonged to a short female with a metal-tipped wooden staff. Yet another was covered in glass vials on top of what appeared to be leather. And the last was still in heavy metallic armor.
He marveled at the similarities between this place and of humanity. The only difference, it seemed, would be the language. Then the old man gestured for him to come out. He didn't hesitate to do so.
No point in hiding myself when the old man already knows I'm here. And I'm also sick of being cooped up in this frame...
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The four adventurers looked at the monster the appeared before them. Rusted and caked in red dust, its flickering blue eyes never left their gaze and never blinked under the scratched metal mask, similarly covered in red dust. The humanoid body it inhabited was completely covered in full metal armor, with special metal plates covering the joints. It had pushed the door of the casket open after peeking through, and staggered over to them, keeping a distance away from them. A word to describe it would be alien. Although humanoid, it did not make any unnecessary movements. It wasn't graceful either. Apparently, that red dust it was leaking out did something to its movements.
It took a glance at the adventurers and focused on Horst next, expecting something to happen. The reaction was a chuckle. "So this thing trusts me that much already?" he asked, amused. "Then hold on there for a moment." He motioned for the humanoid to stay there, and then brought out an artifact: a mana-powered saw. Horst then did his classic maniacal grin when the saw whirred to life. "I'm just going to find out what is under that armor you're wearing..."
The humanoid freaked out, and some sort of noise came out of the humanoid. It sounded artificial and broken like someone tried to get a sound artifact working but damaged it severely in the process. It then proceeded to try and get away from the scientist, who was running after it as fast as his slipper-covered feet could do. Which wasn't much, considering that the humanoid was lurching around at a snail's pace. After a few minutes, Horst was tired and sat back down. "God dammit, I've been chasing this thing around while you guys did nothing! Quick, after it! I'll give you one of my artifacts!" he screamed.
The four adventurers were too greedy to let this chance pass by. Horst's artifacts were legendary, with some being able to do anything from long-distance voice calls to projections and electric shocks. All were useful for adventurers, and all were coveted and owned by the various powers of the world. To offer one for capturing the humanoid meant that Horst really wanted it. They all started to pursue the humanoid with their weapons but were careful enough to not damage anything on the tables.
The humanoid was panicking and its movements became jerkier. It snapped its head to look at them and suddenly ran up to the second floor of the residence, which was Horst's personal living space. With the four (plus Horst, who tried to go after them too, but was still winded) rright on its tail, the humanoid ran into the hallway and quickly opened up the window at the end, jumped out, and landed on an adjacent roof while jerkily running away and leaping across rooftops. It was feat that none of the people present could hope to accomplish, yet the humanoid managed to do so in a badly injured position. That was a testament to its abilities.
The four adventurers and one wheezing Horst could only look in dismay at the top of the staircase at its rapidly disappearing back as it ran out into the dark caverns of Ia'Annerth atop the many rooftops of the slums. Then Horst turned his gaunt, wrinkled face to the party. "You know that the offer still stands, right?"
The others nodded, but this did not prevent them from still sighing. They wanted Horst's artifacts badly, but they also knew that this would take time. A lot of time.