A groan vibrated through the ground as ESA landed, cracking the fragile and chipped stone underneath his weight.
The AI awoke; The visual HUD taking mere moments to power on. A small map shimmered in the corner, hundreds of green blips marking the Citadels assault, hundreds more red dots marking the hostile defensive.
ESA sent out a few mental orders. The purple fortress shield shimmered quickly to a light blue. ESA moved like a lumbering giant, pushing his legs off the ground slowly. Rippling waves pulsed through the shield as it caught a few stray rounds.
ESA turned his chassis toward the battlefield, heads up display marking plenty of red in the firing envelope. A loud whirr signalled the imminent charging of the spinal mounted railgun, a loud screech cracking through the air as the charged barrel sent its reaper to its designated target in the wartorn plane.
One step at a time, smaller mechs chittering by at speeds ESA could only reach with shields down, raced by as they searched for their victims in the trenches and makeshift defenses.
The Empire only had so many biologicals left to defend the planet, and they were getting desperate. Each step crunching loose stones and bending fallen metal as ESA approached the towering monolith he came for.
A powerful beam projected into the sky, shimmering and shining a similar color to ESA's shield projector, coating the planet in an ethereal glow; It was broken up by small blips and occasional cracks as dropships forced their way past their less fortunate counterparts.
Two Vulcan machine guns shredded any drone or fleshling that dared step up within ESA's line of sight. The fighting ceased nearly as soon as it started. ESA swiveled it's cannon as it scanned the destroyed urban landscape it approached, HUD giving no prompt of hostiles.
Several smaller mechs marched into the city, able to fit side by side in the streets. Although ESA could fit in the city, it determined to stay in the battlefield and sentry.
The violent pulses of energy ceased as the railgun mounted atop it's spine ceased charging. ESA scanned the empty field, the only remnants of its previous occupants the smoking piles of rubble.
With a blinding flash and deafening crash, the blue planetary shield flashed red. Stray bolts of energy struck the planet, and some of the hundreds of ships in orbit, as the shield overloaded.
Sensing immediate danger, ESA slammed it's reinforced chassis into the ground; It brought its left Infront of its head like a shield.
The distant monolith of security once so revered by the defenders crumbled and fell. Massive fissures opened in the planets surface as the shields generator overloaded.
Like a wave, it overwhelmed ESAs sensors quickly. All sensors screamed for immediate retreat as warnings of impossibly high levels of radiation flooded his HUD and database. Although the optic sensor saw something different.
The color drained from the world as stones lifted from the ground. The world remained in a greyish hew, drained of its color. The monolith shined a brilliant black as it expanded like a hungry singularity, eager to expand and devour all.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
ESA quickly shut down all non-vital systems as the black hole expanded at an exponentially increasing speed. By the time ESA crossed the threshold of the singularity-like object, he had completely powered down.
----------------------------------------
ESA awoke sometime later. No matter how hard it attempted, it's databases returned empty handed. Completely devoid of any information or time of arrival to its location.
Which was odd.
It was sure Terra was the last place to naturally grow grass. A quiet buzzing filled the air as ESA's fusion reactor powered on. Moments later, after leaving emergency mode, his HUD flooded with radiation damage prompts.
Strangely, his railgun had taken enough damage to put it out of commission. With a command he pulled the barrel and railgun back into his chassis for damage forensics.
Everything else seemed.. minor. Although he seemed to be missing vital information on his surroundings, that being completely burned from his databases.
Raising his HUD, he inspected his area of awakening. A green plane, surrounded in all directions by flowers, grass, and trees.
The trees came back eighty nine percent oak in appearance, although much larger and green. Again, odd.
He shot a prompt for system diagnostics, doing a full once-over for internal damage. Perhaps his optical sensor was damaged.
..
...
....
PWS - 0%..
..
SWS - 89.88%..
..
"ASE" Eye - 98.6%..
..
"Bastion" Shield - 95.6%..
..
"ASE" Radar - 44.2%..
..
"ASE" Miscellaneous Sensors - 76.7%..
..
"ASE" Nanoid Systems - 99.8%..
..
Locomotive Systems - 74.2%..
....
...
..
He took in the most vital information. His radar seemed damage, but secondary weapon systems seemed alright. For a moment he contemplated using his nanobots to repair the cannon, but without a way to replenish their reserves at the moment, it was decided against.
ESA pushed his legs up, the metal creaking. Moss fell loosely from his legs. A bush had grown around his resting frame, or what it was.
The sticks crunched as ESA moved. It's movements slow and deliberate as not to harm the bush too much. As a war machine, ESA felt a tinge of curiosity to the objects it razed.
Like a stumbling giant it strode through the field, flowers and grass crushed in it's foots wake.
ESA observed the stars for a moment. Swimming through its database, it couldn't line up any constellations from any known planets. Software suggests that he was up to date with the hive, or atleast he was at the time of.. whatever happened.
ESA glazed it's vision over the treeline, the dense lining of green and brown too thick for ESA to proceed through, except in one area.
The clearing extended further behind ESA. A small, dilapidated, wooden object hung over a pond across the clearing from the war machine.