It's time to go. Having finished your system checks, and looked into every resource available, you think you're as prepared as you can be.
Let's go.
“...Yeah.” Tendou must be thinking the same. He takes the controls, hands gripping tight, and pilots you to the front of the hangar... until you remind him he should shut off the lights on the way out, to ensure what little fuel this place still has to operate doesn't go to waste.
After a brief detour for him to do that, the lights all go out and you're plunged into darkness once more.
Just like when you first awoke, tiny streams of light filter down from above, motes of dust trickling from the slowly eroding concrete this place was constructed from. Your pilot stumbles back into your cockpit from the darkness, and turns you around, facing the seam of bright light coming from the world outside the doors.
You approach, the main hangar doors 'closed' the same way the jammed storage bay was. Mostly shut, with the meeting point between them imperfect, wide enough at the bottom for a human to slip through.
And, based on the rent apart metal down there, the small robot that followed Tendou on his way in.
He gives an experimental tug, trying to pull the doors open, and they don't budge. “Stuck?” he wonders.
Likely closed. There should be a way to open them.
Based on what historical records you have access to, you find it most likely that this place was used in a military capacity. So it would make little sense to have the main entrance protected by doors enemy ray frames could easily open by hand.
So, either electronic, or manual controls somewhere... You explain your thoughts to Tendou, and he turns, looking around. Searching briefly, you find something that looks what you want. A tiny switch, mounted on the wall on your left when you're looking at the doors.
It's an industrial style switch, with a big handle, currently resting in the lowered position.
When Tendou climbs out of the cockpit to flip said switch, you have to reassess its size.
It's about as large as his torso.
“Ugh, it's all rusted,” he grumbles, looking it up and down. “This is gonna be rough, isn't it...?” With a long sigh, he dusts off his hands and takes a big breath.
Bracing his entire body against the wall, Tendou gets under the switch, pulling first, then heaving it upward, and finally slamming it into place in the upward position with a grunt of effort.
Tendou stands, panting, as the low groan of motors grows into a grinding shriek of metal on rusted metal. You can't actually see the doors opening since you're faced toward the wall, but the sound and bright light spilling into the hangar tell the story well enough.
Once he's recovered, Tendou climbs back into the cockpit. You turn, watching the massive hangar doors in the process of sliding open.
While waiting, Tendou speaks up. “Huh, I shouldn't leave those open, should I?” He's right, of course. Those heavy doors were likely very important for this hangar remaining in as good a condition as it did. Abandoned for thirty eight years, and all of the equipment still works.
After you agree with his assessment, Tendou climbs back out with another sigh. “No clue how to get back in here, but that's a problem for future-me, I guess.”
He waits a while for the doors to finish sliding open, prepares himself, and with another great effort, flips the huge door switch back to the closed position. Then without a moment to recover, he dashes back into your cockpit, and throws the controls forward.
You turn and run for the doors. They're very slow, grinding and struggling as they are, so you make it through the gap with some time to spare.
And with that... you're out. You stop briefly, your pilot shielding his eyes from the sudden change in light.
Standing in the open air as the hangar doors close behind you, green grass on the ground, tall trees on all sides, and the sun shining down from the blue sky above. Everything is quiet, save for the strong rustling of wind through the leaves of the forest around you.
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You make a note in your logs, 10:45, August 22, 2093. The very first time you've been active and on your feet, in the outside world, ever since you were created. It took forty four years, and replacing more than half of your original frame, but you did it.
Your attention returns to your immediate surroundings when you begin to walk again, Tendou having recovered from the change in lighting. Currently, you're in a shallow depression, between knee-high rises on either side, with the treeline atop reaching a couple meters above your head.
This restricts your line of sight to the shorter trees in front of you, younger and somewhat shorter. You move between the trunks, like wading through waist-high water. Just nudging them with your hands or feet, when Tendou doesn't move carefully enough, is enough to make the trunks groan and sway.
You move a little ways until the land levels out, and you can see above the surrounding treeline better. And beyond, lies water.
Again, you pause. Based on the time of day and the angle of the sun, you should be facing roughly north. “Woah, you can see so much more from up here...” your pilot gapes, turning slowly in a circle to get the lay of the land for himself as well.
You find that the shoreline extends all along the north, wrapping around to the west, and continuing southward. Far across the water, you can see more land rising, largely green mountain terrain. So the water must be a lake or bay of some kind. It's a long distance, somewhere between four and eight kilometers. It's hard to judge, given the elevation differences, and the limits of your sensors.
The forested land around you continues east and south from where you are, so far as you can tell, ground level ascending to the south. That should put you on the northwest coast of whatever landmass you're currently on.
As Tendou returns to piloting you, moving generally eastward while maintaining a distance of roughly a hundred or so meters from the northern coast, your mind returns to the questions you need answered.
At the very top of the list, are dangers.
Tendou, are there any great dangers we can expect to face?
He looks confused. “Uhh, the hex?” Well, that much is obvious. You follow up with a few examples raised by your subcomponents.
Anything else, besides the hex? Radiation? Toxic sludge?
“I don't even know what those are, so... probably not?” Well, that's good then. Hostile robots are enough of a threat on their own, so it's good you likely won't have any other major dangers to contend with.
You follow up with the next most pertinent questions.
What about this area, where are we? Also, where did you come from, and where are we going next?
He thinks about your questions for some time, frowning slightly. “We're a little off the mainland.” He points a thumb to the distant landmass that rings the far side of the water. “I guess we'll go east. As far as I know, that's the only way off of this island. It's about a day's walk.”
If you can walk off of the island, it isn't an island... But you don't bother mentioning that. “Well... at this pace, we'll get there way faster, won't we?” He ponders that while he goes, skirting around the rise to the south, staying near the coast.
You wait a little while this time, taking in the surroundings, before moving on with your questions.
What is BP?
To your knowledge, it is the fuel you run on, but Tendou seems to have some other impression of it, so far as you can tell.
“BP?” He tilts his head. “BP is money.” There's a pause, before it seems like he understands where you're coming from. “Oh yeah, you run on it. That's crazy, if you ask me,” he shakes his head. “You literally run on money.”
Oh. You aren't entirely sure of the full implications, but if it's used as a currency, that indicates BP may be quite valuable. But, does that also mean that it's used in place of an actual, monetary currency?
Of course, there are no immediate answers to your questions.
What does BP stand for?
You have a number of references to the substance, though they all call it BPF or BPF fuel. But nowhere among your logs is there an explanation of what the term stands in for, whether it's an acronym or otherwise.
Tendou just shrugs. “No clue, it's just BP.”
With (most of) your immediate questions answered, you go quiet for some time, continuing to walk a little further, before you see more water ahead. It seems the coastline is turning southward, continuing along this supposed island roughly southeast.
You said there's a way back to the mainland?
The young man nods. His eyes search your monitors for a while, before he points out one spot. “It's kind of hard to tell from this angle, but I think it's around here. At low tide, sometimes the water recedes enough to walk across.”
Soon breaking from the forest into a more sandy ground, the section of shore Tendou pointed out lies before you. However, there is a stretch of water three or four hundred meters long, between the shoreline and the neighboring shore beyond.
So, it is an island after all...
“Damn,” Tendou curses. “I don't know when the tide will be low enough again...”
In that case, what are your options here...? If a human can make the walk sometimes, perhaps you can do it now. You don't have any information in your logs on the actual variation between high and low tides, but you could always check the depth first.
Or, you could simply look around more. While this land isn't very large, you haven't quite explored all of it yet, having skirted the high-ground at the center of the island. Of course, you have doubts that there's anything much to find on a tiny island like this, so maybe there's no point, and it would only be a waste of time. But who knows?
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