The booming voice that greeted the wary warrior, emanated from the far corner of the room.
The “Man” to his left, if you could call him that, stood like a welcoming monolith. Statue-esque in figure and appearing as a construct formed from the ruins of an ancient civilization, this golem nearly brushed the ceiling of the room with his head. Arms like Corinthian pillars, hung from the sides of his titanic metallic body. Legs formed from thousands of coiled metal rods held his hefty form aloft, ending in massive gold plated ceramic bricks. Upon his shoulders, and around his waist sat miniature castles, sublime spires and decorated turrets adorned each of them.
Out stretching a hand to CAL, he chuckled heartily.
“Welcome to Vigilius Station, my friend. You gave us a bit of a scare, some of us thought you would never wake up.”
CAL looked to his face, though masked by an armet style helm, he could still tell there was an eager smile underneath. Accepting the offer, Cal grasped three of his massive fingers, shaking them lightly. He was taken by complete surprise when the giant clasped his hand around his arm, ripping him off his feet and pulling him in for a full bear hug.
“Nice to meet you bud! I’m Naught, leader of this ragtag crew of misfits!”
Dropping him to the ground, CAL took a moment to catch his breath after being released.
“Sorry about that, sometimes I forget some of you aren’t as thick as me.”
CAL coughed for a moment.
“Not… Not a problem, just… just give me a warning next time… So I can catch my breath. I’m CAL.
“CAL, huh? Is that your given name or assigned name?”
Finally standing back up on his own two feet, CAL looked at Naught curiously.
“My what or what?” His speech still ragged as he regained his breath
“Is that the name you gave yourself or is it the model name you were created with?”
“Created with? It’s just the name the villagers gave me, what do you mean created wi-” CAL froze, instantly remembering his battle with Negas. The pain of the exploding claw, the detonation of the vespids…
Instantly activating Hardlight mode, CAL dashed to the door.
“Hold up there bud, where do you think you are going, all armored up and empowered.”
CAL bounced off of Naught, who appeared in front of him almost instantaneously. CAL’s optics failing to process what just happened.
“How did you… Nevermind, I need to get back to the village! The bombs, the radiation, there’s probably thousands suffering right now!”
Naught sighed heavily, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door.
“Listen, just sit and power down.”
The jovial tone which seemed synonymous with his voice, faded into a grim and morose gloom. “A lot has happened since we recovered you, and it would be better if you were sitting down to hear this.”
CAL did as he asked, but remained in his Hardlight mode.
“1 out of 2 requests is better than what I normally get, so I’ll take it. But know you are just going to burn out your battery in that mode.”
“Just tell me what happened! Are the villagers safe?”
“Let me start at the beginning, we had been on route to Durst for several days after receiving a long range distress signal from your Ship A.I. We managed to pick up on the final moments of your battle with the Rogue Pirate Lord Negas, but by the time we reached the outer orbit of the planet, the nuclear devices had already detonated. The planet’s surface…”
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Naught hesitated for a moment, carefully contemplating how to broach the topic softly.
“Over 67% of the surface had been rendered uninhabitable.”
“Uninhabitable…?” The word hit him like a blade through the heart, quick, painless. It hadn’t the time to register before he spoke again. “Like… You mean everyone… that can’t be…”
Cal drifted off for a moment, the words sinking into his skull like toxins in the bloodstream. Finally coming to his senses, he blurted out the first thought to come to his mind.
“They’re all dead?”
Naught solemnly nodded his head.
“Most Died in the initial wave of radiation and explosions, the others died choking on the very air. Almost every major habitation was hit directly.”
CAL’s lights dimmed, hard light mode melted off of him like a wet oil painting as he felt himself go limp. A cold shock of reality struck him directly in the heart, he buried his head in his hands, letting the horrific sadness of the situation overwhelm him. Tears fell uncontrollably out of his visor and through his hands, pooling on the floor as he wept. The faces of everyone he knew, Gerin, Eldar Tiwat, The twins, Kubrow, they all flashed in his mind.
“I failed.” He whimpered. “I failed everyone, my friends… my family… my home.”
Several moments passed before CAL felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, looking up to see Naught’s towering figure kneeling next to him.
“CAL, little buddy. You didn’t fail. You did the best you could with what you had. Fighting a full Pirate lord alone, barely armed, without training and at half health. You did more than most could have done with what you were given. Besides, you didn’t let me finish. You didn’t fail everyone. Your actions allowed us to save some of the villagers.”
“You… You saved some?” CAL wiped his visor, some hope returning to his voice.
“Yes, let me continue. When we arrived, our navigator was able to lock onto the wreckage of your ship and your personal beacon. We recovered your ship A.I. and though severely damaged, it had recorded the locations of fleeing villagers. As I said, most of the village was lifeless, but we found a single villager, armored in an Ancient warsuit. She was projecting a barrier around you and several other survivors. All of whom we picked up, along with any other villagers and raider strays we could find. Truth be told, it’s not many. Roughly 60 or so Villagers, and around 100 raiders and Pirates.”
A burst of energy shot through CAL like an injection of nitro.
“The Girl, Anaya is she okay? The Village elder? Where are the rest of the villagers?”
“We were unable to recover the Elder, however the girl is alive and well, if not a bit troublesome. In the weeks you have been inactive, she’s tried to break in here multiple times. As for the villagers, though the bulk of the planet was compromised. They asked to be transported to the last continent in the south. They are slowly rebuilding as we speak, but there are very few of them, their chances of survival are slim.”
CAL sighed a heavy and haggard breath before realizing what he just said.
“WEEKS?! How long have I been out?”
“Counting today? Nearly five US weeks*.”
*US=Universal Solar - 26 Hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 5 weeks/35 days in a month, 420 Days in a Year
“I’ve been unconscious for a month?” The mental exhaustion draining the energy from his voice.
“Righty-O buddy, you’ve been our causal sleeping beauty while the rest of us have been taking care of you. Just last week you sent a wave of blades out and wrecked lot of us.”
“Last week? I thought that was just moments ago.”
“Nope, it was far longer than that. Though it is nice to see you were semi-conscious during that whole orde-”
A flashing red alarm on Naught’s wrist cut him off as he spoke.
“Um… give me a sec to answer this.”
Clicking his wrist Naught began speaking to someone as CAL let himself bathe in the coldness of reality.
“Naught, We have a situation here. The Jailbird is free again and We are a couple hours out from Calica’s Mobile port.”
The voice of the person on the comm link was deep, stern and cold.
“I’ll make my way up to the bridge in a moment. In the meantime Zav, get Wahno to box and sleep them.”
“Affirmative, Keep on the lookout in case they head your way.”
Turning back to CAL, Naught reached in the drawer next to him and pulled out a bag of Drenlin, tossing it to CAL.
“Listen, I have to deal with some stuff on the bridge. Relax here for a bit and when you are ready follow the arrows outside and meet me on the bridge.”
CAL shook his head, watching as Naught left the room before, lying back on his bed. Cracking open the bag, he slowly absorbed it, pondering the new world he has found himself in.