C.O.R.e's Story

Rome peered out of the ship deck at the self-attacking ship and decided to do something. "This is the emperor of the Roman Fell Empire, do you require any assistance from my fleet?" He sent the transmission to the large ship ahead of them.

* * * *

As C.O.R.e entered from light speed, it stopped in the center of the battlefield stunning and throwing everyone back, as well as the debris from the fallen ships. This particular Angel decender's color was Black and running down the ship was a lively color of green smoothly going blue and then back to green. Out of nowhere a loud roar, shacking everything and heard, even in the deadly silence of space. It came to everyone that it was scanning them. Out of nowhere it's lovely green/blue color disappeared and tuned to a deadly blood/rose red.

It's decision was to eliminate the organic filth who called themselves the "Militia" Threat level: Minimal

The belly opened and released about one hundred upon hundreds of Space charges equiped with the formal front laser and explosive detonator. A little later after about 26 Militia ships the chargers came back to the Angel decender feeling that it showed it's power, the ship now lay dormant, as if waiting to see what the Aschen Empire would do, and what the appropriate thing would be to respond to them would be.

Rome and the Roman Fell Empire decided to evacuate the planet and the system and before they zipped away They sent out space flares to try to take up the C.O.R.e's attention. Only a few C.O.R.e ships really noticed though, and the Angel decender still waited for any type of response.

Now, hundreds of C.O.R.e detachments were marching all across the desert. A detachment had unluckily heard the explosion and went to the cave. This C.O.R.e detachment had 30 version 1 Soldier bots and 4 Engineer bots all equiped with anti-organism blasters. The C.O.R.e surrounded the cave and then with a loud boom, a dark synthetic male voice started. "Organism scum, exit the natural forming, that you call a cave. Come out now and you will be killed quickly and efficiently. You will also have the honor of being studied on. Or, you could be killed the preferred way that you organism-scum like. With 'Honor'?" The robot made a crackle sound with glee. "I 'love' the curious way Organic's minds think."

"Holy sssshit, what the hell?!" Abraxas whispered sharply. He was panicking. It wasn't that he was cowardly, oh no - it took a great deal of bravery to be a criminal on Blackrock. He just really valued living. The maniacal glee in whatever stood outside frightened him to his core. It was... unnatural.
Sara was quiet. She was thinking. Her stasis ability... it was one of her two psionic abilities. It allowed her to keep her body in a trance which protected her from any harm short of complete and utter annihilation - like a black hole, for example. She could do it to other people, but it drained her quite a lot.
According to that strange robot, it was either die or die. So, she had nothing to lose.
"Guys." She whispered. "Huddle up."
Abraxas and Ara huddled up near Sara. She took a deep breath, then froze.

* * *

From the C.O.R.e unit's point of view, there would be only silence.

Leida was getting the heck out of here, Hugging the ground as she glanced up at the chaos in the sky while she headed to the opposite side of the planet. She saw some of those robots that attacked earlier surrounding a cave and, Feeling a bit vindictive she nudged her trajectory for a run above them. doing a quick drive by strafing run with the singular weapon her craft had, A 40mm chaingun. Dropping a line of fire on these inferior robots before disappearing into the distance as she made her way to the other side of the planet and left using the celestial body as a visual cover, The craft disappearing with it's jump drive.

"Loss report Unit-89459?" Screeched one of the Engineer bot in binary . "Only 13 mangled bodies and your damaged central processor" Another Engineer bot screeched back. "Enter the natural forming and wait for that 'Shell' to dissipate. 15 Soldier bots went in and surrounded the shell, taking out heavy anti-organic blasters and aiming ready to fire.

"This is Unit-38453, we have been attacked from the air, confirming a heavy bombardment on all organics."

****

The C.O.R.e Angel decender roared to life and opened it's chest allowing hundreds to pour out and destroy any organics that it could about 71% of the Space charges went against the Aschen Empire and whatever was left, went after the Militia fighters.

Sara had been prepared to keep her stasis going for an hour, maybe two. She'd only needed it for under a minute.
The trio stared at the wreckage of robotic parts. They were speckled with so many bullet holes it had looked like the things had switched their paint job to "polka dots". Abraxas noticed something in the ground. He knelt down and picked it up. A bullet, the type that would come from a chain or machine gun. The plot thickens, he thought bemusedly.
The girl, Ara, started carefully cutting off the weakened parts of the robots and storing them in the large pack she wore on her back. When Abraxas inquired about what she was doing, she explained that her family collected scrap and made gear out of it. She would take this home and study it.
"Yeah, but how are we gonna get home!?" Abraxas fretted.
"My Sand-Trekker 90 is a little ways over west. We're not too far from it now." She paused as the others stared at her. "What? Where did you think we were running anyways?"
"Uhh, anywhere away from thosssse Militian mofos?"
"It doesn't matter," stated Sara matter-of-factly. She was a bit tired, but not much compared to how much she would have been if she'd kept the stasis going for an hour or more. "We're sitting ducks out here. Ara, if you've got a vehicle, then let's get the hell out of here in it."
A couple minutes of walking would take them there. It was a well-worn but sturdy Sand-Trekker, an all-terrain vehicle suited to the rough-and-tumble land of Blackrock. They hopped in and sped away from the battle.

* * *

"We're being attacked on two fronts, ma'am!" Squawked the lieutenant through the hologram. "By the Aschen, and by some strange and apparently life-form hating-"
The soldier was cut off as an explosion blasted through his battle-fighter, cutting off the transmission. Attacking the Aschen was hard enough; but now they faced an enemy on two fronts?!
Ashia pressed hard on the speaker button. "All war-fighters, form a defensive barricade between us and those newcomers. Everyone else, fire everything you've got!!!"

* * *

The C.O.R.e units would soon find themselves cut off from the Militia by a bastion of War-fighters. These mammoth ships were great in defense, and extremely hard to penetrate. They would wear away at and keep the robots distracted while the Battle-fighters whittle down the numbers of the Aschen Empire. The Aschen would soon find themselves hard-pressed.

Lillith landed inside the hangar with a harsh rumbling impact before making a dash for the nearest armed person, Kicking them in the gut and relieving them of their gun whatever it may be she quickly turned and scanned for any other armed personnel, taking a few experimental shots to get the feel for her current gun before aiming at the nearest other person with a gun and aiming to shoot them in both shoulder joints to hopefully disable them non-lethally. She charged them and If successful would grab them by the throat using them as a live shield to dash to the nearest hallway and get out of the open. Leaving them at the start of the hallway and continuing on while outside the black cube she'd tossed sent a subspace signal to the nearest vanguard patrol with an urgent message for Dawn.

The Angel decender opened up it's 2 side ports letting out about 120 drop ships carrying Engineer bots landing onto, and attaching itself onto the mammoth ships and started ripping and drilling into the ships.


****

On the surface, Behemoths class C.O.R.e were tearing through cities, filled with innocents or not. The only 'survivor' would be the occasional robot, but if it fought back, swarms of Soldier bots would eventually end the bot's traitor life.

Whenever the C.O.R.e was done in the towns, cities, or buildings, the always exploded it. They have cleared out about 13 towns so far.

The drop ships would soon find it hard to drill through. Whatever metal the War-Fighters were made of, it was some pretty potent stuff. A couple Engineer bots would make it through into the interior, but would be accosted by a group of Militian soldiers. The War-Fighters had sensors all over, so they knew where they were striking. Since the robots were Engineers and not Soldiers, they would likely be made quick work of. Then the hull would try to self-repair itself as soon as possible - but it would take a couple minutes, so the guards would have to remain vigilant.

The Engineer bots were to smart for these organics, they had 2 options, repair themselves and take the ship, or self-destruct, and take down the ship permanently. They waited for more to more come for that though.

Soldier bots were now arriving and even a smaller, but still very large Behemoth landed onto the ship, coming in and destroying the sensors with low-level EMP gernades that did not effect the C.O.R.e since they were on the same frequency, but would disable any thing electronic inside. The Behemoth crawled threw and instantly tore through any resistance at that breach, while constantly updating the other C.O.R.e on the dangers on the inside. Inside this certain Behemoth, at its core, it had a Thermo-Nuke, which could easily tear the ship from all the test done, drilling into it and finding what material it was, the new Engineers drilled into it easily with their equipment

****

For the Aschen Empire, C.O.R.e was hammering the ship with hundreds of Space charges and blowing holes into the ship

****

The C.O.R.e took pity on the Militia, weak organics probably didn't even know hat was coming, The Angel decender decided to give the Militia a chance to back out and leave this planet for the C.O.R.e

The Angel sent a transmission and its appearance was horrifying, it was a bleeding heart of a human, that every time it talked, was pulled apart and bled, with mechanical parts sticking in and out of it, it would at least make a few of the organics sick. "Hello Organics called the 'Militia', we give you a chance to leave, but will not stop slaughtering you'r people till you do leave. Decide quickly. And don't try to say "No we will not stop fighting for our glory" Or "we go down with the ship", we know you Organics only desire is to live no matter the cost. Decide or die." And with that the transmission ended.

Ashia - and everyone else in the room - stared in silence as the hologram message blinked out. Then it erupted in a storm of shouting.
"QUIET!!!" Bellowed Supreme Leader Gavax. "We cannot let these bastardized machines take our enemy for us! We will fight back! We will-"
"No."
Gavax turned in surprise to see Ashia standing up on her own two feet for the first time after getting rescued. A doctor rushed over to get her to sit back down, but she waved him off. Her arm was still connected to the IV.
"What," Gavax said slowly, "did you say?"
"You heard me right, Gavax. I say we back out of this before any of our troops get further destroyed."
Gavax's eyes bulged like deranged golf balls. "You- you-" He slammed his fist down on the countertop. "YOU COWARD!!! You would let those- those things defeat us and shame our honor?!"
"Yes, if it means our empire still gets to live!!!" Ashia snapped back, bringing forth a couple gasps from the crowd. "You think we are invincible, Gavax. You think we can take whatever comes at us! Well, you're wrong! Our soldiers- no, my soldiers are dying out there, and I won't sit around and let them!"
"HOW DARE YOU!!!" roared the Supreme Leader. "How dare you revolt against the one who took you in when you had no one e-"
"I AM TO BLAME?!" Cried Ashia. "I raised these soldiers by my own hand! You see nothing but troops and numbers, but I know people! Real, living people just like any of us! And you would send them to their deaths?!" She was actively crying now. She couldn't stop it, because she'd never felt so strongly about something. "If you will not call them back, then I will!!!"
The room was silent. Nobody dared to speak, or cough. Finally, Gavax snarled in disgust. "Fine! We'll call them back to lick are wounds!" He pointed a condescending finger at his captain. "I hope you are proud." With that, he turned and left.

* * *

The C.O.R.e. units would get a transmission back from a rather angry-faced man who called himself the leader of the Militia. He said they would back off. The Aschen would soon find their persecutors were backing away. Many of the War-Fighters had gaping holes in their sides, and many a soldier had died today. They would set off into the distance, back to their home.

The C.O.R.e left the troops and ships, now all heading to Blackrock and mining it down for resources, killing any resistance. Blackrock has fallen. The thousands of engineers that were on the planet made anti-space vehicle turrets all over the planet, stopping anything from coming in or out. They used the scrap for new guns and the sand for reinforced glass.

Abraxas and Sara watched all this from the back of the Sand-Trekker, staring as their new robotic overlords took over the planet. Ara kept her eyes on the road, and the C.O.R.e seemed to ignore them for the most part, busily creating large turret-like structures drilled into the mottled ground. The place was changing, and fast.
"Sssso..." Abraxas mused, "what do you think the new leaderssss will be like? Maybe they'll just let ussss live out normal livessss."
Sara's response was a swat to the back of his head. He yelped out. "Don't be a fool!" she hissed. "Those creatures seem to loathe all organic live with a vengeance. Chances are they'll either kill us all or turn us into cyborg soldiers working in their huge army."
"Hey guys!" Ara called from the front of the Sand-Trekker. "We're here!"
The two of them turned to see they were approaching a ramshackle house. Looking down on it from the hill they were on, they could see it was made of wood, but that wood was old and weather-worn, and many newer planks boarded up holes and window slots. A cloth tarp stood as the door, and there was another building attached to it, where a rusty chimney belched out smoke and ash. A large wooden fence, bespeckled with barbed wire, surrounded the house. It maybe stood 6 or 7 feet.
Ara drove up to a gate-like structure. Suddenly, a panel in the wood opened up, revealing a small metal panel with a camera screen. Abraxas started. Where would they get technology like that in a place like this?
The camera scanned Ara's face with a red laser, then the panel closed and the gate opened for them. Ara drove in, and it closed behind them.
Ara turned off the vehicle and jumped out. Sara and Abraxas followed. She strode through the tarp and into the house, shouting "MA!!! I'M HOME!"
The two of them followed her inside, and were greeted with the scent of fresh muffins. Abraxas' stomach rumbled. He realized he hadn't eaten in possibly 3 or 4 hours.
Ara could be seen inside, being hugged by a massive woman. The woman had perhaps the height, weight and width of a full-grown adult grizzly bear, and had a face of similar appearance. Her hair was ratty and gnarled, like a curly hairstyle gone bad. This differed from Ara's smoother and darker hair, which she tied in a long braid possibly to keep it from looking like this woman's 'do.
"Ma, cut it out!" yelped Ara, red from embarrassment. "We've got company, so don't get all mushy on me!"
The woman finally let her daughter from her embrace, who dashed off to another room. She then came over to the two of them. Sara seemed to be visibly breaking out into a sweat.
Ara's mother took Abraxas' hand into hers - which could have fit his entire head, and then some - and shook it heartily "Hejj 's the name," the woman croaked in a deep voice, "and who might y'all be?" She spoke with a thick accent that Sara seemed to recognize.
"You're half-giant, aren't you?" She inquired. Hejj started at the woman's rude bluntness. People seemed to do that around Sara.
"Ssssara!" Abraxas cried, aghast. He gave her a small slap of his own. "I'm very ssssorry, ma'am. Sssshe can be quite brassssh at timessss - you know how ssssome people can be that way." Sara glared at him as if to say, I'll get you for that.
Hejj just laughed. "Nah, it's fine hon. My daughter can be quite the lil devil at times."
"I HEARD THAT!!!" shouted Ara from the other room.
"You seem to be quite the sweetie-pie, arn'cha, hon?" She crooned, patting Abraxas' face. "Come on in, and hav'a muff'n or-"
Abraxas had had her at "muff'n". He dashed into the room she'd pointed to, where Ara lounged on a rickety rocking chair, eating a blueberry muffin and puffing on a long pipe, stuffed with marijuana. "That's quite a feat there, eating and smoking at the same time," Abraxas noted. Ara nodded her thanks.
Her mother rushed into the room. "Girl, you know what I've said about smoking yur father's pipe!" she scolded, snatching the pipe out of the girl's mouth. "Aw, Ma!" Ara protested.
The girl stood to perhaps her mother's stomach. She still was plenty tall - she couldn't have been more than 17, but already was 5 foot 8, which was impressive for any normal woman. Abraxas guessed that her father was probably human, so that made her, what, one-fourth giant? He didn't care for the math, he just wanted muffins.
While mother and daughter argued, Abraxas scarfed down two or three muffins.
An old man walked into the room. Despite his hunched back, balding head, white beard and liver spots, he was very muscular, with large biceps, triceps and everything in between. He wore a shirt that once was white but was black with coal dust, and torn overalls. "'Lright, what's the lil rat been up to?" He inquired in a wheezing voice.
"Grampa!" Ara said, "You're tracking ash on the floor again!"
"Who're the newc'mers?" He asked, ignoring the girl. "Got anything to buy or sell?"
A thought occurred to Abraxas. "Do you do invesssstigating of the originssss of itemssss?"
"Got coin?"
Abraxas brought out ten or so gold coins. The man took them, sniffed and bit them, then stashed them in his pocket. "'Lright, then. What's the p'ticular item?"

As the battle ovver Blackrock unfolded between these new, unidentified forces, and the Militia. The Aschen made the decision to hang back, opting to engage stragglers as they approached Aschen formations, but to otherwise allow the battle to proceed between these new CORE entities and the Militia relatively unmolested.

Whitcomb watched the displays in silence, as holographic projections zoomed, bobbed, and weaved about the planet, along with Aschen starfighter formations, and the two Hastati cruisers that positioned themselves in high orbit.

Blackrock was an Aschen planet, and Whitcomb had a duty to defend it.


“Sir... Militia forces have retreated, and we’ve completed our analysis of these unknown entities, they seem to be mechanical in nature.” Lieutenant Sorrels, the Tactical officer reported, as he handed the dataslate off towards the Admiral.

“Very good, prepare an Electronics package, and move into position to retake the planet, We’ll signal for reinforcements and move swiftly.” Whitcomb said calmly, only to be notified of a mallfunction along a bank of Turbodisruptor batteries.

“What’s this?” She asked, zooming in onto the projection of the ship, highlighting the malfunctioning weapons emplacements that Lilith was attempting to Hijack.

She would manage to get a couple shots off, but there was no actual bridge for her to shoot at, and seemingly without warning, the weapons emplacements shut down.

When she made her way towards the Hangar bay, she would have to force her way through a pair of rather large blast doors before finding any soldiers.

The massive Reverence II shuddered as it began to move, engines humming to life as the Aschen formation began to consolidate their position.

CORE Units were highlighted, and the Aschen ships began broadcasting malicious code on hijacked frequencies in an attempt to interfere with the synthetics functioning and communication.

The pair of Hastati cruisers began to adjust their position, targeting the Angel descender below, before they opened fire, pummeling it with withering amounts of sustained turbodisruptor fire.

The Aschen were starting to make their move.

The C.O.R.e would laugh if they could but of course they couldn't, so they opted for the next best thing, killing the attackers. They sent out thousands of their Space charges, circling on the Aschen ships, vastly moving in. Whatever the EMPs did hit, stopped only momentarily, before starting to move again. Luckily for the Thousands of turrets, soldiers and engineers, the Aschen did not realize that they were not powered by electricity, but rather a substance that powered them, but they did stop orders from coming in, which was irritating, but since they were large in numbers, they figured it out pretty much.

***

Back on Blackrock, they swept land, 97% done with anti-ship turrets. They had reached the home. They knocked on The door, aiming their guns at the door to be sure they weren't to be attacked, when the giant lady opened the door, they lowered them since she had no visible, and they did not detect any metal on her. "Hello ma'm. This unit's number is 89342369. I am C.O.R.e. We pose no threat to you, as you pose no threat to us. You'r ID number is...8487. We see you have other Organics. Show us them." As the giant lady showed the C.O.R.e Sara and Abraxis to the C.O.R.e, they did not recognize them, and detected no threat from them. "Your ID is 8673, and you, Female, Your ID is 8489. Onto the topic though"

http://static.turbosquid.com/Preview/2015/10/15__06_45_25/soldier2_texture10.jpg6e4739cf-2d74-48b2-8f6d-afa3bd95768fOriginal.jpg

The C.O.R.e soldier "stared" at them "We are the new faction that owns this planet. Here is a tablet for you to study our society and way of... 'life'. We will not harm you if you follow our rules. 1. Your jobs are now scrappers and searchers for ores on this planet. you may keep 70% of what you find to keep, as it is the new currency on this planet. We are here to find resources and controlling this place is the easiest way to do so. The 30% that you may not keep is tax. You are allowed to leave this planet and come back since you are native to it. You will be provided with new homes and food. If you wish to stay here, you are allowed to. We believe in fairness. Do not take this as weakness." The C.O.R.e glared at Sara, who would be the most trouble here. "In other ways though, life will be un-touched by us, but their will be a usual searching to make sure everything is fine.

Ara stared out the window as the C.O.R.e left. Her grandfather was grumbling. "... what, think they can just waltz in and tell us what to do?" the old man grumbled. "Okie, sonny, now that them's gone, we'll's has a looksee at that weapon, 'kee?"
He lead them into the room he'd come from. It appeared to be some sort of cross between a blacksmith's forge and a scrap shop. Metal scrap and robotic parts littered the large work bench on the west wall. On the east was a smelter, anvil and assembler, a small device that assembled parts for you. Ara's grandfather motioned with his hand, and Abraxas handed over his bow, Firecracker.
The old man took it over to his desk, put on a lens, and started to disassemble the bow. Abraxas started to call out, but Ara grabbed his arm. "It'll be fine," she promised. "You'll get it back."
After about twenty minutes, the grandfather called out "Aha! It's both!"
"Excusssse me?" inquired Abraxas.
"Both! It uses both magic and technology."
Abraxas was quiet for a moment. Both magic and technology? That would explain a few things. But he'd been expecting it to be one or the other, not both.
"Hmmm... It 'ppears to be from Misrana, judging from the style and creation techniques."
"Missssrana? What'ssss that?" Abraxas had never heard of the planet.
The old man ignored him. He was quite, then gasped. "Why, this'n was made by none 'ther than Carrak!"
"Carrak? You mean that old smith friend of yours?" Ara asked.
"Yes! Yes! You've got a bow made by none other than him!" The old man rushed over to Abraxas. "You've got to go see him! I'se been wanting to give him this!" He pressed an aged vanilla portfolio into Abraxas' hands. "They'se be blueprints for a project me and hims was working on. You got to go take it to him, and maybe you'se 'll learn more about that bow of yurs."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Exactly how are we going to get there?" interrupted Sara.
The man was silent. "There's a ship," he said. "A ship I once tried to build."
"The spaceship?!" Ara asked, incredulous. "Pop, that piece of junk is ages old!"
"Nonsense," he soothed. "It'll work juss fine. Good defense systems too. Y'all need to get off the planet, so go 'head 'n take it!"
"We can't just leave you here!"
"You can and you will," Ara's mother said, standing in the doorway. "Dear, you are more precious to us than all the diamonds in the world. You need to get offa this hell and away from those bad robots. We'll be fine. Promise."
Ara groaned. "You guys are so dead." She turned away. "Fine, we'll take the damn ship."

* * *

The secret loading bay was located just beneath the ground. The only ship there was a long, white and orange thing with a streamlined appearance, powerful thrusters, and appeared fully functional.
"You call that a piece of junk?!" Abraxas asked Ara, incredulous.
"Well, yeah, compared to some other ships out there," she replied coolly.
"'lright, y'all, pile in," called Ara's grandfather. The group got in. As Abraxas was climbing in, the old man grasped his hand. "Promise me y'll bring him the letter. 'ts been so long since I've seen Carrack."
Abraxas nodded, then got in.
The hatch opened, and the space ship soared off into the atmosphere.

The C.O.R.e just looked, they were allowed to leave and come back whenever, so it was fine and they continued to mine the resources and melt the sand into glass.

Two C.O.R.e Angel Decenders zoomed right next to 'The Dreamer'. The ships color was mainly black, with green going from blue and back. The colors suddenly turn from the blue-green, to a deep purple. As a behemoth, about as big as the Dreamer itself crawled out of the ship and starred the Dreamer in it's face.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-me?dia/im ... 165gif.mp4

"Hello...Dreamer. I am C.O.R.e, but C.O.R.e assumes you know this, yes?"

Two C.O.R.e Angel Decenders zoomed right next to 'The Dreamer'. The ships color was mainly black, with green going from blue and back. The colors suddenly turn from the blue-green, to a deep purple. As a behemoth, about as big as the Dreamer itself crawled out of the ship and starred the Dreamer in it's face.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-me?dia/im ... 165gif.mp4

"Hello...Dreamer. I am C.O.R.e, but C.O.R.e assumes you know this, yes?"