G'ael

Monitor-102 floated above the snowy landscape, flitting about, scanning the white covered trees.
"Where is it? I know I dropped it here. Oh, wait, I didn't drop it here. I can't drop things."
Shrilled the small glowing metal ball, blathering to itself.
"Well, maybe..."
The small sphere moved next to a rock and projected the force which held it aloft to encompass the rock as well, and lifted it a few meters off the ground.
"Oh!"
Exclaimed the ball of glowing blue metal. It proceeded to lift and drop the rock several times, with no indication of stopping.

The sound of crunching snow was all that could be heard in this deserted area of Terra, trudging across the landscape, dragging his scythe behind him, was John Page -AKA 'The Master'-. His dead eyes showed annoyance, his teeth were beared, gritted together but hidden under the gas mask. A small ice cold breeze blew through the snow covered plains, blowing John's black labcoat around and thus showing off the Undead Necromancer's energy storage devices as two relatively large boxes strapped to his waist.

"I have a feeling that guy lied to me..." John spoke to himself, his dead croaky voice was filled with annoyance and anger. "Now I'm miles away from the energy signature and I'm running low on life energy." He sighed, "Why did I have to teleport quickly? I knew that I wouldn't have enough energy! And this pathetic area is devoid of life! There's no way I can absorb some more!"

John continued his aimless walking, unaware of the strange blue ball until an unnatural sound caught his attention. The strange loud banging of something falling, and it was nearby...

He continued his walking, quickening his pace and holding his scythe, ready to swing. He held the scythe upside down with his arm stretched behind him to allow the handle to point diagonally upwards and the blade ready to be swung. However....
"...The fuck?" John spoke out through the breathing of his gas mask as he saw a strange floating blue ball lifting a rock with some strange power and then dropping it. Seemingly having fun in the process. 'That must be jam packed with life energy...' John thought, edging a bit closer before calling out;

"Oi."

The little ball of metal hoisted the rock again "Ho ho! That's a good sedimentary piece of solid earth." It cooed to the rock, then let it fall to the ground again. It made to pick up the rock when it heard a faint sound carry over the frigid wind.

"Was that a voice? Coming from... that way!" The ball rotated toward the sound, parts of its shell twisting around and bringing the blue eye to bear. Out in the white waste was a black figure standing stark against the snow."Oh!" the orb exclaimed, zooming toward the man and blasting snow everywhere with the force of what propelled it, until it stopped abruptly before him. It had covered the distance between them with incredible speed, leaving a trail of disturbed snow in its wake.

The orb immediately beamed a blue light- like a scan- up and down the man, then moved closer, ignorant to the scythe or the offensive posture the man held. The little ball only noticed the black lab coat.
"Are you a doctor? What's your fieldcraft? Do you like guppies?" The orb asked incessantly, bobbing up and down at about waist level. 'Maybe this scholarly fellow can help me find that key I dropped!' the orb lulled in a drifting motion at the thought, lost in its own wondering mind. After a second it then perked up again, rising to eye level with the curious man, waiting expectantly.

John flinched a little at the strange blue ball's quick movements. As it flew at great speeds towards him, John prepared his scythe to defend himself. However, the ball seemed to stop right in front of him scanning him with some strange technology. The amount of energy that could be easily seen now that the ball was closer was at great levels. Much higher than any normal being. Just what is this?

"Are you a doctor? What's your fieldcraft? Do you like guppies?" It spoke towards the necromancer, what the hell made it think John's a doctor? Oh yeah... The labcoat.

"I'm a researcher, I research the properties and nature of life energy while also practising Necromancy. Who are you?" John replied, ignoring the last bizarre question...

The ball's several spherical booms rotated as the eye searched the man's face. 'the properties and nature of life energy'. The little orb considered the term, 'life energy'. Well that's energy nonetheless right? The eye snapped out of its idle state, remembering the question John had asked.

"Who am I?" the orb replied. "Why I am Monitor-102 Contingent Omega, and I am most happy to have found a fellow man of science in this region of spacial anomalies." The orb chirped excitedly.

It began to drift in lazy circles in front of the man, speaking incoherently to someone or something that simply wasn't there. It stopped its inane babbling and addressed the man, "What does a man who is researching life energy doing in a waste so devoid of life?" Does he sense the energy anomaly here? Maybe he really can help me find that key?! The orb bristled at the thought of ending its search in this boring waste, the company here was particularly mundane. Save for that anomaly.

John's undead eyes fell to a slightly irritated state, half closed with this orb's idiotic words. A man of science? Didn't he just say that he's a Necromancer? It doesn't matter, just correct the orb and find a way to have a look at the immense life energy.

"I was a man of science, back when I was alive. However my research and creations were 'too much'" He raised his hand and made quotation marks as he lowered the scythe to allow it to be dragged across the frozen wastelands yet again. "I lost all of my research documents because of that. And now I have to start anew..." He sighed a little before listening to the next words of the circling orb, his eyes followed the orb as it came into his view and disappeared behind him again.

"I'm looking for a corpse, but I was mislead to this pathetic land. However, the nature energy here is quite large. Sentient life simply hasn't messed with the natural lands... Yet."

The words sung in what passed for a mind in the orb. Lost research, necromancy, untapped potentials in the energy of the land. The Monitor could detect all forms of energy, but this was a double edged sword, because it could not distinguish between the forms of energy. In fact the Monitor's knowledge and understanding of natural quantum forces and fields was so precise and thorough that it had not considered the different overall forms of energy. The thought of the unknown elicited so much excitement from the little orb that the elation temporarily lifted its desire to leave this land, and silenced all the voices it heard.

"Why your quite right scholar, this is a matter that I've yet to consider!" The orb bobbed, "What more do you know about life and nature energy?" It began to hover closer to John's face when it stopped, and "looked" to the side. "Oh right, right, he did say he was looking for something. A corpse?" The orb looked back at John and flew up a bit. "Your looking for a corpse you say? Hmmm... about that energy, no wait the corpse... hm. What kind of corpse is this?" The orb hovered in place higher than John and in front of him, looking down like a reversed excited dog.

This strange orb really is... weird. It's an amazing piece of high technology which comes close to matching the great technology of John's ex-leader. Right now, there's only one race which can make 'robotic' beings have an AI of such great levels that they become questionable. So this orb is probably from that race, or is some new thing. Perhaps the life energy signature within the metal shell created the ball itself in order to stay alive...

"I know quite a bit of life and nature energy..." John answered, trying to recall as much as he could about these energy states; "There's much more than just life and nature, however, all I remember is pseudo-life energy. Which was an energy state I invented myself."
John slowly bent his body backwards as the orb flew close, taking a couple steps to distance the two yet again before the orb flew upwards. "What kind of corpse? A dead one... Obviously." John thought a little, as something of such high tech, it should know about the next pieces of information. "It's the corpse of a Shadonian, the only race I know which can weave magical energy in with their own life energy, without killing themselves."

"Oooh oh!" squealed the ball, like an excited school boy. "This is all truly fascinating! Magic you say? All "magic" is just sufficiently complex technology! Complex enough that I have very little record of it! We simply must find that corpse, such a specimen is truly compelling! Oh the study, the investigation, I should ready some bookmarks!" The orb wobbled in the air trance like. It didn't seem to notice John for awhile, hanging in the air lazily.

The orb of metal and light snapped to again. "Oh yes, we have to find the body first." It rose high into the air, buffeted by the chill wind. It settled on an altitude far above John, with a sight range in every direction for miles. Yelling down to John the orb's voice echoed and carried on the wind, "Does the corpse still emit a high energy signature? I don't mean to be picky, but detecting a dead organic object among essentially dead inorganic objects would be like trying to spot a grey elephant among many slightly less grey rocks."

John didn't seem to be that annoyed with the orb's existence, it was quite amusing. And it seemed like it can do a great help. There is, of course, a way to track down a Shadonian. Something that magic can't do, at least not what John knows.

"Y'know, I only want the corpse for my undead army..." John corrected as the orb rose up into the sky, yelling down towards John. "You can detect Alpha radiation, right? Shadonian bodies emit this radiation until they are completely broken down. The guy died not too long ago, so it should still be intact."

Alpha radiation results from much heavier atoms, emitting false helium ions which allow for high damage radiation rays. Even a sheet of paper could stop the rays, but anything organic would receive a near lethal dose after only a short period of exposure. Due to the materials and conditions required to emit the alpha wavelength radiation, as well as its short range affects on its environment, detecting it would be no problem as long as it's source wasn't completely covered. But this would require a planet wide scan regardless.

"Alpha you say? One moment John and I shall have the location of this corpse." The ball chimed down. It rose even higher into the sky, slowly becoming little more than a speck. After it reached the ceiling of Terra's troposphere Contingent let out a burst scan, searching the scattered radiation signals that bounced between the surface and the clouds. Sure enough it detected a tight grouping of alpha waves coming from the southeast, deeper into the continent. Turning toward the general direction of the waves, the little orb shot a high intensity burst scan directed straight southeast, bouncing the scan off the clouds and obtaining a surface picture of all alpha radiation before the signal was scattered by the fluid sea to the far southeast. Luckily a pocket of alpha radiation was detected, originating from an island just before the sea.

Satisfied with its results, the orb descended back down to John, whistling happily to itself. Just before it arrived in front of John again it accessed the geography and history of the planet and found that the island it had pinpointed was the island of Shintenchi. "Hello again! We have discussed the results of my scan and determined that I am infallible." The little orb nodded approvingly, looking side to side as though addressing an audience. "The corpse is located on the island Shintenchi to the southeast," it turned and "pointed" with its form. "Are you ready to depart, scholar?"

John stood and watched the orb's working. He was slowly gaining his trust in this orb, it could be a lot of help. And if it manages to pinpoint the location of the corpse, then it's definitely worth being a part of his army. Now what's to happen is to plan everything, what would John do once he gains control of the body? Wage war on his enemies? Or try to gain more allies? Maybe allies would be good.
Ah yeah, that's an idea. That corpse he had reanimated to become independent of energy should still have small connections. Maybe he could tap into it's sight to figure out what's happening?

The orb had returned, seemingly happy with it's scans. "The corpse is located on the island Shintenchi to the southeast," it turned and "pointed" with its form. "Are you ready to depart, scholar?"
John gave off a small giggle through the heavy breathing of his gas mask as a sign of approval, "Of course I'm ready. I can get there instantly if I had the energy."

"Energy? Do you lack a supply of caloric intake for you organic systems John?" Contingent was confused by John's statement. "It would certainly be much faster to simply transmit our quantum signature to that location, there is no need to waste energy running." The little ball had misunderstood John's implied meaning of magical teleportation, and believed he meant running all the way to Shintenchi. The ball of metal floated over to its original spot John had spotted it, blathering about ion energy fields of planets until its voiced trailed off in the wind, and picked up the rock it had been dropping, and floated back to John still talking. "...and which is why I will not require this rock." The orb plopped the rock in front of John. "I in fact only need to re-register our signatures, its as simple as a few calculations and a nudge in the right direction." The orb's blue "eye" began to glow more fiercely and a blue shimmering aura like a road on a hot day began to envelope the orb and John. "Be mindful that normal Newtonian physics don't apply to such quantum transmuting, but for the sake of avoiding further deliberation they eventually settled on a binary code like system of on and off, not unlike the programs running my calculator." The shimmering intensified as the orb droned on about the pros of derived quantum calculations adjusting more appropriately on simple calculators than did complex quantum algorithms. "I know what you're going to say, 'but the algorithms allow more flexibility!' but you have to consider how often such fluid..." The orb wouldn't shut up as the air around John and the orb grew hotter and began to smell of ozone.
Off on the island of Shintechi, in a remote alleyway, two small motes of light began to form and expand outward.