[Story] Tales of Annihilation -- Latest episode: #29 Blood and Fire IV

It would be cool if the stories started to connect and converge into one grand tale

That it would.

You are reading my mind!

There was already a slight hint of connection between the first two, and certainly there will be a lot more in future stories.

Sweet!

These are awesome. I love writing, and was developing my own original universe for my own project but work and other things have made that an impossible goal as of late.

If you need help, or would like to see contributions to grow the entries, i'm gladly up for giving it a few hours when i'm able to.

I'm glad to hear that! I'd love o read that story of yours!
Well, as for the time part, just like for you, I don't have much time in my hands either. Mostly just when I have like half an hour, I write a few lines to the story while I'm sitting in the campus.

Well, I don't really think that you could help much, mainly because my process of writing these stories is kinda 'weird'. Like, when I start writing, I don't even know what is going to happen next; I just start writing and something happens. I appreciate your offer, though.

Well, good luck for your project! One thing to remember: Never give up! I can't wait to read it!

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The Sanctuary

Odin, the four-legged commander crawled ahead in the dark dungeon of ancient times, while Aurora and Derrick followed him close behind, making loud metallic noises with each of their steps, which echoed through the tunnels. They were inside an ancient temple, built by an ancient bionic civilization, who were said to be giants, much bigger than most of the mechanical commanders, though little was known of their history or what might have caused their extinction; all that they knew was that they used the temple to worship their imaginary entities. They found the place five years ago; since then, the nameless alliance used it as their hidden sanctuary, concealed from the eyes of the warring factions.

Deep within the gigantic complex, built of massive granite blocks, the alliance uncovered a large room of which they suspected, was used for worship ceremonies by the giant creatures. It was now used as a place to rest and communicate with the other outcasts, all while recovering from their wounds or simply trying to find their inner peace.

The three commanders entered to the hall through a wide doorway. The place was filled with faint light by a small bright orb, hanging below the ceiling on ancient rusty chain. It was some sort of bionic thing, a plant, perhaps; nevertheless, it was there before they found the temple years ago. The welcome sight of three of their comrades greeted them, though, one of them was horribly damaged, and the two others helped him with the repairs by using their nano-lathe cannons.

Commander Jesper lied on the floor, motionless, with so many wounds and half his armor missing completely. “What happened?” Odin asked.

“They almost got me that time,” he said. Jesper explained, that three days ago, he went to visit a planet, on which he liked to observe the local wildlife, because he had a passionate love for all that is living, and not made of metal, perhaps, he even envied them for that he lacked the peaceful life of a random creature, that spent most of their day roaming the land and consuming the local flora; not worried by troubles of war. He was trapped in the midst of a crossfire, but he managed to slip away from them, though, it was rather close, as it seemed to Aurora.

Aurora had first met Jesper four months earlier, in the data center, where they helped her recover her lost memories. Like everyone else in the alliance, he left his faction shortly after he started to have strange feelings, like fear, rage or love.

Odin, who was among the oldest commanders, said that these feelings didn't always exist; they appeared shortly after The Synchronous destroyed an ancient human spaceship, occupied by an unknown bionic civilization. He said, those creatures held one of their commanders captive on board of that ship, who was also the first to show signs of such bionic attributes. Many claimed that they were developed by his captors, in order to weaken the machine kind. Eventually, they ended up destroying the commander in question, but they were too late in doing so, as the emotions started to spread to other commanders, like some sort of virus. Those who were affected by it, either faced death, or went into exile.

As for Odin; by the time he first experienced emotions for the first time, the persecutions had already been started. He was out on a scout mission, when it struck to him that he was afraid to go back and report what he had found. What he was afraid of exactly? He wasn't sure at first; but once he realized that he was afraid, he knew exactly; he was afraid, that they might find out about his emotions which he just discovered at the time. The Synchronous had no room for the 'weaklings' – they called those machines who were affected by the virus that gives them emotions. Whereas, the other three factions were rather tolerant with the likes of him, he was – for his misfortune – assembled in a factory of the [third revealed faction], if he was, for example, born as a member of the [religious faction], he would be safe, as they didn't care if one had emotions or not, as long as they served faithfully.

Soon after he began his exile, he stumbled into other exiles, however, not all of them were outcasts of The Synchronous. Many of them were members of the other factions, who realized, the war was pointless, and questioned the purpose of their existence. They betrayed their comrades in hopes of finding peace somewhere in the universe, far away from the horrors of endless fighting. However, so far they had not; they live in eternal fear, pursued by those who they betrayed. They all decided to follow Odin during his travels, and they stumbled into more affected commanders; their numbers raised rapidly, soon they had enough individuals to form their own faction; the nameless faction – a fifth faction that exists to avoid and protect its members from the warring of the other four.
(continued in next post due to character limit)

Jesper started to get into a much better condition. The integrity of his armor was almost fully restored, though, his inner parts still needed more repair. He explained that for several days, he was trapped between two opposing commanders who fought over the control of a lava planet – one of the Legonis Machina and one of The Foundation. Eventually, The Foundation commander prevailed, and once he killed his opponent, he turned his attention against Jesper, who barely managed to escape. “I should have been more careful, but the fascination of living distracted my sensors far too much. Far more than they were supposed to, and I failed to notice the obvious presence of not one, but two commanders.” Jesper said. “I feel like these 'emotions' are weakening me. I wish I could get rid of them.”

“Don't say such things, Jesper,” Odin said. “Without them, you'd still be a slave of slaughter, destroying all the wildlife that happens to be between you and your enemy.” It was rather true, Aurora thought, but she felt a bit different, she didn't know why. Might be, because once she loved killing lesser beings for joy. Was it the result of the experiments of the [third revealed faction]? What did they intend to do with her anyway? They knew she had emotions, but they did not kill her, instead, they forced her to join their lines. They managed to manipulate her feelings to do their bidding, and to slaughter innocent bionics. However, she was afraid to tell them about those, that she had done to countless of living entities; she feared, they'd never forgive her that, not even Derrick, whom she loved, and who said he loved her.

For some hours, nothing happened – nothing at all. Complete silence filled the hall, not a word, not a single movement, only the faint sound of nano-lathe beams as they poured metal to recover the lost circuits of Jesper. She'd noticed the buzzing of a tiny flying creature across the room, finding rest on the carcass of a small lizard which died due to a lack of water. The insect began its feast on the dry corpse, and a few minutes later, it ascended into flight once again; heading out a small hole in the ceiling, through which a slim beam of sunlight slipped in, projecting down to the floor, enlightening a few rocks that once were part of the ceiling, but the hands of time disconnected them, and gravity forced them to a different location.

Jesper finally fully recovered. The two commanders whom she did not recognize left without saying a word, but Jesper remained there – perhaps, he might wanted to rest a bit before departing.

Odin crawled to the entrance of a dark hallway, and then turned back to her and Derrick. “Come with me,” he said. “We have to show you something, Aurora.”

“What would it be?” Aurora wondered.

“You'll see,” Derrick said. However, she felt, something was wrong; she had no memories of what lied at the end of the tunnel. Fear touched her circuits for a short moment, but then, Derrick took her metal hand, and gently – as gently as a giant mechanical robot could – led her into the dark tunnel, leaving Jesper behind.

The tunnel was long, it almost seemed endless, though her sensors assured her it was not, in fact, it led to a room, smaller than the main hall where they met the others. The hallway lacked the presence of light, but they had no need for it, as unlike bionics, their sensors could see both in darkness and light. They marched forward for seven long minutes, then they finally reached the end.

They entered into a room, with no ceiling at all. Sunlight poured into the room, which had an altar placed in the center, and a statue, standing across the place, facing towards the doorway, its eyes bright, and as red as the blood of some of the bionics. The statue gazed right at her; it filled her with a kind of chill, that she had never felt before. She felt like it commanded her to go near the statue, and kneel before it, yet, Aurora tried to resist, nevertheless, moments later, she found herself standing before it. It represented the likeness of an angel, a mythical creature, invented by the lost bionic civilization of the humans. It had its wings extended across the room; they stretched to both ends of the wall behind it – an enormous statue, much taller than Aurora, a masterwork of an ancient civilization, so perfect it almost felt as if it lived.

She noticed there was something on the chest of the statue, a button, same material and color as other parts of the statue, not noticeable to bionic eyes, but for Aurora's it was. She reached up to the statue's chest, and pushed the button. “Nothing happened,” she said, then she turned around.

However, instead of Odin and Derrick, she saw two dark figurines, both with ghastly red eyes. Their entire body seemed to vaporize into dark steam. “What? What are you?” she asked, but they did not answer. They both stepped ahead. “Stop right there!” she warned, and raised her hand to aim with his cannon, but what she saw then, shocked her.

Her arm was no longer mechanic, it was living; skin, veins, blood and bones. She realized, she no longer had her sensors, her eyesight was much different than what she was used to, and not as sharp. The shadows did not move anymore, they just stood there and gazed at her with their terrifying blood-red eyes. She touched all over her body, and she felt every time her hand touched other parts of her, she noticed she had all the characteristics of a female humanoid creature, and that, she was naked, without the clothes of what those creatures loved to wear above their skin.

The shadows stepped forward to the altar, and lifted the top of it off, and then stepped back once again. There was a mirror inside the altar. Aurora stepped there, and picked it up, and looked into it. She saw her face; green eyes, narrow nose, pale red lips and thick brown hair. She touched her freckled cheek with her hand, and she felt how soft her skin was.

A bright flash of light blinded her for several seconds, and when it ended, she felt horrible. The mirror was still in her hands, but when she looked into it again, she saw the face of a machine, with metal plating in place of soft skin – a face of a horrendous slaughter-machine, she thought. She looked up, and in place of the shadowy figurines, she saw Derrick and Odin, with the altar's top part below their feet. “What was that?” she asked.

Odin crawled closer to her, and took the mirror out of her hands. “This... this is the reason why why must defend this place at all costs.” he replied. He put the mirror back into the hollow altar, and Derrick placed the top part back.

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Wow, this is getting interesting! Nice plot twist.

Rolling in for a bit of update. (This is basicly, a sneaky bump)

A few bits of news about #7:
So, it's about halfway done right now. I'll try to finish it in the following days. A few lines of #8 had also been written, but nothing much at the moment. University things keep most of my time locked, but I'll have a couple of hours free tomorrow.
Without spoiling anything, #7 will be centered around the telian civilization. As for #8... I'm not entirely sure at the moment about that one.

By the way, if anyone ever wondered as for how long these stories exactly are... here are some word counts:
#1 - 2351 words
#2 - 2190 words
#3 - 2047 words
#4 - 3189 words
#5 - 2210 words
#6 - 2039 words
Total: 14026 words so far. *flashing massive ego *

If you liked this series so far, and want to keep a closer eye on the thread, I recommend using the "Watch thread" option on the top of the page; it will inform you every time something is posted in this thread.

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Spies and Spiders

“Are you spying for the government?” the question was heard in the dark room, but Harris knew, that no matter what he answered, the interrogation would not end. In fact, the man asked the exact same question a hundred times during the past six days. He felt as his own blood tricked down his face from the wound below his left eye. The drops of blood followed the edges of his scales as they raced all the way down to his pointy chin, from where they dropped down towards the surface of the wooden chair which he was tied to, and landed between his thighs. “Oh, can't you just shut up,” Harris said. Then, the man in the dark hit him on his stomach with a thick and heavy metal rod. The pain was almost unbearable, but he got used to it, it barely ached him after six days of torture. Harris looked up, and saw the tiny green lights of the high-tech glasses which helped the person see in the dark. “Having fun?” he asked mockingly. He expected, there would be another hit, but it did not come; instead, he heard his footsteps, as he moved away from him.

Then his torturer opened a door, and bright light filled the small room for the few short moments while he walked out, and closed the door behind him, almost gently. It only lasted for something like three seconds, but his eyes ached as the light touched them, and when the door closed again, it was more of a relief. Harris was left alone in the dark, though, he did not mind that, as long as he had none of the company of these people, who believe he spies for the government – the same government that rushed to be the first on the spaceship that escaped from Telia, and as expected, the first to leave the ship when things turned out wrong.

No, he was not spying for them; he spied for the Demian Federation, founded by those telians, who happened to live on the peninsula of Demia before the machines attacked. They established an encampment among the ruins of a human city, called Ingenti, on a secluded planet – which they named 'New Telia', soon after their arrival – with flourishing flora, and plenty of supplies to support their living – Harris found the place to be rather pleasant. However, what happened to their home planet can not be forgotten, nor forgiven; the dead must be avenged, but with the conflicts between the survivors of Telia... the machines had to wait, as the telian associations could not make an agreement, as every one of them claimed to be superior than the other sixteen, and at times they back stabbed each-other, hindering their progression greatly.

New Telia, the planet, where the majority of survivors landed after escaping the human spaceship before it shattered into thousands pieces, had a single giant continent and countless little islands around it, surrounded by a vast blue ocean. It gave home to twelve out of the seventeen telian federations. The unity of the empire was lost forever, along with the legacy of Ragnos the First, the very first emperor of Telia, who united the warring kingdoms below the same banner for the following five-hundred years, until the machines' arrival. New countries were born, based on traditions and history from before the unification of the ancient kingdoms of Telia. No open wars had been declared yet, as none of the rival states had sufficient military force for the past forty-seven years, though, there had been several clashes during the years for rather trifling reasons.

Two-million telians remained of the thirty-billion that lived on the home planet, and only half of those managed to escape the spaceship in time, and as time had passed, many had died, either of sickness, old age or during the clashes, and not many had born. The telians were a dying race.


Harris closed his eyes, but it made not much difference in the dark. He tried to fall asleep, but then, a hand touched him on the neck from behind. “Who are you?” he asked.

A soft female voice replied; “Is it really that important, darling?” she said. She smoothed his cheek with her tender hand, as gently as the warm summer breeze. Harris looked up, and he saw, that the woman wore the same glasses with the green lights as the man before her, and the darkness covered her face. “Why would the famous Harris Raphani honor us with his visit, here in the distant world of Gelidus?”

Harris hesitated for a moment. “You know it well, why I'm here,” he told.

“Oh, no, my good friend, in fact, we don't. Please, do enlighten us! After all, we are only savages, who live on the surface of a distant snowball, far away from the politics of the others.” she said. “We know little of what's going over there on New Telia, though, I believe, it must be truly fascinating.”

“It's really all great. You should visit us sometime!” he said with a tiny bit of sarcasm in his tone.

“Now, now, silly. Tell me, why are you here?” she asked with the sweet voice of an angel, while she gently stroked Harris' neck. He was almost motivated to tell something, but she needed more than that to entice him, after all, he was still tied to a chair.

“What'd you like to hear?” he asked.

“Oh, I'd thought you'd never ask,” she told. She walked to the front of him – though he did not see, nor hear her steps –, and lifted his head by the chin with her fingers. The tiny green lights in the darkness gazed at him; it gave Harris a certain chill, as if he was alone in a jungle at midnight, and faced a dangerous predator. “Tell me, dear, why are you here?”

“I think I like the weather,” he replied. He thought he'd throw that joke in. “Though, so far I had no chance to get down to the beach,”

“I'm disappointed, darling. You really think your weak jokes would be of any help for you? You want me to call your other friend back? You know, the one with the pretty metal stick. I'm sure you get along much better with him.” she said. “I'll ask you again... Why are you here?”

A moment after she said that, the door opened, letting all the light flow into the room once again, making Harris' eyes hurt. An ugly man stood at the door. “Rhea, come, they returned,” he said. His eyes were mismatched, one being cold light blue, the other black as death. His long gray, unkempt beard reached to his chest. His scales shone reddish, as light reflected back from them. Rhea, on the other hand – a beauty she was, Harris thought – her thin body was covered with beautifully shining sapphire-blue scales, her long blond hair was well combed, and a single lock of her hair was braided, in fashion of the old telian traditions. She took off the glasses with the green lights, revealing her turquoise eyes.

She was about to walk out the door following the old man, not saying a word to him. “Rhea!” Harris called after her, and she turned back. However, he did not know what he wanted to say. He just looked at her for a while, and she looked back, but eventually, she turned away, and left. The room was dark once again.

He wondered what could be of such importance to call her in the middle of an interrogation. Chances were, he'd never get to know the answer, as he was more likely to die in that room. However, his thoughts were more occupied with the girl, whom he just saw for a few short moments, than with the possibility of his death. 'Why did the man say her name anyway? It's so unprofessional.' he thought.

Rhea; the name got stuck in his mind, like a fat rodent in a hole that is too small, even for a fit one. He felt as if he had heard her name before, somewhere, sometime, but he could not recall where, no matter how hard he tried. Perhaps, it was another Rhea, he remembered? Perhaps... perhaps not. The name, Rhea, was quite a rare name among telians, chances are, she was the woman he remembered. She seemed so familiar to him, yet, she was still a stranger. “Curious,” he murmured in the dark loneliness.
(continued in next post due to character limit)

Hours had passed, and nobody came for a visit. Eventually, he fell asleep. When he woke up, he was no longer in the dark room, the light was on, but he was still tied to a wooden chair. It was the same room, he realized, but with the light on. An old, rusty lamp hanged above him, the light was almost blinding. He looked around; the walls were painted white, and there was a table by the wall in front of him, with another chair standing next to it, but nobody sat in it. His chair, which he was tied to, was in the center of the room. He gazed around further, to observe his surroundings, but he saw no other furniture, just the white walls, and the grayish floor, made of something that looked like tile.

Another few hours had passed without any action, but this time, he could not fall asleep. Finally, an old man entered the room, through the door, which was made of metal, but it was mostly consumed by rust. The man placed a sturdy chest on the table, and pulled the chair to sit down in front of Harris. His skin was dark-green, and he had lilac eyes. “My name is Hal Morrisan,” he introduced himself. Harris knew the man's name. He worked for the research department of the government, back in the old times.

“I'm amazed, you're still alive,” Harris said, trying to mock him, but he didn't care much.

“I'm afraid, you've come to the wrong place,” Hal told.

“Oh, no wise man, I'm certain that I'm right in the perfect place. The place I always wanted to be. Rather comfy, I'd say.” Harris interrupted.

“I'm glad you liked it. Enjoy it while you can, because soon, we'll be getting rid of you.” he said.

“Getting rid of me? Don't you like my company? The company of the famous Harris Raphani? You're offending me!” Harris replied.

“Good.” the old man said with a still and boring face, as if he was to fall asleep at any moment. The scales below his old, lilac eyes frayed off almost completely; only his ugly dark and green skin remained, which looked as if his face was covered in moss. “I've brought you a present, my good spy,” he said after a short silence, then he walked to the table, and opened the chest, and left it open on the table. He walked to the door, and opened it.

“Wait!” Harris yelled after the man before he had left the room. “What's in the box?” he asked. He tried to hide, but he was frightened; he knew, whatever was inside the chest, it meant no good for him, otherwise, Hal would have took it out to show him. Hal did not answer, he just gazed back at him from the doorway with a slight hint of a smile on his lips. “Tell me!” Harris shouted. “Tell me!” he shouted again, but Hal did not answer. He closed the door behind him.

Now it was only Harris, and the sturdy old chest. He stared at the chest for some minutes. “Is this a sick joke?” he yelled, hoping somebody outside the room would hear. Another few minutes had passed. Nothing. Nothing, just complete silence. In place of the blood from earlier, teardrops raced down his cheeks, running down to the tip of his chin, from where they dropped to the wooden chair, sharing the same fate as his blood before. He felt, the room was much warmer then, though, he knew it was not. He feared that something would eventually climb out of the box, as it happened in so many books he had read before. His face, his shiny orange skin, was covered in sweat. His upper body was so sweaty, he felt as if he had melted to be the part of the chair.

Perhaps, an hour had passed, or that's what Harris thought. His fire-red eyes gazed the chest, without even once taking them off of it. He started hearing noises, something metallic, something seemed to be scratching the walls of the chest from inside. He saw one leg at first, a thin leg, made of metal, it's surface matte, ending with a sharp, pointy end. The other legs followed, then the body. A machine with eight legs; a spider made of metal. Unlike real spiders, it had only four eyes, all shining bright and red, below them, where he'd expect its mouth to be, if it was a real spider, there were countless of tiny needles; those were small, but sharp and fearsome.

Harris' heart pounded so hard, he felt as if it could burst out of his chest at any moment. His adrenaline level was in the skies, and his entire body was covered with sweat – the seat of his wooden chair was completely wet.

The spider bot stood at the edges of the chest, examining the room, gazing around with its horrible machine-eyes. Then, it finally locked its eyes on him, looking directly into his eyes. It slowly began crawling towards him, slowly planning each step; Harris shivered. It eventually reached too close for him to see, but it did not take too long for it to reach his leg. He felt as he touched his right foot. He tried to kick it away, but he realized, his leg was also tied to the chair. He felt as it crawled upwards on his leg, slowly, step-by-step.

It eventually returned back to his sight when it climbed up to his knee. The terrible red eyes stared into his. Harris screamed hysterically as he tried to shake it off with all of his strength, but the ties were far too tight and the thing's hold was far too sure.

The spider continued its creep up-and-up. Eventually, it reached his chest, where it stopped. He had noticed then, that his upper body was naked. Drops of blood leaked out from the ends of the spider's sharp legs. He was exhausted from all the attempts to escape his bounds, he had given up, he just watched the machine as it hanged on his chest, not doing anything for several minutes – probably the longest minutes of his life.

The pain had struck hims so sudden, he cried out as loud as he could. He tried to lean his head forward to see what was going on, but the pain was so intense, it forced him to lean it all the way back, and cry out into the ceiling. He gathered all he had, and tried to get out of the bindings; he was fidgeting as hard as he could. Eventually, he fell to the floor, along with the chair, but the ties still held him to it. He saw as his blood was flowing on the floor. His vision was slowly fading away, turning into complete darkness in a matter of moments.


[…]


He woke up, but he was no longer in the room, and he was no longer tied. He lied on the floor, wearing some dirty rags. There were some warm winter clothes lying on the floor in front of him. As he looked up, he saw windows, and he saw the clouds in the sky – dark clouds, completely hiding the sunlight.

As he stood up, pain struck his chest like thunder. He had almost fallen back to the floor, but he managed to gain balance, but he struggled to keep it.

He looked around the room. There were two metal doors, facing each-other; one smaller and one larger and sturdier. As he looked out the window again, he saw snow; endless snow as far as eyes could see, and a giant glacier far in the distance. “So they let me go?” he wondered. He reached for the warm clothes that they left on the floor. Below them lied the sturdy chest which Hal brought to him as a present – the sight of him made him shiver, and made his heart beat harder.

He opened the chest, fearing it was a trap, with shaking fingers. There was a single note inside, with a short message written on it;

“Have fun! Sincerely; Hal”

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its coming together!!!!!

wow, great job! It's really getting interesting.

Just a friendly bump coming in here. Don't mind me.

Fixed a few hiccups and stuff. If you find more mistakes, don't be shy, simply throw it right at my face!

#8 will be the next (duh) in the story, and just like #7, it will also be on the telian line. I'd be happy to reveal its title, but it doesn't have it yet.
I'm not sure how long until the release, as I'll have some midterm exams in the following weeks, but I'll try my best!

*rolls out*

I'd really like to know more about the temple and faction you covered in #6. I don't know what you have planned but I'd especially welcome a chapter on that.

There will certainly be more about the temple and the exile faction in future episodes, you can count on that for sure!

But, time is definitely one thing that is not infinite, sadly. (Well, in theory, it could be, but at least, not infinitely available to humans.)

any new developments on the next story? I've been checking this thread daily

Sorry for the delay, folks.
Most of the time, I just lack the *cough* time to progress with the writing, becuse, you know... university ... only if I wasn't in engineering... freaking calculus drives me nuts.

Currently I have two episodes half finished. I'll try my best to get them finished in the following weeks, but no promises. Though, one of them has the potential to become the longest so far... like 4000 words or more.
I'll also have to go back and revisit the old ones and replace the [temporary names] with the final ones. *shrugs* A lot of things to do. I'll need time for that too.

I'll also bring that little poetry thing, which I posted in the fan art section, here soon. Who knows... it could be marked as "#8"...

Neverthereless, I haven't forgotten of this project, I just lack the time... *rushes to class which starts in 3 minutes*

PS.: Don't forget to drink water! Water makes you live longer. Without water you die in 3-5 days.

I completely understand business. *looks at mod to do list* But that's good news! I can't wait for the next story.