10-13-2017, 11:52 AM
He was somewhere in the bowels of the steel ship.
Where exactly that placed him in the grand scheme of things, he was unable to decipher. With only his ‘intuition’ and ‘instinct’ to rely upon, Proto Man pressed forward through a network of steel corridors. He had dealt with the ambush in a previous chamber, and since then, he had found himself relatively left to his own devices.
As he pressed ahead, the ship seemed to lurch in the waters. Flickering sensors told the machine that they were picking up what seemed to be seismic activity in the ocean around the ship.
Earthquakes?
The red robot shook his head. The interference was throwing off his systems.
Heavy explosives. Maybe that guy in the aerial was attempting to drop some bombs onto the darkling vessel. If not him, then perhaps the Imperial Navy had finally decided to step up to dispatch the growing threat of the blighted sailors.
Stumbling forward, Proto Man charged a blast and fired. The energy bolt tore through the steel wall nearest to him and fizzled out against the second surface it struck. With a scowl, the preteen machine pushed through scorched tear in the wall and dropped into the next chamber. From the noise level and the vibrations of the steel plating beneath his boots, he had to be somewhere near the machinery that kept this vessel functional. Did these ships run off of coal? Oil?
With a grunt, Proto Man stooped down and slammed a fist into the floor. The metal plating buckled, and the rivets whined as they fought to remain in place. A second sturdy punch sent a handful of metal bolts erupting out from the floor, and on the third, the whole plate lost enough of a grip on its neighbors to fall down into the engineering level.
Landing in a crouch, the preteen machine stood up and eyed the rows of machines that fueled the ship. He knew this wasn’t all of them, but with any luck, it’d be more than enough to serve as a fistful of metaphorical wrenches. With the Proto Buster supported by his other hand, he charged a shot and let it rip into the engineering works. A few moments later, he leashed another powered burst of energy into the machinery.
After a pivot, he fired off into another direction.
And that was how the robot continued until it became dark enough that he couldn’t see the hands in front of his visor. Somewhere in the distance, Proto Man heard what may have been the sound of rushing water, but he couldn’t be sure. It was also a possibility that he was just hearing the splash of oil or grease or whatever chemicals were combusted to push this blighted vessel through the oceans.
Activating his jetpack, Proto Man propelled himself up through the missing gap in the deck above. A charged blast sheered through the metal ceiling and into the next level. The machine moved up and repeated until he could see the sun peaking down through a sky sparsely adorned with gray clouds. While the levels below had been almost quiet since his erratic separation from the other primes, the scene on the main deck was chaos.
Cannons belched black smoke as they fired at the tree-coated archipelago. Down below deck and nearby, the machine heard the wail of klaxons—were those alarms? The darkling soldiers and marines scampered to and fro to keep the vessel in operation order despite some clear counter-fire from ships in the distance.
It really did look like there were Imperial ships on the horizon, returning heavy ordinance against the blighted cruiser, but it quickly became clear that they were doing what they had always done. Their bombardment was just another show of effort by an indifferent organization seeking little more than some positive PR.
Before he could get really worked up over the dalliance of the Imperial forces, Proto Man had small arms fire screaming through the air around him. Summoning his shield to deal with the pellets and bullets, the preteen machine stormed forward, pumping his short legs as hard as he could. Above here in the open air, he had increased functionality from most of his sensor sub-systems. He could already pinpoint where the others were, particularly the Vision and Blink, who had must have found the location of the portal.
A shell that was anything but small arms fire struck the front of Proto Man’s shield and nearly split the entire thing in half. Fissures spread across the ceramic titanium, and some of the heat from the blast washed across the exposed part of the robot’s face. While the shield and his skin were intact, the explosion was enough to grind Proto Man’s momentum to a halt, and before he could adjust, there was half a dozen shadows falling over him.
Blink and the Vision were still thirty or so yards down the ship and a deck or so underneath him. He couldn’t get a reading on the room, but it was large—perhaps some sort of space for munitions or machine storage.
Discarding the shield before it could be broken entirely, Proto Man activated his sword in one fist and kept the other one as a prime Proto Buster.
“Last chance to stand down,” he spoke out loud before the marines drew swords and charged.
Where exactly that placed him in the grand scheme of things, he was unable to decipher. With only his ‘intuition’ and ‘instinct’ to rely upon, Proto Man pressed forward through a network of steel corridors. He had dealt with the ambush in a previous chamber, and since then, he had found himself relatively left to his own devices.
As he pressed ahead, the ship seemed to lurch in the waters. Flickering sensors told the machine that they were picking up what seemed to be seismic activity in the ocean around the ship.
Earthquakes?
The red robot shook his head. The interference was throwing off his systems.
Heavy explosives. Maybe that guy in the aerial was attempting to drop some bombs onto the darkling vessel. If not him, then perhaps the Imperial Navy had finally decided to step up to dispatch the growing threat of the blighted sailors.
Stumbling forward, Proto Man charged a blast and fired. The energy bolt tore through the steel wall nearest to him and fizzled out against the second surface it struck. With a scowl, the preteen machine pushed through scorched tear in the wall and dropped into the next chamber. From the noise level and the vibrations of the steel plating beneath his boots, he had to be somewhere near the machinery that kept this vessel functional. Did these ships run off of coal? Oil?
With a grunt, Proto Man stooped down and slammed a fist into the floor. The metal plating buckled, and the rivets whined as they fought to remain in place. A second sturdy punch sent a handful of metal bolts erupting out from the floor, and on the third, the whole plate lost enough of a grip on its neighbors to fall down into the engineering level.
Landing in a crouch, the preteen machine stood up and eyed the rows of machines that fueled the ship. He knew this wasn’t all of them, but with any luck, it’d be more than enough to serve as a fistful of metaphorical wrenches. With the Proto Buster supported by his other hand, he charged a shot and let it rip into the engineering works. A few moments later, he leashed another powered burst of energy into the machinery.
After a pivot, he fired off into another direction.
And that was how the robot continued until it became dark enough that he couldn’t see the hands in front of his visor. Somewhere in the distance, Proto Man heard what may have been the sound of rushing water, but he couldn’t be sure. It was also a possibility that he was just hearing the splash of oil or grease or whatever chemicals were combusted to push this blighted vessel through the oceans.
Activating his jetpack, Proto Man propelled himself up through the missing gap in the deck above. A charged blast sheered through the metal ceiling and into the next level. The machine moved up and repeated until he could see the sun peaking down through a sky sparsely adorned with gray clouds. While the levels below had been almost quiet since his erratic separation from the other primes, the scene on the main deck was chaos.
Cannons belched black smoke as they fired at the tree-coated archipelago. Down below deck and nearby, the machine heard the wail of klaxons—were those alarms? The darkling soldiers and marines scampered to and fro to keep the vessel in operation order despite some clear counter-fire from ships in the distance.
It really did look like there were Imperial ships on the horizon, returning heavy ordinance against the blighted cruiser, but it quickly became clear that they were doing what they had always done. Their bombardment was just another show of effort by an indifferent organization seeking little more than some positive PR.
Before he could get really worked up over the dalliance of the Imperial forces, Proto Man had small arms fire screaming through the air around him. Summoning his shield to deal with the pellets and bullets, the preteen machine stormed forward, pumping his short legs as hard as he could. Above here in the open air, he had increased functionality from most of his sensor sub-systems. He could already pinpoint where the others were, particularly the Vision and Blink, who had must have found the location of the portal.
A shell that was anything but small arms fire struck the front of Proto Man’s shield and nearly split the entire thing in half. Fissures spread across the ceramic titanium, and some of the heat from the blast washed across the exposed part of the robot’s face. While the shield and his skin were intact, the explosion was enough to grind Proto Man’s momentum to a halt, and before he could adjust, there was half a dozen shadows falling over him.
Blink and the Vision were still thirty or so yards down the ship and a deck or so underneath him. He couldn’t get a reading on the room, but it was large—perhaps some sort of space for munitions or machine storage.
Discarding the shield before it could be broken entirely, Proto Man activated his sword in one fist and kept the other one as a prime Proto Buster.
“Last chance to stand down,” he spoke out loud before the marines drew swords and charged.
Quote:900 words
Proto Man sabotaged some machinery down below in the engineering levels before rising up to the top deck. He is on his way to the Vision/Blink but has to deal with some newfound friends en route.