02-18-2016, 05:18 PM
Kopaka ran.
It wasn’t cowardly, it was tactical. He hadn’t been anticipating crossing paths with the mouse before obtaining a decent weapon. The device that Magus wielded was devastating in theory, but it was more cumbersome than Kopaka was used to. Maybe Tahu, or perhaps Onua, would be better suited to the straight forward, brute force of the weapon, but it didn’t suit Kopaka’s approach to combat very well. Of course, it hadn’t helped that his teammates had been given naught but a piece of fruit each to do battle with. Link had survived this debacle so far, and had even managed to obtain one of Teucer’s relics. There had to be more that that scintillating cube was capable of. Considering all that, however, the battle had gone rather well. Luckily, it seemed Kopaka’s Kanohi Hau still functioned in this place, which had thankfully saved him from a far worse injury than a head wound. Even as the biomech dashed through the thick underbrush, batting leaves and vines out of his way, he reached up and touched the side of his head, behind his mask. A small dab of thick, lavender fluid stuck to his frigid fingers. None of his internal diagnostics had displayed any significant damage to his organic processing centers, so in that regard, he was doing rather well.
There was something more pressing on Kopaka’s mind, however. His nutrition indicator had been flashing for quite some time now, and the frenzied pace at which he and his colleagues has been traversing the island was putting considerable strain on his organic components. Even now, he could feel their strength ebbing, his movements less precise, less determined. But Kopaka kept running.
He wasn’t entirely sure where Magus or Link were. They had all retreated in the same direction, so ideally they were close by. It seemed, though, that yet another squall of lightning was brewing overhead. Wherever Kopaka ended up going, he couldn’t linger in this area any longer. Thick splats of rain trickled down through the dense foliage, spattering against his ocular sensor and blurring his vision, but Kopaka kept running. It was dark, and cloying tingles traced their way up and down his back as he continuedto sprint. How much more could his body sustain?
...
A few hours of sustained hiking gave him his answer. The Toa of Ice was in the midst of clambering up a slick escarpment of boulders when his smooth protosteel digits lost their grip. Kopaka let out sharp gasps of pain as his body crashed and bounced their way back into the loamy jungle soil. He landed with a great splash of mud, sliding a few feet before coming to a total halt. Immediately, he moved to lift his torso out of the mud, but his servos cried in protest, as they alone were not enough to lift his robotic weight. Kopaka’s muscles were just totally drained, unable to do anyhing more than twitch, fruitlessly. The Toa’s unblinking eye gleamed up from his space in the mud as the rest of his organic components began to go into hibernation. He needed sustenance, badly, but he wasn’t going anywhere until his organics had some rest. Even the biological centers of his hybrid brain began to pass out from exhaustion.
But a Toa never truly sleeps.
So Kopaka lay there, staring at the jungle in front of him, listening to the sound of the rain. No emotions, no regrets, no ideas ran through his mind, for those functions were reserved for a living brain only. All Kopaka could do was watch and wait. Thankfully, this total lack of organic thought processes saved him from feeling the embarassment at his current predicament...
It wasn’t cowardly, it was tactical. He hadn’t been anticipating crossing paths with the mouse before obtaining a decent weapon. The device that Magus wielded was devastating in theory, but it was more cumbersome than Kopaka was used to. Maybe Tahu, or perhaps Onua, would be better suited to the straight forward, brute force of the weapon, but it didn’t suit Kopaka’s approach to combat very well. Of course, it hadn’t helped that his teammates had been given naught but a piece of fruit each to do battle with. Link had survived this debacle so far, and had even managed to obtain one of Teucer’s relics. There had to be more that that scintillating cube was capable of. Considering all that, however, the battle had gone rather well. Luckily, it seemed Kopaka’s Kanohi Hau still functioned in this place, which had thankfully saved him from a far worse injury than a head wound. Even as the biomech dashed through the thick underbrush, batting leaves and vines out of his way, he reached up and touched the side of his head, behind his mask. A small dab of thick, lavender fluid stuck to his frigid fingers. None of his internal diagnostics had displayed any significant damage to his organic processing centers, so in that regard, he was doing rather well.
There was something more pressing on Kopaka’s mind, however. His nutrition indicator had been flashing for quite some time now, and the frenzied pace at which he and his colleagues has been traversing the island was putting considerable strain on his organic components. Even now, he could feel their strength ebbing, his movements less precise, less determined. But Kopaka kept running.
He wasn’t entirely sure where Magus or Link were. They had all retreated in the same direction, so ideally they were close by. It seemed, though, that yet another squall of lightning was brewing overhead. Wherever Kopaka ended up going, he couldn’t linger in this area any longer. Thick splats of rain trickled down through the dense foliage, spattering against his ocular sensor and blurring his vision, but Kopaka kept running. It was dark, and cloying tingles traced their way up and down his back as he continuedto sprint. How much more could his body sustain?
...
A few hours of sustained hiking gave him his answer. The Toa of Ice was in the midst of clambering up a slick escarpment of boulders when his smooth protosteel digits lost their grip. Kopaka let out sharp gasps of pain as his body crashed and bounced their way back into the loamy jungle soil. He landed with a great splash of mud, sliding a few feet before coming to a total halt. Immediately, he moved to lift his torso out of the mud, but his servos cried in protest, as they alone were not enough to lift his robotic weight. Kopaka’s muscles were just totally drained, unable to do anyhing more than twitch, fruitlessly. The Toa’s unblinking eye gleamed up from his space in the mud as the rest of his organic components began to go into hibernation. He needed sustenance, badly, but he wasn’t going anywhere until his organics had some rest. Even the biological centers of his hybrid brain began to pass out from exhaustion.
But a Toa never truly sleeps.
So Kopaka lay there, staring at the jungle in front of him, listening to the sound of the rain. No emotions, no regrets, no ideas ran through his mind, for those functions were reserved for a living brain only. All Kopaka could do was watch and wait. Thankfully, this total lack of organic thought processes saved him from feeling the embarassment at his current predicament...
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