Servos whirred and clicked as a blue Exo made his way through the burning ruins of a once very populous city. Bodies littered the streets like snow after a blizzard, almost completely covering the cement road beneath his feet. The Exo was clad in light plasteel armor plating and armed with a simple pulse rifle. His white and grey armor plating only covered his upper-body and thighs, one of which held a small sidearm. He carefully made his way between the many tall skyscrapers, keeping to the shadows and ducking down alleys. Occasionally he would kneel down to close the eyes of one of the corpses, searching them for any valuables before moving on.

Searching the bodies of the deceased may seem… Disrespectful… But it was for good reason. Each body he searched was carefully laid back down, eyes closed and arms folded over their chest. "Rest now, and may you find happiness elsewhere." The Exo recited this line many, many times. Far too many than he would like to admit.

This used to be his city, filled with his people. People he had been built to protect with his life. But he had failed, and was now left to pick through the ruins of his once beautiful home.

He was searching for video footage. Phones, cameras, anything that he could find to discover where they went, where the killers had gone next…

They had first appeared almost three months ago. Vex, tall bronze machines with glowing red eyes. They came and swept through city after city, utterly overwhelming the enforcement troops with their superior technology and numbers. They never left more than a few survivors, most of which died within the first few days of their wounds, or, in the case of humans, malnutrition or starvation.

His name is Xor…

Xor-3285.

There!

Xor turned and sprinted into a nearby alleyway when he heard it.

A soft mechanical chirping mixed with mechanical beeps and buzzes.

They were still in the city.

Xor slowly peered around the corner of the building he was hiding behind, catching a glimpse of red lights and bronze-colored metal before slipping back into the shadows. The machines had returned. Why?

Xor raised his rifle and pulled out the magazine. "twenty-seven rounds", the Exo thought to himself, "that makes nine bursts…"

He sighed as he slid the magazine back into place, "Just gotta do it in three then…" He leaned back straight against the wall of the alley, taking three sharp breaths in quick succession before whipping around the corner, letting out a battle cry as the metal invaders came into view, there were three of them, only slightly taller than he was. They quickly faced him and readied their weapons, preparing to finish off the population of the city for good.

Xor darted to the side, leaping over a parked car and using it for cover. He heard the sharp discharges from the alien weapons as they fired, throwing bursts of red energy in his direction. They hit the metal of the car and Xor waited for them to reload before standing to return fire through the shattered glass of the car's window.

Tatatat!

A burst from his own weapon send three bullets streaming into the closest Vex's head, dead center of it's one red eye. Instead of simply blinding it like the Exo had expected, the Vex's disk-like head was blown off entirely. Xor grinned at the sparking remains of a neck that was still mounted on the staggering machine's chest. Blue arcs of electricity began to streak across it's body.

"Yeah! Eat it sucker!", Xor was sorely disappointed when the bronze automaton began to charge straight at him, without it's head. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" The Exo gathered himself and began to attempt to scramble away from the berserker Vex.

Crunch!

The hood of the car that served as Xor's cover imploded as the rampaging mechanical monster leaped up get at the Exo. It stretched out a limb and Xor watched as its hand began to glow with a purplish light. The light dispersed with a thud and Xor was thrown back by the resulting shock wave. Sparks flew as his metal body scraped against the concrete. By now the other two deadly robots were closing in, leveling their guns at him, He prepared for the end.

Bang!

Something whizzed past the Exo's head and sailed straight into the rampaging Vex's midsection, causing the automaton to explode into glowing liquid.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Xor turned from his spot on the ground to spot a figure walking towards him down the corpse-ridden road. Bright white eyes shone from beneath a dark hood as the stranger took long, confident strides forward, a large revolver clutched in her hand. Her shots flew straight into the other two Vex soldiers, tearing through the joints of their arms with pinpoint accuracy and disarming them. The figure holstered her weapon and drew a long combat knife from a sheathe on her thigh and rushed the Vex. The dagger sparked and crackled with electricity as the stranger plunged it through the joints that held the Vex's heads to their bodies, sending them flying off onto the concrete below. Now, without their weapons the robots were now harmless, and without their heads they had no sense of direction. They stopped where they were, frozen in place as their systems went into hibernation mode.

The stranger turned to Xor, he looked up from his spot still sitting on the ground. His eyes darted from the sparking Vex statues to this newcomer. It was an Exo… Like him…

"W-who-"

He was cut off with a curt, "Come with me." before the Exo turned and began to stalk away in the direction she came, obviously expecting for Xor to follow.

He struggled to his feet, joints creaking with the strain of his recent confrontation with the Vex. "Wait! Who are you? Why should I trust you?"

The stranger stopped and turned, the shadows of her hood making the white lights of her eyes shine brightly at Xor as she stared at him over her shoulder. "Then I expect you have somewhere else to go then?"

Xor sighed to himself, "At least tell me where you're taking me…"

The stranger turned and began walking again, "Where am I taking you?"

A small chuckle escaped her vocal processor, "I guess you'll have to wait and see…"

Hey guys! this is the first installment of my random collections of short stories!

This first chapter was originally going to be a story of it's own, but after awhile I kinda lost interest and through that my motivation to finish it.

So yeah! here you are! an incomplete section of a story and I don't feel like grammar-ing anymore...

Y'all have nice times in your life-things.