To the fans of ROF, more specifically fans of SilverStar. I am aware that I have yet to finish ROF but it is still going, slowly but going. I decided that it wouldn't hurt any more to start on this little side story I had worked up.

I give you SilverStar's story, the story of a Fallen Star.

Fallen Star

Chapter 1

The nightmare was back again and she wished she could escape it. This dream had continued to haunt her as she fled her one time home. She was trapped, pined by warped metal that was arched inward, and around her was shouts and cries, burning fuel and the sound of something tearing through the wreck around her.

Her parts where crushed and scarcely working and she wished that she had ceased function if it could have let her avoid the horror she was seeing. The orange glow of fire and the smoke dimmed sunlight couldn't hide what was right before her. Blood, violent red running trickles of blood that rolled down off increasingly pale flesh.

A lovely golden cap of tussled curls, normally bright blue eyes and an ever sweet smile where all gone now as the long splinter, that had been her violin, glittered wetly from where it entered her chest. Her eyes closed now and the rasping gurgle in her chest grew even more labored.

She couldn't do anything to help her, not even speak to her. She was trapped watching her medafighter die. A sudden tremble behind her was scant warning before a large bladed claw tore through the door, or perhaps it had been the floor, and sheared off her ear. The pain wasn't anything compared to what was swelling in her heart as she couldn't help seeing the gurgling breath of Jun slow further and blood flecks spattering the car seat beside her with every weak exhale.

The bladed claw came through again and sheared off the mangled mess that was her arm. She didn't even wince, she could only prey that they worked faster to get to Jun. If she were torn to ribbons it wouldn't matter if they could help Jun. The shouting was loud, but indiscernible, behind the noise of the metal tearing jaws and managed to get Jun's eyes open again for a moment.

A leather-clad mitt came in though the small rent and the mirror in it turned and twisted until whoever held it spotted Jun. The hand and mirror vanished and the sounds of shouting and those jaws where back again with friends along as well. It was too late though. She could see it in the way Jun's eyes where staring at nothing and the rasping gurgle had stopped.

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She woke with a strangled sob and spent several seconds curled in on herself and whimpering. Eventually she managed to regain control again and stop thinking of the terrible event that was only the beginning of her decent. Shaking herself free of her restless repast she set about freeing herself from the comforting darkness around her.

Rustling and the slight sound of rust inhibited movement announced her explosive exit from the deep leaf pile. Her rapid exit managed to startle a pigeon that had come for the berries and nuts she scattered about her nest. The startled bird had a decent chance to escape the rusty medabot, poor matinees and even poorer starting condition had reduced a speedy medabot type down to mediocre. With the struggling bird in her claws she sat down atop her nest and selected several decent feathers from the pigeon before releasing it.

The feathers went into a tattered sandwich bag tucked into a compartment of her mangled and discolored armor. She almost had enough to make another set of charms that she could sell to venders in exchange of the vital things no medabot could last long without. Thinking that made her consider the five cans of excessively cheap oil buried under a tree root nearby.

She couldn't though; she had to save them for when she had time to work on her parts. A humorless laugh rasped out from her defunct vocal unit and she stumbled onto her stiff jointed legs. She had nothing but time it seemed, at least anymore. What kept her from working at repairing her parts was lack of funds and the materials that seemingly cost more than a new set of parts would.

Her loping gait towards the pond shore pained her, as her limbs didn't hinge the way they had been built and her tinpit was held together with an excessive amount of metabond and crude fasteners. She stopped as her left arm froze up completely and shot pain, fresh pain rather than the constant ache, into her body.

After the arm continued to pain her she straitened up and continued on to the pond in a staggering two-legged walk. She preferred moving like a cat when her salvaged arm, found rusted nearly whole in a garbage dump, worked well enough. Her tail dragged along behind her and she considered stopping long enough to drape it over her shoulder but decided not to expend the effort.

Finally crossing the dozen meters between the pond and her nest she griped a tree limb, already marked by weeks of similar use, and leaned out over the clear water. Starring up at her from the water was a sorry excuse for a cat medabot.

Her head and body were coated with mud and growing patches of bubbled paint and rust that removed all but traces of her silver color or rendered it a milky white. Her legs weren't visible where she was leaning out over the water but she knew that they where almost as bad looking as the rest of her despite that they worked the best. Her right arm was rust free and she spent a good deal of time and effort keeping it that way and fighting the rest of it where it ate at her. Her left arm, a blue that had faded to that of the sky, was rust free, visibly too her eyes, but inside was another story as the salvaged part was combined with the functional innards from her old one.

She spent a few minutes idly scratching her rusty face before she backed away from the water. She sat down on the pebble-lined shore, far enough from the water to avoid the worst wetness, and scooped up a few pebbles. Most them where rapidly dropped again as she sought out ones that she could use in her most stable income.

Another flat huff of laughter escaped her then, making nock-off dream catchers and key rings made from things she gathered from around the park might get her ten dollars for a months irritating work. Her hands froze as she found a glimmering stone that even she could identify as an emerald. The green stone must have come from a necklace setting and somehow entered the pond or wherever the stone for the shore was gathered.

It took her several excruciation long moments to remember why this little shiny stone should strike her attention so readily and she almost smacked herself for not realizing it sooner. This little rock could be worth enough to all her parts and have some left over if she was lucky or at the lest get her legs and arm fixed.

With the gem clutched in her hand she wobbled onto her feet and set off to where the nearest path was located that could take her to where she might, or might not, encounter a street vendor she knew. Her hopes where actually rising, it surprised her more that she had hopes to rise. She should have known better than to let herself away from her quite little cove among the trees.

She had scarcely walked a few meters down the dusty path when a shout sounded behind her. "It's the Scraper! Get it!" she didn't need to look back to know she was in trouble. Only the local hooligans called her the Scraper or even acknowledge that she existed. She made it only a few rapid steps before something struck her in the back and sent her tumbling.

She never had a chance of get back to her feet before several kids surrounded her and began kicking her or beating her with sticks. She curled into a ball and whimpered as they continued to beat her. She had been though this before and knew it pointless to plead or curse as either merely spurned them to actually do something she would have real trouble fixing. One of these beatings were responsible for upsetting her sense of balance and was the reason she couldn't walk on two legs very well.

Something harder than a green stick or small stone struck her arm and she gasped as her arm spasm and the gem tumbled from her grip. She tried to grab it again but it vanished into a dirty palm before she could get it and all the kids ran off laughing following the boy who had snagged it. She stared blankly at where they vanished down the path and then down at where she had been holding the gem.

She swore as loud as her vocal unit would allow, a scant raise in volume above her normal soft conversation, and lunged to her feet. Only for her balance to betray her and send her back to the ground. She stayed there for a time swearing at the ground under her face. She was done for today, she had decided.

She headed back towards where her little nest was hidden among the cove of trees and dug back in among the leafs. She didn't try to sleep or think, but despite all attempts at doing nothing at all kept bringing that little sparkling stone to mind and the image of it totally smashing a disproportionate version of her that represented a bit of hope she didn't think herself capable.

Short chapter. Next chapter is unplanned, but then I never plan out chapters and I wonder why I bother telling you the next is unplanned.