[u]'IDOLA' Have the immortal feather - Part 4[/u]
[u]Del[/u]
Not quite the reaction I would have expected from the guards. As soldiers and scientists milled around looking for me, the lab guards let me and Alicia out with minimal fuss. A quick trip to another storage room and I got some boots, but we couldn't do anythng about the lack of ID. Still, there wasn't any problem. Very strange, but I can't worry about that now. Alicia told me she'd take me somewhere safe, but I wasn't expecting her to take me to her apartment. It seems you can get just about anywhere on this ship if you have the right code cards for the teleporters.
It turns out that this ship, Pioneer Two, is identical to Pioneer One. In that case, I should know my way around. The ship is comprised of five major sections. The front section, which looks like a giant spike, is almost two kilometers long. It contains all the vital systems needed for the ship's upkeep. These include life support systems, primary power generators, and security control centers. It also serves as an amplifier for various beams, including communication and, in some cases, attack beams. The center of the ship is basically a giant dome. It contains an entire city, in which the refugees live. The most important buildings, such as the principal's control tower and the hunters' guild, are right in the middle. Accomodation for hunters and their families is located around the central towers, and is split into ten sectors. Each sector is assigned a colour, as is each hunter living there. The guild classifies hunters by their 'Section ID'. Each of the ten sections represents the main skill of the hunter living there. For instance, Redria is the guild colour assigned to hunters who show great skill in melee combat. Oran is the section for brave hunters and rangers, who prefer to run into fights than stay behind, and so on. It actually turns out that Alicia, this shy scientist, is actually a hunter as well. A force, to be exact. Not a force like Mast- No, Dark Falz, but the word 'force' is used to describe a magic user. All forces use computer chips implanted in their bodies to focus and project elemental energies, but it puts greater strain on their minds than physical combat on a melee hunter's muscles. Thus, forces can only work for a short time without resting. Alicia has taken me to her home in the whitill sector. Because of the huge population crammed into this single ship, living space is limited. Everyone lives inidentical two-room homes, built into multistorey towers. The outerbuildings in the dome house the civilian personell and commercial sectors. Shops and such.
Pioneer Two's main body is built around the dome, but there are two large curved wings at the sides. These contain governmental and scientific personnel and equipment. I just escaped from the left wing, the lab. The right wing is the most important section of the ship as far as rankings are concerned. The final sector is the engine. This huge piece of equipment propels the ship through space at insane velocities.
Anyway, I'm sitting in this scientist's apartment right now. Maintaining a human form is very tiring, so I appreciate the chance to rest. I'm sitting in my normal form, on a leather sofa. Pretty cushy, but I don't know how long I can expect to be safe here. Alicia's gone into the other room to fetch her computer, so I have a chance to look around. The room isn't coloured in any way, just grey and plain. There's a small window looking out over the city, along with a desk and the sofa I'm sitting on. There's also an inactive holotv in the far wall. I assume the other room is a bedroom. I sit up and hop onto the arm of the chair to look out of the window.
Oops...
I look back at the sofa. My feathers have punched a bunch of holes in it. It looks like it was an expensive one too...This is one of those embarassing situations where a personality clash does not help. My rappy side wants to apologise, while my human side wants to deny it. Maybe I should just pretend nothing happened. Alicia comes back into the room, now carrying a long grey case. A folded up laptop computer. She looks at the sofa, then at me. I don't know what to say.
"Ummm...sorry."
She frowns, and seems to think for what seems like hours.
"It could be worse, you could have shat on it."
"..." Wow, she's got an attitude. I thought most human females were shy. Maybe the threat of death makes humans think differently.
I break the silence. "So what exactly is Shining Darkness?"
"You know I'm only even thinking showing you this because you are the first intelligent D-cellular creature apart from MAGs I have met in the flesh."
"MAGs? The hunters' machine guardians? I don't know what to say... How can any human technology be based on D-cellular life?"
"I guess I'll have to explain a little further." Alicia sits on the sofa and opens the laptop, which starts up with a beep. She pauses. What is she waiting for? Show me the data!
"I really don't know why I'm jeapordising my job and even my life giving this information away. Can't I just return you to the surface?"
"No deal. Show me the data right now."
"It would be so much easier if-" I don't let her finish. I've already regrown my blade from the end of one of my wings and pressed the flat of it to her neck.
"Show me the data, bitch, or eat chitin. I am not open to petty negotiations. You have nothing I need apart from what you know about Falz and I."
"F-Falz?"
Oops...
"Just show me the data." I keep my blade ready as she accesses her files. I don't understand anything on the screen, but I will soon enough.
---Enter password---
"You need a password to access your own files?"
"Of course. It stops other people from accessing them without my permission. Do you know how we discovered your planet?"
"No, and I don't care. However, I know why you left yours."
"Oh? And why's that?"
"It was falling apart. Pieces of earth were drifting into space every day. People were dying everywhere and the atmosphere itself was collapsing."
She stops fingering the keypad and looks sideways at me. Looks like I've confused her again. "How did you find that out?"
"Never mind. Hurry up and show me the data. This is getting tedious."
"It's hard to concentrate with a giant claw at my neck."
I slowly move my wing. Part of me screams no, but I ignore it. I'm sure I can trust her. After all, we're in a small room twenty stories above ground. There's no way she can escape...
"Show me now, or it'll be right back there, give or take a few inches."
"Of course...I have no choice."
Her eyes flick back to me, then the monitor again. Then she looks at me again. Or is she looking past me? I look round. A camera drone is hovering in the window.
"NOW!"
SHIT! She jumps off the sofa, overbalancing it. It tips over, dumping me and the laptop onto the carpet. A buzz. Soldiers coming through the teleporter. I get up. For the second time in almost a day I'm facing twelve or more rifles.
"I took the liberty of calling security via the ship's computer network. You may know a lot about us but I doubted you would understand machine code."
A squad of soldiers, a disgruntled force, an overturned sofa and a camera drone all stand in the way of my survival. Talk about rough odds...
"Should we shoot to kill or stun, ma'am?"
"Kill. I don't care how smart it is, It's a major threat to the safety of all the people onboard the ship."
Something's happening...Energy is building up around the soldiers' weapons. dark energy... Don't tell me those guns use dark element power sources... I can't dodge twelve bullets! But what if I get hit?
"Alright men, FIRE!"
I freeze. Can't move...too afraid...
*BLAM*
A dull thud as each one hits me...right in the chest...not one miss.
I'm scared...
...so scared...
...of what I'm about to do...
...A red haze...losing control...
...idiots...
"Is this thing invincible or something?! Fire again!"
...no...
*BLAM*
...can't...control...self...
"...fReSh mEAt aT lAsT!"
Falz! Get out...of my body...
...they're scared...now...backing away...
...I'm sorry...
...so sorry...
-----
[u]Pal[/u]
I've made it back to the dome... It looms in front of me, the rising sun behind it. If I'm going to find the black rappy, he should be somewhere around here. But the dome is different. Before, the door opened for me by itself. Now, it looks like somethign tore it out of the wall. If I could be more cautious than I am now, I would be. Once again I enter the dome, to face that wasteland of twisted metal and shattered stone that used to be a city. I still have no idea what happened here. One day the humans were combing the forest hunting for sport, the next day they, and their families, were all dead. The fallen towers and decimated pillars stand silent and symbolic like remebrance stones. Silent and somehow symbolic. When a rappy dies, a smooth stone is taken from the river to remember him by. Sadly, after the humans arrived the river deepened considerably. This mass of wreckage is an ironic, obscene parody.
Something's changed since I was last here. The huge tower in the center is gone, replaced by a crater that must be at least five hundred meters across. I start to walk throug te rubble towards the crater. The black rappy is probably there. He always liked to hide himself in obscure places.
Strange. The corpses, which were everywhere, strewn like vivisected confetti, are gone. Where did they go? Not even the bloodstains remain. It's probabbly none of my business. I let my mind wander as I walk. I try to remember life before the humans came.Clear skies, no fear of deaqth. Living a like of pleasure, fun and contentment. The first sign of the humans' arival was the probes. Strange looking but harmless mchines that came down and drilled into the ground. They left us alone, so we left them alone. And after a while, they all took off and left.
Apart from one...
It - what?
A humming sound. I look round Argh! Hunter on a bike!
"..."
He rode straight past me...
Didn't he see me? I stand out in this rubble like a star in the sky. Orange on gray is hardly difficult to spot. At the speed he was going he must have been in a hurry. He's heading form the crater...
What if he's hunting for the black rappy?
I need to hurry and warn him! Time to do what rappies do best. I start to run, but I can't kepe pace with the bike. I've got to keep going...
I've got to find him...
[u]Barrage[/u]
--- Speed : 7 km/beat ---
--- Sensor range : 10 km ---
--- Human life signs detected : 0 ---
God damn. Nobody in the dome at all. The lab's going to have my ass when they find out. What happened here? The level of devastation is immense! If I had been programmed with high level emotional programs, I'd probably be crying by now. What a waste.
--- Objective : Locate survivors - Failed ---
--- Scanning area ---
--- 2 Life sign signatures detected ---
--- Locking on ---
--- Scanning ---
--- 1: HUcast class android ---
--- 2: Rappy (Native creature) ---
A rappy? The one that helped me? That must have been the orange thing I passed just now. And the android?
--- Detailed scan in progress ---
--- Complete ---
--- Pioneer Two profile data record 347
--- Name: Kireek ---
--- Age: Not specified ---
--- Occupation: Hunter / Governmental assistant ---
--- Guild-Designated experience level: 156
--- Bio: None on record ---
It's my squad leader. At last.
--- Turn 47 degrees right ---
--- Straight course: Achieved ---
It looks like he's on the edge of that huge crater. What is it there for anyway?
--- Distance: 500 meters ---
--- Estimated crater depth: 25000m Estimated crater width: 517m---
That's one big hole...
--- Waypoint reached ---
--- Decellerating ---
I dismount and disconnect my bazooka from the bike. Kireek is...
Kneeling on the edge of the pit?
"Sir!"
He gets up and turns slowly. Instantly recognisible. A huge, burly mech with dark purple armour plating. His movements are jerky. Is he damaged?
"Make your report, soldier."
I don't know how to say this...
"All primary objectives...failed, Sir.
"Secondaries?"
"Teleporter beacon has been placed, Sir. Apart from that, complete failure."
"Good...Come here, soldier.
I walk over to Kireek, who upon closer inspection seems to be standing slightly lopsidedly. He's holding his photon scythe in both hands behind his back, but there's...something different about the blade.
"Are you alright, sir?"
"Never bEtTeR..."
--- WARNING! THREAT DETECTED! Entering defence mode ---
He swings the scythe horizontally, giving me almost too little time to bring my weapon down from my shoulder to block it.
"Sir! What are you doing?"
"dIE!"
---WARNING! Corrosive materials detected! ---
What the? That scythe is eating through my gun! I drop it, and it's weight pulls the scythe down to the ground. Kireek somehow keeps hold with both hands. How the hell? My gun weighs more than a metric ton!
"A nIcE tRIck."
He swings upward, THROUGH my gun! that's three inches of metal penetrated in a simple swipe! I barely step to the left in time to avoid being cut in half.
--- WARNING! Impact detected! Head armour at 92% integrity! ---
He hit me with the hilt! Bastard! I can't fight him at melee range!
"I fEel sOMetHiNG...nEW...yOu tAStE So gOOd!"
Okay, this is seriously scaring me now. I need to incapacitate him.
--- Deploy freeze trap ---
A small pod ejects from my wrist into my hand. As my commander pulls back his scythe to attack again, I ram it into his chest. The trap bursts, spraying compressed liquid nitrogen everywhere. Kireek's temeperature drops fast, and his vital systems begin to sieze up.
--- WARNING! Tactical error! ---
Damn right. My hand's stuck in his chest, and...
He's stumbling backwards! He slips on the edge for a split second, befor tumbling into the pit, pulling me with him. I reach out, and grab a protuding pipe at the last second with my free hand. No idea how I did it, but that's not the problem right now. My one arm can't support four tons of metal! Already the pipe is buckling.
Is this it?
Should I self-destruct?
What the? As I look up, something looks down. A feathery face. A rappy! Simulation training is either going to pay off now, or make me look like an idiot seconds before my death.
--- Language change: English - Rappy ---
"Help!"
It keeps looking down. The pipe's bent almost halfway!
"Please! Help!"
"Why? You are a hunter."
"I won't hurt you! Please!
It seems to think for a second. The pipe's almost bent 90 degrees!
"All right. Can you take my weight for a second?"
"I don't know!"
"Then in that case, here I come!"
What? it hops down onto my side, and the pipe creaks.
"Can you feel pain?"
"No."
"Good."
--- ALERT! HEAVY DAMAGE DETECTED! Right arm has been rendered inoperable! Scan suggests major lareration damage! ---
It cut my arm off with it's beak! The one holding Kireek. No time to watch him fall. the rappy hops back out of the crater, and I swing myself out using the pipe as a balance. As I let go, it falls apart completely. The remaining fragment disappearing into the blackness after Kireek.
The rappy looks back at me, and does something completely unexpected.
"I'm a Pal rappy. You can call me Pal."
"Barrage."
Interesting. This rappy seems to want to be friends...
[u]Del[/u]
Not quite the reaction I would have expected from the guards. As soldiers and scientists milled around looking for me, the lab guards let me and Alicia out with minimal fuss. A quick trip to another storage room and I got some boots, but we couldn't do anythng about the lack of ID. Still, there wasn't any problem. Very strange, but I can't worry about that now. Alicia told me she'd take me somewhere safe, but I wasn't expecting her to take me to her apartment. It seems you can get just about anywhere on this ship if you have the right code cards for the teleporters.
It turns out that this ship, Pioneer Two, is identical to Pioneer One. In that case, I should know my way around. The ship is comprised of five major sections. The front section, which looks like a giant spike, is almost two kilometers long. It contains all the vital systems needed for the ship's upkeep. These include life support systems, primary power generators, and security control centers. It also serves as an amplifier for various beams, including communication and, in some cases, attack beams. The center of the ship is basically a giant dome. It contains an entire city, in which the refugees live. The most important buildings, such as the principal's control tower and the hunters' guild, are right in the middle. Accomodation for hunters and their families is located around the central towers, and is split into ten sectors. Each sector is assigned a colour, as is each hunter living there. The guild classifies hunters by their 'Section ID'. Each of the ten sections represents the main skill of the hunter living there. For instance, Redria is the guild colour assigned to hunters who show great skill in melee combat. Oran is the section for brave hunters and rangers, who prefer to run into fights than stay behind, and so on. It actually turns out that Alicia, this shy scientist, is actually a hunter as well. A force, to be exact. Not a force like Mast- No, Dark Falz, but the word 'force' is used to describe a magic user. All forces use computer chips implanted in their bodies to focus and project elemental energies, but it puts greater strain on their minds than physical combat on a melee hunter's muscles. Thus, forces can only work for a short time without resting. Alicia has taken me to her home in the whitill sector. Because of the huge population crammed into this single ship, living space is limited. Everyone lives inidentical two-room homes, built into multistorey towers. The outerbuildings in the dome house the civilian personell and commercial sectors. Shops and such.
Pioneer Two's main body is built around the dome, but there are two large curved wings at the sides. These contain governmental and scientific personnel and equipment. I just escaped from the left wing, the lab. The right wing is the most important section of the ship as far as rankings are concerned. The final sector is the engine. This huge piece of equipment propels the ship through space at insane velocities.
Anyway, I'm sitting in this scientist's apartment right now. Maintaining a human form is very tiring, so I appreciate the chance to rest. I'm sitting in my normal form, on a leather sofa. Pretty cushy, but I don't know how long I can expect to be safe here. Alicia's gone into the other room to fetch her computer, so I have a chance to look around. The room isn't coloured in any way, just grey and plain. There's a small window looking out over the city, along with a desk and the sofa I'm sitting on. There's also an inactive holotv in the far wall. I assume the other room is a bedroom. I sit up and hop onto the arm of the chair to look out of the window.
Oops...
I look back at the sofa. My feathers have punched a bunch of holes in it. It looks like it was an expensive one too...This is one of those embarassing situations where a personality clash does not help. My rappy side wants to apologise, while my human side wants to deny it. Maybe I should just pretend nothing happened. Alicia comes back into the room, now carrying a long grey case. A folded up laptop computer. She looks at the sofa, then at me. I don't know what to say.
"Ummm...sorry."
She frowns, and seems to think for what seems like hours.
"It could be worse, you could have shat on it."
"..." Wow, she's got an attitude. I thought most human females were shy. Maybe the threat of death makes humans think differently.
I break the silence. "So what exactly is Shining Darkness?"
"You know I'm only even thinking showing you this because you are the first intelligent D-cellular creature apart from MAGs I have met in the flesh."
"MAGs? The hunters' machine guardians? I don't know what to say... How can any human technology be based on D-cellular life?"
"I guess I'll have to explain a little further." Alicia sits on the sofa and opens the laptop, which starts up with a beep. She pauses. What is she waiting for? Show me the data!
"I really don't know why I'm jeapordising my job and even my life giving this information away. Can't I just return you to the surface?"
"No deal. Show me the data right now."
"It would be so much easier if-" I don't let her finish. I've already regrown my blade from the end of one of my wings and pressed the flat of it to her neck.
"Show me the data, bitch, or eat chitin. I am not open to petty negotiations. You have nothing I need apart from what you know about Falz and I."
"F-Falz?"
Oops...
"Just show me the data." I keep my blade ready as she accesses her files. I don't understand anything on the screen, but I will soon enough.
---Enter password---
"You need a password to access your own files?"
"Of course. It stops other people from accessing them without my permission. Do you know how we discovered your planet?"
"No, and I don't care. However, I know why you left yours."
"Oh? And why's that?"
"It was falling apart. Pieces of earth were drifting into space every day. People were dying everywhere and the atmosphere itself was collapsing."
She stops fingering the keypad and looks sideways at me. Looks like I've confused her again. "How did you find that out?"
"Never mind. Hurry up and show me the data. This is getting tedious."
"It's hard to concentrate with a giant claw at my neck."
I slowly move my wing. Part of me screams no, but I ignore it. I'm sure I can trust her. After all, we're in a small room twenty stories above ground. There's no way she can escape...
"Show me now, or it'll be right back there, give or take a few inches."
"Of course...I have no choice."
Her eyes flick back to me, then the monitor again. Then she looks at me again. Or is she looking past me? I look round. A camera drone is hovering in the window.
"NOW!"
SHIT! She jumps off the sofa, overbalancing it. It tips over, dumping me and the laptop onto the carpet. A buzz. Soldiers coming through the teleporter. I get up. For the second time in almost a day I'm facing twelve or more rifles.
"I took the liberty of calling security via the ship's computer network. You may know a lot about us but I doubted you would understand machine code."
A squad of soldiers, a disgruntled force, an overturned sofa and a camera drone all stand in the way of my survival. Talk about rough odds...
"Should we shoot to kill or stun, ma'am?"
"Kill. I don't care how smart it is, It's a major threat to the safety of all the people onboard the ship."
Something's happening...Energy is building up around the soldiers' weapons. dark energy... Don't tell me those guns use dark element power sources... I can't dodge twelve bullets! But what if I get hit?
"Alright men, FIRE!"
I freeze. Can't move...too afraid...
*BLAM*
A dull thud as each one hits me...right in the chest...not one miss.
I'm scared...
...so scared...
...of what I'm about to do...
...A red haze...losing control...
...idiots...
"Is this thing invincible or something?! Fire again!"
...no...
*BLAM*
...can't...control...self...
"...fReSh mEAt aT lAsT!"
Falz! Get out...of my body...
...they're scared...now...backing away...
...I'm sorry...
...so sorry...
-----
[u]Pal[/u]
I've made it back to the dome... It looms in front of me, the rising sun behind it. If I'm going to find the black rappy, he should be somewhere around here. But the dome is different. Before, the door opened for me by itself. Now, it looks like somethign tore it out of the wall. If I could be more cautious than I am now, I would be. Once again I enter the dome, to face that wasteland of twisted metal and shattered stone that used to be a city. I still have no idea what happened here. One day the humans were combing the forest hunting for sport, the next day they, and their families, were all dead. The fallen towers and decimated pillars stand silent and symbolic like remebrance stones. Silent and somehow symbolic. When a rappy dies, a smooth stone is taken from the river to remember him by. Sadly, after the humans arrived the river deepened considerably. This mass of wreckage is an ironic, obscene parody.
Something's changed since I was last here. The huge tower in the center is gone, replaced by a crater that must be at least five hundred meters across. I start to walk throug te rubble towards the crater. The black rappy is probably there. He always liked to hide himself in obscure places.
Strange. The corpses, which were everywhere, strewn like vivisected confetti, are gone. Where did they go? Not even the bloodstains remain. It's probabbly none of my business. I let my mind wander as I walk. I try to remember life before the humans came.Clear skies, no fear of deaqth. Living a like of pleasure, fun and contentment. The first sign of the humans' arival was the probes. Strange looking but harmless mchines that came down and drilled into the ground. They left us alone, so we left them alone. And after a while, they all took off and left.
Apart from one...
It - what?
A humming sound. I look round Argh! Hunter on a bike!
"..."
He rode straight past me...
Didn't he see me? I stand out in this rubble like a star in the sky. Orange on gray is hardly difficult to spot. At the speed he was going he must have been in a hurry. He's heading form the crater...
What if he's hunting for the black rappy?
I need to hurry and warn him! Time to do what rappies do best. I start to run, but I can't kepe pace with the bike. I've got to keep going...
I've got to find him...
[u]Barrage[/u]
--- Speed : 7 km/beat ---
--- Sensor range : 10 km ---
--- Human life signs detected : 0 ---
God damn. Nobody in the dome at all. The lab's going to have my ass when they find out. What happened here? The level of devastation is immense! If I had been programmed with high level emotional programs, I'd probably be crying by now. What a waste.
--- Objective : Locate survivors - Failed ---
--- Scanning area ---
--- 2 Life sign signatures detected ---
--- Locking on ---
--- Scanning ---
--- 1: HUcast class android ---
--- 2: Rappy (Native creature) ---
A rappy? The one that helped me? That must have been the orange thing I passed just now. And the android?
--- Detailed scan in progress ---
--- Complete ---
--- Pioneer Two profile data record 347
--- Name: Kireek ---
--- Age: Not specified ---
--- Occupation: Hunter / Governmental assistant ---
--- Guild-Designated experience level: 156
--- Bio: None on record ---
It's my squad leader. At last.
--- Turn 47 degrees right ---
--- Straight course: Achieved ---
It looks like he's on the edge of that huge crater. What is it there for anyway?
--- Distance: 500 meters ---
--- Estimated crater depth: 25000m Estimated crater width: 517m---
That's one big hole...
--- Waypoint reached ---
--- Decellerating ---
I dismount and disconnect my bazooka from the bike. Kireek is...
Kneeling on the edge of the pit?
"Sir!"
He gets up and turns slowly. Instantly recognisible. A huge, burly mech with dark purple armour plating. His movements are jerky. Is he damaged?
"Make your report, soldier."
I don't know how to say this...
"All primary objectives...failed, Sir.
"Secondaries?"
"Teleporter beacon has been placed, Sir. Apart from that, complete failure."
"Good...Come here, soldier.
I walk over to Kireek, who upon closer inspection seems to be standing slightly lopsidedly. He's holding his photon scythe in both hands behind his back, but there's...something different about the blade.
"Are you alright, sir?"
"Never bEtTeR..."
--- WARNING! THREAT DETECTED! Entering defence mode ---
He swings the scythe horizontally, giving me almost too little time to bring my weapon down from my shoulder to block it.
"Sir! What are you doing?"
"dIE!"
---WARNING! Corrosive materials detected! ---
What the? That scythe is eating through my gun! I drop it, and it's weight pulls the scythe down to the ground. Kireek somehow keeps hold with both hands. How the hell? My gun weighs more than a metric ton!
"A nIcE tRIck."
He swings upward, THROUGH my gun! that's three inches of metal penetrated in a simple swipe! I barely step to the left in time to avoid being cut in half.
--- WARNING! Impact detected! Head armour at 92% integrity! ---
He hit me with the hilt! Bastard! I can't fight him at melee range!
"I fEel sOMetHiNG...nEW...yOu tAStE So gOOd!"
Okay, this is seriously scaring me now. I need to incapacitate him.
--- Deploy freeze trap ---
A small pod ejects from my wrist into my hand. As my commander pulls back his scythe to attack again, I ram it into his chest. The trap bursts, spraying compressed liquid nitrogen everywhere. Kireek's temeperature drops fast, and his vital systems begin to sieze up.
--- WARNING! Tactical error! ---
Damn right. My hand's stuck in his chest, and...
He's stumbling backwards! He slips on the edge for a split second, befor tumbling into the pit, pulling me with him. I reach out, and grab a protuding pipe at the last second with my free hand. No idea how I did it, but that's not the problem right now. My one arm can't support four tons of metal! Already the pipe is buckling.
Is this it?
Should I self-destruct?
What the? As I look up, something looks down. A feathery face. A rappy! Simulation training is either going to pay off now, or make me look like an idiot seconds before my death.
--- Language change: English - Rappy ---
"Help!"
It keeps looking down. The pipe's bent almost halfway!
"Please! Help!"
"Why? You are a hunter."
"I won't hurt you! Please!
It seems to think for a second. The pipe's almost bent 90 degrees!
"All right. Can you take my weight for a second?"
"I don't know!"
"Then in that case, here I come!"
What? it hops down onto my side, and the pipe creaks.
"Can you feel pain?"
"No."
"Good."
--- ALERT! HEAVY DAMAGE DETECTED! Right arm has been rendered inoperable! Scan suggests major lareration damage! ---
It cut my arm off with it's beak! The one holding Kireek. No time to watch him fall. the rappy hops back out of the crater, and I swing myself out using the pipe as a balance. As I let go, it falls apart completely. The remaining fragment disappearing into the blackness after Kireek.
The rappy looks back at me, and does something completely unexpected.
"I'm a Pal rappy. You can call me Pal."
"Barrage."
Interesting. This rappy seems to want to be friends...
