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The alien jungle's massive beasts croaked somewhere nearby. The Fungal Wastes watched over the small platoon of egg shaped drones finish the final welds on protective outer panelings. Several large pylons with electrifying tips pierced the otherwise flat natural horizon around the small military outpost. The abyssal shore beckoned the unstable supports of the settlement closer.
A swirling green portal shined a foreign color on the dark blue grass it surrounded. Several tiny drones operated on the miniature pylons keeping the invasion team's original entrance open.
"The base is completely operational," Cinve mumbled. "Isn't it time we go find the target?"
The huge cyan colored robot clenched her single fist in cruel anticipation. Energy impatiently routed back and forth from her reserve system to her plasma gun. Her poison tipped tail swished about.
A red skeletal snake with the skull of a cow slithered out into the air from in between her two massive wings. Its body cracked loudly every time it shifted direction. His yellow phantasmic eyes squinted at her.
Dei clicked his nonexistent tongue. "So impatient, Cinve. We can find her once the egg lays siege."
Cinve's white ears twitched irritably. She growled, kicking a rock with her steel foot. The rock rolled along the dirty floor and startled one of the egg's maintenance drones. Its monocle shaped eye looked over at Cinve in confusion.
"We've both seen that city, Dei. It is weak compared to the land we've helped him siege before."
The demon rolled his eyes at her. "Doesn't matter. Until the ignition is pressed, the grand towers spark, and the major portal opens, we're stuck without a hunt."
Cinve silently made her way across the empty camp and towards a large machine pressed into the far corner. Its huge wires lead out into the jungle and connect to the technological towers they had been constructing for the past few days. The robot's hand found their way towards the lever, hovering above it hesitantly.
When thrown, Stem Island would see the creation of its first ever man made wormhole. Not by its hands, but by the unknown egg's genius. The distant Stem City would stand no chance against his might.
"Not yet," Dei hissed. "We're not certain the device is stable enough. If the egg's invading fleet try to make it through here and are cut in half, we'll both blame your impulsive hand for it."
"The first one was stable, why shouldn't this one be?"
"These things take time, my dear daughter. Bigger plans come with bigger consequences."
Her hand begrudgingly backed away from the device. Cinve's temptation didn't sway at all, yet she knew the ear full she would get from her current boss and from her accursed partner. The last thing she wanted was more undesired orders barked at her by deplorable men.
The robot sat there in complete silence for quite some time.
Her inorganic body was cold.
The erratic spasms of unorderly flesh had been long forgotten by her mind. In times like these, Cinves had to swat away the curious questions. Was breathing painful or refreshing? Did organic eyes itch unseen nerves like hers did? Do other intelligent robots feel the curse she does?
That last question was funny to her.
Of course not. They're not the same; They never knew what it was like to be alive.
She'd forgotten what it was like.
Big difference.
Out of the corner of her visor's display, she spotted the small droid she had mindlessly kicked the rock towards before. The tripod's flexible limbs batted it about with curiosity. If Cinve could squint her eyes, she could’ve seen that it was not unlike an unknowing child realizing their place in the world for the first time
Cinve remembered when she tossed small rocks to her big sister instead of some soulless company's drones.
What was her name?
Twirl?
It didn’t matter anymore. They're gone.
Good riddance.
Dei housed his eldritch body inside of hers. Neither of them inhaled. Neither of them exhaled. The combined souls stood like statues, overwatching the camp of busy robots continuing to stabilize the final hours of the off-world group’s invasion preparation.
It came without warning.
Alarms blared from a tall tower at the opposite corner. Whirring machinery could be heard on the other side of the base’s walls. Bright flashes of energy penetrated the steel protecting the base’s interior. The drone playing with the rock had its body melted by one of the haphazard lasers within the storm. The robotic maintenance workers no took time in sounding off their own alerts and scrambling towards the barrack building.
"Cinve-" Dei was interrupted.
"I'm on it."
The ghostly entity stored within Cinve took no time in returning to its nest inside of her hull. As soon as he was secure, the robotic monstrosity's wings were lit ablaze, blinding neon blue and white light scorching the natural soil under her. She shot into the air with her cannon primed. It took no time for her visor to lock on to a dozen highly armed droids from the southern wall. The squadron of robots' scalding hot, plasma based blasts were targeted on one point on the wall. It glowed a bright orange as it began to melt.
Holding up her own cannon and thrusting all reserve power into it, Cinve felt her mouthless face crack a phantom smile as a huge projectile was lobbed down towards them. It hit the ground around them, the fiery blast resulted in a ball of embers and smoke encompassing the invaders. However, her visor still saw their electrical blood flow. She saw their powered frames motion up to her and aim.
Finally, some real action.
Their hellfire was directed from the wall onto their assaulter. The speedster danced in the humid air of Stem Island’s edge as hopeless blasts of plasma flew their way towards her. Like a bird of prey, Cinve swept down and found her single hand’s sharp fingers ensnaring one of the droid’s skulls. Getting so close to her foes had left her hull with a few minor burns from their weapons, but that's alright. These guns were nothing to what the egg has had her toil with before in the depths of space.
The robot was heavy, its white steel decorated with glowing blue decorations. It was a design that Cinve had seen many times before in the grander galaxy. She didn't hold LAWCORP's Type-2s in a very high regard.
Despite their bulky armor and heavier frames, they were easier to crush than one might think. Her talon-esque hand caved its head in with relative ease, cracked blue glass from its shattered visor flying through the sky. She tossed it down carelessly into the jungle below her before wrapping around back to the horde.
Her father rattled into her ear. "Just shoot them, Cinve. This isn't playtime."
"You never let me have fun," She barked back angrily. Her bunny ear shaped features shift uncomfortably backwards as her wings thrusted her forward.
Firing out another blast from her rifle, the metallic bunny swept down into the haze and fire smokescreen she had created. Her vice grip claimed another of the bots as her pointed tail stretched out and pierced a second's hull. The dripping tip's acid ran through the Lawmen's internals. Sparks shot out of the offending droid.
The weight of two victims was slowing her down significantly. Remaining squadron's hailfire painted her hull with burn marks a bit more accurately now due to the decreased momentum. Unhappy with the prospect that they could do damage to her refined body. She crushed the grasped Lawmen’s head like a soda can before discarding the now brainless body to the grass below.
Cinve was clever. She had a plan.
The sparking corpse that her tail still pierced through was going to be nothing short of a makeshift projectile. Cinve, having passed over the airspace above the egg's unimpressive outpost, spun around. Vision locking on to the brainless group of Lawmen that still struggled to hit her, Cinve lined up a strike.
A horrific, otherworldly screech was let loose from the ground. There was no time to identify the origin of the sound. Her visor sounded emergency alarms as a blur jumped out from the nearby Fungal Wastes' forestry. The green and black stranger tackled the flying droid midair, both bodies flailing down to the military base below.
A small crater was left in Stem Island's outer soil as Cinve collided with it. Tiny metal parts and chunks of stones flew away from the crash. Dismounted forcefully by the mysterious attacker, her surprisingly frail body rolled across the uneven dirt in the military base's interior for several seconds before slowing down. Cinve leaked a faux guttural groan as fake muscles violently pulled her piloted body to its feet.
"No fair," She complained silently enough that only Dei could hear.
Across the base's field from her stood a figure dressed in black. Green, thin hair flowed out from underneath its religious cap. Blood covered gray cheeks. Its glowing white eyes seemed to wobble back and forth as they stared down Cinve. The robot’s wings roared like a car engine, the flames emitting from them spiking in intensity at the peak of the noise. The corpse's crimson soaked claws erratically clenched and loosened..
"YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE," Its voice echoed out towards her. "HAVE YOUR FORCES LEAVE AND NEVER RETURN."
She hated nothing more than being ordered around.
"I'm afraid I don't listen to orders from a walking, talking corpse. Not any more than one of them, at least."
Cinve swore she heard Dei let loose a sly snicker from inside the comfortable confines of her frame.
That piercing shriek was let loose as the undead nun stretched her gaping maw wide. Like an enraged animal, she darted forward with drawn claws. Cinve was ready this time. The robot's wings thrusted all power to one side as she bent forward. Using the uneven momentum, Cinve's tail swung about and smashed the Lawmen still impaled by her tail straight into the charging demon's face.
The heavy Type-2's parts flew throughout the black sky as Unnun was sent stumbling backwards.
“Not bad,” Cinve whispered to herself.
Cinve tried to make a swift getaway from the dubious positioning. All power was rerouted to the thrusters within her technological wings. Unfortunately, her makeshift projectile had her pay the price for its cruelty.
The walking, talking corpse sure didn't behave as one; It recovered from the temporary stun within a mere second. It leaped forward again, its resolve and its momentum seemingly untouched by the temporary obstacle. Its twitching hands grabbed Cinve's bulky tail. They dug into the steel and didn’t intend to let go. The appendage twitched in an attempt to stab the beast with no results.
With a single hefty tug, the additional limb was pulled straight out of its socket.
Resistance now gone, the droid’s wings rocketed her forward at a blinding speed. In fact, she barely avoided slamming into the wall. As soon as Cinve could gain control of her velocity, she hovered midair and gave a good look at the still grounded Unnun. The frenzied nun’s monstrous feet stomped the dislodged robotic tail into three dozen pieces of scrap metal.
"Pest," She hushedly giggled.
This whole operation on Stem Island had gotten boring fast for her. She didn’t care for the egg’s politics or dei’s schemes. Rabbit season brought her here, and while this wasn’t exactly the hunt she came here for, she would gladly take it.
Dei quietly commented, "You seem like you're in high spirits, dear."
Cinve huffed at his suggestion. "I'm not. This is simply more exciting than months of waiting around you and the egg always have me doing."
Their momentary banter ended as the demonic nun's head snapped back onto Cinve. Disks of twisted divinity stared at the interloper’s visor. For a moment, the two carefully crafted puppets of twisted ambitions stared into each other’s heartless vessels.
Unnun's crazy jumping force sent her launching into the air at startling, inhuman speeds. Limited in her reaction time, Cinve’s attempt to escape only ended in the two tumbling to the ground again. The impact sent the two up against the newly constructed walls of the base.
Pinned, Cinve's body was held in place as Unnun's clawed hand dug into the robot's waist. Sparks flew, poison reserves leaked onto the ground below, and support beams twisted in unintended directions. Internal warning flashed DAMAGED and OFFLINE on Cinve's overlay.
If Cinve was still a living Kalstein, she would be afraid of blood seeping out of open wounds.
Unfortunately for her necromanced attacker, Cinve was an undead monster herself.
Using her claw's sharpened steel fingers, the robotic bunny slashed the barbaric Unnun's glowing eyes straight across. That same horrifying shout was bellowed as the nun brought her hands up to cover the blood pouring out from her eyes. Given an opportunity, bright thrusters shot the soul’s shell upwards.
Sadly, there were several issues. Her reserve power battery was completely offline. The power remaining across her body was all she had. Unnun had also severed the wires connecting her torso to her legs. Thankfully, that dead weight wasn't a new scenario to the killer.
In fact, her design has gotten so dirtied before that it was an expected outcome at this point. A small mechanical click was all that was required for Cinve's limp legs to unhook from her body and go flying down into the grass below.
"A retreat might be in order, Cinve. This opponent is too unpredictable. The egg can craft us a better strat-"
Cinve scoffed at Dei's pretentious tone. She had managed to topple him long ago, this opponent was nothing more than a mild inconvenience for her. "Zip it."
The airborne robot's cannon locked onto the now recovering nun. Several bolts of burning energy were fired off in quick succession. Huge clouds of ash covered the military base as they collided with their target. A small beeping aloud indicated to the living weapon that her cannon ran out of energy and there was no more to pull from.
Hopefully she finished the job.
Several long, drawn out moments went by. Cinve could see the Lawmen burning down the base’s wall with their plasma out of the corner of her eye. She would deal with them the moment she saw the smoke clear and an opponent laid charred.
She waited without an ounce of impatience. That was rare.
And, as the smoke wafted away and the clearing opened once more...
The nun was gone.
No pile of charred flesh, no grouping of torn clothes, not even a chunk of flesh blown off.
That can’t be good.
Her visor's warning system screeched at her as both of her wings had their base severed. The nun, who had somehow snuck away unnoticed and jumped from below, used her razor sharp claws to slice through them from behind. Both bodies spiraled to the ground below.
With a huge thud, Cinve's metallic hull slammed face first against the soot covered grass. A few spare pieces flew out of the several cuts in her body. Cinve’s severed wings fell around her, tumbling away.
Cinve still felt that primitive, burning urge to fight, though. It never left her, it never will. The legless, wingless robot viciously spun herself around towards Unnun. The divine corpse's clothing was burnt and tattered, holes revealing stitched together, bloody white skin. She stood over Cinve.
Holding up her blaster, Cinve routed all excess energy remaining in her body to her cannon. Her visor's display dimmed as spinning mechanisms formed heat inside of her overclocked gun.
It was a futile attempt.
Unnun viciously grabbed Cinve's charged firearm and crushed it with sheer force. All the building energy inside was extinguished instantly. Every single ounce of power left in the robot’s system sparked off inconsequentially.
Cinve's robotic shell fell limp. No more light leaked out from her wings, nor her gun, not even her blinding purple visor. The bloody nun stood over the rabbit like a hunter who had caught their meat for the winter.
"I am sorry you believe me to be as lowly as a pest, rabbit." Unnun said. She bowed towards the offline Cinve.
If she were much younger, Cinve’s consciousness stored within the suit would have been raving mad. She would be livid, pride and hate blinding her judgment. She would wish nothing more than to tear this opponent limb to limb like they had done to her.
Cinve was no longer bound by flesh's fear of decay.
She knew the consequences of her arrogance in battle and was more than ready to face them.
"Dei," Her internal voice called out to her father.
"The portal to the egg's flagship is still open. I'm leaving you behind, Cinve," The demon inside spoke to his other half passive aggressively. "You will free yourself and restart the pylons. When you return, we will try again."
"You expect me to be able to recover in these conditions?" Cinve growled.
"You've managed to claw your way back after being blown up into microscopic shards and left in space's cold vacuum."
Bad memories came flooding back. "That took centuries. Even then, it was dumb luck. We both know that."
"Maybe refine your listening skills and I can stop teaching you the same lesson over and over again, child."
She huffed. It was her own fault she was like this; She wouldn't deny that. But...
Dei's lack of care made her metaphorical blood boil. They were stuck together. For every tiny moment her soul was left suffering, she knew he would be left suffering as well.
Thankfully for him, his wayward soul was not bound to constructed husks like hers was. His plans could continue at a lesser rate while she was trapped in whatever fate her opponent had in store for her.
He was meticulously patient. She hated that about him. Even when isolated in the dark realm of the afterlife, he was patient enough to wait decades for just the right time to ruin her life for the rest of time and space.
She would never forgive him for tying her to his malevolent machinations.
"I'll see you soon," Cinve hissed.
"I hope so," Dei responded cheerfully. “We are still partners, you know.”
The world rippled around the dysfunctional robot as her soul was split in two. Sounds and sights became dark and muffled as Dei's glowing red body coiled through the space unnoticed by the undead nun standing above his daughter. Through her limited perception of the world, Cinve’s soul watched her father slip through the small gateway back to the outer universe.
The swirling green extradimensional entrance was shut off mere moments later. As usual, he had left him in hell’s company.
Cinve's limp body was picked up by the bloodied and battle ravaged nun. Despite the vicious battle, her grasp of Cinve was not one of hatred or spite. It was delicate, caring; Each action was thought out to not damage her remaining parts.
"You are a guest, rabbit," Unnun whispered into the flimsy white metal plates mimicking long lost ears. "I will make your stay here comfortable."
Hmph.
At least somebody gave her the respect she deserved.
Time, as it usually did when Dei disconnected their souls, turned twisted. It was no longer one concurrent stream, but rather blurred snapshots of her remains.
Blurry visions of moving vehicles, dark sewers, and religious catacombs swept by Cinve's dysfunctional vision like foggy memories. The benevolent nun kept by her side the entire time, clasping onto the defeated combatant’s cold, steel skin. Soon enough, the talking corpse stuck her to some wall before wrapping her in unseen organic tissue.
Mushroom stems wrapped tightly around Cinve's imprisoned body. The stems seemed to seep into her very consciousness, vying for her soul. Yet, hers was already loyal to another demon. They could not invade and pervert what was already corrupted with a pact.
Cinve laid hanging in the catacombs for years. Her exhausted mind went blank for months at a time, thoughts only flickering when she saw the nun pass by whatever dark tunnel she had been laid in.
It was not the first time Cinve had found herself lost in the sea of immortal purposelessness.
Long ago, she had come to terms with the fact that she would not change, she would not grow, she would not become anything more than a mindless shell used by others' own cruel agendas.
The only joy she got was from hunting the ghosts of her past life.
Somewhere on this very island, one of those ghosts existed.
Before she went back to Dei's unwelcoming embrace, she would find her.
Before she went back to her unwelcoming, bland room within the egg’s carrier, Cinve would collect her trophy.
Years spun by on a clock made out of smoke.
Something that had never happened before occurred to the sleeping Cinve.
Throughout her bindings, her split apart soul latched onto something.
For the first time in eons, Cinve was lulled into a dream. A real dream.
A dark void surrounded her. Pillars of the bodies she's left to rot surrounded her. A rainbow of familiar flowers laid beaten and wilted in a field that stretched on for miles. The one odd trait of this field was that the red ones kept standing tall postmortem.
It reminded her of home.
She was confused. Cinve looked down at her hands.
Her hands were not made to kill. They were organic once more, tightly kept in gloves that she had last worn an indescribable amount of time ago.
She tried to breathe.
Nothing came in, nothing came out.
"H-Hello?" A weak, meak voice called out from behind the distressed ghost.
It was her voice.
Cinve turned around.
The spitting image of Clara Kalstein stared back.