Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]

  Days after of Crash landing/ 4

  Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

  Galactic Standard Time / After 1510

  Dam’ien

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  As he carried the robot away, Dam’ien felt his pulse quicken. He always liked a good battle, and after the long ‘rest’ he had, this was what he needed. Once they were over forty feet away, he released the robot. Once he was free of it, he ‘Air Dashed’ to ten feet up as is passed by below him. Falling down feet first, a large sword five feet long and one wide appeared. He grabbed it with both hands and looked around, taking in what the field looked like.

  It was some kind of burnt-down grove of some kind. Whenever this had happened it must have been long ago as the plants were starting to grow back. As he watched, the axe robot was slowly getting back to its feet.

  “You might be wondering who I am if you can wonder,” Dam’ien said as he looked at the robot as it stared at him. He smirked under his mask and almost laughed. “But then you things can’t think or wonder. And I so loved to break robots like you in my Raids! But maybe I’m just thinking too much into this?”

  As the robot looked at him it beeped and flashed, and he was starting to get worried. Was this thing trying to talk to him? He ordered his mask’s sensors to try and understand the weapons it had and in an instant, the axes were highlighted as they were examined. The blades were only sharp on one side, the back side facing in while the ‘out’ side were blurr triangles. The blades were made of a strange-looking golden metal, and he was sure that he had seen that shade before.

  As the robot looked at him, he saw that it was made of the same strange purple material the other robots were. But the face was truly strange it had a single large eye that took up most of the space on the face. He was sure that the thing had three other eyes on the other 'faces' of the head. Its legs had two spikes on the side that ended in golden points. Something told him that those were more than just ornamental.

  “So you’re the first foe that I can let loose on? I hope that you don’t disappoint me!” Dam’ien called out with a savage roar as he shot forward and swung his sword from the right.

  The robot blocked the strike, and it stood there taking the force of the blow. Then it slashed down with its left arm, and Dam’ien moved back as he dropped the large sword. It disappeared and then two short swords two feet long appeared in front of his hands.

  “So you can take a hit? Well, let’s see how fast you can do that!” He said, a savage grin under his mask as he ran at it. Reaching it, he slashed out ten times in under a minute. But to his shock, each of his blows was met and countered by the robot just as fast.

  For a second, Dam’ien let his rage spike and attacked harder than he had before. He had a feeling that this thing had been deployed to attack the enemy close, and he was right. As he struck, he let his body control itself as he tried to think. There had to be a way that he could outfight this thing!

  With a savage roar, he slammed both blades down, using Aether to augment his strength. But the robot blocked them again, and again it didn’t let the force of the blow move it. But this time his mask flashed a warning, and he felt his eyes widen in shock at what it said. There was no way, there was just no way that this was possible. It explained everything, but there was just no way that this was real.

  The robot made a motion to kick him. He had thought his armor would take this thing’s blows, but the warning changed everything. Before the blow could connect he jumped back, then ‘Air Dashed’ away ten feet. As he landed he saw the robot pointing its right leg at him and then it shot four blue energy bolts at him.

  For a moment he was about to just move when he saw an alert on his mask. He ‘Air Dashed’ to the right and saw the bolts turn to come at him.

  Feeding Aether to his swords, he slashed out and sent an energy slice at the bolts. They met, causing an explosion of blue energy. He stared at it in shock, knowing what it was but not believing it. He was looking at an Aether explosion, but how? Then he looked at the robot, all hints of play draining out of him.

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  “I don’t believe it,” He whispered in shocked awe. Standing before him was a robot that was able to use Aether itself. That was beyond anything the Ruin’s makers were able to do! To think that he had found something that was made by a culture his people didn’t know had figured out that secret?

  He dropped his two swords and a large tower shield and a spear formed before him. He grabbed the weapon on his right and the shield on his left and looked at the robot. For a moment, the robot just looked at him before it charged, its body forming a comet of blue Aether as it rushed at him.

  Pointing his shield forward, Dam’ien formed an Aether wall a foot away from him. He watched as the robot crashed into with a small boom.

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  ??????

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  As the herd moved on, the Alpha looked over its kin. It had led its herd through the other packs. Most of them were still alive, and they were surviving even with the dangers around them. But still, they lived and they had found a bounty of dead! But then they saw the strange things beyond the see-through barrier, and it had tried to bring them to it. If the herd could take the Might of the shield, they might have a new weapon! Even if only one could take that Might, they could use it so well! But then the shield changed, and they were blocked from seeing within.

  After staying there for a time, the Alpha ordered the herd to move on, it was time to go. They had taken enough meat with them that they wouldn’t need to hunt for a while. With this, they would be able to start regaining their numbers. Soon they would be stronger than ever! And this march of theirs had shone the Alpha more Might to hunt, things that would make the herd stronger! They had even seen some other things that they could compel to serve them. They would become one of the Great Packs, and they would rule!

  Then booming sound echoed from nearby. The Alpha raised its head and let its horn glow as it tried to find it. There, closer than it thought were two beings fighting. For a second the Alpha was stunned by how strong the two were. They were like the strongest of the Pack Lords, but they were better! They were alone, and that was the chance they needed. The herd's best fighters could take them down, take their Might! And then with more creatures in the herd that strong, nothing could stand against them!

  But then the Alpha looked at the others behind it, and the food they were carrying. It couldn’t let the possibility of power tempt it now. They had to get this back to their home. That was what was important, nothing else mattered!

  As the Alpha neighed, the group moved on. They had to get this food home first. Then it would take what beasts that could be spared, and then they would hunt. That power, that Might. It would change their destiny.

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  Dam’ien

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  As he looked through the Aether shield, his mask’s sensors could detect the source of the Aether the robot used. But there had to be, this thing wasn’t alive! So how could it use Aether? Where did the Aether come from?

  Then the robot stepped back and it started to wail on the shield, the axes starting to glow blue as it struck. As he felt his shield breaking, he knew what to do. He let the shield fall and fired an Aether bolt from his spear. The robot jerked to the side, the comet trail left behind as it dodged. As the robot charged again. This time Dam’ien met it with a smaller circle of Aether that formed five feet away and hit the robot’s head.

  For a meant, he thought that maybe he had stunned it, and then the robot thrust its axes at him. It sent two Aether bolts at him. He “Air Dashing” to the side as the bolts moved past where he had been. As he watched the bolt strike a tree, he tried to think. There had to be a reason behind this battle strategy, there had to be! And if he could figure out the plan, then he would be able to break through the sequence.

  But then a dark thought came through his brain, and then he saw what this might be. One of the theories was that sentience could be directed if a robot used Aether. It could think, but only to a limited degree. And that would explain why a robot was able to fight like this, it could think.

  In the time that he had his revelation, the robot had moved away from his floating shield and he let it dissipate. “So then you can think?”

  The robot’s eye just flashed a few times but it moved its axes away.

  Dam’ien looked at this wonder of science and thrust his spear into the ground. “I don’t suppose that there is any way that this won’t end with the two of us battle, is there?”

  The robot only held its axes out and let Aether flow through the two blades, but it didn’t move. Then it slowly pointed the blades up at Dam’ien, but then it moved it to the right.

  Dam’ien felt his pulse quicken. So then the robot wanted him out of the way and it was letting him go? Then its orders weren’t to kill, but to protect its territory.

  Dam’ien looked at the machine before him and let his mind go down a hopeful path. There was a chance, but the theories about sentient Aether-powered robots were. But he had to take the chance, there was nothing else he could do and be himself. “Listen, the Federation might be a bit arrogant they will leave you alone if you want. Let any survivors that are within that structure and they will cover it up. They went to great lengths to make peace with mine. They will do that for you.”

  The robot stayed silent, then it gestured again with its right blade. And then there it was, nothing that could be done. This thing before him was going to charge in and break through the shield and kill everything within. The only reason that it wasn’t after him was that he wasn’t one of the beings that the robot’s maker programmed it to kill. That meant that there was just one thing that he could do. Destroy this robot and hope that he gives it the death that this thing deserves.

  Dam’ien only looked at it and then let his shield and spear disappear as a large blade appeared in his hand. It was long, three feet, and curved a bit and it was in a sheathe that was a blood red. The cross-shaped guard before the hilt had four blue gems at the end of the cross. As it took it and held it up, the sheathe disappeared and the blade glinted in the lights.

  “Well, since talks have broken down, then let us fight. And may the spirit of battle judge the one of us that is right!” Dam’ien declared, saying the lines of his people’s dueling vow. If there was nothing else, then he could treat this slave with the honor it deserved.