Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows


57. Dark Machinations.

-Elhorn, Amphibian Ark, Nicole Beta-

My image was that of a bipedal lynx, brown fur with black stripes, long white hair and yellow eyes. My appearance was a heavily modified version of Nicole Prime, the original, my predecessor… my unknowing mother.

I was scraps of data copied from her, enough to cobble together me to do a job for those who that wanted to escape Mobius's brewing endless conflict.

Okay, looking over records and history of how long I’ve been out and for any anomalies and other pertinent data to the current situation…

Okay… things are… very messed up. Exceedingly messed up by numerous standards including my own.

The current time puts it at… about the time the ancestors got sucked through a mega warp ring* to end up on Elhorn, which is odd considering more than almost a thousand years have passed since planet fall.

Huh… there’s even a message I sent myself about this, before the ship went into the mega warp ring that acted as if it were a black hole in space. The ship crashed into what is now known as Elhorn, the passengers within obviously survived and the following civilization continues onto the future.

How I managed to send this message to myself before I came to the past of this planet needs to be worked on and quickly.

I’m only receiving this data now because I’ve been offline for so long, I was only awake long enough after getting sucked through to Elhorn to manage landing location procedures for all the ark ships. I then entered my slumber and hoped that the opossums would hold up their end of things in preventing the Pig Star from being used by anyone.

The information is… almost paradoxical. How would I have known any of this the first time through? It is very stable time loop otherwise, aside from some small glitches in the timeline that could have dire repercussions for the lives I needed to aid.

Time to start collating all known information and preparing to send a copy forward to myself on the day of unintentional entry of the escape fleet into the mega warp ring, so that I can eventually have it like I do now. Which begs the question… where did a warp ring of that size, enough to swallow the fleet and the Pig Star whole, come from?

If the records are correct, this would mean Nicole Prime would still be fighting with her friends against that mad machining monster around this time.

I do not know if we were ever supposed to meet or if we ever will, even so… this world needs a Nicole if evil cores machines have been running around causing damage to the world. The damage is, hopefully enough, not irreparable thus far if it is contained entirely to a single city. That doesn’t mean that said city can’t become everyone’s problem eventually though.

Never was I made to or meant to deal with time travel, then again I was never meant to even form a full intelligence. I was a jury rigged copied bit of code from the original that was used to hack into and operate multiple systems on all the ark ships all at once and to stop any attempt for malicious coding to get onboard with us. I failed at stopping that malicious coding part from what I’ve heard.

It was my job to move all the ships as one, so they could move together to assist in the various factions evacuation of Mobius. I was the reason why the people ended up on this planet as the course I plotted led straight into the mega warp ring.

I should only be as half as functional as the original Nicole, however I’m aware that I was to only wake up if I was sorely needed after assisting with the landing procedures.

Frankly, I was needed well before I was thankfully woken up, especially with the fact that there are amphibians trapped down in the cargo hold and something using dark magic is running around the amphibian ark doing who knows what.

If it’s anything like Ixis Mogul… with what little information I have of him… then I dread to think of what could happen to those going to the rescue of the people below. It is my responsibility to ensure the continued survival of the people that abandoned Mobius, said people who created me are long dead and I’m now stuck dealing with their descendants.

Who knows what the unknown entity could have gotten a hold of in this ship… I can only detect the one machine and that’s because it has the faint taint of an evil core despite no longer being connected to it.

If there are any other machines active. I should be able to get sensory data of their motions, but I’m not sensing the motions of the dark magic anomalous entity. I’m worried that it might be hiding the movements of other machines in the ship, I’m going to need to start collecting visual data for all of this if I am to assist in keeping the route down to the captives clear.

Speaking of unknowns, the data packet I received from myself does not involve them… so begin logging of two subjects not native to Mobius or Elhorn. Elhorn was a moderately temperate planet, but not much life on it was intelligent aside from some naturally occurring anomalies.

Logging intelligent long legged quadruped, the one with an oddly silent bell. White fluffy covering, consistently shows signs of nervousness and anxiety. Seems to otherwise have unusual wild magic patterns, possibly stronger than her scrawny looks would show. Gender… female… she is currently having strange unknown, if benign seeming, effects on the canine Mobian descendant.

Logging intelligent ladybug hooved quadruped. Horn, biological magical focus. Compound eyes, would likely think fire is pretty and is certainly smart enough to understand the dangers of it unlike a moth. Fuzzy carapace toughness levels, moderate to lower end of scale, comparable to wood if it were biological.

I wouldn’t have stirred from my long slumber if not for the group I’m guiding into the depths of this dead ship. The accessing of the computer terminal caused an alert, whereas a dark entity infiltrating the ship and currently holding the amphibian descendants of this vessel hostage didn’t. That was far more worrying to me than anything else.

I can’t track the dark magic using anomalous entity, but I can track the machine that seems to be infected with said anomalies power. Panther style machine, cannon on back, tail laser, claws can be enhanced with energy and it is, because of course it is, capable of mass environmental devastation like all evil core machines.

It seems to be made as a hunter killer stealth unit with a lot of fire power, however it doesn’t seem like a single unit would be so dangerous, was this thing made to work in packs? I shuddered to think who would survive being hunted by more than one of these things.

Currently it seems the machines weapons systems are, thankfully enough, inoperable. This didn’t make it weigh any less or any less dangerous as the claws were natural weapons. I shall endeavor to keep an eye on the situation as the group led by Jean De’ La Frogois moves to assist his people.

?!

“Attention, cleaner bots are attempting to intercept your descent Jean. While they don’t have weapons that can kill outright, I’m fairly certain that they can still do so with what they do have if given the opportunity. Don’t give them the chance.” The five of them stopped in the corridor two decks down when they heard my voice. The white fluffy one in particular leapt and clutched at her chest while her eyes darted about, where I alive I would hug her as she was adorable. “I’m cutting off their route to you by closing off a few doors, but I would suggest you make haste along the current route I set up for you. For I’m not in control of them and as I have stated previously I am limited in what aid I can lend you. I would not wish to change your route, but if needs must…”

“What would they be capable of doing?” The ladybug quadruped asked.

“Caustic cleaning sprays, might cause epidermal burns and may be used to blind you. Electric rods for small repair work throughout the ship can electrocute and stun you. If you get sprayed and electrocuted the damage will be even worse. They could attempt to slam into you, but they would be destroying themselves in the process as they are not primarily built for combat. They have feet that are scrubbers and may use the rapid rotation of such to attack with their legs.” My answer was a quite succinct. “If you need me to describe them, I will do so. They are small, but don’t take them lightly, they were mass produced to keep the ship clean and functioning, thus they have been entirely inoperable up until this day it seems and the ship no longer needs to be functional.”

“I’m pretty sure if we see any machines moving at us, then we’ll know what we’re looking at.” Not a bad supposition from the pig descendant, but I had reason to state otherwise.

“This ship was stolen from a machine making monster, the guy specialized in making war machines. Therefore there are some machines onboard that could be capable of worse than the cleaning machines present and heading towards you. I will warn you if any of the inactive ‘Swat-Bots’ onboard become an issue, provided the magical entity doesn’t have some method to fool my ability to detect them. It seems the dark magic anomalous entity has only managed to get control of the smaller more numerous machines.” The silence and the worried looks of the four that understood my words made me wince. The white fluffy one was worried even if she didn’t understand since the others were so. “Said machine making monster was the original owner of designation Pig Star, said Pig Star was capable of wiping out all life on this planet had it not been swiftly stolen by your ancestors before it could become fully operational.”

“How dangerous were these Swat-Bot things Nicole Beta? Oh right I guess we haven’t introduced ourselves other than Jean… I’m Ocellus!” She seemed to be trying to keep an upbeat and chipper attitude despite the devolving situation.

“Exceedingly Ocellus, they were used to capture ancestors of the now natives of Elhorn. Said captured were swiftly turned completely into machines by what was supposed to be a medical technology use to help people. The method was meant to help people survive certain sicknesses or lethal injuries until it could cured or fixed… then the process would be reversed once the problem was solved. Instead the monster that helped build the machine used it to his own ends to enslave the bodies put into it by transforming them into machines he could control with incredible ease, only a strong enough mind and soul could resist that control for a while and control the machine body for a few hours at a time. Not many had that kind of capacity to resist. He made it very hard to return to normal flesh and blood once you’ve been put through the process.” There was a look of horror on the faces, in particular the canines. “The monster I keep mentioning, his machine army started small with ‘badniks’. Pet machines that were sent to terrorize various local regions around his seat of power at the start of it all. They were powered by small live animals, said machines were what built the real machine army that truly kicked off the increasing number of atrocities the machine making monster became known for. One of the worst of those things was the Swat-Bots, who captured hundreds of thousands of people for conversion. You may think your ancestors cowards for running descendants, but they had plenty of good reasons to steal the ships that got them here and fled when they could. They at least did a big favor for those who stayed behind to continue fighting by setting back the mad machine making monster years by taking stealing some of his biggest projects and the designs for them.”

I was never meant to be a person, only a virtual intelligence… I’m just a fragment of the original.

So why was I acting like a real being with emotions that weren't necessary?

-Ocellus-

The more I heard about this monster Nicole spoke of, the more concerned I became by what this Nicole was telling us as we continued down into the bowels of the ship underneath a castle that could once upon a time reach the stars. As alien as we were, the people we were slowly getting to know where aliens that adapted to this world.

“Well… that certainly explains a lot. At least this explains where Yellow Dog got the idea to build the satellite launch palace that was destroyed by the Rocket Knight’s efforts during the skirmish of the Eginasem Crisis my people caused at least two or so years back. Our people must have used the remains of our ark ship that was cannibalized for Generalissimo’s mad quest to destroy the world with massive explosion devices.” Mumbled Colleen quietly into the soundless hallways we were maneuvering by Nicole’s guiding light. “Is there any chance that the evil cores might have knowledge of how to create this horrific sounding conversion machine you speak of?”

“No, at least not in the way that the guy that built these ships did it with a perfect melding of magic and technology. Technically the way the machines here could do it would be far worse, with less effective results overall and it would actually be irreversible. Your entire body wouldn’t quickly turn from flesh to machinery, they would have to instead cut you apart and painfully add on to what they steal away.” I could hear the quivering in Nicole’s voice. “At least the other method is quick and relatively painless… and could be reversed. The method that could be employed here would be arguably worse given it would be torturous and would likely drive you insane or just outright destroy your mind entirely! I wouldn’t recommend any of you doing anything related to replacing parts of yourself in any way, shape or form as none of the machines on this world can be trusted to do so with the knowledge you have given me. Unless you personally built a machine to make and attach a prosthetic that runs on your biology without any outside help or input. Even then, it is still ethically questionable to use.”

“Back when Generalissimo Lioness was a noble ruler…” Colleen commented sadly as she clenched her fist and her tail lashed back and forth agitatedly as we continued moving forward at a decent pace. “I can certainly understand now what caused his madness. I'm one of the few that survived Axel Gear trying and failing to recreate rocket knight’s to his own nefarious ends.”

“Yeah, and Devligus was an evil core machine that promised my people glory. Only did we later found out he was slowly steering us towards the chopping block with his mind control, only it wouldn’t be just our necks that would be chopped up.” Bruno stated dourly while rubbing at his throat. “You should all consider yourself lucky the mind control method seemed to only affect us pigs, a good ninety percent of us were being forced to our deaths in that war and the true rocket knight was the most lenient person out on the battlefield sparing many of our lives.”

“Does this machine making monster have a name?” I asked as we made our way down the stairs passing a sign labeled ‘Deck B’.

“I’d rather not say it, it might actually invoke more trouble than its worth.” There was such an intense sadness to Nicole’s words that I could feel throughout a massive area.

Wait… she had feelings I could sense? Was she like Dodo? She wasn’t a familiar though, anyone could tell at least that much if they even know what ‘familiars’ are.

“I hear something coming!” Pom yelled as we were coming up to an intersection, a machine slid to a stop in front of us.

The machine looked like a water strider bug that was basically half my size.

It’s for pad shaped feet ended in spinning brushes, it had one glowing yellow eye and two arms raised with lightning arcing between its two pointed glowing blue rods with three digits around them. The chemical spraying nozzle was underneath the eye.

There was a faint purple glow of dark magic surrounding it, none of us needed to be a genius to know it was the entity behind all of this controlling it.

It didn’t look threatening, what did was when ten or more started to surge around the corner of the intersection. A thick metal door slammed shut in front of us before the sudden tidal wave of these machines could charge us.

“Right then, take this alternate route I’m providing… follow the lights and please deal with the problem behind this soon.” There was a tentative hitch in her voice. “I don’t want anyone else to die on my watch… again…”

What did she mean by ‘again’?

“What do you mean by again?” Jean echoed my thoughts as were started moving back down the corridor and took a different passageway, he looked tired and was determined to keep going. His people were in danger and nothing was going to stop him, not even his own bulky form.

“Do you really think these ark ships your people arrived to this world on were taken peaceably without some form of monumental fight happening Jean? I was one of the lynchpins in shutting down most of the machines on all the arks and coordinating efforts to that effect.” There was the feeling of sorrow from all around us now. “They were built by, let’s call him ‘The Mad Machinist’. They still have warlike applications despite their normal designations being cleaning things, which should tell you something about how dangerous the actual war machines are when there are still quite a few that weren’t destroyed by the fighting that went on in this ship and I hope they all stay deactivated and where they are.”

“I don’t feel comfortable about being guided around by machine.” Grumble a reluctant Bruno who continued to follow the paths Nicole was setting out for us. He was almost hostile to her and he had his reasons. “I don’t like the idea of intelligent machines at all.”

“Oh trust me, this feeling is not lost on any of us Bruno, even Pom can sense the unease permeating the air even when she cannot personally understand this Nicole’s words.” It was not like we had a choice Jean, we were here to deliver a message and save your people from the cause of all this. We were going to succeed or run and never look back.

“There’s more I’d like to learn about our descendants personally.” It seemed like Colleen was more lukewarm towards Nicole than the cold of Bruno or the wariness of Jean.

“I can almost get a vague idea of what’s going on here, but could you catch me up to speed on everything Ocellus?” Pom asked this when there was a lull in our talking as we turned down several corridors and started descending down another set of stairs at a decent pace of a half gallop. We were conserving energy while trying to stay on the move.

I started to try and quickly explain all the confusing stuff we were told by Nicole Beta and what Nicole Beta herself, an intelligence that dwarfed and surrounded us entirely. There was a concerning look on Pom’s face as we passed a wall with the text that read ‘Deck C’.

“You can tell her my name while we’re on the move.” I believe Nicole said that Jean’s people were in ‘Cargo Hold subsection D’? We were getting closer if my understanding of Elhorn’s alphabet was anything to go by, this place was far bigger than the already large castle above it.

The environment felt unnerving with how quiet it was as we continued to make haste through the hallways, knowing at any moment we could be attack by dangerous machines on four spindly legs that were just meant to keep things clean.

I’d rather take all that creepy fog to this place. I don’t think we'd be able to navigate this labyrinth without Nicole’s help, the metal wasn’t rusty but it was a bit worn with age and looked partially decrepit. However we did see some signs of scorch marks, rips in metal and other signs of combat as we passed through wrecked hallways and splotches of those who came before staining the floors and walls.

“Nicole, my friend’s name is Pom, she just wanted you to know that.” We came to a door and it slid open and were looking down a corridor, beyond the six doors was a sign that said ‘Cargo Access’ at the end of it.

“Thank you, I’ll log her name.” Nicole’s mood lifted a tiny bit. “In the meantime, I’m trying to decipher you’re language. It’ll give me something to do when I’m not worried you’ll be intercepted. They are not being controlled directly by whatever turned them back on, I can’t turn them off because they are running on an outside source.”

“As long as we don’t run into an evil core down here, I think we’ll do just fine.” Of the five of us, I was the only one that really didn’t want to fight.

I still wanted to help though and I think I did my best when I timed my attack on the last of those statues up in the castle, Mrs. Berrytwist taught me that lightning spell when she was a guest speaker at the School of Friendship and it proved useful if draining. Mrs. Berrytwist also had an insanely large magic capacity, which likely made up for having a broken horn. My capacity and ability to handle magical strain was nowhere close to being on par.

Didn’t have much in the way of self-defense either as I wasn’t good in close combat, no changeling really was if unicorns could beat us in a physical fight one on one. All those fun minor spell patterns I learned with Twilight were kind of useless against the things we were facing on this world.

We finished climbing down the ladder into the lit cargo hold, it was a vast open space and there was a large rip in the side of the box shaped room which led into a cave system. Nearby we saw the glow of the barrier keeping Jean’s people prison. Jean ran over to the prison calling out something, my attention was elsewhere and so was Pom’s as she had noticed it too.

There was a strange shadow hovering in the darkness of the cave and a pair of familiar red glows appeared, the same blood red glow that the statues had and were gazing at us.

“So, you have managed to circumvent my metal thralls… no matter… for it was all part of my plan. Now you face the threat of I… BEELZEBUG!” The dark magic was flowing from the hovering bug entity with a carapace black as night. “Thank you for bringing the last piece of my plan here... the entities that sought to help you have only led you to your inevitable doom.”

“It’s a giant fly.” Pom said dully with a surprising complete lack of fear.