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// Unknown Machine (Chapter-1) 
// Story: Bugs and Steel 
// by Beta-17 
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    In a barren dying valley sat a peculiar structure therein survived a race of insect-like creatures, capable of shifting their appearance into anyone they so desired. However such an action took a lot of energy. This was one thing this hive did not have much of, and what energy and resources they did find was immediately given to the queen. The hive looked up to her and trusted with all that they were that she could not steer them wrong. A pair of these hive workers were digging tunnels under the stronghold to further fortify their home. Not that it mattered much, for the changeling race had fallen so far from what they were before the failed attack, more than seventy percent of what remained would be dead before the next spring. The two diggers knew this, though they hoped that perhaps gathering whatever recourse they could unearth while digging could give them that much more of a chance.

“Hey Fangs, check this out.” the green backed changeling called for his dig partner. 
“What’d you find Talon?” the dirty purple eyed insect wondered quickly over to look at what his hive comrade had found.
“It looks like an iron deposit but I think it’s covered in, paint?” the green changeling began to second-guess what he had just got done saying.
“Paint, what like rust stained?” Talon questioned. 
“No like it’s got some kind of grey paint, iron doesn’t peal like this, and this is paint…”
Talon inspected the find.
“Well let’s pull it out and see what it is for queen sake.” Talon adjusted his helmet and levitated over a heavily worn down pickaxe. The pair of bugs dug carefully around the buried object, unearthing what looked like some kind of limb. The pair jumped back when gravity caused the limb to swing out revealing that it was in fact an arm, and attached to it was what looked like a claw from a dragon or griffin only it had five fingers and no talons. The two changelings continued to dig unveiling more and more, out of fear curiosity or some other third reason their digging speed increased until the object slumped out of the hole in the wall and hit the floor.

“Uh, Fangs, do you have any idea what this is?” Fangs’ purple eyes where wide with bewilderment. He stood there silent and dumbfounded staring at this foreign object which resembled the top half of a Minotaur. It had petrified and partially decayed wood on several parts of its body, its paint was indeed rusty and pealing, and it sported a strange looking helmet. But what intrigued Fangs the most was the severely faded red band around its left bicep, the symbol within it was scratched off but still legible it appeared to be a black X in a white circle but between the rust and scratch marks it was hard to tell. 
“We have got to show this to the queen…” Fangs spoke to himself, but out loud unmoving. 
“You stay here, I’ll go get Chrysalis!” the purple eyed changeling called back to Talon from back in the direction of the tunnel entrance he had suddenly taken off running toward. 

The hive miner burst out of the mines, and dashed across the courtyard of the stronghold rushing past his fellow changelings clearly in a hurry he captured the attention of several others. Fangs came to a stop at the door to the queen’s quarters, taking a few seconds to catch his breath; he straightened up to look proper and respectful of his queen. He knocked on the door; promptly the queen’s voice commanded the guest to enter. 
“What do you want?” the queen commanded obviously disheartened by the condition of the hive and the grim future that lie ahead. 
“My queen, we have uncovered something in the tunnels. We can’t identify it but we think it may be of some significance” Fangs began. Chrysalis mentally face-hoofed remembering how ignorant some of the swarm members could be, and then reconsidered upon inspecting this worker. He was respectful, he was purple showing his purpose in the hive and he spoke intelligently. She immediately retracted all former assumption of what she believed to simply be drone stupidity. 
“Well take me to it.” The queen ordered with an air of curiosity in her voice.
“Yes ma’am!” Fangs yelped with a salute. The two descended to the courtyard gaining more attention than before. The queen followed the miner into the caverns until Talon was in view once again. When Talon caught sight of the queen he jumped, dropped his pick, and saluted.
“Talon here found this part of it sticking out of the tunnel wall” 
“This is indeed an intriguing find. I need you two to bring this to my chambers” Chrysalis looked into the hole in the tunnel wall and found two more objects. She surrounded the artifacts with the green aura and pulled them free of the wall, one was clearly a knife, the other was longer then the knife, but short. It appeared to be some kind of oblong pipe with a stick and handle protruding from what was assumed to be the bottom. The two miners lifted the metallic figure and carried it out of the caves.

In the queen’s chambers the figure lay sprawled out on the floor.  A few of the hive’s more intelligent minds gathered around this strange feat of engineering in an attempt to find out what it did. Chrysalis was slightly worried that this thing was found with a blade. If it carried a blade like the one it had it meant it was armed and prepared to use the knife to kill someone making this thing unsafe. On the other side of the equation it could have been the victim, which too has at least two sides, if it had been taken down with the blade then that ether means it was dangerous enough to be ended or it was strictly a victim and was slain in cold blood and not because it needed to be. This raised too many questions and didn’t answer what the strange pipe was. 
“Look here, I think this thing runs on electricity” One of the white backed changelings offered.
“Doc, go flag down one a member of the weather team, maybe we can get this thing working with a lightning strike” The doctor started towards the door. 
“Wait; let’s do this in the prison’s courtyard. We don’t know if this thing is dangerous” Chrysalis pleaded. On the concrete court the figure was resting in an upright sitting position leaning against a metal post. 
“Three, two, one, hit it!” Doc shouted from behind the cover of a concrete barrier. Chrysalis was watching from one of the guard towers. The lightning struck right on the pole, the figure convulsed and twitched. Its head lifted and its eyes shot open as it stared up at the smoggy brown sky, just when the power from the lightning strike dissipated the convulsing figure fell limp once again. Chrysalis flew down to the machine insect like wings beating like those of a dragonfly; she landed in front of the figure and looked into its lifeless eyes which had remained open from the initial jolt of raw electricity. The queen took a few steps back 
“Hit it again!” she shouted to the weather bug, and just as soon as she shouted the order another lightning bolt crashed into the metal body. Its head once again shot skyward, and its body shook like before, only this time a scream that rivaled the tone of the queen herself burst from its steel maw. The scream carried on for several seconds after the second lightning bolt dissipated, only ending with the body slumping down once again. This time it was making barely audible noises, and its eyes where moving rapidly though they remained dark. Chrysalis stepped forward followed by Fangs, Talon, and two hive scientists. The mechanical figure’s eyes flickered blue like a burning out light bulb, its voice rose in volume 
“Wo bin ich, was ist los? Wer bist du?” the voice was raspy likely from its age but was decidedly male. His eyes stayed light long enough to focus on the monstrous silhouette standing over him. “Was, was bist du?!” If he could move he would have backed away turned and tried to run. However he was bound to the spot he sat, bound with no chains. 
“Does anyone know what its saying?” Fangs asked. Chrysalis charged up a spell and cast it upon the metallic figure on the ground before her. 
“Vat are you?! Vhy can’t I move? Vat have you done?!” The eyes of the machine went dark again. 
“I knew it was speaking, just another language is all it was” the queen applauded her own intuition. 
“Who are you? Vat have you done to me?” the machine demanded. 
“I am Queen Chrysalis of the changeling empire, and you should be grateful, we saved you. When we found you, you where nothing but a pile of metal left to rot in the ground. Now you tell me who and more importantly what are you?” Chrysalis spoke with the commanding tone of a military leader.
“I need fluids, my hydraulics must’ve drained. I can’t move” 
“What kind of fluids do you require?” one of the scientists spoke up? 
“Anything, water if you have to” the scientist flew off toward a water station and filled a pail with the liquid requested. He ran back over toward the figure on the ground 
“Where do I put it?” the doctor questioned
“Zere is a disk on my back, turn ze face of it to ze left und pull. Zen pour ze water down ze hole.” Just as the machine had said the little plate snapped loose and upon removal of the cover the water was poured into the opening. The figure then began to make a deep gurgling whining sound. The noise subsided and with a twitch of the neck and arm, the figure began to rise.

Upon attempting to stand the figure’s left leg refused to respond and stayed limp. Using the metal post to support his weight the machine used its claw like appendage to remove its helmet then hit the side of its head until its eyes stayed light up. Even then the left eye still struggled to maintain functionality. 
“Ugh vell zat isht no good, I vill have to fix zat leg und my eye.” The machine complained. 
“We found these where you were buried, I’m curious, what is it exactly?” Chrysalis was levitating the strange pipe. 
“Oh, so zat is vere zat vent… Zat is my Machinenpistole, isht, German automatic rifle.” The metal figure explained. 
“What exactly is its purpose?”  The queen paraded. 
“Zat rifle und I have ze same purpose, to ensure the conquest of ze world und the unrivaled rule of ze furor.” The mechanical soldier ceremoniously described.
“How does it work?” the changeling queen was growing impatient with the lack of answers she was getting from the bucket of bolts before her.
“Zat I cannot tell you, but I can show you.” With all the flare of a magician the metal figure kicked its lame leg out, stabilizing its self then reached for the black pipe. Chrysalis met the machine half way and released custody of the object losing here caution in her curiosity. The metal figure grabbed the pipe with its right hand by its handle and with the left held the stick. It leaned to one side as it tried to showboat as much as possible demonstrating its unknown gadget, however due to the massive length of time spent underground the charging handle refused to budge. The metal soldier was reminded of his own condition once again by the broken rifle and lost his footing. He dropped the weapon and fell to its left side; he turned breaking the fall with his hands.

Upon hitting the ground the aged wood that bound the machine’s hands to its arms shattered on impact, the glass covering his bad eye cracked, the strap of the helmet disintegrated at the abrasive surface of the concrete ground. The armor plate on his left shoulder popped off and the shoulder joint failed letting the arm disconnect from the socket; the red band split in two and skittered across the ground. A distinct snapping noise emanated from each of the broken limbs as the ancient hydraulic tubing and wires snapped under the strain. With that, the water that had given movement back to the prehistoric machine began to bleed onto the ground, soaking the concrete around it.
“Nien, wie konnte das passieren!” the metal soldier cried out upon colliding with the ground his good eye had dimmed dramatically. Though he could see his world was dim and blurry. 
“Doc, Venom, you two get this to a lab, I want it to be fully functional the next time I see it, we may have hope of surviving another winter after all. Fangs, Talon, you two help the scientists bring it to the lab.” The queen ordered. The four hive comrades responded with a salute and an obedient yes ma’am before getting to work. Chrysalis watched as the four carried the machine off toward the laboratory to do what they could to repair the broken and mangled mess that was the metal soldier.