"Jabber senor sweeps indicate strong niode presence roughly 1 mile due west of our current position." Wocky the personality A.I. Interface of my Dilophos mech Jabberwocky decided to inform me as I brought myself out of my thoughts and back into the here and now. "Unusual spikes in energy and discharge patterns also coming from the same area".
"Any ideas on what it is making all the ruckus girl?" I asked.
"Negative, no data available at this time." Was her reply. Well that settled that. I sent Jabberwocky into a full run towards the indicated coordinates. It didn't take long given the terrain was straight, traction was problematic at times given all the sand everywhere. I didn't even want to think of the bill that would come with getting all the joints and weapon systems free and clear of all the sand.
We arrived at a sand cliff edge. A hard drop down was the only way forward. So I revved up Wockys Ion Drive to maximum, feed the power slowly into the back, hip, and leg thrusters. After I had all the readings in the green I started a controlled fall. Using my thrusters as literal air brakes in between rocketing towards the bottom of the cliff I managed to control my fall and not get myself killed. A bumpy but thankfully short time later we reached the bottom. I turned on my exterior lighting and took a look around.
We seemed to be standing at the mouth to a large cave and subterranean tunnel structure. The radar showed the place to be huge but it also showed where the energy was coming from. No missing it dead center of this labyrinth was a steady and strong signal. Mapping the route on Wockys multiple slaved Cal-9000s took no time at all and we made our way to the center of this place.
I pulled up short real fast though upon seeing just what was giving those readings. It was huge! It looked like some kind of mutated Skriag. It had a bladed head, hand like appendages ending in huge claws unlike the normal bladed arms of the Skriag. It had what looked like a center fusion cannon unit as well but the readings were coming from the hands instead of the chest. "What the hell are you" I wondered to myself. I wasn't aware I had even spoken until suddenly the comm channel queues in a signal clear as day and I hear. "I am Impact. I am a Nakshi. I have called you here, we will be as one."
Jabberwockys systems went dead across the board right after that. Full on power down. I looked out the canopy and saw this monstrous mech beast coming towards me. The eyes lit up the interior of my Dilophos as it bent down a little to look inside. The light was blinding, noises filled my head, I had no sense of balance even though I was sitting. My head reeled, my mind felt slow and sluggish. I struggled to at least eject, but just as I almost had my hand on the button I couldn't fight it any more. The world went black and I knew nothing for a time.
"Jabber...", I heard a voice as if from far away, like half hearing a conversation in another room but you can't make out what is being said. Everything was hollow sounding and distorted. I tried to concentrate, my mind felt sluggish, not able to grasp any one thought at a time, or hold one for that matter if I did for more than three seconds.
"Jabber open your eyes," the voice again called to me this time much clearer and much, much deeper. There was a storm in that voice. All tornadoes, and thunder dragged across gravel. The sound alone should have made me fear for my sanity if not my life, but somehow I found it soothing. So I decided may as well try opening my eyes as was suggested.
I instantly regretted that decision. As soon as I opened my eyes everything was too bright. Shapes were off, details were blurred it was all very nausea inducing. "Concentrate now Jabber, seriously concentrate." The voice said to me again. So I opened my eyes again now that I had a bit more of my wits about me. Instantly I realized what was wrong. It was my perspective! I was looking at things from the eye line of a Nakshi.
Memories came flooding back to me. I remembered the sandy waste lands I trekked my Dilophos mecha Jabberwocky through, I remembered the deep cave system we found, and lastly I remembered discovering this beast machine who was currently addressing me..Impact.
"Good your memory is adjusting well, all life signs, stable, integration process complete. Welcome to my mind Jabber."
I was floored the last thing I remembered was passing out in Jabberwoky as this critter bent down to have a look see into my cockpit after that I blacked out only to awaken here all disoriented.
"Okay from what I remember you are bigger than my Skriag, so how the hell did you open up my mecha to get me in here? Oh hell you blew up my Wocky didn't you?" I had to ask and was a bit afraid of the answer.
"No Jabber be at peace. your machine is well, totally unharmed. I simply powered it down draining its niode energy briefly. Then I gated you out of the pilots chair and into my nervous system." It answered me as if addressing a child. Then before I could even say it the thing answered my next question before I could ask.
"Yes, I am a gate jumper. We Nakshi were designed to be fully mobile battle and command platforms. This means we had to be able to go anywhere in a hurry, so we were designed with the ability to tap into existing gate networks. We can piggy back those networks and even in some cases totally bend them to arrive wherever we like. It takes considerable power to do it but it can be done."
"Why would you be designed with such an ability?," I asked.
"We were made for one purpose only and that was War." It went on to explain,"You mentioned a Skriag earlier it surprises me you know of them. They were our decedents , they and the Gigus. Glad to see they survived. They were the after effects of the wars we fought. They were the guards against the enemy we pushed back into the unknown places between the stars. But you mentioned it's size was like that of my own. Peculiar, seeing as they and the Gigus were once no bigger than your kind Jabber."
"I can only surmise the Forerunners thought it best to alter them to imitate us. We were made as is, from the start we were living, breathing, thinking machines. The forerunners made us with great care and gave us vast power to fight their war. The enemy was ancient and nameless, they just called it , "Shektalana" meaning the hidden enemy.
They were sentient shadows, they drove machines of smoke and nightmares. They laid waste to thousands of worlds. They would devour entire civilizations in days, erase whole races in hours. They were an abomination to the Forerunners, we were the solution."
"Why do we have the power to gate? Why does it take so much energy to do so? Because transportation is only a by product of the weapon the Forerunners made us. We can absorb entire suns, in doing so we force the life cycle of the sun or star in question forward incredibly. This makes it very, very unstable. Eventually it expands and explodes, or implodes creating massive black holes. ."
"This was our job. Find infected systems and wipe the whole sector clean. Sterilize it of all life, no better way to do that than with a big explosion or a black hole. We are the executioners of billions, we are Nakshi, this is why we exist"
So there I was inside the Nakshi known as Impact getting a history lesson on his creation by the Forerunners. Also as it turned out I would be receiving a history lesson of my own about myself.
"So now you know why I exist and what I was made for but what do you know about yourself Jabber? " The beast machine asked me.
"Not much I have to admit. My early years were spent pirating and gaining a education in illegal activities, I got involved in a few border skirmishes between factions but aside from that I have kept my head down and my nose clean," I answered him.
"No, not what I meant at all. I mean do you know WHERE you come from?" It asked me in a serious tone.
"No can't say as I do." I admitted, "When I scanned you before you came down into my "home" I had thought at first you were a Forerunner. Which is why I said we were to be as one. But then I gated you inside me and realized you are not a full on Forerunner. You are a hybrid most likely descended from the Illyrian Hegemony. They all have Forerunner DNA in them. For some reason the Forerunners found that particular faction to be reliable and pleasing to them. Long story short they mated with them and started a hybrid race of human and Forerunners. We Nakshi perform best when there is a Forerunner at the controls. It has to do with psychic reaction time and synaptic acceleration. But even with a hybrid such as yourself Jabber the reaction times and integration speed are ten times faster than if a normal pilot were to try and sit in this cockpit." He explained as if talking to a child.
"So let me get this right? According to you, while rummaging around in my DNA to get this integration going you found Forerunner genetics running around in my body? You say this is because I am actually a member of the Illyrian Hegemony. But if this were the case I would have grown up in that Factions society,but I was raised by pirates." I answered him in an annoyed tone. I knew who the hell I was I lived my own life, I had no idea why the hell this critter was now trying to tell me different.
Turns out this beast machine was anticipating my reply as well as my reluctance. Before I could argue further he sent a file through my mind. Turns out seeing as I used to belong to the AFF, they had an entire profile on me including my past, a file the agreed with government and military records for the Hegemony.
Plain as day in my head this file told me what he said was true. Right at the top in nice bold letters was a brief blurb that stated ,"D.N.A. on file proves him to be descended from one of the old houses of the Illyrian Hegemony. Historical accounts seem to back up this claim, pointing to a kidnapping that targeted the security chief of the House of Romulus son. The records get a little confusing from here out but what is known for certain is, the child was abducted, ransom was demanded and delivered but no child was ever returned."
So my pirate clan I knew as family were really my abductors and captors. I really was a member of a prominent, wealthy, and political faction. This critter lured me in because it sensed my DNA was what it needed, and it needed me to know the truth of who I am. But why?
"Alright Impact I recognize the security codes at the top of the file you showed me, I accept it is not fake. However I don't see what this information has to do with anything right here and now!"
"Acceptance is the first step in unlocking your true potential and through that, my own." Was his answer. I tried to get him to elaborate on the subject but all he would say is that when I got to that point we'd both know. I yelled, pleaded, tried to strike a deal something anything to get it to tell me more but nothing I did moved it one inch. Seemed it had made up its mind and nothing I could do would get it to talk.
We sat in silence for time until Impact finally asked me if I was ready to get the hell out of here. Of course I said yes but had to wonder how in the stars I was going to get the Nakshi and my Dilophos Jabberwocky out of this tunnel system. The answer I found out was much simpler than I thought.
Impact did one of his localized gates and stuck me back into the cockpit of Wocky, who powered up to full the instant I fully materialized. Over the comm channel came a transmission from Impact.
"Just give me the co ordinates and I will handle our travel plans from there." He told me. So I gave him the co ordinates and sat back in wonder as the world around me simply disappeared. When everything came back into focus I discovered we were all standing in my own private hanger I had rented out on the outskirts of Cogwerk space. I smiled to myself and powered down Wocky. All the while watching my newest acquisition the Nakshi known as Impact walk on over to my Skriag and two Gigus to begin downloading information. Things were looking up I thought to myself as I turned to go to my lodging for the night. I got a new beast machine, Wocky is in perfect working order and I didn't even get shot at once. My luck will never hold like this....
Submitted By Pat Willis #224534