At the time it was seen by humanity as little more than a novelty. However, later since then during the Niode Gate Age, with the discovery of some of the more bizarre things this universe has to offer such as the Triax and Chaos Gates, a renewed interest had begun to buzz in academic circles. Over a thousand years later.
We were doing a dig on one of the planets Drake wanted to establish a new laboratory on, and by we I mean, me, him and his clansman Kai. My Gigus, Giga Rex was protesting a little bit, that he’d rather be killing or at least practice fighting than being used as a beast of burden and mere excavation vehicle. I tried explaining to him that this could be considered a type of training. I’d also pointed out if the mission went well there would be money for new high end weapons. “Come on Giga, you’re the best mecha for this job because of your claws. You know that a Skriag or Nakshi wouldn’t be any good for digging.” The tyrannosaurid growled but complied.
The Teeth Mountain Range made a good place for Drake’s lab, plus he knew this location wasn’t far from Kai’s find, a partially uncovered gate of unknown origin. The design was unlike any seen before and Drake speculated that it might be from one of the other ancient civilizations he had come across before. He would keep the gate a secret for now. Drake stood outside his mech as the Gigus excavated the site. A set of blueprints in his hands and an array of scanners surrounding him Drake was quite pleased with their progress so far. “Kai, my dear man, could you fly this back to the roaming camp for me? It’s the update that Silver wanted.”
Kai took the message and headed for his aircraft. Drake was glad to see him go, afraid he might have shared the news about the gate.
I was in my trusty Oggun, Auger, and directing Giga remotely. Auger was an older unit I’d possessed for a very long time. Despite its age (and smaller size compared to my later acquisitions), many was the time Auger had saved my life in battle as a part of my formation so I probably wouldn’t retire it until after Auger had completely ceased functioning. With a little guidance from Drake on how to recalibrate its vulcan auto-cannon I found Auger living up to its name literally during this job.
A large slab of the mountainside slid off releasing billowing clouds of dust and talus.
Giga Rex spooked… which is not something which the Giguses, as beast mecha with a reputation for fearlessness are known to do.
We had recovered the remains of an incredibly bizarre mech which if I didn’t know any better Giga seemed familiar with. “Spill already,”
Giga Rex: “Ancient Enemy… Shawg, Destructor.”
Myco: “Giga, you mean to tell me… Drake, can you get a date on this artifact?”
Drake looked at the striations in the strata and realized that the newly revealed ones around the artifact were much older than the ones on the outer cliff face. “Give me a second Myco, and I’ll run some samples………………. (25 thousand) years, hmm interesting, interesting indeed.” The ones around the gate were much much older, so the mech had not used that gate. More than likely it had used the one they had used. The four day overland travel to this location from the gate made Drake a bit impatient, but the finds here kept him from using his railguns on the clones, which they obviously appreciated.
“...That puts it at a time near but before the Forerunner Great War.”
Drake walked up to the mech and ran some scans, he silently recorded his findings then returned to his equipment. The first results brought a smile to Drake’s face and he gleefully informed Myco what the payload of the main weapons were.
There was something difficult to place yet felt decidedly horrifying about this aged wreck of a metal hulk. It was simultaneously familiar the way Forebearer technology tended to be yet at the same time had something inexplicably “off” to it. No,... it couldn’t be that… to ease my mind a bit I decided to focus on the more concrete aspects of the pieces to this mecha skeleton, its physical details. It’s main weaponry were racks of missiles which had what Drake analyzed to have been biological warfare agents as their payload. Beyond that was where things got weirder though. There were what on first glance looked like eyespots dotting its “chest” portion with a featureless “head” region sitting above the chest that was almost vestigial seeming. With some further investigation Drake and I realized these were actually laser and ice weaponry. Overall though the strangest thing about this mech was its method of locomotion. Instead of being ambulatory due to legs, treads or a hover skirt, this mecha seems to have slithered using metal tentacles.
This defied what was known about the Forerunners, who to this point as far as was known had tended to model their mecha after reptiles and insects. Not arthropods like molluscs or crustaceans… Giga knew more than he was letting on. Just then he started scent marking the find, urinating on it with his cloaca. I scolded him. Why go to the trouble of desecrating the corpse of an enemy that has already been long dead?
Giga Rex: “Habit.”
Drake was less than pleased with the Gigus but kept silent, no need to antagonize the living mech with sharp teeth, claws and assorted weaponry especially when not in his mech or with a useful invention to mitigate the danger of said mecha.
Submitted by mycobacter, Drake Novum Scientist #712744, #706289