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And so the malignant hand of the Fallen Arbiter descended upon Cevanti, manifesting as a monstrous cloud of wickedness high above the wretched slums of Markov. Darkseid’s influence cast across the city’s decrepit buildings and streets like the wingspan of a colossal bird of prey, cloaking it in interminable shadow.
At a distance, this black morass appeared to be almost alive, a host of amorphous shades writhing and pulsing from within; a swarm of parademons straining to escape. It beared down upon the decrepit landscape like the maw of a massive extraterrestrial beast, fangs of corruption sinking into the planet’s earthen flesh, and from this darkness emerged a horde of monstrous beings. Comprised of shadow and machinery in equal measure, this army marched upon the tomb world’s last spark of life with a single-minded purpose: snuffing it out.
Miles and miles outside of the city, a little robot sped along, narrowly navigating between tall heaps of stacked debris and twisted metal. The robot was a Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Cevanti class unit (colloquially known as a WALL-C), trundling along as fast as its meager construction could manage. The robot’s fading yellow paint allowed it to blend in with its surroundings, the small, box-shaped chassis letting it fairly vanish into the similarly drab scenery.
But, this WALL-C unit wasn’t running from just any cybernetic monster intent on gorging on its machinery. No, what it was fleeing from was far more dangerous— others of its own kind.
The WALL-C had been just one in a coalition of exactly fifty WALL-C units. What had begun as a simple enough day of gathering loose rubbish and wreckage, compacting it into cubes utilizing the machinery within its chassis, and stacking it. The work was monotonous and simple, but the robots were all pleased to do it. That is, until the darkness had descended from the sky, twisting many of the cheerful little robots into something… else.
And now… well, now they were intent on assimilating their lost brethren. Which wasn’t going to happen if this WALL-C could help it!
Dry lightning crackled across the sky, spitting fiery sparks like bits of burning confetti to set the ground below ablaze. The plucky WALL-C unit spun wide around the corner of a toppled building, treads tearing across the ground with such ferocity that a spray of dirt was cast into the air. The ancient machinery concealed within its artificial frame protested loudly, the stabilizing sprockets of its treads screeching and squealing as it moved far faster than any WALL-C had any right to move. Yet, the little robot understood that if it stopped for any reason, it would certainly be annihilated, and thus it did not stop.
A long, articulated neck turned this way and that, the head mounted upon it searching desperately for a place to hide, the world passing by in a blur of blue and grey. The WALL-C’s audio-visual sensors strained to pick out anything amongst the heaps of trash and crumbling ruins, a low keen of panic hissing out from the speakers embedded in the robot’s chest.
[Where, where, where, where, where, where—] the WALL-C’s processor chanted. It could hear the others gaining, the sound of at least a dozen individual, heavy treads clunking noisily over the ground. The WALL-C unit hoped that perhaps the others who hadn’t been similarly affected by the darkness had managed to escape. It did not want to consider the possibility of capture, lest its own processor grow too frazzled to evade its pursuers.
Drawing to an abrupt halt in the shadow of an oblong vehicular shape (a ”bus”, the WALL-C’s processor supplied), the WALL-C ducked down, drawing its arms within its body and backing up swiftly to huddle beneath the overturned, rusted-out hunk of metal. Its head and neck were drawn into its frame, much like a Terran crustacean, until to all appearances the WALL-C would seem to be naught but a simple cube of indeterminate purpose, scarcely different from the other chunks of trash scattered across the landscape.
Tentatively, a pair of binocular eyes peeked out from the top of the robot’s cube-shaped frame, the very crown of the WALL-C unit’s head. Its audio-visual sensors scrutinized all within a roughly ten foot radius around its hiding place, a gentle tremor of fear rattling through its angular body.
A stampede-like chorus of clunks came trampling through the area. Massive WALL-C’s moved past the smaller robot’s hiding place at maximum speed, their enormous treads rending anything caught beneath their tracks to dust. The smaller WALL-C unit’s head retreated once more, turtling back inside its frame in the hope that it would be indistinguishable from its surroundings, or at least not recognized as anything worth destroying.
It seemed that the group of massive WALL-C’s was poised to move on when one of the corrupted robots, just one, deigned to pause beside the bus. Large binocular eyes that seemed to glow with an inner hellish glow turned, slowly, to regard the tiny WALL-C unit’s hiding place.
The little WALL-C shivered, straining to remain absolutely still. It committed to an exercise of thinking purely object-like thoughts, imagining itself as something incapable of movement— a rock, maybe, or a discarded shoe.
Finally, the large WALL-C seemed to be satisfied. Its treads dragged noisily along the ground as it trundled steadily away, likely to follow the rest of its horde. As the corrupted bot vanished from its field of vision, the little WALL-C emitted a soft, relieved boop, beginning to unclench from its defensive posture.
SCREEECH!
The WALL-C unit nearly toppled over in surprise at the sudden deafeningly loud noise, head craning up to stare in horror as the destroyed bus it’d been nestled under was effortlessly lifted, like a child lifting a stone to get at the worms tucked beneath. The glowing red eyes of an immense WALL-C glared down at it, its fearsome chassis colored an oily, dripping black.
Kicking into vehicular mode, the tiny WALL-C rolled backwards, wheeling away in terror. It seemed that there was just one corrupted construction bot chasing it, frighteningly large treads grinding against the ground as it tore after the little, faster robot. A roar like a foghorn boomed in the WALL-C’s audio receptors, rattling its chassis as it sped desperately away.
Wailing and waiving its two hydraulic arms around, the WALL-C aimed for yet another hulking pile of debris in the distance, hoping to find a new hidey-hole to throw its pursuer off its trail. Unfortunately, its processor did not calculate escape as a very likely possibility, not without significant interference, anyway. And that would be nothing short of a miracle.
At a distance, this black morass appeared to be almost alive, a host of amorphous shades writhing and pulsing from within; a swarm of parademons straining to escape. It beared down upon the decrepit landscape like the maw of a massive extraterrestrial beast, fangs of corruption sinking into the planet’s earthen flesh, and from this darkness emerged a horde of monstrous beings. Comprised of shadow and machinery in equal measure, this army marched upon the tomb world’s last spark of life with a single-minded purpose: snuffing it out.
Miles and miles outside of the city, a little robot sped along, narrowly navigating between tall heaps of stacked debris and twisted metal. The robot was a Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Cevanti class unit (colloquially known as a WALL-C), trundling along as fast as its meager construction could manage. The robot’s fading yellow paint allowed it to blend in with its surroundings, the small, box-shaped chassis letting it fairly vanish into the similarly drab scenery.
But, this WALL-C unit wasn’t running from just any cybernetic monster intent on gorging on its machinery. No, what it was fleeing from was far more dangerous— others of its own kind.
The WALL-C had been just one in a coalition of exactly fifty WALL-C units. What had begun as a simple enough day of gathering loose rubbish and wreckage, compacting it into cubes utilizing the machinery within its chassis, and stacking it. The work was monotonous and simple, but the robots were all pleased to do it. That is, until the darkness had descended from the sky, twisting many of the cheerful little robots into something… else.
And now… well, now they were intent on assimilating their lost brethren. Which wasn’t going to happen if this WALL-C could help it!
Dry lightning crackled across the sky, spitting fiery sparks like bits of burning confetti to set the ground below ablaze. The plucky WALL-C unit spun wide around the corner of a toppled building, treads tearing across the ground with such ferocity that a spray of dirt was cast into the air. The ancient machinery concealed within its artificial frame protested loudly, the stabilizing sprockets of its treads screeching and squealing as it moved far faster than any WALL-C had any right to move. Yet, the little robot understood that if it stopped for any reason, it would certainly be annihilated, and thus it did not stop.
A long, articulated neck turned this way and that, the head mounted upon it searching desperately for a place to hide, the world passing by in a blur of blue and grey. The WALL-C’s audio-visual sensors strained to pick out anything amongst the heaps of trash and crumbling ruins, a low keen of panic hissing out from the speakers embedded in the robot’s chest.
[Where, where, where, where, where, where—] the WALL-C’s processor chanted. It could hear the others gaining, the sound of at least a dozen individual, heavy treads clunking noisily over the ground. The WALL-C unit hoped that perhaps the others who hadn’t been similarly affected by the darkness had managed to escape. It did not want to consider the possibility of capture, lest its own processor grow too frazzled to evade its pursuers.
Drawing to an abrupt halt in the shadow of an oblong vehicular shape (a ”bus”, the WALL-C’s processor supplied), the WALL-C ducked down, drawing its arms within its body and backing up swiftly to huddle beneath the overturned, rusted-out hunk of metal. Its head and neck were drawn into its frame, much like a Terran crustacean, until to all appearances the WALL-C would seem to be naught but a simple cube of indeterminate purpose, scarcely different from the other chunks of trash scattered across the landscape.
Tentatively, a pair of binocular eyes peeked out from the top of the robot’s cube-shaped frame, the very crown of the WALL-C unit’s head. Its audio-visual sensors scrutinized all within a roughly ten foot radius around its hiding place, a gentle tremor of fear rattling through its angular body.
A stampede-like chorus of clunks came trampling through the area. Massive WALL-C’s moved past the smaller robot’s hiding place at maximum speed, their enormous treads rending anything caught beneath their tracks to dust. The smaller WALL-C unit’s head retreated once more, turtling back inside its frame in the hope that it would be indistinguishable from its surroundings, or at least not recognized as anything worth destroying.
It seemed that the group of massive WALL-C’s was poised to move on when one of the corrupted robots, just one, deigned to pause beside the bus. Large binocular eyes that seemed to glow with an inner hellish glow turned, slowly, to regard the tiny WALL-C unit’s hiding place.
The little WALL-C shivered, straining to remain absolutely still. It committed to an exercise of thinking purely object-like thoughts, imagining itself as something incapable of movement— a rock, maybe, or a discarded shoe.
Finally, the large WALL-C seemed to be satisfied. Its treads dragged noisily along the ground as it trundled steadily away, likely to follow the rest of its horde. As the corrupted bot vanished from its field of vision, the little WALL-C emitted a soft, relieved boop, beginning to unclench from its defensive posture.
SCREEECH!
The WALL-C unit nearly toppled over in surprise at the sudden deafeningly loud noise, head craning up to stare in horror as the destroyed bus it’d been nestled under was effortlessly lifted, like a child lifting a stone to get at the worms tucked beneath. The glowing red eyes of an immense WALL-C glared down at it, its fearsome chassis colored an oily, dripping black.
Kicking into vehicular mode, the tiny WALL-C rolled backwards, wheeling away in terror. It seemed that there was just one corrupted construction bot chasing it, frighteningly large treads grinding against the ground as it tore after the little, faster robot. A roar like a foghorn boomed in the WALL-C’s audio receptors, rattling its chassis as it sped desperately away.
Wailing and waiving its two hydraulic arms around, the WALL-C aimed for yet another hulking pile of debris in the distance, hoping to find a new hidey-hole to throw its pursuer off its trail. Unfortunately, its processor did not calculate escape as a very likely possibility, not without significant interference, anyway. And that would be nothing short of a miracle.
Quest: An Arbiter's Rage
Word Count: 1,107 words