User#2744

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BOOTUP. STATUS SET_MANUAL IGNITION. FUEL SWITCHES 1-4 SET OFF. [[ENGAGE?|Fuel switches on]]

FUEL SWITCHES SET ON. CENTRAL MOTOR ACTIVE. USER IDENTITY REQ. [[CONFIRM ACCESS REQUEST.|User identity]]

IDENTITY CONFIRMED. ENGAGE USER *CUSTOM UI SET* Welcome back User#2744. Time since last login = 6 hours 23 minutes. Input detected. [[Engaging forward movement.]]

A judder as the legs begin to move forward under the cockpit. A fitful nights sleep, but you'll manage. You always do. You can see the first rays of the sun's light through twisted branches. Stretched before you is a place of [[pine and ash.]]

It still falls like snow here, the machine leavings prints soon to be covered up. Good, it's better this way. Less chance of being followed. You're running low on water, for both of you in fact. You can already hear the grinding of the joints as they start to sieze up. Hopefully you can find someone soon. [[Anyone.|Heat signature]]

HEAT SIG. PING AT 0.5KM NEG ON HARD LOCK [[How do you wish to proceed User#2744?|Forest encounter]]

Short-range system managed to pick something up, you just pray it isn't hostile. At this range there's no way you're going to be able to dodge even a potshot. You should have fixed that dish weeks ago. Nothing to be done now but [[hope for the best.|A lonesome shack]]

As you climb down from the cockpit, you see what was causing the flare on your system; a campfire gently smoldering next to shack of corroded metal. You never thought you'd find any sort of safe haven in the forest. Not even birds come to nest here anymore. You can't remember the last time you heard a bird sing. The crunch of feet on dry earth. A sharp intake of breath. The shack's occupant slowly approaches the [[bottom of your ladder.|Fireside conversation]]

You were expecting hostility, maybe even naked aggression. What you weren't expecting was a warm fire, a shared meal, and good company. Every now and then you catch the stranger staring at your machine. After you both finish eating they offer to part ways with some of the water you so desperately need, but at a cost. They want parts from your machine, things they can use to hunt and reinforce their home with. This is what life is now; a constant process of chipping parts away from the whole. You give the stranger what they ask for and [[take the water.|Leaving the shack]]

After refilling the tank, you climb back into the cockpit. Going back West you risk a fight you can't win, but continuing East could mean a long time before you encounter another living soul. You point the machine's nose east and [[engage the central motor.|Status Update]]

TIME SINCE LAST USER INPUT = 4 hours 27 minutes [[Are you still there User#2744?|Waking up]]

You wake up with a start. The inside of the cockpit is slick with condensation. How long have you been out? You dismiss the machine's idle prompt and wipe down the glass. With a small patch clear, you [[take a look out at the landscape around you.|Deadlands]]

It hits you all at once. You knew it was vast, but you didn't realise quite how completely and devoutly the land had been scarred. There's just nothing. No colour, no life, nothing. It's an overwhelming nothingness, one that threatens to swallow you. Suddenly there's a ping. Here of all places there shouldn't be a ping, this where it all came crashing down. But the machine is insistent and [[demanding your attention.|attack warning]]

MOVEMENT DETECT POSITIVE. DISTANCE = 3K. SPEED = 50MPH. NO KNOWN ID DETECTED. POSSIBILITY OF HOSTILE CONTACT = 70%. [[How do you wish to proceed User#2744?|ready for a fight]]

And just like that you're back in the moment. You power up each necessary system, some unused for so long that they screech at you in turn. Your seat reclines in order to better absorb any impacts. The days, weeks, months of wandering have softened you. You've had to give away so much of yourself just to survive. But you didn't give away your claws. [[Time to fight.|Weapons online]]

COMBAT PROCEDURES INITIATED. WEAPONS CHARGE AT 60% OF MAX. AMMO COUNT = 270/800 WARNING! DEF PLATING ONLY AT 40% [[User #2744, do you wish to engage?|First blows]]

They crest the ridge quickly, moving at pace. It's a chopjob; chassis cobbled together from the corpses of fallen machines. At your prime this would be child's play, but you're well past that. Like a forgotten song you hear the long tone of a positive lock, and you [[pull the trigger.|hit after hit]]

POSITIVE LOCK. 3 HITS ON TARGET. AMMO COUNT = 180/800 WARNING! 3 PROJECTILES INCOMING! [[Would you like to intiate evasive patterns User #2744?|Ducking and weaving]]

Missiles!? You haven't had the countermeasures system up and running for months. You'll have to do this the old fashioned way. You pull hard to the left as one missile goes sailing past your right hand side. Two left. You take a bead on the second and manage to shoot it out of the sky. You look around desperately for the third, but by that point it's all too late. [[This is going to hurt.|systems check]]

SEVERE DAMAGE SUSTAINED TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SYSTEMS. INTITIATE SYSTEMS CHECK. MOBILITY SYS = 20% WEAPONS SYS = $#@/! NAV SYS = ERRORERROR TIME SINCE LAST USER INPUT = 15 hours 3 minutes [[Are you still there User#2744?|just barely]]

Wind blowing in your face. You open your eyes. The cockpit glass is gone, only jagged edges remain. You can see the smouldering wreck of the chopjob off to your left. Good, auto-compensators must have kicked in when you lost consciousness. You're still in this lifeless place though. No idea how long it'll take you to get to other side, and with your systems as they are there's no guarantee that you will. Only hope is to just [[keep going.|shut down]]

APPROACHING TARGET DEST. ALL SYSTEMS APPROACHING NULL STATUS. RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE REPAIR AT DESIGNATED STATION. BEGINNING SHUTDOWN OF ALL SYSTEMS. RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE COCKPIT EVAC. [[User #2744, please evacuate for your own safety.|end of it all]]

You're here. You've reached the edge of nothing. You crumple to the ground, fatigue and blood loss overcoming you. A fitting end to it all really. After everything, you went out together. Your eyelids begin to droop, black spots invading from the corner of your vision as it all begins to fade. [[birdsong...|epilogue]]

A hulking metal giant and something in a faded pair of overalls lying next to it. Atop the giant, a nest of twigs and fabric. Morning sun, a simple song, and the promise of a new beginning.