Global Agenda Forums

FAQ • Login • Register

Fiction - The Recursive Colony
Author	Message
HiRezTodd Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:20 pm Posts: 268	Fiction - The Recursive Colony The Recursive Colony by Nathan Knaack “What’s the matter, Yves,” Anthony began, stirring his tea with one hand and scratching the side of his face with the other. The scars from his ocular augmentation surgery were still visible despite having healed weeks before, and although his vision was now acute enough to discern all of the encoded details on the data pad lying on the table between the two men, they nonetheless caused him some occasional discomfort. Sitting across from him at the cafeteria booth was a slightly older field agent, the protective sunglasses obscuring his eyes still in place despite only being really necessary when outside the dome in the Sonoran Desert. He returned his attention to the conversation after spending the previous few minutes surveying the depot’s other patrons. Unable to read the encrypted data pad, he asked, “Tea? Mr. Devore, it’s almost fifty degrees outside. Why are you drinking hot tea.” Anthony set the cup down and sighed, “Have you even been listening?” His eyebrows rising from behind his shades, Yves smiled stubbornly. Shaking his head in exasperation, the analyst conceded, “I don’t know, it’s just a habit I picked up back in the Himalayas. It’s tea twenty-four seven over there in Sanctuary.” He leaned forward before demanding, “Are you ready to focus here?” Yves shrugged and draped his arms out over the top of the booth. “Alright, go ahead.” Bringing the data pad close and scrolling through the briefing to the rough blueprint of the target area, Anthony continued his lecture, “I know you get sick of hearing this, but try to remember what’s at stake here. Molecular reconstitution might make you feel invincible on the battlefield, but consider that it costs the agency thousands of credits every time you die.” He emphasized his final word with somatic quotes and more than a little sarcasm. “The more information you have before conducting a mission, the better the odds that you don’t end up on the wrong end of an ambush.” Examining one of the massive steel arches that kept Dome City upright and true to its name, Yves interrupted him before he could drone on any longer, “I heard what you said, Mr. Devore. It’s a smash-and-grab raid on The Recursive Colony at dawn tomorrow, oh-six-hundred hours. We’ve got the usual team except for Hikaru, but Nubaya is filling in for recon. It’s thirty minutes from insertion to extraction. Resistance is expected to be almost entirely automated, but a Commonwealth frigate was picked up by an ARM satellite late last night, so they might be active. The objective is a storage chamber deep in the colony, known to be under the constant protection of a mark three destroyer.” Retrieving his teacup and taking a sip, Anthony spoke softly, annoyed, “I shouldn’t be surprised; you field agents are all the same.” Again he scratched at his temple. Yves couldn’t help but smirk wryly. “I apologize for leading you on, Mr. Devore. It was the only few minutes I’ve actually enjoyed since arriving here.” Frowning, the analyst inquired, “My roster says you’ve already conducted missions in the Sonoran Desert region.” “Oh, that is technically correct. Don’t worry about it.” “If you have no other questions, I’d just like to add that The Cadre would really like to impress the Allied Revolutionary Militia with this one. They’re very close to letting us set up a base of operations in their territory.” Anthony turned the data pad off and slid it from the table into his satchel. “I’m quite confident our team can handle this.” Yves chuckled and would have let it go, but a piercing glare from Anthony forced him to explain himself. “Mr. Devore, I’m quite aware that this is your first operations assignment with our agency. Yes, we need the ARM to like us, but it’s obvious that you’re much more concerned with impressing your superiors than the rest of your team.” “What are you getting at?” Anthony fidgeted and scratched. “Just don’t cut any corners with us, Mr. Devore. If I get even the slightest intuition that your priorities are out of sync with mine, I’ll abort the mission and we’ll deal with the consequences between us.” Folding his hands in front of him before continuing, Yves drove his point home. “Just make sure I’ve got everything I need, and we’ll get along just fine. Do you understand?” Anthony nodded slowly, “I understand.” * * * With the ground below almost completely obscured by a raging dust storm, it was difficult for the dropship to navigate with manual controls, but doing so was necessary. Above the vessel, the sky was a rolling ocean of churning brown clouds, reducing the ability to tell the difference between up and down to purely non-visual methods, a sickening sense of unbalance that kept the entire team of agents inside from watching the external monitors. Somewhere far below, still several kilometers ahead, was the Recursive Colony, a sprawling industrial complex long since abandoned, but only by humans. Built over fifty years prior, the place was a marvel of lost technology, easily larger than most settlements in the world outside of the Commonwealth’s mega cities. Its purpose was simple: Robots building robots. It was the perfect production model, but after the war, whoever initiated the factory’s systems never returned and the local population thinned to nearly irrelevant numbers. Since then, the robots continued doing what they were programmed to do, gather natural resources, create replacements, and start all over again. Yves looked down the length of the ship’s personnel hold and studied the four other faces carefully, each one quietly murmuring to someone else, checking a weapon, or just sitting quietly with eyes closed, enduring the turbulence with stoic resolve. Knowing that it wasn’t going to get any better once they landed, he attempted to engage them. “What’s the main tactical difference between a Commonwealth wipe and a Commonwealth robot?” At the sound of his voice, everyone had ceased all previous activity and pinned their full attention to their team leader. They were all intimately familiar with the Commonwealth, the insidious world government slowly quenching any remaining resistance to its doctrine. Its human troops were usually referred to as “mindwipes,” a derogatory term for the reeducation process that cleared their brains of independent thought and reduced them to unquestioning super soldiers. The inquiry sounded too obvious, so much so that none of the agents were able to offer a confident response in the few seconds he allowed them to squirm. Staying as serious as he was able, Yves provided the answer himself, “The robot takes more restroom breaks.” It took a moment, but as soon as he cracked a grin, the rest of the team erupted into a scattering of bemused chuckling. His teeth peeking out as his smile widened, Yves turned and quietly spoke into the wall-mounted receiver while pressing its activation switch, “ETA?” The muffled voice on the other side, coming from the c*** of the dropship, promptly reported, “Ninety seconds.” Yves looked back at his companions and decided to let them laugh for another fifteen seconds. * * * The team came to the mouth of a corridor leading out onto an elevated platform overlooking a massive factory chamber, splitting into two groups to cover each other. They had been fighting for several minutes straight, tearing through the relatively thin outer defenses of the facility, mainly comprised of patrol robots, sentry turrets, and fortified blast doors. Upon reaching the central chamber, however, Yves had signaled for the team to stop. Karyn Nubaya crouched next to the team leader, her face obscured by the enhanced imaging helmet most snipers wore in combat, and raised her rifle slowly to line up a shot on a robot going about its duties. Without looking down, Yves lowered one of his hands over the front of her scope, obscuring her field of view. She glanced up at him, puzzled. “Don’t aggravate the workers, Karyn.” He leaned out a few more centimeters and peeked around the corner down the length of the room, which was a three dimensional labyrinth of conveyor belts, all rolling various components from one place to another, as they had done for the last half century. “Security robots are our only concerns.” He waved a hand signal to the rest of the team, ordering them to continue holding position. “I just want to make sure…” Before he could finish his sentence, a wide cargo door on the opposite side of the room suddenly began sliding open, with heavily armored shock troopers pouring through its gaps as soon as each slab separated enough to allow. Yves was already shouting, “Take cover, fire at will!” when the Commonwealth soldiers opened up with their plasma rifles, searing hot bolts of ionized particles streaking through the space between both groups and blasting scorch marks in the factory walls all around. The insertion team’s robotics specialist crouched in the doorway and began erecting an autocannon turret, but before his assembly nanite beam could finish construction, he was caught first in the shoulder, then in the head by enemy fire, sending him sprawling backwards further into the corridor. A second later, his body began dissolving, indicating that reconstruction back in the dropship had successfully initiated. Knowing that they’d be down an agent for the rest of the encounter, their technical specialist, Yves couldn’t help but think of what Anthony had warned him about. “Fall back,” he commanded, opening up with his silenced submachine gun in an effort to pin the soldiers down and give his team enough time to pull deeper into the hallway. Karyn had time to squeeze off a clean headshot, piercing one soldier’s helmet and dropping him where he stood, but the other agents were already moving backwards. She was almost around the corner when a plasma bolt hit her square in the back, forcing her to stumble into a nearby stack of crates. Almost sooner than she could cry out, “I’m hit,” the team’s medic had aimed and shot her in the bicep with a thick injection dart, which immediately dispersed regenerative chemicals into her bloodstream. Taking a few deep breaths, Karyn allowed the serum to take effect patiently, feeling the telltale itch of artificial skin filaments stretching across the wound in her back. The team’s medic nodded to Yves, silently letting him know that she’d be alright and that they were ready to move. “Covering fire,” Yves called out. Stomping up beside him, out into the line of fire, the team’s assault agent hoisted his chaingun and started its barrels spinning. A tidal wave of bullets washed over the Commonwealth ranks, tearing holes in many of them and taking chunks out of the wall where they missed their targets. Although impressive, the barrage wasn’t nearly enough to eliminate the threat, just distracting enough to force them into cover and give Karyn time to get across the hallway. Tearing the empty dart from her arm, she dashed forward, rolling and coming up next to Yves. “I like this team,” she began as she readied her rifle again. “My last group would have left me.” Leaning out and adding a few shots of his own to the chaingun’s ongoing drone of fire, Yves quipped, “Try not to let it happen again, alright?” “Yes, sir.” She took his place at the corner when he stepped back to recharge his capacitor, firing twice and taking down two more soldiers. Their advance was implacable though, with another full squad streaming out from the adjacent room. “More on the way,” she added. “Let’s move, everyone,” Yves said, having to reach out and tap his assault gunner on the shoulder to get his attention over the roar of his chaingun. Nodding, the power armor clad agent quieted his weapon and fell into step with the team. Karyn was a few paces ahead on point, using her suit’s advanced sensors to scan the area ahead for hazards, but called back to Yves over her shoulder. “Back to the ship, sir?” “Negative. We’re going to take the other route we passed back here. Hopefully it leads around the other way but keeps us headed in the right direction.” They ran for another minute before reaching the fork Yves was referring to, where their robotics agent was waiting, having reconstructed in the dropship and returned to meet up with them. He waved to get their attention from where he was crouching behind some pipes for cover, his mechanical third arm protruding from behind his left shoulder mimicking the wave unconsciously. “Hey, what’d I miss?” Yves paused to tap him on the helmet as the rest of the team rushed past, “Not much, just my old lecture on why forcefields are infinitely more useful than turrets.” “I had a feeling I’d hear that one again, so I made the switch back at the ship.” He turned to retrieve the small device from his pack that, when deployed on the ground and activated would bloom into a tangible barrier against ballistic impacts, but Yves stopped him with a gesture. “It’s the Commonwealth, they’re here and right behind us. Show me later.” Nodding nervously, the robotics agent dashed off to catch up with the team. Yves paused momentarily to pull a small metal object from his own pack and toss it on the ceiling, where it clung unnaturally and sprouted thin seismic sensor arms. Certain that his proximity mine was properly deployed, he turned and followed his subordinates. When the curving hallway let out into the next room, a massive storage chamber so tall that its ceiling was concealed by shadows far above, Yves found his team waiting there for instructions. He surveyed the area briefly, then began signaling orders with hand gestures, spreading everyone out for better firing points once the Commonwealth soldiers caught up with them. After a short while of doing so, Yves was suddenly struck by how quiet the room was. The shock troopers should have been only a few seconds behind and there was no sound of his trap being triggered. He considered the odds that one of the wipes noticed his cleverly-placed explosive on the ceiling, but dismissed the notion. Looking across the room, he spotted Karyn setup in front of an enormous set of cargo doors, likely leading to an internal transportation hangar, and was about to call out for her to scout back the way they had come and see what became of the soldiers. “Karyn,” was all he got out before the deafening noise of metal shrieking as it slid across the ground overcame his voice; the doors behind her were quickly grinding open. She pivoted while still crouching and touched a hand to the side of her helmet to engage her scanner, but she wasn’t fast enough. One colossal steel foot arched out of the darkness beyond and buried her entirely beneath it, slamming down with enough force to topple nearby crates. She didn’t even have a chance to scream. Stepping out from the adjacent room, the bulky, imposing figure of a six meter tall combat robot lumbered into full view, its bipedal legs supporting a platform covered with a nightmarish variety of heavy weapons and thick armor plates. Its servos and gyroscopes whining audibly, it swiveled around to face the rest of the team, a single glowing red sensor on the front of its body surveying its targets. As though completely unaffected by the ambush, the remaining members of the team went to work, with robotics dropping his forcefield right in front of assault, the shimmering azure barrier of magnetized distortion springing to life almost instantly, who once again opened up with his chaingun. With shells impacting all over its chassis, the robot quickly decided they were the greatest immediate threat and took a few weighty steps in their direction, its own main cannons flaring to life and causing impact shockwaves across the forcefield. Watching the mechanical monstrosity thunder towards his companions, Yves angrily raised his rifle and fired a few rounds, cursing under his breath, “That’s no destroyer; it’s a d*** mark five dreadnought! No wonder the Commonwealth backed off!” His shots bouncing harmlessly off of its steel outer shell, Yves resigned himself to trying to get a better firing position that would allow him to target the thing’s only obvious weak spot, the main sensor. Striding right through the forcefield like it wasn’t even there, the dreadnought wedged itself between the assault and medic agents, focusing the full punishment of its guns on the latter, who ignited his jetpack in a futile effort to escape to higher ground. Pinpoint accurate electronic targeting carried each blast of the robot’s giant thermite cannons right to where it anticipated the much smaller human would be, scoring several hits and sending his lifeless body spiraling over the balcony above. Yves lifted himself up onto a cargo loading vehicle and steadied his rifle once again, sending a few bullets into the dreadnought’s sensitive central eye casing, immediately getting its attention. Before turning to charge him, though, it paused to open a dorsal firing port and with a series of rapid popping sounds, sent ten grenades clattering all around the assault team member. Quick enough to recognize the danger he was in, the armor-clad agent engaged his blast deflection shield, which would easily save him from any explosive damage. The barrier condensed air molecules around him in a swirling pattern designed to deflect the pressure of nearby detonations. Instead of exploding, however, each of the grenades quivered momentarily, then suddenly sprouted legs and rolled upright from where each had come to rest. They clambered across the ground, a swarm of metallic insects tapping along the concrete floor, and leapt en masse onto the hapless agent. Tiny, razor-like appendages quickly found every crack and crevice in his armor, taking him down in a few gruesome seconds. As the dreadnought efficiently made short work of his team, Yves continued firing. Each impact of its massive feet against the floor made his ribcage rattle, but he stood his ground anyway. The emotionless automaton strode up to stand before the team leader, who simply lowered his rifle and looked it square in the sensor eye. * * * Yves always coughed reflexively after stepping out of a reconstitution chamber, something about it helped him remind himself that he was very much alive and that the last few seconds of his memory, usually containing the graphic details of his latest death, were just a memory. When his head cleared and he was able to digest that, seconds before, his body had been completely obliterated by a gigantic robot, he looked around the dropship at the rest of the team. They had been waiting for him and were preparing to rush back into the fray at his command. “No,” he said, drawing questioning glances from most of them, “we’re not going back in.” He looked up as the team’s robotics agent stumbled out of the last reconstitution chamber, grinning for some reason as he exclaimed, �d*** spiders!” When he noticed the sour faces all around, he immediately shut up. Yves slumped down into one of the chairs and pressed the communications button on the wall, “Pilot, let’s get out of here.” As the rest of the team found their seats and the dropship’s engines rumbled to life, lifting it back into the desert sky, Yves explained himself. “Our agency is about to have an opening for a new mission analyst.”
Wed May 06, 2009 10:51 am

Duddy Alpha Tester Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:50 am Posts: 929 Location: United Kingdom Steam Gamer Name: [AGN] Duddy	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony HiRezTodd wrote: The muffled voice on the other side, coming from the c*** of the dropship, promptly reported, “Ninety seconds.” Really enjoyed it, but can't help but wonder what that word is meant to be... _________________ 'dud-ee' like 'wall-e' exLupo wrote: With great power comes great lack of intelligence.
Wed May 06, 2009 11:14 am

Droofus Alpha Tester Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:26 pm Posts: 205 Location: Florida Steam Gamer Name: ld \| Droofus	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony it is co-ckpit _________________
Wed May 06, 2009 11:49 am

nknaack Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:36 pm Posts: 399	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony Interesting... my original copy in Word 2007 has it properly spelled. I think our forum's profanity filter spotted the root word and took some liberties in its correction. Oh well, if you're going to have bugs, they might as well be funny ones. _________________ Nathan A. Knaack Lead Writer Hi-Rez Studios
Wed May 06, 2009 8:05 pm

Diesel Alpha Tester Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:50 am Posts: 3574 Location: Alpharetta, GA	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony nknaack wrote: Interesting... my original copy in Word 2007 has it properly spelled. I think our forum's profanity filter spotted the root word and took some liberties in its correction. Oh well, if you're going to have bugs, they might as well be funny ones. True that. _________________
Wed May 06, 2009 8:14 pm

Aluco Alpha Tester Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:39 am Posts: 403 Location: The Netherlands Steam Gamer Name: Aluco	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony Please, keep them coming. Still love to read your stuff, Mister Knaack. Can't you release a novel or something? Short stories are not enough, I need MOAR! _________________ "There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Thu May 07, 2009 11:17 am

Kreeped Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 7:05 pm Posts: 1198 Steam Gamer Name: Kreeper	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony Good read.
Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:48 pm

OneMan Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:50 pm Posts: 7	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony Great read. Managed to read all four threads today, and you're a great writer mate. Looking forward to the next installments.
Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:41 pm

x3gunman3x Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:57 am Posts: 29 Location: Rhode Island	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony Love the story keep them coming please todd!
Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:57 pm

Titanreaper Beta Tester Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 9:52 pm Posts: 8	Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony All these stories are amazing! I finished reading all of the short stories, they are very good. I especially like this one, the fights were in great detail. It was like a movie in my mind. Thanks for the good read, can't wait for the next one.
Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:22 pm

Display posts from previous: Sort by

Fiction - The Recursive Colony

Author

Message

HiRezTodd

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:20 pm
Posts: 268

Fiction - The Recursive Colony

The Recursive Colony
by Nathan Knaack

“What’s the matter, Yves,” Anthony began, stirring his tea with one hand and scratching the side of his face with the other. The scars from his ocular augmentation surgery were still visible despite having healed weeks before, and although his vision was now acute enough to discern all of the encoded details on the data pad lying on the table between the two men, they nonetheless caused him some occasional discomfort.

Sitting across from him at the cafeteria booth was a slightly older field agent, the protective sunglasses obscuring his eyes still in place despite only being really necessary when outside the dome in the Sonoran Desert. He returned his attention to the conversation after spending the previous few minutes surveying the depot’s other patrons. Unable to read the encrypted data pad, he asked, “Tea? Mr. Devore, it’s almost fifty degrees outside. Why are you drinking hot tea.”

Anthony set the cup down and sighed, “Have you even been listening?”

His eyebrows rising from behind his shades, Yves smiled stubbornly.

Shaking his head in exasperation, the analyst conceded, “I don’t know, it’s just a habit I picked up back in the Himalayas. It’s tea twenty-four seven over there in Sanctuary.” He leaned forward before demanding, “Are you ready to focus here?”

Yves shrugged and draped his arms out over the top of the booth. “Alright, go ahead.”

Bringing the data pad close and scrolling through the briefing to the rough blueprint of the target area, Anthony continued his lecture, “I know you get sick of hearing this, but try to remember what’s at stake here. Molecular reconstitution might make you feel invincible on the battlefield, but consider that it costs the agency thousands of credits every time you die.” He emphasized his final word with somatic quotes and more than a little sarcasm. “The more information you have before conducting a mission, the better the odds that you don’t end up on the wrong end of an ambush.”

Examining one of the massive steel arches that kept Dome City upright and true to its name, Yves interrupted him before he could drone on any longer, “I heard what you said, Mr. Devore. It’s a smash-and-grab raid on The Recursive Colony at dawn tomorrow, oh-six-hundred hours. We’ve got the usual team except for Hikaru, but Nubaya is filling in for recon. It’s thirty minutes from insertion to extraction. Resistance is expected to be almost entirely automated, but a Commonwealth frigate was picked up by an ARM satellite late last night, so they might be active. The objective is a storage chamber deep in the colony, known to be under the constant protection of a mark three destroyer.”

Retrieving his teacup and taking a sip, Anthony spoke softly, annoyed, “I shouldn’t be surprised; you field agents are all the same.” Again he scratched at his temple.

Yves couldn’t help but smirk wryly. “I apologize for leading you on, Mr. Devore. It was the only few minutes I’ve actually enjoyed since arriving here.”

Frowning, the analyst inquired, “My roster says you’ve already conducted missions in the Sonoran Desert region.”

“Oh, that is technically correct. Don’t worry about it.”

“If you have no other questions, I’d just like to add that The Cadre would really like to impress the Allied Revolutionary Militia with this one. They’re very close to letting us set up a base of operations in their territory.” Anthony turned the data pad off and slid it from the table into his satchel. “I’m quite confident our team can handle this.”

Yves chuckled and would have let it go, but a piercing glare from Anthony forced him to explain himself. “Mr. Devore, I’m quite aware that this is your first operations assignment with our agency. Yes, we need the ARM to like us, but it’s obvious that you’re much more concerned with impressing your superiors than the rest of your team.”

“What are you getting at?” Anthony fidgeted and scratched.

“Just don’t cut any corners with us, Mr. Devore. If I get even the slightest intuition that your priorities are out of sync with mine, I’ll abort the mission and we’ll deal with the consequences between us.” Folding his hands in front of him before continuing, Yves drove his point home. “Just make sure I’ve got everything I need, and we’ll get along just fine. Do you understand?”

Anthony nodded slowly, “I understand.”

* * *

With the ground below almost completely obscured by a raging dust storm, it was difficult for the dropship to navigate with manual controls, but doing so was necessary. Above the vessel, the sky was a rolling ocean of churning brown clouds, reducing the ability to tell the difference between up and down to purely non-visual methods, a sickening sense of unbalance that kept the entire team of agents inside from watching the external monitors.

Somewhere far below, still several kilometers ahead, was the Recursive Colony, a sprawling industrial complex long since abandoned, but only by humans. Built over fifty years prior, the place was a marvel of lost technology, easily larger than most settlements in the world outside of the Commonwealth’s mega cities. Its purpose was simple: Robots building robots. It was the perfect production model, but after the war, whoever initiated the factory’s systems never returned and the local population thinned to nearly irrelevant numbers. Since then, the robots continued doing what they were programmed to do, gather natural resources, create replacements, and start all over again.

Yves looked down the length of the ship’s personnel hold and studied the four other faces carefully, each one quietly murmuring to someone else, checking a weapon, or just sitting quietly with eyes closed, enduring the turbulence with stoic resolve. Knowing that it wasn’t going to get any better once they landed, he attempted to engage them.

“What’s the main tactical difference between a Commonwealth wipe and a Commonwealth robot?” At the sound of his voice, everyone had ceased all previous activity and pinned their full attention to their team leader. They were all intimately familiar with the Commonwealth, the insidious world government slowly quenching any remaining resistance to its doctrine. Its human troops were usually referred to as “mindwipes,” a derogatory term for the reeducation process that cleared their brains of independent thought and reduced them to unquestioning super soldiers. The inquiry sounded too obvious, so much so that none of the agents were able to offer a confident response in the few seconds he allowed them to squirm.

Staying as serious as he was able, Yves provided the answer himself, “The robot takes more restroom breaks.”

It took a moment, but as soon as he cracked a grin, the rest of the team erupted into a scattering of bemused chuckling. His teeth peeking out as his smile widened, Yves turned and quietly spoke into the wall-mounted receiver while pressing its activation switch, “ETA?”

The muffled voice on the other side, coming from the c*** of the dropship, promptly reported, “Ninety seconds.”

Yves looked back at his companions and decided to let them laugh for another fifteen seconds.

* * *

The team came to the mouth of a corridor leading out onto an elevated platform overlooking a massive factory chamber, splitting into two groups to cover each other. They had been fighting for several minutes straight, tearing through the relatively thin outer defenses of the facility, mainly comprised of patrol robots, sentry turrets, and fortified blast doors. Upon reaching the central chamber, however, Yves had signaled for the team to stop.

Karyn Nubaya crouched next to the team leader, her face obscured by the enhanced imaging helmet most snipers wore in combat, and raised her rifle slowly to line up a shot on a robot going about its duties. Without looking down, Yves lowered one of his hands over the front of her scope, obscuring her field of view. She glanced up at him, puzzled.

“Don’t aggravate the workers, Karyn.” He leaned out a few more centimeters and peeked around the corner down the length of the room, which was a three dimensional labyrinth of conveyor belts, all rolling various components from one place to another, as they had done for the last half century. “Security robots are our only concerns.” He waved a hand signal to the rest of the team, ordering them to continue holding position. “I just want to make sure…”

Before he could finish his sentence, a wide cargo door on the opposite side of the room suddenly began sliding open, with heavily armored shock troopers pouring through its gaps as soon as each slab separated enough to allow. Yves was already shouting, “Take cover, fire at will!” when the Commonwealth soldiers opened up with their plasma rifles, searing hot bolts of ionized particles streaking through the space between both groups and blasting scorch marks in the factory walls all around.

The insertion team’s robotics specialist crouched in the doorway and began erecting an autocannon turret, but before his assembly nanite beam could finish construction, he was caught first in the shoulder, then in the head by enemy fire, sending him sprawling backwards further into the corridor. A second later, his body began dissolving, indicating that reconstruction back in the dropship had successfully initiated. Knowing that they’d be down an agent for the rest of the encounter, their technical specialist, Yves couldn’t help but think of what Anthony had warned him about.

“Fall back,” he commanded, opening up with his silenced submachine gun in an effort to pin the soldiers down and give his team enough time to pull deeper into the hallway. Karyn had time to squeeze off a clean headshot, piercing one soldier’s helmet and dropping him where he stood, but the other agents were already moving backwards. She was almost around the corner when a plasma bolt hit her square in the back, forcing her to stumble into a nearby stack of crates.

Almost sooner than she could cry out, “I’m hit,” the team’s medic had aimed and shot her in the bicep with a thick injection dart, which immediately dispersed regenerative chemicals into her bloodstream. Taking a few deep breaths, Karyn allowed the serum to take effect patiently, feeling the telltale itch of artificial skin filaments stretching across the wound in her back. The team’s medic nodded to Yves, silently letting him know that she’d be alright and that they were ready to move.

“Covering fire,” Yves called out. Stomping up beside him, out into the line of fire, the team’s assault agent hoisted his chaingun and started its barrels spinning. A tidal wave of bullets washed over the Commonwealth ranks, tearing holes in many of them and taking chunks out of the wall where they missed their targets. Although impressive, the barrage wasn’t nearly enough to eliminate the threat, just distracting enough to force them into cover and give Karyn time to get across the hallway.

Tearing the empty dart from her arm, she dashed forward, rolling and coming up next to Yves. “I like this team,” she began as she readied her rifle again. “My last group would have left me.”

Leaning out and adding a few shots of his own to the chaingun’s ongoing drone of fire, Yves quipped, “Try not to let it happen again, alright?”

“Yes, sir.” She took his place at the corner when he stepped back to recharge his capacitor, firing twice and taking down two more soldiers. Their advance was implacable though, with another full squad streaming out from the adjacent room. “More on the way,” she added.

“Let’s move, everyone,” Yves said, having to reach out and tap his assault gunner on the shoulder to get his attention over the roar of his chaingun. Nodding, the power armor clad agent quieted his weapon and fell into step with the team.

Karyn was a few paces ahead on point, using her suit’s advanced sensors to scan the area ahead for hazards, but called back to Yves over her shoulder. “Back to the ship, sir?”

“Negative. We’re going to take the other route we passed back here. Hopefully it leads around the other way but keeps us headed in the right direction.”

They ran for another minute before reaching the fork Yves was referring to, where their robotics agent was waiting, having reconstructed in the dropship and returned to meet up with them. He waved to get their attention from where he was crouching behind some pipes for cover, his mechanical third arm protruding from behind his left shoulder mimicking the wave unconsciously. “Hey, what’d I miss?”

Yves paused to tap him on the helmet as the rest of the team rushed past, “Not much, just my old lecture on why forcefields are infinitely more useful than turrets.”

“I had a feeling I’d hear that one again, so I made the switch back at the ship.” He turned to retrieve the small device from his pack that, when deployed on the ground and activated would bloom into a tangible barrier against ballistic impacts, but Yves stopped him with a gesture.

“It’s the Commonwealth, they’re here and right behind us. Show me later.”

Nodding nervously, the robotics agent dashed off to catch up with the team. Yves paused momentarily to pull a small metal object from his own pack and toss it on the ceiling, where it clung unnaturally and sprouted thin seismic sensor arms. Certain that his proximity mine was properly deployed, he turned and followed his subordinates.

When the curving hallway let out into the next room, a massive storage chamber so tall that its ceiling was concealed by shadows far above, Yves found his team waiting there for instructions. He surveyed the area briefly, then began signaling orders with hand gestures, spreading everyone out for better firing points once the Commonwealth soldiers caught up with them.

After a short while of doing so, Yves was suddenly struck by how quiet the room was. The shock troopers should have been only a few seconds behind and there was no sound of his trap being triggered. He considered the odds that one of the wipes noticed his cleverly-placed explosive on the ceiling, but dismissed the notion. Looking across the room, he spotted Karyn setup in front of an enormous set of cargo doors, likely leading to an internal transportation hangar, and was about to call out for her to scout back the way they had come and see what became of the soldiers.

“Karyn,” was all he got out before the deafening noise of metal shrieking as it slid across the ground overcame his voice; the doors behind her were quickly grinding open. She pivoted while still crouching and touched a hand to the side of her helmet to engage her scanner, but she wasn’t fast enough. One colossal steel foot arched out of the darkness beyond and buried her entirely beneath it, slamming down with enough force to topple nearby crates. She didn’t even have a chance to scream.

Stepping out from the adjacent room, the bulky, imposing figure of a six meter tall combat robot lumbered into full view, its bipedal legs supporting a platform covered with a nightmarish variety of heavy weapons and thick armor plates. Its servos and gyroscopes whining audibly, it swiveled around to face the rest of the team, a single glowing red sensor on the front of its body surveying its targets.

As though completely unaffected by the ambush, the remaining members of the team went to work, with robotics dropping his forcefield right in front of assault, the shimmering azure barrier of magnetized distortion springing to life almost instantly, who once again opened up with his chaingun. With shells impacting all over its chassis, the robot quickly decided they were the greatest immediate threat and took a few weighty steps in their direction, its own main cannons flaring to life and causing impact shockwaves across the forcefield.

Watching the mechanical monstrosity thunder towards his companions, Yves angrily raised his rifle and fired a few rounds, cursing under his breath, “That’s no destroyer; it’s a d*** mark five dreadnought! No wonder the Commonwealth backed off!” His shots bouncing harmlessly off of its steel outer shell, Yves resigned himself to trying to get a better firing position that would allow him to target the thing’s only obvious weak spot, the main sensor.

Striding right through the forcefield like it wasn’t even there, the dreadnought wedged itself between the assault and medic agents, focusing the full punishment of its guns on the latter, who ignited his jetpack in a futile effort to escape to higher ground. Pinpoint accurate electronic targeting carried each blast of the robot’s giant thermite cannons right to where it anticipated the much smaller human would be, scoring several hits and sending his lifeless body spiraling over the balcony above.

Yves lifted himself up onto a cargo loading vehicle and steadied his rifle once again, sending a few bullets into the dreadnought’s sensitive central eye casing, immediately getting its attention. Before turning to charge him, though, it paused to open a dorsal firing port and with a series of rapid popping sounds, sent ten grenades clattering all around the assault team member.

Quick enough to recognize the danger he was in, the armor-clad agent engaged his blast deflection shield, which would easily save him from any explosive damage. The barrier condensed air molecules around him in a swirling pattern designed to deflect the pressure of nearby detonations. Instead of exploding, however, each of the grenades quivered momentarily, then suddenly sprouted legs and rolled upright from where each had come to rest. They clambered across the ground, a swarm of metallic insects tapping along the concrete floor, and leapt en masse onto the hapless agent. Tiny, razor-like appendages quickly found every crack and crevice in his armor, taking him down in a few gruesome seconds.

As the dreadnought efficiently made short work of his team, Yves continued firing. Each impact of its massive feet against the floor made his ribcage rattle, but he stood his ground anyway. The emotionless automaton strode up to stand before the team leader, who simply lowered his rifle and looked it square in the sensor eye.

* * *

Yves always coughed reflexively after stepping out of a reconstitution chamber, something about it helped him remind himself that he was very much alive and that the last few seconds of his memory, usually containing the graphic details of his latest death, were just a memory. When his head cleared and he was able to digest that, seconds before, his body had been completely obliterated by a gigantic robot, he looked around the dropship at the rest of the team. They had been waiting for him and were preparing to rush back into the fray at his command.

“No,” he said, drawing questioning glances from most of them, “we’re not going back in.”

He looked up as the team’s robotics agent stumbled out of the last reconstitution chamber, grinning for some reason as he exclaimed, �d*** spiders!” When he noticed the sour faces all around, he immediately shut up.

Yves slumped down into one of the chairs and pressed the communications button on the wall, “Pilot, let’s get out of here.” As the rest of the team found their seats and the dropship’s engines rumbled to life, lifting it back into the desert sky, Yves explained himself. “Our agency is about to have an opening for a new mission analyst.”

Wed May 06, 2009 10:51 am

Duddy

Alpha Tester

Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:50 am
Posts: 929
Location: United Kingdom
Steam Gamer Name: [AGN] Duddy

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

HiRezTodd wrote:

The muffled voice on the other side, coming from the c*** of the dropship, promptly reported, “Ninety seconds.”

Really enjoyed it, but can't help but wonder what that word is meant to be...

_________________

'dud-ee' like 'wall-e'

exLupo wrote:

With great power comes great lack of intelligence.

Wed May 06, 2009 11:14 am

Droofus

Alpha Tester

Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:26 pm
Posts: 205
Location: Florida
Steam Gamer Name: ld | Droofus

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

it is co-ckpit

_________________

Wed May 06, 2009 11:49 am

nknaack

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:36 pm
Posts: 399

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

Interesting... my original copy in Word 2007 has it properly spelled. I think our forum's profanity filter spotted the root word and took some liberties in its correction.

Oh well, if you're going to have bugs, they might as well be funny ones.

_________________
Nathan A. Knaack
Lead Writer
Hi-Rez Studios

Wed May 06, 2009 8:05 pm

Diesel

Alpha Tester

Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:50 am
Posts: 3574
Location: Alpharetta, GA

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

nknaack wrote:

True that. :lol:

_________________

Wed May 06, 2009 8:14 pm

Aluco

Alpha Tester

Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:39 am
Posts: 403
Location: The Netherlands
Steam Gamer Name: Aluco

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

Please, keep them coming. Still love to read your stuff, Mister Knaack.

Can't you release a novel or something? Short stories are not enough, I need MOAR!

_________________
"There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

Thu May 07, 2009 11:17 am

Kreeped

Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 7:05 pm
Posts: 1198
Steam Gamer Name: Kreeper

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

Good read.

Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:48 pm

OneMan

Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:50 pm
Posts: 7

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

Great read. Managed to read all four threads today, and you're a great writer mate. Looking forward to the next installments.

Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:41 pm

x3gunman3x

Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:57 am
Posts: 29
Location: Rhode Island

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

Love the story keep them coming please todd!

Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:57 pm

Titanreaper

Beta Tester

Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 9:52 pm
Posts: 8

Re: Fiction - The Recursive Colony

All these stories are amazing! I finished reading all of the short stories, they are very good. I especially like this one, the fights were in great detail. It was like a movie in my mind. Thanks for the good read, can't wait for the next one.

Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:22 pm