The Lion Against the Sun: A Giant Robot Quest

[BiopunkOtrera]

(The forces of history maybe slowed by the victory of the counter revolution, but they are not stopped!)

[X] The cockpit door at the back

You put on a hard hat and clip a pair of work gloves to your belt and walk down under the robot. "Have you tried the usual scanning methods?"

"Of course, though most of them don't work. Ultrasound, X-rays, none of them can penetrate the armour."

"What about the damaged arms?"

"We have partial imagery of that. However even most of the internal components block things."

"I see." You look up at the dark mass of robot above, and the intricate fractals of its back. They draw the eye, spinning across it. You blink a couple of times, then look again, this time setting an internal process in your head to alert you in a couple of seconds. Your eyes are drawn around from one spiral to the next. You can feel your brain growing more active as they go. Your eyes don't stop and you almost lose yourself for a moment before your "Hmm."

"What is it? Acadamician?"

"The fractal skin, I believe it would be best if you ration how much people are allowed to look at it. It seems to have some effect on the human brain." You pat the robot. "It seems whoever built this was human, or knew about them. That's also implied by its shape."

"I… I see." Himura tips back his cap and looks up. "It seems like science fiction."

"More so than a giant-prehuman robot?"

"It's not like humanoid weapons are exactly unknown in the beyond. Our own military is testing prototypes. I suppose I thought that perhaps the carbon dating might be explained by something else. Medusa fractals though, that sounds like something out of a science fiction serial."

"Well, it doesn't seem that effective, at least in this light conditions. It maybe I am just being distracted as a side effect of my enhancements." You stop in front of the cockpit hatch. "Now, let's see about getting this open."

The General stands well back as you look over the hatch. The hatch cover looks like a pretty standard armoured hatch, its join almost but not quite invisible, and carefully marked up with tape. There's a complicated mechanism like a human hand print in one side. You pull yourself up and inspect it. "It could be a handprint scanner. Has anyone messed with it?"

"No. We wanted to know if it was safe."

"Well, there's no holes for needles. I guess it could shock you. Have you X-rayed it? Ultrasound?"

"We can't see inside."

"Well then." You put your hand up against it. The mechanism hums and lights up. You feel a pressure against your hand for a moment, and then the cockpit hatch swings back, revealing a large control cavern.

"That was dangerous Academician!" The General protests. "Please think of your safety."

"If we can't analyse it with our instruments, there's not much point

"You are not expendable, you know that?"

"Oh, just grow another few of me at Shinkyo. I'd suggest you step back General, but do lend me your radio."

"Of course." He hands it up and retreats. You key it and speak.

"Testing, can you here me? This is Academician Oshiro. I am in the humanoid's cockpit."

"Academician? This is base station, you've gained access to the cockpit?"

"Yes. I'm activating my radio's camera now."

You clip the radio to your shirt and pull yourself up into the cockpit and look around. It seems well preserved, without dust, human remains, or a sleeping space prince. What a shame. There's no evidence of windows or screens, but there is a framework of what looks like motion capture gear, though you're not quite sure how the driver is supposed to suspend themselves in the framework, and a row of switches. The top one is largest, and marked with a red lightning bolt. Below it is a blue switch marked with a star pattern, and a green switch marked with a single line. Another switch beside the hatch is marked with a door symbol. You leave that alone.

"Base, can you still here me?"

"Yes."

"Any advice?"

"We're examining local symbology, we believe the red symbol is for power up, and probably safe to press."

"Should I press it?"

"Please do so."

You reach up and press the switch. Instantly, the cockpit lights up with a view of the surrounding cavern. A wireframe of the robot, its left arm shown in purple, the rest in cool blow light's up next to it. "Are you still seeing this base?"

"Copy, we are recieving…" The signal suddenly cuts to static. Up above, far above, there's a distant bright explosion. Something tears through the top of the dome. A humanoid fighting machine, tall and blue drops free and lands across the cavern, raising and oversized rifle. Beside it, a second, armed with a weapon that looks more like an SMG follows. The radio howls static. Jamming.

Beyonder warmachines. But what are they doing here?

A rocket hurtles out from one of the guard posts, and bursts against one of the robots. It swings around and blasts the area with its rifle, blowing it apart in a spray of debris.

It strikes you that you have the one effective means of resistance right here. What should you do?

[ ] Play dead, wait for them to get close
[ ] Rise and confront them before they can attack the staff
[ ] Throw one of the forklifts at them
[ ] Press the blue switch
[ ] Press the green switch