Interlude XXIII

  (Cassidy)

  “They eat metal!” The enthusiastic announcer stated as he began showing scenes of death robots riding in on a massive repurposed metallic centipede that could climb buildings, fire plasma bursts of bright blue energy, all while carrying hundreds of mounted death machines on its back.

  “Not only are they all crack shots, one could go so far as to say that they are downright mechanical with their aim!” The announcer stated, his face going wide as he told what he seemed to think was a hilarious joke.

  Cassidy barely noticed the comment, instead her eyes slowed down the feed as she zoomed into different sections of the videos.

  There at the center were female mechanoids. At least, Cassidy thought they were feminine in nature due to the way they seemed somewhat sleeker and more powerful. These were clearly the hybrid mechanoid units, the ones that could use both Qi and mana interchangeably.

  Taking detailed notes, Cassidy recorded everything that these monsters did.

  First they left from the hidden base, which was reported to be an old Legrand mining facility. While the location was supposedly a secret, Cassidy had managed to work it out from prior feeds. Then she noted how the killer robots seemed to make a beeline from the mine directly into the nearest Legrand settlement.

  From there, what could only be described as raw carnage ensued, as the machines began ruthlessly striking down with yes, mechanical precision, the guards, soldiers, and finally any individuals who seemed to pose a threat to the killer machines.

  With the combatants out of the way, waves of gatherers descended from the giant metallic centipede to go out and harvest metals. At first it looked like they were just collecting the weapons of the slain enemies, but once the immediate weapons were confiscated, other groups began tearing up abandoned vehicles, electrical wirings, and even piping for houses.

  Almost as if the mechanical machines could smell the metal within everything, the machines tore apart everything in sight and removed anything with a metallic baseline component. Then after a certain amount of time had passed, every robot that had gone out on a gathering mission stopped and began dragging everything back towards the centipede that had taken to laying on its belly during this time.

  Then in a feat of strength that could only be compared to ants carrying objects with weights and sizes eight times more than them, the killer robots all did the same. In only a few cases, where larger car like vehicles were involved did two or more robots work in unison. Everything else was just singular carry only.

  Drones that got piping bent and twisted the metal tubing into wraps that would slide over their arms. Those who pulled out electrical wiring did the same. What few motorcycles existed were grabbed and carried up individually.

  From there, the mechanoid menaces began offering the metals to the hybrid mechs as a sign of offering. From the piles presented, one of the hybrid machines would chose a pile of metal to be used as a feast. Then once completely devoured, the hybrid robot would take the provider away to perform an intricate act that was quickly blurred out on the low-rate presenter’s feed. Yet, the acts being performed were unmistakable, even to Cassidy.

  “Umm, sorry about that. Apparently, machines doing the naughty is not allowed. Though it is the number one trending topic being discussed, for obvious reasons,” the presenter stated as he could be seen clearly looking off camera at a screen that was unredacted, as was evident in the glow of his glasses. This was part of why the eccentric’s feeds were so popular with the younger crowd, as he made it blatant that he would offer a reflection of his own personal viewings.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Cassidy for her part while partially curious, had no real want to watch such actions. Instead, she just copied down the details as requested of her.

  The request was simple, during the war, find out where Dr. Spiritlight went, keep detailed notes of what she did, and then provide those notes to grandma.

  Seeing that the first thing her great grandmother did was go directly to the Legrand Empire and bring to life the giant centipede monster that now served as an extended troop delivery platform, Cassidy took it upon herself to find out what the killer robots did. As she had been filling in enough on this role to realize that these would be the next questions asked.

  Honestly, Cassidy knew she should be horrified by the creatures.

  The way they savagely struck down Legrand soldiers and forces that had already been stretched too thin from the countless war efforts.

  Then there was the way they ruthlessly destroyed the town’s direct infrastructure. Making it so that power to the area would not be easily repaired, as the wires and segments that were targeted were those directly around the power plants.

  For whatever reason, the mechanoids avoided the power plants directly, instead going to fire blasts at live lines that ended the connection. Only then would the mechanoid units dig up now broken segments of wiring a few feet away.

  Seeing the acts, Cassidy wrote down the three word hypothesis to describe what she was seeing, vulnerable to electricity?

  That was her hypothesis, but something that was unable to be proven or disproven.

  Watching the two groupings, it was clear that for whatever reason the hybrid mechanoids were seen as the superior models. While the mana only ones seemed to be the front line fodder troops.

  This was a speculation that Cassidy and many other analysts had in mind.

  “An interesting fact,” the announcer continued adding commentary to the streaming videos behind and around him, all while his glasses reflected images of machines moving inappropriately together. “I had to check it out myself, but if these killer robots take off as an actual species, then once they reach a thousand unique individuals, they will finally be opened up as a player race.”

  Hearing that, Cassidy paused, and stared at the crazed announcer.

  Then as is seeing Cassidy’s stare through the monitor, he continued, “that’s right. All it takes is for these to reproduce once or twice more and boom, everyone can get a chance to reincarnate as a killer robot.”

  Pausing for a moment, Cassidy tried to understand what that meant, but then decided to copy down the fact. She had known that there were ways that any and all races could be made into a player race, but to hear the details of how a recently identified species could be made into a player character was groundbreaking.

  Given the source, Cassidy didn’t feel the need to check it up, but out of due diligence she did send a mental query to her family’s AI unit and soon found the documentation that noted this exact scenario.

  Apparently online there were betting pools available to see which species would be the next to become a player race, whether it was the Ethereal Elves, or the Teleiotís.

  For a moment, Cassidy wondered why both of those species sounded familiar.

  Only after a bit did Cassidy realize that the Teleiotís were the names for the killer robots. Then she also remembered that the Ethereal Elves was the name of the species that grandma had taken, the same one that great grandma had founded.

  Under each there were estimated numbers too.

  With those numbers, Cassidy paused wondering just how so many Ethereal Elves came to be, only to realize that there were three that she knew of, off the top of her head. Grandma, Grandma’s daughter Redding Spiritlight, then finally great uncle Rob.

  Only after pausing for a moment did the relevance of that final name hit her. Great Uncle Rob had apparently sired 118 children? Children who no doubt all had at least a Royal Bloodline variant of the Spiritlight lineage.

  Pausing, Cassidy tried to remember the components that the Royal Bloodline possessors had available to them. Honestly, she couldn’t remember. They were powerful, but not as powerful as the Legendary bloodline holders that Uncle Rob also had.

  “I still have my hopes that the next playable race are the Ethereal Elves,” the announcer continued. “Especially knowing that Trenton is still hard at work, while his father might be able to get in under the Genetics of your spouse Merit, which could potentially put him at the same power rating as Cass. Imagine that, two Colossal Pixies running around, casting spells and mayhem.”

  Hearing that, Cassidy paused as she had never heard of such a merit, while the world was constantly adding in new merits and flaws all the time, she did not know if this was new to the world or not, but she decided to look into the merit and was shocked at what she found.

  Seeing the exact wording of the Genetics of your spouse Merit, Cassidy stopped all of her current information gathering for the moment, compiled them into one loose letter, making sure to highlight the newly identified Merit and its possible implications, before sending them directly to her grandmother.

  “I hope you find this in time,” Cassidy stated, as she watched and waited for her message to be delivered.

  “Hmm, what’s that dear?” Cassidy’s mother asked.

  Hearing her voice full of strength and vibrancy, two things that had been sorely lacking from her over the past few months, Cassidy could only pause and smile inwardly. Regardless of what else was going on elsewhere, her mother was alive, they had a house and food to eat, and for the moment everything was okay.

  “Nothing, just hoping your grandfather doesn’t mess everything up, again.” Cassidy responded.

  Hearing that, mother only let out a long exhausted sigh, before nodding in agreement, “yeah, he always had a way of spoiling a perfectly good thing. But can I ask, what makes you say this?”

  “Well…”