Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Hephaestus!?

"Bluergh! -- ah fucking hel- urgh!" A thump followed by a groan echoed as a beam of light flew down on a circular platform.

Rein puked his stomach out while Sentinel followed the blue box

[Welcome to the Lone Asteroid! My name is Maxy B. Box and i will be your guide for today! With that aside, please form a single file line and follow me for the entire duration of the tour. Any injuries you would receive during the duration of this tour is totally not our problem!]

Maxy, The Blue Box, spoke in a welcoming manner. Well, showed it.

"Uugh... It felt like being turned inside out." Rein stood up, following Sentinel. "What was that all about"

It felt like shit. He looked at his hands and noticed that they regained it's youthful look. He noticed that everytime they get reincarnated, they always get back to their prime form. Him being his 23-year old self while Sentinel being Sentinel.

Sentinel once told him that he used to be a cyborg, which he didn't manage to grasp the meaning but still nodded along to it. A cyborg was like half-human and half-robot. The organs were all kept but auxiliary limbs like legs and arms were replaced and other areas were recovery was deemed impossible. That was what Sentinel told him.

He told him that his prime form was the time when he was inside a floating orb with his heart and mind intact, which is still his current form, so he couldn't say much about it.

Rein touched his face and felt his soft skin. His parents called him a *milk boy* due to the fact that his skin was white and soft like milk.

He sighed, recalling his old memories of his first life gave him a nostalgic yet depressing feel

A slapped sounded as he tried to psyche himself up. This was not the time to be remorseful about the choices he made in his past life yet he could feel that it would always come knocking back. He sighed, looking at the sight around him.

"Hey blue - i mean Maxy. Where are we going exactly? This place is just a piece of wasteland."

[I can't exactly say much for now but once we arrived at the terminal, then i'll answer that question]

"Ok"

After that, they continued to traverse the wasteland. The same scene keep on repeating and it evidently became a waste of time looking at it.

Walking around a small hill, they arrived at some kind of platform. It was big enough to fit 10 people side by side. It was made of metal which couldn't be found back on earth but it seemed sturdy enough.

At the center of it was a piece of equipment.

It was an understatement. It was larger than Rein and had a bulkier body. Pieces of auxiliary equipment jutted from the computer like body. It had dust covering it, suggesting that it hasn't been used for a long time.

[We have arrived at the terminal! Rein, if you may, please place your hand at the finger print scanner. Sentinel, please connect a cord or anything similar that can serve the same purpose to that socket.]

We have arrived at the terminal! Rein, if you may, please place your hand at the finger print scanner. Sentinel, please connect a cord or anything similar that can serve the same purpose to that socket.

Maxy slowly explained what they should do as they both stepped forward the platform.

Rein placed his hand on the fingerprint scanner, feeling it's cold touch as it whirred back to life, scanning his hand as a green ray of lighg traced his arm.

Sentinel inserted a socet from his main body to the socket of the terminal near Rein. The button nearby became red.

[The story behind the Lone Asteroid is quite unknown so I'll tell you about what i know]

"What!? Didn't you just say that you would tell the whole story?" Rein inquired, confused about Maxy's statement.

[I did, yet i did not specify that i would tell it's origin that i myself would not even know.]

Maxy confidently said as it's screen shone brighter.

"Ah... Sure, sure. Just speak what you know about"

[Well here goes nothing. Once upon a time, there was a -]

"Wait, wait! You told us that you would tell us it's ORIGIN!. An origin and not some faraway fairytale!"

He was frustrated. If Maxy was just making all these things up, then he and Senty would just leave. No sense in staying in some desolate wasteland with a malfunctioning box when they could just continue to float in endless space.

[Shut up, okay? You didn't even let me continue. The Lone Asteroid was once part of the Mainland that the databases refer to as the Motherland. I don't know what that means or where that place is, all i know is it's name. Databases says that the Motherland was part of a highly advance race known as Extervues. The Lone Asteroid is one of the many manufacturing parts that the Motherland has. It states here that the Motherland along with some other star systems that were controlled by the Extervues were attacked. No known enemies or time of the attack stated here]

[After the attack, the Extervues lost one star system yet managed to acquire 3 more. The Motherland also suffered heavy damage due to the fact that most of the enemy force were trying to cripple it. The Lone Asteroid got disconnected to the Motherland, floating away from the Motherland and the star system. The Extervues tried to establish a connection to the crew that was stationed here. Was successful until... Huh? Error? This wasn't here before? Ah Rein, sorry but it seems that story time is over. The files got corrupted.]

The files were corrupted. It may have been due to the fact that the lone asteroid was floating for millenniums that the databases slowly got degraded overtime.

It would have been devastating if the databases got corrupted to the point of losing it's main function.

Well. Rein and Sentinel. Please place your hands on the terminal once again to begin the authorization phase.

Maxy spoke once again in its monotonous voice which the both of them complied.

They placed their hands on the screen. Scanning it up and down to finish the process. It took a while to finish especially for Sentinel.

Well, you can take your hands out now.

They took a step back as the terminal beeped for a while.

A screen appeared

You are reading story Convoy 61: An Unknown World at novel35.com

{{The pits of Hephaestus' Workshop have opened once again! All hail the King's of Kings as the souls of the damned are rousing from their eternal sleep! You are chosen as the representative of Hephaestus, The God of blacksmiths, metalworking, metallurgy, fire, and machinery!}}

A shrill voice emanated from the ground, as the screen turned blackish red as smoke run amok the place, making the surroundings akin to a burning hell. The smell of nausea and death littered the air.

Greenish lights with a hue of blue lit up the hazy smoke. Dancing around as if to rejoice the fact that they are released once again.

Rein looked terrified. This was a sight he never thought he would see. The smell was something he once remembered.

A smell of a thousands soldiers lying lifelessly on the battleground, rotting away as new bodies piled up everyday.

The sight was horrid and so was the smell. That alone made him sick and have reoccurring nightmares about it.

Sentinel was shaking. He didn't understood what was currently happening due to his poor sensors, but the heartbeat of Rein was worrying.

He had only heard it beat that fast when his wife from a distant world died.

He had felt it once.

He still remembered the screams, the cries, the sorrow coming from a single man grieving over his wife's dead body.

Now, he knew what kind of situation was currently happening. A terrifying one at that, that even made Rein's heart beat so fast.

The screen appeared once more, stating to step forward and raise an arm towards and to hold it still.

He complied by poking an antenna towards the front of his face. The thin antenna slowly emerged from the top left portion of his head then bent towards.

An metallic sleeve slid past through his appendage, slithering across it and then stopped on top on his head. It then vibrated a little then inserted itself on the spot.

Sentinel was suprised by this. How could such thing exist? A metal that looked like though as diamonds move as if it was liquid mercury? Then it became solid again and molded into some sort of usb? He knew nothing about it and doubt he could even understand what it was.

Then a voice sounded that both him and Rein heard.

It came from another tiny box, much more little than bluey, appeared.

On it lays a few words.

{{You have been chosen as Hephaestus' Envoy! Please press the screen if you want to continue!

(Warning! If you do not press within 5 seconds, you will be obliterated through the sleeping vortex inserted on your body, please do not deny and accept this, with or without your agreement.)}}

Now he was alarmed. The thing that slithered and inserted itself on it's body was a vortex?!

He didn't even knew what it was but from the phrasing and the unknown dread he felt through his sensors made it much more threatening.

He looked at Rein, already pressing the screen, with a scowl planted on his face while muttering the words 'fuck this shitty screen'. Which prompted a reply from the smaller bluey.

{Please refrain from talking insulting words. Our lord Hephaestus does not want to hear such vulgar words on one of his workshops. If you wish to say such things, then please refrain from doing so since the punishment for the first offense is instant death}

Rein then froze while he just laughed. To think that his long time friend who loved to swear would be restricted was funny enough for him.

Rein sensing Sentinel floating body shaking for a bit, shouted at him.

"Fu-!... Duck off you piece of sh-... piece of metal sheet!"

"Be careful Rein, you almost died there, twice at that" He said while laughing.

"Tsk. Hmph, this better be not a slave contract or else i'll just die swearing the both of you to death" Rein scowled again, yet much more relaxed than the first time. He needed to have a distraction from all of this, so Sentinel chiming in helped him regain his rational mind.

"So anyway, now that we accepted, can you tell us what we would do to serve this uh.... god of yours?"

Sentinel spoke with confusion.

{I'm glad you asked that question. Well for the record, None.}