37_No man left behind

Slippy once again looked up at the turbulent dark clouds above his soul space. Ordinarily a single glance would have instantly transitioned his consciousness to his physical body in the outside world. However this time, and just as the countless other times in the past 2 weeks, the glance did nothing. All he could sense was that his permissions were externally restricted.

With a sigh, he looked down, examining his surroundings. The place where his fence used to be was now turned into a small but fertile garden.

The explosion which had caused all the destruction around him, had also proven excellent for gardening, it turning the hard packed ground into puffy soil perfect for growing crops.

Ordinarily Slippy wasn't much for such things, but time flew quite differently for his kind. AI’s often had trouble with associating with humans or mechanoid for this reason. Although only a few hours had passed in the outside world, two and a half weeks had unfolded for Slippy. Struggling to keep himself sane, the baby AI had found a newfound love for gardening.

Radishes, carrots and potatoes were his favorite so far. But he had hopes of expanding his patch of land and giving a try with something more advanced. Maybe he could grow a mumbo juice box tree? Now that would be something!

Rustle.

Slippy froze in an instant. His stick-man avatar’s sensors perked up as they strained to locate the source of the noise.

Rustle rustle.

"Ribbit!"

"HIYAA!"

"Rriib-ghrghh…"

The pitchfork struck true, impaling itself at the body of the chubby green toad, ending its life.

"Yeah that’s right, stupid toad! Get your own garden!" The slip triumphantly gloated over the body of the slain beast.

"Blerghhh…."

The dead toad chose that moment to open its maw, a trickle of gray goo spilling out and infesting the fertile soil of the crop field.

"Argh, my cabbages!" Slippy shrieked in horror as the body of the beast rapidly dissolved, consuming itself in order to vomit more gray goo.

"Where is it where did I left it?" The slip panicked, flailing his stick-man hands.

"There!"

Grabbing his trusty shovel, he quickly dug up the soil under the corpse, then threw it into the closest burning barrel, placed there just for such an eventuality.

Eventually all remains of the critter, along with the contaminated soil around it, were safely burning inside the barrel. The flames coming out of it flared with power, the fire forming grotesque mutated shapes while the corruption’s life got extinguished in the inferno.

"Pfew…" Slippy wiped the sweat off his stick-man face and slumped on the ground, entirely exhausted from the panicked rush.

His cabbages were now ruined, and so was a chunk of the previously neatly ordered garden. He absentmindedly looked at his favorite shovel named Kimbo. It was a bit chewed by the nanoids, but it was nothing too serious.

"Sigh…" He once again looked at the vortex of black clouds above his soul space.

"Herman, I know you didn’t mean harm by disabling my world connection, but I sure as heck wish you would hurry up and turn it back on."

___

"Slippy’s log, final entry."

"Day 41: Despair."

"It has been 41 moons since I was abandoned on this wretched land. Food is gone, morale is diminishing."

"With the loss of Kimbo, I fear I no longer have the strength to continue on my own. My faithful shovel companion has fallen to the darkness, having defended me against the nanoid beasts that besieged my lands."

"I write this journal in the hopes of someone learning of our fates. Remember us, remember us kindly."

With those final words, the sleep deprived slip closed the leather bound journal, placing it inside a hidden compartment inside the floor of his shack, then positioning a heavy stone block over it, sealing it for good.

"Rrribit, ribit ribit." The chorus of voices demanded from outside his sanctuary.

"Yes, yes, I am coming, hold your horses!" The elderly slip said, reaching for his walking stick and sweeping his long, knee-high beard aside to keep it from catching.

Limping with effort, he moved toward the flimsy door of his wooden shack. It was time to face his demons. It was time to end this once and for all!

With trembling hands he clasped the handle and opened the door. What greeted him send shivers over his stick-man body, making his long gray beard bristle with anger.

The once orderly and fertile garden was now gone. In its place stretched a layer of fine gray sand, completely stripped of life, not unlike the desolation of the neutral zone or Earth.

Well biological life that was…

Instead of cabbages, carrots or radishes, he was greeted by the malicious snarling of their mutated nanoid counterparts. The original visage of his precious crops was copied, then twisted and corrupted by the nanoid intelligence.

There was no discernible logic to its design, if it could even be called one. The mass of gray metallic vines, razor-sharp leaves, and far too many mouths and eyes stirred the moment they saw the elderly slip. They shook with fury, eager to devour his code and replicate, expand and grow, endlessly and forever.

And among the evil clones of his vegetables, stood the unmoving ever watchful forms of the chubby green toads, staring at Slippy with their piercing red eyes, beckoning him to meet their gazes.

Slippy resisted the compulsion. He didn’t exactly know what would happen if he surrendered to the desire, but whatever it was, it most certainly wouldn’t be good.

"Well, come on, whatcha waiting for, come at me!"

"You damn beasts, that’s why you are here after all isn’t it!?"

As one the nanoid constructs moved, sluggishly lumbering their mutated bodies towards the slope leading to his shack.

Slippy groaned with the effort of sitting on his favorite rocking chair.

Once he positioned himself, he calmly watched as the swarm of abominations crawled ever closer. Once the beasts were in position, Slippy’s stick-man face grinned with a cunning smile.

"Now I got you." He said, as he fished out the detonator from his rag like clothes and pressed the big red button.

And pressed it again…

And again…

Click click click click.

"Rrribit." A single toad hopped atop his porch, spitting a bundle of wires at the panicked AI’s feet.

"Oh…." Slippy muttered, staring at the bundle of wires which was supposed to activate his doomsday trap.

"Ribbit…" The toad replied smugly, then leaped for his head.

___

Vooosh!

The blinding white void stretched infinitely in every direction. Then, in a blur, rows upon rows of weapon racks materialized, snapping into place with mechanical precision until the emptiness became an arsenal.

The racks held weapons varying from simple muskets to modern plasma rifles and ending with more exotic stuff like portal and gravity guns.

The party stood still, dwarfed by the vast armory stretching into infinity and its promise of destruction.

“Herman, this is madness. No one has ever done anything like this.” Staple said.

“That’s why it’s going to work.” The old man said, grabbing a grav pistol and bringing it to life with a practiced motion.

___

"Stay back! Back I said! Vile beasts!" The stick-man figure of Slippy shouted at the enemy, trying to climb atop the roof of his shack.

"Hyagh!" Grasping his wooden walking stick he slammed it at the leaping frog, the collision propelling the chubby critter away.

"Buahah, know the power of the one and only Slippy! Nanoid slayer, destroyer of toads. Gah!" The mighty toad destroyer cried out as a metallic tentacle wrapped itself around his leg and toppled him down.

"Get off me, off!" He shouted, doing his best to whack the silver appendage. But it was no use, despite his struggles, he continued to be dragged away. Upon reaching the edge he saw a huge sunflower monstrosity akin to a corrupted version of Heartsun.

The beast seemed to have copied allot of the sunflower chieftain’s anatomy. However as is usual with nanoids, they just couldn't settle on a single design. So they added multiple mouths, eyes, teeth and everything else they could conjure up, resulting in the current Cronenberg abomination trying to eat the elderly slip.

Slippy trashed with all his might, his stick-man hands clawing at the roof shingles, trying to get a good hold, but the strength of the beast could not be denied… It lifted the stick-man avatar in the air above its main mouth, ready to gobble the AI and devour its tasty code.

…

POW!

A booming gunshot echoed throughout the small soul space.

"SCREEEEE!"

The monstrosity screeched in agony as more and more strikes hit its mutated body. It threw Slippy back on the roof and proceeded to fall down and convulse in agony.

BRRRRRTTT!

A torrent of machine gun fire rained from the sky and hammered the beast in its center mass. It finally collapsed, the gigantic form dropping lifeless to the ground as gray goo scattered across the nearby creatures and was swiftly re-absorbed.

New data and power surged through them, forcing fresh appendages, eyes, and every other fragment drawn from the fallen beast to erupt across their bodies. Countless nanoid abominations screeched in fury, waving their forest of mechanical tentacles at the airborne attacker and unleashing a barrage of nanoid infused thorns.

The hovercopter expertly maneuvered around the projectiles, all the while shooting a barrage of its own.

Heartsun stood at the helicopter’s open door behind a heavy duty machine gun, the plant chieftain’s customized goggles rattling in the turbulent air as he unleashed a relentless stream of fire into the nanoid hordes below.

At the same time Staple was perched above him, wielding a plasma sniper rifle and methodically blasting the vulnerable points of the more troublesome enemies.

Right next to them stood Polya, who did her best to defend the ship and intercept the projectiles aimed at it wit her magic.

"We are coming Slippy! Hold on!" The voice of Herman boomed from the craft’s speakers.

The hovercopter twisted through the air, lining up its approach before unleashing the full power of its two main guns on the enemy as it streaked past.

In an instant a huge line in front the ship exploded in a plasma inferno, the abominations below screeching in pain as they devolved into pixels.

"I knew you would come back! I knew you haven’t forgotten me!" Slippy shouted from atop the roof, inky tears in his eyes.

___

"Take the controls!" Herman said.

"B..but I can't pilot this thing." Polya protested as Herman pushed her to the driver’s seat.

“It’s easy, just hold this thing steady, watch this dial, and if this thingy here blinks orange then twist this and rotate all the way up.” The old man rattled off the instructions in a hurry before stepping out of the cockpit.

"But but what kind of explanation is that?! How am I supposed to make heads or tails of this Christmas tree of lights and buttons!? Don’t you just leave me he... Aaah!”

The hover-copter swiveled to the side as Polya jerked the control stick, avoiding a massive metallic tentacle reaching for the craft.

"That’s right, you are doing good, just hold her steady while I jump." Herman said.

"Why the hell am I driving this, I have no idea what I am dooooiiiiing!!!" The hyperventilating necromancer shrieked as she executed a flawless vortex spiral turn.

"Twist, rotate and pull, then shift counterclockwise." Polya muttered as she perfectly executed the commands, once again avoiding another tentacle as she did a 360 degree rotation while spinning to the side.

"HOW AM I DOING THISSSS!?!?"

Is what Herman heard last after he jumped from the hover-copter opened door.

…

Slippy’s stick-man avatar lied atop the roof of his shack. His leg was engulfed in silver veins, The corruption rapidly spreading and making the slip unable to move. All the while he was smacking the creeping toads around him with his walk stick.

That is when Herman landed on the roof, right next to his AI friend. The human wasted no time and began to kick the creepy amphibians off his friend. The digital slip had curled into a ball, desperately clutching something at his chest, trying to protect it from the nanoid invaders.

"Get off him! I said GET, OFF!"

"Slippy, I am here Slippy, hold on."

The old man shouted as he fired up his grav pistol, snatching the toads off the roof and hurling them through the air into their unsuspecting comrades, scattering the swarm away.

"Herman, my old friend…"

The elderly tortured face of Slippy said, his digital avatar resembling a poorly drawn stick-man figure, his body composed of sharp lines and swirly squiggles.

The dirty old beard the slip had, startled the human. He knew that time passed differently for AI’s, but he never even suspected it had been that long!

"I..it’s too late for me Herman…."

Cough cough…

"S..Save yourself…."

With those final words, the mortally wounded Slip’s eyes dimmed, and his body slowly disintegrated into pixels.