Project Terra

Planetfall

~Two weeks later...

Nova stood to attention, looking at the planet hologram in front of her. She never imagined that she'd be planetbound. Kiri walked into the command center, with ZN-3 standing next to her. They looked less freaky when their robotics were covered under a civilian uniform.

"This thing said to go where, Engineer?" an officer demanded of Kiri.

"With all due respect, sir, they're a person, not a thing. Where did you say it was, Zane?" Kiri said. ZN-3 pointed to a small bay on the coastline of one of this planet's continents. The hologram re-rendered, and zoomed in on where they had pointed. It was a ruined city with a tall black spire standing amidst the debris.

"You two, get your striker and investigate that tower," the officer commanded Kiri and Nova. They saluted and went to the Striker Hangar.

"What do you think a planet is like?" Nova asked Kiri as their striker left home for the blue orb beneath them.

"Hot, I'd imagine, since there's nothing keeping the radiation out," Kiri answered. They descended into the atmosphere, and the striker got very warm. Orange flames licked the exterior as Nova and Kiri felt like they were getting slowly cooked alive. After what felt like eternity in a violently shaking sauna, the striker began to cool as their flight path stabilized. Kiri let out an audible gasp. Nova turned around to see what the deal was.

From the cockpit, the world was divided half and half between the land and sea. Ahead of them stood the ruins of some ancient city, a black spire standing above the concrete jungle. Beyond the city stood a suspension bridge that was still standing, the scarlet paint having rusted over.

"What's the plan for a safe landing?" Nova asked as the ground inched closer.

"There isn't one... we're going to hit one of these old buildings and hope we don't die upon impact"

"That's the plan?"

"You got a better one?" Kiri retorted as she secured her buckle. Nova turned around and did the same as they braced for impact.

The striker shot clean through one building and buried itself in the lower floor of another. The airtight seal had broken, but the outside air was breathable. Kiri and Nova worked together to dislodge themselves from the rubble.

It didn't take a professional to determine that the striker had virtually no chance of flying again. The rear half was buried in debris, and the electronics were barely operational. Nova found the building it was buried in more interesting, however. It was a hollow stone building, with some large metal machines that had rusted over. The floors above and below were the same, and she deduced the whole building was some kind of storage. The two walked down and outside of the strange building and into the city ruins.

The taller buildings had all collapsed, covering the streets in rubble. The only tall structures remaining were the red bridge and the ominous black tower, which seemed to stretch towards infinity from the ground. This planet's moon hung in the sky, watching over the planet below. The Final Saviour was visible, though little more than a black dot against its bright backdrop.

The spire had been built in conjunction with the city, despite sticking out like a sore thumb. Kiri and Nova went inside, and found it abandoned. The only noise was the ambient humming of the overhead lights as the two stepped into what appeared to be a lobby of sorts. After about probably an hour of searching for anything of note, with nothing coming up, Nova found a hallway.

It stuck out from the rest of the building because one side was a huge window, letting in large amounts of sunlight. On the other side of the hall was a series of doors, each labeled with a letter.

"Hey Kiri, come look at this!" she called. Nova looked through the window of the door closest to her, labeled "J". behind the door was a mangled robot, long since rendered inoperable. Kiri came up to her and they looked through the rest of the doors, which held similar fates behind them. When they came up to the door labeled "A", it was blocked off. Kiri began to uncover some of the debris. Nova looked out the window, and her eyes widened in terror.

"Kiri, might wanna see this!" Nova urged her, scared.

The moon wasn't a moon. It was a spaceship, orders of magnitude more powerful than the artillery platform from a few weeks ago. The steel titan that Nova had known as home for her entire life was crashing and burning in front of her eyes. Beside her, Kiri also watched the battle in the heavens unfold, horror in her eyes.

"So, this is it. Not like there's anything we can do to stop an entire fucking moon" Nova began to ramble, pessimistically.

"Nova, get us through that door," Kiri asked, while pointing to the blocked off "A" door.

"But wh-"
"Just do it," Kiri ordered in an uncharacteristically dead tone. Nova nodded and did so. Behind the "A" door was different from the rest. The entire room was covered floor to ceiling in red and black electronics, in the same aesthetic as most of ZN-3's body. A timer on a wall was counting up, a button next to it. At the center of the room was a glowing red cube, sitting atop a pedestal.

"What is this place?" Nova pondered.

"Dead" Kiri replied as she hit the button, which was labeled "universal reset,"

The lights and electronics around the room died, the only source of light in the room being the glowing cube. A smile began to form on Kiri's face as she realized what she did.

"What... just happened?"

"I think I... reset Cortexa to this cube!"

"Holy shit!"

The two began to celebrate when the ground shook. Kiri ran out of the dark room and looked out the window. The Final Saviour had made a crash landing next to the bridge, and was intact, albeit heavily damaged.

"Let's get out of here and rendez-vous, Kiri" Nova said in the most professional voice she could muster in this situation. The two were stopped in the spire's lobby by a security robot, barely functional, but its eyes glowed red nonetheless.

"Fools... you cannot stop... a god!" it said in a dead monotone voice, charging its gun. Nova took her own gun and shot the security droid in the brain and then shot the hinges off the door, barging their way out.

Kiri and Nova began their journey in the direction of the Final Saviour. The moon hung in the sky, weapons visible and all, dormant. A glittering fractal shone around the sky as a shield rose around the city. before feeling another rumble, milder than before. The two stopped dead in their path.

Two tracked metal vehicles the size of a striker drove effortlessly over and through the debris. Atop each warform was a set of dual plasma cannons on a rotating turret. They aimed at the two humans, backing them into a corner.

"Now this is a way to die!" Nova exclaimed.

"I got nothing, so... Nova, it was an honor to serve alongside you," Kiri said, holding her hand over her heart as the warforms charged their plasma guns. A faint whir filled the air, and the vehicles were turned to scrap in a fiery explosion. Not wasting their opportunity, the two rushed towards their home.