It was about 7 years ago when t.d.m's first wrought havoc across the plains.

The earth was once again engulfed in a thick heavy mist-like fear, a fear so real and toxic that few ever dare to venture in it and very few ever return alive.

Yes the reenforced domes protected us, but it didn't change the fact that the t.d.ms grew stronger every day. Their destructive power multiplying tenfold every time they made an appearance. Always in pairs and always at each others figurative throats.

Each time hosting long battles and fighting each other until one fell.

No one knew why they fought or how they came to be, but the destruction left in their wake was becoming more and more apparent as the scarred lands seemed to cry out in protest, releasing more toxic gasses.

Gasses which eroded the environment and everything in it. Polluting the wind, changing the sea, permanently darkening the clouds and ultimately blocking the sun. Leaving only a waste land so toxic that life itself is a near impossible feat.

Even though we researched their tech and modeled our (dogs) in its likeness, we could never match and t.d.m's power output.

The machines called t.d.ms, in this land their whims were supreme and destruction always followed these giant animalistic machines.

So failing to do something about it ourselves, we are left to only wonder, what will happen to us? Will we survive long enough for them to destroy themselves?

Will the earth give in?

Or

Will someone save us?

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Copyright product of Amitabha_vardha © 2022 | All rights reserved.

Start.

The large structures leaned strongly, toppled like dominos supporting each other in mutual destruction, wreckage and carnage. Remnants of an age so advanced that technology seemed to have been even engrained in life itself. Was this was probably a door which shouldn't have been opened by mankind? Whatever your beliefs the result spoke for itself, the toxic winds here marred and martyred for only death was here in this wasteland.

Beyond this, the last dome stood.

This.

This was the last one.

This was a the last bastion of humanity.

If this dome falls, then humanity is no more.

********************

Life in the dome is simple enough that, 25 year old Josh Stormwill is having a hard time settling in even as he struggles to push his daily rations to the maximum his debt balance can afford.

The card prompts the machine to beep loudly with an accompanying simple red light as he swipes it over the reader adjacent to the large machine responsible for dispensing rather disgusting tasting square protein blocks.

These were food, the only type remaining since the destruction of the other domes. Josh had passed his maximum of two per each given work day.

See, his matted hair and soot covered skin meant that he worked in one of the three large energy generators  which powered the city and he was neither allowed to be late or absent for fear of missing points on his debt card. But with his luck only a day had passed since he'd been transferred to this new area and he'd managed to lose his rations to skimmers.

Skimmers horde debt points gained through shady means in order to loan rations to those in need.

Generous right?

No.

Any sane person knows to avoid these kind of despicable people like the plague since their generosity is often fueled by deceit and greed.

Their interest rate being 2.5 blocks per-day passed makes it impossible for lower level folks to even be able to pay off their secondary debt.

However  these transactions are highly illegal and punishable by expulsion and with the toxic mist outside the protection of the dome, nothing survives. Not plants, nor insects, even animals, nothing.

Sadly the paramilitary soldiers are almost all constantly tasked with scouting in order to warn the dome ahead of time should a t.d.m appear.

Since they are so dangerous, domes are rarely able to get shields up in time and even

Sub-torque dampeners (sd's) or defensive pilot operated golems (dogs) which are machines developed from the tech-remains of the fallen when ever the t.d.ms fought, are rarely able to do much other than buy time for civilians to escape to the next dome.

Consequently because of this, the few soldiers that remain at any given time are very few and far between with other more important tasks to complete.

This gives a near complete free-reign to skimmers and their shady deals.

"Damnit!" Josh stated as he shook the machine in an attempt to get it to drop a loose bar into the small opening that severed as the dispenser. However no such luck fell his way.

Saddened and extremely hungry josh concocts a way to get his points back from the very dangerous skimmers.

Despite appearances Josh's IQ was fairly high and with a calm head on his shoulders he stumbles toward another hell.

******************

The testing valley.

Josh finds himself in one of the rare testing facilities, a glorified scrap heap of unholy and alien technology. Almost all pieces of fallen T.D.Ms.

The sign above the bustling open area read; Torque Devastation Machine demolishing area.

But Josh knew it by a different name, one more fitting to its current purpose.

T.D.Ms testing valley.

Of course it wasn't really a testing area for t.d.ms but more more of something closer to a d.o.g testing facility since pieces of the fallen t.d.ms are almost always brought and dumped here for the more intelligent of the dome to dismantle and repurpose.

Yes as dangerous as it is messing with unknown devices seemingly eons above anything mankind can currently develop, many still aspire to be in this field of work.

No it's not as glamorous a wearing a lab coat all day but more like of finding new ways to tear into the tech without it exploding or imploding.

But as tiring and gruesome as it is the dome's ruling family made it crystal clear that diggers and retrievers were to be paid in full for the month seeing that they could die at anytime, they could at least have the comfort that should anything happen their family would be taken care of.

Well at least for the remainder of that month.

Nevertheless he proceeded into the small open room and out the back where mountains of sophisticated but trashed giant limbs rested in various stages of disrepair and disassembly.

Josh however had no intention of being a digger.

He instead wanted to make a gamble. He'd previously spent his free time and extra point buying study notes. With the intension of one day being able to pilot a d.o.g.

This was dangerous for many reasons.

Untested d.o.gs often malfunctioned leaving test pilots in less than alive conditions.

Radioactive leakage, uncalibrated servos that turned in on themselves causing the mech to crash or worse tear itself apart or even the most painful and feared, torque overextending.

See t.d.ms operate mainly on the mysterious energy that many researchers opted to call torque given its nature to want to twist anything it comes into contact with into a twine.

This was less than convenient for pilots because this meant that they would be suffering a fate worse than immediate death.

Being slowly twisted apart.

Bones, muscles and organs until nothing but a bit a broken lifeless body remained.

For many test pilots, this was an unavoidable job forced unto them by circumstance.

For Josh however, this was a moment where he could be free. The moment he waited for, prepared for, longed for. Even if only for a little while.

He slowly made his way to the last pile where he awaited his friend.

As strange as it was Josh's only friend, just so happened to be a 'mechanic' who spent most of her time covered in hydraulic and neurotic fieldron mutagen.

The weird type of goo whilst being relatively harmless always carried a heavy odor.

So it was fairly common to hold your nose while she was in the vicinity.

Avery Livens-ton knew this but honestly didn't care about it. She unlike the majority here loved her work, even when a detonite ampule had accidentally went off while she opened it leaving with a rather large scar on her forearm.

She was back at it like nothing had happened the moment she could.

But despite her habit of getting lost in her work, she cleaned up nicely and didn't even try to hide the fact that she had a thing for Josh.

Her short hair blond hair, light brown eyes and nose piercing made her vibrant and always energetic self something you'd always want to watch out for.

She would even chase after him in an attempt to hug him. A hug he would only ever accept had she showered thoroughly first.

But every now and then she'd blow kisses his way being so very feminine but only whilst she wasn't working.

Making everyone know her exact feelings towards him.

Josh on the other hand rarely gave rise to her lewd remarks or even her many confessions.

This time though she wasn't at her usual place but the high odor lingered in the air. Josh walked around a bit before taking up a circular seemingly gold plated object with a rather impressive stone on it off to one end.

It was pretty but what was its purpose?

Slowly he sat at her her usual perch while waiting return. Thumbing at the weird object.

Anyway, he had a plan.

He had the perfect plan.

Make her lend him one of her non-combatant d.o.gs so he could retrieve one of the t.d.ms core module and use it to power the dome's shield with torque energy. 

The core module being the only known material able to withstand the twisting force torque energy provided but as useful as this energy possibly was in all its infinite potential.

Getting one back to the dome was near suicide.

Many have tried before.

All failed.

But with Avery's know how and almost endless supply of notes. Her almost endless knowledge about t.d.ms parts, he knew that he could do it. It's just that before this he didn't think that he was ready.

Now, even though this was his only choice he welcomed it with open arms.

Not willing to shy away from this anymore.

At that point he'd have to get some reward from the ruling family.

He could practically taste the points and the rations they could provide.

Not to mention he'd finally be able to rid himself of the skimmers who practically wanted him to be their working slave.

"Josh?" A familiar voice pulled him from his thoughts. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

He turned and saw something that surprised him.

Avery had an air about her that he almost never had the honor of experiencing.

Was that scented shampoo?

She must have spent a fortune of points to get it. Just who was she trying to impress?

"Uh, yeah." Josh offered before, "I thought you always worked till late?"

"Needed some time off." She replied before noticing the item in his hand. "Oh that's mine."

Joshed handed the strange item to her, "what is it?"

"It's a ring." she started before catching herself and going quiet. She always had visual tells when she was in thought and now she seemed to be weighing something.

Probably wondering weather to tell Josh something important.

"It was found in one of the t.d.ms and Charles thought that, it reminded him of me."

She laughed shyly.

She placed the ring on her finger holding it up so that it caught the rays of the artificial sunlight. Before lowering her hand and taking it off again and giving it back to Josh.

"I, I'm moving away Josh, 14 miles, away all the way to the other side of the dome." She flashed him a sad smile.

She had obviously intended to leave without telling him.

But she was his best friend, so why wouldn't she?

"Charles Ilagra," the dome's, number one 'dog' pilot." I mused. "When did you meet him? I would've love to..." her expression told me to stop.

"He's offering me my own lab, you know." She placed her duffel bag on a table off to the right. Approaching him and embracing him in a hug."

"What are you doing?" Josh asked "it's not like we won't see each other again."

She sighed audibly before letting go and clasping his hand in hers.

"It's in the upper district."

Josh knew what this meant. She was going past a barrier that given his current social status, he would never be able to by-pass.

"Oh, i see."

She placed a hand in his cheek.

"You know you'll always have a place in my heart right?" She whispered.

"Yeah, we're best friends."

She bit at her lip casting an expression at him that she rarely wore. Quickly taking her hand away.

Frustration, sadness?

"You're right!" She exclaimed finally smiling.

"So, what's your excuse?"

Josh explained his plan and how he planned to venture out in one of the untested dogs.

"Are you sure?" She asked "it's really dangerous and you'll only have 13 hours of oxygen!"

He nodded.

He's mostly familiarized himself with the controls and knew them as naturally as talking.

Not to mention previously also piloted many newly developed dogs under Avery's strict supervision.

So the weight of the controls rarely affected him. At this point he was a natural.

"But, I don't have access to.... since I already quit." Avery recalled before "I know what we can do! Come on!"

She had dragged him all the way past the point where unauthorized personnel were allowed and then even further.

To a warehouse that stood seemingly abandoned behind the mountains of  robotic parts.

Then down a really long elevator shaft. With a very outdated and probably unsafe elevator.

But at the bottom user a large tarp  laid the most beautiful dog I'd ever seen.

"This, is an untested model?" I asked.

She responded by first shaking her head. "This is MY untested custom made model."

"It's kinks were ironed out thanks to your feedback, so I hope you're ready for the ride of your life!"

A hour later.

Josh moved out of the air chamber and out into the vast open world.

"So? How does it feel?" Avery asked over the comms. The dog's cockpit had little space save for the large internal display that projected a complete view of the outside via the many sensory equipments available.

However the build wasn't very combat ready and only had retrieval equipment equipped.

"It's terrible!" Josh noted with a smile.

One Avery noticed over the onboard pilot monitor.

This was an inside joke that Avery always laughter at. This time however she was in work mode.

"Focus Josh, one wrong misstep and that dog will-"

"-I know Avery. Pits are dangerous and the magnetic field could cause the radium reactors to prematurely discharge."  Josh mused "I've read your notes and they're quite in depth."

Suddenly a searing question pulled my thoughts from the secondary auxiliary manual control as I fumbled to quickly pull the object from from my pocket.

"Avery?"

"Yeah?"

"Where did you say you got that ring from again?"

"The ring? Charles found it close to Cheshire's hold."

-Torque wave incoming- the computer warned furiously.

-Evacuate the blast perimeter!-

-manual action required!-

"Oh shit!" Josh let the ring fall as he switched on manual control doling a sharp 90 degree angle before getting the large robot to head in the opposing direction of the supposed toque wave.

He was heading away from the dome's signal tether which meant that he'd lose comms in… static filled the short range bandwidth radio.

"Josh! ..osh! C..me ..n?" The radio cut and went dead with and eerie silence.

Then without warning the dog's control shifted back to automatic and a voice came over the radio while also filling every inch of the cockpit's three inner displays.

It was a woman with long flowing black hair a fierce gaze and an enchanting allure.

Almost as if she saw right through the display and directly into josh's eyes.

She, like josh, also wore a skin suit that had sensors which connected wirelessly to the cockpit. Hers however exposed way too much of her skin.

She understood this and Josh's blush.

"Human, is this God's vessel to your liking?" She flipped her hair letting it rest over her left shoulder. "Then surrender yourself to this God and I'll let you experience a night of true bliss."