I walk over looking inside the cave seeing a massive robotic mech suit in pieces laying around the room and it's main chassis frozen into the wall. "What are you?"
His voice distorts every once in a while as he speaks. "Im the f-father of all the Exel. The synthetic beings that call this world home. Or... called this world home."
I walk into the room sitting against the wall. "What happened?"
He looks over at me. "You wish to know my story human? Are you not busy to get to safety?"
I start a fire in front of me and start cooking the bear meat. "I barely have the energy to walk, I don't know what's beyond that gate and don't wanna go through until I can think clearly. Since I entertained you with my fight you can entertain me with your story."
He chuckles. "Very well human, This was a thriving system with many worlds coexisting. We Exel choose this world to call home and built a grand empire. One day the Emporer of Envy appeared and wiped out every major planet leaving the system in shambles. His ruthless ways and unrivaled power were terrifying. Our kind has a hard time experiencing emotions but we now know what fear, pain, hatred, and the need for revenge is."
He looks at me. "You have the aura of an Emporer are you perhaps one also?"
I look down slightly. "Im not sure what I am, I'm just doing my best to survive right now. This Emporer guy sounds like a dick. If I ever get the chance ill put a bullet in him for you."
His voice perks up. "That would be much appreciated, If you'd like we could form a contract and I could repair your lost arm."
I look over at him. "You can do that?"
He nods. "The human body is like a machine but with more delicate parts, if you tell the brain to repair the body using your natural regenerative abilities it will do so."
He looks at his arm across the room. "Under the gauntlet is an injector for the contract probe."
I walk over pulling out a large needle connected to some blue fluid in a tube. "What do I do now?"
He looks at me. "You put that into your wound."
I sigh. "I knew that was gonna happen."
I stab it into my arm biting my collar as power surges through my body. I hear his voice in my head now. "Restoration process activated, you will want to rest for the time being and eat that meat for energy it will decrease the restoration time."
I take a nap after eating and wake up with my arm back. "Woah it's really back... This is crazy. Thanks."
I lean back against the wall. "So how did you end up in this ice? Where are your people?"
He appears in front of me as a hologram. "My people are being used by those damn scavengers, they came to our world after the collapse and got to the mainframe. They reworked it and kicked me out so I have no control or access. All my people are being used as slaves in their own bodies being sent out across the frigid world to gather scraps of what's left. They die from the conditions and if they don't bring back enough scraps they're executed or dismantled."
I look at him. "That's horrible... Is there anything we can do the save them?"
He turns quickly. "You're willing to save my people?"
I hold my arm up slightly. "I wouldn't have an arm right now if it wasn't for you, if we can work together to save this planet then I'm down. I don't like seeing people being treated like shit and I couldn't just leave knowing your people are doomed to walk this frozen rock forever."
He bows slightly. "I thank you on behalf of all my people."
I stand up. "No need to thank me just yet let's focus on getting a plan and seeing what we do have."
I clear out the other room with the pond in it collecting the mana water and the crystals all around the cave. I make it more homey using earth magic to smooth out certain areas. I drag his parts into this room and take my time chipping him out of the wall. Once I do I get his body into the other room.
I look at him. "Okay, we have your head, torso, left arm, and both legs. Granted they're all badly damaged but at least we have them."
He points at his chest. "Can you remove the case from my chassis."
I look for it pulling out a black beat-up case with Railjack on the front. I set it down dusting the ice off and opening it to find a gun with 18 rounds with a full mag. "Railjack is that your name?"
He looks at me. "My identification is 4206969-"
I sigh. "Your name is Railjack from now on."
His eyes glow. "Identification change accepted. I am known as Railjack."
I look at the bullets. "What are these?"
He walks over. "They are bullets that can transfer me into any system or circuit. In battle, if my body was too badly damaged I could send my consciousness into another unit and keep fighting. This also works for you my contractor. I can send your consciousness into the unit of an Exel."
He motions to his body. "Before we do that we will need to repair my systems that control that."
I look around. "How are we gonna do that?"
He points outside the cave leading up to the surface. "The scavenger groups of Exel come by this area all the time since this is where the great city was before the Emporer sent it into the center of the planet. If you can kill a few of them we can use their parts to form a new body for me."
I look at him. "Are you sure that's okay? Killing your own people like that?"
He nods. "It's more of a release than a killing, being trapped in your body while someone else controls it is a fate worse than death."
I nod slightly. "I can understand that, what do I need to do."
I go outside with a plasma bow I've been hunting the stupid bears for food for the last few weeks and we have finally got progress. A month passes and it's the day of our plan. I killed 12 Exel to form a new body for Railjack. We go outside and I get in his cockpit as he becomes a ball riding through the snow heading for the main compound where the mainframe is being held.
We wait outside with Titan in my lap in his puppy form. "Watch over my body while I'm gone okay?"
He nods happily wagging his tail his voice is small and cute. "Yes, master!"
I aim down the sight of the sniper rifle as the light flashes for the Exel to be let back in and the new batch to be released. They're pulling large batches of junk and items. I shoot one in the back gasping as my vision and sense are linked with theirs. I keep myself standing and toss the junk onto the conveyor.
I check my mini-map and make my way down the hall with all the other Exel. They just wait in large cages until they're sent back out. I slip down the hall going for the elevator to the next floor. The door opens and elite Exel aims their weapons at me I shoot one with the special bullet and they slaughter the Exel I was in.
The scavengers rush in wondering what the hell happens, they brush it off as a glitch and I follow them to the mainframe room. "This is the big daddy we've been working on. We won't need this trash after we power up the spider queen."
A large mechanical Exel spider. "What is this Railjack."
He speaks in my ear. "It's a project we Exel were working on, the spider was going to create a bridge from here to our moon colonies."
Why a spider though? It's creepy as hell. "Ill take that over and wipe out the room while you hack the systems."
He agrees and I walk over moving the opening of the hatch exposing the core shooting him into the mainframe. All the weapons turn on me and I get shot a few times before I shoot the spider taking over it. Weapons come from all areas of my body as I mow down the entire room leaving nothing standing. My body drops and I gasp opening my eyes inside the cockpit. "Are we in?"
Railjack appears as a massive hologram standing over the compound. "We are in young master, the scavengers are humans what would you like to do with them?"
I look up slightly. "They willingly kept your people under slavery all this time for their own benefit when they could have freed you. Execute them, they would not give you the same courtesy."
He nods and the weapons systems in every camp on the planet can be heard going off for a few moments before total silence. He rolls us into the compound and I step out on a large platform above all the now awoken Exel.
They stare up at me. "Please I would like you to address them, young master."
I step forward scratching my head slightly. "Im not really sure what to say, I know you've all been through hell and that this is just the start of your journey to rebuild your world and solar system back to its former glory. I just hope that you don't hold resentment against all humans, I know it can be easy to do so but I will do all I can to make sure your lives are as great as possible. Where you don't live in fear of being dismantled or destroyed for not doing something you're told. I just ask you do your best and I will do mine, we will mess up and fail along the way but when we do we will get back up and try again."
I smile. "I look forward to working with all of you."
They cheer loudly and I look back slightly at Railjack he pats my shoulder. "Thank you, young master."
He looks up slightly. "Young master we are getting a distress signal on a loop from a human fleet in our region. what should we do?"
I look up at the stars. "We help them of course, I'm sure it's hard up there when you're low on food and supplies. Is this planet even livable for them though?"
He claps his hands. "We will have it up and going within a week."
I look down as they all move swiftly like a well-oiled machine. "Whoa, that's crazy."
He smiles. "Those scavengers were imbeciles they didn't even know how to use us at full capacity we were working on power saver mode."
This place is going to turn out great I can tell...
Gramps appears in front of us. "A natural-born leader like I said."
I laugh slightly. "I guess you have a point gramps."
He looks at Railjack. "I see you've gained a companion and one has gotten quite the upgrade."
I nod introducing him. He touches my shoulder. "You've done enough here time to head back."
I vanish with Railjack and Titan appearing in the throne room grabbing my head as I walk down the steps. "That was exhausting..."
Gramps comes over to me. "We have one last thing to do then you can relax."
I groan and he points at a black mirror in the center of the room. "what's that?"
He motions to it. "This is a void artifact, it's a gateway to our home. Every king had their own dimension that they controlled. You will be sent into your own to face off against your alternate selves the last one standing controls your consciousness and becomes king."
I scratch my cheek as he leads me over to the mirror. "I think you just said something really dangerous like it was normal."
He chuckles. "I don't know what you mean."
I reach out touching the mirror and everything goes black. "Where am I? Who am I?"