The metallic wind carried echoes of silence across the dunes of Tetramirgarannie. In this dead world, scarred by rusted wrecks and the skeletons of ancient giants, Dominic stood. Tall and lean, with a scruffy beard and a worn mechanic's jacket, he looked every bit the scavenger. His tool belt jingled softly with every step, a testament to years of salvaging expertise.
In his right hand, he held an electromagnetic field scanner, its screen flickering with faint signals. His other hand rested on the handle of a makeshift energy rifle slung across his back. Despite the desolation around him, Dominic moved with purpose, his eyes scanning the horizon of twisted metal and jagged hills.
The landscape stretched endlessly, a graveyard of mechs and forgotten wars. Towers of rusted parts loomed like grotesque monuments, while beneath his boots, the ground was littered with shards of shattered alloys and blackened circuitry. The smell of oxidized steel and scorched earth was ever-present, a reminder of the planet's violent history.
Dominic knelt by a half-buried mech torso, its once-pristine plating now pitted and scarred. He wiped grime from the mech's insignia—a faint, faded emblem of the United Human Union.
"Another casualty of bureaucracy," he muttered to himself, his voice rough from the dry air.
His scanner beeped, drawing his attention. A faint energy reading pulsed nearby, somewhere beneath the wreckage. Dominic's pulse quickened as he set the scanner aside and pulled out a small plasma torch.
"Let's see what you're hiding," he whispered.
With precise movements, he began cutting through the corroded plating. Sparks flew, illuminating the hollow sockets of the mech's shattered visor, giving it the eerie semblance of a watching corpse. After a few minutes of work, the plating fell away with a heavy thud, revealing a compartment containing a faintly glowing crystal.
"Adamantium core," Dominic murmured, his lips curling into a rare smile. It was a small fortune—enough to keep him supplied for months. But he didn't pocket it. Not yet.
Carefully, he examined the surrounding components. The core was still connected to a neural AI unit, one of the old models. If it was intact, it could be worth even more than the crystal. He gently extracted the unit, brushing away years of accumulated dust and debris.
"Still operational?" He squinted at the interface, pulling out a handheld terminal and connecting it to the AI. A flicker of light confirmed his suspicions.
"Boot sequence initiated," a mechanical voice said.
Dominic's heart sank. This was always the risk with old tech. Some of them didn't like being disturbed.
From the shadows of the nearby wreckage, a low hum began to grow. It wasn't the wind. Something else was moving.
Dominic instinctively grabbed his rifle, scanning the darkness around him. The hum grew louder, more mechanical, and a figure began to emerge—a sentinel mech, battered but still functional, its optics glowing menacingly in the twilight.
"Of course," Dominic muttered, raising his rifle. "Nothing is ever easy on this damn planet."