forum The War That Stole It All | One on One | Closed

Started April 11, 2021 by @Mojack group

tune

War isn’t fun. It never is. The people that come in expecting to be heroes are often the first to come to the realization. You have the other people that have already realized it all.

The war between man and machine began about two orbit parties ago, in 2304. It is now 2036. There are no signs of it slowing down, nor a peace treaty. You know the machines are more than capable of understanding peace - but they do not want it. They want this Earth to be theirs, for humans to be theirs. They wish to be the superior species. And currently - the war is in their favour.
You fight in this war. Whether it’s willingly or not, you are one of the many fighters. Maybe you’ve been in this war since the beginning, maybe not.

It’s an average day on the western front - polluted, cold and dark. Things that may encompass your duties include patrolling, writing reports, cleaning and maintaining equipment, and more. Of course, there’s also fighting - but your portion of the Front has been quiet lately. Not much fighting going on, even though you know that over that barren wasteland, over that city in the distance - the machines are there, somewhere. Preparing.
But then there’s a sudden panic on the wall, and you see the gates open. The recent patrol has come back. No casualties. In fact, they bring back one more with them, but it’s debatable if they’re alive or not. You don’t catch much, but they’re a lot bigger than your average human, height wise and build. They’re also more metallic looking. Is that just armour…or did the patrol just bring in a machine?

Whatever the case is, you can’t help but feel curious as they carry the stretcher with the newcomer into the medcenter.

---

howdy, partner howdy, partner howdy, partner! Here’s a new RP. Apocalyptic themes, with a slight bit of biopunk (you’ll see where the ‘bio’ comes in eventually)
Whoever joins the RP will be one of the soldiers fighting in war - my character, is this mysterious humanoid brought into the base.

As usual, lore bits/clarifications:

• machines still live along humans, but there’s a fear surrounding them. Cities have established machine zones, where machines don’t leave, or else they’re to be ‘shut down’ (aka destroyed.)
• city machines, in effort to look more human use artificial technology which essentially gives them a more human look.
• the machines in the war see blending in to humans as submitting to them. most of these machines refuse to wear artificial technology, thus they look more mechanical.
• not all machines are humanoid. you won’t find a non-humanoid machine in a city, though (only rare cases, if they got smuggled in, or completely depowered). in fact, in the Machine Army (the human name of the opposing side in the war; machines have a different name for it) most machines make themselves look as non humanoid as possible.
• machines can speak human languages, but only do so on the occasion they communicate with humans. otherwise, they speak in their own language, a mixture of frequencies sometimes perceivable to humans, sometimes not. no translation exists.
• the war began as a small one for machines to be freed of humans, but the more mankind pushed back, the harder the flames of war burned, until it escalated into global conflict.
• for once, humans have put their differences aside and put their resources together.
• the machines have polluted the world, even more than the humans, consuming resources to make more of themselves and flood humans out of their living spaces. if you’re travelling in a polluted spot (e.g, deep in the wastelands; while the outer edges are safe the farther you go the more your lifespan could be shortened, or you could even just die right in the wasteland) protective gear such as masks is recommended.
• as machines do not need air to consume oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, this was a strategy on their part.
• cities are generally safe, using technology to keep the air breathable. larger, more established bases (like the one you’re in) is also safe.
• around a few months before the first machine uprising, there were also experiments on humans to create a stronger human. although the final result wasn’t achieved, offspring of these ‘Mod-humans’ still lives on today.
• M-humans live longer, age slower (they age at the same rate as normal humans up until they reach 20, then their physical age slows down), are generally stronger and have better stamina. they can live for up to 200 orbit parties. the only physical different between them and normal humans is the ring of gold around their pupils in their inner irises.
• technology puts emphasis on protection against machines. when radios aren’t available, older methods are put to use - the use of government spy drones and letters.
• the base you reside in has a massive wall protecting it. it goes down several groundhands in the ground as well, meaning anyone hoping to go under it would have to dig very deep. the only way through is the gates, operated by humans - or above.

---

RULES

1. Do not autohit, but don’t dodge everything either. Play to your strengths, but remember your weaknesses.
2. This will probably be a mature RP in terms of violence n human syrup. Though there’s a time and place for those two.
3. And as always, swear to your heart’s desire!
4. Ask questions as needed. I’ll be pleased to answer.
5. Response time may vary, from same day to several days later. Please keep that in mind!
6. Absolutely no one liners. I’ll swing you into the sun if you do one even though you’ve read this rule
7. Please try to have good grammar/punctuation!
8. Say the sexytimes somehow happen in this, it’ll probably be a fade to black sort of thing. Sorry. I’m not good at writing that stuff, nor am I extremely fond of reading it.
9. If you have any brain bubbles for this..let me know.
10. This list may change (most likely won’t, but I always mention this just in case).

If I do not recall your writing style I will ask for a sample

TEMPLATE (remove brackets.)

Name:
Age: (20-27)
Gender/pronouns:
Sexuality:
Species: (Are they modified or just a normal human? modified humans have gold rings around their pupils in the inner part of their irises, are generally stronger and don’t get as tired as normal humans. they also live longer and age slower; although they age at a normal human rate until they reach 20. they can live up to 200)

Appearance:
Clothing: (the average uniform of a soldier was mass produced, and fell apart at a faster rate even with good care. there aren’t many rules as to what you can wear; the higher ups stopped caring about uniforms long ago. as long as it’s not impacting your ability to move quickly and fight, you should be fine)
Background:
Personality:
Skills: (anything they’re good at, goes here)
Fears: (anything they fear)

Other: (anything else, fun facts, etc, goes here.)

(yep sure, I'm Charlotte, sorry if it's a bit long :)

---

She was fighting. She was fighting so hard. She was a second away from shattering and letting 9 orbit parties worth of pain come flooding out. That wouldn't be good for anyone. "Don't push me please." She wasn't sure who she was talking to. Herself? Her mind? Rick? Axel? Whoever it was had one hand out, ready to shove her off the edge of the cliff, and she wouldn't survive the fall.

[Rick was starting to realize that Charlotte's dam was set to collapse no matter what. He chose his next words very carefully. "I ain't pushing you anywhere, Charlotte. If you want…I'm here to lean on when other things push you too hard. That's all."]

"Don't." She was getting quieter and quieter, smaller and smaller as every single fragment of pain she'd ever tucked away met in her heart, filling every inch of her body. Maybe it was because she was tired. Maybe it was because the very real fear that they were going to die was bringing back the memories.
Whatever it was, pushed her, and she freefell. One tear, followed by another, and another. They fell and she wasn't moving or making any move to stop them. Gathering courage, a few more salty tears pushed their way past her wall, and before long her face was drenched.

[Rick was at a loss. He wanted to try and comfort her….but she'd already clearly told him to back off, twice. He knew he probably wasn't the best person to help her through this–he was essentially a stranger to her, after all. But on the other hand, it seemed like someone needed to be there for her right now….
Eventually he decided to remain silently where he was and let her process her grief in relative privacy. If she wanted his support or a listening ear, he'd supply it.]

No one came. No support. She hadn't known before then how much she needed people.
And that was what the final chink. She wasn't as strong as she'd always told herself she was. She let out a sound, a loudy shouty drowned and twisted by the crying, and she tried to stand. She couldn't. Her body was shaking too hard, too full of the hurt to do anything but cave in on itself, and she fell into a fragile ball of what she'd always told herself she'd never become.
The pain won the battle and bared its mouthstones to the last shred of pride she had left; the latter cowered away and pain beat her down, unleashing the rage and hurt and terror and hate and every emotion that now held this woman turned ankle-biter in the palm of its hand.)

Name: Ryhkor (pronunciation: Rye-Core). last name does not exist.
_{There appears to be a bit of corrupted data here. A full name did exist, at one point.}
Age: 24
Gender/pronouns: Agender, they/them. Fine with he/him pronouns.
Sexuality: Aseuxal biromantic.
Species: Unknown. Their first appearance makes them out to be some sort of human in a suit of armour…but that’s not the case, clearly. Ryhkor has most similarities pointing towards machine, but that also doesn’t seem to be the case - Ryhkor does things machines do not. What are they? A new breed..?

Appearance: Upon first glance, Ryh looks human enough, but the longer you look, the less human they become. Their general build is human, of course - but the most human portion of them is their torso and upper arms.
Their ‘skin’ looks to be metal, but touching it, it doesn’t feel like any metal you’ve ever seen. The feeling is hard to describe, smooth, and almost soft - but it can change states as well. Ryh appears to harden it to resemble armour during battle. Their general build is muscled, appearing close to a mesomorph.
Their arms are longer than a humans, and each hand end in four fingers and one thumb, also the same silver as the rest of their body. Their ‘nails’ are slightly transparent, tinted black, and extremely sharp.
Although not long, they have a small, skinny tail extending from their body, only about 2ft in length. They’re about 7’2” in height.
They do not share human facial features. What appears to be a large black visor sits on their face, but this isn’t the case. It’s instead a screen, that they can adjust to display different messages or expressions. They’re capable of manipulating the images to look as though a human rests behind the ‘mask’, which can fool some into thinking it’s actually a mask.
Their mouth was first mistaken for an unusual design of a mask - jagged edges, and visible when closed, the line of the mouth is long. But that wasn’t the case; it is capable of opening up to reveal the inside of the mouth, filled with sharp, even black mouthstones. The mouthstones are well taken care of. They also have a long, pointed black tongue. These features, when revealed, are perhaps the most visible physical feature that points to them being not a machine.
Their legs, unlike a humans, are digitigrade, and the groundhands are similar in appearance to some sort of saurian; only having two claws per each groundhand equipped with long claws.
Their head is also a lighter shade of silver, being almost white. Their body is not completely silver - the ends of their arms extending to their hands; and the ends of their legs extending to their groundhands gradually shifts to a black. Their tail is also black. Their neck is dark grey, not quite black.

Clothing: Despite not really needing clothing, they still wear it, as if it’s something they’re just used to. They do wear large black stompy weather clompers, that have some adjustments made (in order for them to be actually wearable) but prefer to go without them.
They wear a fluffy dark yellow jacket; yellow stripes on the arms, and usually pull up the hood. Sports a large black scarf that they also pull up to the bottom of the ‘visor’, often to hide the lower portion of their face. Has black pants. Also slung over on their shoulders is a large black bag.
Background: Ryhkor was human, at one point. However long that was remains unknown, but to say the least - it was long ago, when the world looked very different. Reborn into a semi-mechanical body, Ryh fled the place they woke up in almost immediately. They know their human background is somewhere, in their mind - but the data remains corrupted, hard to reach.
Ryh, thanks to their partial robotic nature, managed to avoid most machines, due to the fact most of them couldn’t tell what they were. They also kept their distance away from humans. They were well cognizant they were neither man nor machine, and assumed humans would react badly upon council gathering them. They were correct to think that - given the first direct encounter ended with them being shot.
Personality: In the short time they’ve been around in the modern world, they’ve learned quite fast. Ryh is quite observant, although only in certain situations. They’re not good under pressure and tends to break easily, often reacting badly if pushed to that point.
They’re ambitious, persistent, willing to go to great lengths to accomplish something. Despite being more suited to combat situation, Ryh prefers not to engage in combat, if only for the reason that it generally attracts attention, and being in the spotlight is something Ryh doesn’t want.
Subject to develop more as the RP goes on due to ‘human memory fragments’, but also because their personality likely will shift.
Skills: Ryh is excellent at running - and extremely agile to match. They’re better running on all fours however, for whatever reason. They can maintain a fast speed for long periods of time before getting tired (machines don’t really get tired like we do, so this points them towards being non-machine).
They’re also good at climbing, able to scale most materials with ease. In addition, they’re good at tracking in multiple environments.
They also are capable of close combat - physically, stronger than most humans, and even certain machines.
Fears: Death (in two ways, they fear how they’ll die, and what’ll happen to them after). They have a ‘strange’ fear of (literal) red flags, and a slight fear of sirens.

Other: Despite their nature being more mechanical, they move more fluidly (comparable to a human or any living creature), contrasting the ‘stiff’ way machines usually move (not exactly stiff, but you can usually tell that something is mechanical by the way it moves).
Despite their nonhuman form, Ryh is capable of speaking, and their voice sounds surprisingly human, without a trace of robotic in it. The voice is masculine, rough sounding, but they’re very good at vocal control. They also communicate through noises that you would expect of someone of their appearance - snarls, roars, and body language. Not to the same extent, but can communicate in frequencies (much like Machines can).

(sorry for the delay)

TEMPLATE
Name: Kohmir (Koe-meer) Abin
Age: 20
Gender/pronouns: Male, he/him
Sexuality: Aro/ace (I'm pretty sure you weren't intent on heart-squeezy tale so I went for this guy, let me know and I can change this)
Species: Modified human
Appearance: Kohmir looks quite young. He's about 5'8, muscular without being burly, with long defined limbs and slightly gangly mannerisms.
His skin is a deep olive tone. He has narrow sharp, slightly intimidating features, with small dark peepers that make the gold rims stand out and thin lips. His cheekbones are a bit hollow, his jaw defined. His head is shaved which sets off the gaunt-ish side of his face, but when his hair grows out it's thick and wavy.
Clothing: Kohmir's entire life has been aimed towards the military, and that clearly translates in his behaviour and clothing. He wears no colour, sticking to black, dark grey or greens. He wears light cotton t-shirts as a breathable fabric, and sticks to his favourite worn leather combat stompy weather clompers. Before the front went quiet, he maintained the uniform and wore the uniform trousers and vest every day; however, since the front hasn't seen battle in a while, he sticks to slacks and no vest.
Background: His parents were soldiers before him, both mod-humans. They were extremely dedicated soldiers, military first and foremost. Although his early childhood was spent in cities, as a mod-human as well his parents insisted on training him from a very young age. He didn't get much of a childhood or any sense of normalcy, being singled out by his family and therefore everyone around them for being a mod-human.
His parents returned to their posts when he was 14 (he doesn't know where they are exactly), taking away any sense of warmth he had, leaving him to a military school. The moment he turned 18 he enlisted and moved to the front. He was raised a soldier, and that's where his identity lies.
Personality: He comes across as sullen and private. He does his job and keeps to himself, motivated mainly by his competitive spirit. Widely known as a force to be reckoned with.
He tries very hard to be constantly alert and focused, but that combined with how hard he is on himself and the monotony of his life leads to him being mentally tired a lot of the time. As much as he can, though, he doesn't let it get in his way and pushes through.
He spends a lot of his time alone; he focuses on keeping himself fit and ready for anything. He is isolated, though, and without any relationships to provide him with validation he's sunk into insecurity and sometimes recklessness, needing anything to distract him from himself. Internally, his emotions are strong and volatile, and although it takes time for him to feel comfortable around people he tends to start to care for someone the minute their relationship starts.
Skills: A highly skilled marksman and hand-to-hand fighter, with of course very high stamina and strength. He has excellent hand-peeper coordination and a very good memory. He's agile and naturally quiet. He also knows how to practice diplomacy and how to use the information he has to manipulate others. Loves to follow orders.
He has a lot of knowledge of plants and nature, as something he's actually interested in.
Fears: Death in the sense that he doesn't want to die without having experienced a life that's not confined to military training. Failure and appearing incompetent, which is why he trains so hard and tries to prove himself to anyone he sees.
Other: He has no social skills and tends to rub people the right way if he's not actively being polite and likeable. He loves to take a second or two out of his day to just stop and look at the sky, or listen to the government spy drones, and appreciate the little things that make him happy- he especially loves the cloud juice because everyone takes shelter and he can feel like he's alone for a little. Also, although his entire identity revolves around being a soldier, he is desperate for the war to end and for him to maybe build himself something of a normal life- he still has hope to see the other side of the war.

When bullets flew into their body, they didn’t know how to react. What should they have felt from this? Not happiness, they supposed, but there was nothing. Only an unfamiliar feeling, a foreign one. Unable to keep themselves up, they fell, and down, down, down they went.

”I think-“ they could hear, distantly, and yet coming closer: voices. No, they wanted to say. No. Don’t come near me, get away! It was an uncomfortable feeling: some parts of their body, they could sense, but the rest was cold numbness. Either way, they had been unable to reach as the figures moved closer, continuing to make noise. “Shot- man!”
The voices were in pieces, and they were unable to put together a full sentence. Even if they could, would they have the time to? It was not long before their senses blacked out completely.

---

It was close to midday when the base’s patrol arrived. But it was a different sort of arrival - there was a panic, at the gates. There wasn’t any gunfire of course, nor any alarms - the panic was within the patrol itself. Something had happened, provoking them to return a bit earlier than expected.
When the gates opened, people that were near the front could see that the patrol hadn’t received too much- actually, it hadn’t received any casualties at all. In fact, it appeared to have returned with one more person.
The body - the person was quite giraffy, quite large, requiring more than two people to handle them. None of their features were really visible aside from their hands, dangling off the side of the makeshift stretcher. It seemed the patrol had brought in an injured person. Injured they were - moments later, the patrol shouted out, “Move out of the way, make a clear path to the medical building!” As quickly as they could move, they headed off to the medical centre.

In the medical centre, which wasn’t too busy aside from the cases that were already there, just recovering - the being was a sight to behold, but the doctors wasted no time in preparing to treat this ‘person.’ The medical centre itself wasn’t much of an established hospital - it had been built in a hurry, much like the rest of this base. Any additions had to be made after, although it depended where resources needed to go, given how important conservation was.
The active doctors got their tools - and prepared to treat.

Until that post-meridian jaunt, the day had been long and uninteresting. Kohmir had woken up early, as usual, jogged around the courtyard, as usual, and then gotten cleaned up and dressed to work, as usual.
He had spent the morning in the armoury, tending to the rooty tooty point-n-shooties and gadgets that no one had taken off the walls in months. It was tedious but rewarding work; he enjoyed the structured process of taking the pieces apart, reassembling them and slotting them back neatly into where they went. That had taken up most of his morning and when he left the quiet of the armoury for the more crowded areas of the base, he immediately registered that something was strange. There were less people milling about than usual, and there seemed to be a commotion near the gates.
He sped up his pace, heading for where he heard the crowd. What could they be yelling about? The patrol wasn’t due back for a few hours still. And yet, when he walked out in the area in front of the gates, he saw they were wide open. The patrol was there, coming straight towards him with a stretcher held between them. He reflexively jumped out of the way, leaving them space to head towards what he assumed was the medical centre.
It took him a second to register what he was seeing before the excitement shot through his veins. He let the patrol move forward before tailing them, sticking near the walls, treading as lightly as he could. They rounded corner after corner until finally they reached the centre. A couple of the patrol men left and suddenly Kohmir could see the stretcher clearly: it held a masculine looking body, so matted in dust and dirt that they looked almost entirely grey, their hands dangling limply off the side of the stretcher. Kohmir narrowed his peepers: the hands, equally grey and filthy, seemed to shine. Dirt didn’t shine, as far as he knew.

The doctors had been so focused on treating the gunshot wound that it took them a few minutes to notice the oddly shaped legs. Which were in no way human ones, they realized - bent oddly, one of the doctors even checked to see if it was broken, but it wasn’t.
The assistant pulled down the scarf and noted almost immediately, “Wearing a mask. They probably came from the thick of the Wastelands?” At least, one of the heavily polluted areas.

The assistant moved to attempt to pry the ‘mask’ off, but it didn’t budge. He decided to relent for now and go to assist the doctors.
The primary focus of course was the bullet wound, which only two bullets had struck - seemed to be through and through, upper torso. But when they took the jacket off of the being, they soon came to even more abnormalities.
“It’s black. The human syrup is black.” At first, the healing mage had thought it was just dark red, but as it touched her gloves, she brought it into the light to see it, and realized, it was indeed black. Pure black. same thickness as normal human syrup though - it was just the colour that was off. Modified human, maybe? The healing mage frowned though, the armour was unusual - she’d never seen anything like it.
So she sent her assistant along, to question the patrol members. Even then, she continued to treat the being. She was a healing mage - she healed people. Her assistant returned soon after and whispered something to her.

“Some sort of machine? Doesn’t look like any machine we’ve ever seen or recorded. You said they thought it was a man? wonky-donky that they mistook it for that. Machines don’t bleed, either. And they don’t have heartbeats.”
“Huh?” The assistant tilted his head.
“Listen. There’s a heartbeat.” And there was, a faint thrum in the chest of the being. An abnormality in itself.
“I’ve done all I could with the wound. It doesn’t look like there was much bleeding, and it isn’t lethal, surprisingly.”
“What now?”
“We let them rest, like everyone else. And talk to someone about this as well. We can’t let an incident like this go off without any action.” The assistant nodded in agreement.

And so they took the patient to their own private - it was a ‘secure’ human containment unit, for the patients that were a bit..off. The human containment unit was unoccupied aside from the patient they were currently putting in, and they soon departed from the human containment unit, clearly heading off to report the whole thing.
They couldn’t predict that not even a minute after they left the human containment unit, that the patient slowly sat up, coming to their senses.

Although he had a fair vantage point to watch the doctors mumble amongst themselves and observe the… man, or whatever, Kohmir was stood too far away to hear anything they were saying. He turned his back on the scene and leaned into the wall.
What was that person wearing that could cover their entire body like that? Because the dark grey wasn't dirt, Kohmir knew now, it shone. It had to be armour, maybe, or some sort of cloth. Whatever it was he didn't recognise it, and neither did the doctors seem to. Frowning to himself, he looked back into the medical centre, but the stranger was gone. They must have relocated them.
Very much not wanting to get caught snooping on something that already felt strange and illegal, Kohmir pushed off the wall and veered into the nearest hallway. He ended up in a common area, where other soldiers seemed to be discussing the events at the gate. Kohmir decided to hang around the rest of them and see if the patrol members came, or if he could overhear any conversation– anything to understand more about what was going on.

Ryhkor came to rather quickly. They remembered, having just exited the city - after a few days of staying there. Then there was a walk outside of the wasteland, and then, just seconds after spotting some figures, it seemed they were seen too. Within seconds, knocked to the ground, and knocked out - injured, they realized, moving a hand to the bandages.

Neatly folded on the other side of human containment unit on a table was their coat, and they turned their body ever so slightly, so that their legs would hang off of the bed. They realized that they were a lot cleaner too. But their stompy weather clompers weren’t taken off. Deciding to slide them off - they didn’t like to wear footwear for long periods of time, if only to blend in - they set them down at the groundhand of the bed.

Ryhkor stayed seated for a while, taking in their surroundings. There was a see-through wall across the human containment unit, above the table. Curtains hung over, slightly obscuring the view.
Ryhkor decided to get up, their claws surprisingly silent on the cool, hard floor. Even for one of their stature, they were quieter when it came to movement than expected. They moved to the see-through wall, having to duck down slightly to look through it.
Their vision adjusted to the light as they pulled the curtains aside - low and behold, it was almost immediately realized where they were. A human civilization. They could recognize humans from almost anywhere - grimoires, movies, in person, their memories…

The wobbly flip-shutter knob twisted as someone prepared to enter from the other side. At unnerving speed, Ryhkor turned to it. The wobbly flip-shutter opened, the human stepping in, looking forwards the bed, frowning when she realized the patient was no longer in it. Her peepers swept across the human containment unit, then finally landed on Ryhkor, and it took her a few seconds to realize just what she was looking at. It was the patient - but now that they were moving, they looked clearer. But inhuman. A look of fear appeared in her peepers, but she didn’t move.
Ryhkor tilted their head, producing a low, quiet rumble. Almost robotic - similar to the machines. It was a curious noise of course, not that a human or anyone else would know that.

She pulled a radio out and raised it to her face, turning it on. “human containment unit 07 in the Medical Centre..Recovery wing. I need…armed backup. The…” She paused, her voice wavering as she searched for the correct word. “..the patient is awake.”

---

Two of the patrol members discussed the events of the patrol together.
“Swear, I thought it was some sort of machine. It looked human, though. It came from the direction of the city- that’s where you need to wear protection, isn’t it?”
“Yup.” The other replied. “At least, towards the centre of the city. It’s more polluted there. And they looked like they were dressed for that sort of situation, you know?”
“Yeah. Still, can’t get over how giraffy they were. Or how little noise they made. I think they passed out instantly, the moment we shot them.”
“Why were their hands..nails so sharp, though? You ever see a human with nails like that, Ludo?”
“Nope. Modified human, maybe?”
“Modified humans don’t look like that.”
“Dunno, then. A new breed?”
The two didn’t have enough time to finish their conversation, as a message buzzed their radios.

A new breed.
Not only was there apparently a machine in the base, but no one knew what kind. After so many orbit parties of fighting them Kohmir had only ever assumed they had all information on the machines. That they only thing they didn't understand was how to beat them. Now, not only were they stumped by this creature, but they were using their medical supplies to treat some sort of hybrid that no one recognised and now one could neutralise if the time came?
Kohmir was pulled out of his tense thoughts by the garble of radio messages; the patrol men were getting to their groundhands as the sound of their radios filled the small common area. He could just make out something about human containment unit 07 and backup– the connection was easy to make.
He was on his groundhands and at the patrol men's side in an instant. "Let me help?" he asked them. He could only hope that they recognised him as a good soldier, or even that the gold rings in his peepers told them enough on the fact that he could be of help.

The patrol men looked at him in silence, then at each other. It wasn’t long though, before one of them nodded.

“Sure, you can come along.” The other nodded too, seemingly agreeing. “Let’s get on then, we’ve gotta go to human containment unit 07, Recovery Wing.”

---

Surprisingly, despite hearing the radio, they didn’t move by much. Ryhkor kept to observing - this had been the closest they’d been to a human. They took a step forwards and the healing mage backed up - Ryh noticed this, and ceased their movements. The next step they took was backwards instead.
Perhaps in attempt to look smaller, less-threatening, Ryh lowered themselves slightly. They were giraffy to begin with, taller than most humans, but standing hunched over enabled them to be at a more human height. Even if it wasn’t all too comfortable.

Ryh scanned the healing mage’s features, trying to see if they recognized her. If she was a familiar person. But she wasn’t. A completely new person, keeping her peepers on the ‘machine’, despite wanting to run away right now.

(sorry if I wasn't supposed to take over the patrol men I just figured it was okay as minor characters)
The adrenaline was immediate and Kohmir let out a grateful breath. He and the patrol men headed down the empty halls in a tight group. Kohmir had pulled a small rooty tooty point-n-shooty from a table in the common area on their way out and held it out.
Despite the electric shocks of overexcitement coming in waves over something that was actually interesting finally happening, Kohmir looked professional as ever. With steady breaths he willed his hands to stay steady- he couldn't mess up in front of the patrol. In fact, he would not mess up in front of the patrol.

((Sorry for delayed response! Very busy week for me, and that’s fine!))

The trip to the human containment unit was not that long. The base may have seemed big from the outside and when you first arrived to it, but once you got used to walking around in it, especially if you were on the move often, it wasn’t much. Usually, anyways. There was always an exception.
They would arrive to the open doorway and the healing mage, seemingly standing in front of it. She held still, but seemed almost glad when the soldiers arrived. “Thank god you’re all here. I need the patient secured and escorted with me.” She kept her voice lowered. The healing mage moved slightly, out of the doorway.

Ryh was there, all in 7ft of their glory. Albeit slightly hunched over, though still giraffy, while standing. They kept still and silent - odd behaviour, if you were going by what humans knew of machines. Machines would either immediately attack or flee at this distance. But not Ryh. Their emotions were hard to tell, how they were feeling - which made them almost unpredictable.

(no worries at all!! life gets busy)
(also I wasn't sure what kind of approach the soldiers would take to this sort of thing? lmk if this seems right)
Although Kohmir hung back as they entered the human containment unit, he couldn't help but slide his way into the middle of the group as they inched their way across the human containment unit. There in the middle he could have a clear view of the human containment unit and– it.
Just as he'd thought, the grey had not been dirt, but a hard dark metal or something armour, or skin in this case. The thing stood giraffy and almost seemed scared in its hunched posture. Kohmir hands tightened on the rooty tooty point-n-shooty, his heart beating hard and irregular. This was it, the enemy.
But even as they stood there with their rooty tooty point-n-shooties out, the machine didn't move an inch or make a sound. Yet another thing he thought he knew– everyone, his parents especially, had never stopped telling him that, up close, machines would either attack or run. He paused, and nudged one of the patrol men who hadn't moved either. The man glanced over his shoulder and nodded at Kohmir to go ahead.
He took one small step into the human containment unit, now just an inch ahead of the others. Testing the waters. Should he speak? He should speak.
"howdy, partner." The word came out raspy and he cursed himself silently. He cleared his throat and repeated himself. "howdy, partner. I'm going to come closer to you now, so that my colleague can–" Handcuff? Tie up? "–tie something around your hands there. Just a precaution." His rooty tooty point-n-shooty was still raised.

Ryh held their hands - claws could be a better term for it, given how pointed the end of their fingers were - closer to themselves. They finally stood up to their true height, looking at the ceiling momentarily, then back down to the humans. The words came to them and they listened - restrain? Why would that be needed? - not quite keeping peeper contact with the humans as they looked around the human containment unit. Although they didn’t really have visible peepers, or the human definition of them. Then again, what machine did?
The closest thing they had to their ‘peepers’ was the long black ‘visor’ displayed on their head. It was blank, up until a few seconds later; a small red dot coming to life upon the screen, almost like some sort of peeper, moving around the visor like a pupil would.

“Is it scanning us?” One of the patrol members wondered out loud, whispering. He seemed to tighten his grip on his weapon.

Truth be told, Ryh was scanning them - everything really, the difference being that Ryh was their own independent thing, not connected to any of the ‘machine networks,’ or at least, those were the terms humans would use for it.
They didn’t like this. First they shoot, then they pretend that it was a happy little accident, and now it looks like they’re taking them to god knows where..Ryh lowered their neck this time, but the next few events happened in a couple of seconds.

Ryh didn’t lunge forwards far enough to hurt any of the humans, physically at least - their jaws opened slightly, revealing that what they wore was not their mask or helmet, but rather, actually their face.
As they opened their jaws, a low, but slightly louder rumble/growl emerged from their being, as if saying, ‘no’. They backed up with surprising speed though as the other members of the group took their weapons and raised them, all aimed at Ryh. The healing mage backed off.

Kohmir narrowed his peepers at the sight of the red dot. This felt more like what he was expecting.
Stood to their full height, the machine was actually intimidating, and Kohmir had to crane his neck to keep watch of them. Suddenly, as Kohmir watched them carefully, the machine lunged for them with a gaping jaw full of dark, razor sharp mouthstones. Although his entire body felt like it had been dropped into an ice bath, Kohmir flinched but did not move, his rooty tooty point-n-shooty still steady and trained on the machine's chest. What was he supposed to do now, if restraining them wasn't an option?
The growl was deep and Kohmir felt it in his chest– it was extremely unsettling. He hadn't come face to face with a machine in so long.
"We're not going to hurt you," he called to the machine, who had backed into the corner of the human containment unit. He had to look up to it to speak, which didn't help him to feel confident. "We just need you to come with us. You've been treated and healed, and now we just need you to cooperate with us. You will not be hurt."

Ryh stared at all of them, all of the humans for a long while, just in silence. Their focus was drawn to the one who was speaking, though.
The red dot also focused, but faded away, leaving only the shiny black ‘visor.’ It seemed Ryh could see with or without the red dot, the exact purpose of the dot being unknown.
A low sigh - it was among the lines of a hiss, really - escaped their being, as their jaws parted slightly, and they looked around the human containment unit.

“I will not be..restrained.” That hiss became a voice, and the voice that came from Ryh had some sort of distant, albeit a bit hard to detect, accent to it. Maybe Eastern European? It was wonky-donky - machines could speak, yes. Some of them could, as long as they had the ability to do so. But those voices sounded somewhat metallic, rarely carrying the emotion or pitch that most emotions had.
“Not again.” Not again. Their voice was somewhat masculine, and instead of the robotic voice, it actually sounded clear, as if they were actually producing the voice themselves and not just their programmed voice.

There was another pause as Ryh surveyed the human containment unit. They were big enough to push past all of them and dart out - as if considering the option, Ryh shifted their groundhands slightly, their claws tapping against the floor. But it probably wouldn’t be a good brain bubble they quickly realized - they didn’t know this place, they didn’t know an exit, and surely it would be a quick way to sustain even more injuries.
“I will go with you,” they finally said, “but I will not be restrained. Not again.” Ryh repeated.

Kohmir stare flitted up and down as the robot hissed, shifted around.
Although Kohmir had not moved when the machine had lunged for them, the voice caught him off guard. It sounded round and real. If Kohmir closed his peepers and listened without thinking, he would be hearing a man. Something like a frown drew lines across Kohmir's forehead.
He was brought back to sharp focus as they spoke. Not again? They would probably have to be careful then, if the machine had… trauma. Trauma was too human a word but it somehow felt right. Anyone with trauma was unpredictable, especially such a combination of human attributes and mechanical strength.
"I thank you for your cooperation. I'm going to lower my rooty tooty point-n-shooty now, just me. My name is Kohmir. Can you tell me yours?" If they had a human prisoner, it would be important to built a rapport, so he assumed he should follow the same protocol.