"The D-1000... What are they doing here?!!!" Cissel's voice was a jagged edge of disbelief. She skidded to a halt, her daggers dropping into a low, defensive guard.
In front of them, roughly a thousand metres away in the heart of the clearing, five humanoid machines had surrounded their two friends. These weren't the clunky automatons of a primitive age; they were sleek, death-white shells of polished metal.
Each machine held a long-barreled laser rifle in its right hand, while the left held a pulsing, cage-like metallic device that hummed with a low-frequency vibration.
The transition from the wild horror of the living Fog Seeker monsters to the cold, unliving technology was a whiplash that none of them expected.
"Do you know what these are?!!" Elena hissed, her knuckles white as she gripped her sledgehammers.
