CD697

CD697 awoke in a cluttered workshop, brass tools and Gearborn frames littering the tables around him. Hunched over his leg rest a tinkerer, looking back at him in awe, surprised that he reactivated at all in his current state. His frame was heavily rusted and cracked, with streaks of moss griping the outer layer of his plating. His left arm, his only normal arm, was attached yet the servo that controlled its articulation was fried and cracked, leading it to remain locked in place. His right arm, mounted with a large drill at the end, seemed functional through the startup diagnostics, but had very clearly been damaged and worn down by the passage of time.

The tinker hunched over his leg finally spoke, brought back to awareness from the surprise of CD’s awakening, but the words were foreign to CD with only the basic grammatical structure and tones matching the words familiar to him. He spent the next few months on that workshop with the tinkerer using the time to piece together the language, Thandian Common, and learn about where he was. He learned of the lands of Creation's Rest, the great city of Anderstal he now called home and the city of Goldspire where the tinkerer, Kughom Onyxbright, acquired him. The tinkerer wove stories of the Ilhuicani and their influence, as well as their creation of the Cuallicallimeh and the wonders the Tonallitecameh collectively built upon the world. Most of these stories were told while the tinkerer attempted to repair CD further, slowly restoring functioning to his legs completely and cleaning the drill affixed to his hand, as well as removing the storage banks that had broken over the years of inactivity. The last data bank, rusted in place, was the only of his original set that remained functional. Most of its space was filled with corrupt data locked in an unwritable partition that was attempting to be recovered; in the mean time he had enough space left to make memories spanning a decade at the most.

The first of the data was restored just as he entered the sixth month of his stay with the tinkerer. He recalled a battle, energy being flung from side to side along with arrows and other projectiles. One side defending a group of Hym, obvious civilians, and the other covered in crude armor, charging near relentlessly no matter how often they were hit. CD lay on the floor, legs malfunctioning due to a metal rod lodged in his midriff. Above him stood a red haired hymic man, his green eyes covered by thick framed glasses portraying a look of concern. He ripped out the metal rod and tried to reattach the severed wiring inside. “Come on C we got this”, he kept repeating to himself, changing it slightly each time he said it while frantically working. Just as it seemed the man was about to give up, a spark could be seen from the hole as the wires were reattached and connection restored to his lower limbs. They two stood and began running towards the civilians and the harbor they occupied filled with ships headed east. As they reached the edge of the group, a stray blast slipped through CDs plating and struck his Arcanic Engine, and he fell to the ground once more. The man who repaired him tried to steady his frame and prevent him from falling, but with the energy powering him gone, it was too much. As shutdown procedures began, the figure turned him over, telling him that he would get him repaired and the data would be used to help the-

This restored memory shook CD to his core. Out there, he had someone who was depending on him for something. There were countless innocent people in that battle, and he had no idea what their fate was. If they escaped into the ships or not was after he had been shut down. The man in the memory, the worry on his face carried with it details of not only the importance of what he carried, but also genuine concern. CD described the location he had seen to Kughom, who after deciding he knew nothing of this place, directed him out into the world toward Goldspire to the east, within the Kingdom of Hargea. He reasoned those in The Goldspire might be able to identify where they found his frame abandoned, or at least give a direction for him to search next. With nothing except the little coin that Kughom was able to spare, he headed out picking up small jobs with the goal of working slowly closer toward The Goldspire and answers about his past, no matter how long it took.