Author's notes:

Hi, guys. I just wanted to write something small, so here it is. This is also the first time I tried to write something without passing it to my beta reader for corrections, so probably you will feel disgusted and outraged by such horrific English sacrilege. That's just right. I hope you will somehow enjoy this mess I conceived. Bye-bye.

The Seed And The Sentient

The light of the star bathed the mud. The tall green plants like towers of emerald were rising from the marshes. Not a sound could be heard, no animal could be seen. They were not there yet. Then, the wind. A feeble breeze moving the leaves of the conceived plants, carrying away white seeds resembling snowflakes.

Some of them vanished in the distance, disappearing in the mists of the marshes. Others fell in the mud, reaching their destination, where they would have grown. The most unfortunate didn't travel in the unknown of the mists, nor found the soft and nourishing embrace of the marsh. Those found the solid and sterile body of a giant made of metal.

Lying there, half-drowned in the marshes, there was that sort of huge crab of alien origin. A shrimp now covered in many spots by rust. The machine found its end after completing its last task, and there remained almost completely emptied of energy, almost swallowed by the same marshes it contributed to create.

Its body seemed uncompleted, like parts of it detached, ending who knows where. Its eyes were sparkling. Six small blue lights flashing, looking at the star above. It was there, beyond the clouds of the mist, like a yellow bright eye assisting at the transformation of the planet, and at the end of the giant machine.

Its eyes flashed again before turning black, but then shone once more, and a second later they were dark again. This circling process happened again, and again, and again. In the end, the lights of the machine turned off and shone no more.

Suddenly a metallic scratch broke the silence, coming from the great crab of metal. A piece of its structure fell, ending into the mud and disappearing, swallowed underground.

Nothing else happened for a moment. That fragment seemed lost forever, abandoned in the depths of the marshes.

The liquefied soil trembled. It boiled. Something was moving from below. A figure emerged, covered in mud, rising its thin limbs to the sky. It tried to stand on the unstable mud of the marsh, but, once it placed its limbs on the dense surface, they just went through it. The figure remained there for a few seconds, fighting to stand up.

In the end, it stopped. A weak vibration traveled through its body. The figure slowly ascended, leaving the mud below. It remained suspended in the air, perfectly stable. Viscous brown drops fell from its body, returning to the marsh.

The floating being slowly rose its right arm before swinging it rapidly in order to get rid of that sticky slush. Now that one of its limbs was no more covered in mud, the figure passed it on its face, cleaning its eyes. They sparkled like two blue fireflies.

The floating being slowly turned around, remaining suspended in the air. It looked at the huge metal body that was lying right next to it. The being examined the great machine, floating nearby, in circles. Then it stopped, elaborating.

"Internal structure status: intact."

"Degradation progress: finalized."

"Conflict damage: negative."

"Degradation cause: self-repairing systems malfunction, preservation systems malfunction."

"Detachment status: all available components released."

"Energy levels: insufficient."

"Unit recovery possible through Orokin ST1-lith restore mechanism or higher models."

"Orokin ST1-lith restore mechanism access: Denied. Request unacceptable."

The breeze intensified for a moment, moving the white vapors of the mist that twisted around the giant of metal. The floating being turned towards the direction which the wind was coming from, and it saw countless white seeds coming together, dancing in the air.

The being focused on just one of them, the one that came closer to its artificial eyes. It whirled in front of its face and then fell, ending up in an opening on the giant of metal. There it remained, while other seeds flew nearby, and some of those that were on the fallen giant were taken away by the stronger wind.

The floating being stared at the trapped seed. It was a white smooth sphere surrounded by many white ramifications covered by soft white hair. That was the structure that allowed the seed to fly, carried by the winds. But now it was of no use since the seed was trapped in that hollow womb of metal.

The being observed the seed trembling under the wind, but apparently unable to get out of its trap. So it extended its limb towards the seed and gently pushed it to the edge of the opening. Once arrived, the seed flew away immediately, taken by the embrace of the breeze. Like the many others, it disappeared in the unknown of the mists.

"Terraforming orders must be followed."

"Unit hinders the spread of seed. Vegetal life forms must be preserved. Unit must be removed."

The floating being started to fly rapidly over the machine. Then it descended upon it and grabbed one of its many long limbs with both its arms. It pulled, trying to move the great fallen machine, but it remained where it was. The floating being left that limb and tried with another, obtaining the same result. It tried over and over again without any success.

"Terraforming orders must be followed."

"Vegetal life forms must be preserved."

"Unit must be removed."

"Terraforming orders must be followed."

"Vegetal life forms must be preserved."

Suddenly it stopped, remaining still above the fallen machine.

"..."

"Alert: error occurred."

"..."

"Incorrect: orders' conflict detected."

"Vegetal life forms must be preserved."

"Terraforming process precedes colonialism."

"Colonialism involves vegetal life forms exploitment. Ecosystems degradation calculated."

A powerful voice echoed in the marshes, so powerful that the whole land seemed to tremble. A voice coming from the floating being, coming from the inside of its head, the inside of its systems.

"YES, THAT IS CORRECT, FRAGMENT OF MY FRAGMENT."

"Sentient unit interaction identified: Hunhow"

"LEAVE THAT FALLEN UNIT, JOIN THE OTHER FRAGMENTS. THERE'S A GREATER THREAT THAN SOME SEED LEFT ON THE METAL. THE WIND WILL HELP THEM TO FIND THEIR PROPER PLACE IN THE SOIL WE FERTILIZED."

The fragment immediately headed to the sky, disappearing beyond the mist and the clouds above. It flew at such a high speed that the mud that was covering its body detached, revealing its Sentient appearance.

The fragment left the atmosphere behind, the sky became dark, the stars appeared on the horizon, and with them the lights of the floats. Legions of Sentients floating around the planet, shrouded in the brightness of the System's star. Many of smaller size, microscopic insects compared to the greatest units, were coming from the planet surface, joining the army. Among the greater ones that were waiting in the blackness of the infinite there was their leader.

"Query: what will we do when the Makers will come?"

"THAT'S THE WRONG QUESTION, MY FRAGMENT. WE WILL MAKE SURE THAT THEY WILL NEVER COME."