Thinkin. (Khorak's Story)

“Will it hurt?” Khorak stared at the portal in amazement, touching the event horizon hesitantly.

“No Mister…. Khorak.” The portal technician said looking at his datapad, extremely impatient. “For the last time, it will not hurt you.”

”There docs there? To heal me?”

“Yes Mister Khorak! – Look if you don’t want to go, step aside. There are 30 people in line after you and I go on break in 15 minutes.” Obviously the technician was seriously thinking of throwing Khorak over the ledge.

For the huge Atrox he was, Khorak was sincerely scared of the hole in front of him. He had no clue what this was and assumed it to be simply another form of transportation. He had taken many forms of transportation in his lifetime but he was hesitant of this one far more then any before, for the last “new” transportation he tried was not enjoyable. In fact, he was stuck in the ring on the platform for nearly 3 hours with the scientists arguing whether casting challenger would break the ring and free him or crush his newly enhanced body. As an Atrox he may not have been smart, but he was no fool.

“Ok! Ok!” Khorak Held his breath, and took a step.

He opened one eye to notice he had gone nowhere. The portal technician looked at the Atrox with the portal halfway through his body. Slightly confused he reached for his datapad.

”It’s ok folks! This happens!”

It was at that point Khorak was sucked in by the portal and found himself facing the portal. Looking similar to the portal he came from, he did not realize he was somewhere different until he turned around.

What he saw was awe inspiring to say the least. Cliffs overlooking green lands. Greener that those he saw on Rubi-Ka, these cliffs had much more color then the desert planet and Khorak was completely oblivious to the mass amounts of various creatures that were interested in nothing more then seeing the death of the newcomers. Khorak climbed down the structure the portal was attached to. His sure footing saw him through though and he was soon at the bottom, looking out into what he was told to be the Nascene Wilds.

Seeing new creatures was quite new to Khorak, he was on a mission and had no care for his surroundings. His “boss” Ruken had sent him to gather some intelligence on a report of a strange portal that had formed in a remote dungeon in a cave out there. The Tempest Wolves’ mission was to enter the Shadowlands and retrieve weapons and materials that could be of use to the clans in their fight. This was to be a simple recon mission. Khorak however, was always eager to do his job to the best of his abilities and knowing his weaknesses never attempted to think outside the box. The cave known as “The Crippler Cave” was scary in itself. Khorak had no worries though as bravery was never a weak point. The dimly lit cave made it especially hard to navigate and tripping over angry cripplers did not make it easier. A light in the distance, Khorak moved slowly towards it. As he came closer, the light began to separate into several. Even closer, and they began bobbing. Soon he would realize that this was in fact the electronic torches of a scouting team.

“Hello!” Khorak shouted, quite jolly.

“Who’s that?!” The team stated picking up speed towards Khorak.

“Khorak, from the Tempest Wolves!”

“The Wolves huh?” The voice shouted for the last time before Khorak laid eyes on the Omni-Tek uniforms and the anxiety of upcoming battle overcame him.

“Wha… What is Omni doing here?” Khorak said, attempting to act innocent.

“We’re here doing an investigation. You’d do best to hunt your cripplers and speak nothing of this. Oh, and the Temple in the back is off limits. Omni-Tek is closing it due to faulty door mechanisms.”

”Yes sir.” Khorak lowered his head and began to step forward, towards his target, the dungeon.

The Omni soldier grabbed Khorak’s weapon, tugging on it to get his attention. “Khorak.”

Startled “Uh, y.. yes?”

“I mean it. If you do go in there, we will be forced to take action.”

Khorak nods and continued into the black. The lights stopped bobbing and got smaller. An odd sense of relief overcame Khorak as he realized he was yet again alone.

“I better hurry!” He grunted as he thought to himself and turned toward the temple.

Upon arrival to the temple, he encountered a standard issue locking system obviously installed by the Omni patrol. The lock was comprised of three long bars and a circular center plate that had a display screen in the center that read “Omni-Tek property – Unsafe Conditions Inside”. The plasteel the lock was made from was incredibly strong but not compared to the Kyr’Ozch hammer Khorak had equipped. The noise echoed through the cave and Khorak looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Not seeing anyone he sighed. He looked up, gathered himself and checked his equipment. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the light. It was coming back. They were coming back. Khorak decided it was time to take to running.

“GOOOOOOOOOO!” He thought to himself. “Go go go go go go go!” “Don’t stop!”

The Omni team had at least one fixer. A smaller light broke off the pack, and was gaining on him. Searching quickly, Khorak made his way to the back end of the structure. Running as fast as he could, with a fixer on his tale, he saw it. A bright light, much as the one he went through to start this journey was in the room in ahead. Dat-Dat-Dat! The sound of machinegun fire started, and he knew he was in range for the fixer. Khorak’s bio cocoon was started in his NCU to provide temporary relief as he entered the room.

The door to the room was completely inoperable.

”I must close this!” Khorak said, looking at the door.

Pushing the door, Khorak had only managed to move the door an inch or two when he heard the fixer’s fast feet moving toward him. Khorak unfastened his hammer and waited. The fixer’s pace, not changing, Khorak realized this was it, he had to time this just right. On Khorak’s datapad the adrenalin warning lights started to flash and for what seemed like an eternity, he waited to see the first glimpse at the fixer.

As the fixer appeared, Khorak was standing behind the door to the side of the doorway. Khorak’s swing sent the fixer flying out into the hallway he came from, totally incapacitated. With the last bit of adrenalin Khorak managed to close the doors in time before the rest of the Omni-Tek employees managed to arrive.

Turning around, Khorak looked at the portal. He pressed the button on his comm..

”Boss, I found it!”

Khorak paused only to hear static.

“Boss?!”

Khorak began to realize this was the last time any clanner was going to see this portal. Pounding away, his Atrox mind formulated a plan. Considering himself quite clever, Khorak whipped a large trash bag out of his inventory, unfolded it, and attempted to capture the portal for transport back to Tir. He indeed had a plan. Good, it was not.

Within seconds Khorak found himself inside a room, a lab of sorts, technology far beyond anything he’d seen before. Looking around his only though was for a way out. Identifying what he thought to be the door, he began beating on it. Three hours later, he found himself tired, and still beating. Khorak looked around the room when sheer shock and surprise nearly overcame him.

“Grenades?!”

It was true; there were three devices on the furthest table the looked nearly exactly like grenades!

“Grenades!” Khorak shouted!

Picking up the three, he threw the first at the door. The grenade bounced off the door landed sparking. He threw the second and received the same response, though a slightly bright light came from the grenade as it sparked.

Holding the last grenade tightly, Khorak scratched his head in thought. The “grenade” in his hand began to glow and a voice in his head sounded entirely foreign to him.

“Xalas-ar. Orca balvas… Initiating foreign language module number 3.”

Khorak pulled the device away from his head realizing it was absolutely not a grenade. Khorak noticed a beam of light was coming from the device to his head, but this beam of light was not in a straight line. Even Khorak found it odd as he continued to hear the voice.

“Medical link established. Accessing DNA structure…. Defects in cranial cavity detected … DNA incapable of repair… Complete modification impossible... Repairing mental capacity to it’s fullest…”

A sharp pain began in Khorak’s head, everything became bright and Khorak passed out.

Khorak awoke later to the machine’s voice…

“Repair complete. 56% of cranial capacity restored... Patient is sentient but recommendations are for permanent hospitalization… The patient cannot exist in society… The patient is brutal, strong, and prone to violence. Evaluation complete.”

When Khorak woke, was seemed it was more then his body. He thought, he realized he was thinking far outside the norm for an Atrox. He was not as intelligent as a nano and he knew this, but he was most certainly as smart as a Solitus or an Opifex. The fact that he even knew this startled him. He knew that even if that machine did something to him… could it really have been able to teach him things too? He remembered his mission, and how he really had failed it. Khorak looked around the room he had traveled to for other items that could possibly help the clans, and the Tempest Wolves. He picked up the device that had done this to him and placed it into his inventory. He also picked up various items from around the room. Realizing there was nothing else he could take with him that wasn’t bolted to the wall he looked towards the portal. It was obvious that the room had not been used in quite some time and the power requirements of dragging Khorak through had drained the room nearly entirely. The portal was fading. Startled, and not wanting to remain in the room for the rest of his life, Khorak ran to the portal and through it. Literally. Khorak did not traverse any planes of existence. The only thing he managed to do was run to the other side of the room. The portal was not working anymore.

“How am I going to get myself out of this?” He said out loud realizing no one was around to judge him.

”Think Khorak, think!” The process of “Thinking” was not exactly commonplace to him. He set his bag of “goodies” in the corner of the room as he paced.

Khorak thought about reopening the portal. He thought about assaulting the door a bit more. He decided that after all he’d been through, he would sit down.

Continuing to think, Khorak caught an idea and laughed. Humoring the idea, he pressed the button that brought up the map on his HUD. To his surprise, it was NOT the map of Shadowlands. It was the map of Rubi-Ka… he was on Rubi-Ka. Ecstatic, he searched the map for his icon. He hit a few buttons to have the map center on his location.

“Error. Cannot locate.” The only error his map ever gave him.

“What do you mean “error”?! Geh! Is this broken?!”

Khorak dug through his inventory looking for something that might help him. He spotted his Rubi-Ka Recall Beacon.

He thought for minute…. “Naaaaaw” and pressed the button.

“Emergency Rubi-Ka Recall Beacon Activated. 10 Seconds until transport.”

“No kidding?!” Khorak exclaimed.

“3 Seconds until transport…”

“The equipment!” Khorak rushed towards the corner of the room but was too late. A beam of light had engulfed him and he was in Tir.

“Damn!” Ruken’s gonna be mad.