[i] [b]Hey, so I have a few things to mention about the story. First off, I'm going to switch the rest of the story to Koriks' point of view. It's going to be much more interesting this way. Also, apologies if this took WAY, WAY too long. School and stuff can be annoying, but now I have about three months to work. Thanks for understanding![/b][/i] I already missed our home. Our leaders had a feeling this would happen someday. That there would be a great event, and something would take away the Great Machine. That's why we had this protocol. I slumped back in my pilot's seat and watched the view of space as our warp drive worked. We had always dreamed of exploring the stars, seeing the great beyond, but we were never able to because of all the petty squabbles and things between our people and our houses. We had been part of the Eliksni that did not want to join a house and simply lived life. I had enjoyed walking the streets and seeing all of our people socializing and the sounds of joy and happiness. But now those dreams had been crushed by some unknown force that invaded our planet, and now the only sounds we'll hear are of sadness and sorrow. When we made it out, I sat up to see where we had come to. We had found a solar system with a few planets - a desert-like one, close to the system's star, one more lush like our world in the middle that had a moon, and one farther away that looked like it was covered in ice. But what was strange was the fact that the two closest planets to the star looked like they were covered with machines. Part of the planet near the sun looked completely machine! "This is Karsok of the House of Winter, I suggest we land on the lush planet and investigate these machines." The other houses' leaders agreed, the fleet turned to the planet, and we began deployment. I went in back and said, "Everyone stay here. I'm going on the planet." I got off the skiff and looked around. This world was lush, but... strange. All around us we saw beautiful flowers and plants, but there was stone with machines inside it. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. It looked like there could be more to this. [i]I wonder if there are any-[/i] Suddenly, one of my comrades shouted, "There's something over there!", and pointed to a strange being made out of metal. It had a similar shape as us, but with only two arms, and a more circular head with one red eye. In the middle of it, where it's stomach would be, it had a white box or substance. When it saw us, it disappeared and reappeared in front of us, and fired it's weapon. We dispatched it fast, taking it's remains and gun for examination. The white substance in it's torso spread. One of our group touched it, and it shocked him, so we took a sample of it as well. "This thing can teleport! If there are more, we must be careful," I said. We explored the world. There was much life in the form of plants, but there were little animals, and we encountered many of those robotic beings. "Where are the creatures of this world?" one of our group asked. We kept searching and it led us into a strange cave filled with the stone and many of the machines from earlier. When we got to the bottom, what I saw could only be described as amazing yet worrying. We entered a massive cavern, filled with the stone, and with a massive, round, metal gate in front of us. There were also smaller versions of these gates. A blue substance similar to electricity filled them and hundreds of the moving machines moved in and out of it. It was like lanes of traffic on our home planet - one side inbound, another outbound. But in between, instead of a divider, there was a massive version of the machine, but instead it's head was lower, it had a spike on each of it's shoulders, and it carried a much larger and different-shaped gun. Along with that, in the middle of the entire room, there was a massive machine, that looked like it was doing something to the planet. Every now and then, some of the natural stone in the cavern would form into the stone with machines in it. It was almost as if the machine was converting the planet [i]itself[/i] into a machine! Someone began, "We should probably get out of-" Then, the large Vex saw us, and the others did as well.