The man woke up with a grunt and a difficulty of getting out of his airbag prison. He automatically shut off the gentle alarm ringing in his ears as he looked upon his current situation. The status screens showed several damaged areas throughout the ship, most notably being the engine and the hydraulic systems. The window of the cockpit was completely covered with trees and other plants, making everything quite dark. Fortunately, the main power-room was unharmed. If it was, then it's one meter thick walls would have been pointless to build. However, he needed to get to the intelligence room and see if the scanning equipment was damaged. God forbid if they were. A quick manual opening of the once automatic-sliding door allowed for a quick exit as the gears holding the door rolled with it. The man ran through his ship and stopped at a door near the engine room, only to have THIS particular door opened on its own.

"Thank goodness. This one still works. I damn well hope that everything works like it should. I really need to know what's out there, and if I can breathe in the air. Now then." said the man as he straightened his jacket.

The room was rather small, but had many screens and keyboards everywhere. Some of them only showed gittering as well as a large white line fluttering on the screen, while the rest seemed to work perfectly.

"The one's that aren't working are...the long-range scanner...the threat level scanner...damnit, the atmosphere analyzer?! How am I supposed to know if I can breathe out there? Great. Well, while I fix the ship, I might as well activate the rest of them. It's a good thing a made that gravity manipulator. Quantum singularities are a doozy to make, but damn are they sturdy!"

The captain left the room as he walked back to where he had come from and stopped at what looked like a plain golden wall. A hit on the wall, and several segments pulled back and slid into the openings of the two nearby walls. Cogs and steam announced the correct function of this mechanism, as a strange machine slid slowly forward and a compartment opened underneath it. A very small rectangular "plate" allowing a circular object to be placed upon it. The man opened up some drawers underneath this object and started to fumble through the choices.

"I hate these old CDs. One would think that during the time that they existed, people would have used the light-disks. It's small, hard to lose, and can contain over ten terrabytes of information. PAH! But they preferred to keep the cd. Let's see, which one, which one...hmha!"

The man took a small case out from the organized row, and opened it up with a "click". He placed the disk onto the opening and, with a simple button press, inserted the disk into the machine, which started up almost immediately.

"Well...it's not one of my favorites, but it will have to do. Time for the internal repairing!"

Many things had to be repaired, but the main system needed to be fixed was the computer's AI. After a few wiring and reprogramming on different terminals, the man wiped his hands with a grayish cloth and shouted:

"Security system, on!"

A loud noise resembling a hard drive struggling to activate resonated in the area, followed by an intense expulsion of steam which was soon followed, itself, by a female electronic voice:

"Yes?"

"Scan computer systems as well as connections throughout each piece of machinery of the ship."

"Scanning...analyzing...processing........"

"Well?"

"......Analysis complete. Hydraulics are offline due to damaged gearing and damaged power couplets. Multiple exterior hull breaches. Engine failure in numbers two and three. Stabilizer engine failures in numbers four , seven, and eight. Fuel leakage contained. Cabling failure in automatic doors. Unable to determine precise doors at the moment. Generator is intact and working at full capacity."

"Good. What about the computer systems?"

"Computer systems optimal. Several errors detected. Correcting now."

"Perfect. How about the scans?"

"Scanning has shown area to be optimal for regrowth of plant life as well as survivability for Steamlord to be at eight five point forty three percent."

"What?"

"Short-range scanners have detected creatures of a high threat level within the vicinity. Chemical scans detect extreme levels of fear. Chance of attacks at point five percent and slowly rising. Sensors have also detected intelligent life North-east from current position. What are your orders?"

"Initiate auto-repair capabilities on all systems."

"At once."

The sounds of clinkering could be heard, and a massive swarm of a copper-colored cloud erupted from the roof of the ship. The cloud started to seep within every nook and cranny of the damaged vessel, and sounds of soldering and cable cutting could already be heard, as well as pieces cogs and gear work being replaced as well.

"These nano-bots are something else. I'm very glad that I created them and put them under your control SS." the man said while sterning.

"Then perhaps you could exit the ship and scout the area? If my databanks are correct, you have yet to build a scouting drone."

"*sigh* Fine. Just let me grab my things and I'll be going."

"You will need your bodyguards as well. Shall I bring their capsules to the exit of the ship?"

"Sure."

"Confirmed."

The captain of the ship walked directly towards the exit, a bit of quick walking helped speed things up. He grabbed what looked like a giant mechanical "X" with a blue ball in its center. Upon closer inspection, one could see several gears turning and rotating together within it. This object barely gave off any sounds and ticking and/or clankering. The man took his jacket off and placed it on his back, upon which the "arms" of the contraption bent themselves to grab hold of its wearer's shoulder and lower ribs. Another object, this time circular, was placed within his pocket. It was an old-fashioned pocket watch that the man had repaired awhile ago, and kept it to tell time at the precise second he needed it. He wasn't the kind to be tardy.

Another object, which looked like a mechanical gauntlet, was placed on his left wrist. It engulfed the surface of his hand, but stretched in a way that it didn't go in between the fingers, but rather, it went over the little portions that it reached. Whatever it was, it was very loud and ticked like a grand-father clock. It was colored just like the ship. Anyways, as the man put his jacket back on, three holes formed in the ceiling, from which three giant capsules descended.

"Opening capsules." said the AI.

The man walked slowly towards the now opened capsules, upon which he stretched his hand out and rubbed the objects being held.

"Ah, the Crusader Knights. My best creations. MY bodyguards. The first things I managed to create using that damn liquid Loptimum. Who would've thought that just making these things into my personal bodyguards would have brought about the destruction of an entire race...well...the past is the past and I must not linger upon it, or else I will have no future."

The man stepped backed and yelled "Activate!"

But nothing happened, at first. However, the three beings within the capsules were humanoid and followed the same design shape. They were rather smooth in every part of their body, except for the areas that needed proper flexibility. These parts were "cut" but still flattened and very smooth. The helmets had a type of almost unnoticeable jagging forward, but they still had it. However, only two rectangular black holes were punched into the "heads". These were certainly the "eyes" of the machines. However, they all carried a gigantic claymore which they seemed to hold proudly on their chests, and they all had a different pattern design as well as some added "decorative features".

"Activate, Templar. Activate, Hospitaller. And finally, activate, Teutonic!"

Each robot bearing the respective scheme of each ancient crusading order activated almost immediately. Each robot's eyes gradually illuminated, turning brighter, all but the one named 'Teutonic'.

"Hm? Is it malfunctioning?"
The robot saluted its creator, causing the man to hit his forehead.
"I had forgotten! Your eye-cameras don't illuminate like the other two. Now then, form a line."

The three robots stomped forward in a weird mechanical manner.

"*sigh* Why did I make that their default walking pattern? All-range movement authorized."

The robots seemed to give off a faint crack, but they didn't move.

"Good. This is a scouting mission. I want you to watch over me as we go deeper into the forest and try to find the "intelligent life" that SS was talking about. You shall only use lethal force when I am TRULY in danger. Understand?"

The three robots nodded once and placed their claymores on their backs, revealing the three different cross shapes each bared on their bodies.

"We shall go into cloaking mode, for a better chance at staying unnoticed. Activate your cloaking now."

Once again, the "Crusader Knights" did as told and, with a little phasing out, turned completely invisible. The man tampered a bit with his goggles but quickly stopped as a smirk formed on his face.

"Perfect. Now I can see you. Now to activate my own cloaking system."

The man stretched his left arm to reach the arms on his shoulders. With a few clicks, the mechanism started to clicker and clank, eventually reflecting light off of him, turning him invisible.

"Hm? Hm? Perfect. Security system, open the doors. Also, consider the cloaking device for the ship as being the priority module for repairs."

"Okay."

The door for the exit slowly opened, a bit of static electricity leaving the gears as the door forced itself to open up. However, the ship had tilted, and was somewhat high above the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't a problematic height, and all four bipeds managed to jump down without any difficulty. With a quick scanning of the area, the four creatures moved on as the only entry to the ship closed difficultly.

The four had already gone far into the forest that the human tapped on the module resting on his right hand. A holographic map appeared, upon which the details of the scanned landscape appeared clearly. A quiet beeping could be heard, and the man used his fingers to slide the map across, only to find the location he was searching for was quite the distance away.

"Damn. Well then, Teutonic, you stay near me. Templar, you go five meters to our right and watch over us from there. Hospitaller, you do the same, but from the left side. Understand?" They all released steam from their helmets as a sign of agreement. "Good. I don't feel it in this jungle. Let's just hope that the humans here are peaceful ones, despite what seems like a low level of technology. Ah yes! I was forgetting. Activate your biological scanners and scan everything in your path. Store all biological data on your temporary drives so that the information can be uploaded to SS."

The scanning was noisy, at best. While it would help with cataloguing the plant species here, it would certainly attract the attention of the dangerous beasts that Security System detected. And, indeed, a monstrous creature appeared before the group. It looked like a scorpion made of stars. It seemed quite capable of seeing the human and its single companion.

"What's this? Interesting. It looks like a scorpion. What's it doing? Oh crap!" yelled the man as he jumped out of the way of a pincer movement.

A loud revving noise was heard from Teutonic as it unsheathed its blade and sliced the claw off, causing the scorpion to make several steps in reverse as it howled in pain. It didn't have time to react, however, as the two other bots decapitated as soon as it stopped howling. A loud *thump* greeted the creature to its return upon the ground.

"That is very nasty. I really need to develop heat blockers...hiders...dispersers... whatever they are called. Reform previous movement pattern and follow me. We are almost at destination."

As the group crept closer to the edge of the forest, the human issued a regrouping command to his bodyguards. They wouldn't move without his order, and stayed perfectly still behind the trees and bushes they were hiding behind.

"Is that...a pegasus? It's yellow and has long pink hair. Strange. It must belong to someone who...lives in that...tree. Meeehhh. It's unique, but why is that pegasus feeding those animals and singing as well? I hope these aren't the creatures SS talked about earlier. She doesn't seem to have noticed my ship... how oblivious."

Suddenly, a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail jolted right in front of this pegasus and dragged her without her own consent. It looked like it was something urgent. The man just watched them fly off in one direction, leaving the animals to fend for themselves for a short while.

"Hm. Okay then. Enter that building and try to find any indications to the name of this world. I need to know everything about this place. Especially its technological level. I wouldn't want the same...incident...to happen twice. Go! And keep your cloaking devices on!"

Next Chapter: Unfortunate encounter Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 55 Minutes