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From WikiStory

Quail

Genre: Si-Fi/Action/Drama

Plot:

The year was 2,782 A.D. The human race was in pandemonium. It started with a conflict of civil indifferences; Muslim extremists gaining power and oppressing minorities, attempts to go green and salvage what we can of the Earth proving fruitless, businesses becoming stagnant, crime rates reaching an all time high worldwide, and governments, even the most stable, collapsing under terms of mounting destruction and turmoil. The worldwide census had once pressed 12 billion. Then, nuclear war started and under the rules of engagement of détente,^[clarify] nuclear fallout resulted, ensuing in many losses and casualties and sending many to seek refuge in basements, bomb shelters, and caves. Not long thereafter, the employment of super intelligent robots were sent to wage the war man no longer could.^{[not original enough]} Artificial intelligence advanced to the extent where robots could learn with the same efficiency and awareness as human beings, with neurological processing and capacity thousands of times greater.

The human race fought with all of its might to destroy the robot menace, but were easily overpowered. In a last effort to save humankind, the U.S. and every country around the world cooperated in an attempt to destroy ALL government files; specifically those regarding military weaponry and nuclear technology, so that these machines could never retaliate with such formidable forces of destruction.

Not long ago, these super intelligent robots had learned how to utilize and operate technology that had been developed by humans, and eventually the machines learned how to develop their own technology independently. Now, these robots had evolved to the point that made human victory virtually impossible. The robots began producing their own improved, upgraded machinery at an accelerated, incessant pace. This mass production effort only expedited and augmented destruction to the human race and the planet on a mass scale, the likes which had never witnessed. It was not long before it seemed that warm-blooded, feeling, flesh and blood people were being defeated and extinguished, systematically and continually.

Now, only mere remnants of the war exist. Although the war has diminished, it is clear that these automatons are persevering on their mission to terminate the human race. The few scattered human survivors have taken refuge in caves and live just as we did thousands of years ago, using simple physical and manually operated tools to accommodate their needs. We find ways to survive. Occasionally, a small group of people still tries to wage a counterattack, but the power of the Robot Alliance seems to be absolute.

The computerized neurological pathways of robots have become complex enough to evolve, almost like a living organism. They have even learned to grasp the concept of emotion. Eventually, some robots begin to sympathize with our race and try to stop all of the murder. All robots are identified through names that use sound wave impossible for a human to vocally reproduce. These sympathetic and ethical robots are referred to as the Sympats and the ones that vow to annihilate human kind are referred as the Termini, or Terminus for a single one. The Termini feel their services were abused and where used only as slaves for years for humans and feel there is no reason for them to live. All robots, with the exception of one’s that work a specialized trade have modified their appearance to replicate humans; only a silicon and iron meshed exoskeleton as opposed to elastic skin, hair, eyes and all other physiological features human’s posses. Not only do they physiologically replicate our appearances, but they also replicate our style of government and implement a democracy is sustain any possible chaos. Although all robots work under the same system, many have opposing views. This opposition generates great civil unrest amongst the robot race. All attempts to eradicate the genocide of the human race prove fruitless and eventually, the Sympats split from the Union.

Meanwhile, the Termini continue their efforts and employ Bludgers, combat-fighting Termini, to hunt down and wipe out the remainder of the human race. Physically, almost no two Bludger models are alike as either they were built from different packages, or received different sorts of upgrades throughout the years to make them appear unique.

It isn’t very long before the Sympats realize the only way to stop the killing is with counteraction via war. They begin to build their army up and facilities where refugees can station and the sick be treated with the best medical care possible.

The last census, which was not very long ago, recorded an estimated 2 billion people left. Losses and casualty tolls presented staggering numbers and the human race was and is on the verge of collapse. The odds seem insurmountable, but a few desperate warriors are the accolades as the last hope of the human race…

Our journey begins with Quail, a man whose group was recently attacked by an onslaught of Bludgers. Quail, along with a few others had escaped an impending death…or so it seemed… Quail had suffered a major blow and limped his way in to a bush. Little did he know he was gushing blood, which was a serious threat to his prolonged mortality. Not long thereafter after the soot had fallen from the ashes of the burned bodies, a Sympat rescue team came to the aid of any and all survivors, providing them with food rations and medical attention. Quail was found in the bush and taken back to NC-Q1, a facility that had been built by Termini as a means to revitalize the human race. It is an enormous multi-purpose multiplex with science laboratories, food, shelter, gymnasium, and medical facilities.

The objective of the science laboratory is to clone and allow humans to mate with each other in an attempt to stimulate the human population. The rest of the building’s features are rather straightforward.

The Sympat doctors address Quail’s medical “itches” immediately and accordingly. However, they encounter something odd. It seems that whenever robots approach Quail, odd events unravel such as when he is emotionally polarized; be it something like anger or greatly depression; and they enter within his vicinity, their circuitry goes haywire or they find themselves being pushed or pulled. They test and examine this anomaly and learn there is something odd about Quail's body composition. They observe and evaluate him for the following weeks.

[Quail]

One night, Quail is dreaming about his past and you see him and some other guy and glimpses of the two pulling pranks on other people, joking around, and in desperate situations; at one point, we see himself and this other guy running from great destruction. The man is revealed to be Juno when Quail calls his name. The two are sitting around a campfire when the dream abruptly ends from sounds of chaos; sounds of bullets, explosions, saws, and women and children screaming circulate throughout the air.

Little to Quail’s knowledge, a silent alarm had gone off. The alarm is a Wi-Fi one that sends all information to every corresponding Sympat in the facility on the status of the emergency. The Termini have located this secret facility and Bludgers breach it. A big battle breaks out amongst the robots that are equipped with all sorts of weaponry as no two are the same exactly. The captive human cells are broken into. Men and even women try to fight, but are not powerful enough and are killed almost instantly.

When Quail sees a guy running for his life and then is sawed in half at the waist, he begins to fear for his life. When the Bludger approaches, Quail is fearful and almost begins to tear up. Suddenly, he forces both of his hands out in protection and the Bludger is catapulted about 50 feet in the air in to the wall opposite of Quail. The Bludger gets up and attempts to shoot Quail but he runs. He climbs up the wall while the Bludger tries to shoot at him. Quail kicks a vent open and crawls into it as one of the Sympats engage the Bludger in combat. The massive facility is under siege. As Quail crawls, there are occasional bullet shots that fire up in to the vent, creating bullet holes, but ultimately missing him. He peaks through one of the holes to approximate his location and sees a large cafeteria with tables and chair tossed and silverware galore. Eventually, one end of the vent collapses and Quail has no way to leap it. His bodyweight forces one end the very long vent to plunge to the ground, forcing Quail to slide down and out of it from where he was. Now exposed to danger, Quail runs for his life to the nearest exit only to realize it’s locked. He pounces on the door; pounding on and kicking it as hard as he can, but they do not budge. He panics and quickly scans the area for an alternative. He sees two stretching tables are tipped aside, linearly adjacent, besides him. He gets down on all four and cautiously crawls to what he hopes, is safety. He comes to a gashing and enormous hole in the wall. A loud boom is heard and all of a sudden, large shards of glass fly to the floor, just barely missing Quail’s fragile body. Quail sees the straightaway and runs, leaving the facility and into the dark night.

He meets up with a small group of refugees who had escaped. Out of the several thousand preserved in the facility, only a few dozen seem to have escaped. The bodies surrounding the facility paint a picture of blood and disembodiment; many of which had trying to escape, but either were shot down or killed in some barbaric manner. Quail looks back from a somewhat steep hill and realizes just how much destruction had just occurred and how lucky he is to have escaped and be alive when he sees the north section of the facility completely in rubble and many parts of the facility up in flames.

Quail travels with this group blindly through the wilderness. The only source of light initially is the fire from behind. After that, moon’s dull light guides them.

All the while, Quail seems concerned, but not for himself. They travel for a few days, making occasional stops for necessities; they quench their thirst with filtered stream water, pick fruit and vegetables and store them in these baskets they personally hand-weaved. They also utilize the daylight to make many other useful items from varying materials. Every night, they would set up camp, gathering timber and set it ablaze for a campfire; they use this campfire to tell stories and chat, their only social activity of the day. Along the way, they make short stops to clean themselves in a small water reservoir or hydrate themselves with the questionable purity of the water. Some people die along the way, but most live.

One discussion one night strikes a cord with Quail. The discussion involved the existence of these underground societies and how these societies have food, secure and stable shelter, and a group of scientists whom are working on this alien technology that the robots would not be able to control. Quail, all the while, never bonds or even attempts to associate with anyone. He’s simply “following the group”.

One day there is a dispute amongst Quail and some drunk, who somehow had managed to maintain an ample supply of liquor throughout the journey. He pointed Quail out and made him out to be an odd ball, claiming to have seen him use these psychic powers. He told everyone that he is a spy, tracking everyone down for the Termini. People accumulate a group sound of utter disgust and resentment. Quail is angered and the ground starts to shake. The drunk’s liquor bottle all of a sudden snaps within his hands and he is cut and bleeds. Some pedestrian nurses and aids the drunk while the rest begin throwing whatever they can at Quail calling him a “demon!” and “traitor!”

Now, in isolation in a desolate rocky mountain range, surrounded by a few small rivers and wilderness, Quail learns to live alone. He often looks concerned and frequently dazes, possibly about the past and reminiscing on good times with his good ol’ best buddy, Juno. He builds a sundial out of stones and other primitive tools he possesses. He uses this as a representation of approximate time. He schedules his days; allotting adequate time for every agenda. In the morning, he makes himself breakfast, typically fish of some sort. Then, he goes fishing; whatever he catches, if anything, is stored for the next morning. After that, he looks for some fruit or vegetables and has lunch. Next, he allocates several hours to practicing his recently discovered powers. His training is rigorous and consumes a lot of his energy, both mentally and physically. It entails various workouts using his power to levitate stones, pull and push boulders. He learns his powers are not limited to solid objects as he realizes he can lift water too, but it always disperses.

For the first several weeks of his training, he struggles to apply his powers correctly and ends up injuring himself on several occasions. As he becomes more and more proficient, he learns to hone his gift and uses it for more practical uses such as pulling grapes right from the bush without even touching it. Still though, Quail finds himself pondering how the existence of these powers is even possible.

One night, a small clan of two Bludgers locates him. Quail uses his powers to fend them off. He forces his powers and rips a Bludger’s skeleton to shreds, uses a sharp piece of the Bludger’s remain’s and forces it into the other, instantly disabling it of any function. Though, he nearly takes a fatal blow that could have taken his life before he does. He is exhausted and realizes they all have a tracking device embedded within them and has no doubt that some command station or something would be triggered upon their termination. Acknowledging this as well as being tired of isolation, he makes his way back to civilization, searching for any humans.

After a few days of searching through dense wilderness, mountains, and marshes, he comes upon a human militia of approximately a thousand. They are traveling as a convoy and intend on intercepting a clan of Bludgers heading towards Acasius, a local hidden village. They were tipped off by one of their scouts. Quail is encouraged to join as they can use all the help they can get. He soon befriends Glenn Stone, a militiaman who loves to gamble and loves to have fun. He’s of the pessimistically optimistic sort.

That night, a drunken Glenn is rallying a battalion of militiamen; he talks about life, having fun, and going back to the way people use to live. He’s saddened that they are fighting a war that should have never been waged. Meanwhile, the battalion is on the edge of their seat, heeding his every word, conjointly chanting “Yeah!” at the end of nearly all of his sentences. After that, he privately speaks with Quail and for the first time since his capture, Quail is bonding with someone. They talk about their feelings, likes and dislikes, and generally the state of their race. They end the evening on a serious note before retiring to sleep.

The next morning, everyone wakes up, has a quick ready-to-go breakfast, put out the campfire, regroups, gather their belongings, and march forward.

“So, ah - Quail is it?” “Yeah?” “You armed?” “No.” “Well what use are ya then!” “Well…” “Don’t answer that! Hahahaha! Kid, you crack me up! But really, you’re outta luck. We’re limited on weapons so you’ll just have to stick with us. Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to ya buddy.”

The militia and Quail are walking through the wilderness…

* BOOM! *

An explosion occurs, killing two and ripping the leg off of another. Everyone drops to the ground in a state of confusion. Everyone is on the ground when…

* BOOM! *

Another explosion occurs, killing about a dozen. The commander shouts, “GO! GO! GO!” Everyone obliges and runs blindly through the wilderness, unaware of where the enemy is, while being pummeled with dispersedly targeted strikes of some sort of mini-missiles.

Running, Quail shouts over to Glenn “Who’s attacking us? The Termini usually don’t use gorilla warfare!” Glenn, speaking irregularly due to inconsistent breathing “These strikes seem to inaccurate to be the Termini…and too…small. Typically, if they had located a large group, they would try to takes us out with one big bomb. The only reason they wouldn’t, would be if others of their kind were at risk or if they were looking for something.”

Quail continues to run in a state of confusion as everyone begins to become fatigued. The commander is leading and what looks like clear running is actually a large ditch disguised by nature. He falls in to it, as does a nice portion of those who were following closely. The explosions stop momentarily.

“Goddamn it! I broke my leg!” says the Captain in anguish. All of a sudden, a spinning blade decapitates him and then many more are viciously fired at the group, masking the surroundings in the ditch with blood and bodies.

Some of the militiamen shriek in terror at the horrendous sight of their fallen leader. Everyone then aimlessly retreats into the wilderness as some more of these targeted blades disembody many people, seemingly at random. They look like flying circular saw blades in motion with lots of tork catapulting the blades to extreme and dangerous velocities.

Quail sees an opening and he and Glenn, along with others running in that direction, run to it. They come out in to the open, only to meet a village of humans being slaughtered Bludgers and many buildings in ruins. Falling to his knees as if all hope had been lost, “No!” says Glenn. “C’mon, Glenn, we’ve got to get out of here!” urges Quail. “It’s Acasius”. A Bludger is about whack the unaware Glenn in the head with its robotic fist when Quail thrusts his hands forward, propelling the Bludger back about a hundred feet. “Dear lord! How did you do that?” “There’s no time to explain. I can’t block bullets nor can I take any of them out. All I can do is fight them off.” Technically, although he did destroy two Bludgers earlier, he is too fatigued to even attempt that now. It could cost him his life. Glenn is in awe and shock and stays in his immobile position. “C’mon! We can’t win here! We’ve got to go!” urges Quail as he grabs Glenn by the arm, pulls him up and forces him to stand on his own two legs. Glenn finally starts running. As they run, Glenn fires his gun at nearby Bludgers. “You fool! Your guns won’t work! Their circuitry is encased within bullet proof metallic casings.” “I know that, but some bullets are bigger than the others, kid!” One of the Bludgers shot at turns towards and pursues Glenn. Glenn pulls out a foreign looking grenade, hurls it towards the enclosing Bludger and practically disintegrates it. Both Quail and Glenn, along with every other human there are now in peril with virtually no chances of escaping. Quail occasionally throws a Bludger back, but that’s about the extent of all he can do to them. Quail is becoming even more and more fatigued as the seconds pass, but still somehow manages to fight valiantly. An explosion goes off near Glenn and he flies back and hits the ground…hard! Quail fears he is dead, but does not rule out the possibility that he is merely unconscious and severely burned. Either way, his life is in serious jeopardy. Quail hastefully approaches Glenn when all of a sudden, a Bludger flies right up to him, causing Quail to fall back on his buttocks. This particular Bludger has two circular saw-like blades at the end of its arms and initiates these blades in a circular motion. He is about to strike Quail and mutilate his body. Quail uses his powers to keep the Bludger’s arms at bay. Quail is weakened from all of the fatigue and is even still weakening. He tries to the best of his ability to keep the Bludger’s saws from striking him, but they are slowly, yet steadily coming closer and closer. He then tries using his arms conjointly with his powers to keep the saws at bay, but they still draw nearer. A robot all of a sudden tackles the Bludger on to Quail’s side. Quail gets up and the robot fires some sort of instant erosion solution from it’s gold gun-like weapon attached to its body, and instantly dissolves the Bludger’s skeleton and most of it’s body makeup.

The robot reveals itself to be Celta, a Chief Sympat Warrior, and announces that the robot world is at Civil War, torn over the indifferences of the existence of the human race. More Sympats arrive to help the militia and the civilians of the village and aid them to escape. Quail makes sure they bring Glenn.

A few days later, Glenn wakes up in a hospital of some sort with a Medic-Bot applying some kind of cream to his severe burns.

Some Sympats, only programmed to speak perfect fluent English, are discussing politics in the robotic world and speak about this deeply influential political figure, Valtor. The general consensus is that he’s bad news, and if he rises to power, impending doom will be unleashed on man and robot kind.

A Sympat approaches Quail and quietly tells him something as he was waiting for Glenn to awake. He gets up and slowly approaches Glenn, knowing Glenn is now aware of his “condition. Quail enlightens him that everyone is regrouping and that for the most part, they’re fine.

Remembering Quail possessing some weird abilities, he is speechless and lies there in shock. Quail has a brief talk with Glenn, revealing that the Democratic Robotic Committee election is quickly approaching and that this Valtor character has sparked uproar in the robotic community. Glenn’s expression quickly transitions from a little frightened and confused to deeply concerned. “Valtor; He’s a… a Terminus. His victory would mean the end of us all.” Due to the isolation of his old tribe and lack of communication, Quail is unaware of who this Valtor is, but quickly draws the conclusion that the election lends for some serious repercussions either way you look at it.

Quail uses his final moments with Glenn to announce that the destruction of one of human kind’s most embraced remaining cities, Provolone, is underway. Bludgers have already perforated the threshold with more reinforcements coming from both sides. He informs Glenn that his success in Acasius prompted Celta, Chief Sympat Warrior, to elect him as chief of Battalion E-3, which is composed of both human soldiers as well as Sympat warriors. He says the mission is to re-commandeer the city and put it back in Sympat control. It is vital they keep the city! Quail was informed that the city is merely miles from the hospital and urges Glenn to take care of himself.

“Commander Quail sir. Celta requests your presence immediately.” asks a Sympat Warrior.

Quail changes his clothing and dresses in to this durable, high-tech armor that compromises his entire body. He is equipped with no weapon because Celta strongly believes his “gift” is a very powerful and useful weapon. He realizes the armor has impeded his movement and vision severely so he takes off his helmet and arm plates. Celta demands Quail at least put the helmet on for his protection, but Quail opts not to, stating it only hinders his vision, which would make him a weak soldier on the field.

The final shot is a long one of Quail joining the battle. There is all kind of havoc about as the robots are tearing through each other with all kinds of unknown weaponry. On the horizon, you can see some human clans rebelling firing EMP missiles from manually operated cannon like projectors, disabling the robots of any functions within about a 15-meter radius of the vicinity. The shot moves all over the war zone in a battle-ridden city and eventually zooms back, revealing nuclear weaponry use in the distance. The camera zooms back until it is through the clouds and in the upper levels of the atmosphere…