Dead Tech (Short Story)

(Yes Z's own zombie story partially inspired this)

## Premise

A mysterious stranger comes upon a colony being harassed by cyborg zombies.

## Characters

* Raz: A mysterious stranger from parts unknown
* Colonists
	+ Sheriff Cadens: A humanoid woman
	+ Deputy Morik: A silicoid deputy to Cadens.
	+ Prf. Deas:
	+ Pending
* Nekromancer: A mysterious being
* Pending

## Part 1

"Ugh..." said the youth. His skin was dark, his clothes were layers of black and grey, with a hoodie, and around his neck was a red scarf. His hair was a mix of white, blonde and crimson, and his eyes were rings of burning crimson red around small gilded dots.

He sat atop a gravestone in a mist covered cemetery as he waited for the sun to die down. He was bored, far from amused and heavily annoyed. He was curious what problem was here that he had to come, or why his friend sent him in this mortal incarnation on this adventure. These burial grounds gave them impression he would be more interested in whatever little adventure he had cooked up. That was until the night came and they came with it. A thick mist covered the ground and he looked at it with interest taking out a cylinder shaped device he turn some knobs and pressed a button, examining what he was seeing. He looked at the small screen that appeared on its side and was amused.

Then they came, out of the mist, all around him. They were walking, shambling dried up corpses moving by the bundles of wires that wrapped and within their dead flesh. Some of these wires wrapped around their hands so completely, they were gone, replaced instead by bladed edges, clubs and even the odd barrel.

"Oh..." said the youth "aren't you all just...fascinating." He could hear it, screeching, like metal scrapping against metal, but at a much lower volume and to an organic rhythm. He stood up, standing on the grave stone and pulling out a rod, a golden cylinder. Transforming into a series of golden rings, the youth pulled back his sleeve and placed his hand within it as the rings closed onto his arm, morphing into a golden gauntlet. From above his wrist a blade made of white particles was emitted and the man readied himself for battle.

That was until he noticed the noise in the distance. A large armored truck rolled into the graveyard, running over several of the revenants, before stopping to let out several figures in black suits covered in white armor and sporting large blaster rifles. They opened fire on the zombies as one ran over towards the boy, a particularly large humanoid. "Huh...party poopers. Meh, may as well see how this turns out..." he said, turning of his blade. The large figure grabbed him and ran back to the van, which the group entered and they took off in.

Raz found himself sitting between the very large humanoid and another, both with theirs arms crossed as the van sped away from the cemetary.

"Well..." he said "that was...interesting..."

"Look here kid..." said the one next to the driver, clearly a woman's voice "Next time you pull a thing like that, I'm going to leave you to those things."

"Duly noted..." Raz said with a smug tone. Raz noticed the badge on her armor, clearly marking her as some manner of Sheriff.

"Kid are you trying to get me mad..." Raz paused, seemingly thinking.

"No..."

"Good, now where are your parents."

"Parents...?"

"Yes, your parents, your address, your home."

"...I don't live here." Everyone looked at him.

"Kid, this is not the time for-"

"Lady, I know not who you are, nor why you assume I'm from around here...but you calling me a child, is irony at its finest considering how old I am." There was silence in the vehicle.

"Scan him." The skinnier one next to him pulled out a device and moved it up and down.

"Clearly humanoid..." they said.

"You needed a scanner for that?" said Raz.

"Rather...actually no, this anatomy has a lot of redundancies, and...I'm sorry, but are your cells undergoing nuclear fusion?" There was silence in the room.

"Not entirely accurate, but not wrong..." There was a clear and obvious feeling of discomfort.

"Okay...what is that on your arm...?" Raz raised his arm calling attention to the golden gauntlet he wore.

"That...is very advance technology."

The force field wall came up sealing Raz behind it in a cell, as the 'troopers' proceeded to walk away.

"Your hospitality leaves much to be desired..." said Raz.

"You're not a guest, you'r an uninvited pest..."

"Ouch..." he said with sarcasm.

## Part 2

"Well Doc...?" asked the Sheriff. She took of her helmet, to reveal an orange hair young woman, with blue tribal markings on her cheeks, and blue eyes. She was with her silicoid deputy, a rock man as shown by his missing helmet. They were in a lab of some sort, looking at monitors with a humanoid in a grey suit and white lab coat. They were partially reptilian in appearance, with HUD display on the left side of her face.

"Nothing much..." said the scientist "The subject has moved." They were looking at a monitor where one of the zombies was located in a room without doors or window. Its head had fallen onto the wall, as the thing leaned against it. Its left leg was clearly a cybernetic attachment, and its right arm was a long metallic tentacle with pincers at the end. "I haven't figured out why yet..."

"The room is dampening the signal..." said Raz. Everyone turned to see Raz behind them, eating sour cream and onion chips from a plastic bag. Immediately all the troopers there raised their weapons at him, but he glanced at them and continued to look at the monitor.

"How did you get out of your cell?!" shouted the sheriff.

"It's called...walking..."

"Do not sass me boy!"

"Again, the 'boy' thing, I would bet one of the few organs I don't have a back up for, that I'm older than everyone in this room. But that is aside the point."

"What is the point?"

"Depends, have you lot figured out what's causing these...techno zombies to rise up? Otherwise my 'powerful revelation' may in fact not be all the interesting..."

"Do not play with me."

"Nanites..." said the scientist.

"Oh, well that narrows down the list of things for me to reveal."

"Are responsible for this?!" shouted the Sheriff. Without warning, Raz had his fingers around her face, and with an effortless movement of his arm, flung her into the wall. The troopers rushed to her as he simple walked up to the scientist.

"So what else have you figured out...?"

"I SHOULD SHOOT YOU!" She shouted.

"Don't do that..." said Raz looking back at her, "it would tick me off..." He turned back to the scientist "So what have you figured out...?"

"Uh..." she said somewhat confused. Raz raised an eyebrow and then continued eating. "Well, we know it's nanobots, they seem to attach to dead flesh and augment them with cybernetics, rather crude stuff as well, except for the ones with cannons..."

"Have you detected a signal from this...?"

"Uh...no, we haven't noticed any radio waves...do you think someone is behind this...?"

"To 'think' implies a certain degree of...uncertainty. No I do not 'think' someone is behind this. These nanomachines, they can infect dead flesh, and combine to form crude cybernetics. Contrary to popular belief, most nanobots don't have the ability to just...produce more of itself. Also..." Raz pulled out his cylinder device. "I keep getting subspace 'pings' from this thing since I got here."

"Subspace...?! But..."

"Radio is very easy to pick up and track in this day and age."

"Wait...you can track this signal...?" asked the Sheriff.

"Yes and no, as I said, 'pings' short bursts of communication, most likely meant to be picked up by subspace transceivers in these things. Unless of course you lot have been monitoring subspace activity...?"

"Oh..." said the scientist "We have!"

"Vundabar!"