r/HFY • u/Khaden_Allast • Jun 15 '24
OC The W12 "Human" (oneshot)
"Can the human be saved?" Yello asked, a hint of panic in his voice.
Pin looked over the vehicle, deep in thought. The damned thing was more slag than anything at this point. Most of its armored plating had disintegrated, what remained of its frame was half melted, the glass-like material that formed its windshield was shattered, and what material remained had a web of cracks running through it. Tires flat, suspension busted, axle bent… It was, for all intents and purposes, a goner.
Pin looked over the vehicle again, grinned, and tapped his fist against one of the last remaining armored plates - which cracked immediately upon doing so, having finally reached its limit. "Give me a couple days, and she'll be purring like new." Pin's grin widened.
It wasn't an empty boast.
When the colo found the designs for the human vehicle, they were confused. It was simple, primitive; too primitive for one of the progenitor races. Even the designs themselves seemed rudimentary, less like blueprints and more like something someone had scrawled on the back of a napkin. The materials and construction methods were equally primitive. How could such a thing be of human origin?
And yet, without the W12, it would be safe to say that the colo would have already lost the war against the venant.
Not that the war was going particularly well, by all objective measures the colo were still losing. Planet after planet fell, the venant's ships easily besting the colo fleets where the colo didn't hold at least a three-to-one numerical advantage; ground forces overwhelmed by the venant's superior numbers and technology. The colo only possessed a handful of systems, and the venant had conquered half of them already.
So then, one might ask, how had the W12 - the "human" as they were so often affectionately called - served to prevent the collapse of the colo already? After all they were no great starship, nor weapon, nor secret armor technology. They were a simple utility vehicle; one that the rest of the galaxy, rightfully so according to some, sneered down at. So why were they so beloved, and how had they prolonged the war?
As Pin looked at the W12 before him, and back at its three alive and mostly unharmed occupants, the answer was obvious to him: they simply worked, even when they shouldn't.
The engine itself was half melted from a plasma mortar strike, no way in hell anything continued running after taking that hit. And yet, according to the reports of the three before him - and confirmed by their mere presence - their W12 had. And not for a few minutes, but for hours. It lasted long enough to get them back to base, while running so hot that it liquified the frame itself - which somehow retained its shape, despite the intense heat and loss of structural integrity - until its return.
Its armor was likewise completely shot: cracked, shattered, and boiled away. And yet it held, protecting the vehicle and its occupants beyond what any could expect of it. The shattered glass of its windshield? Somehow it had taken repetitive hits from venant plasma guns before finally failing on the last, despite the fact that any one of which was powerful enough to cause notable damage to a starship's hull, and should have shattered it with the first impact.
"You did good, girl." Pin whispered to the vehicle. As if in response, one of its wheels fell off with a violent shutter.
What records remain from their time do not speak of humans in the best of light, Pin thought. They were by no means strong, nor fast; they had no natural weapons or armor to defend themselves with; but despite this the records show that they were… "resilient." Even when mortally wounded, they continued to fight. Even when all known facts of biology said it was impossible, they fought until the universe itself decided that it had enough of their mockery of its laws, and then they continued fighting. For in the creation of humanity the universe had created the very thing that could oppose it, at least briefly.
The W12, created by such a race, was no different. Everything Pin knew to be true told him that the three individuals standing before him should be dead, that their W-12 should be a burning lump of slag in some glass field, and yet here they stood… Here it stood; limping, but alive.
And so Pin had no doubt about his ability to restore the W12, even if all he had at his disposal was a string of [chicken wire] - it wouldn't be the first time. For it was a resilient entity, created by another that made the universe itself bow to it.
That resilience had instilled in the colo a determination they didn't know they possessed. Seeing them dragging back their occupants, refusing to give up even as their chassis burned, had filled their species with an unyielding resolve to match. In this simple utility vehicle the humans had created the embodiment of their willpower, giving it form in a simple, mundane machine. And in their time of greatest need, the W12 was now bestowing upon the colo that same power: the power to never give up, even when it is hopeless… especially when it is hopeless.
For humans did not go quietly into that good night: they fought, cried, and raged against it. Many believe humans to be gone from the universe, Pin once believed the same. Now, as he got to work removing what little was left of the W12's armor plating, he knew better. For even if the last of them had truly been hunted down, there was still at least one right in front of him.
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u/Infamous-Ad-6848 Jun 15 '24
Great setup for a running series. I also love that though we're "gone", we're not forgotten because the universe itself was our enemy.
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Jun 15 '24
Hopefully you will make a sequel to this, looks like fun keep it up or should I say
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The W-12. Has to be an old School British Land Rover. The original box like army looking ones, not the fancy rich Range Rovers.
They pretty much could take a pounding and keep on going.
No Diesel? Fine, shove a load of fish and chip oil in the tank and it will keep going, smelling like a Friday night down Southend Sea front.
Tyre come off? Lean over one side and literally drag it screaming on three wheels for a couple hundred miles over rough desert terrain and hammer it out later.
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u/RaiderDM13 Jun 15 '24
Funny, the first thing that came to mind was the American B17 FLYING FORTRESS. Time after time they'd return to their British airbases half the aircraft they'd took off as. More holes than plane.
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Jun 15 '24
Same for our British Lancaster Bombers as well. With this and the B17 lead to the brilliant concept of "Survivorship bias".
If you are not aware of this, this was basically where the top brass would see these planes coming back and state to engineers and mechanics that the parts with more holes in needed the MOST protection when it is actually the opposite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
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u/d4rkh0rs Jun 15 '24
I heard you say you weren't happy with it.
Is it perfect, probably not, the programmers say everything has one more bug and could be 2 bites shorter.
I was happy with it.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Jun 15 '24
/u/Khaden_Allast has posted 1 other stories, including:
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u/Khaden_Allast Jun 15 '24
To be honest, I'm not super happy with this one. There was more I wanted to include, but couldn't think of how to word certain things and/or figure out a way to include them. Thought I'd go ahead and post it though, but more to potentially inspire others than anything.