text: [Themes: sci-fi, animal perspective, action]
  
  The road is pockmarked. The ancient stone is so ruptured and ruined that walking on it is a daunting task. Unfortunately, the road leads right into the mouth of the Grey Lands, so it must be followed. Without the cover of the trees, you see the dark clouds and ball lightning that are an almost permanent fixture of the sky. "The ghosts of the ancients," Death Mask once said, "raging in eternity."
  
  Your bullet-thrower is slung on your back. You lay a comforting hand on its leather-wrapped grip.
  
  "Rare that I have cause to come this far," Metal Sage says, interrupting a comfortable period of silence.
  
  You don't respond. Instead, you sweep your eyes over your surroundings. It's all blasted flatlands and dead grass, interrupted only by the road. The ruined metal carcasses of the ancients' chariots line the road like gravemarkers.
  
  "What happened here?" your curiosity gets the better of you as you ask the older chimp.
  
  "They didn't respect the spirits, boy. The ancestors destroyed them with the mighty atom." He leaves you with that thought as you continue your journey in silence for some time.
  
  Days later, you come across a forgotten metal god. A great suit of armour, not dissimilar to the plated suits forged by the gorilla-nomads your tribe has encountered before. It stands at ten feet tall, with two gargantuan cannons mounted to its arms. It was pointing one of them, before it died. The cockpit is half-open, filled only with dust.
  
  Metal Sage bows. You do the same. It regards you coldly. You long to climb inside.
  
  "Great sentinel of the ancients, I bid that you let us pass," he whispers reverently.
  
  Your longing to wield the power of the great machine grows. "We should strip it," you whisper.
  
  Metal Sage shakes his head. "It's blasphemy, boy. Never worth it to trifle with the spirits."
  
  His commitment to spiritual purity is infamous. If you want to claim the great machine, you will have to use force.
  
  > LEAVE IT BE
  Something inside you is drawing you to the mech, but you manage to ignore it. You shake yourself out of your reverie, banishing the chills creeping down your spine. You fearfully hoot a few times.
  
  "Good, boy. Ignore it. There's an evil spirit in that one," Metal Sage says. He skirts around the mech, giving it a wide berth. He eyes it like one might eye a fearsome predator at a watering hole. You follow him. Soon, you've both made enough progress down the road that the steel sentinel is just a troubling memory.
  
  Hours turn into days on the road. Always, your eyes are watchful, waiting for the ambush that never seems to come. Soon, the Grey Lands stand on the horizon. Its dead spires stretch impossibly high in the sky. They're great grey obelisks, marking the hubris of the ones who came before; the ones who thought they could duplicate the forest.
  
  "My visions tell me it's not far, boy," Metal Sage says. His metal tentacles produce a strange series of gestures; prayers, most likely.
  
  You nod. "What is this weapon we're searching for?"
  
  "We'll know it when we see it, boy."
  
  Walking in the shadow of the stone trees chills your soul. You remember Death Mask's stories about how the ancestors climb trees in eternity, and wonder if human souls climb these trees, invisibly. The thought is enough to trouble you for some hours.
  
  Eventually, you come to an intersection of two paths. There's a high concentration of ancient chariots here; from the looks of it, they slammed into each other at high speed, causing a pile-up of even more chariots. They're all rusted together, giving the whole scene the appearance of one great metal carcass.
  
  "I have seen this spot in my dreams, boy. The weapon of the ancients lies near. You stand guard, boy."
  
  You do as instructed, as Metal Sage begins to inspect the ancient vehicles.
  
  > VISITORS
  Apprehension turns to boredom as you continue to stand guard. Metal Sage is meticulous in his searching, using his great steel limbs to tear doors from their frame and search for the contents inside. You allow your thoughts to wander.
  
  As you peaceably daydream about eating a mango, the clattering of hooves against concrete tears you from your reverie. You shriek, startled, and train your weapon at the source of the disturbance.
  
  A gorilla on a horse approaches. His left arm has been upgraded with steel exoskeletal bionics, and wires snake over his shoulder and into his spine. Both his eyes are whirring red lenses, not unlike the one used by Red Eye. His horse is similarly upgraded, having been augmented to carry his massive frame. A curved sword hangs at his belt, with a strange battery affixed to the hilt. His head is elaborately wrapped in a scarf, which circles his forehead repeatedly and stands in the air. He dismounts before you.
  
  He nods. "As-salamu alaykum, brother," he says. His voice is low and deep. You look to Metal Sage, who seems to be too preoccupied with his work to notice the interloper. "What brings you here?"
  
  "Metal Sage," you jerk your head to the tentacled chimp, "has received a vision from the ancestors. We've followed his vision here."
  
  One of the gorilla's eyes clicks and whirrs. "I do the same. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, revealed the location of a mighty weapon in my dreams, seven days ago today. Me and Mu'izza, here," he pets his cybernetic horse's muzzle affectionately, "have been seeking it out."
  
  "It's ours," you say quickly. Your hand tightens around your bullet-thrower.
  
  One hand closes around his sword. "There's no need for blood to be spilled today, friend."
  
  "I've found it!" Metal Sage yells. He hoots and pants triumphantly, shattering the tension in the air. He emerges from the wreckage, holding the weapon aloft. It's a large metal tube, with a gun-like firing mechanism. Strange runes are printed on the side. In one tentacle, Metal Sage holds a crate, with identical runes.
  
  > ATTACK
  You fire at the gorilla. He grunts in pain as three shost strike him in the chest. To your horror, they fail to draw blood; you now see his implanted subdermal armour. He draws his sword and chops your arm off, effortlessly.
  
  As you fall to the ground, already half-dead from blood loss, you hear Metal Sage shriek. He takes aim with the weapon.
  
  "No!" the gorilla bellows, raising both his arms in warning. "Don't fire th—"
  
  His words come too late. Metal Sage pulls the trigger, launching a nuclear warhead at the gorilla. The last thing you see is a bright white light. It annihilates you, the gorilla, and Metal Sage, as well as every building within a three block radius, leaving behind enough radiation to make this spot uninhabitable for the next fifty years.