Hero Factory story by Zeyek: The Sho'i mission

Zeyek's first published chronicle since making the move to the Hero Factory universe recalls a most curious mission regarding what we Earthly beings would most closely relate to robotic... cats:

• Video -- Hero Factory story by Zeyek: The Sho'i mission, Part 1

You will find future stories by Zeyek recorded in the Hero Factory universe here.

A new chapter...



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The Ptah, part 3

The devolution of the Ptah has occurred far, far more slowly than expected.  In fact, the blast of electromagnetic energy released during the Shattering slowed the process nearly to a halt.  Nearly.

The Vorox and the Zesk, are today's remnants of partly-devoled Ptah.  The Zesk are made up of the Guardians, the Brawlers, and the Assassains.  The Vorox are what have become of the Elites and Royals.  These vile, repulsive creatures are the result of the betrayal of their creators, the Great Beings.  The Great Beings devised a life-form on a whim, they encountered an unexpected problem with them, they devised a solution, and then they decided the solution was too costly, and abandoned an entire civilized population in the process.

Today, what are left of the Ptah, the Vorox and Zesk on re-united Spherus Magnus, remain unwanted outcasts of society, a tormented in-between form of what was once great and proud, and will one day be merely mindless pests again, if the survivors aren't all hunted and destroyed by another of the Great Beings' creations.

There is much beauty and wonder in existance thanks directly and indirectly to the actions of the Great Beings, and yet, there is also so much evil, and so much pain.  One can only hope that in their new homeworld they will reflect upon the grave mistakes of their storied pasts, learn from them, and not repeat them!  Let it be understood, that life is not an object to be played with like a toy or experimented with like a selection of chemical compounds!

The Ptah, part 2

The Ptah were a most fascinating species!  So, so dramatically different from their original form.  Every single Ptah was a warrior, though they never, ever warred.  They retained the stoic, fearless nature of the Sa, as well as the silence.  It was silence to others, at least -- the Ptah communicated amongst themselves telepathically.  They developed a social class system that directly correlated to their various martial disciplines.  There was a Guardian class:

A Brawler class:

My favorite were the Assassin class, who would sometimes ride Rahi mounts:

Then there were the larger, even more serious and dedicated Elite class:

And finally, among the Elites there were the most shining (literally and figuratively) examples of Ptah culture, honor, and values, the Royals:

Make no mistake, though.  The Royals were not kings or leaders of any sort.  They served no higher purpose in Ptah society than any other class.  They simply had to take their lives quite a bit more seriously (as if that were possible).

The Ptah formed orderly societal communes -- towns, if you will.  Still Sa at heart, they continued to scavenge, though with much more pride.  However, instead of multiplying so readily after reaching a certain physical size, a Ptah would continue to grow for many years, and then he (she? it?) would suddenly stop injesting raw materials, except as needed for fuel and bodily repairs.  The Ptah would never create offspring, and thus, their numbers no longer increased.

The Great Beings had successfully transformed an uncapped population of nuisances into a proud, honorable, respectful and respectable, planet-wide peacekeeping force.  Oh, but there was a catch.  Always a catch, there, is.  The electromagnetic "treatments" the Great Beings had employed, somewhat of a digital genetic therapy, had to be continually re-administered, else the Ptah would slowly begin to devolve back into Sa.  To lessen the burden, the Great Beings had treatment transmitters created at regular distances in a grid around the entire planet.  Each had a fixed range of effectiveness, and they were arranged such that there wasn't a footprint worth of land where a Ptah could stand and not receive the treatment.  Each transmitter required only a modest amount of energy to power it, but with an enormous global network of them in operation, the cost in resources was prohibitive.  The Great Beings together decided the experiment was no longer worth their effort, and they took the transmitters offline, vowing to figure out some other way to deal with the Sa population problem, whenever it became a problem again.

The Ptah, part 1

Untold generations ago, the Great Beings thrived in their desert oasis on Spherus Magnus.  In vast, sprawling laboratory complexes, they experimented -- no, played -- with life itself.  Played with it like children do simple toys.  Their imaginations ran wild as they sought out new ways to use their powers of creation, and simultaneously learned of new powers that they possessed. Most of their experiments were what you and I would call, simply, "failures."  In this age of wonder and possibilities, the Great Beings showed no remorse for the disfigured creatures and faulty digital intelligences they spawned.  All that they made, could simply be unmade and converted back into raw materials.  For that which could not so easily be recycled, a new creation could be formed to do the task.

After countless years this "playing," the Great Beings found themselves surrounded by life.  Their backyard was all of Spherus Magnus and about it roamed hundreds of thousands of robotic and organic things -- things that had escaped being recycled after millions of individual experiments.  Among these things, was a species of small, semi-robotic, scorpion-like creatures called simply, "Sa."

Legend has it, this name is nothing more than a sound uttered by a Great Being upon first seeing the creature completed.  The Sa were scavengers, much like what you would know as "ants," and they generally helped keep the planet clean by collecting and devouring waste and scraps and shavings of unused materials cast out from the Great Beings' labs.  The one problem with the Sa, was that they were able to multiply quite readily.  Upon collecting sufficient raw material, a Sa would simply spawn a clone of itself.  Soon, they were everywhere.  They were not harmful, but nor were they shy.  They knew no fear, and would never scatter and flee, not even when a Great Being approached.  As such, they became quite a physical nuisance, as they would always get in the way.

A few of the Great Beings decided that to counter this nuisance, rather than developing a natural predator (that would be too simple, and sensible), they would attempt to evolve the Sa population into something more intelligent and deliberate, a species that would, perhaps, form social groups, and well-defined dwellings, instead of randomly roaming everywhere with little purpose other than to feed and multiply.  A treatment was devised that could be delivered through electromagnetic pulses to the Sa.  It would slowly alter their metabolism and cause them to evolve over time into higher-level beings that could think for themselves, communicate, and eventually form societies.  The creatures they would become, would be known as the Ptah.