The Singing Engine: Reborn

Deep in the darkness of a subterranean Choir den, buried beneath the fungal clefts and fruiting bodies, the Singing Engine lay dormant, focusing all its power on becoming one with the Hivemind. It strengthened itself beneath the carpet of fungus, physically and mentally.

Once it had reached the Hivemind, it tested it. An army came to the Singing Engine. Satisfied with its newfound power, the Singing Engine ordered the Choir Walkers to bring to it the dismantled body of an Apex Titanjaw.

Within a week, they returned with the machine corpse, then dispersed.

The Singing Engine arose from its fungal tomb, tearing mycelium away from itself and freeing its limbs. It had grown significantly, its Shrinehead skull now more in likeness to an alligator’s. A row of long, bony spines had grown from its back, too, and it was stronger, smarter, and much larger.

It shed its previous metal plating, then quickly recovered itself with new, larger metal plates from the Apex Titanjaw, as well as obtaining a second Deep Crucible AI Core, which it fused into its chest with the first. The Singing Engine also gained a much larger, more powerful tail.

The only part of itself it did not yet replace were the apex hydraulics fused into its legs, allowing the Singing Engine to leap incredible distances and run faster than any other Choir Walker ever mutated.

Satisfied with its new armoring, the Singing Engine looked up to the sliver of bright light overhead at the top of the crevasse, glaring. The beast leapt upward to the ceiling of the chamber and grasped the crevasse wall, covered entirely in shelf fungus. Climbing up the narrow opening, the Singing Engine emerged from its slumber, several months long.

It hunted down an Apex Leapblade first, locating the nearest with its Deep Crucible signature.

The Singing Engine dueled the machine furiously, tearing it to shreds within minutes and stealing its refined apex hydraulics, and now replacing its own prototype apex hydraulics with their refined form.

It ripped open the machine’s skull and tore out its AI Core before it could self-destruct, hijacked the coding to prevent its self-destruction, then fused this third core into its chest as well.

The Singing Engine then looked up to see an Airborne Somberhull passing overhead….