User:Skywalker12

Chapter 1: A world called cradle

The sound of sirens pierced his ears accompanied by panicked cries and varying explosions. Although there wasn’t much to see through the small, square window on the pod he was inside of other than an ordinary looking hallway lined with other statis pods like the one he was positioned in, he could still tell that something had gone wrong. Staring through the window and pounding on his pod's door a little, he cried out trying to call attention to himself, each knock from his armor making a loud clanging noise as the two metals collided, but it was drowned out in the sea of other knights doing the same. he could see another knight peeking through their window across the hall while doing the same, a panicked look on their face as they stared back at him. he didn’t have time to contemplate it though, as another explosion drowned out the knights banging and caused the pod him was stationed in to shake, swaying for a bit and throwing him from the window onto the cold steel floor, making another loud bang as him stared up at the window dazed. Just as soon as it had happened, the pod became stable again, and him struggled back to his feet.

“Just what the hell is going on?”

Climbing back up and peeking out the window, he looked in terror as the hallway was engulfed in flames. The pod across from him was still in decent shape, a little banged and singed and the window broken, but the row of them to its right were destroyed beyond recognition, flames spewing from them, the metal and framework broken and crooked accompanied by bits of broken glass blown across the floor in little shards. Looking harder, he could make out an object sticking out from one of the damaged spheres that the knights were held in. Although things were blurry as he fought back tears, as he saw something drip from it that flowed like water, what it was became clear. A knight’s arm was sticking through where the window once was, blood dripping from it and onto the floor, their hand loose and devoid of life. Panicking, he let out a scream, banging harder, faster, tears streaming from his eyes as he continued to try to reach out for help before eventually collapsing onto the ground. Through the sounds of fire crackling and sirens blazing him realized the severity of his situation. he was trapped, and all he could do was wait to meet the same fate as the other knights. he laid on the floor, his eyes widened in terror as his breathes became short and uneven, and as him closed his eyes accepting his fate, the sound of another explosion pierced his ears, and all went silent.

The hatch for hestatis pod opened. her eyes were squinted, a soothing light beaming down onto heface and waking hefrom heslumber. him raised hehand to shield it from heeyes, confused and trying to make out what had happened.

“Am I Alive?”

Before he could ponder it too much longer, two figures towered over him, obscured in shadow and appearing as no more than silhouettes. he stared at them as one of the figures extended its hand out, and although still puzzled and shaken, he grabbed it as it helped him out into the light. It had dazed him, and although it had taken a while to adjust his eyes to it, he was able to make out the landscape around him, amazed by what he saw. It was a relatively normal looking place, appearing like a field of grass littered with rocks, bushes and trees. Looking around, view eventually brought him back to the two who had rescued him, able to make them out clearly now. They were two fellow knights, although they were taller than he was. They were both the same size, but they still taller over him, which upset him a little, but he was still grateful none the less. Their faces were obscured by the equipment they were wearing. They were a higher rank than him, wearing equipment that only those higher up and ridiculously strong had access to. One of them was wearing a five starred set geared towards bombers, red and rounded around the neck, the other was wearing a higher set geared towards swords with a set of little pointy ears. It was pure white and looked as though there was nothing but layers of snow covering it. Darkensang owned a gear, was a variant of those that all new cadets started with, a simple helmet to cover his head but not his face, and a set of armor with a pouch positioned on its back for storing items. His was colored red, his favorite color, and although he was a bit intimidated, he spoke.

“What happened here? How long was I out?”

“You know, a thank you would be nice too, young kid,” one spoke, a deep voice coming from his helmet. he figured it was a man. The other knight remained silent.

“Oh ha ha. Thank you for rescuing me. Now will you tell me what’s going on?”

“Certainly,” the other knight spoke, the voice of a woman emitting from her helm. She continued to explain the situation.

“There was a malfunction on the Skylark. We’re not sure what started it, but the first explosion knocked out the ships power grid.”

“Is that what caused the statis pods to wake us up but not let us out?”

“Exactly. Only a few of the pods were able to be opened on the power we had left in reserve, but another explosion cut off the connection to the statis pods and our ability to remotely control them.”

“So you’re one of the people who were in the command center.”

“Aren’t you a smart little one,” she said.

“We tried to get the ship under control and free as many knights as we could, but the situation started looking grim.”

“What happened?”

“We lost the ships engine, and it went critical. Before the ship was lost, the captain ordered the remaining assisting knights into evacuation pods, us included. He stayed behind, freeing as many statis pods as he could using the emergency hatches stationed beneath them. We would’ve activated it sooner had we known that we had lost so many.”

“And what happened to the ship?”

“After we took off, we watched as it exploded. If you look around, you’ll be able to find scraps of it here and there.”

“So how did our pods get from there to here,” the young knight asked, looking back at his pod. It was spewing smoke and the metal was bent, the sphere it once was looking like it’d collapse in on itself at any moment. With a sigh, he looked back towards the knights as they moved away from him, motioning for him to follow.

Guiding him through the maze of field and trees, he followed the two who towered over him, watching as they dispatched monsters that impeded their progress. The man was a master of bombs, laying traps around them whenever they were ambushing and blowing monsters away and out of sight. The female would dispatch them through methods of brute strength and swordsmanship. The young knight questioned how this land was inhabited with these little creatures, but her attention was brought back towards the knights when they began explaining again.

“That’s the thing. This incident happened as we were passing over this planet here. If it hadn’t we would have been drifting out there for god knows how long.”

The male knight chimed in, explaining in her place as he began to dispatch another crowd of monsters, little cubes which looked like they were made of jelly and little lizards who'd poke their tongues out occasionally.

“And that’s the story of how we got here. Lucky huh?”

“Yeah. But what happened to the other knights? And where are we headed?”

“There are teams of knights scouring the crash site for pods like yours, freeing knights trapped inside and guiding them to where we’re taking you. It’s a small camp, but it’ll provide safety. Better than leaving you to fend for yourself out here, you can already see why.”

“A rescue camp,” the female knight chimed in as he pointed at a dusty walkway that seemed to form a bridge. Moving back towards him and patting the shoulder of his armor, he looked down at the young knight.

“This is where we part ways. There are other knights to rescue, but if you walk over that bridge you’ll be able to reach it.”

Bidding them farewell, he watched as the two started going back the way they had come, disappearing into the shrubbery that lined their path. Turning back towards the bridge, he began to make his way across it. Dust flew into the air with every step, clouding the air, but between the bouts of silence between his footsteps, he could make out the sound of faint machinery. his curiosity got the better of him peeked over the edge of the dirt path that him was following, seeing giant machinery underneath her. It was like the inner workings of a clock, lined with cogs and spheres of metal. Each one appeared large enough to contain a miniature world of its own, and the gears that accompanied them turned and sorted the pods, changing and turning the landscape above it as it moved, although he could hardly feel it. It continued making loud noises and continued down further than he could make out with his eyes alone. Scurrying along the path in amazement at what he had seen, he was greeted by another tall knight at the end of it. He wore the standard gray gear that officials wore, yet he was too confused to speak. Reading the expression on his face, he spoke with a smile on his face.