User:Seemslegit

The clockworks…an inconceivable place, never to be forgotten once you’ve entered…

On my first lift, I had another vision…but it was to stupid that I forgot it…in till now.

The door creaks open, and there lies a girl, peacefully sleeping. What ever her dreams are, they are never to be fulfilled. Quickly the pulsating mass of veins and muscles walks towards the bed, holding a flourish…a final flourish. He winces as he sees himself in the mirror, and then suddenly lifts and drops the blade, finalizing yet another life. She utters such a pricing scream, that even the clockworks seem to shudder.

Now, only the day before yesterday it happened. I have failed…and yet I am lucky to be here, to warn you. I have seen him watch me, waiting for me to slack, and then forcing that sword once again to end a life. Now, in this, I hope you realise that it must die, before he kills the rest of us. I had sworn to protect her, as she wasn’t yet an adult. That is how I have failed.

Tear.

I sat there peacefully. This was my home now. I never had a home before. My guildhall. This means in a way, my family are the guild, and yes in a way they are. But now, we have been invaded, and I shall not forgive those who attacked my home. They shall pay dearly.

I have tracked them down. Now I know who and where they are. The Crimson Order. I have already faced Warmaster Seerus and his "grand arsenal". And defeated him. Why not the rest I ask. Yet nobody believes me when I say I have tracked them down. What were my years of training in combat and recon for then? So my guild, the only ones to believe me and I shall go alone. They all hide in lairs, deeper than Warmaster, but he was insane to even think he would get RT out of Ironclaw Munitions Factory.

They hide out of the way, so we can’t use the normal lifts. Now, this is where the challenge comes. Getting there.

After long hours of abseiling down the sides of never before explored areas, my group of explores finally managed to get into the lair. Though there are no mortifires, this place still has ghostmane stalkers. After a simple entry a party of the things came. Or a large squad. My teammates had five star gear on. But I only had three.

Two floors down, how many more to go? This would take more than guts and gear. I knew we had to have a new tack tic. The parade of flying chainsaws had tired us slightly. Luckily, I wasn’t one to put defeat behind him, and knew the powers of recon cloak so well, I guessed we could get maybe one or two floors down if we used recon cloak. I had brought three extras just in case of a thing like this. When I told the team, they agreed and wanted to go on immediately. But they hadn’t seen the fight I had behind the squad. All they knew is I had gone to fight from the back. Suddenly I fainted from loss of blood. Quickly the team got to work healing him having seen the cut as I fell. It went up the whole side of his leg. It would leave a scar never to go. But it would be worse if hadn’t had a team…much worse. I would die alone, never to see the light of day. A gremlin would throw me into the clockworks, where I would fall into oblivion. But it was all over in an hour, and I was up and running, climbing, scouting and so many other things a recon has to do. This was one of my strong points, something my extreme training gave me. The will power to never give up in till all was done and dusted. But now it was to be tested to the limits: the sub zero area. Recon gear is thin, light and agile, but this costs recons a lot in cold weather. And with the tear in it, I was going to have to use my will power to keep him going…and my mates. Guilds are meant to stick together, helping each other all the way; which is what my guild does. There was ice all over the floor, wall and even ceiling…in fact, the ceiling was what caused us are first difficulty; icicles. They fell like the rockets from a hundred mortifiers, splitting into many pieces freezing us. I like the wolver series for many things, and freeze resistance is one of them.

The corridors twisted and turned into to dead ends again and again. I could feel my strength giving away to the piercing cold; I stumbled across small corridors setting of alarms all the time. I was almost defeated when I had a newfound curiosity; I heard voices of fellow knights. I asked my team and when they stopped to listen, they heard it to. Then, I knew what they were. The lost soldiers. A strong group of soldiers had set out only last month, while I was still searching for are attackers, and suddenly disappeared. All I knew was that. For all I knew they could be test subjects to some horrible mutation device. That was when my body regained control of its self. I knew I must save them. I quickly started formulating a plan of attack. This time, brute force was needed. So, all back in are normal gear, each with some adjustments for are position, we hailed the assault. First, I placed my Dark Reprisal Mk II to batter down the door. Worked like a charm. Then the alarms set off a R.E.D. alert; the worst. But I had expected this and had five bombs on hair trigger alert; activated by the sound they made a barricade. Quickly my friends shot quite a few gremlins down with their Sentenzas. My bombs gave off their final explosion, and then gremlins came rushing in. This was where we needed to protect are guardian, so he could protect us. Extremely soon the soldiers came out, giving us yet more power. Each gremlin got the death mark within seconds. Are strikers where here and there at once, hitting fast and furious. An Acheron dashed here and there killing many gremlins. I was afraid they would retreat and run from this devilish place with my target, but they didn’t. They did the exact opposite; he came. My nameless gremlin boss of this lair. All of a sudden, all my friends started bombing this thin path to bits: a dark Retribution here, a flash freezing Shivermist Buster there, and somehow right under are un-friendly gremlin, who I shall call death mask, a Graviton Vortex. If that hadn’t been there to stun death mask, we would have all been dead. He must of come from the deepest depths of tire three I thought. We blew a hole in a tanker full of some freezing gas like that of are shiver mist busters. I gave off I a high piercing cry as my blood froze around my cut. As I fell into to tanker, I saw hundreds of glass capsules containing mixtures of blood crystals and gels. I now understood what this place was; a biochemical weapon factory. I saw gremlins with weapons beyond imagination. It was time to back-slang out of here. I shouted this and spun my nightblade as if it were a leviathan blade, turning my recon cloak on as I did it. We ran straight for death mask, as he must have come from the main control centre.

A Nitronome was flung over my head into the lift, exploding so only a whole was left. We jumped down just as are cloaks broke, my newfound friends realising we had gone, followed us with god speed. This was where we had to wreck havoc. There were just to many little red buttons so no button was left un-pressed as we cascaded through. Now we just needed a good old window out of here. But there were none.We were surrounded by loads of gremlins (I was always fassinated by the ammount of gremlins there are in the world!) This was whn are savouries came; Lieutenant Feron and a full squad came in. At this moment I must have fainted again, for now my memories are blank. So my group told me this bit later in are new guildhall.

Feron’s squad dominated the control centre easily, then medic knights came, healing both any other and I wounded knights. I woke now. I and nine other recons were sent to de-contaminant the factory. This was heavy work, as we had to first destroy the tanks, pump the freezing gases out and finally destroy the new weapons. These included a new form of healing stick, which I was happy to see thrown into a furnace. In-prisoned gremlins helped with this, as they had tried to destroy the weapons anyway.

I stood counting my chances at escaping alive…

There front of me stood five snarling ash tails and a damned alpha…but I was an electric vog. They would never get me on their own. But all together, I was no match for them. Suddenly, I flew my caution into the air, snarling with rage back at them, I buffed my self. Feeling the lovely charge in my bones, I charged for the alpha. Without there leader they would ran for their puny lives. I ran, jumped and then disappeared. With the element of surprise, I flipped out of the ground with a blast of lightning, bit the leader three times in three seconds flat, and was gone. Five wolvers all tried to get in my hole at once, but I came out, and using my tail’s bolt of electricity like a mace, threw myself to them. They howled with pain as my high volt charge passed through their blood and bones. Suddenly, it was my turn to howl. The powerful claws and teeth of the alpha bit through my thick coat of clear white fur. I had become a real blaze, as the oily stuff they produced covered my fur, and was set alight. This was only a little injury compared to what I had faced before. Then I saw my chance. The alpha thought he had the time to buff himself and go into a final attack. But this was the last straw. I had to finish him now or never…I chose to try now. I knew how to charge, fake a miss placed paw, and then go in for attack. This was only one of my traits. The alpha was to confused to stop his slow buffing and dodge my attack. When the they saw how badly I had injured him, they fled. He tried to scratch me. I just turned my back on him and left.

I ran. Every second I wasted they were nearing. I ran in a frenzy of fear and desperation. Perspiration broke out on my forehead. Left, right right again, forward. I saw it. A dead end. I had only one choice. My mini map indicated a level below only two meters off and not far down. I wondered, but there was no time. I had two choices; one, frenzy run through the hoard of wolvers, or two, do the jump.

The jump: My health was low, so still running towards the edge of the area, I started gaining speed. Through my head went X-minus 5...X-minus 4...X-minus 3...X-minus 2...X-minus 1... It had been echoing all around when the skylark had been about to set off. Then, back in the real world, I jumped. It was the third time I had to do this. The first, I landed in a gremlin's house, just as he was changing ( AWKWARD O.O). Second time: broke an arm. Third time lucky? I certainly hoped so.

Finally I started to go down, after a seemingly prolonged ascend. The sense of free-fall was one I loved. If I could jump down the clockworks into the core, I would of any day. But I would die long before I hit something, so I had had to refrain from doing so. I opened my eyes and saw darkness. Where had the level gone? I was still gaining speed in till, *SPLASH*, I landed in water. My helm turned on its lights, and started scanning the area. The screen said wolver den, ashes to ash tails. But why was it so dark? I heard a clanging. Oh. The artificial sun had broken and a team of gremlins were fixing it. * Clang *, * clang *… continuously. I nimbly scouted the area, searching for a lift. Grrr…grrr…graw. Wolvers. Very near by. Grrraw…grr…grrrr. But asleep. With out further ado, I left. This was where things turned bad. I was free of one pack, but had gone into another. I stumbled over a small mound of earth. * crunch *. This woke the wolvers…

zrrt... systems on, calibrating weapons system...weapons on...calibrating armour settings...armour on.

Glacier rebooted after its fight. It had meant to be a quick training fight, but turned into a strenuous battle. It's metal body, made of cradleoniom, was fine. It's weapons, a Triglav, Glacius, Hail Driver and a Shivermist Buster infused with flash frozen gremolonium, were fully conditional as well. Finally, he checked his shield. Completely dead. Two simple choices; one leave it and find a gremlin mender, unlikely because he at the lift of an ashes to ash tails at the beginning of a beast stratum, or fix it himself after another try at rebooting himself. Glacier wasn't one to back down a challenge, and wanted his shield fixed properly. He tried rebooting, but this failed. He went to the lift and pressed down. The screen said 'Mecha knight-670093528 (Glacier) going to Wild path. Scanning systems. Send mender to fix shield? (Will be there in a decicycle).' Glacier thought 'I forgot about that option.' Calculating times in his head, he figured out he could get to the gremlin stratum in less than a decicycle if he went down. He pressed no, and the lift sped down its shaft. Glacier stood there, thinking about his mercies. Three things; his gear was fine, and his weapons. He was an upgraded Tier three robot, and this was tier one. That was all. He had a good chance. The lift slowed down and he saw the fiery land in front. As he walked he heard a sizzling. His circuits were being fried. His weapons were weakened. Testing them all, he found his gun was useless, as all it did was send a melting blob of ice, five blocks and then rose, as it became mist. 'Beautiful, but I would prefer a working gun than a sparkler' he thought to himself...there was no one else to think to and he didn't know how to think to someone else. He walked onwards...charging his sword, he stepped onto a party button. Nothing happened except the door that should have been replaced with a battle door opened. What the hell? He released the charge and walked on. Splatters of blood lay everywhere. 'Feeling' it, or scanning it, he found it was fresh. Then came sounds of metal and claws hitting each other in light battle. He ran as fast as his sleek but heavily armoured body could. He shot a bullet to warn that fight he was joining. There was a pause in the fight, and then Glacier's Triglav flew into the group of knights and froze them solid, head to toe. All of them stood there, there was nothing else they could do anyway, shocked. The small pack of young wolvers was badly wounded and ran while they had a chance. The ice broke. Not for long. * Poof.... * the shivermist burster froze the ground, and then disappeared. Glaciers body flew round them, hitting them continually with his Glacius in till he got his Triglav. They were finished. *ZAP* Glacier tripped over as a random malfunction went through him. His cradleonium body had that one problem and that was once electricity had got in; it took ages to get out. This spasm of pain made him hit the first knights ice cube encased legs. Turning round to free the rest, he simultaneously charged his. Glacier wondered as he flopped to the ground if he would ever be free of the infernal shocks he got at the worst possible times. He heard yaps. Then, the pack he had saved flew over the walls. But this time, there were some differences: they were healed, they had a silkwing and they were a bigger group with three alphas. The knights were surprised seeing the creatures they had just defeated jumping over and attacking them. This thought them not to mess with Cradle. They set off running. But no, Glacier would not let them get away with what they had done. He would have given them ten good shots, but he remembered his gun wasn’t working. He set off at the fasted pace he could. The lift was in sight. Seeing the biscuits in his pocket, the wolvers followed him. He was unpindownable. Nothing would get the better of him. Glacier had one last resort to teach them a lesson. The gale. He spun, getting quicker and more powerful. Suddenly, all around him what had been a fiery zone became a freezing tornado. Wind destroying everything whistled and howled. The knights turned around, and seeing the body of Glacier, fainted. Their bodies were picked up and flung down into the clockworks. The wind started slowing down but still throwing the packet of biscuits to the wolvers, who were extremely happy with this and left, in till it stopped. He looked around. Whoa. The place was frozen but slowly thawing letting steam go everywhere. He stood on the lift and gave his final gaze to that level…

Sirens sounding on the skylark, shouts of spirilans calling to each other

The Skylark was crashing. Iris couldn’t find her family, or even the escape pods so many people were shouting come here to different places. Then, she heard a high-pitched voice. His daughters voice. She ran over there, jumped through the closed escape pod doors, and found himself with his family. Then, she looked out of the pods 'porthole'. Whoa, a planet with only half a crust almost. Holes all over the crust, and below the faint outlines of something looking like clockworks. She would soon know that one, they were and two, there were also named the clockworks. She would also know that they were a death trap, and she would call them hell-works. The pod started spinning. She could see over pods burning as they crashed into atmosphere. Five…four…three…two…one…the pod started burning as well. The yellow flames flickering over the window blocked the view. Nobody had any proper gear; it was going to be burnt with the ship. They were in ‘comfortables’, known as proto gear. They also had no weapons, only what the pod provided, again, proto weapons. ‘Ewe’. Iris’s daughter had been nearest the door when someone shot it with a Punch gun, so she had seen what the pod had landed in first; a mud pool. ‘Hurry up’ Arena, Iris's husband, urged. 'But-' *Splash* '-Aww.' They got to the edge and with help from the rescue team got out. They were quickly briefed with what to do, and then killed all in their way (roasting a chromalisks, and making jelly pudding with the things they killed). At the rescue camp, they rested. They had such nightmares that they just went on the journey to haven during the night. Iris was caring for a two year old child, wildfire. He had, even though his parent’s colours were amber and a dawning yellow, red as his colour so they had called him wildfire. While she was getting him to sleep (a seemingly impossible task to anyone else because he was always alert, looking around, and getting into trouble, yet iris always managed) Lumbers, retrodes and scuttle bots were the main things they faced. Iris had an odd feeling. Then she fell. Her family knew that she was having a vision. Iris wasn't quite normal; she had a thought of sixth sense. In her vision she saw spirilans living on Cradle, as if it were there home planet...certainly a mysterious planet if she saw that. Some how, she felt a connection with the planet. Maybe the answer really did lie at the planets core, or maybe in history. She had always felt some weird sensation when looking at cradle from the Spirilans home planet, Spiral. Maybe they were Cradleians. Or Coreians. But then, the light was dawning on her. No, don't wake up...no. Iris whimpered at the light. Arena and Grace didn't bother asking what she saw. Nor did Wildfire, but only because he was still a suckling. Iris then remembered to turn her com-link on and contact her guild. She told the others and did so. 'Hello? Iris reporting. All my family are alive and well. Nope. Were going to haven right now. Half way through. Yes, I had a vision. OK. Whoa, set up base already? Sure. See you then.' They continued, only stopping to feed Wildfire. They arrived in Haven. Separating, Iris went to the guildhall, where everybody warmly greeted her and wildfire. Seeing everything was all right, she updated her com-link. Arena looked up the gear they were selling. Some good stuff. He bided [and later won] two brandishs, a calibur and wolver gear. Grace wondered around and had a swim in the pond, everybody knowing her so she didn’t care. She was an idle wonderer who could settle down and make friends with every body, so nobody minded seeing her scantily clad body swimming there. Iris left guildhall and called to Grace. She got out, with remorse, and they went to her father. They bought their own gear, combining jelly, wolver, cobalt, magic and a good set of weapons. The suddenly guild called again. 'Hello?' '....' 'Great' '…' 'Really?' '.' 'Fine'. 'Err guys.' 'What’ replied Arena, Grace. Wildfire mumbled something in his sleep. 'We've been told to make a squad and look for the alpha squads recon mods...' Iris said slowly.

This has been made into a proper fanfic at: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/49439

Nothing interesting.

File:A HA!

Ok, i see