Chapter one.
The patter of small feet announced the entry of a gremlin. The gremlin was a female, not big, about the size of a Knocker. She was dressed in golden clothes, denoting command over others and high rank. The hands, feet and head that stuck out from the clothes were darker than most. She had been a Darkfang.
As well as white goggles, she had a band around her forehead. It was pale blue. In the exact center was a violet circle. Inside the circle was the gremlin symbol in crimson.
She was obviously a figure of importance since when she entered, the chatter around the room stopped almost instantly and, except for a few awed murmurs of “Ulon”, there was complete silence. The gremlin, Ulon, surveyed the room for a few moments and then spoke.
“Are the mecha knights finished yet?” Though she was smaller than expected of most of the higher rank, her voice was firm and so strong that all in the room could hear.
One of the gremlins, cleaner than the others in the room (except for four like him) and wearing earrings of Luminite, stepped forward.
“Yes, Project Commander Ulon, they are.”
Ulon nodded.
“Activate the Project.”

When Ulon returned to the room a while later, the room was quite crowded. Fourteen constructs had joined the company.
“Just finishing with A-248, Commander.” The one with Luminite earrings straightened, then turned to a box leaning against the wall. He tapped at something, then straightened again.
“Done.”
The front of the box swung open, revealing a Blight Knight. It was inactive. Its eyes were dull.
All at once, the eyes slowly brightened. The Knight, supporting itself, climbed slowly out of the box. It took its first step…
…and fell over.
“Shouldn’t be doing that too much, luckily,” the gremlin with Luminite earrings whispered harshly.
The Mecha Knight dragged itself up off the ground. It looked around at the others in the room. Then it turned to the Luminite gremlin. Its eyes spoke for it and it had no need to say,
“This is?”
The gremlin sighed. “Very well. Your code is A-248. You are a modified Blight Knight. I am Loi. Those over there are my fellow Sub-Commanders, Oma, Siph, Torl, and Mesan. Oma commanded the workers on Retrodes, Siph on Gun Puppies, Torl on Lumbers, and Mesan on Scuttlebots. There,” he pointed to Ulon, “is the second commander of the Project. Her name is Ulon.”
The Mecha Knight, identifiable as a male with his light but masculine voice, caught onto one of those words.
“Name? Then, what is my… name?”
A startled expression passed over Loi’s face. “That’s a new one,” he muttered. Aloud he said, “You are a contruct. They have no names. They have codes. Yours is A-248.”
A-248 frowned slightly. His voice was new, and he needed to stop a lot to find words to fit in his sentence, but his meaning was clear;
“That doesn’t… seem… fair,” he said.
Loi lost his patience. “It doesn’t HAVE to be. You are a construct. You obey us. We, gremlins, are the masters. Understand?”
A-248 slowly shook his head from side to side, then he went over to join the other constructs.
Loi hurried over to the commander.
“Ulon, I don’t think this is going to work. They’re being quiet, but eventually they-”
“I know,” the small gremlin said quietly. “But there’s nothing we can do right now. If we take action, we may lose valuable fighting power just because we got nervous. The Colony isn’t like that.
“The Colony isn’t weak.”
-
Most of the gremlins were not in the room now. A-248 knew they were nearby, since most of them were shouting so loudly it was a wonder he couldn’t understand a thing they were saying.
The gremlins that remained were guarding the door. A-248 was not sure why, and he felt that there was no reason for this. But, being one of the first sensible constructs created to far, he devoted his time to his own kind.
There were nineteen others, but as quite a few of them looked down on him as the last to be activated, and others were too shy, and yet others had a few dozen things preventing them, he knew only seven so far.
A-137 was a Firo Knight with a temper as fiery as his swords. A-248 noted that he was gifted with more speed than the other Mecha Knights and he would likely need it; he seemed the kind of person who would charge into battle before thinking.
A-569 annoyed A-137 just by being a Cyro Knight, but A-569’s calm personality struck out at A-137 even more. To A-248, she was the kind of person who would think for as long as ten minutes before landing one blow, possibly even not on the enemy.
B-100 was probably the only one of the seven that actually avoided A-248, looking down on him like some of the others, but everyone knew him. He wanted to command the others and he was prepared to bully and even perhaps to destroy some of them to be the leader. He was a plain Retrode, so it was surprising how none of Retrodes influenced by the elements could match his laser-power.
For some reason, A-248 found it easier to make friends with two other Retrodes than with the Mecha Knights. B-248 could inflict poison like himself, so he especially liked her. B-112 was a Voltrode. A-248 was interested to discover that B-112 had wondered the same thing as himself, but had not asked it out loud.
However, being more outspoken than A-248, once he knew the answer he was all for going and demanding rights. A-248 did not want him to do it, but there was no reason for him not to, yet B-100 jumped in and ordered him to forget it. B-112 was willing to fight, with the result that the talking stopped in the next room and Oma burst in with another experienced engineer, and managed to stop B-100 before he had done too much damage.
But now, it was fairly quiet, except for the chatter between C-569 and E-100. E-100 was likely the weakest of them, being a plain Scuttlebot, and admired C-569, a Slush Puppy. A-248 had discovered that Gun Puppies usually cannot move, and that these five were quite special. They were built on three very short legs and could move nearly as well as A-248 and the other constructs.
There were two others, but A-248 couldn’t say he knew them yet. E-137 and E-248 were the only ones of them that seemed to be violently in love—to others, that is. To A-248, they were either two idiots, or just having fun. It was still quite convincing. E-137 apparently had the idea he was the Red Rover who had “blasted the blasted Oilers” as he said. E-248 comforted him sweetly and they continued like this for hours. The name given to E-248 by Spiral Knights, Sick Puppy, seemed ironic. The way she and E-137 went on, A-248 was going to be a Sick Knight quite soon.
He took a look around the room. Half the gremlins were asleep. The other half were either trying to wake them up, though some were keeping an eye on the group of constructs that were keeping as far from B-100, though B-100 did not seem to notice.
His eyes moved to the doorway… and stopped. A gremlin was standing just inside the room. It was Ulon. It looked as if she were alone, but A-248 could sense the rest of the gremlins behind her. She was surveying them. A-248 pretended he had not seen.
Had the others noticed? No, they hadn’t.
But as soon as he thought that, B-100 noticed Ulon. He was afraid of the leaders after what happened with B-112. He backed up slightly. Others saw or heard this, so in a few seconds all the constructs were looking at Ulon.
She watched them with a blank expression. Then she appeared startled, frowned slightly, and left the room, the shadows behind her disappearing afterwards.

(I was overcome by a sense of guilt for leaving this in the document... not that anyone cares.)

I'm so lazy.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11pJl8Zgt4-r85rPVuI4s8HFg4sHsp9bHHdqY...
I'm using Google Docs now.