Hour’s Till Midnight (RP Thread)

Quickly after running into the woman, Matthew ran face first into the console controlling the elevator lift, shattering the screen. After a moment of recovery, Matthew stumbled backwards, falling back to the ground. After sitting up, he looked down to see his Chest plate stained with drops of blood. Matthew felt his face. Bloody nose. Matthew groaned, and wiped his nose with his scarf. The one and only reason his scarf was red, was because he always managed to do something like this. Not necessarily doing something clumsy; just getting a bloody nose.

Glancing at the lift, he couldn't help but notice that the platform itself was missing. Looking downwards, Matthew could see the platform moving downwards. Zap!

Matthew flinched, moving away from the sound. Matthew frantically looked around. The Console had spazzed again. Oh what now? How am I supposed to handle this?

Matthew stared down at the woman. Very young. Why was she going to help fight the Swarm? Or maybe, was she just a passerby?

"Oh, just kill me now, already."

The sound of metal slamming against metal rung throughout the Arcade.

"It was a metaphor!" Matthew was crouched, huddled up, covering his head. Looking back, he saw that the lift was back. Though, not usable...

Matthew frowned. For multiple reasons. One, he OHKO'd a woman. Two, he gave himself the third bloody nose that month. Three, he was going to miss the mission. Four, all the competent engineers were down somewhere fighting the Swarm, and couldn't fix this. He crossed his arms.

Like any engineers would have been late.

[The Arcade, Haven]

A Watch Platoon marched in, the last one from the Darkwatch's Section 1. They seemed more Guardian Class then they did Striker or Specialist. Once they where inline for the next Elevator down the Groups Engineer broke off and sat down on the empty platform pulling out what looked like a pipe. On his side was a tool belt full of stuff only useful for repairing and breaking down. Of course on his back where the rest of his tools as well as a small energy pack for weapon recharging. To his surprise he saw the broken console and Elevator and shrugged, not his problem yet might as well watch and enjoy the show.

With one long drag from the pipe the Engine kept watching wondering how some one could crack the Console of an Elevator and only walk away with a bloody nose. Must be a new helm design or something.

Matthew watched the Engineer work his magic. Matthew's eyes seemed more tired than guilty. In the end, he really couldn't do anything about the lift. He scratched his head, not knowing what to do at the time.

As a choice, Matthew did not wear a helmet. Less protection, in exchange for a wider field of vision. Because of lesser protection, Matthew ran into battle in a modified Vitasuit Deluxe, which gave additional armor resistance, increased mobility, and several health benefits. And he could scratch his head. Despite this, his armor was still much weaker than most.

It really was a miracle that there happened to be an engineer nearby. Matthew looked over to the woman. He had a habit of complusively glancing back at problems again and again. She still appeared to be out. Matthew sighed.

A few minutes passed by. Matthew was looking continually between the woman and the Engineer. Neither were making progress. Signs of impatience were noticeable from Matthew. Tapping his foot, twiddling his thumbs, that stuff.

Suddenly, a thought struck Matthew. Was the Engineer not doing anything to fix the Elevator? He observed the Engineer for a few moments. He was doing nothing! Matthew stood up, and marched over.

"Hey umm, you're an Engineer, right? You mind fixing the lift down to Moorcraft? I kind of need to go down there for something."

((OCC: This post has been edited.))

((Playerman, the Engineer is not doing anything. Sorry please read the post before assuming what he was doing. Currently he is watching what happened between you and Robo-Drilldigger, your going to have to speak up to get his attention.))

((OOC: What is wrong with this new forum layout? Also, 1st is Robo N8 and then Count Bleck working with Aisha (Which we discussed In-game)))

Robo N8 started walking towards the elevator to depth 19 but it was broken and he could see fighting underneath. So, Robo N8 waited at the lift until it worked

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On the way up to depth 21, the lift died half way there and he got annoyed. Count Bleck opened the box and sparks started flying. "Count Bleck should sleep and wait until it moves up". Count Bleck went to sleep on the other side of the sparks and went to sleep.

During Count Bleck's dream though, he saw a young girl wearing what looked like a sklover set. Count Bleck walked carefully to the girl but she seemed weakened as if she got hurt. Count Bleck had a hatred for knights but wasn't sure if she was a knight because a staff is usually a fiend or gremlin weapon.

Count Bleck asked her "Hello. Are you a knight?" The girl looked at the devilite and started to shy away. The girl said "I-I am a-a knight b-but don't h-harm me." Count Bleck then said "You don't look like a knight and what's your name? Mine is Count Bleck" The girl then said "I-I-I don't e-even know h-h-how I-I-I am here? A-a-also, my n-name is A-A-Aisha..."

Suddenly, the dream ground shook and Count Bleck woke up. "So, Count Bleck should look out for that girl, she could help Count Bleck."

Waking up feeling cold and rather stiff, Almar climbed his way out of the makeshift bed he constructed, and apologized to the skull holding down the tent for using it as a rock. Starting a small fire, he placed a small metal tin over the flame, and poured in an egg snatched from one of the orders cargo. Carefully adjusting breakfast every once in a while, Almar served up the egg by placing it on the remainder of last nights bread. It might've been a nice morning, it was quiet enough to be, but the dead air of moorcraft manor along with the skulls sitting next to him kinda took from the "home-y" feel. Midway into his meal, Almar noticed a familiar hooded person approaching. A gremlin, stout and slender, resembling a snake coated in dark purple fur.

"Me an' Hannah have already worked everything out, no need for this" Almar said quickly, nearly choking on his meal.

"Ah but stranger, i've come to offer you a deal, a good one in fact. A deal this Hannah, in fact no one needs to know about" The gremlin said with a wolfish smile. "You see, we can help each other, I need dark shards from the shadow lair, and YOU need to survive."

A decent point, living would be nice. "And how are you going to help me survive?"

"Im glad you asked!" The man chuckled, and presented a small flask.

"Soooo i'm going to drink away the death then?" Almar mumbled

"No no no! this is no drink!" The man said, deeply offended. "The way i heard it, that swarm stuff thats got the order spooked? It's weak to fire. So I came up with this is little concoction I call red glare."

Taking the small flask, uncorking it, and taking a whiff, Almar found himself gagging. "Gah! It smells like gasoline!"

The gremlin smiled, "Close, but this can soak into metal. Just set the metal on fire, and it'll stay lit for weeks!"

"Uhhh-huh" Almar said, looking at the odd bottle "And how much dark matter did you want for this?"

"Only a handful, enough so that you can smuggle it through checkpoints, I know you're good at that sort of thing" The gremlin said with a smile; gesturing to his egg."

"Alright, sure I'll meet you back here...when...I..." Almar trailed off, noticing the man had already gone. "Well, might as well." Almar said, running the liquid down his sheath, coating his Kamarin's blade. And thought to himself that he really needed to stop meeting people like this.

Standing up Almar made his way over to the camps, and decided to see who was around. Off in the distance, Almar saw his snake-like recruiter sitting with some commander. (Wasn't he there at sign-ups?) Almar thought. ('Never get too close to someone you might lose', thats part of the code right? Thats why we all have nicknames, so why is he....Never mind, i dont wanna know) Almar said, shaking the questions off. (Might as well head over, see if i can't bum a drink off them) Almar said reaching into his empty wallet and making his way over.

Daud looked behind him at the three guards who where suppose to be watching his back but instead found it more fun to find out what was at the bottom of the bottles of drink they brought. Skotino on the other hand had a flask with some kind of fowl smelling liquid inside that made the hairs of the nose stand up on end. With a sigh Daud downed the last of his bottle before tossing it aside and resting his hand on his blade.

"Alright we wait one more hour, you get the knights up." One of the knights behind him left following Orders. "Also Skotino we need to think more about the Engineer's who will be coming with us to the forward camp. Last time we heard it was in the sanctuary down there. The only reason we need so many troops are for protection of those damned Engineer's and Bio-Tech's. As for everyone else, I know there are some old ruins down there we should investigate...Are you even listening to me?"

Daud looked at his Commanding Officer who seemed to be looking into the eyes of a Dust Zombie. The loud moaning from the bag taker over took the sound of Dauds anger. After a moment Skotino patted the zombie on the head before turning and looking at his second in command. The expression unseen as his eyes pawned the idea of the dive. His eyes where on the Dark Matter Crystals they would be taking back as well as the fact of the monsters that lye below them.

"Honestly Daud, you are more of a Joy-killer then a Deadman. Even if it is your nickname. As for, what ever you where talking about I am sure we can figure it out given the right amount of time."

"We have had seven months." Daud said before he took a drink. "Seven long months to plan this whole thing out and just now your coming to the idea that maybe we should have a plan. Honestly what goes threw your mind some days?"

Skotino looked at Daud a moment before removing his helm. His face was deformed and covered in what could only be described as darkned scales. Clearly a result of the experiments that happened on him from a long time ago. His hair was short and his eyes still burned red as he reached up and pulled a purple crystal from his head leaving a hole in his temple. Once that was done he placed the helm back on and held up the crystal.

"Dark Matter, or at least the liquid form of it that flows in my body. Its starting to harden, some one get my medication will you?"

As if on que a Field Medic walked in with a small kit in his left hand. Once the Medic was next to Skotino it hid most of it actions but the sight of a red liquid was injected into Skotino's arm for some reason.

"Maybe you should cut back on eating things you know give speed up the crystalization rate?" Daud grumbled as he sat back into his chair causing it to squeak. "But then again what do I know about your body, the one you decided was the test subject for our little revival experiment."

Shaking his head Skotino looked at the little hooded creature sitting next to Daud, from the looks of it he just wondered up and sat down.

"Well old friend, seems you have a visiter, try not to hurt this one like the last ones. Come along M, we have some zombies to catch."

With that said Skotino bolted off like a shot, talking to some one who was not even there called M. Meanwhile Daud looked over at the man now standing where Skotino use to be.

"Can I help you?"

((Almar walked over to Skotino, gremlin is gone))

"Help me? sure! How about a drink? Oh and if you could find the time to designate an acctual sleeping area, next time, that would probablly help too." Almar said, trying his best not to look at his commanders...scars? However, this didn't work out very well, as he seemed to catch Almar in the rare moment he glanced at it.

"Anyway, the point is, our current set up isn't working. You see, remeber the old tale of the lion and the Zebras, the divided we stand, divided we fall sorta thing?" As a rhetorical question, Almar stopped for only a second to ensure a reply wasn't given, "Look to the spirals, they have a designated camp to sleep, eat together, and whatnot. They have a brotherhood amongst them. There's a reason why the abandonment rate for the order is so low." Almar said, frantically.

Noticing he had, more or less assaulted the man with his statement rather than talking to him, Almar looked down at his hands, "I'm not saying you aren't a leader, in fact i'm proud to follow a hero like you into whatever mess the spirals got themselves into. But...." Almar stuttered, thinking about his next words very carefully, "Just remeber, there are two wars we're heading into, one against the body, and one against the mind. A little unity could go along way down the line" Almar said in a hushed tone.

Having delivered his payload, Almar sat and waited for the commander's response.

Daud said nothing as he let what was said sink in. Of course it was meant for Skotino who was currently chasing down a Dust Zombie that seemed frighten of the man. Meanwhile Daud was left to answer for his Leader. After a second he took a drink of the bottle then offered it over. Of course there was a seat beside him where Skotino should have been sitting and the crystal that he pulled from his head on the ground, it too glowing with the same aura Skotino had coming off his body.

"Well, your right." Daud said as he set the bottle down for the man to have. "What your saying is we are not as well equiped for the task of taking care of the men and woman under our charge. But then again take this into point as well. We work off the grid as it is, living in ruins in the Desert well under them rather. If you wanted some where to sleep we spend crown for you room but food is on you. Weapons and the like are free from us, damages are taken from your pay. We have done everything we can to make it fair and easy for you lot. Even the Higherups like me still sleep on the ground with a blanket."

"What I am pointing at here is simple enough, we 'normally' are able to get places to sleep as well as supplies in and out of areas rather quickly. But the man over there chasing down the Zombie put this together in less time then it takes you to slip on a boot. For you see, his illness is starting to effect him because the medication is getting lighter. Its one of the reason we are going into that hell hole, for the main ingredient of his medication. As well as the reclaming of lost Spiral Order equpitment, data, to understand the enemy more and so on." Daud looked at the man not angry at all or with ill will, rather understanding. "Look, if you can make it threw today tonight you will be sleeping in a save haven below the dark hell that awaits us. Food and drink will be had and I am sure Skotino will be saying something."

Daud got up for a second, as he did the sound of the stress being released from the chair was heard. Each step Daud took sounded like a Trojan walking one more step closer. It was made clear how heavy the man was just by the sound of his foot steps and way he carried himself, not fat but muscle and armor alike weighing him down. The Warden did not go anywhere but rather stood up to stretch his legs.

"Go ahead son, speak whats on your mind. You can speak freely around me, I take nothing as disrespect."

(I may be bad with faces, but how did I mess up a spiral for a Darkwatch?!) Almar thought to say something convincing, but the damage was done.

"Heh, well I guess that's why you arent giving off purple smoke then, and why you haven't hit me for insubordination yet!" Almar said with a nervous chuckle, reminding himself that it was a very real possibility. This man, if you could call him that, did something that Almar had never seen before. He made Almar feel tiny. Even with all his gear on, Almar still felt lighter than he looked.

Taking a gulp of the drink, Almar let out a cough, "ACK- A little early to be bringing-*CACK*-out the strong stuff ain't it?" Almar said, putting the drink back.

After some small talk, Almar eventually made his way to where the rest of the mercs were gathering

"Son, before you leave proper. I hate to tell ya. But I am the second in command of the Watch. You might know me but the bloody nick name the call me. Daud 'Deadman'Nychta. Now head on your way. Best not get your self killed other wise those nice things you asked for the others might never get the proper credit for there order."

Daud turned and stopped his foot, the ground around him shaking slightly as he did so. It was mostly to get the attention of the unit in the area.

"Listen please, as of now, Ten O'clock we will start sending down groups Three and Four. Follow the orders of your Lieutenants who are encharge of your Platoon. Skotino will be down shortly when we get the last of the late runners in there Platoon. When you reach Emberlight Platoon One leader will start leading you to Depth Twenty-One. That means there will be Two Depths between you and the Entrance. I don't care what you do between there and the Shadow-Layer. Just don't over do yourselves and don't make the Watch look like a fool."

With that said Daud turned and went looking for Skotino who was talking to the Kat behind the counter of Moorcarft.

Aisha looked around the dream world when the devilite vanished from her sight. She walked in the direction of the shaking and saw a giant creature, what looked like a robot. As she went closer, the robot turned around and started to attack her. The robot was green meaning it was corrupted by poison...

Aisha tried to fight back but the robot was too fast for her and she got knocked down quickly. When she was on the ground, the robot grabbed her by the arms and legs and started to stretch her. Aisha started to scream and managed to break out of the grasp.

Aisha checked the robot and then it shot out a green spore. The spore latched onto her but her suit lining blocked it from harming her. The robot then flashed blue and when Aisha tried to attack her, the attack bounced off it and hit her. Aisha fell onto the ground in severe pain and started to faint...

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Aisha moaned quietly and her eyes where slowly opening. When her eyes where fully opened, she tried to get up but her back was in pain because of the hit. Aisha pulled her staff and used it as a barrier. Aisha managed to stand up but her back was still in pain.

As she made it nearby the lift, she saw it was deactivated and Aisha sighed. Why was everything going wrong for her and what was up with that weird thing that happened? A robot covered in green patches and a devilite with a top hat and cloak.

Aisha started thinking "I should watch out for both of them, Count Bleck seems he could be an ally but that robot will be a threat." Aisha looked at her bag and noticed a book was missing. Aisha then said "If the book that I think is missing, it will cause trouble in Moorcraft Manor. The lift needs to get fixed before it locks up but, I am not ready because of some random person or jerk."

((OOC: The poison robot is a poison mecha knight that uses his hands more than his sword... Also, this new forum layout is bad, it's all walls of text...))

[The Arcade]

The Engineer got up and walked over to the elevator. He pulled the face pannel off of it to see the damage, all the while smoking like a train.

"The hell where you thinking? The console is not a wall you can just slam into, these things are old and always need some work done."

His hands where quick but not as quick as his mouth as he said every fowl curse he knew while the man worked. Sparks flew from side to side and wire was cut in and out of the underside of the Console. It had only taken twenty minutes or so but in that time the Engineer was able to get the Elevator working again, but he had to use his Helms' display as a Console.

"Alright, all aboard. Next stop Moorcraft Manner."

"Alright, all aboard. Next stop, Moorcraft Manor." Matthew thanked the Engineer, who appeared to be very irritated. Stepping on, Matthew looked back to the woman once more. Her eyes were open. Matthew shuddered. Still need to think about how to apologize...

He looked out into Haven. Probably the last time he'd ever see the place for quite a while. As well as the last fresh air he'd be getting. Matthew took a deep breath. He mentally prepared himself.

...

...

...

Did I leave the lights on?

...

Matthew refused to budge for several minutes, his eye twitching slightly.

(So there was a reason why i've never recived a promotion! I couldnt tell spirals apart from my leaders apparently) Nappy thought to himself.

But the day seemed to be dragging on, slowly and without much to do. The spirals and Darkwatch were getting ready to disembark soon, and the dailiy fatigue was setting in for Almar.

"Maybe ill just lay down next to the elevator, im sure the could probably wake me up when it's my turn to go.."

Nappy said as he grogily made his way over to the elevator.

"Yes this'll do fine, I have plenty...of..time"

Nappy said to himself, slowly slipping into dreams.

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A simple time, Almar, his mother, and his grandmother all gathered around a campfire, cooking a grand looking pheasant. Songs of cheer from neighboring camps swirled around him, the fire itself danced along with the tune. The best of times...

"We are one" echoed throughout the camps

"What? who's there?!" Almar said looking around

The music had gone, along with the other camps, leaving Almar with his family and fire. Frantically, He scrambeled over to his mother and began to shake her.

"Mum! it's time to go! It's not safe here!" Almar said drastically"

His mother grabbed his hands and brought him close, her eyes glowing a cursed red.

"We are countless. Consume us. Be reborn" resonated around the encroaching darkness

Almar watched in horror as his mother slowly turned black, and eventually faded away as ashes. The campfire slowly dimming, the light was fading, and out of the darkness he found...Himself. A larger, blackened version of himself, seemingly broken at every joint. Walking as though the only thing keeping it moving were strings, like some shadowed puppetter were holding it's strings. Almar had no armor, no sword, only...a bomb. Lit, aimed, and thrown, the device found itself logged in the creatues chest. The explosionhad destroyed the creature...but in it's wake left shards, the shards reforiming into various people. Targets, employers, friends, family....everyone he knew. The Creatures surrouinding him set aback only by his dwindling campfire.

"We are the vessel through which immortality is achieved. Join us Almar!" The voice hissed sweetly.

The fire, down to mere embers held the creatures back only inches from Almar. With a gust of wind, Almar fell onto his back, smothing the remainder of the fire. In an instant, the darkness converged on him, tearing at his flesh, smothering him, enveloping him. through the crushing weight, the void had one final command, this time, softly spoken into his ear

"Revoke the frailties of flesh...Let...us...IN"

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Almar awoke with a start, a small boot knife in his hand, only to find he had been encased in equipment.

"Yeah, REAL funny guys, never gets old! Hundreth times the charm I tell ya!"

Almar said angrily, as he kicked his way through the equipment. For a moment, Almar tried to remeber what he had drempt about, but soon decided a better use for his time would be finding who did this prank....again.

Aisha saw an engineer fixing the lift and while he was doing that, Aisha looked for something to weaken the pain that she was suffering. Unfortunately she had nothing to weaken the pain and saw the lift was now working. Aisha got onto the lift and put her staff down near the edge because there was no space and the pain started to become unbearable...

[Elevator to Moorcraft]

The Engineer looked down that the girl confused and slightly worried.

"She going to be alright?"

Reaching behind him the Engine tossed the woman something nobble on, perhaps settle her gut.

--------

[Moorcraft]

The Merc's started laughting shortly after Nappy woke up, the found it slightly ammusing how he always got so angry over the simple little joke. The Sargant of his group looked at him with a smile holding a cup of what looked like coffee.

"Relax Nappy, it was a harmless joke, not like you really care anyway. Your normally sleeping thew out most the day anyway."

Aisha felt something being tossed on but she was still in pain. Aisha was looking at the ground from a lack of energy because of the pain. Aisha thought "Why did I run out of Divine Stars? They give me energy and remove some pain but I had to run out..." Just then, she lost balance and landed on the elevator ground. Aisha's energy has been dropping at an alarming rate because of the first time she got knocked out. The reason for the fast drain in energy is because Aisha suffered a cut in the back which has been making her bleed heavily but it hasn't harmed her suit lining.

Molpos started training against more stalker scuttlebots and did this for about 2 hours before hearing a message to go see Daud. Molpos walked over to the train and went to Moorcraft Manor. Molpos sat down and waited to reach Moorcraft Manor. After reaching Moorcraft Manor, he got off the train and walked over to Daud...

((OOC: Couldn't think of much...))

Aisha started to lose eyesight because of the amount of blood she lost. Aisha then felt something pokey in one hand and when she tried to see it, it looked like a Shadow Star but... where did it come from? Aisha was close to fainting and she knew that eating this star would mean life or death and Aisha started to eat the Shadow Star.
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The flavor was disguising and wanted to make her be sick but after she swallowed it down, she crouched and tucked her head in because she got a head-ache. "Argh! The-the pain." Her cut in the back was sealing up with a dark crystal (Similar to Trojan's) and her staff's curse is now dealing more self inflicting damage (Now 15% per hit).

The Engineer looked at the Crystal formed on the back of the woman. Knowing what was happening he quickly took out an emergency gun that was reserved for special cases, such as this. With a steady hand, he fired at the crystal breaking it shotly after its formation. It was out of the safety for himself and the man with him that he fired. But he knew deep down his deed was well with in the legal limits of his weapons use.

"Damn it, that's not something you see every day mate. Good thing I got it early."

Reaching down the Engineer looked over the new dead body knowing that the formation of the back was the signs of a Trojan. With his boot he moved the helm around to see what he could but sadly by the time the Crystal was formed the body was already too far gone to safe.

-[Aisha, is dead. GAME OVER]-

((Sorry but at that point she was dead. Please make a new app to carry on your adventure.))

((I guess I might have to edit my last post slightly, for reasons.))

~~~

The lights... What will it cost...

...

Over the deafening screeching of the elevator, a single shot rang out. Matthew looked over, startled.

"Damn it, that's not something you see every day mate. Good thing I got it early." The Engineer reached down for something, while holstering an emergency gun. Matthew looked down. Or... someone.

He stepped back, in horror. What even happened? Matthew noticed the crystal shards scattered about the lift.

"A transformation? That quickly?" Matthew clenched his fist. His katana definitely had something to do with this. But, nothing had ever happened like this in the past.

With a sigh, he released his grip. Didn't even get to apologize.

Alexander opened the hatch, ushering the recruits out of the basement, having discussed the details of the mission and what they were going to do when they finally descended. Coming up to the top of the staircase, the Veteran could already tell many events had transpired since they were out on the town floor last. The Mercenaries that he had heard of must have passed through recently. He reholstered his rifle and and started to jog toward the elevator where his recruits had gathered around.

The Lift seemed to display a broken-down symbol on the console, and no Gremlins that looked capable of repairs could be seen. Alex sighed as he ordered the team to take the Rapell equipment from the basement and set-up by the ledge.

After an hour or so later, 5 machines were set up by the ledge next to the elevator, with the Ranger insignia stamped onto each one. Attaching the harnesses onto their belts, they fell forward off the ledge, and began to walk down the cliff, jumping every so often to cover more ground. After a few mins, they had descended to the next level, where-upon they released the harnesses, and checked themselves over to make sure their gear was secure. Alex unholstered his rifle and gave it a once over with his eyes, before nodding slightly and telling himself it was fine.

They had landed on a ruined rooftop of a building complex, green gasses swirled and gathered below, as odd totems were scattered about and creeping vines covered almost everything. Alexander hustled the squad together and told them who would do what. 3 of the team would collect the objective. They would keep radios on at all times, and would tell alexander of any goings on in his blind spots. One squaddie would remain by the entrance way to the rooftop, to make sure none could ambush him as easily. With the positions settled, the squad set off to gather the "objective".

Alex sighed as the last recruit saluted, and made his way over to the staircase. The rifle Alex was carrying had 2 prongs by its business end lowered to provide support. Ammunition was set up by his side, as well as the other radio set to the Ranger's frequency. Alex breathed in slowly, before exhaling and getting into the zone. Looking down the sights, he loaded the 1st round into the rifle.

The 3 Rangers below radio'd in that they had just left the building and were en-route. They mentioned a long narrow area, which recieved a confirmation by Alex, who had adjusted his position and was ready to go. The mission had just begun for the rangers, and already the dead had been awoken.

[Depth 20: Concrete Jungle, Boneyard]

Slowly from the murky water the undead arose from their shallow graves. Moaning and hissing for the meal that wandered into there mists. It seemed they where joined by something rather, unwelcoming to the party, a Deadnaught. Fully armored and seemed to be leading the charge. Keeping his shield above his head as to prevent something from hitting him there. It was, for the moment, as if they where expecting company this evening.

---

[Depth 18: Emberlight]

The Watch had started to settle in, buying drinks and speaking with the out cast gremlins like old friends. The current Commanding Officer winched slightly at a drink she was handed. Yet defined her role by shouting orders at people. Not the most friendly of persons she was, but damned if she could not get some one to follow her.

"Move the main supply crates to the elevator exits. Some one cut these cables they are in the way!"

She yelled, as she ordered one of the Engineer's of the Platoon started to undo the Devices that lead down into the next level. Tossing them off the side into the pit. It was not his job to care who they belonged to, just to get them gone. Once they where the man put his tools away and found himself a nice drink listing to a Bio-Tech try and teach some of the Merc's the finer details of his work.

"Here's to you guys"

Almar said, raising his glass to all the other patrons in the tiny gremlin bar.

"In fact, heres to the freedom of Emberlight, the ladies back home, and an easy paycheck!"

Almar roared, causing a small uproar of cheers and sloshing drinks. This would be the last time the entire group could come together like this, and they weren't going to miss a second of it. Well not all of it anyway, Nappy had already had a few too many, and began to stagger out of the bar. (Can't get too wasted, can't afford a hangover tomorrow)

"You guys stay safe tomorra, ya hear?"

Nappy said, waving his hand as he began to walk out along with some mumbles. Before he left, however, he turned around at the doorway...

"Except that bastard who keeps piling all the gear on me, you can go ahead and charge riiiight on in"

Another round of laughter could be heard from the bar as Nappy found himself a cozy little corner to sleep in. Making sure to sleep relativly close to the elevator (Though not close enough to warrant being covered in junk again) Nappy decided to sleep and wait for Daud. He still owed him a drink for mistaking him for a spiral. Flipping down his mask, Nappy felt the warmth of his gear slowly lull him to sleep

The 3 recruits were dazed by the sight of the behemoth as they tried to keep a cap on their nerves. Taking out their autoguns, they stepped back into a line-formation and opened fire on the group of undead that had appeared before them. As the projectiles blazed around and through the undead residents of the concrete jungle, a couple of dust zombies fell to the barrage.

The rangers were almost relieved that they had some defence, until a pulsating light burst outward from the Deadnaught, causing the skulls of the recently slain undead to shake violently. Fresh limbs and rags burst forth from below the skulls, claiming the heads as their own. The rangers stood in awe at the regeneration from the zombies. Their stunned silence as an order from Alex barked through the comm-link.

"Rush past that big creature, and get it to show its back to me. While it has its shield I cant bring it down, and while its up, you wont be able to bring its minions down!".

Two of the rangers nodded for the third to make a break for it. The chosen ranger rushed low to the ground, and ducked under a leaping zombie, rolling ahead. Both the rangers behind him reloaded their guns and opened up a 2nd barrage into the dust zombie group. Rushing past, the other ranger made an attempt at cutting the Deadnaught's stubby legs. The Calibur clanged off, doing almost nothing. The behemoth of an undead turned its head as it went to raise its lance. The Ranger dodged out the way only just, landing face-first on the ground. The deadnaught turned completely the other way to finish the Knight, leaving its head exposed.

Alexander uttered a short "Amen", before pulling the trigger on Penance, sending a silver round blazing out the front of the deadnaught's skull. The hulking undead loosened its grip on its spear, before turning its head one last time to look toward its attacker. One last round punched through its left eye, sending the monster down, falling atop two of its minions. The 3 Rangers reloaded their autoguns, and finished off the remaining zombies. With a newfound confidence, they set off through the map, with their Guardian angel ready with divine rifle.

((OOC: I really can't do much with either one of my characters so, it's Count Bleck trying to pass the time because the lift to depth 22 is stuck but he was going to depth 21.)

*Sigh* "How can Count Bleck amuse himself?" Just then, Count Bleck's stomach rumbled and he pulled out 25 shadow stars. "Hm, Count Bleck thinks he can create a much more useful food item but it will take all my Shadow Stars."

Count Bleck placed his staff in the middle and started spinning the shadow stars around. As the speed increased, they started to move around the Crystal on top. After that, the stars started fusing into each other and created a Dark Star.

Count Bleck pulled a point of the new star and ate it. It was full of taste and it got his hopes back up. Count Bleck put the Dark Star away and went to sleep.

...

As the drouls surrounded ark , he quickly shot a few energy bullets with his field generator while dashing around the room. one of the droul takes a hit , he then dissolve to a bunch lifeless bones. Right at that moment the statue glows more intense and the droul's bones came back together , then the statue create a wave of something that seems like a pink energy pulse. The droul then suddenly move again , continuing its assault to ark.

This process repeats quite a while until ark realized that his barrier almost ran out of energy . time stop for a moment for ark : " If i insert the energy now ,they may attacked me and even cause fatal injuries. However if i continue this , sooner or later i will be defenseless.... think ark THINK !" ark muttered to himself.

He then remembered a thing , a tactic thought by the royal jelly : " You see ark , there is more power that slime can do than just bump around. One who has mastered the art of the slime can do much better technique. Us , advanced slime attack by spinning , dashing , Impaling , and even launching our barbs around. You just have to remember , there is more thing a slime can do than the things a slime can't do you just have to think hard enough."

He then muttered to himself " well ... You Only Live Once right ? " . Then with the last bit of energy the generator has , he dash to the middle of the drouls. then he began spinning and spinning more and more , he then realized something his ' barbs ' began to shake. Until his barb lauched all around the room , stacking all the drouls. However the magic doesn't stop there the barbs make a humongous force field around ark, with the doruls as a pinpoint. the drouls began to shake , then out of nowhere they got blown away

" well lets hope that is all they got.... " ark said as the energy runs out...

[Depth 19: Concrete Jungle, Briar Bone Barrage]

((This is for both Alexander and Ark, you two are on the same level. Also, Ark no. Jellys can't melt things like that. For now I will say you moved the Zombies out of the ring not melted them))

As the totem started to glow shining out like a beaken for any paying attention the undead all started to hiss loudly moving to its call. Not just the call of death but the call to arms. It seemed the hissing woke something much stronger in the vile place and for those captured in its grasp came the loud undead laughing of the vile creature. With the stop of its spear it called forth its breathern from the depths below as the gates to the next area opened.

From the ruined buildings walked the worst threat to find on such a floor, a Vile Deadnaugh. As it walked it left a trail of poison that turned into a noxious gas were ever it went, nothing was safe while this creature stormed about. Much like its fallen friend this one had a shield, but on its head was the helm tick enough to rebound shots. Hissing loudly the creature stormed off after the Slime that killed its brothers while lightly armored Droul's moved in the direction of the Recon's. They where moving in force for the hopes of a quick snack, as well being attracted by the sound of Repeal Gear falling below to there level.

---

[Moorcraft Manner]

Skotino sighed as he looked around, it was getting too late and most of the Platoons had already reached Emberlight, filling the gremlin city with enough soldiers to take down the Grand Colony should it ever be a reason too. Walking to Daud he sat down and grumbled.

"Give the order Daud, we are moving down to Emberlight now. If we waste anymore time then our window will close and we will be locked out of the shadow layer for another three days."

With a nod Daud shouted for every last person to head to the gates and move down, his voice loud and angry at this point wanting nothing more then to get to the Sanctuary as quickly as he could. It would take every last one of them to get to the clear grounds but within the Unknown passage they would be expossed to the unending creatures that came from it.

Once everyone was down below Daud and Skotino headed down.

"You know Daud," Skotino started, "I know we can't just walk down to The Sanctuary with out some damage but those who can't fight will more then likely be targeted first. The Swarm learns by taking over our mind and the information within, which in theory, would mean if we sent a sick person out to be taken would the Swarm get its sickness?"

Daud looked at Skotino, his helm covering his face. "I can't say, but I can say this. The Swarm works unimined which means we can't just trick it into thinking we are going to do one thing and try another, for all those under its control will indeed already know whats going on. As for your idea, it might work once, but after that it would already know whats going on and avoid the sick person till they where well."

The elevator chimed as it was nearing there destonation, Daud had brough with him the bottle from before corked. It was going to be the last drink he would have in the underground, the only light he would see from then on, would be darkness.

Ara woke up and saw her Alpha Wolver stretching. She then sat up and gave her wolver a piece of meat to feed him. Ara then stood up and said "I wonder if there is a easy way to Moorcraft since lifts seem to be empty."
Her pet wolved "Woof, wo-oof wooooof, woof, woo-of wo-oo-of (I know an easy way that sends us to Moorcraft Manor, follow me!)"

Ara's pet Alpha wolver started running in the direction of the desert and she started to follow him. After traveling for 10 minutes, Ara saw a hole that she could squeeze through. Her wolver said "Wo-ooof, woof, woooof, wooof wooooof! (Be careful, this path can easily collapse, watch out for the sharp objects!)"

Ara then said in beast talk "Woo-oof, wooo-oof (OK, I will watch out)." Ara latched her spear onto her back. Ara and her pet started to squeeze through the tunnel. As they where going down, she saw a few fangs in the walls and tilted to the other side to avoid the sharp fangs.

They continued going down but when they where about to enter Moorcraft, something grabbed Ara's spear and wasn't letting her go and she couldn't unlatch it because of the roof. Ara's wolver reached Moorcraft and when he turned back, he was shocked and was going to run back until the tunnel in front of him collapsed.

Ara screamed for help as the tunnel started to collapse and she didn't know what was stopping her from moving. Ara screamed again but didn't know if they could hear her because of the distance. Ara's Alpha Wolver rushed back to Moorcraft and run to Daud and said "Woof, Woooof, Wo-of, WOOOOF! (Help, my owner Ara is in trouble, HELP!)"

((OOC: This might be weird but I can't think of much for Ara.))

As Molpos was waiting for Daud and Skotino to move on, he thought he could hear rumbling. He looked in the distance and saw an Alpha Wolver appear. Molpos silently moved around the wolver and went to the place he appeared and heard someone shouting "Help!" but it was faint.

Molpos realized that the cry was from the floor above and rushed towards the lift outside the manor. He reached the lift but it wasn't working because there was no engineer to activate it...

Alex flinched as he saw the great pillar of unholy light shoot skyward, as the horde of shambling undead centred toward it. The most pressing of which was a Deadnaught clad in Heavier armour than the one previously, with head gear and all. He squinted at its weapon, and zoomed in onto its blade with his scope. A Yellow orb resonating in its place. Alexander smirked to himself, and spoke clearly into his comm.

"Ok guys, fall back to the building, those Zombies wont stop advancing, and your gear doesnt have the pierce to get through that armour, or accuracy to shoot between the gaps. I'll provide covering fire, and we'll blockade the entrance when we have enough leeway, understood?"

He got confirmations from his squad, as he heard footsteps running back through the comms. He glanced back at the Ranger guarding the door.

"Hey you, go down there and lend supporting fire". The Ranger looked over and saluted, then after a nod showing he understood the order, rushed down the stairs to a window with slight cover. Alexander clicked back the trigger in his rifle, sending a shot through the head of a zombie that was about to leap. Alexander clunked another round into the chamber, and fired another round into the advancing horde.

The Rangers rushed in and grabbed broken planks and rubble from inside the derelict building. The Ranger by the window launched charged barrages, which knocked down the hordes, but seems to do minimal damage. Rubble was dragged to the door, and wooden planks placed across the frame. Alexander didnt need the comms to scream downstairs his order.

"Everyone, topside now!".

The 4 rangers didnt hesitate in carrying it out, and found Alexander had already packed up his gear, and slung the rifle to his back. The sniper then relayed his plans.

"Ok...the original plan has been-" He looked over the edge, to see a horde of zombies striking against the barricade "-compromised. We will have to run across the buildings here, until we can gain some advantageous ground. Once we do that, I'll think about how to get that Tank of an Undead's weapon...". The Rangers looked at him with quizical looks, wondering why they needed the spear. Not given any time to think about it clearly, Alexander set off at a pace, forcing the Rangers to follow.

The Elevator eventually came to the stop. Matthew stepped down, stretching as he looked around for the troops. That trip felt like it took three days. Judging by his surroundings, the soldiers had already moved out to Emberlight. He sighed, and looked back to the Engineer. Not there. Must've headed off. Matthew stared at the woman's corpse once more.

...

Yup. Still dead. Not knowing what to do with the body, Matthew... left it on the Elevator.

Since he was still very much stunned by the earlier impact, Matthew was reduced to walking around the Manor. Staggering towards the Desk Clerk, Matthew queried him.

"About how long ago did the Troops move out to Emberlight?" As any good Desk Clerk would, the Kat smiled as his answered.

"They're about to leave."

Reactivating his Striker Booster, Matthew rocketed towards the lift. The soldier operating the Control Console had looked up, after pressing down. Matthew pushed the Boosters further. As Matthew crossed the floor onto the lift, the safety rail had raised up, tripping him. After front-flipping two times, he face-planted into the Elevator floor. Arms trembling as he raised himself, Matthew noticed the floor was stained red. Reaching up to his face, Matthew sighed as his assumption was correct.

Fourth one this month now.

((This shoooooould work, bit late on it. But yeah.))

The Vile Deadnaught looked around, the call of the totem was not enough to throw him off his target but he would need more aid. Slowly the creature turned placing its weapon in its holster while picking up a deactivate Grim Totem that was laying about. Looking up at Alexander it was able to determin the leader of this little group in its area, and with an unpleased hiss it threw the stone in there way. As it landed the Grim Totem came to life, sending out a wave of revival energy causing the undead to form on the roof. It was clear this monster of the Jungle was smarter then its brain dead brothers.

With that satified the creature turned to one of the many ruins of a city and left into the darkness. The gate to the next area open while Toxic Jellies came from the underbelly of the floor to clean up the mess about to be made by its toxic brothers of bone. It would have suited them to bring a Bio-Tech along for the ride since the floor seemed to be haunted by the roaming dead as well as traps all abound. A sudle beauty could have been said, it was almost as if this floor of the clockworks was run by the Vile Deadnaught, like some kind of governing party.

In the distance the sound of a shifting elevator was heard, as well as a army of boots marching across the metal and over grath. The last thing that was heard were the sound of deconstruction and swords. It seemed the Mercenary group from Emberlight finally started there trek down to there goal. But it would be a while before they reached Alexander and his squad, time they did not have.

((Also Robo, you might have used the word 'And Then' a little too much. Read it too yourself, aloud, and ask you if it sounds good.))

While the drouls and the dreadnaught are moving , ark rush his work and insert a backup energy to the generator. " All right ark think fast ! i have a natural resistance to poison so , i am going to be fine. However thet giant... if that thing hit me i will be a goner for sure."

Then he start to dash away from the totem while leaving a track of oil. He start to build up , speed more and more , until he stop to see the totem was alerdy far away. "That should have work ... right ? " Ark mutter to himself. Then out of nowhere a lance came slicing the air because it is soo fast. The lance landed right beside ark , however he did not even move a muscle. Either because he is afraid or something else , one thing for sure though .... the giant is moving.

Ark quickly shot a few energy to the oil , burning it making a domino effect to the other oil slicks. With his new found power , he ready himself. Unexpected by the foe , ark run trough the fire burning him ( Remember what toxoil/oilers do when they are burned ? ). He charge and jump to the giant , then stomping the ground. The ground began to shake , and barbs came out of the ground each creating a tiny force field around it. all the undeads in the victinity are blown away , with an exeption of the giant.

Now it is only ark and the giant . " ( Ark laugh ) if i am going down , you are coming with me big shot " He said.

Reaching down a soldier on the lift picked Matthew up and looked at him. With a laugh from the whole group he started to fix up the bleeding.

"From the looks of your face kid, you tend to do this allot don't ya?" The Sargent asked as he fixed the kids head.

From Moorcraft the ride was shorter but no-less a strange. Heading down on a direct path lead them out of the hemsphere of the levels letting them see the blank and colorful world that was the Clockworks. The engins that turned the levels as well as the ever present Master Control room which seemed to always be empty. But this places Beauty held a great deal of pain and cold natured creatures as well. Daring those with a brave heart to take it on.

Gradus's stomach gurgled, akin to the mating call of a whale. All conversation in the nearby area seemed to be deafened out by his ears.

Whoops?

Logically, he walked over to the Emberlight food stores, intending to purchase an enormous giant of a meal. 17 seconds later, he was back on the streets, with his empty wallet and emptier stomach. Knowing he had to, in some way, increase his current financial standing, he resorted to the most risky yet profitable one nearby; the elevator, where annoying things lurked that dropped a large amount of loot.

Might as well join a group; I'm really not suited for CIQ combat.

He walked over to the terminal. A gentle light illuminated the controls, as the elevator gently hummed.

Alright, let's see where a good group is. One in a zombie land? Hmm, zombies ARE weaker than most creatures, and I think my wand can stop anything unexpected.

With a click of a few buttons, the elevator plummeted down to the next depth, darkness enveloping his vision. His wand crystal lit up the area around in in a malevolent shade of red. Everything looked like blood, so like the Swarm, that bloody day...

I failed them. It was all my fault.

With a clang, the elevator sank down to its lowest capacity on Depth 19. The sounds of combat could be heard, as Drouls moaned, seeking the living, and Toxoil's slithered around, leaving slimy trails of poisonous goo. Suddenly, the goo exploded aflame, and Drouls suddenly rained from the sky.

Wait what the heck?

It was obvious that he wouldn't be able to get to the group before the Drouls did, so he hesitatingly pulled out his Iron Slug. The heavy metal gun nearly made him fall on his face, but that was the least of his concerns. There were at least 3 Drouls, and his aim sucked.

Have at you!

The first shot whizzed straight past the entire Droul group, clipping off an ear. It didn't seem to mind; Gradus, on the other hand, nearly fell on his butt from the recoil. The second took the last Droul directly in the chest, leaving a gaping hole. It continued on, still abiding its nature to hunt all living creatures. The third missed, hitting the ground directly in front of him, not even 3 feet away from where he was. It embedded in the dirt and stood there. The fourth took the last Droul directly again, splintering his head like a pea pod. The fifth managed to clip off the nearest Droul's left leg; it collapsed, arms waving around like a turtle. Unfortunately, Gradus's reload mechanism jammed right there, and as he frantically shifted it back and forth, the second Droul came nearer and nearer.

"Hyah!" He pointed his wand at the undead, halting its already sluggish movements to that on a near-molecular level. Even so, it was still steadily gaining ground, even as Gradus kept messing around with the reloader.

It's no use, I'll never be able toAHHHHHH

The Droul lunged! Even though its walking speed was slowed, its momentum couldn't be-

It tripped over the shell Gradus had embedded in the ground. As it got up slowly, Gradus swung his wand like a club, knocking it back down. Again and again and again until the zombie was just a mound of dust. He repeated the process with the first Droul, thought a while, then did it with the last Droul as well in case it felt like reviving.

"I guess they were-" he chuckled. "too SLUGgish!

Note to self; hire a therapist. You have problems with humor.

He ran directly into the heart of the dilapidated city, looking for the group that had made an enormous explosion before. He bumped into someone as he turned the corner (One of Alex's Ranger mooks).

"Ahhh!" He yelled out as he fell onto the ground again. "Don't hurt me! I'm from Emberlight! I'm too small to die!"

The groups was silent, the time for jokes was behind them. As they decended, the light faded and took the faces from the mercs, leaving only the dim glow from thier armors to distinguish them from eachother. Nappy's armor glowed avery pronounced orange iradiating from his pauldons and visor to let any reciving party (Should he be seperated from his squad) that he was an ordnace specialist. As the gears of the elevator sparked and grinded their way to its destination, Nappy used the remaining light to read his dog tags.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Nappy"
(Battalion:5th Company:B Squad:ECHO) (Class:EOD SUPPORT Number: 3939 Name: A̶l̶m̶a̶r̶ ̶Z̶u̶'̶T̶h̶a̶r̶m̶ )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A small grin appeared whenever he looked at them, it was custom to scratch out your name and put your 'true' name onto the tags, alongside a death joke. A death joke was a small saying scratched onto the back of the tags...for someone read while recovering your body. Flipping them over, he read the backside.

(PROBABLY JUST ASLEEP) (SHAKE WELL BEFORE BURIAL)

"It's funny, that we can still find humor and humanity in the darkest of places"

Nappy whispered to himself as he pulled down his mask. There the mercanaries stood, letting thier glowing markings do the talking. The iron-clad monsters moving to join their band of brothers, thier leigion of death, the Darkwatch. Unaware of the nightmare they're about to face.

Sitting in his chair looking over the four chained gates the Warden tapped his fingers watching with an unbreaking gaze over the lifts to the devils own play ground. He like the rest of his brothers, where the front and last line of deffence that keep the Swarm in there little hole. The only place they could escape was right into this mans hands. Alone he put Daud to shame in how tall and how much he weighed, yet he sat in a chair designed for him to watch.

It seemed the fine men and women where all starting there fifth march of the day, shifting with there brothers to be a peak should a containment breach happen. It was a never ending game of wack-a-mole with the swarm, should one of its vile vessels jump up one of the Wardens would smack it back down into its dirty hole. Only so rarely had the Head-Warden ever needed to get up and take action for so rarely had anything called for his attentions. Yet with a prideful expression on his face, his silver hair falling over the crimson eyes that looked forwards into the darkness, he waited with a heart of steel and fists of iron.

Around 13:00 the first of the Elevator's arrived on the newly expanded floor, the signs of a lab and work station all around. It was as if the level it's self was turned into a small head-quarters for those going below. Unlike the Core, Depth 23 was a second level consern thus it was given its own work station, but the Bio-Tech and Researchers where not as dedicated to there work. Yet the Engineers where all over working with the outcast Gremlins to expand the Depth, if nothing else but to contain anything with in should the worst happen.

"Alright those of you going on the first dive get into your diving groups. Vanguards will be leading down lesser classes, for ever Vanguard we need at least one Defender. Champion ranks will be leading down the Specialist's to the entended zones. Only to those who are ranked Elite Defender and up will be taking Gate Four. Gates' One and Two are open to all, Gate's three the Commander's Personal Guard will wait for him."

With that said, a rather over heavy set of Guardian's and Gunslingers bolted to Gate Three. Their crests where much like everyone else save for the red skull that adorned them. This group called them self's the Red-Regulator's, the highest and most skilled of the Watch's forces. Yet they did not joke, talk, or even seem human. All they did was wait at there asigned spots and waited, knocking back any knight who was too foully to get to close.

The Head-Warden did not move to unlock the gates. He being the only person to have the keys to unlock the chains which kept the Elevators still. He knew what was going on and the fact they all had permisson to head down, yet no matter how many times people asked he just ignored them and waited. In his right hand he held all four keys for he knew some of the Watch had quick hands, thus he ensured no one could take them as long as his grip was solid. It would have been a fools task to try and releave the Eight foot all Warden of his current Treasure any how.

---

[Depth 18: Emberlight]

Daud stepped off the lift looking around confused. Crates where being loaded onto supply elevators as well as Troops disembarking on the trek to Depth 23. It was not the sign that confused him, but the rather dead lack of sound. Normally the Watch was full of excitement and joy before going on a mission. Yet here, it was as if everyone was walking to an open Funeral.

It must be the facts sinking in. I don't blame them, we are heading down to the darkest depths known to the Order or us for that matter. Just hope we all make it the Sanctuary in one piece. That and the fact everyone had already gotten there suits sealed. Hate to see some one turn for having an unclean environment in there suits. Daud though to him self.

In his bliss Skotino went around to the shops buying anything that looked remotely edible for his hunger was finally taking over. Seeing as he refused to eat two days ago and now it all hit him at once. With little more then a word Skotino went to a table and started to eat, with some manners at least, the food he had just bought. Daud just shook his head and pulled a chair on the other side out for himself, wondering where his Commander put it all.

"Looks like we are going to be down in those pits before night fall. That is assuming my brother hands over the keys."

Ara tried and tried to unlatch her spear over and over again but it wasn't happened. The tunnel fully collapsed and she started losing oxygen. Ara couldn't even call for help and suffocated after a few minutes. Her spear unlatched and the creature holding it started to chew on it.

Ara's pet wolver really got worried and started to dig back up the tunnel and dug to her but saw she was dead. Her wolver yelled in pain because another wolver dug down and bit him. Just then, the other wolvers tore Ara's pet wolver got killed as well...

((OOC: She wasn't going anywhere...))

Molpos lost his train of thought and went back and noticed everyone was missing except for a engineer and a corpse of a girl. Molpos slowly walked towards the corpse and saw dark shards as well as a clean slash made from a katana or something like that.
Molpos quickly run to the lift because he was delaying the catching up and stood on the lift to go down towards Emberlight and after a few minutes, he reached Emberlight. As he got off the lift, he remembered what this place was like and a few gremlins walked to Molpos
They asked him to come with him and he followed him. After a trek, Molpos was told to sit down and 2 gremlins walked to him and said "Son, is it you?" Molpos knew that voice, it was his mother and father before he suffered amnesia and joined the knights. The reason the knights didn't know Molpos was a gremlin was the fact they could only see his eyes.
Just then, his parents took his armor and started to patch it up and after 10 minutes, it was patched up and they said "Molpos, take this." Molpos put his armor back on and looked at what else he got and was surprised. It was the ghostmane blades he received and so, Molpos put it on and tried it.
The ghostmane saw blade tore threw the target and came back into his saw blade slot and thanked his parents before waving them bye again. Molpos lost a lot of time with them but he had to rush as he saw a robot standing on the lift down. Molpos slid under the robot and pushed the down button towards depth 19.
((OOC: Yes, Molpos was actually gremlin all along but because of failed stealth when he was young, he suffered Amnesia and knights took him it and raised him))

"Downstairs, now".

Alex unholstered his rifle, clunking the reloading mechanism with another round. The 4 Ranger Recruits unloaded a volley of rounds into the Drouls, knocking back & staggering their footing. Alexander point his barrel directly toward the ground as he pulled the trigger. The dust cleared like a nova, as the floor beneath them began to crack. Pieces of ceiling could be heard crumbling and breaking away, as slight rumbles shook beneath the Rangers. The ground collapsed, and sent 4 Rangers falling ungracefully, while Alexander shot a Droul with a finger pistol gesture, descending behind them.

As the group landed, Alexander could hear groaning from his squad. He looked up to see them clutching their stomachs and limbs. He rolled his eyes in response, and addressed them sternly,

"Use your Health Capsule".

The squad took out a small red & white pill, and threw back their necks as they took it in one go. Their wounds began to soothe and ease, though still seeming quite visible.

"Right, into the streets, its single file down theres, so make sure you cover eachother. If you can see the back of one of your team, you're messing up".

The group exited through a window as softly as possible, a lack of broken glass and abundance of green, viney padding helping. Alexander took point, murmuring of how he was going to kill Recon's Intel when he returned. The group got out behind in single file, walking softly through the streets. As the last squaddie was about set off behind his team-mates, he remembered to face behind him to cover. As he did so, he came face-to-face with a small Gremlin mender of sorts. They both shared a brief moment before the squaddie talked into his comm.

"Um..sir? We have a guest..."

Sounds of Rangers being shunted out the way of the single file, told to resume their posts, could be heard as a disgruntled sniper strolled up to the squaddie. He eyed the Gremlin...as a pale look came across his face. He suddenly remembered something that seemed obvious at the current time.

"...We forgot the signal jammers...Everyone up top can see us...".

Alex shook his head, thinking that & the lack of any reliable intel would be good leverage, as he turned his attention back to the Gremlin. He crouched down to it's level, and coughed into his fist, as he asked it a question.

"Who are you? Why are you here? And Please tell me that you're the only one that came down at this time..."

The dreadnaught take back his spear , then stabs the ground as a warning. Ark stomp the ground again , however this time the barbs surrounded the dreadnaught. It doesn't seem bothered though with a swish of its spear it cut trough all the barbs. " I knew it ! this guy is strong enough to cut through energy ! " ark mutter to himself.He stomp the ground with all his strength creating a forest... made of barbs.

The dreadnaught seems angry and attack the barbs more furiously than before , he can't see where ark is because the thickness of the barb.Meanwhile ark starts to drop oil slicks just about everywhere , then he burn it and escape from the now burned barb forest. The dreadnaught manage to escape to however it was burning ... badly. the dreadnaught roar furiously , and all the drouls in the area gathered towards it.

" Oh no , this is a bad sign. How do i bring this giant down ? " ark mutter to himself " Wait a sec... The totem... And my oil... I GET IT ! " Ark suddenly screamed

He dashed to where the totem was , then takes down all the drouls. This time however before the drouls revive he bath the bones with oil , when they revive they explode when hit by fire. He dashed away from the totem again , the dreadnaught run to chase ark. then it roars making the 'oiled' drouls gather around him. ark then shot a few rounds to one of the droul , creating an explosion followed by the other drouls. The dreadnaught collapse on his feet.

Ark sees a change to defeat the towering nightmare , he ran to the dreadnaught and impaled his head.The dreadnaught ' dies ' again , and ark can finally breath in relaxation. He rest for a bit near a bramble , picturing a nice warm bath. He then take a few sip of 'poison' from the brambles , and continue walking forward.

He then think of an idea , he opened his toolbox and started to 'create' something.......

((OOC: Creeper, nice plot twist.))

Robo N8 waited and waited until a gremlin who had knight armor on slid under and activated the lift. As the lift was going down, he checked the gremlin's items and noticed he was a gremlin stalker. When the lift stopped, Robo N8 checked the area out and noticed most of the enemies where gone as he started to walk forward.

Robo N8 started to walk forward carefully avoiding the thorns and totems since they messed up his programming and sometimes had him attack knights. As Robo N8 continued walking, he saw what looked to be like different colored knights (Recon Rangers) and walked over to them. As he got closer, he saw a gremlin there as well but it wasn't the one from the lift.

((For future refrence don't take control of something that a Mod is controling. The Deadnaught had already left the area Spirals I had a plan for the thing later, but for now I must take over to get it back on course.))

[Depth 19: Concrete Jungle: Bone yard.]

{Moderator Override of Post #94}

As the Vile Deadnaught was knocked down it was still quite awake, waiting for the right moment. Once the Slime had crawled on top of it the undead reached up and threw the slimy creature away back away from the Vile dead. Once it did so the creature got up and took its weapon away from the ground turning and looking at the Slime for a moment before hearing the sound of the Recons in the distance. With a huff it wondered away into one of the buildings from which it came, walking ever forwards to the Exit of its layer.

{Moderator Override Complete}

[Depth 19: Concrete Jungle: Bone yard.]

The undead turned to the north, the sound of roaring was heard which called there attention. As if being called away from the fight the creatures turned tail and left, entering the buildings around the recons. Yet one stayed behind watching and not moving from the ring around the Totem. Once the area was clear of the undead, save for the one, the gates unlocked letting those with in to the next area.

Inside Toxic slimes slithered around as well as skulls on the ground. Inactive Grim Totem's stood over looking the many pillers of bones that seemed to stand tall like Obelisks of the old city. Whoever build these towns knew what they where doing and had a design in mind for everything seemed to flow into one area, of course around 34 Meters away was the exit to the next depth. Locked behind a gate with not guardian around to protect it.

Arriving with his squad into the assignment area, Nappy's Squad found the most advanced forward camp they had ever seen. With a small amount of time before briefing, Nappy isolated himself in a small corner, out of sight. slowly, he pulled a small device from his pack and attached it to his arm. After a fre adjustments, the device ticked on, uttering a faint beep in sync with his pulse.

"gotta turn off the sound!"

Nappy groaned in a whispered tone. And sure enough, with a few adjustments, the device went silent.

"New arrivals are to regroup, allocation begins now."

Bellowed a guardian. Moving forward, they lined up near the hulking behemoth to await being asigned to a gate.

"Sir! Echo squad, Company B reporting in for assessment and allocation, Sir!" Nappy's voice rang out

The giant simply glanced at them, and then back to the gates, luckily a nearby knight repeated the earlier message of which gates belong to whom.

"Gate two, understood."

Almar said blankly, making his way over to the assigned gate. Waiting for others who were to be assigned to his gate, and once again to begin the mission.

"Punch through, get to a passage? And meet up with Deadman, simple..."

Molpos got off the lift and went to the side so the robot could get off. As he was watching the robot walking, Molpos noticed he was avoiding the thorns and the totems. He got confused because robots can run through thorns and totems shouldn't affect them.

Molpos started to rush towards the lift on this floor and prepared his attack just in case he got ambushed. After running for a few minutes, he saw the lift but the gate was locked. Molpos started to think about unlocking the gate...

Gradus startled in surprise. He had expected to be welcomed into the group, especially since he had come from Emberlight and was a Mender.

"I'm Gradus, and I came here because I was-"

His stomach rumbled.

"Because of that. And yes, I came alone. You can interrogate me later when there aren't armies of flying zombies everywhere. Wait..."

He glanced at each person's equipment; none of them had an explosive strong enough to launch Drouls everywhere.

"If you didn't create that explosion, who did?"

The ranger looked past the Gremlin toward where the beacon originally lit up, before looking back toward the Gremlin.

"I have a feeling we'll find out if we go to where the explosion took place, which by the looks of the maps we were provided..."

Alexander takes out a rectangular device, with a green, graphical display showing the surrounding area and key locations. He traced certain areas with his finger before nodding and showing it to the mender.

"The explosion took place in close proximity to the elevator leading out of here. Hopefully it didn't damge the console, so we won't get stuck down here with all these drouls & Slimes. Seeing as they've fallen back into the buildings around here, I say we travel along the streets as quickly as possible, and reach that elevator as soon as possible to assess any damage or repairs".

Alexander poked his head out the alley, looking both ways. A lifeless sight of broken & cracked road, with stewn plants and a settled green list was all that remained of where a ravenous horde has once occupied. He motioned for his squad to take point, and handed the Mapping device to the 1st recruit that passed him onto the open path. Before heading out himself, he gestured a hand toward the mender.

"Im guessing you'd like to tag along until we get out of this toxic heck-hole, am I right in assuming this?". The Ranger smirked lightly for the 1st time in the mission, awaiting an answer.