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Spiral Days and Knights

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Mon, 09/22/2014 - 20:14
Karituo's picture
Karituo

Hey guys, I'm making a work in progress, but for now, here's a few chapters:

Spiral Days and Knights
By: Karituo

Ever since the Skylark Incident, I've lost my memory. I do remember my name when Captain Ozlo identified me. My name is Karituo. I am currently a member of one of the most prestigious guild, Lionheart. I've met my way through many friends and ventured through many heights.
My memory had been flickering along my missions as if I've seen this all before...I've been talking to Kora, the Spiral HQ supervisor, about my flashbacks. She told me that the core of Cradle might have the answers I'm looking for. Have I been good with my predictions on what was going on around in the town of Haven and my ventures through the clockworks.
So I've been personally on a mission set out to find my memories. With determination in my eyes, I will not stop until I find my memories. For now, let me tell my story about my past missions 'till now...

Chapter one: Crash and Burn

A red blinking button was what I can only see in the dark, cramped area. I pushed the button and flinched as the lights came back on; averting my eyes to get used to the bright lights.

Systems restoring from crash...
As I've gotten used to the lights, I looked as there was a control panel in front of me. Many different colored buttons with labels like a keyboard right above my lap and a monitor slowly putting up an image of what's outside. Looking for the door eject button, I flipped up a clear, hard box and slapped my hand on the button.

Door ejecting in 3...2...1...

“BANG!” The compact door busts out onto a grassy plain. I cover my eyes as the bright star blinds me with its dazzling beams. Looking behind the giant ball I came out of, finding out that I have came out of a crash pod; by the looks of the crater that formed behind the pod. I check out my appearance at a nearby pond and I see that my eyes are in a bright shade of red and my face is more of a dark maroon color. I check back in the crash pod I came out of to see if there were any clothing. I put on a set of black clothing and some initial armor found within the crash pod. It look like some regal flak jacket and what looks to be a modified knight helm from medieval ages. The helmet has a pair of mecha wings from the sides of the helm, and it also has a helm mounted display, covering my right eye. I checked the rest of what is in the crash pod and the last things were a small green shield with a matching sword and handgun. Equipped with the last things I have found, I check the system built in my helmet.

Systems going online...Please wait...Connected!

Luckily this planet had some sort of digital wave for me to connect with my SpiralSpy? Odd name to have for a network. I have only one unread mail. I wonder who that's from...

“Karituo, this is Captain Ozlo. If you have read this mail, then that would mean you are still alive and somewhere. This message will send me a notification and I will contact you as soon as possible. For now, we have set up camp and I need you to contact Greta. He will tell you the coordinates of the rescue camps you'll be able to go to.
-Ozlo”

As this brings up many questions, at least I know my name now. Karituo, huh? That doesn't seem like a bad name.
Back to the topic of staying alive; I have to get to the rescue camp, report to camp leader Greta, and wait for Captain Ozlo's further instructions. I waited for a quarter of an hour in my crash pod, before the coordinates of the rescue camps came up in my helmet. I turned on my helm mount display and abandon my crash pod. The GPS on my helm mount display gave me directions to the closest camp the coordinates gave me. Along my venture, I see many shifting plains and floating islands, as though this place is like a clock, running on gears, shifting, and stopping from time to time. The star is out, the wind is blowing gently along the tall grass. All seems peaceful. I remembered back at the crash pod. I ejected the door without my gear not thinking if this planet had any oxygen or not. That was so dumb of me. For now, I venture to the rescue camp, but
I have encountered something strange. It looks like a transparent pink cube with some kind of sphere inside it. I poke it with my sword, and It seems to be a living thing and it looks to be moving away by jiggling around, like jelly. It got fun messing around with chasing and poking it. After poking the slimy fellow, it has gotten angry and became a hostile piece of gelatin. I must eliminate it before it breaks my armor, but instead the little jelly cube is calling out to his other gelatin friends.

“I guess I shouldn't have made it angry. Just great.”

Now a whole group of jellies were after me, but now that they are hostile, I guess I really do have to eliminate them. Using my shield and weapons, I won the battle. It didn't have much damage taken, except for my shield, which took quite a beating. Luckily, this shield has a regeneration ability when it breaks. Back to my adventure, I had to defeat many foes along the way, such as beasts, and robots (apparently), and more slimes. From a long venture, I finally see the rescue camp not too far from where I'm standing.

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 20:15
#1
Karituo's picture
Karituo
Chapter two: Rescue Rumble

I run and run as I can, finally reaching the rescue camp. The guards opened the way, and almost tired from the long venture, I report to the Reconnaissance Squad Leader, Greta. He got me troops to help me out and give me something to eat and a place to rest temporarily before his recon squad searches for my crash pod for me to actually sleep in. the cold, cruel night was slow, and I am fast asleep from my adventure. Morning broke out and a dawn of a day is here. I am back on my feet and ready from more work. The recon squad has located and is currently bringing my crash pod to the camp. For now, Greta has assigned me with Rhendon to do some recon of depths 0-2 of a certain area. I first went to get something to eat,”Perhaps a bit of chromalisk meat could do for me.” sitting with my partner of our job, he seems to be a nice knight, and judging by his equipment, he sure looks to be skilled in recon and battle too.

“Elevators? Out in the middle of nowhere?” I say to my partner.

“Remember when you felt rumbling beneath your feet during your adventure? This place is called the Clockworks. It's an ever-shifting planet made of many different levels, or depths.” Rhendon explains to me what we are on.

“For now, we have to find the rest of the stray knights, but what we're doing today is scouting the depths of this planet.”

The places were roomy, and as if someone, or something has built this place. We are currently on the last depth and the place is full of puzzles and hostile, mechanical enemies. We approach a room unfamiliar from the rest of the hallways and rooms. It looks to be a laboratory with a strange floating object full of energy. The object was glowing blue squares and silver frames around the object.

“This is strange. Let's take it back with us if and of our geoknights can identify what this is.” Rhendon says when he straps the object to his back.”

“Hey!”

Not too long, a weird creature approaches us on top a platform with the computers, as if he has taken stairs from the room behind that lab. The creature has a tannish fur all over his body with a pair of black goggles and a dark gray lab coat on.

“What are you doing with the artifact?!” The creature exclaims.

“Just who are you?” Rhedonn asks to the creature.

“I am Razwog. Head scientist of the Gremlins! That artifact you have, give it back!”

He steps down onto the laboratory floor and looks like he wants to fight us in order to retrieve it. I get ready for a battle, and in the end, Razwog pathetically lost. Soon, he gets up and scurries away into a room that locked us out behind him. Another gate opens.

“Let's go.” Rhendon commanded.

We then run on to the next room. After entering, we see Razwog in front of us, and we take notice of the many dicey explosives filling the room. We also take notice the button in Razwog's hand.

“If you don't give me the artifact, I'll blow us all up!”

Rhendon looks at me,” Looks like we don't have a choice.”

Rhendon unstraps the artifact from his back and walks over to Razwog slowly and puts down the artifact. Then, Razwog puts on the artifact.

“Too bad folks, but I'm leaving you here to burn!” Razwog pushes the button and escapes with the artifact.

The explosion rumbles the clockworks tunnel and the entire place is searing in fire.

“We have to get out of here!” Rhendon says.

“Well, this surely is a bad place to be a hotspot, isn't it?” I smirk.

“Now's not the time to be joking, let's go!” Rhedonn commands.

We head on over to a series of hallways and then we find ourselves trapped in a room with fire between two hallways coming to scorch us. Luckily, we turned on the water sprinklers from a computer up against a wall. We manage to escape, but there were more problems. Robots became implemented with fire element and starts attacking us. We were surrounded, but they were no match to our superior ability. In the end, we barely manage to escape with our lives, but it's time to report to Greta of what happened.

“You are alive and you did your part, that's all that matters. Thank you for helping us out. Go ahead and take the next day off, and here are your rewards.” Greta says to us after the experience. He gives us each a heavier meal and some money.

“I heard that we have met some people called Strangers that let us seek shelter in their town called Haven. Right now, that's our temporary base of operations and connection to Spiral HQ. This money is called crowns, and you can't expect to get everything for free there.” Greta explains to me. “Soon, the capable knights will have to get to Haven alone. While others will stay with me until they decide that the can work their way to Haven.”

“I see...”

“Karituo, after a few more days, should you choose to accept to venture to Haven?”

“I sure will, but I'll have to gain some money first...I got some of these crowns when I was fighting some enemies, I guess some knight could be terrified that they dropped their money and ran.” I ranted.

As nightfall came, I came into slumber inside my comfortable pod near a campfire.

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 20:17
#2
Karituo's picture
Karituo
Chapter 2.5: Meet the Team

(Note: Only TheDarkBandit and I are real in this book all other characters are fictional.)

The starlight glares directly at my eyelids, waking me up. Struggling to keep my eyes open, I get up from my sleeping bag and went to get my breakfast. Something new this time; I took my time eating my breakfast for I know that today, I go to Haven. After finishing breakfast, I gear up and salute to Squad Leader Greta. It's great to see some people deciding to go to Haven today too. I've met them during breakfast for some idle chitchat.
A gunner, The-Dark-Bandit, oddly enough, he refuses to tell his name to us. He wears quite the same armor as me, but his helm looks different. A crescent helm with a bolted vee instead of my helm mount display. He has the same color as me, a darkish red, but his armor and helm color is more of a dark dusky. It looks like he uses firearms rather than anything else.
There's a girl named is Razzie has a personality as explosive as her bombs. Her personal color is a sky-blue tint and she has some sort of piggy tailed helm with a ribbon and a maid headband along with a nice set of fancy draped armor.
Lastly, a knight named Valor. He has a hefty set of military armor. Like plate mail with a pith helm with a bolted vee and a vented visor. He has a huge knife that's used for cutting down trees..
Me? I'm Karituo Zero. Leader of the team and a pathetically short one as well. I currently wear a crescent helm with a mounted display and mecha wings along with a flak jacket.
Together we will be a team and a force to be reckoned with.

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 20:18
#3
Karituo's picture
Karituo
Chapter three: Haven and Spiral HQ

On our way to Haven, we made a temporary team. I'm leading the team and I'm currently following my helm mount display directions. Sometimes, we get surrounded, sometimes we can take care of the enemies easily. Nightfall has come and we have to set up camp. We've carried our crash pods with us by pushing a button to shrink it down, so now we are just sitting near the campfire ready for bed. None of us talked or anything so it became a silent night. I was first to keep watch for enemies for my shift. I'm just lying down awake trying to remember if I have any memories. I can't remember anything before and beyond the crash.

“Oh the static image of my memories...” I whisper to myself. No one heard me. Probably because they're tired from hiking all day.

There were a few groups of animals trying to raid us, but none were any match for our superiority. Well, at least we know what we're eating for breakfast! Morning came and we surround the campfire while we roast the remains of last night's battle. I try to make a conversation, but nothing but a bit of chitchat was involved. Tough crowd! I'll have them talking soon...
Back to the journey to Haven. We have gone through many places, such as some mechanical areas and a few compounds. Across our venture through this fiery blast furnace, we came stumbling to a room.

“A dead end. Let's go through somewhere else.” Valor says.

“Wait.” Bandit replied. “There's a machine here. You sure we don't want to turn it on?”

I agree with Bandit’s suggestion while Razzie is just doing her thing. We pull the large switch and wait for something to happen. Quickly, a door came up, trapping us in the room, then a wall shifted open and many, many cinder-bots come to surround us.

“Great, you've got us trapped.” Valor replies to the treacherous situation.

“Wait! There's an open hallway where the cinder-bots are coming from!” I exclaim, pointing to the now empty hallway.

“Let's blast our way through!” Razzie giggled and charges her bombs.

Lights then came up as we fight, but no one has noticed. We charge our way towards the hallway and successfully escape. After that close call, we managed to get out of that Blast Furnace. One of us got scorched, but thank Lord Nick that we have health capsules and antidotes. More battles were fought and our mist energy was going down, but after that hard work, we've got to see Haven upon the star-setting horizon. It still is pretty far, but a three hour hike will work, but we better hurry; this is when the night-dwellers come.
As we hurry with our tiring legs, the four of us fight our way towards the entrance of Haven. More knights, all in azure, come to help us and let us into the town of Haven. Exhausted, we all go find a place to sleep until day...
Morning came out faster than it should have. I add my teammates to my friends list in case either one of us needs help. It was time to report to Spiral HQ of our presence, so that we were given tasks and missions.

“Hello Dark, Razzie, Valor, and Karituo. It is great to see you all alive. In reward, Spiral HQ is giving you mist tanks and an iron buckler. Hold your hands out.” Not long, a light canister with blue glowing aura of pure energy is given to us. “Mist is temporary energy until we find a renewable resource that we knights can use. Go ahead and use it when you're low on mist for your armor. Remember those crowns you were given as a reward after every mission? You can trade them in for the rare kind of energy called Crystal Energy. It's quite expensive, but it's extremely useful. Anyway, you will be given a tour around Haven and what the Strangers have to offer. Afterwords, you will be given a mission course to train you for what you'll need to face. That being said, good luck!”

The transmission ends with a static end. A knight comes up to us and introduces himself.

“Hello, fellow knights. I'm Cort and I will be giving you a tour of Haven.” We follow him as Cort gives us the tour of Haven.
“There are many instances of Haven, and the platform in the entrance is the teleporter after the knights have completed their missions. You can go to the other Havens scattered around Cradle. If you go to your left, you will go to the Bazzar. A bazzar is an area with many vendors selling what you need. Tylen can help you with the tour of the Bazzar. To your right, you'll reach the Garrison. There, you'll reach the guild halls and the Hall of Heroes. Here, in the Town Square, you'll find many of the natives and their information about this planet, and north of the Town Square is the Arcade. There, you can make crowns and support funding to get to the mysterious core of Cradle.”

The tour was long, but finally we've made it through. The strangers were nice and friendly and informative. Knowledge about those bird-like animals called Snipes to the Clockwork to Gremlin culture. I see many knights all around the place. Mostly wearing odd gear like wolver coats and caps. The party has disbanded, but we all have befriended each other just in case. I go to the Bazzar to see if there's anything better then my current gear and affordable. I don't see many armors or helms in too good of a benefit, but so, I bought a fencing jacket and a mining hat.
“Your total comes to three hundred crowns”
I was already given an iron buckler as a reward for getting to Haven.
Quite expensive. Greta wasn't kidding about prices.
I keep my trusty proto sword mainly because I'm out of money. 76 Crs...I would trade my sword for something else, but looks like only proto equipment cannot be traded. I sold the rest of my weapons, due to the fact it doesn't really fit well and I would have to constantly change equipment to battle a different enemy. That comes to a total of... barely even twenty crowns. Tough bargain.
Later I went to the training hall in Town Square. A knight approaches me.

“Hello, my name is Keston. Beyond this door you will find the Advanced Training Hall. As a Spiral Knight, you are free to use it to practice your skills and learn more about the Clockworks.”

“Thanks! I'll go see what's inside.” I reply.

I go in the dark hall to see a fairly lit room in a tone of azure. I approach another knight at the counter at the front. I read his name-tag,”Konway”

“Welcome to our Advanced Training Hall. Here you will find useful survival tips to help you on your journey through the Clockworks. Would you like some directions?” Konway asks.

“Sure, where should I start?” I answer.

“To the West, you will learn about useful items found in the Clockworks. To the North, you will learn about a variety of blocks types and doors. To the East, you will find an array of traps and hazards as well as a combat room to practice defense against training cubes. Don't worry, we have taken precautions to make sure the cubes are perfectly harmless!” He shows me a map of the training hall.

“Thanks! I'm off to explore now.” I reply with a grin and left to practice in the training hall.

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