Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back.
This particular chapter took a while to write, and I'm still unsure as to whether it's finished or not. I may come back later and make changes. If you'd like to suggest any changes, I'm very open to suggestions. In the meantime, though, the journey of Alpha Squad will continue.

The next day, Harwog and several of the town gremlins led us to the elevator. Harwog stopped us just before we stepped on.
“Be careful going down,” he said, looking at the symbol that shimmered on the elevator screen. “That’s not a floor I’ve seen before.”
I blinked. Rulen said, “You mean, the floors change?”
“Oh yes. Sometimes it is one place, sometimes another. The continents of Cradle are ever-shifting, changing their positions constantly. The floors are not static.”
“And these…icons, on the elevators,” I said, gesturing to the screen, “they show what’s coming?”
“Aye.”
Parma frowned. “Hold on just a second. If those Crimson Order gremlins weren’t originally from your town, how’d they get up here?”
“Ah.” Harwog shrugged. “That, I don’t know. They are a secretive bunch. But if you’re wondering why they haven’t tried going upwards…” He gestured up towards the sky above. “The floor above this one is static, for whatever reason.”
“So they’d have to contend with the jelly king.” Rulen nodded.
“Jelly what?”
“Nothing.” I turned towards the elevator, examining the symbol. “So…do you know what this floor ahead is, exactly?”
“A facility of some kind, I think.” Harwog shrugged again. “If you’d like, you can wait for it to change. It doesn’t take too long.”
Rulen leaned in close to me and whispered “Chief, if this is really some kind of gremlin ‘facility’, I think we should take it. Maybe we can find how the Crimson Order travels around Cradle.”
Parma’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, maybe we can!”
I nodded. “Harwog, what other floors does this cycle to?”
Harwog thought for a moment. “Er…a Crimson Order barracks, a grassland continent, another gremlin village, and an abandoned factory.”
“All right. Let’s go, then.” I spun on my heel and headed onto the elevator, turning around as I boarded with the rest of my squad. “Thanks for your assistance, Harwog…and best of luck. I am sorry we brought the Crimson Order’s displeasure on you.”
Harwog smiled as the elevator bars slid up. “I have a feeling, Euclid, that you will need that luck more than I.” He waved as the platform shuddered, than began to descend into the familiar darkness of the inter-continental void.

As usual, there was utter silence in the shaft as we descended at an unknown speed. Finally, Parma broke the silence.
“You really think we could find something here, Rulen?”
“Nah,” Rulen said, “I was just trying to get your hopes up so I could smash them to little bits.” He snorted. “Yes, I do. Even if it’s not an important facility, as long as it’s connected to the Crimson Order’s mainframe, I can hack it…though that will take a while if that’s the case.”
“That’s...that’s…” Parma’s voice shook. “I swear, Rulen, if you’re lying I will kill you myself.”
Rulen was quiet at that, but then softly chuckled. “I know, bella donna.”
I sighed. “We all want to get back, Parma. But don’t forget our orders are to get there first.”
“Yes, sir…sorry,” Parma said, her tone subdued. “Rulen…I didn’t mean it.”
“I knew that too, pretty lady.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Whatever you like, Princess.”
“You little – you know what? I take it back. I think I will kill you.”
“Mm, such intensity. I like that in a woman.”
For the first time since he’d recovered, Grantz spoke up. “Shut up, you two.”
“Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir. Three bags full, sir.”
I rolled my eyes, trying not to smile – like it mattered in the darkness. “That’s enough. Stay focused.”
“I am focused,” Rulen protested. “Say, sir, is that smiling I hear?”
This time it was me who slapped him – except my hand missed its target as I swiped blindly at his voice, instead clanging painfully into what felt like a helmet. A guardian helmet.
“Sorry, Grantz. Slap Rulen for me, would you?”
There was a SMASH! sound and Rulen hoofed as the breath was knocked out of him.
“Thanks. You’re the best.”
“Roger that, Chief.”

After what seemed like an eternity, the sound of the clockworks started to get louder, signaling the end of our ride. After a few minutes, however, the grinding of the hidden gears moving the continents was joined by another noise – this a more metallic, grating shriek. Soon after it was joined by a clanging sound, like someone was perpetually hammering an anvil.
“Must be the factory,” Parma commented.
We all said nothing after that, waiting in silence as the darkness began to be permeated by that familiar gray light. This time, however, the light was a soft red; like the lights of a containment unit.
Finally, the elevator came to a gentle halt; a nice change to the jerking stops we’d grown accustomed to. The bars smoothly slid down, revealing a dimly lit corridor. The floor was made of metal grating, underneath which the hum of a conditioning unit could be heard.
“Rulen, take point.”
The tech expert nodded, moving forward. He reached behind him and took out his shield: a small buckler with small spiral decorations swirling towards the middle. Simple, light, and effective. He started forward, his eyes flicking left, right, and up in succession.
We advanced down the corridor until we reached a dead end, closed by a steel door electronically locked shut.
“Let’s go in quiet,” I said, nodding at the control panel. “Rulen, you know what to do.”
Rulen made quick work of the lock, and the door hissed open within only a few seconds. Parma and I slipped through quickly, our blasters out and ready, scanning back and forth. Grantz trotted through behind us, his huge sword on his shoulder.
“Clear,” I whispered, gesturing forward with two fingers. We were now on some kind of balcony or overlook, and the sounds of machinery was almost deafening. Across from us was another such section, and between the two platforms there seemed to be a shuttle that was suspended by some unseen force.
We moved to the balcony’s edge and looked down. Below us was stretched the workings of a huge factory, mechanized assembly lines that went down, far down. Different conveyor belts had robotic arms assembling all sorts of machines. Occasionally, a gremlin could be seen patrolling along the side of the separate belts, axe slung over its shoulder.
“Whoa,” Parma whispered, despite the general racket of the factory. “This place is huge.”
Rulen was already at the console for the shuttle, enticing it over as he entered commands into the computer. “Anyone ready for a ride?”
As we piled on for the ride across the gap, I turned to Rulen. “What kind of port do you need to get into their systems?”
“We need to get to the central command hub for that,” Rulen answered as the shuttle door slid shut behind him. “Any old computer jack won’t do if you want me to get into their data pool.”
I glanced at Grantz, who gave a slight nod of understanding.
“We’re going to have to bust some heads for certain if you want us to get there,” I said. “First priority, then, is getting schematics of the factory before we try going for more sensitive information.”
“Oh, I already got that,” Rulen answered. “The shuttle terminal had a map built into it.” He clicked a few buttons on his datapad, and a picture of the factory map flashed onto my HUD, a big arrow labeling our current position with a ‘YOU ARE HERE’.
I traced the winding passageways and elevators to what looked like a very central location. Rulen had highlighted its perimeter, labeling it as a possible data hub.
“There?” I asked.
“Yup.”
Parma grunted. “Can you tell us anything about what’s on the way? Any traps, guards, anything?”
Rulen sighed. “No. I need a more sophisticated port than a simple terminal access.”
The shuttle reached the other side with a gentle tap, and the doors slid open. We disembarked, back on watch for any sudden encounters.
It took a while for us to trek down to the central hub, but surprisingly we didn’t meet any guards on the way there. The factory seemed mostly self-sufficient, perhaps the occasional gremlin here or there to keep it in line.
“It’s too quiet,” Grantz muttered as we strode down a hallway lined with tinted glass windows from which the rest of the factory could be seen.
“Funny, and I thought you liked it quiet, big man,” Rulen said. “Besides, I would think you’d classify all this metallic banging and clattering as loud, right? Or are you just averse to normal conversation?”
“Quiet.”
“See what I’m saying? No social skills whatsoever.”
“He bangs stuff harder than you, geek boy.”
I snickered. “Rulen has done plenty of banging before. Let’s not sell him short.”
“He certainly doesn’t talk short, Chief, I can tell you that.”
“Hey!”
“All right, all right, stop.” I stopped before a large door. According to the map Rulen had stolen, this was the hub he’d been talking about. “Rulen?”
Rulen rolled his eyes at Parma, then walked over to the door controls. He gave an interested “Hmm,” as he perused the panel.
“What is it, geek boy?”
“It seems to be trapped, wi-” Rulen stopped, then looked back with an evil grin. “I mean, no, it’s totally not trapped. I’ll open it no problem. Hey Chief, how about Parma goes first?”
“Just unlock it, Rulen. What’s waiting for us?”
“Probably just a bunch of wires, energy cores, and computer interfaces. Then again, it could just as probably be the entire Crimson Order. Let’s find out.”
Parma, Grantz and I pressed ourselves against the wall on either side of the doorway, priming our sidearms and preparing for any resistance. Rulen hummed as his fingers flew over the door controls, entering commands. There was a click and the panel turned green, then a hiss as the doors slid open.
We charged in, our blasters sweeping the room. It was a large, circular room, with a platform in the middle that was cordoned off. The floor was grating much like that in the room we’d arrived in, with coolant pipes humming underneath. Computers ran the entire length of the room’s walls. On the far side of the entrance we’d come through was a gremlin in a chair. He swiveled around as we entered.
“Freeze or we shoot!” I yelled.
The gremlin took one look at us and lurched for a panel next to him. Parma immediately nailed him twice through the head, but the momentum of his movement slapped him into the panel, his body pressing all the buttons it had.
The lights flared red, and alarm klaxons started blaring. Parma cursed.
“Rulen, go! We’ve hit the beehive, time to get out of here!”
Rulen dashed over to the computer the gremlin had been using, hurriedly plugging his datapad in. He began to furiously type, pushing buttons alternately on the console and datapad, talking as he did so.
“Uh…he just activated a factory emergency. The whole facility’s on shutdown. We’ve got a security detail headed here right now…doors are locking down…”
“How long do you need to search for information on the Core and the Crimson Order?”
“Sir, I…”
“Just give me a number, Rulen!”
Rulen worked his jaw, looking up from the console to meet my eyes. “Five minutes.”
“All right.” I looked around, evaluating the room. Cover was sparse, save for the platform in the middle, which was about waist-high. “Can you seal the door?”
“Negative, sir. The whole facility’s on lockdown – it’ll override any direct commands to the factory mainframe.”
“Right. Get to searching.” I turned to Parma. “Parma, I want you by the door entrance. Keep your sword charged for when they get close. Grantz, you and I will blast ‘em until we see the whites of their eyes. Got it?”
They nodded and we split, Parma going to where I had directed her. Grantz and I stood in the middle of the doorframe, waiting for the attackers to arrive.
Not a minute later, we both heard and saw the ‘security detail’. A gremlin was charging forward at the head of a small pack of robots – a few looked slightly humanoid, with a single eye in the middle of their heads, and the others looked like bugs, clattering along on four legs. The gremlin skidded to a halt when he saw us, his face covered with surprise.
That surprise was wiped off of his face pretty quickly as a volley from me and Grantz tore into them, eliminating him and several of his friends with extreme prejudice. The humanoid robots, not seeming to even notice the fall of their gremlin leader, clattered forward and bent back.
The eye in their heads suddenly glowed brightly and several lasers shot out, crawling along the floor towards where we stood. They stopped just short of us, slightly out of range. Then several miniature chain explosions detonated along each laser’s path.
“That’s bad,” Parma said.
Rulen shouted over his shoulder “Chief! They dispatched a whole lot more of those things as soon as they caught sight of us – get ready for more company!”
The little spider robots clitter-clattered forward, surprisingly quick for their small size. They charged, opening what seemed to be mouths. The inside of each maw glowed a brilliant green.
Grantz and I filled that maw with shots from my Valiance and his Callahan. The Valiance did a decent job at distorting and ripping apart the metal they were made of, and Grantz’s Callahan, while not doing as much destruction, still punched the robots back, denting the metal wherever it struck.
Suddenly the glass around the corridor was struck by several balls of energy, and it shattered. Several more spider robots crawled in from above, accompanied by more of the humanoid ones.
“Rulen?” I called over my shoulder. “You almost there?”
“Working, on it, Chief – argh!”
His sentence was cut short as one of the humanoid robots still crawling into the corridor unleashed an eye-blast. The laser shot by both me and Grantz, slicing into the chair where Rulen sat. Several other lasers fired at the same time, prompting us to dodge the deadly beams.
Parma stepped out, unleashing the charge of her Acheron. The dark purple blast filled the corridor, destroying the enemies in the middle of it and stunning the rest. She swept her sword to the side and smashed it into the control panel, slipping back inside the room as the doors slid shut.
“Rulen!” I ran over to him, holstering my blaster.
The blast had just grazed him, fortunately, but his left arm had been sliced clean off nonetheless. The intense heat of the laser had cauterized the wound instantly, but there was an unfortunate side effect to that heat.
“Oh…no…” Parma looked at Rulen and winced, turning away.

He was fused to the chair, the molten metal melted into his flesh.

“Rulen, talk to me! Rulen!”
His jaw was slack, but then he stirred and blinked. “Oh…uh…sorry Chief, thought I fainted for a second there.” He shook his head. “Man what happened – oh.” He looked down to see his arm missing. “Dang, that hurts.”
Parma tentatively put her hand on the place where the chair had melted into him.
“Ow!”
“Sorry!” She jerked it back. “Rul…you’re stuck.”
Rulen frowned. “What?” He made as if to get up, then cried out in pain.
“Don’t panic, we’ll get you out.” I looked back at the door as a loud bang sounded, then another. The robots were practically hurling themselves at the thing.
Grantz strode over and put at hand against the metal. “They’re trying to melt it, too,” he said, jerking his hand back as he felt the heat.
I looked at Parma. She looked at Rulen, who looked back at me.
“There’s nothing for it, then, sir,” Rulen said, quietly. “You need to get out of here.”
“Not without you, Rulen. We’ll get you ou-”
“That platform. It’s the elevator.” Rulen cut me off, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “Get on.” He gave a small grin. “It needs someone to sit here to activate it, anyway.”
“No, we can’t do that!” Parma cried, grabbing Rulen by the shoulders. “What about the data about the Core? What about the Crimson Order’s transport methods? You’re our main tech expert! How are we going to evaluate the Core without you?”
I stepped back, sizing up the base of the chair to see if it could be cut. It was melded into the floor, a thick pillar of metal.
The banging on the door intensified.
“You’ll find a way,” Rulen said. He raised his remaining hand, brushing Parma off. “Spiral HQ won’t forget about you. I’ll make sure it won’t.” He typed a few commands and the platform in the middle of the room hummed to life in response.
I choked, realizing what I had to do. “Grantz. Parma.” I nodded. “Get on.”
Parma stood where she was, by Rulen. She seemed in shock.
“Parma! Get ON – that’s an order!” I was yelling now.
“Rulen…” she said, her voice quiet but shaky, “Rul…what about you?”
Rulen looked up at her and gave her a sad grin. “Don’t worry, pretty lady, I’ve got your back.” He pulled out the one recon module he’d been carrying. “I’ll tell Esscom to treat you real nice.”
Parma leaned down, slipping off her helmet, and gave him a kiss. Then she put it back on, straightened up and turned to us, tears running down her face. She marched stiffly onto the platform, not turning back around, facing the door stubbornly.
“Rulen,” I called as the elevator started to shift into gear.
“Yes, Chief?”
“You’re promoted,” I said, trying to choke back the lump in my throat.
Rulen gave a smile at that – a real, genuine smile. The elevator began to descend.
“You are a good squad mate, Rulen,” Grantz said, his voice as deep and rumbling as ever. “And you are a true Spiral Knight.”
“Shut up, Grantz!” Rulen laughed, giving us a thumbs-up as we finally slipped out of view.

The elevator descended into a glass tube, until we could no longer hear the banging of the robots trying to breach the hub, and the only thing that surrounded us was the red, flashing lights of the factory. We stood in silence for what seemed like ages.
Then Parma broke down in sobs.
“RUULEEEEEEEEN!!”