2A: Surviving the Laser

The Skylark Mk.V has additional steel plating in order to defend itself better. This time, when the purple laser hit it, the Skylark Mk.V split in half and only killed 99% of the people inside. The 1% miraculously includes just over a few hundred knights. Over 99% of the knights will die later. Oops spoilers, sorry.

There were a thousand escape pods, so it only made sense that the knights who survived were the ones with very quirky names, such as Tehepicwin. I know, I know, the logic doesn't follow at all. Fortunately, we have a hero whose name is not very quirky.

Tim Thomson.

Tim Thomson survived the blast by sleeping in an escape pod. He was in the escape pod because the only people who would actually go on the Skylark Mk.V were emo teenagers(including himself), lamenting on "crushes" and "life." In order to escape his emo misery, he slept in an escape pod.
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2B: The Important Knights

The 1% includes Rhendon, who is a Recon Ranger. But you already know that.

Rhendon is the only Recon Ranger who survived the crash. In fact, he is the most "powerful" knight to survive. Resna, Feron, Barrus, every important person died. Except him.

The laser, which Rhendon assumes was a focused gamma ray burst, was so incredible that not even the Skylark Mk.V's state-of-the-art steel plating could resist. If the steel plating was strong enough, Rhendon's friends would still be alive.

Rhendon stands up as he looks out of the hole in his escape pod. This is real life, Rhendon thinks. People die in real life. He just happens to be a survivor. Unlike every friend he ever had.

Rhendon clutches his head and screams.
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2C: Our Hero

Tim, suddenly waking up as he crashes on the ground, looks around the escape pod. He gears up for no apparent reason before crashing through the wrecked door on the escape pod.

The Sun is high in the sky. It is noon. Tim has around five hours to find safety, or he will have to survive in this presumably hostile territory. There is nothing around, except a path leading into the distance.

A winding path.

Tim, with Brigandine on his body, Crescent on his head, and sword and shield in his hands, sees no other option but to walk. As far as he is concerned, Tim and the knights are alone on this planet.

How wrong he is.
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2D: Massacre

It is sunset when Tim finds himself inside a camp for the few survivors of the crash. Tim has not encountered any monster yet, so he has exactly...ten minutes until he fights his first.

Except it won't be a fight.

Tim has switched his sword for a shovel. Apparently, a shovel is more powerful than a sword. Then, an announcement booms over the camp.

"Attention everyone! A squad has managed to turn on the generators in the Clockworks. This means that the elevators leading to the chasm crossing have started. Evacuation is beginning immediately."

While sitting beside the campfire he spent the past hour by, Tim had a lot of time to learn what the Clockworks were. The horrors beneath, he heard, were a new kind of hell.

The Clockworks. They were not a game.

The announcements repeated for the next minute, but Tim definitely does not need to be told twice and leaves for the elevators immediately. To his dismay, Tim sees that the line leading to the elevators is a good hundred long.

Then, a knight far behind screams, "They're attacking the camp's barrier! We are so, so, dead..." Sure enough, a blue barrier lining the edge of the rescue camp is being horded by monsters. Jellies, Wolvers, Chromalisks, they are all there. The monsters attack the barrier until finally the barrier gives way. It is clear that the knights cannot hold their line. Instead, they all run.

The monsters charge at the knights, biting necks, stabbing through chests, and breaking limbs. It is a shower of blood, with the very flesh of the knights being eaten, even while the knights still breathe. The screams of the dying knights drive the remaining further away, although a few knights bravely fight back.

Brave or foolish, it will never be known.

Eventually, the monsters stop killing knights. Instead, they eat the dying knights some more until satisfied. Tim is a survivor of the massacre, sanity barely intact. The same goes for the other survivors.

Fifty.

Tim, along with the others, knows that he can't just stay there. He must get to the elevator and cross the chasm. The path from there, he doesn't know. The only thing he does know is that he wants to be back home. What he has seen today can never be unseen. The monsters finish their feast, allowing Tim and the others to take the elevators.

Down.
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2E: Haven

The survivors have crossed the chasm, conflict free. They take the elevators back up, arriving outside the town of Haven. They know it is called Haven because of the sign on the surface, written in blood.

Rhendon is still alive. Something dawns on him. Some knights already crossed the chasm, so where are they? They must already be in Haven.

The knights walk over to the entrance of Haven, with Rhendon leading the way. He climbs up the first step before ducking down and urging everyone to do the same. Rhendon peeks up, shaking, and discovers a group of rat humanoids armed with hammers. One hooded rat stands by a squad of tied knights.

Rhendon looks away.
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This just got dark really fast. I must as well change the title to Spiral Deconstruction or some crap, because that is pretty much what it is.