Machinauts: Crimson Iron Chronicle

Prologue
Metal Shines Anew

Location: Stasis chamber B-2 , 200 years after the bombing of Torchbellow city

"Another one's stolen. Darn it."

A short gremlin in a little green cloak runs across a large atrium, covered in small sealed doors. Strangely, some of the doors were methodically pried open with obvious signs of struggling on the former occupants' part.

"So many stolen Machinauts. Someone needs to pay for this." Slowly following behind the gremlin is a brown diving-armored Machinaut with green trim, scanning the area constantly for any signs of the looters who maybe responsible for the kidnapping of so many machinauts.

"Hmm. Hey, the looters left us with this one. Well, okay, his gear's gone, but... ooh, KV-103 'Fallen King'. Nice name. Sounds like a real butt-kicker." The gremlin taps a few emergency key codes, then jumps up to turn the hatch, then opens the door, but inside, there was nothing, only dust and cobweb greeted the disappointed little Gremlin.

"How can this be?!" The Gremlin named Nalki groaned with a slumped shoulder, utterly perplexed by the turn of event, "Now I have to go back to Elder Mendilex with empty hands again... come on, Nautilus," she signaled her green mechanical body guard, "let's go home."

Suddenly, the chamber doors behind them opened, a mass mob of Grimson order thawkers rushed out from the darkness, Nautilus stood before Nalki and readied a air bursting torpedo. "What are you doing here?" the machinaut addressed the invaders. "This facility belongs to the Torchbellow clan! You have no business in being here." The elite thawkers laughed at Nautilus's threat, they were hand picked by Tinkinzar himself and were his royal guard, all of them clad in silver with a crimson order's insignia on their shoulder pad. Their thawk hammers and shields were of the highest quality, made from the strongest metal found on cradle, they were not afraid to pick a fight with a machinaut.

"No it does not..." a voice echoed through the dense thawker mob, emerging from the shielding of his body guards, the voice belonged to none other than Tinkinzar, the emperor of the Gremlin race dressed in a gold laced robe. "This facility was built because I allowed it... "

"SILENCE!" feeling threatened, Nautilus fired a torpedo at Tinkinzar, hoping to cut the head off the serpent and take advantage of the emperor's pride. But just as the torpedo was about to make impact, Tinkinzar brushed his hand and an unknown forced cause the torpedo to fly off course, landing harmlessly into the ceiling above.

"Scrap, my targeting system!" Nautilus pointed at Tinkinzar, who was cackling, "You! You must have jammed it!"

Nalki took a deep breath and calmed herself, "Alright, Mister- Lord, Tinkinzar, what are you doing here?" She only seen Tinkinzar from propaganda poster and he was even more menacing in real life.

"I am just here to thank you and your clan for the glorious contribution to our war effort against the surface dwellers," Tinkinzar said, "I am sure your grandfather would not mind if I borrow some of the machinauts he stored up all those years ago."

"So you stole them?" Nalki asked, she was angered by this, no one should steal properties that didn't belong them.

"Stolen?" Tinkinzar chuckled, "Naive child..." Mocking Nalki of her young age, he continued, "By the sacred oath sworn by your ancestors, in a time of need, and by my will, all Machinauts will be once again be under my control."

"Like scrap I will!" Nautilus refused, "You are a tyrant and a mad man! I will never take orders from you!"

Loading another torpedo into the firing chamber, Nautilus aimed for Tinkinzar's head despite the futility, the thawkers began to surround both the machinaut and the hooded Gremlin. Just as Nautilus was about to fire, a massive chain sword stabbed through his torso, ripping his body slowly in half as the diamond toothed chain blade was operated by a monstrous strength. Before termination, Naultilus turned around to see another machinaut, KV-103, the 'Fallen King' with the chain sword held firmly in his hand. Before he could ask the reason of betrayal, Nautilus fell on the ground as his engine fluid and internal systems splattered onto the floor.

Nalki was left dazed by the shock that KV-103 was now painted silver with a crimson order symbol in the place of the torchbellow clan sigil.

"Traitors..." Nalki whimpered with tears in her eyes only to receive a bone crushing back hand from the massive metal forearm of KV-103, Nalki was sent flying and she fell unconscious as three of her ribs were broken by the impact from been thrown against the wall. The last thought that came through her mind was how could a Machinaut be so ruthless and have so little regard for the living?

"Let her live..." Tinkinzar said and with that, KV-103 stopped his ruthless attack, "She will be an example to those who dares to follow us... for now, let us return to the surface for the task at hand."

As the guards escorted the Gremlin emperor out of the stasis chamber, KV-103 took one final look at the unconscious body of Nalki before turning around and exiting the room last. leaving the door open for anyone who may come looking for her.

Chapter 1: Tide of vengeance

Location, Emperor's palace, great colony.

A long stretch of crimson carpet rolled through the palace ground as a three towering machinauts marched into the palace, their metal feet grounded into the fabrics as they grimly walked towards the emperor's chamber, along two sides of the carpet were the phalanxes of Tinkinzar's royal guard, they watched on as the machinauts walked by in stares of jealousy, most of them never received audience even after a distinguished period of service.

KV-103 was leading the group of machinauts, a massive, self-aware, two meters tall mechanical fury and intolerance made material. Behind him was KV-95, a humble workhorse of a combat machinaut, never truly excels in a particular field of battle but in the same time void of any obvious weakness. And last but not least, the ZX-752 M.A.C.E., true to its acronym, was the hammer of team, capable of unleash a punishing volley of missiles from the hidden compartments across his body. The three machinauts opened the golden door that barred the mysterious king of the Gremlin race, and in the empty throne room stood the man in a long silky golden robe, it was emperor Tinkinzar.

KV-103 was silent, but the machinauts accompanied him were beginning to question why they were here, and why KV-103 painted himself with the mark of the crimson order. "Question, KV-103," said KV-95, being as technical as ever due to his limited AI capacity, "Objective, unclear."

"We are here to heed the call of the one and true monarch of cradle," KV-103 answered in a flat tone, he then returned with a question of his own, "Or perhaps you are having second thought?"

"Negative," KV-95 gingerly replied, "Primary order, Emperor Tinkinzar, all other orders, secondary."

"Good," Tinkinzar smirked as he walked down from his throne seat, his hands rubbing against each other as he prepared to greet the three iron warriors, KV-103 was the first to kneel and it only took a glance from the emperor himself to cue the others to do the same, "Please, rise my subjects..." Tinkinzar continued, "You have honored your fealty to me and for that I thank you," KV-103 raised its head and saw the emperor presented a scaly cape as a present to the newly defect machinauts.

"Is that, my emperor..." said KV-103, "That is a cape made from-"

"-That is right..." Tinkinzar cut the machinaut short, "It is a dracolisk scale cape, I plucked them from my hunting trip to the far sides of cradle, and I am sure you enjoy wearing the skins of your most hated foe." KV-103, without even a moment of hesitation, accepted the cape and wore it like a king that it fashioned itself to be. Tinkinzar cleared his throat and quickly the Ultranaut knew its place and knelt back down.

"I hope this is the beginning of a long term alliance, machinauts, as many of you may know," Tinkinzar paused with a frown, he snapped his finger and a hologram appeared behind him, a cut section of cradle could be seen, "Our planet is plagued by invaders descended from distant space, they cannot be enlightened to our ways and their existence threaten ours in a way that I cannot expect the common folks to fully understand. But for you, machinauts, my warriors of iron, you all know too well what these 'xeno menace' meant to our planet-"

"-The annihilation of our race," KV-103 followed up in a stern monotone, "I, KV-103 ultra heavy machinaut, and my brethren will put an end to whoever dares to challenge our dominion." zooming in its visual modules onto the map, KV-103 soon spotted a strange settlement projected on the cradle's surface, it was named 'Haven'. "That xeno settlement on the surface? Do you wish us to destroy it?"

"Of all my cadre of advisors," Tinkinzar grinned in delight, "None of them knew my heart better than you, KV-103, then it is settled, launch your strike force as soon as possible. Your forces will serve as a spear tip to the assault on Haven. I will dispatch reinforcement once you secured the elevators in the Haven's arcade. Be aware, the xenos inhabiting Haven called themselves the 'spiral knights', they possess weapons far surpass our normal troops, but I am sure they are not prepared for something as advanced as you."

"Your wish is my command, my emperor," KV-103 rose up, looking back the other two machinauts, KV-95 and ZX-752 could only kneel further in fear, that is, if fear was something a machine could truly feel as suppose to a series of protocols enforced to prevent termination at the hands of the Fallen King.

Leaving the palace, ZX-752 couldn't help but inquire their current situation, "Fallen King?" ZX-752 asked KV-103, "I don't meant to question your authority on this whole, 'strike force' thing, but why are we going to the surface to slaughter some xenos that may not even be a harm to us?"

KV-103 didn't reply, but as they left the palace and entered the civilian district, they soon started to see the fallout of the spiral knight's incursions on cradle, old war veterans with limbs missing and orphaned children whose parents died fighting the spiral knights begging on the street. ZX-752 scanned the passersby and it didn't take a psychologist to realize the source of the frowns on their faces. The aliens did more than just putting up a warm welcome on the colony's population. After a long period of silent walking and the avoiding of prying eyes, KV-103 broke its silence, "do you see now why these xenos have no right to live on this planet?"

"Fine," ZX-752 relented, "I won't question it anymore, we will just carry out our directives and go home, right?"

"There is no going home, M.A.C.E...." KV-103 coldly replied, "... We are 'his' now."

Swearing fealty to the Gremlin emperor now felt like a death sentence as the three machinauts arrived at ember light, the entire gremlin town was stained red by a massacre carried out by Herex, the whispering venom and the leader of the ghostmane stalkers, all the assassins except for Herex soon bowed at the presence of the three warriors of iron. The red robbed assassin did not appreciate the fact that he was only assigned to clear a path for the machinauts, "I see," Herex stood up to KV-103, "that senile old king brought the biggest robots he could find to throw at the knights," the hooded assassin sighed in frustration, beaming a look at the intimidating ultranaut, "Shouldn't he already know by now that this kind of plan won't work after the failure of project R?"

"Neither does sending assassins to the warmaster's base... Doctor Herex..." KV-103 retorted, knowing full well of Herex's betrayal of his one time brother, "I know you are still trying to earn back the emperor's good graces, Herex, so I won't tell him about your, arrogance..."

"Pft," Herex spat, "You are just a talking tin can! There are things you will never understand."

"I understand just enough to protect the denizens of cradle," KV-103 replied, "I am no mere automaton, Doctor Herex, I was forged from an age beyond your wildest imagination, the Spiral Knights will not see us coming. Load us to the elevator."

Herex knew that his weapons will be no match against three of the most advanced machine that the Gremlin technologies have to offer. So he guided the machinauts to their final destination, an elevator to the Haven's arcade. "See you in hell, tin cans," Herex growled, "The knights are well armed, their technology is at least a match to yours, you won't last long out there..."

"Just you watch, Doctor..." KV-103 didn't look back, the elevator slowly churned as it climbed into the light above cradle's sky, in the short interval between their journey from emberlight to Haven, the three machinauts prepared to combat, KV-103 readied its chainsword and whispered a final prayer to a mechanical deity, ZX-752 ran a final check on its targeting modules and KV-95 greased its flak rifle. As Haven drew near, they readied themselves for what was waiting on the other side the shining light. As the elevator stopped at its destination, they were met with a wave of silence from the knights passing by, just as Tinkinzar predicted, spiral knights were not expecting them.

"Woah, cool, that some cool armor and weapons you got there guys!" a knight in wolver coat cheered approached to inspect the machinauts, oblivious to the cold icy metal hidden beneath the armors. As the knight walked closer he noticed something amiss. The mechanical movement of the machinauts as their slowly stepped out of the elevators soon raised the knights' suspicion, but he didn't have time to respond as KV-103 grabbed him by the collar. The Fallen King scanned the knight's armor and analyzed its material.

"Wolver pelts," KV-103's eyes glowed red as it pieced the evidence together, the knights were hunting the creatures of cradle to make their armor, "you Xenos scums, always take what you pleased at the expense of others, always taking it by force..."

"Hey, what are you talking about? I got it from the auction house," the knights protested, "and 'Xenos scum'? What do you-" the knight never got to finish his complaint as his neck was snapped by KV-103's cold metal hand. Blood was split on Haven for the first time and Feron, caught by complete surprise, raised the alarm.

"The Gremlins unleashed some kind super mecha knights at the arcade," Feron, who was the only spiral order lieutenant at the arcade, called his comlink onto a public frequency, "All knights report to Haven, repeat, this is a code red! We have intrusion at the arcade! Wagner!" He turned to look at a hooded elder knight, "Evacuate the non combatants!" before he could finish, KV-103 was already ten steps away from him, Feron's two squires tried to intervene but only to be swiped away by the Ultra heavy machinaut through brute force. So powerful was KV-103 hydraulic arms that the snapping of the necks could be heard from afar, brutally killing the two squires in midair, their sacrifice brought Feron the time to grab his leviathan blade, right before crossing blade with Machinaut's chainsword.

"Who are you? Identify yourself!" Feron yelled, peering into the glowing eyes of the emotionless machine, the lieutenant realized that he had a new breed of foe on his hand.

"I am KV-103 unit two, you can address me by the code name: 'Fallen King'," the machinaut replied, "I am here on the behalf of the emperor of the Gremlin kind, I am here to kill you."