Spiral Knights: Equis Orders

Location: Cradle

The Clockworks

Depth 19

Gremlin Dimensional Facility-Crimson Order

The Gremlin Darkfang Thwacker walked slowly down the dimly light facility, though the dark corridors. As he walked past the Bolt Knight guards, he shuddered from nervousness. The dark room was only lit by blood-red lights. A large desk sat in the middle. The chair swerved, and the feared Warmaster Druset, member of the Crimson Order, looked back at him. The Thwacker bowed shakily. Druset waved his claw dismissively.

"Is everything ready?" He snapped.

"Yes, Warmaster. The transporter is online and fully operational." the Thwacker said, rather frightened.

"Good. I wish to activate it myself." Druset said, with a sour grin. As the two of them walked out, they failed to notice the intruder alert icon on the main console...

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Later in the facility's testing room, the large, dome-like transporter was glowing with energy. Large pylons of steel were delicately placed on the top. The main core was shining brightly with cobalt light.  On the balcony overlooking the room, Druset looked down with pride. he cackled underneath his mask.

"All these years of interruptions by the Iron Invaders, now we cam finally strike back at them! Launch the transporter!" He barked.

A Bolt Knight hit the switch. The machine sputtered, then came to life. two beams of crimson energy came out of the machine and vortexed together into a frame between the pylons. The energy swirled and cracked, causing gusts of wind to rampage throughout the room. Suddenly, a cry of distress was heard from one of the technicians.

"WARMASTER! the machine is over-fluctuating and the power core is unstable! I can't guarantee that it will continue to function!"

"Keep the power flowing! I wish to see this completed!" Druset yelled.

Suddenly, the machine exploded in a brilliant crimson light. The metal shrapnel was sent flying across the room. Large chunks of machinery hurtled around. The smoke obscured any report of success or failure. Suddenly, two small beings stumbled out of the transporter. One was cyan blue, with rainbow colored hair, with what seemed to be wings on its back. The other one was lavender, with a horn and wings, with purple and pink hair. Druset motioned to a squad of Bolt Knights. As the Bolt Knights approached, the Rainbow one started to stir...

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Rainbow Dash was having a bad day. After two mysterious beams of light had sucked her and Twilight into them right in the midst of all her friends and Ponyville, she had just now tried to stand up. Her aching body resisted, but she eventually stood up shakily, and then collapsed again.

"Wait. where are we?" she said faintly. "What happened?"

Twilight tried to reply, but she was smacked with the flat edge of a Bolt Knight's sword, and she fell unconscious. Rainbow had just now gotten her bearings, and the next thing she knew, the flat of a sword smacked into the back of her skull. Rainbow collapsed, out cold. As the beings were dragged to the prisoner wing, they failed to notice a large group of Spiral Knights watching them from atop the glass dome. The lead Knight motioned, and the group used plasma cutters to cut holes in the dome. Rappelling down, the Knights rushed to the door. Before they could reach it, it closed. The Lead Knight swore under his breath. He looked around, and seeing a large ladder, he motioned. The Knights ascended, reaching a large catwalk. From there, they began to follow the Bolt Knights, using the catwalk for cover. Then, a Gremlin, absentmindedly fiddling with a datapad while walking towards them, was caught by the lead knight in a headlock.

"Where are those Bolt Knights taking them?" The lead knight said, taking out an Archeron sword. The Gremlin paled at the shadow energy coming off the blade.

"The prisoner wing." he gasped.

"Where is that? Be specific." the Knight said, inching the feared blade closer.

"Next floor down."

"Give me the access codes needed to bypass the sentries." the Knight said.

"ALRIGHT! Just let me live!" he whimpered. He made a few taps on the datapad, and the codes appeared in the Knight's HUD. He smiled, and then knocked out the Gremlin, while motioning for the group to follow. After a few minutes, they arrived at the familiar elevator. They boarded, and the elevator gates came up. As the Knights readied weapons, the elevator descended, leaving no trace behind.

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As Lieutenant Varias woke up from a nap, one of the many he had taken, the rest of his squad was still asleep. He noticed two new cages had been brought in.

"For what? or Who?" he thought.

Soon after, two Bolt Knights dragged two equine creatures through the door, followed by Scull, Druset's lieutenant. He unlocked the cage doors and the Constructs threw the creatures in. After slamming the doors shut, he looked over at the captive Spiral Knights.

"Enjoying your stay, Iron Invader?" he cackled at Varias.

"Just fine, Scull. We gonna get our rations for the day, gearhead?"

"Soon. Have some talking time with your new guests. They're gonna be with you a while." He grinned, and then he left, cackling to himself.

As soon as he left, one of the Equine creatures, the lavender one started to stir.

"What...what happened?" she said groggily.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a little Gremlin scheme to take over alternate dimensions, from what I heard. Welcome to the spectacular Dimensions Facility, maintained by hundreds of Gremlin warriors. Your new home for whoever knows how long." Varias said, laughing.

"Well, that answers some questions, but adds some new ones. What are you?" the equine creature, whose voice marked it as a she, asked.

"Lieutenant Varias. I'm a Spiral Knight."

"I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle. Pleasure to meet you. But what's a Spiral Knight?" she asked.

"We're a group of interplanetary explorers and warriors. Welcome to our home for a while, the planet Cradle." Varias replied.

"Cradle, so that's were we are. Are we on the surface?"

"Below it, actually. We are at depth 19 in the Clockworks." Varias replied.

"Clockworks? Wait, below?" She exclaimed, rather surprised.

"Yep. We are in the Clockworks, which is the name we were given when we made contact with the Strangers, Cradle's inhabitants. The told us that Cradle is hollow, with 24 floors. The floors extend all the way down to the core of Cradle, a massive energy source. It can power our ship and allow us to return home. We can't do it now, though"

"So why can't you do it?"

"Because we can't harness the power that the core contains. It's simply too powerful. And it's inside a containment seal. When a crack squad of Knights entered the core, we learned that there's some evil being known as the Swarm feeding off it like a leech. We open it to tap into its energy, then the Swarm gets out, and it will devour everything and everyone. And pretty much destroy the planet. The Gremlins were originally supposed to protect this world, but the responsibility fell to us. That happened when the squad was contacted by the team that originally went into the core. They said that they were brought into the core to be the guardians of a being known as the Sleeper, that the Swam is trying to destroy for some reason."

"Wait, then how did the Knights get in the core in the first place?" Twilight asked.

Varias took a breath. "Well, it all started with the Morai. A group of invaders. The wars we fought with them crippled and wiped out our world, Isora. So we outfitted a ship, the Skylark, to find a new energy source to restore Isora. After years in hyperspace, we discovered Cradle. As we were about to land, Energy blasts rocked the ship and crippled the Skylark, cutting it in two. Everyone was ordered to evacuate. Knights are still landing at the rescue site as of now. The Strangers gave us food, water shelter, and most importantly, information. Long story about ancient Cradle, but thing is, we are still battling the Clockworks. It's changing as if its alive. It's impossible to plot a course that isn't changed by the pattern. The Strangers were being attacked by the Gremlins, and in return for the shelter and supplies they gave us, they wanted us to harvest the minerals found in the clockworks."

"Have you guys tried escaping?" Rainbow Dash said, getting up. Slamming into the bars, she received a powerful electric shock.

"The bars are electrified. We learned that day one. They really don't want any of us leaving." one of Varias's team members said.

Twilight sent out a blast of magic, but it failed to do anything.

"Nice light show." Another Knight commented.

"Say we do get out. What then?" Twilight said.

"Escape is near impossible. Tier 3 Rocket Puppies at every vantage point. Trigger-happy gremlins everywhere. It's easier said than done." Varias replied.

Suddenly, the sounds of clashing swords and strange cracks were heard. Then, the doors blew open. A figure stood in the doorway. "Near impossible is still possible, Lieutenant." The figure said. "Good to see you guys alright."

The figure walked into the room, followed by nearly ten other Spiral Knights. Their armor was yellow and gray, with a badge emblazoned with a spiked crown on a striped background, carrying pistols and swords. The first figure was wearing a brown and grey fur coat, and was wearing a hood with a strange visor. He was carrying a large white sword, the biggest Twilight and Rainbow had ever seen. On his arm was a shield emblazoned with a horse's head, with two small parrying blades strapped to the back of the shield. Floating on his left side was what Twilight thought to be a dragon, with Large horns, neck spikes, and large claws. Occasionally it would emit small tufts of flame.

"Vanguard Chasehassen. Figures they'd send the best to get us." Varias said.

"You can say that again. Let's blow this facility sky-high."

As the yellow knights worked on getting the rest of Varias's squad out of their cages and getting them armed, Chasehassen walked over to Rainbow and Twilight's cage. He smiled underneath his hood.

"Guess we gotta bring you along. Come on. Let's get the heck out of here."