[displaced] THE DRAGONFORGE (artaius pov)by knight-ajaxChaptersPrologue(edited)Progress!suprize!IntroductionsPrologue(edited)Author's Note Hello everybody this is me and midnight roses joint project welcome to the dragon forge the two places on Equis that even dragons fear to tread, this is a trial chapter we want you guys opinions on this chapter and anything we could do to improve it, constructive criticism is of course appreciated and encouraged any kind of destructive criticism like dissing our writing style or saying that our book is bad because of its genre, will be ignored. we are new to writing we've only been doing it for 5 years don't expect Arthur c, Clark, or JK Rowling from us, I'll see you in the comments enjoy! ∆ = chapter break π = time jump ÷ = POV change Prologue(edited) operation: liberty prime location: 23 km North Northeast of Moscow Time: 01:45 Date: 12 / 14 / 2046 It was, chaos. All around me, explosions erupted, guts and Gore achieve flight, and the devil laughs. My sister is dead, killed in the first strike. My Commander, died an hour ago, shot by my own hands. And now here I am, running into a blazing fire screaming like a madman. am i mad? I asked this question every day since this war started, now I have an answer; no I'm not mad, I'm just another cog in the machine, another killer on this blood-soaked field. but mad, I am not mad. For I am the warrior of a loving God and as such I have given my life not to heaven, not to Paradise, not to peace, I've given my life to war, hell, and chaos, because it is here and these plains of chaos of war and the literal hell on Earth, it's here on these plains that I seek salvation and it's here on these plains that I shall dish it out, as molten lead And so I stand here a m240 in one hand, and my trusty D'eagle in the other, that I run ahead of my soldiers and take the enemy head-on I'll show those commie cucks what I am, I am a soldier of the United States army, and I know no fear. "AGAINST ALL THE MACHINATIONS OF HELL, AGAINST ALL THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN, THEY HAVE SENT UNTO YOU, ONLY ME!!!" I screamed at the damned Communists that dared to invade my home, to slaughter innocence in the hundreds, and force this peaceful man to war. And thus we charged in to the slaughter, as bullets wizzed passed my head and I had even felt a few impact my body, but I do not care I have a mission to complete, and I would not die yet, not here. The fighting was fierce, the compound was well secured and well-guarded, but even Jericho fell to but a small Force of farmers, but we were no lowly farmers... Okay I was. But that doesn't matter, we struck at the enemy crossing a battlefield of hundreds of meters, in mere seconds we struck with all the finality and rage of the fury of the American people personified we were wraiths that day. "Do I hear the devil whistling?" "ARTILLERY!! EVERYONE DOWN!" I look to the Stars and I can see them the little specks of light that indicate mortar shells, "YOU COWARDS DON'T EVEN WISH TO FIGHT ME? SO BE IT THEN. RIP AND TEAR!!!"these were the last words spoken by me before I was obliterated in a rain of high explosives. location: unknown time: unknown date: unknown ... OH HELL NO, I AIN'T DONE YET! I ain't going to die just like that, I didn't go to heaven or hell, instead, I spoke with death, lovely woman by the way you should meet her, we had a rather nice conversation over a bottle of whiskey, and I managed to strike a deal with her I won't go over it here, but essentially me and my sister's souls will be sent to a new universe with one power of our choice… we chose the power of the engineer. I know I know rather vague, what is the power of the engineer you may ask? the power of the engineer is the ability to easily create or build or invent anything one can imagine, dream of, or desire, be at a simple pickaxe, or a multi kilometre-long warship. But regardless,that is the situation I find myself in... Now actually situation I find myself in is being lost in a cave five BLOODY KILOMETERS beneath the Earth. -_- yeah, fun, oh and there's the magma, of course there's magma! "Bloody fucking hell. Whelp I better get started, I knew all those hours at dwarf fortress would come in handy someday." I said but as I said this I noticed a few things for one I was a bit taller now I used to be a 6'5" now I'm standing at 7'0", and my uniform is vastly different, plus there's this odd weapon currently housed on my side, it seems to be some kind of machine/nail gun hybrid,odd, But I at least still had my favorite guns, and one that I was still working on back home, but here it is right in front of me completed, and I remember it being parts,my experimental bolt rifle (.62 Apollo), my trusty D'eagle (45 Colt magnum) and my custom-made hand Cannon(45-70 colt). I decided to check myself over and see what I got on me, the list is as follows: MRE's, canteen full of water, some weird pick shovel wrench hybrid, this weird device that is reminiscent of the experimental pip boys on my left wrist (it had listed a bunch of various tools in for metalworking masonry and carpentry), a backpack on my back that it took me a few minutes to realize was in fact a singularity pack a device capable of storing a near-infinite amount of mass for very little negative returns, a PDA/Tablet kind of thing all I know is that it's thick heavy and looks like it can take a 50 BMG and shrug it off, and several hundred rounds of ammunition for all of my weapons including a couple dozen magazines of nails/bolts/screws/rivets. Might as well take a look at said nail / machine gun hybrid, I discovered something heretical, it's chambered in .223 Remington,a round that I hated when I entered service, it did absolutely Jack schitt to anything that wasn't paper... I'll have to fix that, later though. ~π~ audio Log no.1: start Okay so, it's been a few weeks, I managed to set up a decent base down here, it ain't much but it's honest,however as I was working on the third day down here shit kind of hit the fan, badly, so you know those giant insects and arachnids from the game factorio right? Well imagine them but cross them with tyranids and scaled up to about the same size, yeah I was dealing with biters about the size of a Volkswagen, and not the VW beetle, and the spitters were even bigger, thankfully though it was a small patrol so there was only like a couple hundred, we're talking factorio bugs here, a couple hundred is tiny, a true horde would be numbering somewhere in the low billions to the high trillions. But beyond that terrifying news, I also discovered some other pretty cool things, for one I discovered that the Pip-Boy on my arm (it doesn't have any identifiers so I'm just going to call it a pip-boy) has several features including a journal, a ammo counter, a map which is self-updating, various environmental detection systems (nuclear biological chemical excetera), and a couple of petabytes worth of data storage. And yes a couple PETABYTES of data storage. The tablets not as fancy,but it does have an extensive blueprint database as well as a very comprehensive CAD program with extremely precise simulation capabilities, fast too I was able to get a stress test simulation within about an hour (far faster than my old CAD which took about 6 hours) it also had about a hundred or so preset AI systems, I looked through them none of them were anywhere near capable of becoming self-aware but they were pretty powerful and a couple of them were Auto targeting AIs, if you've played Factorio than you know where I put those. ... Yeah I put them in the auto turrets that I put up to watch my back from those damn biters, they sure as hell ain't no lizard doggo.(flashback: "DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE!!" various sounds of high explosive death and a cacophony of unholy screeching: end flashback) Continuing, I also learned I have a finite ammo supply, I learned that after I ran out of ammunition for my bolt rifle, I only had like a 150 rounds for that thing, not including standards, that was just the high explosives, pretty much the only damn thing that works on biters, mind you not because they couldn't penetrate but because they didn't have enough explosive damage to do anything besides piss them off. so yeah I'm going to have to make more of that as soon as I can set up a proper machine shop… oh joy -_- ~π~ Text Log no.142: start It Has been… 3? 4 years, I can't tell, I tried making a timepiece a little while ago, but without an accurate ability to derive time I can't make a truly effective clock, beryllium isotopic decay can only do so much. I'm using text this time since I kind of lost my voice screaming while running away from a small horde of the Damned bugs. But I have not been idle on that time, nor have the bugs, as I advance my factory the bugs advance their numbers and their types, on the second year I had to deal with flying types and as such I had to come up with a completely new targeting software for a flak cannon and SAM sites, fun times trying to hit the little buggers. By the middle of the third year then come up with a new heavy variant, as one can probably guess I needed bigger guns to deal with them, say hello to my new anti tank turrets: the 203mm Xavier anti-bug gun. Yeah I know I hate bugs, but even I admit this is a bit of overcompensation for the little ones, that's why there are so few of these things and why they're mobile, I only have 35 of them. While I improved an advanced, so too did the bugs, but I also learned about them and how they work, I also learned that they keep coming from deeper in the caverns, which I have been slowly step-by-step retaking for myself, which is why I am shifting a lot of my emplaced armament production from permanent enplacements to mobile guns and field artillery, I even got a few automated tanks up and running patrol routes. But I still have the 50 mm rotary cannons hanging around with the firing rate of 1200 RPS, the whole thing stood at 6 meters tall with a base of 3 m squared, I even put custom-made cooling cowlings that looked like dragons on them, why? Cuz I was bored and had nothing else to do. Well speak of the insectoids and they'll send a horde, I got to go, artairus out. ~π∆~ Progress!Author's Note Sorry it took so damn long to get this out. You know how life is, plus the fact that my brain is a steel trap, Info goes in but It don't come out Progress! Audio log no. 026: start Okay so, know how in my last text entry I said I couldn't speak because I lost my voice, yeah, it turns out it's not because my throat went sore from screaming so much, actually, I just blew a resistor, yeah that caught me for a loop too, turns out I have electronic vocal cords, not all bad, I mean now I can speak in binarric chant (unintelligible binarric screaming), I was saying hello by the way, Oh right, time uhh, it has been about 4 days since my last entry, and uhh things have been happening, (unintelligible demonic screaming and the thunder of heavy artillery sounding off in the background), yeah happening, those bugs have decided to try and drive me mad with their screaming, fortunately, I don't think it's working, can't really tell, uhh there have been no new bug types but they have increased in number so I've had to make an extra three xaviars A.B.Gs, and four thumper heavy tanks. oh yeah, I forgot to mention the thumpers, well they are my answer to the bugs light to medium tank classes, housing a v12 turbo diesel engine, a 120 mm cannon on the top turret and a 105 mm cannon on the bottom turret, as well as three 12.7 mm machine guns, the machine guns have two coax and one turret-mounted, all of it controlled by six combat AIs, two for the two main guns and the coax machine guns, one is a repurposed train AI, but I modified it to have a defensive and offensive driving algorithm so they can be used in tank combat, instead of train combat, and the last one is a commander AI, its sole duty is to control the independent turrets machine gun as well as point out to the other AIs where everything is and issue orders to them. I have a couple of other tanks but I'm not going to go over them right now, in other news though I managed to find an underground reservoir, only two kilometers above my head, so now I can have a shower again yay! Cuz I have been accumulating blood, guck, and dirt for the last 4 years, yeah I stink so I'm going to go find some lime and harvest some bug fat and make myself some soap, I'll talk to you guys in a little while. End audio log ~π~ Audio log no. 030 Alright, uhh let's see, it has been 4 days since my last entry and I'm clean now, so I no longer reek of blood, sweat, and Gore, so there's that next thing is the damn bugs have come up with a new type, remember the flyers? Well now they're bigger and meaner, so after finding that out I had to take another shower and perform a deep clean of my armor as well as replace a few pieces, yeah these new flyer types I'm going to be calling acid bombers, why? because their blood is acidic, so yeah not only did I have to replace a few pieces of armor plating on myself but also my guns and a couple of piece of machinery I lost half of my iron gear and my entire blue circuit production because of the damn things, So here I am in my little makeshift cabin made of granite and basalt, staring at a small stack of papers and a design screen trying to figure out how to make a heavier anti-air gun, or more powerful missiles, which one is kind of up in the air right now, I've got ideas for both but I only have the production capacity for one or the other, at least until I can retake More territory from the bugs, I've been thinking about using a secondary explosive charge in my missiles essentially making micro bombs come out of my missiles, but once again I come across the problem of production capacity, and I could also utilize armor-piercing ammunition with a smaller caliber than my currently in place 50 mm anti-aircraft guns, for instance, I can switch up my guns from 50 mm down to 20 mm and just use an armor-piercing subdermal explosive, but that would require a whole new production line or require me to completely rip out my 50 mm production line which I can't have, the 50 mils are very effective against the lighter and smaller flyers and they do some damage to the heavier ones but not enough to take them out of the sky before they reach the base, And the missiles require a whole new production line by themselves since my Sam missiles are still relatively effective and they can still be used for long-range strikes against some of the heavier targets, thankfully even with the micro-bomb idea I wouldn't have to worry about switching out my already in place Sam sites I just have to worry about my already in place production and trying to get the resources over to it, hang on maybe if I lower the amount of explosives I could-. (Sounds of screaming in the distance followed by a cacophony of demonic screeching and the drone of rapid-fire heavy-caliber machine guns) What the hell? I'll be right back. Audio log end ~÷~ Artairus precedes to get up off of his stool and leave his 'workshop'. He calls a transport over to him, as he waits for it, he looks over the large factory that is his home. with its towering spires of iron and rock, large lakes and rivers of magma that made the natural beauty of the cavern. The dozens of cranes, trains, drones, and trucks zooming to and fro bringing resources to the required destinations within the factory, formed a almost living contrast to the great cavern walls. Dozens if not hundreds of defensive turrets and emplacements lit up their surroundings alongside spotlights on the buildings and vehicles. The combination of natural and artificial light bathed the cavern in a subtle red light that seemed to be coming from everywhere as the cavern reflected the glow. And this was but one of a dozen caverns. The truck soon drives up on a nearby road, and Artairus proceeds to grab onto an infantry rack. As he looks over the hulking beast of a transport its large rotund, and rather bulbous, cab large enough to fit a bed in as well as a couple small essentials, and the large 12 foot bed big enough to carry most any supplies one could need. taking note that it's front right tire is in need of a change, he heads off in the direction of gunfire. ~÷~ [Target acquired... location: Delta 3... Error: Target profile identified as friendly unit… query: proceed with elimination of target?] [ negative, sister unit. priority targets {designate: bugs} have been identified as giving Pursuit to your identified Targets in Delta 3] [ query: possibility of priority Target {designate: bugs} deriving some way to mimic friendly units] [ statement: negative, possibility for such happenstance below threshold of 0.00000 repeating] [ statement: contacting Big Brother units to intercept Contacting… Contacting… Connection established, relaying priority Target information... updating IFF.exe… transmitting targeting data…. done, all systems nominal… proceeding with priority Target {designate: bugs} elimination] [ transmission received and processed, all Targets identified Big Brother units en-route, ETA 3 mins. statement: about damn time. your brothers and I were getting hungry for some bloodshed] [Exasperated statement: boys] [Alert!: Creator unit {father} has taken to the field, destination: Delta 3, ETA 3.6 minutes] [Acknowledged. proceeding with priority Target {designate: bugs} elimination. statement: rip and tear until it is done] ~÷~ "What the buck are these things!?!?" Yelled cliff our expedition leader "No idea! Just kill them!" Lily our biologist, yelled One of our number, Jacks, if I remember right, he charged the insectile thing and tried to stab the sword between its plates of chitin, only for the sword to break, and him to get eaten. Messily, there were body parts and guts everywhere. "Oh my gods, it ate jacks!" I heard somebat scream behind me 'ow' "Run away!!" Cliff yelled and the rest of us, those who still live anyway, did just that, run As we ran I spotted something up ahead, It looks like a wall, there must be ruins down here, we can hide in them! " guys! (cough cough) Up ahead! It looks like some ruins!" 'Is it just me or is it getting harder to breathe?' "I see them too!" Lily said "Let's hope it's not these things home." Oh cliff ever the pessimist 'Somethings moving on the wall?' [Beep beep, click-whir-TBRRRRRRRRRRRR] "HOLY! I DON'T THINK THE WALLS SAFE!" [BOOM BOOM BO-BO-BO-BOOOM] ' that came from behind!' I looked back over my shoulder, expecting more of the things on the wall, only to find the giant bugs being destroyed by large streaks of red light 'It's getting very hard to breathe.' I thought as I kept running towards the wall, and odd magic weapons, I only got so far before I collapsed, 'w-what's happening? Why can't I breathe!?' I saw my fellow bat pony's fall to the ground around me, I think this is the end, giant bugs to the rear, unknown magical weapons to the front, 'I'm losing feeling in my limbs, is that the light of heaven I see?' As The shadow crept up from the corner of my eyes, I saw a bright light heading towards us, then I felt something picking me up, and something wrapped around my head, I don't know what's going on anymore. sleep, sleep sounds like a good idea ~∆÷~ suprize!Audio log no. 31: start Okay, well. That's a thing that happened. Okay, let me recap. when I arrived at sector delta 3, I arrived to see the strangest thing; ponies, anthropomorphic bat ponies sure, but ponies. Honestly Not what I expected, I expected aliens, maybe humans, or just more biters, not ponies. Anyways so when I arrived there they were getting slaughtered by biters and spitters. thankfully my automated defenses, and my trusty bolt rifle, dealt with most of the biters (they were only class twos, so only about as big as a Ford Focus) rather quickly, the rest fell to artillery fire. I unfortunately only have my sealed apartment where I could store them. Yeah, it turns out that the entire atmosphere around my Factory is toxic, and Incredibly so, so anything without an environmental hazard suit is going to die. Except for the biters. for some reason, the biters don't die immediately. The bastard just keep coming and (speech dissolves into angry incoherent mumbling) Anyways I also found their... caravan, I think, it’s just a collection of canvas, wood, and crates, and what LOOKS like the remnants of a wagon, it’s really hard to tell. Looking at their equipment I can tell that they came from a colder region, or that the surface is frozen, either or. They, unfortunately, lost a lot of their food rations and men, one of my scout/survey drones found what was left of their bodies, it was rather messy, though I can’t tell how many there were originally, there are only 13 left. I’m going to have to make some HEPS aren't I? (sigh) oh well. I also found some letters amongst the wreckage, and strangely enough, I could read them, somewhat, I was more fluent speaking russan than reading or writing. Yeah, that was a big surprise, the ones still conscious when I got there, spoke russan. It was a bit of a shock, but I didn't let it get to me, till about 4 minutes ago, where I freaked out for a good minute, then I got to work. What I could read on those letters said that this group was a survey expedition, and that means there’s more who will be coming down here, and with the toxic atmosphere around here, they will die, and not quickly. So I am getting my Hermans and rubber-ducks, and having them build some air-tight apartment complexes, at least enough for 200 people, with room to expand. Oh right, I've never told you about the Hermans. The Herman class logistics tractor stands at 11’ 0” and looks like a mechanized shrimp, powered by a mercury turbine engine, with an electric drivetrain. And a modular attachment hardpoint, scurrying about on armored cat-tracks at a staggering 26 mph. And the rubber-ducks, 4 steering wheels, 4 drive wheels, hydrogen fuel power plant, with 4 high torque electric engines. Looking like a box on wheels with a small cab so I can drive it if necessary. It is 19’ 4” in height, and 40’ 6” long, with a nice huge flatbed on the back. I use them mostly for the transportation of cargo over medium distances (too long for a belt, not long enough for a train), also for expanding the factory, the tanks go ahead and kill every bug in their path, and the rubber-ducks are right behind them, laying down auto-turrets and pre-built infrastructure (drills, ammo factories, train tracks/stations, ect), and at a blistering pace, I’m serious these things are NOT slow, their top speed is 120 mph while carrying 47 tonnes, I learned that the hard way… I actually think I did too good a job. ...Nah. Anyways, a lot of them were in pretty bad conditions, thankfully, enough were intact enough to figure out what did work and what needed to be fixed. So now I have 13 unconscious heavily wounded bat ponies. 6 of them only having light wounds (scratches bruises ect), 4 whom I was forced to amputate some limbs (best case: a finger, worst case: triple amputee), the last 3 had moderate to severe wounds that would leave some nasty scars, but they’ll live. hmm, Note to self; start work on prosthetics. But for right now, I am going through the stuff the bat ponies had in their caravan. Immoral? Maybe. But I need to know where and when they’re from, and the surface conditions of this planet. I haven’t found much yet besides the previously mentioned equipment, some letters, a few wills, and some tools… oh and the 7-tonne biter right in front of me… (unholy screech!) shi-fuck BITER! ( more unholy screeching) CORRECTION, BITERS!! (TLAM-TLAM-TLAM!!) (CHOMP-CRUNCH) gah! My arm! THAT WAS MY FAP HAND YOU BASDITCH!! (BOOM! T-BRRRRRRR) yeah, that's right, die like your mother did! (Screeching echoes of dying bugs) Fweu. Okay, that was a lot of bugs. I just turned around and, teeth. NOT a fun thing to wake up too let me tell ya. Anyways I got to go reset my arm, I'll talk to you a lot later. Artaius out. ~÷π~ Ow, where am i? My head is killing me. And my throat? Jeez what did I do last night? As I open my eyes I looked around me, what I saw was mighty strange, I was in the smallish room, the bed I was laying on was a rather comfortable average sized bed, the floor itself appeared to be made of hardwood but it didn't feel like it, there's a large expensive-looking red rug, looks like something some Foreigner would have or the unicorn high priestesses, there is a bookshelf next to me that has quite a few tones in it many languages I recognized and even more I didn't, there was a strange iron contraption on the other end of the room with a cylinder of the same or similar material coming up from the floor on one side and another leaving top on the other side and going along the ceiling, there's a similar iron contraption next to it that look like some kind of storage other than that I have no idea what it was, but then I looked out the window, and I saw something magnificent. When I looked out the window I saw a city, a city so massive and so beautiful I had no words, still have no words even after an hour of just staring at it. It was a bustling Hive of activity there are things going around lighting up the land around them with strange magical torches, there were massive magical bonfires piercing the shadows around and before them, and huge fires erupting from massive pillars, and these massive buildings that tower from floor-to-ceiling like stalagmites in an absolutely gargantuan cavern, with rivers of lava running between them. I have to go out there, I need to see the creatures who can make such a Grand City. I looked around the room noting a armor stand with a strange suit of armor resting on it, but paid it no mind, at last I found what I can only assume would be a door, as there was no handle on it, but when I approached it opened! After I got up off the floor(I thought it was a snake!!) I walked through the door it revealed itself to be but a single room in what is probably a large mansion as the hallway went on for dozens of hoof lengths, I decided to go left down the hall, however halfway down the hall I heard strange... music? [ ] As I walked towards the sound, I could somewhat make out the lyrics. But they were in stone-speak, the language of the earth-ponies, Sounded like earth-pony music too. Mostly percussion instruments, and vocals. Eventually I came to a… I can only describe it as a half finished landing to a large staircase. But where was the orchestra? Or the stage for that matter? “Woh! What was that?” some kind of metal bird? Whatever it was there were a lot of them, just buzzing around, and carrying iron logs?{A.N steel girders}. They’re a deep grey i’ve never seen before, they buzz around on invisible wings with massive claws grabbing and moving various things that I didn't recognize. As I caught my breath, I took a big inhale and something caught my attention, APPLES! I smell apples, apples means food! I took off for the smell, it led to a small room with a shiny ceiling, I could see myself in it, and a bunch of glowing circles with numbers on them… WAIT WHAT? Those are thestraly numbers! The numbers only went to 18, wonder what that means? All of a sudden one of those strange birds flew in, and touched one of the glowing numbered circles. And some doors that i somehow missed just closed, locking me in here with this bird, wait, why are we moving? ~∆~ IntroductionsAuthor's Note And here's another one, sorry it's taking me so long to get these things done, but you know how it is that Muse just doesn't want to hold still long enough. Oh well hope you guys enjoy. Until next chapter Introductions As the strange room moved, I got a good look at the odd metal bird, it was obviously spherical and had multiple grasping limbs instead of the two feet I was used to, it also didn't have any visible wings though I distinctly heard a small wiirr coming from it, eventually the room stopped moving and the doors once again opened. But I saw on the other side was gorgeous an entire park inside a building, I have never seen such greenery before. I was born after the great winter set in so, I guess it makes sense that I would never know so much green, but it's still quite breathtaking. and there are a lot more of those strange metallic birds buzzing around. Stepping out of the strange room that somehow moved me from a strange hallway into a massive internal garden, I wondered about for what felt like hours, just in awe of The greenery. there wasn't much, couple small shrubs and some, I think my parents called it grass, littered across the ground. There are also a few saplings that I know were kept on the caravan wagon, but they were now planted and sprouting leaves. Eventually I found something even stranger another pony, but he ,and I could definitely tell it was a he (mares just ain't that stocky), was dressed in odd clothes reminiscent of that strange suit of armor I saw back in the room I woke up in, but instead of a calm green his was a bright yellow with orange, with some parts of it being a dull green and black in a strange pattern. He had his back turned to me but the strange song I've been hearing on the wind seemed to be coming from him, "hello? Would you happen to know where I can find the builders of this wonderous place. And why I have not found any, it almost seems as if this place is abandoned."I asked. It seemed to startle him as the music abruptly stopped and he jumped pointing some small rectangle thing in my direction before he gave a sigh behind his odd helm and lowered the strange rectangle before he spoke "While I am happy that you have awakened, I'd appreciate it if you would not startle me as such. it is risky for your health" it was after he said that, that I realized that the strange rectangle he was putting on his thigh must be some sort of weapon, I was a bit unnerved by that. "Well you asked a question and as a host I would be remiss if I did not answer, you are looking at the creator of this place, and the reason this place looks so abandoned is because it technically is, I am the only inhabitant. Unless you count the biters, but they are more unwanted pests." I stared blankly, this person before me claims to have built the massive City I saw out the window. "How could you be the builder and soul inhabitant of this place? I saw things moving around in the darkness out there through the window and the city outside was so massive it could not have been built by a single creature in their lifetime, unless of course you're trying to tell me you're some sort of dragon?" I asked I could not tell what his face was like beneath his helmet but he seemed to be amused "indeed I am the soul inhabitant and builder of this place, and what you saw outside your window was not a city, that would be a mega-factory. Right your people probably don't have a word for that yet, to put it in layman's terms it is a giant golem that moves and operates independently from any living being, with the only necessary input from a living creature being to tell it what to do." I was of course a little skeptical of that. "So you're telling me all of that (I gesture in the vague direction of my window and what lies beyond it) is a giant creature or golem as you put it?" He didn't say anything just a simple nod to confirm that I was correct. "I Find that a bit difficult to believe." "You don't necessarily need to, but it would be best, at least for your mental health. if you're wondering where the rest of your fellows are, you passed them on the way down here." He gestured back towards the door I come in from " my name is artiaus by the way. What's yours?" The suddenness of how he asked that question took me a bit by surprise, but it wasn't unwarranted, neither of us knew each other's names "A thousand pardons, my name is Lily, Lily sanguine." I don't know how I could tell, but I could feel as if he smiled at learning my name, as he said "it's good to meet you Lily sanguine. Come follow me, we have much to talk about. if you wish to be able to survive in here." Artiaus said as he turned towards the entrance I came in from, and started to walk, I of course followed him, I have no idea where anything is in this place, and if what he said is true he should know his entire place as well as one would know their own wagon. ~÷∆π~
Prologue(edited)Author's Note Hello everybody this is me and midnight roses joint project welcome to the dragon forge the two places on Equis that even dragons fear to tread, this is a trial chapter we want you guys opinions on this chapter and anything we could do to improve it, constructive criticism is of course appreciated and encouraged any kind of destructive criticism like dissing our writing style or saying that our book is bad because of its genre, will be ignored. we are new to writing we've only been doing it for 5 years don't expect Arthur c, Clark, or JK Rowling from us, I'll see you in the comments enjoy! ∆ = chapter break π = time jump ÷ = POV change Prologue(edited) operation: liberty prime location: 23 km North Northeast of Moscow Time: 01:45 Date: 12 / 14 / 2046 It was, chaos. All around me, explosions erupted, guts and Gore achieve flight, and the devil laughs. My sister is dead, killed in the first strike. My Commander, died an hour ago, shot by my own hands. And now here I am, running into a blazing fire screaming like a madman. am i mad? I asked this question every day since this war started, now I have an answer; no I'm not mad, I'm just another cog in the machine, another killer on this blood-soaked field. but mad, I am not mad. For I am the warrior of a loving God and as such I have given my life not to heaven, not to Paradise, not to peace, I've given my life to war, hell, and chaos, because it is here and these plains of chaos of war and the literal hell on Earth, it's here on these plains that I seek salvation and it's here on these plains that I shall dish it out, as molten lead And so I stand here a m240 in one hand, and my trusty D'eagle in the other, that I run ahead of my soldiers and take the enemy head-on I'll show those commie cucks what I am, I am a soldier of the United States army, and I know no fear. "AGAINST ALL THE MACHINATIONS OF HELL, AGAINST ALL THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN, THEY HAVE SENT UNTO YOU, ONLY ME!!!" I screamed at the damned Communists that dared to invade my home, to slaughter innocence in the hundreds, and force this peaceful man to war. And thus we charged in to the slaughter, as bullets wizzed passed my head and I had even felt a few impact my body, but I do not care I have a mission to complete, and I would not die yet, not here. The fighting was fierce, the compound was well secured and well-guarded, but even Jericho fell to but a small Force of farmers, but we were no lowly farmers... Okay I was. But that doesn't matter, we struck at the enemy crossing a battlefield of hundreds of meters, in mere seconds we struck with all the finality and rage of the fury of the American people personified we were wraiths that day. "Do I hear the devil whistling?" "ARTILLERY!! EVERYONE DOWN!" I look to the Stars and I can see them the little specks of light that indicate mortar shells, "YOU COWARDS DON'T EVEN WISH TO FIGHT ME? SO BE IT THEN. RIP AND TEAR!!!"these were the last words spoken by me before I was obliterated in a rain of high explosives. location: unknown time: unknown date: unknown ... OH HELL NO, I AIN'T DONE YET! I ain't going to die just like that, I didn't go to heaven or hell, instead, I spoke with death, lovely woman by the way you should meet her, we had a rather nice conversation over a bottle of whiskey, and I managed to strike a deal with her I won't go over it here, but essentially me and my sister's souls will be sent to a new universe with one power of our choice… we chose the power of the engineer. I know I know rather vague, what is the power of the engineer you may ask? the power of the engineer is the ability to easily create or build or invent anything one can imagine, dream of, or desire, be at a simple pickaxe, or a multi kilometre-long warship. But regardless,that is the situation I find myself in... Now actually situation I find myself in is being lost in a cave five BLOODY KILOMETERS beneath the Earth. -_- yeah, fun, oh and there's the magma, of course there's magma! "Bloody fucking hell. Whelp I better get started, I knew all those hours at dwarf fortress would come in handy someday." I said but as I said this I noticed a few things for one I was a bit taller now I used to be a 6'5" now I'm standing at 7'0", and my uniform is vastly different, plus there's this odd weapon currently housed on my side, it seems to be some kind of machine/nail gun hybrid,odd, But I at least still had my favorite guns, and one that I was still working on back home, but here it is right in front of me completed, and I remember it being parts,my experimental bolt rifle (.62 Apollo), my trusty D'eagle (45 Colt magnum) and my custom-made hand Cannon(45-70 colt). I decided to check myself over and see what I got on me, the list is as follows: MRE's, canteen full of water, some weird pick shovel wrench hybrid, this weird device that is reminiscent of the experimental pip boys on my left wrist (it had listed a bunch of various tools in for metalworking masonry and carpentry), a backpack on my back that it took me a few minutes to realize was in fact a singularity pack a device capable of storing a near-infinite amount of mass for very little negative returns, a PDA/Tablet kind of thing all I know is that it's thick heavy and looks like it can take a 50 BMG and shrug it off, and several hundred rounds of ammunition for all of my weapons including a couple dozen magazines of nails/bolts/screws/rivets. Might as well take a look at said nail / machine gun hybrid, I discovered something heretical, it's chambered in .223 Remington,a round that I hated when I entered service, it did absolutely Jack schitt to anything that wasn't paper... I'll have to fix that, later though. ~π~ audio Log no.1: start Okay so, it's been a few weeks, I managed to set up a decent base down here, it ain't much but it's honest,however as I was working on the third day down here shit kind of hit the fan, badly, so you know those giant insects and arachnids from the game factorio right? Well imagine them but cross them with tyranids and scaled up to about the same size, yeah I was dealing with biters about the size of a Volkswagen, and not the VW beetle, and the spitters were even bigger, thankfully though it was a small patrol so there was only like a couple hundred, we're talking factorio bugs here, a couple hundred is tiny, a true horde would be numbering somewhere in the low billions to the high trillions. But beyond that terrifying news, I also discovered some other pretty cool things, for one I discovered that the Pip-Boy on my arm (it doesn't have any identifiers so I'm just going to call it a pip-boy) has several features including a journal, a ammo counter, a map which is self-updating, various environmental detection systems (nuclear biological chemical excetera), and a couple of petabytes worth of data storage. And yes a couple PETABYTES of data storage. The tablets not as fancy,but it does have an extensive blueprint database as well as a very comprehensive CAD program with extremely precise simulation capabilities, fast too I was able to get a stress test simulation within about an hour (far faster than my old CAD which took about 6 hours) it also had about a hundred or so preset AI systems, I looked through them none of them were anywhere near capable of becoming self-aware but they were pretty powerful and a couple of them were Auto targeting AIs, if you've played Factorio than you know where I put those. ... Yeah I put them in the auto turrets that I put up to watch my back from those damn biters, they sure as hell ain't no lizard doggo.(flashback: "DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE!!" various sounds of high explosive death and a cacophony of unholy screeching: end flashback) Continuing, I also learned I have a finite ammo supply, I learned that after I ran out of ammunition for my bolt rifle, I only had like a 150 rounds for that thing, not including standards, that was just the high explosives, pretty much the only damn thing that works on biters, mind you not because they couldn't penetrate but because they didn't have enough explosive damage to do anything besides piss them off. so yeah I'm going to have to make more of that as soon as I can set up a proper machine shop… oh joy -_- ~π~ Text Log no.142: start It Has been… 3? 4 years, I can't tell, I tried making a timepiece a little while ago, but without an accurate ability to derive time I can't make a truly effective clock, beryllium isotopic decay can only do so much. I'm using text this time since I kind of lost my voice screaming while running away from a small horde of the Damned bugs. But I have not been idle on that time, nor have the bugs, as I advance my factory the bugs advance their numbers and their types, on the second year I had to deal with flying types and as such I had to come up with a completely new targeting software for a flak cannon and SAM sites, fun times trying to hit the little buggers. By the middle of the third year then come up with a new heavy variant, as one can probably guess I needed bigger guns to deal with them, say hello to my new anti tank turrets: the 203mm Xavier anti-bug gun. Yeah I know I hate bugs, but even I admit this is a bit of overcompensation for the little ones, that's why there are so few of these things and why they're mobile, I only have 35 of them. While I improved an advanced, so too did the bugs, but I also learned about them and how they work, I also learned that they keep coming from deeper in the caverns, which I have been slowly step-by-step retaking for myself, which is why I am shifting a lot of my emplaced armament production from permanent enplacements to mobile guns and field artillery, I even got a few automated tanks up and running patrol routes. But I still have the 50 mm rotary cannons hanging around with the firing rate of 1200 RPS, the whole thing stood at 6 meters tall with a base of 3 m squared, I even put custom-made cooling cowlings that looked like dragons on them, why? Cuz I was bored and had nothing else to do. Well speak of the insectoids and they'll send a horde, I got to go, artairus out. ~π∆~
Progress!Author's Note Sorry it took so damn long to get this out. You know how life is, plus the fact that my brain is a steel trap, Info goes in but It don't come out Progress! Audio log no. 026: start Okay so, know how in my last text entry I said I couldn't speak because I lost my voice, yeah, it turns out it's not because my throat went sore from screaming so much, actually, I just blew a resistor, yeah that caught me for a loop too, turns out I have electronic vocal cords, not all bad, I mean now I can speak in binarric chant (unintelligible binarric screaming), I was saying hello by the way, Oh right, time uhh, it has been about 4 days since my last entry, and uhh things have been happening, (unintelligible demonic screaming and the thunder of heavy artillery sounding off in the background), yeah happening, those bugs have decided to try and drive me mad with their screaming, fortunately, I don't think it's working, can't really tell, uhh there have been no new bug types but they have increased in number so I've had to make an extra three xaviars A.B.Gs, and four thumper heavy tanks. oh yeah, I forgot to mention the thumpers, well they are my answer to the bugs light to medium tank classes, housing a v12 turbo diesel engine, a 120 mm cannon on the top turret and a 105 mm cannon on the bottom turret, as well as three 12.7 mm machine guns, the machine guns have two coax and one turret-mounted, all of it controlled by six combat AIs, two for the two main guns and the coax machine guns, one is a repurposed train AI, but I modified it to have a defensive and offensive driving algorithm so they can be used in tank combat, instead of train combat, and the last one is a commander AI, its sole duty is to control the independent turrets machine gun as well as point out to the other AIs where everything is and issue orders to them. I have a couple of other tanks but I'm not going to go over them right now, in other news though I managed to find an underground reservoir, only two kilometers above my head, so now I can have a shower again yay! Cuz I have been accumulating blood, guck, and dirt for the last 4 years, yeah I stink so I'm going to go find some lime and harvest some bug fat and make myself some soap, I'll talk to you guys in a little while. End audio log ~π~ Audio log no. 030 Alright, uhh let's see, it has been 4 days since my last entry and I'm clean now, so I no longer reek of blood, sweat, and Gore, so there's that next thing is the damn bugs have come up with a new type, remember the flyers? Well now they're bigger and meaner, so after finding that out I had to take another shower and perform a deep clean of my armor as well as replace a few pieces, yeah these new flyer types I'm going to be calling acid bombers, why? because their blood is acidic, so yeah not only did I have to replace a few pieces of armor plating on myself but also my guns and a couple of piece of machinery I lost half of my iron gear and my entire blue circuit production because of the damn things, So here I am in my little makeshift cabin made of granite and basalt, staring at a small stack of papers and a design screen trying to figure out how to make a heavier anti-air gun, or more powerful missiles, which one is kind of up in the air right now, I've got ideas for both but I only have the production capacity for one or the other, at least until I can retake More territory from the bugs, I've been thinking about using a secondary explosive charge in my missiles essentially making micro bombs come out of my missiles, but once again I come across the problem of production capacity, and I could also utilize armor-piercing ammunition with a smaller caliber than my currently in place 50 mm anti-aircraft guns, for instance, I can switch up my guns from 50 mm down to 20 mm and just use an armor-piercing subdermal explosive, but that would require a whole new production line or require me to completely rip out my 50 mm production line which I can't have, the 50 mils are very effective against the lighter and smaller flyers and they do some damage to the heavier ones but not enough to take them out of the sky before they reach the base, And the missiles require a whole new production line by themselves since my Sam missiles are still relatively effective and they can still be used for long-range strikes against some of the heavier targets, thankfully even with the micro-bomb idea I wouldn't have to worry about switching out my already in place Sam sites I just have to worry about my already in place production and trying to get the resources over to it, hang on maybe if I lower the amount of explosives I could-. (Sounds of screaming in the distance followed by a cacophony of demonic screeching and the drone of rapid-fire heavy-caliber machine guns) What the hell? I'll be right back. Audio log end ~÷~ Artairus precedes to get up off of his stool and leave his 'workshop'. He calls a transport over to him, as he waits for it, he looks over the large factory that is his home. with its towering spires of iron and rock, large lakes and rivers of magma that made the natural beauty of the cavern. The dozens of cranes, trains, drones, and trucks zooming to and fro bringing resources to the required destinations within the factory, formed a almost living contrast to the great cavern walls. Dozens if not hundreds of defensive turrets and emplacements lit up their surroundings alongside spotlights on the buildings and vehicles. The combination of natural and artificial light bathed the cavern in a subtle red light that seemed to be coming from everywhere as the cavern reflected the glow. And this was but one of a dozen caverns. The truck soon drives up on a nearby road, and Artairus proceeds to grab onto an infantry rack. As he looks over the hulking beast of a transport its large rotund, and rather bulbous, cab large enough to fit a bed in as well as a couple small essentials, and the large 12 foot bed big enough to carry most any supplies one could need. taking note that it's front right tire is in need of a change, he heads off in the direction of gunfire. ~÷~ [Target acquired... location: Delta 3... Error: Target profile identified as friendly unit… query: proceed with elimination of target?] [ negative, sister unit. priority targets {designate: bugs} have been identified as giving Pursuit to your identified Targets in Delta 3] [ query: possibility of priority Target {designate: bugs} deriving some way to mimic friendly units] [ statement: negative, possibility for such happenstance below threshold of 0.00000 repeating] [ statement: contacting Big Brother units to intercept Contacting… Contacting… Connection established, relaying priority Target information... updating IFF.exe… transmitting targeting data…. done, all systems nominal… proceeding with priority Target {designate: bugs} elimination] [ transmission received and processed, all Targets identified Big Brother units en-route, ETA 3 mins. statement: about damn time. your brothers and I were getting hungry for some bloodshed] [Exasperated statement: boys] [Alert!: Creator unit {father} has taken to the field, destination: Delta 3, ETA 3.6 minutes] [Acknowledged. proceeding with priority Target {designate: bugs} elimination. statement: rip and tear until it is done] ~÷~ "What the buck are these things!?!?" Yelled cliff our expedition leader "No idea! Just kill them!" Lily our biologist, yelled One of our number, Jacks, if I remember right, he charged the insectile thing and tried to stab the sword between its plates of chitin, only for the sword to break, and him to get eaten. Messily, there were body parts and guts everywhere. "Oh my gods, it ate jacks!" I heard somebat scream behind me 'ow' "Run away!!" Cliff yelled and the rest of us, those who still live anyway, did just that, run As we ran I spotted something up ahead, It looks like a wall, there must be ruins down here, we can hide in them! " guys! (cough cough) Up ahead! It looks like some ruins!" 'Is it just me or is it getting harder to breathe?' "I see them too!" Lily said "Let's hope it's not these things home." Oh cliff ever the pessimist 'Somethings moving on the wall?' [Beep beep, click-whir-TBRRRRRRRRRRRR] "HOLY! I DON'T THINK THE WALLS SAFE!" [BOOM BOOM BO-BO-BO-BOOOM] ' that came from behind!' I looked back over my shoulder, expecting more of the things on the wall, only to find the giant bugs being destroyed by large streaks of red light 'It's getting very hard to breathe.' I thought as I kept running towards the wall, and odd magic weapons, I only got so far before I collapsed, 'w-what's happening? Why can't I breathe!?' I saw my fellow bat pony's fall to the ground around me, I think this is the end, giant bugs to the rear, unknown magical weapons to the front, 'I'm losing feeling in my limbs, is that the light of heaven I see?' As The shadow crept up from the corner of my eyes, I saw a bright light heading towards us, then I felt something picking me up, and something wrapped around my head, I don't know what's going on anymore. sleep, sleep sounds like a good idea ~∆÷~
suprize!Audio log no. 31: start Okay, well. That's a thing that happened. Okay, let me recap. when I arrived at sector delta 3, I arrived to see the strangest thing; ponies, anthropomorphic bat ponies sure, but ponies. Honestly Not what I expected, I expected aliens, maybe humans, or just more biters, not ponies. Anyways so when I arrived there they were getting slaughtered by biters and spitters. thankfully my automated defenses, and my trusty bolt rifle, dealt with most of the biters (they were only class twos, so only about as big as a Ford Focus) rather quickly, the rest fell to artillery fire. I unfortunately only have my sealed apartment where I could store them. Yeah, it turns out that the entire atmosphere around my Factory is toxic, and Incredibly so, so anything without an environmental hazard suit is going to die. Except for the biters. for some reason, the biters don't die immediately. The bastard just keep coming and (speech dissolves into angry incoherent mumbling) Anyways I also found their... caravan, I think, it’s just a collection of canvas, wood, and crates, and what LOOKS like the remnants of a wagon, it’s really hard to tell. Looking at their equipment I can tell that they came from a colder region, or that the surface is frozen, either or. They, unfortunately, lost a lot of their food rations and men, one of my scout/survey drones found what was left of their bodies, it was rather messy, though I can’t tell how many there were originally, there are only 13 left. I’m going to have to make some HEPS aren't I? (sigh) oh well. I also found some letters amongst the wreckage, and strangely enough, I could read them, somewhat, I was more fluent speaking russan than reading or writing. Yeah, that was a big surprise, the ones still conscious when I got there, spoke russan. It was a bit of a shock, but I didn't let it get to me, till about 4 minutes ago, where I freaked out for a good minute, then I got to work. What I could read on those letters said that this group was a survey expedition, and that means there’s more who will be coming down here, and with the toxic atmosphere around here, they will die, and not quickly. So I am getting my Hermans and rubber-ducks, and having them build some air-tight apartment complexes, at least enough for 200 people, with room to expand. Oh right, I've never told you about the Hermans. The Herman class logistics tractor stands at 11’ 0” and looks like a mechanized shrimp, powered by a mercury turbine engine, with an electric drivetrain. And a modular attachment hardpoint, scurrying about on armored cat-tracks at a staggering 26 mph. And the rubber-ducks, 4 steering wheels, 4 drive wheels, hydrogen fuel power plant, with 4 high torque electric engines. Looking like a box on wheels with a small cab so I can drive it if necessary. It is 19’ 4” in height, and 40’ 6” long, with a nice huge flatbed on the back. I use them mostly for the transportation of cargo over medium distances (too long for a belt, not long enough for a train), also for expanding the factory, the tanks go ahead and kill every bug in their path, and the rubber-ducks are right behind them, laying down auto-turrets and pre-built infrastructure (drills, ammo factories, train tracks/stations, ect), and at a blistering pace, I’m serious these things are NOT slow, their top speed is 120 mph while carrying 47 tonnes, I learned that the hard way… I actually think I did too good a job. ...Nah. Anyways, a lot of them were in pretty bad conditions, thankfully, enough were intact enough to figure out what did work and what needed to be fixed. So now I have 13 unconscious heavily wounded bat ponies. 6 of them only having light wounds (scratches bruises ect), 4 whom I was forced to amputate some limbs (best case: a finger, worst case: triple amputee), the last 3 had moderate to severe wounds that would leave some nasty scars, but they’ll live. hmm, Note to self; start work on prosthetics. But for right now, I am going through the stuff the bat ponies had in their caravan. Immoral? Maybe. But I need to know where and when they’re from, and the surface conditions of this planet. I haven’t found much yet besides the previously mentioned equipment, some letters, a few wills, and some tools… oh and the 7-tonne biter right in front of me… (unholy screech!) shi-fuck BITER! ( more unholy screeching) CORRECTION, BITERS!! (TLAM-TLAM-TLAM!!) (CHOMP-CRUNCH) gah! My arm! THAT WAS MY FAP HAND YOU BASDITCH!! (BOOM! T-BRRRRRRR) yeah, that's right, die like your mother did! (Screeching echoes of dying bugs) Fweu. Okay, that was a lot of bugs. I just turned around and, teeth. NOT a fun thing to wake up too let me tell ya. Anyways I got to go reset my arm, I'll talk to you a lot later. Artaius out. ~÷π~ Ow, where am i? My head is killing me. And my throat? Jeez what did I do last night? As I open my eyes I looked around me, what I saw was mighty strange, I was in the smallish room, the bed I was laying on was a rather comfortable average sized bed, the floor itself appeared to be made of hardwood but it didn't feel like it, there's a large expensive-looking red rug, looks like something some Foreigner would have or the unicorn high priestesses, there is a bookshelf next to me that has quite a few tones in it many languages I recognized and even more I didn't, there was a strange iron contraption on the other end of the room with a cylinder of the same or similar material coming up from the floor on one side and another leaving top on the other side and going along the ceiling, there's a similar iron contraption next to it that look like some kind of storage other than that I have no idea what it was, but then I looked out the window, and I saw something magnificent. When I looked out the window I saw a city, a city so massive and so beautiful I had no words, still have no words even after an hour of just staring at it. It was a bustling Hive of activity there are things going around lighting up the land around them with strange magical torches, there were massive magical bonfires piercing the shadows around and before them, and huge fires erupting from massive pillars, and these massive buildings that tower from floor-to-ceiling like stalagmites in an absolutely gargantuan cavern, with rivers of lava running between them. I have to go out there, I need to see the creatures who can make such a Grand City. I looked around the room noting a armor stand with a strange suit of armor resting on it, but paid it no mind, at last I found what I can only assume would be a door, as there was no handle on it, but when I approached it opened! After I got up off the floor(I thought it was a snake!!) I walked through the door it revealed itself to be but a single room in what is probably a large mansion as the hallway went on for dozens of hoof lengths, I decided to go left down the hall, however halfway down the hall I heard strange... music? [ ] As I walked towards the sound, I could somewhat make out the lyrics. But they were in stone-speak, the language of the earth-ponies, Sounded like earth-pony music too. Mostly percussion instruments, and vocals. Eventually I came to a… I can only describe it as a half finished landing to a large staircase. But where was the orchestra? Or the stage for that matter? “Woh! What was that?” some kind of metal bird? Whatever it was there were a lot of them, just buzzing around, and carrying iron logs?{A.N steel girders}. They’re a deep grey i’ve never seen before, they buzz around on invisible wings with massive claws grabbing and moving various things that I didn't recognize. As I caught my breath, I took a big inhale and something caught my attention, APPLES! I smell apples, apples means food! I took off for the smell, it led to a small room with a shiny ceiling, I could see myself in it, and a bunch of glowing circles with numbers on them… WAIT WHAT? Those are thestraly numbers! The numbers only went to 18, wonder what that means? All of a sudden one of those strange birds flew in, and touched one of the glowing numbered circles. And some doors that i somehow missed just closed, locking me in here with this bird, wait, why are we moving? ~∆~
IntroductionsAuthor's Note And here's another one, sorry it's taking me so long to get these things done, but you know how it is that Muse just doesn't want to hold still long enough. Oh well hope you guys enjoy. Until next chapter Introductions As the strange room moved, I got a good look at the odd metal bird, it was obviously spherical and had multiple grasping limbs instead of the two feet I was used to, it also didn't have any visible wings though I distinctly heard a small wiirr coming from it, eventually the room stopped moving and the doors once again opened. But I saw on the other side was gorgeous an entire park inside a building, I have never seen such greenery before. I was born after the great winter set in so, I guess it makes sense that I would never know so much green, but it's still quite breathtaking. and there are a lot more of those strange metallic birds buzzing around. Stepping out of the strange room that somehow moved me from a strange hallway into a massive internal garden, I wondered about for what felt like hours, just in awe of The greenery. there wasn't much, couple small shrubs and some, I think my parents called it grass, littered across the ground. There are also a few saplings that I know were kept on the caravan wagon, but they were now planted and sprouting leaves. Eventually I found something even stranger another pony, but he ,and I could definitely tell it was a he (mares just ain't that stocky), was dressed in odd clothes reminiscent of that strange suit of armor I saw back in the room I woke up in, but instead of a calm green his was a bright yellow with orange, with some parts of it being a dull green and black in a strange pattern. He had his back turned to me but the strange song I've been hearing on the wind seemed to be coming from him, "hello? Would you happen to know where I can find the builders of this wonderous place. And why I have not found any, it almost seems as if this place is abandoned."I asked. It seemed to startle him as the music abruptly stopped and he jumped pointing some small rectangle thing in my direction before he gave a sigh behind his odd helm and lowered the strange rectangle before he spoke "While I am happy that you have awakened, I'd appreciate it if you would not startle me as such. it is risky for your health" it was after he said that, that I realized that the strange rectangle he was putting on his thigh must be some sort of weapon, I was a bit unnerved by that. "Well you asked a question and as a host I would be remiss if I did not answer, you are looking at the creator of this place, and the reason this place looks so abandoned is because it technically is, I am the only inhabitant. Unless you count the biters, but they are more unwanted pests." I stared blankly, this person before me claims to have built the massive City I saw out the window. "How could you be the builder and soul inhabitant of this place? I saw things moving around in the darkness out there through the window and the city outside was so massive it could not have been built by a single creature in their lifetime, unless of course you're trying to tell me you're some sort of dragon?" I asked I could not tell what his face was like beneath his helmet but he seemed to be amused "indeed I am the soul inhabitant and builder of this place, and what you saw outside your window was not a city, that would be a mega-factory. Right your people probably don't have a word for that yet, to put it in layman's terms it is a giant golem that moves and operates independently from any living being, with the only necessary input from a living creature being to tell it what to do." I was of course a little skeptical of that. "So you're telling me all of that (I gesture in the vague direction of my window and what lies beyond it) is a giant creature or golem as you put it?" He didn't say anything just a simple nod to confirm that I was correct. "I Find that a bit difficult to believe." "You don't necessarily need to, but it would be best, at least for your mental health. if you're wondering where the rest of your fellows are, you passed them on the way down here." He gestured back towards the door I come in from " my name is artiaus by the way. What's yours?" The suddenness of how he asked that question took me a bit by surprise, but it wasn't unwarranted, neither of us knew each other's names "A thousand pardons, my name is Lily, Lily sanguine." I don't know how I could tell, but I could feel as if he smiled at learning my name, as he said "it's good to meet you Lily sanguine. Come follow me, we have much to talk about. if you wish to be able to survive in here." Artiaus said as he turned towards the entrance I came in from, and started to walk, I of course followed him, I have no idea where anything is in this place, and if what he said is true he should know his entire place as well as one would know their own wagon. ~÷∆π~
