A random patch of jungle among the endless kios of jungle in this Wahi. There is nothing to distinguish this from any other patch of jungle, nor is there anything of note here.
An airship bearing Brotherhood of Makuta markings approached from the direction of Fe-Vo-Fa Wahi. The way it gently glided through the warm air, cruising just above the tops of the jungle trees, gave it an air of serenity and contentedness. An air of serenity and contentedness at drastic odds with those within.
Within the Brotherhood airship were five beings. There were two RMS Agents, wearing their peaked caps and gripping their automatic Iron Launchers with the hands of trained and war-hardened soldiers. One was a Glatorian, and the other was a member of the Steltian noble race. They were accompanied by two fellow servants of the Brotherhood, a Rahkshi of Laser Vision, and an Exo-Toa. All four of the beings stood still, not speaking.
The fifth occupant of the airship was a crimson-armored Skakdi who sat nervously unloading and loading one of his custom guns. This Skakdi was, of course, Rilok.
Rilok had been many things in his life. Warrior in a Skakdi tribal army, Dark Hunter, escaped experiment, mercenary, soldier in the RMS, and as of lately, desert raider. But none of these names and titles meant anything to Rilok. For Rilok, they were all simply masks. Masks to be worn and discarded, like a Kanohi. At the end of the day (and as Rilok might have said, "the end of days"), he was an agent of chaos. A herald of oblivion. A harbinger of complete annihilation, of blissful entropy, of endless flame. This was the sole reason of his existence. To destroy everything.
Lately, however, upon learning that his old tormentor, the mad scientist Kraki, may be alive, Rilok had been experiencing something different than his usual drive to burn the world. An emotion that he hadn't thought possible within the matrices of his crystalline brain.
Fear.
As Rilok rode in the airship towards Destral, towards his last hope for survival, he pondered this. Why was he afraid? He knew why he had to stay alive, sure. The universe wasn't going to light itself on fire, was it? Still, a need to survive shouldn't have sparked fear in him. This experience of experiencing some kind of emotion beyond focused rage reminded him of the pangs of brotherhood and loyalty he had felt- and suppressed- when fighting alongside 3051 during Inharax's war. It reminded him of the pride he felt wen he scared a target into submission or persuaded a weapons dealer with mere words instead of his guns or talons. Both of those emotions left him confused and disgusted, but at the end of the day he ignored them because they felt so alien, so... external. Almost like it wasn't even Rilok feeling them, but instead some other person who was pushing his way through Rilok's shattered and chaotic mind.
But this fear felt real. This fear felt very real. This came from deep within Rilok's being, some kind of primal urge to run, hide, and never stop running or hiding. His entire mind, body, and whatever spirit he had left were screaming at him to STAY ALIVE. This was in such stark contrast with the normal urges of KILL EVERYTHING that Rilok actually began to feel sick.
What Rilok didn't know was that this was not fear in the sense that the average being feels it. This wasn't an emotion at all, for emotions are reserved for the sapient. This was instead a primal urge, not unlike that of a Rahi, that was sensing some kind of imminent danger and telling Rilok to avoid it at all costs. This same instinctive urge is what makes certain Rahi abandon locations about to experience natural disasters for instance. Why was Rilok feeling a Rahi's urges? We may never know. Perhaps Kraki's tampering had awoken some kind of premonition ability in Rilok's protodermis shell, possibly related to certain Kanoka powers regarding fate or chance. Maybe Rilok had degraded himself so far that his internal programming had determined he was, in fact, little more than a Rahi, and acted accordingly. Maybe Rilok was just lucky, luck being tat enigmatic ability for beings to unknowingly bend the flow of reality to better themselves.
As I said, we may never know. Because Rilok was too busy trying to figure out why he was afraid to listen to his fear.
So when the missile slammed into the Airship, detonating and sending the twisted shards of protodermis flying for Kios all over the jungle canopy, Rilok had no idea it was coming.
Rilok awoke with a whir of servos, crimson light returning to his eyes. His vision was blurry, and his entire body was wracked with intense pain.
Oh, how amazing it was.
Any thoughts of fear or unwanted emotions long since banished, Rilok bathed in the pain, and felt the heat of the burning wreckage spread across his armor. As all the nerves in his biomechanical body screamed to take action, Rilok began fading into white, both visually and audibly. However, just as he felt that he was finally ready to let go, he heard a voice in his head. It was the voice of Kraki, his tormentor, the one being he loved and hated the most in the world. Hated for ending his old life, and loved for starting his new one.
Your job isn't done, beast. Get up.
Rilok's eyes shot open again, and this time everything was painstakingly clear. Rilok quickly got to his feet, now ignoring his obvious injuries, and surveyed the scene of the crash. He saw the broken branches laying around him, looked up, and realized that falling through the trees had barely kept him alive.
Rilok made sure he wasn't on fire anywhere, and that all his limbs still functioned. Then he began making his way trough the burning wreckage.
That was a military missile. Xian, most likely. I wonder wh-
His thoughts were cut short by a hand clutching at his ankle. It was one of the RMS Agents, the Glatorian. His ridiculous hat had seemingly burned off, and he was missing both of his legs. His armor had a dull orange glow from the intense heat. Rilok envied the sheer pain the Glatorian must have been experiencing then.
"PLEASE! HELP ME! PLEASE! AAAAAUGH!"
Rilok ignored the Glatorian and instead reached to his hip for one of his guns. He cursed when he realized his guns were nowhere to be found.
"I'll have to put you down the old-fashioned way, buddy. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon."
Rilok put a clawed foot over the Glatorian's head, and violently stomped down three times. The screaming stopped.
Rilok looked around, and saw that the agent's Iron Launcher was still intact. Rilok picked the weapon up, checked the safety, racked the bolt, and slung the Launcher over his back. He proceeded to make his way out of the wreckage, and into the jungle.
A Vahki walks through the jungle and sees the dead Glatorain.
The Vahki notices a dead member of the Steltian noble race impaled on a jagged piece of half-melted protodermis, a shattered and burnt Exo-Toa body, and the broken remains of Rahkshi armor. Most of the fires have gone out by now.
Deep within the jungle, far away from the crash-site, there was a small camp.
Comprised of bamboo huts, longhouses that served as barracks and armories, and many fire-pits, this camp was more reminiscent of the old ways of war than the new, mechanized legions that now covered Spherus Magna. The Kanokatech Revolution had benefited many, but it had left behind even more.
Inhabiting this camp were Skakdi, Skrall, Bone Hunters, Glatorian, Agori, and many others. All of them outcasts from their respective cultures, and almost none of them sharing any sort of ideology. Some felt left behind by the times, and wished to return the world to a simpler time via violent revolution. Others were mercenaries and pirates, whose jobs were being rendered obsolete by the increased automation of war. Still others were simple maniacs and criminals who had nowhere else to go, ex-Dark Hunters who felt Odina's rules and regulations to be too stifling.
The one thing this group of beings shared was a hatred of the establishment, of the great powers of the world. They cared not if they were Makuta, Xian, Ateran, Forosian... Anybody with power was their enemy, for at the end of the day, it was the idea of power that they all hated, and was what united them.
They did, however, respect the authority of one being. Known by his rag-tag group of terrorists and criminals as "the Architect", the former Toa known as Sumi had earned the respect of his followers through shows of force. These warriors, warriors who would charge Karunax himself if they saw him, cowered in fear at the sight of the orange and black armored warrior whose feet never met the ground. Architect, they called him, not because he built anything. No, Sumi was an architect of destruction, well-versed in the mathematics of oblivion and the inner workings of the world's greatest engines of annihilation.
Sumi was not always like this, however. As Sumi sat in his hut, gripping an old Kiril, he thought of the events that had led him to this point.
Long ago, Sumi was a true Toa, a hero that protected an island of Matoran from danger, back before the world Moved On. Before the sky broke and the universe as they knew it became so much larger. Back then, Sumi had a brother, a fellow Toa named Deka. Deka and Sumi never had the grand adventures most famous Toa had, instead spending most of their lives on a single, small island. The largest thing they ever had to fight was a pride of Muakas. All of that changed when the Dark Hunters arrived.
Sumi and Deka fought well, sinking many ships, but in the end they were captured by the raiders. They were made a part of the mad scientist Kraki's Project Apotheosis, along with the Skakdi known as Rilok (whom you have already met). Kraki broke them and twisted them, Turning their natural Toa powers into weapons, and their minds into husks. However, Kraki had taken a gamble with Sumi, and left part of his mind, the part that dealt with analysis and logic, completely intact. He simply removed his capacity for emotion. Kraki used Sumi and Deka as his personal servants, his fists which he used to threaten the other Dark Hunters when they wouldn't give Kraki what he wanted.
After the world Moved On, Kraki had taken his lackeys and evacuated the robot which had been their universe up until then. Kraki and his living weapons wandered the wastes, collecting the other androids and experiments which had made up Project Apotheosis. Kraki was bent on building an army of kanoka-imbued androids and conquering this new world with them.
Sumi, however, didn't quite agree with that plan.
All of those years, see, Sumi had been biding his time, waiting for a moment to kill his tormentor. Now, as Kraki stood in the desert laughing as he explained his plan to what he thought were mindless slaves, Sumi realized that the time was now. He calmly raised his arm, and fired a Cordak missile right at Kraki's face. Kraki was too deranged to see it coming, and was killed by the blast.
After Kraki's heartlight flickered its last, Sumi felt his old Toa power return to his body. Kraki's augmented Kiril had been the object holding them back, it seems. Sumi turned to his brother Deka, expecting him to be free as well. He wasn't. Deka's power had returned but his mind was completely gone. Sumi, incapable of feeling emotion, casually put down his now useless brother right there in the sand, and left both bodies lying where they were as he stalked off into the night, only stopping to take their masks.
Sumi looked up from his musings, and put Kraki's Kiril back on the shelf where the Kanohi of every other member of Project Apotheosis lay neatly arranged, including Deka's. Since that night in the desert, Sumi had hunted down and slaughtered all of them as a form of self-preservation. All except one, at least.
To draw his last target out, Sumi had used his network of terrorists and criminals to spread rumors about Kraki's return. He knew that the idea of his old tormentor coming back for him would be the only thing capable of scaring Rilok into irrationality. As the Skakdi made his way to a Brotherhood base in Fe-Vo-Fa-Wahi using a kidnapped Toa of Magnetism to guide his way, Sumi watched him. As he boarded the old cargo airship to head right into Sumi's backyard, he watched him.
And as one of Sumi's men fired a stolen Xian AA missile, bringing the airship down in the heart of the jungle, Sumi watched him. He knew Rilok had survived, of course. It would take more than a mere missile to kill him. But now Rilok was alone, and probably injured. And right in the heart of Sumi's territory.
Sumi got up, levitating above the ground as he went, and summoned one of his chief lieutenants, a Vorox of the more intelligent Bota Magnan breed. His name was Cradus.
"Cradus, gather your best hunters. I have a target for you."
"Yes, Architect. Who is this target?"
"A red-armored Skakdi. Armed or unarmed, treat him as a threat. Is that understood?"
Cradus bowed.
"Yes, Architect."
Sumi smiled under his already-grinning mask. Soon, he would have the final mask of his collection.
Except, he realized, Skakdi didn't wear masks. This greatly bothered Sumi, because numbers were everything to the former Toa. The right combination of numbers often spelled the difference between victory and defeat. The right combination of numbers could raze a continent. The right combination of numbers could change the fabric of reality.
Still, he assured himself as he started moving gain, Rilok's head would fit the spot just as well.
A Vahki walks through the jungle and sees the dead Glatorain.
The Vahki notices a dead member of the Steltian noble race impaled on a jagged piece of half-melted protodermis, a shattered and burnt Exo-Toa body, and the broken remains of Rahkshi armor. Most of the fires have gone out by now.
The Vahki looks for anything usable if it finds something it sets it aside.
The Vahki notices a dead member of the Steltian noble race impaled on a jagged piece of half-melted protodermis, a shattered and burnt Exo-Toa body, and the broken remains of Rahkshi armor. Most of the fires have gone out by now.
The Vahki looks for anything usable if it finds something it sets it aside.
When it finishes it begins to dig a hole.
He finishes the hole and places the Steltian in it and begins to cover the hole.
He finishes the hole and places the Steltian in it and begins to cover the hole.
On his travels through the region, Vakt finds the Vahki.
"What are you doing,then?"
"Currently? Burying the dead. However my goal is to find Destral. Order intelligence mentioned that it would be in this area before the Order was destroyed."
On his travels through the region, Vakt finds the Vahki.
"What are you doing,then?"
"Currently? Burying the dead. However my goal is to find Destral. Order intelligence mentioned that it would be in this area before the Order was destroyed."
"The OOMN..." Vakt remembers his days with the Order before he left,shortly after they arrived on Spherius Magna. "I'll help you find it. It shouldn't be far off" Vakt starts climbing a tree "Why are you looking for it?"
"Currently? Burying the dead. However my goal is to find Destral. Order intelligence mentioned that it would be in this area before the Order was destroyed."
"The OOMN..." Vakt remembers his days with the Order before he left,shortly after they arrived on Spherius Magna. "I'll help you find it. It shouldn't be far off" Vakt starts climbing a tree "Why are you looking for it?"
"I'm a therapist. Destral is a looney bin. Think about it for a minute."
"The OOMN..." Vakt remembers his days with the Order before he left,shortly after they arrived on Spherius Magna. "I'll help you find it. It shouldn't be far off" Vakt starts climbing a tree "Why are you looking for it?"
"I'm a therapist. Destral is a looney bin. Think about it for a minute."
"I'm not exactly sure the Makuta would want a therapist. I think they're past that point."
Rilok stalked through the jungle, holding the Iron Launcher close to him. Truth be told, Rilok had never used this particular weapon, having already adopted the use of his custom pistols long before Iron Launchers became the weapon of choice for the armies of the world. That being said, Rilok once used a 36-barrel Cordak Blaster as his primary weapon, so he didn't figure the recoil to be a problem.
Rilok suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, some part of his brain that was always on alert poking through his thoughts and warning him that danger was near. Rilok looked around at the jungle around him. He didn't see anything moving, but he knew he was being stalked all the same. It was too quiet. Like someone was trying to keep it that way.
"Might as well come on out into the open, boys, or I'll just light up everything I see with my eyebeams."
This was a bluff, of course. His eyebeams, along with his other natural Skakdi abilities, had been removed long ago by Kraki. But he was hoping that his hunters didn't know that.
Unless they were working for Kraki, of course.
That question was answered in the negative when two tan-armored creatures emerged from the underbrush, gripping long-handled curved blades. They were Vorox, desert animals native to the planet they all now lived on. What were they doing in the jungle? And how had they understood him?
That question was answered as well, one one of the Vorox opened its mouth and spoke.
"Lay down your weapon and come with us, Skakdi. The Architect wills it."
So the stories of sentient, talking Vorox in the jungle were true. Also, Rilok didn't like the sound of this Architect person.
Sounds like something Kraki would call himself.
Rilok nodded, and made to set the Launcher down. Then, he quickly snapped back up, shouldered the weapon, and sent a burst of Iron slugs sailing into the chest of the Vorox who had spoken. The beast went down, dead before he hit the ground. The second Vorox screamed, and rushed Rilok with its blade held above his head.
Rilok whirled around and pulled the trigger again.
Click
Rilok cursed. He should have known the Launcher would have suffered damage in the crash. He threw the useless machine aside and flicked his hands open, protosteel talons glinting in the sunlight. The Vorox hit him feet first in the chest, and Rilok went tumbling backwards. The Vorox began to bring his blade down, and Rilok caught it between his claws. He used his other hand to slash the Vorox across its chest. The Vorox let out a primal scream, and Rilok thought that maybe these Vorox weren't much more civilized than their cousins after all.
As the Vorox tumbled off of him, clutching at its chest, Rilok got back to his feet. He picked up the beast's blade, twirled it in one hand, and prepared to execute the animal. Just as he began to bring the blade down, he felt something strike the back of his head, and then he was out.
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2017 15:36:54 GMT -6 by Deleted
Cradus dropped the rock he had just used to knock the Skakdi out, and turned to his injured tribesman. He spoke to him in their native tongue.
"You blasted idiot! I told you to stay in cover!"
"But his eyebea-"
"Did you see him use them? No. He fought with his claws. Why would you fight with claws if you have eyebeams?"
"I-I don't-"
"Of course you don't. You disobeyed my orders, got Tychus killed, and almost got yourself killed too. I knew I shouldn't have brought you on this hunt."
"Please, forgive me, chieftain."
"Save it for the Great Beings."
With that, Cradus drew his semi-automatic Iron Launcher and dispatched the younger Vorox. There was no place in the Fundament for the weak. No place in the new world they were building. Cradus slung the crimson-armored Skakdi over his shoulder, reholstered his Launcher, and stalked back into the jungle.
At least the Architect would have his prey.
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2017 15:49:16 GMT -6 by Deleted
Cradus dropped the rock he had just used to knock the Skakdi out, and turned to his injured tribesman. He spoke to him in their native tongue.
"You blasted idiot! I told you to stay in cover!"
"But his eyebea-"
"Did you see him use them? No. He fought with his claws. Why would you fight with claws if you have eyebeams?"
"I-I don't-"
"Of course you don't. You disobeyed my orders, got Tychus killed, and almost got yourself killed too. I knew I shouldn't have brought you on this hunt."
"Please, forgive me, chieftain."
"Save it for the Great Beings."
With that, Cradus drew his semi-automatic Iron Launcher and dispatched the younger Vorox. There was no place in the Fundament for the weak. No place in the new world they were building. Cradus slung the crimson-armored Skakdi over his shoulder, reholstered his Launcher, and stalked back into the jungle.
At least the Architect would have his prey.
Vakt watches some of this happen from the undergrowth.
Cradus dropped the rock he had just used to knock the Skakdi out, and turned to his injured tribesman. He spoke to him in their native tongue.
"You blasted idiot! I told you to stay in cover!"
"But his eyebea-"
"Did you see him use them? No. He fought with his claws. Why would you fight with claws if you have eyebeams?"
"I-I don't-"
"Of course you don't. You disobeyed my orders, got Tychus killed, and almost got yourself killed too. I knew I shouldn't have brought you on this hunt."
"Please, forgive me, chieftain."
"Save it for the Great Beings."
With that, Cradus drew his semi-automatic Iron Launcher and dispatched the younger Vorox. There was no place in the Fundament for the weak. No place in the new world they were building. Cradus slung the crimson-armored Skakdi over his shoulder, reholstered his Launcher, and stalked back into the jungle.
At least the Architect would have his prey.
Vakt watches some of this happen from the undergrowth.