Nerquin

This is the second novela I ever wrote,and at least I knew it was horrid while writing it.I wrote this about a year or two after Synava.I took note to include females in this story,and hadn't completely passed through my diamond loving phase...sadly.This is also the first time I began to use an index,which I now use to add information untold within the body of the story.

=INTRODUCTION=

The Nerkquin planet was a planet well past earth’s time. The intelligent life had remade their sun when it was dying, replacing it with a new artificial sun named Proto that would duplicate itself if it malfunctioned and it charged itself with its own energy.

They lived in peace for awhile until discoveries of atomic power’s destruction were made. With this power, Nelar, the country which had discovered the destructive power of the atom, held superior over the other countries. This led to jealousy and fear, and those two emotions when mixed make people lose reasoning. In time, the countries gained the information that they envied for and feared. Klek, the country which felt the highest threat from Nelar, took advantage of the tension and fired upon Nelar, destroying the country. This invoked more fear in the other countries and the tension finally let loose, triggering a nuclear war with all the countries. Those who tried to keep the peace were fired upon, the countries seeing the weakness and seeing the advantage they held. In time, the entire planet became radioactive, and highly over heated. All life was becoming extremely mutated and most of it died.

In time, the few survivors adapted. The atmosphere became extremely toxic and the greenhouse effect magnified greatly. Proto burned up Nerkquin and slowly the entire planet became a dessert, the equator slowly beginning to reach such levels of heat that the sand that was left from the dried compost of the plants was starting to redden and in short time would turn into natural glass. In a few million years, the entire planet would be one glass orb hurdling through space, its surface boiled.

The superior intellects of the survivors, which were few as the mass majority were mental and physical defects, and the majority were fewer as few were alive, realized that the planet was over heating and soon the deep mines that the survivors hid in for protection from the radiation and heat would also be too large a temperature. Above the atmosphere would burn them, and below they would be sent to extinction from the core. They decided to build a building that would be closed off from the outer areas, setting themselves in a closed system.

The building was built to have a low energy exchange and to develop its own mass. In order to do this it was layered, the outer shell was made of carbon and then tungsten, layered individually. Tungsten is the atom to boil last, at 5933K, and carbon is the one to melt last, subliming at 3775K. After the outer shell was made to hold the small world, they insulated it with radon. The large gas, as it was ten to five times larger then its container’s atoms, stayed inside the container and had the lowest thermal conductivity, 0.0000364W/cm*K. They powered the vessel with thermal generators, placed after the radium because they would likely melt otherwise. After the power source layer, more radium was pocketed in carbon. Eventually enough heat was hindered that the structure could sustain life until the carbon and tungsten mixture melted. The water was placed at the core, as it contained hydrogen. All the elements that had a high thermal conductivity or specific heat were placed in the core, the walls were hollow and contained radon so that the core would not generate too much heat and dispense into the building.

People lived in this building for years, and eventually the outer world they were floating in, as the planet had melted, was forgotten. They sank down into the core, which was only around 3500K. The ball sat in this heat for many years, the temperature raising slightly. Billions of years later, the core finally was fully deluded into the other layers, now Nerkquin was an orb of glass that had mountains soaring towards Proto, the core having little gravity. The glass was slowly starting to boil more, that went into the atmosphere and magnified the green house effect even more. Slowly the heat was beginning to surpass the maximum level of mass being solid. The temperature rose even more in the last living world of Nerkquin.

However, after billions of years of hard labour, Proto, the sun that was supposed to be indestructible, finally fell apart. This stopped the energy sent to Nerkquin, but Nerkquin still had a green house so dense that it held in the heat that it had received for all the years. Millions of years passed, and slowly the glass in the atmosphere turned back into liquid and it dropped to the lower areas of the atmosphere. Some more millions of years later, a small amount of time in this odd planet’s life, the gases in the atmosphere slowly drifted off into space or mixed into the glass. This caused the heat to drop some more.

The glass in the atmosphere hardened after this, and the inner planet followed suit millions of years later. The small world of life was captured in glass, the heat was cooling and they had stuck themselves into an amazing refrigerator powered by heat. Very slowly, it began to freeze.

The manuals were read and eventually they decided to head into the glass. They dug a tunnel through it and for many generations they became a culture of glass miners, just they did not care for the glass. They disposed of the glass by sending it down into the abyss, where the second world was. Those who had stayed in the ship became a culture of people waiting to be saved. Some of the glass they received was converted into energy, as they had learned to turn mass into energy. Most the energy they made was converted to heat energy.

Eventually, the miners reached the surface, staring about at the beautiful glass landscape, the way the star’s light was shattered into rainbows of light that struck the ground and lit the floor into a soft glow, and a snow of glass flakes which had drifted onto the ground. Fractured rainbows came through it from the top and bottom even more. How the mountains shot the light at even more odd angles. The miners had lived their lives seeing little of this, and were shocked at it all.

Soon, seconds which really had no scale to the trillions of years that had taken place in this planet’s history, they began to become colder, the wind drifting ever so slightly, which made rainbows with the glass dust, but they had never felt wind. It was freezing, and soon they remembered what the point of all their labour was, to bring the people from the abyss.

The entrance looked so great to them, and when they walked past the miners that had begun because the glass had stopped coming, they entered the large building that had been the home of the people for billions and billions of years. They were greeted as saviours, and soon the great home of the last life on Nerkquin was abandoned, the scientific research was all noted and crates were taken full of data.

Finally they reached the surface of the glass planet, everything had been melted down, fused and then solidified. The only food they had was the food they grew. Soon domes were built and mass to energy generators, MEGs, were setup. They began to setup duplicates of the EMG and soon turned the glass into energy, and then that energy to mass. They also would charge the energy to mass generators, EMGs, with other energies. Soon soil formulas were made and the required atoms were mixed. Soon the planet received a new sun from the original documents of how Proto was made. The new sun was named Alpha and they revised the notes, editing them with the sciences they had learned throughout the billions of years inside the closed world. A new eon had begun. But soon population rose, and they once again shrunk into the depths. They made a giant condominium. In there, all life lived. Society fell back, and survived by using the technology of the past.

=NIRVANA=

Kryn was now an adult. He had black hair, one of his more obvious signs of mutation, which was at chin length at the longest point, the back of his head, and at the shortest point, his fore head, it was at the upper area of his eyes. His skin was pale, as everyone had very pale skin. He wore an expression of neutrality, as he was a very neutral person. He was slightly taller then his peers, and was lean in build. His posture wore neglect to respect and honour. His eyes were teal, but his main fault within the society was that he had registered for the void status. Such things were a great disgrace for the sector, more the family, to have a relative with such a class. They virtually did not contribute to the growth of the society and were given a small amount of resources in return for their help, if they were allowed to stay within the non-isolated society. Everyone had an occupation, and with the occupation gave them their authority, respect, honour, resources in return for the help they are supposed to give and many other things. It was one of the most important things to attain. Money did not exist, each thing you took was valued upon the respect one gave you and how much resources you had taken already. Those who did not use their monthly portion to a large extent were seen as generous and would most likely be promoted. But Kryn had turned away from this system and decided to ask for a void status, with occupation also came responsibility. He could have asked for a very high occupation for the mind, he had the grades and ability to learn more. So of course, the shame he was given was even larger. He had been disowned and sent to the lowest of districts. There the people were isolated from rest of the population. Few chose this life, but Kryn had.

"So what occupation have you registered for?" his mother had asked, expecting to hear a very intellectual one.

"I asked for the void status." Kryn answered in the monotone voice he always had.

A pause held before his mother left the room, dismayed at the humiliation she would receive. She had expected more, she rarely was able to talk, never mind see, Kryn. The few times she had noticed his oddness, she just thought it was a phase.

=DOOM=

KIBOSH
The next day he had been sent down one of the many glass corridors to a glass elevator, from there he had been sent down another glass corridor to a one-way elevator, before entering his escorts verified that they wished to use the glass elevator. He had been put in it, the escorts staring as the glass doors closed in front of them. At the bottom of the great glass complex that the society lived in was his new home. All people were relocated to another sector once they received occupation. This let the cultures integrate and evolve.

He was given no tinted glass cubicle, just told to do what he wished in the sector named Doom. Each sector had its own laws, Doom was a group of low lives and the majority were deported there, for some very important law they had broken a number of times. This meant that an organized government was hard to establish and the people who tried and did not soon give up were most likely assassinated.

Kryn moved along the opaque glass corridors, he could hear a group was following him and stopped, turning around and staring at the person seeming to be the leader in the group of six people. The leader showed a relaxed posture, though still ready to act on impulse. He was alert and aware of his surroundings, but showed now attention to them until required. His eyes were a pale blue, his golden hair was covered by a hood, which was at ear length all around. He was of average height and had a slightly lean build, though he had a strong body. He carried a blade with him, it was a translucent white. His shirt was compiled of crimson hexagons, a large one in the center of the chest area, the same for the others. His arms looked reptile like, as they were covered in the crimson hexagons, a large one was on his back, but it was covered by his shirt. This was the largest difference he had with his companions.

"Hello, my name is Zerkaz, and we see you are new around here. Well, why don’t you come with us and I’ll explain how things work around here." Zerkaz stated in a sly tone.

"Okay, do you happen to have a blue print of this sector?"

"We have it on a database, three dimensional."

"Okay."

The translucent halls were narrow, at least the ones Zerkaz and his five escorts were using. At one point Zerkaz even decided to turn around because some voices could be heard in the distance. Not a word was spoken and everyone was tense. They reached some stairs and hurried down them with little sound. Kryn noticed that their shoes were worn extremely and seemed to be very old. They hurried along the borders, finally Zerkaz froze as he realized that both entries were being blocked, hopefully the two were not allies. He moved to where he believed the groups would meet.

There they met in the darkness, as the lights were shattered, and it turned out that the two groups of three were both on guard, and they had found intruders. Immediately, Zerkaz tackled through the group as they reached for their knives. The five men followed, and Kryn hurried but was pinned down to the glass floor by the guards. They knelt down, one of them stared down at him and talked in a low voice of authority while having a knife at his throat, "Seems you’re pretty low for Zerkaz, why are you traveling as an escort?"

"He wanted me to come with him, I was just sent here."

"New, eh?"

"Yes, can I ask a question?"

"Sure, what?"

"May I be freed?"

"Well that was our enemy you were siding with, but I’ll give you some mercy for being new. Get up."

"Thanks."

"Why are you thanking me? I’m just giving you a chance."

Kryn got up to his feet, but before he could even begin to move, the leading guard had already dropped his blade of rusted steel and pounced Kryn upon the clear floor like a starved beast. Kryn was the prey. Kryn yelled in shock, he felt pressure on his sides as his arms were pressed against his stomach and soon he was beginning to be choked. He bit the large hand that was covering his nose and mouth, not letting go as the new victim pulled at his wounded hand, blood rose out of the skin and soon the man had to let go, Kryn slowly gaining the advantage by getting up. It was his turn to pounce on the predator. Soon he began to press against the vein behind his foe’s neck, pinning him down to the floor, the man struggled to punch Kryn, which was done gracefully. Kryn rolled, and shot up as soon as he could. His enemy followed with an agility learned through years of experience. Soon they were upon each other again, kicking and punching where they could, working to escape the other’s grasp. Kryn reached over to the other’s eyes and pressed, harder he kept pressing upon them and the grasp that bound him so tightly lightened. He took advantage of the situation and ran for the knife the guard had dropped. The other guards stepped in at this and began to corner him to the wall, he raised the knife and jabbed at one of his new enemies. They pounced, their knifes raised in fury. Zerkaz came in now with his five escorts, they pulled out their blades of steel and sliced the necks of the offenders. The fight lost focus of the bloody Kryn and shifted towards Zerkaz. Soon the two groups of guards lay dead along with the escorts, two dead and another deeply wounded. The three left, apparently healthy, took Kryn and the wounded guard, they traveled slowly still but hurried along a quicker path.

It took almost an hour to get to Zerkaz’s sector, and shortly after to his multiple cubicles. Kryn was set down on Zerkaz’s living room couch and the injured escort was given the free bed to recuperate. It would take until the next day before Kryn would awaken and the escort, unfortunately, would never. Even the next day, Kryn would be very tired and dizzy, as he had lost much blood and the blades that had been held against him were rusted steel. His body would be covered in bruises, but that was the least of his problems. He would take some time before a full recovery.

But the next morning, even with his infected cuts being blocked by scraps of paper and elastics, Zerkaz wanted to talk with Kryn.

"That was a good fight you had there, probably could have killed the guy yourself if you hadn’t gone for that knife. We watched it, wanted to see what you had to offer, and it seems that you have much to give us. Will you stay loyal to us?"

"I can see that you will not bring harm upon me, unless I become a threat to you. So I will stay with your group, but now I must rest."

"Alright, we’ll talk when you’re better."

Kryn slept for almost another day. When he awoke inside the glass living room he could see Zerkaz on the computer. He felt a bit better now, they had given him fed him and gave him new bandages while he had slept. Now he could think straight and talk, though he dared not get up.

"Hello, Zerkaz, what time is it."

"It is the evening, what is your name?"

"Kryn, I came here be-"

"If I wanted to know, I would ask. Why are you here?"

"...I am here because I asked for the void status and not a superior status that I could have easily received."

"Interesting. Looks like we have a good investment here. What type of superior status could you get, physical or intellectual...Or is it just family respect?"

"Intellectual."

"Good, we have a fighter with brains. Very good. What sector did you come from?"

"Nirvana, top floor. Low population because it has a high standard to relocate there."

"Lucky you, from the top to the bottom. Were you high for the global standard, or your sector’s?"

"My sector’s."

"Good, very good"

"What do you plan to do with me?"

"Well, I was going to have you be a guard until I thought like promoting you, we need guards, lots of them. But I don’t think that guard work is what is for you...Perhaps you should take a type of guard for awhile though, get you used to the system. Would you like to be an elite guard?"

"May I know what that is exactly?"

"It is a personal guard that normally leads a group of guards, you fought with the elite guard of that unit. You would also be my first choice as becoming an escort. Yesterday I had five escorts. Basically, they are still guards, but their focus is to protect me and not the zone. I own the largest zone, almost three percent. Zones are the area a group owns. Groups are called unions, this is Kibosh. Our largest foe is Equipoise. They are a union wanting to invoke law upon Doom. If they were to own Kibosh, they would own more then four percent of Doom. Once you can stand, I will show you the map of Doom."

The next day after much more rest, Kryn was able to stand, Zerkaz was still on the computer. Kryn stood up to ask Zerkaz, "What time is it?"

"The afternoon, I see you can stand up now. Would you like a look at the map?"

"Yes."

Doom took up two thousand five hundred square kilometres of space, not including height. In order to not introduce children into it, they had Doom, for males and Doom2, for females. This made the Doom sectors less populated, as few arrived at them. Still, when an population of more then a 50 billion sends the extreme criminals, and sadly some sectors are strict enough to send one even for choosing the void status, you will end up with a high population. And because the massive building had been alive for the past hundred thousand years, at some point a female could of ended up accidentally taking the one-way elevator. She would have been trapped, and when she reached the bottom, sadly, raped, this was a world of people banished for braking supreme law. Later, this would lead to a pregnancy, and if at any one time of being pregnant, as it would most likely happen more then once, there was a girl, that would lead to more children. Slowly there would be more females. This would lead to more children. Same could have happened in Doom2. However it happened, many possibilities exist, there was a small population of females in Doom. No females were sent to it, just born into it. Some males also, and that is why there was two types of Doom occupants, native and foreign. Some unions only wanted native but most didn’t care as long as they liked how the person was.

Kibosh had only five females. The average was around one per every hundred males, for unions accepting all. For the native unions it was normally around one for every male.

MARS
Kryn was promoted directly from void to elite. He held the southern hall, which lead to the Mars union. Mars held an area of four halls, Kibosh was moving upon them with slow grace. Kryn was given orders to take an entire unit and conquer Mars, the name they chose did not suit them. Kryn took a unit of thirty, enough for a total population of about fifty.

Kryn would attack from the east, move over to the first three way and send ten of his soldiers south to take the south eastern area, he would then hurry over to the four way and stabilize the western corridor.

Martian guards were out by time Kryn had gotten to the four way. Kryn hid away and let the fight do its self out. He hurried down the west hall to the area he had sent his subunit. They had not as many guards, but only half what the other group had to fight. He took out his long knife, thin enough to pierce through a body and a steel strong enough to not become dull. He ran over and jabbed his knife through a body wearing the Martian crest. The victim fell upon the glass. Kryn moved quickly to attack the other elite guard, his bloody knife slashing through the body, he pressed the knife into a high angle to avoid the ribs, plunging into a lung. He pulled his knife down and sent it into the foe’s heart. He had taken the opponent by surprise, and the seven guards left were soon disposed of. He stole the weapons of the dead guards and brought three of the guards with him, the others brought back the wounded. He ordered the northern Mars gate’s lock be broken, and soon it was.

Inside, Kryn set his soldiers to surround the room, they slashed at the enemies and the leader of the union worked to flee, though he couldn’t for all entrances were blocked. Someone stabbed him harshly and soon the rest were mangled across the floor, the glass smeared with red in places. Kryn ordered the dead be checked for valuables and then checked for Mars’ treasures. Once all was taken, he headed back to talk with Zerkaz.

Once back at the room Kryn had learned to see as his own, Zerkaz was waiting there, he spoke in his calm voice, "How was Mars? I kept them around for a test."

"Twenty surrendered, and are in custody. We searched for all their valuables and I sent back the wounded. We had four casualties. Seven wounded."

"Good, the casualties are to be expected, the wounded also. I am planning an attack on Equipoise, would you like to be enlisted?"

"Okay."

"Good. Until then, hold the Mars area, we’ll send some people there. You mainly should worry about that large hall, most will attack from there and need to pass it to enter central Kibosh.

"Okay. How many guards will I have?"

"Ten."

"Okay."

Kryn held guard, few dared challenge Kibosh. Those who came planning on taking Mars found themselves attacked by Kibosh guards. Soon word spread and most databases edited the border change. Kibosh held allies with many, most did not wish to fight with such a force. Including allies, Kibosh had a zone of twelve percent. This zone was called a safe zone. Many allied with Kibosh for their large zone, which gave a large safe zone. Mars was too brave and filled with dignity to ally with Kibosh, they did not wish to ally with anyone.

At one point, five Equipoise soldiers entered Kryn’s zone. He had his knife on him and recognized the crests worn. In a quick motion the three guards with him plunged upon the enemy, and he stabbed at the elite guard, on his way gashing the arm of a unharmed soldier. The elite guard pulled his knife out and met Kryn’s. Kryn took a split-second to move downwards, the enemy followed. But once the enemy had begun to pull his arm down, Kryn sliced the hand. In reflex, the knife dropped. This left the elite in a hard situation, bend down to get his knife, attack without a weapon or run. He ran. But Kryn gave him no chance, he slashed the neck as the other elite turned and the blood flowing was enough to ensure death, but behind him the soldier he had passed by had taken the dropped knife. Kryn turned to a guard charging him, he waited for a moment, pretending to be shocked, until the guard nearly reached him and ducked. The guard tripped, slicing upon Kryn’s back as he fell. Kryn took no time with his new wound, he jabbed the guard with his knife and took the other knife with him. His three guards had finished their fights, Kryn’s two surviving guards had killed the foe who had deeply wounded one of Kryn’s guards.

Kryn was brought back to Zerkaz again, as he was bleeding severely. When Zerkaz saw this, he ordered for some bandages and Kryn was set into his original bed. He did not take as long to heal, once his back was scabbed he could walk. He couldn’t bend too much though, as that would crack the scab. Slowly the scab healed and was replaced by another scar, as he had many now.

He held the Mars area for awhile more, fighting whoever came and many times enemies would retreat, an unfavourable occurrence. But after holding the area for such a long time and new guards being sent to his area, as anyone new was set as guard, Zerkaz finally chose to attack Equipoise. The zone took up a massive area, between five and six square kilometres. For this, Zerkaz called upon the help of his allies. Unions like Mars size did not need other’s notice, but an area of slightly more then one half percent of Doom, were worthy.

EQUIPOISE
Kryn had been enlisted, and he was set to kill any enemy who retreated. He would be at the sidelines, vital for victory yet only a nod of recognition in the end. He had ten soldiers.

Kryn left five minutes after Zerkaz left with his massive unit, which held many subunits. But Kryn would not be in the hand of cards Zerkaz played, Kryn would already have been played at the beginning, and what he did would not be analyzed until after the battle.

Few ran, as their own zone was under attack. Any who came running in a whirl of panic were soon dealt with, as they ran alone or in small groups. No elites came, as they were to hold in battle until death. Kryn and his unit waited, in silence, waiting for the odd run away who ended up taking their path instead of another one, of course, he did have a hall that could get to one of the foe’s allies.

Eventually, the sound of battle seemed to be for the foe more then Zerkaz. When they looked at the battle it showed more pale blue loops, stained in red, of Equipoise then the crimson hexagons of Kibosh. He ran in, his long dagger raised high within the air. It plunged into the back of a guard’s chest, then it slid up to another’s throat and down again to hit another guard through the ribs and into the heart, piercing the lung also on the way.

Kryn continued his executions, his unit had stayed to hold the hall. Kryn took lashings, but he had learned not to react to pain, he barely felt the slashes. He countered each strike upon him with a lethal strike. He worked his way towards where Zerkaz should have been, and Kryn slashed all enemies in reach. His skin was smeared in red, but he had adapted to not bleeding much now. Still his slashes worked, and guards would pile onto him. He would slice at the unorganized arms and slowly work to kill the mobs, the mobs being as inefficient, though they would still hurt him as they fought with others of Kibosh. His right hand was badly hurt and he used his left hand to attack, one he only trained in dexterity in practice. Dead corpses lay and he still worked to the center, silently killing all his foes. He went through patches of Kibosh subunits, he needed to help Zerkaz. When he chose that was too high a goal, he chose to help the subunit he was in currently. But in groups he found it harder to jab at foes, he headed farther into the sea of Equipoise guards.

Finally the guards were disposed of, one area of Equipoise claimed. Equipoise lost a seventh of their area that battle, they had one point twenty seven percent left of Doom, instead of one point forty five. Zerkaz wished to see Kryn after.

KIBOSH
"I see you left your post, can you explain that?" Zerkaz asked Kryn, now once again injured. Zerkaz had been attacked also, but he had received immediate care after the battle. His right eye was in a slightly higher arc, his body still relaxed, as usual.

"We saw more Equipoise crests then Kibosh. I could also tell that the moral of Equipoise seemed high. I took action according to what I thought suited the situation best."

"Well, we own that area and you did leave your unit behind. Traditionally, abandoning your unit is a show of cowardice, but I like to be more progressive. The retreats were low, sometimes they are very numerous. And you seem to work better alone. I am changing your status, alright? I think you can work better if you would do special assignments for me, as in I would give you something to do, and you would tell me your opinion and then improvising would begin from there, though if you don’t want to do a certain thing you don’t have, but I trust you will be reasonable. Elites are seen higher, but I don’t think you care much for glory. That is good. I use to be a man who only wanted honour, glory, respect and anything that linked to it. That lead me to own Kibosh, and be the largest union in Doom. But I changed, and I find I have become more practical. I do what works, not what people think will work. If I hadn’t changed that way of action, I wouldn’t have kept Kibosh for long. All of the people here want glory, or at least they would if they were my heir. Kryn, I know I do not know you well, but I think out of all the people here, you are the one that shows the most promise. Will you be my heir?"

"Okay."

“As heir, you deserve to know what the vault’s code is,” Zerkaz moved his head beside Kryn’s, “Union was the first, Omega was the last.”

“Okay, what is Omega?”

“Kibosh is only a decoy Kryn, Omega is our union that is within one cubicle. This union is in constant research and lays at the other end of Doom, in one of the corners. There, they are the brain of Ultima. Ultima is a union that has made allies with all unions that are near them. To defeat Ultima, one must destroy the neighbouring unions and even then, you must get to the corner of Ultima to reach Omega. Equipoise is one of the few who has a chance, and if they keep expanding they will discover Ultima. We have not contacted them though for some years, I pilgrimed to Omega once, I had to go through many checks and already I could see they had technology like the ones that are likely in the higher levels of this complex. They would not teach me of it though, and I only gave them a report on our status, and they advised me on how I should further develop against Equipoise. Vrelk has only been the despot for six years.”

“I see, so this whole union is to unite Doom?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

"Kryn, are your emotions the same as your voice?"

"No."

"Can you explain how you feel a bit, because not once have I heard you ever use a tone besides that neutral one. You seem to be a passivist, yet you are an aggressive fighter."

"I am normally neutral, slight joy comes sometimes after a little bit of adrenalin and then I get aggressive when I am in a dangerous situation, I have a will to live, after those times is when I will likely feel some joy. I never got in many fights though in Nirvana. But here the chance of death is so high that everyone is fighting in fear of being fought. If everyone held a cease fire, or even better, became allies, we would have a society more like the one we were banished from. That may be the fear of those who disliked the system, but there is more then one way to lead a peaceful government. The problem is that if anyone stopped fighting in fear of being fought, the other unions would attack them. That is why they fight, in fear of that result. If we wanted to stop this fighting, we would have to gain a large zone, and make allies with all the unions, crushing any who denied. I think that Kibosh could do that, though it would take generations. And I believe that after some inferior leaders, Kibosh will fall."

"True enough. I think that your brain does not produce enough of the emotional chemicals, and so after you have a little bit of adrenalin, some is produced. You seem to produce very crude emotions; joy, fear, sadness and anger. Anger is the most rare, and complex of your emotions. It is a mix of fear of being hurt more and sadness at the hurt you already feel. But you are capable of it. You have fear in battle, but it quickly turns to joy, after when you are still alive. Sadness would come before you realized that you are doomed to death, though you may be calm at the revelation depending on the circumstances. Have you ever felt jealous?"

"No, I have all I need and if I wanted something I would get it. I have what I work for."

"I see. Tell me, when have you ever felt the most intense emotion in your life?"

"Soon after I got here, during the first fight I had. I felt joy at...beating the man after he had attacked me, sadness at being damned here, fear of what was to come in this land of violence and...anger...for where Nirvana had banished me for not wishing to officially join there society that was too strict to live the life I wished to follow. I had to follow what they set for me. They told me what I wanted, I was not asked. My first real choice that had importance was what status I wanted, and I chose to let them know that I would not follow what they set for me, that I would take advantage of my freedom. That I had control of what I did. And in showing them that, they threw me into this pit of death."

"Interesting. Kryn, I trust you. You seem to know what to do, and you are going to do it whether everyone is for you doing it or not. You come from a place of great power, but their precautions to keep it sacred lead you to send yourself here. The people were against you, and you still did what you felt was right. I will not omit the fact that you abandoned your post, your unit. Let it be known that acting by intuition is better then acting by conduct."

Kryn laid around head quarters more often now, being a variable was easier then to be expected. He got in less battles and when he did he was most likely being a escort. He rarely acted as an elite, being a leader was not for him. On battle fields, he was set free to kill any enemies. He would run into the heat of battle, surrounded by crazed enemies and they would pounce upon him. But he fought better now, he trained excessively and with his official demotion, yet actual promotion, received a rare titanium and diamond alloy, two thirds titanium and one third diamond. Such an alloy as few unions had and most only let the leader use the blade, which was forged by the best in the entire union. Zerkaz had been saving it, he made sure to steal it from other unions when they were taken, and soon after Kryn had agreed to be heir, he let him have the precious block. Kryn was given access to the forgery, it had a diamond furnace, and he asked no assistant. Zerkaz had agreed that when he died, Kryn could have Zerkaz’s blade, and the one he had forged. Zerkaz’s blade was one made very long ago and had stayed within the family, they had stolen the block from another union. But now that Zerkaz had no family, as few did, he used the alternative, he would give the blade to his heir. And along that, he gave Kryn a block to make his own blade with. Kryn worked inside the forgery for days, food was brought to him and he would eat it only when the steel needed cooling. It glowed slightly, as he had the heat at a very high level. A week later, he came out. Sweat was evident, a few burns were on him, but he had healed them as best he could, severe now and not lethal. But in his hands he held a new blade, it was white because some oxygen had mixed with it well being forged yet still slightly translucent, the diamond had been strengthened by the titanium and it was lighter then the iron alloys. The length of the blade was one meter, width was a centimetre and a half and the height was at highest point, half a centimetre. The blade was in a slight curve and on the hilt, the same material but made to have a better grip, a ruby hexagon was embedded into its core also, sealed under a centimetre of the alloy, in that place mainly diamond for the higher transparency. The blade could cut into any material, depending on the speed, angle and strength it hit the object. The sides were razor thin, yet would not become dull or break unless given a force so powerful that Doom held not the ability to break it. The only way to change it was to melt it at a high temperature, so high that your skin will burn up by being in the room, and Kryn showed signs of the such. When he exited the coolness of the corridor was so intense upon his body which had lived days inside such a room that he fainted. He was brought to Zerkaz.

A little while later, Kryn woke up with a bucket of water beside him and Zerkaz peering down at him, holding up a glass of water. He sat back, still calm, "Well, you sure forged a nice sword, I think we’ll put your knife back into the elite gallery. I’m glad you thought of putting in a ruby crest of Kibosh in there. If it is ever lost, Kibosh will know if it is theirs, and no enemy will be able to carry it in true pride, as they will be carrying the Kibosh crest, let our hexagon be remembered throughout history. Let it hex whoever wishes to take it. I must say though, we are shocked you didn’t die. Diamonds are normally cut, due to the fact that they are created with high pressured magma heat. That blade will live longer then this building. I need you to be an assassin for me though, I think that Equipoise may weaken if their leader, Vrelk, dies. He is intelligent, and we can’t allow his heir, who will be born in three months, to receive such a strategic education. Alright?"

"Okay, I think I should leave shortly before the weakest security has been set."

"Good, and make sure you come back alive."

"Okay."

"I wonder if you will care when you are faced with death."

"I don’t really care right now, though it is possible."

"True, you might have your adrenalin going, and I hope you do care. When you care you will be less practical, and when all you have is hope to look for, practical thinking will be your end, but hope is something more linked with emotion, so you might have a hard time hoping. So take it from me, if you find yourself not caring about death, do it because it is actually the practical choice."

"I will do what I see fit, do you wish that the leader die more then me or vice-versa?"

"You will do more then just kill Vrelk in the end and you are my heir, your survival is top priority. Vrelk can be killed another time, you can only die once."

"Okay, tell me when I am leaving. Might you happen to have more of the titanium and diamond alloy?"

"Diamondium? Yes, I am saving it, I have about another thirty cubic centimetres left, if you want more of it then Vrelk will have some. Feel free to loot Equipoise, Diamondium is very valuable."

"Okay."

EQUIPOISE
It was seven point five hours when Kryn left, with him he had his blade, shoes made to run silently, light aluminum plate armour along with a helmet of the same material. He prowled in the lights, which were only off if they had been smashed. He liked to travel in the area that had been vandalized, it was easier to hide. He had traveled deeper within the Equipoise zone, and it was beginning to have higher security. He couldn’t sneak in now, he would have to run for it. Run until he could get to the doors, and by then he would be killed. Some were holding air guns, the pressurized bullets pierced through fabrics and were narrow enough to get through chain mail, only plates would protect one. Zerkaz had already known of this, and given Kryn the lightest of metals. Kryn’s thorough exercise had made the plate mail bearable, it almost weighed as much as his blade and was supported by his back.

A shot was blasted and Kryn jumped at the force it had pressed upon him, he hadn’t thought that they would create the guns to contain such pressure. Adrenalin spread throughout him and fear ebbed into his mind. He began to regret declining the leg protectors and ran faster. Zerkaz had warned him of the more dangerous pressure gun, the hydrogen gun. It was charged with a pump and set beside a tank of hydrogen, the seal was very tight and when the hydrogen let loose it fired the bullets at more then five times the force, his armour may take one shot of that, and get dented, but another shot in the same place and his armour would snap. One more shot through the hole in his plate and he would be shot lethally. Zerkaz had explained that he didn’t use guns because they needed to be pumped. If one were to shoot, they would have to pump their gun. By time it was charged they would be dead. If they had a gun and a knife, they would have to drop their gun. It would be stolen and brought to the attacking union, not worth the cost. If you use the gun as a club, the mechanics would break.

But now it was a danger, for he was being attacked by many and eventually even the air guns would break his armour. He ran as fast he could, his sword rose and decapitated the head of his offenders, other bullets were hitting his plate now and he knew they were calling for help, he had to reach his destination soon. The gun shots were loud, the air exploding as it released from compression, his armour echoing as it was struck and the walls making lower tones for when the guns missed. That was another disadvantage for guns, they weren’t as accurate.

He looked over his mental map of the zone, the next left turn would get him to the main doors. He feared that hydrogen gunmen were there, as they would likely be. In front of him though, stood five swordsmen. They would slash at his legs, if he let them. Fear led him to be impulsive, something vital in battle. He ran for the right side of the guards, and his sword sliced through two of their throats, only three remained. He set his now red blade to slice the back of the rest’s necks, slashing through their swords when they struck at him. They slashed at him, he killed them before they could do too much damage. They moved to surround him, and piled upon him. He had faced such attacks with his knife, his sword that was three times the length as his original knife finished them off the sooner. What stopped him was the ten hydrogen guns, placed along the five meter hall were lined hydrogen gunmen. They had held off when he was attacked, they did not want to hit their own, as hydrogen guns have an accuracy lower then an air guns because the pressure is so high that they have a slight angle to them that could differ between about ten degrees. As soon as he rose ten bullets came for him, the explosion of the released hydrogen so loud that he ducked back down to the floor in fright. They had been aiming for his body, the easiest target. He jumped up again, his sword at the height of the tanks. He randomly zigged and zagged, slashing at the tanks of hydrogen. The blast shot the tanks in directions, he jumped when they came for him. But the slashes he sent on the iron tanks, heavy so that the tank would not fall, sent them at the enemy normally. All they could do was try to shoot him, and few bullets even brushed his armour. One waited for him to come to him, so Kryn would be easier to hit. He dived into the gunman and his blade sent through the victim’s stomach. He took the gun, and aimed at the others, only three remained. One was shot, and he ran for the second. The second began to run, along with the third. He smashed his sword against the skull of the second retreating gunman, his skull cracked and he fell to the ground. Kryn slashed his sword into the stomach of the fallen guard as he turned to attack the third, who would bring more to kill Kryn, and soon the unarmed guard was also killed. Danger levels lowered and a little bit of joy masked the fear in Kryn.

He looked at the door, it was well locked and there was a monitor with a button and speaker to speak with the people inside. He was sure they had been warned, perhaps they would let him in thinking they could easily kill him. He pushed the button, a man’s face appeared at the intercom, he saw Kryn with the red hexagon on his armour. He spoke in a tone of anger, but the mixture showed a larger quantity of fear, "What are you doing? You think I am going to let you in while my wife is in distress? Do you not care for a mother? You truly show the traits of Kibosh, barbaric! Why have you slaughtered so many? How have you? You are simply one against my entire union yet you can get to the core of this place..."

In the reflection of the monitor, Kryn saw a man sneaking towards him, Vrelk was trying not to look at the man. Kryn turned, slashing at the man. He stabbed his skull and pierced his blade into the jaw. He decapitated the head with a graceful slash and picked it up, turning towards Vrelk face’s image, he said in his voice, "You see the empty tanks, you see the dead men and now you see another." At that he threw the head into the monitor screen, smashing it in the doing so, "Now, may I come in?" he spoke to a broken monitor now.

"What is wrong with you, why would I let you in?"

"Okay."

Kryn moved to the door, if they wanted him to do more vandalism he would. He raised his blade and hit where the lock should be. He scratched it, and his hilt pushed into his stomach, the door was titanium. He aimed for the spot again, and ran into it. The scratch became slightly more evident, it was now a dent. Kryn went to the hydrogen gun nearest to the door. It was aimed at the door and then at the dent, which lead to the lock which was now most likely broken so that it could not be unlocked. The pellet crumpled, but the door received its share of damage. Kryn rolled the tank over to the door, then stuck the end of the gun at the dent, he charged it and then released the compressed hydrogen. The pellet shot into the door and the lock seemed to be hurt enough there to lose hold, and the gun seemed to have received a backlash effect, its snout was slightly bent now and the mechanics of it were likely broken, so that even if the snout was straightened, the hydrogen would leak. He went over and broke the rest of the tanks

He held the handle, and turned the knob, a guard leaped out before Kryn had opened the door, the guard had opened it for him. But Kryn was acting on impulse and by time the guard landed, he was dead. Kryn hurried inside, and shut the door behind him, it opened inwards so he could lock it by pushing one of the shelves by it. Kryn hurried, he did not know the architecture of the building, but he followed the most likely path. Few guards were placed within the building, intruders are normally killed before reaching the core. Any guard he met was soon dealt with. Then he came to the hall that held Vrelk’s room, it was guarded heavily. Ten hydrogen gunmen were placed there, and they were experienced. They held their guns and aimed through the aiming scope, Kryn would be fired upon in an organized manner. Kryn dived to the ground, pushing the first tank into its owner, the owner was set off balance and shot into the ceiling. The tank began to automatically charge the gun, and Kryn grabbed it to shoot at the next guard. He stayed hidden behind the large tank, it was large so that refuelling was rare. Tanks are hard to move, you have to roll them, and while doing so you are vulnerable. The tank Kryn hid behind would hold a shot, and then the pressure would release and it would be useless. But hydrogen guns are not accurate no matter how good one can use them. Whether or not they are accurate, the others shot Kryn’s tank so that he could not shoot them. He ran for the next tank, one shot that tank, and another shot for Kryn, his leg was pierced and he fumbled in the air, turning in hope, as he was now desperate with his adrenalin high. He kept running, hurrying for the next one, he ran quickly and his armour was wrecked. Three bullets entered his body. But by time the next attack was made, they were being killed, a few tried to use their guns as clubs, but guns are meant to be shot and they proved to be useless. He slashed the guns and then the owners. The last one had had time to aim at him, and the bullet fell into his knee, Kryn fell. The gunman ran over and clubbed Kryn in the head a few times, while parrying Kryn's attempt to fend the guard.

Inside, Kryn awoke laying on his chest, with his shirt missing, he stared now not at an image, but at the actual face of Vrelk. Vrelk was in his thirties. He was a very stern man, his build was of average weight and high strength, and held a very high air of authority. His hair was bleached and kept short, dyed also in the pale bleu of his union. Upon his arms was drawn the double loop of his union also. He had bit of a glad frown on him, glaring at Kryn in triumph. His arms were placed on his hips in a way that intimidated any who stared at his bleu eyes, which held a serious look that made anything he said get through the first time with immediate action, no questions were ever asked either.

"Well, I’m surprised you got that far, but my gunmen are top class. I don’t know why Zerkaz doesn’t use guns, hydrogen guns are the strongest thing we have in Doom, though I understand how few can produce hydrogen. But air guns, air is all around us. And Kibosh can get hydrogen, I am sure. They can extract it from the water. Now I can see your sword is of diamondium, quite rare and valuable. And I am sure Zerkaz isn’t going to hand it out. What status do you hold?" Vrelk held a voice of high ego, and he obviously carried the honour and glory of it.

"I am at his service and ready to do all he wishes, along with being his heir."

"His heir! We have Kibosh’s heir...now that is interesting. Zerkaz truly is barbaric, sending his heir here to kill me, such a high risk is held in that. I am about to have a heir, and I would not send him alone to Kibosh, that is for sure. Now, I want you to tell me all about Kibosh, got it? Do realize that you are in a chair made to torture, in many ways."

"I will not tell, you will kill me after this either way and I don’t care much for the torture part at the moment."

"Isn’t that funny?" Vrelk let out a sinful laugh at that, "you do not care about being tortured...Want to know what I can do to you?"

"Go ahead, you will either way."

"I can turn this chair into a horizontal board and stretch at you until you are ripped apart. I can make it be vertical, and hang you by your arms. I can whip you with an iron tip whip. I can take red iron rods out of the fire and burn you with them, poking at your stomach and later sticking them into your mouth, ears or eyes. I can take an air gun and shoot at your non-vital organs for hours. I can drip water on your forehead for days, or better yet, acid. I can beat you with a bar of iron, or even use one of my heated iron rods. I could punch you for hours, which I would love to do just out of sheer stress relieving. I could cut you up with a dull rusty knife, take out some non-vital organs perhaps. Or better yet, I could take your intestines and wrap them around a spiked turning post, let them get stretched around it and then feed you, if you are still alive. I could slash at your entire body and let you sit there and bleed. I could pick out your eyeballs and then stick two long pins down your ears. Or I could give you an easy death, say a bullet from a hydrogen gun straight into your head, you’ll be dead before your nerves have time to let you know the pain."

"I’m not going to tell you anything, no security details or anything of the like, do what you wish with me. I don’t really care."

"Fine then, you had a choice. Shall we start with the whip?"

"Why not, though I would prefer to be freed."

"Shutup you fool, you had your chance to not endure the pain I promised I would give you otherwise."

"I know, I’m not of low intellect."

"You think you’re smart, eh? You obviously are too stupid to know that you are stupid then..."

Vrelk pulled a lever by the chair, and it straightened vertically. Vrelk took a whip out from a pocket by the chair, and let it unravel. He glared at Kryn. And in the doing, he raised the whip, and smashed it into the bare back. Kryn's nerves sent the message of pain to him, and he felt it engulf him, he started to feel afraid of what the other treatments would do. He yelled in the darkness of that fear, "Are you ready to talk again, smart enough to see that was only a sample of what I can do?" Vrelk asked in his egotistic voice, now holding back laughter, "Tell me all you know!"

Kryn didn’t say anything, he was just trying to cut off his brain’s communication with his nerves. Again the whip lashed at him, but the pain could not be blocked. He had been able to block pains in the past, small ones of course, like when someone once was bending his fingers back. But this pain was too much, the pain so powerful that he couldn’t stop his brain from reacting. Again the whip struck him, red lines were becoming evident and the tip of it also brought the whip down faster, harder, "Tell me, we can get this all over with. I have tortured people for days before they have died."

Silence still was in Kryn, he would not tell him the lowest security areas, the combination to Zerkaz’s room’s lock. Or anything else he had learned, like the escape shaft that lead to the core of Kibosh. And in return for his loyalty, the whip was slapped upon his back, scaring the flesh, "This isn’t going to do is it? Fine then, we’ll see what you think of the next thing I have planned for you."

Metal was lifted, red metal. The iron had raised in heat and was set upon Kryn, it was worse then the whip, not only did his flesh get harmed, but his inner organs heated up. He still was quiet, "That is not good enough for you? Alright, let me do the honours of letting it get inside you, even more."

The iron rod, with it’s dull tip was thrust into the back of Kryn, he screamed in pain of his body’s damage. The rod was left inside him, and the whip lashed him again, "Are you still not ready? I know you know the combination to Zerkaz’s lock. He was smart enough to barricade it so that it could not be broken. Him and taking diamondium and building a room with it. He had to steal so much of it, and even create the alloy to do such a thing. And now he is passing out swords of it. Of course, you are his heir."

Vrelk’s anger consumed him, and with his strong arms he pummelled Kryn. He took the rod out and beat Kryn yelling in rage, confused to why Kryn would not speak. He smashed the bar furiously, breaking bones. Kryn began to realize that he was about to die, and then his arm was set loose. In the fury, Vrelk had decided to plunge the bar at Kryn’s head. It had smashed the arm hold though, and dented the lock. Kryn took his hand out, Vrelk stabbed Kryn again out of anger and that gave Kryn time to grab the whip, which Vrelk had set back into the holster. Kryn whipped at Vrelk, hitting the man in the arm. This made Vrelk even more annoyed, he took the bar out and while plunging it back towards Kryn’s stomach, was whipped again, he dropped the bar. This let him have some common sense, he went to grab the whip from Kryn threw it away. Vrelk was so lost in the mist of his emotions that all he remembered of what he wanted to do was get the whip, he went running for it. Kryn took the moment of freedom to unclip his other hand, and then to get his legs freed, but Vrelk came back now while Kryn was undoing his second foot. The whip smashed into Kryn’s skull, he kicked at Vrelk, but Vrelk was standing away from Kryn. Kryn decided to ignore the pain, to ignore the blood that was coming of his body, to focus on his foot. In moments he had undone it, ignored the pain of the whip’s lash upon his back, the hot iron rod he had received in his arm and the pain of his broken bones. In a moment he had taken the whip Vrelk had and whipped his foe, in that moment he had ran, grabbed his sword from the table beside him and tried to kill Vrelk, but Vrelk had ran for his sword, and Kryn knew that he must run now. In the next moment, he had ran in full instinct out of the room and charged out of Equipoise. He had ran, any who tried to attack him were killed, if they stood in his path or ignored. Bullets chased after him, but they were not able to hit him, or at least kill him, his right arm was limp and his left held the sword loosely. He ran until he reached Kibosh, where adrenalin finally calmed and he fell over, Equipoise guards had given up the chase when they saw the speed he ran at and where he went. He fell in Kibosh, and awoke in Zerkaz’s room of defence, he was crippled.

His stomach was blanketed in a long bandage and his right arm was in a cast that gripped his shoulder and went down to his hand with a soft black texture. The elbow had a mechanism to bend, while relieving stress on the muscles and skin. It was also very soft at the joint. His fingers were let out, and placed in a soft tubes. Once again, Zerkaz sat by Kryn, his eye in an arc before he began to speak, "Well, you followed your first priority. You got back alive. Your back blistering, your insides burned and your bones crushed, but somehow you ran on beaten legs and reached here, and you were still alive. You always seem to get yourself a nice scar. But still you refuse to die...You might find it hard to eat, your stomach was just tied together and a lot of the stuff inside you seemed to have drained. We had to do a blood test on you, your AB. If everyone was that it would be easy, and it is good for you. We gave you some blood, but your bones are just held by some sterilized glue, it is calcium based so that your bones can get into it and it will turn into bone, hopefully."

"I would of been okay, if one of the gunmen hadn’t shot my leg and beat me unconscience."

"He must of done more, how did you survive if he drove you to faint and how did you get in such a shape, you have internal burns..."

"After he punched my head a few times, I awoke in Vrelk’s torture chair, he wanted to know the combination to this room and anything else I might know. Either way, he planned on killing me. But in anger he accidentally broke one of my arms loose. I escaped eventually."

"I see, well you did fulfill your top priority..."

"And I still have my blade."

"Good."

A few months later, Kibosh had expanded on some of its arrogantly large unions and made a few new allies. Equipoise had attacked once, but it still was held back. The population had dropped by a few, but some enemy union members had also joined and some others had come from the society, it kept it all balanced in the end. Kryn was now able to move, though he wasn’t advised to fight with anyone. Instead, he was sent to get people from the society, the entrance was near Kibosh and it was slowly trying to expand on to it, but the elevator was a prime spot. Kibosh planned to have it soon, until then they would send people there, kill the guards and wait for awhile. Kryn also had been set into a high respect level, and with that he was asked if he wanted to have any markings like Zerkaz had. And of course, he did. It was a custom and though Kryn didn’t care for it, he knew that it would only have positive reactions. He stopped with his arms however, unlike Zerkaz. Zerkaz sent Kryn on the final battle, to take the elevator. Zerkaz had been leaving it alone, but he planned now to expand around it, allowing no one there, to that particular elevator of the ten that existed.

The area was strongly guarded, Kryn was given thirty soldiers. They moved quickly, killing everyone they came by. Zerkaz followed later, bringing ten soldiers. Quickly, they moved along the borders. Kryn moved on the interior of the battle, finding intruders until he also went to cover the net of halls. Slowly, only one person was covering a hall. Zerkaz withdrew, sending word across. The zone border took a smaller area and Kryn was left there, with his thirty guards. They stayed and recruited from the society that allowed only one child per family because of the large population. Most of the people were murders, rapist and in some cases thieves. Kryn never met a person who was as innocent as he was, no one came from Nirvana even. Zerkaz had open arms to everyone, no matter what they did he allowed them to join Kibosh or be executed. He would set them in a state he saw fitting and then forget about them, just see them as another person. He had one talk with them, and if he found them to be a ordinary person, never talk with them again. A few were set higher then a guard, but most were just left as they came. Soon, Zerkaz switched Kryn and sent in someone else. By then the population of that area had gone from thirty to forty and had gained two more barracks. Zerkaz was pleased by this, and decided to reward Kryn, even if he wouldn’t care about it.

"Hello Kryn, I remember you asked for more diamondium. Do you want to know how we make it?"

"Okay."

"Alright, come with me."

"Okay."

Zerkaz moved along the halls, to the forgery, there he pulled out a diamond and some titanium, "Do you know what diamonds are?"

"Yes, I was an intellect, they are pure carbon. Carbon is the atom to melt last, subliming at 3775K and has 12 protons."

"Yes, now the heat would melt the furnace so we have to grind this diamond, which also the strongest thing we know of," Zerkaz dropped the lump of carbon into the grinder, "Once it is fine enough we will put it into the diamond furnace." A few minutes passed, during so Zerkaz had set the furnace alight and put the titanium in, which melted into the sub furnace, and then the diamond was turned to dust, Zerkaz poured the dust into the diamond furnace, "Then we must wait for it to melt into the funnel, would you like to play a game of chess while we wait?"

"Okay."

The two moved to a corner across from the furnace and Zerkaz left to get his chess board. When he came back, they commenced in the battle of wits. Zerkaz was a good player, he played it on the database with the computer’s artificial intelligence updating itself frequently. But still, Kryn manoeuvred Zerkaz into a check mate within an hour, making moves within five seconds and waiting for Zerkaz to decide on the best of choices, even though they were not the best. Kryn utilized the queen and slowly worked on Zerkaz’s front line of pawns, while his knight moved about attacking the back lines. Soon Zerkaz lost his queen, and broke out with an all offence that focused on taking the king out quickly. Kryn took advantage by taking out the rooks and bishops. The king was quickly moved into the corner.

A few games later, of which the result did not differ, the sub furnace on the side of the furnace echoed with the drops of liquid carbon. Zerkaz moved swiftly, waiting for the furnace to empty the carbon and then shut the lid of the sub furnace with an iron pole. The titanium had already melted, and would evaporate under the carbon. But the carbon would hold some of it, just merge with the gas. The gas would slowly cool as the heat released slowly from the no longer heated, but sealed, sub furnace. A few moments was all it was given, it was drained right onto a thick block of ice. The ice would melt, and that would not give it a large chance to get into the alloy. Well melting, it would cool the slush into a block of diamondium. This process was very hard, the energy was hard to come by with the many batteries which stored it. Diamond was also hard to come by, the pressure of a volcano had to be emulated. Titanium also isn’t the easiest to find. After all this effort, diamondium was not the easiest material to create. If the titanium gas escaped, you would lose the titanium and the carbon would remain as it was before, a waste of energy. And after all this is done for the material, it still needs forgery.

Zerkaz added the successful diamondium with his other lump. He now had fifty cubic centimetres. But Kryn wanted an entire meter, something that Zerkaz did not have. Kryn was fine with the facts, practical thinking had left him to only know that he had to wait for such things and focus on them, not hope that they would be handed to him. And for that, he needed to find some, and Zerkaz knew exactly how to. Equipoise, they collected resources for there people to use, and they saved a large sum of it. If Kibosh took Equipoise, they would own a tenth of Doom, and that was rare. Zerkaz had been collecting a large population recently, as was the result of having Kryn stabilize the elevator’s zone, which had always been unclear of who owned it. With Equipoise under constant attack, there allies would come in. The allies would be weaker, leaving it open to attack them. Kibosh would bring in their allies also, and the enemy allies would fight with their allies. That would leave Kibosh some time to focus on Equipoise. Eventually, after a few of the allies were set free Kibosh would have reinforcements. While Zerkaz fought with Kibosh against Equipoise, Kryn would take on the enemy allies. If all went right, Equipoise would be left with no allies, while Kibosh had some survivors. The surviving allies would come into Equipoise, along with the recruits from the elevator. Kryn agreed with it, a bit bold but that was required in this society.

"Zerkaz, before you plan on attacking Equipoise, might you happen to have the following, and may I have use of them; black powder, requires a large stick, flat filter of about a thirty centimetres square, cloth, water, alcohol, powdered sulphur, ground charcoal, granulated potassium nitrate and heat resistant buckets that can hold four litres each. Brass, gasoline, corn starch and thirty centimetres long cotton threads?"

"Why would you need those? We have some though, and I trust you enough to use them."

"Okay, I’d like to use the furnace for awhile too, to make the black powder."

"Can you explain what this is all for, Kryn?"

"I plan on making an explosive, not many people know of them. They were used in historical times as weapons but now are just accidents in chemistry. I’m going to make it so that when a thread of sulphured cotton is lit, an explosion will occur."

"Interesting, I look forward to when you have finished it."

Kryn spent some time with the ingredients and soon was able to get Zerkaz to see an explosion, Kryn lit the fuse with a spark, as he had dipped the end of the fuse in gasoline, and threw the bomb as far as he could, pulling Zerkaz back as it exploded. Zerkaz only grinned, turned to Kryn and told him, "Make sure nobody here except for you knows how to make those, if Doom started using those as standard weapons we would all be dead soon."

"Don’t worry, if we leave the people ignorant, they won’t be able to duplicate such power..."

Zerkaz moved silently ahead of his large unit, with him were three escorts and he held a bomb, along with his escorts also. He began to review everything in his mind, reviewing his profiles on everyone who played a vital role. He wished he had Kryn as an escort, Kryn was reliable. That was why he was in the position he was in, not here. Vik, Zerkaz’s most unreliable escort out of his three specially chosen, was at the end of the triangle, two more escorts covered Zerkaz from the front. Zerkaz wore an titanium plate, his escorts took the light aluminium. Anyone who had been able to get some aluminium armour had worked for it, the gear’s value had increased recently. Few wore iron though, it was valuable on normal occasions and heavier. Anyone who couldn’t get aluminium had tried to get some aluminium-tin alloy, even if it wouldn’t hold well. They were nearing the border, soon they would need to move into combat. In the beginning it would be easy, fifteen guards against a hundred. But slowly word would get out and reach Vrelk. He braced himself for the battle that was to come.

Kryn moved a bit quicker, he went to Gailith and had asked that that they repay there safety now by helping take down Equipoise, that they invest in more safety once Equipoise is gone and that they prove their loyalty. Any who declined would be lowered in allied rank, with all those reasons, they gathered the small militia they had and moved for an enemy ally. Kryn also gave them a list, wrote Gailith on it and asked that they send one person with the list to another ally of Kibosh or theirs who would add their name to it and pass it on. At first thought, they wondered why they didn’t use the database, but Doom only had one network. That meant that if Kibosh planned an attack on them with computer messages, Equipoise could easily see what they were doing. After the first ally group was told and they began relaying the message, Kryn went back to Kibosh and made some bombs. He put them on a cart and decided to deliver them to Zerkaz before heading to help the allies. There he would negotiate with Zerkaz in not going to the help their allies.

"Oh, Kryn, you are here with a cart of your lethal containers I see, come into this room we secured."

"Okay."

Inside the former Equipoise room, the double loops were being painted over and soon the crest would be replaced with a large red hexagon, "So Kryn, is word being sent?"

"I have begun the ripple effect."

"Good, when do you plan on going to help the other unions?"

"I believe that I should stay here and help you with Equipoise."

"If you think so, then I will agree."

"Okay."

"Will you be my escort then?"

"Okay."

"Good."

The next morning, Zerkaz sat down with his most respected elites and Kryn to decide the units. Each person who came had brought their profile, and each one was being passed around and placed in a pile beside the profiles of certain elites. Kryn saw his go beside Zerkaz’s, though he didn’t have any interest in the profile, he hadn’t looked at it for more then a glance during his life in Doom, though it was memorized. Each unit was revised after, they wanted the units to be balanced and able to cooperate easily.

By the afternoon, the units were set and Zerkaz moved out with now five escorts. Vik was in the back, along with another one of Zerkaz’s escorts, Kryn led the group. They passed along the routes, Zerkaz had sent units to surround the area. He moved along, following Kryn. Kryn grasped his blade, he felt a little tint of emotion, enough to make him want to suppress it. He fell back into neutrality. Kryn paused, the next turn would have guards. He turned and whispered so to Zerkaz. Zerkaz nodded. Kryn slipped ahead, a shout was heard and Zerkaz lead his four other escorts with him. He jumped behind Kryn, guarding his heir’s back. Vik was slashed lethally, another escort stepped in, holding his dagger in defence. The glass floors were soon abandoned with only the carcasses of death and Zerkaz set a defence in the intersection. They would have to wait for someone to replace Vik. Zerkaz had planned to go as deep as he could until such an event occurred, and then hold the passage, and that time was now.

But Kryn had planned on a full attack. Not a slow territorial battle that would slowly close in on the enemy. He could get into the core alone, but with a large group they couldn’t sneak into the core. This made three rash options available. Firstly, Kryn could stay with Zerkaz and wait for Zerkaz to advance. Secondly, Kryn could move to advancing units and aid them in battle. Or he could move on alone, reaching the core early.

If he took the first option, Zerkaz would remain safe and be able to advance more quickly, but more units would be killed. If he took the second option, advancing units would be able to advance safely and less units would die, but Zerkaz would be in more danger. If he chose the third option, he could quickly kill Vrelk, or he would be killed. Either he would be successful in his last meeting with the Equipoise union or he would have a repeat of his last meeting with Vrelk, and he wouldn’t be as lucky. Vrelk would contain his emotions and be prepared for Kryn’s neutrality on matters. Kryn decided that he would choose the first option, Zerkaz was his first priority. The best way to make sure Zerkaz was safe was to stay in Zerkaz’s unit.

Zerkaz had just finished dealing with another enemy unit, most of his escorts were new ones now. Only Kryn and Ezel were left. Vik was dead and Greg had been sent back to the poor clinic they had set up at the border.

Ten minutes later, another enemy unit came. Zerkaz moved swiftly and Ezel covered him. Kryn ran ahead of Zerkaz, killing the gunners ahead. Kryn moved over and took one of the foes from behind well they went after Greg’s replacement, Joshua. Another foe had been chasing Kryn, but Zerkaz had taken care of his heir. The blood stained floor that Zerkaz had taken refuge at was stained even more, it was getting a bit sticky in places but also slippery. That fact had killed one of the foes, who hadn’t taken that fact into his strategy. Zerkaz had his unit move the dead bodies into the entrance that the enemy was using, the barrier was catching them slightly off guard and making it another hurtle. Of course, they still crossed, Zerkaz was on the other side and Equipoise would greatly appreciate the death of Kibosh’s ingenious leader.

Another five minutes later, another unit came. They were at a loss now. The unit was large now, word must have reached Vrelk that Zerkaz was here. The unit held ten now, each holding an air gun. Zerkaz yelled for retreat, but as he yelled the order, Joshua was shot in the stomach. Another gunmen aimed at Zerkaz, and Kryn could tell that the foe had a good aim. Zerkaz was running, and the diffuse of air came from the old gun, it would still shoot though. Kryn ran forwards into the line of fire, uncaring whether he die from this shot or not. The adrenalin had died and he was now in his void, and fighting. The shot flew forward, it would have hit Zerkaz lethally, but it hit Kryn instead. The lead bullet pressed into the Kryn’s arm, he fell. In the moment, another shot was taken at Zerkaz as he turned back to see Kryn struck. The bullet dug into Zerkaz's heart. He lit his bomb and ran with Kryn, Ezel lit hers also and threw it among the dead bodies. While the sulphured wicks slowly burnt away, Ezel hurried to run away with Joshua.

A little while later, Kryn was facing Zerkaz. Kryn was in an arm brace and Zerkaz was just staring at Kryn in pain. His blood was being artificially pumped for the short time he wished.

"Hello Kryn, this is probably going to be the last of our conversations. I was infected with a lethal venom they can’t treat. You probably don’t care much, just noticing the fact that Kibosh will be weakened. You’ll be the next leader though, you’re a good heir. Before I die, which will be some time later today, I want to know that I leave Kibosh in good hands, and that this attack succeeds."

"Okay."

"I never got to know what your life was like very much, though apparently you are one of the innocent ones. I was born here, in Kibosh. I was the heir via monarchy, but I like to be progressive, right? So I hope you keep the same despotism I held."

"Okay."

"If you want my blade, it is under this death bed of mine. Promise you will keep the union in tact, alright?"

"Okay."

"Good, you always seem to think practically...So much to say and so little time..."

"What is it like having intense emotions?"

"It is wonderful, in life all there is to go after is happiness. Without that, what are we living for? Nothing, Kryn. You have some emotions though... Maybe that is why you care to act practical...Enough emotion to have some drive, and not enough to act unpractical...I am getting a bit tired now, hold Kibosh together, Kryn..."

"Okay."

And with that, Zerkaz decided that it was time that he took his last sleep, and Kryn decided to take Zerkaz’s blade, it was a bit different then Kryn’s though, it was slightly shorter and more thick, but it would do. He picked it up in his left hand, he took his own work of art in his right hand and focused on balancing. He would train like this, the light diamondium was a bit heavy, but Kryn could carry it. For the people of Nerquin were more developed in strength then the average human, and Kryn was above average with the elites.

THE REIGN OF KRYN
Kryn moved forward, he carried the blades and a small emotion crept upon him, pride. And curiosity followed. He thought of what Zerkaz had said about life, perhaps being practical wasn’t completely practical. He moved towards the clinic, because he was the new lord of Kibosh, he had been able to request for this. He was prepared. Curiosity was taking over, what would his thoughts be like after this?

Kryn moved along the corridors now, grasping his blades he called upon his unit and moved out, his life was beginning to get the spark nobody noticed. A smirk was on his face, for death may now be real to him, but he wasn’t afraid of it, yet.

A shout was heard in the distance, Kryn moved impulsively towards it and was at the throats of his enemy before they had time to react. He slashed along the ranks in battle with his twin swords of diamondium. Blood stained the glass floors again and Kryn suppressed any slice he received. His body was covered in scabs of the sort, and he had some cloth tied around his slightly cut arms.

In the next battle, Kryn’s left arm received a large amount of damage as he had blocked some attacks. His arm was damaged enough that it was slightly immobile, Kryn was advised by his escorts to go to the clinic, and he thought that he might as well. It hurt within him enough that he started knowing what pain was like, and he could not call what the torturing he had received by Vrelk would have felt like.

There, they gave him an arm brace. He also was able to select some battle gear that would aid him in his style of combat. He chose a pair of stealth shoes, black pants that were made of silk and a constrained crimson vest that fit well against his body. His left arm held a brace of some sort that held his shoulder blade and came down in aluminium plates. He wore gloves that had holes for his fingers to come out of, the holes were hexagons and the gloves were the crimson color of Kibosh. From the battle gloves he wore were claws that were held by a pulley system to act much like a cat’s retractable claws. The claws fit into little pockets sewn on the gloves. The claws were also of an iron alloy.

Kryn was quick to want to exit the clinic, and when he was let out the next day with his new gear he was ready to verse his foe. He also made some more bombs to use. Kibosh was advancing very quickly. But before he could leave the base they had made, his elites wanted to have a conference over the matter of new politics. Something Kryn wasn’t very interested in.

In the cubicle they had made for planning attacks, was where Kryn looked at what was his advisors. They had been chosen by Zerkaz, and though chosen logically, Kryn wondered if they fit his logic. He felt a little nervous. Ezel was at the center of the table, facing Kryn. In battle, Kryn had not taken note of Ezel, but now he saw the short dark blond hair that Ezel had with her face scared minorly. Ezel was tattooed with the hexagons of Kibosh along her wrist and wore a look of relaxed formality, Zerkaz seemed to have chosen the relaxed soldiers for his advisors as most of the high ranked were relaxed, yet still alert. Ezel spoke first, "Hello Kryn, I see that Zerkaz chose you in his monarchy. He held Kibosh for twenty years, most unions don't last half that time. Never mind the life span of a soldier or leader, I've been here for only four years and I have high seniority. In respect to his death we must finish Equipoise. I see you have made sure that you can be safe in this zone of terror. Do you know the history of Doom?"

"No, I have not had time to study history here."

"Then I will give you a brief description of it, a leader should look at past events to predict future events," Ezel took a sip at her glass of water before continuing,

"Doom was one of the first floors made, originally a normal sector by the name of Alpha. Later, once they had finished Beta, Gamma and Delta they found that Alpha could be emptied and filled with the extreme outlaws. More time passed and the condominium of Nerkquin grew. More were sent down but as the population raised, so did the violence. Anarchy set upon Doom for a time until finally Nik Kay, an outlaw in organized crime, made alliances with people and soon formed a large group. This group was more then the small gangs that ran about, but a real organized group that was called Union. Union acted slightly like a gang, only incorporated a law system to it that was more fair. Union roamed around, crushing many gangs. Eventually, many gangs followed suit and became another very large gang called Might. Might fought against Union and eventually many other groups appeared. Eventually, no more gangs existed and people started calling them unions, after the first union. Might and Union both fell, causing chaos to spread as other unions hurried to take the weakening zones. This chaos never calmed down. Because the unions were no longer out weighed by the large unions of Union and Might, borders started to change more frequently. Not much happened after, just constant blood shed."

"Interesting, how was Union defeated?"

"With the death of Nik Kay, Union lost focus and Might took advantage. Soon after, Might's leader died also and the small population after the siege of Union could not hold off the many unions attacking."

"I see, now to deal with the present. What state is Equipoise in?"

"They seem to have called for reinforcements, as we guessed they would have. Thankfully, our plan to make the alliances busy has worked. They will be helped once we call our alliances though."

"Once we have cut them off from communication, we will call in our allies."

"We will still be attacked by the other allies."

"That is why we will bolden the ring of capture, or we can do an alternative I have thought of."

"And that would be?"

"I once reached the core of Equipoise, I would have killed Vrelk had one gunmen not struck me. I wish to go back, prepared."

"You are our leader now, such actions are unpractical."

"I guess I am not made to lead a mob, I don't care for the limits."

"Such limits must be held."

"Zerkaz put himself on the line, did you not stop him?"

"You are not Zerkaz, you are Kryn. Either way, Zerkaz would have done much more had we not stopped him."

"Then try to stop me as much as you wish, I will go into Equipoise."

"And if you do not return?"

"Then have Zerkaz's other heir be leader."

"Yes, I would have been heir had you not come."

"Then I will be off in due time, focus on surrounding Equipoise."

Kryn moved, his battle gear fully equipped. His arm brace had been removed and replaced with a silk sleeve, he now walked cautiously through Equipoise. His two claws were sharpened and his two swords in grasp also. He wore steel chain mail over his vest to protect him, and a helmet of the same alloy.

The defence was stronger then Kryn's former visit, and already he had had a fight It had been close, he had to use his bomb in protection and had fled in fear. He reconsidered and decided to go back for a unit, and soon he had a unit of three escorts. Ezel was one of them. Kryn had decided to keep her as an advisor.

Kryn's group claimed another cubicle, and decided to rest in it. Kryn set a security system on the doors and sat down at a table that had some water and bread.

They moved along in stealth once again now, when an enemy unit moved by they stepped back. Kryn kept an ear for foot steps and an eye for traps while Ezel kept the other escorts in line. Joshua moved behind Ezel beside the other escort being Greg, now healed enough to return into battle.

Each step was taken with caution, any mistake could mean instant death. Twice Kryn had already detected traps. Ezel had walked over one, thankfully her reflexes had her jump back from the automatic firing of multiple bullets when she heard the pressure of the untended air packs slightly releasing. Kryn noted that they should have made it more in a long hall way, with the censor in the center. That way, one would be unable to dodge the bullets. Now another incompetent trap was ahead, the lights were broken so it was harder to see, but still Kryn could see the feint glimmer of grease upon the glass floor. If one were to slide on it, they would surely damage their head even with a steel helmet. Kryn ordered them down, they would slide across on their backs. Greg slid first, he soon slid into the wall, but was able to brace himself for minimum impact, he then slid around the corner, and signalled that they come one at a time. Ezel went next, followed by Kryn and then Joshua. Soon they were up again, creeping ever so carefully into the core. Kryn might meet Vrelk, and he anticipated the meeting as he felt it was so soon. He would finish this battle, for Zerkaz.

Greg slipped.

And in moments, the carefulness they had kept fell apart, Ezel grabbed Greg and slowed the fall enough to not cause lethal pain, while falling herself. Kryn stepped back and Joshua had continued the domino-reflex effect by falling too. Only Kryn had held off his impulse. Iron plates banged about and rang about the hall, Kryn bent down, told his escorts to be quiet and laid an ear to the ground. He could hear the rush of an armoured unit jogging towards them in the distance. He got up and yelled at his fallen, yet alive, escorts to get prepared for battle. In moments they were organized, and in moments the enemy had reached them. They ran at each other and slashes began once more, Kryn had worked hard to avoid conflict. But he was still ready, in moments he ran into the five guards and in moments they were dead. Greg was killed and Joshua injured. Ezel also had many cuts, but she could take it. Kryn, on the other hand, was not cut at all. This was due to the fact that he had learned quickly, like everything, how to predict with high probability the actions of a guard. He had been watching through all his battles what actions each soldier took, how they reacted and what their psychology must be like from the brief time he had to watch them. In a moment he could tell if someone was nervous or brave, berserk or calm. He had been working on it more and more, and now he had fulfilled it. Greg had not even learned these subconsciencely, and so he was dead. Joshua, hurt by this battle moved to the side and sat down to tend to them. Ezel moved Greg, while removing the plates. She sent Joshua to bring the metal back to the base, along with the other armours of the guards. She then turned to Kryn.

"What should we do now? Continue and likely die or abandon our plan?"

Kryn thought before responding, logical choice led him to want to withdraw, when he took out emotional direction, he thought of sending Ezel back. But then he thought of Zerkaz. He would avenge the death of Zerkaz. "Get a gun, we're going after Vrelk."

Ezel stood for a moment, but she was loyal even to the new leader. She quickly grabbed one of the guns of the dead guards, Kryn did so also while saying "If we can siege their chemistry lab, I think I can make some more powerful explosives, like nitroglycerin and blasting gelatine. I wanted to see if people would beg for the formula of black powder, but the wanting for it was little as they don't see that the source may disappear."

"I think the chemistry lab is around here, a few kilometres away."

"Alright, lets get moving and keep quiet. If we meet a unit, I might not be able to estimate at such a good level, this was my first time of having it at total accuracy."

"Interesting, have you documented this study of advanced battle psychology?"

"Yes, it is in the vault."

"So Zerkaz told you the code?"

"Yes, one of the reasons Vrelk didn't kill me is for the code."

"Zerkaz had many battles to get that much diamondium, he even forged a lot of it with the crude materials he won. Either way, lets get to the chemistry lab."

They moved once again, half in number and much higher in stealth. Kryn kept an ear open still, and still watched for traps. Ezel moved through her mental map of Equipoise, the path to the chemistry lab wasn't direct and they had to detour a lot. A few instances had led them to almost get into a conflict, but they had been able to detour around the threat.

The walk was long, they had to avoid the mobile guards and the immobile traps. The guards could be dealt with, they might have been a problem but they talked in the thought that their was no threat. The traps had to be watched for, an underestimation of a subtle noise, the faded glimmer of liquid, or any other quirk. Finally, they reached the lab.

They could see it around the corner, guarded of course. Guarded because they knew that Kibosh could make stuff with the junk that was more powerful then they thought probable. Bombs were what they hoped would not turn the corner in this war. In the lab, inexperienced scientists worked on the research of explosives. They had taken samples of the residue of the bombs and were constantly trying to duplicate the Kibosh explosives.

Kryn and Ezel aimed their guns. Inside the bullets, Kryn had put small quantities of black powder. This powder would explode on impact with the armour that the guards wore. Kryn aimed for the can of hydrogen, Ezel for one of the guards. Then the air pressure shot out and the hydrogen gunmen jumped at the slight hiss. But their time to find the point of danger was too small, and soon one was in a blast of flame, which scorched the others. The lethal part though was the shrapnel that flew about. The hydrogen also had an effect. Kryn and Ezel had hid behind the corner for safety, the opaque glass giving out a low sound from the metal scraps. Soon the opaque panel covering the cubicle of the lab opened and a face looked through the transparent glass. Quickly, the panel was reset and the door sounded of its pressure lock increasing. Four small holes opened to show guns coming from some, and other guns which seemed to be slightly modified. Ezel stopped, as she had began running towards the door. She ran back, the air guns shooting with bullets, and the other ones shooting with something different. They shot with crude packets of explosives. These packets contained very low grade explosive powers, they did not explode on impact but actually had flints on the end of them, so that when the bomb-bullets struck solid mass they would ignite. They were more ground up pieces of hollow glass beads that were pressurized, with small pieces of paper in them.

Kryn waited it out, the glass shattering about. Ezel had acted to soon, and was now catching her breath. Soon the shots slowed, and Kryn shot at one of the guns. Once again, the shots started again. Kryn paused, pulled out a packet of black powder that he had in one of the pouches he had installed in his vest. He threw it in front of the cubicle. Time passed. The scientists inside were thinking if they should try get this unblown black powder. But they knew a bullet was trained on it. If a bullet struck that packet, it would explode and with it they would be scorched. They waited some more, and Kryn threw another packet. It landed away from the original packet, but still the same distance to the building. Time passed again, Ezel whispered, "What are you doing?". Kryn turned explained while still watching the packets with an aimed gun, "They have computers, but the line got wrecked in the explosion, see the indent in the glass and the wires there, they have lost communications. I have set packets along the lab so that they will either come out for them, and get blasted or I may be able to cause a domino effect and destroy the guns."

With that, he threw another packet. The pause prolonged. He threw another at the corner. He waited for awhile. Time sat about. Still, none came out. So Kryn took aim, and shot. Soon one packet set off followed by another after another. Each raised and set the ammunition in the bomb guns alight. These guns shot out the glass and were wrecked. Now the air guns were left, Kryn shot at one, wrecking it. The other one recoiled before he could shoot it. He asked Ezel for a sulphured wick. Then he set the wick in a packet of black powder. He took out a match and lit it. The sulphured wick ran down, and he threw it into the hole that had been left open, as the inhabitants planned to shoot out as soon as someone moved forward. An explosion sounded in the room, after some screams of course. Kryn stepped forward, no shots sounded. He waited for a moment, nothing happened. He pulled out a tube of black powder. Ezel moved forward, she also held a tube of black powder. Kryn moved beside the door and laid some at the door. Ezel did the same. Then Kryn took another match and lit a line of sulphured wick, which he and Ezel followed with running for cover.

The black powder exploded, and the glass shattered as it had already taken the hydrogen case's shrapnel. And then the counter strike began, as Kryn and Ezel moved forward, packets of the weak explosives were thrown out already lit, they came in mobs and the shattered glass would cut someone with such a mass of them. But Kryn turned around and ran, glass shot off his armour and some pierced his arm and legs. Ezel also had similar injuries. Kryn sat down, and ripped off his silk sleeves, then ripped them both in half. He wrapped them around his legs and arms, so to lessen blood circulation. He then picked out any visible glass, as did Ezel. Ezel raised her gun and charged it, shooting at the open door. An explosion sounded, and while this made the people inside hide away, Kryn moved beside the door. The disadvantage they had was that the guns in the lab were likely rigged to keep a pressure lock on, and therefore they did not have to pump the air into the guns constantly. He then pulled out his blades, it would not need to be repressurized like the gun he had used. He had taken many gunmen before, he could take the few in the lab. He stepped in, and dived as he expected the shot for him. He didn't have much test data in his mind on gunmen, so he had to guess what the people in the lab would think like. He didn't advance, a glass desk was beside him and it was a block so that it couldn't be shot through. Kryn estimated three gunmen were in the lab with him, he didn't want to give them time to position themselves. He leapt up and dived at the first, who was caught off guard as they expected him to run. The other two had thought the same and had shot at his legs, as he was wearing armour. The bullets hit his armour instead. The first fell, and Kryn, with the gun the victim had shot at another gunmen while dodging behind the computer. Now he was beside the computer and a book shelf. He waited with his blades ready, a gun shot out quickly and shot him in the arm, he slashed the gun in return. The other gunmen had moved in by now and taken aim, Kryn slashed his other blade at the last gunmen with a gun. The gun raised in aim slightly and struck Kryn's helmet. This still hurt, and Kryn stepped back. The other gunman moved in with a large sack lit that was full of the glass beads. The gunman ran out, only to be shot by Ezel. Kryn ran away, fear coming into him as he could hear the glass beads blasting away, and he made a jump for the desk, and then to the exit, where glass deflected and struck him. This was only an addition to the glass that had struck him while he had made his dash.

One person was left in the lab, and two were against the foe. Kryn took out his last case of black powder. He took another wick from Ezel and then lit it. He slid the case into the lab, and then ran. The man inside had not had time to run, and so if he wasn't already dead, he would be.

And the explosion sounded. And this time the remnants of any of the weak explosives caught fire. Kryn moved in quickly, he didn't want the chemicals in the lab to be ruined. Some might already be wrecked. Surely, any that were out of their packages would have already been burned. Kryn moved quickly, he held back his slight fear and tried to think like he use to, logically. It was hard to keep a train of thought that held pure logic. He looked about, on the table were cases of the imperfect explosives, he took the cases and set them at the door, Ezel stood guard at the entrance. They seemed to have many chemicals which were just releasing smoke, and fumes. He dared not breath in the air that was most certainly toxic. Kryn moved over to the shelves, looked through them and saw the raw materials he wanted. He couldn't take them, but no flames seemed to be about. He took all he could of the material that wasn't poison to the skin. Outside, he heard some shots. He charged his gun while escaping the room. Outside, Ezel had retreated somewhere he didn't know, but she seemed to have taken the materials with her. Kryn had three choices now, fight off the gunmen, hide in the fumes or run. If he ran, the gunmen would surely siege the lab. He still needed to get more materials from it. He took a moment to drain himself of all the emotion he could hinder, and then moved forward like he had in the past. He ran with his blades out and slashed at one gunman, while stabbing one lethally. Shots came out, but by now he had taken himself back to his void, the void he had begun to slightly miss. The void that had protected him for so long, he held it tightly and only his subconscience felt the calm and comfort, for it was blocking off his conscience's share. He soon took a slice at another two. He moved forward. A gunman took aim, but while the trigger was pressed he had already followed the line of sight and already predicted the small change the gunman was making to confuse Kryn. Kryn held the blade he had crafted in the trajectory of the gun's aim, the bullet struck it and then the blade came down again, slashing into the stomach of the foe while doing so and to the point, ending the battle. But already, Kryn knew that one of the gunman had ran to get reinforcements. Six had come, five had died. He looked about, there were four corridors. They had come from the one ahead of him, a likely choice for if the gunman had made a quick thought on where to go. Kryn ran forward, he would return later. Kryn ran, his ears open. His sight had sharpened. He scanned for traps at the maximum speed his brain could process the information, which was very quick. Many times he dodged traps, and all while going through his mental map and taking the path he guessed the gunman had taken. A few units had been passed, a few units had vanished. Kryn kept running, until he gave up on getting to the gunman and started to just run for the core. Few had time to react, he ran quickly and was aware of everything. His mind was getting tired, but like his body it didn’t stop. Fatigue was setting in, but he fought it. If he got to the core, to Vrelk, he would take the source of Equipoise away and have a much easier time taking down the enemy union. But then he fell. He had ran for kilometres. His mind had focused on everything about him. He had reached his limit. He lay on the cold glass. His legs were numb. His arms were numb. His whole body was numb. And with it, his mind. And with a numb mind, he was left on the hard floor. The fall had been painful enough, though he did not feel it. He just laid on the ground, in thought. On how bold he had been, he had thought he had held off his emotion but he hadn’t. He had overestimated himself, something only possible with emotion. And now the blockade fell. His emotions flooded in. He was afraid. If a unit came and saw him in this state, he would surely be killed. They would know he was Kryn, he wore the hexagons of Kibosh and the red tattoos were embedded upon him. But how long would he lay upon the glass? He didn’t want to get up, he wanted to lay there forever. He wanted to just let go…

Ezel had decided to run though. She had seen her disadvantage. She had seen her exit. She had ran, and the gunmen hadn’t followed. She had hid from the bullets and the gunmen had guessed that Ezel, advisor of Kibosh, had been escorting Kryn. And she knew she should have stayed back. When it struck her that she was the last to protect Kryn, and that the materials she carried with her were useless unless used correctly, and that Kryn was the only one with the knowledge. That is when she turned back. When she reached the lab, with the smell draining out of the cubicle, she saw that Kryn was gone, none of the five dead bodies which laid upon the floor were Kryn. There were four options, and she needed to chose the right one. Would Kryn run back to Kibosh or to the core of Equipoise? He had wanted to go to the core, he probably would with this chance. That meant that the most likely path, and the most dangerous path, was to the core. Ezel started off. She knew she was headed in the right direction when she passed a unit of five dead guards. Each with slashes inlaid upon them harshly and with no need for another gash. The clean swipes which pierced the aluminium armours was that of a trained arm and of diamondium. Kryn was certainly headed directly for the core. And then Ezel tripped, she hadn’t detected the greased floor. She tried to tilt her body so that she would role and ended up going down the path that was only usable by sliding across the grease. This was not an actual path that led anywhere, it just led to a slight slope in which grease was also and where any who tried to get up on the forty degree slope would most certainly trip.

Ezel laid with her feet on the wall, she could always slide up the slope, the small mistakes some engineers made. As she kicked off of the slope, she realized that the engineers had seen this problem quiet well, and that she had actually ramped over an opening. She slid down the slide, and landed in a dungeon. The design of the dungeon was quite archaic, simple iron bars of two centimetres thick gated the front, the only opening was the back which was of a seventy degree angle. The bars had a door, which was locked with the crude usage of a bar that was of eight centimetres. When she landed, she had pressed down upon a touch sensitive pad that alerted the core and opened connection with a monitor.

Vrelk soon was looking through the monitor, he had been trying to hack into the Kibosh directory which the despot prior to Zerkaz had sealed. He looked at Ezel, and smiled.

“Hello, Ezel. How is Kibosh doing under that fool…Kryn is it? I hope Zerkaz died quickly, he was clever whether I liked his style or not. Why does Kibosh stand against our wanting of law? We wish to siege Doom, and then move towards democracy. Either way, I also have your gene strand. It is very nice.”

“Where did you get your information from?”

“I have my sources, you think all your Kibosh elites are trust worthy?”

“I see, well if Kryn is a fool then we are all the more foolish.”

“Stop it with this babble of speech, I’ve sent an elite to get you. I hope you are most gentle. We need more women in Equipoise, ever since Kibosh took our last elevator.”

“What are you inclining to?”

“Don’t be a fool, I know you will never be loyal to Equipoise. But your children, yes. We have no other income of population, it is entirely supported by children being born within Equipoise. I am giving benefits to anyone planning to have children. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like it if you just waited awhile. And because of your importance to the survival of Equipoise, I must say you must have no chance for suicide.”

In moments, a tracking device targeted Ezel and the tiles, besides that of Ezel’s, raised. Within that time, a plastic net bound upon her and made it so no limb could move free. And time passed. Eventually, the sound of a door opened and a monitor screen opened. Vrelk’s voice sounded, “Okay, Vincent, take action accordingly and make sure you don’t underestimate the thing. She’s bound though, so taking her won’t be hard.”

And it was when Vrelk stopped watching Ezel that she let her small knife that was within her sleeve drop. She grasped it, and pulled it up against the plastic fibres. One after the other broke, they were brittle and didn’t even cross-fibre. Soon she had taken one side free, and she stepped out of it while the tiles lowered. She raised the gun she had at her side, and knelt down. As soon as the tiles lowered to her eye height, she raised her gun and aimed.

“Unlock the door or I’ll shoot.”

“Are you kidding me? You are of Kibosh, the powerful union which uses no guns. Your aim is likely terrible, if you can even fire that.”

“I hope your status doesn’t need you to walk,” and Vincent’s knee cap was soon punctured, “Unlock the door.”

“No, I am loyal to Equipoise. If you kill me, you take one elite away from us. But I am not the source of law. If I release you, I might allow you to take away one of my superiors.”

And in doing so, Vincent shot at Ezel’s gun with his trained eye. And in doing so, the air pressure was released and made the gun useless. Vincent turned around and opened link with Vrelk. Soon the monitor was on again, and Vrelk looked with tired eyes at Vincent.

“What now?”

“The lady shot my leg, though I have dismantled her gun. The problem is that she also cut loose of the net. She should only have one knife, if she kills me then she looses her one line of offence and you can send in another person, though I understand I have one of the better genes.”

“I see, Ezel also seems to have good genes. That is why I have chosen from my highest gene pool. And since her genes are in the ways of combat, I chose someone who had the genes of strength also. So Vincent, what will we do? She cut the net. We will need to replace it, or get her onto another tile. Though I do believe that you could just disable her limbs. Her current state is not her genetic state.”

“Alright, sorry for disturbing you.”

“Don’t worry, you are doing us good.”

“Of course, you are the law.”

And the small computer screen returned to its black tone. Vincent turned around, a small smile on his face, and aimed at Ezel’s none vital limbs. Four shots were fired, each shot led to a limb’s disablement. Then the gate finally opened. With it, Ezel moved to the crevice and looked out of it. Wishing she could only climb up the greased slope, and she began to feel the great fear as she realized that there was no escape.

But he didn’t. He wouldn’t. What he wanted he held back. He kept conscience. If someone came, he had to at least have the knowledge of it. He thought some more, he felt tired. He hadn’t slept for awhile, but he could take missing sleep. He began to recollect the events of the day. He had awoken at the base, met with Ezel, Vik and Greg. They had planned to have a silent attack, until Greg slipped. If only Greg hadn’t slipped. That triggered the death of Vik, and the wounds Greg received. That led Ezel and him to change objectives and siege the chemistry lab of Equipoise for supplies. That led to this. Now he was here. Now he was laying with his brain in a buzz. He had recoverd a bit, enough to feel the pain of his overworked body. His legs hurt from running, his lungs hurt from the lack of oxygen and his head hurt with the impact of falling. It throbbed. But these were just the highlights, the pain was all around him. But then it struck him what came after Greg fell. He went to the lab, he did siege it with Ezel. He had ran though, and Ezel had disappeared. He had made the core his goal. His original goal. And then the emotion of dignity and respect filled within him. He thought of how Zerkaz had worked so hard to come to this point, he had died trying. And here he was. Laying about going and remembering. Here he was, just laying on the floor when he was so close to the core. He had to get up, and continue. He couldn’t lay about in the middle of a battle. He was in a battle zone laying around wanting to sleep. This wasn’t what he wanted to do. But he couldn’t get up. He just kept wanting to. He just kept trying to. But every attempt to get his legs up failed. His nerves refused. He pushed harder. He had to get up, his mind was now back together. He had reorganized and recompiled all the information and was now trying to get his body to do as he wished. But it wouldn’t. He tried again. And again. And again. And again. But still, he laid about. And again. And again. And again. He had to get up. He slid his arms now. If his legs were going to clamp, he would have to make his arms help him. He pushed up, and pulled himself forward. He kept pulling. He wouldn’t stop. He had to get to Vrelk. Vrelk was mortal, Vrelk could be killed. Why hadn’t he killed Vrelk before? He had to now. He pressed on. He pushed himself again. But he was surrounded in a haze of emotional thought. He didn’t even have any adrenalin left within him. And then he could finally see the turn he had made last time, into a unit of hydrogen gunmen. He couldn’t continue, unless he could get up. But his legs still refused. Perhaps Vrelk wished to see him. This time though, he would not be fortunate. Or maybe…

“I am Kryn! I demand an audience with Vrelk at once. Perhaps law could be useful for Doom, a merge with Kibosh would surely accelerate the speed of conquest.”

And before he knew it, Kryn was on a chair in front of the man who had tortured him. But this time, Vrelk believed that Kryn had civil terms. Of course, Kryn had his blades in a clamp on the desk. Five guards were also in the room.

“Please, do forgive me for my actions upon you. Do not mind the security, I must be careful.”

“Of course, a false security is better then no security, or is it?”

And that was as far as the diplomacy went, assassination had already struck before they had finished their introductions and pleasantries. For Kryn had clenched his fists and the claws within his gloves were gouged into Vrelk’s heart. He had by then taken control of his legs, slightly. He got up and tilted back as he guessed the angles of fire he would receive. He grabbed the clamp and clawed one of the guards, then another and he decided to move to the side after to avoid the shots. He then clawed the next three in quick succession. He had caught the door guard first, so no alarms were set. He now had control of the room. Now to get into Vrelk’s control room. He unclamped his blades and moved forward.

The control room wasn’t far, and due to the need for soldiers and the false sense of safety, no elites were in the core. They had all attended the blood bath. Kryn entered the room, the computer was on standby. In a moment, it was back into working.

First, he skimmed over what Vrelk had been doing, then he looked for any special information. He found it, the statistics of Equipoise. Their power was being strained through this battle, and their population wasn’t having enough support. Kibosh had taken their last elevator. He looked at how they were doing economically, and he even was able to skim over how the enemy allies were doing. It seemed that Kibosh’s allies were being successful. Kryn then decided to look into the temporary folders. He looked about, and then noticed two video files that had been recently taken at the Equipoise prison, around the chemistry lab. He had already guessed that the only logical prisoner of that area could be Ezel. His thoughts were verified when he watched the two. He could tell where it was leading, and he knew that Ezel was his heir. If Ezel died and he died, Kibosh would be left for a interval of time where they would be vulnerable, without an initialized leader. They would have to go through long steps of deciding who was worthy of Kibosh, and it could easily be the fall of Kibosh, if Equipoise didn’t take advantage. Though, Equipoise was also about to reach this vulnerability. Kibosh couldn’t miss the chance. If Ezel died and Kryn lived, he would be left with a less competent advisor.

But he could easily find where Vincent had gone, Equipoise only had three elites named Vincent. One was on the front lines, so there was only two left. But one more pointer was left, the Vincent that Vrelk had sent had superior genes. With a small look at the two Vincents' genes, Kryn saw that one was evidently more physically fit then the other. The Vincent he was after, who turned out to be the heir of Vrelk, lived in a cubicle three kilometres away from the core. Kryn set off, he’d get Ezel and then they would go to Kibosh, to call an attack.

The news of Vrelk’s death hadn’t spread, it wouldn’t until someone went into the conference room. Until then, guards were still guarding and escorts were still escorting. Kryn kept aware of his surroundings, and killed any who walked by him. In an hour and a half, Kryn was at the door of Vincent. He opened link with Vincent, yelling in anger now.

“Vincent! Free Ezel, now.”

Soon, Vincent was at the monitor, an angry grin in his face.

“Why? From what it seems, that black powder can’t break through doors.”

“Then I will close the diplomacy, just like I did when I killed Vrelk.”

“Stop bluffing. How could you kill Vrelk?”

“He is mortal, as are you.”

“And you, Kryn.”

“I know, nothing is indestructible. Even diamondium can be atomized.”

“Then I wait, you bluff of your assassination and you bluff now.”

“While I open this door, go try to contact Vrelk.”

“I’ve already sent a message to him.”

“Did you verify that? If I remember, I sent any data that I wished to archive to Kibosh and then destroyed the computer myself.”

“All right, I’ll go verify. You Kryn, try to pick that lock as long as you wish.”

“Okay.”

Vincent walked away, and Kryn took one of his swords, the glass door’s lock would shatter eventually. He slashed at it, ignoring his hands’ protest. He raised it again, hacking at the small crack in the door. Each slash had a small chip or crack with its low vibration. Soon Vincent’s face reappeared at the monitor.

“You really killed Vrelk. And to think, I’m his heir. Vrelk was a great man Kryn, and I will have to avenge him now. Don’t even think about breaking open that door, unless you want a bullet in your head.”

But during the whole dialogue, Kryn hadn’t stopped hacking the door lock. He was almost through the door now. He raised his blade once more, and smashed upon the lock. It finally broke. He opened the door, and while opening the door he pulled his other sword out. But it was more the way he opened the door. He didn’t walk in, he more pushed the door open and then stepped back. Vincent, not wanting to step out, held the stale mate. Kryn reached to the side and opened link with Vincent again. In the small moment that Vincent was set aback by Kryn opening link with him, Kryn had jumped upon him and killed Vincent. Kryn then shut the door. All he had to do was get Ezel, and then go to Kibosh.

But he hadn’t expected that Ezel’s limbs would be shot. There she lay. But with her limbs, he’d have to call for Kibosh escorts.

“Are you okay?”

“Better then I expected.”

“Well, Vincent is dead.”

“I could hear.”

“How did they get you?”

“I slipped in some grease, that tunnelled into the prison. From there, Vrelk sent Vincent. If I had killed Vincent, Vrelk would have sent some other superior gene. They are having a population crisis, so they have taken steps to compensate for the deaths.”

“I know, I scanned through the database. I also sent some of the information to Kibosh. I’ll go call for some escorts.”

“Alright.”

Kryn left the room, went to the computer and called for escorts, three groups were sent and they would hopefully reach the glass cubicle within four hours. Until then, Kryn and Ezel just had to keep the room from any guards, if any came. During that time, Kryn got Ezel some bandages and braces for her limbs.

“Thanks, a lot of people would have ran for Kibosh after killing Vrelk.”

“Such actions are illogical, if I left you in Equipose I would lose my heir, advisor and best escort. I also had to kill Vincent, now the next despot won’t be chosen as easily.”

“Kryn, are you always so logical?”

“It is what brought me to be heir of Zerkaz. On the topic of Zerkaz, why didn’t he have a heir?”

“The event was not possible.”

“I see. I think we should take a detour to the lab after, where did the materials I gave you go?”

“They were left in the prison, Vincent decided to send them back to the lab and take note of them. He guessed that they were ingredients for black powder.”

“Well, that makes it so that we should get the chemicals even more.”

And so small chat like this and shifted naps went on for around four hours, and two of the escort groups were present at that time. And one survivor of the ambushed one. There was therefore, thirteen people to escape Kibosh, five of which were carrying Ezel. They moved to the lab, Kryn emptied it of its usefulness and gave five of the escorts sacks to carry the chemicals upon their backs. This left only Kryn and three others fully mobile.

Few enemy units were crossed, those crossed were dealt with. Those who ran, would find out that their was no leader to warn. Kryn didn’t chase after them now, his main priority was getting to Kibosh, with Ezel alive.

In another four hours, they reached the sieged Equipoise zone of Kibosh.

Ezel was left to heal, and Kryn was no longer needed for the final blow. He only instigated it. Each unit had its instruction, the moral of Equipoise was almost gone now. Any Equipoise civilians could surrender, they would resign as Equipoise and be left with their crest embedded, only a red hexagon would be labelled over it. They would be limited so that they could not join the military, most of them would be left with only the option to be a hydroponic farmer, or engineer, if they could.

Soon, the Equipoise loyalists, who were mainly the elites, were all killed and Equipoise was now Kibosh. Had Zerkaz lived, he would have been able to have a second pilgrimage to Omega. But now, only Kryn would go. He would do it alone, just as Zerkaz had.

Kryn left the next day, he took with him his swords and nothing else, besides basic provisions in the case that he come within a hostile zone which would not provide him with nutrients. He left, and only Ezel would know where he was going.

“Hello, I think you are going to be the leader of Kibosh for awhile.”

“Why so?”

“Did Zerkaz ever tell you of Ultima and Omega?”

“Yes, when I became his heir.”

“The same for me, and now that Equipoise has fallen, the last real threat towards Ultima, I will pilgrim there also. When Zerkaz went to Ultima, they told him to defeat Equipoise. Now, we have defeated them. I am going to ask them for the next step.”

“I see. Have you plotted your course?”

“Yes, the map is in the Vault. I also left some cases of black powder in one of the closets. The thermostats contain blasting gelatine, still in a gel state. When frozen it will explode when cracked and when in the gel state it is stable until mixed with fire. The other material is nitroglycerin, the most destructive explosive you will have. Be careful with it.”

“Alright, make sure you are careful once you are out of the unions which have allied with Kibosh.”

“I will.”

MISCELLANEOUS
And that was the last conversation he had. Now he walked along the corridors, resting at the glass cubicles of Kibosh’s allies. He told none where he was going, just that he was going to distant unions. Omega had received word of Kibosh twenty years ago, where were they now?

And so Kryn travelled, one step at a time. He was to travel one thousand kilometres. That was around half the distance of Doom, corner to corner. Kibosh was around the center of Doom, as Omega had installed them there.

All was a simple walk, eat, rest and then walk more for many days. Kryn was finding it simple, until he reached the border of the Kibosh alliance. There, Kibosh support no longer strechted and taxs weren’t sent inwards. He had only travelled three hundred kilometres, he had around seven hundred left. He moved forward, his blades were now in grip. He wore the hexagon of Kibosh, but it no longer protected him. For now, he was in a neutral zone, but soon he would be in the hostile zones. A hundred kilometres later, and Kryn was in the hostile zones. No longer would he be able to dock at random cubicles, these zones were small and killed all intruders. They flared up constantly, and died as fast as they came. He kept in tune with his settings, and kept silent as much as possible.

For Kryn was mortal, one lethal blow would kill him. He passed by few, but those he did he normally had to die. Though, from time to time, they would welcome Kryn. During this time, he would take their hospitality while staying very cautious. He did not rest while being ones guest, and if any of his hosts ever tried to pull off some stunt to kill him, as it had happened, he acted accordingly by killing the occupants. He left accordingly and made haste to leave the small union he was in quickly.

ULTIMA
It had been awhile. Kryn wondered how Equipoise was adapting and if Ezel was keeping it submissive. But Kibosh was only a decoy, Omega was what mattered. Kryn was almost there. He kept walking, he had been walking for some time. He estimated that he was near, by where he thought he was on the map. He couldn’t rest. The zones were getting very hostile. He couldn’t even take the chance of hospitality anymore. He had to get to Ultima. They would let him enter Omega.

Guards shot. Kryn ran. Guards chased. Kryn stopped. Guards attacked. Kryn killed. Guards died. Kryn left. Such was the pattern now. It had been this way until now, this time it was different. Guards shot. Kryn ran. Guards chased. Kryn stopped. Guards stopped. Kryn talked. Guards escorted. Kryn stayed. It hadn’t been long, Kryn had waiting for the leader of Ultima for only a short time. The door opened, and a man stepped in.

“So you are Kryn, leader of Kibosh?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know of Zerkaz?”

“I am his heir. He passed away recently.”

“Twenty years? That is rare.”

“May I speak with the leader of Omega?”

“What brought you here?”

“Kibosh has defeated Equipoise, may I speak with the leader of Omega?”

“Kibosh is pretty large now then, who did you leave in charge?”

“Ezel, the advisor that Zerkaz had left and I believe is competent for the occupation. May I speak with the leader of Omega?”

“I see, are you Zerkaz’s son?”

“No, I came from Nirvana and he believed I was competent. May I speak with the leader of Omega?”

“How long since you defeated Equipoise?”

“I don’t know, I left the day after. May I speak with the leader of Omega?”

“Why are you asking? Leave for Omega when you wish. How many females do you have in Kibosh?”

“Seven, though two were only recently born. Where is Omega?”

“Behind me. How is the diamondium supply in Kibosh?”

“Not much, I have with me most of it.”

“We don’t expect offerings.”

“I know, I have two diamondium blades.”

But the discussion was over, for Kryn got up and entered the door behind the Ultima leader. He followed the hall. It was long. After a long walk, he reached a door. He opened link. Before him, a message appeared, ‘Please insert password.’

Kryn paused a moment, then typed ‘Union was the first, Omega was the last.’

Then the door opened and Kryn looked. It was another hall. He continued his walk, until he reached another door. He opened link. Before him appeared a room, and a woman looked at it. He watched the woman get up and speak into the speaker, “Can I see your wrist?”

Kryn raised his wrist to show the Kibosh hexagons.

“I see, come in.”

The door opened and Kryn walked into Omega.

OMEGA
Inside, Omega did not look that powerful. There were twenty people. Omega couldn’t be called a union, but they viewed themselves as such. The woman who had greeted him looked at him again.

So you are the leader of Kibosh?”

“Yes.”

“What is your name?”

“Kryn.”

“Do you know of Zerkaz?”

“I am his heir. He passed away recently.”

“Twenty years? That is rare.”

“Kibosh has defeated Equipoise.”

“Kibosh is pretty large now then, who did you leave in charge?”

“Ezel, the advisor that Zerkaz had left and I believe is competent for the occupation.”

“I see, are you Zerkaz’s son?”

“No, I came from Nirvana and he believed I was competent.”

“How long since you defeated Equipoise?”

“I don’t know, I left the day after.”

“Do you wish to know what we wish of you now?”

“Yes.”

“That you stay here. Now that Equipoise is taken, Kibosh is the largest threat.”

“Are you planning to destroy Kibosh?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you see them as such a threat?”

“They are now the largest union besides Ultima. If they were to develop an inferiority complex, they may attack us.”

“When you mean destroy them, you don’t mean attack them, but join them with Ultima, right?”

“No. We cannot connect with them at this moment.”

“What if I make a link with Kibosh, and tell Ezel to work towards Ultima?”

“That would take too long, we need to keep Ultima secret. If they ever learn of us they will attack.”

“No. They will strive to gain this power. They will be eager to merge.”

“Listen, how about this, I will hold off our army against Kibosh until you die.”

“Can I have a computer to let Kibosh know of this?”

“Yes.”

Soon, Kryn was on a computer and speaking with Ezel.

“Ultima plans to attack Kibosh, unless Kibosh merges with them before I die.”

“Are they going to kill you?”

“No, but they are sending me on the dangerous expeditions with small units.”

“Alright, I’ll start having Kibosh advance in the direction of Ultima. Are they also fighting in our direction?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“They see Kibosh as a threat. They would have attacked if I hadn’t made agreements.”

“Alright.”

And that was the end of the conversation. Ezel had to fight through the small unions between Kibosh and Ultima, while Kryn had to survive lethal and unimportant tasks. These tasks had time limits, and sometimes they had no productive, however minute, results. Take for example, when they wanted to see how long it would take him to escape a high heat hydroponic farm that was locked. He had almost died, as the fumes were toxic. During this time, instead of the machinery taking the plants, he had to harvest the plants.

Many tests they did shocked them at how he didn’t die. Harvesting the hydroponics was simple, he just had to harvest a certain amount, and when he was locked he just crawled through the ventilation. They once gave him a computer, and he had to hack into their system to unlock a door. The ceiling had a grate, which if he were to have the system detect him, would fall upon him. They had made him run down a long hall after they had set off their protective function to have close onto him. They had made him run an obstacle course in which he had to dodge countless lethal traps. They put him in an incinerator, giving him ten minutes to climb up to the top and exit, his fingers were blistered after from clinging to the small crevices in the glass. They had him climb a ladder while an automatic gun shot at him. They had him swim down a deep pool and pick up a small bead, not allowing him to come above the surface until he had acquired the bead. They sent him to siege unions alone, and with his only his fists. His blades were left in Omega. All this, he endured, so that Kibosh might have a chance to reach Ultima in time. Ezel was getting near, but Kryn was urgent.

“You have to hurry, Ezel. Tomorrow I have to dismantle a large bomb which will end up having a short circuit if I make a slight mistake. They are getting desperate, I have to siege single handed without any weapons. I’ve killed a few assassins in the night, though they won’t admit to ordering them.”

“Don’t worry, every person coming through the elevator is sent directly to the front lines.”

“Okay, I have to think about the components of a bomb now. Hurry. I don’t know how long I am going to be alive.”

The next day, Kryn set to work on the bomb. He knew that most of the wires were pointless, meant just to hold the bomb neutral and confuse him. If he pulled one, it would explode. He sat in front of the bomb, looking at which pack led to the other. It was an electric bomb, when the crystal inside gained enough volts it would charge the bomb and blast. It was at half a volt, it would blow when it reached five. If he short circuited it, the bomb would release the blast early. The half volt was enough to kill him. He couldn’t open the packs, or it would short circuit. He could try to cut the power, but in the moment his hand broke the wire, it would use him to short circuit. In four and a half minutes, he had it down to only three possible blast packs. It had only to charge another half volt. That would be thirty seconds. He looked at the packs, they were duplicates. Ultima had rigged it. He had a third chance of success. He grabbed the pack which held the crystal, if he could cut off the source of energy, he could stop the bomb. With rapid and precise movement, he lifted the cartridge while sliding his other hand and removing the crystal.

But it was too late, though the crystal was only charging the timer, the bomb was already charged and the crystal would only short fuse the bomb. If it had been legitimate, the bomb would have been dismantled.

The bomb exploded and Kryn was engulfed in flames, his hair burst with flame. Shrapnel had flown at him, and slit into his body and face. His hand was scraped and buckled into the bomb case. Gases emitted from the explosive, and filled his lungs. The fire kept burning, the blood kept flowing and his lungs weren’t getting oxygen. The bomb wasn’t built to cause instant death. Soon Kryn’s mind fluttered off, he held on. He blew out all he could, inhaling the air. He ran, but to no success. Chaos spread through his mind and pain impaled him. The heat of the fire, and the initial blast from the bomb were scorching his nerves. His skin was blackening, his throat and body was dry. His bones were heating up and baking his inner organs. The pain was too much, the shrapnel was warming up and etching into his skin. He fell, and let his mind go. In his fall, his head smashed against the glass, causing another pain he could toil with in his unconscience state.

KIBOSH
Ezel was at her drafting table again, planning out the attacks. In a moment, Kryn would be asking for updates. She would tell him how close Kibosh was.

An hour passed, and Kryn hadn’t opened link.

Ezel began to worry. If Kryn had died, then Ultima was going to attack them. Ultima would surely be more powerful. Perhaps Ultima would be willing to allow Kibosh to join, if she could persuade them.

A week passed, and Kryn hadn’t opened link.

Ezel knew he had died. She had gone to the front lines, they were about to meet Ultima. Soon the last union was taken, and Ezel saw guards with the crest of Ultima.

“Take me to your leader.”

Soon Ezel was meeting with the leader of Ultima, the same man who had met Kryn recently.

“Hello, so you are Ezel?’

“Yes.”

“You do know Kryn died?”

“I came to that conclusion.”

“Well then, let me explain what is going on. Omega controls Ultima, I am merely a decoy like Kibosh. Many unions know of Ultima, none of Omega. Omega needed to destroy all threats, the next being Kibosh. They don’t think the natives of Kibosh will ever truly convert from their red hexagons to our teal hexagons. They couldn’t kill Kryn though. He refused to die, and their agreement held. When they knew you were close, they thought of a task which would kill him, without making them seem like they had. That bomb was rigged. In order to reach the real wires, he had to have instruments which weren’t supplied. Even the crystal was a decoy. But I know what union is after Kibosh. Ultima.”

“Why so?”

“Ultima is nearest to Omega, and they plan to replace all of us with androids. They have developed the ability to, they have lost their purpose. I propose that we attack them, their caution has led to their fear.”

“Alright, how many soldiers?”

“Omega is one room, Ultima can’t infiltrate it. Take a large unit and they won’t be able to stop you. All of the Ultima residents have chips which alert Omega of their coming, but you don’t. You’ll be able to sneak into Omega.”

“Alright.”

So now Ezel was crawling through a vent, with some escorts ahead and behind her. If Omega planned to attack Kibosh, they would feel the lash of desperation. They had made a union, tamed it and now it was getting them. Only because Kibosh now saw the threat. Omega’s fear was the reason for this.

And now they were stopped by a fence. Omega needed ventilation, but the fence offered them their sense of protection.

“What should we do, Ezel?”

“Don’t break it, Omega probably wired it.”

“Okay, what should we do?”

“I brought some explosives, I want you to lay this black powder along the grate. Then, with the nitroglycerin, put some on the other side of the fence. They built on a tilt, a mistake the architect made. Then we are going lay this thawed blasting gelatine on the wires of the fence, it’ll stay on. With a long sulphured wick, we will light it and run from the blast that is about to happen.”

And that is what they did. Soon, the sound of fire shot through the vent. But they had left it already, knowing of the toxins it would generate. The nitroglycerin had hopefully streamed down far enough to also blast the room inside. Soon the monitor opened link and the angry face of Omega’s leader looked at Ezel. Inside, the room of Omega had some fires, as of the chemicals they had been experimenting with.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“You killed Kryn. Next, you would attack Kibosh. After, Ultima. You will fall due to your precaution. Submit to Kibosh now.”

“Never, Kibosh must be destroyed.”

“Then we will have to destroy you.”

With that, Ezel set thermostats of blasting gelatine at the door and set them alight, after she had given herself some distance with a sulphured wick. The gelatine exploded and the door of Omega was barely dented. It held bars of diamondium within it which gave it a very powerful defence.

And the hall also was activated by the explosion. With the thermal wave of the explosion, the walls which Kryn had ran to evade began to close. Ezel looked down the hall. How could that distance be run? She started off, along with her unit. The distances grew between them. Ezel was far ahead of the others, she might just make it.

And then she exited the hostile hall. There was only half a meter left. She watched as her escorts looked at her with fearful eyes and were crushed between the walls. The walls slowed as they crushed the bones of the victims. But the force raised accordingly and the bodies were pressed.

“That’s too bad, I thought you would be crushed. Well, I’ll kill you all the same. Ultima is Omega. Omega will never attack us, for that would be attacking themselves.”

Ezel looked into the end of a gun which held more force then a hydrogen gun, while still being mobile. Soon, before she had realized it, a bullet was shot within her. By running through the hall, she had died by a bullet in her skull and a cramp, instead of being crushed between two glass walls.

REIGN OF NONE
Kibosh obliterated, Ultima would later convert to Omega. With the power Ultima had, compared to the small unions of Doom that remained, they would take over Doom. But with the higher society still sending the criminals to Doom unaware of the social trends, Doom would become a union in civil war. With such force spread across such area, the unions would revert to their small gangs. Nik Kay’s dream had failed, through those trying to embrace it. Then one day, someone would take in the idea of uniting Doom once again, and perhaps start another trend for a small interval of time. If they wished to ever escape their anarchic despotism, they would have to reach the society, one day. =INDEX=

Alpha
First letter of the Greek alphabet, Alpha was the first sector of the society. Once Delta was built, they stopped accepting immigrants and converted it to Doom. Beta was later made into Doom2.

Doom
Converted to hold the worst male criminals of the society, it had received a small population of females over the years and therefore rendered Doom2 slightly useless, which was the union of female criminals.

Equipoise
Means “lawful” in English, this union was the last real threat to Omega. Equipoise hoped for the same as Omega and Union to a degree, unity. Kibosh defeated them though, so that they would not grasp Omega. Their crest was a bleu twin loop symbolizing their supposed eternal law.

Ezel
Born in Doom, Ezel was advisor under Zerkaz and Kryn for four years. She was the last leader of Kibosh.

Kibosh
Means “defeat” in English, this union was a decoy for Omega. Their crest was a crimson hexagon. It symbolised their power with the color of blood.

Klek
First to use the atomic bomb, they set the cold war into a nuclear war.

Kryn
Born in Nirvana, Kryn was void of emotion. He had a thought of pure logic. Later, Kryn had an operation which gave him emotion. Though he did master the ability to control his emotions, Kryn had a less logical thought after. He was heir to Zerkaz and vanquished Equipoise. He did not hold Kibosh for a long period, and was the second last leader of the union.

Mars
Fourth planet from the sun, greek god for war. Mars did not hold to its name. It was a weak union which refused treaties with Kibosh. They were ignored until later, when Zerkaz had Kryn practise battling upon them and they were sieged.

Might
English term, a powerful force. Might was the second union which was created to stop Union. Once Might was defeated by Union, the less powerful unions moved in and kill Union’s now weakened forces.

Nelar
Creator of the atomic bomb, they were the first to be destroyed, and by their own creation.

Nirvana
Means “celestial” in English, Nirvana was one of the most superior sectors.

Omega
Greek term for the end and also their last letter, this union planned to finish Union’s plans of uniting Doom.

Superior Sector
A sector which holds strict laws and high standards for immigration, many see them as either wonderful or morbid.

Ultima
Short form of ultimate, this union was the outer shell of Omega. Ultima spread quickly, while still conserving their forces. It was powered by Omega.

Union
English term, a united force, following the same objective. First of the unions, Union was created by Nik Kay in an attempt to unite Doom. It defeated Might at the end of its time, which weakened it enough to be killed by the small unions which now existed.

Vrelk
Last leader of Equipoise, Vrelk was killed by Kryn. He was not seen as one to follow the Equipoise theory, and so the people did not rebel against Kibosh after his death.

Zerkaz
Third last leader of Kibosh, Zerkaz held Kibosh for twenty years. He pilgrimed to Omega in his first year as leader, and was assigned to defeat Equipoise.