2017-05-24: Red Skies

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  • Cutscene: Red Skies
  • Cast:Kahm Yugh
  • Where: Adlehyde Fairgrounds
  • Date: May 24, 2017
  • Summary: At Adlehyde's Ancient Culture Exhibit, Kahm reflects on all that has happened since black gear was stolen, and the inevitable convergence of events on the three unearthed golems


493 PC

Elru Continent

The sky over Elru stretched into an interminable crimson expanse, a false twilight wrought by flame and ruin. Charred earth was littered with the bodies of men and machines alike, the pattern of their broken forms now a grisly road to a horizon that promised only a broader view of a shattered land.

First Lieutenant Kahm Yugh flew in squad formation with unflinching eyes for this unremitting hellscape, any horror and disdain he held submerged deep beneath the duty that now enveloped. The flight patterns of his gear remained unerringly smooth despite the chaos that seemed grip the entire continent-the devil had already come, and naught but grave-like silence was left to impede their course.

"This is 1LT Yugh, 5th Reserve Squadron, repeating transmission." He spoke into the comm link, no longer bothering to keep count, "Any remaining active units and personnel in the area are to fall back and regroup based on our positional signature. Furthermore, any units that can verify the last known coordinates of Commander Ramses and any attending personnel are to report this information immediately."

The comm crackled back down to what Kahm had expected to be enduring silence. Instead, it surged to life with a verified transmission garbled by the sounds of active battle. "...gant rep..ing....nder Ramses......ged...sit.....critical, reporting coordinates +10.456 -4.3466, requesting immediate assistance and extraction!"

The transmission stabilized as the Lieutenant honed his gear's communications array on the source, relaying the coordinates to the rest of his squad and abruptly shifting course. "Copy that." He replied, slightly muted as the kick of maximum acceleration jolted him into uncomfortably regulation pilot seat, "Hold your position, we're currently en route."

"It's a monster...a red demon!!" The voice screamed into Kahm's ear, along with the rest of his squad. The other pilot's professional urgency had given way to the fear of mortal peril. "We can't...I can't...no, stop!!"

"Maintain our present course!" The squad leader's frenzied voice shouted over the dying man's screams, followed by sound of screeching metal and hissing flame, "Prioritize recovery of the Commander's unit at all costs!!"

"Acknowledged." Kahm answered, feeling his spine go cold with something far the opposite of fear. A flick of the wrist and he felt the fresh, punctured bliss of drive blossoming from the base of his neck and seizing his heart with the furious expectation of battle, of death, of strength.

A part of him-too much of him, he would later realize-wanted what came next.

NOW

ADLEHYDE

>DIABLOS FORCES SUPPORTED BY METAL DEMONS STOP

>QUARTER KNIGHT 'SIEGFRIED' ATTACKING BASE WITH DIABLOS GEARS STOP

Growing unease dogged every step Captain Kahm Yugh walked on the floor of Adlehyde's Ancient Culture Exhibit. He was not someone given to either reminiscing or superstition, but he did not relish the coincidence. First, they’d found that confounding old military message in Linga. Then Gwen Whitlock, that courier, had sent him some warning claiming the Metal Demons were still alive. Last night he’d dreamed of Elru for the first time in years. He had seen nothing like the devastation wrought that day...until the destruction of Lahan.

"This is the action of a wild animal." He had said to LtC. Hawwa then, unconsciously tightening his grip on the rest of his chair, "Not a trained professional."

Lolithia, Barbados, and Diablo. Each of Adlehyde’s excavated golems-the supposed ancestors of modern gears-had their names displayed along with a few wasted sentences on historical theory and half-truths. It was difficult to believe such ungainly, ridiculous-looking creations were responsible for turning the tide against the metal demons, but even what Solarian records existed were clear on that account.

Onlookers gaped and awed at each ancient titan in turn while Kahm tried to calm his more paranoid suspicions, dwelling instead on Adlehyde’s true purpose in showcasing them. Ridiculous or not, surface dwellers having a hold of any ancient technology was bound to cause problems, and not just for them.

"I can’t explain this right now." Gwen’s recorded message read like someone who believed in the danger they were extolling, "But...I think the metal demons may still be around. Not only that, but they may be planning to attack, and soon…"

That someone would consider this find worthy of instigating war was likely, he thought, and he was half-surprised it wasn't them...yet. But why would a simpler courier have sent him that message? Too much drink? A frightening dream? A bad fortune-telling?

His eyes narrowed at the golem called Lolithia, as if its dull and lifeless gaze would hold some answer for him. A tonic to the slowly creeping sense that something...critical had happened the day the black gear crashed in Lahan, like the first crack in a dam, or a boulder that gained ever more momentum as it rushed to its final, destructive terminus. The discovery of these golems, the outbreak of malevolence, the arrival of so-called Lunarians from unknown lands…

Could they all be happenstance?

The knight stood motionless in the moonlight as pale as its armor, fitting Kahm with inscrutable regard. “Law has no meaning to the lawless," The trial knight spoke, words echoing even now, "There is only one authority that has true meaning in this land and any other."

"The authority of force, of strength." He thought, just as the first discordant notes of impending battle silence the mindless chatter of the crowd. Some wondered aloud about thunder, but Kahm knew the sound of artillery when he heard it.

He turned to find Fargo Foobach, Hauch’s man, directly behind him. Above them, a sky with a decidedly blood-tinged hue.

“Of course.” Kahm remarked, shoulders dipping with a groan.

He should have seen it coming.