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Steel Into Knights; Fic I might be starting.
Topic Started: Mar 24 2008, 04:18 PM (276 Views)
Sentrovasi
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White Night
Sleepy, but I'll put this up as a rough draft on a story I'll be starting on next month (well, two or three weeks, hopefully), once I get all the details together. Note that it's far from complete, and at this point is just a mishmash of ideas. I'm fairly sure no one's tried mixing robots in with theology and elves and other races at the same time, though =3

Quote:
 
Hierarchy:

POPE: Pseudo-Organism of Prescient Evolution: able to make sentient decisions with the help of the Cardinals: is powered entirely by mana drawn from the earth.
Cardinals: In charge of taking care of the POPE and delivering the messages it has to deliver; they are masters of mana manipulation, but not especially good pilots, not having the reflexes for such. There are four; one to represent each race.
Holy Knights: Elite defenders with customized DESTRIERs. Usually trained for years. At the start of the story there are four Humans, two Fay, four Elves and two
Knights: Pilots given mass-produced DESTRIERs.
Squires: Technicians/Repairmen: work in the Stables.

Races (should have four or five):
Human: The most prevalent race on the planet, Humans are born with only average mana potential, and little to no way of utilizing even that. Their main expertise is in terms of technology and their own physical strength and endurance. The production of DESTRIERs was first undertaken by humans in an effort to boost their capabilities.
Fay: A race of beautiful, winged creatures blessed with high mana capacities. However, their extreme intolerance for iron has resulted in them only being able to pilot a few specialized DESTRIERs; that, or have custom-made DESTRIERs of some stronger metal made at immense cost. Most do not fight as Knights.
Elf: A graceful and agile race identified by their distinctive pointed ears: Elves are able to manipulate mana far more efficiently than humans, although they lack the full power of the Fay. Their lack of technical understanding and frailer builds are their main weaknesses, but they are remarkably good pilots.
Dwarf: Low-to-average mana potential: dwarves are generally stocky and better with the elbow grease than the cantrip mutterings. Nonetheless, they have the potential to be Knights, although that comes at the expense of decades of training: given the fact that dwarves are especially long-lived, though, that doesn’t play a very large part. Most dwarves are more suited for becoming Squires, given that they have a wealth of metalworking expertise.


DESTRIER: Developmentally Enhanced Specialized Tactical Reconnaissance and Intensive Engagement Robot. Giant piloted robots powered on faith in the form of the pilot’s life-force; requires medium-to-high concentration of mana within the human body to activate. Mana input amplified with the addition of the Synchronized Psychic Uplink Recognition System, or SPURS for short. All DESTRIERs of Everri, Deweiss and Relm are human-based, as made in God’s image.

MAGI: Magically Adept Gaean Interfaces. Beings within the upper-tier of the mana range; thus suitable for becoming Knights, or else remaining Magi and using their powers otherwise.

Specifications:

Model: AL-09 Citizen
Height:  16.7 meters
Weight: 6220 kilograms
Purpose: Light skirmishes and auxiliary support.
Description: The Citizen was one of the first AL-class DESTRIERs developed: its main trait was its versatility, which came as a result of its single mounted weapon emplacement on the central node where its head would be, its positioning allowing the usage of almost any mounted weapon, as well as the two actual hands which were, at the time, not common among many DESTRIERs, most developers forgoing that complexity for attaching weapons directly to the wrist nodes. As it is, the Citizen is quite outdated, but remains in use as cheap, mass-produced armor or else for performing menial tasks. It also stands out as the one DESTRIER that does not require immense mana sources to power.

Model: AL-13 Strider Mk I
Height: 15.72 meters
Weight: 6082 kilograms
Purpose: Reconnaissance and light skirmishes
Description: A DESTRIER with a very light frame fitted with Mk II Peregrine boosters which give it flight capabilities for up to forty seconds at a time. Only mounted weapons are the HawkEye recoilless precision beam bazooka on its left shoulder and a standard-issue titanium knife retracted into its right hand. Fins on forearms and back of head allow it more aerodynamic stability. It is equipped with a remote mapping system for easy transmission of information back to the POPE.

Model: AL-14 Strider Mk II
Height: 16.2 meters
Weight: 6625 kilograms
Purpose: Reconnaissance and light skirmishes
Description: Given the tendency of the Strider Mk I to easily fall to enemy fire, the Mk II was re-equipped with light beam plates and more substantial armor, resulting in more limited flight capabilities (twenty-second boosts) and a slight handicap in terms of surface maneuverability. The heavier robot allows for the stronger EagleEye precision beam bazooka and a slightly longer and more balanced blade.

Model: AB-12 Gigantes
Height: 16.7 meters
Weight: 8016 kilograms
Purpose: Frontline attacking and siege
Description: The Gigantes is an immense DESTRIER built more for stability than speed. Fitted with Neo-Chobham plates and proofed against strong impact. Can be equipped with up to four different mounted weapons (two shoulder and two arms), but the standard-issue set includes two WhiteStrafe beam gatling guns, one SkyStrike light missile launcher (diameters up to 12”) and one EMP short-ranged discharger.

Model: AB-15 Titan
Height: 18 meters
Weight: 8304 kilograms
Purpose: Frontline defense and sieging.
Description: Like the Gigantes, built with stability in mind: standing much taller than the Gigantes, the Titan is fitted with Neo-Chobham plates and furthermore has two shields mounted as arm-accessories, each fitted with dispersion coats. Two shoulder-mounted Oxtongue wide-dispersion beam bazookas serve as the major siege tool for the robot, with Mammoth beam rail-guns serving as possible replacements. MAGI are further able to utilize the Aegis shielding system implanted in the chest of the DESTRIER, which allows it to project an energy field about nearby units; a virtual sanctuary.

Model: AB-18 Gigantes Mk II
Height: 17.9 meters
Weight: 8225 kilograms
Purpose: Frontline attacking
Description: A more agile version of the Gigantes, built to lead an assault, this model is comparatively more combat-versatile, but lacks the same level of stability that the original had. The Neo-Chobham plates on the forearms and lower torso have been removed, and the combat guidance system has been improved quite significantly to fit with the extra speed. Mk I Peregrine boosters have been implemented, but these, rather than allowing it to fly, merely allow it temporary speed-boosts, making it a much more elusive fighter than its predecessor, if more brittle.

Model: AF-08 Sprite
Height: 16.4 meters
Weight: 6580 kilograms
Wingspan: 8.7 meters
Purpose: Reconaissance and anti-air assaults
Description: The Sprite was the first DESTRIER built specifically for aerial warfare: the mass-production model does not differ much from any of the originals. Equipped with a RedSky (10” diameter) missile launcher on each wingtip and with an EMPG launcher attached to its left node, its main purpose is to get in, decimate the airborne targets, and get out. It is equipped with a remote mapping system for easy transmission of information back to the POPE.

Model: AF-12 Angel
Height: 17.6 meters
Weight: 8117 kilograms
Wingspan: 10.2 meters
Purpose: Aerial combat and support.
Description: The Angel was created to be the definitive aerial unit: sturdier than the Sprite, it is provided a host of different weapons for different situations, the most notable being the Aegis shielding system installed in its chest, and the RedSky missile launchers attached to each of its four wings. The weapon of choice for the Angel is the Oxtongue II precision blast bazooka or the HawkEye precision beam bazooka, depending on the circumstance, but their versatility allows for the usage of things like the Mammoth beam rail-gun, although this results in severely reduced mobility.

Model: AF-15 Archangel
Height: 18 meters
Weight: 8741 kilograms
Purpose: Frontline aerial combat
Description: No information on this model is available at present time.



... There are no character submissions, no nothing; just an idea (the plot I'm not putting here for obvious reasons).
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Sentrovasi
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White Night
Steel Into Knights

First Arc - Disappearing


Prologue: Shelter


“All things considered, I think we did perform fairly well.”

The girl who had spoken betrayed a slight relief in the tone of her voice, but no more. Her pointed ears stood out prominently against her light-brown hair: the one feature which most distinguished her from her two other companions. If not for the fact that the three of them were standing so close together, her quiet voice might have been lost in the deafening silence about them.

“Not quite the result you hoped for, huh?”

The other girl’s teasing tone was a marked difference from that of the first. She elbowed the boy who stood between them in the ribs, ignoring the resulting wince on his face which betrayed the strength of her enthusiasm. Her eyes eagerly scanned the screen; the slight glare reflected off her glasses and cast a soft white light on her pale face.

“I don’t know… I think I can settle for this, don’t you?”

His tone was light, but his gray eyes betrayed the immense relief that was the predominant mood between the three of them.

“Artia Emedel, Gabriel Crux, Lucca Ashdale… two-hundred and twenty-six points.” The bespectacled girl made a face. “I hate it when they use my full name.”

The boy wagged his finger at the girl with pointed ears. “That makes us twelfth out of eighty teams; ‘fairly well’ doesn’t cut it, Artia.”

Artia nodded, smiling a little at the boy’s tone of mock-severity. “It is as you say, Sir Gabriel, although I am fairly sure you will be cursing those eleven above us in weeks to come.”

“Just because you’re an Elf—”

“Come off it, Gabriel,” the other interrupted laughingly, “you know she’s right.”

“… You too, Lu?” but he was grinning as he said the words. “Fine. But I’m telling you we deserved at least fifth place. After all—”

Artia shook her head in mock weariness. “It might be better if we were to depart before sir Gabriel’s head grows any more, Miss Lucca.”

“Right,” she replied, taking the other girl’s hand. “Come on, Gaby, you don’t want to be here when the crowd comes, anyway.”

Laughing, both girls skipped ahead, leaving a slightly miffed Gabriel to chase after them as dawn broke over the Church of Gaia.

STEELINTOKNIGHTS

The Church has been our home for the past three years. By “our”, I don’t just mean Artia, Gabriel and myself, but all of us: all three-hundred-and-fifty Knights-in-training. We have a name for that: Knight of the Ninth Order. It’s a hierarchy, although I still don’t quite get why everything must be so ****ed orderly.

The Church of Gaia… well, one of them, anyway. Both Relm to the south and Everri to the west have Churches as well. According to Artia, the Elves that inhabit the northwestern peninsula of this continent have their own gods as well, but most consider those to be unorthodox. Deweiss’ Church of Gaia is second-biggest in the continent, with only Everri’s Church being slightly larger, on account of their technological superiority. We have more than two thousand personnel, so it goes without saying that the Church has to be quite enormous. Most of the Squires and Knights have their own quarters outside of the Church, but more than half of us still board within: this includes all eight hundred Knights and Squires of the Ninth Order.

The rooms are alright; nothing like home, of course, but good enough, considering the Church seems to have something against comfort – you’d think they’d provide better cockpits for DESTRIERs. I’m sharing a room with Artia: two simple beds, a single bathroom and a large closet. It’s just as well the closet is large: Artia seems to have some obsession with shopping, and her clothes take up three-quarters of the thing already.
If I had to describe the shape of the Church, it would be that of a large crescent moon. There are the dormitories: the girls’ are across from the boys’, separated by one-hundred-and-fifty meters of empty space, considering that they both are on the fifth, sixth and seventh floor of two different wings: the two tips of the crescent.

If the Church is a crescent, then the fattest part of the crescent would be at its center: it also happens to be the most prominent, being raised to such an extent that the sixth floor of the dormitories is only as high as the first floor of the middle block. Artia and I stay on the seventh, so this small act of providence is something we don’t complain about: ascending a single flight of stairs beats the prospect of having to climb it six times over. Gabriel’s room is also on the seventh floor: quarters on the second, third and fourth floors are for Squires, while the Cardinals and Holy Knights have their residences either within the central block, or outside of the Church.

The Church has, as I’ve said before, a hierarchy. The Squires come first, then the Knights, Holy Knights, Cardinals, and the single POPE. Additionally, Squires and Knights have inter-classification ranks, from Ninth Order, which represents an amateur showing complete lack of skill, to First Order, which denotes a master keeping nearly, if not already, impeccable standards.

Deweiss is evidently a theocracy, so most decisions are made by the POPE, or Pseudo-Organism of Prescient Evolution – I do know my stuff. It is a… machine, of sorts, but different from DESTRIERs: I’m not entirely sure about the physics of it, but I think it borrows off the mana-amplifying capabilities of our SPURS and actually communes with Gaia… at least, that’s as much as I could glean out of lessons… being able to communicate directly with God, though… it’s intriguing, but also quite frightening.

I guess that’s why there are four cardinals, too: each represent one of the different races in Deweiss and seek to deliver and carry out Gaia’s will. They’re second-to-one in the hierarchy: powerful MAGI, although I don’t think they’re anywhere near as capable as the Holy Knights at riding DESTRIERs. They’re next in line, after all: twelve Knights who are chosen for their exceptional abilities. I’ve no doubt that Gabriel aspires to be one of them.

Of the Holy Knights, five of them are Human; one is Pure-Elf – Ria Noredel is her name; another three are Fay, and of the remainder, two are Half-Elf and the last one is a Dwarf – Udgar Rubik. I remember their names because it’s quite unusual to see Pure-Elves or Dwarves attaining such rank as Knights, the latter because Dwarves don’t usually have the requisite mana to ride DESTRIERs… and the former because Elves are rarely seen among our human civilization: given our different religions, it seems especially unexpected that an Elf would be accepted into our Church. Half-Elves like Artia are usually cast out of Elvish society, which is why they come live with us: speaking of which, Artia herself is still quite emotionally fragile; I’m not even sure now how Gabriel and I managed to befriend her. Fay and Elves, though, have the strongest mana potentials, so they usually make the best Knights. The one problem Fay beings have, though, is their weakness to iron, which explains why their custom-made DESTRIERs are usually far more expensive to create, and thus the main reason why there aren’t more of them.

And then it’s down to us: the Knights and Squires; also the bulk of the Church’s arsenal. For years, the theocracies have been engaging in light skirmishes with each other; recently, Deweiss and Relm have formed a shaky alliance because of the Godless of Zondia attacking from the north-west as well. The training of Knights is, presumably, to preserve the word of God and spread His word as His children. The situation gets tricky, though, when each of the kingdoms that surround us wants to play eldest brother. I’m guessing that sums up the premise of these battles.

And then there are the Squires. While the Knights fight, the Squires are there to clean up: they consist largely of the technologically-empowered or experienced metalworkers, who assist in the repairing and refitting of DESTRIERs after each battle. Dwarves are more common here than in the Knight department and the field here is practically devoid of Elves, thanks to their relatively weak technological knowledge and frail bodies. Unfortunately, most of the Ninth Order Squires seem to resent us Knights for being slightly above them in the hierarchy, which has made relationships between the two sides somewhat… awkward. Even the concerted efforts of the higher-ranked members of the Church have done little to change that fact.

But for the most part, the Church is a peaceful place, dedicated to the training of Knights and Squires in the defense of Deweiss and the word of our Lord. Other than the dormitories and the central administrative block, there is the large cafeteria where we congregate to eat; a devotion hall within which we pray – Elven and Fay members of the Church also practice their Craft here, given the high saturation of mana in this particular room as a result (or is it the cause?) of our prayer. We have a few gardens, some meditative and others merely decorative, and then the classrooms within which we are taught the mundane subjects of everyday life, ranging from thaumaturgy to mathematics; subjects Gabriel positively detests, although I find them quite a refreshing change to riding DESTRIERs.

And then we have the holographic message board in the main hallway: the board we had all crowded around on the day we learnt we’d finally graduated.

STEELINTOKNIGHTS

“Knight of the Eighth Order…” I mused. “It does have a certain ring to it…”

If I’d expected Gabriel to concur with me, I’d have been sorely mistaken. As it was, I didn’t, although that one remark was the only thing that came to my mind.

“Hn. That hardly counts as anything: all it means is that we’re given our own DESTRIERs to work with—”

“… To become a Knight of the First Order, Sir Gabriel?” Artia prompted: I could just make out the faintest hint of a smile on her face.

He grinned. “At least try to act like you haven’t heard that one before.”

I suppressed a smile of my own as I raised my spoon to my mouth: the bland corn flakes, doused liberally in cold milk, weren’t the choicest of breakfasts, but at this hour of the morning they were all I could’ve gotten.

We were sitting at one of the few tables which dotted the outer compound of the Church: these seemed to serve more of an ornamental purpose than a practical one, but they were still appealing as places to get away from it all. Gabriel was pulling at a chocolate bar he’d stashed in his pocket before coming down to meet us, while Artia was her usual fastidious, un-eating self.

The sun had not yet risen above the hills that formed Edara’s Ridge to the east, although the sky was getting progressively lighter. I find daybreak to be one of the most magical moments of the day, for reasons not only to do with the increase in mana flux which typically occurs at this time. Watching the sun rise over the horizon, I often find myself filled with a strange determination I can’t quite place: as I sat with the two of them in the misty gloom, awaiting the sun’s advent into the new day, I found myself filled with that same energy: perhaps it was the elation of the moment, or the fact that two of my closest friends were around me, but I couldn’t help but share Gabriel’s enthusiasm.

Every year, more than two-hundred Knights of the Ninth Order take part in a trial – an extensive test that is part tournament, part examination – to vie for the right to become Knights of the Eighth. The same is true of Knights of the other Orders, although the lack of candidates among the higher echelons has resulted in a reformatting of the rules for their own tests. For us, though, the premise is simple: split more than two-hundred students into eighty teams and take part in a year-long tournament interspersed with various tests with regards to mana manipulation and – less pertinently – the basic disciplines of swordsmanship, alchemy, writing, math and history. I’m hopeless at most of those but writing and math – why they can’t include archery as a discipline is beyond me – which is why Artia and Gabriel were godsends, not to put a finer point on it. Naturally, Gabriel is very well-versed in alchemy, given his interest in DESTRIERs; Artia, being a half-elf, has a natural disposition towards mana manipulation and history. Both of them are adept at swordfighting, although Artia has the greater advantage of being as skilled in archery as I am: in fact, the only area I can actually outclass her in is math, and even that is only because Elves aren’t as used to human conceptions as we are. Nonetheless, I can take solace in the fact that Gabriel is singularly weak in both of my strong suits, and while his mana potential is higher than my own (a fact that I’m loath to admit before him), he has little patience with the subtle art of weaving spells.

The upshot of the whole tournament can be summed up as a few key points. One, I made two fast friends from strangers I’d hardly known before: Gabriel was a headstrong boy I had known from previous acquaintance but hadn’t thought much of, while Artia had been a roommate I had not spoken to for the two months prior to our assignment to the same team; two, our combined efforts to tutor one another resulted in a significant – if temporary – improvement in my understanding of a large number of concepts: ask me what the fourth postulate of D’Arran’s Theory of Incongruous Phase is now, though, and I’ll be hard-pressed to reply; three, we finished twelfth out of eighty teams: a commendable achievement, considering the only one of us who might be considered to be truly stellar was one Artia Emedel.

It was extremely gratifying, sitting in the courtyard as the warm rays of the sun tentatively, and then confidently embraced the earth, knowing, if only for a brief moment, the utter peace and contentedness and satisfaction which came with the understanding that we had not only achieved something, but done it as an inseparable, invincible team. It was the gratification and appreciation of the fact that it was not an ending, but a new beginning.

I emptied my bowl of cornflakes as the faint stirrings from the Church began to grow louder. The sun was almost clear of the ridge now, its light lending a beautiful golden hue to the polished façade of the Church. Morning had come, and the other students were awaking. I looked around to see both my companions looking about themselves expectantly, and I knew we were all thinking the same thing.

Our first day as Knights – real Knights – had finally come.
Edited by Sentrovasi, Jun 15 2008, 05:21 PM.
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