Dirge

Dirge was a serial written by CaptainLandr0ver. It tells of the destructive events on Leskya Nui leading up to The Feral Plains. It also gives some insight into future characters.

Prologue
Ruthos walked down the metallic halls as fast as it could. Even in times of need, running or even jogging down the hallway to Father’s Room was prohibited, and punishable by a severe smelting. Maybe for the general of an army, and in times of need, breaking the rule could be forgiven, but no, Father insisted otherwise. Ruthos seemed to be the only one of his kind who didn’t have complete trust in Father. Maybe it because its operating system was built for strategic planning in times of war, or maybe it was because by default it spent more time discussing things with Father. There were other bizarre rules Father had… don’t refer to Father by his real name, always respect Father and his leadership, and don’t enter Father’s Room unannounced without good reason. Luckily Ruthos had good reason, and hoped Father agreed with it on that as it pushed the steel doors open.

“Father, we must act quickly.” said Ruthos quickly. “The Toa have their defenses up! They’ve anticipated our next attack!”

“Your next attack,” replied Father. Ruthos looked confused. “Remember, General? You planned this attack.”

“You assisted me in planning it,” Ruthos argued, “You know much more about Toa than I do.”

“Really?” asked Father.

“Father, I’ve never seen a Toa before. You have.”

“Is that why you’ve decided to interrupt my time alone?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, well then, hounds, you can back away. Let him die another day.” Ruthos had been so keen on warning it’s leader that it had not noticed the Energy Hounds that were ready to rip its mechanical body apart at the flick of Father’s fingers. Fortunately they were backing away into the holes in the floor they had been summoned from.

“So what shall we do about the Toa?” asked Ruthos.

“What shall we do?” replied Father. “That’s a very good question, and a bit unworthy of storming into my room about. Maybe I’d have an answer if you could, you know, specify a bit more?”

“They have a Toa of Iron.”

Father looked displeased, and leaned forward in his chair. “What? Since when has that happened?”

“We know not,” said Ruthos, “but we do know that he would be a massive threat to our airships.”

“Then we don’t use airships,” said Father, leaning back comfortably into his seat. “Simple as that.”

Ruthos chuckled. “Such a simple answer comes with a simple problem: we can’t attack. The Brotherhood has not supplied us with sea ships, so unless we use airships we simply cannot attack them.”

“Not airships,” said Father, “Airship. Singular.” “Father can be so enigmatic sometimes. Maybe if he’d get to the point more often we wouldn’t have problems like this.” Ruthos thought to itself. Then it said out loud, “What damage is one airship going to do?”

“I can read your thoughts, you know,” said Father. “And you know the rules about respecting me.”

Ruthos began shaking in fear of what Father would do to it. “Yes, yes I do. Now, back to the airship…”

“The Brotherhood has invented a new… gadget, they said,” Father continued, “and they’d like me to test it out. Even though they designed it, they still have many questions about it.”

“What does it do?” asked Ruthos.

“My thoughts exactly.” said Father. “Load it onto the smallest airship and drop it on the island.”

“Yes, Father.”

“And Ruthos? You better make the best of this. This is going to be your last operation, of course.”

“Why would that be, Father?”

“Well, you should know the rules well enough by now. And if I were you, I’d go down along with the airship. A much more honorable death, I’d say, than being smelted for breaking a rule, especially for someone as high up as a General. Wouldn’t you say? Now get on with this operation.”

Ruthos saluted and nervously left the room. He decided to run back down the hall, seeing as his fate was already sealed.

Chapter 1
“It’s much foggier than usual, brother! Are you sure that they’re coming?”

“Certain.” Vandir replied. “If we were wasting time, I’d know it right away. It’s my least favorite thing to do. Plus, I do trust someone who can read minds, isn’t that right my sister?”

Norhi, Toa of Psionics, nodded back with a smile. “The Brotherhood really needs to invest in something other than artificial life. Entering one of their minds is like catching a dead fish!”

“What?” yelled a confused Hatar across the battlefield.

“It’s really easy to do, of course!” Nohri said back. “Are you not able to notice an expression when you see-”

“Ears peeled, sister!” Vandir interrupted. “They could come at any moment.”

Nohri watched as the grey waves emerged in packs from the grey fog and scooted up and down the grey sand. She adjusted the way she had propped her blaster onto the grey rock she was hiding behind.

She then looked back and said, “You ready, rookie Toa?” The novice Toa of Iron behind her nodded. His hands were shaking as if it were a bioquake.

“I remember my first day on the job,” Nohri thought to herself. “I was even more nervous than he is right now. I never even talked to some of the other Toa until weeks after I joined the team. I think Hatar was the last one I talked to… he was always big and intimidating. Vandir said he was nice, but that’s like saying to pet an Ash Bear just because it’s not awake…”

A subtle but startling noise made it’s way to her ears. It came from behind her, and she reckoned that whatever made that noise snatched the Toa of Iron too.

“I think they’re here!” she telepathically said to Vandir. “Rookie’s gone, and something doesn’t feel right!”

Vandir noted this and made hand signals to fall back. They entered the capital city of Leskya Nui, carefully examining the streets and alleys for any evidence of the forces of Makuta. They began hearing signs of an airship, and finally came across a group of Brotherhood soldiers standing at the city square.

“What are they doing?” Vandir thought.

Nohri read this from his mind and replied, “It could be a trap. I’ll see if there’s anything odd lying around.”

She activated her Akaku, and scanned the catacombs underneath, and there were no other soldiers. She looked into the buildings, through trees, anywhere that they could be hiding something, and she found nothing.

“I didn’t find anything,” she thought to Vandir, “But I’m putting my widgets on it being a trap. Even robots with their processors fried wouldn’t stand around in such a way!”

“If it is,” Vandir thought, with Nohri reading it, “Then I don’t know what they would trap us with. The airship we heard sounded like the cargo type, not an attack type. Maybe I’ll bug one of them and see what happens.”

“Alright,” Nohri thought. Vandir carefully used his air powers to nudge one of the soldiers. It looked around, and raised its weapon at another soldier. Surprised, the other soldier pushed its fellow soldier into another, and it pushed it back into another, and within the span of a dozen seconds they were all quarreling and pushing each other. Nohri took the opportunity and used her telekinetic powers to squash all of them together into a heap of mechanical parts.

One soldier barely survived, and yelled as loud as it could before falling to the ground. Vandir and Nohri snickered from the odd noise it made.

Chapter 2
“Ruthos, we’ve picked up the signal.” said the pilot. “Shall we initiate phase two?”

“Y-Yes,” said Ruthos. “I suppose. Turn up the thrusters to full throttle, and aim this ship correctly. It’s time we finally got rid of these Leskya Nui things. Dreadful creatures, Matoran are.”

The pilot did so, and the airship began careening faster and faster through the fog. He looked at the scanner at least twice a second, as not to miss his target.

On the ground, Vandir yelled to take cover. There was no time to stop the airship, which indeed was the cargo type. It struck the spire of the Toa Temple before violently impacted into a Matoran housing building. What was left of the the structure caved in onto the cockpit, and the pilot shut down crushed under a pile of bricks.

Before Vandir could signal to approach the ship, the still-running left thruster burst apart, sending hot metal flying in the air. From the color of the explosion, he reckoned that it had been shot by a Brotherhood soldier blaster. A dark red figure tumbled out of the ship’s bay door, and looked up at the Toa. What confused Vandir was that it stood there.

“Read it’s mind!” Vandir ordered. Nohri did so, and her jaw dropped. “What is it, sister?”

Nohri stood in silence for a bit, and then looked at Vandir and said, “Run.”

Vandir looked confused. “Run away? We are Toa heroes, and we never surrender-”

“Run!!” Nohri yelled. Now Vandir could make out the dreadful beeping noises from the airship. He and his team began running away from the city center as fast as possible. Hatar used his Mask of Tunneling to zip through several buildings on his way. Vandir glided over any obstacles in his way, and Nohri simply blasted them apart with her mind.

Suddenly, Vandir tumbled down to the ground. His leg was in pain, and he realized that a grappling knife had been shot into it. He yelled to Nohri as he began slipping back into the city, and she used her powers to pull him back. The force pulling Vandir was incredibly strong, likely from the the airship itself, and so Nohri scooted him sideways in front of a building.

Vandir caught the lip of the structure’s pillar and was able to dig the knife out of his armor. He looked up at Nohri and signalled for her to keep running. When he found himself unable to stand up, Nohri came running back to help him up. Even for a Toa of Air, he was quite heavy. Armor on Leskya Nui needed to be thicker than usual to protect against the cold and snow. The Toa of Psionics decided that she couldn’t carry Vandir all the way.

“Hatar!” she yelled. The Toa of Gravity stopped running and looked back. With his attention, Nohri said, “He’s hurt, and I can’t carry him, alright?”

Hatar nodded and ran to Vandir, lifting him up. Just then, they heard the bloodcurdling cry of a Ga-Matoran.

“That’s Itira!” said Nohri. “I’ve got to go help her, okay? Hatar, you carry Vandir to the beach, okay?!” Hatar nodded, and Nohri sprinted off.

When Nohri found the source of Itira’s screams, she gasped. There stood a tall, crooked Makuta with black armor mixed with a shade of sickly bright green. In his left hand he held the novice Toa of Iron, now unconscious, and in his right he held the Ga-Matoran, with a blade in her abdomen. Nohri was appalled at the sight.

The Makuta pulled the blade out, dropped the Matoran’s body, and said, “I’m sorry to say that it was, indeed, a trap, my dear. Have a nice day, now.” before vanishing.

Nohri ran to the Ga-Matoran, and saw that she was already going into shock. Nohri attempted to stop the wound from bleeding, whilst trying to ignore Itira’s nightmarish pre-death babblings.

After a minute of doing so, she gave up and cradled the blue corpse in her arms. Before she could cry out in rage, a blinding blast of white burst through the windows.

Chapter 3
Hatar finally dug his brother out of the rubble. Like himself, Vandir’s armor was hot to the touch. The Toa was unconscious, likely from head trauma. Hatar hoped that he would be okay.

The Toa of Gravity stood up, and saw a completely different world. It was incredibly hot, the air was full of ash and smoke, and every building in sight was flattened. He trudged along with the Toa of Air limp on his shoulders, trying to find anything that had not been destroyed.

It was now that Hatar noticed small fires along the streets (or at least what looed to him like streets). He stopped and looked down at one, and then attempted to stomp it out. This was successful, but only temporarily, as soon after the fire began once more. Hatar was distraught at how any of this was possible. How could the Brotherhood have crafted such a weapon? It seemed like elemental energy, but it couldn’t be. In addition, it baffled him as to why the Brotherhood would need such a weapon. He assumed that it was created by some insane Makuta, who found more pleasure in destruction than in logic or common sense. Of course, that was a typical trait among them.

In his searching he stumbled on something round and metallic. After laying Vandir down, he turned around to find a charred and very warped gold mask. The only recognizable feature that had not been melted into the rest on it was the large scope, and he realized that it was an Akaku and dropped it in shock. He dug through more rubble and found pieces of blue and gold armor, most of which were welded onto the stone in indistinguishable clumps. It came to him that his wisecracking Toa of Psionics was no more.

Hatar kept the mask, picked Vandir up again, and continued tromping down toward the beach. When he arrived, there were a group of Matoran waiting outside a large seacraft. He saw Jeko, Merdana, Nepto, Shensii, Yedrin, and some others. In total he counted twenty-two Matoran.

“Is this all?” Hatar asked. Jeko nodded.

“We tried to collect the survivors,” said Merdana. “This is all we could find.”

“Our population originally had thousands of Matoran,” said Hatar in a strict voice, and laid Vandir down. “There is no way that only twenty of you guys survived.”

“If not, then that soon will be true,” said Jeko. “I’ve reckoned that the increasing temperature will kill anyone else left. It’ll kill us too, if we don’t get going.”

“Going where?” Hatar scowled. The Matoran all looked at each other. Nepto shrugged and said “Somewhere, I guess.”

“Precisely,” said Hatar, “which is why we’re staying here and collecting every last Toa and Matoran who is still breathing!”

“Like I said,” Jeko replied, “the heat here is increasing rapidly. It’s probably a death-zone at the area where the weapon was used. If we stay here for much longer we’ll perish.”

“Except for some,” argued Hatar. “Where is Tura? We could use him. As a Ta-Matoran, he could survive this ‘extreme heat’ you’re talking about.”

“I’m afraid Tura has been injured.” said Ga-Matoran Yedrin. “You should come inside and see him.” Hatar hesitantly boarded the ship.

Tura was lying in the infirmary, with his left hand covered in bandages.

“What happened?” asked Hatar.

“My hand,” said Tura.

“What about it?”

“Gone, obviously.” He began unwrapping the bandages to show Hatar, but Yedrin told him that they were not ready to come off. After much arguing, Yedrin allowed him to take them off, but “only for a short while.”

“Mata Nui,” said the Toa of Gravity, “the wound’s been burnt shut!” Indeed, the place where Tura’s hand had once gone was now a stub, no gore to be seen.

“The correct medical term is cauterized,” piped Yedrin, and Hatar gave her an annoyed look. Then his face showed a skeptical look, and then one of vexation.

“Is this craft moving?” he said loudly. Yedrin nodded shyly and rebandaged Tura’s arm. Hatar stormed outside.

“Who said we were leaving without finding more Matoran?!” he roared.

“I did,” said an awakened Vandir, sitting on a stool with his leg propped up and bandaged. Normally Hatar would have been embarrassed for disrespecting his team leader like he did, but not in such a situation as this one.

“Brother,” said the Toa of Gravity, “I assure you that there are still Matoran on that island.”

“I know,” replied Vandir. Hatar waited for an additional remark, but none came. Underneath Vandir’s mask was a forlorn expression.

Hatar picked something off of the ground that he left there.

“Well, one day we better come back,” said Hatar, and he threw a deformed Akaku into Vandir’s lap. “Maybe as a requiem of our sister.”

Characters

 * Vandir
 * Nohri
 * Hatar
 * An unnamed Toa of Iron
 * Ruthos
 * "Father"
 * Itira
 * Yedrin
 * Nepto
 * Jeko
 * Merdana
 * Tura
 * Several Brotherhood of Makuta soldiers

Trivia

 * Dirge is one of CaptainLandr0ver's more violent and tragic tales. While other stories will be dark, they will not be full of death and destruction like Dirge is.
 * The name was inspired by Hatar's last line, as requiem and dirge are synonyms, and CaptainLandr0ver thought "Dirge" would be a more creative title than "Requiem".
 * Vandir may still have Nohri's melted Akaku during the events of The Feral Plains.