I've said time and time again this has turned out better than I thought it would. The thing is, I haven't found a word to describe the magnitude of it. Thank you all for your support
I tried the new versions Dwarf Fortress mode. Thanks to reading about everyones problems, I didn't encounter that many. Magma set-up worked the first time, and I got rid of the imps with nothing but wrestlers (which is, coincidentally, how i whittled it down to a lone inhabitant).
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Blitukus sat back, idly inspecting his automatic crossbow and ammunition as the flying machine continued on. Occasionally he would turn the machine slightly in a course correction. Dawn was breaking. The sun slowly rose, scattering its rays through the atmosphere, skipping off the clouds and surface at a shallow angle. Once again, he soared down from the poles, crossing from the freezing wastes through the temperate woodlands to his scorching homelands. As he traveled, the sun continued to rise. Animals looked up from the surface as the bat-winged steel contraption distantly roared through the sky far above, leaving a trail of light-colored steam behind it. He looked ahead, resting his head on his hand. He noticed he was entering the scorched land that was once called Anthath Sizet. He sighed out of his nose, and looked around. The goblins somehow managed to make flying machines of their own. They were primitive, and their machines would be easy to spot and intercept... if they were within visible range. He thought they would have a mobile army somewhere around, to sift through the wreckage and laugh about the destruction they had caused. Criminals such as them tended to return to the scene of the crime. He spotted a fleet of flying objects in the distance to the west, and changed course to approach. He approached, and noticed he was nearing, but they still seemed rather small. He gripped the trigger of the automatic crossbow, and watched carefully as he passed under the flying objects... nothing more than a flock of birds, forming a bottomless triangle in the sky. He watched them, but something moving, just out of the corner of his eye, triggered his instincts. He quickly looked over in that direction. Something was moving in the distance, the suns rays shifting over its surface. He turned southwest, and flew along the deserts. Whatever it was, it was flying over the suburbs of the old capital. As he approached... he saw their identity. He was coming up behind a fleet of flying machines. They were blimps, 20 feet in length and 3 feet across, ropes slung over their envelopes, carrying a 10 by 3 foot wooden platform each. The platforms each had two engines mounted to it, the broad blades slowly turning not under steam power, but under manual force, slowly pushing the blimp through the air. They were nearly still compared to Blitukus' flying machine. Each blimp had several green figures standing on the platform, one running each engine. He flew past, watching them. Something small parted from one of the blimps, and whizzed through the air. An iron bolt ricocheted off of Blitukus' right engine. Down below, many green figures were scrambling to find cover.
You only make this easier...
Blitukus flew forward, ignoring the blimps. He pulled up, and armed one of the bombs. The bomb creaked and heated to a glowing heat as Blitukus turned around. He saw many of the goblin infantry taking cover in an abandoned marketplace. They were expecting a rain of bolts. They had expected wrong. Blitukus lined up with the abandoned building, and swooped down, pulling the release lever as he neared the bottom of the swoop. The mounting unlatched, and the bomb detached from the flying machine, plummeting towards the surface. The magma-laden bomb punched through the ceiling, and detonated within the building, blowing the roof off and collapsing the walls, sending burning debris into the air. Many !!goblin corpses!! were catapulted away from the explosion, some were impaled with flying shrapnel, and several goblins ran frantically out of the burning, magma-filled wreckage, flaming. They set fire to all that they ran near, and died the most painful death possible, collapsing, occasionally twitching as their bodies lay. One of the goblins unfortunate enough to suffer this fate collapsed 3 feet away from a body of water. Liquid fire spilled slowly through the ruins, setting trees, brush, and the occasional hapless goblin ablaze. Blitukus watched it as he passed by, grinning and snickering. Blitukus armed the second bomb, and turned around. The goblins below were scrambling behind the buildings. There were odd flying machines, more complex than the blimps, hidden behind the buildings. Three bolts rained down from a blimp above, two lodging themselves within the fuselage of Blitukus' flying machine, one piercing into the engine. Blitukus swooped down, and dropped the second bomb. It exploded on impact with a wall, magma raining down, ruining several flying machines but causing many less casualties than the last. That was the last bomb, Blitukus was down to his automatic crossbow. Several goblins ran under the nearby trees and began shouting and flailing about. Blitukus wondered what they were doing. Soon, birds took flight from the trees. Birds? Blitukus laughed... BIRDS! He realized he was about to collide with several innocent avians. He pulled up full force and ducked. Several birds smacked into the front of the flying machine, sending feathers and blood into Blitukus' face. One bird was sucked into the left engines turbine, which resulted in a dismembered corpse and several chunks being catapulted out of the back. The flying machine shook, and the left turbine snapped and groaned for a second, the turbine speed meter dropping sharply, losing a third of its full value. The exhaust from the left engine darkened, and its power dropped, but it was still flying with plenty of power. Minor damage, nothing more. Blitukus wiped the bird blood from his goggles. Then, he turned the flying machine around, ascending to meet with the blimps. The blimps had begun to turn around, and their sides faced Blitukus as he lined up.
He faced four blimps, each carrying three goblin crossbowmen in their platform. As Blitukus approached, they fired simultaneously. Blitukus ducked and growled as several bolts sank into the front of his fuselage and into the wings of his machine. The goblin crossbowmen stopped to reload. Blitukus took advantage of this and turned, firing to the side, strafing by the blimps. He fired at the envelope of one blimp, each hit causing a larger impact until the seventh caused the envelope to rupture, sending the platform, and all those aboard, plummeting hundreds of feet. He approached the second blimp nearly head on, firing across its platform. A bloody mist rose as several goblins were hit. They returned fire at the same time, one goblin firing one shot just before his death, the bolt sinking into the tail of Blitukus' flying machine, another, the last alive aboard, firing as Blitukus flew past, the bolt striking the back of the wing, piercing a conduit. The conduit leaked some steam. Blitukus turned around, and fired directly into the sights of that goblin, finishing the goblin off, leaving that blimp to float, unmanned, derelict. The remaining two blimps fired, 3 or the 6 bolts landing. Two of those landed on fuselage plating, and one struck the top of the left engine, piercing a generator. Magma leaked out of the engine and water washed through. The engines power fell and the steam coming out of it darkened further. To keep the aircraft balanced, he reduced the power of the right engine slightly. He turned once again, and fired at the envelope of the blimp in front of him. Like the first, he ruptured that blimps envelope after several shots, sending the platform crashing down, destined to become wreckage on impact. As he approached the last blimp, he fired, and nothing came out. His clip was empty. Two bolts struck the right side of the fuselage, but the third crossbowman was taking his time aiming. Blitukus detached the empty clip, and held it, ready to throw it at the goblins as he flew by. The goblin crossbowman aimed carefully, and loosed his bolt as Blitukus approached. Blitukus immediately felt dread as the bolt whizzed through the air on its precise path. He moved to duck, to turn the craft, to do something, but his impulses were ever so slightly slower than the bolt. The bolt flew towards his head and struck just above his skull with a loud "PANG" as it sunk into the steel behind him. Pain shot through Blitukus' head and down his body. He shut his eyes and yelled in pain, feeling blood trickle down onto his head. He opened his hand, losing hold of the empty clip. He opened his eyes as he realized he had jerked to the side, and immediately shut them again. He was headed straight for the blimp. He braced himself. SH-SHANG! His flying machine jerked to the right, but wasn't sent out of control. He opened his eyes, and turned the flying machine around. His wing had cought on the ropes holding the goblins platform to their envelope, and severed them. The platform dangled vertically below the envelope, being held up by only one side, its former inhabitants plummeting toward the ground. blitukus tried to look down, but pain shot through his head once again as he tried to move. He looked up with his eyes. His right ear had been nailed to the back of the cockpit by an iron bolt, and blood was slowly dripping down his ear, onto his head. He growled, and pulled the bolt out, grunting as he did so. If it had landed only a couple of inches lower, that would've been his brains nailed to the steel plating. He looked over the side of his flying machine, and threw the bloody bolt down toward the ground, holding a slight hope it would fall upon a goblins head. Those odd flying machines spat out steam, and took to the skies, hovering beneath rapidly spinning rotors, a small fan on their tail to regulate their rotation.
Blitukus slowed his flying machine, and turned to face them, loading a new clip of bolts into his automatic crossbow. He fired at them as they fired at him. Bolts whizzed by at shallow angles, many ricocheting off of Blitukus' metal fuselage without sinking in. Many of Blitukus' bolts sunk into the unimportant front of the goblin flying machines, ricocheted off, or were effectively batted away by the rapidly rotating rotors. Blitukus continued firing, but the small goblin flying machines were very agile despite their lack of speed, and evaded Blitukus' sights. If Blitukus wanted a chance at hitting his target, he would have to fight on their level. He pulled up, and switched to vertical flight mode. He slowed down to a near hover, and hovered close to the ground, flying above the streets of the once prosperous town. The goblin flying machines surrounded him but couldn't get below him due to this. Blitukus advanced, charging at one of the goblins machines, firing as he approached. The shots were absorbed by thick wooden and leather armor. He held his fire as he pulled up to avoid a collision. The goblin fired, striking the nose of his flying machine. Blitukus tilted his flying machine to the side, and fired into the cockpit of the goblin flying machine. The goblin shook, gagged, and fell from his seat, the flying machine falling, bouncing off the ground, then crashing on its side, hard ground stopping its rotors. Another goblin was charging in behind him. He firewalled the regulator, making his flying machine jump upwards. The goblin flying machine behind him rushed under him and continued, smashing into a wall, putting a hole in it, but the machine didn't stop running. The pilot was stunned, but the rotor kept turning. He faced another goblin flying machine, and strafed it, trading shots with it. He saw the third remaining goblin trying ot help the first pull himself out of the hole in the wall, but ended up getting tangled in the rubble himself.
I think I'll call you dumb, and you dumber!
They were temporarily out of the way, and he faced one opponent at that moment. Blitukus tilted his craft the other way and forward, approaching as he strafed in. Blitukus held his fire as the goblin pelted his flying machine with bolts. Several more conduits were pierced, and he felt his controls losing a bit of pressure, but it was worth it. He fired into the side of the goblin flying machine, landing several direct hits on the goblins boiler and tail, breaking several valves on its boiler, and jamming the tail fan. The goblin machine relied on its tailfan to counteract the torque of its rotor, so, it began to spin out of control. It smacked into the ground and skidded, but that goblin, even without a tail rotor, refused to give up. No longer did steam escape the boiler of that goblins flying machine. The boiler began to tap and creek. There was a clanking and the sound of stones hitting one another as the other two goblins managed to dislodge themselves from the rubble and take to the air once more. They fired, striking Blitukus' right engine. The engine sputtered and began to spit out grey steam. Blitukus' machine rocked toward the damage engine, and stumbled to the side, but he regained control. He turned, and fired, but once again, nothing came out. He popped the empty clip out and threw the casing at one of the goblins flying machines. Sparks were sent as it ricocheted off of the rotor. He heard a goblin yell. The flying machine he had critically damaged, now behind him, steam spewing out of missing rivets on its boiler, lunged into the air, on a collision course with Blitukus. Blitukus brought his engines to zero power, and fell, letting the enraged goblin whiz by above him. He then firewalled the regulator to catch himself. The enraged goblin collided with his two friends. Blitukus laughed, and loaded another clip. He charged forward, lining up to fire, but saw the two goblins working together to hurl their injured squadmate at Blitukus. The goblins Xrotary flying machineX was hurled at Blitukus. He saw more rivets shoot out of the goblins boiler, and it laughed as it rocketed towards him, black smoke coming out of its engine. Blitukus held his breath and pulled back as hard as he could. He had broken the relief valve on the goblins boiler, and now it was reaching critical pressure. The goblins flying machine struck the bottom of Blitukus' flying machine, and Blitukus felt slammed into his seat with immense force. The goblins boiler erupted with intense force, disintegrating the goblin flying machine, sending flaming fragments flying everywhere. It all seemed a blur to Blitukus. He felt hot steam blow against his face, riding a shockwave, the body of his flying machine torquing and bending. Blitukus was stunned, his flying machine knocked back. He dimly sensed himself smacking into something, and stuff dropped into the cockpit, falling on his lap. He grunted, rubbed his head, and focused until he was no longer stunned, his blurry senses once again returning to clarity. He realized the tail of his flying machine had impaled itself in the wall of a building, dust was in the air and a few bricks had fallen into the cockpit. The other two goblin flying machines had also been blown back, smashed into walls. Blitukus saw the horrid damage that had happened, steam escaping out of his control console, his engines dented up and pierced multiple times, his wings warped and twisted, and much of the steel plating on the bottom of his fuselage had been blown open on top of it. Yet somehow, his engines still spun. He pressed the regulator and flight control forward in an attempt to break free from the wall. The controls were reluctant to move, but Blitukus forced them to. Slowly, the flying machine dragged itself out of the hole in the wall, and kept flying. Somehow, it kept flying. Blitukus laughed. Steel was the toughest metal around. He thought, maybe being the son of Fale Siegedriven, the devices that he made may have just inherited a bit of her toughness through him. He smiled as he faced the stunned and injured goblins. He turned to face one, still stuck in the wall. He fired at the flying machine until its transmission jammed, causing the rotor to seize, leaving it dangling from the wall, its pilot, nearly unconscious, sent tumbling down, becoming impaled in rubble when said pilot landed. The last goblin had just managed to free its flying machine from the building, and when he looked up, he found himself looking right into Blitukus' bloodied face. Blitukus had approached, and was practically nose to nose with the goblin flying machine. Blitukus laughed and grinned, ears laid back. Blitukus spoke, "Goodbye!" The goblin froze in dread, as Blitukus fired his automatic crossbow. Two bolts sank into the goblins forehead, and the goblin fell limp, sliding off of his seat and falling to the ground. The derelict flying machine slowly drifted downwards, and brushed against the ground, tipping over and parting from its rotor as it fell on its side.
Blitukus had defeated them. He continued with his laughing as he ascended away from the ruins. It was going to be a slow ride home. His wings were trash, and his engines would refuse to tilt anyway. He would have to fly in vertical mode the rest of the way. His flying machine shook slightly as it ascended. Blitukus sat back as he slowly rose up closer and closer to the clouds. He noticed the sun becoming blocked. Then, a loud roaring erupted, almost like a horn. There was then the sound of many goblins laughing, yelling, and cussing in their own tongue. A sense of certain, omnipresent gloom came over Blitukus. A flying machine, like nothing he had ever dreamed before, was slowly coming through the clouds. It wasn't just a blimp. It was a zeppelin, a full airship. It had an envelope 100 feet in length, a gondola suspended below 50 feet in length and 25 feet wide. It was powered by 4 steam driven engines, each half as large as Blitukus' entire flying machine. The gondola was open topped, and held a fully crewed ballista within along with a weapon he had never seen before. One of the goblins crewing it yelled down at Blitukus, "This is the end for you!" Blitukus felt his dread rising. It probably was the end for him. No matter, he would go out with a fight even if it was truly the last thing he would do! He pulled back, and aimed upwards. He ignored the goblin crossbowmen, and fired at the zeppelins right rear engine. He fired a continuous burst, puncturing several pipes, causing the engine to sputter and vent steam. A wave of bolts mostly missed him, but several landed, further damaging the front of his wings. He kept firing, the zeppelins engine spewing darker and darker steam until it smoked and flamed, seeming to come apart as Blitukus emptied his clip. He saw himself ascending to the same height as the zeppelin, and reloaded his automatic crossbow. This was his last clip. The goblins yelled furiously as their right rear engine was mangled, and scrambled to take aim at Blitukus. Blitukus turned to distance himself from them, but they fired right at that moment, further mangling the bottom of Blitukus' fuselage and his right wing. Several bolts pierced into the bottom of the right engine, and the turbine finally gave out. The engine sputtered, and lost a significant amount of power, magma and sparks spewing out from it as it trailed black smoke. It clanked as gears ground with one another. The zeppelin ascended once more above the clouds. Blitukus growled, and tried to follow, but his flying machine lost lift and refused to pursue to those heights. Once again, he saw the zeppelin dipping down below the clouds. He took aim on the enormous envelope and opened fire.
Pop goes the weasel!
The envelope seemed to absorb the bolts without becoming punctured or rupturing at all. It was reinforced, a thin leather coat draped over it as well.
... or not?
The zeppelin pulled in front of Blitukus, and they trained their odd weapon on him. When they fired, flame spewed forth from their weapon, engulfing Blitukus' flying machine for a moment. Blitukus ducked, and escaped much of the inferno, but after that moment, the fire was replaced by thick smoke. Blitukus coughed and couldn't see a thing. He tried to ascend as he felt himself suffocating, and eventually ascended above the trail of thick smoke. His fur had been partially blackened in the heat and smoke. Such a weapon could set fire to an entire town, that was for sure, but it wouldn't leave metal melted, energy burns on its victims. This was not the super-weapon, even though it was powerful. He yelled in rage, and fired full auto into the heavily populated gondola of the zeppelin, sinking his bronze bolts into the bodies and craniums of several goblins, but quickly running out of ammo. An enormous projectile whizzed by him. They had fired the ballista, and thankfully, missed. He flew up close to the gondola, and, despite bolts whizzing uncomfortably close to his own cranium, he detached the empty clip and threw it at a goblin, knocking the goblin back, off of the gondola. He then pulled away and turned back to face the zeppelin. They were rapidly loading another ballista arrow. He went to reload... and realized, that was his last clip. He had spent his means for vengeance, and now found himself unable to flee as well. The ballista the goblins had was able to rapidly and accurately aim thanks to steam machinery turning it. They finished reloading, and aimed at Blitukus. Blitukus pushed the regulator as far forward as he could possibly force it, and angled himself upwards, but his flying machine was refusing to move itself. It was too broken to dodge. The goblins loosed the ballista arrow, and it arced up, and fell right towards Blitukus. He was powerless to dodge. The arrow flew right into his flying machines left wing. The left wing parted from the flying machine, and the entire bottom of the left engine was ripped off, gears and generators torn away, left to tumble toward the ground. The left engine sputtered and let out its last turns as it trailed thick black smoke and flame. Blitukus found himself spinning out of control, but, he was above the goblin zeppelin. The goblin zeppelins flame thrower weapon had a large flame tank supplied by several fire snakes. If it were to hit the ground rather hard, the entire zeppelin would burst into flames. His flying machine was done for, but he wasn't... yet. He had one last chance to fulfill his vengeance, that one last chance was his right engine, spewing black smoke and sparks, but still managing to spin. With the last few gasps of steam left in his flying machines control systems, Blitukus directed the spinning near-wreck towards the top of the zeppelin.
Yeah, he was right. This is the end for me. It's the end for him too! Today... What a great day to die!
He laughed, and let himself sit, let his flying machine tumble on its own, not caring to move to change any of it. Blitukus' flying machine punched into the envelope of the zeppelin, rupturing three gas bags and punching a hole through the side of the gondola on its way down. The flying machine spun and tumbled downward, and Blitukus closed his eyes, awaiting his death in anticipation of what would come after. Behind him, the zeppelin, having lost nearly all of its lift, plummeted towards the ground. The roaring of the wind intensified, and Blitukus let out a breath, decided to make that his last one, and refused to inhale afterward.
A few seconds later...
SMASSSSHHHHHS!
CRUNCH!
CRANGGG!
The flying machine crashed through several trees, crashed into the ground, and skidded to a stop, leaving a trail of run down shrubs and mud behind it. During the crash, Blitukus' face was smashed into the console, and he was slammed into his own seat. He felt himself thrown from his connection to reality, and all was a dim, silent, nebulous white.
A few hours later...
Slowly, that nebulous white seemed to dissipate, and Blitukus found himself in a surreal, blurry depiction of reality. He felt rather numb.
Ugh... I think I landed so hard I punched right through hell, looped around, then ended up in heaven! At last... I'm at my final resting place.
The blur slowly faded, and he found himself looking up at at a tree. A bird had landed near him, cawed at him, then flew away. The numbness began to lift, and he found himself stifling a constant yell from intense pain. He had not reached his final resting place. He was ready to die... but the rest of the mortal plane wasn't so keen on letting him go it seemed. He found himself laying within the broken cockpit, mangled steel and mechanisms all around, the broken engines still smoking a bit. He slowly sat up, but still felt rather dizzy and light headed. He found his arm had come detached from his shoulder, and with a grunt, and a yell, forced it back into its socket. His left eye gave a clear image, but his right eye was still blurred. He found his face and much of his body soaked in blood, but much of the bleeding had stopped. Blitukus tried to move, to excavate himself from the wreckage, but yelled again as he discovered several bones in his body had been broken, his legs nearly so. He slowly eased himself out of the seat, sliding his legs out from the collapsed panel, and then carefully, gradually, stepped out of the cockpit, setting an unsure foot on the ground. Then, he eased his other foot down. He stumbled forward, holding his broken arm straight. He stood, and his body seemed to want to dangle over and collapse. Several parts of his skeleton had failed, and the only thing holding his body properly together and upright now was conscious effort and caution. He took his pulse. It was somewhat weak and rapid, but it was still there. He looked at the mangled wreck of his flying machine, engines smoldering, magma stewing below them. He looked at where the zeppelin had crash landed. The wreck of the zeppelin had been burned to a crisp.
Well there goes the whole zeppelin industry!
Blitukus laughed, but it was cut short as he found himself spitting up blood. He found a new sympathy for broken machinery. His body was in many ways broken. He stood, living on borrowed time. He remembered how the magic at the regions border had saved his mothers life in times of peril. The world had given him an opportunity to live. He slowly turned, and forced himself to walk toward the edge of the region. He would take the opportunity. He felt nearly invincible considering what he had just survived, but he realized just how close he came, how close he was, to death. Luck seemed to have fallen in love with him, it seemed. He snickered at the thought, and wore a bloody grin as he walked towards the region border. The fight wasn't over yet. He'd reach the border to heal, and then he would return. He limped his way forward. He promised the world that none of the goblins would survive that day.
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I hope the fact that this is detached from DF isn't a negative point (it won't be detached all the time).
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Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76118 times)