2026-06-17 19:40:59"Run" Robbin yelled.
He held Elaine by the collar of her coat. Pulled her backward. A cold wind came out of the shaft. The ground started to break under their feet. Cracks spread like lines and black oil came out of them. Behind them eyes appeared in the darkness. There were hundreds of them. These were not miners anymore. They were soldiers. They wore armor and moved together like one person. General Alistair Thorne was leading them. He was walking slowly. His big sword was scraping against the stone making sparks. Elaine did not wait for Robbin to tell her again. She was already running. Her boots were slipping in the mud as they ran towards the trees. "We cannot get to Fort William on foot" she said, breathing hard. The air was getting colder. Her breath was turning into ice. The mist was turning into something solid. Ice was forming everywhere. "We do not have to run than the whole army" Robbin said, looking at the path ahead. "We just have to be faster than the ones in front. If we do not warn the fort it will be taken before sunset". Then they heard a noise. It sounded like thunder. It was not. It was the sound of boots hitting the ground. The Ironborn were coming. They did not breathe. They did not get tired. They were faster than any horses. Robbin looked back. Three scouts had broken away from the rest. Their armor was shiny. It caught the little light that was left. They had arms that turned into curved blades. These blades were making a humming noise. They were getting closer. "There" Robbin said, pointing to a place between two big rocks. "We can attack them there". They ran through the place and turned around to face the opening. The first iron creature came through. Elaine ducked under its blade. She swung her swords up trying to hit the crystal in its chest.. Its armor blocked the hit. Blue sparks flew everywhere. "It is protected" she said. "Find the spot" Robbin said. The scout swung its blade down trying to kill Robbin. He caught the blade on his sword. The impact made his arms shake. He grit his teeth. Pushed the blade away. He slid his sword along the creatures arm. Hit its helmet with the handle. The blue light in its helmet flickered. Robbin kicked it back put his sword under its shoulder guard and twisted hard. The black armor opened, showing the crystal inside. Robbin put his sword in. The scout fell down. Elaine climbed the rock. When the other scout swung at the rock she jumped on its back. Put her sword in the weak spot at the base of its neck. The creature made a pitched noise and then fell down. The third scout stopped. It looked at its friends. Then raised its blade and made a loud noise. "It is calling the others" Elaine said, getting up. Robbin did not wait. He swung his sword. Cut the creatures arm. Then he put his sword in its chest. "Lets go" he said. They ran. The forest was changing around them. Big machines, in the mine were sending smoke into the air covering the sun. Heavy snow started to fall covering the path in minutes. The forest was becoming a winter wasteland. After running for two miles in the cold they saw the walls of Fort William. The walls were made of wood. Had sharp points. The Frontier Guard was standing on the walls. "Open the gates" Robbin yelled as they ran across the bridge. "Sound the alarm. Close the fort". The guards knew Robbins voice. They turned the wheels and the gates started to open. "Captain Vance" a lieutenant said from the wall. "What is happening. Why is it snowing". "The dead are coming" Robbin said. He pushed Elaine through the gate. Turned to close it.. Then they heard a loud crash. The snowstorm. They saw General Thorne standing at the edge of the trees. He was alone and quiet. Before the guards could draw their swords Thorne raised his sword. The blade was shining with energy. He swung it. A wave of force cut through the snow. It hit the gates. They exploded. Robbin was thrown back. His sword was taken out of his hand. He hit the stone well. Was dazed. He looked up through the dust and snow. The gate was gone. General Thorne was standing in the ruins looking at Robbin with patience. Behind him thousands of eyes were waiting. The Ironborn Legion.
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Chapter 10
The waterfall's roar filled the tunnel, vibrating through Robbin's teeth and down into his chest. He fought the water, arms burning, lungs screaming but his boots slipped on the old flume boards, slick with silt and something else, something greasy. The current hit him like a shoulder check from a bar fight, driving him forward. He tried to lift his head and a wave buried him, water flooding his nose and mouth, tasting of sulfur and rot. The flood had torn Elaine, Cedric, and Juliana away from him. He didn't see it happen. One moment they were there; the next, the lower factory collapsed and they were gone. Through the spray, the tunnel opened into nothing. The water flattened for a heartbeat, then dropped away into black. The drop. Robbin got one sharp breath, freezing before the world tilted and he went over the edge. Falling. Three seconds of absolute weightlessness, tumbling with the water, with broken timber, with nothing but dark and the roar of wind in his ears. He di
Chapter 9
The air inside the dark vault became cold and wet, and it smelled terrible like things that had been dead for a very long time. The iron door groaned upward. A pressurized hiss, almost alive. Nobody moved. The hundred Ironborn stood frozen mid-stride, blades half-raised toward Robbin's crew. Their eyes are usually steady, almost bored with violence flickered now. erratic. Uncertain. The arm-fused weapons trembled, and somewhere deep inside each puppet, gears ground against something they couldn't name. Robbin's hand found Juliana's elbow. He didn't remember reaching for her. From beyond the door, a sound. Not breathing exactly. Something with rhythm, with weight. It pulled at his chest like a hand pressed flat against his sternum. He could feel it in the soles of his boots, humming through the stone and into his bones. Then the first tendril emerged. Not iron. Not stone. Flesh, but wrong, thick and slow and glistening with something too dark to be blood. Purple, almost black,
Chapter 8
Darkness didn't bring peace. It brought weight, the kind that crushed your chest and stole the air from your lungs. Robbin woke screaming, but the sound died before it left his mouth, buried in frozen mud and gravel. Every part of him ached like he'd been dragged behind a horse for miles. Buried alive. The avalanche had taken them over the cliff's edge and dropped them into the black throat of the canyon below. He clawed through the heavy, wet snow, fingers slick with blood, chasing a faint blue glow that flickered through the debris above. When he finally broke through to the open air, he didn't find the sky. He found stone in an endless vault of ancient rock and rusted iron, stretching up into darkness he couldn't measure. They'd fallen straight through the ceiling of some forgotten tomb. The smell hit him first. Ice-cold air thick with years of stagnant oil and something else, something rotten. "Elaine! Cedric!" His voice bounced off invisible walls, swallowed by the dark. S
Chapter 7
The air now not merely cold, but animate, heavy and wrong. Robbin’s boot came off the muddy floor, and he was lifting inches into the air along with shattered pine branches, clumps of frozen earth, and the heavy iron hulls of dead hounds. General Thorne’s immense great-sword gave a low, bass hum that vibrated right through Robbin’s skull. His vision swam, and his teeth began to ache as the localised gravity field began ripping the surroundings apart, pulling the survivors to the lip of the one-hundred-foot, vertical cliff face. "Hold onto something!" Robbin roared over the weightless suck. He lunged through the air and grabbed onto a huge, exposed tree root jutting from the cliff face, then caught Juliana around the middle of her coat, tethering her as her feet lifted from the ground. Juliana whimpered, holding the steaming brass device in her arms like a shield. Elaine and Cedric, meanwhile, struggled against the weightless horror next to them, Elaine driving her short sword deep
Chapter 6
The clicking sound above didn't sound like any animal Robbin had ever tracked. It was precise. Sharp mechanical ticks, like gears breaking inside a pocket watch. "Don't move " he whispered. He held the torch high its flame casting shadows on the snow. In the branches above a dozen metal shapes crouched like wolves. They were wolf-sized. That was where the resemblance ended. Black iron plates made up their bodies seamless. No eyes. No ears. No mouth. Just a horizontal slit across each face glowing with a pale blue light. One of them shifted its weight. Its claws sank into the bark with a scrape. "Captain " Elaine whispered. Her knuckles were white around her sword hilt. "They're not looking at us. They're tracking our body heat." The lead hound opened its mouth. Or rather its face slit.. Shrieked. The sound was like metal tearing on metal. Then it leapt. "Scatter!" Robbin shouted. The machine hit the snow where they'd stood sending up a burst of powder. It didn't hesitate. Spin
Chapter 5
The cellar reeked of old rot, damp earth, and something else something sharp and metallic. The Ironborn. Juliana clawed at the air, her feet kicking uselessly inches above the stone floor. The officer's iron fist was wrapped around her throat, and he held her like she weighed nothing at all. His short-sword jagged, vibrating, humming with that low, bone-deep sound pressed against her ribs hard enough to slice through her wool coat. The blade's buzz echoed off the walls, like a swarm of angry hornets. "Drop your weapon, primitive," the officer said. His voice came out layered, mechanical, grating. Robbin's knuckles had gone white around his cavalry saber's grip. Elaine stood frozen behind the wine casks, twin short-swords raised, her eyes darting between the three scouts flanking the room. The Ironborn watched them with cold blue eyes, eyes that held nothing. No fear, no pity, no humanity at all. They weren't soldiers. They were weapons. Walking, breathing weapons built to kill. "R
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