Story [Issue 5] Smoky XT Chronicles: Due Stories

[Tommy60 406]

Smoky XT Chronicles:Due Stories

What is it? What could that ever-closing figure be? It seems to be floating on currents of air. I try to back up, but Milan’s motionless tank, rendered useless by the maintenance checks he started running on himself well over an hour ago, stands in my way. I am trapped! The figure wafts down through the dark air, and I see it for what is really is. A leaf. A big, brown, and dying (if not dead) leaf. It landed on the tip of my Smoky XT’s barrel, so I instinctively shoot it (some call it ‘sneezing’). The sound seems to rebound and ricochet off every tree in the prodigious forest that surrounds me. In the moonlight, I can see the fragmented remains of the leaf slowly waft toward the ground. As the last of the flakes drop to the ground, I begin to feel more at ease. Then, in the distance, I see a shimmer of dark, illuminating red dash to and fro between far off trees. Now this is weird. It is definitely too high to be the turret of a tank, but far too low to be climbing and leaping on the branches of the gigantic plants. It seems to be hovering, flying around. Then, I realize; it is coming closer. I race around my disabled companion, and flip the small “Reboot” lever in between the wheels of his treads. I stop hearing the computerized clicks and buzzes that boded technical maintenance. Nothing is happening. Oh, except that creepy thing in the dark, of which I am absolutely terrified.



The silence seemed to be screaming at me. With the strange being closing the distance between us, I begin to panic. What if Milan was too old for a sudden mass-system rebooting? What if he blew a circuit, or fried his Core Processing Unit? Did I kill my hero?! The sudden whir of life from the gold-plated legend answered me in the negative; he was most certainly alive, and waking up. But how long will it take? I peer over his side, to see the other figure--- gone? Yes, it had disappeared completely, without a trace of it to be seen anywhere. “What is wrong, my friend?” boomed the now-awake hero.

Relieved that I am no longer alone, but still terrified of that,--thing—I tell Milan of everything that has happened. As I reiterate my story, he does not question any of my statements, no matter how vague they seem to me. The part about it flying seems to agree with him very well. By the time I get to the point where the being disappeared, Milan has heard enough. “It is time for me to tell you of a tale, my companion. A tale lost to the ages of this world. I fear that I may be the only one who remembers it. Many, many years ago, the technicians and mechanics of this world grew tired of their limited number of hulls and tanks. One tank ruled supreme, it was known as the “Dictator.” The most powerful and skilled of these warrior breed was known as The Tyrant. He dominated every battle that he entered, whether he was with his elite team or alone. Nothing could stop him. He had access to the best weapons and supplies of the time. Eventually, the less dominant tanks, the Titans, Hunters, and Wasps, like you, grew tired of the dictators’ reign. They wanted to annihilate, to vanquish the dictators forever. After it was realized that the conventional means of warfare would be useless, they became desperate. They found new ways to escape for the superior tanks. One way, I have already shown you. The act of multiple tanks resting on top of each other, to go over a barrier, such as a wall. Through that process of <>, they found themselves in this very forest. Through many weeks of traveling, they came upon the mountain that you and I now seek out. There, they found creatures; strange creatures. They were built for combat, but in a completely different way. They could use their technology to float above the ground. Their weapons were deadly—could shoot with perfect accuracy from over a kilometer away. So much power was so tempting for the tanks. They overtook the mysterious beings through sheer force. The alien technology was assimilated, and the tanks equipped the powerful weapons to themselves. They returned with many new tanks and weapons, and destroyed the dictators. It was complete domination. The dictators never stood a chance. The Tyrant broke like a twig beneath their treads. A new age was started, and the survivors of the great war were happy. Teams, based on friendship and loyalty took the place of those founded on power and cunningness. Organized battles started to occur between the groups, known as <>. In fact, it was in the greatest of those battles that I earned this paint. I captured the first and final flag for my team, after hours of hard, bitter fighting. When we returned to our garages later that day, we found cans of new, golden paint waiting for us. We donned them immediately, and went about the battlefields, winning every glorious battle. We soon realized that the paint had special a special quality—it provided resistance against every form of weapon ever encountered.” He stopped talking for a moment.

I interjected, “….And how does that relate to us, right now, in this Maksim-forbidden forest?”

Ignoring my caustic remarks, he concluded his tale. “My friends and I grew tired of the same, easily won wars that found every day. We wanted a challenge. We thought of ourselves so highly, that we could take on any number of foes, regardless of their weapon. It was then that we decided to return to the mountain where we stole the technology that granted us victory over our oppressors. Finding ourselves in a cavern in the side of the mountain, we stumbled upon a group of the creatures, who were trying to rebuild their population. It looked as if they had been putting some thought into new weapon designs. One of which was already equipped on one of their numbers. Overconfident and greedy, my friends and I obliterated the small group, until the only surviving enemy was the one with the new weapon. He ran farther towards the back of the cavern. We pursued. As we passed a rock, we all being ambushed by a simultaneous barrage of shells that dealt enormous damage. We all drove to cover in the form of rocks, to see only the one survivor hovering in the air above us. How could one weapon produce that much firepower? We made an ambush of our own, and…. I….” He paused, seemingly choked up in his words. “I was the most eager of the group, so I--- ripped the turret from the hovering tank. We left the turret-less, hovering tank to fend for itself in the cave, completely alone. Once we arrived home, we all tried to equip this amazing new turret to our tanks, but failed miserably. The wires would just not connect properly; the technology was far too different. We hid the weapon, knowing that if anyone else would happen to find it in our garages, we would be persecuted for illegal weapons manufacturing. I believe you know what happened after that.”

I am in shock. “The shed, the table, the secret--- I found it?”

“Yes, and you did something that not even the wisest of us could have done—you joined it to yourself. I had heard rumors of a new, powerful weapon dominating the ranks of lower levels, but I could not imagine that someone could have found our secret. I traveled to the battlefield in which the house rested, to find it empty. Someone had found it. You have an amazing gift, my friend. That is why I decided to take you with me on this journey. After seeing those other tanks that were chasing you being taken away like crystal boxes on a battlefield, I knew that the creatures had returned, and they were angry. We must stop them once and for all. There can be no survivors, not this time. They will destroy our world, and everything we know and love, if we do not put an end to them.” A crack around a nearby tree prompts Milan and I to shift our turrets and look. And look we did, directly at a horde of floating, lethal weapons and tanks, of various kinds. The sound of charging weapons is a universally known sound. The sharp increase in illumination of the weapons lighted parts, the gradually strengthening whir, and the inferno of shells coming through the barrel.



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Next issue:Attack
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Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[Raphael2 3,263]

Why the hero don't have smoky XT but smoky m3 ?

[Tommy60 406]

^Problems with our designer's TanksTestingTool program.

[Raphael2 3,263]

Ok not important :)

[Deathsfire 10]

nice i cant wait for the next chapter :D

[mkkmkk999 33]

good good good good good thats 5 good issues

[RyanNielsen 0]

@mk

How do you insert an image like yours?

[r_AdvocatusDiaboli0 861]

@mk

How do you insert an image like yours?

 

he was given it for winning the Wolf battles, more info in general section's thread.

[manofbelgium 18]

I love Smoky XT Chornicles! :D

[cablaz 32]

Good job as usual Tommy! :)

[Crusader 198]

Its great!

[8uhbbhu8 0]

more!!!!!

[12345ffy 0]

Good good moreeee

[Tommy60 406]

We will be publishing soon-- just wait! =)

[superninetailedfox 1]

I'm starting to love Smoky XT Chronicles can't wait for the next chapter >.<

[lenti2010 0]

I'm starting to love Smoky XT Chronicles can't wait for the next chapter >.<

[Meliora 1,652]

The next issue, I believe, is coming two months late?

[Tommy60 406]

The new forum layout has caused a lot of technical problems to occur, along with a few staffing conundrums.

[Meliora 1,652]

Oh OK cool, but didn't all topics gets transferred including your private ones? Staff isses NMP.

[skitee 555]

Oh OK cool, but didn't all topics gets transferred including your private ones? Staff isses NMP.

They did, but none of us had any access to the newspaper forums for a good few weeks. Now we do, we have decided to work on our upcoming issue, and make it a bit larger than we originally planned.

[niknik655 2]

Wow nice stories :)

[Meliora 1,652]

Hm.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Meliora