The Star Engine
by Somniums
R&R!
"Evacuate the city! Gnomeregan is lost!"
There was a cacophony of shouting, screaming, and dying. Gnomish citizens had dropped their lives where they stood and begun bolting for the exits of their great city when the call came that they had been invaded by troggs. The troggs were a vile, unsightly race of subterranean humanoids and it appears they didn't like the gnomes all that well now.
Everywhere was scattered debris as structure after structure would fall and rumble in the distance. Explosions could be heard echoing out from every corner of the labyrinthine domain. In an effort to contain the threat the leaders of Gnomeregan had flooded the city with radiation. Bodies were everywhere, trogg and gnome alike. The remaining survivors stampeded shouting for the escape passages. Occasionally a trogg ambush would intercept the fleeing survivors, causing a wild scatter as more citizens were picked off and the remaining continued to flee in terror.
There was one gnome though who was running against the tide of fear. A look of panic on her face like all the others though she ran in the direction opposite of them constantly colliding with one terrified evacuee after the next as she pushed them aside.
"Mekrin! Mekrin!" The young female gnome cried out, looking frantically in every direction.
Far back in Gnomeregan where the remaining citizens had either fled or died by now was a typical gnomish domicile. Amidst all the chaos and destruction was a smiling gnome, green hair licked high and fully bearded as the room cackled and cracked with the sounds of soldering and welding.
"Aha! Almost complete!" Proclaimed the gnome excitedly, his voice filled with an energetic and lively timbre.
The room was filled with a collage of random instruments, devices, and unexplainable mechanicals. On the table being tended to was another strange device being constructed by the gleeful resident. Just outside the hovel was the dissolution brought on by the radiation and the troggs. A virulent mint colored mist spawned of the decay, creeping ever closer to the hovel.
"MEKRIN!" Cried the female gnome as she was running through a now desolate Gnomeregan, radiation had spilled into every nook and cranny and she was frantically looking for paths through the miasma.
Light and sparks danced about the room, reflecting off of the metallic walls and the gnome's protective goggles as he tended to his invention with a gleaming smile. He seemed completely oblivious to the transpirations that had begun to occur.
"Hmm!" The gnome observed his creation criticizingly. "Perhaps if I put more-"
The door to the domicile slammed open and a harsh clang echoed throughout the room.
"MEKRIN!" In ran the similarly short-cut green haired female as she ran to the inventing gnome and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Can it not wait Mawly? I've almost created my latest device!" Mekrin declared proudly as he tried to turn back to his table. Mawly forcibly turned him back towards her with worry in her vibrant blue eyes, her breath was heavy and her petite form was panting from exhaustion.
"We have to go Mekrin! Troggs invaded Gnomeregan and Mekkatorque has flooded the city with radiation!" All ready she was pulling him away from the table and trying to return to a sprint.
"Fine! Fine!" Mekrin agreed as he begun following behind Mawly, seemingly reluctant to leave his workbench even in light of the situation.
The two zig-zagged throughout the remaining few passages that lead through the corruption. Going up a level, Mawly leading the way, they came to a wall of the billowing fumes. Mawly desperately looking about till quickly turning to a ventilation shaft that rest against a wall nearby.
"Through here!" She commanded as she reached into a tool belt that rest around her waist, pulling a spanner into her hand as she begun loosening the vent cover. Soon the grate fell to the floor with a deafening bang as she jumped and begun pulling her miniature form into the opening, turning her head over her shoulder to check on Mekrin.
"Mekrin!" Mawly shouted surprisedly as Mekrin had all ready begun busying himself with a small contraption in his palm that he was tending to with a thin precision tool. Even worse that caught the frightened gnome's eyes was the silhouette of something barreling through the fumes, a trogg.
The trogg was enraged with mutation as it bellowed out, swinging a piece of metal debris wildly in its hand as it turned on the distracted Mekrin. Mawly jumped back down quickly and ran to intercept, all the while the other was completely oblivious and focused on his tinkering.
The trogg lifted up the debris and growled out, just behind Mekrin as it came to bring it crashing down atop the distracted gnome.
"Oomph!" Mekrin groaned out as his tool and toy fell from his hands and bounced into the growing cloud. Mawly had tackled him away from harm for the time being, a thunderous thud emitting as the trogg's make-shift weapon collided with the steel floors of Gnomeregan.
Mawly picked Mekrin up to his feet and pushed him in the direction of the vent, Mekrin was dusting his work coat off tediously as he turned to see the trogg.
"Oh! My!" Mekrin's eyes widened behind his tinted goggles as he became more agreeable with Mawly's decision to escape. "Let's get moving then I suppose! He doesn't look too friendly."
"Right!" Mawly was all ready pushing Mekrin up into the vent as the trogg came stomping after her in a frothing rage. Mekrin fell into the ventilation shaft with a reverberating clang. Mawly turned to the trogg just as it rose the slag of metal once more. Mawly rolled to the right a short distance as it was brought down with crushing force and dented against the edge of the vent. The large trogg turned to Mawly and snarled, swinging in a wide sweep as Mawly jumped in avoidance once more, flattening against the cold ground as the weapon cleaved the air just above her.
The trogg had swung so furiously it hunched over and stumbled in Mawly's direction. Thinking quickly she jumped to her feet and hopped up the side of the putrid monster like a pair of steps, jumping from atop its back and landing into the vent next to Mekrin.
"Come on!" Mawly said with a heavy breath, beginning to climb a maintenance ladder within the shaft.
"Yes, yes! I'm coming! Waiting on you is all!" Mekrin said cockily as he followed Mawly up the ladder. Below the sounds of the trogg echoed into the shaft as it attempted to force itself into the opening with clumsy aggression.
The two reached the top of the ladder, several stories up now Mawly looked back down at the disturbance of a loud metallic rupturing sound banging out from the bottom of the shaft. The destructive fumes were quickly chasing up after them now after erupting from a pressurized compartment of the vents.
"We have to go faster!" Mawly yelled out to Mekrin, he nodded as they got to their feet in the vent once it turned into a long path. Their gnomish size was just perfect for standing in the shaft, any taller and they would have had to be on their knees. The two begun sprinting down the metallic passage, each step echoing out with a clang. The rasp of the cloud behind them was growing louder.
Mawly was looking over signs put up by maintenance indicating which twist and turn directed them where. Another minute and the two approached another ladder.
BOOM!
A horrid dissonance deafened them both as a nearby district of Gnomeregan exploded from damage, shaking the ventilation shaft and ringing in their ears now.
"Hurry up!" Mawly cried out as she begun to ascend the ladder, Mekrin right behind her.
Reaching the top of the ladder another explosion reverberated out, then another and another. Each time it sounded closer than the last and shook the vent ever more violently. Mawly pulled Mekrin back to his feet quickly after he stumbled from one of the excessive blasts. The two had ascended several stories of their city now through the ventilation. A cool air began to wash over them now from the direction they were running.
Urrrrgh! Rurrrr!
Just as Mawly and Mekrin turned the corner into a much larger section of the shaft, the one that fed all the other minor shafts, another obstacle was before them. Another trogg had gotten lost in the shafts and now stood before them barring their way out. It spotted the two and went into a frenzy, swinging its arms wildly as it begun to charge them. Both of them frozen for a minute, in front of them was a trogg and behind them were the continuous sounds of miasma and growing destruction.
"Come on!" Mawly shouted as she grabbed Mekrin's hand and ran with him towards the fumbling trogg. Just as Mawly got in reach of the beast's lanky arms she slid from her footing onto her rump and back, pulling Mekrin down onto his front as the two slid under and between the legs of the trogg.
"Eeeyah!" Mekrin yowled out as his goggles grinded the shaft floor. Mawly lept back to her feet and with her pulled Mekrin back to his and kept their momentum, returning to their sprint. The trogg angrily tossed about, turning itself around in the vent was a clumsy ordeal.
BOOM! BANG!
Right behind them was a bright flare of fiery light. Mawly kept resolute while Mekrin seemed for the most part stoic to all that was going on. Another turn in the vents and a dot of light appeared in front of them, three lines segmenting the glow. At the end of their shaft was the exit vent that dumped out into winter landscape of Dun Morogh.
"Hurry! Hurry!" Mawly's frantic yet pitchly voice shouted out anxiously as they picked up their pace as best they could. Another explosion followed by a flash of light right behind them as well as the dying cry of the trogg as it was engulfed in flames as they drew closer to the vent.
"Wait! We have to go back!" Mekrin suddenly cried out, Mawly looked over her shoulder while running forwards with a confused, unsettled expression.
"What? Why?"
"I left my soldering gun back at the house!"
BOOM!
The two were tossed forwards by the force that erupted right behind them causing them to bounce forwards through the shaft. Both of them were still for a moment, now laying just at the large vent panel that exited the shafts and out into the snow and sky. Mekrin groaned as he lay limp against the ventilation wall, the fumes and fire were right on their tail. Mawly jumped up quickly and grabbed Mekrin by the neck of his coat as she begun tugging him frantically the short distance remaining.
"Mekrin! Get up please!" Mawly cried out, a dozen steps to the exit.
BOOM!