The Elementals : The Dawn of Darkness

Chapter 19 - Because of Course They Have Giant Robots

The building towered before us, rising so high it was almost touching the clouds. And that was just the wall. Even by comparison everything else seemed impossibly massive, from the front gate which might as well have been a bank vault door with the amount of locks attached to it, to the smoke and steam belching chimneys that were turning the sky from sapphire blue to the darkest black. People were scurrying about with heavy machinery and carts loaded with something I couldn't make out from here so the whole place was, un-ideally, buzzing with life

Inside the walls I could just about make out what seemed to be a factory that was whirring away, filling the air with the harsh clangs and screams of metal on metal. It was also emitting a hell of a lot of heat because it sure as hell wasn't this warm a second ago. Then there was the smell, it was a sulphurous odour with the scent of smoke and sweat mixed in for good measure, a cocktail that burned your nose and clung to the walls of your throat for good measure.

The three of us were standing, gaping with our mouths open at the sight of this monstrous machine of people and parts but internally I could safely say I was screaming in horror and fear. How in the name of good queen Liz were we going to get into that!? Those were walls were not undefended, oh no, I could see rocket launchers from where I was standing. ROCKET LAUNCHERS! Patrols of guards marching neatly along the top of the barbed wire lined paths certainly didn't help my confidence either. What on Earth had we gotten ourselves into this time?

"What the hell is that?!" I announced loudly.

"I'm not sure," Sheira said, her voice hinting that she was as equally terrified as I was.

"That's Fort Knox..."

"You wouldn't be far off," Shadow muttered as he pulled out his multitool and flicked it out into the binocular setting. He peered carefully at the structure and then pulled away with a frown. "This isn't good."

"I don't think we needed you to tell us that mate."

He gave me the annoyed side eye. "Can you two see that banner thing on the big building, it looks like two buckets pouring something into a mould, yeah that one, well that means that we're in big trouble. That banner belongs to a group called the Forgers Guild."

"I've heard of these guys," Sheira said her face turning an ashen grey, "it's not good."

"I haven't," I said cheerfully.

Shadow rolled his eyes, "for the one that doesn't know anything about our world let me explain why we don't want to be messing with these guys. The Forgers are a group of Metals who specialise in making weapons, machines and defence systems all capable of mass destruction, then they'll just sell to the highest bidder, not giving a damn what you use it for, you could start world war three and so long as you paid in full they wouldn't care. If the gold keeps flowing they'll keep the doomsday devices pumping out like clockwork. That's what their emblem shows, gold and sweat makes metal."

"Gross," Sheira said with a shudder.

"Kind of. I don't know who this factory's producing for, I know for a fact that Molly has some under her payroll, but I don't remember seeing this one. Then again I don't really want to get close enough to find out, Forgers are notoriously unfriendly, so I really hope you were right for once."

"Wait what?" What did he just say? "About what?"

"Scarlett's errand runners making a beeline for the horizon instead of coming here. Forgers use captured prisoners as a workforce, cheap labour that they barely feed, barely water and they're never allowed to rest. They don't care so long as they do their job and get a decent amount of time out of them before they drop dead from exhaustion."