Diederich The Great,Episode 3 Into the Dark

The story continues!

When we last left Diederich, he ether opened fire on a town or charged into take down the count with his own hand.

Hold Fire

Hold Fire
The robotic body lunged forward. Its metallic fists punched at Diederich, but after the counts decadent lifestyle, Diederich had the upper hand. Diederich pulled out his broad sword and flung it at the count.  Clunk! The sword stuck right in the neck of the count. The giant hands wrapped around his bloody neck. Then the giant body slumped to the ground.  The palace guards saw this and they all ran off in to the city. Diederich and his men flooded into the palace. Within moments the entire complex was searched. There was a hole in the ground that resembled a stairwell. As he got closer the hole seemed to be a passage way. “Men hold the court yard, I’ll be back” yelled Diederich. As he delved into the darkness, Diederich noticed that this passageway hasn’t seen use in at least five to four years. As Diederich reached the landing he found a lantern hanging on the wall. Diederich snatched the lantern up and light the wick.  It took a few moments to acclimate his eyes. In frount of him was a wood door of sturdy construction.  

FIRE!

FIRE!
As the dust settled in the streets the Counts Mechanical body shuttered and sparked. A gigantic iron door layer across the counts shattered body. Diederich marched up to the Count and with a swift stab the mechanical body ceased its motions. The human part of the count sprayed blood and screamed in agony.  Diederich quickly plucked his sword and turned to see his troops, but something caught his eye. There was a hole in the ground that resembled a stairwell. As he got closer the hole seemed to be a passage way. “Men hold the court yard, I’ll be back” yelled Diederich. As he delved into the darkness, Diederich noticed that this passageway hasn’t seen use in at least five to four years. As Diederich reached the landing he found a lantern hanging on the wall. Diederich snatched the lantern up and light the wick.  It took a few moments to acclimate his eyes. In frount of him was a wood door of sturdy construction.   

Open Door

Open Door
Diederich nudged the door with his foot. Just then the addable click of a flint lock pistol. The lead ball shoots out of the gun. The noise echoed around the stairway, and Diederich collapsed to the ground. Pain shot across his back. Diederich poked and prodded with his hand and was relieved to find no blood. The round hit his armor and was deflected into the wall. Diederich’s armor was dented, but he was fine. He entered the room slowly.

Look around

Look around
Diederich looked around the door. “Hmmm..” he exclaimed. His finger found a wire. He fallowed the wire to a small crack. As he picked at the wall, flakes of plaster fell to the ground, revealing a hidden flintlock pistol. He removed the wire and started at the door. With a quick kick the door slammed open. Diederich entered the room.

The Room

The room was dark and dusty. There was a wooden table in the middle of the room, along the four walls where maps of Prush, each map was detailed with troop movements. They weren’t strategy maps used during the Antiforden war.  The maps were from the uprising. From the looks of the maps they were rebel maps. The table was filled with paper work. Diederich shuffled around papers until he found leather bound book. The first page described a plot to over throw the Empire. It was dated year before the uprising. There was a list of names, all members of the Royal family. Next to their name was an x, all except one. Diederich’s name was left on the list unmarked. Diederich flipped the pages to another entry. This page had a list of high level Commanders of the Prush army; each name had an amount of money and a “projected placement”.  Count Friedrich, the man the Diederich just killed, was on it. Count Friedrich’s “Projected placement” was to own Outerford his payment was over 700,000 crowns. Diederich was fuming. He tore out the page with all the names of Prush Army commanders and there “Projected placement”. He’ll show them there projected placement, UP THERE SPHINCTER! Just then he heard a dragging noise, and grunting. There was a tall door on one side of the room. On the other side of the room was a large grated air duct. Which way was the best?

Air Duct

Air duct
Diederich grabbed the iron grate and pulled. The iron bars fell right out of the wall and into his hand. The rest of the bars he bent just right to slip in. the air duct was draft, and huge. This wasn’t just built for this room, but built for a larger complex. Diederich lifted his lantern into the darkness. In front of him was a long passageway, pipes and vents gave him hundreds of choices to work from. On the floor he spotted foot prints. The prints were strange looking, they were huge and strangely spaced out. Then it hit him. They must have been Goblin tracks, these marks weren’t feet they were fists. Diederich pulled out his cutlass. He pushed forward. Then up ahead was a pail white goblin, but there was also a way around the goblin through the vents.        

Door

Door
Diederich was carful around doors and gingerly pushed the door open. He was surprise to find no guns or arrows pointed at him. The door creaked and scraped open. The noise echoed into the darkness. “Vhat the hell is dis place?” Diederich asked himself. He lifted his lantern up to the wall, and found a poster, it read “Lady’s love hands don’t get yours chopped off”; the picture was of a working man with both hands giving him two thumbs up. “dat vakes me feel better” Diederich whispered to himself. He took two steps forward, and his left foot squarely planted in a tall pile of poop. “Du Sackgesicht!” He yelled, it echoed across the darkness. Just then he heard the answer to his vulgar outcry, hundreds of yells and the pounding of steel exploded from the darkness. “SCHEISSEKOPF” Diederich replied.

The Roughish type

The roughish type
Diederich moved silently into an off chute of the main pipe. He traveled down the pipe until he found a locked accesses door. Diederich played with the lock; he knew exactly what to do. He took their steps back, and pulled out a hairpin. He stuck it into the lock and jingled the lock. Nothing happened. “Bloede Kuh!” he yelled and with a kick, the door crashed open.  He walked into an engineering office. Dust covered all corners of the room. One wall of the room was all glass, with an electrical panel at the base of the wall. The room was dark but a little red light blinked on the wall. Diederich moved over to the light. Next to the light was a large knife switch. With a powerful pull Diederich flipped the switch. Then in the dark, gears and chains clanked and spun. Then all of a sudden the ceilings opened up, the midday sun cut across the floor. Hordes of goblins ran from the light. The room light up with the sun light. Then Diederich saw a leather book. At first the book was filled with numbers and blueprints but half way into the book he found a note. “We reserved an order from the Emperor himself! And he sent blueprints of a spring motor? I can’t wait to start this project! Long live the Emperor!” Diederich flipped the pages until he found another note. “The Emperor Class land ship is almost finished, but the men have been acting out of turn, but what bothers me more than that is the Counts lack of disciple! Not even a lashing was handed out last week when 3 men were found sabotaging the Emperor’s land ship!” Diederich flipped the pages again and found the last note scribbled in the book. “There mad! All of them! The other day rebel troops moved into the city, the doors were left open, the Count called for a cease fire to his men, some loyal men fought to the last. Now I and a few families are taking shelter in the factory. The count and his men are coming to get us; I’m not going down without a fight. I still have the land ship.” Then the room rumbled. Dust rained from the ceiling. Then the small office shock and dropped a few feet from the ceiling. Diederich flow out the window wall and in to the air.      

Prepare to die!

Prepare to die!
Diederich charged! “Swinehunt!” he exclaimed as the cutlass ripped across the goblins body. Halfway across the goblins chest the sword stopped, it was stuck. The goblin shrieked and with a muscular claw it grabbed the sword.  Diederich let go of the cutlass and pulled out the broad sword. As the goblin charged him, Diederich clenched his sword and began to swing at the monster. With a manly yell the Prush Emperor went on the attack. The sword went over Diederich’s head firmly planted itself into the top of the air duct. Diederich looked up and was disgusted, but he didn’t see the goblin. The goblin jumped at Diederich and pushed him to the ground. Then the air duct began to shake. The goblin turned tail and ran. Diederich laid on his back and let out a frail yell “come back here you fiend”! As he struggled to sit-up he felt the floor shake. Then the entire air duct warped and angled down. As Diederich slipped and slide down the air duct. Then he saw his blade stuck firmly in the celling. Diederich reached up and grabbed the sword, but it wasn’t enough to hold him. Diederich shot out the pipe and into the air.  He was enveloped by darkness. He flailed around, until he nailed a wall. He grabbed at anything he could find, luckily he found a chain. As he swung on the chain, it began to move. Above him he heard clanging of gears and chains moving something on the roof. Just then the celling opened up. Shooting rays of mid-day light down on the floor. Hordes of goblins were caught of guard by the light and ran into the darkness. Now Diederich was feeling pretty good about his predicament, until the chain snapped, sending him to the ground.

Ready you'er self

Ready you’re self
Diederich ripped out his broad sword, and charged his faceless enemy! As he slashed his way at the horde he came to two conclusions. First, he was fighting goblins. Second, his sword needed sharpening. It was like a workout for Diederich, hack once, slash twice. Diederich was getting board, until he reached the far wall and a stairwell. All of a sudden a goblin hoped down from the wall and almost on to Diederich, with a swift kick the goblin fell backwards down the stairs. Now the stairwell was crammed with countless goblins with huge claws and countless teeth. There was no way he was going to fight all of them. He looked for a way out. There! Chains with a rather large lead counter balance. This was his ticket out of there. He vaulted up to the chain and braced himself, with a swift kick at the counter balance he was off! As he shot up into the air he didn’t notice the large skylights opening up, letting in spotlights of the midday sun. The goblins shielded there marble like eyes from the rays, and scattered in to the shadows. Diederich was quite happy with himself. Until the chain gave way.

RUN!

RUN!
Diederich turned quickly for the door, but something was between him and the door. Its massive fists dragged on the ground and its mouth was full of teeth. Diederich new right away, he just walked into a Goblin hive. The goblin lunged forward but Diederich fended off its attack. The door was closed and to his horror it was locked. He pulled and punched to door but nothing happened. He moved to the next best plan, RUN. He followed the hallway until it ended with power box. The power box had a huge lever, “Let’s hope you do something!” Diederich yelled. With a mighty pull the lever came off the wall… But! The wall came to life! Gears and pulleys moved up and down, then in the darkness the ceiling cranked open. The celling sliding open presenting the mid-day sun, like spot lights, the rays of sunlight illuminated the ground. Hundreds of goblins covered there marble sized eyes and scattered into the shadows. Luckily for Diederich, he was bathed in light. Feet away in the darkness, were the glare of hundreds of marble sized eyes. “Vhat you afraid of the light?!” Diederich boosted, until the floor started to shake.

Brace yourself!

Brace yourself
As Diederich fell to the ground he braced himself. Then with a clank he ended on the dirt floor, he landed mostly in the sun light, but his right leg was in the shadow. Before he could react, a huge fist wrapped around Diederich’s leg, and with a powerful pull, Diederich went for a ride. Diederich clawed at the ground as he was dragged across the floor.  Diederich pulled out his cutlass and chopped at the black shadow pulling him around, until he struck a bloody blow. The goblin collapsed on the ground and Diederich sprang up and ran for the light. He must have run into several goblins but he didn’t stop until he ran into the blinding light. Now the goblins started to become ballsey and started to enter the light, Diederich needed a plan.

Plan A

Plan A
Diederich looked about and found the answer to his problems, a weapon room. It was huge; he ran inside and closed to wood door. The goblins now started to surround the weapon room door. The largest goblin made its way forward and gave out an ungodly cry. The door creaked open and a small shiny ball rolled out, the massive goblin gingerly with two fingers lifted the small jewel like ball, it was ticking. The goblin shook the ball and like that it exploded. The goblin’s legs and lower body fell to the ground but the rest of him turned into a fine mist. Then Diederich stepped out. On his back was two canisters and in both of his hands he held a flame shooter. Like a volcano, fire shot out. The goblins ran. Some of the unlucky goblins collapsed in flamed. “Die you Scum!” Diederich yelled. As the flames burned out the goblins, Diederich turned a corner. There she was the largest land ship Diederich had ever seen.      

Plan B

 
Plan B 
Run! Diederich rushed across the floor. Diederich pulled out his cutlass and began to slash away. With every slash Diederich yelled and swore. Then a monstrous goblin crashed into Diederich view, but it was too late. A bolder like fist nailed Diederich right in the chest. Diederich went flying. He did three flips in the air and landed on a rusted hulk of a half built land ship. Diederich was luck, he didn’t land on a pile of wood boxes. Below throngs of goblins started to climb the land ship. Diederich looked around and went straight for the boxes. The first box was filled with small iron balls, covered in grease. He went to the next box. When he ripped the top of Diederich was glowing. It was a light volley gun. It was made to be handheld instead of its larger version. He flipped the gun on its but and began to pump up the air tank. The presser valve whistled and Diederich flipped the gun around. Diederich grabbed a few fist full of iron balls into the guns hopper. He was ready. With his new shiny gun all ready to go, Diederich waited to unleash a volley of death. The first goblin poked his head over the railing. It was like a firing range. He quickly ran out of iron and began to climb up the hulking mass of metal. Once He reached the top of the wreck he scoped the area. There it was the largest land ship Diederich had ever seen. “New plan!” Diederich yelled and made his way off of the rusty wreck. This side of the wreck there were little to no goblins. Finally a he got a brake, and the ship was right in front of him.

Forward to the ship!

Forward to the ship!
Diederich started towards the land ship. The first thing he noticed was the lack of smoke stacks. Instead there were five huge leaf springs. They almost resembled fishing poles that had a huge fish on the other end. The front wheels were a quarter bigger than the regular land ship wheels. It had two main cannons and four smaller cannons scattered around the ship. It was wonderful. As he clanked up the wooden stairs, He noticed that all the outside hatches were chained or barred. He reached the top of the ship and found a door. It had an iron rod shoved into the hatch release. Scrolled on the door was “RIP”. Then the cavernous factory came to life, the goblins picked up Diederich’s sent. Now the whole nest of goblins converged upon the land ship.  He quickly wiggled the rod out of the door and pulled it open. The smell was horrible; it was a mixture of old caned Chanka and urine. Diederich slammed the iron hatch closed and then quickly locked it. Down the hall from Diederich was a trail of opened food cans and rappers, but to his right was a door that was marked “offices”. What is the best way to go?

Office

Too the Offices
The door creaked open, the room was small. One wall was nothing but switch boards. The other wall was covered with maps and blueprints of the land ship. He studied the maps and found out where the command bridge was located. Then he heard the singing. It was the worst noise he had ever heard, ever. The noise echoed through the halls of the ship. It was a shanty sung by land ship men. “Turn wheel turn, check the boiler, check the cannon, turn wheel turn” this haunting melody followed Diederich. Diederich said too himself “First I find out about a conspiracy to kill my family, then I get attacked by goblins and now, I’m having ghost problems”.  Diederich followed the singing until he made his way up a ladder. Then in the light of a port hole, was the figure of the phantom singer. His outline resembled a goblin with his huge knuckle dragging fists and his portly body. “AVAST! Hold your tongue!” yelled Diederich. The figure turned, and yelled “and who is ordering me?” Diederich smirked and replied “Diederich Eirck VonKresser the one true Prush Emperor!”  

On the trail

Follow the trail
Diederich stepped gingerly across the hall, trying not to make too much noise. He found on whole wall marked with lines, like in a jail cell. Someone was counting how long they have been here. Then a strange noise grabbed his ear. Dragging or scraping in the upper levels, did the goblins get in to the land ship? Diederich clutched his sword. He moved forward, but his boot miss stepped onto a can. Crunch! The noise echoed across the Land Ship. The sound from upstairs stopped. Diederich made two steps forward.  Then he nailed in the back, Diederich turned and slashed his sword across the arm of the shadowy figure. The sword grinded down the figures forearm, its arms were bass and steal. Then an iron hand shot out and clutched the sword. “You came to finish the job! Bahhh! Prepare to die!” yelled the shadowy figure. Diederich was shocked and yelled “hold you’re Chankas! Who are you!?”. “You know who I am! You trader-dog!” replied the shadowy figure. “TRADER! If anything YOU are the trader!” yelled Diederich, and kicked the figure to the ground.  Then Diederich looked closely, the figure was a short man, but he had extra-long arms. What was stranger was his clothing; the figure was wearing a Prush Land Ship officer uniform. “I am no trader, pig! I’m still loyal to the Emperor!”. Diederich just looked at the man on the floor and said “I Diederich Eirck VonKresser, the one true Emperor of Prush requires your help!” The man on the ground just looked at Diederich.

Papers!

“BULL CHANKAS” yelled the figure, and he charged Diederich. Diederich pulled out a scrolled paper, it had some gold letters and stuck the letter in front of him. The gold letter caught the light and the figure stopped in his tracks. “Is that… your birth record?” asked the figure. “Can you read the gold leaf letters it says VonKresser, and after that it states that I’m the grandson of the Great Prushian Emperor Karl Con VonKresser? And since I’m the only living member of my family ergo I’m the emperor of prush!”  The figure fell to the ground and began to plead for mercy.  Diederich just stared at the figure on the ground.  “Get up! We have an empire to retake!” yelled Diederich.  The figure jumped up and saluted and yelled “Aufmerksamkeit!” Diederich just looked and gave the man a quick salute and moved up to the bridge. “you’re going the wrong way, the throne room is this way!” said the figure. Diederich was in heaven, aside from the piles of food cans and the smell of old fish, Diederich sat proudly in the iron seat.  Diederich looked down at the figure and asked “whats your name?” The figure answered “I’m chef Land Ship engineer  Bruno Frankfurter, but everyone calls me Hobgoblin”.  

Move Out!

Lets Move out!
Diederich sat in the throne, on the arms of the set had switches and levers. One switch stuck out the most; it had a faint red light glowing above it. Diederich flipped the switch. Pail flickering lamps sparked to life thru out the ship. Then the sound of clanking gears and wheels ticked to life. The ship ticked almost like a heartbeat. “what’s that?” asked Diederich. “It’s the spring motor, it works like a clock, it’s the only one built” Hob answered. Hob walked over to a panel and flipped some levers. The ships lights grew brighter and the ticking became louder.  Hob looked at the gages and yelled “we can move up to 1.60934 kilometers. After that we will have to rewind the motor”. “Thank you Engineer Hob!” yelled Diederich. Diederich flipped a green glowing switch. The seat came to life, it lifted in to the air, under his feet came a pair of foot pedals, and beside that grew a pair of large levers.  “Now you have less than .90956 kilometers left!” yelled Hob.  “What!  We haven’t gone anywhere!” yelled Diederich. Hob looked at Diederich “everything in the ship runs off of the spring motor, from lights to the throne, it all runs off of the motor!”  Diederich needed to get out of this place quick or the ship will be nothing but a nice coffin.

why is there a throne room?

Why is there a throne room?
“Why dos the ship have a throne room?” asked Diederich. Hob looked at him in disbelief. “This was built for the Emperor!  This whole ship was made for the final attack on Antiford! And the Emperor was going to lead the might of the Prush land ship core! But sadly we had a civil war, and I got thrown in this ship, left to die”.

To the surface!

To the surface!
“Hob let’s get out of this hell hole!” yelled Diederich. Diederich pushed down on the right peddle and the huge wheels started to turn, the ship lunged forward down off the building platform. Diederich pared out of the periscope, “there’s a horde of goblins closing in with us!” yelled Diederich. Hob left his post and scurried up a ladder and dispersed. Then the front volley guns light up. As the small ball barring’s ripped into the goblin mob, and like that the horde feel apart and ran back into the darkness. Hob hoped down and ran back to the panel “.00873 kilometers left!” yelled Hob. “Are we close to the exit?” yelled Diederich. Hob looked out a port hole. Hob ran up to a flip switch board and started flipping. The lights turned off. Hob turned and yelled “that should get us some more time, but the lift is on the further side of the factory!”  The ship was speeding up, the ticking sped up as well. Hob looked at the gages and looked back at Diederich and yelled “were almost out!” just as he finished his sentence the ticking stopped, and the throne slowly lowered to the ground. “Follow me!” Yelled Hob as he ran down the corridor, Diederich followed right behind him.  “we’re still moving but we need to reach the manual ship wheel and brake if we are going live” yelled Hob. The ship listed to the right and then to the left. The pair turned a corner and opened a hatch.  Hob and Diederich popped out on to the top outside deck. The two ran to a iron box that protruded out of the deck. “There it is!” yelled Hob. Diederich lifted the door and pulled out the hand held wheel.  Ahead was the lift, it looked barely the size of this ship. Diederich moved the wheel to the right and then to the left. The ship squalled. Diederich pulled the brake line. The huge wheels sparked and screeched. The wall and the lift were so close. Hob hit the deck; Diederich kept working the wheel until the ship slammed into the lift. Diederich was thrown from the top deck to the ground. Hob jumped up and ran to the ladder, by the time Hob reached the ground Diederich was already to his feet. Diederich hobbled to the up lever. With a mighty tug the lift started its slow assent. Finely the daylight flooded the lift. Diederich breathed in fresh air. The sun was so bright it blinded Diederich. But he smelled something dreadful. Once Diederich’s eyes could see his fears were well founded. The desert vulture was in ruins. 

                                          The end!
Will Diederich retake his rightful kingdom or will he die in the desert? check back for the next episode!