The Iron Toa

The world was glowing – not blindingly brightly, but with a soft yet omnipresent lambency. Imlen felt his steed vibrate with a force transferred into its hooves by the luminescent ground. This was more of a gentle resonating quiver than an earthquake, however. In this strange light, he could see unnaturally far into the distance, and he saw the landscape changing in several places. A dry riverbed was suddenly flooded, some abandoned ruins reformed into a majestic empty city, and broken mountain peaks were restored. When the glow and the vibration ended, the world looked to be in better condition than it had been for centuries. The emissary from Balkhder – Shlusgenad was his name – stopped his vehicle, and so Imlen and the seven warriors Frithozib had sent brought their Hypaka to a halt alongside him.

“What has happened?” he said worriedly.

“I'm not sure, but it looks like a good thing to me,” said Imlen. “It looks like the land is being... healed.”

“Yes. That ridge there was toppled in the Great Cataclysm,” said the captain of the warriors, an orange-armored being named Yeraan, pointing to the repaired mountains.

Imlen was even more relieved than the others, for he realized this must have been the work of the Mask of Life Turaga Alled had spoken of. If Mata Nui was dying because of the damage the Makuta had done to the world, it must have been used to undo the damage before it was too late. He had been planning to tell his companions of the doom they faced, for he felt they were trustworthy, but now there was no need. This did nothing to end their troubles with the Brotherhood army – in fact, it almost guaranteed the war would go on – but the nine travelers were still in relatively good spirits as they continued their ride west.

A mighty impact struck the keep, rattling the storage vault in which Mozmana was incarcerated. That one was just the latest and strongest part of a barrage that had been hammering the building intermittently throughout the day. Rock dust fell from the ceiling. A short while later, the catacombs trembled again, and this time there was a crash and a scream from one of the vaults. The scream trailed off into silence and was followed by a commotion among the other prisoners. Mozmana could guess what had happened: the attack had broken the ceiling above an unfortunate prisoner. She didn't feel like reaching out with her power to sense which of them were still alive, but judging from the sound of the scream the victim had been a white-armored councilor named Deyashlus. In about a minute, she heard the door to the cellar above open. The hurrying footsteps and chatter of the guards echoed as they investigated what had happened and cleaned up the mess. Mozmana heard the chief of them – not Guvreith, for he was busy fighting, but one of his subordinates – mention her name while giving orders, and the footsteps came closer. A moment later, the heavy door of her makeshift cell opened.

“Come on, Toa Mozmana,” said the guard officer. “We need you.”

“I would have helped you from the start, had you let me,” said Mozmana, smiling apologetically. “Listen: the battle must stop. Everyone here – everyone on the continent – may be in danger.”“What are you talking about?” said the officer as she led Mozmana out of the catacombs and back into the keep above.

“We need to stop fighting and prepare to evacuate the entire region,” said Mozmana. “We may have hours or we may have weeks, but we cannot waste time fighting.”

“You're serious,” the guard realized. “The civilians of this city would have already fled, but the Brotherhood has the city surrounded. It will be difficult to persuade them into an armistice.”

“Take me to the battlefield, and will see what I can do,” said Mozmana. “Even if I cannot get the enemy warriors to listen to reason, I will at least do all I can to save your people.”

Well-sheltered as they were, the catacombs had suffered little in the assault compared to the rest of the building, and as Mozmana soon saw, the rest of the city. The Brotherhood army had not yet breached the walls, but it looked like their bombardment would make such an invasion unnecessary. The tops of the tallest buildings had been cut off and lay in ruins in the streets among craters and bodies, and some buildings both large and small had been completely demolished. The corpses in the streets were of civilians and the city guard, for the soldiers were all either out on the battlefield or up on the battlements. As the guards escorted her to the eastern side of the city, a ball of plasma seared a hole in the fortifications ahead, slaying many of the warriors. The plasma was a blast from a siege weapon, but it reminded Mozmana of Imlen. She wondered where he was, and if she would ever see him again. She had seen the glow permeating the walls of her vault, and heard the news that the damage done in the Cataclysm had been undone, but she wasn't so sure that meant Mata Nui's life was saved.

“Your sword, Toa Mozmana,” said the officer, offering the weapon when they were near the walls.

“Thank you,” she said, and she took it. “It is good that you kept this. I have a habit of losing my weapons, it seems.”

“We'll have none of that in this war, Toa,” said the guard leader in friendly mock sternness, then she sighed wearily and spoke seriously. “As you can see, we're taking a beating. Our forces were keeping most of their artillery far enough away, but today they were pushed back. Many Brotherhood reinforcements have come from the east. It looks like this Makuta has gathered all his strength to break us.”

“How have Guvreith's efforts to secure aid fared?” asked Mozmana as they quickened their pace.

“Quite well, but it's not enough,” said the officer. “The Brotherhood force is just too strong. He has even gone so far as to send an emissary to Leokhtlich, and that was days before we even knew enemy reinforcements were coming. At this point, even if Frithozib responds, it will be too late.”

“Could we break through the blockade so that the people can evacuate?” said Mozmana.

“I doubt it. They are concentrated in the east, from where the main assault is coming, but their ring around the city is too thick to break. There is no escape, and they will show us no mercy. We dared to oppose them, and now they will slaughter us all for our insolence. Now, it is time for us to part, Toa Mozmana,” said the officer, stopping a short distance from the eastern gates. “I will do what I can to ensure everyone is ready to leave as soon as the opportunity comes. Report to Sergeant Klaydhev in the gate tower to the right, he'll tell you what to do.”

The Toa of Psionics nodded, and as the guards returned to their posts at the keep she entered the tower on the right side – the southern side – of the eastern gate. A soldier just inside the base of the tower informed her the Sergeant was at the top. Mozmana began to ascend the spiraling staircase, only to be nearly knocked over by a rush of panicked soldiers coming down. An instant later, the half of the tower facing out of the city shattered. After a moment of stillness, she emerged from the rubble, battered but not seriously hurt. Most of the soldiers in the tower were not so fortunate.

“Sergeant Klaydhev?” she addressed the survivors questioningly.

“No. He didn't make it out,” said one of them.

“Where is Guvreith?” she asked.

“He's out on the battlefield,” said the soldier. “With the Sergeant dead, I don't know whose direct command we're under. One of the Lieutenants, I suppose, but I don't know if he or she hasn't fallen.”

“I see most of you have lost your projectile weapons, so you'll do no good on the walls,” said Mozmana, quickly considering the tactical situation. “Come with me. We'll assist the Captain.”

“I was about to suggest the same thing,” said the soldier, nodding. “We'll accompany you, Toa – except for you, Hanaviu. You do what you can to treat your wounds.”

The wounded soldier agreed and went off to find succor while the rest of the survivors from the tower collapse opened the gate just wide enough for them to slip through. They shut the gate behind them, and Mozmana saw the battlefield for the first time. Just as it had been described, the Brotherhood army was pushing the defenders back to make room for the siege weapons. The defenders had dug new trenches each time they were forced to retreat, leaving the field marked with many deep furrows. The trenches stopped some of the siege weapons, but in many places Rahkshi and soldiers used various powers and techniques to cut a path or plug the gap, allowing the machines to advance. Some of the infantry jumped across these trenches, while bridges were set down for the others. Guvreith's army and their allies were only outnumbered by a small margin, but they had much fewer advanced weapons, and most of their soldiers were no match for Rahkshi and Exo-Toa. They needed to form organized ranks to ward off the assault, but such groups were vulnerable to the Brotherhood's heavy weapons.

Mozmana looked around, but could not tell where Guvreith was, if he was even still alive. She reached out with her element to contact soldiers across the battlefield – but only those who were not so deep in combat that a slight distraction would be fatal – and soon learned his position. He had managed to rally some nearby soldiers to push the attackers back at one point and break a few cannons and catapults, but now the Brotherhood line was reforming with them behind it. Mozmana and her comrades rushed to his aid, but it looked as if it would be too late until a hail of crossbow bolts from the wall gave him a slight reprieve. As she charged the ring of Visorak and enemy soldiers that surrounded the beleaguered Captain and his men, she held her sword at the ready, but she knew from experience that physical combat was not always the most effective use of her power in battle. She cleaved through a Vohtarak that was about to hit one of the soldiers with a Rhotuka and used her momentum to strike a Brotherhood warrior in the mask with enough force to knock him out, then she slowed to call upon her element.

A slight psionic touch had a far greater effect when she projected confusion and doubt into the minds of the enemy combatants. Together, the warriors that had accompanied her along with those that had charged with Guvreith cut down the enemies that surrounded them. They were still forced to retreat, for more foes were coming, but not before Mozmana telekinetically redirected a large flying projectile into a nearby trebuchet. The siege engine disintegrated in a great flash of light that confounded nearby attackers, giving the defenders in that area further time to regroup. Meanwhile, a few platoons just to the south managed to demolish a catapult that had been bombarding the walls with Zamor. They scattered the remains and churned up the ground in such a way to seriously hinder the advance of more siege weapons, then they moved to join Mozmana and Guvreith's group. The Visorak and soldiers paused for a moment, then stepped aside to make room for a squad of Exo-Toa that quickly forced Mozmana and her companions to take cover in the trenches and behind bulwarks of raised earth.

“I see I made the right decision in setting you free,” said the Captain to Mozmana. “Though this is a lost cause. I will go down fighting, but you don't have to. If you see the opportunity, run.”

“I'm with you to the end,” said Mozmana with a shake of her head. “But – this will sound crazy, but – what are the chances they'd accept a truce?”

“If you mean we should surrender, they would certainly agree. They would much longer massacre us without any more of a fight,” said Guvreith. “Have you seen the blockade around the city? We win, or we die... and I do not foresee the former coming to pass.”

We would be better off with each others' help to survive what is to come, Mozmana switched to telepathic communication for privacy. Guvreith... Mata Nui – and his universe – may be dying.

“Mozmana? Where those your thoughts in my head?” the Captain said aloud. “Or was that some Makuta trick?”

“It was my message,” whispered Mozmana as several warriors looked at Guvreith curiously. “But be quiet about it – we must remain calm.”

“If the entire universe is going to die, why should my men not know, when they are certainly going to die in battle anyway?” said Guvreith, and he lifted his head and addressed his warriors. “Soldiers of Balkhder – ”

“Wait!” Mozmana interrupted with a sharp whisper. There is another world beyond our own to which we can evacuate. We must not waste any more time in wars over this universe.

Why did you not tell me of this earlier? Captain Guvreith thought in response.

I was going to, when the time was right – when I knew I could trust you – but then when you went off to battle, I did not have the chance. projected Mozmana as the Exo-Toa came upon their position and engaged them. This needs to be handled carefully.

That's no excuse to keep the information to yourself for so long, thought Guvreith as he and four of his warriors took down one of the robots.

You are right, admitted Mozmana while she nimbly darted between an Exo-Toa's legs and cut them to shreds. I... I don't know what I was thinking. But it may not come to pass – his life may have been saved when the damage done by the Cataclysm was undone. In any case, let's take this one step at a time: first, we need to end this battle.

You'd be the best one to arrange that. Find the leader and contact him with your mind-powers.

Mozmana agreed. Guvreith's censure stung her, for he was correct. She had been too careful to keep the information secret, when withholding it too long would doom thousands. He hoped the others that Turaga Alled had recruited had done a better job at coordinating the evacuation effort – she had allowed herself to get distracted by the unexpected troubles she faced in Balkhder. She supposed it was just so hard to believe that the whole world she had known was dying, she had just subconsciously made herself ignore the thought. Now she resolved to salvage the situation before it was too late. Just as she used her power to locate Guvreith, she did the same for the enemy commander. The enemy warriors were not as inclined to answer her, of course, but when she informed them she and Captain Guvreith wished to make peace with the Brotherhood, she achieved results. A moment later, the fighting paused. Guvreith stood up from behind a bulwark, and the ranks of Visorak parted to make room for a tall black-armored officer. Mozmana scanned his mind to make sure he wasn't planning any treachery. He wasn't – after all, he knew she would sense it.

The Brotherhood commander walked forward to meet Mozmana and Guvreith as they did the same. They were ten bio apart... then nine... then eight... then seven – then a sudden turmoil broke out. Mozmana could not tell which side resumed fighting first, but in seconds Guvreith was on the ground with his leg blown off from an Exo-Toa's rocket. Mozmana dropped to the ground to heal him, but it was too late. His vengeful warriors cut the Brotherhood commander down with a hail of crossbow bolts. Each side cut into the other with horrible fury, for everyone was sure their enemy had deceived them. Mozmana could do nothing to calm anyone, for she was forced to dodge and weave between a barrage of Rhotuka. She retreated as the Visorak leaped over the trench she had recently taken shelter in. One Rhotuka caught her in the leg, but with an effort of will and constitution she resisted its effects. A moment later, the enraged soldiers of Balkhder reversed their reckless charge, but not before many of them had fallen. In the disorderly retreat, many more were slain. The group made for the gate, but of course the Brotherhood army anticipated this.

The gates and the ground in front of them were struck by a concentrated barrage that turned the gates to rubble and killed all nearby. The retreating soldiers began to climb over the rubble, but the obstruction slowed them too much. Mozmana picked up a fallen shield and used it to defend a spot behind her, allowing a few platoons to make it over the debris and into the city. Her arm tired as projectiles pounded the shield, and the feat of dodging what she could not block was more difficult while she held the unfamiliar piece of equipment. Just as could endure no more, she saw a great orange flare in the Brotherhood ranks. Another Rhotuka struck the shield, and though its energy dispersed uselessly, the force of it caused her to fall backwards. Stunned and sprawled across the chunk of rubble behind her, she was helpless for what could have been a fatal moment, but the bombardment had diminished enough to give her time to come to her senses and drop to the ground. Lying prone, she reached out with her elemental power in a search for a familiar mind. She quickly found it.

Imlen, you came! she projected. But how? And what have you done? We were about to make peace with them!

Thane Frithozib sent me along with seven of his riders. We noticed the cease-fire, and approached in peace, but the Brotherhood attacked us anyway, thought Imlen.

They thought it was a trick – that you were flanking them, projected Mozmana with frustration. Imlen, you really messed things up!

It's just as well, isn't it? Imlen replied, and Mozmana could now clearly see him battling a group of Rahkshi midway through the enemy ranks. The whole idea of making peace with the Brotherhood isn't so urgent anymore. I mean, the universe was healed. Mata Nui is saved.

Imlen should not have been so confident of that, for at that moment the sky went black – completely black, without a single star. An instant later, the sun of lightstones was lit again, but not as brightly, and the air was ominously still. Even the least intelligent, most mentally repressed of the Brotherhood army's enslaved Rahi could tell something terrible had happened. Nearly everyone else knew just what had happened, even without having been told, for they had heard the stories – nightmarish stories they had never expected to come true. But this day they had, for Mata Nui had died.

Review

Oh, cool. I guess that explains it. It's one of those strange and interesting things about Bionicle, that some animals have treads while some vehicles have legs.

Anyway, I guess my question is answered already. Thanks.

Is it some sort of gyroscopic based mechanism?

The rams had to be towed by Visorak, but they moved on legs. I can see how something on wheels or skids can be pulled in such a way, but not how it could walk by being dragged forward.

Spiriah altered the Skakdi sometime between 45000 and 30000 years before the Makuta evolved.

 

That brings up another question that I don't believe had been answered- repeated revival. Is it possible? I don't see why not. A smart villain (or someone like an OOMN member) with teleportation powers could go kamikaze whenever they felt like it, as long as they had their wits about them (and didn't get incinerated or anything...). This scenario is assuming this being had figured everything out after dying once. Just an idea.

It should be possible, yeah. Of course, not many beings have teleportation powers. I can imagine a bad guy prior to the Sendback breaking figuring this out, and doing it several times, but then getting stuck up there and furious when the teleporter does break.

 

Of course, if someone actually had teleportation powers, there are more effective means to accomplish most goals while surviving.

Back in the days when the star worked, I wonder if folks just learned to disintegrate the bodies they didn't want coming back. In that case, I imagine a lot of accident victims would be brought back, and not so much for those who died in war or were assassinated (unless their enemies weren't able to finish the job). Speaking of which, if MU inhabitants eat by turning their food directly into energy (when they're not getting it out of those power wells), doesn't that mean anyone that got eaten (completely) by a Rahi wouldn't come back?

 

2) Yes, Greg confirmed they keep their memories. That's basically the whole point of this; otherwise they could just make an actually new being from scratch with the same effect.

However, he did also say they would be disoriented from the ordeal of dying, being resurrected, and waking up in the star. They're still the same person brought back to life.

 

Oh wow this stuff is pretty awesome though is there any original mystery from the early years of bionicle left now that the red star has been fully explained?

I wouldn't say it's been fully explained. We don't know how it broke, and how long it took to pick up bodies, for instance.

Oh. I thought they both regressed like that because they were part of the same civilization, despite being separate species.

What two groups are you talking about?

Well, they do carry that disease that eats things up. Maybe Lesovikk's teammates' bodies were destroyed that way. Or maybe the Zyglak ate them, or cut them up into tiny pieces or something.

BS01 lists Nikila as being revived in the Red Star. That makes absolutely no sense, though; Nikila and the rest of her team were killed 100,000 years ago, around 20,000 years before the Red Star malfunctioned. Thus, assuming her body was left intact to be teleported, she should be back in the Matoran Universe... which has its own hosts of problems; I find it hard to believe she couldn't have found Lesovikk in a span of 100,000 years (although I suppose something could have happened that prevented her from moving around). I hope Greg clears this up next chat.

Not just Nikila, either - there were six other Toa that died along with her. You'd think Lesovikk would have found at least one of them. Maybe the Zyglak destroyed their bodies, preventing any of them from being resurrected.

Yeah, and I think a violent and undiciplined psionics user would mainly use his/her power to spread madness.

If you have any more questions, I'd take a look at BS01's article on Spherus Magna here and the timeline of Spherus Magna history here (the timeline doesn't have a whole lot of info, but it's what we have).

Ah, I get what you're saying. Though I think the force from a Kanohi Crast actually is really fast and hard, so like you said, you it wouldn't be of much help unless you were able to use it to stop your fall before you reached a dangerous velocity, and that's not likely if it has a maximum range of only a few bio.

the Crast would apply an upward force that would hit you harder than hitting the ground would.

No, that's not how it works. Only if something flew up at you would force be added. What the Crast would do, similar to any cushioning material like inflated safety cushions, is slow down the deacceleration. In other words, it brings the same amount of force to you, but over more time rather than a sudden impact. It's the amount of kinetic energy transferred into you at each moment that causes damage, so any cushioning effect like the Crast lessens the maximum kinetic acceleration.

 

Translation: the Crast would help you survive falls; it wouldn't make them worse. It's just that it might not always be enough of an effect to save your life.

Oh, that makes sense. You're saying it couldn't make an impulse any bigger than hitting the ground would anyway, right? Though it's not exactly a gentle push, either.

 

I imagine it's also much more difficult to use to fly over water.

It would probably be similar to hovercraft that operate well on water or flat land, actually, or like a low-powered helicopter over water. It would create a cratering effect in the water and you'd hover lower, but in normal water this wouldn't be a problem. You'd be much lower in the water's average level, but the water under you would still be about the same distance away from you, and you could hover basically the same.

I don't know much about how that stuff works. Could you clarify the last sentence?

You'd think they'd only do something like that when there weren't enough problems. Those wacky GBs.

The Agori lived in cities, towns, villages, etc. We have evidence they used to have much higher technology than they commonly possess now, too. The Core War seemed to mainly be fought with infantry, though (with high-tech weapons, still). Maybe they never developed aircraft and such, or became more primitive even before the war.

And I'm pretty sure the Valor/Wisdom thing is just a title, and each Kaita would get a different title. Though considering the great number of hypothetical Kaita, some of those titles must be reused.

Edit: Actually, I have a question brought up by a topic someone else made:

Did Spiriah's alteration of the Skakdi give them elements, or did they have powerless elemental affiliations (like Matoran do) naturally?

fishers was right before about things that only MU people would know. I'd forgotten about that. Dual Matrix might also be right in saying that it was a last-ditch effort to make it accesible to Mata Nui.

I tend too belive that they did build it! The third robot was just stashed ofworld somewhere. There was some major 'problem' and it simply couldn't be fixed in time. ( this is all part of my idea for Bionicle's next chapter. Which I'm not going to tell you anything else about).I've been desperately hoping that no one would bring up the third colossus, in case it ruined my chances of using it in Bionicle gen 2 when I eventually get a job at LEGO. I've even got a code name for the project planed out and everything!

I hope you know, Northmarch, that it isn't easy to just, oh you know, up and get hired by Lego. And that aside, one can't simply revive Bionicle with all their own random ideas without any problems. I could list some reasons but I think it's obvious enough. Sorry if I seem a bit rude, I'm not trying to come across that way.

 

(Not meaning to start a debate or anything.)

Yeah, that was some good evidence that Fishers found that Mata Nui (or maybe Teridax, had he not turned evil) was meant to enter the Valley of the Maze.

As for Northmarch's dreams, I must say, good luck, and even if you don't get that job, write your ideas down! Even if it doesn't become canon, you can still make a great story.

But how could a Skakdi of, say Psionics work with a Skakdi of Gravity or something?

Gravity that psychically affects your mind, I guess.

It wasn't really a paradise, but it was fairly peaceful I think. There were disasters, and the Agori weren't always good to each other - for instance, when the Iron Tribe was afflicted by plague they were ostracized and left to die. According to the timeline on BS01, the Iron Tribe plague happened about 3000 years before the Core War. Since there wasn't an Element Lord of Iron because that tribe had been destroyed, the Element Lords must have been made sometime after that point. So 5000 years before the Core War, you'd have the seven tribes and no Element Lords. The pieces of the Prototype Robot would also be scattered across Bara Magna, because it was built and exploded 50,000 years before the war.

That's a good point. I wonder, though, if the Skakdi had elemental affiliations without powers before Spiriah's alterations, as Matoran do.

I think that's about awakening him (well, his body, at least) from the coma Makuta put him in, not his dormancy in the Mask of Life on Spherus Magna, if that's what you're talking about.

Actually, the Mythbusters busted that idea. That is not actually what's happening in that case. It's really a redirected jet effect. Without the sail, the fan would propel the boat, yes? That's because the fan is pulling itself forward through the substance of the air -- it's not a closed system. The sail simply redirects this effect in the opposite direction, and makes it highly inefficient, but it does move. See here.

Ah, that makes sense. Still, like you said, the sail does counter the force that acts on it, and that principle would still apply to the elemental hoverboard idea. It's a better explanation than the arm analogy, I think, because the handstand argument doesn't apply.

Speaking of the Crast, I wonder how easy/efficiently one can fly with it. I'd guess there would be an altitude ceiling, because the ground has to be in range of the mask's power. Also, it wouldn't be much use if you were falling at a dangerous rate. While a Miru would allow you to slow your descent and a Kadin would allow you to fly under your own power, the Crast would apply an upward force that would hit you harder than hitting the ground would. I imagine it's also much more difficult to use to fly over water.

-How does Kabrua avoid elemental energies?

-Does Gelu have ice powers?

I can answer those two. Kabrua has some sort of device given to him by Velika that shuts of elemental powers. Gelu doesn't have ice powers because Mata Nui only gave elemental powers to the five Glatorian he met: Ackar, Kiina, Vastus, Tarix, and Gresh.

And no, Toa cannot make platforms of their element, stand on them, and lift the platforms. It's often speculated erroneously that for example Pohatu could make a surfboard out of Stone, and lift that while standing on it, since it's confirmed that Toa of Stone can enable Stone to fly telekinetically (as all Toa of material elements can for their respective element). The problem with this is essentially that Pohatu standing on the rock makes the target and the source of the telekinetic power connected in a loop, like the old cartoon cliche of a character putting their feet on a door and yanking on the doorknob in vain to try to open it -- it can never work, because their feet are pushing the same object their hands are pulling, with the same force, so they cancel out.

 

 

I remember a similar situation in which my physics professor demonstrated by a sailboat couldn't be propelled by an onboard fan blowing into the sail. The air from the fan pushes on the sail, but the sail pushes back with equal force, and since they're all attached, the boat goes nowhere. I know it's said Bionicle physics are different in some ways, but I see no reason to believe Newton's third law doesn't apply to them. So it all makes sense. Same with a Toa of Plasma using his power to fly - it would work like a real-life ion engine. Though I imagine it would be less efficient, unless the Toa had a lot of skill at controlling his element.

Thanks, Bonesiii. If you make a new official elements topic, this should definitely go in it.

I recently read this question on the OGD and Greg said he doesn't see why there wouldn't be Skakdi of the other elements.