After a few hours the various guests began to settle in. People drank, ate and chatted at their leisure and those who hadn't drunk too much danced to the music played by an automaton quartet that took up its place in a box above the ballroom. The servants bustled to and fro the whole time ensuring that the drinks kept flowing and so forth.

After another hour spent like this Earl Lightfeather and Lady Lightfeather made their way back to the upper concourse. There he met a steamdroid which tapped a knife against a glass to try and get the attention of the guests, to little effect. Earl Lightfeather scowled at the Steamdroid and it used its speakers to amplify the noise made by the metal and the glass. Once the guests had stopped the Steamdroid began in a mechanical voice 'Esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen, your host Earl Arthur Lightfeather'. With this Earl Lightfeather stepped forward and placed his hands upon the marble balustrade before he started speaking.

'My friends, I am glad to see that you are enjoying yourselves. As you know I have paid for this little gathering of ours with the money I have made from the opening of my new mining apparatus here in Neoport. It is true that we experienced some set backs getting the mines up and running, and we did lose some workers'. 'Oh no, not proles, how shall we ever replace them?' interjected Lady Lightfeather, the crowed laughed uproariously, or at least the Technocrats did. Earl Lightfeather smiled to his wife before continuing 'However despite these early setbacks I can declare that project has been a great success, I've no doubt that some of you will want to invest in the venture, and I shan't deny you the opportunity. But before...'

The Earl never finished his sentence, for at that very moment there was a cacophonous explosion. The entirety of the left wall was blown inwards sending flying shards of marble, wood and painting shooting in all directions. The nearest guests were eviscerated instantly by the shrapnel or were mauled by the concussive force of the explosion, as were a number of unfortunate servants and steamdroids. The room filled with dust and smoke, and  then the glass dome of the room shattered.

There was a loud metallic crunch and the sound of marble cracking. The various guests looked about themselves trying to get a sense of what was happening and then they saw a single figure dressed in black standing where the Earl and Lady Lightfeather had been standing.

The figure was tall and strongly built, it was covered head to foot in black robes. Over its face it wore a bronze mask with two blood red lenses, the mask was in the shape of an old plague doctors mask, the beak was a fine point and its surface was covered in shifting cogs and gears. The figures arms too were covered in shifting bronze and steel armitures, they seemed to automatically adjust to the wearers movements and were connected to two gauntlets that the figure wore over each hand. The figure stood immobile for a moment before looking down at the two figures on the floor, then the Steamdroid that had accompanied the Lightfeathers to the upper concourse swung at the figure from behind. Without turning the figure dropped low taking the Steamdroids legs out from under it before stabbing it in the chest with three long claws that appeared to manifest from the figures gauntlets. The steamdroid was out of commission before it hit the floor.

The figure swiftly retracted the blades and turned back to the Lightfeathers, it cocked its head to one side like a bird before stooping and picking up Earl Lightfeather by the collar. The figure hoisted Earl Lightfeather from the floor with no apparent effort and snapped out the three blades of its right hand gauntlet, the figure stared the Earl right in the face before speaking. The voice was heavily modulated by the mask it was wearing but its voice was also amplified so that all those in the room could hear its terrible proclamation. 'Earl Arthur Lightfeather, I find you guilty of oppression, decadence, persecution and gluttony. Your sentence, execution!' with that the figure brought up its right gauntlet driving the three blades of its gauntlet deep into the Earl's chest. The Earl coughed, spluttered before slumping in the figures grip. The figure withdrew its blades and then tossed the body over the Balustrade where it hit the floor amongst the guests with a loud thud. 'Let this be a lesson to all of you whom would oppress your fellow man.' declared the figure, before raising its left arm towards the ceiling and firing a grappler line that hauled the figure out of the room as swiftly as it had came.