02-01-2017, 05:33 PM
Quote:The Nightmare
She woke from a nightmare she couldn’t remember, sweating profusely.
Carmelita shook the sleep from her eyes and took off to get an early morning shower. As she sat in clean fresh clothes in the mess hall, Chip staggered in half asleep and sat down with a yawn.
“Morning.”
“Mrng,” came the teenagers reply, accompanied by the crunch of dry cereal.
“Not a morning person, I see.”
Chip responded by downing a whole cup of coffee, her three eyes opening wide in response to the stimuli. Carmelita took the opportunity to grab a cup of her own, although she drank it significantly more slowly.
With both of them properly awake, Chip could hold a proper conversation.
“Hey, Carm? Do you know of any explosives I could use to break up stone? I was looking at the ridge to look into putting in a field of defensive STAPLEDs and it’s solid rock just below the surface.”
Carmelita chewed on a rehydrated egg thoughtfully for a moment before nodding.
“There is one thing I can think of…”
---
A few hours later, the two of them were out on the ridge in the sweltering mid-morning heat, scraping away the loose sand to reveal a surface of warm rock beneath.
Carmelita spent a minute summoning a large, boxy item, hefting it to check its not inconsiderable weight before handing it to Chip.
“This,” she said, tapping the box, “Is a Plastiglex Breaching Charge.”
After a few moments, Chip looked up from the explosive.
“Don’t mess about, it’s sweltering out here.”
“Fine!” Carmelita gave a smile and took the Breaching Charge back off Chip. “The Plastiglex Breaching Charge is an explosive that can’t kill anyone and will only blow up a very specific area. Allow me to demonstrate.”
With that, she turned a catch and opened the lid, swinging it out and around before fastening it to the underside. An orange circle, revealed beneath the lid, was gripped firmly between her hands and pulled out, expanding outwards.
“The Charge is capable of creating a hole four metres in diameter, but it is easy to choose the size. Here you can see I have set the circle to about two metres across.”
She planted the charge firmly against the rock, causing the circle to suck in air for a moment to seal itself against the rock surface. Carmelita gestured for Chip to try and pull it off, which she failed to do.
“As you can tell, the explosive adheres itself to the surface you are demolishing. At this point you can see two buttons on the underside of the lid. The red button will disarm the explosive, allowing you to pack it away or adjust it. The green button…”
With a swift, firm press, the explosive beeped once. Withdrawing her thumb, Carmelita was pleased to see a look of surprise cross Chip’s face as the charge disappeared with a flash and a soft thwump, leaving a circular cut in the rock half a metre deep filled with a fine powder.
“The explosive uses some magic thing or other to limit the explosion and cannot be used against living things. This is the pinnacle in Interpol’s hostage situation entry kit.”
Chip turned to Carmelita, eyes unhealthily wide in the bright sunlight.
“I want one!”
Carmelita chuckled.
“Sure, as soon as we find some way of imprinting the magic industrially. I can make a good twenty for use in breaking up the ridge so you can fill the depressions with sand and traps.”
Chip smiled.
“I get to blow stuff up!”