A Home for Heroes

[Proto Man]

When he arrived at the West Gate, the preteen machine was pulled aside by the first person who noticed the little pin he was wearing on his clothes. The individual was wearing the same exact trinket and was sporting the same logo on golden armbands. “Hey, who sent you over here? We weren’t expecting any more hands.”

Proto Man realized that he had never asked the woman from the building her name. “The woman running Station 3 sent me over. She said that you guys needed some help to secure the shipments into the city?”

“Rachel sent you?” After receiving something between a nod and a shrug, the volunteer thought for a brief moment before offering a response. “Well, whatever. We’ll take all the hands we can get, because we’ve already had reports that there’s some issues out in the Dunes.”

“Issues?”

“A few transport humvees set out from the Coruscant gate just a few hours ago. We managed to pull some tricks and have some supplies, ere, ‘rerouted’ from Carrefore to Nippur. Unfortunately, news somehow manages to travel very quickly in a desert.”

“You think it’s going to be hit by marauders or something?”

The volunteer nodded his head. “We’ve already dispatched some riders to go join up with the convoy, but I don’t think it will be enough. The rogue elements out in the Dunes have been extremely vicious as of late. Gilgamesh was many things, but he was a terrifying presence for the small-time warlords and gang leaders out there in the desert. They’ve been more outgoing in the weeks and months since the king’s demise.”

Proto Man rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. I get it. Sooner or later, these people would have to stand on their own two feet and realize their own potential. “Do you have coordinates or the route that the vehicles were taking?”

“Yes, I do.” The man reached for a piece of tech at his waist. After punching in a few numbers, the little handheld machine spat out a small strip of paper. “Here,” the volunteer tore away the printout and handed it to the preteen machine. Proto Man glanced down and saw that he was looking at a string of numbers that marked coordinates. “Do you require a map?”

“Nah,” the red robot shook his head as his systems automatically scanned in the coordinates and plotted out the quickest path. “I’ve got it.” To sell his point, he tapped at the side of his head and smirked, prompting the volunteer to once again shrug his shoulders in a mixture of ignorance and apathy.

“You say so, Kid. Good luck.”

Proto Man flashed the man a thumbs up and made for the gate. After flashing his pin and pointing back to the volunteer from the Gold Cross, the android was ushered through a metal door in the sandstone walls. One of the guards explained to him that the gate mechanism had been damaged, and rather than try and fix it, they just ushered people through the walls the long way.

“What about shipments and stuff? Big things?” Proto Man asked as he was guided up a spiral staircase and then out onto a small observation deck about ten feet off the ground. On both sides of the semicircular outcropping, there were rope ladders that were dumped overboard for him.

“Other gates.” The soldier remarked as he pointed to one of the ropes. “Sometimes we just guide those through the holes in the wall,” he added apathetically as Proto Man hopped over the edge without using the ladder. After rolling out and popping up to his feet, he cleared away his internal display’s notifications and activated an overlay that would direct him to the convoy.

As he raced off into the desert, Proto Man pulled up his Messenger software and sent a message to Mireya: Trying to help out. Be back soon. Tell Mickey. Gracias.