05-16-2016, 02:16 PM
Leaving the tanker to be drained into the water sanitisers by the workers, Carmelita split from Chip with a promise to meet again at a later date. She turned to the mining shop, and strode out with purpose.
The door opened with a loud creaking. Her eyes flicked down to where she’d been standing yesterday, noting the caked mud tracked across the floor. The mining droid was nowhere to be seen, so she stepped past the counter and began walking through the storeroom. She pressed a digit to her collar and faded from view.
Looking at the floor, she followed the tracks of mud through the storeroom. She passed sticks of dynamite, pickaxes, several defunct ore and tunnel scanners and a number of large ore buckets. Just before reaching the wheelbarrows, the trail turned right, coming up against a wooden wall. She tugged quietly on each of the store hooks, and on the second try the wall slid back to reveal a dimly lit ramp. She stalked down the tunnel, nothing but the smell of dirt and the sound of flickering lights to accompany her. The tunnel turned slowly, arcing round to the right slowly, and she followed. The cable of wires strung between the lights occasionally dipped down to get round the wooden shaft supports. Sand and grit gave way to clay, dried and cracked, and she came across a room off to the left. She poked her head around the corner.
Inside was another large communications device, identical to the one she’d seen in the raider encampment, perched up on a metallic workbench alongside a collection of files and a large, complicated looking data terminal. Carmelita strode over, looking around for any people, but finding no-one. She listened carefully, ears flicking left and right. All she could hear was the hum of electricity and the quiet beeping of the terminal. She looked at the files. Each was a file on some being in or outside the Town, graded from 1-5 in several categories, including ‘likelihood of sympathy’, ‘zeal’ and ‘exploitable weaknesses’. Each was accompanied with a paragraph of explanation, and some were quite extensive. Carmelita summoned a digital camera from omnilium, taking extensive pictures of each file. Following this, she checked the data terminal to find it locked, and since there was no conveniently located passcode she left it alone.
Carmelita left the room behind and continued stalking through the tunnel, readying her shock pistol just in case. The sound of gears from up ahead made her press to the wall, invisible as the mining droid trundled past, humming a quiet tune. She waited until the humming had faded and continued down the tunnel.
As she continued, the clay began to squelch quietly beneath her feet. There was clearly still moisture down here, and she wondered what could have stopped the rigs from pulling up water. A conversation could be heard from up ahead, and she slowed her pace, listening quietly. The first voice was of the quadruped, but the second was new to her ears. It sounded female, though there was a watery resonance to it that she hadn’t heard before.
“So any word from those idiot raiders, or do we have to recruit some more?”
“Their boss was worried about Roland, wanted a crate of weapons to defend in case the Sheriff came down on his head. He’s smarter than we thought, figured out we were responsible for the aquifer drying up.”
“Hmm… I think it might be time for Cubone’s cell to pay them a visit. Do you have a backup raider group in mind?”
“I was thinking we could extend our offer to the Queens of Sand. They’re mostly Scorpionoids and Thri-Kreen, and they have a bit of a grudge against Roland from the time he shot up their ‘Empress’. Raiding water shipments for a few explosives and vehicles would likely be a chance they’d leap at.”
“Good. We need to keep this up until the town snaps, then we can stir up support and get the humans kicked out of the Town for good.”
Carmelita peered round the corner, catching sight of the two conspirators. One of them was the four-eyed quadruped and prosthetic arm she’d seen earlier, but the other looked like some cross between a cactus and a scarecrow. She had two legs planted firmly in a low pool of water, a deliberate channel dug from each rig pump column in the extensive cavern to her feet. Carmelita could see one of the pumps slowly turning, the pump bring up a small flow of water to drain into the pool. She also saw another exit from the cavern on the other side, beyond the two conversing conspirators. She began sneaking through the cavern, sticking to the wall as she made her way round, when all of a sudden the sound of treads spinning and electric motor whirring could be heard. The mining droid called ahead, his speakers at maximum volume.
“Dino! Cacturne! We’ve! Been! Discovered! Roland! Is! On! His! Way!”
“Shit,” Cacturne swore, pulling her legs from the pool. “Looks like quietly using Water Absorb is no longer an option. Time to switch to the backup plan. M.I.T.E, set the charges. Dino, go grab the files, we can’t let them be discovered. I’ll go whip us up a Sandstorm.”
The three scattered, and Carmelita swore under her breath. As Dino and Cacturne left the cave, she took careful aim at M.I.T.E, breaking her cloak to begin firing balls of electricity. The droid beeped in alarm and ducked behind one of the rig columns, replying with a lit stick of dynamite. Carmelita gave a gasp and dived to one side, the spot she had been standing exploding and causing the roof to shudder.
“I. Knew. You. Were. Trouble. Fox.”
Carmelita knocked the next stick of dynamite into the pool of water, the fuse fizzling loudly.
“And I knew you were a bigot, droid.”
She dived forward, getting closer to the droid’s hiding spot and firing multiple shots as she did so. The robot sparked as the electricity damaged its systems, one of its tread servos even twitching violently enough to knock it out of cover. With a loud alarm, the droid grabbed a pickaxe from its side and took a swing at Carmelita. There was a brief moment where she ducked within reach, avoiding the pointy bit of the pickaxe to try and block the attack, but the robot’s strength sent her tumbling across the room, landing awkwardly against one of the pump columns.
“Mierda.”
“I. Was. Built. For. Crushing. Dirt!”
As the droid came at her on stuttering treads, Carmelita grabbed her shock pistol from where it had fallen and fired repeatedly, the droid taking each hit to the chest. It ground to a slow halt before keeling over, shut down.
She staggered to her feet, feeling the gash in her arm reopened by the force of her fall. As she began throwing all the dynamite in the pool of water, relieving M.I.T.E of any option to destroy the water rigs, a laser blast caught her in the leg and the smell of burnt hair hit her nose a moment before the pain did.
“You again, you pain in the ass.” Dino emerged from the tunnel, laser pistol held in his metal prosthetic and saddlebags filled with the files on either flank.
Carmelita stumbled behind a pump column as the laser bolts began flying. She could track the quadruped’s progress through the angle of his shots as he made his way over to M.I.T.E.
“And you’ve gone and gotten rid of my pal’s explosives, you bitch.”
“Bitches are dogs, tonto. I’m a vixen.”
With that, she dived from cover, the charged up energy ball flying swiftly into the quadruped’s face. Dino screamed.
“My eyes! How can you blind all four eyes at once?!”
The laser blasts went everywhere, and Carmelita took the opportunity to bodycheck the being into the pool of water. He spluttered as he lost his grip on the laser pistol, fishing around for it amongst the sodden sticks of dynamite as his vision cleared.
Carmelita stood, favouring her wounded leg, as she fired shot after shot at the quadruped, the being eventually collapsing from neural overload.
She breathed a sigh and leaned against the pump, her breathing settling slowly. Her rest was interrupted, however, by the arrival of Cacturne. The green being stared at her, and at the two bodies lying on the floor, before turning round and fleeing. With a groan, Carmelita gave chase.
The laser wound had been self-cauterised, but it still hurt every time she put her weight on it. Pushing through the stabs of pain, Carmelita sprinted after the third member of this cell of conspirators, hearing the thump of footsteps receding ahead of her. Unlike the other tunnel, this one was dead straight, leading steadily upwards. She glanced up to fire off a few bursts of her shock pistol, but Cacturne turned and gestured, bringing up a Spiky Shield that dissipated the shots.
The two continued up, until suddenly they were leveling out, the sound of wind roaring up ahead. Cacturne vanished into the light, and a moment later Carmelita found herself outside. Instead of the beautiful morning she’d been expecting, instead it was a howling nightmare of sand, her fur and jacket barely protecting her from the biting grains. Forced to retreat back to the tunnel, she stared out after the fugitive and waited for Roland’s forces to reach her as her wounded leg failed beneath her.
Her swearing was drowned out by the sand.
The door opened with a loud creaking. Her eyes flicked down to where she’d been standing yesterday, noting the caked mud tracked across the floor. The mining droid was nowhere to be seen, so she stepped past the counter and began walking through the storeroom. She pressed a digit to her collar and faded from view.
Looking at the floor, she followed the tracks of mud through the storeroom. She passed sticks of dynamite, pickaxes, several defunct ore and tunnel scanners and a number of large ore buckets. Just before reaching the wheelbarrows, the trail turned right, coming up against a wooden wall. She tugged quietly on each of the store hooks, and on the second try the wall slid back to reveal a dimly lit ramp. She stalked down the tunnel, nothing but the smell of dirt and the sound of flickering lights to accompany her. The tunnel turned slowly, arcing round to the right slowly, and she followed. The cable of wires strung between the lights occasionally dipped down to get round the wooden shaft supports. Sand and grit gave way to clay, dried and cracked, and she came across a room off to the left. She poked her head around the corner.
Inside was another large communications device, identical to the one she’d seen in the raider encampment, perched up on a metallic workbench alongside a collection of files and a large, complicated looking data terminal. Carmelita strode over, looking around for any people, but finding no-one. She listened carefully, ears flicking left and right. All she could hear was the hum of electricity and the quiet beeping of the terminal. She looked at the files. Each was a file on some being in or outside the Town, graded from 1-5 in several categories, including ‘likelihood of sympathy’, ‘zeal’ and ‘exploitable weaknesses’. Each was accompanied with a paragraph of explanation, and some were quite extensive. Carmelita summoned a digital camera from omnilium, taking extensive pictures of each file. Following this, she checked the data terminal to find it locked, and since there was no conveniently located passcode she left it alone.
Carmelita left the room behind and continued stalking through the tunnel, readying her shock pistol just in case. The sound of gears from up ahead made her press to the wall, invisible as the mining droid trundled past, humming a quiet tune. She waited until the humming had faded and continued down the tunnel.
As she continued, the clay began to squelch quietly beneath her feet. There was clearly still moisture down here, and she wondered what could have stopped the rigs from pulling up water. A conversation could be heard from up ahead, and she slowed her pace, listening quietly. The first voice was of the quadruped, but the second was new to her ears. It sounded female, though there was a watery resonance to it that she hadn’t heard before.
“So any word from those idiot raiders, or do we have to recruit some more?”
“Their boss was worried about Roland, wanted a crate of weapons to defend in case the Sheriff came down on his head. He’s smarter than we thought, figured out we were responsible for the aquifer drying up.”
“Hmm… I think it might be time for Cubone’s cell to pay them a visit. Do you have a backup raider group in mind?”
“I was thinking we could extend our offer to the Queens of Sand. They’re mostly Scorpionoids and Thri-Kreen, and they have a bit of a grudge against Roland from the time he shot up their ‘Empress’. Raiding water shipments for a few explosives and vehicles would likely be a chance they’d leap at.”
“Good. We need to keep this up until the town snaps, then we can stir up support and get the humans kicked out of the Town for good.”
Carmelita peered round the corner, catching sight of the two conspirators. One of them was the four-eyed quadruped and prosthetic arm she’d seen earlier, but the other looked like some cross between a cactus and a scarecrow. She had two legs planted firmly in a low pool of water, a deliberate channel dug from each rig pump column in the extensive cavern to her feet. Carmelita could see one of the pumps slowly turning, the pump bring up a small flow of water to drain into the pool. She also saw another exit from the cavern on the other side, beyond the two conversing conspirators. She began sneaking through the cavern, sticking to the wall as she made her way round, when all of a sudden the sound of treads spinning and electric motor whirring could be heard. The mining droid called ahead, his speakers at maximum volume.
“Dino! Cacturne! We’ve! Been! Discovered! Roland! Is! On! His! Way!”
“Shit,” Cacturne swore, pulling her legs from the pool. “Looks like quietly using Water Absorb is no longer an option. Time to switch to the backup plan. M.I.T.E, set the charges. Dino, go grab the files, we can’t let them be discovered. I’ll go whip us up a Sandstorm.”
The three scattered, and Carmelita swore under her breath. As Dino and Cacturne left the cave, she took careful aim at M.I.T.E, breaking her cloak to begin firing balls of electricity. The droid beeped in alarm and ducked behind one of the rig columns, replying with a lit stick of dynamite. Carmelita gave a gasp and dived to one side, the spot she had been standing exploding and causing the roof to shudder.
“I. Knew. You. Were. Trouble. Fox.”
Carmelita knocked the next stick of dynamite into the pool of water, the fuse fizzling loudly.
“And I knew you were a bigot, droid.”
She dived forward, getting closer to the droid’s hiding spot and firing multiple shots as she did so. The robot sparked as the electricity damaged its systems, one of its tread servos even twitching violently enough to knock it out of cover. With a loud alarm, the droid grabbed a pickaxe from its side and took a swing at Carmelita. There was a brief moment where she ducked within reach, avoiding the pointy bit of the pickaxe to try and block the attack, but the robot’s strength sent her tumbling across the room, landing awkwardly against one of the pump columns.
“Mierda.”
“I. Was. Built. For. Crushing. Dirt!”
As the droid came at her on stuttering treads, Carmelita grabbed her shock pistol from where it had fallen and fired repeatedly, the droid taking each hit to the chest. It ground to a slow halt before keeling over, shut down.
She staggered to her feet, feeling the gash in her arm reopened by the force of her fall. As she began throwing all the dynamite in the pool of water, relieving M.I.T.E of any option to destroy the water rigs, a laser blast caught her in the leg and the smell of burnt hair hit her nose a moment before the pain did.
“You again, you pain in the ass.” Dino emerged from the tunnel, laser pistol held in his metal prosthetic and saddlebags filled with the files on either flank.
Carmelita stumbled behind a pump column as the laser bolts began flying. She could track the quadruped’s progress through the angle of his shots as he made his way over to M.I.T.E.
“And you’ve gone and gotten rid of my pal’s explosives, you bitch.”
“Bitches are dogs, tonto. I’m a vixen.”
With that, she dived from cover, the charged up energy ball flying swiftly into the quadruped’s face. Dino screamed.
“My eyes! How can you blind all four eyes at once?!”
The laser blasts went everywhere, and Carmelita took the opportunity to bodycheck the being into the pool of water. He spluttered as he lost his grip on the laser pistol, fishing around for it amongst the sodden sticks of dynamite as his vision cleared.
Carmelita stood, favouring her wounded leg, as she fired shot after shot at the quadruped, the being eventually collapsing from neural overload.
She breathed a sigh and leaned against the pump, her breathing settling slowly. Her rest was interrupted, however, by the arrival of Cacturne. The green being stared at her, and at the two bodies lying on the floor, before turning round and fleeing. With a groan, Carmelita gave chase.
The laser wound had been self-cauterised, but it still hurt every time she put her weight on it. Pushing through the stabs of pain, Carmelita sprinted after the third member of this cell of conspirators, hearing the thump of footsteps receding ahead of her. Unlike the other tunnel, this one was dead straight, leading steadily upwards. She glanced up to fire off a few bursts of her shock pistol, but Cacturne turned and gestured, bringing up a Spiky Shield that dissipated the shots.
The two continued up, until suddenly they were leveling out, the sound of wind roaring up ahead. Cacturne vanished into the light, and a moment later Carmelita found herself outside. Instead of the beautiful morning she’d been expecting, instead it was a howling nightmare of sand, her fur and jacket barely protecting her from the biting grains. Forced to retreat back to the tunnel, she stared out after the fugitive and waited for Roland’s forces to reach her as her wounded leg failed beneath her.
Her swearing was drowned out by the sand.