@rubear: (*Pokes Gently*)
Mechanicus (CVnU planet)
@rubear: *Smiles* Sounds good. ;-)
Then
That was just a footprint amongst ashes. Something simple, something mundane. Something so wrong. Different placing of fingers, marks of claws, size of it - all was pointing on disturbing conclusion that whoever left this footprint was not human. And he was here recently. That alone could not mean much in ruins ripe with time anomalies, but some wierd equipment they found after tracing footprints was... Sergeant was not a specialist in alien technology, but from the look of it he saw before himself some kind of measuring instruments.
- No signs of live, eh?
- Perhaps it's because our scanners are tuned on signs of Earth liveforms, serg. Perhaps it's just this damned ruins...
- Uins, uins, uins... - whispered echo.
- Seems like they left just before us. Move out, - after some consideration sergean added, - Perhaps they are just strangers like us, perhaps we found dangerous species that killed this world. We should be ready for battle. We should be ready fo anything.
Now
Grey was absently looking on wound. On subconscious level he knew that he had some injuries long ago, before everything changed... and that after that day he had regeneration. On this strange world it... diminished. And their ship fell apart. And he had headaches right after fall and before. What was going on...? If there was something affecting high technology, why it was affecting him...? Perhaps he had some kind of implants enchancing organism and if so - did he get them voluntary or during conditioning like this puppets..? He blinked and shook his head.
- You are hurt? -He heard something only vague, like from a great distance.
- Grey, are you alright? - Eli's voice - and surprisingly gentle hand on shoulder - came through fog of grim thoughts.
- Da. Guess i'm, - but honestly he wasn't sure like at all. Or how he'd explain his doubt. - It's just... not every day you are fighting with sticks and stones against cyberwerewolves armed with lightning claws. Or crashing through trees during fall from space on unknown planet. How are you?
Jun's eyes narrow at Grey's answer. The curious companion of theirs seemed...distracted, as though he was focused on something other than their battle. Could he have been poisoned by his injury? It was possible; the beasts had not been able to puncture Jun's skin, and she also hadn't seen Eli take any wounds, so it was possible that the creature's claws had some kind of injury-inflicted toxin. She kept her thoughts to herself for the moment, though. She had encountered many unusual beings in the relatively brief span of time that she could remember, so unusual behavior was by itself not indicative of anything.
"We should get moving," she finally replied. "If those things were being controlled, the controller will likely try another attack, most likely with a more powerful force. If we can't find a settlement soon, we should consider finding a defensible location to make camp. I would prefer the next battle to be on ground of our choosing."
Elite loves Grey accent, but she doesn't mention that. Jun began speaking a plan of action could she could and it was very sound thinking. She nods her head in agreement, "I agree, Jun. Let's first try and find some form of settlement and see if we can find a place to stay there. If not, I don't mind sleeping on the streets, just so long as we aren't here in the wilderness. Failing that, we'll look for some sort of cave and chase out any animal that may reside there."
She looks at her friends, "Be right back." Then she leaps straight up into the air, reaching a full mile above the ground before she starts falling. While up there, she takes a quick look around and spots a settlement a few miles distant. When she comes crashing back onto the ground, causing dirt and rock flying everywhere, Elite smiles, "Found a settlement. This way." She begins walking towards the settlement that she saw from the air.
Well...that's certainly one way to find a settlement...isn't it?
@rubear: Elitex01 here. In my opinion, real life needs some first. So, if you need to handle something in real life, go take care of it. When your ready to post again to reply to us, we'll be here, ok? ^_^
Beyond the grand vision of Cogopolis, past the diseased wetlands of Jericho’s Blight and bordering upon the mountains known as the Spine of the world, there exists the rough-n-tumble mining town of Hannah’s Pointe.
It is here the central mines of production for most of the planet are found and yea, hardly a metallic piece of importance exists --whether it be function or architecture-- that does not find its genesis in these mines. Though veined with prosperity it is not what one might call a pleasant place to reside. The wealth received from the labors flow out like a filthy river, drawn away by holders little known and less caring, leaving behind people as bitter and inhospitable as the toxic wetlands. It is a place where the cursed rain brings mudslides, where free men live the lives of slaves. In such a place only those with wings may fly, those who can speak to machines and work the gears as a musician plays an instrument. These and only these find their way to something brighter. To one of the gleaming cities in the far distance shining with possibility.
It is here in the sloughs that Karai Andelai Meredith lives with her adopted father, who works the hellish forges-- pouring and shaping the molten ore into gears that will move the cities and give life to the great machines. Her father, like most of the village, was a hard man. But not as hard as some and in fact you might call him a jolly sort, in that he on occasion smiled. Karai likewise was more chipper than most, and in strange abundance being found of both imagination and talent. Stranger would think her a simple mechanic with her grubby clothing and oft grease smeared face. That is not to speak of her whorish red hair that brought its own social stigma.
What you would not tell at a glance or even a prolonged stare about Karai is that she was more than a mere mechanic, but in fact a borderline arcanic when it came to putting bolts to gears and widgets to couplings. She had a book of drawing for things she imagined but could not presently create. Vehicles and weapons and homunculi powered by grinding bits and turning keys. And fair yes, as much as the father desired a better life for her he also was hesitant. For a flower may be beautiful. but the luster does fade in memory, given time. And who then will be reminded that it was beautiful?
Too soon come that days when things must change. That day perhaps being today, with the new load of parts to be shipped. He could give her what money he had saved and put her on the back of a cargo transport heading for Cogopolis and whatever future the city could provide. Whether she would want to go would be another matter.
Daltar was, at least in his own opinion, a pretty non-judgmental guy. He generally tried to avoid forming too strong of an opinion of any planet he did "business" with; as long as they worked in something negotiable and didn't ask too many questions, they were good people, in his book. That being said, he found Mechanicus to be exceedingly...weird. He'd been to planets where the technology was so advanced that having one of the inhabitants attempt to explain it to him gave him a headache, and he'd been to some so primitive that they considered the man who came down out of the sky on a metal chariot to trade with them to be some kind of deity of commerce, but he couldn't think of any other world that consciously placed strictly-enforced limitations on the level of their own technology.
That being said, the technology they did produce could be pretty ingenious, for all its limitations. They also had an abundance of natural resources that inhabitants of less fertile worlds were willing to pay top credit for, especially when it came in under the radar of governments who preferred keeping all such materials under their own tight control. So it was that he found himself once again stepping off of one of the bizarre steam-powered craft that ferried passengers from the orbital station that was as close as most starships could get to the planet without suffering total systems failure to the surface. Even his own personal security had to go through some adjustments, as his usual plasma pistol had been replaced with a odd sort of sidearm that produced powerful bolts of electricity. He certainly wouldn't want to go up against a squad of Centurions with it, but as he was about as likely to encounter those here as he was to encounter a single purple unicorn that granted wishes, it sufficed.
He made his way through the crowded and slightly chaotic streets of the trade quarter of Cogopolis, brushing shoulders with both locals and a smattering of aliens who shared his willingness to put profit above comprehensibility. Ultimately, his path would take him to the shop of a local merchant who had a penchant for finding precious metals that, while rare on this world, were unheard of on most others, in the hopes of finding a shipment that would set him up for comfortably for the immediate future.
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