Cities of the Future

[PurpleXVI]

"If you don't see him, he's not there," said their contact, "After all, both of you were given the choice of not accepting, and so was he. Nonetheless, I am confident that we have all of the resources we need to complete the mission."

 

"You can call me Candiru One, that's my callsign. Dext- I'm sorry, Knocko, will be Candiru Two, and Travis will be Candiru Three. It may feel a bit silly, but we'll want to be able to talk during the mission without anyone finding out our names."

 

"I still cannot brief you in detail, yet. Though I doubt it, there's a faint chance that someone is listening in," One paused briefly, "But here's a quick overview: First, I'll need your help making a few modifications to the controls of W-8, that'll be our first criminal action. But I'm sure that with Knocko along we can get to where we need to without arousing suspicion. After that we'll be heading north into the Restricted Zone. Just across the border there's one of the fleet's deep space scanning arrays, which is where our mission seriously starts. We'll make the trip in a disconnected ATB*, so no one will be able to detect us on the way, I believe that Knocko knows how to drive one of those."

 

"Now, any last questions before I end the call?"

 

(OOC:

 

*ATB's are All Terrain Buggies. And they are, literally, All Terrain. Their wheels can inflate to become pontoons for crossing lakes, they can drive up 60 degree slopes provided that there's some decent friction, it requires military hyper-velocity projectiles to tear through their wheels and some models are even equipped with limited jump jet capability for crossing extremely broken country.

 

Most ATB's have no weaponry, a sealable cockpit for hostile planets and room for four people.

 

It's disconnected in the sense that it's emergency GPS beacon is disabled and it's connection to the local GPS network for just finding out where it is has been removed as well. Dangerous to do on a planet that's not heavily populated, but practically makes you invisible.

[Captain Andy]

Travis smiled to himself afer seeing Knocko look a little embarressed. He shrugged and began to speak.

 

"So we're heading into the Restricted Zones? I've heard all sorts of crazy rumors and theories about that area. Weapons research, alien ruins, something about a Timecube or something. I think I read about it somewhere. Anyway, do you happen to know what's actually there, Candiru One? And what does Candiru mean anyway?"

[Stampede]

"Yeah, that's a good question. What I want to know is, apart from the law, is there anyone else we got to watch out for? Who would be listening to this call? I mean...how high does thing actually go?"

[PurpleXVI]

"The truth about the Restricted Zones is surprisingly boring, it's just military manufaction and research facilities. Sorry, don't expect to see any aliens when we go there. And there shouldn't be anything other than the law to worry about, provided that you include the local fleet and Silver Rock's armed security forces as part of the law."

 

"Our employer isn't entirely non-suspect, so there's a vague chance that local law enforcement might have learned about this. I really doubt it, but I don't want to take any chances, I'm sure you understand. And I'd be risking more than just my job if I told you anything about those involved in this venture."

 

"I'll be cutting off the call now, unless you have any vital questions, and, uh, a Candiru is a small fish from the Amazon river back on Earth. It's known for swimming up the urethra of humans, attaching itself with sharp spines and then sucking blood. Don't blame me, command assigned us this callsign."

[Stampede]

"Oh, nice. " In response to the meaning of the callsign.

 

Having no further questions, Knocko would turn to his new 'coworker' and ask him about himself.

[Captain Andy]

Travis shuddered after finding out what the a Candiru was, getting an awful mental image of it. He placed his PDA away and turned to Knocko.

 

"Me? Well, there's really not much to know. I'm a hacker. That's how I ended up here. I didn't leave a family or anything behind so I guess it's all okay. I haven't done anything in awhile anyway. All I've left behind was my small home and my gaming community. Like I said, not much else to know. So what about you, Knocko? Tell me about yourself."

[Stampede]

Knocko paused to reflect on what details to add and what to leave for now, settling on:

 

"I'm an engineer and general maintenance man. I got a family to support and a wife that just wont quit, bless her. I need the cash, I got the mail, I took the bait. I just hope the hook is worth the risk."

 

Right off the bat Knocko seemed to like his new companion, but liking and trusting were two different things and for now, he would keep a wary eye on the man.

[PurpleXVI]

It was still several days before they were going to be at the terraforming station, but they passed by quickly. There were no more messages from Candiru One.

 

Eventually they could see the station on the horizon. A flat, hexagonal structure rising out of the sand, looking like it was just a large concrete block with metal entry doors, one along each side. At the centre there was another hexagonal structure, a metal spire that rose so far up that the tip was almost invisible. Occasionally bolts of lightning would leap from the spire and earth themselves.

 

When they got within ten miles of the station, the wind, which normally blew lazily across the desert, barely even strong enough to arrange it into dunes, picked up strength rapidly. Small dust devils were constantly forming and dissipating after a few seconds, sand could be heard rattling against the outside of the storage compartment and occasionally a powerful gust of wind would make the entire vehicle shake.

 

Despite this, however, they reached the nearest entry bay without incident. In short order the entire convoy drove inside and the bay was repressurized. From outside came the constant howling of the wind and sometimes the boom of thunder. It was a sound that Knocko was used to hearing all day when he worked at the station.

 

They barely had time to get out of the transport before the large bay was clogged with workers loading, unloading, bickering, almost running each over with forklifts, checking cargo lists, complaining about cargo lists, correcting cargo lists and sneaking off with supplies while other workers were busy complaining about them. Besides the workers and the foreman who was trying to bring some degree of order to the chaos, there was one other person in the bay.

 

When Travis and Reid looked at him, he gave them a quick wave and then motioned for them to come to him. He was standing near one of the airlock doors leading from the bay into the station itself. He had a buzz cut and a friendly face, built like a stocky soldier and wearing a desert-camo haz suit without the helmet.

 

 

(OOC:

 

Notes on the T-Station. Most T-Stations have bases the size of small towns. The above-ground base houses most of the facilities for the workers, where they live and so forth, as well as safe rooms, storage and other stuff. The spire above ground is what modifies the atmosphere, releases spores or affects the weather. Below ground is an even more massive part of the facility which is mostly pipes, machines and automated things, into which the workers occasionally descend to perform maintenance or regular check-ups. Most T-Stations have the standard selection of highly dubious stories about monsters living in the below-ground part.

 

The crew for an average station is around two-thousand people, including a small security regiment. Security measures have been ever increasing since the appearance of the Designers, an extremist religious eco-terrorist cult.

 

The Designers: Opposing any kind of ecological change or terraforming, whether malicious, beneficial or neither. They hate people who terraform worlds like Silver Rock into planets which can support humans as much as people who hunt species into extinction for profit. Their beliefs can be summed up as: "God created the universe, any sort of human-caused change to it is deviating from His plan." They despise technology, too, but grudgingly agree that it often provides good tools for destroying unbelievers or maintaining a status quo.)

[Stampede]

Knocko gave a quick glance to Travis and began to follow their new contact, shouldering past the scurrying workers.

[PurpleXVI]

(Arodom gets introduced here. Arodom is Evilsincarnate.)

 

As Travis and Knocko got near Candiru, another man stepped out of the door and took up a place near him. The guy looked pretty rough, like someone used to living on the streets, probably the sort of fellow you'd want watching your back in a tough situation.

 

Their contact introduced him, "This is Arodom, when I heard that the fourth person of our little squad wasn't going to show up, I quickly checked among the new arrivals here for someone who might be useful. Arodom, Mr. Reid and Mr. Jones."

 

"Now please follow me," he said, and turned to head out of the hangar through the door that Arodom had come from, "You can get acquainted in a short while, I've found a safe room to brief you in and disabled the local surveillance network. It's really just a storage closet, but I've rigged up a holo-display."

 

Arodom had arrived at the station a few weeks ago to do some work to get him through a rough patch and when he was made the offer he, whatever his reasons might've been, accepted Candiru One's extremely illegal offer on behalf of Zanzara Industries. He knew as much about the mission as the other two did at the moment, which was that they were heading north to a fleet facility to do something that they would get executed for if they were caught. If they succeeded? Then they'd get immensely rich.

 

Knocko was a large, tattooed man in working clothes, and Travis a neater-dressed, slightly shorter and somewhat skinner guy. The most striking feature of the large man was the fact that he had metal teeth.

 

"Oh, and one thing," he added, before he went through the door, "Short change of plans, we're heading out from here in a few hours already. I'll explain why when we get to the briefing room."

 

(OOC: Whatever of his equipment that Arodom isn't currently wearing or holding it's assumed that he has in a duffel bag in the worker dorms or which he's carrying with him.)