Postapocalyptia S1E4: Pseudosunrise

[Cylarn]

Soon, the entire team - Clara and the others - boarded Lucille. Russ would do a quick head-count before ducking back into Lucy and climbing into the driver's seat, still smoking his blunt. The engines were all fired up, and it was time to fuck off.

"LET'S GO!" Russ ordered.

Lucy soon got a move on, with Jack following behind. The IFV would charge through the ruins, knocking through Gazprom grunts and vehicles alike as it cut a swath for its escape. Russ knew what he was doing, and his first priority was to get them as far away from the Glow as possible. It was hairy, and both Jack and Russ were knocking vehicles and people aside. It seemed that Jack was a driver, just like his father, and the young man handled the vehicle with relative ease, as though the vehicle was an extension of himself. However, it was a hard fight, and although Russ, Jack, and the others had gathered various artifacts, it was still a loss for them, as Hiram had been captured and they had been forced to fall back.

5 miles away from the Glow, Russ had led the crew to a rather rocky area in the sands, which was rather defensible against anyone wishing to take them out. Russ brought Lucy to a stop, with Jack pulling up beside of him, with around 6 yards in between the two vehicles. Russ climbed out first, smoke following him out from Lucy after opening up the back door. Jack exited his vehicle two, removing his shemagh as he approached his father.

"What now?" he asked.

"Take the prisoners," Russ said. "Keep an eye on 'em. Are you injured?"

"Nah, I'm good," Jack said in response. "You?"

"Bruised, but I'll make it."

Russ motioned for everyone to file it out of Lucy, now that they were safe. Before they could get a respite, Russ would begin barking orders. When he referred to the prisoners, he was taking about the bitch that had beat up Aeron, and the frightened AA stooge. His SCAR was in his hands, waiting for everyone to climb out.

"Anna, I need you to tend to any wounded that we might have. Everyone else, try and wind down a bit. Gazprom bitch and AA fucker, leave your weapons in the vehicle and move out of the vehicle slowly. Hands on your head. Jack, shake 'em down and disarm them. I'm gonna get Lucy's sensors online. If anyone's injured, hang by Lucy so that you can get treated."

With that, Russ made his way back inside Lucy and activated the sensors, letting them know if anything entered their perimeter. Russ climbed back out of Lucy and groaned as he touched his back, making his way beside of Jack. The young man had his ACR trained on their two captives, waiting for them to make a wrong move.

[Jessjohnesik]

A shiny blip would now be visible to the group. It was Clara. She had flown all the way back and forth between the Glow, the Jet and Lucy to deliver a message to the group. She would now be with the group, finally. Russ even counted her in when he did a head count. Now she needed a more or less quiet time to speak up.

"I am afraid Hiram is in trouble. I have a recording which will explain the situation." Clara would say, a hint of sadness into her tone. Right after the little statement, the recording would play...

"'Sup, suckas. How's it going? Me, I'm great, chillin' in the crawler-carrier with AA, en route to Montecristo and riches. Betrayal stings, don't it? HA! Just kidding. I'm actually a prisoner of Arseholics Analogous, and it sucks pretty bad. I told Clara to deliver this message to you guys, so if you hear this, it means she and you are all alive, so, uh, yay? And stuff.
Anyway, I also told her to sabotage the carrier, sooo... be great if you swooped in and grabbed me from the wreck once it goes down. If I die in the process, don't bother, in that case this message is also my will. I leave all my stuff to you.
If you can't liberate me, or if Clara fails, don't bother with me. I knew this would come to blood from the moment Andrei told me about Gazprom moving north, and I didn't tell you. I'm sorry. If any of you die, it's my fault. If I die, or stay a prisoner, my only wish from you is that don't sell Lucy. Learn to use her to her fullest, and go on wild adventures. Don't leave each other. You're a good bunch, and believe it or not, you've made this old Vagabond happy. You're fr...
Aw crap, Jamie's coming back..."
*static*

After the recording, Clara would go quiet, not sure what else she could say. She sometimes thought that it didn't matter what she said, as words wouldn't change an action that cannot be changed by them.

[Cylarn]

A shiny blip would now be visible to the group. It was Clara. She had flown all the way back and forth between the Glow, the Jet and Lucy to deliver a message to the group. She would now be with the group, finally. Russ even counted her in when he did a head count. Now she needed a more or less quiet time to speak up.

"I am afraid Hiram is in trouble. I have a recording which will explain the situation." Clara would say, a hint of sadness into her tone. Right after the little statement, the recording would play...

"'Sup, suckas. How's it going? Me, I'm great, chillin' in the crawler-carrier with AA, en route to Montecristo and riches. Betrayal stings, don't it? HA! Just kidding. I'm actually a prisoner of Arseholics Analogous, and it sucks pretty bad. I told Clara to deliver this message to you guys, so if you hear this, it means she and you are all alive, so, uh, yay? And stuff.
Anyway, I also told her to sabotage the carrier, sooo... be great if you swooped in and grabbed me from the wreck once it goes down. If I die in the process, don't bother, in that case this message is also my will. I leave all my stuff to you.
If you can't liberate me, or if Clara fails, don't bother with me. I knew this would come to blood from the moment Andrei told me about Gazprom moving north, and I didn't tell you. I'm sorry. If any of you die, it's my fault. If I die, or stay a prisoner, my only wish from you is that don't sell Lucy. Learn to use her to her fullest, and go on wild adventures. Don't leave each other. You're a good bunch, and believe it or not, you've made this old Vagabond happy. You're fr...
Aw crap, Jamie's coming back..."
*static*

After the recording, Clara would go quiet, not sure what else she could say. She sometimes thought that it didn't matter what she said, as words wouldn't change an action that cannot be changed by them.

Russ's eyes lit up when Hiram had said that he had sabotaged the Carrier. He looked over at the others, and then back at Clara. This was their best chance to get Hiram, and if they waited, then he'd likely be killed. However, there was the issue of the two captives. He glared at them, but admitted to himself that they needed the extra bodies, and if they were actually enemies, they would have been trying to escape already.

"You two, y'all are taggin' along for this ride," he said. "We'll drop y'all off in Monte after this shit is up."

He then turned back to the group. They had to move now, or else Hiram would be dead.

"We need to load back up," he said. "Get back into the vehicles."

[Feroxi]

Aeron was feeding more rounds into the technical's machine gun when he heard Hiram's voice. He swung around, but instead of Hiram he found a certain floating artificial intelligence. If he remembered right, the AI had gone with the name Clara or something similar. Aeron turned and listened as she delivered a message from the now missing Vagabond leader.

Sup, suckas. How's it going? Me, I'm great, chillin' in the crawler-carrier with AA, en route to Montecristo and riches. Betrayal stings, don't it? HA! Just kidding. I'm actually a prisoner of Arseholics Analogous, and it sucks pretty bad. I told Clara to deliver this message to you guys, so if you hear this, it means she and you are all alive, so, uh, yay? And stuff.
Anyway, I also told her to sabotage the carrier, sooo... be great if you swooped in and grabbed me from the wreck once it goes down. If I die in the process, don't bother, in that case this message is also my will. I leave all my stuff to you.
If you can't liberate me, or if Clara fails, don't bother with me. I knew this would come to blood from the moment Andrei told me about Gazprom moving north, and I didn't tell you. I'm sorry. If any of you die, it's my fault. If I die, or stay a prisoner, my only wish from you is that don't sell Lucy. Learn to use her to her fullest, and go on wild adventures. Don't leave each other. You're a good bunch, and believe it or not, you've made this old Vagabond happy. You're fr...
Aw crap, Jamie's coming back…

After the message, all of the gang was silent as if their mouths were stitched together- even Anna's robotic companion.

Russ broke the tension. "We need to load back up," he said. "Get back into the vehicles."

Aeron nodded and jammed the remaining ammunition in the machine gun feeder. He said, "No objections there."

He wrapped his scarf around his mouth, which was nothing more than a pattern covered rag to protect his lungs from sand inhalation. His dog hopped into the back of the technical and hugged the metal floor.

Aeron looked to Jack and gestured him to drive. He said, "Ever been to Montecristo? Never have and I hoped I never would. Fate's a bitch."

[Galdius]

The ride in the not-so-UNSEC personnel IFV was a particularly bumpy one, noisy one and it didn't help that she was lying on the floor inside the damn thing, flexi-cuffed. the various pings from the rounds striking off the armor keep her on very tight edge as the bullet magnet sped through the glow, which would no doubt be heading outwards into the vast desert which surrounded the place. It didn't take to long for the incessant pinging to stop, making it pretty clear that they had gotten clear from that shit hole. She could put her mind to some sort of rest now, she didn't exactly have to worry about getting shot by her own guys now, just the rather eccentric group of individuals that resided in these IFV, she was pretty much at this bunch of crazy bastards mercy. But it wasn't the first time shit like this had happened to her.

The IFV soon came to a stop, the back hatch opened to revel a rocky area in the dessert, which wasn't all that surprising for her, it looked like a pretty good spot for an execution, maybe that was what it was for, to get rid of her and the other guy or maybe she was just thinking to hard on the worse case scenario. Leeann managed to hoist herself up before wandered out of the vehicle into the sandy dessert. Leeann hated sand, and clowns. And Rigel-3 had no shortage of either, making it one of the worst places to be for her. At the order to put her hands on her head, she started making mock grunting noises and a rather unpleasant face as she seemingly tried to break the ziplock cuffs. "Sorry, but I can't break these cuff's." She retorted with a grin, turning around to show him her zip cuffed hands before turning back around to face him. "You'll need to uncuff me, then I'll put my hands on my head." Leeann then promptly over heard the message from there leader or who seemed to be their leader, and he seemed to be in a spot of bother. Leeann did not say anything about it, despite wanting too, realising that it might end badly her.

[Pan Asian Amercian Coalition]

The sprint to the IFV and resulting escape went surprisingly smoothly. The drive out into the desert afterwards, not so much. Elsha's long run with heavy equipment left her exhausted, which is a rare occurrence. She stumbled out of Lucy,as the only thing keeping her awake, the adrenaline, was wearing off. That, and the pain from the close call with a rifle round near her knee was starting to catch up with her.

"We need to load back up" Russ commanded "Get back into the vehicles."

"Can't we rest here for a bit?" she tiredly argued, slouching over a little "and does anyone have a bandage or somethin?"

[Mincaldenteans]

"Bandage that while we're driving, Anna can handle that. I'm taking Lil'Bit," Sev said while worrying her lip and raised her hand before anyone could gripe at her, "Not some ownership thing, I just need to fix her comm system while we're on the road. Someone else can drive while I do that. And also," she turned to Clara, the floating robot looked back at her. Sev could have sworn the thing blinked at her. Sometimes she wondered if it was more alive and aware than any of them. "Clara, did you access anything that I could trace Hiram with? A tracker maybe? Did you get some kind of signal frequency that I could use?"

Not that it'd be hard to find a crawling carrier if Sev could ping a few radar or sensor systems if AA crossed a few checkpoints, but why make it more difficult if Hiram could (hopefully) have made it easier?

[Jessjohnesik]

"Bandage that while we're driving, Anna can handle that. I'm taking Lil'Bit," Sev said while worrying her lip and raised her hand before anyone could gripe at her, "Not some ownership thing, I just need to fix her comm system while we're on the road. Someone else can drive while I do that. And also," she turned to Clara, the floating robot looked back at her. Sev could have sworn the thing blinked at her. Sometimes she wondered if it was more alive and aware than any of them. "Clara, did you access anything that I could trace Hiram with? A tracker maybe? Did you get some kind of signal frequency that I could use?"

Not that it'd be hard to find a crawling carrier if Sev could ping a few radar or sensor systems if AA crossed a few checkpoints, but why make it more difficult if Hiram could (hopefully) have made it easier?

"Indeed, Severine." Clara started, "I have placed two trackers on both the carrier and Hiram. They are small and black, so I doubt anyone would notice them." The robot finished, pausing for about thirty seconds as her systems would attempt to locate the trackers' signals. A small beep sound would be heard by Severine, which signalled that Clara had indeed found the signal of one of the trackers, the other not wanting to respond. It was the carrier tracker, as the Huram one was silent. In any case, Clara would be able to find it at a closer range with her sonar when the carrier goes down, so this was little problem for her.
"I have found the signal of the Archeologists' carrier, but Hiram's is silent. I will connect to Lucy so the signal will be on its radars." Clara stated and proceeded to connect to Lucy via a connection wire Clara had. Soon after, the signal was displayed on Lucy's radars.

---

"Elsha!" Anna said out loud, bandage in hand. "I have a bandage. Where does it hurt?" The woman would ask in a doctor manner. Anna, after all, did have an abundance of medicine, she even had a synthesised anaesthetic from the Carracut's venom. She could give that to Elsha if the pain was crushing, but it didn't appear to be so.

Dahl, on the other hand, was still in the turret, chilling in the local star's light without getting hot. But she was as alert as always, nevertheless.

[Ayreonia]

"Uh... Jamie?"

"Yes, Hiram?"

"I know that, in-characterly, I'm supposed to be all pissed at angry at you for capturin' me, but I gotta tell you something..."

"Yes? Go on."

"This carrier thingy of yours. It's sweetkickassome as hell."

Jamie buried a smile behind spoonfuls of pea mush. "Well, what can I say... being in the Association has its perks."

Hiram took some of his own mush. It was delicious; hot and generously spiced. "Like this chow, huh? Mmmhmhm," he murmured with his mouth full, then swallowed and belched, drawing either annoyed or amused looks from the rest of the table. "You know," he went on, wiping his mouth, "a week or so on MREs and water really makes you ache for some good ol' chow. An' I don't mean food, I mean chow. As in something a fat grumpy lady would toss on your tray in a mess hall. Sumthin' that's always mushy, and like greenish-brownish and stuff, you know what I'm saying?"

Jamie listened patiently to Hiram's gastronomy rant. "And this fulfills your definition of chow?"

"Yessir," Hiram declared, fake-seriously, "one hundred percent, sir. Ey bro, you got a light? Thanks." The AA had confiscated almost all of his belongings, including his lighter, probably in fear of him incinerating someone's eyebrows. He took a long drag from his cigarette and let out a deep sigh of pleasure, as only a man with a full stomach could. "Fucking Toni, right?"

"Yeah," Jamie said darkly, fell silent for a second, then smashed a fist on the table, making his cutlery clatter. "Fuck him. We lost four good men today because of him and his ilk. Not to mention our plan..." he stopped, as if only now noticing the AA personnel seated at the table, "...our plan getting crushed. Fuck him."

Hiram leaned back and let his gaze sweep the people gathered here. It was funny; seeing someone living their daily life, eating, sleeping and talking, made you see them as a real person, a human being... even the Arch Ass guys. About half of the expedition crew were gathered at the table, some relieved because they survived, some mourning the deaths of their comrades, some only coming off the adrenal high. They were people too, Hiram realized, something he had already known, but never truly felt. He was almost sorry for what was about to happen... what he hoped would happen, anyway.

---

What a damn buffoon was what Parish thought. "Okay" was what he said. He did as told, not wanting any trouble from the UNSEC people.

He should have never went ahead on his own to explore. If he hadn't none of this would have happened... well, actually, it would have, but he'd be on Twister, flying back home, not with this rough bunch of government desperadoes. They really had a thing for dropping weapons and putting hands on heads, they did. He really didn't want a confrontation, but then he was called "AA fucker," which made something snap inside him.

"First Sergeant, this AA fucker has a name," he sneered. "It's Hew Parish, and the fucker would respectfully ask the First Sergeant to use that instead of 'AA fucker.' Sir."

He then realized what he had said, and tried to correct the situation. He was usually so nice and agreeable... "There's no need to treat me like a prisoner, you know. I fought Gazprom, not you. Me and your cannibal girl got out of the ruins together." The assertive words were undermined by his slight sweating and the twitch by his right eye he always had when nervous. "Just... just drop me off at the nearest Association outpost, okay? Please. I have a family."

---

A slight tremor ran through the carrier. Nobody else at the table seemed to notice it, but to Hiram, it was as subtle as being hit in the head with a limp trout. Clara did it, he thought blankly. He only now realized that his planning ended here. He had done all he could, all that was left was hoping he would survive the inevitable crash and that his friends would bust him out.

"Hey, Hiram, are you here with us?"

Hiram had to almost physically shake himself out of it. "H-huh?"

"Are you listening? I just commended your Independent Patrol. Damn tough fighters, them."

"Yeah, thanks..."

It was an unpleasant feeling. All the way, he had been at least partially in control. Now, he was just a helpless bag of flesh, at the mercy of gravity and the hardiness of his own body.

Again.

"What's that, turbulence?" Jamie frowned. "Weird, we're flying too low for that..."

"Could be a sudden drop in land elevation," a member of the carrier crew suggested. "The pilot had mentioned that the repulsion compensators have been a bit slow since we left the ruin."

Jamie shrugged. "If so, that needs to be looked at ASAP. Take care of it when..."

THUNK. All of a sudden, the carrier dipped to the right, sending plates and glasses flying.

"Okay, that was no elevation!" The crewmember shouted, tapped the comm device on his wrist and spoke: "Pilot, what's going on? The whole craft is inclining!"

"Right repulsor is losing power!" came the reply, in a slightly shaken voice. "I can't... I'll reroute power from elsewhere, hold on. This may get a little shaky."

Then the carrier dipped to the left, fixing nothing but at least bringing a bit of variety by changing the trajectory of flying cutlery.

"What the hell, Jessy, you drunk?" the crewman yelled into his com. "Stop fooling around and fix this, now!"

"I- I- I can't!" The pilot's voice was shrill with panic now. "Routing the power only makes it, I don't know, fucking disappear," she all but screamed. "We're losing altitude, fast!"

Postapocalyptia OST - Carrier Down

As if on cue, a siren akin to the moans of a wounded animal started blaring. People scrambled around, dodging flying stuff and each other, hurrying to get to their seats and buckle in. Hiram didn't know the safety precautions, he just sat there dumbly, until he felt someone yank him up.

"You will pay for this, Dupont," Jamie hissed into his ear, his voice dripping poison. He only used Hiram's last name when he was really, really angry.

"Huh? How's this my fault?"

"QUIET! This w..."

Crash.

---

Faint light, strange voices, lots of pain.

"...quite a mess..."

"Yeah. What should we do with the prisoner guy?"

"The Chief Prospector said he was important, before passing out. Let's bring him with us, we can interrogate him in the Cristo once he wakes up."

"He's not dead, is he?"

"Nope, he's alive and stable, for as long as we need him."

Silence.

[Jessjohnesik]

"It's about time for the carrier to be down. I think we need to go faster or else someone else will find the plane before us." Clara stated, worrying whether or not Hiram had survived. "Given its path of flight we're heading in the right direction." She added for clearance. The robot never wanted tof ail at her tasks. For she is an idealist, just like Claire, the human female who's brain cells are inside Clara. Clara is Claire, despite major differences in memory and personality. Clara couldn't realise that, the life she had before she became the most ideal form of an artificial intelligence unit that is the most manoeuvrable, most hardy. Despite not quite being an artificial form of intelligence.

[Cylarn]

When Clara brought up the crashing carrier, Russ turned to the others. Apparently, the loud thing could be heard from miles around as it crashed into the ground. They needed to move now.

"Alright, everyone get aboard," Russ ordered. "Jack, take the GL."

Once everyone had climbed aboard their respective vehicles, Russ pushed Lucy forward, charging through the desert. A thick cloud of smoke could be seen from about everywhere, which meant that it could allow scavengers and bandits to the site, not to mention dangerous Rigelian wildlife. As they drew closer to the source of the smoke, they could see the wreckage, with injured and dead AA prospectors lying around.

"Take control of the guns," Russ radioed to the crew of Vagabonds. "Waste 'em."

Russ brought the vehicle to a stop outside of the burning heap that the massive carrier had become. After opening the back door, Russ climbed out of Lucy, brandishing his SCAR and taking aim at an injured AA scientist who had barely managed to raise his gun. With a single pull of the trigger as he continued to walk, he put down the injured scientist and approached a closed gate on the side of the carrier. He immediately removed some C4 and a detonator and began to get to work on blowing open the door.

Jack had already hopped up out of the turret. Unslinging his ACR, he began to take aim at the injured AA men, putting them down.

[Jessjohnesik]

Clara would flutter out, scanning and searching the wreckage for Hiram using her various robotic equipment. To prevent anyone from interfering with her search, Clara would shoot out a small 'needle' coated from the inside out with pure Carracut venom, killing the targets instantly.

Anna quickly followed, grabbing a gun and going on to search for Hiram. She would look into larger parts of the wreckage to see whether Hiram could've been trapped by the debris.
While Dahl had chosen to stay back in case someone decides to ride by. In which case she would alert the group and destroy the intruders.

"Hiram!" Anna shouted, awaiting a response of some sort but not quite sure whether Hiram is conscious.

[Pan Asian Amercian Coalition]

Elsha hurried out of Lucy in step with the others, an anesthetic and energy drink on the ride over revitalizing her greatly. Unlike the others, however, she left her heavy ordinance behind in favor of a large medical bag and swift movement. Surveying the outside world, she saw Russ' spawn executing injured Amazing Abbreviations people. Not even soldiers, or anyone who even posed a remote threat. This shit won't fly. She quickly ducked back inside Lucy, grabbed her empty energy drink can, and appearing back outside gave it a solid throw.

"THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" she shouted at Jack as the can harmlessly bounced off the side of his head.

[The Carlisle]

Eira stepped out of the vehicle and looked at the wreckage. Memories filled her mind, memories from years ago. Not exactly her memories either, but this one they all shared for some reason. "Holy fuck," she muttered. She felt depressed and angry, but he handled it and kept cool. She didn't know if the actual Eira would be able to handle it. She looked to the others.

"Let's get in here, get Hiram, and then get the fuck out," she said. She marched off to the wreckage. Some parts were still burning, but others were not. She started lifting up wreckage, trying to find an opening in the ship.

[Mincaldenteans]

Sev wasn't sure whether engaging Assholes Abound was the best thing to do, but she figured if Clara had Hiram's orders, it'd have to do. She instead stayed inside Lucy while busying herself with hacking int the blasted carrier crawling-thingy. She wasn't have a great time doing so either. Finally, after minutes or what felt like eternity, she screamed into the intercom (wherever it may be, even if it was in Hiram's ears), "Motherfucking sonofabitch! You oughta be FUCKING GRATEFUL WE CAME BACK FOR YOUR SORRY JEW ASSHOLE YOU STUPID GOD DAMN---!"

Sev snapped the communications relay off, and started to a preliminary scan of the spider like carrier. It wasn't much and likely wouldn't aid Russ, but anything was better than nothing, "Russ," she said with a firm voice, "Aim for the joints. I'm trying to access the blueprints, but these Asexual Asshats are making it difficult. Its all I got for now," Sev clicked off and began coaxing the laptop for anything of value.

[Ayreonia]

"What the... NOOO!"

Parish's desperate scream cut through the claps of gunfire and the moans of the dying like the proverbial knife through hot butter, if knives could scream in anguish, and there was only one type of knife that could, the Melpomenian fungus blade (even though most experts agree that its cries are bloodlust, not pain). Anyway, that's stuff only Anna and her kind care about.

"What are you doing? Just... I... stop!"

Parish didn't actually expect the UNSEC people to stop shooting, but for some reason, they did. The claps died down, but the moans remained. He sprinted over to the dying Association personnel, about to throw up. That couldn't be... no... It was.

"Miranda," he breathed, kneeling down next to the wounded woman. She held both hands to her stomach, the extremities red and slick with blood. She opened her eyes at the sound of Parish's voice.

"Hew," Parish's only true friend in the AA mouthed, almost inaudibly. "I'm hurt."

"I can see that," he rifled frantically through his pockets, trying to find a bandage. He always carried one with him... there. He ripped the packaging open with his teeth. "Come on, Mir. Let's get you patched up."

The dying woman shook her head weakly. If one looked close enough, a hint of amusement could be seen through the pain in her eyes as she glanced at the bandage. "Late. Too late." Suddenly and with improbable strength, she grabbed Parish's wrist. Her guts started spilling out as she took her hand away from her belly. Parish could see that she was beyond his help. A weak sob escaped him.

"Find Doo," she coughed. "Help her."

Parish broke down. "I will, Mir, I promise," he managed through his tears. "I'll take care of her, don't worry..." He then realized he was talking to a corpse. Slowly rising up, he spotted the two UNSEC gunmen after wiping away the watery veil from his eyes.

"You monsters!" he shrieked again. "You... they weren't even armed, for God's sake! You just straight up murdered a bunch of civilians! They couldn't even protect themselves! You're the government? God!"

Then the floodgates opened, and the prospector broke down into a wailing heap of salty water and shuddering.

---

Chop-chop-chop. What the hell was all this noise? And what was up with his left arm? And why did it hurt so fucking much?

"Well, well, well. Look who's back in the land of the living."

Huh? Who was that? The voice sounded like it came from afar, but it was still familiar somehow.

"So he's the culprit, sir?"

Okay, that was nobody Hiram knew.

"Who else? Crawler-carriers don't just drop out of the sky. This one's a crafty bastard. I'll make sure that he tells us how he did it."

"As you say, sir. Unless he dies on us first."

"Oh, he'll survive. Only the good die young."

TO BE CONTINUED