Ep 2 - One Prairie Outpost (Closed)
Feb 5, 2015 16:27:23 GMT -5
Post by Feldspar on Feb 5, 2015 16:27:23 GMT -5
Set beginning of week 2, Episode 2.
Over the dry, arid space of the Steens Mountain Wilderness, the sun had just set and the stars were beginning to flicker visible. The waxing moon appeared as if it was a cut-out, tacked low the horizon, suspended among bands of ruddy light that was rapidly fading to violet.
In the distance, the great fault block of the mountain rose to the west. The summit was still touched with the last rays of red; beyond that the dark Alvord Desert stretched in endless wind-blown ripples of sand. If you climbed to the top of the rock and looked down, the Nevada border was close, less than fifty miles north.
Dark shadows now filled the gaps among the desert scrub. A pronghorn group picked their way across the horizon, barely visible at this distance; they paused to nibble here and there on the weedy shrubs and then moved as a group down into a gully and disappeared. Red-legged grasshoppers whirred and hummed, leaping from one dry tuft of grass to another to escape the long-legged birds who chased after them in the dusk.
The sounds of nature were what filled the deepening night; a coyote lifted voice in a series of yelps that bounced among the rugged basalt cliffs and jags and then silenced as it slipped off to hunt for unwary rabbits.
However, not everything here was natural. Actually, some of the debris wasn’t even from Earth. Around the entrance of the cave, the items needing to be cleaned up from a day’s work were completely out of place in this barren landscape.
Metal crates. Empty, huge spools that had recently been wrapped in wire. Metal piping and cut chunks of conduit. Pyrotech had been hoarding things ever since he’d returned to the States, bit by bit. he’d pulled off of train cars late at night, stolen from construction sites, taken from under the noses of Portland transit.
(Surprisingly, the fact that a huge generator had been walked off with hadn’t been mentioned in the Portland Tribune. It was a good guess that either someone just hadn’t noticed yet; seriously, who expects a massive generator to go missing... or the Transit Authority was firing a whole lot of people in a ‘restructuring issue.’)
The generator was also the reason for the extra crew at this hidden outpost.
Now that Pyrotech was spending days away working with Shockwave on some project, he didn’t have time to deal with his own conduit issues and line laying within the structure. There were vents that needed to be put in, lighting that had to be followed according to spec so that the massive human-built device worked and had proper cooling.
Ghost Wind’s skills had come in handy for the second time to Pyrotech. He could respect that the mech had two things he treasured in grunts. One, that they did their job. Two, you could trust them to keep their mouths shut about locations and missions. The bike bot hadn’t said a word about what happened in Portland.
The architect had checked a few times; oh, he had ways of knowing this sort of thing. You just had to touch politely on the right channels.
Those channels also were the ones who’d sent Skywarp along with Ghost. The reason they gave was “oh, you’ll need someone for heavy lifting.”
Which was interesting, since there were an awful lot of Vehicons about with good lifting capabilities too. Perhaps someone wasn’t being entirely truthful.
However, the work was done, Pyrotech and his Vehicons were gone and not expected back tonight. Dart was on wide patrol, the architect had sent her out early that morning, before the others had even arrived. Ghost had been left in charge, since he was the one ticking off the worksheet and making sure it was done to specifications.
The silver mech was also the one who right now could actually take the evening off since everything was finished and for once ahead of time. Nice to be able to do your job without constant interruptions. Well, everything except for the cleanup, but that wouldn’t take long. They’d have all night to get that done, anyway...
Over the dry, arid space of the Steens Mountain Wilderness, the sun had just set and the stars were beginning to flicker visible. The waxing moon appeared as if it was a cut-out, tacked low the horizon, suspended among bands of ruddy light that was rapidly fading to violet.
In the distance, the great fault block of the mountain rose to the west. The summit was still touched with the last rays of red; beyond that the dark Alvord Desert stretched in endless wind-blown ripples of sand. If you climbed to the top of the rock and looked down, the Nevada border was close, less than fifty miles north.
Dark shadows now filled the gaps among the desert scrub. A pronghorn group picked their way across the horizon, barely visible at this distance; they paused to nibble here and there on the weedy shrubs and then moved as a group down into a gully and disappeared. Red-legged grasshoppers whirred and hummed, leaping from one dry tuft of grass to another to escape the long-legged birds who chased after them in the dusk.
The sounds of nature were what filled the deepening night; a coyote lifted voice in a series of yelps that bounced among the rugged basalt cliffs and jags and then silenced as it slipped off to hunt for unwary rabbits.
However, not everything here was natural. Actually, some of the debris wasn’t even from Earth. Around the entrance of the cave, the items needing to be cleaned up from a day’s work were completely out of place in this barren landscape.
Metal crates. Empty, huge spools that had recently been wrapped in wire. Metal piping and cut chunks of conduit. Pyrotech had been hoarding things ever since he’d returned to the States, bit by bit. he’d pulled off of train cars late at night, stolen from construction sites, taken from under the noses of Portland transit.
(Surprisingly, the fact that a huge generator had been walked off with hadn’t been mentioned in the Portland Tribune. It was a good guess that either someone just hadn’t noticed yet; seriously, who expects a massive generator to go missing... or the Transit Authority was firing a whole lot of people in a ‘restructuring issue.’)
The generator was also the reason for the extra crew at this hidden outpost.
Now that Pyrotech was spending days away working with Shockwave on some project, he didn’t have time to deal with his own conduit issues and line laying within the structure. There were vents that needed to be put in, lighting that had to be followed according to spec so that the massive human-built device worked and had proper cooling.
Ghost Wind’s skills had come in handy for the second time to Pyrotech. He could respect that the mech had two things he treasured in grunts. One, that they did their job. Two, you could trust them to keep their mouths shut about locations and missions. The bike bot hadn’t said a word about what happened in Portland.
The architect had checked a few times; oh, he had ways of knowing this sort of thing. You just had to touch politely on the right channels.
Those channels also were the ones who’d sent Skywarp along with Ghost. The reason they gave was “oh, you’ll need someone for heavy lifting.”
Which was interesting, since there were an awful lot of Vehicons about with good lifting capabilities too. Perhaps someone wasn’t being entirely truthful.
However, the work was done, Pyrotech and his Vehicons were gone and not expected back tonight. Dart was on wide patrol, the architect had sent her out early that morning, before the others had even arrived. Ghost had been left in charge, since he was the one ticking off the worksheet and making sure it was done to specifications.
The silver mech was also the one who right now could actually take the evening off since everything was finished and for once ahead of time. Nice to be able to do your job without constant interruptions. Well, everything except for the cleanup, but that wouldn’t take long. They’d have all night to get that done, anyway...