Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 27, 2010 20:35:23 GMT -5
Open (but underground), day 7
Outside of town, Hellbender slipped quietly down into a deep ravine. The ravine was deep because it was the eroded channel of a storm sewer outfall; Hellbender was here because the storm sewer outfall was here, and it was out of sight from the road and the city.
Blue-black metal plates shifted down and backwards and folded together, interlocking; arms stretched, folded, and became the frames holding the four great cutting heads as the rest of the body armor unfolded into the head armor of the great worm. Transformation complete, the great mining worm slithered into the storm sewers of Pz-Zazz's main city.
Hellbender didn't intend to remain in the sewers proper for long, but people were less likely to object to mining operations if the mineshaft didn't pop out into the middle of wide-open, public space. He had a mineral survey to carry out, whether the locals wanted or not.
His cutters spun up, and with a shriek the concrete lining of the sewer gave up the ghost as Hellbender drilled downward, driving through the soil and into the bedrock below.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Mar 30, 2010 21:51:23 GMT -5
Shortly after Hellbender disappears into the sewers, another - rather smaller - figure appears over the edge of the ravine, decked out in a pastel blue dress that clashes terribly with his bright orange paint job. Wandering around Pz-Zazz for a few days, it seemed like a good idea to Whirligig to acquire some clothes. He actually tried out a pair of pants first, but they kept getting caught in the panels of his legs and so he'd traded them to a disgruntled tomboy in exchange for her unwanted dress.
Hoisting himself over the ravine's edge, he begins to scramble down the worn, rocky edge. Whirligig may have followed Hellbender here, but then he could just have easily been attracted by the deep ravine itself. He's been meaning to test out the gravity on this planet, but it's kind of hard to find somewhere high to jump off of in a city where you aren't likely to land on someone. He'd feel kind of bad if he dropped his heavy metal ass on someone squishier than your average Transformer.
Speaking of testing the gravity, the small Autobot misses his grip goes tumbling from the rock face with a whoop. Cat-like, he twists upright in mid-air and fans out his trio of thrusters, firing them in opposition of gravity as hard as he can. The thrusters don't counteract most of his downward momentum, but they do enough that he lands surprisingly lightly on his feet. Flinging up his arms with a silent 'tada!'
Brushing off his skirts, he glances around curiously. What is this he hears echoing out of yonder storm drain? Could it be the sound of someone digging into rock? Why, it just might be! He'd be more certain of that, but the majority of mining he was involved in happened in the vacuum of space, which wasn't so great for transmitting sound.
Drilling or not, it's still too good of an opportunity to pass up. There is nothing about the idea of spelunking in a sewer that he doesn't like! Scrambling up into the sewer entrance, he meanders down the tunnel, the sound of drilling growing louder. Finally he reaches the edge of what appears to be a very new tunnel in the side of the sewer. How deliciously peculiar! Peering down into the wormhole, he tries to call out louder than the drilling. "Helloooooo?"
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 1, 2010 18:55:24 GMT -5
Hellbender paused between rounds of drilling to evaluate what he was drilling through, and to take some seismic readings. He considered what he was picking up--far more tectonic activity than he expected from the relatively stable, if run-down appearing city, but he was not so deep in analysis that he didn't sense someone heavy moving around back up above him. Earth-moving equipment?
The relative naive mineral analysis software he'd inherited from the Gillanese mining worm tossed up several alerts; there were some oddities of mineralogy that bothered him. He'd need to dig deeper and get more samples of this friable shale layer. The cutters started up again, chewing into the rock in a hellish cacophony of metal shrieking and rock shattering...
A noise quite audible up his back-tunnel, up to the point where it was muffled in the piles of gravel and sand that nearly blocked the tunnel behind Hellbender. All that chewed-up rock had to go somewhere... so it went out Hellbender's aft, like some giant rock-eating earthworm's dirt. Fortunately the drifted sand and gravel was easier to dig through than the original rock.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Apr 4, 2010 17:45:11 GMT -5
Poised at the mouth of Hellbender's fresh tunnel, Whirligig leans forward to catch any response. Just silence and more muffled echos of drilling, though. The mining-bot pauses for a moment to consider his options. He could explore the dark depths of this strange, out-of-place, hole-in-the-ground, inhabited by who-knows-what, where nobody would likely ever find him if something terrible happened to him. Or he could walk away and return to open air, sunlight, and relative safety.
Hah, like that was actually a question!
Whirligig takes the plunge down the rabbit hole, pushing through and squeezing his way by the piles of debris. Weird, most mining operations usually had somebody to haul this stuff out. He calls down the tunnel ahead of him, "Anybody hoooome?"
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 4, 2010 21:55:56 GMT -5
After quite a bit of poking at his Gillanese mining database and a few intuitive leaps, Hellbender figured out what was wrong with the rock--it was oil shale, but all the oil had been extracted and burned out. He paused to radio this information to Shockwave, then decided to descend further. Where there was oil shale, there might well be a coal stratum. Would the coal also be mined out?
Hold it; there was that heavy equipment vibration coming down his back tunnel again. Hellbender felt vunerable; he couldn't exactly back up into whatever it was, and his head was his business end, not his aft. Carefully, he started curving his tunnel so that it gradually looped back on itself.
About the time Whirligig hailed the tunnel, Hellbender hit a particular soft patch of burnt-out shale and sent a torrent of crumbled, burnt asphalt-like gravel spraying out his exhaust. If Whirligig has advanced far enough down the tunnel to see Hellbender's tail, he just might catch a facefull.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Apr 7, 2010 20:06:12 GMT -5
Whirligig isn't quite far enough down the tunnel to get a facefull of gravel, but he does squeeze past a pile of rubble just in time to walk straight into a cloud of rock dust, a few stray bits of far-flung gravel plinking off his arm. Blinking and clearing the dust off his optics, he looks down and frowns, shaking dust out of his skirts.
"Aw, my dress." He sounds rather disappointed, but the fact of the matter is that the thing was already ripped and smeared with dirt from squeezing his way down the tunnel in the first place. Really, it was a lost cause the moment he came down here.
With a shrug, he continues on, slow enough to miss Hellbender's tail around the curve of the turn, though it's still fairly obvious by the spew of exhaust and rocks that he's close to whoever-whatever is down here. Pausing in a relatively debris-free area, Whirligig takes a moment to eye the walls and ceiling of a section of tunnel. Is that really all that stable? Honestly, nobody removing debris, nobody keeping an eye on structural stability and shoring up questionable areas. He grins to himself. "This sure is some shoddy operation, ain't it?"
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 8, 2010 21:01:57 GMT -5
There was definitely someone behind him, but who or what, Hellbender had no idea. He drilled back up and around, trying to get behind whoever is following him. The burnt-out oil shale was weak and crumbling, easy to drill through quickly. However, he still couldn't drill as fast as a bot could walk; the only chance he had to ambush whoever it was from behind was if the fellow stood still and didn't follow him....
// Hold it right there, // Hellbender replied on the General Band at low power. // This here tunnel ain't shored up for pedestrians, you'll get squished if you advance any further. //
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Apr 11, 2010 12:04:07 GMT -5
Whirligig perks up as he finally gets a response. Well, not a response exactly. Recognition that he's here. He rather likes it when people pay attention to him. Gives him the warm fuzzies in the cockles of his spark, truly. Grinning to no-one, he answers: //Get squished? Really? I mean, this ain't exactly the stablest tunnel I've ever been in, but it looks like it could take a good knock before tumbling in.//
To be honest, a threat of cave-in is likely to make him more interesting in traversing it.
Refraining from skipping merrily, because the tunnel really doesn't look especially stable, Whirligig strolls carefully further down the tunnel. As he gets closer to Hellbender's tail end he gives a flick of his head, eye-guards sliding out of his helmet and in front of his optics to help protect them from flying waste rock.
What does he have here? Just a piece of mining equipment being driven? Another Transformer? Do the locals even use the same general band as they do?
Cheerfully he chirps out, //I see you!//
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 12, 2010 20:22:38 GMT -5
Oh, wonderful. "Chirpy" back there took the warning as a challenge and was crawling right up his cloaca. Fine, if he wanted to follow Hellbender that close, Hellbender would take him somewhere interesting. He stopped circling and angled his drilling planes downward. Now what to tell "Chirpy"? // Ah repeat, this here tunnel ain't shored up for pedestrians or open-topped vehicles! You done been warned; this here autonomous mining unit is not legally liable for the safety of unauthorized personnel in its operational zone. If you are authorized, please identify yourself and validate your authorization. If you are not authorized, please identify yourself and confirm that you waive all liability for damage or injury up to and including physical destruction and/or death. If you do not waive liability, Ah request that you leave the area. If you do not leave the area, you will be signaling de facto acceptance of waiver of liability by this action. // There; hopefully that sounded like some of the local corporate legalese and also suitably drone-like. Now, who or what the slag was "Chirpy"? He had some radio voice prints now, and approximate mass of the mecha or robot or funky vehicle back there. Which of the three it was, Hellbender couldn't tell, but it was definitely walking on mechanical legs. Time to phone home and see if anyone actually had any intell...
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Apr 15, 2010 11:10:57 GMT -5
Hellbender may talk some pretty good legalese, but there's no way Whirligig is believing that this slipshod digging operation is legitimate!
//Open-topped vehicle? I am most certainly not!// He's going to keep ignoring the 'pedestrian' part. He makes a noise like clearing his throat, then continues in a fairly posh tone. //Identify myself? I think it should be you identifying yourself, remarkably omnipotent operator of this here autonomous mining vehicle. As a representative of the Pz-Zazzian Department of Subterranean Resources, I must ask what you are doing here!//
Right back atcha!
Are they going to have a game of follow-the-drill-worm?
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 21, 2010 19:05:56 GMT -5
Hellbender had intell on this conversational would-be bureaucrat now. How long could he string the Autobot along?
// This here is unit HB-171, independent contractor, and the identity of mah employer is confidential business information. Ah'm conducting a mineralogical survey. Ah accept your implicit waiver of liability. //
He drove down, a shallow sloping cut that should take him out from under the city and well clear of any underground infrastructure before he surfaced. The vibrations of not-so-distant tremors quivered through him and shook the brittle shale loose from the ceiling of his borehole.
That tunnel was filling up with ground-up shale. Could Whirligig dig through it? And yes, they are following follow-the-worm-- unbeknownst to Hellbender, his isn't the only mining operation down here.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Apr 25, 2010 10:15:57 GMT -5
Oh what fun! Even if Whirligig knew his cover had been blown wide by outside sources, he'd probably keep the lie going.
//See, what I'm hearing is 'this operation is completely illegal'! Why, I should just call up the proper authorities and get you shut down right away!// He pauses for dramatic effect. //Unless, of course, someone has a proposition to offer me...// His impression of Pz-Zazz so far is that the place is so crooked it makes, uh, polygons look straight? Eh, he'll come up with a better expression later.
For now he is being bombarded by loose shale from the ceiling. "Ow, hey, ow." He sticks close to Hellbender in an attempt to best avoid being buried alive - not an entirely new experience, but not one he feels like repeating at the moment. Very close. Close enough to touch. He will hitch a ride on the worm's butt if he has to.
Stepping high to keep his feet out of the fresh shale gravel, he tosses a look over his shoulder at the tunnel filling in behind him. It sure would be troublesome if he needed to get out of here in a hurry! Bring it on.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 26, 2010 22:40:01 GMT -5
Hellbender kept on digging. // Is that so? You could phone home and check--well, you could if we weren't so deep underground that your radio just ain't gonna punch through all this rock. //
Stick close to Hellbender, little Autobot, just above the cloacal discharge vents that are spewing all that ground-up shale and now, sandstone. Otherwise you'll be buried deep.
// Tell you what, when you get back in radio range, you can call my boss and settle up with him. Ah'm just the operator, Ah don't got no authority to pay out company funds. // Now whose frequency would be most amusing to give this annoying tag-along? Hmm... yes. That sly bastard from Intell with his hacker partner should be able to make use of this. // His contact frequency is <insert Barricade's frequency here> //.
His processor had been slowly building up a picture of the rock layers from the constant shock waves arriving from the far too frequent tremors; now Hellbender could make out some curious features. There were voids in the next facies, unexpected voids where Hellbender expected to find coal seams.
He stopped drilling just short of breaking through and listened. There were distant echoes of metal against rock, but nothing within miles.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Apr 29, 2010 10:48:04 GMT -5
//What, do you really think an experienced subterranean investigator like me would wander off into the depths unprepared? I've been trailing a fiber optic cable the entire time!// He hasn't.
Whirligig's not even trying to sound particularly honest anymore, just enjoying this little game of posturing with some guy he's still still fairly certain isn't who he says he is. He's also going to cling to Hellbender's butt like the world's most talkative hemorrhoid to prevent himself from being buried and left behind, unless the 'Con manages to shake him off. Dignity, thy name is not Whirligig.
//Thank you for co-operating, though! I'll be sure to contact that frequency as soon as possible!// He briefly wonders if he could sell it to telemarketers.
When Hellbender pauses in his digging, Whirligig perks up. //Hey, what's the hold-up, digga?//
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Apr 30, 2010 19:16:05 GMT -5
Had he? He could have been. Hellbender wasn't sure he would have heard something as light and non-vibratory as fiber being trailed. So. His annoying interloper might be in live contact with the Autobots. Best not to dispose of him until they surfaced and he could check the truth of the matter before striking fast enough and hard enough that no call for help could be in time.
// Supposed to be coal seams here, but Ah'm picking up voids. You were talking 'bout unauthorized mines, fella? Ah think were about to stumble on some. //
With that, Hellbender spun his cutters up and tore through the thin rock wall separating him from the void beyond. It proved to be a tunnel, running along the edge of a wall of collapsed rock. If there had been a mine here, it caved in some time ago. Hellbender swung his head to and fro, letting his sonar and radar map out the extent and direction of the tunnel; then he turned right and slithered out into the tunnel. Black coal dust covered everything; it swirled around, stirred up by Hellbender in his travels.
// A mine, and mined out. They even mined out the support pillars when they were done, and let the ceiling collapse, // Hellbender comments.
Coal dust is explosive. It only takes a spark.
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