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Post by SceneMod on Jul 5, 2010 11:18:08 GMT -5
Shell looks away from Whirligig, unable to meet his grin. There's not a lot of giggles around here. She hopes he isn't barking insane. The insane ones doesn't suffer much themselves, but they tend to get others in trouble or killed, which is massively unfair in both directions, she thinks. Shell asks hesitantly, "You aren't... aren't cracked, are you?"
She has no comment on being odd or not in how he's built or how he walks. He's no better or worse than some of those blind cave spiders that vomit out their intestines to use as hands when they need hands. The equipment is pretty basic, maybe even a bit European Industrial Revolution, along the lines of picks, chisels, rope, and hammers, mostly scaled to a small size. No helmets, though there are flashlights. The blasting supplies are clearly not here.
There is about one overseer to every five workers and one guard per every twenty-five workers. While the overseers aren't all well-armed or alert as the guards, they double as guards, as well. The workers are organized into teams of five, and then again into groups of twenty-five.
The particular overseer that was yelling in the general direction of Hellbender is really on the low end of the alertness scale - it's toward the end of his shift, and he didn't get any sleep the last time he tried to sleep - his hatchlings kept him up with squawking. He does get out the electric prod, but as he advances towards the darkness, he casts magic missile flicks his electric torch onto high beam.
Nothing there? He frowns. Unlike an experienced D&D player, he does not look up.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Jul 7, 2010 10:46:48 GMT -5
Whirligig can't blame her for not being particularly cheery. He doubts he would be too happy if he was a child forced into slavery. Especially if he had to work with these tools. He shakes his head and rolls his optics, but picks up one of the picks. He glances over at Shell as she speaks.
"Hm? Oh, naw! Naw. Well. I was once, but I got better." He pauses and frowns slightly, scratching at one cheek with the tip of the pick. "Mostly."
Better, but not necessarily complete. He's glad that no-one who used to know him is still alive. It wouldn't do for them to see what's left of him.
//Eh, looks like there's about five, six armed and healthy types to every set of twenty-five slaves.// A grin twitches at the corner of his mouth-plates. //Why, good sir! Might you be thinking of eliminating the competition?//
He wonders where they do keep the explosives. If they started a slave revolt and got everyone out of the tunnels... well, it would take more than his seven remaining charges to bring this place don't like he wanted.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Jul 7, 2010 23:36:42 GMT -5
Hellbender doesn't know about D&D players, experienced or otherwise. He knows that experienced Autobots look up when outside, because Seekers are always eager to add another Bot kill marker to their decorations, and that no-longer-green Decepticons look up when following 'Bots into tunnels, because Bots lay ambushes. Really experienced Cons don't follow Bots into tunnels, they just toss high explosives down the hole and seal it shut.
As for the bug overseer? Between Hellbender's raw strength and the rock cutters, chalk the bug up in the 'permanently inexperienced' category.
Hellbender flicked bits of chitin and gore out of his cutters--they weren't really made for cutting organics--as he dragged the mangled body away, back down the tunnel. The severed head he left where it fell. Looked like he was going to need to bore some secondary tunnels after all.
// Slag, that's top-heavy! This ain't what you'd call an efficient operation, not with that much overhead. Rat--ah, the accountant's back home would have been havin' cyberkittens over thet kind of nonsense. Seriously! // Maybe if he just played his laser over the cutters on low power it would burn off all the little gobbets? Slagger sure was messy, and he was going to get messier in a bit, so no real point in cleaning up just yet.
// They's infringing on our grant, which looks like a petropig in a poke. Serve 'em right if this here unit just scooped all the coal that was left up and left 'em with an empty hole. // Hellbender waxed indignant over the imaginary mineral rights that never existed but that were being claim-jumped by these yahoos.
// Oh, and don't wait up fer that overseer. He ain't comin' back. Now you got no one but the slaves as knows you're workin' with 'em. // And in the chaos of a slave revolt, if they could wing it, Hellbender could see that the Autobot had an 'accident'.
Once back in the wider tunnel below, Hellbender picked a spot on the wall to start his alternate drift, and dropped the body there. He transformed back into mining worm mode, and started boring. The first few piles of gravel were stained sticky green...
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Post by SceneMod on Jul 9, 2010 19:09:42 GMT -5
"No one gets better," Shell mutters dourly. "They just think they do, and then they get people killed. But there's nothing for it."
As soon as he has his gear picked out, she leads him down a different tunnel, commenting, "Chalak's shift is short, I think. Heard that Nevo died yesterday. Pick to the brainpan."
The overseer is not magically delicious. His wife is going to think he ran off with that hussy, Swallowtail.
The workers do not immediately notice the overseer being gone. They're too used to keeping their noses down to their work and not looking up for fear of seeing the lash there.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Jul 16, 2010 20:43:26 GMT -5
//Everything about this operation is inefficient, far as I'm concerned!// he says to Hellbender. //If you wanna bring it toppling down, I'm right with ya. Just... we keep the kids and them safe as possible, alright?// That's the Autobot thing to do. Or close to, he thinks.
Resting the pick against his should, he quirks a brow at Shell. Well, he can't exactly blame her for being dour, what with the slavery and all, but he still can't resist poking fun at her. He has compulsive jerkassery or something. Really, it's a curse. "Miss, you are truly the single ray of light in this dark place."
He follows her off into the mine tunnels. Ouch, pick to the brainpan, huh? Well, there's worse ways to go he supposes. "Who-whatsa Chalak? Or a Nevo?"
His head tilts to the side at Hellbender's final message. //You are naughty. Very, very naughty.//
Casting a sidelong look at Shell, he says, "Sooo... you ever hear the one about the giant mechanical worm monster that lurks in the depths?"
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Jul 18, 2010 17:52:12 GMT -5
// Yeah, that Ah am, // Hellbender replied as he started digging a bypass tunnel to the uppermost levels. It was going to take a while, and probably kick up some interesting vibrations and noises for the slave miners and their overseers to hear. The inter-level access tunnels for terrorist operations would make even more interesting digging.
// Seriously; Ah just don't like these guys for some reason. Cuttin' an auxiliary tunnel to the surface; gonna be a while. Gimme a yell on short-range if something comes up. //
---- OOC: Hellbender is skippable for a bit while he digs his tunnels, if you want to interact with the slave kids. Otherwise, we can timeskip.
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Post by SceneMod on Jul 23, 2010 14:16:42 GMT -5
OOC: A timeskip is probably a good idea, unless Whirligig's player has a burning desire to write Whirligig interacting with random urchins.
Shell explains tiredly, "Chalak's an overseer. Nevo was one of... one of us."
She tries to lead Whirligig off to where another group of urchins is working, but she pauses and stares at him, replying, "No. Don't say such things!"
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Jul 27, 2010 9:10:37 GMT -5
"One of us, huh? Then what was someone doing sticking a pick in 'im?" Tact isn't Whirligig's strong suit.
He follows along behind Shell, and raises his hands defensively. "Hey, I'm just sayin'! I hear it has a taste for overseers." He tries for a blandly innocent grin.
//I'm with you there, I don't like 'em either. See you in a bit, chummy-nuts!//
OOC: I'm cool with a timeskip.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Jul 28, 2010 21:09:09 GMT -5
Some time later...
Hellbender has completed his tunnel to the outside. He has also dug access shafts to each of the major drifts he's mapped out, but not quite broken through their floors or ceilings. Being able to come out of nowhere and disappear equally fast is a necessity for a serious terror campaign.
Whirligig has probably heard him muttering repeatedly on the short-band, a repetitive grumble of // Do these idjits have a clue about how to mine? What kind of dumb-ass laid out these tunnels? Seriously! Ah can't even figure out if it's supposed to be drift and stope, inverted stope, drift and fill, or what, it's so hashed up! Did they just dig drifts in a random direction and say "Yay! Ah got coal!" Ser-i-ous-ly! Ah'm afraid to find out how they handle blastin' the ore loose. Seriously. //
Finally, his voice returned to full volume. // Okay, you. Ah got a slope and drift going to an adit openin' out on the hill. Ah don't know how obvious it is from outside, so you might want to hurry things along. Thought about leavin' it not quite open, for concealment, but you and them slaves ain't gonna be able to bust it open if Ah did that. You got an idea where you want the trouble to start? //
While Whirligig does what Whirligig does, Hellbender goes one particular shaft he cut into the richest seam he could find and fills his ore bins with coal. Whatever else, he isn't going back empty-handed.
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Post by SceneMod on Jul 29, 2010 16:40:33 GMT -5
Hellbender has gone after the richest seam.
What makes him think that the miners aren't going to go after that seam, too?
In fact, they've just finished setting up the dynamite charges for some conventional blast mining. An explosion rocks the area. It is possible that Hellbender might get out in time. It is also possible that he might be buried alive or injured by the shockwave.
Whirligig, where he is, might just notice the pebbles moving on the floor.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Aug 3, 2010 15:45:35 GMT -5
skipping Whirligig due to timeout
It did not occur to Hellbender that they'd get to the seam the very same time he was. Perhaps the quiet in the blast-ready drift that fooled him; no one was in that tunnel because it was about to explode, not because it was abandoned.
Hellbender had no warning; one moment he was drilling through the seam from underneath, and the next moment he was getting slammed backwards as the rock ahead of him cracked and shattered. Cutters bucked and jammed at the unexpected shockwave (not to be confused with Shockwave, who would also be unexpected here), and Hellbender found his intakes suddenly choked with broken rock. Ugh, argh. His hull held up well enough, but his grinders were going to need some re-alignment. No more mining for now.
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Aug 5, 2010 20:31:33 GMT -5
Whirligig's been busy being an obnoxious but rather effective slave laborer. He has to say it's not a job he'd particularly like to keep, though Hellbender's frequent grumbling certainly brightens his day! Very entertaining that mining worm guy. Good times. He's also been spending time trying to mentally map any passages he's passed through in his head and considering the structural integrity and weak points of various tunnels. He's been keeping an eye on nearby overseers and guards as well.
Currently he's just whistling while he works, setting a jaunty tune to the steady beat of his pick against the stone.
//Trouble starts wherever I am!// he says to Hellbender. Plans. Whirligig's not big on plans.
He pauses in his whistling and swinging as a nearly imperceptible tremor passes through the ground. Are people blowing stuff up? He's very familiar with the feeling of stuff blowing up through rock, and he's pretty sure that was a blowing-up feeling. He pouts slightly and mumbles, "I wanna blow stuff up, too."
Returning to swinging his pick, Whirligig resumes singing, louder and shriller than ever, attempting to discreetly watching the nearest guards.
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Post by SceneMod on Aug 5, 2010 21:39:01 GMT -5
The one guard near Whirligig is distracted speaking into his walkie talkie. Something about the sonic echoes being all wrong. Have they been scooped?
The other workers do not look too pleased by Whirligig. One argues, "He's going to use up all the air!" Another points out, "He's a robot. They're like vampires. They don't breathe." A third asks, "Hey, Giggles, can you bite me and turn me into a robot?"
Urban legends are a strange beast. Underground legends just get weirder.
A team of guards starts to pad towards the area where Hellbender is - the sonic echoes are just all wrong. They had better have not been scooped...
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Aug 8, 2010 17:22:41 GMT -5
Hellbender backed up, letting the cracked coal fall loose and block his forward tunnel. He disgorged the rock and coal choking his grinders as he backed up, a sick worm vomiting up its previous meal. At least, he thought, he didn't have to do a fuel dump and purge, like he had when Botanica tossed her darts down his gullet. Setting the coal seam on fire wouldn't be the brightest move right now.
Still, he retained the coal he'd already processed into his ore bins. He didn't have the capacity he'd had back before Omega Supreme dismembered him, but it would be more than enough for Shockwave and Mixmaster to evaluate and make some test runs with. Yes, the mine owners have just been 'scooped'.
Hellbender needed to find some open space to transform and knock his cutters back into alignment manually. Until then, he'd make a lot of noise, but couldn't really cut rock. He continued to back up until he came to one of his branch tunnels, then slithered up it...
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Post by Whirligig/Wednesday Gilgamesh on Aug 10, 2010 1:11:21 GMT -5
Whirligig cracks a grin. "Sweetmeats, if I had an actual mouth I would bite you in a sparkbeat." He raises his free hand with a dramatic flourish, posing. "And then you could join me in immortal robotdom and together we could frolic across the universe until all the stars have burnt out!"
He uses his foolish demonstrative frolicking to move closer to the guard without looking like he's trying to close the distance. Now, just how much attention is Mr. Guard paying to his surroundings right now? Because if Hellbender is being a distraction - and if things down here aren't looking like they're supposed to, he can't imagine it's from any other cause than his most darling spike-worm - then Whirligig is in the mood to start some trouble.
OOC: If all parties are willing, would we be able to put this post on temporary hiatus until I get back from England, instead of skipping me when I time out?
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