Father where art thou? Saalz follows. (Part 2)
PART 2
He got into a kodiak and stowed the bot, set the navigational system for Hope. He was told to not use the Woompa system lest his movements be tracked and logged. The kodiak was given to him, unregistered and extremely fast. In the long journey he fell asleep, then the dream came again.
Sightsee stood next to him, the few friends of the family scattered around watching the funeral pyre, minutes earlier the brothers had both set it aflame as was the edict of the Hindu religion.
“You stupid bastard… You had to have your way as always…” Whispered Sightsee to Saalz. “Now we are alone, my family is gone… I don’t want to see you again… After this you leave…” Sight didn’t even look at him, Saalz said nothing in return, he just bowed his head, all he could hear was his life crackling away like the embers of the fire. When he looked up, all the people were staring at him with hate in their eyes. They began to chant words, barely audible at first then rising slowly in volume, “Murderer, murderer… devil child… devil child!” He was running now, dared not to look back at his pursuers. He could hear the patter of their feet, the sound was changing now to the whirr of engines, he looked back and saw that the pursuers were all… he.
Suddenly he awoke with an alert sounding on the HUD of the kodiak, he touched the screen and the radar showed several incoming blips, he switched to manual control and opened up two of the rear camera’s. Through the sand being forced up into the air he made out a few other kodiak’s moving in behind him, over the sand dunes of the Desert. There were four in all now, converged behind him in a column, “OK Saalz, think man!” He said out loud. But what could he do? He could stop, but they would just surround him or worse, run him down before he could activate the War Bot.
“Nearing Hope, e.t.a 15 minutes.” Said a female voice of the kodiaks computer system.
“What the Hell do I do now?” He shouted, then veering off at an acute angle, into an outcrop of tree’s. He managed to slow down and weave through some of the trees but side bashed one near the exit point of the small meadow and was sent into a spin. The vehicle slid down a dune, and rested gently at the bottom; Saalz wiped the sweat from his bald red marked head. Checked the radar to see that the other kodiak’s had all gone passed him, not even bothering to follow him at all.
After waiting a few minutes he resumed autopilot and wondered what were the chances of running into others this far out in the deserts. It was strange to see another traveller, yet alone four on a non-routed path to Hope. As he approached the boundaries of Hope, he could see the four kodiak’s parked up in a circle. He started to panic again and quickly checked the exact co-ordinates of the destination. It seemed that they were headed to the place he was… Then the kodiaks computer said something pre recorded.
“This is the meeting point, here you will meet the team. Have a good day.” It said.
He got out of the kodiak and with shotgun in hand moved to the rear of his vehicle to activate the War Bot. There seemed to be no movement form the other drivers, he presumed was the ‘team’. The huge bot folded out to stand almost 10 feet in height, and scanned the area, “Standing by”. It said in a menacingly deep voice. Just then the canopies of the other vehicles opened up, “Multiple movement detected” the bot said.
“Guard me” ordered Saalz.
Three women and a man, in an unknown type of tank armour approached Saalz, arms raised in a sign of peace.
The man stood in front of Saalz and cautiosly took his helmet off, he was in very good condition but with a face of a bulldog. He looked around to the women and nodded, they in turn took off their helms, Saalz was astonished to see that they were not only beautiful with blue eyes and blonde hair, but they were identical. The man smiled slightly at Saalz.
“So we are the team I take it?” His voice was as gruff as his face.
“Sir, I wasn’t informed until recently of that fact.”
The man smiled and laughed, “Wondered why you went off into that crop of trees back there, fancy driving kid. Anyway, here’s the deal. We don’t know anything about you, and you don’t know anything about us. I am the Commander, that’s how refer to me, they are nameless.” His voice was gravely, his eyes were deathly serious as opposed to his face which tried to smile and be cordial. “Any orders, you wanna give, you talk to me… Understood?” He tilted his head, staring at him with those penetrating eyes.
“I suppose so Sir?” Saalz was unsure and untrusting, lessons in the last few Years had taught him such.
“Good, this is where we leave the cars.” ‘Cars?’, Saalz hadn’t known anyone to use that term for the kodiaks before, but knew from his educational background that it referred to a ancient earth vehicle. ‘Who were these unblemished people?’ he thought to himself.
They all had taken their equipment out of the kodiaks and carried them on their backs. Saalz go the War bot to carry his, as the environmental suit was too much for him to carry on his lithe body. He walked with the commander to the top of a dune, two of the ladies were with them, and the third was busy with something and caught up a few minutes later.
“Stop… Do it…” The commander raised his had and turned to were the kodiaks were parked. Saalz observed as one of the triplets nodded and pressed a button on a transmitter in her hand. A bright blue plasma flare burst out first before the explosion and hissing emitted from the vehicles. Saalz had to cover his eyes as the kodiaks literally melted away in the blast, leaving only a charred scar on the dusty plain. Saalz looked on briefly as the Commander motioned to move out towards the Outlands, the rest of Rub-Ka, un-terraformed lands, hostile and lacking in oxygen. He decided against asking him what was going on, it seemed that he wasn’t the leader of this team. Maybe he was a pawn, maybe they would kill him when they were done? He thought again about contacting his Mistress of the Unity of the Rose, but remembered that he could tell no one. Who were these people? Were they Clan or Omni? Or were they affiliated with some other Corp or power? Saalz followed the Commander and his troupe on the long journey towards the site, a place in the hostile Outlands.
