Civil Unrest
By 18lzytwner
Chapter 1
"Still a little nippy out there today," Slythe said as he walked back inside the Lair with Arzu.
"You can say that again. Winter will be here sooner than we think," she nodded. Third Earth's summer had come and gone and now they were in the waning weeks of fall. The two Mutants had just been checking on their fellow Mutant defectors, seeing how everyone was holding up. The structures may have been temporary, but they'd survived the nasty wind storm the previous night with only minor damage
"How's it looking out there?" Lion-O asked as he approached them.
"Pretty good. Nothing too crazy to fix and the repairs are already underway. Our bigger problem may be the fuel shortage," Slythe admitted. The Thundrillium supply had been dwindling which was not good as winter was the heaviest usage period for the fuel. Third Earth got some nasty snowstorms and heat was going to be something that was definitely needed.
"Panthro, Lea, Ben-Gali, Ayşegül, and Hamza are out at the Thundrillium mine now to see what is going on with the supply lines. Something seems to be stopping the transmission from inside the mine to the top of the mine," the lion explained. Once the temporary housing had been finished, Panthro had asked the new Mutants if there were any of them who understood mining and they had gotten lucky that there were two who did. Adnan, a vulture, and Marwa, a reptile, had offered their assistance and had been able to help find a Thundrillium mine along with an iron mine.
The iron mine had been easy, it took only about a week to find, once they knew what to look for, and they quickly got to work figuring out how to hand mine for the precious metal. Once they had enough, it could be smelted and formed into what they needed to build mining equipment for the Thundrillium mine, which they found about a month ago. Though Panthro knew what to do, he needed help.
Quite a few Mutants offered their help with the hand mining and there were others who offered assistance in figuring out ways to smelt the iron and beat it into useful pieces. Things had been moving along much faster with all the extra hands and for the Mutants they really felt they were proving themselves to the peoples of Third Earth. They also had Mutants who could help with woodworking which was needed to make pickax handles and wood for under the railroad tracks.
"Any word from the Evil Chasers? They promised us some larger pieces of smelting equipment and mining equipment, didn't they?" Arzu wondered. Once they alerted the Evil Chasers to the fact that they found a mine but needed help with equipment specifications and possibly actual equipment. Another planet inside the galaxy, which the Interplanetary Control Force protected, offered their assistance. The equipment was now completed and was on its way.
"That's the great news. I just got off the phone with the Evil Chasers and the equipment should be here in the next few days," Lion-O told them.
"Excellent news indeed. Did you radio the mine?" Slythe asked.
"I did and they were glad to hear it, but they have a bit of a situation. Tracks broke and they wanted me to tell the smelters," he said.
"Getting the stuff out there without the Tank is going to be a bit of a problem," Arzu frowned.
"Lea is going to drive the Tank back in the morning. No point in coming back now, the sun will be down before she can get halfway here. Besides the guys down outside the hangar won't be done making the tracks until tomorrow afternoon," the lion told them.
"Then we're doing the best we can with what we've got," Slythe nodded. That's when the alarms in the Lair went off. The three quickly raced into the Control Room, thankful it wasn't far away.
"What's going on Pumyra?" Lion-O asked.
"I just got a partial transmission from the mine. The wind has once again interrupted our transmission. Something is wrong but I cannot reach them," she said.
"We can't get to them," Arzu was immediately concerned.
"We'll have to take the Feliner," Lion-O said.
"There isn't enough fuel to take the Feliner and even if there was, it can't do short hops remember?" Slythe pointed out.
"Call Wizz-Ra and Mumm-Rana," the King ordered. Pumyra quickly nodded and attempted to raise the two forces for good on the horn.
To Be Continued…