Chapter 1
The Ocean Ruins
This is just great, thought Rock Volnutt. I'm two minutes into my first Dig alone, and I'm already in trouble!
He futilely tapped the radio unit in his blue suit of Digger armor, but the only response was continued static. He grimaced, and pondered turning around and going back, but that would mean admitting that he was incapable of handling being a Digger without Barrell hovering over his shoulder. So he continued down the hallway, until he reached a door in one recess.
The static on his radio abruptly peaked and began to fade away -- and then, to Rock's relief, he heard a familiar female voice. "-ck! Rock! Can you hear me?"
"Just barely," he said into the radio. "The transmission isn't too clear." It was getting better, though.
"Are you all right?" said Roll Casket's voice. "I got worried when the transmission was cut off."
"Me too," said Rock, "but I'm okay. Must've been a jamming field.Must've been a jamming field, but I guess it's gone now, and you can get back to Spotting for me."
"Yeah," said Roll. "I couldn't even pinpoint your location, let alone stuff that was around you."
"Well, we're okay now," said Rock. "I think I'm at the last door."
He pushed a button on his radio, activating a signal that someone had recorded years ago from a Reaverbot that seemed to open doors in the ruins.
With the groan of rusty gears, the door raised itself two feet. There was a horrible grinding noise, and then the door fell six inches.
Rock let out an annoyed breath, grabbed the bottom of the door, and lifted it up. There was a screech of metal on metal, and then it was high enough for him to duck under it. He looked into the room and saw before him a platform with a blue refractor suspended in a force field above a pedestal.
"Roll!" he said excitedly into the radio. "It's still active! The reactor's still running!"
"Great!" said Roll. "What about the refractor?"
"It's here," said Rock, moving towards the platform. "It's a big one, too!"
"All right!" said Roll. "Now maybe we can finally get some money! Be careful!"
"Hey," said Rock. "It's me."
He reached out, grabbed the refractor, and pulled. With a slight buzzing noise, it came loose from the force field.
Rock gave a sigh of relief. And then the pedestal began to lower itself into the floor.
"Uh-oh," he said. He leaped off the platform, just as three eerie designs jutted out from the back wall. He glanced at the ceiling and saw to his alarm that several walls were closing down on him. And he ran, the walls slamming down behind him.
He reached the back of the room just in time to see that the security systems had gotten a grip on the door, which was now slowly closing. With the refractor still under his arm, Rock dove under the barrier and rolled to a stop outside ... just as the mechanism lost control of the old door once again and it fell to the ground from the force of gravity.
"Rock??" said Roll over the radio. "What happened??"
"I'm okay!" said Rock. He got to his feet. "Everything's all right here."
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch," she replied. "I'm getting a bunch of Reaverbot signals; they must've been dormant untill you took the refractor. You'd better get out of there. C'mon..."
"Right!" said Rock, putting the refractor into a satchel slung over his shoulder. "You see anything in my immediate vicinity, let me know!"
He was only two steps down the next corridor when Roll said, "Wait a second ... It looks like there's some Reaverbots around there somewhere ... Can you see them?"
Rock looked down the corridor and saw that on one wall, a panel had opened, revealing what appeared to be a row of hubcaps.
"They look pretty small," said Roll. "You should be able to take 'em down with your Buster."
"Like I had anything else," muttered Rock, pulling the small, cylindrical device in question out of his satchel and putting it on over his left hand.
He took a cautious step forward, and one of the "hubcaps" popped out, revealing that it was the top of a small, onion-shaped Reaverbot, which turned to face him. It didn't look very menacing, but many had found out the hard way that appearances could be decieveing.
"A Zakobon," said Roll. "This shouldn't take long."
"Right," said Rock. He fired the Buster, and small gouts of plasma slammed into the small Reaverbot. It abruptly exploded, scattering bits of metal and Zennies across the floor. Rock moved to pick up the Zennies, but his approach triggered the activation of the rest of the Zakobons.
"Oops," said Rock, raising his Buster.
Rock made his way through the ruins, destroying Reaverbots at every turn. They were mostly Zakobons, but he had also fallen into a pit of tubular Mirumijees, and at one point he dueled with a spider-like Cannam that jumped between the floor and ceiling.
"Looks like we're at the last door," said Rock into his radio. "Just the next room, and then the elevator to the surface."
"Great," said Roll, the word accented by a burst of static, "but I'm showing a large blip in front of you -- it's probably a bigger Reaverbot than the ones you've seen so far. Be careful!" There was another burst of static, this time more prolonged. "Huh? Rock? Can you hear me?" Her words became garbled. "I'm ...ing you...the trans .... 's breaking..."
"Roll!?" said Rock. "Are you all right?? Can you hear me??"
This was futile, he knew. It was probably another jamming field. The only question now was whether it would prevent him from getting out of the ruins.
He went through the door ... and stopped dead in his tracks. In the middle of the room, blocking his way to the exit, was a Hanmuru. Rock had heard about these mechanical monstrosities: they was an enormous, tank-like Reaverbots, with six boxy legs, two enormous metal arms, and a single, glowing red eye. This particular Hanmuru was rather rusty and was missing its left arm. Even so, it looked like it was ready to kill. Rock knew that his only chance lay in either escaping or in destroying it. Neither seemed particularly easy, but he was understandably desperate.
It swung its one good arm at him, and he only barely managed to duck to the side to avoid getting smashed. He fired his Buster at it, but the blasts only bounced off. It charged towards him and he jumped out of its way just in time.
As Rock continued to shoot at it, he began to worry. This thing wasn't letting up, and at this rate, it was only a matter of time before he got tired and it moved in for the kill. The only effect his shots seemed to be having was to chip the paint and rust from its armor.
The Hanmuru apparently forgot for a moment that it was missing an arm, so it drove at him at its left, brandishing the metal scab at him. Rock fired at that, and it quickly turned away, but not before Rock saw the dents he had made in it.
And there, he realized, was its weakness: the armor where its arm had been wasn't really protective, so he only needed to get rid of that and, assuming it didn't destroy him, he would have it at his mercy.
Rock did something that confused the Hanmuru for a moment because it had never seen anyone do it: he ran towards it instead of away from it. Before it got a grip on itself, he jumped onto its side, tore off the metal scab, and proceeded to fire his Buster into the opening this revealed.
The Hanmuru, needless to say, was not amused. It tried to smash Rock with its arm, but he jumped away at the last moment. It turned to face him, its eye glowing red ... and then, smoke belching from the insides, it slumped over and did not move again.
Rock grinned and ran into the elevator.
The ruins jutted out of the water like a giant finger. A landing pad with an elevator station was on the top, and out of the elevator stepped Rock.
He decided he'd never been more glad to see the sky. Of course, this was understandable: he'd nearly been killed in the ruins, so a little relief was called for. This preoccupation, however, distracted him from the sound of the elevator descending back into the ruins.
After a moment, though, he noticed that he was alone. "I wonder where Roll went," he muttered.
Behind him, he heard the elevator ascend and the doors open. A pained expression crossed his face as he turned and say, lo and behold, that the Hanmuru had come out to play. And this time, it wouldn't relent.
Rock backed away nervously. "Back for more??" he said. His foot touched empty air, and he hurriedly stepped forward to avoid falling off the edge of the tower, down into the sea below ...
The Hanmuru was suddenly confused again, because Rock turned to face it, said "See ya!", and jumped off the edge. Its confusion didn't last long, however, because it then saw him riding up ... on top of an aircraft. It was small, yellow, and had the name Flutter painted on one side.
"Hold on!" said Roll. "We're taking off!"
"Roger!" said Rock, and then the Airship Flutter flew off, leaving the Hanmuru fuming on top of the ruins.
"Nice timing, Roll," said Rock as he climbed down the ladder to the bridge of the Flutter.
Roll looked up from the controls. "Any time," she replied. "I'm sorry, Rock, I had some engine problems, and..."
"It's okay, Roll," said Rock. "But I'm glad you showed up when you did."
"All's well that ends well, right?" said Roll. "And we were able to get a refractor; we should be able to get by with that for a while." She sighed. "If only the Mother Lode were as easy to find as this..."
"Don't worry," said Rock. "We'll find it someday, and your parents too."
"Thanks," said Roll. "I know we will. It's just that ..."
They were interrupted by a yell over the intercom: Roll's grandfather, Barrell, who was in the engine room. "Ack! Roll, the engine's overheating! The steam's so thick I can barely see!"
"What!?" said Roll. "I guess the Flutter's in worse shape than I thought!"
"Roll, the #5 meter is going crazy!" said Barrell. "We can't take much more of this!"
Rock stood back. He wasn't a very good mechanic, and Roll and Barrell were better suited to the task of keeping the Flutter in the air. Assuming, of course, that they could.
"Gramps, can you open up the #11 value again?" said Roll.
"Got it! -- ouch!"
"We'd better find a place to set down," said Roll. "Rock, could you check the map?"
"Got it," said Rock. "There's an island called Kattelox about a hundred miles thataway."
"I can't do much more down here by myself down here!" said Barrell. "Can somebody give me a hand?"
"Sorry, Gramps," said Roll. "My hands are a little full right now."
The Flutter continued to fly for several tense moments. Then, Rock saw the island up ahead. "Roll, I see it!" he said. "Land ho!"
"Hold on!" said Roll, guiding the Flutter towards the island. "Hold together ... Just a little bit more ..."
They were close enough now that Rock could clearly see that there was a town in the middle of the island.
"Hold on!" said Roll. "I'm taking her down in the middle of that field over there!"
Rock braced himself ... and with a resounding crash, the Flutter landed. Rock found himself sprawled on the floor in the front of the cockpit.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, the intercom crackled to life. "Looks like...Looks like we made it!" said Barrell.