"You sure it was a good idea?" Frye asked as Deep Cut walked down the street.
They were on their way to Tahlm's apartment to check on him and the two limpets they'd picked up in the Outlands. Maybe Tiyes had learned something.
"It was the best idea I had."
Shiver sighed and ran a hand down the tentacle partially obscuring her face. "They were going to find out about that eventually. It's not ideal but we still might be able to come out ahead. Besides, even if everyone finds out what the Scrap Corporations are digging up they might not be able to do anything about it."
For now Shiver wanted to meet up with the rest of their little gang and try to come up with some kind of plan.
For the moment, all she could think to do was to send Tahlm back to the Black Steel Corporation building in hopes that he might learn something useful. It had worked before, though security might have been improved since then.
Once they got to the apartment door, Shiver knocked and waited. It would take at least a few minutes for Tahlm to get from wherever he was to the door to unlock it, unless he got one of his inkling guests to answer instead. Sure enough, she heard footsteps on the other side and Tiyes answered the door.
He looked apprehensive as he let them in. Shiver wondered if he had heard the news.
Inside, Shiver removed her sandals and saw from the blankets that the boy had been sleeping on the couch. A pair of books sat on the floor next to it. After glancing around a bit more, she asked, "where's Neo?"
Tiyes gulped, his mantle turning pale. "Sh-she went to the vault."
Shiver suddenly felt as if some unseen force was trying to push her down into the floor, as if the weight of the dread now overcoming her entire being had become manifest. She'd known Neo was a natural troublemaker, but this was far in excess of even her expectations.
"What? Is she crazy? Why didn't you stop her?"
"I tried!" he said desperately, taking a few fearful steps away from her. "But Neo's stubborn, she'll do what she feels is right no matter what anyone says. Even her parents can't control her, so there's no way I can. Tahlm went with her."
"He what?"
Shiver clutched her head between her hands, suddenly finding the possible avenues of action still available to them washed away. What could have possibly come over those two? Had they taken complete leave of their senses? She'd clearly underestimated Neo's impulsiveness. Why would Tahlm of all people go with her on such a fool's errand? He could very easily die out in the desert if Neo wasn't very careful.
"What do we do?" Big Man asked worriedly.
Shiver crossed her arms, frowning deeply, lightly waving her folded fan in short strokes.
"I don't know. It might be too late to stop them."
Frye put her hands in the air. "But how could she even get to the vault? The landship doesn't have enough fuel." Then she glared at Tiyes, only for him to put his hands in front of him, mantle flashing white.
"I'm sure she has some kind of crazy plan. Neo always somehow thinks of some way to land herself in bigger trouble."
Shiver sat on one of the chairs, gritting her beak as she fought to maintain control. She had to maintain a certain image in front of Tiyes. She had to keep him submissive to her.
"We can't do anything," she said at last. "We can only hope Tahlm will manage to talk her out of it somehow. It'll take her a long time to get to the site."
"She didn't take the spheres either." Tiyes pointed to his backpack. "I don't know how she plans to even find it again."
"It doesn't matter right now." Shiver looked at her assembled crew, eyes darting between them. "There's still a chance we can make this all work out for us. It'll take days for them to dig up the vault so that gives us a little time. For now, keep your minds open and look for opportunities. With the Scrap Corporations distracted, there may be other opportunities that didn't exist before."
With security spread thin, they might be able to raid one of the warehouses and some some valuable materials. It would sell a lot better than scrap.
Tensions are high though, so I'm not sure that's a good idea. Might have to forget about the vault too. At this point I don't see a way of profiting from it now that the Scrap Corporations have found it, but maybe we can offload the problem on someone else without us revealing our identities.
She felt so constrained, even while great opportunities for profit and prestige passed right before her, all within arms reach, yet they all seemed to slip through her fingers.
The Ascendancy might be her best opportunity. She didn't know how she would exploit them but she was going to try. There was too much at stake for her to simply let things fall apart.
Neo had never seen an excavation like the one in front of her. Large machines scooped sand and dumped it into dumper kurts to take away and pile it in one of three satellite sites roughly half a kilometre from the main dig site itself.
They had managed to expose part of the roof, revealing it to be a dome, though it was difficult to tell much else from their position. The wind carried sand high up into the air anytime it was scooped and dumped or one of the kurts moved to the dump sites, obscuring the operation behind a sandy veil, but that could work in her favour.
"Looks like it'll be at least a few days before they reach the door," Tahlm said. He was standing within the shade of Neo's hood with his hand on her cheek as she lay prone, observing.
Neo let out a huff, wondering what she should do. The landships were parked end to end in a circle around the dig site, with all three of the big Scrap Corporations represented.
"We can't fight them all," Neo murmured. "But we might be able to sabotage them. If we do that without being seen, then they might start blaming each other."
Tahlm looked at her. "You really think that will work?"
Neo chuckled. "Of course. If there's anybody bad guys don't trust more than the heroes it's other bad guys."
She had read it countless times in her books, the heroes using the bad guys' distrust of each other to their own advantage, making their limited cooperation break down and effectively do the hero's job for them. As long as she remained undetected, it would be simple. She could get some fuel for her motor sled at the same time.
"So how do we do it?"
Neo looked at Tahlm, taking in his small size while gears turned in her head and a smile creeped across her face. "I think this is where bringing you is going to come in real handy."
Half an hour later, Neo crept towards the circle of landships, keeping herself downwind and using her mask to filter out the sand blowing in her direction.
She tried to shield her face with her arm as the sand and wind battered her, stinging her face, but it was necessary to remain out of sight. It would be much harder to see her cloak flapping in the wind and upright silhouette in such conditions.
It was a relief when she reached the shelter of one of Chitinin Ironworks' large, tracked landships. It wasn't the one she had initially aimed for, but it would do just as well.
She climbed up the metal shroud of the rear-most track on the starboard side and climbed up a set of rungs built into the side of the hull to the roof. She peered around but saw no activity. Perfect.
She climbed on top and took shelter behind the air conditioning unit. It was currently inactive, probably because it would have gotten clogged with sand by now, and that was ideal for their purposes.
"Okay, here's where we split." She declared.
Lil' Buddy hopped out of her backpack and she carefully placed an anxious looking Tahlm on the salmonid's back.
"Are you sure about this?" He asked.
Neo giggled. "Sure I am. Lil' Buddy will look after you. All you have to do is slip under the control panels and unplug some wires before anyone notices."
"Right…" He didn't look convinced.
"Don't worry, everything's going to work out fine."
Neo stood and removed one of the vent covers, letting outside air into the vehicle's interior. "Go on. I'll work in the back in the meantime. We'll meet back here."
Lil' Buddy leapt inside with an eager chirp and then vanished with Tahlm down the vent.
Probably should have told him to keep quiet. Oh well.
Neo found a roof hatch and slipped down into the machine's interior.
The landship was a van type. It's interior was largely composed of a large, enclosed cargo hold meant to carry cargo containers or vehicles. From the upper catwalk near the ceiling, she discovered this one was full of fuel containers and barrels of hydraulic fluid. Some sabotoge here was bound to cause them some headaches. Pity this wasn't the last one they would be hitting, though. She could have brought the fuel with her back to the motor sled.
Neo found barrels of engine coolant, one of which hadn't been resealed properly. Seeing opportunity, she grabbed onto it and with a grunt, managed to knock it over, spilling the toxic fluid all over the deck. Then she hurried to the fuel containers, opening the valves and causing fuel to start gushing out. The last thing she did was disconnect the wires that controlled the hydraulics which opened the rear hatch. That done, she climbed back up to the ceiling and out the top hatch.
After making another check of her surroundings, Neo went to the air conditioning unit, where she waited about ten minutes before Lil' Buddy and Tahlm returned.
"Mission accomplished," Tahlm reported, saluting.
Neo smiled and picked him up, letting Lil' Buddy hop into her backpack before she climbed down the side of the landship.
"Okay, now lets go for the next one. We gotta' move quick before they figure out what's happening. What did you manage to break?"
"Their communications, at least the primary system. All they'll have to do is reconnect the wires but that should be enough time for us to do some more sabotage. Disconnected the engine controls too."
Neo cackled. "Awesome. You're turning out to be a great hero, Tahlm."
Tahlm looked at her, as if surprised. "A hero?"
"Sure! Fighting evil, even though you're so tiny, that's really brave." Unlike someone I know.
"Huh, never thought of being a hero. Never knew I could be one."
"Well, you are, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Being a hero isn't about how big and strong you are, it's just doing what you have to do to fight evil. And that's what we're gonna' do."
Neo couldn't help but feel thrilled. After years of being trodden on, she was finally fighting back for the Splatlands. Tiyes had always said there was nothing they could do against the power of the Scrap Corporations, nothing she could do.
But look at me now. I've only dealt with one ship but I've only just gotten started. She could only imagine how much damage they would be able to do if there were more of them. They could have taken out the majority of the Scrap Corporations landship fleet right there.
They should have listened to me. I was right all along. Look what we could have done.
Tahlm stepped carefully amidst the forest of wires around him, disconnecting a few as he went, but trying not to get too bogged down. Some of the wires were not so willing to be disconnected either and by now, his arms were getting tired.
Neo said this is the last one, but is this really enough?
There were about twenty landships surrounding the dig site, and they had already sabotaged half a dozen of the machines. Neo wanted to go after this one because she thought it would have some fuel canisters they could use to restock the fuel on their motor sled. And as long as they were there anyway, might as well do as much damage as they could.
Tahlm could hear the voices of the anemones from Omnicorp Salvage murmuring among themselves in the wheelhouse. They didn't appear to have noticed anything wrong.
Tahlm recognized the familiar wires of the driver's controls. All he would have to do is pull them out and he would leave.
Just as he reached up to pull at the connectors for the ignition switch, he heard the crew's voices change. They became louder and more urgent sounding.
Guess they finally caught on.
Tahlm quickly yanked the connector off then scurried back the way he'd come. If they had finally discovered the sabotage then they needed to get out of there now!
Climbing up and around the nest of wires on his way back, he cautiously peeked through the small access panel he had opened and found Lil' Buddy hiding in the opposite corner. He called the salmonid over and watched as he slithered quickly beneath the access panel, letting Tahlm hop down onto his back.
Tahlm had been hesitant with Lil' Buddy at first but by now they'd gotten used to each other; though he wasn't sure if the salmonid actually liked him or if he was simply obeying Neo.
He didn't need to tell Lil' Buddy anything, he already knew to get out of there as soon as possible. Tahlm was still anxious about the lack of danger aversion salmonids had but the landships were so deserted that they hardly risked running into anyone. Only the wheelhouses seemed occupied in any of them, and some not at all.
Instead of exiting via the roof, they had to leave through a small floor hatch in the rear cargo bay. It was probably used by the crew for emergencies, but it suited their own situation just fine.
Finding themselves in the gap between the sandy floor of the desert and the bottom of the landship's hull, Lil' Buddy moved ahead, slowly, looking for Neo.
"There she is." One of the salmonid's bulging eyes tracked where he was pointing, spotting the familiar pair of legs. Tahlm also spotted a couple of fuel canisters on either side of her, proving she'd been successful in acquiring some fuel for their trip back to Crater's Edge.
Lil' Buddy and Tahlm emerged from underneath the landship and Neo spotted them. She smiled and beckoned them forward.
"Come on, let's get going!"
Tahlm winced. They were supposed to stay quiet. Even amidst the noise of the machines digging and driving about; the sand and the wind, the sound of inklish might stand out.
Lil' Buddy hurried towards her, making a rough ride for Tahlm as he clung to the samond's scaly neck for dear life. They were about halfway when a group of large shapes materialized through the blowing sand.
"Neo!"
Tahlm's cry came too late. It was barely out of his mouth before a large claw struck out and caught the inkling around her waist.
Neo let out a scream and tried to force the claw apart before she was slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of sand.
Lil' Buddy let out an angry growl and leaped at the large crab holding Neo. The crab was taken completely by surprise as Lil' Buddy latched onto one of his eye stalks and began slapping the eyeball with his fins. The crab hissed and bubbled in pain. He released Neo as he tried to defend itself, managing to swipe them with his claw. Tahlm nearly fell off the salmonid's back but Lil' Buddy managed to land upright.
Neo was free and trying to fight against her attackers, but she was outnumbered. An anemone nearly managed to touch her with its bramble of stinging tentacles. She managed to evade it by kicking sand in its face, then had to jump to avoid a swinging crab claw.
Neo was holding her own surprisingly well, but more shapes were constantly emerging from the sand, including a number of urchins, that began forming a circle to surround her, their spines erect.
"We have to help her!"
Lil' Buddy needed no encouragement from him. He bolted forward, letting out a series of high-pitched snarls and growls as he advanced, darting between an urchin's legs before hopping onto a crab's back and began bouncing up and down angrily.
Tahlm registered something appear in his peripheral vision, and the next thing he knew, he was weightless.
The world was a blur of brown as he tumbled through the air. He landed hard, knocking the wind out of him completely as he was half buried among the coarse grains.
He coughed, nearly swallowing some of the sand before he covered his mouth, gasping for air. His arms and legs all hurt, his vision was spinning. He tried to stand up, but his whirling vision and the force of the wind knocked him back to his hands and knees.
He could see the faint shapes of the people surrounding Neo. They weren't moving nearly as much now. He thought he heard her voice above the roar of the wind, then the shapes all began to move, fading as they headed away.
With his world no longer spinning, Tahlm stood up again, having to crouch to stop the wind and blowing sand from knocking him down. He looked around and found Lil' Buddy lying on his side, his eyeballs spinning in opposite directions.
Tahlm fought against the wind to get to him, taking sand to the face that threatened to peel his skin off.
"Lil' Buddy? Hey, listen!"
The salmonid shook himself and his eyes finally stopped spinning. His head jerked around, probably looking for Neo.
"Over there!" Tahlm pointed and hopped on his back. "Hurry, while we can still follow their tracks."
The salmonid trilled in acknowledgement and let Tahlm onto his back before hurriedly slithering through the sand in the direction Tahlm indicated.
They found the tracks of the group that had seized Neo, carving a wide swath through the loose sand northward, against the wind.
Tahlm was able to hide behind Lil' Buddy's head but the salmonid had no such cover, and his large eyeballs proved a severe detriment in the harsh conditions.
Tahlm gently grabbed either side of Lil' Buddy's head and yelled, "just keep your eyes closed. I'll steer you."
Lil' Buddy gurgled and Tahlm could tell he didn't want to but did it anyway, his desire to save Neo overriding any lingering distrust he might have had for Tahlm.
The tracks kept to the inner edge of the perimeter of landships around the dig site, avoiding the constant movement of people and machines further in. They had to halt briefly to avoid being squashed by a kurt before they crossed the trail, but otherwise came upon few obstacles.
Eventually, the tracks led to the northernmost part of the circle, a position taken not by a landship but by a small, two-story building mounted on stilts that sat atop broad concrete pads. Tahlm guessed it had been transported there and assembled, a temporary structure that would free up one or two landships.
A number of people were leaving the building, wearing the security uniforms of all three Scrap Corporations. He was sure they were among the group that had ambushed them.
Taking cover beneath one of the landships, Tahlm and Lil' Buddy waited for them to pass. Once the coast was clear, they approached the building.
A set of folding stairs led up to the entrance. The door was a mechanical sliding door instead of one that swung open. Next to it was a window.
Having Lil' Buddy stop below the window, Tahlm switched to octopus form and used his suckers to climb up the metal exterior of the building. Even though the sun hadn't been shining directly on it, the metal was still more than a little warm, but Tahlm persisted, refusing to give up without freeing Neo.
His suckers raw and stinging from the heated metal, Tahlm managed to find some purchase on the window frame with. Keeping a small profile, Thahm brought a hand up to shield his eyes and peered through the glass.
The interior didn't have much natural light coming in. A handful of overhead lights illuminated the room he was looking into. It was relatively large and open, a few desks and chairs set up for administration. He could see a few separate rooms and the stairs leading to the second floor.
Several crabs, anemone, and urchins created a wall of bodies that partially blocked his view of Neo. He could just barely see between them to find the girl crouched in the corner of the room. Her eyes were defiant but he could also see the fear in them. Her face was flushed and her mantle had turned red, flashing threateningly.
Though only inklings could truly comprehend tuk'yan, every resident in Splatsville was taught about that particular message: it was a sign to stay away and that the inkling was ready to attack. Whether those guarding her now knew that or not they didn't seem to care, they just watched her and it didn't look like they would be leaving anytime soon.
Lil' Buddy chirped up at him, impatiently.
"There's too many. Even if we managed to get out of the building, there isn't enough fuel left in the motor sled to get away."
Then, a thought occurred to him. "The motor sled. Maybe there's something in the motor sled that can help us, like a radio or something."
Lil' Buddy made a happy little gurgle and slapped his fins in delight. Tahlm jumped down and directed Lil' Buddy in the direction their motor sled was waiting. At least this time they wouldn't be fighting against the wind, but Tahlm was starting to get hot and dehydrated from the sun and it had been a while since he'd had a drink.
"Have to keep going," he told himself. "For Neo."
The clouds of sand kicked up by the digging did provide some form of shade, diffusing the sun's harsh rays, but Tahlm still felt thoroughly toasted by the time they crested the large dune, behind which their motor sled waited.
Their motor sled sat, already partially buried by the constantly shifting sands, but it wasn't alone. A single figure clad in a brown cloak, of much better quality and condition than Neo's, crouched near the machine, examining it. Lying in the sand next to them was a long pole with fabric tied around its bulbous tip.
This clearly wasn't a guard from the Scrap Corporations. Was this someone from Crater's Edge? Had someone followed Neo all the way here?
"Hey, maybe this person can help us."
The suggestion alone was enough for Lil' Buddy. He let out a soft cry and hurried down the slope.
No sooner had they begun to move that the cloaked figure turned, hand reaching for the pole. The hood shrouded their face, a cloth covering all but a pair of intense ruby eyes that tracked them as they approached.
It was enough to make Tahlm shiver. Those eyes disturbed him, made him suddenly feel hunted. They were hard, calculating, yet an intense fire burned behind them. Tahlm found himself even more afraid of this curious stranger than he had ever been of Shiver Balt Ralok. But Neo was alone and in trouble; he had to at least try.
Lil' Buddy stopped barely a metre from the stranger. Tahlm stood on his back and spoke up as loudly as he could. "Please, can you help us save our friend?"
Neo had been in tight spots before, she'd been in fights before, she'd been in trouble before, but now she was all of the above and worse than ever.
She huddled in the corner, half surrounded by angry crabs, anemones, and urchins, two of each. Meanwhile, others were rifling through her backpack, muttering among themselves.
She saw no sign of Tahlm and Lil' Buddy, so they must have gotten away. Knowing Lil' Buddy, he was probably trying to find her. She didn't know where they'd gone or what happened to them but she hoped they were both alright. But no matter how brave the two of them were, they couldn't take on all these guards by themselves. Honestly, Neo couldn't either, but she didn't have to, just she had to escape.
There had been plenty of situations like this in the stories, the hero getting captured, interrogated, maybe even suffering a little beating, but the bad guys would back off once they realized they couldn't break the hero's spirit, then they would come back for them later. That would be Neo's opportunity to escape.
The crabs parted, revealing an even larger crab with a rough, brown shell. He walked on just two legs and stopped barely a meter from Neo, glaring down at her with his beady, black eye stalks. Neo bravely hissed back at him, flashing her mantle even more than before.
The crab crouched, apparently unafraid. Neo contemplated how successful she might be if she tried to kick the crab in the eye.
"Who else is with you?" The crab demanded, his mandibles clicking with every syllable, giving the inkling language he spoke an almost mechanical sound.
Neo huffed. "I'm alone. Nobody else wanted to come."
The crab clicked his mandibles again then grabbed Neo's by the shirt with his claw, hauled her up, then slammed her into the floor, nearly leaving her breathless.
"I don't believe you," the crab said mildly.
Neo coughed and raised herself off the floor on one arm. "Too bad. Beating me isn't going to make people magically appear."
Neo's reply earned her a heavy blow from the claw, sending her rolling across the floor until she met the wall and stopped.
"You better start cooperating," the crab said darkly.
Neo sat up, coughing, leaning her back against the wall and then spat on the floor. She glared up at the crab defiantly. "Make me."
The crab knelt again, regarded her with eyes cold as ice. Then he extended his claw and moved it back and forth in front of her. "Eenie, meenie, minie, snip."
The next thing Neo felt was intense pain. She let out a horrible, shrill scream that rattled the windows. Her body moved on its own, scrambling to try and get away, ink spilling from her funnel and coating the floor around her, mixing with the blue of her blood as it poured from her severed left arm.
Neo found herself back in the corner, holding the stump that remained of her left arm, eyes wide in panic as she tried to stop the bleeding. The crab picked up the severed part, brought it up to his mouth and devoured it in front of her.
The crab then turned and advanced towards her. Neo's body was shaking uncontrollably, adrenaline flooding her veins like never before. Every nightmare she ever had flashed in front of her, none of which were as bad as this awful reality. The old monsters of her childhood had manifested in front of her, merged into this single awful, creature, and all she could do was scream.
"MOMMY, DADDY!"
"Shut up!" The crab smacked the side of her head, making it strike the wall, rattling her brains.
She slid to the floor, lying on her side, gasping, trembling. "Now are you going to cooperate or am I gonna' have to eat your other arm?"
All Neo could do was cry and whimper. She was lying in a pool of her own ink and blood, her own body refusing to obey commands from her brain, desperately wanting her parents to come and save her even though her conscious mind knew they never could.
From her place on the floor, Neo could see through the legs of the people surrounding her, coming closer. She had a clear view of the door when it opened and something entered the building.
It was as black as the inside of a devil's coal sack, eyes like torches from the black pits themselves. In its hands it carried a long pole, metal gleaming at one end.
An odd sense of calm came over Neo. She stopped trembling, stopped sniffling. Death had come.
One of the anemone guards advanced to challenge the black shape. "Hey! Who are yo–." A sickening gurgle abruptly ended the anemone's sentence, the metal tip of Death's pole embedded in their throat. From that moment, all was mayhem.
An urchin folded their body within their domed, head shell and bared their spines, only for death to raise the end of their pole up to the ceiling and bring it down on top of him. A wet crack pierced the air, followed by a fountain of gore spurting up through the large fissure in the urchin's shell.
Death lunged forward, thrusting with her pole to take out another anemone, and then swung it laterally to break an urchin's body in half, the unfortunate guard, folding at the waist like a broken candy bar still stuck in its wrapper.
Death then ignored everyone else and went at the crab near Neo. The pole struck out. The crab deflected it with their claw, but Death dropped the pole and in a flash was on the crab's back, a hammer in their right hand, raised above the crab's head.
Blood and chitin exploded when the hammer came down, caving the crab's head in. The body stayed upright for half a second before it collapsed. Death had already retrieved her pole and was fighting the rest.
They tried to run, but their legs were swept out from under them. Nobody escaped Death.
Darkness encroached on the edges of Neo's blurring vision. She could hear the guards crying out for mercy, one voice after another silenced with a crunch or a crack.
Neo's vision became narrower and narrower until all she could see was little more than a pinprick of light. And then she heard Death's footsteps come closer and closer. Then, Neo closed her eyes as darkness smothered her.
Author's Notes:
I'm sure nobody imagined Shiver taking the absence of Neo and Tahlm well, especially not with what she had to do in the previous chapter. She's had to give up what she hoped would be their golden goose, but some problems are just too big to handle.
Of course the meat of the chapter was what happened with Neo and Tahlm. I could hardly wait to post this chapter. It's one that's survived three of total rewrites of this story that I made. Neo is, of course, naive and something of an idealist; unfortunately, heroic notions don't always clash well with reality and you can land yourself in deep trouble. Did she just get saved at the end or did she land herself in even bigger trouble? What do you think?