Judy Alvarez looked out from her truck.
Laguna Bend looked relatively the same. Still flooded into a small toxic, polluted lake.
She didn't really care. It was more toxic a decade ago, and she was confident her diving suit was good enough to keep out the water.
The water's not safe for diving? Bite her. She likes diving, what were they going to do? They can't stop her.
"What… what the hell?"
But, if there was one thing different in the Laguna Bend, there was a giant building built next to the Laguna Bend.
It… it wasn't there yesterday.
Yeah, she was sure of it, she saw the camera feeds of the badlands. The whole reason she decided to take a dive today was to also have a look at the building with her own eyes.
The one building they had was nearby the Laguna Bend, not right next to it. If it was next to anything, it was next to the Trash mountain.
Now there were two of them. She saw the original building in the distance.
It was way too unsettling. It felt like those buildings were alive, replicating like cells undergoing mitosis.
What sort of building will be formed tomorrow? Where?
As her trucks got closer she managed to get better details of the new infrastructure.
Sleek, Clean. Pristine. A few of the surfaces shined silver under the sunlight.
And there were several blocky and cylindrical machines sticking out of the structure, and into the Laguna Bend. Judy saw how fast the inside of the machines were turning, yet the rotation was so smooth that there was barely any sound in its movement.
Water was being drawn into half of the machines, which indicated to Judy that it was acting as a pump. The other half was releasing water back into the Laguna Bend. The output of the water was slightly smaller than the input, but it was extremely difficult to tell with the naked eye.
The edges of the Laguna Bend used to have rubbish bags littered around it. Judy also saw that the Laguna Bend's surrounding was now devoid of trash.
It… it was surprising to see, sure. But for some reason Judy found herself smiling a little. I mean, who wouldn't. When you witness the former remnant of your home slowly getting cleaner.
NC Dam Ltd bought Laguna Bend to use as a reservoir, to separate the toxic water from the clean drinkable one. Unfortunately the project was a bust when the clean drinkable water turned toxic. Probably due to the pollution breaking out thanks to hasty and rushed construction.
And… there it was.
These aliens from outer space just came down roughly three days ago, cleaning up trash and purifying waters.
The water flowing back into Laguna Bend from the pumps were visibly much cleaner. Got damn, the structure was turning the murky toxic water into what Judy would describe as liquid diamond - crystal clear.
Judy saw several drones flying in the sky, recording building's activity. The sides of the drones had news station logos printed on it.
Yeah, this was breaking info, alright.
Judy saw several people, clad in militaristic gear and holding weapons with designs she had never seen before patrolling the machine.
There were already Raffen Shivs trying to hit the new infrastructure, the aftermath being visible as corpses and broken vehicles littered around the badlands.
Some of the soldiers patrolling the building were dressed head to toe in futuristic armour. They might as well have been androids or fullborgs with how tall they were.
Judy didn't feel like diving into the lake today.
No, no. She was content on just watching this new alien-looking tower work its magic on the lake.
"This is Spartan Group Smash. Has there been anything on your end, over?"
"Negative, Spartan Group Smash. This is Spartan Badger. All we could find was some…. Floating cameras. Those Mad max-looking hooligans stopped driving and shooting once we had enough corpses littered on the floor."
"Roger that, I'll relay that to Commander Washington. Umm… In the mean time, Commander Washington told us to just take it easy if there's nothing happening."
The comm went quiet soon after Ian told Badger they were allowed a break.
His team was already getting tired from staying up the entire night, their shift was ending in about an hour anyway.
The rest of his fireteam was already sitting down on top of the barricade, battle rifles and DMR still in their arms.
Badger saw Spartan Heaven setting up an old radio, twisting the dial around until he managed to pick up a channel.
"Heaven, where did you get that?"
"From one of the cars. This was the only thing that wasn't broken."
It looked like Heaven was fiddling with it from morning.
"Find any channels?"
"Yeah I found a few and wrote them down. If we're staying here for a long while, might as well see what sort of music we can listen to, you know?."
"Well, which one did you find?"
"98.7."
"You can't just give me some random number and expect me to understand it."
"Channel 98.7. Body Heat Radio."
"Does it play a specific genre?"
"Yeah, pop. Here, listen."
Heaven started turning the dial up, until the speakers started to turn the static into discernible voices.
The rest of Fireteam Badger started to gather around Heaven as they started to hear 'this is 98.7, Body Heat!' resonate.
[You are my PONPON
我愛你 PONPON
君にPONPON
君にPONPON
PON PON SHIT!
PON PON SHIT!
PON PON SHIT!
PON PON SHIT!]
"… This music is ass." Among the overdone dubstep wafers, Spartan Skulker was the first to speak up. And truth be told, he spoke for half of the crowd here.
Heaven only sighed a little.
"The worse thing is this song is the one that's played on the Radio the most."
Heaven heard the rest of his teammates groan all at once.
"I mean, I don't know. The more you hear it the better it gets."
"No Heaven, that's just you coping about the fact that you had to hear this while finding other channels."
"That's another possibility."
"Change it to another channel. You've got other ones, right?"
"Yeah, I got some rock musics, uhh… a bit of Jazz. You guys like Jazz, right?"
Heaven started to change channels to one he already found out. Unfortunately a lot of his comrades didn't react as positively as he did. Groans and moans of distaste was constantly erupting from the small crowds of soldiers, Heaven only muttering a few shut ups back at them as he tried changing songs.
Heaven tried to satisfy the team's music taste. He tried so damn hard, but the radio just wouldn't play the right songs. The spartan ended up hitting the radio slightly in frustration, turning the dial again until he ended up back in Body Heat.
Luckily for them, a new song had just started, so they didn't have to get tortured by another Pon Pon Shit.
Unlike the provocative dubstep from the Japanese LAZRpop cover, this one had started with a smoother, quieter synth, followed up by soft beats that resembled strings being plucked.
[I couldn't wait for you to come and clear the cupboards.
But now you're going to leave with nothing but a sign.
Another evening I'll be sitting reading in between your lines
Because I miss you all the time.]
For the first time ever since they gathered on top of the barricade, Fireteam Badger remained quiet. A few of them nodded their head to the beat, while others slowly started to sit down.
[So, get away.
Another way to feel what you didn't want yourself to know.
And let yourself go.
You know you didn't lose your self-control.
Let's start at the rainbow.
Turn away.
Another way to be where you didn't want yourself to go.
And Let yourself go.
Is that a compromise?]
Dakota Smith had already heard enough info from the Aldecaldos she had sent out. Heavy guards, with guns and aiming skills good enough to put a bullet into a skull from several kilometres away.
When she heard that a new building was built overnight, near the Laguna Bend, she had to go herself.
Ever since last time, majority of the Aldecaldos mercs weren't so keen on going near their new visitors from the sky. She was mad at them, but she understood why.
One wrong move, one step too close, and they could be looking at a bullet flying at them, fast enough to tore their forehead into two.
Fuck it. She was a nomad. So long as she knew the risk, and the reward, she was brave enough to venture out there herself.
Luckily her driver was loyal enough to stick with her. Dakota was already happy with her driver simply dropping her at the designated location best for safely watching those Space soldiers. She was more than happy about the fact that the driver was willing to stay and watch with her, ready to take her away from this place should those guards start pointing their guns at them.
The nomad fixer expected a lot of things to happen, a lot of things to go wrong. She had experience as a fixer to calculate and predict these stuff, and try her best to prevent them. Or at the very least, find a way to listen the blows when they start flying.
Dakota and her driver left the car and took out their binoculars.
They saw what the new barricaded building was doing, pumping water in through those blocky and cylindrical machineries and pumping them back out.
She half expected what other corpo water pumps would be doing - dumping waste back into the already-toxic lake. Wasn't that why they built it on the Laguna Bend?
No, if there was one thing she was surprised with, was that dirty water was going in, and clean water was flowing back out.
She had to check again, dropping the binoculars and going back to her car to launch a drone.
Dakota's little flying camera mixed in with the rest of the reporter drones, and started to zoom in on the pumps and waters expelling out. The scanners showed results Dakota had a hard time believing.
Water. Clean Water, free of chemical pollutants, toxic waste, and other nasty solvents and precipitates.
"Is it really clean water, ma'am?"
"That's what the scanners are saying, but…"
"Hard time believing it?"
"More specifically having a hard time believe they're doing this for charity, I'm curious why they are doing it."
Most Megacorps were run by psychopaths, those whose moral compass was so far out and above the society. And she knew how such a devious moral compass could easily corrupt the public if it had power.
She knew about Santo Domingo, and how Arasaka had basically poisoned the underground water supply that the civilians drink from with chemical waste.
Were they paid by NC Dam Ltd? To recover their project of providing clean drinkable water?
No, that couldn't be. If there were any contacts made by Corpos in the bad lands, she was the first to know.
And she knows the only thing the Space soldiers contacted with was Raffen Shivs. And she saw enough corpses littered on the ground to know how that ended.
Her drones started to pick up the top of the barricade, where several mechanical titans were gathering around a certain spot.
It looked like they were setting up an equipment.
Something that looked…
"… Are those speakers?"
Two giant speakers, ones you'd find at a party.
They started to hook up the speaker to what could be described as a portable dataterm, and-
"Oh you've got to be shitting me."
Everyone nearby, including the drones picked up on the music blasting from the speakers.
Hell, she was hearing it with her own ears, from this far away. It felt like they were putting the volume up over the maximum limit.
And she'd recognised that synth opening anywhere. She heard it enough time while driving.
Then they heard it- the various Spartan Fireteams gathering together to sing in unison.
"""I COULDN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO COME CLEAR THE CUPBOARDS!
BUT NOW YOU'RE GOING TO LEAVE WITH NOTHING BUT A SIGN!
ANOTHER EVENING I'LL BE SITTING READING IN. BETWEEN. YOUR. LI~INES!
BECAUSE I MISS YOU ALL THE TIME!"""
By god Dakota Smith could hear the emotions in those strained voices.
There appearances looked like Fullborgs, but the sheer heart going into those verses made her question if there were any cybernetics implanted in them.
"""SO, GET AWAY!
ANOTHER WAY TO FEEL WHAT YOU DIDN'T WANT YOURSELF TO KNOW!
AND LET YOURSELF GO,
YOU KNOW YOU DIDN'T LOSE YOUR SELF-CONTROL!
LET'S START AT THE RAINBOW!
TURN AWAY!
ANOTHER WAY TO BE WHERE YOU DIDN'T WANT YOURSELF TO GO!
LET YOURSELF GO…
IS THAT A COMPROMI~ISE!"""
Dakota so all the reporters drones, once chaotically whizzing through the sky to take pictures of every nook and cranny of that water plant, all now started to collectively focus on the visitors from outer space singing.
It was… it was certainly a strange sight.
Something she doubted she'll ever see again.
Something she doubted anyone would believe if you didn't have a video of it.
"""SO WHAT DO YOU WANNA DO?! WHAT'S YOUR POINT-OF-VIEW?!
THERE'S A PARTY SOON! DO YOU WANNA GO?!
A HANDSHAKE! WITH YOU! WHAT'S YOUR POINT-OF-VIEW?!
I'M ON TOP OF YOU! I DON'T WANNA GO!
'CAUSE I REALLY WANNA STAY AT YOUR HOUSE!
AND I HOPЕ THIS WORKS OUT!
BUT YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU BROKE ME APART!
I'M DONE WITH YOU! I'M IGNORING YOU!
I DON'T WANNA KNOW!"""
She saw from her drones how each of them where wrapping their arms around each other's shoulder, swaying side to side as they sang.
"""AND I'M AWARЕ THAT YOU WERE LYING IN THE GUTTER!
'CAUSE I DID EVERYTHING TO BE THERE BY YOUR SIDE! AAAAAH, AH -IDE!
SO WHEN YOU TELL ME I'M THE REASON, I JUST CAN'T. BELIEVE. THE. LI~IES!
AND WHY DO I SO WANT TO CALL YOU?!
CALL YOU?!
CALL YOU?!
CALL YOU?! """
"OOII!"
Dakota (and the media) so all of the singing abruptly stop as someone started to walk up to the barricade, shouting at the top of their lungs.
Whoever it was, she could tell by the other soldier's reaction that they man that just entered the scene was a superior officer.
The 4 glowing-red eyes resembling optic implants Maelstroms would favor was menacingly looking at the crowd.
The melody was still blaring out of the speakers, but everyone stood frozen as.
Then their superior officer lifted something from his hands and started to sing.
"SO WHAT DO YOU WANNA DO?! WHAT'S YOUR POINT-OF-VIEW?!
THERE'S A PARTY SOON! DO YOU WANNA GO?!
A HANDSHAKE! WITH YOU! WHAT'S YOUR POINT-OF-VIEW?!"
Dakota blinked her eyes several time.
The superior officer was lifting up a freshly harvested Carrot, dirt still plastered on parts of the big, thick, bright-orange healthy-looking vegetable.
Then the rest of the soldiers erupted into a cheer, hollering at the top of their lungs in celebration.
The outburst soon developed back into a unison of the chorus.
"""I'M ON TOP OF YOU! I DON'T WANNA GO!
'CAUSE I REALLY WANNA STAY AT YOUR HOUSE!
AND I HOPE THIS WORKS OUT!
BUT YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU BROKE ME APART!
I'M DONE WITH YOU! I'M IGNORING YOU!
I DON'T WANNA KNOW!
OH-OH OH-OH-OH!"""
She saw as the crowd started to pick up their officer and lift them above their head, crowds forming waves like they were fans crowd surfing their favourite rockerboy.
It was such a blaring sight to see a walking mechanical armour holding two carrots in each hand.
She was surprised to see carrots that healthy looking too.
"'"SO, GET AWAY!
ANOTHER WAY TO FEEL WHAT YOU DIDN'T WANT YOURSELF TO KNOW!
AND LET YOURSELF GO!
YOU KNOW YOU DIDN'T LOSE YOUR SELF-CONTROL!
LET'S START AT THE RAINBOW!
TURN AWAY!
ANOTHER WAY TO BE WHERE YOU DIDN'T WANT YOURSELF TO GO!
LET YOURSELF GO!
IS THAT A COMPROMISE?!
SO WHAT DO YOU WANNA DO?! WHAT'S YOUR POINT-OF-VIEW?!
THERE'S A PARTY SOON! DO YOU WANNA GO?!
A HANDSHAKE! WITH YOU! WHAT'S YOUR POINT-OF-VIEW?!
I'M ON TOP OF YOU! I DON'T WANNA GO!
'CAUSE I REALLY WANNA STAY AT. YOUR. HOUSE!
AND I HOPE THIS WOO-OORKS OUT!
BUT YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU BROKE ME APART!
I'M DONE WITH YOU, I'M IGNORING YOU!
I DON'T WANNA KNOOOW!"""
Once she heard 'I really want to stay at your house' finish, she heard the next song starting immediately after.
"""A THING OF BEA-UUTY, I KNOW!
WILL NEVER FADE AWAY!"""
Oh god. The space men knew Never Fade Away too.
It looked like they would be partying for the rest of the day.