“Head for the city”, you say as the ship continues over the desert wasteland.
“It must have been the fallout that destroyed all life”, Betty says stating the obvious.
Minutes later, you can see the outline of a metropolis on the horizon. Flying over its massive boundary walls you see it is riddled with dilapidated gun turrets. The streets are empty scattered with rusted car wrecks.
“Head for the city centre”, you say.
“Why don’t we just use the scanners to see if we can locate life”, Betty asks.
“’Cause most if not all of the subterranean bunkers will be shielded for radiation and that means our scanners won’t be able to probe inside...but you can try it for what it’s worth.”
Checking the scanners Betty soon confirms your suspicion. “Yup, countless underground structures, all lined.”
“We’ll drop in the middle somewhere and do some ground recognisance”, you reply. “My guess is that any hardware that was left out there would have been raided by the survivors long ago. So we need to see if we can find life and bargain with them for the required equipment.”
“What if we run into the alleged mutants first”, Betty asks without a hint of nervousness.
“That’s why we’re taking the Jackhammers with and why we’re not stopping unless we find what we’re looking for”, you reply.
You fly in amongst the sky scrapers. A spooky atmosphere hangs over the abandoned city like a thick dark cloud. You wish you didn’t have to get out there and run around in the streets dodging crazed mutants.
“Land over there”, you say pointing to a landing pad surrounded by a razor-mesh fence.
The Juggernaut turns tightly and sinks down on the landing pad, blowing clouds of dust and sand. Betty flicks the controls off and the engines wind down.
Outside, you see the sun in the three o’clock position.
“We should have at least two to three hours of daylight left”, you say. “If we can’t find anything by then, we’ll get back to the ship and go camp out somewhere in the middle of nowhere for the night and try again tomorrow.”
With that, the two of you get up and head for the cargo hold. Without speaking a word, you both put on the mechanised combat armour. The colour of the armour matches the red-brown colour of the Juggernaut. You’re not sure if it is intentional or pure coincidence.
You’ve always been amazed at how light and snug the combat armour was, enabling fast running and easy movements, while providing the mechanised muscle to lift the equivalent weight of a small car.
Loading the Jackhammers, your confidence increases another notch. The weapon fires a heavy-energy round that looks like a blue bolt of light. It can rip though a wall or a car and firing on full automatic, a few well aimed rounds can even pound light-armoured vehicles into submission. Your ammo counter reads five hundred rounds.
Checking the SCAT-vehicle, Betty confirms that it’s fully charged and should give you approximately five hundred miles before needing a recharge. It has four open-air seats and a small cargo hold in the back. On its corners it has four large, heavy tracked all-terrain wheels. You both get in and Betty seals off the rest of the ship, preparing to let the outside air into the cargo hold and lower the cargo door ramp.
The ramp lowers down. The green-grey air fills the cargo hold, and outside the ramp lowers onto the cracked landing pad. Betty starts the engine, and the SCAT vehicle roars to life. With your weapon ready you scan for a threat...but the streets are empty.
A lone tumble weed rolls by in a dry desert gush.
“Let’s go”, you say over the helmet microphone.
The SCAT rolls down the ramp and onto the tarmac. Betty accelerates through the open gate and into the city streets. Behind you, you notice the cargo ramp lifting up and the ship’s security systems activate.
Driving through the city streets you soon realise that it is going to be harder to find something than you had anticipated. There are no signs of recent movement. Everything is covered in layers of sand and it seems that not even the cockroaches survived the planet’s ordeal.
Up ahead you notice movement. You catch a brief glimpse of an object disappearing around a corner. Was it a plastic bag being blow by the wind, or maybe your imagination?
“Look at this boss”, Betty says stopping in the middle of the street, pointing to a manhole cover.
“What are we looking at”, you ask not understanding why Betty is so excited.
“A couple of times I’ve note a bright glint on the manhole covers as we drove by”, he explains.
“And”, you ask not following.
“Well, a metal surface usually looses it’s metallic lustre after a while, but as you can see, these are newly made scratches.”
Looking closer you realize Betty is correct. The manhole cover has been opened and closed recently, and by the look of it numerous times.
“Shall we get down there and have a look around “, Betty asks.
Still perplexed by what you saw up ahead, you have to decide...
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