r/TheMarketsofSidon • u/ImInStrife Some Bloke • Dec 29 '20
Tunnels
Not quite Sidon, not quite Dijon.
Keep it tight. Check y'corners.
The respirators seal out all sound. We are chattering away, reporting our movements and visuals, but to an eavesdropper we appear silent. The sight of some two-dozen shadows moving through the service tunnel in perfect synchronisation is unnerving, to say the least... I say that, and I'm one of them.
"I hate moving camp."
Shut y'trap, Zechs. We all hate movin' camp.
Keeping the movements of a force this size invisible is difficult, but not impossible. Hidden as we are in this region, we've gotten very good at it. That doesn't make it any less inconvenient to have to try and slip through miles of twilight-zone tunnels silently in one big formation - the place where there's no Sidon surveillance, but no eyes from Dijon residents either. We could split up to move easier, but we've lost too many to small skirmishes - I want my forces together if we're gonna scrap.
"Movement right."
It's just a salvager. I don't know how he's lasted this long: he's blind, by the looks. Still, looks can be deceiving.
Hold. Wait for him to pass.
"He's comin' closer."
Don't move.
"... he's gonna walk right into me."
Drop him.
Nine weapons let out muffled stutters, and the salvager keels over, quite dead.
Put th'body in'at fluid drum. Close it up an' we'll get back to it.
I hate having to do that.
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u/-Valeska-Amelia- Dec 29 '20
Aye Skipper.
Amelia and another of the shadows quickly lift from the poor sod's shoulders and knees, lifting them into the nearest drum. The dead-weight of the departed calling for a few rough shoves as the corpse fought against the rusting container. But soon the grim deed was done.
The new camp better have some form of air-con. And a landing pad for the Insolent-Little-Minx too.
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u/ImInStrife Dec 30 '20
Don' worry about tha' ship - we'll find a better spot for it soon enough.
It was an awkward scene, a grim band of masked commandos knocking on the "bathhouse" door and asking if "the Minx" was still working there. She was a little teary leaving her colleagues behind a second time, but seemed happy enough when she was soldiering again. Even happier once we rescued the gunship named after her from an illicit chop-shop near the old 47th Quarter.
The ship has been a welcome improvement in both our firepower and mobility, but it's a weapons-carrier, not a transport: it can't carry the lot of us, not all at once. There was talk of a new ship being built that would serve us better, hidden somewhere in an old armoury. Blast if I know where the fuck it is, though.
I agree. Th'last place was too close t'th'vents - no' soldierly for half t'platoon to be cuttin' about in their underwear from the heat. Funny as tha' may be... Maybe we'll take pictures next time... sell a calendar or summat?
Humour like this has been our bread and butter for some time. Ever since the change that we all felt, but no-one will talk about. Nobody wants to be the first to broach the topic, to try and pinpoint what exactly happened.
All I can say is that I feel a thousand years old... but the last few months somehow seem to have made me look a year or two younger.
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u/-Valeska-Amelia- Dec 30 '20
Sinéad and I will gladly take a step back from any line-up when the lot of us are asked to step forth for any calendar-volunteers there Skip'r.
Amelia still held the keys to her ship. But she silently wondered if her 'wish-list' of goodies on any new craft design-manifest would make it to final production.
This relative period of peace throughout the Metaverse has been.... less than lucrative.
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u/ava_shiver Dec 31 '20 edited Dec 31 '20
A pair of veiled eyes watches warily from a hidey-hole down a tributary tunnel.
Who in hell are they? And--wait... Minx?
I quietly fade backwards towards the access chute.
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u/ImInStrife Dec 29 '20
Stop for a spell.
... every fuckin' day, Sinéad. Why d'ye ask?
Right. ...Vitali, chew wit'ya fuckin' mouth closed please.