The Raid
08.12.2011
I blame this dream I had last night on the persistent withdrawal from PlaneShift, it's been more then one year since I haven't been able to really play.
Fast-forward the world of PS a few thousand years. And things have not been going so well. (The concept of the closed indoors-city was stolen from Isaac Asimov.)
Despite the week-long preparations and planning, it took us three days and nights to pass the outer security zones undetected. In Zone 3, we were able to find the forgotten tunnel that the scouts had reported and that would lead us hidden underground to the hull of the City. The door at the end of the tunnel was unguarded and surprisingly easy to open. When we finally entered the City, we were almost drunken with excitation and pride. We did it! We would be the first to turn the tables and raid them for a change! Of course we knew that three half-starved figures, dressed in dirty rags with bags on their shoulders could hardly be called a raid. But it was a start.
The Inside wasn't what we expected. Instead of the bright warm and luxurious protected spaces that we had dreamed of, we found cold, dark, and dirty metal hallways. But it was protected from the Outside, which was already a big improvement. The halls and rooms were big and high, way bigger than necessary for people. Maybe they didn't actually live down here and just used the space to move their big machines around. We could hear the constant humming and thumping from somewhere else in the complex. With the silent grace inborn to our race, we crept forward, communicating only with signs. Luckily, the area seemed to be deserted, but not since long. My pack mates, Shurrim and Haraun, paid little attention to the small items left behind by the previous owners that I pilfered here and there and stowed in my sack. As Protectors, they had their eyes on the bigger things. Enemies in the area, building material, wood or coal, large prey, maybe even a safe place to hide during the next ash storm. Me, the Gatherer, I was responsible for the details. A pawful of half-eaten food, a ragged shirt, small pieces of wire and plastic, every little thing could make the difference between life and death for the pack in these days.
After a while, the air became warmer, moister and smelled more alive. Shurrim was getting more and more nervous. “Smell danger.” A few minutes later, we all could smell it. Something big. Something we had never smelled before. But all those city smells were so different from what we knew, how could we even begin to guess what it was? And at the same time, also the good smells became stronger and we really needed to find some food. And who knew if we would ever again make it this far into the City unnoticed, so we carefully moved forward. We entered one of the side rooms that emitted a particularly inviting smell of warm, clean earth. The room was divided by a glass wall. Behind it was a brightly lit space, filled with all sorts of plants. Food. Not meat, but edible. Shurrim picked the lock and we closed the door silently behind us after entering. She was now constantly growling quietly; I could feel the vibrations in my naked paws on the metal floor. Danger was close, so we hurried to scan the plant room. I was just about to grab some half-ripe turnips when we heard a loud crash. Something was on the other side of the glass! It was big, really big and dark. Giant claws scratched along what we now realized was not glass after all. Real glass would have broken instantly, not just cracked. The thing threw itself against the not-glass. It had smelled prey – us. Haraun ordered me to hide in the back of the room in the bushes and then went to stand on Shurrim's side, facing the beast. The next crash broke a hole in the door and a long, brown-furred arm stretched inside. The stench was now almost unbearable. I tried to think positive, of the massive amount of meat that we would bring home. But seeing the three claws on the arm, each of them almost as long as one of my legs, I knew it would not happen this way. We were the prey today, not the hunters. I stayed in my hiding place as ordered, but I gripped my knife tightly. The beast would have a scar to remember me, I vowed. By now, the upper half of the door was out of the way, the moment we would join our ancestors in the Old World was close.
...
And then, the beast was gone. Just like that. The stench was still there, but the Hunter wasn't. Then, footsteps. Boots. And a voice. “Who's there?”. It was an unforgivable mistake. But in our surprise about still being alive, we hadn't heard the man until he was standing right in front of the broken door. Shurrim and Haraun barely had time to move into the shadows on the next wall. But it was not a good hiding place.
The man hit on the shards in the door frame with his weapon until they fell down. “Bloody thieves, show yourselves!” He stepped over the rubble and became fully visible. He stood almost two heads taller than Haraun and looked as if he weighted at least three times as much. His clothes were different from those people who would regularly raid our territory in the Wastelands and hunt us like animals. But around him was the same tell-tale shimmer of the magical shields that stunned or even killed everyone trying to touch them. Without it, we could have easily overpowered him. But with the shield, we knew it was useless to even try. All we could do was to hold our breath and pray. With my bright red fur out of sight, we maybe stood a tiny chance. Shurrim and Haraun held themselves as straight as possible. In black fur and grey robes, they could be mistaken as dark-skinned elves or humans, at least if they stayed in the shadow. Just a few seconds of confusion would be enough for us to escape. But the gods were not with us. The man held his portable flame-less light right into Haraun's face. He stumbled back and lifted his rifle. “What in Laanx's name are you?!”
The End for now. Don't ask me how it how happened that the Enkidukai live outside in the Wastelands and the other races in the City. Or why the Humans don't know them anymore. Or what happened to Yliakum that they are all now on the surface of the planet or why it is apparently very uncomfortable out there. Or if there are still Klyros and Kran somewhere. I don't know. But I have some ideas about what will happen after our three raiders were detected. Maybe I'll write some other snippets down one day.
