Samantha and Harper led us past other buildings, most of which were made of corrugated metal and layered with paint and rust. They looked like they might be a hundred years old but considering how flimsy some of the materials seemed, I wrote the appearance off to the environment. There was no way anything that fragile could last long out here, and the look on Nix's face proved that that rule extended to us too.
"This place is as hot as hell," she mumbled and I nodded. Even though I don't have the body temperature and fur that she does, the heat was making me tired also. I gently patted her back and kept walking.
The ground was as hard as concrete under my feet, which surprised me since I had thought it was only dirt a few seconds earlier. After a half a dozen steps, I decided that I was walking on a shallow layer of dust over a bed of sharp rocks and each step was enough to make me wince. My kickmurder-style stompers just weren't firm enough or padded enough for terrain any rougher than city streets and sharp rocks kept jabbing in around the sides. I wasn't thinking about how the rocks might violate my boot's warranty when the next one made me grunt so loudly that Nix stared.
"Who would have thought you'd have to learn to walk differently on another world?" I asked to myself. I caught the subtle smile from K'rth, who was walking along like he had been born here. The bastard was back to enjoying my pain more than he should, which was probably a good sign that I was back to normal in his eyes.
If there was anything more troublesome than the heat, it had to be the blowing dirt and I was cursing under my breath in between rock attacks. The low breeze kept kicking up the sand into sudden dust clouds that blotted out the light and managed to get around my glasses and into my eyes every time. I was constantly blinded and would have been lost if it hadn't been for K'rth guiding me. Fortunately, the dust clouds dropped off as we got closer to what I think the locals might have called civilization and I was able to clear my eyes. I glanced back and saw that we had only walked about fifty meters, but it had felt like a hundred times. For some reason, the guides had walked us through what looked like the roughest piece of ground possible.
The concentration of buildings was higher here and all were of the same style of prefab as the others. This time though, they were shoved together like a high wall and seemed to be more solid. It might have been because there were more rivets than rust on these, but they were definitely better maintained. As we got closer, the siding flexed in the wind and made a low heard low scraping and groaning sound like you'd hear in the rotting tenements of downtown. That sound wouldn't bother me normally, but in this bright and dry environment, it was positively alien. I went back to trying to keep my eyes on the horizon and tried to keep my mind of the weirdness of it all.
"My home is much like this," K'rth said as he guided me forward. It wouldn't have been hard to tell how uncomfortable I was and he was trying to help.
"I thought you grew up in mountains," I answered. I had never seen a mountain before, but understood what one was supposed to be. In terms I could accept, parts of downtown that had collapsed near CS 1 were pretty close to a mountain. As I squinted through the light flaring around my glasses, I saw we were being led towards some sort of activity but couldn't make out what it was.
"Technically, I grew up in the steppes but was born in the mountains," he said. "There is also an ample desert and that's where I became a warrior."
"It's like Polo if you take away the buildings and the heat," Nix said, sounding more tired by the moment.
"Any idea where we are?" I asked but neither K'rth nor Nix had an answer.
Our guides led us through a high gate made of wood and wire and I saw small groups of people stopping what they were doing to stare. Every face was hard and dirty, and K'rth's statement about me how they only wanted to speak to the human in the group came to mind. It was obvious that nobody here liked strangers of any sort, and we were probably in for a rough time if we had to talk to anyone beyond our guides.
Most of the people were working on a construction job that might have been a tower or a podium and it wasn't really surprising to see that every one of them was human and most were males. The thing that bothered me was that everybody was armed with a pistol or a shotgun and most went out of their way to show them off. It was just like the way gangs pose when you're near their territory, but I wasn't going to be concerned until someone got aggressive. Without our weapons, we were vulnerable and the fact that our guides were unarmed didn't help.
As we moved further past the gate, some of the men broke off from the construction work and started moving toward us with body language that was anything less than friendly. They decided to keep their distance once Obie started staring back and I waved at them politely. You can be afford to be cocky when you've got a Chagrin watching your back. Not only was Obie the only Stormer in sight, he's damn intimidating even for a 714 and could obviously take anyone in sight apart. After a few times of him flexing his claws and licking his lips, the locals decided to follow at a more comfortable distance, probably so he wouldn't eat them.
I turned back so I could concentrate on what was in front of us and was glad to see that my eyes were finally adjusting to the glare. This had to be some sort of settlement and all of the buildings were the same type of prefabs I'd seen in upper downtown. They had the cheap metal braces along the walls and plastic stretched over the openings to form windows, but were apparently steady enough to hold back this place's light wind. Faces appeared in the windows and doors swung open as more watchers stepped out to get a good look. It quickly felt like we were on display, but there wasn't anything that any of us could do about it.
"I take it that they don't have many visitors?" Nix asked and I shrugged.
"Apparently not," I answered and smiled at her. "Just hope they don't eat wraiths."
She probably would have bitten me if she weren't so tired, so I counted myself lucky and kept watch on the growing mob. There were at least thirty of them trailing us now and they stayed with us until we turned left past what looked like some sort of town hall. As soon as our guides entered what was a largely barren street, the crowd stopped following and I looked around. A high gate like the first one we had passed through closed off the far end and a group of men were fanning out in a line in front of us.
"Another welcoming committee?" I asked to no one in particular. With the hair on the back of my neck standing up, I had to try to make a joke. These guys were different than the crowd that had been trailing.
The seven had spread out to block the street in front of us and I found myself cursing silently. Even from here, their body language showed they had the confidence to be a threat but I had a real reason to curse when I got close enough for a good look. Each of the seven was armored with what might have been blocker and wore a long coat that whipped in the low wind like the metal on the buildings. I couldn't see their faces to read expressions because they were hidden behind respirators and dark goggles that made them look more like manchines or Enforcer Shivers than men. What bothered me most was how different they appeared from everyone else we'd seen. Everyone else had maybe one sidearm each, but these guys were literally bristling with weapons. These boys were professionals and definitely dressed for the part.
"Props," I said to K'rth who was silent as he walked at my side. "Just what we need."
I carefully gave Obie a hand signal to hold and heard him come to a stomping halt behind me and to the side. Meanwhile, Samantha walked directly toward them and the Prop in the middle met her half way. As he did, he lowered his rifle from his shoulder to cradle it in his arms and I heard a cl-click as one of the others primed a Warmonger.
"Who are they?" the Props asked, motioning with a MAL Assault Cannon. With the respirator, his voice sounded as mechanical and distant as the Shivers on Mort and I studied his mask. Unlike most of the Props I had seen, his was made of featureless gray plastic and didn't have any decals or even a paint job that I could ID him with. Since his body language said that he was staring right at me, I did the personable thing and stared back. Even when I was in the Wah Chang, I was never intimidated by his kind and wasn't going to start now.
"None of your business Schrader," the woman said and tried to walk over him. The man stood his ground and simply pushed her backwards with the barrel of his weapon.
"I asked you a question, woman," the Prop said with more of a threat in his voice. The other Props changed their stances when they picked up on it and I heard safeties clicking off. As the 714 let out a low bass rumble behind me, I looked around to get a feel of my striking range. This had the potential to get ugly and there wasn't anything I could do about it but watch.
"WHO ARE THEY?" the Prop demanded as he leaned down into her face. Instead of backing off, Samantha stepped in so close that she was nose to mask with him. With a wide smile, she spat as she spoke.
"None-of-your-frick-ing-bus-in-ess Mis-ter Schr-ad-er," she said, breaking each word down into syllables. "That simple enough for you to understand?"
That quip would have been enough to goad most Props I've seen into shooting, but fortunately, these didn't. I thanked our luck because we would have been easy kills without any cover. My friends knew it too and had all shifted into what Obie called "Taktul" mode, with K'rth and the 714 focused on the exchange and Nix looking like she was about to go for cover even though she didn't have her rifle. The other one surprise was the other guide because he looked like he was about to break and run. That seemed like a really bad idea for a man with a bum leg, so I slowly put my hand on his shoulder to keep him in place. He flinched like I had slapped him and I saw that his salesman's smile was long gone. The man was scared out of his wits and any charm he might have had earlier was threatening to run down his leg.
"Calm down, Mr. Harper," I said. I hadn't expected a confrontation ten minutes out the door and spoke in a low voice. "Don't you work for the same person as they do?"
"Sort of," he answered and took in a breath carefully. "It's a little complicated."
"Complicated?" I asked, not liking the sound of it. "What do you mean com-"
"Gentlemen!" a voice called from beyond the gate and the Props flinched slightly to look around. They had been so focused upon us that they voice caught them off guard and they acted startled. "Is there a problem here?"
The Prop leader straightened up and took a measured step back before answering. Meanwhile, the woman kept grinning at him with all the intensity I've seen Nix muster and showed no sign of letting this go.
"No sir," the Prop called out and waved the others back. I heard the sound of safeties being clicked back on and they acted like DACs on a jerked leash.
"Not yet," he added under his breath.
"Samantha," the man called as the gate opened. "Please bring our guests in."
As our guides led us forward, something else passed between the Prop named Schrader and the woman but I didn't catch any more than just the body language. It was enough to show that someone was going to get killed sooner or later and it was only a matter of time. We'd need to keep as low of a profile as possible until we knew what was going on and I followed Harper as he happily retreated through the opening gate.
With simmering problems in the ranks and everyone but us carrying weapons, we were in a completely new type of hot water.
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