10- You can take a horse to water...
Rock wasted no time in the early hours of the morning to get with Mahal's men and map out Akkadia, he wasn't going to sleep in this kind of situation anyway. His stabilizer shifted him to excited and nervous, fumbling the papers as he got them in order to present to King Luther as soon as he were to get on the comm.
"Do you think he will agree to this?" Luna peered, sitting across from him this time. She really did spend a lot of time watching him and he was still getting used to having the ghostly eyes on him at all times.
"Yes, I think so. But he can have his unpredictability..."
Soon the comm had connected, Pelonus again being the one to greet them and give them a rather cheerless update before forwarding the call on to the King. The screen showed him bent over a map of his own, and what little conversation could be overheard spurred on like a debate on whether or not to strengthen the border outposts.
The king glanced up, spotting Rock onscreen and walking over as the military captains behind him began alloting forces. "There's been an update?"
Rock took a deep breath. "A situation has come up over here, sire." In the background, Mahal had opened the door, pausing when he heard Rock and staying still in place.
Luther blinked, eyes shifting to the listener at the door before returning to Rock's faceplate. That tone had never meant well when coming from Rock, and the words said just made his apprehension worse. "And that would be?" He caught ahold of the look and tilted his head back to look at the liutenent general, sharing a troubled expression and leaning back into the comm.
"We've gotten word that Diudesk is going to make a treaty with Akkadia."
The entire room in Lacroa went silent at Rock's words, only broken when one of the generals piped up with "Well, we're doomed.", promptly followed by one of his fellows smacking him upside the helm. Luther glared at them for a moment before sighing and turning to face the screen again.
"Needless to say, that is not good. We can assume it's for their energon deposits, then."
"...Yeah. But that's why, as much as I'd rather be out there looking for Rele, I'll need to stay here long enough to make sure Diudesk keeps out." Of course, he didn't mean literally fighting them out, he had a different strategy. Rock started to hold up a map of the Rafidain region for Luther to look over, ventilation held tight in his chassis. "Can you see the markings on Akkadia on the outlier of the Zakros Mountains?"
Luther nodded, carefully scanning the map. "Outposts or energon mines, I'm guessing?"
"Yes, these are energon mines. They're not like our mines in Lacroa, though, they draw the energon from way below the surface- down farther than they can send men to retrieve it." Rock gave a considerable pause, lowering the map some to peer over the edge of the paper, optics fixed on his king. "I'm going to go destroy them. The arrangement is not to become finalized for another four weeks- I have more than enough time if I stay. The Diuts won't sully their hands in a hundred years war half a world away if they cannot reap their reward for it."
The king nodded, thinking. "Just be careful. We need not give either side we're antagonizing the indication that Lacroa's stuck it's hand in any further than they think we already have. I'm trusting your judgement on this, Rock." Rock exhaled a little too loudly, laying down the map again. The man behind him finally chose to approach, his accent quite heavy for the King's ears.
"Sorry to interrubt, but we've made alias to cover for that, Mlk. We hab gratitude for your allowence."
"That's fine, we want this whole debacle over with as much as you do. If we could help more, we would. Just let us know." The man smiled greatly, and it was a little funny to the knight. Something about it seemed like he hadn't smiled in a while, just from the way his lips pulled up from one side and then another awkwardly. That was just his observation, anyway. Rock turned back to look at Luther but Luna had phased through the projection to settle in his lap, and it startled him.
The king noticed and blinked, looking to Rock. "Are... are you feeling alright? Aside from the sleep deprivation I know you've begun putting yourself through."
Aw nuts, did he- The knight laughed a little- it was nervous one but it was still slightly relieving to release his own pressure, unconsciously running a hand over the back of his neck. "I-I'm fine! I'm fine, Your Highness. We have been through so much worse, the Diuts be damned."
The king raised an eyebrow, but didn't push it. "If you insist then, Rock. Let me know how your little trip is going once it's started, I'll see if it's at all possible to get them distracted politically to draw away attention from the mountains or something."
"Yes, sire!" Rock nodded, determination crossing his face. "Worry not, I will make sure everything is secure on this end, so please take care and get us Rele back safe... That's all that I could need."
The plan was made, and now it was all left down to him executing. Luna agreed (reluctantly) to take her spying ability to where it was more useful, heading off to find the capitol of Akkadia, Akkad, and see if she could find any information Rock could share with Rahbar Rossherapi, but more importantly, any communications with Diudesk. Massoud walked the knight over the technology in the energon mines, and how to implement his work precisely...
The first target was the Aseiria energon mine. It was a pretty vast complex, located a stone's throw from the sprawling town of Aseiria. Well- maybe it only seemed that way to him. The distance between the two were connected by a single dirt road that was flanked by large, rocky ridges. Clearly the route was cut out years ago for covered transport, but it did mean an evacuation was choked off to this strip.
Especially if there was an evacuation staged to get everyone out and far enough away to be clear of the shockwave of the explosion of a lifetime.
Rock flew high over, circling the towering walking beams at work like a vulture evaluating its prey. To make it out of this complex, he needed to give people at last half an hour but that much time would definitely put the operation at risk for resistance. Massoud said there was a "command center" of sorts, where such a thing as blowout preventers fed data about the berth of the resevoir, the pressure stability, amount many other things- and this is where he could get the call. He just needed to stagger the evacuation code to get a bulk of the more mundane laborers out before a emergency call to clear the whole area- it'll also help prevent a stampede.
The knight smiled mischievously to himself and treaded with caution, evaluating the interior chambers by creeping in as sand. There were mechs accompanied by humans everywhere- naturally, the humans were the overseeing officers. Some rooms reminded him of the metal interiors of the SDG base, but their holding pools gave him a flashback to Zeong's antechamber and a shudder ran through him. These pools weren't for smelting at least. Once he made visual recognition of his destinations, Rock took off more than eager to get this operation underway.
The energon platform itself would be easy to dismantle, but his goal was to burn it up from underground. Luckily, he was given all of the relevant information and tools he needed back with Zabylonia's intell officers. The bridle was not the only thing going into the stuffing box- so was something called formation fluid. The energon in this region was a special crude drilled from deep below the surface, so deep that they had to maintain the pressure or else all of it would explode out like an uncorked champagne bottle. This fluid- more of a mixture of mud and chemicals- was pumped back in to level it and maintain this pressure, and that was precisely how his bomb was going to compromise the longevity of this mine.
It was smooth sailing for him because they hadn't thought to place guards or any eyes on the formation fluid tanks, housed above ground in a small, warehouse-esque building with other parts. Rock unlocked the cap on the top and added in the solvent he was given- it was a substance with very low activation point to heat that converted to vapor- but that vapor not only expands, it introduced air, and in the presence of fire, was extremely dangerous. Though it would get pumped shortly into the ground soon, the knight sat by to wait and be sure, the plan running through his processors some more as he turned over the bomb in his hands. Over and over and over. Even if people die, this was to protect Lacroa AND Zabylonia- he can't get tied down to rescuing these people. That's just how things work out sometimes! He'll give them ten more minutes, it was more reassuring this way. If they can't get out in forty minutes, then it was of their indecision or stubbornness. You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, afterall.
He got himself psyched for the challenge and planted the bomb- right on the underside of the tank, at least so it wasn't noticeable, punching in the time. Forty five minutes.The timer would go off and blow up the tank- the solvent already funnelled into the pipes and down into the wellbore, first creating a kick to destabilize the pressure of the energon and the the fire will no doubt move in behind. The whole transaction would happen in seconds, so planning his time accordingly was important. This was how long he had to move everyone and get out himself once he could tell no one would be able to stop it in time.
No sooner had he enabled it, a human entered the room, forcing the knight to make a hurried dash to hide behind the tank and stay undercover. Rock turned to sand and slipped out the door, going through the maze that he committed to memory to arrive at the monitoring room. Once breaching, he came out of his spell and grabbed the sole operator, wrapping his hands threateningly around her torso and neck, being careful not to hurt her. The engineer gasped through her restricted airpipe and struggled in thrashing motions, far outpowered.
"G-Get off of me! Y-You metal trash can, I'll have you--!!"
"Be quiet and listen to me," He breathed into her ear, tightening his grip to silence her. "There is a bomb set to go off and blow this hole sky-high regardless of anything you say or do." That got a reaction out of her. Rock gave her a small shake of the shoulders to keep her with him and not panic. "Still listening?" Wide eyed, she nodded. "Good. I am going to give you a chance to save all of the workers in here, but you have to do exactly as I say- and not dawdle. Are you going to cooperate?" Her eyes had darted around the room, and he wished he had followed them, curious what she would have looked for, but she bobbed her head in agreement just the same. Rock didn't yet grant her freedom, forming a magical I-Field around her and she threw herself at it in frustration.
"In time," The knight reassured, floating past to the keyboard and panels stationed encircling under the screens. "Tell me your name."
"Alright, Miss Mahdi. Now, we need to stagger the severity of the situation so there won't be a stampede- so we need to send out a warning that there's been a series of malfunctions in the blowout preventers- as a communication error. We'll put a stop on production."
"O-Okay, yeah," She balled up her fists, face contorting with how upset she was. "There's a key in the dash- turn it a-and press the red key on the end of top r-row there." Rock followed the instructions and the screens all lit up with warnings, he gave her a glance and she nodded. "That's fine, bypass w-with my password. It's faslgjk."
"And now what?" No sooner had he asked, a call came through a speaker to his right, the sound ringing. He scowled at it and Mahdi held up her hands defensively at his look.
"Th-They just want to know why!"
"..." The knight pressed the intercom on and drifted back as a male's voice broke the whirring quietude of the monitoring room.
"Mahdi! What in th' fracking frell is going on up there!? Is there a kick??" She opened her mouth but yelped as she felt Rock's hand slip around the backside of her neck, gently but secure. "Mahdi?!"
"Be mindful of what you say," He threatened. "I can snap your neck like a twig and get out of here myself, let your colleagues be damned." Course, she didn't need to know he couldn't do something so heinous, it was against his knight's honor and his moral code... Mahdi drew a shuddering breath and tried her best to keep her voice level.
"Yeah," She began breathlessly. "Don't treat me like I'm stupid, damn it. Our c--onnection with the BOPs is down and it's going to take--" Her eyes rose up to his questioningly and he opened his face plate, mouthing 'twenty'. "--At least twenty minutes t-to reboot our terminals and get an accurate read."
"So 'yer callin a whole damn evacuation?!"
"I was getting some bad readings before this happened, Mahir- I'm worried this might not be on o-our end, but the BOPs, so until I get them back up I'm not able to tell. A formation kick is going to-"
"Primus- Mahdi, aye know fraggin well what that'd do! Ay'll go do a manual inspection!" The line suddenly went dead, and the two of them held their breaths in the silence, for different reasons. Rock slowly slid his hand down her back and to his side, floating a step back.
"You two were talking about the pressure in the wellbore, right?"
"Yeah. The workers are being sent home until it's cleared up." Silence again. She curled up into a ball, her knees drawn up to her chest and breath shaking, obviously scared. Rock felt a twist of guilt for this and he pulled out one of the larger chairs for a mech, sitting down in front of her. Mahdi's eyes lifted up to his, clearly frightened.
"Relax. I'm not going to kill you." Well, that was contradictory. Her face only contorted more, clearly unbelieving and still all the more shaken.
"Wh-Why are you doing this? This mine is the whole economy of our town- we don't have anything else-!"
"My apologies, Miss Mahdi, but your nation is planning to do bad things with this energon. I have to shut down this operation."
"Fracking mech- who are you to make that kind of a judgement-!? It's one thing to shut it down, it's another entirely to blow the damn thing up-!!" He brought his finger up to his lips in a way to tell her to quiet down and she chewed on the inside of her cheek, dipping her chin into her chest in a defensive posture.
"This isn't the time to become hysterical. Even if I shut it down, you'll turn it back on."
"Of course we would, this is our life blood...!"
"Actually, this is the 'life blood' of mech, to whom you enslave. I don't feel what I'm doing is any more cruel than that." He hit a soft spot and the engineer tore her eyes away. Ah, so perhaps there was shame still in the humans of Akkadia.
"They don't ever complain about it," She quipped lamely and Rock leaned forward with a stern, intense look.
"Look at me." Hesitant, she did as she was told. "If I pressed a knife to your neck every waking second of the day, would you complain about it?" Mahdi licked her lips and shook her head slowly, Rock tipping his helm at the reply and leaning back to recline in the chair. "Then there you have it."
"Are y-you going to kill me?" The words hurt him too much to play the facade. Rock heaved a sigh.
"It's against my beliefs. Besides, when I said I'd put a knife to your neck and see if you complain, you were able to put yourself in our shoes. You're not a bad person, you're just in a bad place." Mahdi had obviously calmed down some, still picking at her fingers in a nervous tick.
"I try to be indifferent to their treatment."
"You'd get shunned and mistreated if you say anything. Sometimes people'll spread rumors if you're even nice to one of them, claim you're a mech fracker. I've seen it enough times to know it's the most tabboo thing you can do. So I..." She paused a brief moment. "I guess I just go with it. Brave people get shouted down and beaten. It's just- so much easier this way."
"Yeah. At least when we work together, it's easy to forget they're toiling away for nothing." The status quo was a difficult thing to change- and it occurred to Rock that he was more or less part of the same institution back in Lacroa. He didn't like being out of their isolationist, self reliant agenda- partly for the bad history they had when they became close to Diudesk only for the nation to turn sour on them, but also because he simply just didn't want to change. It was so much easier to ignore what should be done in this mindset. He fell into his own thoughts about Lacroa and about how strong Rele was to fight the established beliefs she had been raised with before finally glancing at the clock.
"Miss Mahdi? I think it's about time we set the fully evacuation into motion."
"Yes, by threat of fire."
His second phase began without a hitch. Mahdi gave him full cooperation- even showing him how to change the monitors to cameras and watch the ensuing panic. A certain blue mech- it was hard to really get a fix on him- appeared on the screen and she reacted a little, murmuring in Rafidain under her breath for them to get out of here. Rock took notice but didn't press it. He hoped all of them would get out of there... Though, at least it was further reassuring of her openness to the enslaved races.
"When are we going to leave," She finally asked as she rung out her hands. The time felt like an eternity, but Rock was keeping good track.
"You know how to drive a vechicle, right?" The question obviously caught her off guard.
"Do you know how to drive a vechicle?"
"...Yeah." He suddenly took out a pair of gleaming keys, tossing them down at Mahdi just as the I-Field shield came down. She fumbled with them a moment. "You want me to drive?"
"I want you to get out of here. I can leave on my own after I confirm no one is stuck on the grounds." Rock pushed up out of his chair, opening the door for her. Mahdi stared dumbly before kicking it into gear and hustling after. "The truck should still be in the distribution center. If you see anyone, please take them with you."
"If you see a blue mechanic," Her eyes caught the back of his helm hopefully, though he didn't turn to look back. "With long grappling claw fingers- can you please make sure he gets out of here? He's kind of a stubborn one... I'm worried he didn't get the message." He kicked it over in his mind- Mahdi had been very instrumental with how smooth this process had been, he at least owed her that. Rock nodded as he began to take off in the air, looking back over his shoulder and nodding once.
"I will. There's about ten minutes left, so hurry up!" He flew off as she rushed to the abandoned distribution center. The mine had become a ghost town, only a few humans straggling along but well on their way to get out. He made another loop back as some movement caught his eye. It was like a tractor of some kind- a bizarre contraption of metal Rock couldn't make heads or tails of- but it was wheeling around and holding onto barrels with clawed prongs.
Whatever it was, it had an operator inside the cockpit, and he was going to get to the bottom of this. Rock approached just as it reached the destination of the stuffing box tee- it was an axian, a GAT X094 Pincer experimental model at that. His torso was short and squashed and appendages long and lanky, the three-pronged grappling claw mounting onto blasters and he was a pale blue color- touting darker armor. He fit the description that Mahdi had conveyed and Rock landed behind him as he began to dump one of the barrel's contents into the stuffing box, the noxious smell hitting the knight.
"What are you doing," Rock exclaimed in frustration and the mech nearly jumped out of his exoskeleton frame.
"Primus, what's th' big idea? Don't jus' float there an' gawk, ye' imbecile! Git o'er ere an' help!"
"Help with what-?! Are you remotely aware that this place is going up in flames in the next few minutes?!" There was suddenly a pause as a realization seemed to sink into both of them. Shit, he probably shouldn't have been so specific--
"Y' don' werk ere, d'ya?" The mech let go of his pouring to turn to Rock, chassis to chassis- he was bigger than maybe even Zayd, so the knight had to lift his head up to keep his optics on his face.
"Yes I-- that doesn't matter! We need to go!" The elongated claws reached out to slip around Rock's neck before he could even blink, he flinched and slipped out under the wrap around. The axian snarled through his vents and made another quick-footed lunge.
"Wait, dammit! What d'ya know 'bout this fire?!"
"I know that it is unsafe here!" Rock ran a hand over his visor- the clock was ticking, he couldn't dawdle much longer. "Come on- you work with Mahdi, right? She's gone back to Aseiria with everyone else to wait for the all clear. It's just for a little bit," He nearly pleaded. The purple-hued mono eye settled on the Knight's blue optics, obviously processing the request. Good, maybe he was going to listen! Rock smiled as he tried to tread cautiously. "The systems overheated, so once they declare it's safe, you can all go back to work. I'll even take you back to town myself-"
"Y' know where th' fire is?" Rock blinked and gave a step back.
"Y' said they overheated- what overheated?! Where is the fraggin fire?!"
"It's--" The knight bit his lower lip. Crap, the mech was obviously one of the skilled operators of this mine. He wasn't going to easily bullshit his way out of this one. They only had about six or seven minutes, they'd be caught up in the shockwave if they don't leave now. "It's a bomb."
"It's a bomb!" Rock's voice turned sharp and he grabbed him up under his arm. "They found a bomb, now just- come on!" He started to drag the axian off, but only got a foot off the ground when the shoulder thrusters came on, counter-pulling the knight's flight boosters away.
"Did you plant it- where is it!?"
"I'm trying to save your life, why will you not just cooperate!"
"This mine IS m' life!! The-" A light went off in his eyes and he managed to get away from Rock. "Th' BOPs going offline- you fraggin' rat, y' put it by the formation fluid!!" He pivoted to zip off, narrowly escaping Rock's lunge to grab at him, slamming into the tractor machine and tumbling over.
"Will you- No! Wait!" Shit, he was going to go try to disable the bomb-! He was too fast- Rock disappearing into sand and meeting up with him just in time to block him off from the doorway into the warehouse. The shock of the gundam's appearance before him bought Rock the few seconds to throw his fist forward and lay him in the jaw, throwing the mech back on he ground. "I'm done reasoning with you, you're not turning jeopardizing my objective!" Rock shook out his hand from the solid contact and rounded him up again, taking off.
Shit, he really had lost too much time- he had to book it if they were gonna make it to cover in time!
But lo, the axian mechanic stirred, reaching his long arms up to grab Rock squarely by the shoulders and slamming his helm into the knight's, forcing them both to tumble out of the air onto the ground just outside the main office building. Rock recovered quickly, but he still wasn't faster, being laid into no sooner than he stood.
"Give it up! It's over, there are other mines to work at, other jobs to do! Don't be so damn hard headed, it's not worth your life-!" Though fast, he wasn't as proficient at combat, and Rock twisted his arm after blocking a punch to pin his arm and elbow him in the face. He staggered back to grab hold of it and Rock grabbed him from behind this time, still flying away from the complex. They had less than a minute- if they could just get to the cover of the road-!
"You sunovaglitch...!" His flailing in this position didn't hinder the knight, and he squeezed his optics shut in silent prayer. Mana, please, if only he could make it there in time!
The first explosion in the distance he heard, but the shattering level of sound that broke far exceeded his sensor's capacity- the force throwing both of them several hundred yards into the rocky ridges below. There wasn't a way to describe it, initially feeling nothing- not a single damn thing, and he pushed himself up from his inert position on the ground for just a moment. Rock lifted his helm up to the blazing sight of the mine before he collapsed, offline.
