Episode 4: Up and Out

I awoke to find Una staring at me. Again. I do not think she realizes I have noticed, and I have not said anything about it. Maybe it is simply something Vorax do. Then again, I have not noticed her staring at any of the others. There was also the feather. During our stay with the Gogajin, I took the opportunity to wash my hair as best I could with the greasy water they had available, and in doing so I undid the braids that had been there when I awoke back at the hideout. I had assumed that Surgeon had simply done it to make my hair more manageable, keep it out of my wounds, but... I found a long purple feather braided into one. I am not sure what it means, if it means anything, but I have kept the feather for now.

Enough of that. What had awoken me was a voice I had not heard in a few days; that of Rei. She had finally regained consciousness. Good. Perhaps we could finally make plans to get out of these blasted mines. Una suggested that we leave the city and flee into the wilderness. Rei seemed to support this idea, but Moses was against it. I am uneasy about the idea of leaving the city, but I understand the necessity, for now at least, so I helped the others to convince Moses. The Gogajin were planning on leaving as well.

As we discussed our options, a loud crackling announced a message coming over the mine's intercom system. This ought to be good. Sure enough, the voice is a woman who identified herself as Hurricane, Goshi's new head of security. I do not even want to think about what happened to the last one. She offered amnesty to anyone who presents themselves to the main mine entrance and surrenders; death to those who do not. It is nearly enough to make me laugh.

I was feeling strange. I almost thought I could hear bits of conversations that I could not be hearing; that I could understand the Gogajin speaking in their own tongue. That is, of course, impossible as I have never even been within speaking distance of one of them before. Still, I kept imagining that I could understand them, and I was having some trouble concentrating. Rei took the opportunity to threaten me with death by shovel if I broke Aimi's heart. Let me repeat that. If I broke. Aimi's. Heart. Are all telepaths completely insane, or just this family? How can they even be a family, anyway? What can the word 'sister' mean to someone who was made in a lab? Just that they have similar genetic material? It certainly did not seem to be due to any bond of sorority.

We agreed that the first matter of business was to scout out the Refinery, see if we could contact Sue and the UMA. It would be very inconvenient to travel all the way out there and then come back here for the Gogajin, however, and we did not want to simply leave them behind; they will, after all, make an excellent diversion to cover our own escape. In their typical fashion they were taking forever, arguing amongst themselves, acting like, well, asses. I contemplated saying something, but I was busy telling myself that, no, I do not understand what they are saying to each other. Then one of them came over. Baldur? I do not know; they all look kind of alike to me. In any event, this one asks if one of us is good with words and can convince his fellows. It is my duty, I know, and so I step up.

Now this is interesting. I could not fool myself anymore; I could now understand the Gogajin's speech as fluently as if I was a native. I spoke and one of them translates, but I am not sure it was even necessary. Now it was a lot more than just Una staring at me: everyone in the cavern seemed rapt upon what I am saying. I urged them to strike out for their freedom in order to see the sky again (something I am beginning to miss rather dearly myself!), in order to deal a blow to Goshi, and in order to locate their females. They responded enthusiastically. The Gogajin language is rather odd; it seems that the closest word they have to eager is 'horny', but they have a word for raucous. In any event, with that out of the way, we planned to make our way to the real UMA hideout, which location I had asked Rei to fish out of Mickey's brain, then to the surface with as many as want to come.

We travelled six or seven hours and then Moses remembered an old natural cavern nearby that he opened up for the Gogajin to stay in until we were ready to go. Continuing on, we heard some noises ahead of us. Una scouted and came back to report that there were Mechified ahead, miners with wounded among them. We went to meet them; they seemed thrilled to meet Moses, and even more excited about Surgeon. We went to the nearby hideout where Surgeon got right to work on the wounded miners, but there was no other sign of the UMA. Moses decided it was time to go scout the Refinery and try to contact Sue.

Rei was still too hurt to push herself, so Moses and I went alone; or so we thought. Partway there we heard a startled yelp and turned to find that Una had snuck up on Rei, who had, in turn, been stealthily following us. Since they were there already, we continued as a group. I could tell we were getting closer as the temperature rose and the air quality went down. Then we started hearing the sounds of the siege ahead; gunfire and explosions reverberated through the caverns. We rounded a corner just in time to see a few Goshi soldiers coming around the other way. They seemed as surprised as we were, and then... darkness. It seemed to swirl around Rei and then engulf the entire cavern. It was like a light source in reverse; I could see what was beyond the sphere, but nothing within it, even my own hands! I quickly took cover, and sure enough the soldiers sprayed their guns at us to cover their retreat.

I filed the darkness away as yet another thing I would have to talk with the others about as soon as we had a chance to actually relax. This darkness. My miraculous recovery and newfound linguistic skills. Highdive's speed; I have seen Zipsum move fast, but some of the stunts she pulled were unbelievable, and the green speed-trails were definitely new. I wonder where that little nut-grubber ran off to, anyway? No matter. Most of all, I had to talk to them about what the First Minds told me.

All of these thoughts simply floated past me at that moment. I was within the Void and so no thoughts could touch me. Instead I made my way to the entrance through which the soldiers had come, and witnessed a scene of pandemonium. I could see the outside of the Refinery surrounded by an army of Goshi operatives and soldiers, and even more making their way in. They had machinegun nests and mortars; the only reason they had not yet crushed the UMA was that they wanted to preserve as much as possible of the expensive blackrock refining machinery. There was no way in.

The others joined me, and all but Moses soon reached the same conclusion. I sympathised with the big lug; it always hurts when you are powerless to help those you feel you should. I convinced him that we had to concentrate, for now, on helping those we could, and see what we could do for Sue and the others later. We made our swift passage back to the hideout. There Surgeon, Brick and Mickey made it clear that they were going to stay and see if they could help out the resistance. We wished them luck and collected the Gogajin.

It was a long and nervous journey, but at least the air cooled down as Moses led us unerringly toward the surface. We were heading toward one of the many secondary entrances that would let us out into the streets of Geneva Prime. There would be a lift and a processing station, and it would almost undoubtedly be guarded. The plan was that Moses and most of the Gogajin would use the lift and rush out throwing any heavy object they could find in order to confuse the Goshi soldiers, while the rest of us climbed up through the ventilation ducts to attack them from behind. As far as plans went it left something to be desired, but we had little choice in the matter.

Eventually we came to a huge cavern with a sheer cliff face. At the base of the cliff were four metal lifts attached to three thick metal cables each. Moses explained that the exit was just a little further once we reached the top of the cliff. We could not fit all four of us and about three dozen Gogajin on the four lifts at once, however, so we decided to go in shifts. Moses, Una and myself took one along with one of the Gogajin. Several others packed into the other lifts while the rest waited below with Rei. We started to rise through the air and were not quite halfway up when we were attacked.

The lift rattled and swung like something had landed on it, and, sure enough, moments later mining tools started ripping gouges in the sides of our conveyance. I sliced one through the wall while Moses grapple with another on the other side. One of our enemies started to climb in, and just as I had feared it was another of the Eyeless. These ones were different, however; they had strange red growths and tentacles reminiscent of the Vorax from the Goshi tower. It seems Una was reminded of this too; she shrieked in rage, a sound more avian than human, and the thing simply erupted in a spray of blood and pus. Not a pleasant image, but effective. Another thing to ask about, or could all Vorax do that? I simply do not know enough about my traveling companions.

We reached the top to see that the other lifts were still struggling to rise. One in particular was in a precarious position: two of the three cables holding it had been cut and it swayed ominously as the Gogajin within fought against their demon attackers. Without thought I continued my assault on the enemy. I ran to where the endangered lift was attached and quickly cut myself a remaining segment of one of the severed cables. Looping this segment around the remaining intact cable, I used it to slide down and land on top of the slowly rising lift. There I faced off with one of the Eyeless, dodging its hammer and striking with Keibatsu. Suddenly the lift lurched; I glanced up to see that Moses had hold of the cable and was dragging us up as fast as he could. I continued to duel with the demon until we reached the top. The Gogajin quickly jumped off, having already beaten off the rest of their attackers. I yelled for Moses to drop the lift, which he did without hesitation. I will have to thank him later for trusting me in the heat of battle. I sliced through the remaining cable and jumped, grabbing hold of the lip of the cliff edge as the lift, demon and all, plummeted to the cavern floor thirty meters below.

Moses gave me a hand up, and I saw that the Gogajin we had left below had climbed all the way up using an access ladder, one of them carrying Rei. We had all made it up and there was no sign of the enemy. We were close to freedom now. All we had to do was punch through the processing station with more force than they were anticipating. Soon, we would be free to seek refuge, to plan our revenge, and, I thought grimacing... take a bath.