Watching the multitude of machines pass him from below, Rogers let out a frustrated huff. “no catches today…” he groaned, shifting in his seat. “Boss is gonna get on my ass, not my fault we picked this area clean.” Sitting up straight he gripped his control sticks and flipped a switch, the vehicle previously attached to the wall whirring to life and lowering itself.
The vehicle itself was a thirty meter long pointed cylinder with 2 engines strapped onto the sides, a drivers cockpit in the front, and a flat back area. Rogers took another glance at the machines transporting materials, unable to see one that would be his target he huffed “People need to be more cheap.” He grumbled “Maybe passed the prison…” He let go of one of his joysticks to pull out a little tablet that functioned as his GPS.
With his eyes on the gps he pulled forward, causing the vehicle to dip lower into the passageway of the guts, before he pushed forward, his ship speeding down the highway. He grunted in frustration, stowing away his GPS and looked out his cockpit, still trying to find an easy mark. “dang bastards, gotta be an older model -what the…” He pulled back on his joystick, causing the ship to halt. He looked towards the very bottom of the highway, and on a pipe it looked like someone was walking while carrying something.
“Huh, not everyday you see that.” Rogers pulled out some binoculars and narrowed in on the figure, only to see that it was a cat-beastman with white hair carrying another cat-beastmen with black hair. He huffed, pulling out his GPS again to see he was still pretty close the prison sector, only a few kilometers down. He figured they hadn’t noticed him yet, he was pretty far up on the ceiling.
Rogers let out another huff, they didn’t look like they were organization members, those types rarely came down here unless someone made a lot of noise. Rogers reached into his back pocket, pulling out an old radio and flicking it on, “Yeah this is Rogers down in the Guts, who’s up? Over.” He then clicked it off and waited.
A few moments passed and the radio flared up. “This is Annetta, what is the situation, over.”
“Yeah uh, got two stragglers down here. From the looks of what they are wearing and where they are currently at it looks like they broke out of prison, how do you want me to handle this? Over.”
“Are they armed? Species? And have you made contact yet? Over.”
Rogers pulled out his binoculars again, giving the two a closer look “Armed, not as far as I can tell. They are two cat beastmen, one with white hair the other black. Both dressed in rags like they were previously hung up. The one with white hair is carrying the other one which seems to be passed out. And no, have not made contact, I do not think they even know I’m here. Over.”
“No weapons, two cat beastmen, and no contact. Is that correct? Over?”
“Yeah, how should I proceed. If they just came from prison then they could be useful, yeah? Over.”
“… one of the cats had white hair, correct? Over.”
Rogers blinked, hardly seeing why that mattered “Yeah, one does. Over” The radio then went silent, Rogers sat there for a good minute before flicking the radio on again “Annetta, you there? How should I do this? Over.” Again, the radio was silent “Annetta?” Frustrated, he leaned back in his seat “Fucking why does it matter… “ He leaned over to look out the cockpit again at the girls, but jumped back once he saw the white haired cat beastman staring at his ship. “Ah fuck, noticed… how long she been staring…” He leaned closer out the cockpit, his eyes meeting hers “I don’t… thinksshe’s blinking… “
“Rogers are you there? Over.”
Roger jumped, breaking eye contact with the girl and frantically flipping on the radio “Y-Yeah! I’m here, any news? Over.”
There was a pause, before the radio flared up “Are you ok Rogers? Did anything change? Over”
“Ah, yeah. They noticed me but…” he looked out of his cockpit again, noting the girl was still staring, unmoving from the pipe. “They haven’t done anything yet, I think they are waiting for me to make the first move. Over.”
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“Ok, that is fine. Rogers the boss wants you to try and bring them in, peacefully. You can tell them anything they want to know, if they become hostile contact us again and we will send a team out, don’t engage. Over.”
Rogers huffed “The fuck am I gonna do, I’m in a stunner.” He shook his head then flipped on the radio “Got it, if you don’t hear back from me tell my wife I appreciate her. Over.”
“Will do Rogers, I’m sure she will let the kids know you died like a bitch. Over and out.”
Rogers chuckled, checking on the cat girls again and sure enough, the white one was still staring “Lack of fucking blinking makes me think they might be on to something with that white hair shit… blink mother fucker…” He shook his head then put the radio away before whirring the vehicle around, traveling above the machine traffic as he approached them.
Catherine readjusted Nyoka on her shoulders as she watched this vehicle that had been hovering on the ceiling of the highway, she had been watching it for awhile as it hovered there, unsure of what it was doing. Every once in awhile she would see a someone poke their heads out and look at her, but other than that it hadn’t moved since she noticed it.
She had been walking with Nyoka on her shoulder for awhile now, still without a clock and a good sense of time she had no clue for just how long, and she had given up checking out the side passageways. Without Nyoka being awake to get a clue on where they are, she just decided to travel the length of the Guts till Nyoka woke up, something that seemed unlikely the more she walked.
Finally the Vehicle started to move. it swerved from its position on the ceiling, traveling above the traffic before coming down and stopping next to her, though it kept it’s distance by floating a few meters away from them. The cockpit of the ship opened, and a man that appeared to be human stood up. The man wore a simple white shirt stained in sweat and baggy camo jeans.
“Yeah uh, hello you two. Names Rogers, nice to meet you, and uh, It seems you might need some help?” The man named Rogers greeted them.
Catherine smirked ‘oh yeah, this will be good.’ She thought to herself “What makes you say that? “
“Ah, yes well… You do know you two are in the Guts, right? Normal people don’t come down here often… and judging by your outfits and where you two are at… you two just break out of prison?”
Catherine blinked ‘shit, didn’t look like someone working for the organization.’ She leaned down, ready to leap at the dude in an attempt to strike first, but then man raised both of his arms.
“W-wait! Don’t know what you are thinking but I’m here to help!” The man yelled “I’m not with he organization or anything like that! If anything, we oppose them!”
Catherine relaxed a bit “not apart of the organization? Then why are you here?”
Rogers smiled, trying to come off as harmless “Hunting for materials for our team.” He then motioned to the machines flying through the highway “Some of the older transports break down or are slow enough to catch up to and highjack. I run them down and bring them to our base, The Underground. And I have been, well… we want to invite you two to our base.”
“…Why should we trust you…and why would you even want us in the first place? You don’t know us, and think we just broke out of prison.” Catherine eyed him, then lowered her gaze to his vehicle. She figured that, if anything, she could play along to hitch a ride out of this long ass highway.
The man smirked “yeah, that’s exactly why. Anyone who could break out of that prison shouldn’t like the organization, and that’s enough for us to take a risk. Pretty sure you two don’t like the organization much, yeah?” the man asked, upon seeing Catherine nod he continued “And I am pretty sure you escaped from there, judging by your dress and uh… your sisters? Condition… how you did it empty handed… I won’t ask.”
Catherine perked up “Wait, you know what’s wrong with her? She won’t wake up no matter what I do.” As if to empathize this, Catherine lifted Nyoka up off her shoulders and gave her a violent shake. She then shrugged and put the unconscious girl back on her shoulders.
Rogers raised an eyebrow “Wait, you don’t? And you broke out of prison with her right? I thought you just... Ah, whatever. A doctor could explain it better, but yes we can cure her. Oh and to clarify, we are not asking you to join us, our boss just wants to meet you… I think.”
Catherine weighed her options, her first being the obvious. Kill him, steal the ship, get the fuck out of this highway. The downsides being she would still be lost, Nyoka would continue to be useless, and it wasn’t 100% she would know how to drive that thing. The second was to trust him, get taken to an unknown location, but it would probably be better then wondering around lost in this highway. If he was telling the truth then Nyoka would be cured as well, and could just leave after…hopefully. The final option was to screw this guy and continue around aimlessly.
“Fuck it, sure, get me out of this fucking highway.” Catherine said.
The man clapped “yeah! I like it when the works easy. Give me a sec.” Rogers sat down in his cockpit and flipped a switch. The back of the vehicle opened up, revealing an empty space for cargo. “This Stunner of mine is a one sitter but, you should be safe enough in the back, at least till we get to the base, yeah?”
Looking at the compartment, just big enough to barely hold both her and Nyoka. Catherine shrugged “…sure, whatever.” Internally glad the small space wouldn’t be an issue, for her at least. And the one person who could complain was out cold.