Okay, so listen here: I ain’t dead, as it turns out because, what big, ugly dummy and Slick don’t know is that my entire skull and spine was replaced with a medical cybernetic-implant after a horrible hover-bike accident a few years ago. It was replaced with some kind-a high-grade, military-style composite that’s way more durable than normal bone. It’s normally used for soldier upgrades and not for civilians but it’s all the medical personnel had available at the time. So, after about forty five minutes, I wake up. The side of my face swollen, bleeding, hurtin’ and I’m feeling pretty goddamn dizzy, probably sportin’ a little brain trauma too. At least they didn’t take my pistol, so I pick it up out of the damn dirt.
After wiping some of my blood off of my face, I looks around and I don’t see Big-Red anywheres, so maybe he lived from me blowing his face off, or they took him for medical treatment, or maybe to sell his mods, or who knows what. But they took his ride, probably towed it into town.
I figure I should head back home, might run into these guys in Bigville and they might decide to finish the job that they think they already finished. I can see they stripped parts off my ride when I get to where I left it, anything they can sell I figure. They took my repulser, probably to replace the one I shot on Slick’s ride. Well, I know this is probably a bad idea but I can’t let that stand, so I turn around and head-on back towards Bigville, and sees if I can’t find them sons-a-bitches.
Darkness is all but upon me by the time I reach Bigville. Now listen here, Bigville ain’t really all that big, see. I’m thinking they named it as such to garner commerce and interest… I don’t think it really worked, if-n that was their plan. As I walk through the dirty streets, the folks out-and-about trying hard not to look at me, because I look like I got the shit kicked outta me, which I did… I swing-on by Levin’s Hardware Store and see if he’ll give me store credit, since I got no money now. “How about giving me a little store credit to get a couple of these mining detonators?”
He knows me and my kinfolk, so Levin asks, “what the hell happened to you, son?”
“Now I don’t feel like doin’ much explaining right now, but I tried to take a shortcut through Hellbound Canyon, and we see how it worked out,” as I point at my fucked-up face.
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He nods and reluctantly agrees even though he knows I got no mining claim, but he knows I likes to blow-up stuff for fun on occasion. But just when I thought he wasn’t going to say something about my shortcut, he follows up with “I tell folks to stay out of there, and this be why.”
So, I let out a long sigh, “yeah…” I thank him and walk on out.
Over on the seedier side of town, and after I do a little research by askin’ around, it’s not hard to find the Big-Dawg’s local hangout spot. It’s some unsavory-lookin’ tavern, called ‘Hell or Highwater,’ and I can hear music thumping from inside. Upon a closer inspection in front of the establishment I see Slick’s and big dummy’s rides parked in a row along with other Big-Dawg rides, I figures. Just as I thought, Slick’s ride has my repulsor installed. It’s still early in the night so it’s not even close to being filled to capacity with patronage, these guys don’t really start gettin’ all rowdy until midnight.
The way I figure it, is that nobody is dumb enough to mess with these guy’s rides, so I’m bettin’ they don’t even have their alarms set. I give Slick’s ride a kick to test my theory. No alarm active, good. I’ve been wrenching on these things since I was ten years old, and it ain’t hard for me to bypass the ownership protocols, disable the geo-tracking, and get her fired up.
You might be thinking that someone might notice me: they did. But, if you act like you’re supposed to be there, nobody thinks nothing of it, see? Before I makes my exit, I attach the mining explosive onto the big dummy’s ride and put a little distance between the rides and me. Then a big boom, taking out all the rides in front of ‘Hell or Highwater’ tavern, and getting all kinds of attention from nearby, some people screamin’ and running, probably thinking it’s some kind of attack, I suppose I feel kinda bad about that. The guys inside all come running out, including Slick and big dummy, swearing and cursing. Their eyes find their way to me, sitting on Slick’s ride as I give them my middle finger. Slick’s mouth open and big dummy looking, well, big and dumb, the other guys pulling out their pistols, but it’s too late, I’m already heading ‘round the corner, high-tallin’ it outta town, but in the opposite direction I need to go to throw them off a little, because they will be calling for backup from the other gang members.
Now I figure they don’t know me, or my name, or where I live, but they are gonna be lookin’ for me now, so I gotta be careful. Thanks to the generous donation from Slick, I’m able to get my ride, Deadeye started back up, take everything valuable off his ride, then I shoots the rest of it full of holes until my pistol overheats, for good measure, to make sure Slick won’t be doing any salvage operations or nothin.’ They know where my ride broke-down, so I figure he could find his way on back here. It's the ass-crack of dawn by the time I ride off, back to my settlement village. Far off to the horizon, the red dawn of Forsaken fast approaches here on the Blasted Lands.