Tremors [Blink!]

[nephero]

   If you were to go back in time, and tell a young Candidate named Yavul Hyakinthos that one day his job description would include “large varmint control”, you might have gotten the special privilege of crushing a young man’s dreams. There might have even been long melodramatic cries of it being not true, of such a thing being impossible.

   And yet, there he was, standing at the gate of a spranger ranch in full gear, the autumn sun bearing down on them in what was a comparatively gentle fashion considering the record heat waves of the recently passed summer. It still made a man sweat, of course, but Yavul had the benefit of his climate controlled flight suit. More than could have been said about the other regular military that were accompanying himself and Mia to this particular patch of Solartan dirt.

   Under normal circumstances, Yavul would never have just two Pilots out to deal with a Trapdoor infestation. Which wasn’t to say he had little faith in either his own or Mia’s abilities— rather, something in the spiders’ evolution had sparked some particularly nasty habits. The cooperative hunting kind of habits. The kind of habits that had you thinking twice as to whether or not the spiders were just the dumb animals you thought.

   The problem was the spread. After Mia’s encounter over the previous weekend, it became a scramble to find where the breech had come from. For a week solid there were official personnel combing every last inch of the domes— from the vents to the shields to the thick concrete base of the fortifications right down to the railway tracks leading out of the city.

   A few unlucky bastards even had the joyful job of going deeper into those tunnels, and the trains had faced some rather aggravating delays as a result. But each search had come up with nothing, and so they’d had to widen it to include the less-than-usual suspects.

   Trapdoors were getting scarily clever as the years went on, but they were still animals at the end of the day. Really grotesque, really big animals. Animals that needed to eat, and eat a lot. And in Solarta, the best source of free range protein was out here in the rural zones.

   Plus side was the ranchers tended to notice if their stock went missing overnight. Downside was there was a fuck ton of ranchers to sift through, and even if there hadn’t been an incident yet didn’t mean there wouldn’t be. So Yavul had divided his squadron into teams, two Pilots and an entire platoon of regular military, each with a responsibility to check a grid of ranches top to bottom for any signs of their unwanted scuttling guests.

   This was the fourth ranch of the day, with sixteen more still to go. Yavul pulled off his helmet to run a gloved hand through his hair, before scratching idly at his chin in thought. Off in the distance, the regular uniforms were jogging back and forth, setting up sensors to try and detect any unusual tremors below. It was tricky doing on this side of the zone. The in-dome rail wasn’t far off, and with regular looping passages, the vibrations tended to throw off the readings and make an already tedious task take even longer.

   Yavul also wasn’t ashamed to say that half of his impatience was rooted in the fact that it was Friday. He wanted to get this all done as soon as possible, get a quick wash, and get his ass up north to Amristah and a blissful weekend of lasagna, teasing pranks, and waking up next to the only person Yavul could ever picture himself waking up next to.

   Soon to be on a very permanent, officially-documented basis. Stifling a wide grin— he was gonna be married. Married.— Yavul did his best to pay attention to the subject at hand. A Trapdoor breech was phenomenally dangerous and a disaster just waiting to happen, and the fact that they still had no idea where the initial scuttly-fucker had come from was worrisome. He could spend his trainride home daydreaming about his fiancee. Right now required him to work.

   Helmet tucked under his arm, Yavul walked across the dust to where Mia stood overseeing the placement of sensory probes, her back rather unusually straight for a task that Yavul himself was having trouble paying attention to. As much as he loved the young Pilot, Mia had a rather famous attention span, and this seriousness had lasted the entire week since the first spider had been found.

   Yavul had a feeling he knew why, and tried not to dwell too much on how reading those chat logs had made him feel. For Mia to be pulling the "serious face" for a week solid, her feelings were a much more pressing matter. Nothing a little mischief couldn't fix. Yavul rubbed his gloved hands together, generating just enough static to where a gentle poke to her shoulder would have her hair standing on end.

   “Don’t look now, but I think your hair’s tryna fly th’ coop.”

[Blink]

“I’m not picking up a signal on probe 13. Please check all connections and double check functionality of the device.” Mia looked down at the screen in hand as she read through the data while holding her helmet with the other. “Probe 8 is also having connectivity issues. If they continue to give us problems we will have to pull them for the next site.” Her voice was soft yet clear as Mia gave directions to the military personnel.

It had been a long week and one Mia had hoped she would not have to relive. Sweeps every day and still no answers as to how her little creepy crawly friend had gotten into the dome. If this week resulted in no resolution, then she was sure next week would be just as grueling. Then again, long work days meant less time bored at home. Monday and Tuesday she had spent most of her spare time packing up all of her craft supplies and shoving the boxes into her closet. She had even gone as far as pulling all of her homemade magnets off the refrigerator before shoving them in the back of the drawer with her storage container lids. A place where things are meant to be forgotten and lost.


It had always been Mia’s goal to leave the world a better place. She had hoped that one day everyone would be able to see the light in the darkest of situations and that she could help those who struggled to find it. Mia wanted to be that light so bad, yet now was feeling like her own light wasn’t even bright enough anymore. Ever since the incident that had transpired over the previous weekend, Mia had made it a goal not to be the girl she once was. It was time to grow up and to stop worrying about making everyone smile. You can’t depend on someone who places happiness over safety.

At Yavul’s words, Mia turned around, literally having to fight the smile that was trying to erupt. “I’m sorry Yavv-“, clearing her throat Mia caught her mistake. “-Commander.” Shoving the sensory probe detector in her pocket Mia used her free hand to push down her hair. “Must be a lot of static in the air.” Of course, she assumed Yavul was to blame but she had no time for on-site shenanigans, it wasn’t safe.

“The probes should all be in place soon. A couple of them are starting to malfunction so we may have to hit the next few sites with a different strategy. It will take less time if we don’t have to keep trying to fix them.” The complete fact of ignoring Yavul’s joke caused her stomach to twist to the point it almost made her sick.

Reaching back for the detector Mia pulled up the screen to scroll through the data once more. “Looks like we will be good to go soon. We should probably start clearing the farmers and unnecessary personnel from the site until we have the-“ A small flicker on the screen, surely another malfunctioning probe caused Mia to pause.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak again the same flicker appeared seconds before everything began to fall apart.

”Yavvy we found it” a last ditch effort to communicate while the very ground beneath them began to fall apart.

[nephero]

   Yavul watched as Mia worked to tame her hair with no small amount of sadness. He hadn’t missed the change in address— it was a rare moment indeed when any of his kids called him “Commander”, least of all Mia, their resident ray of sunshine.

   Yavul nodded a bit at her “explanation” for the flyaways, lips pursed in semi-serious thought as he looked around at their survey work. Malfunctioning probes would be a pain in the ass, and make their already slow progress even slower for lack of the adequate equipment. But Mia had a point in that stopping to try and fix them every ten steps was only holding them back even longer.

   At Mia’s pause, Yavul looked over at her, brows knit tight over blue eyes, adding one more tiny wrinkle to what was, more and more, proving to be a regular collection of the damn things.

   “Listen, Mia… I ain’t wantin’ you thinkin’ you have t’ be someone you’re not—” he began, and probably might have managed to complete were it not for the sudden rumbling beneath their feet. Catching a flurry of movement out of the corner of his eye, Yavul turned to see a veritable flood of sprangers leaping clean over the gates, the animals fleeing in their panic as the earth beneath the ranch cracked open and crumbled inwards. The edges kept eroding away, getting closer and closer to the house at the very edge of it, which had the teams of military personnel bolting from the doors as shouts of warning went up.

   Yavul was already moving, helmet snapping into place, when the second series of rumbling hit— this time to a peal of terrified shrieks. A second sinkhole appeared, this one fully engulfing a barn and swallowing it whole as if it had never been. The barn they had directed the ranchers to stay beside in order to avoid getting in the way of a military operation.

   Yavul felt like someone had reached into his chest and clenched at his heart.

   “Clear! Get fuckin’ clear! Get t’ them trees where it’s stable!”

   Why hadn’t he put them there in the first place? Why hadn’t he thought— too little too late, the military who were scrambling to follow his orders and regroup by the few lone apple trees were finding the fading soil too tough to run in, each step taking longer to finish and gaining them too little ground as the sinkholes grew and grew. The house was completely gone now, as was most of the fence, and it seemed like the earth would never stop until it pulled them all under—

   Pulled.

   Mia.

   Yavul snapped around to find, much to his relief, that his young squad member was still standing even as the earth shook beneath them.

   “Mia!” He yelled, gesturing wildly at the area where the barn had once stood, bits of the roof yet still visible. “Mia, get them civvies out of there now!”

   Regrouping. If these were the tunnels, if these were the Trapdoors, they needed to regroup. Yavul flexed his robotic hand in rapidfire succession— onetwothreefourfive— and heard the high pitched whirr of the electrical generators coming online. Locked and loaded.

   “Form up! Defensive positions! I want eyes on every last—”

   Whatever Yavul was about to say, it never made it out into the open air. Because as he took his next step, the earth gave a shudder beneath his feet, buckling under him like coming down wrong on a mechanical bull. There wasn’t even time to correct his balance— he was dead center for the next sinkhole, falling quicker than he could even scream, before his helmet slammed into the rocks deep below the earth, more sand and rubble piling on top of him until everything went black.

[Blink]

It had all happened so fast. Even with the sensory probes giving them just seconds of warning it still felt as if in the blink of an eye everything was falling apart. Following suit Mia snapped on her own helmet, the information pad in her other hand dropped the minute the ground began ripping apart. Step for step Mia stayed beside Yavul as orders were given for everyone to get clear. The cries of fear that echoed from where the barn once stood catching her attention just as quickly as it had his. The very sight already causing Mia’s wheels to turn and sync with the next orders she was given.

”Save the civvies, save the civvies, save the civvies….” her personal thoughts stuck on repeat as she stepped off from their position.

She didn’t have time to see if he was following or to look around and make sure trapdoors weren’t coming up as everything else was sinking down. Mia had been given her orders and so she would follow them… or so she thought.

Yavul’s voice was clear for only a second as Mia picked up the order for everyone else to form up. However, she never picked up on where their eyes were supposed to be. Stopping for just a moment to look back Mia saw where Yavul had once stood and the sinkhole that was in his place. Every hair on her body was then standing on end, and this time not from playful static. From the opposite direction were the screams from the civilians and military personnel that hadn’t made it out of the barn before it was devoured like Yavul.

“Yavvy!” screams left unanswered as she stared at the hole hoping he would climb out. “Yavvy are you okay!?” Another cry left empty as Mia stood unsure of what to do next.

Despite the chaos ensuing Mia found herself standing in complete silence for what felt like ages. Yavul was not okay and she could feel his absence in her chest the longer she stared at the hole closing in above where he once was. ”How did you manage to become a pilot?” a mocking memory surfacing in the silence’s place. ”You can’t even follow orders to protect your squadmates. You put everyone in danger.” More screams echoed out from the barn ahead as Mia slowly turned back towards it. ”Follow orders, listen, pay attention.” Yavul had wanted her to save the civilians and deep down she knew he would want her to choose them over himself.

“Watch for the trapdoors.” Mia took off again, heading towards the barn to complete the orders she had been given. “These holes didn’t create themselves. They're here somewhere.” Her tone stoic as she gave the orders to remaining military over her helmet’s radio system.

“Shoot to kill.” Her last communication before jumping over a stone slab to slide down towards the barn.

Push and Pull. The very essence of what separated her from those she was about to save. The barn in its entirety was mainly held together by the steel beams and siding that Mia would be using to her advantage. She had never tried to pull something this large and honestly wasn’t quite sure if she could even do it. Mia also knew you never know if you don’t try.

With each passing second, the barn sank lower and lower into the hole. Mia knew she had to act fast or it would be more than just her Commander she would be losing that day. It took a moment for her to find good footing, constantly having to shift her weight as the very ground beneath her threatened to split open at any moment. Placing the magnetic hold wasn’t the hard part but keeping herself from being pulled inward was going to pose the largest threat. Just as if she were holding an invisible rope Mia pulled, her boots skidding against the rock and sand as the structure of the barn creaked and groaned.

“Everyone get out now! Climb! I can’t hold it for long!”

At her orders the two farmers and one military came climbing out, using whatever they could grab ahold of as leverage. As they climbed the barn continued to sink, slowly dragging Mia down as she pulled with everything she had to keep it up. She knew if she let go and that barn sank that the hole would close before they could climb to safety. Beads of sweat began to form on her brow as Mia exhausted every ounce of energy she had to pull at the barn as parts of it began crushing beneath the stone’s pressure. Her focus shifting from the barn to those who were still climbing. The moment those she set out to rescue were up Mia released her hold and fell back as the barn disappeared.

She watched as everyone made their final strides to safety and noticed the sinkholes had ceased forming. In seconds she was rushing back to where Yavul once stood, the only sign a hole had even formed there being the uneven cracks left on the surface. Again, her boots were skidding as Mia slid to a stop on her knees and she immediately began ripping at the sand and stone with her hands.

“Yavul I’m here now!” Empty cries as she continued digging, pushing what little sand away that she could with traces of magnetite. “Just hold on a little longer and I’ll save you too!” Still digging Mia switched the signal in her helmet to inform the rest of her squad only to hear another member of the military sending a general distress call. “Assistance needed in rural sector 22 spranger ranch number 13. Several military personnel M.I.A. Commander Hyakinthos also M.I.A. Medical assistance required.”

Mia chimed in “Yavvy fell down the hole!” The sounds of her digging audible over her signal. “I can’t find him!” More digging sounds as Mia’s signal cut out as she ripped her helmet off. She didn’t need to hear their disappointment in her now anyway. She didn’t want to think of how her actions to follow orders caused pain to so many others already. She didn’t want to think about how she had just cost Grisham a fiance’ or Nishi’s babies a grandfather or her squad a captain.

“I’m gonna get you out Yavvy and we are going to go get you a burger and some beer. And then you are going to go to Amristah this weekend and have a great time.” Exhausted whsipers as Mia chanted to herself with each stroke of her hands. “And while you are gone we are all gonna be great and happy and safe and no one is going to be gone again.” Mia paused to wipe the sweat from her brow, smearing dirt and traces of crimson from her fingertips across her face. “And then next week we are gonna take care of the silly spiders and make everything safe again.”

“You can’t be gone. We can’t have that again.” Of course, Mia was referring to the recent loss of one of their squadmates Addie. “Don’t do that to Alpaca.” Still digging despite the screaming from her fingers Mia continued to ramble random ambitions. “Harley is going to smack you for this. Mama Blu is gonna smack you for this.” A deep breath as Mia tried to recharge a bit. “Hell, I might smack you for this Yavvy.”