The Decimus Robots Discover An Old Airstrip
After a moment of silence following the rousing speech from the raccoon pilot that had just returned from the dark valley rescue mission, one of the raccoons from the group of the Luxurion security team broke the silence.
“Look man, you’re gonna have to slow down. If you can’t give us a compelling reason to go all the way through that scary valley, to the other side, to see some kind of mysterious site then we aren’t leaving the Casino. You’re gonna have to give us a slightly more compelling reason then just ‘come on you guys let’s get fired up, and let’s go’.. You see what I’m saying?”
After composing himself, The raccoon from the Dark Valley Rescue expedition continued.
“Okay, so this is what happened! We had been wandering around in the dark Valley for almost 5 days, it was almost completely pitch black, and then we saw a little break of light through the trees. So we started moving towards it, and we found ourselves breaking through the dense trees completely, and now we were on the other side of the valley. All of a sudden it opened up into a wide-open flat field. And that’s when we saw a small airstrip. An old, completely destroyed and overgrown airstrip in this large open field miles outside of the city. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say it was completely destroyed. Because some of the airplanes in the hangar and a lot of the crates stored inside and around the property could potentially still be in working order. I mean, at the least, it appears that there is a lot of loot to be pillaged from this airstrip.”
He pauses to refocus his thoughts…
“But That’s getting me off my point. So at this time some of the Raccoon pilots are taking their Decis around to explore the old airstrip and the airport hangar when on a dare one of the Decis climbs to the top of the Airport Tower, to get a better look out into the distance. He gets up there, and he sees something strange on one of the mountain tops right at the horizon line. He sees some sort of a black Tower structure. A glassy smooth, black tower in a place no perfectly constructed structure should be. In the middle of a mountain range! And the details he could make out when he zoomed in with his built-in telescopic vision on his Decimus robot; were still somewhat fuzzy. One detail he was able to make out though was a small portion of the tower literally hovering on the larger part below. And there was some sort of glowing yellow light coming from around the top of this floating piece of the tower… thing!!… I mean, whatever this is, it’s obviously not something man made.
And this is where it gets really freaky. One of the raccoons piloting one of the other decis Heard the description as it was coming over the radio comms and he chimed in telling us that the description we are hearing sounds exactly like the tower that one of the raccoons back at the underground city had been raving about for months. He then went onto say that this raccoon was having recurring dreams about this tower he had never seen. And that he had been doing drawings of this exact black tower with a floating top. At the time he was going on and on about these dreams he was having we were just dismissing this guy as a kook. But now instead of this guy’s ramblings sounding like just another kooky guy to dismiss; this raccoon and his dreams are beginning to sound almost like some kind of prophecy!”
The Old Raccoon Prophet Was Right!!
And that’s when the other raccoons in the Luxurion started to murmur amongst themselves. The consensus of these murmurs was that the raccoons were starting to take this entire story very seriously. They had heard of this raccoon that was having these dreams and going around showing everyone his drawings, but all the other raccoons wrote this guy off like he was a kook. Nobody took this guy seriously… and so almost Immediately all the raccoons began to get organized, and started to make a plan. At first they thought they could just deploy a series of expeditions to go directly to the black tower. But from the field reports of the Decis that had already been to the airfield; the terrain to get to the tower looked almost insurmountable for even their most well equipped Decimus robots to take on. They said they were going to need something bigger. Something that could handle a long pilgrimage through mountainous terrain! Something that could carry multiple Decis and sustain the raccoon pilots for a very long journey.
Just then one of the other raccoon pilots that had been listening to the whole conversation said;
“You know, The raccoon that had the original dreams about this thing, months, and months ago. One of the last dreams he was telling others about included these weird visions of giant, mobile military vehicles, Making their way through the mountains. Dozens of them. But more than a military vehicle. More like a moving fortress. We really should get that raccoon out here to the Luxurion casino before we all head out to the airstrip ourselves… we need to hear what else he knows before we start making our next plans.“
The Summoning of TS0298
So the Luxurion Casino raccoons got on the comms with Mission Control. And after communicating everything they had been learning from the eyewitness accounts of the Decis returning from the dark valley expeditions, they let Mission Control know that they needed to locate the raccoon that prophesied this “Tower on a mountain.”
The old raccoon dreamer (TS0298 from Chapter 4 of Decimus Lore) whom had been talking about this black tower structure nestled in a mountain range and was dismissed as “insanely rambling”; was now revered as the furthest most expert about what lie ahead of the raccoons, their Decimus robots and the fate of earth itself!!… And since the start of the earth’s surface expeditions his dreams have only become more vivid. And as a result he has additional details about the mysteries hidden inside the tower.
Escorted by A dozen Decimus robots, TS0298, now being referred to as “The Prophet”, arrived at the Luxurion Casino for questioning and to join the council of raccoons that were tasked with determining the next expeditions to embark on.
And as the questioning from the other raccoons began, rather then a posture of condescension, now there was an aire of respect in the tone of their questioning.
The spokesperson for the raccoons questioning The Prophet was TS0999. Amongst the elder raccoons of the Church of Talos faction he was well regarded as one of the most wise.
TS0999 started his questioning…
“First, we need to know what you know about this mysterious black tower.”
And then the raccoon prophet TS0298 answered with language that was carefully chosen. Speech that was direct, to the point, and seemed to have a feeling of urgency..
“Well, first of all. The thing you guys keep referring to as a black tower is actually made out of massive sheets of sheer onyx stone. And it’s called the ‘Onyx Spire.’ And secondly the discovery of that onyx spire is an omen. The Spire’s discovery marks the beginning of a horrible and ruthless battle that Decimus is about to get pulled into.”
There was another silence in the room, as the other raccoons took this new information in. And then TS0999 replied.
“Then we need to find a way to get to this thing. If there’s some sort of an unnatural structure somewhere on a mountain top and it poses some kind of threat to us, then we need to investigate this “Onyx Spire” to understand why it’s there.”
He paused as if to ponder the next thing he was about to say with a sense of foreboding and a perplexed look on his face.
“And if it is unfriendly or means us or our raccoon underground city harm, then we need to find that out! Look, I’ll be straight with you because you are being direct and to the point with us. There are a lot of mysteries that we still have not solved from the Human-Zeon war… there’s a lot of things we don’t know about our own history. If this thing that’s out there has malicious or evil intentions, we need to take that thing out.”
And then TS0298 answered with a calm tone of voice, as if he had been preparing these answers for ages and none of this was a shock to him.
“The raccoons will get to the Spire, and the Decimus robots after getting to the Spire will crack it open and decipher a pass code written in the Zeon language. But to get to the Onyx Spire the Decimus robots that are strong enough will need to man massive Mobile Fortresses to make the long pilgrimage through the vast mountain range that stands between the airstrip and the Spire itself.”
And following up to that answer TS0999 quickly responded.
“Okay, so what is a, “Mobile Fortress” and how are the raccoons supposed to gather the materials needed and how are they supposed to build these Fortresses? I mean, if the only way to uncover the answers to all these mysterious questions is to break open the Onyx Spire, we are going to need a few more details about the vehicles that are supposed to take us to the spire, no?!”
As quickly as TS0999 asks the question, TS0298 retorts.
“Well, lucky for you guys, I have been dreaming about these Mobile Fortresses in detail as well, and when I wake in the mornings, I quickly draw what I see in my dream, before I forget the dream. I have my folder with all of my drawings here as well as my journal entries so your teams have instructions to follow about approximate dimensions and what resources need to be gathered… But as we embark on this next journey remember this, “Only the strongest will earn their reward!”
The Genesis Of The Mobile Fortress
The raccoons now realize that they need to build mobile fortresses to make the journey through the mountains to the Onyx Spire, and so first all the raccoons and their Decis move from the Luxurion Casino to the abandoned airstrip and set up a new home base there. And with a new sense of purpose and resolve, they go to work. Understanding that this is what will prepare the Deci’s for their ultimate Expeditions to be the first to reach the Onyx Spire and uncover the secrets it holds. But as they set out to design and build these monstrous vehicles, they all keep reminding each other, “only the strongest will earn their reward!”
And now with the drawings provided by TS0298, the raccoon engineers, architects and mechanics begin to draw up schematics while all of the raccoon pilots suit up and take their Decis out on gathering expeditions. Expeditions focused on collecting all of the junkyard, scraps, and pieces of vehicles, and half finished construction sites, and any other industrial materials they could rummage from all of their expeditions up to this point in time; as they were exploring the surface of the Earth.
The Decimus robots moved all of this stuff to the airfield where they began to use their engineering skills to assemble large 40 to 50 story Mobile fortresses. These mobile fortresses would have living quarters for the raccoons, cockpits that multiple Decimus robots could sit inside of and pilot themselves, and also be armed to the teeth. Because as luck would have it; it just so happens that one of the hangars on the airport grounds had been converted into a military base during the Human-Zeon War. This was where weapons to be mounted on tanks and jets and large bombers had been stored. What good fortune!
All the raw materials the raccoons needed to assemble these giant wheeled behemoths was now collected into one location! And so the raccoons went to work!
A Zeon Spotted Heading Into The Mountain Range!
The raccoons have been making great progress very quickly building their mobile fortresses. But as a handful of them were staying up late one night diligently putting the work in on a latest mobile fortress all of a sudden something caught their attention. There at the tree line just outside the property that the airstrip was sitting on. The raccoons witness very fast movement by some sort of unidentified creature. And the figure they see darts quickly into the shadows and out of view. He moved so fast it just looked like a blur of green, purple and teal/turquoise flashing before their eyes. And even though he was running extremely fast, He had a limp in his stride. Hmmmm, He is injured.… that trail of green ooze he left behind!
Was this the same green goo they have been seeing on their expeditions for the last few months. Could it be that this is the Zeon they have been inadvertently tracking this whole time?!
To Be Continued…
