ok here’s the next chapter
Chapter 14
“Alright, let’s look it over.” Suged said, moving next to his vehicle. The medic circled around it, his critical gaze assessing the Stonecrawler and making sure that all the components were still operational. He sighed in satisfaction.
“What is it?” Kekris asked him.
“Nothing.” he replied. “Everything appears to be in good condition, but then I guess I should have known that given it’s stayed sealed here for quite some time.”
“Alright then, let’s get going!” Kekris exclaimed, walking towards the vehicle. Her cousin, Wardi, held up a hand and said,
“Wait. Suged, does it have provisions? What’s the fuel level at?” Suged turned to the Yroi and replied,
“Oh, it has plenty of provisions. I’ve prepared the Stonecrawler for quite a long journey. Now as for fuel, it runs on icium batteries, and those won’t run out of energy for at least a century, if not more.” The medic sounded very self-assured about all this. “Since that’s out of the way, I say we should get moving as soon as possible. Who knows, the Vacans may show up again.” Wardi nodded, satisfied.
“Alright then.” was his response. Suged grinned and jumped into the driver’s seat, the cockpit opening to accommodate him. Then, he took out his activator card and inserted it into a port next to the steering controls, and the Stonecrawler hummed to life.
“Hop in.” Suged said, gesturing to the other two. “Let’s see if I still know how to operate this.” He unlocked the passenger doors, and the two Yroi complied, seating themselves in the passenger seats in the back. With that, Suged grasped the controls, the old way of driving coming back to him as he started it forward. The Stonecrawler had a purple and black paint job, with the black being the main color while the purple was an accent. The vehicle was formed in two segments, with one being the driver’s seat with all the controls to operate it, and the second being the passenger and cargo space, where Wardi and Kekris were at the time. Since both parts were connected, it was possible to go from one to the other. To move around, the Stonecrawler had a dozen mechanical legs on each segment, insectoid in appearance. Because of this, the vehicle resembled a giant mechanical centipede as it whirred and rumbled across the rocky ground.
“I’d almost forgotten how it felt to operate one of these!” Suged cried with glee from the driver’s section. Both Wardi and Kekris smiled, in spite of the situation.
“I almost forgot how it felt to be riding in one of these!” Kekris called to him, enjoying the rather jaunty movement of their transport. Meanwhile, Wardi was not so happy, as the bouncing made him feel sick.
“Suged?” he asked the driver, “do you have any, like, motion sickness bags on this thing?” Indignantly, Suged called back,
“Open the window, and don’t get it on the paint job!” With that, Wardi activated the moving window and it slid down and out of sight, unbuckling his seat belt as he did so. He leaned his head out of the gap and splattered a nearby boulder with bright orange goo, taking painstaking precision to make sure the stuff didn’t get on the Stonecrawler. He ducked his head back inside and then strapped himself back in, groaning and moving the window back up. Kekris chuckled.
“I’d also forgotten what a Yroi’s puke looked like.” She laughed again. “Well that should have you feeling better at least.” Kekris patted her cousin on the shoulder, his face still downcast.
“Yeah.” he agreed sullenly.
…
The rest of the journey progressed smoothly enough, with Suged only having to steer around some particularly large formations of stone jutting up out of the ground. Other than that, the Stonecrawler made good time across the barren plain and the three hadn’t yet run out of energy. Soon enough, in a few days they could see the rocky peaks of the Taina Mountains fast approaching.
“Taina Mountains ahead!” called Suged to his passengers.
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