2883/Mine Your Own Business

Mine Your Own Business
Date of Scene:	22 August 2015
Location:	Brimsteel Frontier
Synopsis:	The Union ventures into a mine in search of lost workers, and run into a bunch of crazy, hostile, molemen.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 43, Blurr, 673, Corona Arclite, 750, 770, 850

---

Corona Arclite has posed:
Please don't take the name 'Rocksfall' -too- seriously, the place was named with a pioneer's sense of humor for making light of potential trouble. How else do you survive if you can't make fun of things instead of freaking out over them. Despite the name the system of mines was one of the safest there is. Or at least, was.

Until the surveyors for the new extension disappeared. And the weird chanting and groaning could be heard in the depths. Even with a sense of humor the miners tend to be a bit supersticeous and now no one wants to venture too deep until something is done about it!

Several minetracks lead in and out of the entrance to the tunnel. There's a number of minecarts, empty and unused, sitting on them. And one that looks like a minature steam engine, like you would see pulling a kiddie train around an amusement park somewhere. Except it's the geniune thing other than the size. Or Corona wouldn't be shoving energy coals into it with a spade while she's waiting for her ever helpful friends to arrive.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr finds himself back on Corona's planet, this time due to a mysterious mine, apparently. Surveyors had gone missing, and no one else around there wanted to find out what was going on the cavernous depths.

    Let's see, last time he was here, some weirdos had been trying to steal a -bridge-.

    But how bad can it be, right? The Autobot arrives in his usual sudden fashion, the hover speeder stopping in front of the entrance to the mine. "Hey Corona." he greets. "So, do we know anything else about the missing surveyors? Like who they are, when they went missing exactly, and such? Maybe if we send a drone down there first, we could at least get an idea of what we're up against."

Tiki (850) has posed:
    Tiki stood there looking at the entrance to the mine with a very perplexed expression on her face. Just how big -were- the tunnels in there? Would she be of any real assistance if there was a confrontation? The Manakete continues to give the entrance the stare-down before something else catches the green-haired Manakete's attention, a fox cowgirl shoveling some coal and a large talking metal golem.

    With no better lead to follow, the Divine Dragon approaches the pair with a polite smile on her face. "Salutations, I am Lady Tiki and I am here to gladly offer whatever assistance is necessary to ensure the safe return of those gone missing." Tiki then drops a curt nod of her head towards the two.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    Not far from Corona would be a Loadstar law enforcement representitive. The VEX Ranger is currently taking a look around the entrance, and the small train, trying to see if he can figure out anything. It's interesting seeing him over by the train, the sizing seems perfect for a creature of his size. ... It may be in folks best interest not to point this out, however. For now the arrivals aren't noticed as he looks around for .. well anything.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    It's been a while since Rebound was on Corona's world helping her out, but it seems like time flies when you're busy. Yet the kangaroo has arrived, and somehow is already sitting in one of the cars, right behind Corona, and where did she get a hat? It's one of those traditional Outback style ones, too.

    "So what do you think it is this time, Corona? Bandits? Some kind of horrible underworld monster that was awoken when people dug to deep? Like some sort of giant fire demon with a whip and one of us will have to sacrifice ourselves to beat it except not really?"

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
"Ya been watchin' too many movies, Rebound," Target calls over, sighing a bit before getting back to what he was inspecting.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
What kind of miners were brave enough to dig down deep in the first place, but not deal with what they dug up? Wussy ones, that's who! Even though the mines were far from the open (If dusty) skies above, Rainbow Dash wasn't about to bawlk at the challenge of investigating some creepy stuff for Corona.

"Or maybe just some wussy miners who are scared of the dark," Rainbow Dash says as she comes speeding down overhead Rebound. The brightly colored blue furred and rainbow maned pegasus comes down for a landing near the mine carts. Lifting one hoof up, she pushes sand marked goggles off of her eyes. "Okay, so that doesn't say why some are missing, soooo probably more than just some prank."

Staren has posed:
    Rocksfall... let's hope the rest of the name isn't Everyonedies, shall we?

    While Staren isn't necessarily expecting a fight, enclosed underground spaces are dangerous and require certain precautions. Add that to the missing miners... and Staren figures he may as well just wear his powered armor.

    There is chanting. Moaning could maybe be dismissed as the wind, but /chanting/? "Okay, that's ominous... does your world have cults, Corona? Like, the kind that gather in weird underground places and do dark rituals to summon monsters?" Staren comments as he approaches Corona. Then he waves. "Oh, and hi! It's been awhile." The people he knows get nods of greeting. Staren gives Blurr a thoughtful look. "I like that idea, but how well will radio signals travel through this rock is the question. We might not be able to control a drone very far."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa didn't take the name too seriously. She is from a world where people had the same sort of humour for naming thier settlments. Well in the americas at the very least. SO here she was wondering about this. She's keeping with COrona and has several hovering drones with her. They are cheap and very basic by sya Rory's standars but they are little more than flying audio and video pickups. Which fly ahead of the group as she's moving in.

"I hope so, Dashie."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Miners going missing is a big deal! Especially to Rory White! And since every excursion to this frontier hellhole (by her world's standards...) has meant trouble she's come in very different attire. Skintight armor covered in fanciful circuit-line patterns for decoration. She's got a few weapons clipped to her waist, but her attention's not on them. Instead she greets Corona with a happy (if awkwardly forced) wave! "Hello again!"

    A handful of her Saucer drones are orbiting just over her head...

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite looks up from the coal when Blurr speaks up. "First thin' Ah did was send a couple of automatronics down to look... never came back, either. The one Ah did find afterwards?" She jabs a thumb over her shoulder towards the other side of the entrance, where what was once a cube shaped clockwork construct sat. Now stripped down to nothing but some framework and exterior panels. "Was ripped out of everythin' useful. -That's- how we know it ain't just some wild critters gettin' loose."

The gathering is given a once over, finding mostly familiar faces. The one new one does get a longer glance, then Corona briefly tips her hat in Tiki's direction. "Fergive me for keepin' introductions short, but all help is good help."

"Now as I was sayin'," the foxgirl turned back to the midget engine, kicking shut the coalbox hatch with a boot. "... Well, we don't right -know- Staren. Or we wouldn't have t'go lookin'. So y'all saddle up." Coron gestures to the carts hooked up behind the engine, then pulls a lever and steam hisses out the side vents as it finishes powering up.

Then glances off in Blurr's direction again. "... Ya can pro'ly drive yerself, speedy. Just don't wander off, there's a lotta tunnels down there."

Once everyone's loaded up Corona released the brake and the 'mine-train' starts chugging down the mine proper.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    "I'm not lookin' too forward to goin' down there. I really dun care ta find any kobolds down there still," Target mutters as Corona gets the train ready to go. "Ya'all go ahead. I'll watch our backs. Be careful, aight?" Once the train gets moving, the ranger would jog along behind until the engine gets up to speed. Afterward? Yes, ball. He has it on good authority there are no large, angry, camoflauging dinosaurs in the mine.

Staren has posed:
    Staren echoes Kotone's sentiment to Dash. "Let's hope so..."

    Except, Corona has a drone that's been clearly stripped by something that knows what it is. "Well, so much for that..."

    He'll climb into the train, turning on a light on his helmet and another on his right arm as they ride into the mine.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    A glance at the ruined drone gets Rory wincing. And tucking her own Saucers in for the ride in the mine cart. She's viewing the rickety craft with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. "I've never ridden one of these before. Only in a Vid game!" ... that must be SOME video game...

Tiki (850) has posed:
    Tiki carefully considers what the others have to say as they discuss the situation at hand. She might not know very much about technology, but she understands enough of the important details to be able to proceed from there. Namely, there were people down there that needed their help.

    The Manakete smiles demurely at Corona and her short introduction before focusing her attention on the train and attached mine carts. "A pleasure to meet you all. I take it that we are to ride in those strange carts?" She asks aloud as she gracefully strides forward, her pink cape fluttering behind her as she walks. Tiki then grins from ear to ear as she suddenly dashes forward and vaults into the nearest mine cart where the now wide-eyed manakete eagerly awaits for the ride to begin.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
"Prank or no prank, what are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash flares her wings out again, and in a couple of wingbeats is up in the air. She glides ahead of the rail carts, hovering there steadily. "You guys can go and ride those things. Me, I've got my own way down." And when the carts get going, Dash puts on a burst of speed, gliding just overhead them. Good thing there's enough room for her to maneuver here.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr flips up into his root form and examines the drone Corona is talking about. Wow, it really is stripped down to nothing. No memory banks or anything. "Guess you really couldn't find any salveable data from these things." he replies, sounding disappointed.

    "Well I guess we'll just have to investigate ourselves, then." With that, he transforms back down again, since vehicle mode will probably be a bit more comfortable, if anything.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    She sets up in her cart, and Rebound grinds a little, "Well whatever's down there, I'll just kick it in the face for however long it takes until it goes down." She says, with a bit of a laugh. She also pulls off her hat and puts on a mining helmet with a light on it, "That'll probably be a bit better."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is also keeping with Rory as well she was happy to see her friend. She opens a channel to her friend.

<<Hey Rory good to see you agin. We should try to hang out some more you know. Can't let you hide in our ship all day now can we? Also I got some specs for some drones I put together for recon if you got imput on them later it would be useful and welcome.>>

She takes note of Tiki with intrest she knows most of the group save for Dashie and Tiki. She looks the over nd she also looks over to Blurr.

"Sounds about right big guy, shall we check this out?"

her Drones go on ahead to scout things out.

Corona Arclite has posed:
One has to wonder for a moment what sort of machinery was used to dig out the tunnels originally, considering there's plenty of room for Blurr to accompany the train of minecarts and Rainbow Dash to fly above it. Though she will have to watch out for support girders to avoid crashing into. There's light crystal lanterns strung up for illumination but Corona flicks on her own headlamp just to be on the safe side. There's not a whole lot to see for the first several minutes of the ride, just tunnels branching off into other parts of the mines, and the occasional downward slope of tracks rounding bends to go to the lower levels. There's no chanting, but occasionally a faint rumble can be heard in the background.

Despite all it's got Corona frowning as she drives the cart-train onto the next level, ears twitching back and forth. "Normally these levels would still be full of workers, but... well, obv'ous enough. But the new extension shouldn't be much fart--"

Corona cuts herself off as two large bright lights appear in the tunnel ahead of them. "Aw hell!" She hits one of the rail switchs as the entire cart-train leers a bit to the side as it rounds the sudden turn faster than it normally would. Hopefully Blurr and Target caught on quick enough to get out of the way as well!

The lights appear behind the cart-train moments later, looking like a pair of demonic eyes until it comes into better lighting and turn out to be the headlamps on a rather heavy industrial machine sporting a spiked-laden V-plow on the front and smoke belching out of towering stacks. It's not even riding the rails, instead clacking across rock on large blade-ridged wheels.

But the most damning being that it doesn't have an enclosed cab, instead sporting an open cab that a couple of now notorious molemen are sitting in. And sitting behind them on what looks more like a metal throne than a truck seat is a larger, much more rotound one clad in a worn cloak and a jewel studded head piece. By the way he's waving around a big crudel with a large crystal on it one can guess the screaming "MORE surface intruders?! RUN THEM DOWN! RUN THEM DOOOOWN!"

"THESE jokers again?!" Corona snarls as she yanks on the throttle to open it wide, barely keeping the train ahead of the machine. "And these are our mines, ye idjits!"

"The underworld is MY kingdom, sun dweller!" The mad mole man screams back at her.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
#3230iiiights! Bright lights! Wait, isn't there a song about this and clovers or something? Wait, forget all that! The problem is the train Corona's on takes a hard turn and Target is quick to follow. "What the bloody'ell is that?!" Pause. "AAaaagh, again with these rodents!" Target's ball would bounce up, and in a rush of clockwork, he'd both land on the last car and turn to face the mole train. Thing. "Wouldja KINDLY git yer tails outta our mines!" he hollars, unloading a shotgun blast at whatever target he sees first over there.

Staren has posed:
    Once it becomes clear that the ride isn't going to be a very short one, Staren grunts in annoyance and drums his fingers on the side of the minecart.

    And then there's lights. "What's that?!" Staren calls, pointing ahead. They switch tracks, and then... they're being chased?! "Aww, you gotta be kidding me!"

    Staren just fires his armor's beam cannons at the front of the machine... then decides he has a better idea and tries to get a shot at one of the wheels. "Return the workers you've taken and we'll talk!"

Tiki (850) has posed:
    Tiki bounces from one side of the cart to the other and back again. While there are not a lot of things to see, this is her first mine cart ride ever and she was enjoying every minute of it. The manakete even giggles happily when Corona causes the carts to veer sharply. This obviously must all be a part of the ride and Tiki was having the time of her life! "This is almost as exhilarating as taking flight!

    The appearance of the molemen causes Tiki to train her green eyes upon them. "Are these foes a familiar sight to you all? For they are not familiar to my eyes." Alas, it seems that her joy ride is now at an end. She now turns to address the offending mole-people. "Consider this your first and final warning: vacate these mines hastily or suffer the consequences of your tyrannical behavior!"

    With a slightly disappointed look on her face, the red and pink adorned manakete secures a slightly cracked, golden orb from off her belt. She holds this orb aloft and leaps out of the mine cart. A series of bright green flashes obscure Tiki for a moment until she is nowhere to be found. Instead of the elf-like figure from before, a translucent green dragon now hovers in the air. The green dragon seemingly has just enough space to hover in the air by flapping its wings steadily. Tiki takes no further action as she politely gives the mole-men a brief moment to comply with her request.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Doooooown into the darkness the group goes. Or rather, well-lit tunnels! Rory at first DUCKS down with a yelp of fright as if taking shelter in the cart will keep her safe from the DEMON MACHINE that's going ballistic back there. But then she edgily surfaces, peeking her head over the cart's rim.

    "Wait, don't attack! We can talk things out and everyone can live and profit!!"

Blurr has posed:
    The first stretch of the journey seems to be rather uneventful, and what with how slow that mine cart probably is compared to Blurr, he's getting a bit bored. Maybe he could just tow the cart train himself? It would speed things up a bit.

    Needless to say, when the lights appear in front of them, he has no trouble quickly following the train as it suddenly switches tracks. And then the lights are chasing them, revealing their source. And now, whoever these people are, they are screaming hostile things at him. Corona also appears familiar with them, so there is no question in his mind that they are -a- problem, if not the one responsible for the deaths/disappearances of the mine workers.

    Immediately, he transforms, standing up with just barely enough room to do so before drawing his weapons. "Tell us what you know about the missing mine workers, and maybe we won't beat you up." He has already started trying to beat them up, though, as photons fly.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Molemen?! Of course, it would be molemen. Rebound hops up from her seat and begins to make her way back towards the back of their train, "Corona, give this thing as much juice as you can! I'll deal with these assholes!" Of course the rest of the group wants to negotiate with them. Of course they do.

    Rebound still makes her way to the back of the mine car, legs tensing up as she waits for the negotiations to inevitably fall through, so she can spring into action.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
Rainbow Dash very quickly figures out that flying through a mineshaft is not exactly the best idea in the world. She narrowly avoids hitting one of the first overhead beams when she flies too high to the ceiling, but quickly drops down afterwards. It's safer near the carts, esspecially since Corona is the one with the light.

But then more lights flare to life ahead of them. Dash blinks in the blinding light, momentarily staring like a deer in headlights. Before instincts kick in, and she twists to swerve from the oncoming lights and follow along with the speeding carts.

"Who the hay are THESE guys?" Dash flips around in mid air, flying practically upside down so she can peer back at the following lights without having to turn around. Squinting, she peers at the shadowy shapes amongst the bright lights. "... Ugh, don't tell me. It's THOSE jerks again?"

Dash flips around again, facing forward so she can keep an eye on where she's going. Her eyes spot something overhead though. Several things, passing just overhead. Stalagtites? Or are they stalagmites... Oh whatever. Whichever they are, Dash rises back up towards the ceiling, and lashes out a hoof at a couple of the protrusions as she passes by. They crackle, pop, and dislodge from the ceiling, making a rocky rain for those mole men following.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is not too shocked when she encounters the molemen she sighs though as she looks at them and she now is on edge her drones are flittering about her as she now moves to make ready with her weapons. Kotone deadpans for a moment.

"Oh look it's the molemen again what ever will we do?"

She's getting itred of this and she's pretty happy they got some pretty heavy backup here. She doesn't make a moment to attack yet people are trying to talk at htis point she pauses a tTiki. She's not sure whom she is but she like her attuide.

"So the mine workers where are there work with us and there's no need to fight."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    <I'd love to look them over, Kotone! But we've got bigger problems now!> Is Rory's answer. She's still peeking over the rim with clear fear in her eyes!

Corona Arclite has posed:
The shotgun burst puts cracks in the small windscreen the drivers have and shatters one of the headlamps. Trying to shoot the wheels from the front proves puts a few dents in them but being made of heavy rock crushing metal instead of rubber prove to not be so easily destroyed. Photon bursts rattle across the hood of the monstrousity of machinery, the semi-protuding engine roaring in response as the chase continues.

A dragon takes to the limited airspace of the tunnel, but the mole monster machine just roars right beneath her. "These weirdos think they rule the underground!", Corona shouts over her shoulder, not daring take her eyes off the tunnel ahead. "... And that thing is pro'ly what they broke into the factory fer material for."

"You dare make demands of the cavern king in his own demain? Cease your surface world lies." Clearly listening to reason is not in this ruler's repitoir. "DEPLOY THE MOLENGUARD!"

Several molemen in punked up armor stand from the back of the vehicle as it starts to pull up alongside the minecarts, weilding (unsurprisingly) pickaxes and sledgehammers as they swing at the mine train. Or try to jump off and land on it. One manages to get onto the engine, only for Corona to lean back when he swings, without taking one hand off the controls, and use the other to grab the back of his head and slam it into the console before pushing him off again.

Rocky spikes of whichever it is slam into the vehicle from above, bringing the mine's name to life courtesy of Rainbow Dash, but doesn't deter the attempting boarders even as it rocks their ride about. "A flying mule? What lunacy is this?!" The 'Cavern King' points his scepter at the pegasus and a bolt of energy blasts from it after her... Damn, does that thing have a pulsarium crystal in it?! Maybe they're more advanced than people thought....

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
"We're 'bout to be boarded! Since when does piratin' happen in CAVES?!" Target calls out, whirling his shotgun around to reload it. One of the 'Molenguard' makes a horrible life decision by dropping down in front of the ranger and eats a shell full of buckshot for it. Spin. Reloaded. The kobold pauses, winces, then yells back to C'rona, "I have one of those shells! I'm not so sure I should use it down here though!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren sighs. "We're /trying/ to give you a chance. Maybe you have some claim here. But if all you care about is being a bully..." The molemen are boarding? Two can play that game. Staren leaps across to the mole machine. "I'm gonna tear this machine apart. And then I'm gonna tear YOU apart as an example for any other kidnappers or murderers with delusions of grandeur!" He activates his beam saber, it splits in two, which he tries to jab into the machine and drag it against the side, plasma burning and melting in, as he's moving towards the 'king'. "Where. Are. They."

Blurr has posed:
    "I take it you know these guys." Blurr comments in response to Corona's description. "But I think I understand why you're not on very good terms with each other." The rest of the team starts unloading on the vehicle, but the Autobot spots their leader aiming something dangerous-looking at Dash.

    "Dash look out!" He leans over and attempts to either grab the guy with the scepter or failing that simply aims to knock him off his feet and send the blast astray.

Tiki (850) has posed:
    Tiki glances down as the mole-train passes beneath her and goes roaring after Corona and company's train. It seems that this situation was not going to end peacefully despite everyone giving the mole-men a chance to surrender. The red-eyed dragon merely grunts out a puff of green fire in exasperation before slowly turning to fly after the mole-machine.

    The green winged dragon eventually gets close enough to the mole-machine to launch her attack. Since the others were busy fighting off the raiders, it was Tiki's turn to help out too. But uh-oh, she didn't want to accidentally hit Staren by mistake so she switches to the opposite side of the mole machine. The transformed manakete huffs and then puffs a brilliant green fireball towards the enemy train as she hastily beats her wings back and forth to keep pace.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    It's easy enough for Rebound to shift gears when the mole men decide to board them. Instead of leaping up, she drops back onto her tail in the cart, and then kicks her already coiled feet up.

    Woe be to the mole man who gets the brunt of that, because she's probably going to kick it right through the wall and into another cavern with the force behind it.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "... I said I didn't do anything like this except in video games. This is TOO LIKE A VIDEO GAME!" Rory's kind of panicking, going for her weapons. One of which looks like a shotgun with a canister of something liquid or gaseous hooked in. She starts taking potshots at pretty much EVERYTHING, the Mole men and their gadgetry! Nope, that canister holds something else entirely. WHAT SEEM TO BE PAINTBALLS, but they splatter open with a foam that reacts instantly to oxygen. The foam grows to dozens of times its own size and hardens within a half-minute to become strong as cement.

    That'll wreck just about any machine or person trying to use a weapon pretty harmlsesly. Thankfully it lets air through so it can't suffocate anyone!

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
"HEY!" Rainbow Dash glares indiginantly down at the mule 'king'. "Who the hay are you calling a mule!?" For a second, she almost doesn't take notice of the scepter pointed at her, or perhaps doesn't realize that it might actually be a weapon. It's just lucky that Blurr is on the ball with that one. Dash drops immediately when he shouts out, the blast of energy speeding right over her head. And blasting into the ceiling instead. "Whoa, close one!"

Dash dips out of the way as rocks fall from the blast. She twists to the side, diving instead for the steampunked cart as it comes up behind their minecarts. "HEY, this is a no boarding zone! Buck off!" Speeding forward, she tries to intercept one of the Moleguard as he tries to leap into the cart, hooves kicking at him mid-leap.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has got a few little things like flash grandes ready for the horrible terrible mole men. She grins a little but that's due to Rory's reply to here. The molemen now move in with some sort of heavy unit. Okay no flash bangs it's time to put some heavier firepower to use here. She pulls a rifle off her back and starts opening fire the battle rifle is packing heavy reaper rounds which hopefully should be able to do some damage to the new hostile unit.

"Sadly we do blurr!"

She now start smoving an pulling of several clearly inhuman agility related stunts as she attemps to engage the craft.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Moles are sent falling left and right as they're knocked back off the mine-train. And one left wishing he had just fallen off when a pair of kangaroo feet sending him flying back -over- the mole-machine and smashing into the wall on the far side of the cavern. Another gets a hoof print left in the side of his head as he's bucked out of the air by the 'flying mule'. A few more get plastered to the side of the machine by Rory's foam. Some shots get in the wheels, only to crack apart as it hardens from the bladed rock-crushing treads. Kotone's heavier firepower puts some large calibre holes in the side; while tough the mole machinery isn't quite up to dealing with Multiversal power, as the rifle blasts and Staren's impersonation of a chop shop prove.

Sparks hiss where wheels meet the rails as Corona struggles to keep the mine-train on the track as it goes around another bend much faster than it was meant to. "I ain't worried 'bout you blowin up the mine," she shouts back to Target. "I'm worried 'bout you blowin' up our ride!" She reachs for her own shotgun, sparing a glance back as Target blasts away. And a moleman loses his head. Literally.
Except his 'head' was just a helmet. And the rest like an armor suit, except empty. Yet it still moved, or at least was, until it was blasted off. The more metallic 'armored' ones like it break apart when they hit the cave floor, some sort of noxious looking, glowing vapor hissing out of the joints.

"The bloody hells was that?!" Corona finishes, even as she's tossing her own shotgun back towards Target. "Try mine, the barrel is made outta antipodium, it -should- hold up to the blast!" And if not, a lot easier for her to fix.

The dragonic fireball slams into the back of the machine causing it to fishtail a bit, and almost miss the turn Corona takes the mine-train around. It ends up slamming up against the tunnel wall for a few moments, grinding against the rocky surface. "Imprisoned where all thieves and intruders belong!" The Cavern King yells back at Staren, and points at him next after Dash veers out of the way. Though before he can shoot again Blurr slams his fist into the machine, rocking it back against the cavern wall more. "Get away from me construct!" Angerly he jumps back into his throne. "Your insolent intrusions shall be punished when it awakenes, surface scum!"

With a blast of fire and smoke the throne launches out of the cockpit, disappearing off down another shaft.

Not that it stops the zealot molemen and whatever those animate metal molesuits are, even as their machine is starting to fall apart beneath them.

Staren has posed:
    The ride gets bumpy. One of the plasma sabers disappears as Staren needs a free hand to hold on. Staren's eyes widen slightly as the scepter's pointed at him. He may not be able to dodge... but then Blurr keeps him from shooting. Staren tries to look unfazed as he starts making his way towards the front of the machine again...

    Only for the Mole King to eject. Staren stares at the rapidly-receding tunnel he went down. Damn it!

    Well, there's still other moles. And this machine to stop. Staren looks at the tear he's opened in the side of the machine, and gets an idea. He holds each hand up to the hole, firing micromissiles into it, but they don't detonate. Yet. Deactivating his saber and clipping it to his armor, Staren then reaches into his bag and pulls out a smaller satchel of a dozen grenades. He stuffs that into the hole too, then leaps back to the minecart train. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" He ducks down inside the minecart and sends the remote-detonate signal!

Blurr has posed:
    "Construct? Ha! -You're- a sloppier construct than I am, fleshbag!" No offense to friendly fleshbags in the area.

     Oh, so they haven't killed the workers yet! Good. But wait...

    "Awakens? When wh--" But the weird mole man king thing hits the eject button before Blurr can finish his sentence. Pfft! "Hey! I wasn't done with you!" Frag having to talk at a normal pace around most of everyone!

    But this isn't over yet! Taking note of the tunnel the 'throne' has gone down, the Autobot dashes after it, flipping back down into hover speeder form as he goes and hoping that the tunnel will be wide enough to fit him.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    For now Rebound is spinning around, kicking moles when they try to board, and generally getting moore and more pissed. She wants to jump over onto the mole's vehicle and beat the ever living hell out of the 'king', but that might not be the best idea right now.

    Thankfully all of the strikes she's been delivering have charged the Impact Drivers, and Rebound decides to test the projection feature. She leaps from the train car, onto the front of the mole's vehicle, and slams one of the drivers into the windscreen, triggering the projected blast. After it fires, she leaps again, using her enhanced abilities to get back to the mine car.

Tiki (850) has posed:
    Preparing herself to launch a second attack, Tiki keeps her attention solely on the mole-machine in front of her. But it is the sudden escape and departure of the 'Cavern King' that causes Tiki to lose her focus. She cranes her scaly neck around to peer down the mine shaft in which the King fled down. But she decides that it was a better plan to stay with the group.

    Therefore, the green dragon decides to help evict the remaining mole-men raiders by grabbing onto them with her claws and hurling them off the cart. It's not the most sophisticated battle strategy, but Tiki was going to make the best of what tools she had available to her as a dragon. It also will hopefully prevent Tiki from accidentally getting in the way of her more heavily armed comrades.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    "Antiwhatnow?!" Target calls, managing to catch the shotgun when it's tossed to him. Well sure, why not try it out? He was the guy testing out the Pulsarium rounds for the rangers, so, if he can avoid anihilating another gun, he's all for it! The kobold is quick to check over the gun, wanting to clear up out any ammo, but well, it doesn't have such a thing. "The hell, C'rona, it's a muzzle loader?!" Weird! Whatever. The bright purple shotgun shell gets shoved down the barrel, the butt of the gun hit against the edge of the rail car, and then Target takes a knee, aims, and makes sure the shotgun is -solid- on his shoulder. "Ah this is gunna fuggin hurt," he mutters before pulling the trigger.

    There's a long pause. Target blinks. Keeps holding the trigger, "Is thing gonna-*KRACK*THWOOOOM*-AAAAAH!" Two things happen. First, a massive purple blast of energy goes screaming out toward the molemen's chasing vehicle. The second is that Corona very -suddenly- has a passenger with her on the engine car. He hit the outer wall of said engine pretty -hard- too. At this time, the string of curses that the kobold is yelling doesn't need to be typed. Not one bit.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
Rainbow Dash can't help but grin when her hoof slams solidly into one of the mole people's helmets. "Hah, take that you-Huh?" The fact that the KLONK sounds a little hollow isn't lost upon her. She stares in confusion at her hoof, then the mole armor as it plummets towards the ground and shatters apart. "Oohkaay, that's just freaky."

But it doesn't take away from the fact that there's still many more of them. Or that their cart seems to be falling apart.

"Okay, time to bail!" Rainbow Dash flips around one of the mole armors, neatly aiming a one-two hoof-kick at its head. And using it to kick herself off, flying quickly from the breaking down machine and back towards Corona's minecart to help remove the last of the pirates with hooves swinging.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is going to not try to kill the molemen, she's more focused on stopping thier machine. Seriously what the heck are they smoking doing something like this? She has to wonder what has thme going like this. Is it greed or is there something going on where they are dealing driving them to do this back home. She's going to hustle and try to catch up with the fleeing moleman king. At the mention of awakens? That scares her it's more like something she'd expert to hear in Kingsmouth.

"Hey if you ant to use the insult get it right Blurr use Meatbag!"

However she does lob some flash bangs at the other remaining pirates while she her self backs off on the king.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"No, it normally don't USE external ammo! But the pulse will shoot the shell out just the same." Fortunately everyone else is doing just fine with the fighting so Corona can worry about keeping the mine-train going. "Last tunnel that leads back to the surface comin' up!" That's your warning to get back over here. And get the rest of the moles and mole-armors off, which is what people are doing already.

A kinetic blast shatters the already cracked windshield, the driver ducking down into the cockpit to avoid the splay of glass, but now unable to see where the machine is going. Staren shoves grenades in one of the gouges he's made.

And then a -massive- blast of strange colored plasma slams into the side of the monstrousity, pushing it off towards the back of the cave as Corona keeps the mine-train on the rails. "Get back in here," she grabs onto Target when he lands on the engine and pulls him back in.

Then pulls a red log-like bundle out of one of her packs. "Good thing I packed for an emergency!" She tosses that in the furnance, and with a roar of power red tinted steam belchs out of the train's stack while all the dials in the cap whirl precariously close to the danger zone as the mine-train takes a sudden burst of speed!

And leaves the deafening explosion of the combination of experimental ammo and grenades demolishing the machine when it runs into the wall behind them, the blast and the shaking rattling through the tunnels in its wake.

Eventually Blurr's headlights come upon the rocket-throne discarded at the end of the tunnel. But there's no sign of the so-called Cavern King having disappeared into the depths.

What -did- he mean by 'awaken' anyways?!

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "It's likely to explode, get-" Away, Rory was going to say. But well, all she can really do is take cover at this point. She doesn't know what to DO! Not at all! Except hunker and shudder. SO MUCH VIOLENCE!

Blurr has posed:
    It's not long before Blurr reaches a dead end, but only manages to find the empty ejector seat. "Slag it," the Autobot mutters. "Fleshbag, waterbag, meatbag, whatever." he says dismissively to Kotone once she catches up with him. "It all means the same thing." He begins searching for any signs of where that thing could have taken off to. Presumably, if they're subterranean creatures, it dug it a new passage somewhere, one that's too small for him to use.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    There's a low groan from Target. Well, low as far as kobold's go. "Ghhh.. jes wake me up when we get back to Loadstar.." he manages, clearly grogy from the kickback. He does, at least, have the sense to offer the gun back. "Lemme know if there's any damage, C'rona.. Rangers'll wanna know.."

Staren has posed:
    Well, that's the end of the mole machine! Staren watches the tunnel race by for a moment. "...Dammit." He looks between Corona and Target, "What did he mean by 'where all thieves and intruders belong'? Any idea? I don't suppose it's a local saying and not just a moleman thing?"

Rebound (750) has posed:
Rebound takes cover as the minecar speeds off with all of them in it, looking at Staren as he questions, "Yeah I was kinda wondering that too. Then again those mole guys might be crazy, this is the second major attack in as many months."

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
"Whoa! Wait up!" Rainbow Dash's wings are a flurry of motion as she takes off after Corona's minecart. It doesn't take her long to catch up, but she actually has to put effort into keeping up with it as it rattles down the mineshaft. "The hay are those guys deal? The armor things were totally empty!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite takes the shotgun back and returns it to its sling on her belt. "I'm gonna go out onna limb and hazard the guess he means the miners. They're pro'ly locked up deeper somewhere... And I don't know, Dash. That was just weird." The speed burst wears off just as the minetrain is coming to one of the rail inclines leading back towards the surface levels. "But we're gonna have to dig deeper to find the answers -and- the missin' folk."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa loads her rifle back n to her back and she watches them flee. She doens't seem to too happy as she leaps to get back from it and she then goes to Rorry to set a hand on her in an attempt to comfort the AGi. She knows she's not human but well Kotone is and she's doing what she can. Rory has become like family to her after all.

"Yes and I don't like this talk of awakening. This sounds like there might be a sleeping horror on your planet."

Blurr has posed:
    There are a lot of holes, probably...but none wide enough for Blurr to explore. But he'll mark this spot for later, it'll at least be a good start in searching for the missing workers.