VNCA

CH. 5

 That day was balmy as the SDC train rocketed along the tracks between Vanuoan and Valian territories, moving to deliver another shipment to the city in the desert. The cars rumbled softly as the robotic guards, the MK.2 Atlesian Knights, patrolled their sectors, ensuring the supplies were still secured. Every five minutes, the drones would send electronic feedback to the onboard system that linked them all together at the Schnee Net. If any of them were confronted, the alarm would be sent out for immediate help. It almost seemed like a peerless system, even if the Knights were part of the older guard. Ever since the fall of Atlas; the destruction of it as well as Mantle, and the struggled creation of New Atlas in the shadow of the former great cities, understandable cutbacks were not a rare occurrence.
As the trees around it soon cleared and gave way to smooth sands, a distant sound began to draw closer on both sides of the metallic serpentine transport, the roaring of engines. Large, gray-colored vehicles, two one each side, kicked up sand behind them as they sped up along the train. Two of them were heavy-duty four-door cars, that looked like they only needed armor plating to belong in some kind of battle. The other two looked like delivery vans that were modified to be able to keep up with the first two.
"Hurry up, the window's closing!" growled one of the men in one of the following vehicles. Behind the pitch black glass, the clicks of weapons filled the small space. "Boss says we gotta be on there before we hit the dunes!"
"Still cant believe she let us do somethin' like this, finally! No more small-time shit," another snorted.
"Thank her husband's brother. He's been jawin' her ear off about trying to 'think bigger'. Even convinced her and her brat to join in too."
"So wait, Boss Scarletta's comin' in? I didnt even know she could duke."
"Oh, believe me, she's got skills."
There was a shared chuckle between the men, almost as if it were a dirty inside joke, before the driver raised his voice.
"Hey, ya mugs! Boss says to get ready!"
The door to the side slid open as the vehicles all came to the sides of the train's flatbed car. The wind and sand whipped across the lightly armored mobsters as the vans pulled as close as they could. One by one, they leapt from the vans onto the moving platform. From the van on the other side, first stepped the boss of the Scarletta Family, a flowing, cloudy white dress and her favorite red feather boa streaking from her neck down her arm. Her heels clicked against the metal floor of the flatbed as she was joined by two others.
Her brother in law scanned around, hard brown eyes looked for anyone that may threaten them while his dark-brown furred coat blew in the wind. He took the pocket watch from his oak green vest and flicked it open as Vilano joined the team, taking his mortar weapon up.
"We're on schedule, Etna," he told the matriarch as she looked over her men.
"Good, then let's get to work. Cedric, take a group and take over the lead car. Vilano, everyone that Cedric doesn't take, you're with me. We're finding the Dust."
"You heard the lady!" Cedric yelled as he shouldered the heavy bazooka weapon with an eager, almost wild grin. "Get to work!"
The teams split at the flatbed. Vilano made short work of the door leading into the car behind it, knocking it clear from its hinges with one good swing. The flying door took out one of the guarding drones, sending it to the floor in a heap of metal and wires crushed under the weight. The mother and her son were the first two into the car as weapons quickly turned to them. Vilano jetted forward first, taking out the nearest robot as it tried to take the first shot. His hammer swung low, knocking the weapon—as well as the arms—into the air. He followed through on the momentum, and swung around, sending the crippled guard into the wall. Another approached on his left, and he kept the momentum alive, spinning his body and letting the end of the handle take out one of the knees of the robot. When he followed through, he struck the back of its body, sending it flying to where his mother was. He looked up, at four moor approaching down the narrow car. The momentum was gone, but the power was still there, and he took a flying leap towards the Knights, raising the Vesuvius Fault over his head and clicking the trigger at the handle. The fire Dust mixed with the flammable liquid stored within, and the hammer ignited in a blaze of glory! The second it slammed into the ground with a tremorous force, a wave of flames crawled along the ground, sending the robotic guards flailing back with the force of the explosive wave.
At the end of his rampage, Vilano raised his head, looking proud of himself, before he heard the frustrated voice of his mother.
"Vilano, I told you," she said sharply and coldly like a knife cutting through the air. Vilano's smile was cut down as he quickly turned back to face her. In her hand was a hardlight revolver, fading away while she walked away from a guard with a bullet hole through it. "We cannot risk the Dust. Any stray flames or shakes could be the end of all of us," she warned. Vilano took a steady breath in, taking the words as he nodded.
"Yes, Ma," he responded, and received a pat to his shoulder.
"Still, you did well." Her gaze turned to the crates, and she had one of the fellow mobsters bash open the lock and force it open. Inside of the crate, an array of colors nestled tightly in soft foam shone against the mafiosa and her son. Ever since the fall of Atlas leading to the desruction of much of the Dust mines, the short supply had led the SDC to create more synthetic Dust crystals to counter the loss in supply. They couldn't compare to naturally-made ones, but they were still valuable enough to fetch the right price.
"Jackpot, boss!" one of the men yelled.
"Vilano, stay here and help to load the Dust. I'll continue ahead and find the rest of it," Etna said. Her son was about to object, but not a single syllable left his lips. "Dont argue, just do it," she stated as she strolled past him and beckoned a few others to join her as they pushed through to the next cart. When the door opened, they were met with lines of Atlesian Knights, curled up into fetal positions and stacked along the walls. Their face plates were dead-black, and the bodies didn't even twitch with activity. "There's nothing here for us, keep going," she said as the mobsters ran past her and the offline robots. When they opened the door leading to the next car, it was a similar sight to the first: white metal crates lined around, accompanied by active Knights, who already had their weapons trained on the door.
Etna acted quick, turning the wheel on hr ring from the burning red gem to the light blue. In one fluid motion, she spread her arms and circled them in the air in front of her, creating a large ring of hardlight between her and the robots just as they started to fire. The light blue shield already began to crack under the rapid bombardment against, and the boss acted quick. Her ring glowed again as her arms spread out pulling a sharpened spear of hardlight from thin air, and sending it crashing through the shield. The weapon stabbed through one of the Knights, taking it to its knee as she summoned another weapon and charged forward. The blue bow staff was swept at the legs of two of the metal soldiers, taking them down before she stabbed the pole through one and vaulted over. To her side, Etna saw her allies take down one of the robots that moved faster than her, before her high-heels connected to the neck of another robot. The link was almost entirely severed as she stepped down on the throat of the collapsing drone and lifted the staff. A quick twirl gave her the momentum she needed to knock an arm from the next one, then uppercutting the head into the air like a ball. She felt the power surge from the showy flourish, and reeled her arm back, before launching the pole through the center of another drone, pinning it to the wall until the pole vanished. She whirled around, letting her hands pull the sky-blue outline of a fancy two-barreled pistol from the air. Her first shot finished off another drone that her men were shooting before she kicked up. The high-kick caught the neck of another drone that she spun to the ground before executing it. The last of the drones made a move towards the mafiosa, bringing around its rifle to her, but it didn't get far. Etna quickly came around, throwing her hardlight pistol to the robot and nearly taking its head off as the weapon shattered and vanished to the air.
The air quieted as the last robot sputtered to its death, and Etna looked over. Her men were coming up from a couple of bodies on the ground, two of her men who weren't lucky enough to survive the fight.
"Boss," one of them muttered. "They got Louie and Alex."
"Two of you, get them back to the car we came on," she softly sighed over the losses. "The rest of you, start moving the Dust. We dont have much longer before we reach the dunes."
Just as the men started to move their dead and the crates of Dust, there came a heavy clunk from the car in front of them. All movement stopped for a second before another clunk broke the silence, then another. The two taking the Dust crates dropped their cargo and picked up their weapons just before the door hissed open. One of the men trying to move his dead friend suddenly found himself unable to move, his face caught in the steely grip of one of the Knights. He dropped his friend and screamed a scream of fear and sheer agony, before there was a sickening crunch, and silence. The man's limp body was thrown aside before the robot was riddled by bullets. It was quickly replaced by another, then one more, and more and more as the drones poured through the doorway.
Vilano heard the clunks of metal against metal from his end of the work as well, readying his hammer as he told for the others to work faster. When the red-faced drones burst through the doorway, Vilano jumped forward, sending the head of his hammer into the chest of the first Knight. It took a couple of others down with it to the ground with it as more stepped over, bare hands opening as they charged after the son. Vilano answered their threats with his own, jumping up and slamming his weapon to the ground. A couple of them staggered back but the wave kept coming. He stepped back, narrowly avoiding the grasp of one of the robots towards his neck, before transforming his weapon to its heavy mortar launcher.
"Va fangool, meengya!" he shouted as he squeezed off the trigger once. The blast of fire dust kicked back as it rocketed forward, and the massive explosion rocked the train from the inside out. The other mobsters shouted in shock as they were knocked back from the shockwave.
"Hey, watch it! You wanna blow us all to Hell?!" one of the men snapped loudly to Vilano. He turned back to the man with a voice twice as sharp.
"Then move faster, capeesh?! I'll keep the capo off ya!" The other men couldn't even argue, Vilano didn't pay any attention. He put another blazing mortar into the crawling crowd of robots, feeling the shockwave of explosions hammer against him with each shot. That's when he saw a familiar face through the scrap and destruction: his mother, slaying the robots one after another with what remained of her men.
"Ma!!" Vilano yelled, trying to get his mother's attention. "Ma, stay there, I'm coming to get ya!"
"No! Vilano, get your uncle in the head car, take out the system and get out! I'll be fine!" she yelled back before drawing another two-shot pistol and ventilating a couple of drones. "Vilano, be safe! You can find me later! Go!!" Vilano looked back behind him. The leading train car didn't look too far; he knew he could make that. But his mom, she was right there! He could save her.
"Sir!" one of the men called, getting the attention of an agitated Vilano. He finished his words for the man.
"Try to save her! I'm going for my uncle!" he snarled, and transformed his mortar to the hammer form as he rushed out to the flatbed car, and through one sat of busted doors after another past groups of men working on moving Dust collections, leading up to the main car. The sliding doors hissed open, and Vilano skidded to a stop when he saw one of his uncle's goons holding a shotgun point blank to a person. But, that was impossible. There weren't supposed to be any people on there, it was all supposed to be machines!
"P-please, dont do this! I promise, I wont tell anyone!" the man pleaded.
Cedric sneered, a cigar in his teeth and a nasty look in his eyes. "Oh, I know you wont."
"No! No please!!"
The shotgun blast was deafening, even though everyone could hear the empty shell clatter to the ground before the corpse of the man could. He joined the bodies of two more on the floor, all pooling crimson liquid beneath them after grizzly deaths. Cedric looked down to the man, knocking ashes from his cigar by his corpse. "yeah, you aint gonna tell anyone," he growled.
"Cedric!" The shout came from Vilano, who looked equal parts horrified and furious. "What the hell was that?! We dont kill people!!" he said as he rushed forward, making sure to not step on the bodies. "You just--"
"I just made sure that nobody knew it was us here! Kid, this is the big leagues now! We're not just working on money laundering and trafficking here, no more low-budget stuff, we're in the big games now! We're making a big name for ourselves!" Cedric looked proud of himself as he picked up his weapon and transformed it to its battering ram mode, letting it lean against his shoulder. "Sure, some people aren't gonna make it, but you know the saying about eggs and omelets, right?"
Vilano moved without even thinking. Part of him wanted to use his hammer on the man; take him out at the knees to send a message, but he couldn't, not yet. His fist would do, especially the one with his knuckles wrapped in the metal rings that delivered that extra kick to knocking the wind out from Cedric's lungs. As the man doubled over, nearly coughing up a lung and trying to regain his composure, Vilano lifted his hammer, and swung it down as hard as he could onto the computer terminal against the wall that controlled the drones' programs. The computer was flattened into the floor, leaving only stray sparks, wire and scrap.
"Ma's orders; we gotta get what we can and go, now!" he spoke with frustration in his voice. The men that were there didn't even question it, leaving the head car as quickly and quietly as they could. When Cedric was all that was left, Vilano took his collar and jerked him towards the door. After this, he and his men would be lucky if they were on gardening duty for the rest of their days, Vilano would see to that. Just as the man was able to force himself up and shamble to the door, the Scarletta Son reared his weapon back and put it through the control terminal.
–
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Vilano raised his weapon as he continued falling through the air, firing off a burst of explosives into a cluster of trees. The arbor was reduced to kindle and char before he hit the ground, even when he aimed the mortar back to give him a boost. At the last second, the young mafioso transformed it to its hammer form, and waited until the last second before slamming the head to the softened, hot dirt. The kinetic force turned him over in the air, and he landed with a soft grunt in the middle of the clearing. The handle and hammer head transformed, collapsing as he rested it on the holster on his back. His eyes went up, eying the mountains where the end of the forest rested.
'The headmaster mook said to look for the cave on the other side of the forest?' he thought. The young man ran forward, dodging between the trees with a grin. 'Hah, fugheddaboudit, too easy.'