Tunnel Rat-Tunnel Rat 455: Chaos and Control

Sadly, there was no biologist to observe the arrival of the Bearmobile in Rum Bottle Bay. It would have been an ideal time for a study on how different races handled the stress of dwarven-made roller coasters designed to increase toughness. Butch was a little queasy, but since gnomes also had a toughness stat, didn't mind the stress, and was happy to see it finally start to improve. He'd only been able to budge it before with Boss Experience or by taking nearly fatal hits from creatures above his level. Not a good, repeatable strategy. Min hopped out, laughing and pointing at the rest of the group. Orc biology was up for any physical challenge.

As for everyone else, things weren't so rosy. Bork crawled from his seat and found a corner to sit in until things stopped spinning. Bork loved rollercoasters, but not the after effects. Nina was able to shake off the effects, but she hadn't enjoyed the trip. Her Perfect Balance ability had constantly screamed at her which way was down, and her Danger Sense insisted she get away from whatever was causing her to flip and roll. Belinda had turned a pale shade of green and was mumbling 'empresses never puke in public, empresses never puke in public' as she climbed out of her conveyance. Taking a deep breath she cast Blissful Restoration, recovering immediately. She offered to cast it on the rest of the Alphabet, but all refused, wanting to see the extent of their reactions to the ride. Not so Brad and Kenji who happily accepted the spell.

Algernon was standing stock still, hands behind his back, ill but ignoring the flipflops in his innards. The airship pilot had a skill called Steady as She Goes that let him keep his cool at the helm of the ship through stormy weather, enemy fire, or kamikaze dragons. He'd gain a rank and his experience was still going up. Zander shook his head from where he lay on the floor. He stared at the spinning ceiling, obviously distressed, but waved off an offer of the spell. Zander's eye were changing color every few seconds and he was seeing things no one else could see. "I think...I think I'm gaining some interesting perspectives on how my aspect works. That only looked like chaos from my point of view. In actuality, the ride is controlled by physics, gravity, the twisting path of the rails and when the conductor fires off the rockets. Controlled and Chaos, working together."

Hammerlock grinned, "That describes a lot of the folks down here. You'll fit right in. Speaking of which, let's get moving. Brother Milo wants you over at the project. He's in one of those odd moods where he's working faster than three of us and crazy as a beardling on his first jug of whiskey."

Belinda had seen Milo in that mood many times. "Min, carry anyone that can't walk and doesn't want a cure. The sooner we see what's going on, the sooner we can make him take a break and get something to eat."

As they left the rail station and saw the scope of the caverns size, there were audible gasps. The cavern stretched to the right and left, their sight limited by gas lamps and their ability to see in the darkness. The Engineers had immense, glowing lamps hanging from the ceiling ever fifty feet that managed to illuminated the areas under construction in light as bright as a full moon. Rows of gas lamps along the streets surrounding the outline of the bay lit up those areas at ground level. It only took a glance at the structure of the exposed ribs and spine of the great Bone Beast for the Alphabet to understand they stood within the body of the creature.

Zander did the math on its possible length, threw away the calculations, did them again, and got the same answer. "I am so glad we've never have to fight something like this. I'd have just stared in wonder while it ate me. Wait, are these still around? I'm totally willing to be a small snack if I can see one."

Onyx laughed at him, "Milo stated that he has met and conversed with one of them that resides in the void, flying forever. He fed the asshole wizard to it. Nina and I want to offer our personal thanks some day, and I'm extremely curious about how we'd get an airship into the void to meet it."

Bork shuddered, "Nope, nope, nope. I don't like the idea of floating in endless voids with no bottom. I want a lot more land around me. Like this place. Room to move, lots of tunnels to hide in, but solid ground everywhere. I felt very exposed when we were traveling. And I'm getting a very good vibe from these people. They're all running around crazy."

Algernon started walking, "Then we need to find out where the interesting stuff is happening."

The sound of large explosions came right as he said that, cannons firing in the distance, and then more cannons. Lastly, twin sonic booms rattled the cavern."

Butch turned and headed toward the noise. "If there's a fight going on, Milo will be in the middle of it." No one disagreed and they all began to jog in that direction. Scavengers and dwarven Engineers agreed with the idea and joined them. The crowd jogged or ran through the buildings until they came around the last building and the area where the construction of the bay was going on. At one end, an earthmoving machine was scraping up the rock and dirt that was being chewed up by another machine. Huge grinding wheels were deepening the bay one foot at a time as it chewed up the floor and continuously moved along.

At the other end of the unfinished bay, instead of a fight, they saw an area set up for target practice. Large rocks had been moved into a line with distances marked, and targets painted on them. One was protected by a heavy shield of Hammer Steel, and another had a large chunk of snail affixed to it. A line of cannons were being gleefully loaded by Scavengers with their Engineer helpers, and fired at the targets. A large pile of empty rum and beer barrels attested to the seriousness of the operation, as did the stacks of cannon balls and a heavy bunker where the explosives were being stored. Milo was walking back and forth with a clipboard, taking notes.

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Consulting it, he pointed to a crew of Scavengers. "You lot are up next. You get to test the new Dark Steel cannon. Feel free to load it with as much powder as you like. The Hammer Steel bands should handle the stress. Figure in a higher muzzle velocity and flatter arc. I'll let you figure that out."

The women laughed, "Figger it out? Go on with you. We just listen to the cannon, she'll tell us how to aim. Load her up with a four times the powder and let's see how well that armor holds up."

For all their drunken laxness, Milo had saw that the crew of a Scavenger ship knew how to shoot. Whether this was through practice or talking to the cannon, he was unsure, and they refused to reveal their secrets. Which was fine by him, he had many secrets of his own. They'd been belligerent at first, chaffing at his insistence on testing each new cannon for both accuracy and firepower. That had ended when he'd challenged four crews to a shooting match. The Scavengers had all hit the rocks they targeted, sending up clouds of dust and chips of rocks. Milo had cast two Harpoon of the Winds, adding in an extra Speed and Sundering rune to each. Both shots created the sonic booms heard throughout the cavern and the large rock had disappeared, shattered into rubble. They drank a round of rum, and grudgingly agreed to follow the directions of the fuzzy Engineer who was packing around the equivalent of a heavy ship's cannon in each hand.

They were also quite delighted to find out all the cannons they were testing were at least twice as powerful as the guns they were used to. The gun they were about to fire was at least double the size of the others. The crew was actually being careful as they touched flame to it and set it off. "Fire in the hole!" The gun rocked backward on its carriage, and the ball flew in a straight line with almost no arc at the target protected by a chunk of Gargantua's shell. It hit dead center, but didn't crack the thick shell. To Milo's horror, the ball rebounded back toward the crowd. His mind worked as fast as it could, but there simply wasn't time to cast a spell. The ball of Dark Steel, more deadly than any cannon used on a ship headed to the group of people who'd just jogged down to observe the tests.

Min knocked two people to the ground and somehow had her club out and held double-handed like a bat. Milo could only watch as she swung at the cannonball, knowing what was going to happen, seeing her death in his mind and the ball careening through the Engineers behind her. She could respawn, they wouldn't.

Min didn't seem worried. "Ha, I've got this. Return to Sender!" Her club smacked the cannonball and sent it careening downrange where it hit another of the targets, shattering it and bouncing another fifty feet downrange.

Min swung her club in a circle and grinned. "Works on Fireballs and Lightning Bolts. I figured it would work on a cannonball." Scavengers swarmed up to her, congratulating her on her shot, and she found herself dragged off celebrate with them.

Milo ran up to his family, accepting hugs and greetings. "Good, you're here. I've got jobs for all of you. I've got weapon testing here, combined with seeing how well the Hammer Steel, Snail armor, and some composites of both hold up. If a couple of you can take this over, I'll show the rest around and I can distribute you to teams testing the new brain interface, mechanical muscles, power systems, and experimental runic defenses. Those are what we're running today, but I've got ten more teams working on other projects."

Nina interrupted him. "Milo, what are you doing?"

"I'm building a better bear. Once the project started, I realized there were so many ways we could improve things and lots of the Scavengers and Engineers wanted to help."

"Oh, really, and you think injecting the bunch of us into the project, only half knowing how the physics and magic of this world works is a good thing?"

He smiled, "I trust you all."

Nina didn't give an inch. "Trust us to do what? And don't wiggle out of it. I've seen you in action. You don't do just one thing at time."

He scratched his head, and thought for a moment. "Well, yes, there are a few plans in my head. But I trust you to find flaws, come up with new ides, create as much chaos as you can, and keep everyone working together at a fever pitch. It's how we work at home."

She nodded, "It is. But you aren't just building a bear, are you?"

The rest of the Alphabet was listening and watching. When Nina got into this mood, and smelled a mystery, she didn't let up. Milo said slowly, "Well, I am building a bear...but it occurred to me that what I really needed was a much bigger group of people all working together on projects and coming up with innovations. We've got Scavengers, people from the Hollow, Engineers, and now you guys. The new drills were the first stage. A better bear is stage two."

He gestured around him. "We're training to work as a big team. There's a lot of projects on the job board. And after that? The biggest shipyard in the world, building a fleet of mechanized and heavily armed submersibles."

She rolled her eyes, "And once you have that? A fleet isn't a goal, just the tools you need for the next stage."

He nodded, "The Scavengers and the Engineers see it as a goal, along with salvaging the Queen and hunting treasure. I have a few other things I'd like to do with them." He paused, and they waited for him to continue.

"I want to go eel hunting, and find the Treasure of King Mattias."