Unexpected Findings, Ragnor, part I

Sand, how he hated sand. It got in everywhere. Seventy-eight percent of all hardware malfunctions and breakdowns were caused by tiny rocks called sand. Not to mention the other difficulties it brought to his daily work. It was good that he didn’t need much to get by; roaming the dunes didn’t earn him a lot of resources to spend. When he periodically relocated to the Industrial Trade Centre to resupply, he didn’t stay longer than was necessary. He wanted to get back out into the sand. He hated the sand, but he loved his work and unfortunately his work was sand.

‘WARNING. ENGINE BLOCKAGE. VALVE ONE.’

Alert klaxons woke him up. One point six hours, a timer showed in his collar monitor. A good long sleep he thought as he rose from his dark, rusty, sleep alcove.

‘Type of blockage?’ he asked and gasped.

‘UNKNOWN,’ the metallic voice answered flatly.

‘It’s not unknown to me,’ he muttered. ‘I know exactly what it is, and you should too,’ he yelled, not thinking it strange to talk to a machine.

‘HAD A GOOD SLEEP, ESTEEMED TECH LORD VICTOR RAGNOR?’ the machine said. It was not programmed to wait for an answer so it immediately went into standby to conserve power.

‘Very,’ he said mostly to himself and ran a diagnostic on vehicle systems.

The title Tech Lord was one that hadn’t been used in society for four decades and he had programmed the computers to address him as that, only to remind him of what he once had been. He stretched his gleaming arm, took a piece of cloth in the other and dipped it in a bowl containing something liquid and oily. After polishing his arm he stretched it again and it whirred and clicked pleasantly. Satisfied he walked on the grated floor of his inner vault and into access corridor 1-b. As he climbed through the maintenance hatches and access tunnels he thought about the latest chapter of a book he read. Saccarias Absurdum was a testament to, the long dead, scientist and entrepreneur, Jovalt Saccarias part in the economical downfall of the confederation of Atles. Although the entire book dealt in insults both founded and unfounded towards the poor Jovalt, he couldn’t help but admire this genius, this pioneer in colonisation development and bringer of light to a new world. Of course the book was written by a religious zealot and that served only to reverse all insults and criticism to something good in his admiring eyes. Finally down in the main engine bay he grabbed a long metal rod and poked gently at Valve one. As he thought, the valve was blocked from the outside - outside where sand comes from he thought. He drove his bionic arm straight through a discarded heatshield and cursed. Letting his anger fade he grabbed a grey dustcloak and opened a small door in the loading gate and went out, onto the dunes. He trod the nearest hill of sand to get a better overview of his vehicle.

Over 40 metres long and 20 metres tall, the great engine's beauty never disappointed him; of course it would have dissappointed any normal person, but they where not Victor and he admired the blocky Excavator type XIV to no end. It was the one he had commandeered when the Technocracy fell and he was forced to flee torches and pitchforks out into the desert. It had been his personal project, his brainchild and a unique prototype that was yet to be revealed and put into production. Unfortunately it had not been completely functional and it had taken many years until Victor had got it to reach full functionality. Its black, monolithic, hull was the only thing that did not have the white colour of sand for thousand of kilometres and its threads and giant earth moving equipment had left a straight trail behind for anyone to follow. Not that anyone would be foolish enough to do so. The excavator was designed to move alone as a mobile factory for months at a time and search the wastes for the hidden riches they harboured. He saw something shimmering that was stuck under the Valves external flaps and moved in to get a better look at it. Surprised that it wasn’t sand, his anticipation rose because there was only two things out here. Sand - and ancient artefacts.