Excursion into the unknown

The way down the rocks was a tad bit more challenging than getting up in the first place. He didn't want to cause a rock slide and wasn't quite sure of the integrity of some boulders. A lot of them just embedded in very dry clay, the only thing holding him back from crushing him if he got careless. That stuff wasn't on his mind on his way up. He got down safe and sound anyways, no pressure.

The first thing on his mind now was checking if the person he shot was really dead or still alive somehow. Finn expected to see a human face lying in the dust, but what he saw there was something different entirely. It was very humanoid in stature. But that would be where the resemblance ended. Kicking it lightly, it didn't make a sound or moved, which was good.

Turning the body to it's back from its face planted position. He could make out a very scaly face. It was a freaking lizard man. His scales were a very light yellow, making him look like a pale bearded dragon. Quite a sight to behold. It's stature was almost as big as him, but quite a bit bulkier. He could see now where the shot hit. Right in the neck area between his many skin flaps, where the only thing stopping it was a cloth draped around his neck. There was almost no blood. Just a burned hole biting deep into the flesh, still smoking a little.

The weapon he was carrying the only thing of immediate note he possessed. It was exactly the same as the one he already had but with a sling attached. Just as scratched and worn out. He took that with him and it's belt with some small pouches that was catching his eye. The contents were a mystery for him but looked to be somewhat useful. The belt was a solid leather and fit well to his current garments, replacing a leather sash.

Still feeling quite okay and not freaked out by the corpse, he chose to go and check what was left behind. He definitely would not hassle with burying the reptilian man or any other bodies. He was too tired and hurt to do that. And he didn't really care about them anyway.

Strutting through the now dust free place of action, he noticed a lot more reptilian people among the better armed side. There were also some other alien looking species, though all of them were humanoid. Someone had a weird head shape and green skin with yellow patches. Another looked human but had four arms and skin protrusions in place instead of hair. There was even a red skinned woman with big horns coming out of her head that curved downwards, making her look like a literal demon.

The reptilians had left the small motorcycle looking vehicle. Now that he was standing right beside it he noticed that it hovered, though it definitely looked damaged. It was slowly veering to it's left side and sliding away at a snails pace. This was the only way of transportation for him now, and maybe his way out of here, remembering the speed the other hover vehicle had.

There was an important looking button on it's small console that he pressed. It turned it off, or at least made it stop moving. It was still hovering, but almost on ground level. It wouldn't run away from him now. It was four meters long and had a geometric shaped main body, attached with long metal protrusions reaching forward, probably for stability and better aerodynamic. The best part was that it also had enough space behind the seat to put stuff. There were still some smoldered remains of a carrier net attached.

Sitting down on the seat for a moment to relax, he took a look around him. He would definitely need some water first, then maybe something to eat, his stomach already giving some protests now that he was relaxed enough to even notice such a thing. His heart wouldn't allow it for him to leave anything valuable behind, that meant weapons, ammo and other stuff that was maybe important.

He justified his goblin instincts with the situation he found himself in currently. Going around, he noticed that the reptilians had left the guns of the other group. Examining them carefully he noticed why. They were more conventional guns that shot bullets with gunpowder, not the laser variants. He could distinguish them by having some wooden parts and mostly being bolt action or single shot guns.

There were no laser guns left anywhere except the ones he carried on himself. The lizards took them all. The only things in the pile that they didn't manage to take with them were a piece of body armor that had a few dents and a hole in it, two bags filled with more stuff that he couldn't quite figure out. Most importantly a bunch of bottles and another smaller bag filled with an assortment of crackers.All taken from their fellow kin. The stuff from the others was still there. Though he had to agree it was all in much lower quality.

Anyway, he began with taking a mighty swig of stale water and munching some crackers, getting him back to full energy. After that he filled all the well maintained and better bottles with the ones he could still find lying around. He was a bit confused that one of them apparently had a highly alcoholic content. He could definitely find a use for that, almost having mixed it with the others.

Most of the individuals also had small pouches attached to their belts or small bags with them. He poured all the small contents in bigger bags that he found, that originally had an assortment of clothes in it. He also took one of those with him, having chosen a few that would maybe fit him and some blankets and clean rags he could use for other things.

There were three guns that he chose to take with him that looked to be in better conditions than the others. They all used the same type of ammo which made it easier for him. Two bolt action rifles and a big handgun, which he had found two empty spare magazines for. They could only hold five shot each but he loved the design of the gun already. The corpse it originated from had a fitting holster for it, that surprisingly had a small magnetic lock to attach it to. It worked like a charm and looked badass on him.

The bags were all easily secured on the back of the hover motorcycle. It handled the additional weight just fine, even when he turned it back on. The last thing he did before leaving was robbing a better dressed corpse it's cloak. It was a soft but thick fabric and colored in a very light tone of grey. He also found glasses that would protect his eyes from dust while driving. They reminded him, and looked like some kind of snowboarding glasses.

Securing his middle length hair and face with a makeshift shemagh, which he made from a nice piece of cloth he found, he was truly ready to go. Sitting down on the seat and grabbing the handlebars tightly, he looked at the shafts and buttons again. The controls in question didn't really look like they originated from a motorcycle and more like from the cockpit of a small plane. The handles were secured in rails that looked like they could be pushed froward, so he did just that.

Low and behold the thing moved, very fast, he pushed way too fast to start properly and was rocked forward, until he removed the pressure again, very quickly of course. Luckily the load didn't fall off or anything, it was secured tightly enough. He tried another time, albeit slower and more carefully. This time it moved much better, he chose to head into the direction of open field, with no obstacles for kilometers. Gradually gaining a lot of speed, Finn felt extreme satisfaction. This was truly awesome.

The ride was incredibly smooth and he was just getting started. There was a small display at the front that showed the number 134, if this were kph, he was faster than he thought to be. Slowly putting more and more pressure on the handles the number increased accordingly. The handles were pushed half way when the speedometer hit about 200. Deciding to go even faster he pushed more and more.

The was only an open flat area in front of him, no point for any worry. Three quarters and he was past 300. At that point the speeding craft was actually making quite a lot of sound. He was able to push all the way and brush just past 400, but at that point the thing began to protest quite a bit. No dangerous sounds, but he could just tell by the way it vibrated more and more. Finn slowed down back to just above three hundred and continued forward.

There was not really any direction he really wanted to go, so he just chose a random one. In the distance he could see the occasional canyon and mesa hills, reaching quite far into the sky at some occasions. If the sun set in the east here, he was going roughly south, sometimes having to slightly change direction because of a big rock formation in his way.

It looked like he was worried for nothing. The Sun not having moved that much from it's previous position. By the time he though had passed, he estimated that he had another three to four hours before sundown.

After about two and a half hours of speeding through the desert landscapes, he still hasn't found anything that signed towards a civilization, which made him quite surprised. Even with the slight changes in direction he had to have had at least traveled 600 kilometers already, which meant that he either took the entirely wrong direction or there simply was none around here. He didn't really knew what he had hoped to find anyway.

Stopping on a particular high dune he took another look around at the horizon, he could see way farther than he was used to. Only blurry mountainous shapes visible further back. There was nowhere he could really go except continue. He could just camp in the open desert, but he wasn't so sure about that, it felt like a bad idea. Maybe a sandstorm would occur. There was also the possibility of predators out here, choosing to come out at night. Most desert inhabitants were nocturnal, the time of day too hot for them to survive. It was a quick way to lose more hydration than you could recover while living in these landscapes.

He thought that it was a good idea to find some sort of rock outcrop he could hide beneath, or maybe even a cave. Though that was very improbable with the kind of rock there was around here. More likely to find ravines or a small canyon that would be good enough. He chose a direction that he felt looked promising and just went with it. It was one of the few mountains he could see in the far distance.

It turned out to be the right guess. After not that long of a time, he arrived at his set goal. There he chose to go further down a bay like intrusion at the side of the giant plateau and found more than he bargained for. The first sign of civilization in the landscape he found. It looked much like a medium sized quarry going into the sides of the plateau and down into the ground. The desired rock being a beautiful sandstone with some traces of a quartz like crystalline substance.

One would never have known it to be here without having dug at least dozens of meters into the rock. There were still some giant blocks of the stone cut outs placed outside the quarry. Looking around a bit more for some sort of building or something he couldn't make out anything. He concluded that it was abandoned for too lang to make out anything. Which in turn was maybe not that good of a sign.

There was a great spot to camp for the foreseeable future, right between a few of the absolute massive sand-marble blocks that were lying next to each other. There was enough space to park his hover-cycle and make himself comfortable enough to sort through all of the stuff he took with him. Maybe finding out the uses of some if not all scavenged items. Everything was just different than he knew.

Giving a last look around he did just that. He should probably get some sleep first though. The excitement of riding that fast had been stronger than his apparent tiredness. Now that he got off, the exhaustion came crashing down on him.

Somewhere in the packs were a few blankets, it would take some time to search for them. Time in which he would get even more sleepy. Just in time as well, the sun finally touched the horizon, giving the sky overhead a marveling mix of pink and orange. Bright stars already quite visible.