Of the many things that were buried deep underneath the piles of trash, pre trash planet built mega structures were one of the few survivors that stood tall amidst the veritable see of plastic, steel and sewage.
Large enough to be mistaken for a mountain from afar, it's height was enough to deter any Dumper's trash dumping efforts leaving it unburdened by the accumulating trash surrounding it.
And as an incredibly prominent land marker amongst the ever accumulating piles of trash, life of all shapes and sizes took shelter underneath its roof, shaping the mega structure to their individual liking.
The culmination of all their combined efforts was the megastructure that he and Eva saw before them as they slowly approached it from behind a line of other vehicles waiting to enter.
Intermittent motes of light leaked out of the whatever cracks and crevices they came from, smoke and smog belched out of metal pipes protruding from the concrete hiding both the light sources and the number of graffiti, advertisements and gang signs plastered all over the building.
The graffiti was nothing special as it was mostly just the usual of obscene artworks, slurs in some unknown language and some other things that were a bit to covered up to make out.
'That dumper in the side of the building is an interesting choice though.'
Turning his vision away from the gang signs tagged over debauched artworks plastered over advertisements, Ester angled the Driller camera upwards for a better view.
Half of its body protruding from the top of the Megastructure, the fat box like ship was relatively untouched save a few glowing splashes of graffiti and destruction on its body.
The familiar gang sign plastered all over the front end of the Dumper were a whole different thing though.
'Why couldn't it be any other gang controlling this place? Why did it have to be those Mechaphiles?'
Rubbing his face as he sincerely pondered that question, he let out a sigh.
It wasn't problematic to be caught by the gang of Mechaphiles controlling the mega structure per se since they were a relatively reasonable bunch.
An overly weird and excitable bunch but they were reasonable nonetheless.
The problem is that when it comes to their desires, that reasonableness ends there.
And thanks to that baldy old geezer...
'I'd feel much more comfortable if they just wanted to kill or control us.'
Observing the glowing steel plated jaw that was the lower half of their gang sign and remembering the digital clock built into the metal skull that would be placed atop that lower half, his imaginations were interrupted when the front half of the Dumper disappeared as Eva finally pulled into the inner depths of the Mega structure.
Staring at the screen now showing a ceiling covered in melted droopy plastic and dusty concrete cracks with a strange sense of apprehension, Ester shrugged away the apprehension and began to prepare for the outing.
Worry didn't change the facts.
If the two of them wanted to survive the drive to the north for the Space Flight Key that would get them off of this Architect forsaken rock then they needed repairs.
Repairs that they could only get in Junk Bunk unless they wanted to get their on foot.
So despite all his worries of what would happen if they got caught by those Mechaphiles, there was one thing and only one thing he could do.
His best.
---
'I know that I said I'm going to do my best but this is just insane, where the void are they?'
Having paid the price to put the Driller in a parking lot that belonged to a female cyborg that wasn't on the verge of escaping to take Spark from their Spark Plug, the two of them were currently roaming around the Megastructure in hopes of finding someone to help repair the major damages.
On the surface it seemed to be a simple task, find someone with the facilities to repair their vehicle, pay them, get out before the Mechaphiles discovered that they were here.
Underneath the surface thought there were a number of problems including but not limited to, swindlers who would demand an absurd upfront payment before running, scammers that proudly showed off their equipment that was all show but no substance, grifters that would replace the high quality stuff with lower quality things if they looked away...
And that's not including the multitude of other dangers that comes with living in such an enclosed space of criminals thrown here by society.
Voids below the blood wasn't even dry and they were taking the body to do whatever the Void it was they did here.
Walking out of another the fifteenth vehicle repair 'shop', Ester sighed.
Another bust.
'Just where the Void are the Vehicle repair shops that have reputations to keep?'
Thinking that as he walked into the throng of people making their way to various parts of the megastructure Junk Bunk Ester kept a firm hand on his pockets as he shoved his way back to where Eva was.
'Now where were you- Ah.'
Finding Eva at the nearby corner, Ester immediately set course for her.
Keeping a watchful gaze on her surroundings as she fended off any greedy hands aiming at their luggage with a menacing glare and a knife, he reached her side just as she was scaring off a slum rat pretending to lose something near her.
Catching sight of him, she waved her hand. [D-did you find what w-we're looking f-for?]
"Nope I-"
*Thunk
'?'
Feeling something underneath his foot when he walked, he looked down to see a small car.
'...' Ester turned to look at the Slum rat lingering around the corner, their eyes switching from him to the toy on the ground.
It seemed that the Slum rat pretending to lose something near Eva actually lost something near her.
After the brief interlude of giving the toy to the Slum rat alongside an arrow for their troubles, Ester and Eva continued the conversation as if nothing had just happened.
"Where did we leave off again?"
[Y-you just came to me a-after leaving that s-shop]
"Oh yeah."
Coughing into the palm of his hand despite being blocked by the Respirator on his face, the conversation continued as if nothing happened again.
"I wasn't able to find any repairs shops." Ester rested his back on the same wall Eva was on. "Ones that have a reputation at least."
[A-about that.] Eva said, her gaze still scanning the surroundings for people that weren't like the Slum rat. [W-while you w-were looking f-for p-people that h-have a r-reputation to k-keep I was l-listening for some rumors.]
"And?"
[Even i-if we go up instead of d-down, all of the r-reputable s-shops are closed d-down.]
"Wait what?" Ester furrowed his brows as he glared at a pickpocket trying to act nonchalant as they neared them. "Did you hear about the reason why?"
[No but...] Eva dexterously spun the knife in between her fingers. [W-word is o-on the s-street that t-the mechap-philes a-are gathering t-them all t-to strip the D-dumper for p-parts]
"That... makes sense actually. Ester looked at Eva from the corner of his eye. "When did you hear it appeared?"
[E-eight d-days ago.]
"So when Phase 2 happened?"
[That's w-what they're s-saying.]
"..." Ester pushed himself up and off of the wall, a muffled sigh piercing the hiss of his respirator's nozzles. "If the Mechaphiles are involved it's safe to assume all those guys are a lost cause."
[P-Plan B?] Eva asked as she pushed off of the wall, her hand tightening the straps of the bag on her back.
"Plan B" Ester nodded.
[It's g-going to be e-expensive.]
"What isn't?" Ester rolled his eyes sarcastically before becoming serious. "But yeah, we definitely need the parts to fix the Extractor. Unless you want to visit the rift again?"
[I-I like many t-things, p-pain isn't one o-of them.]
"That makes sense." Ester nodded his head as he and Eva walked into their first material shop.
[W-what. I-I. G-g-get. You?] The shop owner spoke haltingly through their speaker.
Ester walked forwards. "Well to begin with do you have any steel plates?"
---
[Someone is following us] Eva tapped onto his lower back, all five of her fingers shifting positions in an instant to convey this information.
'Should we split?' Ester replied, pushing the limits on the pneumatics in his right hand as he naturally glanced back at the follower that had appeared somewhere between the time they entered the fifth or sixth material shop.
[It depends, do you think we can lose them with all this stuff on us?]
'Not really but do you think we can ambush them?'
Eva glanced at the reflection of a particularly reflective metal doorway, her eyes widening then furrowing.
[We could but there is a problem.]
'Well that's just dandy, what's the problem?'
[They belong to the Mechaphiles gang.]
Ester blinked before he instinctively threw a glance over his shoulder to confirm what she just said and lo and behold.
A mechaphile in all of their metal coated glory.
Quite literally showing their glory.
[Why don't they ever wear clothes do you think?]
'So that when someone cuts it they have an excuse to replace the wiggly bit.'
[Weirdos. The lot of them.]
'Back to the topic at hand, do we split?'
[He can only track one of us.]
'How many kilograms of explosive do you think I can stuff into them?'
[How about we don't entertain blowing up body modders to space and just focus on meeting up back at the Driller in an hour or so?]
'See you in an hour.'
Letting go of Eva as they reached a crossroads, Ester began to bob and weave through the crowd, his grey hood blending in with the throng of people.
A cursory glance to his back confirmed that Eva was doing the same.
'Now what's your choice modder?' Glancing back as he confirmed that the body modder was having a bit of trouble choosing who to follow, after a few moments time the cyborg seemed to have made up their mind as they went on to follow Eva.
'Ah.' Ester suddenly stopped in place, annoying a few of those walking behind him.
Adjusting the bag on his back as he rolled his right hand, a cold glint appeared in his eyes as he spun on his heel and went to follow the cyborg in turn.
---
A Towering figure clothed in a clothed in a large cloak patched together from several other much smaller cloaks to accommodate the Towering Figure's large body hunched down to stare at the computer screen properly.
Lines of runic code running through the screen reflected against the Towering Figures mechanical camera lenses as the lens focused and unfocused briefly.
Then the towering figure spoke, a cold mechanical glint reflecting off of its camera's.
[S-send a-a message t-to our p-people at J-Junk Bunk, the t-two we a-are looking f-for are there.]
Seemingly speaking to no one in particular, someone nevertheless received the message.
The computer screen flashed as several somethings passed through it, a picture of a boy and girl hiding their grey hair underneath hoods as they ran replacing the lines of runic code on the screen.
The Towering figure moved their arm, a thin skeletal yet nonetheless metal limb reaching out to touch the screen.
[S-soon.] The towering figure whispered before the light on the computer shut down, leaving the towering figure alone in the silence of their own breaths.
---
20 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
8 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
8 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
+++
Tree that just found out that his friend has a video of some random guy fucking shooting himself in the face with a shotgun just lingering in his photo gallery.
Also just wondering if this tree should put a digital prison that shoots your attention span with shorts before isolating you in total darkness or save it for later.