Far and Away

Location: In the Ankara uplands, east of Istanbul.
Date: May 17, 2311


The hot sun pounded down onto the hard steel frame of the Dune skimmer Predator's Key, a strange triangular vehicle with a huge blue sail strung atopt it, and thee long stalked arms extending from the tips of it, the craft tore across the rough rocky landscape of the Ankara Uplands at breakneck speed, barely dogging small channels of former streams and huge stone formations that rose like strange golems out of the rough land.
Zen Awazura stood not at its helm, but at the stern, holding a large rocket launcher on her shoulder. There was a hiss of smoke as she fired off the rocket, it curved around in a long corkscrew behind the craft and exploded into a shower of brown earth on a rise behind her. She held her breath for a second then out of the cloud came another vehicle, it had no sails and the roar of its engines was audible over the rattle of the Predator's wheels. The other craft was closing the gap fast.
"Bastard!" She shouted launching off another rocket. But the shot spun wide and exploded in the air above the other craft.
Zen ran back to the center of the craft where the helm was and wrenched it hard to the right. The craft swung around under the sail barely saying upright. Down below there was a crash and rattle of falling pots and pans as everything shifted to one side.
The skimmer lurched over the top of a rise and went airborne for a moment before landing in a cloud of dust. She struggled to keep control as it sped down into a ravine and turned to race down its length. She looked back and saw to her dismay that the vehicle was still following her.
The Predator swung high around a corner, the sides of the ravine were growing higher and steeper, fortunately the wind was being funneled down the channel and she began accelerating.
Zen followed the twists and turns of the canyon trying to lose her pursuer. but they stayed close. She turned down another channel, the channel swung left then left again, turning back on itself. It was a dead end, she was trapped.
The canyon turned once more,spiraled up a small steep rise, then turned right and ended in a narrow cleft of rock above the main canyon. She took her skimmer into the cleft, hoping that they wouldn't see it then crept away, sneaking up a narrow ledge that circled around through a worn tunnel and exited above the channel before the last turn.
She waited for the other craft to roar by and screech to a halt at the canyon's end before silently dropping down and heading back towards them. She heard shouting.
"We know your in here bitch! Get out here and we'll go easy on you!"
There was a bang as one of them let lose a round.
"We can wait here all night you whore! The longer you wait the worse it'll be!"
"Damn pirates," She muttered under her breath as she peeked around the corner at them. There were three of them, one on the boat, two on the ground. This was going to be tricky.
Moving with the swiftness and silence of a desert fox she crept up behind the leader, who still didn't hear her over his own voice.
"Looking for me?" She whispered shoving her knife into his back. The man grunted and fell forward on his face with a thud. The other one didn't hear her but when the leader collapsed he turned to look. She ducked as he fired his gun, the sound alerted the other guy who grabbed his gun and fired off at her too. The shots went high as she rolled towards him then came back up kicking him in the face. she slit his throat before he could stand then quickly grabbed her gun and fired at the guy on the boat before he could get another shot off.
She looked around at the men lying dead around her, and she couldn't help but laugh, it was a harsh cold laugh, with traces of madness mixed in. The sound of her laughter echoed off the canyon walls and out across the dry desert, where it was heard for miles and miles.

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It only took Zen a little while to strip the ships and bodies of weapons, ammo, and anything usable. She lashed on the extra material to the side of the skimmer and crammed the inside of the skimmer as full as she could with water and supplies, nothing was wasted. She had nearly gone through all of the supplies when she heard something coming from the back, there was something back there and wandered back into the rear of the craft. There was a large cage in the rear of the pirate skimmer, inside it was a scared looking girl, with a gun pointed at her.
"Let me out! Do it now!"
Zen froze, beginning to reach for her own gun, then stopped. "Its alright, I'm not going to hurt you." She went over and unlocked the cage, when the did, the girl burst out of it, knocking Zen off her feet, the girl was screaming at her again.
"Get away! Get away! get away from me! I'll shoot you!"
"I'm not going to hurt you."
"Your lying! They all lie! Your just like those men!"
"Those men are dead! I killed them, I don't want to hurt you!"
"Yes you do!" She said breaking down in sobs.
"Listen, I promise I won't hurt you, if you come with me, I'll--"
"No!!" The girl screamed, trying to point the gun at Zen through her tear clouded eyes. Zen simply grabbed the gun from her hands and shoved it into a pocket.
"I'm not going to hurt you I promise." Zen said hugging the girl softly. The girl cried against her shoulder and then went limp, passing out from the stress. Zen rolled her eyes and took her back to the Predator, laying her down on her bed before finishing the loading.
Zen unfurled the sails and the skimmer rolled down the canyon and out onto a large wash, fanning out before her in a myriad of shallow channels. Zen took a guess and picked the widest and flattest looking one. As the twilight rolled in, the blue sky faded, giving way to the endless abyss of the night, leaving Zen alone with her worries, all that was heard was the wash of static, the hiss of sand, and the crunch of gravel. The cool night air flew by as the skimmer continued building speed. If the local hunters from Istanbul were still on her tail then they were far more persistent then she thought. The rough rolling hills of the Ankara uplands flashed beneath the wheels of the skimmer, its shocks pounding and jumping as the craft skipped and jumped over bumps and ruts. Looking over her rough maps of the area she knew that if she kept going this way she'd hit run into the impassible wall of the Trabzon Mountains, beyond that lay the Black Edge, huge slopes and ridges of land falling steeply into the Black Basin, her skimmer couldn't cross into the basin there. But if she turned North towards the Samsun gap then the hunters would be able to head her off, and the rocky cliffs to the south prevented any chance of escaping into the Mediterranean. Her only option left was further east, but that meant pushing further and further into the rough mountainous terrain of the Erzurum Maze, she could navigate it but it was dangerous. Not that she had much of a choice. She put her maps away and once again tuned her radio into the shiner bands.
"Hello? Anyone out here tonight?" The dark stillness answered her, a low drone of a motor was still heard in the distance but it wasn't gaining and sooner or later it would run out of petroline. The cool desert air made the sky seem so much deeper, a bottomless void from which there was no escape. away to the far north flashes of dry lightning lit up the sky. The quiet was both welcoming and unsettling, the world was just so...empty.
In the fading light the desert was very quiet, very still and very lonely. The path opened up into a large shallow basin, it was pretty big because she could barely see the far edge, a smudge of darkness in the clear night air.
There was a roar of machinery heard in the distance, making her swear under her breath, she couldn't believe those people would chase her this far, or be able to track her so well, and she was running out of options, there was only one chance. She swung the sail east and glided over the basin, going farther from people, and deeper into the high desert. Like a warning of impending doom a flash of lights flared off far away in that direction, a strange ghostly beacon heralding her to both safety and danger. She took a deep breath as the basin slowly rose onto a rough plain, the whine of engines was still audible in the distance, there was no turning back now.

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Location: The Erzurum Maze
Date: May 18, 2311

In the morning sun the Dune skimmer hopped and skipped at a decent clip over the rocky, rolling hills of the Erzurum Maze. Staying in the valleys where the wind was funneled down, she made good time.
This rough rocky landscape was barely explored and ill mapped, a smart person would have headed south or turned around before they came this far, but she didn't, she headed northeast for the Azerbaijan valley, from there it was smooth sailing all the way across the Caspia Basin, and beyond that, well no one knew what was beyond that.
The air was crisp and cool, Zen turned on the gas fire and threw on a hunk of meat. She tried not to think about what she was eating because the thought of doing it always made her stomach churn, but out here she couldn't afford to be picky, besides, people were just as nutritious as other animals, and if those pirates had caught her she'd have ended up the same way. She didn't want to know what they had done to the girl, or what they were planning, but she was still asleep. Zen left a plate of food near the bed for when she woke up, tossed the bones off the skimmer and went to the radio, she held still for a second, making sure the Predator kept flying straight then flicked the radio on.
"This is the Predator's Key calling, is there anyone on today?" She said hopefully into the microphone of her radio. There was a moment of silence then a rough voice came through the static.
"Predator's Key this is the Kobiashi Lark, is that you Zen?"
"Nales! I haven't heard from you in ages!"
"Hey Zen, Well its good to hear you too, any good runs lately?"
"Not really, I made a good catch in Istanbul but I got into a barfight with some locals, apparently killed the son of someone important, I barely made it out alive, I think their still chasing me."
"Well I'm heading for a meet and greet with the Lodeka on the Black Basin in a few days, Captain Jimmy said he's got a deal for me, can you make it out here?"
"No, I'm cut off, they sent their guys north and cut off my access, and the land gets too rough for Skimmers further south, so I've been running East, figure If I reach Azerbaijan, I can either swing northwest and get to the Black before they get to the valley or if I don't beat them there I'll head for Caspia and try to go south from there."
"Be careful Zen, that's deep desert out there, and there's a storm brewing up north."
"That's not what I wanted to hear."
"The desert is a harsh place, I've heard my share of stories about the deep desert."
"You didn't believe them."
"Nah, but still, better safe then sorry, me I intend to stay away from the deep desert, you wanna risk getting close to it, thats your call. but be safe and find your windfall."
"I'll do my best, Predator's Key, signing out." Zen stuck the radio back in holder, sure enough, there was a light haze in the northern sky, a storm was brewing.
Zen kicked a lever that sent a second set of sails out of the first, the skimmer gradually picked up speed, bouncing along the rough ground, in the light of the rising sun the horrors of the desert seemed lost into its stark beauty.
"Sometimes I wonder..." Zen said twirling her knife. The desert was silent save for the steady flapping of the sails and the creaking of the wheel struts.