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The bright morning sunlight shone onto Krill's exposed face. Krill stirred and woke.
Disoriented, he at first thought he was back at his home base. But as he rolled over, the
rocky ground dug into his back, and he was brutaly reminded of the previous days long hot
journey through the vast hardpan desert that encompased the entire planet. Krill sat up,
looked around, and carefully checked his belongings to make sure nothing was missing.
Finding his ordinary looking staff, and Hunter where he left them beside his makeshift
bed, he stood up, and put them on his person, and began to prepare for another day's
travel. Once his meager possessions were stowed on his person he started away from the
cliff where he slept moving towards the metallic glint he saw the night before at sunset.
No sooner than he passed into the shadow of the cliff, a voice called out "One more
step and I'll blow your filthy head off" Krill stopped moving.
"Now turn around where I can see you," the voice continued. Krill slowly started
to turn around. As he was doing this his hands went to his staff, and with practiced skill
found the trigger button that would fire the shotgun concealed in his staff. Hoping that
his assailant wouldn't know what could be packed into these innocent looking staves, Krill
finished turning around and pointed the business end of his staff towards the figure on
top of the cliff behind him. As soon as Krill could see the figure on top of the cliff he
adjusted his aim and pulled the trigger firing his last shell.
His shotgun staff responed with a comforting BOOM and resulting kick. Krill's aim was
true, and the figure on the cliff toppled over backwards with a suprised cry. Krill
responded by bolting towards the shadows at the base of the cliff. No sooner than Krill
reached the base of the cliff than a yellow colored cylinder bounced off his head and
rolled away from the cliff. Seeing the canister, Krill dove behind the protection of a
nearby boulder as the canister exploded into a fireball 2 meters across.
As krill crouched behind the rock awaiting any more canisters and wondering how the guy
survived his shotgun blast, he heard a sound from above. Looking up the cliff he saw a
rope drop down. As he continued to watch, his assailant started to rappell his way down
the face of the cliff. Seeing his chance, Krill crept a little ways away from the cliff
and took out his hunter. Taking careful aim at the figure on the rope, Kill pulled the
trigger. The shot went true, but Krill watched in dismay as the bullet hit its target, and
then bounced harmlessly away.
Armor! Thats how he survived the shotgun blast, Krill said to himself. Well there are
somethings, not even armor can stop. His attacker seemed unconcerned that he was being
shot, and continued to climb down the rope. Krill responded by taking out one of his
throwing stars. Taking careful aim, he sent it winging towards the rope supporting the
climbing figure. Krill winced as the star missed the rope and glanced off the rock face of
the cliff with a ringing sound. His attacker realizing what was happening, started
descending faster. Krill took out another star and again sent it winging towards his
attacker's rope. Again the star missed, but this time went sailing out into the desert.
Undaunted, Krill drew a third star and tried again. This time the star flew true and
neatly severed the rope supporting the climber. With a startled cry he fell the remaining
20 meters to the base of the cliff and struck the ground with a resounding metallic crash.
Before the dust could settle, Krill had his sword out and was on top of the inert figure.
But it wasn't neccessary, from the angle of his head, Kill could tell that his attacker
would not attack anyone anymore. Searching the body, Krill found 3 more of the yellow
canisters that had bounced off his head, as well as a long sinuous belt of ammunition for
a weapon the guy wasn't carrying. Setting this aside, Krill dug further into the body's
gear, and trimphuntly came up with a credit disc. Turning it over Krill saw the balance
read 612. Krill did a little dance around his plunder. Six hundred credits! He was rich!
Well, sort of. This would help pay his bills and get the bill collectors off his back for
a while.
Stripping the armor off the body Krill was disappointed to discover it was too small to
fit him. Well, he could sell it. And if nothing else, put that towards some more of his
bills. Then he looked around for the gun that went to the belt of ammo he found. People
just don't carry that much ammo around for their health. After thoroughly searching the
ground around where his attacker fell, Krill suddenly realized that the rifle was on top
of the cliff. He remembered seeing the guy drop it when he got shot. Looking up the 50
meter cliff Krill was reluctant to start climbing it. However even if he couldn't use the
rifle, he could always sell it and put its price toward his debts.
One hour later Krill finally made it to the top of the cliff. Having only fell once, and
that only at low altitued, Krill was pleased with himself. Once on top of the cliff, he
looked around. About five meters from the edge of the cliff, Krill saw what he was looking
for, the rifle. Picking it up, he looked around again to see if his attacker was hiding
anything else up here. He was about to leave when he saw a tire sticking out from behind a
rock. Walking over to investigate, Krill was delighted to find a 2 x 4 cart which looked
to be in full working order, and complete with a weapons system.
"Ah, so you've come back finally," the cart said in a friendly tone. "Did
you get anything?" The cart started to turn itself around. "I heard some
shooting -- Hey! Your NOT my master!" the cart realized when it saw Krill.
Krill realized that he had an even bigger find here if he could keep it. This was a
buzzbee, and they went from 3,000 Cr on up, and this one looked quite nice. On the back it
had a canister launcher that enabled it to throw canisters like a person.
"I am now" Krill replied to the buzzbee.
"We'll see about that." The buzzbee replied opening the lid on its canister
launcher.
Krill realized he had a problem. "Your master is dead, he fell off the cliff" he
told the buzzbee.
The buzzbee paused for a moment. "Really?" the lid on the canister launcher
closed. "Then I'm going to find another master" The buzzbee turned around.
"Bye!" he said leaving a cloud of dust behind.
Oh well it was worth a try Krill said to himself. Glumly he set off towards the metallic
glint he had seen before. After several days of travelling, the glint turned out to be a
base. Good, he could replenish his food and water supplies, but also bad, because bases
more often than not held bill collectors. Krill was fed up with their tactics to get him
to pay, which was why he left the last base he was at.
Builder is a Role-Playing Game set in the far future. This is a future where technology is
supreme, and can do just about anything.