Avius, Underbelt - Sector 7
Circa 2940.

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Perpetual darkness.

Echoing gurgles of metallic colons.

Mundane odour of decay.

That was Underbelt.

For Mira though, that was home. If it wasn't for the daily ration of jiggly and ugly looking protein block, a couple cups of water and her dearest companion, Rogue, she would have long perished from the surface of Avius.

"Now, what we are looking for is a tiny Zantium -54A battery, Rogue." Mira nonchalantly scanned the scrapyard, her hands carefully moving away unnecessary junk jutting out of the ground. Metallic cans and plastic crumpled beneath her worn-out shoes. "So stop showing me those old scrunchies."

"But you said you needed a scrunchy this morning, Mira. I have to agree, your hair is quite unkempt and if I am not mistaken, it definitely smells."

"Duh. Is that new? It always smells." Mira chuckled, tucking in a matted strand of mahogany hair behind her ear. "Now, concentrate."

"Alright, missy." Rogue replied, his voice mature, yet monotonous.

A metallic ball, not more than half a size of melon, levitated and flew past Mira.

"Search-bot mode on. Scanning sector seven- Underbelt for Zantium battery, series -five -four -A." Rogue announced gently as he began. Red laser beam from the underside of the ball sweeped and scanned every creek and crevice of the scrapyard.

Miles and miles of techno-junk filled the sector seven, only to be limited by a giant curving wall.

Mira always wondered what lay beyond that wall? They said it separated dark and cold Underbelt from the warmth and riches of Upperbelt.

But, was that true? What if Upperbelt was one of Imperium's many lies? What if it was another big scrapyard... Just like underbelt, but upside down?

Rules in the Inikan Codex said that once an avian citizen was sent to serve his punishment or stranded in the Underbelt, he/she were not to be taken back. It was after all a prison, a giant dumpster to dispose off criminals, techno-waste, junk and of course, unwanted children like herself.

"The object of search identified. Target locked, Zantium isotope - 16 present, current status of the battery - non-functional." Rogue halted, now the laser scanner had turned green, locking an unknown object on the rusty ground in an irregular circle.

"Yess!" Mira hissed, wading through the sea of garbage, her footing clumsy at times. She couldn't contain her blithe anymore.

She had promised Reno Murrey from the Sector-2 that she would get him his battery. But reconsidering her backup plan seemed more apt, she could easily live off a week or even more, by selling the battery to a bootlegger.

Mira kneeled and pushed away a chunk of metal, a breastplate of an android and many such scraps to find the battery.

No luck.

"Hey!" A blinding flashlight glinted from a distance behind the barbed barricade. "What are you doing there? Hands up."

Too late to give up, Mira searched the spot frantically. Her breathing was erratic, heart thumping every drop of blood into tiny beads of sweat pooling between her eyebrows.

Still, no luck.

"I said, hands up!" The watch guard's voice yelled. His grey jumpsuit, the imperial symbol of falcon in flight materialised from the darkness

Rogue's scanner suddenly pointed at the breastplate lying at a foot's distance, Mira grabbed it instantly and ran for her life. Rogue buzzed behind her like a bee following its queen dutifully.

"Decamp activated. Gauging distance from the opponent. Approximately 16 meters and closing in." Rogue concluded, all the while Mira sprinted and jumped off the barbed fence.

Mira was careful enough not to come in contact with the fencing. If she did activate one by fluke, she was in a big trouble.

Running away from a guardsman of the scrapyard with a flashlight and a taser gun was different. But dealing with an army of imperial commandoes with their android kill- mongers was a whole another business.

"Mira!" A raspy voice hollered from the other side of the fence. "Here." He gestured his hand to a thin lane which slithered between a well planned grid of Goliath recycle units.

Mira closely followed the tall ebony boy. His curls bunched up by a blue bandana fastened around his forehead, bounced everytime he hopped over tedious concrete hurdles and obstacles. Mira couldn't help but get distracted by them.

"Opponent lost. Redirection initiated. Gauging distance to sector three, 1.2 kilometres." A circular display screen on Rogue, flickered various numbers and a line map to reach a location named 'home' came up.

"Oh shut up, Rogue." Mira stooped forward holding her thighs, panting like a dog on summer street, sweat only worsened the moldy hay odour in her hair.

She felt utterly revolted. Her stomach flipped and churned, partly because of hunger and partly in exhaustion.

"Bot mode off." She snapped in spite.

Blank dark screen on Rogue, suddenly changed to a smiley face - two red pixelated eyes and a mouth flashed alive on the dark screen. "Now that was a good chase, wasn't it folks?"

"That sure was. Phew!" The boy sat down in squat, thumping his chest with a fist in relief.

"How do you describe a man with taser gun?" Asked rogue. His voice was still monotonous, yet was laced with subtle hilarity.

"Uh...guard? Police?" The boy squinted an eye, his another brow shooting up in amusement.

"Reno is wrong. Mira, your turn?"

Mira shrugged, still breathless. Her bony structure highlighted by a distant ruddy industrial light.

"Stunning." Rogue stated, his pixelated smile widening.

Mira blankly stared into Rogue's face for eternity.

"Taser. Stun-gun. Stunning? Makes sense?" Rogue's smiley face changed to an exclamation face.

Reno and Mira exchanged a blatant look.

"Guess it's not a suitable time for pun." Rogue imitated an exalted breath from the cyber-net.

"Hey, Murrey. Did you find one? Because I found one. Isotope-16, non functional. Know of any bootlegger, we could trade it off for a week's ration? What say?"

"No. I did not. How could I, when my android is broken because of yours?" Reno pursed his lip, his thin finger pointing towards Rogue.

Rogue's display changed his expression into a guilty-face. "Rogue did not want to hurt Blink. It was an accident. Bot fight was Reno's idea."

"Yeah. It was your idea." As if on que, Mira spat. "You were the one who wanted to bet on the water. I haven't had bath since seven days because of you. Blink is broken because of you, Reno." Mira huffed, folding her arms tightly to her almost flat chest. Lard was never a feature of women living down here in dungeons.

"C'mon man! You could have easily taken Blink down, when she was already broken. Mira, you know exactly whose mistake that was." Reno raised his brow in defence.

"Yeah, right? Because mine is a bot with morals, it's our mistake now." Mira bit her lip bitterly.

"Rogue can fix the battery." Rogue muttered, a guilty-face still plastered on his display. "I could hack into some of the imperial military codes through cyber net."

"Alright. That's it." Reno chirped, getting up after a good rest. "Clever...and apparently a moral bot."

Mira turned the breastplate retrieved from the scrapyard upside down. There was a lump of wires with severed cords stuck at the center, and beneath that was a small three centimetres glass tube with blue Zantium liquid placed between steel stabilizers.

She wasn't sure if it was safe to attempt hacking into imperial military codes, but the imminent danger of getting caught by a guard overrode all other fears for the moment.

"Let's get out of here." Mira took the lead to get back to the bunkers in sector three.

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Wc- 1290

Thank you for being here, I appreciate it. Let me know if you have any suggestions, I'll gratefully accept. 😃❤️