Genosha - Step by Step: Aerial Recon

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Sam and Callisto fly over a mining site to video some mutant mistreatment.



Seeking out the pockets of mutants they were informed would be there, Sam kept an eye out as he flew closer to the target area. Knowing there were others out there still fighting the good fight gave him some much needed hope following what had felt like such a very hopeless situation. "Think we're drawing close now, we should be seein' something soon."

"'Least I don't have to be in a chopper for this, that's all I'm sayin'," Callisto muttered. "Fuckin' hate choppers... Hey, bear uh, left a bit, would you - over toward that ridge?"

Off to their left was indeed a long, low line of foothills that at one point formed a ridge where the sides of the hills had been worn away over the millenia in that way that looked as though some giant had taken its hand and just scooped up a handful. Not that Callisto was convinced there hadn't been giants doing just that at some point - there was a lot of stuff about the world that Callisto didn't know and frankly there wasn't much that'd surprise her.

The base of the slope was thick with forestry and the hills themselves dotted with debris, scrub and trees, so it was hard to see what might lie nearby from where they were.

Once Sam saw to where Callisto was pointing he shifted his trajectory to that direction, eyeing the landscape for signs of life as he did so. Nothing jumped immediately to sight but then again he reckoned that if people were hiding out here for a reason then they wouldn't exactly want their location to stand out against to anyone that might be trying to find them.

"Let me know if you see anything of interest or need me to go closer." Callisto's abilities were thankfully much more suited to this task and Sam was just the mode of transportation, really, and he'd take them wherever they needed to go in order to accomplish their task.

"Circle round the back of the ridge," Callisto suggested. "Take a wide loop and when we get round behind we'll be able to get way closer."

"Roger that." Sam carved a wide arc through the sky as he looped around as requested. His passenger was right and as they started to approach the area from behind they got a much closer view. He spied what looked like a tent in the distance ahead, which might have been the signs of life for which they'd been searching. "Over there, what's that?"

"Looks like some sort of worker camp..." Trusting the harness they'd rigged to hold her weight, Callisto reached into one of the zip pockets in the body warmer she'd (reluctantly) donned for the mission to retrieve a small but powerful digital camera, securing it carefully to her wrist.

To Sam it immediately brought back memories of his father and the mines in which he'd worked back home before his job had claimed his life. He'd worked those same mines and they'd been horrible, but they seemed like a paradise compared to the conditions he saw below them. "It does, a horrible one at that, like a slave camp." The workers looked severely malnourished and ill fitted for their jobs, most of them dressed in no more than rags; some had even fallen over and were left unattended, no one rushing to treat them or see if they were even alive. He shook his head and fought hard against the urge to fly down and help people, though in the long run that'd only jeopardize their mission and the larger goal. "Are you gettin' all of this?"

"Gimme a minute, I need to find the fuckin' video setting..." Callisto muttered a few more choice names for the offending device before she found the relevant button.

"Right," she said eventually. "Let's make a movie."