assistance

The sun slowly comes up, and it is now morning. Sharin is awake bright and early to make a meal for Gerand's trip over to the vista and scout out the front lines. He packs up his things and heads out to knock on his daughter’s house. "Rey, it’s time, get up." He waits for a few minutes and, after not getting a reply, tries again, nothing. Worried, he opens the door slowly and peeks in. "I’m coming in, Rey, you okay?" He heads to his daughter’s bedroom and hears her in her bedroom. He then hears her get up and slowly walk to the door. "*sniff* I’m sick, Dad. I think I overworked myself. I’m gonna lay down for today *sniff*."

Gerand nods. "Okay, I’ll tell Sharin and head out. I'll be back later today. Take care." Rey thanks Gerand, and Gerand heads back into the main house to inform his wife. He opens the door, and Sharin looks at him confused. "What’s the matter?" Said Sharin. "Rey's sick, so I’m going alone." He then turns around and heads out. When he leaves Sharin rolls her eyes and smirks. "Oh, she's sick, is she." She gets out and heads to her daughter’s house. She opens the bedroom door and sees Rey sleeping. She then walks up to her bed and removes her blanket. "Mom...im sick *cough*." Sharin then pinches her on the cheek, and Rey yelps in surprise and gets up. "Oh my, it seems you're not sick anymore." Sharin chuckles. Rey looks down nervously, laughs and rubs the back of her head. Rey then apologizes and tries to make an excuse, but Sharin sees past it and takes a guess. "You want to go see Carlos, don’t you?" Sharin folds her arms and looks down at Rey. Rey embarrassedly nods.

"It’s just...he forgets to eat and I get worried and I think he hasn't slept at all and..." Sharin stops Rey and chuckles again. "Oh my, what am I gonna do with you? You know your father's not gonna like this." Rey smiles and shrugs in response. "I’m not angry. I’m actually quite happy to see my little girl growing up." Sharin then shows that she brought some wrapped up food with her. "Here, I made some food for the both of you. Go over to him and be careful. I haven't heard an explosion all night, but Xin knows one’s coming sooner or later." Sharin shakes her head and laughs.

Sharin then hands the food over to Rey and leaves. Rey is excited for a full day, just the two of them alone. She doesn't waste time; she gets up and heads out. Excited, she jogs over to the cave and, once there, slowly makes her way in and calls out to Carlos. "CARLOSSSS...CARLOOOSSSS... IT’S ME REY.... I BROUGHT FOOD. How deep is this cave?" Not hearing anything back, she heads further inside and sees a light. She gets closer and is amazed at the lights and all the glowing runes everywhere. She carefully watches her step, not wanting to step on any slabs of runed rock. Now, deep within the cave, she finds what looks like a person. Thinking it’s Carlos, she walks up to it.

"Carlos...are you ok?" She gets close enough to notice it’s not a person, but a statue made of rocks and mud. She ignores it and looks for Carlos. Looking past the statue, she finds Carlos sleeping. Carlos suddenly gets up. "Ugh...who...wha...im....zzz." he then falls back to sleep.

Rey walks up to him and gently tries to wake him up. "...wha happen...Rey?" Carlos then stretches and rubs his eyes and groggily says. "What are you doing here?" Rey then holds out the food Sharin made for Rey and Carlos. "Oh, yeah...I haven't eaten again. Thanks." He grabs the meal and eats at his table. Rey eats standing up and looks at the statue.

She points at it and asks, "What is that?" Carlos looks behind him and answers. "It’s what I’ve been working on. I’m calling it a Sentinel. It’s supposed to take orders, move around, but most importantly it can fight." Rey then asks. "So what's wrong with it? Why isn't it doing anything?" Carlos sighs, "I’m trying to make it work without building a skeleton for it. The skeleton takes too much time to make, but I might have to just settle down and make them."

Hearing this, Rey gets a cold sweat and looks at Carlos like he’s gone mad. "Dear lord! How are you gonna get these skeletons?! Are they animal bones or human ones!? I’m not helping you just so you know!" Carlos laughs, puts a hand over his eyes and shakes his head. He then clarifies, "no nonono, no bones, nooooo. I’m making them out of stone." Carlos then gets up and walks to a pile of runed stones and takes out a rod and lays it on the table. "This is one of five parts." Rey leans in to examine the rod.

The rod has runes from top to bottom. It’s pretty big, so she assumes it’s the “spine”. Two more things that stand out are its smooth appearance and a jagged edge. She grabs the rod and heads to the statue; Carlos doesn't stop her. Once at the statue, she looks at the rod then back to the statue and sticks the rod into the back. It sinks in and aligns itself and disappears into the mud. The statue does nothing.

"It’s not working?" Rey exclaims. Carlos chimes in, "well that’s part one of five. I haven't made the rest." Rey nods and leans on the wall again and eats. "So, can you show me how these rods are made?" Carlos sighs, “It took me almost all day just to make that one. Are you sure?” Rey gives two thumbs up in response. Carlos then gets up and then picks up a hollow rod and a stone hammer. The hollow stone rod has runes and some makeshift rope made of whatever he could find. Strangely, the rope glows, meaning it is also runed. He then walks up to a wall and places the rod on the wall and smacks it.

It stabilizes itself mid air and Carlos lets go. Then, a small concentrated explosion on one end makes it spin. Then another on the opposite end, it spins faster. Carlos waits for the rod to pick up some speed and hammers it. It goes into the stone and drills away. At full speed, he hammers again and again until the rod is fully in the stone. Fully encased, it shrinks ever so slightly. Carlos then grabs the rope and with all his might he pulls. The stone rod eventually gives and breaks off. He shows it to Rey, and she claps. “That’s so cool! I’ve never seen or heard anything like that in my entire life. I don’t think anyone has.”

Carlos blushes and gets flustered. He rubs the back of his head and smirks. “well I uh... yeah, it is pretty cool, ain’t it, hehe.” He then sighs. “But it’s not done. The real issue is the next step.” Carlos then heads to his desk and gets a small chisel. He then gets the rod into a makeshift vice that holds the rod steady and hammers away. He makes rune after rune from top to bottom. He then opens the vice and rotates it and does it again two more times. It takes about an hour, almost two, and he finishes. Once he’s done, he’s amazed that Rey stayed the entire time, never complaining, never making a sound. She was happy to watch him work. Taken aback, he asks, “Oh, you're still here? I thought you'd left at some point.” Rey shakes her head. “Why would I leave? I like watching you work, you know.” Carlos is at a loss for words, so he grabs the rod and hands it to Rey. “So that’s the second one.” Rey then questions Carlos. “I thought you said it took you all day?” Carlos nods. “It did. You didn't see the part where it took me all day and night to figure out how to chisel out a bit of stone in the shape of a rod. Then chisel it out and then halfway through come with a better but more difficult idea that took me another day to make that other rod over there.” He points at the hollow rod. “That right there has sped up this entire process by a lot. But sadly I need to make another one because this rod is too small to be the spine.” Carlos gives a depressing sigh. Rey looks at the smaller rod and asks. “Can’t you just make the Sentinels shorter?” Carlos blinks for a minute and face palms. “You know…that’s a good point. The rest will just be smaller.” Rey laughs at Carlos's realization.

Carlos, frustrated, then adds. “We still need three more. That’s the reason I was trying to come up with a faster way to make the Sentinels.” Rey examines the rod intently. She then asks, “So...since you need these to make your Sentinel thingy to work, how about I help you?” 

“Uh...help how exactly?” Rey then picks up the chisel and hammer. “I’ll make the runes and make it exactly as you made it. I have a really good memory and extremely good hands.” Getting an idea, she sets down the tools and gets up. 

“Carlos. Did you know some talents aren’t activated but are working all the time?” Carlos slowly shakes his head, and Rey gives a smirk. Rey then bends her body to show off her flexibility. All the while doing it in a slow, sensual manner. Carlos can't help but blush and stare in awe. “See, my talent makes me very flexible and also helps with my coordination.” She then bends over backwards, looking up at Carlos and smirks. “Um....never knew that.” Carlos blurts out.

Rey stops showing off and smugly looks at Carlos. Rey then sits down and asks again if she can help. Carlos, still a bit flustered, nods, and Rey claps excitedly. “That’s great! You make more rods and I’ll carve them.” She smiles up at Carlos.

Carlos gets to work drilling away to make more rods. Once he finishes, he sets it on the table and Rey gets to work. At first she was slow, but with enough practice she gets faster and faster until she’s going faster than Carlos. After an hour, they finally finished the last rod needed to finish the Sentinel. 

“Amazing, I thought it'd take the rest of the day, but we've already finished the rest in a few hours!” Rey proudly stands tall and hands the final rod to Carlos. “I’m so excited to see it work! Come on, come on, show me.” Carlos nods and stands before the Sentinel. He sticks the rod inside both arms and legs, and it twitches. It moves erratically and shakes. For all its movement, it stays put together. “O...ordders”. It speaks in a monotone voice with an occasional gurgle. The Sentinel then salutes and stops its initial erratic twitching. 

“Fascinating.” Carlos rubs his chin and wonders how he could further improve the Sentinels. “It talks! It can move! It’s alivveeeee! You did it, Carlos! Your its papa hehe.” All this praise makes Carlos blush. Carlos clears his throat and looks at the Sentinel. “Follow me.” The Sentinel nods, and Carlos goes outside the cave, Sentinel in tow. Once outside, he commands it to pick up a stick and hit something with it. The Sentinel nods and does as commanded. It finds a stick and hits a tree with it. It then stares at Carlos for further instruction. “Perfect, it can fight. Now we need to make more.” From behind Carlos Rey chimes in. “Oh! We can ask Mom to help.” Carlos nods, and as he was going to agree with Rey, an idea comes into Carlos’s thoughts. “Sentinel. I have an order” the Sentinel nods and salutes. Carlos looks around for something and can’t seem to find it. Rey then asks what he’s looking for. Carlos looks at Rey and chuckles to himself. “Right, she has the chisel.” Carlos then asks Rey if she knows where the chisel is. Rey nods and looks through her bag and produces the chisel. She hands it to Carlos. 

“What ya gonna do with it? Ya gonna make him better or something.” Carlos shakes his head. “I have a better idea. That’s if it works anyways.” He then hands the chisel to the Sentinel. He then also hands him a slate with a rune on it and commands the Sentinel to copy it. The Sentinel nods and hammers away at the wall next to it. He makes the rune on the wall; it’s an exact copy. The rune itself isn’t glowing, meaning it’s nothing more than garbage printed on a wall. 

But that is what Carlos expected. All he was looking for was for the Sentinel to show it could do it. Though to truly tell if his plan will work, he touches the rune. Power then seeps into the rune, making it glow, confirming again that as long as he touches it, it will gain power. 

With a smirk, Carlos talks to Rey. “Rey, I don’t think we have to make your mother do anything. I think I've found a much better way to deal with all our problems.” With that, Carlos commands the Sentinel to begin construction of another Sentinel by gathering mud and rock and shaping it. He then heads into the cave to make more rods of stone. Rey follows him, wanting to help him again. Once this becomes fully automated, Carlos intends to work on another project.

The carpet bomber.