Some thoughts from the brink. ( supplimental)
Audio diaries, Captured ottsels, Recorded camera footage, All of it gives insight to what drove the ottsels to the mainland. Here is but a taste.
A red furred ottsel sits at a table. His head fur is dyed bright yellow and his arm fur is stained black with flame markings. He has on a boilder suit, He rubs his claws nervously.
"What Can I honestly say... Let me think. Well My father. He said things where too turbulant those days. 'work hard be proud, keep out of trouble.' He says he saw hard times securing the ark in the early days. Losing mother, rasing me from an egg hatched youngling himself... He has given everything to me and the ark. And yet he doesnt see that all I have done is for the good of ark too.., But it doesnt mean tomorrow must be like yesterday does it? 'don't rock the boat' he says. Well I said this boat needed rocking!"
He sighs and takes off his helmet, a simple construction workers hat with light at the front, He scratches his dreadlocked head fur and continues
"It makes me sick to hear the elders preach of what a wondered material arkoral is.It reaks of fishy sex mess and I hate it. Some tattoo freaks get turned on by it, Even ocean mammal lovers like me. Butn when you work with it, you get splashed, and it's seed material it stains the fur. Some use it to make tattoo's like I have. But We are marked even before that. The bright red rust gets under your claws. Marks you as a being of the ark... you cant get rid of it. Even if you scrub, that gritty feeling always stays for ever. "
He wipes a tear away. He then unzips the top half of the suit pulling down showing the flamed stain fur tattoo taking most of both his arms and upper body.
"I never wanted to be another Reject experiment. I wanted to be a normal sentient being. But Chenik He is different, HE proudly shows his arkoral tattoos. Now, So do I!" The ottsel sighed and exhaled his smoke.
"WE did some work with anodes. Zinc blocks that prvent corrosion. But it is hard to mine for metals under a mile of water. Actually the real reason we ran out, was we needed to make ammo. Lead was easy, ship ballast. But we needed, Brass. Zinc from the anodes, copper from the water filters. My father was mad, he said he would get sick from the filters malfunctioning. he said ' You cant save Ark by destroying it' Bless my father, he is a man of peace, But right now men and women of action are needed, and A man of action is what I am!"
"One day some of my friends joined security. They threw away who they where for a uniform and an extra water ration. Chenik said those people, Who they where matters not, now they are the enemy!"
" Then one night I saw chenik speak in person. Better then radio or tv broadcasts. It was amazing. He explained it all so clearly. How the elder founders keep us living like slaves. I had it. The security arresting innocents for the sake of it. I had enough. Giving me the evil eye. Picking me for another random search. Well if they wanted a resistance fighter they got one. I threw my lot in with 'cousin chen'
The ottsel coughed a bit and sighed looking down at his arm.
"All I knew was this place. I mean I have seen TV. How the humans used to live on solid land, I even read a book on it. But land, 'dry land' is a myth, a story book tale. Walking for miles in a straight line.It was a myth. You know I always wanted to see a forest growing wild. Soon, Heh soon I will. Right?"
"Things, bad all over in a word. Its amazing how we survived to bring ark to san-fran bay . Even founder pelgos must be reenforced with steel. It takes a matter of weeks for fresh bright shiny metal to turn red and rusty in sea air. We ran out of oils to grease and protect them... It just turns red and flakes away. We cant really patch it with arkoral. It wont set right on rust. So it just keeps degrading, but below the surface. Thats how ark is. Rotting But you cant see it."
"Ottsels where made from humans from all over. founder humans who made ark. Guests who fled here in the days of the water risings. All kinds. Some ottsels even get flashbacks from human parts of genetic memory..."
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It was a dank deep lower level corridor. Near the ark visitor center. In ancient times human "investors" used to start the tour of the ark here. But that was long ago.
In the basement 4 sat. One in a boiler suit with hard hat. Another, female white furred in a mesh nipple exposing T shirt and tight pants. A third male with a dirty white tank top. A fourth dressed in Orange T shirt and bandana saying "doom" and tight black pants and stolen old security armor and a pair of goggles.
"you ready cousins?" The tanktop one asked as he gripped a bull-up loading machine gun.
"I just dont know, An hour ago I was making my hatchlings breakfast, the I get the call and get given this gun!" The red one in the boiler suit looked down at the heavily modified machine pistol.
"With the movement just hitting hurricane pace, now you is getting a slow gain fear?" the Tank topped one green furred not arkoral scarred one got in the older red ottsels face. "Cousin chen has tried all he can to avoid this! We got no option left!" His deep voice had a fanatical pitch
He leaned over the shoulder of the silent white furred ottsel girl in the mesh shirt. Her nose was covered in bandages from a fight. The Tanktopped one kept speaking. "look any moment now makoenia's goons are gonna come blasting through those doors, AND THEY WONT BE ASKING QUESTIONS!"
He lept up onto a couch and held his gun over his head in both paws. "Are you ready to use these cousins!?"
The white furred girl stood sliding a drum magazine into her Galatica SMG and yanking back the breach pin and licking the bayonette on the edge in an erotic way"I AM READY!" she screamed.
"GOOD! " The green one pulled back the pin on his Bulpudan "Then let us do this!" and spit off to his left. "For a free ark!"
************************************** On a monorail running from Sec-tower to the visitor aquarium center.
"God damn resistance" A black ottsel in a mutliple eye lensed face mask spoke. Another one pink furred in A cowboy hat armored jacket and tight pants spoke. "its not everyone, its just Chenik!"
The mask one replyed angrily "He aint leading them no where they don't already wanna go. First demonstrations then riots now kidnappings,. WHATS NEXT?~"
"Im just saying!" The pink furred one raised his gun involentarily and another ottsel pushed it down with his own fire arm.
the light grey ottsel in a gotee yelled "Hey shut up! We stop chenik we stop this. Now chen is reported to have our target in the fish farm visitors center, only there are no visitors."
"Or fish!" The black one said with a laugh.
"Look ready your guns, We stop chen, We save the ark!"
A brown furred ottsel in a mask who's mouth was lined with razor blades nodded as he slid a fresh magazine into his barnet sniper rifle.
"Keep it safe, keep it floating" He mumbled.