Zachary had packed his bag to go get food. He had packed his wind cannon, plasma rifle, trap cores, iron knuckles and a bit of food and water. He did not want to leave his weapons at home, but at the same time he could not have his plasma rifle where it could be seen. If the military saw him with such a weapon he would probably get shot. He also checked his kinetic shield, and determined that the core had enough power left for today, although it would need replacing soon. As he went outside and began walking, the memories of what had happened last night still haunted him, and the calm activity of walking was not helping to make him forget. However, soon something else caught his mind, as the loudspeakers across the town which had been dead since the cataclysm cracked to life and a voice spoke out. The voice addressed itself as Victor Esteeves, a name which Zachary managed to recognise from news from back in the distant past when he had contact with the world. Everyone outside stopped what they were doing and listened, and those who were inside emerged to hear the speech better. It was a very moving speech, and soon crowds of people appeared and moved through the streets, searching for military to rise against.
Zachary was amazed. He didn't know that so many people had even survived in Sovereign to this day, let alone how they could be united to action by the words of one man. Kaa'is was impressed too. We should probably join them, he suggested.
Zachary was about to, but then a thought came to mind. "If we're having an uprising, we need all the help we can get. We need to finish that carriage."
Without a second thought, Zachary turned around and jogged back to his temporary workshop. All the way his mind was racing, trying to figure out what his carriage needed to be functional. He had repaired all the kinetic energy feeds, done all the structural work and reconnected the main controls earlier, so all that needed doing was fixing the vital electronics and installing necessary cores. Once he got there, he threw his hands on the front of the carriage and let his mind fill it, and several seconds later he knew exactly what needed to be done. He grabbed some spare electronics parts and his electronics tools and patched together the engine control unit so it would be functional, bridging broken gaps with wires and replacing fried capacitors. Fortunately the microprocessors seemed intact enough. He greased up the control levers and ensured that they were properly connected to the energy redirection pipes. After another reading of the carriage, he was satisfied that it would be functional enough to run. All that was needed were the cores.
The lightning core for the battery was easy enough to get. He had ample spares and it didn't have to be very big. The trouble was the kinetic cores. Carriages use rather large kinetic cores, and this model needed two. However, he had a place to get kinetic cores quickly. He went over to the skyway unit and looked at it closely. While the polarity cores are visible on the surface, skyways also have kinetic cores on the inside, and those are big cores. He hadn't wanted to use that core before, as he had wanted to integrate the skyway unit into the carriage, but there was no time for such a project and soon, if all went well, there wouldn't be much use either. He went to a number of bolts. They were rusted in place, but using his powers he was able to force them out and remove the bulky hatch. Inside was the kinetic core which powered the skyway and made it a solid bridge. This core still contained a lot of energy.
Zachary removed it, but before he could put it in the engine he would have to cut it down to size. Fortunately he already knew how to do this, so he was able to shape it properly in a reasonable period of time. He also managed to get a fresh core for his kinetic shield from the off-cuts. Now was the final step- installing the kinetic cores. This took just a few moments, and moments later Zachary was sitting in the driver's seat. Zachary read machine one last time to check it was operational, then he reached down to the button to turn it on. Carriages can be quite difficult to steer, as since they float above the ground they are effectively frictionless. In this particular vehicle there were four important levers- one was the throttle, which was a lever operated by Zachary's left arm which goes forwards and backwards to determine the forwards or reverse thrust; one was the steering 'wheel' in front of Zachary, which when rotated directs thrust perpendicular to the carriage and also rotates it; one which was under Zachary's right arm and adjusted the overall engine power, changing how much it levitated; and there was the brake, which was under Zachary's foot and when pressed it runs the second kinetic core which grips the ground like a kinetic shield to provide friction. All four of those levers provide what directional control is required to drive, and they all operate mostly mechanically. Numerous other smaller controls exist, such as the on/off button, lights, windscreen wipers, traction control, etc., but most of them were not functional or necessary, and likewise for the dashboard and features like power steering. Helpful, but not strictly necessary to simply drive it.
Now was the moment of truth. Zachary held his breath and pushed the on button. The carriage hummed gently, and then it slowly lifted off the ground until it floated about a foot above the ground. Zachary cried out in triumph- his hard work had paid off and he had made a functioning vehicle in this post-apocalyptic wasteland. Applying the throttle, he crawled out of the workshop, through the doors and into the street. He laughed as he realised what he had achieved and what he held in his hands now. He had taken about an hour and a half, maybe two hours to fix it up to this state, so the rebellion would be well under way, or so he thought.
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