[TheRaisin]

Because I'm in a good mood, I've forgiven you for not responding. Hence the smiley Mud face. So here's the next chaptoir.

After another two days of sneaking about, camouflaging themselves with branches, dodging between Vykker encampments and compounds, and in one case digging under a concrete fence, they reached their destination.
The top of the ancient mountain was obscured by the dense forest, but it still looked like their was clear sky ahead. And there was. As the first troops reached the place where the sky was visible, led by Abe, they yelped, stumbled, and almost rolled backward down the steep slope in their surprise: the mountain had simply ended. Where it should have continued upward, there was simply a huge indentation, as if Odd himself had taken a giant ice-cream scoop and lopped of the top half of the mountain. Abe quickly regained his senses, and realized that he was looking at the crater of an immense and ancient volcano that had long since blown its top. The fact that it was only half a mountain was obscured from a distance by the mountains to either side and behind it, and the mist that always enshrouded the range, and it was impossible to tell when you were on or near the mountain, because the angle of the ground and the thick trees.
Abe silently signaled a halt, and took stock of his surroundings. They stood on the rim of the crater, the ground below them dropping steeply to level out near the center of the caldera, which must have been at least three miles away. Being a natural rain-catcher, the entire crater was heavily forested, another testament to how old this volcano was, how long it had been since its last eruption, and the fact that it was long dead. Nestled among the towering ponderosas and old growth redwoods sat Vykker Labs, shining dully in the amber and crimson light of sunset. Large spotlights were beginning to snap on around its base, trained on the humongous disc at an angle so no light would escape into the sky and make the Mudokons suspicious. Scrawny Intern shapes could be seen laboring among muscular Mudokons, commanded by bulging, spidery Vykkers. Workers were moving crates in and out of cargo lifts, as the fortress itself was actually several score feet of the ground, supported on huge stilt-like structures attached to pod-like landing devices. Abe noted with satisfaction that there were hardly any guards. They had made a huge tactical mistake by assuming that any invaders would have been dealt with before they reached the base. He also noticed that the lifts were numerous, being rigged so that the descending cables carried empty lifts, and the ascending cables carried full lifts. This two-way pulley system allowed many lifts to be attached to one cable, so one group would be able to ascend right after the other, and they would nopt have to risk leaving a group on the ground until they could send the lift back down.
Abe took in all he was seeing, made a decision, and turned to address his troops.
"Make camp. No fires. You'll have to eat food that doesn't need to be cooked. Keep silent, and go to sleep as soon as you finish eating. We attack at dawn!"