Skyward - (NaNoWriMo 2013 Novel)

What's a SkyPirate to do?

What the Skypirates lacked in actual, viable technology they more than made up for in ingenuity and single-minded dedication.

The Ticktock Man had assured them that there was treasure to be had under the core, and that was all they needed to hear. "Dipolar computers, me buckos, and Slo-trans engines! Wonders by the motherload, and all for us trig coves to have and ter hold."

It didn't matter to those cullies that not a single one of them had any idea what a dipolar computer or a slow-trans engine was. If the Ticktock Man thought they were worth the trouble, then they must be shiny booty indeed. The frenetic life of a skypirate left little need for or interest in reading. The vast majority of the pirates were functionally illiterate. They knew enough that, when cracking 'Dos, they could read floor markings and the most basic of signage to find their way to the goal of a particular raid, but if you ever wanted to accomplish something using a band of skypirates, it was usually a good idea to have them lead by someone who had slightly more mastery of the English language.

This lax approach to literacy meant that the rank and file cully wouldn't have been able to make much sense of Ticktock's book if he had wanted to, and, in fact, they didn't have any interest. What they needed to know from the book, Ticktock told them, and it had served them well so far. Though Ticktock assured them that the proper name was Wastelands, they came to call the ragged tome 'The Good Book' for it had done more good for them than the former one to take that name.

It had been the Good Book that had told them that their gang was known as the Greys (check), and that all other bands belonged to the Pubes and were their mortal enemies. Those other sly foxes had tried to worm their way into the ranks of the Greys, tried to chew 'em up from the inside and spit 'em out, but Ticktock would have none of it, and when it came to other gangs, he'd put into place a strict 'stab first and ask later' policy to keep their own band strong.

It was the book that had convinced the Ticktock Man that they had to grab as much of the rusted and seized machines that remained as they could; it was he who had coached them through getting all that kit back into something like working order. He was a right trig cove, their Ticktock, and he'd seen much of the world before getting marooned in the Core.

Ticktock said that all the machines weren't the full of the treasure to be had in the Core. They were just tools--stepping stones--to make it easier to raid the 'Dos. And the raids of the 'Dos were just one further step on the path; their advanced but stagnant tech a key to the far more advanced, far more ancient and advanced prizes that had been buried under the Core and forgotten by the 'Do dwellers above.

If they could find those treasures, mi boys, then they would truly remake this world of glass and stone.

IDEA: What does Ticktock need to raid from the 'Dos to get access to the Arc facility? The plans that he shows Benedict that depict the exact location of the Arc? Was able to guess at it from voids in the other subterranean plans he'd found, combined with his mad, fictionally-inspired intuition. Fitting as it would look like some futuristic treasure map.