Nyz stepped into the hotel room and closed the door behind him, setting the bag of food on the counter. His current identity, Nash Volx, had rusty-brown hair and gray-green eyes with a lighter tan to him, and was staying in a hotel for the duration of the mission. Unlike most of his identities, that one wasn't set to live there for several months.

Instead, he would only be there until the actual mission was begun, however long or short that took. The job itself would be long once he went active, but most of the time before then was waiting. Nyz wasn't sure why Kal decided on a long mission when they were searching for the item.

On it, he would be traveling with a group of Scavengers to the ruins of a city lost several centuries before they were born.

Nyz could handle the mission by himself, but that wasn't actually the point of the mission. From time to time, Kal and Nyz fostered relations with various Scavengers under various identities. Nyz preferred it being just the two of them as that always worked, but Kal insisted on the networking missions.

"I still don't understand," Nyz said as he began pulling out his dinner, a meal of four burgers and four large fries, with a large strawberry lemonade. "Why am I doing a networking mission now, while you're looking for it?"

"It has to do with another goal of ours," Kal told him. "And it'll give me time to figure out if we need to use Sen against her father. By the way, she says 'hi'."

"I doubt that."

"No, seriously," Kal told him. "She's right here and told me to tell you 'hi'."

"I've been gone for only two weeks," Nyz said. "And she hated me when I left. I seriously doubt she's saying that."

While he had been gone for two weeks, most of that was traveling to Honlar, as they didn't have a teleport arrangement set up in it. Because of that, Kal couldn't teleport him into it or around it. Nyz's first action upon arriving was setting up the teleport arrangement in order to allow that. He had only been in the city itself for three days.

"She did," Kal told him. "I told you he wouldn't believe me. Where'd Taylor go? Okay."

"Do you have her in your command room?" Nyz asked.

"No, we're in the mech hanger," Kal responded. "I'm showing her our beast-based mechs."

"And if she decides to try to steal one and go on a rampage through the city?"

"I'm working on softening her up," Kal told him. "I've given her ample evidence to prove that I did, in fact, create the FDKBs. She's begun to accept that maybe you weren't lying about what you said."

"I doubt that," Nyz muttered as he began eating dinner.

"Well, doubt it all you want," Kal told him. "I assure you of its truth."

Nyz didn't bother responding, instead choosing to eat dinner in silence as Kal went back to what he was doing. After he ate, he tossed his garbage in the trash can, then left the hotel, walking down the street.

Unlike Troak and Valeros, the city of Honlar didn't have any Beacons, instead using the lights of the city to keep the fog at bay. With redundant power reactors, they were able to ensure there were no dangerous outages, but it still resulted in a dark sky above, the fog itself only cleared for up to two hundred feet above the city, while the Terrace Farms stretched across towers that stood eight hundred feet in height, more than one hundred feet above the top of the fog.

The Fog Sky, as it was known, bothered Nyz. He much preferred being able to see the actual sky over the Fog Sky, but Honlar was considered to be out in the sticks. While it spanned the same distance as many cities, there was a five-day travel to it by ground from the nearest living city, and the only things further past it were mountains and a handful of cities lost to the fog over time. Rather than a population in the millions, only three hundred thousand residents live there.

Due to that, the city couldn't afford the Beacons and major corporations didn't see a need to sponsor them for it. While the city still imported goods from other cities, it was largely self-sustaining and possessed no major headquarters of any company.

Scavengers often left it to look in the ruined cities around it. Even after decades of that, there were still things found from time to time. Toys brought back and sold to stores, computers sold to businesses, techs, and others who could use or rebuild them, chemicals that had been stored well enough to be used again, and other goods.

On occasion, they would even bring back the remains of the combat suits and mechs of other Scavengers, if possible.

Clearing those thoughts from his head, Nyz reached his destination, a small bar. Entering, he walked up to the bar and ordered a drink, then took it to a corner to consume in silence. Watching others, he kept to himself, waiting.

A worker occasionally came by and replaced his beer, and after nearly an hour, Nyz's attention was drawn to two men and a woman who entered the bar. The man in the front and the woman were three years his senior, while the other man was a year his senior. All three had brown hair and the lighter skin of surface-dwellers, and the two older ones had brown eyes, the younger man having blue eyes with green spikes around his pupils.

Nyz took a sip of his beer as the older man swept his gaze across the room, stopping on him as he drank. Lifting up a hand, Nyz greeted him with a brief gaze.

"Hey, look who's here," Nyz heard the man say from across the bar, even over the chatter of the other customers. "It's Volx."

"Volx?" The younger man looked around and spotted Nyz. "Nash! Hey!"

The younger man rushed over to him with a big, cheerful smile as his two companions walked over more calmly.

"Hey, Wys," Nyz greeted the younger man. "Been awhile, hasn't it?"

"A couple of years," Wys plopped himself next to Nyz, put an arm across Nyz's shoulders, and ruffled his hair. "But I'd recognize that expression and this rusty hair anywhere!"

"Oi! Pull off!" Nyz pulled away, causing Wys's two companions to laugh as they approached. "Gabe, please control Wys!"

"Wys, stop," Gabe laughed as he and the woman sat. "Good to see you again, Nash."

"It's good to see you and Lyan again," Nyz said. "Though Wys, not so much."

"Hey!" Wys exclaimed.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"You are a bit touchy-feely," Gabe chuckled. "So what've you been up to these last two years, Nash? And what brings you out here, of all places?"

"What brings you here?" Nyz asked. "I wasn't expecting to see any of you."

Which was true, and he made a note to have some stern words with Kal about that, considering how physical of a person Wys was and how much it bothered him. Wys told Nyz he just needed to lighten up, but Nyz told Wys he needed to be less physical.

It was an ongoing argument of theirs when Nyz finished his last mission and stopped working with the trio of scavengers.

"We've been living here the last year or so," Gabe told Nyz as the younger man shoved Wys over to a 'safe' distance. "Going to the ruins provides enough for us to live, and Wys's parents leaves him alone for the most part."

Wys had lived in Troak before the disaster hit, and was adopted by Zenitk Pharmaceuticals' owner in the aftermath. He was a little bit more of a free spirit than someone living a wealthy life should have been, though, so he took up a job as a Scavenger shortly before he and Nyz reunited when they were sixteen. While his adoptive parents weren't fond of his new hobby, they were overbearing on Wys over it, worried he'd end up dead on one of the jobs.

"Yeah," Wys slid back beside Nyz, who gave up trying to push him away. "It's nice being able to go on a job without getting a call from one of them asking me for complete details on everything to do with it out of worry that I was hurt."

Even if he was only their adopted son, and they'd known him only six years before he started working as a Scavenger, Wys's parents cared for him like he was their son by blood. In fact, Nyz knew that the bond between the three of them was even stronger than most familial bonds. Wys did complain a lot about it, but at the end of the day, he loved his parents.

"Wouldn't they have called even more often when you moved out here?" Nyz asked.

"They did," Wys admitted. "Since this city is high on the list of potential future victims of the AMF's interest due to its location and the patterns. They were also worried I'd take a job into Virtul. After the first few months, though, I managed to convince them I'm doing fine and will be fine. They still call once a month, though, just to check up on me.

"So, little bro," Wys said as Nyz took a long swig from his beer. "What brings you here to Honlar?"

"There's a job to go into Virtul," Nyz stated. "I arrived in town a few days ago, and have been reaching out to Scavengers, hoping to find some willing to go with me. I want at least four, but they recommend eight total units for the job due to the danger level. Finding someone to come with me there, however, isn't that easy."

Virtul was one of the first cities with strong walls to fall to the AMF's attacks. It sat at the heart of a dead zone, or region of fallen cities, and would take them ten days, minimum, to reach. The closer they drew to Virtul, the more dangerous the journey would be, and the city itself was home to powerful monsters, both fog monsters and normal.

No jobs into it over the last five decades ever succeeded, none of the Scavengers delving that deep surviving to warn of the dangers that lurked within.

"It's a suicide mission," Lyan told Nyz. "That's why no one will go with you."

"I figured," Nyz shrugged. "I could go by myself, but it'll be more difficult alone."

Which was true. Nyz could handle the job into Virtul by himself as long as he abode by Kal's plans and utilized his own abilities. However, the point of him doing the mission was to foster relationships with Scavengers.

Or, as he began to suspect, reunite with Wys for a little while.

"By yourself?" Gabe asked. "Are you insane?"

"As I said," Nyz told him. "It would be more difficult alone. That said, I have a beetle."

Gabe and Lyan looked at each other for a moment, then looked at Nyz.

"A beetle?" Lyan asked. "How did you acquire one of those?"

"I have connections," Nyz answered. "It's how I got here alone. It's the best available beetle, with the best weaponry equipped to it."

In other words, a Class S beetle with Class S guns. While it wasn't the same as the one used to attack the hidden facility, it was the same model line. However, Nyz wasn't planning on mentioning that, but letting them assume it was a Class B beetle would help ease their minds.

"We'd probably need Class A, minimum, to tackle Virtul," Lyan said.

If only a little.

"Come on," Wys draped an arm over Nyz's shoulders again and ruffled his hair. "You've seen my little bro's skills before and you know my skills. We can do this mission, the four of us. We can even take Kacy along."

"Kacy?" Nyz asked as he tried to get Wys off of him.

"A Scavenger we met after moving here," Lyan explained. "She's twenty and talented. Swift, too."

"How many are willing to take, max?" Gabe asked as Nyz finally managed to free himself from Wys once more.

"I have six walkers," Nyz answered. "And the beetle. While one can drive and one can fire, I can handle both as pilot. The beetle has limited sleeping space as well. While there are a few way stations along the way, there is always the chance we won't be able to get inside."

"I know for sure," Gabe said. "The way stations up to Norulb were accessible and stocked two weeks ago, since we did a job to stock them then, so that's half the distance. No one's bothered going past, so we don't know if the other five are still intact."

"Okay," Nyz said. "That's good enough. I have enough rations to last the mission, so we can stock up on other things if needed."

"It would probably be best," Gabe told him. "If we went with the full eight. We can perform watches at night, two keeping an alert for anything around us and acting immediately. Only six would be in the beetle at a time, then. It would give us a higher chance of surviving a suicide mission. If you're good with it, I can start asking around for four more people, three if Kacy accepts. If we say we're using a Class B beetle with Class B walkers and a total crew of eight, they'll be more inclined to come."

"I also have combat suits," Nyz stated. "And weapons. I made sure to supply myself with everything I might need to convince a team to join me for this."

"Class B mechs, suits, and weapons?" Lyan asked, face full of awe. "Damn, kid. What have you been doing since we parted ways?"

"This and that," he answered. "The job itself is a retrieval, naturally. There will only be a pay if the mission is completed, so no advances. If you're asking around and they inquire how much they'll be paid, tell them it's enough for them to move into a safer city and retire. For life."

"Just what the hell are we retrieving?" Gabe asked.

"Does it matter?" Wys asked. "If Nyz is going, I'm going. Ain't gonna let my little bro have all the fun."

"I'll explain it only to people who accept the offer," Nyz stated. "Tell them to meet me at the Norumis Hanger in two days, at eight in the morning. It doesn't matter if there are more potentials than slots if you trust them. Some might leave once they're given more information and I'll reduce the rest down to the final members."

"Got it," Gabe said. "We came here just to get some drinks, but we should probably head out and start chatting with them. I can think of two dozen we can trust who have decent skills."

Gabe and Lyan stood, by Wys shook his head.

"I want to talk with my little bro for a bit," Wys told them. "You go on ahead, I'll find you later."

"See you," Gabe said.

"See you," Lyan said.

"Later!" Wys waved as Nyz dipped his head.

Once the two left, Wys gave Nyz a curious look.

"How's Kaal?" He asked, dragging out the vowel in the name.

"He goes by Kal," Nyz stated. "Not Kaal. It's simpler."

"Yeah, you told me," Wys shrugged. "I still think of him as little Kaal, though. You said he was still a little short last time we talked. Is he a permanent midget?"

"He hit a couple of growth spurts," Nyz snorted. "He's five-eleven now, an inch taller than you."

"Dang!" Wys exclaimed. "He hit those late! Good to see he ain't a midget anymore, though."

"Yeah," Nyz nodded. "He was quite happy to finally break five feet."

"I can understand," Wys leaned against him, switching to a coded language only three people on Ilbrathi knew. "So what have you two really been up to these last two years? Because I'm sure my little bros ain't been as quiet as you'll be claiming to Gabe and Lyan."

"We've been up to quite a lot," Nyz said. "This mission is partly to fill time while Kal is trying to find something. The fucker didn't tell me it would take a few months. I was thinking a week, maybe two at most. I'm pretty sure he's got some sort of plan that involves needing to spend a couple of months of prep that he hasn't told me about."

"Just a little," Kal commented in his ear, and Wys laughed.

"So you're eavesdropping on us, huh?" Wys asked. "How're you doing, little bro?"

"Doing good," Kal answered. "Anyway, gotta get back to work. Nyz, I do have some stuff I'm preparing for the big one. You can tell him if you want."

"Got it," Nyz said.

"So what's the big one?" Wys asked.