Nyz watched as ten people entered the mech hanger, including Gabe, Lyan, and Wys, a woman of twenty Nyz assumed to be Kacy, a woman in her late twenties, and five other men, all between eighteen and thirty in age. They approached the table he had set up in front of his beetle. When they arrived, they all looked at the holographic map he had set up on the table showing the route from Honlar to Virtul.

"I have room for seven of you," Nyz told the group. "Three of those slots are already taken by Gabe, Lyan, and Wys, as I know them and trust them. That means there are four slots left, and there are seven of you.

"The mission," Nyz said. "As you were all made aware, is to travel deep into the Fog Zone, to Virtul. The retrieval will occur deep inside of it. There is a chance the items we are going there to retrieve won't be retrievable or are no longer usable. In that case, we won't be paid. There's a chance we won't even make it all the way and have to turn back. If that's the case, we won't be paid. There's a chance you'll die. In that case, you won't be paid."

"There's a chance you would die, too," one of the men said.

"If you tell yourself that, it might be true in your dreams," Nyz told him. "Up to Norulb, the path is known by you, and Gabe says he and his team stocked the way stations just a couple of weeks ago, meaning we should be able to stay in them up to there. Past that, however, is unchecked territory. The way stations are likely no longer usable.

"The further in we go," he told everyone. "The more powerful and more dangerous the monsters will be. We may even face things that haven't been recorded before."

"And all we have," the woman older woman said. "Is a single beetle and six walkers, plus the combat suits?"

"Yes," Nyz answered.

"I was expecting more," she said. "I'm out. Two beetles might have held my interest, but not one."

She left, and Nyz looked at everyone else.

"Anyone else out?" He asked, and two of the other men left. "That leaves us with eight. All of you came here recommended by Gabe, Lyan, and Wys, who I know and trust. This is your last opportunity to back out. Does anyone else want to leave, knowing the risks and high probability you won't get paid?"

No one else left, so Nyz nodded.

"Good," he said. "I only wanted four, but Gabe insisted on eight to make it more likely. To be honest, I could have made it on my own, it just would have been more difficult."

"You said that before," Gabe told him. "But you didn't convince us of that."

"He convinced me," Wys stated, and everyone looked at him. "Let him finish."

"Yes," Nyz said. "When I told you that I had the best available equipment, Gabe, I meant it. This beetle isn't Class B. It's Class S. The military doesn't even know this level of equipment exists. The walkers? Class S. The body suits? Class S. The combat suits? Class S. The weapons? Class S."

"Do you really expect us to believe such a thing exists?" One of the men asked.

"Whether you do or not now," Nyz told him. "You will once the mission is underway. There is exactly one person on all of Ilbrathi who can make Class S, and he's a good friend of mine. I've performed a high number of missions using just the tech he's made me, and have succeeded every time. Normally, he'd be in communication with me at all times, but for various reasons, he won't be."

"You mean like the fog affecting signals?" One of the men asked.

"That doesn't affect their tech," Wys told him. "Kaal's tech really is the best. They can communicate long-distance through the fog."

"If something deviates from the plans and situations Kal planned for," Nyz told them. "To a degree we can't adapt to, I'll contact Kal. However, he's busy with some project and shouldn't be disturbed.

"That said," Nyz continued. "He did come up with a lot of plans for us to follow, including for if certain situations happen. Normally, he'd be walking me through the entire mission, but his other project is taking up his time."

Which annoyed Nyz, and he'd rather have Kal helping him. Without Kal helping him, chances of success went down to only twenty percent. At least, if Nyz didn't just use brute force to get through everything, but that always ended up taking him longer than using Kal's plans and guidance.

However, Kal had come up with an exhaustive list of events which might occur and loaded them into the beetle's system for Nyz to pull up at any time.

"Let's get prepped," Nyz told them. "There will be two people on watch at all times. Wys and I are exempted from this, and before you argue, I'm the one who decides who goes and who doesn't. If you have an issue, I'll leave you behind wherever we are. Without a suit or walker."

"He'll do it," Wys skipped over to Nyz and looped an arm over Nyz's neck, pulling the younger man down and ruffling his hair. "Nash is cold-hearted like that when he's serious."

"Stop that," Nyz pulled away from Wys.

"It's an older brother's duty to mess with a younger brother," Wys told him.

"You two are brothers?" Kacy asked.

"Somewhat," Nyz explained. "When we were little, we grew up in the same facility. Most of us called each other brothers. The guy who invented this tech, Kal, was another one of us."

"Think of Asterox Academy," Wys told her. "But better."

"You don't seem like a supergenius to me," she told him.

"That's because it wasn't just for smarts," Wys grinned. "Nash and I here were bred and raised for combat, while Kaal was bred and raised for intelligence."

"Back to the mission," Nyz said. "There are two parts to it. We have two clients, actually. The first wants us to locate a contained vault. It has a twenty-two-inch adamant-mithril alloy door with a fourteen-inch concrete wall with three inches of adamant-mithril alloy layered over it. It has its own internal generator which, even after two centuries, may still be functional. If the vault is intact, the generator still running, and the preservation enchantments still functional, we're to retrieve as many of its contents as possible."

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"Preserved things?" One of the men asked. "What are we retrieving?"

"Seeds," Nyz answered. "The vault we're heading to was used to store and preserve seeds of various plants. Some of which are simply flowers or trees or bushes, but some are ones that can be harvested for food. There is one specific one which the Solral Foods wants, but we're meant to grab as many as we can."

"Solral is claiming another company's stuff?" The man asked.

"Solral Foods," Lyan told him. "Started off as a gardening company, and is a sister corporation to the old corporation, Sularn Botanical. Sularn stores seeds in preservation vaults created by Asterox Corporation. They can last for centuries or thousands of years depending on the seed as long as the vault's enchantments remain powered. This is in case something happens which wipes out all of a plant and we need more seeds. However, the fact that it's been two centuries since Virtul fell means the rights rule doesn't apply. Anyone could claim it."

"Anyone could," Nyz nodded. "Which is why, when the other client informed the corporations they were sending an expedition to Virtul, Solral contacted them. It seems that there's one batch of seeds that can only be found in the vault there, as the others were compromised after the cities they were in fell. Seeds for a fruit called 'tomato'. It was a versatile fruit used in many ways, once upon a time, but it seems the last tomato plant died around sixty years ago. Solral is hoping that the seeds in this vault can be recovered because of all of that. If they can't be, then we they won't pay us. Naturally, as the job is to recover the seeds."

"What's the other job?" One of the other men asked. "You said there were two clients, and Solral only said something one the other one reached out? I take it the other client did that knowing that other companies might want to use the services of the same expedition, since one going there is rare enough as it is?"

"Correct," Nyz nodded. "The other client knew corporations might want something retrieved from Virtul, so when they decided to send me this way, they reached out to see if anyone else wanted to add on to this job. Only Solral accepted that. The high chance you won't get paid is part of why I won't mention how much it is, but I will say this: if we only get paid by one of the two clients, regardless of which one it is, you will all be able to comfortably retire for the rest of your life in any city of your choosing."

Kacy let out an appreciative whistle at that news, confirming to Nyz that Gabe had left that part out.

"Now," Nyz said. "For the second mission, it's another retrieval."

He tapped on the image showing Virtul on the map, expanding it, then zoomed in to a specific building near the far northern edge of Virtul, halfway across the city from where they would arrive.

"While the seed job," he said. "Is here, the second job is here."

He adjusted the map to show the far side of Virtul from where they would arrive, then zoomed in on a complex.

"Our second job is even further in," he told them. "This complex was an experimental research facility for a magitech corporation that died out around a century and a half ago, due to repeated losses to the AMF's attacks. The loss of this facility was part of what caused their decline. It's also why immense effort was put in to link every city with underground or underwater cables so that data can be backed up externally quite fast."

The linking of the cities was a feat which took them forty years due to the fog and the immense resources necessary to protect the workers and keep the fog at bay as they worked. However, it made it more difficult for a company to bankrupt simply because of the loss of a facility like the one they were targeting in Virtul.

"What we're set to retrieve," Nyz said. "Is only a theoretical existence. No one is sure it actually does exist. If it does exist, and we successfully retrieve it, we'll be paid. If it doesn't exist, then we won't get paid."

"Hold up," one of the men said. "We're risking our lives for a theoretical existence?"

"Yes," Nyz stated. "I won't go into what it is, but I do know what it is and what to look for. If it does exist, the pay is more than triple what Solral is paying. There's a risk-reward assessment here. You risk ending up with nothing for the chance to become extraordinarily wealthy. This is the last chance to back out. If everyone is okay with the job, then we're getting prepped and are leaving."

No one else left, so Nyz introduced them to their new combat suits, which were paired in colors. Two red suits, two blue suits, two green suits, and two black suits.

"Wys, don't change," Nyz instructed. "You'll be inside the beetle, helping with the beetle's weapons. Your reflexes are needed for it."

"Got it," Wys responded.

Once everyone else had changed into their combat suits and were equipped, they entered the walkers as Nyz and Wys took their seats in the cockpit of the beetle. Nyz released the six walkers as he began the checks.

"Nyz, a moment of privacy?" Wys asked.

"Cutting comms for a minute," Nyz told everyone. "I'll still hear everything, but you won't hear us."

"Copy that!" The six Scavengers responded.

"What's up?" Nyz asked after muting the comms.

"What's going to happen if everyone talks about this tech, Nayz?" Wys asked. "Corporations like Asterox will be very interested in it, as will the military."

"We're already showing them it exists," Nyz told him. "And it won't be too long before Asterox realizes that they've made an enemy of the people who can make it. They've seen it take attacks from Class A weapons without any damage appearing."

"Damn," Wys said.

"And it's Nyz," Nyz muttered. "Leave off the first 'a', would you? Neither Kal nor I use them."

"It's hard," Wys shook his head. "I knew a different Kal and Nyz in addition to you two, remember? It's either that or the number."

"Yeah, not the numbers," Nyz muttered. "Anyway, Nyz-20 is dead. Has been for years. Just call me Nyz, will you? And Kal that. Or I'm going to call you Wys-20 in front of everyone."

"Will try," Wys grinned at him. "Though I'd love to see their reactions to that."

"And it's Nash while we're on the job."

"I know, Nash," Wys told him. "So! The plan for if they talk?"

"No one would believe them," Nyz told him. "Though Kal has a plan that any of the Scavengers here who do an impressive job might be allowed to live at base. An audition, of sorts."

"It's ready for residents?" Wys asked.

"Mostly," Nyz confirmed. "We probably won't open it up for a few more years. Kal's negotiated that we get to keep some of the seeds we rescue, if we do. Through NyKa Foods, that is."

"So they think it's NyKa Foods sending the expedition?" Wys asked.

"No," Nyz answered. "NyKa Foods contacted Solral Foods and made the deal after Solral Foods sent the message to the original client. They'd guessed Solral Foods would ask for it, and Solral Foods confirmed it after NyKa gave them the offer."

That was the official story, and as Wys didn't know everything about Kal and Nyz, Nyz wasn't planning on telling him the rest yet. As far as Solral Foods knew, NyKa Foods had made that guess. They didn't know that NyKa Foods was owned by the same person who sent out the message.

"Alright," Wys said, then stretched. "Let's get this beetle rolling, shall we?"

Nyz turned back on the comms.

"Let's head out!" He said as he began driving the beetle. "Formation is Red Team in the front, Blue Team in the back, and Green Team in the middle. Once we're outside, you six are going to watch those sides for any attacks. The glasses in those suits are more advanced than the ones you're used to and the suits' sensors will pick up a lot more.

"You'll notice once we're out there," he said as they exited the hanger through its large rolling door, the Scavengers taking up position around the mech as instructed. "That it'll pick up threats much sooner than you're used to. Keep that in mind, and only attack if something gets within range. You'll be seeing things moving through the fog that might not attack us, so don't provoke them."

The drive to the Gate took them only two minutes, and Gabe showed the guard the paperwork for the job. The guard checked it, then opened the Gate, and they rolled through, leaving the city behind.