"Damn," Gabe said. "The roots are going right towards Virtul."

"That's because the main body is in the center of it," Kal said over the headpieces. "You're almost there. Just follow the route I've mapped out to check to see if you can complete any of the three jobs. According to the dragonflies, the venarus is nearly five thousand feet tall. It probably wants to be taller, but knows it'll push through the upper layer of the fog if it does."

"You're fucking kidding," Harn said.

"Doesn't sound like it," Miyak responded. "I'm still amazed, though. We encountered almost nothing once he took over navigation."

"Which is why I trust him," Nyz stated. "When the two of us work together, nothing stops us. We should be approaching the city walls soon."

"The ruins of them, anyway," Kal said. "There's… well, the roots did a good job destroying things."

"I don't get it," Harn said. "If the dragonflies are so good at looking at everything, how come you didn't use them to see if the stuff we're looking for is there?"

"You're assuming I didn't try," Kal said. "For the seeds, some are still sealed up. For the hard drive, there are a couple it could be, but the dragonflies can't scan data, and none of the hard drives are sealed up, so there's a good chance they're corrupted, the enchantments gone. As for the first job's objective, it might be there, it might not. It's hard to tell. When Nash looks through the stuff, I'll have his suit scan them to see if it is or not."

"Kal thinks ahead," Nyz stated. "The map takes us to the seeds, then the drives, then the location for the final location. We're taking all of the seeds, just in case. Look alert."

The team made it to the ruins of the Gate, Gabe and Lyan clearing a path through the rubble with their walkers before the team passed through. They carefully navigated through the ruins of the city, over and under the roots, some of which reached twice the height of the beetle.

After nearly an hour of careful navigation, Nyz stopped the crew in front of the ruins of a building.

"I'm heading in to collect things myself," Nyz said. "You all stay out here, where there's the glow."

"You're going in alone?" Gabe asked. "Are you sure, Nash?"

"Quite sure," Nyz responded. "You all should stay out here in case something happens. Kal will have separate comms running so that you don't hear us and I don't hear you."

Nyz stood and left the cockpit, ascending into the decontamination chamber before entering the combat suit changer. He undressed, then pulled on his bodysuit, then combat suit. After checking his weapons and equipping them, he left the beetle.

Jumping off the beetle, Nyz walked towards the ruins of a building nearby. The fog there was dense enough that visibility reached only a few feet out. As he stepped into the fog, Nyz activated the glow on his suit, extending his visibility to ten feet in all directions.

The only things which bothered Nyz as he walked were the occasional spider, and those were swiftly dealt with by a single shot from his gun. He navigated through the roots and ruined building using the map on his suit's glasses, eventually making it to the seed vault beneath the city. Stepping through the remains of its door, Nyz began walking through the shelves and roots, picking up the foil packages his scanners flagged as undamaged. Anything else was corrupted by the fog and AMF, rendering them unusuable.

Every package he picked up which proved undamaged, he placed in his pack, eventually coming across one labeled as tomatoes.

"Oh, found one," Nyz said. "It was upside-down, so the label was facing the ground."

"That's fine," Kal told him. "Even one package means we get paid. Look for more of those, they'll be around there, then finish picking up intact packages. The spatial hold in your pack should manage to contain them all."

"Will do," Nyz put the package of seeds into his pack before resuming his search.

After his initial sweep through the vault, Nyz began activating grenades which released a bright green gas into the air, and once it had filled up his vision, leaving him to rely on his senses and the scanners, he began attacking the roots. The green gas began turning dark, with hints of pink to it, but he ignored that.

For the next hour, Nyz worked on destroying the roots, burning what he could while ensuring the air was continuously filled with the neutralizing gas. After burning the roots in the vault to ash and cauterizing the sections leading into it, Nyz began a second round of checking the vault. He moved the remains of the inert roots around, no longer worried about the sap.

With his path cleared, Nyz was able to locate more packages of seeds, some of which the roots had rested on. Not all were usable, but he took the ones which showed no signs of damage to them, placing them into his pack as well.

"Does this pack really decontaminate the stuff inside?" Nyz asked as he placed the last package into it.

"Yes," Kal told him. "I did that specifically because of this mission, so that you don't have to worry about bringing every package back out in the beetle to decontaminate them."

"Okay," Nyz said as he began returning to the surface. "How is her mission going?"

"She's been arguing with her father ever since she returned," Kal told him. "He's kind of pissed we told her the truth, since his plan had been to acclimate her to it so that she'd actually be okay with it."

"Probably not as pissed as she is," Nyz said. "How many packages did we find?"

"You found a total of one thousand, eight hundred, sixty-four intact packages," Kal told him. "Three of which had tomato seeds. The vault had originally stored more than three hundred thousand packages, so that's a rather steep drop. I saw a few interesting ones among them, and will negotiate with Solral for a few of them as NyKa Foods."

"Okay," Nyz said. "Which ones did you find interesting?"

"You'll have to find out once I'm growing them here," Kal told him. "I might have to open up the fourth farm level."

"You do what you have to," Nyz told him.

"There are four farm levels?" Taylor's voice came over the comms.

"Technically, there are six," Kal told him. "Though I could have fit more, with how thick our island's base is."

"Why is the terrorist on the comms?" Nyz growled.

"Nyz, I told you, he's joined us," Kal said. "Seriously. You even sensed-"

"He still joined up with terrorists," Nyz stated. "Get him off the comms."

"Taylor, go mute again."

"Kal-"

"Nyz, just let him listen," Kal said. "It's not hurting anything."

"Whatever," Nyz muttered.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

He finished leaving the building and went straight for the beetle, climbing up to the hatch, then entering. After decontamination, he put the pack away, then returned to the cockpit, not bothering to change back into his clothes.

"We're getting paid," he stated as he took control once more, the Scavengers cheering. "Let's head to the next objective to see if we can increase that."

Once everyone settled down, Nyz began driving again, leading them through the city on their way to Lurnal Power's job location.

"Out of curiosity," Kacy said. "How much are we getting paid?"

"From that job," Kal said. "There will be a little more than thirty-seven million for each of you."

"Hooly shit!" She exclaimed. "Even if we don't invest that, we're set for life!"

Nyz snorted, and Wys gave him a look that told him the older teen knew they were probably being paid less than an even split. Nyz knew Wys would probably be told later, either by him or Kal, that they were. Nyz and Kal were taking fifty percent of the payment, which was three hundred million per package. Even after they deducted one of the packages from the pay, it was still hefty.

"Solral Foods really wants those seeds, don't they?" Gabe asked. "Tomato seeds, you said?"

"They're a versatile fruit," Kal said. "Pizza, sandwiches, pastas, and more used them. There was once a dipping sauce for things like fries called 'ketchup' that used it, and it was put on many burgers and sandwiches as well. A popular pasta sauce used tomatoes as its base. Slices of them were put on burgers and sandwiches, underripe ones were fried, they were used in salsas, and more. In the next five years, the tomato industry, just between Solral Foods and NyKa Foods, will probably be hundreds of millions of credits a year."

"I don't get it," Harn said. "If it was such a big industry before, why were there only seeds in one vault? How did it die out? Wouldn't there have been many cities with tomatoes farms?"

"At that time," Kal said. "Tomatoes were grown in exactly three cities. Plants weren't spread out across many cities like they are now, but grown in fewer cities that dedicated most of their farms to them. One of those cities, the farms were wiped out by a disease that left no viable seed around the same time as Virtul fell. Another city was actually taken out by the AMF the same day as Virtul, thus rendering those seeds obsolete."

"And the third city?"

"Their farm was attacked by a dragon," Kal stated. "And before anyone wants to argue they don't exist, they do. So don't try to start that argument with us. Due to less ease of communication at that time, no one else knew about the other issues, and there were only three seed vaults with tomato seeds in them. One of them didn't store things properly, so the seeds there were unusuable, and the other one had a rather nasty fire."

Nyz knew about the latter, as Kal had mentioned it. By 'fire', his friend meant 'a dragon attacked that city randomly, causing it to fall as well'.

"Damn," Miyak said. "It's almost as if something wanted to erase tomatoes from the planet."

"Possibly the AMF," Nyz stated. "It's shown intelligence before, and it knew tomatoes were basically a staple in many peoples' diets. Look alert, folks."

Conversation ended there, though Nyz could see the excitement on everyone's faces as they thought over what they'd do with the money. He knew Wys wasn't lacking for it, and his friend's face showed that he wasn't interested in the pay as much. Being the son of the owner of a major corporation, Wys was worth more than the overall pay for the job.

When they reached the second building, Nyz left the beetle and entered alone, locating the hard drives using the map on his glasses. When he went through them, however, his suit scanned all of them and yielded that the fog had corrupted the data on each. He returned to the beetle, then delivered the news as he took his seat in the cockpit once more.

"Damn," Harn said. "Would've been nice to have an extra pay."

"You'd each only get a little more than fourteen million," Kal said. "Had this job proven viable."

"Still, though," Harn said. "That's an extra fourteen million on an already awesome pay."

"Are you kidding me?" Kal exclaimed.

"What?" Harn asked. "I mean, I know it might come off as gree-"

"No, not you," Kal said. "One moment, everyone. I need to make a call. Stay put. You guys will hear their end of the conversation, but they won't be able to hear you. Hello, this is Kal, of NyKa Enterprises. I'm calling in regards to that message you literally just sent me."

"Hello, Kal," a female voice came over everyone's comms. "You sound quite young?"

"I'm nineteen," Kal stated.

"Are you the person in charge of the trip to Virtul?" She asked.

"I am," he answered. "Who am I speaking to?"

"Anma Draf," she answered. "Owner of Draf Entertainment."

"Isn't Draf Entertainment a brothel company?" Nyz asked.

"They do other stuff!" Wys laughed. "They also produce sex toys, condoms, lube, massage oils, and other things necessary for intimacy."

"Yes," Gabe said. "They're the leading brothel company. They're also the ones mostly in charge of regulating the paid sex industry, and are the reason most illegal sex trades and sex trafficking rings have been crushed. Their security force is nearly as strong as Asterox's, and really only second to them in terms of a corporation's security force."

"They're also the reason," Nyz said. "Most legal Sex workers are paid and treated fairly. I respect them for that. All of their brothels are fully consensual."

"Ever been to one?" Lyan asked.

"Once," Nyz said. "I didn't have sex, though. Now shush, I'm trying to listen to Kal's rant."

"-two weeks ago, and you're deciding now, even though the posting said when they were leaving, to try to add on another job? Are you insane?"

Anma was silent for several moments as everyone realized that Kal had ripped into her for putting in a job request. In normal circumstances, no one would have been able to contact the team of Scavengers to inform them of a new job, which made a rant rightful.

"Yes, I'm sorry," she said. "I had only sent that message in the hopes that there was some sort of delay in their departure, enough of one which allowed them to still be contacted once they reached a way station."

"Lucky for you," Kal sighed. "I'm utilizing a series of relays to stay in contact with them. Small mechs that transfer the signal, and enough of them to reach from Chasiry to Virtul."

"Chasiry?" Gabe asked. "Doesn't he mean Honlar?"

"Probably got mixed up while flustered," Lyan said.

"You're doing what?" She asked.

"NyKa Magitech," Kal told her. "Came up with a type of miniature, self-controlled mech that I can use to boost a signal through the fog, as long as they're close enough. I have them near the top of the fog, where they're less likely to be attacked, and there are three sets of them. Only here and where they are can ones be found lower down.

"It's allowed me," Kal said. "To remain in contact with the crew. They've been releasing them from the beetle as they journeyed. Since most of them are near the clear sky, the signal is able to travel further, also allowing for fewer to be used. Case in point, I was actually speaking with them after they completed the second additional job when you send me that message.

"So," Kal said. "Yes, I can add that job to their roster. But are you fucking kidding me? You decide to wait a month before asking me if they could see if there is a lube that remains? If it weren't for the dragonflies, you'd be shit out of luck, Anma."

"Sorry," Anma said as the crew of scavengers did their best not to laugh at what the request was. "As I said, I'd hoped that there was, perhaps, a delay. You have miniature mechs and you called them dragonflies? Are you really in contact with them, even when they're in Virtul?"

"Yes," Kal stated. "In fact, they can hear this entire conversation. Now, I'll add the job to their roster, but only if you double the reward as well as allow each member of the crew who makes it back a fifty-percent, lifetime discount on all Draf Entertainment goods and free use of any Draf-owned brothel. Otherwise, the price you're offering isn't worth it. Especially not for some fucking lube."

There was silence on the call for several moments, though Wys giggled in his seat like a little boy waiting to see the results of his prank on a teacher.

"You have a deal," Anma said. "How do you have such magitech? Even Asterox Corporation doesn't."

"It's not something new," Kal said. "It's just expensive as shit to run. Part of the cut we're taking from the two jobs from others is being used to cover the cost. Three, now. It wouldn't be viable, otherwise."

By that point, the crew working with Nyz had been made aware that there was some other communication method in use, as the dragonflies were only sent out after the initial communications from the beetle. However, none wanted to ask what, exactly, that was, especially as Nyz's explanations were confusing.

Mostly because, as he had told them before, he didn't fully understand it. That resulted in his attempts at explaining it making it sound even more complicated than it was.

"Alright," Kal said. "I'm going to update them on where to go. The job is accepted, Anma, so there's a deal. If they locate the lube, they're getting paid."

"Thank you," she said. "Sorry for the late delay, and thank you."

"Alright," Kal said. "The call's over. Fucking hell. She wants you guys to look for a sealed, adamant-mithril alloy cylinder at their old facility there. Apparently, the genius making a special lube died in the attack on that city, and he was the only one who knew how to make it. They didn't manage to get the lube out in time, and so she wants you guys to see if it's still there. If it is and it's still sealed, their company should be able to figure out the formula from it."

"Lube?" Gabe asked. "Seriously? It's not as… well, I guess it'd have its benefits. But what kind of lube is it that they'd want to send people out here for?"

"It wasn't 'send people out here for'," Nyz said. "It was hijacking onto another job."

"I have a question," Zech said.

"Yeah?" Nyz asked.

"The way you were talking on that call, Kal," Zech said. "Who's the client for the job we haven't done yet? The one Nash and you won't say what it is?"

"We are," Kal answered. "The first client is us."