Elias was out of breath as he completed the third circuit of the settlement. He knew he could boost the leg portions of his armour to reduce the effort needed but that wasn't the point of doing PT. It was meant to be hard. Rather than watching and instructing he now joined in, leading the sessions from the front. Despite his plan to spend most the day out on the Crust he still wanted to improve the basics, skipping the morning training was not a way to achieve this. He stood at the western edge of the wall by one of the two main entrances. Looping the wall and the ziggurat was only just over two hundred metres so Elias had to be inventive to make the session last half an hour. Sprints back and forth to the outer edge of the clearing; squats; burpees; press ups. All sorts of body weight exercises were cycled in to keep the recruits guessing and push them physically.

Slim had taken a few recruits aside after their chat in the evening. Elias knew which were not going to be joining them on their mission to hunt and kill enough Swarm to generate the credits they needed to upgrade the settlement. He knew Slim had told them they had the option to opt out of any further excursions but would be expected to take part in defending the settlement. They would work out the details of how this changed their contracts at a later date. For now, leaving a defensive group of five recruits while the others left to fight Swarm was reasonable anyway so they agreed not to change the split of rewards.

"Hey Mouse, how's your breakfast?" Asked Ty, taking a seat on the benches they had created out of old ziggurat wall.

"They're grrreat." Said Mouse spitting out half his mouthful with laughter.

"You know that doesn't even make any sense." Ty said. "I watched those old adverts you sent me. It's just not funny. Anyway, I came by to let you know I'm staying on base. Wondered if you wanted a hand finishing the connections for the next lot of buildings?"

"Actually, I've got a different task for today. Need to get the central tower up to three floors. It's a pain really, means switching out a load of walls for doors in buildings we have already completed." Mouse said. "Fancy giving me a hand with that?" He asked.

"Wait, third floor?" Replied Ty. "Does that mean..." He left the question hanging watching Mouse for a response.

Mouse gave a conspiratorial wink and got back to finishing his breakfast ration. Breakfast number two was a fruit flavoured porridge, served alongside a coffee and cracker. It wasn't that bad, but a cracker for breakfast just didn't make sense. Mouse had crushed his over the porridge and was back to making crunching noises as he ate. Realising he wouldn't get anything more from Mouse at the moment Ty tucked into his breakfast too. Both eating in companionable silence.

Elias was sat with a larger group of the recruits. He had found that if he used the meals to explain the day ahead they would listen and interact to some degree. Trying to be social with the recruits had fallen flat on its face but he preferred eating with company and this way they tolerated him much better.

"Some of you may have noticed that the Swarm approaching the settlement have been concentrated in two directions." He drew a square to mark the settlement and circle for the ziggurat next to it. "Here, from the East, is where the biggest groups were found. Here to the Northwest were the next biggest. Can anyone say why?" By asking questions it stopped his monologue and a couple of the recruits were quite astute it was good to have someone to run his thoughts by, even if it was in a teacher-student setting.

"That's the way we arrived," Said Kyla, "they're probably tracking the old and fading energy signatures from our arrival." She pointed to the northwestern mark.

"That's right." Elias said. "The other direction, we don't know why there is a concentration of Swarm. So, since we are heading out on the Crust anyway which should we look at clearing?"

"I'd suggest we go east." Jim joined in, he was the only recruit to activate all his basic skills and with Kyla tended to be the most vocal. Somehow by picking a few of squad three to join him in entering the ziggurat Elias had selected them as what was viewed by the others as the lead squad. It wasn't intentional but they were pushing themselves to try and prove it was.

"Explain?" Elias fired back at him. They knew Elias wouldn't accept an answer without reasoning so Jim was ready for this.

"We know the threat to the northwest and it should ultimately die down as the energy trail they are following fades. The east is an unknown we would be best to find out why they are gathering there and in what numbers." Jim replied.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Good. I agree." Elias had already decided but they came up with the same logic which reassured him it was a good decision. "Get breakfast finished, gear up and ready to go in ten." He gulped down the last of his coffee and headed back to the central command building to follow his own instructions.

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Oberon had ended up paying extra to get his equipment transported down to Southwatch with him. His irritation at the company running the dropship and settlement had reduced but not fully faded by the time he was on the ground.

"I'm not spending any more credits here." He said to no-one in particular.

Fortunately his assault vehicle was fully charged meaning there was little stopping him from starting his journey immediately. The large locker sized rectangular box in front of him verified his identity and transformed from travel mode into a three wheeled bike. The chunky wheels designed to smooth out the bumpy surface of the Crust for the rider. A few passersby took a step back as twin shoulder mounted energy weapons rose out of the rear of the vehicle when he took his seat. Oberon gave them a dismissive look but deactivated the weapons as one of them rushed off towards the nearest guard.

He double checked the distance to Libertas and intentionally disregarded the gateway leading west to take a smaller track to the outer edge of the settlement and push through a gap in the fence between two fields. He had no obligation to tell the guards his destination but also no desire to make a commotion explaining this to them and refusing to give one. The five minute detour would save him time in the long run. He put on goggles to protect his eyes as he accelerated back towards the road. The beauty of travelling alone was that he didn't have to hold himself back. He watched his display as the odometer reached one, then two hundred kilometres an hour. The wind whipped his hair and jacket but didn't cut through his nanoweave armour that lay beneath. There was little to think of while he rode so his mind turned instead to Jeddiah and what discovery he must have made to call in the favour from so many years ago.

He bunked down overnight in the first waypoint he came to. There were signs it had been recently used and the lack of care shown made him more cautious as he set his camp for the night. It was quite simple to mask an energy signature but not a skill most bothered to learn unless they were a scout or similar role. As a loner it was invaluable.

"Stupid grubs." Oberon muttered as he activated his cloaking tech and watched the approaching larvae turn to the older energy signature leading off towards the west. He reactivated the automatic defences on his vehicle, plenty to turn away a few Swarm if he was unlucky enough that they would break through his passive defences. Setting an alarm for an hour before dawn he took one last look around before entering his tent for the night.

The next day he had a quick coffee and was on the road as the sun rose. The map he had purchased in Porta and downloaded to his neural link showed one more waypoint on his current heading and then two smaller dots marked as beacons linking to Libertas almost two thousand kilometres away. While he could rely on his augments to complete the journey in one day it would be taxing on both his reserves and the assault vehicle. Better not to risk it breaking down on route as he only had the basic tools to repair it.

He took an early morning stop for breakfast at the next waypoint, noting further signs of a larger group having camped there the night before. To his surprise the faint energy trail they had left did not head onwards to Highpeak but was in the same direction he planned to leave. It seemed he was not the only one with an interest in Libertas. Oberon first caught sight of the group as he neared the first beacon marked on his map. Not wanting to be held up or invited to join the group he activated his cloaking device once more. As long as he stayed a sensible distance from their outriders he would avoid showing up on their display. The main convoy had stopped at a walled structure on the Crust in the distance while other sweeping lighter vehicles that he presumed were scouts seemed to be gathering Swarm and spreading their energy signals over a wider area. He recognised the tactics, they were pulling the Swarm in from a larger area to clear them.

As he skirted the camp he saw they were already starting to move on. They paid him no heed as he sped by. Oberon wondered about the wall he had seen the convoy parked around. It had an interesting design that was unlike the waypoints before. By the time he approached the last beacon before Libertas he had been riding non-stop for over five hours. He took a well earned rest in the walled structure and was intrigued by the layered nature of the walls and ditches. He hadn't seen the first camp so was unable to appreciate the improvements made compared to the camp before. After resting and eating his afternoon meal he saw a trail of dust signal the arrival of the convoy he had left behind. Knowing they would question a single rider on their own he packed up and moved on. It was too late to complete his journey to Libertas but with his cloaking technology and such a large energy source nearby he would be safe out on the Crust.

He watched with interest as a much smaller convoy than he had seen earlier pulled up around the camp. Recruits and a construction crew left the front two troop carriers and started placing metal sheets to act as a temporary barrier. He saw as a small group from the first carrier made their way over to explore the structure that made up the camp of the previous group. With nothing better to do he watched to see when the rest of the group would arrive. Oddly by the time the sun had set and their camp set for the night only one more of the remaining two troop carriers had appeared.

Oberon woke to find he had overslept after the long day riding before. The sun was already in the sky and berating himself about forgetting to set his alarm did nothing to rectify the situation. He was soon distracted from being annoyed at himself by the strange behaviour of the convoy in front of him. They had broken camp and obviously in a rush having left partly removed walls in place. All five of the troop carriers and the command vehicle were on the road already, though it was early in the morning still. He saw the lighter quads and bikes that had been out sweeping for Swarm arrive, change riders and then head back out in the direction they had come.

Suddenly it clicked what they were doing. The sweeping of Swarm, the large forward command group. They were not trying to clear the way to Libertas step by step. They were trying to draw all the Swarm together and bring them to Libertas in one wave. It was a tactic he had seen before, a legal way to force a company to concede ownership of a settlement. He brushed the sleep out of his eyes no time for the morning coffee to get him awake. Instead he pulled a stim drink from his pack and downed it. He could only hope Jed had the resources to hold out against such a foe. Jumping on his bike he forced it up to maxium speed and headed straight for Libertas only hoping he could give them some warning about what was to come.

"Two, maybe three hours to get there. Going to take the troop carriers double that." Oberon was muttering again. It was a bad habit but it helped him think. At least no one could hear him when he was shooting along at over two hundred kilometres an hour. "There can't have been more than a hundred, maybe one fifty Swarm. Could there?" The muttering continued as he could do little more than watch his marker slowly move towards his destination.