ETA - 0327 reactivates, and doesn’t find the back of their visor, like they assumed they would, an assumption brought on from numerous past experiences. Instead they find the same view they left, a beautiful city on that same beautiful background, but something changed, a large hunk of metal, in a roughly spherical shape looms on the edge of the infinite expanse. But being held from it by the pull of the planet.

“The Ocular’s out, huh,” 0327 thinks... “What an eyesore.” They grimace.

0327 refuses to stand, still feeling sluggish as components whirl to life inside their body. Suddenly, they realize something...

“Where’s 3487?”

Their bioreactor whirls to life, ignoring the warm-up sequence, jolts of high voltage power course through their wires, its presence begging components to work, now. 0327’s body vibrates all over, and… 0327, stands up calmly. They look around and find no sign of 3487, they listen… and a faint frenzied buzzing can be heard, accompanied by the sound of metal clinking about, but in an elegant pattern. 0327 walks to the edge of the building overlooking the one previously used as a step stool. As they look over they see 3487. The sluggish feeling immediately returns to Eaty, their body returning to protocol. Eaty slumps, holding themselves up by leaning over the parapet of the roof. Eaty watches 3487, still not feeling up to calling out. 3487 stands on the roof below, weapon drawn, and a battle stance taken, their armor, moving only slightly as they dance about, extreme care taken into their footwork to produce the effect. The sleek rapier moving with its user's hand, thrusting through the air, staying perpendicular to the body and finding its intended imaginary mark, despite the visor dropped in front of their panel, surely obscuring vision.

3487 stumbles on a back step, but catches themselves quickly and resumes the routine. Eaty grins, and lets out a silent chuckle. They continue to watch as 3487 dances about with imperfect elegance, the dance matching their armor; light, pristine, but with blemishes, whose existence tells of battles fought, but with the overall condition of the armor telling of ones yet to be.

Eaty calls out, “Still a bit sloppy.”

3487 jumps and stumbles at the sudden voice. Regaining composure, they quickly power off their weapon, the cascade of plasma fading away, and all that’s left is a long slender cone of metal, which is quickly sheathed. They turn to face Eaty. “Why would you do that?!”

“What, startle you or call you out on the stumble?” Eaty questions sarcastically.

“Both,” 3487 replies in a stern tone.

“Well obviously I’m trying to make you into a better combatant.”

“I’m sure I’m better than you when you were on your third year.”

“And you have your amazing teacher to thank for that,” Eaty grins.

“Pfft. ‘Amazing’,” 3487 scoffs.

As the back and forth dies down, and 3487 starts anew.

“You see that the Ocular’s out?”

“Yeah, what an eyesore,” Eaty says, vaulting over the parapet and hitting the rooftop below, the hydraulic cylinders in their legs absorbing the shock.

“It’s supposed to bring luck while overhead you know.”

“It’s just a legend, just like how some seekers claim to see it look at them,” Eaty retorts.

3487 looks up at the Ocular, the pill shaped eyes on their panel squish flat. “I guess it does kinda look like an eyeball if you try hard enou-“

“It’s not an eyeball!” Eaty interrupts.

3487 laughs. “Changing the subject before you get even more upset…” 3487 walks up to Eaty, “Can we please go do something?” 3487 bounces about. “You’ve been offline for FIVE hours,” 3487 groans.

“That’s not even that long,” Eaty says.

“It was FIVE hours,” 3487 repeats.

“Shouldn’t have promised you’d stay with me.”

“What was I supposed to do? Leave you by yourself up there all defenseless?”

“I was on top of an inaccessible rooftop.” Eaty’s eyes turn into u shaped blobs, annoyance visibly showing.

“Not ‘inaccessible’, we got up there.”

“Were you always this hard to deal with?” Eaty asks rhetorically.

“Only when I’m bored!” 3487 smiles.

“No… I’m pretty sure it’s all the time.”

3487's smile quickly fades, and they begin to pout.

“I'm just joking, how about we head to the commission hall?” Eaty says, trying to make amends.

“Do you even have to ask?” 3487 says already jumping over the parapet, and heading to the ground of the alley below.

“It’s too early for this,” Eaty sighs, dragging themselves over to the edge of the building and jumping off.

Making their way back to the Main Street of Centauri, they turn and walk down the street towards the large steps leading to the second story of the city.

“Couldn’t they just put the hall right next to the gate?” 3487 groans.

“They couldn’t,” Eaty says.

“Huh? Why not! I don’t see a problem with it!”

“You can’t just throw buildings wherever you want, there has to be some sort of organization,” Eaty looks around, “Fueling, Patching, Selling and Buying, even Residents, things often needed, 100% necessary, and affordable to the common Seeker, the first tier of Centauri has all of these things.”

“But we ‘need’ the Commission Hall, it’s ‘100% necessary’ and definitely affordable.”

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

“We’re not the common Seeker.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been a collector for 11 years now, and you for 3,” Eaty looks at 3487, “Not many Seekers stay in the task that long.”

“But new Seekers are joining all the time.”

“And they’ll do commissions, until they either swap to another task, or become decommissioned,” Eaty pauses, feeling guilt for the words they’re saying and the recipient receiving them, “You know this, I’ve told you before.”

“I remember, and you’re about to ask me about other tasks I’d like to do.”

“And have you thought of any?” Eaty questions.

“Yeah, I have.”

“Really?” Eaty is caught off guard, “What are they?”

A wide grin shoots across 3487’s panel, “I’ll tell you when you switch tasks.”

Eaty sighs, defeated once again. “Let’s just get to the hall.”

They arrive at the end of the street, three rows of stairs climbing towards the sky. They begin to ascend, arriving shortly at the second tier of Centauri. Upon reaching the top, they arrive in a large circular plaza, buildings are placed about the perimeter of the plaza and on either side of the plaza a street juts out, and continues for the entirety of the semi circle shaped tier, buildings line the street, and alleys stem off from the street wherever they can, leading to more buildings packed together.

The second tier lacks the space of the first tier, with the main area being only roughly 1500 feet across. From where Eaty and 3487 are standing they can see the next flight of stairs leading to the third level, a gatehouse spans the length of the stairs, the gate up pulled up, but guards standing and restricting access to those without permission to ascend. What the second tier lacks in space, it makes up for in use. Fabricators of differing specializations dot the perimeter of the square, training centers for guards, and specialized stores for wares not commonly needed but required to few. The administration office sits in the center of the North-west perimeter, and in the center of the North-east perimeter, the Commission Hall. Eaty and 3487 begin moving towards the commission hall, and Eaty takes note of a peculiarly large group of Seekers gathered near the gatehouse to the third tier.

“I wonder what’s happening over there,” Eaty says to 3487.

3487 turns to look at the crowd, “I dunno, looks boring though. They’re just standing there.”

“I’m going to guess they’re waiting on something.”

“Like?”

“I wouldn’t have asked the question if I knew.” Eaty grumbles.

They reach the commission hall and enter, Seekers dot the floor, the building far from max capacity, looking through papers trying to decide on a commission to take. Eaty and 3487 approach the main desk and are greeted by the commissioner behind the desk.

“Well look who it is, my two favorite collectors.”

“I’m sure you tell that to every collector,” Eaty says.

“Nope, just the long time ones, and you're definitely a long time one.”

3487 butts in quickly "Ahem, what about me?"

The commissioner turns their attention to 3487, "Well with how often you come in here together, you basically count as the same collector" The commissioner turns back to Eaty and grins, fully understanding whats about to occur. Eaty shoots him an upset look.

3487 looks at the commissioner with a scowl, "Ohhh, so just because i'm here with a collector that's been doing it for longer than i have, I'm just automatically grouped in with them? You know that im actually better than Eaty at some things, I've actually -" 3487 continues, but the commission and Eaty begin to slowly stop listening

“Is this my reward for staying on task this long?” Eaty looks down and sighs, defeated. 3487 is still going on their rant, but it is showing signs of stopping soon.

“I’ve gotta give you something,” the commissioner smiles. “Anyways, what're you here for 327...” The commissioner turns to 3487 "... and 3487." Upon hearing this 3487 stops their rant, and quickly responds. "See! Was that so hard to do!?" Eaty sighs again, this time with a small smile, and chuckle.

“Just grabbing another commission.” Eaty says.

“Scavenge, Recovery, or Threat?”

“Scavenge.”

“Danger level?”

“Gamma.”

The commissioner ducks behind the desk for just a second and comes back up with a list of available commissions, handing it to Eaty.

“Here you go, take your time picking, there’s several to choose from.”

Eaty looks at the stack of papers with slight disappointment, “Too much work, and not enough hands huh.”

Eaty walks away and finds a spot to sit down and read over the list, 3487 plops down beside them, trying to look over their shoulder at the list.

“What’d we get? Anything good?” 3487 excitedly asks.

“I don’t know yet,” Eaty says only halfway listening to 3487 as they flip through the pages.

Eaty scans the list; Material Haul: Scrap Steel, "Payment based on quality of scrap"

“Not happening.”

Seeker Components - 2 Cylinders 30mm, 3 Chrome marks.

“Maybe.” Eaty continues down the list until they find a commission labeled:

Special Scavenge - Fabricator Forge Heart, 1 Gold mark

Eaty pauses, and looks at the listing, 3487 takes notice.

“We going into the ruins?” 3487 asks.

“You up for it?” Eaty asks.

“I came online ready for it!” 3487 yells and jumps up, prompting the rest of the seekers in the building to look their way. “Sorry,” 3487 chuckles, their eyes looking away from the gazes.

Eaty gets up and walks back to the desk, “We’ll take this one.” Eaty points to the commission.

“Going into the ruins huh?”

“Seems like it. Scramble happens in 6 hours right?” Eaty asks sternly.

The Seeker behind the desk checks a schedule posted on the wall behind him. “That would be correct.”

“That gives us time then. We’ll take it.”

“Ok just give me one second to get your depth pass filled out.” The Seeker moves to a back room and comes back a few minutes later with 2 pieces of sheet metal, An ornate symbol, depicting the emblem of Centauri stamped into it, below which words are etched into it: “DEPTH PASS - LEVEL GAMMA SINGLE USE ETA - 0327” the only difference in the second piece being the call sign labeled.

Eaty grabs the passes and hands 3487 theirs.

“Thanks, and we’ll see you around 787.” Eaty begins walking away, but stops. “One last thing. You know anything about the crowd gathered outside?”

“You didn’t hear?” 787 says, surprised. “Bethlehem is coming down soon.”

“Bethlehem?” Eaty spins to face 787. “Why are they coming down from tier 3?”

“I dunno, I’m sure you’ll find out if you stay around, it should be happening in the next hour or so. If I had to guess, probably just making a walk through. Like most of the other times.”

3487 jumps into the conversation, “I’ve never seen them, only heard about them,” 3487 looks to Eaty, “Have you?”

Eaty turns to face the exit and begins walking, “A few times in passing.” Eaty continues to walk.

“What are they like?” 3487 cautiously says.

Eaty opens the door back to the plaza with 3487 in tow, they look out to the ever growing crowd at the gatehouse, “You’re about to see.”