Chapter 44 - Leaving Home (Part Two)

Søren tapped a few icons and a small holographic image streamed from the drone appeared in front of him in the air, tiny lines of light flickering in and out of view from one corner of the dataslate to the image. The bird's eye view from the drone showed several campfires in between some patchwork hide tents and bedrolls. The last bits of light from the sun illuminated the camp, throwing parts of it into deep shadows. Several people could be seen tending to meals cooking over the campfires, while others were cleaning weapons, and yet others were lounging around relaxing.

The largest tent had two people standing outside the entrance, guarding the tent and the people inside it. Søren adjusted the feed from the drone, enabling an infrared filter. Algorithms built in to the app quickly altered the feed further, highlighting each of the Scrapper Raiders in the camp, including the ones inside the tents hidden from view. Neeka's eyes darted back and forth as she took in the holo.

"That's twenty of them. Twenty-one counting the one Sehro took care of," Neeka said after counting. "The others may have gone out to forage for food and water."

"What if they're hidden like this one was?" Sehro asked.

"Could be. There are a lot of rocks and boulders scattered around here. It looks like a defensible location," Søren said. "We could ignore the camp and raiders or maybe we could talk to them--"

"You know what the Scrappers do Søren," Neeka interrupted Søren and admonished him with a stern glance. "They will not be the ally you want them to be against the Collective and their hordelings."

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Søren frowned. It was easy to treat this world like a game. The subtle influence of the interface. The drip, drip, drip of Pavlovian rewards and advancements. The world, so far removed from reality, but also as familiar to him, as his Søren's memories of many VR games. It was all piling up and affecting him more than he cared to admit.

"I... I guess. I'm not entirely convinced we couldn't --- "

Movement on the holo in front of Søren drew their attention. The missing three Scrappers had come into range of the camera drone. Two were dragging an unconscious creature between them. A bi-pedal humanoid.

"Looks like they've captured someone. Not a Fuerven," Neeka said after leaning in to peer closely at the holo.

"I could use the armor holo to try and rescue that person. Maybe steal their food. Force them to return to where they came from," Søren suggested hopefully.

"I don't know Søren," Sehro said. "Maybe if you knew more about Scrappers and this world, but you've been here less than a month. They would recognize something was wrong right away."

Søren furrowed his brow and looked back at the view from the camera drone. The three that had returned to the camp with the captive had made it to the campfires in the middle. They tossed the unconscious person to the ground roughly and could be seen getting pats on the back from other Scrappers that had joined them at the fires. Some others had picked up the captive and pushed them into a lashed together wooden cage near the edge of the firelight.

"We have to rescue them," Søren announced. He jerked his head up from the holo in front of him as the notification of a mission updating sounded in his mind. If Sehro and Neeka's reactions were anything to go by, they had received the same notification.

Clear the Scrapper Raider's Camp

A raiding party of Scrapper's have set up a temporary camp at the Crossroads. Remove the Scrapper threat before they become a danger to Caisleán.

1 / 24 Scrapper Raider slain

0 / 1 Scrapper Raider Captain slain

0 / 1 Scrapper Captive rescued (mission fails if captive is slain)

Rewards

• 1500 TEK

• 1 settlement build point

• [Uncommon] engram

"I really hate this system," Søren growled.