Command Center, next day

Halari spread the old maps on the central table of the Command Center, unfolding them so that all in the room could make out their contents. She’d found these in her early days of searching the city’s outskirts and kept them as a kind of decoration in her room as a place mat on her desk.

The room that Callan had deemed the Command Center was a wide conference room in the administrative part of the Temple; it was a floor below Callan’s own office. Usually, she and him talked with the heads of his growing departments, but today she’d requisitioned it for her city scouts so they could plan this scouting mission.

“We’re here,” she said, pointing to the area where the Quarry lay just north of the Ruins. Viria and the others in her team nodded dutifully, focused completely on her words and the map. “The inner wall is about three miles into city limits.” She drifted her index finger to the thick black line that circled the metropolitan center.

“That’s a bit of a distance, isn’t it?” Dale asked, chewing on his thumb as he always did when she proposed something that stressed him out. Poor knuckle had to be worn out by now.

“And it’s even longer on foot,” Halari said. She smiled grimly, causing her poor teammate to gnaw even more feverishly on his finger. “Anything loud might call the mantiles, so once we’re at the cleared zone border, we’re boots to the stone.”

A few of her party paled at this, but much to her pride, Viria stood up straighter and smiled. Halari appreciated her sister putting on a brave face for her comrades.

“Now, we leave in about an hour,” she continued. “So I want you all to go home and make sure your short-range comms are fully charged. Double-check your packs, too. Also, who has the air filtration masks?”

An awkward fell over the five of them and she watched as a few of them traded looks. “Guys, come on.”

“Uhhh, Hala…” Viria pursed her lips, which Halari knew meant that the next words out of her sister’s mouth were either an excuse or just plain bad news. The blonde reached into her waist satchel and pulled out a single mask. It was clear except for the bottom couple of inches where a mouthpiece for breathing was set and circular gauge on the upper right side. It fit over the whole face for perfect visibility. “This is the only one we have.”

“What happened to the rest of them?” Halari asked, throwing her hands up. “There were supposed to be enough extras for all of us.”

“Some of the regulars got damaged in a recent shaft collapse,” Viria explained, grimacing. “So the crews had to take them. This one was all they left.”

Halari groaned, but took the single piece of equipment from her sister and tossed into her own satchel. “Guess I’m going up alone. You'll have to cover me from the bottom.”

“I mean, are we sure about the air?” Viria asked. “Maybe it’s fine.”

“That’s why we’re checking with the masks,” Halari said. “I’ve seen more than a few birds drop dead if they fly too high near the wall. If we’re gonna get inside, we need to be sure.”

“I just don’t like the idea of you scaling the wall all by yourself,” Viria murmured, finally losing her bravado in the face of endangering her family.

“You mean like how I explored the wasted by myself for years?” Halari winked at her, then tightened the satchel to her waist.

“Point taken,” Viria relented, smiling softly.

“Meet at the departure point in an hour,” Halari reminded her team, dismissing them with a wave. Once they were gone, Halari repacked the maps and shoved them next to the air mask. She was not looking forward to climbing the one-hundred, fifty-foot wall, but at least she’d get to see the city center for the first time.

Callan met her at the front door of the Temple, bowl of flavored ashbuds in hand.

“Come to see me off?” she asked, taking the offered bowl from him and popping one of the smaller buds whole into her mouth.

“Is everything set?” he asked. “Got all the supplies you need?”

“There’s a bit of a hiccup with the masks,” Halari said. “We’ve only got one to work with, but it’s fine.”

Callan frowned. “And who’s the lucky person who gets to use it?”

Halari stared at him, both brows raised. “Is that a real question?” She giggled as he huffed his disapproval of her plan and frowned deeper.

“I don’t like the idea of you going up alone,” he grumbled. “Are you sure I can’t come with you? What if another mantile attacks?”

“We’re going straight from the cleared area to the wall,” Halari said. “If anything gets in our way we’ll turn right around. It’s also a good exercise for my crew to do these type of things on their own, away from your divine protection. They’ll grow faster if they learn to not rely on you.”

“How about I send Dalvo with you?” he tried. “In case of—”

“Callan…” Halari stepped close so he could see her resolve more clearly. “This is one of the moments where you just gotta trust I know what I’m doing. We’ll be fine.”

He sighed heavily, but nodded. “I trust you, of course, but that doesn’t mean I won’t worry.”

“And I appreciate your concern,” Halari said. “So long as you do it from here.” Callan groaned softly again, but she saw the moment he realized that this wasn’t a winning argument on his part.

“Just be careful,” he said, meeting her eyes.

Go for it. Quick. Halari leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek. “I’ll be back soon.”

She slipped past him without another word, but did toss a look over her shoulder once she was a distance aways to see his reaction. He stood facing the Temple like she’d left him, so she wasn’t able to see his face, but the fact he hadn’t moved said something, right?

Was that too much? she worried, chewing on her next ashbud. Maybe they’d discuss that later if need be, but she didn’t want to expend the energy to trouble over it before a big expedition.

After spending the better part of the next hour in her garage checking her own equipment and tuning up the trawler, she rolled onto the stone ready to go. A couple quicks raps to the bottom of the Great Tanks gave her even more confidence as she ascended the entry ramp.

“Scout captain Halari, checking out,” she said to the gate guards at the top. The gate itself was pretty rudimentary, little more than a couple of steel bars welded together in a rectangular latticed and set into the interior faces of a tall doorway constructed of polished, black stone bricks. “Expect five more of my crew within the next ten minutes.”

“Logged,” one guard said after jotting down her name. She rolled through the gate, giving both of them a friendly wave on her way out. They saluted her- technically she was an officer- then locked the gate behind her.

Halari drove hugging the rim of the Quarry’s cliff and made her way to the departure point. It was a thin grove of thinner trees that barely had enough gravelly soil to support them. She saw all the way across it to the other side without much obstruction. She set the trawler to idle and relaxed back, kicking her feet onto the steering console while she pulled the maps out and refreshed herself on their predetermined pathing for the trip.

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“ -Hrrzzt- Halari, can you hea— hrrztt— Halari, come in.” Viria’s voice came through broken and fuzzy on her short-range communicator. The device was a black square about the size of her palm, and its surface was wiry like it was made entirely of thin cables. When power ran low in the Quarry, they’d been the first to have their Cells transferred, but with Callan acting as a living generator, they’d been restored back to full working order, making her excursions into the city a lot easier to coordinate with her team.

“Yeah, what’s up, Viri?” Halari asked into the device.

“Just letting you -hrrzztt- five out,” came the response. “Kanu had -hrzzt- with ride. All good -hrrzzt-”

Halari jerked back as the device pulsed out a horrendous feedback noise in a few quick beats.

“Is this any better?” Viria’s voice, much clearer, came through the line. “Had to smack this damn thing a couple times.”

Halari giggled. “Yeah, you’re good.”

“We’re five away from the meeting spot,” Viria repeated. “Kanu’s ATV shit out in the garage. It’s all good now.”

“I’ll take a look at it when you get here,” Halari said, shaking her head softly.

Five minutes later, she heard the familiar rumble of engines and rose from studying her maps to see her team driving towards the grove. They stopped once they were close enough and saluted their greetings, all except for her sister.

“What’s the issue, Kanu?” she asked her newest recruit. The young man, just turned seventeen, turned to his vehicle.

“It’s uhhh, whining, I guess is the best word, when I hit the ignition, captain,” he said, blushing furiously under her scrutiny. The curly-haired youth got embarrassed easily, which provided no small amount of amusement for Viria and the others. They weren’t too hard on him per her orders though. “And it ummm… wouldn’t start up today.”

“Lemme see...” Halari unlatched the hood on his ATV and peered inside. The issue was made abundantly clear instantly. “Kanu do you… know how to clean this thing? You’ve got some major corrosion along the Cell frame and disperser.”

“Uhhh…” Kanu blushed deeper. “No, captain.”

At least he’s honest, Halari thought, shutting the hood. “Stay behind once we get home and I’ll show you how to polish her up. Can’t have you exploding on us cause your ride’s too dirty.”

Kanu nodded abashedly.

“Alright, guys,” Halari called. She saddled into her own trawler and started it up. “Let’s get moving.”

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It took them an hour to reach the end of their designated cleared zone: the area which she and her team had been looting for the last month. In that short amount of time, the blocks she’d once claimed for herself almost tripled in length. Turned out having more people actually made for faster looting.

Halari held up a fist about two blocks from where they’d painted a line in the street marking their latest progress, bringing the party to a halt early to prevent any wandering mantiles from catching their arrival.

The city was quiet. A breeze whispered through the refuse-strewn alleys, caressing them with the scent of ash and stone. The wall was visible in the distance; it was a straight shot down their street to the base of the grand fortification.

But what lurked in the dark alleys between them and their goal? And more importantly, what was beyond that barrier? She knew the legends, the stories, the reports from caravan traders who said they’d seen inside having dared to cross through as an ill-advised shortcut, but they were all different tales. Some said it was riddled with pits that they swore were the source of an unnerving howling. Others said it was full of a dense, green smog that produced hallucinations they never forgot. And still some said that there was fire everywhere that never went out.

Halari gestured for them advance forward, low and slowly. They knew how to spot mantile eggs now, but locating the full-grown ones hiding in the nooks and crannies was an entirely different challenge.

She took the lead for two of her party on the right-hand sidewalk, trusting Viria to guide the rest on the opposite side as they progressed beyond their designated line.

Every alley felt like a death trap. They were completely illuminated by the midday glare, but in each instant where her eyes crossed the threshold between building and corridor, a mantile sprung at her with snapping pincers and amethyst eyes full of bloodlust.

Maybe having Callan here wouldn’t have been so bad, Halari thought, crossing the first street to the next block. She kept her rifle at the ready having already chambered a bullet. If anything with more than two legs so much as glanced in her direction, she planned to light it up like a mine shaft.

Progress was slow, but faster than expected. They were efficient in clearing each alley and moving on, which filled Halari with pride at their improvement. As horrifying as the mantile attack had been, it had shown them the dangers of the city to the point they took their time in the ruins seriously.

It took another hour to cover the roughly mile-and-a-half from their safe perimeter to the foot of the looming wall. Halari gulped as she looked up the face of it. It was taller than both of the cliffs wrapping Stargazer’s Quarry, but far less smooth than the natural stone. Its metallic surface was pocked and scarred with craters, long gouges, and other blemishes of war that exposed its frame.

“Alright, Hala,” Viria sighed, staring up beside her, “last chance to change your mind. We could always go around and check for a way through one of the gates.”

“Closest one’s blocked off,” Halari reminded her. “And it would take days to even reach the others, which are also probably blocked off despite those caravan tall tales. This’ll take an hour or two max.” She stepped up to the nearest spot of damage she considered a first foothold and tied a long length of rope around her waist while simultaneously plotting up her path for the ascent.

“G-good luck, captain,” Kanu murmured. The others muttered similar well-wishes, but she knew all of them were relieved they weren’t the ones about to take this job.

Lucky bastards. Halari secured her climbing hook to the first exposed crossbeam.

Then she began to climb.

It was actually a lot easier than scaling the hazardous terrain of the wastes. She had plenty of regular footholds at measured intervals, and even at spots where her path directly upwards was blocked by smooth, intact metal, there was usually a patch of damage within arm’s reach or a quick swing via rope tied to a super secured climbing hook.

And yet, she felt more anxiety scaling the wall than she did anything in the roughs surrounding her home.

The frame didn’t feel sure and steady in her grip, unlike the black stone that she knew so well. The metal supports groaned or creaked when she moved or put too much pressure on them. And she studied each new hook anchor cautiously, especially when they showed signs of rust or strain. It was the one of the greatest feats of ancient human engineering she’d ever seen, but it had nothing on good old rock.

Her arms started to ache just after what she thought was the halfway point, so she hooked onto a bar in front of her and leaned back so her arms dangled, letting her stronger thighs take most of her weight.

“How’s it going up there!” She heard Viria call from the ground.

“Doing great!” Halari shouted back, wiping a couple beads of sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand. Just wonderful. She methodically unlooped her canteen from her belt and took a long swig.

The latter half of the climb was more challenging by far. Damage was more concentrated as if the wall had taken some kind of bombardment or artillery near the top. Some of the impact craters were so deep that she could stand in them and walk on the supports.

She lost some time navigating a partially collapsed mess of metal that shook and creaked at her touch, but it remained intact long enough for her reattach to the wall proper.

But as soon her foot left it, the pile gave way.

Halari watched suspended midair by rope as beams, supports, panels, and other debris sloughed from the crater in a loud chorus of ringing metal.

“Look out!” she cried to her party, squinting below to see if they managed to get out of the way. It was hard to make out anything beyond the falling scrap as it fell until it finally landed in a scatter on the streets.

After a worrisome moment, the speck figures of her team drifted out of a nearby building.

“Trying to kill us, Hala?” Viria’s voice came over the comm and Halari breathed a sigh of relief.

“Everybody ok?” she asked into her own device.

“Yeah, we’re fine down here,” Viria said. “Just watch your step, alright?”

“You got it,” Halari chuckled. “I’m almost at the top anyways. Be down soon.”

“Copy copy, sis,” Viria chirped. “We’ve got an eye on things down here. Over and out.”

Might be time to throw on my mask. Halari fixed the air filtration device to her face, then pulled herself up to the next foothold and resumed her climb. The rest of the ascent was a breeze after that adrenaline rush and soon she felt her hand clench around the lip of the wall’s top. With a ragged wheeze of effort, she heaved herself over the edge and propped herself on her knees while she caught her breath.

“Now let’s get a look,” she muttered, voice echoing inside the mask. The little needle gauge on the right side of her view shot up into the yellow, then the red, as she approached the inner edge of the wall about twenty paces from where she arrived. Halari walked across the rampart and with each step, more and more of the city center came into view. “By the Visionary…”

If everything outside the wall was a ruin, then the urban area inside the fortification was the angry ghost of a warzone. There really were endless flames coming from some pits in the street billowing smoke that settled on the ground unnaturally. Whatever they were fueled by, she couldn’t tell. She also didn’t hear any unearthly howling, but it was quite a distance to the ground.

The sight was enough to stun her anyways. Halari stood stupefied by the visage of destruction below her until a chirp from her comms brought her out of her stupor.

“Come in, sis,” Viria said. “What’s it look like up there?”

Halari ripped her eyes from the city and drifted back to the side where her team waited for her, then raised her comms. “It’s a nightmare.”