Soon enough, Tendou gets you moving once more. He turns north, walking along the low-lying coast. He keeps the water a little under a hundred meters to your left, while the land rises in a sharp incline to your right. While some of the trees ahead block out the immediate surroundings, it's easily visible how this new mainland you've made it to stretches a long way off to the north, and eventually curves west, like a crescent.

You can see it all because a lot of that land is sharply rising mountains. Whatever lies beyond those high mountains remains a mystery, but they're still very far off.

So, we're going to a city called Shado, right? How far away is it?

It's just past noon now, so the question is how much of the day – or potentially, how many days – the journey there may take. Unfortunately, Tendou holds a reticent expression. “It's... uh... I don't really know.” he finally admits.

You're questioning his knowledge, when both of your attention is caught by something ahead. More gray than the surrounding landscape. Clearly manmade. You brush through a crop of trees so you can get a better look at it.

It's a building, or it was a building. It lies in ruin now, half of the structure collapsed toward the sea. What's left was clearly painted yellow, before the sun bleached all the color away.

“Maybe it's this way?” Tendou asks aloud as he steps around it, to see many more buildings like it, continuing north. And with them, concrete. Much of it is in a horrid state of disrepair, with plantlife twining up through the rubble covered ground, but there are the remnants of paved roads stretching between the husks.

You walk through, wading between the structures. Most of the single and two story buildings reach up around your midsection, with the few taller buildings already collapsed, much of that old height lying in rubble strewn across the surrounding roadways instead. Narrow, spindling spires of rusting steel beams jut up here and there, where they've maintained their form, even as the rest of the structure crumbled away around them.

Tendou remains silent as he pilots you through the ruins, eyes peeled for anything that still looks inhabited.

If there was a civilization here at one point, maybe some of it remains...

You've been walking for nearly an hour when you finally find something, but it's exactly what you don't want to see. Movement – large movement. At the very first glimpse, you duck behind the nearest building. Peeking just up above the edge, you see it. Another large ray frame like yourself. About two hundred meters away. It's walking southeast, soon to exit the ruins.

Holding steady and watching, you get a few hits. It's a Cobra, a 9-meter all-rounder, much like yourself. And the tops of the shoulders you can see, look like arms from the somewhat larger Elaran.

You lean back and forth while feeding this info back to Tendou in the cockpit. You can't make out more without the risk of being spotted. Tendou must realize that, because he doesn't push the controls any further, and you stay in cover.

The tense moments pass, and Tendou doesn't leave the cover of the buildings. Rather than jumping out and attacking, he waits until the other ray frame has disappeared to the southeast.

Not going to fight this time?

He looks uncertain, but eventually shakes his head. “No, I want to get to Shado. I just... I need somewhere to actually rest, I guess.”

Then let's get going.

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighs, and pushes to make you stand up once more. You get to walking again, still going north.

It's a while later that you register the change – the ruined buildings have slowly but surely been growing in height. Where before most reached your midsection, many of the ones around you now are three stories tall - about as tall as you are. Some of the wrecks begin to block your line of sight, casting the crumbling roads into soft shadows beneath your feet.

And then you register an incoming connection. But from where? It's a two-way audio connection, so you tell Tendou. “Two-way audio? Like a radio I guess? Sure, let's see what it is.”

What he said gives you an idea, so you check your Long Range Radio Scanner. Looks like it is a radio signal.

Long Range Radio Scanner indicates the source originates from the north. Opening connection now.

You clear the screen and accept the incoming connection request. The speakers within your cockpit give a faint crackle, then a human voice emanates from them.

“Who are you, and where did you come from?”

Tendou is stunned shortly by the demanding questions.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Uhh, I'm Tendou Saichi,” he stammers. “I came from...” he pauses again to think, but apparently the man on the other end of the connection is too impatient to wait for him to finish.

“Why are you here?” The man's voice actually sounds angry.

He explains simply, “I'm on my way to Shado.”

“Why?” the voice snaps.

Tendou kind of shrugs. “I just... don't have anywhere else to go.”

There are a few seconds of silence. Then, “Proceed.” Clearly disquieted by the tense conversation, Tendou moves on.

You continue to walk for a short while, and before you see them, you pick them up on radar. More ray frames.

Two ray frames, check the map.

You alert Tendou, who checks the rough map you're displaying off to the side of one monitor.

Beyond a couple buildings that have stood the test of time better than others, still remaining taller than you, there's the distinct feel of your radio scanner scattering differently than it does on the ruins. The spots in question are two very large objects, which really doesn't leave any room to question what they could be.

They're positioned to either side, behind each of the buildings. You stand shortly, looking down the seemingly cleared road ahead.

“So, an ambush...?” Tendou mutters. He rubs his face. He wasn't kidding earlier; even though you've only been going for a few hours, he looks pretty worn out. He's still trying to think when you receive another hail, from the same source as before. You let him know, then open the line.

“Ah, you must have a radar. That's just the welcoming committee,” the man on the other end says, obviously reading your hesitation. But this time, you can pinpoint the source of the radio broadcast. It's coming from directly ahead, likely inside one of the buildings at the far end of the road you are walking down.

Right on queue, heavy thumps from ahead precede the two frames stepping away from the cover of the buildings, into view. They're Badang frames, painted dark, camouflage green, and so heavily modified that you hardly even recognize them. They hold Bush model shotguns. In a direct confrontation, those would have the upper hand on your weapons in the close quarters of these ruins.

For now, they only use those weapons to beckon you forward. Reluctantly obeying, Tendou pushes on, walking between the two tall buildings and down the road, Badangs following behind on either side.

At the road's end, there's a sharp left turn, but the Badang on that side steps in the way, and points toward the building you picked up the radio signal from earlier. The three story construction is a half-head taller than you.

Looking down the front of the building, it is ruined, with a big section of the outer wall gouged out directly in front of you. However, there's surprisingly little damage to the wooden interior when you look at it up close like this.

And walking out from the side, comes a human man. On the second floor, around the height of your cockpit, he steps into the opening torn away from the outside of the building. “Hey there,” he raises a hand in greeting, “open up.”

Tendou is clearly pissed off given the obvious coercion, but he hits the button anyway, opening the hatch so the two men can see each other directly.

“Hey,” he offers his own greeting in response. He leans forward in his pilot seat, but doesn't take his hands too far from the controls, and meets the eyes of the older man, likely in his forties.

“So,” he starts, with a hard look at Tendou. “Where did you come from, and where did you get that ray frame?”

This time, Tendou doesn't hesitate in his answer. “I came from Minami village.” That changes the expression on the man's face; he looks confused, but doesn't interrupt. “I got lucky and found an abandoned ray frame when I escaped the hex.”

“Mmm...” the man rumbles. “No other survivors?”

“No.”

The man nods. “I'm Shinzou Katou.”

“Tendou Saichi.”

“So, what about that frame?” Shinzou questions. “You found it abandoned? Where?”

“In the woods,” Tendou lies, so smoothly that even Pilot Assist can hardly tell. “It was half buried, under some collapsed trees in the forest near the south end of the island. I just stumbled right into it.” With the way he said it, Tendou must have had that story prepared.

Shinzou appears to accept that answer. “Fine then.” He immediately moves on, saying, “As a pilot, you'll need a callsign. Come up with something. But go get some rest first,” he waves a hand at Tendou. “You look exhausted. I'll get someone to show you into town.”

Shinzou walks back out of sight, and after a brief delay, Tendou closes his cockpit again. As soon as it's shut, he sighs out loudly and flops back into his seat in relief.

Soon, a woman comes running down the road, waving a hand up to get your attention. It's barely at the edge of your vision, so you you flash up a notification pointing her out to Tendou. He looks over, and she waves for him to follow.

After a glance at the still-loitering Badangs, you turn and take a step in her direction. She runs back down the road, leading you further into the ruins. Ruins which pretty rapidly become less ruined in appearance. You arrive at a gate – a human size gate, with a handful of men guarding it. It spans the width of the road you're on, tall and thick enough that it might provide some protection against small ground vehicles.

The group gazes up at you, but push the gate open for the woman to pass anyway. You step over it, and continue to follow.

Only a short distance beyond the gate, you see more humans. Many, many more humans, all moving in the street below you.

Tendou audibly gulps, staring down and stepping far more carefully than before. Of course, everyone clears the way, leaving a wide bubble of space around you, so there isn't any real danger of stepping on anyone anyway, but he remains extra careful anyway.

A few more minutes of plodding after the woman, and she points you into a surprisingly open field, mixed in among the otherwise crowded cityscape. It provides plenty of space for you, and shockingly, there are a half-dozen other ray frames clustered together, unmoving and seemingly unoccupied.

They're really beaten up though, outer armor cracked and scorched all over, parts broken open, exposed internals, and all composed of such mismatched parts that none of them can even be called a specific model.

You have to step over another human-gate to enter the field, then the woman, still standing in the street, starts waving to come to her again. Confused, Tendou begins to take another step, but she starts miming to stop. And when he does, she again begins motioning to come.

“Uhh...” He squints. “Oh! Duh. You kneel down, and Tendou says, “Can you think about that callsign? I have to go get some sleep.” Then he opens the cockpit and climbs out, closing it again behind him.

Kneeling in place, you watch Tendou go off to the men guarding the gate to the street. He turns and points back at you repeatedly as he speaks to them, then they let him through, where he meets the woman, leads him into a nearby building before she runs off.

With that, you have plenty of time to wait and come up with a callsign...

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