The land cruiser comes to a screeching halt as it reaches the makeshift barricade surrounding the small outpost. It was set up at the end of an ancient roadway. A construct of their predecessors that stood the test of time, slowly staving off the advance of nature and the massive forest creeping its way across the land. Mother earth reclaiming her once ravished body.

Chase and Tilly jump out of the vehicle, it rocks as its grav wells make up for the displaced weight.He pulls his mask over his face and pops the hood of his dark purple cloak over his head. Tilly shakes her head in disappointment, dust and dirt fleeing from her wild orange hair.

"It's too hot out here for all that.. plus.. who the hell is gonna recognize you all the way out here?" She says as she playfully tugs his hood down. He grumbles something foul as he re adjusts it.

Chase sighs as he heads to the large hole in the barricade. The organi-steel construction was torn apart, who or whatever did this had to be quite strong. The feeling of dread slowly started creeping into his mind.

"How many times do I have to tell you? They are still looking for me… if word got out they'd come for me." He says touching the sharp edge of the twisted barricade, a dry black substance crumbling off with the brush of his finger.

"Pffff the Hardwynn Elite? They can't handle the likes of Tilly the Mighty Pyromancer of New Eidolon!"

Chase pivots and leans into her face.

"They aren't the scrubs we usually deal with, they make us look like a bunch of kids… so just drop it. Plus… I think I look pretty cool… The kids like it.." He say proudly.

"Alright, Alright my bad… your Highness."

Tilly snickers as she flys off to scope out the area.

"I told you not to call me that…. Ugh, just focus, look for clues." He walks through the threshold and into the desolate outpost.

"Yes me lord, I'm at your servi… ah shit, get your purple caped ass in here, we have a problem." She calls out into their earpiece comms, landing into the center of the site.

The pair had ventured deep into the harshlands to investigate one of their town's new outposts going dark. New Eidolon was the culmination of ten years of literal blood sweat and tears. A place where if you were willing to work together for the town your past would be forgiven, so that they could strive to bring light to the Harshlands.

Tilly the fiery pyromancer, Chase the mysterious leader and the ever quirky Herbert Hu genius techno/ telekinetic. They had help from other key players like Vandresh and Kimiko but the three of them established a safe place for the people of the lawless, brutal Harshlands to settle down, build something special. Now they have established trade routes, they even have treaties with a few warlords. There has been trouble with outposts before but something about this didn't sit right with them.

The place was torn to shreds, the organi-steel buildings scorched and scarred. Their vehicles were burnt out husks. Blood and weapons littered the area but one major thing was missing.

"Where the hell are the bodies?" Chase says, examining the carnage.

Tilly shrugged.

"The buildings are empty, maybe they retreated into the forest?"

Chase struggles to lift up a large weapon that was laying amongst the wreckage of an obvious battle.

"I just found Kimiko's mace… no way she would leave it behind." Chase says, his heart sinks as the feeling of dread rises even more.

"Chase, I found another breach. Looks like drag marks heading into the forest too. Looks like we will have to hoof it, these woods are super dense. No way the cruiser is making it through here."

"Tilly, Scout out from above but keep a low profile, at least until we know what we are dealing with." Tilly nods at Chase, flying off and skimming the tree line.

Chase darts into the dense foliage, praying the sinking feeling in his guts is nothing.

As he ran through the never-ending sea of trees he began to notice more and more husks of ancient buildings peppered throughout the scene like giant boulders.

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"Tilly, are you seeing this?" He asks but she does not answer.

Chase could finally see some light up ahead of him so he picked up his pace. He reached the clearing, sliding to halt his momentum rocks and debris went careening over the edge of a massive cliff.

"There you are, didn't want to spoil the surprise for you." She says hovering in the air in front of him.

Chase peered over the edge, taking in the sight. Ancient buildings reached out from the canopy, fingers of a lost time grasping out from their grave. The predecessors really built some amazing things, it's a shame they eventually destroyed it.

"Wow," Chase proclaimed. "Hu is going to be really pissed he missed this."

He climbs down the cliff face onto the roof of one of the buildings. Tilly flew down to meet with him,her added weight made the decaying structure moan and slightly sway.

"I can't believe they had places this big. How the hell are we going to find anything here?"

She walks over to the edge and looks down.

"The canopy is super thick, no way I could see the forest floor from above. What's your plan my liege?"

Chase sighs and walks up next to Tilly, kicking rocks over the edge of the roof watching them vanish into the green void. He pulls his hood off of his head and wipes his brown sweat ladened hair off of his face, scanning the vista looking for anything.

"Do you notice something?" He asks her.

Tilly looks around. The wind creates a creepy sound as it moves through the old buildings and trees, like the moans of ancient souls crying out in anguish.

"This place is dead. No sounds of animals, insects… nothing. That's… that's impossible though. It would take something massive to spook the wild life."

Chase nods.

"Something is off, nothing feels right about this. Kimiko was our best scout, the strongest person in New Eidolon…. It would take a small army to take her out." He says clenching his fist.

He could see the worried look in Tilly's normally arrogant face. Those two were good friends with similar pasts,if she was harmed or worse

Just then a crash of a fallen tree breaks the deafening silence. The pair turn and focus on the area then on each other.

"Looks like we got our first lead. Fly close to the canopy, we still don't know what the hell we are dealing with." Chase says putting his mask and hood back on.

Tilly adjusts her heat shield cuffs at her wrists.

"I'll be careful, no hero shit from you ok? We don't want a repeat of the bandit town incident." She said as she dove off the roof, flames surrounded her hands and feet, focusing into bright blue jets.

"You know I had that handled until Hu set off the alarm!" He shouted at her as she flew off. Glowing amethyst crystals form around Chase's hands as he leapt over the side of the ancient building. He dug his fingers into the concrete and slid down into the abyss of trees.

Ian leans against his dirt covered vehicle gnawing on the butt of a finished smoke stick.

"Well? Is it the little lost prince?" He asks the blur coming to a screeching halt in front of him.

The blur was his tenured partner victor, the self proclaimed fastest man alive. Victor brushes the debris from his curly black hair and reaches for a drink.

"Yup!" He takes a hefty swig from the bottle and wipes his mouth off.

"Him and that fire chick are playing around in some crusty overrun city. But it looks like one of their outposts got attacked."

Ian flicks the chewed remains of his smoke stick.

"Who fucking cares? That's what you get for coming out this far. Who knows what kinda savages live out here. Maybe he will learn his lesson and we won't have to follow his ass this far from civilization again. If we have to babysit this brat, at least let it be somewhere I can shit indoors."

Victor reaches into their rover and takes out some food.

"Well this brat is doing what we should have been after the war but then shit got weird. Anyway it beats sitting around the city doing nothing."

Ian grumps and grumbles a few dozen choice words.

"I thought this assignment would have lasted a few days…. Not 10 fucking years. We fought in the Source war… were Hardwynn Elites for fucks sake! Not glorified babysitters!"

He slaps the Hardwynn emblem on his dusty uniform.

Victor finishes his meal and tosses the empty container into the rover and starts stretching.

"It's getting dark, we need to move or we will lose him and I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to suffer the wrath of Mina Hardwynn."

Ian rubs the top of his bald head with one hand while brushing his bushy mustache with the other. He did this all the time when he's upset or anxious, it was his tell and it lost him many card games.

"I can't wait for the day when we get word that we can drag this boy kicking and screaming back home." He hops into the rover and powers it up. The beat up vehicle hums to life and hovers off the ground.

Victor finishes his stretches and points northwest.

"Head that way, I'll scout ahead a little bit."

Victor vanishes in a blur, leaves and dust float in the air of his wake.

Ian lights another smoke stick, shifts the rover into drive and cruises into the forest ruins, cursing under his breath.