Bloody Sands

Prologue: Arrival

It started, like many great tales involving displaced peoples, with an otherwise normal day, or a normal night depending on location, with a certain group of people going about their lives, completely and blissfully unaware of just what was looming ahead of them in the future.

To be fair, there had been a very, wide array of conversation and debate held on the subject, along with a fair number of books, but there is a very distinct difference between writing about situations, and suddenly finding yourself in that situation and people handle the shock differently.

Which is why when Gideon020 woke up and found himself in a ruined city half-buried by desert sands, his first thought was, 'Oh fuck, did I die in my sleep?'

His second thought was, 'Oh FUCK! Did I get dropped into Spec Ops The Line?'

His third thought however, interrupted when he walked into the open and met a group of similarly confused people, one wearing sleep wear, was a more sensible, 'Thank God! I'm not alone!'

He approached the group, "Hey there, I'm guessing we're in the same boat huh?" One of the men, a Japanese man older than the rest and with the bearings of a businessman or someone important, nodded in reply.

"It certainly appears that way. We woke up in one of the buildings near where you came from, and...well, we believed we were all dead." Gideon nodded.

"Same with me. Still, I don't think we're dead. For one thing, it'd be pretty clear if we were." There were nods of agreement as Gideon sighed, "Of course, with that made clear, what's the last thing you all remember? For me, it was a buzzing sound while I was taking a nap."

The businessman nodded, "I was asleep and heard a noise as well, but it was more like roar, like ocean waves." The others shared their experiences as well; one of the two women in the group heard a car alarm even though she was in her garden, the other was parking her car and heard a child crying. One of the other men, a helicopter pilot, heard the sound of an engine, and the final man, a computer programmer, just heard a whistle in his sleep.

Those who had been awake remembered nothing after that, they just blacked out, and woke up in the sand-swept building. Gideon looked around at the buildings, noting the unfamiliar architecture as the others talked, before he noticed something, "Hm?"

He started walking towards it, drawing the attention of the others, and after sweeping away some sand, found what appeared to be a plaque, its tarnished metal still retaining enough shine to get his attention as he read it out loud.

"This statue...blah blah blah, heroes of those dark times, blah blah blah, erected in...TN Seventeen Fifty-Two? TN? TN...where have I heard..." Gideon's face went pale, "Oh...oh no." He turned back to the others, "Guys...I think I know where we are."

--------------

The sun was now overhead as the group sat in the shade of one of the abandoned buildings as Gideon shared what he knew to the others. Their reactions were about what he expected.

"You've got to be shitting me!" The pilot spat, "You're telling me that we're in a fucking videogame?" Gideon nodded as the pilot continued, "No, you're lying, this isn't real! This is...this is just some sick prank, a fucking reality show! Where's the camera?" He got to his feet, pointing at Gideon, "And you're in on it! Where's the camera!"

Gideon shook his head, "I'm not lying. We really are on a planet called Terra Nova in a year that in the Gregorian Calender would probably start with either a five or a six, depends what point in history we're in." He sighed and leaned back against the wall, "Fuck it, if you don't believe me, then go out and find the camera crew then and fuck you."

He closed his eyes as the pilot said something in return and stomped outside, the women and the computer programmer following after him. Opening one of his eyes, Gideon noted the businessman was still sitting across from him in his sleep wear, "Should I ask if you believe me?" The older man shook his head.

"There is no need. You wouldn't lie, not in a situation as serious as this. Still, it is a fantastic story, to say that somehow we have been transported to an alien world in the far future." Gideon shrugged, the man continuing, "Regardless of the situation, we are in a desert, and as you can see, I am not dressed for travel in such a situation."

Gideon nodded, "We'd never be able to get far anyway. But this is a pretty big town, perhaps even a small city, if we can find buildings that can fit a large number of people then there will have to be others like us. Or perhaps even some natives who might be friendly to us." He looked out at the noon sky.

"Night time should suffice for some exploration I think, who knows, we might find some shoes for you at least." The older man nodded.

"I don't believe I introduced myself. I am Tsukiwaki Keiji. And your name?"

Gideon considered it, "No harm. My name is..."

-------------

Tsukikawa Keiji watched as Gideon slid down a dune and approached him, a grim smile on his face, "No-one?"

Gideon shook his head, "Actually, there's a group of them. Dressed much like us. They're agitated though, it could get nasty." He held out a hand to Keiji, who accepted the help getting to his feet, "Still, its our best bet to see if there's any more people who arrived here."

Keiji nodded in agreement, and the pair moved to greet the group. Since they weren't bothering to hide, the group spotted them easily and watched them approach, allowing Gideon to see that a couple of them were holding hunting rifles, 'Must have been out hunting when they were taken.'

The pair stopped as the rifles were aimed at them and the leader shouted, "That's far enough! Who are you?" Gideon allowed Keiji to step forward.

"My name is Tsukikawa Keiji, and this is..." Gideon turned his head slightly as he scanned the rooftops for any hidden dangers, the night wind howling in his ears. He noticed someone on the roof of another building and paused to look at them for a few seconds before returning his attention to the conversation.

"...take us to whatever leaders you have. As you can plainly see, we are not armed and are simply looking for some help." Gideon rolled his shoulders, he really should listen to conversations more closely, never know what he would miss. The leader of the group nodded.

"All right, we'll take you the Courthouse, that's where everyone's camped out. We'll send word to the others find the helicopter pilot and the others as well, some of the others have spotted what looks like armed convoys passing by, and some have been saying they might be either military or very well-armed bandits." The leader made a motion and the shape on the rooftop moved out of sight as Gideon felt his lip twitch. He was a step away from pissing his pants, but at least he was still alive.

'Note to self, do something nice for Tsukikawa-san.' With that decision made, Gideon focused his attention back on the group just in time to hear the words, "Follow us."

As he walked behind Tsukikawa-san, Gideon wondered how his life was going to be different.

First thing though, if this was Terra Nova, he needed to get these people to understand that if they didn't get to a League, rovers would be picking their bones clean by the end of the week. Which raised another point.

Just how many people were dumped here anyway?

---------------

"That is a fuck-load of people." Gideon muttered in open awe as the group stood on a dune overlooking the impromptu refugee camp before he yelped as Tsukikawa-san slapped the back of his head.

"Language, boy." Gideon rubbed the back of his head as the leader spoke up.

"Our last count was three hundred-thousand people and we're still finding more. We found some supply caches and a few arrived with some camping supplies, along with military personnel, and even a few hardened criminals. Right now, we're trying to figure out what the hell we should be doing."

Gideon sighed, "What we should be doing is getting to civilisation. This is a ghost town in the middle of the Badlands, we'll be dead in a matter of days if we stay." The leader looked over to him, eyes hard.

"Where would you suggest?" Gideon shrugged.

"Only three places worth going in my opinion. North to the Confederation of Northern City-States, South to the Alliance of Southern Territories, or we find our way to the maglev lines and head to the New Coalition." Gideon didn't bother mentioning Peace River, those damn war-profiteers would snap up the chance for more workers to produce weapons when whatever conflict brewing on the horizon boiled over into open warfare.

At least in the South, North or NuCoal there were sane people. Hell, once Gideon had a chance, he was going to pick a direction and start walking. For now though, it was time to meet the others, "Come on, you said you'd get us introduced?" The leader nodded.

"Right. Clancy, Thomas, report back to the guards. The rest of you stay with me, and you two stay close. Some of the people we've found got violent, and more than a few are hardened criminals, we've even got terrorists here. If it wasn't for the soldiers who appeared here as well, we'd probably be under a warlord or someone worse." 'Clancy' and 'Thomas' walked off down the dune as Gideon and Tsukikawa followed the leader and the rest of his group down towards the encampment.

As walked past, people parted way and Gideon glanced at the faces. Most were uninterested in the new arrivals, some sneered at the fancy pyjamas Tsukikawa was wearing, others simply studied them, evaluating them. Frankly, it was more than a little troubling to Gideon as he looked around at all the people before the group arrived at the building in the centre of the camp, the Courthouse.

The leader turned to them, "Before we go inside, are any of you two members of forums like SpaceBattles or Alternate History dot net?" Gideon blinked before he replied.

"I'm a member of those two forums, I can't speak for Tsukikawa-san though."

Tsukikawa shook his head, "I am not familiar with either of those two." The leader nodded.

"Jenny will take you to get some proper clothes. Meanwhile, you, come with me." Gideon raised an eyebrow and glanced at Tsukikawa, who nodded. Shrugging, he followed after the leader into the Courthouse. Even at the base it was clear that the Courthouse had been heavily fortified as armed guards stood at the front entrance.

A few words traded that Gideon assumed were passwords and they were soon walking through the dusty halls, Gideon glancing at the rooms they passed and seeing them filled with people doing various tasks, until he heard his impromptu escort speak up, "We're here." He looked forwards and let out a low whistle.

They were entering the actual courtroom and Gideon could see that it had been hastily converted into some form of makeshift hybrid between a government office and a military command centre. A large collection of tables pushed together dominated the room and people were clustered around it. One of them looked up with a serious expression.

"What do you have Mark?" 'Mark' indicated Gideon.

"Got another SpaceBattler here." The man nodded and approached the pair, before holding out his hand to shake, which Gideon took.

"Names Charley, United States Marines Corp, and you are?"

Gideon smiled, "Call me Gideon, pleasure to meet you." He looked around the room, "So what's so important about SpaceBattlers and other forum members?" Charley motioned with his head and Gideon followed after him as the man began explaining.

"Its mostly about knowledge of the area. Not only that, they're the only ones who are willing on figuring out a solution to all this." Gideon shook his head.

"You want a solution? I have one I can tell you right now." Charley turned his head and Gideon continued, "Pick a direction and start walking. We have only three real choices about where to go. North to the Confederacy of Northern City States, South to the Allied Southern Territories or across the desert to the nearest maglev line to find a way to the New Coalition. We stay here, we'll be dead from Rover gangs before the week is out, or taken as slaves."

Charley sighed, "I know, but we can't move three hundred-thousand people so easily and with so little supplies."

Gideon stayed silent, 'I never said we had to go to a single place."

He was lead outside into another, smaller, camp and brought to a central tent, where a group of men and women were busy arguing around another table, the argument halting when they saw the two men, before one of them straightened, "Can we help you Captain?"

Charley nodded, "Got another one of you here, figured you could use his input." Gideon simply kept his expression neutral as pleasantries were traded before the USMC Captain walked out of the tent. After waiting several seconds to see if he was truly gone, Gideon turned to the others.

"Has he actually listened to any of your ideas?" At their headshakes, Gideon spat on the ground, "Wonderful. The bastard is going to get us all killed. This isn't Earth, the natives in the Badlands will either be Rovers or League patrols, because I seriously doubt we'll be meeting any Blue Crescents out here." He looked up at them, "I'm going to take a walk, I'd be wasting your time anyway."

One of the women spoke up, "What idea did you have anyway?" Gideon turned slightly.

"Get into groups, pick a direction, and start walking. I'd rather die out there in the desert than wait for starvation or rovers intent on selling us as slaves. I'm guessing you all made that same suggestion?" There were nods as the leader of the group sighed.

"A lot of the people are saying we should try and rebuild this town, make our own society. Considering that we're in the setting for a wargame and a role-playing game and don't have the capability or tools to tap the MacAllen Network for water, its stupid. A lot of the people here are just normal people, barely a quarter of us have actual useful skills for rebuilding a town beyond contributing to hard labour."

Gideon nodded, "I'll leave you to it then."

------------

The camp was full of people talking, and while the main camp was silent and tense, the activity here was more upbeat as people tried to get their minds off their situation. Hearing some laughter, Gideon found a free space at a campfire with three other people, two men and one young woman, talking about something familiar.

"The annoying thing is, he's teased us about the Empires of Steel so much, now we'll never know what he had planned." Recognising the topic, Gideon sat down with a smile.

"I planned for Applejack to rescue the crown heirs to both empires before the arrival of the rest of the Mane Six."

Eyes widened as the group looked at him, prompting Gideon to smile, "That was the plan anyway."

One of the men managed to speak, "Holy...Gideon? Is that you?" At his nod, the man smiled, "It's me! GladiusOne! And this is BlackRaptor and Lilithium!" The other man and the young woman both smiled and waved as Gideon nodded in greeting.

BlackRaptor leaned back onto the sand, "So, you got grabbed as well? I guess that makes you the last one to arrive then. We heard it from the guards." Gideon spat on the sand, earning a brief frown from Lilithium.

"Idiots. We have to go to the Leagues. It's the only way we're going to survive. We stay and try to rebuild, we'll be killing ourselves and unlike the Universiad, we won't be respawning."

Raptor nodded, "All well and good, but wouldn't it be better to stay here and earn some respect with those who have placed themselves in charge?"

Gladius shook his head, "They're already segregating us, whose to say we're going to get any fair treatment? What do you think Lilithium?"

Lilithium cocked her head, before she replied, "I think we need to leave. I don't like the looks we've been getting." She shivered slightly, "I don't think its going to get better if we stay here."

Gideon nodded, "Plus, we go to one of the Leagues, then at least we'll have a chance to build new lives that won't run the risk of getting us killed." Raptor sighed.

"Okay, say we do go? Where do you think we should go?" Gideon rolled his neck.

"We have three choices in my mind and that's only in terms of which is the least unattractive. If we go North, we can expect to be treated as second-class citizens and experience passive discrimination in everything we do if we don't follow the state religion. If we go to the New Coalition we can at least be with other people from Earth, but it won't be the same due to the massive history gap. If we go South, we could end up getting enslaved or brainwashed."

He looked at the others and saw their sombre looks and shrugged, "All of those in my opinion are worth the risk than what will happen to us if we don't leave."

They all shared glances, before Gladius spoke up.

"Let's get some sleep." He suggested, "We can make a decision in the morning."

 

Chapter 1: Survival is worth the risk

Morning came entirely too quickly in Gideon's opinion as he opened his eyes and heard the sounds of activity, forcing himself to get up from the rough bed he had been provided, and after making sure that nothing had been stolen he stumbled out into the morning in search of Gladius, Raptor and Lilithium. He passed other people and quickly realised that there really was a segregation going on in the town; those who had knowledge of the setting, no matter how small, or could provide creative solutions or ideas, perhaps even had useful skills, or were just valuable through association with the forums, were all here. That was several tens of thousands of people, and the rest were camped in the other section of town, kept from them by the guards.

Gideon shook his head, it really did seem like this place was going to self-destruct. After all, there were hardened criminals and terrorists in the other camp, and who knew how they would take out their...desires on the other people in the camp? He spotted a guard and approached him, "Excuse me. I heard that vehicles were spotted. Where did they come from and what vehicles were they?" The guard shrugged, obviously used to the question.

"According to the experts, we saw hovertanks and hover APCs along with a group of those Gear mechs. According to them, we might be near some place called Port Arthur." Gideon nodded and thanked the guard before walking off to find the others.

He found them sitting near a fire that was cooking some kind of native lizard. Gladius, looking up, spotted him and waved him over. Taking a seat, Gideon watched the cooking lizards, "I'm guessing any food brought along was confiscated?" Lilithium nodded from her seat, picking at a skewered lizard in her hands.

"Not even letting us have even tiny pieces, the meanies, just hoarding them and forcing us to eat lizards." She took a bite and made a face, "Blech! Doesn't even taste nice either, its all rubbery!" Gideon took an offered lizard and pulled some charred skin off before taking a bite and chewing thoughtfully as the others watched him. Finally, he swallowed and shrugged, "Eh, could use some pepper, its kinda bland." Lilithium made a noise as Gladius sniggered.

"You actually like it?" Gideon shook his head.

"Nope, too salty and tastes like shit. Plus its like chewing rubber." Lilithium giggled as Gladius sighed.

"So why'd you eat it?" Gideon shrugged.

"No point in starving is there? Besides, I wanted to talk to you guys about something. Where's Raptor?" Gladius pointed towards the Courthouse.

"He's trying to convince the Marine Captain in there to try and contact the nearest town for some supplies." Gladius shrugged, "It probably won't work, but it's a nice idea."

Gideon shrugged, "We can tell him later then. I'm talked to a guard about the vehicles seen and if we're near the Port Arthur, then its time we considered simply leaving." Gladius frowned.

"People might not want to leave, or go to this Port Arthur place." Gideon's lip curled.

"I never said everyone. I said that we should be leaving, as in just us. Anyone who's a member of SB or any of the other forums knows that we're not going to get anywhere hiding here. We'll run out of water and food and when that happens we are all going to die." Gladius nodded and Lilithium shivered slightly, before she spoke up.

"So where do we go? I mean...what if they experiment on people or want to enslave us?" Gideon shook his head.

"That's why we should go to Port Arthur. They're not going to turn away people willing to work for a new life. Not only that, but if we're seeing hovertanks, then we're on the edge of their security zone, which means daily patrols. We just have to survive the desert long enough to make contact and hitch a ride." Gladius sighed.

"That's the real challenge though. Surviving the desert." He looked out at the camp, "Should we tell people? I mean, if people want to leave, we should tell them and band together, strength and safety in numbers and all that?" Gideon nodded.

"We should encourage an exodus, people go where they think they'll survive best. North, South or Badlands, it doesn't matter. If they want to stay, that'll be fine as well." Lilithium leapt to her feet.

"I volunteer!" The two men stared at her blankly, prompting a blush, "What? I can't volunteer to spread the plan?" Gladius chuckled and made an 'after you' motion with his hand while Gideon smiled.

"Two people are better than one. I'll go with you Lili-chan. Gladius, tell Raptor when he gets back." With that said, Gideon got to his feet and walked off with Lilithium, idly chewing his lizard, "Huh...they're not bad after the second bite."

Lilithium made a face, "Still too damn rubbery though."

"Oh, I won't disagree with you there."

--------------

BlackRaptor returned to the camp to see that it was a hive of activity and quirked an eyebrow before he spotted GladiusOne waving to him and walked over to the man, "What's going on?" He asked as he drew alongside Gladius.

"Gideon decided he's not staying and he's encouraging others to leave." Raptor sniffed slightly.

"Where the hell is he going to go?" Gladius pointed east.

"He's heading to Port Arthur, and Lilithium and I are going to join him along with whichever people are going to join us. I was wondering if you'd want to come along as well." He indicated the camp, "Gideon's right. We try and hide out here, we'd probably kill each other, and there's no telling if some of us are as insane as we portray ourselves on the net. Not only that, at least in Port Arthur we'll be able to work towards a new life without wondering if we're going to starve. And if we can't make it as civilians..." Gladius shrugged, "Gideon said we could join the Port Arthur Korps. Lilithium didn't really like that."

Raptor folded his arms, "Sounds like he's got this all figured out." Gladius shrugged.

"Frankly I think he's pulling it all out of his ass, but it's a plan at least, which is better than what's going on here." He glanced at Raptor, "So...you joining up with us?"

Raptor shrugged, "I'll think about it. Not really seeing how this plan is better than staying here." Gladius nodded.

"We're going to try and leave as soon as we can, don't think for too long." Raptor nodded and walked off.

As he moved through the camp, another faceless background image, he listened to the snatches of conversation around him. It seemed the idea had really been taken up by the rest of the camp, although Raptor figured it was more that someone was actually bothering to go through with the idea, not because Gideon had the idea. Probably a lot of people had thought of leaving, Gideon just seemed pissed off enough to go through with it. Raptor looked around the camp, and then turned to regard the Courthouse.

Raptor could understand that. He rolled his neck and sat down out of the way of people walking as he considered his options. He could stay here and probably end up being locked up for 'his own safety' for his skills. Or he could go with a person he only knew on the internet, to a place he barely knew about, on the hunch that it would make their lives just a little bit better.

"Fuck it, this place is boring anyway." Raptor stood up and started searching for Gideon.

"Bastard better have a plan, otherwise I'm gonna kick his ass."

--------------

"That's not much of a plan Gideon." Lilithium remarked with a small frown as the person in question sat down on the sand at the meeting point. For his part, Gideon shrugged.

"Eh, it may not be much, but its better than nothing. Look, the only thing we can do is walk in the direction the patrol appeared in, and it will be guaranteed that we'll encounter a PAK patrol. Some explanations and pointing of our fingers in the right direction and at the very least some help might arrive, that's if people haven't already left yet." He checked the straps of the backpack he had managed to secure, this one clearly having been scavenged from underneath the sands from the damage, though it had weathered the years quite well as Gideon looked up at Lilithium, "It can't be helped." He smiled, "I'm going to be counting on you for your help Lili-chan!"

Lilithium flushed and slapped Gideon the back of the head, "Now's not the time for manga lines, idiot!" She huffed and kicked some sand, "It's not that the plan's not good it's just...I'm worried that some of us won't last long enough to get to this Port Arthur place." Gideon sighed, nodding in agreement.

"I know, but I can't just wait here to get killed from lack of supplies or bandits Lili. Either we leave now, or we die here." He checked the straps one final time, "I've made it clear to everyone I've talked to that this is only one option and that if they think they can survive going North or South, they can." He tested the fit of the pack and began adjusting the straps, "Did you manage to get a pack and some supplies?" Lilithium showed him her pack, this one clearly in better condition.

"Managed to get some, and one of the others even gave me a weapon!" She lifted a pocket to reveal a small revolver, "Only got a few bullets for it though..." Gideon shrugged.

"Keep it, at the very least you can sell it for a native weapon, they'll be more reliable in these conditions. Otherwise, its something to protect yourself with." Lilithium nodded and closed the pocket just as Gladius and Raptor walked up, Raptor's face serious.

"So you're really going through with it. What's the plan?" Gideon started drawing shapes in the sand.

"By my best reckoning, we're a day or two away from the Port Arthur Security Zone, which puts us in Barrington Basin between Port Arthur and the twin city-states of Erech and Ninevah, with those two city-states likely being further away. If we leave now, we should be able to breach the Security Zone's perimeter by nightfall and make enough progress into the zone that it will be likely that we'll encounter a patrol and get their aid. Since we haven't seen any NuCoal Self Defence Force troops or equipment, that means the Coalition hasn't been formally or fully formed, which means we've arrived some time before the Inter-Polar War between the North and South." He made some quick calculations in his head, "That would put our year somewhere around TN nineteen thirties, no later than nineteen thirty-five since the war starts in thirty-six. Enough time to get our lives back on track."

Raptor shrugged, "All well and good, but what the hell are we going to be doing? Its not like we've got skills that will be immediately useful to this Port Arthur place."

Gideon made a thoughtful noise, "Port Arthur won't turn away people looking for work and there's always the counties surrounding the city-state. So long as we're not picky, we should be able to find some kind of work." Raptor grimaced.

"You really don't have much of a plan do you?" Gideon shrugged and Raptor sighed, "Still, at least its a plan. Count me in." Gladius nodded in agreement as Gideon smiled.

"We leave in an hour." Knowing he would have been heard and that word would be spreading, Gideon stood up and began heading to the edge of the camp, "Grab anyone who said that they want to go with us before then. Make sure you're all ready to go by then."

Gladius glanced back at the Courthouse, "Do you think they'll try and stop us?" Gideon snorted.

"Of course they will. Right now they're probably coming up with a plan that will likely involve us being confronted as we try to leave. However, they likely think we'll try to leave as one large group, not suddenly spark a scattering to the winds." He rolled his shoulders, testing the pack's weight, "People are going to get hurt though. I'd say its inevitable, though...it is surprising. From all that I've seen of Spacebattles and other forums, you'd think there would have been riots or people who already left to 'conquer' this world."

Gladius shook his head, "When you have a platoon of high trained soldiers, a bunch of hardened criminals as well as terrorists in the same place, along with people who came here carrying guns, most who got that idea into their heads were quickly convinced not to bother. Not only that, were outnumbered by the people who just want to stay in one place and try to rebuild. They'll see sense, but it won't be today or tomorrow." He shrugged, "But that's not really important is it? What is important is how we're going to leave without getting dragged back at gunpoint."

Gideon gave Gladius a shrug, "We're going to walk out into the desert. If they don't stop us before we get too far, they'll let us leave simply because they think we're going to die out there. Trust me, we walk out of here, they won't raise a fucking finger."

----------------

Lilithium collapsed onto the sand, rolling down the dune before coming to a stop, sucking in deep lungfuls of air to try and recover as the others slid down to join her.

It had been a disaster.

When the time came it was initially two thousand people who wanted to go to Port Arthur, but Gideon had been wrong. Whatever was argued about in the Courthouse, it was clear that one decision had been made clear. No-one was going to be allowed to leave. Lilithium turned her head to look at the others as they checked their roughly bandaged wounds and felt herself snarl at the unfairness of it all.

'The fuckers, they were going to kill the entire group just because we wanted to leave! Well, fuck them! Fuck them all!' She looked around at the group and smiled slightly at seeing Gideon, Gladius and Raptor approaching, Raptor nudging her slightly with her foot.

"Come on Lilith, we need to keep going." Lilithium groaned.

"Nuuuu, I'm too tired, its too hot, and people were shooting at me! I want to rest!" She flopped onto her stomach before letting Gideon and Gladius pick her up, still mewling in annoyance, before they dusted her off.

Gideon sighed, "Damn it all, I was expecting some violence, but this was unexpected." He looked over towards the rest of the reduced group. What was once two thousand people had been reduced by gunfire and separation to eighty, most of them non-forum members. His eyes fell on one old man handling the situation with the kind of calm only a Japanese businessman could project.

He shook his head, it had gone wrong the moment their group tried to leave, when the good Captain confronted them with some of his men and ordered them to return to the camp so that they could be 'protected' from harm. Someone, an SBer called Mimas, Gideon remembered, had tried to talk to the Captain. Next thing Gideon knew, there was a gunshot and he was running with the others. Then they started firing on the group, and people scattered or fell, wounded or dead it would be the same result. He looked back at the group again and snarled slightly.

Eighty people out of two thousand, and no way to know if the others would survive. Still, it was better than being alone, as Gideon approached Tsukikawa, "How are they holding up?" Tsukikawa turned with a sad smile on his face.

"As well as can be. But it puts more responsibility on you now though. You started this, you'll have to finish this, one way or another." Gideon nodded.

"I know. Thankfully, we should only really be a day or two away from the security zone's perimeter, so the only danger we have is the desert." Gladius walked up at that moment.

"So we either turn into ice pops or fry up out here, you really know how to make life interesting don't you Gideon?" Gladius laughed weakly as Gideon rolled his eyes at the bad joke.

"Funny bugger, if you can joke then you can help me make sure everyone is all right." Gladius shrugged but went off to do as he was asked.

"Any smaller and we might as well have left on our own. Well, we know what job you aren't suited for, and that's anything that involves imitating Moses." Raptor snarked as Tsukikawa walked off to do his own talks with the survivors, Gideon sparing the man a flat stare.

"How's Lilithium?" Raptor motioned with his head and Gideon turned to see Lilithium talking with another Spacebattler, LoneFury if he remembered right, had plenty of knowledge of the setting so that was an advantage, and Gideon was grateful for whatever extra knowledge he could get access to.

Raptor then tapped his shoulder, "Not to disturb your thoughts oh great leader, but are we still doing this? I mean, are we still going to brave all of..." He waved at the sands, "That? Sure we managed to get bandaged up and dig some bullets out, but we could get into trouble down the line if they get infected." Gideon nodded.

"Have people keep an eye on the most seriously wounded then. Looks like Tsukikawa-san was right, I seemed to have assumed leadership, and it sucks." Raptor snorted.

"What sucks is that we can't go back. I heard a lot of violent sounds coming out of there. Once we started to leave, it was like a switch had been flipped, everyone started rushing to leave. If there's anyone there left, they're not going to be friendly to us."

Gideon shrugged, "Not our problem Raptor. Make the rounds with Gladius, make sure those who have the most serious injuries have help on hand, and just keep people calm, don't agitate them. We'll rest up until late afternoon, then we'll use the night to travel." Raptor gave him a lazy salute and walked off, prompting another headshake from Gideon as he started making his own rounds amongst the survivors.

As he talked with people, he focused on trying to get a feel for their mood, though that wasn't really that hard right now. It was clear to anyone that they were shaken by nearly getting killed, and Gideon knew that if he wasn't clamping down on his emotions right now he'd be off puking his guts somewhere after seeing one poor women get a bullet to the back of the head. Still...no, that would be counter-productive right now. Gideon sighed as he sat next to Lilithium, who had clearly decided to take a nap, using her pack as a pillow, and watched her sleep for a moment, before looking out at the desert before him.

Eighty people left, and they hadn't even managed to cover a day's travel.

"Gonna be a long fucking walk."

--------------

Gladius checked his pack as the sun began to dip down towards the horizon. The rest stop had been exactly what was needed to recover from their earlier ordeal, though something Lilithium said had alerted him to some possible trouble. He glanced over to some people who were glaring at Gideon, who was talking with Lilithium about something, before they muttered amongst themselves, obviously planning something. As Gladius watched, they got up and approached Gideon, one of them tapping Gideon on the shoulder, "Hey! asshole!"

Gideon turned just in time to get a fist to the face as Gladius started to move forward, before he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Raptor, who shook his head as Gideon shifted his footing in the sand as the man raised his fist, before Gideon grabbed the fist and pulled, dragging them both the ground, the others moving to help their friend, only to stop as Gladius saw what had given them pause, Gideon holding a knife to the man's throat as he rubbed his cheek.

"I assume you have a complaint? Probably along the lines of why I'm in charge when I got so many people killed right?" He looked up at the crowd, "RIGHT?" He glared down at the man.

"Here's the deal fucker, you didn't have to follow me, none of you had to follow me, but you did and since no-one else is stepping forward, I'm leading this group." His head whipped up the man's friends, noticing them approach, "Back off! You make a move, he gets impromptu throat surgery." He swept his glare at the rest of the crowd, "Listen up! You don't want to do this? Fuck off then! I'm going to Port Arthur, whether its alone or with others, so if you want to go elsewhere, then just fuck off! Otherwise, don't fucking bitch about what happened! You think I could have guess that we'd start a fucking riot? That we'd be shot at? I didn't, but its done, we're here, so get your shit together and get ready to fucking move." He snarled when no-one moved, "NOW DAMMIT!"

He shifted the knife and stood up, "As for you, do what the fuck you want, so long as you get the fuck out of my sight." He stalked off, Gladius following after him as Raptor released him, and moved behind one of the dunes, where Gladius watched as he started puking. After a few seconds, he straightened and checked himself over, "Fuck, that was intense, nearly killed the bastard."

Gladius stepped up to him, "Would you have killed him?" Gideon hissed and glared at him as he flinched.

"Shit, don't sneak up on a person! And yes, I would have killed, nightmares be damned! Last thing this group needs is another god-damn fight between us, not when we have more important things to do." He clapped Gladius on the shoulder, "You didn't see this, you were checking on which way we're going to be heading. And the direction is that way." Gideon pointed in the same direction they had been intending on travelling, "And if anyone asks why, its because I have a hunch and its better than fucking nothing." Gladius nodded.

"Got it." They headed back to the group and found Raptor and Lilithium waiting for them with LoneFury and another man.

"Found another one. This is Barricade apparently." The man offered his hand and Gideon shook it.

"Good to meet you." He looked between the others, "Okay, we've stayed long enough. We're leaving now. Get your stuff and tell the others." Barricade nodded and walked off with LoneFury as Raptor stared at him, "What?"

"You okay?" Gideon spat some remaining bile and saliva onto the sand.

"No, but I can't exactly do anything but suck it up and keep going now can I?" Raptor shrugged with a smile.

"You could, but with your success rate, you'll forgive me if I'm still worried about our chances." He snarked as Gideon snorted.

"Smarmy bastard. Just get your gear together. All of you." Raptor, Lilithium and Gladius nodded and walked off before Gideon finally allowed his legs to give out underneath and collapse into the sand.

"I am not going to get any sleep tonight, I just know it." He leaned against the dune and listened to the wind and sounds of activity, before realising that he was still holding the knife he had managed to find in the camp, and stared at the blade. After a few long minutes, he shifted the sheath to a more easily accessed position and put the knife back in its place, "Not gonna kill anyone. Not until I have to." He whispered to himself before getting to his feet.

He had a long walk ahead of him, so it was time to get this started. Walking out in the open with his pack on his back, he noted that people were looking at him, perhaps with some respect, perhaps with some dislike, perhaps with some fear, and turned to face them.

"Last chance. You don't want to follow me, then go somewhere else or go back. After this, I expect anyone left to stay together, look out for each other, and be sure to stay within hearing range of each other. If a sandstorm kicks up, everyone is to form a line and grab hold of the person in front of them so we don't get seperated. Make sure you're ready to wrap up warmly, desert nights are supposed to be fucking cold." Gideon silently cursed the fact that he had been wearing sneakers when he was taken, but at least he had some way to compensate once night fell.

A few people looked at each other, then turned and walked back the way they came, to which Gideon simply shrugged and turned to start walking.

He didn't look back as the sun continued sinking down to the horizon, he didn't need to.

-------------

They had only stopped to get ready for the desert night, wrapping strips of cloth around feet to prevent the possibility of frostbite, and donning rough cloaks made from pieces of tents and in one case, parachute silk, in order to trap body heat. As darkness fell, Gideon smiled and pointed towards the distance, lights moving in the distance, "Looks like we're on track." Smiles were traded amongst the others, but Gideon's smile was more excited. During the walk, they had managed to reunite with one group that had escaped the escape, bringing their number to one-hundred and twelve people and they were carrying some heavier weapons, mostly hunting rifles and a few shotguns, but it was better weaponry than a few knives and machetes so no-one complained when Gideon put them at the edges of the group to act as a screening force.

The lights were incredibly hard to make out, only their motion was a clue, but it was a morale boost along with the new additions. So they moved a little faster, with a little more hope in their hearts, towards the lights that had to be a patrol. If they could get to where the lights were before dawn, they'd be within the Port Arthur Security Zone, a patrol would find them, and he could finally get a clue about where in the timeline they were.

Even so, the freezing cold slowed the group down as they trudged across the sand, the wind picking up and sending sand flying as they moved across the shifting dunes as people clustered together to help conserve body heat and ensure no-one accidentally wandered off in the wrong direction. When people starting stumbling from the cold, Gideon knew they weren't going to be able to keep going for much longer, when he noticed something about a set of lights appearing in the distance.

The lights were getting closer. He stopped, glanced back at the group, and then at the lights, before slipping off his pack and checking its contents as people noticed what he was doing and stopped as he pulled out the one item he had actually been forced to steal from the camp supplies, a road flare. Slipping the pack on again, Gideon started walking towards the lights as he heard Gladius shout, "What if it's not a patrol?"

Gideon turned and shouted back, "I'll take that chance!" He prepared to ignite the flare, muttering to himself, "Please let it be a patrol." He looked, blinked, and snarled, "Fuck!" He stuffed the flare into a pocket and waved to the group shouting, "Keep going! It was a mirage!" People groaned but they started walking again regardless as Gideon waited to make sure everyone was moving before he started walking as well.

Raptor came up alongside him, "A mirage? Seems a bit weak." Gideon glared at him.

"This is Terra Nova, the magnetic fields here are strong enough to allow for landships to be a feasible form of navy. Ask Lone, he can tell you that himself. We're in the middle of the desert, with sand blowing, and you don't think electromagnetic anomalies are something that might be encountered?" Raptor held up his hands.

"Hey, hey, not saying it wasn't real, just that it doesn't seem believable." Gideon snorted.

"Whatever, I just want to get these people somewhere safe and get some more progress done before dawn." Raptor shrugged with a vague noise of confirmation and jogged ahead to encourage some of the others to move a little faster.

Leaving Gideon to his thoughts about how close he had come to nearly getting them killed. Clenching a fist, Gideon snarled and started walking faster, he wasn't about to get these people killed.

He kept walking.

-------------

They had stopped to get some sleep before morning, and Gideon found himself one of the early risers, a few other people had gotten up and were going through their own morning routines, albeit modified for their current situation, anything maintain some semblance of normalcy. Gideon for his part stood up, dusted off sand, and started hiking to the top of the dune they had sheltered from the wind behind as people either began waking up and grumbling about the sand, or in one girl's case, having a minor panic attack before realising that the sand that had inadvertently buried her was only really a thin layer and joined some of the others in laughing at her mistake.

Gideon smiled, spirits seemed to be decent at the least, before looking out at the horizon, looking for the tell-tale plumes that would indicate the presence of hover vehicles moving across the desert. He picked out one but for all he knew it could also be one mother of a sand devil twisting across the dunes, before more plumes joined it and Gideon smiled. A patrol was passing by, that meant that they were on track, and that meant they were getting closer. He decided to keep quiet about it. The Security Zone was a wide area after all, so it was likely that they'd cross paths with another patrol soon.

Lilithium came up to him, still rubbing her eyes and yawning, "Morning Gideon." Gideon smiled.

"Morning Lili. Anything I should know about?" Lilithium nodded.

"Supplies are starting to run low, and some of us are getting worried, maybe you should talk to them?" Gideon nodded.

"I'll do that. Thanks Lilith." The young woman nodded and sat down to watch the dunes as Gideon slid down to talk to the others.

-----------

"You picked up heat readings last night McAllen?" Lieutenant Harvey McAllen nodded as his Captain looked over the report he had handed in last night after returning from his patrol. For her part Captain Alice 'White Rabbit' Lincoln checked the report again, "How many?"

"One ma'am, it was human sized and moving, it could have been a rover scouting for patrols." Captain Lincoln shook her head.

"This close to the Security Zone? Rovers are bold but they aren't stupid. I'll send a group to check the situation out. That'll be all Lieutenant, dismissed." As McAllen saluted and left, Lincoln checked her computer to assign a squad to investigate the mysterious heat signature.

It was strange though, why would anyone be travelling the desert of the Barrington Basin on foot?

-----------

Gideon wiped his forehead, looking up at the noon sun before waving to the others, "Okay! We'll stop here! Everyone set up some shelter for yourselves and others. I don't want anyone collapsing from heat stroke here, and make sure to ration the water!" He walked over to where the others were setting up and helped them secure the makeshift shelter before sitting underneath, "Hoo, we managed to get some travelling done today, that's for certain. I think we might have just managed to penetrate the Security Zone's perimeter at last." Raptor looked over at the others under their shelters.

"Lets hope so, we're running out of water and food, we're going to be in a lot of trouble if we don't get found or find Port Arthur soon Gideon, and I'm going to be first in line to kick your ass if we have to die out here." Gladius chuckled as Gideon shrugged.

"Look at it this way, we could always build sand castles out here." He ducked as Gideon, Raptor and Lilithium started throwing sand at him, "Sorry! Sorry! Hey, that had a rock in it!" The four of them laughed as they waited out the noon sun, and soon there was the sound of talking and laughing as people took the chance to relax. He looked at the others, "You know, even if something bad happens, this has been great. I got to meet you guys after all." Liithium smiled.

"It was fun, but we're gonna get out of this! You just wait and see!" Gideon smiled.

"I thought that was my line?" The group laughed as the sun moved across the sky. As noon turned into late afternoon, one-hundred and twelve people began moving with the sinking sun in preparation for the cold night to follow. As the sun continued to sink lower and lower, Gideon kept his eyes on the horizon, looking for any sign of a patrol, looking for any clue that would reveal their salvation. He knew just how serious their situation was. They barely had enough food to last another day, and after that...

'Tch!' After that the sun and desert sands would have new bones to bleach. The sun was now starting to dip below the horizon, and Gideon kept a neutral expression as everyone stopped to get ready for the cold desert night.

-------------

"Hey, Senior Sergeant?You really think there's anyone out here? I mean apart from Rovers." Senior Sergeant Haley Kurtz suppressed the urge to roll her eyes as she lead her Gear Team across the sands while a HC-3A hovertank recon squad zipped ahead with their more sensitive sensor equipment, the gears moving behind them with their Secondary Movement Systems.

"Of course there'll be people out here Corporal, or have you forgotten that you're a badlander yourself?" There was a pause that told Haley that her subordinate was embarrassed and trying to fumble up a reply that wouldn't make him look stupider than he currently was.

"I know Senior Sergeant. It's just that it feels strange. If it was rovers they would have attacked some place outside the security zone, if it was anyone else they would have come in through the established travel routes. You think this is some kind of Polar spec-ops attack?"

Haley shrugged, "If it is, we'll soon find out won't we. Though I think the North and South have better things to do than waste time on a bunch of stray dogs like us."

"It could be Peace River. Send their team in the long way to avoid suspicion, disguise them as rovers and no-one would be any wiser." That was true, Peace River equipment and weapons were ubiquitous on Terra Nova's Badlands and even in the Polar Leagues due to the size of the corporation. Still...

"Just keep your eyes peeled and your trigger cold Corporal, let the Windtalkers do the looking for us. Anyway..." A flash appeared to her left, "What the fuck! Squad! Contact left!" She whipped her Chieftain around and dropped it into a prone position as her squad did the same, "Single light and heat source! How the hell did the Windtalkers miss that? Anything on radar?"

"Nothing Senior Sergeant! Hold on, zooming in!" There was a pause before the pilot, Haskins, Haley remembered, spoke up again, "Single person, waving what looks like a road flare, I think he's trying to contact us. Hold on...more people. Geez, they look pretty ragged."

Haley zoomed in on the people and nodded in agreement, the people on the hill revealed by her light amplification sensors were rather poorly equipped for desert survival, and that ruled out a large number of options, which left...

"Fuck me, we just found a group of refugees."

Senior Sergeant Haley Kurtz was right in more ways than one as she stood her Chieftain up and approached, weapon lowered, while activating her loudspeakers, "Attention civilians, this is Senior Sergeant Haley Kurtz, Port Arthur Korps! Stay where you are, help is on the way!"

As she approached to see just how many people were there, Senior Sergeant Haley Kurtz glanced at the man who had caught their attention. He had slumped onto the sand, his head turned towards the sky.

He was laughing, and somehow Haley knew that it was the laugh of someone who had just been saved from imminent death. Then her Gear crested the hill and she stopped and stared.

Over a hundred people stared back at her before they started cheering.

Haley keyed her radio, "This is Kurtz, Command do you read me?"

"We read you loud and clear Kurtz, what's happened?"

"Tell Captain Lincoln that we've solved her mystery. I need transports at my coordinates ASAP, we've found one hundred plus refugees, repeat, we're got over one hundred refugees, some of them look like they're wounded, so we'll need medics."

"Understood. Secure the area, we'll get those transports to you as quickly as we can."

Haley nodded and noted that the man with the flare seemed to be the leader as people came up to him and were clearly congratulating him, "Command, I've found what appears to be the leader, requesting permission to make contact."

"Stay safe Senior Sergeant. Command out."

Haley began powering down her Gear and carefully opened the cockpit as the people turned to watch as she dismounted, slipping off her VR helmet, and approached the man still holding the road flare. Once close enough she offered her hand, "Looks like you've been out here for a while." The man smiled.

"Two days Senior Sergeant. We had about a day's worth of rations left, barely, when we heard your Gears and saw the running lights." Haley nodded, expression serious.

"You took a big risk walking across the desert." The man shrugged, still smiling.

"Survival is worth the risk." He looked out at the desert, "If you'll excuse me Senior Sergeant, I'd like to just watch the night sky while we wait for pick up."

Haley nodded, "One last question, what's your name?"

The man turned his head, "Name's Gideon. Pleasure to meet you and I would like to make a request for our group to become citizens of Port Arthur."

 

Chapter 2: A Day in Port Arthur.

Liithium yawned as she blearily stared at her chirping alarm clock before slapping the button to cease the noise, glaring weakly at the pre-dawn sky, before groaning slightly, "Too early." She flopped around on her bed before finally sighing and getting out from under the covers, shivering slightly, "Too cold." Rubbing her eyes, she stumbled into the bathroom and began going through her morning routine. As she started up the shower and growled at having no hot water again, the heater had conked out again, the other inhabitants of the small apartment building, acquired only through some luck, began to wake up and go through their morning routines. She could hear Gladius and Raptor waking up and starting work on breakfast, before Gideon came out of his room, walked into the kitchen, tested the tap, and swore before stomping off to fix the water heater, as he usually did.

A few minutes later, Lilithium felt the water warming up and finished her shower, before stepping out to the smell of cooking food as she towelled off. She walked out and back towards her room, and felt a small smile come to her face at this new daily routine as she noticed the dawn sun through a window.

Stepping back into her room, Lilithium quickly dressed and grabbed her pack, before heading to the kitchen where breakfast was now being served. Sitting down to eat, Lilithium quietly watched the others. Gideon was busy sipping a cup of coffee while reading a book, a Gear recognition guide, for his job at a salvaging business. Gladius was getting ready for his job in a construction crew and would be the first to leave as usual to help continue improving the electrical grid and other utilities, which allowed BlackRaptor to continue his work in setting up phone lines across the city-state. Meanwhile, Lilithium would soon be going to work for a small drilling company to help their in-house wildlife expert ensure their drilling didn't disturb any native species.

This was their new routine, two weeks after they had arrived in Port Arthur after being found in the desert by PAK troops.

Lilithium sipped her tea and grimaced, she would have to try a new tea blend soon. Then she noticed what was on the plate in front of her and like lightning the last piece of strange bacon-like meat was being popped into her mouth as Raptor blinked and glared at her.

Lilithium simply smiled cutely as Gideon chuckled.

------------

Gideon stretched as he walked down the dusty street towards his new place of work. The Port Arthur Korps typically purchased their Gears from Badlands distributors but because of how sturdy Gear frames were, salvage was also an important part mainly because it allowed costs to be kept down. And since Port Arthur had a distinct lack of people who could salvage Gears and vehicles, that meant contracts for people who could, which was fine in Gideon's opinion as he always liked physical work. And there was plenty of time until Royz Malkolm arrived with his plans for a Badlands alliance of city-states.

He shook his head, now was not the time for thinking that far ahead, as he entered the workshop and headed for the office to sign in. After signing in, he grabbed a work vest and helmet and walked out into the main work area where his supervisor was busy cutting armour off a recovered Hunter. Jon Falyz looked up and smiled, "Right on time as usual. Ready to get started?" Gideon nodded and stepped close as he accepted some goggles as Jon turned back to his work, "Okay, let's get started on this one here. I want you to..."

And so Gideon started working on taking apart the Gear in preparation for refurbishment and repair, cutting away armour, removing wiring that had rotted in the sands, cleaning sand out from joints, flushing what fluids still remained in the various pipes and feed-lines, and finally removing the destroyed ONNet Core from its place so that a replacement could be installed later. As Gideon pulled the destroyed core free and tossed it onto the junk pile, Jon checked the joints and shook his head, "The left arm needs to go. Gideon, I want you to remove it while I go over the rest of the frame." Gideon nodded and picked up the cutting equipment before looking over the arm.

Jon was right, the arm was crushed inwards, likely by either a heavier Polar Gear, or perhaps it had been destroyed during the War of the Alliance? Still, that meant that the connection bolts would have to be cut free since the damage to the arm prevented simply using power tools to unscrew them. Flipping down the visor on his goggles, Gideon sparked up the cutter and got to work, sparks flying as he began work on the connection bolts holding the arm in place. As he cut through the metal, he carefully moved the cutting torch's flame to prevent damage to the shoulder joint, Jon was particular about getting a job done right and a damaged shoulder socket was extra money spent repairing the damage. Of course, it also meant that Gideon would get less credit vouchers to help pay for food and water along with keeping the electricity running.

With a loud clang the arm fell away as the weight pulled it free from the socket and Gideon began checking for damage, marking them with a grease pen, before climbing down off the frame to get the shop's resident GREL, a big infantry model who called himself Mordred Kalum, to move it to the scrap pile. He found the GREL working on another Gear and knocked on the metal, "Hey, Kalum, I got an arm for the scrap pile, can you help me move it?" Kalum nodded and moved to grab the heavy cables that would be needed while Gideon moved to grab the controls for the shop crane and began moving carefully into position. Once the crane hook was in position, Kalum began securing the scrap arm with the chains and helped Gideon move it towards the scrap pile of parts that were only useful for being melted down into new parts.

"So, I hear there might be a salvage free-for-all somewhere up north." Kalum nodded.

"Affirmative, but there are reports that it is in an area controlled by a rover band. It will be dangerous when we go." Gideon nodded, PAK needed as many salvaged Gears as possible in order to ensure that its purchases were minimal to avoid strain on its limited manufacturing base. Say what you would about Colonel Arthur's leadership style, Port Arthur's attempts at establishing industry were not one of the good things, though Gideon knew that was as much Paxton's fault as it was the new strains of running a city-state rather than a military force.

"Well, we'll just have to be careful then."

------------

Lilithium cooed softly as she watched the creature swimming past through the camera deployed by the drilling probe while her supervisor took notes before nodding, "Looks like this area is clear for drilling, no nest sites, nothing that would obstruct the drilling, bring the camera back up and we'll write up the report. No more animal watching today Lilith."

Lilithium nodded and began withdrawing the probe, the pipe sealing itself up to prevent water coming in as the drill probe was brought back up the surface. She smiled, this was a good job, it had decent pay, and she got to see all sorts of new animals! She hummed a tune to herself as she finished bringing the camera back up before heading to pack it up as her supervisor returned, a smile on her face.

"Well, that's done. The drilling will start soon and because we finished so quickly we're going to get a bonus out of it. Good job Lilith, the boss is going to be pleased by this." Lilithium smiled as she finished packing up the camera equipment before several other workers came to put it back onto the truck. As she packed her things to head back to Port Arthur, Lilithium noticed something in the distance.

"There's someone out there!" One of the workers looked in the direction Lilithium was pointing in and his eyes widened before he called for the others. Lilithium watched as they drove out to the stumbling figure just as it collapsed onto the sands, and she bit her lip as they carried him to their vehicle and drove off to get him medical attention.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and jerked to see her supervisor staring at her with a sympathetic expression, "Life out here ain't pretty, but then you knew that already, walking across the Basin to get here." Lilithium gave a small smile in return and nodded as her supervisor continued, "I talked with the boss, he's impressed with the work you did and wants you to learn how to use our Prairie Dog to help set up heavier equipment. It's not much more work but it does have a pay-rise." She frowned slightly, "At least that way you can find a place that doesn't have to be shared with three guys. Seriously Lilith, I know you travelled the Basin with them, but can you really trust them?"

Lilithium smiled, "With my life."

------------

Gladius groaned as he hit the ground, his sparring partner holding out a hand to lift him up, "Not bad, you're getting the hang of this. I think you just might be ready for the amateur circuit soon." Gladius groaned as he rolled his arm.

"Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned I knew how to wield a sword. How did I get roped into becoming a Duelist anyway Tara?" Tara Aziz smiled as she punched Gladius lightly on the arm.

"Because you can earn a lot of money on the Dueling Circuit and you're bored with the work, so why not do this? You said you handled a sword before, and you need the extra money right? Plus, its a good way to stand out to the recruiters, and I get a cut as your agent." Gladius rolled his eyes.

"How did I know you were going to say that?" Tara laughed and draped an arm across his shoulders with a smile.

"Come on, break's nearly over, and we've got money to earn."

Gladius smiled, "Can't argue with that."

------------

BlackRaptor wondered if he could fall asleep and not be noticed for doing so. He thought that there might actually be some interesting work in this communications job, but it was just boring. Still, at least the pay was good and he got some time in reading about piloting Gears. Even though Port Arthur had its GRELs, there was always a need for Terra Novan personnel since they were more capable of piloting Gears while the CEF personnel handled the hover tanks. Gideon had mentioned an intention to join the PAK in the future, and Raptor knew that sooner or later, all of them would be in Gears.

It was something of a hunch that Raptor had, perhaps even a premonition, as he flipped a page before checking his assigned station and made some signal adjustments before returning to his reading. As he turned another page, his mind wandered to what the others who had come with them were doing.

Lone and Barricade were working at some mechanic's garage from their last visit to the apartment, but they had quickly lost track and contact with the others, the last they heard they weren't satisfied with the conditions in Port Arthur and had left to go North and South, a few even decided to make the journey to Peace River as well.

It wasn't completely unexpected, Gideon's decision had been made from his own bias against the North and South, as well as the fact that he found GRELs to be interesting beings. To be fair, seeing them for the first time was an interesting experience, though the purple skin took a bit of getting used to. Case in point, one of his co-workers, a GREL called Cassandra Lykas, passed by as he leaned back on his chair, sparing him a glance as he lazily turned a page, before pausing, "Chip, did you make sure PAK has that priority connection?" Raptor nodded and tapped a key on his station's keyboard.

"Made the adjustment a couple of minutes ago. What's with all the activity anyway?" Lykas grinned.

"PAK's sponsoring a major salvage operation north of the city as part of an anti-rover operation. They need communications priority in order to maintain security for the salvage crews. Good thing too, we lost a number of Gears after a skirmish with a Peace River patrol group. The Gears that survived failed as soon as they managed to get back to base, and we're still having trouble setting manufacturing facilties to help create spare parts."

Raptor nodded, "My friend Gideon said something about Paxton conducting industrial sabotage, making the failures to establish industry look like accidents and bad luck." Lykas looked thoughtful at that.

"Interesting. I need to make a call Chip, make sure PAK has that communications priority, I'll be back soon." Raptor waved lazily as he went back to his reading.

"Wonder if I just caused a butterfly?" He shrugged and turned another page.

-------------

"You really think its industrial sabotage?" Colonel Charles Arthur III remarked from his desk, "Our counter-intelligence operations..." The aide held up a hand.

"Sir, with respect, our new SecBuro only has any experience dealing with military intelligence operations, this sort of operation is not something they've been exposed to since the NEC came to power, more importantly, Paxton Arms would have a vested interest in making sure that a city-state formed from the remnants of the first CEF invasion forces would remain incapable of supporting itself industrially. It makes sense." Arthur sighed and nodded.

"I know, but this isn't something I can just send some GRELs in to put down now can I? Bad enough we're seeing the results of extended inactivity and lack of reinforcing hypno-therapy, but if we really are being sabotaged, how do we fix it?" The aide smiled and placed a folder on the desk.

"I've come up with a plan that should help SecBuro flush out and purge the saboteurs and hopefully reveal any intelligence on other subversive operations in Port Arthur." Colonel Arthur picked up the folder and flipped through the document inside.

"I'll review the plan and go over it with the rest of the command staff. But for now I approve any preliminary preparations for this operation." He closed the folder, "Once the word is given, I want these operations shut down completely Major, we can't risk attempting to turn them, so interrogate and execute them. We need to send a message to Peace River that they will not be allowed to run free in my city."

Major Eva Bukharin smiled and saluted, "I'll get right on it Colonel."

 

Chapter 3: Badlands Rumble

Gideon yawned as he padded out of his room in the pre-dawn darkness. A traditional alarm clock was going to just piss off his housemates, so he traded a few vouchers and some scrap to a tinkerer who made him a special alarm clock. He flexed the numb fingers on his left hand and shook it to restore some feeling to the appendage. He'd need to turn down the voltage a touch, as he began taking a shower. He grimaced as he tested the water. Damn heater was on the fritz again, he'd have to talk to Kalum or Jon, see if they knew anyone who could fix the damn thing.

Once he was done, he quickly got dressed into his work clothes and made himself a quick breakfast, and with time to spare, was out the door with a note on the table to explain his absence.

Gone to do salvage operation up north, be back soon.

----------------

He reached the workshop as dawn was rising, though the city was active even at this hour, and found Jon coming down from the apartment above his workshop, "Gideon, you'll be working without Kalum for this, he's been called up as part of the infantry support for this. So be sure to follow his orders, he's experienced a lot of combat so he knows what he's talking about, I want us to return from this alive and intact. Okay?" Gideon nodded. Jon waved him towards a vehicle waiting inside, "The equipment's already loaded up, and I got some desert survival gear, basic stuff, but it'll be better than nothing. It should fit you, you're about the same size as my son was."

Gideon paused from his inspection of the pack that contained the gear, looking up at Jon, who smiled sadly, "He died during the War of the Alliance, saved a lot of people, but got killed by a CEF hovertank." He looked out at the city, "Chances are the hovertank that killed my son is being used by PAK to defend others, poetic in a way. Regardless, Badlanders don't waste equipment, so its yours."

Gideon smiled, "Thanks, it means a lot to me, I don't get many reasons to smile these days." Jon looked over to him.

"What about your friends?" Gideon chuckled.

"They're the only reason I smile at all." Jon nodded and they got into the Off-Road Vehicle and began travelling out towards the meeting area. As Gideon watched the streets turn into the sands of the Barrington Basin, he yawned slightly as Jon noticed, "If you want to get some sleep, go ahead, "I'll wake you up when we get there."

Gideon nodded and quietly dozed off.

---------------

"Magpie Three! Inbound Southern Gears on the west side of the town!"

"What the fuck? Northern gears inbound, coming from the northwest! Looks like they had the same idea as the South!"

"Are you kidding me? Magpie One, where the fuck are you? Magpie Two, you're too far ahead, fall back to Magpie Four's position!"

"Incoming!"

Gideon jerked awake, looking around franticly, before realising he was still in the cab of the Off Road Vehicle and relaxed, "Just a dream." Jon glanced over at him.

"Must have been one hell of a dream, you were talking in your sleep." Gideon blinked and turned to Jon.

"What was I saying?" Jon shrugged, clearly untroubled by what he heard.

"Just something about magpies."

"..." Gideon remained quiet as the vehicle crested a dune and arrived to the sight of numerous other vehicles and Gears as people moved about getting organised with equipment and smaller gears, civilian Hardhats and Prairie Dogs fitted for cutting and manipulation, signs of these crews being the more wealthy Badlander salvage groups working out of Port Arthur, people who could afford to go out and find salvage in more dangerous areas. Still, that was nothing compared to the PAK security force, GRELs in full combat armour were standing near Gears being worked on by technicians and pilots doing checks. One Gear picked up an autocannon and slapped a magazine into the feed before attaching a large knife and taking several grenades. It was a scene of military precision and professionalism at odds with the rather ragged-looking Badlanders, who checked weapons that were likely as scavenged as their equipment.

Jon brought the vehicle to a stop near where a GREL was signalling them and Gideon blinked upon seeing the familiar scarred face of Kalum, although he waited until the GREL spoke, "Jon, Gideon, good of you to arrive, I've gotten you assigned to the detail I'm protecting, so we'll be able to get some decent salvage. Gideon." Gideon looked up from where he was watching the Gears, "I look forward to seeing how you handle this. It'll be a good test to see if you're cut out for this sort of work." Gideon gave a small smile in reply and nodded as Kalum clambered into the back, "Head for the Headhunter over there, Lieutenant Frosh is in charge of our detail and you'll need to report in."

Jon nodded and brought the vehicle forward towards the Gear, where its pilot was talking with several other officers. Hearing the engine, she turned as Jon stopped it and turned off the engine, before the trio disembarked to approach, "Kalum, these your friends?" At the GREL's nod, she continued, "Okay, Kalum says that you're pretty good at keeping Gears intact during the stripping phase, practically don't even have to repair the frames and you keep the armour in recyclable condition. I need that kind of quality work, and PAK needs that kind of quality. Even so, if we get attacked and have to abandon the salvage, you grab your gear and get the fuck out of there okay?"

At everyone's nod, she turned to Kalum, "That goes for your platoon as well. Don't dig in, just fall back okay?" Kalum nodded as she turned back to Jon, "We're going to be salvaging in Area B-672, it'll more dangerous but the salvage is better there. Word is the Rover band controlling the field uses the frames to repair their own Gears, to the point that they don't even match original specs, so be ready for anything."

With that said she turned away and the trio returned to the vehicle as Gideon remarked, "Charming lady, wouldn't want to get on her bad side." Jon nodded.

"That we don't. Okay, lets check the equipment and get ready, this is the most dangerous part of the job, so we can't afford to have any equipment failures so close to Rover territory." Gideon nodded soberly.

"I know just what you mean." Jon shook his head.

"How you managed to last two days in the Barrington Basin is beyond me. Most people are found dead after being out there for just one."

Gideon shrugged, "I guess I got lucky."

The two of them began checking the equipment in silence after that, going over the various tools and desert survival gear, goggles and water canteens, fuel canisters for the cutters, and a battered old rifle that Gideon doubted actually worked until Jon snapped off several shots at some targets that the others were shooting their own rifles at, earning a whistle from Gideon, "I almost thought that gun would break apart." Jon smiled.

"We build things to last on Terra Nova." Gideon nodded in agreement as Jon put the rifle back, "Okay, we're set to go. Get in Gideon, we're leaving." Gideon hopped into the cab and as Jon got in and started the engine, he idly wondered what the others were doing right now.

---------------

"Are you sure you want us here Gladius? I mean, you've been training for a while, but do you really think you're ready to try and become a Duelist?" Raptor asked GladiusOne as he got into the piloting uniform as Lilithium poked about the hanger curiously. Gladius shrugged.

"I need the moral support. Win or lose, it'll be a learning experience and I need the experience. With the IP coming up in the future, we all need to consider the possibility of getting involved, because we know that other SB'ers will likely be already in the military or operating with Rovers or acting as mercenaries. And some of them won't have the best intentions for Terra Nova." Raptor grimaced as Lilithium stared up at a Heavy Vibrosword with wide eyes.

"I don't disagree with you on the point about the other Spacebattlers, but do we really need to get involved? I mean, this isn't a fan-fic, its not like we can affect this place so easily." Gladius shook his head.

"I heard from a buddy that SecBuro rooted out no less than three Paxton cells who were sabotaging Port Arthur's industrial development and that construction on the first factories will be starting by the end of the week. I know you're in a position to let something like that slip considering you work with communication and electronic warfare GRELs, plus Gideon told us a lot about what to expect before everything starts." He looked over to Lilithium who was now dancing around his Gear, checking all the scars and discolorations from the various repairs done in the past, "It's going to be unavoidable, simply because there are other SB'ers out there, and I don't think Lone's the only one who knows Heavy Gear, which means that there will be attempts to cause butterflies in the North, South, and in other places of the Badlands."

Raptor shook his head, "I'd say something about people trying to convince them otherwise, but you're right. But why become a professional duellist?" Gladius smiled.

"Why else? Fame and money of course!" Lilithium stretched like a cat before curling up to take a nap before the match as the two looked over to her, Raptor smiling, "I swear, that girl can find a comfortable spot to sleep anywhere in the world."

"Help me move her somewhere less dangerous." Gladius replied as they approached and gently picked her up. After they placed her somewhere where she wouldn't accidentally get injured, Raptor looked up at the Gear in the hanger, "So you managed to get your hands on a Spitting Cobra? How the hell did you manage to find one outside of the South?" Gladius looked up at the heavy-class Gear and shrugged.

"Ask Tara, she might be able to tell you, all she told me is that she had contacts in a few mercenary companies looking to offload a mech that's more than likely stolen. What do I care? It's not like it's Julius." He laughed even as Raptor noted that he glanced at the Gear's head to see if the tell-tale name written above the sensor eye was present. Raptor sighed.

"Just try not to get killed if you make it to Kayr ad-Din. Okay?" Gladius nodded.

"I know better than to get involved in that kind of business, but I'll be careful. Anyway, with Gideon up north doing salvage, I thought that if I win, we'd get him something special to thank him for getting us here. What do you say?" Lilithium yawned cutely as she woke up and heard that last part, nodding as she stretched.

"Yes! He'll like a present, and we'll wrap it up all nice and pretty with frills and bows and..." She descended into giggles as she imagined the decorations before getting serious, "What should we get him though? He's...picky, about things." Raptor and Gladius nodded, while he could be incredibly apathetic about insults and disparaging remarks, Gideon was often exceptionally fussy about stuff. He preferred revolvers over automatics, preferred machetes over knives, hated one kind of jungle camo and loved another, and wouldn't touch pancakes unless it was covered in syrup. Raptor snorted.

"Just get him a rifle and some body armour in desert camo each, he's not going to complain if it'll help his work." That was true, although...

Gladius snapped his fingers, getting the attention of the others, "Why not a salvaging kit of his own? Cutters, goggles, the works?" Lilithium nodded, smiling wide.

"That'll work, he likes taking stuff apart!"

--------------

"I love taking stuff apart!" Gideon laughed as he cut the ruined armour away to be loaded onto a cargo truck to be brought back to Port Arthur, where they would be sold to be melted down and recast into new materials, possibly even new armour, as a rocket streak overhead and detonated in the sand, sending a geyser into the air. Nearby, a PAK Gear opened fire on the source of the rockets, a Rover Gear that was almost certainly some kind of Frankenstein machine, which made Gideon shake his head with a smile.

'Dream Pod 9 better not release franken-Gears, Catalyst might take offence at that.' Truth be told, his heart was racing and he was almost certain that a nearby mortar strike had killed someone, but he didn't care, all that mattered was getting the job done as he finished removing the last pieces of rotted wiring and jumped down onto the sand, "Frame's ready! Haul it out!" He was already sprinting across the sands towards another unearthed Gear as gunfire and explosions filled the air, sliding to a halt behind the arm as he sparked up the cutter again and started working on stripping the armour. Nearby, another group of salvagers spotted him and one began shouting at him, but he ignored the calls even as autocannon shells struck the arm and sent pieces of armour into the air to rain around him, still continuing to cut away armour, only shifting from his position to move the cutter so that it could finish the job. As the section fell away, Gideon continued working on the arm, slicing away more material, as shells and rockets detonated around him.

---------------

"I am not about to be taken apart!" Gladius snarled as he parried his opponent's attack with his vibro-blades. Sparks flew as the pair moved around each other, Gladius' opponent in a smaller Asp while he moved his much larger Spitting Cobra to keep it in view. The organisers had made it a classic David and Goliath sort of match after he beat his first opponents, most of them in medium or heavy Gears of their own. Odds were supposedly quite high on him losing due to the smaller Asp, despite being a cheap infantry support Gear, being a deal more nimble than the larger and more lumbering Cobra, but Gladius had asked for a Heavy Gear in the first place for two reasons; one was that he preferred the heavier and thicker armour of a heavy Gear over speed, the second was that he only needed one shot to take out his opponent.

Of course, the pilot was clearly more skilled than him, probably a local favourite taking on the stupid newb in a larger, less agile Gear, and the betting odds were clearly stacked against him, everyone was betting on the smaller Gear and the crowd favourite. He swept his Cobra's optics up to notice Raptor and Lilithium standing on the sidelines with Tara. The young woman was gripping her muscular arms hard even as her face remained neutral, but it was enough to show her apprehension and possible fear while Raptor and Lilithium were perfectly calm, though Lilithium was frowning slightly, as if asking, 'Why haven't you beaten him yet?'

Well, best not keep a lady waiting...

Gladius' Gear surged forward, catching the Asp by surprise. One thing the games and RPG had tried to get across was the agility and speed of the Gears, but it was a different thing to experience it in person as the Cobra literally lunged and in a single motion smashed its knee into the Asp's optic area, sending it skidding backwards just in time to get Gladius' massive Heavy Vibrosword sweeping across its legs, the massive weapon cutting through armour in a shower of sparks as the crowd howled, the leg flying free to skid across the ground as Gladius shifted the sword to point directly at the cockpit, pressing it forward just enough for the heavy point to slice into the armour as the crowd start chanting. The Asp struggled slightly, but Gladius simply moved the sword so that it dug in deeper and the Gear stopped moving before it raised it arms in clear surrender.

"What an upset! The challenger has defeated the champ in a stunning display of tactics and precision. Let's hear it for The Gladius!" GladiusOne groaned under his breath as he raised the sword in a salute and holstered it, though he did smile at seeing the relieved look on his friend's faces.

He wondered how Gideon was doing up north.

--------------

Lieutenant Frosh stared at her second-in-command, "Did I hear you right? Nine Gears stripped for salvage in less than two hours by one person?" The Senior Sergeant Major nodded.

"I didn't believe it myself, but when we came to support Soldier Kalum's platoon, I saw him in action. Two gears in half an hour, all under fire from Rovers, didn't even flinch, just kept working even as a rocket struck the sand, just rolled into cover and then kept working."

Frosh shook her head, "Is he back here?" At the Sergeant Major's nod she stood up from her seat at the foot of her Gear, "Where is he?"

"Stripping down our casualties. A couple only need replacement limbs, but a few are total write-offs so we're letting him take them apart to be recycled. He was working on Corporal Alyn's Bear when I left him. The arm's completely wrecked and there's sections of armour that need to be replaced. Should take him a while, Alyn's Gear is practically her baby, she'll be on his back the entire time." Frosh smiled, Triska Alyn never liked letting strangers work on her Gear, this mystery salvager must be regretting his decision to volunteer by now." The two of them laughed as they walked through the camp, only for the laughter to give way to shock as they came across a crowd around Alyn's Gear known amongst her Gear Squad as 'Teddy', the pilot standing nearby with an unreadable expression on her face as her gear was being worked on by a salvager.

Frosh recognized him, it was the rookie who had come with Jon Falyz, busy attaching what looked like new armour to Alyn's Gear, no, not just attaching it, he was reinforcing it as well. It seemed he was rebuilding much of the scrap metal into proper armour in order to provide some additional albeit temporary protection as Frosh apporached Alyn, "You're letting him jury-rig armour onto Teddy?" Alyn nodded.

"He's good. Removed the arm in nothing flat, stripped the armour and intact hydraulics off it and began using the armour to make this temporary stuff to keep Teddy from getting any additional damage if we get attacked on the way back. It's temporary though, the whole deal will have to stripped off after we get back and it would quickly become useless in the field after a single battle. At least that's what he believes." Frosh glanced at the young man working on the last pieces of armour.

"You believe him?" Alyn nodded.

"He was smiling the entire time he did his work. I don't think he'd try anything, would probably take any accusation of sabotage as an insult." Frosh made a thoughtful noise as he watched the salvager finish his work and step away with a flourish, revealing Alyn's Gear which now looked much more well-protected even with its missing arm. He checked his equipment and approached the Gear pilot, "All good. The armour should hold out against conventional weapons, but heavy firepower will junk it permanently. Still, it'll keep the actual armour protected long enough to increase your odds of survival. Just be aware the cockpit area has remote charges to remove the armour sections there, they should also work as a very nice fragmentation weapon in case of need, and they only work once. Here's the detonator." He handed over a military detonater to Alyn, who accepted it with a nod.

Frosh studied the Gear, then addressed the salvager, "Good work. What was your name again?"

The young man smiled, "The name's Gideon. What can I do for you?"

-------------

"What I want, is for you to consider doing this full-time. You got skill and brains, only anyone in a heavier gear could win against a smaller and lighter opponent dancing all over the place. I'm not saying you'll be going to Kayr ad-Din any time soon, but if you keep this up, you'll be making the Barrington Basin Pro Circuit in no time!" The recruiter gushed as Gladius accepted a bottle of water from Tara while Raptor and Lilithium watched nearby before he shook his head.

"Not my decision to make. You'll need to ask my agent." He pointed towards Tara, who regarded the recruiter with a speculative look in her eye. As the two walked off to negotiate terms, Gladius finally allowed himself to slump to the ground, "Woo, that was intense!" He smiled, "But hot damn, I won and we got the money for Gideon's gift!" Raptor smiled as Lilithium gave a small cheer. Gladius stood up and cracked his back.

"Let's go see the trader's then. With luck, someone will have what we want."

As it turned out, there was a trader in town who had the equipment they wanted to purchase. High quality, designed specifically for use out in the Badlands, the trader even had straps and hooks that allowed the pack the equipment came in to be carried on a vehicle or Gear with quick-release options. Of course, all these options came at a price.

"You're damn lucky I caught up to you before that trader could fleece you for every dinar you had." Tara remarked with a smile as they carried the equipment back to where the Spitting Cobra was being loaded onto a flat-bed truck for transport, "But I have to admit, you have an eye for quality, this is really good equipment, practically brand new..." Gladius' lip twitched, to a Badlander, practically brand new meant that there were barely any scratches and it still had most of its original paint, this equipment was still quite visibly well-used as Tara continued, "Still in original condition, no modifications, you did good Sam."

Lilithium and Raptor suppressed grins, Gladius hadn't chosen an alias so it fell to a vote. And in typical Spacebattler style they decided that 'Sam Jones' was a good name to use, much to their amusement and Gladius' bemusement. He sighed.

"Nice to know I've satisfied you Miss Aziz." He blinked when Tara gave him a half-lidded glance, the expression in her eyes unreadable.

"Not yet, but maybe you will." Gladius blinked and coughed to distract himself from the look while Raptor and Lilithium traded a glance between them.

"Ahem, in any case, I think Gideon will like this stuff, it'll let him work more easily since he doesn't have to borrow his boss' equipment all the time." Tara blinked as she looked down at the load in her arms.

"You mean this isn't for you?" She frowned as Gladius nodded, "I thought you were getting it so you could be able to repair your Gear." Gladius shook his head.

"Gideon was the one who pushed us to go through with travelling to Port Arthur. If he hadn't started pushing people to leave, we would have died out there." Tara glanced back at Lilithium and Raptor who nodded in agreement.

"He's a decent guy, even if he seems rather apathetic." Raptor stated.

Lilithium smiled, "He's cold, but he's friendly. Plus, he saved us from...." She shivered slightly.

Tara made a thoughtful noise, "This has to do with why you crossed the Basin to get to Port Arthur, doesn't it? When are you going to tell me about that?"

Gladius glanced away, "When the time's right, I'll tell you. Right now, I just want to forget that place."

----------------

"I don't think I'm going forget this for a long time Gideon. Look at all these contracts!" Jon Falyz laughed as he held out a thick sheaf of papers, "I'm going to be in business for a long time! And its all thanks to you and your calm under fire. How the hell did you do it?"

Gideon, packing away the equipment into its proper lockers, paused and turned his head, "By focusing on getting the job done and using fear as a motivator to work hard. After all, its a little hard to do salvaging in the field if you keep running every time you hear an autocannon going off. Besides, I tend to ignore everything around me when I'm focused on something." He shrugged, "Plus, it helps to enjoy what you're doing more than what's happening around you."

Jon made a noise as Gideon closed the locker, "Anyway, I'm beat Jon, if you don't need me for anything else...? He paused as Jon looked over the documents, before he looked up at Gideon.

"Nope, I should be fine here, mostly paperwork to take care of before we can begin our first contract, head on home and get some rest, we're going to be busy for a while."

Gideon nodded and signed out, before waving goodbye and walking back to the apartment. As he walked he hummed a tune to himself while watching the city. Port Arthur was starting to gain an industry base, which meant that things might improve quicker here, and perhaps NuCoal and the NSDF would be able to prepare for both the Inter-Polar War and the Second CEF Invasion a little bit better. Of course, there was still the Yakut Brotherhood helping the CEF agents already on planet, and the fact that the New Earth Concordiat's ruling party was interested in something that could doom the galaxy.

Gideon sighed as he fumbled for the keys to the apartment, he really shouldn't be thinking so hard about all this, not when he could go inside his apartment, grab some soda and just relax and...

"SURPRISE!"

"GAAAH!"

--------------

"I didn't think I could believe it if I didn't see it for myself! You must have reached the ceiling with that jump!" Raptor managed to wheezed out after managing to finally recover from his gut-busting bout of laughter as Lilithium and GladiusOne along with Tara Aziz as Gideon glared at them all.

"I've spent six hours being shot at by Rovers while cutting open Gears, many of them still containing live ammunition. I've had autocannon shells impact around me, and had a pair of Gears duel in front of me. You'll forgive me if I'm still jumpy." Raptor's expression softened a bit as the others recovered from their laughter.

"Sorry, we thought it'd be nice if we had a little surprise party for your successful job. It was successful right?" Gideon smiled.

"Fourteen Gears salvaged in the space of six hours and seven modified. Jon's got a lot of work to do in the future thanks to his savvy negotiating skills and my skill with taking Gears apart." Gladius was still grinning.

"Such a modest soul you are Gideon. Anyway, here's your present, bought it with my duelist winnings." Gideon blinked.

"You duelled? Sweet, we ought to be celebrating that instead!"

Tara lifted up a case of beer, "Who cares about the subject! Let's just celebrate!"

So they did.

 

Chapter 4: Student of the Badlands.

In the harsh sands of the Barrington Basin, a battle site smouldered under the noon sun, scavengers busy picking over corpses, before they scattered as a convoy of vehicles roared to a halt and people disembarked. As they approached a ruined construction site, one of the people sighed, "Fuck, they really tore the place up. Fucking bastards, we'll have to drill a new well here." He looked around at the wreckage, before spotting a ruined Gear, "Aw fuck..." He approached it and looked inside, "Damn, she's gone. Bastards." As he turned away, the sun illuminated a name written on a plate inside the cockpit of the Prairie Dog.

Lilith

Far from the battle site, a pile of bodies being buried by the wind-blown sands shifted and a bloody Lilithium crawled out of the mess, before she collapsed to the burning sands and lay there, sucking in deep breaths, before she carefully got to her feet, raised her head to the sky...and screamed. It was a scream of pure, distilled hatred, a long howl of rage and grief, before she collapsed to her knees and sobbed, letting the stress and terror of the past few days finally drain out of her. Even as she rubbed her eyes clear of tears, they were not broken or defeated, they held only the promise of death and murder as she watched a scorpion catch and kill another insect. As the arachnid easily defeated its target and dragged it off, Lilithium let loose a low, feral rumble before she began stripping the other corpses of anything useful. Her hand brushed to a pocket and she removed a picture from it.

Her gaze briefly softened at seeing the people in the picture before she placed it back in its hiding place, collected her spoils, and began walking into the desert. She had always loved nature, even during the Long Walk as Barricade had started calling it, Lilithium had always spent time to watch the desert life in action, learning how to avoid the worst of the heat from watching the native creatures in action. Now? Now she would use nature to teach her how to kill those who hurt her and killed her co-workers.

Nature was a good teacher, and Lilithium was nothing if not a good student.

--------------

"She's really gone?" LoneFury asked the group sitting at the table. Opposite him, quietly sipping a glass of water, Gideon nodded, prompting Lone to slam his fist on the table, "Dammit! Fucking bandits, how the hell did they get past the patrols." The others at the table stayed silent before Gideon replied quite calmly.

"You can hide quite easily in the desert, and Rovers are good at hiding in the desert." From his seat, Barricade grimaced.

"You seem to be taking this calmly." Gideon smiled as he shrugged.

"Lilithium's tougher than she looks. Plus, when I saw the wreck, I could tell she put up a fight. She's not going to give up, she'll be back here." He glanced to the side and saw their food arriving, "Trust me, I got a feeling she's doing just fine."

Barricade sighed, "Sometime you really are an asshole you know? It's one young woman in the desert, how can you really be so confident she'll come back?"

Gideon shrugged, "Because it depresses me to think about her being dead."

Barricade's expression didn't change, "I still think you're brushing it off too easily."

"Until I know she's dead Barricade, until I see a body, I believe she's alive, pissed off, and likely going to get some revenge."

------------

Tomas hated guard duty, especially at night, something about the way the wind blew in the Barrington Basin. Not as much as what that psycho Vladimir did to the unruly prisoners from that drilling site, but he still hated it. Looking back at the camp, Tomas saw the forlorn and defeated looks on the faces of the people tied to a metal pole and grimaced, he doubted things for those poor bastards would get much better once they reached the Mekong Dominion or the Emirates. Still...Vladimir had pretty much executed all of the men...and that one girl. Tomas shuddered. When they had finally disabled that Gear she was piloting, she had to be dragged out and beaten unconscious, and that was only after she revealed a knife and gutted one of the others.

Tomas knew Vladimir had shot her though, she would have been too much trouble to keep around and clients wouldn't buy product that had been constantly drugged to the point of uselessness. It probably would have been a mercy anyway, with a body like that, the Boss would have certainly sold that girl to a brothel. Tomas started to turn back to the sands and stopped, blinking as he studied the dunes.

He could have sworn he saw a shape watching from the crest of one of the dunes. Shrugging, Tomas resumed his post and wondered how long before he got relieved, he wanted to...huh, he couldn't feel...his...his...

As Tomas' body fell to the ground, a dark shape dressed in stitched together clothing walked past, dropping a scorpion to the ground that immediately began picking at the man's corpse. As it walked towards the prisoners, the shape pulled out a rough bag and opened it, revealing a collection of hissing snakes. Despite their agitation, the shape picked one up without a shred of hesitation, just in time to throw it in the face of a rover coming around the corner. The woman only had time to yelp before the venomous serpent sunk its fangs into her neck, dropping to the ground as the shape calmly released the rest of the angry snakes to head into the camp to cause mischief.

The prisoners looked up and watched silently as the shape approached them and held up a gloved finger to its hooded face, the light of the fire revealing only a rough mask, before it approached their bonds and began working on them with a knife stolen from the dead guard. As the ropes were cut, the prisoners continued to stare at the shape as it stood up and pointed towards a parked truck, the action prompting one of them to speak up, "What are you going to do?"

The shape didn't reply and walked off in a different direction, deeper into the camp, towards the waiting Heavy Gears. Once the shape was out of sight, the prisoners rushed towards the truck, realising that somehow, the mysterious shape was going to buy them time to escape.

Seconds later they heard shouts moments before one of the gears suddenly moved and unleashed a barrage of rockets into the camp, firing its rifle into the other gears and vehicles before vanishing into the desert night as the truck carrying the prisoners fled in the hopes of finding their way to a friendly community.

Roused by the violence, Vladimir Tenson rushed out just in time to see one of the gang's Gears vanish into the desert, before he grabbed one of the rovers, "How did that thief get into the camp? Are the prisoners still secure?" The bandit babbled and Vladimir tossed him away and dashed to where teh prisoners were supposed to be held, and swore as he saw that they were gone as well, "You've got to be fucking kidding me! What's the boss gonna say when he hears about this?"

"Nothing." Vladimir turned to see the Boss' right-hand man, Koji, staring at him, "The Boss' tent was the first to get hit by that rocket barrage, nothing left of him, so that leaves me in charge. Vladimir, I want you to find the fucker who did this, and make them suffer. Take the rest of the Gears and find that fucker. Don't come back without that bastard's head." Koji turned away from the now smiling Vladimir, who barked orders to the bandits fighting the fires as he ran for his Gear, intent on getting out in the desert as soon as possible.

Far away from the camp, the mysterious shape pulled off its mask, and Lilithium smiled coldly, "Phase One complete!~"

-----------

"She's ready to see you, but please, she's had a rough time so don't stress her too badly." The door opened and Gideon stepped into the room where Lilithium's boss was lying on a hospital bed, the woman looking up with a small smile.

"You're one of Lilith's room-mates aren't you?" Gideon nodded with a smile of his own as he sat down in the provided guest chair next to her, "Didn't think I'd receive a visit from one of you." Gideon shrugged.

"Any friend of Lilith's is a friend of mine, and its a pleasure to meet you at long last Helena, Lilith always had a high opinion of you." Helena's gaze fell to the bed as her hands gripped the covers.

"Have they..." Gideon shook his head.

"No, and frankly I choose to take the positive outlook until she either walks back into Port Arthur or they find her body." She looked up at him, seeing that his expression was completely serious, "Lilith went through Long Walk with us, but she knew how to survive better than the rest of us because she knew to learn from her environment. Heh." He shook his head, "A real nature child, she'd spend the rest periods watching wildlife and copying how they survive." His smile returned, "And I know she learned everything the Badlands wanted her to learn."

Helena Maxim looked up at Gideon again, "You really think she's okay?"

"Okay? I'd say she's alive, kicking, and madder than hell."

-----------

With a loud *SPANG* of crumpling metal and shattering optics, the head of stripped down Hunter blew inwards as the Gear rocked backwards before its knees exploded as the Gears dropped to the sands again, the pilots cursing up a storm.

"Where the fuck is it?"

"Goddamn it! How the fuck is it hitting us? That rifle doesn't have a sniper system!"

"What the hell? Are we fighting a Koreshi?"

"Don't be stupid! There's no way a Koreshi would be out this far!"

"It has to be somewhere around here! Spread out and find it!"

"No! Don't!" A Gear rose to a crouch and immediately its chest was caved in by three shots, forcing the rest to stay prone as Vladimir snarled.

They had been following the trail of the stolen Gear for several hours when one of their number just exploded from a Heavy Rifle shot to the back punching into his V-Engine, forcing everyone to drop to the sands, just before dawn. The rest of the morning was spent in a cat and mouse game with the stolen gear, and they were losing. Vladimir flinched as a 30mm shell detonated in the sand and turned his Gear in the direction the shot had come from, only to notice something that made his blood run cold.

All of the other Gears were destroyed, shell holes in multiple points, the pilots already fleeing for their lives into the desert, those who survived anyway. Vladimir's patience finally ran out as his temper flared. Rising to stand, Valdimir threw his arms out as he engaged the Gear's loudspeaker, "YOU THINK YOU CAN SCARE ME! I AM VLADIMIR THE WOLF OF BARRINGTON BASIN! FACE ME YOU FUCKING COWARD!"

There was silence, and then over an open channel on the radio, Vladimir heard something.

"KehehehehehehehahahahahahahahhahahaaahahahahahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!"

The sand exploded and Vladimir saw a flash of metal before the vibroknife slammed into him. And again, and again, and again, stabbing, slashing and chopping into the metal until the pilot finally reduced the chest area into a ruin.

Breathing heavily in the cockpit, Lilithium's smile was wide and satisfied like a cat that had finished playing with its favourite toy.

"Phase Two complete!~"

------------

Koji was worried, Vladimir hadn't returned and to make matters worse, their escape from the Port Arthur Security Zone was being complicated by a local township marshall patrolling the area with a posse of other pilots on the lookout for an escaped criminal, and a squad of Paxton Gears who had decided to help them out. They were right on the fringes of the Security Zone, all they had to do was wait until nightfall and they'd be able to avoid being tracked down by Port Arthur's hovertanks. But Vladimir and the others hadn't returned from their pursuit of the unknown attacker, and that left them only with Anti-Gear Rifles and Missile launchers, not nearly enough to take on all those other Gears.

He was about to consider his options when a loud gunshot rang out and one of the vehicles exploded, sending a plume of smoke and flame into the air, causing him to whirl around and spot sand-scarred Hunter aiming a rifle down at them, "Cover!" Another vehicle exploded and Koji cursed, the bastard was cutting off their escape and those explosions would almost certainly get attention on a still morning like this.

"Koji! Those Paxton Gears are on the horizon! They must have camped nearby!"

Koji snarled, "What else could go wrong!" His answer came minutes later as the roar of hover engines became audible and Koji saw plumes in the distance, "Oh no, oh no no no, pack it up! We need to leave now!" Another shot rang out and this time the weapon's truck exploded and Koji could see his freedom slipping away as the first Hovertanks screamed over the dunes and circled them just in time for the Paxton Gears to arrive as well. Staring at the guns arrayed against him, Koji knew when he was beaten and raised his hands another tank moved towards the unmoving Hunter on the nearby dune.

As the tank approached, the cockpit opened and a hooded, cloaked shape stepped out and approached the tank with its hands raised. The tank came to a stop and the commander opened her hatch to look at the figure, "Identify yourself!"

The figure removed its hood, and then the mask over its face and revealed a pretty young woman who stared back at them with unnerving intensity combined with a lazy, catlike smile.

"Hi! I'm Lilith! Can you give me a lift back to Port Arthur?"

----------

Helena Maxim was reading in her hospital bed when the door opened and she looked up, about to greet the person there, and paled when she saw who it was, "L-lilith..."

Lilithium simply stared at her boss and friend for a long moment before walking towards the woman, who was now trying to back away from her, "Please! I thought you were dead, I didn't know! Please! Don't!"

*THUNK!* Helena flinched at seeing the large knife imbedded centimeters from her head as Lilithium leaned in close until their faces were almost touching, then the young woman whispered.

"You. Are. Scum."

With that said, Lilithium pulled out the knife and walked out without another word, leaving Helena Maxim to break down crying.

Outside the hospital, Tara Aziz looked up and smiled sadly at the expression on Lilithium's face, "Handed in your resignation huh?" Lilithium nodded, not saying a word, prompting the tanned woman to wrap and around her shoulders, "Don't worry about it. You lose one friend, you make new ones and forget the bastards who made you cry! That's what I learned living out in the Badlands anyway."

Lilithium smiled, "Yeah, and the Badlands are a good teacher. It just needs students who'll listen to it." Tara smiled and slapped Lilithium on the back, prompting a wince from her.

"That's the spirit! Come on! The others are already waiting at the bar and I want you to meet someone I know who needs a good gear pilot for their drilling company as security. What do you say?"

Lilithium followed after her friend, not even looking back.

"I'd like that."

 

Chapter 5: Duelist's Honour, Part 1

GladiusOne sighed as he leaned back in his chair, watching the desert pass by in the train cabin. Who would have thought he'd have gone from construction work to professional duelling? It seemed so strange now that he thought about it, but then he wouldn't have gotten into it if it wasn't for the woman napping across from him. For her part Tara Aziz continued napping in her seat while Gladius remembered the conversation that had led to him being here.

"You're heading out to a big one huh?"

"Yeah, if I make it, I'll be able to take on the Semi-Pro Circuits. How's Lilithium doing?"

"Better than ever, she's made some more friends at her new job working security, they're having a girl's night out when they finish work."

"I'm glad. What about Gideon?"

"Working a contract for PAK. I think he's seriously impressed people with his last few jobs, there's word that it'll be a job in full view of Colonel Arthur himself."

"No kidding? Say, have you heard anything from Lone and Barricade about the other Spacebattlers?"

"Yeah, and it ain't good. A lot of timeline information was shared between everyone who was part of a forum, and a few of them seem to be trying to push things forward."

"What? They're trying to start the Inter-Polar War early?"

"And trying to find a way to contact the Scruffy Man. This is a bad situation, because it means anyone who isn't working for their plans..."

"Is going to be targeted and eliminated. Damn, so what does it have to do with my match?"

"I've received word that there's an SBer attempting to assemble an army to take on Kayr ad-Din. If that happens, NuCoal is going to lose a critical maglev link."

"And leave the Humanist Alliance vulnerable when the Twin Falcon Contingent goes into play. Where is this guy?"

"Competing in the Barrington Basin Semi-Pro Circuit. From what I've heard they're calling him the Blood Knight, and he's supposed to be quite good."

"I can't let him live can I?"

"No."

--------------

"Here we are Sam, your first step into the big time!" Tara remarks as they got off the train while Gladius' Cobra was being off-loaded. In the days leading up to his introduction to the Semi-Pro Circuit, Gladius had taken to customizing the paintjob of the Gear with his winnings, along with a few upgrades, mostly a custom paint job and an emergency medical system, just in case he ran into trouble. Still, his Gear, which he had named Paladin, could stand to do with more upgrades, it felt like there was more that could be done with the mech. Of course, he wasn't about to strap a Particle Accelerator to it, not unless some of the talk he had heard of Gideon yanking out ONNet Cores from damaged Gears and installing them in replacement bodies was true, in which case he might consider taking the trip down to the South to ah...'acquire' a King Cobra.

Bringing himself out of his thoughts, Gladius smiled at the arena where he would be taking part in this fresh season of competition, "Damn, certainly bigger than where I fought before." Tara giggled.

"You should see the Pro Circuit arenas, they're big enough to fight small battles in. And I hear the Web Arena over in Kayr ad-Din is starting to get more...well I don't think legal is the word for it, maybe more respectable, since this 'Spider' Saddick took over." That gave Gladius a momentary pause before he filed the thought away for later consideration. With a series of Arena battles in the Heavy Category coming up, he needed to stay focused if he wanted the money and prestige to attract the attention of what Gideon had so aptly named 'The Cabal'.

"I hear the Web has some of the best on the planet. Who knows, maybe I'll see that place for myself." Tara smiled as she shook her head.

"Not with that Gear's current tuning you won't. Trust me, Paladin is nowhere near ready to take on a place like the Web. Hell, I don't think we're ready to even come within a klick of Kayr let one step inside its boundaries. Still, this will be the place to learn, the Semi-Pros are where the criminals and rovers start looking for new meat, people who are greedy and don't think twice about using dishonorable tactics. Be ready Sam, this is where things start to get nasty and complicated." Gladius quirked a curious eyebrow at Tara, who glanced back at him.

"You certainly seem knowledgeable about this sort of thing." Tara flushed lightly.

"I...For some, Port Arthur is a place where you can make one last shot at a new life." Gladius' felt his other eyebrow rise at the admission before he schooled his expression to ambivalent neutrality.

"Well, I can certainly agree with that." He looked over the various Gears with their pilots and crews, "So where do we set up?" Tara pointed out a marked space where a small tent was set up.

"Over there, there's a free spot we can park Paladin." Gladius nodded and jogged off to collect his Gear. Paladin's new look was certainly getting some glances, but there was no reactions towards the one thing he had deliberately chosen to attract attention, the clenched fist and star of the Federated Commonwealth, something no science-fiction buff worth his or her salt would pass off as a coincidence. He had debated about using one of the other House logos, or one of the Clan totems, or maybe even the Word of Blake symbol, but he always did like the Fed-Com insignia. With it proudly emblazoned on Paladin's chest, no-one would be able to miss it, especially as it's bright colours stood out on the black and red paintjob of the Gear.

"Good thing they have air-conditioning, otherwise I'd probably bake." Gladius muttered to himself as he got into the cockpit and started it up with a roar of the V-Engine before prompting the mech to stand and then stride towards the open spot as Tara quickly staked their claim and set up the necessary equipment for keeping Paladin in top shape between matches while Gladius parked and powered down the Gear before stepping out into the desert heat, "Gah! Note to self, have Gideon salvage a better air-conditioning unit while he's at work, I could feel the heat even at max!"

Tara shrugged, "The Basin's pretty hot at the best of time and we're in the middle of summer as well, so I'm not surprised. But you should focus on getting ready for your first fight, keep the useless thoughts out of your head." Gladius nodded.

"Yeah, I know, just feel like I can do more with this Gear, ya know?"

Tara nodded sagely, "Every Gear pilot feels that way. Come on, I need some help with the calibration for the sword." Gladius looked up at the large vibrosword on the back of the Gear that gave Paladin it's reputation as a heavy hitter. In terms of design it was a fairly cheap and sturdy model found just about everywhere on Terra Nova, but even that wasn't really satisfactory to Gladius' eye, he knew that the weapon would have to be changed out eventually, especially once he got to the Pro Circuits. Sitting down next to Tara as she started the calibrations, Gladius considered the young woman.

Tara Aziz was a mystery, her knowledge of the Dueling Circuit was not something the average person would come across easily and even the most die-hard fan wasn't as knowledgeable as she was on the game, especially when it came to suppliers. Sure, Gideon could get his hands on quality materials and equipment in his work, but that took time since he had to find and strip down abandoned Gears in the Badlands first, so Tara had stepped forward with some names of people she could introduce Gladius to.

And introduce she did. Gladius knew that Duelists often were used to try out new weapon designs but damn, he didn't expect to see that much variety! Eventually he picked a 30mm Heavy Autocannon that looked like an M249 SAW with a chain-sword attachment. That last bit had made his shake his head a bemused smile, at least there was a decent explanation for how chainswords worked on Terra Nova, diamond-hard, laser-sharpened cutting teeth designed to take on trees, buildings and in a pinch, Gears. Combine that with a Medium Rocket Pack and his Vibrosword, and he was looking fairly respectable in terms of combat power.

But combat power was not going to cut it without some work on the gear. Raptor could get his hands on better comms gear, but Gladius figured that lifting military-grade communications and EW gear to improve his own rig was going to be a bit much. Better to wait until he was good enough to be allowed to keep Paladin when he joined PAK.

Gideon was scary good at finding top-range parts and equipment in the Bad Lands, but that was limited by his time spent finding them and ripping them out of the previous owner, although his 'knack' for finding intact and functioning ONNet Cores was something strange even by Bad Lands standards.

Lilithium's 'nature training' as she called it made it easy for her to find useful stuff, mostly water and pockets of hydrocarbons leeched from battles past that bubbled up to the surface, but she was still a bit prickly over her rampage in the desert.

That left the mysterious Tara Aziz as his only reliable way towards getting Paladin upgraded. Still, Gladius was glad for it as he tapped some keys on the keyboard to realign the aiming reticule for the Heavy Autocannon, "Okay seriously, we need to get that targeting software properly aligned with the myomer systems." Tara nodded.

"Your friend Raptor works in communications right Sam? He might know some techs who can do the job." Gladius nodded.

"There's also the armour, it's looking pretty beat up in places. I'll hit Gideon up when we get back to Port Arthur, see if he can't work his magic and fit me with reinforced armour." That was another skill Gideon seemed to have cultivated quickly, the ability to fit anything with enough armour, albeit temporary, that LoneFury made a rather apt comment about it when he stopped by for a friendly chat and dinner.

-------------------

"If we go by Blitz Rules, then he's putting at least one Sturdy box on the Gear's stats card, and that's with scrap he's finding in the desert." He had remarked before grimacing at the coffee, "Ergh, how do you stand this crap?"

Lilithium shrugged, "You get used to it. So Gideon is like some kinda Mary-Sue with salvage?" Lone shrugged.

"I'd say its more that he's specialising in salvage and repair with his skill points, going for a prestige class I'd say." BlackRaptor rolled his eyes.

"We're using D&D as the reference now?"

Lone shrugged, "You'd prefer Dark Heresy or maybe GURPS? Hell I can refer Palladium or the Eclipse System used by Dreampod if you want. Besides..." He took a sip and grimaced, "Besides, you guys compliment him since you specialise in different areas. Gladius for example is likely better at close-range combat than us thanks to his Dueling experience."

In his seat, Gladius smiled and shrugged as Lone indicated Lilithium, "Lili here is like a ghost in and out of a Gear, and murder with a rifle."

Lilithium's grin was happy but embarrassed as she nodded before Lone indicated Raptor.

"And our esteemed Kevin, oops sorry, Chip, is much better at Comms, ECM and ECCM than you, Gladius or Gideon. It all meshes together." Lilithium's hand shot up.

"Question! Why are we assuming that we'll be Gear Pilots and all that? I mean, I just wanna play in the desert, hang out with Tara and be totes adorable!"

Lone's expression became troubled, something the other three picked up on immediately, "One reason would be that we're Spacebattlers, this sort of thing is like some kind of Destiny for us, besides, PAK will draft anyone who can use a Gear when the IPW starts. But that's not why we have to become Gear Pilots or join up with PAK."

Gladius shook his head, "Whatever, we'll deal with it when we deal with it. Say, have you heard anything from Lone and Barricade about the other Spacebattlers?"

Lone nodded, "Yeah, and it ain't good. A lot of timeline information was shared between everyone who was part of a forum, and a few of them seem to be trying to push things forward." He turned his head, as if looking for sudden intruders, "A lot of the people taken apart from us and Stardestroyer were just normal people, and they want to go home, back to Earth. Who cares if its millenia in the future, they want to go home, even if it means starting wars."

Lilithium goggled in shock, her jaw dropping before she shut it with a *click* as Raptor blinked, "What? They're trying to start the Inter-Polar War early?"

Lone nodded, "And trying to find a way to contact the Scruffy Man. This is a bad situation, because it means anyone who isn't working for their plans..."

"Is going to be targeted and eliminated." Gladius finished for his friend. "Damn, so what does it have to do with my match? That was why you visited after all."

Lone pulled out an envelope, "I've received word that there's an SBer attempting to assemble an army to take on Kayr ad-Din. If that happens, NuCoal is going to lose a critical maglev link..."

"And leave the Humanist Alliance vulnerable when the Twin Falcon Contingent goes into play. Where is this guy?" Gladius leaned forward, eyes hard.

"Competing in the Barrington Basin Semi-Pro Circuit. From what I've heard they're calling him the Bloody Knight, and he's supposed to be quite good."

Gladius winced at Lone's blunt report, "I can't let him live can I?"

Lone shook his head, "No. We need to disrupt their planning as much as possible. If we can at least ensure the IPW happens on its canon date with the Sandstorm Strikes, we'll have greater freedom during the war to take out more targets, particularly those who've managed to get into the armed forces of the Polars and other places."

Lilithium's face suddenly twisted into an enraged snarl, "Those fuckers." Her mug handle suddenly gave a loud *CRACK*, forcing her rage to evaporate as she stared at the broken drinking vessel, "Ah! Oh no! This was a gift from Elai-chan!" She hurriedly dashed off to find some glue as the tension evaporated with her frantic searching.

Raptor sighed as he finished chuckling and turned to Gladius, "If you can find and talk to this guy, I'd say try and convince him. If not, you'll have to finish him in the arena."

Gladius nodded, expression stony, "I understand."

------------------

"Sam? Sam? Oi, Terra Nova to Sam!" Gladius blinked as Tara snapped her fingers in front of him, frowning slightly, "You spaced out when we finished. You okay?"

Gladius ran a hand through his hair, "Sorry, I was thinking about what to do with the winnings." Tara smirked.

"Didn't even have a single thought about losing huh? Yeah, you're certainly getting into the Duelist life for sure. But still!" She lightly punched his arm, earning a brief wince from Gladius, she may be playful but her muscular physique was not for show as he had learned many, many times during sparring practice.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, keep my head in the game. Don't worry, I'm done spacing out." He stood up and stretched, twisting slightly as he looked out at the rest of the competitors, "So when's my match?" Tara checked a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Five minutes from now, so let's get started on the checklist before they call you. We are not losing because you forgot to make sure the Autocannon was loaded with ammo and the tank was full." Gladius grimaced in annoyance at the teasing look in her eyes.

"One time! That was one time!"

----------------

It took three hours before Gladius' fight came up on the board, and to his satisfaction he found himself up against another Heavy-class that Paladin's warbook called a 'Mad Dog', this would be a straight fight with no special conditions. Which was fine since this was just the opening fight as Gladius flexed his fingers before gripping the controls as he regarded his opponent through his VR interface.

'I wonder if my target is watching?' The thought flashed unbidden and prompted Gladius to look up at the stands to study the excited crowd as the announcer pumped them up. Then he saw him, a man dressed in light desert clothing, staring directly at Paladin, or rather at Paladin's chest, with open recognition and shock, 'And there he is. Hello Bloody Knight, I wonder if you can beat a Paladin?'

Another thought came to him and with a smile, Gladius moved the control sticks. The Spitting Cobra grabbed its Vibrosword and before the crowd, made a reverse-hand slicing motion with the weapon, the Gear's optics glaring directly at one man in the crowd, who's expression hardened as the Cobra then simply dropped the Heavy Autocannon to the ground, raising its free hand to make a 'come here' motion towards its opponent as the crowd went wild at the showboating. The other Gear, not to be outdone, drew its melee weapons, a pair of smaller Vibroblades, and charged head on as Paladin shifted to present its side.

The charging Gear's pilot smiled behind her helmet as she raised the blades, and then yelped as the Cobra shoulder-charged into her Mad Dog and slammed the vibrosword into the Gear's hip before with a mighty heave, lifted the mech off its feet and threw it into the wall using the sword as a pivot. The Gear landed with a crash, sword still embedded in its hip as Paladin strode forward and ripped it free before sweeping its arms outwards, clearly grandstanding for the crowd, who cheered as the Mad Dog got its feet and wrenched its other weapon free, a large 120mm Snub Cannon and aimed it at Paladin, who noticed just in time to dodge out of the way as the explosive shell sailed past to strike the arena wall with a powerful explosion. The Gear's feet shifted and before the Mad Dog's pilot could react, Paladin swept the sword's blade into the barrely of the Snub Cannon, slicing cleanly through it.

Gladius couldn't help but smile as the Mad Dog got to its feet, grabbing its vibroblades as it did so, while he pulled Paladin back and readied the Vibrosword as the Mad Dog charged and lashed out with the blades, meeting them in a parry as the duel began in earnest.

----------------

"Are you certain?" A woman asked the man, who nodded silently as the crowd cheered the two dueling Gears.

"We're over four-thousand years in the future, I sincerely doubt that Battletech survived that long. That Gear wearing the Fed-Com logo means that he's trying to draw out people like us." The woman frowned slightly, she didn't have the knowledge about science-fiction the man in front of her possessed, but she knew a lure when she saw one, and the pilot in the Cobra out there was a lure.

"Did you get his name?"

The man nodded, "Sam Jones, but that's a pretty generic name. Still, there's a good chance that this guy was one of Gideon's followers out of The Camp." The woman nodded.

"If he's one of Gideon's followers, that means he's one of the people who want to stay here, rather than return home."

The man shifted, "What do we do?"

The woman shook her head and turned away dismissively, "Send a few of your boys to get him to drop out. If he doesn't respond to that, kill him. We need to send a message to Gideon and his cronies that we will not be stopped."

----------------

Gladius collapsed into a folding chair as Tara directed the arena technicians in repairing the damage that Paladin suffered. After the Mad Dog had come a two on two match with a Bear against two Warriors, a single-strike contest where the one who damaged their opponent the most in a single strike won, a duel using only autocannons, and even a hand-to-hand fight. That last fight had been the most gruelling. While the Spitting Cobra could throw a punch, its hands didn't have Combat Reinforcement, which meant...

"Welp, the right hand needs to be replaced after that haymaker you pulled." Tara groused as she sat down next to Gladius, "I am very glad you have a friend who does salvaging, and that Gears can be repaired with parts from other Gears." Gladius blinked and turned to his friend.

"I thought Polar militaries tried to reduce the amount of parts-sharing between their Gears?" Tara nodded.

"That's the common thought, but all modern Gears originate from the Hunter in one way or another, so a lot of parts can be swapped out at the cost of decreased performance. Badlanders take it further by custom-machining their own parts and tuning their machines for greater tolerances. Like this big boy." Tara jerked a thumb at Paladin as the right hand was replaced, "The previous owner clearly wanted it to survive outside of the Southern Republic so he modified and customised a lot of its internals. Technically, it possesses a higher performance tolerance than a stock model even before we got our hands on it."

Gladius made a noise of appreciation as he regarded Paladin with an unreadable expression, "That so? You think Gideon can do anything more for Paladin then?"

Tara shrugged, "By all rights those 'Salvage Armour Kits' he's been putting forward to help improve battlefield survivability shouldn't really be feasible but the methods he's been showing off mean that they can work, especially as he's touting that 'Battlefield Resource Acquisition' doctrine of his as the best way to recover armour in the field." She took a sip from a water bottle before offering it to Gladius, who accepted readily.

After taking a long sip from the bottle, Gladius returned it with a satisfied sigh, "Yeah. If allied Gears and armour go down and can't be recovered, strip them in the field to armour the survivors and take the weapons and ammo. I saw some of the work he's been doing with a few other salvagers and techs for long-range supply packs and even drop tanks for extended operations." He frowned for a moment, "He's even somehow managed to bargain with a Koreshi trader for White Sand, and I've come home to see him talking with a few chemists and other people."

Tara made a thoughtful noise, "With Chip apparently finding ways to improve communication and E-War capabilities through software and hardware tweaks, Lilith apparently finding the secret to how to travel the Badlands in a Gear without leaving a single trace, and Gideon finding ways to improve PAK's survivability through battlefield salvage, makes me wonder what sort of special plan you have Sam."

Gladius smiled, "I'm taking it slow. Besides, don't you think its strange that Gideon is experimenting with White Sand?"

Tara cocked her head, "It's pretty weird considering how far away the White Desert is. I saw one of the experiments he conducted with some military guy with a junked Hunter. They were focusing on the effects on the legs and secondary movement systems. I didn't catch their conversation, but they were talking about some kind of chemical treatment..."

She blinked as Gladius coughed and spluttered before thumping his chest.

'Chemical treatments against White Sand? Gideon...what the fuck are you planning?'

--------------

The rest of the day didn't have any more matches for Gladius and Paladin, so he decided to get his mind of what one of his friends was planning for the White Desert and the mysterious valley at its center. Well, he tried to get his mind of it, but his thoughts kept floating back to Gideon's experiments and before long he finally had to say something as he and Tara sat down for some dinner at a local restaurant, "What do you think he's doing those experiments for?"

Tara shrugged, "The White Desert is pretty difficult to travel even with reinforced movement systems. The sand's supposed to be highly corrosive and when the wind coming down the mountains pick up, it can send that stuff flying for kilometers, which means it gets into joints and optics. I think that whatever chemical treatment he's working on is supposed to make travel and combat easier in White Sand."

Gladius nodded, "It's what I'm thinking as well, but Gideon's never one to ignore an opportunity. He's heard about Koreshi rifles firing White Sand bullets and if he's figuring out how to protect a Gear against the Sand, maybe he's also trying to use it as a weapon?" Tara shrugged.

"If he is, then good luck to him, no-one but the Koreshi has ever been able to refine White Sand into rifle ammunition. If he manages to find a way to use it short of packing it into a grenade, it'll give PAK an advantage." She tapped her chin before taking another bite from her meal, "Still, you'd need a lot of White Sand for all of those experiments. How is he paying for all of that?"

Gladius blinked, "You know...I have no idea." The pair shrugged and returned to their meals when a shout from the bar caught their attention.

"Look! The Blood Knight's fight is up!"

Gladius looked up and got his first glimpse of his future opponent. The Blood Knight's Gear was a modified Bear, but that was only because of the commentary describing it. The amount of modification done to it made it look nearly unrecognisable as it strode forward in its blood-red armour, modified to look like some kind of crusading knight; a large, blocky vibrosword at its side while in it's right hand, a Heavy Anti-Aircraft Cannon with a snarling face painted on it stared out at its opponent, another Spitting Cobra. The crowd was silent, before the two Gears charged each other and Gladius focused on seeing how his future opponent fought.

He was not impressed; the Blood Knight swung his blade like a badly trained butcher, relying on his Gear's strength and toughness than any real skill. But when he hit...

Gladius winced as the strike sheared an arm clean off and sent it flying into the barrier protecting the stands before the Blood Knight pulled back a fist and smashed it into the head of his opponent over and over again until the head partially caved in from the force of the strikes.

The crowd in the bar made their displeasure known as Gladius turned away, he had seen enough to know how to take on the Blood Knight.

And put a stop to him.

 

Chapter 6: Duelist's Honour, Part 2

"So that's it. The Blood Knight and The Paladin in the final match. The betting's going nuts." Tara remarked as GladiusOne checked the software for Paladin's close-combat routines on a laptop as Tara continued, "You'd better win you know, I pretty much put all of our winnings into this match."

Gladius paused in his typing to give Tara an incredulous look, "And why pray tell would you do something like that?" Tara's expression became serious.

"Because I want to see just what's so special about you and the others who came into Port Arthur."

Gladius blinked, before smiling slightly, "We did make our efforts rather obvious didn't we? Well, Gideon did say that we wouldn't be able to hide effectively anyway." Some of the others had disagreed, but everyone in the group had agreed that trying to hide was a futile measure on a world that had spies that would put James Bond and other fictional agents to shame.

In the end, they agreed not to try too hard to hide their efforts and to come clean if revealed. When the first news came from the North and South of other Displaced, the name given for their situation, working to find a way home even if it meant the NEC winning the Second War for Terra Nova, that cemented the decision to be honest if revealed because their now opposite numbers would likely do what they could to conceal themselves from everyone until the invasion.

Tara sniffed, "It was mostly the slang and the utter lack of familiarity with some of the equipment. Even a child would know how to dig a well in the Badlands, but you didn't even know how to turn the equipment on." Gladius blushed, he had felt rather silly when it came to the equipment used in the construction work as Tara continued, "Also, your friend Chip dropped some hints to me."

"Of course he did." Gladius sighed.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Frankly I think you deserve to have some secrets, but I guess I got really suspicious when I saw your friend Gideon do some really serious haggling for some White Sand even though its useless to anyone but those Koreshi. But focus on winning the match, there's a lot of people watching, and if we want to go anywhere serious like Khayr ad-Din, then you'll need to be free of any distractions." Tara remarked grimly before her eyes flicked to the other end of the Gear maintenance bay, prompting Gladius to glance at the mirror he had positioned just so he could get a glimpse without turning around.

"Yeah, I see them as well Tara. Big guys, might be packing." He said as Tara slowly nodded before standing up and casually walking away as Gladius continued his typing. After a few more minutes, a shadow fell over him and he looked up with a smile at the large intimidating gentlemen in front of him, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah." The lead thug growled, "You can drop out of the match before you get hurt. Don't even have to be difficult, we'll pay you and you drop out, nice and clean." Gladius glanced to the sides and noticed that the thugs were holding onto clubs and slipping metal knuckle-dusters on as he acted like he was considering the offer.

"Hmm, tempting. But here's my counter offer. You piss the fuck off and my partner doesn't put holes in you with the big gun she's going to be carrying." The thugs looked around and the leader scoffed.

"Yeah, right."

*CLIC-KLAK!* The group turned around to see Tara holding a very large shotgun in her hands with an expression of annoyed disdain before she raised an eyebrow as if questioning the group to try something. The leader made to grab Gladius when the gun thundered and the thug froze as the large-caliber slug smashed into the ground near his foot as Tara shook her head silently.

"Do what the man says. Fuck off."

Glancing around at the watching pilots and crews, who were now drawing their own sidearms and longarms, the thugs stalked off as Gladius decided to make one parting shot, "Tell the Blood Knight that if he wants me out of the competition he'll have to do it himself, in the arena, because I am not going to insult Deylon by taking bribes or threats."

That would get some attention, even the most despicable bandit respected Deylon's Law, and spitting on that was bound to get some negative backlash on the pilot. He turned his head to face Tara, "I think we should speed up the maintenance checklist. I have a feeling our match is going to be pushed forward after this."

Tara nodded and the pair began working at a greater pace to get the Paladin ready to face the Blood Knight.

--------------

Gladius had been proved right. With the eyewitness reports and Gladius essentially calling out the Blood Knight, news had spread fast and the promoters quickly caught wind of the scuffle. Naturally, they decided to make more money off the situation. Which was why Gladius was waiting by himself in the ready bay as the competitors for the previous match were dragged off the arena floor after they both disabled each other. Wincing at some of the damage that had been applied, Gladius boarded Paladin and readied himself for the upcoming fight as he heard the announcer declare the start of the fight and strode out into the crowd who were now cheering for him and booing the Blood Knight, who glowered at him with the single optic of their Gear.

Gladius simply ignored it in favour of making a point. He dumped all of his weapons except for his sword, stunning the crowd before the cheers started up again as he raised his sword in a clear challenge to his opponent. The Blood Knight paused, before dropping his weapons save for the pair of cleaver-styled vibroblades at his side before drawing them in preparation for the duel.

The arena fell silent as the two circled one another, looking for weaknesses, any openings, something that would allow them to have an advantage over the other, when Gladius noticed something and Paladin's head shifted slightly.

That was the signal for the Blood Knight to charge, vibroblades raised to be brought down in heavy chops as Paladin shifted out of the side, slamming a fist into the Knight's side, forcing the Blood Knight to fall back, and the pair started circling each other.

Gladius smiled, "Maybe you have some honour in you after all."

That was when the Blood Knight spoke and Gladius frowned at the voice, "Maybe you're right. But it won't matter in the end. You're going to die here, and I'll make sure of that."

 

Chapter 7: Duelist's Honour, Part 3

Sparks flew as the Paladin and Blood Knight clashed blades, and the crowd went wild with each brutal strike, neither one of the Gears moving to any form of dedicated defence, only parrying and shifting to dodge strikes by millimeters as the vibroblades struck each other again and again before Paladin surged forward and knocked the Blood Knight away from him as Gladius swore softly, "Damn, he's pretty good."

He began circling the Blood Knight's Gear, trying to find a tell or weakness he could use, hell any indication that he was wearing that overly armoured monster down!

Overly armoured? Gladius smiled as he realised it, the Black Knight's Gear loaded with armour, clearly designed to go into close combat and smash the opposition, which meant...Gladius looked up at the large cylinders that were part of the Gear's engines and smiled, if he could destroy or damage at least one of them...

Gladius had a plan in hand now, and he was going to take it, surging Paladin forward lock blades with the Blood Knight as he looked for a way to get behind the Gear and strike at it's engine system, hydraulics whining from the strain. The two Gears stood there, sparks and smoke flying from the contact of their vibroblades before Paladin shifted and the two cleaver-blades of the Blood Knight sliced to the side, digging deep into the waist armour of Paladin as the crowd gasped, then roared as Paladin twirled the sword and slammed it into the Blood Knight's engine, and immediately a small explosion ripped through the engine as burning fuel and smoke belched from the mangled engine as Paladin shoved the Blood Knight away, the crowd on their feet and cheering as the Blood Knight staggered.

"Bastard!" The pilot of the Gear spat, "You'll pay for that!" He tried to make his Gear stand, but it floundered from its place slumped against the wall of the arena, "Come on you fucking piece of junk! Move!" He continued to struggle as Gladius moved Paladin forward.

"That's enough. You lost, and I want some answers." The Gear stopped moving as the Blood Knight seemed to accept defeat, before it grabbed a shoulder plate and ripped it off to reveal a cord.

"I don't think so you fucking Spacebattler scum! I know you! You're the bastard who spread the word about that asshole Gideon deciding to walk off into the desert! Do you realise how many people died when he tried to leave! My wife is dead because of him! Because of you!" He screamed out loud through the loudspeakers of the Gear, "It's all your fault!"

Gladius remained silent as the pilot continued screaming for the now silent crowd to hear, "They said we could have survived! If we had just done what the soldiers told us to do! Then he decided to leave and you all followed him! Why!"

Gladius remained silent for a long moment longer, prompting the pilot to grab the cord, "Tell me! Or I blow this place to hell!" Gladius remained silent, and the Gear twitched, "I'll do it!"

Finally, "Lack of food, no water, and no information about where we were. You really think we could have restarted a dead town without any kind of resources?" Gladius asked the pilot, before considering what he was going to say next very carefully. He didn't want to reveal the truth publicly, but he knew that Tara had some idea and he wanted to tell her the truth...

Unfortunately, the Blood Knight had little patience and little time to see reason, "SHUT UP! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO PAY!"

As the Gear moved to pull the cord, Paladin's sword flashed, and before anyone could react the hand of the Blood Knight's Gear fell away as the sword stabbed through the chest and into the cockpit. At that moment the rest of the Gear's armour fell away and a shocked murmur rose through the audience.

There for everyone to see, were layers of high-explosives wrapped into steel wire and embedded with ball bearings. More than sufficient to injure or kill people in the stands.

Gladius grimaced, whoever this Cabal was, they had no concern for bystanders.

And that made them all the more dangerous.

---------------------

The hanger was silent as Gladius shut down Paladin and dismounted, "What a fucking mess." He looked around at the glances being sent his way, though people stayed clear, and leaned back against his Gear, "I'm going to have to explain everything to her. I just hope she understands."

"Maybe." Gladius turned to see Tara standing there, expression unreadable, before she walked closer, "Got your winnings by the way. We cleaned up and the organisers were very generous in rewarding us for taking care of that lunatic. So tell me. Everything."

Gladius sighed as he nodded, "Okay, grab a seat." He sat down on a crate and Tara sat across from him, "Okay, if I told you that I came from a point in time over two-thousand years in the past, would you believe me?" Tara stared at him and Gladius sighed, "Of course you wouldn't, but after being me and my group, listening to us talk, hearing all those little suspicious things, it adds up doesn't it?" Tara remained silent by Gladius had learned to pick up the signs from her, "We don't know how we got here. People remembered sounds, and then after that they woke up in the Badlands, in a ruined town a few days away from Port Arthur."

Tara leaned closer, "Why didn't you stay in the town?"

Gladius smiled, "There were three hundred thousand of us." She blinked as Gladius continued, "The first to arrive were soldiers, criminals and terrorists. They established themselves as the ruling authority because they had guns and the will to use them. And they intended to rebuild the ruins, try and make a home, as if we were some kind of pioneer. Gideon was among the last to show up, and like us, he had no idea about how we got here."

"So he came up with the idea to leave?" Tara frowned as Gladius managed to bark out a short laugh, "What's so funny?"

"Gideon wasn't the first to come up with the plan, he was just the first to get pissed off enough to go through with it. I have no doubt that if he was less of a compassionate person he would have just left us there and walked off on his own. But instead he goes and spreads the word with our help, giving people the confidence to follow him simply by being the first one to have the will go to through with his plan, and two thousand people decided to join him." Gladius looked away, eyes clouded, "It fell apart after that."

Tara leaned forward, "Why did he decide to leave? I mean, why follow someone into the Badlands and their potential deaths?" She met Gladius' eyes, "Many Badland towns can be easily rebuilt if you have the manpower and skill-"

"Three hundred-thousand people, many of whom don't know how to survive in the desert, had no equipment to tap the MacAllen Network, had no knowledge of the Network, and many had no skills that could be useful in rebuilding a town. We were doomed to die of thirst without a well, and even if there was a working one, we would have died of starvation because there was barely any food apart from eating small lizards caught in the sands. Someone would have left, Gideon just acted as an early catalyst."

Tara grimaced at the bleak tone in Gladius' voice, "So what happened to the two thousand who left with Gideon?"

"Heh." Gladius chuckled, "The soldiers who established themselves as the leaders confronted us. One of the group decided to try and speak to them, make them see reason, in front of all the people who watched us leave and were on the side-lines in regards to the decision. In front of all those people, he was shot dead." Gladius shivered, "It became chaos after that. People were running, screaming, gunfire was everywhere. Out of two thousand people that had initially decided to follow him, casualties and separation left us with eighty, which only increased to over one-hundred and twenty when we met up with another group. That meant that over eighteen-hundred people either managed to get lucky, or they died out in the desert."

"Even rovers help out those in need, even if only to force them to join their gang or be slaves." Tara responded, "But what I don't get is the occasional talk I hear between you about some Cabal. Who are they, what does it have to do with the Blood Knight?"

Gladius looked around, "The Cabal...there are two groups amongst us. Those like Gideon who accepted their circumstances, and try to build a life on this world." He looked back in the direction of the arena, "And those who want to return to Earth, by any means possible, even if it means..." Gladius' eyes widened, "He knows."

Tara blinked, "Who knows?"

Gladius slammed his fist into the crate he was sitting on, "Of course! If Earth is to win a second invasion of Terra Nova, Port Arthur and the Badland city-states need to be neutralised. And the best way to neutralise a possible alliance of Badland city-states." Gladius shook his head with a bitter smile, "Gideon is trying to intercept attempts to assassinate Colonel Arthur and Royz Malkolm. The Cabal, the Blood Knight, knew that! Kill two of the most influential men in the Badlands; one who hold the most advanced military force and the visionary seeking to create a state of equality with the Polar Leagues, and there will be nothing to stop the North and South from completely ruining each other before the 8th Fleet returns!"

Tara grabbed Gladius' shoulders, "Sam, you're not making sense! What are you talking about!"

Gladius sighed, "Gideon had two of our friends work to establish communication links with others who want to live their lives here in peace. He's been secretive, but he's been especially focused on the movements of Royz Malkolm. The Cabal knows everything we know, so finding and protecting Malkolm is a priority to Gideon, but SecBuro has to have intercepted the communications, so..."

Gladius stood up, "We need to get back to Port Arthur. Now."

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It had taken two hours to get Paladin secured after the tense mag-lev and truck ride back to Port Arthur, two hours that Gladius wished could have gone faster. Even so, he didn't miss the presence of military vehicles in the street where the apartment he shared with Gideon, Blackraptor and Lilithium was, nor did he miss the GRELs in full combat armour standing guard as he approached with Tara.

"Halt, identify yourself." One of the GRELs ordered and Gladius stopped.

"Sam Jones, I'm one of the residents here." The two super-soldiers glanced at each other and one of them turned slightly, indicating a private radio report, before he nodded to his comrade.

"You are wanted inside Mister Jones. Is the woman another resident?" Gladius turned to Tara who stared back at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.

He nodded, "Yeah, she's involved in all this as well." They nodded and stepped aside as Gladius led Tara inside and up to their apartment, before pausing at the door, listening closely, before grimacing and whispering to her, "Sounds like everyone else is in there, along with some others."

Tara frowned, "It might be Colonel Arthur."

Gladius shrugged and opened the door, the pair stepping inside the living room of the apartment, before stopping cold at seeing who was sitting at the dining table that the group used for everything from eating to reading books.

Lilithium was nursing a glass of strong liquor, her expression full of cold fury as she glared at LoneFury, while Barricade was on the couch looking very uncomfortable. Blackraptor was at the table next to Lilithium, also nursing a glass as the pair sat opposite Colonel Arthur himself, and another man that Gladius didn't recognise.

The only person in the room who had a smile on his face was Gideon, half his face and his right arm wrapped in bandages, and his smile only got wider as he noticed Gladius, "Gladius, take a seat mate, you're just in time!"

"Just in time for what exactly?" Gladius asked the others glanced over at him while he took a seat opposite Gideon, "And what happened to you?"

Gideon's smile shifted slightly into a much smugger expression, "I got a measure of our true enemy, and most importantly, I saved a life today." He waved his right hand towards his face, "These are merely tokens of our foe's regard for us, but the tradeoff was well in our favour."

He indicated the man next to Colonel Arthur, "You've heard me talking about him so often, so can you guess who he is?" Gladius looked closer, then he blinked as Gideon's smile widened, "Yup. A little ahead of schedule, but then, things are changing, and not all for the better."

The man smiled, "A pleasure to meet you, my name is Royz Malkolm."

Gladius stared, before his head lowered into his hands, "Oh bloody hell."