The Legion was mobilizing, New Damond was our staging point for these two operations. Argedwall was a technical priority, however the conditions of Sunvilla wasn’t something that we could lightly ignore.

We would be traveling lightly, it was still a decent trek to get to Sunvilla from our location, and given how far we’d progressed, it was reasonable to assume that - if they hadn't actually somehow collapsed - there would be resources we could barter for when we got there. Moreover, they had an Obelisk, so in the worst case scenario we could purchase anything we needed from there. We were, however, concerned with the accessibility of the Obelisk.

There were plenty of people who were a part of the Legion that were dedicated to considering contingency planning. In the event we were to ever go to a city that had a death-grip on access to their Obelisk, we would have to find an alternative for resourcing. The topic invariably became one of what we were comfortable doing.

In the end, we couldn’t fully answer the question. We weren’t comfortable saying that we would steal what we needed if we were forced too, but it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility.

That said, we would be travelling in a pair of Ogre’s in order to take a large quantity of resources of our own. Being that this wasn’t a diplomatic mission, we weren’t carrying anything that we intended to use for bribery. The task of this mission was to investigate what was actually happening in Sunvilla and decide from there an adequate course of action. If it turned out that something unsavory was happening between the people and whatever governing body that existed there, then the most likely answer would be for us to remove them and install Bulwark in the location.

Such a plan was well within my long term goals for other cities. I intended for Bulwark to grow in time, to encompass many cities and ensure that their own security measures were up to par. It would simultaneously help the Legion with support as we ranged farther and farther afield. We’d, for the most part, keep to the original arrangement between us in any given city to ensure that they would always have a source of Matter Energy, so long as it was used properly.

“We’re ready!” ALice called from atop the Ogre, fully bedecked in her hybrid mesh and exo-suit armor. She wore her beaming smile, this time somehow even more exuberant, “Anything you forget to pack?”

I chuckled, “You make it sound like we’re camping.”

“We kinda will be.” She nodded wisely, “if we want to keep a low profile, we can’t just go into the city whenever we need something.”

I nodded at that, she was of course right. The Ogre’s were outfitted with a second trailer each, both of which were designed to be habitats. Our teams were, however, not the regular assortment of personnel.

Only Alice and Richard were coming with me on this mission, Fran and Daniel were assisting on the other front, giving me an extra insurance policy for Argedwall. Terry was overseeing a number of projects, one of which was an expandable infrastructure system that would give us easier access to both of our mission areas. Given that the three of them wouldn’t be especially useful in an espionage or scouting mission, I decided that it would be acceptable for them to do other things. Alice was incredible with her detecting abilities, and her intuition was unreasonably sharp; she was a no brainer for the scouting mission.

Richard was less adept at detection, but was even better than Alice at remaining undetected. With the pair of them, they should be able to get into places that they had no business in being near.

Jeremy Strauss’ team was full of their normal members, though. Jeremy himself, Allendra their sniper, Sammy their scout, Denice their heavy weapons expert, Adam the medic, Jackson was their wildcard, and then Yomar the melee specialist. A total of seven people, ten with us included. It ended up being a decent team, overall. Sammy, Alice, and Richard would all be responsible for close range and stealthy information gathering. The rest were secondary sources.

Depending on the situation in town, I might well be capable of gathering torrential amounts of information. Everything pending the situation, I could tap into electronics to get the gist of the goings on within.

“Alright, we’re heading out,” I informed the rest of my team as we left, “remember, if you find new biotics, try to observe them first and get a feel for their abilities. We’re going to be more thorough in our testing of their capabilities.”

“Roger that,” Jeremy said, driving the first Ogre. The second was being operated by a Determinator, of which I’d taken 36 of them. There wasn’t a particular reason to leave them behind, though I did note that it was somewhat eerie seeing all of these units in our compartment hold. We needed far less with our smaller team, but a truck hold full of what looked like coffins was less than appealing.

As for my specific reference in testing biotic capabilities, the Spindlies were still quite fresh in mind. I refused to reflect on how many lives might have been saved had we known exactly what triggered Spindlies and their habits. If I went down that road again, I knew I’d be left with nothing but useless feelings and an ill temperament.

“Here’s hoping nothing weird’s going on,” I heard Richard murmur next to me. His eyes lingered on Alice, a deep seated concern hidden behind a facade of nonchalance.

‘Yep, I think he’s enamored,’ I smirked beneath my helmet, “We’ll see what’s gone on. It won’t do us any good to speculate too much. And who knows? Maybe it’s nothing too serious.”

Richard glanced to me with a complicated look on his face. After a few moments, he sighed, letting himself calm down a touch, “Maybe. I think that might be a little optimistic, though.”

He kept his voice low as he spoke the last part. I shrugged, “we’ll deal with it when we know. She’ll be fine.”

I nodded in Alice’s direction, “she’s tough, and she’s got a strong spirit. No matter what we find, I feel like she’ll be the first one on the line.”

Richard nodded, “that’s what worries me.”

I smiled and shook my head, various thoughts of whether or not I should talk with Alice about this melting away. What happened would happen, I wasn’t about to expect that we could manage everything without difficulty.

As we moved, trundling forth with the Ogre’s, I switched my perception to the birds-eye view that was offered by Shade. It was a slightly cloudy day, the morning sun having peaked over the distant mountains an hour or two ago. If it wasn’t for the fact that each Ogre was firstly designed to work off road, I doubted we’d be able to simply devour distance like we had.

Shade was following us high overhead, giving us a birds eye view of the area outside of New Damond. The surreal terrain fell away rapidly, replaced by a spare forest and scattered hillsides, flush with greenery. The highway had begun to be reclaimed, something that we wouldn’t heavily bother with changing anytime soon. As we went, we still plotted out a viable path, transmitting data back to the Reapernet if anyone needed to come this way again in the near future.

I could hear the others talking, to each other, getting to know one another more. Strauss team was just as interested in my team as mine were in them. Once more I was glad that the Legions top teams weren’t unhealthily competitive. Having a leaderboard was all well and good, but meaningless if we ended up working against each other.

There were perks, however, that Strauss and his team were now very much interested in maintaining. The top teams were allowed to utilize cutting edge technology, which was both a good thing and a bad thing.

New tech often was very capable, albeit sometimes quite niche, and we had a few devices with us that would need to be field tested to ensure we could use them in the field. Testing with a guaranteed team of skill was necessary to reduce the chance that something could go catastrophically wrong.

Not that I thought such a thing was necessarily possible, especially not with the objects we’d taken with us this time.

“So, I gotta ask,” I heard Jackson speaking to Alice and Richard, “are you two dating?”

“Jackson,” Allendra cautioned, “don’t be rude.”

“What? No, no, I mean, I just think they’d be, you know?” He defended himself turning his attention back to Richard and Alice.

A grin spread across my face as neither answered, and looked like they were figuring out saying something.

“Uh, no, not dating,” Richard said, a blush coming to his face as Alice likewise shuffled with a blush.

“Not yet,” I heard Alice mumble, a very quiet comment from the normally exuberant woman. Richard blushed more deeply, but it seemed to have been too quiet for the other Ogre to hear. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I need to check on the Determinators,” I found my excuse to not be in the front of the Ogre with them, “let me know if anything needs my attention.”

“Ah, yeah, sure.” Richard looked up to me with surprise, and then a hair's breadth of gratitude.

‘Go for it, guys,’ I felt a strange tremor of giddiness roll up my spine.

“How about you guys, any interesting relationships budding in the post-apocalypse?” I inserted, deflecting the question from them further. Which, to be fair, they seemed to catch the whiff of the potential between my team members. Thankfully, they bit on to the bait.

“Nothing from me,” Jeremy started and then joked, “not like I get out much. The whole ‘grizzled cowboy’ look doesn’t get as much of a rise out of people as it used too, I guess.”

“I dunno, boss, I think you look pretty good. In the ‘you’re almost old enough to be my dad’ category anyways.” Denice teased.

“Hey, wait, I’m barely even thirty,” Jeremy said in mock horror. “What about Sammy? He’s got such brooding and baby faced going on, what’s happening there?”

“I get around,” Sammy noncommittally replied, “it’s the post-apocalypse, there’s plenty of stress relief to go around. Helps bring on the top of the ladder.”

There was a heartbeat before laughter exploded out of the second Ogre, “That’s my boy right there!” Jackson shouted, “Oh, man, here I’ve been avoiding taking you out around town, you wanna be my wingman?”

“Wouldn’t it be the reverse?” Allendra chuckled, “I’ve seen him at work, he’s a smooth operator. You’re more like… a moose.”

“The fuck? A moose?” Jackson blinked, “What does that mean?”

Adam looked up from his med kit after sorting it, “She means you’re a trainwreck in a room and smell funny.”

“Wait, what?” The man’s expression elicited more laughter, “wait, for real, you’re pulling my leg, right?”

“You’re fine,” Denice gave him a comforting pat, “some women like moose.”

“Jeremy’s got you beat, but no, you’re not bad,” Allendra reviewed her earlier statement.

At which point the second Ogre got real quiet. Curious, I tapped into a video feed there, and saw the conspiratorial looks that the others had on their faces as they turned their attention back to Allendra.

She pulled up her defenses, not speaking over the comms at the moment, “yes?”

“Do you like Jeremy?” Denice asked flat out, “because if you do, tap that.”

“Or you could be a decent human being and date him,” Adam rolled his eyes, “it’s the post-apocalypse, though, do as you will.”

She blinked, her normally severe expression softening a touch at the seeming united front, “W-well, I tried.”

They looked around emphatically, “you did?”

“Uh, maybe not very well, but yes.” She responded sheepishly.

“Just lay it out for him, he’s a bit rock headed.” Sammy said, “if you act like this when you do it, 90% chance you’ll want to have the rest of your day cleared of anything else you wanted to do. Just saying.”

“Dude, how much a player are you now?” Jackson shook his head.

“So, how about you, Matt?” I heard Jeremy call, each of the conspiratorial bunch snapping back into the overall conversation, sharing grins.

“Uh… yeah, about that. My body is literally made of steel.” I let that hang in the air a few moments, “I don’t even want to consider the implications of a physical relationship.”

There was a collective wince at the mention of that, “I mean, someone’s gotta be into that, right?”

“When I said everything was steel, I meant everything.” I chuckled, “I don’t think it’s a matter of someone being into that kind of thing.”

Yet another collective wince, this one followed up by an awkward pause.

Sammy snorted, everyone turning their attention to him. He started and blushed, “Uh, sorry, it’s not funny, not really. But I just remembered a phrase.”

Jackson’s grin grew, “Balls of steel?”

“That’s the one.” He shyly chuckled, and we laughed. It wasn’t good to be too serious about this.

“But it’s probably for the best. I’ve got all of you to look after, anyways.” I shrugged trying not to think about this topic again.

“Aww, thanks, Dad.” joked Denice, a hefty layer of humour in her voice.

More laughter, and a great deal more smart-ass comments ensued, and I found myself enjoying the occasion a great deal more than I thought I would.

‘This whole having more friends thing really isn’t so bad.’ I nodded to myself with a smile, turning my attention to our surroundings now and then.