“You see that guy over there?” Gabe pointed to a forward into the compound, A lone man was leaning against a waist-high road barricade. Zara picked up the binoculars and looked through them.

“Not really.” She said without any hesitation.

Gabe looked over at her and chuckled, the binoculars were facing the opposite direction. He took the piece of metal and glass out of her hands and corrected the positioning. “Better?”

“Yeah.” She began to look in the correct direction, “Looks like we could kill him without any problems.

“It looks that way, doesn’t it? But look up.” She turned her attention to the tower a few meters in the back, “The guy is just a decoy.The real threat is the heavy weapons in up there.”

“Couldn’t we just use your robot to destroy the tower?” She questioned.

“Yeah, but VeVa only has enough power to shoot off once...The other four towers would still be a problem.”

“This place similar to a S’hinok shell.”She pulled the binoculars away from her face, “We should just level the place with the ship.”

“We could.” Gabe placed an arm around the female lizard-woman. “But, I actually have a plan. Look again.” She raised the device back to her face. “You see that giant black thing?”

“Yeah? Is it a ship?” She questioned.

“Correct.” A voice that wasn’t Gabe’s spoke up, it sounded robotic. The duo turned around to find VeVa. “That ship is a prototype, before the creatures known as Locust appeared.”

“Oh? The robot speaks Caloricean?”

“I am an Artificial intelligence, linguistics is simple.” The robot walked to the middle of both. “I’ve known the language since I was given this vessel.” He sat down and looked out the window.

“Why didn’t you speak it sooner?” Gabe turned away from the window so he could speak without worry of being seen.

“I can see the progression of the child, It is half human therefore I will cooperate with aliens.”

“Alright, Whatever.” They turned back to the prototype ship.

“If it’s a ship, Why haven’t the human’s went to space yet?” Zara criticized.

“To prevent any spread of the Locust, ships were required to have an onboard assistant.”

“And that ship doesn’t have one.” Said Gabe

“Correct.”

“So.” Zara faced the robot. “It’s useless.”

“Correct again.”

“Hmm, VeVa. What are the chances that Keller is using this to control everyone.”

“Gabe, are you being rhetorical?”

“I might be.” He smiled, “Forget my previous plan! I got something better.”

“Zara, remember how I said this was going to be a scouting mission? Well, it’s not going to be we are going to take over with the three of us.” Upon hearing this Zara smiled.

“It’s all I needed to hear.” She jumped out the window without a second thought.

“What.” Gabe ran to the window. They had been scouting on the third floor, a jump from this height would be lethal. As he peered over, he saw that was climbing downward, she was climbing downward. He claws hooked into the cracks of the building with ease she practically dropping a floor by the minute. Gabe leaned back from the window. He gave VeVa a thumbs up and they went for the stairs.

Zara was standing by the front door with her hands on her hips. Her tail had been moving in a snake-like fashion. She pointed upward to the sky, “Sun’s almost down. We better hurry.”

The compound wasn’t exactly far away but it was most likely going to be a one-way trip, whether they died or not they’d most definitely wouldn’t be heading back in one day.

Gabe looked up to the sky, they might’ve had approximately a half hour before nightfall. Making haste the trio went straight for the compound they practically threw any idea of stealth out the door as they approached the guard.

“Yo.” Gabe threw up a hand gesture. The guard who was relaxing instead of doing his job snapped to attention. His overall apparel was less professional than the one’s that went on the raid earlier yesterday. His uniform consisted of a black hat, black t-shirt, and black pants.

“Halt!” The guard raised his gun at Gabe. His eyes flickered over at the lizard woman standing with literally no sense of fear. Then he glanced at the industrial-looking robot dog. “The hell is…”

Gabe raised his arms up. “No need to shoot...I just have something to say to Kellen.”

The guard said nothing for several minutes only giving a confused expression. “You mean Keller?”

Gabe nodded. “Yeah, That guy.”

The guard continued to keep his gun aimed at the trio but spoke into the radio piece attached to his shirt. What he said was quiet but every other word could be heard. “Three...unknown...lizard...bright eyes…”

Just a few minutes later and two other guys came walking out, “You’ve gotta be shitting me, you really ain't high!” A similar dressed man spoke up. He was followed by a female also in the same attire, though her eyes were obstructed by dark sunglasses.

The newly arriving man turned toward the female. “Hah, guess I really owe you a drink.” She smiled sinisterly. He finally turned to Gabe, “C’mon, Keller agreed to see you.”

Gabe dropped his hands and followed the man into the compound.

“What’s the plan now?” Zara asked Gabe.

He shrugged. “Dunno, I thought we were going to have to fight our way through the gates.

“Keller does not have a reason to shoot you on sight, Gabe.” The trio plus escorts walked to the center of the compound, the scouting mission did almost nothing to map out the place. It was built like a fortress. Where it looked like it would end was literally just a way to reach into the deeper parts. They’ve must have sectioned off parts of the city and repurposed them to be At the center was a residential area filled to the brim with people, families, even. And Keller was in the center sitting on a bench.

His appearance was that of an older man, perhaps in his later end of the sixties. His gray hair was brushed to the back. Several men surrounded him, all armed yet none looked at him, they faced outward toward all threats.

The escort stopped a few meter short, The human barricade was open enough for one person to step inside.

“I was under the impression that you were evil.” Gabe stopped walking when he was close enough.

The old man leaned forward on his cane. “I’m not as young as I used to be, My ears aren’t as good as they used to be.” He motioned to the empty part of the bench. “Please.”

He was hesitant for a moment but, he eventually took a seat. The two sat in silence for a moment, “I’ve been told that you were some kind of baby stabbing fascist leader.”

“Hah. Is that so?” He smiled. “Do you still believe that to be true?”

“Not really, no.” He shook his head. “I can’t see why would anyone want to spread something like that now.”

“You’re not from around here are you?”

“Yes and no.”

“Ah. you must be a traveler then.”

“Unintentionally, yeah.”

The old man began to gaze into the distance, as if he was reliving a memory, “Nearly three hundred years ago, A small company decided to play God. That company was trying to find the cure for a disease that plagued humanity since the dawn of time.” the old man paused for a moment.

The gears clicked in Gabe’s head something that plagued humanity since the dawn of time? “Death?”

The old man nodded. “That company eventually succeeded. The only problem was the creation of an alternate life, The Locust. The company tried to keep everything underground at that point. They destroyed files, killed personnel and even burned down the building, but the Locust refused to die. They got out.

He took a deep breath. “Keller Industries was blamed for all that went wrong with the world.”

Gabe had suspected this old man was leading to this.

“Many people passed on the knowledge that I was worse than the devil himself.” He turned his head to face Gabe, “I spent the better half of those centuries trying to rebuild civilization as penance.”

He was surprised to hear that this old man was actually over three hundred years old, the experiments they conducted must’ve been a success if they worked on him.

“Listen, old man, I was actually tasked with killing you.”

“If that is how it is, I am at your mercy.”

“Hold on, seeing you and how everyone has basically killed my murder boner.” He paused for a bit. “How about you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.”

“I’ve spent half my life trying to rebuild what was destroyed. What can you have that I haven’t tried.”

“VeVa.”

The old man’s face lit up. “A VeVa?”

“Yeah it’s an-” Gabe was cut off by an explosion was off in the distance. Gunfire echoed deep into the city.

Radio chatter was a lit on the guards all around them. It took mere seconds for one of them to turn around. “Sir, Locust are pouring into the city.”