As they travelled towards Stuttgart, they sent the surveillance drones out, checking the electrical towers and general mapping. Numbers of people and animals, types of trees and plants, all data that the Community would use. And, while they could have just pushed on and made it to the city just after sunset, their orders were to make a camp a half hour drive from the city. The drone perimeter sprung up from Avi and the other drone storages, one from each team, letting the teams relax a little before their mission got seriously underway.

~

"We'll keep in contact," Jolli said to Zoe as the camp was packed down. The shelter they had found had once been a farm and had been tagged as a potentially useful place for workers and storage.

"We can handle any trouble," Tyson spoke up.

"Last time Zoe had real trouble it was because of you two," Locky said, amusement in his voice.

"True, true."

"That's why I'm coming along," Boo added from just behind Tyson, starting him a little.

"God, I won't get used to that," Tyson muttered to himself. "You're going to drive me insane."

Boo grinned evilly at him as the final bags of gear and food made their way into their places. Kally squeaked as she over balanced with the last of her gear, but was saved from falling over with a well timed nudge from Maddison, pushing the bag to where it needed to be. Kally thanked her and Maddison waved it off. "No point in silly injuries," she replied before hopping into Avi.

"We'll likely use this place as our base of operations, so, if you can't find a decent place to rest in the city, come back here," Locky said to Zoe as she strapped the chest piece of Nix to herself. "It's not too far out from the various objectives."

Zoe nodded as she attached the collar to the suit. Nix powered it up and as Zoe slid the plexiglass in front of her eyes, data points appeared and vanished as the system initialized. Slipping the lower leg pieces on, she then quickly attached the upper leg cuffs. She had modified them so they fit, but there were still gaps in some places. Kevlar filled the gaps, riveted and sewn into the suit pieces, giving her a little more piece of mind.

“Be safe!” Jolli called as she waved for her lead vehicle to proceed.

Locky flashed a thumbs up as the last of Delta team drove by, letting Beta follow. Zoe took her seat and silently ordered Avi onto the road as she attached her upper arm pieces.

~

Maddison had swapped with Boo, who was sitting on the back seat of Avi, leaning forward between the seats.

"It's sort of like a chameleon camouflage," she was explaining to Tyson. "If I don't focus, I blend in. Things I manipulate though, other than clothing or really small objects, aren't affected, so they make me more visible. I guess if I was to mentally shout or be really stressed, I may get your notice. We'll have to test that out later."

"How small?" he asked.

Opening her med kit, she held up a rolled bandage. "Not big enough to be useful in combat. A butter knife, if it's not shiny, is about as lethal as I can hide." She put the bandage back. "I'll show you." Moving to behind Zoe, she made sure Tyson could see her as she propped her feet on the console between the seats. "See how long you can stare at me."

Shifting in his seat, he looked her up and down. "You look pretty solid," he said calmly. He sat still, moving only as the buggy did. As it jolted over a larger bump, Tyson's attention was taken off Boo. He shifted, picking up a drink and turning back to the front, looking ahead at the road.

"Avi, how long was that?" Boo said, making Tyson jump as she leant between the seats again.

"One minute, five seconds," the vehicle replied.

"My, that wasn't long at all," Boo teased, patting his shoulder.

"Crickey," Tyson said, awed. "It's no wonder they call you Boo."

"You'll get used to me," she replied, laughing lightly in his ear. "Actually, a minute is a long time to focus on me when I don't want to be seen, you did well."

"It's like I just lost concentration focussing on you. I think there was a bump and my attention switched to how thirsty I was."

She nodded. "That's about how it works. As soon as your attention is distracted by anything, I become less important to your senses."

"You two can play later," Zoe said to them, drawing their attention forward. "We're coming up to the outskirts and need you to help keep look out."

"Yes boss," Tyson replied, shifting his rifle into his hands. "Can't hear many close thoughts nearby."

"Good." She passed an ear piece to him "Translation programs built in."

"Good, though it can't translate thoughts, I'm guessing."

"Nope, so keep on your feet."

"Got it."

~

The two vehicles slowed as they left the main road, following a sign stating 'Schloss Solitude'.

Tyson tapped Zoe on the shoulder. "I can't read that."

"Château de la solitude," she replied as the translation appeared in French. "Sorry, Castle Solitude." She mentally switched the translator to English. "We're almost there."

As she said that, the building appeared to them, dirty walls, overgrown plant life and roof in disrepair. Zoe brought up a picture of it on the console, its gleaming picture vastly different to its current reality. Wild dogs barked and growled, then scattered as the two vehicles approached.

“Anything?” Zoe asked Tyson quietly.

He shook his head in reply. “Unless they can hide from me better than Boo does, the nearest people are that way,” he said, pointing towards the major part of the city in the distance.

“Okay, then.” Zoe opened a channel to the truck. “Just a quick in and out, we want to get whatever tech we can find and get back out. Look for computers and harddrives, leave anything else unless you think it’s important.”

Parking at the foot of the stairs, the team spread out through the building, picking through the debris. Zoe pushed through the barely open door, Nix making the process easy. The doors scraped along the ground, the noise echoing through the building. A carpet of rotting leaves blanketed the floor, all of them having come through the broken windows.

Crunching her way through, the building plan appeared on her visor, Nix displaying probable locations of offices and computers. Pushing open the door to the closest one, she found a small office, couches decayed, chairs tipped over and everything covered in dust. Zoe lifted the smashed computer screen, revealing a small box on the back of it. A screwdriver appeared at the end of one of her fingers and she quickly detached it and linked a small cable into it. Power flowed from Nix and the small computer powered up. Reservations, stock orders and various useless bits of information appeared to her before she found what she was looking for, browser history, showing searches of local attractions and places.

“Anything interesting?” Zoe asked over the comms.

“Garage has a few rusted out cars,” Tomas replied.

“I found a locked cellar,” Maddison added. “Well, it was locked.” A grunt came across the comms as Maddison pushed the door open. “No idea if any of it’s good, but it seems relatively full. I’m surprised that it has survived, that lock wasn’t hard to break.”

“Okay. Finish up checking for anything interesting then head back to the vehicles. Meet back in fifteen.”

“Roger,” Tomas and Boo replied before Tyson and Maddison echoed them.

~

Tomas insisted on leading the way on the short trip between the castle and the factory that was their initial destination and Zoe saw no reason not to. Maddison took the passenger's seat next to him, making Zoe feel a little less nervous about the eagre mechanic being in front.

The trip took less time than it took for them to explore the castle as the factory was down the road from where they had stopped.

Many buildings that were labelled as part of the Porsche complex came into view. A number of them had been destroyed in the war many years past. Whichever country had destroyed the buildings had done so as a tactical move, trying to deny production facilities to their enemies.

Now though, the factories lay abandoned and littered with debris. Tyson confirmed he could hear a few individuals, none of which had heard them yet.

Making their way into the nearest building, they looked around, finding the main control room. Rows of dormant screens and buttons greeted them, layered in dust. The occasional streak showed where people had trailed their fingers through the grime years ago.

"Tomas, Tyson, go check the production line in this building. Boo, Maddison, scout the perimeter. I'll check the controls here. Keep an open channel."

"Roger," they all replied as they broke off for their tasks.

"Okay Nix, let's try and wake this behemoth." Sending a command to Avi, the buggy slowly made its way into the factory, crawling over rubble to get close to the control room. Zoe met the buggy at the bottom of the stairs, secured a cable to the batteries, scooped up the adapters and went back to the controls. Finding a place to hook the power in, she attached the correct adapter and then the cable.

The mainframe of the controls whirred to life, dust spewing from exhaust fans, making Zoe sneeze a few times. Retrieving a cloth from Avi, she started wiping down the controls before activating the screens. Boot data scrolled across each one before an array of errors started appearing. Reading the errors one screen at a time, she turned off the ones which were attempting to control dormant machines and focussed on the others, the errors in programming.

Plugging Nix into the nearest port, she focused on her mindscape, placing her hand on the nearest screen. Nix was already working on fixing the errors for her, which pleased her, freeing her to work on other programming.

~

Tomas was trying so hard to focus on his tasks. Working on the next breed of cars would have to wait till the factory was up and running. Tyson chuckled at him. “You’re very eager,” he said, patting the younger man on the shoulder. “I can see why you enjoy yourself though.”

“The chance to create something new, something from this side of the war, rather than recycling and repairing older stuff? I feel like we’re part of something bigger, something new and exciting, and I get to be in the middle of it all.” Tomas bent down and checked the machinery next to him. “Yes, we’ll be using the old manufacturing facilities, but you always build the new on the old.”

Tyson smiled warmly before doing another quick mental scan. No one was closer than a few buildings over. Keeping a mental ear out, he followed Tomas, looking around and helping moving things when he was needed.