Zoe smiled faintly as Boo handed her a phone, which was already calling the Community comms hub.

“You’ve got Sam,” came a pleasant voice through the speaker.

“Hey, it’s Zoe, can you get Gregori please.”

“One sec.” Zoe could feel the connection shifting, rerouting and connecting to Gregori’s office.

“Go ahead Zoe,” Gregori’s heavily accented voice came through the speaker.

“I have a quandary. Stuttgart seems to be ruled by roving gangs and, if our encounter with a nearby band has any indication of what we’ll encounter, they’ll be hostile.”

“How did they look, well fed, famished?”

“Famished, barely clothed.”

“They make sure you eat around them and make it known that you have well looked after clothing. If they don’t want to work with us to get what they need, they’ll move on. Anything else?”

“We intercepted a radio signal from the city. I’ll get Nix to forward it to you.” She waited as Gregori listened to the audio log.

“Search for Klien while you’re making contact with the gang leaders, but he is a low priority. If you make enough noise, he’ll likely come to you.”

“Understood.”

“You’ll do fine Zoe. We wouldn’t have let you lead Alpha team on this mission if the leadership didn’t think you were ready for it.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Gregori out," he stated, ending the call.

Zoe breathed out and straightened herself, renewed confidence filling her chest. She quickly relayed her plan to the others while retrieving jackets and fruit. Smirking to themselves, they began to eat as they made their way back to the teens, who were still watching them.

Maddison lead, and as they approached the door, the watching teens backed up, letting them enter.

"Are you sure you wouldn't entertain the idea of sharing what you have?" Zoe asked, amusement in her tone. The teens stared at the fruit they were just casually eating, eyes flickering to the well made, thick and warm jackets the other three had changed into. "I mean, we tend to share what we have, if you've done an honest day's work."

"I'm in," the smallest of the teens said, rushing over as Zoe held out a trio of apples, taking them eagerly. "What do I need to do?"

"Do you know of Moritz?" Zoe asked. The teens nodded. "Go report to him and see what you can do to help. I'll let him know you're coming, and if you keep being helpful, you'll receive your fair share of food, clothing and shelter. Misbehave and you will be held accountable."

"Got it miss," the one who took the apples replied. Eyes widened as another small bag of apples and pears was handed over.

"First step, share those around, then go to Moritz."

The teens eagerly dove into the bag of fruit as Zoe turned, leaving them to their own devices. She sent a message to Tomas, letting him know the small group would be there later, also instructing him to pass the message along.

Maddison quickly shrugged out of the snow jacket, slipping her thinner, tighter top on, muttering about how she hated the restriction she felt with the heavier jacket.

Getting back into Avi, the car turned to face the city centre.

~

Zoe scanned through the reports her drones were sending back as Avi drove slowly towards the city. Tall, many story buildings greeted them, most of them with few windows left.

~ Store all drone data on Avi's data banks, don't worry about keeping data here. Keep an eye out for any abnormalities as the data comes through. ~

~ Affirmative, ~ Nix replied. The system initialized the transfer of data from the suit to the buggy, adding that the data be sent to the Community servers too, when satellite uplink was sufficient.

Nothing stood out to Zoe in the data that was coming in. She didn’t hold much hope of anything really useful in the city, but would look anyway. Part of her mission was to look for anything that could be used to advance the Community. Computer mainframes were all well and good, but machinery and manufacturing centres were what was desperately needed.

The buildings themselves would not be something required for what was likely to be a long time. They would use the taller ones for communications facilities unless there were other facilities in them to use. She had no idea what would be useful to the Community till she found it. There was a long list of what to look for, but whether those facilities remained or were even in tact was another matter entirely.

"You want us to spread out?" Boo asked.

Zoe shook her head immediately. "No, we can deal with threats easier if we're together. Keep alert, my drones are not perfect and I don't want to be surprised by anything."

Boo gave a thumbs up to Zoe before joining the twins in scanning the city.

~

The truck jolted to a stop, Ellis braking heavier than needed. “Sorry,” he rumbled to Kally.

She waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine, no one was fantastic at driving on their first day trying.” Pushing the passenger door open, she dropped out of the truck onto the damp ground. Children ran out of the building and hugged Ellis and Kally, asking Ellis about what he’d seen, along with a million other questions.

Laughing, he picked up one, a little girl with a nose similar to his, putting her on his hip. “We brought back lots of things. Now, you all go play while the grown ups unload everything. I’m pretty sure Kally even brought some new toys with us, but I don’t know where they are. Leave us be, be good kids, then we’ll have new toys for after dinner.”

The children cheered and ran off inside, barrelling past Moritz and Nakita, who had come out after the children. As Kally started undoing the cargo straps holding everything to the flatbed of the truck, Ellis climbed up the side, waving Mortiz to join him.

“They delivered more than what they promised,” Moritz said, looking over all the items on the truck.

“They sure did,” Ellis said, starting to help Kally with the straps. “Kally even went out of her way to get extra stuff for the kids, like coloured plates and extra toys.”

Moritz turned to Kally and read her energy. It blossomed in his sight, soft and caring, full of vigor and life with a few hardened and sharp flecks through it. Her energy was still immature, but had matured even over the last couple of days. He instinctively felt the need to protect her, but let her be. She had all the protection she needed and he would likely just get in the way of her development.

“Thank you,” Moritz said to her, looking over the truck.

“Thank me after you’ve helped unload,” Kally said as she rolled up the last of the straps.

~

Avi rolled to a stop next to a wall covered in aged and weathered graffiti. The once vibrant shopping district now lay dormant and empty. Tyson and the drones had alerted Zoe to the first group in their path.

"Hostile, but curious," Tyson said, lifting his rifle up to rest on the shoulder of the passenger's seat, next to Boo's head. Boo slipped Zoe’s brass knuckles on before starting to play with the power switch, flicking them on and off.

Zoe looked around, only the melting snow getting her attention. Snow in the sun melted slowly into puddles, covering every surface.

“They’re coming,” Maddison said as she sighted down her rifle as the first of the potential enemies appeared around a building further down the road, bow drawn. Upon seeing the car and the rifles of Tyson and Maddison pointing at them, they darted back behind cover.

“We’re not going to fire,” Zoe called out in German as she waved the two rifles down before exiting the buggy, leaving the others as she walked forward. Her suit’s visor popped up from her collar, displaying the locations of seven bodies around the corner. A pair of drones flying high overhead giving her a different visual from her own two eyes.

Walking down the middle of the street, she came into view of the small group. Seven weapons leveled in her direction, which made Nix automatically deploy the helmet of the suit. She frowned at the AI’s reaction and ordered the hood and visor back as she looked over the group who had started to spread out. They were in a similar state of disrepair to the teens they’d encountered not all that long ago, ratty clothes, thin stature, hunger in their eyes.

~ It is strongly advised to engage all defences, ~ Nix stated to Zoe. She could feel the AI’s readiness to engage the weapons systems. Silently hushing the AI, she cut the power to the weapons. ~ It is strongly advised to not disengage power to the weapons array. ~

~ Shush Nix. Tyson and Maddison will keep me safe. ~ She could feel Nix keeping the power up, but leaving the weapons unengaged. Zoe mentally glared at Nix’s programming as she returned her focus to the group in front of her.

“I’m not going to fire,” she said as warmly as she could. “My name is Zoe.”

Silence from the group came back from her as they spread out further. As they spread out, Boo, Tyson and Maddison came up behind her, all with weapons in hand. The seven they faced froze.

“We are not looking for trouble, we just want to talk to you and your leader.”

Glances passed around the small group. One of them waved the others weapons down, lowering their own bow. “What do you want to know, stranger?” the woman asked.

“We represent the Community to the west of here which intends to expand into this area. We also intend to, uh,” Zoe looked over to Boo. “Incorporate?” she asked in English.

“Übernehmen,” Boo supplied, taking over from Zoe. “We want to incorporate more people and lands into our area, expanding our influence. Everyone who has joined us gets fed, clothed and sheltered and rewarded for helping. You must have noticed our equipment and the fact that we’re well fed by now. We have spare food with us if you lead us to your leaders.”

Excitement at the sound of food and clothing rippled through the group and their leader barked at them, ordering them to keep quiet. “What’s stopping us from just taking your stuff?” she replied.

~ Nix, full power, deploy array ~

As Zoe’s suit deployed the weapons, Maddison and Tyson took a step out from Zoe, drawing their second swords. Several of the scruffy people facing them took a step back, fear evident on their faces. Barely a few seconds later, swords became sheathed and Zoe powered down her weapons, holding her arm up as the array folded away. “You’re welcome to try,” Zoe said.

The leader of the group waved a hand to signal for weapons to be lowered. "Okay, I get it, we'll take you to Ivan. I'm Mila."

As Zoe ordered Avi to join them, the group opposite them watched as the buggy rolled into view, turret deployed. Glaring at the vehicle, Zoe sent the order to power down. Watching as the turret folded away, she nodded to Tyson, who went and sat in the buggy, resting his feet on the dashboard. Zoe could swear she was getting frown lines from the antics of her equipment and team.

~

Following Mila into an underground carpark reminded Zoe of when the twins had brought her to their hideout, except this one was under a multi story building and had guards posted at the entrance.

Leading them down a ramp to the next level, Zoe glanced at Tyson, still feet up in Avi, who nodded to Zoe's unasked question. Safe enough.

Boo had opted to take a ride in Avi and was sitting in the driver's seat, fiddling with the brass knuckles while Maddison walked with Zoe, fingers tapping on the hilt of her swords.

They came to an area which had been boarded up, using pillars of the car park for corners, guards armed with guns flanking a solid door. Zoe mused that, for a gang, they were relatively well organized and set up. She noted stores in the distance and many little nooks nearby, similar to the one they had been lead to. The lights were on and she could hear a generator running somewhere in the underground carpark.

"Just her," Mila said, pointing at Zoe. "You lot stay out here."

The three of them looked to Zoe, who shrugged. "Fair enough," she said.

Mila rapped her knuckles on the solid door. “Yeah,” echoed from inside. Pushing the door open, Mila revealed a cosy looking room with pillows stacked in a corner and a leather lounge in another. Strings of lights gave the room a warm, almost sensual feeling, completely at odds with the gruff and scrawny man who was seated at the solitary table, eating what looked like a meat stew and flat bread. "What have you brought me today Mila?" he asked in a gravelly voice. Zoe could not pick the age of the man, the dim room and voice giving her a guess anywhere from twenty to sixty.

"Strangers, four of them, say they come from the west, call themselves emissaries of a community."

"Mmm." The man patted his scraggly beard with a well used towel before standing. As he turned, she saw a familiar blood red armband on his forearm. She tried hard to not give away her shock and focussed on his face, now seeing a wicked edge in his eyes. "More toys?"

"Yeah, I reckon they'd be gladiators for Ivan."