Zoe lay on her back, a small holo projector on her chest projecting the morning visuals from both long distance drones. Both Prague and Vienna showed signs of large scale habitation and that unnerved Zoe. This wasn’t a small compound like the one she helped the twins strike at, this was much larger and better organized. She was surprised that they hadn’t triggered any of the defences that she had built up over the years in her satellite network. She quickly scanned through the defence protocols and found something that she had forgotten she had written into the programs, a shutdown to save on power when it left the network. Rubbing her temple as the drone footage played on, she internally debated with Nix the pros and cons about the shutdown protocol. She came to the conclusion that the protocol needed to stay on the majority of the satellites, but a few would be able to be on all the time. She’d just have to figure out which ones could be in that group.

Zoe jumped as someone nearby cleared their throat to get her attention. Turning off the display, she rolled over to face Tyson. He handed a ration bar and a bottle of water over to her, helping her to sit up.

“Don’t beat yourself up, you couldn’t have known that they would be this close to your home or so well set up.” He sat down next to her. “It took the Bloodless Pact a few months to get as entrenched as they were in Sydney. Who knows, they might have gotten lucky with what they found resources wise in those cities, like we have here. And, now that we know they're there, a strategy to deal with them will likely come into play soon. Gregori doesn't seem like one to leave something that dangerous near his home."

Zoe chuckled. "Oh, he isn't. There is a good chance that he will be on the battlefield, leading the troops." Unwrapping the bar, she nibbled on a corner of it while Tyson mimicked her. They sat in silence in the small room away from the main hustle and bustle of Moritz's group.

"I'll tell you a secret," Tyson whispered, leaning towards her a little. "I like Boo."

Zoe burst out laughing, accidentally spitting out her water. Addressing his hurt look, she patted his leg. "For someone who can read thoughts, you're hopelessly easy to read at times."

Tyson rubbed the back of his head, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, guess I am."

"It's fine though, it's part of who you are. She cares a lot and has a big heart, but she is well trained to defend herself if she needs to. Boo is well loved in the Community."

"Ah, I'm probably not worth her time."

Zoe punched his leg hard. "I don't care that I've known you barely a month, I encourage your relationship with Boo. You are a better person around her and she has been keeping control of her Talent a lot more than normal around you. She only does that around people she likes, by the way."

"Oh," he replied softly, absently rubbing his sore leg. "Really?"

"God, you're hopeless. Yes, really. When have I actively lied to you?"

"Ah, point."

"Now, did you just come to bring me this subpar breakfast, or was there a point of you coming in here?"

"Yes, actually. Moritz wants to come with us. I said I'd check on you and ask."

"Right, then I better get up." She stretched and stood, bracing herself against a wall as she did. Tyson joined her, helping gather the couple of tablets and the projector before they made their way to the main room.

A mayhem of children greeted them, various brightly coloured toys changing hands rapidly while the equally brightly coloured plates and bowls were gathered up by others and dumped into a large pot where Zoe could see steaming, soapy water lapping the top. The happiness on everyone's faces spread to Zoe and Tyson, who made their way through the chaos to join Moritz, Ellis, Nakita and the rest of her team.

"Good morning," Moritz said, bowing his head. "I hope the children didn't wake you."

"No, I've been awake for some time, strategy planning. I apologize for not joining everyone sooner."

Moritz smiled warmly at her. "No need to beg forgiveness, we all need some time alone from time to time. Now, did Tyson relay my request?"

"Yes, you're welcome to join us. We can take one more comfortably, or, about four more if people are happy to stand and get cozy."

"I'm coming," Ellis said before Moritz could speak. "I know you want me here to look after the family, but Emil and I have already talked, there are enough teens and young adults to cover the group and keep it going and together if anything happens to us."

Moritz sighed and nodded. “Okay, guess I can’t stop you.”

“Someone needs to look out for you old man,” Nakita said, poking her tongue out at him.

“Hey now,” Moritz said, his fatherly grin back on his face.

"I've got a question," Tomas asked. "Have you had any dealings with the Bloodless Pact?"

"Who?" Moritz asked.

"The group that have been taking Talented people from the gangs," Zoe said. "I must have forgotten to tell you their name."

Moritz shook his head. "No, we haven't. I suspect that we lost a young one to them, as they wandered off, saying that they wanted to explore and didn't come back. We didn't have the resources to search for them." He sighed deeply. "The follies of youth. A headstrong young one will go off, thinking they know what's best, then either come back, hungry and exhausted or don't come back."

"That won't happen any more," Boo said softly. "We'll make sure of it."

Moritz's warm smile came back. "I'm certain you will. But, for now, shall we go meet with some scoundrels?"

~

Avi rolled down the highway, the most direct way from the factory to the city, all while Zoe ran alongside in her suit. The buggy had received instructions from Nix to keep taking over satellites, even improving the acquisition program a little. Avi took the changes to the program and accepted them, seeing efficiency rise, bringing the processing time down thirty-two seconds.

As Avi finished with one satellite, the programming scanned for another, finding one that was different. The takeover programming started and immediately met resistance, more than it was programmed to deal with. Relaying to Nix, Avi tried again, sending different codes to try to breach the satellite’s security. Registering that a layer of security had been breached, Avi relayed to Nix and kept trying its adaptive programming, aware that some defences took time to breach. Avi was getting little useful information from the satellite, so had little to report back, barely more than its coordinates.

Instructions from Nix commanded Avi to keep processing and attempting acquisition of the highly defended satellite. Avi acknowledged and dedicated most of its active processors to working on the satellite while it left one to deal with driving and car functions.

~

Moritz’s choice of weapons was interesting to Maddison. The man had two long pieces of metal, one for each hand, each almost as long as he was tall, the ends where he gripped them wrapped in cloth and leather strips. The weapons had made a very solid sounding impact when put on the floor of Avi when he had placed them there, before they had left for the day. Maddison asked him everything she could think of about them and how he fought. She rapidly formed a solid opinion of the man, sure that, if it came down to a fight, Moritz would have their back and wouldn’t give an inch to any enemies.

The trip back into the city proper didn’t take them long with Avi driving slowly enough that Zoe with her suit enhanced speed could pace them. Zoe was once again thankful for Nix’s acquisition, and, even though she was personally against it, was looking forward to seeing its capabilities stretched on the battlefield. She had been able to find footage of the suits in training exercises, ones that had been released for media footage, but nothing more.

Silently informing Nix and Avi of what she planned on doing, she deployed her helmet and pushed the suit into a full run, as fast as she could manage. The suit responded instantly, shifting the panels it needed to, making her steps spring further and further till she was running fast enough that things were a blur where she wasn’t looking. Whooping with delight, she jumped as high as she could, easily clearing the roofs of the buildings she ran past. Hitting the ground, the suit stabilized her body, allowing her to continue her run without issue. As she slowed down, she retracted her helmet, allowing the wind to catch her hair and cool her face. Glancing over at Avi, she saw everyone staring at her with various degrees of wonder and awe. Grinning back at them, she jumped onto the back of the buggy, making the suspension dip with the sudden weight.

“Thought to see how fast I could go before we got here,” she said, waving towards the first of the city buildings.

“I’ll go with Ellis and Moritz,” Tyson said. “Boo, going to come with me?”

“Might as well, it’ll be easier for me to speak on behalf of the Community than it would be for you.”

“Excellent, which leaves Maddison to come explore with me. You know where the chainsaw is?”

Maddison nodded. “It’s on the trailer. Should make short work of that pile.”

Zoe nodded as Avi started to slow near the building they were set to explore further. “I guess we’ll see you later,” she said as Maddison joined her out of the vehicle.

Chainsaw in hand, Zoe lead the way up the stairs to the blocked door, the promise of new toys for her giving a bounce to her step.

~

Moritz shook Leon’s hand, his mouth pressed in a firm line, unsmiling. The man’s energy felt ruthless and hard, though the links to those around him were textured with caring and protection. Moritz knew that Leon was like himself, would do whatever it took to protect his family, though Leon would be more ruthless about what he did, where Moritz prefered to protect through strengthening his family.

“Zoe said you were going to send word to the other groups in the city that we wanted to meet.”

“That was done first thing this morning,” Leon replied. “We’ve already got word back from Liv’s group, she’s keen to meet. No one else has gotten back yet.”

“Every little bit helps.”

“We are arranging aid packages for everyone,” Boo said, stepping into the conversation. “The first one will be arriving here by this evening. It will contain food, shelter, clothing, tools and other useful things. We want you to know we are sincere in our offers and that this aid drop comes with no strings attached.”

Leon frowned at Boo, but caught Moritz’s stare. “She’s serious?”

“Very,” Moritz replied. “Last night they delivered several very full pallets of goods, including extra things like toys for the children. These are things they, under no obligation, have just given to us.”

“They can spare it,” Ellis said, speaking up. “I’ve seen their stores and they have more stuff than they could reasonably use in a year, and that’s not including the fresh produce they get daily.”

“How have we not heard of your group then?” Leon asked of Boo.

“We have only recently begun expansion further out. It has taken us quite a few years to secure what we have that we didn’t want to push too far and cut our own throats. Now that we’re comfortable, we are expanding, trying to better all those we encounter.”

“Sounds like a fantasy,” Leon stated.

“Oh, don’t get us wrong, we only provide the basics needed to survive in return for living inside our influence. If you want more than that, you have to work for it. I am a trained medic and each day I do a shift in the clinic and for that I get to live where I want and eat well rather than live in a barracks with others and eat the minimum for healthy living.” She looked around the underground habitation. “I can’t imagine that this would be very warm at night or in the coming winter. Thankfully, that doesn’t need to be a concern for me.” She grinned, almost like a shark, knowing that their prey really can’t do much about their presence.

Leon took in everything about Boo, Tyson, Ellis and Moritz, looking over their clothing and equipment. “You went and saw their facilities? What she says is true?”

“As far as I could tell,” Ellis replied with a shrug. “I can’t imagine they would have an ulterior motive. Yes, there are people there that make the hard decisions, but if you did not want to associate with them, I believe they would leave you be and not provide support.”

An involuntary shudder went down Leon’s back. Being on board with the take over of the Community seemed to be the best way to survive. From what he’d seen already, they were more than capable of dealing with Ivan and his cronies. “Once the meeting goes ahead, I’m sure you will get more leaders like myself joining you and pledging support, especially if you plan to deal with the Pact.”

~

The drones sent back more and more data as the sun rose higher in the sky. The system receiving the footage from the drones scanned the video, totalling the visible military strength of both cities while also mapping the cities as best they could from the high altitude. The drone flying over Vienna was recalled after being fired at, a bullet tearing a hole through one of its wings.

Gregori mulled over the data and the situation. The request from the twins to be in the initial strike team sat in the upper corner of his display as he moved people around the groups. He could not outright deny the request, but he hadn't made up his mind to where they should go. They were too powerful an asset to just throw into a danger zone straight away, but he couldn't deny that they would be an excellent addition to any team

Rubbing his head, he waved his hand a few times, dragging a few people together, then splitting them into two teams.

Alpha team, Vienna:

Leader: Zoe

Maddison

Tyson

Ewa

Kalinda

Beta team, Prague:

Leader: Lauchlan

Nathaniel

Veronika

Niecha

Scanning over the two lists, he nodded to himself and flicked them to the other council members who would need to know. Once he got through any objections, the teams would have to gather and regroup before proceeding with their new missions.

~

A whoop of delight escaped Zoe's mouth as she opened the last of the doors in the upper floors of the building. 3D printing devices took up most of the room, ranging in size from not much bigger than her head to the size of Avi. All of them seemed like they only needed a dusting before being turned on again.

Maddison watched, amused, as Zoe scanned and catalogued all the machines and the inventory, listening to her prattle on about what could potentially be built from these machines.

"I know you don't understand just yet," Zoe said, looking up from the boxes of spools of filaments. "Trust me when I say that, before finding these machines, making another suit like Nix was basically impossible. These machines here are priceless." As small notification appeared on her visor, interrupting her train of thought.

As Zoe read the message, she straightened, becoming more serious. "What?" Maddison asked, hand going to her swords.

"We're being reassigned. You got your request granted."

Maddison's face set into grim determination. "Who else is with us?"

"Our team plus Kally. We are primarily a scouting team and we're going to Vienna. Full mission parameters will be sent soon. For now, let’s secure these and arrange to meet with Kally.”

~

“I’m a mechanic, not a carpenter,” Tomas grumbled as he secured the new door to the stairwell, locking the upper floors securely. “Why don’t we just move all the machines back to the Community?”

“Because we don’t have the freight elevators working yet and I very much doubt we could get the larger ones down the stairs.” Zoe held a beam in place while Tomas secured it.

“All right,” Tomas grumbled, focussing on installing the new door.

~

Kally signalled to Zoe that she and Locky had arrived at Moritz’s compound as the group started leaving Leon’s group. Not long after, the new group peeled off from the city in Avi, leaving Tomas behind to keep working on the car factory.

As they cleared the larger buildings, they noticed a large flying vehicle coming in low over the ground on an intercept course. Stopping near Schloss Solitude, they waited in a clearing for the other vehicle to land.

Four large rotors extended out from the main body of the vehicle, buffeting the group on the ground with massive wind pressure as the craft descended. As it landed, the group on the ground were joined by a pair of people from the vehicle, who helped stow weapons and gear while a third watched from the passenger's entrance.

Offering a hand and a grim smile to the others as they boarded, the third person waved them to seats and helped Tyson and Maddison to secure themselves. As the door sealed, the noise from the rotors became muffled and distant, allowing those inside to talk.

“Tyson, Maddison, have you met Nathaniel, Veronika and Niecha?” Zoe asked, waving at the trio who helped them.

“We have now,” Tyson replied, nodding to the others. “G’day.”

Veronika raised an eyebrow querying while Nathaniel chuckled. “Ah, slang is always amusing,” he said in heavily accented English.

The trio were garbed in tattered clothing, looking every bit like most people who were barely surviving. Maddison and Tyson stared at them for a while, before Neicha winked at them. “Yes, we’re all family. I'm the oldest, Nathaniel is next, Veronika is youngest. Don’t worry, we’ll keep Locky alive and kicking.”

The vehicle lurched as it took off, making Tyson grip the arms of his seat tightly.

“No one mentioned flying,” he grumbled.