Shanks rested on his throne, tapping the bottom of his helmet with his bottom left arm. At his left and right were two fresh krells, of the kind that began to mutate from the youngling statues of the majority. Far smaller than the patriarch and lieutenants, only time will tell if they grow to become stronger or be returned to Sora. Before him, two of his clan, a reg and a skar kneeled before him, telling him unwelcome news.

“Vic’to. Sahaza. Both of them?”

“Yes, patriarch.” The skar said. “The intruders were more tenacious than we expected.”

“Vic’to’s rangers have pursued a group further into the nest.” The Reg said. “The losses have been great.”

“A second group has been navigating through the nest. In the recent skirmish, we’ve seen a reg with them. The armor betrays him as Char.”

The name caused Shanks to grow. Char, the traitors of their race through the Star Singer. To the Yiski, any who associates themselves with those of the overworld was as bad as they were.

“Where are they now?”

“Both groups are on the way here.”

Shanks stood up from his throne, retrieving his spear from its holster by his throne.

“What should we do patriarch?” One of his krell's asked.

Shanks slammed his spear on the ground, allowing the current to course through the tip, illuminating the blade. Turning to the reg and skar, seeing others of the clan inching their way in through the nooks and cranny of his chamber, the patriarch had only one thing to say to them.

“Let them come!”

****

The damaged gondola screeched into the small station, screeching to a complete halt. The entire rear section was gone, having been chewed off by the warframe, with the tension causing damage to the pulley that kept the machine connected to the rails.

“Myowwww!!!” Meracle was the first off, leaping and landing on her front like a starfish as everyone piled off with a handful of them collapsing as the tension of the trip left their bodies.

“I’m never ever ever ever ever getting on that metal deathtrap ever ever ever again!”

“I thought we were done for back there….” Melvin lay beside Meracle, gasping for air. A little further to his left were both pilots and Sasha who were just as out of breath as he was.

“This place has too much excitement for me…”

“I don’t think I was built for this kind of strain…” Both pilots voiced their exhaustion.

“Think of it as good exercise.” Bec casually strolls past them before discarding the now empty rocket launcher on the ground. “If you didn’t take this job you’d be stuck behind a cockpit never experiencing the joys of life on the edge,”

The comment earned him contemptible glairs from both pilots.

“Too soon?”

There was a loud crash as the gondola completely derailed. The fried pulleys that connected it to the rails gave way, sending the entire metal cascade crashing to the ground below.

“We’re not getting back that way,” Nel said. “We’re lucky we didn’t derail after that explosion.”

Larek and Otto continued to glair at Bec.

“In my defense, we’d be dead or eaten.”

Sasha hauled up the spent rocket launcher. “We could use this. How many rockets does it have left.”

“None.” Bec looked at Max who cluelessly scratched the back of his head.

“What was that thing anyway,” Rodger asked. “Kinda looked like a giant fish.”

“Devilfish,” Th’lak said. “Large warframe. Burrows. Creates tunnels. Patrols.” He then stuck out his staff at Max, “Reckless you are.” then at Melvin, “Lure it to us, you did.”

“H-hey, that thing just came out of nowhere!” Melvin protested holding his hands up.

“Yeah. We didn’t know you guys were even down here.” Max said narrowing his eyes at the revenger. “And… who the heck are you anyway? You’re not with those other guys, right?”

“Th’lak, of Clan Char.” Th’lak banged his staff on the ground. “Enemy to yiski.”

“Yeeskee?”

“Uh, the things we’ve been fighting,” Sasha clarified. “We uh, kinda promised him to help him fight these things.”

“You agreed to fight them?” Melvin said not sounding enthusiastic.

“Yeah, we just gotta sabotage an entire fleet in exchange for finding you guys,” Rodger added.

“Okay, what fleet?”

Meanwhile, Meracle had finally gotten off the ground, rubbing dirt off her knees. Looking out, her ears and tail both stood on end. “Uh…. I think he means that?”

Slowly, everyone followed the cait siths gaze outward to the main chasm. In the large chamber, stretching for miles with large machinery and ravenger hubs built into the ancient rock was a vast array of massive ships. Large cylinder vessels numbering at least eleven in total were lined across from one another, just visible through the steam and smoke rising from vents and other machines. A hoard of ravengers of all sizes scurried around, some on catwalks and others crawling on the hulls like insects.

“Whoa…” Max gawked.

Melvin turned to Th’lak. “Please don’t tell me…”

“Fleet,” The ravenger nodded. “Shanks fleet.”

Everyone stood mouths agape at the metal monstrosities, no one daring to utter a word until Bec broke the silence.

“Son of a bitch…. No wonder why we couldn’t find them.”

“You knew about this?” Nel asked.

“Sure do. Over the past month, a Ravenger fleets been devastating settlements along the wall. We figured they were coming from the edge, but no one could find a single sight of it. But to have hidden it deep in the hive… Shit,”

“You didn’t say anything about it being this big!” Nel snapped at Th’lak.

“Not ask.” The ravenger said before turning to Rodger, Meracle and Sasha. “Now, agreement.” He pointed to the fleet. “Sabotage.”

“Y-you mean… we have to destroy all of them?!” Sasha looked startled.

“Meow! That’s easier said than done, you know!”

“We just gotta smash them apart, right?” Max said, pounding his fists together. “I can totally do that.”

“Yeah, while bringing down every single bug down on us!” Melvin snapped. “And look at these things! Even you’d have trouble with all of them!”

“Listen to the kid!” Larek yelled before pointing at Th’lak. “Look, whatever deal they made with you, it’s not worth us sticking our necks out for this!”

“Gotta disagree there,” Bec said drawing his revolver and reloading before turning to the stunned pilots. “Those guys have killed enough people as it is and you know as well as I do Altosk won’t lift a finger for them. We’re not likely gonna get another chance like this.”

“That’s your problem, not ours,” Nel said sternly.

“Hey, come on. We already said we’d help out,” Rodger said scowling at the assassin. “Besides, you’re the ones who helped out with Celtic Hoard back in the forest. And didn’t you blow up all their weapons?”

“Yeah, with a huge bomb they had just laid there. These things have proven far more sophisticated than your average Avalon bandit. They wouldn’t just leave their ordinance sprawled all over the place.”

“Not… ordinance,” Bec twirled his revolver as he looked over the fleet. “Say Th’lak. Those ships use old eather drives, right?”

“Yes.” Th’lak nodded before pointing to somewhere off in the distance. “Energy supply. Raw eather refined from Sora. Fuel for fleet.”

“I don’t like where this is going…” Otto said with dread. “But to do what I think your gonna do we need some kind of catalyst or explosive agent to mix into the eather flow and I’m guessing we don’t have anything close to that.”

“.... Not quite,” Bec brought out the sweeper warframe core, throwing it in the air and catching it again.

****

“Where are we now?” Cliff gawked at the giant ships squeezed into the chasm.

“This looks like that one movie where the alien ships are buried underground,” Dale said, leaning on the rail as he caught his breath. “I’d have the name but my lungs are on fire.”

Cerberus collapsed close to his leg, letting out a small whine.

“It seems we have entered into the very heart of the ravenger hive,” Markus had his holo screen up, once more checking to see where they had ended up. “I was hardly expecting a fleet of this size to be hidden.”

“It’s not normal?” Mirage asked.

“It is typical for a ravenger clan to hid large sways of their offensive and defensive capabilities deep within their holds, but to hid a fleet of this size is impressive.”

“Impressive as I’m sure it is we’ve still got those insects coming after us,” Yuki glanced back at where they had come, his katana already drawn. Cerberus, at the heels of Dale lowered himself while growling.

“He’s right. Any ideas?” Cliff said.

“If we had Larek and Otto with us we could potentially commandeer a skimmer; the ravenger drop ships we’ve been contending with,” Markus said, closing the holo screens. “Although, If we make it to one of the cruisers, I could potentially reconstruct its controls. It won’t be far, but we would be able to clear the edge.”

“And the others?”

“.... There should be an inbuilt scanner so I could modify it to find our missing comrades.”

“Scanner?” Yuki looked lost.

“Science stuff,” Dale waved at him. “Will this work?”

“There’s a 63.4% chance of success,” Markus told him.

“... How’d you arrive at that number?”

“I can show the variables if you want.”

“Some other time,” Cliff said pointing off in the distance. There was a dropship taking flight from a large structure off in the distance, hanging over the fleet like a bird of prey. Inside, the outline of a ravenger far larger than anything they had encountered before could be seen.

“Markus, lead the way,” Cliff tapped the cyborg on the back.

****

Two lone skars stalked the damp floor, skirting in and out among the dropships parked within the cruisers. As they rounded one corner, something tapped the left one on the left shoulder. When it looked, Bec appeared on the right before stabbing it with his knife. Nel pounced on the left, digging her twin knives into its neck.

Both then moved the bodies closer to one of the dropships before Bec sent out a signal to the others looming in the darkness. They emerged from their hiding places running to the two, crowding around the dropship. Unlike the dragonflies they had seen, this one resembled a cross between one of the skiffs and a crushed rectangle box.

“Phantom,” Th’lak said.

“Our way out,” Bec said as Otto passed him by. “Think you can fly this?”

“.... Well I’ve flown one before,” the bunika said scratching his left ear. “But the console was modified. This one will be its original configuration so-”

“But you can fly it, right?”

“.... Right.” Otto scrambled through the small door.

“Alrighty, our exits secure.” Bec pulled out the warframe core. “Now we just gotta shove this into the eather drive and hope everything doesn’t blow up before we make out escape.”

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Max said before being stopped by Nel.

“The three of us can handle it,” Nel said as Th’lak waddled out. “You all stay here and protect this ship.”

“What, think we’ll cause too much of a ruckus?” Rodger said pouting.

“Well… Yes.” Nel responded bluntly. Max and Rodger pouted. “Last thing we need is the entire swarm coming down on us.”

“Just suck it up and sit on your hands,” Melvin said to them as the others wandered to the dropship. “We’ll hold down the fort here. Don’t take too long.”

“Relax. We’ll have this done in before you know it.” Bec waved as he followed Th’lak. Nel followed behind them.

****

Markus led the group along the outline scaffolds and hubs that made up the docks. Despite Markus’s huge bulk, they proceed largely undetected thanks to Mirage and Cliff taking out patrols when it was required. While none in the group were particularly attuned for stealth like Nel, they covered a good distance without attracting too much attention.

The big threats were the warframes that patrolled the catwalks. The small drones and stubs caused several close calls that were stopped by Dale’s magic. Despite not possessing many offensive spells, his protons were enough to short circuit the stubs and drones. Eventually, after a few near misses of being discovered, they reached an elevator that hung above one of the massive cruisers.

“We’re almost there,” Markus said once they reached the elevator. “Hacking into the controls now,” Once everyone was aboard, Markus brought up a holoscreen. The elevator shuddered before slowly descending down to the deck of the nearest cruiser.

“They’re even bigger up close,” Yuki remarked.

“Once we’re on board we need to find a hatch that will take us to the bridge,” Markus explained. “From there I can hack into its systems and modify the scanner to detect our missing friends.”

Mirage eyed the dropship that continued to circle around. “That’s making me nervous.” She pointed it out, spotting a third taking flight.

“Not alone there…” Dale sighed.

The elevator then stopped right on the deck of the cruiser where they leaped off.

“Okay, now what?” Yuki said clenching his sheathed sword, Cerberus landing by his leg.

“Over here.” Markus stopped by a round hatch built into the ships hull. Digging his metal fingers into the edges, the cyborg tore the plate open as effortlessly as ripping paper apart.

“That’s one way to open a door…” Dale said.

“Please follow closely,” Markus leaped down through the new hole created. The others followed, one by one falling into what they could guess was the ship's bridge with various consoles weaved around the large glass that separated them from everything outside. It was also completely deserted with not a soul in sight.

“The hell. I was expecting a place like this to be guarded?” Yuki said.

“So was I,” Mirage agreed.

“The ravengers have their larger cruisers in lockdown when inactive. I’ll need a moment to bypass the systems to gain access,” Markus said as he brought out his hold screens. “It may take some time. I have my sensors primed so please take this moment of respite.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Cliff sighed before sitting in a chair that was clearly never designed with humans in mind. Despite that, Cliff stretched his muscles, taking advantage of the long-needed respite. Everyone else had taken a similar approach, with Mirage pacing back and forth while performing stretches, Dale collapsing on the ground as his exhaustion got the better of him, Cerberus resting on the man’s knee while Yuki sat on another chair examining his katana.

“Certainly is a crazy-ass world so far.” He said, running his finger along his blade’s edge.

“I’m surprised that thing hasn’t dulled yet.” Mirage said to him. “With what Cliff’s been saying, you’ve been using that none stop.”

“Don’t think I’ve seen you using a whetstone for it,” Cliff said leaning forward. “Gonna tell us, or is it none of our business?”

Yuki huffed, raising his katana into the air. “Nothing like that. I know my sensei used a special metal for it but for the life of me, I can’t seem to remember what it was called. My sensei used it to forge three blades for his top three students in our school.”

“Three? You mean they’re three other monsters like you out there?” Dale asked while stroking Cerberus.

“That one’s none of your business.”

“... Well fuck you too,”

“Yeah, I’ve long given up trying to crack him,” Cliff said as he tried to make himself comfortable.

Yuki simply grunted, resting his naked blade on his lap. “So… what’s the deal with the little girl?”

Mirage jumped realizing she was being spoken to.

“I mean you act like she’s your daughter and all even though you clearly aren’t.”

“You don’t tell us about you, you don’t get to ask,” Dale huffed.

“It’s fine. It’s not a big secret,” Mirage said. “She’s my boyfriend’s younger sister. When he died I took her under my wing and I’ve been raising her and training her these past nine years.”

“Nine years?” Yuki looked at Cliff. “You mean that thing the Elder said about your members.”

“Wow. I’m impressed you remembered that.” Cliff nodded. “Jack was his name… and yeah, he was one of the people that died back then.” His voice wayed heavily as he said that, ignoring the sorrowful gazes of his fellow hunters.

“What happened?” Yuki asked.

“It’ll cost you,” Cliff leaned back with a grin, “What’s the story with Gai?”

Yuki simply chuckled. Just then the monitors on the bridge began to light up.

“I have access,” Markus said, still fiddling with his monitors. “Now accessing the scanners. I’ve sent out a pulse that the ravengers shouldn’t detect to- What?”

“Something wrong?” Mirage asked.

“No…” Markus dismissed his holoscreen. “They’re… They’re all here.”

****

Sasha let her legs dangle off the edge of the dropship, humming a tune Mirage had taught her. To her left was Meracle, laying on her back with her head and hands dropping out of the edge. Melvin was on her right, twirling his wand in his hand.

“Ahh this is so boring,” Max complained. He slouched to the left of the doors along with Rodger. “I should’a gone with them.”

“I’m with ya,” Rodger said, fiddling with the bear charm on the bottom of his hammer. “A real man never leaves the job half done.”

“Last thing we need right now is another swarm to come after us,” Melvin retorted. “Nel and Bec can handle this. Just wait for them to get back.”

Inside the dropship, Larek was crouched near the cockpit. Inside was Otto tapping away at the controls. “Any luck?”

“It shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Otto said. “I’ve re-mapped the controls so I should be able to keep things steady when we take off.”

Larek sighed, banging his head against the door. “Last time we agree to one of Bec’s crazy plans…”

“Agreed.”

“Nyew, who’s this Bec guy anyway?” Meracle asked, still laying on her back fiddling with a small metal toy. “He looks even weirder than Thall.”

“Yeah. He looks almost like a robot,” Sasha added.

“He said he was a cyborg like Markus. Some kinda accident burnt his face-off or something,” Melvin replied.

“Yeah, ‘accident,’ Larek let out a dry laugh.

“We don’t really know much about him ourselves if I’m honest.” Otto continued, not looking up from his task at hand. “I mean, we met after he left Frontier so-”

“Otto!”

“Oh crap!” Otto finally turned away from the consols. “Uh, forget I said that.”

“Don’t worry. We’re not gonna know who or what that is?” Melvin dismissed.

“So… was he a bad guy?” Sasha asked.

“Uhh… can’t really say for sure. He doesn’t really talk much about his life before he got his new face” Larek sighed. “He just showed up one day with a borgo women and started up the bar there. No matter where he went he always seemed to cause trouble.”

“Guess a man with a metal face you’d attract a lot of unwanted attention.” Melvin guessed.

“Oh trust me; Figmar’s End is full of washed-up bastards some with even more crude augments. He’s just an ass who takes on dangerous jobs for credits.”

“We’ve taken a few jobs of his,” Otto said. “And each one we took we always ended up with people shooting at us.”

“But this one… oh-ho this one makes those look like leisurely cruses.”

“Something to do with Ion, right?” Max poked his head into the phantom. “That why you were clobbering him?”

“Pretty much.” Larek nodded. “Like he said: If he told us we were smuggling the Star Singer to Marina there is no way we would’ve taken the job.”

The engines of the phantom began to roar into life. The entire craft shuddered and hummed as its systems powered up.

“Okay, that should do it.” Otto announced. “Now we just gotta wait for those three to get back then we can kiss this void-forsaken wasteland goodbye.”

“Aw,” Rodger waddled away from the phantom as he stowed away his hammer. “And I was starting to like this- huh?” He stopped and looked up at one of the cruisers. “H-Hey someone’s up there!”

Everyone snapped to attention; bracing themselves for another attack.

“What is it? Ravengers?” Larek scuttled deeper into the phantom.

“Na it’s…. Human?” Rodger said puzzled before pointing. Everyone followed his gaze. There, on a section of the cruiser was indeed a human woman. Even though the dim light, they got a good look at the woman. She wearing a buttoned white shirt with a black ribbon, a tight black skirt and black stockings with high heels. Black hair tied into a bun at the back, round glasses obscuring her eyes. In her hand was a large book with blank brown leather, to which she was scribbling something into.

“Nyow? Who’s she?” Meracle asked.

“Donno…” Max tensed his hand into a fist. “I… I can’t even get a sent from her.”

“She looks like an office worker,” Sasha said. “H-Hey!” She then waved.

The woman suddenly slid off her perch, falling a great distance to the rocky ground. Max was about to rush to her, but the woman landed on the ground perfectly then strolled towards the group. The light reflecting on her glasses dimed, showing off her odd and off-putting blood-red eyes.

The woman first approached Max, looking over him from top to bottom.

“Uh, what?”

The woman didn’t respond, running a finger along his scar.

“H-Hey!” Max backed away. The woman was unfazed, simply writing something in her book before casually strolling past Max as though he was not there, circling around the confused Rodger examining him with the same curious gaze she had given Max.

“Wh-What’s with her?” Rodger said before the woman took his hammer from his back. “H-Hey! Give that back!” Rodger leaped after it, to which the woman effortlessly dodged, examining the silver hammer in her hand.

“I said give it back!” Rodger slammed his hands to the ground, sending a rock pillar towards the woman with her back turned. The woman turned sharply without so much as batting an eye, allowing the pillar to fly past her. She walked up to Rodger and dropped the hammer on the ground before walking up to Meracle.

“Nyew…?” The cait sith looked anxious as the woman leaned in close to her, crouched like a cat in the phantoms doors. The woman leaned left and right, then pinched Meracle’s right ear.

“Meow!” Meracle slapped the woman’s handoff before retreating deeper into the phantom.

The woman once more paid no mind, scribbling in her book, walking past Sasha and stopping before Melvin who had his wand pointed at her.

“H-Hey. I got no idea who you are but-Wha-” To Melvins surprise, he was holding the woman’s pencil while she twirled his wand in her hand.

“Interesting.” She mused before placing the wand back in Melvin’s outstretched hand, trading it for her pencil. As she scribbled, Sasha attempted to peek at what was inside only for the woman to slam the book shut.

“That should be enough information.” She turned about, leaving the group flabbergasted.

“Wh-hold up!” Max called for her. “Who the heck are you?”

The woman turned to face him. “Were I in your position I would be more concerned about the enemies that are currently surrounding your position.”

“Enemies?” Everyone exchanged worried looks.

“What do you mean ene-” Melvin began, only to find the woman had vanished without a trace. “Okay, who was that?”

“Whoever she is I don’t like her.” Rodger frowned as he stowed away his hammer.

“But… what did she mean by enemies?” Sasha asked out loud.

“Donno,” Melvin jumped out of the phantom. “But I got a bad feeling…”

Max, Rodger and Meracle scanned the area. They had yet to see a single soul since they reached the ship. It seemed just as deserted as when they arrived yet there was an eery tension in the air, like the calm before the storm. Max was the first to take a step away from the phantom, sensing things moving in the shadows of the fleet, unaware of the crossers trained at his forehead.