It was close to midnight by the time they got back to Old Town. Corvayne, Grunt, Hari, and Wick's destination was the place they would start their expedition, Dawn's tower. One of the huge garages on the side of the building was open and Corvayne could see one of those titanic mining trucks with modifications lit up from all sides. Mosh was apparently putting the finishing touches on the bottom as the goblin slid on a dolly out from the bottom.

Dawn was supervising and waved them over, waving and looking genuinely happy. “Wick! You are right on time.”

Wick nudged Corvayne. “Check out our ride!”

The mining trucks without any additions were large enough to be a small house on wheels as-is. Mosh had added a segment to it and had lifted the back up. The second segment looked to be half of another truck, spliced to the back with an umbilical segment.

Mosh lead him around the front. “This beauty is able to run on pretty much any petrol, but I helped modify a micro fusion drive. If you just drove it without any additional fuel you'd have three straight months of driving and normal energy use, and as long as you can park it near water we can refuel over the course of a week. It also runs on essence dust too so if we can find even a few magic items, we can grind them up and use that instead.”

Corvayne considered that “So liquified compressed dinosaur bones, magical artifacts, or water for fuel?”

Mosh ignored the comment and pointed at the cab. “There's room for five people up there, one driver, two co-pilots, and two can sleep as backups or just complain from the bunks about the driving.”

Mosh patted the front of the truck. “All the interior areas can be sealed to be airtight. You have to stop and be parked nearly straight to dock the airlock thingy I made between the front and back though. Getting in and out of the cab is possible from under or over in a double set of hatches.”

Corvayne looked it over. “You make it sound like we're going into space.”

“We might as well be, Boss! I'm not as worried about bio-hazards with my improved mend, healing potions, and a good doctor around, but it'd be dumb to drive through a gate then all die because there's nothing to breath.” The goblin slapped the wheels. “These suckers are better versions of what the miners use, the whole suspension is made for hauling over rough ground and I took the space version of the wheels. Too heavy usually and not great for if you need repairs, that is unless you're buddies with Lythandies, praise her name!”

Corvayne nodded. “Though, if we encounter a cliff and have to cross a rope bridge, I'll feel bad leaving it behind.”

“Boss boss BOSS, please. If push comes to shove, well, me and Dawn think you'll be very pleased with where your truck can get to if you put your mind to it. Also we can just build a bridge, you know?”

Corvayne didn't voice doubts he had about a bridge that could carry how many tons the truck was.

Mosh kept going, pointing at a few sensor and other pods that were clearly added to the normally flat hull of the truck's trailer. “Extra cameras all over. Everything hardened against EMPs unless they nuke us at point blank and then, well, the cab probably won't make it but I would bet the back is solid enough, as long as you closed the bulkhead for the addition.”

Corvayne knocked on a pod. “The hole here... is it a rifle?”

“Yep! Good eyes! I figure our best defenses are you guys, but we have side front top and back guns. I didn't finish installing a LM rail gun but only because I can't test it near Cascadia. It will need a mend after each shot anyway.”

“LM... Liquid metal? Or Linear motion?” Corvayne asked.

“Linear motion. If this was a spaceship and we had good vacuum storage I'd consider it, but where the heck do you think I'd get weird metal out here?”

Mosh lead him around to the back, where Nyxion was hefting a bag into the second section. Corvayne helped him get it up and onto the raised back of the truck. “We added to the second part with quality of life stuff. Kitchen, two bathrooms, two shower stalls that can flip out for exterior decontamination, laundry, and a larger shower and water tank. Big enough for Grunt.”

Mosh used slanted ladder-steps to head past the showers in the back, bathrooms, and a galley kitchen. He could see that there was netting and what looked like a pantry up a ladder, as well as marked water storage.

The umbilical section was through a door and then lead to a small double set of doors. The interior of the main vehicle had two single seat bathrooms in what he thought of as the Cargo area. Netting surrounded boxes of stuff. Some of it was marked 'AMMO' in pink crayon, others were marked 'NONPERISHABLES' 'TRADE' 'EMRGENCY WATER' then lots of crates marked 'PARTS' with hints as to what they were used for. A set of crates had a mattress and Grunt's stuff on it. On one side of the truck was a sealed hatch and what looked like a conveyor.

“We are set up that if we need to restock something heavy or we gotta scrap something, most of the place is modular enough that we can take it out and dump it. Hopefully we DONT. Boss, I had big plans for that last place and even with a shoestring budget, I'm bummed we were there a WEEK! So don't give up when we hit the first cliff, this baby WILL climb it!”

“I'll try not to crash our new home, Mosh.”

What looked like a line of lockers right after that as the stairs went down prompted Mosh to tap a button and have the locker fold out, showing a small metal drill. “I can do some crafting by hand, but we have a machine shop in case we need to build something bigger, or more tools. Drills, metal cutting, welders...” In the next section was a 'den' with a couch and two screens. “Extra sleeping areas too, with fold out beds when you pick up more women.”

Corvayne forced a smile but Mosh didn't seem to be looking for a response, implying it wasn't a joke. Up the stairs was a hallway that Corvayne had to crouch a little to move down, with perhaps ten sliding doors lining the elevated hall. “Each of these has two beds, you can switch them to slide together.”

“Mosh, stop wiggling your eyebrows.”

“Well, this one is your room. It's also closest to the gunner hatch, if we need you to go up and shoot something down. Ahem. Storage under the beds, fits what we told people to bring. I told everyone if they needed more stuff to hash it out with you because you have the one ring. God, wait till I start enchanting this fucker more!”

Corvayne felt the bed. Hmm. Still better than his father's house was. Small, but enough room between the bed and the ceiling that he could... He stopped himself from getting distracted by what he was going to do in his downtime. “Okay Mosh, what did you enchant the truck with so far?”

Mosh waved a hand. “Mostly so that things seal easier and making the exterior and interior skeletons stronger. There's some other magic tricks with the engines so everything you toss in the fuel feed converts to power. I wanted it so that if things ever got BAD we could expect to use this section as the lifeboat, though the front would work too. To be honest, if it gets that bad, Dawn and I got a little trump card, but I'd rather not drop it, it's like the Grunt thing where, you know, Infohazard.”

Corvayne poked his head back out of his room. “What about this truck could be an Infohazard?”

Mosh coughed into his hand. “Some of the tricks Dawn helped install mean that if we used them all, the truck would be flagged by 'The System' as an 'Invader.'”

Corvayne didn't miss the implication. “Wait, is Dawn an Invader according the the system?”

Mosh laughed. “Yep! Technically, her territory is system-hostile.”

“It would explain why she's so strong inside the tower, and weak without... actually you mind if I chat with her? Unless you got more stuff on the tour.”

“No, everything else is stuff like exterior storage for tents, and going over safety features like fire extinguishers and stuff like the entire truck filling with fluid if we ever have catastrophic decompression.”

“I can't tell if that's a joke or not Mosh.”

Mosh laughed. “I never joke about important stuff Boss! Just know it's all handled, and your love-nest has especially good sound buffering.”

Corvayne extracted himself from the room and moved down the ladder out of the cargo area, passing by Hari who was carrying two bags. “I am Bunking with you? Yes?”

“Uh, we have you and Wick sharing space.”

Hari pouted. “What! I love my little swearing song-bird, but it will be lonely away from you!”

Corvayne pointed up at the top passage. “I think the idea is that you and Wick are together and they left me as a wild card to bunk with so you can switch.” He realized he had no idea who really did the arrangements. Mosh? Wick?

Hari puffed her cheeks out. “And you didn't fight this?”

Mosh held a hand up. “Hey Hari, Wick did the rooms! Don't get mad at Boss!”

Corvayne put a hand on her shoulder. “Look Hari, I'm fine with you bunking with me. Have I ever turned you away?”

Hari brightened at that. “Thank you... I worry sometimes you don't care as much about me.”

Corvayne kept his face neutral but it felt a little on the nose even if he tried not to think of one girl as more important than the other. Add that tangle of feelings to the Mister I discussion. Or Grunt. Or a discussion with all the boys.

He hopped off the truck as Spears-Like-Water came up. She only had a light pack and looked a little bit lost. Her watery face brightened when she saw Corvayne. “Corvayne!” She waved a clear hand. Her new outfit was a white shirt with a brown rain jacket and rubber pants like Corvayne had for his Jam-Jammies.

He waved back. “Spears.”

“Did your mission go well?” Spears fell in line with Corvayne as he walked towards the passage back into the main station tower.

“Well, we didn't get caught. I don't think what we learned did much besides muddy the waters, no pun intended.”

Spears laughed anyway. “I'm happy to see you back unharmed, and I'm glad to see you with friends... I worried about you a lot.” She pushed her hair back. “You're not upset I'm coming along, are you? We've had barely a chance to talk, and I know... I know you don't like me...”

Corvayne shook his head, trying to get over how weird Spears being nice was. “I have to get to know you. I remember you dragging me home when I was dying, that counts a lot in my book. We'll have time to get to know each other better, I suspect, on the trip.”

“If you don't mind me being bold, I'll hold you to it.” Spears stopped for a moment and looked back. “That huge vehicle... do we need all that stuff? And is it going to get to where we need to go? What if the second portal is too small...”

Corvayne also wondered if pack animals wasn't a better approach. After all, he might have walked the entire way from here to wherever his village was. “I wasn't sure it would get through the first, but supposedly they did a survey of the place I came from and there's indeed a large rift there that's not a tower entrance.”

He opened the door into the main building and found Dawn chatting with Brines.

Corvayne stopped. Brines looked suspiciously geared to fight, with rock climbing gear augmented by leather armor, his dagger and another blue knife strapped into his belt...

Dawn smiled. “Corvayne! Glad to hear you've worked with Brines before.”

Brines rushed forward to shake his hand. Corvayne confusion clearly leaked out because Dawn rolled her hands.

“To pay for everything, we added some backers who wanted in.” Dawn smirked. “First of which was Mr. Brines.”

James Brines smiled dazzingly at Corvayne. “Of course, this is a fantastic chance to set myself apart in the family, and I know this will be a titanic success!”

Dawn laughed. “He always picks the BEST word for what kinda success we'll see here, anyway, Corvayne, you look like you wanna ask me something.”

“Yeah, it's about the system. Do you mind if Brines or Spears overhears?”

Brines salutes. “I'll go finish getting everything I brought stowed! I wonder if anyone else brought skis.”

Corvayne watched Brines go then turned to Dawn. “Spears for sure will be fine. It's about something the system calls Invader status. I want to know because I had a weird encounter under Ko-Ban and it came up.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Tch. Fine. I'm a banished thing from another dimension. Happy?”

“Another Tower world?” Corvayne asked.

Dawn put her hands on her hips. “No. As in: Outside the System. Infected with other systems, ones not as visible as they are here. So yeah, I have powers I avoid using lest I turn Cascadia into a puddle of mush, as well as probably killing myself in the process, and no doubt causing some sort of bounty system to crop up.”

Corvane took a step back. “I ask because I saw 'Invader Status: Overwritten'. Do you have any idea what it means?”

“I don't. I did have an outside... consultant who told me more about my deal, supposedly because I'm not causing damage the system doesn't seem to flag me as a problem. Being a crime boss isn't the kind of trouble the system cares about, and it doesn't seem to care if I buy property or whatever, the only spot I 'own' is this train station. Imagine a really, really, REALLY big fish but a tiny tiny pond.”

Spears smiled. “See? It's like I said... The Watchers are not native to this reality. We fell in through some sort of hole. We're stranded here.”

Dawn nodded. “That's part of why I want to ask if you can bring one of the Big-Wigs here to talk to me. I can't really tell you why... but I want to see who's really who with The Watchers.”

Corvayne put a hand on Spear's shoulder. “Spears here isn't someone you know?”

Dawn shook her head. “I spoke with her when Seru brought her by, I don't know who she was before. I have met plenty of gas-dweller hybrids though, and it's a flavor of magical interbreeding I doubt is that common on a large scale.”

Corvayne held his hands up. “I'm getting a lot of info, and I don't know what gas-dweller has to do with it... but I think you answered my real question indirectly. If you're an Invader as well and the system isn't sending god-like assassins after you, then it's something I can put off worrying about until later.”

Dawn gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder that would probably leave a bruise. “That's the ticket. Oh, I gotta give Grunt his send-off.”

She strode over to the Truck where Grunt was helping load stuff. Corvayne followed in her wake.

Dawn cleared her throat. “Grunt.”

Grunt saluted and smiled.

“Because you are going on a dangerous journey, the kind which will likely test both you and your companions, the kind that might be a few weeks or might take you untold years... I'm not going to saddle myself with the bullshit waiting, hemming, and hawing, or binding you to not fool around. In other words, I'm dumping you.”

Grunt stared at her a moment, then nodded and opened his arms and Dawn smiled and they hugged. She stepped back, a few tears in her eyes. “Also, take care you doofus. You're one of the good ones.”

Grunt tapped his heart and pointed at her, then went back to loading.

Meanwhile, three figures stepped into the hanger. Ears-of-Steel, Reaper-of-Fish, and Bearer-of-Burdens, all with packs. Corvayne looked over at Wick who was checking things off.

“Right on time. Bearer you're currently bunking solo.”

“More people?” Corvayne looked at the trio.

Wick tapped a huge tire with her clipboard. “They put down some serious fucking money to come along. They are three of the better dungeon runners in Old Town who I know aside from us. Also, logically, we need an away-team so it's not always you and me risking life and limb.”

Corvayne shrugged. “I thought that was my job.”

“We are going into the unknown. Boldly!” Wick stuck her arm up and Corvayne took her clipboard.

“Hey! Corvayne! No spoilers!” She shouted and snatched at it while Corvayne reviewed the list of names.

Him. Wick and Hari in one room. Nyxion and Brines sharing another. Lady Blood Claw and Spears in another room. Mister I was given as solo room, likely due to snoring? Mosh and June where together, as were Varia and Ears-of-Steel.

Horton was coming along and had been given a room to himself, as had Bearer-of-Burdens. Possibly because of gender imbalance. Looking down the list, he saw that Reaper-of-Fish was with... the last name caused Corvayne to shoot his head up and if summoned by reading his name, saw Gary with a buldging backpack and dufflebag.

He looked over to Wick. “We asked for double everyone else and he somehow scraped it together. He also agreed to do most of the cleaning.”

Gary nodded. “Master! I sold all my MMO accounts. Who needs games now that real life is the REAL adventure? I can't wait! We're going to be the strongest duo!”

Corvayne sighed and turned to Wick. “I thought going on a dangerous and uncertain journey would push people away.”

Wick nodded. “Oh it did. Ayame decided not to take her kid with her, even though she took him on a dungeon run to kill monsters. Dawn of course said no thanks. There was also one on-the-fence person who did probably as much work as I did.”

Corvayne checked the list again as a white van pulled up in front of the garage. Wick nudged his shoulder. “Well, THIS should make you very happy, it turns out our biggest backer DID in fact decide to join us.”

Seru stepped out wearing what looked like brand new white leather adventuring gear as well as two huge chests, possibly full of clothes. She lifted a pair of glittering shades and blew a kiss in Corvayne's direction.

Corvayne looked back at Wick. “Is there any way I can always just sleep up front?”