Step after step, hours of endlessly walking until he lost feeling in his legs. He had walked all night and all day and now, when the sky just barely started to change into dusk's colors Caleb finally found a settlement. The large sign above the iron gate said Darktown. An ominous name to be sure but he was desperate. It didn't take long for him to notice, even in his exhausted state, what kind of place this really was. Everyone there and the the look of cutthroats, smugglers, pirates and all sorts of criminals. They carried all kinds of weapons, displayed openly. Still they couldn't possibly be more dangerous than Empire soldiers, they just looked like it..

He had no money but perhaps he could get something for the cube he found. Or maybe extra work repairing something?

Anything to finally get some food and water really..

And to not get crushed by a giant...

*

Jackelynn had no idea what to do now. The morale had hit rock bottom. Their engineer was dead, their ship engine was broken and no longer airborne, and now they were stuck in this back water dump called Darktown. As captain she knew they needed a new engineer fast or else they would burn all their cash here and split up. As the crew sat around the ship in that dreadful silence that felt forbidden to break, she had to go look for a new engineer. But Darktown was small and practically useless, where to find a engineer smart enough to fix a large, custom made airship? She walked from house to house, from patron to cutthroat patron in the bar that basically just sold rust water, to the tightly packed streets. The town was small, the streets could barely fit three people standing in a line before they would get squeezed between the buildings.

The air smelled of piss, broken machines oozing oil and spitting smoke. Also there was a hint of something rotting ..

How the fuck was she supposed to find an engineer here of all places?

*

Everywhere he looked only for no work to be found. There were plenty of broken stuff here but no one cared enough to fix them. Even several water pumps where just left there out of function. Those who did pump out water was just barely drinkable, having a strong taste of rusted iron.

He didn't expect money in this shithole but someone could surely spare some food as payment surely?

His stomach growled loudly, soon he would get weaker and surely some of these thuggish townsfolk would take advantage of that, taking his stuff and leaving him dead in a alleyway.

'I'm looking for a engineer.' Caleb looked up to see a dark skinned woman dressed in large, baggy cargo pants. A thick jacked with many little pockets in it. Her white hair combed over to one side showing cybernetics implanted in her, connected to a cybernetic eye.

'There's no engineers here, but if you need some fun then I can help.' 'Gross..'

He walked to her, finally it seemed like his luck had changed.

'I'm an engineer.' She looked him over, seeing the gear attached to his outfit. 'Alright, my ship is broken and I need someone to repair it, the pay is a place in my crew and a cut of the profits. Your job to maintain the ship and the machines on board.'

'I trust that food and bed is included?'

'Of course it is...'

'I'll take it, lets take a look at your ship.'

The woman escorted him to some kind of platform at the edge of town. The ship itself was mainly green but much of the paint had fallen off. It was mainly rectangular, jet thrusters on its sides and back, the roof was built as a balcony with railings on the sides, letting anyone walk on it during flights. The sides had machine guns attached to a balcony roof. Caliber guns and missile launchers on the front underneath the cockpit window.

It was clear to Caleb that this was no registered model, this ship was custom made and built to house a smaller crew, probably close to seven or six while big enough to carry cargo.

'This is my pride and joy, The Dreaded Lady. Its part battleship, part cargo, part transport. You fix this and you will be awarded with a place on my crew along with a fair cut of the profits.'

They entered via the ramp underneath the cockpit into a cargo area. Boxes where stacked on each other along the walls to left and right, some kind of thick square like net kept them from falling onto the floor during flights and right above them was a walkway going along the walls across the entire room. 'Empty boxes to the left, filled to the right. Don't get them confused.'

Caleb noticed the ramp elevator in front of him, must be used for transporting boxes up and down. However they went up via the gray, metal ladder in the left corner. They went trough a rather narrow corridor to a open space with more corridors both left and right and a another ladder right in the middle. The room had a fridge in the right corner in front of them, standing next to some kitchen like tables and a cooking burner. Next to him on the opposite side of the room was a table with some chairs, a couch on his left and a radio which currently played some crappy music often left on the Empire propaganda channel.

To his right was some grid wall panels, displaying a series of impressive guns. Anything from assault rifles and shotguns to hand pistols. And in the final corner was a large freezer, food most definitely.

They went past the ladder and trough a heavy looking door into a very small, narrow room with two distinct engines on each side, connected by pipes on the opposite side of the door.

'This is the back engines to push us forward, for some reason we can't get them started to fix them and the position of ship engineer is yours. Any questions?'

'Just one, I never did get your name.'

'Jackelynn, Most just calls me Jack.'

'Ok then, I'll get to work.' he began inspecting the engines as captain Jackelynn left him in there to work.

After a few hours of carefully taking the insides apart he noticed the error. The strong smelling liquid was leaking from the fuel pipe, they were lucky that it didn't catch on fire from the heat of trying to start it or else half the ship might have gone to hell. He cleaned it up and welded the tube together after taking it out and completely cleaning it of all fuel, a very basic repair for a basic problem. Still using these old tubes weren't the best idea and were prone to bending during crashes, the shock waves would bend the pretty weak and ancient metal. He should probably tell the captain that getting proper tubes for the fuel was a priority.

He put the welded tube in his bag and headed back into the room only to be met with a large gray skinned humanoid creature. He recognized it as a ogre, a half mutant species and greatly segregated by the empire for their scary appearance and really tough bodies.

'You are?' it said in a deep voice.

'Caleb, the captain asked me to fix up the ship.'

'Engineer?'

'Yes, I'm an engineer.'

'Good, ship no good broken..'

The tales of their lower intelligence seemed to true enough..

'Is captain Jack around?'

'Above...' He pointed to the open hatch above on the roof.

It led out the balcony roof where she sat down on a custom sun chair screwed onto the roof, sipping on a beer with a Hispanic male wearing a armored glove going up his entire left arm made of dark gray metal. His hair was combed back and held in place with gel, he had a very well trimmed mustache and a patch of beard hair right underneath his lips going down to the bottom of his chin.

'Well I fixed it!'

'Good! Juan this is the guy I was telling you about.' The man stood up and reached out his hand 'I see, I'm Juan the second in command and main gunner of this fine vessel.' He spoke in a charming way, oozing with charisma. 'I'm Caleb.' he answered simply and shook his hand.

'So what was the problem?'

'A fuel leak, the tubes bent to much and opened up, causing a leak. You're quite lucky the back didn't explode.'

'Was it really that bad?'

'Fuel is extremely flammable, the old tubes needs to be replaced.'

'Well alright there's no parts shop in this shithole of the town but we got a workshop on board. Think you can make one? Our old guy used to do it all the time.'

'Well I would need to have a look at it, as well as the material.'

'Joe show him, I'm taking Rock and getting some scrap.'

'Oh do try to get aluminium and copper! That's good material for fuel pipes.'

'Copper and aluminium? Alright if you say so...'

*

Lucky for them the workshop, despite being somewhat small, had all the equipment needed. Clearly the old engineer had to improvise as much of the larger machines where built into the walls. He had a forge and all the stuff needed to run it but the limited space, the normal size of a apartment bedroom, made it difficult. They managed to bring back plenty of materials from out of town, again lucky for them it was such a haven for metal of all kinds, and melting it all down he managed to make some genuine aluminium fuel pipes with copper alloys. Their durability and bendiness should work good in heated battle where the ship would shake a lot. The tubes would slightly bend in places without disrupting fuel flow and therefore not break as easily as the old metal tubes who focused more on strength and didn't do good over long periods of time in battleships. A metal that could move along with shock waves was much smarter and after hours of work he had replaced all fuel pipes along the back engines. Captain Jack was impressed by his high efficiency and work ethic, not stopping till he was finished well after dark. 'So now all we gotta is to refuel again and we can set off it in the morning.' She showed him the bedroom he would be using. It was small, barely fitting a bed and a desk. Right above the desk was a wood plaque with plenty of papers pinned onto them. It was blueprints and schematics for all sorts of different engines, machines, tools and vehicles. It was clear that whoever the old engineer was, they liked inventing new stuff. He doubted however he would have the time to pick up where he or she left off since he had a large ship to maintain now.

'It isn't much but its doable. Welcome on board Caleb.'

*

Caleb sat on the couch in the ships main hangout area listening in to the radio. Yet another crackdown on a smuggling ring, camping out on one of the many harbors the Empire controlled. All thirty of them executed without mercy. Same shit as it always was, the army was unstoppable and all criminals would be right to fear them ect ect.. Another woman entered, she was Asian, raven black hair and a facial tattoo over her left eye in the shape of some flowing pattern, almost resembling a wave. She had armor pieces over several places over several places on her very dark blue pants and black sweater and combat vest covered by her dark blue combat jacket. Over her right knee, both shins Left shoulder and both forearms stopping right by the elbows were metal armor hammered together. A belt went over her torso with ammo attached to it and a gun strapped to her hip.

'So...You're the new guy?'

'I am..'

'Good. I'm Kel, I do a lot of the groundwork like scouting and info gathering.'

'The new guy one is here?' a robotic voice came from the corner behind her. 'Ya he's here.' She moved and a creepy looking cybernetic human came forward. His face was covered in a mask, black glass over the entire face, legs robotic, left arm was a multi tool having things like tasers, bone saw and needles attached. His right arm was a much longer but skinnier metal arm. 'This is doc, our medic. Don't let him scare you, he's weird but don't attack unless its in self defence.'

'Violence is such a easy way to ruin my good equipment, I like to study the body up close and personal...' his voice came out of a small speaker on the bottom of his mask. 'I see....I'm Caleb, the engineer. And if you don't mind me asking I saw a ogre in here a short while ago..'

'Ya that's Rock, cause he's dumb as a rock but his strength is hella useful for carrying stuff. Not to mention he scares off thieves going after our ship.'

'Ok..useful...so what is it that you do here really?'

'A bit everything. You could say we're part mercenaries, part smugglers, part pirates, part scavenge hunters. Anything that makes us money.' 'Ok...'

'...Well cya.' She walked off into her room just before the conversation went awkward. Caleb had a habit of doing that..

'So Caleb my boy...how would you feel about helping me with some research?..'

'Uhh..you wouldn't want me anyway...trust me I'm a awful scientist.' 'But you ARE good with machines are you not?'

'Yes but I'm a engineer...i repair and build stuff that's already been made. I don't invent stuff..'

'Don't sell your profession short my boy. Plenty of engineers invents new stuff. Where else do you think the Empire gets their new toys?'

'Uhh huh...'

'Well...let me know if you change your mind..' the creepy cyborg then limped of into the corridor to the left. Whatever that guy was he had never, ever, in his life met someone as disturbing as him. If he didn't have that close encounter with a giant a few days ago he would also crank it up the scariest.

*

The next day the ship was ready. It had been refueled all night and Jack currently stood with the port master. 'Ok now its just the matter of the payment..'

'Sure sure I got it here.' without warning she knocked him out with a single punch, leaving the gray ish haired man on the ground.

'Keep the change.'

She walked up the ramp and pressed the red button on a small control panel right by it on board. The large sound of the moving metal signaled the crew it was finally time to take off. She climbed up the main level and went around to the opposite door of the crew quarters and entered the cockpit. It was small room with the pilots seat on the opposite side of the door, the controls for the ship was on a gray metal panel. Next to the door on the right was another control panel but for the ships communication and on the left was a large map of the known territories inside a glass display. Inside it, right between the glass and the actual map, was a skinny metal stick going up from the bottom. It moved up and down and left to right. At the end of it was a small arrow, this moved anywhere on the map using the controls on the wall right next to the map, making it easy to navigate in the air. It was currently pointed at their current location, a tiny dot without a name, the black dots signaled settlement of some kind, usually a small insignificant one. Larger red ones showed more important ones, like the Capital written underneath one of those. Jack pressed buttons and flipped switches, awakening the plane. The jet engines roared as flames shot forward. The ship slowly lifted of the ground and took off, slowly by safety increasing its speed above Darktown and taking off into the ruins. Caleb awoke at last to all the loud noises, guess it was time to get the day started..

He rubbed his eyes and put his boots back on before rising from the bed. Before he put his equipment back on he noticed something, from his bag. A strange yellow light... he opened it and saw the light coming from the copper cube he recovered. The markings glowed yellow and it emanated a strange humming noise. After several seconds it went back to being silent, the light vanished as if the cube switched off. What the hell was this thing?

He still couldn't find some way to interact with the mechanism so he took it to the workshop to see if they had any stuff he could use to investigate it.

As he hunkered down and began to tinker away the crew all got to work. Doc ran numbers for theories in his tiny medical room. Juan sat on the balcony roof, keeping an eye out for danger with a sniper rifle attached to his back. Kel checked the cargo just to pass the time as Rock lifted his weights in the hangar. There wasn't a lot to do during travel as Caleb found out, guessed he was wrong about not having a lot of free time... he did find some equipment like different scanners, a microscope and so on but none helped him understand the cube. No one would put this much effort into it just for a mechanical glowing piece of art. He thought back to the blueprints on the screen. It had to be some kind of data device, data storage most likely. But it was such a unusual design that he couldn't begin to fathom how one would access it. If only he had more time...if only the pictures of those prints wasn't lost in the attack. Maybe he would over time figure it out. But it didn't matter now...he either needed to figure it out on his own or hope to get lucky. For now he decided to hang onto it, it must have been important to the ancient humans before the apocalypse hit. He could very well be sitting on a massive gold mine...

Or a deadly weapon... this little thing was so intriguing...

He put it away in one of the lockers and decided to check on the rest of the ship, to get familiar with it. So far everything worked fine, no odd noises that needed addressing but he eventually needed to to replace the rest of the fuel tubes with copper ones. The old ones for the side rockets were still a risk of a large explosion, growing ever more likely as they deteriorated over time.

To pass the time more he went up outside to the roof and almost fell over in shock. He didn't think it would be a big deal but there it was...high above the ground, slowly floating along the skyscrapers and over the piles of trash, the sun lighting up the ruins. From the ground the sun was only something to light up the sky, the ground was still dark, covered in shadows. But from up here...it was actually...beautiful. Caleb had almost forgotten what that was like..

'Impressive yes?' Juan asked him.

'I never seen anything like it.'

'Outside the Empire there are few who gets to experience this. We are incredibly fortunate to live in the sky, passing over the mutants and the raiders. Probably the main reason we lived this long.'

Juan opened a small compartment next to the ladder inside and took out two beer bottles. He handed one to Caleb which he accepted. Both just stood there, sipping away and letting the world pass them by. For once things felt...right. This was a good place to be..

'Btw Juan I have been wondering.'

'Hm?' 'What happened to your last engineer?' He sighted and took a larger gulp of beer.

'Its not something we like to discuss you see. It happened recently... We were delivering weapons to this scary looking warlord but just as the deal went on they back stabbed us, thought they could kill all of us to avoid paying. They underestimated us though and suffered some pretty heavy losses, unfortunately a grenade went off to close to our dear old friend Gregor...in a quick flash there wasn't enough left of him to grab...We had to run. After escaping we were forced to land from fuel loss, then we discovered that the ship refused to start. Everything seemed doomed until you came along and fixed her right up. The crew would probably split if not for you.'

'I see.. I'm sorry for your loss btw.'

'Its what happens in our life. Its a brutal and often short one.'

Caleb could only nod in agreement. Even inside the walls of the capital life was brutal. Hell he had to let that old drunk use him just for a bed and food. And he was still more lucky than hundreds of others, perhaps thousands...

*

The hours went by and it was hard to stay occupied so Caleb changed his mind about those blueprints. He took a closer look on the ideas of this Gregor and was actually impressed. This guy had intellect and a great deal of creativity. He had papers on anything from a pulse set charger to a shotgun with exploding ammo, a new motor bike. Even really advanced stuff like a portable hacking device and a guidance system. The last engineer was a genius on all accounts. Right now he was in workshop working in something a bit more simple. A taser with a pretty clever but simple design. It had a battery inside the handle connected to a wire going around a spinning part. When it fired it would spin at incredible speed, flying far and fast and the probes would attach to the target. With the spinning part he could just press a button and it would retract without having to do it by hand. A slightly new take on device everyone knew about but no one used expect law enforcement. Few ever had reason to take prisoners these days.

With that one finished and tested he wondered how else he could use this design...

*

Inside the great Dimaryp, at the heart of the capital, the general was beyond nervous while forcing himself onward. After the report came back he had to deliver the bad news.. he walked trough the large, dark corridors, each step echoed all around him. Barely any light made the walls of steel, pipes and wires visible, like it was a corridor of shadows.

The gates opened in front of him and a large wall full of cogs, wires and all matter of moving parts. In the middle was a hole where yellow and orange light came out, right underneath it a moth shaped hole with bars. Smoke occasionally spat out of it, almost like the wall breathed out. The lit hole slightly moved as if to look straight at him. The general took of his hat and bowed to the being.

'My lady...I'm afraid the missions was a failure. The cube wasn't there, we suspect the scavengers took it first and someone managed to escape with it. They scoured the area but was halted by a Gargan. We currently have no idea where it is.' Whispers speaking of no existing language sounded in the tiny room, only the general understood them, as if the meaning of the words were loaded into the brain.

'Yes...Yes of course...by your will Empress. We'll find it. Even if we have to dig up the entire world..'

*

After two days of straight flying Caleb looked upon the outside for the first time in his life. Outside the Dead city was a much, much larger desert. Mountains and hillsides, the ground yellow and brown as far as the eye could see. It was so different out here...he always knew there was something outside the city but never did he imagine this...and it was all so empty.. He thought there was more resources out here but he was wrong. Everything was a dry wasteland...

'Oi Caleb! The cap wants us below!' Kel said as her head poked out of the entrance. Below the whole crew was gathered.

'Ok team here's the thing, we have been out of commission for to long. With the botched job for the warlord and getting stuck in that shithole we need a job a fast. So I have come to a conclusion...we need to sell of these weapons to Gunther.'

'You're kidding right? That slimeball?'

'I know how you feel about your guns Kel but hear me out. As compensation for the disaster we are digging trough the shipment and taking which ever we think is useful.'

'Fuck ya!'

'But! I have to limit it to one weapon for each crew member only! I want enough stuff left to sell afterward understood?' Everyone nodded.

'Ok lets go have a look at them.'

They dug out the large metal boxes and opened them up showing all kinds of goodies. Assault rifles, hand pistols, shotguns, grenades. It contained all sorts of dangerous looking weapons. 'Woah! A fucking Ranginton 360! This is some fucking serious firepower. How the fuck did a desert warlord afford this shit? Money basically doesn't exist out here..'

'No idea..It would explain why he didn't feel like paying..'

Rock pulled out a minigun with green plating by the black handles. The words M295-V2 written on it in white. The bronze colored ammo went out of the actual gun and into a large backpack where enormous amounts of ammo was stored. 'Rock taking this. Big gun. Lots of ammo.' 'Holy shit is that what I think it is?!' Kel almost drooled over it.

'I prefer something a bit more subtle..' Juan held a magnum revolver with a red wooden handle with golden lines and a thick barrel. The gun was well crafted, artistic in way.

Jack looked around for something fitting. She already had a good hand pistol with plenty of ammo so she wanted something a bit different. Then her eyes settled on a grenade launcher. Black with a red ring around the edge of the barrel, a large cylinder right by the handle capable of holding 30 grenades in total.

Caleb was one of the last to choose, eventually picking a 10mm light gray hand pistol. It was almost silver in color with a comfortable grip.

'Common Kel pick something.'

'But they are ALL so beautiful!'

'Kel..'

'Alright fine!' Finally she settled with one type she hadn't collected yet. The black Ranginton shotgun with slug ammo, the most dangerous kind.

'You sure you don't want any dock?'

'Guns never suited me.' his arm shifted and two small poles stuck out. A spark of electricity shot between them telling a clear message. He really didn't need any..

'Boss. Look this.' Rock took out a gray, four barreled missile launcher. A fold able screen was on the side and some kind of red laser aiming device right above it.

'Woah..never seen one of those before.'

'Definitely some kind of missile launcher. Guys! Come take a look at this.'

They inspected the thing, closely, not recognizing the design.

But Jack recognized the ammo inside the crate. Red colored anti armor missiles.

'This seems to be a upgraded version of the standard anti armor missile launcher of the Empire. Instead of shooting one at the time this one is capable of holding four at once. As you can see here the launcher have this screen attached to the aiming laser. Once its looked onto its target its fire away, and the launcher's computer will guide the missiles to it.'

'Really? There are launchers that advanced?'

'Its standard for the Empires anti armor infantry. I'm not surprised you don't know about them, they're usually not deployed against mercenaries. But this here is cutting edge Empire weaponry.' Jack explained. 'Shit..look cap we can't sell this bad boy.'

'No we can't this thing is far to useful...but how did a warlord manage to arrange something like this to be transported to him? Something doesn't make sense..'

She thought about it some before giving the final order and moving back to the cockpit. 'Ok grab a few grenades and pack them up, we should be by Gunther's place soon.' Kel groaned in clear protest by that but followed orders anyway.

*

The next day they reached a settlement in the middle of the desert. Small shacks inside a barbed wire fence with larger and much older houses in the middle.

The ship touched down on a platform in a town mostly made up of scrap metal houses, wooden shacks and a large, rundown concrete house. The place was closed of by higher fences with electricity going trough them, producing a loud humming noise and scorched insects laying along it. Armed guards patrolled the whole place, looking as mean as they come. One pretty skinny guy with a burn mark across the left side of his face came out to greet them with a number of guards. 'Jack! I knew you couldn't stay away from here!'

'I got guns to sell Gunther. Lots of them.'

'Really now? Well lets see those bad boys!'

He had slimeball written all over him, there was no way he could be trusted..

They unloaded the boxes and crates. Gunther and his guards seemed impressed by the haul, inspecting them carefully. 'This is some serious firepower. Where did you get them?'

'Botched job. Fucker thought he could avoid paying.'

'Bad business sense that. How can any honest merchant make a living by killing the customers?' He looked over the weapons carefully, taking in almost every crate to get a sense.

'Well putting all of these together I say its worth around.....ten thousand credits..'

'Only that?'

'Hey! That's my price. Take it or leave it cause you know I'm the best option out here.' She sighted, knowing he was right.

'Fine...I agree to that.' Gunther snapped his fingers and the guards started to bring in the haul while others came out with bags loaded with money.

'A pleasure doing business with you..' After all the bags were brought on board the whole crew seemed eager to leave as fast as possible. Caleb sort of understood why. These types were the most hardened criminals. The types that dealt in serious money and made the Capitals street gangs look like school children in comparison. Yet before Jack pressed the button to close the hangar Gunther spoke again.

'Before you leave! I got a job for you. Some fucker has been attacking my caravans, stealing guns and ammo. Find them and kill them. I'll pay if you bring back any proof.' he tossed a data storage device to her, knowing they would accept the job. Jack was never one to turn down a chance of payment.

The ship took off, leaving the shady settlement as fast as it came.

Once again taking of into the open desert Jack inserted the chip into a computer device in the cockpit. It was a was map with red crosses on certain places, the places that were they were hit obviously.

She marked the latest one on the map and flew off into the general area, guiding the ship using her compass. After a short while she spotted something on the ground and landed.

The hangar doors opened and Kel stepped out with Juan and Caleb. 'Well this is pretty sight..'

Before them was a couple of corpses, several days old by the state of them. The bodies had bullet wounds and track marks of some vehicle was on the ground. 'Judging by these I say they made their way north, along with a transport truck.'

'Ok boys we're following on while on the ground, get the wheels ready.' 'Wheels?'

'You're gonna like this new guy!'

Juan pushed down several levers and from the hangar roof ground vehicles was lifted down by flexible metal wires, stronger than chains. A large motorcycle, with thick tires made for terrain. Bags were attached onto the sides of it. Next followed a four wheeled one with two guns on the front and the trigger on the left handle, same spot as the break on the right one. Its seat was long enough to fit two people, he saw what was coming next..

'I have only been here for about two days maybe I should'

'You aren't chickening out are you?'

'I'm a mechanic, not a fighter.'

'If you wanna run with us than you gotta know how to fight.' Kel said as she strapped her new shotgun onto her back, ready to try it out. Then she handed Caleb his latest gun, loaded and ready. Juan took the single bike and Kel nodded to Caleb to sit behind her on the four wheeler, holding on to loose.

'Umm new guy...you might wanna hold in a bit harder unless you like ground.' he just did what he said, uncomfortably squeezing himself against the hard shotgun. With the barrel so close to his privates it was enough to make him nervous.

The motor charged up immediately and took of down the ramp at high speed. They followed the tracks, a could of dirt forming behind them. 'Isn't it a bit early to send him out there? The male specimen is soft Jack.' Doc and Jackelynn stood on the roof, watching them drive off.

'I can't have softies on my crew. He's gotta prove he's tough enough for this life. This is the best way to do it.'

*

Juan saw them in the distance. A camp, beige tents set up and transport trucks stood parked all over. Boxes loaded with stuff and different types of motor vehicles were being refueled.

'Look like a raider gang. Well organized to.. I guess they're around....fifteen? Maybe?'

'Any sign of the boxes?'

'Ya, entire wagons full. Security is....pretty lax actually.'

'Alright then we report back to the ship and..' They heard the motors in the distance, from the side they came, the dust clouds headed their way. 'I guess we're spotted..'

'We'll meet back at the ship.'

They sped their vehicles and turned back, soon shots were heard and bullets flying towards them. Caleb saw one from the side to the right. It was now or never, they were getting closer and so did their bullets. Caleb took out his hand gun and fired, being no stranger to firearms he managed to hit one in the leg. The pain caused him to loose balance the bike swayed quickly, the tires turned just the wrong way onto the wrong rock and toppled over. He kept firing, puncturing a tire and throwing that one off to. Several vehicles got behind them to avoid his line of fire. 'Check the side bag!!' Kel shouted at him as the bullets flew past them. He found some grenades and knew what to do. He held one, pressing down the trigger lever and bit off the pin. He tossed over his shoulder and the explosion behind them worked. The dust it threw up in the air got in the eyes of one of the drivers and they turned out of control, flipping the four wheeler to the side taking out two more who drove to close.

Amidst the chaos Juan looked on the side mirror, seeing them behind him. He turned a little and hit the breaks, speeding up till the got just behind them faster than they expected. He fired at the back tire, puncturing it and crashing the rider. The one surviving raider seemed to have enough as she turned and rode off before she to was killed. The ship quickly appeared over a hill as they rode on board, Jack starting the engines immediately as per routine. Once both bikes were on board they closed the hangar just as the ship was lifted off the ground and took off north. Kel ran up to the cockpit and guided her to the camp. They were in the process of packing up the most important stuff but weren't fast enough. The ship turned and Rock, standing in the roof, fired one of the machine guns attached to sides and sprayed a barrage of bullets at them. Dust flew up in the wherever they landed, the tents were shredded to pieces and trucks exploded as their motors were pierced. Blood flew everywhere, tearing large holes into the raiders unlike Rock who easily shrugged off any that hit him.

It didn't take long before the entire camp was taken out, the ground littered with bodies, blood splatter, scrap metal blown off from the vehicles, tents torn apart and storage boxes broken.

They landed and went out to investigate, guns at the ready. It was gross, seeing this carnage but Caleb sucked it up. He had seen death before, just not so much at once..

Jack went over to one of the intact boxes and opened the top. 'More guns, same quality.' she said holding up a exact same type of shotgun Kel took. 'Ok this is not a coincidence..Something is going on and we're being pulled into it.' Juan stated checking the bodies for survivors.

'Gunther is using us. He's probably in on whatever scheme that warlord was. Its probably him shipping out the guns everywhere. These raiders probably just got in the way.'

'Well lets hope that it ends here before we get in to deep. Get the intact shit on board so we can complete the job.'

They started moving the boxes on board till Jack grabbed Caleb's shoulder. 'Not you, I need you to do something for me.'

*

The small army of armed guards stood ready at the platform when the ship returned. The ramp opened, revealing the crew with a bunch of boxes carried out on trolleys. 'Ah good! Goood! You always succeed in your missions Jack, a captain fitting her reputation..'

'Ya ya where's the cash you promised?'

'Oh ya, you see..about that..'

'What did you do?...'

'You're in to deep Jack...you know how it is. Gotta keep this quiet so...no witnesses....'

They gathered the crew right by the ramp as the last trolley was rolled away.

'Nothing personal I assure you..'

'Ya..nothing personal..' Jack tapped Caleb's arms signaling him it was time. He pushed the button inside his pocket and every box exploded at once, throwing all of them off and the crew pulled out their guns in the confusion. Withing the blink of an eye the guards all around the ramp was shot down. Only Gunther and two other guards managed to jump behind cover.

'You really think I don't know how this works?? Of course I know that there's some plan at work here! You somehow getting your hands in cutting edge Empire weaponry and working with the same asshole who killed our last engineer! But if he failed to take all of us how the fuck did you think you were gonna finish the job??'

Gunther didn't answer, instead trying to fire back but as soon as his hand appeared around the corner he pulled back with bullets flew only a few centimeters away from him.

It looked like they would have a equal stand off for a while till a grenade landed next to him. He tried to run but it exploded right behind him. He was knocked off his feet and face planted onto the ground. His two bodyguards knocked back as well, one even having a piece of his leg torn off from it while the other tripped over some metal barrels and was shot to death before he got back up again.

'You know what nevermind.' Jack executed Gunther as laid unconscious on the ground. Fire burned from the entrance to the storage room, a result of the rigged boxes. Inside they discovered a very impressive arsenal of weapons, technology and medical supplies. Everything needed to launch a full on invasion..

Further back in was the garage that held armored vehicles and even a tank standing ready. The tank was bronze colored, its treads had hundreds of tiny spikes, its pilot seat was barely large enough to fit one person and the back had what looked like rockets to give it a speed boost. Jack recognized it as a armored shredder. A small but fast and movable tank sometimes used by raiders who had the means to build it. By the Empires standard they had pretty weak defence and firepower but for raiders it was a solid death machine, it was all coming clear now, she just needed to make sure...

They walked to Gunther's office upstairs which was mostly a large luxurious bed, which she suspected had more than one use, and one computer by the window. Caleb easily hacked into it and started browsing trough the files. 'What do you see on that thing?'

'A pretty decent library of files. Trade deals mostly, a couple of orders sent out, a couple of hits..here! There's a file on a raider warlord, its a delivery with plenty of weapons, and your name is on here..'

'So that fucker really did set us up...what else is on there? Is there any source of these things?'

'There is. They have a mystery dealer, probably someone inside the Empire. If I'm reading these files right then they set up different places to take the weapons every time to avoid getting caught and use third party deliverers as often as they can..and then eliminate then to further minimize exposure..'

'Its a tight operation then. Someone out there is arming themselves for something big.'

'And now since we killed Gunther however these other mystery people are gonna come after us.'

'Not if we hit them first, whats the next meeting place?'

'Some old world iron works, a couple of miles north. They're set to meet in two days.'

'If we leave now we can beat them there and set up a ambush. Bring the files, we're gonna need them.'

Caleb downloaded them onto a rectangular data ship laying on the desk and they hurried off, taking whatever explosives and ammo they could carry on board.