“How many do you see?” Amber asked, her voice muffled by the gas mask that clung to her face.

“Just three. Fourth stepped out a minute ago. Call of nature?” Her companion, Dane, replied. While Amber had no problem kneeling down behind the crumbled wall for cover, Dane had to hunch over in an exaggerated posture if he wanted to stay hidden. He handed her the cracked binoculars to see for herself, and Amber struggled to see clearly as she pressed the eyepiece to the goggles of her mask. She hated wearing these damn things, but the methane out in the swamps was enough to leave you out cold if you breathed the air for more than an hour.

Amber looked through the salvaged instrument and saw what Dane had been talking about: three individuals, faces obscured by gas masks as they tore away at the hull of the massive ship left in the ground. Centuries ago, this place served as some industrial shipping port, but now it was just a graveyard of salvage waiting to be reclaimed. They were probably after the exact same thing Amber and Dane had come here to claim. Truth be told, neither of them had the slightest idea why scrap collectors paid handsomely for old world tech, but that was no concern of theirs. The right people would give their whole hand to get the one left on one, and that was a lucrative opportunity for Lancers like Amber and Dane. Unfortunately, it looks like they weren’t the only ones with this idea.

“Think we can take ‘em?” Dane asked in a hushed voice, practically bouncing at the opportunity to run in and start a fight. Amber held up a hand and tried to get a better look at the salvagers. Two of them were working, with the larger third standing watch. He looked like trouble, muscled arms covered in scars and a nail-ridden bat hanging over his shoulder as he lazily scanned his surroundings.

“Don’t see why not.” Amber replied, watching the two workers pry at a metal plate of the old hull with crowbars. “Big guy might put up a fight, but the other two are probably gonna scatter.”

Dane nodded, and Amber was certain he was grinning underneath his mask. Dane was a sweetheart, despite his rugged appearance. Never took a job that required him to hurt someone innocent. Luckily, there was an unspoken rule among Lancers like them: nobody is innocent on the job.

“Ok, you take on the slugger, I’ll hit the other two if they stay and fight.” Amber whispered, raising up to bump fists with her friend.

Dane stood out from behind their cover, stepping into clear view of the larger member of the trio.

“Hey! Beat it, we were here first!” The guard shouted, letting his bat hang just inches above the mucky ground. The other two workers stopped what they were doing and turned around, standing uneasily as they tried to figure out how they should be reacting. Amber took the opportunity to slink away from her hiding spot, skulking beneath scrap metal and overgrowth to get into a better position, dodging both poison ivy and tetanus alike.

“Come on, buddy! Don’t be an idiot.” Dane said, pacing back and forth in front of his adversary. The two of them really were like beasts fighting over territory, both pocked with old wounds and clothes in tatters from the unforgiving land around them.

“You’re calling me an idiot? Look around, asshole. It’s three on one!”

The two smaller scrappers who had been standing by took this as their cue to step up, brandishing their crowbars with a newfound confidence. Dane looked at the two, laughing to himself as he watched Amber sneak behind one of them. She tapped her on the shoulder, taking advantage of her shock and confusion to rip her mask off her face with one swift motion, and tossed it into the swamp behind them. The bare faced scrapper cursed to herself, darting off past the greenery to look for her mask. The other worker charged at her, weapon raised in both hands as he swung at Amber. Ducking out of the way, she kicked the back of his knee, watching as he fell to the ground on all fours.

Meanwhile, Dane wasted no time in making his move. Rushing up to his distracted opponent, Dane drove his fist square into the side of his head. In turn, he gripped his bat in both hands, grunting as he quickly found his footing and swung wildly at Dane. Dane ducked out of the way, with Amber watching as she wrapped her arm around her opponents neck, holding him in a tight enough grip to subdue him as he dropped his crowbar and gave a futile attempt to free himself.

“Easy, big guy, easy!” She taunted, just before she felt a heavy force hitting the back of her head, sending her down to the mud. Her recent victim stumbled to his feet, backing up before turning into a full sprint and leaving the brawl. Amber looked up to lock gazes with the fourth member of the group; a man just as large and menacing as the one Dane was struggling with.

“Shit, forgot about you.” She grunted as she rolled to avoid his boot stomping down onto her ribs. She jumped to her feet, backing herself against the hull of the ruined ship as he approached and drove his fist forward. She sidestepped just in time to hear the heavy thud of knuckle on metal, and hear him cry out in pain. Amber looked around, snatching the discarded crowbar and slamming it into his back. Her opponent fell to his knees as he grunted, his shoulders rising and falling with heavy breath.

“Alright! Alright! You win!”

Amber looked back at Dane and the last one standing, he had dropped the bat and started slowly backing away from the two of them. The one Amber had just sent to his knees stood slowly, wincing as he followed suit. The two quickly turned around in shame, deciding that the payout for the salvage wasn’t worth getting killed over.

“Yeah! And see you guys at Underground!” Dane shouted, laughing and flipping them off as Amber gave him a stern punch in the arm.

“Dane! Do you want to start a rivalry with the Adlams?”

“Oh relax.” Dane scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. “Those inbred hicks are probably too dumb to figure out who we were under the masks.”

“Well out of a dozen siblings, odds are one of them was smart enough to recognize us.” Amber groaned, inspecting the spot in the rusted hull where the Adlam kids had begun to tear away. They had found a section of the ship where a plate had detached just enough to cram a crowbar in and start pulling. It looked like they were only part of the way through before they were interrupted. She placed the end of the crowbar under the loose plate and started prying it open.

“They couldn’t make it any easier to get into these things, huh?” Dane asked as he laid back against the hull, watching Amber work.

“Well, they used to actually be in the water. No real need for a door or a window at the bottom of it.” She said in between grunts as she slowly pried the metal plate back. “And we would be inside a lot faster if the stronger one handled this…”

“Hey, I’m not gonna deny you the chance to prove you’re just as strong as I am! You got this!” Dane replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Asshole…”

It only took a few more minutes of work for the plate to finally peel off. Rusted rivets had finally broken and the metal had bended enough for Amber to kick the protruding sheet into a hole large enough for the two of them to enter. Dane took the flashlight from their supply pack, cranking the handle and giving the battery enough life for an hour or so. Shining it down the hallway of the ship, they saw just a glimpse of the hall before them. Dust and dirt covered the floor that hadn’t been touched in centuries.

“Think anyone’s been here before us?” Amber asked, as the two of them took careful steps down the hall.

“Yeah. Probably the people who were on the boat before it got stuck here.” Dane replied. Half the time, Amber couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. They looked for the nearest set of stairs, trying to find their way to the bridge of the ship. Their task only made harder due to the fact that most of the directions had worn away over the centuries.

“Should we at least look for anything else worth salvaging? Food? Medicine? Maybe they had some guns or ammo laying around?” Dane asked.

“Fat chance. Any food or meds would have spoiled by now, and this place is so old that I doubt any bullets would be worth trading.” Amber replied.

“Jeez, how old is this hunk of junk?”

“Pre-Collapse, by the look of it.” Amber replied solemnly.

Dane let out a sharp whistle, as the two of them climbed the rickety steps that lead from the belly of the ship to the deck, and from there it was a simple ladder climb to the bridge. All along the windows were workstations that used to navigate, communicate, and take the many measurements needed to steer the ship across the ocean. Amber thought for a moment that they might find a skeleton hanging over the captains seat, but there was no such thing. Just long forgotten tech and centuries of dust.

“Ok, Spiro says we need to find the master log. That thing is going to set us both up for a few weeks at least.” Amber said, as she started wiping dust away from the panels to try and find where her target might be.

“What did he say this thing looked like?” Dane asked.

“One of those old computers, big black box with a bunch of wires sticking into it.” She explained, opening up the rusted cabinet doors underneath the work stations, hoping that such an important component to the ship would be easy to find. She found old machinery that didn’t look like what she needed, and paper logs that would have been useless, even if they hadn’t been worn from age.

“Hey, is this it?” Dane asked, his head half buried in a metal cabinet. He stepped aside for amber to take a look in, and it seemed like he had found it. It was a decently sized metal case that was dinged and dented, but the insides were probably fine. The thing seemed to match the description that they’re buyer had give them.

“I think so?” Amber said, reaching in to start pulling out wires. Dane handed her a screwdriver from his supply kit, and she got to work unfastening the master log from the inside of the cabinet. She lifted it out and haded it to Dane, who looked at the thing like it was some alien object.

“This is it? What the hell is Spiro gonna do with this?” Dane asked, as if he were offended that he had come all this way for a small computer.

“No idea. I didn’t ask. Now come on, we don’t want to be out when the sun goes down.”

Only a moment after Amber had finished speaking, a low hum could be heard in the distance. The floor underneath them started to rumble, and Amber knew what was happening.

“Shit!” She hissed, gathering her supplies and quickly bolting for the exit. “We gotta go!”

Dane cradled the log in both arms and followed Amber down the stairs and through the hall, towards the makeshift entrance that they had made earlier. As they left the hull of the abandoned ship, Amber heard a blaring horn overhead. The wind picked up around her, whipping her hair around as she looked up to see a massive airborne shuttle hovering in the air.

Freeze! Do not move, any sudden movements will be treated as an act of aggression! A loud voice bellowed from the shuttle.

“Damn it!” Dane hissed, the two looking to one another for reassurance. They stayed in place as the shuttle touched down on stable ground, the engines roaring in their ears.

You. With the salvage. Take five steps forward, and leave it on the ground.

Dane looked over to Amber, offering a wordless apology as he obeyed the instructions. He took slow and steady steps, as if he were fearing retaliation that might come if he failed to follow instructions. He left the dented computer case on the ground, and looked up at the shuttle for instructions.

Take five steps back. Both of you, get on your knees with your hands behind your head.

Amber followed instructions, her eyes cast down to the ground as Dane took his place beside her. She felt bile rise up in the back of her throat as the veins in her neck throbbed with rage. She hated taking orders, especially from the likes of them. The engines quickly died down, and the large door on the side of the shuttle lifted up, two armored soldiers stepping out and raising their rifles at the duo. Following them, was an older man who wore little more than a field vest and soft cap. His stern gaze hidden behind a dark pair of sunglasses as he eyed up the two Lancers in front of him. He took the salvage that Amber and Dane had searched for days to find, inspecting it with a grin as he put it under one arm.

"I should run you two rats in for trespassing on Aurum territory. Have you both do a decade in the wells." He said, taking his time in gloating over the two. Amber finally looked up from the ground, narrowing her brow as she looked at the man in front of her.

"Don't do it, Amber." Dane whispered to her. Both of them kept their eyes ahead, but it was as if Dane somehow knew what she was thinking.

"But lucky for you, I'm feeling generous today,” the man continued. “And seeing how you did go through all the trouble of finding this little package for me, I can let the two of you go with a warning.”

Amber felt her shoulders relax and her heartbeat steady. This wasn’t the first run-in she had with the Peacekeepers, but at least it would be one of the easier ones. The two armed men moved backwards, their rifles still fixed on Amber and Dane as they stepped back into their shuttle, their commander following suit with the log in hand.

“And remember, I’d better not catch any of you rats out here! So let your friends know I’m turning this place into a minefield!” The officer shouted as the engines roared to life once again, sending a burst of air towards them as the door closed, and the shuttle quickly rose into the air. Just a moment later, it had disappeared behind the twisted mountains of rusted metal.

“Jesus, Amber. I thought you were gonna pull iron on that guy.” Dane said, as he stood to his feet, offering Amber a hand.

“I thought about it when he mentioned taking us in.” She said, accepting Dane’s help in getting off the ground. She paced around for a moment, before throwing her hands up in the air.

“This is fucking bullshit!” She shouted, kicking a nearby piece of stone and sending it into the overgrowth. “We spent days finding this place, and those Aurum assholes walk right in and take our score!”

“Well what are you gonna do about it?” Dane said, defeated. “They’ve got the ships, the guns, the resources. And what do we have? Some brass knuckles and a jerry-rigged sidearm with homemade bullets?”

Amber felt for the pistol she had stashed in her waistband. Pistol was a generous description, it was more like an old pipe and wooden stock with some scrap metal holding it together. She didn’t know how the hell it worked, but she knew it was worth a fortune outside the walls of the utopian city of Aurum.

“I’d love to see the look on that PK’s face if I pulled this on him, he’d never know what hit him.” She growled, holding the weapon in hand.

“Yeah, then his goons use their real guns and leave us both filled with holes. Now come on, let’s get out of here before our filters run out.” Dane said, gesturing back the direction they had arrived from. “Maybe Val can get us some free drinks, huh?”