"Have you guys at least got any snacks?" I asked. "I haven't eaten in... well, God knows how long."

"Why would we have snacks?" Ryan said, STILL holding that sodding gun to my head.

"You people don't have snacks in the car?"

"No?"

"I've... uhh..." Eyha looked around a bit, then searched through the glove compartment, "I've got... a box of TicTacs. No, wait, that's expired. Umm..."

"Unbelievable," I said.

"Sorry, I don't want Ryan to start snacking again."

"What?" Ryan finally dropped the gun, before pointing it back to my head. "Eyha, that was like three years ago."

"I still see those eyes whenever you see a packet of chips."

I sensed another argument was about to escalate. "How about the radio?"

The Arvan agreed and turned the notch. There wasn't a touch screen. Like the phone, it was extremely old fashioned. "There's mostly just Loreqi songs on here. Don't expect much."

The radio came on, and a cheerful host started speaking. "Onfeh ikrenos sodaslieo, pye pye fozni Wonderwall."

Wait, what?

Then the sound of a soft guitar riff popped up. "Today is gonna be—"

"Nope!" Without hesitation, Eyha turned the notch, bringing the radio back into garbled static.

"I thought you said they only had Loreqi music on here."

"Yeah, well they sometimes dump Human music on there every once in a while."

"This song's like two centuries old!"

"Three," she corrected. "They don't want to hit anything copyrighted - not like that even matters out here - so they sprinkle in some old Human songs. Twentieth, twenty-first, second century. Anything foreign gets them listeners."

That... didn't sound too bad. Back home, it was just the same pop music over and over again on what was left of the radio industry, like nobody could think of anything original to put in their songs. So this might've been a breath of fresh air.

As we moved over a few more dunes, the jeep made its way onto a ruined motorway. Pot holes, cracks, battered cars, half-starved thugs. But that was all just a taster for the shithole that awaited ahead.

There was a poorly walled city after half a mile, far beyond its glory days. At a distance, old signs of battle didn't bother to hide themselves, from torn apartment complexes to shattered skyscrapers. With even smoke stemming high into the sky, almost interfering with the ships checking out of the city.

The car made it through the entrance, Eyha having to pay a small toll to one of the thugs. And holy hell, the place was a certified shithole. Markets had taken up within the fallen structures, having a much larger diversity of wares than back in Ta'Shiala. With brothels and bars about on every corner of the city. Soldiers, at least mimics, roamed the streets, looking for their next bar to get pissed in. It was like everyone was too lazy to clean up anything, the locals just decided to live with their situation instead of fixing it.

"This place is... interesting," I said. Why was I bothering to sugarcoat the obvious?

"Welcome to Ar'Siqia," the Arvan said.

"Is there any nice place on this world?"

"Nope," Ryan said.

I sighed, then asked, "What's the history behind this place anyway?"

"This area or the whole city?" Eyha replied.

"Whole city."

"There was this civil war a long time ago, the whole city was a major warzone. This was between what was left of the old Loreqi government and a coalition of militia groups. Or another nation... I don't know, this was decades before I was born. After the government withdrew, this whole sector, I'm talking about the systems here, has all just been anarchy - the gangs dominate. This city is controlled by the Sor'Sohli, they rule the trade here as well as the surrounding systems. At least for now."

"For now?"

"Do you have a group called the 'Allied Sovereign Systems' in your noggin?"

"I only heard about them from that guy I... accidentally shot in the bar. Mentioned something about their businesses."

"Right. They're not Loreqi, they're mainly Human. Basically becoming the dominant force out here."

"They're a bunch of jackasses," Ryan muttered, switching his gun to the other arm.

"So I've heard."

One of the locals, this youngish guy, tapped on my window, carrying a box of packets. Felt like I was in India again. "Humans, you want nuts?" He said from behind the glass. "Two packs, one credit."

"Get me one, actually. You can help yourself," Eyha said to me. "Ryan, get the cash out."

Rolling his eyes, Ryan passed me... something. It was this shiny piece of paper. Had a building and an emblem on the front with a bunch of alien writing underneath it. Phyical currency.

I rolled the window down, paid, and he happily tossed us the packets. They were a bit chunky, I guessed they were like peanuts, just a bit tougher and much messier to crack. Meanwhile, Eyha was happily shoving the whole packet down her beak.

I had the first bite of what was possibly my last meal. The taste... it was like someone shat on a sherbet lemon.

The normal response here would've been to spit it out and throw the packet away somewhere, but instead my body reacted by shoving what may as well have been my own intestines up my throat.

I stuck my head out the window, and I vomited ten times the quantity I let out back in the desert.

"Oh sorry, I forgot to say, this stuff is extremely toxic to Humans," Eyha mentioned casually.

At this rate, if there was one thing that was most likely going to kill me out here, it wouldn't be a mercenary, or the weather, but that oversized fucking pigeon.

"You might feel something weird in your tummy later too," Ryan said,

"What d'you mean?" I rasped out, dragging my head back into the jeep.

"The things you're eating, those are eggs. And if you don't have a strong stomach—"

"I've seen that movie, mate." I wiped my mouth. "You're not funny."

"What movie?" My face sank. Then the little brat let out a smirk.

"My previous statement still stands."

The jeep further ventured into the city. The sights suddenly shifting more into a slightly developed area. Infrastructure was a bit more cared for, with the locals looking less depressed than their outer city counterparts. There were still bars, but no brothels. Still markets, but no slaves. There were still cars, but nothing looking like they were ripped off the set of the hundredth Mad Max reboot.

Advertisements began springing up here and there. Most were in some Loreqi languages, but there was the occasional Human language like English or Mandarin. A lot of them promoted local business or even recruitment into that Sovereign Systems lot. Something about 'a better life' being a common theme in them. It was obviously bullshit, that guy my gun shot mentioned Loreqi slaves being popular over there.

Eyha stopped the car. There was traffic ahead, with distant bangs occurring every few seconds. She rolled the window down, getting the attention from one of the soldier mimics.

"Essa. Shonveiriku?" She asked in a Loreqi language.

"Warei o tchang. Onva esh," the mimic replied.

"Okay, iush." The mimic walked off, and Eyha looked back at us. "There's a gunfight up ahead."

"Of course there is," I said.

Eyha rolled the window up, and drove the car around. "I know a shortcut, it's fine."

She took another road, passing through an alleyway and heading down a slope into some empty area. The phone's marimba ringtone went off again, and she picked it up.

"AT-6." Eyha paused for a few seconds. I surprisingly couldn't hear who was on the other end, just some weirdly deep voice. "What? Who's speaking? I'm not going to give it to him unless you explain what's going on here."

The voice went a bit louder.

"You don't need to curse, you know."

Now they were calmer.

The Arvan looked back at me, extremely confused. She looked back to the road, holding out her phone to me. "It's for you."

Puzzled, I took the phone off her. "Ummm... hi?"

The soft, cheerful voice of a woman spoke, "You might want to hold onto something, love."

"Uhhh... what?"

"What are they sa—" Eyha never finished her sentence, as something penetrated the bulletproof windscreen, and the next thing I knew was the sight of blood all over the Arvan's carseat. Ryan screamed, and I cursed. Her now lifeless hands lost grip of the steering wheel, and we crashed right into the wall of a building.

I was half-knocked out in the event; eyes blurry, barely able to form a thought for at least half a minute. At this point, I'd have given my left testicle for a single lie down.

My head cleared up a bit, and I dragged myself upright. The front half of the car was demolished in the impact, with glass and bits of debris almost crushing the interior. I stared around for a bit. Eyha was... fucking hell. It was weird. I grew up around so much violent media, I'd expected to be quite desensitised to it. But watching the gore with your own eyes... nothing on the telly could prepare you for that.

Ryan was still alive, unfortunately. He was lucky enough to get half an airbag open on his side, so physically, he was all right. Mentally? In short, despite the airbag he still had more or less a concussion. And would've been unresponsive for quite a while.

His gun fell by me in the crash, however. There was a sniper outside, I'd've been an idiot not to take it. I opened the door, sending me tumbling out. Relying on the car door, I dragged myself up, trying to readjust to the burning hell that was this planet.

It turned out I had limped right into the open road, and the second I noticed two armoured cars arriving towards us I scurried off back behind the car. I peeked around, tightly gripping Ryan's gun. The cars were parked at a distance, and out came an armed group of half-professional soldiers - Humans, Loreqi, Androids, even an couple Arvans. Bounty hunters, probably?

I was about to run off, hopefully somewhere out of sight. The kid could take care of himself right? No. He was barely twelve, had a concussion for all I knew and I had just taken his only means of defence. He may have been a little shit to me since we met, but the last thing I wanted was a dead child on my mind.

Dragging him out, he wasn't as heavy as I thought. But when trying to sneak away from a group of armed nutters, he was a bit of a liability. It was a bit ironic if you thought about it. We met with him holding a gun at my face and I ended up saving him from the same thing. Or maybe he'd have been trafficked or something. Whatever nightmares people went with out here.

Usually, it wouldn't have been so hard to carry him, but there was this certain way you were supposed to hold someone if they were injured. I struggled for a bit, long enough until I noticed the armed mercenaries appearing right beside me, surrounding the whole vehicle. So I just gave up trying. Their aim was lowered, for some reason. Though others stared around for any other threats.

I decided to take advantage of this. Whipping Ryan's gun up, I— why couldn't I pull the trigger? Shit. Not now. Not fucking now! Was the safety off?! Or maybe... it was fake. Of course it would've been fake! Who gives a child a firearm!

"Umm, sir, calm down," one of the mercenaries, this South African guy, said to me. "Put the gun down, you're safe. It's just us."

Sir? Wait, was I part of this group? Of course I was, of course I was running with the guys who thought putting their colleague through a car crash was a fantastic idea to extract them.

It was awkward for a few seconds. And the second the South African guy realised I had zero idea who the hell they were, he said, "Andy, hold him down."

"Wait what?" One of the Androids grabbed me and forced me onto the side of the car, almost breaking my ribcage in the process. This was it. The fuckening that had long awaited me.

A sharp pain was jabbed into the side of my neck, my vision blurred for the third bloody time today. And I went out like a light.