The DEITY and, apparently, the only surviving special forces member took caution as they traversed the shifting sands of the coastal dunes. Explosions and turret fire tended to give away those attempting to remain under the veil of stealth. A MALMAL scouting party would most likely be heading their way to investigate the wreckage of an enemy aircraft. They needed to move fast. So, taking an indirect route, they continued on toward the outpost marked on Rew's digital map.

Shan Li regarded her bloodied bandages as they trudged along, deep in thought. The Darkpathe had been torn apart with shocking precision. At that altitude, the aircraft should have been cloaked by the thick cloud cover. Had MALMAL expected their approach? It didn't seem likely, but Shan learned long ago not to discount the capabilities of rival governments.

"This place is actually quite beautiful if you stop to take in the scenery," Rew said as they crested another dune. He was right, in a way, this region did have a certain beauty unlike anywhere else in the world. Long after The Blackout eclipsed the landscape in pitch-black darkness, life had adapted here to survive. Various plants and animals began to develop bio-luminescent features, giving off a soft glow in order to achieve their basic survival needs.

What the young soldier now referred to was the shimmering mangroves populating the marshlands to the east. Shan scanned the low-lying trees for a moment, lost in their radiant glow. She realized that the large mass of mangroves were what brightened this region, allowing them to see unaided in their dim light. It reminded her of a moonlit night. She shook her head, tearing her eyes from the view.

"No time to stop," she said. "How much further, rookie?"

Rew brought out his Mobile Projection System, or MPS, and used the handheld device to render a three-dimensional image of the surrounding five mile radius. "Looks like it's not even a mile from here," he said. "Hmm, doesn't seem to be very fortified either. Do you really think they'll put up much resistance?"

Shan leaned in to get a better look at its pixelated structure. It was relatively small for a military outpost: one rectangular building surrounded by a dozen, or so, fence-like barricades.

"These images are not in real-time. See," Shan said, indicating the area of the map they had left behind. "The turret placements aren't showing up. We have to assume the outpost's defenses have also been upgraded since these were taken."

"Say, do you know how they get these images? I've heard of The Satellite and what it's capable of, but with the clouds... it doesn't really make sense. The Satellite can't produce these maps, can it?" Rew asked, closing the MPS and returning it to a pocket on the front of his combat vest.

"Above my pay grade," Shan said.

"Wait... you get paid? They told me that–"

"Shut it," Shan said, cutting him off. "Listen."

A low rumble resonated from beyond the dunes to their right. With no luminescent plant-life in that direction, it left the landscape cloaked in darker shadows. The rumble intensified until it became a symphony of growls and roars. A soft golden light began to blossom over the sandy horizon. It wasn't until the first hovercraft crested that Shan knew what was happening.

"Get down," she said, yanking him by the arm to lie prone beside her. Sand filled her chest plate and shin guards as she shimmied further down. Fear wasn't a factor in her decision to hide, but that didn't mean it was nonexistent. Not being afraid of an honorable death was one thing, but the thought of an agonizing demise after months of torture and interrogation happened to trigger a primal need to survive.

"MALMAL scouting party?" Rew asked in a whisper.

"No. Lumineers," Shan replied, her voice hushed. "A rogue group of raiders and extremists. They capture travelers and torture them until they give up any valuables or loved ones that might have a worthy stash. They must have seen the explosions. It's best if we just let them pass."

Rew nodded, watching with wide eyes as they barreled by only several hundred feet away. The raiders commanded an impressive amount of bodies, numbering upwards of fifty to a hundred individuals onboard vehicles of varying designs. It was clear as to why they called themselves Lumineers. Their rovers and hovercrafts, along with their uniforms, were decorated in a phosphorescent light show. The glow-in-the-dark procession resembled a parade likely to be seen in the streets of Sanctuary; except this one consisted of a band of howling murderers.

Their stolen collection of vehicles kicked up a wall of sand and dirt. Shan felt a wave of relief wash over her as she realized the slow-drifting haze would allow significant cover as they continued to move south in search for the outpost. Once she was sure the last of them had zoomed on by, she excavated herself from the dune.

"Gah, I hate sand," Rew said, shaking his head back and forth like a wet dog. It was the first time Shan noticed that his brown hair had been pulled back in a neat bun. "No matter how hard you try, there's always little bits that get where they're not supposed to."

Shan didn't reply, but she couldn't deny that this was one thing the two could agreed on. After taking a moment to rid themselves of as much of the tiny, black granules as possible, they moved on in haste, attempting to make up for lost time.

Shan Li knew the original mission time was a bust as Darkpathe, their only means of extraction, now lay scattered in pieces across the desert sand. But over the years since she'd become a full-fledged DEITY, these upending scenarios were almost expected. She was trained to adapt to, and overcome, whatever the mission threw at her. Even if it meant being stranded in the middle of hostile territory with no escape.

The Blackout Zone was a harsh life. Granted, the coolness of the atmosphere beneath the cloud cover was a plus in a world devastated by rising temperatures, but the resulting darkness could drive most individuals mad. With the onyx landscape at her feet and the inky clouds churning above, it was hard to distinguish where the two met on the horizon. It was like walking in an empty void, only, in this black expanse there was still life. A well-equipped, hard-to-kill, desperate version of it that made even the most battle-hardened veterans consider their next move with care.

After a time, they topped another dune. They were relieved to find the outpost down in the valley that lay before them. The mangrove forest wrapped around from the east, spilling over into the sandy flatlands below. Their luminous glow backlit the fortified position that occupied the once vast, empty space.

"There it is," Rew said, bringing out his high-tech binoculars. Shan needn't use such technology. Not that she had anything against it, but as a veteran DEITY she'd developed her skills around their absence, making her a much more efficient weapon. "You were right. It's nothing like the images. They're definitely guarding something."

Shan raised her arm, pressing several of the symbols on the dispenser. She stuffed the handful of Injections into the small space between her leg and shin guard.

"What are you doing?" he asked, lowering the binoculars.

"I'm not putting my life on the line trusting in this prototype contraption. Just in case, I'd like to have a reasonable option to fall back on," Shan said, dispensing another capsule of Infrarød, preparing to inject herself. Rew nodded in acknowledgment, although, she wondered if he'd ever seen a DEITY in action.

Looking at him in the low light cast up from the valley, Shan could sense how new all this was to him. Why had they chosen to send him on this mission? It seemed increasingly conflicting when she considered the fact that the CFO had specifically picked her, as she'd assumed, based on her skill in the field. What did Rew possess that made him such a vital component? She resigned to keeping a close eye on him rather than asking directly.

Injecting the dose, her mind quickly adjusted to the heat vision. The blue of the surrounding cold sand accented the red of the heated building and the half dozen guards defending it. The MALMAL soldiers wore metallic armored suits – not unlike the knights from stories of old – which contained a large majority of their body heat. Fortunately, heat had to escape the armor from somewhere, the reddish lines at the joints and face unknowingly giving them away in the supposed darkness.

One of the soldiers stood head and shoulders taller than the rest: a Knight. The armored warrior had positioned himself in front of the small building's double doors, a shield in one hand and a long spear rising beside him in the other. His armor and weapons may have appeared ancient in design, but the Knight himself would be far more advanced than one might initially believe.

"Looks like we have a challenge ahead of us, rookie," Shan said, not taking her eyes from the scene below.

"Well, Challenge is my middle name," he said in response. When her annoyed glare circled around to rest on him, he continued. "Nah, not really. Actually, I don't even have a middle name. It's quite odd really, I–"

"Quiet," Shan Li hissed. "This is no joking matter. That Knight is an elite warrior in the ranks of MALMAL, trained to combat DEITY's. We'll need to work together in order to take him down quickly."

Rew nodded enthusiastically, swinging up Claudette from where it hung by its shoulder strap. "I've got your back, DEITY Shan. Just lead the way," he said, an irritating grin sprouting up at the corners of his mouth.

Shan stared at him for a long, silent moment. "What is with you?" she asked.

"Honestly," Rew said, adopting a serious tone, "I've come to understand that I have difficulty in comprehending the severity of my decision making and its resulting outcomes. This affected me as a child, causing my parents to think I was simply a hard-headed troublemaker in need of constant stern punishment. However, this only perpetuated my state of mind as the proper cultivation of developmental skills was never effectively implemented. This, and well, I've had to go to the bathroom for the past fifteen minutes."

There simply was no sensible way to respond. Shan had to concentrate intently in order to keep her mouth shut.

"Oh, that was a rhetorical question wasn't it? Dang it, I can never tell," Rew said, shaking his head.

Shan dismissed the irrelevant direction that had befallen the discussion. "Please, I shouldn't have asked. Now, we will flank the outpost from two directions. You, from the east and–" she cut off as she noticed something odd.

The Knight was... missing. Where had he gone? She jerked her eyes to either side of the building and its perimeter. He was nowhere to be seen. The other soldiers seemed agitated as well, posting up behind the nearest cover. It was almost as if....

"Shan, uh, we've got incoming," Rew said. She followed his gaze, tilting her head up toward the dark clouds. There, directly above them, the silvery armor of the elite warrior shimmered against the radiance of the mangrove's light, his spear and shield posed to strike as he descended upon them.