July 28th 3039 A.D

Junkyard, Outer Ring,

Kudan.

"So, care to let us in on your master plan?" Still seated in the common room, Raines, Arthur, and Dee fixed Dayle with a hard glare moments after Viper left the aircraft 100,000 credits richer than she came in. Although Raines usually backed up Dayle's play, it did not mean she was content to sit in the dark while he planned out something huge that would impact her own life.

"Of course," Dayle prompted with a snarky grin as he relaxed into the sofa. "We're a team aren't we?" Chuckling at Raines' predictable eye-roll, he began his explanation. "We're gonna be in this city for quite some time. If we're gonna find the Intel we need, we can't rely only on Vega. It'll give him too much hold over us. On the other hand, a company of some kids eager to move up in the world is much easier to handle. Plus, as far as information gathering goes, you'd be surprised the stuff children can listen in on without suspicion." Dayle shrugged his shoulders, his gaze seemingly looking at something beyond the immediate room. "A hundred thousand credits as an investment isn't the worst choice either. If she manages to pull it off, we got ourselves a fledgling information agency. If she fails, it ain't the end of the world either. We got plenty of reserves, and I'm certain we can make that amount in no time." Dayle raised a brow. "Any questions?"

Raines snorted. "Hmph. Since you've already got it all worked out, what questions could I possibly have?"

Dayle chuckled in response then turned to Arthur for confirmation. "Art?"

Arthur shrugged his shoulders as he leaned into the chair he sat on. "I have no reason to doubt you. Your plans have only nearly managed to kill us so far."

Dayle's smile stiffened somewhat at Arthur's jab as he sighed with melancholy. Indeed, the cute little kid who agreed with everything he said had begun to show signs of leaving the mother's nest. Finally, he turned to Dee with a sweet smile, "You on board?"

Caught off-guard, Dee hesitated, eyes turning from one FireRain member to the next with shock. Pointing at herself, she asked, "You're asking me?"

"Of course!" Dayle affirmed like it was the most natural thing in the world. "You're one of us now. We have to take your opinion before taking any action."

"Oh," Dee muttered. Revealing a rare smile, she cast the trio a grateful look as she said, "Thanks. I have no problem with the arrangement." Dayle was about to speak when a crafty look soon passed through Dee's eyes. "Hey, wait a moment. If I'm now a member, can I propose something?"

Dayle shivered, a sense of impending crisis causing all the hairs on his body to rise. Still, despite the warning, he could not find a reason to deny her question. "Sure," he said with difficulty. "What do you have in mind?"

Dee grinned, a savage gleam akin to a grim reaper's flashing in her eyes as she stared into Dayle's eyes. "For the sake of a better workplace, I propose there be no flirting amongst our members, or with any of our business partners."

"REJECTED!" "AGREED!"

Dayle and Raines, who had roared at the same time, glared at each other with apt hostility, electric sparks exploding between them. Dayle, whose eyes held the look of an embattled General about to watch his beloved troops be sacrificed, stated coldly, "Flirting is a natural biological phenomenon. It brings us all closer. How can you deny our basic human needs!?"

Raines rolled her eyes at him, a crafty grin on her lips as she stated. "It's two against one bud. You have to give up this time." Over the years, whenever she brought this up, Dayle would always fiercely oppose it, and with Arthur adopting a natural stance they were always deadlocked. Dayle's penchant for chasing everything with a skirt had caused her no small amount of headache when unsuspecting women joined them for missions. When a chance to finally win propped up, why would she let it go?

Dayle's eyes turned bloodshot, looking like someone had stolen his most precious item. He swiveled to Arthur, a pleading look in his eyes. "Art, bro. You've got my back, right? We can't let these girls strip us of our manhood!"

"You have a point," Arthur murmured. "I should not be on the fence any longer." Just as Dayle's eyes began to light up, Arthur's next words poured cold water on his thoughts. "I agree with Dee. Excessive flirting only brings up troubles. We should refrain from such unprofessional conducts."

"That's my boy!" Raines laughed proudly, patting Arthur's shoulders while Dayle slumped in his chair, looking like he had lost his soul. "Now we've gotten rid of a potential tumor, we can focus on the important matters." Ignoring their leader, Raines joyfully stated. "Let's discuss our current Stats & Skills, as well as lay out our current priorities going forward."

"Art, you wanna go first?" Raines suggested.

Arthur nodded briefly, then tapped his Gauntlet. A hologram instantly appeared over his arm, displaying his current stats for all to see. Like Dayle, he had fifty points from leveling, of which he allocated Constitution thirty-five points and the rest to Strength. Looking at that it wasn't hard to imagine what build he was going for.

Aside from the Singularity he got for free from Vega's generosity, Arthur had spent an additional ninety thousand credits on Pull, Throw, Lift and Slam, giving him five skills in total. His next purchase was a complete set of rare Level 10 armor with an armor defense rating of 80 and kinetic shield rating of 100 worth a hundred thousand credits. Additionally, it raised his agility by 15 points and gave a huge 40 point boost to his strength. Together, his stat points looked like this:

"Nice!" Raines complimented as she examined his stats. She knew Arthur was more inclined towards the Inhuman build. However, despite that, he did not forget to take his teammates into account as he made his choices. Since Raines was a sniper and Dayle was a maverick, it fell on him to play the dual roles of tank and crowd-controller. This was why he focused on an armor with high defense and kinetic barriers and sacrificed his agility.

The only thing she found a pity was that Arthur still had to waste a couple of points to increase his dexterity. This was to ensure his bionic abilities actually hit their targets. It was a pity because she knew that there were high-level accessories which could perform targeting calculations, removing the need for people to waste points on Dexterity. Raines sighed. She could only wait till they reached a high enough level.

Raines turned her attention to Arthur's displayed skills. "Have you decided what skills you're gonna level first?"

"I have 50 Skill Points," Arthur murmured. Most skills had a level cap of 10, with massive qualitative changes in the skills every three levels. When leveling skills, their skill costs would double at each major turning point. "I will raise Singularity two levels, then share what I have left equally among the other four skills. See how far that takes me." His choice to only raise Singularity two levels stemmed from his philosophy that a well-trained badger is sometimes more useful than an untrained lion. It was much wiser to quickly max out the levels of the lesser skills rather than focus on storing skill points to level Singularity at some future date. Who knew if he would still be alive then?

"Good Choice. Singularity's a pretty neat skill. Alright, here's mine." After confirming Arthur's evolution path, Raines displayed hers. Raines' evolutional path was the direct opposite of Arthur's. The hundred thousand credits suit she bought suffered very low defense in return for massive boosts to her dexterity and agility. Considering her primary weapons were sniper rifles and pistols, she could rely on the armour's limited strength bonus to wield them. Furthermore, rather than multiple weak skills, she chose only two top-tier skills with maddening SP requirements. Naturally Of course, the costs were quite great too. She got Invisibility for free so she only had to spend 200,000 credits on Overload. Of course with that, she was undoubtedly the largest spender of the trio with a total expenditure of 300,000 Credits

"I'll level up Overload twice first," Raines said. "After it crosses Level 3, I'll level up Invisibility."

"Why did you pick two top-tier skills?" Arthur questioned, unable to conceal a frown as he thought of the tremendous costs of leveling these skills. Raines would have no choice but to stack several levels worth of SP to be able them even once.

"invisibility's a must," Raines explained. "As for Overload, I have an idea." Turning to Dee, she revealed a smile. "With your help, I think I can make optimal use of this skill. Think you're up to it?"

Dee laughed, a competitive flash burning passed her eyes. "The only thing I fear at this point is not having work to do. Bring it on. I'll complete whatever you throw at me."

"Haha, Good to know!" Raines laughed, pleased with Dee's response.

"What about you Dace?" Dayle, who until that moment had been deathly quiet suddenly spoke up. "What did you get?"

"Dace?" Dee started, giving the young man a strange look.

"You said I couldn't call you Dee," Dayle said with a shrug, adopting a mournful look like he had been greatly wronged. "I chose another nick-name. An exclusive one if you will."

Dee's brow rose, her fingers itching to slap the smug grin that began to spread up the young man's face. It seemed Dayle was still nursing a grudge over her No-Flirting suggestion. This Dace business was probably his comeback. Dee could not help but shake her head with a wry smile at Dayle's apparent childishness. In the end, she chose to ignore him altogether and answer the question.

The first thing Dee did was to pick up a bag lying on the floor. She fished out a rusty, antique looking gauntlet and clamped it around her left arm. It instantly whirred to life, taking a sample of her DNA for confirmation of Status before updating its database with the Network. After a few seconds passed, it finally displayed Dee's current status in a similar format to the others.

Unlike Raines and Arthur, Dee had no need to buy a suit of armor since she had no intentions of going into the field. Instead, she spent 20,000 credits on Tech Armour, a skill which drew on the Gauntlet's energy reserves to generate a strong kinetic barrier. The combat drones, she got for free. However, her real purpose of getting these Combat Drones was to study them, so she could create her own in the future.

"Why is your Level Not Applicable?" Arthur asked, pointing at the oddity.

"Resident Engineers do not have the conventional levels," Dee explained. "Instead we use Certification Levels to determine what skills we have access to. Also, unlike you guys, we can directly use credits to pay for skills and stats. Our Certification Levels are classified into Beginner, Scholar, Expert, Master, and Empyrean. If we want to increase our certifications, we either have to bring a world-shaking invention, or steadily accumulate points by turning in our inventions."

"What level are you?" Raines asked, her curiosity piqued.

"I'm a Beginner," Dee explained with an awkward scratch of her head. "Been too busy with Vega's business and the Outer Slum's chaos to have time for the Scholar Certification. In fact, I probably wouldn't have the Beginner Certification if I did not absolutely need it to get certain things."

"What about your Old Man?" Dayle suddenly asked, his gaze piercing into Dee's.

"Father..." Dee muttered, meeting Dayle's gaze. With a hate-filled growl, she revealed, "He was an Empyrean." Seeing Raines and Arthur's puzzled looks, she said with a harrowing sigh, "My old man... he wasn't the best of fathers out there. Growing up, he was always cooped up in his lab working on some new invention or another. It wasn't until I started taking interest in his work that we really bonded." She let out a wry smile as she recalled the nostalgic scent of oil and metal, a middle-aged man with grey hair staring intently at the reaction between two strange liquids. "He tried to pass on everything he learned to me after that, continuously promising that the last project he was working on would be a real game-changer, and he could live comfortably off of it for the rest of his life. He was supposed to quit and change his focus to grooming me into becoming the best engineer out there."

"I'm guessing it didn't go that way," Raines muttered, her expression stern.

"Haha. No, no it didn't." Dee laughed, the steely glint in her eyes drawing a stark contrast to the seemingly jovial laughter. "Father did complete his life's work. The Mobile Cities he designed completely upended the world, and he should have been praised by everyone. Instead, some jealous Empyreans colluded to steal my father's research, then labeled him a thief who stole the plans from their association. Soon after, Father was stripped of his certifications and lost his home, forcing us to seek shelter in the slums. Father could not take the shock and passed away a few months into our stay in the slums."

Arthur frowned, feeling something was off. "Wait, if your father was an Empyrean, how could be framed so easily? Didn't he have connections or anything?"

Dee chewed her lip with a bitter smile. "Father was not an actual Empyrean yet. He was a Master, but the Mobile City technology, if it was credited to him would have made him an Empyrean. It was Father's dream since he was a child to one day be an Empyrean. It was what he lived and breathed for. That was why he could not bear the shock of losing his Engineering License altogether, relegated to a status below a Beginner. However, no matter what the world says, to me, Father will always be an Empyrean." Her eyes flashed with a resolute glint as if daring the world itself to deny her claim.

"I had no idea," Arthur murmured, instantly feeling guilty. "I'm sorry."

"No need," Dee cajoled with a short wave of her hand. "It was a long time ago. It would've been weirder if you knew." The room descended into a tense silence. Dee, feeling guilty over bringing down the mood, clapped her hands with a fervor and pronounced, "So, what're our plans going forward?"

"First things First," Dayle said as he patted the wall behind him. "We gotta know what it'll take to restore this ship. This continent's too big for us to be relying on Sprites."

"Yeah! That's right!" Arthur excitedly seconded, not making an effort to hide the glee in his eyes. "What would it take to get Sere—er—Ventura airborne?"

"You guys were serious about that?" Dee's eyes widened with shock. "You would be better off buying a new ship. This model's quite old. There're a lot of better models out there."

"No dice," Raines disagreed with a chuckle. She gestured at Arthur's shining eyes. "Art rarely asks for anything. For him alone, we would restore this ship."

"Besides, it can be considered fate that we met the one person who lives on this ship," Dayle said with a dangerous smile. "I have no desire to fight against fate. We'll be restoring this ship. Question is, can you do it? And if you can, what would it cost?"

Staring at the trio Dee suddenly felt an urge for a smoke. She fished for a pack in her jacket but then remembered that she had been too busy recently to get a new pack. Frustrated, she could inhale deeply as she sunk deeply in thought. A few moments passed like this before she raised her head with a grave look in her eyes. "Aside from the main skeleton, most of the electricals are shot. There's no engine and the cockpit needs a complete replacement. If we're talking barebones replacement, then five million credits will be enough. That doesn't cover the engine though. We'll have to raid an old warehouse to find a Firefly model Engine. That's how antique those are."

"Wow," Dayle whistled. "Five million huh? If we're going for the full treatment, how much is that gonna cost?"

"Double."

"Ten million credits!?" Raines' eyes went wide. No wonder she said it would be better to buy a new one. In the current market, a second-hand airship could go for as low as twenty-thirty million depending on its condition. What Raines didn't realize was that if they also had to pay for the engine, then they would have been looking at prices upwards of fifty million.

"If we can scavenge the engine, can we not also loot warehouses for the other parts?" Arthur asked doubtfully.

Dee nodded. "Indeed we can do that. I was only giving a price range for if you want to buy everything up front."

Dayle nodded. "I agree with Art. We should prioritize scavenging the parts for now. Anyway, Vega should know some locations we can raid. In exchange for a profit, he should not have any reason to deny us the information." Dayle glanced at his teammates as he declared with a clap. "Okay, so for now we prioritize missions that can earn us large amounts of credits or get parts for the ship." Turning to Raines, he added, "As for our little information agency, you guys can leave its development up to me. I have big plans."

"Okay, Mr. Big Plans," Raines snorted. "How long until our first mission?"

"It's in two weeks, at a place called Nadiv," Dayle said. "It's a small town not too far from here. It should be a day's journey by Sprite." Dayle frowned. "Since the level cap's at 15, we'll have to be careful not to kill too many monsters on our way."

"Pfft!" Dee chuckled at Dayle's words. "Other people are scared they would die when traveling the wilderness. You, on the other hand, are scared you'll level too fast." Shaking her head, she questioned. "What're your stats anyway Mr. Tough Guy."

"Read and weep!" Dayle laughed as he proudly displayed his stats.

Raines, Arthur and Dee felt their eyelids twitch as they stared at the unreasonable stats. What the hell kinda elixir did this bastard drink!? How could he be this strong? Raines was sure that if she did not pick a Rare Suit, she would have fallen far behind in all stats. Seeing the smug grin on Dayle's face, she could not help but mock, "I'm sure there's a catch right? What's the catch?"

Dayle's expression instantly deflated, defeated by Raines' abnormally sharp intuition. "I can't wear suits anymore."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Arthur could not help but pat Dayle on the shoulder, expressing his condolences. Who could blame him? Wearing a cool Ironman suit with multiple abilities was the dream of most men. To have the possibility in front of you, yet be told you would never be able to use it for the rest of your life... How painful was that?

Dayle grumbled, his expression drawing humourous laughter from Raines who absolutely delighted in his troubles. It even managed to draw an amused chuckle from Dee, who was also more than pleased to see the arrogant Dayle taken down a notch. Dayle was about to retort when his gauntlet oddly buzzed against his arm. He checked it, eyes widening when he saw it was an urgent message from the Lt. Watson demanding they return.

Dayle looked up from his gauntlet and shared a look with Arthur and Raines, their furrowed brows showing they got the same message. He nodded then turned to Dee with an apologetic expression. "Sorry. We'll continue this later. We have some issues to take care of in our own world."

"It's fine," Dee said as she rose to her feet. "I need to run some errands in town anyway. I'll see you guys when you get back."

"Got it," Dayle said with a smile. After sharing a few more words, Dayle, Arthur and Raines retired to their rooms and swiftly logged out.

*******

????????????

At a certain location several miles beneath the earth, a civilization yet unknown to the world secretly thrived. Despite suffering the harshest of the Radiation Poisoning over the centuries, they had managed to not only rise but turn their initial disadvantages into great opportunities that boosted their bloodlines as a whole.

These people had bided their time over the centuries, gathering their strength and nursing a deep-seated grudge for all creatures above-ground. Now, they were almost ready. Soon they would be on the cusp of rising. When they did, they would do so with a huge bang! Letting the world know: We are the Vorg! We Shall Take Back What is Ours!

Within a certain building carved into the very stones of the earth, a large Vorg standing at eight feet tall steadily marched through the large hallways, dressed smartly in a tight-fitting military suit. The medals on his chest and the burns on his cheeks told the story of a veteran who had not only survived on the battlefield but accomplished numerous large achievements.

Although the vorg had long retired from active duty, he still forced his way into a desk job related to intelligence. He firmly believed the day he retired from the military as a whole would be the day he died.

The other vorgs he passed in the hallway did not dare meet his gaze on account of the flaming rage that currently burned in them. It was a good thing the folder in his hand was made from paper, otherwise, if it was an electronic device, it would have long been crushed to pieces from his insane, rage-filled grip. In fact, those under him were used to his rage, so they usually made sure to print out their reports before bringing it over. Many PDA's and gauntlets had been crushed in rage by the vorg.

The vorg finally reached the end of the hallway, where a large door stood. He nodded at the two guards by the door. "Is Victor in?"

"Yes sir," the guard on the left replied. "I'll let him know you're coming in." The guard tapped on his gauntlet and reported, "General Arda Berdem to see you, Sir."

A cold voice came in from the other end. "Let him in."

"Thank you," General Arda grimly thanked the guard as he stepped past the opened door. He walked into the familiar circular office, his gaze once again drawn to the shelves that lined the walls, each row densely packed with different books or files. As expected, the content had changed since the last time he came. Despite there being easily over a thousand books and files on the shelves, they were always finished and swapped out before his next visit. Arda turned his gaze from the shelves to the table at the center where a young-looking vorg sat, poring over some files, long, dark hair secured into a ponytail.

Upon General Arda's entrance, the vorg looked up from his desk, a warm smile on his face. He stood from his desk, displaying a frame which would have been mocked by all vorg's a century ago. The vorg, standing at six foot, bore a lean frame which made him seem like a baby when compared to the General opposite him. That, compared to his mutation which gave him two extra arms had made for an unpleasant childhood. Despite all that, it was General Arda who instinctively shrunk back when the little vorg approached.

"Overlord Viktor," General Arda greeted with a polite bow. "We have figured out the reason for our loss of communication with the Hasuni base."

"Oh?" Viktor exclaimed with a smile, as he directed the general to take a seat. Taking a seat opposite the General, his dark eyes shone with a hidden light as he said, "Please, do tell..."