— 03:46 THE BLACK

A white light shimmered and reflected against the strips of chrome, rippling as it crawled up the metal frame. In the darkness the light traveled slowly reaching longingly for the small flank of thick glass vibrating in its shell.

Regina, who had been lying motionlessly in what had previously been almost complete darkness was passed over by the light as it reached for the shuttle. She was strapped in loosely, her hair was short and dark and contrasted against her body that was covered with a tightly fitting compact white and chrome armoured suit.

To her left on the shuttles wall hung an equally white, and equally dangerous looking gun, accompanied by various tools and a screen that blinked erratically.

As the light drew itself over her dormant frame Regina could not help but lean forward to stare out of the window while the shuttle passed by the heat of the rings. They were bright and lazy and mesmerizing as they continued to rotate round and round, unaware of the finite movements that passed in the otherwise empty space.

As the sphere passed out of the windows limited view Regina transferred her restless gaze back towards the console directly in front of her. Projecting their ETA to earth, its light reached the cushioned wall directly above her head and her fingers moved and traced the outline of the count down, slipping against the walls fabric and pausing for just a moment.

Every-time she awoke from suspension she loathed the silence as she drifted the last of the distance to Earth. There was often a lag in her Link's programming during the deceleration phase because her mind lay thick with the sedative, and in order to connect to the shuttle she had to reboot the entire system and her headset; which, often made her head spin.

She had travelled back and forth between the surface and The Return enough to know even without the countdown that passing the rings meant she was getting close and a soft twitch began to bead itself at the back of her skull and dip behind her eyelids.

Suddenly the shuttle and her head system linked and shuttered on simultaneously and she was bombarded with data that sped through her mind blurring the numbers that continued their reversed count in the now empty and vacant space that pressed on all sides.

The software was a hundred years old, though nothing new had been created since Earth's deterioration anyway. It allowed for calculation, software download and upload, and presented an ability to function with unequal analytical skill. When Regina had joined the Seek Unit she had been fitted almost immediately, and without the software she found that her mind seemed dormant and useless.

Now content having her link solidified, Regina leaned back into the coarse material and felt the straps that had been pulled tight against her body grow slack. She closed her eyes to review the next Sector she had been assigned to, 1294. Hopefully she would finally be able to return with what she had been designated to seek for the past 200 missions, and maybe this time she would have less disturbances during her search.

— 08:17 SECTOR 1294

Wind brushed against the wood frame of a side leaning shack that sat delicately placed against the wall of a cliff. Sheltered and braced against the sturdy rock standing, the small enclosure that dipped into the rock wall was occupied by the last two souls that walked the soils of Earth on any given day.

Emma, who was still sound asleep, fitfully shifted on her bunk as the whole structure creaked around her. Despite the groaning that periodically shook her bed, she remained comatose. Wind storms were more than common, and despite her alarm that had gone off hours before, the storm, like many mornings and afternoons previous, allowed her a pleasant rest.

It was nearly 45 minutes later that a much louder and much more aggressive series of alarms began to go off, awaking her a second time. Despite the callous shrieks around her, Emma calmly and precisely slipped out of her cocoon of harsh fabric and immediately reached for her head gear.

Her set was ancient and misshapen with adjoined scraps she had collected while visiting the surrounding Sectors, and it consisted of 4 distinct yet simple pieces rusted and brown despite the care she put into them. The two distinct ear pieces that now sat pressed into either side of her head looked like they were from different eras of technology and would have blocked out some of the sound had the alarm not been echoing from within her mind as soon as the contact locked in.

The hydrogel back shaped itself to her skull while two sensors snapped into place connecting the back and ear pieces as one. She felt the cracking chin piece extend, leaving her mouth open to the dense air like a dusty tunnel until she might have need of the rebreather. Happy, like she was every morning when the chin still worked from the original set, Emma immediately grinned at her handiwork before a myriad of warning data played across her internal consciousness.

Unsurprisingly, none of the warnings were quite as concerning as the alarms suggested. The wind speed was picking up and accordingly, the system was designed to warn her when the building might start falling over more than it already was. Scanning the data Emma was quick to note that though the outside monitor was picking up wind speed in a dangerous range they had been in much worse shape before.

As she moved on to the next warning she laughed bitterly before dismissing it without a second thought. During wind storms the system would often malfunction and alert her of an incoming shuttle or unidentified vehicle in the Sector's airspace. At this point it had happened so many times Emma was in the process of writing a code to eliminate the function all together.

"Roach! Get your butt up!" Emma yelled.

Half walking half stumbling as she moved into the only other room in the small building, sighing with relief to her ears as the alarms immediately cut off.

The whole room was filled with small knickknacks or medium sized objects that Emma had collected and now functioned as sort of decorations. Each object no longer had any function, and with some Emma didn't even know what they had been for, but she valued them all greatly. One of the walls in particular was completely shelved with worn, charred and ripped books that Emma added to on any occasion she could, though reading could be quite difficult for her.

"Roach let's go, it's chow time" She called again before opening up a large closet filled with rotating metal drawers.

Pulling out two small pouches Emma separated a portion out of each and proceeded automatically, placing each on a rectangular shaped plate and dumping the rest of the contents together before resealing and placing it back in its designated drawer.

The food was two of the 40 dry-pack's she had found somewhere in the most Eastern Sector she had visited and because they did not have water to spare it remained that way. However, Emma had found a cache with honey and salt the year previous and was less than moderate in its dispense. On her own portion she dropped a drizzle of honey, and on the latter sprinkled a layer of salt.

Sitting down on a metal chair the pitter patter of feet against the hard floor echoed in the small space and while balancing her food in one hand Emma moved the second to the floor mechanically. In the same motion she reached for an adjacent drawer, picking up the singular spoon within and dragging it across her plate as she sighed softly.

"You know boy, just because we can't be out at work doesn't mean you're allowed to slack off on me"

The words died in the dusty air and Emma turned her head down while reaching her hand out to rub the fur of a brown and black blotched mutt. The middle aged dog pressed its head into Emma's thigh before whining softly in what Emma deemed recognition and assurances.

She had found him a few Sectors away during one of her scavenge runs years before and had no idea who had cared for him, or how he had survived, or even been born into the desolate and lifeless world they now resided. But then again, here she was.

The wind had died down some and Emma noted that they could probably head out soon without too much trouble. Relaying the data to the main console, though she didn't know why without anyone but her to read it, Emma pushed the dog's head towards its food before speaking around a bite of her own.

"Let's go — get your grub on before I eat it all"

It didn't take long for Emma to finish, Roach even less time, and Emma quickly and efficiently wiped the dishes clean and placed them back in their designated drawers.

Preparing for their trip, Emma collared Roach and gathered all of her daily supplies. In case they got separated, the collar was linked to her headset and would track him as long as he remained in range. It reached all the way across the surrounding 2 Sectors and she had made it herself.

Letting out Roach, he moved promptly to the Dozer sniffing at the large track and pausing for her to catch up.

Walking around the large machine and accounting for all of the vital parts, Emma spoke allowed at each section of the vehicle, informing Roach that, "The track was looking torn up" or "The gears behind the shredder looked like they would need replacing soon".

Running her fingers across the faded W. E. on the door and climbing into the cab Emma released the lever while setting up the computer that served as the dashboard.

Setting the Dozer to Shred and Compact like she had for the past 20 years of her life, Emma pulled out onto a worn path travelling for 4 hours before reaching a new road and continued 3 more hours to the next city, as she had worked through all the closer ones.

Before she started compacting the mass amounts of trash and cleaning up anything and everything she could, Emma turned off her route and headed deeper into the new city. It may have been against the rules, but it wasn't as if there was anyone left to enforce them.

Leaving the vehicle in an open area and wandering through the undisturbed buildings, Emma left Roach to explore by himself while she continued deeper into the city in search of the least run down building.

After walking almost to the city edge, Emma climbed to the top of the largest structure she could find that looked like it wasn't about to fall over.

Reaching the top she turned off her headset as she tried to make out anything she could from what turned out to actually be one of the highest points in the city. The sky was dense with clouds and dirt, a layer of grey and yellow atmosphere separating the desolate surface from the sun which kept the temperature below 10 degrees. Except on some good weather days, which unsurprisingly, were few and far between.

Lost in thought Emma noticed a lightening of the surrounding landscape and for a sudden moment she was bathed in pure and bright sunlight. Closing her eyes and lifting her head to the warmth, her headset recharged as her mind wandered to the emptiness of everything.

She wondered often how she had ended up in the Waste Evacuation program, or mainly how she had survived at all. At 8 years old, wandering in the windstorm for days she had come across a dozer, and a woman named Ingrid who took her in and explained to her the world, and their purpose.

It was 2148 when the government had suited thousands of volunteers with gear before leaving. Designating couples to Sectors, and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

The plan was for the best of Earth's population to leave the planet so it could rejuvenate from everything they had done to it. Hundreds of thousands of people just gone in a matter of weeks, and anyone left without access to the scattered bases would die within the same amount of time due to the ever decreasing temperatures, absence of almost any kind of food, and barely breathable and soon to be deadly air quality. Things had been improving steadily but access to food was almost impossible and even the air quality was iffy most days.

Emma didn't know who she was, or where she was from. But she had been raised by Ingrid like a daughter and so she had continued the work. She learned that almost all of the Waste Evacuator's had been randomly conscripted and paired by the corporation's who then killed their families to ensure their cooperation.

Emma imagined that was why so many of the W.E.'s had disappeared initially and over the past 100 or so years; there wasn't enough food or resources for the remaining population to share or even enough equipment to filter enough oxygen. Bases and compounds must have been taken down by everyone left behind. Even shared by survivors and W.E's, the limited rations and air quality would eventually run out or malfunction causing premature failure.

Emma really didn't know what had happened. She had not seen a living soul in 16 years, when Ingrid, the only person she could remember, disappeared. It was during a windstorm that ripped through the surface, causing the most destruction Emma had seen so far and almost demolishing their base completely.

She had put any hope of finding Ingrid, or any other person, behind her years ago after traveling hundreds of miles in all directions and reaching as many Sectors as possible: each one emptier then the next.

Now, Emma just focused on going about the daily tasks and protocols she had been taught. And whether it was out of a desperate will to live, or a desire to find purpose after everyone had gone and no one had come back she didn't know, and didn't care to think about it.

Watching the sun through the break in the clouded mass, she lost herself in the warmth and the sounds of laughter that came along side her memories of Ingrid. Content in her thoughts and the dissipating light, it took Emma longer than it should have to hear Roach barking loud and aggressively a few blocks away.

As the sound broke through her thoughts, Emma was on her feet. The sound of his barking became muffled as she swung her body down and entered the building through the closest hole in the roof.

As the sound grew and faltered in pitch her body became even more tense as she descended the endless flights of stairs, cursing herself for breaking the rules, even if it was something she did on a daily basis.

Exiting the building, her feet sounded harsh and violent against the now eerie and regular silence of the surface, the echo of a distant bark blown into dust by the ever present wind.

"Roach!" She called out, despite her headsets exact pinpoint on his location.

Heading towards where the sound had dissipated, he hadn't been moving in minutes, but as Emma skidded through a path between two buildings the sensor began to ping with movement again.

Coming to his location Emma watched from afar as he zigzagged across a large and empty walking rail, setting off old advertisements that had been recharged by the Sun's light minutes before. The sounds blared, and colours flashed loudly in the otherwise silent air and she couldn't tell if it was their sound or something else that was sending him into a frenzy.

"What the hell are you doing!?"

Her body was in shape enough that her breathing and heart rate should have only increased minimally from the exertion. Though, both were elevated due to the fear caused by Roach's barking, and lack of air quality. Emma mentally kicked herself at her stupidity in not putting on her rebreather and reckless choice to climb and leave him alone in a new place.

Still panicked by Roach's odd behaviour Emma watched as he paused and moved in erratic patterns, and the closer she came upon him, the worse it seemed to become.

"Come here buddy, it's okay" She soothed as she slowed to a walk, approaching as gently as possible incase something had made him so crazy he didn't recognize her.

Eyes firmly set to his movements he seemed deeply disturbed by something and Emma knew that she shouldn't grab him in case he reacted on instinct.

"Roach"

She spoke softly, stepping closer but he took off and Emma had no choice but to follow him.

He descended downward and into what appeared to be an old water bed, which was now, and had been, empty of water for over two hundred years.

She refrained from calling his name again and instead kept her distance as they both ran, further away from hollowed out civilization, passing massive freight ships that looked disemboweled, covered in blown dirt and dust, and left to rot.

Even though he could have outrun Emma, Roach appeared to be following something and it made his path irregular enough for her to stay just behind him. She had no idea what he saw or heard, her sensor wasn't picking up on any object and it was then that her headset began its alarm again.

First, there was another windstorm approaching from the East, and if she wanted to reach her base in time she needed to leave in the next hour. Two, there was another ship entering her airspace.

If she had not been worried about Roach, Emma probably would have stopped stiff in place at her realization. But as her Set began to alarm her again, she realized that someone was about to land, and the sound Roach was following was the ship's entrance into the Earth's atmosphere. Roach was probably leading her to its landing site, which her Set reminded her, meant the surrounding 150 meter radius would probably soon be aflame and flooded with Carbon Monoxide.

Refusing to give up on catching Roach, Emma contemplated her options as the sound of a sonic boom shook the earth beneath her.

"Jesus Roach, slow down" was mumbled out of Emma's now heaving chest as she changed course, cutting him off as he curved to the right and flinging her buddy forward in a tackle as he came into reach.

Immediately the brown and black mutt was thrown sideways, with Emma flailing along beside him. Her head unprotected as she bounced against rock and dirt, slipping down a slope her hips and shoulders ricocheting repeatedly off hard rock, flooding her with pain.

When their two bodies finally came to a stop, she rushed to Roach checking him over for any injuries. Her headset sputtered to life and with only a few glitches informed her that she had thrown his body and head against a rock and he was merely unconscious. Emma immediately gasped in relief, though she had been gasping most of the time, trying to get enough oxygen in her lungs to function.

Heaving the large dog into her arms Emma pinged and centred the ship's descent and began her sprint away from its most likely landing point, sputtering for air and hobbling, she ran as fast as she could hoping she would get away in time.

— 17:37 Descent To Sector 1294

Regina was almost entirely detached as she entered the Earth's atmosphere, unlike her first, or even twentieth trip, her attitude grew darker and darker the more time she spent wandering the surface.

On her first mission the entirety of the landscape shocked her with disgust. Profoundly desolate and dirty in comparison to her clean and shiny existence in space, it was nothing like the visuals they had played on The Return and her disappointment was irreversible against the barren world.

When she had set foot in the city that first day she pictured that it was where her Grandparents had been from. Her mind contemplating scenarios on how her parents were born on that very soil, it was the history and future she had wanted to be a part of when she had applied to the Seek Unit.

Still after years of traveling back and forth, due to the ability to take a small number of rations at a time, Regina kept coming back. She was one of four recruits that still continued the mission, systematically scanning; taking temperature, and calculating O2 levels from one end of the Earth to the other, seeking life, a green growth that had been extinct for well over a hundred years.

Everyone but the four had finally admitted that the Earth was without repair, it could no longer sustain life. Human kind had destroyed every living thing, including the 12,489 people they had left to clean up their mess and the Billion others that they simply left to die.

The shuttle she had traveled in was set to autopilot from the moment she left to the moment she would return, so she simply sat and waited patiently as it landed on the surface as gently as physically possible, yet still jostling her in her seat.

Absorbing the impact before releasing her belts and strapping on her gun, Regina put each tool in its designated position on her belt and hit the switch on the back of her suit that triggered her complete headset. The white compact metal efficiently spread from the bottom of her neck to the dip in her skull, snaking to her ears while the O2 filter came up around her mouth as the ship depressurized and the shuttle door opened automatically.

— 17:46

Emma had her rebreather in her mouth and was contemplating whether she should start a headlong sprint back to the Dozer before the storm hit, or wait for the ship to land. She was tired and yet so excited about the existence of what she hoped was another person that she was having a hard time separating her feelings about human contact, Roach, and the alarm that kept reminding her she needed to head back now or they both might not make it.

It was then that she felt the temperature increase and the speck of chrome that she had been staring at in longing indecision grow exponentially. Transforming into a medium sized shuttle, it landed 200 meters from Emma without pause as flames ripped from its engine.

Despite her excitement the O2 marker which began to fluctuate because of the increase in CO2 captured her attention. She didn't know what to do with Roach and if he had been awake he would have already transitioned to unconsciousness from the hypoxia. As the stats stabilized Emma placed Roach behind a large rock that jutted out in the otherwise barren water bed. Certain that he had enough air to stay alive her curiosity was peaked once again.

Turning back to the ship, she wander closer as the flames began to dissipate. Jumping at the loud noise signalling the ships decompression, Emma faltered in her steps again and took three steps back when a seamless landing door folded its way from the top of the hull to the bottom. Her heartbeat was well above normal, and she could feel her body sweating despite the air that had cooled back down to its regular temperature.

The O2 stats were slowly increasing despite the incoming storm and Emma was about to retract her rebreather when a white figure stepped from the ship's centre. Almost falling onto dusty ground, just catching themselves and landing on what looked like very heavy feet.

Emma was awe struck by the figure, they glowed in the otherwise empty world, shining in the dim light where Emma simply blended into the dirt. Emma was bouncing with excitement, it had been years and years since she had been near anything alive, let alone clean. It overtook her and pressing for her rebreathers retraction it was hardly passed her lips before her muffled yelling broke the now empty silence.

"Hey!"

Regina turned her head in panicked surprise and without thinking tilted her gun from where it was snapped to her back, letting gravity pull it into her fingers before spinning her body, planting her foot and firing 2 rounds at the loud noise.

"What the —"

Emma was halfway through mumbling as the Link system alarmed her immediately of incoming fire and her entire body threw itself away from the onslaught of blue beams that would have put two large holes directly through her ragged uniform clad torso.

Emma recognized a soft and surprised, "Oh" before the sound of boots on dirt echoed through her thoughts and there was a figure pointing a very large, very shiny weapon directly at her forehead.

"Please recount your Sector Number, Officer Number, and Directive"

The figure spoke without emotion, almost mechanically as it hovered over Emma's very dirty, and very slumped figure. Her blonde hair was spread amongst the rocks, and though it was almost browned in patches she had cut it to just over shoulder length with her knife once a year to keep it manageable.

"Uh, well this is sector 1294, I don't really have an officer number, and what the hell does Directive mean?"

The words spilled from Emma's mouth without thought and seemed to disappear into the blue glow that remained unmoved, blocking her vision of the person's face.

"Mandate, Regulation, Position, Protocol?"

Regina shot out the words in quick succession. Distaste and disdain bleeding through her voice before she was shifting her movements as the figure beneath her began sitting up despite the weapon pointed directly at them.

"Oh, I guess you would say Waste Evac."

All her fear of being blown in two left her mind as she recognized human emotion in the figures voice and stance.

"What's your direction?" Emma asks quickly pushing the weapon away from her body as she stood at full height, the figure staring at her in shock as she moved the weapon aside.

"Directive" Regina stated tersely in response, "and it's Classified"

Returning to her detached state, Regina was surprised that one of the filthy Mudbreathers had survived. Command would be overjoyed to learn at least one W. E. base was still functioning.

Returning her full attention to the figure in front of her Regina tightened her gaze as she looked from the woman's torn and duct taped boots, across her ripped and patched uniform that looked like more dirt than fabric and came to rest on her streaked face, surrounded by wild brown, or perhaps blonde curls. It didn't really matter.

"I am Regina" She spat the words into the air.

Maneuvering her weapon around her shoulder and back into its position with a metallic clank, as the magnetized surface of her suit connected with the matching white edge.

"Regina" Emma recited it back, and there was I smile in her voice as she spoke.

"And I, would be Emma"

Flashing green eyes and overjoyed at being in another person's presence, Emma was grinning madly.

"Emma" Regina tried out the name, distracted by the probability of life in the Sector if a person was able to survive.

"Please continue with your original directive" Regina spoke even whilst turning away from Emma and marching back to her shuttle without another glance.

Emma, who was in shock at the court response, thought Regina was going to get back into the white ship and fly away again. Instead Regina closed the hull door before strutting in the direction of the city that sat menacingly over the otherwise vacant horizon. Neither turning back or acknowledging Emma who still stood on the uneven ground watching the woman depart with a grin.

A/N Well there you have it. 4000 words of background and setup for our two ladies to meet, now shall we see what they get into?

And I apologize but I really wanted to set it all up before they met. If it is hard to follow for some reason or something really doesn't make sense, advice and criticism is accepted in all forms. Thanks for reading!