Bouncing along through the ravines under the sparse guidance of Juliet's hazy memories, the Sunderer rolled onward into the evening. After taking a musical detour through the few country-music data cards, the group had settled on the classic rock albums once more, nodding their heads and tapping their feet to whatever played to pass the time. Throughout the trip, Juliet's eyes never left the road, scanning for anything that might jog her memory.

"Any idea how close we are?" Edward asked, idly running his hand over his helmet sitting in his lap to rub off the dust that had accumulated on its deep-purple metallic surface.

"I'm not quite sure… sorry," Juliet hesitantly replied. "It's just… wait, there!" she blurted, lunging forward toward the driver's seat to get a better look.

"Yeah, I see it," Daniel said, shielding his eyes to get a better look. Ahead, a large barricade of boulders sat on either side of a crude pig-iron gate, pitted and greyed from decades in the harsh environment. The New Conglomerate medic lightly pressed on the brake, slowly coasting the heavy vehicle to a halt. "Is this ringin' any bells, ma'am?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder at Juliet.

"Well, yes… no… I think?" She replied, deliberating on each word as she thought. "It's vaguely familiar, but it's been so long, I'm just not sure. I'm sorry…"

"Nah, don't be," James said, retracting his feet from the dashboard as he shut off the music, tossing the data card back in the glovebox with the others. "Looks like we've got company, though," he added, watching as two figures stepped up over the wall on either side of the gate.

At James' words, Sofia leaped up from her seat, leaning over the driver's seat to get a look at her opponents. "Definitely not TR," she grumbled, noting the crude firearm-shaped things they carried. "This thing got riot speakers? I'd rather get on the guns and cut 'em down and force our way in than step out into a trap, but if we can talk to them from in here…"

"What's this? Captain Sofia Izetta, being reasonable?!" Tony declared incredulously. "I thought I'd never see the day." Sofia promptly gave him a raised middle finger, not bothering to acknowledge her recruit otherwise.

"Look'n to me like they're scared," Daniel remarked as he slipped his helmet on. "Look at 'em. You can see their rifles twitching from here. Any closer'n we'd be able to smell the piss running down their leg." Sure enough, the two guards looked toward each other, seemingly deliberating over something as everyone in the Sunderer watched with idle curiosity. Finally, the two guards backed down below the gate walls. After about a minute, the heavy iron gates swung open.

Daniel pressed the gas, sending the Sunderer lumbering through the open gates. As they passed through, he could see the guard shacks on either side of the gate just inside the wall, the two guards in their crude, heavy metal plate armor watching as the vehicle rolled by. "Musta thought we were Terrans, rollin' about in one 'a their vehicles."

Leaning over the front passenger seat, Juliet let out a gasp of excitement as the vehicle rolled down the road, diving deeper and deeper into what seemed to be a narrow chasm headed straight for the center of the earth, the light filtering down from above the high stone walls growing dimmer and dimmer. "I remember this! We're here!" She jabbered excitedly as she waved for her two friends to join her. "Shanna, Comere, you need to see this!"

As they drove, the road began to level out, the narrow walls opening into a deep pit nearly a quarter of a mile high. All along the walls of the deep pit, stone houses and structures lined the crevices, carved into the walls and connected by a network of shoddy, scrap-metal scaffolding. Daniel pulled the Sunderer to a stop at the center of the pit near what appeared to be a wide tarpaulin spread over the ground. "What the hell…" he muttered, scanning the high walls of the pit at the dozen or so houses he could see. "I'm guessin' we're bein' watched?"

Sofia reached for the ceiling of the Sunderer, pulling down the weapon control panels from their stowage position. The screen flickered into life as she wiggled the thumb-stick, shifting the aim of the heavy machine gun on the roof of the Sunderer. "Yeah, I've got eyes on at least three hostiles on the ground-floor structure to our nine and at least two dozen heat signatures on thermals from the structures higher up. Rookie, get off your ass and get on that other gun already," she stated.

"Roger that," Tony replied instantly, stepping toward the rear of the Sunderer to pull down the second weapon control panel. As the screen flickered to life, he immediately noticed the three people Sofia had called out; zooming in on the doorway, he could see the three figures, two men and a woman, arguing amongst each other. Finally, the bigger of the two men pushed the other young man out of the shaded doorway and into the light, motioning for him to head over to where the Sunderer stood. "One's headed this way, Cap. Seems unarmed."

"Copy that. Rear door is clear, no visible hostiles with line-of-sight." Sofia advised, staring intently at the screen before her. "One of you guys care to step out and talk shop with this guy?"

"Well, I'd advise it not be either of y'all with the Terran armor or they might shoot, if the girl's hatred for TR folks is a shared sentiment in these parts," James said. "Not sayin' I'm nominating myself, per se, but…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's my turn," Edward said, hopping up from his seat. He took up his heavy rifle from the empty chair next to him and slotted it into its magnetic holster on his back, then drew his sidearm and pulled back the charging handle until he could see a fresh brass casing seated in the chamber. "Come on, Char, you're with me. Follow me out under your cloaking, but don't go too far in case we need to bolt. And you two, be ready on my mark," he added, pointing toward the three children at the front of the vehicle. "If this goes south, shut the door behind me as quick as you can, got it?"

Juliet nodded, taking Shanna's and Comere's hands into her own for reassurance. Satisfied, Edward slipped his machine-pistol back onto its leg holster and stepped up to the back door. "Here goes nothing…" he muttered, cranking the handle on the heavy door to undo the latch. Shoving the heavy door open, he hopped down from the back of the armored vehicle, instinctively gritting his teeth as he braced for some opening shot. The sound of Charlotte's invisible feet hitting the ground behind him, and the following silence, soothed his nerves ever so slightly as he turned to his right. A young man, perhaps in his early twenties, approached the vehicle. Edward could see that he was a far cry from the underfed children from the old spaceship wreck — while he dressed him ratty clothes, his muscles were well toned and his eyes bright, yet full of nervous anxiety as he walked toward his village's invaders.

"Hello, S-sir!" The young man stuttered as he came to a stop about ten feet before Edward. "W-we weren't… expecting y-your collection envoy so s-soon!"

"Uhh, right, how do I put this…" Edward said, thinking over his words carefully. The kid, he's either scared out of his mind, or he's not very good at speaking english… or both, I guess, Edward thought. "We're not with the Terran Republic. We're just dropping off a few kids we saved from a raider gang. Said they were from around here."

At Edward's words, the boy's jaw dropped, but he quickly took a breath and regained his composure. "Let me… speak… with our elder?" He said, holding up an open palm to signify the Vanu soldier should wait. Turning on his heels, the boy sprinted back to the dirt-walled house he had approached from. Edward watched as he skidded to a halt in the doorway, caught by the shoulders by some much taller man. After a minute of distant conversation, the boy returned, followed by a small entourage of older, armor-clad men carrying crude rifles low across their waist. Soon, Edward found himself standing toe to toe with four bulky men, heavily laden with crude armor plate that, to the scientist's best guess, couldn't have weight any less than fifty pounds by their looks.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, one of the men barked some guttural sounds at Edward. The man didn't seem as old as the other three bodyguards, but his hair was well kept, and for the briefest moment, Edward thought he could have smelled something beyond body sweat and dust — like a perfume or scented oil. Definitely a village chief, but I'll be damned if I understood a word he just said, Edward thought.

"Our elder wants… you to s-state your purpose here," the younger man said.

Edward began to raise his hand to point at the Sunderer, but the guards were on him in a flash, guns raised. "We killed raiders," Edward said slowly, lowering his hands once more. "Saved two girls and a boy. They are from here."

The young man relayed Edward's words to the elder, but was met with another round of unintelligible muttering. "The elder… does not believe you took on any raiders," the boy said, translating slowly as the elder spoke. "He thinks you… killed Terrans. Bring many bad omens to us. Terrans will… try to recover stolen Landship. Burn our village."

Fuck, this isn't good, Edward thought. "May I call them?" he said, nodding toward the Sunderer.

Having the message translated, the elder nodded. Edward looked over his shoulder, eyes on the back door of the Sunderer. "Hey, Tony, bring the kids!" He called. "Go slow, I don't feel like getting shot today!"

The Sunderer briefly shook on its suspension. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the men were visibly unnerved. After a moment, the back door opened wide. To the men's surprise, Tony was the first to jump down, the ground shaking as he landed. Edward could physically feel tensions rising as the sound of weapons being readied rang out across the deep chasm, his heart nearly skipping a beat as he felt his head nudged forward by a gun muzzle pressed up against his neck. FUCK, TONY, THAT WASN'T SLOW! Edward wanted to scream.

Behind him, he could hear one of the men cry out. Turning around, he could see beyond the barrel of the gun inches from his head that Charlotte was behind the town elder, a her plasma-knife inches from his throat and likely giving him a nasty burn. "Charlotte, stop! Don't you fucking dare!" He barked, quickly biting his tongue as the gun barrel in his face inched ever closer.

"Wait!" a voice cried, followed by that same gibberish speech the men had spoken. Despite the searing-hot knife at his throat, the chief's face blanched, as if a ghost had just run it's ethereal hand down his spine. Charlotte put away her knife, stepping back from the village chief and rejoining Edward. Glancing back at the Sunderer, he could see Juliet and Shanna standing under Tony's hulking form, almost hunched over them to shield them from the distant guns around them. "Tell them to back down! These are good people!" She tried to run forward to the armed men, but Tony was quick to grab her by the arm, careful not to pulverize her wrist in his suit's powerful grip.

Edward could feel someone brush past him as the village chief ran to her, quickly embracing her. The young man and the leader's bodyguards quickly joined him, wary of the hulking MAX-suit-clad soldier before them. The translator quickly returned, bowing profusely. "Our elder would like to… apologize," the young man said, grasping for the right words. "He wishes to welcome you fully to our village, and hopes you… will spend the evening with us as thanks."

Edward nodded, the tension in his body slowly easing away. "Thank you. We will take you up on your offer," he said.

Goddamn, that was close, he thought.

James idly looked over his shotgun as his older brother pulled the Sunderer up to the only ground-level house in the pit-bottom village, twisting the key until the engine shut down with a short-winded mechanical clatter. Leaning forward to slot the shotgun onto his back holster, he popped open the door and hopped down, happy to stretch his legs after a long afternoon of riding. "Ah, jeezus, where's a bathroom?" he muttered, looking around as the others piled out of the vehicle. Seeing the others grouping up at the back door of the Sunderer, he took a brief moment to scratch his rear before joining up with the others. "So, silver-tongue, what's the deal lookin' like?" He asked, putting an arm around Edward's shoulder.

"The deal is, we've got a place to stay," Edward replied, brushing off James' hand, "… and I ought to knock your head off, both of you," he added, pointing at Tony and then at Charlotte. "We'll start with you, Char. Right moves, wrong timing. These guys had us surrounded, and if they had any shooters even half as good as your average head-up-their-ass Terran grunt, your brains would be over there," he said, pointing off toward the far end of the chasm. "Gotta keep your wits about you."

"And me?" Tony asked, arms crossed as best his MAX suit would let him.

"I said go slow, and you come jumping out in your MAX suit like you're storming the damn Vanu archives! You almost got me shot!"

"Well, what did you want me to do about it? This suit is all I have."

"Send the kids out first."

"Like hell I would ever do that," Tony spat. "If one of the guys surrounding us sneezed with his finger on the trigger, I'd rather it be me than them."

Edward stood in silence, thinking over Tony's words. "No, you're right, better us than them. Should've called for Sofia to bring them out rather than you, though, so that was a lapse of judgement on my part. Fact still stands that that could've gone a hell of a lot smoother."

James watched as his brother slipped the keys to the Sunderer into the pocket of his blue plate-armored trousers. "Well, I dunno 'bout y'all, but I'd like to get outta this damn heat. We can go inside, right? Juliet's already in there."

"Fine by me," Sofia grunted.

Letting the others lead the way, James followed the group into the stone-carved building, happy to be out of the brutal sunlight that had been roasting him under his armor. Inside, the room seemed bare; in one corner of the room, the five men he'd seen Edward negotiating with were waiting, standing silently as they awaited their guests. Juliet was seated in a small metal chair, her hands in her face as she cried. "Is this, uhh, a bad time?" James asked.

The translator cleared his throat. "Her parents are dead. She… asked to see them, at their old home."

James could hear his older brother swear under his breath. "Does she still got a place to live?" Daniel asked.

Having the message translated, the elder nodded and replied in his own tongue. "The house remains empty. It is in… disrepair. Can be fixed," the translator said.

"What about other family?" Sofia added, watching the translator with steely scrutiny. "Grandparents, cousins, that sort?"

The translator shook his head, not bothering to consult the elder. "We are a mining town. We… ration medicine. Expensive. Saved for those who are young, those who work. Very few older people."

Jesus, that's a helluva lot worse than I thought, James thought. Her parents must've gotten sick and died some time after she was taken. In front of him, he watched as Tony led Shanna and Comere over to Juliet's side. "Right, well, let's shove off and go get her settled into her old place, then stock up and shove off," Sofia said.

"This way," the young man said, gesturing to the back of the room. Stepping up to a pair of heavy canvas sheets hanging from the ceiling, he pushed them aside and stepped into a dimly lit cave, illuminated by a single candle mounted to the tunnel wall. Waiting until Tony could get Juliet to her feet, James followed everyone into the cave, idly watching Juliet's long hair gently sway like a pendulum with every step. The cavern slowly curved and sloped upward, hiking upward and around the edge of the chasm. Must've used these tunnels for mining, I s'pose, James thought, peering into the dozens of candle-lit tunnels that branched off of their current path as they walked past. Reaching another canvas cover on the left side of the spiral hallway, the translator pushed it aside and held it open for the others as they headed through.

Following the crowd, James found himself in a single-room house in general disarray. It was evident that the other villagers had salvaged the place for most anything of value; only a rickety-looking metal bedframe, likely too large to be carried out by one or two determined looters, and a few worthless odds and ends remained. A set of three wooden symbols, circles with a line running down their center, hung next to the open doorway that led outside.

"This is it, huh?" Sofia declared, looking around the meager abode. She walked through the room, pausing to observe the symbols hung next to the back door for a moment before stepping outside.

"Hardly much," Tony added. "Where's her parent's old stuff?"

"We reuse everything," the translator replied. "Given to, or taken by, other families. Not much to go around."

"Well, shit, y'all gotta have somethin' for her, right?" James said. "Her parents' stuff is still in town, right? We just gotta bust some skulls and get it back?"

"No, please… no fighting," Juliet said, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "I will be fine, I promise." Everyone glanced at the young girl, her eyes red and her face streaked with tears as she slowly collected herself, holding Comere's hand with her free hand. For at least a solid minute, no one spoke up; it was apparent to James that no one knew what to say, and neither did he. Finally, though, Tony stepped up, giving her a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about it, we'll get it sorted out," he said. "We have sleeping bags from the ship and plenty of food for now, so we'll figure it out tomorrow."

"I'm sure we could get back to the ship and grab some mattresses and some of the other junk the raiders left behind tomorrow to set you up here," Edward chimed in. "I guess in the meantime we should go unload our stuff and ask around, see what people can spare."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Daniel said. "James and I will start askin' around for stuff while y'all unload." The New Conglomerate soldier turned around and headed back for the tunnels. "Come on, James, we've got some work to do."