Joowan sat in the passenger seat of one of Black Steel Corporation's security trucks. He was third in a convoy of a dozen such vehicles, travelling cautiously into Splatsville's oldest sector.

Despite the district's age, the buildings weren't dilapidated at all. Many of them were old fashioned but had been reasonably well maintained and gave the area a rustic, old time charm most of the downtrodden city lacked.

So far, their trip had been going well – too well, in fact. They had hardly seen a single soul the whole trip. There was the occasional street peddler or slummer wandering around, but that was all. And this sector, which belonged to the Manta Clan, showed absolutely no one.

"They're waiting for us," the driver muttered. His eye was constantly darting around, expecting mantas or perhaps inklings or octolings to burst out of hiding at any moment. His fears were largely unfounded. The clans didn't have enough people left to guard each other's territory in addition to their own, and Mantas were fairly harmless. As a species, manta rays preferred to work behind the scenes and through proxies because they were not good fighters themselves.

The manta clan's mansion loomed ahead of them. Like the mantas themselves it was broad and squat. It rested on the coast, and half of it jutted out into the water, where he was sure the majority of the mansion was "hidden".

The convoy came to a halt just outside the mansion's grounds. Everyone disembarked their vehicles.

Across the broad front lawn, Joowan noticed a few jellyfish guards scamper inside and shut the main doors. They were large and heavy, framed with thick steel and made of large hardwood beams. His information told him the doors didn't have a traditional lock, instead a huge piece of timber was used to bar the door from the inside.

He had thought about using one of the trucks to ram the front doors open but he'd been assured that the truck would have gotten off worse. That left them to have to cut through each and every door with a cutting torch.

Sighing he slowly walked along the flagstone path, his people carrying the equipment forward. On either side of the main path were concrete planters containing pretty bushes, all well kept by the clan's gardeners, broken up by smaller side paths that took people through the maze of hedges and flowers. It was a pretty place, probably the prettiest of any of the Big Three's estates.

He checked the position of his people. There were twenty guarding their vehicles, which left the remaining fifty or so to defend the specialists operating the cutting torches. Urchins excelled in a defensive role. The Urchin Kingdom had never successfully been invaded and he wanted to maintain the spirit of that tradition here.

He had another twenty or so defending the front door and the cutters and spread the rest along the path in a handful of groups, just in case they found someone trying to sneak up on them through the gardens.

He continued his way along the main path. He was in no hurry. He had planned it to take an hour and a half at least to take this door.

His radio crackled and he heard the voice of Daevee Stinghead, the security chief for Omnicorp Salvage.

"Pairezz? Pairezz, are you there?"

Joowan picked up his radio and answered. "Pairezz here, what's wrong? Are you in position?"

"Yes, we're in position alright. We've got the Onaga house surrounded, or at least we would if there were any crabs that bothered to show up. Have they been delayed?"

Joowan frowned. "I haven't heard anything but I was told that they left their base at around the same time we did."

"I heard the same thing but they haven't shown up."

Joowan grimaced. "They might have run into some trouble. It's been pretty quiet around here. We didn't meet anyone until we were right on the Manta's doorstep."

"Same here. On the other hand, if they are being attacked, then that means most of the people left defending the city must have tried to set up an ambush. If that's the case then we shouldn't wait for them, we have to attack now."

Joowan wasn't so sure. Something didn't feel right. Surely the Chitinin Security people would have at least called that they were being attacked.

"Do what you feel is right but I'm going to have some people look into it."

"I'll do the same but I'm not waiting. I'll call you back later."

"Good luck."

Joowan reattached his radio to his belt, wondering what might have happened to Chitinin's people. Pritor Velclaw, was off chasing the clan's main group of warriors and the Scrapper's fleet of landships but he had prepared things to operate in his absence, leaving Stinghead in command once they arrived. Velclaw always struck Joowan as a diligent sort. He wouldn't leave them high and dry.

Suddenly, the doors of the Manta Clan mansion began to open, taking all of them by surprise, and a horrible feeling tore at Joowan's twisting guts.

"Get away from the door!" He shouted. But his warning came too late. The doors had opened too suddenly and too quickly.

The parting doors revealed a wall of steel spikes that surged forward. His people guarding the door were skewered almost immediately. Some tried to run only to be stabbed in the back. It was a trap! But by who?

Shouts came from all around him and suddenly inklings and octolings materialized from nowhere, popping up from behind the concrete planters and hedges, firing ink weapons at the people he had spread out along the path. Ink wouldn't kill urchins unless they were drowned in it of if it got in their eyes or mouth, and even then it would be a slow process. However, that didn't appear to be the ambushers' objective.

The ink attacks forced his people on the defensive, and they tucked themselves in under their protective spiked shells by reflex. Unfortunately, the wall of steel spikes kept advancing and against them their shells were of little use. The steel tips penetrated with almost contemptuous ease and they had greater reach than the urchin's protective spines.

"Everyone get back to the trucks!" He shouted, but as he turned, he realized he was too late.

Other inklings and octolings carrying the same spears had ambushed his people guarding the vehicles, catching them completely by surprise. A few tried to climb into the relative safety of their trucks but none of them managed to close the doors before they were speared or dragged out.

"Everyone form on me! Create a defensive dome…" his voice trailed off as he found he was speaking to himself. It had lasted barely a minute and it was already over. Half his people were either dead or injured; and the rest had their hands up in surrender.

They were herded closer to the doors and put together, forced to sit on the ground. He could analyze their attacker's uniforms now, black and scarlet tunic jackets and shorts. Each soldier wore a patch on their shoulder that read "III Legion" in silver embroidered inkling or octoling script with the words "Duty Honour Integrity" underneath.

After a few minutes, one inkling approached him wearing a bright, cocky smile, her mantle like sunlight. She looked small, too small. A teenager? Was this one of the Ascendancy's infamous child soldiers?

"Hey there," she greeted. "I'm the commander of the third company of Her Imperial Majesty's Third Legion. Nice to meet you."

Joowan was beyond stunned. This child was a company commander? This had to be a level of shameless nepotism beyond anything even in the kingdom.

The inkling then turned around, showing her back to him, coming to attention. She was short enough that even from his sitting position, Joowan could see past her, and he saw the Oamo of the Manta Clan himself slowly shuffle towards them, four jellyfish guards in echelon behind him, and a fifth jellyfish standing directly to his right.

"Ay, ayyyy," the Oamo said. Unfortunately, Joowan had never learned a word of Skate speak. How was he supposed to know before he arrived that the local rays actually spoke Skate instead of a ray language? Fortunately, it seemed the fifth jellyfish was there to translate. He spoke in a surprisingly deep, smooth, aristocratic voice.

"The Oamo would like to know if everything is over?"

"For the moment," the child commander replied. "All the same, it would be best if everyone stayed inside until we can confirm it. We don't know what will happen when their landship fleet comes back."

Joowan winced. So she knew about the landship fleet already. But had they lost? Had they won? It was just after noon. They should have found the Scrapper fleet by now. Maybe the battle was still going on.

"Ay."

"The Oamo understands, but he would like to take this opportunity to take one of the prisoners with him for questioning."

The inkling flashed grey and stepped aside. "Take your pick."

So she said, but Pretto Manta was already looking straight at Joowan, and pointed his fin.

"Ay."

The inkling motioned at him. "Come on then, get up. I'm sure he just wants to have a nice chat with you."

"Hold it," he said. "I'm already your prisoner. Under the International Law of Conduct he has no right to interrogate me and you would be in violation of that if you allowed it."

He was grasping at straws, but so what? He didn't want any of the Big Three to lay their hands on him, not after everything they'd done to try and undermine them over the years.

The inkling tilted her head, eyes upward, thinking.

"Um… that's for a prisoner of war. Technically, in this instance, you're a civilian and a criminal under local law. Pretty sure the Law of Conduct doesn't apply here. And since the clans make the laws around here…" she flashed grey again. "It's up to them what happens."

She made a tossing motion with her head and two soldiers grabbed his arms, throwing him before the Oamo where he barely caught himself from falling on his face. He turned his head and glared at the girl.

"You demon child, do you have any idea what they're going to do to me?"

He cried out in pain as the Oamo's jellyfish guards wrapped their stinging tendrils around his arms and hauled him up. The inkling girl just cackled.

"Close. Actually, I'm the demon's sister. We often get confused."

She gave him a wicked smile and Joowan's blood chilled. Was she some kind of psychopath?

He wasn't able to ask as he was hauled away. He was finally in the Manta Clan's mansion but not in the way he thought he would have been. He tried to distract himself from his fate by admiring the fine artworks decorating the atrium.

"I need more bandages!"

"Water! Does anyone have water?"

Shiver felt like a disembodied spirit as she led the others among the landships, arranged in a large circle for defence, with Rebel in the centre. She heard the painful cries of the wounded, some from the pain of their injuries, or as the medics worked on them. This was not a sanitary environment and more than a few limbs had been cut off. The severed limbs were being tossed into a hole dug by one of the landships' excavator arm.

Adding to the cries of the wounded was the chorus of wails and sobs from those near the dead as people mourned fathers, sons, brothers, sisters. Together they created an orchestra of agony that Shiver was certain she would be hearing in her nightmares for the foreseeable future.

She glanced behind her. Tiyes and Neo stuck close together, anxious looks on their faces, their mantles rippling with worry, their heads constantly swivelling between the dead and the groups of wounded. Shiver, stopped looking at the dead when she noticed one of the corpses bore too much resemblance to one of her aunts.

"Daddy!"

Neo took off running towards one of the landships where the wounded were being cared for. An inkyar was kneeling next to a wounded comrade laying on the floor when he looked up just before Neo tackled him to the ground.

"Ow! Easy, Neo, you're not a little girl anymore."

"Yes I am!" Neo snapped back, clinging to her father with the desperation of someone about to fall from a great height. She buried her face in his chest and her body shook as she began to sob with relief.

With a grunt, her father managed to sit up and hold her in a tight hug, trying to soothe her.

Tiyes, quietly knelt next to the wounded inkyar lying down. There was a bloody bandage around his right shoulder.

"How are you, Dad?" he asked.

His father smiled back, faintly. "I'm alright, Son. Urchin nipped me in the arm is all. Don't worry, it'll heal quick and doctor says there was no poison."

Tiyes sighed in relief but he still looked worried. Shiver decided it was best to leave them be, so she walked with Big Man, and Tahlm, who was riding on the latter's head, further around the circle.

The sides of some of the ships were stained by blood that had dripped down from the roof. There was so much that it was almost as if the ships themselves had been bleeding.

Finally, after walking halfway around the circle of landships, they peered inside one and found what they were looking for.

The landship had its ramp down. Inside its small internal garage, she spotted her grandfather speaking with the ship captains. Maiya was there with Frye, the latter clinging to her own grandfather's arm.

"Frye!"

Shiver ran to her, relief pouring through her soul. Frye spotted her and beamed that familiar, oh so wonderful smile of hers. She walked around the gathered people and opened her arms, receiving Shiver with all the warmth and eagerness she always had.

She laughed. "Easy, Shiver. Believe it or not, I'm actually kinda' tired after today." Shiver ignored her, clinging to her friend all the harder.

Big Man arrived and wrapped them both in his fins. "We were really worried when we had to leave you behind."

Frye let out a wheeze. "It's fine, I get it. Even Maiya said you guys did the right thing. Now will you let me breathe, please?"

Big Man and then Shiver released her, and she took several exaggerated gasps of air. "Really, I get it. Couldn't let you guys get caught too. Besides, I heard what you did for Gramps. Probably one of the reasons the bad guys ran away."

Shiver's brow scrunched up. She had just been about to return to the main force to hopefully retrieve Frye and Maiya when all the company landships began pulling away and headed back in the direction of Splatsville. She'd arrived in time to be the centre around which all their own landships formed up but she still had no idea what had happened.

"What happened to you though?"

Frye flashed grey. "Well, you know, Maiya and I were just trying to keep our heads attached. Things got pretty dicey when a whole bunch of crabs charged us but we held on okay for a while, 'till we got tired. Eventually we just decided to jump off and hit the ground. After that, we sneaked into the leader's landship and Maiya was able to talk to their boss."

Shiver gaped. "What? What did she say?"

Frye shrugged. "I was in the hallway watching her back so I didn't hear everything. It was all kinda' complicated stuff, but she somehow convinced him he'd already won so… well… they left."

Shiver just stared. "What? She just convinced them to leave? She didn't threaten them or anything?"

Frye grinned wryly. "Well… I mean… if they said 'no' she was probably going to kill them. But yeah, she just straight up convinced them they didn't have to fight anymore and they left."

Shiver looked past Frye at Maiya. The girl was listening to Rimar Onaga describe how he'd gone about clearing the landship he'd boarded, with the wide eyes of a small child. This girl had an oddly innocent yet twisted nature.

She returned her attention to Frye. "And you're not hurt?"

Frye chuckled. "Shiver, I'm fine, just a little tired is all. Look, your Grandpa's fine too. Go and say 'hi' to him and quit worrying about me."

Shiver hesitated then nodded. "Go to the ship and lie down or something. You should probably get a drink too."

Frye panted. "Yeah, I could definitely use a drink. First thing I'm doing when I get home is soaking in the tub."

Shiver wouldn't mind a bath herself, but this day wasn't over yet.

She approached the table just as Grandmother Joolea arrived with a clipboard. Her grandfather hung his head. She was close enough to hear them speaking clearly now.

"Alright, how many does that make total?"

Her grandmother's eyes fell. "Assuming we don't lose anyone else, we have 42 dead, about 183 wounded."

Everyone in the circle exhaled. Shiver herself was taken aback. So many people had been killed, so many hurt.

Whatever's in that vault better be worth all this.

"Some of the wounded should be evacuated now," her grandmother went on. "But I'm not sure where to exactly. The hospitals in Splatsville have to be their ultimate destination, but how we get them there is more complicated."

Shiver frowned. "Why is that?"

Everyone turned, suddenly becoming aware of her presence. "You're alright, Shiver?" Her grandfather asked.

"I'm fine. What about the wounded?"

To her annoyance, it was Maiya who replied. "The Chitinin Ironworks company wouldn't bother us anymore but we don't know what the rest will do, especially if they've heard about what's happening in Splatsville right now."

Shiver suppressed a grimace. The Ascendancy's troops must have arrived as promised, which meant the corporations' attempt to conquer Splatsville must not have gone as well as they might have hoped. Still, she wondered what kind of Splatsville she would be going back to now with the Scrap Corporations subdued and someone's army flooding the city.

"The concern," Grandmother Joolea continued, "is that the other two companies might be lying in wait for us, maybe to ambush anyone who has to return while the rest of us push on."

Rimar hummed. "Why not send them back to Riverside? They'll get there as fast as they would trying to get to Crater's Edge, and the corporations are less likely to watch that route."

"We don't need everyone to assault the vault either," Maiya pointed out. "We can send them back with two or three escorts. They'll have no more than six landships at the dig site and they'll be under strength in terms of security."

Shiver watched her grandfather ponder this for a moment then nodded and looked around at all the captains. "What do you think?"

Ultimately, they all agreed to send their four fastest landships back to Riverside. They would also carry back the dead. The people of Crater's Edge always released their dead in the river, sending their bodies back to the water from which they'd come. From there the landships would go to Crater's Edge and protect the town if necessary. The rest of them would continue on to the dig site and unlock this vault and see what was inside.

Shiver yawned and excused herself, making her way back to Rebel. Someone walked up beside her and she scowled when she saw Maiya.

"You're coming with us?"

"Frye wanted me to come with you," she said.

"Did she?…" Shiver stared straight ahead, refusing to meet the other girls eyes.

That straightforward blunt way of speaking reminded her too much of Dentia. She also felt like the girl had this air of superiority around her, as if her purpose there was divine.

No, she thought. Not divine, not in my mind at least. She had been around dangerous predators all her life, had tamed one of the most infamous herself. Maiya was a predator and an especially dangerous one, like Master Mega.

She recalled the moment in the family's cave, when she had called Master Mega to swim and guard them among all the other sharks. She remembered the purpose with which he swam, ready to obey her next command. Master Mega's presence had always unsettled everyone except her grandparents, despite the fact they should have nothing to fear. She was starting to wonder if they felt the same about him as she did about Maiya right now. That train of thought brought her to one conclusion.

"You have a master," Shiver said.

"I have superiors," Maiya replied simply.

"But you have someone who's orders you will obey above all others, without question, without hesitation."

Maiya finally turned her head and met her gaze. "So?"

Shiver hid a smile by turning her head away slightly. Ah, that rankled her did it?

"Nothing," she said. "I think I just understand you better now."

Maiya grunted but didn't comment. That was just fine with Shiver. She would take her small victory.

Twenty minutes later, Rebel was once again moving ahead of the rest of the fleet. They would reach the dig site much later than they'd planned. It would be evening by the time they got there.

Big Man was still driving. Frye had passed out on her bed. Tiyes was navigating once again. The spheres had finally started to activate, pointing them in the right direction. Neo lay listlessly on one of the benches in the map room. Maiya sat in one of the chairs, arms crossed, eyes closed.

Shiver was bored and the anticipation of what awaited them nagged at her. "Anyone hungry?" She asked. "I can make dinner."

Everyone seemed to like that idea; though with Frye unconscious it was just going to be her in the kitchen. Oh well, not like I did any fighting today.

She sighed and calculated how much work it was going to be to fix so many meals. They had Maiya to feed too. Is this what being a mom feels like when there's only one wife? No wonder our species was made for males to have multiple. It's a mercy.

She got to the galley and started looking for ingredients. They had never restocked so there wasn't much left. She was going to have trouble thinking of what to make.

She heard a sound and turned to see Maiya without her cloak and holding a handful of square plastic packets the size of her palm. She placed them on the counter next to the sink.

"Add to hot water and it makes soup. Each is enough for one person."

Shiver counted four packets in all. "Not enough."

"No, but in case there wasn't enough of anything else, this would help."

Shiver looked at the other girl who didn't meet her gaze. Was she being shy? That didn't seem to fit her but it didn't really matter, she had no reason to refuse a truce under these circumstances.

"I suppose we could add some of the things we have here to fill it out. Maybe we can make some kind of stew."

"Um…"

Both girls turned and saw Neo now standing in the doorway to the galley, her cheeks lightly coloured. "Um… need some help? I've only got one hand but five is better than four… right?"

Shiver smiled. "Sure, we'll let you land a hand."

Neo pouted at her little joke but nonetheless stepped inside the galley. Shiver began giving out instructions and the three girls got to work.

Four landships sat around the dig site, casting long shadows as the sun touched the horizon. There were signs that others had left recently, heading directly south back to Splatsville. Digging equipment was still working to try and clear away the sand, revealing a crater deep enough to swallow a landship whole.

The structure it revealed was different than what Neo had expected. It was shaped more like a fuel silo. Over 100m tall with a domed roof, and no more than 60m wide. She could see the doorway had been unearthed, a pair of doors made of a very sturdy metal. She could see scrape marks on it from where the excavators had gotten careless. Hopefully, they hadn't damaged them so much they couldn't get inside the vault.

"Do you see where we need to put the keys?" Neo asked.

Neo handed Tiyes Maiya's binoculars and he peered through them at the vault. After a couple of minutes he said, "Maybe. It looks like there some kind of control panel built into the side of the door frame. Hopefully they didn't damage that too."

He handed the binoculars back to Maiya who put them back into their protective case then stood up.

Behind them, Rebel sat in the valley of the dunes. Further away, the remaining ships of the Scrapper fleet had split into two columns, ready to attack.

They returned to their ship where everyone waited for them in the wheelhouse. Shiver looked at Maiya. "So?"

"The attack goes as planned but we need to get through right away and defend the doors. It's possible the defenders might try to sabotage the door to stop us from getting access."

Everyone else gasped.

"But it's sacrilege to wreck such a precious Precursor artifact!" Big Man protested. "Even the Scrap Corporations wouldn't do that."

Frye agreed. "It would make them an enemy of everyone on Earth."

"Better to be safe than sorry," Maiya replied. "I've seen it before.

"The others will attack as planned but some of us will be dropped off on the edge of the pit. We don't want to risk getting stuck in case this one also explodes."

They all gulped. Neo certainly didn't want to go through that again.

"You think it will?" Tahlm asked.

"Plan for the worst," was Maiya's curt reply.

That settled it. They would have to do all they could and Neo relayed Maiya's message to the flagship.

The radio crackled and Lord Balt Ralok's voice was heard on the speaker saying that the attack was going forward.

Everyone got ready. Big Man revved the engine, Frye and Maiya went to retrieve their weapons; and Shiver sat in her captain's chair, her tri-stringer gripped firmly in one hand.

Neo extended her own hand to Tahlm. "Up for finishing this adventure in style?"

He smiled up at her and stepped onto her hand. "I'd love to." She placed him on her shoulder and felt strangely giddy. It was probably due to all the adrenaline and excitement. Despite everything that had happened today, she was about to conclude a genuine adventure. She would worry about the nightmares after.

The defenders must have been too busy digging to notice them preparing to attack. They didn't seem to realize anything was amiss until Rebel, Dunewalker, and Outlander surged over the tops of the outer dunes and raced towards the perimeter, other ships following behind them.

Big Man drove between two of the four landships surrounding the artificial crater and nearly smashed into an excavator before turning to the right to orient the ship tangential with the edge of the crater.

Maiya, Neo, Tiyes, Shiver, and Frye all disembarked, then Big Man drove off again to avoid anyone trying to board the ship.

Their small party rushed down the slope. The sand was loose, causing them to sink halfway to their knees. Neo heard Shiver mutter something about sand in her shoes.

There were a handful of people in front of them, mostly company workers. The drivers scrambled for their vehicles, managing to get inside before they reached them. Fortunately, rather than use them to attack, they simply ran away.

The handful of people left behind raised their hands in surrender. Just a few anemones and urchins.

Maiya motioned for them to get out of there. They did so without hesitation.

Looking back up the hill, they couldn't see what was happening but the sounds of battle were evident. The roaring of compression ignition engines, the shouts of war cries. Their people had gotten more confident since beating the odds in the battle earlier that day and this was a fight they knew they could win.

The group stood in front of the doorway. The control panel that Tiyes had spotted earlier had two circular holes just big enough for their two spheres.

"Do I open it?" He asked.

"Not yet," Maiya said. "If we need to evacuate that will be much harder while a battle is going on. We'll wait."

They didn't have to wait long. The defenders gave up almost without a fight. Nobody else died. It seemed almost like an anti-climax. They'd reached the end, their goal was there.

Rimar Onaga made his way down the slope with a few others. Neo didn't recognize them though.

"You kids alright?" He asked.

"Fine," Maiya replied. "If everything is secure, we should open the vault."

Rimar put his hands on his hips and looked up. "I would like to know what all the fuss was about. Hard to believe this is really a vault. Looks more like an oversized grain silo."

"Everyone should be ready to leave in an emergency," Maiya continued. "It's possible it may explode, depending on how things go inside."

Rimar paled, as did the others. They got the idea and walked back up the slope to make sure everyone else would be ready to get out in a hurry.

Maiya turned to Tiyes and flashed green. Tiyes pulled the spheres out of his bag. They were both pointing at the holes, letting him know where to put each one.

He placed the two spheres inside the holes, then there was a loud hum. A few seconds later, the doors screeched as they slid apart. Inside, electric lights turned on, revealing an inner cylindrical wall and two sets of stairs mounted on them, leading upwards.

Maiya asked, "what happens when you pull the spheres out?"

Tiyes grimaced but did as she asked. Nothing happened, the doors stayed open, the lights remained on.

"Hey, they've changed!"

Tiyes showed them the spheres. They were now pointing inside.

"Might as well see where this goes," Shiver said.

And so they all walked inside, Tiyes leading the way.

The interior smelled of oxidized metal. Dust hung in the air, perhaps disturbed by all the digging around the vault. Just beyond the stairs was a corridor that wrapped around the cylindrical inner wall. She could see all kinds of strange objects arranged along its length, but Tiyes was leading everyone up the stairs.

They went up and kept going up. Five stories, ten stories, then twenty stories. By the time they got to the thirtieth, even Miaya looked a little weary. Tiyes looked on the verge of collapse.

"It's here," he wheezed.

Panting he paused and held up both spheres. Each one pointed to the same point on the nearby wall where an ovular hatchway awaited but there was only a single hole to insert one of the spheres.

"Which one do we put in the hole" Frye asked.

"I'm not sure," Tiyes admitted, balancing the two spheres. "It might help we we knew what this vault contained or what its purpose was." Softly, he added, "if this even is a vault."

Tahlm spoke up. "What if they've already given us a clue? Each sphere represents something. A planet, right?"

Tiyes flashed green. "And the red one was the planet we first identified."

"So we put the red one in?" Neo asked.

"No…" Tiyes lifted the green sphere and stared at the hole in the wall. "Because we already inserted the red sphere alone when we got the green sphere and each is supposed to represent male and female humans, equals. I wonder if…"

He extended the green sphere to the hatchway, slipped it into the hole and the hatch opened with a hiss.

Tiyes' face broke into a satisfied smile then he stepped through the hatch. Everyone else followed, peering inside curiously.

Another cylindrical structure waited with a small round hatch build into the side of it. To reach it though, one had to cross a narrow walkway devoid of railings, and it was a long way down to the bottom. Neo even got a sense of vertigo when she peered down into the dark depths. She did not want to fall.

"Go on," Frye said, giving Tiyes a light shove. He let out a squeak and bent at the knees, quivering, his eyes huge. He did not want to cross that narrow bridge, but Neo could tell from the way he kept glancing up at the other side that he desperately wanted to see what was there.

Neo sighed and gently grasped his shoulder from behind. "Come on, let's go together. You'll regret it if you don't."

"That's right," Tahlm declared. "You've been waiting for something like this all your life, haven't you? After all you've done, you deserve to be the first one to see what's on the other side."

Tiyes wet his lips and nodded. Slowly, he crept along the walkway, Neo right behind him. Everyone else waited in the corridor, watching them nervously.

They reached the other side and Tiyes put his hand on the hatch, grasping the handle. An arrow printed on the side told them which way it was meant to be turned.

Tiyes grunted with effort but managed to turn the stubborn handle with one hand and the hatch swung inwards.

There wasn't much to see inside. A few flat metal panels, some with strange symbols that Neo couldn't hope to recognize, but other than that, the only thing she could see was a glowing red halo that lit up directly in front of them, highlighting another hole built into one of the panels.

Tentatively, Tiyes approached it. The space was barely large enough for both of them to fit inside. He lifted the red sphere and then carefully slipped it into the hole.

Suddenly, the interior of the building lit up red. An alarm started blaring. The inside of the chamber lit up with the sounds of hissing gasses, and the whole building began to vibrate.

"Get out of there!" Shiver yelled.

Neo grabbed Tiyes by the collar and yanked him hard, pulling him out of the small room and onto the narrow walkway.

Neo peered down and saw the bottom of the chamber filling with clouds of white vapour.

Tiyes found his feet and they both ran back across the walkway into the corridor. Behind them, the hatch on the innermost cylinder structure closed, and the walkway folded downwards. Shiver pulled the green sphere out of its socket and the inner wall hatch shut.

"Let's get out of here!" Frye shouted.

"Follow my lead!" Maiya called. She pulled an ink pistol from her hip, climbed on one of the stairway railings and jumped off.

"Is she crazy?" Tahlm exclaimed!

"We're all crazy!" Frye shouted and she jumped after her. Everyone else was too desperate to get out to do anything but follow.

Maiya had aimed not for the bottom of the stairway but a landing three stories down. She'd covered it with ink and landed safely in the puddle. Everyone else followed, managing to change their colour to match Maiya's green on the way down. Tahlm switched to octopus form and clung to Neo's body with his suckers.

Maiya waited for them on the landing. "We do this all the way down," Maiya said, yelling to be heard over the alarm. "Don't stop or wait for anyone."

Then she jumped again, and this time nobody else hesitated in following. They continued in the same pattern all the way down, Maiya leading the way, coating every third landing with ink. It took nine more hops for them to get all the way down.

At the bottom, Maiya waited for all of them, telling them to keep moving. Tiyes stumbled and tried to get back up. Maiya hauled him to his feet and they both kept running towards the exit.

Outside, they heard a low rumbling sound. As they scrambled up the slope, Tahlm called out, "look! The roof!"

Neo looked over her shoulder and saw the dome on top of the vault opening up like the petals of a flower.

They had just reached the top of the slope where Rebel waited when the whole desert shook with a deafening roar.

Neo covered her ears and fell to her knees. A scorching hot wind blasted them from within the crater. Huge clouds of sand erupted into the air and covered them. Then, a bright light cast sharp shadows all around them. Curiosity overwhelmed Neo's self preservation and she turned to look.

A plume of fire, like a shooting star, was rising into the sky, leaving behind a trail of white smoke that originated inside the vault.

As things calmed down, everyone else stared up as well, gaping at the wonder they had just seen.

"A space ship," Tiyes said, awed. "It was a Precursor spaceship!"

Neo stood up, craning her neck as the the bright object became little more than bright spot in the sky.

"Where is it going?"

Tiyes started laughing. "Don't you remember the shrine? The symbol on the red sphere was on one of the planets. It's the next planet from the sun after Earth."

Neo frowned but didn't take her eyes off the climbing light. "Why is it going there?"

Tiyes pulsed grey. "I don't know. Maybe we'll find out when we get there."

Neo grinned. "I guess the Precursors wanted us to go on another adventure."

Tiyes' smile became wistful. "Yeah, maybe you're right, maybe the adventure was the treasure the whole time."

"Lame," Frye complained. "You telling me we fought to get this vault for nothing?"

"Not for nothing," Maiya said. "There are a lot of artifacts still in there, and space ships contained some of the most advanced technology of the Precursors."

Her eyes followed the bright light as it rose into the sky, further and further. "In the end it doesn't matter. You weren't really fighting for the vault, you were fighting for your freedom."

Neo had to admit Maiya had a point. The vault was just what forced the issue, to decide whether they were willing to fight for their freedom and seize the chance to take it or not.

She caught Shiver staring at Maiya. Was that doubt in her eyes? Suspicion? Did she think Maiya was hiding something? They hadn't had any time to explore the vault. Had Maiya and Shiver noticed something inside that the rest of them had missed?

Shiver didn't seem inclined to pursue the matter for now as she turned away and said, "I guess we'll find out if we've won when we get back. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm tired."

Neo flashed green and checked on Tahlm. "That was some good timing with the jumps there. Sorry I didn't secure you or something first."

He smirked. "My mothers made me practice that kind of manoeuvre since I could transform, in case we needed a quick escape. Glad it came in handy. Happy with your adventure?"

Neo let out a breath. "I think I can stand to wait a while until the next one. For once, I'm all adventured out. Let's just hope there isn't more trouble waiting for us when we get back to Splatsville."

Tahlm huffed. "You and me both."

Authors' Notes:

So, a rocket. Will this engender more hope in the people of the Splatlands, embitter them about all that effort and sacrifice for seemingly nothing? Or do they think this was all worth it? Or is there more to this vault than just this rocket?

We've still got a few chapters to go before the conclusion and there are still a few loose ends to wrap up before we get there.

So how did the legion get there? Were they already there? Did they pull another trick? Who knows ;) But what's going to happen when our crew gets back to Splatsville? I guess you'll have to wait and find out ;)