[i]Send the scavengers out. We don't want to let any of this go to waste, do we? It's not every day you can make Houses fight to a perfect stalemate; one where everyone dies.[/i] Decoded Transmission; Origin: [i]Unknown.[/i] Recipient: [i]Unknown.[/i] ——————————————————— I woke up once more on this wretched battlefield, sitting on the cold concrete of this shelter. It took me a moment to think clearly. Where was my crew? Why did my arm burn? Then I remembered. The battle, the beam of fire. The Ketch detonating. I grabbed my discarded headset and stumbled outside as quickly as my weak legs would allow, looking at what had happened. It was morning now, the golden sun spilling over the mountains, poured like honey on the carnage before me. The Ketch was in pieces. Torn asunder and scattered. For almost two miles around it the earth was scorched black, broken off-white pieces sticking out of the landscape like bones. Bodies had been thrown by the shock wave, the closer ones burnt to ash, further ones just mangled. Nobody was left alive, King or Devil. A shot of something like hunger stabbed me. A need, a craving that blasted through my blood itself. Ether. I needed Ether. I limped out into the wasteland, looking around at the destruction. I needed to contact my house, get out of here. I put on the headset and flipped it on. It didn't turn on. I tried again and again, but it was busted. I couldn't contact anybody. The Ketch probably threw out an EMP when it detonated. I threw the headset away. I was stranded here, on the edge of Ether starvation, without a way back home. They'd send scavenging ships soon, to retrieve the bunker's contents when we didn't report back, but I didn't have soon. I kept walking, trying to figure out how to get out of here. I got so absorbed I almost didn't notice the Skiff until I almost walked into it. In front of me was a Skiff. Almost perfectly undamaged, with only burn marks on it, lying on it's side in the grass. Yes! Salvation! Sure, I couldn't fly, but I could certainly figure out how. Skiffs couldn't be that hard to pilot. Verimo has done it, why couldn't I? And there might be Ether inside. This was a gift from the Great Machine itself. I went around it, going to climb inside when a pile of bodies rustled. I frantically looked around. I'd dropped my pistol somewhere a while ago, I was defenseless. There. A shrapnel launcher! I grabbed it, the weapon unfamiliar in my hands, but better than nothing. I backed towards the Skiff, aiming at the pile. It shook more until a figure shakily climbed out. A Vandal, covered in dirt and blood.  It climbed out, falling onto the ground, breathing hard. "It's over.. it's over.. it's over.." they kept repeating, staring upwards at the sky. I approached, carefully keeping my gun focused on them. They were so filthy I couldn't see their cloak's color. They heard me approaching and turned weakly, looking at me. Recognition dawned in their eyes, and they tried to scramble away. "Stay back Devil! Stay back!" They scuttled backward on their arms, running into a pile of bodies, too afraid to turn their back to me, thus trapping them. The dragging cloak had brushed away the dirt, revealing it's color. Yellow. House of Kings. I almost pulled the trigger, almost ended them. But I didn't. "King. I need Ether. Do you know where I can find some?" "Yes! Yes! I know! There's some in the Skiff!" They pointed at the Skiff besides us, painted with King symbols. "Is this your Skiff, King?" "Yes! Yes! I was crew on it, I have the passcode for the Ether locker!" "Show me." The King shakily stood up, hands held up in surrender, and walked over to the Skiff. "What is your name, King?" "Shaski. Who're you?" "Ezkor. Look, Shaski. If you didn't see, we're probably the last two Eliksni out here. We either work together or die, okay?" Shaski nodded, climbing into the Skiff and motioning me to follow. Inside it was cramped, as all skiffs are, but relatively undamaged. Shaski climbed to the front, typing into a keypad, and a small safe popped open, revealing small canisters of Ether. I watched her carefully as I retrieved a canister, swapping it for my depleted one. It took a moment to reach my blood, but it was the most amazing feeling. Like being risen from the dead, I felt alive again. My drowsiness wore off, my wounds didn't seem as bad. Shaski swapped out a canister of her own, and we split the rest, Shaski letting me take more than her. Amazing how a gun can change the power dynamic. I climbed up front, into the cockpit, Shaski following me. "Do you know how to fly this?" I asked her, looking over the complex controls, knowing that I, in fact, could not figure out how to fly it. "I can try." She replied, climbing into the driver's seat, and began to flip switches. The craft rattled to life, electronics flipping on shakily. Some didn't, some did. As Shaski started the craft, I climbed over to the radio. I hit it a few times, pressed a bunch of buttons, but the Sloat wouldn't turn on. I clicked angrily and turned back to Shaski, who was starting to lift us off. The Skiff started to rise, evening out.  We were going home. Then a loud crack and pop, like a small explosion, and we fell right back down. The craft hit the ground with a jolt, sending me to the floor. Shaski and I crawled out shakily, to see that the back right engine had given out, and was now leaking black smoke. I kicked a body in frustration, Shaski began punching the Skiff. "Sloat machine! That was our way home!" She yelled, beating the hull until her knuckles bled. She eventually gave up and sat on a pile of bodies, breathing heavily. "What now? The thing won't fly like this." She said, looking at me. "I don't see any other Skiffs out here. We can't wait for our houses to come to scavenge, they'll just kill one of us. We have to fix it." I said. "Fix it? You can't fix it, you need parts to do that! And last I saw, there are no Skiff parts around here!" Shaski said. "Well, maybe not Skiff parts, but there are parts." "Oh, do tell where these magically appearing parts of yours are." "They're not magical Shaski," I pointed to the remains of the Ketch, strewn about it's scorched patch of land. The main thruster had detonated, scattering bits and pieces of the ship all around, but a good chunk the main hull of the ship was still mostly intact. "- but they're over there."