“This place is awful,” Rhys said, not for the first time in their last two hours of trekking through jungle. His initial iterations of the complaint had been peppered with more cursing and metaphors, but the twin daggers of effort and heat had sapped his creativity. Eve wasn’t sure if it was the lack of alcoholic beverages or the scorching sun relentlessly beating down on him that had Rhys in such a foul mood; she just knew much more complaining and he’d drag her into one as well.

“Shut yer yap already. I know it’s hot, everyone knows it’s hot. That’s why no one ever comes here. Save for the lone nut that the cap’n is after.” Eve trusted Fiearius implicitly, so when he told them to undertake this side-mission, she hadn’t batted an eye about accepting the task. Then he’d told her what they were after, and she wished she’d spared at least a few bats to have some wiggle room.

Rhys growled, but hacked away at the dense brush, clearing out a path for them to advance through. “What kind of tech does he think we’ll find in a place like this?” Continue reading →