Chapter 541 - 541: Visiting the Crash Site
They broke through the upper atmospheric layers while the turbulence rattled the cabin chassis, and Rin adjusted the thrusters to steer them directly toward the coordinates of the Ashfall Verge.
The sprawling industrial ruins of the Glassreach Basin appeared on the horizon as they descended closer to the surface. The neon lights of the distant city sectors blurred into a massive grid of rusted metal and abandoned factories.
Rin brought the transport down near the exact border where the AIL carrier had unleashed its heavy ordinance on them just days ago. He landed the shuttle in a cleared out plaza surrounded by collapsed concrete pillars, and they both stepped out into the gloomy environment.
The wreckage of their old hover car was still sitting exactly where it had crashed into the side of an automated refinery. The metal chassis was completely melted and twisted out of shape from the blast.
Xavier crouched next to the melted chassis of the hover car he and Klatos had crashed in a few days ago. He ran his fingers over the scorched dashboard where Klatos had bled heavily before the AIL ambush.
"The local scavengers already picked it clean," Rin commented while scanning the perimeter with his right hand resting casually on the hilt of his primary sword. "The engine block is entirely gone, and they took the navigation consoles too."
Local scavengers had already stripped the engine block and navigation consoles completely bare, leaving nothing but a hollow shell of burnt composite plating.
He stood up and brushed the dust from his trousers while looking up at the gray sky. Rin stood nearby with his right hand resting on the hilt of his primary sword as he scanned the perimeter of the abandoned plaza.
"I left him on the AIL carrier right before I took the only emergency pod down to the basin," Xavier explained while kicking a piece of debris out of his way. "The ship was locking down sector by sector because of the internal damage I caused. Klatos said he would find a cargo ejection port or breach the hull to get out on his own."
Rin frowned and stepped over a pile of melted wiring. "A carrier that massive would leave a massive crater if it crashed anywhere near here, and we would see smoke or wreckage from miles away. There is nothing in the sky and absolutely nothing on the ground to suggest a crash."
Xavier crossed his arms and looked toward a cluster of collapsed concrete pillars where a makeshift camp of local scavengers had set up their dirty tents. "Then someone dragged it out of the sky before it could hit the dirt, and they took our hover parts along with it. Let's go ask the locals what they saw."
They walked straight into the center of the scavenger camp. A dozen men covered in grease and cheap cybernetic implants stopped what they were doing and pulled out rusty firearms.
The supposed leader stepped forward with a cocky sneer on his dirt-caked face to demand a toll, but Xavier didn't even give him a chance to speak. Xavier lunged forward and grabbed the man by his throat, slamming him face-first into a steel shipping container. The metal dented inward from the impact as the leader spat out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth.
The rest of the scavengers raised their weapons, but Rin drew his twin swords in a blur of motion and severed the arms of the two closest men before they could pull their triggers. The amputated limbs hit the dirt in a spray of crimson, and the remaining thugs dropped their guns immediately as they backed away in pure terror.
Xavier hauled the bleeding leader back to his feet and slammed him against the container again. "Where is the AIL carrier that was hovering over this sector a few days ago? And who took the engine block out of the hover crashed at the border?"
The scavenger choked and clawed uselessly at Xavier's iron grip. "We didn't take the big ship! A heavy salvage crew from the deep sectors rolled in with tractor-haulers and locked onto the carrier while it was still descending! They dragged the whole thing toward the subterranean drydocks beneath the Glassreach Basin, and they stripped your hover on their way down to the tunnels!"
Xavier narrowed his eyes and squeezed the man's neck tighter. "Who exactly are they?"
"They call themselves the Scrap Hounds," the leader gasped while his face turned purple. "They work for a splinter cell of the AIL under the Iron Mandate! They take whatever falls from the sky and scrap it for the black market! They took the fucking bird-man too! I saw them drag him out of the carrier wreckage!"
Xavier dropped the man into the dirt and turned toward Rin. "Arlen told Director Hale the Iron Mandate was completely eliminated, but she also mentioned they were fracturing into splinter cells." Xavier drew Serpent's Fang into his hand as the chain rattled hungrily. "Let's go down to these subterranean drydocks and introduce ourselves to these Scrap Hounds."
Xavier turned away from the bleeding scavenger and walked straight toward the subterranean maintenance tunnel he had spotted earlier.
Rin fell into step right beside him as he slid his drawn sword back into its sheath to free up his hands for the descent.
The tunnel entrance was essentially a massive sinkhole carved into the concrete, lined with rusted rebar and broken industrial piping leading deep into the crust of the Glassreach Basin.
They navigated the steep incline without speaking, stepping over piles of collapsed debris and puddles of toxic runoff while the ambient light from the surface faded entirely behind them.
The descent took them deep underground until the narrow passage abruptly widened into a sprawling subterranean cavern.
Xavier crouched on a rusted metal catwalk extending over the edge of the rock face and looked down at the operation below.
The stolen AIL carrier rested in the center of a massive drydock, held in place by industrial tractor-haulers and heavy magnetic scaffolding.
Dozens of heavily armed scrappers and rogue AIL enforcers swarmed over the hull like parasites, cutting through the outer plating with plasma torches while cargo lifters hauled the valuable engine components away.