The Foreman stood upward, lowering his rifle. He approached the edge of the rooftop and scanned the area, beholding the work of the Zoners. All the Aggressors surrounding the perimeter – dead. The two large ones overseeing the group – also dead. All at the hands of a bunch of otherworldly visitors. Not bad. But a shame some of them... disappeared, from the looks of it. He turned his head towards Miriam and approached her. He set his rifle aside and extended his hand.

Miriam looked down at the extended had, unsure of what to do or how to the react to the strangely familiar gesture. She looked back up to the Foreman's face, and then back down to the hand and slowly and carefully extended it. She had never really interacted with Denizens in her time here, rather than just enjoy being capable of moving around and bully aggressors if she felt like it. But after that, she hadn't really interacted with any of the beings that traversed this zone. Her hand clasped onto his, and seeing that there was no pain in doing so, held on a little more firmly and shook.

After their hands separated, the Foreman turned and leaped off the building, landing on a dumpster just below and then descending to the street. Miriam followed suit with her usual smoke-transformation business. The two crossed the way, turning to see Henry gorging himself on the body of one of the large Aggressors. Standing near him was Bobby, watching in both intrigue and disgust. He turned and raised a hand to Miriam as she walked on by.

The Foreman knelt down and grabbed the legs of one of the dead Aggressors, dragging it along as ascended the steps of the workshop entrance and pushed the doors aside, Miriam following suit. He and Miriam looked around the main room. Tables, desks, shelves, and racks littered the area, stocked to the brim with armaments and ammunition. Around the walls were supposed crafting stations and heavy machinery, all for the making of such weapons. The Foreman dragged the dead Aggressor across the room, towards what looked like a furnace in the back. He opened the grate and lifted the Aggressor, tossing him inside. He shut the grate, pulling a lever on the side. Nothing happened right away, but it could clearly be surmised that he was burning the body for… fuel, supposedly.

The Foreman turned to Miriam and made a gesture with his hands extended towards the array of weapons around the room. Almost as if he was indicating she take whatever she liked. Miriam turned as the Foreman proceeded towards one of the other machines in the room. And that’s when Eli decided to speak up.

[color=gray][i]"Hey. Miriam. Can you hold up a sec?"[/i][/color]

Miriam was in a daze, still a little shocked at the sentience that the beings here seemed to be displaying, now that she began to notice it. She didn't care too much for the weapons. She couldn't use them too much herself. The only one who would care would've been Henry, who was too busy gorging himself to care at the moment. She lazily responded, not really in the mood to think up a snarky response. "Uh, yeah. What do you need?"

[color=gray][i]"Can you head up the stairs to the second floor? There's something I'd like you to do."[/i][/color]

Miriam didn't say anything, rather she just passed by the weapons and up to the second floor, as she was told. The room she came upon was mostly vacant, save for a few tables and shelves stocked with spare parts and miscellaneous items. A row of windows gave view to the waterfront in the distance, letting a good deal of light in.

[color=gray][i]"The blank wall over at the far end. Walk up to it and hold your hand on it for a bit."[/i][/color]

"Wait, why should I do that?"

[color=gray][i]“One of the Surveyors is going to open it up as a Nexus portal and she needs someone on the other side to make that happen."[/i][/color]

"I swear to god Eli..." she said, walking towards and extending her hand to the wall. “You need to tell us this shit beforehand." She finished, touching the wall. A moment of contact, and the wall began to ripple outwards from her hand. The wall began to shift from its crimson array of bricks to dark, foggy void. Miriam grew a confused look on her face as directly across from her, on the other side of the now-translucent wall, a figure appeared, with their arm extended and touching same spot of the wall as her. As the ripples began to die down, the figure came into better view. A woman, standing at Miriam’s height. Shoulder-length, curled, white-blond hair. Pale skin. Piercing blue eyes, coupled with an array of icy veins overlapping most of her face.

She smiled some, waving to Miriam with her free hand before the wall abruptly shined white and receded to its original form. Miriam detached her hand from the wall and backed away. “Is that it?” She said aloud.

[color=gray][i]”Yeah, you’re good. Now this building is accessible from the Nexus. Should be useful if any of you ever need a weapon.”[/i][/color]

Miriam nodded at the thought of weapons. Maybe she wouldn’t be needing any of them anytime soon, but the others? They might like the idea.

[color=gray][i]”Alright folks. Good job. Think it’s time I pull the rest of you out of there.”[/i][/color]

With Eli’s last announcement, the rest of the Zoners felt darkness wash over their vision as they were expunged from the red city.

[center][h1]…[/h1][/center]

Eli shut down the neural comm as he stood up, watching the last few Zoners rise from their seats. He smiled and called out, “Like monkeys shot into space!” He walked around and past the console with the container of water bottles tucked under his arm, waving everyone in the room towards him. “All in folks, c’mon.” He said aloud. They gathered around him, some of them taking up his offer for some water. He managed to finally finish off the container.

“Alright.” Eli said, with everyone grouped up, “Good work, people. Great for the inaugural run. Some of you didn’t make it out so well, but that’s perfectly fine.” He paused for a moment and continued, “Uh, Miriam helped set up a new Nexus portal in Zone 1 where our Denizen friend is, let’s call him, uh…. the Foreman. I guess. You’ve got a building stocked with weapons there if you want to try those out next time you’re in. Your reward for helping the guy out.”

He paused and looked around for a moment, before he continued, “I know this has been an… [i]interesting[/i] first day, but you guys have made yourselves out to be a reliable team. Whatever happens in the future of this operation, you’re my go-to guys. I’ve got a couple hundred other Zoners to break in, but that’ll be a gradual process. You’ve all earned yourselves a break for the rest of the night, so head upstairs, grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria, whatever. Service bots will whip you up whatever, if they’ve got the right supplies in storage. You can put in a request for anything that’s not there.”

He finished off with, “Now, uh, I got a few things to wrap up myself before I end ops for tonight. You all just head up and do whatever – you need me, I’ll be here.” He turned away from the group and returned to the console as they dispersed.

For a first day? This wasn’t bad.

Wasn’t bad at all.