[H2]Aboard the Tiresias, briefing room[/h2]

"Any idea what this meeting is about?" Vance asked to the mostly empty room.

"Probably a scavenging run, like always," groaned his teammate, Grant.

"With only two teams?" Vance replied incredulously, Grant simply shrugging in reply.

For most of the ship it was a normal day, kids ran up and down the narrow steel corridors, their laughter echoing throughout the ship. Dozens of hands tended to the makeshift greenhouses that had been built atop what was once two cargo ships. Each ship consisted of a large, mostly empty, hull between two massive sausage shaped helium balloons. Steam driven propellers covered the outer hull at regular intervals while a nest of brass pipes where the two ships had been joined connected the four total boilers to one another. The giant propellers spun lazily as the sun rose, simply working to keep the ship stable.

As workers, engineers, medics, teachers and hundreds of others woke to go about their various jobs the Scavenger corp was also gathering. Or, at least, a portion of them. While there were six total teams, all of which would typically be deployed whenever the ship neared the mainland only two of the groups had been called. The most senior team, lead by Grant, a man as big as he was ill mannered, but none the less always brought his team back alive and with supplies, was already gathering with two of their four members present in the small meeting room. The other group was an odd pick, and relatively new, all of them relatively recent additions to the ship. Jarred and his niece were survivors of a lost ship, doing them no favors in trying to make friends with the more superstitious of the crew. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, Jarred had become a scavenger.

Keket was more of a mystery, picked up at the last stop she didn't talk about her past, and few asked. Everyone had dark pasts in this world, best to just ignore it, but there was still a need for strong fighters to protect scavenging teams and, lacking other skills had found her way there.

Finally Eliza had more the air of a child of wanderlust, her unique combination of engineering knowledge and physical ability making her ideal for recovering parts for the airship. Perhaps she was why that group, despite being untested, was asked to come to this meeting. Everything on the ship was at least decades old and always needed replacing, and engineers were generally too valuable to risk on missions.

Regardless the ship chugged through the air, several smaller ships launching from the makeshift top deck carrying fishermen with massive nets and crab pots. Distant singing could be heard from an early morning workshift tending to the ship's engines, more religious crew bowed their heads in morning prayers, chefs in the ship's galley began preparing meals for those working and mothers walked children to classrooms. Most unaware the scavengers were preparing for another dangerous mission even as they went about their day.