Chapter 1 - The Boy

Icy, bitter wind roared through the wild-lands of New Belzan. It howled through the gaps of clusters of snow-covered pine trees. Flakes of snow circled downwards from the cloudy, gray sky above, the wind carrying it towards a lone traveler on a narrow path.

Cyne was used to this sort of weather, it snowed year-round in New Belzan. Besides him was a secondhand hoverbike, modified heavily to function at near-freezing temperatures.

Pulling an ignition key out from underneath his coat, Cyne surveyed the pristine landscape. Just a few more miles north, and then he would hit the ruins of the old Prototek research facility. He had already spent three days away from home, and he wasn't looking to add to that number.

Cyne inserted the key into the ignition port. The hoverbike shuddered on, the engine humming softly amid the quiet forest. Cyne took a deep breath, and then kicked off the ground.

The bike blew into a sprint, blasting aside heaps of snow. Cyne grimaced as the wind whipped his long hair about. The pine trees faded into blurs of brown and white as he sped along the narrow road.

Within only minutes of riding, he came upon the wreckage of a snow crawler hovercraft. The snow crawlers were a tribe of fiercely territorial savages. They dwelled outside the walls of New Belzan, making use of abandoned towns they formed their own little societies.

Odd, he thought, they don't usually leave their wrecks unattended.

It was rare to find a snow crawler craft out in the wilds, even if it was wrecked. Whatever they couldn't use, they would melt down for scrap. Cyne stopped the bike in front of the wreck, and observed the site with careful eyes.

With his fingers wrapped tight around the grip of a pistol hanging off his side, he slowly got off the bike. A single, cold corpse was strewn beside the hovercraft, it was a woman. She laid face down, her neck bent at an awkward angle, and her hair caked in blood.

Cyne walked past the corpse and checked the inside of the hovercraft. Nothing worth scavenging, the previous occupants must've had better sense than to leave valuables around for scavengers to pick through.

He didn't bother checking on the corpse, it was bad luck to loot a dead body. Before leaving, he checked the surrounding area for stashed valuables. But the search proved fruitless.

Leaving the wreck far behind him, his mind drifted to other thoughts. He couldn't keep this lifestyle forever. Every expedition to the wild-lands, he had to go out further and further. Worthwhile parts were getting hard to find, and sooner or later, everything would be picked clean.

He wasn't the only scavenger out here, there were hundreds of kids just like him scouring the wildlands for parts. Of course, none were as skilled as Cyne, but he had the benefit of having a fine teacher.

Cyne could see the faint outline of the Prototek facility coming up on the horizon. Prototek had facilities like that all over New Belzan, when they left, they took most of their heavy machinery with them. But apparently they didn't deem their small-scale stuff, like carbon wires and computer circuits valuable enough to go through the hassle of hauling them off-world.

When he finally reached the base of the research facility, Cyne was disappointed to see the entrance had been broken into. He had hoped to be the first to make a run through the old building, but life never conformed to expectations.

Taking a sack from his bike, he approached the entrance cautiously. With luck, the previous scavengers had gotten what they came for and were long gone, but Cyne didn't like taking chances with strangers.

With a steady hand, he pulled his volt pistol out of its holster. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to use it today. With his pistol held out in front of him, he slipped through the shattered frame of the sliding door.

The lobby had definitely seen better days, papers, and documents scattered all over the floor, the potted plants dead and wilted. The lobby split off into three different hallways. Cyne walked over to the lobby desk, seeing the padlock on the drawer, he smashed the padlock with the butt of his pistol, but the lock refused to budge.

"Shit, didn't think I'd have use it so soon."

He reached into his side pouch for a thin, palm-sized cylinder wrapped in parchment paper. It was a lock popper, mini explosives designed to deal with cheap pre-schism locks.

Stuffing the cylinder through the keyhole, he lit the end with his lighter. He stepped back and the lock imploded, falling to the marbled floor in pieces.

Inside the drawer was a schematic of the building.

Cyne pulled out a glow stick from his utility belt and shook it on, the fluorescent light chasing away the darkness. Laying the map flat against the desk, he studied the winding paths and numerous rooms of the building.

"Following the middle path would lead straight to the vault, but it's likely been hit already, no matter. I can take my time, combing the building won't take long. But first, the vault."

The boy stared at the middle hall which seemed to stretch on in the darkness endlessly. Taking a deep breath, he advanced into the dark path, with only a glow stick to lead the way.