“Those are warriors of the wastend like us, follow our lead, city-dwellers,” said Jamie.

  “Very well, Vin here will coordinate with your people,” I said before I exited the call.

  I became a spectator as my security team sprang into action at Vin’s command. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do while in the car.

  Vin, who was beside me, occasionally yelled out commands as he conversed with his counterpart in the Bush Cn.

  From what the sensors were telling me, we had our adversaries half-encircled and the turrets of our Vanguards began ying down fire. Even the wastend’s sandstorms couldn’t completely silence the sound of rge-caliber gunfire.

  I only flinched away from the sensors when bullets nded squarely on our Vanguard, accompanied by the sound of them being deflected. Our driver quickly veered off to dodge away from the attack, and the sound of gunfire only intensified.

  After a few more minutes of combat, I could tell we were on the winning side. We transitioned to chasing down our foes, which didn’t st too long as we had sustained some damage ourselves and it was never a good idea to chase wastenders out here.

  “How bad is it?” I asked once we seemed to be in the clear.

  “A few injured, and two cars with ft tires. We’ll need a couple of minutes to get them patched up,” Vin replied.

  “And our allies?”

  “They lost an entire dune buggy, but their remaining forces are unharmed.”

  “I see. I’ll go speak with them while you take charge of the repairs.”

  He nodded, but we both remained seated next to each other as we carried out our work remotely. I reconnected to the call with the Bush Cn.

  “Envoy Jamie, now that it is over, can you expin why other wastenders are attacking us in your territory?”

  “...I assure you we have no part in this.”

  “Then why—”

  “Apologies Mr. Halls. It may be better for you to ask our leader. Our political situation isn’t something I care to share.”

  So they were real wastenders. Crossing off the possibility of imposters.

  “Fine…Hopefully, we aren’t too far off from your cn?”

  “It should be another hour from here.”

  “Very well, I will let you know once we are ready to depart.”

  It took fifteen minutes before we resumed our journey. Everyone was visibly more tense after the attack, once bit twice shy.

  After a lot of driving through nothing but sand, we soon arrived in a valley where the sandstorms didn’t reach. Like with the Wells Cn, a small town appeared on the horizon.

  The first thing that caught my eye was the structures they lived in. Unlike the Wells Cn, they lived in rge tents, as I had initially expected when I first visited the Wells Cn. Judging from the size of this settlement, they were simir in size and numbers.

  When we disembarked, we could easily tell Jamie and his party were in a foul mood, no doubt because of their losses in the encounter. They still completed their duty wordlessly and finished their job when they guided me to a rger tent where their leader was.

  There were two guards outside the tent who politely stopped us outside.

  “Halt, please leave your weapons outside if you wish to enter.”

  I nodded to Vin, who reluctantly passed his weapons to the guard beside him while I did the same. Only the two of us went in, leaving our team outside.

  We were then led into the tent, where we found a small old woman sitting on a rocking chair. She looked to be over ninety, at an age it wouldn’t be surprising for her to pass on peacefully any day. She had her eyes closed as she continued to rock her chair as we approached.

  “Rollo, friend of the Wells Cn, is it?” She said in a raspy voice.

  “Yes, and this is Vin,” He nodded at his introduction. “We have come with a request for your cn.”

  “Welcome to our cn, Rollo and Vin. I am Kelsey, the leader of the Bush Cn. I know that your corporation is flourishing, transporting things through the Wells Cn territory. Is that what you have come for?”

  “Yes, then I’ll be direct about it. I wish to have a simir arrangement with your cn.”

  She paused her rocking chair and fell silent.

  Just as I was getting worried she fell asleep, she spoke out as if reading my mind, “Don’t worry, I’m awake. I’m blind, not senile. Your request is a difficult one to accept, indeed.”

  “We’re willing to help you out in any way we can. There must be something people from the city like us could help with.”

  “No, that is not the issue. As much as I hate to admit, we who reside in the wastend have our own political squabblings. The attack on your way here wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “You mean there’s wastenders who are trying to prevent us from establishing retions?”

  She resumed rocking her chair with a smile on her face, “I’m gd you’re quick on the uptake. That is indeed the case. The cns around the area have heard of your dealings with the Wells Cn, and we have become more divided than before.”

  “...I presume you are of the same faction as the Wells Cn?”

  “Yes, the Bush Cn I lead is of the same faction as the Wells Cn, of course. That is why they have introduced us to you. We share the belief that it is best for us to find ways to co-exist with you city-dwellers despite knowing many of you are… not amenable to diplomacy with us. The faction that attacked you is part of the ones who would like to remain at arms with the corporations and all city-dwellers.”

  “Are you guys the majority? What other factions are there?” I couldn’t help but be a little anxious at the possibility that the majority of wastenders were against building a retionship with me.

  “Calm yourself. It isn’t as bad as you think. We’re mostly even with the faction that has attacked you. The majority of other cns have remained neutral, choosing to take a wait-and-see approach or simply not caring.”

  The thought of removing the opposition briefly crossed my mind, but I doubt that would help my case at all. I should stay away from that corpo, cold, calcuted way of thinking.

  “I see…So the best way to resolve this is if I convince more cns to take our side?”

  The old woman, Kelsey, smiled and nodded as she continued to rock her seat.

  “Very well, I’ll go meet with these neutral cns then. I would appreciate it if you could introduce me.”

  “It was my intention to do so. The cns aren’t far away, as many of them congregate around the ruins of Las Vegas. I will have Jamie escort you to the closest one. What happens next will be up to you.”

  “...and they all wanted the same thing, weapons,” I expined to everyone on the call.

  “There’s no way we can supply them with weapons, Rollo. The other corps will sniff it out in no time and they’ll be on our asses,” Leo immediately retorted.

  “I know…There are not many things we can trade them without setting off serious fgs.”

  “How about leaking info to them on other convoys that carry the weapons they want?” Cire suggested.

  “No, the corps aren’t stupid. With the quantity we’re looking at, they’ll sniff it out, just the same,” Leo replied.

  “...How about trading them food?” I proposed.

  “That would be fine…but would they agree to the deal with just food? I don’t think it’s valuable enough to make them budge.”

  “What if we included household electronics and building supplies? I’m sure wastenders would all appreciate having access to better power generators and other conveniences.”

  “That could…work. It’ll depend on how your negotiations with them go.”

  The next morning, we set off straight for the Bush Cn after we picked up some samples of what we would offer the wastend cns. The cns we met didn’t trust us enough to leave us the locators to find their camp.

  Each of the cns we had spoken to left a small delegation at the Bush Cn to await my response to their conditions.

  Trekking across the wastend was a boring journey, as always. It took almost three hours for us to reach the Bush Cn settlement. Several dune buggies led our convoy in, and I soon spotted Jamie approach when we disembarked in the clearing where they made us park.

  “Welcome back, Rollo. I take it you have a reply to what the cns have requested of you?”

  “Yes, I’m hoping it will satisfy the cns. Can you guide me to them?”

  “Of course, we have already alerted them. They should be gathering by the tent over there.”

  Jamie led me to an enormous tent that could easily fit a few dozen people. Inside were three groups of wastenders congregating within their own circle. They each wore a rugged cloak fit for traversing the wastends and had clothing with patterns unique to their cn underneath.

  “Please wait one moment to allow the envoys from the Bates Cn to arrive,” Jamie said, as he led me to a seat.

  I got seated on a bundle of carpets with Vin and Thorne, then took a look around. The envoys were lying down with a pipe in hand. It wasn’t lit, and they simply fidgeted it around. I passed the time in my optics by reading a novel I had downloaded. By the time I almost finished reading a chapter, the st attendees arrived.

  Jamie signaled me with a gnce, and I got up and went before the representatives of the four cns.

  “Thank you all for waiting for my response. I have come to a conclusion—”

  “No need to pleasantries. Let us hear it,” One of the tecomers said.

  “Very well, I regret to inform you all that we will not be able to supply any weapons to you. If we did, the other corporations would destroy us for doing so in no time.”

  The four groups swiftly devolved into whispering amongst themselves, so I gave it some time for them to digest.

  “Although we cannot supply you with weapons, we have a counter-offer. We would like to offer you various supplies, including food, household electronics, and the raw materials we have access to. We have brought a detailed list and samples of what we can offer.”

  At my cue, Vin came forth, pced some samples down, and handed out pamphlets to the audience. It was expensive procuring physical paper as it was more of a luxury item in the city, but all the wastenders I’ve seen continued to use it, so they may have a source I don’t know of.

  The mutterings among each group grew once more before a member of the cn that all wore star-patterned clothing spoke out.

  “I will have to consult with my cn leader first. Allow me a few moments to do so.”

  The other envoys all nodded in agreement, and an intermission inevitably occurred.

  It seems like they have mastered some form of long-distance communication across the wastends I don’t know about. I wonder how many more secrets they have?

  After a thirty-minute break, our meeting resumed. The man who had st spoken was the first to respond.

  “Our leader tentatively agrees to your proposal. We’ll need to discuss the amount you will offer and set up frameworks for subsequent trades first, but we believe that is negotiable.”

  “Our cn pns to do the same as well.”

  “As does our cn.”

  One after the other, the envoys agreed to my proposal.

  Great, now for the final one.

  All eyes were drawn to the Bates Cn, who were the final ones that had yet to answer. Feeling everyone’s gaze, the leader of their group stepped forth.

  “Your cn leaders must be blind! I can’t believe you would associate with these city-dwellers for the sake of some cheap comforts!”