The crystal city glowed in the light of a noon day star sending thousands of glimmering facets of light like shattered glass out over the ground before them, speckling walls, and roadways with their luminance. Adam only realized his mouth was hanging open when a bug flew inside and he spent the better part of the next thirty seconds trying to scrap it off his tongue and spit it into the bushes.

Then together the two of them turned to look at lord Avex in awe.

He narrowed his eyes, "What did you think, That we lived in caves? We aren't the burg you know."

Adam rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah sorry.... Sometimes I forget just how advanced you guys are supposed to be."

Amelia for her part, didn't seem all that impressed by the crystal city standing below them, or if she did she was good at hiding it. her eyes rested on the center of the city, not moving away to look even as the rest of their attention was turned to a bright blue light at the edge of the city. Adam flipped up his eyepatch and zoomed in with his mechanical eye, falling upon a circular platform with a glowing blue symbol at it's center. As they watched a large group of the citizens stepped onto that platform. The intensity of the blue glow began to sharpen, and a blue field of light seemed to appear around the group of citizens.

As they stood, they slowly began to hover off the ground before they were slowly accelerated into the air.

Adam's mouth swung open again as the blue beam of light shot them through the air, and out across a nearby river to where the city continued distantly on the other side. It wasn't long before even his mechanical eye could not make out their shapes, leaving him to stare after them in confusion and awe.

"Sky bridge." Lord Avex said with the kind of nonchalance that can only come from someone who finds the topic of interest boring, "Every city has one, the capital city has several. My father ordered them installed when he came to power for ease of transportation."

Sunny frowned and rubbed her head, "Your father didn't strike me as the kind of man who would care about infrastructure."

Lord Avex snorted, "Than you do not know my father." He turned and hopped slightly down the trail as the other three followed after him, Sunny bringing up the rear and crouching low as to not be so noticeable, however with the bright blue foliage and colorful metallic rocks, she probably didn't stand out half as much as Adam and Amelia, who were both Drab in comparison.

"My father is a warlord, yes, but all Celzex understand that in order to rule soemthing, there has to be something around you to rule. If he didn't help to maintain infrastructure, than there would be no city, and if there were no city there would be no citizens, and if there were no citizens, he would be the lonely kind of a moss covered rock shouting into the void to be heard by no one." It was rather surprising how nimble lord Avex was despite his size and lack of hands. He hopped down the crystal lined pathway like some sort of demented mountain goat. "In fact, the city has only become this glorious since my father came into power. He believes that civic projects are the most important to keeping citizens satisfied."

Amelia tripped over a rock causing her to pitch forward slightly, but with Adam's sharp reflexes he caught her easily. Sunny bristled only slightly as Amelia lingered from pulling back , her hands resting against Adam's chest as she smiled. Adam hardly reacted, "Watch out." He ordered setting her back on her feet before turning away.

'Again.... I can't say that is what I expected.

Lord Avex snorted, "Of course you wouldn't, you think my father is nothing more than a tyrant and a killer, yes perhaps he is a convenient tyrant and even your friend sometimes, but you do not understand what he really does."

Sunny slid her way down through a small cascade of broken crystal bits.

"You think because we like to fight each other we are like the Drev, opposed to progress, separated from each other, hiding in little groups and warring at the drop of a hat." He didn't seem to care that Sunny was there to hear what he had to say, and she didn't really mind. There was plenty of truth to what he said about her people.

"We do not really "war" as you say. Dueling is a more common practice. Occasionally when a new warlord takes over there is a short burst of violence that can take out hundreds if not thousands of citizens, but it generally doesn't happen near the capital. The warlord just needs to prove that he or she is willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their position and the weaker person generally falls in line."

He paused at the edge of another clearing, "I respect my father, and so will not go against him, but when and if he dies, I will be the first to his throne.

Amelia sidled up next to Adam, her arm brushing against his.

Adam for his part remained with his eyes forward as Amelia leered at him from the right.

Sunny grumbled fists clenching though she promised herself that she wouldn't say anything.

The edge of the city was not so distant, the problem was it was across an open pane of crystal, a field of sorts where the small rock formations only grew two or three inches high in tight clusters of different and intriguing color combinations.

The sight itself was pretty enough, though how they were going to get across was more than a little bit of a mystery.

"Now how exactly do you expect us to blend in?" Adam whispered kneeling down to sit next to Lord Avex.

"I do not plan for YOU to blend in at all." He nodded across the field to a small hole cut in the side of one of the buildings, "That tunnel there leads down into flood farm. Every year during the rainy season thousands of gallons of water are dumped on us from all directions. The water funnels down towards the city since it is in a valley. When my father built this city, he ordered the creation of the aquafarms, massive caverns with support pillars to hold up the city and take in the water from the flooding, leaving the city dry and allowing us to catch all the rain water we wish and store it for later use. It will be dry as the rainy season does not start or another few weeks. The two of you can fit fine, but the Drev must come with me, she will not be able to fit through the opening.

Sunny looked on rather miffed, but she kept mostly quiet.

Adam caught the look she shot at Amelia promising her with a look that he would be fine.

Adam nodded, "This is your mission, we defer to you."

"Even if this was not my mission, you might consider that anyway." He said motioning sunny to follow after him, "If we are quick we can make it without too many people seeing us. I doubt the average citizen is going to notice us if we slip through, and even if they do it will take more than a few days for them to get anything done about it."

Adam nodded crouching low behind Amelia, and together they crunched over the surface of the field and towards the low opening. Lord Avex took sunny around the other side to vanish into the bushes as the two of them pressed their backs up against the crystalline wall.

Amelia looked over at him with a devilish grin, "Looks like it is just you and me now, Admiral."

Adam nodded once, reaching down and pushing the small grate open.

He motioned a hand towards the dark hole, "Ladies first."

She smiled as she passed by him trailing her fingers over his chest, "Oh I promise I am no lady."

The leer that she gave him caused him to blush that time despite not being entirely sure what that was all supposed to mean.

She slipped inside with all the lithe grace of a cat, and he followed after her, slipping down into the dark and landing with only a muffled thud on the balls of his feet, one hand steading him against the floor.

"You are quite graceful." Amelia noted from where she stood to the side.

Adam lifted himself to his feet, "having an enhanced prosthetic will do that to you. Where do we go from here."

With her thumb, Amelia motioned towards a set of stairs carved into the floor in the corner.

"Down."

Following Lord Avex's instructions, which he had left with them on a single sheet of paper, they made their way down the flight of stairs, and boy were they some stairs. They descended what must have been hundreds of feet into a massive room. Adam couldn't have said the size of it, as much was obscured by the curve of the planet vanishing into the distance. Assuming that their planet was roughly the same size as earth he could only assume that made the room about three miles wide or more.

The pillar which lord Avex had spoken of were absolutely massive, about the size of a skyscraper in both height and width.

It was a great way to make them both feel small as they hurried across the expansive floor, keeping to the first line of pillars just before them. Their footsteps echoed loudly and seemed to amplify around the room as they walked.

If it had been stealth that was required, they surely would not have made it very far.

Amelia kept tight to his right side, and every now and again hse would make a point of brushing up against him. Without the help of Sunny and Ramirez, he never would have knownwhat the woman was doing, and it seemed hard to tell anyway if she was simply concerned abut their situation, or if she was, indeed like sunny said, going after him in some sort of unsavory way.

"I'm curious." Amelia finally began.

Adam sighed, drawing in a deep breath that he could hold in his lungs for a little while before blowing it out past his cheeks, "About?"

"You."

"Do you really think this is the time or place for personal questions." He wondered rather astonished at her bluntness."

She waved a hand around the room, "We are going to be here for a while, so why not."

He sighed deeply, "What do you want to know."

Amelia continued to walk after him, matching his quick pace with a languid strut of her own that would have been suited to a catwalk more than a mission like this.

"Are you seeing anyone."

Adam looked down at his watch, "I hardly think that is any of your business."

"Sure it is. A simple yes or no would suffice."

"Why do you want to know."

"Because I just want to know. Why do you not want me to know." Adam grumbled again as he hurried towards the next pillar, the distance between them so long he might as well have ben forced to run the mile before reaching it properly.

"Maybe because that information is private."

"Oh?" She waggled her eyebrows at him. The contemplative frown crossed back onto her face, "So I am going to take that as a yes. Must be someone embarrassing if you don't want to say it."

"Relationships are prohibited among personnel." He said, hoping he could shut her up long enough to finish this mission.

She was not phased, "yeah whatever, they say that, but its not soemthing they can really stop. Besides, with a crew as close knit as yours, it has to be inevitable."

He turned his head to look at her in mild annoyance.

"Ramirez."

She raised an eyebrow, "What about him."

"Me, him, dating. That's what you wanted to know isn't it." Even though it was a flat out lie, Adam was sure that Ramirez wouldn't mind. In fact, he would probably be tickled by Adam using him as a cover story. He would have to tell him about this all later.

"Angel Ramirez! Really, you definitely don't seem like his type."

"Opposites attract."

"So what do you like about him?" She wondered leaning in a little

Adam leaned away, "He has soft lips." That in itself was true enough.

"That's it?"

Adam shrugged, "I like him for all the reasons anyone likes anyone else."

"That doesn't seem very romantic."

"Maybe I just don't want to talk about it with you."

She chewed on her lip thoughtfully as she contemplated him, like she was looking at a very strange or interesting bug, "So is it just men, or do you like women too?"

"I ONLY like Ramirez, so you can end that line of questioning."

It seemed weird to be saying that. If Ramirez was here he probably would have secretly recorded that to hold over Adam's head for the rest of eternity. The marine enjoyed to torture him like that, but at elast out of all the people on the ship, besides Sunny, Adam wouldn't mind having that lorded over him for the rest of time.

Amelia pouted brushing up against him again.

He pulled away frowning, trying to keep his eyes straight forward.

He had once thought Amelia rather pretty, though he had only noticed that in passing. However with every passing minute he was finding her more and more repulsive.

"How long have you two been dating?" She wondered

"Since Last year's Christmas party." He lied

She continued to ask questions, and he continued to answer them noncommittally until he had spun a web of lies about a perfectly romantic friendship that had blossomed into some sort of love story starting with a confession of love at last year's Christmas party and ending with Ramirez's skills at kissing.... Among other things.

Adam felt his neck go red a little bit as he made up some of the things she asked about, not entirely caring if it sounded accurate or not.

She was eating it up on her part.

"So what is it like to date someone with four arms."

Before his brain had time to register the question, "Its nice, like getting hugged double."

He froze then turning to look at Amelia with wide eyes, but the damage had already been done.

She grinned at him like a wolf her eyes glittering in triumph.

Amelia had set him up, and he had fallen for it.