Five flashes of light peppered halfway through an expansive star system well beyond orbit of a desert planet. "Initiate scans," Master-Explorer Sine requested from the bridge of his Kyodain exploration cruiser, naurally accompanied by a protective destroyer and five combat frigates so the minimal fleet might be able to fend off more malicious forces about the galaxy. 

Most of the system was unimpressive. An asteroid belt, a few gas giants, some mining outposts, and a few other terrestrial worlds. Only one had any real signs of civilization, but that civilization appeared incredibly spread out across arid wasteland spanning most of the planet with the exception of either pole. In Kyodain's eyes, it was a wonder that any form of even minimally spacefaring civilization was capable of maintaining itself on such an unforgiving planet. The Tech-Master typed several commands into his console and descended to the launch bay. A team of riggers and a pilot deployed in one of the Exploration frigate's several dropships for the planet's largest settlement - a mega city - where Sine hoped he might be able to contact the planet's leader. The dropship broadcasted messages stating their intent: they wished to speak to the planet's leaders. The dropship ended up landing in the nearest spaceport they could find.

In the innards of Freeland, crime and lawlessness run rampant. The city had been like this for generations, and had no signs of this changing. Crime lords ruled the districts, and they were ruled under a group of pirates. Prowlers often came to the city in hopes of rallying a raiding party to Vox. And ships often came, full of slaves to sell at the markets for the highest  possible bidder.

Dendro Gai was not there for any of the above reasons. The Potrosi adventurer was here to find artifacts. Things that could save his species from impending doom, and bring them back into a golden age of existence. The potbellied dwarf stumbled up to a stand, knocking on the wooden stand to get the attention of the human who owned it.

"Oy," he said as the trader looked down, annoyed, "You got any way to find a certain Prowler by the name of Gnaggle-Tooth the Running Blade? I need to talk to him about taking something from him and possibly punch him in the face for making me come down to this junkhole. No offense to your stall here, 'cause it looks really good."

The man stared daggers at Dendro, before pointing towards an ongoing slave auction. In there, a large man ,adorned in many small animal skulls and jewels, shouted out "I GOT THREE FIFTY ON THE LITTLE ONE!!". On an antler that spurted out of his spiked chest piece was a large blue crystal, which let out a very faint hum.

Dendro knew this had to be his man, and thanked the clerk, who replied with an annoyed grunt, as the Potrosi began to weave his tiny way through the bidding crowd.

---

In the biggest tower of Freeland, the Pirate group began to bicker at one another about what to do. They had never dealt with something like this, and were obviously very agitated.

A gunshot rang through the room, silencing the gang of people around a table, as the leader of the pirates, Rook, stepped in, bolstering his revolver and staring down one of the group.

"You all seem to think you know what's best for Freeland, yeah?" He asked in a semi-sarcastic tone, before slamming his fists onto the table. "WRONG! None of you what's best for anything! Not even yourselves! But the people.. the Prowlers, the Slavers, the Crimelords. They do. And I got a good idea cranking in my mind; if we let these aliens come in, we can sick the entire city on them. We can even sick a few of the Prowler gangs outside the city on them. And afterwards, we'll claim all the tech, and we'll get ourselves some new cities to call ours, including those pansies in Vox! So are you all with me? Or do we have to hang a few more traitors?"

The Pirates cheered at Rook's plan, either out of genuine goodwill, or sheer fear that they may end up on the end of a noose outside the top of the tower.

Rook found his transceiver and responded to the Kyodain ships; "We hear you loud and clear, and you are clear for entry."

He set down the transponder and went to his armory; he wasn't gonna just sit out on this.

As the dropship swooped through the planet's arid atmosphere, more telemetry on Master-Explorer Zan and his team's destination was broadcasted to the trio of dropships. With every update, Master-Explorer Zan's hopes for an easy alliance with the planet diminished. As far as he could tell from the readings, numerous slave auctions were being held throughout the city, and nearly every individual carried a weapon. There appeared to be a number of smaller organizations doing battle with each other throughout the largely rickety and rusting city. When the group received clearance to land, the dropship pilots selected the most structurally sound docking port, located on the surface on the outskirts of the city.

"Guaridan Tan, do you agree that our expedition into this city ought to be well protected?" Zan questioned.

"Indeed," Tan replied, pressing a few buttons on a glowing blue holographic console. Dual panels on either side of the dropship just behind the cockpit slid down, revealing a rotating arsenal loaded with enough weapons to arm roughly twenty or so warriors. Arc batons, rifles, pistols, tools, and any weapon in the Clan Kyodain infantry arsenal was loaded up. A command was transmitted to the other two dropships and the soldiers followed suit. Zan sent a request for a support wing of battlesuits ready to deploy just in case the situation turned to violence. In the meantime, the riggers loaded up. Most chose the customary arc-rifles and kinetic shields. Zan and Tan each took up a pair of Arc-Swords as was customary of warriors at their rank. The total of forty warriors in each of the dropships had finished gearing up just as the entrance ramps began to deploy.

Dendro noticed as the man he was following began to move back, taking an old transceiver from his belt, the curving wire connecting it to his waist. "Yeah," the Prowler grunted, "Wot do you mean you want all the bosses and their men on this? For HOW much?" He quickly reeled his transponder back onto his waist, as he waved to his men in the crowd, incoherently shouting "WE GOTTA GET SOME FOOLS DEAD!" To which his Running Blades returned with a triumphant roar. They grabbed their blades, spears, axes, and primitive guns and began to march in an unorganized manner towards the docking ports, flailing their weapons to the air in the most uncivilized of ways. The rest of the known criminals watched in amusement; they would let the Prowlers go first before the aliens made their way into the city. Hopefully for the Gangs of the city, the savage Prowlers would weaken the aliens and leave less competition when they died.

Dendro stifled a chuckle at the in orderly manner the near-tribal raiders ran towards the docks, before realizing..

"Oh dang! Now I gotta follow 'im to his death!" The Potrosi adventurer muttered, as he began to slowly trail behind the mob, slowly loading his laser pistol's battery pack. He may have to use it to finish off that savage Gnaggle-Tooth. He'd be happy to, as well; Dendro had been chasing this crystal all across Whitland, first finding it in Vox, before it was taken in a Freeland raid, where it was then sold to a  man in Cormstock, where it was yet again taken in a Freeland raid, where it somehow switched hands to the Running Blade general he was following at this very moment.

--

Rook admired his work through one of the thousands of security terminals set up to avoid dissent towards the Pirates. He was adorned in his regalia battle armor, gold emblazoned with a large red crest, like those of ancient centurions from Earth. On his left shoulder pad was the Pirate Crew's symbol, a the skull of a wolf emblazoned in front of a purple flame. His most loyal two soldiers stood behind him, emblazoned in silver armor and faceless helmets. 

"Looks like the Prowlers are the first to get to the action. I wonder which groups next.." Rook smiled, before ordering, "You two, ready the tank and the raiding craft. We're gonna take a stroll here real soon. Once the city goes to hell, we'll have ourselves one heck of a time cleaning it up."

His royal guard nodded silently, before leaving their boss to his entertainment. Rook was too enthralled with what the Prowlers would do to go and fight just yet.