When we returned from our patrol and inspection of our neighboring building, Maxwell already had our rations out and ready for us. I thanked him for the work as all three of us sat down to eat. It was a quick meal, since there wasn't any point lingering on such bland, borderline unappetizing food. On top of that, we needed to get back to what was really important, checking out and completing our quests. Something about having Joseph around had lit a fire under me and I was eager to make things happen.

  After we were done eating, leaving the mess for Maxwell to clean, Joseph and I made our way to the "front desk," watching as the HQ steward shuffled through some papers, pulling out a new quest for us and laying beside the other remaining three.

  "Well, good news, sir," Maxwell said with a smile. "The new quest does, in fact, take place in the Horizon world."

  "Don't get too excited," I responded. "We still need to know what the objective is."

  I flipped the parchment over, skimming the information before starting over and reading it more closely. After I had read it completely, I just handed it to Joseph so he could read it as well.

  "It's a gathering quest," I explained, shaking my head a bit. "They want us to gather six watcher lenses, which I imagine are in their heads. The reward would add a monocular to the standard soldier kit. It's not bad, but it's not the show-stopper we were hoping for."

  "Do you think maybe They are doing this on purpose?" Joseph asked, placing the parchment on the desk, the emphasis on "They" coming through clearly. "Improving our gear before offering the next step up?"

  I looked to Maxwell, who raised his hands defensively.

  "They may have given me extra information to pass on, but I do not know everything," He assured us with a frown. "They did not tell me anything about the criteria used to choose your quests."

  I nodded in understanding, leaning a bit on the desk as I considered what I knew. After a moment, I shook my head.

  "I don't think that's what They are doing," I finally responded. "My gut tells me that this is all more randomized than that."

  "You think they are just randomly offering these?" Maxwell asked, a hint of disagreement in his voice.

  "No, not completely random... Maybe it's some sort of weighted system, so the smaller things appear more frequently?" I guessed, contemplating the idea for a moment before shaking my head. "I don't know, and to be honest, it doesn't quite matter unless we get a quest that affects the way quests work, if that's even on the table. For now… We just do the quests we can, when we can, prioritizing the more useful ones."

  "So, what will you be taking today?" Maxwell asked, gesturing to the row of quests.

  "We are going to start with the grazer kill quest," I responded, pointing to the corresponding parchment. "There was a group of them on our end of the plains last time I was there, so they may still be around. They were guarded by a few watchers, which we can take down at the same time. We can cash in the grazer quest, then go back and use our newly acquired combat knives to pry out the watcher lenses. With any luck, that will be enough to complete the gathering quest. If not, we can kill a few more."

  "Well thought out, sir," Joseph said with a single nod. "Ah, Connor. Do you think we can take that many robots down at once?"

  "Assuming we ambush them, not the other way around? Yes," I responded, tapping the grazer quest and nodding to Maxwell, who picked the quest up and made it vanish, as he always did. "It's going to be like ambushing a couple of deer and some really big turkeys with military-grade weapons. We can handle it."

  Joseph nodded, and together, we finished our preparations, which mostly involved Joseph restocking his rifle mags, since he was the only one who used ammo during our building inspection. Our ammo had been refilled overnight, something I hadn't even noticed as we got ready earlier in the morning, so I was all topped up and ready to go.

  Once we were set, we headed down through the HQ to the Horizon dark door. After a full minute of watching the connection point monitor for any movement, we stepped through. Once we were both outside the dark entranceway, we stopped, each of us taking a long, deep breath.

  "You weren't lying," Joseph said, sounding relieved. "It really does smell better here."

  "Yeah… don't get used to it," I warned, stepping away from the connection point, following the path towards the plains. "We still have to go back."

  Wordlessly, Joseph followed after me, both of us silently walking along the path. We stopped to inspect the watcher I killed during my first quest in the Horizon world, double-checking that it still had its focusing lens and that it was undamaged. Satisfied that we had at least one lens for the gathering mission already, we continued on, heading for the plains.

  When we reached the outer line of trees, we stopped to peer into the massive open grassland area, watching as large and small groups of animalistic robots slowly moved about. It didn't take us long to spot a pod down along the left-hand side of the plains, nearly a mile down the edge. It was the closest group we could see, despite it very clearly not being the pod I had seen before.

  "You ready?" I asked, looking back at Joseph, who nodded in response. "Feel like taking the lead?"

  He nodded, and together, we stepped further into the woods, following the treeline as we moved through the shadows. Joseph walked ahead of me, moving noticeably faster and quieter than me, his "training" showing through. I did my best to copy his movements, using the chance to try and learn a bit. It was slow, but by the time we managed to get close enough to our targets, I was moving a bit better through the underbrush of the forest.

  We stopped just over a hundred meters out from the pod, crouching low to avoid being spotted. There, in the not-too-far distance, were eight grazers and seven watchers, more than enough to complete our quests.

  "What's the plan, sir?" Joseph asked, his voice just barely audible.

  "We move in another fifty, maybe seventy-five meters, then open fire together," I responded, gesturing further along the treeline. "The goal is the grazers first, then the watchers. If we get overwhelmed, push back further into the trees and run back towards the exit. They be programmed to track threats forever, so if we move far enough away, we can turn back around and pick them off again."

  "What if they do track us forever?"

  "Climb a tree," I responded easily. "As long as it's big enough, they won't be able to knock it down, and they certainly can't climb it."

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  I spent another few minutes describing the grazers' weak spots, which boiled down to the blaze canisters on their back, their eyes, and their antlers, though that was just to make it harder for them to attack. The watchers, from my experience, were weak around the neck and eye, but since we their eyes, we would have to make do without targeting them. We did all of this in hushed tones, with me pointing out what I was talking about with the distant, slowly moving robots.

  Finally, after about ten minutes of watching and talking, we were ready. Slowly but surely, we made our way closer and closer, carefully walking through the dense underbrush. A hundred meters, eighty meters, seventy meters, sixty meters, fifty meters… We were just approaching the forty-meter mark when I stepped on a thick branch, a loud snap echoing through the forest and into the plains.

  All of the zoomorphic robots froze, the watchers immediately at attention, their heads swiveling back and forth, scanning the bushes and tall grass, as the grazers prepared to bolt at a moment's notice. I resisted the urge to curse loudly, instead pointing for Joseph to brace against a tree while I moved to one right by me.

  Once we were both set up, I pointed at him and gave him the thumbs up, before lining up my first shot, switching my rifle to semi-auto. The moment stretched, my heart in my ears as I waited for Joseph to take the first shot. The watchers were still looking around, heads scanning the area. I noticed one was looking our way, its eye glowing yellow for a moment before it blinked red.

  Before it could sound any alarm, however, Joseph took his first shot, and I opened fire a split second later, both of us keeping up the rain of bullets after the silence was broken.

  Joseph's first shot was perfectly on target, the blaze canisters on the leftmost grazer exploding, covering the robot before bursting into a billow of flame, dark smoke framing it as the robot stumbled. His second shot punched through another canister, the entire robot disappearing into a ball of deep red fire. I managed to hit my target as well, though it took a few more shots, eventually managing to explode a canister, covering it with burning fuel that melted wires and internal components.

  Under a hail of bullets, we made quick work of all four of our necessary targets, both of us immediately switching our aim to the watchers as they ran around, charging at the forest as they targeted us. Before they could get to the tree line, we managed to drop two of them, punching through their necks and torso, releasing a spray of sparks and scrap. I moved to sight my next target, the watcher closest to me, but when I pulled the trigger, all I heard was a click.

  "Reloading!" I called out, dropping the mag and slapping in a new one, barely racking the slide before my target crashed through the brush only a few meters away.

  I fired wildly, managing to hit its "thigh," the robot stumbling and rolling on the ground, just long enough for me to put it down with another burst of bullets. Breathing hard, I switched targets, only to have to dive out of the way as a third watcher leaped over a fallen log and nearly landed on me. My rifle was tossed to the side, thankfully undamaged but thoroughly out of reach.

  "Sir!" Joseph shouted, concern in his voice.

  "Focus on your targets!" I shouted back, just barely able to roll to my feet. "I can handle this!"

  I quickly pulled my pistol from my hip, my hands surprisingly steady. I quickly, or at least as quick as I could, sighted in the recovering watcher before squeezing the trigger, popping off four neat shots, two punching through its side while the other two marked craters in its neck. While I may not have a ton of range time with rifles, particularly the M4, I knew my colt better than I knew the back of my hand. The watcher dropped, sparking and twitching before going still.

  I stood and turned, scanning the area, noting that Joseph was doing the same. While I had just barely managed to kill three of the watchers, Joseph finished off a fourth with a three-round burst, the machine sliding and rolling along the ground, only to stop at his feet.

  "You good, sir?" He asked, reloading his rifle with steady hands.

  "Yeah, just feeling a bit emasculated," I responded, bending over to pick up my rifle and the empty magazine I dropped. "You?"

  "I'm good. Down to my last mag."

  "I have just under two," I responded, reloading my pistol and sliding back into its holster. "Let's head home. As long as we hurry, we can get two of these quests done."

  Joseph nodded, and once again, we were on the move, this time pushing ourselves to move a bit faster, less concerned about stealth. After all, we had just fired off more than sixty rounds between us. Everything that could hear knew exactly where we were. Thankfully, we made it back to the connection point quickly and without any issues.

  Once through to the "real" world, I quickly handed in our quest while Joseph grabbed our new knives from our rooms, as well as a box of ammo each. I was happy to see that our combat knives were. They were thick, heavy-duty, and completely utilitarian, which was exactly what we needed. I was about to strap it to my hip, opposite my pistol, when I saw that Joseph was affixing it to his chest plate, taking up one of the mag slots. With a shrug, I followed suit, carefully affixing it before testing it a few times and confirming it was on securely.

  With our latest reward set, we quickly reloaded our mags and drained a bottle of water each, taking the time to let our bodies recover a bit. When we were set, we stood and headed right back through the connection point, back to Horizon world. Once again, we followed the path to the plains, stopping when we reached the watcher I killed days ago.

  "So, how much of the eye should we grab?" Joseph asked as we knelt down by the broken machine, tapping the eye with his finger. "It just asked for the lens, right?"

  "Maybe, but I would rather grab extra than not grab enough," I responded, grabbing the watcher's head and giving it a shake. "Here, grab it by its neck and hold it up so I can get at it…"

  Joseph nodded and grabbed the watcher, helping me hold it until I could pull my knife out, fiddling with the central camera that was its eye. It took me a minute or two, but I was eventually able to pop the mount free, cut its wires, and pry the whole camera loose. All that, plus a little elbow grease, and I was able to pull it free, sheathing my knife as I turned the watcher's "eye" over in my hand. It was just a bit bigger than a coconut but slightly more elongated, with a blunt, flat head. It was smooth and cool to the touch, while the lens itself felt like glass or something similar.

  “Well… one down…” Joseph said, laying the watcher down. "Think there is anything else useful we could harvest from it? Feels kinda like hunting a buck and only taking its antlers."

  "Probably, but I don't have any idea what it might be, or how I would use it," I admitted with a shrug. "Besides, we can't bring anything back and forth between worlds, so anything we did harvest would only be useful here."

  I handed the camera fixture to Joseph, before standing and dusting off my knees. Joseph nodded and stuffed the part into his rucksack, before we both continued along the path, eventually cutting off to walk around the plains. This was the third time walking down this way, and we were already starting to wear down our own path.

  As we reached the sight of our battle, we made sure to scan the area before getting to work, harvesting the camera eyes from all seven of the watchers, just to make sure we had enough. We split the load between both of us, making sure the "eyes" were settled correctly so they didn't break against each other as we walked, before starting the trek home.

  This time, rather than pushing ourselves, we took it easy, not because of our precious cargo but because we were no longer rushing to complete one thing so we could get started on another. We took our time, kept our eyes peeled, and thankfully made it back without any significant issues. We placed the lenses in the provided crate, tossing the extras by the path, before stepping back into the Fallout world.

  After handing in our quest, we grabbed the rewards before Joseph and I headed out of the HQ to test them. They were pretty simple devices, just a that zoomed in by eight times, at least according to the settings. It was enough that, after moving a bit to the west, I could just make out the bodies hanging in front of the Super-Duper Mart.

  "Is that normal for Raiders?" Joseph asked, both of us looking through our monoculars at the gruesome sight. "Hanging bodies like that?"

  "Pretty much," I responded with a frown. "Raiders vicious, fueled by hate, drugs, greed and worse. Normally, they are pretty poorly equipped but never underestimate them. Not only can they catch you off guard at the worst moments, but in this world, they will most likely be able to overwhelm you with numbers alone. They may be armed with pool cues and switchblades, but if fifty of them charge you, you're still dead."

  "How many do you think are in that store?"

  "Judging by the amount of bodies, blood, and spray paint… To many, Joseph," I said, shaking my head and lowering my monocular. "Too fucking many."