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'Oh, you're already awake,' said Qorvass privately. 'Good. Come back up.'

'What's the matter?' he said, already making his way over to the ladder.

'Well, um. There's... a cluster of vending machines in the middle of the desert.'

Asad stopped climbing the ladder briefly, blinking dully for a moment before continuing.

'They just suddenly appeared there,' the reaper elaborated. 'No one's quite sure what to make of it.'

'Vending machines,' Asad said incredulously.

'That's right.'

And sure enough, when he made it back up to the bunker's main floor, grabbed a pair of binoculars, and looked out through the wide observation window again, he saw exactly what the reaper had described.

A ring of six tall, boxy machines. Just sitting there, half-buried in sand, but also lit up, as if operational.

Obviously, there were no electrical outlets way out here, so what in the world was powering them? As if their appearance alone wasn't strange enough.

The scouts were looking his way. "We've already radioed it in, Lord," said the one on the left through his faceguard. "Command doesn't seem to know what to make of it, either. Apparently, we aren't the only ones seeing something like this. They've received reports like ours from a dozen other bunkers."

"What do you make of it, Lord?" said the other scout.

Well, this was Abolish they were dealing with, Asad thought. Morons and lunatics filled their ranks. Perhaps he shouldn't overthink this.

"It's probably a diversionary tactic," said Asad. "Keep an eye on them but watch their surroundings, too."

"Yes, Lord."

Abolish knew by now that their invisible soldiers weren't going to work, anymore. Not by themselves, at least. The sands of the Uego made it all but impossible for the enemy to sneak across without leaving very noticeable tracks, and even if they somehow got past that, the Sandlords had also planted thousands of booby traps in this region--a number which was still growing by the day.