Lightning flashed on the distant horizon, briefly illuminating the steely gray sky over the sparse plains of the Charged Barrens. Silhouetted against the electrical outbursts, a modest sized bronze silo stood solitary on the dry desert sand. From a hatch on the side of the silo, the lower half of a Ridgeback protruded, their wings all but filling the access port. The ridgeback’s claw peeked out through the scant remaining space.

“Hand me a fourteen millimeter!” came Sancha’s voice, her shout muffled from within the node. Beside her, Ozzil pulled the requested wrench from the tool box and handed it to her. Sancha’s talons wrapped around the wrench and tapped her thanks against the silo before quickly disappearing back into the node.

A few moments filled with cranking noises punctuated by grunts of exertion went by before Sancha finally extracted herself from the node, her work completed. The Ridgeback took a moment to stretch her tail and wings before speaking to her partner. “How do you suppose they manage it?” she asked as the sweat coating her brow and snout quickly evaporated in the arid desert air.

Caught off guard, it took a moment for Ozzil to process her question. “Manage what?” he replied.

“Well, building these nodes is a lotta work, right? So we’re here busting our tails keeping up with the schedule, finishing a node, then booking it back to Main Operations for the coordinates of the next construction site, and all in this Shade-cursed heat,” Sancha said, tossing him the wrench and turning to look contemplatively at the distant electrical storms.

“That is our job, yeah,” he acknowledged, turning to pack up their tools.

“And yet, in that same amount of time,” Sancha continued, “the Excavation Crew manages to tunnel to the next substation in the underground network, lay down kilometers of cable, drill up vertically through bedrock and soil, and feed the necessary lines to the surface, so we can connect it to the base of our next node construction. And they do this all before we arrive! I’ve never even seen the Excavation Crew, they’re that efficient!”

Ozzil shrugged, he’d never really thought about it before.

“That’s ‘cause they never stop workin’,” a deep voice rumbled from behind them. Ozzil and Sancha turned to the hulking form of Chugs, as the Guardian dragon roused from his nap. Chugs was the muscle in their three-dragon engineering team, holding the large beams and plating in place during a node’s construction while Sancha and Ozzil secured and bolted the frame. He was also responsible for towing the heavy cart that carried their construction tools and when it was time for the more delicate electrical work, Chugs would disappear to “survey” likely patches of shaded sand.

Sancha cast an amused glance at Chugs, “And exactly how would someone who sleeps through half of his shift know how hard the Excavation Crew is working?”

Chugs blinked his dull brown eyes at her. “Ma and Pa liked to travel. My clutch hatched in Earth Flight, ya? So I got a good sense of the sand and stone.” He took his massive claw and put it pad-down on the desert sand, “I can feel the vibrations, can feel ‘em workin’ down there all the time—at least when they’re near.”

“Guess that explains why they’re terminally ahead of schedule…they’re a bunch of livewires,” Ozzil’s brow contorted in derision at the thought as the team began their sandy trek back to Main Ops HQ, equipment cart in tow.

It wasn’t until they’d stopped for a quick meal that he put his talon on the words to the question twisting in his mind. “WAIT!” Ozzil shouted, dropping his meal ration into the sand and startling the other two into doing the same. “Do you think they get paid more than us?!”







As the team returned to the scattershot series of canvas tents and temporary buildings that made up their project’s main operations, the sun was just dipping below the horizon, draping the desert landscape in long shadows. They made their way to the only two-story structure in the camp. The trio pushed through a crowd of other teams exiting the building after turning in daily project reports, and worked their way to the main office at the center of the first floor. Ozzil stood outside the door labeled PROJECT MANAGER with a little plaque underneath with the name HEMSTROUD stenciled on it. With a brief look back at his two companions, Ozzil knocked.

“Come in,” called a mellow voice.

Ozzil opened the door and the three stepped into a spacious office. Behind an expansive desk covered in reams of paperwork and various abacus for measuring finances and project completions rates, sat Project Manager Poliver Hemstroud. The bespectacled, silver-furred Pearlcatcher oversaw the full scale of the electric node expansion project into the Barren Wastes. Hemstroud looked up from one of the many daily reports piled on his desk and raised a curious eyebrow at them. “Team 13, I didn’t expect you’d return until late tonight. Your last node was some fifteen kilometers out, wasn’t it?”

Ozzil could feel Chug’s glare—they had rushed back without finishing lunch— but if they wanted to execute their plan, it had to be done. Ignoring the ongoing protest from Chug’s stomach, Ozzil straightened himself and gave Hemstroud his best enterprising grin. “That’s right, sir!” he declared with a flourish. “We’re looking to improve our efficiency!” The imperial snaked his head upwards before assuming his best impression of a confident pose. “We’d like the coordinates for the next node tonight, which would allow us to head out early tomorrow and meet up with the Excavation Crew. We want to learn their techniques for min-maxing efficiency before they move to the next junction!”

Hemstroud stared up at the confident imperial, his eyes wide and his expression unreadable. “N-n-ow—ahem—now, don’t be hasty, you three! I appreciate your passion, but as you know the Project’s timetable has been thoroughly pre-established. Your crew’s exemplary adherence to schedule is your asset and why you have the assignments you have. If you speed up your workflow, then everyone else has to match. And I don’t want you accidentally throwing off the Excavation Crew’s steady pace!”

Sancha visibly bristled at Hemstroud’s tone. “Boss, are you saying you value the Excavation Crew more than us? Are you saying their remuneration is that much higher? Maybe we should union—”

“What?! No, I’m saying leave them be and stick to your own tasks! They’re compensated commensurate with their duties, just like you! And you’re plenty valuable, I can personally assure you of that! We’re a family here and we wouldn’t know what we’d do without you and your contributions to the Project” Hemstroud turned back to his paperwork, motioning towards the door with a shooing wave. “Now, I have to get back to reviewing project reports. Go get something to eat before Chugs’ stomach shakes the building down, get some sleep, and I’ll give you the node coordinates tomorrow.”

The team reluctantly left the office. “‘We’re a family’,” Sancha muttered, seething.

After a silent meal, the crew half flew, half rolled their way back to their tent. Ozzil snorted in derision as he unceremoniously dropped his toolkit just inside the entryway, “Yeah, so complete confirmation that the Excavation Crew is the Boss’ prized golden egg! Now we’ve GOT to meet them and figure out their salary! How else can we negotiate for better pay if we can’t out-efficiency them?”Ozzil grimaced. “If only we had the next junction’s coordinates!”

“I got em,” Chugs said. The other two turned to him in disbelief. “They were on his desk in plain view,” he tapped his temple, “an’ I got an eidetic memory.”

Ozzil looked toward Sancha, a big grin spreading across his face. She rolled her eyes as her crewmate sprang into action, “We should have just unionized.”







After checking out the necessary excavation equipment from the conveniently always-open requisition depot, the trio set off to the coordinates of their next construction project, the moonlight illuminating their way across the silent desert.

With the hope of triple salary driving them, the crew made good time across the Wastes to their destination. The ground before them sat pristine—the Excavation Crew had yet to feed the cables from the underground substation network to the surface!

“We made it!” Sancha proclaimed excitedly, rushing to pull the digging equipment from Chugs’ cart.

“Wait!” Ozzil threw up a splayed claw, beseeching a pause, “Before we start digging, Chugs, can you sense the Excavation Crew working beneath us?”

“Ooh, smart, Ozzy!” Sancha said with a wink.

Chugs put his claws flat to the desert sand and closed his eyes in concentration. After a moment, he spoke, “Ya, they’re bustlin’ ‘round down there, for sure.”

Sancha positioned the portable digging drill at Chug’s specified coordinates, with Ozzil manning the hand crank. Chugs assembled the stabilizing rig to keep the drill centered. During the setup, Sancha’s snout suddenly twisted in thought, one so sharp and sudden she stopped her positioning work. “This is a little reckless, you know? Ozzy, what if they’re drilling upwards while we’re drilling down? That goes against all safety protocols!”

“Nah,” Chugs said, “I don’t feel any drillin’, those are very distinct vibrations. I think they’re just movin’ stuff ‘round down there.”

“Yeah, and this is just a small hole for the cables! We’re saving them time by pre-drilling, no biggie!” Ozzil appeased. “Then we’ll call down to them, or maybe lower a note? We can figure that out once we’ve got the hole. The point is, we beat the Boss’ top tier team to the job, which makes us just as valuable!”

Sancha mulled it over and then shrugged, “I can’t argue with that logic.” And so their drilling proceeded, the safety protocols of delving through sand, soil, and eroded bedrock relegated to the back of their minds as visions of hoarded wealth danced in their heads







Deep below the engineering team and their haphazard drilling project, in a cavern several dozen meters underground, the frilled and sinuous Sandsurge dragons of the Excavation Crew were wrapping up construction of their newest base of operations. Kreg, the Foreman of the Excavation Crew, finished marking down the last of the assignments on an immaculately crafted chalkboard. The slate laid out the precise schedule of three sets of twenty workers each, designed around sleeping cycles that maintained top work efficiency. He turned to his gathered crewmates.

“This cavern is the central point for the next ten substations that will require node surface connections. It’s also the ideal location to establish our Main Operations base for the coming weeks,” Kreg announced to the gathered teams. “Team Alpha will be dispatched to Substation G-354 to begin the ascending cable drilling process. Team Gamma will continue setting up our new base of operations here, while Team Sigma gets some rest. Once Sigma is rested, it will replace Alpha to seamlessly finish the drilling process! Further work schedules and assignments are posted on the Assignment Board.” Kreg proudly pointed towards his smartly organized chalkboard.

Kreg suppressed a pleased smile as he observed the brilliant display of Sandsurgian efficiency as each team jumped into gear. The crews—already having equipped their excavation toolkits in anticipation of their orders—headed off in the direction of their designated project. Kreg heaved a sigh of contentment.

While checking in on Sigma team’s resting accommodations, the foreman sneezed. Many long horned, sleepy-eyed heads popped up around him in alarm. Each team member had been told that the environmental studies indicated this cavern wouldn’t cause respiratory issues for the crews. Kreg sneezed again as a cloud of dust enveloped his snout from above, and again, followed by three other Sandsurge following suit. Suddenly the whole chamber was filled with sneezes and coughs from a flood of irritating dust. “Sir…I think we should move…it’s the ceiling!” a crewmember called out to him. Kreg tried to look up but the dust and debris filling the tall chamber clouded his vision, blocking the ceiling from view.

Then he heard it.

A crack.

The crack.

It echoed throughout the chamber. Every Sandsurge dragon knew the sound of imminent structural failure like their own dorsal frill. Kreg choked out orders to Sigma to move even as he stumbled through the falling dust and debris cloud, away from the central area of the chamber. Once further away, he could observe the cause. Cracks in the ceiling were rapidly webbing out above them! The remaining Sandsurge teams dropped what they were doing in a panic, throwing themselves to the edges of the cavern.

With a concussive crunch, a tonnage of rock, dirt, and sand collapsed down onto the Excavation Crew’s camp of tents and spelunking gear. Kreg looked on in horrified dismay as his Assignment Board was crushed, one half defiantly jutting out of the largest rubble pile. Through the haze of dust filling the cavern, Kreg could see three dragons standing atop the same pile. They were surface breeds—dirty, sandy, and flummoxed.

The trio stood in shock holding onto a still-smoking drill. After a moment of silence, one of the surfacers after looking down at Kreg and his crew started babbling at her companions about discovering a new draconic breed. The dragon in the center, seemingly ignoring the verbal barrage, belched a cloud of dust before turning towards their silent third companion. “Chugs, you sure you got those coordinates right? I thought you said you had an eidetic memory!” The other dragon shrugged and responded in a matter-of-fact tone Kreg found to be wildly inappropriate for the situation, “Ya, well, I was reading them upside down, so, you know…” That dragon dropped his haunches down into a sitting position, crushing what remained of Kreg’s pride and joy, his Assignment Board.

With a strangled cry, Kreg rushed forward, scrabbling to the top of the pile. The infuriated Sandsurge heaved himself directly in front of the offending surfacer with such force it sent a spray of sand, dust, and debris flying everywhere. “YOU! What are you drilling here for?! All surface teams are explicitly instructed where and HOW to conduct operations through THE LIASON!” Kreg fixed the surfacer with a glare that he knew could make even the most senior engineer wither into compliance.

Unphased by the smaller dragon’s display, the towering long-necked surface dragon dropped his head down to meet Kreg’s furious gaze with eager excitement. “Yeah, yeah, sure. But let’s skip to the important part—What’s your salary?”