There was an inherent benefit in keeping Wren the shittiest place on Earth, and that benefit was mostly that society needed a place to dump their rubbish in a space kept separate from polite civilisation.
Luckily for everyone, they also needed rubbish keepers. Enter human residents.
You know how it is. Class differences and an age-old problem with hierarchies. Born in Wren and stay in Wren. In Gejuth you at least had a chance of getting out.
Caera Han finds herself standing in the middle of such sewage; its only saving grace was the fact that it was made up of mostly metal, and so stunk mostly of hot rust.
There are five people in front of her, prodded into attending by Doctor Johnson's pure menace and eyeing her unhappily.
Why was she commanding this whole operation?
Oh, right.
Uari, you son of a bitch.
The self-appointed lead of the sewage processors - fuck, Qlau? - glowered at her and said something about outsiders. Caera picked up a stone and channeled all the energy of Doctor Johnson's threats through it before launching it at him.
The stone landed in front of Qlau, who sniggered before Doctor Johnson appeared behind him and smacked him into the ground.
"You listen to the man or I'll visit your mother."
The look of terror on Qlau's face was terrific, but Caera had zero idea of how to run an army. Or a rebellion.
She cleared Uari's throat. "Doctor Johnson, who here do you think is best for directing large-scale conflict?"
Doctor Johnson eyed her, beady little old woman eyes like a hyena looking for something to dig in. Caera swallowed the shudder that threatened to creep down her spine and locked knees to prevent herself from just sinking into the ground.
"That would be Qlau, here." She kicked the middle-aged man who was still prostrating before her on the ground. "He may be a little rough but he knows how to lead and he knows the team."
"Then I believe it's best if he directs the whole effort," Caera rubbed her chin absently, feeling the artificial growth there and marvelling at it. "Qlau would be the most familiar with the terrain and the people, and the people would respond well to him too. I'll provide information about the Gravts and of course do what Qlau tells me to do."
She nodded in his direction and wordlessly stepped away from the perceived front of the place. When Doctor Johnson nudged him with her foot, Qlau scrambled forward and righted himself with a rough grace seen in experienced fighters.
"Er - thanks, I guess, Uari, was it? Guess you're not so bad after all." The words fell reluctantly from his mouth at Doctor Johnson's raised fist. "So. Our goals. Start a revolution. Kill a few specific people during it including all the people up there.
"Doctor Johnson and a few more people will pretend to 'put down' the revolution and be recognised as heroes and then put into the board or whatever, and then she'll prove that things will continue to 'run as per usual' and that she's on the big guys' sides.
"In the meantime, she's gonna use the cash we get from y'all," he nods at Caera, "to rebuild the city so everyone can live well."
A good enough summary. The conversation then turned into a brief one-sided lecture on which members of the Gravts were likely to show up. Caera hesitated before giving up the important information.
"Okay, just. This is terribly awkward, but just look, okay?"
She produced one of the surgical tools she kept on her as a snack, and demonstrated both the hardness of the steel and the sharpness of the scalpel edge. All six passed the tool around, and when she got it back she popped it immediately in her mouth blade-first, grimacing at the fact that she couldn't first clean it.
There was a series of alarmed yells, and then silence as the crunch-crunch-crunch of the stainless steel made itself known. The scalpel disappeared down her throat.
Good thing she never told Doctor Johnson.
"Got your attention? Alright. The Gravts have a wide variety of abilities, and my Metal Guts is one of the more defensive ones. I'd like you to listen to a complete description of all available abilities and make contingency plans for all of them."
An actual growl left Doctor Johnson's mouth. "This wasn't part of the deal."
"I'll throw in another billion. None of the abilities can cause you direct harm anyway."
Doctor Johnson mulled over her words. "We'll decide after we hear about these...abilities."
Caera committed to an abridged summary of all abilities, and noted which of them were most likely to be sent to deal with them.
"This is absurd." Kef, who led the local vigilantes, proclaimed calmly as her fists clenched and unclenched. "Completely ridiculous. Absolutely impossible. And yet we just saw him chew down a whole metal thing."
Caera shrugged. "Part of the deal is for you to help me deal with these people. I'd ask you to listen because if we don't manage that then we'll consider the deal void."
"You've got a genius on your side."
"And like I told you, that genius is limited by really mundane shit like manpower. Yanno?"
"And someone who teleports!"
"He's been...impaired slightly." Caera scratched her neck guiltily, remembering what Uari had told her.
"And some other guy who can paralyse us! He can kill us with it by stopping us from breathing!"
"He can only use it on person at a time, though."
"I- fuck??"
Caera let the five bicker amongst themselves for a minute, and turned to Doctor Johnson who had remained quiet all this while. She waited and waited, and eventually Doctor Johnson sighed.
"Was this why Caera left?"
"...Caera left because she wanted to go home."
"But now she's trying to take these people down instead."
"Turned out going home cost too much."
Doctor Johnson traced a picture on the ground with a rusted stick.
"Callan Han was listed as one of the potential attackers."
Caera didn't say anything. Doctor Johnson sighed.
"That's how far things have gone, hmm?"
"We need your help, Doctor Johnson."
"Fine. One more billion. I won't haggle this time, but it'll be the last time. Any more surprises will cost you."
She stood and returned to the quarreling quintuplet, corraling them with the ease of a shepherd dealing with his sheep. The discussion turned smoothly from there with strategies and tactics being bandied around, and Caera offering her knowledge and insight when she could.
A civil war was on the horizon.