I drifted in and out of consciousness where I leaned against the tunnel wall, down on the floor in a miserable pile. Complete darkness surrounded us, yet I could still hear Arus irregular breathing beside me — a few scattered murmurs and whimpers as he tried to find some rest.

In the hopes of preserving some energy before they died completely, the lights on his armor were turned off. We might need them if we were to get out of there. If we got out.

Although I couldn’t see, the sound alone was enough to paint me the picture: my Ruskel companion’s dry heaving, filling my ears as he rolled over upon the floor once more. Neither of us had long left to live, but he seemed to be approaching the end quicker than I was.

He hadn’t taken well to the eating those insects raw. Maybe the only reason I had was because of the Cryak parts of my genome. In a sense, I even enjoyed it. Then again, that might just as well have been starvation, and I would’ve devoured them even if I didn’t.

Over three days must have passed since we left the surface behind, and my body needed whatever sustenance I could provide it with to recover. If it ever would.

Although I hadn’t fully succumbed to my feverish throes just yet, I wasn’t far off either. Every time my consciousness slipped between my fingers, I’d catch that same flicker of my interface, floating across my vision.

Extraction Complete

6 EXP Gained…

2 EXP Gained…

3 EXP Gained…

At first, I’d been certain I was going mad.

My interface was well beyond dead, and as of that moment, my eyes were even closed. Still, that last fragment lingered before my eyes. It had been there ever since I skewered that last black arachnid upon my Harvester, just before it could devour my face.

Sitting there, however, tormented by my own mind and decaying body, I remembered something that I’d been told long ago.

Back in ancient times, before grafts and UIs were a thing, before mankind was even star dwellers, this was how the System had reached out to humanity: as fleeting epiphanies at the brink of death and despair.

The System has always been present in all living beings, whether they know it or not. To be able to access it without any external assistance, however, is limited to a rare few species and rare exceptions.

The more I tried to focus on it, the blurrier that image became.

EXP, what—

Before I could finish my thought, sharp pincers dug themselves deep into my hand, causing my eyes to snap open to a pained grunt. At this point, my reaction was instinctive, and I crushed the insect with a swipe of my fist.

It was another of the smaller ones, just quieter, and neither notion made me particularly pleased. Any insect would have been bad, and now, I was forced to hurriedly push myself to my feet.

“Get up, Arus,” I hissed, ears still perked for any more movement within the dark. Then again, I hadn’t even heard that first one’s skittering approach. “We need to move. They found us.”

Although most insects we had encountered so far moved alone, I could swear those fuckers were connected by some unified mind. Wherever one was, more was bound to follow.

Whatever fleeting sleep we found down here was constantly cut into barely hour-long chunks, often by even smaller biters than this one.

“Arus?” I repeated, only for a rumbling snore to reverberate between the tunnel walls. Much as I hated his constant, pained complaints, this was almost worse.

“Get up, you Ruskel bastard,” I groused, making my way over to shake the man. “Get up or—”

Then I saw it, a single blinking indicator upon Arus’ armor. The first sonar had gone up somewhere above. For the first time in days, I saw a light at the end of this pitch black tunnel.

𐫰 𐫰 𐫰

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If there was one way Mikayes would have described his experience with Migur-11, it was ‘a series of never-ending shit-shows.’ Whenever one thing was finally starting to go well with this cursed investment, another would appear and slap him across the face.

When their self-important overseer had seemingly lost interest in his task — after countless stipulations that had nearly made the young merchant rip out his hair — it was only for something else to come crashing down upon him. Something which had nearly made the stuck-up diplomat end this entire expedition.

Indeed, just as Mikayes had finally gotten an inch of room to breathe and act, it was only to realize his crew had forgotten to mention a teeny tiny little, very important fucking detail to him.

“No Kassem, I expected you to, after nearly two weeks of scouting this planet during our first visit, to know if there were murderous fucking insects living beneath the surface!”

Impatiently, the young merchant strode back and forth within the cargo space of the Transporter. He would have preferred an office of his own, something more official, but this was as secluded of a space as he could hope for, considering the circumstances.

“Where did you fuck up?”

Kassem flipped a coin where he leaned against one of the unused boxes within the cargo space. He caught it, only to flip it again, all the while watching his employer through the shadows of his hat.

Then, a sigh.

“It’s a big planet.” He shrugged. “It was impossible for us to scout it all, and I just gave you my initial assessment. Another way to look at it would be me, expecting you, to hire a kid that was at least halfway up to par. Had it been me and Georgie out here, there wouldn’t even be a single scratch upon those drills out there right now.”

He caught the coin one last time before pushing himself off the box, brushing back his hat to meet Mikayes’ gaze. “That’s experience, though. The experience not to panic under pressure.”

With a click of his tongue, the man spun around, kicking the box with enough force to crack the wood. It even left the half-ton thing sliding a bit across the floor.

“Damn it, Micky! You should have talked to me before throwing the circlet at that fucking diplomat. Now, the entire Astral Fleet will have its eyes upon this planet, sucking it dry without leaving anything behind for the rest of us. I could have figured out a cleaner way to solve this.”

“I can’t see why this is your concern,” Mikayes dryly said. “It’s my loss to shoulder. You’ll get paid by accordance to the contract, no matter what happens.”

“Come on, Micky.” Kassem sighed, tiredly rubbing his face. “You know that I hate seeing my friends lose out nearly as much as I hate seeing our self-imposed overlords succeed, and that Mr. Biggins is the worst kind.

“He eats from everyone’s plate, spitting in that which he doesn’t enjoy while claiming the tasty bits for himself. All the while feeling entitled to act that way, just because he is backed up by countless psychopaths that shoot first, then shoot again, without ever bothering to ask a single question.

“They will take what they want and leave nothing behind for us.”

“For me, I think you mean,” Mikayes corrected him. “More so, you said it yourself, didn’t you? That was just a piece of stone the Migmians traded us for our gifts. So, if that piece of stone buys us another few months on this planet, I would say that is a fair trade.”

“I said that it most likely was a piece of stone, and that Edris is good with those kinds of things. That she could have checked for you, and that—”

“Well, now the Astral Fleet will check for us,” Mikayes firmly said. “By all means, it should be the safest option, no? Those ‘Artifacts’ doesn’t have any intrinsic value to me beyond what price I can sell them for, either way. And, as you might know, my fiancé happens to be here with the Astral Fleet and her uncle. If anything, them coming here should ensure that no third party starts getting strange thoughts, wouldn’t you think?”

For the first time since their talk began, Kassem flashed him a grin. “I always knew you had it in you Micky, my clever little fox.” He chuckled. “Just be careful. That was a clever plan if, and only if, there are no more than three parties invol—”

Their beeping messages arrived simultaneously. Kassem checked his interface faster than Mikayes could pull out his handheld device.

Something had gone wrong outside, and now, the Slobber Knuckles’ leader was the first one to set off running.

𐫰 𐫰 𐫰

I was only half aware of what happened, as well as my own actions leading up to that moment. Maybe my subconscious had really touched upon something that comes naturally to all Luminesari, or maybe my glasses simply weren’t as broken as they seemed.

Either way, making our way up there, to where magnificent sunlight touched the tunnels ahead of us, I had lost the full mobility of my right arm, as well as all vision in my one eye — I only realized as much as daylight lay before us once more.

Drenched in blood and insectile gore, Arus had been forced to drag me for those last couple of hundred steps, all the while frantically navigating our way through his delirious rambles.

Whether he’d brought me along as a meat shield – it was the skittering swarm at our heels that had killed my arm and nearly taken my eye – or out of comradery, I wasn’t sure, but I appreciated it, nevertheless.

At least until our promised escape path was cut through by a furred silhouette up ahead, sniffing the air with deep breaths.

Cold yellow eyes that met my own, letting me know that my fears hadn’t been for naught.

My Cryak claws were still extended, my angered was still there, but I was also folded over Arus back, weakly hanging on to a thread of life. The best I could do was glare at the man with my full hatred, and yell for a hundredth time in my mind ‘Jenna! Help!’

Supposedly, even human Psykers don’t need any grafts to connect with the System. I was not, but for the past days — maybe longer still — I had been seeing something.

I wasn’t sure what it was nor how it worked, but as the furred silhouette of the man I wished to kill took another step towards us, I once more cried out within my mind ‘Jenna! Help!’

I called out for mama bear, and mama bear answered.

The last things I remembered were a sharp yell, a furred man that snapped around, and the whir of spinning gears.

Much as I wished to have been the one to do it, it still felt fucking great seeing Georgie’s head get smashed into the tunnel wall.

Maybe it was just a dream, but in that case, it was a damn good dream, indeed.