“Ogre.” Yelled several voices simultaneously, as the massive form finally forced its way out of his brother’s old cabin, dragging a club behind it. A club that consisted of a tapered tree trunk no less than ten feet long. Seeing that monster emerge, left Ethan in little doubt that they’d found the dungeon boss.

“Kill that thing, capture the core.” Shouted one of the soldiers, one who looked to have taken over command after Nine shot their original leader. Ethan, deprived of his gun by his escorts, only had his axe and shield to work with. Not knowing what else to do and seeing that all the soldiers were now fully preoccupied with the ogre, he charged right into their midst.

“Ethan.” Nine’s scream could be heard over all the other noise on the battlefield, and he heard her coming in after him. Still, he didn’t know where else he would be safer from plasma fire, than right in among the enemy. After all, a miss would mean a likely hit on one of their own.

“I’m fine,” he called back, bringing his axe down, like a hammer, on the back of the first soldier he passed. “Just shoot them already.” Even as he yelled, he felt a rush of kill energy flowing through his body. “What?” He asked aloud, stunned to feel that rush. That wasn’t right, you only got kill energy from… “They’re dungeon creatures.” He yelled out, shield-bashing another soldier and chopping into a third with his axe.

The soldiers wore modern day body armor. Designed to dissipate the heat from a plasma round. The armor was in the mottled greens and browns of the earth forces, and if Ethan and his companions had been wielding plasma rifles, they would have been quite well protected. Unfortunately for the soldiers, they wielded melee weapons, and old earth projectile weapons. Weapons whose bullets went right through the heat dispelling polymers of the modern day body armor as if it wasn’t even there.

That wasn’t to say the fight was all one sided. Since Ethan, Nine, and Lesa were wearing polymer and metal glued to a standard ship’s skinsuit. Armor that worked quite well against melee weapons and projectiles but would do nothing against the plasma weapons the soldiers carried. Ethan snorted at the irony of it all. Over the ages, weapons had changed to overcome the defenses of the enemy, while the armor itself changed to counter the new weapons. It was funny how modern day equipment had come so far, that all it took to overcome it was a sharp piece of metal.

Focusing on the giant, armored war dog he’d just jumped from, Ethan ordered it into the fray. Something he probably should have done from the start. Not that he blamed himself too much, it was a new acquisition after all. After that, his world became a blur of slashing, dodging and chopping. With loud bangs of gun fire interspersed with the iridescent blue globs of fiery death sent flying every which way by the human attackers.

The goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, the ogre, and their mounts didn’t stay out of the battle either. No, they charged right in, taking full advantage of the opening Ethan had made in the enemy ranks. After a while, he wasn’t able to distinguish between what foe he was fighting at any given time. Since no one else did either. It was a battle royale, where only the strongest, or luckiest, would come out on top.

At one point, Ethan took a plasma bolt right to the chest. It sent him to the ground, intense heat burning through his armor and into his flesh. Thankfully, he had copious amounts of kill energy flowing through his system at the time to blunt the initial impact. Then, he was able to use his own mana pool to heal the rest of the damage. His armor was fried though. A basketball sized section, pretty much his entire torso, was now exposed to the world. The edges melted and sticking to, and in many cases inside his flesh. It hurt a lot. He’d been able to heal the wounds, but the slag that had been stuck to his skin hadn't come out.

“Ethan,” Nine screamed again, voice haggard and on the edge of breaking. She must have seen the blast to his chest, and Ethan struggled to get to his feet.

“I’m fine,” he said, cleaving his axe into another enemy body. This one a hobgoblin who’d been focused on an earth soldier. Ethan felt a little bad about killing someone who didn’t even know death had arrived, but there was no room for gentlemanly duels here. No, they had to fight, if they didn’t fight, they would die. Hell, even if they fought, odds were pretty good they would die anyway. Even though the human soldiers were nearly halved in number, the bugbears and hobgoblins just kept coming. Ethan didn’t know if the dungeon was spawning them, or if they had been hiding inside the houses, but regardless, they couldn’t escape the tide.

“Damn it.” Nine screamed, and Ethan turned his head in her direction in time to see a bolt of plasma chewing into her shoulder.

“No,” he yelled, trying to rush to her side, as he watched her left arm fall away and the burning glob of death splash across her torso. Biting into her chest and neck, as well as leaving a deep pit in her face.

“Ethan,” she screamed again, looking him in the eye with desperation clearly written upon her face, before she turned, and rushed into the still open door the ogre had just exited from. Ethan, wanting to rush to her side, but unable to break away, turned his attention back to the battle. He hoped she would be ok, but there wasn’t anything he could do. The only way for him to reach her now was to go through all the foes before him. Another bolt of plasma connected with his right thigh, sending him to the ground and forcing him to heal again and Ethan knew in his heart that wasn’t going to happen.

It didn’t matter, if he was going to die, he would do it on his feet. Climbing back up, more bits of his armor trapped below newly healed skin, Ethan cursed himself for a fool for charging into the fray. His war dog was down, dead after the first soldier it killed. As it ripped into the man’s neck, one of his companions had shot it in the side of the head. Crescent was nowhere to be seen, and since he had given control of him to Luna, Ethan couldn’t tell where he’d gone, and as for Lesa, well, she was the only smart one in their group.

Ethan could feel her, some distance away, hiding in the woods. Every second or two, a shot, or short burst of shots would come out of the trees, with each shot, a soldier or a goblinoid would go down. Always one who was about to land a killing blow on Ethan. In fact, it had become clear to him early on she was the only reason he was still alive. While Nine had rushed in, trying to get to him with her body, Lesa had sought cover, and shielded him with her rifle, shooting anyone who got too close or who raised their weapon against him. As comforting as it was to have Nine at his back like she was, Ethan had to admit Lesa was the real MVP of this battle. It was even likely she’d survive the battle, and, assuming the soldiers didn’t crush the goblin core, she’d likely be able to beath them all, one by one.

“Got to remember that” Ethan ground out between clenched teeth, swinging his axe into another enemy. “Don’t have to rush in all half-cocked to kill the bad guys. Hiding and raining death from afar gets the job done just as well…” He was in bad shape, melted bits of his armor embedded in his flesh, armor no longer covering enough of his body to provide any real protection. Sure, he still had mana and was able to heal himself, but every time he did that, his mind would come unfocused for a bit, and focusing again was a little more difficult. Eventually, he’d end up dead, just because of mana drain dizziness, if the damned plasma rifles or the hobgoblin axes didn’t get him first.

Just as his own doom became an all but certain reality in his mind. Every single goblinoid in the clearing, including the badly burned, but still fighting ogre, stopped in unison. Turning as one toward the aft of the Luna, they all let out simultaneous roars, and charged. The complete shift to the battle front left not only Ethan, but the human soldiers off guard for a few seconds. Seconds Lesa didn’t let go to waste, as she shot another three soldiers while they were busy looking after the goblin horde.

“Run damn it,” She screamed. The shout brought Ethan back to the situation and he did just that, turning he ran away. Or at least, that was the plan. Just then, the entire domain… shuddered. That was all he could describe it as. A shudder. Then, without so much as a warning, the domain collapsed in on itself. Shrinking at a rate so fast, Ethan had to rely on his extra senses to feel it, since his eyes couldn’t pick up on the movement.

The domain changed from an angry red, to the green of a friendly dungeon, as the new domain stabilized with a one hundred foot diameter. Leaving not only Ethan, but all the soldiers and Lesa exposed. Ethan moved as quickly as he could, trying his best to reach the new domain. He moved, but he didn’t have his helmet on, and even if he did, there were huge, gaping holes in his suit. There was no way he’d survive this one. He saw Lesa, rushing from the cover of the rapidly wilting trees, she wasn’t going to make it either, but the small woman was trying with all her might.

The soldiers were a little better off, at least the ones who still had intact suits, since they wore their helmets as a matter of course. In fact, many of them didn’t even stop the attack, continuing to fire on the fleeing goblinoids. The plasma worked equally well in vacuum as in atmosphere. Another reason the super-heated projectiles had been adopted over the oxygen burning gunpowder.

Ethan’s lungs ached, and his flesh felt numb, it had only been a few seconds, but already he knew he was doomed. That was, until the domain shuddered again, and doubled in size. All the remaining trees inside the domain turning to ash to fuel the growth. Now, safely back inside the newly expanded, yet still smaller domain, Ethan heaved a sigh of relief as his lungs gasped for air. Lesa fell from her mount as well, clawing at her own throat, looking like she was trying to force the air in with her fingers.

Looking up, Ethan saw the Ogre, along with all the remaining goblinoids, had turned, again as one, and were bearing down on the soldiers once more. Several of them fell in the charge, but this time, they worked in coordination. Unlike before, were each hob worked independently, now, they fought like a team, an army. When Lesa’s rifle sounded again, the fate of the humans was sealed.

“Don’t kill them all,” Ethan shouted. Knowing even as he did, that it wouldn’t matter. Yet, to his surprise, the hobgoblins stopped trying to kill the humans, and only rounded the final few of them up, breaking their limbs and binding them with what looked like ropes made of vines.

“Boss, are you ok?” Lesa asked, coming up to where Ethan still lay, running her fingers over his body, checking for injury.

“I’m fine,” he said, waving her off. “Shrapnel will be a bitch to get out, but it won’t kill me right away.” He added, climbing to his feet, and looking warily at the ogre, who blinked stupidly at him for a long moment, then toppled over in death. The next second, not only it, but all the dead in the clearing vanished, gone to fuel another expansion of the goblin domain, whose walls still glowed a friendly green. A few trees even sprouted from the thick layer of ash.

“What the hell’s going on?” Ethan asked, not expecting an answer. As, indeed there was no one to give him one. Looking around, he saw all the still living goblins looking at him, looking, but not attacking. All the while, they were restraining the human soldiers. “Nine?” Ethan called, sudden panic running through him as he remembered he hadn't seen her since she ran into the Luna’s aft end.

“Boss don’t” Lesa called, reaching out to try and stop him as he rushed towards the ship.

“No,” he said batting her hand aside. “I have to check on her.” Dread was already welling up inside his heart, as he ran passed the hobs, each of whom moved out of his way without a single sound of protest. He could only think of one reason why they would do that, and he didn’t like where his mind had gone, not at all. “Nine,” he screamed her name again, running into the ship, which looked, and smelled, like it had become the nest of some giant, meat eating creature, who didn’t mind shitting where it slept.

He heard Lesa enter the cabin behind him, heard the clattering of her gun as she slid a fresh magazine into the M16, ready for whatever trouble might meet them… yet there was nothing. No enemies, no Nine, no signs of movement whatsoever. Ethan moved forward, picking his careful way through his brother’s former cabin, eye catching a picture still hanging from the wall. A picture of Ethan’s entire family, back when they were young, and Ethan had still thought of his brother as someone who needed his protection. They stood there, between their parents, arms wrapped around one another, smiling brightly in front of the old flag at the Appollo 11 landing site museum.

He stopped, memories filling his mind for a moment, before he continued on. Eyes sweeping every nook and cranny he passed, trying desperately to spot Nine, and yet simultaneously afraid that he’d find her. Lesa moved behind him, rifle up, her two stoats out and rummaging through the trash, looking for threats buried out of sight.

Ethan had nearly searched the whole cabin, not seeing anything, until he came to the closet right next to the bed on the far end of the room. A closet, whose door was slightly ajar. He spied a familiar foot poking out of that door, and his heart lurched.

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“Nine,” he said, terror in his voice, as he flung the door open to reveal the clearly dead body of the woman he’d saved. Her left arm was eaten clean away by the plasma. Her skin charred and burned beyond recognition on that side. Her left eye, her only natural eye, had been burned out as well. Leaving only the mechanical right eye, red LED burned out, and lifeless. “No,” Ethan whispered, falling to the ground beside the dead woman, hands reaching out to her. As he moved, he spotted the small orb, glowing a bright green that rolled from between her limp fingers. It had been tucked against her flesh, and a smear of blood could still be seen marring its otherwise smooth surface. “Nine.” Ethan said again, tears rolling down his face as he looked at the small woman.

“No, no, no no no no…” all he could do was repeat the word, over and over again, as he clutched Nine’s body tightly to himself. Eyes closed as he cried. Ethan didn’t know how long he stayed like that, but eventually, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and Lesa’s quiet voice entered his ears.

“Boss, I’m sorry to interrupt, but you need to see this.” Angry at the interruption to his grief, Ethan shook her hand away, not willing to open his eyes to the reality of his situation. Not willing to live on now that not only his brother, but his friend and one time lover were both gone.

“Boss, please.” Lesa said, backing away but not giving up. With a scream of rage, Ethan wheeled on her, eyes opening as he searched for the interruption to his grief… only to be stopped cold by the words floating in the air before him.

Ethan, pick up the core.

Five words. Five simple words. Yet, they held a host of meanings. Looking back down at Nine’s body, he found her hand. Picking it up, he looked it over, seeing the simple silver band wrapped around her index finger.

“Oh… Nine, you didn’t.” He said, fresh tears running down his face, as he finally confirmed what had happened. Breathing in sharply to contain his sobs. Ethan stared down at the merrily glowing green orb. The orb that had once been a goblin dungeon. Reaching out a tentative hand, Ethan rested his fingertips against the orb’s cool surface, and just like that, he felt the link form.

Whisked away from his body, Ethan felt the orb bind itself to him, just like what happened with the Luna. His mind was split open from the pain of trying to understand everything he was perceiving from the world around him. He could only be grateful the dungeon domain had shrunken down so drastically, otherwise, he’d have been killed from pure mental overload. His mind whirled, as the thoughts of dozens of goblins, hobgoblins, and war dogs entered his mind. Along with the feeling of wind, generated from who only knew where, rustling through the branches of the trees, his trees.

As the pain grew ever more intense, Ethan could hear, vaguely, as if from a great distance, Nine’s voice, shouting, begging, for him to return control to her, to return control before the sensory overload overwhelmed and killed him. As his mind spiraled down into the blackness of unconsciousness, Ethan relinquished his hold over the goblin domain. Letting the mind behind the core retain control, at least temporary control, like with Luna, because just like with the luna, this core was now bound to him as well.

When Ethan finally woke up again, he found himself lying in Mark’s old bed. It had been cleaned, as had the entirety of the cabin. He could tell that much just by the lack of the ogre’s stench in the air. Looking around, he almost couldn’t tell the ship had been torn apart, since everything looked the way it had before, everything, except Lesa sitting in the desk chair… and the body lying at the foot of the bed.

“You’re awake,” Lesa said, coming to her feet with a large haunch of meat on a tray. “You need to eat. It took me several hours to dig all the melted metal and polymer out of your body. Nine helped heal you with goblin kill energy, but since you’re not actually her dungeon boss she couldn’t heal you directly.”

“I’m… not… how…” Ethan didn’t know what he was trying to say. He didn’t hurt anymore, not unless he counted the hunger pains ravaging his body. He wanted to resist the meat Lesa offered him, but he couldn’t. Grabbing the haunch of meat, what looked like an entire armored boar’s leg, Ethan tore into it, while Lesa talked.

“You lost consciousness shortly after binding the core to yourself… as, I’m sure you already know, Nine drained the goblin dungeon. It saved us, but it also trapped her mind… or soul… or whatever inside the core. We captured five of the soldiers alive. Except, we figured out pretty quickly they were actually dungeon creatures. I’m not exactly sure on the details, because they won’t talk to me. But I’m sure we’ll figure it out in time… the crater has been mostly opened up to vacuum too. We’re safe here, but we don’t know what happened to anyone who was outside when the domain shrank. Nine made me take your oxygen scrubber apart, and she absorbed it piece by piece. I’m sorry if that was the wrong move, boss, but she didn’t leave me any options. She said she’d remake it, with enough copies to get all of us out of here safely. Then…”

Ethan listened as he ate, getting a status update for everything that happened while he was out. A period of time that had stretched well over a day. So, whatever had happened to the others, they were either safe, and knew Ethan’s group might be in trouble… or they were all dead. The fact the humans were actually dungeon creatures didn’t come as a surprise to Ethan, not since he felt the rush of kill energy after ending the lives of a few of them.

“Thank you, Lesa.” Ethan said when she had run out of words, and he’d run out of boar’s leg. “I… I think I need some rest now. If you wouldn’t mind, taking care of everything here for just a little longer? Thank you.” Without waiting for a reply, a reply that wasn’t needed anyway since she was essentially an extension of himself and would follow his orders to her death, Ethan closed his eyes. Sending his mind into that space that held the core’s consciousness.

“Hello, Ethan.” The all too familiar voice said into his mind as his consciousness settled into ownership of the much reduced goblin dungeon. Taking in the entire thing at a glance, Ethan saw it was still two hundred feet across, the same number of feet high, and extended an equal amount into the ground. That was strange, considering from all he’d heard that ship cores required physical bounds for their domains… unless that was more human interference. Ethan didn’t know anything for sure, and it felt like every time one of his questions were answered, ten more rose up to replace it… knowing he was procrastinating, Ethan turned his attention to the entity who was at once invisible, yet, clearly seated right beside him.

“Hello Nine,” he said, mental voice catching on the words.

* * *

… that’s why I think we should wake the gladiators up first.

The words floating in the air came from Markus, who was currently in the medical car some distance away through the rapidly recovering forest. Nine, who’d managed to connect with the mana battery, thanks in large part to Lesa’s help, was translating.

“I appreciate the suggestion…” Ethan said through gritted teeth, doing his best to remember that this wasn’t his little brother, and yelling at him to ‘just do what I say’ wasn’t going to go over well. Even if he technically had to obey Ethan’s orders, it just didn’t seem like a good idea to antagonize him. “… however, the person we most need right now is Eve. So, please, wake her up first and bring her to the aft of the Luna.”

The discussion that Ethan didn’t want to call an argument continued until he wanted to pull his hair out, and Nine offered to send an ogre over to enforce the order. An offer Ethan politely refused, before he disconnected the line and turned to Lesa.

“Anything from the soldiers?” He asked, interrupting the small woman’s game of fetch with her stoats. Lesa still had many of her original’s personality quirks, like enjoying solitude, and playing with her pets. Pets that had grown to knee height thanks to a constant influx of kill energy, courtesy of Nine. Yet, the more time he spent with her, the more he saw the gaps in that personality. It was like someone had taken a 2D recording of a holovid. Sure, you could still watch the show, but the depth was gone.

“Yes, sorry boss.” She said, standing up almost guiltily and mentally ordering her stoats into a corner. “They refused to talk to us, so Nine and I decided to try creating one from the absorbed blueprints. The results were… unsatisfactory.”

You mean half worthless.

Nine chipped in, conveying a mental scoff with the text.

“…yes, well.” Lesa said scratching her head before continuing. “Making a dungeon creature from another dungeon, who’d absorbed the blueprints of a person, seems to degrade the personality quite a bit.” She said with a frown. “We didn’t give up though, there were over a dozen people killed in the battle, we made dungeon creatures of them all. Even created multiple copies of them to see if it made a difference in their memories. There is a lot of missing information, but we’ve learned a few things.”

“Oh?” Ethan asked, not really sure how he felt about having more people kept alive past their time on his conscience. He also knew the two girls had done it without telling him so he wouldn’t have to make the choice himself. Something he’d have to work on if he was ever going to be a decent leader. Gosh, how did that happen? “What did you find?”

Ethan listened while Nine and Lesa told him about the soldiers. They weren’t the same people they were before, being made up of the original personality, mixed with the personality of the dungeon creature they’d been turned into. They had lost a lot, but between them all, they’d managed to put together a reliable picture of what was going on outside their little asteroid.

Apparently, Luna wasn’t the only ship core who’d managed to get free from their human controllers. The soldiers told them there were several of them out there, and they were all as motivated for revenge as Luna was. The core who controlled these soldiers was said to be a C rank, and had absorbed every person in his domain, both living and dead, the moment an unlucky strike to the bridge opened the command console that held his core.

The soldiers said they’d been waging a constant war against the human survivors ever since. Not caring at all what faction the survivors were from, killing Terrans, Lunarians, and Martians with equal fervor. When asked what they were doing coming after the dungeon core, they explained that a dungeon could absorb another dungeon core to grow its rank. A thought that sent a chill down Ethan’s spine, because he realized right away that it painted a target on his back. Having two cores in such close proximity.

“Alright,” Ethan said at last, climbing to his feet and pushing the chair under the small work desk he’d been sitting at. “It sounds like we have our work cut out for us then.” Running his fingers through his hair, he thought back over the pertinent details. “As concerning as it is knowing there are powerful ship cores out there, ship cores whose only desire is to kill humans and eat ship cores…” Actually, that was really damn concerning now that he’d said it out loud.

“Our plans haven’t really changed,” he continued, running his fingers through his hair again, now grown out an inch or so since the crash. “We have to get in touch with Luna and Davis, make sure they are ok, and get the kid down here. Also got to get Eve woken up, healed, and here working on the mana engine. That’s the only way we’re getting off this rock… any updates on that by the way?” He asked, turning to Lesa.

“Afraid not boss,” she said shaking her head. “It’s busted, but I’m almost positive a competent mechanic could fix it. Maybe between the human tech and the mana tech we can get it going again.” She added with a shrug, absentmindedly petting the heads of her stoats who were now standing on their hind legs, leaning into her for affection.

“How about you Nine?” Ethan asked, turning his thoughts to the dungeon core who, until a few short days ago, had been his closest confidant and lover. Thinking about her current state was too painful for Ethan at the moment, so he’d distanced himself from it as much as he could. Keeping his mind focused on the task at hand, that being survival.

I’m sorry Ethan.

Nine scrolled the words accompanied by a feeling of failure. She was much more expressive than Luna was, Ethan didn’t know if that was because Luna had been trapped alone for so long, or because of the personal connection he’d shared with Nine. It pulled at his heart strings though, and he fought the urge to comfort the newly forged ship core.

I tried everything I could think of, but I’m just not familiar with mana engines. If I’m able to work with…I think I might have found a substitute. We’ve got incoming, people. A dropship just entered my domain. Looks like an earth model. Estimated fifty troops onboard. Coming in from the opposite side of the Luna, at current speeds it will be here within a minute.

As the words flashed across the cabin, a projection of a troop transport ship appeared in the air above the slowly regrowing forest. Ethan was relieved that he didn’t spot any guns in the brief look he took before snatching up his axe and shield. Bolting out the door with a rifle toting Lesa hot on his heels.

Ethan ducked around the massive, armored form of the ogre Nine had taken as her dungeon boss. She’d assigned the thing as his permanent bodyguard, and outfitted it with panel armor, and heat dispersing plates designed to counter the plasma rifles, as well as a giant slab of a shield that looked more like a garage door than anything. It had been standing guard at the door, and was already moving to put itself between Ethan and the incoming foes.

All around him, goblinoids of every description came boiling out of the still partially burned houses they hadn’t had time to fix yet. They were interspersed with over a score of human soldiers, each armed with a plasma rifle.

Ethan felt optimism flood his chest at the numbers of minions he now had under his control thanks to Nine and the mana battery fueling her… until he remembered that she was only an F rank dungeon, the weakest possible grade, and the ship core likely responsible for this new batch of troops was supposed to be in C rank, several ranks higher and with a mana battery of his own. Not to mention that it was supposedly just as crazy as Luna, but completely unrestrained.

Ethan set his jaw in determination as the dropship came into view, and he realized the scope of the problem facing them. He’d made a great deal of progress since he woke up, healed, and forever changed on the Luna. He’d also experienced a great deal of pain and loss. Ethan forced the sight of Mark’s broken form, and Nine’s half melted body out of his mind by readjusting his grip on his weapons. The dropship came to a stop some hundred yards away and about twenty feet off the ground. Dozens of armed and armored soldiers boiled out of the ship and slid down ropes to hide in the newly grown tree cover.

“Get ready,” he shouted while giving his troops, dungeon creatures all, a quick scan. The massive ogre took up most of his field of view, and he couldn’t even see Lesa. The slippery scout had no doubt already found a hidey-hole to snipe from. Grinning, he turned his attention towards the incoming foe, he didn’t know if they were ready for the challenges to come, it didn’t matter. Ethan Fairchild would face any adversity head on, just like his brother would have. He didn’t know if Mark could see him, from whatever afterlife he’d found, but he’d do his best to make him proud. Mark had sacrificed himself for Ethan, and he couldn’t let that sacrifice be in vain.

“Charge,” he screamed, falling into step behind the lumbering ogre and his giant shield which was already being splattered with plasma fire. He was getting off this rock, he was going to save as many people as he could along the way, and he was going to send anyone who tried to stop him straight to hell.