“Well that easy pack of monsters turned into a studded-dildo wrong-hole surprise,” Jill said an hour later.

Their escape had been thankfully uneventful, the level 257 behemoth either slower than them or just uninteresting in chasing the relatively puny truck. It was also possible that it had never even noticed them; the radar had spotted it from miles away and they’d run immediately, never catching sight of what it was. In any case, Jill had been confident enough that they’d gotten away clean that she’d called a meeting. Now she was in the small conference room just next to the cab, sitting at the oval table in the seat nearest the coffee machine.

Babu, Mia, and Ras had joined her and were sitting in a cluster, talking; so were the brothers’ parents, Sangita and Aman. The Bati family was over-represented out of Berthaville’s over 5000 people, but that’s what they got for having the luck to meet Jill early. That and they kept doing useful things. Jacob, the elected representative for all the people in Bertha not named ‘Jill Macleod’ had been chatting with Jim and showing the crafter a drawing on his clipboard. Jim looked excited by whatever it was and was gesturing his hands to mimic explosions. Jill hoped the ideas were for outside the truck and not in.

Sitting apart from the others was Captain Green, still in his Air Force uniform. He was an uninvited guest for their planning meetings but had started showing up to them anyway. Jill let him stay because, like it or not, he still commanded the battle-hardened survivors from his former base, and under his orders they helped defend Bertha. He didn’t often say anything in the meetings, but listened to everything.

The chatter choked into silence at Jill’s summation of their fight.

“All in favor of Babu wiping that imagery from our memory?” Mia asked.

“I can’t do that anymore,” Babu said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Oh, right,” Mia said. She squeezed his leg under the table.

“Did the fighting not go well?” Sangita asked Jill, ignoring the byplay between her son and his lover to look at Jill. “We heard some bangs and screams, and the medics rushed by, but that’s not really any different from a normal Tuesday when you’re driving.”

“Hilarious,” Jill said. “The fight never tipped the scale from dangerous to deadly, but the horse was stronger than I expected. Did more damage than I’d thought it could.” Left unsaid was the pain that damage caused her.

“There were breaches in the Cargo Nexus big enough for monsters to get in,” Ras said, “if there had been any others around.”

“It could hit us at range,” Jill continued, ticking off items on her fingers, “it could catch us with movement powers, it could dodge our bullets by going all cloudy. That’s more abilities than we usually see, and that’s not even counting the flare that blinded everyone.”

“I’m still seeing spots,” Mia grumbled.

“You wouldn’t if you would go to the Medbay,” Babu said.

Mia crossed her arms.

“That could have been a disaster,” Jill said. “Give me ideas on what happened, and how we can fix it.”

“The turrets were still intact at that point, and cab’s extra armor held,” Aman said slowly, “Usually that stops status effects from getting through. But we know armor doesn’t protect against everything. Mind magic, for example.”

“It attacked with light and you were all looking through windows,” Ras said, “light is what windows are supposed to let through. This doesn’t seem complicated.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jill said, “but that kind of common sense is what magic usually laughs at before punting it to the moon. Sys,” she turned her head to the ceiling, as if the System were watching from above, “does Elemental Resistance take care of light? It’s gotta be an element.”

System Inquiry Detected

Defensive efficacy is dependent on base design. The armored windows of Soulbound modular vehicle prioritize visibility over absolute protection. Resistance to photons in the human-visible band is reduced.

“So your fancy upgrades and armor let things have their way with my eyeballs?” Jill asked. “That’s a hell of a loophole.”

System Inquiry Detected

The armored windows of Soulbound modular vehicle ‘Bertha’ block thermal effects. Reduced photon resistance is non-zero.

Warning! Estimated damage from unresisted Storm Steed Storm Flash not recommended at your level!

Warning! User Jill MacLeod requires un-molten skin for optimal operation!

“Ok, ok, don’t get your bits in a twist,” Jill said. “I was just asking. Well,” she said, lowering her gaze back to the table, “the good news is that we’ve found a vulnerability without all dying. That’s worth something.”

Green snorted. Jill ignored him.

“I’ll get my people working on some sort of auto-darkening add-on for the armor,” Jim said.

“Transition lenses for the truck?” Sangita asked.

“I call picking out the frame style,” Mia said and grinned.

“You are not putting fucking sunglasses on my truck,” Jill muttered, knowing full well that if the glasses actually worked to defend them, she wouldn’t stop them being put on.

Aman cleared his throat. “This is a good reminder for all of us. While Ms. MacLeod’s truck and powers let us fight as if we are at her level, we are not. Where she could shake off the blindness, we were helpless until healed.”

“It’s also a reminder that monsters near Level 100 have nasty fucking surprises,” Jill said. “I know that the loot from the boss steed was -”

“Amazing,” Jim interrupted Jill, a hungry look in his eyes.

“Good enough to make Jim here need to change his pants,” Jill finished. “But I’m making an executive decision: we’re running from anything over Level 100, and we’re going to be paranoid about anything over Level 90. For a while at least. Anyone object?”

No one did.

“Right, so what else about that fight stood out?” Jill asked the table.

“We needed all those accuracy buffs at the start of the fight, not after we learned we couldn’t hit squat,” Mia said.

“I did notice you pissing Bertha’s Mana into the wind up there,” Jill said. “Aman, let’s change our usual strategy and use accuracy first. Switch to damage or rate of fire increases when we know we can hit.”

“We can’t do that too much,” Babu said. “The band’s spells are a little different: they have higher upfront costs than other powers, but the cost to sustain them is lower. They can play the same kind of thing all fight but too much switching and they’ll run out.”

“Good to know,” Jill said, filing the detail away. “One or two changes is fine?”

Babu gave a hard nod.

“Then accuracy first is still the plan.” She took a sip of over-strength coffee. “Next?”

Aman cleared his throat. “The gunners didn’t swap out the moment they were blinded,” he said. “That’s the whole purpose of having backups there, rather than helping to defend in case monsters get inside. The hivemind is usually better than that, but not this time.” She eyed Mia, who was most often a part of the collective intelligence formed by whoever was manning the guns at the moment.

The heavy gunner pulled a face. “You’re giving us, it, too much credit. It seems like it’s its own person because it turns out that when you shove 7 brains together things get weird. And, like, in some ways it is. But in others, it’s just us, and if all of us just got our eyes seared off then we’re not going to be thinking rationally.”

“Procedures and training will fix that,” Green said, breaking his silence, “both as part of the group and as individuals. The soldier makes the unit.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Aman nodded. “The Captain is correct,” he said.

Jill looked into Green’s eyes. “Are you willing to work with Coach,” the former gym teacher, now organizer of the gun crews, preferred to go by the title rather than his name, “and set up that training?”

He thought for a moment, then nodded. “I am willing to share that knowledge, yes,” he said and leaned forward. “A question for you, Ms, MacLeod.” He paused dramatically. “Against all odds, we’ve crossed the Rift. How does that impact your timeline moving forward? In particular with regards to getting my men back into action.”

“We keep moving east, same as before, and drop you off at the first suitable place,” Jill said, “only it looks like we finally might be over the hump.”

“How so?” Green asked.

“We’re moving faster,” Aman said. “I checked our old-world position right before the meeting. We’ve made as much progress in the last 3 hours as we did in a day before crossing the Rift.”

“You got a new propulsion upgrade?!” Babu asked hopefully.

“Nope,” Jill said. “It’s that space-stretching fuckery going down. There’s less magic away from the Rift, so less ground to cover to get where we need to go.”

“Oh,” Babu said, disappointed.

“And how does that speed translate into us reaching civilization?” Green asked. “Again, I’m eager to get back to a friendly force and move out.”

Jill held herself back from an acerbic question about Bertha not being good enough for him. Green had been upfront about his independence and that of the former Maelstromers. They didn’t owe her anything, not really. Sure, Bertha had pulled them out of a bad situation, but they would have done that for anyone, and Jill wasn’t going to try and keep anyone in the truck by force.

“That depends on who is where,” Aman said, “and if the Mana density keeps falling at the same rate as it is here. But,” he paused, closing his eyes to recall his road atlas, “we’re in the middle of expanded nowhere right now, maybe two days of driving north of the ruins of Interstate 94. We can follow those pieces to Fergus Falls. There should at least be a National Guard station there.”

“Will that cost us time?” Jill asked Aman.

“A bit. It depends on if the Mana does what we expect. The Rift cut north to south, so the farther we go east, the less real ground we’ll have to cover when we cut south. In theory.”

“Then that sounds like what we should do. The highway’s too broken up to help us go faster, anyways,” Jill said. “Does Fergus Falls work for you?” she asked Green. “Assuming anyone is even there.”

He nodded. “Perfectly, thank you.”

“That wraps up my stuff,” Jill said. “Anyone want to bring something up while we’re all here?”

“I, uh, have something,” Jacob said. He grimaced. “There have been a string of disappearances. I think the murderers have struck again, this time with a whole group.”

Jill’s blood ran cold. “How many? When did they go missing?”

“About a dozen people, including that annoying Barbara Marigold woman and her hangers-on,” Jacob said, biting his lip and staring down at his clipboard. If he hadn’t, he might have noticed the snarl that had formed for an instant on Sangita’s face at the name, before it froze into a professional mask. Babu and Ras were less subtle, with the former’s face falling into grief and the latter’s hardening into fierce pride. Aman just folded his hands, otherwise impassive, before giving his sons a pointed look.

“We don’t know exactly when it happened,” Jacob continued. “At first we thought they were just skulking around in some of the back parts of the barracks, but no one’s seen them in over a week.” By the time he’d finished speaking and looked up, the brothers Bati had mastered themselves and had at least passably normal expressions on.

“Oh,” Jill said. “Them. Yeah, they’re all dead.”

The room froze.

“Uh,” Jacob opened his mouth, his eyes wide, but no coherent words came out.

“They were the ones who attacked the Settlement Core, weren’t they?” Sangita asked, her voice ice cold. She’d answered the System message to defend the core when it had been attacked and had been nearly killed for it. She also knew exactly what had later happened, and why.

“Worse than that,” Jill said. “They were the ones who let corrupted Limbs McGee into the truck. They betrayed us and started a fight that got people killed, all as a distraction. Some died in the fight right then. Some died later after we tracked them down.” It was a bit of a stretch, but still the truth.

“You executed them?” Green asked.

“Knock it off,” Jill snapped. “It was a fight that went sideways, not an execution. They were throwing around nasty powers and it was them or us.” She hoped that Green had no way to detect lies.

“What evidence do you have of that?” Green asked, leaning forward. “The facts of the matter are unclear, as you haven’t revealed them.”

“What, you want me to take a video every time someone tries to suck the magic out of me?” Jill growled.

“I was there too,” Babu said, shooting a glance at Jill. His voice was unsteady at first but firmed up as he kept speaking. “There was no chance of taking them alive. If nothing else, there was so much corruption in that room that we wouldn’t have wanted to.”

Green’s gaze snapped from Jill to Babu. “Is that so?”

“It was enough that Babu had to flush all his levels to get rid of it,” Ras said, his arms crossed. “And that was after he’d already tracked them down and killed the one who stabbed mom.”

“Not really helping with the whole ‘not revenge killing’ thing there,” Mia muttered.

“And you didn’t think that a source of corruption was worth telling us about?” Green asked. “What if one of my men had stumbled into them?”

“Um!” yelled Jacob and he raised his hand. Somehow that stopped the brewing argument. “Jill, if you say that’s what happened, then I,” he swallowed, “I believe you. But I need to know when this kind of thing happens, ok? For things smaller than this too,” his voice had grown firmer. “Because I’m supposed to be the one in the room with you representing the people who live here, arguing for things to make their lives better, and I can’t do any of that if I don’t even know that there were traitors! Or that they were killed!” He was angry now. “I could have gotten ahead of this and saved everyone a whole lot of fear if only I’d known. And Captain Green is right, we need to know if there’s a danger like corruption around!” He realized the whole table was looking at him and deflated. “So, uh, yeah. We need a procedure for this. Give me an incident report at least so we can keep everyone safe.”

“You’re right,” Jill said. She turned to Sangita. “You’ll figure something out?”

The other woman nodded. “I’ll write up a form,” she said and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Then that’s settled. Anything else?” Jill asked. “Kevin have any new unexplained dinosaur pets?” When no one said anything at her feeble attempt to lighten the mood, she pushed back her chair and stood. “Then we’re done. I’ll let Crash know where to drive, but after that, I’m going to be out of action for a while. It’s finally time for me to upgrade my Class and see what my next level of magical bullshit is. It might take a while.”

Babu inhaled, his eyes lighting up. “Will you-”

“Of course I’ll send you the new powers,” Jill said with a roll of her eyes. “Keep the truck from exploding, will you?” she said to the room at large, then turned and walked out. The door to her own room, created by the Habitation Module and identical to hundreds of others, was next to the meeting room, across from the back entrance to the Medbay. The layout, designed by Aman, gave Jill immediate access to the cab in case of an emergency. It also kept her at arm’s length from everyone else, something she both appreciated and was uncomfortable with.

She opened the door, only to yelp and jump back as a miniature avalanche of foot-tall potted, monstrous sunflowers tumbled out, each chiming happy bell sounds at her. She picked up one that had landed on her foot and examined it. “That’s new,” she said to herself: the bright yellow petals were shot through with glowing silver lines that danced and pulsed like an aurora.

She pushed a little bit of her magic into it and its identification box popped up in response.

Smiling Riftflower, Level 17

She leaned back over to the conference room and stuck her head past the door. “Hey, Babu,” she said, getting the attention of the team, who were still discussing something, “catch!” She tossed the flower at him and chuckled at his gasp of excitement.

That just left the issue of her room and bathroom being chock full of the tiny guardian monsters, all of them waving in the shifting Mana flow in what would be a friendly way if it weren’t for how tight-packed they were. As it was, they formed a tangled and heaving mass of stems, leaves, and petals that Jill really wanted nowhere near her while she was sleeping.

She could clean them out by hand, but that would take too long.

She sunk herself into Bertha, getting a feel for the room; the metal of the floor and walls, the almost too-soft bed, the much-abused coffee machine. A twist of her will and the window in her tiny bathroom snapped open, exposing the wide blue sky of Berthaville’s kilometer-across, spherical dimensional bubble. The floor of her room rippled and heaved as she made it chuck all of the flowers, except for the prime progenitor mother that sat on a shelf above her toilet, out into that 0 gravity open space.

The chiming of the flowers grew in intensity and to Jill’s astonishment they began to organize themselves. What had been a tangled mass slowly pulled apart into a line, which drifted out towards the edge of the bubble. That was either going to go well or become some sort of horrible complication; either way, it was a factor for another day.

She took the few steps over to her tiny bed and fell back onto it, closing the door with her mind rather than her hands. Within seconds, a tortoiseshell cat hopped onto her lap and started kneading. “Where in the pope’s left ball did you come from?” Jill asked it, sure that it hadn’t been in her room a moment before when she was sensing through Bertha.

It leveled a look that communicated quite clearly that she was an idiot for asking that question and that she was lucky to be blessed with feline companionship. Then it turned around and kept kneading away, tail raised and asshole staring her directly in the face.

Jill just sighed and turned her gaze to the ceiling. She gave herself a few seconds to unwind from the fight, from covering up Babu’s possibly justified but most definitely insane killings, and from running a meeting. Then she got back to work.

“Ok Sys,” she said aloud, “show me that new class one more time.” She had unlocked it just a few hours before, after going through the Rift. At the time it had looked amazing, but she had to be sure.

Legendary Class Evolution Unlocked!

Trucker of the Infinite Road: You have taken your vessel where it cannot go, sailed the infinite depths of magic itself, and lived to tell the tale. No other expanses could ever compete and you will cross them all. Your new Class Powers will enhance you and your chosen vehicle’s ability to go where you will.

“Yeah,” Jill said and smiled. “Yeah. That feels right. Anything you want me to know before we do this thing?”

Class Evolution substantially transforms the user’s body. Full unconsciousness is recommended.

“What, the normal pants creaming isn’t enough to cover up the pain?” She had already turned off the addictive sensation that accompanied leveling, to her occasional regret.

Full unconsciousness is recommended.

Jill scritched the now-settled cat. “Fine,” she said. She shut her eyes, only to snap them open a second later and glare at the ceiling. “Transforms my body? This better not give me superhero boobs, or I swear to gawd Sys, I will find a way to hurt you.”

There was no reply.

“Aw, fuck it. Sys, upgrade me.”