I woke with energy and mana at zero and a splitting headache. The bright sun didn't help. I felt hot, lying in the open under a larger, redder sun.
Abnormality Detected: Low Ambient Energy.
It was not hard to find Dallas; he was unconscious next to me, his arm broken, and it looked like a dislocated shoulder. I took the chance to set his arm, guided by Sprite, who was referencing some medical textbooks. A healing injector and a potion for good measure saw him coming around after a few moments.
He went from dazed and confused to switched on like a machine. Scary.
Sprite: I am tracking two Empire energy signatures on the other side of those dunes. There is a lot of interference from the spatial rifts. Communication is limited, and I am not finding any location or spatial information to pinpoint our location.
We are still in our 'universe'? We haven't gone realm hopping like Sarah?
Sprite: We are 100% in our original universe, as you say. Just an unknown location.
"Sprite has a lock on two more; it is unknown who they are now. Dallas, you've got a point. We have four signals, two Northeast, not far and two Southeast, a fair hike. Closest first. Dallas, you've got a point."
Dallas was not happy with the gamble, but there was not much we could do. Jean was missing. Dallas and I landed in a deserted stretch of desert, backing onto a seemingly endless ocean. Landed was a polite way of saying ejected from our teleportation tunnel. I assume we landed as Dallas and I were in small craters of sand close to the beach and not far from each other.
While waiting for Dallas to come around, I noticed numerous 'spatial rifts' – my name for them and not the official system name since my skills were still wonky – opening and closing at random periods. The rifts opened after a slight distortion and remained open for a few seconds to a minute. They ranged in size from small – the size of a basketball – to the size of a doorway. They were less uniform than portals and seemed to be actual tears. Sprite was monitoring the distortions and was trying to develop a predictive model to see if she could generate some sort of warning if one got too close. At the moment, none were close, but it was concerning as they seemed to be high energy and left a scent like ozone behind.
For Dallas' sake, I hoped one of the two nearby signals was Jean, but the odds were not good; we needed to locate Jean, Corey, Ryan, Phillip and Jamie. For my sanity, I hoped so, too. I needed someone who had an idea about leadership, experience, and proper training. I had access to the database of Legion protocol and training, but that was totally different to being expected to use it in a crisis.
As we left the beach area, the sand became hot. A light, hot wind off the dunes quickly replaced the ocean breeze. All my desert walking knowledge came from Frank Herbert and Paul Atreides; after a minute, I gave up. It was hard work and didn't seem necessary here until we confirmed there were sandworms, or worse, I'd walk to conserve energy. Even with my high stats, I was struggling to climb the dunes.
Sprite: Something is reducing the energy in this area. I am trying to see if there is a correlation between the energy density and the rifts.
Dallas said, "My AI is detecting anomalies with the Nanite code. They predate anything that she is aware of. We are operating a reduced-capacity local system, which seems disconnected or severed from The Empire."
"Karass?" It was important to know what we were getting ourselves into, and I'd rather face something we had some connection to than something totally new.
"She says nothing registers as Prism. Old, un-upgraded Empire is her best guess."
Sprite: I concur. Ancient.
We paused to avoid a rift that formed in our pathway and continued up the dune. Then, as we crested the dune, we found our people, Ryan and Jamie, unconscious and half-buried in the sand.
I broke out a portable shelter to give us shade and relief from the sun as we dug them out and revived them. While I was using my amazing first-aid skills, Dallas bumped the long-range scanner out and started working with that. I couldn't blame him, really, and I was not going to stop him from trying to find Jean.
Ryan and Jamie were pretty straightforward to revive. Some hydration and some injections of healing gel got them at least alert.
I was explaining what we knew, which was fuck all, and Jamie was asking some sensible questions while Ryan broke out his drone.
"I'll get some mapping happening and scouting. It will fly for about an hour and need a charge. Solar Chargers should do great here."
Dallas called out. "I've got a better lock on the other two. Can you scout and plot a more direct and easier route?"
Ryan got onto it.
Jamie and I were discussing the benefits of Fremen-style walking in a desert. I wondered if they were still available; in the movie, they looked cool and seemed to make survival easier.
The path was sorted out in just twenty minutes, thanks to the drones and our AI. We then broke down the comms array and the shelter before heading south.
Despite being a longer distance, it took us less time since we travelled along the ridges of the dunes rather than up the faces. It was much easier. It was also easier to walk in the footprints of the others; the trailbreaker did most of the hard work, which was me for most of it. The compact sand made a huge difference even as it was filled quickly.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
We could not see a single sign of life from our vantage point, high above the troughs between the dunes. The sky and land were dead. Bright skies and dry, windswept desert sands. Once you got off the coast, there was nothing, and where we were, the ocean was a faint and distant memory, barely visible to the West.
When we found Corey and Phillip, I felt sorry for Dallas. I felt sick at the thought of being in charge here in an emergency, and I was worried for Dallas.
We found our first life forms on Corey. Small sand lice or mites—he was covered in them—were tiny creatures that were biting and burrowing into him. Phillip didn't have one on him. It was frightening. I instinctively flared my aura, killing the bugs quickly, leaving Corey covered in welts and missing 12 kg of weight.
Shit, that hurt me too. My knees buckled, and I was gasping for breath.
Aura works with minimal pain or damage.
"Shit, what are they?" I looked at the sand we had pulled him from, seeing thousands of mini insect-like corpses.
??? ???
Shit, Sprite, is this related to the …
Sprite: Unlikely, but statistically, the chance of this being a coincidence is …
12.3%. Crap. Does he have the blight?
"Can anyone Identify him and see his condition?"
"It's Unknown and unknown to me," Dallas replied, and Jamie and Ryan confirmed they could not see it either.
"Shit. This could be related to Selwin."
"Don't say that. Didn't we have to flee from that?"
I nodded.
We pumped some healing gel into Cory and some stamina and energy potions to combat the loss; they had virtually sucked muscle mass from him. It still took hours for him to come around, and we still had no lock on Jean.
The portable shelters were up, and we were waiting for Ryan to get the drone back up and out. I was not comfortable sitting in one spot, as the rift activity could not be predicted accurately, and we had no idea what would happen if someone hit one of the rifts.
I was sitting in my Karmahouse Emporium chair, reviewing some of the drone survey data, when Dallas came over. He seemed, understandably, on edge.
"What's the plan, boss?"
I sighed. I reviewed the standard Legion protocol for something like this.
"We still have a mission. We'll set a time limit for searching for Jean, then work towards getting off this place and back on mission."
Dallas didn't look happy, nor did anyone else, "Understood, Sir."
It was not a bad order; it was what everyone expected to hear, but it was not what anyone wanted.
He nodded at me. "If you had said to keep looking for her, Jean would kick your head in when we find her. You need to follow orders and procedures when you are on duty. I don't like it, but I understand. I won't go off mission."
I was waiting for the unsaid, yes, so I just nodded. "Two days. Search and our recovery. We'll move back to the coast and conduct from there. How many drones do you have, Ryan?"
Ryan flicked me a quick look from his screen, "12, eight, same as what we have up, four better-ranged ones."
"Any reason, other than the obvious that they are not all up?"
He looked guilty, "No, Sir. Protocol, Sir."
Again, I consulted with the procedures that had been drilled into me during my hellish boot camp, "Yes. But we are not just search and rescue. Consider us behind enemy lines with unknown hostile forces."
Everyone was looking at me, hoping I'd devise some magical plan, but I just had the standard playbook.
"The legion playbook is First, secure communications, then situational assessment, maintain stealth and evasion, and our emergency beacon. Communications is a bust, so step 2 is situational assessment—get all those drones up, and I want coverage. Use the four larger drones to oversee the tactical map for the remaining ones; if something moves, I want to know. Keep a rotation of 3 up, one down charging. We move to the coast and set up our Camouflage and Concealment encampment. It will be semi-permanent, so 1-hour bump in and out times. Once we have more intel, we move up the playbook. Let's get sorted and move out so we are not setting up on the coast in the dark."
That gave us a fair chunk of time to get to the coast and set up our C&C Encampment.
They all nodded and looked relieved at being given some orders.
"Get some samples of those mites; we'll see what science and our med bot can find out."
It felt good to be giving some orders that kind of made sense.
Sprite: I am concerned that the beach might not be the safest place. We have very limited strength, and keeping watch there will take more resources than we have. Reliance on Encampment Turrets and AIs is okay but not the best solution.
Yeah, but it will have to work, and we have to be doing something; otherwise, Dallas will go off the rails. We need him to keep an even keel.
Sprite: His AI is monitoring his biological feedback and will ensure he remains emotionally responsible.
Shit, I hate when that is needed. But keep me informed. Any luck with commas?
Sprite: I don't know what you think of my abilities, but as awesome as I am, I cannot contact any Empire beacons.
LOG: I Concur. My protocols are restricted, and I am able to offer you assistance (Legal disclaimer: Limited due to connection). Your Overdrive and Extraction benefits are still null and void. Our Legal team was working on our new package for you as our second Tier 6 candidate.
Thanks, I guess. You guys suck, though, dumping me … never mind, I understand.
Sprite: Can I suggest that we use something of your Transcendent Nature? Meditation and visualisation techniques are important for bypassing or augmenting the system.
Later, when we are not about to break camp.
Packing up our comms stations, the drone charging station and the portable shelters was quick. Inventories saved time and effort. The hike to the beach was slow going, as Ryan and Phillip struggled to adjust to the heat and the energy-sapping sand walking.
It was still a tough slog. I felt sorry for the rest of the team, and we had to carry Cory for the last dash along the dunes to hit our deadlines as I had planned; we had over half an hour of light left after our encampment was set up.
The encampment was just a prefabricated wall matrix with different energy signatures. Siege encampments sent more energy to defence and structural integrity, while our C&C encampment sent all the energy to optical concealment. They also had a sound-dampening effect outside the radius of the effect. Our area was close to a 20-meter-sided square with 1.5-meter walls all around.
Four automated energy turrets controlled by an AI were present. Small shelters were also present, and most of the room was set up for comms, drones, and our medical bay. The energy was collected using solar panels and an energy stone that absorbed ambient energy.
My only major concern was that the rifts would follow if we sucked too much energy from the area, so we tried to blanket the surrounding area with a low Tier 1 energy field.
Everyone was busy, and we had watches set, overwatch, and limited ranged comms.
We were moving from Immediate Response Protocols into Survival and Evasion.
Despite our predicament, the scenery was breathtaking, and looking out over the ocean was peaceful.
Then it got dark.