Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 152 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 1
Unknown Island / Unnamed Ruin
Galactic Standard Time / 1925
As he looked down the dark tunnel, all Ken’tricx could do was think about what the kid did. The kind of tech and skill it took to make things like this, it was next level. He thought it was beyond anything someone could do on their own. He knew the kid was something else, but this was amazing. The whole situation was something else really, and he could admit that. A long cruise on a starliner, a Federation ship true but still. After all the missions the team had run before they got the briefing about this gig, they needed downtime. Still, he would have preferred if they could go with their masks off, but then they were in enemy territory.
Still, if the mission had gone well, then it might not be. Still, for everything that happened before, he thought it was a done deal. The data they had gotten showed that the Federation was truthful in their messages. To their shock they did allow species and groups to govern themselves. He had been surprised, he had believed it was propaganda. To be a member of the Federation was a lot easier and loose. All groups had to do was follow a general bill of rights and stand together if something attacked them. But each party had to share all Firstborn data they had. And try and keep ruins from civilians was something the military already did that.
All joining the Federation would do was allow both sides to see who each group was. He had to say, hiding away their faces was something that he didn’t completely like. Sure it would be easier, but then they would have to answer a few interesting questions. His world was one of the First Ones, and he went to that place as a student once. He knew exactly where they all came from, and to share that with the wider galaxy…… that was something. His heritage was something he was proud of. He saw his very life was something that showed his people were survivors, but still.
“[Think the plan will work]?” Tar’lroia’s voice came over his mask.
Ken’tricx’s eyes went up and he saw Tar’lroia’s icon on his HUD. He looked over and saw Tar’lroia looking up the tunnel, no indication that she was talking to him. All he did was take a deep breath and release it before he spoke. “[I hope that it works, I really do. I mean those things didn’t attack us right away, that’s gotta mean something right]?”
In truth, Ken’tricx was thinking that it might have been that the creatures had been startled. Sometimes wild animals just looked at new things, they didn't attack. Instead they observed whatever it was before they attacked. Still, something about them was different from animals, and he wanted to believe the best.
“[Yeah, I know. But still….. this place. Where did we crash land]?” Tar’lroia asked and Ken’tricx nodded, he had been thinking that too.
This place was unlike anywhere he had ever heard of, and that was saying something. Most planets with Ruins on them usually had a few creatures, but the things they saw so far were beyond that. And a possible sentient species, that was beyond anything that had ever been found.
Most Ruins that still had active robots sent out some of them, and they always seemed to target sentience. More than once the remains of creatures were found within the Ruins. Investigations showed they experienced violent deaths, and their genes showed signs of pre-sentence. Most scholars said this was because the First Borne hated all other life forms. That they programed their robots to hunt down anything that showed signs of evolving. But this planet, this place, it destroyed all those theories.
“[Yeah. Still, the kid. I always thought that he was hiding something, but tech like this? I mean most sensor units the service has access to are a lot bigger],” Ken’tricx said absently. And he was right about that. The models he service used as disposable sensors were at least three feet wide, round, and tall. They took up more space in a unit’s packs, space that could be freed if the kid shared the patent with the service. Even if he charged them, the space that teams could save would be a lot. The space could be for weapons, medicine, or anything else really.
“[Yeah, and I don’t like it],” Tar’lroia muttered softly.
Ken’tricx only looked at her, not quite understanding just what she meant. “[What do you mean? I know he’s a bit closed off, but he’s a good kid. I mean he’s got something he’s hiding, but he’s never done anything wrong]!”
“[Yeah, that the problem. Most people who do things like this can have egos the size of moons! But he’s a complete wallflower! I have never seen or heard of anyone that has ever acted like him! Nothing about his actions makes sense, I just. I just have a feeling, whatever he’s hiding, it’s not good],” Tar’lroia said as she turned her head to look at him.
Ken’tricx opened his mouth and tried to respond, but something stopped him. He agreed with her, but then he sensed that the kid was hiding something. While he wanted to believe whatever the kid was holding back wouldn’t hurt them, but then their luck wasn’t that good. Still, if they confronted him about it, nothing would happen. He would just clam up or run away into the wild. They needed to show the kid he could trust them, that was the only way that he saw would work. Anything else, and the kid might just tell them what he thought they wanted to hear.
“[Maybe. But how do you plan to get the kid to admit it? Anything too forceful and I’ll be on the other side of this],” Ken’tricx said sternly as he flexed his hands.
All that Tar’lroia did was turn away and the icon disappeared. He spent another few seconds just looking at her before he sighed and shook his head. He knew that this wasn’t the end of it, she never let go of something like this when she had a scent. That had saved and gotten the team into trouble, but most of the time it had a good end. All she could do was hope that this was one of those times.
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“[Fine Ken’tricx, fine. I’ll let it go for now],” Tar’lroia said softly to herself. But all she could do was look at the radar data from the sensor, and once again her thoughts turned dark. The network defenses in her suit were state of the art, they could handle any kind of attacks for hours. But the program that Olv’xic sent uploaded like all the walls were down. That wasn’t a genius, that was someone who had worked how to hack into official firewalls. Most firewalls had bounties on them, some hackers even used the bounty to live like kings for years.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
But Olv’xic didn’t, and why was that? She could think up a lot of reasons, dark ones. The first thing was he was a spy, from one of the crime families. If he hadn’t been caught his gene line wouldn’t be on file if he was adopted into that life. But, why would one of the clans send a genius into the service? What did they know, did they have a Future-Seer, one that could see with accuracy? No, that wasn’t possible….. well, it was improbable. But why here and now? What did they see, if they even existed?
The other thing was he might be in the pay of one of the other royals. The movie industry myth of princes killing each other for the throne wasn’t just a story. But who, when? Was the mission stuck in the planning stage for so long? Was the Prince’s technique the reason? Did it take that long for him to learn it? But why had they sent Olv’xic to join the team?
For a few seconds, she just stood there before she slapped her mask. Each scenario was so out there that she was embarrassed that she had spent time thinking about them. To be honest, while she could think of terrible reasons why he hid his skills, she also destroyed them just as fast. Nothing made sense, nothing at all.
Maybe it was this world, she was letting her fear about it cloud her judgment. This was something that she had to resist, sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. Still, no matter what she thought about the kid, this was amazing. Each sensor was a small radar station that fed what it ‘saw’ to whoever had this program. And it did so by broadcasting at a frequency beyond their hearing. Their armor picked it up, translated a code into data that their systems could read. All in all, this was amazing and beyond anything that she had ever heard of before.
Something like this, she could see so many uses for it. A small drone could act as a spotter, sending out a signal to any operatives with the right gear. It could be used in crowds, guiding operative right to their targets. They could be used to communicate without using the comms, a way to communicate even in dark zones. And a hundred others she probably couldn’t see.
But as far as she was thinking that maybe he was hiding it because of orders, nothing made sense. Maybe he had a good reason that made sense to him to hide, but what? He just didn’t make sense, and with them all being here didn’t help matters. If she was being honest, maybe she was looking into this too much.
But with everything that happened, it was her nature to look at any threads that seemed wrong.
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As Ro’borlar looked into the darkness, he tried to stay calm. She was right, he was still looking for the embrace of death. Part of him knew it was wrong, but he had lost so much. They were gone, the two people that made his life bearable, and he wasn’t within them because of the mission. He still had that nightmare sometimes, the last time he ever saw them. Sometimes he wondered what happened, he tried not to but the thoughts still hit him.
Looking around at the others, he felt a smile. Those two would have loved the team, every one of them. He could see the ways that they would interact. Je’ndra and her would have bounded over their love of that game. Ken’tricx and Tar’lroia’s sense of duty would have inspired feelings of fellowship with his other half. Even the ghost Olv’xic might have become more of a friend with those two around.
He just sighed and shook his head, old wounds on the heart and spirit always took long to heal, but heal they would. Maybe he should see if Tar’lroia had an experience with helping the mind, or knew someone who did. He had to admit, that after everything he needed some help to handle his issues.
“[On your feet everyone, we’ve got a contact]!” Tar’lroia’s voice caused him to look down the tunnel, his weapon forming in his hand. As he connected his HUD to the long-range viewer, he saw nothing at all.
“[Nothing, I can’t see anything. What do you see]?” Ken’tricx asked over the comms.
“[A sensor just saw it! A lot of creatures! We’re five sensor units away, a distance of at least fifty feet between each one. And once it was surrounded it stopped sending]!” Tar’lroia said stiffly.
Ro’borlar looked down the tunnel, his finger on the trigger. So then the creatures were around two-hundred and fifty feet away, not his longest shot. “[Let’s fall back to the cavern, I’ll fire a few shots if they come closer. Nothing better to do].”
Personally, all Ro’borlar wanted to do was keep firing into the darkness striking them down. But then he realized what the creatures probably were, and what that meant. If they were more of those three-legged things, then that was a problem. With how tall they were, he’d have to adjust his shots. Aiming lower, letting his mind go over the problem he aimed where he thought one of them would be. “[Ready to fire. Just give the word and I might be able to hit one of them].”
“[Strike first!? They might just be guarding their territory! If it was us, then that was what we would do! Maybe they won’t come at us]?” Ken’tricx asked as his weapons formed in his hands and two floating guns formed over his shoulders.
As much as Ro’borlar wanted to believe him, he knew his friend was wrong. The three-legged thing, that had wielded weapons. That meant that it could think or something had taught it to use it. And their luck this was going to be the former not the first
“[What we found, it had a weapon. These things can think, and they’re acting in their interests. That means they have a reason to kill us, and a desire to do so],” Ro’borlar’s soft voice caused Ken’tricx to look down.
Before either of them could say anything Tar’lroia started to swear.
.
“[The next sensor just got something! They’re still coming]!” Tar’lroia said as she looked at the others.
“[Move now. I’ll fire when they reach the next one],” Ro’borlar said as he adjusted his aim.
“[Wait]……..” Ken’tricx began only for Tar’lroia to start moving, grabbing him and pulling him along behind her.
“[We don’t have a better plan….. they reached the next sensor],” Tar’lroia said softly.
All Ro’bolar did was aim carefully and fire a single bolt into the darkness.
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As the horde moved along, their master waited at the back with his chosen enforcers. As soon as they found that strange-looking metal thing, he had one of his slaves try and eat it. When it broke its teeth on it, he sent it back, barking at the newest drudge. As this happened, it started to wonder if it was making a mistake. If the strange bone was the source of the far strikers, then this was a waste of time and slaves. But there was still a chance it wasn’t the case. And it had to admit, that even with its leadership, its tribe needed an edge. Only their ability to move into small cavers lets them grow so strong. They could lead the many-legged ones into places only the three-legged could escape from. Then once that was donepincer them between hunting parties . But even with that and their weapons, it was all they could do to stay alive down here.
And this might be it. If that hunter was telling the truth. The very idea of this ability being down here was something that was beyond its belief. And that was why it had maimed the hunter, well that and how it was always trying to take over.
The leader’s spies had reported the hunter’s actions once before, and that had been a nightmare. And the pack the hunter led was just like the leader’s pack from before its rise to rule over the tribe.
The leader had spent time once it knew the older leader’s time was up. It had gathered a band to it, and over time slowly but surely taken out its rivals. A frame job there, leading them into ambushes by the many-legged, and killing the survivors. And that was why the leader wanted to deal with the hunter, it had no desire to lose its rule and life.
But then that was the way of things down here. When the tribe’s ancestors had found their way down, there had been much celebration. The war between two of the Tyrants of the above had killed so many of them. The stories said there were only a third of their number when they escaped. With the way into the under, they had been able to live. With time, they had grown and found a place to raise their young safely, and now only the many-legged ones were still a true threat.
But with the ability to strike from farther than their bows, they could rule this place. The old stories about how the strong were culled by the creators, were just a way to soothe the egos of the stupid. With the death of the many-legged ones, they could take such strength from them. Their armor and way to create more of themselves, once that was the tribe’s they would be so much stronger. They might even be able to go back to the above, kill the Tyrant, and return to their old hunting grounds.
But with everything that happened, there was still no sign that this ‘far-strike’ power even existed. It had almost decided that this was nothing but a failure when a strange sound came from the front. Suddenly screeches came from the front, and the stench of death. The leader looked at its enforcers and howled, gesturing for one to go and find out what it was. After a few moments of arguing, finally one started to push its way forward through the mass of the horde.
A few seconds later the enforcer came back, a body being pulled behind it. The enforcer threw the body before the leader and stepped back, the other enforcers keeping the horde at bay. The body was of another of the swarm, only this one had a smoking circle on its head. The leader looked down at the body and put one of its fingers into the hole, feeling burnt flesh within.
For a few moments, all the leader could do was look at the corpse, trying to understand. But then it felt a burst of greed as everything made sense. This was the far strike, the power was real! And whatever had it was up the tunnel. Now all the leader had to do was send the horde against whatever it was, and then feed off the corpse. As it looked around another of the strange sounds and the smell of death came again. The horde started to move back, trying to save their skins. But all the leader could do was grin in greed, this was wonderful. The far strike was able to be used multiple times, that was perfect.
The leader pointed forward and screeched, its enforcers started to press the horde forward. The hunt was on.