“Is he still sleeping,” he heard Wendy whisper those words as he lay in his makeshift bed trying to catch a few more winks. Honestly the sleeping area wasn’t that comfortable but the room was warm and as soon as he lay down he had found himself sleeping like a marmot; enjoying the time to relax and digest the events of the last few days. Despite his eyes still being closed he could still see the words that interested him so greatly; the summation of his tenuous ability to survive.

Reginald Strauss

Warden of Coldreach

Race: Human

Threat Class: 0

Combat Strength: 10

Strength: Below Average

Speed: Average

Durability: Extremely High

Power: High

Affinity

Psi-2.25

Mag-N/A

Chi-N/A

Current Skills Mastery:

Untrained Precognition

Implanted Augments:

Black Bones

Current Benefits: None

Current Curses: None

He had managed to increase his Psi by 0.1 over the last day since Surge had checked up on him, although he still couldn’t get much direct benefit from the energy. His precognition only properly showed up when he was taking Psionic Enhancers and even then only when he was in great imminent danger or ‘maybe’ when he was dreaming. It made him wish that he had taken a look at the Status when he was taking one of the Psionic enhancing drugs. Did it work by increasing his PSI? Would his precognition become more reliable after he reached a certain threshold of PSI or would it still be untrained and he would still have to work to control it.

As a matter of fact how would he go about training to increase his PSI? He actually had an answer behind this but his reasoning wasn’t that firm yet. He had once tried meditation out when he was younger; after a particularly bad spate of sleeplessness after his brother’s death. He had tried it again last night, motivated by a few pieces of dubious literature, to see if it helped increase his reserves but to no avail. It was only after he went to sleep did his PSI increase once more leaving him with a rudimentary theory relating to rest.

Namely if Psionics could be compared to a muscle then the three things that should increase it are exertion, rest and nutrients. Exertion can be achieved by everyday use of Psionics which he was still struggling with, resting was apparently achieved by sleeping, but he was still unsure of any special nutrients that could help him; maybe the Psionic Enhancers counted but Surge had confiscated his supply. A vague plan took shape before he was interrupted by the Necomancer’s voice again.

“No, he’s awake,” Surge said ruining the possibility of a lie-in and reminding him briefly of his mother. Sighing inwardly; he raised his head looking in the direction of the voice.

“Hey Surge,” Warden said reluctantly opening his eyes and training them upon the Necromancer. “Does precognition work by calculating present factors to discern the future or by inspecting the future directly?”

“I have no clue,” Surge said blinking at the sudden question.

“It must be direct inspection,” Wendy said causing the both of them to turn to her. “Before the Eazel shop collapsed you managed to see it happening a few seconds before. I was at high alert at the time and my senses are far better than yours and I got nothing, Boss.”

“So it is actually viewing the future?” Warden asked. “No prediction required. But then which future am I viewing? Does it take into account my knowledge of the future or is a snapshot at the time before I see it. Can I change the future that I’ve seen? Is it short term or only long-term. What’s the longest you can see into the future? Can you see into multiple different futures at the same time?” These were questions that he had asked but as he spoke all he received was a continuous shaking of the head from both of his employees.

“Sorry if I gave you the impression that I was an expert in Psionics,” Surge stated. “I only know a bit about tricks and the Enhancers from treating those who are. I have no idea how to train it.”

“I don’t know a way either, Boss,” Wendy admitted and Warden nodded thankfully despite the fact he wasn’t really expecting her to. His secretary gave him more of the vibe of a girl from a small village out in the country and probably one who spent their life hunting or farming while Surge had already told more than enough of his stories to get an idea on his background.

“I have a bit of a drastic idea,” Warden admitted. “But it’s probably best to do it back in Coldreach.”

“If it’s really drastic then maybe we could do it after we’ve replenished my medical supplies,” Surge agreed.

“Maybe we can ask Choir?” Wendy asked causing a harsh silence to fill the room and the secretary to get slightly flustered. “I mean he is an Angel. Maybe he knows something about how Psionic powers work.” She seemed to grow self-conscious at the sudden silence. “Or maybe there are some books stored in the Coldreach library. There’s a special part of the library reserved for staff, maybe they will have a book about Psionics in there.”

“There are books still,” Warden said coughing in embarrassment and trying to ignore the glowing red in his face thanks to having overlooked Wendy’s simple idea. “What do you think?” he turned towards Surge putting some pressure on him as well.

“Choir is an angel who’s probably existed a hundred times longer than any of us at the very least,” Surge agreed looking not meeting his eyes. “He hasn’t been the most forthcoming but if you ask him directly he might help. It sounds like something we should probably try first.”

“Agreed,” Warden said standing up from his bed fully dressed and ready for the day. He hadn’t even changed out of his jumpsuit which still sported tears from the exertions yesterday. “It’s good to have you back Wendy,” he said stifling a yawn. “Now let’s go grab that Corpse Tar.”

xxx

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“Next batch,” Wendy and Warden finished simultaneously. He adjusted the weight on his pistol checking out the charge while Wendy casually wiped the blood off of her arms. With a simple gesture from the Necromancer another spear of bone hit the water causing the waves to swell before another batch of those creatures were vomited onto the land.

“Too easy,” Wendy said bounding towards them energetically. Warden stepped forward behind her firing off the pistol intermittently. The first crustacean took a hit on its abdomen and it reflexively moved its claws to cover that spot just in time for Wendy to reach in with a punch to the face that went through the relatively soft part of its body before tunnelling out the other side.

The next two creatures were barely slowed down by the swift death visited upon the comrade and they instead lunged at his bodyguard with a fairly basic ‘punch’ using those oversized pincers. It was nearly comical how Wendy moved forward in the last possible second letting the two pincers collide with each other. The one on the left was immediately knocked down by Wendy who raised both hands in a double fisted blow that cracked the shell caving in the body and causing him to burst like an overripe fruit. The second crustacean turned towards her crouching form only for the forearm of its outstretched pincer to disappear in an explosion of red.

The creature paused for a moment at that distracted by the sudden loss of its pincer before its face was pulverised by an offhanded blow from Wendy again. The last three that approached were forced to cover their face as explosions of red chipped away at their pincers and the bodyguard took full advantage of that tearing into legs, cracking armour and unleashing a beating easily dodging their blind clumsy blows. Wherever she wasn’t would be peppered by a hail of red blasts cutting chunks off them until the three were mangled corpses.

“Next batch,” Wendy and Warden said taking a few steps back and adjusting themselves. The sun had already been up for several hours and the constant process of fighting, resting, fighting again had occupied a great deal of it. The beach was already filled with nearly two hundred corpses of the crustacean creatures and they had already had to move ten times when the location got to full of corpses.

“I’m running out of weak ones,” Surge said. “If I start firing indiscriminately then soon enough something a lot worse will jump out.”

“I think we’ve more than gotten used to the weaker versions,” Warden said getting his breathing under control. Ever since Wendy had joined the battle he was able to get by moving far less than usual and just concentrating on aiming and squeezing the trigger. Halfway through he had even switched to shooting left-handed so as to offset the mild cramps in his right fingers.

“You said that these are threat class zero?” Wendy asked all of a sudden. “You said I’m class two, right?”

“I did say both of those things,” Surge said. “You’ve been a pretty underwhelming class two so far although. If you stopped sandbagging I’d be a bit more confident of your victory. That and if I could sense everything in the water.”

“Is the corpse preventing your Measuring,” Warden asked taking a seat now that the battle didn’t seem to terribly imminent. He received a nod from Surge as a means of reply.

“I can fight a class two if it’s necessary,” Wendy defended herself. “Besides can’t you try and stir up some class ones. Aren’t those far weaker than a class two anyway?”

“Don’t be a classist,” Warden said relaxing against the ground. “How much Measuring have you done yet?” he asked as he closed his eyes and relaxed.

“I haven’t stopped Measuring since you’ve been fighting,” Surge replied. “Once or twice I’ve got the impression of something clinging to the flesh but… it’s blurry for lack of a better word.”

“But you can measure the areas closer to us,” Warden confirmed closing his eyes. “Maybe we can go a step further. See how we can stack against so___” he stopped at that moment and his eyes snapped open to stare at a particularly bright patch of blue.”

“What’s the issue, Boss. Should we__” Wendy started then trailed off as a small black dot appeared against the blue curtain before growing large with alarming alacrity.

“Is that a meteor?” Surge asked as his cheerful voice taking on a dangerous turn. He raised his hand as if wanting to grab the meteor from the sky only for his face to take on an odd look. “That’s a ship.”

“A space ship?” Warden asked narrowing his eyes and trying to get more detail out of the rapidly expanding blob trying to get some more detail out of the far off image.

“No, a sea ship,” Surge replied sarcastically. “It looks unfamiliar to me. Can you make out anything Ms. Bodyguard?”

“It’s between one hundred to two hundred metres,” Wendy replied seriously shielding her eyes against the sun’s rays. “It’s… I think its oval in shape but it’s very stretched out.”

“So a narrow profile,” Surge said. “Well this is an area that I’ve never delved too greatly in. Any suggestions?”

“Where will they land?” Warden asked Wendy. “If they are landing far away then we can ignore them. Can you measure them at this distance?” he said turning towards Surge as he got off from the ground dusting himself off.

“They are probably going to land somewhere along the crater, Sir,” Wendy said apologetically. “They must be aiming towards the corpse as well. We may have competition.”

“They’re too far away for me to Measure,” Surge admitted. “However, the fact that they are too far away to show up to me means that they are probably not too overwhelming. It is impossible to Measure the benefits of technology however. I’ve heard stories of very dangerous races that rely only on their technology and are thusly immune to Measurement.”

“Like the Slayers?” Wendy asked drawing a glance from the Necromancer.

“You have weird limits on your knowledge,” Surge said. “But yeah those genius madmen wouldn’t Measure more than a one. Generally the standard practice among space-faring civilisations is to assume a Cold War style politeness.”

“There exists such a thing as Cold War politeness,” Warden lampooned under his breath thinking of his own world’s Cold War and the rapid defrosting at the end. He watched silently as the dot grew until the skyscraper-sized ship decelerated massively before touching down on the far-side of the crater disappearing behind the massive corpse’s bulk which easily swallowed the image of the building sized spacecraft.

“But they themselves may not be aware of the ‘standard practice’,” Warden replied. “Regardless to my eyes we only have two options and the option I want has two further options. We are not going to rush into taking the Corpse Tar,” he said firmly. “I’m not risking the chance that there is something in there that could have laid a deadly trap. Therefore we either have to retreat from the carcass leaving the Corpse Tar or continue forward. In continuing forward we can either try to continue as we have or we can meet with the aliens.”

“I can probably smell if they approach,” Wendy volunteered.

“But we can’t just duck and move whenever they show up,” Warden refuted shaking his head. “They will definitely see the bodies and try to find us and it’s either petty or pointless to avoid them. No if we’re going to stay then we’re going to have to invest in some of that Cold War politeness. If the worst comes to the worst and they belong to some form of hostile Super Civilisation then we call Choir and we retreat.”

“Understood Boss,” Wendy said. “However, if they’re not some Super Civilisation and they start pushing us should we fight back?”

“If they are so brainless as to attack in that circumstances then I will assess the situation then,” Warden said slightly sternly. “Surge you seem the most knowledgeable about spacefaring races. Do you want to do the questioning for me?”

“Sure,” Surge replied back instantly. “I love talking to unfamiliar races. I will gladly enable your laziness.” He said smiling before raising his hands in a conciliatory measure as Wendy snapped at him. “I’m joking. I’ve met aliens in the past. I’m perfectly willing to meet a few more.”

“Then let’s hope we can get through this meeting peacefully,” Warden said hoping desperately that his words incur some form of inescapable jinx.