Crossing the threshold from the less menacing pinewoods to the mushy earth of the Metal Mire was as jarring of a transition for his mind to comprehend as the last time.

The rest of the crew’s lack of reaction suggested to Aurelio that only he was burdened with the lapsing of time, the purpose of the stark transitions outside of his understanding.

Filtered through his breathing apparatus was the fresh scent of iron mud and stagnant water. The worst of the stench was being repelled by his suit, its internal systems whirring to insulate him from the outside world, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from gagging at each draft of wind.

His lingering guess that the topography would change for each expedition was met with a confounding confirmation.

On the one hand, there were no discernible landmarks to account for that he’d idly made note of when crossing through the aggressive muck on the first cycle.

On the other hand, the activity in the area was much too active for him to assume that the topography had just phased from one iteration to another instead of just walking off.

He had to blink to make sure the scenery unfolding was not an illusion or trick.

So worked up by the distress signal and their conversation with Doc that he’d forgotten to assess the biome scan event.

And here it was for the rest of the crew to behold.

The Dance of the Fungal Stalks.

The fungal capped colonies undulated to and fro, their roots lifting up from the ground and dragging their great heft along towards areas unknown. The land shifted beneath their feet, so much so that it looked like waves were forming from the upturned soil.

It was as if the mushrooms were playing a game of musical chairs with the way their stalks would shift around before stopping stock still to root themselves back into the earth.

And if the conditions of their new patch of land were not to their liking, well they’d quickly uproot themselves from the earth and join the colonies again in their rippling march.

“Is… this normal?” Phineas asked Aurelio, his face glued to the swaying mycelium.

“None of it is,” Aurelio replied, “But this is gonna present a bit of an issue.”

He bit his lip.

In the game, the radar scan was a randomizing element to the hunt. A player would call evens or odds before rolling a die and benefit the party if they called correctly by shifting the monster closer to their group. An incorrect call would extend the length of the hunt, introducing unwanted complications if it extended out beyond a certain point.

But they weren’t hunting for the Vessel yet. Not if they were keeping to the plan of attending to the distress signal, and that made Aurelio nervous.

Elena, to her credit, was taking the display in stride.

“Phin, what’s this movement doing to our travel plans?” She asked.

He found a patch of raised earth and activated his scanner.

“I can find a path for us to both points of interest but the route’s gonna look like a contortionist with the way it's gonna twist and curve.” Phineas replied with a darkly mirthful tone.

She chewed on that information for a moment before nodding, “Then we cut our losses here and aim for the monster. No point in compounding complications by going off to what amounts to a secondary objective.”

Aurelio huffed, “Cut our losses? We haven’t even given the route a shot yet!”

Again, to her credit, Elena was uncharacteristically coolheaded in responding to his outburst, “I don’t believe the route warrants consideration at this point. Phineas’s assessment is that we’re going to be hard pressed just finding ourselves to either mark. Better to limit risk and just aim for the monster.”

That wasn’t good enough. He looked at the points on the map and saw red.

“It’s not a risk if it’s on the way. Phin’s even marked it on the map that if we take a path through-”

“Are you disobeying the order of your superior, rookie?” Elena cut him off, her stance rigid, her voice tense.

“Guys we-”

Aurelio talked over Phineas in their private channel, “And what if I do? Are you gonna stop me from finding this signal myself if I have to?”

“Hey guys, seriously we-”

Elena tapped the hilt of her [Carbon Cleaver], “You’d be stealing from us on top of disobeying an order. Make my day, rookie. See what happens if-”

The standoff was brushed to the side as Phineas bolted through a path filled with wide brimmed fungal caps. Aurelio was swooped off his feet by Cantwell, the giant moving to follow his friend closely behind.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

At first, Aurelio was confused about why his engineering friend was cradling him in his arms.

Until he heard a faint sizzle hit the ground.

One sizzle, then two, then four, until a drizzle of searingly acrid rain began pouring on top of their heads.

The pair were trying to warn them of the dense black cloud above them and the green tinged acid rain it was washing the mushrooms with.

He knew this was an event. The Silent Storm.

And that made his nerves fray all the more when no system prompt appeared in his vision.

He did not have the ability to weave fate around their options. They were left with the unfortunate task of running blindly through the mycelium forest into parts unknown.

His head bobbed up and down as Cantwell carried him, the suit's visor doing its best to limit the feedback he was experiencing as to get a clear enough picture of their surroundings.

“Over here!” Phineas shouted over their communications channel. He pinged his location to the rest of the crew and they altered their trajectory. The drizzle was threatening to become a torrential downpour with the way the clouds rumbled and crackled with energy. “Fucking move it!”

Phineas stood underneath a thick corroded wing of a former space faring vessel. Its cabin and some hallway space were metal ribs poking out of its decaying corpse.

Aurelio could see that the rain sizzled on the wing above and that little pinpricks of water were seeping through worn holes naturally accumulated from wear and tear, but the husk would bear new occupants with open arms if they squeezed into its center.

The crew huddled together under their temporary abode as the worst of the storm started. The mushrooms still conducted their strange dance across the mire but some thinner stalks slowed in their movements until they stopped entirely, up-turned roots with no purchase to hard earth simply having the fungus turn up to the sky.

Cantwell put Aurelio down.

“Thank you.” He said embarrassingly.

Cantwell crossed his arms and turned to Phineas, gesturing with his head for his partner in crime to go.

“This shit ends here and now, we’re clear?” Phineas reprimanded Aurelio and Elena. “I don’t give a fuck what your reasons are. I don’t want to hear a peep out of this garbage. You, newbie, don’t get to threaten mutiny the first chance you get when something doesn’t swing your way. We’re either a team or you’re fucking out of it!”

Elena made to say something but was placed on the backfoot when Phineas shifted his attention to her, “And you! Kalani trusted you to get the crew through this and, like it or not, Lio here is part of the crew. The little twit’s outfitted us with gear to tackle the shit we have so far and I’m sure he’s thinking about the other monsters running around the planet and how to handle ‘em. Cut him some damn slack! He didn’t have to stick his neck out for the rest of us and he did!”

Phineas huffed and puffed some more until eventually he threw himself down to the ground, drawing in deep beleaguered breaths.

Cantwell looked at both of them.

“Fix this.” He stated, before walking towards Phineas to give the two space.

Aurelio and Elena stood in front of one another, more comfortable in a standoff that hinted at violence than what the other two wanted in diplomacy.

“Gah!” Elena grabbed her [Carbon Cleaver] tight and hacked at the earth.

“Why are you acting like this!” Aurelio yelled, trying his best to stop her from lashing out at the ground.

She jammed her blade to the ground and pointed an accusatory finger in his direction, “You’re at fault for all of this.”

Aurelio didn’t concede, merely stepping towards the finger until it was flush with his suits chest plating, “Lets hear it then. What am I at fault for? Air out all your troubles.” He couldn’t hide his mocking tone.

“We didn’t want to take the job. Some shadowcast asshole recruited a bunch of nobodies to scrounge for your pod. We wouldn’t be in this mess if you weren’t a point of interest.”

Aurelio was simply incredulous.

“Hows that any of my fault,” he shouted back, “I didn’t ask to get thrown into some pod and I didn’t ask you all to gather me out of there!”

Elena snarled, “We put ourselves at risk because of you! We’ve stuck our necks out for you here and you can’t even let us in on your secrets. Like you’re sneering at us. Like we’re unable to handle what you have up there. Fuck you and that attitude of yours.”

The way the conversation was headed looked like nowhere fast so he attempted to switch gears.

He took a deep breath and pulled back, “You’re right. I’ve been keeping secrets from you all, either because I didn’t feel like you all could handle it or because of an imposition posed by our mutual benefactor.”

“And I’m treated like the crazy one in the group for thinking that this is just meant to get blown over because you’re helping us out? Fuck. No. What’s to say that you’re only helping us out because we’re useful? What happens when we outlive that usefulness, huh? You seem pretty hellbent to have a new scavvie added to the crew and I doubt it’s because you’re such a bleeding heart.”

NPC’s…

He winced. Were his actions being read that way?

“Kalani is too soft on the rest of us because this is a family to her. It’s up to me to keep the crew safe and I’ll do it with the rest of you chucklefucks kicking and screaming.” Elena sounded dejected by the end of her tirade, the fight leaving her body until it was only the sound of sizzling metal and pitter patter to fill the void.

“I don’t know how to make this better.” Aurelio muttered.

“And there won’t be,” Elena continued the train of thought, “Because every lapse of judgment on your end is either genuine or a trick. That trust was breached once and you haven’t done a whole lot to mend things with any of us.”

Like all things in life, there was a process to handling a situation and this was no different. He needed to make amends well enough for Elena to consider it safe to trust him again.

Aurelio took his [Ember Lance] and handed it over to her.

“What are you doing?” She asked, looking at the weapon in her possession.

He scratched at his head and sat down, “I don’t know what else to do short of getting out of this suit and walking around in my undergarments to make myself a non-threat. You care about the crew and I do too. I can’t earn your trust immediately, but I wanna start with two gestures. You can hold onto that rifle while we walk around.” Aurelio motioned for Elena to sit down in front of him and she… slowly obliged.

“The second thing I want to do is make myself known. I don’t know how much I can divulge that the wider forces won’t force me into a vice grip over, but I think it’d do us good if you knew my background as best as I can provide it.”

With the storm at their backs, all that was left for Aurelio to do was look at his crewmates and begin recounting bits and pieces of his life as a teacher.