The starting shops were salvage intensive. There was no other way for Aurelio to describe it when he crunched the numbers on what an ideal investment would be. Between a [Scrap Blaster], a [Crackling Staff], and a [Carbon Cleaver], he’d be short one salvage to craft an additional weapon.
What a prickly predicament to be in.
They’d have to depend on the benevolent bounties of the planet to scrounge up a secondary weapon and make the fight with the Vessel a more bearable experience.
He debated whether to selfishly reap the starting spoils and decided against it, instead investing their resources towards the [Carbon Cleaver]. He was particular in using up the basic resources before dipping into the monster specific parts. The fabricator drained the resources from their stores and the yard dust beyond the fencing began to animate with life once more.
The process didn’t take more than moments to generate the massive blade. Cleaver was a misnomer as its shape wasn’t the rectangular edged steel he’d expect in a fancier kitchen, but a thick claymore with two jutting spikes to act as the guard of the weapon. The [Carbon Cleaver] shimmered under the light like an oil slick. The pommel of the blade was a faintly pulsating ball of tar, its tendrils wrapped around the grip to provide the hands additional purchase.
“What in the world is that?” Phineas asked. He ran into the yard to lift the weapon from its pedestal and found himself struggling to elevate it even by an inch. “And why the fuck is it so heavy?”
Cantwell lumbered behind his friend and tightened his grip around the hilt of the weapon, muscles bulging as he grunted and lifted the weapon over his head. He moved to a cleared corner and slammed the weapon into the ground, the air whizzing with a resonant tone before the cacophonous thunk and billowing dust of the blade meeting the earth.
“That’s strong.” Cantwell noted.
Aurelio was glad he agreed.
“Why’d you go for that weapon over the others?” Kalani asked.
“It’s a strong weapon to have for what we’re planning to face off against. That cleaver is going to rip through the monster like butter and hopefully limit the amount of risk we take in trying to confront this situation with lackluster provisions.” Aurelio replied.
Of the weapons they could craft on hand, the [Scrap Blaster] and the [Carbon Cleaver] were of a higher priority not just because of their ignition effects but because the weapon proficiencies that they trained were beneficial to acquire early.
“And you’re gonna have Cantwell lug that around while we’re fighting that thing?”
He shook his head, “No, no. I plan to pass this weapon along to Elena.”
Elena recoiled, “What makes you think I’m gonna take a handout from you?”
Aurelio shrugged, “Distrust of me aside, your temperament best suits being at the forefront of a battle and committing to an all-in aggressive behavior.”
That and her role was suited for taking advantage of its ignition effect.
“You don’t know me at all. What’d suggest I’m the aggressive type?”
He blinked, suppressing a laugh at her expense.
“Well you’ve come off as abrasive even now and Kalani, here, mentioned you were a soldier type. Figured that someone as competent in combat as you would want to take advantage of the opportunity and protect the rest of us.”
“And what are the rest of the crew going to use?”
“We’re gonna use those [Metal Spikes] like I explained earlier. They’re just shards of metal but it’s better than attempting to fight these things with your bare hands.”
Elena frowned. It seemed like he was making progress in getting her to consider things from his perspective but there was still hesitation in her attitude.
Aurelio sighed, “Just… just swing it in the yard okay? Give it some consideration, if not for me, then for your crew. If it’s unwieldy for you to swing like Cantwell over there, keep in mind that you’re meant to use that thing with the aid of an Exo Suit.”
Phineas laughed, “Ah ha! I’m not scrawny, you oversized oaf! Clearly I’m just incapable of lifting this thing up because I don’t have the suit to aid in the process.” He turned back at the outburst and saw Phineas had been gloating about this discovery in the middle of his struggles to budge the weapon out from the ground.
“And what are you planning to do?” Elena asked with overt suspicion.
“I’m going to take Kalani and Phineas back to the radar station so we can finish up our preparations for the first excursion.” He replied.
Elena gave Kalani a look before she wordlessly crossed the fences threshold.
The three crew members left Cantwell and Elena behind to deal with the last of the setup.
---
“You’re expecting me to commit all of this to memory?” Phineas complained.
The group were standing in front of the console that managed the many monitors within the radar station. To his sight, Aurelio could understand the functions of the various toggles and switches, but the thin slab of rock protruding from the right corner of the machine was the activation switch for their scan.
“It’s not a lot to commit to memory, Phin. You’ve got the main scroll thing here that selects from one of four biomes. You’ve got the sequencer here that highlights unknown monsters that’ll become known once we’ve encountered them, their signal easily picked up by the massive dish overhead.” Aurelio explained.
“Lio, there-”
“Give me a sec, Kalani. I’m trying not to lose my train of thought.” He paused and silently went through the steps in his head from the game, “And then once the sequencer has selected the monster, you use this group of buttons to narrow your focus to the signal strength of the thing we’re hunting. Stronger the signal, stronger the monster. Once all that’s said and done, the monitors will spit out reads of the environment, indicating how difficult the hunt’s gonna be.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He turned back to Kalani, “Now what is it you wanted to tell me?”
She gestured down at the console slider with its accompanying panel, “There aren’t four biomes. There’s six.”
Aurelio looked at Kalani dumbfounded before staring back at the panel. The first four biomes were clear to Aurelio. He was familiar with the Mire, the Plains, the Catacombs, and the Valley. The remaining two locations were indecipherable, written in an alien runic script that he did not recognize.
“Ah my mistake. I didn’t scroll down to see the rest.” Aurelio lied. He was the closest thing they had to an encyclopedic voice of authority and he did himself no favors shirking that facade now.
“Uh huh.” Kalani scrutinized his answer but thankfully didn’t push further.
“So what, I’m supposed to mess around with this console and remember all of this garbage?” Phineas bemoaned. If ever there was a time he wished his brother was around to knock some sense into his favorite dipshit.
“Yeah. You’d have needed to do this without me. At least with me you have a greater understanding of what to do and what’s at stake.”
Their bickering continued but Phineas eventually relented and committed to the scanning process. He selected the Mire biome and the only creature they were familiar with in the Vessel. Aurelio took note that the Vessel pinged as available in all of the other biomes except the mysterious duo.
That didn’t bode well in his mind.
“So now that everything’s been chosen, what am I gonna do with this hunk of rock at the end? Am I fucking around with the core like you and the Commander did?”
Aurelio nodded, “Something like that, yeah. Bring your finger to your core and try drawing out the fire into the indent on the stone. That’ll finish fueling the machine and fire the radar up.”
He held his breath as Phineas made contact with the panel. His flame was a muted white color that coiled around his fingers like a snake would before slithering into the indent.
The station roared to life, the buzzing static of the monitors growing brighter and more lively.
And then came the feedback.
Aurelio dreaded drawing radar scan cards in the game because a bad event read could set them far back. The alternative of simply winging it without a radar scan was always an option but was practically a death sentence when considering the numerous additional events a party had to contend with just to find the damn monster.
One by one, each monitor blinked out of life until only two monitors remained active and vibrant.
The first monitor phased out the static to show that the outpost had successfully connected with a surveyor beacon in the area. For Aurelio, a prompt had appeared just above the activation panel; a blue spinning die and a fuse like line that was becoming shorter with each passing second.
He sighed with relief.
“There are beacons on this planet?” Kalani asked Aurelio, befuddled by the first scan result.
“And why’re you staring at the panel like an idiot? Something of interest over there? Cause I did what you asked. I didn’t fuck up the job.” Phineas raved.
Aurelio ignored them, reading the prompt below the die and fuse.
|?Let Fate Decide?|
He knew the results for this event. Topographical Pulse was a beneficial card to draw because it moved the monster closer to the scavengers on the hunting tracker. What he was letting fate decide, he wasn’t sure. And when unsure of a situation, step back and allow things to take their course while noting the results.
Aurelio turned back to the monitor just as the fuse disappeared and the prompt faded from his vision.
The connection came online with the surveying beacon, providing a wide topographical map of its surroundings. It pinged out the creature, its movements, and its relative distance to the outpost.
“Can you read any of that, Phin?”
Phineas rolled his eyes, “I wouldn’t be worth my salt as a scout if I couldn’t read a fucking map, wise guy. Yeah, I can make out a path to that thing. Not familiar with the terrain but it doesn’t look more complicated than a bee line dash to the fucker.”
Kalani tapped his shoulder, “The scans aren’t done though.”
Aurelios stomach sank. If general scanning cards were considered the better of the two decks, biome cards were absolutely miserable. Of the ones he remembered, he kept his fingers crossed that they wouldn’t get something miserable like Acid Rain or Something Stirs.
The static faded into the background as an activity map lit up the region. Red triangular symbols flashed repeatedly, a universal sign for danger.
“That doesn’t look good, Aurelio. It looks like a heat map but its not registering other fauna in the area.” Kalani posited.
“It's an activity map of the swamps. The sludge is more active right now.” Aurelio explained.
Frenzied Bog was one of the shit events he didn’t want but their general scan would mitigate the bullshit if they could engage with the monster quickly enough.
“Are you gonna explain what ‘more active sludge’ means or is this gonna be more cryptic stone whispering bullshit?” Phineas spat.
“Sorry, um,” Aurelio collected himself, “The Metal Mire as it’s been referred to by the former outpost denizens is filled with a hostile sludge. It has a similar function to the dust clouds in the scrapyard. They break down metal and incorporate those resources into its mass. Dunno if it was an evolutionary advancement or what but that’s the reason why it being more active is an annoyance for the lot of us. It’s gonna be more aggressive in chewing at our suits when we’re out there.”
The sensation described within the game was something akin to having millions of ants crawl up a leg or onto an arm and viciously tear at the metal plating of a suit until only the skeletal framing remained. And the thought of being unlucky enough to get a limb targeted without armor made Aurelio's hairs stand on end.
“We’ve squared away everything now, yeah?” Phineas asked.
He nodded, “Yeah. Now we defer to the commander here and see how lots are gonna be drawn for going out there.”
Kalani raised an eyebrow, “Lots? Wouldn’t it be safer for the whole group to just go out and deal with this mess?”
He’d considered the prospect but there were other variables he wanted to look at in as close to a control state as possible before messing around out of the game’s bounds.
“We don’t have enough Exo-Suits to have a party of five out there.” He added, “Moreover, I’d feel safe knowing we had someone back at the outpost holding the fort, so to speak.”
“Mhm,” Kalani bit her lip, “So I’ve gotta select which one of our crew is gonna get replaced by you.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that but-”
“Don’t even try to worm your way out of this duty, Aurelio. You’ve been selected as the stones golden child and that means something. That knowledge is too good to pass up. As much as I’d like to have you sit things out, you’re the closest thing to a guide we’ve got. Which means I’ve got to choose between the remaining three to craft a party around.”
Aurelio said nothing.
His stomach was doing somersaults in his body as the expectation of exploration and combat dawned on him as an inevitable reality. He was deathly nervous of being inadequate on his recollection of events or being tossed a curve ball he had no answer to, but that’s the sort of situation that pioneers get into.
The first to make a giant leap for mankind.
He wouldn’t disappoint. Not himself. Not his brother. Not his crew.