They walked down the smooth hallways to their destination. Him and the others in sync, moving at a brisk pace. His race while not quite a hive mind, was close enough that it made the others nervous. They were all individuals but they were all more due to the mind link. The Sividl as his race had come to be known was considered one of the weaker races. Taking into account just the physical, and magical characteristics of just one individual it would not be wrong. Even as a whole they were not much for battlefields. There were of course the single odd outliers, or so it would seem. Even then those outliers were a part of the whole. No, they were a case where the sum was greater than its parts. The Sividl were as a species linked in a way that if one of them made a discovery the whole of the species knew of the discovery. It had led to explosive growth, the shared information expounded on at the speed of thought in some cases. This was a tightly held secret that the whole species went through exorbitant lengths to keep hidden. So, when one of them had found out about the plot against them as a species by a cabal of other races. They had to work to not show their hand.

That had led them here working underground in secret with a handful of others. The hallway they now walked to led to another secret. The tanks of the Hydridia helping run this experiment. The Hydridia were the second intelligent species on their planet. They were few and lived in the deep recesses of the vast oceans of their planet. They had not wished to be noticed or recognized by the others when they came so they had stayed hidden deep in the oceans. The Hydridia were all of the things that the Sividl were not, physically, and magically powerful. This came mostly from their evolution in the depths. They were also very individualistic and normally hard to sway. This time though it was easy to garner their cooperation when they had been shown the truth of what had been found. And so, the pact had been made. The Sividl would provide the technical and logistical side the Hydridia would provide the magical and physical power.

There had been one last group that had been needed the Garnat. The Garnat had also been betrayed recently their species blocked from the interspatial paths by the coalition. The few of them that had been off of their homeworld were either hunted or hidden. Their only sin was being able to see what the others were up too.

They had reached pools. The Hydridia floating powering their little experiment.

“Was it successful?” Daf said being the one chosen to interact with the group.

“Yes, but there were, some anomalies” Rel the head Garnat said coolly. “The transition was successful we have a ninety-two percent chance that the portal was not noticed. The subject also survived the transition in one piece with only some minor injuries.”

“That all is within parameters, what of the anomalies,” Daf asked?

“Those are more difficult to parse. The subject seems to have picked up the traits of the human population of the planet he was transferred to.” Rel said slowly.

“A small anomaly, but not wholly unexpected,” Daf said with a shrug.

“Yes, but that is not all the humans, equipment transitioned at a higher-than-expected rate” Rel stated nervously.

“We did expend additional energy to ensure that the human had some of his equipment, I fail to see the significance,” Daf said quickly.

“Yes, the expectation was that they would transit with seventeen to twenty-two percent of the equipment they had on their person. The anomaly is that human transited with seventy-six percent of his possessions” Rel said rapidly.

This did get a reaction from Daf as he turned to take in Rel. The Garnat were truly nothing to look at small and grey and octopedal each of their eight legs void of any markings. The Garnat were unique for their single sightless eye. They had long evolved from needing organs to see, as they had developed a form of extrasensory perception. It had been discovered long ago their senses could be enhanced with the right types of devices. On the table was just such a device a focuser. Rel walked up to the device.

“That is not the main issue. It would be easier to show you” as Rel touched the focuser a projection was created.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

It showed the human who was the subject of this experiment. He was surprisingly plain in appearance. We watched him from the point he woke up startled. He sat in place for a while his eyes glassed over. It was obvious he was checking his menus, he seemed to get the interactions right away.

This was good, as it had been a concern whether he would adapt to the new reality. Watching him sit there maneuvering through his menus, was promising. The human after some time had stood and moved over to his equipment. This was where the issue arose, the human picked up a sword.

The sword was not just a common weapon even from this point worlds away he could feel its power. The weapon was mythic level awash in power.

“How did that happen,” Daf asked his voice a nervous whisper.

“It did not show on the scans when he entered the portal. Even if it had, it would have been too late” Rel said defensively.

“If I may” one of the many aids to the project asked meekly.

“Yes, go ahead,” Daf said coolly.

“This is the subject from before the portal. The scans show him with this” The said as she put him up on the screen. The screen showed the same human holding a garish toy replica sword.

Daf did not see how this could happen that garish replica could not be the same weapon he was seeing the human holding. But there had been cause for concern the toy had Eldar Runes molded into it. That fact alone had been concerning.

“The reason the sword did not show up was because it was hidden under this” The aid showed the toy falling apart as the human pulled what was left out of the remains. The sheath also had a rune on it as well. “There are some positives to this as well.”

Daf looked at the aid “Positives what positives?”

“Well, for one if you look at the transit trail there is less energy emanating from it. The sword must have absorbed a huge amount of radiant energy. We are currently using fewer resources to cover our tracks.” The aid said cheerfully.

Daf looked at the scans it currently showed that the transport trail was dissipating at an increased rate. The uniformed just thought that you opened a portal in one place, and showed up in another. That was not the case at all. When a portal was formed it created a tear in space-time, that tear was what the transit was made through. The whole thing required energy, lots of energy. There was the energy required to open the portal in both locations. In this case that was increased due to the origin location not being on the Cosmotic grid. Then the power to keep the connection stable. In this case, there had been more power allocated to allow for some equipment to make the transition. Normally the connection would have been blazingly bright this soon after the transport. This one looked as if it had been there for years, and was starting to dissipate rapidly.

“By my calculation, the trail will be gone in less than thirty days,” the aid said looking at the display.

Daf looked at the display “Twenty-four point two days.” He looked at the screen again it was unheard of for a trail to dissipate that fast. This trail should have been hot for years. Daf looked at the screen the aid had wisely allocated the lion's portion to cover the trail. Daf calculated that in fifteen days it would be no longer required to cover the trail because the origination point would no longer be traceable.

Daf relaxed at this, he now considered this venture a success no matter what else happened. They had picked this world for several reasons. The overseers had listed this planet's humans as a potential threat, so the council had taken action. They had not realized what would happen when they had done so. Their action had caused a cataclysm that had set the entire population of this planet back thousands of years. They had only intended to harm the human population, but the humans had found a way to deflect the worst portions of the curse aimed at them back at the rest of the population. This had cost the humans their only nation and had scattered them across the planet. But the humans who remained had come out of the situation physically stronger. They did however lose a lot of their knowledge, which had been the aim all along. Since the cataclysm had set the whole planet back a thousand years the council had removed the planet off the watch list for the next one thousand years. The one way it would have come upon an overseer’s radar would be an anomaly. With the trail dissipating the way it was that would not happen. Even now if one were to look it would seem that whatever had happened would have been years ago. This meant that they would use less than one-fourth of the resources they had set aside for this test. Just that alone would qualify this test as a success.

“Also, if you look here, he is some distance from any large settlements. I calculate that it will be at least twenty-six days before he is even in sight of a town. He would probably have to kill everyone in the town to set off any flags. By that time, it will be impossible to trace the transit anyway.” Rel said calmly.

“I think this test has been successful so far. Keep track of everything he does, and also keep a list of all of the things that made the transit. We need to know what made this happen exactly.” Daf turned and walked back down the hall in deep contemplation. He needed to report this to his supervisors. These humans were indeed as dangerous as they were made out to be. The fact that a random human even had a weapon capable of becoming mythic grade showed just how dangerous.