Veda had brought me another upgrade for my map skill. This one would reveal the location of enemies so long as they were not using some sort of camouflage ability. My mini-map was big enough to reveal the entire island if I chose to zoom out that far.

I activated my Sense Enemies skill and watched three clusters of red dots pop up on the map. "Okay, we've got spawn." I pinged everyone the locations. "I suggest we hit the nearest group together, then split up and take on the other two."

"Sounds good," Grandpa agreed as we moved out. The closest group had spawned on the beach about a hundred yards from where we had left our boats. I briefly worried that they would destroy the boats, which would leave us unable to return to our ship unless we were dead. But as we stepped out of the jungle and into the brilliant sunlight, it was clear the enemy weren't that smart.

"More zombies?" Sage asked in disgust.

"These are clearly pirate skeletons," I said. Backing me up, the System announcer proclaims [Avast, Mateys! You’ve been boarded and keelhauled by Admiral Scaggers and his Skeleton Crew! Defeat them within one hour, or they’ll claim your island for their own!]

There were a dozen of them, wearing tattered sailor outfits and wielding rusty cutlasses. Or, in the case of the skeleton with the enormous black captain's hat and eyepatch, a brace of pistols. None of them had more than 60 health, except for the one labeled "Cap’n Black" who had 150 health. He also was providing a buff to the other skeletons, called "Shiver Me Timbers," which made them immune to any crowd control effects we had.

I marked the captain with a skull. "Take him down, then we'll worry about the rest." It didn't seem like we needed much more organization for a group this basic.

We rushed at the skeleton crew. Grandpa, Shadow Stepped in behind the captain, hit him with Coup, then stepped behind another skeleton. If he got in the first hit on one of the smaller skeletons, it took almost half the creature's health in one hit.

I fired a Barrage into the captain, sending all six shots from my cylinder straight into his skull. I reloaded with normal .44 Magnum rounds. I had almost a hundred special rounds in six different types, but I was saving them for something that seemed like more of a threat.

Team Mongoose swarmed into action. One of the Smiths dropped a wall of sandbags a little ways down the beach. They formed a waist-high semicircle. Brown called up a machine gun from nowhere. Either it had been in his inventory, or the machine gun itself was a skill. He set it up and threw himself prone on the beach behind the sandbag wall, firing away into the mass of skeletons.

"Watch friendly fire!" I shouted. Even if we would respawn. I didn't want anyone getting killed this early.

"It's fine. His rounds only hit enemies," the other Smith called to me as he threw a smoke grenade into the mass of skeletons.

Grandpa hit the pirate captain with coup de gras and yelled triumphantly as the skeleton collapsed at his feet. "I knew it! He's not a real boss! My ability worked just fine on him."

That was good to know. Several of our abilities specifically said they did not affect bosses. I had found that any sort of elite creature that was one of a kind, whether or not it was labeled as a boss, seemed to count, which was really annoying sometimes.

On the other hand, a mob that was merely in charge of a lot of other lesser minions usually could be hit, and the pirate captain was no exception. We downed the rest of the skeletons in a matter of seconds.

"Cease fire!" I shouted, and we converged on the piles of splintered bone and scraps of cloth that had been the skeleton crew. Sage bent down, picked up the captain’s black hat, and admired the skull-and-crossbones. It vanished into her inventory.

Over our triumphant discussion, the system announcer blared, [Wave one, thirty-three percent cleared. Time remaining: forty-five minutes.]

I checked how much time we had left on our node claim timer. Sure enough, it was down to 23:45.

So we had an hour to clear the first wave. I didn't know if that meant we'd have an hour for the second wave and so forth. I wasn't going to be making any guesses just yet.

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"No loot," one of the newcomers, a man named Aaron Jackson, who had asked us to call him Ice Spice for reasons that I didn't ask, said.

"We're not expecting any. Leave them and let's split up."

I sent him a private message. I can take the newbies and Bill & Bob. Mongoose will listen to you.

That’s why you’re taking them, Grandpa said. Team Mongoose respects me, or they think they do. They don't respect you and Sage yet. I need to know if you can win their trust, or at least keep them in line. Meanwhile, I'd like to get an idea of what Aaron and Lara can do.

Acknowledged. So Grandpa took the brothers, Ice Spice and Lara, and headed for the farthest group of spawn. The plan was that Team Mongoose, Sage, and I would handle the closer group, then join Grandpa's band.

We split up, Grandpa and his team heading deeper into the jungle, while I led Team Mongoose farther up the beach. "Is there a cool down on that machine gun nest?" I asked as we went.

"20 minutes, but I can only conjure it six times a day," Brown told me.

"Alright, let's get a look at the next threat before we use it then. This is going to be a long day. By day, you do mean a 24 hour period, yes?"

"The timer also resets if we sleep for at least four hours," the shorter Smith told me.

"Good to know. I doubt we'll be sleeping in the next 24 hours, but still good to know."

I kept an eye on my map in case any other red dots showed up. While I didn't expect any more spawn until the end of this wave, there was always a possibility that other miners or the Galactics might appear. I wanted us to be ready if that happened.

There was a rocky promontory between us and the next spawn location. "Anyone have any kind of spying abilities?"

Jones stepped forward. "I’ve got a drone, but it costs five soul coins for each use."

"Well, then use it," I said. "We are not going to be hurting for soul coins, not if we do this right."

"Sure thing," he agreed.

"How about a roger on that?" I snapped.

They shot me a quick glance. I couldn't make out his thoughts. "Roger," he said.

I wasn't sure how much of their attitude was disrespect and how much was just a more casual approach to missions. Special forces types had a certain reputation. We weren’t using our military ranks, but grandpa had put me in charge. It was hard to get used to ordering anyone around. I’d been a corporal, back on Earth, and my promotion to lieutenant still didn’t feel real.

Jones popped out a drone. It looked to me more like a mechanical falcon. After it spawned, it perched on his wrist while he gave it directions. Then it rose into the air and hovered like a drone would before hopping over the rocks and making a swoop along the cove beyond.

"Huh." Jones scowled, his eyebrows knitting together. "It looks like a bunch of pigs walking around on hind legs wearing loincloths with feather headdresses and war paint. They've got javelins and what look like bows and arrows." He turned back to me, looking upset. "What the hell is this stuff? Is this was the aliens think of us humans?"

I was too used to the nonsense by now to be offended. "This is all dreamed up by some sort of alien artificial intelligence that's older than our solar system, if I understand it right, and then translated through other alien artificial intelligences programmed by people who don't consider any human worth giving the time of day," I said. "Of course it's racist. Don't read too much into it. We're going to get down there. We're going to slaughter them. We aren’t going to try to understand their culture. Anything interesting, strategically speaking?"

"They've got a cook pot boiling over a fire and a couple of those statues that are carved to look like a bunch of animal heads on top of each other. You know what I'm talking about?"

I nodded. "Sure. Gotta assume that any of those might be the focal point of an ability of some sort." I checked our clock. 37 minutes to go and I wanted to be able to help grandpa. "Right, here's what we're going to do."

* * *

I sprinted up to the row of boulders, vaulted past them onto the beach, then ran full out for the cannibal pig camp, assuming my team was right on my heels. My drover's coat flapped in the breeze behind me. The sun was warm, but the drover's coat felt as comfortable in this heat as it did in -20.

The system announced: [Admiral Scaggers’ loyal allies, the Cannibal Pigs of Greenfeather Mountain! Defeat them to deal the admiral’s invasion a swift blow!]

My revolver in my hand, I shouted as I approached the camp. As soon as I was in range, I cast Call ‘Em Out and then turned tail and sprinted back toward the rocks.

Team Mongoose and Sage stayed behind me, ready to act. All four of Team Mongoose had M4s out and would fire as soon as I was out of the way.

Sage cast Mucking Out the Stalls on the beach just past me, catching the first six or so pigs. I went into a slide as I approached the team and Team Mongoose fired over my head. I slid past them one leg out like a runner trying to steal third, then rolled over and started firing.

The pigs were stuck in the mud and despite stereotypes, they did not look happy about it. A couple of them threw their javelins toward us. One sailed right past me and pinned the corner of my coat to the sand. I reloaded and shot that pig a couple times in the head for his insolence.

Team Mongoose was busy turning the pigs into Swiss cheese. We dropped them all, dark blood staining the white grains of sand.

I got up, pulled the javelin out of my coat, and examined the hole. "I’m going to have to pay Rosa to fix that as soon as we're done with this first phase," I lamented. The hole was big enough for me to get three of my fingers through.

"Right." I checked the progress. It now said [Wave One, 66% cleared.] "Let's head for the other team and help them out."