SHAD POV

The gamer squad were fairly ungrateful, considering I had gotten them out of purgatory.

"I want a rematch against those turncoats," Rose grumbled. "They ganged up on us, four to one. It wasn't fair."

"Colin would have found some way to turn it around," Sam said.

Rose whirled on him. "I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Ideas Guy. I didn't hear you throwing out any suggestions in the middle of battle."

"I told you I'm not good at thinking on my feet. You're the one who didn't listen when Alpha said we needed to retreat and..."

"Enough," Alpha snapped.

I liked the slightly older woman's no-nonsense attitude. She wore a mask on half of her face, even though I knew when she had gotten regenerated by Kronos, any damage she had there would have been healed. It seemed it was a fashion statement, or maybe a class item.

I'd had Allison go over all of their most recent class changes for me, and we had developed a plan for this. "That's enough," I rapped. "For this mission, I'll be taking the lead."

They all eyed me suspiciously.

"Just for this mission?" Pete asked.

"I'm not trying to take Colin's place," I told them. "My job isn't running missions anymore. It's managing teams like yours. But this request is important. I want to get the rest of our people back as soon as possible. And Veda's an old acquaintance anyway."

"So you feel sorry for the bitch who had us on ice for a couple of weeks?" Amber asked.

I held up my hands. "Look, I know this is rough, but we've got a mission, and we're going to focus on it."

I projected a display. We were using one of Ad Astra's smaller briefing rooms since we didn't need the full assembly bay for such a small team.

"The zone is being torn between the portion controlled by a Dominated fragment and a portion controlled by a still wild fragment. That's why we had targeted it as a possible pickup zone. We were hoping to make contact with the wild fragment and get it to enter an alliance with us, letting Coyote serve as a stabilizing influence. That's gone out the window now, unfortunately."

I considered the deal we had made with Proxima with some revulsion. Even if the wild fragments weren't particularly our friends, and one of them had been responsible for killing Sage, I didn't like forcing them into subjugation to the Dominator. Plus, that would give Proxima full control over this zone. We had already ordered our people to retreat and prepare to make use of the zones Proxima was giving us access to, and I knew Grandpa was searching for other likely steals we could try to pull off. Right now, my personal feelings didn't matter. I needed to get in there and get the job done. Our people were counting on us.

"Our first objective is to free Proxima's captives. Once they do that, even if we haven't captured the zone for them, they'll allow the rest of our people to come home. I would, however, like to get this over with as soon as possible. To that end, we will be taking several Dominator relays along with us in our inventories." I indicated a metal suitcase sitting on the table.

Amber hopped up and flipped it open. Four alien devices waited there, delicate creations of frost topped with a purple crystal.

"How do they work?" she asked, picking one up and scrutinizing it. I could only assume she was trying to use an identify skill.

I shrugged. "That's a very good question. I convinced Veda to give us four, even though we should only need three to accomplish this mission. I would very much like to tell her that the spare hat was destroyed and hand it over to Dwight's people to see what they can learn."

Amber cracked a grin. She was British, like Colin had been, but with a slightly more refined accent. I felt she was the only one of the team who didn't somehow hold me responsible for his death.

"So what's the plan, boss?" she asked.

"The fragment's largest manifested piece is here at this location," I pointed. "I'm sure all of you are aware that these zones are largely representations of ideas and don't necessarily correspond to real physical locations."

The whole squad nodded. Of course gamers would understand that concept.

"The wild fragments still have roots, if you will. Think of it like this," I said, sharing an analogy that had been explained to me by Coyote. "We've got three layers on this planet. The first is the surface. That's where we've landed the Dominators to begin affecting. The second layer, the emulation layer, is beneath that, where the dominated fragments are tussling it out with wild fragments that are still resisting. The Dominators are trying to push the emulation layer deeper and deeper. The wild fragments who have their roots deep are more able to resist. Like," I struggled to find an analogy.

“Like how it's a lot harder to yank out a redwood than a daisy," Sam offered.

"Precisely. This particular fragment we're going up against has deep roots but isn't super strong. Proxima would ideally like to use its Dominator to take over this fragment, which requires severing its roots. There's also the possibility that we could force it to retreat into the deep layer, leaving Proxima as the uncontested owners of the zone, but without the benefits they get from dominating another fragment.” I would be keeping an eye on any opportunity to do just exactly that. But my first priority had to be to fulfill our contract.

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“We will approach the fragment's most easily accessible node here," I said, tapping the map. "It's a grove of these enormous elf trees surrounding a central world tree, which is the fragment's bodily representation here. It'll be protected. We'll need to get through its defenses. I'm hoping for a stealth approach, where we get in and then take what we want and cut our way out."

The gamer squad nodded.

"Any questions?"

"Plenty," Pete said, a joking note in his voice, "but mostly I think we'll get there. One step at a time."

"Be ready at 0700 hours tomorrow."

"We're ready now," Rose told me.

"And I appreciate that, but I've got other duties to attend to, so I'll see you at 0700." I softened my tone as I spoke, not mentioning that the other duties were bathtime for my daughter. I wasn’t handling this work-life balance thing very well, and I’d barely seen Mila in the last couple days. She deserved to have her daddy read her a bedtime story.

We slunk our way through the elven landscape, Alpha in the lead as our scout. She had the best stealthing abilities of any of us and could disable opponents in one shot, giving us the best chance to sneak our way in.

The landscape was beautiful. This zone was in a perpetual twilight, the sky tinted pink and purple. A pair of moons hung overhead, one full, one a crescent. I wasn't even sure if that was a configuration which would be possible in reality. Up ahead, the world tree loomed. It was a dark blot against the sky, its sweeping branches vast. It had to be at least 30 stories tall, and it seemed to be sucking in tendrils of moonlight. Little silver swirls reached down from the sky to touch it, only to vanish as the tree pulled it in.

I never got tired of the fantastic variations in the zones, especially here in a rogue engine that was less influenced by our own myths and lore.

"There are archers in the outer ring of trees," Alpha reported back. "I'm having to actively hide. Their stealth penetration is very good, and I've nearly been spotted twice."

“Hold up there,” I said. "Sam, got any suggestions for me?" I had a couple of strategies I was willing to provide if necessary. Allison had helped me work them out, but just accomplishing this mission wasn't my only priority. I wanted to build Gamer Squad back up into a functioning team. That meant they had to be able to come up with solutions on their own and take each other's word it would work.

Sam rubbed his chin. "How about a 'look once, blink twice'," he suggested.

Pete snorted.

"No, we can adapt it," Sam insisted. "It'll take you, me, and Rose, but we can manage. That leaves Amber and Williams to help Alpha out."

"Give me a little more than that to go on," I said.

Sam explained his strategy. It wasn't any of the ones I had come up with, but I thought it could work. I nodded. "All right. I don't usually get assigned to the subtle team, though. Let's give this a try." I checked in with Coyote. "How's your grasp on our soul coins?"

"I currently still have ownership, but that is becoming more tenuous the closer you get to the World Tree. I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to keep you safe if you get in there."

"So we need to not die."

"That would be the best. Though I know it's historically not been your strong point," Coyote said with a snort.

"I'm not used to you giving me that kind of grief."

"I apologize if it is out of place."

"No, no. Sage would want you to keep me from a swollen head."

Coyote hesitated, then said, "I miss them, too."

That startled me. I was used to thinking of the Shards of Kronos as something between demigods and computer programs. "I didn't know you cared."

"I was always more of a Creative, but I am coming to appreciate the Inheritor Faction's perspective. That one can only truly experience life through the eyes of your replacements. And I have been experiencing a great deal of life. I will endeavor to keep a hold on your soul coin, Shad Williams, but have a care for your own safety."

"I will," I said, touched by Coyote's sentiment.

I turned to my team. "In position?"

"Yes."

Sam and Rose had gone off a little ways and signaled that they were ready for Pete to join them. Pete handed over his two Dominator cores to Amber, who hefted them and vanished them into her inventory. I had the other pair with me. Pete gave me a wave and vanished into the wilderness. A minute later, a rocket went up from the hiding team's position.

"That's our signal," I told Amber unnecessarily. She was already on the move. Meanwhile, Alpha had gotten into position, climbing up one of the trees and behind the nearest Elven archer. As Pete and Sam began firing magical blasts away and attracting attention, Alpha disposed of the archer. I saw a couple of Elves leap from their trees and go chasing after Sam and Pete, just as Rose stepped out of the underbrush. She was wearing pink armor, and it glowed in the moonlight as she hefted her enormous warhammer.

"Come and get me!" she shouted, and then took off running as the Elves chased.

I followed Amber in. Of course, the Elves weren't stupid enough to be entirely lured away, and I had no doubt the rest were on alert. But it was the distraction we needed. In the confusion, Alpha took out two more, leaving a nice hole in their surveillance net for Amber and me to sneak in.

As we reached the outer ring of trees, Alpha leapt down from a branch, crouching in front of us. I had seen her dot on the minimap, so I wasn't surprised, but she had been completely invisible.

"Stay ten steps behind me," she ordered and raced forward, fanning out her hands and throwing a bunch of knives. They sent silver rays chasing through the air, and a few of them exploded on hit, blowing up spells that would have taken our heads off. Some lodged into the outer boughs of trees, shivering and shaking.

Overhead, the great tree began to sway back and forth as though in an enormous breeze. I realized the whole thing was one connected grove. Shit. I hope that didn't wreck our plans.

We raced toward the world tree’s trunk. Its lowest branches were thirty feet off the ground, and from them dangled strange ornaments. They were balls with dark and light fibers dangling from them. It took me a second to realize they were heads, mostly human.

"Those are our targets," I shouted, pointing. "We need to retrieve them."

"I'm on it," Amber said. "Give me a boost."

Alpha cupped her hands. Amber leapt to them and then high in the air as she triggered a spell. She executed a triple backflip and landed on the lowest branches of the world tree and raced along. She had a scimitar out that shimmered with light as she severed each of the heads.

I ran forward to grab them, trying not to think about what I was touching. These weren't really their heads. It was the manifestation of their soul coins in this environment. I knew that, but it was still gross to pick up heads. Most of them had hair, so I grabbed them that way and tossed them into my inventory. They were largely human. There were a couple of orcs, who, being as a race bald, I had to grab by an ear. Two were Telonians, whose scaly heads didn't even have ears.

Amber raced along the branch to the trunk and then paused. "I'm not 100% sure I can make that jump," she shouted, eyeing the next branch over. "Got anything to help me?"

"Not me," I said, but Alpha was already there. She had a wand out and was waving it skyward. A jet of silver light flew upward and hit Amber, who leapt gracefully across 60 feet of open space to catch herself on the next shimmering silver branch.

I raced forward to pick up the next head she severed. Its features stared up at me from the ground, and I pulled up short. I knew this face. I hated this face.

It was the late, unlamented Major Waters.