“Putting aside Osar’s greed and thieving nature for a moment,” Eric said with a wide smile and an exaggerated wink for the big Urgan, earning a round of laughs from the rest of the Terrans. “We need a way to hold the Boss chitterer in place so Cid can get a shot at it.”

“We could use more of those Ice grenades,” Cid mused, looking through the stock wands. “I’ll try to go through these again and see if I can find anything.”

“I still have that tendril spell wand Cid gave me for the shardling.” Serra volunteered, pulling out the wooden wand and pointing it at the room’s doorway like a pistol. “We could test it out on the Behemoth.”

“That’s a great idea!” Cid exclaimed, his face shining with excitement, as he looked over at the device Serra held with undisguised interest. "Remember that wands are activated by first attuning to it and then designating a verbal activation word… which means the word needs to be unique, something you won’t say in normal conversation to avoid unfortunate… accidents.”

“Suddenly you know this?” Serra asked, surprise making her revert to the conversational syntax of her youth. Cid shrugged apologetically, scratching his head as he explained.

“I took the Artisan profession yesterday and it gave me that information,” He explained sheepishly. “Better late than never, right?”

“Sure,” Serra said, giving Cid a mock-glare, though Eric could sense her excitement as she rose to her feet. She grabbed the scientist by the arm. “You and I should take a look through our wand and spell stone collection and see if anything useful comes up before you hole yourself up in your workshop again.” At Cid’s hurried nod Serra smiled in satisfaction before turning to Eric. “What’s our go-time, Captain?”

“With the drones collecting most of the chitterer dead I would say we’ve gained some time… I’d like us all to get a full shift of sleep before we take on this monster: Let’s move out at oh-seven-hundred tomorrow.”

“Roger that, Cap!” Serra said with a salute.

Cid raised a hand before the Terran woman could leave the room. “If anyone has a damaged battlesuit I can take them to the Plunderer’s auto-forge to at least begin the repair process. It’s on our way after all.”

“You got them working?” Osar asked, a hand reaching for the severely damaged battlesuit cube that he kept hung around his neck.

“Barely,” Cid admitted as he took the battlesuit cubes from Osar and Eric. Serra declined, declaring her suit was good to go. “As they are now, the forges can do some work on the superficial stuff but I’d still need to study the mechanisms further before I can recalibrate and prime them for dealing with the seriously damaged suits.”

The meeting broke up, Cid and Serra going up one level to one of the secondary vaults that held the chests with their collected spell stones while Eric and Osar walked a few paces from their meeting room and down the corridor to the Plunderer’s main vault. With Luna’s input and organizational skills, they had divided the treasures they had gathered and placed them in one of the voidship’s three vaults. Luna had mentioned that there were more secure spaces not only in the Fortress Belzond but also in the levels below the Command Level within the Obsidian Moon itself, but Eric and company had decided to keep everything in the Plunderer for now, at least until they could stabilize the situation on the Stage.

Eric was already making future plans for the rehabilitation of the Obsidian Moon, taking into consideration the size of the Galaxy as explained to him by Osar and the possible roads he could take his crew down being one of the only known Commanders in possession of an ancient Builder Ark. Secrecy would be important for their merry little band for the foreseeable future, as he and his companions were as yet too weak to be able to defend themselves and their base from even just a small hostile takeover attempt. They needed to be cautious, but conversely the group also needed to recruit people to increase their population and create a good personnel base for security and mutual protection.

The entire group had already had several impromptu discussions about how to go about the recruitment process, usually done around the dinner table, but Eric had been firm about the need to keep themselves low-key and hidden for the moment. He had plans, but he wanted to work on them only after the Stage was under their complete control.

Osar had been silent for the entire short walk to the main vault, but once inside, the big man turned to Eric and gave a peculiar bow, presenting the nape of his neck to the bemused Terran.

“Jad-Os,” Osar began, his voice low. “Once again I would like to apologize for not disclosing all that Lugthal’s ring contained…”

“And we all told you that none of us will begrudge you those items, Mr, Baratuu,” Eric’s voice was firm and a touch irritated. “I have not, nor have any of the others, turned over everything from the rings we received onto the common pot. We have all kept some things back for our own use.”

The Urgan straightened, confusion and contriteness warring over his facial features. Eric sighed, and reached up to give the bigger man’s shoulder a friendly pat.

“Look, my friend,” He continued, trying to ease Osar’s discomfort and mental turmoil. “It’s the way the Company culture we all worked in was developed: Halden-Xiao was always run by middle-managers and career bureaucrats; ruthless, ambitious, sometimes demonstrably amoral people. These were men and women who would gladly sacrifice other people’s lives and property if they thought it would gain them a smidgen of advantage in the endless schemes and machinations of those on their levels and above.”

Osar nodded slowly, and his eyes softened, losing their tortured look.

“In time the people on the lower rungs, the lower-tier employees and ground-level workers within the Company began to look out for themselves as well as form alliances among those of their level. By the time we all became part of the vast H-X machine, the culture had developed to the point that people at all levels do not see the practice of ‘asset acquisition’ as selfishness or stealing but part of the natural mechanisms by which one individual looks out for himself and his own advancement within the confines of the Company setting.”

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“And this was allowed by your leaders?”

“Certainly not!” Eric laughed, imagining Bruce Xiao learning about what his employees were getting up to in the trenches where they worked. “Stealing from the Company was a major offense, and whole armies of people were actually employed to assess and monitor expenses and requisitions to make sure H-X wasn’t losing money. Those that were discovered doing so tended to disappear one way or another.”

“So how…?”

“It’s a matter of scale and bureaucracy,” Eric walked to one of the vault’s compartments and opened it, revealing spatial storage chests stacked three high. “In the Hexguard Corps, I would requisition certain combat items and necessities along with my Mission Assessment Report, along with a mission cost breakdown, but I made sure to ask for more than what was needed since you never really get everything you ask for.”

It was Osar’s turn to laugh, remembering the foul mood the Battle Lord was always in after every meeting with the Legion’s Quartermaster-General.

Eric had continued talking while he read the hardlight tags on each chest to locate the one he needed. “On mission it was understood that whatever a trooper could get from the opposition elements was his or hers, within reason, and ‘acquisition’ was discouraged until the mission was concluded. Then, the unit’s after-action reports would show that the majority of the requisitioned items and necessities were in fact, used up, and then would remain with the unit’s logistics officer for use in future missions.”

“And friend Cid was the same?”

“I would imagine so, though his was a different Department entirely.”

Eric found the chest he was looking for and placed it on the table. Osar walked to Eric’s side and read the contents. It was the chest containing most of the battlesuits they had collected.

“I’m trying to find a better battlesuit,” Eric explained. “The one you gave me was good at a scout role, but pretty basic when it came to other features. Now that I’ve gotten a chance to test one out, I was thinking maybe there were some better models and options available.”

Osar nodded agreement, then smiled and drew out a black and deep purple battlesuit cube from his ring and passed it to Eric.

“This was Lugthal’s spare battlesuit,” Eric’s eyes widened as he received the cube from Osar’s hand. The big man chuckled a little as he continued. “It should be a good fit for you, if you can meet its requirements.”

Eric drew the cube to his chest and pressed the activation button, gasping as a deep black wave of material spread outward from the cube like thick liquid, flowing over his body and covering it completely in less than a second.

You have gained possession of a Rigath-Udomru Damaten-Series Battlesuit

The Damaten Series requires a Core affinity of 5 in any of the following: Death/Fate/Magic/Mind/Void

You have met the requirements for the Battlesuit

Would you like to claim it? Yes/No

The notification window that appeared was pale lavender with black writing, making Eric idly wonder at how the System chose its colors and fonts. Eric chose yes, and the window changed to show the battlesuit’s stats, something that had not occurred when Eric had claimed the Scout.

Damaten-Series Battlesuit

Manufacturer: Rigath-Udomru

The Damaten-Series Battlesuits are created for the consummate adventurer who values superb engineering and affordability coupled with versatility and the potential for customization and growth. Crafted at the Rigath-Udomru Crafting Complex on Ebardon by an expert team of Battlesuit specialists and Aetheric adepts, the D-S Battlesuit is constructed out of our proprietary Black-Sleeve Living Armor and incorporates the innovative Attribute Track Advancement System. The D-S Battlesuit is also compatible with a wide selection of Rigath-Udomru System Modules to accommodate the varied needs of our discerning customers.

Attribute Augmentation: +1 to all Attributes

Owner Attribute Track: Void (Progress: 0%)

Active Built-in Systems:

Imperial Standard Environmental Adaptation and Limitation System

Ambient Aether Absorption Module (Grade-1)

Close-Quarter Aetheric Discharge Module (Grade-3)

Predator Anti-Gravity Module (Grade-1)

Eight-slot Auto-Inject Potion Module (Grade-2)

Overdrive Module (Grade-1)

“What’s all this?” Eric mused, holding his arms before him so he could see them properly. His hands were now enclosed in black, wicked-looking gauntlets made of some thin substance similar to the Armor-Plas ubiquitous to personal armor suits manufactured in the Union. A thin glowing purple channel ran along the inside of the suit’s arm and ended at the tip of Eric’s thumb. Similar lines ran along the underside of the gauntlet, creating a small circle at the palm, before extending towards each of the other fingers. On the back of his left hand, where he had installed a spell stone, there was a slight inward indentation that he assumed would allow the spell to be activated.

“That’s a Damaten-Series battlesuit Jad-Os,” Osar answered, staring with awe and admiration, and maybe a little envy at what Eric was now wearing. The black liquid had solidified around Eric’s undersuit-clad body, forming sloped, molded armor plates over an inner layer of flexible armor gleaming with violet undertones. “It is one of the most popular and respected Imperial Clan brands with regards to personal armor, though it is rare to find a complete suit out here in the Rim.”

“Why didn’t you claim it for yourself?” Eric asked, turning his limbs and craning his neck as he examined the frankly-menacing lines of his armored suit. The battlesuit began to emit a faint, almost subsonic growl as its various systems and modules powered up and activated gradually fading into the background as Eric’s senses acclimated.

“I currently don’t meet the suit’s requirements,” Osar admitted, admiring the way the suit allowed Eric’s limbs a full movement-range while still maximizing protection with expertly-placed rigid armor plates at the most vulnerable areas. “I would have kept it otherwise.”

Eric turned to his companion, noting the wry smile and the naked wanting on the Urgan’s face. Too bad, Eric thought without malice and with no small amount of gratitude towards the man; the suit was his now! Although, if he could get his affinities up, there was a chance he could return this suit to Osar and upgrade to the battlesuit he still had safe in Vashanka’s Ring…

But for now, this was perfect!

Eric flexed his fingers, noting how the tips seemed to morph for a moment into cruel, gutting claws. With every passing minute, it seemed he was unconsciously absorbing the knowledge he needed to be able to use the suit properly, transmitted to his brain by some method he could not fathom.

“There seems to be an infusion and re-introduction of aetheric elements that may account for that, sir.” Pig said helpfully, and Eric nodded in acknowledgement. The way this universe’s adepts had adapted to using the System and its bestowed advantages to create wonders was both astounding and humbling. He just hoped Cid’s knowledge and experience would yield its own wonders in time.

Eric stretched, loving the way the flexible armor layer also stretched to accommodate the sudden movement.

There were a few little things he had to get from the vault and then perhaps he’d take some time to test out his new suit.