Booster was geared up and ready to go. He was a little excited about how things would work now that he was actually boosted. He made his way through the traffic in the halls as he headed for the meeting point. It was strange to see over the heads of people when he used to be about the same height on average. If he was being honest with himself, he was already feeling like he wanted these modifications to be a permanent change.
He felt like he had so much more energy. He was a physically bigger person, but he felt lighter and movements that would have been slow and clumsy before were fast and precise. It felt good. He didn’t even have his cybernetic limb upgrades yet. They would still take a couple more days to print. He was still pretty happy with his stats for now.
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Name: Booster
Variant class: 3
Tier: 1
Level: 2
PHENOtype: not selected
Attributes
Stats Score Modified Durability: 4 26 Utility: 4 19 Vigor: 4 28 Control: 5 15 Power: N/A N/A
Attribute points to distribute: 2
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This morning, he had to get different armor before they left. Typically, he wore light armor before, but his old armor simply didn’t fit any longer. Now that he was bigger and stronger he opted to go with heavy armor. It was a full 20 kilos heavier, but the difference was negligible.
“Booster?”
He heard a familiar voice call to him as he was passing a hallway. He stopped and backed up to see Medusa heading toward him with a confused look on her face.
“Hey, Med!” He smiled and pointed a solitary finger gun at her as he held his helmet in his other hand. “How’s it going?”
She smiled and looked up at him. They were the same height before. “I’m fine. What’s going on here?” She pointed at him, gesturing up and down.
“Ha! I decided to do a little experimentation.”
“Uh huh. A little?” Her hand ran up his armored arm, over his shoulder, and landed in the middle of his chest. It lingered there and stayed as she looked back up at him. “What all did you get done?”
“Full genetic mods. Improved cognitive hardware and new eyes.” He pointed at his face. His eyes looked the same as they were unless you took a close look. Which Medusa did.
“Wow.” She said quietly. “What...uh...why?” She didn’t finish her question, not wanting to ask something to make him feel uncomfortable.
“Why do this now?” He asked.
Medusa nodded.
“It was suggested to me that doing it now gave me the opportunity to really try things and then decide for myself what I really thought about it.”
“Your parents, though.” Her eyebrows went up.
Booster shrugged. “I have to live my life and make my own decisions. Some of them will be good. Some of them will be bad. Some of them won’t matter. I love them. But I can’t let them dictate my life. I know they would be apoplectic if they saw this. Hopefully, they’ll have a long time to get over it.”
Medusa smiled up at him and realized she still had her hand on his chest and abruptly pulled away. Her face reddened slightly. She looked at his gear. “What are you doing?”
“I am getting ready to go out with Mahina, Arkana, and I think Thaigoon.”
“Thaigoon too?”
“Yeah, maybe next time we go out you should join us.”
“I, uh, I don’t know. There is so much to do here.”
“Mahina had a good point. She told us we are good at all of this.” He gestured at the lander and all the people. And then, he pointed at the direction he was heading to meet with his fellow explorers. “We are not good at what is out there. We have the opportunity to get better at the stuff out there without actually dying permanently. We should take advantage of that opportunity. You were at that meeting, right?”
“Yeah, I was. Somehow, I felt like it didn’t apply to me.” She looked up at him and shrugged. “But I guess it does.”
“Can you come with us now?”
She winced in thought. “I’d really like to, but I can’t just abandon what I was doing. Next time for sure.”
“Ok, next time!” Booster said and started walking the way he had been going. He waved back to her.
Medusa waved to him, but he didn’t see. She watched him walk down the hall.
As he reached the end of the hall Arkana came around the corner and said something to him with a half grin on her face. He didn’t stop and scooped her up in one arm. She laughed and looked over Booster’s shoulder and saw Medusa watching them.
Arkana smiled and nodded at her as they went around the corner.
Medusa suddenly felt seen. She twisted and turned in the hall trying to remember what she was doing before she got distracted. “Oh yeah.” And she set off for her destination.
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Mahina was fussing with Thaigoon’s pack when Booster arrived and set Arkana down.
“Thanks for the boost.” Arkana said as she smoothed out her armor and started putting on her pack.
“Oh, ha ha.” Booster said dryly as he helped Arkana. “We all set to go?”
Mahina nodded. “Just a couple things. I’ll stay in the lead and Booster you should stay in the back. Give me some distance to give everyone some reaction time. We have a long way to go, and we are going to try camping on the way. A drone is going to bring us our supplies once we find a place to camp. I don’t really need to sleep so I can keep watch.
“If one of us respawns, what happens will depend on who it is. At this point, if it’s me or Booster, we can probably catch back up. If it’s Thaigoon or Arkana, they should probably stay at the lander for now. I imagine coms will stay up so we can always figure it out as events unfold. Any questions?”
No one had any. After a final check, they headed southwest.
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While Mahina and Booster would have run the first 10-15 kilometers or more. Thaigoon and Arkana couldn’t keep up with that pace. They did maintain a fairly rapid pace which was aided by a clear trail that headed in the direction they wanted to go. They reached about 8 kilometers out without any difficulty and stopped for a rest.
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Mahina searched the trees around them. Her sensors hadn’t picked up anything, but they were deep in the arboreal dragons' former territory now. She realized she didn’t mention something she had intended to mention before. “Make sure to scan up every so often. People often forget to look up.”
“I’m a little surprised we haven’t run into any significant wildlife yet.” Booster said while still scanning the area.
“We’ve thinned out a lot of wildlife and I think the wildlife has learned to fear us.” Mahina noted. “We better not get too comfortable with that. Or it will spank us when we get to the actual planet.”
“You know...I haven’t been around nature for long. Like most of us, I grew up in a city where I barely saw the unfiltered sky. I’m starting to suspect something.” Thaigoon said as he took another swig from his water bottle. “I think I hate nature.”
“Wait til you have to poop.” Booster said.
Thaigoon looked at Booster severely. “Thanks, Booster. I hadn’t considered that nightmare fuel yet.”
“Anytime, my friend.”
“Are we ready to move on?” Mahina said.
“I suppose that wasn’t a real question.” Thaigoon said.
“No. No, it wasn’t. If we can keep moving at about 5km an hour we should get to our target in 6.5 hours. But I expect to get interrupted and our pace to slow. So, let's just try to get there today.” She shrugged. “If not, we’ll make it tomorrow.”
They made another 8 kilometers and were just stopping to rest when there was a flutter of activity to the south of them.
“Get ready.” Mahina scanned to the south and scoped in on the activity. There were red dots fleeing south and east through the trees. It was very likely that those were the missing Arboreal Dragons. There was something on the ground pursuing them although not at a great speed. Then it looked like one of the red dots in the trees stopped and launched itself back at the ground pursuers. “It looks like the commotion will pass by to the south.”
Booster stood next to where Arkana was sitting. “You doing alright?”
“Yeah, it’s a lot quieter out here than I thought it would be. And I’m trying to resist the urge to stop and look at every new plant I spot.” She laughed.
“I suspect it’ll be quiet until it’s not. Just remember that we could be attacked at any time.”
“I’ll be ready. Nervous, but ready.”
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They continued on a short time later and Mahina saw a group of 6 red dots moving north and were going to converge on their path. She tried to decide if she wanted to avoid them or not. But they were out there to try and level. She waved everyone forward.
“Take out your PROAKS.” She pulled her own as well. She marked the targets so they could see them on their HUDs. She marked them again so that the targets had the first letter of their names. There were 2 Ms, 2 B’s, a T, and an A. “Move forward and shoot your target. Set weapons for SuperBurst.”
Arkana couldn’t see the creature that made up the dot that was moving around. But she hoped she would have a couple tries to get it before it got to her. She raised her PROAK and set the target and fired the weapon.
The burst of projectiles didn’t connect. But all the creatures headed for them immediately. She heard other burst fires. Her target was moving in and out between the trees and then it started moving straight at her. She could make out a form cutting through the foliage. She aimed again and fired. She saw fluid burst over the trees and leaves. It dropped and slid along the ground getting caught in vines and detritus. It lay there for only a moment before trying to stagger to its feet. Arkana shot again. More fluid exploded and it was still.
Mahina kept moving forward. She had opted to use her Magnetars. One of the creatures flew out of the foliage and moved directly at her. She brought up her pistol and aimed. It was a squat creature with a body that resembled an alligator but with legs that were more like a Komodo Dragon’s. It had a beaked nose with eyes that looked forward but bulged out of its head at a 10 and 2 o'clock position. It opened its mouth and its tongue shot out at her and stuck to her chest. The tongue yanked her forward.
Mahina stumbled forward and tried to gain her footing, but it kept pulling her forward. She moved her right foot far forward and planted it. Her tactical shield blade popped out and she sliced through the tongue. It yelped in pain and froze in shock. She brought up her pistol in her other hand and fired a burst in its face. She saw her other target to her left. Before trying to remove the tongue from her chest, she fired at the other one.
It was wounded and squealed, running behind a tree. She holstered her weapon and grabbed the tongue tip stuck to her and ripped it off her. Then it wanted to stick to her hand. She stepped on the tongue and pulled her hand away. Then, she refocused on her target. It was running away.
Thaigoon held the PROAK stock to his shoulder and kept the targeting reticule on the creature running toward him. Well, not actually at him yet. He was confident it didn’t know he was even there yet. This all felt surreal to him. He had never killed anything more than cockroaches and ants. And a goldfish he had won at a carnival. Technically he killed that one simply out of ignorance on what to do with a fish.
He refocused and pointed at the target. He saw movement and pulled the trigger. The creature squealed and stopped. But it didn’t look dead. Thaigoon kept his PROAK up and moved toward the creature. As he came around a tree, the creature came into view. His shot had blown off the back of the creature about halfway toward the tail. It was scrabbling toward him with its front claws and snapping with its beak. The tongue shot out but missed him. He jumped back in alarm but that wasn’t what saved him. The creature’s aim was off.
Thaigoon took aim and pumped another burst into its head. The resulting splattering of its head had him questioning if he was doing the right thing.
Booster ran toward the creatures, but they cut to the left as if trying to flank him. He ran back and tried to close the distance. He put away his PROAK as he thought this might end up in closer quarters. He pulled out his Magnetar and set it to SuperBurst. He saw they had stopped ahead. They were probably trying to figure out where he was now.
Booster ran past a tree and fired almost without looking using the targeting. He never stopped and ran forward and tried to get an angle on the other creature. It was moving back toward the first one. Booster moved around a tree and had to duck the tongue that was about to hit his face. He dropped and braced against a tree and fired. The creature collapsed. Booster double tapped both of them.
They all received a notification.
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Congratulations!
You defeated a Lesser Tonguelasher. x6 (Level 26)
Irragen points awarded!
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Booster received another notification.
You have acquired sufficient irragen to increase your level twice!
You are now Tier 1 Level 4.
You have 2 attribute points to distribute
Note: You have a total of 4 undistributed attribute points.
Do you accept these changes? Y/N
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Arkana received the following notification.
You have acquired sufficient irragen to increase your level!
You are now Tier 1 Level 4.
You have 1 attribute point to distribute
Note: You have a total of 4 undistributed attribute points.
Do you accept these changes? Y/N
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Thaigoon received this notification.
Quest Updated!
Release The Kraken - Acquire sufficient experience to surpass the threshold to fully engage the PHENO system. (91% Complete)
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Both Arkana and Booster accepted their changes with the signifying white glow. They gathered to check everyone was ok.
Booster asked, “Do we need to check for cores?”
Mahina shook her head. “I think they have to at least be tier 2 for that to happen.”
“Why is this so easy? Those creatures didn’t stand a chance and after killing 1 thing I’ve almost unlocked the PHENOsystem.” Thaigoon asked.
“I think it’s the level difference. Technically, you aren’t even level one, and those lashers were relatively high tier one creatures. Plus, there were more of them than us. And we simply have a lot of advantages over the local fauna. We can usually see them coming long before they even know we are around. We have pinpoint targeting. Our weapons vastly overpower them to the point they have no defense other than getting out of the way of a projectile moving faster than they can see.
“I suspect we’ll reach a point where all these differences will mean little, and we actually might be more powerful without our weapons.” Mahina speculated.
“Huh. Sucks to be them, I guess.” Thaigoon said.
“Indeed.” Mahina said with a smile. “Normally, I’d say we should rest, but I don’t know if the bodies will attract other beasts.”
Thaigoon shrugged. “That doesn’t exactly sound like a problem.”
Mahina shrugged, “I guess you are correct. Go ahead and rest and then we’ll move on. We are about halfway there.”
They moved on after a short rest. If there were other beasts looking for an easy meal, none of them decided to try their luck.
Another 6 kilometers in Mahina noticed a clearing ahead. She angled toward it to see if there was anything of interest there. Most of the clearings were green spaces with shrubbery and wildflowers growing. This one looked bare and empty. As she got closer, she could see a circular pit in the middle.
The pit was about 6 meters in diameter, and she couldn’t yet see the bottom. There was a light flickering on the walls as if there was a pool of water at the bottom. Mahina moved to the edge and looked over.
She couldn’t tell what she was looking at. It was as if a hand holding a compact mirror was reflecting sunlight at the pit walls. But it wasn’t a hand.
The ground gave way beneath her. Half tumbling and half sliding down the embankment, she tried to jump only to hit the opposite side of the pit. Something wrapped around her left leg and her waist and then yanked hard. Without anything to grab onto she was pulled down into the pit center.
Mahina ejected her tactical shield blade, but she couldn’t do anything with it since her arms were stuck over her head. She was at a loss for a moment as she considered options. She stopped moving downward she thought. She was still in a tight canal and tried to see if the move upward. The thing around her waist suddenly let go and a second later, the sides came crushing inward.
She struggled harder as the pressure increased. She tried to access her pistols and her PROAK but being stored away prevented her from firing them. The pressure mounted. She couldn’t move.
She could hear her body creak from the pressure. She felt and heard the crack followed by immense pain.
She suddenly was in her cabin on the lander. She gazed around her cabin as her brain tried to process what happened. Then, understanding struck, "Fuck!"