Mahina stood off to the side of the shuddering Elder Lasher as it gasped its last breath. She stared at the machete turned short sword in her hand. Booster had named it Venom’s lash and it had not only cut through the lasher like it was air, but it had also left a trail of venom behind it that had an immediate effect on the creature.
Mahina had followed the standard protocol they had been using by cutting through the spine of the lasher first to disable the back legs. She had leapt into it and expected a bit of resistance. When there was none, she almost fell over as she landed. She quickly made a half dozen additional cuts. By the time she was done with the last cut, the beast had stopped making any noise except for a rattled breath as it slumped.
The notification came while she was staring at the blade unbelieving. She had not expected such a dramatic and significant upgrade to the weapon.
They were all a little stunned. Booster had made short work of a similar creature by leveraging Human materials and firearm technology. Combining it with irragenic power changed everything.
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Congratulations!
You defeated an Elder Lasher (Tier 4 Level 17)!
Irragen points awarded!
You have acquired sufficient irragen to increase your level multiple times!
You are now Tier 1 Level 18.
You have 4 attribute points to distribute
Note: You have a total of 18 undistributed attribute points.
You have enough irragen to increase your level more, but you must choose your Phenotype before advancing past level 18. This will be done after your Phenotype is accepted.
Note: It is recommended that you apply any undistributed points before choosing your Phenotype since your current total points may influence your available options.
Would you like to distribute your points now?
Y/N
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Mahina selected yes and checked her stats. Her Durability was at 36. Vigor was boosted to 40 due to her Undaunted Honormark. This meant her lowest scores were Utility at 32 and Control at 17. She decided to make them 33 and 34, respectively. She accepted the changes and after a brief white light, she received a new notification informing her that she would need to choose her Phenotype and the relevant information. She finally received her options.
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Choose from the following 3 options.
Option 1
Mystic Skirmisher - Ascendant (+6 AP/level)
Engage – Rapidly cross a distance between you and an enemy (up to 5 meters). When combined with a melee attack, damage is increased by 25%. If a blunt weapon or fist is used, there is a 5% chance to stagger for 2 seconds. An enemy must be the target destination. 30 sec cooldown.
Aura of Reflection – Percentage of damage taken is reflected back at enemy. Area of effect depends on Control score (.5 meters per point). Percentage of Damage reflected depends on Power score (1.5% per point). Duration of aura depends on combined Control and Power score (6 sec per point). Points available recover at the same rate when ability is not in use. Aura ends if dismissed or if usage exceeds points available.
Chronomancy – User can adjust the flow of time. Increase or decrease the flow of time for the User. Consumes 1 Power/second for every 25% increase/decrease. Power recovers at 1 Power/second when Ability is not in use. The user is able to interact with their surroundings in their own timeframe. The surroundings will remain in their own timeframe.
Option 2
Cyberknight – Elite (+5 AP/Level)
Technoblade – Any bladed weapon can be attuned to the user and given additional features such as a plasma coating, electrical coating, or vibrating blade. The user can also shorten or elongate the blade as well as alter the shape of the blade at will, but it must remain a bladed weapon. While the shape may change the blade will hold onto the quality of its material and cutting edge. Attunement makes the weapon unusable by anyone else. Anyone else attempting to handle the blade will significant damage (equal to the User's Power score) every second they hold onto it.
Dangervibe – The user will glow in a color that will attract the attention of the enemy. If any enemy hostile to the User or their party tries to avoid looking at the user after they have seen them, they will experience minor nausea, pain, and/or irragenic disruption (as is applicable) if they refuse to continue looking. The effect is stronger the closer they are to the User. The area of effect depends on the user Control score and their desired area of affect (1 meter/point). Duration depends on the User's Power score (1 point/affected/second). Points recuperate at 1 point/second. The damage is small, but the effect may be disruptive to the affected. Effect ends when the User ends the effect, loses consciousness, or consumes available Power.
Unbreakable – When an enemy is engaged, Durability is increased 30% of modified score. 30% resistance to all physical and irragenic damage. The effect lasts for 10 seconds. User can wear any type of Light, Medium, or Heavy armor without any penalties to their Attribute Scores.
Option 3
SlugSlinger – Elite (+5 AP/Level)
Satisfaction – User may force Target to duel them. This creates an Arena in which no Participant can leave, and no non-Participant can enter. If any Participant attempts to leave by their own power, they will suffer exponentially increasing damage, up to and including death. The duel ends once one of the Participants is incapacitated. The Arena will sustain itself for 3 minutes. Once 3 minutes have elapsed, the Arena will start sapping energy from the Participants.
Particle Accelerator – User may add an effect to the projectile fired from any projectile weapon. The effects that can be used include but are not limited to increasing density, phasing, increasing size, plasma, extreme ionization, and extreme acceleration. Effects may require Control and Power. The amount varies based on the effect and the rate of fire.
Quite Operational – User implements a deflection field. The trajectory of any incoming projectiles is bent away from the user. Consumes 3 Power/second. User may extend the field to cover others at additional Control and Power consumption. Power recovers at the same rate but only when the Ability is not in use.
Please choose one option or refuse all.
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Mahina was a little disappointed in the options. Not really in the options, but in the fact that they were all overtly offensive in nature. There was nothing here that revealed anything about her as it had in the others. She felt somewhat driven to be aggressive by the PHENOsystem and she had to admit she had risen to the challenge. In some ways, this world was no different from the one they came from. It rewards aggression. Perhaps it is the nature of competitive life. In some ways, all life stands against something that wishes to wear it down or consume it or extinguish it for its own benefit. Life is defined by the struggle to overcome and rise above that which seeks to consume it.
The thought was a little depressing. She had to admit, she was hoping to find something more peaceful in a new world. Maybe she was more upset by the idea that her options did reveal something about her. Something she didn't want to admit.
She decided not to spend any more energy on the thought. She didn’t have time to indulge in this line of thinking. She shared her options with the others.
Booster whistled. “Ascendant, huh? I guess adjusting the flow of time is no minor league skill.”
Thaigoon scrunched his face up. “Wait. How does that work? If you increase time, does it go slower for you? Like increase the time you have?”
Booster considered for a second. “Maybe it’s like this. Let’s say for a given time period, uh, 5 seconds. If I increase my flow of time by 50%, in that 5 seconds I will experience, 7.5 seconds. Decreasing would mean I experience 2.5 seconds.”
“What is the use of that?”
Booster shrugged and offered, “Maybe it’s just a matter of being able to do one allows you to do the other?”
Arkana blankly stared at him.
“What?” He looked around to see if something was wrong. Not seeing anything he looked back at her. “What?”
She smiled. “How long was that?”
“What?” Booster was utterly confused.
“I stared at you for like 5 seconds and you were totally uncomfortable. Imagine if it was half again longer, but it felt the same to me.”
He shook his head and laughed. “That’s a pretty weird use for the ability to alter the flow of time.”
“I’m sure there are others,” Arkana responded.
Mahina examined the options. Cyberknight seemed very attractive. She had already seen the power of the mixture of Irragenic tech and Earth tech. The Technoblade would be powerful. Dangervibe would easily synergize with her Riot Honormark as it would gather attention and temporarily increase her stats. She also wondered how much she could push the armor boost. Could she customize a Haardsuit?
The SlugSlinger option seemed the least attractive. All the abilities were powerful for what they were. She could force a duel and perhaps take on an army one at a time. OK, that might be a bit ambitious. The Particle Accelerator ability seemed like it was a very versatile tool.
Mahina was torn. The Cyberknight abilities seemed straightforward and powerful. But it also gave 5 points per tier. Taking that would be giving up 36 AP per level. The Aura was also straightforward and the Chronomancy was as versatile as the Technoblade and Particle Accelerator. Perhaps more so.
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Arkana raised her eyebrows at Mahina. “What do you think?”
“I think I would be foolish not to take the Ascendant tier Phenotype.”
“Is there another one that you like better?” Booster asked.
She looked over the options again and spoke. “If I had been assigned any of these without a choice, I would have been satisfied. I think the Cyberknight Phenotype gives me a little bit more synergy with my Honormarks, but not 36 AP points a tier worth. I think if I make good use of the Chronomancy ability, Mystic Skirmisher is far and away the better option.”
With no further discussion to be had she selected Mystic Skirmisher.
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Congratulations!
You have chosen the Phenotype: Mystic Skirmisher!
Note: AP gains per level from Tier 1 level 19-36 will be increased by 5 to account for Phenotype AP gains not given in level 1-18.
You have acquired sufficient irragen to increase your level multiple times!
You are now Tier 1 Level 20.
You have 22 attribute points to distribute
Note: You have a total of 22 undistributed attribute points
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You have earned an Honormark!
-You have earned an Ascendant rank Phenotype. Considering the total number of humans participating in the PHENOsystem across all instances, the statistical probability is that only one individual might achieve an Ascendant rank Phenotype. The Ascendant Honormark enables the Power Spike ability to immediately reset all Ability and Honormark cooldowns once per day. When activated, the user will radiate power for one minute, doubling the damage they inflict and halving the damage they receive.
Do you accept these changes? Y/N
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Mahina accepted the changes and this time the white line burning down her took some time as it moved down her form spitting heatless sparks that dissipated in the air. She swooned for a second at the end of it.
“Are you ok?” Booster asked while steadying her with a hand.
“Yes. That was somewhat intense.” She couldn’t help running her hands over herself a bit as if to check that everything was still there. “Let me apply my Attribute points and we need to get to the lander.”
Mahina added all the available points into the Power score. Her stats now appeared like this:
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Name: Mahina Arita
Variant class: 3
Tier: 1
Level: 20
PHENOtype: Mystic Skirmisher
Attributes
Stats Score Modified Durability 4 36 Utility 6 33 Vigor 6 40 Control 24 34 Power 25 28
Attribute points to distribute: 0
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With all four of them having selected a Phenotype, they immediately ran at full speed for the lander.
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Mako stood in the middle of a clearing as the leading edge of the army broke through the edge of the trees. There were Shins with ornamental armor marching at the head of columns of Shin soldiers. The armor of those leading seemed to all be custom made pieces with different patterns and different metals.
Upon seeing Mako and his relatively small entourage standing in the clearing, the columns halted and one of the leaders indicated for someone to come forward. One of the spear adepts ran back into the army among the trees.
“The Scouts just concealed themselves.” Skeet reported.
“And?”
“We can see the radio isotope just fine.”
Mako was a little relieved. Not being able to detect the scouts would have been a problem. Dousing the Shin army in nanites that carried a scant amount of technetium-99m was a Hail Mary plan. They had another contingency in place, but this was better. Now the other contingency was going to be the frosting on the cake.
Mako sent a message to all his fellow humans. “Do not engage the scouts unless it is unavoidable. Do not look directly at them. Pretend like you don’t see them at all.”
General Sorodexis approached Mako with their own entourage of 6 soldiers that appeared to be elites of some type. They were larger than the average Shin, they carried weapons and wore armor that didn’t look like the typical. They held no expression on their faces. No menace or anger. This seemed like it felt like business to them.
Sorodexis stopped 5 meters from Mako and said nothing. He could see the General examining the group of humans standing in front of them. A moment later, the Shins in red brigandine robes and wood batons stepped forward through the tree and formed a line that cut across the clearing in front of the trees. They stood about a meter apart. Their batons remained holstered.
The Mako felt no inclination to play games at this meeting. He felt confident that he knew how this would go. “Is this what the Shing’risgi call non-aggression?”
“I would have expected a bit more courtesy from someone who stands facing an army that significantly outnumber their own force.”
Again, Mako was having none of it. “If I’ve learned one thing about the Shing’risgi,” He got just a small amount of joy every time they flinched at his pronunciation of their name. “It’s that you hold little value on courtesy, only power has value.”
Sorodexis stood a little straighter, “Then you’ve learned well.”
They locked eyes for a moment, each brimming with equal disdain for the other.
“What do you want?” Mako cut to the chase.
“We want you to leave, of course.” Sorodexis tilted their head up. “It’s a generous offer we normally wouldn’t extend to anyone. Normally, we would crush you and take all of your possessions. Perhaps enslave some of you. We’ve already had to set an example for the Dwellers.”
“And yet, you didn’t say as much when we visited you in Tedexa Goran. Why not? Was it cowardice? Were you afraid? Why lie? And what did you do to the Dwellers?”
Sorodexis fidgeted a little. It looked like they we attempting to stifle the bristle that wanted to follow that remark. “It would have been foolish to anger an unknown enemy. We didn’t know the extent of your forces and resources. Now we know. As for the Dwellers, we’ve had to remind them who is and who is not is control.”
Mako stepped forward just a bit and leaned in. Sorodexis’s entourage jostled, but a hand halted their reaction.
Mako lowered his voice. “You really don’t know the extent of our forces or our capabilities.”
Sorodexis tried to gauge the veracity of that statement. They tilted their head to the left indicating a disbelief in the truth of Mako’s words. “Even if you are very powerful, which I doubt, there are simply too few of you. If you wish to die, prepare yourselves.”
They turned and march back through the line of monks and into the trees.
Mako pulled out his rifle and moved backwards a bit to get cover behind a tree. “Everyone get ready. If you see a scout target them first.”
A notification popped up.
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A hostile force is attacking the colony. Due to the nature of this conflict and the number of combatants involved, warfare protocols are enacted. Irragen point calculations will consider tactical decisions that affect the broader battlefield and also support roles. Raid party calculations will be in effect for abilities.
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It was rather quiet in the forest. Neither side was taking the first shot. This was making Mako a bit irritable.
“Skeet, use the drones in the air to make an announcement.”
“Go ahead.”
“Sorodexis! You going to do this? Or are you going to stand there all day stroking your feathers?” Mako second guessed his words. Did stroking have the same connotation to a species that had no obvious genitalia?
It apparently had some effect. There was a peal of roars and armored warriors ran forward from the trees. The humans peeked out from cover and annihilated the soldiers that ran toward them. Their armor had no power to resist the supersonic projectiles.
The Monks moved and held up their batons, crossing them at the end of their outstretched arms. A glowing blue shield appeared in front of each of them. The shields spread out until they connected, and the shield reached up into the sky. Mako couldn’t see where it ended as it blended in with the sky.
“Focus fire on the center!” Mako announced and marked a single Shin Monk. Monk no longer seemed like the correct term here. Mage, maybe?
The shield glowed white where the bullets slammed into it. A couple grenades hit it and the white glow spread and returned to normal.
“They are flanking to both sides.” Skeet announced.
A minimap showed up in Mako’s shield of vision where he could see the movement of the Shin troops fanning out from the rear. Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention.
A scout was quickly approaching. Mako fired and the scout’s head exploded in red mist. Another scout appeared from a bit behind him and tried to stab him in the left shoulder. His armor blocked most of the strike. Mako struck behind him and the scout stumbled back. Another burst ended his life. As his meager troops started focusing on the flanking troops more adepts and warriors stepped forward through the shield. Arrows flew through the trees and some managed to pepper the humans.
Mako looked back at a couple hundred troops moving in on his position. “Pull back to second position.” His army’s HUDs lit up with their fallback position.
As Mako started to move back while firing at the oncoming enemy. They fell with nearly every burst. He saw some light up with a green glow and they returned to their feet. He could see on the minimap that the Shins were still spreading out and trying to surround them.
“Try to identify who is healing. They are primary targets.” Mako called out. Some of the Shins made the mistake of grouping up. He launched several grenades into the group. Just as he realized something Boomer made the call.
“Hit the groups with grenades, they seem to be trying to protect the healers.” Boomer yelled in excitement over the com.
The shield mages started to move which broke up the large solid shield. They moved in groups of 2 and 3 to protect the groups with healers.
“Medusa...move to this position and hit them from the side.” Mako indicated a 3 o’clock position from him.
The Haardsuit she was remote piloting quickly moved into position. A scout tried to intercept her. They were too close to shoot but a backhand with the muzzle of Vulcan Cannon crumpled their head. She could see targets ahead.
In this configuration, the legs and the body of the Haardsuit were thicker with extra armor, cooling capacity, and ammo capacity. It could hold a massive amount of ammo since it used railgun technology rather than chemical accelerant cartridges. While it could be calibrated for 20mm projectiles it was currently set for the same caliber as the Magnetar hand cannons. Mako felt the ability to carry almost twice as much ammo would be more important than armor penetration.
Medusa let her targeting AI grab targets and let loose. Mako saw the dozens of Shins drop or simply burst into pieces. The purr of the weapon made him feel all warm inside. He and others popped out of cover to catch the Shins in a crossfire. It was devastating. Dozens of Shins were cut down. Yet it was a drop in the bucket.
Then Mako saw them moving. 3 of the high-level warriors were heading for the Haardsuit in single file with the front one holding a tower shield that was somehow able to hold against the beating the Vulcans were dishing out.
They were too far away for a grenade plus there was another shielded group in the way.
“Anyone have a solution on the group approaching the Haardsuit?” No Answer. “Skeet?” Do you see anyone?”
“No. Delta and Echo are about to be overrun.”
This was too early. “Merlin, are you ready?”
“Affirmative.” Merlin’s neutral voice responded.
“All units, pull back to third position. Pull back to third position. Delta fallback to Bravo. Echo fallback to Charlie.”
Mako moved back while firing. The shielding blocked most of their fire. If they could only fire over the shields. He asked his AI targeting for a firing solution. Surprisingly, it gave him one he didn’t expect.
He executed it. He set the grenades to proximity. They would now detonate when they reached a certain position. And he fired in the high arc the AI showed him. The grenade thumped out of his PROAK and to his great satisfaction, landed in the midst of the group behind the shield where it exploded. He sent several more bursts into the group to finish them off.
He dashed to his right to try and get a bead on the heavies encroaching on the Haardsuit. He aimed at them and fired. The projectiles struck the leg he was targeting but they seemed to have little effect.
The third heavy looked at him and snarled. They raised their hand to Mako, palm out. Three bright blue balls shot out from their hand and careened into Mako’s chest. He was blasted off his feet.
It took him a second to realize what had happened. Mako checked his chest. The armor was charred and damaged. Rolling to his feet, he saw 3 warriors charging him to take advantage of the situation. He shot a grenade and followed up with several bursts. They all fell before they had a chance to reach him.
“It looks like they are still trying to isolate Delta and Echo.” Skeet informed him.
Mako triggered the smoke screens. This was the other contingency they had planted earlier. The battlefield was filled with smoke obscuring all vision. The humans still had full targeting due to the isotope and other technological solutions at their disposal.
“Do it, Merlin.” Mako said.
From over a kilometer away, the Starfire turrets rained hell down on the Shins.