[Analyze found a hidden switch]
Rank: Cadet +3%
Current Rank: C-B1 (73%)
I was alive with glee. I had finally found a switch. One of the tiles in the middle of the hallway had changed color as I walked past it. It had been subtle and easy to miss, but by persevering, I hadn't. Pressing the tile, I had heard a satisfying click. My inner idiot had dreamt of an amazing, high-ranked weapon. The white clouds coming out of the hidden compartment didn’t mean anything, but sometimes, with high-value items, the smoke could be different colors, and sometimes there could even be strobe lights.
This was why I had always explored as much as I could. Not only did we gain exp in our non-combat skills, but we could also gain items we would have otherwise missed. I had felt the rush of endorphins as three blue cushions with technology on them appeared. I had tried to analyze them before picking them up. The skill might have unlocked any hidden features, upgrade requirements, manufacturers, or bonuses.
[Unable to Analyze]
Rank: Cadet +1%
Current Rank: C-B1 (77%)
It said my skill had been too low for each item. It wasn’t uncommon for these things to be tricky. At the highest levels, the mix of items could determine who came out on top. I would have to pick up two items concurrently in case the compartment closed as soon as something was chosen. This was a common trap in many hidden areas.
If I still had my suit, the grappler would have yanked all three. Heck, if those bastards had worked with me, we would have all had a chance at these items. An idea hit me harder than Batz had, and I had put my rifle behind all three and yanked!
The cubes clattered onto the ground, and nothing happened. The window remained open, and my ears were burning. Whoosh, my rifle's barrel had returned to its shorter rapid-fire mode after a job well done. I had checked the remaining space to make sure I didn’t do a Perkins and leave behind components because I was blinded by loot. The rest of it had been clear, so I grabbed my cubes and opened each of them. There had been a small chance that one might have broken, but it was worth it.
[Standard Personal Augmentation]
Name: Somatosensory Controller
Rank: Captain
Rarity: Silver
Information: This rare augmentation had been a must-have among independent commanders. It allowed for all systems to be controlled like they were a natural part of the body. The system also allowed for a deeper synchronization rate with one’s symbiont ship. This Augmentation upgraded only at rank-up.
Requirement: 10 slots
While Analyze had failed to reveal any hidden stats of the items, their base information had been pretty impressive. Advanced was a great ranking. Expensive at my current rank, but fascinating. Mercy would have killed for something like this if Saanvi had been correct and Mercy had gotten a carrier. This would have been perfect for her.
[Simple Personal Augmentation]
Name: Communication Suite
Rank: Cadet
Rarity: Bronze
Information: This simple communication system could provide commanders and their squads with the ability to communicate from the surface to space.
Range limit: one hundred thousand kilometers
Requirement: 1 slot
Simple didn’t mean terrible. Master had talked ad nauseam about the value of simple augmentations. They were often straightforward and powerful for their rank. While simple items didn’t tend to rank up, they were rarely detrimental to a commander. The communication suite had been pretty cool; the range was small for a Founder augmentation. It would operate in all environments within its range. The same augmentation, if it had been at the supreme rank, would probably have carried a range of one astronomical unit.
Supreme-ranked technology was what I had been after. During tests like these, the system had significantly increased the drop rate for loot. Hell, on a normal rift raid, getting only one item had been normal and expected. It was why most commanders didn’t make it past their first year. Symbiont ships required a huge amount of support. My hope had been that my master and fellow orphans, who had been on the lower levels, would be getting support roles.
[Simple Personal Augmentation]
Name: Galantine Subdural Nano Weave
Rank: Cadet
Rarity: Bronze
Information: The Galantine Military Academy subdural nano weave had provided protection from most forms of damage for over thirty thousand years. This nano weave would integrate the seeker’s natural armor and increase armor rating by ten percent.
Requirement: 1 slot
The nano weaves had been one of the go-to combat simple augmentations. They had no drawbacks, as they didn’t limit the Commander in any way, and installation would have taken less than an hour. Those with faux G.E.A.R.S. could still use and benefit from this, as anything that increased Seeker survivability had been highly valued.
The communication suite had also been pretty cool. If I had been with those treacherous back-stabbing bastards and they had allowed it, I would have taken this augmentation. Damage mitigated had often been more important to a commander than repair or replacement, especially given how rare some of our augmentations had been.
The final piece had been rare and expensive. I had heard of ten-slot augmentations. They tended to be powerful, but this one had been different. If I understood it correctly, it would have let me control any piece of tech like it was a part of my body. That had been incredibly powerful, as it might have meant I could control my ship without having to be at the bridge. I had pondered what it would have been like to feel like part of the ship. But I hadn’t had a symbiont yet, and it required all ten slots. I had trusted my ability to rise in the ranks, but I had to survive first, and if I slotted another tech, I would have been better served by selling this one. The ability to grow meant that I would have to do a lot more as I got stronger.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
This would have been a powerful augmentation for someone like Mercy. If she had gone down the drone army route, she could have controlled all of them like a part of her body. The system had probably meant this reward for her. The thought of her had made me want to use it right then. Even if they killed me, they would never have been able to get their hands on this augment. I had put it into an inner pocket in my underarmor. Even though my flying deathtrap of a suit had been removed, I had still been wearing my standard-issue underarmor. The underarmor had mainly been an emergency vacuum suit with three days of air and water. Plus, it had been a freebie from the government.
The wrecked hole in the hallway, pretending to be a door, had crumbled a bit as I pushed through it. I hadn’t been able to see it, but the remains of the door had been at its base in a pool of melting liquid.
They might have kitted the guardian here and tried to fight him in a space he couldn’t fit into, but the body hadn’t been on the other side of the door. This had been a little weird, but as I looked around, it had been completely quiet. Bottles in the room had contained half-melted symbiont ships. The office space had been huge, with a wooden desk at the center. Behind it had been a window showing the shipyard building ships.
Everything inside me had told me it was wrong. Shipyard rooms were rare, and for them to find one on the first try and clear it, getting all the tokens they needed on the first try, had been exceptionally odd. It had made me think they had used a trophy. A trophy changed a room to a previous test, and as long as one scored higher, they would receive similar but better rewards.
I had walked to the window and had seen the others on a platform. They must have rushed to the complex and begun building their ships already. It had been odd watching them. The rage I had felt had focused on Mercy and Batz. The others, while they had also played a part, had been less responsible.
I had rushed to the desk, trying to find an interface I could use. If this had been the manager's room, it should have had such a device around his desk that somehow remained unblemished even as there had been four bodies and the guardian in there. The bodies had also been melted, but they had appeared to be less charred.
I had found the guardian's interface under his desk. The monitor had popped out like a jack-in-the-box. I could make out the current shipbuilding queue and some simple information on the variant it had in stock. As a tier-four Forge World, it had only had one additional type unlocked by the Hegemony government. It hadn’t been uncommon for guardian rooms to serve real-world functions. I had been reminded why all symbiont ships were powerful.
In front of me had been the dreaded industrial type. From the display, it had seemed to be a mobile mining and manufacturing plant. The design had been a small five-kilometer moon shape. Even though it had been set up for manufacturing, it had had turrets all over the place. Symbionts were powerhouses compared to mundane ships. Even at the lowest rank, they could take down a mundane fleet, even an auxiliary ship.
The current ship being built had been an auxiliary. The only thing the monitor hadn’t shown was the internal layout. All symbiont ships shared the sector slip drive and the one-hundred-meter cubed Symbiont heart. They all traveled at light speed and took a day to power up, but one could travel at the speed of light indefinitely. The downside had been the year-long cooldown caused by the need to create new Zhalfir particles. People had created Zhalfir capsules from the wreckage of destroyed symbionts, but the last time I checked, they had been worth at least three medium planets.
The console had also not listed which commander it belonged to. I had seen that it had been a bog-standard Auxiliary ship. The role of most auxiliaries had been to provide support, but they often also did repairs and refueling like carriers, or surveillance like Predators, and even command and control like Omni's. Auxiliaries, though, had rarely done well in direct combat, but unlike carriers, they had only had medium bays for parasite craft. These craft had also mostly been non-combat most of the time, but most commanders kept at least ten medium fighters. Its special ability, Endeavour, had to do with research and unlocking technologies. It had tripled the speed of research on Founder tech.
I had studied the build for the last ship in the queue, the only one I knew belonged to someone. Mercy had chosen to go last. Her carrier had been anything but standard in looks. The dimensions for the most common build of a carrier had been nine hundred and ninety-four meters long, with a width of six hundred and twenty-five meters and a height of three hundred and fifty-four meters. If it had been a common build, it would have had the circular command deck at the back flanked by the four large laser cannons.
Given that they hadn’t completed any of the other rooms, none of them would have had advanced weapons. That had been something I could use. I had needed to clear all the other rooms. They had made a mistake most people were taught not to make but couldn’t help. Becoming a commander had made one powerful on an individual level, but becoming a Symbiont commander had made one a god. They must have all followed Batz. He had been the only person who would have thought a standard ship had been enough. Plus, I was sure his family had had all the best upgrades one could think of. Why risk your future for items you could attain for free?
These ships had been so much more impressive up close. On the port and starboard had been the main turrets they could equip with guns, cannons, missiles, or torpedo launchers. Some even had mines, but most carriers had used a mix of manned rail gun turrets and laser cannons. The ability to raise many commanders in relative safety made carriers even more valuable, but the most valuable aspect had come from the thirty large landing pads inside the ship. The landing pads had held large fighters that could measure a maximum of one hundred meters cubed in size. These types of fighters, though, had to be earned.
Carriers came standard with small heavy fighters that measured thirty meters long, twenty-five meters wide, and eight meters high. The best commanders often leaned into this early on, as they could easily support a hundred. With externally mounted docking modules, the best could do fifty thousand, and this had all been thanks to the swarm mind augmentation that allowed for these fighters to be controlled. The special ability of carriers had been terrifying and powerful, but Mercy hadn’t obtained the cyborgs or support staff needed to pilot them all. Unmanned drones had been super expensive, as they required automation software, which had been a Founder-specific strategic technology.