I felt it all from the beginning to the end. The door ejected the battered husk of a broken boy in a man's body. I awoke with a sleek black metal armband, wearing only my emergency oxygen suit—a government-issued system-recognized item.
The others were all around me, looking smug. Then Batz kicked me in the face! It hurt, but even as I flew backward, my lip ripped. By the time I landed, my lip had healed, and I lunged forward, throwing a three-punch combination at his throat, chest, and temple.
Batz waltzed around without any real effort. I had fought him before; he was faster now. He must have leveled up during the time I was passed out. Batz punched my chest so hard I swore my ribs dislocated from my spine, and hitting the wall put them back. I moaned like a beached walrus on the desert beaches of Namibia.
"Fucking Foster, I presumed you were dead. We completed the Guardian room and the security forces!" I heard his words clearly. Even with alarm bells ringing in my ears, I heard it all. I had been in the door trial longer than normal. If what he said was true, then I was screwed.
"What are we going to do, Batz?" a terrified Saanvi Naidoo asked. Clearly, they had something planned for me, and my extended stay had ruined their plans. I smiled as I stood, glaring at the wide-eyed and furious Mercy. I could feel it coming off her like venom in her eyes. The venom rolled down her face, and she licked her tears.
"Attack!" they all shouted as they jumped me. Batz and the others moved faster than I had ever seen anyone move. Clearly, they had picked up some more augments when they cleared the Guardian room. I brought my hands up. Since they were coming, I moved, putting Batz in front of Mercy. This denied her a strike of opportunity, and I wailed with everything I had at Pierce. I figured if I could take him down, the others would falter enough for me to catch my breath.
His punch flung me into the door and bounced me forward into Refilwe’s spinning kick. They worked well together. Batz countered my move, ducking under my flurry, and threw his gut-wrenching punch again. My new regeneration slowed, and the wounds appeared. They pummeled me until somebody shouted something, and everything stopped. I collapsed to the ground, grinning as I felt the wounds heal. A vicious kick sent me spinning.
Mercy knelt by my prone body, pulled me by my hair, and whispered in my ear, "I can't kill you myself, but I want you to suffer. I want nothing more than to burn your life down to the ground and make you eat the ashes. I know what you’re thinking. Why? Because, Xaka! Actions have consequences. This is a consequence of your actions. I know you don't care, but I care, and I will never forgive you."
The raw, visceral words didn’t sting me at all. The jihad Al-Akbar the door had visited upon me made this nothing more than a paper cut. I looked around, trying to see if they had cleared all the Guardian rooms. She slammed my head to the ground, searching for something in my eyes.
Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about. I wasn’t so self-absorbed to think that a promise made as children was why she was doing this. Something else must have happened after I left. Batz kicked me again, and I heard my jaw crack.
"Mercy, use your ability to melt the door. That way, he can’t leave. Foster can’t clear any of the other trials alone. So he will die here."
The rules were clear: Potents couldn’t kill each other inside the trials. But the abilities we gained could do what he said. Potents were superhuman. Those of us who went supreme were stronger alone than most Stellar nations.
"Like, oh my gosh, you're so cool right now, and you got a carrier. Like, I’m so jealous! All I got was a stupid escort," said Refilwe Sithole, her glee obvious. She looked at me like I wasn’t even there. When the popping started, my bones knitted themselves together, and she took a step back in disgust. Batz had broken my arm, and she looked at me like I was wrong for healing.
"Well, I received something better than what we agreed to, Batz. A Dreadnought, so it doesn’t really matter. Plus, my family is definitely going to recruit Mercy. With our deal done, I can focus on the future," said Saanvi. She came from a merchant family, and she could do a lot for them with a Dreadnought. I wondered what Batz’s family had done to help him get this ship. My heart pounded. Something was off about this whole thing.
I slipped out of Mercy’s grip and slugged my way to the other side of the room. This always worried me about her. She always played weak, but once she had what she wanted, she would ruin her enemies.
I tried to stand. I couldn’t fight them, and they couldn’t kill me. They were going to trap me, but I was never going to leave without a ship token. I found the board that said there were four Guardians alive. That meant they got lucky, and the first Guardian had dropped enough ship construction tokens for all of them when they killed it. Each symbiont type was powerful. They should have only gotten one token per Guardian.
I picked up my Gauss rifle as I retreated from them. They all looked and waved as they left. Batz started, and I guessed the others were too stupid to think of something themselves. I met eyes with Mercy. Her eyes glowed green, and a huge green mist ate at the door, melting the pieces together. She leaped back, giving me the middle finger as her new skill finished off the door.
"Analyse!" I shouted.
"Analyse!" I shouted. Outside of the super strength and healing, Commanders could use their systems to analyze various phenomena, monitor their own development, and augment themselves through technology acquisition and Experimental Xenotrophix polymers.
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[Plasmatic radiation detected]
I was surprised, stunned silent again. If she had that kind of skill, it must have come from a personal evolution. "How fucking lucky were they?" I thought. Batz and Sithole were both from prominent families, so they wouldn’t have left without specializations, as their families had ship tokens. That meant they got at least four ship tokens and at least three specializations. I wondered if they had killed the golden Guardian goose.
[Analyse has ranked up!]
Analyse – A simple skill
Rank: Cadet
Rarity: Bronze
Information: This skill lets a Commander understand the world around them. When used, it can reveal basic information. At each rank-up, the skill gains additional functionality.
I stood there in front of the melted door for about thirty minutes. The thought of them coming back terrified me. I knew they couldn’t kill me, but the looks they gave me told me I was less than nothing to them. As long as I remained here, they couldn’t kill me.
So I cried my lungs out, my body shaking. I couldn’t understand why she had done this to me. This was easier than focusing on the shattered remains of my plans. Why did I deserve to be hurt like that? It wasn’t fair. My rage boiled, and as it did, Master Wilson’s words came to mind: "In this infinite universe, there is only one thing you can control. Whether we are good or evil." It rattled against everything I wanted to do right then. Yet they were out of reach, and I knew it. They would use the shipyard to build their ships and finish the command trials.
The command trials couldn’t start until I ran out of time or finished the trials. For a moment, as the thought crossed my mind, I believed I could do it—and that was enough for me to do the stupid thing. I paced, working out a plan in my mind. Humans were too weak to take the trials alone, at least for a first-generation Commander like me. Even Batz couldn’t, but if a person had a supreme family going back twelve generations, then they could do it.
"Seeker status," I called, still staring at the melted door. My rifle bobbed up and down as I practiced my mantra: "To deny battle with the evil within is the only way to win the battle." Master Wilson had always emphasized my intention and my control. No matter what else happened, I needed to keep those two things in mind.
I didn’t feel like myself, but it was the only thing I could do to feel normal. The system still held back a majority of its sheets. Those would come with time and strength. My purpose right now was to build a strong foundation from which my power could consume my enemies and shape the universe I wanted.
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Name: Xaka Anasazi
Age: 21
Rank: Cadet
Profession: N/A
Augmentations: G.E.A.R.S.
Specialization: N/A
Symbiont Ship
Name: N/A
Type: N/A
Hull Points: N/A
Armor Points: N/A
Shield Points: N/A
Ship Modules: N/A
----------------------------------------
"Augments sheet," I called out. While I knew exactly what this was, I wanted to see it for myself through the system. The system would be the measuring stick for my growth. It was an important tool I couldn’t survive without. Many Potents had tried to stop using the system, and it had always ended badly. At first, when Sol earned its first Forge World, they doubted the system—which, as all historians of true merit know, caused the destruction of Mars. Sol history had never been my favorite subject.
----------------------------------------
[Augmentations]
[Personal Augmentations]
Name: G.E.A.R.S.
Rank: Fundamental
Rarity: Transcendent
Information: The Genomic Electro-neural Augmentation Reformation System is the base augmentation platform. With this system in place, the potent can absorb Exp and directly integrate technology modules into their body. Can integrate one specialization and ten augmentations. Can be upgraded.
Exp Absorption Rate: 100%
Rank: Cadet
[Ship Augmentations]
[N/A]
----------------------------------------
I smiled. The G.E.A.R.S. system was as advertised. Me standing here was proof of that, but somehow seeing it with my own eyes made it more real. I sniffed, refusing to cry anymore. My emotions were still all over the place. My mantra churned through the raging storm in my soul.
The G.E.A.R.S. system was how the Stellar system allowed Potents to grow powerful. By the end of this day, I would be dead or a Commander. My absorption rate was amazing. It wasn’t uncommon to have it represented as a percentage. This meant that I could absorb more than ten thousand Exp a day. Or rather, I could absorb more than the daily rank limit. By the time most Commanders hit the next rank, they could also absorb ten thousand Exp a day. Still, one hundred percent was the same as limitless. This was great for me, as I could rise in rank faster than most people. I should thank Mercy before I killed her.
The thought of killing was still 90/10, but for now, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kill her. I shouldn’t have felt conflicted since she had tried to end me, and yet I didn’t hate her. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to understand why, but I was sure I was going to kill her. Maybe. FUCK!