Mads checked the target through the spotting scope set up next to her custom sniper-style recoilless rifle.

“Fuck!”

She had placed her shot off the center by almost 4 centimeters according to the digital display. Sure, she wasn’t using Skills, but her skills shouldn’t have let her be off by that much.

A week of bad dreams.

That’s what it was. She knew this. She couldn’t get the images out of her mind. Music that she recognized, but couldn’t place or was it the other way around?

Not that the statement made sense to her.

Something was way off.

Range time was her usual balm for mental disquiet. It was relaxing and focusing at the same time. Just her and her weapon. All she had to pay attention to was the target, the wind and her breathing.

Slowly and softly. In and out, focusing on that until she had reached maximum stillness right as she squeezed the trigger.

Instead, she couldn’t get that damned wordless song out of her thoughts. Along with the images of her remaining family back on Earth dying in flames and other terrible ways.

Every night since she had returned to their main base.

She had already sent a message through the spires to check up on them and had received a short one in return. The cost was prohibitive and she felt guilty for putting that on them. She didn’t have that same problem. Orchestral Meridian gave her more than enough points to send as many messages as she wanted. Just not enough to go back home, yet.

“Soon…” she whispered.

Perhaps the brutal fighting was the source of her dreams.

“Probably have PTSD… Threnosh don’t have counseling. Then again, my entire adult life has been one long traumatic event.”

The spires and the gremlins in the dark. Fishmen and their mutated cultists. The twisted tunnels, the profane temple beneath the bay and that dark god thing—

She cursed.

“Too many bullshit things.”

Yes.

She was right on that account.

But what else could she do beyond what she was already doing?

Get better, stronger, but to do that meant facing one terrible thing after another.

“Kill them all, until there are none left to kill,” she shook her head. She was wise enough to know that wasn’t a realistic goal. There was no end. The thought shrouded her mind in darkness.

She focused through her rifle’s scope. Steadied her breathing and fired.

A quick check through the spotting scope.

Bullseye.

“Better…”

Was it?

She rubbed the callus on her trigger finger as she thought about her dreams. This time with a more analytical view.

She saw her old home before things had changed.

Over ten years now.

Her neighborhood.

Playing with friends and family on the cul-de-sac.

Then— burning fire. Bright and shining, almost like burnished gold.

Friends and family crying tears of the molten metal that burned from their eyes and left charred tracks on their cheeks. Their backs ripped open as she stood helplessly, screaming and crying and laughing. Bloody lungs unfurled like wings as they soared up into the smoke-choked sky to leave her alone in a scorched landscape.

And through it all the song was laced into everything.

She tried to hum the tune since it seemed to lack words, but couldn’t. It came out different each time, yet she recognized it as the same song in her dreams.

Mads found herself gasping for air and suddenly very warm. Her head felt so warm that she tugged the woolen beanie off. She wiped her plastered bangs.

The wind blew a chill caress across her face, but didn’t dampen the heat.

“The fuck is this?” she muttered as she practically jumped up from her prone shooting position. She scanned her surroundings, but realized that there were no threats.

Despite Veronica’s recent experience with monsters that were in a place they shouldn’t have been in Mads was mostly certain that wouldn’t be the case in the shooting range.

It was within the base’s walls, which were much more heavily armed than those encircling the surrounding monster zones.

She sat down, crossed her legs and began to meditate.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when keen ears detected the sound of boots tromping through the grass.

She cracked an eye open and saw Olo’s huge frame looming over her.

“You’re blocking my sun,” she said.

“Sorry,” Olo took a large step to the side. “The air’s cold, so the sun’s actually pretty nice. You think they get snow here?”

“You didn’t read Loaming’s comprehensive outworld invader guide?”

“I stopped after page 100 of things we’re not supposed to do,” Olo grinned.

“I skipped that entire section,” Mads shook her head, “all five hundred pages. I did read the stuff about the local environment. So, no snow in the immediate area. Closest place you’ll find it are those mountains,” she pointed to the west.

“Ah… monster zone… that’s too bad. I was thinking we might have a chance to play in the snow. I haven’t since before the spires showed up. Winter must be getting close.”

“You should read the guide. Loaming put in a lot of work,” she chided her much larger friend. “So, what’s with that?” she pointed at the standard recoilless rifle slung over Olo’s shoulder.

“I’m mostly melee tank, but I figured I should continue to work on other skills,” Olo shrugged. “You mind?”

“Go ahead.”

Olo set up a short distance away from Mads and tapped the PID on his wrist.

An opening appeared in the ground, from which a small, tracked drone emerged. The drone moved down the range until it had reached a distance of 50 meters from Olo.

“I’m still not very good,” Olo said.

“That’s why we practice,” Mads replied.

She resumed shooting as Olo began.

The silence of the recoilless rifles’ magnetic acceleration system was oppressive to Mads’ ears and she couldn’t stop herself from speaking after only a few minutes.

“This is so weird,” Mads said. “I’m not used to being able to hear things when I’m shooting.”

“Yeah, this gun almost feels like a toy,” Olo said.

“Say, why are you really here? I mean, right now? You could practice at any time.”

Olo grimaced. “That obvious?”

“I’d say suspicious.”

Olo placed his rifle down with a sigh. “Sorry, nothing weird. It’s just that, you’ve been, like, out of it since we got back. You only leave your room to come out here.”

“I thought we’re on a break. I can spend it how I want.”

“I know, but you’ve skipped all our team training sessions and stuff.”

“It’s a break. That includes from training and you guys. I don’t know how you guys see it, but I would like some time away from you all.”

“Same here, but… um… I was wondering if there wasn’t something else. I’ve seen the look on your face, at least on the rare occasions that I actually see you, and…”

“It’s—” Mads almost said nothing, “I’m not sleeping well.”

“You too…” Olo hesitated, “bad dreams?” he ventured.

Mads recognized the look in Olo’s face. She had been seeing its twin in her mirror for the past week. “You first.”

“It always starts the same way. I’m back playing football when I was a kid. Except, the game’s in a huge stadium instead of the community center park. There’s a huge band, like college-style, but they’re not playing fight songs and shit, more like— I don’t know, can’t really describe the music. Like orchestral stuff, maybe, not sure. Anyways, everyone in the stands are people I know— knew… my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends from school, even neighbors. People from before the spires and after. They were all cheering and then there’s this flash of yellow light, shining so bright that it hurt to look at, but I couldn’t take my eyes away. Wish I could. No matter how hard I try I can’t close them fast enough to miss what comes next…”

“They all die?” Mads whispered. “Was it fire?”

“A few times,” Olo choked out, “other times they get cut to pieces,” he swallowed, “like that way in old anime when it’s done with super sharp swords or magic wires and shit… my dad and mom are smiling at me one moment then their heads and limbs are dropping— I can’t— the smiles never leave their faces—”

Mads had to reach up to awkwardly pat Olo’s shoulder. “At least neither of us are alone in this. Are any of the others having the same dreams?”

“Not sure, they’ve been looking off, but you’ve been the most obvious, so I thought I’d check with you first,” Olo shrugged.

“I was chalking it up to what we’ve been dealing with in Meridian, like, PTSD stuff, but now… bad dreams are probably normal, even all of us having them, but they’re too similar.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Agreed. Some kind of magic attack or an Inheritor’s powers, I’d bet on the latter. I read Cal’s reports on Mother Madrigal. She could mess with thoughts. Maybe, she’s not dead or there’s another like her still somewhere in the deep levels,” Olo said.

“Nothing was said that indicated the ability to reach this far. And we’ve only started having these dreams after we left Meridian.”

“We should check with the others,” Olo said.

“Vee too?”

Olo frowned. “You think she’s having the same dreams? She’s been super grouchy, but I just figured that was her still salty about being benched… and maybe cause she’s… er… like, growing pains?”

“Watch yourself,” Mads poked a finger into Olo’s chest. “Don’t ever let her hear you say that.”

“Yeah, I don’t want an ass-kicking,” Olo nodded.

“So, what do our dreams have in common?”

“People from home dying horribly,” Olo said.

“Weird music that I can hear right now, but I couldn’t describe it or replicate it.”

Olo’s eyes widened. “I can too…” he said. “You’re right. I can’t— same as you.”

“Yours had a flash of yellow light. Mine had gold, not light, but—” an involuntary shiver ran across Mads’ back, “anyways, gold and fire.”

“The light could’ve been gold, I guess, not sure though. Should we tell Remy?” Olo said.

Mads shook her head after a moment. “I want to check with the team first. Get as much information as possible before we bring it up the chain.”

“Alright, I’d better go see if the guys are having the same dreams,” Olo said.

“I’ll ask Vee after I’m done here.”

“Uh… sure… we should probably have a team meeting soon.”

Mads nodded and returned to her shooting while Olo picked up his rifle and headed back to base.

After another five hundred rounds Mads was no closer to the peace of mind that she had sought.

The damnable song continued to flit through the back of her mind.

“Not better.”

So, she did the only she could in the moment. She gathered her equipment and headed back to find Veronica.

She tracked down the girl to the weird chamber in the base that opened up to the sky. It was something of a farm mixed with a zoo from what she could tell, although, she still wasn’t entirely clear which side it favored.

It was an enormous space, the size of a giant warehouse. There were trees, grassy fields, even a pond with water flowing in a stream to and from it.

Alien animals populated the space. The source of their food.

Dog-sized quadrupeds that resembled a mix between a deer and a cow ambled through while lazily grazing. The unimaginatively named deercows. Their meat tasted like cow as far as Mads could tell. She hadn’t had venison before, so she couldn’t make that comparison. Some of the others leaned more to that side.

Tiny chicken-like birds roved the space eating what was probably bugs in the grass or seeds.

Fluorescent ducks swam in the pond.

She found Veronica there.

The girl was glumly tossing pieces of bread at the quacking things.

Mads had to step carefully to avoid the animals that had practically swarmed her as soon as she drew near. “You are much too domesticated, poor bastards,” she muttered, “shoo…” a tiny chicken thing landed on her shoulder and pecked at her ear as if aggrieved at the lack of handouts, “go bother the food dispensing drones.”

The animal gave her one last squawk before gliding away.

“Weird ass…” she grumbled. “Hey, Vee!” she brightened her tone, but the girl merely looked at her. The dark rings around Veronica’s eyes were troublesome. “So, I see that you’ve been having trouble sleeping. Which is weird, cause I thought you don’t need as much as us baseline humans,” she grinned.

“I don’t,” Veronica mumbled. “Still need some though…”

“So, I’ve been sorta having the same problem. Bad dreams,” Mads said lightly.

“That’s why you’ve been grouchy-looking?” Veronica’s eyes narrowed.

“When I say ‘bad’, I actually mean ‘horrific’. Night terrors rather than nightmares. You know what I mean?”

Veronica nodded. “It feels so real that you can’t go back to sleep.”

“It’s worse when I can’t get the song, the music out of my head when I’m awake. Every night I see the deaths of everyone I ever cared about back home with that song I can’t describe in the background.”

“Hey, that’s really weird and scary. It’s the same for me. We’re under attack!” Life flared in Veronica’s eyes. “Good! Now that we know, we can take whatever’s doing this out. Shit! Why didn’t I think of that sooner. We can get something from the Threnosh that can scan our brain waves or something while we’re sleeping. They can catch and track any outside influences. What if it’s, like, using sound waves to put these dreams in our heads? That’s Frequency’s deal. They can take care of it. I’ll ask my dad if he can have them sent back here.”

“Slow down. Good ideas, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. I was talking to Olo and he was going to check with the guys if they’ve been also having the same dreams,” Mads said.

“Olo too?” Veronica said.

Mads nodded.

“Then it’s got to be an enemy action. Damn it! I should’ve told my mom. She’s going to be mad that I haven’t told her,” Veronica said.

“That’s right!” Mads felt a spike of hope and joy. “She can heal. Maybe that’ll help.”

“Ugh… she’s going to make me do a bunch of brain scans. It’s so hard holding back my power. I don’t want to make work for the fabricators. I’ve already busted so many of their scanners,” Veronica said.

“It takes them like a few hours to build new ones,” Mads scoffed. “I’m pretty sure they don’t mind.”

“Yeah, but it’s still my fault.”

The dejected way Veronica fed bread crumbs to the weird ducks made Mads sadder than she should’ve been. She really needed a good night’s sleep.

“Sounds like a plan. You’ll tell your mom?”

“Yeah… I guess,” Veronica sighed.

“We’ll probably hear what the rest of the team has to say by dinner time. Once we get confirmation we can start—” Something rammed the side of her leg. “Shoo… I don’t have food?”

A deercow was pushing its head into her.

It mooed at her.

Or was it whatever sound a deer made?

She didn’t know animals. Let alone these weird alien ones.

Veronica whistled and the creature ambled over for a piece of bread.

“You know it’s going to become hamburger or steak or sausage, right?” Mads could feel her mouth water. Strange animals, but tasty. Even the techno ducks.

“I know. It’s why I stopped giving them names,” Veronica scratched the deercow’s head. “Don’t worry about my part. I’ll go to my mom right after I’m done here. I’ll tell her to wait for the rest of you guys before going to my dad.”

“We should have something by tonight… I’m not looking forward to bed time.”

“Me neither,” Veronica sighed.

“Too bad the Threnosh don’t have sleeping pills.”

“They could probably make one in a day or two.”

“Might make things worse.”

“Yeah, I thought about asking, but then I thought… what would happen if I couldn’t wake up from the nightmare?”

Mads shivered.

She waited awhile longer with Veronica. Trying to chat about lighter things, but it was difficult for the both of them with the song in their heads.

The animals soon swarmed around them to a level that made her uncomfortable so, she excused herself and carefully weaved her way through the throng of mooing and clucking things.

She heard Veronica call for more feed from the drones, but was thankfully free.

“A little better? Maybe…”

After she left Veronica to the animals she headed straight for the weapons and armor development section of the base.

The Threnosh were technological miracle workers. She remembered the early days on the Threnosh world when she had been worried about finding ammunition for her custom, competition over under shotgun. Turned out she needn’t have. Although the Threnosh didn’t utilize combustion-powered cartridges they quickly made her more than enough shells, shot and slugs of so many different varieties. All from her descriptions of Earth ammo and measurements of her gun.

She even got her own power armor that had many built-in enhancements that had increased her effective range to a ridiculous distance even accounting for her Sharpshooter Skills. With assistance from spotters, living or drones, she could hit things beyond her physical visual range.

She was headed over there to go over a few things. Minor adjustments she thought might improve her future performance based on her latest stint in Orchestral Meridian.

“Designation: Mads, I received your request and have prepared a plan to implement improvements,” Engineer Verdant Mechanica 3581 said.

“Already? That was fast.”

There were several Threnosh at work in the command hub of the section. Their non-combat power armor didn’t add much to their diminutive height, which Mads guiltily enjoyed. She felt so tall on the Threnosh world. Olo must’ve felt like a giant.

She followed the engineer to the central console, carefully maneuvering around the frail aliens. The first thing Cal had drilled into their heads on their first day was to be mindful of their movements. Threnosh in non-combat armor could be injured by a hard shove.

“We have already updated targeting and drone control software. Projections for a 30.23% increase in general accuracy. Additionally, spotter drone complement has been increased by 2.”

“Nice! Thanks! That sounds awesome!” Mads grinned.

The engineer responded with a flat, expressionless stare.

“Er… so, what about mobility options? I almost got crushed by the Gyxdor Inheritor, big bastard jumped like a thousand feet. If Primal hadn’t shot him out of the air I would’ve been pancaked flat,” Mad’s felt the need to explain at the look on the engineer’s gray face. “I would’ve been squished flat, like a pancake.”

“Yes, I have tried that food. It is indeed flat. That must not be allowed to happen to you.”

“I know, right? So, I was thinking, maybe an antigrav unit and some thrusters. Doesn’t have to be full flight capability. Just enough for some quick 3D relocation capability. If I could hover way up high in the sky. I could snipe easy when they can’t even see me.”

“Unfortunate, but your trueskin cannot incorporate that equipment. We have run simulations and processing capability is a major point of failure. The experimental targeting system, combined with drone control occupies most of your capability. Adding antigrav and thruster stabilization processes causes a failure cascade.”

“Damn.” Hopes of raining fire from on high, safe and sound drifted out of Mads’ hands like dust in the wind. She closed her eyes and sighed. “Alternative options? I’d really like to be more mobile.”

“An external jump pack.”

“What kind of range are we talking?”

“A maximum of 30 meters with a full-powered burst. We will strengthen the legs to absorb landings.”

“I’m guessing this isn’t integrated to my suit. A limited used, detachable pack?”

“That is correct.”

Mads thought for a moment. “Better than nothing. Okay, let’s do it.”

The engineer waved tiny, skeletal fingers and bright text appeared on the large holographic projection of Mads’ power armor above the console. The jump pack as well as what looked like additions to the legs appeared on the wire-frame model.

“Stealth?” Mads ventured.

“Improvements to power supply increases adaptive camouflage system duration by 19.94%.”

“So…” Mads tried to the math, “if I’m running full active systems on everything that means I can have my camo up for…”

“3:32:13, approximate, fluctuations dependent on variable environmental effects.”

“Three and a half minutes,” Mads nodded appreciatively. “Right… and if I’m not running any other systems, it’ll be…” she eyed the engineer expectantly.

She thought she saw a twitch of the engineer’s smooth eyelid.

Still, the Threnosh’s tone remained neutral. “15:27:55.”

“Well, I’m happy with that. Anything on the ordinance front.”

“Negative.”

Mads shrugged. “I figured there wouldn’t be any new breakthroughs since the last time I was here. No biggie.”

“We have replenished your combustion-based weapons’ ammunition.”

“Awesome! The explosive shrapnel slugs really tear up those skinless freaks— sorry, I know they used to be your people.”

“Yes. That is factual.”

“Uh… I guess that’s it.”

“Correct. We have addressed your requests.”

“Thanks, Engineer Verdant Mechanica 3581.”

The engineer turned and returned to their work without another word.

Mads had gotten used to the brusqueness of the general Threnosh, so it didn’t bother her. She left the chamber and found herself bereft of something to do, which allowed the music in her head to grow louder.

“Fuck you…” she muttered.

She need to stay busy and engaged for as much as possible until Olo got back to here.

An idea struck her and she smiled.

She was going to pay a visit to the training chambers. She was bound to find one of the special candidate Threnosh in their unique power armor. It was always interesting watching them and talking to them. She had found them much closer to a human in their mannerisms and speech than the standard Threnosh.

Except, perhaps for Shira.

That one was scary.