Their journey was odd. They didn’t encounter a single creature on the way. After several hours, their caution began to fade away and their trek just became another hike through the forest.
The dense forest eventually started thinning out. With the shifting scenery, the imposing trees, dense web of vines, and a diverse array of vibrant flora were replaced by a rugged landscape, fallen timber, and sweeping vistas that extended as far as the eye could see. They exited the jungle and were now entering a sprawling savannah.
The rune lit up the sky in a deep, crimson red color. It was perfectly aligned with a massive and uniquely shaped rocky protrusion. It was basically a solitary small mountain in the middle of the Savannah. It was not part of a range, or series of hills. The group’s conversations gradually shifted from discussing life on Earth, their favorite foods, and the TV shows they missed. They now remarked on the oddity of the formation in front of them.
“Well, guess that’s the place.” Marshall said.
It really didn’t need to be said, it was obvious as hell.
As they approached their destination, the atmosphere began to change. The air that had been teeming with bio-attuned energy and life, now felt strange and perverse. It felt wrong and really started to make their skin crawl.
“What’s up with this place?” Amy asked.
Freya gave a quiet whine. She did not like it one bit.
Their caution had returned as they approached the outcrop. Fortunately, their sight lines were clear in all directions, so nothing would likely sneak up on them out here. That also meant that whatever waited for them at the rune, probably already knew they were coming.
The terrain near the outcrop was a broken, rocky mess. Almost as if this thing had simply burst out of the ground in an instant. Debris was strewn everywhere, clearly having been thrown by some violent event.
The group circled the area, looking for any clues, or maybe a clear entrance. Just two hours after arriving, they’d found it. The steep walls of the small mountain gave way to a large tunnel that bored directly into the side of the rocks, leading them on an incline down into the darkness.
Each step they took echoed through the rough-hewn, dark brown sandstone and packed mud. The tunnel gradually transformed as they delved deeper, with smoother surfaces replacing the jagged walls. The surfaces were prevalent with the remains of ancient runic pathways, long since falling into disrepair. The walls bore a striking resemblance to the tiles found in the Sunken Caverns’ final chamber.
The evidence of bugs was clear as day. The area was filled with frass, along with the leftover shells of what seemed to be hatched eggs. It only became more clear to the group as the molted remains of exoskeletons, clearly shed by Spinecharge beetles started to appear.
Their passage through the tunnel was cramped. The walls of each side were only about six feet apart, and had the feeling more of a hallway than a tunnel. Freya’s nose was on overdrive. She sniffed for any evidence of danger as the group slowly progressed. Each step sent them further into the depths. The crisp, manufactured tiles were now showing signs of some sort of infestation. The intricate paths of runes that were once present on the tiles had been substituted with a fleshy and organic substance resembling veins. The transition from rock to tile, and from tile to flesh left the group extremely disturbed, and more than a little sick to their stomachs.
The passage was now completely devoid of any hints of its artificial nature. The organic, fleshy mass covered every surface, and appeared to pulse in a rhythm, like a heartbeat.
“Guys, this is fucking gross.” Marshall said. “I swear to God if we’re walking right into some bug’s ass, I’m done. I’ll go back to base.”
Before anyone could tell Marshall to shut his ass up before the bugs eat them, a spectral humanoid figure flashed into being in front of them, clearly the result of some sort of holographic projection. While it was humanoid, it was not human. It towered over the group at nearly eight feet tall. Its slender body was draped in robes of a shimmering cloth that clung to its bony frame and impossibly long arms. Instead of a face, the being bore an angular skull, apparently devoid of flesh and etched in the same runic script they’d seen on the walls. Two large, luminous orbs sat recessed within the bony surface of the being’s ‘face’. They seemed to scan the room with a steady, unwavering intensity. Where the being’s mouth should have been there was only a smooth, seamless surface, leaving the group to wonder if the being could speak at all.
They soon had their answer. “krrrk-tsk-mor’bq ta… torch bearers.” the being said. Whatever was responsible for the projection, seemed to adjust the translation so they could understand.
“What?” Calvin asked.
“You bear the mark of the torch bearers.” the being said again.
“Uh, yes. I suppose we do. Although we haven’t decided on that just yet. Who are you?”
“I am what remains of this vessel.”
“Vessel? What is this place?”
The being looked around for a moment. “This place… was a lifebringer vessel. Charged with bringing life and abundance to desolate planets throughout the universe. Now—“ the projection flickered momentarily. Coming back a couple of seconds later.
“— has been corrupted. Now, this is a deathbringer vessel.”
“What has been corrupted? We’re here to stop an infestation. Do you know anything about that?”
“Everything has been corrupted. This is what The Corruptors do.”
“The Corruptors… as in the beings trying to destroy the system? The ones that destroyed the Aetherian Collective?”
“Human. The Corruptors do not seek to destroy The System. They seek to become it. They seek to end sentient life and remake the multiverse. Yes, The Corruptors annihilated my people. They Corrupted this vessel and the lifeforms within.” the projection flickered off again before returning briefly.
“There is not enough power to sustain this avatar. Do not let the corruption escape this vessel. Destroy the hive. Retrieve the data core. You will have your answers.” the projection disappeared, leaving only silence in its wake.
Calvin looked at the group, thinking. “What are the odds?”
“Of what?” Amy asked.
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“We were sent to a dungeon, and our reward for defeating it were some hidden classes we haven’t seen yet, putting us on the path of this Aetherian Collective. We were attacked by waves of beetles, presumably coming from here. We were sent here on a quest, and it’s directly related to the Collective and The Corruptors.”
“I’ll bet Seth’s share of the loot that the other quests will also lead us to similar outcomes.” Marshall said.
“Crash, what’s your take on this? You’ve got an outside perspective.” Calvin asked.
Crash thought for a moment before speaking. “It’s convenient. It feels like training.”
Calvin looked at him, expecting that he would continue.
“Uh, so, when we had training, back on Earth. We would be given scenarios, and those scenarios would be presented like they were real. We would perform live fire exercises on actual targets like buildings or armor. Our instructors would dress up as the enemy and we would perform operations against them, as if they really were the enemy. It was always convenient. From the moment the training started, everything that happened would be guiding you toward the conclusion, or failure. That’s what this feels like.”
“That makes sense. Back in the dungeon, we were told that the Tutorial has become a recruitment platform, to fight against The Corruptors. So, you think everything we’re experiencing right now is training for that?”
“It seems like it. Although, training isn’t always scripted or fake. Sometimes our training would involve actual targets against actual hostile forces. In a sense, we were always training. I see two possibilities, either the system has designed these quests for you as training for the ‘path’ it hopes you will choose, or the system is using environmental factors already present as a training opportunity.”
“I don’t know what sounds worse. If the system is creating these scenarios, that’s one thing. If there are actual Corruptors here… that’s a whole different ballgame.” Calvin looked down the tunnel with hesitation, “I guess we’ll find out.”
Amy and Freya moved on ahead to scout. A few minutes later, Calvin could sense through his link with Freya that they’d entered a large space, a dangerous space.
Calvin signaled caution with his hands as the group formed up and carefully made their way to the entrance of the space.
It was a massive room. There were various ‘normal’ sized passageways leading away from the room on every wall, and a massive armored hatch of sorts lining one wall. It appeared that this might be cargo storage of some sort, and those doors would be the loading bay doors. Beetles were everywhere. There were small nests with eggs being guarded by smaller versions of the armored beetles. The other Spinecharge beetles not guarding a nest were moving about with purpose. They were transporting materials, possibly food, through one of the back corridors. It seemed like that way led deeper into the hive.
There were probably 40 beetles in this room alone. They were all lower level, only a few of them above level 10 that Calvin could see, but what they lacked in power, they made up for in numbers. The group slowly backed out of the room to cook up a quick plan.
A moment later, it was time to get the party started.
Crash prepared an Incendiary Grenade and hurled it into the room, following up with a continuous barrage of pulse fire from his rifle. He had an assault-style rifle that fired similar pulse ammunition to Marshall’s pulse pistol. The fire rate was slightly higher and just a bit more powerful.
The grenade exploded, saturating an area approximately 15 feet wide in white, hot flames. Almost a dozen beetles were killed outright, with many others being engulfed in flames as they charged through the immolated area toward them.
Reaper was posted up in the rear. He’d fired two armor-piercing Nightclaw rounds at the armored nest guardians before switching to his pulse rifle and picking off the incoming horde.
Toxic spikes whistled out across the battlefield as Amy worked to apply her virulent and corrosive toxin infusions to as many targets as she could. Marshall would follow up with Patient Zero. As this was the first time they’d seen the skills in action together, they were more than a little surprised by the results.
A nanite wave of a sickly green color erupted from Marshall’s marked target, traveling nearly 30 feet in every direction. The beetles in the room suffered the effects of the corrosive and virulent toxins, their strength and health gradually deteriorating as their bodies slowly decayed.
The damage wasn’t immediately critical though. While it was highly effective at applying the negative effects to everything in the room, it would be quite some time before any of the beetles succumbed to the damage.
That’s where Calvin and Freya came in. Freya was like death incarnate. The beetles were such low level, and seemingly freshly hatched so she simply barreled through them, shredding their little bug bodies with her claws as she charged the armored beetles in the rear.
Calvin cleaned up. He finally got the opportunity to test his new spear. He swung his spear in powerful sidelong swings, firing crescent wind blades into the quickly thinning throng. With only half a dozen swings, nearly the entire room was cleared out, with only a few remaining armored defenders guarding the nests. Those soon fell.
Some of the beetles toward the rear of the room had escaped down the tunnel. On a positive note, they were infected with Amy’s virulent toxin, which would spread slowly to any nearby beetles they encountered. On a far more negative note, all of the beetles in the hive were being alerted to their presence.
This manifested in a brutal fashion as endless hordes of bugs began pouring through the tunnel entrance. The group had no time to slow down, it looked like this was a trial of endurance and they pressed forward.
The slaughter was relentless as they systematically dismantled the beetles. The tunnel was a sloshing mess of ichor and shattered chitin as the group plodded through, deeper into the hive.
As they progressed, the walls seemed aware of their presence. They were pulsing with a malevolence that almost dared them to press forward… and press forward they did, slaughtering their way into a large circular chamber.
This chamber must been the power core for the large alien vessel. They emerged on a catwalk that ran in a ring around the outer edge of the chamber like a belt. Below the catwalk was a drop, nearly 30 feet to the bottom. The walls, floor and ceiling were completely encased in the pulsating fleshy mass that grew its way up a central pillar. The pillar stretched all the way from the base of the chamber, up nearly 60 feet to the ceiling. A faint glow shone through the organic mass. It must be absorbing power from that core.
All along the undulating walls of the chamber, pores opened like malevolent mouths, dropping egg sacks onto the floor below. There were dozens pouring out every few seconds as the ones on the chamber floor began to rattle and roll around, before hatching.
Beetles weren’t the only issue to contend with now. As some of the eggs hatched, they revealed grotesque creatures resembling giant, mutant wasps. These wasps were nearly the size of Freya, with stingers almost as long as Calvin’s arm. The stingers dripped with a deadly looking venom and the wasps slowly shed the slime from their unceremonious birth and began to take flight.
This would be a huge problem. The chamber walls were continuously pouring eggs out into the floor below, with around one in every 20 or so hatching into wasps.
The fighting never slowed down, a relentless tide of bugs skittered along the catwalks trying to overwhelm the group with sheer numbers. Between every swing of his spear, Calvin began to relay the plans.
Chop!
“Crash, Reaper!”
Chop!
“You’re on wasp duty, take those things down!”
Chop!
Calvin swung his spear ceaselessly, each swing clearing the catwalk on his side of approaching beetles. Freya and Marshall held down the other side while Amy looked desperately around for a solution.
The fighting was not difficult. None of these creatures posed a danger to them really. The true danger was the room itself. While they could fight these bugs off without much issue, they couldn’t do it forever. Their stamina was slowly draining, and before long, even with potions, exhaustion would claim them.
“We have got to stop these walls from shitting out more bugs!” Marshall called out.
He fired several rounds into the walls, causing deep scorching wounds that slowly healed themselves.
Calvin considered ordering Reaper to shoot the power core, but stopped himself, realizing he had no clue what kind of energies were contained within. Unleashing those energies could have devastating consequences.
“Be careful of the pillar in the center!” he shouted. Reaper and Crash had already come to a similar conclusion and were careful about their shots.
Calvin swiped a final time and sprinted forward to generate charge. He slammed his crackling spear into the walls, releasing the electric arcs into the pulsating flesh. The entire room quivered as the electricity ran through the mass. While the effect did cause some noticeable damage and stop the birthing of eggs for a short period, the damage was quickly healed and the barrage of eggs continued.