When his ears stopped ringing, Kellin fell forward through the melted remains of Dev's Combat Suit. Landing on his knees and looking up, he was greeted with the forms of several Brutes and Swarmlings that had survived on the fringes of the massive explosion, writhing on the ground with the living half of their bodies as the charred half weighed them down. Three mounds scattered near the center of the explosion moved, crispy black exteriors cracking to reveal half cremated Swarmlings covering the injured forms of two Den Mothers and the resident Queen.
His vision bled red as he spent [Credits] on a quick heal, ripping through the closest of the Den Mothers with his Vorpal Blade before it could regain its bearings and fully emerge. Half of the surrounding Savul ran, including the further off Den Mother as the next five minutes turned into hell on Earth for Kellin. His mind constantly went in-between states of consciousness, a Brutes massive fist sending him into darkness only to wake halfway through the air. His helmet was torn off at one point and an eye went dark, repairing itself a few seconds later. His left shoulder and leg were crushed from a swipe of the Queen's massive tail, immovable, but his trusty rifle finally did its job and tore through the outer shell of the Queen's skull. One well-timed, lucky dodge later, and Kellin found his blade sunk wrist deep through the opening into her temple, the remaining Savul in the area scattering along with the final strike.
The body collapsed then, throwing him off as he lay on the ground in a pool of blood and the Queen's leaking brain matter, the rebound from overexerting his various [Skills] kicking in and rendering it nearly impossible to move. He wasn't able to use [Quick Heal] again due to a cooldown period. Idly checking, he noted he was still nowhere near close enough to a level up to reset that cooldown, either, even if he had gained enough [Credits] to use it.
After ten minutes of waiting for anything to come across him and finish the job, Kellin continued to watch along in the backseat of his own body as it regained some function, pulling himself up slowly and beginning the limp back to base, his rifle crooked under his left armpit between his broken ribs and mushed arm. If it weren't for adrenaline and a pain-reducing stimulant coursing through his veins, he'd probably have passed out.
The walk back was quiet and tense, Kellin full expecting his death to come down upon him at any moment, unable to run from even a group of Swarmlings with the Combat Suit's left leg not functioning properly. Even watching the dream as if he were a third party was stressful, each painful step grueling. His gun was likely gunked full of dirt at this point as well, since he'd been using it as a crutch.
It was in that silent trudge home, he'd thought back to the moment before the fighting had begun in earnest. Kellin now was forced to relive the moment that he had asked Gypsy to reconstruct his dead friend's final words, stuck despite wanting to wake up.
He shouldn't have asked.
The dream reset, too perfectly at that moment. The gunfire exploding around them as the sound of his Lieutenant's words succeeded in reaching Kellin's ears this time.
"Then, we'll at least get Anni her fath-*static*-ease tell Sheri I-*static*
"Anni, get up!-"
Kellin gasped, body rocketing upward as his head slammed into the ceiling above his nooked bed.
"God... fuck."
His body was sweating profusely as his hands grabbed at his forehead and tried to rub some of the pain out.
After a minute of cursing under his breath as if he'd stubbed his toe, he stood and moved to the bathroom, a shower refreshing his frayed mind. By the time he'd come back out, Gypsy had already made him some coffee.
A thank you later, he sat in the desk chair and sighed, looking toward the Repair Bay and wondering what to say.
"Captain Finnel seems troubled," she said, breaking the silence before he could.
Kellin nodded, itching his left eyebrow for a second as he responded. "Yeah, I... keep having really bad, vivid dreams. Things I'd rather not see right now," he admitted, sighing as he shook his head and looked toward the Repair Bay. "But anyway... we made it back, huh?" he laughed out.
"Perhaps it was bonded," Gypsy postulated.
"God I hope not," Kellin replied, actually laughing a bit this time. "It would be terrifying if the Pentrum were nearby as well. I'm surprised we even made it back as is."
Their bad luck had continued on the light jog home, coming across a Savul Brute that was escorted by several Swarmlings. [Cloak] managed to hide them from the large, dumb, four-armed creature for the few moments they needed, however, and when they made it through the front door of the Hutch they had fallen to 2 [Energy] and under 30 [Stamina].
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Kellin had practically carried the entire suit home, watching his [Stamina] tick away with almost every single step in an effort to conserve as much of their escape potential as possible. A quick nap had brought him back to a functionable level of his resources, Gypsy's already topped off entirely by the Repair Bay.
Or, should be, but it seemed she had a project going on the workbench.
"It is a possibility based on its behavior," she replied, weaving small wisps of purple energy while using the cooking area's mechanical arm as a medium to interact with it.
"Come on, Gyps, don't jinx us like that. When was the last time you've even heard of a Pentrum [Contractor]?" Kellin asked, sitting down at the desk and bringing up his log. "Their [Race] hasn't been seen in millennia, and they were the only ones confirmed able to reason with Savante."
He was over it for the day. He didn't know why that thing had shown up or what he'd done wrong to prompt it, but as far as he knew, a Hutch could conceal or protect them from most threats, and if a Savante was in the area, he wasn't chancing leaving until tomorrow at the earliest. They were fickle and sparse nomads, confirmed sightings of the same creature hundreds of miles apart in the same week, but on the huge off-chance it was a [Contactor], the thing would be bound to the area.
"The day Captian Finnel had AI parse through information on Savante [Contractors] was last time."
"Exactly," Kellin nodded, leaning back in the desk chair. "So-"
"Pentrum theorized to share [Evolutionary] background with the Savante," she stated quickly, cutting off his next words. "Chance both exist after Expansion is very likely."
Kellin sighed, but continued what he was going to say before. "Sooo, try not to tempt whichever pain in the ass god of chance that made us meet it today by talking about them, and please don't say that its likely the Pentrum are here on Terranis too."
Two delayed beeps was her response as Kellin remained in the chair, hands behind his head as he tried to think about things other than their impending doom should they leave the Hutch right now. He bounced between thinking of upgrade options, next [Evolutions], what they should [Create], but ultimately it all failed to distract from long enough as his anxious mind continued pulling him back to the intensity of those four golden eyes that had chosen to spare them today.
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'Again,' Tresk thought with a small amount of dissatisfaction, the young woman before him holding another crudely made lunch out for him to take.
With a sigh, he relented as she sat opposite him, staring out the window behind him seemingly at nothing in particular as she ate her own meal.
"Father," a purposeful voice called out, doors to his office being thrown open a bit too fast as they hit the walls they were mounted to with a bang. "Oh, you," the man said, glaring a bit at Annabelle. "Leave us, I wish to discuss something with my father."
"Maro, do not throw my doors like that. The wood is expensive," Tresk admonished, looking back down to his lunch and then to Annabelle.
The girl hadn't flinched on his eldest son's entrance and ignored him now as well, continuing to eat as she looked through the window and into the void of space. Tresk abruptly stood up to greet his son, to the man's surprise. After a quick handshake and nod of greeting, Tresk turned to return to his desk and looked out the windows he sat in front of.
The sub-station they used for offloading overly weighted goods hung in the background. His eyebrows knitted momentarily in wonder, but he returned to his chair and sat upright as his son stood behind the girl, a bit to the left.
She had the only chair opposite his desk and hadn't moved from it. Hell, it wasn't even supposed to be in his office as she had dragged in from the waiting area outside.
"Please have her leave," his son asked.
Tresk sighed and shook his head.
"You get her to leave. What is it that's so urgent that you're interrupting the only free time I have today? he questioned, venom on his voice completely at odds with his prior greeting.
Maro flinched but seemed to re-firm his resolve as he held eye contact.
"It has to do with her father and former [Councilmember] Kipper."
Annabelle froze mid-bite at that, Tresk's eyes squinting as his gaze intensified. The room seemed to grow cold as his voice began to rise in volume.
"You know that man is to never be mentioned-"
"Kipper is alive-" his son interrupted.
Tresk stood at the start of the interruption and had moved to his son so rapidly and fluidly that he held the boy by his throat before he'd even processed what was said, or that he'd moved. A second later, he dropped the man to the ground and glared down at his coughing form, realizing he was perhaps in the wrong.
'My [Stats] have reached another threshold, it seems.'
"How?" he asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.
Or he thought he had asked. In fact, Annabelle had. The question coming from her made him angrier at the man kneeling before him, but he didn't understand why.
"Answer," Tresk eventually said as Maro began to stand, rubbing his neck. "He was confirmed dead through the [System]. Did someone waste [Credits] reviving him?"
The thought of so much waste for an average Human disgusted him.
"No," Maro rasped out, still regaining his bearings. "Word from Barillo just came in. A fluctuation of several different [Resources] hit their new region in [Terranis], near the Savul territory. When they investigated, they found a... thing no one had ever seen before. Former [Councilmember] Flisk had it brought before him and the creature claimed to be Kipper. When Barillo asked him to prove it, the man knew details of the inner workings of the Empire that only a [Councilmember] would know. He became something new, with the expansion. A new [Race]. He shared his [Status] with Barillo who confirmed it. His name is still Rennial Kipper, and he's not Human anymore."
Tresk stood still, eyes blinking a few times as he processed the information, moving back to sit down at his desk. After a minute, he began to eat again, ignoring the fidgeting man before him.
"They... the [Captain] of the nearest city sent out another scouting party, larger and with an outsider [Tracker] in it to see if... anyone else may have survived."
Tresk chose not to respond, reminding himself that the man before him was his son as his fists clenched tightly, blood seeping down his palms from where his nails punctured his skin and absorbing back into it before it touched his desk. His eyes remained open as he stared down at the desk, pretending to be reading a few reports there and occasionally taking a bite of the food he'd been brought.
Maro left a few minutes later after unsuccessfully trying to get his father to respond or issue a new order. Another couple minutes later, Annabelle left as well, finally prompting him to look up as his mind showed him the ghost of a dead woman, entirely too similar in appearance, walking out those same office doors instead.