Their awful, discordant bark-howls were only just barely audible over the echoing sound of the shaking ground and stampeding feet through the mouth of the tunnel.
“Damn, they’re pissed.” Daniel rolled his shoulders, drawing up the two-handed axe. If he was nervous, nothing about his posture suggesting so. I shook my head, he’d never been one to let the fear of death overtake him.
The first wolves emerged from the darkness, squinting in the daylight as they ran up.
I began counting shots, three rang out in the first second, three wolves tumbled down. Those directly behind them staggered over their bodies. I piled five more up as they stepped around them and over them with brutal efficiency that shocked me in spite of myself.
The wolves weren’t capable of realizing the trap, and continued to charge forward. To my surprise, Fran didn’t have the opportunity to use a feather while I still had bullets in my clip, the bodies serving to slow them enough that I could dispatch them. They were only able to leave the tunnel three at a time. It just so happened that I could accurately fire that many times in a second.
“This is insane,” I heard Daniel utter as he risked looking up to me, my aim pivoting relentlessly and cleanly. I didn’t stop, I didn’t rest, I existed to put a bullet in every wolf’s head.
It wasn’t my skill entirely, either, that I was sure of. The Blood of the Reaper kept my attention honed, no stray thoughts or distractions entered my mind. I was a killing machine with plenty of ammo.
Finally, the time to reload came, the pile of wolf corpses made for quite an adequate barrier in and of itself.
More Wolves still poured out, Fran showing her skills as they made it a little further from the opening. From what it seemed, she was perfectly fine with letting them get some space. I realized it was due to the fact that if they couldn’t leave the hole, they might stop trying. She gave them a few feet and created a wider killing field.
Feathers pierced through their backs, hitting the heart and stopping. She’d fire six at a time, ensuring that the wolf she’d hit would be immobilized even if she missed the heart.
Thus far, she didn’t miss. A few tried to dodge, and found quickly that the second darting projectile would hit its mark. It was ruthless, and as she ran low on feathers they rose from the ground with their wolves in tow. She piled the bodies around the walls of the hole, boxing them in even further.
“Damn, guys, I don’t have anything to do!” Daniel laughed, waiting patiently in spite of his supposed relaxed tone.
I opened my senses as I slapped a new magazine in, the empty case disintegrating into my Reaper Ammo Storage space. This was remarkably easier than fighting them out in the open. They had no chance, I had a weapon with a disgustingly deep clip and punching power, Fran’s field offensive and defensive utility made for plenty of room for error. Daniel was our front line, and hadn’t even been touched yet.
“Oh, here we go!” He called out, cocking an arm back. I frowned, not seeing what he could see.
A bear barreled out from the tunnel, roaring as it went, stomping and crushing over the wolves corpses.
It reared up and continued roaring as it swiped at Daniel.
Daniel roared back, slicing broadly with his axe, a heavy strike that cleaved through the bears arm in one blow.
“Whoa.” I breathed, watching as the bear nearly fell backwards. Daniel reached out with a gauntleted hand, grabbing its chest fur and yanking it towards him.
We covered him as a clot of wolves ran through. They stood even less of a chance with both of us tearing into them, we also recognized Daniel needed no help with that bear. Left and right, the wolves perished, occasionally shot and pierced by a feather at the same time. Fran, even without the aid of an A.I., was already a person of no insignificant amount of willpower and focus. It showed.
Daniel, contrary to what a reasonable person might do, had pulled the bear’s head towards his own, wrenching it hard against the steel. Its jaw cracked, Daniel headbutted again, its jaw snapped, and again. After six such times, the bear no longer had a face, and fell backwards, cracks appearing all over its body as M.E. escaped its corpse.
“Next!” He pounded his chest, covered in black blood that gleamed in the purple light of his visor. At the sight of him, the wolves staggered at the entrance, giving us a moment's reprieve.
“You… scared them?” Fran could scarcely believe what she saw. I could barely believe it either.
Then bellows came and the wolves made space where they could. A surge of them fell over each other to the entrance as something pushed through.
We got rid of the wolves, resulting in even more of the wolves huddling against the walls of the tunnel instead of coming out of the hole.
Black forms, hulking and brutish, filtered out. One after the other. We bombarded them as they came, but they were far hardier than wolves.
Ten bears snarled their silver lined jaws at Daniel.
“Time for plan B.” Daniel shouted, jumping over the pit and darting for the park. He had to be the first to move, they’d trap him otherwise.
“I’ll slow them down!” Fran shouted, striking them again and again with feathers. “Matt, go into hiding!” She turned her gaze to where I’d been.
I was already gone.
“He does that.” Daniel called over his shoulder when Fran seemed especially perplexed, “Come over, we’ll cover each other!”
She nodded, darting forward and using the magnetics and momentum to tear feathers from the bears backs. They snarled and grunted in pain, but not a single one of them was close to dead. Limping and shuffling, they tumbled their way to the park, almost every single one bearing at least one limb that had been pierced at a joint by Fran’s attacks.
As they went, the wolves reluctantly pooled at the entrance. They stopped, gathered in a pack of what seemed to be a hundred of them at least, pooled closely together, still uncertain of advancing.
A pair of the bears turned, bellowing at them, to which the wolves seemed to fall into a trance once more, and readied to move.
“Not the brightest bunch, are you?” I muttered from my rooftop hiding place, still behind the chimney, I held two round black and red objects in my hands, both had buttons that I’d pressed down hard on with my thumbs. I chucked the pair into the air over the large pack, and waited a moment.
Two deafening explosions went off, far larger than I’d expected. Windows nearby exploded, but my helmet had closed off the worst of the noise. Given that it was a reaper grenade, I suppose it would have a default where it would mute sound when the grenades went off. Curious at the destruction, I peeked around the corner down below.
They’d been shredded. Small splinters of metal had torn the wolves apart, very little of the grenades had missed at all. Even the walls of the houses were mostly spotless, save for a few sections where a wolf had likely been blasted to pieces.
I paled, seeing the sheer carnage. They were biotics, yes, but it didn’t make seeing just unrelenting violence easier. There was a brutality there, among more than a hundred bodies. Reaper weapons weren’t made for self-defense, they were made to exact as much death and lethality as possible. That point hit home as I watched a handful of wolves pour from the tunnel.
It didn’t last long, there didn’t seem to be that many left after we slew them en masse at the entrance. I jumped down, nearly slipping on the slick that had become the ground. No wolves turned around, too focused on the battle the bears took part in.
I took a step towards the tunnel, faltering. I shook, uncertain about going into the tunnel.
Was this actually a good idea? Was this even really my idea? For all I knew I could be getting influenced by Smith.
Now that I reflected, I was diving into this rather heavily, even if the pseudo-core escaped, we could just chase after it. There wasn’t any reason to really go down into the dark tunnel where more biotics could be, right?
Even so, sitting here wouldn’t do any good. I could go after the core, or I could go help with the bears. Any choice was better than none.
I grit my teeth, I’d already decided on the plan. If it looked bad, I could just retreat. I gave my word already that I would.
At first it was like walking through mud, but by the time I entered the tunnel I was back to a sprint.
[The resolve to see something through is as important as the wisdom to question.] I heard Smith’s voice in my head, [There is no wrong answer in life, nor any right answer. Do you believe in your friends?]
I blinked, whispering as I tried to keep an eye on my environment. The tunnel sheared through concrete, diving deeper into the dirt. A hard, stone-like resin reinforced the dirt every five feet to keep it from collapsing. Even so, I didn’t trust the work of a species that willfully defied self-preservation instincts.
“I trust my friends.” I spoke.
[I’m sure you trust them. Now, do you believe in them? Can you put your faith in them, not knowing what the future holds? That is what it means to resolve yourself and go on this path. To pursue the pseudo-core, you must be certain of that fact. Or are you going after the core because of pride? Because you came up with a plan?]
That surprised me. Smith almost seemed angry with me. I bridled at that, wanting to spit back a retort. It fell short, though, as I considered it.
Trust was something I could give. I could trust Daniel not to abandon me without a word, except under certain conditions. I knew Fran would always have my back, unless we had a way out when the alternative was certain death.
That wasn’t real trust. I knew that. Real trust was belief, to have faith in someone totally. It was complete, it was pure. It was naive, it was foolish. Without an answer, I ran forward, darting through the tunnel at speed, listening carefully. I could hear the fight overhead, probably in the park itself.
They were still alive, that was good.
It occurred to me that if I had faith in them, it wouldn’t have been a question of them still being alive, but instead I’d have asked why they weren’t done yet.
I turned my attention forward, hearing something else only a few feet away. Louder scuttling, from what seemed to be many sources. Dropping to a low stance, I pulled the reaper rifle up, ready to mow down wolves as I retreated. To my left was another tunnel, fully excavated and cleared. I frowned, nothing was down that way, but I could just barely feel a breeze in the air..
“An exit?...” I murmured, turning my attention forward.
My eyes went wide as I saw a many legged creature loom in the darkness. A glowing silver sphere with black streaks was clutched in the center of its body. A set of eyes peered at me from what looked like a spider’s head. Fangs like daggers and legs like spears clacked against the rock, sunk into the dirt.
It was hideous.
[Pseudo-core detected, strain: Spiker, primary objective found.]
“Of course you would be.” I murmured, feeling my blood go cold at the sight of the thing. It looked between me and the exit, evaluating its options. I brought my rifle up to my shoulder, letting loose a barrage of bullets before it could decide.
It rushed me then, screeching with a raspy cadence. Spear-like legs came down near me, my bullets piercing it and letting silver-black blood splash across the ground.
At the last moment, it turned to the other path to run.
“H-hey, what? No!” Flabbergasted I shot behind it, my bullets hitting legs, but it had plenty of them. At least twenty more that could carry it just as well.
Panicking, I snatched the last grenade from my belt. I pressed the button and pitched it, hard, flinging it through the mass of legs and ahead of the pseudo-core. Almost too late, I covered against the wall my gut sinking when I realized how stupid what I’d just done was. I felt the pressure wave hit me, throwing me hard against the ground. Wetness splashed in my helmet, and suddenly I had trouble breathing.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Pain seized my body, and I found my limbs refused to move. My conscious mind reeled as I recognized that I had let panic define my next move. Panic didn’t account for the fact that a buffed up grenade might be a bad idea to use in a closed space like this.
‘Clack, clack, clack,’ I heard the sound coming from the tunnel, now over fifteen feet away. I forced myself to look, feeling adrenaline spiking.
“Shit…” I muttered, seeing a few legs, wobbly and gushing blood, herald the rest of the monstrosity. Only three eyes remained that I could see, and they glared at me with a malice and bloodlust that I didn’t think would be possible. It was almost like an aura of hatred oozed from it, and it stalked towards me, prone as I was, no doubt intending on making good on its name.
[I can only do so much, I need time to repair you.] Smith’s voice came in level and calm. I could tell he was grave about our situation, that the Spiker had survived a grenade at point blank range.
“I can’t give you much time…” Regret filling my voice, I spoke. I looked up, seeing a purple fist icon and a blue diamond almost on top of me. I was literally beneath Daniel and Fran.
[Survive. That is the second rule of being a Reaper.]
“What's the first?” I murmured, dragging myself backwards.
[Kill or die.]
“That seems…” I coughed up blood, feeling my consciousness fade for a moment. A jolt shot down my spine, I felt the same disconcerting sensation that I did when my eye was replaced.
[Believe, Matthew. Will power and belief have bent the rules of the universe before. Now, survive!]
I shoved my right arm in front of me, gritting my teeth as I expected the Spiker’s leg to shear right through it.
The Reaper Gauntlet activated then, a skull and bloom erupting in front of the surface of the metal. Scarlet, bright, and hot, the leg hit the shield and the petals exploded. Heat burned forward, boiling the blood of the Spiker in what seemed like a wave of plasma.
Screaming and frenzied, it rose more legs.
Out of desperation, I tried to activate the shield again, pouring an M.E. point into it. Just a fraction of a second before the legs hit me, it activated again, rebuking the striking legs with a burst of fire.
I felt fire against my arm, the gauntlet gleamed a low red.
It struck out again, screeching more, fire embracing its form.
I choked on pain and superheated air, nearly passing out. Another M.E. point into the shield, I didn’t want to die, a scream locked in my heat-scarred throat.
The shield bloomed again, a short, explosive life. My gauntlet went a bright, gorgeous cherry red. My arm broiled under it.
“Daniel, Fran!” I screamed, instinct driving me, fear cornering my reason. I’d always counted myself somewhat pessimistic, maybe even nihilistic. In that moment, facing death, I was not stalwart. I wasn’t Daniel, I couldn’t greet it with a smile.
I heard the screech of metal, I felt the metal on my body and in my body flex against a ripple of magnetics.
I watched as the dirt above the Spiker exploded, a purple-light wrapped behemoth streaking down through the earth, bellowing with a might that seemed larger than life.
The wall of steel stood between me and the Spiker, and a moment later a barrier of elegant, black covered spears intervened further.
“You.” Daniel seethed, “You put your filthy, fucking limbs on my bro!”
The eyes of the Spiker were wide, pupils needle small. It darted, shockingly fast, around him, trying to escape through the new hole in the roof.
Ten spears punctured it from above, Daniel’s sweeping axe bit into it from beneath. Fran pushed it down as Daniel broke its limbs with his arms, snapping them like twigs, steam baking off of them like freshly cooked crab.
“Die.” Fran’s singular word was punctuated by three spears vanishing entirely into its eyes. It fell, and the core came loose at once, rolling to my feet.
[Bounty Hunt completed! Congratulations, Matthew, Daniel, and Fran!]
[Awarding M.E. based on completion, modifying due to difficulty of task… calculating…]
[Kill Wolves 325/500 Special Conditions Applied, See Below]
[Kill The Bear ‘Karaslava’ The Sound ‘Unique’ 1/1 Completed!]
[Kill Bears 11/0 Special Condition. Elevated Rewards]
[Destroy Pseudo-Core 1/1]
[Special: Pseudo-Core beast was slain, however Pseudo-Core remains intact and usable. Elevated Rewards.]
[Specialized Intelligence System is initializing, please wait.]
“Matthew!” Daniel leaned down, making space for Fran. The pair of them seemed fine, if anything, Daniel seemed to only have some superficial damage. That astounded me.
I opened my mouth to speak, having trouble with doing so. I could only vaguely feel pain from my burnt throat, my helmet partially melted.
[Matthew is alive. He cannot speak right now, I’m repairing his functions.] Smith spoke, [Thank you both, I don’t know how much more of that he could have taken.]
“Why the hell didn’t you run, you dumbass!” Daniel shouted, on the verge of tears, “The hell were you thinking?”
[In Matthew’s defense, I believe he made the right call.]
Fran’s helmet came off, her eyes wet as well. I don’t know what it looked like, but I figured I probably looked like hell for both of them to be so worried. “Why? He could have just escaped, why didn’t he?”
Another voice entered the fray, this time coming from another feminine voice. A blue figure, shining with holographic light, smiled as she spoke, [“He could have, but it would have been a disaster for your city.”]
We all looked to Sis, Fran’s eyes narrowed “Who the hell are you?”
Ah, right, Fran had no idea who that was.
[“You received the message, yes? I am the Specialized Intelligence System, but you may refer to me as Sis.”] She nodded to Fran, [“I am grateful that such talents are using my Bounty Hunt system.”]
“Nevermind that, please. What did you mean?” Daniel’s face plate opened away, revealing his frustrated face.
[“There should have been a notification about that creature, but I didn’t know it existed until Matthew engaged it in battle. I’m still working on increasing my processing power. This should suffice.”]
[Kill The Pseudo-Core “Dread” the Spiker, Unique 1/1]
“What does that… mean?” Daniel looked to the still smoking pile of flesh.
[There are biotics that defy common comprehension. They are special, each in their own horrific way. That bear from before knew its surroundings, knew you were all there. It was stronger, faster, and more savage by far than a common bear. Imagine, then, what would become of a hive-organism if it were allowed to gestate and become a new biotic core?] Smith’s brooding voice brought a weight with it that gave even Sis a moment of pause.
[“Ah, a Reaper A.I…. you are all always so… cheery.”] Sis sighed, [“But, he is correct. Had that creature left, it would have meant the beginning of a new nightmare for your city. The fact that there were two unique’s here… I will need to expedite enhancing my functions.”]
I gestured, fighting to speak. I didn’t do that because I knew what it was, I did it because it had a core. For all I knew it would have been harmless, I panicked.
Smith detected that, and sighed, [Matthew would be remiss with me to allow the misunderstanding. He tried to stop the thing because it tried to run, and he momentarily panicked. He feels ashamed of that, but I cannot stress how wrong he should feel for that.]
“Why’s that?” Daniel growled, clearly beginning to dislike Smith.
[Newborn hives are never an easy kill. Each generation stronger than the last, more honed, more deadly.]
[“When a newborn hive first gestates, they unleash a large amount of matter energy, and tend to create very powerful biotics to guard them while they regather their strength. The older hives had less energy to work with after protecting themselves from all of the trauma of getting to the planet. That’s why you’ve only seen wolves until now.”] Sis supplied, she shook her head, [“In any case, that’s not why I’m here.”]
She turned an eye towards me, something akin of regret on her extremely lifelike face, [“I told you both that I would try to keep you away from the most dangerous of situations. And yet twice you’ve nearly died, for that, I cannot apologize enough. It may sound like an excuse, but the presence of these uniques is not something that I could account for. And they’re appearing at a rate unheard of on other worlds.”]
“Why is that?” Fran asked the question I wanted to know the answer too.
[“I don’t know,”] she seemed honestly uncertain, [“What I do know is that the Bounty Hunt system may be too dangerous to implement in the future. I want to give you the opportunity to leave it. As of now, I will consider your debt settled. I do not wish that to throw you into near certain death because of that matter.”]
Daniel looked to my body, scorched and damaged, and then back to Sis, “Who will take care of the Uniques, then?”
[“W-well… anyone aware of the risk could certainly go after them. But it would…”] She trailed off mumbling, very human-like.
“Speak up, please, we can’t hear you.” Fran’s stern, business voice came back with a vengeance.
[“Ah, well, it would come down to whenever they would attack humans, at that point defending onesselves is to be expected.”]
I huffed, and Daniel noticed with a smirk, “Yeah, that’s not gonna work. If they’re that bad, then you’d just be saving us short-term possibility of death for a guaranteed death further down the line.”
“Keep the Bounty Hunt system, tell people about the uniques. That seems fine. Humanity won’t be ignorant about the dangers associated with a high reward, so…” Fran put a hand on her hip, “You’d better make it worth our while.”
Sis blinked, and I could see just the barest flicker of amazement in her holographic eyes. The obelisk system was anything but simple, it was intelligent, learning, and adaptive. She let out a long, simulated breath.
[“Very well, it’s true that the Bounty Hunt system is still the only thing available for coordinating against Unique Biotics. Then, it would seem that I would need to procure resources outside of my normal system to aid you.”] It gestured to the core at my foot, and I marveled at it when it seemed to turn into energy and siphon into Sis, [“I can utilize any cores found for special projects, then. They have many uses, and are worth a large amount of matter energy. When you have a possible use, then let me know and I’ll work with you on it.”]
My mind raced at the thought of what might be possible, certainly Sis wouldn’t have offered to help if it was something minor. Perhaps with enough of them, we might be able to create some truly masterful things, whether they be weapons or otherwise.
“So… about this job?” Daniel quirked a brow. “It was a helluva lot worse than you said it’d be, after all.”
She chuckled, [“Yes, well, I suppose I may as well start here with my rewards, then. Give me a moment.”]
[System Allocating Rewards… Bounty Hunt Successful!]
[1358 Matter Energy awarded to each member of kill-team.]
It was a massive amount. My current M.E. had bottomed out to zero, probably from the repairs being done to my body. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling being stuck halfway, but as soon as the points came back, I felt an itching in my body.
[Excellent, I can finish up now.] Smith seemed pleased, though quite tame. [I’d run out of points to use.]
“You should have asked,” Daniel and Fran shot me dirty looks. It felt quite strange having them trying to scold the A.I. inside me.
[“I apologize once more. I’ll give you a day to rest before I reactivate the Bounty System. I’ll need to make plenty of modifications.”]
“Wait,” I croaked out, realizing a use for the core, gesturing to Sis. She paused, waiting patiently for me to be able to squeak out another word. “Use… core… detection.”
She processed that, and then confirmed, [“Use the core to amplify detection of biotics?”]
I nodded, numbly.
She cringed, [“I guess you would rather that after all of this. Of course, I’ll implement it at this obelisk right away.”] She nodded, and then bid us farewell.
Daniel and Fran carried me out of the tunnel, careful not to harm me overtly. Already I could tell the damage was severe. Internal bleeding from the highly over explosive reaper grenades in an enclosed space with the least of it. My reaper gauntlet dished out an incredible amount of damage and the shield itself was great, but it also super heated with rapid use. I’m pretty sure the helmet couldn’t compensate for the temperature difference, I inhaled superheated air. My throat was screwed because of that, probably my lungs too.
Smith walked us through the process of what he was doing, and recommended strongly against moving me any further. Luckily, the mound of wolf corpses had disintegrated after a few hours, so I didn’t have to stare at those. It seemed that by the time he was done, I’d be down nearly 45 matter energy points. That’s how extensive my injuries had been, given the fact that several organs had ruptured. Somehow being alive now was only due to Smith using a localized matter manipulation process with the energy. In the morning, I’d be lying in bed near the obelisk for as much throughput as possible to refine the biosteel. Unlike his previous job, this was all rough patching.
I’d be walking around in a day or two, though. That blew my mind.
“I messed up.” I spoke aloud, more to myself than anyone else, Daniel and Fran heard me though, in spite of having been in an animated conversation.
They both frowned, and turned to me.
“Dude, you panicked,” Daniel moved closer, sitting on a chair that had been pilfered from a nearby abandoned house. “There was just one biotic, you didn’t know that it was some named badass.”
Fran offered sympathy, “You’ve been getting thrown around a lot more than either of us. But you’re still alive. I feel like that should be important.”
“It’s… not like that.” I breathed, annoyed at the helmet on my head, “The both of you handled yourselves great, you have been from the start. I’m the one that keeps doing my own thing, and it’s almost gotten me killed twice.”
Daniel frowned, “What? I thought we talked about that? I let the wolves get to you before, it was my bad.”
I shook my head, “I thought I could take them, but I should have moved closer to you guys the moment our formation shifted. I wouldn’t have been flankable then, I could have kept my shoulder. God knows what I’m losing now.”
I tried to lift my arms. My right arm was more or less fine, but my left arm shuddered like a leaf in a hurricane. I dropped them, wincing at the pain, “Man, I’m gonna be like the fucking terminator now.”
There was a sharp pause between us.
We all laughed a moment later.
“Alright, look, I’m not saying becoming a robot is the best thing, but I’m glad your alive.” Fran moved her seat closer, “You’re one of my best friends, and you’ve got to be around to help me with Daniel, because he’s too much of a handful on his own.”
“Hey, I’m right here?” He quirked a brow at her, and then beamed at me, “Besides, we’re just getting the party started. Hell, that movie series had like six movies, didn’t it? And a tv show.”
“The point is,” Fran’s quizzical expression when she looked at Daniel was nigh priceless, “You’re not perfect, you’re Matthew Todd, and you’re only one of two things. Some guy who lived through the apocalypse, or…” She put her fist out between myself and Daniel, “You’re a part of the people who conquered the apocalypse.”
“Hell yeah! God damn I’m in love with you!” Daniel whooped, putting his fist out as Fran blushed. I chuckled, putting my fist in the circle.
“Alright, well… damn. I mean, we’re all probably going to die. But I guess if I had to choose, I guess I would die with my friends.”
“You guess?” Daniel coughed, “C’mon, don’t you trust us? It’ll be great.” Fran punched his ribs.
“Nah, I don’t trust you guys,” I grinned, and they looked stunned for a moment. “You could say I believe in you. I have complete faith in you guys. Yeah. That works.”
Fran and Daniel were a little confused there, but I felt Smith on the inside of my head smile in appreciation.
[Good. Very good, young man.] He beamed, [Oh, you’ll feel a little pinch here.]
“Hmm? Pinch?” I asked aloud, watching Daniel and Fran as their eyes opened wide as my left arm let out a crackling noise. “Ow, ow, ow, ow! Why does this feel like pins and needles? Smith? Wha-aaooooooo!”
[Don’t worry, just a few thousand nerves to go.]
“I hate you so much, Smith!” I groveled immediately after, “I’m sorry, wait! Ahh! That’s so freaky feeling!”