“Alright,” Aidan addressed the gathered troopers. “We don’t know shit about shit, so this isn’t much of a brief.”

The team chuckled at the admission before the envoy continued.

“We know a bunch of drones will want to kill us as soon as we enter the ruin—nothing new there. Ruin is a loosely defined word because the locals report that the Progenitor cache is in excellent condition.”

Aidan looked over at Wang. “With all that being said, Wang will take point because his big ass will hopefully catch some fire for the rest of us. Agerwal and Guzman will be going in next, Weir and I will be after them, and the kid and Doc will bring up the rear. If we split up to clear rooms, We’ll go in teams of two; Agerwal and Guzman, Weir and I, Wang, Doc, and the kid for the last group. If we encounter open spaces, standard dispersion, close enough that you’ll hear someone shouting.”

After Aidan delivered his rapid-fire instructions, he looked at his crew. They were ready to go, and even Azira looked excited. “Any questions?”

Seeing none, Aidan continued. “Then let’s move out.”

The troopers drew their weapons and made sure they were carrying full magazines. Azria, for her part, was carrying a diminutive pistol that looked like a child’s toy. Aidan was happy that she didn’t complain about being put in the back of the formation. Doc and Wang didn’t need to be told that their job was keeping the kid alive since she couldn’t respawn like the rest.

Wang proceeded down the mineshaft first, and the rest of the team followed suit. As Aidan walked along, he noticed mining equipment discarded in the dirt. Sometimes it was simple items like pickaxes and hammers, but the gnomes had left complicated augurs and pneumatic drills in other places. The thick layer of dust coating the gear indicated that they had been discarded in haste quite a while ago.

The dimly lit shaft gradually lightened until the team exited into a large cavern. Unlike the gnome city, no glowing stalactites were illuminating the vast chamber. Instead, a crystalline white, vaguely organic circular building took up most of the cavern. It glowed with a diffused light that cast dark shadows against the rough cavern floor. The light was bright enough that Aidan’s visor automatically dimmed to preserve his vision and maintain contrast in the video feed.

As the envoy studied the structure more carefully, he realized he could feel something through his psionic sense and called the team to halt. The unit automatically took up a defensive formation around the entrance to the shaft while Aidan advanced to the front. He looked back to tell Azira to wait in the shaft, but it wasn’t necessary. The fragile-looking gnome was shielding her eyes and looked like she had no interest in going further.

When Aidan reached the front of the formation, he explained his strange order. “I can feel something with my psionic powers. Give me a minute to figure it out.”

While the explanation was partially true, he wanted to talk to Astra.

So what are we looking at, Astra?

It looks like a Progenitor armory, the AI mused. I can’t tell what’s inside, but it can’t be that important if the gnomes could approach without immediately dying. Give me a second to analyze further.

While Astra was doing whatever advanced artificial intelligences did, Aidan also took the opportunity to observe the armory. It looked as if someone had taken a sphere, cut it in half, and then buried it directly in the dirt. Angular crisscrossing sections made the building appear to be fashioned out of the melted rings of a gyroscope. He couldn’t see the top of the strange building, but there looked like a lip where an even brighter light spilled over the side. There didn’t appear to be any entrance, but that wasn’t even the strangest thing about it.

If Aidan closed his eyes and focused purely on the structure, he felt something vaguely alive emanating from it. It was so alien that he couldn’t be sure, but his interactions with the gnomes helped inform his psionic impressions. Throughout his interaction with the curious tricksters, the envoy realized their minds didn’t feel like a human’s. It wasn’t something he could quantify, but there was a quality to their minds that informed him of their sapience yet highlighted their differences. He felt the same indescribable emanation from the Progenitor building. It was like it was alive and was wary of their presence.

Okay, I’ve got it, Astra announced. There’s a primitive AI that controls the structure. I think I can get it to disengage its psionic shield and open up, but I can’t guarantee much more than that.

Aren’t you the most advanced technology our monkey brains could ever conceive? Aidan innocently asked.

Oh, shut up, Envoy, Astra groused. Your AI operations skill is woefully low. You’re lucky I was able to do this much. Plus, the AI in the building is so primitive that it’s like talking to a child. I would have more luck convincing Agerwal that explosives aren’t a form of art.

Alright, alright, Aidan accepted her explanation.

Her dig at Agerwal made him realize something.

If there was a shield, the gnomes could never actually enter the structure, but there are signs of distress further back up the mineshaft. That means the defenders appeared outside of the armory.

That’s right, Astra agreed. Right now, the AI inside the armory finds us a curiosity, but as soon as we proceed further, it will activate its defenses.

Do you know what that’s going to consist of? Aidan wondered.

I’m not sure. The gnomes mentioned multiple types, but it’s not like I have a database of Progenitor drones.

Astra sounded annoyed. Aidan could tell she wished she could be of more help, so the envoy decided to stop picking on her.

That’s alright. We’ll set the ambush up here, then. Can you keep the AI distracted while we set up some surprises?

That I can do, Astra replied cheerfully.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Aidan announced. “There’s a psionic shield protecting the structure, but I can bring it down. When I do, the automated defenses are going to come pouring out. Instead of trying to advance into the teeth of a bunch of drones, we’re going to make them come to us.”

Aidan pointed at his engineer. “Agerwal, I want you to do whatever you can to ensure the first drones that come our way are blown sky-high.”

Agerwal gave a mock salute and smiled. “You got it, boss! Finally, something I’m good at,” the man cheered.

Authority increased to level 9! You have earned 45 experience.

As he stepped off to begin setting up some explosives, Aidan turned to the tech trooper. “Weir, do you have any disruption abilities? Localized EMP, hacking, or something else? Sorry, I’m not familiar with your skills.”

Weir sighed, “I do, boss, but I need better equipment to use them. Sorry, I’m not much different than a normal trooper until I get better gear.”

Aidan nodded his head. “No worries. Alright, then, Wang, you’re going to be the tip of the spear. Lay down as much punishment you can toward whatever comes our way on the ground.”

When he received Wang’s nod of confirmation, Aidan continued. “Guzman and Agerwal will also focus on ground troops, while Faraj, Weir, and I target any airborne targets. Only engage other people’s targets if you have none of your own.”

A chorus of confirmations met Aidan’s orders, but he had one last instruction. “Finally, nothing, and I mean nothing, can make it into the shaft behind us. Azira can’t respawn like we do.”

This time, there were grim nods all around. Satisfied, Aidan psychically told Azira to fall back to the mineshaft and not to come out unless one of the troopers came to get her. After she had left, Agerwal announced that he was finished. The man had sent up claymores tied to a personal detonator. He would blow them when the explosives were the most likely to cause the maximum damage. Everyone fell into their position, and then Aidan checked in with Astra.

Alright, we’re settled. Are you ready to bring the psi field down and piss off our new friend?

On your command, envoy. The AI replied.

On my mark.

3.

2.

1.

Mark.

AI Operations increased to level 5! You have earned 25 experience.

There was an explosion as the psi field contracted and rapidly expanded with a burst of psionic energy. Right after, a circular portion of the building rotated open, and a squad of attack drones issued forth in a flood of black and white metal. The humanoid robots looked hewn from the Progenitor building itself. Their milky-colored armor was slightly translucent, revealing complicated circuitry that glowed with amethyst malevolence. Each piece of the armor was connected to the others via ebony-colored synthetic musculature. The organic-looking muscles lent them a type of grace paired with mechanical efficiency that fell squarely into the uncanny valley. The envoy couldn’t help seeing them as futuristic mall mannequins who decided to come back and kill their creators.

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The drones didn’t waste time and started firing on Aidan’s team with biotic rifles and shotguns that fired purple psionic rounds. The envoy hadn’t expected that type of weaponry, but he didn’t let that distract him. There were always surprises in combat, and no plan survived first contact.

He sent a hail of gunfire toward the targets within his cone of fire. It was quickly evident that Aidan’s kinetic weapon had a much better effect than the laser weaponry of his teammates. Where it took them three shots to make it through the drone’s armor, Aidan’s bullets were punching through their armored carapaces like tin foil.

He downed two opponents within seconds of each other and moved onto a third before his teammates even killed one each. In the opening salvo, they had slimmed the enemy’s numbers by a third, but the remaining robots kept their inexhaustible advance. There wasn’t any cover in the chamber, and Aidan didn’t like his team’s chances if the drones continued to move forward while his team’s weapons weren’t effectively harming the drones. Instead of focusing on his own targets, Aidan started putting rounds into the pelvis of each of the enemies.

When the bullets entered the drones, the metal round smashed up the complicated musculature that made the drones ambulatory. Aidan’s quick reaction was enough to put the robots in the dirt where the rest of his team would have the chance to put them down for good before getting shot themselves. In a matter of seconds, the opposing force had been stopped and then summarily executed.

Aidan didn’t relax his guard because he could hear the sound of metal on metal from within the Progenitor armory. As two more squads of drones came into view, the envoy detected a whining sound emanating from the top of the structure. As Aidan watched, a dozen flying orbs shot out from the armory. The spheres were covered in a semitransparent white shell, and purple psionic energy glowed from within.

Aidan didn’t hesitate to engage the new opponents. However, instead of focusing on just the flying orbs, he alternated between those and the advancing drones. He picked off a few of the spheres, and as he was about to kill a third, he watched it wobble and then kamikaze itself into a nearby drone. They both exploded with bolts of violet lightning.

I can help! Astra exclaimed.

With Astra’s assistance, Aidan stopped trying to shoot the orbs. Instead, he focused entirely on the drones. The envoy put round after round into the pelvises of the combat drones. He wasn’t fast enough to prevent them from reaching their defensive line. At that point, Agerwal’s abilities finally shone. Six claymores went off at once and spread an explosive wave of death at the oncoming robots.

The combined detonation made the cavern shake and dislodge loose rock and soil from the ceiling. Aidan spotted a giant rock hurtling for his unprotected skull and thrust his hand out to deflect it with a telekinetic swipe. It rebounded like it had been shot from a cannon and impacted against a drone’s face. The force was enough that the entire faceplate crumpled like foil, and the drone was thrown from its feet.

As Aidan was firing at the still functioning drones, Astra had taken control of all the flying drones and was using them to bombard the other drones below. The scene became hectic as lasers, psionic explosions, and kinetic rounds kicked up the dirt around them. Aidan had to use his telekinetic powers to protect his team and himself from falling debris.

After a few more minutes of frantic activity, the battlefield finally went silent. Broken drone parts littered the ground, and tiny purple psionic fires were burning on the oily black liquid that poured from the fallen robots.

We’re not finished, Astra warned.

“Look alive, guys,” Aidan called. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

The team took the opportunity to swap out their mags with fresh ones. As they finished, they heard the clicking sound of metal on metal. Sure enough, the armory wasn’t willing to give up its secrets that easily.

A different kind of drone marched out of the armory entrance on three insectoid legs. The central portion of the new drone was a giant white sphere. Three purple dots glowed from behind the white shell and gave the robot the appearance of eyes. On either side of the globe, massive double-barreled cannons were pointed in the team’s direction. Aidan could see a faint shimmer that indicated a localized psi shield.

“Spread out!” Aidan shouted.

The team sprang into action and created space between each other. The experience warriors constantly moved while firing their weapons at the shielded opponent. It was quickly evident that their guns were doing nothing but harmlessly splashing against the robot’s shield.

Astra, can you take down the shield?!

I’m trying, Envoy! It’s a localized intelligence. There’s no network for me to invade.

Aidan cursed and stowed his rifle with a thought before reaching out with both arms and pointing his palms toward the enemy. Thankfully, it wasn’t facing toward him, or he might have learned what respawning was like. Instead, its weapons were bearing down on Guzman and Agerwal. Aidan wasn’t willing to see them killed. Theoretically, immortality should have made him callous with their lives, but he couldn’t bring himself to watch his teammates die, even if they would spawn back at camp.

With a growl, he focused his psionic powers on the robot. He felt a tearing sensation in his mind, and his mana bar rapidly dwindled to nothing. With a primal scream, a blue wave of psionic energy erupted from his palms in the form of arced lightning.

The energy impacted the enemy shield and shattered it like glass. The psionic blast continued and landed on one of the drone’s spindly legs. The lightning shattered the joint, and the drone was abruptly sent reeling. Its cannons erupted with purple fire, but they narrowly missed Guzman and Agerwal, instead exploding against the far wall and ceiling. A dislodged stone fell and nearly gored Faraj, but the doc barely dodged it.

That was good because Aidan wouldn’t have been able to deflect it even if he wanted to. A fierce pain was exploding behind his eyes like fireworks. He pushed through the pain and drew his hand cannon with its high-explosive rounds. He advanced on the robot with an awkward run until he was in point-blank range. As if sensing its imminent demise, the Progenitor war machine tried to awkwardly twist and bring its lethal weaponry in Aidan’s direction. The envoy didn’t give it a chance. With a yell, he poured kinetic rounds into the armory shell of the drone. He didn’t know how many times he pulled the trigger, and it didn’t matter. He fired and yelled until his throat was hoarse. After every shot, molten metal fragments rained on Aidan, but he ignored the burning wounds. When the cannon clicked empty, and the battlefield was silent, the envoy was still shouting in his rage and battle-induced adrenaline. It took him a moment to realize the giant drone was reduced to a burning wreckage.

Aidan, get back! Astra warned him.

The envoy didn’t waste time. His exhausted body moved without conscious will from his mind. He cleared the danger zone as the oily discharge from the robot detonated with an amethyst psionic explosion. He fell onto his ass and then felt someone dragging him further away from the fire by the back of his plate carrier. Aidan was too tired to care what happened to him at that point and fell into a dark unconsciousness…

The envoy didn’t know how long he had been out, but he groggily returned to consciousness like a deepsea free diver returning to the surface. He took a gulping breath as his body thought he was still in the middle of a fight.

“Hey, man, relax,” Guzman’s voice was right in front of Aidan’s face. “You’re fine. The battle is over, and you’ve only been unconscious for about ten minutes.”

Aidan blinked his eyes to clear away the fogginess and realized that he was, in fact, okay. He glanced around and saw the rest of his team nursing their wounds. They were a sorry bunch. Many of them had taken psionic burns, and Faraj was walking around and treating them in order of severity.

“Looks like we won,” Aidan croaked.

“You’re damn right we did. You couldn’t put your ass on the line to save me only once in a lifetime, you had to do it twice! Always got to be the hero, huh Steele?” Guzman chirped. His tone was belied by the ugly psionic burn on the right side of his face. His eye was swollen shut, and it looked like the skin was pulling painfully. Worst of all, his right ear was completely missing. It looked like whatever round had clipped him had taken the ear and burned the rest.

“Hey, you look even better now,” Aidan chuckled.

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t look so hot yourself, diplomat.” Guzman sat wearily next to him. “Didn’t they teach you boys at the state department not to rush a giant killer robot?”

Aidan laughed, and the motion hurt his chest. He looked down to discover that he had just as many burns as the rest. His plate carrier was practically in tatters, and the skin suit looked like it had been mauled by a wild animal.

“I guess I missed that lesson,” Aidan sighed.

He distracted himself by looking at the System notifications he had ignored during the firefight. The flood of messages was overwhelming, so he asked Astra to consolidate them.

Done, Astra informed him. Aidan realized that she sounded exhausted as well.

You alright? he asked

I’m good, the AI assured him. Not only was I helping you against the drones, but I was in a constant battle with the other AI. It was good training, but I feel tired. Not in the biological sense, but I’m trying to digest the information I retrieved from the other AI. By the time you’re done checking out your stats, I should be ready to go.

Aidan nodded and turned back to his own situation. First, he sorted the notification and put his social stats at the top, then skills, experience, and level-up notifications.

Authority increased to level 10! You have earned 95 experience.

Athletics increased to level 5! You have earned 55 experience.

You have performed a feat of courage! Discipline increased to level 10! You have earned 270 experience.

Targeting has increased to level 10! You have earned 200 experience.

Medium Armor has increased to level 12! You have earned 385 experience.

Small Arms has increased to level 14! You have earned 495 experience.

Psionics has increased to level 15! You have earned 375 experience.

You have performed a feat of courage! Psionics has increased to level 20! You have earned 525 experience.

Telekinesis has increased to level 10! You have earned 260 experience.

You have performed a feat of courage! Leadership increased to level 10! You have earned 270 experience.

AI Operations has increased to level 15! You have earned 550 experience.

(36x) Lvl 40 Progenitor Combat Drone slain. Group Experience earned: 12,825

You have earned 1,632 experience.

(12x) Lvl 40 Progenitor Scout Drone slain. Group Experience earned: 4,275

You have earned 544 experience.

Lvl 50 Elite Progenitor Siege Drone slain. Group Experience earned: 888

You have performed a feat of courage! You have earned 888 experience.

Congratulations! You have reached level 3. You have two free attribute points to assign.

Congratulations! You have reached level 4. You have four free attribute points to assign.

Congratulations! You have reached level 5. You have six free attribute points to assign.

Aidan split his available attribute points between intelligence and perception and then pulled up his full stat sheet to take a good look.

Aidan Steele. Human. United States of America.

Level-5 Envoy

Attributes:

Strength 27 | Constitution 28 | Dexterity 28 | Intelligence 27 | Perception 27

Parameters:

Health 280 (1.90%/min.) | Stamina 280 (1.90%/min.) | Mana 270 (1.85%/min.)

Social:

Notoriety 5 | Authority 10

Skills:

Stealth 1 | Athletics 5 | Discipline 10 | Targeting 10 | Medium Armor 12 | Small Arms 14 | Light Weapons 1 | Melee Weapons 1 | Psionics 20 | Telekinesis 20 | Diplomacy 5 | Leadership 10 | AI Operations 15 | Linguistics 19

Aidan was impressed with how he was progressing. Now he was the peak of any unsystematized human back on Earth. Not only that, but his skills were progressing rapidly. The difference between high-stakes negotiations and a deadly battle was a night-and-day comparison to killing wolves. As he closed his character sheet, Astra finally returned to her usual self.

Envoy, I’ve finished assimilating the other AI’s data. Her tone caught Aidan off-guard and made him wary. I think there is something you should know.