To get to the mine you had to leave the station section through the front door of the first floor.
The floor of the chasm between the buildings was populated by Grublings, blood bunnies, lesser Raaits, Evrets, the big rats that Examined as Station Crawlers and the huge(for the area) Train Flyers, which attacked the train as it passed their tunnels and emerged into the station from the outside of the train, coming in through the train’s airlock.
Basically any lowest level mob from any of the quest chains could be found here, but the most common were the miniature version of the Raaits, which were a tentacle horror with a lot of teeth.
Lesser Raaits did not have their own potion quest, but they were in possession of the training disks you might need to study to pass the equipment tests in the mine.
Ros and Brandon were not the only people in the chasm when they left building H. A group of eight people were fighting crawlers near the train station, and two hunters were surrounded by lesser Raaits in the doorway to Section A, almost as far from the other team as possible.
“Need any help?” Brandon called to the two as they got close to the edge of the big group of what looked like sting rays with extra tentacles off the tail and a much bigger mouth filled with awful teeth. They seemed to float like kites, but they were actually moving around on their tentacles. These lesser ones were barely six inches across the kite. If they lost two or three tentacles they were done. Still, in large groups they could definitely overpower a human, and these two were way out of safe ratio.
“Get lost. These are our mobs.” One of the two called. They were remarkably under dressed for their task. Ros immediately doubted they had completed most of the hell Hound quests or any of the slimes. The red gym gave enough coins for a full suit of low grade armor, even if there wasn’t a suit in one of the lockers.
“Sure.” Brandon said, merely pushing a Raait he’d drawn back into range of the party. It tried to come back. “Oh for goodness sake.”
Ros stopped and reached for her killing intent. It should be usable, it was a learned skill not an ability. She expected it to be fairly unimpressive, it was supposed to be a complicated hidden calculation based on stats, kill count and other metrics. She didn’t expect much, so she dialed it up as scary as it could get.
The raait trying to attack Brandon went skittering away to hide. All the Raaits went running for cover. The two fourth wave kill-guards ran into the building and she heard a door slam. Brandon started cussing as he slowly backed away from her.
In the distance an eerie howl rose. Ros suppressed her killing aura and looked up towards the sound. Three bat winged vultures known only as Train Flyers were making a direct line to Ros. She deployed two telekinetic powered leaf knives per flyer, auto targeted to impact heart and left wing. Wing to ground them in case she missed the hearts. All three heart shots made:
Obtained: 45,000 coin
Obtained: 45,000 coin
Obtained: 45,000 coin
Ros calmly walked up to the flyers and stowed the bodies in her necklace. They were in the soul stat potion chain and the first potion would double her soul stat. Oh, but she was supposed to reverse the order. She’d need 1111 before she started taking the potions. She shook off the thought.
She continued towards the mine entrance. Brandon caught up.
“Shit.” Brandon said. “I think I literally just shit myself. What the hell kind of mental attack was that?”
Ros coughed slightly. “It’s called killing intent and it’s not a trait or an ability, it’s a learned skill. It’s similar to a tank’s taunt ability but instead of pulling it intimidates lower ranked beings. I just meant to… I think my maximum projection on it is a lot higher than I thought.” It was apparently as strong as it was in the eighth realm.
“No kidding.” He shook his head.
They entered the airlock and it cycled them into the mine locker rooms and offices. Ros didn’t even hesitate. She went to one of the testing terminals on the left hand wall and created a profile for her own name. She sped through the exams one after another, basic life support; emergency systems and response; environment suits; five different mining tools; two surface vehicles and one flying vehicle.
She got a perfect score on every test. She was immediately issued a thin flight jacket with her name on the breast, and a security key card with her name and picture, which would let her check out any equipment she was qualified to use, which was now everything available. She put the jacket on over her soft casual, under- armor clothes.
She looked around to find Brandon. He was playing a digital pinball machine, which seemed like an odd choice of games to bring into this environment. Why have a pinball machine without physical balls and levers? She watched him for a moment.
“Got your suit permit?”
She held up the keycard with her picture and the symbols for everything she was rated for.
He looked at the card in silence for a long moment. “You ever read online stories back home?”
She shrugged.
“There’s this concept, a do-over, where a person who has lived a long life goes back in time, into their old body and tries to live their life better than what happened before.”
Ros activated the butterflies, ran a few quick responses and said. “I know what you mean, but I never read a story like that. What would you do if I was a person like that?”
He laughed. “Stop trying to figure you the fuck out.”
She ran the butterfly questions again and nodded. “Then yes. There are nine realms and we got to the last one. Collectively we lasted about ten seconds against eight ArchDivine born pre-teens. I was barely alive, and even the environment would have finished me off, when one of the adults healed me, intending to send me back to the eighth realm to tell everyone to get a whole lot stronger before going through again. I asked him to send me back for, as you put it, a do over. So. A few days later and here I am. I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”
He nodded slowly. “Ok.” He shrugged.
“That’s it? Just ok?” She smirked wryly.
“Yeah. Doesn’t change anything, just the source of some of the information. I know you do have some ability to see the recent past and that chaos butterflies thing.”
“And something called Prophetic Chronicler which mostly does composing and remote posting so I don’t have to sit at a desk to get an entry done.”
“Oh. I thought you were just rehearsing what you were going to write.”
She pointed to the nearest terminal and he opened the message boards.
“Half the threads these days are responding to Moira. Are you reading them? There are a lot of questions.”
“I never read my own comments or reviews.” She murmured. “I used to have a BlastTube channel. My older sister used to read the comments and tell me if there was something like a request I should see.”
“Older sister?”
“And younger brother. They both went to college. I went to New York to try to be an actress.”
“Oh. I thought that was LA, Hollywood.”
“Yeah, more like off-off Broadway and TV commercial auditions and cattle calls for crowd scenes in soap operas. I sometimes got to keep the costumes for the crowd scenes. I had this crazy awesome stripper outfit with a leather and steel harness thing…”
He looked like he was picturing it and liked the idea.
She laughed. Men were so easy.
“Your brother and sister, do you know…?”
She shook her head. “My dad was second wave, though, died about two months in. Someone liked him well enough to answer my message board thread. A lot more people meet up than don’t, what with the boards and the safe zones. There’s even a trick to the train, besides the rest room. A consistent spawn rate, so you just have to have enough people for shifts. It’s a pretty good grind.”
He grunted. “Yeah, ten mobs at a time, tops.” He gestured her ahead at the mine quartermaster’s desk. She stepped up.
The desk attendant rolled into view, a version of the maintenance robots with fewer arms. “Sign in please.”
She swiped her keycard.
“Oh. Lieutenant Atwood. I didn’t know an officer had been sent. I promise it’s just a little monster problem. Our miners will have things operating smoothly in no time.”
Behind her Brandon snorted. She wasn’t exactly surprised that it wasn’t a solo instance, she wasn’t quite questing yet.
“What kinds of monsters?”
“Raaits mostly, some big ones, though, and the guard post is overrun with vacuum squids.”
She cleared her throat. “Issue me an environment suit and I’ll check it out. Have you posted bounties to get the miners enthusiastic about fighting them off?”
“Yes, yes, of course, and even some response, but I think there’s a nest.”
“Most likely. I’ll need a map of the local terrain and a sample kit. The brass want to know if we should mothball this one or send more people.”
“Oh. Oh yes, of course. I have some officer suits somewhere. Just put it in a locker when you come in. Turn it in when you move on or let me know if you take it with you.” The robot trundled away and returned in just a moment. “Already in your size, LT, just check it and sign here. I’ll get the sample kit and issue your sidearm. I notice you’re not carrying a regulation sidearm.”
“I’m not. It’s easier to travel quietly. I didn’t bring it or any mining equipment, expecting to draw supplies here. The miners get antsy when they know there’s an officer on the train.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Oh. Of course. I see you’re checked out on the E-23, do you want one for bounty hunting?”
“Sure. Might as well have the one weapon specifically intended for the local atmosphere. I’ll want one for my station liaison too.” She pointed at Brandon. She also took charge of the rolling suit stand and started checking the suit like she absolutely knew exactly what she was doing, which she did.
“Quite so. How do you do, Sargent Miller. I believe you turned in your suit the last time I saw you?”
“I did. Better to have it in stock being checked occasionally than in my locker if I’m focused on other station problems.”
“Quite so. I wish more of the miners felt the same way. Sign in, please. You’re checked out on the E-23. I’ll get your suit and your weapons.”
Ros finished checking her suit and signed the check out screen on the side of the rack, which would fit neatly into the open sided lockers. She signed for the two guns, never intending to give them back. Not unless they malfunctioned or were damaged. She made sure to check the indefinite issue box on the form and the quartermaster robot didn’t even make a sound.
“I feel like I’m forgetting something.” Ros snapped her fingers. “Ah. Bounty sheet. Even an officer wants whatever bounties she earns.”
“Of course, sir. The schedule is quite generous. This is the sheet, and this is the officer’s version. Separate, of course, so you can collect both.”
“Of course.” She smiled wryly. Of course. Becoming an officer and raising through the ranks was a hidden quest a lot of humanity had missed.
They wheeled their gear to the empty locker room. The solid side of the rolling suit rack would latch into the locker alcove and become the front of the locker.
Not a lot of established people went back out after the quests. Not until Fourth Wave got the mining bug. They were just starting their inside quests. Ros would have still been trying to get permission to go out of the green zone. The Ibsen group had guards at the major cross corridors by now. She shook off the feeling her thoughts were causing.
“Ok. How the hell did you get the butterbar?”
She touched the single red line of the second lieutenant insignia on the suit and laughed quietly. “Flitter pilots are automatically officers.” She shrugged. “Until I actually fly a flitter or get the promotions in the bounty list, I can’t rank it up.”
“Flitter pilot. Son of a bitch. Are we using separate rooms or turning our backs?”
“Same room. Look if you want. I’ll be looking.” She raised her eyebrows.
“No fraternization between officers and enlisted, ma’am.”
“Bull shit. I’ve got your balls and your promotion in my pocket.”
He cracked up, laughing even more than the teasing deserved. “You do. You really do. I guess I’m studying the flitter pilot manuals. Where are they? Lesser Raaits?”
She shrugged. “Someone put them on the message board in a couple weeks and I was bored. I was still stuck at Ibsen trying to finagle my way onto a hunting team. Took more seductions than I care to remember.”
He grunted. “So the lovers who die and cheat? They’re all future not past, yeah.”
She smiled, halfway through buckling her leg into her under suit. “Not all of them, but yeah, most of the dead ones are future tense. Always seemed like the kiss of death for me to fall for someone. I’d get used to the way he snored and he’d walk into a spike trap or get his head snapped off by a giant turtle.”
“There’s giant turtles?”
She snorted. “In the giant realm there’s giant everything. It’s like… it’s like Honey I Shrunk the Kids.”
“Shit.”
“But not quite as bad. If the giants are six foot we’re one foot. Easy to step on, but visible.”
“Huh.”
“You’ll like it. A lot of the giantesses wanted to collect and coddle human lovers. We’re smaller than their infants.” She pulled off her necklace and threaded it through a special port on the suit which let it touch her skin and interact with the world outside the suit. She took her main ring out of her nose and put it in a second suit port. She left the belt where it was, it just held the Wurm loot for the team. Everything she might want to access was in ring or necklace.
“Uh…”
She laughed and pulled off her t-shirt. She smiled as she watched him watch her pull her under suit up and strap on the suit pieces. When she was fully covered in the bulky, straight framed environment suit he looked away and finished dressing. She checked her seals and dials. She holstered her sidearm and checked the officer sword, functional.
“God I want you.” Brandon said suddenly. “Does it bother you that I hooked up with like three women just before we met? Girls kept coming into the lounge to try to seduce money, food and gear out of us.”
“No. Doesn’t bother me. Does it bother you that when I went looking for a cock to tease I walked away from the VIP Lounge?”
“Depends, why did you?”
“Because I was trying to keep a low profile. I sound nuts when I’m just spouting off random stuff people don’t know yet and I can’t seem to stop myself from doing it. I wonder how Sylvia, the other prophetic-“
Ros stopped suddenly and looked up the prophetic traits she had in the shop, remotely which she assumed she could do, even if she hadn’t done it yet. She knew Sylvia was supposed to have the butterflies ability she’d picked up, and a Prophetic Mind Trait. She looked at them.
She laughed silently. “I think I took all the stuff the seer used to have. They were uniques, only one copy allowed in the realm. I would have thought she had picked up her trait in the vestibule if…” she shook her head, the gesture was hindered by the suit. “Never mind. No asking the other seer how she does it if she couldn’t ever do it. I’m ready.” She slung her rifle in the proper position over her shoulder on the pivot harness.
“Com check. Check.”
“Check. Anybody else on this line? We can pick a different one?”
There was silence.
“You totally look like you’ve done this before.”
“I should. Let’s go, hot cheeks.”
“Hey, show some respect for your fellow soldiers. That’s how sexual harassment charges start. You make comments about my butt, I slap your ass in the locker room and I get the night in the brig to cool off.”
“Uh…”
He laughed. “Just joking. I never slapped a woman’s ass that I wasn’t already sleeping with and never in public.”
She chuckled. “Ok. Right out of the airlock to the right is the usual concentration of squid. I don’t know why they call them vacuum squids when they breathe the foggy miasma out on the surface. Ever notice that the Wurms are adapted to oxygen and somehow all the tunnels stay pressured?”
“Yeah. I mean no, but yeah, you’re right. There’s the light. Doors opening.”
Ros brought the E-23 up to ready and trusted her HUD to tell her if there was something to shoot. “Clear. I’m on point. Are you taking bounties today?”
“No, but I’ll back you up if you get in a bind. I don’t have a bounty left I can collect.”
“You sure? All five sets of filmies? Four sets of Greater and the big fellow? You need two or more of the big fellow.”
“I chased Greaters for months to get that promotion. There’s no bounty for a big one.”
“Oh. No. Of course not. That would mean the company admitted the big fellows existed. The big fellow drops the communication equipment that we’re still using on the Eighth. You need one of those and half a dozen headsets.”
He grunted. “You are handy to have around.”
“Yeah. All the boys say that, usually when I’m giving hand jobs.”
“Anyone tell you that you have a really dirty mouth?”
She half choked. “Every time I’m at a bukkake party. Seriously, you walked right into that.”
“Did I, though? That seemed to escalate quickly. Contact, 2 o’clock low.”
“Got it.” She shot three times and three squids burst. She walked that direction, all business suddenly. They were still in the light of the station, and the squids liked the light. They weren’t real squids, they were similar to the Raaits Roslyn had scared inside only shaped like squids not sting rays. They had a levitation bladder and seven wiry tentacles they used to propel themselves around.
Ros led the way to the guard shed where she found an even dozen of the squids inside, clinging to the walls and the comm console. She stood just outside and kept half and eye on the mini map while her automatic targeting sighted on one squid after another.
She walked around the building and hopped up the rocky cliff face until she could see the three on the roof. Once she was on the roof she switched to the EX-23 scoped rifle she’d found in the heavy Gunner vest, she suddenly regretted not having that vest on her. ‘Never mind,’ she thought. ‘Can’t see that far anyway.’
She pot-shotted eight of the monsters called diaphanous Raaits, even though they had no tentacles and instead moved around using big filmy wings that were half filled with helium, making them… diaphanous.
That was as many as she needed for the first bounty on them, and they may or may not spawn back in before she collected.
She used her telekinesis skill, not to move herself, but to put more air between her boots and the ground, letting her fall slowly and comfortably. She was a long way from flying, but this was nice.
“Follow me.” She led the way to get her kills. On the way she spotted a few more that had been out of sight or out of range. The landscape was dark, inky shadows filled with fog rose out of fissures and crevasses. Ros almost forgot Brandon was following her.
“Contact, 9 o’clock high.” He said suddenly, and took a shot.
She turned and took out the other two. “It’s beautiful out here. Ever been out during the day?” She would be able to see a lot further, even with the fog.
“The whole sky looks dirty, not like looking from the dome.”
“Above the clouds.” She murmured. She brooded over the bodies up on the ledge, then decided to climb. “Watch my six.”
“It’s a mighty purty six.” He drawled.
“Now who is skirting the reprimand?”
He chuckled. “It would be so worth it, ma’am.”
She picked her way up the boulders to the sheer part of the wall. She extended the climbing hooks in her suit boots and forearms. “Going helpless.” She said and swiftly climbed up, using the spiked suit extensions.
“You have bloody well done that before.”
“I love it. Still used the suit in more hospitable places just for the climbing gear.” She made it to the top and used just one burst of suit fuel to crest the top, mostly because her strength wasn’t what it once was. She gathered her kills, and his, “come up. There’s a cave, do a full burn if you want.”
“Franklin calls it going all Iron Man, and yeah. Cover me.”
She watched the countryside, and her mini map. She waited until he was all the way up before she shot a distant flimsy.
She turned towards the cave and led the way. She had to crouch for a few feet, then she could stand again. She was still crouched when the greater Raait came around a bend. She didn’t hesitate. The gunshot brought three more roaring around the bend, followed slowly by a big fellow, a legendary raait.
Luckily, these brutes had no ranged or psionic attacks, just a lot of teeth and a holy ton of hit points. Ros finished the greaters while the legendary was still pushing itself around the bend. Brandon ignored the smaller mobs and concentrated his fire on the big fellow.
“Are we running?” He asked. “I usually run.”
“No. Shoot for the tentacles, right where they meet the body.” She shifted fire to the slight dimple in the face of the raait, if such a thing could be defined as slight. It was a ping pong ball sized depression just under the fourth ring of teeth. Darned things had a lot of teeth.
She hit it three times and when she saw the blood in the thin air she shifted to target the similar spot just below the first one. When that one was drilled through the monster suddenly died.
Obtained: 145,000 coin, communication crystal.
“I just got 55,000 coin. Wow that bugger was tough.”
“Yeah. Ok. Come have a look before I put it away and let out whatever is trapped behind it. The leg shots are easier, if it’s got no legs it can’t move to bite, and then you hit it here and here. There’s a… a something, a gland or a pocket of blood. A brain or a heart. In any case, it’s something it needs and can’t live without, or can live without one but not without both. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“I’m going to store it. Be ready for something to jump out.” She gestured that he should stand back and put herself beside the opening. She put the whole body into her necklace and four greaters burst out, looking angry and ready to fight. They both shot. Ros nodded and gestured she was going in. She went around the corner and heard him behind her. Two more raaits and the cavern was cleared.
“Holy shit.” Brandon said, looking around.
“Yeah. I sometimes think the Raaits poop gemstones too.”
“Or the atmosphere is creating them?”
“I talked to a geologist about it once. In the fourth realm, I think. He said the formations didn’t make sense. Nothing is found in a natural looking environment for crystal formation. I think there are deep rock Wurms, maybe even magma Wurms, bringing the crystals up and depositing them where we find them. A plug like that is common too. A few feet or a few hundred feet in it will end in a solid, natural looking wall.”
“A builder built wall?”
She stopped and turned to look at him. “Huh. Would keep miners from digging into the Wurm tunnels where the Wurms are actively making deposits.”
“Yes, it would. I guess we should have checked out mining equipment.”
She snorted and pulled out all the equipment they would need, a nanite control unit loaded with a set of nanites that wouldn’t eat anything except the specific matrix of non-metal rock that prevailed in these deposits and in big deposits in the Wurm tunnels.
She plucked it out of one of the many spatial objects she’d glanced at when she was sorting but not processing the thirty she found on her own.
“Guard the door.” She sprayed the nanite foam liberally and listened to the telltale tinkle of the individual crystals and metal fronds settling out of the rocks, or maybe settling out of the poop stuff.
She also had a shovel and a miner’s spatial sack, she’d grabbed those in the locker room on the way to the airlock, just habit. There was a spot for each on the outside of the suit. She just had to lay the round sack out on the ground and shovel debris into it.
Thirty logs of poop had been a lot. This deposit was two log lengths wide and ten logs tall. It also went down the tunnel about eight log widths or maybe fourteen feet deep. Roughly 160 logs worth of loot.
“Your karate class is in about an hour.” They had been silent a long time, shoveling.
“Oh. Yeah. Ten minutes and the hole is empty.”
She started shoving with telekinesis instead of the shovel. It went a lot faster.
“Done.” She said. She picked up the bag, “we’re jetting home. No reason to save gas, locker room refills for like ten coin.”
They left the cave and jetted down to the chasm floor, landing close to the guard shack, but far enough away not to disturb the respawned squids.