Veronika stared down at the arctic snow wolf, who was cleaning his fur without any ounce of the fear and caution he had shown earlier. It gave her the chance to examine the creature a bit more and concluded that the wolf was one big round looking fluff ball of snow-white, with perky round ears that twitched as he cleaned. His long snout was being buried in tufts of fur.

He stopped cleaning and stared up at her with round, blue eyes. She frowned at the sight of his bushy tail wagging energetically on the ground to stir up the dust.

“Hey, pup. You got your feed, time to beat-feet outta here.” She thumbed toward the exit, where the storm had eased outside.

“Where to?” The wolf innocently tilted his head to one side as he regarded the suggestion.

“How the hell would I know. Just, take a hike.” Her frowned deepened at the attitude she was showing the beast. Was this also grafted into her being?

[Unknown but unlikely. You were only grafted with knowledge, which needs to be explored further for better analysis] System added.

“Right. Well, whatever.” Veronika was keen to leave the cavern and explore the metal wastelands a bit.

The landscape before her was calm, with a hint of iron, musk and mildew smells in the air. Aside from some faint whirs and draining beeps from the mechanical junk that were discarded in piles to form small hills, the area was quiet. Not much other life could be detected.

She knelt to inspect a pile of broken wires and burnt shrapnel that were still moist from the recent rain. They seemed to belong to handheld scanners.

[Scanning…] System chimed into her mind.

Her sight switched to a wireframe vision of the components. Various bits of information about them were tagged to some of the pieces. One of the components glowed in her internal vision, with exclamation marks flashing on the words ’Treasure Find’. She picked up the small chip to examine it closer. It was dusty and didn’t look anything special.

[Not on surface level, but this is a biotic chip that allows focal energy to be applied through the hands. It should help in stabilizing your Brush Actualization skill] System concluded of its benefits.

“And?” Veronika was confused on how it would help her and what she needed to do with it.

[For now, just keep it in your pocket. When the time is right to apply it, I’ll instruct further] System answered.

That was good enough for Veronika. She did as instructed and began picking her way through the junk.

After a while of trekking across piles of broken wires, metal objects and various technological pieces laid to rot and be homes for all kinds of colorful mold, she had become accustom to the sight. Until all was just another hill of metal junk after another.

Eventually, the scenery changed as she progressed through the day. There were areas where grass couldn’t grow higher than a few centimeters over gray rocks.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of building structures at a far distance. The structures were rectangular and scattered in a semicircle layout at the base of where a large tower was just visible.

She trekked to the building structures and was surprised to enter a well maintained area. They were a contrast to its surrounding landscape, with stain-free and fully intact walls and tinted windows: barely a dent could be seen on them.

As she entered further into the area, she noticed all the people were wearing uniforms of white, brown and red with the same white-star corporate logo on their shoulders, sleeves and chest plates. She remembered she was in a place called the Expanse for the Lost. But these people looked far from being part of a lost cause, and more like workers for a business. They moved around her like she wasn’t even there: focused on whatever task they were doing or headed toward.

“System, what have I walked into?” She glanced about the people and caught some fleeting looks.

Some whispers, like noise, rebounded toward her direction.

“Who is she?”

“Why is she here?”

“Oh, I’ve seen her. Her squad said she was…”

“Genetic failure? Soldiers can be stupid…”

“Yeah. That’s the one girl the Concordat spent a fortune on. Serves them right for getting a dud. It only proves how incompetent their scientists are.”

“...didn’t her squad already leave the planet?”

“They left her behind. Bwahaha!”

“A stupid genetically made soldier.”

“No better than a bot. She’s like all the junk on this planet. Make’s sense.”

“Pity. She’s a looker. I’d buy her.”

“You’d be wasting your credits. Better to just let her rot with all the other junk in this place.”

Laughter rang around Veronika’s ears as the people were suddenly abrupt with chatter and not shy about what they thought of her, which seemed to confirm their impression of the forces she came from.

“Um, System, I get the impression these people don’t like the Concordat Forces.” she mumbled as she picked her way along the clean, concrete paths to a clear zone, and away from the chatter.

[Naturally, they belong to a private mining company that is funded by a rival corporation. Considering their reaction to you, it would be safe to assume you will not be taken advantage of]

“Or they could just stick me on a pike as an example of what happens to stupid, genetically engineered Concordat soldiers.” She grimaced aloud then slapped a hand over her mouth with hopes no one had heard to get ideas.

The most she could hope for was to be ignored like a piece of lint. Anyway, she wasn’t there to make friends, but figure out where she was and what to do next.

[According to stealth scans from the comm-nodes you passed, where you are is a small mining town called Bing Bing because of the ground-ice mineral it mines, which is named Bing Verslas. The mineral is converted into fuel for starships. This mine holds a working population of 150 humans, 20 Cretarians and 12 Lakionian. All funded by Starcharter Enterprises out of Earth. They rarely deal with Concordat Forces. And most of the locals seem to bear past grudges for the Concordat based on scans of the community chatnet]

“Right. Well, thanks for telling me how screwed I am. At least I don’t have to worry about impressing the locals.” Veronika sarcastically grumbled her understanding on the situation, but there was no point in being anxious about opinions. She refocused her thoughts to her surroundings.

[Veronika. I suggest you duck] System randomly added.

Unexpectedly, Veronika’s vision switched to a terrain view, where she saw small projectiles zooming toward her. Bullets.

“Why?!” She yelped as she twisted about, ducked and did a body roll to avoid the zippy rounds.