Malan grinned, his decision on which advancement to take already paying dividends. Given how significant his initial choice of skills had been, gaining early access to a new one was no small thing. It hadn’t escaped his notice that each skill he’d received had its own level value, which meant that getting a good skill even a few levels early had huge advantages.

New Skill Unlocked!

[Deploy Drone, Lvl 1.]

Activation of this skill allows a Celestial Warden to deploy an automated drone to support them and allies in combat. Initially, this skill only allows the deployment of a single Sentry Drone for a short period. After this period expires, there is a recharge time before this skill can be used again. If the drone is destroyed, the recharge time is doubled. This skill uses Cognizance.

Cost: 1 Stat Point(s)

Upon picking up on his curiosity, his display flickered and brought up a small window describing the sentry drone. Basic shields, sporadic small arms fire and an excellent way to scout ahead in unfamiliar territory was the short of it. Based on the specificity of the wording in the skill and drone descriptions, he guessed further levels in the skill would give him access to a wider variety of drones with different specialisations, and perhaps even the ability to deploy more than one.

Malan hesitated only a moment before spending his last stat point on the skill. There really didn’t seem to be a drawback to using the drones, and the only thing it cost him was a stat point to use on the off-chance he discovered a new, better skill before earning more stat points, which seemed unlikely at best.

For the third time in short succession, he watched, fascinated, as his suit shifted. Black shards gathered at his shoulder, forming the rounded disc shape of his sentry drone, ready for deployment at a his command.

He held still for another thirty seconds when it was done, just in case any other notifications or such appeared, before nodding to himself and taking a steadying breath. At a thought, the dais he stood upon clicked free of the rest of the floor, and with a gentle hiss, began to lower him to the ground beneath his ship.

A wall of sickening humidity hit him as soon as his small platform opened to the open air of Mykeser, and he was pleasantly surprised to feel a cool rush of air begin to circulate between his groundsuit and skin almost immediately. It was a relief to, because even with the help of his suit, the air on Mykeser was absolutely suffocating.

The smooth dais lay itself down on the floor so smoothly he barely felt it, and trying to seem more confident than he felt, he stepped onto the warm concrete of the landing pad. The platform didn’t wait for a command, and as soon he’d taken several steps away, it rose from the floor and joined with the underside of his ship, blending in with the hull as though there had never been an exit in the first place.

New Title Unlocked

[Explorer I] Set foot on the surface of a planet for the first time. 2% increase to Cognizance.

Malan allowed the title notification to slide across his screen without too much thought—the stat increase was nice, and it was interesting to see he was to be rewarded for exploring, but already he could see several ship techs scurrying his way. Interestingly, his display focused in on the id cards that hung from their belts, notifying him of names and job titles.

More interestingly was the fact that all the people scurrying around had been assigned levels, which raised an interesting thought. Did that mean everyone was already a part of whatever system allowed Starbound to function and just weren’t able to access it for themselves directly, or was this something that his bond with Tanwen added for his benefit specifically?

“Ah… Starbound—Sir…” Began the first tech to reach him, slightly out of breath.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He was one of the younger men approaching that wore the grey overalls, and quite apart from his age, Malan could tell by the way his were still zipped all the way up in the stifling heat that he was a recent arrival. Wide blue eyes zipped between the ship and himself as he stumbled over how to properly address him.

Malan knew that other Starbound took on something of a persona in public—a name that reflected the nature of their own Starbound. He grimaced at the idea of doing it for himself. It felt awfully presumptuous for someone who had yet to visit the Nexus or be officially recognised, but he also wasn’t stupid.

He’d never really thought too hard about it. Starbound had cool names—that was just how it was. Now he was in their shoes, the reason was abundantly clear. If he used his real name, his sister would become the target for a whole lot of unwanted attention, positive and otherwise.

“Appreciated, Baccus, Galan,” he said, his display providing him their names before extending his hand for both he and the older tech that still stood a respectful distance back.

The younger started at him knowing his name, whilst the older tech simply grinned beneath an especially bushy moustache and took the proffered hand for a firm handshake. Malan could see by the name tag that Galan was the port’s senior tech, and had likely been summoned to attend to him personally, and he was relieved to see Galan appeared far less starstruck.

As if responding to the unspoken question, Galan slapped Baccus on the back a little harder than the young man was ready for. “You’ll have to forgive Baccus here,” he chuckled. “It’s his first time seeing your kind up close. We’re both from UGC space originally, see? Our feathers are a lot less ruffled by your being here than others who ain’t. I would imagine it’s why we were called specifically. Speaking of…”

Malan caught the direction of the older man’s gaze and the wavering of his genial smile, and followed it. Scurrying across grey concrete was a man wearing burgundy dress trousers and waistcoat over a too-puffy and loose white shirt, with a royal blue overcoat trimmed with gold draped over his shoulders.

He was flanked by another man that was far more plainly dressed, in simple grey fatigues with black armour plating. A rifle of some description was strapped to his back, and a sidearm to his left thigh, and not a single bead of sweat touched the man’s iron-wrought face. Where the finely dressed man scurried visibly, this man seemed to glide dangerously over the concrete, his movements carrying the lethal confidence of an Old Earth tiger.

He found himself tensing as they approached, but the dangerous looking man held back whilst the other approached, and looked for all the world like he couldn’t care less about what was happening in front of him.

“Starbound! Welcome!” The well-dressed man practically sang, dipping his head and offering a gold-ringed hand. “It’s an honour to have one of your stature grace our humble colony.”

Malan accepted the offered hand, shaking it—though immediately had to be careful not to yank his hand back when the experience was something akin to trying to grip limp, half-rotted lettuce.

“Thank you for the kind welcome,” he answered as genially as could manage, fighting the urge to wipe his hand on something, despite the fact it was gloved.

“Do not think on it, Caezo is proud to host you… Starbound. Apologies, I do not mean to be rude, but I am yet to be appraised of your name,” he said, glaring slightly at the techs behind Malan.

“Because I am yet to give it,” he answered, making sure the techs would not be held responsible after he’d left. “I am Tanwen,” he said as casually as he could manage.

That, the dangerous man did register, cold eyes running over him, weighing. His companion didn’t notice. Instead he bowed a little lower still.

“And I am Lugh Talorcan, the Administrator of Caezo. We will do everything we can to ensure you are well-accommodated during your stay, though our colony is production based. I am told your reason for being here is to acquire supplies and repairs for an onward journey? You will of course have them free of charge, as long as it is within our capabilities to do so. A gesture of good will, yes?” There was a pause, and Lugh swallowed visibly. “Providing, of course, that is the reason you are here? If there is anything else, if you would simply let me know, you can be assured I will do everything in my power—”

Malan cut him off with a raised hand. “That is all we need. Basic food and medical supplies, and repairs for the Sparrow over there,” he said, gesturing to the already landed craft, where Elena and Thaddeus had opted to hang back and avoid the enthusiastic greeting.

Lugh waffled on, assuring Malan that their techs had already been notified of the need for repairs and would see to everything, and that a place for them to stay had already been found and about a dozen other things in quick succession. Malan listened, of course, but his real focus was on the man himself.

The good Administrator was not simply nervous. That, he could understand. The Starbound could technically be considered UGC military assets, and this was a non-UGC aligned planet. That was already a diplomatic nightmare, before you started getting into the fact that it was likely some folks currently on Mykeser had come here specifically to escape UGC laws and regulations that interfered with their ability to make money.

Eyeing the older man’s gaudy jewellery and rich clothing, it would be easy to write his suspicions off as just that. Worry that a good thing was about to be upended and ruined. Only, the man really was sweating profusely. It was a hot planet—but that hot? It bucketed across his portly face now, rivulets soaking what had been a crisp shirt collar and turning large swathes of the white material translucent.

Then there was way his gold-ringed hands squirmed and rubbed together, almost for comfort, or even the way he gnawed at his thin lips.

No, this man was not simply anxious.

He was terrified.