Malan crouched low amongst the dense jungle undergrowth, the dark colours of his groundsuit blending perfectly with the shadows cast by the towering, vine-smothered trees. Above, the last vibrant amber clouds were losing the light of the planet’s sun as night fell, slowly giving way to a star speckled sky.

Several hundred yards downslope from him, the Eidolon facility lit the forest clearing with its towering security lights, and brightly lit interior rooms. Thick trails of steam spiralled into the air from exhaust vents, and Malan’s HUD flickered with lights highlighting patrolling security. The facility itself seemed to be doing a fantastic impression of a down on it’s luck medicinal operation. It’s outer walls were rusted, mottled with patches of ivy and creeping vines, and several of its glass windows had been shattered and subsequently boarded up.

The disguise was a shallow one, however. There was too much security, too many trucks going to and from the facility transporting the goods it was producing away. Added to that were the guards. Decked out in the same security uniforms of the main colony, but far too many of them for a place at this level of disrepair.

Malan looked over his status information as he waited for word from Elena. Their battles in the jungle had done him some good in regards to his levels, not to mention the fact that he could feel the difference in himself.

Status

Name: Malan Tierin

Race: Voidborn [1]

Alignment: N/A

Pilot Level: 4

Class: N/A

Stats

Energetics: 74

Synergetics: 64

Cognizance: 73

Titles: [Voidborn], [Abyss Slayer I], [Explorer I], [Beast Slayer I], [Shield Control I], [Team Player I]

Basic Skills: [Celestial Warden, Lvl. 1], [Engineer’s Gauntlets, Ranged. Lvl. 2], [Engineer’s Gauntlets, Melee. Lvl. 1], [Engineer’s Gauntlets, Interface. Lvl. 1], [Sentry Drone, Lvl 2.]

Class Skills: N/A

Race Skills: [½ requirements met]

Alignment Skills: N/A

Upgrades: N/A

[Team Player I] had been a title he’d been awarded during the battle with the mercs that he’d quickly dismissed as a distraction and forgotten about until much later that evening. It had been given for targets killed as part of a larger group, and came with a small but appreciated buff to his Synergetics. Then he’d allocated his spare stat point to Cognizance, in the hopes it would continue to improve his gear.

The gauntlet and sentry skills he’d leveled up hadn’t affected any numbers he could see, but he would swear on anything that he could feel the difference. His shots held more power, and his drone had grown more responsive. All things considered, he was feeling good. Which was useful, because the task ahead of him was daunting enough as it was.

“Malan?” Elena said, her voice ringing around the inside of his helmet.

“In position,” he muttered, eyes locked on the slow patrols of the guards in front of him.

“Good. I’m all done at the first ancillary facility, and am approaching the second. Pity you’re going to miss the show.”

He smirked despite his nerves. “How is it you kept this side of your personality quiet for the two years I’ve known you?”

There was a scoffing sound over the comms. “I didn’t. You were just too busy with your pity party teenage bullshit to notice much of anyone else.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Her tone was light, but Malan couldn’t help the wince that followed. “A fair point. I think it’s about time I made my move. The guard patrols are about to change.”

“You have a way in?”

“The patrol routes are fairly routine, and their timing is consistent. My window is short, but I should be fine.”

“And you’re sure your gauntlets will get you in?”

“No. But I’ll only find that out when I get there. If they don’t, I’ll find another way.”

Elena clicked her teeth, but rather than disagree she simply said, “Just don’t get spotted before I’m on my way to your location. Good luck, Mal.”

“And you. See you on the other side.”

With that, Malan closed the comms channel and returned his attention to the task ahead. The first obstacle was a simple electric perimeter fence, topped with coils of razor-wire. Beyond it there were plenty of nooks and crannies amongst shipping containers and disused vehicles and outbuildings that Malan could hide himself well enough.

However, to get there, he had to cross a stretch of cleared former jungle with no cover. The guards stationed in the main facility wouldn’t see him, but the two teams of guards walking the perimeter fence would if he wasn’t fast enough. This was why he’d stayed where he was for as long as he had. He’d studied the routes of the guards, and the pacing of their patrols.

They were trained, sure enough. Their movements were confident and fluid, and they held their weapons with a casual grace that belied their lethality. But they had been drilled to fight. They were raiders and pirates, not professional security personnel. One of the teams was completing their route faster than the other, creating a growing window of opportunity where nobody could see the gate through the fence.

It was small—no more than a minute before one of the teams would turn a corner and see him in the distance—but it was enough of a blind spot that he could slip through and take cover between storage containers if he was fast enough. And if his gauntlets worked how he suspected they would.

He gave the freshly passed patrol just enough time to turn a corner out of sight before he moved. Malan launched himself from the treeline in a crouch, black-booted feet padding almost entirely silently across the cleared earth. Energy flowed to his gauntlets as his mind concentrated on activating the correct skill, and he reached the fence gate with his arm already raised toward the control panel.

Almost without any guidance, he felt the strange sensation of the fence’s control grid being linked with him directly. He was suddenly acutely aware of its structure and power flow, and that he could shut the entire fence off right now with just a thought.

He settled for just his gate, cutting the power with his mind. The gate clicked open, and he felt a small swell of celestial energy flow through him. He grinned beneath his helmet and slipped through the gate with seconds to spare, only just making it to the first set of rusted metal shipping containers before the next patrol appeared around the opposite fence edge.

Inside the fence’s boundary, he was suddenly aware that he was now fully within the belly of the beast. It’s looming walls cast deep shadows that danced beneath the stark, underpowered exterior lights that illuminated narrow spaces between outbuildings. Malan pressed his back against a shipping container’s wall, refusing to even breathe as a pair of guards passed by, their low murmurs smothered by the rumble of the facility’s machinery. Eidolon’s main entrance was within sight, now—a heavy, reinforced door held closed by a security panel.

Malan stepped away from his cover, intending to weave his way through the series of containers and side buildings until he was as close as possible to the main building, when a sound stopped him dead in his tracks. He’d turned the first corner, directly into a small, hidden space with three reclined chairs. The third was occupied by a guard laying all the way back, gently snoring.

His breath caught in his throat, and he battled back a curse. Of course he wouldn’t be the only one using these spaces to hide.

He started to creep past the man, only to step on something not jungle dirt. There was a sharp crack, and the sleeping man drew in a startled breath that turned into an immediate coughing fit. The man swore to himself and began to haul himself upright. Heart in his throat, Malan made a split second decision. He darted forward before the man could notice him, and slammed his hand over the man’s mouth.

His eyes widened in horror as he gazed up at Malan’s tinted helmet screen, and his arms flailed for half a second before Malan activated his melee gauntlet and slid the energy blade between the man’s ribs.

The next several seconds were some of the longest of Malan’s life so far. He saw the shock and agony in the man’s eyes as Malan’s weapon pierced him, and he saw the terror as the man realised and accepted that this was his time to do. He was forced to sit with his hand over the dying mans mouth as he silently choked and spluttered, drowning in his own blood, ensuring his victim’s silence to the very end.

Finally, he was able to stand and wipe the blood from his hand, fighting desperately not to look at the man’s vacant, glassy eyes. It wasn’t that he felt bad, necessarily. Even now he maintained his stance that he didn’t feel guilt at taking the lives of these men. Whatever his feelings about killing, these were people who’d done terrible things as part of Eclipse—they didn’t even deserve his pity.

However, that didn’t change the fact that today was the first time he’d killed a human, and this, only hours after the first, was disconcertingly intimate.

He took the briefest moment to compose himself before setting off. The several hours he’d spent memorising patrol patterns had paid off tenfold. From the few guards he was able to see from his hiding spaces, he was able to create a picture of where all of them should be, and was able to slip unseen to the control panel of one of Eidolon’s side doors with no further problems.

Once again, he felt the rush of being connected to the door systems of the facility, the interface of his gauntlets flaring a vivid blue as numbers and symbols danced across his HUD. The process of bypassing the door’s security was almost instinctual, and almost instantly the locks clicked open with a soft hiss, alongside a ping on his HUD: [Engineer Gauntlet, Interfacing Lv. 1 → Lv. 2].

Taking a steadying breath, Malan slid the door open and stepped inside.