Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  Tane glanced at G’allanthamas. “Can you blur us from their LIDAR?”

  “I can hide our presence from LIDAR,” G’allanthamas said. “As well as the facial recognition and thermal detection algorithms in any cameras. However, it does leave a visual artifact.”

  “A visual artifact?” Tane asked.

  “Yes,” G’allanthamas answered. “You will all look like large, dark spheres.”

  “Ah, so that’s why you wanted to wait until nightfall,” Tane said. “When there would be the least possible chance of detection.”

  “Now you understand,” the alien said.

  “You could have volunteered that information before,” Tane told the dweller.

  “It did not seem polite,” G’allanthamas said.

  Tane had to laugh. Aliens.

  “So we have a choice,” Jed said. “Wait until dark, but then there is a chance the TSN will discover us before we leave. Or depart now, and risk the TSN catching us before we make the shuttle. Your choice, Engineer.”

  Tane considered both options and made his decision.

  “We leave now,” Tane said. “The sooner we move beyond the clutches of the TSN, the safer I’ll feel.”

  G’allanthamas led the way up the stairs, followed by Tane and Sinive. Jed brought up the rear, though he became invisible before long. The warrior still showed up on the overhead map, so that meant Jed was staying within the reduced range of his chip.

  The buildings here were squat, two story affairs. Residential, Tane thought.

  “Faster,” Jed transmitted over the comm. “The TSN will have detected us by now.”

  Moving rapidly, the alien kept close to the gated yards.

  D18 at the ready, Tane hurried along behind G’allanthamas. He watched the sky nervously, expecting a drone or shuttle to come racing by any second. If the TSN wanted to kill him, dragon strikes from orbit would’ve likely already vaporized him and his party.

  G’allanthamas paused at the edge of an intersection to peer past in both directions. Then the alien darted forward, carapace bobbing oddly atop those spidery legs.

  Tane and the others followed. The walls that encircled the city loomed ahead. The protective field those walls could generate against storms was currently inactive, of course.

  The street curved on either side of him and Tane realized it ran all along the inside rim of the wall, something that his overhead map confirmed. Outrim Street, it was called.

  Somehow appropriate for an Outrimmer like me.

  Ahead, a large arch in the wall framed a pair of steel double doors that towered over the party.

  “Hacking skills don’t always work in the Umbra,” Sinive said. “But I’ll give these doors my best shot.”

  “No need.” Tane slid the D18 over his shoulder and equipped his beam hilt. He straightened, feeling invigorated thanks to the Endurance boost. Then he stepped into the Essence through the hilt and the dual-bitted white blade erupted from the hilt.

  Tane rushed the double doors and deactivated his shield so that he could get close enough to cut his ax through the metal in a wide, elliptical pattern—he was trying to account for the dweller’s size, not just that of the other humans.

  When finished, he kicked the elliptical outline of the plug that had appeared, but it didn’t cave inwards.

  “The wall is too thick for a single pass,” Jed said. “You’ll have to try again. And direct your blade more slowly.”

  Tane sliced his double-headed ax into the previously carved groove, and moved slower this time as he traced the elliptical outline. When he was done, the metal plug shifted, and he knew he’d cut through. He deactivated his beam hilt and tried to shove his shoulder against it. The heavy plug didn’t budge.

  “Move aside,” Jed said.

  Tane did so. He heard a loud clang from beside him and Jed became visible—the warrior had smashed himself onto the plug and was pushing against it with both arms. From the pained expression on his face, he was putting in a lot of effort.

  The plug slid inward until it finally toppled over with a loud thud.

  Jed became invisible once again, and according to the overhead map he had also moved inside the passageway beyond.

  “Clear,” Jed said, panting from his previous effort.

  Tane and Sinive easily cleared the wide hole, stepping onto the fallen plug; G’allanthamas had to crouch low, tilting his head against his carapace and tightly drawing in his eight legs.

  “Could you have made the hole any smaller, Doomwielder?” the alien complained.

  The four of them found themselves inside a broad maintenance tunnel of some kind that traveled the width of the wall.

  On the far side, Tane had to cut through another tall double door in a similar manner, with Jed once again handling the resultant plug. Tane had made the hole slightly bigger to better accommodate G’allanthamas, and Jed paid for that by having to exert more effort, and it took him longer to force aside the plug. Sinive and Tane added their raw strength to the effort, but it was debatable how much they actually helped. G’allanthamas meanwhile stood back watching peacefully.

  The whole time Tane kept expecting the TSN to come rushing inside from the far opening, but troops never came.

  When it was done, Tane and the others passed through into the jungle undergrowth beyond. Tane reactivated his energy shield.

  “Those doors cost us an extra minute and a half,” Sinive said.

  Tane cast a searching gaze once more into the passageway behind him, and then glanced upward, searching the top of the towering wall. “No sign of the TSN yet.”

  The jungle came right up to that wall, though the upper canopy fell well short of the topmost edge.

  On his HUD, the unmapped area outside the city was represented in black—the fog of war.

  “Can we get a waypoint to your shuttle?” Jed asked.

  Tane received a share request from G’allanthamas, and when he accepted, a flashing green dot appeared some distance inside the fog of war ahead.

  “Stay close to me,” G’allanthamas said. “These are the hunting grounds of the kraals: the trees often spawn Diracs. The kraals like to lurk in hiding behind the thicker boles, mostly to ambush any competing herds that might invade their territory. They’ll jump out and snatch you if you’re not careful.”

  “That’s another thing you could have warned us about earlier,” Tane muttered.

  “My apologies,” G’allanthamas said. “I am still getting used to socializing with humans again.”

  “Stay close together, people,” Tane said. “Sinive, that means you.”

  “Fine,” Sinive said. “I’ll get closer, but if that dweller makes a move...”

  “He won’t,” Tane said. “He’s on our side. You hurt him, you hurt me. The same goes for her, Gall.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of touching her,” G’allanthamas said. “Which is why I’ll use the Dark Essence when I hurt her.”

  “Gall...”

  “Only kidding, of course,” G’allanthamas said.

  “You know that’s funny only to you, right?” Sinive said.

  “One day I hope to understand human humor…” the alien retorted.

  Tane followed the dweller through the undergrowth. G’allanthamas moved quickly, and Tane had to up the output of his suit servomotors to keep up. He almost considered asking G’allanthamas for a ride on that wide carapace, but a memory told him the alien would deem such a request an insult, not to mention a sign of weakness.

  The foliage close to the ground was thick, but above it the air between the tall boles was mostly empty. Located at the tops of those boles was the canopy, which towered over him and blotted out the sky entirely, casting the forest in a perpetual twilight that seemed darker than it should have thanks to the blue-shifting of all light in the Umbra. It was so dark in fact that he considered creating Night Vision, if only for the practice, but he wasn't sure what would happen to the works he still had in reserve. Would Night Vision replace o
ne of them?

  Now wasn’t really the time to experiment. If he lost his two Fingers of Ruin reserves, or even one of them, and an attack came before he could create a new one, that was one more enemy that would get through their defenses before he could create an Essence Missile or strike with his beam hilt. So he simply adjusted the gating level of his helmet faceplate and brightened his surroundings using technology instead.

  Most of the branches on the nearby trunks were located near the distant treetops, supporting the canopy, while the rest of the trees were bare lower down, and looked like pillars. The thick trunks were spread out: by Tane’s estimate, there was enough space between the boles that a skilled AI could fly a shuttle between them if necessary, while still staying beneath the canopy and out of view of any watching eyes in orbit.

  Ahead, the dweller’s large size allowed it to easily force a path through the foliage. Tane noticed the thick branches rarely broke away, and often snapped back into place, hard, forcing Tane to keep his distance: he’d learned his lesson when a rebounding branch slammed into his shield, draining half its energy.

  Speaking of his shield, even when he kept his distance from the dweller, because the undergrowth was relatively thick, convex sections of the protective field flashed into existence almost constantly as different parts of the foliage brushed against it, forcing the shield to repel them. The overall effect was to continually drain the energy field.

  As the protective strength approached zero, he equipped his beam hilt and stepped into the Essence to ignite the dual ax-blade. Even when he cut away the foliage with the large weapon, inevitably there were portions he missed, and his shield continued to deplete. Eventually he decided to just turn it off. He also shut down his ax blade and replaced the beam hilt at his belt to conserve his strength.

  Without the shield, the leaves and branches of the shrubs endlessly scraped against his spacesuit. Some of the larger ones pressed the suit fabric into his skin underneath, so he could literally feel the undergrowth brushing past.

  He was still amazed that so many of those branches remained intact after the passage of the large dweller. Those were certainly some tough branches and leaves. They’d have to be, if the undergrowth wanted to survive the fierce storms and gale force winds that occasionally rocked the forests of the moon. Though he supposed the thick canopy above also provided a lot of protection—most of the storm damage would likely affect the upper boughs. On the ground around him, he often came across large, fallen branches the size of logs that must have been torn away from that canopy.

  When he imagined what storms capable of ripping off logged-sized branches must be like, Tane thought immediately of the stellar gale that was the White Essence, and how terrible it could be. A draining, howling cold that scraped away the upper layers of his bones and threatened to scour him right out of existence.

  “If the trees spawn Diracs, why would the kraals ever come to the city?” Sinive asked, drawing Tane out of his dark thoughts.

  “Herds are often dislocated thanks to territory disputes,” the alien said. “Plus, Diracs are found in the forested parks within. So it isn’t like there is no food available in the city at all. I’m only saying, the kraals favor these forests, and can be found here in abundance.”

  “If they feed on Diracs, why are they built like carnivores?” Tane asked.

  “Diracs aren’t their sole food source,” G’allanthamas said. “They also feed on each other. Not as nutritious, but it gets the job done.”

  “Nice,” Sinive said. “I’ve always been a fan of cannibalistic aliens. Mostly when they eat each other while I get away.”

  As Tane kept up the quick retreat, he scanned the forest around him for signs of ambush from kraals, dwellers, or TSN, but it was difficult to see past the thick undergrowth.

  “Jed, is your LIDAR able to penetrate this undergrowth at all?” Tane asked.

  “No more than one to ten meters in any direction, depending on changing shrub density,” Jed said. “There are limits even to battle armor such as mine.”

  “Too bad,” Tane said. “By the way, Gall, you don’t have an actual starship do you? Something that could take us off this world if we needed to leave?”

  “No,” the dweller said. “I only have a shuttle. It could carry you into space, but isn’t fast enough to be of much use once there. And it certainly can’t jump to any other systems, if collecting the other dark artifacts was what you had in mind.”

  “It was, actually,” Tane said. “Thanks for clarifying.”

  “I thought you couldn’t learn any more works until you gained some levels in Dark Siphoning?” Sinive asked.

  “I actually already gained a level since we last talked,” Tane replied. “And there’s also Dark and White Mixing level one that I qualify for.”

  “Someone’s not power hungry or anything,” Sinive said.

  “Hey, I have the ability, might as well unlock my full potential,” Tane said.

  There was a blur of motion ahead as something rammed into G’allanthamas with a loud smack. The dweller vanished into the foliage.

  “Kraals!” Jed cried.

  14

  The fronds of the shrub immediately beside Tane shook; he spun toward it and released one of his reserve Fingers of Ruin just as a large reptilian jaw parted the foliage. Those sharp, sideways-oriented teeth were wide open, and obviously intended to crunch through Tane’s spacesuit while snatching him away just like the other kraal had done to G’allanthamas, but when the Dark work struck, the six-legged creature stumbled.

  Tane dodged to the side as the kraal drunkenly moved forward—the beast was unable to check its existing momentum. The gill area in its neck cracked open thanks to the Essencework, revealing the quivering muscle tissue underneath. And a whole lot of oily blood.

  The imbalanced kraal finally collapsed, shaking the ground upon impact. It tried to get up, but Tane was close enough to hold the D18 to its head; he squeezed the trigger, execution style. That was a mistake, since it splattered his spacesuit in black blood, blotting out half his faceplate. But it did end the kraal.

  There was no time to wipe the blood from his faceplate—he stepped into the White Essence and threw out his Essence Sight lifeline, placing his perspective five meters directly above himself so that he could see the jungle on all sides around him.

  Should have done this earlier.

  Then again, even if he had done it earlier, it probably wouldn’t have helped, given how thick the jungle was; that, and the fact the kraals were nearly the same color as the surrounding foliage.

  “Sinive, to your right!” Tane said as he spotted a kraal lurking behind the undergrowth beside her.

  “I see it.” Sinive fired her pistol several times into the foliage and the hidden kraal dropped. “I have Essence Sight, too, you know,” she said. “It might be weaker than yours. But I still have it.”

  “Sorry for living,” Tane said.

  “You better be,” Sinive said. “How the hell did they approach so quietly?”

  “They were waiting for us.” Jed momentarily flashed into existence as he beheaded a kraal to the left of Tane with his Chrysalium sword.

  A creature dashed into view ahead. Tane thought it was a kraal at first until he recognized the distinctive shape of G’allanthamas. That wide carapace, and the many tentacles emerging from the fore were most definitely unkraal-like.

  Sinive spun her pistol toward the alien.

  “Hold!” Tane said. “It’s Gall!”

  The dweller’s tentacles were covered in fresh black blood. His own? No, the kraal he had defeated more likely.

  Tane and Sinive took out two more kraals they spotted in hiding, with their D18 and pistol respectively, and then the party hurried onward.

  “We can’t afford any further delays!” Jed said. “The TSN will be on us shortly!”

  Tane was beginning to regret not waiting until nightfall.

  He reverted his viewpoint back inside of himself and wip
ed the black blood from his faceplate as best as he was able.

  “We must move quickly not only because of our human hunters,” the dweller said. “Those kraals back there were the equivalent of scouts. When the others they were with smell the blood on the air, they’ll come stampeding.”

  “Are you Siphoning?” Tane asked as he jogged through the foliage.

  “Yes,” G’allanthamas said.

  “Me too. I thought kraals were supposed to fear Dark Essence?”

  “Sometimes instinct eclipses fear,” G’allanthamas said. “Plus, the fear is usually only present in the smaller kraals. And these kraals are certainly not small.“

  “I hadn’t noticed…” Tane said.

  He began another Dark timeline for Fingers of Ruin to replace the one he had lost.

  The ground began to shake before he was half finished. He could feel it even while on the run—pulsing vibrations that traveled up through his boots and into his toes. He could see it in the quivering of the surrounding fronds. It was distracting, but his higher level in Dark Siphoning helped him continue the timeline.

  “Quickly, quickly,” G’allanthamas said.

  Tane slowly rotated his Essence Sight viewpoint as he ran, which was slightly disorienting, but he wanted to know which directions the kraals were coming from. The branches and leaves whipped at his suit as he raced past them, and the sounds of their impacts echoed through his helmet. He knew he could easily trip on that undergrowth by casting out his perspective like that.

  Just a little longer...

  He spotted the tops of the tall undergrowth swaying to the right, and the trail of trampled fronds behind them. A wide swath of it.

  “They’re coming in from our right,” Tane said.

  “I see them,” Jed said.

  Tane finally tripped, an inevitable consequence of running through a jungle with an out-of-body perspective like that.

  He snapped his viewpoint back inside himself, and Sinive helped him to his feet. By then the ground had begun to shake even more violently.

  Tane continued running. He fired off a burst from the D18 into the undergrowth beside him as he sprinted, but all he succeeded in doing was carving a few holes through the nearby fronds. He might have struck one of the incoming kraals but it was impossible to tell.