“Diamond’s right,” Martin said, standing straighter, his wounds looking better already. “The option of using them to instantly level up from zero is an important step in our civilization’s survival. With this many dead Warped, we should have enough piTec to level up every person still in the shelters. We can’t pass up an opportunity like that.”
“We understand,” Nori said.
“However,” the Justicar continued with a grin. “As you guys pretty much single-handedly took out the Broodmother, I think it’s only fair you claim it for yourself. Don’t you agree, Diamond?”
“I suppose,” the beefy leader replied.
Nori nodded. “Then let’s do this.” She bent down, pressed her hands to the body and concentrated, consciously specifying her crewmates as the only recipients.
Tec extraction commencing.
Intense flashes of light ran along the Broodmother’s body, hitting the three companions in huge waves. some even streaming into the ship.
Temporarily blinded, Nori had to blink away the spots before she could read her messages.
Extracted 40 Tec (+2 Levels)
piTec: 86,000
“Holy moly,” Lana said. “I just gained sixty Tec and leveled up to seven.”
Nori winced. “I got forty”.
Bulco patted her shoulder. “No point crying over it. For better or for worse, we both made our choices. What I don’t get is how come we got so much piTec? Didn’t that freakishly tall merchant say it has to be less than a thousand?”
“We got a few thousand off the dead pilot too,” Nori reminded him. “Maybe the Broodmother carried extra piTec, outside of her body, for some reason.”
The Engineer’s eyebrows nearly reached his forehead. “I’m not gonna go down that road. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have attribute points to assign.”
“What about the corpse?” Lana asked. “Alzigo mentioned a Broodmother should drop something called an essence core.”
“Right.” Bulco drew out a long combat knife from his belt and eyed the giant monster with a professional look. Then he glanced at Lana and a mischievous grin spread over his face. He offered her the weapon. “Would you like to do the honors?”
She looked at the knife with a horrified expression and took a decisive step back.
The large man chuckled. “I’ll poke around a little bit, then.”
Lana’s face paled as he bent down and started hacking into the partially torn head. “I think I’ll go run a sensor sweep, make sure there are no more Warped in the area.”
“Good idea,” Nori said. She looked around at the milling people. “Keep me posted. I’m going to lend a hand here.”
***
It took several hours to clean-up after the battle. All the people who didn’t die outright recovered from their wounds, setting the final death toll at 212.
The bodies were carried up to the fort to be buried inside the Broodmother’s pit, marking the place they had given the ultimate sacrifice. As the last rays of the dwindling sun disappeared over the horizon, everyone gathered together to lay the dead into their final resting place and pay their respects.
One by one, people stepped forward and said a few words about the friends they had lost. Each of the fallen names was etched into the steel walls, forever commemorating their sacrifice.
“You know,” Martin spoke quietly over the comms as the eulogies continued. “You never explained what happened to your ship at the final moment - when it turned into a giant insect and took out the queen.”
“It was Nathan,” Lana said softly as she looked at the grieving people. “He saved us all.”
“He has a very special Path,” Nori explained. “It somehow upgraded the ship and fused it with an alien mining robot. The weapon that melted its head off is actually an excavation tool.”
Diamond shook his head. “You kids and your crazy adventures. So you mean to tell me that’s a mining ship now? With that big-ass cannon of yours? Looks more like an attack vessel to me.”
Bulco chuckled. “It’s just an asteroid cannon. It was designed to break apart space rocks to a minable size. I think.”
“But you have a point,” Nori said. “Unity is more than just a simple freighter now. It’s classified as a miner-freighter. Seeing her transformed shape finally explains that ‘mining’ section in the upgrade options. You know, our biggest problem before was getting enough resources to make the bullets, but now, we can probably just mine it ourselves …”
“We can have an unlimited supply of ammo,” Bulco finished.
Nori shook her head. “It’s much more than that.”
“She’s right,” Lana said. “If we can find valuable, hi-Tec minerals, we can sell or exchange them for new upgrades and tools for survival. We could help speed up a new Tech-based industrial age that would benefit everyone on Earth.”
“That’s an interesting thought,” Martin said. “Some of the Paths our people have unlocked show great potential for industrialization and manufacturing. With the right resources - and alien tech - we can turn our lives around.” He looked around the conquered fort. “We can start here. This is a good place for a military outpost. The walls are mostly intact, and with the weapons we now have, it should be easy to defend it.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Diamond said. “We can border up a triangular area with a shelter at each point acting as a forward outpost. With the resources we now have, we can secure the perimeter. Then our people would finally be able to stop living like caged animals.”
“We should definitely discuss it after the funeral. With some of the new Paths, building up walls and watch posts around the zone shouldn't be too hard.”
“You think your guys can take it from here on your own then?” Nori asked.
Martin chuckled. “After taking out about five hundred Warped and a Broodmother, we still have half the ammo you brought us. We’ll be just fine.”
The funeral ended and the people started getting ready for the night. Campfires were built, tents erected, and a crew of several dozen men worked together to seal the wall breaches.
“Let’s get back to Unity,” Nori said. “We can decide our next steps then.”
They followed the tall Navigator down the hill. The miner-freighter was still sitting on top of the Broodmother’s corpse, her six legs embedded deep into the body.
“Ugh, we probably want to pick a different parking spot,” Bulco said. “This place stinks.”
They climbed back into the ship and Nori stopped to pointedly stare at a bloody satchel laying on the cargo hold’s floor. The bag looked like it was about to burst at the seams and several bloody glass containers were visible through the straps “What’s that?”
“That?” Bulco said. “Just a few adrenal glands and other exotic stuff I harvested from the Broodmother.”
“Why?”
“One of my men is a Biochemist. He can whip up interesting stuff from bits of Warped. But that is just a bonus. This is the real prize.” He took out a palm-sized, pearly white orb from his pack.
Essence Core
“Cool,” Lana said. “So that’s the core Alzigo told us about? I wonder what’s it for.”
“I’m more interested to know how much it’s worth,” the large Engineer said. “We need a lot of piTec to patch up Unity, especially considering the damage she sustained during the fight. Between that and the loan, the piTec we have now won’t last us long.”
“Okay,” Nori said. “Then I’ll set course to--”
A piercing noise ran through the ship.
“Ugh, what the hell is that?” Bulco groaned, covering his ears.
“Oh no,” Lana said. “That’s the alarm. I set the sensors for a continuance scan for approaching enemies. It must have picked up something.”
They hurried to the bridge and Lana brought up several consoles to hover in front of her.
She wrinkled her forehead. “It’s not a Warped. It’s something else …” She moved her fingers rapidly ac
ross the controls. The main viewscreen changed to show a topographic map of the area, where a single blue dot was blinking repeatedly.
The Expert frowned. “That's a spaceship. I think.”
“Shit, it must be the Inthidlon scout we met at the station,” Bulco said. “He’s right on top of my base.”
Nori frowned. “What would he be doing there?”
“Hell if I know, but it can’t be good. He’s level nine, remember? My men are no match for him, we have to get there asap.”
“Hold on, we don’t know for sure that he came looking for a fight. He could just be looking around for his missing people,” Lana said.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Nori said. “Bulco’s right, we have to go see what he’s up to.”
She moved to the center of the bridge, calling for the Navigator seat. Lana and Bulco followed suit, accessing their own terminals.
Unity gently lifted off the dead Broodmother, her six legs bloody as they withdrew from the motionless corpse, then they folded in on themselves, disappearing into the hull. Finally, the ship’s elongated head slowly drew in on its long neck.
Alter Mode disengaged
Then she turned around and shot forward, speeding toward the small blue dot.
21 - Mortal Contact
“Faster!” Bulco said with gritted teeth. “We have to go faster!”
“I’m flying as fast as I can,” Nori replied from her seat, the holographic controls enveloping her fingers. “We’ll be there in less than seven minutes.”
“Damn,” the Engineer huffed. “Okay, might as well use the time to level up.”
He brought up his status screen and gaped at it.
“What’s wrong?” Lana asked, noticing his expression.
“I leveled up twice, but I have six ability points to allocate, instead of four.”
“Hmmm,” Lana frowned and accessed her own status. “And, I got two points from leveling up once, just like last time.”
“I got just four points from two level ups,” Nori said distractedly, still flying the ship. “It looks like after the fifth level we get two points every level instead of one. Bulco’s trait gives him one more point every level, which explains why he has six overall.”
“So you think the number of points we get when we level up increases every five levels?” Lana asked.
“It makes sense. Everything we saw so far indicated five levels represent a significant change: we get new Path options, more attribute points … I think even Alzigo mentioned something along those lines.”
“Damn.” Bulco’s face clouded. “It means my trait will become less and less useful over time. If at some point we get ten points per level, the measly plus one I get won’t mean much. I should have taken the Tec Infusion boost.”
“We did what we had to,” Nori said shortly. “The traits we selected allowed both of us to survive long enough to reach this point. So, like you said earlier, there’s no sense in crying over it.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” the Engineer said gruffly. “With six points, I can increase Intelligence and Control to five.”
“That leaves you with two points. Where are you going to put them?” Lana asked.
“Strength.”
The dark-haired woman frowned. “But you already have a high Strength score, and that’s only a secondary attribute for you. Wouldn’t it be wiser to invest in Awareness, that’s your other secondary, right?”
The Engineer gave her a piercing look that made her skin crawl. “In a few minutes, I might need all the strength I can get.”
Lana lowered her eyes.
The Engineer finished tweaking his interface, then he opened his Status screen.
Bulco, Human, level 7 (68 Tec)
Path: Engineer→AstroTec (score 18)
Attributes:
● Strength 12 Ⓢ
● Agility 2
● Intelligence 5 Ⓟ
● Control 5 Ⓟ
● Awareness 2 Ⓢ
● Appeal 2
Conditions:
● Attribute Boost: +1/level
Lana contemplated her own Status for a moment. Of all her Path’s attributes, Appeal was the lowest. Strength and Agility were both on one, making her physically vulnerable. She considered putting her points there but then shook her head. Her job was to stand back and operate computer systems while her friends handled combat. And for her to do that, she’d need to be the best darn Expert she could. She dumped a point into Appeal and another into Intelligence. She blinked in surprise a few times at the weird sensation the change had caused throughout her body. Her hands rose to touch her hair. Is it fuller than before? she thought with surprise. Status.
Lana, Human, level 7 (95 Tec)
Path: Expert→Admin (score 14)
Attributes:
● Strength 1
● Agility 1
● Intelligence 7 Ⓟ
● Control 4 Ⓢ
● Awareness 4 Ⓟ
● Appeal 3 Ⓢ
Conditions:
● Tec Infusion Boost +5%
Nori eased her hold on the ship’s controls and concentrated on her Status. Not long ago, such an action would have made her lose control and crash the ship, but her new Pilot path made things a lot easier.
Hardly pausing to think, she dumped two points into Awareness and split the remaining two between Agility and Control. Once done, she examined her Status.
Nori, Human, level 7 (66 Tec)
Path: Navigator→Pilot (score 15)
Attributes:
● Strength 2
● Agility 5 Ⓟ
● Intelligence 4 Ⓢ
● Control 5 Ⓟ
● Awareness 4 Ⓢ
● Appeal 2
Conditions:
● Level Suppression -2
Not bad. She smiled to herself. A beep on her console drew her attention, and a secondary holo monitor popped open. She frowned, trying to make sense of the new data she was seeing.
The ship’s floor started shifting.
“What’s going on?” The Engineer asked.
An oval shape slowly rose from the floor, growing into a familiarly shaped pod.
“It’s Nathan!” Lana exclaimed.
The pod opened, revealing the smiling, yet tired looking young man.
“Hello,” he said weakly. “Did we win?”
Nori and Bulco exchanged astonished looks.
“Oh, god, yes!” Lana beamed. “It was brilliant, Nathan. We swooped down from the sky, and Unity latched onto that ugly Broodmother with her legs, then she opened her mouth and wham!” She banged her fist into her palm. “We melted almost her entire head off and that was that.”
The young Technomancer winced at the mental image. “Good,” he said simply. He glanced guiltily at the Gunner station. All signs of damage had already been scrubbed off.
“Don’t think about it,” Nori said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“It was.” He looked down. “Unity kept calling me, but I was scared. Too afraid of what it would do to me ...” He swallowed hard. “I was wrong.”
“What happened to you in there, Nathan?” Lana asked meekly.
The young man glanced up at his companions then looked down again. “Ever since the Calamity,” he said in a subdued voice, “I could feel the Tec inside me, trying to change me. It got worse every time we leveled up. They kept wanting to mess with my mind. I didn't understand why. I thought they were trying to corrupt me, turn me into a Warped. So I kept resisting them—which also meant sabotaging my bond with Unity. But seeing Noah die …” His voice faltered. “I can’t let people die because I’m afraid. So I acquiesced. I let the Tec do what they were supposed to and completed my connection with Unity. Along the way, they fixed my mind.” He looked up at his friends, meeting their eyes. "Unity healed me. We're bonded, now and forever."
Bulco shook his head. “I got to admit, kid, I’m still getting used to you being able to talk.” He stepped toward
the young man and clasped his shoulder. “But it’s damn good having you back and hearing your voice.”
“Likewise,” Nori said, stepping forward and clasping Nathan’s other shoulder.
Lana stood back, beaming.
“So can you activate that Alter Mode again if we need it?” the Engineer asked. “It’ll be damn handy to be able to shoot that big beam weapon when things get dicey again.”
Nathan nodded. “Now that the bond is complete, it can be activated at will, but it’s just a fancy drilling bit. It’s not … not really meant for war.”
Nori’s console beeped. “We might have to test that one out soon,” she said grimly as the old library building appeared in the distance. The Inthidlon scout ship was hovering just in front of it.
“Damn,” Bulco said as he took in the structure’s destroyed front doors. “The blue fucker attacked my men.”
Unity closed in the distance in seconds, then touched down gently next to the other spacecraft.
“Get your weapon ready,” Nori said as she got up. “Not you two,” she said, glancing at Lana and Nathan. “You stay right here.”
The Navigator and Engineer rushed through the cargo hold and out of the ship. Bulco was holding his big revolver, loaded with Warped Busters and Nori had a Zapper drawn in her hand.
A feeling of Déjà vu gripped Nori as they cautiously approached the broken doors and peeked into the building’s lobby. However, unlike her previous sneaking experience, the interior was now a mess.
The walls were riddled with holes from heavy gunfire and broken pieces of furniture and scorched books littered the floor.
A couple of human bodies laid among the wreckage.
“Damn it.” Bulco gritted his teeth. “That’s Lucas and D’Angelo.”
“There are several more up there,” Nori said grimly, pointing at the walkway above them.
“Yeah, that’s our standard tactic for handling intruders: grab a weapon and shoot them from above. I guess it doesn’t work as well against level nine aliens.”
Earth Force (Relict Legacy Book 1) Page 33
