by Tao Wong
“My employer decided he was not interested in having an infected dungeon in his territory,” Labashi says, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “We are here at his request.”
I consider that then shake my head. Well, seems like Labashi has figured out a way to get paid twice for this job. Vir stiffens slightly at the mention of Labashi’s employer but says nothing. I really do wish someone would fill me in on the subtext here at some point.
Capstan walks forward, offering Labashi his hand. As Labashi grips Capstan’s arm, I see Capstan’s forearm muscles bunch before his eyes tighten, Labashi never losing that smile of his.
“First Fist, I am Labashi Ruka, Major of the Sixty-Third Division. I understand you are in command here?”
Hand released, Capstan surreptitiously flexes his fingers as he answers. “Yes, I am. Have you read the briefing notes? Do you have any last-minute recommendations?”
Labashi smiles slightly, nodding. “I might have a few.”
I sigh as Vir moves forward to join the duo. Leaving the group to it, I climb the staircase to the top of the wall, surprised to find a pair of Hakarta up there already. They’re releasing a series of small spider-like drones, sending them into the entrance and the dungeon without a word.
Well, this might go better than I thought.
Thankfully, the discussion takes less than an hour. Whether it’s the fact that Labashi knows what he’s doing or that the plans are already in place, it doesn’t take long for the call to gather to come. I’ve sent out my own drones already, though the amount of data I’m getting pales in comparison to the constant data stream the Hakarta have. Tim’s speaking softly to one of the Hakarta, working to get their equipment to sync up with our signal boosters.
There’s a pair of Frakin in the main passageways and only scattered numbers farther in. Not enough to consider a threat and it’s only on closer inspection that we realize why—these are dungeon-born Frakin that aren’t infected yet. We’ve yet to see an infected Frakin, which is a bit worrying.
Everyone’s a bit tense from the additional delay, but once we get moving, the tension ratchets up even further. A couple of Hakarta and Yerick, Bill’s raven-haired friend, and Stupid from the bar play scouts, ghosting in ahead of us to eyeball for trouble that the drones might have missed. After all that talk of not being high enough level, Jim finally relented and is bringing in a pair of his hunting groups.
The rest of us move as a group at first, then parties split up, heading down each of the passageways. Signal boosters are added, providing us better and better coverage, but even the boosters can only do so much. At a certain point, we’re going to lose contact. As the parties leave, I hear more than one happy comment that the dungeon is both dry and warm. While higher Constitutions might mean we can handle lower temperatures better, it’s still not comfortable. At least, not for anyone who isn’t fully covered in high-grade, temperature-controlling armor.
Bill, Vir, Labashi, Capstan and me are the heavy hitters and have to hang back, ready to hammer any resistance into the ground. That leaves Nelia and Aron under-powered, so Lana and Aiden join them while Richard and Mikito get Amelia, Rachel, and Jason. Gadsby couldn’t come. Carcross needed at least one of their powerhouses in town and he drew the short straw.
In the end, the heavy hitters end up strolling along behind everyone else, watching the data and feeds while the others do all the work. We never hit more than a few Frakin at a time and those that we do fight aren’t infected.
The longer this takes, the more antsy I get, and I eventually find myself chewing through chocolate bar after chocolate bar to find something to do. Labashi steals a few, though he, like the others, is focused on coordinating the search parties. Even Bill looks bored, though he mostly suffers in silence. I’m pretty sure he’s just pissed that Vir dispatched a pair of guards to ensure he made it today.
Four and a half hours later, we’re four main caverns in and finally taking a break. We’ve got three quarters of the groups deployed covering side passages, waiting for the Scouts to clear the passageways before they move on. While we rest, drones scurry around on their automated tasks, bringing more and more details about the dungeon back to us when they get back into sensor range.
“It seems the Spores have pulled back,” Capstan says.
He doesn’t look happy, and I completely agree. We’re stretched thin already, covering the passages we’ve found, and it’s been slow going since we try to keep sufficient coverage on each split group that they’re able to pull back if they encounter resistance. The fact that they all have drones and scouts ahead of them helps. Still, our experience with the Frakin means we can’t rely on that entirely.
We’re pretty sure by now that there are at least three major passages leading farther in. The Frakin that holed up off the first branch are gone entirely, and that cavern eventually joins up with the main branch in main cavern number three. Now we’re following one passage from cavern two and another from this cavern, not including the third that we’ve designated the main route. Each of these main passageways is so big, it’d take at least two groups to cover fully. Thus far, none of these passageways have shown to meet up, so we’re stuck waiting for the drones to give us an idea of what it is we’re looking for, while hoping they aren’t completely destroyed.
“Yes,” Labashi says. “Fall back to Cavern Two?”
“Yes,” Capstan answers.
I sigh. Pushing ahead to this cavern was always a risk, since we haven’t explored all the corridors fully, but it was a risk we were willing to take to see if we could find the Frakin faster. However, now that we’ve pretty much confirmed that we’ve got multiple main passageways, pushing ahead means leaving more area to guard. It’s better to back off and finish checking the first branch fully before we do anything else.
Once we’ve dropped a few drones, we pull back and get back to waiting. For all the dreams of a slam-bang, balls-to-the-walls fight, all that has happened is a tense, slow, grinding wait.
Bored. I find myself next to Bill as we wait for something, anything to happen. I look the man over before I finally decide to say something. “You’re a bit of a dick, aren’t you?”
“Are you trying to start a fight?” Bill says, glaring at me.
Capstan shoots me a glare too, and I raise my hand in surrender.
“Sorry. Let’s try that again. You’re not much of a team player, are you?”
“I’m a very good team player. I’m just more selective about my team than some people,” Bill states and turns to face me.
I grunt at his reply. Fine. Fine. So… “Enforcer, eh? Interesting Class.”
“How…?” Bill’s lips thin and I smile at him. He shrugs, answering the unasked question. “I was a bouncer before all this. I guess the System thought this was appropriate.”
“Yeah…” I reply, not really meaning anything by it. I cudgel my brain for something else to say to fill the time, but I find nothing.
Bill snorts, shaking his head, and turns from me. I sigh. Fine. I guess we really don’t have much to say to one another.
“Should we be thinking about calling it a day?” I wonder, staring at the glowing icons that make up our people in my map.
It’s been another four hours and we’re once again spread out across a wide distance. The Hakarta have reported losing over a quarter of their drones so far. We occasionally find the drones on the ground, shorted out from Mana overload or destroyed by the Frakin or one of the few other, smaller monsters that have begun to spawn in the absence of the Spore-dominated ecosystem.
After finding an extremely narrow, single-person corridor at the end of the second passageway in the first cavern, the First Fist decided to post a party and have us move forward with the search. Now, the majority of us are sitting in the fourth cavern with search parties headed down both passageways in an attempt to locate the Frakin. Hours of being on edge, of waiting for the other shoe to drop has made almost everyone tired. Only Capstan, Vir, Labashi,
and I seem to be functioning at full capacity, probably due to our high mental resistances and Willpower. Everyone else is moving just a little slower.
As Capstan opens his mouth to answer me, a cackle comes through our communicators. “Frakin! We have Frakin!”
We don’t need to ask who it is. Though of course Labashi does with a light growl. Since one party is filled with Yerick and humans and the other the professional Hakarta, the unprofessional report of trouble can only come from the humans.
I want to go, I want to fight, but Capstan shakes his head as he sees me edge toward the passageway. He stands there, arms crossed, waiting for more information to come in.
No surprise that more details come from his people. “Fifty Frakin hidden in a side cavern that the drones missed. We have them contained, First Fist. No aid required.”
I find myself relaxing. Bill smirks, returning to the game of solitaire he’s been playing for hours. Capstan asks for a little more information, but with things in hand, I find my mind drifting. I’m not entirely sure what the Spores’ game plan is, but the fact that it’s taken us nearly a whole day to make any form of substantial contact makes me lean toward scenario three. Not good, not good at all.
The battle doesn’t take that long, probably only five minutes before it’s all over. When the report comes in, we confirm it’s infected Frakin, but nothing of unusual size. They do note that these aren’t the plasma-wielding Frakin I fought before—these released caustic clouds of acid that ate through and damaged armor. Luckily, the mages were able to keep the gas mostly contained so it was only the melee fighters who suffered.
The side cavern dealt with, the group continues to search for trouble, obviously invigorated by the encounter. I wish I could say the same for us, stuck waiting as we are.
Capstan stands there, looking at the ceiling and presumably his system information. Coming to a decision, Capstan lowers that horned head of his and speaks into our communicators. “Pull back. Leave sensors. We’re stopping for the night.”
There’s a rustle from those around us, but the professionals take action immediately. Even the humans don’t actually object to packing it in. While we might not have been doing this for as long as the others, we’ve learnt a few lessons in the apocalypse.
Later that evening, I’m sitting next to Richard and Mikito, resting against the comfortable bulk of a puppy as I eat our rehydrated dinners. Not the tastiest form of sustenance, but I’ll take it over the green goo that the Hakarta are busy squeezing out of their tubes. I guess ready meals the Galaxy over just aren’t particularly tasty. Or I could be wrong and the green goo is a cultural delicacy. Certainly the Hakarta are taking to their meals with gusto. The Yerick in their own groups have set up small frying pans and are busy lightly frying up various vegetables, some recognizable and others significantly less so. Coming from a Chinese family, I’ve eaten a wider variety of foodstuff than most, but even I draw the line at lurid, neon-purple seaweed-like vegetables.
“Not what I was expecting,” Richard says, gesturing around the group.
We’ve got Mana lights set up all around us, illuminating the bare cavern while shield generators and sensors cover all our entrances and the areas we’ve cleared. No reason to let the monsters sneak in on us while we’re resting.
“What? Camping in the middle of a dungeon and waiting for a swarm of monsters to fall on you not to your liking?” Jason says sarcastically, Rachel snuggled between his legs.
Rachel playfully smacks his arm, and I smile slightly at the two teenagers, glad they’ve found something good among all this.
“Don’t forget eating with orcs and Minotaurs,” Aiden adds dryly.
Mikito smiles slightly at the banter, though she stays silent, working through a series of bento boxes of food. She gets more than a few longing stares at her packed dinners. For a moment, I wonder if it’s a good thing that she’s spending time doing more mundane things rather than constantly training or hunting monsters.
Once again, I wish I had a real psychotherapist on hand. It’d be nice to have someone trained to ask about how my friends are handling the stresses of the Apocalypse, whether Mikito’s getting better or just about to jump off the cliff. We could use the Shop, but the problem with System-purchased information—it was information, not actual skill. For that matter, while a few skills are purchasable, they’re all generic. I’m not entirely sure training to deal with Hakarta or an AI or whatever Xev’s race is will translate to human psychology. Then again, I might be overthinking things. Trauma is trauma, right? Certainly the psychotherapy that Richard was taking worked. Is taking?
Coming back from watch, Lana flops down next to me, stretching out her long legs and prodding at the armored carapace of Sabre. “How can you stand sitting in that?”
“Surprisingly comfortable actually. I’ve slept in it before when I’ve been in the wild. Makes it hard for monsters to chomp on you.”
She shakes her head. “Give.” Lana holds out her hand, and I frown. “Chocolates.”
“You know, you could buy your own,” I grumble, handing her some.
Floating above me, Ali makes a whipping motion with his hand while I roll my eyes at him. A moment later, I’m dispensing chocolate all around to expectant hands. Lucky for me, I buy a ton. Labashi, noting what I’m doing, wanders over and holds out his giant green hand.
“You too?” I ask.
“Consider it part payment.” Labashi grins.
I sigh, pulling out some of the Belgian chocolates he likes and passing it over. He gestures to a spot next to me and I nod, watching as the others scramble away a bit. Well, everyone but Jason, who is staring openly at the Hakarta.
“You did well out there,” Labashi says, nodding to my group. A few people look startled then happy at his compliment. “It is impressive, considering how long the System has been in effect.”
I nod slightly, but it’s Richard who speaks. “So I heard you mention your employer. Who is he?”
“You do not expect me to actually answer that, do you?” Labashi says.
Richard looks disappointed.
“Her Grace Wuli Kangana, Duchess of the Pourquoi States,” Vir says, having come up to join the group. He eyes everyone eating the chocolates but makes no request for any. “She also currently owns and controls both the Village of Fairbanks and the Town of Anchorage.”
Seeing my brow furrow, Lana leans over and whispers, “Whitehorse is still a Village in the System’s eyes.”
I nod dumbly while Ali concentrates, staring into the distance. In a few seconds, I see a notification that I’ve got System windows waiting for me. At a guess, details about the duchess. I wonder how bad the translations are of her titles—something else to dig into at some point.
“Really?” Aiden frowns, rubbing his nose. “Are infected dungeons that dangerous?”
“Yes.” Labashi nods. “A normal Spore infection is limited, the numbers forced to slowly grow. A dungeon gives the Spores a chance to continuously reproduce and grow, and on a dungeon world, it would be a simple matter to infect even more dungeons. It is much easier to deal with earlier than later.”
Vir nods, letting his body relax as he stands there watching the group. I hear Jason ask another question about the Hakarta, which I find myself ignoring. I’ve always wondered why the Hakarta were checking us out, and while this sheds some light, it’s not a lot.
As much as the explanation by Labashi makes some sense, I still don’t believe that an infected dungeon could spread that fast to make it a threat to Fairbanks any time soon. Certainly not before the System stabilizes and Adventurers start pouring in. If I’m right, it means that she’s got plans much closer to the dungeon. Vir meets my unfocused gaze and nods once, as if confirming my guesses. Great, we just settled City politics and now we’ve got Galactic politics to deal with. Somehow, I don’t think shouting at them and threatening them with body odor will work as well.
Capstan walks up, grumbling at the group and sending
us to bed down before the start of our shifts. The Yerick is right—we best get some rest. As it stands, we’ll probably have a pretty nasty fight soon.
Chapter 21
“Contact!”
The word comes over the communicators, jerking us straight. Finally. We’ve spread out across three different openings, and down a side route, they’ve finally come into contact again.
“They haven’t seen the drone,” Aron says, watching the feed.
Ali has slaved a status screen to the drone, so I watch the hundreds of the Frakin packed into the cavern. Strangely, they aren’t all staying still like before. Instead, some are skittering around in aimless circles. Occasionally a Frakin nears the entrance before it jerks to a stop and returns to its aimless movements.
“Going deeper,” Aron says as he controls the drone.
Behind, barely a few hundred meters back, the teams that have been tasked to clear this passageway have stopped, waiting further orders.
Capstan stares at the information coming in before he turns to Labashi. “Send two of your parties to reinforce. We will hold here.”
Labashi nods, barking out orders. His men split off and trot toward the opening at speed. I grit my teeth, frustrated at being forced to wait again.
“Incoming, boy-o,” Ali says, flashing my screen for me, and I frown.
Everyone hears and turns, scanning their own screens as a lone Frakin totters down the main passageway toward us. It walks right past the drone without seeing, its movements erratic.
“Kill it?” I ask, gesturing down the way. Easy pickings.
“This feels wrong,” Labashi says, eyes narrowed. “It’s infected.”
“Yeah…”
“It’s a scout,” Labashi clarifies for those of us who aren’t following him.
Capstan nods and sends a Yerick to deal with the scout far from our position.
