by Tao Wong
“Are we sure it’s only this group?” I ask.
“Drones are already sweeping the rest of the field, and we’ve got guards on all the other entrances. We’ve got it covered,” Mel says.
“Lana and I are nearly there,” I inform Mel, only half-seeing the shadowed streets we run through. Without a main generator, each building is left alone to generate its own electricity and lighting, which means the streets themselves are intermittently lit by residual lights.
As we turn the corner, the bang, crackle, and hiss of weapon fire and Class Skills can be heard. Our beam weaponry opens up as well, automatically adding their own damage.
“Hold fire,” Mel orders a couple of seconds later.
No surprise that a lot of shots go off even after the command, the order having to be repeated again and again. Mel and a few others growl and curse out the shooters half-heartedly, obviously more concerned about what they can see. As I near, I frown, noting how all the enemy dots have disappeared from my minimap. That doesn’t seem right…
Rather than ask a stupid question, I jump onto the short wall that we use to give our people elevation for the attack. The scorched and broken earth is testament to the damage dished out by the group around me, but rather than bodies, there are but a few broken automated weapon turrets.
“Ali…?” I say, unsure of what is happening.
“A FLUCTUATION IN THE DATA PROVIDED BY THE SYSTEM WAS NOTICED ONCE ATTACKS IMPACTED. IT IS LIKELY THAT A CLASS SKILL WAS USED TO PROVIDE FALSE SENSOR INFORMATION,” Kim flashes to me. “IT IS CONJECTURED THAT THE SAME INDIVIDUAL HID THE SECT’S APPROACH.”
“And the damage to the Shield?” I frowned.
“DELAYED. ON ANALYSIS, ACTUAL DAMAGE WAS DONE A MINUTE BEFORE BUT WAS RELAYED TO OUR SENSORS LATE.”
“You can do that?” I say, blinking. What kind of insane Skill is that?
“YES.”
“This has got to be the work of an Advanced Class. I’ll do some research, see if I can dig up what Class Skills and Classes this might be, but don’t hold your breath. There’re a million options in the System for anything you can think of.”
“Where are they now?” Mel asks, obviously having received the same information. I don’t see them on our sensors, which is disturbing to say the least.
“UNCERTAIN.”
“Pull the hunting groups back,” I order Mel. If those sixty Sect members—which I can’t even be certain of anymore—meet ours, they’d wipe out our hunting groups in no time flat. Better to pull back right now.
“What’s the point of all this?” Lana growls, her hair a frazzled mess.
“They’re attacking our morale,” Mel says, waving at the puzzled people around us.
Most look confused, a few looking enlightened as Kim’s analysis trickles down. More than a few are annoyed, some thrilled as they boast about driving them off.
“Doesn’t look that way,” Lana says, and Mel snorts.
“Not right now. But if I’m not wrong, they’re going to start doing this every night. Maybe more than once a night. It’ll go from annoying to dangerous because we’re going to have to keep people on watch all the time.” Mel sighs. “The Afghanis used to shoot mortar rounds into our camp randomly. You could never really relax.”
“Recommendations?” I ask, looking outward.
“Not much,” Mel says. “We can up our hunting groups, hopefully figure out how many they’re actually sending. If we can counter them on an attack and actually make them bleed, that’d be best. But…”
“They’re likely to be waiting for that,” I say, grimacing.
Mel nods. “We’re also trying to protect a whole city, so our perimeter is too large. Maybe after a few weeks, if there’s a pattern, we can get Ingrid or some of the other teams out. But until then, there’s no guarantee we’d be able to find them.”
“Will they be back tonight?” I ask, and Mel shrugs. “I’m headed back to the Core. Maybe there’s something we can find…” I wave goodbye.
Lana indicates that she’ll stick around a bit, which leaves me walking alone even as Mikito and her apprentice come strolling up.
“Kim, this information distortion, can we do something about it? Get better data?” I ask out loud.
“BASED UPON CURRENT FUNDS, THERE IS ONLY A 34% CHANCE FOR US TO UPGRADE SENSORS TO REMOVE INTEFERENCE.”
“How much would we need to spend to do even that much?”
“ALL OF CURRENT CREDITS AVAILABLE.”
“Bad odds,” I say, shaking my head. “Forget that for now. What else can we do?”
“MANY THINGS. WHAT ARE YOUR OBJECTIVES?”
I growl, annoyed at the pissant AI. Luckily, I’ve got a Spirit who knows how to handle these things.
“Bits-for-brains, we’re dealing with the attacks. What can we do to make it less annoying? Or hurt them when they attack us?”
“CURRENT DAMAGE OUTPUT BY ATTACKERS WILL REMOVE SHIELDING IN FIVE MINUTES, TWENTY-THREE SECONDS OF CONTINOUS ATTACKS. WE HAVE SUFFICIENT CREDITS TO INCREASE RECHARGE RATES OF THE SHIELD TO INCREASE TIME REQUIRED FOR SHIELD FAILURE.
“WE MAY ALSO UPGRADE THE SHIELD TO ALLOW SINGLE DIRECTION FIRE, ALLOWING SENTRY TOWERS TO ATTACK IN RELATIVE SAFETY. ADDITIONAL ATTACK METHODS MAY BE PURCHASED, INCLUDING INDIRECT ARTILLERY FIRE, FROM THE CENTER OF THE CITY. LASTLY, WE MAY PURCHASE A SETTLEMENT ENCHANTMENT TO REFRACT A PORTION OF DAMAGE TO THE SHIELD TO ITS ATTACKERS.”
I frown, tilting my head upward. Even if I can’t see it, I know that the current shield is a dome. Indirect artillery fire would basically make a hole in the dome in the center. Of course, the Sect has shown that they’ve got airplanes, so that might not be the best idea. On the other hand, airplanes are at least easier to spot.
“Sounds interesting,” I say. “Show me.”
Tier IV Defense Shield Regeneration Rate Increase
Increases regeneration rate of settlement shield by drawing a higher level of ambient Mana.
HP Regeneration Rate: 250/minute
Credits: 1.98 Million Credits
Tier IV Defense Shield Upgrade—One-Way Fire
By altering the frequency and direction of the shield, one-way fire out of a settlement shield is viable.
Allows intermittent fire from inside to outside the shield. Must be activated.
Duration of activation: 5 Minutes
Credits: 2.5 Million Credits
Automated Tier IV Artillery
By connecting directly to the sensor network in a settlement, these automated artillery pieces can range up to 50 kilometers away (dependent upon sensor range).
Base Damage: N/A (dependent on ammunition)
Capacity: 5
Fire Rate: 1 per 5 second
Reload time: 30 seconds
Credits: 2 Million Credits
Settlement Shield “Bite Back” Runic Enchantment (Tier V)
Named by original creator Rqweervs Hivemate, the Bite Back Runic Enchantment absorbs damage done to a settlement shield and applies damage directly to its attacker. This Runic Enchantment comes in a wide variety of levels of effectiveness.
Base Damage: 2% of Damage
Requirements: 200 Mana + 20 Mana Upkeep
Credits: 5 Million Credits
I scan through the options, wincing at the cost, and pull up the Settlement information once again in short order. One and three-quarters million Credits. You’d think that anything over a million would be enough, but as I go up in Levels and deal with the town, a million has started to feel like pocket change. Unfortunately, with me wiping out the majority of the Credits earlier and the economy only just beginning to pick up, making millions of additional Credits is impossible. Frankly, it’s amazing that we’ve managed to earn as much as we have. Right now, we’re making roughly forty-five thousand Credits a day as a settlement, which might seem like a lot, but that includes all the rent, sales of Sect-owned goods like farm produce, and taxes we’ve levied.
My hand rises as I get ready to wipe out the options we can
’t afford, then I pause. Not because I can’t really activate the purchases till I’m in the Core. Not because we don’t have enough money to make the changes matter. No, because I realize, once again, we’re reacting. Playing to their game.
My hand falls and I stare at the information, stopped in the middle of the street as my mind whirls with possibilities. A glimmer of an idea approaches me, skirting around my perception. Time. Space. Action. Reaction.
Even if I do take the steps I want to, need to, I’ll need to visit Sam and the Shop. But maybe, just maybe, there’s an option.
Chapter 14
There are things you do because you have to. There are things you do because it’s the right thing to do. And then there are things you do because you’re just good at them. However, what you think needs to be done and what others consider to be right are often markedly different. Once again, that thought was reinforced as I told the team about my new plan over our delayed breakfast.
As I sneaked along the ground outside of town, I recalled the arguments, the glares, and the less-than-happy expressions. It was one thing, at least to them, when Ingrid upped and disappeared. She was the Assassin, the scout, the rogue who did all those things. Sending her off from the city, even when we needed her to do some hunting close by, was acceptable. Expected even. She was the free spirit who flitted around. Me? I was supposed to stick around, help settle the refugees, and figure out purchases and defenses and all that crap.
Never mind the fact that I’m really not suited to all that. Or that there are much better people already in place. Even if I feel—I know—my greatest contribution is in the field, most of the others aren’t particularly happy about my choice. As I left, there were even some muttered comments about me regressing.
Truth is, they might be right. That’s the thing about the human mind—we can find justifications for everything and easily rationalize our decisions. In my mind, decisions like what to buy, when to buy, the optimization of our defenses and upgrading buildings and rents… all of that can be handled by others more inclined than I am to do so. Kim can run the math and guide the others on my overall goals. The council can do the actual work, and Lana can watch over them all. Mikito is better at handling and training each of the hunting groups, while Mel seems to have a handle on our day-to-day strategic fighting decisions. As much as I might dislike the older man, he’s doing a decent job so far.
In my mind, there’s nothing I can do that can’t be done by them. But none of them has my Class, my Skills, or Sabre. Of them all, I have the greatest mobility and punching power. Which leads me to traveling across the relatively open ground around the town, leaning on my stealth skills to find the hunting groups. I’ve dumped Sabre into my Altered Space, deciding that going unarmored is a better choice for now. Mobile as it may be, stealthy isn’t something I’d call Sabre in either mode.
Thankfully, the monsters around me stay away. They can sense the Level difference sufficiently to avoid me when they do pick me up, and I make sure to swing around them otherwise. Thus far, in the last few hours, I’ve yet to find signs of our potential attackers.
Which isn’t too surprising. The ground to the south of Kamloops is pretty flat and bare, more plains than forests for around five kilometers before they get hilly and forested again. In the end, my goal isn’t to head into the woods where I know most of the hunting groups stay or to flush out our attackers but to make my way farther south.
South, perhaps swinging by Logan Lake to the southwest a bit, but eventually making my way to Merritt. I might not be able to do as much damage as Sect can with their attacks, but if I can get close enough, when they’re not watching, I believe Ali and I can at least gather further information about our attackers.
Hours of sneaking and scouting finally elicit a result—a small group of alien creatures, only two of which are humanoid. It’s the weirdest group I’ve ever seen, including a nightmare fish-like creature in an oval liquid containment unit with tripedal mechanical legs; a flowing mass of yellow-cream tentacles and mouths; and a ram-headed, cat-like creature with an extra pair of hands. At least the two humanoids are mostly human, even if they are weirdly colored and something you’d see in Farscape rather than Star Trek.
“What are those things?” I send to Ali.
“Don’t see them much. The aquatic is a Pismeen, tentacle-goo is a Mohran, and ramses is, well, we’ll call them Satyrs. You can’t properly pronounce or hear its name, so we’ll go with Satyr,” Ali says easily. “Must be one of the Sect’s mixed hunter groups. It’s not uncommon for Galactic organizations to put the minority species together.”
I grunt. That’s something I’ve noticed, that groups like the Truinnar, Hakarta, or the Yerick tend to be single species groups. I guess when you’re the dominant power in your region, it’s easier and better to keep to a single species for your groupings. Which makes mixed species groups rarer since they are, by virtue, a minority.
“We going to bury them?” Ali asks after he finishes naming the other two species.
I ignore their names for now, already pondering my choices. “No. We’re going to stalk them. I want to see if they meet up with our midnight attackers. Tell me about the weirdos.”
I make sure to let the group pull away even farther, just inside my ability to track them. Even now, their markers are weirdly shaded in my minimap, Ali’s way of indicating that they’re there because I can see them and not because he’s getting the information from the System.
“Okay. Well, let’s start with the Satyrs. Firstly, don’t ever get into a drinking contest with one—alcohol actually doesn’t affect their bodies at all…” Ali begins.
I only half-listen, since I do actually have to make sure I’m not caught. Still, it passes the time and gives me a little bit of information about new species.
***
The next few hours are surreal, watching the enemy group travel across the map, doing their best to hide so they aren’t found out while at the same time looking for our hunting groups. Groups which I have full view of in my map. Twice, barring a hill and a particularly dense piece of forestry, the Sect nearly stumbles upon our people—and vice versa. I’m glad it doesn’t happen though, since it’d waste all the time I’ve already invested.
So strange to think of a simple turn left or being five minutes slower and what could have been. Then again, isn’t that the truth about our lives? Half an hour one way, a different decision, and our lives would be so different. If I had never gotten a cup of coffee on that Saturday, I might never have met Anne. Trace it back further—if I had gotten up when my alarm first went off that morning, I’d have had time to make coffee for the day. Without meeting Anne, I’d never have traveled to Whitehorse. Never gotten my Class. Never met Lana or Ali.
Small decisions, small changes, and the course of our lives could alter by such a wide margin. Every day, we chide ourselves for past mistakes, past actions, calling forth a myriad of what-ifs of times past. We might never know of the hundred thousand small decisions that might have changed our lives. Still, we reprimand ourselves for the decisions we make as if, somehow, we know the optimal path.
As evening comes, I watch the group peel away, slowly heading south. I wonder if they’ll finally bring me to my prey. Of course, it’s not that easy. Twenty kilometers from Kamloops, and well out of sight of the settlement, the mixed species group gets on the road and calls forth various instruments of transportation, pulling away at speed. I stare in amazement at the mecha shrimp, shaking my head at the weirdness of the System world. Mecha. Shrimp.
I take my time getting on the road and following the group, knowing I won’t be able to keep up and stay hidden. A failure of some form perhaps. There’s something to be said about knocking out their people, again and again, killing even the small fry till they have no one else to send.
But…
Sometimes, you have to wait. Play the long game. Hope to get the whole pot rather than bleeding them for a few chips here and there. So
I head down the road, staying to the shadows and waiting. Maybe I’ll find something. Maybe I’ll fail. But for the first time in days, I feel useful again.
***
The message from Mel later that night was exasperating in its conciseness and the news it provided. Another attack, launched at ten and again at two in the morning. In neither case did the individuals who launched the attack come via the road I was watching. Which meant that my presence watching the road was of little use.
Yet… negative progress was still progress. Or could you call it negative progress? Probably not, now that I was thinking about it. Which tells you the kind of thoughts that occupy one’s mind when you’re seated in a small depression overlooking a darkened road early in the morning after spending the entire day awake.
I’ll admit there’s a small chance that the group involved might have sneaked past me. But a Skill that could hide sixty individuals from the System—or at least their data from people drawing information from the System—was powerful. So powerful that it must have been upgraded quite a few times. A Skill that could hide sixty people from the System and from visual and other line-of-sight sensing at the same time was insanely powerful. If my understanding of power levels in Classes is correct, that’d be a Master Class Skill. And if there’s a Master Class Sect member out here, they wouldn’t be bothering with all this bullshit.
Which leaves me with the question of what to do now. Option one—return to the area around Kamloops and work with the hunter groups to locate the attackers. That’s the safe option, the smart one. Take out the attackers, give the settlement some rest. But it’s also likely the one they’re expecting.
The other option, the one I want to do, is to ignore the attackers. I know the group I stalked left for another area. Probably a staging area in Merritt or somewhere else. Hit those guys, make their lives miserable. But the moment I take out one of their hunting groups outside of their city, I’m also letting them know that we’ve changed tactics and I’m out here.
