《The No Names: Calforn Chronicles (Reborn)》 Chp 1: Into the Fire Part 1 The nearby taxi ignored me as I rose my arm, trying to hail it, and moved across the street. The driver tried to engage an executive, hoping the Banker wanted a ride; he, of course, refused. The Bankers all had their own transportation and a simple street taxi was beneath them. Not up to waiting and being denied again, I turned away from the street and walked down the alley that led to the subway station. I spared but a glance at the cluttered path and towering steel skyscrapers that made up the city. At the entrance, I noticed a girl crouched next to the garbage bin, staring at the floor. As the sun sunk out of the barely visible sky, I waited my turn to enter the passage to the train systems that ran under the city, ignoring her outstretched hand. I stood awkwardly by while the girl begged without even lifting her gaze. People glanced at the girl as if she was an abomination, a freak, and who would think otherwise? I shuffled forward in line, still glancing back at the girl over my shoulder, I realized I had also begun to accept that reality whilst trudging forward into the station. The silent escalators led to multiple levels of tunnels that sank miles into the earth. My intended stop, however, was only two sublevels below the city¡¯s surface. I moved with the flow of people and made it through the artificially lit arching passageways that led to the traffic station and the boarding platforms. Once the human surge led me to the front, I realized I had not been paid for my month¡¯s work. I took out of my worn wallet and handed the traffic officer my pass card, which I knew was expired. He looked at me with disgust and returned it. ¡°You need to pay the fee. No free rides.¡± Reluctantly, I pulled my account chip out of my wallet and handed it to the man. He mechanically inserted it into a machine and returned it, a balance of less than ten credits flashing on the card. I walked past him, maintaining as blank a face as possible. It was always a struggle to move without expressing the discontent I felt at having to submit to the whims of Officials in my corrupted city. There were no breaks for the people of New Dust. As I quietly made my way to the boarding platform, I stood around in a line full of people in similar states to my own, exhausted and empty. Nobody complained or got angry when someone bumped them while walking. The concept of personal space had long disappeared once Earth exceeded ten billion residents. We, the people of the city, just stood there as one, suffering in the same monotonous way after each day of labor. There was a certain amount of camaraderie in that, but since not a soul acted on it the only thing it engendered was more loneliness. The train arrived just as I was nodding off, lucky to have a column to lean on this time. I began to approach it when I heard a whimpering sound coming from the traffic officer¡¯s box. I turned and saw the officer that had taken my fare pouncing on the girl that had been begging outside the station. ¡°Stop begging, you useless whore, all you need to do is serve men... and here¡¯s one right now!¡± The traffic official had nothing to fear. There were severe punishments for those who opposed agents of the Government. I tried to contemplate the situation from a position that would not compromise me as I watched the scene, but then I stopped. ¡°Why would I do that?¡± I wondered aloud. While that thought was crossing my mind, my body had already made its decision. I tackled the distracted officer to the metal floor and slammed my fists into his face. Repeatedly. The labor I¡¯d been subject to since my teens had made me physically strong, leaving the flabbier man unable to peel me off him. However, my vindictive energy died out the instant I realized what I had done. Blood dripped from my hands. I looked at my fists where the man¡¯s teeths had cut into the knuckles. He laid dead before me. The girl, now half naked, sat shivering next to his mangled face. I stood, shivering just as much, and tossed my trench coat over her. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t have to stand around the body for long. I lifted her up and into the train the moment it pulled into the station. The people that had once stood around me, pulling me into the amorphous blob, now left a visible gap between us, and I felt the weight of their eyes on me. I felt the warmth from those that approved of my actions, the fearful stares of those who were scared of what I had done, and the occasional guilty look from those who had not been bold, swift, or stupid enough to act. The train was a simple tube of metal lined with handholds and a few seats, reserved for those with medical conditions. While the train was not the most private place, considering the sardine-like state the human flow demanded, everyone kept to themselves. The girl held my hand the entire time we rode the train, and it was not until we left toward one of the subsurface layers that she let go, opting to follow closely behind. I walked purposefully towards the place I called home, plowing through the boarding and unboarding population of the train system. Once I reached the Compound, I began to weave around the many hostile areas in that maze of hovels. At the time the Compound was built it had been a wonderful community, but, since, the houses and complexes for the community had never been restored. Many of the structures dated back to the lunar colonization and were in heavy disrepair. The one upside of the whole situation was the very cause of its disrepair: none of the Officials lived here, and thereby nobody with a Name to submit to. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Of course, it was also one of the few places in New Dust that anyone of my social position could afford. This is assuming, of course, that the thugs I paid money to actually owned the room I lived in. Nevertheless, I had considered it home for almost three years, ever since I started working as an engineer in the city¡¯s Nuclelectric center. At the factory, all I had to do was apply my knowledge of old machines from the turn of the 21st century and create miniature containers for nuclear fission. This was, obviously, an extremely hazardous job. The containers and the agitated atoms within could catalyze and leave only an aftershadow of the person. There had been entire cities wiped by chain reaction explosions of the power sources, which prompted the post-Grim War Government to focus on more stable, organic sources of power. Sadly, this was not widely used still and the masses that lived in the major cities were always subject to potential eradication. I used to look at the radiation shadows already imprinted on the walls and wonder about all the life and knowledge that lost its chance to develop in the bondage of the Government and the Bank. While everyone that was given life tasks at an extremely young age ended up hating their profession, I treated my task as a goal and made the best of it. However, dealing with my job was the least of my current concerns; the issue of the beggar girl took priority. The miniscule payment from the center could only barely support one malnourished person. She had to go, but the same drive that had caused me to save her now prevented me from releasing her into the Compound where her fate would have been far worse than it would have with the traffic officer. She, of course, remained silent as was customary of those without Names or a number. Names gave a person value, they were someone - someone worth Naming in a population of thirty billion. I for instance did not have a name, but a number, which placed me just above the Forgotten but increased my chances of surviving exponentially. The Forgotten were a result of the founding of the Bank of Earth. The Bankers believed that their Names deserved recognition above others¡¯, especially those that did not deal in interplanetary resources. They convinced the World Government Council to ban Naming unless authorized. The Bankers and Officials either named the future child, left them a Digit, or worse - Forgot them. It might have seemed ridiculous, but the wandering child that stood in the Compound was merely the result of cheap employers and irrelevant parents. Nobody had paid for her to have one of the limited Names given out in the month of her birth, and without parents in the employ of someone more powerful, she had not even been assigned a Digit. She stared at me with eyes so sorrowful that my own felt trivial, for it could not compare to her own. ¡°Well¡­What shall I do with you?¡± As I wondered aloud her eyes darting to me, suspicion heavy in them. ¡°We cannot live together here, but I don¡¯t wish to condemn you to the world¡­¡± ¡°You¡­didn¡¯t have to save me,¡± she whispered in a dry voice, one not used to being used. Suspicions crept into my mind. The Forgotten weren¡¯t taught language; they were intentionally handicapped from birth so that they could not pick it up through hearing. ¡°Why, you speak¡­¡± I said more to myself than anything. As I contemplated this new information, the window of the room shattered. The shock of the explosion threw both the girl and I to the floor of my dingy room. Through a series of built in speakers that were used for emergency announcements the entire Compound resonated with the message ¡°Hand over the murderer and the girl, and no one else will be erased.¡± Along the display walls in the center area of the Compound... at least, those that had not been shattered or covered in graffiti - projected holograms of the girl and me. I became a murderer in the eyes of the Government and the Bankers. There would be no trial nor any kind of mercy from the enforcement officers. The sound of the ships of the Government shook the building, breaking the few remaining windows of the apartments in my block. Panic spread through my mind for no real reason, since I already knew they were going to come. The Government had eyes everywhere, but I¡¯d been preparing for something ridiculous on their behalf for quite a while. Shots tore through the apartment wall, exposing me and the girl to a hovering craft that was only ten meters from us. It was pointless to try to run from the Government, I had only hoped to move the girl from the Compound before they came to get me for having murdered the traffic officer. That¡¯s what I thought, of course, but I was wrong. The hovercraft only scanned us and moved away from the concrete opening. The hovercraft descended into the central courtyard in the middle of the Compound, where all the individual rooms could be seen, and soldiers filed out of the cargo door. I knew I didn¡¯t have much time, so I ran to what was left of my bathroom and pulled out the briefcase that was hidden behind the toilet. I¡¯d done the best I could to improvise a nuclelectric generator from the parts I had stolen over the years, and I proceeded to toss it in the direction of the guards. I could no longer expect a trial, even one that would send me to one of the torture islands the Bankers were so fond of, since I was about to escalate the situation. Even if I hadn¡¯t killed the officer, he would have been protected by the Government and there really was no such thing as a fair trial in the hierarchy of Earth. The generator, about the size of a loaf of bread,began to heat up exponentially. I quickly threw it down, through the concrete opening, and the canister rolled between the ranks of the Government soldiers and violently blew them to superheated shreds. The explosion knocked the hovercraft against the side of the Compound, and the girl and I flew against the opposite side of my apartment. Non-Chp: Revamped Story Hello Everyone, Some of you may notice a similar cover to my other story. That is because it is! As I was writing, I felt a bit dishearted about my progression system and wanted to make it overt. And so, here we are. The story is exactly as you left it if you read The No Names originally, however I have done an editing pass and corrected a bunch of sillies I did while writing to hopefully improve you guys'' experience. I will be updating daily until I catch up to the point in the story where I left off. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I would love to hear your feedback as the story progresses, those new and those that knew the old version. Thank you all so much for reading! Links to Discord and Patreon below! Expect the second part of Chp 1 later today! On we go!! Chp 1: Into the Fire Part 2 When I came to, I was within the interrogation room of a Government ship in orbit of Earth. Plastic bindings held me to a cold steel chair. My whole body felt sluggish by a heat module attached to my chest. It took a long time for thoughts to place the trains back on the tracks and allow me to even see the shiny metal surfaces that seamlessly made up my cell. As I regained more of my faculties, a man in military apparel pushed himself into the room and fell on me with fury in his eye. His one good eye instilled a fear so deep that, had I not been nearly frozen, would have caused me to lose control of my bowels. ¡°You damn Digit, what is your connection to the Harbinger?¡± his tone as menacing as his expression. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are talking about¡­¡± I began, the module forcing me to speak slowly and deliberately before being interrupted in the middle of my sentence. ¡°Don¡¯t play dumb!¡± he slammed his fists onto the table that was in the edge of the room and backed away from me. He began to pace the room, taking occasional glances at me, until he responded as if to himself ¡°You really don¡¯t know¡­¡± At that moment a message was heard over the speaker. ¡°Ship preparing for space jump. Time to jump: five minutes.¡± The man took one last look at me, and left the room. By then, my head had begun to spin. There must have been a reason I hadn¡¯t been killed yet, something to do with who this Harbinger person was? As the countdown of the minutes passed, a message sounded off. ¡°Brace for space jump¡±. The chair I had been bound to shook with a violent force and had it not been welded to the floor I would have tossed around the tiny space my current housing allowed me. ¡°Space Jump Successful¡±. The military man reentered the room and once again pounced on me, but to his disappointment the trick did not work twice and I stared at his single eye with a hatred that startled him. I had never liked the Government, and I knew from experience how power hungry and manipulative its Officials became after even the shortest amount of time in its ranks. I would know, considering I used to work on one of their ships. I worked for the Lunar Mining Corp before it was closed down by the Government, after they struck something near the core of the satellite. The closing of the LMC caused about a million jobs to be lost all across Earth and the Moon, one of them being my own. The man, now more wary of me, introduced himself as Captain Starden of the USG Pendett, and read the reason for imprisonment I had been given. This was redundant. I already knew I had killed an entire squad of soldiers, and quite possibly wrecked their hovercraft. The Captain was not pleased that he had lost an entire squad to a Digit. He refused, on various occasions through his monologue, to address any of the questions I had as to where I was to be taken, since I had never heard of such things as space jumps from orbit unless they were to Mars. Once he begun describing the incident with the traffic officer he burst out laughing sarcastically. ¡°You are a strange one indeed, throwing away your life for a Forgotten, I wonder why they want you in Dun¡­¡± he caught himself before saying anything else and looked to see if I had heard what he said, but I continued feigning ignorance about his slip of the tongue for the rest of the session. Once he felt he had thoroughly grated my brain enough to make me wish I¡¯d been sentenced to a torture colony with his constant blabbering, he ordered that I be released, defrosted, and placed in the holding cells of the Pendett. There I was fed and clothed, as most of my clothes had not survived the nuclear radiation blast as well as me. The cell was almost as big as my old room, and definitely cleaner than it had ever been since its construction. I remained there for what I guessed to be about a week, not doing anything but wandering in circles and eating whenever the cook for that sector of the ship came to bring me food scraps. On one occasion during this time, I overheard some of the guards mention that they were almost at their objective location, but they sounded confused; as if they had no clue as to where they were, but they knew we weren¡¯t in Martian orbit. On other instances I thought I heard whispering that sounded like jargon but whenever I focused on it, it disappeared. I naturally attributed this to my isolative existence. Then one day the speakers announced the preparations for docking procedures and the Captain came to escort me to the bridge of the ship. There were the normal crew members in their blue slacks milling about keeping the ship in orbit as it approached what looked like a frozen moon. Behind the moon, a planet rose firmly into view. Typically, this would tell me where I was, but new planets were not a common sight and it drew all my attention until a short man nudged me in the ribs. The giant blue gaseous mass shone brightly as golden-orange storms appeared to rage on its surface. The light from the planet reflected angrily off the ice that covered the majority of the moon. I could see dark gray towards the poles but everywhere else was icy white and blue hues. ¡°Very resilient you say¡­hum¡­I suppose so, since he survived a nuclelectric generator explosion¡­hum¡­¡± According to the Captain, the short man was the warden of the prison I was going to be taken to, and he had insisted on meeting the most ¡°arousing¡± addition to his prison. However, the short man did not strike me as a warden at all, primarily because he did not carry himself with authority but also the fact that he talked about quantum mechanics and nuclear engineering as if they were tea time small talk while the Pendett moved to orbit the moon. The Captain suffered through the man¡¯s scientific ramblings as well as could be expected from a soldier. It didn¡¯t take long for the Captain to feign business and redirect his attention to me. ¡°Now. Be good and don¡¯t cause trouble.¡± After a brief conversation with some of the bridge officers, the Captain placed me in the hands of an armed escort that took me to a transport pen. The pair of tall men explained that it was so that I could be shot down to the moon before the Pendett could dock with the orbit station. As younger of the two explained, they did not do space launches from the station and they did not have a space elevator. When the escort and I arrived at the cargo bay, several other groups of people were being pushed through the openings on the metal frames into the pens. These people seemed to have lost all hope of living, or ever getting out of this off-world prison, for they did not even pretend to fight their imprisonment. In my case, I had become more interested in what place I was than a way out; along with that, I had begun to wonder about the girl and what might have happened to her. As I was distracted by these thoughts, the escorts roughly pushed me into a pen and locked the door. They left without mentioning when the launch would occur. During the time before the launch I began to wonder why the drop choice had been transport pens, instead of a shuttle. It would have been much cheaper, since the pens often times could not be reused. Then, as the comm speaker warned one minute to launch, the transport pen began to whir about me. Braces clasped my arms and legs and pulled me back to the wall. Now the braces began to wrap around my body, until I was covered in what looked like a body-sealed elastic suit, much like those used as underclothing for deep space exploration. As the process continued I became a bit more apprehensive about what the Government had planned for the people about to be dropped onto the frozen moon. As my confusion grew, the pen also added armor plating to the suit, reinforcing it so it wouldn¡¯t collapse into the vacuum of space. The armor plating was something I had been accustomed to wearing at the nuclelectric center since it also helped reduce the damage taken from explosions, and it didn¡¯t feel that different from those of my engineering profession.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. As the countdown approached ten seconds, by my count, the heads-up display helmet ejected from inside the piece of armor plating that sat dead on the center on the chest. My eyesight was blurred for those last ten seconds and then I felt the fall. Those hadn¡¯t been transport pens at all, but drop platforms. I had to wait until my visor booted up before I could see anything and once it did, I saw that I was inside the skeleton of the pen - meant to stop immediate death from occurring upon impact. As I fell, I also looked around and saw that many people had struggled against the armor system inside of their pens and suffocated when the elastic entered their mouths. Also, there were others that were simply frozen in place as the platforms moved further and further away from the Pendett. I was pretty calm, as I knew the cages would hold against the surface impact, but when we began to enter the atmosphere of the moon the cage began to burn up. I had not expected there to be oxygen in the atmosphere of the moon, but the fact that there was, meant that the integrity of the platform would be compromised. The heat became quite unbearable as the cage spent more time in the gravitational pull of the moon, and then the platform shattered around me. The heat was now in direct contact with my plating and it glowed yellow-orange like forge fire. The HUD of the helmet counted 30 seconds to collision, but just as the ground, glaciers and mountains of the moon could be seen clearly, a beam shot from the surface and targeted all the atmospheric fall survivors. The light cushioned us as it slowly moved us towards the base that could now be seen on the surface. I had encountered some strange technology while working for the Nuclelectric Center and the Lunar Mining Corporation, such as the heat module and radiation blast pistols, but the beam that was now holding me and the other prisoners afloat was new. The beam oriented us so that we would be feet down on the upper platform of the base, and held us there. As I looked around I noticed the original number of people in the original launch had been reduced to a meager ten in armored suits. As we hovered, held inches off the base by the beam, we could hear the crashing sounds of the other platforms landing on the lunar surface. Six of the people broke down, and sobbing could be heard through the communicators in the suits. Without a bit of warning, the beam was shut off and we fell the rest of the way, making those who had lost it them come to their senses, or at least shock them into silence. Standing atop the holding area we could see endless fields of ice, rocks, and snow glinting in the light that reflected from the sun. It only took me a second to realize that the glow was red and white, like that of Earth and Mars. It was only then that the cold began to kick in, and that we remembered we had limbs to move. I tried to wrap my head around the possibility that we had gone to another star system, but the technology was supposedly still decades away. As the people scurried around the fenced area where we had landed looking for a way out, I also became acquainted with the HUD of my suit, noticing the heat meter feature and oxygen level meters as well as the overall damage it had received, which was directly connected to my vital signs and was designed to alarm me if any issues arose. The suit also had an internal heat regulator which I then activated, allowing for my own heat to be cycled throughout the suit so I would not die of hypothermia. I also noticed the other three people that had not broken down on arrival do a similar thing. ¡°Does anyone know what hell is going on!¡± said one of the people that were panicking once they figured out how to use the communicators. ¡°No clue, mate¡± said one of the more calm members of the group. I realized that the panicking people would die if they didn¡¯t turn on their heat cycling system, so I did my best to instruct them on its activation. Unfortunately, most of them continued to run in circles, ignoring what I said. The same person that had responded previously said ¡°Forget it; they¡¯re just going to die because they don¡¯t listen.¡± I turned to face him once I had identified the signal with the help of my HUD, and I put my visor right up against his, ¡°Listen, this is no ordinary prison, as you might have noticed from the way we were dropped here and picked off easily. I would like to take my chances with the largest number of people if I can help it, and I can, so cooperate.¡± I didn¡¯t want to seem aggressive, but the manner of our arrival had me on edge. The people around looked in my direction and backed away slowly. Everyone seemed to have noticed something I had not when I got closer to the pessimist, and as I finished my speech and backed up, I saw that something was wrong with the man I had been talking to. He had begun to convulse, slowly at first but it was starting to make him writhe. I asked for help to restrain his movement so that he would not get hurt but no one came to aid me. The vigor of his seizure would definitely hurt him. I grabbed him by the shoulders and held him against the metal floor until his convulsions became so strong that an arm knocked me off of him. However, that arm had not been there a second before, and the man had an extra pair of arms sprouting from his chest. The convulsions only strengthened and from time to time an arm would burst from the man, straight through his suit- the same one that had taken atmospheric reentry, causing the rest of the group, including me, to back further away from the convulsing man. This episode lasted for almost ten minutes and by the time he had stopped shaking he was more arms than person. The blood that had spurted from the arms now laid on the floor freezing over as the heat began to escape the corpse of the man. His armored suit plates were scattered on the ground; not designed for outgoing forces, they had come off as the arms sprouted. One of the other people lost it and puked inside their helmet before they had a chance to retract it, and simply laid there on the floor, paralyzed by the fear of the thing that had just occurred. My original interest in finding out what had happened on that moon and why I was imprisoned died instantly. I had nearly lost it myself, but I kept composed for fear of missing something that would lead me to end up like the arms man. It was not easy. The lights of the base suddenly turned on, and the entire fenced area was flooded with fluorescent light. A man in a wooly coat and arctic suit, far better equipped for the moon¡¯s weather than our own armor suits, came right up to the gate of the fence and looked in. ¡°Ah, it seems that one of you was susceptible¡­ well, no matter. The rest of you still seem to be quite capable of completing the mission.¡± I recognized that mocking and superior voice the moment it sounded on the intercom. ¡°Well Captain Starden, I think we really need some kind of explanation here.¡± I said. The fear I felt and the irritation at his mocking tone were apparent in my voice. ¡°Why of course! I can¡¯t just have you running around a moon waiting to die from the cold, but that is for later. I would suggest that you, for instance, pummel that corpse before it tries to place you in the same condition¡­ah¡± Just as he was finishing his sentence, the corpse began to convulse again and its arms flailed around with such terrible speed that no one tried what the Captain had suggested a second ago, for fear of being pummeled. The body began to move and scurry slowly around the floor, the head of the person rotating at painful angles and staring in our direction. It moved its arms in such a way that it crossed the space between us and it in an instant. All but one of us jumped out of the way where we had been looking at the Captain. The one who had puked in his helmet had the arms man grab him all over. The poor soul didn¡¯t stand a chance, the arms were like steel rods as they struck him and broke him, his limbs torn to shreds while we overheard his agonizing screams on the comms. ¡°You might want to do something before you have two of those things to deal with¡­This might help.¡± The Captain tossed a four foot pipe wrench through the fence and it laid only a couple of feet from the creature that was now chewing on the entrails of its victim. Another of the prisoners ran to grab the wrench and beat the creature. He managed to break about ten limbs before the creature whipped around and knocked him against the opposite side of the fence twenty yards away. The creature, disturbed from its meal, focused back on us. I rolled out of the path of the arms, as did the rest of the prisoners. As I looked for a way out of the fenced in area, I felt my right hand rub up against the wrench the man had dropped as he flew. The moment my hand closed around the metal and it scraped the floor the creature rushed at me. I pressed all my weight on the pointed back end of the wrench and pushed it through the mouth of the creature as it charged before the rest of its limbs could reach me. The creature fell on me, dead. The blood it had consumed dripped down on me and I heaved against the body that was crushing me. The creature had somehow made the man it had malformed increase in mass and I was not able to get it off until the rest of the group got the courage to move and heave it off me. While I struggled against the bulk, I heard the whispering I had heard on the Pendett, except this time it was not muted jargon. I didn¡¯t have time to process what I had heard. Just as they finished removing the bulking mass of limbs that had once been a person, the Captain came back around into the light to assess the situation. He was clapping slowly as his helmet became illuminated. ¡°Ah, it seems you were quite successful, new record in my book. Seven survivors out of ten prisoners, not too shabby for a bunch of Digits-¡± At that moment I had taken the wrench out of the corpse and slammed it against the fence, inches from the Captain¡¯s helmet. ¡°I want some answers¡­Now.¡± The Captain retracted his helmet and his eye shone in the cold light being reflected from the ice that surrounded the base, its malice as clear as day. ¡°Welcome to Dun Lund¡­your grave.¡± Chp 2: Cold Arms Part 1 It did not take a genius to realize that Captain Starden wouldn¡¯t be giving any real answers. Confirming that suspicion the man scoffed, turned around and began walking toward the main building of the moon base with the confidence of a Banker. He wore a plated suit similar to us underneath his better ice gear. As his armored steps clanked through the steel gangplank that connected the building to the holding area I felt my anger flare, thoughts of the strange whisper I had heard dismissed. After slamming the wrench where the Captain¡¯s face had been, I moved to look at the rest of the group. All the other Digits were shaking in their suits, one of the shorter looking ones looked ready to pass out or freeze as I noted the purple of his skin through his helmet. ¡°Everyone! Please, you need to activate the heat systems of your suits. At the current temperature you will die within the hour.¡± I shouted through the comm system in the suit as I drew everyone''s attention with the wrench. The timeframe on their death kicked the other survivors into action. I quickly demonstrated how to access the switch settings on the arm of the suit and explained the HUD display the helmet provided. The group relaxed a bit as the cold was staved off, but I knew it would not be a permanent solution. The suits required energy to circulate heat, and there was bound to be a limit on the compact model we all wore. After a minute of searching and patting myself down I found the battery back built into the armored belt. I cast a look at the dead bodies. Lifting the body of the multi-arm person, I searched for the battery bay of the belt. I unclasped the belt, having to tear off a pair of the arms in the process, and slung it across my chest. I went to the other two bodies and did the same. The other survivors looked confused by my actions, particularly the fact that I wasn¡¯t frozen with fear. ¡°I have no clue where we are. I have no clue what happened to him. I do know that standing around will only make that¡ª¡± I pointed at the corpses. ¡°¡ªwhat happens to us.¡± The shorter individual, not quite as purple, grabbed my arm. ¡°Please. Help us.¡± he said. The voice that sounded through the comms was definitely juvenile and I realized that I¡¯d seen youths being thrown into the pens at launch. My anger at the injustice of the Government and whatever fucked place this base was kindled once again. I whiteknuckled the pipe and gripped the boy¡¯s shoulder firmly. ¡°I will. We need to work together. Search around, see if there is some way out of this holding area or something of interest.¡± The somewhat faked confidence in my voice succeeded in reassuring the boy and the others as they got up to their feet and milled about the space. While the others searched, I examined the holding area. The whole area was about a hundred feet by three hundred feet and fifteen feet high. The links that made up the fence appeared to be made of ordinary metal, but the lack of frost and the smooth texture indicated a much better material. Every ten or so feet a tall support column rose out of the ground attached to the mesh. I banged the head of the wrench against the supports and the fence as hard as I could, but they didn¡¯t yield. As I was choking up on the pipe wrench to swing again at the post, the young survivor tapped my shoulder. ¡°We found another five corpses buried in the snow at the back edge of the fence. The others are taking the belts off like you did. If I might ask, why did you take them?¡± He spoke more calmly than minutes before, but fear still underlaid his words. I explained the need for spare batteries, especially if the weather did not change soon or we weren¡¯t given shelter. The cutting ice winds that were hitting the holding area were the main contributors to the chill and frost that was starting to build up along the plates of our armor.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°As gruesome as it may be, we should collect the bodies and make a small wind wall. Once that is done, I¡¯ll try to climb the fence. I don¡¯t know how the people over in the base are going to like that, but I sure as shit am not waiting for them.¡± The heat in my voice pumping me up for the crazy plan that was forming in my head. I would eke out answers from the Captain one way or another. The youth nodded at my plan and set about dragging the mutilated man to the edge of the fence where the other survivors found the bodies. I grabbed the legs of the poor sod that had froze when the monster attacked and followed behind. During the short walk I contemplated the fact that whatever the Government was doing on this moon was not public news. Based on the Captain¡¯s words and the fact that there were more bodies in the holding area indicated previous batches of prisoners. How long had people been getting dropped into this frozen wasteland? I thought. It was fast work with the help of the other five survivors to move the bodies into a crescent shape. It was definitely insensitive to use bodies as building materials, but if more of those transformed people were here, then we needed to be in the best shape possible. As soon as the last body was set down, I motioned for everyone to sit and take as much cover as they could. I gripped the closest support column to the survivors and shimmied slowly up, putting my armored feet in the mesh holes as foot holds. When I was about halfway up the wall, a loud ringing sounded through the complex and a spark of electricity sprung from the main base. Reacting quickly, I let go of the pole and fence. I landed roughly on the small piles of snow on the ground and an instant later electricity sizzled all along the mesh at the spot where I¡¯d been holding on. ¡°I guess I won''t be trying that again¡­¡± I said trailing off as some static sounded from a pair of loudspeakers I had missed, built into the columns. ¡°Patience. You all seems so eager, nothing at all like the others¡­ Anyhow, we will release you soon. You will be given provisions for three days. Should you return with bodies for those creatures you will be given more food based on the number you bring back. If you can keep that up then so on and so forth you get to live.¡± It took a moment but I realize the slightly distorted voice was Captain Starden. ¡°I would keep that wrench handy, 36589900. Also, I would say farewell, but I doubt you will.¡± The voice over the loudspeakers cut off replaced by static and then simply the howling of the wind. I felt my anger bubbling, but I wrestled it down to focus on what he said. The Captain obviously knew what my Digit was and was making a point of his superiority over us, as a Named. I turned to look at the gangway that led to the base just in time to see a small powered cart silently making its way over to the fenced area. The small robot moved up against the fence. I wondered how the machine would let us get to its contents, considering there were no openings anywhere, when it started to whirl loudly. A few seconds later, it catapulted itself into the air, over the fence and smoothly landed amongst our group. The cart had a pair of magnetic repulsors instead of back wheels, which is how it made it over the fence. The other survivors approached the cart while I stared closely at its different features. It was a simple steel rectangle about six feet long by three wide with a touch interface screen along the top. The most noteworthy thing had been its repulsors, but when I moved to access the touch screen it shut off. The whirling restarted as the repulsors lip up with electric charge. Not missing the opportunity, I shouted. ¡°Everyone, grab on!¡± Non Chp: BOOK 1 on Amazon! Hello Everyone! Like I mentioned some time ago, TNN will be moving to Amazon as well as the KU program. I have already removed 90% of the story from RR and will be providing a link to the book below in the Author notes.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. I want to say, again, thank you all for your support. The No Names would not be where it is if not for you all. If you would like to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or even purchase a copy, I will be eternally grateful. These are the lifeblood of indie authors such as myself. As far as the future, once sales for TNN have stabilized I will begin posting for the sequel of my other series. Once that book is complete, we will see a return of Alpha and co. Keep your eyes out for The Tethers and The Uniters!