《Galaxion: A LitRPG》 Initializing **Readers may notice the protagonist is never gendered. In writing them I have elected to use They/Them pronouns, but one of my goals with this story is to leave that open for the reader to assign for themselves. Do you read them as male? Female? NB? Trans? Agender? How you view them is correct, even if it differs from how I see them. ** ++ I will be reading any and all comments and trying to take constructive criticism where I can get it. Please don''t read the story with the intent to proofread or correct it. But do comment your impressions and anything I may have really missed the mark on.++ ¡­ ¡­. ¡­.. INITIALIZING¡­ SYNCING¡­ READY My Horizon corneal implant displayed simple text that seemed to float in the air. It was a bit jarring, though, because when I tried to focus on the words on the left side of my vision, the whole image would fly around like a bat stuck in a kitchen. Coupled with the tightness under my skin from whatever had been injected there, I felt like a stranger in my own body. It would take some getting used to. It didn¡¯t help that I was bare-ass naked and completely shaven for some unknown reason. I shielded myself from view as best I could and peaked up over the edge of my pod. Eight other people sat up groggily and looked around gauging the situation. We had been placed in a sterile white recovery room, completely empty save for a smooth cylindrical table in the center that seemed to be built right into the floor. Everyone else ¨C just as naked and hairless - looked similarly uneasy, save for one. A huge man glanced around rapidly, hungry, the unmistakable eyes of a hunter. Before most of us even had our bearings, he vaulted out of his pod and launched himself at his neighbor, a smaller middle-aged woman. She didn¡¯t even have time to yell in surprise before one colossal hand gripped her neck and slammed her flailing down into her pod. Over and over, he bashed her against the hard inner shell, all while maintaining a passive just-another-Tuesday look on his face. ¡°HEY! Motherfucker get off her!¡± Before I knew it, I was barreling towards him. To do what, I have no idea as he was easily twice my size. I just charged; arms outstretched towards the guy. He easily knocked me aside with his free hand and sent me careening in to the side of his pod. I caught myself quickly enough and sprung on to his back and started wailing, fruitlessly. PLEASE CALIBRATE YOUR DEVICE AT THE CENTRAL TERMINAL By now everyone else had fully sobered up and realized what was happening. Two more people ran over to help while the rest scrambled to crouch behind their own pods. One of the new defenders, a tall younger man ripped as hell, wrapped up the attacker¡¯s free arm and did his best to keep it controlled. The other, a guy who looked like every sitcom dad ever, grabbed at his other hand and tried to pry his fingers away from the woman¡¯s neck. Her eyes had now shut, the flailing stopped, and blood began to appear from somewhere out of sight. ¡°Fuck off me!¡± The giant growled, not letting go. He hooked his elbow into the pod for leverage and started kicking at the man grabbing his arm. Three kicks in and a wretched pop echoed around the space. I could see the defender¡¯s knee had buckled 45 degrees in the wrong direction before he crumpled. He screamed and released the arm which came grabbing at me. I latched my legs around his waist and clawed at his face while his giant fist slugged blindly into my shoulder. I found his eyes and jammed my fingertips into the soft spot as hard as I could, burying my face in his neck opposite his free arm. He managed to grab one of my hands away, but not the other. It was enough he released the woman who rag dolled down into her pod so he could get my other hand out of his eye socket. Now with both hands in his grip, he was able to fling me straight up over his head and across the room towards the center table. I hit the corner with the middle of my back and folded backwards before slumping on to the floor. His face was bloody and furious, and intent on killing me. As he started to lumber in my direction, the dad-man whipped around the pod and shoulder-checked his back. The huge man lurched forward, tripped over the guy on the floor, and stumbled uncontrollably towards me. I curled up in the fetal position and protected my head. His arms swung wildly trying for balance or something to hold on to, but to no avail. He sailed headfirst into the console with a crack and collapsed on top of me. The man who could still walk ran over to pull me out from under him, and kicked the oaf twice in the face for good measure. I got to my feet and we made our way to the two downed people. The man on the ground was clutching at his thigh above his destroyed knee, bawling. I knelt next to him and reached for his hand to give him something to squeeze. He ignored it and mashed his forehead into my thigh. I just put a hand on his shoulder, there wasn¡¯t really anything I could do to help here. The other man leaned over the woman¡¯s pod and reached in, first with one hand then with two. I couldn¡¯t make out what he was doing, but it looked like he was trying to wake her up or turn her head. After a short while he stood up and looked at me. ¡°She¡¯s dead.¡± There was less anger and more sorrow in his voice. He glared at the hulk on the floor. ¡°Piece of shit.¡± His hands were balled up in tight fists, his upper body tensed. He forced himself to relax and asked ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¡°Yeah. Might have some nice bruises later, but otherwise I¡¯m good. This guy needs help quick though.¡± I answered. ¡°We need to get out of this room and find him a med-station. The rest of you can come out now. Cowards.¡± He said to the center of the room. PLEASE CALIBRATE YOUR DEVICE AT THE CENTRAL TERMINAL The orientation room was supposed to be a safe place. I guess that¡¯s why were naked, as it made everyone more defensive and gave us less opportunity to hurt each other. But that doesn¡¯t mean it never happened. Some people are just assholes that see this is having a license to kill or commit heinous crimes they¡¯ve always dreamed of. It¡¯s more common than people like to admit. But we had gotten past that, at least for now, and could set up our devices. I propped up the man against a pod, trying to move his leg as little as possible, before moving to the terminal. Dad-man took a quick detour to place a few more kicks in to the large man¡¯s nose and teeth before standing to my right. The central terminal was divided into 12 slices each with a simple keyboard, touchpad, and stylus. Placing my hand on the pad prompted my Horizon implant to start its calibration routine. There were countless customization options, but I skipped most of them to work on later. I wanted to spend as little time in here as possible, and the terminal was only necessary to confirm that my neural inputs were correct and properly calibrated. Once I set my overlay tracking, opacity, and made the image on the right almost invisible I backed away from the terminal and returned to my pod. The door remained closed with no handle on the inside, so I took the time to go over my device a little. I brought up my stats page: _______________ LEVEL 0 __________ INTELLECT: 10 Primary Equipment: CHARM: 10 __________________ BODY: 10 __________________ AGILITY: 10 ___________________ HEALTH: 10/10 PROTECTION: 0 Currency: STAT POINTS AVAILABLE: 5 Rev: 600 EXPERIENCE TO NEXT LEVEL: 20 CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE LEVEL 1! REST TO COMPLETE LEVEL-UP A cursor blinked in the blank spot at the top. If I focused on it, I could enter a name. No visual keyboard appeared, but letters would materialize as I thought about them. I left it blank for now while I got familiar with everything. The other blank didn¡¯t have the same cursor, but I knew it was for my chosen profession. I didn¡¯t need to pick one before I left the room, but another screen indicated it may be a good idea, plus I already had a good idea coming into this what route I wanted to take. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. OBJECTIVES:
  1. COMPLETE INITIAL SETUP.
- Input name 0/1 - Select profession 0/1
  1. RENDEZVOUS WITH YOUR MENTOR
Several people seemed to be taking their time with setup. Or they were faking it to keep an eye on everyone else. It occurred to me that the crying man on the ground would need to complete the process as well. The two dead people were probably exempt from today¡¯s homework assignment. ¡°Hey man, I¡¯m really sorry but I have to move you.¡± I said, squatting next to the guy. He was still clutching his leg, rocking back and forth. ¡°I don¡¯t think the door will open until you set up your Horizon.¡± He gave me a stiff nod and I could see his jaw clench. I grabbed him under his armpits and scooted him backwards on the ground until he could reach the table. He reached up with his right hand, and I placed it on the pad for him. We worked together to get his Horizon calibrated, with him mostly communicating with nods and head shakes while I managed the manual inputs. When he was able to work without the console I left him to it. By that point, everyone else had started milling around. Most of them were trying not to look in the direction of the fracas, either through shame or because of weak stomachs. A woman about my age, short and a little heavy, asked the guy next to here, ¡°What all do we need to do to get out of here?¡± ¡°Just your name. You can pick your profession, too, which should finish the first objective in your quest-log and level you up, but if you aren¡¯t sure what you want, I wouldn¡¯t do that yet. Its stupid expensive to change later.¡± The skinny kid said. ¡°Okay, thanks.¡± She answered and started to turn away. She stopped and looked back at him before asking, ¡°Just our normal name? Or are we supposed to make one up?¡± ¡°Up to you. Some people use their birth-name, but if it matches someone else¡¯s name, you¡¯ll probably have to put some numbers on the end of it to make it unique.¡± He said. ¡°What are you putting?¡± she asked. He looked her in the eye for a long few seconds in a way that said, ¡°I¡¯m definitely not looking at your tits¡± before he responded in all sincerity, ¡°I¡¯m thinking something like ¡®Blaze Hotman¡¯ if it isn¡¯t already taken.¡± ¡°Okay. Thanks.¡± Was all she said back before staring off in to the middle-distance to fill out her name. I brought my own stats page back up. I wasn¡¯t aware that names had to be unique, though I guess that wasn¡¯t unusual. I checked my birth-name, and it returned a list of alternate options. Casey412 Casey222 Casey223 I really didn¡¯t like the numbers added on the end. The more I thought about it, though, they wouldn¡¯t be the worst thing. It¡¯d be easier for people to confuse me with someone else if I were to find myself in some kind of trouble. And people wouldn¡¯t call me by the numbers part. I¡¯m sure they¡¯d just say ¡°Casey.¡± Still, I didn¡¯t like it. It was my identity. I tried several other options based on my real name. ¡°Kasey,¡± ¡°KC,¡± ¡°CM,¡± ¡°CMo,¡± with and without my surname, all returned the same kind of list. Finally, I found one that didn¡¯t return any alternatives. Roane Morizu ARE YOU SURE? THIS CAN NOT BE CHANGED. I considered it for a moment and confirmed. I also made sure to uncheck the box for displaying my surname before I forgot about it. I liked the idea of using my middle name. My mom gave it to me, and she was the reason I¡¯m doing this. She told me middle names weren¡¯t really a thing anymore, but our family had held on to the tradition. It always made me feel like I had a connection to my heritage, and it made me feel special and unique because I got to have two names while most people only got one. There was almost nothing in that world I could say I had more of than someone else, but this I could, and no one could take it away from me. Looking around the room I could say most everyone had entered their name. They were displayed as little bold and outlined white floating letters over the left shoulder of everyone. I could see ¡°Blaze Firestalker¡± (did someone else seriously already take Blaze Hotman?), ¡°Junebug720,¡± ¡°Oryx,¡± and ¡°Chodely Whipplespurt,¡± which was on the shoulder of a man with a dumb grin looking around to see who noticed his name. Dad-man¡¯s name was ¡°Gary¡± because of course it was. His last name must be hidden like mine. We were just waiting for the guy with the busted knee. No one rushed him. While we waited, I played around with my stats a bit. I had points I could assign before I took my rest and solidified them with my level up. Focusing on any one stat would bring up a massive list of sub-skills. The organization seemed to be from most to least popular or useful and it was extensive. While I had 5 primary stat points I could assign, if I placed one of them on a specific sub-skill it would be boosted by a full 10. I guess if I really wanted to be good at chemistry, I could just jam a bunch of points in to that specific thing at the expense of the overarching stat and whatever other sub-skills I¡¯d be ignoring. INTELLECT: 10 Memory ¨C 1 Language ¨C 1 Reading ¨C 1 Chemistry ¨C 1 Lore ¨C 1 Research ¨C 1 Learning ¨C 1 Mathematics ¨C 1 Reasoning ¨C 1 Physics ¨C 1 Chemistry ¨C 1 Medicine ¨C 1 The list went on and on, and it was the same for each of the primary skills. Adding a point to Intellect bumped some of the sub-skills up by 1, but not all of them. Adding a second point increased some of them by a second point, and others by an initial point. But it also increased my Charm and Agility stats by 1, as well as some of the associated skills on that side. Increasing Body increased Health and Charm every second point, while increasing agility also affected Intellect and didn¡¯t seem to impact Body right away. It didn¡¯t feel like there was much rhyme or reason to it. I could sort of intuit what might be impacted, but just when I thought I had the pattern figured out it wouldn¡¯t repeat. For the time, I reset everything back to default so I could focus on my temporary companions. ping. A faint notification sound played in my mind, and I could see a tiny green light in the corner of my vision. I clicked on it. ALLY REQUEST: BLAZE FIRESTALKER ACCEPT REJECT Man, this kid worked fast. I accepted his request. Didn¡¯t seem to be any harm in it. I looked his way to give him the half smile of acknowledgement and noticed his name now appeared green on his shoulder. Everyone else¡¯s still appeared white. ¡°I highly suggest everyone ally with everyone else. You can¡¯t attack an ally without first breaking the alliance. And if you break the alliance, your ally gets a ping and something like 30 minutes heads up.¡± Blaze Firestalker told everyone. It was a solid idea. It might let everyone relax a little bit. By the time everyone had pinged everyone else and established their alliances, there remained only one white name in the group, ¡°Morrighan Ravenscar.¡± She held her hands up and pled her case. ¡°Nothing personal. I¡¯m here to join up with a PvP crew. I¡¯d rather be up front about it now rather than be accused of betrayal as soon as we get outa here. Not that I¡¯m going to attack y¡¯all once we leave, I¡¯m just gonna terminate alliances when we do.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Gary said. ¡°Just please stand behind your pod. Nothing personal.¡± Morrighan agreed. ¡°How do you know all this stuff?¡± Junebug720 asked Blaze Firestalker. ¡°Are you some kind of plant?¡± "No! I just follow Galaxion really closely.¡± He said. ¡°Yeah a lot of people do, but they don¡¯t tell you this stuff as a spectator.¡± She said. ¡°I¡¯m a tier 2 mod on the Galaxion forums. I also have a podcast for it, and I¡¯ve read all of the player journals. The NDA keeps us from sharing mechanical stuff, but things leak and other times guys on the forums piece together clues.¡± He seemed supremely confident. Blaze Firestalker was in his element. ¡°Huh. So why come in at all? You have a good job, you have a following, you don¡¯t seem bored or anything. Are you just such a fan you couldn¡¯t stay away?¡± She challenged. ¡°Kind of. I definitely have an advantage over the rest of you. I know every profession and what their abilities are, and I know every PvP crew and I know all the best places to get deals. But Gale Axion from ¡®Player vs Poser¡¯ called me out on her podcast, and we agreed to go in together. First one to make 100,000 Rev wins, and the other has to shut down their show.¡± Blaze Firestalker was talking a mile a minute. He was worked up about the whole thing, clearly. But he caught his breath and added, ¡°You can stick with me if you want. Partying up is the best way to go and I can hook you up.¡± Game respect game. ¡°Ok, yeah. I guess that¡¯s okay for the start. I could use a tour guide.¡± She said, taking the wind out of his sail a bit. ¡°What about you? What are you doing in here?¡± she asked Oryx. Ping! A slightly louder alert sounded. I needed to see if I can¡¯t customize that. It seemed the guy on the ground, Kade apparently, had finished his setup. ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO PROCEED WITHOUT A PROFESSION? I thought ¡°no.¡± So many distractions, I¡¯d forgotten to assign my profession. I brought up the list of hundreds of potential professions and scrolled through them. The selection process was less daunting than it seemed. It was one of the few things I had really come prepared for, and the sense of control over my own destiny was incredibly reassuring. With my target in mind, I still scrolled through the list to see what some of the other options looked like. ACADEMIC Type: Adventure Prerequisite: None Lore hounds and information junkies often become academics. You are able to find useful knowledge where others cannot. On taking this class your mind works faster than others. You can identify points of interest with minimal knowledge. Pre-tech items gain 20% effectiveness. At high enough level, may convert to Professor for free. I scrolled down to find Professor. PRO Type: Career Prerequisite: None Professional sex worker. Upon taking this class you are granted 3 body-mod vouchers to be used however you wish. You have naturally high charisma and are adept at negotiation and social engineering. at higher levels you may retire as a Madam. Nope, next one down. Though that did sound pretty lucrative and fun. PROFESSOR Type: Career Prerequisite: Academic Level 40 The natural evolution of the Academic. Once enough knowledge is gained, you can transition into professor. Able to impart your knowledge to others who may otherwise not have been able to use it (usually for a steep price). Native ability - Tenure - Immunity to control effects. The Professor goal seemed like one of those professions people chose when they intended to stay in Galaxion forever. Plenty of people went that route. But it wasn¡¯t for me. I kept hopping around. STREET WITCH Type: Adventure Prerequisite: None A street witch uses their innate magical abilities and mastery of chemistry to cure or curse people around them. Typically associate with high-end hallucinogens, though their abilities are countless and they can often be a boon to groups and communities. You have a natural bonus to chemistry, and can identify most poisons or cut product by sight. THIEF Type: Adventure Prerequisite: Negative Alignment Exactly what it sounds like. Naturally negative aligned. On assigning this class, you have the ability to steal Rev from players and non-players using your in-built skimmer. The longer you keep it in range, the more you can take. At higher levels you are able to appear as a friendly contact to anyone you are not actively enemies with. Well that was concerning. A green name didn¡¯t necessarily guarantee a friendly person. I¡¯d have to find a way to double check at a glance if I managed to get enough green contacts. I did a search for similar abilities and found more than a few. Null, Janitor, Cleaner, and a bunch of others could appear as friendly, neutral, or sometimes with no name at all. Even Magical Girl and Vigilante could be troublesome with multiple aliases, each with their own abilities. I scrolled back up until I found my profession. It¡¯s one my sister had recommended. She thought it would keep me safe without being super boring like Shopkeep or Accountant. It didn''t hurt that I''d be able to send back photos and stories to feed her zoology obsession. ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST ACCEPT The Galaxion I couldn''t really argue with her reasoning. People needing animal control are far less likely to be strong enough to jump you when your back is turned. Otherwise, they probably wouldn¡¯t be calling animal control in the first place. It was also one of the more lucrative and flexible professions with a ¡°Career¡± tag, as it still generated Rev even if I decided to look into the adventuring path. The only real negative was it didn''t come with any special weapons like the adventuring paths did, which made sense as it really emphasized the humane trapping and relocation of creatures in Galaxion over outright extermination. Cross that bridge if I ever need to I guess. ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST Type: Career Prerequisite: None Animal Control is responsible for the removal, relocation, or in extreme cases the extermination of nuisance creatures. Specialists are adept at knowing when a hive/nest/collection/grouping/etc. of creatures has been completely neutralized. At higher levels, this ability can be trained to work on sapient creatures. Once everyone had selected their profession or confirmed they wanted to remain without one for now (paradoxically, ¡°Unemployed¡± was an optional profession), we were direction to a glowing outline on the wall nearest our pods. It was only 1 meter by 1 meter square, and it opened with a touch and Horizon confirmation. Inside was a multi-arm 3D printer whirring rapidly. Behind it were a dozen different kinds of goo and powder and flaky materials and mounted on top were several reservoirs of ink. In only a few seconds it stopped printing, and the print bed tilted to slide off my now completed item: Underpants. They were pea-soup green underpants in my size. Pretty underwhelming start, but its something. I slid them on while the machine spun up again. The process repeated several times until I had been given an entire outfit; a plain navy jumpsuit with ¡°Animal Control Specialist¡± and ¡°Roane¡± embroidered on opposite breasts. I was also given all of the jumpsuit under-things, a baseball cap with ¡°ACS¡± on the front, a pair of sturdy boots, thick synthetic leather gloves, an empty tool belt, and a small backpack. While I was fully aware of what I signed up for and most of what to expect, this was a pretty ho-hum start to my "Great Galaxion Adventure!" A jumpsuit and grunt gear, same as I would have had on the Hildrun. I felt a little self conscious in my gear, as if my co-orienteers would judge me for setting my sights so low. I had to remind myself that I had been the one to step in to action when most of them cowered behind their pods. My stats page had been updated to reflect my gear once I had donned it all. Roane Morizu LEVEL 0 Animal Control Specialist INTELLECT: 10 Primary Equipment: CHARM: 10 ACS Uniform BODY: 10 __________________ AGILITY: 10 ___________________ HEALTH: 10/10 PROTECTION: +2 Currency: POINTS AVAILABLE: 5 Rev: 600 EXPERIENCE TO NEXT LEVEL: 10 CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE LEVEL 1! REST TO COMPLETE LEVEL-UP I noted the addition to my protection stat, as well as the experience gained from completing my first objective in its entirety. The room had warmed up noticeably by the time everyone¡¯s outfits had been printed, and there was the faint smell of burning tires. Probably not great to be trapped in the room with those fumes, but the doors wouldn¡¯t open until we were all dressed and had confirmed out readiness. Kade needed a hand getting dressed so Gary and I stepped in. He was given a plain heather sweatsuit with the same pea-soup underpants everyone else got. JuneBug720, Chodely Whipplespurt, and Oryx were sporting the same outfit, presumably because they were going profession-less for the time being. Blaze Firestalker had a flowing red robe with glittering cuffs and an oversized hood, while Gary sported a smart, well-tailored business suit. Once Kade had been fully dressed and everyone had confirmed once again they were ready to proceed, a new outline on the wall appeared before sliding apart as a set of double doors. I helped hoist Kade on to Gary¡¯s back and we walked tentatively through into a transport tube that felt like a gigantic glass pill capsule inside a solid tube. Some sort of station. We didn''t have these on the Hildrun, but it was similar enough to a basic mag-lev trains or a subway station. At the far end was a smiling woman holding a clipboard. She gestured towards the bench seating along the walls and introduced herself. ¡°Welcome to Galaxion! My name is Etsuko, and I will be your docent. Please have a seat, as we are due to depart in just a few minutes. There is water and orange slices in the compartments behind your chairs.¡± Etsuko waited until everyone had been seated, or placed in a seat, before walking up the center of the capsule and checking everyone was present. On seeing we were missing a few, she poked her head out the door to glance around our little room before tapping a few times on her clipboard¡¯s display. She proceeded back to her original position and tapped a few more things before addressing us once again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for your rough start to your time here. My introduction was similarly violent, but I assure you that was the scariest part of my transition. Since getting settled, I¡¯ve really enjoyed Galaxion. Granted, if you chose or intend to choose adventure professions your story will be pretty different than mine, but at least you know what you¡¯re getting in to.¡± She said, looking us each in the eye one at a time. ¡°How long have you been here?¡± Junebug720 asked. ¡°About 8 months? Yeah, that¡¯s about right.¡± She answered, nodding. I raised my hand at the same time I asked, ¡°Any tips for us newbies?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, sure. We¡¯ll get into some of it here when we depart. But for starters it¡¯s a dead giveaway that someone is new here when they don¡¯t introduce themselves first.¡± Etsuko said. She wasn¡¯t being passive aggressive, I genuinely felt like she was trying to be helpful. ¡°Newer people tend to think that because our name is always displayed, we don¡¯t need to introduce ourselves. But it¡¯s a custom that never really went away. And especially with some professions being able to hide or disguise their name it can be reassuring when meeting new people.¡± ¡°Oh, my bad. Roane. It''s nice to meet you.¡± I corrected myself. Everyone else followed suit and in order around the capsule we each gave her our names. ¡°Do you have ¨C ¡° ¡°Sorry,¡± she cut me off, ¡°we¡¯re departing now. There will be a jolt as we get moving, and you''ll feel like you''re in a rising elevator while we are under way, but other than that it should be smooth sailing!¡± The capsule lurched forward along a tubular track. Fluorescent lights in the tube flew past faster and faster until they were white streaks inches from the glass. Just as it reached its indeterminable cruising speed, we shot out of the tube into the main body of Galaxion two hundred stories up. Like she warned, I felt my guts drop in to my shoes and a brief bout of motion sickness took over. The shift was too much, it was sensory overload. Even as I steadied myself, the feeling of being in a rising elevator remained. But I didn''t care. The Hildrun was similarly sized and structured, but this really was a different world entirely. Its central core was completely encrusted with quartz crystals, the size of skyscrapers. Where we had a mash of gray units mashed together, their habitation layer was divided in to zones, some with hardly any people at all. We were all struck dumb. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The ship, originally the Happelia before being transformed to the Galaxion, was similar to the others in the fleet in that it was nothing more than a hollowed-out asteroid made habitable. 3-mile-thick walls held all of the precious oxygen, water, and heat inside the 30-some mile wide cavernous interior. A generation ship, it was one of many built to ferry humanity to a new home over several thousand years. To accommodate, all of the ships were terraformed to include multiple biomes and varying day/night cycles. The Happelia, though, suffered a tragedy a few generations ago and had been repurposed as a sort of experimental hub. Eventually it took off as a form of entertainment. A way to experience things that would otherwise be impossible on the other ships. While the main generation ships were governed by restrictions meant to keep humanity grounded and not too reliant on advanced technology, the Galaxion didn''t have any of those restrictions. Because it had failed as a generation ship, rebuilding it as one would introduce too many unknowns. So rather than scuttle it completely, it was given this new purpose. We zoomed through the sky on a thin rail at a few hundred kilometers per hour. Our rail gently curved to join with a main line that corkscrewed through the interior closer to the walls than the central core. I could clearly make out a handful of similar capsule cars exiting hidden tunnels in the wall. They, too, joined on the main line just ahead and behind us, complete with their own docent and awe-struck passengers. ¡°Ok everyone! This is the Mag-line and it serves as your primary means of distance travel in Galaxion. It functions in much the same way as your mag-lev trains, but it¡¯s a good deal faster and more efficient. They will always travel in the same direction, the same direction of rotation for the ship as a whole. You''ll feel slightly heavier aboard the mag-line as a result. You''ll get used to it.¡± Etsuko informed us, resuming her previous cadence. Every sector before the biome line-¡± she indicated further sunward on the ship. There was an easily visible demarcation about a third of the way out from our side of the asteroid. ¡°- is connected to the Mag-line. Tickets are a flat 40 Rev no matter how far you¡¯re traveling.¡± ¡°Again, like what you¡¯re familiar with, the habitable zones are divided into sectors. But in Galaxion you¡¯ll find there is the familiar modern zone, most people call it Home Zone,¡± She gestured downwards below our feet. There we could see the slapdash structures we all knew. Buildings seemingly piled haphazardly, layer by layer upwards held together by knotted cabling, desperation, and vomit. ¡°The ¡®Wild West¡¯,¡± She gestured to the next zone as we approached it. We zoomed over barren rocky terrains with an absurd number of tumbleweeds and old rickety wooden buildings. It was definitely less populated than the previous zone, but that wasn¡¯t really a promise of peace and quiet. ¡°The Medieval Lands¡± Etsuko said as we came upon a more primitive landscape with castles wrapped in moats, craggy spooky mountains, knights of the realm, and I could swear wizard towers and an actual dragon. I didn¡¯t think people had gone to those lengths yet, but I could be wrong. ¡°Mars,¡± easily the least populated zone, Mars was notorious even to casual observers. First, it didn¡¯t look like mars. It looked like what old sci-fi movies and cartoons made it out to be. The ground was grayish lavender and pocked with craters. There were impossible buildings across the landscape. And even though we were moving too quickly to see them, I knew there were all manner of ¡°Martian¡± monsters hiding around every corner. ¡°And Suburbia.¡± We flew over the 200 square miles of cookie cutter houses, shopping centers with huge parking lots, standalone restaurants, and all manner of quaint little buildings from the 20th century. Rich people lived in suburbia. They had smooth green grass and a several meters between their houses. But that also meant it was a prime zone for more opportunistic players to try and rob the wealthier residents of Galaxion. ¡°The core-¡± Etsuko indicated above our heads to the central tube that ran the length of the asteroid 15 miles up. ¡°-is completely off limits. The core of the Galaxion has been repurposed for the unique terraforming needs of the space and is always working and adjusting the environment as needed. Similarly, the memorial to the Last Generation near the starward side of the ship is a no-conflict zone. None of your abilities will work there, nor will most types of weaponry. You could start a fight if you really wanted to, but you would be marked the second you did and you¡¯d be hunted without mercy. So just¡­don¡¯t.¡± She gave a pleading smile. ¡°Other than those two, everywhere else is fair game. So, I strongly recommend taking precautions. There are still laws and law enforcement, of course, but when dealing with what are basically superpowers you can only do so much.¡± A few hands went up at that, but no one spoke over her. ¡°Please save your questions until the end. We will be riding the entire line which takes 45 minutes. I will likely cover whatever your question is.¡± Every hand except JuneBug720¡¯s went down. ¡°What are those?¡± JuneBug720 asked anyway. She was just pointing up at the ceiling as if to ask what the sky is. Everyone in the capsule squinted to try and make out what she meant. They were almost impossible to make out over the backdrop of the Medieval Lands that were directly overhead now, and the natural haze distances that great created. And when we did see them, they seemed nothing more than slow moving gnats, or eye floaters. But then we realized they were simply extremely high up riding the wind where the simulated gravity was much lower. How far they were was difficult to tell, as the only scale we had was the core itself and a few passing clouds. anything in between was a span of miles. ¡°The pterodactyls?¡± Etsuko suggested. ¡°Or dragons?" "There are a few gigantic flying things, and there are other dinosaurs- ¡° She continued. Blaze Firestalker¡¯s hand went up so fast he banged it off the roof of the capsule accidentally. ¡°Actually, pterodactyls aren¡¯t dinosaurs. They¡¯re flying reptiles, though they are related to dinosaurs and there are actual dinosaurs in most of the biomes.¡± The words couldn¡¯t escape him fast enough. ¡°Uh huh.¡± Etsuko barely acknowledged the outburst. ¡±Don¡¯t worry, though. Those ones typically stay way up high. I think they roost on the outside of the core where it¡¯s warmer. They¡¯re not really a threat. Sometimes we get bird strikes from the lower flying birds, but these cars are virtually bullet proof. The glass also filters out any sort of laser or energy blast. In the event of a catastrophic malfunction, the whole thing will fill up with breathable retention foam, but that¡¯s never happened anywhere as long as I¡¯ve been doing this.¡± This didn¡¯t sound like part of her normal tour script, but it did come off like it was asked more often than not. I wondered why she didn¡¯t just include it in the normal tour. But it seemed to put everyone at ease, even if they did glance up every few seconds from that point on. "Now¡­¡± Etsuko looked around the cabin thinking, ¡°Oh, so you¡¯ll want to find some place to get settled. Rental prices vary. Some people even just buy a tent and rough it out in the Wild West or Medieval Lands. But I have for each of you a few vouchers for free night¡¯s stays at the newbie hostel in the Home Zone.¡± She handed everyone a little coupon booklet. ¡°It¡¯s not great, but people don¡¯t typically bother anyone staying there. You¡¯ve got nothing worth taking.¡± Etsuko smiled in a way that said she had said that 1000 times because she was told to, not because she wanted to. ¡°There¡¯s also some coupons for free or cheap food that should hold you over for a few days while you get settled, and some coupons for discounts at a few places.¡± ¡°Anything native to the biomes doesn¡¯t really care about the dividing line. So just know the closer you are to that line the more likely it is you¡¯ll encounter wildlife native to both areas. The closest ring has jungle and temperate forest, and that is where many of the adventurer professions will also find the more advanced operations you can undertake.¡± We were approaching that line now as we continued to corkscrew around. The line looked like it passed 3 or 4 miles into the biomes before circling back and heading starward. ¡°Everyone with a profession should have a mentor specific to what you chose. You¡¯ll want to touch base with them as soon as you can. If you¡¯re profession-less, you¡¯ll also have a mentor, but they¡¯ll be more like a career guidance counselor to help you choose a profession.¡± Etsuko rattled off this last bit like it were a disclaimer. She looked down at her clipboard tablet and tapped off a few things. ¡°That does it for the main portion of your welcome tour. I¡¯m happy to answer any questions.¡± A few hands went up, and I could see people in the car ahead of us raise their hands as well. It seemed they had also reached the Q&A portion of their tour. One man, a younger guy with blonde spikey hair and invisible eyebrows caught me looking their way. He seemed far more interested in what was going on with us than in what was happening in his own car. He didn''t look villainous, but he didn''t seem just naturally curious either. It was unsettling. ¡°Are there any Mag-lev, er, Mag-lines that go out to the Last Generation monument?¡± Gary asked. ¡°Nope. The Mag-lines only cover the habitable zones. It does extend over the jungle forest biomes, but there are no actual stops there. If you want to visit the monument, there is an underground maintenance tunnel that leads straight there.¡± Etsuko said. ¡°OH! Before I forget. The Galaxion does have the comb like the other ships," she said, referring to the other ships hexagonal honeycomb structure just below the surface "but they haven¡¯t been updated since the Blight. They are accessible, but there is virtually no security or law enforcement jurisdiction down there. There¡¯s rumors of black markets and very illegal dealings going on down there, so just avoid it. There¡¯s no reason you¡¯d ever need to go into the comb.¡± Etsuko told us. ¡°But to revisit your question, to visit the Last Generation monument, there are marked access points in Home Zone and shuttles that run back and forth frequently.¡± Gary gave a curt nod in thanks. JuneBug720¡¯s hand crept higher and higher until Etsuko looked her way. ¡°How are dragons and dinosaurs part of a biome? They aren¡¯t real.¡± she asked, still looking up with deep concern on her face. ¡°Yeah, the biomes are pretty loose in Galaxion. Since the Blight caused everything to be destroyed there was no way to really pick up where we left off, so nothing in here is meant to be permanent.¡± Etsuko said. ¡°They¡¯ve managed to bioengineer some pretty crazy stuff.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re sure they can¡¯t hurt us?¡± JuneBug720 asked. ¡°Yes. You¡¯re safe in here.¡± Came the confident reply. Despite that reassurance, JuneBug720 shrank in her seat, pulling her shoulders up to her ears. We looked up to see why this was such an issue for her just in time to see a pterodactyl, easily 100 feet across, careening towards the track on an intercept path with us. It broke its nosedive only a few meters above us, extended its wings to stall its decent and extend its gigantic, clawed feetsies. It caught the speeding capsule one car ahead of us with the blonde creep and wrenched it upwards. The front of our capsule lifted as it pressed in to the now slowed car, creating a horrible metal wrenching sound. I only just managed to see their car fill with yellow foam and get carried off before ours derailed and began to tumble. Everything went black. First Steps I woke up in a panic. I could feel my muscles tighten to try and send a spasm through me like waking from a falling dream, but I couldn¡¯t move. Everything was black. It became apparent I was being held almost upside-down in a contorted position, completely restrained by the safety foam. There was a roughness against my skin where it contacted the foam. warm wetness soaked in to my shirt. But I was alive and uninjured. The foam lost its rigidity over the span of a few minutes. I just had to wait patiently until I could wiggle enough to right myself, then waited longer for the foam to soften and melt towards the new bottom of the capsule. Everything ¨C every inch of the walls, every part of us passengers, the seats, Etsuko¡¯s clipboard ¨C was covered with a thin mustard yellow film. The cabin reeked of soiled clothes, but the film did a good job of obscuring who the perpetrator¡¯s were. I felt a pang of guilt when I realized I felt glad it wasn¡¯t just me. ¡°Everyone okay? Any serious injuries?¡± Oryx asked, speaking up for the first time. A few people start to sob as the adrenaline flushed out of them. Big choking snotty sobs. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re ok. Kade¡¯s knee, obviously, but nothing new.¡± I said. ¡°Ok, that¡¯s good! That¡¯s good!¡± Oryx said. ¡°Everyone just try to stay calm. Take deep breaths. Etsuko can you get the doors open?¡± Etsuko was staring off in shock until Oryx clapped her hands in front of her eyes, sending a little spray of foam film into Etsuko¡¯s face. She nodded slack-jawed and tried to find her clipboard. ¡°Chodely, can you help her please.¡± It was a command, not a question. ¡°I¡¯m going to check everyone over in just a sec. The rest of you, see if you can¡¯t figure out where we are and what you can do to help.¡± I was thankful for Oryx¡¯s initiative. It was enough to snap me out of my daze and get moving. I stripped down to my underpants and undershirt and turned my jumpsuit inside out. I enlisted Gary to help me rip off strips and patches, then did the same to his sport coat. We handed them around for people to wipe their faces clean before moving to the walls of the capsule to look outside. We were definitely in the jungle. It didn¡¯t take much clearing of the glass to see thick, dark green leaves and vines all around our capsule. We were partially buried in broken tree limbs and detritus. Clearing more portholes, it looked like our capsule came to rest on the banks of a slow moving stream. ¡°I have the emergency handle for the doors. Should I open them now?¡± Etsuko asked. All confidence and surety had vanished. ¡°Yeah, seems fine, right?¡± Oryx asked. ¡°We¡¯re not under water or anything?¡± ¡°No, but everyone shut your eyes and cover your heads. Move to that side.¡± I said. ¡°Some tree branches and stuff will probably fall in when she opens it.¡± They all moved and covered up immediately. I smooshed against the opposite wall and Etsuko pulled the emergency handle. It levered the door outwards instead of its normal slide, popping it off its rail. The door slid off the side of the capsule and hit the ground with a wet plomp sound while wood chunks and dead leaves rained down on us. Warm, moist air flowed into the compartment replacing some of the sewage smell before really making it stick to the inside of my nose. ¡°Um. Ok. Good. I just took paramedic as my profession.¡± Oryx told us. ¡°It came with some reference materials and bonuses to medical acumen. So everyone line up and I can give you a once over.¡± ¡°Wait, did you really choose your profession just to help us out? Why would you do that?¡± I asked, gob smacked. ¡°Only kind of. I knew I was going to be some kind of medical person in here. This forced my hand a bit. Get in line please.¡± She said. ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t come up with the words. You shouldn¡¯t have - I¡¯m touched - You¡¯re out of your mind? - nothing seemed to fit what I was feeling. I just stared back at her while she looked me up and down. When she had finished she informed us ¡°Most of you have minor concussions but no new injuries I could see. Still, our first step should be the hospital when we get back. And we should get cleaned up. We can get a bath in the stream and wash our clothes once we¡¯re sure its safe to go outside.¡± I continued wiping new viewing holes in the yellow slime until the blinking light in the corner of my vision got the better of me. ACHIEVEMENT(S) UNLOCKED! BABY STEPS YOU MADE IT OUT OF THE ORIENTATION ROOM! 5 EXP NO LOOT AWARDED BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS YOU¡¯VE CHOSEN A CAREER-BASED PROFESSION, AND A BLUE-COLLAR ONE AT THAT! STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM IS A NOBEL ENDEAVOR! 5 EXP 2000 REV AWARDED GOING DOWN! YOU FELL OVER 100 FEET WITHOUT A PARACHUTE AND SURVIVED! 20 EXP PARACHUTE AWARDED LOOK OUT BELOW! YOU KILLED A CREATURE BY DROPPING A HEAVY OBJECT ON IT! 20 EXP +5 BODY UNTIL NEXT REST WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE YOU HAVE TRAVERSED IN TO THE JUNGLE! BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! 10 EXP MACHETE AWARDED Huh. That was pretty cool. Should be more than enough experience to get a level or two. I wasn¡¯t sure what we killed though, or how to get my loot as it hadn¡¯t appeared on my equipment list. I imagine if something dangerous were outside we would have heard something by now. ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST LEVEL - 0 This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. INTELLECT - 10 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: CHARM - 10 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM BODY - 10....................................................................................................................................................................________________ AGILITY - 10...............................................................................................................................................................________________ DURABILITY - +2..................................................................................................................................................... HEALTH - 10/10.......................................................................................................................................................CURRENCY UNASSIGNED POINTS - 25................................................................................................................................REV - 2600 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433.......................................................................................................................... CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE LEVEL 5! REST TO COMPLETE LEVEL-UP ¡°Oh shit!¡± I blurted. A couple people jerked at that and started to get worried. ¡°Sorry. Umm¡­ everyone check your stats. Between achievement experience and I guess credit for a kill from landing on something I¡¯m already level 5.¡± Everyone got a dazed look that was quickly followed up by looks of shock and delight. In a moment of terror we were all too happy to engage with that silver lining. Everyone adopted blank expressions as they got to tinkering with their stats. ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST LEVEL - 0 INTELLECT - 10 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: CHARM - 10 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM BODY - 10....................................................................................................................................................................___________________ AGILITY - 10................................................................................................................................................................________________ DURABILITY - +2...................................................................................................................................................... HEALTH - 10/10 (40/43).......................................................................................................................................CURRENCY UNASSIGNED POINTS - 0 (25)..........................................................................................................................REV - 2600 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433.............................................................................................................................. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE LEVEL 5! REST TO COMPLETE LEVEL-UP I didn¡¯t feel any different, but maybe something would change when I rested. I could close the window and reopen it to juggle the points around, so they weren¡¯t set yet. That¡¯s good to know. It also didn¡¯t take too long to find the pending loot tab of my inventory. It had the two items I got from the achievements as well as a couple humane traps I assume came when I selected my profession. PARACHUTE - ENABLES SLOW FALL. REQUIRES 50 FEET FOR FULL DEPLOYMENT. THIS IS A SINGLE-USE ITEM. ¨C MEDIUM - COMMON MACHETE - MEDIUM BLADE WEAPON ¨C COMMON ¨C DURABLE *ENHANCED DAMAGE AGAINST PLANTS AND PLANT-BASED CREATURES. I selected the machete hoping it would appear in my hand or on the ground nearby, but that didn¡¯t happen. It just displayed more information like its 10 Rev value and 100/100 durability. It also had an option that said, ¡°Delivery Service: 198 Rev.¡± When I focused on it, a confirmation window popped up, but I rejected it. The number dropped to 197 Rev in only a few seconds. Kinda bullshit I got loot but couldn¡¯t get the loot. Blaze Firestalker was in a daze still so I just asked the room in general, ¡°Hey what¡¯s with the delivery service? And how do I get my loot in my hand?¡± ¡°Its more like you have a coupon for a free item.¡± Etsuko told me. ¡°There¡¯s mini-printers all over the place hidden in the scenery, or in clearly marked buildings in the habitable zone. As long as it¡¯s not a real big thing you can sign in to the station and collect it there. When you get a map you can set it to always show you the closest one. It¡¯s annoying at first, but it basically gives you infinite item capacity.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a lot. Ok. And if I request delivery, someone brings it to me? Like are gig workers a thing?¡± I asked. ¡°No, a drone brings it. But yeah, it¡¯s a lot faster. The mini-printers can take a minute to make the thing, but the delivery ones are made at a full-size hub so they can do it a lot faster. And the mini ones can¡¯t do large items at all. It can be expensive but it gets cheaper sometimes if multiples are being made or if you wait a while. I think it bottoms out around 50 Rev or so.¡± She told me. I brought my loot page back up and sure enough it had dropped to 161 Rev. ¡°You have a map? How close is the nearest thing?¡± ¡°Couple hundred meters that way.¡± She said, pointing in a direction that meant nothing to me. That was enough for me. I didn¡¯t want to walk 10 meters away from this capsule defenseless, never mind hundreds. I brought it up again and selected ¡°Confirm¡± and 159 Rev was deducted from my account. A new box appeared with a timer saying my machete should arrive in 90 seconds. Not bad. I let everyone else know what I was doing as they likely had the same achievement and the same reward for completing it. Not everyone was willing to spend the money for whatever reason, but soon we had a small squadron of packages being delivered, each locked with some form of bio-metrics. I had received my machete and parachute ¨C I figured it couldn¡¯t hurt to have that much fabric especially if we needed to carry Kade a long way and the sack could be a backpack for anyone who needed one. All in all, I saw 3 machetes besides my own, as well as a first aid kit for Oryx. Others had also chosen to get some things dropped in but I couldn¡¯t tell what they were. Blaze Firestalker had flown in some kind of small leather pouch he tucked in to one of his overlarge sleeves. Chodely Whipplespurt also had his parachute brought in. He almost certainly intended to use it as a backpack because when I offered mine up he had a very clear look of disappointment on his face. Regardless, it¡¯d be better to have it and not need it. ¡°Ok does anyone know where we are and which way the habitable zone is? Do we know what we landed on?¡± Morrighan asked. Blaze had relished his position as the all knowing wizard of information in the group to this point, but even he sounded a bit uncertain, ¡°We landed in the jungle somewhere. The biomes are anywhere from 6 to 12 miles thick, and the jungle is the largest one. And the mag-line had barely crossed the boundary. So best guess we¡¯re a mile deep in the jungle. Maybe a little more. But there¡¯s tons of stuff in the jungle, so maybe we got lucky and landed near a tribe or small settlement?¡± JuneBug720¡¯s head snapped up at that. ¡°A mile?!¡± she asked, snapping out of her uselessness and in to an actively pessimistic stance. ¡°Yeah I think so. But getting out should be easy. Or at least navigation should be. Etsuko has a map and the core runs starward to sunward. The hab zones are all starward. So we just need to follow the core and figure out which way is starward. Should be easy enough.¡± Blaze Firestalker seemed please with himself again. The other passengers perked up a bit now that we were making progress on a plan to get us out of here. I, however, was firmly in JuneBug720¡¯s camp. A mile through thick jungle wasn¡¯t exactly a jaunty hike in a meadow. And none of us ¨C not even our illustrious docent ¨C had any experience in the actual biome spaces. We also had to account for Kade who needed to be carried. It would likely take the better part of a day if we went nice and slow to avoid walking in to some bio-engineered jungle demon or whatever people (Mad Scientist was a selectable profession after all) had been cooking up over the last however many generations. ¡°Do we know what we landed on? Once we get cleaned up maybe we should get the door back in place and get some rest so our levels can process completely?¡± Kade said from the ground, offering his first contribution since boarding the mag-line. ¡°Once the door is off, there¡¯s no putting it back on.¡± Etsuko informed us. ¡°We could try to prop it on there, but it won¡¯t, like, lock in place again.¡± ¡°It¡¯s better than nothing. We can do our best to fill in the gaps with the parachutes. Hopefully keep the bugs out.¡± Kade suggested, picking a hand-sized insect out of the goop next to him. The group¡¯s response was a mixture of submissive nods and averted gazes. It was clear none of us wanted to be here longer than we needed to be, but at present the idea of walking out in to the jungle was just terrifying enough to keep everyone else quiet on the matter. ¡°In worse news¡­¡± Morrighan started. She had been sitting on the ground with what remained of my jumpsuit, wiping at the floor. By now she had cleared enough space to see what we had landed on. Outside of the fleshy pudding that made up the bulk, we could all clearly make out two pairs of legs. Human legs. Cleanly shaven, very broken human legs, complete with knee-high brown leather boots. Knock Knock ¡°Oh god! did we kill people? Does that make us murderers?¡± JuneBug720 began. She was immediately interrupted by the justifiable retching that circled the car. ¡°We can¡¯t¡­ no, this isn¡¯t on us. It wasn¡¯t our fault!¡± Chodely Whipplespurt added. He had adopted a fully defensive posture and seemed ready to throw fists at the first enforcement official that popped out of the jungle to arrest him. ¡°At worst it¡¯s manslaughter, but even then we could probably plea down.¡± ¡°People died. Are you really that self-centered?¡± Gary¡¯s voice, though the quietest in the room, cut through all of us. ¡°No one¡¯s responsible for this. Everyone shut up and calm down.¡± No one argued. Morrighan stretched my jumpsuit over the exposed glass to hide the scene for now, and we all sat in that weight for a while. Choked-back tears and the occasional gagging sound ¨C either from the two squished figures or from the worsening smell in the car ¨C were the only sounds for a while. Even the jungle had been shamed to temporary silence by Gary¡¯s imposing admonishment. ¡°We should get cleaned up and rest.¡± Kade finally insisted again. ¡°We can¡¯t do anything about them now. Maybe try to find some ID or something on our way out if we can get to it so we can notify someone. But we need to get cleaned up and get ready to move out of here. Roane and Chodely, can you help me out?¡± ¡°Umm. Sure. How do you want to do this? Try to lift you out through the door?¡± I asked. ¡°No, you¡¯d only have to help me back in then back out again when we¡¯re ready to leave.¡± He answered. I saw where he was going. ¡°If you can just take my clothes to the stream and clean them out best you can. Sorry, I know I¡¯ve been a bigger burden than boon to everyone. But I¡¯ll make it up to you.¡± without waiting for confirmation he started stripping down. He bundled up his heavily soiled underpants and undershirt and used his bottoms to clean himself off as best he could, then wrapped it all up in his sweatshirt. ¡°Ok.¡± I looked at Chodely Whipplespurt. ¡°I guess we go to the stream first and wash, then we take turns from there.¡± I chucked the filthy clothes up out of the doorway before getting a boost outside and sliding off the car towards the river. We¡¯d been roasting in the mag-line car for so long in the shit and filth that I almost forgot what normal air smelled like. Even in the sweltering heat and humidity of the jungle, it was far more comfortable than that claustrophobic confinement. It was unclear which hit us faster; the bugs or the paranoia. I¡¯ve seen loads of pictures of jungles. The Hildrun had its own jungle biome as well, though I¡¯d never visited it. It wasn¡¯t really meant to be explored there, but rather a habitat for Earth species making the journey through the stars with us. But the pictures always looked so comforting. The greens were so rich and full. Even the mist had a green tinge to it. Anywhere the brown of the dirt or a tree showed through it looked whole to me. The browns were just as colorful as the greens of the plant life and the blue in the sky. Jungles always seemed so welcoming, like everything could thrive. Even the mossy stones on the ground looked like velvet cushions. There just wasn¡¯t any harshness to images I had seen. The real jungle is a hellscape. The sounds distort everything while enhancing every uneasy feeling a hundred fold. It feels like everything, even the leaves, are looking at you, waiting for you to look away for just a moment so they can slash and sting. Bugs aren¡¯t just trying to bite, but they look for any hole or soft spot to try and burrow in under your flesh and carve out a new home. There¡¯s a constant heaviness to everything made worse by the constant wetness, most of it somehow coming from your own body. Even the rocks are a trap. Place your foot squarely on a stone but with your weight just slightly off center and you¡¯re in the ground where the non-flying bugs can get you now. And that¡¯s all before you account for the larger animals that see you as an easy meal. It¡¯s awful. We didn¡¯t have a choice, but we made sure to get the experience over as quickly as possible. The stream was only a few feet from the car thankfully, and shallow enough to not be any danger. We stripped down, scrubbed up, smacked the shit out of our clothes on the rocks, and raced back to the safety of the capsule taking special care not to look towards our accidental victims. Lending our machetes to teams who didn¡¯t have them, everyone got their turn at the stream without incident much to the relief of everyone¡¯s olfactory senses. The capsule car was still oppressively muggy, and tensions were high of course, but stress adds up. Each of us claimed a spot against the sloping walls as far from my now mostly clean jumpsuit that covered the ¡°scene¡± and let exhaustion take over. I woke along with everyone else a couple hours later to a distinct ¡°psst pssst psssssst¡± sound. I didn¡¯t know if I could take many more surprises. Even with the rest, I was on edge. JuneBug720 was staring at me wide-eyed across the car desperately trying to get mine or someone¡¯s attention without being too loud. When I met her eyes, she waved frantically for me to scooch over to her side by the little window she¡¯d cleared in the yellow slime. Try as I might, I couldn¡¯t see what she was so worked up about. Though to be fair I couldn¡¯t make out much outside the window. I thought maybe night had fallen or the artificial light was casting this side of the car in deep shadow, but soon it became apparent my eyes weren¡¯t working right. Or at least not how I was used to. I squinted hard and rubbed at them, and within a few moments they began to adjust. And not just that, but I could see noticeably better than before. I didn¡¯t have eagle vision or anything, but it was definitely improved. With the sleep draining out of me, I finally realized my levels must have taken hold. I stole a quick glance at my stats. ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST LEVEL - 0 INTELLECT - 15 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: CHARM - 20 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM BODY - 20 ...................................................................................................................................................................MACHETE AGILITY - 20................................................................................................................................................................________________ DURABILITY - +2...................................................................................................................................................... HEALTH - 43/43........................................................................................................................................................CURRENCY UNASSIGNED POINTS - 0 ................................................................................................................................REV - 2441 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433.......................................................................................................................... Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I also noticed I had a new achievement, but that could wait until I figured out what JuneBug720 was upset about. At first there was nothing. It was just more jungle covered by broken branches, vines, and other foliage from the crash. There were few spaces to even see through. But then I caught it, clear as day, and it shattered me. ¡°What¡¯s the deal?¡± Morrighan asked groggily. Her expression, one of annoyance, was matched by the rest of the passengers. Even JuneBug720¡¯s flashed to frustration momentarily presumably for the raised volume. We both silently shushed the group, and I made my way to the center, waving everyone to towards me. ¡°Don¡¯t freak out. We saw a couple people out there near the car.¡± I said to heightened faces. ¡°We¡¯re saved! Why would we freak out! They probably know how to get us out of here!¡± Oryx exclaimed, way too loud. ¡°Shhhhhhut. The fuck. Up.¡± Morrighan chastised her. ¡°They¡¯re in the jungle. They can probably kill all of us. They probably saw the crash and are looking for easy loot.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. But you¡¯re right. We need to be careful.¡± I said, nods of agreement all around. ¡°I didn¡¯t see what they were carrying. But they looked smaller. I could only make out two of them, and barely. There¡¯s too much stuff in the way. I could only make out they¡¯re wearing like hiking shoes and probably shorts or something.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like opportunistic killers, but you never know.¡± Kade added. ¡°Maybe rangers of some kind? Or scientists?¡± ¡°Could be. But we should still be cautious.¡± I said. ¡°Agreed. Everyone spr-¡± Kade was interrupted knock knock knock. We all sat motionless. Frozen. knock knock knock. knock knock knock. There were two distinct sets of knocks spaced a few feet apart, tapping on the debris against the car. ¡°Hello?¡± Oryx called out. The most hateful looks shot at her from every direction. Kade leaned hard in her direction and swung a fist hard right in to her jaw, knocking her unconscious. Fear, confusion, and panic were near bubbling over in the group. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. They came frantically now, but with no call in response. We all looked to Kade who rolled his eyes in exasperation before shouting, ¡°We¡¯re armed! We don¡¯t want a fight!¡± KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. ¡°Wellllllll shit. The longer we wait the worse this is gonna get.¡± Kade said. ¡°We don¡¯t know if this is all of them, or they can call for friends. I think you¡¯ll have to take the fight to them. Luckily the door is on the top so you¡¯ll at least have the high ground.¡± ¡°Fuck. Okay. Chodely, Blaze, Morrighan, are you up for this?¡± I asked. ¡°We have four machetes.¡± ¡°I can give us some cover. I have the components for smoke powder. It doesn¡¯t last long, but at least we won¡¯t be sitting ducks crawling up and out one by one.¡± Blaze Firestalker volunteered. ¡°I can also make fire blasts.¡± ¡°Great! Gary, can you take the fourth machete then?¡± I asked. He agreed immediately. With what could barely be called a plan and a redistribution of machetes we moved in to action. Gary boosted me up to push the door and chutes off the entry, then the two of us cheerleader tossed Blaze Firestalker up through the door. He flopped on to the top of the car and blindly threw his packet of smoke powder in the direction of the knocks. It was better than I¡¯d hoped, creating a dense cloud that covered the entire car and an extra 15 feet or so beyond. We snatched the opportunity and the four of us scrambled up and out of the car as fast as possible. Unfortunately we couldn¡¯t see our attackers, but we at least had a general idea of where they were. Gary was the first to dive in. Or rather; slide. He scooted down the left side of the car in to the smoke, machete swinging before he passed out of view. The rest of us followed suit, spacing out enough that we could swing blind with minimal risk of decapitating each other. Blaze Firestalker to the far right end so he could do his fire blasts without crowding. ¡°AHHH! Help! Help! Get off! He-¡± Blaze Firestalkers screams started as soon as he passed in to the smoke and were cut short within seconds. That silence filled the cloud, louder than the combats we were immediately facing. No Gunfire. No metal slashing. Just rapid footsteps followed by screaming and the sound of blood splashing the forest floor. I closed my eyes and slashed harder, nearly knocking myself to the ground with the momentum. I wasn¡¯t used to my adjusted strength, but it wouldn¡¯t have made much difference. I only chopped air, and I had no idea how to actually fight with a machete. ¡°Run!¡± Morrighan shouted from the cloud, raw fear pouring from the word. I bolted from the smoke hoping I was still facing away from the car. I passed from the blanket of smoke at the same time as my compatriots, joining them to move in to the tree cover. But our attackers pursued right behind. ¡°What. The fuck.¡± Chodely Whipplespurt said before sending himself ass over tea-kettle on a branch. Three monstrosities took a pause just outside the smoke. Each had eight human legs tipped with what were clearly hiking shoes. But the upper leg and thigh joined with a kind of fleshy headless torso that was easily four feet off the ground. At least a dozen gigantic human eyes stared at us from the ¡°front¡± of the torso just above a lip-less maw. A pair of 12 inch pincers, more resembling rhino horns, wiggled in front of their mouths. Short cropped curly hair topped the horrors, completing the human flesh/giant spider hybrid disaster. ¡°They¡¯re spidaurs!¡± Morrighan shouted at us, as if that made anything better. ¡°Young ones. Don¡¯t let them bite you!¡± again, as if that were helpful in any way. The three spidaurs attacked in unison, rapidly skittering at us on their human legs. They closed the distance lightning fast with their pincers splayed ready to skewer us. Two came at Morrighan, Gary and I while the third went for the easy prey on the ground. Chodely Whipplespurt screamed and slashed with his machete while trying to right himself with his other hand. It wasn¡¯t enough. The spidaur lunged and ran a pincer through his thigh pinning him back to the ground. He swung again frantically, screaming in agony, and managed to cut a leg clean off but remained pinned. Pink blood flowed from the stump that now showed a very meaty interior. The three of us did our best to hold a defensive ready position. When they got close we slashed towards them driving them back for a moment, only to have them lunge again. We were in a standoff, forced to listen helplessly to the pleading screams of our ally. Morrighan shifted left using my swipes for quick cover before raising her machete over her head in a downward chop. It caught one of the spidaurs in its knee, splitting it open and getting stuck for half a moment. The spidaur retreated almost taking the machete with it, but Morrighan found enough footing on the roots below us to wrench it free. Chodely, to his credit, kept his fight alive. No form or finesse, but it was effective. With raw swings driven only by the desire for survival he chopped off another leg above the ankle before bashing the spidaur above its mouth. It pulled back, retracting the pincer but opening the wound. A thick stream of blood started spewing from the opening. I continued my tried and true strategy of swinging at whatever came close. I came dangerously close to slashing my companion before over-correcting catching a thick wooden vine. Just when I thought we were being toyed with, the spidaur overextended just as I was in the middle of my swing and impaled itself on my machete. It wasn¡¯t enough to kill it, but I did take several of its eyes and it recoiled several feet, its legs pulling in towards its body in defense. Slivers of flesh clung to my blade briefly before falling to the jungle floor. I barely noticed the small gash in my forearm but knew full well that pain would hit me later. We used that opportunity to help Gary, who to his own credit was maintaining the standoff. Morrighan and I attempted to flank it, but its multiple eyes gave us away. It turned to head us off, only for Gary to perform a fencing lunge and drive his machete in to the side of its torso clear to the hilt. The spidaur let out an all-too-human scream and dropped. It rolled on to its back (head?) and its legs pulled in towards its underbelly. With one down, Gary ran to assist Chodely Whipplespurt who was now struggling to remain conscious. He put himself between Chodely and the spidaur keeping it from biting again. With two legs out of action, Gary was able to land several more slashes. Deep cuts opened up in the spidaurs legs slowing it further, enough for him to chop down on it, killing it. Without hesitating he reeled around and dove on Chodely¡¯s leg pressing hard to try and slow the bleeding. Morrighan and I didn¡¯t press our scared opponent. We stayed side by side in our improvised formation until it came back at us. It bluff charged a few times before making one last dash at us, legs flailing and pincers aimed. I dove away swinging behind me catching one of its legs while Morrighan stood her ground and thrust her machete forward. The force of the spidaur impaling itself was significant. I clearly heard a snap and shout as Morrighan¡¯s wrist was broken by the impact. But the thing was dead. Morrighan flashed for a moment, looking ready to keel over from the pain and shock but steeled herself. We rushed to Chodely and Gary¡¯s side to help. ¡°Does anyone have a belt?!¡± Gary asked urgently. We didn¡¯t. His calm controlling demeanor was starting to break. ¡°Roane! Go ask the others! Morrighan, tear his pant-leg off.¡± We did as instructed. I shimmied up the car to the open door and asked for a belt. Unfortunately no one had received one in their starter gear. I shouted that back to Gary who took in the information and refocused on Morrighan and Chodely. Sliding back down the car I finally saw Blaze Firestalkers body. He had be impaled directly down through his collar bone. He lay there in a massive pool of blood. But his robes had a rope cincture around the waist. I hesitate for a moment before going to remove it from him. His eyes were still open, his eyes and cheekbones wet with tears. Suddenly I remembered my dislike of the guy and guilt washed over me. He¡¯d been helpful. Self serving, sure, but helpful. I couldn¡¯t deal with this now. I tried to shut it out and take the rope from him. It came off easily and I hurried back to Gary. By now Morrighan had torn Chodely¡¯s pant-leg off and been instructed to cut off one of the spider pincers. The bleeding had slowed. Gary took the rope and tied it above the hole in Chodely¡¯s leg. He then tied the pincer in to the ropes securing knot with another knot, and twisted it round. He tightened the makeshift tourniquet until the bleeding had stopped. Thankfully, Chodely had lost consciousness or this would have been agony. ¡°We need to go now. He¡¯s lost a lot of blood. We might not have gotten in time.¡± Gary said, still hurriedly. ¡°Get the others. Get the parachutes. We¡¯re going right now.¡± Time To Go I didn¡¯t need to be told twice. That wasn¡¯t true for everyone else, sadly. Once we lifted Kade out of the capsule car and the others followed, a few of us got to work assembling a couple of quick litters for the injured. Morrighan and Oryx, however, went about inspecting the dead. ¡°We don¡¯t have time to bury him.¡± Gary shouted to Morrighan. ¡°He may have something else we can use. I¡¯ll just be a second.¡± She answered without looking up. She continued to pat him down keeping her broken wrist tight to her body, pausing occasionally as if someone had frozen her momentarily. With our attention drawn back to Blaze instead of the focused work on the litters, the reality of what had happened set in. It came fast, hitting us in the chest and pulling us down. JuneBug720, Kade, Etsuko and myself suddenly felt sapped of strength and couldn¡¯t move. I only sat in that funk for a moment, as to my astonishment JuneBug720 began audibly crying. I was certain until now she was only playing him. He was a valuable member of our involuntary alliance, but even then. Oryx was up to more grisly work. She used one of the free hatchets and started chopping the feet off of the spidaurs. Once she had a few pairs of booted feet, she began trying to surgically remove the pincers. Etsuko gagged. ¡°What the hell?¡± I called to her. ¡°Spidaur boots are insanely rare and super valuable. They give you a massive boost to climbing. I¡¯ll split them with everyone, don¡¯t worry!¡± She defended herself. ¡°So just take them off!¡± Morrighan said, now done rifling through our deceased companion¡¯s belongings. ¡°You can¡¯t. They¡¯re an equipment material and schematic combined in one, but they aren¡¯t actually boots yet. They grow them. They¡¯re flesh, they just look like boots right now.¡± Oryx informed us. ¡°You can¡¯t store them until they¡¯ve been tanned.¡± ¡°That¡¯s disgusting.¡± I said. ¡°What¡¯re you? A vegetarian? They¡¯re monsters. Calm down.¡± She said. ¡°Whatever. You¡¯re carrying them. Just hurry up. We need to go.¡± I walked toward the capsule care to clear my head for a moment. I needed to just not look at that for now. Only a couple hours ago I viewed Oryx as a selfless caretaker, and now she was kind of creeping me out. A blessing came in the form of a blinking red light in the corner of my Horizon. A distraction. MESSAGE(S) 1 OF 1: Hey, I heard there was a derailment earlier. Was waiting at the station for you, but I guess you got caught up in those delays. I¡¯m going to head home. Message me in the morning and we can start your mentor/mentee work. - Javic Voss I tried to respond, but when I went to send it, my display just said ¡°User is listed as ¡®Do Not Disturb¡¯.¡± That was annoying. But at least I wouldn¡¯t be totally in the dark if and when I got back. I went through the rest of my menus to clear the blinking lights and adjust the settings so I wouldn¡¯t have a light forever in the corner of my vision. ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST LEVEL - 5 INTELLECT - 15 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: CHARM - 20 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM BODY - 20 ...................................................................................................................................................................MACHETE AGILITY - 20................................................................................................................................................................________________ DURABILITY - +2...................................................................................................................................................... HEALTH - 43/43........................................................................................................................................................CURRENCY UNASSIGNED POINTS - 0 .......................................................................................................................................REV - 2441 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433................................................................................................................................. ACHIEVEMENT(S) UNLOCKED BATTLE HARDENED You engaged in combat with a formidable creature and came out on top! +3 PROTECTION TEMPORARY BUFF AWARDED SURVIVALIST You used the materials in nature to survive! PERFECT MATCH AWARDED PERFECT MATCH ¨C THIS MATCH WILL IGNITE WHEN INTENTIONALLY STRUCK AGAINST ANY SOLID SURFACE. IT WILL WORK IN ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS, EVEN UNDER WATER. MULTI-USE ¨C TINY ¨C COMMON Not bad. I had almost reached level 6 on my first day. For someone with a career path and not an adventuring path, that was pretty solid I bet. That was enough to lift me out of the weight of the moment. With our makeshift parachute-and-branch litters finished, and Kade and Chodely Whipplespurt loaded on them we set off. Etsuko and I pulled one while Gary and JuneBug720 started pulling the other. I took one final look back at the gory scene we were leaving with a tinge of guilt over the destruction we were only partially responsible for. With a double-take, I caught Blaze Firestalker¡¯s wizard robes turning to a crimson dust and falling not just to the ground, but through it, leaving him lying there in his underclothes. ¡°Umm¡­ Do we need to be worried about that? Blaze¡¯s robes just disintegrated.¡± I said. ¡°Huh?¡± Etsuko looked back in that direction. ¡°Oh, no. Morality notwithstanding. Morrighan looted him. That¡¯s how it works sometimes. If you don¡¯t want to carry something immediately, you can assign it to your inventory as a pattern and retrieve it from on of the printers later. The original will be destroyed, but the copy will be identical as long as its a known world object. Materials and novel creations you have to carry, though. Keeps people from clear-cutting the forest if you have to do it the old fashioned way.¡± ¡°Are you done? It¡¯s getting late and we have no idea how far we need to go.¡± Gary said, getting justifiably irritated. Kade crossed him arms on his litter and made a face like he was actively trying to keep his mouth shut. ¡°How far? We don¡¯t even know where we need to go.¡± JuneBug720 said. ¡°How do you know this is the right direction? Its a 50-50 shot isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Educated guess.¡± He said, exaggerating a speed increase so she¡¯d keep pulling. ¡°The core runs this way and behind us, but the mag-line only goes in the direction of rotation. If the drag marks under the car are pointed in the direction of rotation, that means this is the way out assuming we didn¡¯t get a weird bounce or something that flipped it 180.¡± Good enough for me. Even if this had a chance of being the wrong direction, going nowhere was without a doubt the wrong direction. We positioned anyone not pulling a litter up front with the machetes to try and clear the path. Even with that extra help it was slow going. And finding footing was hard enough when you weren¡¯t trying to tow 170lbs behind. Sweat poured down my face and back and the bugs were relentless. For the umpteenth time today I questioned my sanity and if this really was the best move for me and my family. I tried not to feel resentful. To feel betrayed. It wasn¡¯t my mother¡¯s fault that there were restrictions on offspring, and I had volunteered to come to the Galaxion. I was happy to do it. The way things were I would have been stuck forever at the bottom of a treatment tank cleaning water reclamation filters with little hope of climbing out. On the Galaxion I could forge a brighter path and she could have the baby. My brothers and sister would still have a nice big family to care for. It wasn¡¯t some impulse, and I wasn¡¯t being forced out. But now deep in the jungle, nearly dying multiple times in my first few hours I couldn¡¯t help but feel put out. Like this decision wouldn¡¯t have even come up if she didn¡¯t decide to keep another baby. But that wasn¡¯t fair either. Even before I was given my assignment and before my mother became pregnant again I had fantasized about making it to the Galaxion and making my own way. I justified it now by saying I could send rev back home, but that was just to assuage my own guilt over feeling the way I did. How pathetic that my grand plan was to switch ships and still get a blue collar job. Aim for the stars, Roane. On the one hand I had now managed to talk myself out of that feeling of resentment. But now I was just blaming myself for getting myself in to this mess. It¡¯s easy to get lost in your own head, especially when things are going so poorly. I switched gears and tried to use that pessimism for strength. Half of my mind was angry at myself, so I tried to make the other half set on proving the bad half wrong. It actually helped too. Even when Etsuko got tired and had to tag Oryx in, I stayed on and pulled Kade over every stump and slippery stone, doing my best to ignore the bugs, spider webs, and haunting sounds of the jungle. Over an hour in to our trek was alerted by Oryx to a flash of movement off to my left, up in the tree boughs. At first I was pleasantly surprised to see a grayish-tan monkey keeping us company, matching our pace. But I was immediately put on edge when I realized it wasn¡¯t alone. Looking around there were at least a dozen following us on either side. ¡°Everyone hold up.¡± I ordered in a loud whisper. ¡°Something¡¯s following us.¡± ¡°They¡¯re just monkeys. They aren¡¯t a threat.¡± Oryx said. She pointed up in to the jungle so the rest of the group could see what we were talking about. ¡°Not them. I mean yes, them. But they¡¯re human shielding. Its a thing prey animals do sometimes. They¡¯re using us to keep whatever¡¯s hunting them from attacking.¡± I told her. ¡°Whatever it is, they¡¯re afraid of it but the monkeys know we¡¯re probably more dangerous.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°There¡¯s nothing here. I¡¯ve been watching behind us the whole time.¡± Kade said from my litter. ¡°Just trust me on this. Everyone circle up. We need to have eyes looking in every direction.¡± I said. If its a leopard or something it won¡¯t try to ambush if it thinks we can see it. Zookeepers wear special hats with eyes drawn on the back when they have to go in to the big cat areas to keep them from attacking.¡± ¡°Ok. I¡¯ll keep looking behind us. You can take up front, and you two can walk on the sides.¡± Kade instructed to myself, Etsuko, and Gary respectively. ¡°JuneBug, can you pull me by yourself?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pull Chodely with Morrighan up front, that way I can still look forward and we can have people watching the sides. And JuneBug can pull you with Etsuko.¡± I said. I was exhausted, but somehow the thought of a leopard or tiger stalking us gave me another jolt of adrenaline. ¡°Okay. Everyone stay sharp.¡± Kade said as the monkeys started getting noticeably more restless. ¡°Go fast.¡± Everyone remained on high alert, especially our monkey buddies that continued to stay just at the edge of our sight. Occasionally one of them would let out a shriek and all the monkeys on that side would quickly divert to the other side of us, often times swinging right through our group. We¡¯d take that as our cue to adjust course a few degrees in that direction while doing our best to maintain a trajectory in line with the core overhead. No doubt this was adding significant time to the journey and putting Chodely Whipplespurt at greater risk. ¡°Over there!¡± Oryx called on our left. Morrighan and I reflexively dropped Chodely on the ground and I reached for my machete. ¡°There¡¯s a tribute stone!¡± Following her finger I could just make out a 6 foot high stone obelisk with a blue glowing capstone. ¡°There¡¯s probably supplies in it. If there¡¯s food, we could probably bait whatever¡¯s following us away.¡± Oryx said. She didn¡¯t wait for the group¡¯s agreement. She just adjusted our course by chopping in that general direction. There were no objections, though. Even our monkeys quieted down a little with the decision. They still maintained a safe distance, though. The stone stood in the center of a small clearing that was obviously kept maintained with the vines and other foliage hacked back. It was some plain gray stone in a 3 sided obelisk shape. The top came to a point and was made of a similar stone but it glowed an oddly comforting blue color. One side of it had an engraving that read: For Marcoz May your light bring safety and comfort now as it did in life. Near the bottom was a large bronze placard with the instructions: PLEASE TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED. LEAVE HELP FOR OTHERS IF YOU ARE ABLE. We posted up around the tribute marker in a circle so we could keep eyes in every direction all at once. The monkeys coalesced to one side of us but seemed to have calmed down. At least for the moment there didn¡¯t seem to be an imminent attack. I chanced a look at my Horizon, but there wasn¡¯t much save for an achievement for finding a tribute stone. ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST LEVEL - 5 INTELLECT - 15 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: CHARM - 20 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM BODY - 20 ...................................................................................................................................................................MACHETE AGILITY - 20................................................................................................................................................................________________ DURABILITY - +2...................................................................................................................................................... HEALTH - 43/43........................................................................................................................................................CURRENCY UNASSIGNED POINTS - 0 .......................................................................................................................................REV - 2441 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433................................................................................................................................. ACHIEVEMENT(S) UNLOCKED! IN MEMORIAM You discovered a tribute shrine! This person¡¯s impact on the world was so great, someone wanted to honor them forever. Please be respectful. PEACE CANDLE AWARDED ¡°Sometimes there¡¯s a drawer in the bottom or a trap door on the ground near the tribute.¡± Oryx said. ¡°This one looks pretty clean, so they probably still stock it. She was right. A quick inspection of the space, and kicking around on the ground and we found that the placard had a basic latch on top. The placard folded down revealing a small dark compartment. Inside it looked like it had been stocked with all black billiard balls, complete with the triangular rack surrounding them. I grabbed the triangular tray and pulled it out of the compartment. The tray below it lifted to fill the space, though I left that alone. ¡°Well. Bad news and good news.¡± I said, staring down at the tray of 10 fist-sized balls. ¡°The bad news; there¡¯s no food or water. The good news; they do, for some reason, stock it regularly with hand grenades.¡± The looks I received from that statement brought a smile to my face for the first time since this all started. Nobody was sure if I was serious or not until I sat back on my heals and tilted the tray in their direction. There were, in fact, 10 old-school push button hand grenades in the tray. I opened my Horizon to examine them in my inventory, along with the patterns I had received. PEACE CANDLE- THIS CANDLE WILL BURN FOR 5 MINUTES. DURING WHICH TIME, NO AGGRESSIVE ACTIONS MAY BE TAKEN WITHIN A 10 FOOT CIRCLE. WILL NOT WORK ON NON-SAPIENT CREATURES. WILL NOT PREVENT HOSTILE ACTIONS MADE OUTSIDE THE AFFECTED AREA. LIMITED USE ¨C SMALL - COMMON FRAGMENTATION GRENADE (X10) ¨C THIS GRENADE WILL EXPLODE IN A LOCALIZED AREA VIOLENTLY, SENDING SHRAPNEL AND A CONCUSSIVE BLAST OUTWARDS. THE GRENADE IS PRIMED ON RELEASE OF THE PRIMER BUTTON, AND WILL EXPLODE 3 SECONDS AFTER PRIMING. GRENADE WILL BE MADE TEMPORARILY SAFE IF PRIMER BUTTON IS DEPRESSED AGAIN, AND WILL BE MADE INERT IF PRIMER BUTTON IS DEPRESSED FOR 20 SECONDS. USE WITH EXTREME CAUTION. SINGLE USE ¨C SMALL - UNCOMMON I offered the tray to Gary who grabbed the orbs two at a time and tucked them in to whatever pockets he had. It ruined the lines of his fancy suit, but not much more than the mud, sweat, and blood had already done. I pocketed two of my own and left the remaining four in the tray on Kade¡¯s litter for anyone who wanted them. We expected outrage over our hoarding of the grenades, but there wasn¡¯t any. Oryx, Morrighan, and Etsuko currently had the other 3 machetes which left only Kade, and JuneBug720 without a weapon, and JuneBug720 seemed pretty unwilling or incapable of wielding one, and Kade now had four grenades in his lap, ready to lob them behind us if he needed to. ¡°Do we have anything we can leave? There isn¡¯t much room in there, but if we could put something on the ground or something small in the compartment.¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve got a pen light.¡± Etsuko said, removing the small instrument from her pocket. ¡°It¡¯s a pretty good flashlight for the size.¡± ¡°Are you sure? That¡¯s the only one we have and we have just over two hours of daylight left.¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s no way it takes us that long to get out of here unless something goes horribly wrong.¡± Kade said. Several faces turned to glare at him with narrowed eyes. ¡°What?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going pretty slow, but even at this pace we¡¯d have to be be going in the wrong direction to not make it back before then. And if that¡¯s the case, we¡¯re fucked either way.¡± Morrighan said. The monkeys started to jump up and down and chitter again. One of them even dropped to the jungle floor and entered the clearing where it slapped the ground with both hands demanding we stop messing around. We took that as a pretty clear message and headed out again after placing the pen light in the tribute stone and sealing it up. Oryx and JuneBug720 elected to pull the Chodely litter, while Gary and Morrighan pulled Kade. We were able to identify the hint of a path through the jungle that headed pretty much directly in the direction we were headed. It could have been an animal run, but my guess was it was the path used by whoever was tending to the stone. And if that were the case, it should lead to safety. At the very least it meant we had to clear less material and were able to move quite a lot faster. The monkeys in their role as overwatch had quieted down once we had gotten underway again. They initially grouped up on one side, but even without course correction they settled down until they were now completely encircling us. They had even warmed up to us, I thought, because every now and then one of them would jump down to the floor within only a few feet of us before hopping back up to the vines. They seemed especially interested in Kade who still kept eyes on our rear, though he deviated from that often enough to toss little sticks at his new monkey buddies. Finally, to our collective horror, one of them decided we were not a threat and chanced making contact. It swung in from the side landing next to Kade, put one hand on Kade¡¯s arm, and reached over with it¡¯s other hand to pluck one of the remaining grenades from their tray on Kade''s lap. Before Kade realized it was not, in fact, trying to make friends, it jumped away back up in to the trees with its prize. We had inadvertently given a hand grenade to a monkey. ¡°Oh shit!¡± I shouted with eyes on it. ¡°The monkey has a grenade! The monkey has a grenade.¡± I was repeating myself in panicked confusion. ¡°What do we do? What do we do?¡± ¡°Maybe he thinks it¡¯s a piece of fruit? He¡¯ll throw it when he realizes it isn¡¯t.¡± Kade said guiltily. It was a sound theory supported immediately by the monkey¡¯s attempt to eat the grenade. It sat on a branch and held the grenade with two hands up to its mouth and tried to chomp down. No luck. It tried smashing it open on the branch, repeatedly hammering it with both hands. Again, no luck. We watched anxiously, unsure of what to do. ¡°Hey! Hey! Don¡¯t do that!¡± Oryx called fruitlessly. Growing frustrated, the monkey cycled through its options a few more times. Chomping and smashing. We couldn¡¯t see the primer from out vantage point, but it remained unpressed. Fortunately the button was mounted nearly flush with the ball shape and had a good deal of spring tension to keep it from accidentally detonating. But still. How many times could you bash a grenade against a tree without it activating? We¡¯ll never know. Because once the monkey discovered the button had more give than the rest of the stubborn fruit, it used one of its giant monkey fangs to try and pry its way to the interior. The ring around the button lit up red. ¡°Look out!¡± Gary shouted. We covered our eyes and heads with our arms as our only means of protection just in time for the grenade ¨C and the hungry monkey ¨C to explode in a violent BOOM! Thankfully no bits of shrapnel had hit us. The monkey had been a good ways up in its tree so we couldn¡¯t try to get the grenade back. But other monkeys weren¡¯t so lucky, and we weren¡¯t entirely in the clear. Several monkeys were close enough to the blast and were either obliterated or forcibly thrown from the trees, killed instantly. Bits of tree bark and monkey rained on us for far too long. Long enough for the rest of the monkeys to scatter, swinging off in to the rest of the jungle. While we tried to regain our composure and come to terms with what we had just witnessed, things only got worse. With a beacon that loud, and the smell of fresh blood in the air, our pursuer had no trouble finding us. When our ears had just begun to stop ringing and we lifted the litters to move on, a massive leopard erupted from the jungle to the right of us. It swiped rapidly at Etsuko knocking the machete from her hand and opening up multiple large gashes in her arm, and sending her stumbling backwards in agony. It pulled back, readying for another go. We were completely off-guard. Defenseless. I don¡¯t know who to blame for all of it, or if anyone deserves any blame, but I¡¯ll remember those moments for the rest of my life. In reaction to the leopards perfect ambush, JuneBug720 screamed, dropped her corner of Chodely Whipplespurt¡¯s litter, and bolted ahead. Oryx followed suit, leaving him on the ground, unconscious and helpless. I was staring right at her when it happened. I know she didn¡¯t just react instinctively. She looked down at him, hesitated a moment, and then released him. There was an eternity in that hesitation. She was calculating, weighing the decision in her mind. And in the end, she didn¡¯t show the least bit of honest remorse. A leopard was actively trying to kill us, and I was suddenly more afraid of Oryx than I was of any that had happened thus far. ¡°Run!¡± Gary shouted after he had absorbed the scene. Etsuko scrambled to her feet and leapt over Chodely on her way down the path. I turned with my machete toward the leopard, bracing myself before grabbing a chunk of Kade¡¯s parachute and pulling. The leopard leaned it¡¯s head down ready to lunge but seemed understand my raised machete and thought twice. It didn¡¯t retreat or stand up, it just remained coiled ready to strike. ¡°Hurry! Roll him on!¡± I shouted as we moved along side Chodely. I felt Morrighan¡¯s pull soften. Gary grabbed my head and turned it to face his. ¡°No! Go! He¡¯s already dead!¡± ¡°But-¡± I started. ¡°SHUT UP! GO!¡± He screamed, his face inches from mine, his free hand winding up to strike me. I didn¡¯t argue anymore. I should have. But I didn¡¯t. This was a person. Why didn¡¯t I argue? Before we made it far I checked if the leopard was following us. It wasn¡¯t. It had found an easy meal. I looked back just long enough to see it bite in to Chodley¡¯s neck, and begin to drag him back the direction we came from. I continued at a run. With three hands on the litter we were able to catch up to the others who still had to contend with the overgrowth. When we had regrouped, none of us spoke. I didn¡¯t even bother to tell them I knew we were in the clear. They knew what we had just done. I knew what I had just done. I wanted to vomit. We maintained a good speed after a quick pause to bandage Etsuko¡¯s arm. With two people clearing the way and three people pulling Kade, it was minutes before we began to see a change in the tree line. A few more minutes and we had finally reached the border between the jungle biome and ¡°Home Zone.¡± The only thing stopping us was a 10 foot barrier wall and 50 feet of paved ground, but that was nothing after everything else. We made it. No, some of us had made it. Chodely Whipplespurt was a mere 45 minutes from a hospital when we traded his life for ours. Chodely Whipplespurt, Blaze Firestalker, the girl in the pod, and the asshole. A third of us had died in Galaxion within hours of our arrival. Home Zone I needed sleep. I didn¡¯t care about how filthy I was, or the small concussion, I just needed to sleep. After Gary and I pulled Kade the rest of the way to the city we called emergency services to come get him. Their lack of shock or questions concerned me. Apparently this happened often enough that it didn¡¯t warrant an investigation. They looked him over before placing him on a proper stretcher and loading him in to their private ambulance. Etsuko had already bled through her filthy shirt bandage and elected to share the ride with him. At a minimum she would need a few layers of graft sealer to close her wounds. They looked over the rest of us as well. None of us had gotten away unscathed. Morrighan told them she could find her own way to the hospital to get her wrist looked at. Junebug720, Oryx, and myself were covered head to toe in small lacerations and bug bites. Some of them were turning a very concerning shade of purple and beginning to ache. They offered us each a tube of some sort of ointment that should handle it, but at 600 rev per tube I was the only one willing to bite the bullet on that. The others would take their chances. Gary didn¡¯t want them to look him over. He hadn¡¯t made it this far to be poked and prodded while carrying prod-sensitive grenades. We traded contacts before parting ways. JuneBug720 and I were the only ones without prepared arrangements so everyone else gave their newbie hostel vouchers to us. It should keep us clean and dry for a week while we get settled. It wasn¡¯t a tearful goodbye. Or a huge relief dump and a ¡°we did it you guys.¡± This wouldn¡¯t bond us forever. I actually hoped to never see a few of them ever again. We¡¯d hardly discussed each other''s professions but I knew some of them ¨C Oryx especially ¨C were dangerous company. The most emotion came from Kade who gave each of us individually one of the most genuine, weighty Thank You¡¯s I¡¯d ever gotten. He shook each of our hands for a long time and said his thanks. He promised to try and repay it in kind or pay it forward. I believed him. But I was anxious to get away from there. Everyone was safe and sound and that was good enough for me. It felt rude not to walk with JuneBug720 to the newbie hostel, so once she had received her gratitude from Kade, we set off together with a final wave and a nod. With Home Zone now the only thing ahead of me, my spirits were instantly lifted. Home Zone as people called it (it official name was New Happelia but that name freaked some people out) felt like we were back in the jungle. The buildings were too close together with new units built on older ones as needed resulting in a haphazard, very unsafe conglomeration. Hundreds and thousands of wires and cables were knotted and bundled and coiled anywhere the could fit. Trash littered the streets where people just marched over it, stomping it until it became the new sidewalk. It was crowded, loud, and by the smell you¡¯d think plumbing hadn¡¯t yet been invented. All of that was perpetually lit by a cacophony of neon. Every stack had a dozen businesses attached follow by retro apartments and then more businesses. Restaurants, salons, clothing stores, weaponry, private contractors, lawyers, everyone just set up shop with no regard for zoning or juxtaposition. It wasn¡¯t surprising to see an antique book store tucked between a night club and a caffeine shop. And the effect was a permanent pink and blue ¡°daytime¡± with a constant electric buzz in the air. I felt at home again. Finally. I was fully aware that some of the stacks were just for show. The Galaxion didn¡¯t have the population yet to support this mess. It was close, but something like 20% of the buildings remained empty, owned by the early developers. But I didn¡¯t care. It felt exactly like the Hildrun, and it was enough to breathe some life into me. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m going to do.¡± JuneBug720 opened up conversation immediately. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure what I wanted to do when I came over here, but now after all of that, I just want to leave.¡± ¡°If you can afford it, go for it. But it ain¡¯t cheap.¡± That was true. The cost to get to the Galaxion was significantly cheaper than it was to get off the Galaxion. Something like 250,000 rev. Plenty of people did it; it was just an expensive process. Probably half the people here intended to only stay for a short time. Just long enough to either have their fun or try to becoming some sort of mogul. There was plenty of rev to be made for sure. Though a lot of the wealthier participants would just put the return money in escrow aboard their home ship so they knew they had a way back whenever they wanted. ¡°Yeah, no. I may be useless, but it isn¡¯t because I¡¯m rich as hell.¡± JuneBug720 laughed. ¡°I came here to figure out who I am. Figure out what I¡¯m good at and how to make my mark.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you. I guess just figure out something you enjoy and see if you can do that. You can swap professions all you want, you¡¯ll just get a progress reset for whatever you do next.¡± I told her. ¡°Yeah, I guess. But how do you do that?¡± She asked. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was understanding. ¡°I don¡¯t know. My sister picked my profession for me because she thought it would be safe.¡± We both laughed at that. ¡°So I¡¯m probably the last person who could help. Maybe just register as a Shopkeep or Unemployed for a bit and feel things out for a while. Definitely get something on there by tomorrow though.¡± We had reached the newbie hostel after only a few blocks and a climbing a few more sets of stairs. We hadn¡¯t even stopped to ask directions or to get a map, we were just wandering. I think once we had gotten in to the city, at least for me, it didn¡¯t really matter where we ended up. This gray miasma was good enough. It felt safe enough. But we found the hostel regardless and went inside. It was just a single hallway below the neon ¡°Hostel - Vacancy¡± sign. No attendants or bellhops or fancy to-do¡¯s. We walked down the hall passing all of the plain metal doors with a red light above them until we found so with green lights on. I inserted three of my vouchers below the normal rev pad and the door opened up with the light switching to red. JuneBug720 did the same for a door across the hall diagonally from me. ¡°Roane.¡± She said standing in her doorway. I stood in mine and looked back at her. ¡°You¡¯re a good leader. I know we worked together a lot to get back, but you never stopped. I don¡¯t know if we would have made it without you.¡± ¡°Thanks, but I think Gary deserves most of the credit.¡± I replied, feeling an upwell of some emotion I couldn¡¯t parse. Some mix of glee and self satisfaction? ¡°He helped a lot too, but you were someone I wanted to follow. He wanted us to follow. There¡¯s a difference. Just¡­ thank you. Truly.¡± It was the first time seeing JuneBug720 look this sure of herself. She met my eyes and held them. ¡°You¡¯re welcome?¡± I said, unintentionally making it a question. ¡°Good night. Let me know if you need anything.¡± ¡°Good night.¡± We both closed and locked our doors. I couldn¡¯t tell you what the room looked like as I¡¯m fairly certain I fell asleep halfway to the pillow.
I¡¯m not sure how long I slept, but my Horizon said it was early afternoon the next time I brought it up. And apparently I¡¯d earned enough experience to gain another level. ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST LEVEL - 6 INTELLECT - 15 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: CHARM - 20 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM BODY - 20 ...................................................................................................................................................................MACHETE AGILITY - 20................................................................................................................................................................________________ DURABILITY - +2...................................................................................................................................................... Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. HEALTH - 43/43........................................................................................................................................................CURRENCY UNASSIGNED POINTS - 5 ..................................................................................................................................REV - 2041 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 1178........................................................................................................................ ACHIEVEMENT(S) UNLOCKED WHERE IN THE WORLD (2) You discovered a new area! There¡¯s loads of exploring to do! Just put one foot in front of the other. Current zones explored: 2/40 50 EXP AWARDED CAPITALISM! You engaged in the purchasing or selling of goods or services! Because Money! 200 REV OF PURCHASE PRICE REFUNDED Huh, well that was nifty. I tucked away my overlay before remembering I needed to message my mentor. I brought up the messaging system. Mr. Voss, You were correct. I wasn¡¯t just held up by the delays, we were the delay. Apologies for the late message. We didn¡¯t make it to a hostel until late, and I¡¯m on the mend at the moment. Please let me know when and where you¡¯d like to meet and I¡¯ll make it. Look forward to working with you, Roane Morizu This time the message sent fine, and I received a reply a minute later. Heya Roane! Glad you made it out ok! Scary stuff. Come by the Third St. ACS building whenever. I¡¯ll be here for the next 3 hours or so. Voss Really didn¡¯t expect him to suggest today, but what can you do. I sat up on my stiff twin bed and stretched. Looking down at my accommodations I was initially horrified to see the sheets and pillow were stained with a variety of colorful liquids. I shook the sleep out of my brain when I realized it was me. I was still filthy. I desperately needed a shower and a change of clothes before I met with my mentor. I also noticed for the first time the effect my allocated stat points had on me. Maybe it was because I only got a nap before, but now I definitely felt stronger. My muscles hadn¡¯t seemed to beef up, and my brain wasn¡¯t about to pop my skull open, but the changes were very apparent. I felt tighter. It¡¯s a weird choice of words, I know, but that¡¯s how it felt. I still needed caffeine though, and soon. So I went about getting myself presentable for the world. Unfortunately the hostel didn¡¯t have showers, but two businesses down there was a pay toilet with shower facilities. I decided I¡¯d shower now with my clothes on as best I could, go buy some new clothes, then shower again and change in to my new clothes. It was a process and it set me back another 600 some-odd rev (I paid for more time and extra underpants), but it was worth it. I purchased myself a set of durable trousers, a long-sleeve shirt, and the underthings. I also thought I might want a hat since I still wasn¡¯t used to being completely bald, so I bought just a plain baseball cap. Everything I got was in the same dark navy blue color. I was hoping since my jumpsuit was ruined this would hold me over for the time being. Or would at least show some effort on my part. I also grabbed some travel size toiletries and other essentials, stashing everything in my room before heading out. Finding the place wasn¡¯t the easiest. My map tab was more useful now for sure, but it didn¡¯t have the Third Street ACS building. It only populated with places I had been plus a few block in all directions. Locating Third Street was easy enough as I had crossed it on my way to the hostel, but it was a cointoss which direction to go. And as a main thoroughfare that ran in the long way, it would stretch 15 or 20 miles. I couldn¡¯t just wing it and hope I uncovered it. I elected to buy a mid-range map program. It instantly synced to my Horizon and I was able to search ¡°ACS¡± in the interface. It pinned 25 or so spots within the 200 square miles that was Home Zone. From there it was easy enough to find the Third Street location which was thankfully within walking distance. I was burning through cash faster than I expected and didn¡¯t want to hire an auto-cab if I could help it. The place was more or less what I expected. A second story business with a big yellow neon ¡°A.C.S.¡± above a plain door plastered with a gigantic QR code to save our contact information. Inside was a plain stone floor room with no chairs and a reception desk against a back wall. A swinging, windowless door was to one side, and a middle-aged pudgy fellow sat with his feet up behind the desk. The whole room stank of insecticide and animals dunked in dumpster water. ¡°Did you put in a request through the contact form?¡± The man behind the desk asked without looking up from his tablet. ¡°Mr. Voss?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t wait for him to answer. I could see his name over his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m Roane Morizu, your mentee.¡± He perked up like an old toy with fresh batteries. ¡°Oh! Roane. Good to meed you. Yeah, call me Javik. Or Jav. Whatever works. How are you feeling? Recovering ok?¡± It was a warm welcome and it immediately put a smile on my face. ¡°Nice to meet you. Yeah, I¡¯m alright. Little banged up here and there.¡± I wasn¡¯t in the mood to talk about the events of yesterday. I felt like I might break down if I tried to recount it. I changed the subject. ¡°So you¡¯re my mentor, huh? Is that like job supervisor? Do I follow you around until you sign me off?¡± ¡°Oh god no. I mean, you can if you want, I¡¯d appreciate the company. But it¡¯d cut in to our wages, so most of us go it alone. No, I¡¯m more like an AA sponsor if you know what that is. I¡¯ll help you get familiar with SOP and if you run in to trouble you can contact me directly. I¡¯ll whitelist you on my DND list. Don¡¯t worry about bothering me, but I probably won¡¯t answer if I¡¯m asleep or drunk.¡± He told me. ¡°Do you have access to the contractor portal yet?¡± He asked. ¡°You need to scan that QR code. It¡¯ll give you all the contacts but it¡¯ll see you as an ACS and give you the portal.¡± ¡°Oh in that case, no. One second.¡± I scanned and installed the portal. Like he said, I now had several contact links for Animal Control, but I also had a separate tab within messages for mail directed to me. A business account. If I thought to bring up the portal, that opened up as well. It was pretty extensive. There was a lot of information to try to parse all of a sudden. Hundreds of requests had been made and were hanging in the portal. Most didn¡¯t have pictures attached, but some of them did. There was no shortage of rat and raccoon problems which usually didn¡¯t have pictures, but there were also tasks for slimes, gnomes, and goblins with attached verification photos. I even saw one for a hydra, though it didn¡¯t have an image and I guessed it was fake. Javic must¡¯ve seen my eyes glaze over because he waved his hands in front of my face to get me back to solid ground. ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t go diving in straight away. First thing you¡¯ll want to do is apply a few filters. Right now you¡¯re seeing jobs in every zone, not just Home Zone. Also filter out any jobs paying more than 20,000 rev. Those aren¡¯t for newbies. Then sort by how close they are to you. You can change all of this later, but for now that¡¯s a good way to start.¡±Once I had done all of that the list was a lot more manageable. It now contained only a few dozen requests and they were almost all things I had seen on the Hildrun. Possums, raccoons, bats. Normal things. ¡°Yeah that¡¯s a lot better. Thanks.¡± I confirmed for him that I was paying attention. ¡°So the way it works is, you¡¯re like a private contractor. Client puts in a request, and on their end they have a starting and max bid. Once they submit it, every ACS can see it. Then it¡¯s a game of who wants to get out of bed. The longer it sits, the higher the bid. So a possum might start at 600 rev, but no one will take it for that, so after an hour or two it¡¯ll climb up to 1200 or more. Eventually it¡¯ll be worth someone¡¯s time. So don¡¯t wait for things to cap out or you won¡¯t ever get any work.¡± ¡°Makes sense. Then who do I report to? What do we do with the animals?¡± I asked. ¡°Auvira2 is technically our boss, but you¡¯ll never see her. You pretty much work for yourself. Sometimes something big comes through and people might ask to crew up, but don¡¯t worry about that.¡± He told me. ¡°Ideally you want to trap and remove the creature. Small thing, but we don¡¯t say ¡®animal¡¯. They¡¯re creatures. If you do that, you can bring it to any ACS and put it in holding until we can relocate them. Or you can put it out in the wild yourself as long as its 1000 feet or more in woods. If you have to kill the creature, we have bio-disposal here that gets sent to recycling. I¡¯m sure you can smell it.¡± ¡°Oh I sure can. Do I have to supply my own gear? Where do I buy that?¡± I asked, remembering my dwindling account. ¡°No way! I mean, you can. Some guys do because they¡¯re snobs. But we have everything here. Working the checkout is the only time you¡¯ll hear from Auvira2. She has a schedule and we¡¯re all on some kind of rotation. But come on, I¡¯ll show you the tool shed.¡± Javic almost skipped his way to the back door. The backroom of ACS was bonkers. Shelves upon shelves of devices that looked like torture machines, baits in every shape and color and size, and a huge yellow cabinet I assume was full of a number of pesticides, poisons, and repellents. Armored clothing from thick leather to chain mail and even full steel reinforced anti-slash material. Nets, hooks, pokers and prodders. I didn¡¯t know what most of it did or how it worked, but it was all here. I even found in one corner a small crate of coveralls still in their packaging. ¡°Can I take one of these? Mine got shredded.¡± I asked. ¡°Oh, yeah go ahead. Take a few. You¡¯ll want spares. Get you some gloves and boots, too. That¡¯s all basic kit, you don¡¯t need to sign that out. Just let me know how much you took.¡± Javic said as I rooted around for my size. We spent the next few hours playing with all of different equipment, while he pointed out some of the finer points of the job. Most of the complicated stuff was the different traps and knowing what to use when. Box traps, snares, footholds, all sorts of things for different applications. There were also the various chemicals, but he suggested I avoid jobs that required those for the time being. I suddenly remembered a mechanic that had never been explained to me. ¡°The blurb for ACS said we innately know when an infestation is fully dealt with. Will that just be like a pop-up or alert?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh! Great question. Can¡¯t believe I almost forgot that. We call it swarm sense. At first you just won¡¯t get experience or achievements for things you trap or kill if there are more members of a hive. So you kind of need to keep an eye on those numbers before an after a job. As you get better at it and progress you ACS skill, eventually you won¡¯t need to do that any more. You¡¯ll know in a variety of ways.¡± Javic informed me. He spoke with his hands a lot, pinching and swiping at the air whenever he was talking about Horizon stuff, or snap-clapping his hands when he started a new topic. ¡°I need to get home. I didn¡¯t realize what time it was.¡± Javic said, snap-clapping his hands together, and moving toward the front door. ¡°But Roane, it was a pleasure to meet you, and please message me any questions you have. Just stick to raccoons and possums until you think you¡¯re ready to change it up. You¡¯re gonna do great.¡± I shook his hand again and thanked him for the tutorial, added him as an ally, and headed back to the hostel. I stopped for a quick bite and an extra to-go order to save for fourth meal, and spent the evening studying the ACS portal. This was the most optimistic I¡¯ve been since before even coming to the Galaxion. It was amazing what the encouragement from a stranger could do. And he seemed to genuinely love his job and his life. It was hard not to be excited for the future when it smiled at you like that. Get To It From the outside Home Zone looked and felt very much like the Hildrun and I assumed the Haidea, the third of three asteroid ships in the fleet. But on closer inspection, especially inside the different shops and businesses, the modifications for this lifestyle became much more apparent. Automation and robotics were everywhere. The Hildrun had plenty of that, but there were limits on how advanced they could become. Dependency on machines was monitored closely so humanity wouldn¡¯t be completely helpless on a primitive world in however many generations it took to find one. The Galaxion, however, didn¡¯t have those restrictions. Anything developed here would not be allowed to make it out. The higher end shops around the city were staffed predominantly with uncannily life-like robots. Entire markets ¨C cosmetics, ice cream, fresh produce, alcohol, and more ¨C had been completely converted to vending machine operation. There were still plenty of shopkeepers and staff to support those businesses, but it was more behind-the-scenes and much less personal. Shopkeep in particular was a much more demanding job on the Galaxion. Security was absolutely paramount. And in a world where people could shoot fire from their hands, or throw a bus a full city block, the measures they took were¡­ extensive. When I went to buy a new jumpsuit and ballcap, the attendant was housed in a small cubicle with several layers of reinforced pyroglass and 4 different weapons were on standby suspended from the ceiling. There were also several rolled up metal shields they could deploy as needed. We also had access to things here that we didn¡¯t back home. Body mods were restricted to cosmetic changes or medically necessary alterations on the Hildrun. Not here. You want a few extra arms grafted to your body? If you¡¯ve got the rev, you¡¯ve got the gun show. Want to mount a cannon to your chest? That¡¯ll cost ya, but you can do it. I¡¯m pretty sure I saw someone leaving a bodega with bulbous compound eyes like a dragonfly and no one gave them a second look. That was especially true for the sex industry. While still big business on the sister ships, the Galaxion had really upped their game. It felt like there was a brothel on every block here. The truly horrific things were still outlawed, but every reasonable, consensual kink could be catered to. There were also very few limits and an astounding amount of innovation for more ¡­ solo enterprises. It was a major selling point, in fact, for the Galaxion and it was well know that the absurdly wealthy on the Hildrun would often vacation here just to enjoy the freedom. That was something I¡¯d have to get used to. Moving around the city still felt familiar and comforting, but the makeup was different. Like someone had built a perfectly shaped model of my city, but used the wrong color parts. Not in a bad way. It just opened up a lot of possibilities I¡¯d never had to consider before. It was exciting. Directly underneath the hostel I found The Adventurer¡¯s Boutique. From the outside it almost looked like a gift shop, but I had to remind myself that those things weren¡¯t novelties and toys, many of them had very real power. It was definitely worth perusing. ¡°Smoothie section¡¯s in the back,¡± a husky fellow called from his shopkeep cubicle. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°What part of that was confusing to you?¡± he asked. He appeared in his mid-forties, wore a plain salmon button-up, and seemed desperate to get back to whatever art project he was doodling behind his screen. ¡°Smoothie?¡± was all I answered. ¡°Touch your head. Touch your face. What do you feel?¡± This guy was a real piece of shit, but I wasn¡¯t in the mood to get sprayed with whatever was in those auto-cannons. ¡°Ohhhhh. Thanks for clearing that up! If you have any other ¡®smoothie¡¯ tips, please, I¡¯d be happy to hear them!¡± He didn¡¯t answer. Apparently being helpful wasn¡¯t on his to-do list for the day. Regardless, I went to where he had gestured to check out the stuff that might be helpful for beginning adventurers. Making heads or tails of it all seemed too daunting at first. There were rows of tiny glass vials with different colored liquids, medieval weaponry, amulets and rings that looked like a child made them. There were also more advanced tech-based items which were even more indecipherable by appearance alone. I picked a vial off the shelf and used my Horizon to look at it. POTION OF REGENERATION ¨C RECOVER UP TO 50 HEALTH CAUSE BY MINOR INJURIES. WILL NOT REPAIR MAJOR INJURIES SUCH AS BROKEN OR SEVERED LIMBS. UNCOMMON ¨C TINY ¨C SINGLE USE ¨C COOLDOWN YOU DO NOT OWN THIS ITEM. PRICE ¨C 800 REV Wowsers! I suppose it wasn¡¯t bad when you think about it. 800 rev to recover more health than I currently had, but still. I replaced the vial and checked out some of the other things in this section. RING OF STRENGTH ¨C GRANTS PERMANENT 10% BONUS TO RAW STRENGTH SCORE. NORMAL CROSS-BONUS TO OTHER STATS WILL NOT APPLY. UNCOMMON ¨C TINY ¨C EQUIPMENT ¨C ATTUNEMENT YOU DO NOT OWN THIS ITEM. PRICE ¨C 3500 REV CUTPURSE DAGGER ¨C ATTACKS WITH THIS WEAPON HAVE A 10% CHANCE TO RELIEVE THE VICTIM OF SOME OF THEIR REV HOLDINGS. UNCOMMON ¨C SMALL ¨C WEAPON YOU DO NOT OWN THIS ITEM. PRICE ¨C 2250 REV LOOKING GLASS V1.0.1 - PROVIDES LIMITED INFORMATION ON SIGHTED TARGET. MAY BE FOOLED BY PROFESSION SPECIALTIES. UNCOMMON ¨C PROGRAM YOU DO NOT OWN THIS PROGRAM. PRICE - 5000 REV HORIZON SHIELDING V1.6 ¨C PROTECTS THE USER FROM SOME SKIMMING DEVICES. MAY BE BYPASSED BY PROFESSION SPECIALTIES OR SKILLS. COMMON ¨C PROGRAM YOU DO NOT OWN THIS PROGRAM. PRICE ¨C 500 REV These items were for new people?! How could anyone afford this stuff? About the only thing I could consider was the shielding program, but I wasn¡¯t sure what that did. ¡°Excuse me, sir, what are skimming devices?¡± The attendant just stared back at me like I¡¯d asked him which hole food goes in. I tried again. ¡°Which part of that was confusing to you?¡± That did it. ¡°It¡¯s thief hardware, smartass. Thieves can rob you just by standing near you for long enough. If you don¡¯t have shielding, you¡¯re even dumber than I thought.¡± ¡°Oh ok, thanks! Good to know!¡± I said with the biggest smile my face was capable of creating. I went back to the ¡®smoothie section¡¯ and pick up the software license. I also barely had enough rev to grab a regeneration potion, but that¡¯d leave me with next to nothing, and I didn¡¯t supposed I¡¯d need it anytime soon anyway. I grabbed 10 of them. Also 10 of the ones next to those. I also picked up the looking glass and ring and made my way to the front counter. I piled my purchases in the safety hatch, much to the astonishment of the shopkeep. ¡°Out of curiosity, if you¡¯re a shopkeep in a place like this is it because you own it? Or do you just get like a commission or something? Do you like your job?¡± I asked while he started ringing me up. ¡°I own it. We¡¯re open 5 days a week from 10 to 4,¡± he told me, suddenly much more helpful. ¡°If you need anything special ordered, I can do that as well.¡± ¡°No that¡¯s ok. Actually one sec. I just realized I¡¯m broke as hell. Just the shielding please. Sorry about that! Guess I got a bit overwhelmed.¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Get the fuck out of my store.¡± Worth it. I did make a point of finding another shop that could sell me the shielding, though. And surprise surprise, I could get V2.0 for the same price from a software depot. Sadly, that left me with just over 900 rev to last for who knows how long. I could make it maybe a week on that if I really pushed. I¡¯d have to suck it up and start working. But then I remembered¡­ Hey Oryx, Hope you made it in ok. I think we forgot to get those spidaur shoes from you before we parted ways. Wanna meet up? Roane ALLIANCE CANCELLED BY ORYX Oh, you¡¯ve got to be joking. She also blocked my contact when I tried to message her again. What could I do though? I had no idea where she was, and she was clearly unstable. Who knows how much rev she just stole from me. Half of me ¨C the spiteful, petty half - wanted to post her name on every wall in the city with ¡°has 6 pairs of spidaur boots, only level 5¡±, but the other half that needed to just let it go won out. God help her if I ran in to her again, though. Attempt #2 at my fresh start wasn¡¯t going as well as I¡¯d hoped. I realized that the only bright spots ¨C clean clothes, a shower, the music in my head ¨C had all come from Kade. I made a mental note to reach out tomorrow so I could thank him with a drink or something. Beyond that, it was best to quit while I was behind. Tomorrow could be fresh start take #3.
First thing in the morning I messaged my mentor. Mr. Voss, I¡¯ll be by first thing tomorrow morning to get started. I lost my jumpsuit in the accident. I bought another just without the tags. Hope that¡¯s alright. Let me know if I need to bring anything else. Roane Roane! Glad to hear it! Just make sure you have the ACS portal on your Horizon. I¡¯ll send you the code. We have extra jumpsuits here as well. Maybe donuts? Javic I had a good feeling about this guy. I installed the ACS portal immediately with the intent to familiarize myself with it, but that proved more daunting than I anticipated. The main page tracked my current and past jobs, as well as earnings and any client comments, so that was simple. The jobs page, though, was just miles of noise. At that exact moment there appeared to be hundreds of Animal Control call-outs. Worse, they were organized by date, so contracts on the opposite side of the ship in the less populated zones clogged up the top of the queue. SLIME NEST ¨C MARS/Q516/JJG ¨C MACGILL ¨C 15000 VAMPIRIC RACCOONS ¨C OLD WEST/NNExW/113 JAGER ST ¨C HOSKINS ¨C 11000 OPOSSUM ¨C NEW HAPPELIA/ND13/2NDx15THx4THx2 ¨C HANAMAN ¨C 10000 ROACHES ¨C SUBURBIA/PASADENA/1102 BILLINGS ST. - TYRANT69 ¨C 4000 At first glance it looked like just a mess of letters sandwiched between the creature and the pay, but I quickly caught on that the middle parts were locations and who likely had made the request. Payouts were far larger than I expected, so that was nice. It was still too disorganized though, so I spent some time applying some custom filters to the list. OPOSSUM ¨C NEW HAPPELIA/ND13/2NDx15THx4THx2 ¨C HANAMAN ¨C 10000 RAT QUEEN ¨C NEW HAPPELIA/ND17/2NDx87THx1STx1 ¨C CARBSLAYER ¨C 6000 FOX BATS ¨C NEW HAPPELIA/ND01/6THx1STx7THx1 ¨C JEMMA2 ¨C 2500 The list had been filtered down to about 80 items organized by proximity to my current location. I hadn¡¯t quite figured out my address, and I still needed to get some mapping software, but it was a promising start. Opening up the individual jobs usually had some extra information and sometimes a blurry capture of the creature, but there was definitely a correlation between pay rate and available information. The opossum job had just the title to go off of which seemed concerning given the high pay rate. I also noticed some of the jobs further down had fluctuations in the pay. Or rather, every few minutes some of them would increase by 100 rev or so. Maybe the longer they sat in the queue the higher the pay? Perhaps Animal Control was more like a gig job. I decided to message Mr. Voss about it. Mr. Voss, I installed the portal and started to familiarize myself with it. I noticed some jobs increase over time. Others seem to be paying way more than I would expect. Do I get all of that rev or is it split? Roane Hi Roane, We¡¯ll go over it in depth tomorrow. You¡¯re a contractor. You can choose the jobs you want to take. If no one takes them, they increase the pay up to a certain amount. 80% of the pay is yours, the rest goes to buying supplies. I assume you mean the opossum job? Yeah, don¡¯t take that one. I¡¯ll see you in the morning. Javic Ok so it was definitely gig style. Also, Javic didn¡¯t expressly tell me not to take any job, just not the opossum one. The rat queen was obviously the next best option as it paid the most and was the closest to me. If a rat queen was anything like a rat king ¨C when so many rats are in a pile that their tails get all knotted together ¨C then I could probably handle it with gear I already had. That niggling feeling at the base of my skull started creeping up when I thought about it. Being trapped in a place surrounded by things that wanted to eat me. Were they genetically engineered super rats? Why couldn¡¯t this Carbslayer person just buy some glue traps and do it themselves? I caught my mind before it completely derailed and threw on a local music station and decided organizing and preparing would help keep the fear and stress out of it. I checked my inventory to see I still had the two box traps, two grenades, a perfect match, and a peace candle. I had my clothes and food and basic gear, but that wasn¡¯t really applicable. My gloves were still in good shape, though so that was good. I also had 940 rev for anything extra I might need, minus however much I needed to buy Kade a beer on the off chance I goobered this up. Which reminded me: Kade, Make it out ok? If you¡¯re around, I¡¯d like to buy you a beer for helping me out. Gonna work a job but shouldn¡¯t take long. Roane He got back to me right away: Roane, Still waiting on discharge. But yeah, let me know when you¡¯re done. Kade The plan was in motion. It didn¡¯t take long to figure out how to accept a job in the portal. It was just mentally acknowledging the commitment. Once confirmed, it prompted me to contact the client. I noticed it was in a special messages panel reserved for work and included a form letter and signature for me. It also automatically cc¡¯ed the ACS hub, likely for quality control. Good Morning Carbslayer, I have accepted your contract for removal of your [RATQUEEN] problem. I will be at the specified address at 1230 if you are available. Please respond to confirm and/or to provide further details. Roane ¨C Animal Control Specialist ¨C 100073 Roane, 1230 works fine. See you then. Thanks, Carbslayer Alright, I thought, all my ducks are in a row. I just needed to stop off and grab a bucket, some peanut butter, a map, and maybe some glue traps just to be safe, and a flashlight. I was able to get everything in two stops. Even better, the map software showed the place was only a few blocks away, leaving me plenty of time to stop for ramen. All in I was out 280 rev, which I¡¯d hoped ACS would reimburse me for. 2ND x 87TH x 1ST x 1 The numbering system for units was a bit odd as everything seemed to have a corner address, but once it clicked it wasn¡¯t so bad. Find the intersection, look at the sunward rotational block, then the third number is which floor of the structure and the final was the unit number, clockwise from the intersection. For Carbslayer I was luck as he was the first unit on the first floor. It was a ground level bakery called ¡®Live, Laugh, Loaf¡¯. Carbslayer was more or less who I imagined once I knew he ran a bakery. The kind of heavy-set guy that was perpetually sweaty but in a way you knew half of it was because he worked hard. He was middle-aged and wore a ginormous baker hat that was the only article of clothing not dusted with flour or colored icing. ¡°Carbslayer,¡± I called with a wave. ¡°I¡¯m Roane, how are you.¡± I opted not to say where I was from, as he probably didn¡¯t want his handful of customers hearing he had a rat problem. ¡°Roane, hello! I¡¯m glad you could make it.¡± He rounded the display case and extended a meaty hand for me to shake. ¡°Sure thing. Beautiful place. It smells amazing in here, by the way. Do you make all of these yourself?¡± ¡°I have an apprentice three days a week, but yes all of the finals product and finishing goes through me before it sees the case,¡± He beamed. ¡°Pretty fortunate for me! I needed to stop for donuts anyway,¡± I exaggerated a friendly laugh. ¡°But we can figure that out later. Why don¡¯t you show me where the leak is.¡± He took a beat before realizing I wasn¡¯t a confused plumber, but snapped out of it and lead me to the back room. For all the joy the front of a bakery brings, the back brings such a conflicting warmth. The smell of fresh baked bread and pastry was mesmerizing. I tried to put that out of my head while he led me deeper in to the bakery passed dozens of roller racks and massive mixing machines. We passed a large metal walk-in refrigerator door and a wall of proofing ovens, eventually making our way to a door leading to a root cellar. ¡°It¡¯s right down there. Best guess there¡¯s about 20 rats and the rat queen. They¡¯ve gone to town on my dry stores, and I can¡¯t order more until they¡¯re out of there.¡± He wore his frustration on his sleeve. ¡°There¡¯s a back door for deliveries around this corner so please use that to bring the rest of your gear in. There¡¯s also a medium printer right next door if you need anything else. I¡¯ll be up front.¡± ¡°Alrighty, thank you very much. I¡¯ll take it from here!¡± I told him with a massive pile of false confidence. He¡¯d made it sound like I needed a small army. The high pay combined with his presentation made me think I had bitten off more than I could chew. No turning back now. I used the back door and printer to collect my supplies and headed back in. Armed with my flashlight and a bucket, I cracked the door and slipped inside. The lights automatically turned on and I heard the unmistakable scurry of dozens of rats looking for a hiding place. But that isn¡¯t what I ended up seeing. Instead, by the time I reached the landing and turned left to go down the last few steps the rats had organized. Sitting up on their back legs in two perfectly straight lines, they had formed a pathway on the stone floor from the stairs to the back wall. I inched forward step by step, ducked my head under a beam to reach the cellar, and saw how I¡¯d fucked up. ¡°Whomst doth wish for an audience with the Queeeeeen?¡± The words came in a high squeal from a massive rat at the end of the hall. It would have stood waist height if it weren¡¯t lazing comfortably in a throne made of sticks and garbage. The Rat Queen¡¯s glory was complimented by a golden bejeweled crown, lush purple robe, and a 3 foot tall golden scepter topped with a huge blue orb. ¡°Come forth, lowly petitioner, so mine eyes might meet your own!¡±