STARFALL

Tower of Somnus Book Three

CALE PLAMANN

Copyright © 2022 by Cale Plamann

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Newsletter

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Epilogue

Afterword

About Cale Plamann

About Mountaindale Press

Mountaindale Press Titles

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For Marlo, Gage, Lola and Charlotte.

Also a big thank you to my wife for putting up with my antics during the writing and editing process. Also a big thank you to my patrons but especially Ari, James, and Sesharan.

Finally, but certainly not least, I want to thank the wonderful team at Mountaindale Press. Without their hard work over the course of months and months, none of this book would have been possible.

NEWSLETTER

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CHAPTER ONE

The planet hung like a sapphire off the Undaunted’s bow, brilliant and beautiful in a sea of glittering stars. Dorrik turned to the captain, an elderly male lokkel with graying scales.

“Commander Tosset, how long until we’re within scanning range of Earth?”

“Patience.” Tosset shook his head as he crossed both pairs of arms. “We’ll be there soon enough to investigate your friend’s claims. I do hope she’s right. It would be incredibly embarrassing if we came all the way out here for nothing.”

Dorrik glared at the viewscreen, struggling to keep from bristling at the condescending tone in Tosset’s voice. He was a competent military leader, having served with merit in Clan Ahn’s forces for over two hundred years, but the old man couldn’t bring himself to take anyone seriously unless they’d grown into their adult gender.

The holographic images of the Undaunted’s escorts flanked the long hammerhead shape of the command cruiser. Diamond Sand, Honor, and Blade of Truth were all support strikers, wedge-shaped and about a third the size of the Undaunted, they traded armor for maneuverability, heavy weaponry, and even heavier automation.

Support strikers weren’t designed for long voyages. The heavy automation let a skeleton crew run the ships, but they still needed to periodically dock with a command vessel to rotate personnel and refill their environmental systems.

They also weren’t designed to survive drawn out naval engagements. Speed and firepower were useful for bringing an engagement to a quick end, but without the massive array of shields mounted by most capital ships, that end could just as easily be their own destruction.

In all honesty, Dorrik suspected that their actual role was one invented by accountants. The Galactic Consensus didn’t have a huge population of pirates, but space was vast. Rather than the massive capital ships that lokkel warriors preferred, their shipyard spent all too much time churning out the much cheaper replaceable death traps that were support strikers.

“Cheer up, Dorrik.” Tosset chuckled. “I know you wanted a larger fleet dispatched, but this task force will be plenty. The Undaunted is state of the art, but the Liberty Through Vigilance is one of the better old model carriers in the fleet. Unless the stallesp have a full reinforced naval division in system, we’ll be able to run them off.”

“And what if they do?” Dorrik asked darkly. “They’re fairly clearly flaunting Consensus law on non-interference with probationary races. You’ve seen the reports from Miss Kat. The moles are unafraid of censure. We need to restore that fear at the end of a plasma lance.”

“If what your friend says is true.” The old lizard shook his head, the faded crest running up his spine from the base of his neck to just behind his brow ridge fluttering in bemusement. “The stallesp have denied everything. In the next four to five months, the Consensus will have finished picking out their exploratory committee to determine the veracity of the accusations. Then, the truth will come out.”

“Sir,” a younger lokkel, practically a whelp, called out. “Our scanners are detecting a ship behind the third planet’s moon. It looks like it’s a stallesp Deep Tunneler class battlecruiser.”

“Well, what do you know,” Tosset remarked dryly. “It looks like your little pink friend was telling the truth. That won’t go over well with the Consensus.”

“Miss Kat has always been truthful with me,” Dorrik replied, trying to keep the frustration from their voice.

“We will see,” Tosset responded, waiving one of his upper hands dismissively.

Dorrik just stared at the screen, teeth scraping the inside of their mouth as they gnashed them in frustration. It was only one ship, but a Deep Tunneler was at least a third bigger than the Undaunted.

If Clan Ahn or the Lokkel High Command had taken them seriously and sent an entire squadron of ships, the stallesp vessel wouldn’t have posed a threat. As things stood? The lokkel forces outclassed it, but not by enough to make Dorrik happy.

“Helm.” Tosset steepled his upper pair of claws together just in front of his snout while his lower limbs drummed on the armrests of his chair. “Start recording. The Galactic Consensus is going to want a formal copy of this. Then set an intercept course at sixty-six percent of our maximum speed. We’re not here to be aggressive, but let’s make it clear that we want to meet them.”

“What about shields?” Dorrik wheeled on the older lokkel. “Even if you refuse to order our ships into a combat formation and deploy our fighters, the least we can do is raise shields!”

“I remember when I was your age.” Tosset shook his head. “So sure of myself and the righteousness of my cause. I was going to save the galaxy from itself. Except nothing is that simple.”

“Even if the stallesp are here with nefarious intent,” the older lokkel continued grudgingly, “they will almost certainly leave when we show up to observe the planet. Except, if we come storming in with our shields up and our weapon ports open, they’ll go back to the Consensus and file a complaint.”

“Do you know where that will get us, Dorrik?” Tosset asked rhetorically, a hint of smug satisfaction on his muzzle.

“The same spot we’re in right now?” they replied, uninterested in the lecture. It was far from the first Dorrik had been subjected to in the weeks they’d been stuck on the Undaunted with Tosset.

“Worse!” Tosset balled up a claw into a fist and slammed it onto the chair he was sitting in. “I’ll be buried in paperwork dealing with the protest, and it will stir the sands. Even if your friend is telling the truth about the stallesp interfering, the Consensus will spend all of their time debating what to do about our blunder. You’ll destroy your cause, child.”

“But there’s nothing to investigate,” Dorrik responded curtly. “We have video footage from Miss Kat showing a secret treaty between insurgent elements of the corporations that make up Earth’s government and the stallesp. Worse, she has proof of actual stallesp technology being used on the planet, despite the prohibitions.”

“Ah, young Dorrik.” Tosset’s crest rustled gently. “Footage and artifacts can be faked. I understand that you have some personal disagreements with the stallesp, but the Lokkel High Command can hardly dispatch an entire fleet simply based upon your prejudices.”

Dorrik bristled, closing their eyes for a moment to regulate their breathing. Even without sight, they could feel Tosset’s mocking and condescending gaze resting on their back.

“The death of my siblings is hardly a ‘personal disagreement,’ commander,” they bit out through clenched teeth. “Plus, a stallesp literally died on the planet. They were impersonating a human leader in an explicit attempt to co-opt the local governments. The locals have genetic samples from the body that they’re using in their research as we speak.”

“Regardless,” Tosset settled back into his command chair, “you’ll understand more when your scales have lost a little of their luster. The stallesp are hardly heroes. They’re a race of pirates and opportunists. Scavengers on the galactic scale. They will bluster and whine, but when blades are drawn, they don’t have the stomach for a fair fight.”

“Things are different this time, commander.” Dorrik tried to ignore the infuriating officer, instead focusing their attention on the bustle of the command deck. A dozen lokkel labored around them at various consoles, monitoring their vessel’s systems as well as the status of their escorts.

“Things have been ‘different’ a dozen times in my life.” Tosset chuckled. “Always a young one like you comes to me, crest flared and eyes wild, to tell me about some emergency or another. Always it turns out that a tactful and measured hand could have resolved the situation smoothly and without problem.”

Dorrik opened their mouth only to close it again. Tosset wasn’t listening. No matter what they said to the stubborn old man, he’d recite some anecdote from before their whelping to justify inaction.

They turned back to the viewscreen, watching the stallesp vessel grow in size as they approached its hiding spot on the dark side of the moon. It resembled an immense cylinder, rotating slightly with a constellation of radiators and monitoring equipment hooked via umbilicals to either end. It was almost peaceful, hanging there in the dark, but Dorrik knew from experience that the warrens inside the ship held hundreds, if not thousands, of densely packed stallesp warriors, all looking for a new world on which to start one of their massive hive nurseries.

“Sir,” the communications officer, a slim and almost pitch black lokkel, called out over their shoulder. “The stallesp are hailing us.”

“See?” Tosset remarked, crest fanning gently as the self-satisfied elder preened. “It looks like they’d rather talk than fight. There’s no need to be as coarse, rough, and irritating as sand. No one likes that.”

“On screen,” he continued, turning back to the officer. A moment later, the furry mole-like face of a stallesp appeared on screen, its beady eyes almost completely covered by a wide brimmed cap covered in military medals. Its snout and pink nose twitched.

“I am Captain Draulos of the Meritorious Industrial Harmony.” The creature’s nasally voice assaulted Dorrik’s hearing. “Explain your presence in this system, lokkel vessels.”

“Our presence?” Tosset’s crest flared at the challenge. “This is an interdicted system, Captain Draulos. There have been reports of interference with a probationary species in this system. Specifically with stallesp being sighted on the planet itself. The Consensus dispatched our task force to observe while an investigatory team is assembled.”

“I was not aware of any such thing.” The mole’s beady eyes flickered back and forth. “Our ship’s antimatter feed system began to show signs of degradation on the jump out from Alpha Centauri. We stopped in this system to await repairs rather than risk a catastrophic meltdown that would risk the entire vessel.”

“Oh?” Tosset let the word drag itself out into an aggressive hiss. “I haven’t seen any request for assistance on local emergency channels. One would think that a ship in distress would request help under the Consensus emergency codes.”

Dorrik resisted the urge to groan aloud. The stallesp were a deceitful and manipulative species. Their attempts to deflect blame were hardly surprising, but honestly Dorrik had expected something more inventive out of the furtive creatures.

“I will be happy to lead an engineering team to assist,” they volunteered, turning to Tosset with a feral grin stretching across their maw. “Obviously, we will be armed for our own protection, but I’m sure we can diagnose the problem with the Meritorious Industrial Harmony’s antimatter feed in short order.”

Tosset smiled at Dorrik, a mischievous twinkle in the older lokkel’s eye. He might be dismissive of Dorrik’s concerns, but that didn’t mean that he had any love for the stallesp. The commander would be more than happy to catch the duplicitous moles in an embarrassing lie.

“You are in luck, Captain Draulos.” Tosset nodded in Dorrik’s direction. “My science attaché has indicated that they are willing to offer assistance. With any luck, we can get your vessel repaired and out of this system before you are censured by the Consensus for intruding.”

The viewscreen erupted into squealing as the stallesp began communicating with its shipmates in its native tongue. A second later, the screen went black, a small box stating ‘connection lost.’

Dorrik took a moment to savor the stallesp’s obvious discomfort before turning to the commander.

“I believe now would be a good time to raise our shields and deploy fighters. The stallesp are cornered, and like any animal, that is when they are most dangerous.”

“Pish.” Tosset waved one of his upper claws dismissively. “This is when they make up an excuse and leave the system. The stallesp know better than to pick a fight with us. It would mean open war within the Consensus.”

Before Dorrik could reply, Draulos reappeared on the screen. Their pink whiskered snout quivered with agitation.

“I’m sorry,” the mole simpered. “We are having some technical difficulties on our end. My power techs are trying to start up the reactor so that we can move our ship. Obviously, if this system is under an embargo, it would be best for us to wait for aid outside the Oort cloud.”

“Detecting a power spike from the Meritorious Industrial Harmony now,” an officer called out. Dorrik glanced at the commander nervously, only for the older man to wave them off once more.

“Please let me know if you have any difficulties with your jump to the—” Tosset’s smug reply was interrupted as a spear of brilliant white light burst forth from the side of the stallesp ship, skewering the Diamond Sand.

The commander just sat there, fanged jaw agape as the triangular warship disappeared in a silent blossom of flame.

Dorrik growled in frustration, leaning over to slam the ‘all hands’ communicator on the armrest of Tosset’s chair. “Shields up and return fire!” They locked eyes with the naval officer, daring him to contradict them.

Railguns on both sides began unloading their payloads, chunks of inert metal flung across the void only to slam into the rainbow soap bubbles of defensive shields. On the view screen, a swarm of green circles, the sleek teardrops of lokkel fighters, launched from the Liberty Through Vigilance’s magnetic catapults.

The remaining two support ships scattered, their heavy arrays of engines blasting them into complicated evasive maneuvers as they closed on the enemy ship, seeking to bring their deadly short-ranged particle beams into play.

The bridge of the Undaunted devolved into chaos, various officers shouting updates from their duty stations as data began to scroll down the side of the combat feed.

Dorrik’s eyes narrowed as the charge indicator for the Undaunted’s plasma lance climbed toward full. The weapon was an energy hog, but it would disable the battlecruiser’s shields in one or two blasts. Then the numerous secondary railgun batteries of their taskforce could pick the larger ship apart.

“Sir!” the ship’s marine liaison called out. “Our combat mages have detected a breach in our teleportation cordon. A team of boarders is on its way to our secondary reactor. Early estimates place their levels at between twenty and thirty five.”

Dorrik winced. That meant opponents that had between one and two class evolutions. Ordinarily, they would be the first to join the marines, delving into the bowels of the Undaunted to root out the invaders. Unfortunately, about a year ago, they had died in The Tower of Somnus, resetting their level. They might have the experience and skill to stand toe to toe with the attacking stallesp, but without the levels, even modern technology couldn’t put Dorrik on par with a post-evolution player.

The Tower of Somnus was omnipresent. A game played by sapient beings across the galaxy that was also so much more than a game. For each level of the tower a being climbed and every dungeon they defeated, that person would earn tangible powers and abilities that would carry over into the real world.

Although no one but the Tower’s creators had been able to understand how magic truly worked, that didn’t mean that scientists couldn’t study its effects in order to create new technologies. Some estimates claimed that over half of the Galactic Consensus’ annual innovations in the fields of physics and biology stemmed from observing various spells and abilities learned in the tower.

“Commander!” Another officer tried to grab Tosset’s attention. “The plasma lance is charged, but our fighters are launching torpedoes; they’re too close for us to fire.”

Tosset shook himself, seeming to stir from the stupor inflicted on him by the surprise attack. His eyes narrowed as he took in the plot, crest fluttering rhythmically as he tried to regain control of the situation.

“Angle us forty-five degrees above the stellar plane,” he snapped, glaring at the readout. “Let the fighters continue their run and have them break below the plane. We can hold off firing the lance until they’re clear. Make sure to alert the Honor and Blade of Truth of our projected firing solutions. I don’t want us to delay our shot any more than we need to.”

The shields of the stallesp ship flickered wildly as dozens of dirty antimatter torpedoes detonated nearby, washing the field of rainbow energy with waves of hard radiation. The support strikers cut to either side, dim flickers of light barely visible in the void as their proton beams slammed into the battlecruiser’s flanks at near relativistic speeds.

The enemy ship returned fire, plucking one of the fighters from space with a volley of railgun shells before it fired its own plasma lance at the Honor. Dorrik shielded their eyes, the harsh white blue light of the energy streamer visible even without the help of their vessel’s sensitive electronics.

Luckily, the support striker juked, emergency thrusters and gravity drives flaring to life as it narrowly dodged the massive beam of rampaging energy. Even the near miss popped the Honor’s shields like a soap bubble, boiling the paint from its scantily armored hull.

“We have a firing solution for—” the weaponry officer shouted only to be interrupted by Tosset.

“Then fire!” His eyes flared as he leaned forward in his chair. “You have your orders. By the founder’s mercy, fire.”

Every light on the Undaunted dimmed as a high-pitched whine filled the ship, capacitors dumping their charges. For a second, Dorrik felt their scales tingling as the massive banks of field projectors carved a channel through space. A moment later, the corridor was filled with a blinding ribbon of plasma.

One second. Two. The ship’s lights returned to normal as the plasma lance guttered out.

Then the scanners updated, no longer blinded by the wave of intense energy pouring from the Undaunted. In the distance, the Meritorious Industrial Harmony hung in space, a massive scar in its armor from their attack, but ultimately, the cylindrical ship wasn’t venting debris or oxygen.

Its shields were down, but it had only suffered a flesh wound.

Then the two support strikers dove in. Their short-ranged particle beams tore clumps of armor from the larger vessel while their rapid fire railguns pounded its hull. A flight of fighters stormed past, firing a volley of rockets that began to strip exposed weaponry, sensors, and radiators from the stallesp battlecruiser.

A trio of missiles dove through the ship’s now-blinded point defense fire, detonating in blasts of nuclear rage within spitting distance of the suddenly helpless ship. Metal shattered and running lights flickered as the silent pinpricks of light broke through the Meritorious Industrial Harmony’s weakened armor.

Moments later, the ship was burning in space as venting oxygen ran over the white hot shards of its broken and twisted hull. Almost sullenly, it returned fire, a smattering of poorly aimed railgun shells and missiles that the Undaunted swatted from space with contemptuous ease.

The remaining support strikers opened fire once again, targeting the gaps in the stallesp ship’s armor. Amidship, something exploded, firing a plume of metal and burning gas into space as an internal system on the Meritorious Industrial Harmony was overloaded by the relentless assault.

Then, its warp drive activated, the ship stretching into a line and accelerating. Dorrik swore, the nails of their claws digging into the palms of their hands as it disappeared. Tosset had forgotten to activate the Undaunted’s inhibitor, letting the stallesp vessel make its escape just as they’d crippled it.

“Tracking departure.” Dorrik turned to the electronics officer. They were hunched over their panel, a look of concentration on their face. “The enemy vessel has dropped into normal space in this system’s asteroid belt and activated a stealth field. I don’t think they can handle long distance jumps, but there’s no way we’re going to be able to find them in all that debris.”

“Sir.” The marine liaison looked up. “We’ve managed to repel the boarders. No prisoners, just bodies.”

Tosset sighed, his muzzle in his upper pair of hands. He looked older now. Like his faded scales had aged another decade or four in the minute or so of combat. Dorrik didn’t envy him, but at the same time, they didn’t pity him. The commander hadn’t been cautions, and lokkel had died as a result.

“So it’s war then.” The aged lokkel looked up, staring almost blankly out the bridge’s viewscreen at the blue orb that was Earth. “When we next enter the Tower, everyone should let their contacts know what the stallesp did. Our ships and worlds will need to be prepared.”

“Millions across the Consensus are going to die due to stallesp greed.” He shook his head, still looking wistfully at humanity’s home. “And over what, one planet? I sure hope your friend is worth it, Dorrik Ahn.”

Dorrik’s hearts clenched. War had come to the Consensus, and somewhere on that planet, his friend, Katherine Debs, was in the middle of it. Stuck in the corporation-controlled, steel-lined streets of megacities, fighting beings with technology she could barely comprehend with nothing but a knife and a hint of magic.

CHAPTER TWO

Kat’s lunch tray clicked against the wood of the table as she sat down next to Jasper and Iris. They stopped talking for a second to toss a pair of smiles her way before they resumed their discussion on labor theory for their upcoming exam.

She stuck a fork in her baked potato, splitting the steaming tuber open so that Kat could apply butter and sour cream. She didn’t eat in the expensive end of the college cafeteria every day, after all the college provided better food than she’d had access to as a ‘hereditary employee’ for free. Still, she’d made enough money in the last year or so that treating herself to thinly sliced and marinated steak with a potato on the side wouldn’t break her finances.

“What do you think, Kat?” She blinked, looking up from her plate at Iris’s smiling face.

“Uhm.” Her mind raced, trying to remember what the other woman had been saying.

“She asked what your thoughts were on Vemlain’s theories on unionization,” Jasper interjected helpfully. “Iris wants to write her term paper on whether they don’t go far enough, but—”

“You don’t want to be the one to tell her that she’s being too much of an idealist.” Kat let a ghost of a smile flicker across her face.

Jasper nodded gratefully, avoiding a meaningful glance from Iris as he dug hastily into the seared fish on the plate in front of him.

“My take on Vemlain is that he’s right from the perspective of motivating workers,” she continued, skewering one of the steak slices. “Creating a small unit or team of employees that can collectively earn benefits for excess productivity is a great idea. If you ban unions entirely, people will start to wonder what it is the corporation is clamping down on. They’ll see them as forbidden fruit and seek them out.”

“Vemlain gives people a taste.” Kat shrugged. “He turns labor organizing into an exchange of merit for benefit. If excess productivity earns workers a day off a month or some updated safety gear, the average employee will see progress. I mean, they’ll still grumble, but it creates enough of an illusion that things are moving in the right direction to avoid a revolt or a work stoppage.”

“But things aren’t moving,” Iris replied, brow furrowed in irritation. “It’s a treadmill. You can work for years and never actually get ahead.”

“That’s just how things are.” Kat shrugged. “The corporations offer stability, but pretty much every employee knows that there is a hard limit on how far they can go within the structure. If they want genuine wealth, the only way forward is to leave the corporation and sign on with an independent contractor.”

“That’s inhumane.” Iris frowned. “Independent contractors are functionally mercenary outfits. You’re saying that any worker that wants to get ahead should just leave behind their corporate life and risk getting gunned down in the street just to earn a couple of credits?”

Kat raised an eyebrow at the woman. Maybe that wasn’t the way things should be, but it was certainly the reality that they lived in. A handful of megacorporations controlled everything. From the food and media they consumed, to the water they drank and the houses they lived in, it could all be traced back to a megacorp or its subsidiaries.

That system wasn’t designed to allow workers to rise to the top. Despite outwardly presenting as a meritocracy, the corporations tightly controlled which employees had access to institutions such as colleges and the leadership training programs needed to advance. Every once in a while, an employee was allowed to throw off the shackles of debt slavery in order to progress to the ranks of lower management, but in reality it was little more than an illusion of fairness to keep the workers placated.

“It’s not fair,” Kat replied, savoring the taste of the meat, “but it’s what we’ve got. A freshman term paper at a corporate college isn’t the place to talk about your ideals and wishes. The professor wants us to write about whether banning unions outright or allowing them as a neutered motivational outlet is better. My advice is simple. Swallow your opinions and answer the prompt.”

“But you don’t understand, Kat!” Iris leaned forward. “People are dying because of unsafe work conditions, and you’re demanding that they join mercenary gangs if they want to get ahead in life? Do you know how dangerous it is for independent contractors? Executives hire them for plausibly deniable muscle every day.”

The steak tasted like ash in Kat’s mouth as she stared incredulously at Iris. Of all the people for the sheltered heiress to lecture…

“Is that what you want?” Iris ranted, eyes wild as she failed to notice Kat’s discomfort. “The working class to trade being used as disposable tools for a megacorporation only for them to become the disposable tool of an executive? I don’t see much difference between dying in an industrial accident and getting shot in an alleyway while your employer chats with the employer of the person that shot you over cocktails.”

“Iris,” Jasper hissed, reaching across the table to grip the woman’s wrist. “Enough. Not everything needs to be a polemic. Think about your audience.”

Kat slowly set down her fork, barely noticing the clink of metal on porcelain over the general hubbub of the dining hall. The past couple of months ran through her head as she tried to settle her suddenly racing pulse.

Her entire life had been a risk. From the day her father died on the job due to unsecured and poorly maintained machinery, she had known that success wouldn’t come from coloring within the lines. The corporation gave her mother a two week extension of their family’s former weekly spending limit at the company store.

That was it.

Fifteen years of service and her mom was a single mother without even an e-mail of condolence. The closest the company got was a notice two months after her father’s death that their internal investigation found that ‘the incident’ was mechanical rather than operator error. That saved their family a fine for ‘delaying corporate production’ while her father’s body was pulled from the machinery that had killed him.

At thirteen, that memo drove the callous cruelty of the world home to Kat. Even if she did everything right, life was an uncertain and fragile thing. That was the moment when she decided if she was going to risk her life, it would be for her own benefit.

The next day she’d ventured into the Shell, the collection of abandoned and barely maintained buildings that surrounded the glittering tower of her home, the Schaumburg Arcology. It took years to realize how lucky she was when Xander found her, wandering the streets with nothing but the clothes on her back and the determined look on her face.

Years of training honed her into the best runner in Xander’s gang, the ChromeDogs. She worked her way up from a clandestine courier into an infiltrator, pulling a series of high profile heists and break-ins that kept her friends safe and wealthy.

Then things went wrong. Xander and her managed to pull off the job of the year, but they bit off far more than they could chew. From the fateful moment they auctioned off the data retrieved from their operation, an inexorable series of events was set into motion.

It was like something from one of the daytime entertainment channels. Shareholders from multiple companies conspiring with aliens to overthrow their leadership with alien backing. Worse, the aliens actually began to infiltrate Earth, replacing key members of the various megacorporations. Finally, the stallesp, the aliens in question, were unmasked and their conspiracy was laid bare. It should have been an unparalleled success, but—

“Oh my God,” Iris interrupted Kat’s thoughts, clapping her hands to her mouth. “I’m so sorry, I just got caught up in the moment.”

Kat closed her eyes letting out a shaky breath.

“Of course you know the risks,” the other girl continued frantically, almost babbling. “How could you not know the risks after what happened to Xander?”

There it was. The intervening months had robbed the words of some of their sting, but it still felt like a brick to the small of the back.

Xander was dead. Sacrificing himself to ensure Kat’s survival and the mission’s success. In the wake of his death, everything had fallen apart.

His wife, the co-leader of the ChromeDogs, retired, shuttering the organization. Kat’s partner and support operative, Whippoorwill, dropped off the grid. Other than a couple of e-mails that sat unopened in her inbox from former ChromeDog deputies that she barely knew, all trying to recruit her to some mercenary team or another, Kat was completely adrift.

“Kat,” Jasper started, pausing for a second to gather his thoughts. “You know Iris just got a little hot under the collar. She’s passionate about the cause of employee rights, and sometimes it gets the best of her.”

“Of course!” Iris nodded earnestly. “I know how much Xander and you did for us. Without the two of you, Jasper never would have made it out of that prison camp, and my entire family would have died in the purges.”

Kat exhaled, opening her eyes as she plastered a weak smile on her face.

“Don’t worry about it, Iris. Jasper and you have been here for me these last couple of months. It would have seemed unthinkable a year ago, but once things went wrong, having the two of you and the steady routine of college really helped center me.”

“I’m not going to say I’m comfortable here,” she continued. “Being the only former employee in a school this full of wealth and privilege has made me feel more like an animal in a zoo rather than a student, but I know that the two of you have gone out of your way to make me feel as at ease as possible.”

“We’re your friends, Kat.” Jasper smiled at her encouragingly. “We had very different childhoods, I get it. If I could trade some of my money and status to have made your youth a little easier, I would in a second, but despite everything, there’s no reason why we can’t open up to each other.”

Part of her wanted to believe him. Even before Jasper knew the extent of her career as a mercenary, he’d always been friendly toward her. After she rescued him, he’d only tried to draw her further into his orbit. Whether that was out of gratitude, curiosity toward a worker, or some other motive—

“Even if you won’t talk about what you know regarding my father’s death,” Jasper continued nonchalantly.

There it was.

As nice as Jasper could be, he still couldn’t leave it alone. Every interaction between the two of them was colored by him seeking answers that she couldn’t safely divulge. On one hand, Kat could understand Jasper’s obsession. One of the ChromeDogs’ rival gangs had faked an equipment failure in the helicopter Jasper’s father was using, killing the man instantly.

Kat’s first missions as an infiltrator revolved around tracking down the truth of the incident. With Xander and Whippoorwill’s help, she learned enough to implicate an executive and the daughter of another executive, but the evidence was simply too neat and orderly. Both of them were guilty as hell, and Kat didn’t lose a minute of sleep over collecting the bounty set on the evidence by Jasper’s family, but at the end of the day, she had reason to believe that there was a third conspirator.

Specifically, Belle Donnst all but told Kat and Xander about her involvement as she offered her daughter up on a platter. They just never had the evidence to accuse an executive of her caliber, and Belle knew it.

The woman made her blood run cold. Belle made no pretenses about who she was. Efficient, practical, and utterly amoral, the woman would do anything to get ahead. She was straightforward about it too. So long as there was some mutual benefit in working with her, she served as a pragmatic and effective ally.

On the other hand, the minute you became a liability to Belle, you were done. She wouldn’t even leave fingerprints on the plot that ended you unless she wanted to send a message to anyone else considering a double cross.

“Ask Davis.” Kat shook her head, trying to clear her morose thoughts as she resorted to the perennial refrain she’d adopted whenever Jasper pestered her on the point. “He knows just as much as I do.”

Jasper frowned, a cloud flickering across his face. “You know he won’t tell me anything, Kat,” the boy grumbled. “He just says that it ‘isn’t a productive question’ and tells me to focus on school.”

“Maybe you should listen to him,” Iris interjected quietly. “Look, you know that Davis has done and seen some crazy things. He might be your butler right now, but I saw that footage of him from the raid on the Field Tower. If he told me that I was asking questions that I shouldn’t, I’d believe him.”

“I know.” Jasper’s hands squeezed into fists around the pristine cutlery he was holding. “It just doesn’t seem right to drop something like Dad’s death just because someone involved might be powerful or important. Some things need to matter more than power and money, and if family isn’t one of them, I don’t know what’s on that list.”

“And now we’re full circle,” Kat said, stabbing her fork into her lunch. “The world isn’t fair, and we’re all bit players in a larger story. There’s a time and place for fighting the man. The time is ‘later,’ and the place is ‘once you’ve climbed enough levels in The Tower of Somnus that no one wants to be your enemy.’”

“There’s really nothing for it but to keep your head down,” she continued, popping a forkful of steak into her mouth, “and eat lunch.”

CHAPTER THREE

“Are you ready, Miss Kat?” Dorrik asked, the big, dark, four-armed lizard standing just in front of a dungeon portal. A pair of sword hilts stuck out above their armored shoulders as their crest fluttered placidly. “So far we have only conquered wood tier dungeons. This will be our first iron tier, and the increase in difficulty will be severe.”

“Fighting the Wooly Spider to get off of the fifth floor was bad enough,” Kat replied with a shudder. “I didn’t even have to wear nearly as many heat amulets as you in order to make it past the blizzard elementals, and I was absolutely miserable. I have no idea how you managed it.”

“The entirety of the fifth floor was awful,” her other companion, Kaleek, interjected. “Only a couple of races actually enjoy fighting snow monsters on top of a gigantic glacier. Given that we only come to The Tower of Somnus in our sleep, you could say that it was a ‘literal nightmare.’”

Kaleek grinned at her, whiskers on his furry nose twitching. Kat rolled her eyes at the desoph. It was hard to think of him as anything other than a giant playful otter, the comedic counterpoint to Dorrik’s overly formal delivery.

“Very funny.” Kat tried and failed to keep herself from smiling at his bad joke.

“There we are.” Kaleek slapped her on the shoulder. “That’s the Kat we know and love. I know things have been pretty grim on Earth for the last couple of months. It’s good to see a crack in that morose shell of yours.”

He was a big goof, but Kaleek meant well. Sometimes it seemed strange that The Tower of Somnus, a brutally violent game played with entities from across the galaxy in her sleep, would be her respite from the brutal reality of her life on Earth, but it was.

Kat was a bit too much of a loner to find a huge community in the dreamscape, but Dorrik and Kaleek provided something that no one on Earth outside of her immediate family could. Friendship and acceptance that didn’t expect anything in return.

“Sorry.” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m still a bit lost, but it gets a little easier every day.”

“I understand.” Dorrik nodded, their voice as severe as ever. “When my siblings were killed by stallesp treachery, it took me months before I felt like myself. I found that honest work and training were the best medicine for my sadness. If I was too tired to think after a day of calisthenics, it was hard for me to dwell on what had happened.”

“I suppose that’s why we’ve been hitting so many dungeons in the last couple of months?” Kat asked.

“Of course,” the big lizard agreed earnestly. “I do not like to see you upset, Miss Kat. Between that and the other human climbing toward level twenty four, I thought it best that we keep moving.”

Kat winced. Her companions hadn’t been able to tell her exactly what happened at level twenty four. The Tower would literally disable their translation functions if they tried. Still, from the hints she’d picked up on, it sure looked like the first human that made it to that level would be able to represent Earth to the intergalactic community.

Given that the highest level human was currently being assisted by hostile aliens as he leveled up, that was a fate that she would like to avoid. Escaping debt slavery to a megacorporation only to become a satrapy of a ‘well meaning’ space empire didn’t exactly seem like a great time.

“Thanks.” She flashed a quick smile to her companions. “Seriously. I know that I’ve been a bit of an emotional drag lately. It might not be much, but it means a lot to me.”

“Good,” Kaleek replied with a chuckle. “Now enough with the sappy stuff. Make sure you’re ready to go, and let’s handle this dungeon. We’ve got monsters to kill.”

Name: Katherine Debs

Class: Elementalist Initiate

Max Level: 6

477 Marks

HP: 39

MP: 60

STA: 41

Dodge: Poor

Damage Mitigation: Insignificant

Strength: 4

Agility: 10

Fortitude: 4

Endurance: 5

Mind: 7

Reaction: 7

Charisma: 5

Spirit: 6

Spells Known:

Gravity’s Grasp

Levitation

Pseudopod

Dehydrate

Dazzle

Shadow

Water Jet

Gravity Spike

Mirage

Overpressure

Skills Known:

Knife I - 12, Max

Gravity I - 12, Max

Water II - 1, 0%

Cat Step - 12, Max

Light I - 12, Max

Cure Wounds I - 10, 16%

Penetrate

Crossbow I - 1, 0%

Perks:

Nightvision

Leaping

Sensory Dampening

Crippling Blow

Fast Healing

Satisfaction flooded through her as Kat looked at her status. It took her a couple of months, but she finally had her first Iron tier skill, courtesy of her level six level up award. Apparently, Kat could only evolve a Wood tier skill that had reached its maximum level, but given the number of dungeons she’d fought through with Dorrik and Kaleek, maxing out her first tier abilities wasn’t terribly hard.

One by one, the three of them disappeared in shimmers of rainbow light as they touched the portal and willed themselves into the dungeon. The minute the flickering energy dissipated, Kat’s senses were assaulted by her new surroundings.

An arc of brilliant white-blue light stung her eyes, followed a moment later by the smell of burnt ozone. Rather than rock, the walls of the dungeon were made of brightly polished bronze, their mirrorlike surfaces only occasionally marred by discolorations. Even as she watched, another bolt of lightning burst forth from a crystal sphere sitting atop a metal pole, crackling with ferocity as it vented itself on a tunnel wall.

“Careful, Miss Kat!” Dorrik called out, motioning with one of their claws toward the spheres lining the hallway out of the starting room. “The Tunnels of Lightning and Brass is a metal- and electric-themed dungeon. There aren’t any reported traps, but its corridors are heavy with environmental hazards.”

“Keep your head down if you don’t want to end up crispy.” Kaleek chuckled. “Generally good advice.”

“Is there any pattern to the discharges?” Kat frowned, glancing at humming structures. “If we can figure out when they’re about to fire, we might be able to plan around them. Maybe even use them against the dungeon’s monsters.”

“Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason.” Dorrik shook their head. “Worse, most of this dungeon’s denizens are twisted amalgamations of flesh and steel. Electricity will heal their wounds rather than hurt them.”

“Wait,” Kat replied unhappily. “You’re telling me that we’ll have to fight the monsters of this floor while constraining our movements to watch out for periodic arcs of lightning that could heal the bad guys? That hardly seems fair.”

“Welcome to the Iron tier.” Kaleek slapped her on the shoulder with a grin. “Just think of it like our first couple of dungeons all over again. You might have better gear and stats, but the difficulty just jumped to match you. We’re in over our heads and only quick wits and quicker reflexes are going to keep us alive.”

He walked past her, tail flicking playfully as the giant otter stepped into the hallway, body in a crouch and his sword drawn but low to the ground.

“That’s hardly reassuring,” Kat muttered, eyes on the desoph’s back.

“I do not believe that was his intention, Miss Kat,” Dorrik replied solemnly, another blast of lightning flashing overhead. “The Tower does not give power freely. Iron tier skills are powerful, and they are only awarded to those willing to risk themselves to earn them. Make sure you are ready with your new abilities; in all likelihood, we will need them.”

The big lizard slipped past her, lowering their body so that their lower pair of hands touched the dungeon’s metallic floor in an attempt to balance themselves.

Kat bit her lip, wracking her mind for alternatives and coming up with nothing. Finally, she just shrugged and followed Dorrik out of the room. The gleaming copper hallway continued for another minute or so, only to end at a giant sliding metal door.

The three of them glanced at each other for a second, each unaware what to do next with the massive block of steel. Kat looked it over, trying to determine if there were any telltale signs of hidden blades or magical emitters.

Grunting, Kaleek leaned forward, grabbing the door’s handle and pulling to the side with the grating scream of metal on metal. Kat felt her jaw drop open as she stared at the otter in disbelief.

“What?” He grinned cockily back at her. “The guide to the dungeon said that there wouldn’t be any traps.”

Before she could respond, a metal claw on a chain shot through the gap, wrapping its four massive metal talons around Kaleek and jerking him into the room.

Dorrik tore after him, a sword gripped in each pair of hands as they disappeared into the room beyond.

Kat swore under her breath, drawing her knife and taking a step to join the two of them, only for a bolt of lightning to crackle past her shoulder, striking the huge iron sliding door. For a moment, she froze, all the hair on her body standing on end in the wake of the near miss.

Tender skin and light burns, nothing else. Once she took stock of the situation, Kat darted into the room.

In the center of the chamber sat what she could only think of as a monstrosity. A massive pile of twisted and tumorous flesh, teetering precariously atop a trio of trunk-like legs, it had no natural arms or head. Instead, grafted limbs made of metal ringed the circular maw at the center of the creature’s body.

Kaleek struggled against the bands of metal pinning his arms to the side, unable to free himself from the monster’s grasp even as it steadily reeled him closer to its undulating and lipless mouth. Dorrik’s blades clattered in a dance of steel on steel as they fought another pair of multi-segmented and spider-like arms that ended in wicked, barbed points.

The lizard glowed purple for a second as they activated a Psi ability, augmenting their attributes. Their swords moved even faster, taking chips out of the rusting iron of the creature’s limbs.

They took a step forward, advancing toward Kaleek, only for the fourth and final arm of the monster to enter the fray, whipping sideways in deceptively sinuous motion. Dorrik jumped backward, barely avoiding the point of the creature’s blade arm as it slashed through the air in front of them.

The beast slavered at her friends, all four of its arms occupied. Kat swore to herself.

She activated Cat Step, stamina leaving her body to power the perk as she blurred forward. Her footfalls were almost completely silent as the ability lent her a burst of speed.

It didn’t notice her approach, only realizing that Kat was there when her dagger bit into one of its massive legs. Her weapon flashed red as she activated Crippling Blow, one of her newer perks.

The monster bellowed in agony, the knife jerking in Kat’s hand as the ability pulled its edge toward an unseen vital point deep inside it. A second later, she was dancing backward, a fountain of tarlike ichor bubbling up from the wound.

Focusing her mana, Kat cast Overpressure. Unfortunately, she couldn’t dual cast the second tier spell. Dorrik assured her that the ability would come with time, but she couldn’t help but hope that she earned the ability sooner rather than later. By now, she was so used to keeping two spells active at the same time that only being able to use one made her feel naked.

That said, the spell’s usefulness spoke for itself. Technically, it could be used to dramatically increase the pressure any fluid was under. Eventually, it would let her dramatically increase the effectiveness of her water-based spells such as Water Jet and Pseudopod by tripling or quadrupling their solidity and force.

For now, the bubbling spring of blood erupted from the stab wound, ripping the injury even wider open as the monster’s essence poured out of the gash and onto the brown metal of the floor.

Theoretically, the spell could be used on any major artery or vein, increasing systolic pressure to dangerous levels and rupturing cell membranes in the surrounding flesh. Like most water spells, it was quick to cast and didn’t consume much of Kat’s precious mana.

Even against an uninjured foe, so long as the enemy has a liquid-based physiology, it allowed her to quickly and efficiently leave bruises from a distance. Not enough to kill an enemy, but it would tire and weaken them, allowing Kat to follow up with a finishing blow once it let its guard down.

She darted in once again, her enhanced reactions and agility letting her duck at the last second to allow one of the monster’s multi-segmented stabbing limbs to plunge through the air above her. With a grunt of exertion, she spent more stamina to Leap atop the monster, grabbing onto one of its wobbly, tumorous growths to steady herself before slamming the knife up to its hilt in the creature’s pendulous flesh.

Kat ripped downward, letting herself drop to the ground and using her weight to tear open a massive gash in the creature’s side.

A second later, she was Leaping away once again. Apparently, her antics convinced the monster to release Kaleek and focus on her.

The massive claw slammed into the bronze just beneath Kat’s feet, denting the thick metal and skittering across the floor. She landed, feet already backpedaling as two of the monster’s arms scissored through the air just in front of her.

She pushed with her mana once more, casting Overpressure on the ragged, seeping wound she’d just ripped into the creature’s hide. The monstrosity shuddered, visibly deflating as dark blood sprayed from the wound.

Another metal arm slashed toward Kat, forcing her into a roll to avoid it even as Kaleek whipped out his great sword and embedded it into the monster’s flabby stomach. It bellowed, flesh undulating as it staggered backward on its thick, stubby legs in a vain attempt to pull itself off of the otter’s blade.

Dorrik’s swords cut through the air, whistling as they buried themselves into one of the creature’s undamaged legs. Even as it stumbled, Kat cast Overpressure once again, rupturing the veins surrounding the wound and forcing the black goop that passed for the monster’s blood out of its body.

It slipped, falling to the floor, mechanical arms flailing madly as it tried to catch itself in time. Kaleek twisted to the side, dodging a panicked strike. He pulled his sword from the monster, holding the weapon high before bringing it down with all of his strength.

The thwack of the sword biting into flabby meat had a certain finality to it, but that didn’t stop Kaleek. He slid his blade out of the creature before repeating the heavy blow another five times.

Kat glanced at Dorrik uncertainly. The creature was clearly dead, its limbs limp other than the occasional twitch from misfiring nerves.

Finally, Kaleek straightened himself, chest heaving. He wiped his weapon on the battered corpse of their opponent before sliding it into the sheath on his back. The otter let out a deep sigh before rubbing his face in a futile attempt to work the beast’s blood from his fur and whiskers.

“Are you…?” Kat paused for a second, licking her lips before continuing. “You doing all right, Kaleek? That was a little intense near the end there.”

“Nothing a quick bath can’t fix. That was actually surprisingly cathartic.” He held up a hand, forestalling Kat’s next question. “And no, I’m not ready for you to use Water Jet to hose me down. Maybe when we finish things up, but I have a feeling that things aren’t going to get any less messy.”

“Great.” Kat smiled cheerfully at both of her companions. “Now can someone explain what in the ever-loving fuck that thing was? We’re in the first room of the dungeon and that creature was on par with a boss fight.”

“I believe it was something called a Flesh Crawler.” Dorrik’s crest fluttered contemplatively. “Approximately half of the recorded encounters in this dungeon involve them, although the mechanical limbs grafted to them tend to change each time. The other primary monsters are Shrieking Fiends, ape-like creatures that have had half or more of their bodies replaced with crude steel facsimiles. They aren’t terribly imposing on their own, but generally they are encountered in groups four to six times the size of the party.”

“That sounds incredibly unpleasant, actually.” Kat sighed. “Still, you did say that Iron tier dungeons were more difficult. That fight was a bit of a steep learning curve, but I suppose it wasn’t entirely unexpected.”

“Actually.” Dorrik scratched the scales above one of their eyes, the tone of their voice apologetic. “That was a fairly easy encounter. Much of this dungeon is filled with the lightning orbs we saw earlier and acidic vapors. On that note, if you see a cloud of green or red mist, I would avoid walking into it. I would very much avoid breathing or opening my eyes while I was inside it.”

“Fuck.” Kat groaned, wiping the blade of her dagger on her thigh before sheathing the weapon.

“I know, right?” Kaleek chuckled. “There’s a reason why Iron tier skills aren’t terribly common. I mean, you already know that the Tower won’t even let you attempt an Iron dungeon until you hit level six, but even then, something like fifty percent of the teams that try one for the first time get wiped out. A lot of groups don’t even make the attempt.”

“I get it.” Kat glanced back at the abused corpse of the crawler. “I only have one second tier spell, and already I want more. Overpressure let me almost triple my damage output, and it’s actually easier to cast than Gravity Spike. It’s hard for me to imagine what a full lineup of abilities like that would do for me.”

“The Tower makes you earn it, though,” the otter agreed cheerfully. “The boss fights in these dungeons are always absurd.”

“Oh?” Kat asked, glaring at Dorrik accusingly.

Somehow, the giant lizard managed to adopt a hangdog expression. “It’s called ‘The Brood Mother,’” the lokkel responded sheepishly. “It’s little more than a giant womb, completely submerged in an acid bath. It, uh—”

“It gives birth to a bunch more Flesh Crawlers and Shrieking Fiends even as we try to fight it,” Kaleek finished for the hesitant lizard, a giant grin on his face. “We basically get to fight as many of those things as we want. Plenty of fun to go around, eh?”

CHAPTER FOUR

Kat backpedaled, a whirlwind of spinning blades glittering in the air in front of her as the Flesh Crawler advanced on her, thrusting what resembled a garbage disposal on the end of a metal rod at her. Two of its multi-jointed, piercing arms spread themselves past her, ready to attack Kat’s flanks on a moment’s notice.

With a grunt, she flung a throwing dagger into the Crawler, casting Overpressure a moment after it hit. Thick black blood popped the knife out of its wound like a cork from a champagne bottle before the ichor began to slick the brass floor.

One spike arm darted toward her head while the other tried to whip across her torso. She leapt into the air, gripping onto the higher of the two limbs and letting it pull her back toward the monster as it jerked the metallic extremity away.

Her knife glowed red as she shoved it into the segmented weapon’s joint, Penetrate letting the weapon ignore the Crawler’s metal plates. Something gave way under her dagger’s point, and the piercing limb fell slack as she severed whatever passed for the disgusting creature’s nerves.

It screeched in rage as she dropped to the ground, slipping past the cyclone of blades that this specific opponent used as its main weapon in lieu of a chain claw, and hopped onto the bulbous mound of flesh that was its torso.

Her dagger rose and fell, slashing deep into wobbling chunks of meat as the creature’s circular mouth gnashed its rows of jagged teeth ineffectually at her. Blood spattered onto Kat’s face and armor as she sought to carve her way toward the vulnerable organs beneath the creature’s pallid flesh.

A spike arm blurred toward her, forcing Kat to dodge as best she could from her tenuous perch. She managed to avoid the point of the Crawler’s weapon, but its haft struck her ribs, ripping her from its back and sending her flying across the boss chamber.

She jumped to her feet gingerly. Her armor had disbursed most of the blow’s force, but Kat could already feel a bruise forming. She lifted her right arm and rotated it in a wide arc to test it. No breaks. Fast Healing should be able to handle the damage.

Across the room, Dorrik fended off another monster while Kaleek made his way through a crowd of Shrieking Fiends toward the acid lake that housed the Brood Mother. Dorrik had given him an oil that should let him brave its caustic waters long enough to slay the pulsing monstrosity that kept birthing new foes for them to fight.

Her foe waddled toward her, taking short steps on its thick legs as blood leaked from its multiple wounds. Unfortunately, her knife was still stuck in its back from when it had thrown her across the room.

She bit her lip. Kat had wanted to save her mana just in case, but its injuries were slowing it enough for Gravity Spike to be effective.

A throwing knife streaked across the gap between them, burying itself in one of the creature’s thick legs. Kat began gathering mana as she moved closer, another dagger leaving her hand as she sought to distract it.

One of the Crawler’s arms flashed across its body, slapping the knife out of the air in a shower of sparks. It screeched its rage at her, disabled limb flopping wildly as it brandished it in her direction.

Kat released her spell, targeting the center of the Flesh Crawler’s body. Gravity twisted, tearing its spongy flesh and crushing internal organs. Even if her more recent skill advances in Gravity I hadn’t granted her a new spell, the increase in her magic’s efficiency was more than welcome.

It vomited up thick black blood, stumbling as her spell ravaged its massive body. Before it could move, Kat followed up with Overpressure. A thousand minor internal wounds split open, turning its gullet into an ocean of ichor as its essence flooded outward.

The Crawler stumbled, wobbling tenuously on its legs for a second. Then, its metal arms dropped to the ground, limp and inert. Kat wasn’t sure whether she’d killed the monster, or simply knocked it out with extreme blood loss, but either way, she was needed elsewhere.

“Kaleek!” she shouted, running up to the mound of blood, metal and meat. “I’m casting Levitation on you. Jump over the small fry and I’ll deal with them. You need to get rid of the Brood Mother before we get overwhelmed!”

She ripped her knife from its body and jumped down onto the dungeon floor, gathering her mana as she focused on the otter. Kaleek was making progress through the horde of metal augmented apes through sheer strength and force of will. Periodically, his body flashed red as he spent stamina to activate the skills he needed to push the creatures aside.

“But I was just starting to have fun!” he yelled back, his sword slashing through a Fiend’s collar bone and severing a crude cybernetic arm. “I’ve had a stressful week, and this is far cheaper than therapy.”

Another half dozen of the apes scrambled out of the acidic lake, red eyes glowing in the dark room. They hooted angrily before putting their knuckles to the ground and charging toward Kaleek.

“I can come up with some Freudian excuse for why killing a giant womb is an important part of your healing journey later,” Kat responded irritably, unleashing her spell on the grinning otter. “For now, jump in the fucking lake and kill that thing!”

Kaleek tossed her a saucy wink before leaping into the air, his double digit strength combining with her spell to send him sailing over the crowd of foes. Levitation didn’t let someone fly, but at its maximum level it all but negated the pull of gravity on its target.

The otter performed an agile flip in the air as he cleared the edge of the lake. Kat rolled her eyes, cutting the mana feed to her spell and letting him dive into the caustic brine with the grace of an Olympian.

Then she reached the edge of the Shrieking Fiend swarm and didn’t have time for other concerns. Dehydrate at head level blinded one foe as she ducked under a punch from another’s metal arm.

Reaching up, she grabbed her opponent’s limb and pulled them to her, stabbing upward into the ape’s armpit. Her knife flashed red at the last second, and Crippling Blow made up for her lack of knowledge about alien anatomy.

She spun around the monster, wrenching her dagger out of its flesh and severing an artery even as one of its companions swung at her.

The metal fist whistled past Kat’s face, forcing her back a handful of steps even as another three of the creatures tried to surround her. She gathered her mana, dodging a pair of half-hearted jabs before unleashing Gravity’s Grasp.

Almost immediately, Kat and the fiends surrounding her stumbled as their weight quadrupled. The monsters hooted and grunted in confusion, giving her the precious seconds she needed to counteract the spell with Levitation.

The spells didn’t completely cancel each other out; she was still a bit heavier than normal. Where Kat was a bit sluggish, the apes, unaffected by Levitation, were all but immobile.

She sprang into action, knife flashing as it found necks and eyes, ending a half dozen of the creatures in as many seconds. One, outside the range of her gravity field, managed to fire some sort of metal spear built into its arm at her, but as soon as it entered the range of Kat’s spell, it arced downward sharply and clattered onto the floor.

Before long, she was surrounded by Fiends circling around the edge of her magic’s area of effect but unwilling to step over the bodies of their comrades to challenge Kat directly.

Internally, she cursed at herself for not picking up any of her throwing knives from the Flesh Crawler’s corpse. Kat could only keep two first tier spells active at the same time, so without the weapons, she was helpless at range unless she wanted to strip herself of the gravity magic that was preventing her from being mobbed and overwhelmed by the swarm of monsters.

Still, as much as she needed to buy a crossbow to compliment the skillstone she’d acquired on the fifth floor, a standoff was actually one of her better options. Her goal wasn’t to actually defeat the almost endless horde of Shrieking Fiends, but to hold them off long enough for Kaleek to kill the Brood Mother while Dorrik finished off their larger foes.

She shifted her knife from one hand to another, eyeing up the mob of metal-limbed apes. In the distance, Dorrik used their new Iron tier Psi ability, Telekinetic Field, to redirect a Flesh Crawler’s piercing arm into the ground before scissoring both of their swords through a joint in the steel extremity.

Their blades crackled angrily as enchantments activated, and the severed iron spearhead thumped to the floor, leaking ichor. Dorrik stepped past it, swords flashing as the Crawler fired a hail of needles from its main ‘arm,’ a circular metal grate that had been grafted into the center of its torso.

Between Telekinetic Field directing the projectiles away, and Dorrik’s blindingly fast parries, only two of the metal bolts actually struck Kat’s friend. Neither of them did much more than stagger the lokkel and scratch the paint on their heavy armor.

Then, they made it into melee range, slashing huge gashes into the lumpy torso of the Flesh Crawler before darting back to avoid one of the irate monster’s multi-jointed limbs. They moved like a matador, striking and baiting the creature into overextending itself only to dodge and attack again.

One or two of the Shrieking Fiends surrounding Kat whined and glanced worriedly at Dorrik’s progress, but all it took to regain their attention was for her to lunge toward the edges of her defensive spells, knife in hand.

Just as Dorrik finished their foe, sliding on their scaly back under its torso by using Telekinetic Field to push off of the dungeon’s brass floor, and stabbing upward into its unprotected underbelly, Kaleek emerged from the lake of acid.

Despite the caustic liquid covering him, the otter looked immensely pleased with himself as he wiped the remaining blood from the Brood Mother off on a nearby dead Fiend. He grinned cheerfully at Kat, and she nodded back, switching off their spells.

Together, the two of them, joined a moment later by Dorrik, tore into the remaining apes. Where Kat had struggled to slowly whittle down their numbers, the three of them combined were a force of nature, slaughtering their way through the horde.

Barely five minutes later, Kat stood beside a pile of cooling bodies, heaving for breath as she tried to restore the stamina expended in the fight.

“See,” Kaleek called out cheerfully between deep, panting inhalations. “Iron dungeons are a lot more fun than Wood. Plenty of things to kill and complicated environments to do it in. Just enough challenge to keep us on our toes without the annoying level of difficulty you run into with Silver tier dungeons.”

“I suppose that’s one way of putting it,” Kat responded, making her way back toward the first Flesh Crawler to retrieve her throwing knives. “Except we were fully prepared for this one. I can’t help but remember us struggling with even Wood tier dungeons that we weren’t ready for. Here, Dorrik knew how best to avoid those lightning spheres, and they had that oil of acid resistance on hand. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without it.”

“We would have managed,” Dorrik interjected solemnly. “Likely with hit and run attacks letting Miss Kat’s mana recover before having her blanket the depths of the lake with ranged spells.”

“But that would give the Brood Mother time to fill the chamber with monsters.” Kat frowned. “Plus, even with the way my mana reserves have been growing, Gravity Spike still takes a lot out of me. That probably would have taken three trips with ten to fifteen minute breaks in between.”

“Indeed.” The lokkel nodded. “I doubt Kaleek would be quite so chipper if we had to fight the Brood Mother in such a fashion. We would have prevailed, but it would have been truly miserable.”

“Maybe,” Kaleek shrugged cheerfully, “and maybe not. Either way, let’s clear the dungeon altar and get back to the village. We finished a bit early so there’s still time for a drink or two before we have to wake up.”

The desoph led the way through the brown, metallic room. Past the lake of acid and out onto a narrow pier that ended in a simple, waist-high stone structure. Kaleek touched the altar’s flat top, disappearing in a rainbow soap bubble of energy as The Tower of Somnus whisked him back out onto the sixth floor.

Kat’s turn came next, the smooth stone surface of the altar tingling under her hand for a fraction of a second before she teleported.

Congratulations Adventurer!

You have completed the Iron Tier Level Six Dungeon, Tunnels of Lightning and Brass.

Three of Three party members surviving. Good Job!

Assigning awards:

Skill Stone (Gravity II)

Subscription Stone

She felt the comforting weight of the two stones appear in her hands as Kat blinked against the thick mists of the sixth floor. In the distance, an eerie keening note caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.

Kat squinted, unable to make out anything more than a handful of feet in front of her. Literally anything from another traveler to a predator could be a dozen paces away and she wouldn’t even know.

Something large and much closer howled back, a rumbling sound of territorial aggression. She drew her knife warily.

A paw clapped down onto her shoulder, causing Kat to almost jump out of her skin.

Kaleek leaned in, whispering into her ear. “So, did you get anything good?”

Silently, she opened her hands, showing both of the awards to the curious otter. He let out a low whistle as, behind them, Dorrik popped into being.

“Nice.” Kaleek punched her in the shoulder playfully. “A second tier skill stone on your first delve is good luck no matter how you look at it. Absorb both of those so that we can head out. We might need to climb deep into the mists to reach the Iron dungeons, but that doesn’t mean we actually want to fight anything that lives down here. The sooner we can get back to the mountaintop, the better.”

Kat nodded, closing her eyes and willing herself to bond with the rocks in her hand. Warmth flowed through her body as the Gravity stone confirmed that she had reached her maximum skill level in Gravity I. Another screen popped into existence in front of her.

You have reached Level 1 in the skill Gravity II, please select a second or first tier spell.

First Tier:

Gravity Spike

Levitation

Gravity’s Grasp

Repulsion

Increase Density

Decrease Density

Second Tier:

Shear

Flight

Crushing Fist

Gravity Pulse

Reverse

Gravity Plane

She minimized the menu, and they started climbing up the mountain, Kaleek leading the way. Occasionally, he would stop them, sniffing the air for the spoor of the monsters that dwelt in the deep valleys where the floor’s dungeons were located. Four times, he motioned the three of them into hiding, frantically concealing them from some unknown threat.

Only one of those times did Kat get any inkling as to what Kaleek had noticed, but it was enough for her blood to run cold. An elephantine shape plodded through the mist, a quartet of tentacles writhing as they swept through the air.

She shivered, but that slight movement was enough for the creature to stop. Suddenly, all four of its tentacles snapped away from what they had been doing and darted toward her. Kat froze, eyes wide and fixed on the tendrils sweeping through the fog in her general direction, questing for the interloper that disturbed the heavy mist.

After almost ten minutes of Kat clinging tightly to the rocky outcropping that concealed her from the monster, it gave up, walking away with heavy steps. She suppressed her desire to let out a sigh of relief, sure that any movement would bring back… whatever that was.

Finally, almost two and a half hours later, the three of them climbed above the mist line. Their starting village loomed nearby, carved out of the mountainside a mere thousand paces from the predator-infested fog.

Now, Kat let herself sigh in relief.

If her team had been willing to settle for Wood tier dungeons, they could have been in and out in under two hours. Most of the easier dungeons were within a twenty minute walk of the sixth floor’s mountaintop villages. Even the predators on those levels were little more than an inconvenience, best avoided but easily slain.

“You did well, Miss Kat.” Dorrik smiled at her reassuringly. “Baelzar Fog Hunters are hardly to be trifled with. We were unlucky to have one pass that closely to us and your poise when it noticed you was admirable.”

“Thanks.” She smiled back. “Actually, before we head into town, I got a Gravity II skillstone and I haven’t picked out a spell yet. I was wondering if—”

“ A lucky find.” The big lizard’s expression brightened. “Although Iron dungeons can drop tier two skills, it is far from common.”

“Sounds like a lecture is about to start,” Kaleek said with a chuckle. “Anyway, I’m heading in to find a bar. You can track me down after you’re done talking with the professor here.”

“As I was saying,” Dorrik continued, not letting the desoph’s backtrack distract them. “Shear is a combat spell, a quicker to cast and more focused version of your current Gravity Spike. It will only hit one target, but it will hit them faster, harder, and for less mana.”

“Flight.” Dorrik tapped themselves on the chin with a claw, a contemplative look on their muzzle. “Flight is similar in that it is the natural evolution of Levitation. The user can lower the pull of gravity on themselves and selectively control its pull such that they can control themselves in the air, albeit at slow speeds.”

“Crushing Fist generates a cage of gravity around a target, immobilizing weaker foes.” The lizard’s voice took on a lecturing tone. “Gravity Pulse fires a wave of energy at a target, flinging them away from you with enough force to deal damage. Reverse doesn’t eliminate gravity, but it does change it in a small area, allowing you to walk on the ceiling or toss an enemy into the air and drop them.”

“Finally,” Dorrik nodded to her, “there is Gravity Plane. The name is a bit of a misnomer as it actually creates a pyramid made out of four triangles of mana. Each triangle creates a gravitational pull away from you, deflecting enemy attacks. At lower skill levels, it is helpful, but for those that manage to max out Gravity II, well, it won’t stop bullets, but curving most of them around you is almost as good.”

Kat smiled at the big lokkel, taking their intensity for what it was. Care and concern.

“It sounds like you’re a bit biased toward Gravity Plane.” She chuckled.

“Of course, Miss Kat.” Dorrik’s crest ruffled sadly. “You always insist on throwing yourself into dangerous situations. One of these days you simply won’t be able to move fast enough to save yourself from a bullet or a blade. As useful as another offensive tool might be, I would prefer that you survive whatever your next risky scheme might be.”

“Sold,” Kat replied, opening the minimized menu and pushing her finger through one of the options. “Gravity Plane it is.”

“Splendid!” Dorrik broke into a wide, toothy smile. “But before we go and pull Kaleek out of whatever den of iniquity he has no doubt found in the last ten or so minutes, I have one more thing I wish to discuss.”

“Oh?” Kat asked, raising an eyebrow.

“As I have made you aware, I am currently on a lokkel vessel in orbit?” Dorrik began uncertainly. “I am currently still handcuffed by Consensus law, but at the very minimum we can prevent the stallesp from returning and flouting that law once more.”

Kat nodded her understanding, motioning for them to continue.

“I hesitate to ask, but…” They closed their eyes, obviously trying to gather their courage.

A million possible scenarios played themselves out in her head, from out of control swarms of nanobots to a request that she leave the adventuring team. Kat bit her lower lip, steeling herself for the worst.

“I do not understand the Vex Valance arc in Chrome Cowboys,” they begged, desperation in their eyes. “I have been trying to understand more of your culture by consuming your popular media, but Vex Valance’s deeper meaning eludes me. Then when I try to read message boards to understand more, it is simply groups of fans trying to ‘ship’ ‘Sexy Vexy’ with other characters.”

“It does not make sense, Miss Kat,” Dorrik rambled. “Vex is not a naval vessel. How can he be a ship?”

CHAPTER FIVE

The maglev to Schaumberg seemed to last forever, the handful of minutes stretching out until they lasted months. The landscape hummed by. The neon and bustling streets of Chiwaukee giving way to the bombed out shantytowns of the suburbs. Their residents, little more than ghosts, crowded around the mouths of alleys as they stared warily at the train.

Kat sighed, running a hand through her hair. Given one or two missteps, she could have easily become any one of them. A drug-addled casualty of corporate infighting, hiding without an identity in the decaying corpse of a dead city.

She owed everything to Xander. When she’d gone wandering, naive and alone, looking to break out of her corporate life, he could have exploited her. Forced her to work for free or so much worse.

Instead, he treated her like a junior samurai. Sure, he deducted the cost of her training and equipment from her pay, but that was how all of the crews operated. Even if Xander liked her, he wasn’t going to lose money on a skinny and emotionally lost girl. He was like a father to her, but money was money and you didn’t get between a samurai and a pay day.

The webbing across Kat’s chest bit into her as the maglev slowed to a halt just outside the Schaumberg Arcology. The tower loomed overhead, a gigantic rectangle of gleaming steel and glass that housed an entire self-contained city. Home.

She undid the restraints and checked to make sure that her knife was still in its metal-detector-stealthed sheath. Most weapon scanners were looking for firearms, so it didn’t take nearly as much to conceal an inert but sharp lump of metal. Really, that was the main reason why Kat used the weapons.

Obviously, guns were better in any sort of real fight, but even before she acquired skills that increased the effectiveness of her knife, there was something to be said about concealability. Plus, with the help of a little judo, a knife was quieter and more effective in close quarters than even a handgun.

Kat slung her bag over a shoulder and opened the door to her pod. The rest of the passengers were chatting quietly with each other as they filed off the train. She nodded to a man in conservative business attire, and he nodded back as Kat stepped into line behind him.

One by one, they exited the maglev and into Schaumberg’s processing center. Technically, the Schaumberg Arcology was owned by a different company, but Ike Holdings was a wholly owned subsidiary of GroCorp, the megacorporation that ran Chiwaukee. The customs employees would still need to take down Kat’s pertinent information, but there wouldn’t be any of the usual complications when an employee crossed a corporate border.

She followed the line toward the concrete barriers that protected the customs station. A hasty paint job didn’t do much to cover the bullet holes in the barricades and the room’s walls. Even the corporate guards looked nervous and a bit jumpy as they stood their posts around the room.

Kat glanced downward and winced. Despite a fresh coat of paint, they’d missed the corner of a bloodstain on the asphalt walkway away from the maglev station.

All of it was a legacy of her last mission. The stallesp impersonating a GroCorp shareholder had locked down Schaumberg in an attempt to locate and destroy evidence of their misdeeds. In order to draw forces away from Kat’s final attack on the Field Tower, an Ike Holdings executive had staged a revolt.

She’d heard rumors that things had gotten bad during the height of the fighting, but Kat hadn’t really followed up on anything around that time because—

She took a deep breath to steady herself, forcing a smile onto her face as she approached the kiosk and presented the ID on her lanyard to the customs agent working there. Without even looking up at her, he scanned the card. His eyes unfocused for a second as he read something on his smartpanel, a rectangular eyepiece connected to a personal computer and the local wireless networks.

He handed Kat back her ID, and she slipped the lanyard under her jacket as the clerk waved her past. She nodded, and made her way through the security cordon toward the massive express elevators.

A security guard, clad in bulky riot armor, ran a weapon detecting wand over her. After it didn’t beep, he waved her through, and a moment later, Kat was waiting in the corner with a handful of people as the metal cage descended a couple of floors to disgorge a chatting couple. Three floors down, an overweight man wearing loud and clashing clothing got off, eyes glazed as he composed an e-mail. Then a woman in a suit nodded politely to Kat and exited on the next floor.

Finally, she was all alone. The sort of people that could afford the maglev didn’t travel to the floors that her family lived on. The door to the elevator opened, startling the two guards that were playing cards at the security checkpoint. One glance at her GroCorp College jacket and she was waved through, the mere hint of the authority and privilege that went with her schooling more than enough to waive even the most cursory investigation.

They weren’t doing their job, but Kat was hardly going to complain. She’d been roughly where they were and knew that sometimes, when people of status came through, it was best to simply turn a blind eye to duty. You survived longer that way.

She walked the roads of the floor, her trained eye picking out the hastily painted over bullet holes in brick facades and newly installed windows. Most of the pedestrians seemed fearful and a bit too thin, the food shortages and over-policing of the lockdown having taken an obvious toll.

Broken glass crunched under her foot as she turned down the road toward her mother’s house. A simple metal fence guarded by a pair of unarmored, stun-baton-wielding guards separated the small community meant for floor administrators, junior managers, and the other comparatively well to do residents.

One of the two stepped forward and opened his mouth to challenge Kat, but she simply glared at him.

Maybe it was the jacket she was wearing. Maybe it was the easy grace with which she carried herself. Hell, maybe he’d just looked into her eyes and saw a hint of who Kat was and what she had done.

He coughed, stepping aside and letting her pass unhindered. She walked the final block or two in silence, taking in the rows of two story houses. They were a welcome change from the drab, high density apartment complexes of the rest of the floor, but even here, Kat couldn’t help but notice the fresh paint around some of the doors, the telltale sign of new construction.

Without even consulting her smartpanel, she knew exactly what happened. Security and their allies with the Millennium Corporation kicked in doors in the middle of the night and dragged away ‘potential security threats.’

Then her mother’s house came into view, and for the first time on the entire trip, a smile blossomed on Kat’s face. It was only one story, much bigger than the apartment that she’d grown up in, but still smaller than the two story buildings surrounding it.

That wasn’t important.

Half concealed behind a white privacy fence, Penelope Debs, her mother, was on her hands and knees, weeding a small flower garden. A sharp yapping bark startled Kat as a small, fluffy black dog ran toward the fence’s gate, jerking to a stop when it reached the end of the leash tied to a stake in the center of the house’s small yard.

“Rufus!” Penelope scolded the dog. “Stop.”

Her mother wiped her dirty hands on her pants legs before scooping the small yapping ball of fluff up and shushing him. He practically vibrated in her arms with barely controlled excitement as Penelope turned to Kat with a smile on her face.

“There you are, Kat! You said you were coming, but I didn’t realize you’d get here this quickly. I’m sorry the place is such a mess—”

“It’s fine, Mom,” Kat cut off her rambling. “It’s just good to see you again.”

“Welcome home then.” Her mom smiled. “Don’t mind Rufus here. Ever since you moved out, Michelle has been complaining about being lonely, so eventually I broke down and got her a dog. He just wants to sniff you and get scritches behind the ears.”

“Home.” Kat chuckled, stepping through the fence and closing the gate behind her. “They say you can never go home again. Even if everything stays frozen in time, once you leave, you end up changing so much that you won’t feel exactly the same.”

“Maybe.” Her mom reached out with her left hand, pressing it to Kat’s cheek as she held Rufus back with her right. “I know you, Kat. You understand how terrible this world is, and despite that, you managed to claw out a place for yourself. I can’t imagine what you’ve had to do and the choices you’ve had to make to get where you are.”

“Honestly?” Penelope smiled, moving Rufus close enough that the small dog could excitedly sniff Kat’s face. “It doesn’t matter to me. You’re my daughter. Even if I didn’t have some idea of what you’ve done to carve out this little slice of stability for Michelle and I, well…”

Penelope paused for a moment, mouth half open as she searched for the right words. “This might not be your ‘home,’ Kat, but you’re always welcome here.”

Rufus struggled free from Kat’s mother’s grip, eagerly digging both of his paws into her shoulder before planting his snout onto her cheek, frantically licking the side of her face and snuffling Kat’s hair.

“You weren’t supposed to notice, Mom,” Kat replied, shifting her grip on her bag so that she had two hands free to cradle the small, excitable ball of black fluff nuzzling her. “I was trying to keep Michelle and you safe from the shadows.”

Penelope snorted, leaving a line of dirt on her forehead as she brushed a lock of hair from her face with her left hand.

“Kat, there were mercenaries going door to door questioning people.” The older woman shook her head. “Even the managers didn’t have enough food on the table every night. Somehow, despite all of that hardship, Arcology administration dispatched ‘maintenance workers’ to ‘repair the damaged sewer line’ across from our house.”

“Most maintenance workers don’t have chrome limbs and shotguns.” Penelope let Rufus go, allowing the tiny black dog to crawl into Kat’s arms. “Most maintenance workers don’t ‘accidentally pack too much food’ and leave a whole ham in a cooler on my porch when my rich and powerful neighbors were struggling to get kelp wafers.”

“I didn’t even notice the box for four hours.” Her mother stepped back, smiling at Kat she struggled to handle the squirming puppy. “Despite everything that was happening, none of our neighbors even dared to touch it.”

“Good.” There was a hint of steel in Kat’s voice. “I’d have preferred subtlety, but if the guards were going to be obvious about it, at least they made sure that everyone else understood that you weren’t to be trifled with.”

“There you are,” her mother replied with a chuckle. “That’s the Kat that thought I wouldn’t notice when she gave up sleep to run data chips full of blackmail past security guards. I might not approve of each and every decision you’ve made, but at the end of the day, you made them, and I really couldn’t be more proud of you.”

“Thanks. I think,” Kat laughed, pulling Rufus away from her face and scratching him behind his ears. The dog’s tail slapped against her chest and bicep, a steady tattoo of joy and excitement as he tried to jump up close enough to her face to lick her chin.

“It’s simple,” Penelope answered, motioning to her house, the small garden and the fence separating it all from the rest of the world. “I know that deep down, this is part of what you want. Something small to call your own outside of corporate control.”

“On the other hand.” Her mother reached forward, picking up Rufus and rescuing Kat from the small, furry terror. “I also understand that the person you’ve become can’t settle for this. You’re plugged into something huge and dangerous, and if you stop moving, it will consume you. Instead, you sacrificed your own freedom to create your dream and gave Michelle and I the independence you always wanted.”

“On some selfish level,” Penelope continued, leaning down to unhook Rufus’ leash from the metal stake in the lawn. “That’s never what I wanted for you. I just wanted you to stay home with Michelle and where I could watch you grow as a woman, healthy and happy.”

“I am happy, Mom,” Kat replied, a number of expressions flashing across her face in quick succession.

“Maybe right now, but I worry about you.” Her mother turned, leading Kat toward the house, “Watching you collapse in on yourself like that after your friend died. It was awful to be so far away and unable to help. It’s hard to know that I will never truly understand everything you’ve done for Michelle and I, but still—”

Penelope turned back to her, Rufus squirming in her left hand while her right sat on the doorknob, a warm smile on her face.

“Thank you, Kat. For everything.”

She turned back, opening the door and stepping inside before continuing.

“Now, come on in. Dinner’s almost ready and Michelle wants to talk to you about the Cybercow liberation arc in Chrome Cowboys.”

The next morning, Kat made her way to the elevator once more. She wasn’t smiling, but her muscles were more relaxed than they’d been in years. The guards glanced at her only to hastily break eye contact.

She rode to the ground floor in silence, stroking the hilt of her knife in its concealed sheath. The doors opened on the hubbub of the ground floor marketplace as the scavengers and survivors of the Shell interacted with representatives of the Arcology’s gray market.

It was a matter of flipping up her collar and changing her pace to slip into the crowd, and about twenty minutes later, she was in the streets of the Shell. Despite the summer heat, no one commented on her jacket. In fact, more than one pair of haunted eyes peaked back at Kat atop jackets of their own.

The winter wear might be uncomfortable, but it was easy to weave armor into the bulky jackets, and even easier to use them to conceal a weapon. In the decaying corpse of a city that was the Shell, most people wore jackets.

Finally she reached her destination, a dingy two story hotel covered in a fresh coat of paint. In front of its barred door stood a huge man, chrome arms contrasting with his dark skin as he crossed them in front of his bare chest.

Kat didn’t slow her pace, walking with the crowd until she was just past the building before dodging into an alleyway and sneaking around back. She hoped her information was accurate. Davis Stoller, Jasper’s head of security, owed her more than one favor, but even he couldn’t guarantee the tip he’d passed to her.

Taking a deep breath, Kat cast Levitation. In the real world, all of her Tower-granted abilities operated at roughly one third their normal power, but that should be enough. She burned stamina and Leapt, landing on the railing of a second story balcony.

She frowned slightly. Below her, roughly half the tiles of the porch were raised a millimeter or so above where they should have been seated. A sure sign of a pressure activated trap.

A moment of focus summoned her Pseudopod, and the tentacle of water crossed the balcony and pulled the sliding door aside. A needle, likely coated in some manner of poison, slid out of the door’s handle, pushing through the Pseudopod.

Kat gathered herself and Leapt once more, relying on the skill and her reduced weight to clear the gap. As soon as she landed inside, Kat closed the door behind her and activated Cat Step, gliding through the hotel suite’s ‘living room’ en route to the queen-sized bed.

She frowned. Empty delivery food boxes and liquor bottles littered the floor, creating a maze of trash in the dark room for Kat to work her way through.

Finally, she stood at the side of the bed, looking down at the softly breathing lump fully buried under the covers. Kat leaned over, reaching out and pulling back the blankets.

The woman under the covers whipped a handgun out from beneath her pillow, swinging the weapon toward Kat.

Kat’s hands moved in a blur, grabbing her target’s wrist and twisting, forcing the other woman to drop the weapon. There was a flash of pink hair as she looked up at Kat blearily.

“Kat?” Whippoorwill asked, voice still groggy. “How the fuck did you get in here?”

Kat let go of her friend’s wrist, sitting on the bed next to the girl.

“I’m an infiltrator, Whip.” Kat wrinkled her nose, once again taking in the trash strewn room. “I infiltrated.”

“You weren’t this good at it last I remember.” Whippoorwill scooted herself backward, sitting herself upright and leaning against the headboard. “What time is it anyway?”

“It’s nine in the morning,” Kat responded. “I’d offer to bring you some coffee and a muffin, but it looks like you’ve had enough junk food lately.”

“You could have just called.” Whip wobbled unsteadily as she tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. “Preferably at a more reasonable hour. I don’t think I’ve been awake before noon in a month.”

“I couldn’t have called because you’ve been screening me.” Kat shook her head. “I’ve reached out to you twice a week for months now. Hell, we both know that if I’d paged you from the front desk, you would have gotten that bouncer hurt trying to throw me out.”

“I just need some time, Kat.” Whippoorwill pressed her eyes shut, warding out the outside world. “It’s all gone. The ChromeDogs, Nina, our friends. They’ve all either retired or gone off to do their own thing.”

“He’s gone.” The pink haired woman shuddered as she exhaled. “All that’s left is you and me. I just… need a little while to process that.”

“You’ve had time, Whip,” Kat replied with a sigh. “You’ve pushed me away and tried to drown yourself in a bottle. I know that your cut of our earnings is enough for you to retire and live like this until your liver gives out and you die at forty, but is that really all you want out of life?”

“They have cyberlivers now.” Whippoorwill smiled at her weakly. “I could always just chrome up.”

“I suppose.” Kat patted her knee. “Now are you going to sit around here all day, or are you ready to talk about our next steps?”

“Next steps?” Whippoorwill asked, wrapping her hands around her knees and pulling them to her chest. “Xander’s dead and the ChromeDogs are gone. Kat, he was like a father to me. When I was just a hungry orphan digging through dumpsters for my next meal, he took me in. Without him, I’d be nothing more than a statistic. A drugged out zombie or skeletal corpse, dead from exposure when the old space heater I’d been using finally failed.”

“Without Xander,” there was a hitch in the other girl’s voice as tears began to trickle down her face, “I’m nothing. He made me into what I am, and the idea of trying to—”

“Shut up, Whip.” Kat reached out, putting her hand on her friend’s knee. “We’re his legacy. Wasn’t it obvious? His kids were never worth a damn, so he was trying to leave his mark on the underworld through us. Near the end, we were more his family than his actual flesh and blood.”

“You heard him in those final moments,” she continued, leaning closer to the other girl as Whippoorwill began to shake, sobs wracking her. “He sacrificed himself for three people. You, Nina, and me. Tell me, what do you think he’d say if he was standing in this rattrap with us right now, looking at you feeling sorry for yourself in a pile of vodka bottles?”

“He—” Whippoorwill stopped, unable to finish her thought.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Kat smiled at her. “You’re coming to Chiwaukee with me. You need a change of scenery and something to keep yourself occupied, and I’ve already lined up a new job through an information broker. It’ll be just like old times.”

Whippoorwill looked up at her, brushing a strand of pink hair from her face. Kat could see her mouth moving to form the word ‘no’ only for Whip to catch herself and stop.

“Yeah,” Whippoorwill said shakily. “That sounds nice.”

“Great.” Kat beamed down at her. “There’s only one more thing. I’m not going to let you wallow in your misery any longer. Get ready, Whip, because I’m not going to leave you with enough free time to feel sorry for yourself.”

She reached deep inside herself, willing the cloud of warmth that she instinctively knew was a subscription to The Tower of Somnus down her arm and into Whippoorwill’s leg. Her hand tingled for a second as Whip jumped with a startled yelp.

“Congratulations.” Kat stood up, offering her hand to the other woman. “You’re now officially a player. Have fun climbing The Tower of Somnus.”

CHAPTER SIX

“Are you sure about this?” Whippoorwill brushed a strand of pink hair out of her face, shifting the car into park. “That building looks like war crime wrapped in a maintenance violation and dipped a dumpster. Any information broker that can’t afford to move out of a place like that isn’t going to be worth a bent credit.”

Kat undid her seatbelt, looking out her window at the building where she’d agreed to meet the broker. It was a squat two story building, the ground floor occupied by a decrepit pawnshop plastered in neon advertisements right next to windows guarded by bars and metal shutters. The upper story didn’t even have windows. Whatever paint had once covered its walls was faded and washed away by constant rain, revealing bare concrete and, in spots, the rebar.

She’d seen worse buildings in the Shell around Schaumburg, but they were either unoccupied or little more than squats for junkies and scavengers. Between the obvious structural failures, blessedly unidentifiable stains, and numerous bullet holes, it might honestly have been the most suspect business that Kat had ever seen still in operation.

“I don’t know, Whip. Maybe ‘The Copper Spook’ likes the anonymity?” She shrugged.

“We still need a name for me.” Whip responded with a sigh. “I killed like three guys in the Field Tower raid. Given the mission’s difficulty and global importance, Merrimac and Hestia were pretty clear that I’d earned a name in there.”

“You did.” Kat shrugged uncomfortably. “You just weren’t really in a state to go through with all of the pomp and circumstance after the operation. In fact, I seem to recall you disappearing entirely a day or two later.”

Whippoorwill stared out the car’s windshield at the blur of neon and the crush of bodies in the distance that was Chiwaukee’s nightclub district.

“That’s a fair charge.” Whip leaned back into the torn and faded polyester of her seat. “I still need to be named. It has to come from someone in my crew rather than be self-administered. I’m pretty sure that means you, Erinyes.”

“How about Buttercake?” Kat asked, throwing her friend a sly grin. “I think it fits.”

Whippoorwill lurched forward, sputtering and choking.

“Like the character from Chibi Princess Cats?” Whip’s former nonchalance disappeared as the girl frantically shook her head. “Dear God, no. If anything, I’m Chiffon or Saffron, at least they had good costumes when they transformed.”

“Chiffon it is,” Kat replied, agreeable. “I always did think she had the best transformation sequence of the three.”

“No, you can’t, I—” Whip stopped halfway through her denial, glancing at Kat’s grinning face in the dark cab of the car.

They both started laughing at the same time. Kat, in relief at finally seeing a smile on Whippoorwill’s face once again, but for Whip it was pure catharsis. After months of dour silence and struggling to grapple with Xander’s absence, everything just burst out at once, spurred on by Kat’s prodding.

“Fine.” Whippoorwill wiped a tear from her eye. “I’m Chiffon now, but you should fully expect revenge for this. When you least expect it, I’ll be there.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Kat winked at her, opening the door to the car and ducking outside. She paused for a moment, a collection of emotions running over her face before she leaned back in with a wistful smile. “And Chiffon? It was good to hear you laugh.”

Then Kat was moving toward the decrepit building, trying to hide the relief on her face as Whip chuckled behind her. She’d always been shy, but the constant morose expressions and brooding silence had gotten to Kat. Still, she’d set her friend up with an apartment nearby, God knew that Whip could afford it, so hopefully she’d be able to intervene if the hacker started falling into another depressive funk.

She rapped her knuckles against the metal reinforced door. A second of silence later, just as Kat was preparing to make her presence known again, the lock opened with a ‘chnk’ that echoed down the mostly empty street.

Kat glanced back and forth, the neon signs on various storefronts the only proper light due to multiple shot out streetlights, before pushing the security door open and stepping inside. Automatically, her eyes shifted to the muted grayscale of Nightvision, activating the perk to compensate for the store’s almost pitch black interior.

The shop’s wares, mostly modified firearms and cyberware of dubious providence, were all locked beneath steel and bulletproof glass cages. Kat frowned as she walked past a chrome hand covered in serrated blades, shaking her head. As imposing as the cyberware might be, she couldn’t help but imagine how difficult it would be to eat breakfast while using it.

A burst of static startled Kat, jolting her into the air. Sheepishly, she put her knife away as a voice spoke over the intercom.

“Erinyes?”

She nodded, taking note of the four cameras that blanketed the showroom floor, the red lights below their lenses sweeping over her like beady, inquisitive eyes.

“We can conduct our business from here,” the modulated male voice continued over the store’s speaker system. “You come highly recommended.”

“I should hope.” Kat snorted. “I saved the Goddamn world from an alien invasion. For free. I didn’t even get a novelty t-shirt out of it.”

“I’ve seen the video,” the voice replied dryly.

“Great.” Kat crossed her arms, continually scanning the pawn shop. As much as she put on a brave front for Whip, she only knew this broker via reputation. Without Xander around, she was too unplugged from the Chiwaukee underworld to even find someone to vouch for him.

“Copper Spook, I presume?” she asked, looking up and into one of the cameras. “People seem to think that you’re the go to name for leads on jobs.”

“They’d be right,” the voice drawled. “The only thing you’re missing is that for the right price, I can dig up any secret in Chiwaukee. If I don’t know the answer, I can find it. If I can’t find it, it doesn’t exist.”

Kat bit her tongue. Online chatter identified Spook as a low end fixer. He had contacts, but they were mostly amongst the smaller gangs and rookie solo operators. For all of his swagger, Kat was out of his league and both of them knew it.

“Well.” Kat renewed the mana to Mirage, ensuring that the magic blurred and distorted her features. “As you’re probably aware, I am good at what I do, but I find myself between crews. What do you have by way of gigs for an infiltrator?”

“One infiltrator,” Spook mused to himself. “Let me see if there’s anything on hand.”

He left her in the dark for almost a minute, muttering into his mic while Kat stood uncomfortable and alone in the dark pawnshop. She ran her fingers over the contoured grip of her knife in its concealed sheath.

“Here’s one.” She glanced up as the broker spoke up. “A rush job. It looks like a senior manager has had some information taken from her. A runner is moving it to an exchange point in Hayek Park, but the client can’t get anyone there in time.”

“So just the runner and their handler.” Kat paused for a second to chew on her lip. “Will there be anyone else on site or is the job just menacing a noncombatant in a mostly empty park?”

“I, uh—” Even through the vocal modulation, she could hear Spook scrambling for an answer, stripping the interaction of any professionalism it might have had.

“Probably not?” the broker ventured, only to catch himself. “No, there won’t be anyone there. Just the runner wearing a green windbreaker and a middle aged man reading a newspaper. He should be the runner’s handler.”

Kat closed her eyes, forcing herself to pause before she responded. God, she missed Xander. Even if he managed to turn everything into a joke, at the end of the day, the job got done. If they had to move fast and with incomplete information, Kat would know before she started a mission. None of this amateur hour bullshit.

“What’s the pay?” She looked up at the camera. “And what’s your cut?”

“Two thousand credits, and I get a ten percent broker fee, payable upon delivery of the information. Non-negotiable.” Even through the modulator, Kat could hear the smugness in Spook’s voice.

She struggled to keep her face even as she let out a slow shuddering breath, her fingers stroking the hilt of her knife once more. The offer was shit. An agent with one quarter her experience would command a higher commission, and ten percent was abject robbery for a broker that couldn’t provide accurate information.

Still, he had Kat’s back up against a wall. Her only other option was Belle Donnst, the cold-blooded and ruthless executive that originally set Xander and the ChromeDogs up. She knew Kat’s value and would love to have her on hand. If she went back to Belle, Whip and her would be paid handsomely and sent on missions that were both challenging and interesting.

Unfortunately, Belle’s attention came with a price. The woman was ambitious and far too smart to put herself at risk. Any job worked for her would come with the operative bearing all of the risk. If Kat or Whippoorwill were compromised for any reason, Belle wouldn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second to cut them loose and throw them to the sharks.

“Fine.” She spat the word out. “I’ll be back with the data. Have the money ready.”

The door unlocked as she approached it once again, hinges groaning as she pushed it open and stepped out into the night air. A quick once-over to assure she was alone later, and Kat hurried across the street to slip into the car with Whippoorwill.

“So.” She let the Mirage slip from her face, replacing it with a grin. “Chiffon. Did you—”

“Yes.” Whip turned the key in the ignition, sending the car sputtering to life. “I got into his security system. It was barely even protected. There’s no way he wrote that code. Most of it was copy-pasted from smartpanel operating systems three generations old. He didn’t even bother to patch any of the security exploits that plagued the old iGlass 2200 models. I was in so fast that I spent half of the time you were in there reading his e-mails—”

“We’re going to Hayek Park.” Kat nodded toward the mostly abandoned street as Whippoorwill pulled a U-turn, taking them away from the distant light and noise of Chiwaukee’s downtown district. “Don’t park the car right away. Spook didn’t seem that confident about the background information on the job and I’d like to case the place a bit before actually committing myself.”

“Anyway.” She turned to look at Whip while the other woman drove. “What were you able to find out while I talked to Spook?”

“You were right.” The pink haired girl grunted as she pulled them off of a side street and onto an expressway. “He does live above the pawnshop. He has his rig and servers up there. Bad business, if you ask me. All of that pretending to be mysterious only to put yourself at risk from an upset client anyway.”

Kat nodded thoughtfully as Whip kept talking.

“He was lying through his teeth about that job though. The offer has been in his inbox for over a week and it mentions you by name. The delay in relaying it to you was him sending something off to the client through a secure messaging service.”

“Did you get a chance to see what it was?” Kat asked with a frown.

“Nope.” Whippoorwill shook her head. “It had enough security that I wasn’t going to risk it with a tenuous wireless connection. That said—”

“If it was secure and his system wasn’t,” Kat finished for her, “that means that the client is probably a real player even if Spook is just a nobody.”

Whip just nodded and drove as Kat chewed her lip and thought the situation over. Every instinct in her body was warning her about this job, but at the same time, she needed to re-establish herself in the industry. Pretty much everyone had seen the video of Xander and her fighting their way through Field Tower, but she still didn’t have the contacts and support team that she would need to become a full solo operator.

Whippoorwill was a start, but if she was going to do this on her own, Kat would need to program several more names into her smartglass. For one, she needed someone trustworthy that she could use as an intermediary with the corporate world. She’d had hopes for the Copper Spook, but this mission assured her that he would be a stepping stone to a more competent broker at best.

Other than that, she was still sorely lacking. Kat would need a source for equipment that might not be available legally, a fence for stolen information, a team of associates that could provide trustworthy backup on bigger jobs, the list ran on and on.

Without Xander, she was in a bit of a tailspin. Kat had the skills and experience needed to complete a job, but the logistics of running a team were beyond her. She didn’t even have proper contacts, let alone anyone she could trust. The entire situation was aggravating, but there wasn’t anything she could do but take a risk or walk away from the underworld entirely.

The only real alternatives to establishing her own network were Belle, retiring from the game, or joining one of the smaller crews that the ChromeDogs had splintered into. Crews that would only remind her of Xander’s sacrifice while frantically exploiting his and her reputation to earn a couple of extra credits.

“We’re here.” Whip’s words jerked Kat out of her reverie.

She willed her eyes to switch into Nightvision. The dark park brightened until Kat could see everything while Whippoorwill slowly drove her car past. On a park bench across from a statue of Friedrich Hayek, a man nervously rustled a newspaper, the glint of a metal handgun in his lap.

They kept moving, and Kat’s mouth thinned into a line. A trio of men and a woman huddled behind a nearby public bathroom. All of them were armed, and the woman’s face was over half chrome. Twice while the car circled, one of the men peeked his head around the corner, checking in on the ‘handler’ with a newspaper.

Finally, after almost circumventing the park, they drove past a van, pulled over by the side of the road with its rear doors open. Inside, a slim man in a green windbreaker and a baseball cap was smoking a cigarette while chatting with another heavily chromed individual.

Kat shook her head, motioning for Whip to keep driving as she turned grimly to her companion.

“You said that Spook had an e-mail with my name on it waiting when I walked into that shithole of his?”

Whippoorwill nodded, brushing a couple strands of pink hair from her forehead as she pulled them away from the street that circled the park.

“Fuck it.” Kat shrugged. “I’m amped and ready to go for a mission and this is an insultingly bad set up. What do you say we go and ask Mister Spook who put him up to it?”

“Honestly?” Whip asked. “My only real concern is that this is some sort of double play. The e-mail was only the biggest of the red flags that he was flying.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Kat settled back into her seat, letting her eyes return to normal. “Still, I haven’t publicly announced that you’re working with me, and I don’t think I actually used Nightvision on the Field Tower broadcast. It’s entirely possible that he just didn’t know that you would dismantle his network from the car and that I would be able to make the goons he sent to ‘disrupt’ the exchange.”

“Regardless.” She grinned at Whip. “I can’t think of anything more fun than letting you tear his network apart again so that we can download all of those ‘super elite secrets’ he claims to have. Bet we can auction those off for more than the two thousand credits he used to bait this entire farce.”

“Just be careful.” Whippoorwill sighed, a long, suffering smile on her face. “I know better than to hope that you’ll keep this quiet, but at least keep it safe.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kat grinned through the nylon pulled over her face. The improvised mask wasn’t much, but then again, neither was Copper Spook. It would keep anyone monitoring Spook’s video feed from making out her features before Whippoorwill could delete the evidence.

She touched the earpiece to her smart panel, eyes not moving from the pawnshop that Copper Spook used as his headquarters from her vantage point, one store over.

“Is our friend still there, Chiffon?”

“He’s in his bedroom wasting time on a message board right now,” Whip replied, her voice distracted. “Give me a second and I’ll have the store’s security disabled.”

“Is there anything I need to worry about beyond the automatic lock on the front door and some cameras?” she asked, creeping toward the edge of the rooftop

“Not that I can—wait.” Whippoorwill caught herself. “I’m seeing receipts for explosives in the windowsills and it looks like he installed a pressure-triggered shotgun trap just inside the door to the back stairwell. Give me a moment and…”

Her companion trailed off, too focused on her work to carry on the conversation. Honestly? It was a blessing. Even after Kat had managed to pry Whippoorwill away from the hotel in the Shell where the girl had been drinking away their sorrows, she’d been a shade of her normal self. Withdrawn, morose, and depressed, it tore at Kat to see her friend struggling like that.

Dorrik had a point. There was nothing for grief like throwing yourself into your work. Distractions might not solve everything, but it sure beat wallowing in misery. Pulling Whippoorwill out of the Shell had been the right choice. It was slow, but day by day, she was starting to seem more like her old self.

“Got it,” Whip continued, satisfied. “The pressure plates need a trickle of electricity to work. Copper Spook has them running on the utility circuit, but he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. His lights and air conditioner are tied into the electrical grid, all I had to do—”

“I hate to interrupt,” Kat chuckled, “but yes or no, are the traps disabled?”

“Yes, Erinyes.” Whippoorwill sniffed. “If you want to simplify all of my work down to just one word. Yes.”

“So,” Kat continued. “I’m good to go, and he’s alone upstairs wasting time on the internet, right?”

“You’re a philistine, but yes.” Whip chuckled. “I’ll save the lecture for when you’ve secured the building.”

“Looking forward to it,” Kat finished, pouring mana into Levitation as she dropped off of the roof and into the alley behind Spook’s pawn shop.

A second later, she activated Shadow, bending what little light there was around herself as she slipped around the side of the house. Kat reached out to open the door, catching herself at the last second. No infiltration suit meant fingerprints.

Muttering quietly to herself, Kat put her shoulder into the door instead, pushing it open without a sound. Her eyes switched to Nightvision as she stepped into the building. Once again, she took in the barred cages filled with firearms and cyberware, this time taking a mental tally of which looked valuable. Above her, cameras were immobile, their red lights dark as she crept past.

At the back of the store, Kat reached into her pocket, pulling out a paper napkin to use it to turn the knob, revealing a dark and empty stairwell. She activated Cat Step, deadening her footfalls as she ascended to the second level.

She froze in the narrow hallway. At the far end was a bathroom, its door ajar, four rooms opening off of the walkway, two per side. She squinted, holding her breath as she surveyed the floor.

For a moment, nothing happened. The dingy and trash strewn hallway sat there in absolute darkness, the hum of poorly installed wiring the only sound to disturb the silence.

Then a male voice quietly, but heatedly muttering to itself.

“That’s what I thought. There’s no way that Agthorn is an S-tier striker. Without Tallarass at healer, he wouldn’t have made it out of the octafinals.”

Far room. Right side. She activated Cat Step once again, sneaking closer to the room. The door was open a crack and she could see a skinny twenty-something man reclining on a torn and stained couch.

The room was mostly dark. Without Nightvision, the man would have been almost completely invisible, the only source of illumination revealing his smirk the backlight from the smartpanel display in front of his face. The man’s pupils moved rapidly, composing some message through the ocular keyboard built into the smartpanel.

“Agthorn is a fucking piece of shit and his fans are worse,” he rambled. “Grand Prix champion, my ass.”

Kat pushed the door open, napkin in hand.

It creaked.

Hinges that likely hadn’t been maintained since their installation screamed. In the almost complete silence of the empty building, it might as well have been an alarm.

Spook lurched up from the couch, his eyes widening. She slammed her shoulder into the door, no longer worried about being quiet, slamming it open and bolting into the room even as the information broker shoved his hand under the couch’s cushion, frantically feeling around for something.

Dazzle ignited the room, a cone of intensely bright white and yellow strobes directed at Spook’s face just as one of Kat’s throwing knives slammed into his forearm.

He screamed, falling off of the couch even as a compact pistol fell from under the couch cushion, thudding onto the cheap wooden floor next to him. Without taking her eyes off of the injured man, Kat kicked the pistol away, crouching over him a second later with her knife to his throat.

Without saying a word, she yanked the smartpanel from his face, throwing it contemptuously onto the nearby couch.

“What the fuck, man?” Spook choked out between sobs as he clutched his hurt arm at the elbow, as if he were willing the blood to stop leaking from the ruined appendage.

“Seriously, what the hell?” He tried to scoot back only for Kat to press her knife into the side of his throat, drawing a bead of blood. “I need to get to a portadoc, man. I think I’m starting to feel a bit lightheaded.”

“We can talk about doctors once you answer a couple questions.” Kat’s voice was wintery cold as she stared down at his squirming body.

“Who even are you?” He whimpered. “I didn’t do anything to anyone. You must have the wrong guy.”

“I don’t know ‘Copper Spook.’” She spat the words out. “You tell me if I have the wrong guy? You must have the memory of a goldfish if you forgot setting me up literally a half hour ago.”

“Erinyes.” His face blanched. “That wasn’t me! There must have been other people already at the site when the exchange went down, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

She pressed the knife against his throat, silencing the babbling man.

“Shut up.” Kat’s voice was impassive. “Yes or no. Do you have any security on this building beyond mines in the windows, and the trap on the downstairs stairwell.”

“No.” Spook squirmed under her, face twisted in pain. “That’s everything.”

“Great,” Kat replied with false cheer. “Chiffon, coast is clear. He says you’ve identified all of the traps, and Spook is a smart boy that knows I will gut him like a fish if he tries to pull a fast one.”

He stopped thrashing under Kat, his eyes widening as the full realization of his situation crashed down on the young man.

“Wait,” he began, lower lip trembling. “You might actually kill me? I’m just a middle man! I didn’t do anything! I just took money and did what I was told.”

“You also attempted to have me killed in the course of a fairly negotiated contract,” she responded with a shake of her head. “I hope you can understand why I might be a little bit cranky right now. If you’re lucky, you’re only going to lose your name over this. No one sane will work with an information broker that sells out the other half of a partnership.”

“You don’t understand!” There was definite panic on his pale face. Kat tried to ignore the blood pooling around her knees from his bleeding arm. “The Millennium guys would have killed me. They reached out to everyone in Chiwaukee and let us know that if you were seen on the streets, that they needed to know first. Some guy made me sign a contract forcing me to send you on that mission. I would have argued but—”

Spook winced. “It’s hard discussing terms with a chromed out psychopath with a gun in your mouth. The barrel impairs your ability to speak.”

“Millennium?” Kat scoffed. “They’ve been broken up since the Field Tower raid. I think that’s the only time I’ve seen every megacorporation jointly issue a ‘kill on sight’ order for a crew. You’re going to need something more than rumors of ghosts and ghouls to get you out of this one.”

“Maybe some ghosts aren’t quite as dead as we thought,” Whippoorwill said thoughtfully from behind Kat, sliding past her en route to the information broker’s network hub.

“Looking through our friend’s e-mails here.” She nodded casually toward Copper Spook’s pinned and bleeding form. “Whoever he was talking to sure brought up Mr. Jackson’s name a lot.”

“What do you mean, Chiffon?” Kat asked, frowning.

“This isn’t a one-off transaction.” Whip reached up to the back of her head, moving the back of her face covering aside just enough for her to pull out the direct hookup from her cranial jack and plug it into the hub. “His e-mails are littered with jobs from contacts that identify themselves with Millennium. In fact, I don’t think I’ve actually seen anything from a corporate source.”

“Wait.” Spook squinted at Whippoorwill. “Chiffon? Like that anime cat?”

Whip glared at the prone man, leaning over and placing her foot on top of his injured arm. Without shifting her gaze, she growled at Kat.

“I swear by everything holy, Erinyes. When you least expect it, I will get revenge for this. It might be ten seconds from now, it might be tomorrow, it might even be next year, but your time is coming.”

“Oh, come on.” Kat snorted. “Chiffon was the cutest of the princess cats. It’s a good name for you, and you know it.”

“Jesus.” Spook looked from Kat to Whippoorwill and back again. “Are you two going to kill me, or are you just going to keep flirting with each other like I’m not here? Because even though I can’t see you, it’s really hot and—”

“First option, actually,” Whippoorwill cut him off, drawing her pistol and putting it against the man’s forehead. His eyes went wide a moment before the dull thump of the pistol report, muffled by his skull, caved Copper Spook’s face in.

Kat jumped back, sputtering as she tried to wipe blood and brain matter off of herself. Whip just grinned at her and holstered her pistol.

“He had an entire file on you, Erinyes,” she shrugged. “It looked like he was trying to use Millennium’s money to hire informants to track you down and he was getting close. If we let him walk, he’d just become a liability.”

Kat glanced at the body on the floor. Blood pooled around him, staining the cheap wooden floor as it cooled.

“You could have held off on shooting him until we dragged some answers out of him,” she replied, trying ineffectually to wipe the gore from her outfit with a miffed tone to her voice. “It’s a bit difficult to get an answer from a corpse.”

“I have the answers we need already.” Whippoorwill shrugged. “He thought he was a superspy or something. There’s literally a drive labeled ‘blackmail’ where he’s archived every interaction with his handlers from Millennium. I have names, communication logs, faces, missions, and intelligence. Hell, he even had some samurai birth names rather than their street handles stored away in a folder marked ‘just in case.’”

“Was he working for Millennium?” Kat asked, a frown on her face. “They got caught siding with aliens against humanity itself. They aren’t supposed to exist anymore.”

“They exist,” Whip replied, unplugging herself from the network. “I mean, they don’t publicly call themselves Millennium anymore. There are a number of splinter organizations such as Phoenix Operations, Knights of Lazarus, and C.D. Ward Ltd, all of whom absorbed ‘refugees’ from Millennium when it broke up. From these files, it looks like they’re all still loyal to Mr. Jackson.”

“Erinyes,” Whippoorwill continued with a frown. “There’s no way the megacorporations don’t know. They’ve turned a blind eye because it’s too much of a hassle to root out Millennium’s remnants. Now that everyone has rebranded, they’re perfectly happy returning to business as usual.”

“Is that why you shot Spook?” Kat asked, sighing. “Because he was involved with Millennium?”

“He was more than involved with them.” Whip toed his cooling body. “It sure seems like he was a regional coordinator for their Chiwaukee operations. There’s still a lot of data that I need to sort through, including some encrypted files associated with an ongoing observation mission in Chiwaukee, but Copper Spook was far from innocent. He might’ve been forced into his position initially, but he performed his role as their local organizer with a fair amount of glee.”

“I get that we probably needed to finish him off.” Kat gave up on trying to wipe the blood out of her clothes, chalking them up as a total loss. “I still don’t see why you needed to shoot him mid-interrogation. It was messy and wasteful.”

“What?” Whippoorwill snorted, stepping over the body and walking past Kat to the bedroom door. “Ask him questions and let him squirm trying to justify why he set us up? We never would have gotten anything useful out of him. He would have just lied to us over and over again while I fact checked him from his own archives.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Kat admitted grudgingly, reaching over to pick up the dead man’s smartpanel.

“Plus.” Whip paused in the doorway. Somehow, Kat could tell that the woman was grinning at her through the nylon. “I told you that I’d get you back for the name. You should have seen yourself jump.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

The rainbow swirl of light faded, depositing Kat in the center of a circular marble chamber. Diffuse white light filled the room, seeming to emanate from the walls themselves.

She frowned. Rather than the usual single pathway exiting the entrance to the dungeon, four circular archways, equally spaced around the circumference of the room, marked the tunnels leading away from the starting chamber.

A prismatic soap bubble of mana sprang into being beside Kat as she inspected each of the exits. She couldn’t tell much without actually venturing down one of the tunnels. They were all made of roughly the same featureless marble as the spawning chamber, curving sharply after about ten paces so as to prevent casual observation.

The bubble popped, revealing Kaleek. The desoph glanced around the chamber and sighed, his whiskers drooping.

“I suppose I should have inferred from the name that we’d be stuck in a maze. I hate mazes.”

“The Crystal Labyrinth is a bit of a dead giveaway, isn’t it?” Kat chuckled, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end as mana coalesced behind her to teleport Dorrik into the dungeon. “Still, I don’t see why you’d hate a maze so much. I’ll take a maze over a swamp ten times out of ten.”

“Kaleek simply prefers to fight his opponents head on,” Dorrik interjected, closing the distance between the three of them with two strides. “Most maze dungeons focus on traps and environmental hazards rather than monsters. Explorers spend less time actually fighting creatures than they do lost and avoiding pressure plates.”

Kat squinted at the exits suspiciously. She might not be as driven by the thrill of battle as Kaleek, but that didn’t mean that she found trap-based dungeons anything but miserable.

“I don’t suppose,” she started, speaking slowly as she eyed up their potential paths, “that this dungeon breaks that mold? You know we don’t have a footpad in our team. It’ll take us hours to get anywhere if we have to spend all of our time searching for trap triggers. Hell, this is an Iron dungeon. We’ll all probably wake up before we can finish.”

“Oh no.” Dorrik shook their head earnestly. “I made sure that this dungeon doesn’t have any traps before I directed us here.”

“Thank the ancients.” Kaleek sighed, whiskers twitching. “What sort of monsters will we be facing then?”

Dorrik paused, cocking their head to the side. Their crest fluttered gently in agitation before they turned their head to avoid eye contact, claw tracing through the almost invisible layer of dust covering the marble floor.

“There are monsters, right?” Kat asked, squinting at the lizard.

“It depends on how you define monsters,” Dorrik responded, their voice dragging as they struggled to equivocate.

“Of fucking course!” Kaleek slammed his foot to the ground before sheathing his sword. “This is the part where you come up with some sort of long-winded explanation for how whatever deadly but ultimately boring challenge we’re about to face is actually a monster.”

“The Singing Crystals drop loot,” Dorrik replied, crest flaring with embarrassment. “Even if they don’t move, and generally attack using sonic magic from a distance, that still qualifies them as creatures. Plus, your skills will level up fighting against them. Even if their outward appearance might not be what you’d expect from monsters, The Tower of Somnus considers them to be such—”

“What do they look like?” Kaleek interrupted between gritted teeth. “More importantly, where are they located? At least tell me that the crystals are seated in some sort of quasi mechanical housing that gives them some mobility. Like spider legs or a little cart or something.”

“Err.” Dorrik scratched the back of their head uncomfortably. “They look like giant gemstones mounted on pedestals at the center of the four mazes. Once we navigate the mazes and smash the four crystals, the walls will retract into the ground and the dungeon boss will appear.”

“I’m not going to lie.” Kat shook her head. “If you throw some jumping puzzles in there, this sounds like a video game level.”

Dorrik glanced back at her, cocking their head thoughtfully. Finally, they spoke, clearly deliberating over their words. “Some speculate that The Tower of Somnus was originally meant to be a video game for the Gardeners. That the entirety of the dreamscape and all of the powers we prize so highly were nothing more than trinkets and baubles for their young.”

“Good.” Dorrik smiled brightly. “The translation filter didn’t kick in. You may be from a probationary race, but reaching the sixth level does have its perks.”

“Wait.” Kat whirled to face the grinning lizard. “We can talk about these things now? Seriously, what in God’s name are the Gardeners and what happens when someone hits level twenty four?”

“I’ll let you know who the Gardeners are once I know,” Kaleek responded with a chuckle. “All we know is that they made The Tower of Somnus and left ruins around the galaxy filled with fantastic technology that no one has been able to replicate. About half of the races in the Consensus have been touched by the Gardeners. Their history and myths are all filled with stories of faceless aliens guiding their physical and cultural evolution.”

“The desoph revere them as gods.” He shrugged. “We don’t really know what they look like, just that they gave us fire and taught us to shape metal and wood into tools. Finally, when our race split the atom for the first time, an ark arose out of the ocean and granted us our first two hundred avatars to the dreamscape.”

Dorrik put a hand on Kaleek’s shoulder, shaking their head.

“Unfortunately, we can’t talk about level twenty four,” the big lizard said with a sigh. “Level six has its perks, but you still are from a probationary race. Miss Kat is a smart woman. She can infer what’s happening, but I would prefer to not have a translation lock before we tackle a dungeon.”

Kat chewed on her lip for a second, eyeing the four exits. None of them gave any hints that would betray what lay beyond the turns just past their entrances.

“So,” she said with a frown. “What you mean to say is that you can only pass on useless tidbits about what’s going on. Everything else will just get locked out by the translation filter.”

“Yup,” Kaleek agreed cheerfully. “One thing the Gardeners are big on is for every race to explore the galaxy and find out more about their place in it on their own. Personally? I don’t know whether or not the Gardeners are still around. Every time we level up, the Tower gives us a notification about them, but that’s all I have to go on.”

“Dorrik might know more,” he indicated the embarrassed lizard with a thumb, “but whenever they try to talk about it, I get translation locked too. That plus the artistic renditions of the ancients have led a lot of races into suspecting that the lokkel—”

“Kaleek.” Dorrik shook their head again, cutting him off. “I know you’re looking for an excuse to avoid tackling the mazes, but your gossip is starting to stray into proscribed topics. We can discuss your conspiracies once we finish clearing the dungeon.”

Kat drew her knife, flipping it into the air and letting its metal blade flash in the soft light before catching it. She glanced at one of the exits before turning back to her companions.

“So do we just pick one and start wandering then?” she asked, pointing with her knife. “I don’t suppose your massive repository of knowledge on this dungeon has some sort of hint as to which way we should go?”

“No,” Dorrik replied, almost apologetically as they reached into a pouch in their armor. “What I do have is Bogrut Wax.”

They deposited two milky yellow spheres into Kat’s outstretched hand before rooting around in their pocket for more.

“Bogrut Wax is an alchemical substance designed to help with sonic attacks,” they continued, triumphantly presenting another pair of soft, malleable wax balls to Kaleek who accepted them with some distaste. “We will still suffer damage from the Singing Crystals. The vibrations they generate will still harm mucus membranes and soft tissue, but it should protect us from the worst of the HP loss and vertigo.”

“Unfortunately, we won’t really be able to hear each other with the wax in.” Dorrik shrugged as they inserted a ball of the soft substance in an ear. “Just remember to follow my lead and take the wax out after each maze. It has a limited duration, and there are some… unfortunate side effects if you leave it in for too long.”

“Side effects?” Kat cocked her head to the side. “Like, ‘headache and dry mouth’ side effects, or are space bugs going to hatch in my brain and take control of my body or something?”

Dorrik walked away, their ears stuffed shut. Kaleek followed them, similarly insensible to her complaints.

Kat grumbled one last time before sealing her own ears with the wax. A thrill of energy ran through her as the enchantment took hold and all sound ceased.

She hadn’t even consciously been aware of the dozens of tiny noises that her mind automatically filtered out, but their sudden absence was jarring. From her own breath to the swish of Kaleek’s tail, or the click of Dorrik’s claws against the marble floor, everything just vanished. Even Kat’s halfhearted complaints all but disappeared, sucked into the same void that swallowed all sound.

With an unheard sigh, she followed Kaleek and Dorrik toward one of the tunnels, turning immediately to the left as their team hit its first dead end. After walking down a nondescript hallway for about a minute, they reached another blank wall with branching paths going to the left and right.

Dorrik turned to Kaleek and Kat, tapping the desoph on the shoulder to get his attention before gesturing at the intersection. They poked the featureless marble with a claw before pointing to the left.

Just as Kat was nodding in response, a tremor ran through her entire body. A red damage indicator began flashing in the corner of her vision even as Kat’s vision blurred and her eyes watered.

Her jaw clenched shut as a wave of pain erupted from her teeth, the delicate enamel resonating with the vibrations from what Kat presumed was an attack.

A second later, the pressure was gone, leaving a dull ache in her mouth and a trickle of blood dribbling down Kat’s nose. Almost on instinct, she began casting Cure Wounds I, her mouth moving soundlessly as it formed the strange syllables of the spell.

Golden warmth washed over her as the spell repaired the damage done by the attack. Just as she was finishing her casting, Kaleek tapped her on the shoulder, silently trying to say something to her. Unfortunately, due to The Tower of Somnus’ automatic translation, Kaleek’s mouth had never synced with the words he spoke, meaning that any attempt to read his lips was entirely fruitless.

Still, one look at his puffy and swollen eyes rendered all of that guesswork unnecessary. Kat turned her glowing hands on the bedraggled otter, healing him while Dorrik marked the marble of the wall, scoring an arrow pointing left into the marble.

Dorrik nodded gratefully, twin streams of blood still trickling from their nostrils, as Kat healed them. Then the three of them set off once more, falling into a silent but efficient pattern. Every time they reached an intersection, Dorrik would mark their path, and after attacks from the Singing Crystal, Kat would heal the party.

Periodically, when Kat ran low on mana, she would prod Dorrik in order to get their attention and a potion, but with the help of the wax, the three of them managed to avoid any serious injury. Sure, the attacks from the crystals hurt like absolute hell, but in reality, they only shaved off four or five hit points per attack.

Kat suspected that each energy wave would have floored them without the Bogrut Wax. Every blast of magic made Kat’s mouth ache and practically caused her skin to leap from her body. Without the wax’s protective dampening, all of their ear drums would have broken after the first attack, leaving the entire party nauseous and crawling as the follow up spells savaged their inner ears and destroyed their balance.

Instead, they skated through the maze. Some twenty five minutes later, Kaleek was jumping over a chasm with the aid of Levitation. Another wave of vibrational energy pulsed out from a torso-sized uncut gem, glowing slightly from its housing on a marble pedestal on the other side of the gap.

Kat struggled backward, tears streaming from her eyes as the air pulsed and pressed against them. This close to the Singing Crystal, the throbbing surges of energy bore into her body, stealing the breath from Kat’s lungs and bursting blood vessels in her face and nose. At her side, Dorrik slapped their claws over their eyes, muzzle opening in a silent groan of pain.

Kaleek landed, drawing his greatsword with trembling paws and slashing downward into the ruby. His weapon thundered into the crystal, shattering it and snuffing out its soft glow. Kat dropped to the ground, gasping for breath as the waves of energy cut off just as suddenly as they appeared. Across the gap, Kaleek fell to his knees, not even noticing as the razor sharp shards of broken gemstone cut through his fur and drew blood.

She rolled over, wiping the blood from her nose and mouth even as Kat began casting Cure Wounds I for what seemed like the twentieth time that day. Sitting up, Kat pulled the Bogrut Wax from her ear, wincing as she noticed the streaks of red in the formerly yellow substance. Apparently, the defensive enchantments hadn’t completely protected her from the crystal’s attacks.

“Make sure to gather up the crystal’s dust,” Dorrik croaked out. “It’s incredibly useful in higher level enchanting and even a cupful is worth a dozen or so marks.”

Kat pulled herself to her feet. Even after healing herself, the spells took a toll on her body. Despite being at full hit points, she felt like she’d just run a training course a half dozen times.

“You can comb them out of my fur,” Kaleek groaned back. “Kat, once you’re finished with Dorrik, can you jump over here? I really don’t think I have anything athletic left in me until you heal me.”

She just grunted, walking over to the lokkel and pressing her glowing hands against their scales. Dorrik groaned, leaning into Kat as the magic began to course through them.

“Thank you, Miss Kat.” They spit a stream of blood-saturated saliva into the gap in the marble floor. “I understand intellectually that the Singing Crystal’s attacks only inflame and disorientate, keeping their victims lost in their mazes until blood loss from ruptured veins finishes them off, but that doesn’t mean it feels good.”

“Seriously!” Kaleek called out from where he was laying in the broken shards of the crystal. “By the ancients, let me pick the dungeon next time. Even if it’s a nightmare, at least I’ll make sure it’s a fun nightmare. This maze is absolutely miserable.”

“Sorry,” Dorrik replied, no real hint of penitence in their voice. “Now that I’m stationed on the Undaunted over Earth, I have direct access to the entire lokkel database on the Tower. It would be a shame to waste that advantage so that we can visit a dungeon that your pod’s mate’s cousin enjoyed. As unpleasant as this run has been, we came in properly prepared and have never truly been at risk.”

“No Iron tier dungeon is going to be easy.” The lizard winced as Kat moved her hands up their muzzle to try and stem the bleeding. “The Crystal Labyrinth is the best fit for our abilities. You’ll get your chance to fight something when we clear the mazes and the boss reveals itself. Until then, not everything about the dreamscape is glamor and excitement. For many merchants and craftspeople, it is a matter of putting in a solid night’s work. Tonight, we must adopt the same attitude.”

Kat empowered herself with Levitation, hopping over the chasm that separated the rest of the maze from the platform where the Singing Crystal’s altar was located. The broken chunks of the gemstone crunched under her shoes as she made her way over to Kaleek and began healing the injured desoph.

“Say Dorrik,” she called out, pulling a sliver of crystal out of Kaleek’s paw, her hands glowing with golden light as they immediately closed the gash she created. “You just said something about being in orbit above Earth, right?”

“Yes, Miss Kat?” The lokkel stretched, limbering up their sore body.

“Is there a reason why your people haven’t landed?” Kat asked, moving her hands up toward Kaleek’s swollen face. “It should be pretty obvious that the stallesp broke the rules, but humans aren’t really prepared for clearing up the aftermath. We can’t tell the difference between clones, disguised aliens, and ordinary humans.”

“Worse,” her expression soured, “every company seems to want someone else to handle the problem. All of them realize that rooting out the infiltration involves a serious investment of resources that would weaken them enough that a rival could take advantage of the situation. Instead of doing anything, they’re all eyeing each other like a bunch of feral dogs circling roadkill. None of them are willing to make the first move.”

“There’s a reason,” Dorrik replied unhappily. “Not a good one, but a reason nonetheless. The commander of our expedition made a mistake early on that cost lokkel lives. Now he is slavishly following procedure in an attempt to escape an inquest. It won’t succeed, but in the meantime, our task force has reached out to the Galactic Consensus.”

“The stallesp have accused us of opening fire without provocation.” They sighed. “They have claimed that the lokkel are actually interfering on Earth. That we are the ones influencing your development and interfering with your probationary status.”

“What a mess.” Kaleek snorted under Kat’s hands. “They’ve already recalled the blue ribbon investigative commission. Last I heard, they are sending a full multi-racial subcommittee to audit the situation in person. In short, nothing is going to happen.”

“Unfortunately, Kaleek is correct.” Dorrik’s crest fluttered in distressed agitation. “The stallesp have been making moves on multiple fronts. Many of them have ended in open conflict. The entire time, the Consensus and the ‘sober heads’ that lead the lokkel wring their hands and flippers in distress.”

“We are at war.” Dorrik crossed both sets of arms. “It is time for action, yet the entire galaxy seems content to write sternly worded letters in response to pulser fire and plasma lances. That is why I am stuck practicing my swordsmanship onboard the Undaunted while you struggle with foes that outmatch you. Willful blindness, plain and simple.”

They frowned past Kat, crest fluttering.

“Quit faking it, Kaleek.” The lokkel snorted in amusement. “You aren’t bleeding anymore and the longer you lay there, the longer it takes for us to finish the dungeon. On your feet. We have three more mazes to traverse.”

Kaleek groaned under Kat’s hands, slumping back onto the platform’s marble floor.

CHAPTER NINE

Kat stumbled on the indoor track as her smartpanel chirped at her, indicating a phone call from an unknown number. She jogged past a man and a woman in the middle of their morning cardio in the college gymnasium before grabbing her towel from where she had left it next to her school clothes and accepted the call.

“Miss Debs.” Belle Donnst’s voice froze Kat, her hand halfway to her sweaty forehead with the towel. “It’s good to see that you’re keeping in shape.”

The other woman smiled frostily at Kat. Belle’s tiny image in the smart panel was immaculate, without a crease in her pantsuit or a single hair out of place.

“After all,” the executive continued good naturedly, “now that you’re back in the game, you’ll need to keep your body fighting trim. All of the powers and instincts honed in The Tower of Somnus don’t mean much if your waking form can’t keep up with them.”

Kat forced her hand into action, wiping her face down as she forced a smile.

“It’s good to see you too, Mrs. Donnst,” she replied, voice much steadier than she felt. “I’m a little surprised to hear from you. Mainly because I don’t recall giving you my personal number or informing you that I was back to work.”

“Oh please.” Belle leaned toward her camera, waving a hand dismissively. “When it’s just us girls, I’m Miss Donnst. I might be married, but that doesn’t mean I’m taken.”

She winked at Kat, a carefully studied facsimile of a normal human interaction, devoid of the warmth or playfulness one would expect.

“Sure,” Kat replied. She stepped away from the track, letting the pair of joggers huff past her as she made her way toward the gym’s showers. “Miss it is. That still doesn’t tell me why you’re calling me at this exact moment.”

“Of course, Miss Debs.” Belle nodded, a satisfied smile on her face. “Straight to business. An admirable level of focus.”

“Xander’s passing… saddened me.” The older woman struggled with the word, not even attempting to display grief. “He was a solid and capable business partner. He kept his end of deals and we both profited together greatly.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Kat replied uncertainly.

“And so,” Belle continued, ignoring Kat’s hesitation, “I find myself bereft of a reliable infiltrator. I have plenty of muscle. A thug with more chrome than sense and something to prove is cheap outside corporate enclaves. What I want is a scalpel.”

Belle pursed her lips, letting a ghost of a smile play over her face.

“But I suppose I am willing to settle for a machete. Your results speak for themselves, Erinyes, but many would prefer their infiltrators to come and go unseen.”

“Does it count as unseen if there aren’t any witnesses?” Kat asked rhetorically. “I think most people only know about my operations because we posted promotional vids of them to bring in contracts.”

“Or if we were closely watching a lead only for him to disappear around the same time you and your friends visited his neighborhood,” Belle riposted with a chilly smile. “Copper Spook was a clumsy idiot, but that was why my people liked him. He couldn’t help but brag about how he’d set up ‘the great Erinyes’ only for him to go missing hours later. Now I’m left without any way to keep a tab on Millennium’s movements.”

“I’m sorry?” Kat replied with a shrug. Belle could only see her face projected from the smartpanel, but the reaction was simply reflex. “I didn’t go after the idiot to try to rob you of a target. He tried to have me killed and he missed, so I grabbed his data vault and iced him. Nothing too complicated or nefarious about it.”

“But you did get his data vault?” Belle leaned forward, a gleam in her eyes. “You know who he’s been talking to and what he’s been doing? Given how deep Millennium has gone underground, that would be very valuable information in the right hands. Why don’t you tell me what you have and I’ll give you an offer?”

Kat quickly shucked off her clothing, changing into her street apparel while she considered the older woman’s words.

“I’m not sure exactly what we have,” Kat hedged. There was just something about the predatory look on Belle’s usually expressionless face that set off internal alarms. “We found some references to active operations in the Chiwaukee area. I’ll look into selling the data once I get a chance to check out exactly what we have.”

“After all,” Kat let a shark smile of her own play across her face, “it’s hard for me to request a fair value for a product if I don’t know what it’s actually worth. I wouldn’t want to accidentally sell gold for a handful of credits because I thought it was brass.”

“Good girl,” Belle replied, nodding approvingly. “Know your worth and assert it. Otherwise someone like me will eat you alive.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Kat replied, confusion on her face.

“Just give me a call when you’re ready to sell.” Belle nodded at her camera. “This number should be able to reach my personal secretary day or night. Also, if you’re looking for work, I’m sure I can find something for you.”

A motion of the older woman’s hand panned the camera out, revealing a floor to ceiling window overlooking the daytime bustle of downtown Chiwaukee. Kat recognized the landmarks of the megalopolis’ corporate sector, barely a couple of blocks from the upscale high-rise the corporate college called home.

“After the last round of unpleasantness, I was promoted out of Schaumburg entirely,” Belle continued. “I’m located in Chiwaukee now. Although the increase in wealth and prestige is appreciated, it has left me disconnected from my contractor network. If you’re looking for work, I’m sure I can find something for you to do.”

Kat fought to keep a wince from her face. As useful a contact as Belle was, chaining her fate to the ruthless woman sounded like a losing plan. Donnst didn’t hide the fact that she would use contractors like Kat as disposable patsies. Hell, the woman would brag about it.

“I’ll reach out to you if I need something.” Internally, Kat congratulated herself on keeping the response cordial. “Once I have a price in mind for the information we pulled out of Spook, I’ll let you know.”

“Great.” Belle beamed back, entirely unperturbed by Kat’s noncommittal response. “I’ll buy anything related to the aliens or Millennium that you can get your hands on. The megacorporations may be putting on a brave face, but this entire thing has them scared. They know there are still clone farms, and no one knows who to trust, so information on the stallesp is selling at a premium. Get me something good, and you can get yourself a slice of that premium.”

The call ended abruptly, leaving Kat in the gym locker room, abruptly aware of the girl showering to her right. With a flush of embarrassment, she stuffed her workout clothes into her duffel bag and made her way back to the elevator. A short stop in her dorm room later and Kat was on her way to the cafeteria for breakfast.

After standing in line at the crepe bar for almost a minute, Kat turned away, her plate full to search for a table. A second later, she flinched as a high-pitched voice shrieked her name.

“Kaaaat!” Emma Tiller ran up to her, grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her, mostly unresisting, toward a corner booth. “You’ll never guess what happened last night!”

Her body tensed, mind flickering through the events of the previous evening and the phone call with Belle, wondering how Emma could have possibly found out.

The other woman pulled her into the booth where Jasper and Iris were both sitting together, blushing.

“Jasper finally got up the nerve to ask Iris out,” Emma gushed, ignoring the pained looks on her companions’ faces. “I mean, we all knew that he had a crush on her, but now it’s finally official.”

“We’re just going out for drinks,” Jasper replied uncomfortably. “We’ve been friends for a while so it’ll be a little weird for us to start seeing each other in a romantic way, but it just seems natural, you know.”

Kat noticed Iris’s hand gripping Jasper’s tighter as she sat down across from the two of them, placing her plate of crepes on the table.

“I’m so happy for you.” Kat smiled at both of them, trying to ignore Emma practically vibrating next to her. “I’m not really one to talk about dating, but the two of you do make a cute couple.”

“Whereareyougoingfordrinks?” Like a dam breaking, the words gushed out of Emma. “How did he ask you out, Iris? Come on, I just have to know!”

Kat took advantage of the stream of words erupting from her side to skewer a sugar-glazed strawberry slice from the top of her plate and pop it in her mouth. She’d be lying if she pretended she wasn’t enjoying the visible discomfort from the usually calm and collected Iris and Jasper while Emma interrogated them.

“We were just studying together and he asked?” Iris squirmed, her face beet red. “I mean, at first I wondered why he would want to go out for a glass of wine when we could just send the help for an older and better bottle. Then he explained it to me—”

“It doesn’t really make sense.” Jasper shrugged helplessly. “Dating would be so much easier if you were allowed to simply shake hands with someone and agree that you like each other. Unfortunately, there are some formulas and rituals related to the process that simply can’t be ignored. Davis is trying to explain it all to me, but—”

Emma squealed, leaning forward in her seat while Kat shoveled down food. She spent about an hour in the college gym every morning between cardio, agility, and weight training exercises, and that required a fair number of calories to keep her moving. If she was going to be a side character in Emma’s unending quest to collect gossip on other students, Kat was going to need to get as much of her breakfast down as possible before the other girl drew her back into the conversation.

“Are you going to Chateau Rue?” Emma’s face was practically glowing. “They have some of the best ambiance in town and last week Diane Sather—the actress who plays Jenny Silverarm?—she was spotted there with a shareholder.”

Kat raised a hand, cutting off Jasper before he could respond. Chewing frantically, she swallowed a mouthful of crepes.

“Don’t answer that,” Kat cut in, shaking her head. “If you tell Emma where you’re going, our entire class will know by the end of the day. If you and Iris want a moment alone, I’d suggest keeping it under wraps from everyone but Davis.”

“You’re no fun, Kat,” Emma pouted while Iris silently mouthed her a ‘thank you.’ “Outside of all that political nonsense, this is some of the most excitement we’ve had in months.”

“Jasper Haupt and Iris Leander,” she continued, batting her eyelashes as she let a singsong note of lyricism enter her voice. “Two of the most eligible singles at GroCorp College squaring off together. What could possibly be more romantic than that?”

“Actually.” Jasper ignored Emma, instead turning to Kat, with a slightly furrowed brow. “Davis said that you should get in touch with him. Something about you having something he’d be interested in buying?”

He shrugged, embarrassed. “Sorry I don’t remember anymore, Kat. I was in a hurry to get out the door. It’s been hard adjusting my schedule now that I can’t rely on Andrew to get me to school on time. The new driver just isn’t as good as…”

Jasper trailed off, wincing as his words carelessly brushed over a sore spot.

“Jesus.” Kat forced out a chuckle. “Davis knows too? Sometimes I wonder if there’s even a point to trying to be secretive in Chiwaukee. Everyone’s so deep in everyone else’s business that stealth barely even matters.”

“Oohhh?” Emma turned to Kat, a single brow arched. “Are you holding out on me now too, Kat? Come on, out with it.”

She burst out laughing, followed shortly afterward by Jasper and Iris, all of the table’s tension and awkwardness disappearing like the air from a popped balloon.

Emma glanced back and forth, perplexed.

Kat was almost in tears from her friend’s earnest confusion by the time she gathered herself enough to respond. “I know you can’t help yourself, Emma, but sometimes you have to let a girl have her secrets.”

“Even if it’s a borderline open secret.” Iris chuckled, shaking her head. “I mean, he said your name—”

“Iris,” Jasper squeezed her hand, silencing the girl. “If Emma doesn’t know and Kat wants to keep things quiet, we should respect that.”

“Come on!” Emma frantically looked from Kat to Iris and back again. “This isn’t fair! How come I’m the only one at the table that doesn’t know what’s going on? I’m supposed to be the one that knows the secrets and tells everyone else.”

“It’s political anyway.” Kat shook her head, unable to keep a smile off her face as Emma threw a fit next to her. “Don’t worry about it. I have my secrets but they aren’t anything you’d actually be interested in. No moonlight escapades with paramours or breathless encounters with mysterious heirs or heiresses.”

“You promise, right?” Emma grumbled. “Seriously, Kat, you’re enough of an oddity that your personal life comes up fairly frequently. The minute you start seeing someone, it’ll be news and I want to be the one to break that news.”

“Again,” Kat chuckled, “don’t worry about it. I don’t think my dating life will be interesting anytime soon. I’ve already made my share of mistakes on that front, and I’m not excited to try my hand again anytime soon.”

“Oh?” Iris asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought that friend of yours with pink hair had a thing for you. She certainly seems to spend a lot of time around you.”

“I’m her only friend in Chiwaukee,” Kat replied with a shrug. “There are really only bad memories left for Whip in Schaumburg, but she doesn’t know anyone here. Of course she’s going to be spending most of her time with me.”

“And you’re sure there’s nothing there?” Iris leaned forward, eyes twinkling. Without even looking, Kat could tell that Emma was crowding in as well.

“Not that I know of,” she responded with a self-deprecating smile. “Of course, I’m about as knowledgeable on these sorts of things as a turnip. I would basically be the last to know anyway.”

“That said,” Kat continued, focusing on Jasper and Iris on the other end of the table. “I don’t want to intrude on your couple time or whatever, but the two of you are leveling in The Tower of Somnus together, right?”

“It’s hardly ‘couples time,’ unfortunately,” Jasper answered, a sour expression on his face. “Davis has one of his guards in there with us at all times as a chaperone. He’s the same level as us, but Davis put him through melee training daily for almost six months before giving him a subscription.”

“Then I don’t suppose you’d mind substituting him for Whip?” Kat asked. “She’s only level one at the moment, but she’ll need a team before long. It only makes sense to have her climb the Tower with the two of you. That way you have someone you can trust at your back and we can keep in touch no matter where we are.”

Jasper opened his mouth to say something, concern on his face, only for Iris to squeeze his hand.

“Come on,” she whispered to her boyfriend. “We owe Kat. Plus, it’ll be fun.”

His expression crumpled into a rueful smile. “Fine,” he responded helplessly. “I’ll run the idea past Davis.”

“Great.” Kat beamed back, digging her fork into the crepes once more.

CHAPTER TEN

Kat knocked on the metal-reinforced door, smiling at a security camera as it paused its normal sweep of the hallway to swivel and observe her. A second later, the door clicked as its lock released itself. She pushed it open, having to strain for a second against its ancient hinges and heavy weight.

“Close the door behind you,” Whippoorwill called out from the other room. “I’m in the living room, plugged in.”

Kat rolled her eyes, slipping off her shoes as she pushed the door shut with her shoulder before walking into Whip’s apartment. She made her way past the kitchen, stocked with gleaming, unused stainless steel appliances en route to the living room.

Whippoorwill lay on the couch, clad in disheveled pajamas with her twitching eyes closed. From the hallway, Kat could make out the gray snake of her friend’s cranial implant as it curled around behind her furniture and plugged into some unseen socket in the wall.

Snorting, Kat walked past the smartpanel, ignoring the rapid movements and bright flashing lights of a Chibi Princess Cats rerun. A sweep of her foot cleared the coffee table next to Whippoorwill’s couch of the empty soda cans and food cartons that covered it.

Whip jumped, eyes opening in bewilderment at the rattle of aluminum cans hitting the hardwood floor.

“You need to hire a maid or something,” Kat said with a chuckle. She plopped a plastic bag down onto the newly cleared table before reaching inside and taking out one of the two Styrofoam containers. “Anyway, I got us kebabs from that new place down on Seventeenth Street. I made sure to avoid any of the ‘chef’s special’ options, so you should have a mix of lamb and chicken.”

Whippoorwill sat up eagerly, pressing a release on the back of her head that unplugged her cord and began coiling it. She leaned forward, grabbing the remaining Styrofoam container while Kat looked for a chair that wasn’t covered in trash to sit in.

“Thanks, Kat,” Whip choked out through a mouthful of skewered meat. “God, I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled the kebabs. I guess I just lost track of time while going over the data from Copper Spook.”

“Looks like you’ve been getting distracted a lot.” Kat grunted, brushing a handful of burger wrappers off of a recliner before sitting down.

“Sorry about that,” Whip replied apologetically, setting her first empty kebab skewer onto the coffee table. “I was looking into ads from NyanNyanMaid and they’re a little pricey, but they advertise ‘full maid services at any time of the night.’ I’m a bit of a night owl, so I figured a late night cleaner would be perfect.”

“You do realize that NyanNyanMaid, LLC is a registered brothel, right?” Kat asked, glaring at Whippoorwill’s empty skewer. She hadn’t been in the girl’s apartment for ten minutes, and already clutter was beginning to accumulate in the spot Kat had cleared off of the coffee table. “The late ‘full maid services’ they’re talking about don’t actually involve all that much cleaning.”

“Oh.” Whippoorwill blushed, averting her eyes. “Oh.”

“I hesitate to ask what sort of pages you were visiting that you were getting advertisements for NyanNyanMaid,” Kat continued, smiling impishly. “You do know that the ‘sexy singles in your area’ aren’t all that interested in helping clean either, right?”

“Anyway,” Whip responded hurriedly, her cheeks scarlet. “I managed to decrypt everything we pulled from Copper Spook’s archives, and there’s a lot we need to talk about.”

“Is that where you found out about NyanNyanMaid?” Kat leaned back in her chair, still grinning at Whippoorwill. “He certainly seemed like the type.”

“Millennium’s remnants have been very active in the Chiwaukee area.” The other woman wouldn’t meet Kat’s eyes, instead electing to studiously ignore her jibes. “Spook handled any number of information gathering jobs for them, but there is more than a little evidence that he was actively helping higher ups with blackmail and extortion.”

“It sure looks like part of the reason that GroCorp hasn’t been able to eliminate Millennium is that a lot of their security and intelligence chiefs have been compromised,” Whip continued. “Honestly? Even if we manage to acquire irrefutable evidence, I half expect that some of these people would rather have us eliminated than risk some of these secrets coming out.”

“Good news and bad news,” Kat replied unhappily. “The good news is that someone new has been assigned to ferreting out Millennium’s involvement in the area. Now try to guess the bad news.”

“Belle?” Whip asked, making a face.

Kat just nodded, sighing as she sunk into her chair.

“Great,” Whippoorwill grumbled. “That’s exactly what we need. Millennium is sniffing around, trying to put hits on us, and now Belle is back in the picture. I’m not sure how much better a life stuck as her lapdog would be than a car bomb from a Millennium operations team.”

“Agreed,” Kat responded. “Unfortunately, Belle was looking into Copper Spook when you shot him. She knows we have something, and she’s going to keep pressing me until we sell that information to someone. I’ve put her off for now, but there’s only so long I can dodge her before she turns up the heat.”

“Will she be a problem if we sell to someone other than her?” Whip brushed her pink hair out of her frowning face. “This isn’t going to turn into something where she tries to ‘take care of us’ if we don’t become her in-house spy team, is it?”

“As long as we deal fairly with her, we should be fine.” Kat shrugged listlessly. “She wants the information, no doubt about that, but if we worked only for Belle, she would lose all plausible deniability when employing us. She has her own teams to do basic spying. With us, if we get caught snooping somewhere we shouldn’t be or killing someone important, she can claim that we were acting on our own. We’re worth more to her as independent operators, so she won’t press us too hard.”

“That…” The other woman hesitated. “That isn’t anywhere near as reassuring as I thought it would be, actually.”

“That’s the good part about attending corporate college I suppose.” Kat popped open the Styrofoam container in her lap and pulled out one of the kebabs. “You learn how the other side thinks. It had never really made sense to me that the corporations would honor the samurai code, but once I took a couple of classes on ‘covert business transactions,’ they spelled it all out.”

“The corporations know that senior employees are going to engage in cloak and dagger ‘side projects.’” She bit into the kebab, wincing as the combination of spices and hot juices sprayed the inside of her mouth. “So they made a system that lets them keep their ‘side projects’ separate from their everyday life. All of the complicated rules with names, the free market for hiring, it really only exists so that executives can deny the actions of the teams they hire. Apparently, before the corporations decided to embrace ‘independent contractors’ like us, there were incidents where rivals started slinging fireballs at each other in boardrooms over operations gone wrong.”

“These days,” Kat continued, “there are a million unspoken rules and invisible lines that corporate employees can’t cross. If Belle’s personal intelligence teams got caught stealing the design for a new brand of fertilizer from a rival, she’d be fined and have a mark against her on her employment record. If we get caught? She can still attend the opera with the person that executes us and pretend like it had nothing to do with her.”

“Again,” Whip grumbled, “hardly reassuring.”

“I don’t know,” Kat countered. “It’s not like I would actually believe the executives if they came out and said that they were allowing us our independence out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s actually strangely comforting to know exactly how our existence benefits them. It gives me a much better idea how far we can push things before we agitate the powers that be into crushing us.”

Whippoorwill just bit into another meat skewer, shaking her head.

“Fair enough.” Kat chuckled. “So, what have you managed to pull out of Copper Spook’s database? Anything juicy?”

Whip swallowed a mouthful of food before discarding the skewer. She shifted slightly on the couch as she gathered her thoughts.

“A lot of low level stuff.” Whip’s face scrunched slightly as she began reciting from memory. “A list of information sources, arms brokers, and fences that are willing to work with him. I also have logs of the samurai that he’s using for operations, but only one or two of them are named, and it looks like all of them were kept in the dark. A bit more promising is the banking information from when Millennium pays him, but I suspect that cracking into Swiss Federated Bank to track them down would be more trouble than it’s worth.”

“I’ve walked by their local operations center.” Kat shook her head. “The place is practically a fortress. I’m sure we could break in if we really wanted to, but there’s no way I’d be able to pull that off without getting noticed, and I’d prefer to not to piss off another major corporation for no reason.”

“Yeah.” Whippoorwill made a face. “Their security doesn’t play around, either. The second I sent a ping their way to follow up on Spook’s files, I hit a buzzsaw of electronic defenses. I’d prefer to consider bothering with Federated a last resort.”

Kat nodded fervently. The banking system wasn’t quite a megacorporation, their operations were too narrowly focused for that, but at the same time they couldn’t be underestimated. Every megacorporation used the escrow systems of the three big banks when trading outside their boundaries, and each of the banks had enough private security to ensure that their operations remained independent. Picking a fight with them was a good way to end up in a whole lot of trouble.

“I think our best bet,” Whip continued, “are the e-mails sent back and forth with Spook’s handler. Everything was in code phrases or references, but after reading through a couple hundred of them, they spell out at least some of Millennium’s operations in Chiwaukee.”

“So we don’t know anyone’s name or capabilities.” Kat frowned as she tried to work through her friend’s reasoning. “All we know is that they’re active in the area and that Spook worked for them.”

“More or less,” Whippoorwill replied. “Most of the e-mails came from the wireless stations located around Homan Square and Spook’s contact made a couple of references to the ‘hideout’ or ‘the black site.’ I think it’s safe to assume that the Millennium remnants are hidden somewhere in that area, but his handler was careful to never meet in person or give an address, so I’m just guessing. If they didn’t trust Spook, it wouldn’t be that hard for them to spoof their location.”

“That’s not a lot to go on, Whip.” Kat pulled out her second kebab. “We don’t really have any way to smoke Millennium out, and the only hint we have is contingent on a group of battle-hardened mercenaries trusting a profoundly untrustworthy person. I don’t really care for those odds.”

“You didn’t let me finish.” The other woman pouted back with an over exaggerated frown. “Even though we don’t have a lot to go on regarding the Millennium base, Spook was involved with an ongoing operation. Apparently, he was Millennium’s outside contact for an observation and monitoring program that used both Millennium and local assets.”

“We can’t find Millennium’s base,” Whippoorwill continued, a smile on her face. “But I can basically guarantee that some of their operatives are monitoring this ‘target alpha’ character. Even if we can’t nab one of their observers, making a move on their target will almost certainly get us a response. They’ve gone through a lot of money and effort to keep tabs on him, and I’m pretty sure they won’t appreciate us interfering.”

“Great,” Kat mumbled around a mouthful of meat. “Our current best plan is ‘kicking the hornet’s nest’ and seeing if something happens.”

“Hey,” Whip responded defensively. “This ‘target alpha’ guy has to have something on them if they’re going through all of this trouble to keep him under surveillance. Maybe we can just make contact with him and see if he has any insight into Millennium. This doesn’t have to be a violent operation. We could just go in, let him know he’s being watched and trade information about the people tailing him for whatever he knows on Millennium.”

“Uh-huh,” Kat replied, thoroughly unconvinced. “We don’t even know this guy’s name. How do we know he’s going to be receptive in the slightest to us showing up out of the blue and telling him that a powerful but defunct gang is keeping tabs on him and that his life is in danger?”

“I have his address and a short dossier.” Whippoorwill blushed, glancing away from Kat’s judgmental gaze. “Apparently, he’s a samurai in possession of dangerous intelligence and Millennium wants him monitored while they gather the resources to eliminate him cleanly and quietly.”

“So this guy has been designated ‘target alpha’ by one of the most dangerous mercenary groups in the world, and even they are in the process of marshaling their forces to deal with him?” Kat asked skeptically. “This doesn’t sound like an accountant in over his head. He sounds like bad news, someone armed to the teeth and with the skill to be dangerous. Fuck, he’s probably a player.”

“Uhhhh.” Whip’s eyes glazed over as she checked the data stored on the computer planted in the back of her skull. “Yeah, it looks like they’ve noted that he’s a player but there isn’t much information on his class beyond that he ‘isn’t a spellcaster.’”

“Crap,” Whippoorwill winced. “Millennium warned Spook to keep his people discreet, but they made sure to tell him that there was a combat response team on hand just in case something happened.”

“Of course he’s a player, and of course there will be armed goons ready to swarm us the minute we make contact,” Kat quipped back. “Still, if he’s our only lead, I suppose you should look into the address you pulled from Spook’s files. Maybe you can get us some more information about who ‘target alpha’ is and what he might want. Just be careful not to alert Millennium. They’re probably monitoring him electronically as well.”

Whippoorwill gave her a grateful smile. Kat could have given the girl more grief for her haphazard plan, but it really wouldn’t have improved anything. They didn’t have any great options and as half-baked as Whip’s idea was, Kat struggled to come up with a better plan.

“In the meantime,” she grinned at the pink-haired girl, “I’m not going to unload my pistols. This doesn’t exactly sound like a low key mission to me.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kat ducked under a stream of acid, not even bothering to watch it splatter against one of the fake wooden pillars that were strewn about the dungeon. As far as she could tell, the wood cylinders were designed to resemble trees in order to give the rooms a ‘forest’ feel, but in practice, they mostly served as densely packed obstructions.

Kaleek hissed, the liquid splashing next to him spraying his coat. As agile as the big warrior was, the ‘trees’ prevented him from using his sword properly, rendering him little more than a big furry target.

A purple glow twinkled around her enemy, a snail-like creature covered in a dull black pyramid-shaped shell as Dorrik unleashed his Psi abilities to slow the monster.

Kat darted forward, agilely picking her way through the ‘forest,’ the combination of Levitation and Cat Step making her little more than a predatory blur as she wove through the obstructing pillars. An eyeblink later, she cast Dehydrate, assaulting the delicate membranes the creature used to breathe through its shell.

It popped its head out, switching to its lungs to draw in some of the dungeon air just in time to meet a downward stroke of Kat’s dagger. The blade squelched through its soft flesh, pinning the slimy cylinder to the ground.

“Ancients damn it!” Kaleek burst out in frustration. “Dorrik, I know you spend half of your free time researching these dungeons, so can you please tell me why, despite all of that time and effort, you managed to pick a dungeon where I’m absolutely useless?”

“Fuck, that stings,” he grumbled, trying to brush some of the fizzling acidic residue off of his fur. “Seriously, half of these splash attacks don’t even hit my armor so the enchantments can’t help. It doesn’t do much damage, but at this rate, I’m going to look like I have the mange by the end of the dungeon.”

Dorrik picked their way past one of the pillars, raw red welts covering their scaled arms from where one of the snails had sprayed them. The lokkel wiped their swords, one after another, on a tree, cleaning the monster’s thick mucus off of the weapons before sheathing them.

“We are in the Iron tier, Kaleek.” The lizard shrugged, as if their statement were explanation enough. “Dungeons aren’t simple anymore. None of us should expect to make it all the way through one without taking a hit. That simply isn’t practical.”

“Plus,” Dorrik continued, patting the grumbling desoph on the shoulder amiably, “I selected this dungeon mostly because it is well suited to our combination of abilities. The early rooms suit Miss Kat, but the boss fight is primarily going to fall to you.”

The despondent otter perked up, his whiskers twitching slightly. “What kind of boss fight are we looking at?” he asked hopefully.

“A much larger version of the dread snails that we’ve been fighting.” Dorrik nodded at Kat as she pushed her shoulder into the monster’s corpse, tipping it onto its side. She sliced open the creature’s soft underbelly, careful to minimize her contact with the acidic mucus as she began rooting through its innards.

“Make sure to get the stones from both gizzards,” Dorrik called out. “They’re fairly rare and have uses in both enchanting and alchemy. If we can get them back to town, each one is probably worth at least thirty marks.”

Kat just grunted back, trying to keep her mind on her disgusting task through the constant low grade pain brought on by contact with the creature’s acidic membrane.

Kaleek nudged Dorrik in an attempt to return the lizard to their former discussion.

“Ah.” They shook their head, crest fluttering in embarrassment. “Yes, the boss fight. It is more or less a much larger version of the dread snails, except that it clings to the walls of its chamber and fires gouts of acid with enough force to shatter stone.”

“I could use a larger opponent to vent some stress,” Kaleek began thoughtfully, “but if it’s on the wall—”

“Obviously,” Dorrik continued, eyes unfocused as they delved deep into their memory for information on the monster, “given its greater size, the acid has a lower pH and is much more concentrated than what we’ve encountered so far.”

“Yeah,” the otter tried to interject, “but if it—”

“We will also have to deal with the fang bats.” Dorrik nodded thoughtfully. “They have four wings and hunt by scent. One or two aren’t that bad, but they have a tendency to swarm if they detect blood.”

“Dorrik!” Kaleek waved both of his hands in front of the lizard’s face. “I can’t fly! As much as I’d love to smash some sort of big acid monster in the face, if I can’t reach it, I can’t hit it.”

“Sorry.” The lokkel winced. “I’ve been distracted. Many things have been going on in the waking world that have been warring for my attention.”

“The Aldebaran incident?” Kaleek’s expression softened. “A desoph courting one of my podmates was there. Thank the ancients that the lokkel fleet acted in time. The Consensus Peacekeepers sure looked like they were just going to let it happen.”

“Aldebaran?” Kat asked, reaching out to hand four blood-red, gleaming gizzard stones to Dorrik. “That’s awfully close to Earth. What happened at Aldebaran?”

“A ‘privateer’ fleet attacked an orbital habitat.” Kaleek shook his head angrily. “Aldebaran is an open system with multiple races present, so it should have been under the jurisdiction of the Consensus Peacekeepers. They did absolutely nothing, and a lokkel taskforce had to step in to prevent civilian deaths.”

“Later it turned out that the ‘privateer’ ships were crewed solely by the stallesp and their allies.” The desoph spat on the dungeon floor. “The commodore in charge of the defenses was a well-known expansionist, sympathetic to the stallesp cause. He claimed that there was a communication error that prevented his ships from determining who the aggressors were until the situation got out of control, but we all know that’s a steaming load of shit.”

“The public reports left out some important details,” Dorrik rumbled unhappily. “Commodore G’Sain locked his weapons on Commander Takkal’s vessels when she moved to intercept the privateers. She dared him to open fire and the coward stood down, but he actively tried to stop her from protecting the habitat.”

Kaleek stopped batting at the acid burning its way through clumps of his fur. He frowned back at the lokkel. “I didn’t hear anything about that.”

“Most didn’t,” Dorrik replied, shaking their head. “G’Sain has lodged an official complaint against Takkal for ‘not following the directives of a duly appointed Consensus officer.’ It isn’t going to go anywhere, but the Consensus is keeping things under wraps while they ‘investigate’ the ‘serious accusations’ from both sides.”

Kaleek just snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Lokkel high command agrees.” The big lizard flashed a feral grin. “All ports are currently closed to stallesp ships in the name of ‘piracy prevention.’ They’re complaining, but for once the Consensus’ inefficiency is working in our favor. The stallesp have blamed pirates for so many attacks made by their navy that we were able to force the issue. Now their request is buried under years’ worth of committees and investigations.”

“At least your people are taking it seriously,” Kat replied unhappily. “Back on Earth, everyone has acknowledged that the stallesp tried to take the planet over, but no one is willing to actually step up and act. They’re literally covering up the extent of what happened in order to justify putting their heads in the sand.”

“I was standing next to Commander Tosset when he got the orders.” Dorrik chuckled. “All lokkel fleets are to treat unidentified or stallesp-aligned ships as hostile. No attempts will be made to render aid if they are in distress and we have been directed to fire upon them if they enter weapons range.”

“It took everything in me to not flare my crest at the self-satisfied old dolt,” they continued cheerfully. “I know I shouldn’t be happy about what is functionally a state of war, but at the same time—” They shrugged, a strange rippling motion as all four of Dorrik’s shoulders moved upward at the same time.

“We’re already there,” the lokkel finished. “I felt like I was going mad, screaming into the void that the stallesp were sharpening their knives at our gate. They broke norm after norm, killing innocents and exploiting new races. As awful as the status quo is, it feels like the entire galaxy has finally woken up.”

“Speaking about waking up,” Kaleek interjected. “As much as I like complaining about Consensus politics, if we keep at it, all three of us are going to be stuck running this dungeon again tomorrow night. Right now the problem is that I swim. I do not fly. As such, I cannot attack an enemy stuck to a wall.”

“Right.” Dorrik winced as the big otter brought them back on topic. “You currently cannot fly. That said, between Miss Kat utilizing Levitation and me casting Telekinetic Field, we should be able to move you toward the wall. You will still have to find a way to brace yourself against the stone as you will be mostly weightless, but a couple of good blows should be enough to break through its shell.”

“So I should treat it like a zero-g drill from school.” The otter perked up, whiskers twitching. “That I can do.”

“In the meantime, we handle the piranha bat things?” Kat asked, rolling her shoulders to loosen them up. “I mean, I could probably Gravity Spike the snail if it’s just going to sit there.”

“Unfortunately, its shell is highly resistant to magic and Psi abilities,” Dorrik lamented with a shake of their head. “It will still do damage, but not anywhere near the levels necessary to bring the monster down. The better plan is still to send Kaleek after it.”

“Plus,” the lokkel inclined their head toward the excited desoph, “look at how excited he is. I couldn’t bear to break his furry little heart by having us bombard it with spells from a distance, even if it would work.”

Kat glanced over to Kaleek and felt a smile blossom on her face as the big otter hopped from foot to foot, whiskers twitching and eyes sparkling.

“If we’re done debating the glossy luster of my fur,” he said with a quick grin, “let’s get going. After all of this awful dodging and boring political talk, I’m more than ready to just break something.”

She broke out laughing, earning another smile and flutter of the crest from Dorrik.

“Come.” They pointed at the forest’s exit tunnel. “The next room should be the boss chamber and it wouldn’t do to keep Kaleek wound up forever.”

Kat followed them out of the room. A short walk later, the three of them stepped into a huge rectangular chamber. All of the wooden ‘trees’ were gone, replaced instead by massive vaulted stone walls. At the far end, barely visible from the entrance, she could barely make out the dim shape of the dungeon altar.

The boss was clearly visible, a dull black pyramid affixed to the left wall at the narrowest point in the room. The floor below it was white with guano, leaving Kat to speculate unhappily at both its smell, and slipperiness.

Above it, hundreds if not thousands of dark gray shapes, each about the size of her forearm, clung to the ceiling. Kat’s grip tightened on her knife as she imagined the bats swarming over her and Dorrik.

She turned to her companions to ask a question about strategy only to notice that Kaleek wasn’t there. Dorrik shrugged apologetically, only for the sound of paws on stone to tear her gaze from the sheepish lizard.

“Die, you carrion-dwelling lump of flesh!” Kaleek screamed, already a quarter of the way to the boss. “You’re big and ugly, but in about five minutes you’re going to be lunch!”

“Fuck!” Kat bit the word out before sprinting after him. Even as she ran, she began gathering her mana for a casting of Levitation.

Kat dove to the side, her conscious mind catching up with her reflexes a second later as a torrent of acid blasted a crater into the rock just beside her. A few drips of cold liquid splashed across her left forearm, feeling like little more than gentle rain.

Then her mind all but went white with pain. Frantically, Kat cast her spell on Kaleek, hoping that she wasn’t too early, but unsure that she could maintain her focus on the spell pattern through the agony gnawing its way into her skin.

A shriek from the bats above alerted Kat that she only had a couple seconds. A frantic sweep of her knife, pressing the flat into her injured arm, spattered the acid onto the dungeon floor and left behind a bubbled and bloody expanse of flesh. The blade drew some mana from her to resist the corrosive liquid, but that was a price that Kat was more than happy to pay to end the soul scouring pain.

Then the bats were upon her.

Kat backpedaled as fast as she could, knife flicking from side to side in an attempt to ward off bloodthirsty vermin. Not for the first time, she cursed the weapon’s short reach. As useful as a long knife might be for assassinations and close combat, she felt its limitations every time she was forced to stand and fight against an enemy.

Then Dorrik stepped up beside her, unleashing a glittering tempest of sword blows. Kat wasn’t sure exactly what levels their strength and agility had reached, but it was high enough that she could only follow their strikes by virtue of her enhanced reactions.

Kat spun around, planting her back against Dorrik’s dry scales. For almost ten seconds, they fought without speaking, the cacophony of screaming bats more than loud enough for both of them.

“Gravity Plane, Miss Kat!” they grunted out, stepping in front of her in order to relieve her of the brunt of the airborne attack so that she could cast her spell. “Kaleek has landed on the snail’s shell and he has a handhold. Right now, weightlessness isn’t even helping him. The plane might not be enough to stop an acid stream head on, but at least it will be able to deal with the splashing.”

She didn’t even respond verbally, instead focusing her mana into the unfamiliar spell pattern of the Iron tier ability, all while weaving and stabbing her way through the bats.

The spell snapped into place just in time. Dorrik grabbed her and jumped to the side as another torso-sized line of acid bored a hole through the bat swarm and blew a chunk out of the cavern floor.

Kat watched in fascination as fingernail sized droplets hit the invisible plane of force in front of her, slowing to a stop before gently being ejected in the direction they came from.

Beyond the thinned swarm of bats, Kaleek was having the time of his life. She couldn’t hear him, but somehow Kat knew that he was happily shouting something vile as his greatsword glowed red with the power of an activated ability. It rose and fell repeatedly, sending shards of black armor raining to the ground as the big otter vented his fury.

Then the bats returned, swarming over the two of them as they ignored the half-molten puddle of their comrades.

The Gravity Plane deflected most of them, leaving a handful confused and immobile in front of Kat just long enough for to skewer them with her dagger. She could feel the bites and scrapes beginning to build up on her arms and calves. Her lokkel-made armor was more than enough to ward off the flying rodent’s fangs, but it simply didn’t cover enough of her body.

Dorrik recast Telekinetic Field. The impenetrable cluster of bats near the two of them arced toward the ground, delicate bones snapping as they hit the rocks hard. The Psi ability wasn’t quite as effective as Gravity’s Grasp, but against the massive swarm of fragile enemies, it did the trick.

Kat’s eyes widened as the sudden hole in the wall of enemies revealed the boss fight once more. Half of the monster’s shell was missing, and Kaleek had wedged himself into the hole, stabbing repeatedly into the creature’s unprotected slimy back.

Its bullet-like head wormed out from under the remains of the shell, swelling around a glob of something passing up its gullet as it looked for all the world like a snake eating an egg in reverse.

“Down!” she barked out, slamming her slight shoulder into Dorrik’s side before rotating her body to bring the Gravity Plane into play.

The wall of force glimmered, barely visible as it redirected the stream of acid just enough to keep it from Kat’s tender skin.

The attack crashed into the ground, leaving a third crater in the stone as it drilled a hole through the heart of the bat swarm. Dozens of the creatures fell from the air, writhing in pain as the acid corroded holes in the thin membranes of their wings.

Kat stood up cautiously, scanning her surroundings for more of the bats. Distantly, she heard a whoop of triumph from Kaleek as the snail fell from the wall, slamming to the ground with a thud that shook the entire cavern.

The few bats that were still flying retreated, returning to their roosts on the ceiling. With a sigh of relief, Kat reached down and offered her hand to the prone Dorrik.

Their claws bit gently into her grip as Kat pulled them to their feet. The big lokkel just grinned at her before they began speaking.

“See? That wasn’t so bad. Kaleek just needed to let off a little steam.”

Kat rolled her eyes and began walking toward the altar. Off to the side, Kaleek cheerfully gutted the monster, looking for the basketball-sized gizzard stones that were sure to be buried in a monster its size.

She pressed her hand into the cool stone of the altar and nodded in satisfaction as an alert popped into her vision.

Congratulations, Adventurer!

You have completed the Iron Tier Level Six Dungeon, Acid Forest!

Three of Three party members surviving. Good Job!

Assigning awards:

Skill Stone (Throwing I)

+ 1 Reaction

As the swirl of rainbow light surrounded her, Kat called up her status sheet.

Name: Katherine Debs

Class: Elementalist Initiate

Max Level: 6

734 Marks

HP: 27/39

MP: 62

STA: 43

Dodge: Poor

Damage Mitigation: Insignificant

Strength: 4

Agility: 10

Fortitude: 4

Endurance: 5

Mind: 7

Reaction: 9

Charisma: 5

Spirit: 6

Spells Known:

Gravity’s Grasp

Levitation

Pseudopod

Dehydrate

Dazzle

Shadow

Water Jet

Gravity Spike

Mirage

Overpressure

Gravity Plane

Skills Known:

Knife I - 12, Max

Gravity II - 1, 61%

Water II - 2, 21%

Cat Step - 12, Max

Light I - 12, Max

Cure Wounds I - 10, 91%

Penetrate

Crossbow I - 1, 0%

Perks:

Nightvision

Leaping

Sensory Dampening

Crippling Blow

Fast Healing

It was ironic that she’d assigned the free ability points she’d gotten from the last dungeon to reaction only to earn another boost to the ability. Still, the two points of stamina and mana she’d earned along with that increase to her reflexes might have been the factor that saved her life from the giant snail’s ranged attacks, so she was hardly in a position to complain.

Energy coiled around Kat, dropping her in a mist-filled valley inside the Tower proper. She nodded and closed her status. She was moving in the right direction, and the throwing skill would certainly help. Still, she had a long way to go.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Are you sure about this?” Kat asked, glancing worriedly at the submachine gun clutched in Whip’s hands. The gun was on the smaller side, but in Whippoorwill’s awkward grip, it looked giant and out of place.

“For the twentieth time,” the other woman replied with a roll of her eyes, “yes. All I have to do is lurk around the outside of the building, plugged into this guy’s network while you do the real work. If he runs, I try to shoot him. If someone else shows up, I give you a heads up.”

“I just don’t like putting you in harm’s way, Whip.” Kat sighed, running a hand through her short hair. “We needed you there when we raided the Field Tower, but right now I feel like I’m putting you at risk for no reason.”

Whip just snorted. “Kat, my part of this job is so easy that a child could do it. Literally.” She paused for a second. “Before I joined the ChromeDogs, I did lookout gigs like this, but then they didn’t even give me a gun. Just a whistle and the advice that I should duck the second I blew it.”

Kat glanced across the street at the three story apartment complex, chewing her lip worriedly. Only a couple rooms on the second floor had their lights on, and the third floor penthouse where their target lived was completely dark.

“Still.” She shook her head before turning back to Whippoorwill. “This doesn’t feel right.”

The other woman just shook her head, grabbing Kat’s hand and shoving a wadded up ball of fabric into her grip.

“Just shut up and put on your mask.” Whip grinned at Kat. “I can access most of the building’s surfaces from here.”

Whippoorwill rapped the light pole that the two of them were standing next to with her knuckles. The structure’s bulb had burned out years ago, but it appeared to still function as a hub for the utilities that ran through the local area.

“I’m already inside the building’s power grid,” she continued, inclining her head slightly toward the apartments. “It doesn’t look like there’s any active security, but I can still cut electricity to the top floor as soon as you’re in. Unless they’re using an entire brick of batteries, any dormant traps will go down with the lights.”

“Fine,” Kat replied ruefully, slipping the mask over her face and tucking the bottom of the cloth into the collar of her infiltration suit. “Just promise me you’ll be careful out here while I make contact. We don’t even know who this ‘target alpha’ is. All we know is that Millennium wants him under observation. He could be dangerous, and even if he’s not, they’re sure to have him under observation.”

Whippoorwill chuckled, pink hair rustling back and forth as she shook her head.

“You’re literally the one taking all the risk.” Whip reached up and brushed her hair out of her face. “I’m just going to sit out here in an alley doing my best to look like a junkie while you make contact with an unknown.”

“I know you can handle yourself, Kat.” Whippoorwill leaned back against the light pole. “I’ll flip that on its head. Take care of yourself out there. After Xander died, I slipped. You were the one that hunted me down and pulled me out of that. I don’t know what I would do if you—”

She caught herself, glancing downward at the dark and cracked cement of the alleyway.

“Don’t worry.” Kat’s voice softened. She punched Whip gently in the shoulder. “Get your game face on, Chiffon. You know me. Even if the other side catches me, that usually doesn’t work out so well for them.”

“I know.” Whip chuckled again, not lifting her eyes from the ground. “I just wish you’d spend a little more effort on not getting caught. Now give ‘em hell, Erinyes.”

Kat grinned back at her friend. She knew Whippoorwill couldn’t see her, but at the same time, she knew the sentiment would reach the other girl nonetheless.

Then she turned around, pouring enough mana into Shadow to obscure her form as she used Cat Step to cross the street toward the apartments. The spell probably wasn’t necessary, the street was abandoned and only one or two of the lights lining the sidewalks were even trying to do their job.

The flickering and inconsistent light of the buzzing lamps sent shadows scurrying everywhere, likely providing better cover than sheer darkness would on its own. Kat doubted anyone was even looking in her direction, but if they were, all they would see was another stutter from the failing bulbs as she flitted across the street.

A second later, Kat was at the side of the building. She layered a Levitation on top of Shadow, and moments later, her glove-covered hands were seeking out the cracks between the decade old bricks that made up the apartment’s outer walls. The remaining grout crumbled under her fingertips as Kat rapidly began scaling the structure.

About halfway up, her breath unaffected by what was almost routine exertion for her at this point, Kat spoke into her microphone.

“Chiffon, I’m almost there. Kill the power for the top floor.”

“Are you sure, Erinyes?” Whippoorwill’s voice responded. “I’m looking closer at the power draw and it looks like there’s something on. It could be a smartpanel charger or a pilot light. I can’t really tell from here.”

“We’ll have to risk it,” Kat replied. “I don’t want a trap to electrocute me as soon as I touch a windowsill.”

“You’re the boss.” Whippoorwill was distant, distracted as she went to work on the network. A moment later, she continued. “Done. Power’s out. Good luck, Erinyes.”

Kat didn’t answer, instead focusing on the last couple of handholds before she reached the third floor. She hoisted herself up on a windowsill, planting an elbow in the bricks as she reached out with a hand and tested the bars of the window.

Unsurprisingly, the cylinders of metal were the only part of the building that had any sort of maintenance. Whoever their target was, he wanted to avoid uninvited visitors.

She drew her knife, pressing its point into the base of one of the bars, spending the stamina needed to activate Penetrate. The dagger glowed dimly red before it crunched through the steel.

One after another, Kat cut through the metal before reaching up and pulling the severed bars to the side. Once the window was free, she dug her fingers under the bottom of the window before pulling it up.

Kat winced as the pane stuck for a second before slamming upward. It didn’t exactly sound like a gunshot or an explosion, but it certainly was loud enough to be noticed. Hardly how she wanted to start her incursion.

Quickly, she slipped into the apartment, taking care to slide the window shut quietly behind her.

A glance around the room, her vision in the grayscale of Nightvision, revealed a modestly appointed living room. The smartglass panel on the wall was an older model, overlooking a couch that didn’t match the two secondhand chairs positioned opposite it.

She took note of the dark kitchen and entryway before making her way down a hallway toward where Kat suspected the bedroom was located. Each step was carefully placed, and even without the use of Cat Step, she moved like a jaguar stalking its prey.

Kat touched her hand to a wooden door, turning the knob gently before pressing it open just a crack.

Bathroom. Nothing more than porcelain and cheap linoleum.

She made her way to the next door. Once again, quietly turning the knob before pressing it open a crack to reveal the corner of a bed and a nightstand.

Without questioning her instincts, Kat jerked to the side, barely beating the roar of a shotgun as she pressed herself flush against the apartment wall.

“I told you fucks to stay the hell away from me!” a man’s voice roared from the bedroom. “Now you can get the fuck out of my house, or I’ll put you down and let you bleed out on the floor. Your choice.”

Kat reached for her gun, only to stop. She needed the man alive. With a knife, she’d have the precision to cut tendons and disable him. If she used the pistol, well. Her accuracy had improved enough that she was pretty sure she’d hit him, but it would hardly be trick shooting. Three to five shots in his center of mass wasn’t the best way to secure a contact she could question.

The dagger left its sheath, comfortable and familiar in Kat’s hand.

“I can hear you breathing out there,” he ranted. “I might not have wanted all of that chrome you guys forced on me, but I swear on everything holy that I will use every scrap of steel and wire in my body to put you in the ground if you don’t get the fuck out of here.”

Quietly, Kat let Shadow and Levitation lapse, replacing the spells with Pseudopod. She curled the water tentacle around her waist as she gathered her mana and began casting Dazzle.

Just as the spell finished, Kat kicked open the door, unleashing the blast of light at head level even as she tucked her shoulder into a roll and dove into the room.

The spell didn’t work as well as Kat hoped. The gunman more or less ignored the pulsing cone of light, swinging the shotgun downward to track her rapidly moving body.

Before he could pull the trigger again, her Pseudopod writhed upward, grabbing the weapon’s barrel and yanking it to the side. Once again, there was a crash and a blast of light as the buckshot tore past Kat and shredded the faux wood paneling of the bedroom wall.

She came out of the roll with an upward thrust of the dagger. The man was massive, almost twice Kat’s size, and he moved with reflexes and speed that could only come from extensive cybernetic enhancement or significant time in The Tower of Somnus.

He still looked like he was moving in slow motion to Kat. Her massively improved agility and reaction stats let her twist past a clumsy blow from the butt of the shotgun and land two quick knife strokes to his left wrist.

The dagger glowed red as it cut through the layer of metal under the man’s skin and the shotgun fell from his suddenly limp grasp.

Kat’s opponent hissed in pain, trying to backpedal away from her only for her to catch him with a casting of Levitation mid-step. The spell disrupted his balance just enough that her Pseudopod could reach around and apply pressure to the back of his knee, forcing her foe to the ground with a painful thump.

In the blink of an eye, she was atop him, straddling the man’s broad chest and holding her knife to his throat. He glared up at her, his vision clouded with a mixture of disbelief and pain.

“Wait.” Relief replaced his confusion. “Erinyes? You aren’t with Millennium?”

“How do you know me?” she asked, dagger not leaving his jugular.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He slumped back to the ground, letting his arms go limp on either side. “I go by Otto. I used to be a Lieutenant with Millennium. We fought twice. You fucked up my jeep and my knee pretty bad the first time, and the second—”

He shifted uncomfortably beneath her. “Let’s just say that I don’t blame you for the second time. You were a bit preoccupied with your mentor biting it and a fucking alien invasion to notice my brief involvement in the Field Tower fight.”

She squinted down at the man. Now that he mentioned it, she vaguely recalled his silhouette, but his face and his voice were utterly alien to her.

“Are you saying you were the person with Elaine that night?” she questioned skeptically. “You sure don’t look or sound like him.”

“Look,” he fumed. “The bitch backhanded me hard enough that I needed reconstructive surgery. She broke my jaw in six places, and the street doc I dragged myself to had to basically rebuild the entirety of my face.”

“Maybe,” Kat began grudgingly. “I still barely saw you in both of those fights. This all just could be an attempt to get me to lower my guard.”

“I guess,” Otto grunted back. “Listen, if you’re Erinyes, unless you’ve taken a contract with Millennium in the past couple of months, I don’t want to fight you. I’m not going to go for a gun or anything, but just let me sit up. You fucked my arm up pretty good.”

For a second, Kat weighed her options. The samurai could be playing for time or trying to get her to drop her guard. Still, the information from Millennium didn’t exactly make it look like he was on their side and the big man seemed fairly sincere.

She pushed off of his chest, taking a half step back with her knife at ready in a reversed grip. “Fine,” she said, voice tight. “Now talk.”

“Sure.” He hissed with pain as he used his right arm to prop himself up by the side of the bed before cradling his injured left. “I’m all for spilling my guts. I just need one thing from you first.”

“You’re not in a position with much negotiating leverage, Otto,” Kat replied, frowning at his unarmed and injured body.

He shook his head. “Non-negotiable, Erinyes. I need you to promise that in exchange for the information I’m about to turn over, you’ll pull me out of this mess. I need you to hide and protect me from Millennium.”

She didn’t respond for a moment. Finally, Kat nodded. “If you provide worthwhile information, I’ll try to get you a new identity and move you out of Chiwaukee.”

“Good enough for me,” the samurai answered, his voice heavy with relief. “Millennium has been relentless. Every time I think I’m clear, their teams start showing up after a couple of weeks. If I stay in one place for too long, an extraction team kicks in my door at one a.m. I’ve managed to keep myself out of their grip so far, but at the rate things were going, it was only a matter of time.”

“You have to understand.” Otto looked up at her, his eyes pleading with Kat. “I grew up in the Millennium Company. They picked me up off the street. I was just some random thug boosting old cars for a couple extra credits so that I could afford more chrome. For years, they were my family. They shaped me into the man that I was.”

“But about two or three years ago, things changed,” he continued. “Mr. Jackson became more hands off and brought in some new people that were just weird. I didn’t question it too much because a job is a job, but everything clicked in the Field Tower.”

“They were fucking aliens.” Otto spat onto the bedroom floor. “Look, I’ve done a lot of bad shit in my past, Erinyes. I don’t want to try to pretend that I’m some sort of saint or something. I wasn’t really spending my spare time running soup kitchens, but at the end of the day, that was a step too far. Earth is for humans.”

“So,” Kat responded slowly, “you’re trying to defect or something?”

“Damn straight.” He nodded fervently. “Look, Millennium doesn’t just let people leave, and I was a lieutenant. I crawled away from the Field Tower fight and never went back. They were able to put two and two together, and right now the company’s remnants are trying to shut me up before I can blab.”

“I figure that if I tell you what I know,” the big man nodded in Kat’s direction, “that gives you something valuable enough that you’ll want to help me, and with the information out there anyway, I suspect that killing me won’t be a priority anymore. At that point, I might be a turncoat, but it’s not like I could do any more damage to the company.”

“I’d do it myself,” he finished, “I just don’t really have any contacts. The company always had people to handle stuff like that for me. I could dump the data on the information channels, but it’s all just a personal narrative. Nothing to really back it up. They’d paint me as crazy and it wouldn’t get any traction.”

Kat took another step backward, lowering but not sheathing her knife.

“I don’t suppose you have anything to prove your sincerity?” she asked appraisingly. “Last I saw, you were trying to kill me.”

“Sure.” He reached into his breast pocket with his good hand, fishing out a data stick and tossing it to Kat. She snatched it out of the air, not taking her eyes from Otto. “This is about a third of what I know. Get me out of here and verify its contents. Once you get a chance to look at its contents, I’m sure you’ll decide to help me.”

“Just keep me safe from their extraction teams, Erinyes.” Otto leaned back against the bed, clutching at his hurt arm. “I’ll help you find every sleeper cell and spy in this city and make you a rich woman in the process.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kat slipped the datastick into her pouch and sheathed her knife. “Deal. I have a safe house in Chiwaukee where we can stash you until I can buy you a new identity. I have contacts in GroCorp that would be more than happy to trade a stack of credit chips and some new paperwork for the intel rattling around in your head.”

“Great.” Otto winced. “I don’t suppose you have a bandage or something? As much as I would love to hash out our little agreement, I’m losing a lot of blood here.”

“I can do you one better.” Kat began casting Cure Wounds I. A moment later, she touched Otto’s injured arm, her hand glowing a gentle gold.

The wound closed under her touch, leaving behind a grayish smear of blood and smooth, unblemished skin.

Otto grunted, pulling himself to his feet, left hand still flopping uselessly. He glanced down at it, confusion distorting his face.

“It’s a first level ability.” Kat shrugged helplessly. “It’ll stop bleeding and heal bruises, but I cut a tendon to make you drop your shotgun. We’ll need to take you to a street doc to fix that.”

“I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.” The big man shook his hand once more, watching it wobble back and forth. “It doesn’t even hurt. I just can’t control it anymore.”

“I hate to break up this wonderful new friendship,” Whip’s voice sounded in Kat’s ear, “but two SUVs just pulled up outside. I’m keeping my head down right now, but it sure looks like you have at least ten incoming, all heavily armed.”

“Otto,” Kat turned toward him, “my partner says that—”

Before she could finish her thought, her instincts screamed a millisecond of warning. Kat threw herself to the side, interposing Otto’s bed between herself and the apartment’s wall.

The room exploded into light and sound, a scalding pressure wave washing over her as the side of the building shattered inward, spraying the room with bricks. Otto staggered backward, lifting his arms to try to ineffectually defend his face and torso.

Her vision stuttered as Kat’s perks prevented her senses from being overwhelmed by the sudden assault. The ringing in her ears began to fade almost immediately, replaced by the rattle of rifle fire.

Otto spun around, slapping his limp arm to his right shoulder before flopping onto the ground. Then the gunfire stopped, leaving the two of them on the ground, backs to the large bed as they gasped for breath.

The building shook as something exploded nearby. Outside, Kat heard a clamor of voices as the attackers began shouting instructions to each other followed by the crash of another explosion.

This time, she barely made out a small dark cylinder, silhouetted in front of the stars as it arced toward the destroyed wall, before ultimately it exploded.

“Kat!” She jerked slightly as Whippoorwill screamed into her ear. “Are you all right? One of the samurai pulled a rocket propelled grenade out of an SUV and just blew up the upper floor. Now they’re encircling the building while one of them is launching grenades at you. Both of you need to start moving, now!”

“Otto.” Kat ducked as a three round burst from a rifle sent chips of drywall flying as they hit the building. “My partner is telling me that—”

She paused. The big man was grimacing as blood poured from a bullet hole in his upper arm, but he hadn’t seemed to notice her.

Kat reached out and put a hand on his wrist, trying to grab Otto’s attention. He flinched when she touched him, glancing back at her with pain clouded eyes.

“We’re being flanked,” she tried again, only for Otto to motion helplessly toward his ears. Kat frowned. Apparently the chrome that let him avoid the effects of Dazzle didn’t extend to his hearing.

She motioned with a hand, forming a rough circle before pointing toward the gaping hole in the bedroom wall. He frowned at her for a moment before nodding slowly.

Kat pointed at the two of them and then the door into the bedroom with her index and pointer fingers. This time Otto nodded more decisively.

The floor seemed to wobble under Kat as she stood up, another near miss from the grenade launcher shaking the building. Otto followed her as she pushed aside the door and stepped back into the hallway.

Gun drawn, she made her way to the samurai’s front door and undid the metal chain barring the entryway. He lumbered after her as she stepped out onto a landing. Kat tuned out another burst of gunfire as their attackers sprayed the bedroom once again.

“They’re moving, Erinyes,” Whippoorwill whispered urgently as Kat drew her pistol and glanced down the stairwell. “I’ve lost track of most of the flankers, but the team out front just got really excited about something and all but two of them are on their way into the building.”

Below her, Kat heard a door slamming open, accompanied by the fearful screams. She turned around, practically plowing into Otto as the big man leaned his good shoulder against the wall, hyperventilating quietly.

“Back the way we came!” She had to shout over the sound of another rattle of gunfire, pointing back into the apartment. “The stairwells are full of samurai, we’re going to need to go out a window.”

Otto cocked his head at Kat as she rushed past him. Even if he could make out what she was saying through his damaged hearing, the combination of blood loss and shock from his bullet wound was clearly slowing his ability to process what was happening.

He followed her into the living room as Kat glanced out the window she’d used to enter the building. The alleyway was dark and strewn with trash, but big enough for Otto even with his injured arms.

Kat turned around, waving to get the large man’s attention before hooking a thumb out the window.

“You’re going first,” she shouted hurriedly. “I can use magic to slow your descent while I hold off whoever’s coming.”

“What?” he asked, looking from the open window to Kat.

She put a hand on Otto’s back, pushing him toward the exit as she began pumping mana into Levitation. Behind them, she heard more shouting from the stairwell as the invaders made their way up.

He ducked through the opening, leaving a smear of blood on the frame before he lost his balance and tipped into the alley below. Levitation caught the huge samurai a half second after he left the building, slowing his fall to a manageable rate.

Just as Kat put her hand on the top of the frame, the door from the landing burst open. A woman lunged inside, the green glow of night vision goggles on her face and a shotgun pressed to her shoulder.

Almost without thinking, Kat aborted her second casting of Levitation, spinning on her heel and unleashing Dazzle around head level at her attacker. The woman grunted, recoiling backward into the doorway and the samurai behind her.

Kat flashed into motion, grunting as her left forearm slammed into the shotgun barrel, slamming her opponent’s weapon to the side before she stabbed upward with the knife in her right hand. The blade moved lightning quick, finding a gap underneath the woman’s arm and sinking hilt deep into her armpit.

She released the dagger, letting her injured opponent slump backward, limbs tangling with the rest of the combat team as she clogged up the narrow passageway. Kat drew her unsilenced pistol, drawing a bead on the head of the man behind her victim and opening fire.

In the split second as Kat brought her gun to bear, he tried to wrestle his own weapon free, unable to extricate it from the back of the wounded and disoriented woman before she opened fire.

The handgun barked, Kat’s perks protecting her hearing in the enclosed hallway. The first shot caught her target in the upper shoulder, staggering the man but unable to penetrate the layered Kevlar and polymer of his armor. Her second shot took him in the neck, and the third hit his forehead, shattering the faceplate of the night vision goggles and killing him instantly.

She shifted her aim, firing at the third and final invader as they tried to backpedal away from the clogged doorway as they brought a rifle to their shoulder. Kat wasn’t sure how many of her three shots hit the figure, but they stumbled at least once before ducking out of her line of sight.

There was no way for Kat to know whether her shots made it past her attacker’s armor, but they were moving under their own power and still had their weapon, meaning it was time for her to go before reinforcements were called.

Kat fired a final shot into the injured woman’s face, killing her instantly. She shoved her pistol back into its holster before ripping her knife from the body’s armpit.

A gun barrel popped around the corner, prompting Kat to duck as the final attacker fired a three shot burst over her head. Plaster rained down on her shoulders before Kat lurched away from the doorway, leaving the pair of dead bodies behind.

Barely a second later, Kat was pouring mana into Levitation as she pushed her way through the bent bars guarding the window and tumbled toward the alleyway below.

The dirty pavement drifted toward her, slowed by the power of her spell. Kat glanced over her shoulder toward the window above. She suspected that the samurai inside wouldn’t be equipped to jump down the three stories needed to follow her, but at the same time, he had a rifle. For the moment, she was little more than a sitting duck as she hung in the air.

Gunfire erupted from the mouth of the alleyway. Kat’s head whipped around, rotating her entire body in the air. Otto shouted something indecipherable from the street just around the corner only to be silenced by another rattle of gunfire.

She judged the distance between herself and the cracked pavement and cut off her spell, landing on her hands and knees with bruising force. Kat sprang to her feet and sprinted around the corner only to find another trio of samurai standing around Otto’s still body.

Cat Step silenced her movements, and before any of the three gun-wielding individuals could react, Kat was amongst them, her Tower-enhanced agility speeding her movements past the point where they could be tracked by the unaided eye.

Her knife flashed in the distant streetlights, drawing a crimson line across a man’s throat and finding a gap between two plates of armor to stab a woman in the bicep.

“Target is down!” Kat couldn’t tell which of the two women was shouting as her remaining targets scattered. “We are under attack and retreating.”

She ducked behind the staggering body of the injured male samurai as one of the running figures sprayed rifle fire in her general direction. He jerked twice, his hands still clutching emptily at his throat as bullets slammed into his armor as the remaining attackers tried to keep Kat in place while they escaped.

“Chiffon!” Kat screamed into her microphone as she slipped back into the open and pulled her hand back to throw her knife. “Otto is down and they’re scattering. Give me some help here!”

Kat didn’t wait for a response, investing stamina into her arm as she activated her new Throwing ability, whipping her hand forward. The knife tore through the air, glowing a gentle red before it tore through one of the samurai’s armor and buried itself between her ribs.

Mana surged out of Kat as she sprinted toward her victim, activating Overpressure. The woman stumbled and screamed as a geysers of blood sprayed from her wound, almost dislodging the weapon.

Blood loss slowed Kat’s target just enough for her to catch up. One leg snapped out, hitting the stumbling woman just below her right knee and knocking her feet out from under her.

Before the target could fully hit the ground, Kat grasped the back of her head with both hands, crunching the woman’s face and night vision goggles into the street.

Skidding to a halt, Kat turned around. In the distance, the other samurai made her escape as Kat flipped the body over. Whoever the woman had once been, between blood loss and the shards of ceramic and hardened lodged in her face, she wouldn’t be answering questions.

Kat pulled her knife free and scanned the empty street. A black SUV pulled off the curb down the block, tires squealing as it peeled off into the night.

She turned back to the apartment building and winced. A good portion of its top right corner was blown open, shattered bricks covering the nearby structures. On the ground level, men and women ferried valuables out of their apartments as the entire edifice began to list to the side.

“Erinyes.” Whip’s voice made Kat’s head jerk upward. “Both of their vehicles were on the move, and I wasn’t able to get off a shot.”

“Don’t worry,” Kat responded, shoving her knife into its sheath as she started making her way toward the other woman’s hiding spot. “I only wanted you to take a shot if you had both a clean angle and the drop on someone. I’d rather you be safe than take a risk when I’m not around.”

“Actually…” Whip’s voice trailed off. Kat kept walking, making sure to keep her paces steady and measured to avoid attention. The pedestrians behind her had their own concerns, what with massive damage caused by the various grenade blasts, but she still didn’t want to give them a focus for their ire.

“Got it,” Whip continued exultantly. “I’m riding piggyback on the Chiwaukee traffic security camera system right now. The SUV is drawing all sorts of chatter. It’s practically edged at least three cars off the road already. Apparently, at least two people have called for assistance from the precinct’s private police force.”

“So we know where they are going?” Kat asked as she slipped into the alley mouth where Whip was crouching, her cranial jack plugged into the terminal at the base of the nearby light pole.

The other woman sat in silence for a couple more seconds before she looked up, excitement and concern in her eyes.

“It’s sure looking like Homan Square, Erinyes.” Whippoorwill nodded her head slowly. “If it isn’t Homan Square, it’s almost certainly going to be somewhere nearby. The security system doesn’t have enough cameras to cover every side street, but still—”

“You’re thinking about the Millennium black site, aren’t you?” Kat replied.

“What else could it be?” Whip asked.

Kat nodded her head thoughtfully. There wouldn’t be enough time to scout the target out. The survivors would bring enough information to put the entire hideout on high alert. If she gave them time, Kat could almost guarantee that she’d be sneaking right into a state of the art security system complete with razorwire, landmines, and automated turrets.

If she was going to hit the black site, she’d need to do it now.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“What are we looking at?” Kat asked, shifting slightly as she crouched behind a dumpster. Dawn was only a couple of hours away and she’d been wearing her infiltration suit all night. The same properties that prevented her from leaving behind DNA evidence meant that the watertight outfit literally didn’t breathe. In short, she smelled like a locker room that had been left to bake in the sun after a long day of exercise.

“At least four independent networks that aren’t actually connected to each other,” Whip grunted back. “This security isn’t any joke either. Some of these counter-intrusion programs will scramble my brain if I’m not careful.”

Kat contemplated the building across the street. Its windows were unlit and boarded up and its concrete facade was crumbling. For all the world, it looked like an abandoned warehouse. If she didn’t have access to Copper Spook’s files, Kat could have walked past the structure a dozen times without noticing that there was anyone inside.

She turned back to Whippoorwill. The other girl brushed her pink hair out of her face, gaze vacant as she sat cross-legged next to the smartpanel terminal that Kat had unplugged some ten minutes ago.

“So are we going in completely blind, mostly blind, or with just one eye closed?” Kat nudged her friend.

The other girl just waved a hand at Kat dismissively, her face still lined with concentration as she focused on her connection to the information network.

Kat leaned backward, opening up her own wireless connection to the local entertainment networks. The reception wasn’t great, but it was more than enough for her to catch up on Chrome Cowboy recaps while she waited for Whippoorwill to finish.

“Good enough.” Whip’s voice startled Kat out of a pop-culture-induced stupor almost five minutes later. “I’ve only managed to worm my way into some of their peripheral systems, but I can confirm that this is the place.”

“Do you have the layout?” Kat quirked an eyebrow under her mask. “Do you know anything about the security systems they’re using? The number of people involved? I want to take them down, but as much as I want to lash out, I’d prefer to avoid kicking a steel plate.”

Whippoorwill’s eyes glazed for a second as she slipped back into the network. She turned back to Kat with a brief grimace.

“I couldn’t find full floor plans or any sort of roster. If that sort of thing exists, it’s on one of the internal networks I don’t have access to.”

“That said,” Whippoorwill continued, “the actual black site is buried in the warehouse’s basement. It uses a lot of power siphoned from neighboring buildings, but it’s only about forty feet by forty feet and the keypads to get in were last used about fifteen minutes ago. The compound might have defenses, but I’d be surprised if there are active traps while it’s occupied.”

“How do the nearby buildings not notice a power draw?” Kat asked, peeking her head up above the dumpster she was hiding behind to scope out the ‘abandoned’ building once more. “I feel like they should notice something like that when they check their monthly statements. Eventually someone would have said something.”

“I’m pretty sure the remnants of Millennium own everything on this block,” Whip replied, shrugging helplessly. “Every business is owned by four to five layers of holding companies, but everything in this area changed hands a couple of months ago. It looks like most of the other shops are more or less legitimate. If they’re doing anything untoward, it’s probably just laundering money made by Millennium’s more clandestine activities.”

“So we’ve been on their turf for the last half hour without knowing it?” Kat responded unhappily. “How do we know that they haven’t been watching us through security cameras as we drove in? Hell, for all we know, there’s a bomb waiting for us under your car when we decide to leave.”

“Maybe,” Whip shrugged sheepishly. “But I don’t think so. The black site is barely connected to the outside world, and I definitely didn’t find any sort of direct feed from local security to it. Honestly, I don’t think that I would have even been able to find it without Copper Spook’s records and using traffic cameras to track the strike team.”

“Seriously,” she continued. “The entrance is a false maintenance closet attached to the building’s far north wall. This isn’t the sort of place you find unless someone gets sloppy, or you devote serious resources to unearthing it. We just got lucky.”

“Or it’s a trap,” Kat mused, chewing her lip as she kept scanning the ‘abandoned’ building. “Millennium wasn’t the type to slip up like this, and we already know that they want me in the ground. They’re more than ruthless enough to sacrifice a dead ender like Copper Spook to lure me into an ambush.”

“True.” Whippoorwill sighed. “I honestly think they just got jumpy when you made contact with Otto. If they were going to ambush you, that would have been the time and location. They had you in a building with an unreliable contact with a light loadout. Rather than make a serious attempt, they silenced Otto and ran. I might be wrong, but as dangerous as going in blind is, I think it’s our best bet.”

“Fuck.” Kat stood up, checking both of her pistol holsters as well as her knife sheath. “Dawn is coming and we could argue until noon about what maybe possibly could happen. Either I dive in, or both of us go home and get a nice night’s sleep. Enough of this hemming and hawing.”

Whippoorwill unplugged her cranial jack and stood up beside Kat, hands clenched tightly around the grip of her submachinegun.

“No time like the present.” Whip’s voice cracked slightly as she shifted from foot to foot.

A smile blossomed on Kat’s face as she turned around and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. She shook her head gently while responding.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Chiffon, but as much as another samurai would help, this doesn’t sound like the sort of mission where it would be a good idea to break in a beginner. Stray shots have a tendency to hit friends and vital equipment. Once we work on your accuracy a little more, then you can hit a target with me.”

“Erinyes,” Whip pouted back. “I’ve managed to complete a dungeon in The Tower of Somnus. I’m not completely helpless.”

“Really?” Kat couldn’t help but smile under her mask. “How is all of that working out?”

“Pretty well.” Whippoorwill perked up. “A couple of four armed lizard-aliens came up to me on my second day and offered to help me out. Right now, I have an artificer class and a crossbow skill. According to Paatek, my class skill will let me create temporary modifications for the crossbow and my bolts once I practice it a little more.”

“Paatek?” she prompted.

“Oh, she’s— sorry, they’re one of the aliens,” the other girl caught herself before continuing excitedly. “Paatek has been helping me a lot. They say that they’re doing a favor for someone, but I honestly don’t know if I’d be able to manage getting a class let alone conquering a dungeon without their help.”

“I’m glad someone is helping you.” Kat turned back to the warehouse. “I have some people looking to party up with you once you reach the second level, but it sounds like you’re in good hands until then.”

“Great,” Whip responded, nodding eagerly. “If I can handle myself in the Tower, I can handle myself in there. You don’t know what it’s like watching you run off into danger, to be stuck and unable to do anything while your best friend is risking her life.

“You mean too mu—” The other woman stammered for a second before biting her tongue. She looked away for a second, composing herself. Finally, when Whip turned back to Kat, her voice was steadier. “I’ve already lost Xander. I’m not losing you too. This time you’re not leaving me behind.”

“Yes, I am.” Kat let her voice soften as she put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I don’t want to lose you either. I’m ready for this and I have training. Once you have a level or two, range time, and some hand to hand experience, you’ll be ready too.”

“But—” Whippoorwill began only for Kat to silence her with a squeeze of her shoulder.

“Next time, Chiffon,” Kat cut her off, shaking her head.

Kat turned away from Whippoorwill before the other girl could restart the argument and began jogging across the street. Nothing moved in the early morning. All of the other shops on the street were shuttered, and the only real lighting came from some sputtering neon signs that clung to the poorly maintained walls of the nearby buildings.

She didn’t even try the barred and boarded front door, instead hurrying past it en route to the back of the building. Kat peeked her head around the corner first, taking in the quartet of SUVs under camouflage tarps before sneaking toward the rear entrance.

This door had modern security, cameras carefully hidden around its frame and a state of the art keypad concealed under a loose piece of siding. Rather than try her luck, Kat made sure to stay out of the camera’s line of sight as she worked her way along the building’s wall.

One story under a barred window, she activated Levitation and Leapt upward. The combination of magic and skill brought her smoothly up to the next level of the building. She grabbed onto one of the bars, wedging it into the crook of her elbow.

The gentle tug of gravity pulled her back against the building as Kat drew her knife and activated Penetration. The blade glowed a dull red as, one by one, she began popping bars from the window.

The chunks of metal clanged off the cement below, rolling off into the night. Kat winced at the sound as she shoved her knife back into its sheath. Taking a deep breath, she carefully pried the second to last bar free.

Gritting her teeth, she put her elbow through the window. A couple seconds later, she was crawling through the opening, careful to compress her body as much as possible to avoid the glass shards clinging to the frame.

The interior of the building was almost as decrepit as the outside. Empty shelves covered in dust decorated the walls and empty, half-rusted metal desks graced the center of the room. At a glance, it looked like a storage room that had been abandoned for at least a couple of years.

Still, a discerning eye could see through the illusion. Junkies hadn’t torn apart the walls looking for metal wiring and piping to sell for another hit. Rather than graffiti, dust covered all of the equipment. No vacant building its size should have survived unmolested in Chiwaukee for more than a handful of weeks.

Kat drew her pistol, and after ensuring that her surroundings were empty, let out a long-held breath. It was time to start moving.

She passed room after room en route to the stairwell. Quick sweeps slowed her progress but ensured that surprises weren’t waiting for her as she moved through the conspicuously empty halls. Finally, almost ten minutes later, she found herself in front of a metal door with the word ‘maintenance’ engraved into its surface in fading yellow ink.

Whip was quiet in her earpiece, likely sulking after Kat’s sudden exit, but it was obvious that this was the place. The corridor leading up to the doorway was clear of the dust that filled the rest of the building, the tile floor shiny and worn from the passage of hundreds of boots.

“I’m here, Chiffon,” she whispered. “Have you been able to find anything new?”

“No,” Whippoorwill huffed back. “Just… be careful, Erinyes. There are people inside and Millennium went through a lot of effort to keep this place hidden. Even if the samurai aren’t ready for you, I don’t think they’ll be happy to see you.”

“You know me.” Kat couldn’t stop herself from smiling behind her mask. “I’m plenty stealthy and careful. After all, if there isn’t anyone left to sound the alarm, it’s basically the same thing as going unseen.”

“And that’s why I told you to be careful,” Whip chuckled weakly.

Kat shook her head ruefully. She could see where Whippoorwill was coming from. Attacking an enemy base blind and alone was the height of stupidity. At the same time, an untrained liability spraying bullets would only make a bad situation worse.

Bad decision or no, Kat mused, eyeing the suspiciously dust-covered doorknob to the maintenance room dubiously. Daylight was coming. Once Millennium’s analysts went over the fight at Otto’s, they’d be able to piece together her involvement. There wasn’t a guarantee that the black site would even be in the same spot this time tomorrow if she didn’t act now.

She searched the hallway, nodding in satisfaction a minute or so later when she noticed the thermostat. On the same wall as the door, its paint was still fresh and dust free from frequent use. Kat flipped back its cover, revealing a keypad rather than a console for the building’s heating and cooling system.

Fiddling with her pack for a second, Kat pulled out a plate of translucent film. Carefully, she pressed it against the keypad. It glimmered as the tiny computers embedded in the pliable layer of plastic sprang into motion. Seconds later, her smartpanel pinged as the film finished its analysis of the lock.

Kat peeled the film off, gingerly wrapping it in tissue paper before returning it to her pack. Steeling herself, she held her pistol with her right hand while entering the five digit code that her smartpanel indicated was the ‘most likely’ password for the lock with her left.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the keypad blinked green and the entire doorway hissed before it began sinking into the ground.

“Are we expecting anyone?” a male voice asked in confusion. “I thought Michaels said that everyone else from the strike team bought it.”

“Maybe there were survivors?” another man responded only to catch himself. “Wait! No one came in through the back door. Get P’rell, I think—”

Kat didn’t let him finish, triggering Dazzle as she tucked her knees to her chest to jump over the slowly lowering door. As soon as the strobe of lights faded enough for her to make out the reeling forms of two guards standing in front of a smartglass display, her pistol jerked in her hand.

The bullet meant for the back of her first target’s head struck his shoulder, spinning the unarmored man just enough that the second shot took him square in the chest. The other samurai brought his rifle to his shoulder, wavering barrel pointing somewhere in Kat’s general direction as he tried to blink the afterimages from his eyes.

Her third shot took him in the forehead, killing him instantly and rendering her final, missed bullet superfluous as it shattered the display behind the two of them. Almost immediately, shouts erupted from deeper inside the complex as the gunshots alerted the rest of the Millennium team.

Kat fired a final shot from her pistol into the gasping survivor before discarding the weapon and picking up his rifle. Her unsilenced pistol packed more of a punch than the gun she normally used, but against modern chrome, it wasn’t up to the task.

She poured mana into Gravity Plane, creating a wall of force angled to her right just in front of her face, and kicked open the door into the main room. Time seemed to slow as she took in three women and a man in a rectangular room with gleaming stainless steel walls and a single door on one of the side walls.

One of them had a gun at her shoulder while another two frantically tried to bring their own rifles up. Near the back of the room, the final woman scrambled for a handgun atop her computer console in front of a trio of familiar cylinders that glowed a dull, eerie green.

Kat threw herself to the side, frantically trying to bring her rifle to bear on the woman in the center of the room before her counterpart could fire.

She almost made it.

The rifle barked, and wind whipped at Kat’s infiltration suit as a trio of bullets slammed into the wall a hair’s breadth above her, barely redirected by the shimmering magical field that sprang into being in front of her.

Kat fired back, her three shot burst striking her target square in the chest. The woman jerked backward and fell bonelessly just as Kat’s left shoulder slammed into the polished steel floor, knocking her rifle out of her hands.

The man and woman in the center of the room scattered, looking for cover amongst the tables and bunks that littered the room while the woman by the tanks and console leapt over the electronics.

Kat rolled with the momentum of her fall, smoothly returning to her feet just in time to spot the man’s rifle muzzle poking over the top of a metal table, pressing past a bowl of dinner rolls and a pile of playing cards.

She pulled her knife from its sheath, flipping her grip so that she held it by the flat of its blade before burning stamina and Throwing it with enough force to pin her target’s hand to the table.

He screamed even as Kat drew her final pistol, firing a trio of shots at the remaining two samurai to keep their heads down while she Cat Stepped across the room toward her injured target.

The woman fired back blindly, not even coming close to Kat. A moment later, her elbow met the trapped man’s temple with a wet thud. His eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed next to the table, letting Kat scoop up his rifle.

She flipped the selector to full automatic and lined the weapon up on the glowing green tubes. Kat sprayed them with fire, shattering two of the glass cylinders and splashing the viscous liquid filling them all over a third of the room.

With a scream, the woman hiding behind the console burst from cover, large patches of her flesh and clothing missing as the corrosive liquid burned into her. Kat did her best to not think of the vaguely child-shaped sacks of pale green flesh flopping on the floor by the shattered tubes as she fired the last two shots from her rifle into the fleeing samurai.

The gun’s slide locked open as Kat ripped her knife from the table with a wet squelch. Dismissing Gravity Plane, she channeled her mana into Pseudopod as she ran across the room toward her last opponent.

The tentacle of water sprang into being just as the woman stood up, wrapping itself around the muzzle of her rifle and jerking it away from Kat.

Then the side door slammed open, a soft violet light spilling out past the massive silhouette filling it. Without looking, Kat redirected her victim’s rifle in the figure’s general direction.

The gun flinched in the woman’s hand, barrel flashing as it opened fire. An inhuman bellow erupted from the doorway, pouring ice water through Kat’s veins.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and every instinct in Kat’s body screamed at her to get down. Without questioning, she dove for the floor.

Before she even managed to hit the ground, a wave of heat washed over her as a wall of over-pressurized air tossed her to the side. A fraction of a second later, two bass thumps assaulted her hearing.

In front of her, the table her enemy had been hiding behind exploded, spraying Kat with shards of metal that shredded her infiltration suit. The samurai she had been charging simply evaporated. Her body exploded into wet pulp and red mist as Kat bounced off of the metal ground and slid into the room’s wall.

Filling almost the entirety of the doorway, the mole-like face of a stallesp sat atop a massive and well-muscled human body. Dwarfed by the chimera’s massive hand was a sleek purple pistol, forged from what looked like plastic.

The stallesp snarled angrily at Kat, blossoms of blood staining its shirt from two bullet holes in its chest. The friendly fire injury would have been fatal on an actual human, but it barely slowed the alien as their pistol swung across the room to track Kat, its tip glowing an angry yellow-red.

Without thinking, Kat whipped her knife across the room, burning stamina on Throwing to bury the blade up to its hilt in the alien’s knee.

This time the stallesp stumbled, throwing off their aim. The pistol thumped and the ceiling above the alien detonated, raining metal and cement down on them as their gun left a beach-ball-sized crater in the solid steel.

They staggered under the weight of the falling cement, injured leg partially giving out under them. Kat cut off the mana to Pseudopod, instead dumping all of her focus into Overpressure. Blood sprayed from the alien’s chest and leg.

Finally, they fell to the ground, just in time for Kat to recast the spell. This time, their pistol slipped from their hand as even more blood soaked her collapsed enemy.

Kat cast the spell a final time as she stood up. The alien drunkenly planted a hand on the ground and tried to pull themselves to their feet only to slip on the blood slick floor once again.

She winced at the stinging pain in her chest and face, doing her best to ignore the tattered remnants of her suit as she limped over to the downed chimera. They fumbled weakly on the floor, insensible to Kat’s approach.

Almost out of mana, Kat reached down and picked up the discarded alien weapon. She couldn’t see any visible sight or safety, but the single button where the trigger would be on a normal pistol was self-evident.

She pointed the gun at the downed stallesp and pushed the button. The pistol jumped in her hand, kicking harder than any weapon Kat had ever fired. With a thump, most of the chimera’s chest transformed into a smear of red pulp and gristle.

Kat stepped over the corpse, wiping the alien’s blood from her face and chest as meat plopped to the floor around her. Entering the next room, she stopped in her tracks.

The chamber was about half the size of the one she’d just exited, lit by a gentle purple light emanating from a wall mounted rack of six troughs. Dirt was packed tight in each of the basins, a variety of foreign plants in various states of growth sprouting from them.

An entire wall was occupied with a massive computer console, illegible glowing writing floating above the computer next to pictures of various structures and landmarks from across the world.

Kat grimaced as she stepped fully into the room, walking past what looked like a cross between a hyperbaric chamber and a bed as she approached the floating images. She squinted at the sharp and angular script hovering in the air as if focusing on it would force it to make some kind of sense, before finally giving up and turning to the images.

Her breath caught in her throat. Front and center were pictures of the Field Tower along with the Beloit prison complex. Kat only recognized a couple of other pictures from the Chiwaukee area, the Racine Industrial Warrens and one of the Lake Michigan aquaculture sites, but as she walked in around the console, she was able to make out almost a hundred pictures.

“Whip,” she croaked, setting her smartpanel to record and send what she was seeing with a flick of her pupils. “Get in here. It looks like Millennium was busy. Worse, I think news of their organization’s demise has been greatly overstated. We’re going to need out of town help to get to the bottom of this. A lot of it.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kat grunted, pulling her knife from the crumpled dent in the guillotine tortoise’s hide. She wiped the blade on her thigh armor while grimacing at its hulking corpse. Dark green blood seeped from the razor sharp chunks of shell lodged in its flesh.

Some ten or so paces to the left, Kaleek hacked away at the dead monster’s neck with wild abandon, a manic grin on his face. She flinched as Dorrik placed a heavy claw on her shoulder.

“Are you alright, Miss Kat?” they asked gently, glancing worriedly at her left arm. “Am I correct in guessing that this is your first time suffering a serious injury?”

She lifted the limb, wincing at the smooth, shiny stump where her hand should have been. Intellectually, she knew that Cure Wounds I had healed the injury, but at the same time, her nonexistent palm itched.

“I think alright is a good word for it.” She smiled weakly at the big lizard. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, but at the same time, I can still remember the Snap Gecko biting it off.”

Kat shuddered. The dungeon had two major non-boss enemies, Scale Brutes and Snap Geckos. At first, their team only noticed the brutes, hulking eight-legged monstrosities that took a dozen slashes from Dorrik or a pair of solid hits from Kaleek’s greatsword to bring down.

She first discovered the smaller Snap Geckos for their team the hard way. While dancing to the side, looking for an opening while one of the Scale Brutes squared off with Kaleek, she strayed too near one of the dungeon’s walls.

In a flash of pain, her hand was gone, a bright spray of blood washing over the forearm-sized amphibian as it clung to the wall. Its skin shifted colors, blotches of red and gray melding together as the camouflage tried to blend in with the dungeon rock once more.

The last thing Kat recalled before collapsing was ramming her knife up to its hilt into the monster. After that, her memories faded in and out. At some point, she remembered Kaleek pinning her shoulders to the ground while Dorrik tied a tourniquet around her wrist to stop the bleeding.

Things were touch and go for the next half hour or so as she slowly healed the injury. When her hit points capped out, Kat’s hand was missing, replaced by a shiny patch of rounded skin.

She fought through the rest of the dungeon in a haze. Kat knew that the rest of her party was carrying her, but there wasn’t much she could do. Her missing hand threw off her balance, forcing more conservative movements as she did her best to avoid lasting injury.

The final fight against the Guillotine Tortoise, she was barely involved, mostly hanging back and using Gravity Spike and Overpressure to damage the heavily armored boss. Once or twice, she made it close enough to stab the giant reptile through dents in its shell, but still, everything about the flow of her movements felt off.

“Maybe we should stop Kaleek,” Dorrik interrupted her thoughts, drawing Kat’s attention back to where the desoph kept hacking away at the giant tortoise’s corpse. “I appreciate his enthusiasm, but he’s going to run himself out of stamina at this point.”

“Worse,” their snout wrinkled as they continued. “Even if you use Water Jet on him, I doubt we are going to be able to get turtle blood out of his fur. He’s going to smell vile the entire hike back to town.”

Kat chuckled, stump of a hand forgotten as she shook her head. Kaleek was gasping for breath, a cheerful smile on his face as his greatsword finally sheared through the boss’ neck. Its head, little more than a massive and well-muscled mouth with its four eyes set into the top and sides, rolled slightly to his left.

Kaleek turned back to them, chest heaving, as he planted his sword into the stone of the dungeon floor and beamed at the two of them. His weapon sparkled as it drew mana from him to keep the blade sharp and undamaged as the big otter released it and walked over to Kat and Dorrik, rubbing his hands together happily.

“It’s dead,” he announced brightly.

“I can see that,” Kat replied with a smile. “My skill progress bars went up about ten minutes ago. That’s usually a pretty sure sign that a fight is over, but I guess you just had to be extra sure.”

“Sometimes the Tower will try to trick you.” Kaleek nodded knowingly. “Dorrik and I almost lost our avatars to something called Crypt Scarabs a couple of years ago. Apparently, if they still had mana left when you killed them, there was something like a twenty percent chance that they would spontaneously reanimate ten or so minutes after you killed them. We were almost to the boss fight when half of the dungeon hit us from behind.”

“Kaleek.” Dorrik’s crest fluttered in amusement. “The Crypt Scarabs were death aspect monsters. None of the reports on this dungeon have indicated any concerns regarding reanimation or monsters feigning death. I suspect that your actions regarding the tortoise were wholly unnecessary.”

“Did your reports warn us about the Snap Geckos?” The otter motioned at Kat’s missing limb. “Her avatar’s hand will grow back the next time we enter the dreamscape, but at the same time, I remember losing my tail to a trap on the fifth floor. Hardly a pleasant experience.”

“Yes.” Dorrik grimaced. “Two of the five after action reports on this dungeon did mention the Snap Geckos in footnotes. It sounds like the other parties managed to spot them before they could attack, so their descriptions only cover the geckos’ slow speed and camouflage. I will have to update the records to reflect the actual danger that they pose.”

“That said,” the big lizard continued, nostrils flaring unhappily as they eyed up the cheerful, ichor splattered otter, “the Snap Geckos have nothing to do with your extracurriculars. You’ve made a mess out of your fur and smell like an open sewer on a summer day because that is who you are, not out of an abundance of caution. You can say what you will, but all three of us know the truth.”

Kat sputtered, slapping her hand over her mouth. The tension of the dungeon and the final battle evaporated as her entire body shook.

“Maybe I just had a bad day at my job?” Kaleek shrugged carelessly. “I have a lot of stress to work through and I’ve been told to try to find a productive outlet for it. The dead turtle seemed productive.”

Dorrik looked dubiously at the mutilated corpse before replying. “Are you sure this doesn’t have anything to do with tensions on the fourth floor? My clan doesn’t have many people there, but from the sound of things, entire communities have gone missing. I don’t suppose—”

“Balee.” Kaleek sighed. “She’s a podmate of mine. My brother’s pup. A stallesp ship found her community and killed everyone. They didn’t make it quick.”

“She’s just a kid.” For the first time, the otter’s perpetual smile faded from his face. “It was all just a game to her. A chance to kill some monsters with her friends, eat new food, and generally have a good time away from her parents.”

“How is she holding up?” Kat asked, resisting the urge to flex the muscles in her nonexistent hand. “I know she can get a new avatar, but getting hurt in here isn’t exactly a breeze.”

“She’ll be fine,” Kaleek replied, whiskers twitching. “Balee is a tough clam and she’s talking with a therapist already. I’m worried about some of her friends. They just mope around all day. They won’t even get in the water to fish.”

Dorrik shook their head grimly, crest flat against the back of their neck.

“The stallesp grow bolder every day,” the lokkel intoned. “Your story of loss is distressingly non-unique. Numerous races allied with my people have begun reporting aggressive actions on their part. It is to the point that even the blind amongst the High Command have recognized that stallesp activities on the fourth floor constitute an attempt to cripple growth.”

“I don’t know anything about active trends,” Kaleek muttered, crossing his ichor spattered arms. “I just know that a lot of my pod linger on the fourth floor longer than strictly necessary and right now I’m worried for them. Partially, the massive island chains and oceans are just a good place for a desoph to grind skills, but mostly because the level is simply more pleasant. Not everyone takes The Tower of Somnus as seriously as we do. Many like to linger and enjoy themselves in between pushes to raise levels.”

“And you should worry,” Dorrik replied grimly. “This is not just one or two ships full of stallesp that have descended a level or two. They appear to have learned a lesson from us steering some of their raiders into a living reef. By all reports, there are dozens of vessels, each with at least a handful of elites that have evolved their classes. Each ship has enough firepower to escape a reef or defeat a megalodon, let alone wipe out a party of young trainees.”

“Worse.” Their crest splayed itself out unhappily. “The stallesp’s goal seems to go beyond wasting their rivals’ resources by forcing them to procure new avatars for their young. It very much seems that their intent is to punish and torment our youth into giving up on the Tower entirely. The effects might not be apparent in the next couple of years, but if a race produces fewer powerful avatars over the course of a dozen or so years, that has the potential to dramatically shift the course of Consensus politics. In short, I believe the trauma is the point of their actions.”

“Fuck.” Kat frowned. “That doesn’t make the lokkel struggle with the stallesp sound like a skirmish. Whether or not your people are willing to admit it, what you’re describing appears to be a faction that has sunk a substantial sum of resources into the distant future of the conflict.”

“I tend to agree,” Dorrik responded gravely. “Clan Ahn intelligence suggests that the stallesp have built a fairly major hub on the fourth floor. Luckily, a number of my people are not content to simply watch as the stallesp threat grows. Already there are rumblings of putting together a strike team to descend a couple of floors and deal with their incursion.”

“I’m in,” Kaleek interjected, barely letting the lokkel finish. “None of us are high enough level to actually make a difference in the war that’s coming, but if we can stop the stallesp from repeating what they did to Balee? That’s worth it.”

“Kaleek,” Dorrik cut him off, glancing worriedly at Kat. “Miss Kat needs to earn levels. The stallesp are a constant threat to her planet, and she doesn’t have the time for a jaunt back to the lower levels. Especially one that will likely end in a major battle where a large number of higher level avatars will die. My blood boiled as well when I heard of the stallesp’s actions, but joining the expedition is an unnecessary risk.”

“But—” Kaleek practically bubbled over in frustration before Kat stopped him by patting his forearm with her stump of a hand.

“It’s all right, Dorrik.” Kat interrupted with a smile. “I don’t want to spend too much time spreading our focus away from progressing toward level twenty four, but at the same time, the two of you have done so much for me. It wouldn’t be right for me to stand by while Kaleek’s family suffers. Plus, I’m more than sick of the mess the moles have made out of my world. Going out of my way to punch them in the nose might not be the most logical course of action, but at the same time, it will be satisfying.”

“As for the risk?” she asked rhetorically. “Fighting against higher leveled stallesp might be dangerous, and not provide any sort of defined benefits to my avatar’s growth like a dungeon or a level, but at the same time—”

She held up her missing hand, a wry grin on her face.

“It’s hardly safe for my avatar, but then again, every night and every dungeon is a risk.”

“Thank you, Miss Kat.” Dorrik nodded their head, relief flooding their voice. “I did not want to pressure you, but I am sure you are aware of my… displeasure with the stallesp. The idea of striking a blow against them thrills me.”

“Of course I know.” Kat chuckled. “It was hard to miss when you dropped your stoic warrior-monk act. That said, after what I’ve seen and heard, even without our personal relationship, it would be even harder for me to disagree with you. I have not come away thrilled with the stallesp’s actions on the intergalactic stage.”

“Again.” Dorrik’s crest flared. “Thank you.”

“On a related note,” she continued with a grimace. “It appears that the fourth floor isn’t the only stallesp hub. I managed to kill another one on Earth.”

“What?” Dorrik hissed, eyes narrowing as Kaleek’s head whipped around. “The stallesp have been adamant in the Consensus that your previous encounter was just a rogue bad actor.”

“If it happened at all,” Kaleek interjected bitterly. “They still haven’t admitted that there actually was a stallesp on Earth, but if there were, the assholes are claiming that the individual in question was ‘clearly acting on their own’ without ‘state sanction or support.’”

“I’m sure they have claimed that,” Kat replied with a shrug and a roll of her eyes. “I just happen to have in my possession the body of a human-stallesp hybrid as well as three flash clones and some sort of holographic computer I can’t read.”

Kat blinked as Dorrik’s upper arms grabbed her by the shoulder, pushing her back a half step as they stared intensely into her eyes. God, they were fast. She had barely seen them moving.

“You have an unlocked stallesp computer in your possession?” Their crest was flared to its full height, a brilliant red orange that contrasted with their darker scales. “Do you have any idea what sort of information might be on it?”

“Easy there, big fella.” Kat winced, reaching up with her good hand to pry Dorrik’s claws out of her flesh, trying to ignore the trickle of blood they left behind. “I’ve been too afraid to toy with the computer. I’m afraid that it might automatically lock if I do something wrong. For now, all that I know is that it keeps displaying images of major landmarks, at least a couple of which I know for a fact have been associated with stallesp activity. I don’t consider that a good sign.”

“Good.” Dorrik released her suddenly, stepping back. “Very good.”

“Now.” Kat rolled her neck back and forth, trying to recenter after the lokkel’s sudden burst of motion. “If someone that happened to know the stallesp’s language could happen to share that knowledge, it would be a great help.”

“It is against the rules, but consider it done.” Dorrik nodded decisively. “I would prefer that the translation guide not be traced back to me, so I cannot pass it to you directly. Instead, I will insert it into the metadata of a post on one of your entertainment channels.”

“Sounds good,” Kat replied agreeably. “Whip should be able to pull it from wherever you put it. What am I looking for?”

“I have become very interested in what your people call ‘fan theories’ about the show Chrome Cowboys.” Kat’s groan almost drowned out Dorrik’s voice. “I have been posting on the X-Chrome X-Change message board under the name TallDarkAndRugged69. You can expect the lexicon buried in my next post.”

“Jesus Christ.” Kat buried her face in her one good hand. “How in the name of all that is holy did that username happen?”

“It’s very straightforward, Miss Kat.” Dorrik nodded eagerly. “I am much taller than most of your race, and the dark color of my scales is a point of pride for all lokkel of Clan Ahn. Additionally, my scaled covering makes me much more resilient than the average human. As for the number? I saw many usernames with it included. I assumed that the numbers had some sort of cultural significance and appended them in order to assure that I blended in.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kat flicked her eyes to the side, sending the e-mail. She settled back into her chair, trying to focus on the pressure of the wood against her back in a vain attempt to relax. A single bead of sweat formed between her shoulders and traced a trail down her back.

She flinched, head whipping around as a pair of girls walked into her peripheral vision, chatting with each other while holding lunch trays. They continued their inane conversation as they took a booth a couple of tables away.

Kat blew out an exasperated breath. God, she was nervous. One e-mail about setting up a meeting and she was jumping at shadows.

Reaching forward, she pressed a button set into the cafeteria wall. Tiny speakers set into the frame of her booth began emitting a whining hiss, blurring the edges of conversations from around the cafeteria. The audio filter was hardly a common feature in the outside world, but in a college full of the children of the elite, sensitive conversations were common enough to warrant its inclusion.

The sound from the filter made Kat’s molars ache, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice to turn the room’s constant chatter into indecipherable noise. She was wound up fairly tight after Whip and her had gone through the decoded records she’d pulled from the black site. Every movement out of the corner of her eye sent Kat’s hand darting for a knife.

Of course, she smiled wryly to herself. No one would blame her if they’d seen the data Whippoorwill had shared with her. The common wisdom was that Millennium was fairly large before it went underground, but it wasn’t like they published quarterly reports on their assets and holdings.

The records weren’t quite complete. They only really covered the North American continent in any real detail. There were references to other ‘cells’ active across the world, but only sporadic updates on their activities. That said, what they had on Millennium’s North American activities was more than enough.

Dozens of stallesp active on Earth, supported by almost a thousand flash clones, and any number of corporate employees and samurai eager to come out on the ‘winning side’ of a power struggle that had the potential to overturn decades of careful political balance.

Apparently Kat’s efforts and GroCorp’s subsequent purge had done a number on Millennium’s activities in Chiwaukee. The black site was an effort to rebuild that influence, and from the looks of things, Millennium had been much more effective than anyone thought.

They only had three flash cloning tanks, but the alien technology had been running almost nonstop for the—

Kat’s smartpanel buzzed, jerking her from her reflections as it alerted her to an incoming call. With a deep breath, she accepted the incoming connection.

“Miss Debs.” Belle’s too-white shark smile appeared on the tiny screen just in front of her left eye. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I was just finishing up my morning workout when I got your e-mail.”

Despite her claims regarding her alleged exercise, the older woman looked immaculate. Not a single hair was out of place in the tight focused image of Belle’s face broadcast from her smartpanel.

“That was barely two minutes.” Kate chuckled dryly. “Frankly, I expected you to just send me an e-mail to set up a conversation.”

“I prefer being prompt because people rarely expect it.” Belle’s mirthful expression didn’t touch her eyes. “It’s an important lesson, dear. Whenever you engage in negotiations, the key is to keep your opponent off balance. Right now, you are unprepared for this conversation, so I am at an advantage.”

“I keep forgetting how blunt you are.” Kat leaned back into her chair, running a hand through hair. “Most people wouldn’t tell me how they’re manipulating me as they do it.”

“I’m not most people, Miss Debs,” the other woman replied with a shake of head. “Over the years, I’ve found that being straightforward is better than constant cloak and dagger shenanigans. My partners know who I am and how I operate. I will always put myself and my interests first. If they didn’t know my motivations and goals, they would be right not to trust me. Given that trust is important for cooperation, I make sure that those I’m working with know enough to make a sound decision.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Kat could feel a tension headache building. Belle’s games and the sonic filter were an awful combination.

“Of course,” Belle continued, tone becoming more predatory. “I could just be talking you through all of this to further disorient you before we start talking terms. My rational self-interest could explain either option.”

“I’m guessing both,” Kat replied. “I also think you just flat out enjoy confusing people regardless of whether it brings you any advantage.”

“And this is why I like you,” Belle responded with a decisive nod. “You’re bright enough to spar with, but not an irredeemable asshole like half of corporate leadership.”

“Now enough repartee, Miss Debs,” the executive continued, smile disappearing as she switched to business. “Your e-mail said that you had more information about Millennium? As I’m sure you recall, GroCorp has put me in charge of identifying and eliminating their influence in Chiwaukee. It’s a challenging task, and one I suspect was put before me by those that wish me to fail so they can punish me for that failure. I intend to prove them wrong.”

Kat took a deep breath, trying to tune out the persistent whine of the audio filter. No matter how she tried to put on a cool and collected front, the rapid barbs back and forth with Belle had put her on her back foot.

After spending a moment to collect herself, she reopened her eyes. Belle was staring at her with all the care of a hawk that had just spotted something small and furry limping through a field without cover.

“I was able to find a secure Millennium base and capture an intact database,” Kat began, choosing her words carefully.

“I don’t suppose this had anything to do with the firefight just off Greenspan-Volker Boulevard last week?” Belle asked playfully. “Someone destroyed most of an apartment building and left behind a lot of heavily chromed corpses. No one has been able to figure out which group did it, but most of the working theories among security personnel are that there’s a new gang establishing itself in that part of town.”

“No.” Kat caught herself, wincing as she remembered her short contact with Otto. “Well, yes. I was involved, but the damage wasn’t my fault. I was trying to extricate an informant when a bunch of Millennium samurai became involved and I had to gun my way out.”

“I thought so,” the older woman cut her off smugly. “Piling bodies knee deep in the streets with no evidence of your involvement is very much your style. It’s starting to get rather cliché, actually.”

“More importantly,” Kat continued, gritting her jaw against the growing headache. “I ran into another extraterrestrial visitor while I was in the Millennium base. There were also a number of human conspirators working quite openly with alien technology. The informant hinted that a number of Millennium samurai weren’t originally aware of the company’s strategic alliance with the stallesp.”

“From the information he passed on to me,” she barely suppressed a wince as she spoke. The drive hadn’t even had a chance to cool from Otto’s body heat before he was gunned down. “That is no longer the case. It sounds like they’ve purged their membership and those that remain are very aware of the situation.”

“That is unsettling and unwelcome news.” A hint of a frown touched Belle’s face for the first time. “Not altogether unexpected, but unpleasant nonetheless.”

“This informant of yours.” The executive banished her troubled expression. “I don’t suppose he’d be willing to sit down over a dinner so that I can pick his brain.”

“Perhaps more literally if he’s someone you don’t particularly care about?” Belle asked carefully. “My security staff have put together a very effective cocktail of drugs that can unlock even the most sealed of lips. It has a tendency to leave the recipient a drooling vegetable, but that’s hardly a major problem unless he’s a friend of yours.”

“Sadly, he’s one of your bodies in the street,” Kat replied with a shrug. “I only have some of his files. The rest of the information died with him.”

“Unfortunate.” Belle pursed her lips. “He would have been useful.”

“Hopefully the database makes up for it.” Kat let a predatory smile of her own slip onto her face. “It doesn’t have as much data on Millennium’s inner workings as I’d like, but I do have a full register of the stallesp’s North American operations, complete with the identities of additional aliens and flash-cloned sleeper agents. Put simply, Elaine Williamson wasn’t the only shareholder replaced by an out of town guest.”

Belle froze, ruby lips half open as she prepared herself for some sort of witty response.

“What,” she croaked, eyes bulging slightly as she stared at Kat, “did you say? How did you manage to get your hands on that? Hell, how did you manage to decrypt it? We haven’t been able to make heads or tails of the handful of mole artifacts we’ve gotten our hands on.”

Kat took a second to enjoy her counterpart’s discomfort. This might be the first and only moment where she had the usually unflappable Belle out of sorts. She’d be damned if she wasn’t going to milk the moment for all it was worth.

“I had out of town help with the decryption, but the end result looks legitimate to me.” Kat leaned back into her chair. “The long and short of it is that we didn’t exactly rip the stallesp out by the root. It was more of a light pruning if anything.”

“How big of an operation are we talking?” The perspective behind Belle shifted as the woman leaned forward. “Are we discussing three moles, twenty?”

“A couple dozen,” she responded. “They’re spread across the world in positions of authority, but that’s just the start of it. The stallesp have been flash-cloning hundreds of people. There’s almost a thousand in North America alone.”

Belle’s response was little more than a strangled grunt.

“So.” Kat steepled her fingers in front of her face. “Now that you have an idea of what we’re looking at, what can you offer me?”

“Are there any technological specifications?” Belle forced the question out, closing her eyes to try and calm herself. “I need to know if this database is going to contain schematics or anything marketable that GroCorp can sell.”

“Unfortunately not.” Kat struggled to keep the elation from her voice. Belle was on the ropes. “There are some descriptions of what the technology can do, but nothing that can be used to replicate it.”

“Three hundred thousand.” Belle opened her eyes. “I can do three hundred thousand for an exclusive disclosure.”

“Four hundred and it’s not exclusive. The information is too important to sell it to only one person. If Millennium nabs you, it’s all over with an exclusive,” Kat countered.

“Who,” Belle hissed, narrowing her eyes. Once again, the background just past her face shifted as she leaned forward. “Who else are you planning on selling this to?”

“The Haupt family,” Kat answered evenly. “Davis will know what to do with it. Honestly, if there’s anyone I trust to do the moral thing with the data, it’s him. I just know that on this point, your interests align with mine.”

“Haupt.” The other woman said the word almost experimentally. “Davis is virtuous to a fault. If things are as bad as you say, the idiot will probably work with me to put it to rest. For free.”

Belle snorted, her face brightening as she reasoned aloud.

“Three-fifty,” the executive responded much more cheerfully. “Even if it’s only Davis, I can’t go higher than that without some sort of assurance of exclusivity.”

“So long as you put me into contact with someone that can sell military grade gear, it’s a deal.” Kat nodded decisively. “My equipment needs to be patched up and replaced.”

“Splendid.” A smile split Belle’s face. “I’ll send you an e-mail to work out the details. As always, it’s a pleasure doing business with a professional like yourself, even if you do have a distressing tendency to leave a trail of bodies behind you.”

“I’ll work on it,” Kat replied sardonically, struggling to avoid rolling her eyes.

“You know.” Belle chuckled. “That was a fairly decent piece of negotiating on your part. Keep it up, Miss Debs. I’ll make a business-woman out of you yet.”

“Honestly?” Kat shook her head. “That would be a compliment from anyone else, but I’m not sure about you.”

“Don’t worry about it too much.” Belle shook her head, the same cold smile from the beginning of the conversation on her face. “It just means you’re becoming more like me. It warms the heart.”

“I was afraid of that,” Kat replied, her tone sour.

“Very droll, Miss Debs.” Belle chuckled. “Until next time.”

The camera cut off, leaving Kat alone in the booth, audio filter buzzing quietly. She slumped into her chair, breathing heavily as she finally became aware of the cold sweat drenching her back.

Encounters with Belle were never easy. Every moment poised on the edge of a razor as she walked a narrow line between profit and doom. With as many credits as she’d made today, one wrong word could have launched a dozen hit teams to silence her.

“Kat!” Emma’s shriek jolted her from her musing.

The blonde girl climbed up into her booth, pushing past Kat and taking the chair next to her, food in hand. A second later, Iris and Jasper joined them, taking the two chairs across from Emma and Kat.

“Why didn’t you tell us that you were coming to get lunch?” Emma prattled on, heedless of Kat’s discomfort. “You’re always so serious about school, I thought you’d be wrapped up in studying for finals. I would have invited you down to grab some food if I knew you were interested.”

“I actually came down here to use the audio filter.” Kat indicated the button that activated the speakers with a nod of her head. “I just got off of a business call, but I’m free now.”

“Ugh.” Emma stuck out her tongue. “I don’t get why you’re always so focused on business. Once we graduate from college, we’re all basically assured good jobs. We can work when we’re older. There’s no need for that nonsense right now.”

“I don’t know,” Jasper cut in, cocking his head slightly to the side as he glanced from Emma to Iris. “As someone who has personally benefited from Kat doing her side job, I’m not sure I’m as opposed to her moonlighting. For all we know, she’s out there saving the world.”

“Or just collecting blackmail on some low level executive for another low level executive.” Emma snorted, sticking a fork into her salad. “I mean, I’m not passing judgment. Blackmail and industrial espionage are important parts of the modern economy. I just don’t see much of a difference morally between Kat’s job and the sorts of things we’ll be assigned to within the company. Being a samurai is more exciting than ensuring that existing electronics manufacturing plants increase production by at least two percent per year, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just work for money. We can worry about that later.”

“Seriously,” the woman continued between bites, “we’re almost done with our first year of college. We should be talking about where we’re going for summer break, not scraping together a couple more credits.”

“Actually,” Kat replied with a slight, self-deprecating shrug. “This time I am saving the world. At least, I’m trying to. It’s kind of hard when you’re more or less on your own.”

“As someone that lives in this world,” Iris volunteered, leaning forward in her chair to address Kat, “I’m interested in knowing what I can do to help. Jasper and I might not be the most useful if things come down to direct action, but I can certainly organize a letter writing campaign.”

“Ooh!” Her eyes lit up. “Or we could put together solidarity merchandise to fundraise for you. Maybe we sell a ribbon or a bracelet to everyone who wants to support your struggle against tyranny and oppression.”

At least Jasper had the self-awareness to look embarrassed while Emma nodded excitedly along with Iris’s suggestion.

“I have a better idea.” Kat flashed a smile at her friends. “I’ve come across some fairly detailed information regarding stallesp operations in North America. I just sold a copy to someone in GroCorp security, but I think I’d feel a little safer if there were two sets of eyes on the data. It’s a lot harder to ‘make it disappear’ that way.”

“Jasper.” Kat fluttered her eyelashes at him, struggling to keep herself from bursting out into laughter. “I don’t suppose you’d want to buy some information on alien activity that might directly threaten your family’s business interests. I’d be happy to offer a friends discount.”

“Stallesp?” Emma asked, glancing around the table in confusion only for Iris to shush her. The levity around the table disappeared, only to be replaced by worried tension.

“How bad is it?” Jasper frowned. “Davis isn’t here, but I’m sure he’d be happy to pay market rate for—”

“It’s bad,” Kat cut him off. “When Millennium was exposed, every megacorporation went through an internal purge to rid themselves of their influence. Publicly, the stallesp and Millennium are now defeated and in hiding.”

“Unfortunately,” she shrugged bitterly, “flash clones complicate the matter. NeoSyne went through a power struggle just like everyone else, but at the end of the day, the old guard didn’t win. The stallesp can’t act openly through them, but it sure looks like the entire company has been co-opted. Unless we act quickly, things are going to spiral out of control.”

For almost ten seconds, no one said anything as they digested Kat’s grim news. Jasper sank back into his seat, worry creasing his features while Iris balled up her hands into white knuckled avatars of her stress and anxiety. Even Emma looked uncharacteristically contemplative.

“That’s it!” Surprisingly, it was Emma that broke the silence, slapping her right fist into the palm of her left hand. “NeoSyne is based out of Los Angeles. I completely forgot that my family has a vacation condo in the Grand Canyon. We should totally go there for summer break! It has a climate-controlled pool built into the cliff face and everything.”

All three of them slowly turned to stare at their friend, slack-jawed.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“I just feel like we’re wasting time right now,” Kat opined, slouching against a stone column next to Kaleek. “The entire galaxy is descending into flaming chaos around us, and here we are shopping.”

Kaleek didn’t even open his eyes, instead flicking his whiskers as he leaned against the pillar. Around them, the huge stone hall bustled with dozens of different alien races as they talked with each other and haggled.

Twenty paces away, a huge ball of white fur with eyes on tentacles sprouting from its top sold a menagerie of monster parts to a featureless gray being working in a wooden booth built into the stone walls. To their left, a pair of beings covered in iridescent chitin sifted through a table full of weapons, picking up swords and maces in their gleaming pincers. Kat couldn’t quite make out their sharp voices as they chattered with each other, periodically interrupted by the stand’s merchant. The creature, that looked for all the world like tiny brontosaurus wearing a top hat, gestured excitedly with its neck as it tried to upsell the potential customers on more expensive gear.

“That might be true,” Kaleek finally answered, eyes still closed. “But it doesn’t change the fact that we are running low on consumables. You might be able to heal us after combat, but that doesn’t really help us in the heat of the moment. Worse, your magic is our number one ranged damage dealer. Burning all of your mana on healing means you won’t have any left for your gravity magic.”

“But why can’t we do that either before or after we raid a dungeon?” Kat asked, shifting restlessly. “We’ve got a full night in front of us, I don’t get why we’re kicking rocks here rather than trying to get another dungeon award.”

“Because the nearest Iron tier dungeons are in the midst of a monster migration,” Dorrik interjected, approaching the two of them. “There are several Wood tier dungeons within range, but I will not weaken our builds by stooping to their use. It won’t be safe for us to delve into the deep mists for at least a couple of days.”

“I have no idea what that means.” Kat shrugged, her back shifting against the stone bricks of the pillar. “But it certainly doesn’t sound like it’s all that good.”

“It is not.” Dorrik nodded their head. “The great beasts that stalk the mists are not something to be trifled with. Even avatars six levels above our own would struggle with defeating one, let alone those seeking dungeons.”

“We’ve snuck past a couple of them.” She shuddered, ice water trickling down her spine. “They certainly aren’t anything I want to tangle with, but between the three of us, we’ve been pretty good at spotting and avoiding them so far.”

“An acceptable risk to date,” Dorrik agreed. “Unfortunately, reports currently indicate that they are moving through the mists in great numbers. Despite millennia of study, we do not fully understand the ecology and habits of the mist creatures.”

“It’s hardly like they sit around and answer questions.” Kaleek chuckled. “I’m pretty sure they’d just mutilate any xenobiologist that tried to get anywhere near them. They’re awfully efficient at that sort of thing.”

“Regardless,” the big lizard continued, glaring at Kaleek. The oversized otter just ignored him, whiskers twitching around a self-satisfied smile. “Some have traveled down several levels and made the effort to catalog the behavior and habit of the dreamscape’s monsters. We do not know what causes the migrations, but when they happen, traveling through the deep mists is all but impossible without running into one or more of them.”

“Could we simply go to another village?” Kat asked, gesturing vaguely toward the hall’s exit. “If the good dungeons around here are inaccessible, maybe it would be better if we just moved on.”

“There is one village per mountaintop.” Dorrik shook their head. “Traveling to another mountain would be possible. Indeed, it would grant us access to a new set of dungeons. Unfortunately, we would need to spend a prolonged period in the deep mists between the mountains. Such a journey would be even more dangerous than seeking out one of the nearby Iron tier dungeons.”

“Crap.” Kat grunted, pushing herself away from the pillar and straightening. “So we either weaken our avatars by challenging an inferior dungeon, or we cool our heels around town and wait for the valleys to clear themselves.”

“And that is why we shop,” Dorrik replied. “We must spend marks to replenish healing and mana draughts, as well as the assorted short duration protective enchantments we use to weather specific dungeons. Half of our success to date has been a factor of knowing each dungeon’s specialty and preparing for it.”

“Maybe we’re just good,” Kaleek replied with a shrug. “Don’t get me wrong. I prefer being prepared to the alternative, but I’ve found that hitting a monster with a greatsword enough times tends to fix any sort of deficit in planning.”

“Not always.” The lokkel shot Kaleek another glare. “For example, we finished the Molten Tomb on the fifth level in under an hour. Without potions of stilled breath and draughts of heat resistance, we would have suffocated or cooked before we made it past the second room.”

“Additionally, much of our equipment is in need of repair,” Dorrik continued. “It is true that it could go weeks without seeing a craftsbeing, but the three of us have been rough with our armor and weapons. If we push our luck too far, our gear will fail on us when we need it most.”

“That’s fair,” Kat agreed grudgingly. “I’ll feel naked without my weapons on me while we wander around town, but it makes sense to have someone look at them.”

She stopped talking as the two rainbow-exoskeletoned aliens walked past, pincers clicking as they chatted quietly with each other. For a handful of moments, an awkward silence fell over Kat’s team’s pillar as they waited until the aliens were far enough away to continue their conversation.

“Yeah,” Kaleek said, pushing himself off of the stone column. “I’ve had a sword break on me in a fight before. It wasn’t exactly fun. Honestly, we should look into backup weapons while we’re at it. Even if something doesn’t manage to destroy our equipment, it’s only a matter of time before some monster manages to disarm one of us.”

“I do need to actually pick up a crossbow,” Kat replied appraisingly. “If we’re going to be stuck doing nothing but shopping, I might as well find something compact that I can use as a more reliable ranged attack. I might as well put that throwaway skill stone to good use.”

“I still think you should have sold it.” Kaleek shrugged. “There are plenty of other more useful combat skills that you could have bought with the proceeds.”

“No.” Dorrik shook their head. “A hand crossbow is about perfect for Miss Kat. Her throwing knives are quick and accurate, but their range and penetration leaves something to be desired. Crossbows are easier to enchant. Plus, once Miss Kat reaches the second tier of her skill, we can look into a specialty stone that will truly improve her combat role. I specifically have my eye on Spell Infusion.”

“Ooh!” Kaleek’s eyes lit up. “Good point. Spell Infusion would be an amazing fit for Kat. That didn’t even cross my mind, but it would add so much versatility to her build.”

“I’m standing right here, guys,” Kat cut in, brow furrowed. “If you’re going to map out my future skills and abilities in front of me, I’d appreciate it if you at least let me know what your plans are.”

“I apologize, Miss Kat.” Dorrik inclined their head, crest flattening remorsefully. “I did not want to bore you with minutiae, and we never had a proper moment to sit down and talk about The Tower of Somnus’s higher levels.”

“Well, here we are.” She chuckled, motioning expansively with her left hand. “Stuck inside due to the big bad monster migration. Now is as good a time to fill me in as any.”

“As you are undoubtedly aware,” Dorrik’s voice slipped into ‘professor-mode’ as they began their lecture, drawing an audible groan from Kaleek.

“Nope,” the otter cut in. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it at a bar. I’m all for making sure Kat knows what she needs to know, but I’m not sitting through a speech on Iron tier evolutions sober. I don’t care what they’re fermenting on this shitty hellscape, but I plan on drinking it.”

For a second, Dorrik looked nonplussed only to shrug, crest wriggling in amusement.

“Fine,” they replied. “There are a number of nearby establishments where you can explore your avatar’s poison tolerance while Miss Kat and I engage in actually useful conversation.”

The otter cheered and bolted toward the exit, startling some of the nearby patrons and forcing both Kat and Dorrik to break into a jog to keep up with him. It seemed like Kaleek had some familiarity with the local nightlife because he didn’t bother to stop for directions, instead leading the two of them right to a modestly appointed bar and restaurant a block and a half from the adventurer’s hall.

By the time Kat and Dorrik sat down, the desoph was in the middle of an animated conversation with the bartender, a dragonfly-like being that towered over him. Kat shot Dorrik an amused look, and the big lizard just shrugged back.

“Kaleek is good at making friends.” The lokkel chuckled. “If we weren’t rushing you toward level twenty four, I can almost guarantee you that half of each level would know of our presence as he sampled his way through the local bars and restaurants.”

Kat thought for a minute before nodding back. When she spoke, the words came out slowly as if she was measuring and weighing each one.

“I think I’d like that, Dorrik. Everything on Earth is so hectic right now. Dozens of stallesp are collaborating with and supplanting political authorities, all while I have a target painted on my back. I’ve never really lived a life of leisure. My family was born too close to the razor’s edge of poverty and getting exiled to the Shell for that, but even my early days as a petty criminal are starting to look rose colored in retrospect. I need a vacation.”

“Once we hit level twenty four and resolve this crisis with the stallesp,” Dorrik agreed decisively. “From watching Chrome Cowboys, I’ve learned that your species prefers hot springs for relaxation. I have the perfect place in mind on level eight.”

“What?” Kat flinched. “No, that’s just a trope. I’d be perfectly happy with—”

“Perhaps a beach then?” the big lizard mused, tapping their chin with a claw. “I am unsure where I will be able to find some of the required items such as a watermelon, volleyball, and the flimsy cloth coverings that humans insist upon when near water, but I am sure I can think of something.”

“This is on purpose, isn’t it?” Kat groaned, sinking into her chair. “All of these ‘cultural lessons’ you’re learning from Chrome Cowboys have to be on purpose. There’s no other explanation.”

“I have no idea what you’re speaking of,” Dorrik replied, cocking their head as their crest fluttered with confusion. “Chrome Cowboys is the most ubiquitous piece of popular media on your planet. Of course I would study its intricacies in order to understand more about your race. Already I feel that I have learned much about who you are and how you operate from a close examination of the Digital Desperado arc where Jenny—”

“Just tell me about specialization stones,” Kat interjected, head buried in her hands. “As much as a horrified part of me wants to hear how you’ve psychoanalyzed me through the lens of a soap opera, I’m not sure I’m emotionally ready for that revelation.”

“Of course,” Dorrik responded agreeably, nodding to Kaleek as the desoph slid three mugs of something frothy and vaguely yellow onto the table.

“As you are aware.” The lokkel lifted the drink to their mouth, taking a sip and grimacing. “First tier skills stop progressing at rank twelve. After that, they require further stones to evolve them.”

Very deliberately, the big lizard put down their cup, sliding the over-carbonated and hissing liquid away from them with their lower pair of arms and toward Kaleek. Without a word, the desoph cheerfully scooped up the drink and took a long pull from it before slamming it back on the table with a satisfied sigh.

“Kaleek’s awful taste in alcohol aside,” Dorrik continued, squinting at the grinning otter, “you should have some experience with skill evolutions from leveling up your magic in the Iron tier dungeons. For magic, evolution is fairly straightforward. You simply gain access to new spells, and improvements related to the power and mana efficiency of those spells.”

“Martial skills are different.” They turned back to Kat. “Most first tier martial skills grant incremental increases to the weapon used along with one subskill or perk. At the second tier, their evolutions are fairly different. Namely, you can acquire up to two specializations for each martial skill, each of which has a much more powerful, albeit narrower application than the skill itself.”

“Spell Infusion is a good example. It is a specialty available for most ranged skills that allows a spellcaster to use the projectile as the source or starting point of a spell. Each level of the specialty increases the efficiency of the spell until, at level twelve, spells cast from a projectile are indistinguishable from those originating from the caster.”

“So you’re saying that I could cast Gravity’s Grasp from a dagger I throw at someone?” Kat asked, gingerly picking up her mug.

“Yes.” Dorrik nodded. “Any spell can be cast from the projectile. That’s why Crossbow I is such a good skill for you. It has significantly more range than your daggers. Beyond the obvious use of Overpressure or Gravity Spike to directly attack an enemy, it can be used for crowd control with Dazzle or Gravity’s Grasp, or to remotely trigger traps with Pseudopod.”

“That sounds fairly useful in real life too,” Kat agreed, pausing the fizzing surface of her drink a handsbreadth from her mouth. “I can see why you’re pushing for me to learn it.”

“I’m mostly interested in the specialties you pick up for your knife,” Kaleek slurred, slamming a second empty mug down on the table. “I personally think Bladestorm and Exsanguinate are the best fit for you, but Dancing Blade, Rend, or Cleave all would work too.”

“That’s a lot of words that I don’t even begin to understand,” Kat replied. “Honestly, if I’m going to make an informed decision on this, I will need to know a whole lot more about what my options are for specializations.”

“That is fair, Miss Kat.” Dorrik responded agreeably. “I will look into compiling a list of bladed and concealable weapon specializations. It might take me a day or so to recite them to you, but I agree that full knowledge is preferable to—”

“Distill it down to what you think might actually be useful.” Kat shook her head to stop the big lizard. “I’m not sure if I can even process a massive list. Just break it down to the top ten or twelve abilities.”

“Ah.” Dorrik nodded. “Much more reasonable. We will have plenty of time to discuss your build while our gear is repaired tomorrow.”

“Great!” Kat took a pull from her drink and immediately gagged. It was tart beyond belief, like someone had fermented lemon zest and added a strong note of sulfur for good measure.

“What in the ever-loving fuck was that?” Kat glared at Kaleek, barely choking down the sour concoction. “Why in God’s name did you order something so unbelievably vile? There’s no way you can enjoy drinking this crap.”

Kaleek just winked at her, swaying slightly in his chair as he reached for the mug, slurring his words.

“Easy. More for me.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Remember to chew the meat thoroughly,” Dorrik lectured, handing a fist-sized hunk of well-seasoned steak to Kat. “You’ll need to hold the juices in the back of your throat for as long as possible so the enchantment can go to work.”

“This still seems like it’s a lot less efficient than a potion or an enchanted necklace,” Kat replied, accepting the meat dubiously.

“Unfortunately,” Dorrik responded dryly, “Kaleek was put in charge of sourcing consumables for this mission when we divided up tasks last night. I was unaware that there was a Mek’lak chef-enchanter in this village when that decision was made. Knowledge of this likely would have changed my position.”

Kaleek gave the two of them a thumbs up, chewing his meal cheerfully.

“Although Mek’lak flavor profiles are notorious for their… uniqueness,” the lokkel continued holding up their food between an index finger and thumb, “few doubt the efficacy of their enchantments. I generally avoid their products because they have poor shelf lives, but they should be more than enough for this dungeon.”

She glanced at the dormant stone oval of the dungeon entrance. Mist clung to the valley floor around them, limiting visibility. In the distance, an unseen predator let out a protracted croaking bellow.

Kat shrugged, shoving the handful of meat into her mouth. It was bitter and musty, maybe a tad bit oversalted, but overall it was significantly more edible than her last experience with Kaleek’s palette.

She masticated thoughtfully, growing accustomed to the steak’s gamey flavor profile. If Kat was honest with herself, it tasted a lot better than any of the food she’d been able to afford as a regular employee. Admittedly, her expectations had grown since she’d started college, but—

The food grew warmer as she chewed, causing her tongue and throat to tingle. She raised an eyebrow, cocking her head quizzically at Kaleek and Dorrik.

“That means the magic is working.” Kaleek chuckled, slapping her on the shoulder. “It adds a little extra tang to the flavor profile.”

The sensation continued, heat filling the back of her mouth as the tingle transformed into a full-blown itch. Kat shifted from foot to foot, eyes watering as she tried to suppress the urge to claw at her throat.

“Relax, Miss Kat.” Dorrik’s soothing voice washed over her. “You’ll feel when the magic finishes running its course. Until then, you’ll just have to bear it.”

She nodded, trying to blot out her growing discomfort by focusing on the rest of the valley. Kat couldn’t quite make out the rocky and lichen covered walls through the omnipresent mist, but she remembered them clearly from their team’s treacherous descent down their inclines.

The heavy fog swirled, a light gust of wind creating a kaleidoscope of shapes from the flowing shadows before the air stilled, leaving them once again in hushed, anxious tranquility.

Then the tingling just vanished. One minute, it took everything she had to avoid spitting the burning meat out. The next, all that was left was the almost pleasant musty flavor she’d originally noticed.

She swallowed, letting the food slip down her throat. Warmth suffused her shoulders and chest as her body began to absorb the magic. She inhaled, filling her lungs with more air than they’d ever been able to handle and triggering a rush of giddiness as oxygen rushed to her brain.

Dorrik stepped forward, touching one of their hands to the stone frame of the dungeon portal. They disappeared, leaving behind a glowing vortex of energy.

“See you on the other side, Kat.” Kaleek shot her a wink before reaching out to touch the pulsing oval of scintillating light.

A moment later, she joined him, flashing away in a rainbow of light and motion that deposited her atop a small stone island next to Dorrik. The room around her was dark and featureless, little more than a dome of roughly hewn rock just over her head that descended into the lake that filled the rest of the chamber.

Kaleek’s head popped above the water’s surface, bright white teeth flashing at her as he broke into an ecstatic grin.

“Come on in, Kat, the water’s just fine.”

She glanced at him dubiously before turning to Dorrik. The big lizard looked intensely uncomfortable as they glared at the omnipresent water, their crest tight against the back of their skull. Finally, they sighed and addressed Kat.

“The enchantments infused in the meat should let us breathe underwater and protect us from the pressure. As much as I would prefer to be anywhere but here, this dungeon is the best fit for our abilities right now.”

“What they said.” Kaleek nodded in Dorrik’s direction before sending himself rocketing across the surface of the water with a flick of his tail. “The water’s great. Dive in.”

With a shrug, she took a pair of steps and Leapt into the air, tucking her knees up to her chest and linking her hands across them before splashing into the water. The liquid bubbled past her as Kat began sinking rapidly toward the bottom of the lake.

Her vision shifted into the grayscale of Nightvision as light faded away. With an effort to calm herself, Kat opened her mouth and let the cool water enter her lungs. Breathing was… different. It took a little more effort to actually draw liquid into her body, but other than a brief struggle as she first began, everything functioned more or less normally.

A second later, Dorrik splashed into the lake, thrashing as they struggled to keep their reflexes under control. Their dense body sank faster than Kat, beating her to the bumpy stone floor of the room despite their flailing.

Kaleek jetted up to them, a sinuous streak that easily outpaced both of their lethargic movements before he let himself settle to the ground next to them. He flashed the two of them another bright smile.

“Do you need to get settled, or are you ready to get started?” Kaleek’s voice reached Kat’s ears a half second after his mouth moved, sounding strangely distant. Almost like he was addressing her from the other end of a long, echoing hallway. “It looks like the exits are on the seabed. You shouldn’t need to swim that much, just plant yourself on the floor and stab anything that gets too close.”

“What the—” Kat flinched backward, cutting herself off in surprise as she heard her own distant voice despite the water.

“The enchantment reads our intentions,” Dorrik said stiffly, clearly uncomfortable. “Much like it lets its users breathe water and survive the depths, it projects our voices in a way that our companions can understand. It is just unfortunate that the magic can’t make the experience less… wet.”

“That’s our Dorrik.” Kaleek chuckled. “Able to turn even an existential crisis into a lecture. I swear, one of these days, I’ll convince them to give up their irrational discomfort with water. Maybe they won’t go swimming, but given how hard we’ve all been pushing ourselves, I think we at least deserve a day at the beach.”

“That day is not today,” Dorrik grumbled. “I am here because The Tide Caves is a dungeon very suited to our party. I am certainly not enduring this for pleasure.”

“What about when we go back to the fourth floor?” Kaleek asked, kicking off of the floor and swimming a tight circle around the two of them despite his heavy armor. “We’ve earned a break.”

“Soon,” Dorrik replied grudgingly. “We will need to start transitioning down to the fourth floor in another two days. Once the stallesp fortress is located and cleansed, I will tolerate a visit to the beach.”

“Thanks.” Kat flashed a smile at the big lizard. “I know we don’t have much time to waste, but the archipelago was really nice. A day there to unwind would be a good change of pace.”

“To be clear,” they cracked a brief smile back at her, “I am only agreeing to this for Miss Kat’s sake. I have no illusions that Kaleek will be anything other than unpleasant and annoying the entire time.”

“I’m glad we understand each other,” Kaleek replied brightly, landing gently on one of his paws while his whiskers twitched with mirth. “For now, I believe we have some frog monsters to kill.”

Traveling was a challenge. Kat wasn’t able to just walk across the lake-bed, instead forced into either a slow shuffle or a slow-motion leapfrog as she bounded across a half dozen paces with each kick off of the floor. Eventually, the three of them reached the exit, little more than an oversized crack in the lakebed’s wall.

Kaleek wriggled through the gap, leading the way. Dorrik and Kat bounded after him, hanging in the water at the apex of their arcs for almost a quarter of a second before they began their descent back toward the floor. Mentally, Kat made a note to only use short and measured movements in combat. Her entire fighting style relied on mobility, and turning herself into an immobile target for seconds at a time didn’t seem like a terribly well thought out tactic.

A stream of bubbles was the only warning Kat got before a frog monster darted at her, barely a second after she entered the second chamber. It was a little taller than her, pale spongy skin covering its too-long arms and legs.

She jerked backward, water slowing her usually smooth movements to the point that she barely dodged the sharp, forearm-length dewclaw sticking out of the creature’s wrist. Almost without thinking, she cast Dehydrate on her opponent’s face.

The spell didn’t deal any damage, the water in their surroundings robbing its efficacy before it could actually attack the monster’s head. Instead, it created a burst of bubbles and a massive pressure imbalance as the water rushed to fill the void.

She grabbed the off-balance monster’s arm, just below the massive stabbing claw, and pushed her dagger through it. The creature shook, a distressed bass croaking sound washing over Kat as she yanked it closer to her.

A second thrust planted her knife in its neck. A quick sawing motion tore it loose, pouring inky blood into the water surrounding the two of them.

The creature kicked away, pale hands frantically patting at its throat as it tried to staunch the flow of blood as two of its companions kicked past it. One of them slashed at her with both of its arms, drawing an X through the water that Kat only evaded with the help of Cat Step. The frog croaked, neck swelling to twice its ordinary size before it unleashed a blast of mana infused sound at her.

Her ears tingled, perks activating to prevent the attack from disorienting her. Without missing a beat, Kat retaliated, casting Overpressure next to her assailant’s head. It snapped.

The spell multiplied the already intense pressure of the depths, creating a shockwave that shattered the monster’s fragile bones. Head tilted irrevocably sideways, the spell spiked the creature off of the ground only for it to float nervelessly away from Kat and her remaining opponent.

The remaining frog hopped backward, a look of concern on its bulbous face, but Kat didn’t give it a moment of respite. She cast the spell again.

This monster got its hands up in time to disrupt the worst of the pressure-wave. The spell broke both of its arms, leaving it dazed, disabled and helpless as Kat kicked off of the floor and tackled it. Four stabs from her knife later, and it was motionless on the rocky floor, blood rising from its shattered body like inky smoke.

She pivoted. Dorrik was glowing brightly, their Psi abilities pushed to the maximum. As she watched, they overcorrected, kicking off the ground to dodge a swipe from a dewclaw and sending themselves soaring through the water.

For a moment, they hung there, all but motionless at the apex of their arc. Then a trio of the frog creatures kicked off the lake floor, soaring through the water like fleshy pale torpedoes.

Dorrik spun to meet them, overcorrecting as they flailed wildly in the water and turning their back on the monsters even as their swords glinted ineffectually.

Kat cast Overpressure just in front of one of the monsters’ snouts, snapping its face backward from the blast of water pressure even as she reached for one of the throwing knives strapped across her chest.

Her hand froze, fingers just barely touching the hilt of the weapon. There wasn’t any way that she’d be able to aim properly through the water. Instead, Kat fired off Overpressure once more, detonating the spell just below one of the frogs, shattering its legs and knocking its thrashing body off course above Dorrik.

The lizard spun at the last moment, flashing with light as they used Halt Momentum on themselves before kicking their legs against the water and turning to face their assailant. The amphibian thrust with its right arm, razor sharp dewclaw leading the way as it tried to impale Dorrik’s struggling form.

They reached down, grabbing the thrusting arm of a frog with one of their lower hands at the last second. For a moment, the two figures struggled in the water above Kat and Kaleek, then the lokkel brought their other sword down in a double handed grip, cutting their opponent open from shoulder to hip.

Dark blood puffed from the wound as the creature went limp, sinking back toward the rocky floor of the lake alongside Dorrik. As the lokkel touched down, Kat surveyed the lake once more, looking for any remaining opponents.

A half dozen corpses hung bonelessly around Kaleek. The big otter twirled to face them, a massive grin on his face as he spun his sword in a tight figure eight. A sharp flick of his tail later, he crossed the distance between them in a single protracted leap.

“There we go!” Even the magical echo and distance granted by the enchantment couldn’t hide Kaleek’s glee. “Now that’s what I call a battle. It just isn’t the same if you can’t dodge in three dimensions.”

“I am glad you enjoyed yourself,” Dorrik replied with a wince, brushing some of the cloudy dark blood from their scales. “I believe the important takeaway from this conflict is that Miss Kat’s water magic is incredibly effective underwater. Between the two of you, this dungeon should be fairly easy, even if I am unfortunately more or less dead weight.”

“You forgot that the frog things are hiding in holes lining the cave walls,” Kaleek responded cheerfully, nodding at the nearby rocky expanse. “That’s why you didn’t see them at first. The sneaky little buggers were hiding.”

Kat squinted, trying to make sense of the alien expanse through the grayscale of Nightvision. The lakebed was a barren rocky expanse. Nothing more than gently curving stone bereft of any plant or animal life except the camouflage warrens that Kaleek had noted.

“Good point,” she agreed. “If I can see them coming, I can make quick work of them with Overpressure, but I’m not sure how well I can handle a surprise attack.”

“Then let’s not get surprised.” Kaleek slapped her on the shoulder, his paw slowed by the water around them. “As long as there aren’t any major obstructions, I should be able to spot their hiding spots before they jump out at us.”

“As good a plan as any,” Dorrik agreed. “There should be three more rooms before the boss chamber. One with heavy currents and another with jets of high pressure water that will seek to dash us into the chamber’s walls.”

“Sounds like fun!” Kaleek kicked off of the floor, hovering in the water a couple paces above the ground. “Let’s get to it.”

With a grin and a flick of his tale, the cheerful otter disappeared, swimming past Dorrik and Kat. She turned to Dorrik and shrugged before following the fading form of the desoph with long, bounding steps.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The next hour or so was more of the same. Kat sniped the frog monsters with Overpressure while Dorrik slowed their advance with Ego Shards. Meanwhile, Kaleek enthusiastically ripped apart anything that came close enough to threaten them with their dewclaws.

She lost track of how many of the frog creatures they killed. Once their team perfected their routine, the fights became so easy that she found herself sleepwalking through fights. So long as they made sure to recharge mana between rooms and Dorrik could rejuvenate their stamina, none of their opponents managed to pose anything approaching a credible threat.

Finally, they reached the last room. Kat hopped through the exit of the winding cave their party had taken to get there, waving a hand in the water to rotate herself slightly so that she was facing the rest of her team. The dungeon had hardly turned Dorrik and her into Olympic swimmers, but there wasn’t much doubt that both of them were significantly more comfortable maneuvering through the depths.

The boss chamber was better lit. To the point where Kat could have deactivated Nightvision if she really wanted, but at the same time, there wasn’t quite enough natural lighting at the bottom of the lake to make abandoning the perk a good idea.

Still, the massive clam, lit by a ray of light from above the water’s surface, was impressive no matter how one viewed it. It was almost the size of an ordinary room. A gargantuan oval of dull armor, it stretched well above the top of Kat’s head as it lurked, immobile and menacing in the center of the chamber.

The armored top of the bivalve cracked open slightly, releasing a stream of bubbles and a half dozen shadowy, armored figures. As they closed the distance toward Kat and her companions, more and more details became visible.

Their opponents jetted through the water, curling their fanned tails up to their chest before flicking them backward in order to burst toward their party. The monsters were covered in a flexible, segmented exoskeleton, broken only by a pair of beady eyes and two waist-sized claws.

Overpressure knocked one of the creatures off course, blood leaking through cracks in its armor. It righted itself, gingerly cradling its injured right pincer, and darted forward again. A moment later, a javelin of purple energy punched into its chest, freezing the creature for just over a second before it regained control of its senses.

Kat shared a worried glance with Dorrik, her mouth pressed into a thin line. Apparently this round of combat wouldn’t be quite as easy.

“Cover your eyes!” Kat shouted, waiting the extra fraction of a second for the enchantment to translate her words as she poured mana into Dazzle.

The silent pulses of light left the attackers in complete disarray. As Kat had suspected, the creatures were adapted to the depths of the poorly lit lake. Even if they had an ability to blink, it wasn’t a reflexive response to bright lights.

Kaleek went wild, the glow of martial abilities surrounding him like a nimbus as he tore into the monsters. Somehow the big otter came to a full stop before swinging his greatsword one handed with enough force to split his target’s armor. His left hand lashed out, grabbing one of the creatures by its flopping tail and whipping it into a companion hard enough that Kat felt the force of their impact almost fifteen paces away.

She began casting Levitation, focusing on one of the creatures that began righting itself. Kaleek spun like a top, burning stamina as he swung his greatsword in a wide arc that caught two more of the monsters, severing a claw on one and burying itself through the torso armor of another.

Then Levitation took hold. With an audible crack, her target disappeared, the sudden decrease in its weight causing its buoyancy to skyrocket. A second later, it broke the water’s surface, barely slowing until it splattered against the room’s rocky ceiling.

She paused, startled for only a moment before she duplicated the spell, catching a monster that Dorrik had just released from Halt Momentum. The water roiled around it as it shot upward, giving Kaleek the time he needed to clean up the last of their opponents.

“Huh,” Kat remarked, cracking her neck. “Maybe that wasn’t actually that hard. I was just using the wrong spells.”

“Indeed, Miss Kat.” Dorrik nodded in her direction. “Many spells are highly dependent upon one’s environment. Often the dividing line between a good and a great warrior is learning which spells become spectacular and which become useless under a specific set of circumstances. For example, I suspect that Pseudopod will not provide you with much benefit in this dungeon. It operates by creating a slightly higher pressure tendril of water. This deep, most opponents will barely—”

“Sorry to cut you off, professor,” Kaleek interjected, motioning toward the clam with a spare hand as it began to open once again. “But it looks like we’re about to get more company.”

“Oh, yes.” Dorrik’s crest fluttered quickly with agitation as they tried to find their spot in the conversation. “The only way to conquer this dungeon is to slip inside the Megaclam while it is releasing craymen and to remove its manapearl from the dungeon altar. At that point, the water will drain from the room and the Megaclam’s corpse will disappear. Until then, it will continue to endlessly spawn larger and larger broods of craymen until the dungeon’s invaders are overwhelmed.”

“Then why in the name of the ancients are we just standing here listening to a lecture on dungeon theory!” Kaleek slapped his forehead into his free palm. “We should be crawling around inside that thing’s guts!”

“I thought this was a teaching moment,” Dorrik responded, miffed. They ignored the shapes of nine more of the monsters spilling through the giant clam’s open mouth. “Although we can help Miss Kat in the tower, it is impossible for us to be with her while she fights for her people’s freedom. The depths of the lake provided the perfect opportunity to discuss the important role that situational awareness plays in spellcasting.”

“It was a useful lesson,” Kat cut in, trying to infuse her voice with a soothing tone. “But for now, I think Kaleek might have a point. It’s only a matter of time before we get overrun. We should probably look into completing the dungeon before we continue this discussion.”

“Fine.” Dorrik sniffed, obviously still a little perturbed. “I will crawl into the clam. There should still be craymen inside, but I will be much more useful in its cramped corridors than stuck out here in the open.”

“I should have enough mana for a wave or two,” Kat agreed slowly as she checked her status. “That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t hurry, but it sounds like a workable plan.”

Kaleek grinned, giving both of them a thumbs up.

“I have enough stamina for another five or ten minutes,” he concurred cheerfully. “Don’t go too fast, I have a fair amount of steam from a long day on the job to work out.”

Kat just rolled her eyes as the three of them set out toward the clam. About halfway there, the monsters intercepted them only to be stunned by Dazzle. Dorrik continued toward the boss while Kaleek swam into the fray, a dervish of fur and glinting steel as he tore his way through the reeling craymen.

She hung back, using Levitation on any of the monsters that looked like it had the potential to get the drop on Kaleek, but generally trying to preserve her mana. Still, Kat spared a quick glance up at the surface of the lake. There still was something satisfying about launching opponents to their doom against the roof. Mentally, she made a note to check into getting a therapist when she woke up.

Then Kaleek cut the last crayman in half. He spun around, a manic grin on his face while he struggled to breathe the heavy water, clouds of monster blood billowing behind him.

Kat shrugged. Maybe both of them needed therapists.

Another wave of chitin-covered creatures poured from the clam, letting Dorrik slip inside. Kat and Kaleek stood their ground, letting their resource pools recover as they waited for the even dozen of the monsters to bolt close enough to them.

Once they were in range, Kat called out another warning, and for a third time, used Dazzle to blind the entire swarm. Kaleek swam amongst them, blade flashing as he took advantage of their confusion.

She frowned. Despite the smile on his face, the big otter’s chest was heaving and he wasn’t swinging his sword with its former force. Perhaps most worryingly, Kat noticed that he was no longer wreathed in the ruby glow of burning stamina. Either the desoph was saving it for something, or he was running critically low.

Ignoring the sinking feel deep in her chest, Kat began using Levitation to remove some of the craymen. The splash-crunch of them bursting through the lake surface and splattering against the ceiling was satisfying, but even with her intervention, the monsters managed to recover from their moment of blindness before Kat and Kaleek could dispatch them.

She kicked off the ground, using Levitation to kill another monster even as she tackled one that had circled around to gain access to Kaleek’s back. Kat’s first knife strike skittered off of the monster’s exoskeleton and she had to kick hard, spinning the two of them, in order to avoid the creature’s claw as it tried to return the favor. Her second attack glowed red as she fed stamina into Penetrate, sinking through the monster’s armor and into the squishy flesh beneath.

Kat planted both feet on the creature, kicking off and pulling her knife from the wound she’d left in its back. A moment later, she finished casting Overpressure.

The portion of the spell that triggered outside the crayman’s body shoved it backward, but the jet of dark blood never materialized. Kat cursed internally at the wasted mana as she began casting Levitation instead. Apparently even with the help of her magic, the monster’s blood wasn’t under high enough pressure compared to its surroundings for the spell to be fatal.

It snarled, a flick of its fantail spinning it around until it was above her, facing down and ready to charge. Then, with the last of her mana, Kat cast Levitation.

The monster let out a surprised squeak as its own buoyancy catapulted it up through the water, and into the air beyond.

She kicked off the ground, dodging to the side in an effort to keep moving just in case she’d been targeted by an unknown assailant. Nothing happened.

A half dozen torn and destroyed craymen floated in the water around Kaleek, the one survivor locked onto his armored forearm with both pincers. Even as she watched, he beheaded the creature with a sluggish blow, sending it to join its comrades.

Heaving for breath he paddled toward her, eyes wild but no longer grinning. He touched down gently next to Kat, planting the tip of his greatsword into the rock to steady himself.

“This is fun and all,” he began, pausing to take a big gulp of the lake water, “but Dorrik should probably hurry up. I don’t want to have too much of a good thing, after all.”

Kat grinned back at the otter, trying not to think about the fact that she only had two points of mana remaining as she addressed her friend.

“It’s like having dessert before dinner. It could ruin your appetite.”

“Exactly,” Kaleek replied, flashing his teeth in an almost-smile in return. “If Dorrik lets me have this much fun here, it’ll spoil me. I just won’t be able to enjoy myself in the dreamscape unless I’m slashing my way through a horde of opponents and the two of you will have to put up with me whining and complaining through every dungeon.”

The clam’s mouth opened, releasing two dozen of the monsters. Almost immediately, they turned toward the two of them and began jetting through the inky water.

“Fuck,” Kat mumbled numbly.

Kaleek’s mouth moved silently as he eyed up their oncoming opponents. He turned to her, a deadly serious look on his face.

“Kat,” he began solemnly. “The first wave had six, the second had nine and the third had twelve. We barely managed to defeat the third wave. Now the fourth has twenty four.”

“I believe there is an error in this dungeon’s progression, and I would like to find a manager so that I can lodge a complaint.” His whiskers twitched as he broke composure, grinning broadly.

Despite herself and the seriousness of the situation, Kat broke out laughing. Kaleek shook his head in mock consternation as he pulled his sword from the rock floor of the lakebed.

“Don’t worry.” She chuckled. “Once we finish off the fourth wave, I’ll find an authority figure for you. Then you can give them a proper piece of your mind regarding the poor level design for this dungeon.”

“Good,” Kaleek agreed, bringing his sword up into a two-handed guard. Kat couldn’t help but notice that the tip of this blade drooped and trembled slightly. “It’s simply disorganized and doesn’t reflect well upon the Tower. I’m sure that with proper notice they can do better.”

“God.” Kat shook her head, burning the last of her mana to Dazzle the oncoming swarm of craymen. “At least we knew that this would be an underwater dungeon coming in. Without Dorrik telling us what consumables to buy and knowing how to defeat the boss, can you imagine how impossible this all would have been?”

“Dungeon pioneers come in three flavors, Kat,” Kaleek replied, eyes on the scattered and disoriented monsters. “Insanely powerful, lucky, or dead. Our goal is to eventually end up in the first category, but the records on dungeons become less and less detailed once you get past your second evolution. The Tower of Somnus changes their contents periodically, and by the time you hit level twenty four, it isn’t terribly uncommon to find that a dungeon’s rules and opponents have changed in the last four to five years since a party has challenged them.”

“That’s a sobering thought.” Kat shook her head. “Usually I talk to Dorrik if I want an unpleasant moment of truth like that.”

“Think of the bright side.” Kaleek flashed her a grin. “There’s a decent chance that we get overwhelmed in the next two minutes here. Then? We won’t have to worry about it.”

Kat opened her mouth to reply, only for the Megaclam to shudder.

It groaned, a deep bass sound that made her bones ache. Next to Kat, Kaleek dropped his sword as he fell to his knees, both hands clamped over his ears.

Distantly, she felt her perk tingling, preventing the acoustic attack from stunning her as the Megaclam just… deflated. One second, it was well over her head, and the next it began caving inward, like a time lapse video of erosion as it collapsed in itself.

Around the chamber, rocks slid to the side, revealing three dozen massive grates. With a sucking sound, water emptied itself from the lake. Kat stumbled slightly to the side before planting her feet on the rocky floor to resist the current as it tried to drag Kaleek and her toward one of huge mesh covered drains.

The craymen went wild, kicking with their fantails in panic as they tried to avoid being sucked into the vortexes of water as it was evacuated from the room.

Her hand darted out, snagging Kaleek’s greatsword as the current picked it up. She dug her heels into the rock, bracing herself as the heavy weapon turned sideways and caught more of the water flow.

Just as she felt herself starting to get pulled from her perch on the lakebed, a large furry paw closed around her hands. Kaleek gave her a nod of thanks as he wrestled his weapon back from the clutching pull of the current.

For almost a minute, Kat’s entire being was focused on bracing herself. If she had a little more mana, she probably could have helped the situation with Gravity’s Grasp, but despite her muttered curses, her mana pool remained empty.

Finally, the surface of the lake touched the top of her head. Over in the remains of the Megaclam, Dorrik held a beach-ball-sized glittering pearl with their upper pair of arms while each of their lower pair wedged a sword into the squishy pink meat that made up the insides of the huge creature. Behind them, the dungeon altar was barely visible, pristine despite the gore-covered lokkel and the gobs of rotting flesh lining the interior of the boss around it.

With a great sucking sound, the last of the room’s water disappeared into the grates, leaving the three of them standing on the slick rocky floor. Around them, the surviving craymen flopped and crawled, barely able to support their own weight without the assistance of the high pressure water that had filled the room.

Grunting happily, Kaleek pulled his sword from the stone floor and walked over to one of the monsters, beheading it with a quick, decisive stroke. He nodded at his handiwork before turning to the next crayman.

It flicked its tail reflexively, spraying Kaleek with water as it tried ineffectually to escape. Instead, it only rolled over onto its back, letting the desoph plant a foot on its chest as he stabbed downward with his greatsword, pinning it to the rock floor.

Kat walked over to Dorrik, leaving Kaleek to his post-battle fun. The lokkel was holding the pearl up in the room’s dim light, admiring its lustrous surface.

“Anything fun?” she asked, pacing up behind them.

“It’s in perfect condition.” Dorrik tucked the pearl under an arm, smiling down at Kat. “At least 600 marks. A lot more than that if we can get a chance to put it up for auction. That’s a lot of gear, Miss Kat.”

“Where would we even find an auction?” Kat queried, slipping past him on her way to the dungeon altar.

“The fourth floor, Miss Kat,” Dorrik supplied. “The Humbrass Atoll is a center for commerce and trade. If you have something that can be sold, it can be sold there. Usually to unsavory individuals and at a premium.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” She chuckled back, putting her hand on the altar.

A menu popped up in her vision as a cocoon of rainbow energy wrapped itself around her.

Congratulations Adventurer!

You have completed the Iron Tier Level Six Dungeon, Tide Caves.

Three of Three party members surviving. Good Job!

Assigning awards:

Specialization Stone (Dancing Blade)

+3 Mana

A smile split Kat’s face as the teleportation deposited her back onto the misty rocks outside the portal. She made her way over to one of the valley’s boulders and pulled herself up so that she could check her status without getting in her party’s way.

Name: Katherine Debs

Class: Elementalist Initiate

Max Level: 6

734 Marks

HP: 40

MP: 2/65

STA: 43

Dodge: Poor

Damage Mitigation: Insignificant

Strength: 4

Agility: 10

Fortitude: 5

Endurance: 5

Mind: 7

Reaction: 9

Charisma: 5

Spirit: 6

Spells Known:

Gravity’s Grasp

Levitation

Pseudopod

Dehydrate

Dazzle

Shadow

Water Jet

Gravity Spike

Mirage

Overpressure

Gravity Plane

Watershape

Skills Known:

Knife I - 12, Max

Gravity II - 3, 5%

Water II - 6, 11%

Cat Step - 12, Max

Light I - 12, Max

Cure Wounds I - 12, Max

Penetrate

Crossbow I - 1, 0%

Throwing I - 1, 86%

Perks:

Nightvision

Leaping

Sensory Dampening

Crippling Blow

Fast Healing

Second Wind

She tossed the specialization stone from hand to hand. Dancing Blade was one of the better second tier specializations for Knife I. It would let her partially animate a knife. She still needed to hold the weapon, but it could attack and defend on its own so long as it was in her grasp. According to Dorrik, it was synergistic with Pseudopod.

In all likelihood, she would use the stone; being able to attack twice at once sounded like an incredibly useful skill. But first, Kat focused on her recent gains. Three points of mana from the Tide Caves and finally hitting level six in the second tier of water, unlocking double casting. Once she added in the point of Fortitude and the Second Wind perk that let her increase her Stamina regeneration speed once a day, it was a fairly satisfying haul.

One after another, Dorrik and Kaleek appeared in sprays of multicolored light. Kat slipped the stone back into her carrying satchel before planting her hands on either side of her body and pushing herself off of the rock.

Her feet landed lightly on the valley floor. She used Cat Step to silently slip between her two companions, draping an arm around either of their shoulders.

“Dorrik,” she began, impish smile on her face. “Old friend.”

“Yes?” the lokkel responded hesitantly, crest flattening with concern.

“You consider yourself fairly authoritative about how the dungeons work, right?” she asked sweetly, batting her lashes at them.

“That’s a gross oversimplification,” Dorrik responded cautiously. “But I suppose there is some truth to it.”

“Great!” Kat clapped her hands together. “While we were in the dungeon, I promised Kaleek that when we got out I’d find an authority for him. I believe he wants to lodge a complaint.”

She skipped away cheerfully, a happy bounce in her step.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Oh my God, I’m so excited!” Emma squealed, her voice high enough to hurt Kat’s ears as she clutched her hands together. “I can’t believe that we all get to spend summer break together! I have so many things planned out already, this is going to be the best vacation ever.”

Whippoorwill glanced at Kat, confusion on her face. Jasper and Iris were already at the maglev station when the two of them arrived, chatting quietly with each other while Davis kept a watchful eye on the milling crowds of travelers.

Emma had arrived shortly after everyone else, wearing bright and revealing ‘vacation clothing’ rather than the more comfortable and conservative travel apparel of the rest of the group. Any chance that their journey to the Grand Canyon would involve discretion went out the window the second Emma spotted them.

“Emma, this is Whippoorwill,” Kat offered, indicating the younger girl.

Whip brushed a strand of pink hair out of her face before extending her hand to Emma.

“She’s a close friend of mine from my days in the Schaumburg Arcology,” Kat continued, only for Emma to latch onto Whip’s hand and cut her off.

“I’m Emma Tiller,” she gushed, ignoring Kat as she pumped Whippoorwill’s hand. “Kat has told me so much about you! Trust me, by the end of the summer we’re going to be the best of friends.”

Again, Whip looked from Emma to Kat, confusion on her face. Kat opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. She might be able to handle corporate goons and chromed out samurai, but Kat didn’t really have an answer for Emma’s aggressive enthusiasm.

“Whip,” Emma said, pausing for a second. “I can call you Whip, right?”

Before Whippoorwill could respond, the other girl kept rambling, bulldozing any objections before the hacker could even think of raising them.

“Anyway, Whip.” Emma released her hand only to reach up and grasp a lock of the girl’s pink hair between her fingers. “You simply have to tell me how you got this color for your hair. I’d never dare to use it—Daddy would be scandalized—but it’s just so… bold.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Whippoorwill answered, her voice hesitant. “I was blonde originally, but I didn’t really like it. One day, while my friends and I were out looking for food, I found some fabric dye at an abandoned textile plant in the Shell. The color looked pretty good so once I got some money, I started ordering more of the dye off the commerce channels every month or so.”

“Fabric dye?” Kat asked, finally able to find a way to insert herself into the conversation. “That doesn’t sound like it’s healthy. I mean, most of the stuff designed for human use amongst employees isn’t healthy either. It’s not outright poison, but that’s about all you can say about. I can only imagine the caustic chemicals and carcinogens laced into fabric dye.”

“What are you, a cop?” Whip snorted at her. “Of course that shit is poisonous. So is half of the street chrome samurai install into their bodies. If you get rich enough, modern medicine can fix anything it does to you. If you don’t? Well, a samurai that isn’t making money probably isn’t going to grow old enough to worry about shaving a couple of years off their life expectancy due to some untested cocktail of metal and chemicals.”

“Whip, I—” Kat recoiled as if stung. “I just don’t want you hurting yourself. The world is dangerous enough without you finding new ways to hurt yourself. We have access to the same cosmetics that managers and executives use. I don’t see why you can’t just use those.”

Whippoorwill opened her mouth to respond, only to catch herself. She bit her lip, chewing on the chunk of flesh nervously as she avoided Kat’s gaze.

“Sorry.” Whip ran a hand through her hair. “I didn’t mean to bite your head off like that, Kat, I just don’t like being out in public like this. Your friends are nice, but everyone else here isn’t really my crowd. I kinda wish we could just spend more time togeth—”

Before Kat could answer, a series of musical tones sounded over the public address system followed shortly by a woman’s voice.

“Now boarding transcontinental two thirteen, service to Las Vegas. Please have your tickets and digital identifications ready. Be aware that this trip crosses multiple corporate boundaries. MagTrans, Inc. does not take any responsibility for any criminal penalties that may be assessed against ticket holders for attempting to bring contraband across these borders. These penalties include but are not limited to: fines, imprisonment, physical assault, forced labor, or death. Per page six, paragraph two, clause two of all ticketholder’s licensing agreements—ticket holders assume all legal liability for knowing and following local corporate regulations.”

“That’s us.” Davis grunted. He motioned with his hand toward a uniformed man standing beside a cart heavily laden with luggage. “We can talk about our feelings once we’re in our passenger car and have the audio filter on. No need to make a scene.”

Kat nodded, flashing a quick smile at Whippoorwill. The other girl returned the smile gratefully before the two of them filed into line behind the rest of the group. She could understand Whip’s discomfort.

Hell, Kat shared a fair amount of it. Standing in an open space with a crowd of absolute strangers at her back, she couldn’t help but imagine a Millennium hit team or stallesp flash clone taking a shot at her. It was true that they probably wouldn’t get away, as Belle turned up the heat on the remnant forces, but Kat had a nagging feeling that her head was becoming more and more valuable to the alien forces.

As high as her level was, a single attack from a long range version of the stallesp handgun she had hidden in the false bottom of one of her suitcases would be all that it took. She probably wouldn’t even feel anything, just standing and talking with her friends one second and a rapidly cooling pile of meat the next.

She followed Iris into the train, taking the half step up into the sleek metal cylinder as it hovered on a network of quietly humming electromagnets. The interior of the vehicle was luxurious. Kat had known that they were taking a first class car to Las Vegas, but that knowledge hadn’t prepared her for the reality of the situation.

An usher brought them down a hallway, the walls coated in brightly colored plastic and chrome, past a dining car and to the cabin that would be theirs for the next thirty six hours. There was a well-appointed central room complete with a drink bar, a number of genuine leather chairs, and a massive smartglass display. Each of the ‘passengers’ had their own small bedroom, with a larger bunk room for servants and security.

Kat found her own bedroom, and slipped through the polished steel security door. Ducking under a bed, suspended at about neck level off the ground and covered in high thread count sheets, Kat ran her hand over the surface of the desk wedged under it. Real wood, carefully lacquered and stained. The room was a bit bigger than the one she had shared with her sister back in the Schaumburg Arcology, but nowhere near the size of her dorm room in Chiwaukee.

“I can’t find my bathroom!” Iris shouted, her aggravated voice muted by the maglev car’s walls. “Where in the hell is my bathroom?”

Kat poked her head out of the bedroom to see Davis walk over to the wall just under the smartglass display and press a black button just below the entertainment center. Almost instantly, the barely audible buzzing of an audio filter assaulted Kat’s senses. Nodding to himself, the older man walked to the center of the main room and clasped his hands behind his back.

“Everyone into the main room!” Davis’s voice thundered over the incessant squeal of the filter. “This little trip of ours might be a vacation on the surface, but the information provided by Miss Debs indicates that it will be putting Jasper at risk. I respect his dedication to the cause. Agreeing to put himself at risk in order to give the combat elements of our team cover was very noble of him.”

As Davis spoke, Emma, Iris, Whip, and Jasper joined Kat and him in the main room. Whip and Emma just looked bored, leaning against the main chamber’s walls while Iris and Jasper frowned at their chaperone.

“Davis,” Jasper interjected. “I told you that I wanted to participate. The stallesp threaten all free life on Earth, and defeating them could directly lead to us looting the sort of technological innovations that would assure GroCorp’s economic hegemony for another fifty years.”

The old man fixed Jasper with a withering stare before continuing, ignoring his employer’s objection.

“That said, even for those people staying at the vacation home, there will be plenty of danger to go around. If we want to stay alive, the most important factor is to be prepared.”

“Belle Donnst has capitalized admirably on the information sold to her by Miss Debs.” Davis nodded in Kat’s direction. “With my help, dozens of compromised managers and executives have quietly ‘disappeared.’ It is my understanding that she is currently questioning them inelegantly, if effectively.”

“Before we start on this, Mr. Stoller,” Iris whined, “I need to lodge a complaint. I understand that we’re traveling and accommodations are spartan, but my room doesn’t appear to have a bathroom.”

“There is a communal bathroom that everyone will have to share,” Davis replied without missing a single beat. “Unfortunately, we were only able to secure a first class ticket. The premier class and shareholder class tickets were sold out.”

“But—” Iris began, only to wilt as the middle-aged man glared at her, melting her under the heat of his gaze.

“Now that preliminary comments are out of the way.” He raked his gaze across the room’s occupants. Only Kat and Emma met his gaze. Kat, silently and with her arms crossed. Emma simply smiled happily, her bubbly and cheerful demeanor undeterred despite Davis’s best efforts.

“NeoSyne is as powerful as GroCorp economically.” Davis paused for a moment, cocking his head to the side. “Actually, I think their military wing is a bit larger and more active than ours. Of course, if it ever came to a knock down, drag out fight, both corporations would weaken each other to the point that one of our competitors would simply swoop in and clean up the mess.”

“Unfortunately for us.” Once again, the older man scanned the room, a severe expression creasing his face. “When the world became aware of the stallesp infection, it was too late for NeoSyne. Like GroCorp, there was an internal struggle to purge the corporation. Unlike GroCorp, humanity didn’t win that struggle.”

“Worse,” he continued. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for. Miss Debs retrieved a couple of names and locations, but we have no idea what will be waiting for us there. Hell, if the enemy is savvy, they would already know that their North American operation has been compromised and shifted vital operations. We’re about to stick our head into a lion’s mouth, and we’re doing it blind.”

For a moment, Kat could hear a pin drop. Davis leaned back, a satisfied look on his face as the rest of the car ruminated over his words. In the distance, the hum of the electromagnets lifting the maglev increased as the train began moving smoothly forward.

Then Emma clapped her hands together excitedly, breaking the silence.

Kat jumped, twisting her body in the air so that she rotated and came down on the balls of her feet facing the other woman.

“That reminds me!” Emma squealed, hopping up and down. “There’s a really great animal taming attraction in Las Vegas that we should totally visit. One of the tamers puts their head in a lion’s mouth. They even have some genetically reconstituted sabertooth tigers and dire wolves. I’ve been watching replays of their shows on the entertainment channels.”

“That,” Davis began, only to stop. He shook his head, more rattled than Kat had ever seen him by Emma’s non sequitur. “That was your takeaway? I give a speech about how we’re delving into enemy territory with insufficient information, forces, and preparation in order to fight literal shape changing aliens, and your response is to bring up a circus attraction?”

“What?” Emma asked, recoiling. “Neon Dome Entertainment, the exhibit I was talking about, has only managed to extract DNA from fossils and revive extinct predators in the last five years. From what you’ve been saying about these aliens, Neon Dome’s timing is incredibly suspect. If you combine that with their location in NeoSyne territory, there doesn’t seem to be much question that they’re associated with the bad guys.”

“I-I mean,” Davis stuttered, looking frantically to Whippoorwill. “I don’t know much about this Neon Dome company. I suppose they could be one of the fronts that we’ve managed to identify using the dataset that was retrieved from Chiwaukee.”

“They weren’t, but let me try something,” Whip said absently, her eyes glazed over as she stared off into space. Her lips moved soundlessly as she accessed the computer installed in the back of her head, sifting through the stallesp records.

“There.” Whippoorwill shook her head, sending her pink hair slapping back and forth. “I just accessed the public records on Neon Dome and cross-referenced them with the information we extracted from the stallesp. The company’s chief financial officer and head of research are both listed as flash clones. Apparently it’s also a subsidiary of NeoSyne, and the executive in charge of the holding company it operates under is also a flash clone.”

“I guess we never bothered to look closely at NeoSyne’s subsidiaries,” Whip continued with an embarrassed shrug. “I haven’t had a chance to follow up on this theory, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a good number of NeoSyne’s subsidiaries are all but solely controlled by Millennium’s remnants.”

“So we can go to the show then?” Emma asked brightly. “I mean, once we get situated in the Grand Canyon, you guys can like do all of your preparation stuff. Then once you’re ready, I’ll get us all tickets and we’ll get a good view of everything so that we can come back a couple of days later and do all of that super secret spy stuff you’re talkin’ about.”

“I.” Davis barely got the word out, shoulders slumping.

“A circus sounds like a lot softer of a target than the R&D center or the fortified residential blocks we’ve been able to identify,” Kat supplied helpfully. “I mean, we can’t know for sure that there will be useful information on site, but on the other hand, that’s the same story with everything else we’ve found.”

“The electronic security on their public facing pages isn’t very impressive,” Whippoorwill added. Next to her, Emma nodded enthusiastically, flashing Davis a thumbs up. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that their secure systems won’t be running cutting edge hunter-killer programs or something like that, but this looks fairly doable.”

“Fine,” the old man grumbled, straightening his shoulders but unable to completely reclaim his earlier gravitas. “If we’re going in blind, testing the waters with an easy mission first seems logical to me. We’ll have to look into the target a bit first, but it would make sense for us to do a final tour of the site under the guise of a tourist visit.”

“After all,” Davis finished with a weary sigh. “Our cover for this trip is that you’re a bunch of guileless kids out on a vacation. We’ll need to get spotted engaging in festive activities if we want to maintain that facade. A trip to Las Vegas is more than warranted.”

“OhmyGod, thank you!” Emma squealed, drawing a wince from Kat as the girl streaked forward and threw her arms around Davis. The dignified older man looked profoundly uncomfortable as she gushed all over him.

“The big cats are so cute but the dire wolves are even better.” Emma stopped suddenly, eyes widening.

“I know!” she practically shouted. “If we’re going to be burglarizing the place and breaking all sorts of laws anyway, there’s no way I’m walking away empty-handed.”

Kat cocked her head at the girl, brow furrowed in confusion as Emma peeled herself off of Davis. The blonde woman swiveled around, a wide smile on her face.

“Come hell or high water, I will get myself a dire wolf puppy. They’re just too cute not to.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Emma practically skipped off the commuter maglev, slipping past a crowd of passengers waiting to embark the train that they were leaving in the Grand Canyon terminal. Kat followed her, trying her hardest to keep her smile in check as her eyes followed the overly cheerful girl.

A step behind her, Whippoorwill yawned, dragging her feet as she tromped after Kat, more a matter of being woken up before her usual eleven a.m. alarm than anything else. The same couldn’t be said for Iris and Jasper.

She glanced quickly over her shoulder at her fellow students before suppressing a smirk and returning her attention to the busy train station. Jasper was trying his hardest to look awake and alert, but the bags under his eyes and the rumpled state of his clothing belied the young man’s true condition.

“Thank God we’re out of that tiny cabin,” Iris grumbled, arms crossed, as she walked next to Jasper. “I thought the maglev to Las Vegas was barbaric, but the connecting train to Canyon Station was an absolute nightmare. If that trip had taken more than twenty minutes, I would have screamed.”

“I’m sorry, honey,” Jasper replied, his voice stripped of emotion and heavy as he listened to the same complaint for something like the tenth time. “The arrangements really weren’t that bad. We were regularly seated in more cramped conditions at college.”

“Maybe,” Iris responded grumpily. “I think I’m just cranky after the trip from Chiwaukee. I still can’t believe that our rooms didn’t have their own bathrooms. Between that and having to walk to the dining car to pick up food, I’ve basically been on edge for the past two days.”

“You didn’t even go to the dining car yourself,” Davis interjected from where he brought up the rear of their group, a pair of security guards flanking him. “I seem to recall you sending Jasper out on a number of ‘hot cocoa runs’ while holed up in your bedroom.”

Kat peeled away from the argument she could sense brewing behind her and pushed through the crowd to catch up with Emma. Even without activating the ability, her steps carried a hint of Cat Step’s smoothness, marking her for the observant as either a samurai, a player, or both.

People melted to either side, naturally giving way as she moved through them like a predator through a herd of zebras. A handful of bodyguards took note of her, subtly repositioning themselves between Kat and their wards, but other than a couple of meaningful glances nothing much came of it.

By the time she caught up to Emma, the other girl was happily inspecting a row of rental cars. As Kat approached, Emma ran her hand over the cherry red exterior of a self-driving sportscar, popping up cheerfully and turning to greet her and Whippoorwill the second the two of them came close enough.

“They have the new HyperJaguar XL!” she exclaimed brightly. “I was reading about the new suspension and virtual interior on these. The entire inside is lined with smartglass and they have over five hundred backgrounds. Apparently they’ve combined that with a new generation of sound dampening and audio projection technology to give the rider a completely immersive experience.”

“You sound like an advertisement.” Kat chuckled, shaking her head as Whippoorwill ambled up to the two of them. “Seriously, that sounded like something I would hear between arcs on Chrome Cowboys. All that speech needed was a jingle and an anime mascot and it would fit right in.”

“Actually,” Emma clapped her hands together excitedly, “the new wave of advertising is interactive product placement. Smartpanels track your eye movements, and so long as a viewer looks at a product for long enough, modern algorithms can recommend advertisements based on what they’re watching in the show. So if you look at Jenny’s eyes long enough, you’ll get a commercial for the brand of eyeshadow she’s wearing.”

“That’s both interesting and distressing,” she offered, appreciatively eyeing the car that Emma was admiring. “It’s a nice car, but honestly I don’t think it matters all that much what we’re driving in so long as we make it to your vacation home on schedule.”

Whippoorwill coughed, flicking her head over her shoulder to indicate the rest of the group. Even over the sound of the busy crowd embarking and disembarking the maglev, they could hear Iris’s high pitched voice complaining about something or another.

Really, things had gone downhill from the moment that Iris had realized that their bedrooms on the train didn’t have individual bathrooms. After that, every swerve in the track or stop to take on more passengers sparked another diatribe.

Kat just hoped that the vacation condo would be up to the woman’s exacting standards. Iris was a friend, but she had an almost Tower-granted ability to make everyone around her miserable if she didn’t get what she wanted. A day and a half in close quarters with her was enough to crush even the most hardened street samurai’s resistance.

“Let’s just rent the HyperJaguar and head out,” Whippoorwill chimed in. “The idea of being trapped in a car with Iris for an hour fills me with spine-bending dread. Seriously, she’s even been bad inside The Tower of Somnus. Who in the hell cares if a dungeon has ‘bad ambient lighting’? We’re fighting crab monsters, not planning a romantic getaway.”

“I forgot.” Kat turned back to her friend. “You made it to the second level and met up with Jasper and Iris. How have things been going inside the Tower?”

“I’m a lot better with my crossbow if that’s what you’re asking,” Whip replied, sticking out her tongue at Kat. “Other than that Jasper and Iris are better at fighting than I expected for a couple of rich kids.”

“Still.” Whippoorwill’s face scrunched into a tight frown. “Iris keeps trying to suggest a moisturization routine for my face. Something about preventing flaky skin and breakouts.”

Kat cocked her head, mind blank as she searched for a response.

“And done!” Emma interrupted her thoughts, touching the side of the car and sending its door sliding smoothly back. “The HyperJaguar XL only has four seats anyway. It wouldn’t make sense for us to wait for the rest of the group.”

“Thank God,” Whip muttered, slipping past the two of them and hopping inside. “Maybe Iris will have calmed down by the time we reach the Canyon.”

Kat shrugged, chuckling uncomfortably as she filed into the car after Emma. Almost immediately, the door shut itself behind her. For a fraction of a second, the three of them were in absolute darkness with no real stimuli outside of the heavily cushioned seats.

Then, the vehicle began moving, its electric engine smooth and noiseless as it accelerated from the curb. At the same time, the smartglass panels surrounding them exploded into a riot of light and sound.

Kat’s breath caught in her throat as trees suddenly towered above her, lush undergrowth surrounding the three of them as they sat in their comfortable leather seats. In the distance, a bird call was swallowed by the chatter of a troop of monkeys before the gentle patter of rain overwhelmed everything.

“I decided on ‘Amazing Amazon’ as the background for the trip,” Emma volunteered. “There was an option to use the air vents to pump the car full of ‘genuine South American Organic Hallucinogens,’ but that seemed a little much for a short and casual drive.”

As the car picked up speed, the images around them moved as well, creating an impressive illusion that they were barreling through the virgin rainforest.

“Out of morbid curiosity, what makes the hallucinogens organic?” Kat asked, flinching as a photorealistic monkey jumped from one tree to another next to her.

“They’re ethically sourced from fungi and plants from the region,” Emma replied, leaning closer to the wall to inspect a ‘river’ as they zoomed past it. “BioLux has local populations grow them in carefully prepared habitats that are supposed to be similar to the original Amazon before it was logged and converted to beef production. Supposedly, the concoction is healthier and less habit-forming than chemically generated alternatives, but I don’t really believe that.”

“I’ve had to do some work with the pharmacology of naturally derived substances,” Kat agreed, shaking her head. “There are useful bits, but mostly they’re pretty nasty. All sorts of side effects that can be fixed with a minimum of genetic pruning.”

“Eh.” Whip shrugged. “Most of the ‘natural’ drugs are fine. Obviously the corporate stuff is better, but a little bit of dry mouth and a headache the next morning isn’t the end of the world. Still not licking a death tab or anything like that. I draw the line at drugs some back alley doc brewed up in a basement chemlab.”

“Now just draw that line on chemical dyes for your hair and I’ll be happy,” Kat cut in with a thin smile. “Seriously, Whip, I just want you to be healthy and happy.”

“Fine,” the other girl replied with a sigh. “I’ll try to find some sort of pink dye that won’t melt my scalp by the time I’m forty. I’m still sorry for jumping down your throat earlier. I was a bit touchy and it’s a sore spot.”

Emma squealed, tearing herself away from the projection to turn and face Whippoorwill. Whip wilted under the predatory gleam in the other girl’s eyes as she leaned toward her.

“I can help you pick out a new color!” Emma chattered excitedly. “Bubblegum pink is in, but it feels too trendy to be ‘you.’ I really think we should look into the HyperPastel line to find something that better suits your look.”

Kat sunk back into her seat, a smile on her face as she closed her eyes. Whippoorwill was still struggling a bit to deal with Emma’s energy level, but before long, the two of them were discussing various dye options and how they would work with Whip’s complexion.

She tuned her companions out as Whippoorwill gradually warmed to the conversation, instead focusing on the simulated chirp of jungle animals. Kat could barely feel the vibration of the car’s tires on the highway as it drove itself toward the Grand Canyon, but after fifteen or so minutes of gentle noise, it gradually lulled her to sleep.

A soft touch on her shoulder woke Kat up.

Emma had already left the car, leaving Whip to shake her back to consciousness. Kat unbuckled and exited the car, noting the door sliding shut behind her as the rental quietly left the curb. Blacktop crunched underfoot as Kat followed Whippoorwill across a commuter parking lot, filled with cars in long-term parking beneath a massive tent-like canvas awning. They made their way toward a small two-story concrete building that had been painted a brilliant white to ward off the midday sun.

Beyond the building lay the Grand Canyon, a great winding chasm carved from the dry Southwestern dirt. The far cliff face was empty, a massive naked expanse of rock stretching down out of sight in all its natural glory, only marred by an occasional blimp covered in advertisements floating down the center of the valley.

The door to the small building jangled as Whip pushed it open, hitting Kat in the face with a blast of air conditioning. She hadn’t even noticed the heat while crossing the covered parking lot, but the cool air still brought a sigh of relief from her.

The interior of the building itself was fairly simple. Faded white and blue wallpapering lined the walls and a bored-looking teenager sat behind a counter next to a small supermarket worth of necessary but overpriced goods. Luckily, Kat didn’t have to pay fifty credits due to forgetting a five credit razor or fifteen credits for a one credit roll of toothpaste.

Instead, Whippoorwill and her joined Emma at a bank of gleaming silver elevators. Each of the metal tubes was angled gently, allowing the network of shafts to spread like a spiderweb through the walls of the canyon. Unlike a traditional lift, the keypad for the rest stop’s elevator had a grid of X and Y coordinates, allowing visitors horizontal rather than just vertical access to the broad range of condominiums and suites built into the cliff faces.

The doors to the elevator hissed open, and all three of them stepped inside. It jerked into motion, traveling downward and slightly to the right en route to Emma’s vacation home. For the first ten or so seconds, no one spoke. Eventually, the buzz of the halogen lights and the hum of machinery became too much for Emma.

“I bought us tickets for Neon Dome on Tuesday,” she blurted out, practically bouncing from foot to foot. “That will give us a couple of days to get settled before we head back to Vegas and scope the place out.”

“That sounds pretty good actually,” Kat replied, nodding thoughtfully. “Whippoorwill and I just got some new equipment from Donnst. We’ll need to familiarize ourselves with the new infiltration suits and crossbows before I’ll feel comfortable actually trying any sort of field operation.”

“Dad had a shooting range and a melee sparring ring added on to the facility’s gym,” Emma responded agreeably. “We can practice all we need there. It’s better to work everything out in advance rather than risk something going wrong when we’re in the middle of something dangerous.”

“We?” Whip asked, raising an eyebrow. “I know that Erinyes, Merrimac, and I are going, and there’s an active argument over Jasper and Iris, but they’re players. It’s probably a bad idea to bring them, but at least they have combat experience from the Tower, as well as some magical abilities to bring into play.”

“But I’m a player?” Emma cocked her head to the side, forehead scrunched in confusion. “I haven’t made it to the second level yet, but I’ve managed to get a class and complete two dungeons. I’ll be almost as helpful as Jasper or Iris.”

“Plus.” The blonde girl shrugged. “I’m going to need to be there to pick out which dire wolf puppy I want. It just won’t work if I’m stuck in a hotel or back at the Canyon.”

“Wait.” Kat raised a hand to cut Emma off. “What do you mean you’re a player? Why the hell is this the first I’m hearing about it? You gossip about everything. It just doesn’t make sense that I wouldn’t know your class, weapon, and favorite food in the Tower by now.”

“Oh.” Emma shrugged sheepishly. “I like talking about other people more. My life is fairly boring. I mean, I’m a footpad that uses a half-stave and I don’t usually stick around in towns long enough to get a meal. It just isn’t as interesting as talking about your exploits fighting aliens or where Jasper and Iris went on a date or something like that.”

“You honestly think that Iris and Jasper’s dates are more interesting than fighting monsters and developing superpowers?” Whip asked incredulously. “Seriously, they just went to some expensive place and got fancy spaghetti. They’re a cute couple and all, but I can’t even begin to see why you’d care more about that than talking about the staff tricks you’re learning.”

“Half-stave,” Emma sniffed. “It’s basically a metal bar a little longer than my forearm. It doesn’t hit quite as hard as a full staff, but I can recover from strikes a lot quicker. It’s like a cudgel, except it focuses more on agility than brute strength.”

“And Cafe Mare is hardly ‘an expensive restaurant with fancy spaghetti.’ It’s the most exclusive Mediterranean Seafood dining experience in Chiwaukee. Most people have to wait months to get a reservation. A first date there is incredibly romantic.”

“I’m sure it is,” Kat cut in soothingly, silencing Whip’s retort with a quick glare. “But I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to raid Neon Dome with us. It’s hardly a fortified NeoSyne military base, but there are going to be samurai on hand and one or two dungeon awards aren’t going to make up the difference between you and heavy chrome, let alone a lifetime of combat training.”

“Oh.” Emma waved a hand dismissively. “I’m hardly a fighter. I mean, I can use my half-stave in a pinch, but I’m far from an expert. No, most of my skills are related to stealth, persuasion, and acrobatics. I can help get us in, and I can stay out of trouble if things get out of hand. I know better than to try anything more than that.”

“We could use someone a little better at sneaking,” Whippoorwill remarked with a chuckle. “Erinyes over here usually just ends up killing everyone and disappearing into the night.”

“Hey,” Kat responded with an overexaggerated shake of her head. “I’ve managed a couple stealth missions without any deaths. Plus, when have I actually failed an objective? Even if I’m a little messy, it works.”

“The only mission I can think of where you maintained stealth ended with you going back and killing the target a couple weeks later.” Whip rolled her eyes. “I still consider that to be a murder spree. Just a delayed one with extra steps.”

Kat stuck her tongue out at Whippoorwill before the two of them broke down laughing. For a moment, it felt like old times. Just the two of them blowing off steam with black humor before a particularly dangerous mission.

Then Emma chimed in, shattering the illusion.

“So I can come with?” she asked hopefully, batting her eyelashes at the two of them. “I really want to be there to pick out the puppy.”

“Fine.” Kat shrugged. “As long as Davis is okay with you coming, I’m not going to object. You’re a big girl and you know the risks.”

Kat barely finished her sentence before Emma squealed and threw her arms around her. She flashed a pained smile past the woman’s head at Whip, already regretting her acquiescence.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Kat held the crossbow to her shoulder, admiring the sleek curves of the carved ivory stock. She closed one eye, resting the weapon against her cheek as she adjusted her stance slightly to take the weapon’s weight into account.

She pulled the trigger, taking note of the smooth, well-oiled action as it released the string, a flexible but iron-hard strand of chaos elk sinew. With a satisfying thwack, the bow kicked gently against her shoulder.

“That’s genuine sawtooth shark hide on the grip and trigger there.”

Kat turned to take in the speaker, a ten legged spider that loomed over her, rubbing two of its forelegs against venom-soaked mandibles. “I had that imported from the fourth floor. Sawtooths are a lot smaller and rarer than megalodons, but their hide is unmatched. Waterproof, rough, and durable, there’s no way the crossbow will slip out of your hands during the heat of battle.”

Kat rapped her knuckles against the ivory that made up the core of the weapon, taking note of the deep thunk that indicated that it was made of solid bone rather than hollowed out to save cost.

“Ah, so you’ve noticed!” The spider rubbed its forelegs together excitedly. “The crossbow’s body has been carved from a single dire monocorn’s tusk. It’s hard and durable enough that you can use it as a club in a pinch. Alas, this model isn’t yet enchanted, but I can easily tell that it would be perfect for a discerning shopper such as yourself.”

“Really?” Kat asked, glancing up at the fur covered pseudo-arachnid. “It seems like a good weapon, but why would you say that?”

“Because,” it answered, reaching down with two of its legs and deftly push either of curved metal bars that held the crossbow’s string inward until they were flush with the stock, locking with a click. “Your weapons and armor are those of an agility-based fighter. This weapon can fold up fairly easily for storage. It’s large enough to do damage to some of the bigger monsters, but also compact enough that it won’t impede the flow of combat if you end up using those knives of yours.”

“Also, just between you and me.” It leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially to Kat while it stared at her with a dozen unblinking black eyes. “You’ve been eyeing up my crossbows the entire time you’ve been shopping, yet you don’t have one on your back. You need a crossbow, and you need it now.”

“Given the quality of the rest of your equipment,” it continued, motioning toward Kat with a spare leg, “I suspect you have access to enchanters, and they’re probably more talented than anyone I know. This model is made of quality materials and it’s good enough to get you to wherever your enchanters live. Once you’re there, you can pay to have whatever enchantment you want laid on it.”

“How much will it cost?” Kat asked, reluctantly setting the crossbow down on the stone counter in front of the spider-creature. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t want it, but my entire team is about to set out on a fairly long journey and I need to save enough marks for supplies.”

“For this prime piece?” The spider spread its legs wide, its fanged head grinning unctuously. “You would be stealing prey from the mandibles of my young for less than one hundred marks.”

Kat clicked her tongue, taking one last look at the crossbow before turning away from the table. She made it two steps away before the sales-being called out to her.

“Wait!” it hissed, sounding almost pained. “Wait. I can’t go below one hundred marks, but I can throw in a shoulder holster and ammunition for it. If you’re so keen to go, it surely must be helpful if you could simply buy all of your quarrels and accessories in one spot before leaving.”

“What kind of bolts are we talking about?” Kat asked, rotating and walking back to the stall. “Are we discussing simple metal-cored shots or something more unique than that?”

“For you, my dear friend,” the spider leaned forward, lowering its head to the same level as Kat’s, “I could make it twenty standard shots, five dazzlers, and five piercers. The dazzlers and piercers have minor enchantments on them that require mana from their wielder, but their effects are worth it. Dazzlers screech and emit directed flashes of light, distracting their targets.”

“Piercers simply ignore a portion of a target’s armor,” it continued, legs deftly snagging a nearby quiver as well as a handful of arrows from a display case. “Not a large portion, mind you, but enough to overcome the crossbow’s weaknesses. It’s hardly a heavy arbalest capable of punching a bolt through a fangspan of metal armor. It is more of a lighter, portable model. Piercers will let you counteract that shortcoming against moderately armored foes.”

“Deal,” Kat replied, flashing the salescreature a bright smile as she extended a hand to transfer the marks. The fur on its leg tickled slightly as it brushed the limb against her.

The minute her money was transferred over, the spider flashed Kat a grotesque grin and handed her the purchases. She nodded before slinging the gear over her shoulder and stepping away from the merchant’s stall.

“That was a pretty good price you got on the crossbow.” Kaleek’s remark drew her attention to where the desoph was leaning against one of the stone pillars in the adventurer’s hall. Casually, he brought a wood skewer to his mouth before tearing off a chunk of the still sizzling meat. “That crossbow is worth at least one hundred marks on its own. The bolts are worth at least another fifteen.”

“Thanks,” she agreed, adjusting the strap holding the bow to her shoulder slightly as she wove her way through the heavy foot traffic of the crowded marketplace. “I heard the merchant tell someone else that they were planning on ascending to the seventh floor in order to get away from the instability bleeding over from the fourth floor. I figured they’d be liquidating stock and that I could get a good price if I played hard to get.”

Kaleek tore the last chunk of meat from the skewer, flicking it out of his fingers and into the bustle of the crowd. Casually, he stuck his fingers into his mouth one by one, licking the juices from his fur.

“What?” he asked, shrugging at Kat’s glare. “The litter disappears with the next reset anyway. I’m not even inconveniencing a cleaning robot.”

“Fine.” Kat shook her head. “It’s still unsanitary and disgusting, but that’s hardly a surprise. Now, where’s Dorrik? I’m ready to head out.”

“They’re just outside the exit,” the otter responded, motioning with one of his hands for Kat to follow. “When I left, they were plotting out our course down to the fourth floor. They sent me back in to let you know that we have all the heat amulets we’ll need for our fight with the Wooly Spider.”

“I’m not excited to fight that thing again.” Kat shivered. “As unpleasant as the boss monster itself was, the blizzard elementals were almost as miserable. Fighting a cloud of ice crystals on top of a glacier isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.”

“I’d help, but you know how hard it is for me to catch those things,” Kaleek shrugged. “Plus, you can probably just use them as target practice for that new crossbow of yours.”

Kat cocked her head, mulling over the big otter’s words as the two of them exited the building, walking out into the mountaintop village. Near the exit to the adventurer hall, Dorrik waved a single hand at the two of them from where they were talking to some sort of bird person.

They approached Dorrik as the lizard wrapped up their portion of conversation, dismissing the avian just as they arrived. The lokkel gave Kat an approving once over before handing her a shiny brass medallion.

“I’m sure you remember how these work,” they remarked, handing another metallic circle to Kaleek. “Once we descend the spire to the fifth floor, simply twist the interior knob and the enchantment will start siphoning off your mana and converting it into warmth. As a reminder, the further you turn it clockwise, the warmer the enchantment. Just be aware that it can only produce so much heat per jaunt in the dreamscape.”

“I have a couple of spares if you burn out,” Dorrik continued, tapping a satchel slung over their shoulder, “but we still need to make it all the way across the glacier to the next spire. Remember, our goal is to make it all the way to the fourth floor before we wake up. I’d prefer not to get stranded on ice wastes for another night if possible.”

Kat nodded firmly, shivering in anticipation as the three of them made their way to the village’s exit. The ice wastes were a special kind of awful. Flat glaciers as far as the eye could see, dotted only by the occasional rocky outcropping with small towns huddled around them.

They had parkas, but the waterproof fur coats were too heavy to wear in combat. Dorrik would hand them out once the three of them made it through the Wooly Spider, but the howling winds and sharp ice crystals of the fifth floor were still miserable. Without any cover to break up or slow the weather, gusts would roar across the ice plains, grinding into travelers like a massive belt sander.

Even with their heavy winter clothing, the three of them were in for an unpleasant experience. Still, Dorrik had a point. If they were going to the fourth floor, their only options were to hurry through the frigid wind storms or to try to find cover after their battle with the floor boss and wait out the night so they could try fresh and rested the following day.

She grimaced as they waded into the soupy mist, following Dorrik’s lead as the lokkel guided them by memory back toward the location where they had first ascended to the sixth floor. One night on the glacier sounded bad. She was more than willing to make it a little more miserable to prevent it from expanding into two.

Finally, after just under an hour of descending the mountain, the three of them came upon the stark white tower that marked the spiral staircase heading down. With a series of curt nods, the three of them assured each other of their readiness and began their descent.

After five or so minutes, they passed through the actual rock and soil of the Tower’s floor. Kat shielded her eyes as the bright light of the fake sun reflected off of the massive ice sheet, almost blinding her.

The great blue-white landscape just past the guardrail stretched on endlessly, its flat expanse only broken by occasional piles of boulders and the stone rings of dungeons. Directly below them lay the massive snow-drift that Kat knew from experience concealed the Wooly Spider.

On their first encounter, even with foreknowledge of what they faced and a plan on how to defeat it, the floor boss had managed to inspire both awe and fear as it had exploded from the drift in a cloud of snow.

Worse, there would be dozens of fist-sized ice crystals embedded in the snow and inundated with the spider’s mana. Almost impossible to see, they would animate, guiding the howling winds into an impromptu blizzard that would conceal the Wooly Spider and buffet attackers.

This time, Kat thought, removing the crossbow from her back as they neared the bottom of the staircase, the party had a plan and they would be ready. Just before they exited the tower, Dorrik stopped and turned to Kat and Kaleek.

“It is time.” They nodded solemnly, reaching up with one hand to begin fiddling with one of the three heat medallions around their neck. “Make sure to leave your non-combat gear in the spire and activate your enchantments. The minute we step out of the staircase, the Wooly Spider will wake up and we will need to act quickly. Miss Kat, are you—”

“I’m ready to cast Water Jet at a moment’s notice,” she cut in, pressing the tab on the bottom of her crossbow and releasing the catches on its limbs. The curved stretches of metal holding the weapon’s string snapped outward, locking into place.

“Good.” Dorrik cracked a smile. “Let’s do this fast and clean. The last thing we need is some sort of injury that slows us down enough that we can’t make it to the fourth floor today. As much as I hate the ocean, the great glacier is worse.”

Kat nodded fervently, reaching up to twist her medallion into the on position before loading the crossbow. Almost immediately, she felt a trickle of her mana begin feeding into the necklace as the brisk air around her warmed like the blacktop on a sunny day.

“Enough flirting.” Kaleek grunted, stepping past the two of them and out onto the icy expanse of the fifth floor. “It’s time to get down to business and get messy.”

“Gross,” Kat muttered, hefting the newly loaded crossbow to her shoulder as the Wooly Spider exploded from the nearby hill of snow.

“Indeed,” Dorrik agreed, drawing both of their swords and sprinting out into the growing clouds of snow and ice.

A second later, she joined them. Even through the cocoon of warm air provided by the medallion, the cold air hit Kat like a bat to the chest, the dry air clawing at her throat as she finished casting her first Water Jet at an upward angle.

The blast of water cleared a major chunk of snow from the sky, revealing a pair of the glittering blizzard elementals before it froze high above the battlefield. In one smooth motion, Kat sank to a knee and lined up a shot from her crossbow.

The weapon thrummed in her hand, launching a metal bolt through the translucent core of one of the flying elementals. Somewhere to her left, there was a muted flash of purple light as Dorrik fired a pair of Ego Shards in quick succession, shattering the other blizzard elemental.

Kat grabbed the small lever on the side of her crossbow, grunting as she heaved back on the string. Mana swelled inside her, and another spray of water tore yet more of the omnipresent snow storm from the sky.

This time, only one of the diamond-like elementals was revealed by her spell, and Dorrik plucked it from the sky with Ego Shard before she could finish loading her bow.

Her third casting of Water Jet revealed nothing though the crisp and clear sky, wreathed in a glittering corona of ice from her previous spells. She adjusted the heat on her medallion, increasing the flow of mana to the enchanted item as she prepared yet another Water Jet.

In the distance, the Wooly Spider shrieked in anger as Kaleek’s greatsword sheared through one of its legs. Kat shook her head, a smile on her face as the howling wind carried the desoph’s mad laughter to her. He glowed briefly red, activating some martial skill before charging at the floor boss once more.

Kat ducked, reacting entirely on instinct as a baseball-sized chunk of ice zipped through the air where her head had been only a moment before.

With a frustrated grunt, she cast Water Jet yet again, hosing the elemental from the air along with a large cloud of snow. The chunk of ice bounced off of the glacier’s snowy surface, skittering past her as she brought her crossbow to her shoulder.

The weapon twanged, and Kat clicked her tongue in frustration as it deposited another glittering rod of metal into the glacier rather than her moving target.

Her foe wobbled as it took off, extra layers of ice from Kat’s spell throwing off its balance as it tried to take to the sky once more. This time, she cast Gravity’s Grasp, slamming the monster into the ground a second ahead of her third bolt. This time, the quarrel shattered the chunk of ice, letting its mana out in a flash of blue light.

She turned, surveying the battlefield. The omnipresent blizzard that had so hampered their movements in the first fight was all but gone, destroyed by the high pressure blasts of her Water Jets. Now, with all of their foes exposed, the battle was progressing at an almost casual pace.

The Wooly Spider was struggling to keep up with Kaleek’s quick, sure motions while Dorrik made short work of the last blizzard elemental. Their swords cracked through its icy hide, ending the howling windstorm that surrounded the three of them along with the monster’s life.

Kat heaved back on her new crossbow’s lever, loading a piercer into the weapon. Once again, she went down to one knee and closed an eye as she sighted in on Kaleek and the Wooly spider.

The desoph danced just out of the monster’s reach, grinning wildly as a red glow around his legs let him move with the grace of a dancer. The Wooly Spider howled in frustration, stumbling as it tried to pursue him on its five remaining legs.

She pulled the crossbow’s trigger, hissing as it reached inside her and yanked out a glob of mana to fuel her attack. The bolt left a faint green afterimage as it blurred through the air, ignoring the floor boss’ thick pelt to bury itself up to its fletching in the creature’s abdomen.

Clenching a fist, Kat followed up with Overpressure, focusing on the wound left by her attack. Yellowish white liquid exploded outward, fountaining from the injury and drawing another screech of rage from the spider as it stumbled once more.

Kaleek took advantage of the distraction to jump forward, bringing his greatsword down in a guillotine blow on the back of the monster’s neck. It fell to the ground, legs spasming once as its severed head rolled gently away from its torso.

With a sigh, Kat drew her knife and jogged over to the former floor boss’s corpse, cutting into its fur-covered flank as she sought to free her enchanted arrow. Thirty seconds later, she held the sticky yellow bolt up in the icy air, grimacing in disgust.

“All of that and no floor reward,” she grumbled, wiping the bolt off on her thigh before returning it to her quiver. “I think I can see why the lower levels aren’t overrun with higher level players. Descending is risky, but mostly it’s a tremendous waste of time.”

“Yup,” Kaleek agreed, kicking one of the spider’s severed legs out of his way. “Really, the only productive thing to come from this trip will be the chance to fight higher level opponents to polish our skills.”

Kat sighed, glancing toward the silver glitter of her other quarrels, buried in the now dull ice crystals of the blizzard elementals.

“Come now,” Dorrik called out, shrugging on a parka that they’d retrieved from the spiral staircase to the sixth floor. “Our journey on the whole may be a waste of time, but that doesn’t mean that we have an abundance of time to waste. Even if we aren’t waylaid on our journey to the next staircase, it’s almost a three hour hike.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Kat shifted distractedly in her seat, the thin layer of cushion doing little to hide the cold metal curves of the arena’s chair. Below her in a sand-filled ring, a wolf, highlighted by a series of overhead neon strobe lights reared up onto its hind legs.

The crowd roared with appreciation, drowning out the announcer, a man in his early forties with a gleaming cyberarm and a dapper top hat, as he shouted something before gesturing at the wolf. A series of three large metal hoops burst into flame. The lights that had been on the wolf panned across the sandy floor before affixing themselves on the burning circles.

“Honorable patrons!” The public address system crackled as the announcer’s voice boomed once again, barely audible over the screaming crowd. “You are in for a rare treat tonight. I’ve already introduced Hanz, biological marvel and scourge of the prehistoric prairies, but you aren’t here to hear me sing his praises, though there may be many.”

“No!” the ringleader shouted, jumping onto a large box as a series of spotlights lit him up from every direction. “You are here to watch Hanz perform feats of agility and strength that will wow and astound you. You are here to see the untamed ferocity that allowed the dire wolves to rule over the North American Prairie with the same level of dominance that the lion asserted over the African Savannah.”

“The same ferocity that cost me this arm!” he yelled, thrusting the chrome limb up in the air where it was lit by an array of green lasers mounted in the building’s rafters.

The crowd screamed again, a roar that had a tinge more bloodlust to it than Kat felt comfortable with. A row down from her, a pair of men leapt up hooting and pumping their fists as the announcer preened for the crowd.

“It took a year of training to transform Hanz from a pup into the sleek and athletic killing machine you see today,” he continued, voice ramping up as he played the crowd. “He is not any tamer, no! It was only yesterday that he almost tore an assistant of mine limb from limb! Instead, we have made him a better predator, more vicious and ruthless than ever.”

“And now!” The lights in the stadium suddenly dimmed, dropping them all into darkness outside of the flaming hoops. “Hanz will demonstrate that killer instinct for your enjoyment.”

“But wait.” The man’s voice took on a playful tone. “We’re missing something. After all, what would a predator be without prey!”

Another spotlight lit up the sandy floor of the arena as a hidden hatch opened, revealing an elevator as it ground toward the surface. In the center of the newly illuminated metal plate stood a goat, bleating frantically as it pulled at the chain connecting it by a collar to a stake welded to the lift.

The dire wolf perked up, hair on the back of its neck standing on end. It lurched from its haunches into a half crouch, eyes fixed on the struggling goat.

“Hanz,” the announcer paused for a second, letting the audience’s gaze fall onto the quivering wolf as a second spotlight lit up its gray fur. “Kauen.”

The canine bolted into action, transforming itself into a blur of gray as it leapt from its crouch through all three of the hoops in one smooth motion. Sand exploded into the air as a steel wall thrust up through the arena floor directly in Hanz’s path only for the wolf to plant its paws on it and kick off.

It landed in a ready crouch in the center of the arena, spotlights illuminating its taut muscles. The wolf let out a low growl, flexing its haunches.

Then there was only a cloud of sand as the spotlights struggled to keep up with the sprinting animal.

This time, there wasn’t a concealed wall to protect the goat, and the wolf hit it like a freight train, practically snapping the chain that connected it to the stake. Blood sprayed across the stadium, spattering some of the audience in the lower bleachers.

They went wild, cheering and surging to their feet as the wolf crunched through the mass of flesh, bone, and cartilage that had once been a living being.

A brief brush of fingertips on her shoulder drew Kat’s attention away from the circus below. Emma smiled down at her, prompting Kat to stand up so that her friend could slip past and take a seat.

“Crap.” Emma pouted, looking down at the arena. “I missed half of the dire wolf show. All that’s left is the obstacle course and the intern putting their arm in its mouth.”

She paused for a second, cocking her head to the side. “I do want to see the intern put their arm in the wolf’s mouth. I know nothing’s going to happen, but still, even over smartglass it’s such a tense moment.”

“What about the transceivers?” Whippoorwill hissed at Emma impatiently from Kat’s other side. “Did you manage to get the monitoring and rebroadcast equipment into place? If we’re coming back later in force, we’ll need a proper cross section of the building.”

“Sure.” The blonde girl waved a hand dismissively as she squinted at the wolf rolling around like a puppy in the sand covered arena. “I even made sure to tuck them away into the HVAC vents and inside light fixtures. Any time someone bothered me, I just batted my eyelashes at them and said that I was looking for the bathroom. It was easier than sneaking out of the house in high school. Piece of cake.”

“I don’t think I ever actually had to sneak out of the house,” Kat replied thoughtfully, cocking her head. “My mom was usually so tired after working a double at work that I’d just walk out the front door.”

“Oh, it was basically the same for me.” Emma half-turned to flash Kat a brilliant smile before returning her attention to the wolf’s antics. “I mean, Daddy didn’t want me to go out and had guards to stop me, but it only really took a ditzy smile and a couple good excuses to get past them. No one wanted to be the person that stopped me from going to my tutoring sessions in town.”

“I mean,” she continued hurriedly, putting a hand on Kat’s wrist as she spoke. “It wasn’t totally a lie. I was learning after a fashion. Mostly about how Margaret’s boyfriend was actually sleeping with Penny’s boyfriend.”

“What?” Kat asked, blinking as she tore her gaze from the arena where a terrified-looking young man in a rhinestone-covered outfit was being urged by the ringleader toward the wolf. “That sounds awful.”

“No,” Kat felt the other woman’s fingers pressing deeper into her wrist, “it was delicious. Penny and Margaret were actually on a tryst of their own when they found out. They were at a nightclub together when they spotted their boyfriends while they were supposed to be out of town. The two of them managed to sneak out without the boys noticing, but they were fuming.”

“They had to pretend not to know, but they were livid,” Emma continued excitedly. “It was the talk of our school for months before they finally confronted their boyfriends just before the end of the year.”

“Wait,” Kat interjected, frowning. “Weren’t your friends dating too? Why were they upset about their boyfriends hooking up if they were doing the same thing?”

“Will you two get your heads in the game?” Whippoorwill asked with a hiss, glaring at the spot where Emma was holding Kat’s wrist. “We need to make sure that the other team has placed their monitoring devices so that we can extricate ourselves and plan our next steps. You are literally chatting about high school drama while we are in the middle of a mission.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” Emma asked, cocking her head. “There is still another thirty or so minutes left in the show. If we left now, it would just draw attention and make the three of us look more suspicious. Wouldn’t it be better for us to just enjoy the show and blend in with the thousands of other tourists here for exactly the same reason?”

Whippoorwill sputtered for a second, turning red as she searched for an answer. Kat took pity on her, gently extracting her wrist from Emma’s grip before responding.

“It’ll be fine, Whip.” She smiled at her friend soothingly. “Emma’s right. At this point, we’ve gained access to the building and planted the surveillance, broadcast, and intrusion hardware. There’s basically nothing more for us to do but look and act casual.”

“Still, I—” Whippoorwill shifted in her metal seat, visibly uncomfortable.

“Just enjoy the show,” Kat cut her off, reaching out to squeeze her friend’s knee in an attempt to calm her.

Whip stiffened, closing her eyes as Kat’s hand made contact with her leg. Kat could feel her muscles tense and then unclench under her fingers before the other girl nodded.

“Great.” Kat smiled, leaning back into her seat and turning her attention to the show. “We can go over the surveillance results once we get back to the hotel.”

Below them, the trembling intern put his arm into the wolf’s open mouth. The crowd roared, causing the man to flinch. Through everything, the big animal just sat there, jaws open and with a bored look on its face.

Finally, with a curt nod from the ringleader, the poor man yanked his arm away from the dire wolf, only for the announcer to toss it a chunk of meat the size of two softballs. The animal snapped it from the air, devouring it in two quick bites.

“Now!” The public address system crackled once again as the circus master approached the wolf. It lowered its head, allowing him to scratch it behind its right ear. “It is time for the other crown jewel of the Neon Dome circus, our world renowned lion pride!”

Kat leaned back, and lost herself in the show. It was largely more of the same, the announcer waved his top hat and over-dramatized fairly mundane activities. True, the lions were fairly impressive when they roared at the audience or made their way through an agility course, but they were a pale follow-up to the genetic marvel of the dire wolf.

Finally, the show came to an end and the three of them filed out. Kat kept her eyes peeled for security cameras and emergency exits as they filed out along with the teeming throng, but eventually they were deposited on the Vegas strip alongside thousands of other excited tourists.

Emma pointed out the falafel stand where they had agreed to meet, and Kat led the way, her Tower-granted strength letting her shoulder through the crowd. Upon arrival, Whip and Kat stepped back, keeping an eye out for the rest of their party while Emma cheerfully got in line to order everyone shawarma. Apparently, she had seen a special on the food stand and had been making plans to stop there since before they left Chiwaukee. Being in the middle of a surveillance mission was the sort of obstacle that wasn’t even going to slow her.

After about ten minutes of waiting, Kat elbowed Whippoorwill in the arm, pointing out Davis’s tall, dignified form leading Jasper and Iris through the milling crowd. She raised a hand and waved curtly to draw their attention.

Davis nodded and began pushing through the crush of people toward the three of them. Pedestrians either curved out of his way or bounced off of the old man in surprise, no match for his Tower-granted strength as he forged a path for his charges through the chaos of the Vegas Strip.

He didn’t slow as he approached, instead brushing against Kat as he walked past, pushing a scrap of paper into her hands before he disappeared into the mass of people, a confused Jasper and Iris in tow. She waited thirty or so seconds, making idle small talk with Whippoorwill before checking the note.

It was the menu for a ramen restaurant. On the back, in Davis’s cramped but neat writing were the words ‘Too many eyes. Will be in the Empress Theodora hotel, room 933, checked in as Petras Sabbatius.”

Whip nudged her in the side, raising an eyebrow as she nodded toward the piece of glossy paper. Quickly, Kat committed its contents to memory before tearing it to scraps and discarding them on the well trampled ground.

Emma ambled up to them, a wide smile on her face and a large hexagonal Styrofoam package in her hands. Before Kat could say anything, she cracked it open, revealing steaming wraps. Without comment, Whippoorwill grabbed one of the aluminum foil clad meals and pulled the toothpick from it that was keeping it together.

Kat picked up her own, wincing as the heat from the freshly cooked shawarma stung her hands. She peeled back the foil and took a bite of the steaming food, pausing to take in the flavor profile as the sauce and meat mingled on her tongue. Whatever else there was to say about Emma’s hijacking of their mission and turning it into an impromptu vacation, she sure knew how to pick out restaurants.

“Damn, that’s good,” Whippoorwill remarked, voicing Kat’s thoughts for her. “But seriously, what now? Merrimack came by, but—”

“Just enjoy the food,” Kat replied in between mouthfuls. “He gave us information on our rendezvous, but he also pointed out that a busy street a dozen steps from a food cart is hardly the time or the place to talk about our next steps.”

“I guess,” Whip grumbled, leaning to the side as a drunken couple stumbled past the three of them.

“I mean,” Kat continued, shrugging. “It’s not like we actually planned on raiding the place tonight. We still need to go over the information we pull from the transceivers. This isn’t like our usual runs where we’re flying by the seat of our pants. We have the time to properly analyze their electronic security and guard patrol patterns.”

“That makes sense,” Whippoorwill responded, disgruntled. “Still, it just feels weird to stand here and do nothing while our target is a five minute walk away. We should be doing something, not just standing here and enjoying a meal.”

“I know!” Emma cut in, eyes bright as she looked from Kat to Whip and back. “We could go to the Grande MegaPlex. United Entertainment is debuting a trio of new hyperpop starlets and we might be able to get cameo vids with them before they hit it big.”

Kat put a hand on Whippoorwill’s arm to silence her, calming the pink-haired woman before she could snap at Emma.

“I don’t know if that’s what Whip had in mind,” Kat replied with a chuckle, “but it isn’t a bad idea. It might feel strange, but for now there isn’t anything we can do but ‘act normal and not draw attention to ourselves’ while the surveillance equipment does its job. We might as well do that at the Megaplex.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Kat opened her eyes, letting the riot of sights, scents, and sounds of Humbrass Atoll fade from her senses. She sighed, the white plaster of the hotel ceiling returning her gaze as she shifted slightly in the twin bed.

Whippoorwill groaned slightly, rolling to the side and dragging a pillow over her head on the bed to Kat’s left. Near her feet, Emma was curled up in a ball on a tiny futon, pulled out of the hotel room’s couch. She slept soundly, one of the room’s blankets tucked in just under her chin.

Quietly, Kat rolled out of the bed, pushing the blankets aside. She stood up in the dark, pajamas whispering against her skin as she stretched. A moment later, she tiptoed to the suite’s coffee maker, picking her way past the collection of unopened bags that commemorated Emma’s many purchases from the previous night.

Removing the coffee pot from the machine, Kat turned the tap halfway and angled the glass container as she filled it with water. Outside their room, the early morning sounds of the Vegas strip filtered in, the honking of horns coupled with some shouting and the occasional gunshot.

She slipped the pot back into the machine, pressing a button to dispense the Dark Peruvian roast. Back on the nightstand, her smartglass vibrated as the hotel’s network charged her for the coffee.

Kat leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes as the machine went to work with a burble and hiss. She yawned, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle the noise. It was barely five a.m., and more than anything she wanted to return to The Tower of Somnus.

Dorrik, Kaleek, and she had been killing time, finalizing their equipment while they enjoyed the Atoll’s shopping district on the fourth floor. The rest of the higher-leveled avatars were still filtering down from the upper floors while desoph scouts tried to narrow down and identify the stallesp base of operations.

Honestly? Even with Emma’s hijacking of their trip to Vegas, it felt like more of a vacation than her current circumstances. Kaleek had managed to find a string of three phenomenal street vendors in a row, and they had spent most of the night drinking surprisingly good fermented seaweed while eating any number of fried and grilled foods.

Unfortunately, she needed to cut her fun short. Davis had been clear in their meeting that Neon Dome’s night shift left around six a.m., and even though the morning shift checked in around the same time, it didn’t look like they properly got up to speed for an hour or so.

In short, if they hit the circus now, they would only have to contend with electronic security and groggy guards clustered around their own coffee mugs. They only had a day and a half of records on the patterns of the Neon Dome guards—Kat wasn’t sure she could have survived much more time than that shopping with Emma—but the information they did have was top notch.

Most of that was due to the quality of the gear they were using in the mission. The procurer that Belle had put her into contact with was a consummate professional. He didn’t ask any questions beyond curt inquiries into the specifications that she would need. Whip handled most of those questions, and as a result, they had crystal clear maps of the guard’s routes and posts.

The entire rig had cost them a pretty penny, but the two of them were flush with cash from their recent sales. Any impulse to purchase cheaper gear was stifled almost immediately by Whip’s excited expression as she explained all of the use they would be able to get out of the remote imaging and intrusion hardware.

Kat could have sworn that the dealer broke his unaffected facade for a fraction of a second to shoot her a pitying smirk when the payment finally came due. Still, despite the unfamiliar design and tighter than expected fit of the new infiltration suits, she couldn’t find any reason to take issue with the quality of his goods.

She poured three cups of coffee, finishing up just as Whippoorwill yawned and stretched herself awake. Kat flowed across the room, taking advantage of her Tower-granted agility to help her pick her way across the debris strewn around the hotel’s darkened floor.

Just as Whippoorwill fully extended her arm, Kat placed a steaming mug of coffee in her outstretched hand. The other girl squinted blearily up at her, trying to make Kat out in the dim neon light filtering in through the hotel windows from the street below.

“Kat?” Whip croaked, blinking as she scooted up in her bed, clutching the mug of coffee protectively to her chest. “Whatsit happen?”

“It’s time to wake up, sleepyhead,” Kat replied with a chuckle as Whip tried to slur through her words. “We’re going in right after sunrise, remember?”

She took a sip of her coffee, using the cup to hide a smile as Whippoorwill brushed a lock of pink hair from her face, trying to make sense of the situation.

“I told you and Emma to go to bed last night, but you insisted on having a couple of drinks and talking about intrusion software.” Kat took in another mouthful of the coffee. It was synthetic, more hot than good, but it had more or less the right aroma and more than enough caffeine. She’d had better, but for a quick pick-me-up it was more than enough to do the trick.

Rather than respond, Whippoorwill took a gulp from the mug. Her throat bobbed once before she broke down coughing, eyes watering.

“It’s literally steaming, Whip.” Kat shook her head. “Little sips. Don’t try to chug scalding liquids, it won’t end well.”

Emma yawned, drawing Kat’s attention away from Whippoorwill. She sat up, pushing the blanket off of herself and unfolded off of the futon.

“There’s a coffee on the counter for you,” Kat called out, before taking another sip of her own cup. “We need to be at the target in a little over a half hour, so there isn’t all that much time to waste. Drink up, use the bathroom, and then everyone needs to get into their infiltration suits.”

“God damnit,” Whippoorwill grumbled as Emma walked over to the coffee machine, cheerfully grabbing her own cup. “Why in the hell did we agree to run a mission at such an ungodly time? Raids are for night time, not the crack of dawn.”

“Because we’re in the middle of a tourist destination that has about as much neon lighting as the advertisements outside a cheap brothel,” Kat riposted, finishing off her coffee. “Day or night, we’re going to be visible, but early dawn syncs well both with crowd patterns and the circus’s internal security. Some people are going to see us no matter what, but this is our best chance at flying at least somewhat under the radar.”

“Oh wow,” Emma’s voice was distressingly perky despite the ungodly hour. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anything like this. This brand of coffee is so unique.”

Kat looked over just as the other girl took another sip from the mug. Emma smacked her lips thoughtfully.

“Usually there’s so much more aroma and body to the coffee,” she continued excitedly, “but this is almost like drinking colored water. There’s barely any flavor to it other than ‘hot’ and ‘wet,’ with hints of plastic.”

“You don’t drink hotel coffee for the taste,” Kat replied with a snort, grabbing one of the infiltration suits from an open suitcase and tossing it at Emma. “You drink it because it has enough caffeine in it to wake the dead.”

Emma caught the wadded up mass of clothing with her free hand, still sipping from her coffee.

“Remember to use the bathroom, both of you.” Kat chuckled, picking up her own suit en route to the washroom. “The coffee will go right through you and we are not stopping to pee in the middle of an operation. I have no idea what these suits smell like filled with urine, but they’re watertight and I wouldn’t want to go through that if I could help it.”

She closed the door on Whippoorwill’s groans, cranking the hot water on in the shower as she prepared for her own ablutions. A quick visit to the toilet and a shower later, Kat stepped out into the main hotel room, zipping up her infiltration suit.

Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were walking outside the towering circular colosseum where Neon Dome held their shows at night. Kat, Emma, and Whippoorwill managed to avoid the isolated clusters of stragglers in the early morning light, their infiltration suits covered under cheap tourist clothing they’d purchased the day before.

Kat checked the time in her smartpanel one last time before elbowing Whip. The pink-haired girl nodded and led the way, swerving off of the main strip and onto a secluded side driveway that led toward the building’s loading dock.

Just as they turned the corner, tires squealed behind them as a van slid off of the road, smashing into the side of a building. The actual impact didn’t do all that much damage, but it produced an impressive amount of noise and drew attention from tourists up and down the strip.

The vehicle’s door crunched open with a jerk, and Iris stumbled out, heavy makeup and cosmetic contact lenses concealing her true appearance from the crowd. She wobbled back and forth, pretending to be drunk as she staggered to the curb in ‘shock’ before plopping herself down and feigning tears.

It was honestly a better performance than Kat expected out of her friend. Davis—Merrimac—refused to let Iris or Jasper actually break into the arena with them. Still, their two friends wanted to help and after wearing the stoic man down for hours, he finally consented to let them handle a distraction and getaway.

In a minute or two, Jasper would be arriving in a ‘utility truck’ to scream at Iris and make a commotion regarding her ‘drunken and negligent damage’ of privately held power lines. The two of them had excitedly scripted and planned out almost thirty minutes of commotion to keep the public eye away from any noises or disturbances caused by the infiltration team.

A quick glance behind her assured Kat that no one was watching their progress as Whippoorwill approached a wrought iron gate. By the time Kat looked back, the heavy lock, designed to withstand a car trying to batter the reinforced fence down, chunked to the side. A second later, the barrier began sliding to the left with a quiet groan of straining gears.

The three of them hurried inside, letting the gate grind shut behind them. Thirty or so seconds later, they arrived at the building’s dumpster. The large red metal box, constructed cheaply from partially corroded steel, assaulted the entire alleyway with its rank odor.

“Seriously?” Emma muttered, glaring at the pile of quietly fermenting trash in distaste. “I know I agreed to the plan, but that was in a hotel room. I had no idea that the execution would be so… colorful.”

“I’ve dug through worse to survive,” Whip replied, shrugging off her street clothes to reveal her infiltration suit underneath.

“She’s joking, right?” Emma asked Kat worriedly as Whippoorwill tucked her pink hair into the hood of her suit before pulling the stretchy fabric over her face. “K-Erinyes, please tell me that she’s joking.”

“Maybe?” Kat answered unhelpfully, stripping off her outer clothes as well. “I grew up in the arcology, but I spent enough time in the Shell to know that things were pretty rough there. Chiffon didn’t have it easy growing up. I try not to talk about it with her, but when you go to bed hungry every night, you’ll do what you have to in order to survive.”

Emma’s response was swallowed up by the loud grind of machinery as Whippoorwill triggered the trash processing system. Above them, a large metal hatch opened, dumping the small amount of refuse that had collected since the system had last been triggered into the dumpster.

The doors automatically began closing only to stop with a scream of metal on metal when Whip triggered a subroutine she’d pre-programmed into her smartpanel. Then, the alleyway lapsed into silence, leaving the three of them peering up at the yawning entrance to the Neon Dome building.

“Ladies first,” Kat said, bowing with a flourish as she cast Levitation on Whippoorwill. She could almost feel Whip rolling her eyes before the other woman clambered up the metal plates of the dumpster.

As soon as Whippoorwill disappeared into the building, Kat turned to Emma. She had transformed completely from her normally bubbly self, replaced by a camouflage silhouette in an infiltration suit, a metal rod strapped to each leg.

“You’re next,” Kat finished, letting her previous casting of Levitation lapse in order to save mana. She repeated the spell on Emma.

The other girl hopped from one foot to the other on the balls of her feet, testing out the limits of Kat’s spell before nodding appreciatively and clambering up the side of the dumpster. She shook her head before repeating the spell, biting her lip at the mana strain of keeping two instances of the same spell active at once.

Once Emma was safely in the building, Kat followed her. Even in the shadows of the alley, the metal was hot from morning heat through her suit, but years of experience and the increased power of her magic made the climb fairly short.

A handful of seconds later, Kat joined her companions on her hands and knees in the darkness of the trash chute. She activated her night vision, illuminating the narrow passageway in grayscale before pushing her way past Emma and Whippoorwill to take the lead.

They slunk along the metal tunnel in silence for almost a minute, Kat keeping her eyes peeled for a threat as they worked their way toward one of the building’s waste stations.

Suddenly, she froze. The clatter of metal on metal pulled Kat’s attention in front of her down the tunnel as Whippoorwill ran into her from behind. Quickly, she prepared Gravity Plane, ready to ward off an attacker just as a torn garbage bag full of food wrappers and aluminum cans tumbled down the inclined passage and slammed into her.

The cheap plastic bag ripped apart, spraying the three of them with refuse before it continued downward toward the dumpster below. Behind her, Emma sputtered angrily.

“God,” Kat heard the girl mutter. “I thought this smelled bad on the outside.”

“Quiet,” Whippoorwill hissed back. “We should be almost out, and I don’t want to blow this entire mission over you alerting the janitor that just used the trash disposal station.”

“I don’t know,” Emma mumbled menacingly. “I think I’d like to find them. A mild concussion seems like a fair price to pay for forcing me to discover all of these incredible smells.”

Kat struggled to keep her face straight, opting instead to continue forward without comment. Barely a minute of uphill crawling later, she came upon an upward shaft, a hint of fluorescent light leaking downward around a hatch.

“Chiffon?” Kat asked, torquing her body to look back at Whip. “Do you have eyes on the room above us? Are we clear?”

“Just a—” Whip’s muffled voice filtered back to Kat. “No, we’re good. There’s only two security guards on this floor, and both of them are currently in a monitoring station drinking coffee and watching CCTV feeds. I’ll just loop a couple seconds of ordinary footage, and unless one of them gets a lot more alert out of nowhere, we should be fine.”

“God,” Kat remarked ruefully. “This really is easier with proper preparation. Usually I would have had to stab someone and stash their body in a stairwell en route to the first surveillance hub so that Chiffon could take over the monitoring systems. This is almost too easy.”

“Don’t jinx it, asshole,” Whippoorwill replied playfully. “They have flesh and blood guards to back up their electronic security for a reason. Any security planning has to take into account that a proper electronic intrusion team is almost unstoppable once they get hooked into the system. Once those guards get off their asses and start actually walking the halls, we’ll have to be a lot more careful.”

“Still,” she continued wistfully. “That is why we hid the remote hookups when we visited last time. They’re expensive and it’s a shame we’ll have to self-destruct them at the end of the operation, but remote access to the security network from the beginning of a run is a luxury I’m glad to have.”

“That reminds me,” Kat continued, crawling into the shaft and standing up. “How is Merrimac doing? I know his weapons wouldn’t fit in the trash chute, but it feels strange to be infiltrating the building without him.”

“He’s in,” Whip answered. “A worker noticed something was off about the weight of the barrel of animal food he was hiding in, but he managed to take care of the problem before anyone noticed. Still, we only have until someone notices that one of the stevedores has a broken neck before this entire thing goes belly up.”

“Well,” Kat replied, pushing upward on the hatch above her. Light poured into the dark trash chute from the sterile janitorial room above them. “It sounds like we have a ticking clock then. Let’s get you to the mainframe so you can pull Neon Dome’s archives before they call in backup.”

“And me to the animal chambers so I can get a puppy,” Emma mumbled behind them.

“And if there’s time, yes. We’ll get Emma a puppy,” Kat finished with a sigh.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Kat’s throwing dagger shattered the guard’s smartpanel, deflecting off of the metal armor implanted under the woman’s skin. A second later, she was inside the monitoring station, ducking under a frantic swing of the other security officer’s rifle as Emma ran past her.

She thrust upward with her main knife, activating Penetrate and Overpressure at the same time as the point of her weapon found the gap between the clamshell of the man’s polymer chest armor and the ceramic greaves covering his arms. The glowing blade slipped through the armor weave implanted in the man’s skin, only stopping when the tip lodged itself into the man’s shoulder bone.

He jerked back, screaming, giving Kat enough time to drop to one knee, repeating the process with the gap between his leg and chest armor. Bright red blood painted the room as her knife slid through his femoral artery.

The remaining guard grunted as a crossbow bolt lodged itself in the armor of her forearm, Whip’s shot not quite having the accuracy or power needed to do real damage. A second later, Emma followed it into the room, her steel-clad baton swinging downward and shattering her target’s wrist with a wet crack as the woman tried to bring her submachine gun into play.

Kat danced backward a half-step, kicking upward and jerking the rifle from her opponent’s hands. He fell to his knees, hands opening and closing weakly as the strength fled his body along with the spurts of arterial blood.

Across the room, Emma’s weapons blurred, both of the metal rods rising and falling with bone crunching force as she battered the remaining guard. Unfortunately, her opponent was hardly a soft target.

The Neon Dome security officer regained her feet, arms held vertically on either side of her head in a boxing stance as she weathered Emma’s repeated blows. Then the guard lowered a shoulder, deflecting one of the staves off of a hardened plastic pauldron with a metallic clank that broke Emma’s form.

For a fraction of a second, time seemed to stand still, the baton in Emma’s right hand still on a downward trajectory while her left arm went wide, exposing her chest and leaving her completely open to a counter attack. Then the guard punched Emma.

Kat wasn’t sure what kind of chrome the woman was packing, but the wet crunch of breaking ribs confirmed that it involved some sort of strength multiplier. The guard barely even noticed as another crossbow bolt tagged her in the back of the neck, drawing a line of blood but not biting deep enough to cause any real problems.

Emma flew backward, landing off balance and collapsing. Kat wasn’t sure whether the girl was struggling to adapt to the flow of the combat, or if her injury was hampering her, but either way she didn’t plan to let the guard take advantage of Emma’s condition.

The Neon Dome officer took a step toward Emma, drawing a combat knife from her waist as she prepared to finish the injured girl. Then Kat’s snap kick took her in the back of the knee, collapsing the guard’s right leg and causing her to fall forward.

The woman caught herself, left arm planted against the carpeted floor while her right hand still held her knife in a downward facing overhand grip.

Then Gravity Spike activated.

When Kat had begun her attack, she had meant the spell to target her opponent’s torso when she fell after the kick took out a leg.

Still, she wasn’t unsatisfied with the result as Gravity Spike crushed her victim’s elbow and bicep. With a quiet gasp of pain, the guard’s arm gave out and her face rebounded off of the carpeted floor.

Tower-enhanced reflexes pushed to the limit, Kat planted a knee in the other woman’s back, pinning her to the floor as her left hand grabbed the woman’s closely cropped hair and pulled her head up slightly. Then, with a smooth, practiced motion, she rammed her knife, clad in the red glow of Penetrate, through the back of the woman’s skull.

The body beneath her twitched once and then went still. Kat held still for another moment before pulling her knife from the corpse and wiping it on the body’s armor. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Whip hurry into the room, crossbow at the ready as she squirmed her way past the monitoring equipment and over to where Emma lay on the ground taking short, pained breaths.

“Erinyes,” Whip called out softly, kneeling down next to Emma. “That was a pretty nasty punch, she needs healing.”

“Watch the door, Chiffon.” Kat nodded to her friend, sheathing her knife. “Cure Wounds I is a mana hog. We’ll need to be careful for the next ten minutes or so after this to let me recharge, but unless there’s organ damage, I’ll have her up and about in no time.”

“But Erinyes,” Whippoorwill stood up, walking slowly toward the reinforced metal door that protected the guard post. “I have access to the cameras. There are only a couple of janitors on this floor and none of them are anywhere near us.”

“That you can see,” Kat chided, taking Whip’s place kneeling next to Emma. “There are Tower abilities that can make you invisible and chrome that can disrupt electronic surveillance. This isn’t some entertainment channel drama where we’re the protagonists. We might be better trained and equipped than most of our opponents, but that isn’t a sure thing. Not taking an enemy seriously is a great way to end up under a street doc’s knife or dead.”

“Sorry K-Erinyes,” Emma hissed as Kat began mumbling the words to Cure Wounds I. “I had the drop on her, but the fight got away from me.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Kat smiled underneath her mask as she ran glowing gold hands over Emma’s abdomen. “We didn’t have any way of knowing in advance, but your target was a tough customer. Given the amount of chrome she was sporting, I’d bet a decent chunk of credits that she was a named samurai. Frankly? I’d be surprised if you managed to take her down solo. That isn’t the sort of target you’re supposed to be tangling with.”

“Ugggh,” Emma groaned, letting her head slump against the carpeted floor. “You make all of this look so easy. Heck, even the bad guys in The Tower of Somnus are a piece of cake compared to that. At least they react properly to Stunning Blow.”

“You’ll just have to be more careful,” Kat replied, trying to guess how much her spell had healed the woman. “In the real world, you’re not dealing with hobbyists. Samurai play for keeps, and most of us have had to kill before. If they see an opportunity, they aren’t going to hesitate.”

“God, your hands feel nice,” Emma mumbled, barely even addressing Kat. “The magic is all warm and tingly. It’s like I’m taking a bubble bath or something.”

Kat cocked her head to the side, struggling to find a response when Whip saved her from the awkward moment.

“Is she healed yet, Erinyes?” Whippoorwill asked bluntly. Kat wasn’t sure how she knew through the blank face mask, but somehow she could feel the pink-haired woman’s glare on her skin. “Merrimac is in position below the lab, so we don’t have any time to dawdle and gossip about bath time or whatever. It’s time to get moving.”

“I’m better enough,” Emma answered, rolling out from under Kat’s hands with a slight hiss as her still-tender ribs brushed the ground. “I’ll have a hell of a bruise tomorrow, but I can move and fight. More importantly, I know better than to annoy Chiffon.”

Kat hopped up to her feet, walking past the guard’s corpse to pick up her throwing knife before turning back around and surveying the guard post. A number of smartglass displays showed the hallways approaching the room. One of them flickered under Kat’s discerning gaze, an artifact of the video loops Whippoorwill used to hide their approach.

“Do any of the janitors look armed?” Kat asked, sliding the throwing knife into its bandoleer as she peered at the monitors. “The last thing we need is to lock everything down only for one of them to turn out to be a samurai or secret martial arts master.”

“Nope.” Whippoorwill shook her head, the face of her infiltration suit as blank and expressionless as ever. “As far as I can tell, they’re all just run of the mill broom pushers.”

She took a deep breath, biting her lower lip as she ruminated over their options. There were guards down both on her floor and in the basement with Merrimac. It was only a matter of time before their presence was discovered, but at the same time, their team had only really scouted the building through Whippoorwill’s tap into the electronic monitoring system. If there was anything in a blind spot or running off circuit, there was no way for them to know.

“Fuck it,” Kat mumbled to herself before turning to Whippoorwill with more energy. “Drop the doors. Let’s grab the explosives and get down to business. The labs aren’t going to ransack themselves.”

Davis was already in position and awaiting their signal. More pressing, they had a limited window where Jasper and Iris’s two man show would actually keep people convinced and distracted. Kat knew that the two of them were confident in their acting ability, but she wasn’t quite as sure.

There was no way she could bring up her doubts and dampen their enthusiasm, especially with Davis shaking his head just over Jasper’s shoulder. Perhaps correctly, the old man was afraid that his ward would insist on being part of the infiltration team if Kat downplayed the impact he would be playing on the total operation.

Who knows? Maybe she was being too critical of Jasper? He was still learning to fight and handle himself, but he wanted to help, and that was more than she could say for most executives. Plus, the tourists outside seemed to buy the car crash routine. For all she knew, it actually was working.

“Stairwells and elevators are sealed.” Whippoorwill interrupted her thoughts. “They’ll know we’re here and start calling in our location before too long, but they have some heavy duty protections built in. It looks like the system was designed to hold off a rampaging dire wolf or one of their big cats. Unless they have shaped charges, it’ll take them like an hour to get in here.”

“Speaking of which,” Kat replied, nodding toward Emma’s satchel, “we should probably look into making our own way down to the lab and holding cells. I don’t necessarily think that Merrimac needs our help, but he will give us an earful if we make him do all of the heavy lifting.”

“Honestly?” Whip asked rhetorically as she beckoned for the two of them to follow her. “That’s almost worse. I could do without another one of his lectures on how samurai operated when he was young.”

“People just cared more about the code, Chiffon,” Emma deepened her voice, placing one hand on her hip. “If a samurai lost his honor? Well, that was all he had. If a man said he’d be at your extraction point in an armored vehicle, by God he’d be there even if he was missing a hand and had a dozen bullets in him.”

“Anyway,” Kat replied, choking down a snort. “Chiffon, if you could lead us to the designated breach point, that would be absolutely lovely.”

She kept her eyes up for the janitors as the three of them followed Whippoorwill, but none of the workers showed themselves. It was for the best, really. She’d disable or kill someone in a heartbeat to complete the mission, but at the same time, even if they were employed by Neon Dome, cleaning staff were hardly combatants.

Kat just hoped that the scientists and maintenance staff would stay out of their way once the shooting started. Apparently, it was her responsibility to save the world. The universe had dumped plenty of responsibility on her shoulders already. She’d prefer to avoid adding a couple more civilian deaths to that total.

Once they reached the site, Emma began tracing a circle in the floor with thumbnail-sized shaped explosives. Her movements were quick and business-like, without the usual chatter or commentary as she efficiently finished her task and hurried over to where Whippoorwill and Kat were hiding halfway around a corner.

Kat nodded at Whip, and her friend nodded back before squeezing the detonator in her hand.

A moment later, the explosion rocked Kat back onto her heels and a wall of dust rolled down the corridor. She drew her knife and dove into the wave of plaster dust, dropping through the hole in the floor into the hallway below.

In the distance, Kat heard gunfire as Merrimac murdered his way through the lab’s defenses. A quick glance around revealed that she was alone in an empty hallway, stainless steel walls collecting dust from the sudden blast.

Nearby, indistinct voices began shouting, likely alerted by the explosion. Over the ringing in her ears, Kat was fairly sure she heard the slap of shoes on concrete. Silently, she exhaled, relaxing her stance as she tried to pinpoint the direction her attackers would take.

Emma dropped down the hole behind her just as a woman leading two men rounded the corner in front of Kat, handguns drawn. Time seemed to slow. Kat gathered her mana as the other woman’s eyes widened and she raised her gun.

Kat grabbed Emma’s wrist, throwing her to the side just as Dazzle erupted in front of the three guards. An errant gunshot creased the far wall as the blaze of light threw off her attacker’s aim.

Her return fire took the woman in the chest, unfortunately not doing much damage against the ceramic breastplate the guard wore over a Kevlar uniform.

Even if it didn’t down Kat’s foe, the bullets were enough to halt the woman as they drove the breath from her lungs, causing the other two guards to slam into her. A moment later, Gravity’s Grasp kicked in, pinning all three of them to the concrete floor.

Whippoorwill landed in the dust and rubble just as Kat hit the tangle of bodies. She grunted as the extra weight from the spell settled on her, but unlike the guards, she was both strong enough to handle its force, and prepared for the disorientation of gravity tripling with no notice.

Her foot flashed out, kicking one pistol away as her dagger blurred downward, cutting open a man’s neck. The female guard lifted her gun, struggling against the extra gravity, only for Kat’s heel to slam into the woman’s nose, shattering it.

The guard’s eyes rolled back up into her head and she collapsed as Kat grabbed a handful of the remaining opponent’s hair and slammed his head face first into her knee. The blow landed awkwardly as he tried to twist away from her grasp, only stunning the man and leaving a dull ache that foretold a fairly major bruise on Kat’s leg.

He pulled his arm out from under the unconscious female guard, pistol in his hand trembling, only for Kat’s left forearm to slam into his wrist, pushing the weapon wide. He opened his mouth to say something—maybe he meant to beg for mercy or call for help, but Kat would never know.

She planted her knife into his eye with bone-jarring force, silencing him and ending the fight.

For a second, nothing happened. Kat remained in a crouch, blood-covered knife at ready just in case another foe revealed themselves.

“Holy shit,” Emma said with a whistle. “I saw a bit of you fighting upstairs but that was ridiculous, K—sorry, Erinyes. I knew that Dav—Merrimac took you seriously, but that was absolutely insane. You just killed three armed guards that had the drop on us like they were a bunch of fumbling schoolchildren.”

“I, uh—” Kat frowned under her mask. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I wish you could find another analogy for my actions outside of murdering kids. It just seems a bit… off. Like I’m some sort of callous monster.”

“Plus,” Kat continued, slitting the throat of the unconscious guard before wiping her knife off on the woman’s uniform. “Being the better fighter isn’t a guarantee of success. Magic and dodging can reduce your chances of getting shot, but every once in a while, you just end up rolling snake eyes. Anyone who works this job long enough takes a bullet at some point. That’s why the better approach is getting in and out without being seen. Being a badass might look good in vids, but in reality, everyone’s hardcore until they take a bullet to the side.”

“Yeah.” Kat swore she could see Emma’s eyes twinkling as the other girl spoke. “Except you. For all your humility, I just don’t see how someone who fights like you would get hurt in a fight against scrubs like this.”

“I wish.” Kat chuckled back. “I’ve broken bones and taken a bullet or two myself, and I have the scars to prove it. Even when you win fights, it usually isn’t without cost.”

“Quit flirting,” Whippoorwill said with a snort, slamming the pistol Kat had dropped after her first shot into her hands. “Erinyes, you aren’t going to show Emma your scars. Merrimac is almost to the kennels and the main computer. We’d better meet him there or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

With an embarrassed shrug, Kat shoved the pistol into its holster before taking off at a run. Really, the rest of the journey wasn’t that hard. Kat didn’t even need Whippoorwill’s help, instead simply zeroing in on the sounds of Merrimac’s gunfire as the older samurai implacably made his way toward the target.

They only encountered two more guards, both armed with assault rifles and peering into the laboratory where Merrimac had made his presence known with a deafening peel of gunfire. Kat shot one before they even noticed her team, the bullet taking her target in the base of his head, between his helmet and body armor, and dropping him instantly.

The other guard took a crossbow bolt from Whip in the knee. The man dropped his gun, reaching down with both hands toward his wound only for Emma’s truncheon to smash into his face with enough force to shatter his helmet’s smartglass faceplate and concuss him with the same blow.

Her second stave crushed the man’s forehead, crumpling his skull inward and killing the target instantly. Emma wobbled slightly, taken aback by her first kill as Kat ran past the reeling woman and into the lab.

The room was in absolute chaos. One wall was nothing but massive steel cages filled with various genetically modified animals while another was nothing but a massive smartglass display that listed the results of various experiments in bright red and green neon. The center of the room was occupied by Davis, clad in metal body armor and holding an oversized autocannon with a smaller machine gun strapped to the side, amidst a clutter of overturned lab equipment and server racks.

She ducked as Merrimac’s heavy cannon swung toward her, skidding toward a metal computer bank in an effort to avoid friendly fire.

“That you, Erinyes?” Davis asked, his usually cultured voice containing the faintest hint of the street slang he had grown up with. “I thought there were some corp guards at that entrance.”

“Yup,” she replied, trying to sound cheerful. “There were. They’re dead now.”

“Good,” Davis grunted. “They couldn’t do much through my armor, but that didn’t stop them from trying. It was more annoying than anything, but they were using big enough guns that I had to worry about a bullet hitting a thin spot.”

Kat’s head swiveled to her left, picking up a hint of movement out of the corner of her vision only to lock eyes with an important-looking middle aged man in a suit. He gasped, standing up and running for the exit she had just used to enter the room.

With a curse, Kat cast Pseudopod, springing to her feet and swiping at the man’s knees with the water tentacle only to find him just out of reach.

Then Emma stepped into view, both of her metal staves at the ready. The man squealed as, unable to slow his momentum enough to stop himself, he leaned to the side and tried to break past her.

“Non-lethal!” Kat screamed as Emma swung her clubs. “Keep that fucker alive!”

Their trajectory changed slightly in the air. The blows that would have taken him in the head instead rained down on his forearm and side a fraction of a second before Kat caught up enough to hook her Pseudopod around his right knee and jerk.

The man’s scream cut short as he tumbled to the cement, writhing in pain. Kat walked closer, wrapping the tendril of water completely around him and pinning his arms to his side.

Whippoorwill poked her head out behind Emma before letting out a low whistle.

“It looks like we managed to catch Director Anvers in the building,” Whip remarked appreciatively. “Even if we can’t find the specific files we want in the database, Neon Dome’s flash cloned director of Research and Development is more than enough of a catch for us to make some serious progress.”

Emma hurried past the two of them toward the wall of animal cages as Merrimac tromped closer. Whippoorwill went down to one knee, rifling through the groaning man’s pockets.

“What do we have here?” Whip asked gleefully, pulling back the salt and pepper hair around the base of the man’s skull to reveal a metal circle with a number of gleaming indicator lights. “Our friend here seems to have an onboard computer database. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the really fun secrets are locked away in there.”

“And what are you going to do about it?” The man slurred, still clearly woozy from his recent battering. “Rapid response forces are on their way and your little team doesn’t seem to have a surgeon with you. There’s no way you’ll be able to extract it in time. I don’t even care who sent you. Just fucking go on with it and kill me.”

“We might not have a surgeon,” Merrimac grunted, his approach heralded by the jangle of metal on metal, “but Erinyes here is fairly skilled with a knife. Really, at this point, the only difference is the lack of anesthetic, so apologies for that.”

A metal-clad foot struck the bound man between the eyes, knocking him cleanly out. Merrimac nodded meaningfully toward Kat, and she drew her knife with grim purpose. Removing the database wouldn’t be clean or fun, but the director was a clone, under the control of alien powers bent on enslaving humanity. Her moral qualms would have to take second—

She whirled around as a mountain of fur blurred past her, tackling Whippoorwill. Before she could defend her friend, the dire wolf licked Whip’s infiltration suit’s face, its massive tongue covering most of the featureless uniform’s head.

Then with a whine, he rolled off of her, lifting his legs so that Whip could rub his stomach. Davis, Kat, and Whippoorwill just stared blankly at the scene.

The massive wolf whined again, squirming its back against the floor next to Whippoorwill as it looked up at her with pleading eyes. Tentatively, she reached out, scratching the creature under the chin. It sighed appreciatively and let its tongue loll out.

“God damnit!” Emma shouted, stomping over to the three of them, a number of cages open behind her. “I freed Hanz and he’s supposed to be my friend. It isn’t fair!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The warm breeze off the ocean sprayed Kat with salty mist as she walked across the creaking rope bridge connecting two islands of the Humbrass Atoll. A school of gleaming shoal fish swerved toward the ring of islands, cutting through the waves as they passed under the bridge. Beside her, Kaleek put his hands on the heavy ropes, leaning over the edge to watch them skim just beneath the waves.

The bridge creaked, swaying under the big otter’s weight. Kat half-stumbled before catching her balance. Behind her, Dorrik simply reached out with his lower pair of arms, grabbing hold of the ropes to steady themselves.

Kaleek glanced back excitedly, the rotation of his body sending a tremor through the entirety of the bridge once again. A tall, feathered, and horned alien squawked in distress as they lost their balance, wobbling into the load bearing rope and sending the entire structure teetering precariously.

The desoph ignored the pendulous sway of the bridge and the multitude of other travelers as they threw themselves to the wooden planks or gripped onto the thick ropes for dear life.

“Are you sure we don’t have a minute or two for me to dive in and catch us dinner, Dorrik?” he asked the big lizard. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen fish that plump, and there were at least four dozen of them.”

“Mass Arrest Momentum!” Dorrik shouted hurriedly, slumping visibly as a purple glow encompassed a number of the nearby commuters, freezing them in place as the entire structure swung back and forth. The ropes slapped into their still forms, slowing and then halting as Dorrik’s Psi ability held the creatures firm against the vibrating cables.

About five seconds later, Dorrik gasped for breath and the violet light surrounding the other avatars winked out of existence. A couple fell to their knees, or whatever passed for their knees, jolting the bridge further, but the Psi ability had been in time, catching the dangerous back and forth wobble of the tenuous bridge before it got out of hand.

Shakily, the horned alien regained its taloned feet, nodding to Dorrik in appreciation. Silently, Kat shared the sentiment. Dorrik had described the area effect version of Arrest Momentum that they had earned once their skill reached the Iron tier, but their recounting of its effects didn’t do the ability justice.

Evidently, using it on so many people at once had all but drained the lokkel’s stamina reserves, but at the same time, it demonstrated an impressive level of power. Dorrik would need more training in the skill, and ideally more than a couple points added to stamina, but the ability to freeze a large number of opponents for a handful of seconds opened intriguing possibilities.

“Dorrik, are you even paying attention?” Kaleek asked, taking a step toward the other side of the rope bridge to follow the school of fish with his eyes as it disappeared into the shallow central ‘lake’ of the atoll.

“Yes,” the lokkel ground out, one of their upper hands seizing Kaleek by the shoulder to prevent him from unsettling the bridge further. “We can talk more when we get to the next island. Right now, you’re disturbing foot traffic.”

“Oh.” Kaleek’s whiskers twitched as he finally took in the devastation on the bridge as all sorts of avatars carefully climbed to their feet, trying their hardest to not send the entire structure swinging again.

“Sorry about that, everyone!” he shouted, cupping his hands in front of his snout and drawing a fair amount of disgruntled mumbling from the rest of the travelers.

“Keep moving, big guy,” Kat interjected with a chuckle as she slipped past him, playfully planting a fist in his furry side. “You’re only drawing more attention, and the sooner we’re off of this rickety thing, the better.”

“I still don’t see why the bridges here are so slipshod,” Kaleek grumbled as he hurried after her, Dorrik in tow. “There isn’t even all that big of a gap between the atoll’s islands.”

“Seriously,” he jerked his head toward the water below, “the gaps are barely even the size of a river. They only qualify as part of the ocean because they’re filled with saltwater. The builders easily could have made a sturdy plank bridge to connect everything together. Then none of this would have been a problem.”

“The wind and tropical storms tear the more rigid bridges apart,” Dorrik remarked evenly, practically sighing with relief as they stepped onto the worn cobblestones of the next island. “Rope bridges hang free and are a bit better at moving with the surrounding environment rather than trying to resist the gusts and heavy waves that tend to pound the atoll.”

“Of course,” Dorrik shrugged, “even if they do break, it’s a lot cheaper to replace a couple stretches of rope and some rickety boards. Only the major islands that engage in a lot of commerce with their neighbors bother with bridges for trade, and those are heavy affairs made from reinforced stone. They still break, but their maintenance and repair is a lot more than most of the smaller islands in the atoll can afford.”

Kaleek gazed longingly at the turquoise waves as they lapped up against the island’s rocky shores. A pair of fins cut through the surface as the vast ocean’s porpoise equivalent splashed playfully through the surf. Travelers glared at the three of them as they passed, but the big otter just ignored their baleful expressions.

“Are you sure we have to go to this thing?” he asked wistfully. “I really could use another swim. My pod has voted to switch to wartime production for the first time in six hundred years, and I expect the rest of the desoph to join us shortly. Everything has been so gloomy lately. Blowing off a little steam in the dreamscape would really hit the spot.”

“We’ve blown off enough steam,” Dorrik replied dryly, walking past the lounging otter and into the sun-bleached streets of the new island. “The last couple of days have been nothing but us sitting on our hands while we waited for the scouts to come back with more information on this floor’s stallesp infestation. I feel like I’ve seen you drunk and singing songs in every major bar around the atoll.”

“How is the search going, anyway?” Kat asked hurriedly, trying to cut off Kaleek before he could take umbrage with Dorrik’s description of his debauchery. “I know that scouts have been sent out and that a steady trickle of warriors and merchants have been traversing down from upper floors, but I haven’t heard much more than that.”

“Things have gone fairly well.” Dorrik perked up, their crest fluttering lightly in the sea breeze. “Sikka made her way up last sleeping period, and she brought a number of armaments and consumables with her. With her arrival, our forces are fully provisioned, and it’s only a matter of finally locating the stallesp base.”

“Oh!” Kat responded happily. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Sikka. You should let me know where she’s staying so that we can catch up. The last we talked, she said she still had a number of embarrassing stories to relate about your childhood.”

Dorrik groaned, hanging their head as their crest flattened. A trio of rock creatures ground by them, momentarily drowning out any conversation with the avalanche of noise that marked their passing.

“I never should have introduced the two of you,” the lokkel grumbled. “I should have known things would end up like this.”

“Don’t worry, buddy.” Kaleek slapped Dorrik’s shoulder with a bright grin. “Sikka never made any attempt to turn me against you. In fact, I think she mostly just tolerates me.”

He winked at Kat, whiskers twitching before he continued, “That makes me your favorite party member, right?”

“I think we’re getting a little off track here,” Kat cut in, attempting to spare Dorrik from any more ribbing. “Is there any update on the scouts’ progress? The last I heard, they’d managed to triangulate a target area where ships kept disappearing. I think there were some rumors of stallesp galleons being sighted, but nothing definite.”

“Oh, it’s definite,” Dorrik replied, carefully stepping around a pile of droppings where some variety of domesticated beast had done its business in the street. “The scouts have engaged a couple of smaller stallesp vessels. Usually, the raiders have managed to escape before our allies have been able to do decisive damage, but last night, one of them grew careless. Now we have more than guesses, we have prisoners.”

“Have any of them cracked yet?” Kaleek asked, his former dreamy boredom evaporating at the prospect of striking back against the stallesp. “Tell me we know where their base is. As much as I’d like to relieve stress in the ocean, cutting my way through a crowd of the moles seems like a good time.”

“In fact,” he continued, clenching his hands into fists. “I saw Balee the other day. She just sat there, staring out at the ocean. She wouldn’t even speak unless someone addressed her directly. Screw swimming. I want to do to the stallesp what they did to her. Skin them alive while asking questions they can’t possibly answer, all the while promising to stop if only they give me the right answer.”

Kat recoiled. On one hand, she empathized with Kaleek. For what the stallesp had done to her world, they deserved nothing less than to be repaid in kind. Moreover, they were not a weak foe. She didn’t have the luxury of showing the stallesp any mercy.

On the other hand, Kaleek’s sudden change took her back. She’d seen in him a number of emotional states, from cheerful and drunk to gleefully bloodthirsty, but in all that time, Kat wasn’t sure she’d actually seen the desoph in such a dark state. He didn’t want to fight to let off steam, this was personal.

“Perhaps it will cheer you to know that you have more or less described the fate of the prisoners.” Dorrik inclined their head as they kept walking. “They have been forced to drink draughts of slumber, preventing them from leaving the dreamscape for some time. Right now they are being put to the question. Unfortunately for them, those asking the questions don’t have access to a modern pharmacy. Without truth serums, the interrogations have become quite messy and painful.”

“Draught of slumber?” Kat asked, hurrying a little to catch up to Dorrik so that she could walk shoulder to shoulder with the massive lokkel. “That’s not anything I’m familiar with.”

“Not many at these levels are,” they responded. “Most of the draught’s ingredients are from floor thirty six and above. Even there, they are terrifically expensive to procure. Still, the draught is one of the few things that can influence a person’s body through their avatar. It prevents them from waking, leaving them at the mercy of their captors. Their use is generally considered poor taste, but to be frank, Clan Ahn has grown sick of the glacial speed and the selective appeals to custom that we are seeing out of the Consensus.”

“If they want to censure us,” the lokkel’s crest expanded to its full height as Dorrik grinned, a feral and toothy expression, “perhaps they should send the fact finding expedition that is on its way to Earth. They certainly appear to be struggling in that process, what with the number of times they needed to stop to refuel and repair their engines. Maybe they will get around to investigating our actions on this floor sometime in the next decade.”

“So?” Kaleek turned the word into a question, raising an eyebrow as he wriggled his whispers.

“The ships sail in two nights,” Dorrik concluded. “We will have the answers to our questions tonight, and unless there is a monsoon, we will have our justice shortly thereafter. After our visit to the Snarled Net, we should make sure to meet up with Sikka. The upcoming battle won’t be easy even with our level advantage. She will make sure that we have enough consumables to give us an edge. It will still be a terrible risk, but—”

“But there’s no glory in sitting around in our beds all day,” Kaleek interrupted. “We could just wait for someone else to solve all of our problems for us. Who knows, it might even happen. It’s just the path of a coward, one all too many members of the Consensus are taking right now. Everyone knows that the stallesp problem is going to explode, but only a couple races are actually willing to stand up to them.”

“Later,” Dorrik cautioned him. “We are in public. Politics will have to wait until we are amongst those we trust.”

“It’s not like they can’t see what’s on the horizon.” Kaleek snorted. “You’d have to be in an absolute backwater not to know that tensions have reached a boil and that the Consensus is too busy wringing its hands, claws, tentacles, and graspers together to do anything about it. We’ve had almost weekly clashes between racial armadas and ‘pirates’ that are clearly a faction’s ships with their transponders off. The stallesp might have started it, but the gortogg haven’t exactly been leaving them alone.”

“Gortogg?” Kat asked, glancing around at the various entities milling about. More and more humans were filling out their numbers, leaning against walls and drinking unidentifiable substances from cheap ceramic jugs. Kat wasn’t entirely sure what they were passing around, but she suspected it wasn’t health or mana potions.

“A newer race in the Consensus.” Dorrik eyed up the clusters of loitering beings. A trio of humans and some sort of avian were shooting dice out front of a heavily stained brick building, but at least one of their companions was staring sullenly back, a hand on the small axe strapped to his waist. “The gortogg only have four habitable planets spread out amongst a dozen systems, but they’ve done an admirable job developing them. When they first stepped onto the galactic stage, the stallesp offered them an unequal partnership which they turned down, instead gravitating toward the traditionalist faction.”

They walked past the dice game only to find a cluster of humans and unsavory-looking aliens forming a circle near the edge of the island. In the center of their group was a waist high ring filled with sand. Two burly and scarred men held hissing and snapping lizards, each about the length of Kat’s forearm, on opposite ends of the arena.

A large, three-armed, and furry being shouted encouragement to the observers, adopting the air of a carnival barker as it promoted what would apparently be a battle to the death amongst the struggling reptiles. What looked like a jellyfish floated around the crowd, glowing pleasantly as it gathered bets from the onlookers, brushing its long and wispy tentacles up against humans to hold onto their marks pending the outcome of the upcoming fight.

“Recently,” Dorrik continued after the crowd was safely behind them, “stallesp pirates have begun striking gortogg commerce. This included scuttling a habitat with at least six hundred thousand beings on it. Allegedly, the ‘pirates’ did this to raid the stores of a refinery attached to the habitat, but after that incident, the gortogg weren’t exactly shy about things. They don’t have nearly as many or as advanced of ships as the stallesp, but you don’t need all that advanced of technology to target civilian centers. One gravity drive attached to a large asteroid was all it took to crack the crust on a fairly large stallesp hive world.”

“You’re missing the best part,” Kaleek growled as the three of them stepped onto a decaying rope bridge that looked like it hadn’t been repaired in years. “The stallesp tried to bring the issue before the Consensus only for the gortogg to give a speech about how the same blue ribbon commission ‘investigating’ the pirates that attacked them should handle inquest into the attack on Jakell. The surly little buggers looked the moles in the eyes and suggested that it might even be the same pirate group that had attacked both civilian targets ‘because it was in the same area.’”

“Holy shit,” Kat muttered, hurrying across the bridge as the half-rotted boards groaned under her feet. “It sounds like the situation is spiraling out of control.”

“In all likelihood, our actions on this floor will be the final push the galaxy needs to erupt into open war,” Dorrik agreed solemnly.

“Good,” Kaleek replied darkly. “I’ve had enough of this cloak and dagger nonsense. The stallesp have spat in the face of the Galactic Consensus’s traditions for close to a decade. It’s high time that the rest of us actually engaged with the reality we live in, rather than invent some other universe of candy dreams and well wishes.”

They paused out front of the Snarled Net. The bar had hardly changed from Kat’s last visit there on the eve of the attack that had cost Xander’s life. That wasn’t a positive thing. The walls were bleached by the sun and constant spray of saltwater, meaning that the numerous stains were on full display.

“I forgot how much I loved this place,” Kaleek chimed in, whiskers twitching as he returned to his usual cheerful demeanor as soon as the stallesp were out of mind. “It’s such an absolute shithole.”

Kat shot him a glance of bemusement before pushing open the door. The general drunken murmur of the establishment halted as natural light stabbed into the murky interior. Dozens of humans glanced up from their drinks to eye up the three interlopers, but after observing Kat’s athletic build and the hulking forms of her companions, the bar’s patrons turned back to their tables.

She wove her way through the obstacle course that was the Snarled Net’s ground floor, taking note of the twisting paths out of the building. Silently, Kat thanked whatever power oversaw the Tower that there hadn’t been a fire in the tavern. The treacherous and obstructed escape routes didn’t lend themselves to anything approaching safe egress.

The bartender watched their approach silently, drying off a chipped glass mug with a rag that looked like it was more dirt than cloth. He grunted noncommittally as Kat arrived at the bar itself, a chipped plane of barely treated wood. Despite the low light, she was fairly sure she could make out almost as many divots in its surface from weapons and barfights as stains from sloppy drinkers. A worrying sign.

“Jacques,” Kat acknowledged the big man. “Is the meeting room upstairs ready for us?”

He didn’t answer verbally, just nodding before flicking his head toward the partially concealed staircase. With a quick wave of her hand, Kat was mounting the steps, leaving Kaleek behind to order a mug of whatever borderline toxic brew the Snarled Net had on tap.

She paused for a second outside the conference room, hand hovering above the door. Kat took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a second to center herself. She opened them as Kaleek ambled up behind Dorrik and her, a mug of something that vaguely resembled beer in his hand and a smile on his furry muzzle.

Kat exhaled, setting her face into a steely mask before pushing the door open. At the other end of the room, Belle sat at the table, quietly reading something from a small paperback book as a guard stood behind her.

Upon Kat’s entrance, the other woman snapped her book shut and flashed her a frosty smile. The book disappeared onto Belle’s person as the other woman began to speak.

“Miss Debs, it’s always a good day when I can get an information update from you and your colorful companions.”

“I wish the information I had for you was something pleasant.” Kat took a seat opposite Belle. “The good news is that our team has made progress in our investigation into NeoSyne, but the bad news is that things are worse than we thought.”

“When have they ever been better than expected?” Belle asked sardonically, quirking an eyebrow at Kat. “Honestly, if you ever brought me good news, I’d suspect that you’d thrown in with one of my rivals and were conspiring against me.”

Kat winced. Belle had a point. In the time since she’d graduated from being a runner, she hadn’t had many chances to report positive developments.

“Oh, don’t worry, dear,” Belle continued with an empty, almost predatory smile. “It’s the same story everywhere. After you crushed the stallesp safehouse, we’ve seen an uptick in activity. NeoSyne has been pressing some of our subsidiaries near the border, and my men have caught a couple of their agents sniffing around. Nothing so explicit that we can call for arbitration, but enough that the shareholders are worried and paying closer attention to my reports than usual.”

“Even if it’s bad,” the older woman leaned back in her chair, eyes never leaving Kat, “they want progress. Something tangible I can bring back to them.”

“If they want bad news,” Kat replied with a grimace, “I can provide plenty of that.”

She took a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks and exhaling it as she ran a hand through her hair. Finally she looked back up to Belle and hardened her expression.

“Although the stallesp faction of NeoSyne hasn’t completely taken over their leadership, it’s only a matter of time. There are still some internal struggles, but things have slipped into an uneasy peace. Both sides are resting and rearming, but I doubt the old guard is going to prevail.”

“Any particular reason?” Belle asked carefully, folding her hands in front of her.

“We managed to seize a flash clone working for a NeoSyne subsidiary,” Kat answered, her focus on keeping her voice steady while Belle’s gaze bored into her. “Unfortunately, they’re incredibly resistant to questioning. We had limited time to clear the site, and we weren’t able to get anything useful out of the prisoner. Luckily, we managed to catch them with an intact database detailing their activities and research, which was quite useful.”

“Research?” Belle’s eyes lit up as she leaned forward ever so slightly. “That sounds like something I can bundle and sell for a couple credits.”

“Only if you’re interested in extracting and activating dormant parts of mammalian genetic code,” Kat responded. “I’m sure there are techniques buried in there that your scientists can use, but there aren’t any breakthroughs that will change the face of the field.”

“That still has some value,” Belle reposited, eyes not leaving Kat’s face. “GroCorp is in the business of genetic engineering. Even minor upgrades will be useful. Eighty thousand credits if the data is useful.”

Kat shivered slightly under the executive’s gaze. Even fully prepared for the meeting, there was something off-putting about the woman’s intensity. She vastly preferred meeting with Belle via her smartpanel, but as deep as she was in enemy territory, any unsecured communications would be intercepted and any secure communications would be detected and investigated. A request for a meeting in The Tower of Somnus via a dead drop was the best she could do.

“Eighty thousand is acceptable,” she agreed after taking a moment to regain her thoughts. “So long as I can use it to purchase some heavy infiltration gear at corporate discounted rates.”

“Oh?” Belle drew the word out. “That certainly seems doable, so long as you can give me some hint as to what use this heavy equipment will be put to. We can’t have autocannons purchased without my authorization being used to shoot up GroCorp subsidiaries. Certainly not without an appropriate layer of black market laundering and some plausible deniability.”

“We’ve located a NeoSyne factory that needs to be taken down,” Kat replied grimly. “The NeoSyne forces that have allied with the stallesp have spread through their territory like a disease over the last five or so years. The research facility we raided is only the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of them in NeoSyne territory, all working at integrating stallesp and terrestrial technology. They are largely working on commercial applications of the alien technology, ones that would give them an almost insurmountable advantage in the global marketplace.”

Belle’s expression soured, but Kat plowed on.

“The factory in question is where they apply those commercial upgrades militarily. These aren’t minor changes either. As best we can understand, it looks like hover tanks, improved weaponry, upgraded reactive armor, and biological augmentations for their infantry.”

“Why have I not heard about any military buildup on NeoSyne’s part?” Donnst stiffened, her lips tightened into a thin, crimson line. “All of the megacorporations keep a close eye on the others’ available military forces so that we can escalate to match.”

“The facility is buried deep in a mesa below a cultural site,” Kat replied. Beside her, Dorrik perked up, but the big lokkel didn’t say anything. “They’ve kidnapped workers from the surrounding nomad populations and they’re keeping them trapped onsite, along with all of the material they’re producing. The only people in or out are camouflaged stallesp or clones, and it looks like they are siphoning money and resources from the R&D centers.”

“In short,” she finished helplessly, “you don’t know, Ms. Donnst, because most of NeoSyne doesn’t know. Only their co-opted shareholders have any idea what is going on. What is clear is that their faction is building up an army and equipping them with technology that no megacorp can match. The only real question is their targets.”

“GroCorp and Tri Holdings are the only two companies that share a border with NeoSyne,” Belle responded dryly. “I’m not sure I like those odds.”

“You have my approval to proceed.” Belle stood up, nodding curtly to Kat. “You will have my corporate discount for whatever you buy, and I will talk to the shareholders about… surreptitiously realigning our security division. We aren’t necessarily NeoSyne’s target, but GroCorp has some special projects of our own that we can use to make them think twice about an overt attack.”

The other woman began to exit the room, flanked by her guard, only to stop at the door. She turned back, shooting Kat a cold smile.

“And if you can manage to get your hands on any of that alien technology, Ms. Debs,” Belle said, her voice saccharine but without any real warmth, “do be in touch if you manage to seize any working examples of alien technology. Obviously, the pay would be… substantial, but it has come to my attention that GroCorp’s security forces are woefully insufficient. I’m sure a fairly lucrative internship of sorts could be arranged.”

“I’m not fetching anyone’s coffee,” Kat replied with a chuckle.

“We will simply make that your code phrase for off the books wetwork. Fetching Coffee.” Belle inclined her head fractionally before disappearing from the room with her guard.

For a second, Kat just sat there, a half-frown on her face. Finally, she turned to Dorrik and Kaleek. Dorrik sat still, crest flared out with a contemplative expression on their muzzle while Kaleek cheerfully finished off the last of his beer.

“Did…?” Kat glanced uncertainly back and forth between her companions. “Did Belle Donnst just tell a joke?”

“Elders know I love dealing with that woman.” Kaleek giggled. “Seeing her smile is like staring down the maw of a megalodon without half the warmth. She’s just so polite for a consummate predator.”

Before Kat could reply, Dorrik reached out with one of their claws, resting it gently on her forearm to grab her attention.

“Miss Kat?” they asked. “This factory you’re discussing, it is inside a flat-topped mountain near the large valley where you are staying, correct?”

“Mesa Verde isn’t that far to the east of us,” Kat replied. “Why?”

“I urge you to be careful, Miss Kat,” Dorrik said, worry in their voice. “My ship has captured distressing readings from that location. We have not been able to confirm them, but they appear to be some of the more exotic types of radiation unique to modern technology. I cannot say for sure, but it is very possible that the factory has a functioning antimatter breeder reactor.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Kat responded slowly. “I have no idea what that means, but I suspect that learning the answer won’t make me happy.”

“You’ll be fine,” Kaleek barged in, slapping her on the back as he hiccupped loudly between words. “Just be careful what you shoot. If you break containment on one of those things, it’ll irradiate half a continent and punch a hole through your planet’s crust. Nasty business. Expensive to clean up.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The van’s air conditioner whirred, coughing occasionally as it fought a losing battle against the dry desert heat. Kat wasn’t sure where Whip had bought it, but it was hard to argue that it didn’t look the part, beat up and sun-bleached, just like dozens of other vehicles in the expansive parking lot. She doubted it would draw any attention.

Sandy orange adobe walls passed by on the smartglass display as Jasper and Iris walked through the ruins. Ahead of them, a tour guide, more there to ensure that visitors didn’t wander off and take artifacts from the painstakingly restored buildings than to actually provide information, led their group through the remains of the Pueblo city.

“Any signs?” Davis asked impatiently. Although he wasn’t a huge man outside of his armor, he still had to bend over slightly when standing in the back of the van. “We know the entrance is either in the old city or in the reenactment village. They’ve already walked through the village, so unless we’ve missed something, it has to be in the ruins.”

Kat shot the old man a bemused look. Somehow, even crouched over, he managed to look stiff and formal. It was like every muscle in his body was clenched tight as he stared at the smartglass.

“I don’t think we’re going to find it on the first pass,” Kat said, trying to soothe the tense samurai. “The entrance to the factory is almost certainly concealed, otherwise someone would have found it by now. Remember, the plan was mostly for them to drop off the drones on their initial pass. If we spot something through Jasper’s feed, that’s great, but the real search will take place after the park closes.”

A shriek from the smartglass display halted their conversation. Davis, Emma, and Kat all crowded around the monitor where Whippoorwill was hard at work. The strained moment evaporated with a giggle from Emma and a groan from Kat.

Apparently, Iris had been startled by one of the long-eared rabbits that prowled the reconstructed city, living off of the sparse native vegetation and handouts from tourists. As they watched, the view from Jasper’s smartpanel had switched to him looking down at the woman as she tried to coax the animal out of its hiding spot with a handful of peanuts.

“Can’t they at least try to take this seriously?” Davis grumbled unhappily, running a hand shakily through his hair. “We’re deep in enemy territory right now. NeoSyne is bad enough, but with the stallesp backing them—”

“Relax.” Kat gently touched her hand to his forearm. “They need to look like they’re on a date or they’ll draw attention. I’m pretty sure this is the sort of thing people on dates do.”

“I understand.” Davis caught himself. Rather than continue immediately, he exhaled shakily, trying to steady himself. “On some level, I realize that Jasper will be fine, but on another, I can’t help but believe that he will never be ready. The Haupt family has done so much for me. After losing his father, I’m not sure that I could stand losing Jasper as well. The boy can be dumb at times, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t important.”

Kat shifted uncomfortably, trying her hardest not to think of her role in the aftermath of Jasper’s father’s death.

“Don’t worry, Miss Debs.” Davis chuckled without any real mirth. “I know of our mutual friend’s… involvement in that affair. I have not forgotten what happened, but I’m not wet behind the ears. I know better than to drive a wedge between myself and my allies when a conflict of this magnitude is on the horizon.”

“I’m sorry, for what it’s worth,” Kat replied unhappily. “The entire situation left a bad taste in my mouth, but at the end of the day—”

“Your hands were tied then as surely as mine are now,” he replied smoothly. “Disasters make strange bedfellows. One day, there may be a proper accounting and settling of grievances, but if that day comes, it will be once the company is stable enough to withstand it, a prospect that seems to grow more and more distant with each passing month.”

Emma pushed in between the two of them, her eyes shining. Kat swore she saw the woman lick her lips as she interjected herself into the conversation.

“I couldn’t help but notice that the two of you are purposefully not mentioning specific names or events with regard to these dark secrets you are discussing. It would make this conversation a lot easier to follow if you spoke more openly.”

“You’re the reason I’m being opaque, girl,” Davis said with a bemused snort. “Even if I tell you not to talk about the situation, you’ll let something slip. Jasper knows that I know more about the death of his father than I’m letting on, but he’s a smart boy. He also knows that I’d tell him everything in a heartbeat if we could act on it. I’d prefer that you not accidentally talk about something you shouldn’t even know about and upend the entire delicately balanced status quo.”

“Drones away.” Whippoorwill’s declaration ended their argument before it could get started. “Initiating their scramble and hide protocols now.”

On the smartglass were four small squares, each showing a slightly different ground-level view as the tiny robots bolted for cover on their treads. None of the five vantages displayed anyone nearby, and each of the surveillance bots successfully scurried out of sight before extending their solar collectors and settling in for nightfall.

Before the guide came back to check up on the two of them, Iris threw her handful of peanuts to the rabbit. The animal sniffed the food dismissively before scampering off into the ruins, leaving Iris and Jasper to rejoin their tour group.

The rest of their walk through the historical site went off without a hitch. Jasper and Iris laughed at little inside jokes while their smartpanels fed them facts about the age and design of the buildings. Finally, they exited the reconstructed city, really more of a large village built into a scar scooped out of a cliff face by millennia of windstorms, and descended to the site’s gift shop.

After purchasing a poster and some shirts, the two of them left hand-in-hand through the ‘reenactment village’ where employees pretended to live under the same conditions as the original Pueblo. It was near the end of the day, so many of the ‘maize grinding’ and ‘clothes making’ exhibits were more than a little halfhearted, but Iris and Jasper barely noticed as they finished their date, whispering and blushing over nothing as they returned to the van.

The back door opened with a blast of heat that taxed the struggling air conditioner, and soon the entire team was gathered in the rear of the vehicle, sitting on narrow benches as Whippoorwill manually drove the observation drones into better hiding spots.

Finally, after almost a minute of silence, Emma spoke up.

“So Jasper and Iris managed to release the drones when no one was paying attention and got back to the van.” She shrugged. “Now what?”

“Now we search for the entrance while we plan out our raid,” Davis replied, nodding to the smartglass near the front of the van. “Or at least that’s what we do once we don’t have to worry about park staff spotting the drones. For now? I’d suggest a nap. If we find an entrance, we’ll probably have to go in tonight. We wouldn’t want the security forces to notice us and ramp up their defenses. We’re undermanned enough as is.”

“That makes sense to me,” Kat agreed, glancing at the smartglass. “We should probably have Jasper and Iris stand watch while everyone else gets some rest. They’ll need to be on hand to drive in case we need a short notice getaway, but other than that, this mission isn’t a great place for them to stretch their wings.”

“But we want to help!” Iris blurted out, her hands clenching into fists as she leaned forward. “Last time, you said that we’d have a chance to help with this mission. That’s why Jasper and I agreed to be distractions for the attack on Neon Dome. I get that the rest of you have more experience with this sort of thing, but I don’t want to be left behind.”

“This isn’t going to be some half-asleep security for a subsidiary company,” Kat said, trying to soothe the upset woman. “Everyone in this factory is going to have serious chrome, levels, or both. That’s not even talking about the differences in experience. Right now, we have a scout, a caster, electronics, and a heavy combatant. That’s a classic combat team. Emma’s a little new, but she’s good at keeping herself alive. We’re going to be stretched thin in there. There won’t be any safety net if Jasper or you end up out of position and under heavy fire.”

“Davis has had Jasper and I doing corridor drills,” Iris protested, glancing from Kat to the older man. “I have a seventy five percent completion rate on the fifty meter course, and my last three times have been under twenty seconds. I can fight. We can help.”

“Honey.” Jasper put a hand on her arm, shaking his head gently. “We’re getting better, but we’re not there yet.”

“Kat.” She jumped slightly as Jasper turned his attention to her, startled at suddenly being the focus of the conversation. “Have you done a corridor drill in the Grand Canyon house’s firing range yet?”

She nodded, unsure as to where exactly the conversation was going.

“What is your time and completion rate?” he asked, patting Iris’s knee.

“She only went once to calibrate the course,” Davis chimed in. “Twelve seconds flat, and only two of the dummies even got a shot off. Neither was anywhere near her. Hell, the only reason it took her that long is that she insisted on using her damn knives for most of it. She fired two shots in total, and even then it was only because one of her targets was too far away for her to get it with a knife properly.”

Iris deflated, eyes sinking to the floor of the van. “Twelve seconds?” she muttered. “I’ve never done better than eighteen.”

“Don’t worry about it too much, girl,” Davis replied gruffly. “I’m honestly not sure who would win in a fight between Kat and I. The girl is unbelievably quick, but most of her ranged weapons lack the punch needed to get through my combat armor. I’m not sure I like my chances at close range, and I don’t doubt that she’d be a hard target to hit as she charged in. There’s a reason she’s racked up an impressive body count.”

“I hate to say next time,” the older man continued with a sigh, “because I do appreciate your willingness to help. Not every executive is willing to provide covering fire. That said, I promised Jasper’s father that I would keep the boy safe. That doesn’t mean sheltering him forever, but it does mean keeping him out of fights that are over his head.”

“Fine,” Iris whispered, putting one of her hands over Jasper’s. “Next time. But I mean it. No matter how dangerous it is, I want in. If that means you triple our training in order to get us ready, I want you to do it. You’re probably right that we’re underprepared, but that just means that you have to work twice as hard to prepare us.”

“That’s the spirit, girl.” Davis nodded, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. “I’m sure both Jasper and you will regret that sentiment given a little time, but I’ll get you ready. That’s not to say the prep work you’re doing right now isn’t important, but if you actually want to be in the thick of it and risk your life, I’ll give you the skills you need to accomplish that, even if I have to drag you across the finish line kicking and screaming.”

“Proper training is pretty miserable, by the way,” Whippoorwill spoke up, her eyes still on the smartglass as the shadows began to lengthen. “Xander would make me run until I was about to collapse before he would even let me start on hand to hand exercises. I was designated as support, so he only made me work out twice a week, but I don’t think I ever got out of one of those sessions without bruises.”

“He was a good man,” Davis said somberly. “I often tell my trainees that bruises prevent bullet holes. Those that focus on their training tend to survive and earn names. The cocky ones that assume that winning a couple back alley fights made them a samurai? There is a reason samurai aren’t given names as soon as they start running the streets. All too many die before they can ever amount to anything.”

“I would simply avoid anyone with a gun,” Emma replied, her face a mask of faux seriousness. “That seems to be well into the realm of ‘someone else’s problem.’ I’m pretty good at moving around unseen, but I think I’ve had my fill of trying to take actual samurai in open fights. Chrome limbs tend to out-perform batons.”

“Noted.” Kat smiled at the girl. “Now, everyone that’s on standby should take a nap. If we’re going in tonight, we want to be at our best, and I don’t want any of you yawning when you’re supposed to be shooting at a target.”

“Yes, Mom,” Whip said, drawing groans and rolled eyes from the rest of the van.

There was some general shifting about as everyone changed places, Jasper and Iris taking spots near the front of the vehicle while everyone else tried in vain to find ‘comfortable’ spots on the benches and floor.

Then, Kat closed her eyes, trying to drown out the litany of concerns that raced through her mind. Even if they found the entrance to the NeoSyne factory, they didn’t know the first thing about what they would face. Davis seemed focused on terrestrial security, but Kat couldn’t help but remember her experiences in Chiwaukee and Dorrik’s warning about the breeder reactor.

The stallesp were far from shy about using their technology. Even if her team had what it took to defeat NeoSyne’s defenses, she didn’t even know what the aliens had available. For all Kat knew, they’d make it halfway to their objective only to run into a forcefield, impenetrable to any weapon produced on Earth.

She rolled to the side slightly, shoulder bumping into Whippoorwill. They didn’t know how many people worked there or what tech they would have available. Hell, all they knew was that the factory was producing and storing military equipment that could outstrip any military on Earth.

What if she couldn’t protect her friends? What if she couldn’t protect herself? They needed to prevent NeoSyne from building an unstoppable army, so making a move on the factory wasn’t exactly a choice, but at the same time, maybe it would be worth their time to hold tight until a larger force arrived.

Of course, bringing more samurai into the area would also mean additional risk of exposure. Even now, it was entirely possible that a security sweep picked up their mostly dormant drones, and the minute that NeoSyne knew that their secret factory was under attack, the situation would change dramatically.

Davis was probably right. Their best bet was secrecy, a small team moving fast and leaving bodies in their wake. There was no question that they would be outnumbered once they got into the factory itself, but with any luck, Whippoorwill would be able to sabotage the facility or take over their defenses.

Of course, luck was hardly—

A hand gently touched Kat’s shoulder, awakening her with a gasp. The van was dark other than the quiet glow of the smartglass. Two of the screens showed aerial views as the drones in question had sprouted rotors and taken to the air. A third whirred along through an abandoned adobe building.

The final drone was parked at the bottom of an empty water reservoir made from dried mud bricks, its tiny camera focused on a metal door that gleamed in the hints of starlight visible through the circular aperture the drone had used to descend into the chamber.

Kat exhaled, cold sweat beading on the back of her neck as Whippoorwill handed her the hood for an infiltration suit.

“Sorry we didn’t wake you, Erinyes.” Her friend flashed her a quick, apologetic smile. “You looked like you could use the sleep, but it’s time.”

Outside the van, she could hear the heavy thump of metal and ceramic on the blacktop as Davis put on his heavy combat armor. Emma opened the double doors to the back of the vehicle, stepping outside in her infiltration suit.

Kat closed her eyes, blowing out a breath as she centered herself, stilling the roiling storm of worries that still hung over her.

She opened them again, flashing Whip a tight smile.

“Thanks,” she said, slipping the hood over her head and tucking the ends into the neck of her suit. “There’s one more thing I need to do before we get started. I’ll be outside and ready to go in a second.”

Whippoorwill opened her mouth to say something, indecision at war with… something else on her face. Finally, she gave in, smiling weakly at Kat and nodding before jumping out the back of the van.

She watched her friend go, worry almost immediately resurfacing as Whip rounded the corner. Kat blew out another breath, reaching into the backpack she’d brought with her and brushing her fingers over a smooth plastic box she’d been keeping hidden since the trip on the maglev from Chiwaukee.

A quick glance confirmed that Jasper and Iris were both still occupied with the drones, and Kat’s Tower-enhanced agility was put to the test, hands almost blurring as the small, rectangular box was transferred from the backpack to her bag she’d be using for her equipment on the run into the factory.

Kat stood up, having to crouch slightly due to the low ceiling of the van, and stepped out into the clear desert night. She wasn’t sure if she was ready, but it hardly mattered. It was too late to turn back now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The large metal door slid to the side, letting light flood into the dark well. Kat blinked once, letting her perks reset her vision. To either side of her, Kat’s companions flinched as they struggled with the sudden change, leaving her to be the first person to step into the factory.

Kat took a deep breath as she stepped into the sharp light of the complex. The air was chilly and recycled, a welcome respite after the dry desert night. The walls of the hallway were cheap plaster covered in some brand of glossy light-green paint that looked like it was waterproof.

Seeing no one in the passage, Kat’s hand left her thigh. She sighed, taking a couple of steps forward while scanning for threats. It was a bit early in the night to gun down a janitor, but their team needed to maintain the element of surprise as much as possible. With any luck, they’d be able to avoid the facility’s workers until they had a better picture of their situation.

“Chiffon,” Kat said, glancing over her shoulder at Whip. At some point, Emma had added cat ears to the hacker’s infiltration suit in honor of her namesake. The addition was a mixed bag. It made it a little harder to take Whippoorwill seriously, but at the same time it made the woman a lot easier to identify in the otherwise featureless suits that all three of the women were wearing.

“Erinyes?” Whip asked back, cloth ears bobbing with the rest of her head as she nodded at Kat.

“Deploy the drones,” Kat continued, turning back to the empty hallway. “Even if there’s a chance that they’re picked up by security or a guard spots them, we’re moving in blind. We need to get you to a network access point as soon as possible so that we can get a proper picture of what’s going on with this place.”

Without comment, the four small machines behind them whirred into motion, their batteries full after most of an afternoon spent charging in the desert sun. Two of them extended their quartet of rotors and took off, hugging the ceiling where they would hopefully be less immediately visible as they passed Kat with a quiet hum. The other two drove into the tunnel, oversized wheels helping them clear the gravel and uneven levels of the cistern floor.

“So do we just wait for the drones to report back or…?” Emma asked, meandering into the factory after Kat. Somehow, even through her suit, the woman managed to blend nonchalance and curiosity perfectly.

“No,” Merrimac responded, following Emma into the factory with surprisingly light steps despite the heavy, multilayered ceramic and metal battle suit he was wearing. “The drones help, but human intelligence is always better. Plus, if someone spots you, you have a gun. With any luck, you can keep them from reporting your presence.”

“But they also have guns,” Emma grumbled, “and statistically, anyone I run into will have a whole hell of a lot more experience with their gun than me.”

Despite her complaints, the woman undid the clasp on her holster, drawing the heavy silenced pistol that Davis had provided her with before they left the vacation home in the Grand Canyon. Emma thumbed the safety off and racked a round into the weapon’s chamber, all the while muttering quietly to herself.

Kat grinned despite herself as Emma huffed and began stomping down the hallway. Before the other woman could get more than ten or so steps away, she called out, “If you don’t want to end up in a gunfight, I would suggest simply not letting any of the guards see you.”

Emma waved her free hand dismissively over her head, not even bothering to turn and look back at Kat as she responded. “Thanks, Mom, I’ll get right on that.”

Then the other girl was gone. Whip, Davis, and Kat walked a little further into the factory, letting the metal door slide shut behind them before they began waiting. Finally, after about a minute of silence, Davis shifted slightly.

“No screams or gunshots.” He grunted, expression inscrutable behind his armor. “I’ll chalk that up as a good sign.”

“That seems like a fairly low bar.” Kat chuckled. “I feel like there’s plenty of space between a perfectly successful mission and chaos and gunfire.”

Whippoorwill snorted, shaking her head and sending the cat ears wobbling back and forth. Even Davis, inscrutable in his heavy armor, seemed to be unimpressed with her response.

“Look,” Kat said crossly. “It’s not like every one of my missions ends up in a gunfight, and for the ones that do, it’s mostly because I don’t have proper information. Once we’re not jumping from disaster to disaster, it’ll be smooth sailing.”

“Tonight won’t be smooth sailing,” Davis replied, ceramic and metal grinding against each other as he shook his head. “Our intelligence is flawed, and we are trying to infiltrate a fortified enemy position. We will encounter security forces. That much is a given. The question is whether we can disable this facility and escape before we are overwhelmed. As confident as I am in our skills, I do not have an answer to that question.”

“I’m not exactly sure how an antimatter breeder reactor works,” Kat said pensively, “but it doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that’s terribly safe. I won’t be surprised if it’s a lot easier to disable the factory than it is for us to get out in one piece.”

“Hopefully—” Davis began only for a hiss of static from their earpieces to cut him off.

“Call the flying drone with the yellow stripe back, Chiffon.” Emma’s voice was garbled, evidently something in the factory was interfering with her broadcast. “I’m following it and I hear voices up ahead. I don’t want the overeager little lump of metal to get me shot. After all, my skin is quite delicate and my blood belongs on the inside.”

Whip waved a hand, two fingers extended. A second later, she replied, “That’s drone three, I have it on standby mode now. Can you confirm that you’re hearing people? I’m not getting anything through its microphones but the feed is a bit garbled.”

“Oh yeah,” Emma responded with a dry chuckle. “They’re arguing over the most recent Augmented Football League game. At least two guys and one girl, by my guess. It sounds like one of the guys lost a bunch of credits betting on the Desert Dervishes and the other two are making fun of him for it.”

“That makes sense,” Davis said with a sage nod. “The Dervishes’ secondary are only using fourth generation chrome, and their quarterback isn’t even a player. Until their owner invests properly in the team, they’re going to be dwelling at the bottom of the division for the foreseeable future.”

Kat stopped, turning to stare at Davis. The man was massive in his matte black powered battle armor, assault cannon at the ready with thick plates of modern ceramics rendering him almost impervious to smaller caliber bullets. He shrugged back.

“Shit!” Emma yelped, the sound of padded footsteps audible through the still active connection as she began running. “They’re sending out the guy that lost the bet and the girl on patrol. You need to get the drones hidden, and I need backup.”

“Erinyes.” Davis’s playful tone evaporated. “This one is on you. I don’t really have a ‘quiet’ or a ‘quick’ setting. Unless we want loud and slow, you’re going to have to be the one to pull her out of this.”

“Just lead the way, Chiffon,” Kat replied grimly, drawing her knife. Theoretically, her silenced pistol was probably the better option, but its uncertain effectiveness was a major problem. In order to minimize the noise made by the gun, the big bullets had to travel under the speed of sound. That meant that even fairly standard Kevlar or dermal weave was enough to stop a fatal shot. Hell, the thin armor of her infiltration suit probably would prevent the handgun from dealing serious damage, and it was designed more for flexibility than actual protection.

No. If Kat needed to take someone down fast and hard, she’d rely on her knife. She had Tower-granted skills and perks that made it much more dangerous than the flimsy gun. The only question was getting close enough to use it.

“Uhh.” Whippoorwill’s voice was briefly hesitant before firming up. “Head right at the end of the hallway. Drone two, that’s the one with wheels and a blue stripe, will meet you there and guide you to drone three. I’ll try to provide cover, but—”

“Got it!” Kat didn’t even look back, sprinting down the corridor. She didn’t activate Cat Step yet, instead saving her stamina for when she closed on the patrol.

Just as she rounded the corner, Whippoorwill’s drone whirred into view. It wheeled in a tight circle before tearing off down another hallway.

Kat’s shoes squeaked against the polished floor as she followed it, tread on the soles of her feet struggling to keep up with her speed as she took the next corner at a run. She did her best to keep track of the twists and turns of the facility, but evidently the factory was laid out in a gigantic grid and they needed to make frequent course adjustments in order to catch up to their quarry.

Finally, after almost two minutes of sprinting, Whippoorwill’s voice crackled in her ear, static blurring the ends of her words.

“Once you turn right, the patrol will pass by the next intersection in twenty to forty seconds. E only heard two of them, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more nearby.”

Without responding, Kat activated Cat Step. A dim red glow, barely visible in the factory’s fluorescent lighting, surrounded her as she quickly outpaced the struggling drone. Seconds later, she slid to a stop, pressing her back against the facility’s wall just before the next hallway.

Her breath hammered in her ears after the harried run to her current position. Gulping to wet her dry mouth and tongue, Kat closed her eyes for a second as she tried to steady her breathing and listen for the oncoming guards.

“—the Omaha Outriders’ running back was out! He snapped on some designer drug and they had to sedate him and reset all of his chrome. It was a sure thing, Betty!”

That was the male voice, a tenor marred by its harried whine.

“Sure, but Mick Rodriguez can throw a football over the Rockies. Seriously, you need to check out the stats on the hydraulics in his throwing arm. I think the thing is literally classified as a low end assault cannon.”

And there was the woman. Her voice was slightly deeper than Kat expected as she mocked the unfortunate man.

“Come on, Betty!” the male wheedled. “I have one hundred and fifty of the credits I owe Rick. Just give me another fifty and I’ll pay you seventy on the first of the month. I’m good for it, I promise!”

“You’re never good for it,” Betty replied with a chuckle. “That’s more or less your bran—”

Before the woman could finish her sentence, Dazzle erupted in the crossroads, momentarily blinding the two guards as Kat slipped around the corner. The short, stocky figure nearest Kat raised her arms to shield her face, bringing the ugly, short-barreled shotgun up into the air.

That was all the opening Kat needed, slipping under the woman’s guard and stabbing her knife through the thin spot in the armor’s armpit. The blade flashed red momentarily as she activated Penetrate, cutting smoothly through the tough fabric interwoven with metal.

Just as the dagger bit home, cutting through tendons and the guard’s axillary artery, Kat cast Overpressure, drawing a strangled scream from her target. Hot blood gushed from the wound, painting Kat’s infiltration suit and the hallway behind her.

She kicked the back of her target’s knee, using the motion of their fall to jerk her weapon free even as she spun to face the other guard. Time seemed to slow as his assault rifle rose, trying vainly to track her through the afterimages created by Dazzle.

Kat reached out with her left hand, making a grasping motion even as she cast Pseudopod. The tendril of water lashed toward her target, wrapping around his gun and jerking it from his grasp hard enough that the trigger guard snapped the security officer’s finger.

He staggered backward with a strangled gasp, clutching his hurt right hand in his left even as his companion bled out on the factory floor. Before he could draw another weapon or call for help, Kat drew a spare knife from the bandoleer and whipped it at the guard.

It flashed silver in the fluorescent light of the hallway, zipping through the air before ricocheting off of a ceramic arm guard with an almost bell-like chime. Her eyes widened as a disc of red light began to fade on her target right where the blade should have penetrated.

With an audible pop, his broken trigger finger snapped back into place, glowing red through the padded gloves.

A player. Kat’s gaze shifted up to the guard’s inscrutable armored face mask. For a second, the two of them just stared at each other.

Then the guard’s newly healed hand darted toward the holster at his waist.

Kat’s Pseudopod slashed sideways, hitting the man’s shoulder and knocking him to the side. She bolted forward, using the fraction of a second when her opponent was off balance to close the gap between her and the NeoSyne samurai.

Her left wrist rotated as she swung it downward, impacting against the guard’s forearm and pushing his hand away from the holster. The Velcro cover securing the pistol flapped as Kat stabbed upward with her knife, Penetrate lending the blade a ruby glow.

Somehow, the guard blocked, his forearm glowing the telltale red of a player activating a martial skill as it swept her blade aside. Kat’s knife skittered across the surface of the armor like it was glass, unable to find a crease or groove to bite into.

She ducked under a backhand from the samurai, coiling her Pseudopod around her opponent’s right leg and yanking forward. The soldier lurched off balance toward Kat just as she burst upward, leading hands clenched together as she twisted her shoulders and thrust her elbow into his chest.

Breath whooshed past her ear as the guard folded in half around her, wind knocked out of him. A moment later, he stiffened, slipping off of her and to the floor with a gurgle. In the back of his neck, lodged in the thin flexible cloth armor between their helmet and chestplate, was the fletching of a crossbow bolt.

Blood began to seep out of the wound as one of Whip’s drones hummed in the air a handful of paces behind the downed guard. Kat waved at it before activating her comm equipment.

“Thanks for the assist, Chiffon.” She nodded at the drone, using her toe to flip the guard’s body over. The armor clattered on the floor, unmoving after the corpse rolled into position.

“Erinyes, don’t scare me like that,” Whippoorwill huffed back, her voice distorted in Kat’s earpiece. “He almost managed to draw his gun! Plus, if I hadn’t been jamming their radios, the entire complex would already know we’re here.”

“Sorry about that, Chiffon.” Kat grinned as her friend continued to chastise her. “I didn’t really have a whole lot of options, and I genuinely didn’t expect that one of the guards would have a defensive perk that powerful. On the plus side, it looks like the crossbows we installed into the drones are working out.”

“Yeah.” Whip’s voice softened. “I don’t know why, but the drones are definitely using my skills from the Tower. There’s no way that shot would have worked without six or so levels in crossbow.”

Before Kat could respond, Emma popped her head around the corner. The other girl gave her a brief thumbs up before ambling into the bloody hallway.

“I think I found the control room for this floor,” Emma volunteered cheerfully. “The remaining guy keeps mumbling to himself. Once you got the patrol off my tail, I doubled back and tracked him down.”

“If you’re already back here, that must mean that the last guard is close?” Kat asked, picking her throwing knife up off the floor.

“He is.” Whippoorwill’s voice crackled in their ears. “I have drone one keeping a camera on him. Once the other two guards left, he turned on his smartpanel and started watching Chrome Cowboys. That said, you should hurry. It looks like he has an entire wall worth of smartglass showing everything on this floor, including all of us. As soon as he starts paying attention, he’ll hit an alarm and we’ll have every goddamn samurai in this building hunting us.”

“Come on, Erinyes,” Emma said with a playful slap on the shoulder. Somehow, despite not being able to see her friend’s face, she knew the girl was grinning. “There’s no time to waste.”

With a skip in her step, the other woman set off down the hallway, batons clacking together gently on her hip as one of Whippoorwill’s flying drones buzzed through the air after her. Kat slid the throwing knife she’d fished off of the floor into her bandoleer before breaking into a jog to catch up with Emma.

Barely thirty seconds later, the two of them arrived at a slightly ajar metal door. Printed on it in large red letters were the words ‘AUTHORIZED SECURITY PERSONNEL ONLY’ leaving little doubt as to the room’s purpose.

Emma reached up, tapping her ear twice and pointing at the entrance. Faintly, Kat could hear the sound of someone humming to themselves from inside the room. She nodded at Emma before drawing her knife and going down to one knee in front of the door and pressing her face to the crack.

The man was leaning back in a wheeled chair, boots up on the console controlling a wall of security cameras. Next to him sat a helmet, empty eye pieces staring blankly at the room’s entrance as he quietly sang a song to himself.

He shifted slightly, moving his left leg atop his right as he gazed off into space, eyes unfocused as the smartpanel he was watching flickered. The chair creaked slightly as the man leaned back further, his hands clasped loosely together against the back of his head, and letting his almost shoulder-length blonde hair spill through.

Without speaking, Kat began casting Gravity Spike. For almost a second, she let the mana build, watching the distracted guard enjoy his final moments.

She released the spell. Mana blurred around him as gravity swelled and twisted into a maelstrom.

Kat burst into the room just as the guard’s chair gave out under the force of the spell, spilling him to the ground. His body spasmed, ravaged by the force of a spell that was usually reserved for immobile or slow-moving targets such as dungeon bosses.

He hit the ground beside the twisted and broken chair, followed only a fraction of a second later with Kat driving a knee into his armored chest, forcing out a mouthful of breath and blood.

Then, she finished the ambush. A single downward stroke of her knife planted the blade in the thrashing man’s eye.

He shuddered once and then went still, leaving Kat in a fairly large room. One entire wall was covered with flickering screens that showed all activity on the first level of the facility as well as a couple dim camera angles covering the ruins that hid the factory. The rest of the room was some sort of combined locker room, armory, and lounge. Rifles and armor sat neatly on racks next to the personal effects of almost a dozen absent guards.

“Erinyes.” Kat frowned as she tried to focus on Whip’s static-shrouded voice. “Merrimac and I are on our way over. I have the drones patrolling the rest of the floor, but the sooner you can get a shunt onto a network port the better. I feel naked without having access to the building’s security systems.”

“On it, Chiffon,” Kat replied, fishing one of the two shunts she carried with her out of its carrying case. A quick search identified the console’s manual hookup, more or less a plug for employees with a cranial jack.

“Done,” she finished, affixing the shunt to the jack. “You should have remote access now, Chiffon, good luck with their security. Hopefully you can make some sense of what we’re going to need to do to put this place out of commission.”

Kat stood up, hands on her hips as she stretched the kinks out of her back. She blew out a deep breath before reaching down and pulling her knife from the dead guard, wiping the blade on the durable cloth that held the body’s ceramic plate armor together.

Behind her, something scraped against the floor, causing Kat to spin around, knife at the ready, only to find Emma pulling up a pair of chairs. Kat cocked her head to the side as the other woman pushed one of the two chairs toward her before taking her own seat.

Emma looked up at her expectantly. When Kat didn’t react, she reached up, tapping her earpiece before drawing her index finger across her throat and pointing at the chair she’d retrieved for Kat.

Kat took the seat, briefly checking their communication network to confirm that Emma had logged herself out before turning her own headset off.

“Okay,” she began, bemused. “Would you care to fill me in on what this is all about?”

“Chiffon,” Emma responded, her voice more sober and neutral than Kat had ever remembered from the usually bubbly girl.

“What about her?” Kat asked, still grasping at straws.

“I just wanted to know if you’re actually in the dark, or if you’re pretending not to notice.” Emma replied. “If it’s the first, we can do something about that, but if it’s the second, what you’re doing is unfair. You need to speak up and tell her.”

“Speak up about what!” Kat growled in frustration. “I feel like I’m smoking night glass right now. You’re being super vague for some reason, and I have no idea what’s going on.”

“In the dark it is,” Emma said, her voice betraying some uncharacteristic relief. “Good. Chiffon is a nice person and this makes everything so much easier.”

“Seriously.” Kat shook her head. “Speak English. Why did you turn your communicator off? What in the hell am I supposedly in the dark about?”

“She likes you.” Emma leaned forward slightly, angling her head toward Kat.

The room fell into silence. Underneath her mask, Kat frowned at Emma, trying to parse through her friend’s behavior. None of this was anything like her normal perky irreverence.

“Of course Chiffon likes me,” she replied slowly, eyes locked on Emma as Kat tried to sort out what was going on. “We’re close friends. Both of us have been through a lot—”

“Not like that.” Emma cut her off with a decisive chop of her hand. “Chiffon has a crush on you. I flirt with everyone, but every time I come anywhere near you, she starts acting as territorial as a guard dog. I didn’t know whether you were just pretending not to notice, or if you were actually oblivious, but it seemed like I should clear the air before things got too weird.”

Emma shrugged before continuing. “Sorry about doing this in the middle of a mission. I just never have a moment alone with you to actually talk about this sort of thing. In part, again, because Chiffon is always hovering around you. God, how can you not notice?”

Kat’s mind went blank, words evaporating from the tip of her tongue. Try as she might, thoughts kept running away from her. It didn’t seem right. Whippoorwill was like her sister, but—

She blushed, the image of Whip’s skinny frame bending over to grab a soda out of the refrigerator burning itself into her mind. Her pulse raced, heart beating out of control.

Maybe Whippoorwill did like her. Maybe Emma was right and she wanted to be more than friends. Kat hadn’t even thought about the possibility, her love-life was in disarray, locked into a semi-permanent hiatus ever since the debacle with Arnold. Between school, The Tower of Somnus, and her work to uncover the stallesp, she hadn’t even had a moment to think about herself.

God. What if she did end up liking Whip back? What if she said the wrong thing, and it ripped their friendship apart, ruining everything. She couldn’t just—

“Can you hear me?’ Whippoorwill asked, voice crackling through the room’s PA. “If you can, turn on your communicators. I’m into the system, and well…”

Whip paused, leaving Kat still dazed and blinking as she tried to sort through the whirlwind of emotions that Emma had unleashed on her.

“I found the nomad tribes that have been disappearing from the area,” Whippoorwill continued grimly. “They’re here in the facility.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“What do you mean they’re in the facility?” Kat asked, shaking her head as she tried to clear her thoughts. “I know there were reports of them disappearing, but I thought that just meant NeoSyne was driving the nomadic clans off of their territory as part of some sort of expansion plan.”

Emma stood up, nodding to her before grabbing the back of the chair she’d been sitting in and dragging it over toward the room’s rest area.

“That’s what I thought,” Whip continued, switching to the team’s secure frequency, “but they’re here. It looks like they’re being held and used as forced labor. Apparently NeoSyne wasn’t able to build enough radiation shielding around the reactor room. They’re using shifts of conscripted nomads to keep the power on until they succumb to overexposure.”

“Why don’t they just revolt?” Davis asked, a hint of anger upsetting his usual calm. “Even if they can’t win, it sounds like NeoSyne is slowly killing all of them anyway. It’s better for them to go out in a blaze of glory than to simply work until you collapse and die in agony on the job.”

“They have their families, Merrimac,” Whip responded softly. “Hundreds of children and elderly that would just be gunned down if they tried to run. God, all I have are work logs, medical records, and lists of provisions delivered. Nothing is explained in detail, but almost every week they’re getting slightly less food due to someone passing. It’s all stark and clinical, but you can tell that things are bad down there.”

“Well, if the goal is to disable the antimatter reactor or whatever, it would make sense to get their help then,” Emma interjected as she wandered back toward Kat. “I mean, I doubt they’re happy with the status quo. If we could help them escape, I’m sure they’d be happy to give us information at a minimum.”

The door to the control room opened, and Whippoorwill jogged in, a wheeled drone squealing across the floor next to her. A second later, Davis’s heavily armored form filled the entryway before he angled himself sideways and carefully slipped in after her.

“We can do better than that,” he said thoughtfully. “This is a weapons factory, after all. Surely there must be some way that we can get some of these futuristic armaments into the prisoners’ hands once we free them. Even if they aren’t exactly combat trained, two hundred people with state of the art weaponry have a tendency to overwhelm a small team of quality operators.”

“What do you think, Chiffon? Do you think we’ll be able to get them out without tripping security?” Kat asked, turning to look at her friend. She couldn’t see Whippoorwill’s expression through her infiltration suit, but the other woman stiffened, obviously diving into her connection with the database.

Finally she shook her head. “Sorry, Erinyes, there’s no way we’re getting them out without someone sounding an alarm.”

“I can see what’s on other floors through a diagnostic system,” she continued, shaking her head gently, “but I don’t have any control. For now, I have access to their existing cameras and sensors, but the minute they realize I’m in the system, they’ll be able to lock things down into local control only.”

“Worse.” She sighed. “Now that I’m actually looking at their security, it was a godsend that the guards on the first floor were distracted. There are enough cameras and motion sensors in the hallways to sound an alert for every rat that managed to sneak into the facility. Hell, it looks like that’s what saved us. The guards turned the auto-reporting system to ‘manual only’ so they wouldn’t have to fill out paperwork for every gust of wind or bird that ended up down here.”

Kat pursed her lips, glancing at Davis’s hulking armor and heavy dual purpose cannon before looking back to Whippoorwill. As much as she would prefer to accomplish as much of this mission as she could without being noticed, it wasn’t like they weren’t prepared for combat.

After a moment of contemplation, Kat shrugged. When she spoke, her voice was decisive, filled with a calm that she didn’t even begin to feel.

”If we have to go loud, we go loud. This mission is too important for us to back out halfway through, and as soon as they find all of these bodies, security is going to be quintupled. We have a narrow window, and I’m not going to let the planet slip through my grasp just because things got risky.”

“I just wish Hestia were here,” Kat muttered. “We could use an infusion of literal firepower right about now.”

“Don’t worry, girl,” Davis replied. “I already gave her a call about helping up with the aftermath, and be assured, there will be an aftermath. No operation this big goes down without creating a huge mess to clean up after the fact. As soon as Hestia heard that you were involved, she hopped on a maglev. She’ll be in Vegas in a day or two.”

Whippoorwill stiffened slightly. Normally Kat wouldn’t have noticed it, but after her talk with Emma, she was beginning to second guess every little action or piece of body language that she would have ordinarily dismissed.

“Until then,” he turned, armor thumping with each shuffling step, “Chiffon, what’s the plan for freeing these prisoners and arming them? Let me know what we’re facing and I’ll tell you whether it’s something we can handle or not. Just leave the actual implementation to Erinyes and me.”

“Well,” Whip began, pausing to take a deep breath. “The prisoners are confined to the fourth floor. I can access the elevators from here, but it looks like they’re the only way in or out, and NeoSyne keeps the prisoners in line by preventing any local control of the lifts.”

“That sounds like a fire hazard,” Emma interjected jokingly. “They really need to build fire escapes into something this size. Imagine how much they’ll be fined by the arbitration board if they find out that they didn’t take basic safety precautions.”

Whippoorwill rotated her head, staring through the dark mesh at Emma. Kat couldn’t see her friend’s expression, but she could practically feel the glare burning a hole through her, and she wasn’t even its target.

“Yes,” Whip replied icily. “The people being literally worked to death are laboring under inhumane conditions, and we both know that arbitration won’t intervene unless the assets of another company are involved.”

“Enough,” Davis’s voice cut through the room like a whipcrack. “What sort of security will we be dealing with and how heavily armed will they be? We’ll have time for jokes and back and forth later, once we’re far away from this death trap.”

Whippoorwill tore her gaze away from Emma before focusing on Davis and Kat once again..

“Sorry, Merrimac,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Security will be fairly tight, but it shouldn’t be out of control. The reactor is on the ninth floor with a security checkpoint built into a lab on the eighth. There’s no way we’ll be able to avoid that; the elevators I can control only go down to the lab and we’ll need to transfer once we’re there.”

“That said,” Whip continued, “the real prize is floor seven. Five and six are factories, producing all of the weaponry we’re here to put an end to, but seven is a warehouse. Everything they’ve been too afraid to ship out of the facility for fear of tipping off their competitors is stored on that floor.”

“Unfortunately,” Whippoorwill said, shrugging unhappily, “the contents are classified. The logs detail that it’s being used for armaments storage and warn people about experimental explosives being present, but none of the guards on the first level had the clearance to actually know what’s being built here. In short, I don’t have numbers, locations, or technical specifications. Just the knowledge that there’s a treasure trove on the seventh.”

“What about floors two and three?” Kat asked. “I think we’ve covered basically everything else, but you haven’t told us what to expect there.”

“Don’t go there,” Whippoorwill replied, shaking her head. “Those floors are full of guards and staff. There are something like four hundred people that live on those floors. Even if more than half of them are scientists, a bullet fired by someone in a lab coat will kill you just as efficiently as one from a trained and chromed samurai.”

“Then I guess we just head straight to floor four,” Kat said thoughtfully. “We’ll just have to make it up as we go along, but I think that actually talking to the people that have some experience in here before we make any sort of final decision seems like a good idea.”

“Agreed,” Davis concurred with a nod, his helmet clicking against his battle suit’s chestplate. “There’s no sense waiting around here forever chewing our cud. The longer we wait, the more time we have for things to go wrong. As soon as relief comes for the dead guards, the game is up.”

“Chiffon.” He motioned vaguely in Whip’s direction with his free hand. “Lead the way to the elevator. Let’s see if we can’t acquire some allies.”

Whippoorwill’s drone whirred past them, wheels spinning as it took point, the small crossbow built into its top scanning back and forth for any threats that might have been missed by the facility’s security cameras.

Five or so tense minutes later, they arrived at the elevators, a bank of three large gleaming tubes stabbing through the floor and into the belly of the facility. As they approached, one set of doors opened with a pleasant ding, triggered by Whip’s unspoken command.

The four of them stepped inside, followed a moment later by three of Whippoorwill’s drones. The final robot parked itself just outside the elevator shaft, an antenna raising out of its chassis as it took over the role of a repeater, boosting the signal from Whip’s smartpanel in order to ensure her access to the shunt that they’d already placed.

Kat shifted slightly, checking her weapons as the doors closed behind them. The elevator hummed into motion, triggering a gentle wave of soothing keyboard music that washed over her. Barely fifteen seconds later, the lift stopped accelerating, magnetic brakes activating to slow them to a halt.

The doors whooshed open in front of them. Immediately, the smell of smoke and unwashed bodies assaulted them. Where the first floor had been clean and brightly lit, a sterile grid of storage space, the fourth looked like a scene from an entertainment channel.

There were no walls. Nothing for the refugees to use for choke points or defensive positions should they choose to rebel. Instead, the entire floor was one great cavernous expanse filled with ramshackle housing made from scraps of plastic and shipping containers.

Almost half of the strips of fluorescent lighting that lined the ceiling were dark, inactive due to some combination of poor maintenance and active sabotage. Picking up the slack were a dozen or so metal burn barrels, giving off soot and cherry red light in equal measures.

Four or five people, all wearing heavy coats that hid their appearance despite the relative warmth of the facility, turned to face their group as they stepped out of the elevator. None of the figures moved away from their flickering barrel.

Kat opened her mouth to call out to them only to be cut off by the shriek of metal on metal. Three hatches in the floor slid to the side, revealing a trio of armored gun turrets that sprouted from the ground like chrome-covered weeds.

A sensor atop the center turret flashed to life, and a soft blue light quickly scanned from left to right over the four of them. As soon as it finished, the sensor shifted to red and the machine buzzed threateningly.

“Unidentified personnel,” a pleasant woman’s voice began, emanating from the central turret. “You are not in the NeoSyne database. Please do not move from where you stand, or you will be executed. Please provide valid security clearances via your smartpanel interface within thirty seconds, or you will be executed.”

“Chiffon,” Davis growled, the word both a statement and a question.

“I don’t have any access to this floor’s security programs,” Whip replied hurriedly. “I didn’t even know that there was an automated security checkpoint here. We’re on our own.”

“Twenty seconds remaining,” the recorded voice continued, as pleasant and cheerful as ever despite the implicit threat.

“Merrimac, do you think your armor can handle that kind of weapon fire?” Kat asked, eyeing up the gleaming barrels on the chest high turrets.

He thought for a moment before nodding. “If I activate a skill, I won’t be able to move but I should be able to hold out for a couple of seconds.”

“Good,” Kat said hurriedly. “On the count of three, the non-combatants should dive behind you and open the elevator door. They need to get behind cover in there as soon as possible—”

“Ten seconds,” the guns reminded them politely.

“—Merrimac you start at the left, and I’ll go right,” Kat continued, ignoring the security system. “One.”

“Erinyes, no!” Whip shouted, almost vibrating with panic.

“Two,” Kat intoned, quietly casting Levitation on herself before pouring mana into Gravity Spike, her eyes fixed on the center turret.

“Don’t risk yourself like this, we can—” Whippoorwill was almost babbling, but Kat pushed her friend’s concern to the back of her mind.

“Three.” As soon as the word left Kat’s lips, she Leapt into the air, aiming her descent so that she would land just behind the rightmost turret.

Distantly, she heard an angry buzzing as the lights on all three guns’ sensors began flashing red as the same soothing voice began repeating the words, “Movement detected.”

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Two of the guns tried and failed to track Kat through the air, spitting out high caliber bullets that struck sparks from the wall behind her. The third trained itself on Merrimac as he erupted with red light, both Emma and Whippoorwill diving behind his solid form.

Kat concentrated, unleashing her gathered mana into a Gravity Spike that warped the internal workings of the central turret, silencing the gun as its barrel twisted and bent downward under the force of her magic.

As soon as the spell left her, Kat immediately canceled Levitation, switching to Gravity’s Grasp as she neared the apex of her jump. Behind her, Merrimac’s cannon roared to life as he opened fire on his target.

Just before the turret firing at Kat caught up with her, she accelerated downward, plunging like a hawk toward the debris-covered ground and throwing off its aim once again. She hit the floor, bruising her shoulder despite the textbook perfect roll that took her past the turret.

With one smooth motion, she whipped out a throwing knife, taking advantage of her Throw skill to plant the thin blade directly in the sensor atop the turret even as she used Cat Step to serpentine back to the gun.

Merrimac fired again, his high caliber autocannon removing another fist-sized chunk of the turret’s armor, ignoring the dozen or so machine gun bullets that flashed and deflected off of his glowing armor.

Then Kat was upon the last turret, going low as the gun struggled to find her with its main targeting system disabled. Her left hand darted up, gripping the red hot barrel to hold it in place even as she stabbed into the machine’s housing with her dagger. For a brief second, the weapon flashed with ruby light as she activated Penetrate, and then Kat was sawing through wires and cables, gutting and disabling the security system before she needed to take a second breath.

Davis fired a third and final time, shattering his turret’s armored housing and trashing the machinery that controlled the weapon. Kat jerked her knife to the left once more for good measure, soaking herself in a combination of oil and coolant before she stood up.

Merrimac’s armor looked like it had seen better days. Its paint was scuffed and the plates themselves were creased from deflected bullets. Still, nothing had penetrated, and the suit’s overall integrity seemed to be intact.

Emma’s head poked out from the half open doors to the elevator. She quickly surveyed the smoking and twisted wreckage of the turrets before flashing Kat a cheerful thumbs up and jogging out into the open once more.

“Holeeeee shit!” a voice called out from behind her.

Kat turned to find that one of the figures from the burn barrel had detached themselves from the crowd. The person approached, a lumpy winter coat hiding what appeared to be a slim frame, a pair of dark ‘sun glasses’ smartpanels obscuring their eyes and most of their face.

“I’m presuming from all the fireworks and costumes that your group aren’t NeoSyne employees that just forgot to update your clearances?” they asked cheerfully, extending a gloved hand to Kat.

“No,” she agreed, offering her hand back warily. “We’re not exactly friends with NeoSyne. We’re especially not friendly with the moles that they’re working for.”

“So you already know about the stallesp?” the person questioned, nodding underneath their hood. “Good, that helps streamline the process of getting you and your friends up to speed.”

“I go by Erinyes,” Kat responded. “Merrimac is the one in armor behind me, and Chiffon is our tech specialist. We have a fourth member that hasn’t earned a name yet. Can you tell me who I’m addressing right now?”

“I go by Baker,” they replied, a grin about the only thing Kat could make out on their face. “And this behind me is Legion 3445.”

They glanced back at the rag-tag crowd of people that were beginning to filter out of their ramshackle homes and hiding places. Baker shrugged theatrically before smiling at Kat once again.

“Least, what’s left of the 3445. We were an armed trading convoy out of the Durango area. Mostly kept to ourselves, but I’m not gonna pretend that a couple NeoSyne cargo semis didn’t go missing in our territory if there weren’t enough guards on ‘em, if you catch my drift.”

“Then, ‘bout a year or so ago,” Baker continued, “some of our scouting parties started disappearing. Enough that it could have been raiders, but we couldn’t pin it on any one group. Eventually, we called in all of our outlying teams so we could talk everything over, figure out what was happening.”

“Turns out that had been the plan all along.” They spat on the dirty, soot-covered floor. “Our vice-chief was working for the stallesp. Turned out they had done something to her head. They showed up with a couple flying tanks, and we were like fish in a barrel. Rounded up all of us in one swoop, and we’ve been stuck in this hellhole, making more guns and tanks for ‘em ever since.”

“Flying tanks?” Davis asked, clomping up behind Kat. “What can you tell us about them?”

“Not much really,” the coat-covered figure said with a shrug. “Machines handle most of the sci-fi stuff like the gravity drives and the mag cannon. They just use us to carry around materials and weld on armor plates. Not sure you need to know much though. The aliens have the things programmed with touch screens and really fancy computers that do most of the fighting for you. Just designate a target and pick an evasive routine, and the tank does the rest for you. Guess they didn’t really trust rank and file NeoSyne staff to be able to pick up how to use their fancy equipment on a moment’s notice.”

Kat looked to Davis, cocking her head slightly in an unspoken question. He nodded back.

“Well, Baker,” she began, addressing the shapeless mass of coats in front of her. “There are only four of us, but we’re here to shut this place down. Our original plan was to sabotage the reactor, but once we got inside, Chiffon discovered that you and your friends were trapped in here. If you think you and your people can pilot those tanks, we’re interested in helping you stage a bit of a prison break.”

“Oh yeah.” Baker’s face twisted into a feral smile underneath their sunglasses. “I think we can manage that. That won’t be any problem at all.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

“You’re going to have to watch out for more of them turrets,” Baker said, leaning against a wall of the elevator. In the depths of their hood, the end of a cigarette glowed cherry red.

“None of us know where all of them are,” they continued, pausing briefly to inhale. The cigarette hissed merrily, flaring to life. “There must be some sort of central control that the corpos use to disable them so that we can drive forklifts around, but it beats me as to where it is. The rest of the place is wired up pretty tight to stop espionage, so we’ll have to be on our toes.”

“Do you have any advice that’s more useful than ‘there will be a lot of guns, try not to get shot’?” Davis asked dryly from his corner of the elevator.

Baker shuffled slightly, their head bobbing up and down as they eyed up Davis’s heavily armored form. A thin hand popped out from one of their sleeves, fetching the cigarette from the recesses of their hood. A second later, a cloud of smoke that smelled vaguely of apples filled the elevator.

“For you, big guy?” Baker asked rhetorically. “I’d suggest checking out section D-3 of the warehouse. That’s where they have us loading up battle suits. I figure someone like you could do a fair amount of damage in one of those things. Maybe even enough to keep most of us alive after the NeoSyne goons figure out what we’re up to.”

“Battle suits?” Kat could almost see a single eyebrow going up on Davis’s face as he regarded the much smaller individual.

“Yeah,” Baker replied, nodding their hooded head. “Some asshole in a suit came up with a fun acronym for them and everything. She calls ‘em Armored Personal Exosekeletons so now the dumb things are being branded as APEX. Bet some dim bulb in marketing even has a marketing campaign with the suits pulling entire train cars full of steel to prove how tough they are all cooked up already. We have an entire crew tasked with spray-painting a logo on them. Big dude, covered in muscles and shirtless standing on the top of a mountain. Real tacky.”

“Do you happen to know any of the specifications on these new suits?” Davis asked carefully, leaning slightly toward Baker.

“Nothing written down,” they responded dismissively. “I just know that the things are covered in a lot of this new battle armor the stallesp helped ‘em develop, but they move like dancers. Well, that and they’ve got a power cell on the back that they can hook up to these big rifles they made for the suits. Heard a couple of the guards shooting the shit about it a month or so ago. Apparently the rifle is a rail gun or something. They said it packs enough of a punch to core a battle tank in a single shot.”

“How many APEX suits do you think there are in the warehouse?” Emma questioned, finally speaking up from where she was lounging in the other corner of the elevator.

“A hundred?” Baker shrugged. “Two hundred? There’s probably twice that many suits on standby, but they need to be hooked up to the reactor to juice up. The scientists claim they’ll hold a charge for something like ten years of continuous combat, but whatever they’re piping into the suits is some dirty stuff. I’ve lost a couple of friends just charging the things up.”

“Enough,” Whippoorwill cut them off. “I’m holding the door right now, but we’re here. Remember, I have no control over the internal security systems. If you can find me a network connection, I’d love to change that. Until then, my drones are armed with crossbows, but that’s all the help I’ll be able to give you.”

Davis stepped to the front of the elevator, shouldering his cannon. Electronics whined as he lifted it into a firing position. He nodded to Whippoorwill before speaking, his voice grave. “Open it, Chiffon.”

The doors parted silently to reveal the warehouse. It was massive, at least four stories of concrete and steel, complete with row after row of metal shelves, each level at least a floor high. To their right was a massive fleet of forklifts, all parked in electronic charging ports with green indicators blinking their readiness. To Kat’s right was a bunker, panes of bulletproof glass all that separated her from a pair of gaping guards.

On top of the emplacement, a 20mm cannon hummed to life, swiveling to face their party only to meet a blast from Davis’s weapon, cracking the turret’s housing. Frantically, one of the guards smashed a button on the table in front of him. The lighting for the entire floor turned red, and a siren began to wail.

Kat exploded into motion, taking note of the four other turrets that popped up from armored hatches in the warehouse floor even as the one atop the bunker sparked and fizzled impotently. Overhead, canisters began to rain down around the elevator, gas already hissing from them.

“Send the elevator up for the rest of the refugees, Chiffon!” Kat shouted. “We’re going to have company soon and our only real chance is to get as many of them armed as possible.”

She reached out with one hand, using Dehydrate on the guard manning the console while the other gaped at her in disbelief. The spell didn’t kill the man, but Kat suspected that he wished he was dead. She knew from prior use that the spell would dry and harden any exposed mucus membranes.

In short, she thought as she jammed her Penetrate-enhanced dagger into one of the door’s hinges, for the moment, the guard was blind and afflicted by both splitting a headache and vertigo. Given enough time, he would recover, but that wasn’t a luxury that Kat planned to afford him.

Her knife sheared through the second set of hinges just as Davis began exchanging fire with the turrets. The great booming blast drowned out all of the other sounds of combat as Kat stepped backward and kicked.

The door thumped inward with a clang. Its impact with the ground was followed a fraction of a second later by Kat casting Dazzle and sliding into the main room of the bunker.

Gunfire stitched across the wall above her head as the standing guard shot wildly, eyes blinking ineffectually. Kat’s first shot took him in the face, spraying the back wall of the bunker with blood and bone.

She jumped to her feet, firing a single round into the man struggling on the bunker floor before slamming her fist down on a large red button labeled ‘Alert.’

The warehouse’s lights switched from red to yellow and the turrets stopped firing. Kat looked out through the thick bulletproof glass. Davis’s armor was glowing red, some skill obviously in effect. Despite his defensive measures, his armor’s left arm hung limp, its pauldron shot off and a double handful of hydraulics and electronics scooped out underneath.

Whippoorwill was shepherding the handful of refugees they’d taken down to the warehouse floor in the big cargo lift out of the line of fire. Even Emma was making herself useful, wielding her batons like baseball bats to smack away the canisters before they could deliver more than a token amount of their payload.

Still, it hadn’t been quite enough. Two of the refugees hadn’t reacted fast enough, and now they were just outside the elevator doors, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. For a second, Kat was tempted to go out there and see if she could treat them with Cure Wounds I, but ultimately she gave up on the thought. Her spell was simply too low level to deal with whatever the gas was.

Ultimately, the only thing that had saved her team from more casualties was that she had sprung for the air tight option on their infiltration suits. Not many defense systems used gas—it was notoriously hard to control and clean up once used—but the addon only cost a couple of credits, and Xander had claimed that it had saved his life, so Kat had paid the extra without thinking.

“Red alert terminated,” the pleasant voice from their upstairs encounter with the turrets jolted Kat from her grim thoughts. “Switching to yellow alert. Please enter your passcode within one minute or this floor will be considered compromised and purged with neurotoxins.”

“Chiffon!” she shouted, grabbing a shunt from her belt and slamming it onto the console’s port. “You’re on the clock!”

Whippoorwill froze, standing motionless in the open air between the four gun turrets. Seconds ticked by in silence as the weapons glowered at Kat’s friends. They weren’t shooting, but by the same token, the gun emplacements hadn’t withdrawn into their armored housings.

At Kat’s feet, the injured guard groaned, rolling over onto his back. Apparently, her attempt to finish him off hadn’t been as accurate as she’d hoped. She wasn’t sure if the bullet had missed his vitals entirely, or if it had hit some sort of combat weave that prevented it from penetrating fully.

She fired a second shot, this one into the officer’s head. If he had armor implanted under his skin, Kat was too close for it to matter.

A glance out onto the warehouse floor confirmed that the yellow lights were still flashing and the gun turrets were still trained on her friends. Kat shifted her attention to the console in front of her, just in case there was something that could help Whip out.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t lucky enough to find a sticky note with a password on it. The bank of computers itself was incredibly complex, more akin to what Kat would expect from a shuttle launch than a more simple security station.

How long was it now? Had they been waiting twenty seconds? Thirty? Kat knew Whip was good but, even for her, a minute was probably cutting it close. After all, it wasn’t like they were hacking into a strip mall, they were in a secure NeoSyne facility with—

“Ten seconds remaining,” the mechanical voice informed her pleasantly. “If you are a NeoSyne employee, please enter your password now. If you do not, your death will be ruled a suicide and your next of kin will be denied survivor benefits.”

Kat opened her mouth to say something, but caught herself. Whippoorwill knew what was happening. Harassment would only distract her and put everyone at risk.

Still, she glanced up at the ceiling where about a quarter of the tiles were sliding away to reveal metal tubes. They were cutting it awfully close. Infiltration suits would protect Emma, Whip, and her from atmospheric toxins for thirty seconds to a minute, but none of them had an air reservoir.

If the NeoSyne system actually flooded the warehouse floor with nerve gas, they were all dead. Maybe it would take Kat and Davis a little longer than the others, but the minute gas canisters started dropping, they were all as good as dead.

“Five seconds.” Kat almost jumped as the system gave the entire warehouse another pleasant reminder.

Above, the tubes whirred into place, gas canisters locking into the barrels of the tubes as they prepared to rain death down upon everyone in the room. Kat took a deep breath, triggering the seal on her suit. In the long run, it might not help, but if it bought her a handful of extra seconds to figure something out, then—

Then the yellow lighting disappeared. Three of the four turrets lowered into their housings with a quiet whine while the final turret spat out a cloud of dark black smoke. Evidently, one of Davis’s shots had damaged something important.

Kat let out a sigh of relief, eyes tracking the ceiling panels as they slid back into place, hiding the huge numbers of gas dispensers that had just menaced all of them. Both Emma and Whippoorwill jogged over to the bunker, stepping over the door and into the blood spattered interior.

Emma whistled, eyeing up the damage before giving Kat a giant thumbs up.

“Nice, Erinyes!” she exclaimed appreciatively. “One shot, one kill. Just like an action flick on one of the entertainment channels.”

“I was aiming for his chest,” Kat replied dryly. “I was on my side shooting at an upward angle and accidentally shot too high. I guess I just got lucky.”

“Eh.” Emma shrugged cheerfully. “You know what they say, if life hands you a horseshoe, brain someone with it and steal their research data while they’re unconscious.”

“I’m not sure anyone actually says that,” Kat replied, stepping away from the console to let Whippoorwill have direct access to it. Outside the bunker, the remaining refugees were starting up the forklifts as the elevator went back up to pick up more of their companions now that the warehouse’s security had been neutralized.

“Fuck!” Whip’s shout interrupted the two of them. She stepped away from the console and started pacing back and forth, muttering a steady stream of curses that would rust the chrome off of the most hard-bitten street samurai.

“Chiffon,” Kat began, trying not to look at the woman’s cat ears as they flopped back and forth unceremoniously in time to Whip’s jerky and upset movements. “What’s happ—”

“That alert woke the entire facility up, Erinyes,” Whippoorwill spat out, her voice dripping with tension. “I have another fifty or so refugees coming down, but after that, I don’t know if I’ll be able to maintain control of the elevator. There are at least two other people in the system with me fighting over it. I’m better than both of them combined, but they know the network better than me. It’s only a matter of time before they regain control.”

“And when that happens…” Kat responded slowly, frowning under her suit’s mask.

“Exactly.” Whip slapped her hand against the bunker wall in exasperation. “We’ll be swarmed with NeoSyne goons. The only good news is that they won’t be able to remotely grab hold of the warehouse security network. For once, their decentralized system is working in our favor.”

“But we’re going to have to hold this building,” Kat said, nodding thoughtfully as she waved a hand in the general direction of the security console. “Do you think you’ll be able to program the turrets to shoot at NeoSyne security?”

“Not specifically,” Whippoorwill replied with a grunt. “I should be able to take off the limiters so that they will fire at anything in front of them. That means that we should be fine so long as we stay out of the kill zone, but I can’t promise that there won’t be friendly fire.”

“You.” Kat patted Emma on the shoulder on her way out of the bunker. “Keep Chiffon safe. I’ll let Merrimac know that time is our enemy. It looks like he needs to swap out that armor for one of the newer models Baker mentioned as soon as possible.”

Outside, all of the refugees but Baker were scurrying about the huge racks of stored goods, unboxing pallets of advanced body armor and rifles that looked like something out of a science fiction flick. Even as she jogged up to where Davis and the heavily jacketed Baker stood, chatting quietly about something or another, a tank hummed down one of the warehouse’s aisles, hovering just above the concrete floor.

Kat whistled to herself as she took in the vehicle’s knife like prow. It looked for all the world like a matte black triangle topped with a circular gun turret. The alien armor drank in the warehouse’s light, heavily angled to help deflect and disperse kinetic strikes outside of the four smaller anti-personnel gun ports built into its sides.

“She’s a beaut, ain’t she?” Baker asked, calling out to Kat as she approached. “Most of the tanks are in deep storage. It’ll take us at least a half hour to pull ‘em out. Still, Jorge and Britt remembered working on one yesterday and they were able to get it working pretty quickly. We still don’t have any rounds for the main cannon, but the point defense lasers will work just fine on light armor if the range is close enough.”

“About that,” Kat said, eyeing up the sleek hover tank. “You should probably expedite the search for ammunition. Chiffon says that we’re only a matter of minutes away from being swarmed by NeoSyne security. She should have another load of your people down here shortly, but they’re going to need to be ready to stay behind the turrets and fight off a couple waves of samurai and stallesp.”

“Well, fuck, I was afraid of that,” Baker replied laconically. They took a final puff from their cigarette before blowing out another cloud of smoke and removing it from their mouth. Almost absently, they clicked the back of the white cylinder, and the cherry red ashes on the end went out with a quiet ‘beep.’

Their spare hand went to their mouth. A moment later, Baker let loose a piercing whistle, drawing the attention of the people working on the storage racks. A hatch popped open on the tank, revealing a young woman, dark grease covering her face and auburn hair.

“3445!” Baker shouted. The handful of people that had still been working stopped, instead focusing their attention on the slight person standing next to Kat. “It sounds like the corpos know what we’re up to. Shift your focus to unboxing weaponry that we’ll be able to use in the next five to ten minutes and then get into position behind the turret line.”

“Britt,” they continued, pointing a slim, almost albino, white hand at the woman whose head was sticking out of the tank. “Help the big guy here find one of them APEX suits. We don’t have anyone trained to use heavy armor left, and I’d prefer to not lose people to friendly fire.”

“This is it, ladies, gentlemen, and people of all ages,” Baker finished, clapping their hands together, their cigarette having disappeared into the recesses of their jacket at some indeterminate point in time. “The 3445 gets one last chance today. Either we burn our way out of here and climb out of this deathtrap atop a pile of corpo bodies, or we go out in a blaze of glory. Either way, let’s make it a night worth remembering.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“Come on, big guy,” Britt called out over her shoulder at Davis, “time’s a wasting. Plus, we’re gonna have to uncrate the suit and get it booted up before you can use it. No time for dilly dallying.”

Despite everything, Kat had to struggle to keep a smile from her face. Davis was struggling to keep up with the two of them, his damaged battle suit dripping fluids with every shuffling step.

“I am moving as fast as I can, young lady,” he replied in a clipped voice, bristling at the indignity of the situation. “My armor was designed for survivability, not speed, and that was before an auto cannon trashed the trauma plates and about half of the motors in my left side.”

“If you’re winded, just let me know,” the woman responded, waving a hand dismissively without bothering to look back. “I don’t want your heart to give out because we pushed you too hard or something, gramps.”

“Gramps?” Davis sputtered, her irreverence finally cracking his poker face. “Gramps! I’ll have you know, young lady, that I killed my first corporate executive before you were even born. I did it clean too! They still have his death officially marked down as a drunken fall from his penthouse.”

Kat’s lips moved slightly before she managed to get them back under control. Davis was fuming, but he managed to draw another burst of speed out of his failing suit, unwilling to let the dismissive refugee woman show him up.

“The next right turn will be where the APEX suits are stored,” Britt called out, pointing at the cement floor where large yellow letters spelled out ‘D-2.’ “Once we get one uncrated, we’ll still need to find one of those funky combat rifles for Merrimac. Otherwise he’ll be stuck using that old fashioned—”

Whatever words she was about to say were lost, disappearing with her entire upper torso in a puff of pink mist. Before Kat could skid to a halt, the roar of the shot that had erased Britt shook her body, wind from the passage of the round pulling at the tight fabric of her infiltration suit.

Almost without thinking, Kat cast Levitation and burned stamina, Leaping up into the second story of storage crates. Below her, Davis’s heavy footsteps stopped, but it was too late. An eerie humming noise filled the corridor where the APEX suits were stored. Evidently, the rest of the warehouse wasn’t as empty as previously believed.

“Quit hiding, you assholes,” a woman’s voice crackled from aisle D-3. “You fucking killed Eric and Dominic at the check in station. Now it’s your turn.”

A grayish black humanoid suit of powered armor strode into the open. The robotic frame was twice as tall as Kat and covered in plates of the thick black armor she’d seen on the tank. As soon as the pilot saw Davis’s armor, the strange humming noise increased. It raised a large black rifle in a one handed grip, a number of cables trailing from the back of the weapon to a large blue canister built into the machine’s back.

It fired a fraction of a second behind Davis, and that was all that saved him. The heavy cannon barrel of his weapon spat defiance, half deafening Kat as it launched a saboted armor piercing round into the newcomer’s leg.

The black suit staggered backward, a divot in its leg from Davis’s attack but nothing more. Then it returned fire. Its rifle thrummed, launching a plume of fire as the discharge instantly turned air into plasma. The shot went wide, punching a bowling-ball-sized hole clear through one of the heavy metal crates on a nearby shelf.

“Fuck,” Kat whispered, her eyes growing wide.

The new suit lifted its leg, looking down to inspect the damage. Satisfied, it planted both of its feet, shifting the rifle to a two handed grip and swinging the weapon around toward Davis’s ailing battle armor.

“Just a scratch,” the woman’s voice came from speakers hidden in the darker powered armor. “Quit squirming. If that’s the best you’ve got, it’s not like fighting back can even change the outcome. You’re just wasting my time.”

Kat slid her handgun back into its calf holster. It would be less than useless against that monster. She exhaled, hand slipping into her pack and touching the small box she’d smuggled from Chiwaukee.

Then she was moving, Cat Step speeding her movements as she twisted and vaulted her way through the obstacle course of boxes on the upper level of the storage rack. Just as she was reaching a vantage point where she’d have a proper firing angle on the enemy armor, some sixth sense pulled her up short.

She slammed herself into the back of a box just as a small antipersonnel gun turret on the battle armor’s shoulder swiveled, spraying her cover with bullets. The storage crate behind her rattled and shook as it laid down suppressive fire, pinning Kat.

“What the—” The woman was cut off by another roar of Davis’s heavy cannon.

Kat doubted it was enough to actually stop their opponent, but it managed to silence the secondary turret.

“Motherfucker!” the woman shouted. “I’ll kill you for that!”

The telltale hum of the railgun sent a static thrill through Kat as she finished casting Mirage. There were far too many variables at play. If she guessed any one of them wrong, this fight was about to end very quickly and in a fashion that would generate a whole lot of mess.

She only had one chance at this. Unless the refugees had managed to find some shells for the hover tank’s main cannon, they were sitting ducks. That meant Emma would die. That meant that Whippoorwill—

Her throat worked silently as Kat swallowed, trying to cleanse herself of the distracting thoughts. So what if she only had one chance? She’d just have to get it right the first time.

Kat jumped, a Gravity Plane shimmering through the air just in front of her, angling downward even as the light around her warped, making her body look like it were a handspan or so closer to the ground. She soared through the air, parallel to the ground in an attempt to create the slimmest possible profile for the powered armor’s automatic turret.

Even as she brought the unfamiliar grip of the alien pistol to bear, the NeoSyne guard fired her rifle. Davis’s armor burned with red light. One moment, it was standing in the open, and the next it was a smoking heap, propelled sideways by some Tower-granted skill or perk a fraction of a second before the rail gun went off.

Bullets sailed toward Kat. Most were low, but the handful that were on target slammed into the Gravity Plane, causing the almost invisible angled wall of magic to ripple as they were yanked just enough off course to miss her plummeting body.

Then Kat pulled the trigger. Her entire upper body jerked upward from the recoil, spinning her backward until she hit the very storage apparatus she had launched herself from, the small of her back slamming into the metal edge of a crate.

She bounced back into the corridor, hands clutching the alien pistol as pain blossomed from the blow. A half second later, she landed face first on the concrete floor, the durable material of her infiltration suit saving Kat from any number of scrapes and road rash.

Planting both hands on the cement, Kat pushed herself up, swinging around to point her pistol at the powered armor.

It wasn’t moving. Her pistol had punched a fist sized hole through its torso, leaving a crater in the floor behind the mechanized armor. Partially by educated guess, and partially by luck, Kat had aimed for the center of its upper torso, rupturing the pilot’s cockpit and shredding the NeoSyne guard inside.

The railgun clattered to the ground, the sound echoing in the sudden silence after the brief battle. Then, the entire suit tumbled forward, its form locked in place after the pilot stopped providing input, but ultimately she’d left the robotic suit so off balance that remaining upright was impossible.

Kat stood up, sighing with relief, the stallesp pistol still clutched in her white knuckles. The alien had missed her with it back in Chiwaukee, and she’d known the gun was powerful then, but this was something else. One shot and it had gone through two heavy plates of advanced armor like they were nothing more than wet toilet paper.

“What in the name of Pete was that, Erinyes?” Davis asked as he limped from the wreckage of his own battle armor. “I figured we were done for unless I could get close enough to plant a shaped charge on that beast, but you managed to take her down with one shot.”

He moved stiffly, his slimmer pilot suit matted with grease and sweat from pulling himself from the smoking scrap heap that had represented hundreds of thousands worth of investment on his part. Still, despite his disheveled appearance and the obvious injury to his left leg, Davis managed to make his approach look dignified. It was hard to describe, just an energy about the older man.

“Just a toy I picked up when we recovered the stallesp databank in Chiwaukee,” Kat replied, glancing down at the gun before slipping it back into her hip pack for safe keeping. “Evidently, as futuristic as all of this new NeoSyne hardware is, the moles didn’t trust them with weaponry that would actually let the humans stand up to them. This is only a pistol. Imagine if the aliens bothered to field anti-armor weapons?”

“I’d prefer not to,” Davis remarked with a shake of his head. “I like the safety and security of a personal exo-suit. If the stallesp start fielding weaponry of that power in mass quantities, it looks like the only viable defense will be dodging, something I will have to admit that I’ve gotten much worse at with age.”

“Speaking about that, let’s get you patched up, Merrimac,” she responded, trying to ignore the bruising in her lower back as she walked over to meet the older man. “We don’t have a lot of time. The sooner we can get you healed and into one of those monsters, the better our odds are against whatever the hell NeoSyne manages to throw at us.”

“Very true,” Davis agreed, nodding at Kat as she began mumbling the words to Cure Wounds I. “I am interested in the mobility that the other operator managed to display. She was clearly inexperienced in exosuit usage, but despite that, she was almost as agile as an unarmored samurai.”

“If you managed to find one of those pistols in Chiwaukee,” he continued, stepping back from Kat and testing his weight on his newly healed leg as she switched to her lower back, “there will surely be some here. Unfortunately, unless I wish to share her fate, mobility will be a must in the upcoming battle.”

“Don’t sell the suits short,” Kat grunted back. “I certainly wasn’t expecting an anti-personnel gun turret on that thing’s shoulder. The piece of shit almost turned me into hamburger. Even if there are some stallesp mixed into the NeoSyne forces, it’s not like they’ll be wearing heavy armor. If your automatic defenses tear them apart before they can get a shot off, you should be fine.”

“Now that,” Davis said, a hint of mirth between his normal taciturn tone, “is a weapon design after my own heart.”

The two of them walked around the ruby puddle that had been Britt and entered the corridor where the suits were stored. It was almost like shopping for an action figure at the supermarket. Looming metal crates with a stylized APEX logo spray painted on the side lined the storage area, glass plates in their sides revealing the crouching armored exoskeletons next to the distinctive angular shapes of rail guns.

Halfway down the aisle, one of the crates had been pried open, revealing a webwork of plastic cushioning and cut straps designed to keep the armor safely in place during transportation.

Davis shrugged, remarking wryly, “At least our target is fairly obvious. It’s not much, but we won’t have to open boxes and hope to get lucky.”

Before she could reply, gunfire erupted from the front of the warehouse, followed shortly thereafter by screams. Neither Kat nor Davis spoke. Instead, the two of them sprinted toward the nearby armors.

Davis stopped at the nearest one, inspecting how to operate it, but Kat kept moving, arriving a couple seconds later at the crate that had already been opened. She scooped up the big pry bar from the ground and ran back to her confused companion.

As he stared at a complex release built into the seam of the crate, Kat simply shoved the crowbar into the tiny gap between the front and the side of the crate and pushed. Metal creaked in protest for a second or two before the magnetic locks gave way, popping free with a hiss of released air.

She handed the steel bar back to Davis before grabbing the sides of the cover and sliding it free. Inside, an APEX suit gleamed. The warehouse’s fluorescent lights reflected off of the crouched robotic suit’s grayish black armor. Most importantly, the armored cover for the pilot’s compartment in the chest cavity was slid upward, covering the battle suit’s ‘head’ and providing easy access to the controls inside.

“How’d you know that would work, Erinyes?” Davis asked, jerking his head toward the crowbar in his hands. “Your tampering could have activated some sort of electronic security, locking the entire box down.”

“You haven’t run the streets in a while, have you, Merrimac?” Kat replied with a smile, stepping back and letting the man move past her toward the cockpit. “There’s a joke that every samurai and runner knows. No matter how fancy new technology gets, designers always include a secondary access method, just in case the power goes out. The tertiary access method is just a big stick.”

“Plus.” She shrugged as Davis clambered up into the exosuit, triggering the armored plate to slide down and seal him in. “If I broke it, we have spares. The limiting factor right now is time, not access to equipment.”

The suit whirred to life, fabric straps breaking free as Davis stepped out of the crate, wobbling slightly before catching his balance in the aisle between the storage shelves.

“—very intuitive,” Davis said through his suit mounted speakers. “Sorry, I didn’t realize that the comms are push to talk. The suit is very easy to use. I just try to walk like normal and it moves. The entire system is very intuitive.”

He reached down, picking up the rail gun from its storage cradle in the box, placing the butt of the weapon against his shoulder. Kat frowned, her keen eyes picking up three cables trailing from the back of the weapon.

“Erinyes and Merrimac!” Whip’s voice jolted Kat. There was a bone-jarring rattle of machine gun fire in the background, punctuated by the staccato thump of heavier weapons. “If you could hurry up, it would be appreciated. We’re being hit hard by NeoSyne goons and only half of the 3445 have managed to grab weapons. Two of my turrets are down, and I need someone to buy them more time to arm themselves and get back into the fray.”

“Well, my dear,” Davis remarked, causing the suit to kneel down in front of Kat. “If you wouldn’t mind hooking up my rifle, I’d say it’s about time we went to save your friend.”

Kat activated Levitation, hopping up onto the APEX armor’s back and inspecting the rifle’s connectors.

“Are these… color coded?” Kat asked, frowning slightly at the array of cords and cables.

“Apparently,” he replied. “Yellow is diagnostics and control; you plug that into a processing port. Blue is the power feed that goes in the battery. Black hooks the gun up to the ammunition hopper. Without that, I only have the three shots stored in the rail gun itself.”

Kat worked fast. All of the plugs were clearly marked, designed for easy field stripping and repair. Even without any experience, it didn’t take her much more than thirty seconds to completely hook the rifle up.

As soon as she finished, Davis stood up, shaking her slightly. The rifle began to hum slightly as its capacitors drew energy from the large battery in the center of the suit’s back.

“Hold tight, Erinyes.” Davis’s voice erupted from a speaker next to her head. “I’m still getting the hang of this thing, but I’m pretty sure I can move a lot quicker in short bursts than either of us on foot. After all, if our friends are calling for help, it’s only appropriate that we make a dramatic entrance.”

Before Kat could reply, the armor beneath her shifted upward and thundered into motion.

It was fast, there was no question about that, but the ride was both jarring and disorienting. Davis pushed the APEX suit to its limits, jolting Kat up and down as its powerful mechanical legs pushed off of the concrete floor of the warehouse, leaving a trail of divots in its wake.

Barely fifteen seconds of teeth rattling transit later, Davis shouted, “Now, Erinyes, take to the air.”

She didn’t question him, pushing off of the powered armor’s back and Leaping as high as her Tower-granted strength would take her. For a brief moment, there was a lull in the battle, both sides gaping in awe at the armored suit barreling into the conflict.

For that fraction of a second, the battlefield spread out before her, a tableau of dead bodies and destruction. About twenty of the refugees, most of them wearing black chest plates that Kat didn’t recognize, clustered around the control bunker, all of them wielding some model of bullpup carbine that she’d never seen before. Four or five bodies lay dead and in the open.

The tank was immobile, smoking from seven or eight familiar fist-sized holes that had been bored through its armor by alien pistols. Behind it, another five to ten members of the 3445 took cover.

As for the main floor in front of the elevator, it was a mess. Between the tank’s anti-personnel guns and the automated defense turrets, almost a hundred NeoSyne guards lay dead or dying in a twisted mass of armor, limbs, and steadily pooling blood. That said, behind them were another fifty or so more, literally using their fallen companions as cover.

Then Davis broke the silence, firing his stolen railgun downward into the mass of corporate military officers. Rather than one direct bullet, the shot unleashed a cone of destruction, tearing apart the lightly armored NeoSyne officers as well as their grisly fortifications with indiscriminate ease.

All except three. Three well-dressed corporate soldiers, none of them wearing the relatively ineffective body armor adorning the rest of their companions, had fields of glowing hexagonal light around them, indicating either technology that shouldn’t be on Earth, or Silver tiered abilities from the Tower, which also shouldn’t be on Earth.

Kat didn’t hesitate. She unleashed a Gravity Spike in the center of the cluster, staggering the three figures. Unfortunately, the spell wasn’t nearly as effective on individuals with human standard weights, so although it did some damage and disoriented her targets, between the protection provided by their shields and their smaller size, it was far from fatal.

Her pistol, on the other hand, was more than enough. Once again, the weapon’s heavy recoil knocked her off course, but not before it shattered one of the shields, ripping a leg from the individual it had been protecting.

Almost immediately, she dismissed Levitation, casting Gravity’s Grasp on herself to jerk her almost-floating body downward as the two surviving officers opened fire. Their shots went wide, blowing sedan-sized holes in the ceiling of the warehouse. Almost a dozen, thankfully inactive, canisters of nerve gas dropped toward the floor in a deadly rain of metal and chemicals.

Emboldened, the 3445 refugees popped from cover, spraying the surviving officers with surprisingly accurate gunfire. Their shields held, but whatever trick of physics or magic they used to deflect the kinetic energy of the shots caused them to glow when hit.

Even as the elevator opened with a ding behind them, unleashing another horde of NeoSyne troops, the two upright officers staggered backward, their shields glowing bright white under the unrelenting onslaught.

Davis fired again. This time, switching from a cone of destruction to a single armor penetrator. One second there were two spheres of white light in the midst of the security officers as they sprinted for cover, and then there was one.

His bullet hit like a thunderbolt, detonating one of the shields with enough power to pulp everything in it and kill all of the security guards within a dozen or so steps from the force of the shockwave.

Kat cut Gravity’s Grasp, switching to Levitation to slow her fall to a more manageable rate just as Davis charged into the fray, gun turret on his left shoulder barking death. He switched to a one-armed grip on the railgun, holding his left arm high. A metal spearpoint flipped out of it, crackling with latent energy, before Davis slammed it down into the last remaining forcefield.

It shattered at about the same time Kat belly flopped onto the warehouse floor. For a second, everything went dark. Then she staggered to her feet. The battle seemed far away, like she was watching it through a fog that muted all sound.

Davis stood tall, triangular spearpoint held high once more as lightning coruscated off of a twitching and inhuman body. He lashed out with the suit’s legs, kicking aside NeoSyne soldiers like unwanted toys. The bodies whirred into walls, crunching and falling to the ground as wet, mangled heaps.

The remaining soldiers tried to retreat back toward the elevator, but the refugees were having none of it. After months and months of mistreatment and executions, they weren’t keen on taking prisoners.

Whether a NeoSyne security guard faced what remained of the 3445 or turned to run, their bullets found them just the same. Dozens died in the handful of chaotic seconds following Davis defeating the final stallesp agent, and the remainder didn’t manage to retreat more than twenty steps before they met their fate as well.

Then, there was silence.

Kat took a wobbly step forward, checking her mana reserves. The battle might be over, but they had wounded. Hopefully she had enough mana.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Dorrik leaned back in their duty station, taking a long sip from their glass of gweerma, before sighing wearily. When the Undaunted had arrived in Earth orbit and fought the Meritorious Industrial Harmony, it had seemed like the backwater solar system was going to become the flashpoint in a massive war between the stallesp and the lokkel.

Then, everything just ground to a halt. Dorrik had stopped paying attention to the internal politics of the Galactic Consensus investigation around the time that the stallesp had called for and been granted an independent fact finding committee to inquire into ‘potential bias and procedural missteps on the part of the blue ribbon committee responsible for determining whether there was undue interference with human development.’

After months, the two committees were finally on board a transport and en route to Earth, the status of their charters and scope of their investigatory powers finally confirmed via a vote of the Galactic Consensus. Of course, at this point, they were almost an afterthought. The battle lines were drawn, and open conflict between the two sides was a regular occurrence.

The investigation still mattered. Just over half of the Consensus refused to take sides in the fight between the lokkel, the stallesp, and their respective allies. The lokkel might represent some of the strongest and most well-established races in the Consensus, while the stallesp headed a coalition of the wealthier and more heavily industrialized civilizations, but that didn’t mean they were the only two groups.

Large swathes of the galaxy were populated with smaller nations, usually consisting of only four or five solar systems with two or three habitable bodies between them. The smaller unaligned races didn’t amount to much individually, but when combined, their total numbers were impressive. Unfortunately, it was hard to convince unaligned races to act in concert. There were small regional bodies, trading coalitions, confederacies, and mutual aid pacts, but by and large, they represented hundreds and hundreds of civilizations that needed to be contacted, negotiated with, and wooed independently.

Even as navies burned each other into cinders across the galaxy, waves of diplomats made contact with these smaller political entities. For now, the two sides were in a bit of a stalemate, neither party willing to fully commit their forces for fear of alienating the independent races, or worse, losing everything in one climactic encounter and leaving their core worlds defenseless.

And that left the Undaunted adrift. Awaiting the investigative teams, but capable of doing little else to halt the steady descent of civilization into madness.

Dorrik pressed the glass of gweerma against their forehead, letting the cool stimulant calm their burgeoning headache. As much as they would like to blame Commander Tosset for the delay, it would be illogical. The commander had been dressed down for the debacle related to their arrival, but since then he had been much more alert, treating Earth’s orbit like the potential war-zone it was.

It was just that nothing happened. Days passed and Dorrik monitored what he could of Miss Kat’s progress through the rudimentary networks that the human’s used, but there was nothing to do but wait for the commissions to arrive from the Galactic Consensus so that they could begin their inquiry.

They took another sip of the gweerma, letting the cold liquid wash over their tongue and send their nerves tingling. Boredom was all that remained. Boredom, training, and taking sojourns into the dreamscape with Kaleek and Miss Kat.

A red light blinked to life on the console before them, causing Dorrik to jerk forward and frown at the display. Their claws danced over the keyboard, bringing up sensor readings from the solar system’s asteroid belt.

“Paging Commander Tosset,” they said, a smile splitting their muzzle as their crest fluttered in excitement behind them. “The scanners have identified an engine signature from a stallesp battlecruiser. The ship just fired its engines and it’s moving toward Earth. It looks like the moles are on the move.”

A moment later, the commander’s voice chirped from Dorrik’s earpiece, groggy from being just woken up. “Can we confirm that the vessel in question is the Meritorious Industrial Harmony?”

“Not at this time,” Dorrik replied, shaking their head even though the officer couldn’t see them. “They are limping, though. Their engines can’t seem to hit full power and there are power fluctuations that the computer has flagged as the result of a containment field breach in the main drive.”

“Unless you can think of a different damaged stallesp battlecruiser within a light century of this system,” they finished, shrugging theatrically, “I can’t think of anything else that it could be.”

“Shave my crest,” Tosset spat out, sounding slightly more awake than his previous message. “I’m sounding yellow alert now. A relief crew will be on the bridge to take over from you shortly, but if you could contact Honor and Blade of Truth so that they can get into defensive positions, I would appreciate it.”

Even before the officer finished speaking, the deck thrummed beneath Dorrik’s feet as the Undaunted’s reactors spun up to full power. Doing so burned a bit more fuel than the ship would normally expend in standby, but in exchange, they dumped significantly more energy into the capacitors that fed the ship’s shields and plasma lance.

Dorrik simply nodded, keying in the codes on their console that would contact the two support strikers. They were both docked to the sides of the small supply base that the lokkel task force had constructed from the remains of a number of passing comets and asteroids. The station wasn’t anything special, basically just a small hydrogen reactor salvaged from the Undaunted’s collection of spares powering some basic hydroponics and life support.

That said, unlike Honor and Blade of Truth, the station could sustain itself indefinitely. It would be defenseless in any sort of combat—their task force didn’t have any of the exotic materials needed to build proper modern technology into it—but the outpost let the crews of the two smaller ships relax outside of the cramped confines of their warships.

Unfortunately, that meant they weren’t ready for combat at a moment’s notice. It would take them long minutes to wake up, dress themselves in combat attire and board their vessels. Of course, barring the presence of an expensive stealth vessel relying upon warriors that mastered Gold level skills in the dreamscape, it was almost guaranteed that they would have those minutes.

Many things were possible when the abilities earned in the Tower were brought into the equation, but without a spell that truly altered the fabric of reality, modern scanners could pick up the antimatter emissions from a modern drive at incredible distances. Stealth was more a matter of using electronic and magical systems to prevent another ship from acquiring a firing solution rather than avoiding notice altogether.

Unless the stallesp tried a blind jump, both of the strikers would have plenty of time to detach from the station and get into defensive positions.

Dorrik paused. They glanced back down at the readings, feeling the recycled air rustle through their crest as they tried to make sense of the fluctuations coming off of the stallesp ship. Their fingers clattered over the console keys once more.

They frowned as the screen displayed its results. The fluctuations coming off of the stallesp ship could be from a damaged containment field, but they also could be from the distant vessel charging for a jump.

The plot glared back at Dorrik. A simple red dot, coordinates noted in an ever-changing array of glyphs below it, maneuvered out of the asteroid belt, lining itself up for a straight flight toward Earth and its lokkel defenders. Only one other person was on the bridge, but they were busy rousing the Undaunted’s ancillary gun crews. At least until a relief crew arrived, Dorrik was the most senior officer on the bridge, and that meant that the decision was theirs.

A blind jump was a stupendously stupid idea. It would wreak havoc on the jumping ship’s systems, disabling its shields as well as its more advanced weapons and sensors. The jump might give the stallesp the element of surprise, but in most cases, the defending vessel would have enough time to power up its shields and weapons before the attacker managed to overcome the interference from the jump.

In short, by all conventionally logic, even if the battlecruiser were to perform a surprise jump, statistically the Undaunted would have between fifteen and thirty seconds to pound the other ship into scrap before it could prepare its defenses.

Dorrik tapped a handful of buttons, shifting some of their ship’s power toward its plasma lance. Another clatter of claws on keys brought up the firing program for the main cannon.

Maybe it was paranoia, but Dorrik didn’t want to risk it. The stallesp ships might not be as powerful ton for ton as a similar lokkel vessel, but that didn’t mean the moles were dumb. Their scientists and factories were working around the clock to try to bridge the quality gap. It was very possible that the annoying little mammals had stumbled upon—

The stallesp battlecruiser disappeared off the plot, the impossible acceleration figures of an in-system jump replacing the warship. Without hesitating for a moment, Dorrik slammed their claw down on their console, triggering an emergency alert.

Red lights began flashing all over the bridge, followed a fraction of a second later by mental static as the ship’s on duty mages began powering the teleportation cordon. A klaxon sounded, directing all lokkel to their duty stations even as Dorrik’s communicator chirped.

Then the Meritorious Industrial Harmony appeared. Not just on the plot. The ship was right in front of them, its scarred and damaged superstructure visible to the naked eye as flickers of red-violet energy crackled off of its form from the transition back into regular space.

Almost two dozen fighters launched from the damaged cruiser’s sides, large puffs of pressurized gas propelling them rather than the usual magnetic catapults. The tiny vessels turned, more clouds of gas hissing into space as they maneuvered and accelerated away from their mothership.

Frantically, Dorrik brought up the firing solution he’d begun before the Harmony’s jump. Those fighters must have been what gave the moles the confidence to try something as risky as a blind jump. Already half of them were sliding through space toward the two docked support strikers, a combination of magic and pre-modern tech pushing them to almost half the speed Dorrik would expect from a state of the art vessel.

Still, as inefficient as the process was, the tiny ships were already in range. Dorrik had no way of knowing how much the jump had disrupted their targeting computers, but it likely wasn’t as bad for them as it was for the larger, listing battlecruiser that had shielded them. All it would take was one or two torpedo locks and the stallesp fighters could devastate the defenders. Even one hit on a vessel without its shields up could knock it out of commission long enough for the stallesp battlecruiser to regain control of its systems and open fire.

Then, Dorrik’s computer sounded the solid tone of a target lock. The entire ship shook like a makyr-cat trying to dry itself. At point blank range, a magnetically guided gout of brilliant white light stabbed out from the Undaunted’s bow, ripping through the last quarter of the stallesp battlecruiser. The plasma lance continued to fire for almost a second, ripping sideways as the beam crumpled the Harmony’s armor like tissue paper, setting off a cascade of secondary explosions.

It jerked in the night sky, explosions triggering another mini jump. One moment, it was in front of the Undaunted, armor melting as the lokkel vessel unleashed the fire of an angry sun on it, and the next it blinked out of existence, reappearing just above Earth itself. One or two of the more alert mass driver gun crews managed to slam a shell into the warship before it began falling into the nearby planet, but there was only a moment to acquire the target and fire before the risk of accidentally hitting the inhabited world was too great.

Dorrik’s eyes tracked the ship after it reappeared in Earth’s upper atmosphere. For a second, their claws strayed toward the engine controls, but a quick glance at the plot showed the swarm of fighters converging on the helpless support strikers as their crews rushed frantically to activate their immobile warships.

With one final glance at the departing battlecruiser, Dorrik keyed in a series of commands. Just as the door to the bridge hissed open, the Undaunted jolted forward, automatic turrets decimating the slowly moving fighters before they could acquire firing solutions with their half-disabled computers.

Commander Tosset stalked onto the bridge, a helmet under his top right arm and his eyes locked on the sensor reports. He frowned, crest flattening as he took stock of the situation.

“Ahn, report,” he said, nodding in Dorrik’s direction as a point defense autocannon chewed through the armor on a stallesp fighter, detonating it in a flash of blueish white light visible to the naked eye.

“Sir,” Dorrik replied, stepping away from the control panel to let the officer pass. “Just as the Meritorious Industrial Harmony was powering up, I noticed antimatter fluctuations from a potential jump, so I rerouted power to charging the plasma lance just in time to catch them unprepared.”

Tosset nodded, the older lokkel’s lower arms tapping over the computer as their upper limbs fidgeted with the helmet. On the sensor display, four of the remaining fighters managed to launch their torpedoes, all of them targeting the supply and recreation station. The Undaunted redirected its fire, plucking the weapons from space before they could reach anything approaching attack speed before finishing off the last of the fighters themselves.

Finally, Commander Tosset looked up, setting his helmet on the computer as the last of the enemy vessels disappeared off the plot.

“You did the right thing, Ahn,” he said, smiling weakly at Dorrik. “It looks like they were still damaged from our previous fight, but you saved us from a bit of a disaster there. I’ll have to let high command know that the stallesp can field pre-modern fighters that are more or less immune to jump interference. If you hadn’t been ready, they would have finished off both the Honor and the Blade of Truth before we managed to get our systems active.”

“Honestly.” Tosset grimaced, his crest flush against the back of his head. “That might be the best case scenario. The warheads on those fighters were pretty high yield. It looks like they scooped out their electronics and maneuvering thrusters, just counting on the power of surprise to guarantee a hit. Even if our shields were up, four of those would probably be enough to knock our power grid offline for a couple of seconds. Certainly long enough for them to return their systems to some semblance of working order.”

“Still.” Dorrik trailed off, their eyes following the image of the Meritorious Industrial Harmony as it began to glow from its descent into Earth’s atmosphere. It obviously still had some power, a weak connection of anti-gravity generators were slowing its descent, but they were far from enough to save the ship. The plasma lance had done too much damage for that.

“Don’t clip your crest over it,” Tossed said reassuringly, lower hands resuming their work on the computer as the rest of the bridge crew shuffled in, moments too late to be of impact in the fight. “Without the cover of our point defense batteries, we would have lost both of the support strikers. I know you could have pursued the stallesp ship and broken it up before it hit the planet’s orbit, but not doing so saved dozens of lives.”

“But what about the humans?” Dorrik asked bleakly, motioning at the plume of white light that surrounded the plummeting battlecruiser. “I may have saved dozens of lokkel, but in doing so, I can’t help but worry that I have doomed millions when their vessel actually crashes.”

“It won’t be cataclysmic,” Tosset responded, tapping out another round of commands. A moment later, a close up image of the burning battlecruiser appeared on the viewscreen, detailed numbers and glyphs below it showing the power output of its struggling anti-gravity in comparison to its steadily climbing rate of descent. “The Harmony’s emergency systems are active. According to the computer, it’s going to hit hard enough to kill most of the crew, but it won’t quite be bad enough to start an ice age.”

“For most humans, it’s only going to look like a massive meteor,” the commander continued. “Like a star falling from the heavens.”

“Unless a human is near.” Tosset stopped speaking for a half second, squinting at the computer display as his mouth worked silently, calculating the Harmony’s descent, “Big River? What kind of name is Big River, New Mexico?”

“Isn’t that just to the south of the stallesp antimatter reactor we located earlier?” Dorrik asked, their stomachs sinking.

“Yes!” the commander answered, slamming the fist of their upper right hand into the open palm of its lower counterpart. “Unless someone is right near there, they should be completely fine. For everyone else, it’ll just be a flash of light in the night sky.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

GET EVERYONE UNDER COVER, YOUR ENTIRE REGION IS ABOUT TO SUFFER AN ORBITAL STRIKE. JOIN ME IN THE DREAMSCAPE WHEN READY - D

The words burned themselves onto Kat’s smartpanel as she was relaxing against a concrete wall, watching the 3445 survivors unload box after box of military equipment. She didn’t hesitate.

“Chiffon, I need an outside link to the getaway car and the Chateau in the canyon, right now!” Kat shouted, jumping up and grabbing the napping Whip by the shoulders and shaking her.

“Whaa—” Whippoorwill began, shaking her head uncertainly as she tried to process the situation.

“Now, Chiffon,” Kat continued urgently, “something big is happening.”

Whip shook her head. A second later, the text disappeared, replaced by a video feed of Jasper and Iris playing Go Fish on a tiny card table in the back of their van, and the Chateau’s housekeeper in a French maid outfit, smoking a cigarette as she stared out at the Grand Canyon.

“Get to cover now!” Kat yelled into her headset. Her voice caused a couple of the 3445 refugees around them, busy unloading the warehouse shelves, to jump. “We are about to get bombed. Marie, grab Hanz and get into the safe room.”

“Jasper?” she asked. He nodded into the camera, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. “Do not walk, run to the factory entrance. Chiffon will call the elevator for you, but you need to be underground in the next minute or we might not find all of your pieces.”

Kat blinked her eyes, cutting the feed, she looked around the warehouse floor, eyes wild. Dozens of survivors operated forklifts, shifting heavy equipment off of the shelving units while the rest cracked open boxes and began sorting the bounty of loot. Already three stacks of body armor, futuristic looking rifles, and ammunition were beginning to grow on the concrete, just in front of the security checkpoint and administration center where Kat and Whippoorwill had been waiting.

“Erinyes?” Whip asked, her voice soft, hesitant. “What’s going on? Is someone actually bombing us? If they are, they must have some sort futuristic stealth equipment because I’m using the facility’s cameras and I can’t—”

She stopped, breath torn out of the shorter girl in a gasp.

“Oh God no, I see it,” Whippoorwill’s voice was barely a whisper. Suddenly, all of the forklifts in the room shut off at the same time, engines settling to halt with a blink of Whip’s eyes.

“Get away from the racks!” She turned from Kat, screaming at the survivors. “There’s a meteor or an asteroid or something coming down and it looks like a big one. Half of the sky is on fire and alerts are coming in from all over the southwest. We’re deep enough underground that we’ll be able to make it, but things are going to be rough for a minute.”

“How long do we have?” Davis boomed from a nearby APEX suit. “Will Jasper be able to make it in time?”

“Two minutes,” Whip responded with a helpless shrug. “Maybe three or four? I’m not exactly a physicist, but it looks like it’s big and moving fairly fast.”

“Is Jasper going to make it?” Davis asked, taking an anxious step toward the elevator, the cameras on his helmet scanning the entrance.

Whippoorwill stopped for a second, cocking her head to the side as she checked the network. Seconds ticked by as Davis whirred impatiently from one mechanical leg to another.

“He’s inside,” she said, finally. “I’ve uploaded a schematic as well as directions to the elevator to his smartpanel, but they should make it. At the very minimum, they aren’t out in the open. I have no idea where that monster is going to touch down, but I doubt we’re going to be anywhere near the impact crater itself. I do expect that most of the surface is going to be wiped clean by the shockwave, but again, I have no idea how bad it’s actually going to be.”

“Hanz will be safe though, right?” Emma asked worriedly, jogging over to where the two of them were clustered around Davis. “The vacation home is in a valley, so it should be under any blast wave, but—”

The elevator opened, revealing a panicked Jasper and Iris. The two of them ran over, t-shirts hastily thrown over the pajama pants they had been wearing in the getaway van.

Iris opened her mouth to say something, but her words were swallowed by a rumble that shook the walls around them. Overhead, the lights flickered for a second before the factory switched to internal power from its reactor, but that didn’t change the heaving and jumping concrete of the floor.

Something crashed behind Kat, likely a priceless crate of military equipment falling from its perch some two to three stories up. A handful of gas canisters fell from their perches in the warehouse ceiling, bouncing off of the floor, but thankfully unable to spill their deadly cargo without an order from the factory’s central computer.

Kat went down to one knee as the earth trembled again, unwilling to suffer the minor indignity of a fall over something so minor. One of the huge racks spilled sideways, dropping hundreds of millions, if not billions, of credits worth of equipment to the floor as the huge metal frame crashed down on top of it.

Still, despite the world heaving and bucking, the walls of the warehouse held. Concrete and steel shook, bending and deforming as titanic forces passed over them, but ultimately, they had enough integrity to survive the shockwave. Barely.

Then the world went still. Rather than the boulder on boulder avalanche of sound, the only noise Kat heard was her own throat, gasping for breath as she glanced worriedly around the warehouse.

A second later, a wailing scream filled the room. Kat glanced in the direction of the warehouse floor. Although most of the refugees had made it away in time thanks to Whippoorwill’s warning, at least a couple had been trapped between the aisles when boxes began to tumble down.

Not every shelf had fallen over. In fact, most of them were still upright, albeit missing a crate or two of guns or powered armor, but that didn’t change the fact that the warehouse floor was in chaos. Even a simple rifle dropped from three stories up could easily be fatal, and Kat had no doubt that when the final accounting came in, there would be casualties.

“Fuck,” Whip intoned from her side. “Diagnostics are haywire, but it looks like the elevator is stuck. It’ll take at least a day or so for the automatic systems to clear it.”

Behind her, Davis had popped open the chest of the APEX armor and jumped out. Despite Jasper’s protestations, the old man was inspecting and worrying over him like a concerned mother hen.

“That sounds like my cue then,” Kat said, blowing out a shaky breath. “I got my warning from a lokkel, and they told me that I needed to get into the Tower immediately. If we’re going to be trapped here for a bit, I should probably meet up with them.”

Whip looked at her for a second, her face inscrutable behind the mask of her infiltration suit. Finally, when she spoke, her voice was quieter, almost embarrassed.

“Sweet dreams then, Erinyes.”

Kat looked up, but Whippoorwill had already spun around and begun hurrying away with a hurried, almost stiff gait.

She smiled to herself, expression hidden behind her infiltration mask, before finding an isolated corner of the command bunker. Hastily scrawling ‘do not disturb’ on a yellow sticky note, Kat stuck it to the face of her mask before laying down on one of the padded benches in the back of the room and closed her eyes.

It was late, and Kat had been up for almost eighteen hours straight, so sleep came quickly. She’d barely even closed her eyes when the salty air of Humbrass Atoll attacked her nose.

Before Kat could take a single step, a large clawed hand clapped down on her shoulder, spinning her around to face an anxious Dorrik. They looked her up and down for a second before sweeping her up into a big four-armed hug.

“Miss Kat!” they gushed happily, lifting her up into the air in their bone-crushing embrace. “You are safe! I was so worried when I saw the stallesp battlecruiser going down near your location. If it were to land safely, the shockwave would likely level a large area, but if it crashed—”

They shrugged helplessly, their crest fluttering in distress as Kat gasped for breath.

“An antimatter leak would destroy a large part of your continent,” Dorrik finished grimly. “Even if you survived the blast, your people don’t have the technology to clean up the sort of messy radiation an antimatter reactor leaves behind. Death in the initial explosion probably would be cleaner than having your body fall apart over the course of a day or so from exposure.”

She squirmed out of his grip, trying to flash the big lizard a reassuring smile despite her bruised ribs.

“Well, it’s a good thing there wasn’t an antimatter leak then,” Kat said with a quick grin. “Now if you could let me know what happened, I’d appreciate it. My team was in an underground bunker when we got your warning, and Whippoorwill said that it looked like half the sky was falling before the entire place started shaking like crazy.”

Dorrik took a step back, glancing around the adventurer’s hall as if noticing where they were for the first time. Their crest flattened slightly in embarrassment before they motioned with one of their lower claws.

“Walk with me, Miss Kat. Kaleek has found a dive bar and is drowning himself in fermented seaweed. We can talk while we sober him up.”

The two of them exited the stone building. It was emptier than usual. Where normally she would have to stand directly behind Dorrik, letting the big lizard bull their way through the crowds milling about the shops and kiosks, today it was only slightly busy. At least half of the stalls and kiosks lining the walls were empty, their counters wiped clean with no hint of the merchant classes that usually worked them.

Even the crowds themselves had a different feel to them. In Kat’s previous visits to the adventurer’s halls, the patrons were generally congenial. Joking and laughing with strangers as they went about their business, selling monster parts and buying what they would need for their next delve into the floor’s dungeons.

Today? Everyone was glaring at each other, their eyes, sight stalks, and sensor glands betraying a hint of fear and suspicion. Kat hurried her step slightly, catching up to Dorrik as the lokkel made their way out of the building.

As soon as they left the hall, Dorrik began speaking, their voice grimmer than usual. “The time for preparations has come to an end, Miss Kat. The stallesp have finally gathered enough courage to begin attacking lokkel interests openly.”

“So that was an attack today?” Kat asked. “Did they launch a missile at us because we took over their factory and exposed them or something?”

“Something like that,” Dorrik replied, their crest fluttering with amusement. “The stallesp attacked our task force in orbit, but we were ready for them. Given the timing of their activities, I would be surprised if it were unrelated to your raid on their terrestrial facility, but at the end of the day, it hardly matters. What you saw crashing into your planet was the stallesp ship. They were partially able to get it under control before it hit, and I’m sure that there are a couple of survivors, but the vast majority of the stallesp on the ship will have died in the impact, leaving a mostly intact naval vessel behind.”

Kat blanched, the blood draining from her face as the realization hit her.

“Oh God.” The words were practically ripped from her throat. “The Southwest is a little closer to NeoSyne territory, but it’s basically no man’s land in between GroCorp, NeoSyne, and Tri Holdings. Everyone is going to want to get their hands on the wreckage to reverse engineer it. There’s almost no chance this doesn’t break out into a full on corporate war.”

“That is what I suspected as well,” Dorrik responded with a sigh. “The good news, insomuch as a mass extinction event can be good news, is that the crash wiped out a good portion of the surface infrastructure around your location. Unless a combat unit was underground, it is almost guaranteed that the blast front left it in disarray or destroyed entirely. You should have a chance to escape before your people reposition their armies and turn your location into a war zone.”

Kat began nodding, but caught herself. Dorrik’s advice made sense, but at the same time, it wasn’t based upon a complete picture. She was far from alone. The 3445 were a band of malnourished survivors and refugees, but before that they had been nomads and mercenaries. Better still, they had some idea how to operate the NeoSyne equipment.

So long as Whip could get the elevator working, her companions represented the closest and best-armed military unit near the crash site. There weren’t any guarantees, but Kat doubted that Tri Holdings or NeoSyne had a proper answer for a hover tank and powered armor formation appearing out of nowhere and seizing the crashed alien ship.

It was a risky option, but the technology pulled out of the wreck had the potential to change the world. At a very minimum, NeoSyne and their stallesp masters couldn’t be allowed to collect the salvage. They had already expressed a willingness to stretch the rules, and capturing the downed ship would likely be the final step they needed before actively beginning a campaign of world conquest.

“But for now, I have better news,” Dorrik continued, pushing open the well-worn door to a bar. In a corner, a number of individuals watched Kaleek upend a huge mug of something liquid and vile smelling into his gullet, throat bobbing a number of times before he slammed the glass onto a table next to almost a dozen of its empty companions.

The lokkel stopped for a moment, wrinkling their snout in distaste as their desoph companion practically flowed through the crowd toward them before draping a boneless arm over both of their shoulders.

“Issa Kat?” Kaleek gurgled, his breath smelling vaguely like a fish that had been left out in the sun far too long. “See D’rrk, I told you she was gon’ be fine. Sheesa big girl.”

“Actually,” Kat replied, carefully removing Kaleek’s booze-soaked paw from her shoulder. “I’m buried under about a hundred tons of stone at the moment. I was lucky enough to be in an armored cave when the ship crashed down, but it’s going to be a headache getting out.”

“Tha’ sounds like a rocky start to tha’ night,” the big otter giggled back before devolving into a round of uncontrollable hiccups. Kat glanced at Dorrik, but the big lizard simply shrugged.

“It appears that I left Kaleek alone for too long,” Dorrik replied ruefully. “I did not expect him to be this inebriated. Still, there will be plenty of time for him to sober up on the galleon.”

“Gallywhat?” Kaleek asked, stumbling slightly as Dorrik led him out of the bar. “We goin’ somewhere, big fella?”

“Yes,” Dorrik answered with a grunt as they shifted themselves to accommodate the desoph’s weight. “That’s why I contacted Miss Kat and had her go to sleep, despite her mission. It took long enough, but our scouts finally found the stallesp base on this floor. Right now, our forces are loading up their ships. It is imperative that we set sail in the next hour in order to preserve the element of surprise.”

“Game time then?” Kaleek asked shakily. When Dorrik nodded, the otter took a deep breath. “Jussa’ sec.”

Kaleek flopped out of the lokkel’s grip, staggering unsteadily toward a narrow alleyway just behind the bar he’d been drinking in. A second later, Kat wrinkled her nose at the sound and smell of the desoph retching.

Rather than think about what was happening just out of sight, Kat instead shifted her attention to Dorrik.

“So does that mean we’re going to settle things tonight?”

“Yes,” the lokkel replied. “Kaleek and you will be forming a team with me. There will be three galleons, each with one high level combat team and three mid-level teams. It will be our job to protect the avatars of the warriors that are of a more floor-appropriate level while eliminating the more advanced stallesp mixed in amongst the rest of their forces.”

“Do we have any idea about their numbers?” Kat asked, studiously keeping her gaze away from the noisy alley. “I’m all for helping out, but I don’t want to volunteer for a suicide mission.”

“Our scout spotted a narrow cove,” Dorrik replied. “There was only room for two ships, both of them noticeably smaller than the vessels we will be using. We should have the overall number advantage and at least as many higher level warriors. The only question is whether the stallesp managed to install any fixed defenses. Our forward team didn’t get close enough to check.”

Kat pondered Dorrik’s words for a second before nodding decisively and responding, “That’s good enough for me. After everything they’ve done to my planet with relative impunity, it’s about time someone took them down a peg or two.”

“Agreed,” Dorrik said, a vicious glint to their eye as Kaleek sauntered over to the two of them, his fur covered in dancing red lights.

“Good news,” the desoph said, one paw over an eye, the other a narrow slit. “My poison recovery skill works on alcohol. The bad news is that it works by transmuting the booze into a splitting headache.”

“Are…?” Kat began hesitantly. “Are you all right? You do realize we’re about to head into a huge battle, right?”

“Oh, I’ll be fine,” Kaleek replied, waving his spare paw dismissively. “Just make sure to get us assigned to a ship with plenty of fresh water onboard, and I’ll be ready for business by the time we arrive.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“Slow down, Miss Kat,” Dorrik said evenly, one of their blades flashing through the air to slap her spare dagger out of her Pseudopod’s grip. “You only have a week or so of experience with the Dancing Blade specialization. Your skill with a second knife is improving, but you shouldn’t try to force it. Right now, you’re trying to pattern your attacks at the same speed you would a knife in your hand. At least for the moment, your reactions are insufficient.”

“I know,” Kat replied, stifling a sigh as she adjusted the blindfold over her eyes so that she could see Dorrik once again. “It’s just so weird to fight without using my eyes. I get that Dancing Blade is using my combat training and reflexes to simulate ‘what I would do’ if I were the one actually involved in the fight, but it feels strange. Like I’m watching grainy black and white footage of our duel on a five second delay. By the time I actually know what’s happening, the knife has already reacted without me.”

Distantly, Kat heard the cry of ocean-going birds as the ship’s deck rolled beneath her. Even without her eyes, years of training and her agility stat let her maintain her balance effortlessly.

“It is my understanding that Dancing Blade can be a difficult specialization to master,” Dorrik agreed, reaching down with one of their lower arms to pick up Kat’s discarded knife before pressing it back into the grip of her Pseudopod. “Some races, especially those that operate without their eyes or with a decentralized awareness, have an advantage in picking it up, but for most beings, splitting your concentration is difficult.”

“For some time, you will have to rely on the specialization itself,” they continued, taking a step back. “It will not fight with the same skill or intelligence as a trained warrior, but it will act within its limits. Once you learn to relax and trust your blade, you will begin to gain the familiarity you need to properly split your focus.”

“I suppose,” Kat replied, slipping the blindfold back over her eyes. “For right now, all it’s really good for is distracting a much weaker foe or surprising someone that I am fighting face to face with a knife in the back. Still, it’s not like those are useless skills. Either one gives me a fairly powerful tactical advantage in a fight, and beyond the pittance of mana I spend on the Pseudopod, it’s not like Dancing Blade uses any of my resources.”

She let Pseudopod lift the blade into something like a ready position. A shift of Kat’s feet to help her counterbalance the constant rocking of the ship as it passed through the slightly choppy surf later, and she nodded at Dorrik.

“Again.”

The second she said the word, Kat felt Dorrik’s blade in the air. It was a strange sensation. She clearly couldn’t see the attack, but somehow she knew it was coming and reacted before the sword actually came near her.

Her knife blocked, the motion clumsy and awkward compared to Kat’s usual fluid actions, but more importantly, her Pseudopod didn’t lose its grip on the weapon. With the clear ring of metal on metal, her dagger was forced back slightly, unable to match the sheer force behind Dorrik’s strike.

“Good parry, Miss Kat!” the lokkel said enthusiastically. The minute they halted their attacks, Kat lost all sense of them beyond the vague feeling that there was a ‘potential target’ in front of her. “Trust in the skill. It cannot yet handle your full strength or speed, but with time, that will change. I am about to attack twice. Please be ready for both strikes.”

Before she could reply, Kat felt a rush of danger a half second after her knife jerked to the side to block a slash from Dorrik’s sword. The sudden action almost wrenched the weapon from her spell’s grip, but Kat recovered in time, slowing its movements just enough to allow the skill and magic to sync up once again.

Metal clanged against metal once again, and Kat ground her teeth together. She couldn’t see what was happening, but through the skill, she could feel her dagger being pushed back. Once Dorrik’s attack had been deflected just enough, she pulled her knife back. Barely a half second later, the lokkel’s other sword slashed in from the left, once again triggering a flash of danger.

This time, Kat let go, letting her instincts act on their own without pushing or trying to force them to perform a maneuver beyond their abilities. At the last second, the sense of danger coalesced into the blurry image of the lokkel’s sword just as it crossed with her dagger.

Her Pseudopod flowed backward, unable to match Dorrik strength for strength, but more than sufficient to blunt and redirect their attack.

“Very good, Miss Kat!” Dorrik exulted. “One more. I think you’ve figured out how to properly use the skill, but this time I will be moving at full combat speed. Be careful.”

She blew out a breath, willing the Pseudopod to weave side to side as she waited for her skill specialization to—

There! Kat felt the spike of danger from her left, overwhelming the vague feeling of Dorrik in front of her. She willed the knife to parry the attack, biting her lower lip as it took everything in her to not try and push the weapon to move faster.

It made it, barely, intercepting the lokkel’s blade at the last second. Her knife angled itself on its own, not actually blocking the sword, but instead shunting it to the side. If Kat had been standing closer, the attack would have missed by a hair’s breadth. A near thing, but at the end of the day, a wild swing and a near miss cost her the exact same amount of hit points.

“That’s enough, Miss Kat,” Dorrik said contentedly. “I believe you’ve mastered the skill as much as possible in the short time allotted to us. It would be best for you to take off your blindfold and relax for a while. We should be less than a half hour out from the stallesp base. That only leaves a little time for us to get prepared for the battle. After all, we might arrive a bit early or trip an alarm on our way in.”

“I think I have another round or three in me,” Kat replied, willing her Pseudopod to move the knife back and forth in front of the lokkel. “A half hour of practice is still a half hour of me getting better. I want to be as familiar as possible with the skill specialization by the time we hit the stallesp base. I’ve been so occupied with the real world lately, I barely had any time to train.”

“No,” Dorrik replied. They stepped away from her, quieting the vague tingle of threat that Kat had been receiving through Dancing Blade. “You might have time to restore your mana and stamina before we fight the stallesp in earnest, but mental focus is a very different beast. It might not be an element quantified by the dreamscape, but there is no question that it matters. If you are not rested, you may make a mistake, and given that a handful of the stallesp appear to have evolved classes, a mistake might be fatal.”

Kat sighed, reaching up to pull off the blindfold covering her eyes. She blinked hesitantly at the light reflected off of the roiling waves, taking a second to acclimate herself to the sudden brightness before focusing on Dorrik once again.

On the deck next to them, a handful of lokkels jogged by in standardized black and gold armor, chatting cheerfully to each other en route to one of the warship’s ballistae. Nearby, Kaleek ambled over, a large metal jug of water clutched in both of his hands like a talisman against headaches and nausea.

“I think I’m going after the stallesp ship on Earth,” Kat said, struggling to force the words out. She knew that Dorrik wouldn’t approve. The big lizard wanted what was best for her, and risking her life to seize alien salvage was far from safe. That said, they only had a surface level understanding of human politics. Someone was going to grab that wreckage, and the group that did would be in the driver’s seat for human development going forward.

“Are you sure?” Dorrik asked slowly, their crest drooping slightly. “If you encounter stallesp survivors, they won’t be concerned about plausible deniability. Their warriors will likely be injured, but at least half of them will have evolved once. Worse, they will be using modern weaponry. I do not know if there is anything in your race’s tech base that can counter a pulser or a plasma shunt.”

“Someone is going to kill them and take the ship,” Kat replied with an uneasy shrug. “NeoSyne might keep the more important officers alive, but there is no question in my mind that humans are going to overwhelm the survivors with the weight of numbers. Even if thousands die, the potential to gain access to alien technology will drive every shareholder in the area wild with greed. The only question in my mind is who seizes the wreckage. Will it be a corporation I support, a rival, or the NeoSyne stallesp puppets?”

“If it’s a rival,” she continued, toweling the sweat off of her face with the blindfold before tossing it to Dorrik, “that’s not the end of the world. Tri Holdings isn’t exactly friendly with GroCorp, but they can be reasoned with. Likely our execs will have to cede some land and sign some favorable trade contracts with Tri, but so long as we strike a deal that makes them more money, I doubt they’d want to do something silly like take over the world. To most of the megacorporations, land is meaningless beyond a space to put a new mine or factory. All they really care about are the profits they can derive from making and selling their goods.”

“But if NeoSyne gets the ship?” Kat asked rhetorically, a grimace on her face. “That sounds like the end. They aren’t really interested in business as usual. I’ve seen what they could do with even partial stallesp tech, and it scares the crap out of me. If they can replicate the factory I’m in, or even improve on it, it’s only a matter of time before humanity becomes just another mole colony.”

“Sometimes the odds are terrible, but you have to fight anyway,” Kaleek observed, offering Kat the metal container between his paws.

She accepted it, taking a long drink from the slightly warm water before spilling a small amount of it on her face and handing it back to the waiting otter. Kat brushed the water across her face, trying to clear off the last of her sweat from the training before a quick shake of her head flicked the remaining moisture off of her skin.

“Exactly,” Kat responded, opening her eyes once more. “I think that I’ll be able to put together a group of people armed with hybrid technology from the stallesp base. I’ll have to talk to Baker, but I think they’ll be interested in making NeoSyne pay. The only question then is what do I do with the ship once I have it surrounded with power armor and hover tanks? I have some confidence fighting against human forces, but I don’t know the first thing about combating a modern stallesp force. I know from experience that pulsers can rip the armor off of basically anything I can bring to bear.”

“I’d suggest not getting shot,” Kaleek offered sagely before taking another drink from his container. The desoph looked a lot better than he had in front of the bar, but his eyes were still slightly squinted and puffy from the last vestiges of a hangover.

“That is hardly helpful,” Dorrik responded unhappily. “Miss Kat is about to enter a very dangerous situation, and she has come to us for advice. It seems more appropriate for us to try and offer her what aid we can rather than being flippant about the danger of the situation.”

“Nah,” Kaleek said, shaking his head as he emptied the metal tin of water with one last gulp. “What I meant is that Kat has an agility build. If one shot is enough to blow up heavy armor, the answer is just to ignore using heavy armor. I doubt the stallesp will have any armor of their own unless she runs into their marines, and even human weapons can kill an unarmored mole, so Kat is basically on even footing. If she hits her target first, she wins.”

“I do have a pulser,” Kat replied thoughtfully. “If there are only a couple stallesp, I don’t see why fighting them would be all that much harder than fighting humans. They might have abilities from the Tower that let them move faster or do strange things, but it’s still just a matter of seizing the initiative with magic and shooting first. That’s pretty much how I fight samurai right now.”

Dorrik sighed, pressing their face into their upper pair of hands while their lower pair crossed in front of their chest. A moment later, they picked their head back up and locked eyes with Kat.

“I can’t believe I am encouraging this foolishness,” they began, shaking their head, “but most of the stallesp marines died in an attempted teleportation boarding action on my vessel months ago. They were forced to retreat before their home ship could retrieve them, and the survivors fought to the death. There will likely be survivors, but none of them should have access to military grade equipment. Just environment suits and their sidearms. If you have a pulser, that should be more than enough to defeat their defenses.”

Kat nodded as Dorrik confirmed her thoughts. Any stallesp she encountered would likely be higher level than her. Hopefully the crash had left most of them disoriented, injured, and unarmed, but that didn’t mean that they were helpless. Her Iron tier abilities were noticeably more powerful than anything she’d learned at the Wood tier, and that would probably be baseline for any of the aliens she encountered.

Hell, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if she ended up clashing with a stallesp with an evolved class and Silver tier abilities. If she moved fast enough and hit hard enough, Kat could probably take a decent number of the moles so long as she hit them one at a time, but she wasn’t sure that the same could be said for the rest of her battle group.

As good as Davis was, his skillset was focused on defense, using his Tower abilities to enhance his defense while tearing enemies apart with heavy weapons. Emma was a scout and a spy. Kat was pretty sure that the girl had some sort of enhanced senses that she wasn’t open about which made her ideal for that role, but it would take months of training with her batons before she would be a serious threat to a samurai, let alone a level eighteen stallesp using Consensus technology.

Whip? Kat paused for a moment trying to parse her feelings for her friend. Whippoorwill could stay out of sight in a gunfight, but Kat didn’t want her there, risking herself. Really, it was much better if Whip could provide assistance offsite, where Kat wouldn’t be distracted by the prospect of the girl getting hurt.

“If you hope to succeed,” Dorrik continued, sheathing both of their swords, “you will need to gain access to their ship’s internal computer network. Technically, my people cannot assist yours, but it seems foolish to keep our claws tied as we follow the antiquated rules that the stallesp so willingly ignore. I am friends with the lokkel that is handling our taskforce’s electronic warfare suite. She is in the process of breaking into what remains of the crashed ship’s network. Before I went to sleep, she indicated that it didn’t feel like there was anyone on the stallesp end slowing down her hacking attempt.”

“If the network isn’t actively being defended,” Kaleek interjected, “it shouldn’t be that hard for her to break in. Automated systems really can’t measure up to an intelligent being with access to modern cracking equipment.”

“Correct,” the lokkel acknowledged. “I expect her to be done by the time we wake up. Once she is, I can post a copy of the cypher on the Chrome Cowboys message board, disguised as a fan-fiction novel. That way, when you reach the stallesp vessel, you should be able to gain access to any of the systems that are still functioning. With any luck, this will allow you to pick your battles, or even avoid them entirely if you are able to gain control of the ship’s internal defenses.”

“That would help a lot,” Kat replied, perking up at Dorrik’s suggestion. “I’ll need it in some sort of format that Whippoorwill can use. A pile of passcodes that can only be run from a lokkel computer is hardly helpful, but if I have access to the stallesp network, I think I’ll have a real chance at this.”

“Just remember,” Kaleek said, cradling the water jug under one of his furry arms. “As much as I enjoy encouraging people to do reckless things, your life isn’t worth this mission. Even if the humans affiliated with the stallesp win, things will be bad for a while, but there is a larger fight going on off of your planet. So long as you survive, Dorrik and I can send help for you. Just keep yourself alive.”

Dorrik simply nodded. Their crest stood on end, stiff and unmoving, a severe look on their face as they agreed with the normally jovial desoph.

“Miss Kat, please use the codes before you attack the stallesp ship.” Their voice was heavy with concern. “If there are more than a half dozen stallesp still standing, please rethink fighting them. The battlecruiser crashed down hard enough that their inertial field failed. Only a handful of the moles should have survived, but if I am wrong, you will need overwhelming force to deal with them. Please do not put yourself at risk by being a hero. Aircraft and missiles are a much better option than confronting an armed but injured stallesp warrior directly.”

Before Kat could respond, a bell began clanging from the galleon’s crow’s nest. Almost immediately, lokkel began shouting around them as they grabbed bows, spears, and nets from weapon racks en route to the front of the ship.

Dorrik cocked their head, squinting as they looked off into the glinting waves ahead of their vessel.

“Come,” they finished. “Prepare yourself while I take another draught to protect against sea-sickness. It appears that the stallesp have found us before we could surprise their base.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Kat ducked, loading her crossbow as a volley of spiked metal balls flew overhead. Below, a pair of smaller, single-masted sailing ships strained against the wind as they moved past the huge lokkel galleon.

She popped up, taking aim for a brief second before firing a crossbow bolt at one of the stallesp on the back of the other ship. Her quarrel hit the mole in the shoulder, spinning it slightly and shaving off a good portion of its hit points.

With a click of her tongue, Kat dropped below the wooden side rail of the galleon, letting an arrow and a mana blast ricochet off the ship’s protective wards as she reloaded her crossbow. Her shot wasn’t enough to kill the stallesp she’d hit, but hopefully it would take it out of the fight long enough to stop it from arming the small catapult on the back of the other vessel.

Kat raced against time, using the loading claw built into her crossbow to pull back the string and slide another bolt home. Then, after taking a deep breath, she slipped above the side of the ship again, aligning her weapon on another stallesp and firing.

This time, her shot caught the alien in the throat. The creature dropped the small cask of spiked metal balls it had been carrying and clutched at its ruined neck before stumbling backward and tumbling over the side of the ship.

She ducked back down as a pair of lokkel stepped past her, chanting the words to some brand of arcane spell. A second later, each of the giant lizards reached out with all four of their arms, unleashing eight arrows of flame into the singular sail of the stallesp vessel. Almost immediately, the oil-treated canvas burst into flame and the remaining moles began swarming all over the surface of their ship, trying to rip down and quench the burning material before it consumed the entire vehicle.

Kat stood back up. She took her time, sighting her crossbow onto one of the struggling aliens before pulling the trigger, burying an arm’s length of wood and metal into the creature’s back. It stood up, glancing in her direction before Kat finished it with a single casting Overpressure. Technically, the battle plan called for her not using her magic until later, saving her mana for the more important foes while letting her lower-leveled allies take on their stallesp counterparts, but at the same time, Kat wasn’t planning on leaving her job half done. An injured enemy was an enemy that could acquire magical healing and potentially return to the fight.

For her victim, that wouldn’t be a problem. Blood sprayed from the creature’s wound, slicking the ship’s deck as the stallesp collapsed to the wood, thrashing weakly as Kat’s spell drained the last of its life. She continued reloading her crossbow, eyes seeking any of the stallesp that looked like they might have the potential to restore order to the burning skiff, but it looked like the previous round of attacks had done the trick.

Off to the side, the lokkel wizards that had set the smaller enemy ship alight pulled chunks of white meat from their satchels and popped it into their mouths. Kat knew from experience that the rubbery blubber tasted like musty gum, but so long as you kept chewing it, the specially treated meat would provide a steady trickle of mana and stamina. Not enough to instantly refill your pools, but it would provide a noticeable advantage over a longer battle.

The entire galleon shook slightly as both of its catapults and all four ballistae fired at once. Kat wasn’t entirely sure what enchantments were used on the siege weapons, but she did know that her hair practically stood on end at the mana discharge that heralded the wave of attacks.

One of the smaller stallesp skiffs broke apart entirely, the stone from a catapult expanding suddenly just before it struck, shattering deck plates and blowing a hole in the center of the boat about the size of Kat herself. The other catapult missed entirely, splashing down helplessly far enough away from a stallesp boat that it didn’t even manage to wet any of the moles’ fur.

The ballistae, on the other hand, all struck home, ramming deep into the sides and decks of the stallesp warships before unleashing pulses of elemental energy. None of them managed to destroy a vessel entirely, but the waves of ice and lightning were more than enough to cripple or severely injure large portions of their crews, leaving them more or less helpless as the lokkel marines fired volleys of arrows and spells at them, picking off the survivors.

Then a second galleon closed in, firing its complement of catapults and ballista at the damaged and scrambling enemy ships. None of the catapults managed to strike home, but one landed close enough to a damaged boat that the sudden expansion of the stone managed to capsize it. Moments later, the ballista bolts struck, once again unleashing elemental fury on the surviving stallesp.

The sole undamaged stallesp vessel began wheeling around, its sailors struggling to find what cover they could as the two galleons peppered it with a steady hail of arrows and combat spells. Just as it almost managed to escape the onslaught of the attacking lokkel warships, a pair of ballista bolts skewered it from behind, shredding the skiff’s rudder before they exploded into a vortex of metal spikes and wind that all but destroyed the last half of its deck.

The spell and bow attacks shifted from the fleeing vessel to the rest of the floundering stallesp flotilla. A couple of the spellcasters on the burning and crippled ships managed to return fire, and at least a dozen arrows clattered off of the galleon’s wards at one point, but within a minute their attacks tapered off into nothing as the lokkel buried them under a steady stream of metal and magic.

Kat took a deep breath, pushing past the lokkel wizards to make her way to the front of the galleon. Dorrik and Kaleek stood side to side, chatting quietly with a number of other lokkel. Even from a distance, she could make out the trio of aliens with advanced classes, two lokkel and one bird-like alien covered in soft blue down.

The three of them radiated power. Whether it was something inherent to the warriors themselves or their gleaming armor and obviously enchanted weapons, there was just something about them that sent a tingle of danger down her spine. Kat’s mind almost reflexively went back to the moment at the top of the Field Tower when Xander and her had opened fire on a stallesp only for the mole to simply… stop all of their bullets.

That was real power. The ability to simply assert your will on reality. That was why she was climbing the Tower with Dorrik and Kaleek. In order to evolve her class and learn the magic she would need to perform a feat like that. Only once Kat had that sort of capability would she be able to keep her mother and sister safe.

“Miss Kat!” Dorrik called out, waving one of their upper arms as they motioned for her to join them. “It seems that our ranged combatants have driven off the stallesp raiders. Right now, we are closing in on their base and waiting to see if the moles manage to launch their own galleon before we arrive.”

“They certainly were trying to buy time for it,” one of the higher level lokkel ground out, chewing steadily on one of the restorative concoctions. Their dull red scales contrasted with the more common black that Kat had begun to associate with Clan Ahn. “Still, unless they get some sort of advanced warning, I don’t think they’ll manage to get away from their dock in time. We’ll still have to deal with their fixed defenses, but with any luck, we’ll be able to burn their big ship down in its harbor.”

“Where did they get all of the smaller ships anyway?” Kat asked, glancing briefly at the sinking wreckage of the stallesp fleet before returning her gaze to the pair of squat stone fortresses guarding either side of the compact harbor. “The last I heard, they were using one big vessel in order to overwhelm younger combat teams.”

“Scouts,” the other lokkel responded, tilting their head backward slightly to catch a glimpse of Kat. “They carry enough stallesp to ambush a small team, and they move a lot faster than the big hunks of wood we’re on right now.”

“So you’re our expedition’s human,” they grunted. “Dorrik has spoken well of you, and your presence here only confirms their words. I will admit to not being… overly impressed with the reports that came back from first contact with your homeworld, but I make an attempt to judge individuals on their own merit.”

They left their front arms crossed, reaching out with their lower right claw, trapping Kat’s hand in a firm, yet painless handshake.

“My name is Akkast,” the lokkel volunteered. “I am one the leaders of this ship’s combat team. My talon and I will likely be occupied with the stallesp’s evolved warriors, but our scouting reports indicate that we outnumber them heavily. By now, you should know better than to take the moles lightly. They have an animal cunning to them that makes them more difficult opponents than a race their age should be, but so long as you can tie your opponents up for long enough, we should be able to send someone from my team along to help you out once we’ve finished off the more powerful stallesp.”

“I’ve spent enough time amongst Clan Ahn to know Dorrik,” Akkast finished, pumping Kat’s hand one final time before releasing her. “They were one of the most renowned young swordmasters in the entire clan once. Shame about having to start from scratch and all that, but they’ve been rising meteorically ever since. There are a lot of eyes on them and, by extension, you. Acquit yourself well here, human, and you will be a credit to your race.”

Kat nodded weakly at the lokkel, but they had already returned their attention to the island as it grew off the galleon’s bow. She glanced at Kaleek, and the desoph mouthed something. Unfortunately, whatever magic automatically translated communications in the Tower didn’t translate to lip reading.

She stepped away from the front of the ship, walking a couple paces back from the cluster of soldiers and waiting for Kaleek to join her. Kat might not be able to guess the exact words the otter had said, but the roll of his eyes was universal enough to drive his point home.

“Congratulations on meeting Akkast,” Kaleek whispered with a smirk. “They were something like an ally of Dorrik and I in our first ascent up the Tower. They’re a skilled archer that managed to learn a field of arcane magic, so their skillset is in demand in the lower levels. Plus, they’re honorable to a fault. Not the sort to welch on deals or not show up where and when their presence was requested, but still—”

“Would it be possible for them to be less condescending?” Kat asked. “A credit to my species? Is there even a way to say that that doesn’t make my blood boil?”

“When I first met Akkast, they complimented the desoph as an ‘up and coming species,’” Kaleek replied, whiskers twitching with amusement. “We’ve been part of the Consensus for over a thousand years, Kat. Plus, I was just here to make friends, vent frustration, and to not disappoint the elders in my pod. Why would I even care about what other desoph on other planets were doing?”

Kat chewed on her lip as she looked back to the front of the ship. Akkast stood at the head of a crowd of warriors, leading the conversation as they pointed out various portions of stallesp defenses. At one point, they barked something out, and almost all of the higher level lokkel began laughing immediately. Only Dorrik and the bird alien didn’t respond.

“I know that Akkast said that we only needed to find and hold a couple of the stallesp that descended from a higher floor,” Kat began, running a hand through her hair, “but I’d prefer to not owe them one for a timely rescue. What do you say we hurry through our targets and provide an assist for Akkast instead?”

Kaleek’s face broke into a broad grin, and he slapped Kat playfully on the shoulder.

“Now you’re speaking my language, Kat,” he responded with a chuckle. “The easiest way to know that I’ve been replaced by a flash clone is to ask me if I want to kill a whole bunch of stallesp. If I say no, someone got to me. Plus as much as I… respect Akkast, sticking one down their gullet like this sounds fun.”

“Good,” Kat said, giving the otter a quick thumbs up. “Once we find our first set of enemies, hold your target still for a second. I should be able to outpace mine, and I have an idea to finish yours off quickly.”

“I normally don’t approve of kill stealing,” the desoph replied, “but I think I’ll make an exception just this once. I’ve seen what you can do with a knife, and it’s pretty clear you’re going for an assassin’s build. It’d be a shame not to use you to quickly finish a couple of the moles before they realize what they’re in for.”

“Glad to know we’re on the same pa—” Kat began only to be cut off by an alarm from the front of the galleon.

Overhead, a ball of rock grew in the sky, suspended on unseen hands of mana. Barely a second after the spell began, the ball narrowed, turning into a half dozen spears of stone that burst into flame before raining down on their ship.

The avian warrior at the front of the galleon threw their talons up into the air, spitting out a quick invocation in a high breathy voice before a hemisphere of glowing energy sprang into being.

Burning spears struck the barrier like hammer blows from the sky. The entire shield shook, driving Kat and dozens of lokkel sailors to their knees as the vibrations from the titanic spell thrummed through the air and through the wooden structure of the galleon.

With each strike, the shield shrank, covering less of the galleon. Fire, wind, and burning hot chunks of stone whipped around Kat, stinging her cheeks and hissing as it turned the water surrounding their ship into steam.

Then, barely two seconds later, the bombardment was over. The shield flickered, cracks covering its clear surface as it barely managed to stay coherent. Behind Kat, a pair of lower level lokkel scurried up a mast, the claws on their six limbs gouging slivers out of the wood as they ascended to put out a number of small fires on the galleon’s sails.

“Someone get Kra’Tkrat a mana potion!” Akkast bellowed, waving one of their upper claws. “The enemy is unleashing siege spells and we will need his wards if we want a ship to return to. Everyone else? To your stations. Weapons teams, I’m going to want you to give everything you have to cover the landing craft. Now isn’t the time to skimp on mana!”

All over the ship, people sprang into action. Lokkel planted their claws on the sides of the catapults, glowing lightly blue as they transferred their energy into the enchanted weapon emplacements. Meanwhile, Kat, Kaleek, Dorrik, and dozens of lokkel ran for the smaller landing craft lining racks along the ship’s starboard side.

The galleon wheeled around with glacial slowness, presenting its port to the island while the catapults and ballistae on its deck peppered the stallesp harbor fortresses with magically enhanced projectiles. As soon as the landing craft winch was protected by the ship’s bulk from the island’s armaments, it lowered the first six person boat into the water.

The first over-leveled team, three lokkel in gleaming silver armor, jumped into the boat, followed a moment later by another three. Four of the lokkel grabbed oars, two per side, and seconds later, the ship shot away from the galleon even as the deck crew hooked the winch up to another landing boat.

Another boat splashed down into the water, explosions rocking the stallesp forts as all three galleons focused their fire on them in the background. Overhead, Kra’Tkrat had cast another shield, and with the amount of siege weaponry aimed at the mole base, the stallesp couldn’t marshal the time or energy to repeat another Silver tier spell like the first one.

Then, Kat’s boat hit the water. Almost without thinking, she cast Levitation on herself and Dorrik. Kaleek jumped down of his own accord, easily beating the two of them as they floated down into the oversized rowboat. A moment later, a trio of lokkel joined them, each wearing leather armor with bands of dark metal embedded in them.

One of their companions nodded respectfully at Kat before grabbing an oar while another lokkel scrambled past her to take up their position on the other side of the ship. Ahead of Kat, Dorrik took up a slot alongside the remaining lokkel as Kaleek planted one of his furry feet on the prow of their boat.

He glanced once over their companions before turning to Kat and nodding. With sure, practiced motions, she reached up, cutting through the rope that secured their rowboat. Already, the deck workers overhead would have the next landing craft secured in its own rope harness, ready to descend the moment they left.

“We’re clear!” Kaleek shouted, his teeth flashing white against the roiling ocean behind them as he grinned at the rest of the boat. “Now put your backs into it! I know that the lot of you can’t swim, so the sooner we get to shore, the better. I’d prefer not to die, but if it has to happen, I want it to be with my sword hilt deep in some mole, not plastered by an onager halfway to shore!”

As one, the lokkel heaved, their oars churning the water around their ship. Then they jerked forward, the momentum forcing Kat to reach down and grab one of the metal bars running across the rowboat’s deck for balance.

The shield on the galleon shuddered, deflecting another high end attack. Kat had no way of knowing if the stallesp had cast another spell or if one of their weapon emplacements had found their range, but regardless of the cause, she breathed a sigh of relief as their landing craft rounded the edge of the great wooden vessel and entered open water.

Between their galleon and shore, the water churned. Mana from a half dozen spells fought for control of the waves as spellcasters from both sides struggled to hinder or aid the landing boats.

At least a half dozen of the smaller ships were approaching the harbor forts, forging forward against a hail of arrows that sleeted down at extreme range. Planks and the dorsal fins of harbor sharks marked where spells or heavier weapon emplacements had managed to destroy one or two of the ships.

Kat dismissed that concern from her mind as she shifted her focus back to the stallesp emplacements themselves. Already one was burning, a good portion of its stone outer walls reduced to rubble by the focused attacks of the lokkel fleet. The other still had active wards, reflecting the waves of lightning fire and ice coming off of the ballista bolts back into the waves.

As she watched, it returned fire, a catapult launching a metallic sphere high up into the air. For a second, the object glinted in the sunlight before it pulsed with mana, spraying a geyser of green liquid toward one of the other galleons.

A wall of force that immediately reminded Kat of Gravity Plane sprang into existence, catching the stream and accelerating it downward into the water just in front of the ship. Almost immediately, the green liquid began to hiss and bubble, releasing a cloud of steam that began to eat away at the wards and heavy wooden planks of the galleon.

Then a ballista bolt hit the heavy catapult atop the remaining fortress. It wasn’t strong enough to penetrate the building’s wards, but that didn’t stop the bolt from shattering in a flash of magic and building a dome of roots that encased the weapon emplacement.

Distantly, Kat heard cheering from the galleons as the heavy attacks from the stallesp stopped, leaving only the smaller and more easily deflected attacks from the fortification’s ballista.

Catapult stones continued to rain down on both forts, pummeling their walls and forcing the warriors on their battlements behind cover. The stallesp would still pop out, carefully picking shots at the advancing landing craft, but it was far from the overwhelming waves of arrows that had assaulted the first couple of ships to try to slip past them.

Just as those initial ships began to land, each sporting enough arrows from their deck to resemble a porcupine, Kat’s landing craft came into the stallesp archers’ range. She cast Gravity Plane, twisting to move the shimmering wall of force to catch the handful of inaccurate arrows fired in their direction.

The spell grabbed the projectiles, stealing none of their forward momentum, but instead directing them sharply downward into the waves in front of her boat. To an outsider, it almost looked like their landing craft was simply pushing forward through a gentle rain as the arrows, bolts, and sling stones plopped and splashed around them, but Kat was practically biting through her lip as she struggled to keep track of all the incoming attacks.

Luckily, her upgraded reaction attribute was up to the task. The key was to avoid the attacks that were set to overshoot them. In those cases, intervening with Gravity Plane would likely do more harm than good. For the rest, it was a matter of forcing the plate of energy to move as fast as her mind could shift it in order to intercept and disarm the projectiles. If it were only one fort, her task might be easier, but despite the severe damage done to the burning structure, there were still a handful of stallesp manning its walls and making her life difficult.

As they approached, her task only increased, the arrows carrying more velocity and giving her much less time to measure and judge their approach. A handful made it through. Most buried themselves in the sides of the landing craft harmlessly, but at least one struck the lokkel rowing in front of her.

Without missing a beat, Kaleek jumped backward from the prow, pulling the crossbow bolt from the grimacing lizard’s arm with a swift, sure motion before upending a potion of some sort on the injury. With a hiss, an acrid burning smell filled Kat’s nostrils, and she tried not to think about how painful the healing salve must have been, but the lokkel only missed a handful of strokes before it was back to full strength, helping propel them past the looming fortresses.

Just as they passed the two forts, the burning one on the left exploded, one of the mana reservoirs powering its wards finally penetrated by a ballista bolt. Heat and wind assaulted Kat as she frantically repositioned Gravity Plane to catch the torso-sized chunks of masonry and slam them into the water before they hit her ship.

A sling bullet slammed into her lower back as she ignored the remaining fort, the attack’s force blunted heavily by her enchanted armor, robbing her of a good fifteen percent of her mana reserves and leaving a bruise nonetheless.

Then they were through, through the gauntlet of fortifications with all passengers intact and into the small but deep harbor the stallesp had carved into the side of the island. A number of residences and what looked like a makeshift adventurer’s hall lined the sandy beaches of the island, but it was hard to care about such mundane things.

In the center of the harbor loomed a galleon, almost ten percent bigger than any of the ships that had brought the lokkel attack force to the island. Stallesp ran about its deck, trying to prepare the ship to sail, and at least a couple were cranking the winch of a catapult built into the ship’s bow.

Ahead on the beach were a handful of abandoned landing ships. Even as Kat watched, another lokkel boat slid ashore, disgorging its five surviving warriors. They ran up the beach, joining a cluster of other individuals that were trying to battle their way through a cluster of stallesp that were guarding the gangway that connected the galleon to the small village.

“There she is, Kat,” Kaleek remarked from next to her. “The ships outside the harbor have the remaining fort dead to rights, but that boat is our last true obstacle. If we take her, that’s the battle. Hundreds of younger avatars avenged and a substantial setback for stallesp plans in the Tower.”

“Then let’s storm the thing,” Kat responded, wiping the sweat from her brow as she popped one of the cubes of restorative ‘gum’ in her mouth. “I’ve had enough of being on the defensive. It’s time to make the stallesp feel the sting too.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

The crossbow thumped against Kat’s shoulder, unloading its payload into the furry body of a stallesp. The bolt slipped past the creature’s half-donned armor and buried itself in its shoulder. It squealed and stumbled backward, hatchet dropping from its hands as it clutched helplessly at the arrow.

Its confusion only lasted for a half second before a lokkel thrust forward, spitting it on a war spear while blocking another stallesp’s wild swing with a warhammer on a metal shield held in the big lizard’s other two hands. As soon as the mole’s companion went down, the lokkel dropped their spear, reaching up with their top arm to grab the haft of the hammer. For an eyeblink, the lizard held the warhammer wide, leaving the stallesp exposed. Then their lower arm darted forward, claws exposed, to rip the enemy warrior’s throat out.

Kat slowed her jog toward the struggle to fold her bow up before clipping it to her back. A burst of stamina invested in Cat Step sped her up enough to catch up with the rest of her team just before they hit the line of stallesp.

It was hardly even worth their effort. The soldiers that had come to meet the lokkel forces were low level and poorly equipped, sacrificial pawns that ran out to meet the invaders with whatever weapons and armor were immediately on hand in order to buy the rest of their base more time.

Kaleek and Dorrik tore through them, not even bothering to use skills. Their blades flashed in the fake sunlight of the Tower, moving too fast and striking too hard for the stallesp to effectively counter them. Even if one of their opponents managed to get a blade or a shield up in time, more often than not, the first blow was more than enough to spill them to the ground. After that, a quick follow up blow was all it took to finish the downed fighter.

As for Kat? She didn’t fare quite as well as Kaleek and Dorrik, but she did her fair share of damage. Her fighting style focused more on mobility, drawing an attack from an opponent and then finishing them with a flurrying of sharp, decisive blows while they were overextended. It didn’t lend itself well to the crush and clamor of the crowd, and it certainly didn’t let her overcome her opponents with brute strength.

Still, as yet more landing craft ground into the beach behind them, the delaying action in front of the galleon began to crumble. None of the stallesp ran. After all, dying in the Tower simply meant not having a subscription until their sponsors could purchase them another, no actual harm would come to them.

At the same time, they didn’t put up nearly as much of a fight. The moles knew that their companions had left them behind as a sacrifice against a foe that outmatched them. Once they were outnumbered two to one, they just didn’t fight with as much fire.

Barely two minutes from the start of the fight, the last stallesp fell on the beach. A quick glance at the galleon drew Kat’s mouth into a grim line. The moles swarmed over the ship, drawing its sails to try to catch enough wind to pull it away from the dock while a dozen or so pushed against the bottom of the harbor with long wooden poles.

Worse still, almost two dozen stallesp lined the deck near the gangplank, blocking entry. The actual wooden walkway to the ship itself was barely wide enough for three warriors at a time, meaning that anyone that led the way would be swamped by the defenders in no time.

A crossbow bolt whizzed into the sand nearby. Kat whipped her head to the side, taking note of a trio of stallesp manning each of the three crow’s nests that topped the ship’s masts. At any point in time, two of the sailors were frantically loading crossbows while the third aimed and shot.

Another arrow zipped downward, but rather than finding the beach, it buried itself in the throat of one of the lokkel. Kat ran to help them only for one of their comrades to wave her off. The downed lizard gasped once, choking on its own blood before the life left their eyes.

The other lokkel were right. A Wood tier healing skill wasn’t enough to restore the number of hit points lost from an arrow to the throat. Her spell could heal a broken limb or a deep slash, but in the cases of a pressing injury, it was little more than a waste of mana.

“Lokkel!” Kat’s head whipped backward at Akkast’s shout. The reddish lizard stepped off of a landing boat onto the white-yellow sand of the beach. A huge recurve bow, crafted from monster horn and carefully lacquered until it gleamed in the sun, was held in their lower pair of hands.

“Tarmok and Kra’Tkrat have engaged the enemy spellcaster in the remaining fortress,” Akkast continued, striding purposefully onto the beach. One of their upper hands whipped out as they spoke, slapping a crossbow bolt from the air. “The way is open! We must storm the stallesp galleon before it can push off. If it makes it to open water, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to catch up to it and finish it, making this entire operation for naught.”

Their speech was cut short as an axe, almost as big as Kat’s torso, whipped through the air, slamming into the ground where Akkast had been standing with a geyser of sand. The lokkel finished their roll, coming up in a crouch with their bow at ready, their left two arms holding the weapon itself while their right two drew back the string.

Akkast fired, their arms glowing red and the air itself thrumming in Kat’s lungs as they released the string. The arrow screamed toward the galleon, producing a high-pitched whine that made Kat’s teeth ache, even at a distance.

A stallesp stepped into the open on the forecastle of the enemy galleon, clad neck to ankles in dull black armor and holding a tower shield in its left arm as big as its entire body. And its body was huge. The creature was easily a head taller than the lokkel around Kat, let alone the shorter stallesp. The worst part was that it didn’t look ‘tall.’ Instead, the stallesp was built like a mountain, layers of muscle and fur making it look completely natural, like its companions were unnaturally short rather than it being an absolute giant.

It raised its shield casually, angling it slightly to the side in an almost dismissive motion just as Akkast’s arrow was about to strike. Wards flashed on the galleon’s deck, glowing white for a millisecond before shattering under the sudden attack, but it barely mattered.

The arrow exploded against the shield, emitting a screech that staggered half the battlefield. Other than the armored warrior, the stallesp on the forecastle collapsed bonelessly, occasionally twitching spasmodically as their nerves fired semi-randomly. That said, the massive stallesp only took one step backward, its shield glowing red from the use of a defensive skill.

It pointed toward the beach with its left hand, and the axe buried in the sand near Akkast transformed into a lightning bolt, burning back through the air until it slammed into the stallesp’s hand, reconstituting itself in a shower of sparks.

“And that,” Kaleek said, nudging Kat in the ribs, “is why we try to avoid enemies with evolved classes and Silver tier skills if possible. The three of us working together can probably take one down, but as big of a jump as Iron tier skills are, an upgraded class and Silver tier skills leave them in their wake.”

“But we must be prepared for that eventuality,” Dorrik cut in, nodding toward the battle at the front of the galleon. “There are a great number of stallesp, and it is possible that Akkast will need help. If possible, we should avoid evolved warriors, but if our help is needed, we must stand ready to provide that help.”

Kat nodded thoughtfully, turning her gaze to the gangplank as she chewed her restorative gum thoughtfully. The lokkel were doing their best, but this time they were fighting prepared foes. The stallesp guarding the entrance to the galleon were wearing full sets of armor and wielding weapons tailored to their individual fighting styles. The attackers were fighting hard, perhaps a little better than the stallesp defending the gangplank, but ultimately the problem was width.

Only three of the big lizards could attack the defenders at once, letting the stallesp hold the line, delaying the lokkel from boarding the ship where their greater numbers could be put to proper use. Of course, it wasn’t even an inevitability that the lokkel would be able to board the ship. Already the galleon was beginning to move under the combined effort of the wind and the sailors heaving at the poles plunged into the silty floor of the harbor.

On the ground, archers and wizards traded attacks with their counterparts on the galleon, but more often than not, one of the big ship’s wards would flare to life, deflecting an attack or absorbing it entirely. In short, they were playing a long game of attrition and waiting, one that they were likely to lose unless someone could break up the stalemate on the galleon’s deck.

Kat bit her lip, chewing fretfully as she glanced over the massive ship, trying to think of another option. Finally, she sighed. Lokkel were dying as she wasted time.

“I have a plan,” she said, eyes still on the galleon’s deck, “but it is very dumb and I’ll need backup.”

“Perhaps we should think this—” Dorrik began only for Kaleek to interrupt them.

“Already on board, Kat.” She could practically see the grinning otter behind her.

“Kaleek,” Kat continued, turning around and putting a hand on the desoph’s arm as she cast Levitation on herself. “I need you to throw me at the ship.”

His grin spread, almost becoming painfully wide. The otter slammed his sword into the ground and reached for Kat as he responded, “Ever since you learned that gravity spell, I’ve been waiting for this moment. I thought you’d never ask, Kat.”

She finished her second casting of Levitation as Kaleek picked her up, feeling herself lighten until she actually began to float slightly away. Doubling up on the same spell began to burn through her mana at an unsustainable rate, but she wouldn’t need both of the castings for long. The desoph’s fingers dug into her side, holding her in place as Kaleek pulled her down, rotating slightly to the side so that he would be able to get the maximum torque for his coming throw.

“Now, Miss Kat!” Dorrik interjected, alarm in their voice, but Kat cut them off instead.

“Lokkel are dying and I can break the gridlock this way,” she offered, curling her body into a ball to cut down on wind resistance. “I should be able to clear things up within a couple seconds of landing, but I expect to have almost every other stallesp hunting me the moment that happens. Just promise to pull me out of this mess as soon as possible and everything will be fine.”

Before the lokkel could reply, Kaleek spun once, rotating like a discus thrower before launching Kat’s less than weightless body toward the stallesp galleon. For a brief moment, she could feel her lunch churning in her throat, and then the sensation of acceleration ended.

Kat opened her eyes. She was already halfway to the stallesp ship and steadily rising higher into the air. One of the archers manning a crow’s nest took aim at her only to duck back under the wooden railing when a trio of Ego Shards from Dorrik peppered the air around him, buying Kat the half second she needed to cut off the second instance of Levitation.

She began to descend slightly, angling toward the galleon’s deck even as she began to charge Gravity Spike. At the front of the ship, the huge stallesp traded blow for blow with Akkast, deflecting or absorbing one magical arrow after another on its enchanted tower shield while casually tossing its battle axe across the almost five hundred pace distance in order to keep the lokkel from properly setting their feet for a full attack.

Both sides were spending stupendous amounts of resources. Even far above the ship’s deck, the hair on the back of Kat’s neck was standing on end as mana and skills began to warp and melt the galleon below.

But that wasn’t her problem. Kat unleashed Gravity Spike on the tight cluster of stallesp guarding the entry ramp just as she cut the mana to her final casting of Levitation.

None of the wards activated. The arc of Kaleek’s throw had taken Kat well past the boundaries of the galleon, and the same functionality that let the defenders fire out with impunity failed to recognize Kat’s spell as an internal attack.

She hit the deck, tucking her head and shoulder into a roll to help bleed the momentum of Kaleek’s throw as her enchanted armor absorbed the brunt of the concussive trauma. A second later, Kat was on her feet, a half dozen or so of the stallesp sailors gaping at her in surprise.

Without waiting for a response, Kat reached into the bandoleer built across her chest guard, drawing a well-balanced throwing knife and hurling it with all her force at the back of one of the stallesp guarding the gang plank.

The dagger sank into the back of the alien’s neck, jerking it forward a half step before it slumped lifelessly to the ground, joining the five or six stallesp that had been in the area of effect for Gravity Spike.

Reflexively, she jerked to the side, letting a fist-sized glob of fire magic soar past her and gutter out against the deck planks. Kat began running, activating Cat Step to keep her movements fast and erratic as she threw another knife into the unsuspecting back of a stallesp holding a halberd.

It stumbled backward, screaming in agony as it clutched at the offending knife, and the cluster of stallesp guarding the entry ramp broke. One of the warriors stepped backward to dodge a sword strike from a lokkel, only to trip over the twisted corpse of one of its companions, crushed into a wreck of flesh and bone by Gravity Spike.

The lokkel took advantage of the opening and lunged forward, killing their opponent and surging into the gap created by Kat’s spell. Just as the other stallesp prepared to kill the interloper, Kat’s second dagger hit, drawing their attention and pulling the injured stallesp out of formation.

Before the rest of the stallesp could recover, another lokkel jumped into the opening, slamming its tail into one of the two remaining stallesp blocking the gangplank and sending the mole tumbling into the ocean with a distressed scream.

Then the defensive cordon came tumbling down. Stallesp began to fall, cut down by lokkel steel and spells, and as their numbers thinned, they were replaced by lokkel. In a matter of seconds, the impasse reversed and the attacking forces poured onto the galleon’s deck.

Kat was hardly in a position to care. Above her, enemies leaned over the edge of their crow’s nests, sniping at her with their crossbows. Even as she swerved in a serpentine pattern across the ship’s deck, other stallesp began to open fire with spells and arrows.

Within seconds of landing, her entire world morphed into a blur. Kat fell into her instincts, letting her reaction attribute take over as she ducked under globs of acid and danced aside to avoid arrows crackling with frost or electricity. Stamina flowed out of her body like water as she pushed Cat Step to its limits.

Kat leaned backward, letting a sling bullet, practically humming with mana, zip past her face only to explode into flame and stinging shrapnel against one of the galleon’s masts. She winced, diving behind a barrel filled with wet sand. One hand touched her face, drawing a bright spike of pain as her fingers came away damp with her own blood.

The deck shuddered under her feet. Without bothering to look, Kat Leapt to the side a fraction of a second before a stallesp warrior clad in grayish black armor bulldozed through the barrel, sending sand flying everywhere before it slammed into the wood wall of the aft-castle just behind where she had been hiding. It spun around, beady eyes fixed on Kat as she landed about ten paces away.

The stallesp was wearing full body armor, its pink nose and eyes visible under a rimless half-sphere of metal connected by a chain under its chin. It lifted both of its hands, each wrapped in a gauntlet made of golden metal and ending in a pair of forearm-length spikes.

It slammed the handguards together with a loud clang and lowered its shoulder. Kat squared her feet, letting out a deep breath as the stallesp erupted in red light and rocketed forward.

She flowed to the side, grimacing as the stallesp seemed to shift in midair. One second it was a blur, speeding toward her former spot, and the next was traveling right at her. It didn’t bother to slow or change direction, instead spending stamina to track Kat by brute force through an unknown skill.

Kat dropped onto her back, curling her right leg upward so that her knee touched her chest. Just as it reached her, she finished casting Pseudopod, the tentacle of water reaching out and grabbing the stallesp by the back of its neck and pulling it downward and off balance.

It stabbed downward with one of its gauntlets as it fell and Kat’s arm twisted to the right, slamming into the side of the metal with enough force to bruise her to the bone. The blow deflected just enough to miss her, turning the wooden planks of the deck into sawdust just to the left of her head.

Then Kat’s leg kicked upward, planting itself in the center of the stallesp’s chest and pushing with all of her might even as she began focusing her mana on casting Levitation once again. The stallesp gave a surprised squeak as Kat’s kick and its momentum launched it through the air, her spell catching it a moment later and extending its arc.

She jumped to her feet, ignoring the pain radiating from her face and arm as she activated Cat Step once again. A trio of shuriken rocketed into the wood where she was laying, a fourth embedding itself in her calf with a bright flash of pain that stole Kat’s breath.

The agony almost stopped her. Every instinct in Kat’s body screamed that she should collapse and grab the bloody wound, but her sense of self-preservation won out. If she stopped, her attacker would finish her in a matter of seconds. Kat’s only hope was to keep moving and count on her companions to protect her back.

The deck blurred under her, Dorrik bellowing a feral challenge behind her as they launched a flurry of Ego Shards at the stallesp that had attacked her. Behind Kat, the tenor of the battle had changed strongly in the lokkels’ favor. The precious seconds where she occupied most of the defenders’ attention were enough to turn the tide, and now almost half of the galleon was in the lizards’ grasp.

Kat reached the gauntleted stallesp just before it touched down, cutting the mana flow to Levitation and casting Overpressure as she stabbed downward into the back of the creature’s neck. Her arm glowed red for a brief second, empowering Penetrate as the blade slipped through her opponent’s spine, disabling them an eyeblink before the wound erupted into a volcano of blood.

She fell to one knee, agony rippling across her face as Kat pulled the throwing star from her calf and began muttering the words to her healing spell. A handful of seconds later, the bleeding stopped. The wound still hurt like hell, but Kat didn’t have the luxury of taking more than a short break to catch her breath.

Standing up, she surveyed the battlefield. A handful of lokkel were on the deck, twisted into heaps along with a dozen or more stallesp. The remaining moles were being pushed back, only holding their ground in small clusters around higher-leveled warriors.

Her gaze fastened itself upon Kaleek. The desoph was leading a trio of lokkel against six stallesp. One of the furry aliens lay dead at their feet, opened from shoulder to hip by a single slash from Kaleek’s greatsword, but at some point a higher level stallesp, wearing robes and wielding a metal-bladed whip that seemed to move and writhe with a life of its own, had joined the enemy, rallying its companions and holding the big otter at a standstill.

It didn’t exude overwhelming power the way an avatar with an evolved class would, but Kat couldn’t help but notice some of the dents in Kaleek’s heavy plate as the creature’s whip coiled backward like a snake, spitting sparks of red and blue as it prepared to strike. It might not be completely out of their reach, but there was no question in Kat’s mind that it had at least a couple of levels on their team as well as the gear and Iron tier skills to match.

Kaleek looked up, making eye contact with Kat. He inclined his head slightly, tipping his sword toward the stallesp. One of its allies swung a maul at the otter, but he simply grunted, lowering his shoulder into the blow and letting the red glow of a skill encompass his side.

At the same moment, the robed stallesp lashed out with its whip, the strip of sharpened metal coiling around Kaleek’s sword and jerking it to the side as a crackling ball of purple lighting sprang into existence in the creature’s off hand.

He didn’t say anything to Kat. Kaleek didn’t need to. Her thrown dagger hit the stallesp square in the center of its back. Unsurprisingly, the cloth armor flashed with light and mana, stiffening a second before her weapon hit and absorbing the blow.

It turned, half facing Kat as it raised its hand to unleash the bolt of lightning only for Dazzle to erupt in its face. Kaleek released his blade, jumping backward as the stallesp shrieked in surprise, jagged lines of destruction erupting from its hand and ripping a gaping, jagged hole into the deck below.

Kat snapped her right foot outward, cracking it into the back of the alien’s knee, disrupting its balance. It swiped sightlessly toward her, its hand still coated in crackling and jumping sparks of purple energy.

She ducked under the blow, allowing Crippling Blow to guide her movements as Kat drove her knife into the unprotected side of the alien’s neck. The blade burned red as she activated Penetrate to power her attack through its thick, corded muscles.

It tried to scream, a hollow, gurgling sound due to the gash her blade had opened in what passed for the alien’s windpipe. At the last moment, it recovered from the disorientation caused by Dazzle, its eyes alighting on her in surprise, anger, and resignation.

Kat ripped the dagger free, spraying a crescent of blood across the cluster of stallesp.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Kaleek planted his foot in the chest of a stallesp, kicking the creature with enough force that it went skittering across the galleon’s deck, the maul in its hands flying from its grip. He reached down, scooping his greatsword from the ground in one smooth motion before lunging toward another stallesp.

The mole squeaked, backpedaling away from the charging desoph only for Kat’s Pseudopod to snake down, grabbing an ankle and yanking to the side. It tumbled over backward, slamming its back onto the deck of the galleon only to be pinned like a butterfly by a downward stab from Kaleek.

Kat danced past the two of them. A stallesp thrust a spear at her, but the weapon almost seemed to be moving in slow motion. She twisted her body to the side, slapping out with her left hand to deflect it ever so slightly before reversing the grip on her dagger in one smooth motion and shoving it through the narrow eye slit of her opponent’s helmet.

She pulled it free with a squelching noise and a spurt of blood, wheeling around in search of another opponent, only to find that the lokkel supporting Kaleek and her had finished off the rest of their enemies. One of the lizards nodded gratefully at Kat before the three of them jogged off, looking for more stallesp to kill.

Kaleek reached into a pouch at his belt, pulling out two squares of blubber. He popped one into his mouth before offering the spare to Kat. Gratefully, she took the chunk of enchanted meat, spitting the spent remnants of another cube of ‘gum’ out before replacing it in her mouth.

She began chewing, letting the tingle of the mana and stamina restorative go to work. Her left arm was still bruised, likely to the bone, and her face had a long cut across her cheekbone that was still bleeding freely. Worse still, her left leg ached with every step, her previous wound only partially healed.

Still, she was standing where her opponents were not. Already, teams of lokkel were beginning to scale the rigging, hunting the archers that fired futile shots at them from the ship’s crows’ nests. The stallesp near the back of the galleon had abandoned the poles they had been using to push off of the harbor floor, and they were fighting with whatever weapons they could find on hand as lokkel warriors stormed the aft-castle.

The situation at the front of the ship was a bit more worrying. Akkast was still engaged in a long-ranged duel with the heavily armored stallesp guarding the forecastle. While impressive, their battle was inconclusive with the lokkel archer diving and rolling on the beach before firing heavily enchanted arrows that the defender seemed to more or less shrug off only to respond with a throw of its magically returning battle-axe.

A trio of lower level stallesp worked the galleon’s forward catapult, one of them frantically cranking the winch that lowered the weapon’s arm while the others aimed and loaded the siege machinery. With a thump, it unloaded its payload on the beach, a rock that shattered in the air, unleashing two dozen smaller stones that exploded when they hit the sand, unleashing a maelstrom of sand that swallowed at least two of the lower level lokkel charging toward the galleon from their beached landing craft.

An elbow poked Kat gently in the ribs, drawing her attention back to Kaleek. The desoph’s armor was covered in dents, and a portion of the fur on his face was missing, leaving behind a gash just below his ear, but despite his appearances, the big otter’s smile was as bright as ever.

“The catapult is going to be a problem,” he said, nodding in the direction of the forecastle. “Thanks for the assist, by the way. I could have handled the mole on my own, but it had enough friends with it that any attempt to strike a decisive blow would have left me helpless.”

“Plus,” Kaleek chuckled, cocking his head to the side to crack his neck. “I had to run interference for the newbies. Their hearts are in it, but too many of them are already dead on the beach. I know that Clan Ahn can pay for them to re-enter the dreamscape, but that’s still months if not years of time lost just to teach the furry bastards a lesson. It just didn’t seem right to sacrifice a couple of them to finish my opponent off.”

The deck shook as the armored stallesp planted its tower shield into the wooden planks, slamming its shoulder into the plate of metal to brace it in response to a particularly powerful arrow Akkast fired at the ship. The arrow exploded into light as it hit the stallesp’s defenses, sending streaks of blue mana rushing past the alien. Most scored holes in the ship itself, but at least one zipped by, boring a thumb-sized hole through the forearm of the enemy trying to load the catapult.

Kat shook her head, eyes on the battle between evolved warriors as she responded. “I’m not sure I want to venture up there without Dorrik. Right now, it looks like even stray shots could do a number on us. I’m not even sure we’d be helping Akkast out. Frankly, we’d probably just force them to scale back their attacks to avoid hurting us.”

“Agreed,” Kaleek replied, eyeing up the battle. “The first evolution and Silver tier skills are around when the abilities you pick up in the dreamscape begin to match modern technology. I honestly can’t think of any way to help Akkast out without getting both of us killed, but on the other hand, that sort of planning is more of a ‘Dorrik problem’ anyway.”

“We should probably find them then,” Kat responded, wincing slightly as she lifted her left arm to shield her eyes. “It’s not like them to leave us on our own for this long unless something came up.”

“That’s true,” Kaleek agreed. “They certainly wanted to give you a piece of their mind after you let me throw you onto the stallesp ship. Half of the charge up the gangplank, they were lecturing me on how irresponsible I was for putting you at risk like that. I’m not entirely sure they realize how much of your waking time you spend stabbing people.”

“Found them,” Kat remarked, motioning with her dagger. Dorrik stood with their back to a mast, one stallesp attacking them from either side. One of the fuzzy aliens wore chainmail made from some sort of dull gray metal, a handaxe with a pick on the reverse side in either hand. The other stood a half step back, holding high a scepter that glowed with ruby light.

“Race you,” Kaleek said cheerfully, breaking into a jog. “I’ll take down the dual wielder and you handle the spellcaster. Last one to drop their enemy has to carry the other’s loot out of the next dungeon.”

Kat didn’t respond, instead activating Cat Step and racing past the desoph. He barked something in protest, but she wasn’t paying enough attention to actually hear his words. Just before she reached her target, the stallesp spun around, raising its scepter high and shouting an arcane activation phrase in a guttural and rasping tongue.

She stutter-stepped, feinting to the left before throwing her body to the right. Just as the alien fired, sending a beam of reddish purple energy burning through the air and ripping a hole in the ship’s deck, Kat reached out with Pseudopod, gripping its wrist and jerking upward.

The hair stood up on the back of Kat’s neck as she raced past the pulsing streamer of raw magic. The stallesp snarled at her, trying to wrestle control of its weapon back from her spell as she faded to its right, aiming a quick thrust from her dagger into the creature’s unprotected side.

It spat out another command phrase, a harsh ball of consonants and edges. Just before Kat’s blade bit home, a glassy oval of force sprang into being around the stallesp, stopping her knife cold. Through her Pseudopod, Kat felt her spell lose its grip on the alien as its shield brushed the mana construct aside.

It leered down at her, pink nose twitching as it swung the scepter in a downward angle. The weapon wasn’t firing a beam of energy anymore, but at the same time, the ball of crackling red energy gathered around the mace’s head looked like it would all but rip her in half.

Without thinking, she ducked, stepping forward under the blow until she was almost pressing her body against the wall of force protecting the stallesp. Before it could react, she cast Dehydrate, targeting her opponent’s face.

A squeal of pain confirmed her suspicion. Whatever magic was protecting the stallesp, it only blocked physical attacks; it ignored her spell entirely.

The stallesp took a half step backward, its beady black eyes shriveling visibly as Kat’s spell stole all of their moisture. The smooth feeling of the alien’s defensive field against her skin faded, replaced by bristles of its coarse fur.

She pushed, slamming her upper body against the stallesp, left hand wrapped in its fur while the knife in her right slid into its side. Kat kicked her right leg out, shifting her hips slightly so that it would have room to pass the mole before hooking it backward at full force, sweeping it into the back of both of the creature’s knees.

It collapsed to the deck, Kat landing on top of it. Her knife moved like a sewing needle, stabbing in and out of the struggling alien a half dozen times before it weakly swung the scepter at her, the red energy around its head fizzling and guttering as the stallesp lost focus.

Kat hopped backward, eyes trained on her opponent. It lifted its head from the ship’s deck, eyes unfocused and blind as it searched futilely for something. Then it fell backward, unmoving.

She nodded to herself, wiping the blood off of her dagger onto the armor of her thigh as she turned back to her companions. Without help from the caster, the axe-pick-wielding stallesp was being pushed backward by Dorrik. Even without using Psi abilities, the lokkel was simply faster, stronger, and in better control of their body than the flailing mole.

When Kaleek arrived a second later, the fight was all but over. The stallesp’s eyes widened, and it squealed in alarm, but it only managed to block one swing of the desoph’s greatsword. The second crashed into the side of its chain armor, sword glowing red as Kaleek activated a skill.

Kat winced as its bones audibly crunched, snapping under the impact of Kaleek’s blade. The stallesp was thrown forward, axes dropping from its now slack grip only for both of Dorrik’s swords to flash in the Tower’s fake sun, drawing a neat X across the crippled alien’s throat.

Dorrik flicked both of their blades downward, spattering the deck with mole blood before nodding at Kat. They cleared their throat. When they began speaking, their voice was a little rougher than usual, clouded slightly by uncharacteristic emotion.

“It is good to see that you are well, Miss Kat. Your rash actions… concerned me, but ultimately you were right. Kaleek and your intervention broke the stalemate and saved the operation time and resources.”

“Still,” the lokkel continued, their crest rippling with amusement. “I would prefer if the two of you did not rush to act so much in the future. Things may have worked this time, but you should not rely upon Kaleek’s judgment when risking yourself. He does not have the best record on this front.”

“Hey!” Kaleek pressed a hand to the chest of his battered and dented armor. “I wasn’t the one fighting two descenders at once. Speak for yourself, you big lump of scales!”

Dorrik cleared their throat, their tail swishing in what Kat could only assume was embarrassment.

“Regardless,” they continued, trying to ignore Kaleek’s indignant squawking. “We have killed three of the opposition’s leaders, and I cannot spot any descenders other than the evolved stallesp on the forecastle.”

“Four,” Kat corrected. “I got jumped by a mole using some sort of spiked combat gauntlet before I ran into the two of you. I finished it off before moving on to help Kaleek.”

“Oh?” Dorrik asked, their crest undulating with mirth. “You needed help, Kaleek? That is not something I would have inferred from the way you were speaking about my encounter with the two stallesp warriors.”

“Err.” The desoph froze, whiskers twitching for a second before he responded. “As you said, Dorrik, regardless of what happened before, the only opponent worth our time is the evolved stallesp. We should probably put together a plan to stop it before the catapult next to it kills any more promising lokkel as they storm the beach.”

Kat raised a hand to her face, pretending to dab at the cut on her cheek as she hid her smile. There was something simple about fighting in the dreamscape. In the real world, outside of Whippoorwill, there was always the question of who she could trust. Almost any operation could easily be a setup, leading her into a trap.

Here, things were simpler. She knew who the bad guys were. Rather than worry about logistics, betrayal, or someone attacking her while she was unprepared, Kat’s biggest concerns were figuring out the most efficient way to kill them.

Dorrik tapped one of their upper claws on the side of their dark, scaly muzzle, eyes trained on the fight between Akkast and the stallesp. The fury of their conflict had dropped, both parties running low on mana and stamina. Still, Akkast’s arrows exploded against the mole’s shield with enough force to rock the entire galleon, and the buzzing crackle of the creature’s great axe made Kat’s hair stand on end. As worn out as the combatants might be, Kat still knew better than to tackle either one of them solo.

“I think I have it.” Dorrik lowered their hand, turning back to Kaleek and Kat. “If Kaleek challenges the stallesp head on, I should be able to support him enough to keep him in the fight for at least a minute or so. So long as we fight defensively, Akkast’s arrows should be able to keep it off balance enough that it can’t strike a decisive blow.”

“I doubt my Psi abilities will be able to do too much through the cocoon of enchantments woven into the stallesp’s armor,” they continued, “but I should be able to disrupt its attacks enough for Kaleek to avoid the worst of them.”

“Miss Kat,” Dorrik pointed a claw at her, “will need to strike the killing blow. I would advise the use of Shadow to keep the warrior from noticing you. The moment it drops its guard, attack. As an aside, I would not suggest waiting too long or relying on Penetrate. Kaleek and I should be able to hold the stallesp off, but it is not an enemy we can face properly, even with assistance, so I would urge haste.”

“As for Penetrate,” the lokkel continued with a very human-like shrug, “it will do damage, but the skill is far from a panacea. At higher levels, armor is commonly reinforced to prevent the skill from delivering an instant death blow. In short, you will hopefully have the opportunity to pick your target. Aim for an unarmored spot. I would vastly prefer to not get murdered after you deal a severe but non-fatal blow to the stallesp.”

Kaleek locked eyes with Kat, and they both nodded before turning back to Dorrik.

“Well,” the otter replied, hefting his greatsword over his shoulder. “No time like the present.”

He broke into a jog toward the galleon’s forecastle, followed a second or so later by Dorrik. Kat watched them run before taking a deep breath. She reached into her carrying pouch and pulled out another cube of ‘gum’ before popping it into her mouth. Then she refreshed her casting of Pseudopod, and cast Shadow.

The light around her darkened, blurring as her spell fought with the Tower’s fake sun to obscure her shape. Kat took a deep breath, clearing her head, and activated Cat Step, relying more on the sound and vibration canceling aspects of the skill rather than the burst in speed as she made her way toward one of the two staircases that led up to the forecastle.

As soon as she reached the upper level, Kat dropped into a crouch, sneaking behind a table covered in maps and paperwork that was bolted to the galleon’s deck. Everything shook around her as a burning arrow slammed into the stallesp’s shield. Up close, Kat could see a number of dents and discolorations where repeated attacks had worn away at the large chunk of enchanted metal.

Kaleek charged in, his legs glowing dimly red as he swung his sword at the heavily armored mole. Just before the blow landed, he jerked to the side, a bolt of crackling lightning flashing through where the desoph had just been standing as the stallesp summoned its axe.

It thrust forward with the shield, seeking to ram the distorted wall of metal into Kaleek only for a field of purple energy to wrap itself around the stallesp, slowing its motions for a fraction of a second and giving the desoph enough time to backpedal.

The stallesp swung its axe, a crackle of burning energy the only warning before Kaleek barely got his sword into position to block the almost blindingly fast attack. The axe hammered the desoph’s sword to the side, leaving the otter almost completely open to a follow-up attack only for Dorrik and Akkast to strike at the same time.

It pivoted, raising its tower shield to deflect the arrow only for it to dissolve into a tar-like substance that spattered across the metal surface. The stallesp shifted its grip on the axe, catching one of Dorrik’s blades on its handle but letting the other sword through.

The strike barely mattered. Dorrik’s sword clattered off of the stallesp’s armor, leaving a silver smear as it cut through the substance coating the mole’s plate. Then they jumped backward, joining Kaleek a half dozen paces from their opponent.

Without saying anything, the two warriors circled until they were on opposite sides of the stallesp. The creature squeaked in frustration, twisting its body so that it was facing the beach but could keep an eye on either of Kat’s companions. It rotated its hand, spinning its electricity shrouded axe and building momentum as it waited for one of its three opponents to make a move.

Another arrow came sailing in from the beach, and Kat exploded into motion.

The stallesp raised its tower shield, catching another dose of dark, viscous liquid as the projectile exploded just before contact. Kaleek attacked from the other side, swinging his greatsword in a heavy overhand blow that Kat had seen shatter the armor on any number of dungeon bosses.

Their enemy’s axe blurred into the air, leaving an after image as it blocked the attack with a thundercrack even as the stallesp rotated slightly to accommodate Dorrik’s charge. It raised its shield, arm shuddering slightly from exertion only for a red glow to suffuse the stallesp.

Dorrik countered in turn, glowing bright purple as their left sword feinted forward, clinking against the stallesp’s tower shield only for their right to slip past its guard. The blade almost twisted in the air, slipping around the shield only to curve back in. Dorrik grunted, exertion covering their face as the point of their sword found a weak spot in the stallesp’s elbow armor, barely punching through the dark metal to draw a line of blood from their overpowered foe.

Then, Kat was Leaping, Pseudopod curled behind her as she landed on the mole’s upper back, left hand grabbing the ice cold metal of its collar while her right thrust her dagger upward toward the narrow gap in its armor where the alien’s squat neck met the back of its skull.

The stallesp bellowed in defiance, spinning backward in an attempt to dislodge her even as its entire upper body glowed red. Kat activated Penetrate just as her knife struck, dismissing Shadow and gathering mana to cast Overpressure only for the mole’s fur to harden into diamond hard bristles.

Kat’s left hand erupted into agony as the needles that had been the creature’s fur punched through it, shredding meat and scoring lines across her bone. It was almost an afterthought as her knife lodged itself in the same thicket of armored hair. Penetrate pushed the blade forward just enough that she drew blood, but the attack barely left a scrape in her opponent.

It spun again in another attempt to dislodge Kat, lashing out with its axe to try to keep Kaleek at bay. Somewhere to her left, Dorrik had slipped past the shield it was struggling to wield properly now that Akkast had coated it with gunk. She knew that their swords wouldn’t be enough to kill or even cripple the evolved warrior, but at a minimum, they should be enough of a distraction to draw its attention away from Kat.

She let go, allowing the momentum of the twisting stallesp to send her flying even as the Pseudopod that she’d snuck across its body struck like a snake. The spell buried the blade it had been carrying into the front of the surprised mole’s throat only for the force of Kat’s soaring body to yank back on the tentacle gripping the knife with the force of a hammer, pounding the weapon past its hilt into the stallesp’s neck.

A half second before Kat hit the wooden deck of the galleon, she triggered Overpressure. The creature erupted into gore, its lifeblood spraying across half of the forecastle as the mangled mass of arteries drained themselves dry around her knife.

Then she bounced off the deck, the impact knocking the wind out of her as she skittered to the very edge of the raised portion of the ship. Her shoulder and right side slammed into the railing with a dangerous ‘snap’ from either her body or the ship itself.

A wave of red haze washed over her, and Kat let her body relax slightly as she began mouthing the words to Cure Wounds I through gritted teeth. Whatever else was happening in the battle, she was out of it for now. It barely mattered to her whether the stallesp was still standing. It wasn’t like she was in any position to challenge the creature.

The spell cast without a hitch, draining Kat’s mana reserves dry as it stitched her ruined hand back together. In the real world, even after her healing, the limb would have been crippled to the point of requiring a chrome prosthesis, but at the very minimum the bleeding stopped, silencing the insistent blinking red warning in the lower left portion of her vision.

She exhaled, letting the tension leave her muscles as Kat gingerly pulled herself to her feet, trying to ignore the near-constant pain from her left hand, left calf, and right shoulder. She turned her gaze to the rest of the fight and sighed with relief.

Kaleek and Dorrik were making short work of the stallesp manning the catapult, but the main threat, the heavily armored evolved alien, was face down in a slowly growing pool of its own blood. Hesitantly, she limped toward her companions as they killed the last of the moles on the upper deck, ignoring the cheers from below as the lokkel forces finished mopping up the last of the sporadic resistance.

Dorrik saluted her, raising a single bloody sword above their head as she shuffled toward them. Kaleek nodded, a lazy, sated grin on his face, as if he’d finally managed to gorge himself on the level of bloodshed he’d always sought.

“We did it,” Dorrik said, reaching forward with one of their lower arms to catch Kat as she stumbled. “We achieved something impressive here today, Miss Kat, and I can assure you that eyes further up the Tower were trained on this battle. Your actions have been noted, and great things will be expected of both you and your people in the future.”

“Better yet,” Kaleek remarked, draping an arm over her shoulders as they watched the end of the battle. “Not only did we not need Akkast’s help, but we were the ones to give them the assist.”

Kat burst into laughter, ignoring the spikes of pain from her injured side as she leaned into both of her friends.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“Are you sure about this, Baker?” Kat asked the nondescript silhouette sitting next to her in the dark of the hover tank’s cab. “A lot of your people might die if we do this.”

The end of the white cylinder in Baker’s mouth glowed cherry red as they inhaled. For a moment, the inside of the tank was silent other than the whine of the service elevator that was bringing their vehicle toward the surface. Then Baker exhaled, filling the tank with a cloud of apple-scented vapor.

“A lot of the 3445 have already died,” they remarked nonchalantly, leaning backward into the command couch for the tank. “I think you underestimate how long NeoSyne had us in that hell. Whether we were on a production line or stuck in the reactor, they had all of us working jobs that would eventually kill us. It was just a matter of sooner rather than later.”

Another cloud of apple smoke filled the cab as Baker’s hand slipped out of their sleeve, the white rod in their hand glowing gently between their gloved hands.

“Everything we had was taken from us by NeoSyne,” Baker continued, their voice matter of fact. “Whatever might remain was almost certainly destroyed when the alien ship crash-landed.”

“We have nothing but what we are able to pull from this nightmare,” they said evenly, raising three gloved fingers. “Weapons of war that this planet has never seen, proven survivors, and the skills the 3445 learned as a nomad band. It was always a harsh world, Erinyes, and I suspect that it has only grown harsher in our time underground. If my people are to survive, we will need to adapt, and it only seems natural for us to transition into mercenary work.”

Kat nodded, not entirely satisfied with Baker’s answer, but without a proper retort. Ultimately, they were right. No one would provide the 3445 with food, water, or fuel out of the goodness of their hearts, and more than one megacorp would be thrilled with the idea of killing them all, and ripping the tanks apart to see how they worked.

“I know,” she answered finally, squinting slightly at the sunlight as the elevator opened, revealing the top of the mesa. “It still doesn’t feel right for me to be ‘in charge’ of you. I mean, sure, I was part of the team that sprung you from the factory, but I don’t really see why that makes me important enough to—”

“Oh shush, girl,” Baker cut her off with a chuckle. They leaned forward, gripping either of the tank’s control sticks. With a hum, but no real sense of motion, it floated off of the camouflaged elevator pad. One of the 3445 survivors tapped a couple of buttons on a keypad and the lift began to descend once again.

Behind them, the tank’s gunner also began fiddling with the vehicle’s controls. The back of their seat was built into Baker’s, forcing them to face the rear wall. A moment later, a glowing image hummed to life, showing an image of the top of the mesa with a series of crosshairs marking where their various guns were directed.

“None of us have the polish to survive the corporate world,” Baker continued, sliding their tank into a line next to another twenty or so of the sleek, dark vehicles. “I’m smart enough to know that I’d get eaten alive if I walked into a boardroom with corporate executives. I may be a bandit, but in there I would be a minnow amongst sharks.”

“I told you,” they said, tapping a couple of buttons on the tank’s control panel. “I talked our situation over with the elders while you were doing your magical naptime thing. The 3445 needs to affiliate itself with someone, and our options are either you or that Merrimac fella. I chatted with your friend Chiffon a bit, and you seem like the right fit.”

“I just don’t understand,” Kat replied, frustration beginning to bubble over. “I’ve done some impressive things, but I’ve also fucked up so many times. Xan… Exe is dead because I couldn’t get the job done on my own.”

A hand touched gently down on Kat’s shoulder. She glanced to the side to see Whip, still in her infiltration suit, gently shake her head.

“Don’t sell yourself short, girl,” Baker cackled. “Imposter syndrome isn’t just when mole monsters infiltrate your megacorp. You didn’t lose your friend in a bar fight. You got ambushed by an alien. The fact that you’re still standing is a testament to your grit.”

“Nah.” They waved their left hand dismissively, a cherry red glow lighting the recesses of their hood while they inhaled. “You’re like us. You’ve been hungry before. You’ve killed because you had to, and it wasn’t by pulling some trigger or pushing a button. You’ve felt a man bleed out in your grip because it was either him or you. Despite all of that, I’ve seen how you’ve interacted with Chiffon. Hell, I’ve seen the steps you took to help us.”

“You’re not cold, girl.” The tank cab filled with the scent of apples once more. “Most of the folks that have been through what you have come out the other end as reptiles, monsters wearing skinsuits. You value your friends and family. Give it a month and that’ll be us, for good or ill.”

“I…” Kat began, her voice cracking. Baker was strangely earnest. All of the jokes and jibes had disappeared in a second, replaced with an intensity she didn’t really know how to answer.

“They’re right, Erinyes,” Whippoorwill almost whispered, squeezing Kat’s shoulder gently. “I’ve seen how hard you pushed yourself to pull me out of my funk after Exe died. It’s a hard world, so you’re hard, but you care where it matters. I trust you, and Baker should too.”

“But it’s so much,” Kat replied, the words almost torn involuntarily from her throat. “So many people will be counting on me. What happens if I screw up? The 3445 has been through so much, I don’t want to heap even more on top of all that.”

“And that right there is why we trust you, Erinyes,” Baker responded. “That Merrimac guy knows what he’s doing. He’d put us to good use, but he also wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice us if it helped that Jasper friend of yours. I respect his devotion, but I’d prefer to avoid that outcome.”

“Fine,” Kat sighed, reaching up to take off her mask. “But if we’re doing this, when we’re among companions, my name is Kat, not Erinyes.”

She ran a hand through her hair, trying to ignore the way the sweaty locks clung to her fingers. She’d been in her infiltration suit for far too long.

“Whippoorwill,” Whip volunteered from her side, taking off her own mask. “I know it still sounds like a samurai name, but I kinda didn’t have a family, so my crew helped me pick out my name when I was younger.”

“I’m still Baker,” their companion replied with a shrug before hooking a gloved hand over their shoulder at the gunner pressed up against their back. “But that’s Daniel Simonson, if that helps at all.”

“Uh, hi,” the other man offered, waving one hand awkwardly in the dim light of the tank’s control chamber. He had shoulder length blonde hair and bags under his eyes, but other than that, he was utterly unremarkable.

Outside their vehicle, another tank slid into line with them, bringing the number of gently humming weapons platforms to twenty-five. Once again, the elevator began to descend into the depths of the rock formation to fetch the last elements of their taskforce.

Kat closed her eyes, exhaling deeply as she began counting backward from ten. When she reached zero, she stood up, anxiety flaring through her body and knocked once on the roof of the tank.

“Open the hatch, Baker,” she said, her voice and smile tight. “It’s time for me to make a call and see about setting all of us up for life.”

They nodded back, pressing a button on their control panel. A section of the armored roof of the tank’s cab slid back, exposing Kat to a cylinder of the bright desert sun. She clambered out, wiggling through the narrow gap until she was standing atop the smooth gray curves of the hover tank.

Around their mesa, the desert was just… gone. The shockwave of the falling stallesp cruiser had wiped the desert of features, erasing thousands of years of historical sites just as easily as it destroyed the parking lots and visitors centers that had once ringed their location.

She reached up, resituating her smartpanel before tapping it once to make a call. For a couple of seconds, the eyepiece just buzzed as it tried to put the call through. Then Belle Donnst appeared in front of Kat. For the first time ever, the older woman looked harried. Her dress shirt was slightly wrinkled and a lock of hair was out of place as she powerwalked down a wood-paneled hallway. Behind her, a pair of guards hurried along, their hands pressed against their hips.

“Miss Debs,” Belle opened, slightly out of breath. “I am assuming that you are at least loosely aware of the import of recent events. I am on my way to a board meeting. If this call were from anyone other than you, I simply would not pick up. I presume you have a good reason for disturbing me. If you don’t, I can assure you I will be… cross.”

“Come on,” Kat said, forcing a smile. “You know where I was when the ship fell. I’m calling to negotiate my services in securing the wreckage. I know for a fact that I can get there faster than any other asset that GroCorp has access to.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Belle replied, her mouth tightening into an uncomfortable smile. “I may honestly take you up on it if there are specific assets I need eliminated, but I don’t think you understand. Entire armies are already on the move to try and secure the crash site. You and a couple of friends won’t be able to make much of a difference.”

Kat tapped the side of her smartpanel, changing the camera angle so that it was projecting what she was seeing rather than an image of her face. Slowly she panned over the line of gently humming hover tanks. Then she turned the panel toward the elevator as it brought the first of the two gunships to the surface.

The vessel took off, lifting into the air under the power of three anti-gravity engines. It was as long as three of the tanks, and at least twice as wide, its entire underside studded with gun turrets and thick gray armor. Perhaps more importantly, both of its flanks were lined with APEX suits, locked into cradles and ready to drop into combat at a moment’s notice.

Belle was silent. When Kat flipped the camera back around, the older woman had stopped moving and her distracted expression had disappeared. Instead, she was staring into her own smartpanel with the intensity of a hawk that had just spotted a wounded rabbit, struggling in an open field.

“Miss Debs.” Her voice was much firmer. “Can you please tell me what I’m looking at, and, if it is what I think it is, I would be grateful if you could send a copy of that clip to me. I may have a use for it in the coming meeting.”

“Twenty five hover tanks,” Kat confirmed, blinking a quick code to the smartpanel to send the recently filmed clip. “The tanks are supported by two gunships, each carrying fifty suits of powered armor that outperforms anything you’ve ever seen, and five air superiority drones.”

“I was right.” Kat smiled tightly at the camera. “NeoSyne was working with the stallesp. We managed to grab the fruits of their research and weather the shockwave in the bunker where it had been stored. It might not be enough to hold off a full army, but I can assure you that we will be able to stop anything short of one. It takes a lot to even damage one of these things, let alone actually disable one. Better yet, almost everything mounts laser-based point defense. We’re functionally immune to missile attacks unless someone decides to blanket the area in nukes.”

“And break the treaty of Melbourne,” Belle responded thoughtfully.

“Better still,” Kat continued, glancing upward meaningfully. “If you remember our meeting on the Humbrass Atoll, I was able to secure some help. I will be able to get in and out of the stallesp ship. Taking and holding it won’t be pretty, but it’s something we can do if the price is right.”

“You have my attention,” the older woman responded with a curt nod. “Name your price and I’ll see if it’s something that I can get the board to agree to.”

Kat held up five fingers, her smile growing as she answered. “Five percent.”

“Five percent of the proceeds from the salvage and research?” Belle asked thoughtfully. “I can do that. Consider it done. Now, how fast—”

“No,” Kat cut her off. “Five percent of GroCorp’s shares, split three ways. Two for you, two for Jasper Haupt, and one for me. If I’m going to do this, I’ll need allies, and despite your differences with Jasper, the two of you are the closest approximation I’ll be able to find on short notice.”

“Shares?” Belle blurted out, losing her cool for the first time. “The shareholders will never— Wait, you want me to side with the Haupts? I killed Jasper’s father! Please don’t tell me you forgot about that, Katherine!”

“It will take NeoSyne time,” Kat replied, raising a hand to shade her eyes as she took in the blasted landscape that had once been the Southwest, ”but they can rebuild. We’re going to bury the factory we pulled this equipment from, but they have access to hundreds of flash clones. Unless you manage to grab the salvage and reverse engineer it, it’s only a matter of time before NeoSyne builds an entire army using this tech. They were well on their way when we stopped them.”

“Just think of tech that GroCorp will pull out of the wreckage,” she goaded. “Antigravity, force fields, reactors, tanks, and fighters. It goes far beyond the military applications. In one year, GroCorp will have new products that will dominate the global market. Within five years, no one will be able to compete.”

“Obviously, the company will be able to renovate its armed forces,” Kat continued, tapping her smartpanel to change its view as she scanned the massed tanks a second time. “If GroCorp wants to push its neighbors for more resources? It will be able to win those fights. If it wants to build up its army, and let its goods dominate the market? No one will be able to match you.”

“Still,” Belle replied, reaching up with her left hand to massage her temples. “I appreciate that you want to rope me into this by making me a shareholder, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to sell the board on this. GroCorp only has something like fifty shareholders, and half of them only have a one percent stake. This wouldn’t be a step up for the Haupt boy or me—it’s a magnetic catapult launching us into low Earth orbit.”

“For you?” the older woman asked rhetorically. “I can guarantee that I will have orders to seize your family and threaten you. You’re a smart girl, Miss Debs. This game has always been rigged against people like you. There are some moves you can make and an illusion of mobility, but—”

“Then I’ll cut a deal with Tri Holdings and kill any shareholder that moves against me,” Kat interjected. “They literally would not be the first, and I doubt that they could beef up their security enough to stop me.”

“Hell,” she scoffed. “Even if they could, it would just be a matter of time before Tri managed to wear GroCorp down. In the meantime, you know that I would be leveling in the Tower. I doubt there are more than a handful of people on the entire planet that could stop me once I learned a couple of Silver tier skills, and they can’t be everywhere at once.”

Belle stopped short, cocking her head slightly to the side, before chuckling quietly. “You’re right, Katherine,” she responded, eyes flicking back up to her smartpanel. “It wouldn’t be the first time, and that was before you had access to black-market alien supertech. You might be onto something here.”

“I just want to be clear about all of this,” Kat said, trying to keep the nerves from her voice. “My primary goal is denying the crash site to NeoSyne. I’d prefer to work with GroCorp because it’s where I grew up and where I have the most connections, but if my only option is to cooperate with Tri Holdings, I will. Hell, I’d rather blow the ship up than let NeoSyne have it.”

“Of course,” she continued slyly. “It’s not like I would become a shareholder without any allies. Jasper and you will be there to lend me legitimacy. There’s a reason I’m not asking for more equity than the two of you. I’m rocking the boat already, I have to at least pay lip service to the existing order.”

“Maybe,” Belle replied, absently swiping some hair out of her face. “It’ll be a tough sell because people with power don’t stay in power by giving it up without a fight, but I should be able to convince them that throwing their weight behind you will help the company enough that watering down their shares a little bit won’t actually hurt them.”

“I would have done that even without your bribe, by the way.” She chuckled, locking eyes with Kat. “You’re offering them a good deal. It’s more than fair. I can’t guarantee that the board will see things that way, but I’m certainly willing to try to change their minds.”

“Still.” Belle sighed. “I’m not sure that I’ll be able to work with Jasper Haupt. The boy is young and emotional. I think those around him understand that the events of last year were just business, but I suspect that he will take what happened to his father personally.”

“Make it work.” Kat shrugged. “The world is at stake, and I need people I can rely on. We both know that I can’t exactly trust you, but at the same time, so long as I tie your interests to mine, we can work together.”

“I suppose,” the executive responded reluctantly. “It’s a lot you’re asking of me, Kat. I wish I had some more time to think about this.”

“NeoSyne and Mr. Jackson have made a pact with aliens that want to enslave our entire race,” Kat answered evenly. “Right now, GroCorp needs someone with the connections to stop them, but you simply don’t have access to the sorts of forces you will need to stop another push to infiltrate the company with flash clones. I do.”

Kat paused, looking very purposefully up into the morning sky before continuing.

“Change is coming, Belle, and you don’t even have the luxury of choosing a side. Align yourself with me, or get swept away with the shifting tide.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t see any flaw in your logic, Katherine.” Belle sighed. “You’re right.”

Then the older woman’s countenance changed, exhaustion melting from her face as she smiled back at Kat.

“I must say,” Belle concluded, “it has been a pleasure working with you, Miss Debs. You’ve grown more as a business-woman and a negotiator than anyone I’ve mentored. It’s a shame my daughter was such a disappointment, but you have been an absolute gem. I look forward to our future interactions as shareholders.”

The feed cut, sending a cold shiver down Kat’s spine. Her shoulder slumped slightly, and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Unbidden, images of the GroCorp board sending thugs after her family flashed through her mind.

The negotiations only worked because an executive like Belle couldn’t even conceive of how much Kat cared for her family. There was no way she would leave them to the board’s mercy, even if that meant more risk and less profit for her. Of course, Belle had already demonstrated an absolute willingness to sacrifice her children to get ahead. It would only seem natural to a shark like her if Kat were willing to make the same move.

She leaned down, knocking twice on the hood of the tank. The armored panel slid open once again, and Kat slipped down into its dark recesses, the scent of apple filling her nose.

Of course, she thought to herself as her eyes rapidly adjusted, the most important factors were that she was elevating established executive families with her, and that she didn’t blink when faced with a threat. Raising multiple executives at the same time, and at a higher level, would take enough of the edge off of her brinkmanship that the board would be able to swallow their pride in exchange for raising her status. They wouldn’t be happy, but letting her future companions save face was an essential concession to ensure that she wouldn’t be stepping into a boardroom full of enemies.

“So?” Whip asked expectantly. Baker turned their head, hood rustling as they looked in Kat’s direction. “How did it go?”

Kat smiled, letting the tension fade from her body before she answered. “We have a deal.”

Baker leaned forward, tapping a button on the tank’s console.

“Let’s get moving, 3445,” they commanded into the open intercom. “GroCorp has decided to back our little endeavor. It’s time to shoot some corpos and make ourselves very, very rich.”

Outside their tank, both of the gunships lifted off, a pair of triangular fighters escorting each one while the fifth and final plane flew ahead, scouting the wasteland for any hidden foes. At the far end of the tank column, the first of the armored vehicles floated off the edge of the mesa, dropping gently toward the desert below.

Baker blew out another plume of smoke, filling the tank’s cab with the scent of apples once again. Kat licked her upper lip, frowning as the smell wafted over her.

“That’s,” she began, hesitating for a second before finishing. “That’s a vape you’re using, right Baker? I swear to God, it doesn’t even smell like tobacco.”

“That’s because it’s not tobacco,” they answered. Somehow, without even seeing her companion’s eyes in the recesses of their hood, Kat could tell that they were winking at her. “Flavored water with a hint of caffeine. Can’t set a bad example for the young ‘uns, could I?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

The tank thumped as its main cannon fired. Kat clutched onto the harness strapping her into her seat as the world vibrated around her, the hum of the tank’s antigrav engines picking up into a whine as it compensated for the force of the shot.

On the monitor in front of Baker, the slug skewered an armored personnel carrier, punching a fist-sized hole in the front of the vehicle and annihilating its rear half in a gout of flame and plasma. Lasers flickered, flashing dark purple as they ionized the air in their wake.

A pair of anti-tank missiles launched from a nearby infantry fighting vehicle erupted into flame, venting their fury into the open air as the point defense turrets punctured their fuel tanks.

Kat felt her body get thrown into the side, webbing biting into her shoulder, as Baker wrenched the tank into an impossibly tight turn. A pair of NeoSyne tanks jolted over a dune, spraying sand into the air as their turrets tracked toward Kat’s vehicle.

One of their opponents exploded as another 3445 tank’s main cannon punched through its armor like it was tissue paper, but the other returned fire.

Kat jerked forward, her ears ringing as the armor penetrating round crashed off of their tank’s armor, sending their hovering vehicle sliding forward as it bled the attack’s momentum.

“Capacitor recharged!” Dan shouted, slamming his joystick to the right to rotate the tank’s main turret. It thumped and the enemy tank erupted into flames.

“Where are you, Heather?” Baker practically shouted into their mic. “It’s only Sam and I here shoring up our left flank, the APEXs should have taken down their infantry formations by now. We need your support and we need it about a minute ago.”

A jet soared toward them, launching a pair of missiles at the two wildly weaving tanks. On the monitor, the beams of ionized air stabbed upward as the automated defenses went to work. The four lasers on their vehicle pulsed twice, each burst barely lasting a third of a second, and the missiles exploded.

On a nearby dune, the other tank’s point defense lasers targeted the plane itself. Streaks of dark purple flashed through the morning light, causing the air itself to boil as they carved fist-sized holes out of the underside of the oncoming aircraft.

The enemy vehicle shook as the lasers transformed chunks of its armor into balls of glowing plasma. Barely a second later, one of the defensive turrets found the plane’s fuel tank, transforming the sophisticated war machine into an expanding mass of flame and twisted machinery.

Baker pulled their control sticks to the side, halting their tank and spinning it in a narrow circle. Almost a dozen infantry fighting vehicles led by a quartet of tanks and flanked by at least twenty infantry in powered armor whirred into view.

“It looks like we have some unwelcome company trying to sneak past us,” they shouted, fiddling with the controls to send the hover tank into an erratic sideways skid.

“I see ‘em,” Daniel responded, touching the stud on his turret control and impaling one of the opposing tanks on a magnetically propelled rod of hypersonic metal. The armored vehicle didn’t explode, but the round stopped it dead, transferring enough energy through a small hole in its plating to turn everything in its cap into flash-fried barbeque.

“Switching the secondary gun to smoke now,” he continued, his tone calm but tense. Kat heard a whirring click above her as the machinery built into the turret shifted the weapon’s ammunition feed.

The tank’s secondary gun wasn’t much compared to the heavy magnetic accelerators that made up its main cannon. Rather than high powered penetrators, it could rapid fire larger but slower rocket-propelled rounds that would deliver different payloads onto the battlefield.

The 3445 hadn’t had much time to experiment with some of the more exotic loadouts such as seeking flechettes and plasma spheres, but the tubes labeled ‘armor piercing,’ ‘smoke,’ and ‘high explosive’ were fairly self-evident.

Autocannon rounds from the infantry fighting vehicles crunched and whined as they ricocheted off of the tank’s armor, doing little more than buffeting Kat back and forth in her restraints as Baker halted their momentum on a dime and reversed their machine’s course. Overhead, their secondary shells burst, dropping a curtain of thick white and gray over the battlefield.

Both sides had scanners that could pierce the smoke enough to tell where the enemy generally was without providing enough data to aim any of the heavier armor penetrating weapons needed to take down a tank. In short, it bought the two 3445 vehicles enough time to recharge the capacitors on their main cannons.

The autocannons on the infantry fighting vehicles couldn’t do much unless they directly hit one of the tiny laser apertures built into the hover tank’s armor, but the NeoSyne tanks were a different story. The stallesp-modified armor pressing into Kat’s back could take a round or two from a normal tank’s main gun in the same area, but from what they’d been able to glean from the barely comprehensible engineering reports on the vehicles, five or more shots clustered around the same spot had the potential to penetrate.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be all that much of a concern. The new tanks reloaded quicker, were slightly more accurate, and there wasn’t much on Earth that could survive more than one hit from them. Against equal numbers, the hybrid tanks would turn Earth’s finest into a pile of smoking wreckage before they had a proper chance to respond.

That said, the battle today was lopsided beyond belief. Baker’s best estimate was that they were outnumbered ten to one by the NeoSyne army that had barely beat them to the crash site, and it was only a matter of time before reinforcements and Tri Holding’s forces turned the entire warzone into abject chaos.

A vehicle burst through the wall of smoke only for the other hover tank to practically rip it in half with its main cannon.

Baker cursed, wrenching Kat sideways in her webbing as their vehicle slewed to the side a half second before the three remaining enemy tanks barreled through the smokescreen, their turrets spinning to track the other 3445 vehicle.

“Sam,” they growled into the intercom. “Main cannon rounds are for main battle tanks. Use the AP shells from your secondary gun on the infantry fighting vehicles if you must, but otherwise ignore them. They’re mostly just here to harass and distract us.”

Their tank shook as the gunner fired its main cannon once again. The sleek spear of metal hit one of the NeoSyne vehicles square in its side, shredding the thinner armor and triggering a secondary explosion as it overcooked the enemy tank’s ammunition.

The two survivors fired, one saboted round carving a shallow divot out of the other hover tank’s armor before being deflected upward by its smooth curves. The other shell slammed into the sand just below the tank, a shot that would have mission-killed an ordinary tank by destroying its treads only served to spray sand over the prow and gravity projectors of the newer model.

Then, the hair stood up on the back of Kat’s neck as a gunship flew overhead, the electromagnetic field created by its anti-gravity projectors sending her nerves tingling. Some of the armored infantry began to open fire at it as they emerged from the wall of smoke alongside the smaller NeoSyne vehicles, but a glowing field of force stopped their bullets dead.

The gunship returned fire, a quartet of downward facing mag cannons turning the remaining NeoSyne tanks into smoking craters. A half second later, a dozen or so glowing balls sprayed out from the bottom of the hovering warship, at about head level before they struck the ball.

Baker’s viewscreen flickered, dimming to protect their eyesight as the electromagnetic containment holding the pressurized spheres of plasma together all cut out in the same millisecond, turning the landscape into a glowing hellscape.

A second later, the light died down to a more manageable level, revealing a rolling hill of bubbling glass, studded with the partially molten remains of the NeoSyne vehicles.

“Targets neutralized, but there’s another formation coming right behind it.” A woman’s voice spoke calmly from the intercom. “Looks like at least ten tanks and a pair of self-propelled artillery pieces coupled with infantry and a drone carrier. Please advise on our next steps, Baker.”

Baker leaned forward tapping another set of buttons on the console before responding. “This is Baker and I have Heather overhead. I’m gonna need Mike, Kim, Richards, and Whisper to shift to the left flank to relieve me. I’m also going to need an update on the fortifications surrounding the crashed ship.”

“This is Merrimac,” Davis replied. “The stallesp ship is secure. NeoSyne is trying to hit us pretty hard, but at this point, we’re just using their burned-out tanks as cover. We’ve got Danner in a gunship overhead, and he’s keeping their forces thin enough that we can handle anything that leaks through.”

Baker glanced back at Kat and she nodded a wordless reply.

“Then I’m on my way to you with the package, Merrimac,” Baker answered, shifting their gloved hands to spin the tank to the side. “Just make sure you have an engineering team assembling those long range anti-ballistic pylons. It’s only a matter of time before someone realizes that we’re winning and tries to play sore loser by wiping out the entire battlefield.”

“Agreed,” Davis said tightly, the thump of cannon fire audible through his connection. “I have teams assembling all three of them now.”

Baker grunted, pressing down on a pedal below their right foot as they pushed the tank’s control sticks forward. Below Kat, the anti-grav engines’ hum transformed into a whine as the vehicle took off, making a target of itself as it lifted itself above the desert and zipped away toward the crashed starship.

A light flashed on Baker’s console as a surface-to-air missile targeted their flying tank only for one of the twenty point defense lasers on the nearby gunship to shred the projectile before it could even properly pick up speed.

Kat turned to Whip, putting a hand on her knee to get the other woman’s attention. She jumped slightly at the contact, only calming when Whippoorwill looked at Kat.

“Masks on, Chiffon,” Kat whispered, patting Whip’s knee. “We’ll be landing in just a minute, and we need to get under cover as soon as possible. Remember, the second we get inside the ship, we’re going to find a spot for you to hide out. I know you’re not a fan, but this is a mission for me and me alone.”

Kat reached under her seat, grabbing her infiltration suit’s hood before slipping it over her head. The tank shook around her as Baker performed some sort of evasive maneuver before beginning their descent.

On the viewscreen below her was a scene out of a science fiction flick. A loose, double skirmish line of APEX suits darted through the burning wreckage of a NeoSyne tank battalion. Near the back of their formation, four hover tanks rushed back and forth in a complicated dance of evasive maneuvers as they pounded away at the inexorable wave of metal that was trying to submerge them.

By now, the corporate general had to know that the 3445 had superior equipment and defensive positions. Whoever they were, they didn’t care, content to try to bury them in lives and equipment in a vain attempt to run the mercenary company out of ammunition.

Unfortunately for them, the stallesp hybrid equipment didn’t really require much by way of logistics. All of the war machines were powered by exotic proto-elements generated by the antimatter reactor, each of them carrying enough power to operate for at least a decade or so straight.

As for ammunition? The lasers didn’t need any, and the magnetic accelerators in the APEX rifles and the main tank cannons fired small metal tubes at incredibly high speeds. Each vehicle carried at least five hundred rounds.

Only the rapid fire secondary guns on the tanks and the plasma bombs on the gunships used heavy enough ammunition that the 3445 would have supply concerns. Even then, before sabotaging the Mesa Verde facility, they had made sure to pull the equivalent of four semi-trailers full of replacement parts, machinery to manufacture ammunition, and tanks full of the needed isotopes.

Unless NeoSyne and Tri attacked with enough force to force their way through the defensive cordon around the looming, crashed battlecruiser, a war of attrition would only serve to bleed them dry.

The whine of the anti-gravity engines faded away as Baker touched them down. The tank shook once as the main cannon fired, spearing a mobile mortar at extreme range.

“Hold fire!” Baker shouted, pressing a button to open the hatch atop the tank. Whip scurried out first, crossbow in hand. Just as Kat put both her hands on either side of the porthole, Baker reached out, tapping her on the calf.

“Good luck out there, girl.” They nodded toward the smoking wreckage of the stallesp battlecruiser. “Keep yourself safe, and make sure to stab one of the mole bastards for me.”

She gave them a quick thumbs up before pulling herself out of the tank. Whip waved to her from the nearby sand. Kat slid down the smooth side of the tank, jumping at the last second to land next to her friend.

The two of them jogged away from Baker’s tank as it hummed back to life, charging toward the hazy battlefield. In front of them, the dark metal of the battlecruiser towered overhead. Even half-buried in the desert, it was at least four stories high. Kat had no idea how thick its armor was, but there were at least three cracks in the warship’s shell in sight that she was sure she could crawl into.

The crash hadn’t treated the vessel kindly, but Dorrik had been confident that there would be at least a couple of survivors, so Kat wasn’t going to take chances. She reached down and pulled the pulser from where its sheath was strapped to her calf. It was far from her favorite weapon, but Kat was more than willing to stomach some unfamiliarity if it would ensure that she could punch through alien body armor.

“How is the cypher working?” Kat asked, scanning the battle-scarred flanks of the spaceship. “Is Dorrik’s little toy working, or are we just out of luck?”

“Well, I have some good news and bad,” Whip responded as an oval of armor slid away from the side of the spaceship, almost a story off of the sand. “The good news is that the cypher works. I have access to their systems and it doesn’t feel like there’s anything actively trying to stop me when I log in.”

“What’s the bad news?” Kat questioned hesitantly, her eyes trained on the entrance to the warship.

“The stallesp systems are fragmented,” Whippoorwill replied with a sigh. “Some of them survived the crash intact, others are scrambled. Worse, there are some dark spots in the network. I don’t even know enough about how their network was structured to know what should be there.”

“So that will slow us down a bit,” Kat said thoughtfully. “Once we both get inside the ship, I’ll need you to stay in touch with me about those dark zones. It’ll take a little more work for us to keep track of everything, but—”

“Sorry,” Whip cut in. “It’s not going to work. I don’t know what the stallesp put in the ship’s walls, but my smartpanel has almost no range. I could barely trigger that airlock. I’m going to need to be in there with you. It’s the only way for me to provide support.”

“No!” Kat shouted, shaking her head. “We talked about this, Whip! It’s too dangerous in there for you to come with. You don’t have enough combat training to deal with the stallesp that we’ll be running into.”

“And that’s exactly why you can’t go alone, Kat,” Whippoorwill replied firmly, crossing her arms. “We came to an agreement when we thought that I would be able to set up shop and help you from the rear. The situation has changed, and you need my help. I’ll let you take the lead, but I’m not going to let you put yourself at risk just because you’re afraid for my safety.”

“But—” Kat began, a complex knot of emotions tangled and churning in her chest.

“I will not let myself become a burden, Kat,” Whippoorwill hissed at her. “I don’t care who I have to kill or what mountains I have to move, but I will keep pace with you. You can’t do this alone, we both know that, and I’m not going to let you try.”

Kat’s throat bobbed once, swallowing her response. For a long moment, they stood together in silence in the shadow of the downed spaceship. In the distance, a 3445 gunship fired another spread of glowing orbs into a mass of NeoSyne tanks. They detonated, pelting the two of them with a dry, hot wind that pulled at their infiltration suits.

“Okay, Whip,” Kat finally answered. “Just stay safe. After everything I… I just don’t want to lose you too.”

CHAPTER FORTY

“No, your other left, Kat,” Whip whispered urgently, pointing with a gloved hand. “The stallesp network has that hallway covered in warnings about failing structural integrity and radiation leaks. I don’t think we want to head in there unless you want to come out the other side glowing.”

“Fine,” Kat replied sheepishly, turning to her left. “Sorry about that, Whip, it’s just that the inside of this place is a mess.”

She reached out, touching the smooth, slightly curved black metal of the ship’s wall. The hallway that they were in, like every other passage in the downed warship, was a tube rather than a square or a rectangle. It wound to the right, curling like a snake inside the innards of the alien battlecruiser.

“I know,” Whippoorwill responded, tension tightening her voice. “I’ve managed to download a full map of the ship from one of its maintenance subsystems, and the crew quarters are absolute chaos. Really, it’s more of a warren than anything orderly like a military base.”

“Wait.” Kat perked up. “If you have a map of the ship then you should be able to know where the surviving—”

“Sorry,” Whippoorwill cut her off. “I have maintenance schematics, little more than blueprints, really. Hell, I think this file is from the shipyard that built the battlecruiser. It won’t even have any modifications made in the last century, let alone the locations of any of the survivors.”

“Century?” Kat asked, peeking around a corner, the unfamiliar pulser clutched tightly in her right hand.

“That’s what the schematics say,” Whip replied with a shrug. “It sounds like it takes a while to build a ship this big, even with Galactic Consensus technology, so they build them to last. There are some notations on the file indicating that the ship was overhauled in dry dock once every twenty five years or so, but it doesn’t look like there were any major changes other than standard repairs to some of the more fragile containment equipment used on the antimatter reactors.”

“Please tell me that those are still working,” Kat implored, slipping into the new hallway. “That would really be the cherry on top of the sundae, wouldn’t it? After all of this struggle and conflict, we all die when a reactor goes critical and cracks a hole in the Earth’s crust.”

“Probably?” Whippoorwill answered hesitantly. “I mean, the radiation sensors in this sector are active and there haven’t been any spikes yet, so…”

Kat winced under her mask, moving in a quick crouch down the hallway, her head scanning back and forth as she searched for any potential threats. A pair of rounded tunnels branched off from their hallway up ahead. One walkway was dark while the other flickered intermittently, a sure sign that something had happened to the series of lights embedded in the roof of the battlecruiser’s passages.

As she approached, the groan of tortured metal sent Kat diving toward a wall. Her breath caught in her throat as she brought the pulser up in a double-handed grip, waiting for something to step into the upcoming intersection.

The sound faded away, replaced by the clicking of cooling metal. Kat swallowed, willing her heart to leave her throat as she eased away from the curved wall of the starship.

“It’s another coming up, Kat.” Whip’s voice broke the silence as she motioned toward the upcoming intersection. “The lift system is up ahead, but the diagnostics on it are dark. You might be able to climb up an antigrav elevator shaft, but there’s no way in hell I can. Left leads to a series of secondary access tunnels that are used for emergency repairs. They won’t be fun, but at a minimum we’ll have a ladder.”

“But…” Kat began, only to trail off slightly as she looked at the dark passage to the left. “That route doesn’t even have lighting. There’s no way you have access to the security systems. There could be anything lurking over there.”

“Yes,” Whip replied, “but our only other options are to scale a non-functioning anti-gravity lift or to traverse a hallway that I know is about to collapse, and that I know is choked in enough radiation to give both of us a lethal dose before we reach the far end. Then, once we’re on the other side of the ship, we can try to climb the same maintenance tunnels. Of course, there are no promises that there will be power when we get there either. I really don’t have a good read on any of the subsystems that are more than a room or two away.”

“If we’re blind, then I’m leading,” Kat said decisively. “Stay ten seconds behind me, and if you hear any sort of fighting, then back off.”

“If I hear you fighting with a stallesp,” she began, only for Kat to cut her off.

“Then you will back off,” Kat repeated herself sternly. “Look, I’m going to have a hard enough time fighting a high level player on my own. If you’re there, I’m going to be worrying about keeping you safe. I might have the luxury of watching your back against ordinary samurai, but that isn’t going to help either of us here. Stay back, and stay safe.”

Whip looked like she wanted to argue with Kat further. From the tense way she held her shoulders to the nervous energy in her twisting hands, everything about the younger woman screamed discontent.

But eventually she nodded, triggering an internal sigh of relief in Kat. Everything she’d said to Whippoorwill was completely true, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t her real reason. The idea of Whippoorwill risking her life turned Kat’s stomach. Even thinking about it now was enough to send her heart pounding.

She took a deep breath, pressing her back against the curved wall of the battlecruiser just before the intersection. Kat closed her eyes, mentally willing them to switch into the black and white of her low light vision.

Kat ducked, spinning around the edge and dropping to one knee with the pulser at ready.

There was nothing. An empty hallway stretching into the bowels of the spaceship, interrupted only by a handful of girders that had punched through the tunnel’s walls and obstructed Kat’s view.

Quietly, she activated Shadow, feeling herself blending in perfectly with the dark passage. Kat tip-toed closer to the first obstruction, reaching out with her left hand to touch the rod of super hard metal that had punched through the walkway at almost neck level. It was still warm to the touch from its descent through Earth’s atmosphere, but despite its violent introduction to the tunnel, it was as smooth as a mirror.

She leaned down, slipping under it and moving deeper into the ship. A broken door fizzled to her right, struggling to close on its own but obstructed by a chunk of metal furniture that had been dislodged at some point.

A quick glance inside confirmed Kat was alone, and a second later, she was moving down the hallway once again, her eyes trained on the next obstruction. She was almost halfway there when a deep, rasping breath stopped her short.

Kat froze for a second, activating Cat Step as she tried to locate the source of a sound. A second later, it repeated itself, a pained wheeze that trailed off with a slight whistle. Her head jerked slightly to the side, eyes locking on another empty doorway on the left side of the tunnel.

She couldn’t see whether the door was propped open, or if the crash had destroyed it entirely, but whatever the noise was, it was coming from that room. Steeling herself, Kat cast Levitate before springing into action.

The hallway blurred around her as Cat Step propelled her silently forward. She hopped over the torn metal that blocked the highway, toes touching down gently on the other side as she continued her approach.

Just before the doorway, Kat jumped into the air, not bothering to use a skill as she torqued her body to the side. Her right foot touched the far wall of the battlecruiser and she pushed off, practically running along the wall as she lined her pulser with the yawning doorway.

She barely had a moment to see her opponent, a stallesp with half of its fur burned off, a missing left leg, and most importantly, an ugly snub-nosed carbine clutched in its hands. Kat pulled the trigger.

Most of the alien’s chest disappeared as what remained of its body jerked backward, bouncing off of the curved floor of the spaceship from the force of her attack. Its gun clattered to the ground, followed by a wet squelching sound as the rest of the creature’s body slipped to the floor.

Kat landed, cushioning her blow with her left arm as she pushed herself into a roll that ended with her on one knee, pulser in her right hand, elbow stabilized on her upright knee.

Nothing.

Other than the painfully loud sounds of Whippoorwill entering the dark hallway, there wasn’t any noise. Kat crept forward, popping her head into the now-empty room before sheathing the pulser and picking up the dead stallesp’s gun.

It was about as long as her arm, made of the same black metal as most stallesp construction. She picked it up, slipping her right hand around the pistol grip but keeping her finger off of the firing stud. The gun was slightly too large to hold properly in one hand, but that was easily rectified as Kat wrapped her left hand around the grip further up on its stock.

She frowned slightly, holding the weapon away from herself and pressing a button she’d found on the underside of the grip. A blade, almost a third as long as the carbine itself, slid out of a concealed housing under the gun’s muzzle.

It began to hum, buzzing as it slid forward and backward, barely a millimeter at a time but rapidly enough that Kat could barely see its movements. She pressed the button again, and the blade slipped silently back into the gun.

A bayonet then. Not exactly her style, but certainly something she could use if push came to shove. Kat wasn’t exactly sure what material it was made of, but it certainly looked both sharper and more resilient than her own knife. Given that her blade was advertised as one of the best available, even without the carbine’s built in motor, it far outclassed anything else she was likely to find on Earth.

Hesitant footsteps drew her attention back to the dark hallway. Kat slung the gun’s fabric carrying strap over her shoulder and walked out into the passage, tapping Whippoorwill on the shoulder as the other woman crept forward.

Whip jumped, yanking her hand from the rounded wall of the passage where she had been trying to feel her way through the dark and fumbling for her crossbow before Kat spoke up.

“There was a mole. I handled it, but we need to be on the lookout for survivors. The fact that none of us would have survived the crash doesn’t mean much. We have no idea of their individual and technological capabilities.”

“Honestly,” Kat continued, cocking her head. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear the gunshot and hold back. That’s what we agreed on, after all.”

“I thought it was just the sound of the battlecruiser settling,” Whip answered, shuffling her feet slightly. “The structure has been creaking, groaning, and crunching the entire time we’ve been here. Without a shout or something else to clue me in, a single gunshot isn’t all that different from the background noise.”

“Next time, I’ll make sure to get into a running gunfight,” Kat said dryly. “Maybe something with a high speed chase running over a fruit cart and some explosions to ensure that you’re fully in the loop.”

“Well,” Whippoorwill whispered back sheepishly, “we should be pretty close to the access tunnels. I doubt there will be anything in there, but after that, it’s just a matter of climbing up two floors. From there, it shouldn’t be that hard to get to the backup bridge.”

“Are you sure about this?” Kat asked, walking a couple of steps ahead of Whippoorwill, guiding her through the dark. “If I were a survivor, I’d be heading for engineering or the backup bridge. We’re almost certainly going to run into moles if we do this.”

“It’s the only chance I’ll have to reintegrate the ship’s systems,” Whip replied with an uneasy shrug. “Right now, I can use the cypher to take control of equipment near me, but the ship is huge. If we’re going to have any chance at clearing it out and ending this turf battle over it, we are going to need to have some semblance of control over any of the still-functioning systems.”

Kat blew out a sigh. Unfortunately, Whippoorwill wasn’t wrong. The 3445 should be holding firm outside the battlecruiser, but GroCorp forces weren’t nearly as close as NeoSyne or Tri Holding reinforcements. Her job was to neutralize any threat posed by the downed starship, and if possible provide support to the hover tanks on the ground.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly, grabbing the pulser from her calf and passing the handgun to Whippoorwill. “Take this. If we’re going to do something this dumb, you should at least have a weapon that can punch through stallesp armor.”

“No,” Whip interjected, shaking her head. “I’m not letting you go in there with just a knife. If anyone is going to have the alien gun, it should be you.”

“It should be fine,” Kat corrected her. “I picked up a new toy off of the dead stallesp. I’m not sure exactly what brand of alien space blaster it is, but it’s pretty clearly a gun and at least some of its functions seem to be working. Just remember that when the time comes, you need to keep moving. We don’t have a great idea how resilient these hallways are. For all we know, every gun the stallesp have made will punch straight through any cover we can find. It’s better to dodge and not get shot than to die relying on a door to stop a bullet.”

Whippoorwill nodded, clutching the pulser to her chest with both hands. Kat drifted away from her, leading her partner down the hallway and past another two partial barriers where chunks of the ship’s superstructure had crumpled through the gently curving walls of their tunnel. Finally, she stopped in front of a fairly obvious hatch made of a greenish plastic.

Ten or so seconds later, Whip caught up to Kat, pausing to check the schematics in her smartpanel. She nodded.

“Unless the stallesp have completely reworked this part of the ship,” Whip said quietly, “this should be it. We’ll need to go two stories up before exiting. Then it’ll be a right turn at the end of the first corridor, and we’ll be on the sixth deck’s main hallway. From there, it’s a straight shot to the backup bridge.”

“Well,” Whippoorwill said, amending her previous statement. “As straight as anything is on this ship. It looks like it snakes gently back and forth with an overall slightly rightward curve, but you get the idea.”

Kat reached down, curling her fingers around either edge of the hatch. She pressed down on the tabs, releasing the lid and pulling it free. Ducking down, Kat shimmied through the opening. The access tunnel curved upward, curling around the body of the ship like the more horizontal passages.

She passed one landing, stopping at the second. It was a bit of a chore for Kat to lean backward and pop the hatch off of the access tunnel—clearly, her body wasn’t built the same as a stallesp’s—but the fifteen or so seconds of struggle gave Whip a chance to catch up.

Kat winced as the hatch clattered to the curved floor of the hallway, wincing slightly at the sudden bright glare from the overhead lights before her perks kicked in and deadened them. Twisting her body, she pushed off of the ladder’s rungs and rolled out onto the battlecruiser’s curved deck, the carbine slung across her chest clattering on the floor.

Gingerly she stood up, pressing the carbine up against her shoulder. Although her exit from the maintenance shaft had been as graceful as possible, that didn’t mean much. Her gun had made enough noise to alert anyone nearby.

Behind her, Whippoorwill clanked up the ladder, cursing loudly enough for her voice to carry. Kat winced slightly, eyes and gun tracking back and forth as she scanned the passage. Despite the clamor she’d made, and Whip’s ongoing ascent, nothing moved.

The hallway stood empty, a snaking cylinder of black metal shining in the overhead lights. Here and there, the circular outlines of doorways stuck out of the wall, but nothing moved. Even the lights glowed the same gentle yellow, unblinking and without any static or pause.

Really, if it weren’t for the sound of Whip struggling, the entire scene would be too peaceful. Despite the recent crash, it was like the entire floor was stuck in stasis, waiting for something to wake it from its slumber.

With a grunt, Whippoorwill flopped into the hallway, wheezing for breath. Kat surveyed their surroundings one more time before reaching down with her left hand to help the other woman up.

For a second, Whip’s hand lingered on Kat’s arm before Whippoorwill jerked it away, muttering something apologetic and unintelligible.

“How is the path to the backup bridge?” Kat asked, taking pity on the fidgeting woman. “Do we have to worry about radiation or any enemies?”

“No,” Whip answered gratefully. “The backup bridge is in the center of the ship for a reason. The stallesp have a number of concussion-dampening fields that are supposed to protect this area of the ship. None of them are rated for the sort of ‘improvised planetary landing’ that it just went through, but things here are still far better off than the outer areas of the ship.”

“That sounds like survivors to me,” Kat grunted, pressing the carbine tight against her shoulder. “If the stallesp knew this section was reinforced, this is almost certainly where they would congregate.”

“Probably,” Whippoorwill agreed. “A number of the rooms have some element of organic matter in them. It certainly looks like they were trying to get to cover only for the crash to shred them. The good news is that there isn’t anything breathing in our section of the ship.”

“Just let me know when that changes,” Kat replied, edging forward. “We’ve already found one survivor. It’s only a matter of time before we find more.”

It took them almost five minutes to work their way down the corridor. Even with Whippoorwill tapped into the stallesp system, Kat insisted on checking intersections and rooms for ambushes.

The hallways were a simple matter, a quick sweep with the alien gun pressed against her shoulder, but the rooms were a bit more grisly. It wasn’t hard for Whip to trigger their doors, but the smell and distressingly sticky interiors were a bit much.

Still, Kat preferred nausea to being surprised by a stallesp that might also have access to the ship’s internal systems. The fact that they didn’t find any ambushers didn’t mean that there weren’t a couple lurking somewhere in the ship. As unpleasant as the task might be, Kat knew that caution had the potential to keep both her and Whip alive.

Finally, a hand on Kat’s forearm stopped her progress. She looked over her shoulder only for Whippoorwill to motion her closer. One more quick review of their surroundings later, Kat leaned in.

“Three survivors,” Whip whispered, pointing to a larger door cut out of the black metal of the spaceship’s hallway. “They’re all in the backup bridge trying to activate emergency systems. I can’t really access what they’re doing without tipping them off that we’re here, but it sure looks like they’re trying to stitch the ship’s network back together. I’m not sure if it will be enough to get it flying again, but they will almost certainly have control of communications, life support, and—”

“Weapons,” Kat finished for her, brow furrowing beneath her mask. “I don’t think things end well for GroCorp or the 3445 if they succeed.”

Kat reached down, checking the knife sheathed at her waist, chewing at her lower lip as she went over their options. One enemy she could handle. That was simply a matter of getting the drop on them and shooting first. With three?

“Fuck,” Kat muttered. “Is there any way you can take control of internal security systems? Maybe give us the edge against them?”

“Sorry, Kat,” Whip replied with a shake of her head. “All three of them are in their network right now, and they know it better than me. The lokkel cypher gives me a leg up, but the minute I start poking around in there, they’re going to know that someone is on the ship. When the time comes, I should be able to open the door and run enough interference with the automatic turrets to stop the stallesp from using them on us, but beyond that, I won’t make any promises.”

She closed her eyes, rapidly counting down from five as she tried to calm herself. Kat could feel her knuckles whitening as she squeezed the metallic grips of the gun in her hands.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t had a chance to test fire the weapon. Its holographic sights functioned just fine, projecting the view down the carbine’s barrel with a floating sphere hovering in the air in such a way that Kat could see it perfectly no matter how she held the gun. Most importantly, there was a small green indicator in the lower left corner next to a tiny picture of the weapon and a rune indicating the remaining ammunition.

According to Whippoorwill, the display wasn’t visible as anything more than a flickering light for anyone more than a step or so away from the carbine. Enough to betray a sneak attack if Kat were foolish enough to close to point blank range, but not anything that an enemy could actually use to steal information.

In short, the pulser carbine worked. Kat didn’t know how much it would kick or how fast it fired, making any estimation of how she would handle three enemies at once guesswork at best. Still, it wasn’t like there was any other option, and if all else failed, she always had her knife.

Quietly, Kat approached the door to the backup bridge, pausing just outside the massive circle of dark metal. She closed her eyes, casting Shadow and Pseudopod on herself. Biting her lower lip, Kat stretched, cocking her head to the side and letting the vertebrae in her neck pop. Finally, she exhaled, opening her eyes once again before lowering herself into a ready crouch, her Pseudopod drawing the combat knife from her hip.

Kat didn’t bother to look back at Whip as she spoke, her eyes trained on the reinforced doorway.

“Open it.”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

The hiss of air escaping was all the signal Kat needed to spring into motion. The heavy steel rolled to the left, barely making it a third of the way across the opening before Kat’s body squirted through the gap and into the room beyond.

There were three stallesp, all wearing heavy indigo suits that covered them from feet to neck, and given the barely visible glimmering bubble around their heads, Kat could only surmise that they were some brand of space or environmental suit. The room itself was spacious, but not so large as to make the three giant moles seem small.

One was hunched over a control panel, staring at a hologram invisible to Kat from her angle, but the other two whipped around, weapons in hand.

God, were they moving fast. Even with her enhanced reactions, Kat could barely track the aliens as they squinted, trying to make out her body in the amorphous blob of darkness that coated her. A pulser barked, sending a dart tearing through the air just past her head.

Her back erupted in pain as the round slammed into the door, spraying a fine mist of superheated metal into Kat’s back. Almost immediately, her infiltration suit erupted into flame. A second shot missed entirely, the pulser bullet sailing through the air and carving a divot out of the hallway beyond.

Kat triggered her own shot, lining the red ball in her holographic sites up with the upper torso of the stallesp that had almost hit her. The carbine slammed against her shoulder, kicking harder than Kat had expected.

Then the room exploded into light. Whatever her gun was, it almost certainly was not a pulser. A wall of heat that made the tatters of her burning suit feel balmy slammed into Kat, knocking her from the air and slapping her into the ground.

Apparently, the red dot in her sights wasn’t a targeting laser. Rather, it marked the spot where the projectile fired by the carbine would detonate, launching a cone of white hot flame into the two of the aliens holding weapons.

The nearest one simply melted, its suit holding up for a fraction of a second before the wave of superheated gas melted through it, incinerating the alien inside and barely leaving dust in its wake. The second stallesp survived, the right half of its body a charred mess of burned fur and scarred skin fused with the dark purple combat suit.

It collapsed to the ground, screeching unintelligibly as the cone of brilliant light disappeared, leaving behind the stench of burning flesh.

Kat rolled over onto her back, gasping for breath as the acrid, superheated air attacked her lungs. The stallesp working the console turned, almost in slow motion. Its hand went for the pulser at its hip in the same moment that Kat’s Pseudopod darted forward, slashing toward the alien’s eyes with the knife clutched in its grip.

The blade bounced off of the glowing field surrounding the alien’s face. It squeaked, backpedaling a half step in surprise as it tried to draw a bead on Kat. She rolled to the side, putting the embers of her suit out as she tried to buy time for the carbine to recharge.

A pulser cracked. The stallesp spun sideways, its right arm disappearing below the elbow as Whip stood in the now-open doorway, gun gripped in her trembling hands.

The burned stallesp on the ground groaned, shifting slightly. Whippoorwill didn’t give it a chance, firing two shots from the alien handgun. Each one of the bullets shredded the creature’s armor, leaving a pair of volleyball-sized holes in its now-unmoving body.

Kat stood up and ripped her facemask off, her back and lungs aching. Whippoorwill stepped hesitantly into the room, pulser darting from one downed target to another. Kat balanced the carbine in the crook of her arm, wincing as she dismissed Shadow and began casting Cure Wounds I.

The burning pain in her back faded as Kat’s hands began to glow gold. Her breath hissed out in narrow gasps as the scars and burns stretched tight, smoothed out by the cool flow of mana over her skin.

A cough from the ship’s console wrenched Kat’s attention to the side. The one-armed stallesp had propped itself up against the base of the computer system. The alien’s pulser was gone, discarded halfway across the room along with the remains of its arm, but that wasn’t enough to stop it.

It raised its left arm, revealing a dark yellow gauntlet with two spikes sticking almost an arm’s length from its end. Electricity crackled down the length of the weapon, arcing back and forth between the two razor-sharp tines.

Whippoorwill’s pulser clicked, finally empty.

Kat’s eyes widened as the stallesp leveled its glowing hand at her companion. Time creaked to a stop.

She barely even realized that she was moving. The knife clutched in her Pseudopod stabbed into the creature’s suit, failing to penetrate but pushing its arm to the side.

A bolt of electricity launched itself from the end of the alien’s gauntlet, scarring the far wall as the energy tore at the dark metal.

Then Kat was standing in front of the stallesp. The blade flipped out of the front of her carbine, vibrating to life as her Pseudopod wrenched her knife upward, pressing it against the creature’s armored throat. Its eyes widened, and the alien struggled to wrench its remaining arm back toward Kat, but it was too late.

The buzzing bayonet swung downward. It met the stallesp’s dark blue suit at the elbow. The tough fabric that had stopped every thrust, slash, or stab of Kat’s knife barely offered any resistance as the alien weapon sheared through it, cauterizing the wound in its wake.

The stallesp screamed, thrashing handless beneath Kat. She planted her right foot in its shoulder, pinning it to the ship’s console as she lifted the carbine again to skewer the pain-maddened alien.

Something about her slamming it into the computers knocked some sense into the alien, and the pain cleared from its eyes long enough for them to widen, flickering from Kat’s face to the humming bayonet poised above its chest.

“You,” it croaked, its English almost too accented to understand. “From the boat in dreamscape.”

Kat’s eyes darted to the alien’s gauntleted arm, remembering its slow, almost awkward movements in their brief battle. Her face broke into a toothy smile.

“You don’t have an avatar anymore, do you?” she asked, pressing the vibrating tip of the bayonet against the dome of force surrounding the alien’s fuzzy face. Its eyes widened in confusion, pink nose twitching as it focused on the blade slowly forcing its way through the field.

“Turn off your helmet if you want to live,” Kat growled, pulling the carbine back just enough that the stallesp could shift its focus from the weapon to her.

Hesitantly, it reached up with one stump of a hand, stickily pressing a button on the side of its collar. The energy field dissipated with a crackle of static. It wrinkled its nose at her, whimpering slightly.

Kat reversed the grip on her gun, swinging downward with its butt and connecting with the stallesp’s forehead. The dull thump of metal on bone filled the ship’s backup bridge, and the alien’s eyes unfocused before it slumped over backward, insensible.

She took a step backward, weapon ready as she surveyed the room. The stallesp in front of her was clearly unconscious, and the other two were clearly dead. One barely had enough of a body for a funeral, and the other was missing almost the entirety of its torso.

Before she could say anything, Whip almost tackled her from behind, drawing a ripple of pain from her still recovering burns.

“Oh my God, Kat.” Whippoorwill was talking so fast that she could barely make out the individual words. “I can’t believe that happened. I know you told me to stay back, but then the door opened and you were on the ground and on fire and—”

“Shhhh,” Kat whispered, twisting so that she could pat the back of Whip’s head. Warmth filled her chest as her gloved fingers rested on the back of her friend’s mask. The other woman pressed closer, practically burying herself in Kat’s shoulder. “You did the right thing, and both of us made it. For now, all that’s important is finishing the mission. We can talk as soon as we’re done.”

Whip pulled back, reaching up to pull off her mask now that the two of them were alone. Her pink hair tumbled out of its confines, framing her face and contrasting with the unshed tears rimming her eyes.

“Give me just a second,” Whippoorwill said quietly, blushing slightly as she reached up to dab one of her eyes. “Two of the ship’s reactors are down, their failsafes activated, and they turned themselves off to avoid a meltdown. The third is still working, but it’s not fully connected with the rest of the power system. I think the lokkel were interfering with things because it shouldn’t be that hard to—”

The entire ship shook, a humming sound filling its halls as the lights brightened slightly. In the center of the bridge, a hologram popped to life amidst the chaos showing a 360-degree panorama of the sand dunes surrounding the downed battlecruiser.

Lines and lines of tanks thundered over the wasteland toward them, supported by more artillery and lighter-armored vehicles than Kat could count. A larger formation of at least a couple thousand NeoSyne vehicles covered most of the western horizon with a smaller but still large group of Tri Holding tanks engaging from the South. The 3445 was dug in around the battlecruiser, small ‘forts’ made from the smoking machinery of their enemies dotting massive trenches that had been dug in the sand.

There wasn’t any sound, but APEX suits’ rifles blinked, launching penetrators into the approaching walls of steel. The shots knocked the attackers out of formation, wounding enemy tanks and destroyed infantry fighting vehicles entirely. Behind the power suits, hover tanks wove a complex pattern, using their mobility to avoid enemy fire while providing cover for the entire formation from the advancing artillery.

A volley of rockets and artillery shells arced overhead, arcing from the advancing NeoSyne units toward the downed spaceship. The trio of air defense pylons opened fire, the lasers mounted at their tops blinking rapidly, each flash of light destroying another projectile.

“Got it,” Whip said triumphantly. “Automatic repair systems are now active, but most of the ship’s extremities are pretty beat up. Shields are available at twelve percent of full power. Drives are offline, along with half of external weaponry, but internal security and communications are functioning.”

The door hissed shut, locking the two of them into the battlecruiser’s backup bridge. Beneath Kat’s feet, the deck rumbled slightly. On the hologram, a thin line of gleaming metal appeared in the distant north, GroCorp forces arriving far too late to have any sort of impact on the titanic conflict around the downed starship.

She turned to Whippoorwill. Her eyes were unfocused, staring blankly off into space as she interfaced with the stallesp computer network, a shock of damp pink hair draped across her face.

“Don’t try to leave, Kat,” Whip continued absently. “There are five or six stallesp still alive. I just activated the internal turrets to fix the problem, but I had to turn off their friend or foe indicators so that the guns would actually target the moles. Things should be getting pretty spicy out there in the next couple of minutes.”

“What about the ship’s shields and guns?” Kat asked. “You said we had some functionality back. Is there anything that we can use?”

“I’m not really sure what half of this stuff means,” Whippoorwill replied with a shrug. “The lokkel cypher translates the system, but it’s not like it properly explains what I’m dealing with. I mean, we have twenty percent of our railgun turrets and about half of the point defense lasers are working, but I have no idea what a plasma lance is. There’s only one working, and it’s eating up a bit over a quarter of our power supply, but I don’t really know anything beyond that.”

“I think I’ve heard Dorrik talk about them before,” Kat responded, nodding slowly. “They’re the big guns used by capital ships to tear each other apart. Even at a fraction of its full power, there shouldn’t be anything on Earth that can survive a hit from it. With that, we should be able to—”

She trailed off, a smile growing on her face.

“Say Whip?” Kat asked sweetly. “You mentioned that the ship’s communication system is working, right? I don’t suppose you’d be able to patch me through to our friend Belle Donnst? I want to make sure that everything is set in stone before I do anything dramatic.”

“I can do one better,” Whip answered, nodding at the holographic display of the battlefield. It rippled, the images fading away to be replaced by a boardroom filled with GroCorp shareholders, figures Kat had only seen on gossip channels and billboards. “I just used the communication suite to break into their smartglass. You’ll be visible shortly.”

Kat squared her shoulders, linking her hands in the small of her back as she smiled at the hologram. All of the shareholders were seated around a U-shaped table with a handful of executives standing in the center. All but Belle Donnst stood deferentially, their eyes downcast as the shareholders accosted them. A moment later, the silence of the bridge was broken by a clamor of voices.

“Donnst!” a man shouted, standing up and jabbing a finger in Belle’s direction. “Do you really think that we would water down our shares for this… barbaric power grab?”

“Do you really expect us to believe that this was all the idea of some street rat?” His face was beginning to turn red, spit gathering in the corners of his mouth. “Everyone here can see that Haupt and you cooked up this plot of yours. There’s absolutely nothing stopping us from simply feigning an agreement with this Debs child only to turn our backs on her once the alien equipment is in hand.”

“She’ll kill you, Richard,” Belle replied dryly, meeting the sputtering shareholder’s gaze. “She’s done it before, and she’s only grown more powerful since then.”

“I will, you know,” Kat agreed, flashing a shark smile at the gathered shareholders and executives. “I’m Katherine Debs, by the way. I was just calling in to make sure that my terms were going to be met. I’m not a terribly huge fan of fulfilling my end of a bargain without some sort of assurance that I won’t be left high and dry.”

“How dare you interrupt this august assembly?” He spun, jamming his finger into the air in the direction of whatever display Kat was appearing on. “How did you manage to break into our communication network? We are in the middle of a crisis here, and now is not the time for a distraction.”

“Don’t worry,” Kat replied, waving a hand dismissively. “The crisis is over. I won. I’m just here to provide you with my invoice before I hand over the spoils of my victory.”

“What do you mean the crisis is over?” Belle asked, speaking over the quivering shareholder.

“It’s over.” Kat stepped backward, waving a hand at her surroundings. “I have control of the stallesp ship, and it’s in much better shape than expected. Right now, my friends are being charged by three different armies, but I’m afraid the attackers will find that our deflectors and weapons are quite operational when they arrive.”

“Hold on now,” the man interrupted, raising a hand. “You’re a GroCorp employee, right? I order you to turn the ship over to us. By the terms of the Philadelphia charter, any salvage found by you must be forfeited to your employer in exchange for suitable compensation.”

Kat reached up, scratching her cheek as she stared into the holograph bemusedly. Finally she cocked her head slightly to the side before responding.

“Why would you think that I’m a GroCorp employee? I live in Chiwaukee, but at the end of the day, I’m a freelancer and I have been for a while now.”

“Donnst!” The shareholder sputtered. “I thought you said that she was an associate of yours and a student at the academy? How can she not be an employee?!”

“Just out of curiosity, what would you consider ‘suitable compensation’ for delivering a crashed aliens spaceship into your hands?” Kat asked. “Possessing the wreckage will change the balance of power in an instant. I honestly thought a little bit of stock was letting you off fairly easily.”

“She’s right, Richard,” another male shareholder chimed in. “If we picked the right arbiter, we might be able to argue them down to a billion credits, but this is too big of a case for us to just make it go away. The other companies would be watching us like hawks.”

“I still don’t see why we have to give her stock,” the standing man blustered back. “We can find a billion credits somewhere if we need to, but we haven’t invested more than one shareholder a year since the company was founded. Three at once would be unprecedented.”

“I can always ask Tri Holdings what they’d pay for the ship,” Kat interjected. “Their army is closer than yours, anyway. I’m sure they’d be more than willing to pay what the wreckage is actually worth.”

The angry shareholder began saying something only for the other speaker to wave him off, raising his voice to speak over the blustering older man.

“Oh, shut up, Richard. It’s a fair offer and she has leverage on us. Anyone with half a brain can see it. I’m calling the question.”

The handful of executives that were standing in the center of the room relaxed. Richard spun away from the camera, looking from face to face at the table full of shareholders in search of support. Finally, finding none, he plopped down in his seat, glaring at Kat through the camera.

A woman at the head of the table slammed a gavel down twice, silencing the whispering that had filled the boardroom.

“Shareholder Waggoner has called the question on Miss Donnst’s proposal,” she began, her voice monotone as if she were reciting a script for the fiftieth time. “At this time, I am directing the secretary to begin calling role. Each shareholder may vote aye, nay, or abstain.”

“I motion that we adopt the proposal by unanimous consent,” Waggoner cut in, exasperation filling his voice. “We’re literally voting while our assets are trapped in a war zone.”

The woman glared at Waggoner for a second before speaking up again.

“Shareholder Waggoner has called for unanimous consent. Objections?” She stopped for a second to look around the table. No one spoke. The shareholder that had been complaining earlier just glared at Kat, but she ignored him, her smile unmoving on her face.

“Seeing none,” the woman continued, slamming her gavel down once, “the motion carries. So long as Miss Debs can deliver the wreckage, new shares will be issued on the first of the next month, and Jasper Haupt, Belle Donnst, and Katherine Debs will be invested as the newest shareholders in GroCorp.”

“Chiffon!” Kat called out. “Fire up the plasma lance and target the NeoSyne tanks. Let’s show the nice people what they just bought.”

The hologram in front of her rippled, transforming back into an image of the battlefield around the crashed ship. In the upper corner of the display, the GroCorp boardroom hovered above the sandy wastes.

Then the lights in the bridge dimmed for a quarter of a second, and a distressed whining noise filled the ship as damaged machinery came to life. Then, the crashed battlecruiser in the hologram flared to life, a beam of brilliant white light stabbed from its prow.

The lance only fired for a half a second, but that was all it took. It traced a quick line through the center of the NeoSyne formation, flickering out even as the air itself caught fire. Explosions rocked the barren landscape, swallowing up the entirety of the enemy unit and buffeting the flickering barrier of defensive fields that had expanded outward from the battlecruiser to encompass the 3445 units huddled in its shadow.

Despite their distance, the Tri army took some damage. Unarmored individuals and lighter vehicles were tossed into the air by the shockwave from the blast. Even the heavier tanks and self-propelled artillery had to halt their advance, hunkering down and doing their best to survive the windstorm incited by the single shot from the stallesp ship’s main cannon.

Ten seconds later, as the mushroom cloud that had grown above the NeoSyne army like a weed began to fade, there was nothing left but dead bodies and twisted metal. A massive crater, covered in black glass from where the plasma had melted the sand itself, gaped in the center of the holographic display, replacing most of the now-absent NeoSyne forces.

“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Kat said with a smile as she stared into holographic projection. “Just make sure to invite me to the next meeting. I’m looking forward to meeting you all in person.”

Kat motioned to Whip, and the feed cut out, leaving only the smoking and debris-strewn battlefield. Whippoorwill opened her mouth to say something, but Kat spoke first.

“We’re almost done, Whip.” She reached up, brushing a strand of hair out of her face before turning to look at the other woman. “I just need you to put me through to whoever is running the Tri army, and then we can rest.”

Indecision warred with… something else… on Whippoorwill’s face for a couple of seconds. Finally, she nodded, and the hologram flickered, revealing a Hispanic man in his early fifties that was pondering a smartglass image of the 3445 fortifications that ringed the entrance to the battlecruiser. From the looks of things, he was in a command vehicle of some sort. His surroundings weren’t terribly well lit, but the display on the wall and the table beside him both rumbled and shook as the war machine plowed through the desert.

“Hello!” Kat said cheerfully, announcing her presence. The man jumped, spinning around to look at the smartglass she was projecting from. “My name is Katherine Debs, and I am currently in control of the downed stallesp starship. May I ask who I am addressing?”

“General James Francis, Tri Holdings Security Forces,” he replied, brow furrowing. “Can you tell me what is going on and how you got this—”

“I am calling as a courtesy to inform you that I have complete control of the battlecruiser’s weapon systems,” Kat cut him off. “As you can see, one shot was more than enough to annihilate the NeoSyne forces. I have no animosity with Tri Holdings, but I’ve cut a deal to sell the salvage to GroCorp. If you turn your forces around now, we will not pursue you. You will be allowed to leave unmolested.”

“Wait.” His face lit up. “If you’re the one in charge of that mercenary group, name your price. That alien tech will be the find of the century, and if you’re selling, Tri is buying. Whatever they offered, I can double it.”

“Can you give me two percent of Tri’s voting stock?” Kat asked, raising a single eyebrow. “General seems like an awfully dangerous position for a Tri shareholder.”

“Oh,” he replied, deflating on camera before lapsing into an uncomfortable moment of silence. Finally, he sighed and continued. “I suppose I’d better order my troops to turn around then.”

Kat smiled, feeling the tension leave her shoulders for the first time in days before she answered. “I suppose you should.”

EPILOGUE

Kat stood still on the tarmac. To her right were Belle Donnst, Jasper Haupt, and Ricardo Waggoner, the shareholder that had supported her bid to join GroCorp’s elite. Wind blew through her hair, heralding the eerily silent descent of the egg-like spaceship as it touched down on the boiling blacktop.

Behind their party, Whippoorwill stood uncomfortably with a group of executives, looking as out of place in a suit as any of her more dignified companions would in an alley holding a makeshift knife. Her pink hair contrasted with the navy and charcoal of her cohort’s suit, singling her out.

Just behind Whip’s group, eight corporate security guards ringed a chained stallesp prisoner. Without hands or a Tower avatar, he wasn’t much of a threat, but this near shareholders, GroCorp security wasn’t going to take the chance.

A door opened in the side of the landing craft, projecting a metal ramp down onto the helipad. The only sound was the buzzing of distant cars, the rest of O’Hare’s air traffic having long since been grounded to make way for the visitors.

Then a pair of lokkel, covered in armor and only recognizable due to their four arms, marched down the ramp and took up positions on either end of the opening. Kat wasn’t entirely sure if their armor had sound dampening qualities or if they were using gravity magic to prevent their heavy footsteps from echoing on the ramp, but the silence of their descent was an eerie counterpoint to their heavy armor.

Corporate security ringed the landing site, guns pointed outward as radar watched the sky for anything that might threaten the upcoming meeting.

An orb, humming quietly on its anti-gravity engine, hovered down the ramp followed shortly thereafter by a rock alien that reminded Kat of Gasoot, two birdlike bipeds with brightly colored plumage, and a very familiar lokkel with dark scales. Dorrik grinned at her, their crest fluttering in the wind as they stood at the back of the cluster of aliens.

“Attention, humans,” a mechanical voice crackled from the hovering orb as its metal surface became transparent, revealing what looked like a small octopus working the sphere’s controls. “My name is Valgreth Manak’lik of the Crimson Wave Shoal. I have been appointed the chairperson of the Galactic Consensus blue ribbon commission that will be investigating the accusations of inappropriate stallesp involvement with your planet’s development.”

“Welcome, Valgreth,” Kat replied, smiling at the small octopus as she stepped forward. “GroCorp is excited to have your commission visit Chiwaukee. As you can see, in addition to the information we sent your data technicians in orbit, we have taken one of the stallesp involved in the plot prisoner. Since capturing him, we’ve learned that his name is Addnok and that he is a member of the Prosperity and Bounty Consortium.”

“I am familiar with the Prosperity and Bounty Consortium,” Valgreth responded, its mechanical voice buzzing slightly. “I presume that you have brought Addnok to this meeting to surrender him to our custody for questioning?”

“But of course,” she answered, stepping to the side and motioning toward the bound stallesp. One of the guards behind the mole prodded it in the back with a stun baton that crackled with electricity, singing a chunk off of the creature’s fur. “In fact, after a week or so of questioning, he was quite insistent about being returned to Consensus custody. He kept reciting various treaties and conventions, claiming that our treatment was inhumane, but the last I checked, GroCorp was not a signatory to the Deneb Accords or the Antares Codicil.”

“Antares,” Valgreth said flatly. “So you were torturing Addnok, then?”

“We were only asking questions,” Kat riposted, smiling down at the small octopus. “Specifically, questions about how many of my people the stallesp had kidnapped, cloned, and murdered as part of his race’s illegal plot to enslave my planet.”

“He doesn’t have hands,” Valgreth noted flatly.

“You don’t need hands just to answer questions,” Belle interjected, her voice pleasant.

For a second, the small octopus didn’t respond. The hovering orb buzzed quietly as its occupant stared at the whimpering alien surrounded by heavily armed corporate security. Behind it, the two birdlike aliens crooned to either other softly in their own language.

“Indeed,” Valgreth agreed, bobbing slightly. “A fair point.”

AFTERWORD

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ABOUT CALE PLAMANN

A lifelong fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I usually spent my nerdy energy creating overly elaborate homebrew RPG campaigns. As it became harder and harder to juggle schedules for a half dozen players, I eventually made the logical choice and just cut them out of the picture entirely.

Now I write novels. They whine a lot less about critical failures.

If you enjoyed what you read, please make sure to visit my website or reach out to me on twitter (where I talk about writing amongst other things) or join my discord where I almost exclusively* talk about my existing books/what I’m currently writing.

*There are also memes.  Lots of memes.

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ABOUT MOUNTAINDALE PRESS

Dakota and Danielle Krout, a husband and wife team, strive to create as well as publish excellent fantasy and science fiction novels. Self-publishing The Divine Dungeon: Dungeon Born in 2016 transformed their careers from Dakota’s military and programming background and Danielle’s Ph.D. in pharmacology to President and CEO, respectively, of a small press. Their goal is to share their success with other authors and provide captivating fiction to readers with the purpose of solidifying Mountaindale Press as the place ‘Where Fantasy Transforms Reality.’

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MOUNTAINDALE PRESS TITLES

GameLit and LitRPG

The Completionist Chronicles,

The Divine Dungeon,

Full Murderhobo, and

Year of the Sword by Dakota Krout

Arcana Unlocked by Gregory Blackburn

A Touch of Power by Jay Boyce

Red Mage and

Farming Livia by Xander Boyce

Space Seasons by Dawn Chapman

Ether Collapse and

Ether Flows by Ryan DeBruyn

Dr. Druid by Maxwell Farmer

Bloodgames by Christian J. Gilliland

Unbound by Nicoli Gonnella

Threads of Fate by Michael Head

Lion’s Lineage by Rohan Hublikar and Dakota Krout

Wolfman Warlock by James Hunter and Dakota Krout

Axe Druid,

Mephisto’s Magic Online, and

High Table Hijinks by Christopher Johns

Skeleton in Space by Andries Louws

Dragon Core Chronicles by Lars Machmüller

Chronicles of Ethan by John L. Monk

Pixel Dust and

Necrotic Apocalypse by David Petrie

Viceroy’s Pride by Cale Plamann

Henchman by Carl Stubblefield

Artorian’s Archives by Dennis Vanderkerken and Dakota Krout

Vaudevillain by Alex Wolf

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