by Alex Knight
“Umm, okay. Fair enough.” Zelda was clearly taken aback. “You can just call me Zelda, then.”
“So it shall be. And your companions are?”
Kaiden stepped up and waved.
“Ensi– er, Kaiden. Though my friends call me Kai.”
“This information has been noted, though I am not your friend, Kaiden.”
“Titus,” the big man said, and stepped up to shake hands. Elistar stared at the outstretched hand. He leaned forward, getting a closer look, then straightened back up.
“This is a human hand,” he declared. “I presume you are offering it in a form of greeting?”
“It’s a handshake,” Titus said. “A typical, uh, human way of saying hello.”
“I have read of ‘handshakes.'” They tend to facilitate the spread of infectious illness, yes?”
“I suppose...”
“Noted. It is pleasant to meet you, Titus.” Elistar kept his hands firmly at his side, then turned to address all three of them. “I have been told you come in search of knowledge.”
“We have,” Kaiden said, nodding. “But not just, like, knowledge in general. Specific knowledge.”
“You seek information about an assassin, yes?”
“We do.”
“What information?”
“Well, we know his name is Jax, and he’s a human assassin. We want to know where to find him.”
“A name is hardly sufficient to locate on person in the vast expanse of a universe.”
“His gun was marked with a symbol. It was a fiery-eyed skull on the backdrop of a biohazard symbol.”
“I see.” Elistar folded his hands in front of him, one clasping the other. “This should be enough information. I will search the archives for the knowledge you desire.”
Wow, that was easy. We should come here more often!
“When you find this assassin, will you fight him?” asked Elistar.
Zelda stepped forward.
“We don’t necessarily want to, but it’s likely he will attack us.”
“It is a shame, the violent ways in which you humans conduct yourselves. Alas, until you have achieved enlightenment, as have we, you will not know a better way. If you are to fight this assassin, I fear you will not prevail.”
Kaiden frowned at that.
“And why not?”
“Your shields are interesting, but I fear they will easily overload if you fight such a powerful assassin,” Elistar said, gesturing to their bracers. “Although I must admit they are a clever technology, especially for humans. In exchange for the knowledge you seek, I propose a trade. My colleagues would be interested to study your shield technology, and see if it can be improved upon. While they are of human origin, there may be something we can learn from them.”
“You want to study our shields?” Titus said, latching one hand around his bracer and stepping back.
“This is what I have said.”
Kaiden looked down at his own, then back up at Elistar.
“Will we get them back?”
“Of course. Your shields will be returned to you before your departure.”
“Well, I don’t see why not.” Kaiden turned to the others. “I don’t plan on getting into any fights while we’re here, so we probably don’t need them.”
“I don’t like it.” Titus frowned. “We’d be defenseless.”
“We’d still have our hammers.”
“Violence is not condoned on Jonduu. You will not come under attack while here, unless it is between each other.”
“We need this information, guys,” Zelda said. “Hand over your shields.” She took hers off and handed it to Elistar. Instead of reaching for it, he merely blinked all four eyes at once and the bracer was lifted into the air. It floated, tumbling slowly end over end in front of him.
Telekinesis. How about that?
“She’s right,” Kaiden said, and held out his as well.
Titus grumbled, but did the same. A moment later, Elistar blinked and the bracers floated into the air.
“Thank you, Kaiden, Zelda, and Titus. I will return with your shields, and your information, in one human hour."
Light suddenly flooded the space around Kaiden. He looked to see the same light around Zelda and Titus.
“I am sending you to the facility’s shop,” Elistar said. “Perhaps while you wait, you may enjoy some of our famous turen flabberwock soup.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The dazzling light of the transporter faded and they found themselves in another room – the shop Elistar had mentioned, from the looks of it. A counter lined one side of the space, with a few turen seated at it, eating from steaming bowls. They did so without touching anything, however, the food rising and floating into their mouths with each bite.
The rest of the room was full of an assortment of junk, advanced technology, and items that looked somewhere in between.
“Ooh, the humans Kaiden, Zelda, and Titus have come. Welcome, welcome!” A voice greeted them, but this one was unlike the others. Its words were quick and energetic, almost more human than turen.
Kaiden turned to find the source of the voice, only to find a turen standing there.
“Miloter Litlal, pleased to be greeting you,” the turen said, then extended a hand.
On instinct, Kaiden took it and gave it a shake. Miloter’s grasp was light and gentle; it was almost like shaking hands with a small child. When Kaiden released it, Miloter laughed and raised his hand to stare at it.
“Oh, I’ve ever so wanted to perform the human greeting ritual called a ‘handshake.’” He smiled at them with the turen approximation of a smile, which was to draw his mouth slit back across his face, bending it up ever so slightly at the edges. “Such an interesting manner in which to say hello. So physical, so rough. Ah, it’s just so exciting!”
He clapped his hands together, then hurried over to some sort of sink. A laser flashed over his hands and they steamed for a moment.
“Well, then, humans. Your exploits so far have been quite exhilarating. I imagine you’re here to sell some very interesting loot. That’s why you’ve come to my shop, yes?”
“Our exploits?” Titus frowned. “You’ve heard of us before?”
“Heard of you?” Miloter laughed again. “Of course not. We don’t keep tabs on humans – there’s far too many of you for that. But we did scan your ship when you entered our space. The scan told us all about your history with the Warden Corps.”
“What you mean to say is you hacked the Borrelly and read about us?” Zelda didn’t look too happy about that.
“The Borrelly! Ah, and you name your ships. Truly, you are a curious species.” Miloter sat down at his counter and crossed his legs. “But yes, you could say our scan hacked your ship. Or you could also say it was so advanced that reading your data was almost unavoidable. Really, you humans should work on your security measures.” He waved a hand. “But no matter. You’ve brought me interesting loot from across the system, haven’t you?”
I haven’t looted anything but my new hammer since the Dalcinae.
The more Kaiden thought about it, though, the more he realized he probably should have been looting constantly. It was a good idea to loot your enemies in most games. Maybe they’d drop valuable stuff, but even if they didn’t, you could offload mostly worthless items in large amounts to shops – very much like this one – for a decent amount of money.
“I...haven’t got anything, really,” Kaiden said sheepishly.
“I’ve got some stuff,” Zelda said. “Been carrying it in my inventory for a while and looking to get rid of it, actually.”
“I have some, too,” Titus said. “Got a fair bit of junk off those raged.”
“I’ll take the lot of it.”
Zelda balked.
“But you haven’t even seen what you’re buying.”
“Actually, our scans of your ship also provided a full inventory for each of you.”
“Right.” She sighe
d. “Of course they did.”
“So, what do you say? Your inventories for something special from my shop?”
Kaiden shrugged.
“I’ve nothing to trade. This is up to you two.”
“Well, what will you give us for ‘the lot?’” Zelda asked.
“Why, nothing less than this incredibly rare galvanized skull of a Jonduu wooly mammoth!”
A huge, metal-covered skull levitated up from one corner of the room, knocking aside a dozen small piles of scrap. “Very beautiful, as you can see. And very rare.”
“And rather useless,” Kaiden said, analyzing the object with his enhanced visor. It apparently served no purpose beyond decoration.
“Uh...we really don’t need that,” Zelda said, frowning.
“Could we even fit that on the Borrelly?” Titus asked, staring with a doubtful gaze.
“Fine, fine.” Miloter waved the skull away and it slammed back to the floor. “Then what about...a well-used but still completely operational suit of CrySec Elite-Tier Power Armor?”
This time, several pieces of what appeared to be scrap flew from across the shop, then assembled themselves into a rusted and clearly damaged suit of armor that stood at least ten feet tall.
Kaiden focused on it. The stats were unimpressive, to say the least. Its low durability had significantly reduced its usefulness. In fact, when he considered the large decrease in movement speed against its reasonable boost to attack power, well, the suit actually seemed detrimental. Plus, the description said it couldn’t be used by humans.
As if to show the armor still worked, Miloter gestured at it. Lights blinked to life and the armor snapped into action, raising one hand, a six-barreled machine gun embedded in its wrist.
“Now we’re talking!” Titus said, striding forward. “That’s a mean-looking piece of machinery–”
“No,” Zelda said, cutting him off. “We don’t need that, either.”
“We can’t actually use it. It’s race-specific gear,” Kaiden noted.
Miloter snapped his fingers and the armor turned toward Titus, one hand reaching out as if begging him to trade for it.
“I said no.” Zelda stepped between the big man and the armor.
“She’s right, Titus,” Kaiden chimed in. “Besides, even if you could use it, I’m pretty sure the Warden Corps wouldn’t let you keep it.”
“Fine,” Titus grumbled.
The armor collapsed back into a pile.
“You’re a tough crowd,” Miloter said, frowning. “I didn’t want to do this, but I might have just the thing.” He paused a moment, as if thinking, and then a cabinet across the room started rattling. Its door burst open and three tiny metal spheres shot across the room. They stopped just in front of Miloter, hovering in place.
“These are turen personal defense shields. Older models, to be sure, but I couldn’t legally give you the current generation of them. They’ll work just fine, though.”
Kaiden focused on one of the spheres and a detailed description appeared.
Turen Personal Defense Force Field
When active, this force field will negate all damage dealt to the wearer, including debuffs and stunning attacks, for a duration of 5 seconds. Good for single use only.
“Now that sounds like something we could use.” Kaiden said.
“I can see how something like that might be useful in a pinch.” Zelda rubbed her chin while Miloter floated one of the spheres in front of her.
“They look a lot less awesome than a full suit of power armor,” Titus said, half-frowning at the spheres. “But I suppose they could be cool.”
“I’ll even throw in the third for free,” Miloter said. “Then you can each have one.”
Zelda deliberated for another moment, then shrugged.
“I guess we do it. I don’t see why not.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Titus chimed in.
“Joyous news!” Miloter clapped his hands together. “Now, if you two will just accept my trade request…and... perfect.”
A rain of items popped into existence beside them, then clattered to the floor as Titus and Zelda emptied their collected inventories. Kaiden recognized body parts from voidspawn, several of the bent and broken weapons the raged had carried, and a vibranium crystal.
“You had an extra crystal?” Kaiden said, turning to Zelda. Surely it hadn’t come from Titus; he’d barely had enough to pass the test. “You could have given it to someone, or turned it in for extra experience.”
“Experience isn’t hard to get. You can grind for it. But the crystal was rare. I thought it might come in handy someday.”
“She was right,” Miloter said, levitating the crystal over to him. “The vibranium crystal was the only item of any real value between your combined inventories.”
Zelda flashed Kaiden a look as if to say, "See?"
Sometimes, I wish she wasn’t always right. Just once in a while.
“Anyway, now that our business is concluded, may I offer you a bowl of our famous flabberwock soup while you wait?” Miloter gestured to the bar where the other patrons were chowing down.
“Why not?” Titus took a step toward the bar. Before he could take another, however, the teleportation light – or whatever it was – flashed on.
“Ah. Well, maybe next time,” Miloter managed to say before they were transported back to the archives.
“I have the knowledge you seek,” Elistar said by way of greeting.
Kaiden was still blinking, trying to adjust his eyes from the brightly lit shop to the soft darkness of the archives.
“And our shields?” Titus asked.
“Those as well. We did not learn as much as we had hoped from them, but my colleagues couldn’t help themselves and tinkered with their energy conversion processors.”
“You messed with our shields?” Kaiden said, taking a step forward. He did not like the sound of that.
“‘Improved’ is a more accurate word. We improved your shields.”
Their bracers hovered over. Kaiden slipped his back on and the others did the same.
Perk acquired: Turen Tinkering!
Your shield has received a 10% increase to base charge capacity.
“Huh, you’re not kidding.”
“Turen do not ‘kid’. We speak only the truth.”
“Well, thanks for that,” Zelda said, tightening her bracer. “So, about the assassin?”
Elistar inhaled deeply, preparing to speak.
“The symbol you described accurately aligns with that of the Oneshot Assassins’ Guild. Our research indicates they are a small group of human assassins and spies who have a reputation as discreet but effective killers.”
Quest Complete: Capture the assassin Jax
Part 1: Investigate the symbol on Jax’s gun
Rewards received: +2,000 EXP, +4 faction prestige
**Update**
Quest: Capture the assassin Jax
Part 2: Confirm Jax is a member of Oneshot
Expected Difficulty: Veteran
Rewards: +3,500 EXP, +5 faction prestige
“Oneshot…” Zelda said, rolling the name around on her tongue. “I haven’t heard of them.”
“As I said, discreet.” Elistar nodded. “Hardly discreet enough to avoid our attention, however. Their current headquarters can be found on Kal Reya, the third moon of Jalpurn.”
“Kal Reya. Kal Reya,” Kaiden said, memorizing the name. “Third moon of Jalpurn. Perfect. Thank you!” He turned to the others and smiled. “We’ve got him. Let’s rest up tonight and stake it out in the morning.”
“Jalpurn, the second largest celestial object in its system, is what you humans refer to as
a chthonian planet. Its close proximity to neighboring binary stars...”
Kaiden smiled at Elistar “Oh, you’ve told us all we need to know.”
“...has stripped away the once thick hydrogen and helium atmosphere of the planet, resulting in…”
“Maybe we should ju
st go?” Titus suggested, backing away from the rambling turen.
“...a rocky, metallic core that resembles a terrestrial, telluric, or ‘rocky’ planet in many respects, namely…”
“Yeah, that sounds good. Uh, thanks again, Elistar.” Kaiden waved at him, then backed away with the others.
“How do we work this thing?” Zelda shook her hand in front of a small sensor on the wall. A moment later, a light flashed on–
“...a central metallic core comprised primarily of iron, with a surrounding silicate mantle…”
–and then they were gone.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Viewed from orbit, Kal Reya had been something of a mystery. Thick clouds filled its atmosphere, obscuring any hint of what Kaiden could expect below. An elite guild of assassins? Evidence that he was innocent? Or maybe even nothing at all. There was only one way to find out.
The Borrelly’s sensor showed the ground was still far below them, but hurtling downward through the thick clouds of Kal Reya was still an unsettling experience. All it’d take would be for one mountaintop to escape their instruments’ notice, and they’d end up as nothing more than an impact crater on the mysterious moon’s surface.
Thankfully, the clouds broke to reveal no impending mountaintops. Only a constant drizzling rain and a clear flight path ahead of them. The reason for the moon’s green color, however, was immediately clear.
“Trees,” Titus said, pressed up against a window. “And a heck of a lot of them.”
“Not just trees,” Zelda said, eyes distant as she read from an unseen menu. “Jungle. Very thick, very dangerous jungle. At least according to what other players have written about this place.”
Location discovered: Kal Reya
Faction Alignment: Unclaimed