He wasn’t sure if Brint really thought that he could work miracles, or if he was just delusional from grief – either way, Milton wasn’t sure how to break it to him that he couldn’t heal his friend. Being a bit of a chicken when it came to intense emotional situations, he tried to delay the inevitable.
“What happened?”
He could barely tell that he had gotten through to the grief-stricken young man, his gaze was intently focused on the figure frozen inside the water below. Suddenly, Brint began to whisper, as if he was afraid that being too loud would somehow interrupt the healing process, “I came back to her house to drop off the new vials when I found that her door had been left open. It was unusual because she is usually anal about making sure her doors are constantly locked, but I didn’t think anything about it. When I pushed open the door, I found her tied to a chair, the too-tight ropes cutting into the skin on her hands, arms, and legs. She had vicious wounds all over her chest and legs, and bruises running all along her face. Whoever did this to her had cut her throat at the end, leaving a massive puddle of blood to soak into the floorboards. Why isn’t she healed yet?”
Milton was speechless at the brutality present in this society – although he knew the same or worse happened back on Earth. He had seen enough action and spy movies to guess what being tied to a chair meant: either someone really didn’t like her and wanted to cause her pain before they killed her, or she was tortured and gave up the information they wanted before she was killed.
“I’m sorry Brint, I can’t bring her back. If she had still been hanging on, with some life left in her I would have done what I could to save her. As it is, though, there is nothing I can do.”
While he was expecting some sort of reaction from Brint, the heart-wrenching keening from the Proctan made his soul hurt, and he could see that ALANNA had been affected as well. She looked sad, the empathetic look on her face something that he hadn’t ever seen before.
He watched as the devastated young man sat on the top of the ramp, arms wrapped around his knees as he stared at the stone-covered ceiling. Rocking back and forth, Brint started mumbling, “I’m sorry Whisp, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault…I’m sorry Whisp, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault,” over and over again. Milton wished he could so something to help, but short of…wait!
“ALANNA, this may be a stupid question—” he started before she interrupted with, “All your questions are fucking stupid, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” in an attempt to lighten the mood. His spirits lifted somewhat, and he continued, “Thanks for that. Anyway, is there any way to create a Combat Unit that isn’t a Combat Unit? What I mean, theoretically, is there a way to create one without fitting it with a neurological control unit? And what would happen to its memories? Would they stay the same or would they be erased?”
She thought about it for a moment before answering, “I see where you are going with that shit. What you are talking about is cloning, which was frowned upon in The Collective – even if your Combat Units are essentially fucking clones themselves. The developers of your Station Core allowed the production of these clones for defensive purposes, since using whatever shit you could get your hands on would be theoretically permitted. However, from what I know, I don’t believe they ever thought about making a clone without having some way to control it – it was so taboo that it might have been a fucking blind spot in their programming.
“Normally when you create a clone, it keeps all the long-term memory associated with the original sample, with further samples and shit allowing for more diversification. I don’t see why this would be any fucking different. I’d say try that motherfucker – but only if Brint agrees.”
Milton agreed with her – he didn’t want to go all mad scientist on him without his prior approval. Besides, throwing the body of his friend into his molecular converter felt a little like cannibalism, so he wanted to make sure that was what the Proctan wanted. Since he didn’t know much about their customs, he wasn’t sure if they had any religions that were against it either.
“Brint, I may have a solution for—”
He was interrupted by an insistent prodding from one of his squirrel scouts. He knew better than to ignore them, since it was rare nowadays that they saw something new inside the forest that required his attention. He looked through the squirrels’ eyes and immediately saw what had gotten its panties in a bunch. Three Proctans were carefully making their way through the forest, following a trail left by the BBQ that had carried Brint and the body of his friend earlier.
At first, he couldn’t see how they knew they were following the correct trail – but the glowing stone that one of them was holding illuminated some droplets of blood, which would lead them straight to his dungeon. He wanted to blame Brint for this surprise incursion, but then he noticed large bloodstains covering the front of the Proctan in front, a man covered head to toe in hardened leather armor. ALANNA had been watching through his connection and reacted accordingly – “Well, fuck.”
New Short-term Goal: Emergency Measures
Your territory has been invaded by three unknown Proctans. Defend yourself by any means necessary to ensure your survival.
- Determine what these strangers want
- Kill or otherwise disable the Proctans if they are determined to be a threat
- Stop them from reaching your Core
Difficulty of Goal: Unknown
Timeframe: Unknown
Rewards: +5 to Insight/Luck and a 5% increase to defense of all Combat Units.
“Brint, you need to move. We have some incoming Proctans, and they don’t look like friends of yours. Brint? BRINT!”
Nothing he said seemed to get through to him, even when he shouted at him which was probably slightly painful. At a loss, he tried something that he had thought about but had never had need of before. Similar to how he allowed ALANNA access to the views of his Combat Units, he focused on Brint and “pushed” the connection toward the Proctan, while also maintaining control of it.
The surprise connection and view knocked Brint onto his back, dangerously close to the edge of the walkway. He didn’t seem to notice as confusion clouded his face, only to be replaced by ferocious anger as he shouted, “Those Cordpower motherfuckers! I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them all!”
Chapter 37 – I’ll kill them all!
Brint couldn’t believe that he had lost the one person in the entire world that cared about him, his parents included. Oh, his parents “loved” him like most parents would, but they didn’t respect or care about him because of his non-existent ability. To them, he was a mistake, something that they’d like to forget and ignore. That didn’t mean they wanted him gone, but they wouldn’t be overly upset about it. Lest you think he was just being overly dramatic, they had told him so to his face a short time after he had hit puberty with no revelation of an ability. And now he had lost the only person he cared about as well – and it was all his fault.
If he hadn’t gone after that Picow, if he hadn’t ever met The Milton, if he hadn’t sucked her into his shady dealings, and if he hadn’t let the operation continue so long she would still be alive. He was having trouble thinking about what was going to happen now, and whether he wanted to continue living as well. He wasn’t one to think about taking his own life, but he just didn’t think he could drudge up the will to continue to survive in a world without Whisp.
He was vaguely aware of The Milton trying to talk to him, but his thoughts were so despondent that he ignored even the painful shouts that were directed his way. It was only when a scene high up in some trees invaded his consciousness and knocked him on his back that he began to pay attention to something besides the roiling maelstrom of his own mind.
When he saw the bloodstains and the symbol for the Cordpower Company – a blue vial with stars erupting out the top – on their clothing, he knew exactly what had happened. A red haze clouded his vision, making it harder to see the three figures slowly making their way through the trees b
ut he could see well enough to know that he wanted revenge. He wanted to kill these three bastards and kill every one of those sons-of-bitches at the Power Potion-making company.
“Those Cordpower motherfuckers! I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them all!”
He had difficulty at first trying to concentrate on anything other than the view of the three Company men, but he found that he could sort of “move” the scene to one side while the room physically around him came back into focus. He realized that he was right on the edge of the walkway and hurriedly scooted back to safety.
“Now that I’ve got your attention, I need you to follow one of my drones back to my Core Room where you will be safe. They will be here soon – despite my efforts to hide, they are following your trail to my dungeon. I will take care of them.”
“No! I want to rip their heads off with my bare hands and shove them up their asses! I want to light them on fire and burn them alive! I want to—”
“You will do no such thing, nor do I think you are literally capable of doing any of those things. I said I like my privacy and they are trespassing – I don’t care for trespassers. You’ll get your wish for their deaths, but it will be by my hand, not yours – but I will let you watch. Now, GET DOWN TO MY CORE ROOM! I won’t ask again.”
Despite wanting to argue and rush off to attack those bastards, he followed the drone that had entered the door on the opposite side of the room, fuming all the while. He walked down a series of tunnels, missing the sight of numerous traps along the way while his thoughts were solely focused on revenge. It was only when he entered a large room flooded with a small pool of water that he paid attention.
Sitting in the middle of the room was the largest egg he had ever seen. It was a shiny metallic grey color, had various divots sprinkled across the surface of it, and stood about twenty feet tall. Small lines crisscrossed the outside of it in confusing shapes and emitted a soft glow that slowly pulsed as he looked at it. He stopped halfway into the room, the swift water flowing through his legs on its way to a hole on the opposite side of the room. Thoughts of revenge were temporarily suspended as he stood there with his mouth open, staring at the monstrous metal egg. He was so distracted that he failed to notice the extremely small, strange-looking person in a skin-tight purple outfit until she said, “Alright fuck-nugget, get your ass to the other side of the room on that ledge there. If anything manages to get you there, we’re all fucked anyway. And don’t think about taking matters into your own hands – your power and control aren’t strong enough to affect things far away. If you have a problem with that, tough shit. Let Milton do his fucking thing and we’ll all be fine.”
Shocked, confused, and disoriented by all that had happened and by what he was now seeing, he followed her orders and sat down on the ledge, his wet legs dangling over the edge and dripping back down into the pool. Once he was there, he looked around the room and realized that it wasn’t just them in the room – he could see six more drones near the entrance and three strange-looking creatures with sharp claws further down the ledge, laying about and sleeping for all he could see.
“Thanks for listening to ALANNA, she’s kind of my right-hand woman…and left-hand for that matter since I don’t have any. As promised, I’m going to feed you views of the three intruders – but as she said, please don’t try to connect with anything you see, you don’t have the power or control to do it yet. And if you try, I’ll cut you off and you can sit there in silence. Now, what can you tell me about these three?”
He didn’t take being told to sit down and obey like a child very well, but he realized that he had no choice. And when he really looked at who his adversaries were, he wasn’t confident that he’d even be able to get close to any of them to hurt them the way he wanted to. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he needed The Milton’s help if he wanted any type of revenge against those monsters.
“From what I can see, the one in front is a Physical Augmenter with at least strength and speed augments, by the way he swiftly moves through the underbrush and the heavy-ass sword strapped to his back. The one in the middle, wearing the heavy and oh-so-suitable-for-a-forest robes, is an Elemental Caster of some sort. He’ll most likely be more adept at a particular type of element, but from here I can’t tell what that might be.
“The last in line I’m guessing is a Healer, based on how fat he is and the way he avoids touching anything that might accidentally hurt him. Healers are notorious for hoarding their power, saving it for whenever they can make the most money healing someone and hate to waste any power healing themselves. As you probably heard me say, they’re from the Cordpower Company and I’m positive they are the ones who tortured and killed Whisp.”
“Thanks – that will help a lot with my strategies. I’m going to give you the first lesson in group warfare for free: always take out the healer first.
“What do you mean by first less—”
“Shhh! Try to concentrate on this new view from my nearby sensor orb and listen to what they are saying. Maybe you’ll overhear something that will help.”
Brint focused on the new view that popped up in his mind, straining at first but eventually learning that if he relaxed he could start to hear a conversation.
“—and I told you, I know what I’m doing. This trail is so clear that I could follow it half-blind and drunk. I don’t care if you think we’re lost, I know we’re lost – but we are still following the trail that stupid useless boy left for us.”
Brint bristled at the mention of his being “useless” – apparently, they are some of those people, ones who think that if you don’t have an inherently useful ability then you are less than nothing.
“Why Gavin put him in charge, I’ll never know,” the Elemental Caster had dropped back to talk to the Healer in what Brint supposed was a whisper. The hearing capabilities of this “sensor orb” was spectacular, since even the smallest sounds were clear.
“He put me in charge because I get shit done and I’m not squeamish like you two little girls. I saw the way you couldn’t watch as I questioned that girl, Reginald. I would have thought that a Healer as ‘adept’ as you wouldn’t be sick at the sight of a little blood,” the man in the lead shot over his shoulder at the other two, while still following the trail through the dark forest.
“It’s just that I think that you went a little too far, Glert. You didn’t have to kill her – I think she had learned her lesson after an hour of your ‘questioning’,” the corpulent Healer managed to respond, breathing heavily as he followed along.
“I had instructions to ‘eliminate’ the problem, which means that we couldn’t leave any witnesses to our activities. Cordpower needs to maintain a stellar reputation to ensure swift sales – people don’t want to buy from a company that they might suspect performs ‘illegal activity’. Just ask Mirve, I told him this when he was recruited for this little ‘excursion’.”
The Elemental Caster looked up at his name – somehow, he was ignoring the entire conversation while he worked at avoiding getting his robes caught in the underbrush. “That’s true, but I didn’t think you’d have to go that far. There had to be a better way to get the information and stop the production of this other Power Potion.”
“Cordpower had been investigating it discretely for weeks and they were getting nowhere. It was only when they tracked down the merchant in Grestwinch that they were able to get any information on the girl. He either didn’t know any information on the production of the potion or was strong enough to resist the expert ‘interrogation techniques’ before he died. Either way, that’s why we’re here – there was a problem and we’re here to fix it. Simple as that – they pay us way too much to worry about playing nice. Now, shut up – the blood seems fresher here and these giant tracks are coming closer together, meaning that it was slowing down. I have a feeling that we’ll be there soon, and I don’t want to spook him into running again.”
Another one dead because of me! Even though I’m pretty sure Re
nviert knew he was playing a dangerous game, it was because of what I started that caused his death. He was starting to feel despondent again, but then anger bubbled up again inside his chest as he saw the bloodstains still on the leather armor of the Physical Augmenter. I’ll think about that later, right now I just want to see them pay for hurting my Whisp!
Chapter 38 – Never split the party
As he watched the now-silent trio of Cordpower “fixers” pass through the forest, the area around them started to look a little familiar. They were close to the hole leading into the ground that the BBQ had dropped him off at, but when he looked at where he was sure it was located, there was only a normal-looking forest floor. The hole had been quickly sealed shut, underbrush and leaves dragged over it with very little indication that there was ever anything there.
With a near-silent whisper, Glert got close to the other two and told them, “The tracks stop here, and then head North. I think this ‘Brint’ we are looking for was left here and then walked the rest of the way. I don’t see anything here, so I’m going to continue in this direction and see if I can find where he may have gotten to. Don’t move and I’ll be back shortly.”
The augmenter started moving very quickly, zipping away faster than even he thought the BBQs could manage. Brint knew that the previous hole and tunnels were relatively close, but he didn’t know exactly where this place was located. However, with the speed that Glert seemed to possess, which seemed extraordinarily fast even for a Physical Augmenter, it probably wouldn’t be long until they were found.
The Station Core: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 1) Page 26