by Tao Wong
Doing so would call down the dogs of war. Which means I need to make sure that when I do act, it does the most amount of damage possible. I sigh, leaning back, and go back to watching the road, turning the thoughts over in my mind.
Hours later, I finally give up on locating any hunter groups on this stretch of road and look at my brown friend. I don’t have to speak, but there’re no monsters or Sect members and I’d like to actually hear my own voice. “Am I selfish?”
“Yes,” Ali says automatically, then pauses as he considers my question. “Yes. What brought that on?”
“Lana,” I say, remembering the accusation leveled at me.
“Ah.” Ali shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. You’re sentient. Outside of a few, rather dumb, races, we’re all selfish.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“Oh, come on, don’t sulk. What’s that thing you’re always muttering? What is, is?” Ali says. “This is the same thing. You’re selfish for wanting to go out and do this alone, because it gets you out of the city. Lana’s selfish for wanting you back in Kamloops, safe and with her. You’re both right to be selfish.”
“Greed is good?” I mutter, and Ali rolls his eyes.
“In moderation, sure.” Ali shrugs. “What, you don’t want to Level up?”
I grunt, thinking about that single Level I need to hit 40. All those Skills, all that power. Yes, I can admit it. I want to grow, to Level up. To become more powerful. And that’s greedy and selfish, but also practical and sensible and yes, sociable since I’m the bulwark for my group and town. “So… selfish. And greedy, charitable, and angry.”
“Or as I like to put it, sentient,” Ali says.
“Speaking of sentience…” I frown. “Why didn’t you recommend I buy a military AI? Or upgrade Kim to a military AI?”
“Probably because it’s a bad idea. You seem to think AIs are like your Skynet. They’re closer to the Machine.”
“The Machine?” I frown, raising an eyebrow at Ali, and he sighs.
“Person of Interest. Great show,” Ali says. “AIs are limited, both by the constraints placed upon them by the Galactic Council but also the information they’re able to ascertain. They’re only as good as the information provided, and you, my boy, are limited on the information you can provide. A good military AI needs a lot of information to function, to make the best guesses possible. It also needs to get trained to function properly.”
“Why?” I frown, shaking my head. “Can’t it, you know, figure out the optimal choices with what we have now? I thought buying the data stores gave it the training.”
“Not that kind of training. Look, let’s keep it simple. If I told you that we should kill all the ex-Serfs to remove the Sect’s objective for taking back the city, would you?” I glare at Ali, and he nods firmly. “Exactly. But it’s a viable, potentially even the easiest, solution. An AI might see that option, decide it’s the best option, and tell you that. Now, when you tell it no, you’ve got to explain why. Teach it.”
“Ah…” I tilt my head to look at Ali. “And how long does it take to teach an AI that?”
“How long’s the tapeworm?” Ali says. “Varies on the type, tier, resources, and how good you are at teaching and actually knowing what you want. With you? Quite a while.”
I sigh and nod. I can see Ali’s point and, on further thought, his point about lacking knowledge for the AI to actually make better decisions. It’s not as if we’re tapped into the Internet or anything, so the AI would be stuck with limited knowledge of the world. Unless we wanted to spend a ton of money purchasing information from the System, I can see how it’d be limited. It’s only because Ali is a linked Companion that he has access to as much information as he does. Even Kim is forced to rely on tapping into general System information channels and the information provided by the settlement.
For all his assurances, I am concerned about the AIs used by larger organizations. But since I can’t do anything about them right about now, I decide not to ask about it. I’ve had enough nightmares to last me for a while, and a galactic-wide, networked AI is one I don’t need.
***
After that, it’s a simple matter to continue my journey to Merritt. When dawn finally breaks, I’m situated on an appropriately far away and vertically dominant position to watch the tiny town. The hill I’m on is between the 5 and 97C highways, letting me keep an eye out for movement on either road—mostly via my map rather than visually—and also actually stare at the town itself. At this distance, and with my new Out of Class Skill I bought from the Shop and with Ali’s help, I should be safe. Once again, I read the Class Skill description, more for comfort than anything else.
Shrunken Footprints (Out of Class Skill Level 1)
Reduces System presence of user, increasing the chance of the user evading detection of System-assisted sensing Skills and equipment. Also increases cost of information purchased about user. Reduces Mana Regeneration by 5 permanently.
After the attack, I’d done further research into the ways they could have evaded our sensors. This, among many other Class Skills, was present. Some, like the Skills Ingrid uses, hide the user entirely—pure Stealth Skills—but are expensive to purchase as they’re normally restricted to their Classes. Many of them are active Skills, draining Mana from the pool immediately. While theoretically, with my Mana regeneration, I should be able to use some of those Skills, I’m also a direct combatant. Keeping up such a Skill seemed a bad idea, especially as constant use of an active Skill has deleterious side effects.
Others Skills, like the Shrunken Footprints, are less powerful overall but much more focused in their effects. And, obviously, cheaper. In this case, since I can rely on my real-world stealth skills, I just needed to reduce my System footprint. As it stands, so long as I don’t actively push matters, I should be pretty well hidden from casual scanning. Along with Ali’s help, we can even doctor some of the information given out.
Smiling at that knowledge, I turn back to the town spread out below me. Known more for a country music festival than anything else, the once-populous town is a ghost of itself. Not that I ever made it to the festival. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against country music, but the thought of the press of humanity at such an event is enough to make me shudder.
Still, the city shouldn’t be as much of a ghost town as I see. For the last hour, I’ve seen maybe a dozen different individuals, most of them alien-looking creatures. Yet not a single human can be seen. This could be because everyone died, which, while unlikely, is possible. However, I’m leaning toward a forced evacuation or a group of citizens so terrorized they aren’t willing to show their faces.
Once more, I cycle through all the visual processing options available on my helmet. Infrared, UV, X-ray, magnification, none of it helps. The distance is too great, the buildings too sturdy to leak any details. I can’t even tell if the city is a Village or Town, a safe zone, or just a series of unclaimed buildings, divorced by our System overlord.
Frustrating. But I spend the time watching anyway, quietly building up a count of who resides in the city and how many. Scouting, because when and if I attack them, I want, nay, I need it to count for something.
***
Days. Watching, counting, planning. Days, while a trickle of information sent by Kim through the System keeps me updated. As expected, morale is dropping, the constant harrying attacks and the occasional fight and death doing nothing to help. Sure, we occasionally come out better, but without an idea of how many we’re facing, it just seems like a constant, never-ending fight. Even our Leveling parties to the north have reported being attacked, making progress ever slower. The Sect is wearing us down, containing our people until they are ready. It’s a siege, even if there are no catapults or entrenched lines.
Days of watching has seen some progress though. I know now how many Sect members are in Merritt—twenty-three—and I’ve even managed to figure out their groupings. By now, I have a firm grasp of the group’s schedule.
I’ve seen how they always keep at least two groups at home, rotating who’s on hunt each day. On two occasions, a full group came back less an individual or two. In one case, I’d even seen them return somewhat cockily and, on that same day, learned that they had nearly wiped out an entire hunter group on our side. That was a bad day and I had to contain myself from rushing in.
Truth be told, I had all the information I needed at least a day ago, but I’d hesitated from attacking because I wanted to verify if this was a trap. The fact that they stayed apart, sleeping and leaving at different times, made it seem just too easy. After all, an empty town with only Sect members in it is somewhat suspicious. But however closely I looked, I just couldn’t see the trap. In the end, sometimes all you can do is set the trap off and hope to get out.
Resolved to doing something mildly stupid, I make my way stealthily into town after the second group finally left for the day. If they followed their rough schedule, a third group would leave at some point within the next hour, leaving two groups behind to rest for the day. That was the time I had chosen to act.
Hunkered behind a convenient house, I pulled Sabre from my storage and transformed it. I waited for a second, listening and watching to see if I had been found out yet. Seeing nothing, I started up the Temporal Cloak, beginning the process of sneaking in deeper. My forehead creased as I received no notification that this was a claimed city or town.
“Ali?”
“John. I love you too.”
“What’s going on with the town?”
“They sold the town key a few weeks ago. Probably at the same time they started moving people out. Data on the town activities dropped off around the same time in the System, so I’m assuming that’s the case,” Ali says, eyes flicking over notification windows.
“Well, that at least removes the town’s sensors from the equation,” I say, looking for a bright spot.
I kind of wanted Merritt. It’s a decent midway point, but with the key sold, we’ll either have to pick up each of the buildings individually or repurchase the town settlement key ourselves. Though that does bring up the question of why the populace hasn’t purchased enough land to keep it as their own. After all, as Ali pointed out, you could just purchase enough property to force the System to create a settlement for you.
Idle thoughts as I continue to carefully make my way in. I grunt, bringing my attention back to the rather important point of not being found out. While the Sect seems to cluster in the city center, that doesn’t mean that they won’t or can’t explore.
For all my caution, I run into little trouble until I’m a half-block into the historical downtown district. Historical like North American historical—so within the last hundred years—not European or Asian historical, which is within the last few hundred or thousand years. Stubby little commercial buildings from around the turn of last century make up the city center. The Sect members have taken over the Coldwater Hotel, each of them probably lounging in the equivalent of a suite or something. Not a bad idea really, since one of the upgrades in a designated hotel includes laundry and other cleaning options. Assuming someone purchased it, which I’d have done.
“That is purchased, right? Any idea about the upgrades?” I ask Ali since, well, I might as well.
“It’s registered. That’s about all that’s relevant available. Climate control, Mana engine and battery, sonic showers and plumbing, I could go on…” Ali says with a shrug as he floats beside me.
I’m not surprised. It’s not as if I’d make the security upgrades I’d bought available for people to learn. Unfortunately, that does mean I’m not entirely sure how strong those walls are.
As I ponder my next steps, I watch a humanoid reptile-like creature walk out. The sleek emerald-green Sect member strolls down the street without a care in the world, the morning sunlight glinting off the purple highlights of her body.
???? (Level 29 Warrior (?))
HP:
MP:
Conditions: Oblivious
“What’s with the question marks?”
“Don’t want to probe too deeply right now.”
Pulling backward, I make sure to stay hidden while checking the timer of the Cloak. I’m going to need to make a move soon…
Still, I let the Sect member leave on whatever business she has. If I were Ingrid, this would be the perfect time to kill her. Sneak up, backstab and mute the attack, murdering her in silence before anyone knows. But I’m not Ingrid and I have no Skills to mute the attacks or her call for help. It’s not like I could walk up and slit her throat like in the movies—the System’s interference makes it hard to kill another with a single hit. Not impossible perhaps, but hard. Better to let her go than risk losing the element of surprise against everyone else.
Once she’s gone, I proceed with my initial plan. All around the building, I quietly add a series of explosives. Since I don’t have any real skill in demolitions, I go with the tried-and-true method of using more rather than less. After all, I need to destroy both the building and the people inside. And if you think about it, I’m just returning the looted explosives. See, I can be generous.
Only when I’m done and on the building across the street, crouched low and under cover, do I relax. Thankfully, the Sect isn’t a military organization. Rather than having scouts, watchers, and a fixed timetable, the members lounge about and relax, obviously content to take their time off. It reminds me a lot of the Adventuring Guild in Carcross and their members, rather than Capstan and the Truinnar or the Hakarta.
Rather than pursue that thought, I trigger the explosives. Interesting thing to note about explosions—you never hear them until after the explosive wave front hits you, the air moving faster than the noise. In addition, once the explosion has finished expanding, there’s a secondary “pull,” as nature abhors the vacuum. Even with the explosives directed to send the majority of their blast inward and upward, what does escape is enough to batter poor Sabre’s shield and my meager cover. Look, as I said, I’m not exactly trained in demolitions.
“One down,” Ali announces even as I pop up, waiting.
The building across the street is gone, now a mass of System-enhanced wood, steel, and concrete. Fires burn around the building and against a few others that were caught in the explosion, small and not-so-small craters in the ground where the explosives were laid. If not for the System’s enhancements, the explosions would likely have done more damage to the Sect members resting within.
Even as I think that, the rubble moves. A strong, multi-armed, orange creature with a topknot shoves a column away, a pair of short humanoids following it. In a corner, red smoke pours out of the broken concrete, swirling in a circle. A few seconds later, a cone of ice erupts from the ground a short distance away from the smoke, a figure encased in it like a human tootsie roll center.
Before the group can fully recover their senses, the covers over my mini-missile launchers open and let loose. A fraction of a second later, my left hand rises and a fireball forms, flying outward. I don’t stop, repeatedly casting the spell as fast as I can. While I have a personal preference for Lightning Bolt, the group below is too spread out for that spell. At least, right now.
The multi-armed topknotted creature snarls, grabs a piece of intact rubble twice its size, and holds it up in front of its body as the missiles streak toward it. The twin humanoids duck behind the monster, curling slightly to shield their bodies against the explosions. All around, the Sect members defend themselves—all but an unlucky bastard who manages to dig himself out just in time for the explosion to hit.
High-explosive missiles send waves of flame and compressed air through the surroundings, throwing up debris and turning it into shrapnel. Moments later, my first fireball explodes as well, flames moving in an aborted globe that envelops those below. The second and third explode soon after, the Sect members doing their best to protect themselves.
“Three more down,” Ali tells me even as I unload another fireball.
&nbs
p; But my sneak attack is over and the group is firing back. Spells, beam weapons, an acidic fluid, and more target me, hammering Sabre’s shield and then mine in short order. Rather than duke it out at range, I focus and Blink Step forward, hiding myself from the incoming fireball behind the mostly melted spike of ice.
“Owwww! Those spells hurt,” Ali sends to me as he zips forward, still invisible. “You could have warned me you’re leaving.”
Raising my foot, I pivot, my blade sinking into the Mage’s body. It exits through his shoulder, the severed arm flopping to the ground, accompanied by a scream of pain. Arming and dropping a grenade by my feet, I Blink Step away to Topknot, ignoring the continued complaints from my Spirit. Even as the grenade explodes, finishing the job of killing the Mage, I’m attacking Topknot.
Topknot is good. The knife that might as well be a sword in his hand moves with impressive speed, blocking my surprise attack and the follow-ups. We dance, trading blows, while next to him, the last humanoid struggles to its feet, body thoroughly cooked. No time to finish it though. Just enough time to take a cut to my leg as I plunge my sword into Topknot’s chest and end that fight.
“The third group is on its way. Twenty seconds,” Ali tells me, his short form swooping down to clock the cooked humanoid in the head with his tiny fist. Tiny or not, between momentum and the creature’s injuries, the monster falls.
“Good job!” I grin at the now-visible Spirit. Just in time to see him get smashed aside by what looks like a giant crossbow bolt.
Turning, I see the female reptile monster turning the corner down the block, running away with the crossbow held up toward her body. I snarl, thinking of chasing her before recalling Ali’s earlier message. Rather than wasting time, I jump away from the wreckage, my hands moving as I deposit mines all across the street. Some land on the ground, tripwires exploding outward and almost disappearing from view before my helmet highlights them for me. Others burrow away, covering their casings in the dirt as they await their chance.