Breaker's World Lit RPG Novel - Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
The gloom of dusk is settling when Jax and Fen reach the hole, long shadows reaching from the nearby hulks, grasping at them as if to hold them back. A slow, chill wind blows with a low keening through the tangled and skeletal steel, and Jax shivers.
“Theo’s ballsack.” Fen curses when he sees the row of powerbikes near the hole. “They’re here all right.”
A shot of adrenaline hits Jax’s veins as the memory of Lasa up close springs to mind. “That’s good, though. If they’re here, that means there definitely is a Core down there, and they also haven’t found it yet.”
Fen breaks into a maniacal grin. “Great point, bro! Let’s go help them find it. I’m sure they’d be happy to split the scrap when we all trade it in together.”
Jax ignores his cousin’s sarcasm. Everyone can only have one core enhancement, so teams of already-enhanced core hunters trade the powerful objects to managers for small fortunes. He has no intention of doing that.
“If we get a good one, we could be like Yak’s crew, maybe better.”
Fen shakes his head. “Yak would just kill us and take it. We can’t fight them.”
How exactly the cores work is a mystery to people who don’t have them, a secret universally guarded by the enhanced. But it is common knowledge that once paired with a person, they can only be removed by killing the owner. Accidents happen in the hulks, especially to new core owners who haven’t fully developed yet. Yak had the advantage of his own fearsome strength to begin with and a solid crew of eight to protect him from attack.
Jax is undeterred, an image of the arrogant gunner’s power rifle echoing in his memory. “With the right core, we could.”
Jax creeps closer to the edges of the hole, listening. Hearing nothing, he lies flat in the sand next to the footprints leading to the edge and pulls himself forward.
“Careful,” Fen whispers the warning.
A jagged, cavernous opening stretches below, with no movement or light visible. Jax matches his cousin’s whisper. “They left a cable.”
Fen follows suit, bellying forward carefully to see over the edge. He eyes the thick, flexible steel cable that is anchored to the edge of the crevice. It disappears into the darkness below as if being swallowed whole. He looks at Jax, a mixture of excitement and dread written across his face. “Are we really doing this?”
A stab in Jax’s stomach reminds him of the stakes. “We have to.”
He grips the cable and swings over the edge.
When Fen drops off the cable to join him, Jax is examining a strange panel on the wall. There is a faint light leaking down from the opening above, just enough for them to see it is some sort of screen, smooth of surface but undulating in texture, inert, and covered in dust.
They both are subconsciously straining their ears to stay alert for any sign of the core hunter team, making Jax’s whisper seem loud. “What do you make of it.”
Fen frowns. “Alien.” He activates his harness light on ultra-low, so he can get a better look. He pokes at the screen, but nothing changes. “Power’s probably been dead in here for ages.”
They have both seen their fair share of different ship designs, but looking around in the muted glow, Jax realizes this is the strangest one he has ever set foot in. The floor isn’t flat but curves to meet rounded corners 10 feet apart, smoothly transitioning to slanted walls that curve toward a central corner above, forming a kind of triangle. The walls might be metal but appear lighter, somehow, and are perforated with a myriad of small holes.
Looking down the evenly-proportioned passageway, he suddenly feels vertigo. Are we even standing on the floor? Who knows what kind of creatures once used the ship? Maybe they were like spiders and could crawl on the walls and ceiling. His imagination draws a spider in the wide passageway, and he shudders —big spiders.
A rhythmic clanking noise echoes through the hulk, and the boys jump. Fen, eyes wide, jerks his head in the opposite direction of the noise, and they start creeping further into the wreck. No turning back now.
The passageway curves downwards and sideways as they walk, and soon they clamber, almost vertically, along what had previously been a wall. Before long, Jax is pretty sure they have looped back to the direction they started in.
They reach a six-way junction in the tunnel, and Fen looks a silent question at him. Jax worries they are heading toward the clanking sound they heard earlier. Left. He inclines his head to indicate his decision.
All breakers develop an excellent sense of direction from years of navigating hulks by memory and instinct alone, but the strange, undulating tunnel network in the ship is like a maze. Several times they have to turn back as crushed sections block their path. Surprisingly, very little salvage appears to have ever been done on the ship.
Crews probably couldn’t make heads or tails of this thing and moved on to another hulk. Rust has a certain way of aging a hulk, and generally, Jax has an idea of how long a ship has been getting scrapped, but the strange material of the walls makes this one a mystery. When he taps on the walls, they feel thin and fragile, like an eggshell, but also still intact. However, a thick layer of dust on everything tells him it has been undisturbed for quite some time.
Finally, the tunnels lead to a small room, and the boys huddle together and take stock in hushed voices.
Fen looks around at the spherical, empty chamber they are in. “This emptiness is weird. Where’s the furniture? And why aren’t there more rooms?”
Jax chews his lip. “I feel like we have been kind of going around the outside in big loops. Maybe the important rooms are in the middle?”
“This thing could be upside-down for all we know.” Fen is frustrated. “How long do you think we’ve been down here?”
Who knows. Hours? “Not long,” Jax reassures him. “Hey, you’re the electrical guy. You see anything that could be going to a core?”
Fen snorts, and his voice rises in volume. “No, Jax. It's my first time core hunting, still figuring it out, you know.”
Jax looks around, feeling at a loss. He figured at the very least he could find spare parts for a cart lying around, but this hulk was like none he had ever seen. “We have to keep going.”
Fen opens his mouth to say something, but a faint sound that has been tickling at the edge of their awareness suddenly pushes to the fore. A rhythmic clanking, like footfalls except heavier. Both freeze, listening.
It’s getting louder!
“Hunters.” Suddenly the spherical room feels like a trap to Jax. “We gotta go!”
Fen darts out in the passageway and breaks right, trying to run quietly down the irregularly-shaped tunnel. Jax follows close on his heels. The thumping reverberates around them, and it waxes louder in his imagination.
They reach another six-way junction, tunnels leading in all directions. Fen hesitates, his head whipping back and forth as he tries to make a decision. He starts to move one way, and Jax yanks him back with an urgent whisper. “NO. LOOK!”
A harsh glare reflects off the curving wall in that direction, and a shadow moves with it. “Got ‘em on infrared. Dead ahead.” It’s Teno’s voice, and the clanking pace accelerates. They can feel vibrations in the tunnel now, and Jax imagines the power-armor-clad man smashing him to bits. Laughing and sneering. Abandoning all attempts at stealth, the boys dash in the opposite direction, running pell-mell away from the danger.
Of course, they have advanced scanners, Jax. He feels like an idiot, and his mother’s warning rings in his ears. You go deeper, you’ll die.
The passageway narrows and the air feels thick and stale around them. Veins of muted color are visible on the walls now, gathering in thickness and number as the passage gets smaller. Just ahead of him, Fen crashes against a dead end. “NO!” His cousin pounds a fist against the barrier, a thin bulbous blockage. Light shines in the hall behind them.
Panic tightens Jax’s vocal cords. “They’re catching up!” He realizes that no one even knows where he and Fen are. If they don’t come back… Thoughts of his mother’s grief when his dad went away, of his own sadness and emptiness, threaten to overwhelm him. Stop it. Focus. He sees the barrier give just a little when his cousin pounds on it and adds his greater strength to the effort, throwing himself desperately against it.
WHAM. Thoughts of staying quiet long gone, the boys batter at the surface. “It’s cracking!
Thirty feet behind them, Teno appears, head nearly scraping the top of the narrowing tunnel. “Going somewhere?” He wears an arrogant grin, and stoops slightly so he can get closer.
“We didn’t find anything!” Jax’s hears himself reasoning with the man, but his instincts scream at him to escape. He’s going to kill us.
The eggshell surface gives way to their frantic battering, and a jagged crack splits it from top to bottom.
Both boys scramble to get through the narrow opening, pushing and shoving against the edges and each other in a desperate bid to get through. The other side is no better.
“Marik, help us.” Fen teeters on the edge of a partly collapsed shaft of some sort, grasping a ragged edge just in time to avoid falling headfirst into the darkness.
“Move!” Jax, just behind him, pulls his last leg through the small opening, trying to find a place to be.
“I can’t.”
“Work around the edge.” Jax ugres. He pulls himself forward, grabbing improvised handholds. The chasm is about thirty feet across, with thick, ropy veins issuing from a honeycomb of passages and cascading to the depths below. His hand closes on one of the veins, and it stretches in his grasp, not at all what he was expecting. He teeters at the edge, trying to maintain his balance. Dang aliens.
A noise behind them announces the arrival of the hunters at the thin barrier. A rending, ripping sound reveals Teno’s face, now exhibiting more frustration than amusement. “Come here, you little bastards.” He reaches for Jax, and by reflex, the breaker swings away from him, holding the elastic vein with both hands.
His feet slip into the air, and the tendril offers little support. I’m falling. He barely has time for the thought to register before tension builds in the vein, and he bounces to a stop.
“Lasa, get in there.” Teno sounds pissed. His massive bulk is apparently too much for the narrow opening.
Jax hisses loudly at Fen, who is clinging for dear life to a jagged outcropping above. When his cousin looks down, Jax silently nods toward the veins, tugging on his to show it is stronger than it seems.
Fen’s eyes widen, and he grabs a handful of the same material. He gives it an experimental tug, then, satisfied they have a plan, turns off his harness light.
The boys start lowering themselves in near-silence on the vine-like tendrils, choosing a blind descent in an effort to throw off their pursuers. They are about eight feet below the edge when a commotion causes them to look up.
Lasa is halfway through the opening when her sword hilt catches on the edge. An impatient Teno pushes her from behind. Her eyes adjust belatedly to the darkness ahead, just as he gives her a hard shove.
“Wait-“ Her cry is in vain, and she grabs desperately for something to arrest her momentum. Her hand sails just past a vine, and she pitches headlong into empty space.
Jax stares in horror as her feminine form and flowing red hair cartwheel past him. She falls without a sound, quickly engulfed by the darkness below, gone in an instant before he can even think to try to help her. His eyes bulge, and he grips the vine tighter.
Did he just watch her die?
When he looks up, he sees his cousin’s eyes are as wide as his own. Harsh white light and the dot of a red laser sight play against the chasm walls, and they press against the wall to try to stay out of sight.
“She fell.” The voice isn’t Teno’s. The gunner?
The glare angles partway down the chasm, penetrating about 20 feet but not revealing any sign of the fallen woman.
“It’s deep. I’ll watch from here. You guys go around.”
Jax’s arms are starting to burn, and he expects any minute to hear gunshots, feel projectiles smash into him from above. With no other option, inch by inch, he starts slowly lowering himself to whatever waits below, praying the swaying vines will not give him away.
Thirty feet later, just out of the wash from the light above, the tendrils, now thick as spaghetti, start angling toward the center of the chasm, twisting as they do so. The walls are completely smooth here save for the latticework of tiny holes. Too small to do me much good. He curses silently, reluctant to leave the comparative comfort of the hard wall with an unknown drop still below them. How far does this thing go?
A few feet away, Fen is in the same boat. But is breathing heavily and already following the strands inward. Not as strong as Jax, he is nearing exhaustion and desperate to just get to the bottom. Jax follows him, and the tangle of vines starts to sway and dip precariously.
“Hey!” Renewed activity with the light comes from above, and the laser sight punctuates the darkness mere feet away.
“Go. Go!” Jax urges Fen in a hoarse whisper. Feeling trapped like a fly in a spider’s web, about to receive the sting of death at any moment. The thick tangle is all around him now, and he slips and slides through it quickly, trying to control his descent but finding the friction is nearly enough to suspend him in place —panic tears at his mind. I’m gonna get stuck! His foot hits something, and he hears a strangled cry.
“Sorry, man.” He apologizes out of habit, then voices his frustration, “Move faster.”
Fen says something but sounds far away. Between the darkness and the thick twist of hundred of vines, Jax can’t see anything. He smells something, though. Something nice. Get it together, Jax. Focus.
He wriggles in the elastic strands, trying to shake himself free, and slides down another couple of feet before coming to a complete halt. The tendrils are all crossed and tangled, and he can’t slide further.
“I’m down!” Fen’s voice is a loud whisper from below. “Come on, we gotta go!”
“Trying.” Jax tries not to panic, but he’s not getting anywhere. What am I caught on? I need a knife. The nice smell is all around him, and he feels like something is smothering him, a warm blanket slowly enveloping him. A soft gurgle emanates from the darkness, quite close, and a vision of a giant spider slowly wrapping him in unbreakable silk screams in his mind.
Panic overcomes his worry about being seen from above, and he activates the small light on his harness.
The tendrils in front of his face are thin and red. Hair. The warmth against him is her. Inches from his face, the soft glow illuminates her chiseled features, her head twisted at an angle by a tendril wrapped around her neck.
Lasa! His pulse leaps. Is she dead?
Her eyelashes flutter open weakly, and a strangled gurgle escapes her throat. Her eyes stab into Jax, pleading.
On instinct, he reaches for the strand looped around her neck, trying to loosen it. Her arms and legs are tangled in the strands, and they jerk reflexively but ineffectually against the strange elastic fibers. Jax works to free her head, but his efforts cause the loop to slip closer to her jaw and tighten even further, and her eyes bulge as her airway is compressed.
“Sorry.” He mumbles.
Her mouth works silently, but no noise emits. Even the gurgle is gone, and her face turns red, veins above the obstruction swelling with trapped blood.
“What are you doing? Hurry up!” Fen, just out of sight below, reaches through the strands, grabs his foot, and starts pulling. Jax is pulled at an awkward angle, half behind her, and loses what little leverage he had on the deadly strand.
“Stop it!.” He kicks refelexively. “I have to help her!” The strands all seem to twist and join behind her, caught on something he can’t see.
Her movements are slowing, and a tear runs down her cheek. Her eyes fixate on his face, a mixture of blame and desperate hope. He pushes bodily against the fibers, trying to get up even with her neck again, and his nose hits something hard.
His hand closes on a flat smooth surface. Her scabbard. A surge of hope energizes him, and he forces a hand along the surface to find the hilt of her power sword. Her movement has stopped completely, then a small rapid jerking of one leg starts.
She’s dying.
Feeling like he is in slow motion, he works the sword free and starts hacking frantically. Either the weapon isn’t half as sharp as it looked, or the strands are much stronger than they should be. He pulls himself higher with his left hand, pressing bodily against the woman to reach the thing that is killing her.
His harness light is almost completely obscured by her body, and he blindly saws the blade back and forth. He is rewarded by a feeling of something parting.
“Finally.” He redoubles his efforts, his right arm awkwardly handling the blade while his left arm strains to hold him upright. The effort is exhausting, and by the time he makes it through a second strand, his breath is coming in ragged gasps. Despite his continued resolve to free her, his movements weaken to the point of token motions.
Good job, weakling. You just killed the prettiest woman you’ve ever seen.
The scent of her hair all around him fills his nostrils, mocking his failure.
He feels movement. Her hand contacts his waist and, feeling its way slides up his body to his shoulder, then along his arm to his hand. When her skin contacts his own, he feels a shiver of excitement. Her fingertips trace his digits, searching. Suddenly a bright red arc ignites in his field of vision as she locates whatever switch turns the weapon on.
The added light illuminates the strands well, and this time when he swings the blade, the energized edge parts them like water, slashing easily through a broad swath of vines. The elastic bands, freed of their weight, snap upward like broken rubber bands, and he hears a ragged gasp next to his chest.
“I got you.” He feels victorious. Strangely elated to be helping the woman who a few minutes ago was trying to kill him.
He slashes through several more strands, and the web lurches around them. He feels her body slip against his, and an instant later loud thump below is followed by a surprised curse from Fen.
He looks down, trying to figure out which strands to cut to finish freeing himself, and that’s when he sees what she was stuck on. The myriad strands all twist in a convoluted pattern, still visibly organized, despite many now being severed. They all go to a single point at the very center of the web, at their very end joining together to form ten thick, intricate braids that become semi-solid and swirl into a spiral.
The spiral tightens around a flat black disk, the fibrous white braids seamlessly melding at its edges with a spiral pattern of a shimmering array of colors. The glow from the sword combines with his harness light, becoming a mesmerizing interplay of vibrant hues as it twists along with the pattern on the device.
Amazing. Without conscious thought, he reaches to touch it. It vibrates beneath his fingertips, sending pulses up his neural pathways to his brain.
A cultured voice speaks in his mind. Congratulations! You have found a MindCore. Would you like to pair with this MindCore? YES or NO?
He jerks in surprise at the voice, and his mind swirls. A MindCore! From childhood, all breakers are taught MindCores must be turned into Management. Keeping one earns a death warrant for the entire crew, even if only one family member acts alone. The law is brutal but efficient, and Jax has never heard of anyone keeping one or even finding one for that matter.
What does a MindCore do? He had been hoping for a StructureCore like Yak’s, maybe even a WeaponsCore, something they could make the family stronger with, maybe even recruit some strays, build a crew around it. And why are they so important?
He wonders how much he can get for it and imagines the shocked look on the trader's face when he pulls it out. A vision comes unbidden of himself, more powerful even than the Gunners, ripping Manager Ranik in half. What could I become with this?
A commotion below encroaches on his reverie, and he is snapped back to the present. A couple well-directed cuts free the core, and he grabs ahold of it just as the sudden release of tension allows him to fall free.
When it touches his skin, the prompt repeats in his mind. Would you like to pair with this MindCore? YES or NO?
I don’t know! He objects loudly to himself by reflex, but somehow the core detects it.
You have 1 minute to decide. Then it will become available to others.
The unexpected response registers at the same time he slithers to the flat surface Lasa and Fen occupy.
“Whoah! Hold on!” Jax’s full attention snaps to the tableau in front of him.
Fen crouches over the woman, a charged plasma cutter held threateningly at her throat. She is alert but either too weak to move or choosing not to.
Fen looks at his cousin. “I’ve got her, Jax.”
“I just saved her!”
“You did? She was trying to kill us.”
“No, I wasn’t.” Her protest is a ragged, throaty sound, a half-whisper.
Hearing her response, Jax finds himself replaying the chase, trying to find evidence of the Core Hunter’s lethal intent. “Teno was.”
She shakes her head and tries to lever up to her elbows, her voice gaining strength, “Teno’s a bully... but we’re not killers.”
Fen jabs his tool toward her throat, forcing her back down. “She’s lying, Jax.”
Unarmed, weakened, and lying in a vulnerable position, Lasa looks to Jax for support.
“I don’t know.” Conflicting thoughts tangle in Jax’s mind. She’s so pretty, is the one that comes to the fore. Her green eyes are pulling him in. She’s so vulnerable. Help her, Jax. Those very eyes suddenly flare, the hurt-puppy effect replaced by intense excitement. “You found it!”
“What?” It takes his mind a fraction of a second to switch gears, and in that moment she tries to modulate her expression, but the answer is obvious. She’s looking at the core.
You have 30 seconds to decide. Then it will become available to others. The telepathic message comes unbidden this time.
Still on the floor, she twists toward him, ignoring Fen as she reaches a hand toward the strange device. “Quick, give it to me!”
“No way!” He cradles the object close to his chest and raises her sword in a defensive reflex.
“Marik’s ugly children,” Fen’s curse is full of wonder, “you found one!” He moves away from Lasa, drawn as if by an unseen force toward the shimmering spiral.
Lasa pulls her knees under her and kneels, folding her hands in a praying position in front of her well-rounded chest. “You have to give it to me. I lied. Teno is a killer. He’ll kill you in a second for that.”
“It’s a MindCore. We have to turn it in.” Jax recites the law.
“A MindCore?” Fen’s eyes are wide.
You have 15 seconds to decide- Jax’s mind finishes the notification, then it will become available to others.
Her tone is laden with urgency, “I’ll trade you my core for it.” She is half crouching now.
“You can do that?” If she’s telling the truth, this is new information to Jax.
“Yes.” She looks at the weapon in his hand, “and my sword, I’ll give you both. Trust me, that thing will just get you killed. Your whole family, too.”
Ten seconds.
“Not if a turn it in. probably worth a fortune-”
“It is!” She sounds panicked. “But you’ll never make it. Every hunter for miles can feel it now!”
Five.
“Don’t listen to her, Jax.” Fen’s tone is flat, and he steps closer, hands stretching toward the core.
Time seems to be moving slowly. Too much is happening, and several realizations battle for his attention. Hunters can sense it somehow, at least now that I have touched it. Whatever it is, it’s clearly valuable because she is falling all over herself to trade me the one she has for it.
Four.
A chilling thought enters his mind. If hunters can sense it, can Management? Given that they run everything and order enhanced gunners with a nod of the head, it seems likely. He wants to know what the device does. He wants to know why everyone wants it so badly. He feels starved for the information he needs to make the right decision.
THREE.
She might try and kill me for it if I don’t give it to her. I should have let her strangle. The thought evokes the recent memory of their bodies pressed together in the darkness, of the scent of her hair, the curve of her lips as she gasped for air. His body responds to the images and offers a more primal course of action: Give it to her; she will be very grateful.
TWO.
They are both approaching him now, eyes fixed on the object in his hand. He is out of time and makes his decision on instinct.
Congratulations, Captain. You are now paired to the MindCore Sliver. A flood of information enters his mind. A chart with little glowing orbs connected by lines. Lines of information in neat rows. Numbers, percentages, dials, readouts. It’s all right there in his head, ready to look at like a memory or a daydream, just by focusing on it.
The tangible world around him immediately pulls his attention away from the phenomenon. Lasa tosses her pretty head back and groans loudly. “Great job, Jax. We’re all dead, now.”
Fen’s strange behavior ceases, and he shakes himself. “What happened?”
Lasa looks around and walks quickly to the walls of the shaft. “He paired with it.” Her tone is a mixture of disappointment, irritation, and worry.
Jax feels… different. He feels an advanced awareness, like new senses he never had before are activating, and a strange magnetism towards Lasa that has nothing to do with her attractive form. I can feel she’s there. The realization is followed quickly by another.
“How’d you know my name?”
She is examining the smooth surface of the wall, desperately looking for an opening, and speaks without looking over her shoulder. “We all just got a notification: ‘Jax has paired with a MindCore.’”
“You did?” He moves beside her, suspecting he should be helping her look for an exit but hungry for more information. “Who’s we?”
She looks upward. “Teno and my crew for sure. But anyone with a core within miles. It works off a radius.”
Her concerned expression deepens. “Pray to the gods that we are deep enough that Ranik is out of range.” She looks apologetic. “He’ll go straight for your family.”
Mom! A wave of guilt crashes into him as the consequences of his actions register. Uncle Len. He shares a look with Fen, who has joined them at the wall.
“What’d you do?” His cousin still looks confused.
Lasa hammers a fist against the smooth wall, then looks up again, considering the web of strands. They lie in a tangle, the tension on the vines having pulled the upper sections out of reach when they were cut. She blows air out in a frustrated sigh. “Great job cutting off our only way out.”
Jax feels irritation. “I saved you! You were choking to death!”
Fen looks at the smooth walls around them. “Yeah. About that. I think we’re trapped now.”
An unfamiliar question is burning in Jax’s mind, and he is having an increasingly harder time ignoring it.
What system would you like to develop? A picture appears in his mind, a glowing spiral object, just like the one in his hand, with ten gray lines leading from its edges toward greyed-out bubbles. He looks down at the strange device and plies Lasa for answers.
“What are systems? And what do I do with this thing.”
She looks at him and shakes her head. “Not going to have to worry about it for long. Teno and Guta are going to kill you and take it here shortly.”
He blinks, shocked at her casual dismissal of not just his question, but him as a living person.
Her eyes narrow. “What do you mean, ‘systems’? Don’t you mean skills?” She steps closer to examine the spiral. “What’s it telling you?”
He pulls it toward his chest protectively, but if her actions are any indication, they are sitting on a time-bomb, and his quickest route to knowledge at this point is her. “It’s telling me all kinds of stuff but keeps asking me what system I want to develop.” He winces. “It’s like a throbbing in my head.”
She nods. “Decision prompts will do that. Cores don’t like to be ignored.” Her brow furrows. “But I don’t know what it means by choosing a system. Cores are systems.”
A nearby explosion shakes the hulk, and the surface they are standing on bucks. Sound reverberates painfully in the shaft, and Jax reaches a hand toward her for balance.
She recoils from him violently when his hand, still holding the core, brushes her arm. “Theo’s ballsack, secure that thing.”
Reading his expression, her eyes bulge. “It just told me to kill you so I could take it!”
Fen imposes himself half between them, plasma cutter in hand.
“How do I-“ Jax starts to ask.
By way of response, Lasa turns and pulls her flowing hair to the side, exposing her own core, tucked neatly between her creamy-white shoulderblades. “Put it on your spine like this.”
Would you like to permanently attach this core to this location? YES or NO.
With a thought, Jax selects yes, and an icy chill enters his spine. A strange crawling, puncturing sensation spreads into his back and through him, not painful but decidedly invasive.
Lasa nods, satisfied, then, as if suddenly becoming aware of Fen’s threatening posture, gives the boy a push. “Get off me with that toy.”
Her full strength has returned, and the motion sends the breaker flying back several feet. The casual violence is a warning bell in Jax’s mind. He steps between her and Fen. “Hey. Don’t.” Concern for his cousin causes renewed suspicion of her motives to surge to the fore. “And why are you helping us.”
She regards him, a mixture of emotions present. “Good question.” She nods at the weapon in his hands and quips, “Give me my sword back, and I’ll tell you the answer.”
He grips the sword tightly. “Not a chance.” Is it her only weapon? He thinks about her precious acrobatics and the way she just shoved Fen. Or maybe she doesn’t really even need it. He raises the sword to a slightly more ready position.
He realizes that he still doesn’t know something. “What does your core do?”
She smirks. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Is it some kind of beauty thing? Makes you more attractive?”
She blinks at him, face blank, then erupts in laughter. Another blast shakes the hulk, smaller but closer, but she pays no attention to it. Her lips part in a wide grin, showing an even row of white teeth, and she bats her eyelashes at him. “You figured me out, Jax. My beauty is otherwordly.” She tosses her head in slow motion, shaking her hair back and forth before fixing him with a seductive, inviting smile. She can’t hold the pose, though, and her amusement boils over into chortling, snorting laughter.
You’re an idiot, Jax. He tries unsuccessfully to use sarcasm to hide his embarrassment, “Real nice. Real helpful. Remember how you all said we were going to die? Maybe we should get back to that.”
She’s not done yet. “Are you sure you aren’t too distracted by my ravishing good looks?” She jabs an elbow towards Fen, quirking an eyebrow that pulls him into her merriment.
His cousin cracks a smile, betraying Jax to his uncomfortable fate. “At least we will die in good company, Jax. A true goddess among us, am I right?”
He winks at Lasa, and she smirks back. The two are united in their derision, just as if she hadn’t pushed him across the room moments earlier.
Jax wants to punch him. Like he isn’t staring at her too. His cousin suddenly appears more interested in making fun of him than escaping the shaft.
Jax feels powerless and more than a little astonished that the focus has somehow moved from survival to making fun of him. He feels an insistent jab in his skull and turns to the prompts in his mind for help. Information and options flood into his consciousness.
What system would you like to develop? Available systems:
The spiral is back, and this time each of the grayed-out circles around the edge of the pattern gains a name when he examines them.
Defense Systems
Weapons Systems
Navigation Systems
Sensor Systems
Motion Systems
Information Systems
Engineering Systems
Leadership Systems
Energy Systems
Subterfuge Systems
When he focuses on one, more information appears.
Energy – This system relates to the power systems necessary for making ship components function and provides a significant enhancement to the features of other modules.
Would you like to develop this system? Yes or No.
(Note: Once a system improvement is in progress, no other selection may be made until it is completed.)
He backs out of that choice and scans the pattern for an answer. When he thinks he has it, he dismisses the images in his mind and focuses back on Lasa. “Motion?
Her face turns serious again. “What?”
Her reaction bolsters his confidence. “It’s motion, isn’t it. Your core.” It explains the acrobatics and ability to push Fen easily.
Her eyes narrow. “How’d you know? What does yours do?”
Noises are getting closer, and he finds himself wondering if maybe everything she is doing is a distraction. Maybe movement is only minimally useful for combat, and I really do have the upper hand as long as I have her sword. It adds up in his mind but isn’t helpful. All she has to do is keep us busy and run out the clock until Teno arrives.
The smooth walls of the shaft feel like they are closing in, and he expects a nearby explosion to shatter the silence at any moment.
The problem is, he still doesn’t know enough about what he is doing to make good decisions, and time is short. He decides keeping secrets won’t help him if he’s dead in a few minutes, and his and Fen’s best chance is her help.
“Mine gives me 10 options.” He rattles them off, somehow remembering them exactly and effortlessly. “If you’re a MotionModifier, maybe we can work together to get out of here.”
Where did I learn that term? Information welling up in his head, far more than he has time to think about. He realizes he just learned the word somehow like his mind reached for something to call her, and the word appeared.
Odly, she takes the title completely in stride with a slight sigh. “You got me. I’m a MotionMod.” She looks up. But I’m not developed enough to get even myself back up there.” She looks at him with shock as the other thing he said registering. “Ten options?” She whistles. “So that’s what a MindCore does. No wonder Management hoards them.”
Seeing his look of confusion, she explains, “SysCores develop in a collection of specific ways, allowing you to build skills, attributes, and equipment of a certain type.”
“Skills? I thought they just gave you blueprints for high-tech equipment.”
She looks at the sword between them. “ Schematics. Yeah, they do, like that weapon you are holding. But this,” she bends her legs slightly, then leaps in place, performing a backflip with practiced ease, “this is all me. Core skills.”
Fen is apprehensive and doesn’t care about the details. “Great. Are you going to help us or not?”
She grimaces and raises her palms. “Maybe?”
Jax steps toward her with the sword, threateningly. “I saved your life!”
She is unapologetic. “And now, I’m screwed.” She ticks her problems off on her fingers. “One. You got the MindCore, and I didn’t kill you. Teno will see that as a failure and a betrayal.”
Jax snorts. “I’m sure your boyfriend will forgive you.”
Her eyes flash, and her face darkens. “He’s not my boyfriend. He…” She shakes her head and raises another finger. “Two. The notification that a Three found a core, and a MindCore, at that, will draw every Mod in range like a giant magnet. Teno’s bad. Some of the other Hunters are way worse.” She shudders at a memory best forgotten.
“How many?” Fen wants to know.
“I can think of at least two other crews that are nearby, but SenseMods could have detected it from much further, maybe even other yards.”
Yards are the ad-hoc cities that have grown around lucrative collections of hulks, each under the supervision of a single manager. Manager’s pray to the gods for good hulks, and Sarin’s bounty, or lack of it, can cause the population to swell or die out completely. Jax has never been to another Yard, and feels at a disadvantage when Lasa casually mentions them as part of her world.
“Three. I can’t kill you.” She looks at Jax, excluding Fen from the statement.
Her flat statement surprises him. “Because I have the sword?”
“Because you saved my life, and I’m not a Sub.” Her flippant behavior is muted, and her tone is serious. “I owe you.”
It feels like some kind of pledge to Jax, but something she said doesn’t make sense. “A Sub?” “A SubMod. Sneaky bastards that kill other mods.”
He is catching on to the new lingo but wants to confirm. “So, you call core-enhanced people mods.”
She nods and holds up another finger. “Four. I can’t kill Teno.” She looks at each of them in turn. “None of us can.”
Fen summarizes the situation. “So, basically, an army of mods,” he uses the new word, “are coming to kill us, and we are trapped in this hole like rats.”
Jax doesn’t wholly believe her and still has the nagging thought that she might be stalling. “You really want us to believe your crew is going to kill you?”
“Theo nuke them! They aren’t my crew.” Her vehemence surprises him, as does the catch in her voice. What she says next shuffles things even further. “They killed my crew to get me. Teno has almost killed me several times. They just use me… because a developed MotionMod, the transportation I can provide, is worth more than trading in a SysCore.”
She is clearly leaving some things unsaid, but the pain in his head is becoming intense, and his impending decision prompts him to move quickly to a course of action. “You said we couldn’t kill him? Not even with this?”
She looks at the sword and scoffs. “That’s a toy against his armor. He’s attuned his suit to resist it. He’s not stupid.” Her look turns pleading. “Can I have it back now? Please?”
A clanging resounds against the chamber they are in. “They’re right there,” Fen says. Feeling the need to do something, he goes to the opposite side of the shaft and starts trying to cut the wall with his small plasma cutter.
Jax steps close to Lasa, searching her eyes intently for any hint of deception. “What if we work together? Use both our cores to escape.”
She darts a worried glance at the clanging sound, and her fear seems genuine. “What bonus skill can you get? That’s all you get right away.”
He doesn’t know the answer and focuses on the information in his head again.
Greetings, Jax. As the Captain of Sliver, you will need to develop your knowledge of the various systems needed to create a fully functioning ship.
He hurries past that statement and ignores several others, looking for the question burning in his mind. He feels that his reality has somehow slowed and is dimly aware of Lasa’s eyes blinking in ultra-slow motion a few feet away.
What system would you like to develop? Available systems:
He sees the same list as before and hurriedly focuses on each option one at a time. Lasa is right. When he selects the first, it indicates he will receive a bonus skill for choosing it. Defense Systems
Upon choosing this system, you will immediately receive as a bonus the associated System Skill- Armor 1: Create and manage simple armor systems. Schematic for simple plate armor will be learned. Your increased knowledge of protective techniques grants a 30% increase to your personal durability, the effectiveness of all defenses, and the durability of structures of all types. This bonus will increase as you develop this system.
Cool! He doesn’t fully understand how it works, but the gist is clear. I can make armor and get tougher. He lets the interface fade and updates Lasa. “The first one is about defense. It says I can make armor.”
She shakes her head. “That’s what Teno has, and he’s well developed. Plus, you have to have components and time to make the armor. He has been improving his for years."
Disappointed, he dives back into the interface to look at the next one.
Weapons Systems
System Skill- Weapons of War 1: Create and operate simple weapons that use energy to increase damage. Schematics for Power sword and ship’s ram will be learned. Your increased knowledge of destructive techniques grants a 30% increase to your damage with all weapons, including your fists. This bonus will increase as you develop this system.
Although he has a bad feeling about the answer, he bounces back out to make sure. Her answer is not encouraging.“That’s what Guta is, a WeaponsMod -the best one I have seen, too.”
The clanging on the other side of the wall is replaced by a faint hissing.
“They are cutting it.” A forlorn note in her voice spurs him to action, and he decides to stay in the interface until he has all the options.
Navigation Systems
System Skill- Going Places: Are we there yet? This skill will allow you to always know the answer to that question, as well as teaches you a schematic for a basic position plotter. Your location and route awareness will increase by 30%. Navigation is a complex task, and developing this system will make you a master of it.
Sensing Systems
System Skill- Finders, Keepers: You become proficient with basic sensor systems. Schematics for short-range density and thermal scanners will be learned. Your increased attunement will improve all your personal senses by 30%, a sensitivity that you can activate at will. You will also be able to sense cores and other Mods from a 60% increased distance and innately know the nature of the core within range. Developing this system will increase those bonuses and provide more advanced core awareness.
Motion Systems
System Skill- Acrobatic Maneuvers: You learn the fundamentals of three-dimensional maneuvers. Your increased knowledge of motive forces grants a 30% increase to speed, acceleration, deceleration, and change of direction of your personal movement as well as that of any machine you operate. This bonus will improve as you develop this system.
Information Systems
System Skill- Knowledge is Power: Your ability to learn and remember information is increased. Schematic for memory augmentation is learned. Your increased aptitude with analytical thinking provides a 30% increase in understanding behavioral patterns of all sentient beings and programmed devices. Developing this complex system will provide a wide array of significant advantages.
Engineering Systems
System Skill- Simple Machines: Everything that exists is in some way made, and everything that is made can be moved. This skill gives you fundamental knowledge about how these two miracles are achieved. Schematics learned include pulleys, levers, fulcrums, wheels, axles, inclined planes, screws, and wedges. Your aptitude provides a 30% increase in construction and repair speed, as well as a 50% increase in the likelihood of discovering a new engineering schematic. Developing this system will increase those bonuses and unlock new schematics.
Leadership
System Skill- Command and Control 1: O, Captain, my Captain, a ship needs a full crew, and this skill allows you to manage a basic crew of ten system Modifiers. Schematic for a short-range wireless communication system will be learned. Your personal charisma and ability to understand and motivate others will increase by 30%. Developing this system further will enhance these abilities and will prove necessary to successfully command your ship. Energy Systems System Skill- Batteries: Power is most useful when stored for the right moment, and this skill will allow you to create and manage energy storage systems. Schematics for small batteries and basic electrical circuits will be learned. Your increased knowledge about energy dynamics will improve your personal stamina and the energy you can store in any system by 30%. Developing this system will increase this bonus.
Subterfuge Systems
System Skill- Core cloaking: At will, conceal your core-aura as well as that of anyone in your crew. This effect will confuse but not totally defeat standard biosensor systems, as well as make it easier to hide in shadows. Schematic for level 1 core cloak projector will be learned. Your ability to conceal your presence will increase as you develop this system, and further unexpected advantages may be unlocked. His mind swirls with the array of options. He can immediately see how each of them could help his family survive, thrive even, and is dying to know what other skills and abilities development of each will unlock. He feels like his world is expanding. This really will change everything. The problem is, there is nothing there that can solve their current problem. I can’t develop anything if I am dead.
He exits and gives Lasa a hurried rundown of their options. She absorbs the information with a thoughtful look and grunts in surprise at several of the options.
“Some of those I have never even heard of. No wonder Seme is so good at finding cores."
Jax assumes she means wiry Core Hunter he saw examining the hole what now seems a lifetime ago.
“None of that is enough to beat Teno, though, even if we work together.” She states the conclusion he has already reached, then squares her shoulders. “Give me my sword. We have to try.”
“I thought you said his armor-”
“I’m done playing his game.” The firmness of her jaw and the desperation in her voice do nothing to inspire confidence in him.
She’s ready to go down fighting. It’s this determination that makes up his mind. Either she’s an amazing actress, or everything she is telling him is true, and he has moments to find a solution. We need time.
He reenters the interface and makes his decision.
Congratulations, Captain Jaxis. You are now a SubterfugeModifer. Your chosen specialty is one of creativity and unpredictability, offering skills that will enable you to achieve success in ways your opponents will never suspect.
News skills are now available.
Bonus skill: Core Cloaking unlocked.
As the owner of a Mindcore and Captain of Sliver, you may choose an additional bonus skill within any of your developed systems at each new level.
You have reached Level Two. The galaxy awaits your greatness.
A sense of great accomplishment accompanies the flood of information, especially the last notification.
Level Two? The designation makes no sense, but he feels it is important. Very important. He is sure of it.
His peripheral awareness shows Lasa slowly grimacing, eyes fixed on the sword he still holds. He has another decision to make, though, and focuses on his options. A previously gray node is now lit a dark green color on the spiral chart, and three gray lines expand outward from it in what had previously been empty space.
Subterfuge Systems - Available skills:
Stealth 1: What cannot be seen is difficult to destroy. This skill and its subsequent advancements will improve your ability to operate without detection. This level provides a 30% bonus to your ability to move quietly and blend in with your surroundings and affects both your person and any device you are operating. Schematics for basic stealth apparel and chameleon paint will be learned.
Sabotage 1: Everything that exists has a weakness, and this skill will allow you to find it. By focusing on a given object or sentient, you will become aware of any points of vulnerability that may lead to its destruction. 100% damage bonus when striking a point of vulnerability on any structure or sentient. Schematic for critical targeting array will be learned (other skills may be needed to construct.)
Misdirection 1: Now you see me, now you don’t. Sometimes invisibility is less useful than misinformation, and this skill and its advancements will provide you with options to deceive sensors and sentients. 50% increase to your ability to tell a lie convincingly. Used in concert with core-cloaking, you can project your personal core aura up to 50 feet in any direction with effort (requires concentration.)
While becoming a master of stealth could certainly prove useful, the flat bonus and schematics of the first option did not seem useful in his current predicament. Misdirection could help immensely, but the word personal indicated he could only do it for himself, not Lasa.
Remembering the thin eggshell-like barrier they had battered their through earlier and comparing it to the futile effort Fen was currently putting into penetrating the walls of the chamber, he wondered if the Sabotage might illuminate an escape route.
You have learned a new skill, Sabotage 1. New schematics and skills are now available.
One of the three second-tier circles started glowing dark green, and three new gray lines extended from it. The image in his mind zoomed out to accommodate the new options, making what seemed a small collection of developments much more vast. How far does this thing go? The number after some of the skills indicated there would be further increments in the same skill, but there was nothing to indicate the top end of the scale.
Worry about that later, he thought, if there is a later.
He exited the interface and abruptly shoved the sword into Lasa’s outstretched hand. “OK. I think I have something.”
A long red gash on the wall behind him displayed the progress Teno and his companions were making with burning through the wall.
Fen’s efforts were far less effective, and he looked over his shoulder. Lasa looked at the sword in her hand, then back at him with surprise. “You do?”
“Yeah. Hang on.” He realized he had no idea how to use his core-cloak skill, but as he thought about it, it was like an invisible toggle switch appeared in his mind. He flipped it and was rewarded with a notification.
You have activated stealth. The core auras of you and your crew are now hidden. (Two crew members are too far away to benefit from this effect.)
Current crew: Jaxis, Lei, Len, Fen.
The strange extension of his name registered this time, but he had no time to puzzle over it. Lasa isn’t part of my crew. The realization made complete sense but also defeated his brilliant plan to turn invisible.
“Where’d you go?” Her question made no sense to Fen, but Jax was pleased to see her look of puzzlement.
“Crap. I need you to be in my crew for it to work,” he said.
“Wait, did you choose Sub?” Her scowl looks very un-crew-like. “You’re kidding me.”
“It was the only way. But I need you in my crew to hide you too.”
Invite Lasa to join your crew? YES or NO.
The prompt appears unbidden as if Sliver is reading his mind. He hurriedly selects yes, and her expression makes him think she just received some sort of notification.
She looks from him to the red gash in the wall, now turning the corner to form an “L,” then at her sword he willing gave back, then back at his face.
Lasa joins your crew.
“Theo’s ballsack.” Fen curses when he sees the row of powerbikes near the hole. “They’re here all right.”
A shot of adrenaline hits Jax’s veins as the memory of Lasa up close springs to mind. “That’s good, though. If they’re here, that means there definitely is a Core down there, and they also haven’t found it yet.”
Fen breaks into a maniacal grin. “Great point, bro! Let’s go help them find it. I’m sure they’d be happy to split the scrap when we all trade it in together.”
Jax ignores his cousin’s sarcasm. Everyone can only have one core enhancement, so teams of already-enhanced core hunters trade the powerful objects to managers for small fortunes. He has no intention of doing that.
“If we get a good one, we could be like Yak’s crew, maybe better.”
Fen shakes his head. “Yak would just kill us and take it. We can’t fight them.”
How exactly the cores work is a mystery to people who don’t have them, a secret universally guarded by the enhanced. But it is common knowledge that once paired with a person, they can only be removed by killing the owner. Accidents happen in the hulks, especially to new core owners who haven’t fully developed yet. Yak had the advantage of his own fearsome strength to begin with and a solid crew of eight to protect him from attack.
Jax is undeterred, an image of the arrogant gunner’s power rifle echoing in his memory. “With the right core, we could.”
Jax creeps closer to the edges of the hole, listening. Hearing nothing, he lies flat in the sand next to the footprints leading to the edge and pulls himself forward.
“Careful,” Fen whispers the warning.
A jagged, cavernous opening stretches below, with no movement or light visible. Jax matches his cousin’s whisper. “They left a cable.”
Fen follows suit, bellying forward carefully to see over the edge. He eyes the thick, flexible steel cable that is anchored to the edge of the crevice. It disappears into the darkness below as if being swallowed whole. He looks at Jax, a mixture of excitement and dread written across his face. “Are we really doing this?”
A stab in Jax’s stomach reminds him of the stakes. “We have to.”
He grips the cable and swings over the edge.
When Fen drops off the cable to join him, Jax is examining a strange panel on the wall. There is a faint light leaking down from the opening above, just enough for them to see it is some sort of screen, smooth of surface but undulating in texture, inert, and covered in dust.
They both are subconsciously straining their ears to stay alert for any sign of the core hunter team, making Jax’s whisper seem loud. “What do you make of it.”
Fen frowns. “Alien.” He activates his harness light on ultra-low, so he can get a better look. He pokes at the screen, but nothing changes. “Power’s probably been dead in here for ages.”
They have both seen their fair share of different ship designs, but looking around in the muted glow, Jax realizes this is the strangest one he has ever set foot in. The floor isn’t flat but curves to meet rounded corners 10 feet apart, smoothly transitioning to slanted walls that curve toward a central corner above, forming a kind of triangle. The walls might be metal but appear lighter, somehow, and are perforated with a myriad of small holes.
Looking down the evenly-proportioned passageway, he suddenly feels vertigo. Are we even standing on the floor? Who knows what kind of creatures once used the ship? Maybe they were like spiders and could crawl on the walls and ceiling. His imagination draws a spider in the wide passageway, and he shudders —big spiders.
A rhythmic clanking noise echoes through the hulk, and the boys jump. Fen, eyes wide, jerks his head in the opposite direction of the noise, and they start creeping further into the wreck. No turning back now.
The passageway curves downwards and sideways as they walk, and soon they clamber, almost vertically, along what had previously been a wall. Before long, Jax is pretty sure they have looped back to the direction they started in.
They reach a six-way junction in the tunnel, and Fen looks a silent question at him. Jax worries they are heading toward the clanking sound they heard earlier. Left. He inclines his head to indicate his decision.
All breakers develop an excellent sense of direction from years of navigating hulks by memory and instinct alone, but the strange, undulating tunnel network in the ship is like a maze. Several times they have to turn back as crushed sections block their path. Surprisingly, very little salvage appears to have ever been done on the ship.
Crews probably couldn’t make heads or tails of this thing and moved on to another hulk. Rust has a certain way of aging a hulk, and generally, Jax has an idea of how long a ship has been getting scrapped, but the strange material of the walls makes this one a mystery. When he taps on the walls, they feel thin and fragile, like an eggshell, but also still intact. However, a thick layer of dust on everything tells him it has been undisturbed for quite some time.
Finally, the tunnels lead to a small room, and the boys huddle together and take stock in hushed voices.
Fen looks around at the spherical, empty chamber they are in. “This emptiness is weird. Where’s the furniture? And why aren’t there more rooms?”
Jax chews his lip. “I feel like we have been kind of going around the outside in big loops. Maybe the important rooms are in the middle?”
“This thing could be upside-down for all we know.” Fen is frustrated. “How long do you think we’ve been down here?”
Who knows. Hours? “Not long,” Jax reassures him. “Hey, you’re the electrical guy. You see anything that could be going to a core?”
Fen snorts, and his voice rises in volume. “No, Jax. It's my first time core hunting, still figuring it out, you know.”
Jax looks around, feeling at a loss. He figured at the very least he could find spare parts for a cart lying around, but this hulk was like none he had ever seen. “We have to keep going.”
Fen opens his mouth to say something, but a faint sound that has been tickling at the edge of their awareness suddenly pushes to the fore. A rhythmic clanking, like footfalls except heavier. Both freeze, listening.
It’s getting louder!
“Hunters.” Suddenly the spherical room feels like a trap to Jax. “We gotta go!”
Fen darts out in the passageway and breaks right, trying to run quietly down the irregularly-shaped tunnel. Jax follows close on his heels. The thumping reverberates around them, and it waxes louder in his imagination.
They reach another six-way junction, tunnels leading in all directions. Fen hesitates, his head whipping back and forth as he tries to make a decision. He starts to move one way, and Jax yanks him back with an urgent whisper. “NO. LOOK!”
A harsh glare reflects off the curving wall in that direction, and a shadow moves with it. “Got ‘em on infrared. Dead ahead.” It’s Teno’s voice, and the clanking pace accelerates. They can feel vibrations in the tunnel now, and Jax imagines the power-armor-clad man smashing him to bits. Laughing and sneering. Abandoning all attempts at stealth, the boys dash in the opposite direction, running pell-mell away from the danger.
Of course, they have advanced scanners, Jax. He feels like an idiot, and his mother’s warning rings in his ears. You go deeper, you’ll die.
The passageway narrows and the air feels thick and stale around them. Veins of muted color are visible on the walls now, gathering in thickness and number as the passage gets smaller. Just ahead of him, Fen crashes against a dead end. “NO!” His cousin pounds a fist against the barrier, a thin bulbous blockage. Light shines in the hall behind them.
Panic tightens Jax’s vocal cords. “They’re catching up!” He realizes that no one even knows where he and Fen are. If they don’t come back… Thoughts of his mother’s grief when his dad went away, of his own sadness and emptiness, threaten to overwhelm him. Stop it. Focus. He sees the barrier give just a little when his cousin pounds on it and adds his greater strength to the effort, throwing himself desperately against it.
WHAM. Thoughts of staying quiet long gone, the boys batter at the surface. “It’s cracking!
Thirty feet behind them, Teno appears, head nearly scraping the top of the narrowing tunnel. “Going somewhere?” He wears an arrogant grin, and stoops slightly so he can get closer.
“We didn’t find anything!” Jax’s hears himself reasoning with the man, but his instincts scream at him to escape. He’s going to kill us.
The eggshell surface gives way to their frantic battering, and a jagged crack splits it from top to bottom.
Both boys scramble to get through the narrow opening, pushing and shoving against the edges and each other in a desperate bid to get through. The other side is no better.
“Marik, help us.” Fen teeters on the edge of a partly collapsed shaft of some sort, grasping a ragged edge just in time to avoid falling headfirst into the darkness.
“Move!” Jax, just behind him, pulls his last leg through the small opening, trying to find a place to be.
“I can’t.”
“Work around the edge.” Jax ugres. He pulls himself forward, grabbing improvised handholds. The chasm is about thirty feet across, with thick, ropy veins issuing from a honeycomb of passages and cascading to the depths below. His hand closes on one of the veins, and it stretches in his grasp, not at all what he was expecting. He teeters at the edge, trying to maintain his balance. Dang aliens.
A noise behind them announces the arrival of the hunters at the thin barrier. A rending, ripping sound reveals Teno’s face, now exhibiting more frustration than amusement. “Come here, you little bastards.” He reaches for Jax, and by reflex, the breaker swings away from him, holding the elastic vein with both hands.
His feet slip into the air, and the tendril offers little support. I’m falling. He barely has time for the thought to register before tension builds in the vein, and he bounces to a stop.
“Lasa, get in there.” Teno sounds pissed. His massive bulk is apparently too much for the narrow opening.
Jax hisses loudly at Fen, who is clinging for dear life to a jagged outcropping above. When his cousin looks down, Jax silently nods toward the veins, tugging on his to show it is stronger than it seems.
Fen’s eyes widen, and he grabs a handful of the same material. He gives it an experimental tug, then, satisfied they have a plan, turns off his harness light.
The boys start lowering themselves in near-silence on the vine-like tendrils, choosing a blind descent in an effort to throw off their pursuers. They are about eight feet below the edge when a commotion causes them to look up.
Lasa is halfway through the opening when her sword hilt catches on the edge. An impatient Teno pushes her from behind. Her eyes adjust belatedly to the darkness ahead, just as he gives her a hard shove.
“Wait-“ Her cry is in vain, and she grabs desperately for something to arrest her momentum. Her hand sails just past a vine, and she pitches headlong into empty space.
Jax stares in horror as her feminine form and flowing red hair cartwheel past him. She falls without a sound, quickly engulfed by the darkness below, gone in an instant before he can even think to try to help her. His eyes bulge, and he grips the vine tighter.
Did he just watch her die?
When he looks up, he sees his cousin’s eyes are as wide as his own. Harsh white light and the dot of a red laser sight play against the chasm walls, and they press against the wall to try to stay out of sight.
“She fell.” The voice isn’t Teno’s. The gunner?
The glare angles partway down the chasm, penetrating about 20 feet but not revealing any sign of the fallen woman.
“It’s deep. I’ll watch from here. You guys go around.”
Jax’s arms are starting to burn, and he expects any minute to hear gunshots, feel projectiles smash into him from above. With no other option, inch by inch, he starts slowly lowering himself to whatever waits below, praying the swaying vines will not give him away.
Thirty feet later, just out of the wash from the light above, the tendrils, now thick as spaghetti, start angling toward the center of the chasm, twisting as they do so. The walls are completely smooth here save for the latticework of tiny holes. Too small to do me much good. He curses silently, reluctant to leave the comparative comfort of the hard wall with an unknown drop still below them. How far does this thing go?
A few feet away, Fen is in the same boat. But is breathing heavily and already following the strands inward. Not as strong as Jax, he is nearing exhaustion and desperate to just get to the bottom. Jax follows him, and the tangle of vines starts to sway and dip precariously.
“Hey!” Renewed activity with the light comes from above, and the laser sight punctuates the darkness mere feet away.
“Go. Go!” Jax urges Fen in a hoarse whisper. Feeling trapped like a fly in a spider’s web, about to receive the sting of death at any moment. The thick tangle is all around him now, and he slips and slides through it quickly, trying to control his descent but finding the friction is nearly enough to suspend him in place —panic tears at his mind. I’m gonna get stuck! His foot hits something, and he hears a strangled cry.
“Sorry, man.” He apologizes out of habit, then voices his frustration, “Move faster.”
Fen says something but sounds far away. Between the darkness and the thick twist of hundred of vines, Jax can’t see anything. He smells something, though. Something nice. Get it together, Jax. Focus.
He wriggles in the elastic strands, trying to shake himself free, and slides down another couple of feet before coming to a complete halt. The tendrils are all crossed and tangled, and he can’t slide further.
“I’m down!” Fen’s voice is a loud whisper from below. “Come on, we gotta go!”
“Trying.” Jax tries not to panic, but he’s not getting anywhere. What am I caught on? I need a knife. The nice smell is all around him, and he feels like something is smothering him, a warm blanket slowly enveloping him. A soft gurgle emanates from the darkness, quite close, and a vision of a giant spider slowly wrapping him in unbreakable silk screams in his mind.
Panic overcomes his worry about being seen from above, and he activates the small light on his harness.
The tendrils in front of his face are thin and red. Hair. The warmth against him is her. Inches from his face, the soft glow illuminates her chiseled features, her head twisted at an angle by a tendril wrapped around her neck.
Lasa! His pulse leaps. Is she dead?
Her eyelashes flutter open weakly, and a strangled gurgle escapes her throat. Her eyes stab into Jax, pleading.
On instinct, he reaches for the strand looped around her neck, trying to loosen it. Her arms and legs are tangled in the strands, and they jerk reflexively but ineffectually against the strange elastic fibers. Jax works to free her head, but his efforts cause the loop to slip closer to her jaw and tighten even further, and her eyes bulge as her airway is compressed.
“Sorry.” He mumbles.
Her mouth works silently, but no noise emits. Even the gurgle is gone, and her face turns red, veins above the obstruction swelling with trapped blood.
“What are you doing? Hurry up!” Fen, just out of sight below, reaches through the strands, grabs his foot, and starts pulling. Jax is pulled at an awkward angle, half behind her, and loses what little leverage he had on the deadly strand.
“Stop it!.” He kicks refelexively. “I have to help her!” The strands all seem to twist and join behind her, caught on something he can’t see.
Her movements are slowing, and a tear runs down her cheek. Her eyes fixate on his face, a mixture of blame and desperate hope. He pushes bodily against the fibers, trying to get up even with her neck again, and his nose hits something hard.
His hand closes on a flat smooth surface. Her scabbard. A surge of hope energizes him, and he forces a hand along the surface to find the hilt of her power sword. Her movement has stopped completely, then a small rapid jerking of one leg starts.
She’s dying.
Feeling like he is in slow motion, he works the sword free and starts hacking frantically. Either the weapon isn’t half as sharp as it looked, or the strands are much stronger than they should be. He pulls himself higher with his left hand, pressing bodily against the woman to reach the thing that is killing her.
His harness light is almost completely obscured by her body, and he blindly saws the blade back and forth. He is rewarded by a feeling of something parting.
“Finally.” He redoubles his efforts, his right arm awkwardly handling the blade while his left arm strains to hold him upright. The effort is exhausting, and by the time he makes it through a second strand, his breath is coming in ragged gasps. Despite his continued resolve to free her, his movements weaken to the point of token motions.
Good job, weakling. You just killed the prettiest woman you’ve ever seen.
The scent of her hair all around him fills his nostrils, mocking his failure.
He feels movement. Her hand contacts his waist and, feeling its way slides up his body to his shoulder, then along his arm to his hand. When her skin contacts his own, he feels a shiver of excitement. Her fingertips trace his digits, searching. Suddenly a bright red arc ignites in his field of vision as she locates whatever switch turns the weapon on.
The added light illuminates the strands well, and this time when he swings the blade, the energized edge parts them like water, slashing easily through a broad swath of vines. The elastic bands, freed of their weight, snap upward like broken rubber bands, and he hears a ragged gasp next to his chest.
“I got you.” He feels victorious. Strangely elated to be helping the woman who a few minutes ago was trying to kill him.
He slashes through several more strands, and the web lurches around them. He feels her body slip against his, and an instant later loud thump below is followed by a surprised curse from Fen.
He looks down, trying to figure out which strands to cut to finish freeing himself, and that’s when he sees what she was stuck on. The myriad strands all twist in a convoluted pattern, still visibly organized, despite many now being severed. They all go to a single point at the very center of the web, at their very end joining together to form ten thick, intricate braids that become semi-solid and swirl into a spiral.
The spiral tightens around a flat black disk, the fibrous white braids seamlessly melding at its edges with a spiral pattern of a shimmering array of colors. The glow from the sword combines with his harness light, becoming a mesmerizing interplay of vibrant hues as it twists along with the pattern on the device.
Amazing. Without conscious thought, he reaches to touch it. It vibrates beneath his fingertips, sending pulses up his neural pathways to his brain.
A cultured voice speaks in his mind. Congratulations! You have found a MindCore. Would you like to pair with this MindCore? YES or NO?
He jerks in surprise at the voice, and his mind swirls. A MindCore! From childhood, all breakers are taught MindCores must be turned into Management. Keeping one earns a death warrant for the entire crew, even if only one family member acts alone. The law is brutal but efficient, and Jax has never heard of anyone keeping one or even finding one for that matter.
What does a MindCore do? He had been hoping for a StructureCore like Yak’s, maybe even a WeaponsCore, something they could make the family stronger with, maybe even recruit some strays, build a crew around it. And why are they so important?
He wonders how much he can get for it and imagines the shocked look on the trader's face when he pulls it out. A vision comes unbidden of himself, more powerful even than the Gunners, ripping Manager Ranik in half. What could I become with this?
A commotion below encroaches on his reverie, and he is snapped back to the present. A couple well-directed cuts free the core, and he grabs ahold of it just as the sudden release of tension allows him to fall free.
When it touches his skin, the prompt repeats in his mind. Would you like to pair with this MindCore? YES or NO?
I don’t know! He objects loudly to himself by reflex, but somehow the core detects it.
You have 1 minute to decide. Then it will become available to others.
The unexpected response registers at the same time he slithers to the flat surface Lasa and Fen occupy.
“Whoah! Hold on!” Jax’s full attention snaps to the tableau in front of him.
Fen crouches over the woman, a charged plasma cutter held threateningly at her throat. She is alert but either too weak to move or choosing not to.
Fen looks at his cousin. “I’ve got her, Jax.”
“I just saved her!”
“You did? She was trying to kill us.”
“No, I wasn’t.” Her protest is a ragged, throaty sound, a half-whisper.
Hearing her response, Jax finds himself replaying the chase, trying to find evidence of the Core Hunter’s lethal intent. “Teno was.”
She shakes her head and tries to lever up to her elbows, her voice gaining strength, “Teno’s a bully... but we’re not killers.”
Fen jabs his tool toward her throat, forcing her back down. “She’s lying, Jax.”
Unarmed, weakened, and lying in a vulnerable position, Lasa looks to Jax for support.
“I don’t know.” Conflicting thoughts tangle in Jax’s mind. She’s so pretty, is the one that comes to the fore. Her green eyes are pulling him in. She’s so vulnerable. Help her, Jax. Those very eyes suddenly flare, the hurt-puppy effect replaced by intense excitement. “You found it!”
“What?” It takes his mind a fraction of a second to switch gears, and in that moment she tries to modulate her expression, but the answer is obvious. She’s looking at the core.
You have 30 seconds to decide. Then it will become available to others. The telepathic message comes unbidden this time.
Still on the floor, she twists toward him, ignoring Fen as she reaches a hand toward the strange device. “Quick, give it to me!”
“No way!” He cradles the object close to his chest and raises her sword in a defensive reflex.
“Marik’s ugly children,” Fen’s curse is full of wonder, “you found one!” He moves away from Lasa, drawn as if by an unseen force toward the shimmering spiral.
Lasa pulls her knees under her and kneels, folding her hands in a praying position in front of her well-rounded chest. “You have to give it to me. I lied. Teno is a killer. He’ll kill you in a second for that.”
“It’s a MindCore. We have to turn it in.” Jax recites the law.
“A MindCore?” Fen’s eyes are wide.
You have 15 seconds to decide- Jax’s mind finishes the notification, then it will become available to others.
Her tone is laden with urgency, “I’ll trade you my core for it.” She is half crouching now.
“You can do that?” If she’s telling the truth, this is new information to Jax.
“Yes.” She looks at the weapon in his hand, “and my sword, I’ll give you both. Trust me, that thing will just get you killed. Your whole family, too.”
Ten seconds.
“Not if a turn it in. probably worth a fortune-”
“It is!” She sounds panicked. “But you’ll never make it. Every hunter for miles can feel it now!”
Five.
“Don’t listen to her, Jax.” Fen’s tone is flat, and he steps closer, hands stretching toward the core.
Time seems to be moving slowly. Too much is happening, and several realizations battle for his attention. Hunters can sense it somehow, at least now that I have touched it. Whatever it is, it’s clearly valuable because she is falling all over herself to trade me the one she has for it.
Four.
A chilling thought enters his mind. If hunters can sense it, can Management? Given that they run everything and order enhanced gunners with a nod of the head, it seems likely. He wants to know what the device does. He wants to know why everyone wants it so badly. He feels starved for the information he needs to make the right decision.
THREE.
She might try and kill me for it if I don’t give it to her. I should have let her strangle. The thought evokes the recent memory of their bodies pressed together in the darkness, of the scent of her hair, the curve of her lips as she gasped for air. His body responds to the images and offers a more primal course of action: Give it to her; she will be very grateful.
TWO.
They are both approaching him now, eyes fixed on the object in his hand. He is out of time and makes his decision on instinct.
Congratulations, Captain. You are now paired to the MindCore Sliver. A flood of information enters his mind. A chart with little glowing orbs connected by lines. Lines of information in neat rows. Numbers, percentages, dials, readouts. It’s all right there in his head, ready to look at like a memory or a daydream, just by focusing on it.
The tangible world around him immediately pulls his attention away from the phenomenon. Lasa tosses her pretty head back and groans loudly. “Great job, Jax. We’re all dead, now.”
Fen’s strange behavior ceases, and he shakes himself. “What happened?”
Lasa looks around and walks quickly to the walls of the shaft. “He paired with it.” Her tone is a mixture of disappointment, irritation, and worry.
Jax feels… different. He feels an advanced awareness, like new senses he never had before are activating, and a strange magnetism towards Lasa that has nothing to do with her attractive form. I can feel she’s there. The realization is followed quickly by another.
“How’d you know my name?”
She is examining the smooth surface of the wall, desperately looking for an opening, and speaks without looking over her shoulder. “We all just got a notification: ‘Jax has paired with a MindCore.’”
“You did?” He moves beside her, suspecting he should be helping her look for an exit but hungry for more information. “Who’s we?”
She looks upward. “Teno and my crew for sure. But anyone with a core within miles. It works off a radius.”
Her concerned expression deepens. “Pray to the gods that we are deep enough that Ranik is out of range.” She looks apologetic. “He’ll go straight for your family.”
Mom! A wave of guilt crashes into him as the consequences of his actions register. Uncle Len. He shares a look with Fen, who has joined them at the wall.
“What’d you do?” His cousin still looks confused.
Lasa hammers a fist against the smooth wall, then looks up again, considering the web of strands. They lie in a tangle, the tension on the vines having pulled the upper sections out of reach when they were cut. She blows air out in a frustrated sigh. “Great job cutting off our only way out.”
Jax feels irritation. “I saved you! You were choking to death!”
Fen looks at the smooth walls around them. “Yeah. About that. I think we’re trapped now.”
An unfamiliar question is burning in Jax’s mind, and he is having an increasingly harder time ignoring it.
What system would you like to develop? A picture appears in his mind, a glowing spiral object, just like the one in his hand, with ten gray lines leading from its edges toward greyed-out bubbles. He looks down at the strange device and plies Lasa for answers.
“What are systems? And what do I do with this thing.”
She looks at him and shakes her head. “Not going to have to worry about it for long. Teno and Guta are going to kill you and take it here shortly.”
He blinks, shocked at her casual dismissal of not just his question, but him as a living person.
Her eyes narrow. “What do you mean, ‘systems’? Don’t you mean skills?” She steps closer to examine the spiral. “What’s it telling you?”
He pulls it toward his chest protectively, but if her actions are any indication, they are sitting on a time-bomb, and his quickest route to knowledge at this point is her. “It’s telling me all kinds of stuff but keeps asking me what system I want to develop.” He winces. “It’s like a throbbing in my head.”
She nods. “Decision prompts will do that. Cores don’t like to be ignored.” Her brow furrows. “But I don’t know what it means by choosing a system. Cores are systems.”
A nearby explosion shakes the hulk, and the surface they are standing on bucks. Sound reverberates painfully in the shaft, and Jax reaches a hand toward her for balance.
She recoils from him violently when his hand, still holding the core, brushes her arm. “Theo’s ballsack, secure that thing.”
Reading his expression, her eyes bulge. “It just told me to kill you so I could take it!”
Fen imposes himself half between them, plasma cutter in hand.
“How do I-“ Jax starts to ask.
By way of response, Lasa turns and pulls her flowing hair to the side, exposing her own core, tucked neatly between her creamy-white shoulderblades. “Put it on your spine like this.”
Would you like to permanently attach this core to this location? YES or NO.
With a thought, Jax selects yes, and an icy chill enters his spine. A strange crawling, puncturing sensation spreads into his back and through him, not painful but decidedly invasive.
Lasa nods, satisfied, then, as if suddenly becoming aware of Fen’s threatening posture, gives the boy a push. “Get off me with that toy.”
Her full strength has returned, and the motion sends the breaker flying back several feet. The casual violence is a warning bell in Jax’s mind. He steps between her and Fen. “Hey. Don’t.” Concern for his cousin causes renewed suspicion of her motives to surge to the fore. “And why are you helping us.”
She regards him, a mixture of emotions present. “Good question.” She nods at the weapon in his hands and quips, “Give me my sword back, and I’ll tell you the answer.”
He grips the sword tightly. “Not a chance.” Is it her only weapon? He thinks about her precious acrobatics and the way she just shoved Fen. Or maybe she doesn’t really even need it. He raises the sword to a slightly more ready position.
He realizes that he still doesn’t know something. “What does your core do?”
She smirks. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Is it some kind of beauty thing? Makes you more attractive?”
She blinks at him, face blank, then erupts in laughter. Another blast shakes the hulk, smaller but closer, but she pays no attention to it. Her lips part in a wide grin, showing an even row of white teeth, and she bats her eyelashes at him. “You figured me out, Jax. My beauty is otherwordly.” She tosses her head in slow motion, shaking her hair back and forth before fixing him with a seductive, inviting smile. She can’t hold the pose, though, and her amusement boils over into chortling, snorting laughter.
You’re an idiot, Jax. He tries unsuccessfully to use sarcasm to hide his embarrassment, “Real nice. Real helpful. Remember how you all said we were going to die? Maybe we should get back to that.”
She’s not done yet. “Are you sure you aren’t too distracted by my ravishing good looks?” She jabs an elbow towards Fen, quirking an eyebrow that pulls him into her merriment.
His cousin cracks a smile, betraying Jax to his uncomfortable fate. “At least we will die in good company, Jax. A true goddess among us, am I right?”
He winks at Lasa, and she smirks back. The two are united in their derision, just as if she hadn’t pushed him across the room moments earlier.
Jax wants to punch him. Like he isn’t staring at her too. His cousin suddenly appears more interested in making fun of him than escaping the shaft.
Jax feels powerless and more than a little astonished that the focus has somehow moved from survival to making fun of him. He feels an insistent jab in his skull and turns to the prompts in his mind for help. Information and options flood into his consciousness.
What system would you like to develop? Available systems:
The spiral is back, and this time each of the grayed-out circles around the edge of the pattern gains a name when he examines them.
Defense Systems
Weapons Systems
Navigation Systems
Sensor Systems
Motion Systems
Information Systems
Engineering Systems
Leadership Systems
Energy Systems
Subterfuge Systems
When he focuses on one, more information appears.
Energy – This system relates to the power systems necessary for making ship components function and provides a significant enhancement to the features of other modules.
Would you like to develop this system? Yes or No.
(Note: Once a system improvement is in progress, no other selection may be made until it is completed.)
He backs out of that choice and scans the pattern for an answer. When he thinks he has it, he dismisses the images in his mind and focuses back on Lasa. “Motion?
Her face turns serious again. “What?”
Her reaction bolsters his confidence. “It’s motion, isn’t it. Your core.” It explains the acrobatics and ability to push Fen easily.
Her eyes narrow. “How’d you know? What does yours do?”
Noises are getting closer, and he finds himself wondering if maybe everything she is doing is a distraction. Maybe movement is only minimally useful for combat, and I really do have the upper hand as long as I have her sword. It adds up in his mind but isn’t helpful. All she has to do is keep us busy and run out the clock until Teno arrives.
The smooth walls of the shaft feel like they are closing in, and he expects a nearby explosion to shatter the silence at any moment.
The problem is, he still doesn’t know enough about what he is doing to make good decisions, and time is short. He decides keeping secrets won’t help him if he’s dead in a few minutes, and his and Fen’s best chance is her help.
“Mine gives me 10 options.” He rattles them off, somehow remembering them exactly and effortlessly. “If you’re a MotionModifier, maybe we can work together to get out of here.”
Where did I learn that term? Information welling up in his head, far more than he has time to think about. He realizes he just learned the word somehow like his mind reached for something to call her, and the word appeared.
Odly, she takes the title completely in stride with a slight sigh. “You got me. I’m a MotionMod.” She looks up. But I’m not developed enough to get even myself back up there.” She looks at him with shock as the other thing he said registering. “Ten options?” She whistles. “So that’s what a MindCore does. No wonder Management hoards them.”
Seeing his look of confusion, she explains, “SysCores develop in a collection of specific ways, allowing you to build skills, attributes, and equipment of a certain type.”
“Skills? I thought they just gave you blueprints for high-tech equipment.”
She looks at the sword between them. “ Schematics. Yeah, they do, like that weapon you are holding. But this,” she bends her legs slightly, then leaps in place, performing a backflip with practiced ease, “this is all me. Core skills.”
Fen is apprehensive and doesn’t care about the details. “Great. Are you going to help us or not?”
She grimaces and raises her palms. “Maybe?”
Jax steps toward her with the sword, threateningly. “I saved your life!”
She is unapologetic. “And now, I’m screwed.” She ticks her problems off on her fingers. “One. You got the MindCore, and I didn’t kill you. Teno will see that as a failure and a betrayal.”
Jax snorts. “I’m sure your boyfriend will forgive you.”
Her eyes flash, and her face darkens. “He’s not my boyfriend. He…” She shakes her head and raises another finger. “Two. The notification that a Three found a core, and a MindCore, at that, will draw every Mod in range like a giant magnet. Teno’s bad. Some of the other Hunters are way worse.” She shudders at a memory best forgotten.
“How many?” Fen wants to know.
“I can think of at least two other crews that are nearby, but SenseMods could have detected it from much further, maybe even other yards.”
Yards are the ad-hoc cities that have grown around lucrative collections of hulks, each under the supervision of a single manager. Manager’s pray to the gods for good hulks, and Sarin’s bounty, or lack of it, can cause the population to swell or die out completely. Jax has never been to another Yard, and feels at a disadvantage when Lasa casually mentions them as part of her world.
“Three. I can’t kill you.” She looks at Jax, excluding Fen from the statement.
Her flat statement surprises him. “Because I have the sword?”
“Because you saved my life, and I’m not a Sub.” Her flippant behavior is muted, and her tone is serious. “I owe you.”
It feels like some kind of pledge to Jax, but something she said doesn’t make sense. “A Sub?” “A SubMod. Sneaky bastards that kill other mods.”
He is catching on to the new lingo but wants to confirm. “So, you call core-enhanced people mods.”
She nods and holds up another finger. “Four. I can’t kill Teno.” She looks at each of them in turn. “None of us can.”
Fen summarizes the situation. “So, basically, an army of mods,” he uses the new word, “are coming to kill us, and we are trapped in this hole like rats.”
Jax doesn’t wholly believe her and still has the nagging thought that she might be stalling. “You really want us to believe your crew is going to kill you?”
“Theo nuke them! They aren’t my crew.” Her vehemence surprises him, as does the catch in her voice. What she says next shuffles things even further. “They killed my crew to get me. Teno has almost killed me several times. They just use me… because a developed MotionMod, the transportation I can provide, is worth more than trading in a SysCore.”
She is clearly leaving some things unsaid, but the pain in his head is becoming intense, and his impending decision prompts him to move quickly to a course of action. “You said we couldn’t kill him? Not even with this?”
She looks at the sword and scoffs. “That’s a toy against his armor. He’s attuned his suit to resist it. He’s not stupid.” Her look turns pleading. “Can I have it back now? Please?”
A clanging resounds against the chamber they are in. “They’re right there,” Fen says. Feeling the need to do something, he goes to the opposite side of the shaft and starts trying to cut the wall with his small plasma cutter.
Jax steps close to Lasa, searching her eyes intently for any hint of deception. “What if we work together? Use both our cores to escape.”
She darts a worried glance at the clanging sound, and her fear seems genuine. “What bonus skill can you get? That’s all you get right away.”
He doesn’t know the answer and focuses on the information in his head again.
Greetings, Jax. As the Captain of Sliver, you will need to develop your knowledge of the various systems needed to create a fully functioning ship.
He hurries past that statement and ignores several others, looking for the question burning in his mind. He feels that his reality has somehow slowed and is dimly aware of Lasa’s eyes blinking in ultra-slow motion a few feet away.
What system would you like to develop? Available systems:
He sees the same list as before and hurriedly focuses on each option one at a time. Lasa is right. When he selects the first, it indicates he will receive a bonus skill for choosing it. Defense Systems
Upon choosing this system, you will immediately receive as a bonus the associated System Skill- Armor 1: Create and manage simple armor systems. Schematic for simple plate armor will be learned. Your increased knowledge of protective techniques grants a 30% increase to your personal durability, the effectiveness of all defenses, and the durability of structures of all types. This bonus will increase as you develop this system.
Cool! He doesn’t fully understand how it works, but the gist is clear. I can make armor and get tougher. He lets the interface fade and updates Lasa. “The first one is about defense. It says I can make armor.”
She shakes her head. “That’s what Teno has, and he’s well developed. Plus, you have to have components and time to make the armor. He has been improving his for years."
Disappointed, he dives back into the interface to look at the next one.
Weapons Systems
System Skill- Weapons of War 1: Create and operate simple weapons that use energy to increase damage. Schematics for Power sword and ship’s ram will be learned. Your increased knowledge of destructive techniques grants a 30% increase to your damage with all weapons, including your fists. This bonus will increase as you develop this system.
Although he has a bad feeling about the answer, he bounces back out to make sure. Her answer is not encouraging.“That’s what Guta is, a WeaponsMod -the best one I have seen, too.”
The clanging on the other side of the wall is replaced by a faint hissing.
“They are cutting it.” A forlorn note in her voice spurs him to action, and he decides to stay in the interface until he has all the options.
Navigation Systems
System Skill- Going Places: Are we there yet? This skill will allow you to always know the answer to that question, as well as teaches you a schematic for a basic position plotter. Your location and route awareness will increase by 30%. Navigation is a complex task, and developing this system will make you a master of it.
Sensing Systems
System Skill- Finders, Keepers: You become proficient with basic sensor systems. Schematics for short-range density and thermal scanners will be learned. Your increased attunement will improve all your personal senses by 30%, a sensitivity that you can activate at will. You will also be able to sense cores and other Mods from a 60% increased distance and innately know the nature of the core within range. Developing this system will increase those bonuses and provide more advanced core awareness.
Motion Systems
System Skill- Acrobatic Maneuvers: You learn the fundamentals of three-dimensional maneuvers. Your increased knowledge of motive forces grants a 30% increase to speed, acceleration, deceleration, and change of direction of your personal movement as well as that of any machine you operate. This bonus will improve as you develop this system.
Information Systems
System Skill- Knowledge is Power: Your ability to learn and remember information is increased. Schematic for memory augmentation is learned. Your increased aptitude with analytical thinking provides a 30% increase in understanding behavioral patterns of all sentient beings and programmed devices. Developing this complex system will provide a wide array of significant advantages.
Engineering Systems
System Skill- Simple Machines: Everything that exists is in some way made, and everything that is made can be moved. This skill gives you fundamental knowledge about how these two miracles are achieved. Schematics learned include pulleys, levers, fulcrums, wheels, axles, inclined planes, screws, and wedges. Your aptitude provides a 30% increase in construction and repair speed, as well as a 50% increase in the likelihood of discovering a new engineering schematic. Developing this system will increase those bonuses and unlock new schematics.
Leadership
System Skill- Command and Control 1: O, Captain, my Captain, a ship needs a full crew, and this skill allows you to manage a basic crew of ten system Modifiers. Schematic for a short-range wireless communication system will be learned. Your personal charisma and ability to understand and motivate others will increase by 30%. Developing this system further will enhance these abilities and will prove necessary to successfully command your ship. Energy Systems System Skill- Batteries: Power is most useful when stored for the right moment, and this skill will allow you to create and manage energy storage systems. Schematics for small batteries and basic electrical circuits will be learned. Your increased knowledge about energy dynamics will improve your personal stamina and the energy you can store in any system by 30%. Developing this system will increase this bonus.
Subterfuge Systems
System Skill- Core cloaking: At will, conceal your core-aura as well as that of anyone in your crew. This effect will confuse but not totally defeat standard biosensor systems, as well as make it easier to hide in shadows. Schematic for level 1 core cloak projector will be learned. Your ability to conceal your presence will increase as you develop this system, and further unexpected advantages may be unlocked. His mind swirls with the array of options. He can immediately see how each of them could help his family survive, thrive even, and is dying to know what other skills and abilities development of each will unlock. He feels like his world is expanding. This really will change everything. The problem is, there is nothing there that can solve their current problem. I can’t develop anything if I am dead.
He exits and gives Lasa a hurried rundown of their options. She absorbs the information with a thoughtful look and grunts in surprise at several of the options.
“Some of those I have never even heard of. No wonder Seme is so good at finding cores."
Jax assumes she means wiry Core Hunter he saw examining the hole what now seems a lifetime ago.
“None of that is enough to beat Teno, though, even if we work together.” She states the conclusion he has already reached, then squares her shoulders. “Give me my sword. We have to try.”
“I thought you said his armor-”
“I’m done playing his game.” The firmness of her jaw and the desperation in her voice do nothing to inspire confidence in him.
She’s ready to go down fighting. It’s this determination that makes up his mind. Either she’s an amazing actress, or everything she is telling him is true, and he has moments to find a solution. We need time.
He reenters the interface and makes his decision.
Congratulations, Captain Jaxis. You are now a SubterfugeModifer. Your chosen specialty is one of creativity and unpredictability, offering skills that will enable you to achieve success in ways your opponents will never suspect.
News skills are now available.
Bonus skill: Core Cloaking unlocked.
As the owner of a Mindcore and Captain of Sliver, you may choose an additional bonus skill within any of your developed systems at each new level.
You have reached Level Two. The galaxy awaits your greatness.
A sense of great accomplishment accompanies the flood of information, especially the last notification.
Level Two? The designation makes no sense, but he feels it is important. Very important. He is sure of it.
His peripheral awareness shows Lasa slowly grimacing, eyes fixed on the sword he still holds. He has another decision to make, though, and focuses on his options. A previously gray node is now lit a dark green color on the spiral chart, and three gray lines expand outward from it in what had previously been empty space.
Subterfuge Systems - Available skills:
Stealth 1: What cannot be seen is difficult to destroy. This skill and its subsequent advancements will improve your ability to operate without detection. This level provides a 30% bonus to your ability to move quietly and blend in with your surroundings and affects both your person and any device you are operating. Schematics for basic stealth apparel and chameleon paint will be learned.
Sabotage 1: Everything that exists has a weakness, and this skill will allow you to find it. By focusing on a given object or sentient, you will become aware of any points of vulnerability that may lead to its destruction. 100% damage bonus when striking a point of vulnerability on any structure or sentient. Schematic for critical targeting array will be learned (other skills may be needed to construct.)
Misdirection 1: Now you see me, now you don’t. Sometimes invisibility is less useful than misinformation, and this skill and its advancements will provide you with options to deceive sensors and sentients. 50% increase to your ability to tell a lie convincingly. Used in concert with core-cloaking, you can project your personal core aura up to 50 feet in any direction with effort (requires concentration.)
While becoming a master of stealth could certainly prove useful, the flat bonus and schematics of the first option did not seem useful in his current predicament. Misdirection could help immensely, but the word personal indicated he could only do it for himself, not Lasa.
Remembering the thin eggshell-like barrier they had battered their through earlier and comparing it to the futile effort Fen was currently putting into penetrating the walls of the chamber, he wondered if the Sabotage might illuminate an escape route.
You have learned a new skill, Sabotage 1. New schematics and skills are now available.
One of the three second-tier circles started glowing dark green, and three new gray lines extended from it. The image in his mind zoomed out to accommodate the new options, making what seemed a small collection of developments much more vast. How far does this thing go? The number after some of the skills indicated there would be further increments in the same skill, but there was nothing to indicate the top end of the scale.
Worry about that later, he thought, if there is a later.
He exited the interface and abruptly shoved the sword into Lasa’s outstretched hand. “OK. I think I have something.”
A long red gash on the wall behind him displayed the progress Teno and his companions were making with burning through the wall.
Fen’s efforts were far less effective, and he looked over his shoulder. Lasa looked at the sword in her hand, then back at him with surprise. “You do?”
“Yeah. Hang on.” He realized he had no idea how to use his core-cloak skill, but as he thought about it, it was like an invisible toggle switch appeared in his mind. He flipped it and was rewarded with a notification.
You have activated stealth. The core auras of you and your crew are now hidden. (Two crew members are too far away to benefit from this effect.)
Current crew: Jaxis, Lei, Len, Fen.
The strange extension of his name registered this time, but he had no time to puzzle over it. Lasa isn’t part of my crew. The realization made complete sense but also defeated his brilliant plan to turn invisible.
“Where’d you go?” Her question made no sense to Fen, but Jax was pleased to see her look of puzzlement.
“Crap. I need you to be in my crew for it to work,” he said.
“Wait, did you choose Sub?” Her scowl looks very un-crew-like. “You’re kidding me.”
“It was the only way. But I need you in my crew to hide you too.”
Invite Lasa to join your crew? YES or NO.
The prompt appears unbidden as if Sliver is reading his mind. He hurriedly selects yes, and her expression makes him think she just received some sort of notification.
She looks from him to the red gash in the wall, now turning the corner to form an “L,” then at her sword he willing gave back, then back at his face.
Lasa joins your crew.
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