“Enemy Neutralized. Power at 0.3%. Shutting down.”
Daniel shuddered a bit as his body was suddenly exposed to the hot metal of the platform, armor vanishing into thin air. Breathing deeply, he sat up and looked at the body of his fallen enemy. Dark purple blood pooled in exorbitant amounts on the platform, his Codex confirming that this creature was the same as the predator that had ambushed them by the river. Its body was too poisonous for consumption. But it could still have a Morphic stone.
After a bit of heaving, Daniel turned over the large creature’s torso, but soon ran into a problem. His standard issue machete couldn’t cut through the creature’s skin. The steel literally shattered when he swung it against the creature’s hide. Tossing the broken handle away, Daniel contemplated trying out his spear instead, before he saw more golden text:
“Manifest Heavenly Armament?”
“You can do that?”
Daniel thought to himself internally, surprised at the idea that he could generate the sword without running the protocol or creating the armor. In response, however, Nuntius was totally silent. After a few moments with no answer, he got the text again:
“Manifest Heavenly Armament?”
That provoked a thought. Focusing on the text, Daniel opened up the keyboard and typed: “Can you read this?”
Instantly, he got a message back:
“Yes”
Interesting. So Nuntius could read his mind with the armor on, but they could only communicate by text without it:
“Can you really create the sword without also running the Protocol?”
“Each Protocol has one element that can be manifested without needing to run said Protocol, as a part of the System’s secondary functioning. For the Makiel Protocol, this is the Heavenly Armament. All of this can be found in the schematic I sent you earlier.”
His notifications pinged again. Daniel swore he’d get to reading it eventually, but for now he had work to do. After a bit of thought, he typed: “Manifest Heavenly Armament, Mode Shift [Dagger]”
Exactly as ordered, a shorter version of the normal flaming sword popped into Daniel’s hand, and he immediately went about cutting through the creature’s neck. In no time at all, he exposed a glowing yellow stone nestled at the base of the monster’s neck: “Delta Class Morphic Stone: ???? Value: ????.”
Wordlessly, he stored it away and dismissed the Armament before it drained too much power. Ideally, Daniel didn’t want to use the stone. He could always get the stone appraised and sell it later. Even if he didn’t know what it was worth now, a Delta class stone like this could generate great money. It could well be worth more than his current inventory total. Beyond that, the stones these strange Xenomorphs dropped seemed different from normal Morphic stones. That Epsilon class stone had been enormously painful to absorb. It was much worse than it should have been, even at his level. Something stronger than that, while he was still Zeta class, could seriously damage him. Increasing in class could change that, but Daniel didn’t want to go through that kind of pain again if he could avoid it. He didn’t need to, either. The money was more important.
Or so Daniel surmised, before he heard the barking.
…
Jordan and the others made a mad dash across the blacksteel bridges and platforms of the geothermal charging plant, lungs heaving in the blistering atmosphere. They would occasionally need to duck a river of lightning, bursting over their heads and leaving a tiny clap of thunder in its wake. They regularly shot back, but the Fulgur Hound deftly dodged their bullets and barked at its subordinates, urging the Tempus Hounds onward. The Pioneers turned their fire against these smaller hunting dogs, but there were far too many of them. Skin bristling with blue voltage, the fiends jumped around to avoid the gunfire as they tried to close within striking range.
The Pioneers were forced into a running gun battle, running up and down the various metal constructions as they sporadically fired on their pursuers. Bullets pinged off steel and the howls grew louder as the hounds steadily closed in on their prey. Every man fought for his life, sweaty hands fighting to hold their rifles steady, holding back a wave of panic. They were running low on ammunition, the pitched battles of the past and present eating away at their three-month supply. Something needed to change, so Jordan steeled his resolve and prepared his trump card.
He spotted his opportunity in the form of a high platform, connected to the rock wall, with only two angled bridges leading up to it. They had been avoiding this kind of platform for its lack of escape routes, yet Jordan ordered the men up and onto it without hesitation. But when they got onto the platform and looked down the other ramp, they saw another group of Tempus Hounds. The dogs had been trying to flank the Pioneers this entire time and they’d finally succeeded. The men watched with terrified eyes as a half dozen Xenos started up the ramp in front of them, while the bulk of their pursuers charged up the ramp behind them. There was nowhere to go.
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The men turned accusing and questioning eyes on Jordan and were surprised to see he’d dismissed his rifle. In its place he had produced two black spheres. Holding one in each hand, he pressed a small button on their backs. A red light began to flash from a central dot on each device, accompanied by a slow beeping sound that was getting faster as the light flashed faster. Their temporary commander flashed them a fearless grin, saying: “Buy me some time!”
Some of the men were quick witted enough to discern what was happening and all of them were smart enough to turn around and start unloading on the Xenos trying to clamber up the ramps. The hounds tried to be evasive, yet they were forced back down under the blistering fire, leaving the bodies of several of their comrades behind. The men emptied their clips and went to reload but were forced to take cover as the Fulgur Hound took another shot at them. The scratching of paws on metal told them that the Tempus Hounds had started back up the bridge again, but before the Pioneers could scramble to their feet, Jordan yelled: “GET DOWN!”
The Pioneers threw themselves down again as Jordan tossed the spheres over their heads. Their beeping turned into a high-pitched squeal as it grew even faster, the balls sailing into the oncoming dogs just before unleashing their payloads: BOOM-BOOM
The grenades generated enormous balls of fire as they detonated, shaking the metal under their feet. The shriek of steel announced the failure of the ramps, their central pieces breaking off and falling languidly to the magma below. They took several Xenos with them, the few dogs not killed in the explosion shrieking angrily as they fell to their deaths. The Pioneers finally had a few moments to catch their breath. It didn’t last long. The platform suddenly shook again, and they looked up to see the Fulgur Hound shooting more lightning at the platform’s supports. The Pioneers immediately concentrated their rifle fire on the creature, forcing it to flinch and retreat as it was struck with the barrage. The Epsilon class Xenos wouldn’t be killed easily with mundane rifle fire, yet it could hardly ignore it. The platform held, stabilized by several support pillars and the rock wall it was attached to.
The Pioneers and the Xenos had reached a fragile stalemate. The only Xenos that could harm them at this range was the Fulgur Hound, but the Pioneers could successfully suppress it with their bullets from this range. It could chip away at their foundations, but only very slowly. Some of the hounds tried climbing the rock, claws digging into the hard-packed stone, but they were sitting ducks under the Pioneer’s fire.
This couldn’t go on forever, of course. When the lesser dogs tried climbing and drew their fire, the greater dog seized the opportunity to take potshots at their platform. When they shot back, it took cover once again, content to let its numerous subordinates make further progress. As if this weren’t bad enough, many of the men were approaching the last few magazines in their arsenal.
Recognizing their impending doom, the men looked to Jordan once again. But rather than looking back at them, Jordan’s blue eyes were examining the mass of enemies surrounding them. The ranks of Tempus Hounds numbered more than four dozen even after all the damage they’d caused. Even worse, their ranks were still growing as more hounds migrated from deeper into the facility. After sizing up the enemy, he began scanning the horizon beyond them before his eyes eventually settled on something in the distance. Slowly, another cocky grin lit up Jordan’s face. Confused, the men followed his gaze.
They followed it right toward the silhouette of their leader.
…
Daniel had heard all the noise and come to investigate, his “Predatory Grace” Attribute allowing him to slink toward the commotion without alerting the sharp senses of the Xenos hounds. He caught Jordan’s eye, his old friend giving him a sly wink, but Daniel just gave him a grim look in response. Jordan didn’t know that the Archangel System was running on empty, and that Daniel’s own mental energies had been seriously depleted as well. Even in top shape, the young man was in no position to bail his friends out. Daniel’s mind worked overdrive to figure a way out of this mess, but his mind kept getting stuck on one solution. One solution he deeply wanted to avoid. Gritting his teeth, he opened his text box and sent a few messages. The first was to Nuntius: “Any chance the armor can bail me out of this?”
“At current charge, it cannot. It would allow you to eliminate the Fulgur Hound, but the others would likely tear you to pieces afterward. Also, I am programmed to strongly advise you not to fully deplete the System. It leaves us vulnerable.”
Yeah, that’s what he’d thought. His second message went to Jordan: “Hang tight.”
He took cover and pulled out one of the Zeta class Morphic stones their team had gotten from the Hounds on the third floor. Raising it up to his Codex, he absorbed it in a flash. The difference between this stone and the strange E class was night and day, the gentle energies of the Z class stone percolating throughout his body in a pleasant, cool sensation. Of course, Daniel couldn’t absorb the Psionic Capacity, since he had no open slots, but the stone still provided him several key benefits.
Absorbing the stone would grow Daniel’s stats while also helping him recover physically and mentally. It would also give him Morphic Points, key to upgrading his already obtained abilities. He watched his status as the MP indicator next to the Hunter’s Domain ticked up to 1/10. But the real benefit was what came afterward: “Class Upgraded! Congratulations, you are now Epsilon Class!”
The change from Zeta to Epsilon occurred when the sum of a Pioneer’s stats exceeded 500. Daniel had been teetering on the edge for a while now, though the last few increases were always the hardest. The stone had put him over the edge:
User Name: Daniel Sylvester Hardgrave
Age: 18
Pioneer Class: Epsilon
Rank: Private Second Class
Status
Strength: 94 -> 97
Dexterity: 113 -> 114
Constitution: 88 -> 90
Adaptability: 87 -> 96
Psyche: 97 -> 103
Psionic Capacities:
Slot 1: Hunter’s Domain (Epsilon) (MP=1/10)
- Establish an Extrasensory Domain with Psionic Energy surrounding the User.
- Senses are enhanced within Domain. User can extend Senses throughout Domain.
- Dexterity is enhanced while Domain is active.
Slot 2: Empty
Personal Attributes:
Slot 1: Predatory Grace (Epsilon) (MP=0/7)
- Significant enhancement of natural Dexterity.
- Improves the ability of the User to move silently.
- Scales with Dexterity (E) and Adaptability (F).
Slot 2: Empty
Slot 3: Empty
Integrated Technologies:
Slot 1: Archangel System (???) (Power=0.3%)
An increase in Class meant an increase in the number of Capacity and Attribute slots he had available, which he would need for the next part of his plan. Daniel wasn’t terribly happy about using a Morphic stone that they had decided to share for his own benefit, but he knew the others would understand. What he really hated was what he needed to do next.
With a strong twinge of nerves, Daniel pulled out the Delta class stone.