Planet Designation: E2555

  Planet Class: Epsilon

  Environment: Sea

  Atmosphere: Breathable

  Daniel’s powerful limbs propelled him swiftly through the shallows. After a few kicks, he equipped some rubber flippers, making him move even faster. The water around him was a churning mass of bodies and bubbles, the entire strike group eager to get started. The Pioneers naturally separated into smaller groups as they swam further into the ocean, each eager to claim the squad-specific rewards. A part of the subtext of this operation was that it was an intra-Imperial competition in addition to being Republic vs. Empire. While no friendly fire would be permitted, the Imperial soldiers would be seeking to win glory for their Clan specifically. Or at least, win the bounty for themselves.

  Once he’d formed up with his other squadmates, Daniel finally got a good look at the sea around him.

  Brightly colored and strangely shaped fish flitted about in these shallow waters. A school of triangular yellow fish swam in arrowhead formation, their green cyclopean gazes keeping tabs on the groups of Pioneers. A trio of purple fish shot small blue lasers at a tiny rainbow-colored fish, which was surviving by creating illusory copies of itself in flashes of similarly colored light. To Daniel’s surprise, the rainbow fish managed to escape, hiding in one of the small tunnels carved into the ocean floor.

  On his left, some normal-looking grey fish swam along before being confronted by a round orange fish with a single large flipper. The orange fish immediately expanded, its body suddenly shining with innumerable blue barbs. The grey fish did the opposite. They shrank in size; bodies covered in more sapphire light and swam around their impending doom. One couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, and it was impaled on the many tiny barbs. The puffer fish promptly shrank back to normal size and carried the body off. A large red eel lumbered along in front of the Pioneers, its body dotted with yellow eyes that swiveled nauseatingly in an attempt to keep track of its surroundings.

  These were just a few of the many strange life forms that swam around them as the Pioneers traversed the ocean shallows. The sheer quantity of Zeta class fish was enough to make them nervous, though most fish chose to ignore them or swim out of their way. While they outmatched any of these things individually, the Pioneers would be in trouble if the fish suddenly decided to attack them en masse. Even ants could bring down a tiger if there were enough of them. That said, the Pioneers had an ace of their own:

  “SCRAM”, Lieutenant Korta’s voice boomed out, slightly distorted by the water but more than clear enough to carry the message. Daniel watched as the Lieutenant glowed with power, and the fish scattered like their lives depended on it. Soon, their squad was surrounded by nothing more than open ocean and a few tall stocks of purple-green seaweed. The other teams had also grown further off into the distance, and Korta seemed to come to a decision. He turned to the Colare and Daniel expectantly, saying: “Now would be the time for a scouting report, you two. If you please.”

  Daniel ignored the pompous lilt at the last part of that statement while typing into a dialogue box open on his HUD. In response, his Codex began to glow a familiar white.

  Daniel had learned a lot about the Archangel System from the schematic Nuntius had given him. It had four total Protocols, each possessing its own unique functions. Daniel had only used the Protocol dedicated to single combat, Makiel, but the System could do much more than that. Crucially, he could call upon one function of each Protocol without fully activating them, just like when he’d summoned the Heavenly Armament to process the Goliath’s corpse. He needed to type his commands to Nuntius, but beyond that a minor restriction, Daniel now had four bonus abilities in his back pocket. This was one of them:

  Manifesting Oculus Mundi

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  In a sensation that was difficult to explain, Daniel was suddenly able to ‘sense’ everything around here. It wasn’t like the Hunter’s Domain, where he had a detailed sight of everything. It was more like a sonar, where he could ‘see’ the allies surrounding him like blips of white light on a screen. The ‘sonar’ spread out in a ripple across the surface of the water, moving across the Ocean in an enormous area. The other Imperial Pioneers were represented with blue dots, and the fish moving near the surface were yellow. Oculus Mundi could operate in three dimensions, but its range could be expanded by focusing on just two. It kept going, eating up countless kilometers of the ocean’s surface, giving Daniel a broader and broader view. Eventually, it began to peter out as it reached the end of its range, but before it did, Daniel saw something.

  It might be worth taking the time here to explain things fully. Daniel had given the Empire doctored footage of himself obtaining an Integrated Technology from the Aeterna facility. In the footage, he’d stumbled upon a multipurpose device that possessed the four bonus abilities the System granted Daniel without calling on the Protocols directly. Nothing else. That device was what the Imperium saw when it looked at his stats. It was good, though not special enough to draw too much attention. Or so Daniel hoped. He could have just tried to hide the System totally, but this way would allow him to use these abilities openly. A full cover-up would have been more difficult.

  He could have used this strategy with the Kharnidd dossier, but that would call far too much attention upon him and facility 749. Finding Morphic stones and Integrated Tech in these facilities was unremarkable in the grand scheme of things. A crucial piece of military intelligence was another story and would provoke copious amounts of further investigation. Avoiding that was worth the extra secrecy.

  The long and the short of it was that Daniel’s CO knew he had a scouting ability, without knowing about the System in its totality. The Colare, whose name was Reginald, had a Psionic Capacity that did something similar. His three eyes glowed purple as the flying cone searched the ocean alongside Daniel. He was the first to give up, eyes dimming as the alien gave an annoyed grunt: “No luck, Blakta. I see a gaggle o’ homo sapiens, some slipp’ry li’tl Xenos, and a heckuva lotta watah. No Rep tincan to be found.”

  Korta looked irritated at the report: “Can you translate that into the human tongue, Xenos?”

  The Colare bristled at that. Using Xenos to describe sapient non-humans was an aggressive slur. Furthermore, the Colare was speaking Human—just a heavily accented version. Before Reggie could retort, one of the other squadmates chimed in: “Um, sir? I believe Sergeant Reginald is saying that there is no Republican ship in sight. Also, Blakta means ‘boss’.”

  Korta still looked cross, but he nodded: “Very well. And Hardgrave? Did you find anything?”

  Daniel frowned a bit before responding: “It’s fuzzy, but I sensed something unusual on the surface of the water, northeast from here. It could be debris.”

  That was exactly what Daniel was looking for. Debris from the crash that had remained the surface. Korta raised an eyebrow: “Are you certain?”

  When Daniel shook his head, Korta said, “Then we’ll keep heading north. You can check again in a few hours when we’re closer. Squad, equip your Oceanglides.”

  As ordered, the Pioneers pulled out their underwater maneuverability devices. The Oceanglide was a motorized, handheld device designed to improve travel time in the water. It worked with their swimming, allowing the Pioneers to travel at high speeds. Everyone manifested the blue-and-white devices, and they were soon on their way.

  They soon left the shallows behind them, the island's shore totally disappearing as they moved out into the open ocean. The endless blue and the blackness below were disturbing to gaze at for too long. The high-pitched cries of an unknown sea creature reverberated hauntingly from somewhere out of sight, adding to their sense of unease in the face of the ocean’s vastness. Daniel considered keeping his head forward and trying to drown everything out, but he didn’t have the luxury to do even that. He was practically begging for an ambush if he didn’t keep his head on a swivel. The low hum of his Oceanglide was one of the few comforts that helped keep him calm.

  Eventually, they got far enough for Korta’s liking, and he called for another scouting report. This time, Daniel was close enough to confirm things. The little green blips he could see in his mind’s eye were, in fact, chunks of metal floating on the water’s surface. Reggie gave him a strange look, inquiring skeptically: “I still don’ see nothin’. Ye sure ‘bout this?”

  Daniel nodded, confident in the System’s power. The debris was thousands of kilometers away, and everyone groaned when he told them as much. Command didn’t know exactly where this thing was, so they’d just dropped the Pioneers on the most suitable island within range of their best estimates. They could have dropped the pods into the ocean, but that would make them more likely to be tampered with by the local marine life. The far distance of the debris meant that it was well outside the range of Reggie’s scouting ability. Not so for the System. An impressive feat, yet not so obscene that it would raise too many eyebrows.

  The squad chose to put their faith in Daniel’s tech, turning and making a beeline for the waypoint he’d set. As they moved, however, something felt a little off. Daniel’s spine started tingling uncomfortably, and he was immediately on alert. Lieutenant Korta’s following command confirmed his fears: “Watch out below!”

  Daniel expanded his Hunter’s Domain just in time to see the open jaws spearing up at him from the depths.