Emily opened her eyes with a violent gasp. Leaping up, she went from lying down to a combat stance in a heartbeat. Sea green eyes darted around as she gathered her bearings, manifesting dual punch-daggers and holding them in a ready stance. She took in the other Pioneers apprehensively, gears turning behind her eyes as she processed everything. A tall man with a scar across his face stepped forward, his voice low and calming as he held up his hands, their palms out in a universal sign of peace: “Easy there. We’re friends. Right, everyone?”

  He got some grunts and hisses of agreement from the others. Some of the tension released from Emily’s shoulders, though she didn’t lower her weapons before responding: “I suppose you gentlemen are from the Imperium?”

  The soldiers responded with more affirming noises. The scarred man pointed at one of the Forsica: “Leka’s a woman, actually, but we’re all from the Imperium, yeah.”

  The lizard person in question twiddled her fingers in response, giving a grin that was meant to be friendly. The sharp fangs it revealed made it come off as predatory instead, though Emily suppressed her shiver and gave a small smile back: “Well, it’s nice to meet all of you. I’d also like to meet the armored person who saved me.”

  That provoked looks of confusion for most of the Imperials, however Emily noted a quick flash of concern across the scarred man’s face. Before anyone could say anything else, a flash of energy overhead drew all their attention. It felt like a massive buildup of Psionic particles, like the kind that came from extremely powerful Psionic Capacities. All Enhanced had a natural sense for this sort of thing, which increased as their Adaptability increased:

  “What was that?” A bald, lanky white man muttered, stroking the short beard on his chin.

  A large black man rumbled out his reply quickly: “That had to be a Gamma Class Capacity or higher. Either one of our Republican contemporaries has broken the rules, or…”

  The scarred faced man finished his sentence: “Or the Kharnidd sent one of their more powerful enforcers to deal with us. My scan back at the ship picked up the Gamma Class above us. It was a Kharnidd. I should have scanned for more detail earlier!”

  He said this with some frustration, apparently blaming himself for the failure. The large man quickly clapped him on the shoulder in reassurance, saying: “You were saving resources. Your quick thinking got us out of that mess. You deserve praise, not condemnation.”

  The scarred man didn’t look totally convinced, but he did reluctantly accept the praise. The next to speak up after that was a blue-eyed man with curly, chestnut colored hair: “So, what’s the plan then? Got any other brilliant ideas?”

  The scarred man answered back: “My Integrated Tech is Aeterna-designed Meta Tech. It did something to interface with this facility’s systems, and now it’s getting a map of the whole place. If there’s another exit, it’ll find it.”

  His eyes lit up as he spoke, apparently focused on something no one else could see: “Speak of the devil, I just got the full map. There’s another moonpool a decent distance from here. We can escape from there.”

  His excitement was suddenly dampened, brow creasing in a slight frown: “Speak of another devil. Did you guys see that message from Lieutenant Korta?”

  There were a few affirmative murmurs in response. The scarred man turned toward Emily, speaking for her benefit: “We are to stay where we are and await the rest of our team’s arrival. They’re coming to the facility.”

  Everyone’s demeanor changed in the wake of that message, turning grim at the mention of their CO. Emily sympathized. Looks like she wasn’t the only one with a questionable boss. Though, Albori was probably dead now.

  The thought actually caused Emily to wince for a moment. Not because she mourned the loss of Lieutenant, but because she suddenly realized that his death could cause problems for her and Cecillia. She wouldn’t have been able to save him. She’d only been saved herself thanks to a last-minute helper. And yet, his death would be her issue.

  She took a quick breath. That was a matter for another day. For now, she’d have to focus on getting out of this mess. It sounded like she’d have to follow these Imperials if she wanted to do that, but Emily wasn’t sure where she stood with them. She locked eyes with the scarred faced man and he gave her a grin: “You’re welcome to come with us, miss…?”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Emily. Emily Silica.”

  He held out a hand and she took it. It was rough and surprisingly warm, considering the circumstances: “Daniel Hardgrave. My friends call me Danny.”

  He then introduced all the other men to her as well. Once Daniel had done that, Emily got back to her original topic: “So, about that man-“

  She was cut off by a subtle shake of Daniel’s head. She got the hint fully when he gave her a quick wink and quickly amended her sentence: “Never mind. Thank you for letting me come with you.”

  “No problem.”, Daniel responded

  With that settled, they all chose to sit down and wait. After many long hours of swimming and fighting, the opportunity to rest on solid ground was heavenly. Daniel felt his spine popping as he leaned against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief at the release of tension. He looked up and saw Emily walking over. She sat against the wall a little off to his right, staring ahead and letting a brief pause stretch out, before learning over and whispering: “Thanks for the rescue.”

  …

  Hars descended further into the gloomy dark of the ocean, the water frothing around It as It’s fall accelerated. It noticed a few, one-eyed Leviathan’s swimming around below, but they scattered the moment they saw It. Smart fish. Hars continued uninterrupted.

  It laid eyes on the large, crashed ship first, taking in its dimensions before crushing yet another scouting bead. It saw a smattering of targets in the tunnels nearby, but none in the ship. Further away, within the underwater basin, the remainder of its minions were cleaning up the last of some human targets. Unfortunately, One Greater Thrall and Six Lessers were all that remained of Its subordinates. An inconvenience, yet fighters at that level were expendable. It moved first to deal with the fallen ship. Another beam attack would take care of this problem, but It had a more subtle option.

  Reaching out with two hands, the whole structure began to glow green at the edges. Flexing Its metaphysical muscles, It Overclocked the Telekinesis. With a subtle thrum, the green light grew stronger, bright, bathing the underwater cavern in an emerald glow. The structure crumpled in a shriek of twisting metal, the whole thing imploding inward in a cloud of dust and bubbles. It shrunk and shrunk until it was the size of a small building, before floating over to the Kharnidd. Hars stored the metal in Its dimensional storage. It would examine and destroy the remainder at a later date.

  The Thralls had swum over to Hars, heads bowed low as they awaited further instruction. It turned toward them: “Report”

  The Thralls told it of all that had transpired, but only one particular tidbit of information was really relevant. Some of the humans had been investigating the shipwreck before they had arrived. Those same humans had escaped to the tunnels around them. There was a possibility that they had found something of interest in their investigations. However small that chance was, Hars would need to tie up any loose ends before It left. Not to mention the need to investigate that strange energy It had felt earlier.

  Turning, Hars floated over to the entrance of one of the tunnels, Thralls in tow

  …

  Lieutenant Marko Korta and the six remaining men under his command swam through the underground tunnel at high speeds. They’d needed to dodge a few stalks of Luxamar plants, but they’d faced no meaningful obstacles beyond that. The Pioneers soon made it to the entrance to the underwater moonpool, swimming through the opening and breaking the water’s surface in the subterranean facility. Korta swam to the edge, getting out and cracking his neck twice before coldly surveying the other Pioneers in the wide-open room. They got up in response, ending their rest and saluting their leader. Korta’s next order was terse and uncompromising: “Report”

  Arnold was technically the highest ranking of the group of eight Imperials, so he was the first to step forward and give a full account of everything. Korta’s eyes flickered to Daniel when Arnold went over his role in leading this group to safety before looking back at Arnold. There was something strange about that man’s behavior. Korta would have to look into it later. For now, he had something else to take care of. His gaze locked onto the Republican woman. Arnold had told him her name, but he’d tuned it out.

  There was no point in learning about a walking dead person.

  He strode around Arnold approaching the woman with an unhurried pace. He would not permit such a liability to travel with them, and High Command would have no problem with him euthanizing a Terran dog. He saw the light of fear flicker on in her eyes and watched as her body coiled in preparation to run. He wouldn’t allow that. Drawing his sword, Korta rocketed forward in a perfectly executed stab. The point of his sword was millimeters from taking her in the chest before it was knocked of course.

  Korta’s eyes widened as he watched his strike get deflected by Daniel Hardgrave, the young man’s face a rictus of anger as he swung his flaming blade into Korta’s sword. The Lieutenant’s weapon was thoroughly tempered Blacksteel, but Korta was shocked to watch as it melted on contact. But he hadn’t reached his current strength for nothing. Immediately, Korta manifested one of his clones and had it lung at the younger man. The edge of Daniel’s blade changed color, the tips of its tongues of white fire quickly shifting to a brilliant yellow. Korta’s eyes widened as Daniel destroyed his clone with a single mighty swing. That was a Gamma Class clone! Destroying it in one hit with a Delta Class ability should be impossible.

  Fortunately, Korta’s surprise didn’t hinder his follow up attack. His horizontal kick took the man right in the side, sending Daniel flying into the side of the chamber’s wall. Korta had just reached high-grade Delta. An Epsilon couldn’t compare, even one with high class Attributes. Korta dismissed his ruined sword and withdrew a golden rapier, pointing it at Daniel and preparing to finish the treacherous swine off. He was interrupted by a slew of blaster bolts coming from his left. Emily had manifested her weapon and was firing upon him from a relatively close range. Those shots probably wouldn’t be lethal, but they would do damage if he allowed them to make contact. With a flourish, Korta deflected the incoming fire with his new sword, turning his attention to this other nuisance. The weapon shone yellow as it fired off a beam of light in her direction, which she surprisingly managed to dodge. Her skin glowed with its own light as she ducked and slid through a few of the bolts he sent her way, but Korta knew it wouldn’t last. One of his beams had already scorched a line in her leg on a very narrow miss, and it was only a matter of seconds before he scored the fatal blow.

  Korta gave a half smile as he made her dance. He could have summoned another clone, but playing with his food was rather fun. Just as things were reaching their climax, he suddenly had an overwhelming feeling of danger.

  Then, he got hit.