“What do you mean, he used the teleporter? How did he even know that a teleportation formation was set up?” Pall’Eth was irate, pacing back and forth about the room as his mobile desk spun and whirred.
“We don’t know, sir,” the goblin said, each breath still painful due to his cracked ribs. “He seemed to move straight for it, almost as though he’d been there before.”
Pall’Eth spat on the ground. “As if it’s not enough that he’s working with the Resistance, he also has help on the inside. What leads do you have, Delronor?”
“None, sir,” Delronor wheezed. “Preliminary investigations haven’t revealed anything unusual. The guards rotated as normal, nobody new has been added to the rotation in months. The door itself was destroyed, but it looks like the arm only went off moments before he escaped.”
“When was the st reported access?” Pall’Eth asked.
Delronor inhaled, then had a painful coughing fit before responding. “Apologies, sir. Records show the st access was 837 days ago, with the door having remained sealed per instruction since. Other than the mess made by the Courier, the room looked to be in a condition consistent with such a long time undisturbed.”
Pall’Eth leaned forward, eyes intense. “And you’re certain that nothing else was taken? Nothing is out of pce?”
“As certain as we can be, sir. Is there something in particur you’re concerned about? We can get an inventory done.” Delronor’s expression belied some anxiety as he spoke, his gaze fixed on Pall’Eth’s focused expression. Fortunately, the answer seemed to pcate the Counselor.
“That won’t be necessary, Delronor. We’ll need to have a more thorough review of the access logs in any case. There’s something we’re missing here, I’m sure of it. We need to find the traitor in our midst, and have them dealt with,” Pall’Eth said.
Delronor saluted. “Understood, sir. Should we prepare a party to pursue? Unfortunately many of the guards were injured, but we could put a force together….”
Pall’Eth shook his head. “There’s no need for that. That teleporter leads far, far away. And from what I’ve heard of the creatures that inhabit those nds, it is unlikely we’ll see the Courier again. If we do, we will have plenty of time to prepare. No, the most important thing now is to locate the rats among us and have them expunged.”
“Yes, sir!” Delronor said, before leaving the room.
Once alone with his thoughts, Pall’Eth let out a sigh of relief. The room with the teleporter also housed hundreds of old records and research notes from the former king. Many of these notes were in reference to the aberrant experiments he’d run, and were only kept around as proof of his atrocities. Other notes, however, were older.
One such tome gave detailed expnations and information about shrikes; their habits, their skills, and most importantly, notes on how to control him. Notes that he and his colleagues read 837 days ago as part of their pn to overcome the Resistance. If they’d gone missing, the list of potential traitors would have narrowed, but the risks would have grown. He pulled out a small flute from a hidden pocket in his jacket, admiring the ancient relic. So long as knowledge of this artifact was hidden, he still had an ace up his sleeve.
~~~
There was no sign of the tower. No screams echoed, no pursuers could be seen. Kyle looked about, standing in the middle of a ruined stone structure. Warm sunlight shone down on him, and he could feel a gentle breeze.
“Where are we?” Kyle asked, mostly to himself.
[I AM NOT SURE HOW YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW THAT, DR. MAYHEW.]
“It was rhetorical, C.H.A.D.D.”
Kyle looked about, trying to get a better sense of the world around them. The surrounding rubble was almost reminiscent of Earth after the camity, except for the stone here was mostly dark granite rather than the mixed building material on Earth. Moss and vines grew over much of the stonework, and as he climbed over a particurly rge block, he saw what could only be described as a war-torn battlefield.
Once, he could have easily pictured rolling hills rising over a lush wetnd, dotted with vibrant trees and grasses. Now, however, deep gouges dotted the nd. Fallen trees were littered all around the area like broken toothpicks. Impact craters were visible among the destruction, remnants of some long-past conflict. At the center of it all stood the ruins of the structure where Kyle found himself. What was this pce?
“C.H.A.D.D., what do your scans show you?”
[THE AREA APPEARS TO BE SAFE, DR. MAYHEW. LONG RANGE SCANS INDICATE TRACES OF MORE POWERFUL LIFE, BUT THEY ARE MANY KILOMETERS AWAY. WHILE THE STRUCTURE WE ARE IN DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE ANYTHING LIVING, THERE IS A SUBSTRUCTURE THAT APPEARS TO BE WARDED.]
“How far away is the entrance?” Kyle asked.
[NOT FAR, THOUGH IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO ENTER. CONTRARY TO THE ROOM IN THE TOWER, THE WARDS ON THIS DOOR APPEAR TO BE OF D-GRADE MAKE.]
Kyle nodded, considering his options. Nobody else appeared yet, which led him to believe that the guards in Er’Mithren were hesitant to follow. That made sense, considering that there was no easy way for them to return. Of course, there was also the chance that they were simply waiting to gather their forces, in which case a small army could arrive at any time.
If they did, the worst thing Kyle could do was to find himself trapped in another narrow area. He was supremely confident in his ability to outrun and evade the D Grade force he’d seen in the tower, but that didn’t extend to him being trapped within the confines of a subterranean tunnel system. He was curious, and intended to come back to learn more, but for now he wanted to get somewhere safe to observe and make a pn.
“We’ll come back once things have settled down a bit,” Kyle said. “In the meantime, did your scans show anywhere nearby that could make a good shelter?”
[SEVERAL, DR. MAYHEW. I’VE MARKED THEM ON YOUR MAP.]
The map that C.H.A.D.D. deployed lit up with several bright nodes. Choosing the nearest one, he climbed over some nearby debris and set a course. The location C.H.A.D.D. marked was a small crevice inside one of the impact craters, sheltered from the sunlight and elements. Not that he was particurly concerned, given the sun’s soon departure beneath the horizon.
That, of course, brought up the other major issue. Kyle had no idea where they were. Based on the retive position of the sun, they were clearly somewhere distant, but Kyle didn’t really have a solid grasp of the pnet’s geography. With C.H.A.D.D.’s retive mapping abilities near-useless after being teleported, there was no easy way to know which direction they needed to go in order to get back to either Resistance territory or to the capitol.
Coupled with the loss of the teleportation formation on top of the tower, Kyle was stuck. The Verdant Republic and Courier’s Guild could work out an extraction pn, given time. Unfortunately, that time would likely be measured in months. He still hadn’t heard back from Suierrilx, and with communications taking this long, he could only imagine how much more difficult it would be to coordinate an extraction. Doubly so when he considered all of the bureaucratic challenges of working with the Verdant Republic.
He thought about all of these problems as he crested a small hill nearby, spotting the crevice that C.H.A.D.D. market for him. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, though once he settled in on the ground it wasn’t too bad. He pulled some rations out of his pack, and started making a list of his possible options. Don’t make hasty decisions, he admonished himself.
First, he could create a base camp nearby, and hunker down until he heard back from Suierrilx. It was probably the safest option avaible to him, though it also likely brought the worst outcomes. He would be little more than a liability in need of rescue, and Kyle was under no illusions about how that would be received. Even with all the extenuating circumstances, it wasn’t likely that potential employers would look at his work so far as a success. In fact, the Verdant Republic would take the cost of his rescue out of his credits.
His second option would be to try and make his way back to the Resistance. The job could still be salvaged if D’Oillet stepped in and took leadership, and he felt confident that introducing her to the Verdant Republic would be a major win for him, even if there were still unknowns about getting them to join the Republic officially. Naturally, the issue with this pn was that he had no way to find his way back to the Resistance.
He could also do the same, but return to Er’Mithren. That option was dismissed almost immediately, because he couldn’t see an outcome that didn’t result in innocent bloodshed. Lots of it. No, if he returned to Er’Mithren, he would need to have a pn to cut through the fanaticism. Pall’Eth seemed to be at the root of it, somehow, and given that the man had plenty of time to let the negative sentiment fester, it would be foolish to go back without a pn. He had no issues with Pall’Eth facing retribution, but he wanted to leave as many others people out of it as possible.
His final option was much like the first. Rather than stay and wait for extraction, he could begin exploring this side of the pnet. The risk to this type of pn were rgely unknown, though he could admit that it could make him more difficult to track when an extraction team arrived. On the other hand, it could also allow him and C.H.A.D.D. to make the most of their time left on the pnet. He had no idea if shrikes existed on this part of the world, but he was happy to search and find out.
He took a while longer to ponder other choices as his mana slowly replenished, but every other idea he came up with seemed to boil back down to one of his initial 4. Twilight was in full swing outside, and the retive quiet proved to be strangely peaceful.
With a sigh, Kyle stretched, looking to the pack resting on the ground nearby. “C.H.A.D.D., what am I missing?”
He and C.H.A.D.D. discussed the options at length, but he knew it wouldn’t hurt to review it all with his companion.
[I THINK WE HAVE DISCUSSED THE OPTIONS SUFFICIENTLY, DR. MAYHEW.]
“And what would you do?” Kyle pressed.
[EXPLORATION SEEMS TO BE THE WISEST CHOICE, DR. MAYHEW. FROM WHAT WE HAVE OBSERVED, YOUR LEVEL OF STRENGTH IS ABOVE AVERAGE FOR THIS PLANET. ASSUMING YOU AVOID ENCOUNTERING ANY MORE C GRADES, THERE COULD BE UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES FOR BOTH OF US.]
Kyle smiled at the drone’s words. He knew that C.H.A.D.D. was hoping for more unique pnts to add to its collection, always greedy to expand its archive. Still, Kyle agreed. Making the most of a bad situation was part of being a Guild operator, after all. If he could find something unique to bring back, he might be able to avert a bit of the backsh from the job’s failure.
Stretching, he settled down on the ground. Kyle had a pn, and tomorrow morning he would begin exploring his new surroundings. For now, he pulled out the spatial disk Jarberry lent him and pulled out his tomes.
If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that he needed to keep getting stronger. Kyle never expected an existence like the Scourge to attack them like it did. He could only imagine what other threats were lurking, not just on Er’Mithren, but across the broader universe. Threats he would need real power to contend with. So, as the light faded beyond the horizon, he focused as he opened the first tome and got to work.
