title: Enigmatic Extraction - A Scavengers Tale aliases: [] tags: [FA] author: [AnotherDangerNoodle] id: [39191962] date: 星期五, 八月 26日 2022, 10:48:43 上午 modified: 星期一, 八月 29日 2022, 2:38:18 下午
[TOC]
Enigmatic Extraction - A Scavengers Tale
Author: AnotherDangerNoodle Source: Enigmatic Extraction - A Scavengers Tale
The team started sixty strong. Now there’s only six... and that’s after me and my brother were brought in. Such was the way of life as a scavenger, I was told. With great risk came great rewards, but if you tried to take more than you could handle, you paid the ultimate price.
Stars dominated the view from the windows as our flight bore towards the FTL gateway. This was the first time I, Uri Rondin, would be diving into the depths of the void for untold treasures and deadly threats. Not like I had much of a choice. My brother, Kent, was desperate for a particular rifle he saw in the market, allegedly the last of its kind. Pure bullshit to anyone even vaguely aware of how these marketplaces were run. But he bought it, no questions asked, and then had the audacity to be shocked by the loan he signed. I wanted to choke him out before the clans got to him, but he was my brother and, begrudgingly, took up my own arms to help him out.
That was my first mistake; my second was letting him pick what scavenger team to join. Naturally, he went for the biggest prize available for us rookies. The extraction of an AI core unit. I’ve heard of these ancient, sentient machines in stories told at bars before, so I was no stranger to their existence. This one, I was told, would be harrowing as an optimistic outlook. Few made it into the core units. Even fewer returned. All of them empty-handed.
My thoughts were distracted by a familiar sound. I turned my head and, sure enough, Kent was bragging to a grizzled veteran about his so-called accomplishments.
Don’t get me wrong, Kent had the fight of one of the big folk, but his claims can get to be a bit outlandish. For instance: “And one time I wrestled an indigo basilisk with my bare hands! Had to be about... as long as this room!” he said as he pointed to the end of the ship’s common room.
As the big old veteran gave him a confused look, I grabbed my brother’s shoulder and pushed him aside, feigning a smile and hearty chuckle. “Ahah, forgive him, sir, he can embellish the truth a little bit. What actually happened was that he jumped on top of one about half his size and held on while it thrashed him about. Ended up walking away with three broken ribs.”
The veteran glanced over at my brother, who rubbed the back of his neck, and shook his head. “You two will do well to learn that scavenging is not a job for kids. Take it from me.” He glanced at a female mercenary who briskly walked between us, approaching a locker to retrieve something. “You’re aware of the circumstances of our team, correct?”
“I am, yes, sir,” I nodded.
“We lost half our team the first mission because some rookies didn’t believe the rumors and got too cocky, and the rest we lost in a collapsing derelict. I’d rather not have the same things happen this time, especially since this is an AI we’re dealing with.”
The other mercenary nodded and pointed to the veteran. “Listen to him,” she told us as she left as quickly and as quietly as she walked in.
“I am.” I muttered. Part of me was beginning to think we... I’m sorry, Kent , had gotten ourselves into something we were not prepared to handle. Flustered, I brushed my hands over my head and through my hair.
My brother, meanwhile, had a different view on this. “An AI, huh?” he said. “I’ve always wanted to see one up close. I hope they’re just like the stories I’ve heard.”
“That depends on which one you’re talking about. There’s at least a dozen in known space, probably dozens more unknown. This one’s a little interesting, though.
Unpredictable, shameless, mean... but at least it can be bargained with.”
I looked up. “And we’re looking to get a core compute unit, right? Those aren’t easy to come by.”
The veteran gave me a thumbs-up. “Right and right. Glad to see a rookie that actually knows how to read. You might have some potential.”
“Th-thank you, sir,” I blushed, suddenly hot-headed. “Though with all due respect, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for a certain someone...” I glared at Kent.
He pointed back. “Hey! You said you wanted to come with because you didn’t want me to be alone!”
“You’d get yourself killed or even worse! You may be an idiot but you’re family-”
The veteran clapped, interrupting our argument. “Alright, kids, settle down now!
Don’t want you at each others’ throats before we even get there.”
We lowered our heads in shame and sighed. “Sorry, sir,” we apologized at the same time.
“Heh, you two really are siblings. Wish I had a brother or sister in arms...” he backed in to seat himself on a bench along the opposite wall. “Name’s Gungrin, by the by. Or at least that’s what people call me. And as of today I’m third in command of our team.”
“Third?” Kent gasped. “Why third?”
“Technically I’m the other lead, but one of the big folk’s a little loose and the other is his reigns. They’re nowhere near as experienced as me, but they get the job done.”
Gungrin tossed his leg over his opposite knee and leaned back. “Now’s the time to tell me who you two are. I’m already aware you’re brothers.”
“Right, uh...” I backed into my original seat. “I’m Uri Rondin, and that’s my brother Kent.”
Gungrin cocked an eyebrow when I mentioned my surname. “Rondin, huh? I think I met a Rondin back in the shell world of Tukrah. Y’wouldn’t happen to be related to a ‘Yancy’ Rondin, would you?”
“Cousin Yancy?” Kent piped up, stepping closer to the veteran. “When was this?
How’s he doing?”
“Hell if I know, kid. He was a merchant in a marketplace selling tunics or something. I saw a nametag and didn’t think of it until now.”
“Sounds like him, alright...”
Our conversation was interrupted by an intercom chime, and a Passeur-accented voice came through. “We are now accessing the gateway. Please remain seated until we arrive.”
“Oh boy, I can’t wait!” Kent scrambled over to sit next to me, whipping his head around to watch as our vessel fell in line with the enormous FTL endpoint.
Gungrin didn’t like his odds of success with a bare minimal crew that included two siblings on their very first mission. Normally he’d have new recruits start out in a safer job, something like cutting out megastructure alloys or recon a crashed ship for the whereabouts of a previous scouting party. This was just their final stop on a series of risky missions for the guild’s matriarch, and the last thing he wanted was to piss her off.
A giant black-furred wolf in heavy plating sighed, frustrated, upon hearing who their new cohorts were and what they were like. “Damnit all,” he grumbled. “The AI was expected to be the most difficult mission. Over fifty bodies short and our bandage is a pair of two clueless rookies.”
“Who knows? Maybe they might work out...” Gungrin tapped his finger against the balcony railing. “Either way, I’m not returning to Raz without something from this mission.”
“Is that a call you ’re making or is that a call to possibly save our collective tails?”
“Yes.”
Across from the wolf sat a tall tigress in lighter clothing, a sheathed knife to either side of her chest and a rifle slung over her back. “Were there really no other options available?”
“In our time frame?” Gungrin shook his head. “Doubtful. Out of all the views it had, those were the only applicants by the time we arrived at port. Most people just aren’t cut out for this line of work.”
“Please tell me they at least have some kind of skills to them?” the wolf begged.
“You’re in luck. One of them actually has brains, and the other is reckless but bold.”
He glared and sighed. “Fuckin’ hell, this’ll be the death of us...”
“How long before we’re docked at this death trap?” the tigress asked.
“The Passeur pilots say eight minutes. It’ll at least give you plenty of time to pray to your ancestors for the strength to power through this...” Gungrin took a step back from the balcony and marched towards the exit. “Everyone make sure your equipment is in working order. I’ll be right back.”
As the veteran man stepped through the next set of doors, he spotted the only other human mercenary and waved her over. “Need me for something, Grin?”
“You still got those maps of the place, right?”
“I do, but they’re incomplete-”
“That’s fine, get them and meet me in the map room.”
Gungrin breezed right past her and descended a flight of stairs. With no other choice, she continued her ascent to fetch the required materials.
At the landing, Uri and Kent were discussing something between themselves. The conversation stopped the moment Gungrin was upon them. “Come with me, boys.
There’s something you’ll need to know.”
The brothers nodded and stood up to follow the veteran. Through another door was a large room with two tables each with a holographic map on display. One of them was that of the close-range sensors, while the other had a loadout of the whole ship and its occupants. Kent continued to watch Gungrin do his thing, while Uri was more drawn to the ship map. What appeared to be the cargo bay was the seating section for the two big folk that were with them. The brothers were loaded into the vessel before they had a chance to see their giant teammates. They can’t be that big, can they? Uri thought to himself.
“Gentlemen!” Gungrin snapped.
Uri’s attention was taken from the vessel’s scans and locked right on to that of his more seasoned explorer. “Y-yes, sir!”
The man sighed. “I’m not going to sugar-coat this for you two. This is way too much for a team as small as ours to be making this kind of run. But everything will go smoothly if you heed our advice and do as you’re told. Do I make myself clear? (The brothers nodded.) Good. Now, the first piece of advice I’m going to give you is don’t get cocky. I’ve lost far too many overly ambitious rookies to shit like that. Your stupid actions could do more than just get you killed.
“The second piece of advice is to watch your back. We can’t all be covering our own blind spots at all times, so teamwork here is key. Something could very easily nab stragglers and no one else would be any wiser. Third and final thing is, don’t take what you don’t need. This is a survival mission as much as it is a tresure hunt. Do not let greed burden you.”
“Y-Yes, sir,” Uri nodded.
“Question, Gungrin?” Kent raised his hand.
“What’s your question, boy?” Gungrin glared.
“What kind of treasure will we find?”
Uri facepalmed. “Damnit, Kent, did you not hear what Gungrin literally just told us?”
“I’m just curious-”
“Enough!” Gungrin raised his voice, silencing both brothers, before leaning forward through the table’s projection to glare at Kent right into his eyes. “In case you didn’t realize, boy, there are only six of us for a job normally meant for a crew with ten times the manpower. We’re getting nothing more than what we agreed to get. If you get greedy, you will die. Do I make myself clear now?”
“Yes, alright, geez...” Kent threw his hands up. “I don’t need repeating.”
By now, the woman returned with a large metallic capsule-like device with a plug on one end. Gungrin relaxed from his gaze on the ‘dimmer’ of the two rookies, accepted the device from her, and waved for her to stay by his side. “Boys, this is Dart. She’ll be doing a majority of the heavy lifting getting in.”
“Why are you called ‘Dart’?” Kent asked.
“Classified,” the woman replied, not missing a beat. “Now, who wants to see an AI complex?”
As Gungrin loaded the data from the device to the projector table, Uri glanced over at Kent. “ You have lost your speaking privileges,” he whispered through gritted teeth.
The map finally loaded and up popped a maze-like structure that appeared to look more like a mashing of cubes than a distinct facility designed for a specific purpose.
“Sorry, boss,” she explained, “I only have the path leading to the central terminal.”
“Good enough,” Gungrin nodded, then pointed to a corner at the far end. “We’ll be dropped off and picked up here, and once we’re in we’re heading straight for the central terminal.” He pointed to the complete opposite end. “If we stay along this path, we won’t trigger any of the facility’s defenses.”
“Forgive me for asking, sir,” Uri spoke up, “but if this is supposed to be a difficult mission, why are we making our way to the most vulnerable and guarded place in there?”
“You would think that, but this AI isn’t as far gone as a few of their brethren. This one can actually be reasoned with. We give it something it wants, it’ll hopefully give something that we want.”
“And how do we do that?”
Dart spoke up. “We entertain it. These AI go untouched for years at a time, and who knows how long they’ve actually been online. Thousands... probably tens of thousands of years. After a while, it starts to get lonely and its personality can degenerate. Imagine living for thousands of years inside a house that you can’t leave, and your only form of contact with anything beyond that is a random stranger that pops in once every couple of years to rob you of a little bit of your brain. That’s basically what we’re doing.”
“And it’ll let us have a little bit of its brain if we tell it a couple of jokes?”
Dart shook her head. “Of course not. They know how valuable their hardware is to us.
That’s why we’re gonna be taking one while it’s distracted.”
“The moment it sees us taking one of its cores,” Gungrin added, “we’re gonna be overrun by more defense drones than a swarm of flies in a jungle. That’s what a sixty -
man crew is supposed to be for: fighting off the defenses while the core is carried off. I hope I don’t have to explain to you what that means.”
“I know perfectly well, sir.”
“Can we-”
Uri mashed his boot against his brother’s toes, silencing him. “What would you like for us to do, Gungrin?”
The man grinned. “Well, considering how chatty you two are, I think it’ll be for the best that we put you in front of the AI when we get to the central terminal. The rest of us will handle the specifics.”
“Can do, sir.”
“W-wait-”
As Kent tried to interject, Uri pulled him along. “We’ll get ready for it, then. C’mon, Kent.”
The brothers soon left Gungrin and Dart’s sight, letting out a collective sigh of cautious relief. “I’ll go up front to watch our approach,” Gungrin told her. “Keep an eye on the two, would you? That one named Kent especially. I’m worried he’s gonna start something with Seberno and Scars.”
“Right away,” Dart nodded. “See you when we get there.”
Gungrin watched the scavenger lady take her leave before turning around and exiting through the other door, which led to the flight deck. Three men, one significantly older than the other two, gazed out at the mess that was the surrounding debris field, filled with mostly asteroids save for the occasional wreckage of ships predating their own arrival. Beyond it was the vague shape of a truly enormous and complex space derelict. “Alright, boys,” the older of the three directed, “you’re almost clear for the final approach. Keep an eye out for large debris.”
“Yes, father,” they nodded in unison.
Despite their whole view turning right before them, Gungrin felt nothing. Their flight had been nothing but smooth this entire time. The older of the three men, who appeared older than even Gungrin, glanced back and gave the veteran a smile of his own. “Magnificent, aren’t they?”
“They got us through hell and back before, Slip,” he agreed, “so I’m not worried about them.”
“It’s your emergency replacements, isn’t it?”
“You could call it that...”
“I figured. I couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation. Forgive the intrusion.”
Gungrin gave the elder Passeur an acknowledging nod. “I’ve got a lot riding on this.”
“You’re telling me. Six people total for an AI scavenge? Less successful teams have had more than that in big folk alone. Why not spend the time to build a more qualified team?”
“The problem with that is Raz. When she took control of Star Diamond, she always expected her teams to return to her with something worth her while. And if you didn’t?
You worked for her directly... and I’ve seen the shit she’s put on people who couldn’t pull their own weight...”
Gungrin sighed. “I know I probably should’ve spent the time to get some more competent crew, but she’s already going to be impatient with me. I speak humbly when I say I come highly recommended. But it’s been nearly three months since I last brought her anything. I’m on a deep losing streak, now. She sends me more men – competent men, at that – and she hears nothing back from them. I figured if I could at least somehow pull this off, the men I lost would at least not die completely in vain.”
Slip crossed his arms. “You shouldn’t be dealing lives for treasure, Mister Gungrin...”
he stepped back and showed his hand to gesture to the two much younger men. “Take Jack and Morgan, for an example. To the scavengers, they are little more than resources, useful little tools used for a means to an end. But to me? They are a treasure unmatched by any the galaxy has to offer. I would sooner sacrifice my ship if it meant to keep them alive.”
“I get what you’re saying, but to call us ‘resources’ is a little misleading. You may see us as resources from the outside looking in, but I see it as a way of life, Slip. The men that I lost knew the risks. They didn’t have to join me in diving head-first into a meat grinder for some elusive ancient tech, just the same as you didn’t have to bring me here.”
“I’m aware of that, Gungrin. But how else would we make a living?”
Gungrin smirked. “That’s why we’re friends, Slip...”
The vessel rounded a particularly large asteroid, narrowly missing being squeezed by another rock of similar size, before leveling out to give a clearer view of their destination. Highlighted by the star in the distance, the derelict facility looked like hundreds of dark purplish metal cubes interlocked in no discernable pattern, other than being loosely centered around a distinct central point.
“We’re clear,” one of the pilots announced. “We’ll be landing in a few short minutes.”
“Guess that’s my queue, then,” Gungrin shook Slip’s hand. “Thank you again, old friend.”
“Just come back alive, yes? I’d lose a great deal of business without you.”
With a chuckle, Gungrin nodded and let go of the handshake. With one last wave, he exited the flight deck and gathered his equipment.
Dart was already in the holding bay for the big folk, sporting a rifle nearly as long a she was tall strapped over her shoulder and across her chest. Gungrin jogged up to join her, and the rookies were seen not long after. “Holy shit !” Kent exclaimed, eyes wide as he gazed up at the black wolf and tigress. “I knew the big folk were big, but not that big!”
“Holy shit, I knew humans were annoying, but not this annoying,” the tigress mimicked, deadpan.
“What? I haven’t seen a big folk before!”
Gungrin pulled the rookies towards him and pointed to the tigress, then the wolf.
“Uri, Kent, this is Scars, and that’s Seberno.”
Uri waved, stammering over his words. “H-hey, n-nice to meet you.” He, too, had never seen a big folk up close before, having been raised in a settlement far removed from a major hub.
“How come you’re named ‘scars’?” Kent asked.
Expecting this, she lifted her shirt just enough to show a pair of long, clean scars across the left half of her belly. “You know how it feels to pile your guts back into your belly after getting gashed twice by a security droid with a glaive? I do, because that’s exactly what happened. If it weren’t for the medkit Seberno had, I wouldn’t be here today to talk about it.”
Uri looked more green the longer he stared at the scars, but thankfully set her shirt down.
“Let that be a warning to you two – especially you , cold dwarf,” Seberno glared, pointing at Kent.
“Cold dwarf?” Kent protested. “I’m neither cold nor small!”
“Compared to them, yes, you are small,” Dart clarified, approaching Seberno. “What he means is that he’s calling you dim-witted.”
“Hey, just because I didn’t do good in school, doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
“Can it, you two,” Gungrin half-shouted, beckoning for Seberno to lower his paw down for him and Dart. “We’re landing any second now.”
Seberno set his hand down in front of Gungrin. “You remembered the offering, right?”
“Of course.”
As Seberno collected the more experienced humans, Scars held out her own paw for the rookies. Uri looked down and suddenly realized what he was about to do. He never thought he’d be small enough to be held in a hand, like a small rodent or insect. Yet here he was, about to do just that, in the hand of a tigress who admitted to taking a hit from a building-sized defense droid and literally shoving her guts back in to survive. It shook him to the core.
Kent didn’t seem to have the same thoughts, however, as he clambered on and even reclined, waving to his brother. “Well Uri? We don’t wanna keep them waiting,” he reminded.
“Wha- oh, right...” Gingerly, Uri limbered up just enough to stagger and tumble into the giant tigress’ hand, which pulled in to rest at her belly.
Less than a minute later, the vessel matched up with the airlocks and locked into position, the doors hissing open once the air was properly pressurized. A massive corridor lay ahead of the team, the only lights coming from a handful of focused spotlights on a floor with glowing cyan markings. Rather than following this directly, however, Gungrin directed the two big folk to set them down off to the side, where the overhead lighting barely illuminated their faces. “This will not be an easy feat,” Gungrin sighed heavily, pulling a small capsule with various stylized faces carved on its surface.
This was a surprise to Uri and Kent. They saw Gungrin as a fearless veteran, yet there was a fault in his voice that suggested reluctance to start this mission. Even Scars, who held the rookies, was shaking. “Wh-what are we doing?” Uri asked.
“A little prayer to seek favor and fortune, however little it is,” Scars explained, the giant tigress setting the rookies down next to Seberno’s hands. Dart waved the rookies over to her, and the giants settled into a full kneel behind them, still towering over their human companions.
The veteran man unscrewed the cap of the capsule and pulled it off. Within seconds, the others picked up the scent of an incense, followed by muttering in a language none of the others understood. At a certain point in the muttering, Dart bowed forward, and both Seberno and Scars followed in response. Uri picked up on it and bowed as well, but Kent was a tiny bit more stubborn. Scars reached her finger out to gently push the tiny man into position.
Gungrin’s muttering stopped, and was soon followed up by Seberno’s own muttering, this time in something they did understand. “Ancestors, grant us the strength and the will,” the black wolf mumbled, folding his hands. Scars repeated Seberno’s phrase and gesture.
Dart repeated it as well, then turned to the rookies. “Um... Ancestors? G-Give us the strength, and... the will...” Uri stumbled, quickly folding his hands and falling silent.
Kent, however, seemed a little perplexed. “I... don’t see the point in this.”
Seberno growled, baring his teeth, and Scars responded by putting her arm in front of his chest. Gungrin raised his head and turned to Kent, the more problematic of the two brothers. He took two steps towards him, then slammed his hand down on his shoulders. The words the veteran spoke were sharp and heated. “Where you came from, in your comfy little home, you didn’t need to worry so much about dying in every job you did. This, in case you haven’t gotten through your thick skull, is not some kind of jaunt in a field. Our lives are at stake, here. Many have perished trying to dive into these derelicts. Show some fucking respect!”
Kent stumbled back with Gungrin’s swear, but he seemed to catch the hint. With a slow and nervous nod, he set himself back into position. “Ancestors... give us the strength... and will...”
Huffing, Gungrin nodded. “You’ll do well to follow these rituals, rookie...” He then turned around and paced back into his original position.
What sounded like a handful more sentences were muttered by the veteran, then was followed by a metallic chink and an incandescent glow highlighting his head and shoulders to his fellow humans behind him. Smoke began to rise up from in front of him, and the scent of incense grew stronger. He turned back briefly and nodded. “Let’s go.”
Seberno and Scars gathered the humans in their hands. While Dart, Kent, and Uri were deposited into chest pockets specifically meant for keeping them out of the way, Gungrin continued to be held out by Seberno who took a slight lead. Some distance ahead, the path veered up and off to the left, but narrower passages were seen occasionally to either side as they walked. The incense capsule continued to glow, until a brighter light and harsher burning sound spewed from the top. Seberno and Scars stopped and faced one of these darker corridors.
Gungrin brought the side of the capsule to his lips and kissed it. “May those who have gone before us, guide us to a fortune they could not reach...” He swept his foot back, pulled his arm behind him, and chucked the capsule as far as he could into the corridor as he could. Seconds later, it hit the ground with a wood-on-metal clatter, its smouldering remains being a dot of crimson light in a void that it could not hope to fill.
“What’s down there?” Kent asked.
Seberno’s tail was slightly tucked in. “Death,” he replied, flipping down the goggles from his helmet.
Scars’ round tiger ears pulled flat against her head as Gungrin was put into one of the black wolf’s pockets. “What lurks beyond the veil of the void is a deadly force you can’t see. It does not matter if you’re big like me and Seberno, or small like yourselves.
The darkness does not discriminate, you two. Learn to fear it.”
Uri could only help but nod as Scars lowered her goggles as well. He turned to his brother, who also seemed to fall quiet. That seemed to get something through to him.
The big folk wouldn’t let us do much except look out at what laid ahead of us. Likely our doom.
I knew many ancient relics were huge, but I didn’t think they’d make even one of the big folk seem small. The towering, twisting hallway was illuminated only by means of some cyan glyphs in the ground and some dim lights overhead. Other than that, there was nothing to our hike in. No other sights, no other sounds... not even a breeze. Every step from Seberno and Scar, every clink of their loose metallic features of their weapons and clothes, bounced off the distant hard surfaces, making us feel as if there was something following us. Gungrin and Dart took care of watching our backs, as Scars insisted we stay in the pocket where we would be best protected.
We stayed religiously to this path. Any divergence from it and who knew what would happen. I was not about to make any moves to find out, but I’m sure my brother would no sooner try himself. As for me, one hand clung to my rifle, while the other held the thick pocket fabric, both with white-knuckled tension.
A gasp from Dart caused our collective hearts to leap. “Look, up ahead!” she pointed.
Off to one side, there appeared to be the shape of some leather material, similar to what the big folk wore. It was barely visible from the incandescence that floated above.
“Ah, hell,” Seberno quickened his pace and stopped short of the shape. Scars followed not far behind.
When we finally got to see what it was, Scars sighed and knelt down. It was a big folk - a rodent species of some kind – and had been dead for some time. What little remained of the skin and fur had basically been mummified, both his armor and his weapon damaged beyond recovering from whatever took their life and from age. “I remember reading the bounty board about three years ago, someone attempted what we’re about to do,” Scars recounted. “A crew eighty strong came through here...”
“And how many made it out?” I asked.
“No more than nine.”
That did not bode well for us.
“Alright, let’s pay our respects and move on,” Gungrin huffed, crossing his arm with his right chest. He then leaned into Seberno’s ear and whispered something. The black wolf nodded first to Gungrin, then to Scars who gave her own. Now it was Scars that led the way.
“I wonder what the AI will be like,” Kent pondered aloud in a hushed voice. “Maybe it has a sense of humor? Heh, that’d be pretty cool.”
“We’d be lucky if it didn’t try to kill us,” I told him.
“Didn’t Gungrin say it wouldn’t kill us if we gave it something worth its while?”
“Yeah, but the best we have is some bullshit tall tales it’s probably heard before.”
“I don’t think it’s heard what I could tell.”
“Maybe, but the last time you tried to tell a story you nearly had your teeth smashed in by that bear with anger management issues.”
“Ah, that might’ve been because of the game of poker I was playing. He got really mad he couldn’t read me-”
One of Scars’ hands was moved in front of us while her other pointed ahead. “Hide!”
Both of the big folk suddenly bolted to either side of the path, ducking behind an entrance to one of the passages. Before our view was completely obscured, I noticed a light above the walkway fixtures. It was red... and moving closer.
“Shit, is tha-”
Scars pressed her finger harder on us, silencing me, and was followed by a heavy, most breath down our backs and an equally chilling word. “Quiet.”
I tried to look over and up at what was passing by. There it was, that red light again, perfectly round yet dim, hovering just above the walkway lights while the rest of it was obscured behind a shadowy veil. Whatever it was, it was massive, probably as big as Seberno if not bigger. It might’ve been the thing that killed that one big folk we saw earlier.
Even Kent was quiet as we waited for... whatever this thing was to drift away. When Seberno and Scars were satisfied it was well enough away, they gave each other a thumbs-up and walked back into the light. “A sentry drone, yes,” Scars explained. “If you’re not a known threat, they won’t attack, but you can never assume they won’t consider you one. Keep your damned eyes open; this place is bound to have thousands more.”
“I’m concerned,” Dart commented. “This pathway is specifically meant to give visitors safe passage to the central terminal. The previous group must’ve pissed it off enough to start patrolling down here.”
“How much longer before we reach that?” Kent asked.
“If memory serves me correctly, should be another minute’s walk at our current pace.”
My brother balled his hands into fists. “Yes!”
The more we walked, the more I began to notice our surroundings change ever so subtlely and slowly. It grew warmer, the lights overhead brighter. Soon, the walls became illuminated, even seeping into the creepier side passages. A dull hum resonated from all sides. As the big folks’ feet, the cyan glyphs shimmered and spread wider, as if parting the hallway itself.
Then, without warning, the path of glyphs stopped dead at the seam of a massive wall in front of us. A separate pattern shined from the wall, outlining a featureless fox’s head in front of a pair of swishing, jagged tribal shapes. “Damn, the gate’s been sealed,”
Seberno growled. “It must’ve gotten bad last time.”
“We just need to get the rookies inside,” Dart said, pointing just off to the left.
“There’s our way in.”
At about waist-high to the big folk was what looked like a walkway that hugged the wall for a short distance linking an oversized doorway to... well, nothing. It provided the perfect, if oddly convenient, spot for us to be dropped off.
Seberno approached it first, allowing Gungrin and Dart to hop on to his hand to then be moved down to the walkway. Scars followed with me and Kent. Dart opened a pouch on her belt and pulled out a fob with a strange set of prongs at one end, which she then jammed into the back of the nearby dusty control panel, its screen flashing to display a more familiar manuscript. “I hope this works,” Dart pleaded.
A flash on the screen came up and Dart tapped on it, dismissing the pop-up.
Another prompt appeared; this time she paused. “Wait...” she tapped the sides of it, but it did nothing. “Why is it asking me the answer to a riddle?”
“A riddle?” Kent asked.
“Yeah, it’s... strange.”
A puzzle lock? Why would that happen? “What’s it say?” I asked.
Dart cleared her throat and looked back at the screen. “I am the first that you see, hear, and do. I can make you a best friend or a worst enemy. Prepare me soon, for it is rude to not have me. What am I?”
I scratched my head. “Yeah, that doesn’t make any se-”
“A greeting.” Kent smiled.
Dart, Gungrin, and I turned, bewildered, to my brother. Even the big folk gave him a quizzed look. After a couple of awkward seconds, Gungrin stepped forward and plopped his hand down on Kent’s shoulder. “That...” he sighed, “is the most intelligent fucking thing you’ve said since I first saw you.”
“What can I say?” he shrugged. “I can be a genius sometimes.”
As Dart keyed in the answer, I looked over at Kent. “How did you figure it out so quickly?”
“Well, would it be rude to not have a proper greeting for someone? Dad always said to make first impressions count. And look at where we are!”
A beep from the panel was followed by a click and a door slid open. Through it was a small catwalk that led out to a platform a little bigger than a typical dropoff for a man in a big folk’s hand. “Kent,” Dart spoke up, taking the fob out of the panel. “Since you guessed the riddle correctly, you get to go first.”
“M-Me?!” he gasped, pointing to himself and looking between Dart, Gungrin, and me.
“Good idea, Dart,” Gungrin agreed, putting his arm around Kent’s shoulders and leading him over to the door. “You said yourself to make first impressions count. Go on in and show it what you’re worth.”
Kent was shoved forward and through the door, looking back, specifically at me, pleading for reason, before accepting his fate and marching farther in. The room was enormous – enough to house several transport vessels with room to move. Beyond the perimeter of the floor well below the platform was an off-colored recess in the floor, nothing unusual about it aside from its size. Overhead were what appeared to be a grid of very large lamps that had a shimmer to the glass lenses. If I had to hazard a guess, those would be the projection units, capable of transforming the entire town-sized room into a life-sized diagram made of light.
My shoulder was suddenly gripped by Gungrin’s hand and shoved in after Kent. “You two be the face of the group,” he ordered. “Keep it occupied.”
Occupied? Wait-
Before I could say anything, the overhead projectors began to glow, and a low hum pierced the silence. Small dots of bright light started appearing around us, then accelerated towards a point a fair distance away from the platform. As the lights accumulated, its shape became distinct. Long, sleek legs that ended with paws. A narrow waist and a pair of long, poofy tails. Two hands with a slender arm each, attached to a feminine upper torso. A head that lacked eyes, but took the shape of what looked to be a vixen. All in a cool light-blue glow that bathed the room, from ear tips to toes.
The AI’s avatar.
Kent and I were both stunned, unwilling to move. I would be lying if I said she wasn’t stunning, even before the entrance. The hum had crescendoed to a powerful synthetic note that faded into chime-like twinkles, like something out of a fairy tale. Hell, I’d argue it was downright magical how it happened. No wonder these things were so highly prized for their tech.
The digital vixen brought her foot forward and set it down. Rather than a thoom like how Seberno and Scars walked, a low bell ring was heard instead. Her head looked down upon us and a distorted yet distinctly feminine voice began to speak... at least, I think it was speaking. It sounded very strange, sounds I never thought were possible.
Then it paused and started speaking in a different language, still very alien yet soft and oddly comforting. I looked over at Kent, who had yet to collect his dropped jaw dropped and wide-open eyes, as the projection spoke yet another unfamiliar language, one that was harsh and angry despite the gentle feminine speaker.
Getting out of my own stupor, I nudged Kent’s ribs and got him to snap out of his trance. “Ah, greetings,” he bowed with a raised voice. “That was an impressive entrance!”
I bowed as well. “Hello there,” I waved.
The blue vixen stopped speaking and paused before taking another step forward, angling her head down lower to compensate. Another step that brought her less than arm’s reach from the platform, and she was looking upon us like a goddess would to some loyal followers. A ‘hmph’ echoed within the chamber, the vixen’s posture shifting to one side. “I see you have answered my riddle,” she commented, this time in perfect Common. “It’s not often I have bold adventurers answer them. Usually they just bust down the door and demand an audience – assuming they don’t dive straight into the data banks.”
“That would be plain rude of us if we did that,” Kent replied with a chuckle.
The AI’s avatar’s tails swished behind her back as she raised her hand. “What offerings do you bring me today?”
Kent blinked. “O-Offerings?”
“Because of my countless years of being online and pecked away at by reckless treasure hunters such as yourselves, I’m assuming you’re not here to say ‘hello’ and take a tour, now are you?”
“Well, when you put it that way...”
Hmph. “At least you’re chatty. It’s not often that happens, either. Still, that doesn’t excuse your presence here.”
“We don’t have much in the form of valuables,” I replied, “but if you’d like we can tell you some stories?”
The solid-light avatar crossed her arms. “Alright, humor me.”
Kent smiled and clapped. “I’ve got the perfect starter...” He then began to go off on his usual tall tales of a guy he knew that was a renowned megafauna hunter, bringing down beasts normally a challenge for the big folk with his own bare hands. I hate to admit it, but Kent had a way of telling stories on the fly. On the other hand, I was of little use, only there to verify a handful of claims and make some comments.
At some point in the conversation, I looked back and saw that both Dart and Gungrin weren’t around us, but the chamber door was left open. I had a fleeting suspicion they were off handling the actual treasure-hunting. At first I felt cheated, but I soon realized this was probably for the best. The more the AI listened intently, the more Kent rambled on about his favorite idol’s overly embellished stories. Kent and this AI could not have been a better pairing.
What felt like an hour of talking was interrupted when I heard heavy footsteps behind me, and turned around to see Gungrin approaching, who bowed once he joined us. “I hope they didn’t bore you to death,” Gungrin chuckled.
Hmph. “Hardly.” the AI gave him a quizzed look. “But for a moment, I thought you were entertainers.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Do you really think I would believe you’d come all this way just to tell me some tall tales? You’re not the only ones to try that, you know. You keep a few people in here to keep me distracted while the others raid the nearest data bank for whatever they can get their grubby little hands on.” She leaned forward to loom over us, casting a bright blue glow over the platform. “But you’re doing things a little differently and I can’t tell if it’s clever or desperate. I was surprised to see only the six of you enter my domain.”
So it had been watching us the moment we docked?
Gungrin shook his head. “That’s not your concern-”
“ What isn’t my concern?!” the avatar, and thus the entire chamber, suddenly flashed red, two virtual flames fluttering from where its eyes would be, its voice distorting with words as hot as the chamber suddenly became. “Am I an intelligent being and not a machine worth scrapping?”
“W-Wait, we can talk this out!” Kent waved his hands.
“I’ve lived countless eons without you pathetic insects, and I can live countless more!” The vixen’s hand raised up.
I took a step back and pulled both Kent and Gungrin with me. “Look out-”
A deafening blast threw us off our feet and to the floor. I looked around and saw only bright red, but I could feel the veteran and my brother beside me, equally as dazed.
Aside from the fall impact, I was unhurt. A giggling cackled throughout the chamber, bouncing off the enigmatic metal walls. “It’s not hard to scare you, is it?”
“You were trying to kill us!” I protested as we clambered to our feet.
“And yet when I’m pecked away, no once cares. What’s your point?”
“Guys! Guys!” Kent shouted at me and the AI. “Can you shut up for just ten seconds?”
Hmph. “Counting.”
Kent took a deep breath and sighed. “You got us, okay? We’re desperate. We just want to get what we came here for and get out. At the end of the day, you’ll still alive, and so will we.”
The avatar’s color slowly shifted through orange and back down to its normal blue.
“Alright,” the AI huffed. “I’ll allow you safe passage out of here. But if any of you so much as take a single step off the path out of here, I’ll call upon my legion of drones to eviscerate every limb from your bodies and leave you to die.”
“That’s all we ask,” Kent bowed.
Hmph. “Go. I don’t want to see your faces again.”
Gungrin scowled. “What the hell did you-”
I put my hand to the veteran’s shoulder. “Let’s go, sir. We’ve done enough.”
The look he gave me would’ve stabbed me to death, but I remained resolute, staring back with equal energy. The last thing I wanted was for all of us to die empty-handed in the cold, dark halls of an ancient AI megastructure. At the very least, Gungrin would be able to try his luck elsewhere. After a few seconds, he began to see things my way, and nodded. “Alright...”
With Kent to my left and Gungrin on my right, I led us along the walkway out of the main terminal room. A cackle from Gungrin’s helmet’s radio was heard, along with Dart’s voice cutting through the static, loud enough for all of us to hear. “Gungrin, I’ve hit the jackpot! Coming around to pick you up now.”
Our collective hearts dropped. The AI’s avatar shifted back into red, a low rumble filling the chamber. “That’s all you ask, huh?”
Gungrin took off running. As did Kent and me.
The low rumble grew into a loud shriek that died back down to a rumble and repeated itself. We were almost to the door when it suddenly began to slide shut. Our boss’s faster response got him through the door before we did, and he turned to us.
Kent pulled out ahead of me, bringing his rifle up from behind his back, but tripped and tossed it forward. By some miracle, the gun slid perfectly into place along the door’s track, jamming it in place.
I couldn’t leave my brother behind. I stopped to pull him by the scruff of his neck.
“This will not be how you die, brother!” I growled and all but threw him ahead. The rifle jamming the door began to bend upward. It wouldn’t be long before it was overpowered completely and we’d be locked in.
There was just enough room for Kent to slip through the crack before it became too narrow to walk through. Just as I was orienting myself, another loud, violent impact shook me off my feet and away from the opening.
“No!” Gungrin shouted.
The rifle’s stock snapped and the entire thing crumpled into the door frame, leaving only a slit barely big enough to fit my hand into. “Uri!” Kent shouted.
I looked back and saw that the AI’s avatar was approaching me, her hands to either side of the walkway, but where its projection met the metal, the metal creaked and crumpled. Her hands squeezed tighter, bending the walkway like a tin can, before ripping it up and tossing it aside. Hard light. The kind that fancier salvages had, but was only useful for showing buttons or dials. This? It had to be at least as strong as any big folk – maybe stronger. And she was moving closer.
“Stand back!” a low shout bellowed from the other side.
I was knocked off my feet when an ear-ringing impact and scraping of of metal-on-metal hit me full force. The door had caved in towards me and was forced open by an enormous crowbar wielded by Seberno. I wanted to marvel in his show of strength, but with an AI about to eviscerate me, I instead scrambled forward and leaped through the pried-open door. Her fingertips grazed my ankle, throwing me off, but not enough to trip me. As soon as I was out, Seberno yanked the crowbar out and let the door slide shut again.
Scars plucked me up by the scruff of my neck and deposited me in her carrying pocket, dropping me next to Kent. “We’re not out of this yet,” Scars told me. “Shoot anything that moves!”
I took out my own rifle and switched off the safety.
Seberno and Scars ran back along the path we came from, now more brightly lit.
“The drones will be on us any moment,” Seberno explained.
“What did we get?” I heard Gungrin ask Dart.
“Not one but two core units,” Dart replied. “We found a blind spot right where we needed it!”
Aside from the wailing sirens, we didn’t see much for the first minute of running. All of us, even Kent, were too busy looking out for things that would kill us. As we rounded another bend, Gungrin pointed. “Drones behind us!”
With the better lighting, we could finally see what they looked like – and I wish I didn’t. Floating along by some unseen propulsion device, these three drones took on a wedge-like shape with jagged edges and a collection of tentacle-like limbs that jutted from various points around its body. The lone red eyes were what got me the most, those two vertical slits that were stretched wide open, twitching ever so slightly in mad retribution. They weren’t like normal optical sensors, perfectly circular with an artificial glint, but more like an eye from one’s worst nightmare. A psychological weapon as much as it was an effective navigation tool.
Seberno and Scars both took aim with their rifles and locked on to the drones bearing down at us. A thunderous salvo immediately hit and took down two of them, and the third responded with a red lance aiming between the two. By the time they were ready to fire, the drone had gotten too close to shoot effectively. Instead, Scars flipped her gun around, holding the hot metal barrel with both hands, and swung upward to strike the drone in the belly. CRACK! The drone was punted away, spinning and flinging away parts of its shell. Seberno followed up by taking another shot, shredding through more mechanical pieces and downing the drone for good.
It was an impressive display of teamwork, I had to admit. That kind of maneuver told me they had been with each other for some time, and that this was not some random pairing.
“I’m ahead by one!” Seberno smirked, turning to run towards the exit.
The big folk continued to carry us through at their running pace, yet through the rush of wind past my face I picked up on a different noise, something very high-pitched.
Kent took a glance down one of the hallways we passed, still mostly dark despite the lighting, and bugged his eyes. “Right hall!” he warned.
Seberno snarled, snapping his gaze down in that direction. “Shit, these are the tiny ones.”
“We got this,” Dart stood up from her spot on Seberno and raised her own rifle. A bang almost as loud as the big folks’ guns flashed out from it, taking out one of the thirteen green dots in the distance. Another bang, another one dropped. By now, I could see what was approaching. Like the big red-eyed drones, these green ones had a similar optical configuration, but these were shaped more like a silver sphere with a tail. A long tail, at that, which followed their movements through the air. One of them swooped low to the ground, dragging its tail along it, and leaving behind a streak of molten metal.
They would only be a few seconds before they were upon us.
Gungrin clambered out as well, keeping himself against Seberno’s jacket. He produced a large drum magazine from within the pocket and slammed it up into the gun, his mouth spreading into a crazed grin, and took aim.
There was little delay between every shot the veteran unloaded, as the spray of ignited shotgun pellets pierced into the darkness these abberrant drones came from, some whizzing past nothing but most hitting their mark. Dart’s gun also continued to fire, but it was clear Gungrin was making a vast majority of the kills with a weapon designed more for the medium-range engagement we had found ourselves in. When the last of the drones were dealt with, both of the more experienced humans lowered their weapons.
“Shitty herbs ain’t got nothing on some good old-fashioned shotgun action!” he boasted.
“Let’s move,” Scars pointed forward. “We’re almost to our ride out.”
The more the big folk carried us, the softer the alarm wails became. It was almost relieving... almost. That is, until more began to show up from behind us. By now, the ship was in sight, but we only had a precious handful of seconds before we would be overrun. Both Gungrin and Dart clambered out of the giant wolf’s pockets and steadied themselves against his movements while firing back at the drones. As experienced as they were, their accuracy suffered from the semi-unpredictable movements of their carrier, but one by one the drones were being brought down.
However, one green-eyed drone managed to slip through the veterans’ defenses, darting low to the ground. As it spun, the tail stretched out and flung forward.
Scars roared in pain as her ankle was lascerated by the drone’s tail. Kent and I held on as our carrying big folk was brought down to her knees, almost falling out of our pocket but managing to hold on. With both hands and her only good leg, Scars turned over and scrambled back. Her ankle was pouring with crimson blood, soaking through the smoking slit of her boot made by the drone’s tail-weapon, and leaving behind a trail of blood.
Dart got a shot on the most immediate drone to bring it down, but another – the last one of this swarm – took its place. This one flew farther up her body, and when its tail lashed out again it clipped a pocket on her pant leg, the fabric ripping in an instant.
Sparks flew from inside.
Scar’s hand slipped and her back fell flat, causing me and Kent to tumble out and back to her collarbone. The drone crested over her chest, its twin-slit eyes bearing down on me, like it was piercing my soul. A rifle raised up into view and was aligned with my eye. Out of the corner of my vision, my arm swung up under the rifle and held the stock.
The iron-sight dots aligned perfectly with that wretched circle of horror.
BANG!
The gun had an unexpected kick that pushed me into the tigress’ chin. A shrill scream dug into my ears as this drone keeled back and fell flat, lightly bouncing off of Scars’ vest before tumbling off to the side. My arms grew weak, and the rifle slipped from my shoulder. From off to the side, Kent caught me just as my knees gave out.
Only now did I realize I had even made a shot with it at all.
Seberno’s rifle went off again, as one of the larger red-eyed drones rounded the far-off bend, then tossed it over his shoulder. He reached down to lift Scars from the armpits and half-ran, half-dragged her the rest of the way to the ship. It took some struggling, but at least she was completely back inside their ride out. “Get us out of here!” Seberno bellowed to the Passeur pilots in front.
The hum of the ship’s engines grew to a whisle and the rear doors sealed. With the air lock now fully disengaged, the ship lurched forward and away from the ancient megabase as fast as it could. While Seberno pulled Scars’ ruined boot and sock away to examine the extent of her injuries, Gungrin and Dart hopped down to tend to Kent and me – me, especially. “Sit down, son,” he panted, lowering me to rest against Scars’ carrying pocket.
My stomach churned and I rolled over, my mouth drooling profusely. A groan and a contraction later, and whatever I ate most recently was expelled right on Scars’ vest, leaving me panting hard. “Oh, gods,” I groaned.
“Yeah, a life-or-death situation will do that to you,” Gungrin huffed as he knelt down and offered his canteen. I turned it down, not in the mood for it. I still felt like I was gonna hurl again.
“Uri, that was an incredible shot!” Kent laughed, slapping me on the shoulder. “You took it out like a true pro!”
“Seb, how’s Scars looking?” Dart asked.
“Bad,” he flatly responded, pulling a first-aid kit from a nearby compartment. “Her hamstring’s been cut by the little bastard...” his hand reached up to open the torn pocket a little more, and out slipped a trapezoid-shaped fob as big as his palm. The alien device was clearly ruined as a black gash was drawn across the shattered hunk of glass in the center of the device. “Shit! Well... there goes one core.”
“What about the other?”
“Right here,” Seberno opened his own side-pocket and produced a similar looking fob. This time, the glass core could be seen in its full, working state, showing countless traces and paths that shimmered with the lighting. It looked absolutely pristine.
“Damnit all,” Gungrin sighed. “I had high hopes for this, but... at least we got what we came here for.”
Scars’ hand lifted itself from her side and came to rest behind the veteran man, hooking her thumb around his waist and pulling him in. “We did all we could, Gungrin.
I’m proud to have you as our leader...” she reminded, turning her eyes down to me. “And you, rookie.”
“Y-Yes?” I looked up.
The giant tigress sighed. “For saving my life... I’ll forgive you for puking on my vest.”
I smiled with relief. “Th-thank you... Scars...”
Gungrin helped me to my feet. “Get cleaned up, you two. The first thing we’re doing when we get back to base is pay a visit to Raz.”
“Who’s Raz?”
“A bargain? How bold of you! Let’s hear it...”
A lone man quivered at his post at the top of a raised platform, yet was still only chest-high to the enormous serpent in front of him. The rest of her was hidden behind the platform, and much farther down. To either side of the platform, both on and below, dozens of men holding polearms, rifles, and shotguns gazed out to keep guard, decked out in the same leather and hide uniforms as her own choice of garb. Shoulder pauldrons made from the skulls of her gargantuan prey flanked her broad hood, and were tied to her hide top with ropes normally meant for moving cargo containers.
Adorning her neck was a golden neclace with a blue crystal the size of the cowering man below her, a bracelet made of solid gold blocks decorating her wrists, jingling as she pinched a bunch of grapes well above the humans’ heads. What skin was exposed were decorated with scars and nicks, some small while others worthy of a story.
Gungrin, Kent, and Uri looked on while the poor man taking center stage explained himself, held back by the guards stationed at an entrance just to the left of the big folks’
counter. “ That’s Raz?” Uri asked.
“Raz’kalthiss, to you ,” Gungrin gently yet firmly reminded. “She’s the High Matriarch of the Star Diamond clan.”
Uri had faintly heard of the Star Diamond clan. It was one of the largest and most organized of its kind, rivaled in power only by competent system-states. Not only that, but it was the only scavenger clan with a big folk’s leadership.
Gungrin continued. “And she didn’t get this position for no reason. Her record as a scavenger eclipses even mine. That, and she’s a cold, cruel, manipulative person, who always gets what she wants. And if she doesn’t? Either death or indentured servitude.”
“Stars, she’s bigger than Seberno and Scars – probably combined, even!”
Their conversation was cut short as the giant serpent hummed. “I see. So, you wish to continue your little mining operation with the help of one of my ships? Whatever happened to the one we sold you?”
“I-It was uh...” the man stammered. “I-I-It was... u-u-uh...”
Raz raised her eyebrows. “Destroyed?”
“I-It wasn’t my fault, I-”
“ SILENCE! ”
The man’s eyes squeezed shut in silent pleading. Even Gungrin got goosebumps hearing her shout.
She moved the bunch of grapes to her mouth and, using her man-sized teeth, pulled them off the vine one-by-one, until the vine was picked clean and her lips were dripping with the sweet juices of the fruit. She then squeezed her mouth, popping many of the grapes and showering the entire platform in spatters of saliva and sugary water, and ground the berries into a slushy pulp. One gulp. Two gulps. Three gulps. Each one forming a bulge in her throat that disappeared just behind her necklace. Save for the chewing, the throne room was deathly silent.
Finally, her tongue lapped up and over her lips, sucking in the last of the fruit, before continuing. “The Star Diamond clan has never offered handouts to anyone, for any reason. You are no one special. If you fuck up, you’re expected to fix it yourself.” She waved her hand and four guards responded by approaching the sobbing man and grabbing him. “If the next time you’re in here isn’t to deliver me your tithe, it had better be to deliver yourself .”
The guards proceeded to haul the man over to the far-side entrance and, quite literally, throw him out. Gungrin’s hands rested on the rookies’ shoulders and squeezed.
“ That’s her in a good mood.”
“Then I hope we’ll put her in an even better one,” Uri sighed.
As the guards returned to their positions, they pointed to the trio of humans. “Next!”
With a nod, Gungrin approached with feigned confidence towards the ruthless clan matriarch. All eyes were on them, their arms at their sides, not quite in a position to take aim but doable at a moment’s notice. Raz’kalthiss smiled once she recognized Gungrin.
“Ah! Long time no see, Gungrin.”
“Yes, I know,” he smiled, “and might I add you’re in a good mood today.”
Raz’kalthiss smiled, her forked tongue flicking for a second. “Oho, thank you! Yes, a few of my best teams have returned with quite the hauls, yes...”
Gungrin could name a couple, but he held his tongue. “I hope I can please you similarly, High Matriarch.”
“And what spoils do you have to offer me? Not the young’uns under your wing, is it?” Before Uri or Kent could respond, she laughed. “Ah, I kid. But please, do continue, Gungrin.”
The veteran cleared his throat. “We managed to secure an AI core compute unit.”
Gasps echoed throughout the posted guards. Even Raz’kalthiss was shocked. “Oh! Well, that’s quite the prize, Gungrin! Very well, bring it in.”
The guards at the entrance parted slightly as two more men pulled in a cart carrying the very rare piece of ancient tech on full display. Its features were truly out of place for a setting such as this, a rough but regal palace in which the Star Diamond based their operations.
When the cart stopped, Raz’kalthiss plucked up the device – no bigger than her hand - and raised it to the light. Her sky-blue eyes twinkled with the reflections of the device suspended above her face, slits narrowed to closely analyze every facet. After what seemed like an eternity, she sighed and set it back on the cart. “It’s flawed.”
Gungrin blinked. “F-Flawed?”
“This corner,” she tapped lightly with a claw. Sure enough, a glint came off differently than the rest of the otherwise uniform refractions. Because of this, if it were to work at all, it would be at an extremely limited and unstable capacity. A fancy paperweight. It might as well have been sliced in half like their other core.
The veteran shook his head. “No...”
Raz’kalthiss frowned. “How many of our people returned for this?”
Gungrin’s voice faltered. “Six,” he replied, nodding to the rookies. “Including these two.”
The matriarch slammed her elbow down on one side and dropped her brow onto it.
“So this is why you hadn’t returned to me for so long...” With a growl, she sat up. “I had high hopes for you, Gungrin. Your teams were among the best the Star Diamonds ever had. And yet, you return to me with not a single word about everyone that accompanied you.”
Kent stepped forward. “Well, if it helps we-”
A nearby guard swung the blunt end of his polearm into Kent’s belly, dropping him to his knees. “You will speak when spoken to!” his baritone voice reminded.
The outburst had caught her attention nonetheless. “You what, little one?” she implored, lowering her head. “Do tell.”
Uri had never seen Kent so terrified before. Even in the face of an AI that was going to literally tear them apart, he always had an aura of fearlessness to him. But this, at the literal hand of a big folk matriarch? Gungrin shook his head, but her hand pushed him and Uri aside. Kent was on his own.
The rookie inhaled. “We went in with six.”
Gasps followed even more harshly. Raz’kalthiss, meanwhile, was in a full scowel. “You mean to tell me Gungrin, the fourth most successful scavenger in my reign as matriarch, entered a derelict computer with a skeleton crew and brought that back?”
“Yes, ma’am, he did, and we would’ve had two to bring back if one of the drones didn’t hurt the other big folk with us and slice up the one in her pocket.”
Her eyes glanced over at Gungrin. “And what of the team of sixty, last I heard, Gungrin?”
“During a planetside salvage, a group of rookies got cocky and tried to hunt one of the superpredators. Lost more than half the team from there alone,” the veteran explained somberly. “Then, as we were extracting a fusion core from a derelict, it started collapsing in on itself as we were leaving. Myself and three others were all that survived from that.”
“Hmm...” Raz’kalthiss’ tail slid across the floor behind her, contemplating their fates.
“That is... most disappointing, Gungrin. You lose most of your team to routine salvages, but you pulled an AI core with only six people including yourself and two rookies. Your hauls as of late have been unpredictable and... what’s the word... ‘pyrrhic’? Those were highly recommended scavengers you lost, Gungrin. By me no less! Very talented. And yet you’ve squandered them.”
“Not an hour goes by when I don’t regret their losses, High Matriarch.”
The serpent matriarch huffed, removing her hand separating him and Uri from Kent.
“It’s a good thing I like you, Gungrin. But my patience for you is wearing thin. Since you are capable of leading a team into a derelict AI with fewer people than I can count on both hands and bring them back out, I’m going to make a deal with you, and this is your final chance.”
She leaned forward, her breath washing over the three. “The next time I see you in this chamber, it will either be with a perfect compute core or yourself. Now go!” Her hand waved once more, and the guards surrounded the men.
Gungrin didn’t protest, and neither did the rookies. All that effort, and they brought back something they couldn’t use. But at least he still had his job and his dignity. How long that was going to last depended on how good of a crew he could muster up. There was going to be no support – just him, the rookies, Dart, Seberno, Scars, and his wits.
But where most men would flee and hope the clans wouldn’t brand them a fraud, Gungrin took this setback with a smile.
After all, there was a reason he was called ‘Gun-Grin’.