The Diaboco had fled, the last of their kind disappearing into the tree line soon after the death of their master. The Pioneers remaining had formed two different groups. One was watching Daniel in a mixture of fear, confusion, and awe, unmoving as they confronted this bizarre series of events. The others were standing around something he couldn’t see, something lying in the dirt and surrounded by the corpses of numerous Diaboco. Daniel ignored the men staring at him and jogged over to the second group, curious. His eyes widened as he figured it out.
In the mud of the riverbank, surrounded by his soldiers, was the body of Sergeant Roberto Gulliman. His left chest was completely black, corrupted by some kind of twisted poison that had spread from his heart to the rest of his body. His eyes had been closed by someone, probably out of respect, but his face was clearly fixed in an expression of confusion, pain, and sadness. Most of the Pioneers had gathered around him, maybe to provide first aid, or possibly just to confirm the death of their commanding officer themselves. Those men looked at Daniel in a mixture of fear and confusion as he came to join them, but nobody said anything as their savior came over to join their ranks.
Gulliman hadn’t been a good man, exactly. He’d been something of a bully, stubborn, uncompromising, and authoritarian. But he’d done his job. He’d fought to defend them in the face of danger, which counted for something even if it was only because the man wanted to make Quota. He’d also shown signs of humanity every now and then, from giving Daniel the Greater Diaboco heart to just talking about his job as a day laborer before he’d joined the Fed. And now, he’d died and left them alone, with no protection. No protection besides Daniel.
The thought roused Daniel from his musings, and he looked around to see that the men were looking at him now, instead of Gulliman’s body. They were waiting for orders, or maybe an explanation as to what in all creation had just happened with his white power suit. Instead of giving them either, he decided to look through his Codex log. Maybe it would shed some light on what’d just happened, because he was fresh out of answers himself: “A group of Lesser Diaboco spotted!
Class: Low/Mid-Grade Zeta: Individual Threat Assessment: Low/Moderate: Group Threat Assessment: High Moderate.
???? spotted!
Warning: An unknown creature has been spotted. Caution Recommended.
Class Estimate: High Grade Epsilon: Threat Assessment: Maximum
Adult Harlac spotted!
Class: Low Grade Epsilon: Threat Assessment: Very High”
Well, that was interesting. His classes had barely touched on finding unknown creatures. It was highly uncommon on Zeta and Epsilon class planets, where a lot of exploration had already taken place. Then again, finding a High-Grade Epsilon Xenos on a Zeta planet was also very strange. Feeling a headache oncoming, Daniel told the men to bag Gulliman’s body and start collecting the Diaboco corpses. After that, they would set up camp. He added: “I’ll tell you the whole story later. Right now, we need to gather every resource we can find and think about our next moves.”
It was only noon, according to their Codices, but after Gulliman’s loss they would need to sit down and recalibrate a bit. But before that, they needed to assess what resources they’d just obtained. Daniel was most interested in their mystery predator: “Corpse of a ????. Weight: ???? Value: ??? Error: Creature Unknown”
Well, that was unfortunate. Daniel decided to take a closer look at the creature’s halved skull and the turbid purple-black blood coming from it. Maybe more information would give his Codex something to work with: “Warning: Poison. The Codex has detected that this creature possesses poisonous blood and is unsuitable for consumption with current User Adaptability level and Personal Attributes. Please do not consume.”
More disappointment. He wasn’t allowed to eat this thing at all? What was the point of killing an Epsilon class creature if you couldn’t use it to make yourself stronger? He took a few samples of the poisonous blood, for later testing, but elected to leave the carcass there. Before he left it behind, however, another idea came to Daniel’s mind. He materialized his machete and went to work on the back of the unknown monster’s neck. It was infuriatingly tough, but not impossibly so. This thing’s Constitution seemed a little weak for an Epsilon class Xenos. Eventually, Daniel managed to open its body up, exposing the smooth, round, violet stone, inlaid in the spine at the base of the creature’s neck: “Epsilon Class Morphic Stone: ???? Value: ????.”
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As per usual, the Codex gave Daniel no new information. He was ecstatic to find a Morphic Stone, yet having no idea what it did made him nervous. He removed the sphere and sat down, examining it carefully. It would be a bit risky to absorb it, since the Stone was a whole rank higher than him, and he didn’t even know what abilities it would give. On the other hand, beggars couldn’t exactly be choosers, and their entire group was in desperate need of someone with superpowers, now that they’d lost Gulliman. Taking a deep breath, Daniel got into a cross legged position and held the stone up to his Codex. Even under his clothes, the machine had no problem sensing the object, and it flashed blue before absorbing the stone.
Gooseflesh broke out all over Daniel’s body and he began to sweat as he felt the power flow into his chest and get distributed all throughout his body. It started out uncomfortably cool, as if his veins had been filled with ice water. Then, on a dime, it shifted, burning with a powerful, corrosive heat that flowed throughout his extremities. Things started to get really bad when it flowed to his head. Lightning bolts of pain sizzled up and down his spine, brain boiling from the liquid fire running amok in his body. Daniel started screaming in pain, collapsing to the ground and spasming in the dirt. Some of the men yelled and came running over, but Daniel was in his own little world. His vision narrowed to a small sliver of light, before he finally couldn’t take it anymore and passed out.
…
Daniel woke in the dark, sleeping on a thin canvas floor. Disoriented, he thrashed around until he heard a voice cry out from next to him: “Easy, Danny, easy! It’s all right! You’re okay!”
Jordan’s voice immediately brought him back to reality, away from the memory of the pain. After a few deep breaths, Daniel asked: “What time is it?”
“It’s 2100 hours. You’ve been out cold for nine whole hours.”
Slightly disturbed, Daniel thanked his friend and pulled up his status:
User Name: Daniel Sylvester Hardgrave
Age: 18
Pioneer Class: Zeta
Rank: Private Second Class
Status:
Strength: 62 -> 92
Dexterity: 71 -> 113
Constitution: 64 -> 82
Adaptability: 38 -> 86
Psyche: 44 -> 96
Psionic Capacities:
Slot 1: Hunter’s Domain (Epsilon) (MP=0/10)
- Establish an Extrasensory Domain with Psionic Energy surrounding the User.
- Senses are enhanced within Domain. User can extend Senses throughout Domain.
- Dexterity is enhanced while Domain is active.
Personal Attributes:
Slot 1: Predatory Grace (Epsilon) (MP=0/7)
- Significant enhancement of natural Dexterity.
- Improves the ability of the User to move silently.
- Scales with Dexterity (E) and Adaptability (F).
Slot 2: Empty
Integrated Technologies:
Slot 1: Archangel System (???) (Power=0%)
Value of Personal Storage:
46,572 Credits
Value of Group Storage:
466,105 Credits (49,133 Recoverable)
Daniel’s eyes popped out of their sockets at the sheet in front of him. 190. His stats had gone up by a total of 190 points collectively. It was a truly outrageous number, one that was almost certainly a record for a Pioneer from a poor background like him. No one, besides a member of one of the 8 Great Clans, would easily get the chance to use an Epsilon class Morphic Stone while still Zeta class. This stone in particular was of very high quality too, since he managed to get both an Attribute and a Capacity from it. Not to mention the fact that they both looked awesome. All that pain had been worth it.
He was a little less pleased with the technology and money sections. The Archangel System…well it was powerful. Insanely powerful, almost too much so. To get those kinds of stat boosts and weapons from tech that was running on fumes like that…well it was the stuff of myth and legend. But he had no idea where it came from or why it had bonded with him, though he suspected that a certain underground door was at play here. A mysterious gift like this was a little hard to trust, and truth be told, hard to think of as a pure benefit. Power could be a burden, and if High Command got wind of the fact that his tech was this strong, he could be in for some serious trouble. Daniel had never heard of a process to strip a soldier of Codex tech, but it was certain to be possible, and quite possibly harmful to said soldier as well. But even if they didn’t put him through some ungodly process, Daniel wasn’t happy about the extra scrutiny that was sure to come from this discovery.
The money situation wasn’t great either. His personal inventory had diminished from the time that they’d spent just sitting around and waiting out the storm. Eating Xenos meat was expensive, after all. The Group storage had gotten a boost quite recently, though. Despite the loss of Gulliman’s inventory, Jordan informed him that they had earned around 100K from killing 48 Diaboco. The sergeant had made up the lion’s share of those kills, but he was no longer around to claim a piece of the bounty. That meant that each surviving guy got 5, with Daniel getting three extras since he’d beaten the big monster and saved them all. Jordan passed the 8 Xenos corpses over to him now that he was awake.
Once Daniel was up and out of his tent, he joined the rest of the men around a large campfire in the middle of their hastily set up base camp. Once he was there, they began planning in earnest.