The transport’s engines hummed powerfully as they propelled the Pioneers across the stars, the world around blurring into a slurry of white and blue as the ship screamed toward its destination. Beyond the engines, the transport’s inner workings weren’t overly dramatic. The hallways were mostly greys and blacks, broken up only by the white ceiling lights and the occasional glowing terminal. Naval personnel could regularly be seen in twos or threes running down these hallways, checking systems, taking readings, and doing everything they could to make sure things didn’t explode. Space travel, even with the most modern tech, was risky. It wasn’t unheard of to lose a transport because some idiot had made a critical mistake. Even small misses could cascade into full system failure eventually.
The Pioneers mostly relied on the navy to supply the training and personnel to make sure that that didn’t happen. This dependency was couched as a good thing for the Enhanced soldiers. ‘Leave the complicated stuff to those techy weirdos. You just focus on killing the bad guy.’, as Command liked to say. In truth, it was a way to make sure that the Pioneers didn’t get too powerful. Many felt that the Federation was overly prominent even with the status quo. That would only get worse if they were allowed to become a nearly self-sufficient operation.
At least the soldiers could do whatever they liked on their trips to and from their missions. Many chose to sit and relax in their bunks, reading or playing downloaded games on their Pads. Others chose to train.
The clash of metal rang out from one of the minor training rooms, the figures within a blur to the naked eye of an ordinary engineer. Someone who could follow the fight would have seen a tall, lanky-looking human matched by an equally tall lizard person with forest green scales and gleaming crimson eyes. The combatants wielded spears with astonishing dexterity, clashing with one another in a sequence of lightning jabs punctuated by the occasional sweep or defensive block. Each tried to provoke an opening as they circled one another, the give-and-take of the fight fast paced yet steady.
Robert Forsythe, the human of the duo, had proven so natural with the spear in basic training that he’d been considered a high-value recruit. That, along with a respectable amount of luck on his three mandatory drop missions, had allowed him to move into the elite of the Empire’s younger generation within E class. He’d been serving his three years of normal military service time before being tapped for the high-priority mission on E2555. He’d enlisted to give his family a more comfortable life than he ever could have while becoming a fisherman like his father.
Leka, his Forsica opponent, was the reverse image of her human counterpart. As the daughter of a pair of mercenaries, she’d grown up planning to follow in her parents’ footsteps. She’d shown great promise as a fighter from the beginning, only equaled by her now-deceased twin brother. The duo had left their parents once becoming adults, gaining stable employment with the Imperial mercenary core soon afterwards. They’d made a good name for themselves before being selected for the mission on E2555. Despite a harsh upbringing where life was cheap, Leka was affectionate, especially toward her friends and family. The death of her brother had hit her hard, and she’d chosen to cope with the grief with physical activity like training.
All around the training room, the other Pioneers in Daniel’s group were engrossed in their own chosen activity. Arnold Martel was doing pushups while reading something on his Pad, his body moving up and down at high speed even as his eyes scanned the document calmly. Arnold had long surpassed the point where pushups with just his bodyweight could do much for him in terms of stat growth. He was the kind of person who couldn’t sit still, so he preferred to perform physical tasks while doing his reading to help him focus. Arnold hadn’t divulged much about his past to the others in his squad, though the rumor was that he was the bastard son of the Brekinar family. The Pioneers only knew that he’d been raised by his mother and stepfather before enlisting at an early age. Man of mystery or not, he was dependable in a fight, so that was all they cared about.
Nearby, Allen Praxis leaned against the wall and read something of his own, the smaller man muttering to himself as his eyes scanned his Pad at high speed. He was one of the few in their group who’d come from legitimate privilege. The son of a wealthy investor, Praxis had become a Pioneer because of the adventure and intrigue that came from the job. He was terrible in close quarters and only halfway decent as a marksman. Praxis had supplemented his inadequacies as a fighter with financial help from his father, allowing him to grow in power as an Enhanced, but he didn’t have the air of a rich kid. Casual and friendly, Allen mostly walked around with his head in the clouds until an important discussion occurred. Then, his input was greatly appreciated. He’d been at the top of his class academically, and he was good at using that knowledge in real-world circumstances.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Further away from those two, Gronik the Andrako and Emily Sillica were getting some exercise of their own. The big alien was engaged in a very intense session of shadowboxing, his limbs firing through the air like super-powered pistons. A silent fellow, the Andrako had been a prizefighter before joining the Federation as a change of career. He’d seemed unapproachable and stoic to the extreme, before everyone realized that the big guy was just socially awkward and not confident in his knowledge of the human language. From there, it became easy for the soldiers to treat him as a welcome, friendly presence on the team. Reggie had even tried to get him to come out of his shell, with limited results.
Emily was doing some gymnastics in the same area as the alien, her limber form twisting in a complex sequence of flips and cartwheels. She’d loved the sport growing up, and her constant practice had prepared her for life as a Pioneer more than she ever could’ve known. She’d wanted to go pro, but after the death of her mother her life had been consumed with making a living at any job she could find.
Reggie had been inspired by watching Emily, and he’d decided to practice some gymnastics of his own. The Colare flew around in the air over all the Pioneers’ heads, doing a variety of backflips and complex maneuvers mid-flight. He was the son of a struggling businessman who’d decided to do something unorthodox. Reggie’s father had invested some of the last of his personal assets in Pioneers, creating a sponsorship agreement with them that would make the Colare businessman entitled to a portion of their earnings. It was a risky deal, and it was hard to know who to trust, so Reggie had stepped up to the plate. He’d volunteered to be one of the Pioneers his father sponsored, offering his old man a larger portion of his earnings than any of the others. After a lot of debate, his father had agreed, and Reggie had proven far more capable than most would’ve suspected.
Finally, Daniel sat off in the corner. He was supposed to be reading something, though he was currently allowing himself to get distracted. His eyes wandered across the room, taking in everyone and lingering on Emily for quite a while. Eventually, he reluctantly forced his attention back to his Pad. Still, Daniel’s mind was elsewhere as his eyes idly scanned the same line several times without reading it. Eventually, he stopped daydreaming about unproductive things and turned his mind back toward business. Before him was a crucial document that could turn the tide of the upcoming battle. It was a training manual for dealing with Kharnidd that had been published on the Network by High Command quite recently. Daniel could see areas where it had definitely been informed by the dossier he’d sent out previously. It was vindicating to realize that the dossier had been taken seriously and used in the development of something this important.
Of course, the Pioneers didn’t have access to the Network while on the ship, but there was an exception. Captain Lockheart had a rare tool called the Vox Box, which used Warp tech to connect to the Network without the use of a tower. Vox Boxes were rare and expensive to produce and operate, but they were extremely useful for Pioneers in the field who needed to obtain or broadcast information over vast distances. The good captain had connected with the FOB that the Pioneers were supposed to be returning to and explained their situation. That FOB’s commander had then informed the captain about the presence of the Kharnidd training manual and sent it to Lockheart. The captain had copied the file and send it to all the Pioneers on the ship, announcing that it was important information for their upcoming mission. He had also sent them information on Moon D2404, along with a mission summary that had been sent directly to their Codices:
Mission: Defend the Mining Operation on Moon D2404
A vital mining operation on Moon D2404 has come under attack from the Xenos threat known as the Kharnidd. Due to your proximity to the moon, you have been selected to defend it. There is no designated cash reward for this mission. You will be allowed to keep whatever spoils you gain from your fight. However, failure to fight courageously for the sake of the mission will incur a penalty. Do your duty. Defend the mine.
Reward for Main Mission Completion: Doing your Patriotic Duty.
Daniel couldn’t say he liked the tone of the briefing, but what could he do but follow orders? After all, he was in the military and was eligible to be tapped for any mission for the length of his service. There were some practical and legal limits to how far that could go, but this mission was well within those bounds. An Element 630 mine of this scale played a prominent role for the Imperium’s military and economy. It would have been malpractice not to marshal as many soldiers as possible to defend it. Daniel wasn’t thrilled about the situation, but he blamed the Kharnidd, not the government. With the System’s help, he could hopefully help wipe these things out and head home soon.
But the System alone was not going to carry him to victory, and there were other things Daniel could do to improve his chances. Sighing, he closed the Pad and took out the Gamma class stone. He’d been procrastinating using this thing for a variety of reasons, one of which was that the stone was behaving rather strangely. It shone much more brightly than a normal Morphic stone, giving off enough heat to burn Daniel’s hand as he held it. While in theory, he’d absorbed a Kharnidd Morphic stone that was higher than his class before, this one gave him a bad feeling.
Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers. If he just allowed it to gather dust, he ran the risk of being destroyed by some random Beta class. Or worse. Taking a deep breath, Daniel sat down in a lotus position and began absorbing the stone.
