“Two weeks. We’re about to make landfall.” Arnold responded, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. He’d come here, hoping to see his friend wake up in time to join the battle. But even though Daniel was awake, he clearly wasn’t in fighting shape. The big man coughed, before floating a few words he honestly didn’t mean: “Doc says you need a few months of recovery. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of things without-“
“Shut up and help me out of bed.” Daniel interrupted, staring up at his friend deadpan. Arnold cracked a small smile before leaning down and doing as he was ‘ordered’. Arm in arm, the two men steadily walked out of the room and down the hallway, startling the nurses in their path. One called out, “Where are you going?”
“Somewhere I shouldn’t be and somewhere I need to be.” Daniel called back, not looking back as he turned most of his focus on walking. His legs felt like a thousand knives had been jammed into them, making each step a cascade of agony. Sitting in his bed, he hadn’t realized how painful just moving around would be. Before he could do much to rectify that, another voice called out, “Stop immediately!”
The old doctor waddled out of his office, blue eyes gleaming angrily. The Pioneers were so startled at the steel in his voice that they stopped, and the old man got between them and the door. The physician wasn’t Enhanced, but he stared up at the duo with a ferocity that rivaled a Kharnidd warrior. Far from the gentle man they’d encountered before, the doctor’s voice came out in a curt, firm fashion: “Pioneer Hardgrave, you are not cleared for combat. You need rest and recovery. Please return to your bed immediately.”
The two men stared at the doctor for a moment, dumbfounded, before Daniel recovered. This situation called for some reassurance, so he did the most natural thing he could think of. He engaged a Protocol:
“Engaging Raphael Protocol, [Standard] Power”
System Power: 60%
Status
Strength: 325 (+250)
Dexterity: 435 (+400)
Constitution: 290 (+750)
Adaptability: 344 (+450)
Psyche: 496 (+750)
Manicae Medici: Offline
Sphaera Scuti: Offline
Passus Phantasmae: Offline
Subfunctions: Standard
To the surprise of everyone, besides Arnold, his body was surrounded by a bright white light that fell away to reveal something new. Daniel was clothed in a full-body robe, mostly white but with a gold trim. His hands sported shining gauntlets of a glimmering silvery metal, and he felt a lightweight coat of the same material covering his entire body underneath the robe. The robe led up to Daniel’s neck, which was shielded by more segmented silver armor connected to a small helmet of the same color. That helmet was only decorated with a black visor and a few gold lines that ran over the cranium, around the visor, and down the jaw. The moment the Protocol appeared, Daniel felt himself breathing easier as its Constitution buff went to work. He stopped leaning on Arnold and queried Nuntius mentally: “Can you fix me?”
“The damage you’ve taken is complex and deep. Using the Manicae Medici should improve your condition and speed up your recovery. After that, you should recover naturally. But you will be able to fight.”
“What about the Psionic poisoning?”
“That can only be fixed by the Litradia in your storage. At your current class.”
That qualifier interested Daniel, so he pushed, "At my current class? Will I be able to neutralize the damage from the poisoning when I get to higher classes?”
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He hadn’t seen that in the System’s capability summary.
“Unknown. System interface with User physiology impossible to fully model. Full capabilities at peak growth remain ambiguous.”
Well, that was interesting. Putting those curious thoughts aside, Daniel manifested the Manicae Medici, and his whole armor transformed. His gauntlets were the first to shift, going from silver to white and gold, and the rest of the armor followed. The gold lining on the robe and helmet pulsed with light, and Daniel’s body was subsumed by bright white fire. The medical personnel around him let out cries of shock and fear, and even Arnold took a few steps back. The fire disappeared nearly as quickly as it came, and the Protocol vanished along with it, leaving Daniel standing there and looking nonchalant. He flexed one arm, then another, feeling sore and mildly weakened but in much better shape than before.
He then turned his eyes toward the doctor in front of him, whose mouth had dropped open in an almost comical expression of surprise. Kneeling, Daniel looked the man in the eyes and gently said: “Sorry to scare you doc, but I think I’m gonna be fine. Give my bed to someone else. You’ll probably need it.”
With that, Daniel strode around the man, and Arnold followed behind him. They both heard a commotion break out in the med bay as they left, but no one followed the Pioneers or attempted to stop them. Ignoring the remaining ache in his legs, Daniel checked on his Status. It was time to audit the recent changes:
User Name: Daniel Sylvester Hardgrave
Age: 18
Pioneer Class: Delta
Rank: Sergeant
Status
Strength: 260 -> 325
Dexterity: 292 -> 435
Constitution: 235 -> 290
Adaptability: 241 -> 344
Psyche: 284 -> 496
Psionic Capacities:
Slot 1: Hunter’s Domain (Delta) (MP=0/21)
- Establish an Extrasensory Domain with Psionic Energy surrounding the User.
- Senses are enhanced within the Domain. User extends Senses throughout the Domain.
- Dexterity is enhanced while the Domain is active.
Slot 2: Destroyer’s Strike (Delta) (MP=0/21)
- Use Psionic Energy to temporarily Enhance a user’s limb or weapon.
- Enhancement increases the attack power and durability of the limb or weapon.
- Enhancement reaches its pinnacle when first activated, losing power quickly over time.
Slot 3: Overclock (Gamma) (MP=0/60)
- User expends Psionic Energy to improve the power of any Psionic Capacity temporarily.
- Can only boost one Capacity at once.
- Cannot be used in rapid succession.
Personal Attributes:
Slot 1: Predatory Grace (Delta) (MP=0/15)
- Significant enhancement of natural Dexterity.
- Improves the ability of the User to move silently.
- Scales with Dexterity (D) and Adaptability (E).
Slot 2: Titanic Might (Delta) (MP=0/15)
- Considerable enhancement of natural Strength.
- Toughens skin, making User harder to damage.
- Scales with Strength (D) and Adaptability (E).
Slot 3: Pneumonic Enhancement (Epsilon) (MP=0/7)
- Increases lung efficiency, allowing the User to survive with less Oxygen.
- Allows User to more easily convert the atmosphere around them to Oxygen, making breathing in many hostile environments possible (e.g. Breathing underwater)
- Scales with Adaptability (E).
Slot 4: Empowered Psyche (Gamma) (MP=0/42)
- Major enhancement of natural Psyche.
- Can more easily process sensory information.
- Scales with Psyche (C) and Adaptability (D).
Slot 5: Empty
Integrated Technologies:
Slot 1: Archangel System (???) (Power=59.9%)
Those numbers…couldn’t be right. The more an Enhanced climbed the advancement ladder, the harder it was to improve one’s stats, and the more stats one needed to advance a class. And yet here Daniel was, leapfrogging through Delta class with one little Morphic stone. Even with a G class Kharnidd stone, those numbers were absurd. He now sat firmly in mid Delta class after only being a Pioneer for less than a year. Thanks to the Litradia, he’d swiftly hit that mark without ensuring he’d die at sixty, which was a little surreal. He’d probably sustained some poisoning from that G class stone, but Daniel didn’t want to use another dose of Litradia yet. This battle was probably going to get ugly, meaning that he couldn’t get content with mid-class Delta. If Daniel wanted to survive, he’d have to continue to advance, which meant more poisoning. Daniel needed to stretch nine vials over this entire battle, eight if he wanted to keep a sample for later analysis and replication. He’d save one of his precious doses for when things got worse.
As for the Capacity and the Attribute, they seemed pretty strong. Since his Psyche was so powerful now, he’d probably be able to get decent use out of the G class Capacity, even though he was still technically D class. He was concerned about his low Constitution, though. With how unbalanced his stats were, Daniel was starting to look like a glass cannon.
When Daniel and Arnold rejoined their squad in the ship’s bay, they were met with celebratory cheers from the rest of the gang. Daniel received several congratulatory slaps on the back and hugs from both Leka and Emily. His friends asked about his health, but he reassured them that he was in fighting shape. Daniel was already thinking of ways to compensate for his lingering physical weakness.
The Pioneers all stood around in the ship’s cargo bay as the transport broke the moon’s thin atmosphere and descended toward the blasted landscape below. They weren’t going to get dropped via pods this time. Instead, the ship ambled into a hangar attached to one of the many towers populating the satellite’s surface. The vehicle set down as gently as possible and opened the cargo bay’s door, the huge metal gangplank coming down with a nerve-wracking clang. Daniel’s first taste of the atmosphere was acrid and dry, the toxic air forcing his breath to grow shallow and reinforcing the pain in his limbs. As he followed the other Pioneers in a large mob onto the hangar floor, he heard a loud voice boom above the fray: “ALL RIGHT, FRESH MEAT, TIME TO GET IN THE GRINDER!”
Daniel’s squad had joined the battle on Moon D2404.