A boarding party turned out to be, anyone who can fly, which was Brufo, Valietta, Tamiro, and, apparently, me. In the few minutes while the boarding party got ready, I managed to make my way back to where I’d awakened, in the first bedroom.
It smelled of chicken and spices in here from the spilled ramen. More importantly, I found my clothes in a drawer and got dressed. Black jeans and a buttoning shirt and a brown jacket. When I returned it wasn’t long before Val and Brufo clumped back in their flight suits. Tech Appraiser pinged as they approached and outlined their capabilities: comm devices, jetpacks, breathing apparatus, and missiles.
Tamiro and myself went au natural. We went topside, they led me up yet another narrow staircase onto the deck. The sun was radiant and warm, but the wind licked cold. I was hungry. I wished I’d eaten the bread.
Tamiro lined up beside me. “Ready to roll?”
I nodded. Electricity coursed around the sylvan lightning sprite.
“You’re awesome Tamiro!” I blurted.
“Just using what my parents gave me. What every svark has.”
“Everybody ready?” Val called. “You sure you’re up for this Daniel?”
I looked down at my hands, marked with sap and blood. “Let’s kick some tree ass.”
It was pretty much just that easy to use Wind Rider. It was like an escalator. A wavy, unpredictable escalator. I went at least as fast as the jetpack crew (Val and Brufo), though Tamiro streaked on down the line ahead. I could have gone faster, probably.
The Grover airship was half-plant, at least. Grafted trees had grown throughout the hull and scraggly pine needles poked out from branches in bunches. Flocks of birds surrounded it, and there were yet more in its wake.
“What’s with the birds?” I shouted.
“Poor creatures,” Val said. “Most of those species have no home save what the Grovers can offer them. They say that once the Grovers’ trees were planted in the soil of our world, and the birds lived in balance.”
We approached and zipped between the flocks of birds before they could close on us. We landed on the deck.
“That was a long time ago,” Brufo said and fired a missile at the main mast. He had one on each arm.
The explosion sent the flocks reeling (and Tamiro, but he flew back in). The mast, part-tree, crashed to the deck and then scraped into the abyss. Brufo readied a second missile toward the hole cleared in the deck.
“Wait,” Tamiro said. “We don’t know what’s in there.”
Then vines began to emerge from the burning hole. Flames licking them. They didn’t care, or maybe they did but they were already really mad. More of these yellow-robed acolytes, although one was basically a monitor lizard wearing a robe. There were at least six, probably more.
Brufo fired the second missile. When the smoke cleared there were still four of them, pretty charred but very alive and angry.
[Experience Gained: +200 XP (Combat)]
[LEVEL UP: Daniel]
[Driften Waker: Level 2]
Then the ship attacked us. I looked down and my legs were grabbed by tightening vines. A vine tried to snatch Tamiro but he jolted it with lightning and it flopped down.
“Oh hell no,” Brufo crackled through the intercom.
The big man carefully unsheathed a large sword as we all struggled with the vines and they crept up and began binding my arms. I doubted he could have carried it without the flight suit.
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With one vast slash he clove through the vines grappling all three of us and we fell in a heap, just as the Grovers were upon us.
I saw Val twist and avoid her attacker, but Brufo got pinned by two at once, and the last one was for me. It was the monitor lizard. Lizard man? Tamiro looked between me and Brufo.
“Help him!” I shouted.
I used Wind Rider to leap behind the Grover. If I could sweep kick like Val I could bring him down now but I didn’t think I could. I turned the laser drill on and drilled him right through the brain. The monitor lizard wilted.
I turned in time to see Brufo, pinned down, get his flight suit torn off by a slashing brace of vines. Val avoided the next vine attack from the Grover, but the vines coming from the ship began to get a hold of her. She couldn’t jump forever.
I could. I jumped over behind her Grover before the vines could grab me in my spot. I laser drilled him and he crumpled. I grinned, then moved on. Tamiro had shocked one of the Grovers fighting Brufo, but the second had wounded him and he was still pinned by the ship’s vines. I laser drilled the one attacking Brufo as Tamiro’s lightning intensified.
Finally in the quiet Val snapped, “Tamiro that’s enough! He’s electrocuted dude, sheesh!”
The ship, still in motion, began to list downward.
“We’ve only got a few minutes before she goes down,” said Brufo. “Let’s case the joint and make it quick! Kid, with me.”
I guess I was ‘Kid’. I followed Brufo, indefatigable.
“I didn’t know you had moves like that Brufo. What class are you?”
He chuckled. “I’m a Black Chef. But it might not be my first class.”
Brufo peered into the hole he’d blown with his missiles.
“It’s true. Believe it or not, before I was a sky salvager I had another life. Other dreams. Looks like a bunch of rotting barrels to me. Whatever this ship was, the Grovers must have had it for a long time.”
I inched forward and looked down as well. Where the light touched I could see the spoiler barrels as well. More concerningly was the glowing, from large mushrooms, revealing plenty of biomass fermenting down there.
“Go fly down there and check it out.”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It looks awfully gross.”
“Val?” Brufo shouted. “Will you go down there?”
“Rather burn it.”
“Tamiro? Come on! I’d go myself but my suit is busted.”
Tamiro wrung his hands. “This ship is really grabby.”
He turned back to me, crossed his arms. He was bleeding.
“Come on Daniel. If you do this I’ll back you to join the crew.”
“Join the crew?” I repeated.
I wasn’t sure what to say. I hadn’t though about what’s next, yet.
“Well you’ve got no place until you can get your memory back, eh? But we haven’t spoken about your intentions in this world. It’s not the time. Either go in there, or don’t.
My intentions in this world. That was something I was going to have to consider. But for now I nodded and said I would do it. I jumped in, glided in, evading the groping vines that may or may not have known they were about to meet a violent end. (I assumed that eventually down there they would crash into something.)
I looked around quickly. I hoped Tech Appraiser would ping. It found a plasma oven, I opened the hatch and it was not even metal inside, it had been nested in. There was greenish plant growth everywhere. And--a little green kitten! I liked pets, cats. I always wanted one, but not enough to actually get one, yet here was a kitten.
Right, the ship, plummeting. I put out my hand and the kitten hopped on.
I flew back up. “I got a kitten!”
Everybody gawked for a second, but it was time to go and Val had a flight suit on rendering her hands pretty husky.
As soon as we left the ship the world shimmered around me. I yelped.
[Asset Recovered: Companion]
[Experience Gained: +17750 XP (Salvage)]
[LEVEL UP: Daniel]
[Driften Waker: Level 3]
[LEVEL UP: Daniel]
[Driften Waker: Level 4]
[LEVEL UP: Daniel]
[Driften Waker: Level 5]
[Feature: New Perk]
[LEVEL UP: Daniel]
[Driften Waker: Level 6]
[LEVEL UP: Daniel]
[Driften Waker: Level 7]
[LEVEL UP: Tamiro]
[Stormfoot: Level 10]
[Feature: New Perk]
[LEVEL UP: Tamiro]
[Stormfoot: Level 11]
[LEVEL UP: Brufo]
[Black Chef: Level 6]
[LEVEL UP: Brufo]
[Black Chef: Level 7]
[LEVEL UP: Brufo]
[Black Chef: Level 8]
“Did…did I just level up from the cat?” I said.
“Not just you,” Brufo said, being carried by Val. “We all did.”
Tamiro bowed to me. “It is you friend Daniel who are awesome.”
Tamiro reached out to pet the moss kitten which swatted at him.
