Chapter 75 – Plus One

  “Alright, Praise the sun. Check. Morning stretch. Check. Coffee. Check. Second coffee. Check Grumpy traveling companion. Check” Matt said in way to chipper a tone as he all but dragged Ash out into the sunlight.

  They had ended up staying the rest of the night in the cave. Ash spent that night sleeping while Matt was reviewing his tablet and running the mapping software. He had a pretty good, if narrow track that he had run. It ran mostly straight other than when he got to the dry and dusty foothills, they were currently in.

  “Are you always this chipper in the morning?” Ash grumbled as she shielded her eyes from the sun. She had turned down his offer of coffee, instead brewing her own sort of tea that reminded Matt of Chai.

  “Rarely. He normally is a rather cantankerous and snippy with early wakeups.” A voice rumbled. “His good mood is probably because he didn’t actually sleep. He was up all night with me plotting and planning.”

  “What? Where?” Ash asked, looking around and clutching Hopes core to her chest.

  Matt looked slightly embarrassed, having forgotten to introduce his other companion. “Ash, this is Horizion’s Vanguard or Van for short.”

  Still looking around frantically, Ash had to ask again. “Yeah, but where is he?”

  Suddenly the boulders to the side of the cave opening revealed themselves to be a mech with a strange netting attached to it. Van was crouched, almost leaning back against the steep slope of the hillside.

  “Thogrils twisted taint!” Ash yelled as Van revealed himself to be only a few meters from her.

  “Ahem.” Matt coughed softly. “Yeah, that’s kind of our M.O. these days. By the way, who is Thogril?”

  Giving him a rather spiteful glare, Ash answered. “He was the god of the dwarves on my home planet. What does M. O. mean?”

  “Ah, it means modus operandi. A phrase from one of my worlds dead languages that translates to ‘normal operation’ or sometimes ‘routine behavior’.” Matt explained. “Moving on, Van, Ash. Ash, Van.”

  “Nice to meet you, Ash.” Van said.

  Ash bowed low, surprising Matt. “Well met, Awakened One.”

  “Aha. That is rather amusing.” Van laughed in a way that they could feel in their bones. “While I appreciate the honorifics that Hope no doubt coached you on, please just call me Van.”

  “Well, shall we get a move on?” Matt asked.

  Looking slightly flustered, Ash responded. “Yes, but please remember to let me keep pace.” She adjusted the sling for Hope’s core across her chest.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Umm, I assumed you would be in your construct, and I would be running alongside?” Ash answered, now looking very confused. “Is that not the case?”

  Chuckling, Matt walked over to the mech, and the hatch opened. Looking inside, Ash was able to see the 2 tandem seats. “Just try not to bump your head on it this time.” Matt laughed as he waited for her to climb in.

  After Ash had seated herself in the copilot’s chair, Matt showed her how to use the restraints and helped her stow the core she had been carrying in the tie down points near her seat. He then put his tablet in the mount so she would be able to see more of the outside.

  “From what I hear, its rather dark and disorientating if you don’t have a display. You can adjust the display using these controls.” Matt showed her the sliders for the display mode. He adjusted the rear camera and most of the sensors to near Zero while leaving the compass and threat detection field up.

  “This is all rather… fancy?” Ash commented. “My tower and the pilots there didn’t have anything this… advanced.”

  “Yeah, I have heard similar from some of the other pilots back in Krad. But on the plus side, you can use this time to get some inspiration for how you want your new mech to look.”

  Matt took his seat and closed the hatch. He suddenly remembered something and thought to bring it up before they started moving. “Hey, Ash. Have you had much experience with teleporting?”

  “Not any more than the System doing it.”

  “Right.” Matt pulled out a few plastic bags from one of the lockers. “Here, just in case I need to teleport. Its not a very pleasant experience the first few times.” He then showed her how to open and reseal the bags before sitting back down.

  “So how far was your tower again?”

  Ash thought for a moment before answering. “I was running almost nonstop for 11 days. So probably 15-18 days at a fast travel pace. Why do you ask?”

  Matt began moving up the ridge line as he explained what he was thinking. “It’s just that I want to know how far out a potential enemy is. I had been meandering my way along for about 8 days so that would put them over a month from us on foot.”

  “It would have to be on foot. The delta is somewhat impassible by constructs unless they find a new route around or build some bridges.”

  “Oh? Why is that.”

  “Well, the ground is a little on the soft side once you get within the delta. Most of the pilots avoided it since they would sink in the soft ground. This naturally caused a lot of issues with the other fighting and hunting parties since they had no support from the pilots.” She explained.

  Matt found that rather interesting and it put a little bug in his mind about the logistics of moving a mechanized force over such a long distance. It would be a challenge that he would have to face at some point, but he hoped that by then, they would have some other transportation.

  He had finally made it to the peak of the ridgeline that they were on after a few more minutes of climbing. Once there, he summoned a repeater and a mounting pole. From the storage aboard the mech and hopped out to set them up.

  “What are you doing?” Ash called down from inside.

  “Repeater tower.” Matt replied, his voice coming in from the speaker mounted near her display. “Our communications don’t reach this far, and we use these small towers to boost and send the signals.”

  “How does it work?”

  “I have no idea. Well, I have some idea on the actual use of them but the science behind it is a bit beyond me. It uses radio waves or something. I don’t know much more so you would have to ask Tobias when we get back.”

  Matt finished connecting the sections of antenna pole and activated the repeater. After climbing back in, he carefully picked it up with the hand of his mech. Trying to get it as vertical as possible, he used the impressive power of the mech to drive it into the crumbling rock of the ridge line.

  “So, what kind of range do these have?” Ash asked.

  “These ones are pretty limited, so I have been placing one every 100 kilometers or so. We are running single channel, plain text so we have plenty of range.” Matt explained. “The magic used to make them also seems to make them more reliable. The ones we had back home were not always the most consistent.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Ash seemed to accept that and sat back, fiddling with the display on the tablet when she saw the tell-tale movement of Matts helmet. “Who are you talking to?” Without stopping, Matt reached back and rotated a knob near the speaker on her ‘dashboard’.

  Matts voice came over the speaker a moment later. “Vil’ Krad Xray, this is Advent.” A pause for a couple seconds before a response came back.

  “Advent, this is Krad X Ray. Go ahead, over.” A mans voice crackled over the speaker.

  “Krad Xray. Advent is RTB 1 vic, 1 familiar, 2 pax. How copy, over?”

  “Roger, Advent. I have 1 vic, 1 familiar and 2 pax.” The voice had a slight uptick at the end that almost sounded like it wanted to ask a question. “Estimate RTB, over?”

  “Ahh, Krad I estimate, Break” Matt then turned back to Ash. “Hey, do you want to head right back or do you mind taking our time and maybe killing some shit on our way?”

  “Ahh, I… I don’t mind. Whatever you want.” She hedged. As much as Ash wanted to get away from her tower, she also was at his mercy.

  Nodding, Matt returned to his transmission. “Krad, I estimate 10 days to return. Will advise of changes. Advent, out.”

  Matt ended his transmission then addressed Ash again. “Sorry, I’m trying to be responsible and keep them informed. Theoretically, they can track my general location from when I ping the towers but its not the most precise. They also don’t know what I’m up to.”

  “Yeah, I don’t understand like, any of that.” Ash admitted. “Who is Advent and Xray?” She had her suspicion but wanted to confirm instead of assuming.

  Giving a little laugh he began maneuvering back down the slope. “Advent is my call sign. Its easier than trying to remember names. Its short for adventurer. Rohm suggested I get my own since I am not really tagging along with the recon teams anymore.”

  “And Xray?” she decided to skip over the other names he just said.

  “That would refer to any stationary or unit level radio station. That particular one is the main command post back in the city. It’s the only one we have but its good to get in the habit.”

  “Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Um, just one more thing.”

  “Shoot.”

  Ash took a deep breath before asking. “Rohm? Command post? Recon teams? And who exactly is this Tobias character?” She rattled off all her questions in rapid fire order.

  Matt laughed again. “Alright, I guess I can cover some basics. Real quick. Do you have the party system?” Seeing her shake her head, he continued. “Alright, I’m sending a request. You should join until we get back, we need to get your levels up somehow.”

  Stunned by the sudden pop up, Ash could only accept the prompt as Matt began to explain everything she had asked about. He was holding nothing back and seemed to be happy to explain references and naming conventions. There was a lot of slang that she didn’t know quite yet. It was a good thing they had time to go over it all before they returned.

  *****

  Tori was working in her study. The room, while technically part of her office complex, was a private room that only she could enter. Most of the time, she used it as a retreat when she needed to be ‘offline’ for a while and pursue other goals.

  The other goas she was pursuing at the moment happened to be watching a television program from Earth about a bunch of teenagers that went around solving mysteries. Truth be told she was watching one of the later series of the franchise, but it all followed the same pattern.

  As per usual, the dog was running scared with his primary human companion that she assumed was the owner. She was about to look into the team dynamic on something called a ‘wiki’, when she heard a knocking. Tori looked away from the screen and frowned.

  It wasn’t uncommon for someone to knock on her study door, in fact it happened nearly every day at some point or another. The problem was this knock didn’t come from the door but instead from the desk in the corner of the room.

  Tori stood and pulsed her domain for a fraction of a second. She used her considerable will to isolate and unravel any magics or skills that she hadn’t made. The action was futile as nothing was revealed to her. She approached the desk, looking for something that might have shifted to make the knocking sound.

  No, it was 3 knocks. Evenly timed and of matching sound. Hmmm. Tori had just reached her desk when she felt another presence. A familiar presence that was behind her. Tori whipped around and saw that person now sitting in the chair she had recently vacated.

  Mekristi, The Bearer of Absolution was now sitting in her chair and watching the display playing the cartoon. Tori just sighed. “You could have just knocked on the door like a normal person. But now that we are here, please, sit stay a while.” She put a little sarcasm into her words.

  “Thank you for your consideration.” Whispered the tiny assassin that could apparently sneak into anywhere she pleased.

  Tori grumbled as she sat on the couch opposite the lounge chair. “What can I help you with?” She truly was curious. It had been a couple weeks since she invited the new goddess to join her organization but hadn’t heard a peep from her.

  “I found one.” She whispered, turning from the cartoon to look directly at Tori with her slightly too large and too attentive eyes.

  Waving her hand in the ‘get on with it’ motion Tori urged her to continue. “I am going to need more information than that.”

  Looking slightly confused before realization hit her, Mekristi quickly added on to her statement. “I found someone I want to make a prime.”

  “That’s great news. What does that have to do with me?”

  “I thought you needed to know?” Mekristi said, clearly confused.

  “Not really but why don’t you show them to me.” Tori figured she should humor her newest ally for a little while.

  Nodding, Mekristi summoned a screen and showed a very familiar looking construct.

  “You know Matt is my prime right?” Tori was confused. Was the assassin actually telling her that she wanted to take her prime?

  Scoffing, Mekristi adjusted her screen. ‘Ugh. No. Not Matt. He is good but not the right fit for me.” The screen seemed to move through the hull of the construct to show the interior. It then focused on the person sitting directly behind Matt. “Her. I want her.”

  Tori watched for a few moments, taking in everything she could about the young versipellan. An interesting choice if she didn’t say so herself. While she didn’t know exact details, she knew that the changeling had a conceptual affinity and a unique trait.

  “Hmm. That is interesting. What do you need from me?”

  Mekristi bobbed her head. “I would like you to inform Matt about it, so he isn’t… surprised, by the encounter. He seems to be rather, ah, violent when startled.”

  Laughing, Tori agreed. “Indeed, he can be. I will tell him but give them a couple days to get out of the mountains. I want to see what he plans for that vampire creature.”

  “I understand.”

  “Great and whi…” Tori began to say before looking over and noticing that the other goddess had vanished. Not only had she visibly disappeared, but she also didn’t even leave a trace of her aura or mana when she did. Sighing, she turned back only to see the screen had vanished too. “I feel like I bit off more than I can chew here.”

  *****

  “Why wont the fucking thing coalesce?” Tobias slapped his hand on his desk before yelling. “Just project you fuckity fuck!” He sighed heavily realizing his yelling was getting him nowhere on his project. Even his upgraded inspect skill was giving him no help.

  Deduce (Legendary)

  An upgraded version of the inspect spell that is given to all sentient beings of the System. Deduce allows the user to inspect an object then get a return on its nature. Returned information is based on users’ knowledge. Returned information may have false positives.

  Tobias sighed heavily for a second time. He was getting nowhere and had spent the last few days cooped up in his lab working on this project. The only break he had was after electrocuting himself and having to sit quietly until the rampant electrical mana dispersed from his system.

  He decided to that a little stroll might be for the best and left his lab to do a couple laps around the city. He liked to do some light exploring every couple of days since so much was changing, due to the influx of people and expansion of the wall’s borders. It also helped with his general knowledge of the city and its people. He thought it was a good idea to know who might be able to help him or might need help from him.

  He strolled down one of the spokes near the center of the industrial section of the city. Mostly because it was close to the forge but also because that’s where he could offer the most help if someone needed it. It wasn’t long before someone needing his help came along.

  “Hello Venri.” Tobias said as he walked up next to the dwarf. “Where are you off to?”

  “Ah, Morning Tobias.” She said, startling slightly as she had been deep in thought. “I am going to try out some of the newer formula for my ammunition.” She held up a small vial of the stuff. “I am moving on to using the glass that Kurt made not too long before the event.”

  Tobias took the container from her and looked at the pale blue, glowing liquid. “Do you use these because you need to have the liquid in glass?”

  “No not at all.” Venri said and pulled out one of her moon clips. “These are the perfect size for dipping and my ammunition pouch fits one of those vials perfectly.”

  Tobias slowed a bit before stopping as he looked at the ring of cartridges, Venri naturally stopping with him. They stood in the middle of the street like a couple idiots for a moment until Tobias asked his question. “Are you for some reason limited to using that carbine?” he gestured at the large bore revolving rifle slung over her shoulder.

  Venri shook her head. “No. It’s just what I have.”

  Tobias nodded along. “Does this material need any certain velocity to work?” he tapped the glass vial he held.

  “Umm, no? But I will say that more is better. Its part of the reason I haven’t tried to pick up one of the rifles like the recon folks use.” She kicked at the ground. “But I wish I had the capacity or rate of fire. Then I would have quite the weapon.”

  “Oh boy do I have something I think you are going to like.” He said and turned around to head back to the forge. “If you just want the surface area of the round and don’t care much about range there is a solution, we have available.”

  Venri had to take he steps very quick to keep up with Tobias. “What solution? I already tried that shotgun think from Lisk but it was a bit much.”

  “You know about machineguns, right?”

  Venri nodded. “Yeah, its kinda the main thing we arm the wall with.”

  Tobias smiled in a way that wasn’t at all reassuring. “Have you ever heard of a sub machinegun?”