From: Dan Brovski ([emailprotected])
To: ESCH_SCI_RDTEAM
Please explain to me why your tests have produced no substantial results for several months in a row? How much money have I put into your budget? Do you think we have the funding to keep blowing on useless projects? Conrad kept telling me you’re a discovery away from a breakthrough, yet here we are.
No. Results.
It is my pleasure to inform you that Conrad has agreed to a severance package, I’ll be introducing Sheryl Clemmence to lead your team in his place. You may be aware she’s well known in corporate as a person who drives results from inefficient teams, or cuts them if they’re hopeless.
Maybe that will kick your asses into gear.
Vortex Industries has no place for departments that are not turning out a product that produces a profit.
Get your act together, I expect something usable in two months.
- Dan Brovski, Email To R&D ESCH Team. (2109, 2nd Era)
It carved a bottomless pit in his stomach, filled with wrongness at how easily everyone went along with his plan.
He’d deceived them.
Garin, Olivia, and Colin held no clue why he wanted into the city. All it took was some prompting and dropping the fact that other initiates were allowed out on the last few expeditions to sway them.
Too easy.
How wrong.
As quick as a blade slicing into a beast, they agreed to go on a patrol as long as he could convince a high-ranking Knight to permit it and accompany them.
Why Colin wanted to come along was obvious. He needed to prove himself. Garin gave an affable ''yes" because he saw Erec wanted to.
Olivia was the only one who questioned his motive, though not verbally. With the look in her eyes and a distinctive twist from her natural curiosity, she knew something odd was up. He just prayed that she'd never figure out what might've caused his erratic behavior.
He steeled his nerves.
He then flagged down Dame Robin.
She was outside of her Armor—a thin woman with delicate limbs, a tall shape, and very pale skin. She’d claimed a desk in one of the conquered buildings and already filled its surface with various reports.
Documenting expeditions was a vital pursuit since they provided information about the world's changing landscape outside. It was a way to taste the wind before it carried poison.
Erec cleared his throat, and she gave him a small pursed smile, taking in him and his friends.
“Hello, Dame Robin.” He said, waiting for her to set down the paperwork she was reading over.
“Ah, Erec. Your eyes do seem a little dark. Have you still been sleeping? Regular rest is incredibly important on expeditions."
“No—but, um. I’m here to ask a favor.” She tilted her head and gestured for him to continue. “I want to learn how to lead a patrol. Like how Sir Alister did—“
She raised a finger, looking at their group, which stopped him dead in his tracks. She took her time before replying. A bead of sweat ran down his brow. What if this failed? Well, maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But… VAL made it seem so important; the damn machine hadn’t spoken a word about anything else since receiving that data packet.
If it was that fixated, it kept making Erec second guess just how valuable it was. VAL understood the risks it was asking him to take and, in its cut-and-dry calculation, determined it to be worth it.
But could he trust VAL?
And even then, he couldn’t outright tell anyone why they needed to go out.
“I understand what’s going on here.” Dame Robin said, giving a slight nod. “You’re all anxious and want to get your hands dirty. Relatable, I didn’t forget my first expedition, even if it was under much tamer conditions than this.” She sighed. “I would say ‘it’s dangerous’ and scold you, but there’s always danger to our lives. I suppose you’ve noticed other initiates getting taken on patrol and wanted to go too?”
Erec bit his tongue. How do I do this? She was leaning in the direction of letting them go. Yes, but that was only half of what he needed. VAL had coordinates for them to go to. If he followed another Knight's lead, it was doubtful they’d ever reach anywhere near the right place.
There was a whole ruin of a city to explore. Plenty of rotting buildings and decayed structures to poke around in.
"Of course we do!" Garin burst in from behind him, shaking his head. "Erec gets all cranky and cooped up anytime you stick him in a little pen like this, it's natural he'd wanna break out to take a walk around. Pretty transparent, eh?" his friend chuckled and shrugged. "But, I think it'd be good to let him take the lead on something. So how about it, wanna kill some monsters? You look pretty bored yourself.”
Thank the Goddess for him.
Olivia rolled her eyes. “What Garin meant to say, is we would be pleased if you could afford us this opportunity, ma’am. We realize it’s impolite to ask when you’re clearly working with a large workload.” She bowed deeply, forcing Garin to do the same.
Colin gave a bit of a scowl as he shook his head, crossing his arms and staying uninvolved.
Robin gave a small chuckle. "Say I agree and permit my junior this opportunity. Is this a desire to wet your weapons? Normally, a Knight may tell you to kill monsters on principle..." Her gaze hardened and locked on Erec. "…But in some cases, some must learn temperance."
[She thinks you’re a battle maniac. Wonderful. I swear, if your tendencies cost us this chance, I’m deducting your pay—]
“This isn’t about that. I promise. I wanted to lead a scavenging run. Alister said this place had plenty of tech, and I wanted to be useful. If I got lucky, maybe find something for my Armor.”
He bowed along with Olivia and Garvin as Robin shook her head.
“Well… Since you mentioned him…” she added slyly.
— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —
Leading defied his expectations. Erec thought it’d be a simple affair to head up a scavenging job. In principle, it should’ve been.
By all rights, the most challenging part should have been convincing a high-ranking Knight to allow it in the first place.
But it wasn’t.
Not even fucking close.
The constant pressure of people relying on him to keep his eyes out for threats and to direct them safely forward was immense. An actual weight heavier than any Armor gripped his heart firmer than the Goddess’ vow had. And he’d talked Garin into going—he’d thought it would be better to have a reliable friend to lean on.
But it was the opposite.
Would he ever forgive himself if, by the Goddess forbid, some indescribable monster with too many tentacles burst out of an alley and slaughtered his best friend?
Don’t think about that.
He led their group down another street—staying close to the side of buildings with a hatchet in hand if he needed to react quickly.
A hatchet was adaptable. He could fling it into a monster and take out his war axe if it lived. But even with the weight of a weapon in hand, it was like walking on a tightrope. Tension dug in him like razor wire; sweat coated him in the Armor despite the Vallum having a functioning cooling unit.
“You really can whip around three of those bad boys?” Garin laughed behind him; his ease and abrupt laugh made Erec flinch.
“Well, yeah. Wanna see? It’s pretty cool.” Alister said back, the smugness to his voice and self-confidence bleeding in and grating on Erec’s nerves. Erec checked an alley. It made his heart stop.
There was a giant silk cocoon—twice the size of a man. It hung in the middle of the air, suspended by thin chords anchored to the brickwork of the ancient buildings. Robin slid up to his side as he paused, tilting her head. Erec glared at Garin and Alister—raising a hand for them to shut the fuck up. His eyes traveled along the edge of that thing.
It wasn’t moving, still as a corpse.
“No need to worry,” Robin whispered, a finger extending into his line of sight—pointing out an opening at the bottom; a place where wisps of silk swayed like wheat in the wind. “Just an old Stalker egg. They like to find dark places like this for their children. This one hatched a good while ago.”
Erec let out his pent up breath, and gestured back to the rest of the group that things were fine. Robin patted him on the shoulder.
“Good instincts, though. If you don’t know what something is, always be cautious. That kind of reaction has saved me plenty of times.” With that, she gave him a little push to continue onward.
He pressed forward, down the rest of the street, and to the intersection.
[Right, then straight for another two blocks.] VAL commanded as he had since they began the expedition. VAL got to do the easy work of playing route coordinator, and Erec had the nerve-wracking responsibility as the vanguard, scout, and leader.
Even with Robin at his side, and Alister backing them up as support, there was never a guarantee of safety. Never a promise that they wouldn’t run across something they couldn’t handle. Though, everyone else seemed at ease. Almost relax.
Maybe it was because Robin had already seen reports about what’d been discovered out here.
He hoped so.
“You must be powerful then?” Garin asked that little hiccup of fear never even touching their hearts the same way it’d stabbed into Erec’s
“I was at the top of my class. Nobody’s tougher.” Alister shot back.
“I’ve heard your name before. How common is it for the top of ones class to remain as a Knight Errant for three years after, if you would do me the favor of answering?” Olivia said curtly.
“Well uh, you know, sometimes things happen that set you back! No matter how strong you are. No need to worry about that, I’ll be a Knight Protector soon enough.” Alister said.
“Mhmm. Very believable. They say that confidence is a virtue, but I’ve always observed that overconfidence leads to making a fool of oneself.”
More turns, more streets, one of which led to their first monster—a long mangy beast with feral yellow eyes and overgrown teeth. It died easy, with a hatchet thrown through its skull. Its two friends died just as quick—one in a flash of holy light from Olivia and the other to Garin and Colin flanking and destroying it.
It was almost a relief. It made things easy and took the edge of the unknown to have a notch of victory in their belt as a group.
Until Erec reached the destination, it was a large steel building square; boring. Despite uninspired architecture, it held up remarkably well. Windows decorated the side of the structure, most of which were shattered long ago, and there was a gross garish splotch of dried blood caked on the exterior. The remains from a fight that took place long enough ago to dry, yet were fresh enough for the rare rain shower to not wash away.
[This is it.] VAL responded in his head. [It’s on the rooftop]
Erec looked up; five stories. They had to go that far; the building looked sturdy enough, at least.
He cleared his throat, trying to fake a neutral tone. “I think this place looks promising…” he said, glancing around. No one argued with him. Nobody said a word.
[—Bzzzt—]
Erec’s heart dropped. A second later, VAL buzzed in his head.
[Climb those stairs! Something's devouring our data!]