Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 48 - Preparations (Patreon)

My beer really isn’t that bad. I don’t know why Mira hates it so much. It’s not good. I’ll grant that. But it’s not that bad.

Patrick Ward

The dawn of a new day brought with it a palpable sense of anticipation that I couldn’t really place. I spent most of that day training, and when I’d finished, I took a look at my long-ignored status:

Destroying the Pacifician lunar base – as well as all the killing I had done since then – had provided quite a boost to my levels. With that came a significant increase in the potential of my individual attributes. I hadn’t taken huge strides in the actual values associated with my Constitution, Mind, and Mist, but that was due to the fact that I hadn’t had much time for focused training. However, I had made some gains, so I was reasonably happy with my progress in that arena.

Regarding my individual skills, I’d continued my climb toward the peak, reaching Tier-5 in each of them. All but one of them – [Infiltration] – had surpassed ninety-percent progress, too. Soon, I would maximize all of my skills, which filled me with a mixture of satisfaction and anxiety. Satisfaction because there was nothing quite like achieving a goal, especially when there was a verifiable benefit to doing so. But I was also anxious about what would come next. The skills didn’t go past ninety-nine percent progress in Tier-5, so I couldn’t help but wonder how I would motivate myself going forward.

Of course, there was the possibility of combining skills, but I’d yet to stumble across any information about how that was done. And I’d tried, too. All I’d been able to learn was that it was possible, with no details forthcoming.

I’d done it before, though. When I’d gained my {Mistrunner} class, a few of my skills had merged. So, I could only hope something like that would happen again, though I wasn’t sure how reasonable an expectation that was.

In any case, I chose to focus on my excitement and the sense of pride, rather than the anxiety that came with my progression.

Next, I moved on to my individual skill trees, starting with [Combat]:

Not much had changed with the [Combat] tree. The skill itself was on the verge of reaching the pinnacle, and the individual branches weren’t far behind. Two – Heavy Weaponry and Movement – had already done so. The skill also came with a host of modifiers that I sometimes took for granted. I’d even hidden them because the list had gotten a bit out of hand.

In any case, I moved on to [Infiltration]:

As with [Combat], not much had really changed with [Infiltration], save that it had finally reached Tier-5, which gave me an additional fifteen percent Stealth effectiveness. The Stealth branch had also reached Tier-5, giving me an additional ability called Vanish. During my most recent training session, I had tried it out a few times, but without real enemies, it was difficult to tell just how valuable it was. It was also entirely untrained, which meant that the ability itself hadn’t progressed from the lowest grade. I would have to change that going forward, but I suspected it would be next to useless in the coming conflict.

As for its effect, it was fairly simple. Using it would allow me to become invisible, if only for a few seconds. So far as I could tell, it was intended to get me out of combat for long enough that I could make it to a location better suited for Stealth. Not the most useful ability in its current incarnation, but I suspected that, once I’d had a chance to train it, it could prove to be a powerful tool in my arsenal of abilities.

Next, I looked at the skill tree associated with [Mistrunning]:

[Mistrunning] had been Tier-5 for quite some time, with its associated branches reaching the maximum tier as well. However, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction as I saw how close each of those branches – save for the one associated with Mistwalk – was to reaching the peak as well.

The same could be said for [Fieldcraft] as well, which was easily my most advanced skill. Even though I knew what I’d see, I still took a moment to look at it:

The skill had long since reached the pinnacle of Tier-5, and the individual branches had done so not long after. Some of the resulting abilities were often ignored – like Mend, Stabilize, and Focused Will – but I knew they were still valuable. Going forward, I would need to incorporate them a little more.

The problem was that I had a glut of abilities, and even with my Mind attribute increasing my cognition speed, I could only handle so many at a time. So, I’d fallen into the trap of only using my favorites. It was something I needed to remedy because I was only using a portion of my skillset.

I resolved to do so, but it wasn’t as if I could simply flip a switch and do it. It would take long practice and focused effort. I could only hope that I’d get the chance to fix the problems.

After inspecting my progress, I spent the next few hours working on my Ghosts. Some, I just tweaked, but others, I decided to entirely rewrite. Some people liked to meditate to relax. Others exercised. Me? I worked on my Ghosts. Not only was it necessary if I wanted to push the limits of my abilities, but it was also soothing, slotting the various components together until I had created something that was far more than the sum of its parts.

Like that, time passed. One day passed into another, and before I knew it, I’d been in place for almost a week. By that point, I’d entirely healed from my ordeal on the moon – largely due to my copious use of Mend. The ability was intended as a shortcut to effective triage, but I’d discovered that if I used it consistently over the course of a few days, it could accelerate my already prodigious healing by a significant margin.

I also continued to train, using the ship’s Mistrunning training protocols. Not because I would see numbers go up on my status, but rather because I strove for perfection. I knew I’d never reach that lofty goal, but I also knew that, in battle, completing a Misthack or a Mistwalk even a second more quickly could be the difference between life and death. And though I often took a pessimistic – or even cynical – view of life, I desperately wanted to survive.

It wasn’t until the tenth day after my return to Fortune that I received a visitor. For once, Alistaris didn’t simply appear in the ship. Instead, he actually knocked on the hatch. When I opened it, I was surprised to see a strange holographic display overlaying his tiny form.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, you can see through my disguise. I suspected you could,” he said. “May I come in?”

I shrugged and let him inside. “Let me know if you plan to leave any other trackers,” I said. “I had to spend almost three hours searching the ship last time you were here, and I don’t think either of us wants me wasting that kind of time on something trivial.”

He raised his eyebrows and asked, “Are you sure you got all of them?”

“Not really,” I admitted. I knew his technology was far more advanced than anything I could bring to bear, and he wasn’t shy about using it to his advantage. It wouldn’t have surprised me at all to find that there were multiple trackers and listening devices throughout the Leviathan.

But if there were, there was nothing I could do about it. I’d searched, using both my own abilities as well as the ship’s built-in security to hunt down what I could. If there were any other bugs in the ship, I wasn’t going to find them.

“I pledge to refrain from any further violations of your privacy,” he said, following me to the ship’s common area. I hadn’t cleaned it over the past few days, so there were a few empty cartons that had once contained cheap, processed food populating the table. Alistaris eyed them with barely disguised disgust. “The things you people eat…”

“Not much in the way of choice,” I stated. It was a lie. I could have easily sourced plenty of fresh food, but that would have taken time and effort. And there was a part of me that was just used to eating junk, so it was somewhat comforting. I wasn’t going to admit that to him, though. Instead, I sat down and asked, “What’s up? You have a plan to get me inside.”

“I do.”

“Okay? Spit it out,” I said, throwing my arm over the back of the bench seat. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but I wanted him to think I was relaxed.

The little Dingyt climbed into the chair across the table and, once he was situated, he said, “It’s not simple.”

“Oh? How so?”

“We can’t be seen working against the Pacificians,” he stated. “Not before the quarantine is lifted. And even then, our direct involvement will be minimal. This has to look like humans fighting back. Otherwise, it doesn’t work.”

“You’re afraid of blowback.”

I didn’t know anything about galactic politics, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the Ark Alliance wanted to use humanity to fight a proxy war against their enemies. Technically, that didn’t include the Pacificians, but because they were allied with the Gomari Confederation, the situation was firmly entrenched in a grey area.

I’d opted to use that to my advantage.

I told myself it was because I wanted to make good on my promise to rescue Cyrilla’s brother, Caden, but I knew my resolution to bring the Pacificians down was rooted in something far more personally impactful. I had seen what they did to people, and like the E’rok Tan, they deserved to die.

And I was the one who was going to facilitate that.

“I am. I’m also wary of breaking the quarantine too overtly.”

“Why? You’re already here.”

“The system can be tricked. It’s just a program meant to help people harness the Mist. But you’re caught trying to circumvent its restrictions, it will punish you.”

“Yeah, but how?”

“Death is the kindest punishment. Some people have been crippled, their Nexus Implants rendered inoperative. Its punishments are varied and extensive.”

“What about people who don’t have Nexus Implants?” I asked. “Mystics like the Templars.”

Alistaris’s expression darkened. “Templars,” he spat. “They talk about justice and peace, but do they ever act? No. All they care about is their own power, their own influence. And killing rogue mystics. They care nothing for all the people who have fallen before groups like the Gomari Confederation. They are too concerned with preserving their so-called political neutrality to actually do any good.”

“The ones I’ve met seemed okay,” I said.

“That’s because you’ve never had to depend on them. That’s because you’ve never watched your friends die while a Templar stands idly by and does nothing,” he said. “All while they claim moral superiority. They act above us, but they’re no different. They pretend neutrality because they are too cowardly to fight against true injustice. They talk about justice and virtue, but when it comes time to translate those pretty words into action, they shy away.”

“A group of them saved me, once,” I stated.

“Oh, they’ll save people. When it suits them. But their aid is shrouded in self-interest. Never forget that,” he said.

That wasn’t my experience, but I hadn’t had many interactions with Templars. And I certainly had no idea how they conducted themselves in the wider universe. So, I chose not to pursue that topic any further.

“So, what’s the plan, then?”

“I have contracted a team of specialized combatants to bring the shield down,” he said. “You will have to be in position when they commence their attacks. When it comes down, you will only have a few minutes to get inside.”

“Who are these specialized combatants?” I asked.

“I will not reveal their identities. Neither did I tell them who you are,” he said.

I didn’t like it, but I saw the benefit of keeping everyone separated. That way, if any of us were captured, we couldn’t reveal too much information. Still, I asked, “How are they bringing down the shield?”

He refused to answer that as well, simply insisting that they would succeed in bringing it down. I asked a few more questions, but I couldn’t get much more information out of him. In the end, he gave me at time and date before making it clear that I would have only one chance to infiltrate Olympus.

“What about the people inside?” I asked. “How am I going to get them out?”

He shook his head. “That is not my concern. I told you I would get you in, and this is how I’m doing it,” Alistaris said. “Beyond that, you are on your own.”

“I suppose that’s fair.”

“Once this is finished, we’ll meet and discuss the future,” he said, climbing down from the chair. It would have been comical if it wasn’t for the fact that I suspected he was more than capable of killing me. I didn’t know how strong Alistaris really was, but I knew enough that I didn’t want to test him.

“Looking forward to it.”

After that, I escorted him out of the ship. Once he was gone, I gave the Leviathan a good once-over to ensure that he hadn’t somehow left behind more bugs. I didn’t find any, which made me more nervous than if I had.

Once that was done, I set my mind to the problem at hand. I had a little more than a week until Olympus’s shields would come down, and in that time, I needed to figure out a way to rescue Caden and the others the Pacificians had imprisoned in the city.