Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 51 - The Prisoners (Patreon)

We’re playing with forces we don’t understand. Every detail I uncover about the way Mist circuits interact with cybernetic parts shows me just how ignorant we are. We don’t know what the system really is. Nor do we know where it came from. Not really. We’re just scrambling to keep our heads above water. Meanwhile, the aliens have known how to swim for years.

Patrick Ward

Buildings crumbled as my carefully placed demolition charges destroyed the supports necessary to keep them upright. With Mist, miracles were possible, but no structure could stand when its foundation had been sundered. The same was true when it came to the androids that had built Olympus.

Extermination was no simple Ghost, and I’d spent countless hours perfecting its construction.  So, I was unsurprised to see Pacificians dropping left and right, dead before they even hit the ground.

While its structure was anything but simple, the purpose of the Ghost was as uncomplicated as any I’d ever created. It was there to kill. That was it. And in the case of the Pacificians that were my target, the easiest way to accomplish that goal was to sever their connection with the Nexus Implants at the base each android’s skull.

With a human – or any other biological entity – that strategy wouldn’t result in instant death. Eventually, they would succumb, either dying or becoming wildlings, but in terms of immediate effects, they would only lose access to their skills. But with androids like the Pacificians, the effects were much more abrupt. They were creatures of Mist, and as such, they couldn’t exist without it. So, without their Nexus Implants, they were just bundles of cybernetics, without will or direction.

So, in effect, even as I destroyed the buildings’ foundations, I did the same to the Pacificians.

I jogged through the city, maintaining Stealth along the way. It wasn’t perfect, but amid all the chaos, no one was looking for a shimmer in the air. Instead, the stronger Pacificians who’d managed to resist the effects of my Ghost were far more concerned with the death and destruction all around them.

And it was glorious.

I was never one to revel in murder. Certainly, I’d felt a certain sense of justice upon killing people who I thought deserved it. But I’d never felt anything as satisfying as when I watched thousands of Pacificians drop dead. They were people. I knew that. It didn’t matter that they were cybernetic. They were, each and every one of them, capable of independent thought and emotions. But even so, I had no qualms about killing every last one of them.

This was no Nova City. In Olympus, there were no innocents.

Except for the people I intended to save. So, I ran through the wide avenues, a smug sense of satisfaction enveloping my mind. I was so busy patting myself on the back that the resultant inattention very nearly got my killed.

Not by Olympus’s defenders.  But rather, because of my own actions.

Above, one of the elevated trains the androids used for transportation jumped its tracks and crashed into the street in front of me. The impact jolted me out of my self-congratulatory malaise, and I leaped. However, as the train screeched across the pavement on a collision course with my position, I knew I wouldn’t make it over. So, I activated Double Jump and sprang off a cushion of Mist, narrowly dodging the out-of-control train. It smashed into one of the remaining buildings – I had only destroyed the ones I deemed important, after all – and the individual cars began to buckle upward.

Which presented another problem, considering I’d barely managed to clear the train in the first place. I desperately tried to activate Double Jump again, but like many abilities, it came with a cooldown that prevented chain activation.

I fell.

The train rose to meet me.

But right before it smashed into me, I activated Balance, then, using the increased coordination that came with the ability, twisted in the air before planting one foot on the train’s fuselage. I sprang away, using it to change directions, and flew through the air before colliding with one of the building’s windows. It shattered on impact, the glass cutting my clothes to pieces. Thankfully, it was incapable of slicing through my infiltration suit, though, so I was almost entirely unharmed.

Still, I picked up quite a few scratches on my face and exposed hand.

I ignored them as I hit the ground at a roll, then leaped to my feet and sprinted through the building. Fortunately, the Pacificians only used a handful of floorplans for their buildings, so I had no trouble navigating my way through the maze of halls. As I did so, though, the building shook, telling me in no uncertain terms that the collision with the train had compromised the integrity of its foundation.

I dashed through the building as it crumbled around me, and when I saw another window, I didn’t hesitate to lower my shoulder, cover my face, and dive through the glass.

Once again, I found myself falling through the air. Chaos reigned all around me as the air was filled with the sound of falling buildings, a city-wide alarm, and crashing vehicles below. I hit the ground hard, and even though I absorbed some of the momentum by rolling, I felt the impact in my bones. I didn’t break anything, but I knew I’d come very close.

But that pain was easily ignored, courtesy of my Pain Tolerance, and the moment I found my feet, I was once again running. A second later, the sound of gunfire sent me diving for cover. Bullets tore into the concrete and ripped holes in the hovercar behind which I’d hidden.

Apparently, some of the survivors were paying more attention than others.

I peeked over the hood to see a half-dozen Pacificians surrounding me in a half-circle. Above them flew a trio of surveillance drones. With their powerful cameras and other sensors, they would render Stealth useless.

Not that I thought that was an option. It was one thing to sneak around and remain undetected when nobody knew you were there. But it was something else altogether to do so when the enemy was alert and looking for you. Possible? Sure. But only when ineptitude reared its helpful head. Looking at the enemy warriors, I didn’t think that was likely.

The first thing I did was try to Misthack them, but predictably, I found their defenses impenetrable. Perhaps if I’d had a hard connection via my personal link, I could have done something with Mistwalk, but as the matter stood, I wasn’t getting through. Not surprising, given that they’d managed to survive my first Ghost. I knew some would, but I estimated that only ten or fifteen percent of the Pacificians were strong enough to resist the effects. Some of those would have been killed by falling buildings or in the chaos I’d created, too.

In any case, only the strongest would have made it this far, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. It was a good thing, then, that I had some tricks up my sleeve.

I summoned my Pulsar, used Explosive Shot to enhance the entire magazine of ammunition, then activated one of my newest abilities, Vanish. The moment I disappeared, I rose from cover, activated Multi-Shot, marking all five targets, then used Execute before finally activating Empowered Shot. I knew the invisibility that came with Vanish wouldn’t last long, so I immediately took aim, waited the requisite second for Empowered Shot to take effect, then fired.

On its own, the Pulsar was already an extremely powerful weapon, and it was made even more so by my significant modifiers. Then, that damage was further enhanced by Explosive Shot. And finally, using Execute multiplied that already-augmented damage by five-hundred percent.

The results were explosive, if predictable.

The primary shot hit with enough force that it looked like the most powerful Pacifician simply ceased to exist above the waist. The remaining four targets took less damage – the tradeoff of being able to hit multiple enemies at once – but with all of those enhancements running at once, it didn’t really matter. One exploded, showering the immediate vicinity in gore. Another had a hole torn through her torso. The third reacted to the sound of the gunshot quickly enough that he almost dodged. But almost wasn’t enough, and when the round took him in the shoulder, it destroyed that side of his chest. The fifth was cut in half at the waist, and though she didn’t immediately die, I quickly took her out with another shot from the Pulsar.

That left one enemy and a handful of drones. Not bad for two shots, but it had the detriment of using almost my entire store of Mist. Fortunately, I had a couple of Mist boosters to solve that problem, and in the chaos, I jammed one in my hip and discharged its payload.

Even as the booster took hold, I was moving. By the time my first step hit the pavement, I’d already exchanged my Pulsar for the assault rifle, and as I strafed to the side, I peppered the lone remaining Pacifician with a barrage of unenhanced gunfire.

He took it without any real damage, but that wasn’t the point. Instead, I only wanted to drive him back and keep him off-balance while I relocated to a position where I could take aim at the drones. A few moments later, I’d sent three concentrated bursts of gunfire downrange, and the comparatively defenseless drones were destroyed.

That left only one.

And I knew precisely how to deal with him.

I continued to fire, and though my aim was true, he’d begun to recover from the shock of seeing his comrades so thoroughly destroyed. Which was bad for me, because he was varying a weapon that looked a lot like the Dragon.

As it spun up, I slid into cover behind another wrecked hovercar. The weapon roared, and a barrage of bullets tore through the car. Bits of metal flew into the air before, finally, it exploded into a ball of blue, Mist-infused flames.

The weapon spun down as its ammunition was spent.

It was at that point that, having used my recovered Mist to fuel Teleport and get behind him, I stabbed him in the base of the skull. He didn’t immediately die. He was too strong for that. Instead, he stumbled forward, then tried to whip around to attack, but even if his Nexus Implant hadn’t been destroyed, it had been damaged enough to affect him. So, his movements were slow. Clumsy. And ultimately, useless.

I danced around him, hacking at his neck. The first blow cut deep, but he still didn’t fall. The second hit the same spot, and the third finally destroyed that Nexus Implant. By the time he fell, my breathing was labored, and when he hit the ground, I couldn’t keep my shoulders from sagging.

Using that much Mist in such a short amount of time was hard on the body, and even I wasn’t immune to the consequences of that kind of tactic. But given how strong those Pacificians had to have been to survive my Ghost, I hadn’t wanted to take any chances.

And I’d survived, while they’d died. So, my strategy was probably the right one.

Either that, or I’d gotten lucky. It was easy to misjudge success as the result of good decisions rather than the host of other factors, ranging from good fortune to overpowering the situation. In any case, I wasn’t in any position to second-guess my actions. I’d made it through, and that was all that mattered for the moment. I would reassess and adjust accordingly once I finished the job at hand.

With that in mind, I left the scene of the brief battle, pausing only to make certain that my opponents hadn’t carried anything useful. Once I confirmed that they hadn’t, I set off toward my intended destination. By that point, the situation within the city had mostly stabilized, though the klaxon of the alarm – which seemed to emanate from all the still-standing buildings – continued to sound. In addition, the entire city was cloaked in a cloud of dust, which made my job that much easier.

Still, along the way, I was still nearly discovered on multiple occasions. Sometimes, it was just a drone, but there were a few more survivors than I’d anticipated. Each of them wore gold or silver robes, so I knew they were higher-ups. And I struggled to stop myself from killing every one of them I saw. The only reason I didn’t was because I had a job to do. Once I completed it, I would be free to kill as many of them as I wanted.

So, I maintained my Stealth, dashing from one shadow to another as I used the cover of the dust cloud to mask the evidence of passing. Like that, I crossed the city, and by the time the sun set, I’d reached my destination.

It was a huge set of doors, at least thirty feet across, and it was guarded by a full squad of Pacifician warriors in shimmering red robes.

That was the first I’d seen of that color, which I took to indicate that they were somehow special. Each one carried impressive-looking weaponry, and I knew that if they’d managed to survive my Ghost, they were strong opponents. Any other time, and I might have left them alone, but I needed to get through those doors.

So, a fight was necessary.

Fortunately, they were standing out in the open, and I had with the entire city at my back, I had multiple places to hide. It was a perfect battleground for me to show my skills.

So, I retreated into a nearby building before climbing to the roof. Once there, I familiarized myself with the location, then stepped close to the edge. Once there, I once again drew my sniper rifle and took aim.

As I marked my targets – both mentally and with Mark Target, which would help me keep track if they scattered – I lamented the fact that using my heavier weapons were out of the question. There was a reason that the buildings in the general area had remained untouched, and it was because I didn’t want to block those doors. So, for that same reason, the Dragon and the BMAP weren’t really options.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t matter.

This time, I didn’t use all of my abilities, largely because doing so would drain most of my Mist. I only had one booster available, so I needed to be a bit more circumspect about how I used my abilities. So, I chose a more traditional avenue of attack when I used Empowered Shot, took aim, and fired.

I didn’t watch the results of that first shot. Instead, I quickly moved to the next. And the next after that. I shot two more times before I pulled back and took off across the roof. When I reached the edge, I leaped, and when I’d reached the halfway point between the first building and my destination, I activated Double Jump. Springing off of a cushion of Mist, I easily covered the distance to the next roof.

By that point, the remaining red-robed Pacificians had taken aim at my previous location and were currently trying to tear it down by way of copious gunfire. Fortunately, the cloud of dust still hid me.

So, I took aim once again. I’d only killed two of those red-robes, but the others I’d shot had been injured. An acceptable outcome.

More, if it worked once, I had no qualms about doing it again.

So that was precisely what I did, moving from one building to the next. I skipped one here and there, and I made certain not to follow any discernible pattern, but over time, I took them all out. By the time I’d finished, I found myself wondering why they hadn’t called for help.

But then again, the entire city was in shambles, the vast majority of the population had been killed by my Ghost, and there were other, far more sensitive assets that needed to be guarded. In fact, after what I’d done to their lunar base, they probably expected me to go for the power core below the city. I’d considered it, but I’d opted for something a little less destructive, mostly because I was afraid of overdoing things like I had on the moon.

Whatever the case, I waited for a while to make sure that no one was going to take the red-robes’ place. And once I judged that it was safe, I descended from my perch atop one of the buildings and approached the gates.

Finally, I’d reached my primary goal. Now, I just needed to head down, rescue the prisoners, and then finish the job.

Sighing, I realized that I still had a ways to go.

So, without further delay, I stepped close to the terminal governing the doors, then Mistwalked into the system. A moment after I’d breached its defenses, the doors slid open to reveal a long, sloping tunnel.

With a shake of my head, I once again embraced Stealth and stepped inside. The tunnel itself followed a fairly steep decline, and only a hundred yards in, I reached a switchback. Then, hundred yards later, another. And another after that. In that manner, I followed the tunnel as it led me deep underground.

Finally, after what felt like at least a few miles, I reached a large chamber. On one side was an elevator whose size reminded me of the lifts used at the Nova City gates. If it was less than thirty yards wide, I would have been surprised. At present, it was loaded with hundreds of carts full of raw ore.

I wasn’t concerned with that.

From the files I’d read, the ore itself wasn’t particularly valuable except in large quantities. The mine over which the city had been built was deep, though, and so long as they had the labor to tap into it, the Pacificians managed to subsidize the cost of the entire city. So, the mine itself was valuable, but not to someone like me.

In any case, I was far more concerned with the men and women huddled in the center of the room. There were about a thousand of them – at least according to the records I’d read – and each one of them had turned down the offer to join the Pacificians. Because of that, they’d been put to work as slaves.

Others, like the ones I’d seen during my first time surveilling the city, had been sent elsewhere, but most had ended up in the mines. One such prisoner was of particular concern to me.

So, I stepped forward and let my Stealth drop. They noticed me straight away. One shouted something at me, but I ignored them as I approached. When I came within a dozen feet of the crowd, I raised my voice and said, “I’m looking for Caleb Montague.”

A young man that matched up to the photos I’d seen pushed his way through the crowd. He looked like he’d lost a little weight, but I felt certain it was the man I’d been sent to find. “What’s going on? Are you –”

“I’m here to rescue you,” I said. Then, I looked at the others. “You all should come too.”

“Rescue?” Caleb said, cocking his head to the side. “From what?”

I got a bad feeling from his tone. “Uh…”

“Where are the Chosen?” came a voice from the crowd.

“Have they come to raise us?”

“Is it time?”

“Oh, thank the Collective!”

I took a step back.

“She’s not one of the Chosen!”

“Get her!”

It was at that moment that I realized that I’d made a huge mistake.