Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 3 - Three Choices (Patreon)

I hate Templars. They have so much power, and yet, they choose to allow the occurrence of one injustice after another, always claiming that if they intervened, the consequences would be worse for everyone. And my response is simple: tell that to all the people you let become enslaved.

Alistaris Cargat

The next day found Patrick and me making our final preparations to move on. The plains had been a good place to train, rest, and plan, but that period had come to an end. Now, we needed to move on. To that end, I spent much of the next morning breaking down the obstacle course and loading it into the Leviathan’s cargo bay. For his part, Patrick occupied himself with buttoning up his various projects before erasing any remaining evidence of our presence. He took down the awning we’d attached to the ship’s fuselage, buried our fire pit, and loaded the various bits of furniture we’d set out.

And just like that, we were ready to move on.

As Patrick took his customary position at the controls, I sat in the navigator’s seat, then said, “Before we do this, we need to stop and see Al.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he’s a paranoid asshole, and he wants to give me the files in person,” I said. “He doesn’t trust me, even over a Secure Connection.”

Patrick rolled his eye, then shook his head. “I wouldn’t trust you either, honestly. He knows you’re dangerous.”

“So is he.”

After all, he could have killed me at almost any time he wanted. He’d proven that back in New Cairo, when his team surrounded me. He’d also shown me that he could infiltrate the Leviathan whenever he chose to do so. He probably couldn’t bring the same kind of destructive power to the table that I could, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous in his own way.

Besides, he had an army behind him.

But was that really true? He’d hinted at as much, but the little Dingyt had never said so outright. And I certainly never seen more than a handful of his subordinates. For all I knew, he only had access to a couple dozen fighters, which would explain why he was so desperate to get me onboard.

Regardless, it didn’t really matter. I was already committed. The fact that I didn’t completely trust him was just one more facet of my working relationship with Alistaris. What I did know was that he’d held up his end of our past bargains, so a degree of trust was probably warranted.

Even if it made me feel naïve, like I was going to turn a corner and suddenly discover that I’d been duped.

“So, where are we going?” Patrick asked, choosing to ignore my last statement as inconsequential.

“Place called New York,” I said. “It’s on the other side of this continent. A bit to the north. I’ll input the coordinates.”

Then, I did just that. As far as I could tell, it would take a little over an hour and a half for us to reach our destination. We could have reached it in half the time – or maybe less – but going that fast so close to the Earth’s surface would burn Mist – or more accurately, Rift shards – like crazy. And we certainly couldn’t afford that.

After I entered the coordinates, Patrick started the Mist engines and directed the bulky ship to lift off. The Leviathan was far from the sleekest machine, but it was perfect for our purposes. Not only was it quite roomy for a ship, but it was also practically indestructible by Earth standards. Sure – it wasn’t impossible to bring it down, but it would take something truly powerful to do more than leave a few scratches.

For the next hour or so, Patrick and I cruised across the continent. Along the way, we passed in the vicinity of a few cities. One, called Apex, was a shining metropolis that looked like a utopian paradise; I knew it wasn’t, though. While the people who lived there did indeed lead nearly perfect lives, they had built their city on the shoulders of thousands of slaves.

Their city – or the poorly constructed slums that passed for one – was nearby, though we’d have had to alter course to see it firsthand.

As we passed it, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh, which Patrick noticed.

“What?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It just occurred to me that even if we win, it probably won’t do any good for most people,” I said. “I mean, look at Apex. Only humans live there. No real alien influence at all, according to Al. But look what they’ve created. And I’m not talking about that pretty city they built, either.”

“Yeah. I got that,” he said, still clutching the controls with his cybernetic hand. He hadn’t bothered to cover it in artificial skin, so it looked more like a metallic skeleton than anything else. “But look – we can’t fix the world’s problems, okay? You know that.”

“Do I?” I asked. “Then what am I doing? I mean, if I’m not trying to fix the world, then why did I even commit to this war? Especially if I know humanity is just going to fuck it all up in the end. I hate the aliens. Right down to my core. The things they’ve done…it’s horrible, Pick. And I want to kill them all for it. But at the end of the day, are we any better? Look at Nova. By all accounts, the alien influence there was minimal. Sure, there was some, but they mostly just left people alone. And you saw how corrupt it was there. Whole swaths of people living in squalor, turning to drugs or living their lives in virtual spaces so they could escape reality. Is that what we’re supposed to fight for?”

“No.”

“Then what are we doing?”

“We’re not fighting for them, Mira. We’re fighting for an idea.”

“Yeah? And what idea is that?”

“That people deserve to be free to make their own mistakes,” he said. “That we shouldn’t have to worry about some ultra-powerful alien race coming in and enslaving an entire populace. Or genetically engineering them into something people were never meant to be.”

“And what if we end up doing that to ourselves?” I asked.

“Then so be it. At least we would have no one to blame but each other,” he stated.

It was a bit of a change for him, that sort of attitude. Before, he’d been only lukewarm on the idea of fighting against the invaders. So had I. But the things I had seen had changed our views. I suspected that, after losing multiple limbs and a couple of organs to the self-destruction of the Pacificians, Patrick was even more committed than I was.

In any case, we only had to fly for another fifteen minutes – which was at least a couple hundred miles – before we arrived at the coordinates. The settlement didn’t look much different from any other I’d seen. It featured the same prefabricated structures, a sturdy plasti-steel wall, and a shimmering Mist shield. However, I couldn’t ignore the presence of dozens of combat drones and a handful of bulky robots like the one I’d forced to malfunction at the first Dingyt outpost I’d assaulted.

“Do we just land by the gate?” Patrick asked.

Before I could answer, a high-pitched voice came over the Leviathan’s communication system, directing us to a small clearing about a quarter of a mile away from the walls. Patrick piloted the ship to the appropriate location, then set it down. After going through his post-flight checklist, he shut engaged the Leviathan’s defenses. I supplemented them with Bastion, though I knew that Alistaris, at the very least, could bypass the ability.

“You ready for this?” I asked, glancing at him. He gave me a nod, then a grin before confirming that he was. So, with that, the pair of us disembarked the Leviathan and headed toward the settlement. As we walked, I noticed a few figures shadowing our every move. They’d engaged some form of Stealth, but it wasn’t capable of outpacing my Observation, especially if I chose to flare it. When I did, I saw that they were accompanied by quite a few camouflaged drones.

They hadn’t threatened us, but I knew it wouldn’t take much to set them off. So, I made a barebones plan to deal with them if things went wrong. As I did, I relayed it to Patrick through our Secure Connection, and he confirmed his part in the plan. He’d cannibalized my supplies – and part of my arsenal – to upgrade his cybernetics, so anyone that attacked us was going to get quite the surprise from his capabilities.

For my part, I was well-versed in dealing with ambushes, so I knew precisely how to combat whatever threat they represented.

However, our stalkers kept to themselves, clearly thinking they remained undetected, as we approached the gate. Once we reached there, I called out for Alistaris, and as a response, someone sent a drone out to scan us. I considered shooting it out of the sky, but I decided to mind my manners. We were guests, after all, and I still needed Alistaris’s help if we were going to make the most of our Rift-diving expedition.

It seemed to get what it – or rather, its controller – wanted, and soon enough, the gate retracted and the Mist shield faded away. A moment later, a red-haired Dingyt scurried out to greet us.

“Welcome!” she said, wringing her hands. “Please, follow me. The Commandant is expecting you.”

“Commandant? You mean Al?” I asked.

“Al?”

“Oh. Right. Alistaris.”

“Commandant Kargat.”

“Yeah. Him. Short guy, bushy eyebrows. Kind of shady.”

“The Commandant is not…shady,” she huffed.

“Agree to disagree on that one.”

I could tell that she had to resist mightily to keep from rolling her eyes. It was curious that expressions could be so universal. In any case, the Dingyt introduced herself as Lieutenant Doryth, then led us into the settlement. And it was very much what I’d expected from what I’d seen from the air. However, I was a little surprised when Doryth explained that it was only a temporary base. Knowing that, the settlement was a lot more impressive.

The Dingyts I saw were dressed similarly to any others I’d seen, which meant that they wore dark jumpsuits. Some had pistols strapped to holsters at their waists, while others were unarmed. All had a military look about them, which would have been a little comical, given their diminutive size, if I didn’t know just how dangerous they could be.

Over everything loomed the combat bots, each one capable of wreaking untold carnage.

We covered ground relatively quickly, and soon enough, we reached what had to be the command hub. It was a bland, two-story building built along the same lines as every other structure in the settlement. The only difference was that I could feel the Mist swirling around its own shield. I could also sense a web consisting of individual strands of Mist connecting each building as well as the individual Dingyts.

That was one change that had come with my class evolution that wasn’t explicitly stated in my status. Before, I could only sense individual systems – like people with Nexus implants, terminals, or Mist-powered machines – but after evolving into a {Mist Warden}, those sense had been expanded to include the actual connections between those systems. At first, it had been a little overwhelming, but my Mind attribute was high enough that I quickly acclimated to the extra sensory input.

I wasn’t certain what the use of the new sense was – not yet – but I knew it would be important at some point. In any case, it provided some context for how connected everyone in the temporary base was.

Doryth stepped up to the door, and I saw her Mist flare before a bit of it slid through the connection and into the closest terminal. When it did, the shield deactivated, and the door slid open.

We followed her inside, and as I did, I got a good chance to inspect a few Dingyts more closely, and what I found was that the cloud of Mist hanging off of each one was different. In some cases, it was dense, but in others, it was so diffuse that I could barely sense it.

“Auras,” I said to myself.

“Huh?” asked Patrick.

“Nothing. Just figured something out. I’ll tell you later.”

Before, I’d seen a few skills in Ana’s collection with the word “aura” in their name. Back then, I’d had no idea what it meant, and besides, I’d been looking for skills that would be useful in combat. Given that all of the aura skills were labeled as non-combat, I’d mostly skipped them over. But now? I was beginning to wonder if what I was seeing was related.

I didn’t have much chance to contemplate it as Doryth quickly led us through the facility and to a large conference room where Alistaris awaited. But I almost stumbled when I saw him, because the strength of his aura was almost overwhelmingly dense. To my senses, he was like a miniature blue star, blazing with all the intensity that would imply.

He raised one bushy eyebrow when I missed a step, but he didn’t remark on it. Instead, he hopped down from his gnome-sized chair and said, “Thank you for coming.”

“Didn’t have much choice, did I?” I asked. “You made that abundantly clear.”

He nodded, then dismissed Doryth. When she was gone, he said, “Apologies. After what you did, we’ve had to enact certain security protocols. I’m sure you understand, given your own obsession with…ah…security.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure. You know Patrick, right?” I asked.

The two had never met, but I was certain that Alistaris knew as much about Patrick as Patrick knew about him.

“Yes,” Alistaris said. “It’s good to meet you.”

“Same,” Patrick said. Neither seemed to particularly mean it. I knew that Patrick bore the Dingyt no ill will, but after what he’d been through, he was almost as prejudice against aliens as I was.

“Right. So, you said you wanted some targets, right?” Alistaris asked.

“Yeah. We’ve got a couple of options of our own, but I figured we’d ask about it before we committed. Maybe kill two birds with one stone, you know? I don’t care about our targets except that we have the chance to make money,” I said.

“Do you have some new expenses of which I am unaware?”

“I want to upgrade my arsenal,” I said. “And Patrick needs some materials to continue his own development. Not to mention that the Leviathan’s a credit sink.”

“Ah, yes. That particular model is intended for intergalactic cargo transport,” he said. “Military logistics, in fact. It was never meant for extensive use in this kind of atmosphere.”

“It works for us,” Patrick stated.

“No, no – don’t misunderstand. It is one of the best ships on this planet,” Alistaris conceded. “It’s just…as you say, expensive to operate.”

“Hence our need for credits. Or Rift shards,” I said, trying to move the conversation along. “We’re looking to rob some mining operations blind, then run the Rifts. I think you have a good idea of my capabilities. I figured there’s got to be a couple of targets that could help both our causes.”

“My cause is your cause.”

“Not yet, it isn’t,” I said. “I told you – I’d fight your war. But until the Integration, I’m going to prepare my way.”

He sighed, then said. “I expected as much. So, I prepared a few options for you,” Alistaris said. “Two are fairly standard. Typical defenses, low-level Rifts. But the third is different. Not only is the Rift extremely potent, but this group’s defenses are quite stout.”

“But you think I can handle it?”

“Of course. It will not be easy, but it should be within your capabilities,” Alistaris stated. Then, he glanced at Patrick. “Even more so if your partner is going to accompany you.”

I nodded, then he passed me a tablet, which I used to access the files on the three targets. The first one was a mining operation manned by a group of humanoid aliens that looked like they’d been painted a deep purple. They had an extra eye in the center of their foreheads, and instead of hair, they had fleshy tendrils. However, the file detailed fairly advanced weaponry, though it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

The second camp’s occupants looked like a cross between humans and frogs, though they were quite a bit larger. The Rift was located in the center of a swamp – which presented problems all its own – and was slightly more advanced than the first.

Finally, there was the third option, which was quite a bit different than the other two. First, it was located underwater, which meant that, from a logistical standpoint, it presented an extra level of problems. Second, the aliens who ran it were a sort of crab people, complete with bulky shells and bodies that reminded me of insects. And finally, they were the most technologically advanced, meaning that they had many of the same defenses I had seen in the Dingyt camp.

“What makes you think we can handle this?” I asked. “And why should we bother? It looks difficult.”

“Not as much as you might expect,” Alistaris said. “But I’ll give you three reasons you want to hit it. For one, they’re allies of the E’rok Tan, and they have similar attitudes about humans. They don’t herd them, but the Crutacaans have been known to sample from the E’rok Tan herds. Second, the other two operations have weekly pick-ups, while the Crutacaans only offload their Rift Shards once every two months. So, once you take everyone out, you will have ample time to mine the Rift yourself. And finally, the Rift itself is far more advanced than any you’ve seen.”

Patrick asked, “What does that mean?”

“If you complete that Rift, you will gain at least ten times as many shards,” he said.

I tapped my lip as I considered it. Then, I sent a communication to Patrick, asking for his opinion. He wasn’t really all that helpful, though, because he said that he didn’t know enough about Rifts to make a viable judgement.

So, it was up to me.

Which meant that there was no real choice. I knew Alistaris was manipulating me by telling me that the Crutacaans ate humans, but just because it was manipulative didn’t mean it wasn’t effective. Especially when the file confirmed the assertion.

I said, “Alright. Looks like we’re going for a swim, then.”