Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 4 - Aquatic (Patreon)

For most people, losing multiple limbs would be a devastating thing. Even with cybernetics, it’s just not the same – no matter what anyone tells you. But for me, it was a boon. It gave me insights into cybernetics I never knew were possible. Still, I would give anything just to hold Mira with my own two hands, just one last time.

Patrick Ward

I gazed out the window, watching the wispy white clouds whip by as the Leviathan cut through the sky. We’d been flying for hours, and we still had quite a ways to go. Below us was the ocean, deep, unfathomable, and home to some of the greatest predators on Earth. If something happened to the Leviathan and we ended up crashing into the sea, I knew we wouldn’t last long. Even with all my strength, it would count of almost nothing if I found myself on the wrong end of a sea monster.

Over the years, I had seen a few of them. Sea serpents hundreds of feet long, great leviathans that weighed thousands of tons, squid and octopi that could sink ships with barely an effort – there were so many threats in the ocean that trying to cross it was something akin to a harboring a death wish.

Even flying above it was a risk, though one that was mitigated by distance. Still, I had heard of giant tentacle monsters snatching flying ships right out of the sky and dragging them into the depths. So, as we flew, I paid close attention to any potential threats. None presented themselves, though.

“What are you thinking?” asked Patrick, never taking his eyes from his instrumentation as he piloted the ship.

“Huh?”

“I asked what you were thinking,” he repeated. “You’ve been sitting there for hours, just staring at nothing. I know you’ve got something on your mind. Just tell me. Maybe I can help or something.”

“Honestly? I was thinking about giant sea monsters,” I admitted. “Probably because we’re about to go for a dive. I mean, even closer to shore, there are creatures that can – and will – eat us alive.”

“You sound like you know that from firsthand experience.”

“I didn’t ever tell you about the giant jellyfish that I ran into?” I asked.

He shook his head, saying, “No. I think I would’ve remembered that.”

“Huh,” I muttered. I could have sworn I’d told him about it, but there was a chance I was mistaken. There was also the chance that his injuries had muddled some of his memories. He’d experienced a pretty serious concussion, and on top of that, his brain had been deprived of oxygen. For a moment, I found myself worrying about his health, but then I thought better of it. He’d been scanned by multiple doctors and [Cybernetic Engineers], and they’d all proclaimed him as healthy as could be expected, given what he’d been through. I needed to trust their expertise.

But trust didn’t come easy for me, especially when the subject was someone I loved.

“I told you about Bayou La Batre, right?”

“Yeah. That was before we met, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. I was so naïve, back then. So weak. If the current version of me met those same challenges, I would have gone about things very, very differently. But my uncle had meant it as training, so if I’d been completely prepared for it and made all the right choices, it probably wouldn’t have been very effective.

“It was. Anyway, I got into some trouble, and I ended up having to swim away,” I said. “I got like a mile out, and that’s when this huge jellyfish – later, I found out that it’s called a Portuguese man o’ war – that wrapped its tentacles around me. Or…I mean, it didn’t really actively do anything. It was just kind of there.  Anyway, I got caught up in its tentacles. And it was some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Like, imagine all your nerves catching fire at the same time.”

“Sounds terrible,” he said. “I can’t imagine something like that. What happened?”

I cut my eyes at him and grinned. “Same thing I usually do. I cut it to pieces,” I admitted. “Then I swam away.”

“And you’re worried we’ll run into something like that when we attack these…what are they called again?”

“Crutacaans.”

“Right. Crutacaans. You think we’ll get hit by sea monsters when we go down there?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably not, though. I guess it was just kind of on my mind, if that makes any sense.” I sighed, then leaned my head back. “Do you ever wish we had a more peaceful life? Like, we were just normal? I mean, I know it’s not possible. Not anymore, if it ever was. But I sometimes think about what things were like back before the Mist. I have some books from back then, and…I don’t know. The idea of just living our lives without anyone trying to kill or enslave us…”

“Or eat us.”

“Or eat us,” I agreed. “I don’t know. It just feels kind of…wrong. But right, too. Like, I know I’d be bored out of my mind, but I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to live like that for a few days. Kind of like a vacation.”

“We could go visit that beach you liked so much. The one on the island near that volcano.”

I smiled. We’d visited there a couple of years before, and we’d had a fantastic month where we did almost nothing. But even then, we’d had to look out for Wildlings, mutated wildlife, and sea creatures that might crawl out of the ocean. In the end, we’d been forced to leave when a herd of giant crabs had taken over the beach. Perhaps we could have killed them, but their intrusion had stolen the place’s sense of peace.

“Pass. We need to get this done,” I said. “The sooner I can get some new skills, the better. Plus, I want some stronger weapons. I think I can handle some of the big guns now.”

“Like what?”

“Gala has a bunch of energy weapons,” I said. “Plus you took my scattergun, so…well, I need to replace that anyway.”

“You never even used it and you know it,” he said.

“Still.”

He’d cannibalized the weapon for parts, integrating them into his cybernetics. I still wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but he’d claimed he was successful. Perhaps I’d find out sooner rather than later, considering that he insisted on participating in the assault. He’d be wearing the armor, but I was still worried about his safety.

For another couple of hours, we cruised along until, at last, we reached our destination. We didn’t dare land in the vicinity of the Crutacaan mining operation, so Patrick guided the ship to a small clearing about sixty miles to the north. After that, we spent the next couple of hours preparing for our assault. Patrick did final checks on his armor, while I made sure that my arsenal implant was fully stocked with ammunition.

With my class evolution, [Cybernetic Master] had become [Mist Infused Body], and as a result, my cybernetics had become quite a bit more efficient. For the arsenal implant, that meant that the utility slots could hold about twice as much as they had before the evolution. So, I had enough ammunition and explosives to level a city.

Before we left, I glanced at Patrick, who was readying himself to mount the armor, and asked, “Are you sure you want to do this? Things are going to get pretty dicey.”

“I’m fine,” he said. “This armor can withstand whatever they throw at me.”

I wasn’t so sure. Two-hundred Constitution was impressive, but it wouldn’t make him bullet-proof. My own exploits were evidence enough of that; I’d rarely gone on a serious mission without getting shot at least a couple of times, and even with my advantages – a seriously inflated Constitution, a high-tech infiltration suit, and subdermal armor – I wasn’t completely safe.

But I knew I needed to trust that Patrick could take care of himself, because whether I liked it or not, he refused to sit on the sidelines any longer.

Once he was firmly ensconced within his armor, Patrick went through a series of checks before announcing that he was ready. So, with that, we set off. Given that I was mounted on the Cutter, my pace was much faster than his, but that was by design. By the time he caught up to me, I hoped to have already scouted the enemy position and established a plan. So, as I sped along through the countryside, I went over everything I knew from the file Alistaris had given me.

That didn’t occupy me for very long, though. I’d already memorized everything, so my mind was quickly freed to appreciate the surrounding wilderness. The Crutacaan base was nestled just offshore from a sizable island in the northern hemisphere, so the weather was cold, clammy, and seemed perpetually cloaked in a persistent fog. But there was an ethereal beauty to it, too.

Adding to that were the remnants of an abandoned civilization. Along the way, I passed more than one ancient, moss-covered castle. None of them were huge – not like the palaces I read about in my books – but they were impressive nonetheless, and I couldn’t help but appreciate them for what they represented. They’d been built hundreds of years ago, and still, they stood. Would any modern structures persist after a couple of centuries? I couldn’t help but doubt that.

Gradually, I covered ground. I didn’t speed, largely because the area was completely uninhabited, and so, there were few roads to speak of. I was no stranger to cutting cross-country, but usually, there were the ruins of old highways to follow. That was not the case with this island, and so, I had to take things fairly slowly.

Even so, I reached my destination, which was a steep cliff overlooking the roiling sea, in good time. Once I did, I stored my hoverbike away, then crept to the edge of the cliff. Hundreds of feet below, the angry ocean crashed against the cliff in an ongoing battle between earth and sea.

I flared Observation as I scanned for signs of the Crutacaan base, and I quickly found what I was looking for in a small glimmer of metal less than a mile out to sea. I recognized it as the platform the aliens used as a dock for the humans who’d been contracted – or enslaved, I suppose – to take their wares to a Rapid Transference Node that would send the Rift Shards to the Bazaar where they would either be sold or sent along to whoever had financed the Crutacaan operation.

The fact that it was underwater meant that attacking this base presented some very unique problems. For one, I had no idea if my Stealth would be effective down there. For another, I would very much be at a disadvantage in any physical confrontation with the Crutacaans who were clearly far more at home under the sea than I could ever be. However, I hoped to get past that with a generous application of firepower.

Even so, if I’d had my way, I would’ve just dropped a hundred bombs on them and let the whole thing sort itself out. However, that came with the significant issue of damaging the Rift aperture. If that happened, we wouldn’t be able to access the Rift, which would in turn nullify our entire reason for being there.

Aside from killing a few aliens, that is.

But that was going to happen either way.

In any case, I didn’t intend to just swim in, guns blazing. Instead, I wanted to use my very specific skills to my benefit. To that end, I engaged Stealth, then I contacted Patrick through Secure Connection and told him, “I’m going in. With luck, they’ll be cleared out in a few hours. But if I call for you, I want you to –”

“Come running at full speed,” he said. “I remember the plan.”

To conserve power, he was taking it easy on his way from the Leviathan’s landing spot to the Crutacaan base. However, if he wanted to burn through his Mist, he could move almost as fast as the Cutter. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be necessary.

So, cloaked in Stealth, I started climbing down the cliff. I’d have preferred to access the ocean in a more convenient way, but the sheer cliffs extended for miles in both directions. Which meant I had little choice unless I wanted to spend even more time in the water.

All in all, the climb wasn’t terrible. With my attributes and compact body type, I’d always been a good climber. And my training had pushed me even further down that line. The result was that I could move down even that sheer cliff face with alacrity, and I reached the water in only a few minutes.

Then, without further hesitation, I dove in.

And immediately regretted that decision.

For better or worse, I had grown up in a climate controlled city. Then, I’d spent the bulk of the next few years in a subtropical environment where the temperatures rarely – if ever – approached freezing. So, plunging into that water came with a significant shock. I could survive in some pretty extreme temperatures, but just because I could live through it didn’t make the experience pleasurable.

Still, I wasn’t going to let it dissuade me, so I quickly swam away from the cliff and into deeper water. With Observation, I could see fairly well underwater, but I still felt like something was going to jump out at me at any moment. When I started to get short of breath, I surfaced, took a few deep gulps of oxygen, then dove below the surface.

Like that, I covered the distance to the Crutacaan base, and when I drew close, I retrieved my respirator from my arsenal implant, placed it over my mouth and nose, then dove down into the depths.

The seafloor was awash in life, largely because of the increased Mist levels common to any Dead Zone. A forest of green kelp stretched as far as I could see, but nestled among that green carpet was what looked like a blue-tinted bubble. I knew from the file that it was the base habitat; the Crutacaan were an amphibious race, so they could survive underwater. However, the Rift aperture could not, so they were forced to come up with a workaround. Thus, the bubble, inside of which I would find the base.

In an effort to maintain my Stealth, I swam forward slowly, then descended into the kelp forest. Once I was there, I allowed myself to speed up slightly, though not enough to ruin my ability. Like that, I progressed until, at last, I reached the line of demarcation between the sea and the dry atmosphere within the bubble.

Then, I pushed through.

I had no idea how it worked, but the bubble was permeable to solid matter. So, I only met slight resistance as I passed into the dry atmosphere. One of the advantages of the bubble not allowing water through was that it instantly dried me out, too, though it was murder on my hair.

Not that I was thinking about that kind of thing. Instead, I turned my attention on my environment, then crept through the maze of buildings until I found what I was looking for.

The Crutacaan was huge. At least three times my size, and that wasn’t even including its bulky shell. One of its arms ended in a meaty claw, while the other was more humanoid, though with only three fingers. It had four legs, and to me, it seemed to follow the pattern of the mythological centaur, though it substituted the body of a horse with a crustacean’s.

In short, it was a horrifying-looking creature, which made my mission that much easier to stomach.

I reached out with my {Mist Warden} senses and grabbed ahold of its system. In seconds, I’d bypassed its middling defenses and uploaded the latest iteration of Time Bomb. Then, I retreated to an out-of-the-way corner of the base and settled in to wait.

I knew it wouldn’t get them all. Some of them were sure to have much more potent defenses. However, my efforts would thin their numbers significantly so that when Patrick arrived and we went on the offensive, we wouldn’t face overwhelming odds.