Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 31 - Too Far (Patreon)

It’s not only about credits. It’s not even about raw resources. It’s about power. Ideology. It’s about keeping your foot on the necks of the people you feel are inferior. That’s what drives organizations like Gamore Confederation. The money is just a means to an end.

Alistaris Kargat

I sat on the hill overlooking the crash site, and in my mind, I could still see all the corpses I’d created. Some had been ripped apart so thoroughly that it took some degree of imagination to figure out what went where. Others showed no signs of trauma because I’d killed them with Mist Authority. Whatever the case, they’d all been heaped into piles by Alistaris’s cleanup crew, then carted away somewhere that his technicians could retrieve anything useful from their bodies. It was grim, gory work, but some of the implants could prove valuable, and even if they weren’t, the bits and pieces that had gone into constructing them would be.

I suppose nothing in the universe ever really went to waste. Desecration of the dead was a simple matter of resource management. Still, I struggled to wrap my mind around the necessity, and so, in the aftermath of the battle, I had found myself mired in something of a malaise. That pervasive miasma of melancholy had taken hold of my mind, and it refused to surrender its grip.

Even when I wanted nothing more than to move on to the next mission. The next target. The next group of invaders I was meant to murder.

The war had already begun, and the quarantine had yet to be lifted. Once it did, my kill count would be certain to increase significantly. And while I didn’t particularly feel bad about killing aliens who, if given a chance, would enslave humanity and pillage its resources, I couldn’t engage in mass murder without thinking twice about what it meant. About what it was doing to me. I might have been functionally immune to post-traumatic stress, but guilt – even the watered-down version I felt for aliens – had still made a home in my mind.

I wasn’t haunted, but I couldn’t ignore the ramifications of my actions.

After an hour or so, during which I pondered the psychological impact of what I had been forced to do, I saw Patric trudging up the hill. He seemed happy, almost carefree. Perhaps that was understandable. He’d been sorting through the results of the gnomes’ grim reclamation of cybernetics and other implants, and he’d probably come away with quite a few pieces that would facilitate further development. More, he’d proven himself worthy when he’d held his own against not only the mystic, but also in the ensuing battle. He’d come a long way since Mobile.

But then again, so had I.

I sometimes wondered if I could even still call myself human anymore. It felt inadequate to describe what I was turning into. For what I had already become. After all, humans couldn’t manipulate the very Mist, could they? Or they weren’t supposed to be capable of such a thing. Me, though? I could rip the nanites from a person’s body so thoroughly that they couldn’t survive the loss.

That was a terrifying level of power, and I knew I’d only scratched the surface. I still had a long way to go, which went well past terrifying and into some new realm of horror. And that was from my perspective. I could only guess what my enemies thought of me.

“Have fun?” I asked as Patrick approached. I tried to force a smile, but I fear it came off more as a pained grimace.

He grunted as he sat, his metallic fingers digging into the soft turf. Then, he sighed, “I don’t know if that’s how I put it. I did get some neat materials, though. That ship is a treasure trove. Not to mention the implants some of those people had. We could spend months sorting through it all.”

“Oh? Is that how you plan to spend the beginning of the Integration?”

His smile faded. “No. I’m with you until the end, Mira. You know that. We’re fighting this. We have to. I think I understand that better than ever, now.”

“Do you?” I asked. “What changed?”

He shrugged, then pushed his hair out of his eye. He’d grown it longer, I think because he wanted to hide the cybernetic half of his face. He could’ve just as easily covered it with faux skin – we had the money for top-notch stuff – but he’d so far refused. Part of that was pride – he didn’t want to give in to what he considered vanity – but it was also because he didn’t like the idea of having to remove and reattach the skin every time he wanted to tinker with something.

Whatever the case, I’d pointedly ignored his inner struggle. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. But from my experience, that day wouldn’t come until he was on the verge of psychological collapse. I could empathize with that. I’d certainly never been the most open person, and I didn’t think that was going to change anytime soon.

“This,” he said. “What happened here. I mean, I knew the aliens were bad news, Mira. I saw it, same as you. I listened to your stories, and I thought I understood it. But these people, they attacked without reason. They –”

“They had a reason, Pick. What I’ve been doing for the past month or so, they look at it as an escalation. They think I’m a Templar. So, to deal with me, they sent the people who specialize in that kind of thing,” I said. Freddy had explained it even better than Alistaris, which only exacerbated my guilt. It was my fault the Arbiters of Orion had been called in, and by proxy, I was to blame for all the deaths they had caused.

“They didn’t have to do what they did,” he said. “They specifically targeted the civilians. They tried to get past me just to murder the people in that bunker.”

“I’ve done the same thing. I’ve killed people who couldn’t defend myself.”

“You did it because they invaded our world. This is different.”

“It doesn’t always feel so different,” I murmured.

He didn’t have an easy answer for that, so he just put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. Thankfully, the bodies were all gone, so there was nothing but the downed ship to spoil our view of the setting sun. If it hadn’t come in the wake of mass murder, perhaps it would have felt romantic. As it was, the moment was more melancholy than anything else. Still, I couldn’t deny my gratitude that Patrick was there. He didn’t have to say anything. Instead, his comforting presence was enough to stave off the worst of the psychological torment that came from my actions.

It couldn’t last forever, though, and soon enough, a pair of Dingyts found us. Vaguely, I recognized their faces, but I’d never bothered learning their names. Even so, I knew them as part of Alistaris’s inner circle.

The female, who had long purple hair and the largest eyes I’d ever seen, said, “Miss Braddock, Commander Kargat requests your presence.”

“Miss Braddock,” I muttered to myself as I shook my head. “Sounds official. Maybe I should get a rank in your little army. General, maybe. Admiral would sound good.”

“I…I don’t know if that’s possible, ma’am.”

“I’m joking,” I said, reading her fear. She was terrified of me, and rightly so. She was likely more aware than most of what I could do. Her partner, a male with spiky green hair, looked positively nauseous just being in my presence. Still, they were prepared to do their duty, even if they were horrified by the monster before them. As I pushed myself to my feet, I said, “Fine. Let’s get going.”

After that, Patrick and I were led down the hill. However, we didn’t head towards the downed ship, which was crawling with gnomes and scavenger bots. Instead, we took a northerly turn and passed through a copse of trees on our way to Alistaris’s ship. The Dingyts had already built a temporary fortification around the craft, complete with high walls and a relatively dense Mist shield. As always when I’d dealt with the Dingyts, there were plenty of bots and drones about. Some were meant for surveillance, but others were plainly intended for defense.

One thread of thought was occupied with thoughts of how I might overcome those defenses. It was all academic, of course. I didn’t think the Dingyts were my enemies, but it was always good to be prepared. And besides, it was good practice for the inevitable war on the horizon. After all, who knew what sorts of defenses my enemies might employ? There was a good chance they’d be similar to the Dingyts’ measures.

Soon , we were led to a gate that was guarded by a half-dozen gnomes. Each one was wearing an armored infiltration suit, and they all carried assault rifles that looked like they would pack quite a punch. When we reached that gate, the Mist shield retracted, and the gate itself slid into the wall, allowing for entry. We stepped inside, and as we crossed the grounds, passing a few temporary buildings along the way, the gates slid shut behind us. Eventually, we reached the ship, which we boarded and quickly found our way into the common area.

It looked quite different from the Leviathan, largely in that it was sleeker and far more sterile from a design perspective. Yet, it was similar enough that I recognized all the roofs for what they were, and we soon found our way to what would’ve been the common area. It had been converted into a command center, complete with a host of terminals and a large table in the center. A holographic model of Earth shimmered just above it.

At a glance, I could see that dozens of locations had been marked across the Earth’s surface. Some of those, I knew to be alien strongholds, many of which I’d had a hand in dismantling. However, there were seventeen evenly spaced locations that I’d not seen in our previous strategy sessions. That did not bode well.

“What’s up, Al?” I asked as we walked in.

Alistaris sighed and rubbed the bridge of his bulbous nose. “I have repeatedly asked you not to refer to me as Al.”

“It’s a term of endearment,” I stated, plopping down in one of the chairs. It was gnome-sized, so it was a bit of a tight fit. So, I threw my leg over one arm of the chair and pulled a ration bar from my arsenal implant. “Want one? They’re not very good, but I’ve kind of gotten hooked on them. Something about that faux banana flavor.”

I ripped the package open and took a bite.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Patrick said. “When she gives you a nickname, it means she likes you. Whether or not you like that nickname is irrelevant. I’ve learned that the hard way.”

“You wound me, Pick. I care about your feelings.”

“In your way, I’m sure you do,” he said, grinning as he placed his hands on the back of one of the other chairs and leaned forward. “So, what’s going on, Commander?”

Alistaris just shook his head at our exchange, then said, “We have a problem.”

“What’s new?”

“I know you noticed the new additions to the map. Those seventeen locations represent Earth’s doom.”

“In what way?” I asked.

“The literal one.”

“Uh…”

“Do you know how to destroy a planet, Miss Braddock?” he asked.

“Build a big enough bomb, and anything can be destroyed.”

“Certainly. But there are two problems. First, if you do that, it’s incredibly difficult to harvest the valuable bits,” he stated. “Second, a bomb big enough to completely destroy a planet like would vaporize almost everything worth taking. Certainly, some of the most durable resources would survive, and they would be valuable. However, the real credits are in the more mundane resources. That’s what makes the universe spin.”

That made sense. Most people couldn’t afford quality. Instead, they had to settle for something in the middle. Or worse, poor-grade goods. And they bought an awful lot of it.

“That’s where these locations come in,” he said. “They’re drill sites. Over the next month, they will dig down to the planet’s core, where they will plant an appropriate quantity of explosives. I don’t need to explain to you how much more efficient that would be.”

I nodded. “My uncle told me about a story from his time,” I said. “There was an asteroid coming to Earth, and to stop it from causing mass extinction, they sent a team of drilling experts to land on the asteroid. They drilled down and blew it to pieces.”

“That sounds ridiculous,” Patrick said.

“He said it was one of the most famous stories from his time,” I pointed out. “People wouldn’t have latched onto it if it was ridiculous. Maybe there was something lost in translation.”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“If you’re done talking about fairy tales, this is a serious matter,” Alistaris said impatiently.

“Oh, sure. Sorry, Al.”

He let out a groan. “Those drill sites are the first part,” Alistaris said. “The second issue is in the upper atmosphere.”

With that, he gestured to the holographic globe. A web of smaller lights bloomed into being, encircling the representation of the planet. Alistaris went on, “Those are satellites. They form a web of Mist surrounding the planet. When activated, they will prevent any debris from drifting off into space. That way, once the planet is destroyed, the resources can be quickly, efficiently, and easily collected by the Gomari Confederation. This is what I’ve been warning you about all along.”

“So, they want to destroy the planet. We’ll stop them.”

“We have less than a month,” he stated. “We need to destroy seventeen drill sites, each one with enough defenses to repel an army. That’s the minimum. Then, once that’s done, we’ll need to do something about those satellites. Because once they go up, there’s no getting off the planet.”

“Even with [Smuggler] skills?” asked Patrick.

“This isn’t a soft quarantine,” Alistaris pointed out. “It’s a semi-permeable Mist shield that will encircle the whole planet. The only people who can get in or out are the ones they allow. It’s a military blockade combined with a –”

“We get it, Al. So, how do we do this? What’s the plan of attack?”

“There is no we, Miss Braddock. I have been called back to the core to answer for my failures,” he stated.

“Failure? We just downed a ship manned by the Arbiters of Orion! That’s not a failure. I’ve accomplished every single mission you’ve sent me on, and –”

“That’s the problem, Miss Braddock,” he said softly.

“What?”

“You did the job. You accomplished the missions. But in the process, you scared them,” he said. “You hit them too hard and too fast. They believe you’re too much of a threat to allow to exist. As a result, those Gamori bastards have escalated this planet’s situation. They don’t care about the human resources they stand to gain. There are trillions of potential slaves out there, so the loss of a billion isn’t going to make them blink. They would rather harvest this planet the easy way rather than fight you.”

“But I thought –”

“I know what you thought. The reality is that we were always fighting a losing battle. I’m sorry, Mira, but you and your planet are doomed. Everyone who matters knows and has accepted that as fact,” he said.

“Fuck you.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Fuck you and your people who matter. You think this is going to stop me?” I growled, jabbing my finger at the holographic globe. “They’ve got a few strongholds? So what? I’ll rip through them and murder every last alien who stands against me. I don’t care. I’ll probably kill the ones who surrender, too. And then I’ll fly up into the goddamn atmosphere, and I’ll disable those satellites, too. You think I can’t? After what you’ve seen me do, do you really believe any of this is going to stop me? If so, then fuck you, Al. I don’t accept that we’re beaten. I won’t. Because we’re winning! Look out there at that ship. We won! And we’ll keep winning until all of those assholes are dead!”

“You can’t kill everyone,” Alistaris said quietly.

“Watch me.”

That single sentence said more about my mindset than the entire rant that had preceded it. I didn’t care if the entire universe was set against me. If that was the case, then they would just have to die.

“Are you with us, or are you against us?” asked Patrick, his voice as steely as mine was agitated.

“Neither,” Alistaris stated. “I don’t have a choice. If I don’t go, I’m sentencing my people to death.”

“Then go. But you’ve got time, right?” Patrick asked. “Almost a month before you can’t get out. So, help us until then. Once the quarantine is about to lift, get out.”

“We don’t need him,” I spat.

“We do need him, Mira. We need all the help we can get,” Patrick persisted. Then, he turned back to Alistaris. “What do you say? I know you want to see this through, right? Well, this is your chance.”

For a long few moments, Alistaris remained silent. It stretched long enough to where I expected him to refuse. But then, he finally said, “Okay. We’ll stick around until three days before the quarantine lifts. That gives us three weeks. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“Thanks,” Patrick said. “You won’t regret this.”

Pointedly, I didn’t say anything else. As far as I was concerned, we didn’t need his help, and I intended to prove that by destroying every last alien on the planet.