Planet Ignis | Ch. 26 (Patreon)

…Pac-man and chess.

I believe that the reason so much of the culture of the Settlements revolves around their form of chess and other games is quite simple. The average age of the population of a Settlement is fourteen or fifteen years old. No wonder games are such a prevalent part of their society. Although it is a post-apocalyptic town, it is still one that is full of playful children and adolescents.

I will now explain the rules of their most famous game: longevity…

From “Notes on Ignian Societies”, by Hitori Himura, PhD

The ground of Ignis shook. The Raptor had just fallen for fourteen kilometers and finally landed. Despite all the power it had diverted to its jets and its efforts to glide as much as it could toward the cliff, the strength of the strike that had sent it flying was just too intense.

As he was sent flying, it performed a full system scan. The old human had targeted him precisely in the place in his armor where it was most vulnerable. It would need a few more days to become fully operational. Fortunately, none of the damage significantly crippled its battle potential.

As soon as it landed on the cliff, it started to make its way back up to the top of the mountain. They wouldn’t get him again with such a tactical maneuver. The Raptor’s tactical programs had already found a way to counteract their strategy.

As the hours passed, the Raptor continued going up the cliffside. It was only one kilometer away from the top. The raptor picked up a slight tremor in the mountain. It stopped. What was this? Was it about to be attacked again? It performed a full sweep of the mountain. It picked up a nuclear signature. Archimedes would be with Hitori, but the readings indicated a much greater output than a snow explorer like Archimedes could produce. Could it be…?

The Raptor rushed up the cliff. If it was what it suspected, it couldn’t let them get away. The Raptor had many weapon systems, but it had run out of ammunition in the fight against the two blues. He had to get close enough to stop it. But it was too late.

A deafening hum silenced the landscape, and a ship flew off the top of the mountain. It was one of the lifeboats from the Phoenix. In faded letters on the side of the lifeboat it read ‘Plume V.’ As it flew off, different appendages unfolded from the Raptor’s back. It performed a full scan of the ship with all its sensors. Three humans were on board, two with a body temperature of 100ºC, the other with a body temperature of 10ºC. One small nuclear signature, a drone. It analyzed its route and extrapolated its destination.

The Raptor recalled the locations of all the statues it had seen and then computed. As it estimated the location of the human Settlement, it confirmed that it coincided with the predicted destination of the ship.

The Raptor let go of the cliff and started falling. There were five priority targets in that Settlement: three troublesome humans and two AI cores. It was time to become whole.

Caution and stealth were no longer ingredients that were necessary to Hitori’s plan. The ship landed right at the entrance of the Burrows. It made no difference that it signaled to the Raptor where this Settlement was. Only time was necessary now. Even though they had been ready for departure a few hours earlier, the critical factor in his plan would be how much time they spent together in the Settlement before the Raptor arrived. Therefore, they had patiently waited for the Raptor to come as close to the lab as they dared and had only then flown off, gaining a few extra hours for the next part of their plan.

So far, everything was going according to Hitori’s agenda. He had successively led the Raptor by its nose from one location to the next while buying time for the Settlers to get to him. One of the advantages of this was that it allowed the Doctor to calculate the Raptor’s traveling speed. Now that he also knew the coordinates of the Settlement, with Stellaris’ help, he could precisely calculate the estimated time of arrival for the Raptor at the Settlement. It would be approximately three days and four hours before they could implement the final stage of the plan.

Eli and Trother stumbled their way out of the ship as it landed. This was the first time they had flown, and the landing had been rough. As Trother vomited, Eli angrily demanded of Hitori an explanation of why he would try to kill them after they had helped him. In a mild peaceful voice, Hitori had patiently explained that he was a geneticist, not a pilot and that it wasn’t easy to land a ship in this gravity, even with Archimedes’ help.

Before they left the mountain, Trother had sent one message to the Burrows. After the Council had met six years ago, Faren had assigned communication protocols top priority and was constantly checking for messages. The Council had decided so, in the eventuality, that the doctor tried to contact them again in case the Centigrades were attacked. Now that it was no longer important if the Raptor intercepted the message, Trother had sent a message explaining they would fly a lifeboat to the Burrows and bring the Doctor to them. He had asked Faren to organize a crew of oranges to help bring all the equipment aboard the ship into the Burrows.

The trip that had taken one month on foot to Trother and Eli, and three days and a half to the Raptor, was quickly traversed by the Plume in under two hours.

After they left the ship, soon, several oranges and a yellow appeared and started to carry all of Hitori’s equipment outside of the ship. Archimedes’ had been the first thing to be transported. As a snow exploration drone, all of Archimedes’ equipment had been designed to fight the cold, not the heat. Hitori had powered it off to ensure the equipment survived the hot temperature. Having the nuclear reactor work in this heat without an appropriate cooling system would probably destroy the drone. They couldn’t have that. Archimedes’ AI core would be crucial for the next step of his plan. oranges started to hurriedly unload the ship under the direction of the yellow that had replaced Hingwid as Captain of the Golden Guard.

As expected, it was boiling here. Hitori’s perspiration quickly turned to steam as the water in his body started to leave him. As soon as they had landed, Hitori had asked for more food and had hastily shoved as much as he could in his mouth so that ignium could replace the water in his system. He could only endure this much heat because of the small amount of ignium he had digested previously and how he was using up the heat around him to generate the electricity needed to polarize the ignium in his body. This, too, was going according to plan. Eli had helpfully given the doctor his oxygen mask, which he graciously accepted.

The entrance to the Burrows was a big crack in the walls of the Abyss Valley. As one entered, it started becoming narrower and narrower until one reached a natural tunnel formation in the ignium. Centuries earlier, when Fahrenheit was fully mobile, it had found this tunnel that led to a cave system underground. Since then, the cave system has been expanded into what it is today. Hitori followed Eli as he supported his teacher, who was struggling to walk. Trother was trying to stretch his life as much as possible and had refused to be put to sleep, despite Hitori’s and Eli’s endeavors. He insisted that he had to speak to the Council. He could hardly stand, but with Eli’s assistance, Trother managed to trudge along.

After a few minutes, Hitori noticed how the tunnel, with its curves and irregular walls that marked it as a natural formation, suddenly became a smoother straight tunnel about four meters in diameter. As Hitori observed the tunnel wall more closely, he noticed how it resembled the wax of a candle that had melted and dripped. What could make ignium become like this?

‘Did you do this?’ Asked Hitori.

‘One of our most famous kings did it. This is Howner Avenue.’ Answered Eli, with pride. Hitori was utterly impressed. Who would have known his Celer mutation would enable a human to achieve such a titanic feat?

As they kept walking, Hitori noticed the human-shaped metal statues on the sides of the tunnels, as if armors lined up a castle’s corridor. Some were in such bad shape that they could hardly be identified as human. Others were intact. Hitori noticed a statue on his left side with clearly discernible facial features but with stretched arms in a melted mess.

“What is this?” asked Hitori. “Is it an art gallery?”

Eli frowned at the phrase, and he remained silent for a few seconds.

“These are the people of the tribe,” said Eli finally, never slowing down.

Hitori stopped. He realized this tunnel was not only an entrance to their Settlement but a cemetery as well. As they walked for hours down Howner Avenue, they passed hundreds and hundreds of statues. There were many more people in these Settlements than Hitori had foreseen.

‘What turned these people into statues?’ Asked Hitori.

‘When we die, we stop producing energy. The ignium in our body becomes rigid again, and our remains become like this.’ Said Eli, as he kept walking.

So that’s why. Hitori had wondered whether the Settlers had made a custom of embalming the bodies of the deceased, but in the end, it was something that just happened naturally.

‘Hang on, master. We’re almost there,’ said Eli.

They had arrived at a metal door at the end of the tunnel. Hitori recognized the door. It had been welded to the tunnel in a way that would fit it, but it was just like the door of the Plume, the lifeboat he had flown here. The Settlers had recycled the one they had used to get here.

Ch. 27