"Hold on Babe, were almost there!"

He held her tenderly as he staggered forward. Straining with the effort.

"Its o.k... You can put me down... I'll be fine..." She softly whispered into his neck.

He shook his head. "Never... Its just one quick trip."

Onward he staggered. She could hear his heart hammering in his chest. Feel his muscles strain. But he pulled from some deep ancestral well of strength and soldiered on as the rain fell.

"You don't have to do this anymore... It's too much to bear... Please... just put me down and go on." She whined into his chest as he moved onward like a living engine beneath her.

"Your light as a feather... always have been." He was lying of course. He was starting to shake from the exertion.

The man wouldn't be deterred however. He refused to relinquish his burden. It was like the day she'd truly fallen for him. He'd taken a team of volunteers and waded through a literal warzone, against orders to drag her and the rest of her team out of the fire. She could still remember the way he came over the hill. His armor dented and damaged framed by a purple sky. His eyes were like coals of wildfire then...

The way his team roared as they fell on the enemy encircling her medical transport. That 15 man fire team drove off the better part of a division in 3 hours of hellish close quarter fighting and then carried her small medical team and 9 wounded survivor to safety.

She knew then there would never be another man in her life.

She was seriously reconsidering that right now as she slowly DIED of embarrassment!

As soon as the walked out of the market he had taken ALL the bags and hung them from his arm then picked her up in a bridal carry!!! Now he was Jogging thru the center of their little village... Her ears were so red she was pretty sure the rain was actually sizzling when it hit the fur...

"Derrick pleeease... People are starring!" She whined at him with her muzzle buried in his neck.

Her Human just repeated "Almost there. Also, it's raining out. Don't want the squish beans to get wet!" And then muttered something about... "and... One trip..."

...While she slowly died inside...

Finally after what was arguable the 10 longest minutes of Leandra's life they reached the door to their home.

Since the ridiculous oversized ape refused to put her down she unlocked the door while still in the mans arms. All the while their neighbors were giggling and cheering her paramour on.

Finally inside the house Derrick plopped her down on the couch. He started towards the kitchen with the groceries but stopped at the wall mounted video phone kiosk. He punched in a number and squared up to the massive screen.

A few seconds later the call was taken and a big green Buroodian filled the screen. "Sup BooBoo?"

Derrick lifted the bags to show his friend and Battle Rordeck "Jangles" Graid.

"Bro! One trip!"

Rordreck Paused for a second...

"One trip?"

The Human nodded.

"One trip!"

The Buroodian let out a full bodied battle cry "WOOO!!!"

The Human responded in Kind "WOOO!!!" Then ended the call.

Leandra's just buried her head in her hands and laughed while her boyfriend strutted into the kitchen like a puffed up cartoon character.

A few moment later she got a text from Rordeck's wife Maddi

Recieved: The FUCK was that???

Reply: Um... One trip? * Laughcry emoji * * shrug emoji *

Leandra just laughed harder.

Chapter 24 Proper Application

 Previous I First I Next

As it turned out the little Grey Voltarite in the aviator goggles was the “Q” of the blast works.

He even had a little 4-legged lab coat… Johan was never going to get used to the adorable little space Fennec’s and their unique fashion.

The “Elder Attendant” introduced himself as a Cordinis Vrays before introducing his Dorf apprentice as Jiminey FurgenDorf.

Johan tried to exchange pleasantries, but his eyes just kept wandering to Minzy …He was pretty sure the girls and the Cordinis could all hear his heart, trying to beat its way out of his ribcage… Thankfully the furry little mad scientist took pity and gave him something else to focus on.

“So, these weapons are not technically relics?”

Johan forced his eyes to meet Cordinis’s

“Depends on your definition. By human firearm standards these are both very old designs. Modern civilian grade guns are semi-automatic. Milspec equipment fires in 3 round burst or full auto …with much higher magazine capacity. This lever gun’s been modernized to make it more effective but compared to my Tavor 7? It’s an antique, even with upgrades. Same thing with the revolver. It’s reliable and powerful but with low ammo cap. I usually carry a 10mm Sig with a 17-round mag.”

Johan Brought out his phone and showed them pictures of his normal main carries when he worked camp security.

Jiminey seemed a bit surprised by the explanation “Compared to a pulse laser of packet gun that’s still only a handful of shots… What’s the upside?”

Johan laughed at that.

“Well, I’m not sure how they compare to energy weapons, man. Directed energy and rail gun tech is basically just getting started on my world… But when I showed these to the union, they seemed to think they would be good for defeating light powered armor.”

The science geeks were basically in motion the second he finished saying that.

Minzy was at a console, her hands flying through holographic menus so fast it looked like a blur to everyone else. Jiminey was loping around the room on his long front arms like an extremely small and very dense Gorilla. Moving some kind of targeting analogs onto a black square up against a metal wall… Covered in dents and scorch marks.

‘Ok… indoor shooting range, maybe? Guess I’ll set up on the opposite wall… That’s a solid 90 feet.’

His trajectory app beeped at him. He pulled it up on the interface to see it had converted it to 27 meters. The galaxy used metric, or at least something equivalent…

Of course it did.

Johan worked international construction, so he knew how to do the conversion from freedom fractions to stupid unnatural perfectly reasonable meters… But he refused on principle to use them in daily life.

It was just un-american… For a grown ass man… with dual Mexican and American citizenship.

…

…

…

…He was just lazy and hated math.

He literally wasted a free skill space in his interface on the [Rangefinder] skill solely because it came with an automatic calculator.

Not that he would EVER admit that fact.

While Johan mused on the superiority of the imperial system and the stinky evils of base ten maths, the “geeks” were finishing their set up.

Well, almost.

Johan made a quick announcement.

“I neglected to mention this, but these are LOUD. Unsuppressed 45-70 is probably over 130 decibels. Given some of the people here have sensitive hearing I recommend ear protection.”

Cordinis’s little shoulder mounted robot arm disappeared into a pocket and produced some gel ear plugs. Jiminey went around the room with biology appropriate headphones, for everyone else.

Satisfied, everyone was properly protected and his downrange was clear, Johan took a knee and rested the rifle on the frame of his pack.

“I’ll start with the rifle. Single fire. Then move to fast fire.”

Minzy did something at her console and the target dummies turned red.

Johan raised his voice “CLEAR DOWN RANGE!”

He raised the barrel into firing position.

Moved his finger over the trigger and focused on his target through the long relief scope. Slowly he let out a breath, squeezing the trigger taught as he did so… until…

*BOOM*

----

Beck felt the thud in her chest from all the way across the room. She would be a little embarrassed she’d jumped…  if everyone else hadn’t jumped right along with her.

…Minzy even had all ten arms wrapped around herself, defensively.

The target had a pinhole in the front, and a can sized hole out the back of it. Its damage modeling skin was supposed to register damage by changing to blue showing a lethal radius of impact. Instead, it was a swirling mass of colors and static switching back and forth in clear malfunction.

There was also a paw sized dent in the wall…

She had seen plenty of Kinetics on the sphere.

Skinners were a favorite among thugs and magnetic needle rifles were common among the races that could heft the big one-shot artillery. But this? It had less penetrative power than a needle gun but way more stopping power than a skinner. It was like a cannon… He had a cannon!

Wait… He had TWO canons!

----

Johan was feeling an entirely new kind of panic now.

‘Crap Crap Crap Crap! I broke the fancy space magic dummy. How much does one of those even cost!?! … I’m poor now, aren’t I?’  

“I’m sorry Cordinis I didn’t expect that kind of damage… Will the DASS take payments for the damages, or do I need to make an immediate payment???”

Whatever he expected from Cordinis it wasn’t manic laughter and nearly childlike glee. The Grey Volty was doing a tap dance!

“THAT WAS AWESOME!!! How long does it take to cool down between shots? What’s its effective range? Is there any way to suppress the sound? Oh, I want that on my table… yesterday! It’s a whole new TYPE of weapon!!! EhEhEhEhEhEhEhEhEhEhE!”

Johan just knelt there… confused… before Jiminey saved him, by pointing at a corner. It was full of melted and crushed dummies.

“We just toss them in the recycler at the end of shift. It’s a relic weapons shop. Things get broken.”

Johan nodded slowly. Feeling his already overworked sphincter relaxing as his fears of financial ruin faded.

“Uh sure... Um… There is a suppression system that traps the gasses. Infact, there’s an integrally suppressed model like mine that came out on the market a while back. It cuts the noise down to about 2/3’s It can be as much as half with subsonic rounds… As for cooldowns. This has a 6 round mag and can hold one in the chamber. Basically, it fires as fast as I can work the charging handle… and pull the trigger.”

He replaced the missing round.

“Here I’ll mag dump so you can get a feel for rate of fire.”

He stood up this time. Once again, clearing the range visually before he raised the rifle.

“CLEAR DOWN RANGE!”

He emptied the magazine tube, scoring 6 hits in 3 seconds, flat. Then Keeping the rifle shouldered Johan reached under the stock and pulled rounds from the angled quiver to feed into the side gate… before he dumped the mag again. Not every round was center mass on every dummy, but he hit something with every shot.

Johan was no competition shooter but 100%(ish) accuracy with a combat reload, while working a lever gun was still an impressive feat. One that needed A LOT of time at the range to master.

He looked over to see multiple jaws hanging in the air. 

“What?”

His poor heart just couldn’t handle any more surprises today.

----

Cordinis was nearly 245 years old.

Most of his adult life had been spent on weapon design, or munition R&D of some form or another. In that time, he has seen every manner of weapon aim assist and targeting SKILL on the market.

Only those SKILLs in the Mil-grade classification: Things like [Overwatch] or [Double Strike] could snap-aim between targets like that and still maintain that level of accuracy.

But that wasn’t what was going on here.

It was too… fluid.

“Young man. Just to be clear you don’t have any augmentations or SKILLS that improve your ability to quickly aim. Or… reload that weapon?”

The young sapient shook his head.

“I just acquired a trajectory assist skill called [Rangefinder] but its only good for taking long shots and back tracking incoming fire.”

Cordonis’s head was spinning.

The hand eye coordination it took to just snap between targets while mechanically operating a moving component on a weapon…. While also compensating for the obvious recoil… Not to mention that reload!

All of it looked instinctive!

There was some obvious muscle memory in there as well... This young Sapient just showed him something …interesting.

“Young man, would you mind indulging me for a moment before we continue the weapon testing?”

----

Johan wasn’t sure what he could do for the little old fox man in the lab coat buuuuuut…

Since they weren’t demanding his wallet at gun point for the damaged dummies. He figured it couldn’t hurt. 

So, a few minutes later he was standing much closer to the range, with a series of dummy grenades in his hand and a pair of probes stuck to his temples. Watching as several circles of light floated around the range in random patterns.

Jiminey was administering the test while his boss sat on the side of Minzy’s console-desk, watching a readouts and video recordings of Johan.

“It’s pretty simple, Sir. Just try to throw as many of the grenades into the moving circles as you can. Theres a score out of 50. If you hit 50 before the timer expires there’s a bonus round with more difficult targets.”

Johan had to suppress a giggle… It was carnival sac toss.

High tech, cyperpunk future, laser tag, carnival sac toss.

‘Dude… Space Cornhole!’

----

The test began with a small tone.

The closest rings moved in lazy circular patterns and the further ones moved between vertical and horizontal lines at random. It took him a few throws to really get his eye in. Pretty soon though, that ancient part of his brain, responsible for pattern recognition, was firing on all cylinders. And he was tagging the targets, almost as fast as he could fill his hands.

He had 5 minutes.

He needed 3 minutes 48 seconds.

The bonus round was a bit harder as the targets were almost against the back wall and moving in far more erratic and natural patterns. But he started nailing those by waiting until just after they changed direction. Noting a brief delay before they would course correct a second time.

Johan needed most of the 5 minutes on the second pass, but he cleared a 50 again with 18 seconds to spare.

During the testing Ser Ralston had moved over to the console desk and was looking at the readouts over Cordinis’s head.

“That’s impressive. He just beat the record, did he not?”

“Yes, he did...” Was the lead researchers level reply “By 4 full seconds.”

Cordinis’ tone was academic when he finished reviewing the data.

“Your brain apparently contains a natural analogue to a targeting computer… That is an astounding evolutionary trait.”

Johan didn’t know what to say to that beyond ‘Hurr Durr Monkey throw rock good.’  

So, he just kind of shrugged.

Cordinis raised a furry brow but continued.

“Mister Silver-Black… DASS has been using this program for over a century to help train young Delvers in the fine art of applying high explosives to life’s little problems. Because there are few problems in life, that cannot be solved, with the proper application of high explosives.”

He paused to paw at an itch on his nose distractedly for a few seconds then continued.

“The record you just broke has stood, for 37 years.”

His expression slowly morphed into a smile.

“And we have a tradition here. A prize for breaking the record …The prize, is your choice of one custom weapon or armor upgrade from the Blastworks, itself.”

Johan already knew what he wanted. It had been second on his list of purchases after he secured an ammunition supply.

“I’d like to upgrade my rifle scope. I need a camera I can link to my skills… and an automatic optical zoom feature would be super helpful.”

Cordinis reflected on that.

“If that’s what you’d like you can leave the weapon with us and we’ll have it ready in a week.”

Johan thought about it and asked, “Would it speed things up if I just gave you my scope?”

The geeks were shocked when he casually REMOVED the scope from the rifle.

It turned out: quick release attachments, Picatinny rails, and M-lok systems were an entirely human concept.

The ease of microcircuitry integration meant guns in space, worked like cars on earth.

Where you bought a complete model with a preferred level of trim… everything was typically integrated. So, you had to find the gun with the options you wanted and just use that.

What customization there was had to be professionally added and removed. Costing a fortune and changing the whole function of a gun.

As Johan explained the level of customization available for human weapons the technicians practically started drooling.

----

An hour later Johan had finished a demonstration of his weapons and given them some of his remaining ammunition.

Jiminey assured him they would be able to replicate it once they sourced a chemical vendor that could provide them with the base materials for manufacturing gunpowder. He estimated a week or two tops. Then, they could give him a firm pricing model for the production and storage of his ammunition.

Satisfied with the outcome of the day the trio decided to make their way out of the Dass zone and find a sit-down restaurant to celebrate Johan’s new Job and the girl’s promotions.

They thanked Ser Ralston for all his help and said goodbye to Minzy.

From a distance, in Johan’s case.

----

The next task for the day was to do some shopping.

Johan used some small items like candies and a hairbrush to work out the relative value of an energy credit.

He guesstimated it was around 85(ish)% of the US dollar. Roughly in line with the euro.

 That gave him some idea what his bank account was looking like.

…He was kinda poor. But not anywhere near destitute.

Back home having 18 grand in your bank account was a big deal for most folks... But unless you already had everything else you needed it wasn’t really a whole lot of money. And it could spend, QUICKLY.

He’d need things for his new job as a delver.

He’d need things for his new room at the girl’s house.

And he’d need to build up some real savings for things like finding his way back to earth.

…He’d need to get to work soon.

Previous I First I Next

AUTHORS NOTES: I do NOT give permission to repost my work to sites like Youtube. Nor do I give permission to use it for AI training. Feed your OWN slop to that hog please.

WORLD BUILDING:

Cordinis and Jiminey: An elderly Voltarite Weapons tech and skilled researcher working for the DASS. Cordinis is a kind of intergalactic “Q” He is responsible for the maintenance and refit of specialty/relic weapons withing the Dass.

His Assistant Jiminey FurgenDorf has worked with the grey-haired mad professor for nearly 30 years and is a master gunsmith and fabricator in his own right. Helping turn Cordinis’s ideas into practical working objects is one of the reasons he loves his job.

The explosions are the other.

Chapter 23: Every Man Fears

Previous I First I Next

Pathfinder.

He had been a literal overland road surveyor and commercial field scout for most of his teenage/adult life. So, a Job that identified him as adept at finding his way around in the middle of nowhere was a good fit.

That part was a no brainer.

What was more interesting than the title… were the “skills”.

Turned out, an interface could load proprietary applications. It was advanced technology that worked apart from Magic and Psionics.

There were programs that could affect the individual user’s perception via augmented reality; to give them an edge in combat.

Practical skills that would make mundane or repetitive tasks more efficient. 

Exploration skills that could be used to map or scan.

The list was long, complex, and had lots of interesting things in it.

Johan noted several highlights that pulled at him.

There was a Hud that could use a camera in any linked optic to help paint threats using extremely complex software algorithms.

Things that worked like an overwatch program. Acting as a reflex trigger; to automatically attack perceived threats. (Beck one linked to a smart link on her pistol.)

Or a complex lidar program that used light refraction to map an environment in real time (Beck had that one installed in her interface eyeball).

Even if someone had no inherent mystical or psychic abilities the right skills, in the right combination could make for a very dangerous delver.

And that was before the physical enhancement stuff.

There were the actual cybernetic augments. His cyberpunk dream come true.

The DASS offered an implant with every color spectrum rise.

At White you got a basic internal communication implant about the size of a honeybee. It would allow you to send text and voice messages with only a thought and hear them through a translator or translation implant.

The range was limited on its own but could pair with an interface. Making it VERY useful in areas with network access.

Yellow was a rice sized chip in your wrist or other chosen appendage that held an encrypted copy of your status.

It allowed you to make changes to certain aspects on the fly via your interface It could also be used for secure banking.

Orange was a set of small species-specific upgrades.

Johan elected to have two (sand grain sized) inner ear implants that would improve his equilibrium in 3D space.

Red was a blood filtration addon placed near whatever equivalent you had for kidneys.

It wouldn’t handle intense poisons or take the place of a kidney in the event of renal failure. But it would greatly improve the beating said organ could take and recover from.

Green was an auto injector in the thigh, that could hold one charge of any medication of your choosing. Sadly, even in the technologically advanced society of the sphere.

There were no quick healing injections… Well, there where… But they cost sooo much you could just retire instead. AFTER you bought a moon. Most Delvers either added in some form of stimulant or a smart clotting agent to help with intense bleeding. Johan wanted the stim even if they were more expensive to get refilled. ‘Space coke! Woo!’

Blue was where things got interesting. 

A cashew sized sub processor in your head. It didn’t do anything by itself… But it increased the effectiveness of any DASS or Union MilSpec Skills you wanted to use. Acting like a sub processor and expanding skill functionality. Things like more targets acquired. Better information processing… Or even running skills in rapid succession depending on how the sub processor was configured. Beck set hers up for the last one. Allowing her to stack three shots of overwatch before the dedicated crystal circuits needed to go on a cool down for a few seconds.

Johan learned that most of Sienna’s skills worked off of the scanner in her interface and paired with Beck’s [Mapping] allowing her to easily add things to the maps they built and provide valuable data on the things the team found. (It was actually a great synergy.)

Brown was interesting…

The implant was typically species specific but designed to help mitigate stamina loss in some way be it via better cooling or artificial sucrose in the blood stream… etc. Brown also came with a powerful skill of your choosing. The list there was... It was like when your rpg character got that one ability that could carry you to the final boss.

Next in the line came Violet… That would get you a jack and nervous system splice that would let you use power armor or remote-control a drone.

Johan wanted that one. Bad.  

Black came with All kinds of perks… Some of which seemed borderline illegal…

He resolved to raise his rank whenever possible. 

Johan also noted a lot of these things could also be bought on the open market…

But the best [SKILL] apps and most useful augments could only be purchased or earned from a handful of proprietary vendors via loyalty programs.

Usually at great costs.

The Human did note that clients could offer skills as Delving rewards but only on very rare occasions.

----

Johan was offered three SKILL apps of his choosing as a kind of sign-on bonus.

He decided on a [Drafting] program that would give him the ability to take an image and use it to 3d model objects or alter terrain. Because of his previous experience it was an instant lock. Plus, when paired with Beck’s mapping skill Johan felt like he could use it for planning as well as infrastructure design. 

His second choice was a visual trajectory calculator called [Rangefinder] that could broadcast to any item he chose. That one baffled pretty much everybody but he had good use for that one.

The third was a biological data library [Bio-Library] installed in his interface to help identify potential threats… and in case he needed to treat injuries. It had anatomy info of the most common races on the sphere with basic diagnostic functions. It was a good choice because he also wanted to get some kind of medical certification for alien first aid if he could.

…He might have to ask his Union caseworker, Carnne, about that later.

----

With the girls finally recognized for a successful mission and Johan fully kitted out it was time to address the loot they brought back with them.

Attendant Groog was shown the “Trophy Gems” from all the skittermen.

His assessment was relatively quick and judging from Beck’s lolling tongue and helicopter wagging three quarter tail… generous.

“The Alpha variant was in the B grade. The others are D’s but still quite good examples. I believe the total will be 18k ECred for the 4 D grades and 33k for the B grade. If you wish to dispute the assessment a second attendant can be brought in. I will of course leave the room for that assessment.”

Beck nearly dislocated her own head shaking it in the negative.

“51 thousand credits for the five is incredibly generous! We accept without concern… OH uh crap… that is if its ok with you man. These are technically your kills.”

Johan didn’t really need to think about his reply.

“It’s fine please split the reward 3 ways among Sienna, Beck, and me. There are a few other matters though.”

Beck almost feinted when she heard that. She came over all woozy and even put a paw over her little snoot.

Groog eyed him patiently, so Johan continued.

 “My understanding is that the DASS helps find buyers and even sellers for exotic items from around the galaxy… Is that correct?”

The attendant nodded once “It is.”

----

Johan began removing items from his pack.

“I have a few sundries and food items from my home world. Beck suggested that there may be a market for them.”

He produced canned Spam, peanut butter, coffee, and Vienna sausages for the little pink frog to examine. Explaining that he wanted to farm them out to a manufacturer that could replicate, and mass produce them. Under the understanding they were trademarked products on earth.

Groog needed no time before he had the canned items in a tabletop scanner.

“These appear safe for most carnivores and omnivores… I believe we can facilitate. The standard fee is 5k energy credits, or a 2% royalty share for 7 years, or until we gain 5k credits.”

He placed the peanut butter in next.

“The container is interesting. The scanner can’t identify the material… The compound inside, however? Almost any race in the Galcom can ingest this… It incredibly nutrition rich… We have similar items, but this may find a buyer quickly just due to the caloric density alone. Same deal.”

Finally, the coffee.

“That is A LOT of warnings… You ingest this? The compound that creates the effect…”

Johan interjected.

“Caffiene. It’s called coffee. The powder is boiled and then filtered. Also, the dosage is usually much lower than what’s in that container… I uh. Need to stay awake for long hours… alot in my profession. Honestly, I don’t mind if there isn’t a big market… So long as I can get a steady supply.”

Groog just sort of blinked one eye at a time while he processed this.

“I see. We will likely have a harder time finding this… ‘coffee?’ …a market. Your scans indicated your species have a VERY robust system for blood filtration even without the implants… far greater than most races. This will likely require a niche salesman to gain any traction. The fee would be special grade… 7500Ec with a 3% share for this item. Given it may take more leg work to find a buyer.” 

The human thought about it for several minutes.

Trying to weigh pros and cons.

Johan wanted to lump sum it... But he needed things and had no idea how long his portion of the reward would stretch. Plus, he was probably going to have to pay out of pocket on his next ask…

“I think we’ll profit share.”

He needed to get a better understanding of the value of credits… and soon.

“Next is a request for material replication.”

Johan pulled out the bullets. “I need to find someone who can produce ammunition for me.”

Ser Ralston spoke up for the first time in a while. It was a little weird watching the giant sip tea from a little cup with his Shrek-like hands. But he managed to make the act look… dignified, somehow.

He even had a pinky (the size of a beef frank) extended!

“We actually have an in-house service to help delvers with relic weapons. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you down to the Blastworks”

----

The Blastworks was like Q’s laboratory from the old Bond films, accept on crack…

During a train wreck...

It was weird the things that reminded him of home… Manuel loved those old movies. Johan sat through every spaghetti western, 80’s machismo fest, spy thriller, and one liner filled dumpster fire imaginable.

…He kind of got it. It was the whole… “So bad its good” thing. But he was more of an old samurai movie guy.

Kurosawa knew what was up!

As they walked into the room, they were immediately assaulted by the smell of burnt hair and overheated hydraulic fluid.

There were various groups running around, tending experiments, or testing different items. A lot of times from behind clear energy shields.

There were three attendants attempting to douse a raging green fire coming off a strange black staff, with glowing blue runes along its sides. Looking at it made Johan uncomfortable. Like he was looking at something that wasn’t supposed to be real.

It was one of the dwarf gorilla wookies… his [Bio-Library] skill was now informing him they were called: Dorf.

A Male Volterite wearing a pair of aviator’s goggles with a mechanical arm in a shoulder harness (like Beck’s gun mount).

…And… “Minzy”

As Murphy laughed, Ralston lead them straight to the trio…

----

Sienna could actually feel the human clench when he saw the Bilzite woman.

She could tell it was a purely instinctive reaction too.

He was sweating, his eyes had re-dilated, and he was looking everywhere for an exit. The sheer animal terror was so overwhelming that even Beck finally noticed it… Which was a problem.

Because Beck wouldn’t be able to resi...

“Hey Minzy, come look at Johan’s cool guns!”

She sent annoyance and real concern through her bond. She was enjoying Johan’s predicament a little, but he was a physical powerhouse and Minzy was from one of the gentlest races in the whole galaxy.

He could do her terrible harm in a single instant of panic.

What happened next was one of the most terrifying 1.3 seconds of Sienna’s life.

As Minzy sauntered towards the human, he moved. On pure reflex Johan’s gun cleared its holster. Sienna felt the world slow. She could see Beck’s expression of malicious glee turning to horrified realization.

…See Johan’s trigger finger tense like it was going to slide into the guard.

She was going to watch someone die.

And then one of the attendants hollered as the staff reignited and Minzy turned back to help battle the blaze.

Johan was physically shaking.

She could FEEL him drowning in his instinctive fears. Like he quite literally wasn’t in control of them. A very scary realization struck her then… It was like a reflexive blink when something got too close to your eye.  Or ducking at a loud noise.

Human instincts came with preloaded reactions… Complex autonomous ones that could allow them to act without any thought at all.

Johan’s body had perceived a threat and moved as a split-second reaction to kill it. Without his conscious input!

He hadn’t just been scared of Minzy, he’d been in mortal fear for his life!

She walked up and grabbed his wrist.

Hard.

He looked at her like he hadn’t even realized she was there. Then slowly back to Minzy. She squeezed his wrist again and he looked down at it. His eyes widened in horror, then narrowed in anger as he forced the shaking hand to re-holster the gun.

Beck was staring at Johan in total disbelief.

----

Beck almost got someone killed…

She’d thought it would just be funny!

…She hadn’t… understood Sienna’s warning. Not until it was already too late.

Sienna was sending her a series of images and emotions that helped give context to what she’d just witnessed. She’d triggered some kind of self-defense instinct built into Johan’s biology.

Like a wetware version of the overwatch skill, she had for her gun arm. It was probably like a VO’rten’s rage. A kind of survival mechanism. Something that had served them in their prehistory but was now as capable of being a liability as a boon.

She walked up to Johan’s shin and stood on her back legs to press her feet against his thigh.

“Sorry. I didn’t know you’d react like that… Are you. Do you need to go somewhere?”

She could see from his face that he was absolutely seething mad. Beck was afraid her stupid little prank had just ended their new friendship. But his hand landed softly on her head and ruffled her hair.

“Not a you problem, Beck …I need to fix this...”

Before she could say a word, he walked towards Minzy.

----

“Minzy, I need a moment of your time…”

Johan could feel his heart TRYING to pound.

Adrenaline was flooding his veins. The Spider woman turned, and he felt his body try to betray him. Try to freeze up again. He forces his foot down so hard it sent a stinger up his leg. He was angry with himself… so furious he could barely contain it. He had lost control and nearly killed a totally innocent person. The anger was HIS tool never the other way around.

NEVER again…

He took a deep breath… Forcing focus. Using his intense disgust at himself to drown out the fear trying to grip him…

It was working. Barely.

“Minzy you resemble a kind of insect from my homeworld. My whole species has a natural fear of those creatures… In my case it’s… an overwhelming phobia. Every time I see a spider it causes my body to flood with adrenaline”

The spider…

‘NO! She is a person. She has a name. And you almost put a bullet in her, like a damn coward. Fucking swallow it!!!’

MINZY turned her head again curiously.

“I’m telling you this because a second ago I almost attacked you on instinct. It’s something I NEED to apologize to you for. I also need you to understand that if I seem a little stand-offish it’s not anything you’ve said or done. It’s just me trying to suppress close to a million years of hard-wired survival instincts. I’m sorry for treating you rudely and allowing you to be placed in danger.”

Minzy, completely misreading the situation, just walked up and gave him a hug.

----

20 minutes later… when Johan regained consciousness, he was laying on a low table with Beck sitting next to him looking like a melted wax figurine of herself.

“Stop it.” Beck jumped like he’d branded her ass with hot metal.

Complete with another little… “EEP!”

He reached over and pulled her little body into a side hug.

“Everyone fears something. You COULDN’T know about mine. I don’t blame you. I’m not mad at you.”

The little Punkrock fennec looked at him for a second and gave him a gentle head butt.

All things forgiven, they sat in silence for a few moments before Beck perked back up and spoke.

“You made the funniest noise when you fainted. I recorded the whole thing… wanna hear it?”

He just sat there in silence as the evil grin on Beck’s face slowly spread.

“…”

“…”

“…Come-ere you little!”

Beck legged it back to the group, cackling as she went. Johan just shook his head and chuckled ruefully to himself.

He stood up and made his way over to the assortment of DASS employees and delvers. He noted that the receptionist girl was trying to hide behind Ser Ralston. Peaking around him like a frightened kid who knew she was going to get yelled at.

“Minzy I can see you there.”

The poor girl squeaked and ducked back into cover behind the meat wall.

She started rambling in a spastic run on sentence.

“I’m SO so-so-so sorry you were being so brave and telling me all that and you were trying to be nice and a lot of people get freaked out by how I look but they never apologized and were always super mean and then I just wanted to hug you and you feinted and I couldn’t hold you up cause you’re so heavy and OH GOD IM NOT CALLING YOU FAT Sorry sorry sorry!!!”

He felt so guilty he wanted to vomit.

This poor girl was obviously a total sweetheart despite her looks, and his stupid brain chemistry tried to murder her, for just… being.

“It’s fine. Life isn’t perfect and some days just force us to embrace the suck. Just try not to hug me and I’ll try not to lose my mind again. We’ll call it an even trade, ok?”

Minzy slowly came out from behind Ralston and dusted off her uniform.

“…Ok.”

Johan had to swallow his Adams apple the second she was in full view again.

…Today was going to be a long one.

Previous I First I Next

AUTHORS NOTES: I do NOT give permission to repost my work to places like youtube or for scalping as AI training data.

Gonna do one more bonus chapter today. Just cause I missed an upload last week.

WORLD BUILDING:

Davian Raltson the III (VO’rten: Age 33, Delver {adventurers association}, Class: Sentinel).

Appearance: almost 7’ tall with red eyes (soft red glow no visible pupils), Ralts resembles a modern fantasy orc in general appearance with hints of Cro-Magnon human.

Instead of tusks he possesses a set of large interlocking plates on the top and bottom of his mouth. His skin is a deep crimson with visible golden colored veining underneath. Ralts looks for all the world like a man who has started to let himself go. But this is simply the nature of his biology. Ralts is a Powerhouse of raw physicality. Capable of feats of legendary strength augmented by his genetic and cybernetic enhancements.

Personality: Unlike most VO’rten Raltson is a bit of a gentle giant. Acting as a team mom to the Delvers he works with. That said, Raltson is still a war ogre and has a bad habit of getting “fighty” after he’s deep in his cups. He makes a decent side hustle as a pit fighter during his down time, using his people’s natural anger issues to bludgeon beasts into paste and it helps keep him level the rest of the time.

Professionally Ser Raltson is THE sentinel. In his youth he was the last survivor of a monster crush at the Blackwall gate that claimed the lives of over 40 Delvers and 150 DASS support staff. When rescue arrived, they found Davian standing alone and unconscious at the entrance to the underground complex. Covered in wounds and surrounded by the corpses of more than two hundred monsters.

It was noted then that the man hadn't sustained a single scratch to his back.

To this day new Delvers will stand slack jawed at his passing.

Attendent Minzy and Middler Groog:

Minzy is a member of a unique race known as the Bilzite. They are among the most naturally friendly races in the galaxy but their unique ten-armed spider like physiology tends to off put many sapiens. Minzy is sweetheart even among the Blizite. She often handles mission placement and completion reports for the girls and Johan. Groog is a highly professional fixer for the DASS known as a Middler. He assesses the value of items found on delves and helps facilitate business transactions between Delvers and those entities that might be interested in purchasing those items. As well as acting as a mediator when there is a client-Delver conflict.

Delvers Adventuring Support Society:

A kind of modern one-stop-shop for those wishing to explore the sphere and its mysteries. The guild is technically an independent organization drawing funding from multiple sources. Sources like the union, voids, and collective. They provide bounties on magical or technological beasts found wandering in on and around the space of the sphere. They serve as a reputable source of information and a go-between for several legitimate contractors. Dass facilities are also able to serve as a finder for the dismantling and resale of various items both biological and magical found on delves. In theory the DASS stays neutral to the political events of the galcom. In practice the DASS is a “soft power” Able to apply indirect pressure on policy decisions thru their service as an interplanetary banking service. Their immense financial clout means the various political powers of the galactic community choose not to risk directly displeasing the DASS. As having their credit ratings imploded by an angry Association would leave them vulnerable to their competitors.

As long as the DASS avoids direct political (or military) movements on the greater galactic stage. The Powers that be are more than happy to give the DASS a seat at the proverbial policy making table. The Delver’s ranking system is a color spectrum from white for a noob, then yellow, orange, red, green, blue, violet, brown, to black for Elites.

Chapter 22: The Things That Never Change.

Previous I First I Next 

The little Byuu girl was standing stock straight and bawling feely, with her little feathered hands balled into little fists as Sienna held her.

It only took a few moments for the other kid, her brother, to arrive and save the day. They still had a little time, so they decided to treat the kids to a meal at a local food cart.

To Johan’s eternal delight… They had tacos!

Because some things are just too good to go un-invented.

The kids had theirs with some kind of pan-fried giant grubs, Johan went with a form of ground meat that tasted like a very sweet but mild chorizo. He liked it but he would have preferred a bit more spice. The girls got some kind of fish… maybe, judging from the smell.

After she finished her meal, the little girl was all smiles. A full belly does wonders for a child’s mood… No matter the species, it seemed.

The boy was named Malco, and his sister was Jissa. Johan noted there were some interesting visual differences between the two.

Malco was a couple years older than his sister, but she was already slightly taller than him. While they both had hands and feet that looked a bit like the skin on a chicken Malco was mostly feathered up to his wrists. Primarily a bright iridescent green with dazzling red feathers on a ruffle around the back of his neck and in a line on the front edge of either of his winglike arms.

It gave the scrawny avian the look of a slightly puffed out parrakeet.

His sister on the other hand was mostly cream colored with brown in all the same places her brother was red. Except for the top of her head… There she had a sort of tiara that was very actively flashing about as she talked in the animated way kids do. They both had wide tapering down turned beaks, but Jissa’s was a little thicker and just a bit shorter.

The trio learned that the Kids had a family “clutch” in the next district over.

It sounded sort of like a modern-day traveler’s or gypsy’s caravan. Apparently, it was common for multiple Byuu families to form impromptu groups and just migrate to wherever for the pure love of adventure.

The kids had wanted some excitement and decided to check out the DASS building. That was when the thugs snatched them up.

As it turned out, the unique nature of the Delvers Adventuring Support Society attracted all manner of thugs and criminal scum. All trying to score a quick buck.

Beck explained that the DASS was basically a massive banking organization that maintained branches all over the galaxy. They also served as a go between for thousands of public and private entities and the Delvers that explored the Sphere and other uncharted places throughout the galaxy.

The DASS would help Delvers get jobs and serve as a protective layer against less reputable businesses. They would also help find buyers for Delvers’ discoveries. As well as facilitating union bounties against monsters.

They even ran a ranking system for Delvers. Running from white for a noob, then yellow, orange, red, green, blue, brown, violet then… Black… for those legendary few at the very top.

With a progressive 3-star rating in each tier.

The DASS was one part fantasy adventurer’s guild, one-part federal exchange, and one part Trader Jack’s… Or like an intergalactic Knights Templar sans the religion.

That unique combination of hats worn was why there was so much crime inside the zone.

In order to serve as a trusted middleman for all parties the DASS maintained careful political neutrality.

Preferring to use soft power wherever possible to protect its interests. And independence.

They did have a police force, but to avoid provoking the other major factions in the city it was kept intentionally small… To avoid the outward appearance of having a private standing army.

This kept the larger political peace. But it allowed for smaller transgressions to slip through the cracks…

Delving itself was incredibly difficult and dangerous work. But bringing in an artifact or a rare ingredient from the unexplored wilds of the Sphere could be a one-way trip to permanent luxury. Many people felt like scamming, scalping or just stealing an artifact off some naive or exhausted Delver was worth the risk. Especially when the cops were always busy somewhere else.

The thugs had probably seen Johan’s big iron and assumed it was one such artifact. Maybe to the DASS it would be. They most likely hoped the kid would let them get something from their mark without having to risk anything themselves.

Worst case scenario the kid died, and they had to silence his sister off in some alley.

When that thought occurred to Johan, he privately regretted not gelding the Lupanite with the knife, when he had the opportunity.

----

After they finished eating and exchanged a few pleasantries, they put the kids onto a wagon back to their family and wandered into the Massive Marble and Quartz building.

To Johan it looked like a cross between the Parthenon and a Mega mall.

Like the Union Plaza there were multiple counters with lines. But the queues were color coded and got a lot shorter as they progressed up the scale from white to black. He followed the girls as they queued up in the green line behind half a dozen others.

He noted that almost everyone was wearing custom armor or other gear in a myriad of bright colors, all sporting garish designs.  He could tell from the looks they were giving however that these were not people to fuck with.

It felt like a PMC convention, at a gun show, during a comic con...

A part of him just kept waiting for a Hello Kitty space marine to stomp by… Or 5 Deadpool’s all trying to out Deadpool each other.

Normally Johan was terrible at waiting in lines, but the sights and sounds kept him distracted while they queued for the counter. So much so he barely registered the line moving until it was their turn.

In fact, the counter girl had been very quick in processing her line…

But then that was because she was a man sized 10-legged SPIDER DEMON!

The creature in front of him sat on a long, curved abdomen ending in a single yellowish sort of foot. A teardrop main body with 5 long, 3 jointed arms, on each side… Ending in 3 fingered hands. She had a head like a wolf spider with 4 large eyes and two small ones on the side. She also had the grinding plates from a crab for a mouth!

‘OMG OH FUCK OH NO!!! NOPE NOOOOOO!’

Johan had to fight every wild animal instinct he had inside his body at once. As the creature from hell’s sub-basement moved her multiple arms across multiple screens in multiple directions at once

Fight. Flight. Crap yourself. Cry. Dig a hole in the floor and never EVER leave. All of them.  His body was trying to leave, without him if need be...

Beck was completely oblivious to Johan’s literal panicked gibbering as she presented her credentials to the attendant.

Sienna had noticed, however… Either from feeling a disturbance in the force or hearing Johans sphincter cold weld itself shut. She watched with growing concern as his pupils vanished and his hand literally twitched towards his gun.

“Team name: Si-Be… Oh! Hey Beck! You girls are cutting the fur longways this time. You had 15 minutes left to meet the deadline!”

Beck’s eyes bugged a little at that. She recovered quickly, however.

“Yeah Minzy. The Job was not properly reported. We need a debrief. Oh, and we are going to need a Middler for some items we recovered on the job.”

“Minzy” twisted her head 90 degrees to the side at that. Causing Johan to whimper and turn deathly white. Sienna having realized what was happening to the human was torn between the compassionate urge to comfort the poor man and the wicked urge to laugh at him.

Beck was still, utterly oblivious.

Thankfully for Johan, one of the hot pink 4-armed frog people, this one in a sort of business toga with a green pauldron, waved them into a private meeting room almost immediately.

----

Sienna led Johan to a chair and sniggered while she rubbed his back.

Johan just sat there as he sucked in great heaving gulps of air and attempted to unpucker…

Beck began her report to the Little Amphibian.

Thankfully, about the point in the story where it all went to shit, Johan was finally present enough to pay attention. He leaned in and watched from the perspective of Beck’s artificial eye as the girls entered a long tunnel. One that looked far too natural to be inside the artificial skin of a mega construct.

Apparently, her false eye had a cartographers app built into it. Something the Galcom folks called a [skill]; it created and saved 3D map of the area in real time as she looked at things.

…That was neat.

Watching the girls wander the tunnels of the “UNDER” reminded him of a nature documentary. The path twisted like it had been burrowed through the earth by giant moles. He suddenly remembered the Skittermen’s hideous curved nails and understood their purpose.

Then at last they got to the action.

Beck moved cautiously, continuing to map out the area when there was movement to her right. It was sheer luck the attack missed…

The Alpha Skitterman had lashed out from the tunnel at Sienna’s height, for a Beck sized target.

The attendant paused the playback and sucked in a surprised breath as the claw passed above the Volty’s head… It froze as the living killing tool imbedded itself into the tunnel wall like a shovel blade.

He looked at Beck for a moment then resumed the playback.

Faster than Johan would have believed possible Becks little pistol turret turned and fired straight up into the creature’s twisted frog-muppet looking chin. The plasma ball popped and the Variants head was bathed in blue flame.

It should have been killed dead! But to the humans’ disbelief. A half dozen flappy hands quickly beat out the blueish blaze... Exposing an angry snarl.

Johan interrupted the playback with a question.

“That was point blank. How’d he just… brush that off?”

The frog person, Attendant Groog, answered his question by bringing up a kind of augmented reality filter on the play black. It outlined the almost imperceptible barrier that had stopped the plasma blast.

“Some monsters generate a kind of biological shield …Not all. But the older they get… the more powerful they get, and the more likely it is… For a Skitterman to have one they must be very old.”  

He sighed and ran a webbed hand down his face…

“Honestly... I don’t understand how you girls are still with us. Oh, also who is this fellow?”

Beck just did a little shrug and reached out to reactivate the playback.

“You’ll see.”

As the show resumed, the Alpha shrieked and Beck booked it back up the tunnel. She turned in time to see Sienna toss a spiked brick at the tunnel wall before she too started running. By the time the spike grenade hit the wall Beck had repositioned to cover Sienna’s retreat.

Johan noted that their timing and teamwork in the brief engagement was incredible.

From start to finish the encounter had been at best seconds long and they were already switching cover and falling back into the more solid builder-made corridors. By The time the Variant rounded the corner Sienna was 30 meters away and detonating the spike grenade to collapse the dirt tunnel behind them.

The rest was a lot of running… Up until they got to the chamber.

Up until his fight with the skittermen pack. Skitterpack?   

 Groog’s frog eyes bulged as he watched the battle.

When Beck got around to explaining Johan’s circumstances the attendant stopped her.

“I believe this has just risen above my pay grade. Will you excuse me briefly? If you’d like I can have Minzy bring you some refreshme…”

“NO!!!” Johan interruption caused the poor pink amphibian to croak in surprise!

“Um I uh… I mean. That won’t be necessary.” Seinna was slowly curling into a ball on the couch beside him as she fought a losing battle to contain her laughter.

“Um well I should only be a moment anyway…”

Beck was still, still oblivious.

----

When Groorg returned he had one of the Cro-Magnon orcs (a VO'rten?) with him.

The guy was at least 6’10 and wider at the shoulders than most doors.

‘Dudes an ABSOLUTE UNIT! What is it with this place and the giant meat walls?’

The man was wearing armor that looked like the plates had been pulled off a Bradley and riveted to him under Saruman’s tower. Johan could feel every step the guy took through the floor.

He had a cybernetic right arm and a massive halberd with a rifle barrel slung under it on his back… The human found his eyes drawn to the weapon… Gun swords were super impractical for munition-based firearms, but he wondered if directed energy changed that equation somehow…

Before he could spiral into a phasers vs lightswords vs lead rabbit hole… He was pulled out of his internal musing… when the girls spoke in unison.

“Ser Raltson” And then they bowed, very respectfully.

Figuring it was best to stay on the good side of the walking APC he bowed as well.

“Please. Call me Davion. We’re all Delvers here.”

The big man sat down in one of those egg stool chairs and Johan heard it audibly strain to take a shape that conformed to the backside of the up armored creatine enriched baby orca now sat atop it.

“Now… Groog brought me in because I am part of the assessment committee for job rank assignments. Apparently, the job was seriously misrepresented? Would you please play the recording for me again. From the top… With no commentary… I do apologize for that, but I like to avoid having my initial judgements… colored.”

Johan was honestly taken aback by how… regal, the man’s cadence was. He was like a noble lord out of some period piece.

Except an Orc.  

The second replay took much less time without Beck narrating.

When it was over, he looked at Johan for a long time. His softly glowing red eyes seemed to dig straight thru Johan like a set of drills… After a few seconds, that FELT like an eternity, he turned his gaze back to the girls.

“It is my official recommendation that this job be elevated to a rank blue. Difficulty 3 stars.”

Groog nodded emphatically. “I concur. That variant Skitterman was intelligent and even had an ability. It dominated a pack… It was an alpha…”

The Big Red Not orc looked at the girls.

“You are a Green-2 party, yes?”

The Girls nodded.

“This mission should not have been assigned to you. We failed in our due diligence of mission placement. As such, we will automatically increase the rewards, from our own coffers, to reflect the level of the actual work done. Also... Succeeding in a mission at 5 stars or above your rank is enough to earn you a spectrum upgrade. I will be recommending you for Blue-1”

He turned to Johan again. 

“Groog also informed me of your situation, sir. If you would like I would be willing to sponsor you as a Green-3 Delver. You not only saved two of our young delvers at great personal risk to yourself but killed a pack of Monsters in melee to do so. That is a RARE combination of compassion and competency. One that the DASS would be remiss to ignore.”

The girl’s ears were so straight they were quivering as the Ser Ralston finished his spiel. Beck looked at Johan encouragingly.

He thought about it.

He had no idea how long it would take or even IF the union could get him back to earth. He had a basic stipend coming in now. But if things didn’t work out, he would NEED money to take any next steps.

And Delving sounded a lot like the work he had done back on earth.

Exploring inhospitable places, finding riches in the middle of nowhere, the occasional asshole trying to murder him.

Honestly it was almost one to one… Except for the foobs.

‘Shut up brain’.

…and the alien monsters

‘Fent heads in Detroit were worse, probably.’

… and the space vampires

‘No… no, I got nothing for that one…’

…But…

‘Eh, details shmeetails.’

“I’m in. What do I need to do?”

----

Twenty minutes later Johan was standing in front of an oversized plasma-ball lamp inside a room sized sci-fi scanning machine.

He was in his skivvies with his hands touching either side of the ball… electrical energy pulsing in a line to his ten fingers. It was weird but the little electric arcs felt… comfortable. Like an old pair of leather gloves.

As he stood there a holographic display began creating a readout…

A very familiar readout.

It was a generic fucking RPG screen. Right down to that one shade of blue with the white letters.

“This looks like a videogame from home…”

To his surprise Ser Ralston laughed his ass off. It was like somebody tossed bricks in a cement mixer…

“Because it is! Virtually every culture has some version of the fantasy adventure game genre… with stuff like this on it. It’s so universal the DASS just decided to make use of it… Delvers are basically just real-life role players Mr. Silver-black!”

Ralston paused for just a second.

“…Or did you not notice the lobby, sir?”

Now Johan laughed. ‘Oh man. The cosplayers are going to have a collective faneurism when they get out here…’

After a few minutes the machine finished scanning him, building out his basic Delver profile. The system even asked him to design a personal logo for his credentials. He’d usually agonize over dumb stuff like this, but for some reason he didn’t need to think about it at all.

It was a little dog, on top of a simple tower, framed by a lightning bolt.

Groog looked at his stats.

“The scan indicates an absurd level of durability and stamina. Above average strength for a being of your size… Honestly most of your statistics are well balanced but those 3 are way beyond normal… Large adrenal glands, that’s rare… The Bioscan is flagging you as a heavy gravity worlder. Bone density pegs it at somewhere 9.7 and 9.8m/s^(2)”

Ralston whistled. “That’s between Vorteca and Dorf. No wonder he’s so dense for his size”

He ran thru some of the sub menus in Johans status as Johan watched.

“You haven’t got any inherent mana affinities we can detect… but there’s some weirdness with your scan there… and a few possible passives. You do have high psionic resistance but no signs of being actively psychic. Never seen that before…”

Ralston nodded to himself.

“Mayhap it’s a racial trait. He resisted the fear aura of the alpha remember?”

Sienna chimed in from behind them.

“He can also sense our bond working somehow…”

That got both men’s attention real quick. They shared a look as the Volanite woman shrugged.

Groog made a kind of contemplative croak before adjusting something in the menu. Adding Johan’s Psychic and Magic mental resistances in as a potential race trait.

Finally, it was time to design his class.

Instead of trying to shoehorn people into classes they weren’t experienced in, then letting them go out and get murdered by some low-level monster.

The DASS used a more… vocation-based job placement system.

Building a basic job profile through an interview process, they took the applicants real world experience and then gave them a series of logical and practical problems to solve in similar fields. Slowly refining the applicant’s quantifiable skills into a sort of adventurer’s resume.

The testing took several hours but after it was done it only took the machine a few minutes to spit out its recommendation for Johan

Pathfinder: 97% match.

Previous I First I Next 

WORLD BUILDING: I DO NOT give permission to repost my work on Places like Youtube. Or use for AI data scraping.

There will be another Chapter posted on Friday.

Reddit automated bans are butt. Their automated appeals are even more butt.  

Chapter 21 New and Old.

Previous I First I Next

…He was back on the roof again.

The storm was all around him.

A swirling vortex reaching up into the night sky.  But in the center, all was calm... The strange lighting rods began to pulse. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the spinning storm wall.

There was a slow two-part rhythm in the electrical discharges. Thud thump, thud thump thud thump. He could feel the thunder in his chest. Taste the ozone in the air.

He watched as the lightning traced a path along the edge of the eye. Slowly circling him, moving against the swirling winds.

He didn’t know how he knew it. But he KNEW the thunder was rolling in time with his own heartbeat.

HE was the master of this place.

It was his throne… he knew that.

There was a question in the storm…

He raised his hand in answer, palm turned upwards.

He felt joy from within the maelstrom.  

…In the blowing winds, beating wings.

Around him time stopped.

The storm was frozen.

Caught in the middle of a massive discharge. Painting the funnel with veins of branching beautiful glowing silver light.  

…he was not afraid.

He watched with elation as Lightning struck the rods 7 times. Making music from the very power of electricity itself.

It was a simple tune but beautiful beyond words.

It was the music of the storm as it swept the seas.

The song thunder echoing in the canyon.

It was the sound of great change and terrible fury.

On the seventh strike he felt a great weight resting upon his outstretched palm. And set upon his arm was…

----

Johan woke with a jolt.

A static discharge had zapped his hand as he sat on the floor. He was disoriented for a second from not recognizing the environment he was in. He had to remind himself he was couch surfing at Beck and Sienna’s place.

The fact they were two literal fox people, and he was on the inside of a star system sized Dyson sphere was SOMEHOW not relevant to that.

Yeah …he was definitely just going with the flow for now.

Johan was sitting on the floor leaning up against said couch. But he had a warm pillow and a big fluffy blanket, so he was pretty comfy all things considered. He made to stretch his neck and realized his “Pillow” was furry. And snoring…?

Looking over his shoulder, he discovered Sienna curled into the fetal position at the edge of the massive daybed/couch. Curved loosely around his shoulders with Beck squished in between them.

If that bothered the smaller of the pair, he couldn’t see any signs. She looked like a happy little pancake…

They were all cuddled under the same comforter and the girls looked blissfully unaware of the world.

The odd couple just made him smile.

It was so weird.

He’d known them for 3 days.

They were ALIENS…

But Johan had already started to see them as friends. Maybe the ‘almost dying’ thing had something to do with it? But…

Despite how different they were physically, from him… they were just folks. Good ones.

He also had to admit to himself it was probably because of his inherent love of critters. At least partly… Johan had always had a bad habit of trying to adopt, pet, and scritch anything with fur.

He could still remember the time he brought a baby wolverine back with him from an overland survey job in northern eastern Alaska. Manuel had nearly had kittens when it popped its little head out of his jacket and did an adorable little grumble-growl.

Johan felt a deep wave of homesickness hit him in the chest just then…

Not wanting to fall into a funk and being the sort who worked (quite literally) through his problems, Johan decided to get up.

‘Mindset is everything’

He was careful to extricate himself from the two sleeping girls without waking them.

They grumbled sleepily over the loss of their heat source, before retreating further into the blanket.

Moving quietly, he wandered around the house until he found a bathroom. He was surprised to find something resembling a traditional Asian style floor toilet and even a stand-up shower.

He took advantage of both.

Even if he couldn’t figure out how to get hot water from the shower, he still felt refreshed. Especially after it activated a drying cycle before he could get out…

Since it was designed for people with fur the feature made a lot of sense. But it still sent a very particular tingle up his spine as it fluffed all the things...

‘A guy could get used to that…’

When Johan re-entered the living room, he found his hosts were still dead to the world.

Sienna had rolled onto her back and Beck was upside down in the crook of her arm. One of her back feet was stuck out of the blanket and twitching.

Suppressing a laugh, he decided to see about some breakfast.

There was a little galley kitchen just off the living room. With a wide pass thru countertop and bar seating for up to 7 people.  

Most of the stuff was analogous to what he was used to from earth. A three-heater induction range, a microwave, a fridge. The controls even worked close to the same way.

‘…Huh, Sienna’s got five fingers to a hand… so I guess that makes sense?’

Thanks to his implant he could even read the characters on the controls. Well, no… not read exactly, not yet... He could stare at them, and the meaning would just kind of… make sense, after a few seconds.

It was like comprehension was being bootstrapped into his brain as he went.

It was weird.

But the longer he looked the more solid the knowledge felt. Like the implant wasn’t just translating but also TEACHING him the language. Did give him a bit of a headache and double vision if he stared too long at things tho…

Satisfied he wasn’t going to burn the house down, the human raided the fridge.

Item one he found was eggs. ‘Score!’ They were way bigger than chicken eggs, but they had whites, a yolk, and smelled fine when cracked.

He found soft bread that was done in perfectly cylindrical loaves; the taste and texture reminded him of French bread.

He also scored a container of something sweet… ‘sugar! Now we’re cooking with gas!!!’  

He even found a container that his implant was telling him was a milk of some kind. It tasted vaguely like a soy milk, but… he could work with that.

As a small bonus he broke out some canned lil smoker sausages from his own supplies and …set to work.

____

35 minutes later Johan had a reasonable approximation of French toast, with fluffy scrambled eggs, and simple fried sausage. He made his way out to the living room and held a plate out in front of the sleeping girls. Wafting the smell at them with his free hand.

The blanket shifted listlessly and slowly two snuffling noses emerged from beneath the covers, one large, one small.

The smell seeking missiles turned in unison towards the plate as the girls emerged from their slumber.

----

Sienna pulled the blanket down to find Johan standing there with a smug grin on his face.

“And low, do they rise, to meet the blessed day!”

She reached for one of the delicious looking little red tubes and popped it in her mouth before he walked over to the counter in the corner of the living room where they usually ate their meals.

It tasted heavenly!

There was salt and fat and...

“It’s like food and sex all at the same time!”

The human let out a barking laugh at that.

“You either need to try better food… or better sex! Common It’ll get cold. Also bring the other one or she’s gonna miss out.”

Sienna knew Beck well enough not to bother with gentle persuasion. The little Volty could sleep soundly through an orbital bombardment.

So, she just picked her groggy little bond up and plopped her unceremoniously on the table. This Earned her a disgruntled series of murmurs that quickly devolved into animalistic scarfing noises once Beck had a plate under her nose.

The sweet yellow skin on the bread gave it a whole other flavor that she had never experienced before. The scrambled eggs were scrambled eggs. Every culture that ate eggs had some form of scramble. But the little “sausages” those were something entirely different! She had some ideas about those…

“Johan, do ya have any moor of these?”

He pondered for a minute. “Yeah, I like to travel pretty heavy because of work. I still have two cans of sausages and one of spam. Oh… and a can of beans.”

He all but growled the last sentence, for some reason, before continuing.

“Plus, some other sundries… That reminds me I need to contact Carnne about getting my trail cams and cooking stuff back.”

Sienna sent a series of images to Beck who was finally functioning on all 3 synapses after getting a meal in her.

The response was instant and enthusiastic.

“Yeah! That’s a great idea, SI!” 

Johan looked between the two women and sighed.

“You’re twinning again…”

It seriously messed with Sienna’s brain that this guy could sense their Bond working. But it wasn’t fair to leave him in the dark sooo. She gestured for Beck to explain.

“The Delvers association has contacts that buy stuff like this! So, they can replicate and resell it… They pay the DASS for new edible items that Delvers discover during their explorations. Theres a finder’s fee and some royalties. Plus, they usually supply you with those items at a deep discount.”

Johan actually seemed a little put off by that.

“I don’t mind… but. Both Spam and the sausages are trademarked. If I ever get back to earth that might open me up to a lawsuit…”

Beck smiled at that.

“Union laws have a protection built in for that. All you have to do is declare them and you’ll still get the profit but if the original makers of the product ever come into the picture, they will get sole distribution rights and manufacturing royalties from any companies already producing them. The companies have to set aside a portion of their profits specifically for that possibility.”

Johan was clearly impressed by Becks deep knowledge on the subject. The Voltarite, of course, soaked up the praise like a smug sponge.

Seeing an opportunity to tease her bond Sienna asked her a simple question.

“Which search engine are ya on, hun?”

Beck’s ears flattened and she chuckled nervously.

Johan belly laughed, again.

----

‘Oh, you’ll pay for that later…’

Beck sent emotions of petty vengeance and rueing-a-plenty to Sienna… who was smirking like she’d just won the lottery.

Beck would get them a swamp-mapping Job from the DASS …Make Sienna trudge thru the mud and get stinger bites on her butt and…. Speaking of the DASS…

“OH. MY. LORDS… THE DASS!!!”

She buried her face under her paws.

“I’m such an idiot!!!”

While the human and the Voltanite shared confused looks, Beck checked her ocular implant for the time. Sienna sent her confusion as Beck turned and clawed for traction on the smooth countertop. After some scrambling, she finally got enough purchase to launch herself to the floor.

She dove off the table in a literal panic.  

“The DASS, SI! The DASS! We still have two hours! The Job!!!”

Sienna sat there slackjawed as her eyes slowly widened. A few seconds later she was balancing on one foot, trying to pull on her shoe, and get her armband on at the same time.

It was a shit show.

----

Johan watched the girls have a mini meltdown about the “DASS” and “The job.”

…Before remembering the conversation, they had not two days ago.

“Oh crap, that’s right! You girls were mapping the underground when we met!”

Beck was trying to force her head into a tactical vest and pull a legging on with her teeth as she explained in one rambling run on sentence.

“Yeah. We have a little over two hours left… I mean we figured we were going to take a loss because of the legal stuff with the union so we both just forgot about it!”

Johan walked over to the door and put on his backpack. Then he strolled over to Beck and helped her get the vest situated while she finished with her little shin guards. Then he fitted her Plasma pistol into its rig on her shoulder with a satisfying little click. Watching with interest as it laid flat over her back then popped up and tracked with her vision before returning to its stowed position. She nodded an affirmative at him.

Next, he helped Sienna situate her Molle vest and the batteries she carried for her laser carbine. Once that was done, he retrieved her little sling pack while she did a similar weapon check on her space gun.

Convinced they were self-sufficient; he pulled his hip holster out and filled it with his S&W M627.

He wasn’t sure why these girls were loading up for war when they were just going to work. …But he helped build a sewage treatment plant in Detroit once and… on second thought…

He broke out his custom lever gun.

The base was a Henry Big Boy X (45-70govt.) that had the barrel shortened to 16’’ and then fitted with a custom muzzle break. A skeletonized stock, full length picatinny rail, aftermarket hand guard, side body, and stock quivers. The long relief adjustable 6 power scope was his personal favorite. The gun was further customized to break into two pieces for ease of storage.

Making it a hybrid takedown scout rifle had cost him. He's paid nearly 4 grand for the thing… but it was worth it, since it was compliant almost everywhere that allowed hunting rifles.

Or at least compliant enough.

Johan was tossing the gun over his shoulder when he noticed they’d both stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

“…What?”

Sienna broke the staring contest first. “If ya had that… Cannon? Artillery piece? Anti-ship weapon? …Thingy. Why didn’t ya grab it and use it on the Skittermen???”

That was a valid question, actually…

One he had a very reasonable and valid answer for…

“I… forgot…”

----

The Walk to the DASS was pretty uneventful.

It turned out Corridor City had a fairly robust public transit system. There were vertical trolleys running up and down the slopes of the pit the city was built into. And there were wagons running routes inside the more advanced districts.

Not buses. Actual wagons.

Super advanced. Incredibly comfortable. But they looked like a Sci fi covered wagon. Replace the canvas top with shiny space age memory mylar. Give the openings a sterilization forcefield. Replace the wheels with hover pads.

It was some futurama shit.

It turned out That Alvs… being extremely long lived… rarely innovated. Instead, they iterated…

Endlessly.

Need a sailing ship? No problem here’s a man’o’war. Do you need a freighter? No problem here is that same exact man’o’war four thousand years later but now it’s so efficient it can carry cargo so cheaply you can make more trips at the exact same end costs as building a super freighter. It was a totally different way to reach the same conclusion, but it worked.

He also learned that, with the notable exception of the union plaza building, most things got more important the farther down the slopes you went. It kinda made sense since they were the areas closer to the entrance of the sphere. Hence, they developed first.

The third thing he learned was why the girls rolled out correct, for their trip to the “DASS”.

The Delvers Adventuring Support Society was in a political greyzone.

A bit like Washington D.C. (or a socialmedia platform).

It was also every trope from every fantasy novel, isekai anime, and action movie all rolled into one chaotic package. The area around the gigantic building was awash in burly men, tough looking women, sketchy hooded figures, and people watching from doorways.

Johan knew the kind of place he was in just from the smells…

It was like Calcutta. Or Hell’s Kitchen. Or Shang Hi… Or any political rally where the meals were 500 bucks a plate.

It put him on edge instantly.

This was a jungle; but all the predators were people, and all the trees were concrete.

Old instincts, deeply ingrained, started to rise to the surface.

…They told him he was already being targeted. 

----

They were within sight of the building when it finally happened.

He more felt then saw the pickpocket coming…

But he snatched him up just the same.

The kid was one of the bird people. Little guy was kicking and squawking as Johan hoisted him up by the collar of his ruffled grey shirt.

“You can give it back or I can be the first of my species to find out if yours is edible or not…”

The kid only stopped squirming when the human rotated him, so they were looking at each other eye to eye.

“I ain’t got nuffin!”

The street kid tried to sound defiant, but he was clearly terrified by the predatory stare of the larger sapient.

In response Johan simply opened his free hand and spoke.

“Last chance. I will take it from you. You will not enjoy that.” Johan flashed a toothy smile and widened his eyes doing his best Nick Cage impression.

That broke the child’s resolve. He quickly handed over the bullet he’d taken out of the strap bandoleer on Johans holster.

“Good choice. Now which one of these idiots sent you to go get it?

Johan was sure the kid’s eyes couldn’t get any wider but then the little avian managed to dilate them until his eyeballs were just pupils.

“Relax kid I’ve been you. I know the score. Tell me who… Then run the other way.”

The boy pointed towards a group of Lagro and Lupanite tuffs sitting on a stoop, careful to make sure they didn’t see him do so. Johan noted that there was another young avian sitting with them.

She looked very nervous… mostly because one of the thugs had a hand on her little shoulder.

He looked at the girls who had also seen the little… and grown visibly angry. They nodded to him and melted into the crowd without a word.

“We’re gonna go get your friend. You two got someplace to go if we rumble those idiots?”

The boy looked at him with the eyes of someone who had learned the hard way not to trust others… Johan knew those eyes far too well.

After a moment, the child’s concern for his friend finally won out over his hard earned instinct for mistrust.

“Yeah, we ain’t wiff dem. Dey grabbed us while we were on our way home… We got family.”

Johan set the Kid down.

“Your good with your hands. There are jobs out there for people with deft fingers. Real ones… Now head for that alley. We’ll send her to you once she’s safe.”

The Kid looked up at him.

“Why?”

If Johan had been like most folks, he’d have assumed the child was asking him some silly question about the instructions he’d been given.

But… Johan knew this wasn’t a child’s question.

He knelt down and made eye contact.

“Because nobody would do it for me. And because someday you might have chance to do it for somebody else… Go.”

----

Beck wasn’t a Lagro.

But she had excellent hearing in her own right. She’d caught most of the exchange between the Byuu boy and the human. She had a feeling Johan had a lot in common with that kid… and with her.

More than she would have ever guessed from his typical demeanor.

For now, she decided to file the conversation away and focus on the assholes in front of her. Briefly she contemplated just walking up and shooting a few of them in the face, but the little girl might get caught up in that.

Also, murder was technically illegal... Even in the DASS zone.

Instead, she cast a low visibility [camouflage] spell that made her outline indistinct and blended her colors with her surroundings. It also had a super low mana pull making it really hard to detect.

Sienna had taken up a spot behind a dumpster, where she could steady her carbine. She was feeding Beck sensory data that let her pass unbothered through the crowd, an unseen shadow, weaving among their feet.

The crazy thing was… Johan had out stealthed her.

He just straight-up VANISHED!

Even with Sienna on overwatch and using her esp they’d both lost him in the crush of the people going to and frow.

‘Seriously… Nothing that big should be able to do that…’

After a bit Beck emerged from the crowd and walked up behind the group.

She was counting on the sheer weight of city noise to mask her from the two Lagro thugs of the group… and their exceptional hearing. She quickly realized she needn’t have bothered. They were both wearing Noise canceling earphones to drown out the din.

Dropping her stealth, she announced herself with a chipper: “Hiya bois! Nice day for some kidnapping and theft, ain’t it?”

The 5-man group all jumped backwards in unison.

Some struggled for stash guns others just stared with their mouths open…

…Like idiots.

____

Sienna had to suppress a laugh at the 5 big strong men shitting their tails at the arrival of a shin high Voltarite with a pixie cut.

Beck’s little 3/4 tail was even wagging!

Sienna chuckled ruefully as she ID’d the biggest threats and ordered them by severity. No armor or shields… Like Idiots.

Two were armed with pistols. Standard laser pulse. One had a knife… He was the only real problem, because he had it pointed at the girl’s back. The other pair hadn’t managed to draw their weapons or were too dumb to remember them.

Ideally, she’d drop one of the gunmen with a psionic pulse… and Beck would take the other. But if they did it that way it would give the knife wielding Lupanite time to hurt the child. If she dropped the Knifeman Beck would have to take on two gunmen at once… A bad matchup.

She was still agonizing over the choice, when Johan just walked up and reached his hand up between the Knifeman’s legs… And squeezed.

She heard him squeal like a teapot through the crowd noise. One of the gunmen tried to raise his piece but Johan tossed an object at the man’s chest, pointed at his face, then said… something…

Sienna felt her link with Beck flare with barely contained amusement.

The gunmen shared some looks and put their hands up.

After that? The punks left in a hurry …Well, one was walking a little funny.

But he was trying.

----

When Sienna rejoined the others, Beck was laughing her ass off.

“What? What’s so funny?”

Beck picked up the bullet Johan had thrown at the man with her telekinesis. Scrunched up her face and threw it at Sienna. Then she lowered her voice in a pretty passable impression of the human.

“Next ones coming faster.”

Sienna laughed too!

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WORLD BUILDING: I DO NOT give permission to repost my work on Youtube or use for AI scraping.

Going to drop two chapters today and one on Friday.

Caught an automated Reddit ban I 1000% disagree with because we cant say anything about the Epstien class now... Also pretty sure Reddit is also fully relying on automation for it's appeals now to... But whatever.