Valiant: Tales From The Archive

[CURSEd #5: The Dig]

Log Date: 11/1/12763

Data Sources: Darrow Bennion

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

C.V. Justice: Bridge

9:37am SGT

“We should be pulling into geosynchronist orbit in the next ten minutes.” Markos says from where he’s slouched in the captain’s chair. “We’ll keep the long-range scans running on loop. Everything’s been quiet, though. Even if the Viralix did notice we’re here, it’d take them at least a day to get a ship out here. Probably more than that, honestly.”

“That’s good to hear, but I’d rather not push our luck.” I say from where I’m standing beside the adjutant’s console, studying the surface scans we’d taken. It had taken us a little bit to find the expedition site, half-hidden beneath seventeen years of foliage overgrowth. “We’ll get down there, find what we came here for, and get back out as soon as we can. I’d prefer it if CURSE didn’t have to answer some hard questions about why the Viralix caught us snooping around in one of their off-limits systems.”

“Bah. Even if they did, what are they gonna do? Pick a fight with us?” Markos scoffs. “Because that’d end well for them.”

“From what I’ve heard of the Viralix, they’re not shy about getting into fights if they feel like their rights or territory are being infringed upon.” I say, before speaking to the adjutant. “If you could have a copy of that area scan sent to the hangar so we could load it into the platoon’s HUDs, that would be great.” Turning about, I nod to Markos. “I’m heading down to get suited up so the platoon can deploy. I don’t expect we’ll be down there more than a few hours, but if the surface jaunt is going to run long, we’ll let you know.”

“Got it. We’ll keep watch up here.” Markos says as I stride towards the bridge’s door. “Don’t have too much fun down there, Axiom.”

“Oh, you know me. It’s a party everywhere I go.” I say as the door spirals open, then spirals shut behind me.

Heading down the clean, bright halls of the Justice, I make my way to the hangar. It’s a fair sight busier than it’s been during the daily training drills with the platoon; now, in addition to the platoon, hangar staff are milling around within the massive room as they perform checks and prep the troop transports that will be delivering the platoon to the surface. The hangar doors are open, and an environmental shield is all that’s between us and the void of space. Beyond the translucent blue film of the environmental shield, the surface of Chibundi is visible as a cerulean-green curve with cloud systems scattered through its atmosphere. Beyond it is the much larger curve of the gas giant that Chibundi orbits around, providing a backdrop of massive, baby blue striations.

Coming down the stairs, I reach the floor of the hangar and start across to the section where we’ve been storing our equipment. The tall locker against the wall is where the Axiom suit is stored; heading over to it, I press my hand against the pad, and wait as it reads my print, then cross-checks it with my bracelet. Once it’s confirmed that it’s me, the front of the locker splits down the middle, the halves folding to the side as the storage array pushes the suit out and lowers it to the floor.

“Axiom?” I can hear a familiar voice call. I turn around while I’m unzipping my CURSE uniform, seeing Kwyn striding towards me, already suited up in her light power armor, with her helm under one arm. She’s got her hair back in a tight bun, so that it’ll fit in her helm when she puts it on.

“Kwyn.” I say, nodding to her as I start to pull off the shoulder of my uniform. I’ve got my pilot plugsuit on beneath it; I’d put it on this morning, knowing it’d save me time later. “Good to see you suited up. Has the rest of the platoon done the same?”

“They have.” she says, watching me pull my uniform off, then snapping her attention back up to my face. “Right now we’re doing equipment checks, making sure we’ve ready to deploy to the surface.”

“Running a little behind, but that’s to be expected with rookies on their first assignment.” I say, stepping out of my pants and throwing them onto one of the loading arms that’s lifted the Axiom suit out of the locker. I turn back to the diagnostics panel attached to the other arm, checking the screen to make sure that my power armor’s fully charged and all its systems are functional. “Do you know if the hangar crew has the troop transports fired up and ready to go?”

“I don’t think they’re ready yet, but we still have to get some of the equipment loaded onto the troop transports anyway.” Kwyn says. “The prep orders you sent us said you wanted two armed ATVs and portable turret emplacements loaded, just in case we had to do some roaming or set up a defensible position. We’ve got the emplacements loaded, but one of the ATVs isn’t starting up. Might be a problem with the power distribution system, since we checked the power cell, and it’s fully charged.”

“Have two operatives keep working on it, but if we can’t get it running by the time the transports are up and running, we’ll just go with the one ATV.” I say as I finish checking the diagnostic panel, and step into the Axiom suit. Once my feet are seated, the plates start folding in and interlocking from the ankles upward, sinking down into place and calibrating as they go. Though it’s a familiar experience to me by now, it always reminds me of being trapped in a metal coffin until the suit finishes the interlock calibration, and allows you to move again. “Go on and make sure the platoon’s getting their act together. I’ll be along in a couple minutes.”

“Yessir.” Kwyn says, giving a quick salute before spinning on her heels and striding back out to the hangar at large. As she heads off, my suit starts to come online, reacting to my movements as I make them. The loading arms up the locker snap open, releasing the suit and allowing me to step off the platform it had been resting on.

“Alright.” I say, rolling and clenching the fingers of the armor, testing the range of mobility. It’s comfortable, so I reach into the locker, pulling out my battleaxe and turning it on; the bladed edges of the axehead glow orange as a sheath of superheated plasma ripples over them. Satisfied that everything’s in working order, I turn it off again, sling the battleaxe over my shoulder to lock into the magnetic housing on the backplate of the suit, and head in the direction that Kwyn went.

What I see when I come out into the open is that the platoon and hangar staff are swarming around the two transports sitting in the middle of the hangar. They’re big, sturdy ships, with heavy hull plating meant to weather deployment into areas with anti-air fire. The ramps on both of them are down; one of the ATVs is being driven into one, while operatives in their power armor are working on getting some of our support equipment into the other. The whole scene resembles an anthill swarming with workers in grey uniforms or white power armor. Except some of the ants are standing around, looking bored or lost.

“System, give me external speakers.” I mutter as I stride towards the transports. It gives me a little bell tone once it clicks on, and I start speaking, my voice amplified through the speakers of my suit. “You three! Leaning against the right transport! If you’re done posing for cameras, why don’t you help your squadmates get some of this gear loaded up? You there, yeah you, on the crate. How’s that crate going to get in the transport if you’re sitting on it? That’s what I thought. C’mon people, get it together. I don’t want to see anyone standing around until we’ve gotten everything loaded, now let’s move it!”

Kwyn appears around a group of operatives as the idle members of the platoon start shifting into action. “Thanks.” she says as she meets up with me, and falls in step. “I was getting a few that were dragging their feet.”

“System, cut speakers.” I say as I make my way over to the ATV that’s having trouble starting up. “Even among the elite, there’s always slackers, isn’t there. Operatives, do we know what’s wrong with this vehicle so far?”

“Haven’t the damnedest.” says the operative that’s got the hood open. “Not sure I can get this fixed in the next ten minutes, sir.”

“Leave it then. We can work on it on our way back to the HQ once we’re done with this mission. We’ll just have to deploy with the one ATV; tell the hangar crew to get this thing off the runway and put it where we can work on it later.” I say, turning and looking over at the transports. Now that the entire platoon’s moving gear, the prep is almost done. “Amazing how fast things get done when everyone’s pulling their weight.”

“I got this from one of the hangar crew.” Kwyn says, holding out a data slate to me. “He said it was the surface data from the orbital scans of the expedition site.”

“I see.” I say, looking it over, before handing it back to her. “Go ahead and take that to the senior transport pilot. He’ll need to plug that into the transport’s comms array so we can broadcast that data to the operatives and download it into their HUDs.”

“On it.” she says, taking it back and striding off.

Over the next five minutes, the rest of the equipment gets loaded, and after that, the platoon starts loading into the transports. Kwyn and I are the last ones onto the left transport, the ramp closing behind us as I make my way to the front of the transport with Kwyn in tow. Arriving to the cockpit, I lean in. “Do we have the greenlight from the bridge yet?”

“Still doing some preflight checks. We’ll be cleared for takeoff in three minutes.” one of the pilots answers. “The data from the orbital scan’s already been downloaded into the comms array, and is ready to be transmitted to your platoon’s HUDs.”

“Go ahead and do it. Do you have shared channel between both transports?”

“I can create one now.”

“Please do that, and add me to it with audio permissions.” I say, nodding for Kwyn to take a seat. She does so, buckling in as the transport’s thrusters start to warm up, and my suit beeps once it’s added to the channel shared between both transports. Once the pilot looks back at me and nods, I start talking.

“Alright, rookies, here’s the deal. If you’ve got your helms on and calibrated, you’ll probably notice a new file down in the corner of your HUD. This is our map of the expedition site. From what we can tell from the orbital scans, the whole place is deserted and overgrown; it doesn’t look like anyone’s been there in sixteen years. In spite of that, we will still be erring on the side of caution; we don’t know what the situation is with the local fauna, and it’s possible the Viralix may have left behind drones to guard the site. Now, some fun facts for those of you that didn’t read the mission briefing: Chibundi’s a large moon but a small world. It’s only got eighty percent of the gravity you’d find on a Colloquium-standard habitable planet. You’re gonna get more bang for your buck when you’re moving and jumping, so try not to go tripping over your own feet. The atmosphere is thin but breathable, as you may have deduced from the fact that we’re going in without oxygen tanks, and your suits’ built-in condensers will make sure that you’re getting oxygen in sufficient quantities to keep you from getting winded. However, don’t go smelling the roses, and keep your helms on unless you have to take them off. We don’t know if the next big plague is hanging out on this planet, just waiting for someone to infect.”

“We’re cleared for takeoff.” one of the pilots calls back to me.

“Good. Let’s roll.” I say, reaching up and grabbing one of the straps hanging from the ceiling to keep myself steady as the thrusters fire up, and the transport starts moving. As we leave the hangar and start on the descent to the moonworld below, I pick up where I left off with the briefing.

“You’ll notice that there are a few areas of interest marked out on our map of the expedition site. The first is the big hole that the site appears to be built around. Second is what appears to the command center for the expedition. Third is the barracks or the living trailers. You’ve already been split into squads and assigned designations; Squad A is with me, and we’ll be investigating the hole. Squad B will take a look around the command center, and Squad C will be checking out the barracks. Squad D will stay at the landing site and monitor for activity around the perimeter, and generally keep watch. Any questions?”

There’s nothing but silence for a good long while. After a long bit, I lean back into the cockpit. “…you didn’t happen to give everybody else audio permissions, did you?”

“No sir, I did not.”

“Right.” I say, straightening up again. “Well, if any of you asked me questions in the last thirty seconds, I didn’t hear it. If it’s still relevant by the time we hit the surface, you can ask them then. Buckle in, hold onto your hats, and I’ll see you all on the other side. Pilot, close the channel.” As the transport starts to rattle from entering the atmosphere, I make my way over to the seat beside Kwyn and sit down, making an attempt to buckle myself in — only to find that the buckle doesn’t quite make it around my power armor. After a moment to process this, I let the strap drop and just fold my arms. “Well, I tried.”

Kwyn gives a little smile at that, and leans her head back as our transport dives deeper into the atmosphere of Chibundi.

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

Chibundi: F.I.R.E. Expedition Site

10:25am SGT

“It looks like they were planning on a long stay.” Kwyn says, her voice coming through the comms channel that we share as we tread through the expedition site with our squad fanning out behind us. I’ve got the helm of my suit deployed now, so most of the audio is being filtered through that or the comms channels.

“They definitely brought more than enough to stay for a while.” I say as we pass a pop-up garage module, a wheeled buggy still parked in it with its hood propped open for maintenance. “Whatever they were looking for, it seems like they thought it’d take them a while to find it.”

“I just realized, where’s the ship that deployed all these building modules?” Kwyn asks as we walk down what was once a beaten path between the modular infrastructure. “There wasn’t anyone else in orbit when we got here, but they needed a ship to drop all of this off. Wouldn’t it have stayed in orbit?”

“It could’ve left to resupply, if it was a long-term expedition.” I point out. “But if it had left, then it would’ve been able to get help or tell the rest of the galaxy what happened here. Either the Viralix caught it when it came back with a resupply, or it they kept it from leaving in the first place.”

Kwyn steps over a large power cable winding across the path, connecting to one of the other buildings on the other side. “You don’t think they destroyed it, do you?”

“It’s possible.” I say as we pass into the shadow of a solar array that once powered the site. Dozens of hexagonal panels on flexible joints arch over the generator building module, which has plenty of power cables running along the ground to other buildings. “It’d be a waste to destroy an expedition ship if you don’t have to, though. If they could’ve boarded it and captured it instead, I think they would’ve. That way they could either repurpose it, refit it for their needs, or send it to a scrapyard to be parted out.”

“Think there’s still power in this thing?” Kwyn says, wandering into the shadow of the solar array and running her gloved fingers along the side of the generator building.

I pause on the path, looking up at the canopy of hexagonal panels arching over the building like an artificial tree. “I doubt it. The panels look like they haven’t been cleaned in a decade. All that accumulated dust would’ve reduced their efficiency. Plus, it looks like they have swiveling joints — the array’s panels were designed to follow either the sun or the gas giant across the sky for maximum efficiency. It looks like they’ve stopped moving, though — they're all tilted in one direction, and the sun’s way over there. If the generator still had power, I’m sure the panels would still be swiveling to follow light sources.”

“It looks like there’s a logo here.” she says. I bring my gaze back down to see she’s curled her hand into a fist and is scrubbing away the dirt accumulated on the side of the generator building, revealing blocky, stamped letters with finer print under it. “F.I.R.E. Fringe Investigation, Research, and Exploration Division. Must be the name of the organization that sent the expedition.”

“Must be.” I say, making my way over to study the logo along with her. “Might be connected to the Fringe Foundation. They’re a paramilitary science organization that does a lot of dark space exploration. I’ve heard that they’re shunned by the rest of the galaxy’s scientific community because they’re militarized, and they don’t always follow ethics when they’re conducting experiments or research.”

“If they’re militarized, they would’ve had weapons, right?” Kwyn says, looking back at me. “They would’ve been able to defend themselves.”

“Probably. The way I’ve heard others describe them is they’re science first, paramilitary second.” I answer, looking around. “Speaking of which, I haven’t seen any bodies yet. Or any signs of people, for that matter. System, bring up channel C.” I wait for it to click on, then start speaking when it beeps. “Squad C, how are the barracks looking? What have you found?”

“Not finding much here, Peacekeeper. Bunk beds, break rooms, bathrooms, all the usual, but it’s been abandoned. There’s no bodies in here; it’s like everyone just up and left. No damage, no signs of conflict or violence.”

“Alright. Keep looking around.” I say as I turn away from the generator building and start back towards the main path. “System, bring up channel B. Squad B, have you found anything in the command center?”

“Well, it’s a standard command center. Lots of consoles, links together all the modules across the site. Looks like an animal with plasma for claws tore through here, though. There’s slashes on every memory and processing unit. Big old gaping holes, melted clean through the metal housing in most cases. Anything that might’ve contained data or information has been compromised; we can’t salvage any of it. They were pretty surgical though — they knew what they were doing and they knew what they were after. Most of the consoles themselves are perfectly fine, aside from the damage to the memory units — whoever did this went straight for the databanks and left the screens and console interfaces intact.”

“Pity. I was hoping we could at least find out what they’d discovered.” I say. “Keep looking, see if you can find the command center’s blackbox. I’m hoping they overlooked that.”

“Copy that.”

“System, close channel B.” I say, slowing as we come up on the edge of the hole in the middle of the expedition site. A railing’s been erected around it, and there’s a track that was installed along the rim of the hole, for what looks like a giant crane machine that’s sitting at rest not far from us. The hole itself is pretty big — about a hundred feet across — and fairly deep. The angle we’ve got from the railing doesn’t allow us to see what’s at the bottom, just the sides of the hole.

“I’m guessing we’re heading down there?” Kwyn asks, resting a hand on the railing beside me.

“If we can’t get answers out of the command center, we’ll have to see if we can figure out what they found firsthand.” I answer, then turn around. “Support! Get over here. We’re going to need the climbing ropes; we’re going rappelling.”

Over the next several minutes, the squad sets up rappelling lines attached the railing erected around the hole. As they’re doing that, I cross over the railing onto the track that runs around the hole, with Kwyn following me. The way it’s set up, it looks like the crane could’ve ridden the track to any point around the hole to pick up loads at various parts around the rim. Without power, though, it’s likely stuck where it is now. The loading platform that dangles from its arm is lowered halfway into the hole, with a load of rocks and rubble filling most of it up.

“It looks like they were excavating this place.” Kwyn remarks, standing on the edge with me and staring down within. “Do you see the sides of the hole? It looks like there are columns, structures built into the walls. Like a temple that’s been buried underground.”

“They definitely found something.” I murmur, sizing up the hole. If I had to guess, it’s probably about a hundred and fifty feet to the bottom, which is heavily shadowed. It’s a long way down. “Think I’ll try to scout ahead. About how far down do you think the crane platform is? Fifty, sixty feet?”

“You’re not going to try and jump down there, are you?” Kwyn says, looking at me.

“The Axiom suit’s designed for short-range flight, booster jumps, and controlled descents.” I say, stepping back from the rim so I can get a running start. “I’ll be fine. System, prepare for a controlled descent.”

The HUD on the inside of my visor switches over to show me my flight systems, giving me some manual control over the directional thrusters. Pushing into a sprint, I lunge off the rim of the hole and out into open air, the suit’s jets kicking on as I start to fall. They don’t fire at full power, only slowing my descent as I lean towards the platform hanging from the crane; as it gets closer, I put more power into the jets to slow me down until I’m right over it, and then dial it back to lower myself onto a clear spot on the platform that’s not occupied by rubble.

There’s an audible clank as my metal boots hit the platform, which sways slightly under my weight. A tense twang echoes above; I look up, focusing my visor on the cable holding up the platform. One of the metal threads has snapped loose; the entire cable looks like it’s covered in rust after seventeen years exposed to the atmospheric conditions here.

“Don’t think I’ll be trying that again.” I say, turning my attention to the rim of the dig site. I can see Kwyn standing on the edge, staring down at me.

“I don’t think you should stay on the platform too long.” she says through our channel. “That cable looks like it’s ready to go.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” I say, walking to the railing on the platform and looking down. The bottom is now a bit closer, and I can make out what looks like broken columns and rubble scattered across tiled floor. “I’m going to head the rest of the way down, and scout around until you all get here.”

“We’ll be down there soon.” Kwyn says, backing away from the edge as other operatives take her place. “They’re throwing the ropes over now. I’m going to go get into a harness so I can meet you there.”

Gearing my suit up for another controlled descent, I jump over the railing of the platform, and start to drop once more. The roar of my suit’s jets echoes against the walls of the dig site as I get close to the floor, easing back on the thrust until my feet touch down against the tile. As I turn in place, getting a sense of my surroundings, I realize that this might actually be an ancient temple like Kwyn said — the ground is littered with fragments of broken column and carved stone, and though the sides of the dig site are steeped in shadow, I can make out archways that seem to lead further into the ground. Some of the overhangs protruding from the sides of the dig site look like they could be the remains of different floors of the structure, built above this one.

After looking around for a bit, I start walking, the metal echo of my boots forming a regular cadence as I make my way towards the wall of the dig site. Most of the light reaching this far into the bottom of the hole comes from the gas giant dominating the sky overhead; since the sun is still low in the sky, its light only slants halfway down the wall of the dig site. Everything is washed in soft blue tones and shadows; I bring up the thermal overlay on my visor and give a quick lookabout, but the temperature down here seems to be uniform. Only the operatives that are currently rappelling down the side of the dig are showing up with a higher heat signature than the rest of the hole, so I turn it back off again.

“Find anything down there yet?” Kwyn asks through the comms.

“Not yet.” I say, starting to roam the sides of the hole, studying the cavities that the expedition had excavated all those years ago. “I think you’re right; this was a buried structure. It looks like there are archways and halls that lead away from what’s been excavated here; some are caved in, but others look like they’re still intact. If this structure is a sizable one, it may take us a while to explore it.”

“That’s probably why the expedition came equipped for a long stay.” Kwyn replies. “It seems like they were making a project out of this.”

“If they had to excavate all this dirt just to get down here, I’m not surprised.” I agree as I study some of the half-buried images carved into the walls of whatever building this used to be. “That’s probably what got them in trouble. If they’d just gotten in and out, the Viralix probably wouldn’t have noticed. Staying here as long as they did guaranteed the Viralix would eventually find them.”

“We don’t plan on staying that long, do we?” Kwyn asks.

“Not by a long shot.” I say as I cycle around to where the operatives, Kwyn included, are starting to arrive at the bottom of the dig site. “We find what we came here to find, and we get back out. We don’t stay longer than that.”

It’s hard to tell which one of the operatives is Kwyn until she gets her harness off and makes her way towards me. “Let’s get on it, then.” she says, looking around the bottom of the dig site. “What does it look like?”

“That,” I murmur, looking around. “is a very good question.”

She raises an eyebrow behind her visor. “They didn’t tell you what it looks like?”

“Details were a little skimpy.” I explain. “I know what we’re looking for, I just don’t know what it looks like. I’m pretty sure we’ll know it when we see it.” Turning about, I start speaking to the rest of the squad. “Alright, let’s fan out. Buddy system, nobody goes alone. Search the main floor, then start searching the halls leading out into the rest of the structure. If you find anything notable, don’t touch it; report it. Remember the first rule of exploring old ruins: if it’s got a weird glow, it’s probably what you’re looking for, and it’s probably also booby-trapped.”

“Speaking from personal experience?” Kwyn asks as I start walking along the edge of the excavated ruins once more.

“I’ve seen a couple ancient temples in my days. I don’t know who designs the things, but there’s just something about stone temples where the architect cannot resist sketching in a trap here or a hidden door there.” I mutter, stepping over some rubble. “And somehow, that stuff makes it through committee and into the final draft, and the construction crew just shrugs and builds it in.”

Kwyn smiles at that. “Sounds like you’ve been the victim of some of these traps.”

“Look, all I’m saying is that anyone who uses their architecture degree to build a hidden chute that drops you through a double loop-de-loop and straight into a pit of military ants has problems, and they need see a therapist.” I say, stepping up onto a fallen column that’s too large to step over. “There are quicker, less sadistic ways of killing someone. I think we can all agree that kind of shit is just totally unnecessary.”

That earns a giggle from Kwyn. “Yes, totally unnecessary.” she agrees, seeming amused by hearing me loosen up a little. Planting a foot on the column, she reaches up to grab the outstretched hand of a nearby statue to boost herself up, but the moment she puts her weight on it, the stone around the shoulder crumbles as the arm swings downwards. Kwyn staggers back, fumbling for her holstered pistol at the muffled sound of something clanking beneath the statue, and then a deeper series of clunks that echo beneath the floor. The other operatives across the dig site, myself included, stop in place and turn to listen as the submerged clunks make their way across the floor, echoing closer and closer to the center of the dig.

“Oh, I really hope that’s not a booby trap.” I groan as the floor tiles start to split apart in the middle of the site. Some of them start lowering into the floor, forming a hole through which a dais with a pedestal begins rising. Atop the pedestal is what appears to be an orange sphere, about the size of an apple, that’s giving off a faint glow.

“I thought you were joking when you said it would be glowing.” Kwyn says, her hand still on her pistol. “Let me guess — that’s what we’re looking for, and it’s probably booby-trapped?”

“Oh, it’s definitely booby-trapped.” I say, heading towards it. “I can use my flight thrusters to grab it without stepping on any of the tiles around the pedestal. Let’s just hope the pedestal itself isn’t weight-sensitive…” I pause as garbled noise comes through the comms, and check my HUD to see that Squad B is trying to get through to us. The channel’s full of static and distortion, and I can barely hear anything, much less understand what’s being said. “Is anyone else getting that interference on channel B?”

“I think it’s because we’re down here.” Kwyn says, moving to catch up with me as she studies the rim of the dig. “We’re too deep, and there’s too much stone and dirt in the way. I don’t think we’d be able to get a clear signal unless they were standing on the edge of the dig site.”

“It sounds like it’s urgent, from what I can hear of the tone.” I say, glancing between the artifact and the rim of the dig site. “System, bring channel B up. Squad B? Can you hear us? This is Axiom. We can’t hear you, the depth of the dig site is messing with the signal. Can you get someone to the edge of the hole to relay what you’re trying to tell us?” I quiet down to listen to the response, but it comes back just as crackly and distorted as the first time. I shake my head and look to Kwyn.

“We should send someone back up the ropes to act as a relay between us and the other squads.” Kwyn says, looking back to the ropes draped down the side of the dig site.

“Agreed.” I say, looking around at the members of our squad. It looks like none of them had wandered off into the halls yet; they’re all still here on the floor of the dig. “Make it two, though, I want to stick with the buddy system—”

The sound of a sonic boom cuts off both of us. Seconds later, something streaks low over the dig, then another boom as it slams down somewhere in the expedition site.

“What the hell was that?” I murmur, studying the burn trail the projectile left across the sky. Whatever it was, it was sizable. The rest of the squad down in dig with us have their helms turned to the sky; some of them are starting to pull their plasma rifles off their backs. They flinch when another set of booms ripple overhead, and more projectiles streak across the sky, on track to land in the expedition site. This time I get a better look at them during the brief second that they pass overhead, and I can see they look like bus-sized canisters with directional thrusters firing from their sides, slowing them down to survivable speeds before they slam into the ground.

Drop pods.

“Everybody back to the ropes, get topside!” I shout, turning and giving Kwyn a push towards the side of the dig with the ropes hanging over the rim. “Hold position on the rim until everyone’s out!”

“What’s going on?” Kwyn demands, staggering a few feet at the push, but refusing to go further than that. “What were those?”

“Drop pods.” I answer, turning and heading for the pedestal even as the rest of the squad rushes for the ropes. Overhead, there’s a couple more booms as another pair of pods punch through the atmosphere and race down to the dig site. “It’s what militaries and mercs use to get troops to the surface of a planet as fast as possible. If they’re being deployed here, it means that somebody’s got a problem with us being here. Also means that Markos might be in trouble up in orbit.”

“We’re about to get attacked, then?” Kwyn asks, slinging her rifle off her back.

I look up as I start to hear the crackle of coilgun shots up above, and I can see the tracer lines left behind by plasma bolts lancing over the dig. “From the sound of it, it’s already started.” Glancing back at her, I point to the ropes. “Get topside. I’m not going to have you get killed on your first mission.”

“Axiom—”

“It’s not up for debate, Kwyn.” I say, turning to step onto the dais.

“No, look out!”

I glance back at her warning, and see her looking up; I do the same, just in time to see something hurtling down towards me. Scrambling backwards, I get out of the way in the second before it slams into the dais, sending cracks running along the stone and dust rushing outwards. Staggering back another several feet, I flick my visor over to thermal read, confirming it’s a person, then flick it back over to normal as they stand up, coming into full view. My heart drops into my stomach when I see who it is.

“Is that… Jackrabbit?” Kwyn whispers.

“That’s right, the one and only!” Jackrabbit replies in a disconcertingly cheery tone. From the knees up she’s in a mercenary getup — light combat plating over leather padding, a preponderance of pockets and buckles, all of it just as brown as her hair is. She’s got a pistol holstered at her side, a pair of batons across the back of the powered harness she’s wearing, an oxygen mask, and a long red scarf, but the real deal is down at her legs. From the knees down, they’re sheathed in mechanized metal that end in the big ol' stompin’ boots that made her so famous as an asskicking Challenger. Those boots kicked many, many an ass, at least from the stories I’d heard.

I reach back, grabbing the handle of my axe and flipping the release switch; the latches holding it to my backplate click open, and I bring it around to grip it with both hands. “Look, we don’t want any trouble…” I say, switching over to my external speakers.

Jackrabbit smirks, flipping her hair out of her eyes. “You’re Axiom, right? I’ve heard a lot about you!”

This catches me off guard. “Really?”

“Yup!” Jackrabbit says, winking at me from behind her oxygen mask. “I heard you were a smart fella and walked away from this one so I didn’t have to kick your ass. Sounds great, doesn’t it?”

“I, uh, no. No.” I say quickly. I know the Challenger anime portrayed Jackrabbit as a fast talker, but I hadn’t expected it to be true. “That— that doesn’t sound great at all. In fact, I’m going to have to ask you to retreat, and point out the fact that we’ve got you outnumbered. By, like, a lot.”

Jackrabbit sucks in a deep breath. “Oh, do you?” she says, looking around to check on the rest of our squad — by now, half of them have gotten up the ropes, which are now being lowered down for the other half. “See, to me it looks like they’re skedaddling. So it’s just you and that cute little thing behind you.”

“Did she just call me little?” Kwyn mutters over our comms. “I’m not little, I’m 5’8!”

I roll my eyes. “They’re scramming because I told them to scram. And besides, it’s still two against one.” I point out.

“Aaah, you’re right.” Jackrabbit agrees, tapping her chin with a finger. “That’s definitely not a fair fight. Tell you what — I’ll tie one hand behind my back, I’ll use the other to carry this weird little glowy ball thing, which only leaves me with my legs to kick your asses with. One boot for each of you. I’d say that about makes it even.”

“Okay, now you’re just gettin’ on my nerves.” I say, powering on my axe, the thin sheen of orange plasma rippling across its blades. “Step away from the pedestal. If you move towards that artifact, I will use lethal force.”

“Oh, you mean like this?” Jackrabbit says, taking a small step towards the pedestal.

“I’m not joking.” I say, taking a couple steps forward.

“I’m getting closer!” Jackrabbit says in a singsong voice, taking another step towards the pedestal.

“Stop that! Right now!” I order, coming forward another couple of steps.

“I’m reaching out to toooooouch it!” Jackrabbit trills, reaching out to hang a finger just short of the glowing sphere.

“What are you, twelve years old!” I snap, reaching the edge of the dais and stepping up on it. “What is wrong with you? Our people are up there, exchanging fire and possibly getting injured or killed, and you’re down here acting like a juvenile!”

“Well, really it was just ploy for me to get close enough to grab it.” Jackrabbit admits, slapping a hand down on the top of the sphere. “I didn’t think it’d work, but hey, you fell for—”

The hiss and crack of a plasma bolt hitting the corner of the pedestal, melting the stone and breaking off a chunk, has Jackrabbit yanking back her hand pretty quick. I glance back to see Kwyn’s got her rifle raised, the muzzle still glowing from the discharge. “Step away from the pedestal, Jackrabbit.” she orders.

Jackrabbit grins. “Now we’re gettin’ serious.” Reaching up, she tosses the end of her scarf over her shoulder, twisting her neck to one side so it pops. “Let’s get this thing started.”

Without warning, she drops, balancing herself on one hand as she slings a leg out in a kick that catches me in the ankles. Normally something like that wouldn’t shift me while I’ve got my suit on, but Jackrabbit’s kicks are much more powerful on account of the mechanized sheaths on her lower legs. There’s a clang as metal meets metal, and my legs are taken clean out from beneath me; I throw my arms out, catching myself as I land hard on my side. I start to roll back to my knees, but I’m slammed flat against the cracked dais as Jackrabbit uses the back of my suit to springboard herself into the air.

“Dammit.” I grunt, feeling my temper flare. As I get back to my feet, I see Jackrabbit land behind Kwyn, who twists around to face her. By the time she’s turned around, Jackrabbit’s yanked the batons off her back, electrical arcs dancing across them. She uses one of them to block Kwyn from bringing her rifle around, and the other baton nails Kwyn right in the joint where her neck meets her shoulder. Kwyn convulses as the arcs spread from the baton to her suit, and she falls to one knee, looking up just in time to catch a powered kick from Jackrabbit, right in the torso.

“Kwyn!” I shout as she goes flying, and I lunge forward to catch her, my suit’s jets kicking on as she slams into me and sends me sliding across the dais. I can hear her breathing hard over the comms as she slumps down and braces herself on the stone; her chestplate’s been dented inward by the sheer force of Jackrabbit’s kick.

“I’m fine.” she coughs, sounding winded.

I let go of her, taking my battleaxe in both hands as my suit’s thrusters kick on again. Jackrabbit grins as I come blazing off the dais, swinging my axe at her; she ducks under it, smacking one of her batons against my suit as I pass by. The arc jumps across my armor, but largely disperses across it since mine is fully armored, unlike Kwyn’s. Twisting about, I kick off a column and come straight back at Jackrabbit, sparks flying as she catches the haft of my axe with both her batons locked in an X.

“Hey hon, lighten up!” she says cheerily as I slowly force her sparking batons back towards her. “I only gave her a little love tap. Just enough for her to take five. Tried to avoid breaking any ribs, y’know? Whatcha so worked up for? She your girlfriend?”

“She’s my trainee.” I growl through my external speakers as the orange edge of my battleaxe gets closer to her head. “And you don’t really think you can overpower a mechanized suit, do you?”

“Nah boss.” she says, letting herself fall on her back. As I stagger forward from the sudden loss of opposition, she bunches her legs up and slams her metal boots into my midsection. “I can do this, though.”

The two-footed kick, powered by the servos in Jackrabbit’s boots, hits like a hyperspace freighter. Even completely sealed within my suit, I can feel the breath get knocked out of me as the impact of that kick sends me flying across the dig site. Blunt-impact damage warnings go flashing over the inside of my visor as it highlights the stomach plates of my suit in red, just before the flight overlay kicks on and my thrusters fire, slowing me midair. Coughing and getting my breath back, I lean forward in the air, flying at her as she gets back to her feet.

“You just don’t learn, do you!” she shouts over her shoulder as she starts running. “I’m faster than you, Axe! Got more maneuverability too!” Running past the dais as I close in on her, she reaches a column and bounds off it, spinning as she rises. I realize what she’s doing too late; I lean back to slow myself, but I can’t dodge the kick she slings out at me as I cross paths with her. I jerk the shaft of my axe up to block it, but it still sends me flying, losing control of my flight thrusters as I tumble through the air and crash into a pile of rubble.

“Axiom, be careful.” I can hear Kwyn say over our comms as I struggle back upright, rubble shifting beneath me. “Jackrabbit’s a legend. There’s a reason CURSE has never been able to catch her like they’ve done with all the other Challengers in the last fifteen years.”

I turn off my external speakers before replying. “I didn’t think it’d be so hard to beat someone whose whole schtick is a pair of stompy mech boots.” I grunt as I plant my axe against the ground and use it to push myself up. Out of the corner of my visor, I can see Kwyn staying low and moving to where she dropped her plasma rifle after she got kicked through the air by Jackrabbit. “You aren’t injured, are you?”

“Chestplate’s been caved in, it’s digging into my chest, but I’ll survive. I want to get out of this thing as soon as we’re safe.” she replies. “It’s probably going to bruise later.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard.” I say, finding my footing and focusing on Jackrabbit again, seeing her making a run for the pedestal. I switch back to my external speakers as my directional thrusters kick on once more, aiding my movements as I lunge towards her. “Oh no you don’t! Get away from that!”

Jackrabbit puts on a burst of speed, and I just barely miss intercepting her; but her scarf is drifting behind her, and I’m able to grab that and haul back on it. It yanks her clean off her feet with a gagging sound; I don’t wait for her to get back up, spinning around and slinging her away from the pedestal by the scarf. She goes rolling across the tile, only stopping when she slams up against a fallen column.

“I can do this all day.” I say as she shakes her head, then rolls to her hands and knees, slowly getting to her feet. “You don’t have anything that can do serious damage to my power armor. But I only need to get a single good hit on you, and it’s over.” I punctuate the point by hefting my battleaxe and giving it a little spin. The plasma-edged blade could easily cut through the lightweight and partial plating Jackrabbit’s wearing. “So I’m going to give you a chance to walk away, again. Our mission here isn’t to kill Challengers. You can leave and we won’t chase you.”

Jackrabbit brushes some dust off her shoulder as she picks up one of her dropped batons. “You only need to get a single good hit on me, eh?” she says, grinning. “But that’d require you to hit me first, and you’re a little too slow for that. I’ve already proved it.” Rolling a shoulder, she lifts her oxygen mask and hawks some spit off to the side before seating it back into place. “You have no idea what it is you’ve trying to steal. I’ll be doing the galaxy a favor by keeping it out of CURSE’s hands.”

“What, and let the resurgents have it? I don’t think so.” I say, moving to more fully position myself between her and the pedestal. “CURSE protects the galaxy now. The time of the Challengers has come and gone. We give them what the Challengers never could, and it’s time that you accept that.”

Her everpresent smile falters at that, and fully evaporates as a certain shadow crosses over her brown eyes. “CURSE gave the galaxy what it wanted, at the cost of what it already had. The foundation CURSE rests on is built on lies, and on the corpses and destroyed reputations of good men and women, of good Challengers.” I can hear the quiet fury in her voice, something that was buried underneath the cheer. “Your organization exists only because it was trying to tear down a good thing it didn’t like. That is the legacy of CURSE. A legacy built on spite and destruction — your leaders know that, and they know that legacy will return to destroy them, because nothing built on the willful destruction of a good thing can survive the seeds it’s planted.”

It’s not the words that send a shiver down my back, but the way her gaze never wavers as she speaks them. It’s the conviction in her eyes — it reminds me of Prophet, although Jackrabbit’s conviction isn’t motivated by the arbitrary tenets of religion. I’m not sure if that makes it any better, though.

“I don’t care what you believe about us.” I say, checking my suit’s power levels in the corner of my visor. “You’re sore because you lost fifteen years ago. You and the other resurgents need to back off and accept that — your time is over.”

“It’s not over until we say it’s over, hon.” Jackrabbit says, reaching up to hook a thumb in a ripcord ring hanging from her metal harness. “And I say isn’t over yet.”

With that, she yanks the ring. As the ripcord reels back into its spool, she starts to blur around the edges; I tighten my grip on my axe, but nothing can prepare me for what comes next. Jackrabbit leans low and lunges forward, literally bolting towards me as if she’d been launched from a cannon. She whips past me faster than I can react, slamming her baton into my side, and picking up the other one in the process; most of the force of the hit comes from the speed alone. As I stagger, I hear metal boots shrieking as they brake on the tile, and then I have to take a step as I’m struck again, the baton slamming into the back of my shoulder this time. I see Jackrabbit hurtle past me, skidding across the tile before turning with impossible agility, launching back at me at over a hundred miles an hour, her baton slamming against my plated arm.

And again, and again, and again.

I don’t have time to react to any of these passes because they hit so hard and come every second or so. She ricochets around me like a bouncy ball fired out of a mass cannon into a contained area; twisting, pivoting, and launching all before I’ve stopped staggering from the previous hit. Although her batons normally wouldn’t be a threat to me, the speed at which she’s moving is giving their hits more impact, and the suit is reading it, microdamage warnings piling up along the side of my visor.

“Axiom, I’ve got my rifle, but I can’t get a good lock on her.” Kwyn says over the comms as a blow to the shin sends me to down to one knee. “She’s moving too fast. I can’t catch her around the edges; I know she’s going to be near you, but I’m not sure I could hit her even if I strafed your position, and I might hit you besides that.”

I turn off my external speakers, switching over internal comms as I lift an arm to shield my head. “You’ve got a plasma grenade as part of your standard kit, right? Arm it and throw it at me.”

“You want me to what?!”

“She’s moving too fast for either of us to hit her.” I grunt as my arm’s slammed down by one of Jackrabbit’s strikes; I lift it again to keep my head shielded. “With a grenade, we don’t have to be accurate. It doesn’t matter how fast she is; if she’s in the blast zone, she’s gonna get hit.”

“But you—”

“It’ll damage my power armor, yeah, but it’ll hurt her more. I know for a fact I can survive the blast, but she’s not as heavily armored as I am.” I grit my teeth as Jackrabbit kicks my axe away on the next pass. “Do it, Kwyn!”

I expect her to argue, but I hear only silence. Jackrabbit rushes past me again, another damage warning flashing up on my screen as my shoulder’s battered down again. The sound of something bouncing on the tile draws my attention to the side, and I glance to see a white sphere rolling towards me, its arming light blinking.

Covering my helm with my arms, I curl into a ball, bracing myself.

The explosion comes a second later, and I can feel the blast slam into me. I don’t go flying on account of the suit’s weight; it does send me rolling across the floor, warnings flashing over my visor as the superheated plasma eats away at my suit’s exterior plating. Melt damage advisories start flashing all along the right side of my suit; I scramble to get back to my feet and stagger out of the cloud of plasma, scooping up my axe as I do so.

Ignoring the warnings filling up the sides of my HUD, I move around the edge of the cloud until Jackrabbit comes into view. It looks like the explosion threw her clear of the plasma cloud and back against the pedestal; she’s currently lying on the dais, smoke rising from where patches of plasma clung to her, and are eating through her armor and leather padding. Her oxygen mask is cracked, part of it melting away as she rolls over on her back, patting out the patches of her that are burning. On the other side, Kwyn is moving around the dais, keeping her distance by about thirty or forty feet, rifle raised. As I get closer, I notice Jackrabbit’s only using one gloved hand to pat the fires out. The other one’s curled up at her side.

And the pedestal’s empty.

I lurch into motion, charging towards her. “She’s got the artifact!” I shout into the comms as I jump up on the dais, bringing my axe up and around for an overhead swing. I don’t put maximum force into it; I don’t want to kill her, just injure her enough to incapacitate her, and I can see the orange artifact tucked into the crook of her arm at her side. She sees me coming, sees the battleaxe coming down at her, but I can tell from the way her eyes widen that she knows she can’t roll out of the way in time.

Yet my axe never reaches her.

It stops half an inch from her chest, held in place by her palms, pressed to either side of axeblade, just behind the sheath of plasma on the edge. The placement is perfect, but the strength and precision required for pulling off something like that are impossible. Should be impossible. This is something that only happens in the holos; people aren’t actually supposed to be capable of something like this. Pulling my shocked gaze from my axe, I look past it to Jackrabbit, and I feel my blood run cold.

Behind her cracked oxygen mask, I can see her pupils are no longer black. They’re a luminous, lightning-yellow.

She twists her hands to the side, yanking the battleaxe out of my grip, and at the same time, swings one of her stompy boots up, catching me in the chest with a powered kick that throws me into the air. Letting go of the axehead, she catches it by the handle and swings it across as I start to fall, slamming me in the side with the flat of the axehead. It feels like I’m getting sideswiped with tree trunk — the blow throws me against the pedestal, which shatters as I slam into it and go rolling across the dais.

“Axiom!” I can hear Kwyn shout over the comms as buckled and crushed plate warnings flash across my visor, accompanied by reduced mobility warnings. I gasp a breath as I roll over; the suit protected me from the worst of the blow, but I’m still going to have a big damn bruise on my ribs tomorrow. I’m just lucky they didn’t get cracked or broken.

Jackrabbit laughs as she stands back up, my battleaxe hanging from one hand and the artifact tucked under the other, as I struggle to get back to my hands and knees. “I’d know that look anywhere.” she chuckles. “This isn’t the first time you’ve met a Spark, is it.”

I grit my teeth, hearing some of the gears in my suit complain and struggle against the buckled plates as I try to stand upright. Behind her oxygen mask, Jackrabbit’s wearing a cheery, cocksure smile, her pupils still an unnerving, luminous yellow. She’s right; I have seen this once before, two months ago. In the Challenger Museum on Valcorria, if only for a brief moment, I’d seen Songbird’s eyes light up when he’d done something that should’ve been impossible.

Incandescent pupils, brilliant and lightning blue, caged within a ruby iris.

“Kwyn.” I breathe over our comms. I can see her behind Jackrabbit, her plasma rifle resting on a fallen column with a perfect shot lined up. The moment I say her name, I can see her squeeze the trigger.

And as the bolt is leaving the muzzle, Jackrabbit tilts her head to one side.

It goes racing through the spot Jackrabbit’s head was occupying just a second ago, crossing the dig site and slamming into the wall. She doesn’t turn around, or do anything but smile; after a moment of disbelief, Kwyn pulls the trigger again, though the moment she does, Jackrabbit takes a step to the side, turning so that bolt races just past her midsection, missing by half an inch, and splashes off the shoulder of my armor. I stagger at the impact, taking a couple of steps back.

“Might want to careful where you point that, rookie.” Jackrabbit says, looking at Kwyn. “Shooting your mentor’s bad form.”

“Strafe her, Kwyn!” I shout as I lunge across the dais. “She can’t dodge them all!”

Jackrabbit hears me coming, and looks back to me, her pupils still luminous. She doesn’t move, and I leap to tackle her; but she kicks herself up into the air at the same time, going into a horizontal spin. I realize too late that her jump took her higher than mine did, and the spin was so she could swing my axe around, slamming it into the back of my suit as I pass beneath her.

“Gah!” I shout as I hit the dais on my chest and slide to a stop, the battleaxe buried in the back of my suit. Damage warnings are going off left and right as Jackrabbit lands neatly behind me, flipping her scarf back over her shoulder.

“Figured you’d want that back, love.” she says as I reach back, struggling to dislodge the axe from where it’s cut through the outer plating and into some of the underlying interlocks. “Anywho, I have to get goin’. There’s a galaxy out there what needs heroes, y’know? It ain’t gonna save itself. Toodles!”

Jackrabbit turns and starts walking off as I reach back, grabbing the handle of my battleaxe and struggling to wrench it loose of my suit. As it comes out, Kwyn goes running past me; I reach out to her, trying to stop her, but sparks fly from the gash in the back of my armor as it struggles with damaged gears and actuators. “Kwyn! No!” I shout.

She doesn’t stop; I think she’s come to the conclusion that trying to shoot Jackrabbit won’t do any good, so she’s trying to engage up close. The moment she goes to swing the butt of her rifle at the back of Jackrabbit’s head, the Challenger turns around, pupils still glowing, and catches the rifle with her free hand. Kwyn tries to yank it back, but Jackrabbit just keeps her grip on it; without warning, she shoves it back, slamming the spine of the rifle against Kwyn’s helm and sending cracks across the visor. As Kwyn staggers, Jackrabbit yanks the rifle back towards herself at the same time that she brings a leg up, slamming the sole of her metal boot into Kwyn. It sends Kwyn flying, landing on the edge of the dais and rolling over it.

“Points for trying, rookie.” Jackrabbit says, tossing the rifle to the side. “And I’ll give you points for learning to stay down as well.”

With that, she turns about again, turning and stepping off the dais on her way to the edge of the dig site. I struggle to my feet, in spite of my suit’s protests as it highlights all the areas of damage across my suit. After a moment to gather myself, I scoop up my axe once more, and start after Jackrabbit.

“Don’t try it, kiddo!” Jackrabbit calls over her shoulder as she reaches down to gather up her batons and slot them across her back once more. “You seem like a good sort, even if I don’t like who you work for. This little magic orange here isn’t worth your life—”

She abruptly stops, and so do I, when said orange flies out from under her arm and goes bobbing and zipping through the air, back over to the dais.

“What the bloody what?” Jackrabbit yelps as the artifact slows to a halt, hovering in the air next to me. It jumps up in the air, as if someone had tossed it, and the air next to me starts to distort, rippling in hexagonal patterns. By the time the artifact comes down again, it’s landing in a hand.

Standing beside me is Whisper in her bodysuit and her hexweave jacket, grinning behind an oxygen mask as she reaches up and pulls her hood off. “Been a hot minute, Jackrabbit.”

Jackrabbit reaches back to curl a hand around the handle of one of her batons. “Aye, it has, love. Now hand it back. I went easy on them because they didn’t know any better; I won’t go easy on you.”

“It’s three on one. I think we’ll manage.” Whisper says, tucking the artifact in the pocket of her jacket. She raises her other arm, the muzzle of a wrist pistol just barely visible beneath the cuff of her jacket sleeve. “You were on your way out. Don’t let us keep you.”

“I’m not leavin’ without that artifact, hon.” Jackrabbit says, her pupils still glowing that brilliant yellow as she starts to pull her baton off her back.

“Whisper, wait—” I say as I flash back to what happened at the Challenger Museum.

“That’s a matter of opinion.” Whisper says, closing her raised hand into fist. Her arm jerks back as her wristgun discharges a bolt of icy-blue plasma at Jackrabbit, who yanks her baton forward, crackling and arcing with electricity. Despite the velocity the bolt’s moving at, Jackrabbit still manages to block it with the baton, sending it ricocheting up into the air.

Whisper stares for a moment, dumbfounded, then lowers her arm slightly. “Excuse me, what?” she demands indignantly.

Jackrabbit smirks behind her cracked oxygen mask, but before she can answer, the sound of metal cables twanging and snapping draws our attention up. Though I can’t see it from down here, it seems like the ricocheted plasma bolt hit the cable that’s holding up the debris platform, and is eating through the rusted metal. I can see it starting to tilt as more threads in the braided cable start to snap.

“Shit.” Whisper hisses, turning and pelting towards the edge of the dais. Jackrabbit merely takes a couple steps backwards, since she’s already well away from the dais, and I turn to follow Whisper, but I only manage a few steps before my suit locks up and sends me to one knee, sparks flying from the gash in the back. Whisper skids to a halt at the edge of the dais when she hears me clank to one knee, and looks back at me. “Dare!”

I plant the head of my battleaxe on the stone, and shake my head at her. I know I’m not going to make it off the dais in time. Gripping the handle of my axe, I hunch my shoulders and lower my head, setting all the servos in my suit to the lock position as I hear the cable overhead finally snap, the platform coming rushing down.

The crash, when it comes, is loud; I can hear it echoing through the dig site, with all the rubble that was on the platform toppling off and clattering to the floor of the dig. But I don’t feel any impact or pressure. Opening my eyes, I let them flick around; I’m not surrounded by darkness, like I thought I would be. Instead, there’s a bright, numinous haze all around; I can see Kwyn’s legs not far from me on the dais. Allowing the servos in my suit to unlock, I raise my head to see that she’s standing not far from me, helm off and her hair loose and spilling down her shoulders. There’s a fountain of light pouring off her, most of it flowing upwards; I tilt my head back to see where it’s going.

Standing over the dais is a massive, translucent white wolf that’s at least fifteen feet at the shoulder — a shoulder that’s bearing up the weight of the fallen platform, and shunting it to the side with a loud, echoing crash.

I’m speechless. So are Whisper and Jackrabbit. Kwyn’s tawny irises are glowing, her lips drawn back in a snarl, and up above, the giant wolf does the same, letting out a guttering growl that echoes around the dig.

Jackrabbit’s astonishment morphs into something approaching delight as the growl echoes around the dig. “Now that’s more like it, rookie.” she grins, pulling her other baton off her back. “Now you’re playin’ with the adults!”

The giant wolf snarls again, then dashes in a circle, its tail whipping around. In a single motion, it ducks low and opens its jaws to scoop Whisper up in its mouth while its tail slams into Jackrabbit, sending her flying back against the wall of the dig. With Whisper accounted for, Kwyn runs over to the wolf, grabbing its fang and jumping into it its mouth, before it pivots towards me, its mouth open.

I wince and cover my head as it barrels towards me, scooping me up and sending me rolling over its tongue until Whisper catches me and holds me still. After that, I open my eyes to see that the beast is running around the edge of the dig, jumping up onto the protruding platforms that were once the higher floors of this temple. My heart pounds in my chest as it lunges and scrabbles higher and higher, working its way around the walls of the dig; even though riding in this thing’s mouth feels like riding on a cloud, I’m still keenly aware of how far up we are, and what a fall from this height would mean. While it’s big and powerful, this also means that it’s having trouble fitting onto the little nibs of broken floor protruding from the walls.

After another few breathtaking seconds, the giant wolf lunges up to the rim of the dig, getting halfway over the edge. Though its jaws are locked shut around us, I can still see through it since the entire creature is transparent; I see CURSE operatives shouting and backing away as the giant ghost beast claws the ground, trying to get over rim of the dig. There’s the sound of stone and dirt falling into the dig as the wolf hooks its hindpaws into the wall of the dig to lever itself up and over; once it fully climbs out of the dig, it walks a few steps, then falters and starts to evaporate. It quickly lowers its head and spits us out; as we go rolling across the dirt, it fully collapses behind us, dissipating and fading away.

“Holy shit.” Whisper says, staggering to her feet. “You been holding out on us, rookie.”

I get to my feet, wincing as the gears within my suit grind and whine, protesting the damage it’s taken. Ahead of me, Kwyn stands up, takes a step, then falls back to her knees as her leg gives out beneath her. Swinging my battleaxe over my shoulder and locking it to the back of my suit once more, I take halting steps to get over there and kneel down beside her. She’s got her hands braced on the ground, and is panting heavily.

“Kwyn, are you okay?” I ask, turning on my external speakers.

“The air’s… so thin… up here…” she gasps, her breaths coming fast and shallow.

“It’s because you took off your helm. The atmosphere here on Chibundi is more diffuse than on residence-class planets.” I say, grabbing the back of her suit and pulling her up a little, so I can get my other arm under her knees and lift her up into a bridal carry. “Try to relax and calm down. The more you exert yourself, the more oxygen your body will demand. Whisper!”

“Right here.” she says, appearing on my other side. “I got the objective. We’re booking it now, right?”

“Yeah, we got what we need, let’s scram—” I say, getting cut off when something slams into my shoulder and sends me staggering a few feet, nearly toppling over. Damage warnings, along with a burst of pain, go flashing across my visor; I look down to see the end of a spike sticking out of the shoulder of my power armor. “Shit. Railgun sniper.”

Looking over my shoulder, I can see mercenaries taking cover in the buildings on the other side of the dig hole; they’re popping out every few seconds to strafe our side of the expedition site, while the operatives on our side return fire when they can. This back and forth is probably what’s been going on while we were fighting Jackrabbit down below, and from what I can see at a glance, it’s produced casualties on both sides.

“System, all channels.” I grunt, fighting past the pain in my shoulder. “This is Axiom! All squads, deploy smokes! We have the objective, we are leaving! Deploy smokes, recover the fallen and injured, and get your asses back to the troop transports!” With that, I turn and start limping as fast as I can back the way we can, getting used to the limited range of movement that my suit has right now.

“She gonna be alright?” Whisper asks, keeping pace with me as smoke grenades start going off behind us.

“I think so.” I say, noting as we pass the generator module, with its solar array. “I think she just pushed herself a little too hard when she was getting us out of the dig. The air out here is too thin for that kind of heavy exertion. Once we get her back to the transport and get an oxygenation mask on her, she should be fine.” I look down, giving Kwyn’s shoulder a little squeeze with my armored hand. “You did good down there, Kwyn. I’m proud of you.”

She gives me a weak smile past raspy, labored breaths, but doesn’t answer. Whisper moves ahead of us, checking between the building modules to make sure that none of the mercs have come around the sides to flank us and cut us off. “She did more than good. Shit, man, why didn’t you tell us your trainee could summon a giant ghost wolf?”

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know she could do that!” I retort as the transports come into view at the edge of the expedition site. “And what the hell are you doing out here? This was a classified assignment! Top secret!”

Whisper leans back from peering around a building, giving me a nonchalant shrug. “I got bored and figured I’d tag along.”

“They’re not going to notice that you’re missing back at the HQ?” I demand as other operatives start catching up to us, pairs of them carrying the dead or injured, while the others cover the retreat with rifles raised. “What if they needed you for an assignment and you’re not there?!”

“Meh, they’ll just send Gossamer to handle it.” she says, waving a hand. “She needs regular ego boosts anyway. She gets sulky if they don’t make her feel important.”

“You’re gonna be in so much trouble when we get back.” I mutter, passing the last building and starting up the ramp of the transport. “Get in here. I need you to keep an eye on Kwyn while we’re getting out of here. Pilot! We need off this rock, pronto!”

“Way ahead of you, boss.” the pilot calls back from the cockpit. “Engines already warmed, thrusters ready for takeoff. Once we’ve got everyone back on the buses and get the ramps up, we can bug out.”

“Good.” I say, setting Kwyn down in one of the seats near the cockpit and yanking open the panel above it, pulling out the oxygen mask. “Whisper, help her get this on and keep an eye on her, just in case.” Moving out of the way as Whisper comes over and takes a seat beside Kwyn, I move over to the cockpit and lean in. “Do we have contact with the Justice?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” the pilot says. “Suppose you don’t know because comms couldn’t reach you down in that hole. You probably figured from the drop pods, but we’ve got company in low orbit. One of the Dussel battlecruisers showed up after we’d left and got into a fight with the Justice pretty quick.”

“Are they still fighting?” I ask, looking over my shoulder as more operatives start clomping up the ramp and find their seats.

“They’re still going at it, yeah. I’ve got my second keeping an ear to the comms to monitor things.” the pilot says, motioning to his copilot. “About time for a checkup anyway. How are things looking up there, Dean?”

“They’re holding. Things look like they’re in our favor.” the copilot says. “The merc battlecruiser’s a secondhand, she’s older. Justice’s shields are taking a beating, but they’re holding, and the merc ship is probably going to lose shields pretty soon here. Sounds like the mercs deployed a small squad of fighter drones to draw fire and buy them some time.”

“That’s good.” I say, looking back to the main cabin of the troop transport. The last of the operatives are reaching the transports and loading in, most of them strapping in, while the injured are laid on the floor so the medics on each squad can tend to them. “Do we have all our operatives in?”

“Let’s see, ship’s reading four… two, one… alright, it’s reading all the chipped suits inside the ship now.” the pilot says. “You want us to wait for the other transport to read green?”

“No, get the ramp up and let’s go. They’ll catch up.” I say, pushing off the doorway. “We need to get the objective safely aboard the Justice as quickly as we can.”

As the ramp of the transport starts winching back up, I limp over to where Kwyn and Whisper are strapped in, sitting down next to Whisper. “How’s she doing?” I ask.

“She’s a trooper.” Whisper says. Kwyn’s got her eyes closed, and she’s able to hold the oxygen mask to her face without help. “We need to get that suit off her once we get back onto the Justice. The chestplate looks like she tried to chestbump a freight hauler. It’s probably making it hard for her to breathe, with how it’s been dented in.”

“Yeah, she ate a couple of direct kicks from Jackrabbit.” I say as the ramp door closes, and the cabin starts to pressurize as the transport’s thrusters roar to life. “Mercs are in orbit, they’ve got a battlecruiser duking it out with the Justice. Once we land, I’m going straight to the bridge and telling Markos to get us out of here once the second transport’s landed.”

Whisper raises an eyebrow at my suit as we lift off. “You’re walking all the way to the bridge in that? You barely managed to get to the transport.”

I look down at my battered, beaten, melt-damaged power armor. “…alright, I’ll take this off first. But after that, I’m heading straight to the bridge.” Letting my helm split and retract from my head, I hold a hand out to her.

Whisper rolls her eyes, reaching into her jacket and pulling out the orange sphere that we’d taken from the dig site. “You wanna tell me what that’s supposed to be?” she asks, planting it in my hand. “Or is that as super-secret as this mission was supposed to be?”

“I don’t know, actually.” I say, looking over the orange glow it casts on my armored fingers. “But I know it’s important. Especially if Jackrabbit was there to grab it.”

“It better be.” Whisper says, looking back to the cabin and the injured or dead laid out on the floor. “Some of our operatives died for it.”

“Yeah.” I agree softly, weighing the sphere in my hand.

Whatever it was we found, I hope it was worth the blood we spilled for it.

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

C.V. Justice: Bridge

11:11am SGT

Stepping out of the elevator, I march down the hall, the medic behind me scrambling to keep up. He’d been on me ever since I’d stepped out of my suit, tending to my shoulder where the railgun spike had punctured my armor and dug into my shoulder about half an inch.

“Sir—” he calls.

“I’ll be standing still again in thirty seconds, you can finish up then.” I say, both my shirt and my uniform jacket folded over my other arm. I’d taken the time to get out of my plugsuit, mostly so the medic could get at me. But until he finished up, I couldn’t put my shirt or my uniform jacket back on. Heading down the hall, I tap my bracelet to the pad next to the bridge door, which spirals open to let me in; it’s a hive of stationary activity in here, as it always is during a combat engagement.

“Another drone down, sir, but there’s still two under the shields and they’re going after our point-defense arrays.” the senior tacticom officer calls. “Working on bringing them down.”

“We’re through their shields, sir.” the junior tacticom officer calls over his shoulder. “Adjusting beam path. We’ll work on slagging their active cannons.”

“Perfect.” Markos says from where he’s still slouched in his chair, watching the engagement play out on the many screens across the room. “It’s been a while since I bullied another ship. I missed the feeling.” He sits up a little when he notices me walking up beside him. “Axiom. How did things go down there?”

“We got what we came here for. Break off and chart a jump back to HQ.” I order as the medic catches up with me, dabbing at the puncture wound in my shoulder.

“Did you now?” he says, raising an eyebrow. “Well that’s good. We’ll be two for two after we finish cutting apart this janky old battlecruiser they’re threatening us with.”

“We’re not staying to play target practice with them, Markos.” I say as the medic finishes swabbing heal gel into my wound. “Helm, bring us around. Navcom, start mapping a jump back to the CURSE HQ.”

“Oh, c’mon, Axiom.” Markos says, motioning to the screens around the bridge. “This is a prime opportunity to put a dent in the Dussel fleet. One less ship means it’ll be harder for them to defend themselves, to launch attacks, and harder for them to help the Challengers get around. Plus, we can take that back to CURSE's media office and they can put out a press release about it. Would boost morale and our cred and all that.”

“This is not up for discussion, Markos.” I say coldly. “We did not come here to hunt mercenaries or Challengers. We got what we came for, and it cost me four dead operatives, another two in critical condition, and another seven in various states of injury. Your ship medics will be able to handle some of it, but rest will need dedicated facilities. Break off this engagement and chart a course back to the HQ, or whatever world is closest that has a hospital with a tier one trauma center. Is that understood?”

He stares at me for a long moment, and I know he’s mulling around saying something sharp in return. But after that long moment, he looks away, shaking his head. “Fine. But only because the brief made it clear that you had absolute jurisdiction on this assignment. Helm, bring us around. Tacticom, break off, but keep the weapons online just in case the mercs get any funny ideas. Navcom, map us a jump back to HQ. See if there are any worlds with hospitals that meet his specs on the way there.”

“Thank you, Captain.” I say, turning to leave despite the protests of the medic that’s been tending me.

“Axiom?” Markos calls as I’m halfway to the bridge door.

“Yeah?” I say, turning to look at him.

He doesn’t return the favor, remaining facing towards the forward window. “I wouldn’t get used to giving a captain orders on his own ship.” Markos says. From where I’m standing, I can see that he’s picked up a stress ball out of the cupholder in the arm of his chair, and is pumping it with his fingers. “It’s usually a quick ticket to the brig under different circumstances.”

I soak that in for a moment. “I’ll keep that in mind.” I say, keeping it neutral. At the moment, it’s not worth picking a fight with him on his home turf. “If you need me, you know where I’ll be.”

With that, I turn and make my way off the bridge, eager to get back to the ship’s infirmary so I can check on Kwyn.