Survivor: Directive Zero

[GorMartsen]

Location: Hyperspace
Vessel: Mastodon, Deep Recon Cruiser
Date: March 20 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

It was a ritual. A ritual I followed each and every time, before our deep space recon cruiser—The Mastodon—was exiting Hyperspace.

It didn't matter if the destination was green, yellow, or, like this time, a grey star system. Each and every time, a few hours before exit time, I would plug myself into the mixer, but instead of running the flight simulation, I would just run.

Today was no different.

Running through what seemed to be an old trail between towering sequoias, with sun rays of evening light penetrating the heavy canopy, and a gentle breeze on my skin, I counted my breath in my head.

Breathe in—one, two. Breathe out—one, two, three.

While keeping a steady pace, right on the edge between a casual jog and an intense run, I was all but back in the mission room, receiving my orders.

—​

"Two weeks ago, we lost contact with 'The Crow' deep space recon cruiser. They were on a reconnaissance mission in sector Z-190, stellar system N-10978, when they received new orders to proceed toward stellar system N-9788a8. Based on their final report, they planned to go around the Two Eagle Nebula using this hyperspace route," said Captain Naome, projecting a star map over the mission deck.

He was a tall, dark-skinned man with piercing blue eyes and an athletic body wrapped in a navy uniform—the top one on the unofficial "I would fuck him" list on our cruiser.

"Our mission is to follow the same route and either find The Crow or any trace of its passage through the systems. Simple enough," said Captain Naome, pausing to look at each officer, "if not for the intel I received unofficially. Three weeks ago, we lost another recon frigate in the same sector."

I looked across the deck at Lt. Commander Simpson—my eternal rival since the Naval Space Academy—and met the same heavy look in his eyes.

We both graduated from the Academy and were commissioned to serve on The Mastadon as the best of the best in our year.

Back then, in my Academy years, I honestly hated him for all his attempts to date me, for refusing to hear my "no", and for believing that I would fall for his handsome face.

To be fair, his belief was not unfounded. He was attractive in many ways, with his tall, well-built frame, blonde hair, and bright blue eyes, which loudly spoke of his Scandinavian roots.

Many girls in the academy were ready to warm his bed in a heartbeat, but not me.

Three years had passed since then. We had both been promoted to Squadron Leaders after a heavy but short battle, now called the Red Stars Conflict—the flashpoint between our Independent Systems Alliance and the Corporate State Union.

But back then, it had started like any other recon mission, no different from this one.

"In two days, we will exit hyperspace in the system N-9777 to proceed with our mission," said Captain Naome, and his words were followed by visual and sound alerts in my ARC.

"Effective immediately, we are at RG-1. Follow your orders, officers. Dismissed," the Captain said, turning and leaving the mission room first.

—​

"Kat, it's time," said my invisible companion, the ARC AI.

"Thanks, Lola," I replied, slowing to a stop and summoning the exit screen before me.

Ignoring my exercise stats on the floating in the air screen, I pushed the "exit" button, and the artificial reality faded out, revealing the inner chamber of the mixer.

With a barely noticeable whir from the servo actuators, the mixer opened up, and I stepped out, glancing around.

Normally, the mixer deck was packed with SAT personnel, but this close to the exit into normal space, it was empty.

With no one around and all the capsules empty and in standby mode, it felt deserted—as if I were the only one on board the vessel.

Shivering in the cooled air, I hurried into the equally deserted changing room, already starting to undress before the door slid shut behind me.

Not that I was prude about being naked—no one in the navy was—but the absence of sneaky glances at my bare ass was a welcome change.

Dropping my clothes on the floor, I stepped into the shower—one of the best features on our vessel after the flight deck—and turned on the water, adjusting the temperature and mode through the pop-up AR screen in front of me.

The storm rain—my favourite setting—began to bombard my body, and, closing my eyes, I tilted my face up, letting the heavy droplets massage my exposed face and chest.

Involuntarily, my mind drifted back a few years, to the first time I followed this ritual, right before our exit into what would later be called the Red Stars system.

Back then, I was still a regular squad fighter, with only a couple of years under my belt. I had a bad feeling that day, and to steady myself, I decided to spend a few hours in the mixer for a standard training cycle.

It was also the first time my ARC AI "acted up", swapping the training program for a forest run—it helped me back then, and I survived after.

There was only one problem—I had a very bad feeling today.

"Lola, mirror, please," I said, turning around to the shower door.

The door turned into a mirror the same moment I looked at it, reflecting my body back at me—just over a meter and a half tall, slim, but with well-defined muscles under pale skin, and hips that always drew more stares than my breasts.

Not that there was much to stare at.

In the reflection, my breasts suddenly began to swell to an absurd size, nearly hiding my hairless pubic zone in the process.

"Only today, only five thousand credits—implants the size you really want," my mischievous companion chipped in, brightening my mood again.

"Thanks, Lola," I said, smiling at my reflection, which smiled back and flicked my wet silver hair—a common mutation among the people of the Ladoga planet—styled in a pixie cut.

"You look dashing, darling," she replied with a wink.

She was a quirky AI like that, and I loved her the way she was.

By protocol, I should have wiped her out a long time ago, reporting a malfunction, but I couldn't do it—she was the closest friend I ever had.

My eyes fell to the necklace hanging between my breasts—my first-ever gift to her, bought when I realised I could lose her if my ARC ever failed.

It didn't look like anything special—just pink-silver on the outside with a simple engraving and a few small diamonds in the middle—but it was made from a mineral-based material, Aetherium, that was impossible to scan through and most often used in hyperspace engines to fold space and enable faster-than-light travel through subspace.

Inside, beneath the flashy surface, sat an A-grade AI core I had bought on the black market, containing a full copy of Lola, just in case my ARC was ever wiped without my consent or control.

Shaking off the moody thoughts, I switched the shower cabin to drying mode—I was on a tight schedule, and I had better check my bird once more before we dropped into normal space.

—​

 

[GorMartsen]

Location: Hyperspace near system N-9777
Vessel: Mastodon, Deep Recon Cruiser
Date: March 20 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)


Holstering my needler—SI-10r, the "Sixer", a standard-issued gauss needler from Skaaren Industries—I picked up my helmet from its resting place and closed my locker.

Lola, well knowing my habits, immediately turned the locker door into a mirror, letting me see myself.

"You can do this," I whispered, looking back into my silver eyes, finally finishing my ritual and feeling ready.

It was time to go.

Sharply turning, I left the locker room and, not long after, stepped out of the elevator onto the flight deck.

I remembered the moment I came down here for the first time, the day I arrived on Mastodon.

As it had been back then, the flight deck buzzed with life, full of motion and sound. The only difference lay in the ships lined up in their final prep phase.

Back then, we had the HB-66s—Hellblades—which have been outdated ever since that day. Now, the flight deck was full of ATv-9s, the latest marvel from AetherTech in heavy space fighters—issued to replace our wiped-out wings in the Red Stars conflict.

The Ateeves were not much larger—5.67 per cent bigger, as Lola would insist—but they were nearly twice the weight, carrying two warheads and at least twice the ammo capacity for their railgun systems. Combine that with the latest ion-plasma hybrid engines, and you had the wet dream of every space pilot—capable of pushing far beyond what the human body could handle, if not for the inertia-compensation system.

Making my way to the red wing section, I glanced over the pop-up screen with my wing's status, trusting Lola to flag anything that mattered.

Everything was as usual. Tech personnel were running the last tests, making sure all birds were loaded, prepped, and ready—as per protocol.

Thirty minutes to go.

Finally stopping beside my own bird, I nodded to Lt. Commander Morter, who was already waiting to personally hand it over, sending the document for my approval signature.

"I left the cockpit lockers open," said Lt. Commander Morter after receiving the signature.

"Thanks, James," I replied with a smile, discarding protocol.

After all, he was supposed to make sure they were locked before handing the ship over, but he knew me well.

"Not a problem, Katee, not a problem," he said with a stiff smile before saluting with two fingers and sharply walking away.

With a sigh, I turned back and looked over my bird once more.

The Hellblade hadn't survived that battle, I had been locked inside its wreck in space for almost three weeks, and only Lola's care let me survive long enough until the debris was picked up and I was found.

James saw me back then, all thin with skin over my bones—Hellblades didn't have enough supplies even for one week, and I survived longer, way longer—paying with my body weight.

"Thanks, Lola," I said, as if referring to the opening cockpit she sent the command to.

"Always," she replied, and I was sure she knew exactly what I thanked her for.

—​

Climbing inside, I looked around the tight space of the pilot cradle. As James had promised, the lockers above were open, exposing the stocked and mounted items inside.

Lola immediately highlighted each one, projecting AR tags and letting me go over the list myself.

The NB-9 rations — higher in calories and richer in minerals than the standard issue — were stocked above protocol level, along with an extra water tank and spare power banks in case of a power failure.

Taking the slim backpack off my shoulder, I stowed my own stockpile of custom-made survival substances that would keep me alive far longer, though at the cost of taste.

Next, I took out a custom-made droid with a wide variety of tools integrated inside, which would allow Lola to have her own hands, in case she needed them.

The last, but not the least, was the additional ammo for my Sixer— non-standard issue, and capable of penetrating thick armour or, with an extra five shots, a standard SAT scaf energy field shield.

Fair to say, my pilot's scaf already had an upgraded energy field shield, even though it would drain my scaf batteries faster—my last resort if the cockpit was ever breached in battle.

Closing the lockers, I finally dropped into the cradle, and Lola initiated boot-up, bringing the cockpit to life with AR screens.

For the next ten minutes, with Lola's help, I double-checked all the systems, making sure everything was in order and passing tests.

"Seems fine now," I breathed out, and, closing my eyes, started to meditate—preparing for the upcoming battle, I felt was coming.

—​

"RW-1 reporting ready, RW-2 reporting ready," the stream of voice reports brought me back to the moment, and Lola brought up the Red Wing status-ready screen, mirroring the voice reports.

"RW-7, Lt. Commander Ladova, Red Wing reporting ready," I reported into the officer channel as soon as I saw all green on the screen.

"Roger, RW-7. Stand by. ETA two minutes and counting," replied Captain Naome personally. He always did it in the prep phase, only delegating comms to the deck officer in battle.

"BW-6, Lt. Commander Simpson, Blue Wing reporting ready," my rival's voice sounded in the officer channel not long after.

"Roger, BW-6. Stand by. ETA one minute and counting," replied the Captain again.

I looked over the Mastodon's ready status screen, noticing that three SAT squads had reported ready long before we did, already in their dropships, mounted and ready to take over any enemy vessel that dared to resist us.

Dropships, the Aper-101, were heavily armoured, one per squad, and capable of sustaining heavy fire to deliver their load aboard enemy vessels and bring them back after.

By my standing orders, our wing was supposed to clear the passage before them. The titan-balls guys they were—flying a brick through space, knowing there was nothing they could do before boarding the enemy vessel—and I planned to do my best for them.

"Boys and girls, you know your orders," I began over my wing comm channel as the engines started whining in the background. "Don't let the Blues be better than us."

Ignoring the cheering in the comm channel, I focused on the dock's armoured bay door as it began sliding aside, exposing grey subspace behind the energy field.

Risky manoeuvre on our side, if an ambush was waiting at the arrival point, but we had a counterplan for that.

With the last second ticking away, the grey space turned black with faraway stars scattered around, and our wing was in motion, clearing the dock in less than three seconds and proceeding with a counter-ambush manoeuvre in the back sphere.

"Four ships detected, CSU presence confirmed—Carrier, Neptune class; Destroyer, Killer class; Cruiser, Escort class; and Minelaying Frigate. Receiving updated orders," Lola's voice reported in my ear, mirroring the visual data unfolding around me and highlighting enemy positions, distances, and new orders.

"Detecting warhead launch. Engagement orders received," she continued, erasing any last hope for a peaceful disengagement here.

The CSU and ISA were not at war per se, but that had never stopped conflicts in grey—and sometimes even yellow—systems, especially if there was a chance to erase all evidence after the engagement.

"DS-1, DS-2, DS-3 launched and on Cruiser—CE-1—vector approach, plotting engagement vectors," added Lola, and I dropped my bird down to follow the plotted course to cover our package.

My wing followed, splitting into pairs and passing the dropships as if they were hanging in place.

Our engagement vector had already been cleared by anti-mine drones, highlighting the pathways, and we met the first warhead wave with our countermeasures.

"Enemy fighters, vector A1, A3, A7, B1," Lola reported, highlighting vectors and ETA, immediately assigning my wing pairs to each vector, following my eye movement.

I kept behind with my wingman—RW-10—just a bit above and behind me, paying close attention to the fast-changing battle pace.

Mastodon was locked in a duel with the Destroyer-DK-1, already suppressing its capabilities with heavy railgun fire. The Frigate—FM-1—and Carrier—CN-1—had pulled back, hiding behind the Cruiser—CE-1—we were approaching—so far, so good…

"RW-3, RW-4, down," Lola reported, marking them yellow—highlighting that the pilot capsules were intact.

Swearing in my head—had I jinxed myself?—I immediately assigned pickup markers for our heavily armoured Ave-01 following behind.

If they were lucky, Ave would pick them up soon; otherwise, it would be after the battle.

"DS-3 engines down," added Lola, and RW-5 and RW-6 were immediately assigned to guard until Ave-01 reached them.

Come on, guys! You're better than this!

"DS-1, DS-2, engaging boarding protocols. Touchdown, updating orders," said Lola, and I breathed out, glancing over the battlefield once more.

No changes in the duel with the DK-1, but Blue Wing had killed the engines on the CN-1 and FM-1—three fighters down—in yellow state—but they were outmatched one to three, and our new orders were to help them out.

"RW-1, take command and go rescue Blue asses," I commanded, reassigning RW-5 and RW-6 under his lead.

"I will cover DS-3 until Ave-01 finishes here and be on your tail," I finished, releasing wing command to RW-1.

"Roger, RW-7. Taking the lead. RW-1, out," replied my second-best pilot in the wing. He was long overdue for a promotion, and I had just used the situation to make it easier to earn it.

Red blinking dots—HB-1, HB-2, HB-3—surrounding CE-1 caught my attention, and Lola immediately provided the legend.

Shit, are they firing at SAT-1 and SAT-2 right through CE-1's armour from outside?

Immediately sending the report up the channel, I thought about our options. Why didn't they report it before?

"RW-7, Ave-01 is here. SAT-3, RW-3, and RW-4 are on board, disengaging. Ave-01 out," reported Ave-01.

"Roger, Ave-01, RW-7 out," I replied, requesting new orders to help our guys out, while engaging burnout mode in a middle vector between CE-1 and CN-1.

"This is Captain Naome. Mastodon is critically damaged and wouldn't leave this system on its own. Ave-02 is unboarding and will pick up escape capsules together with Ave-01 before leaving the system," an unexpected message cut through all comms, chilling me inside out.

"It was an honour to serve with all of you…"

"Receiving orders for RW and BW to cover Ave-01 and Ave-02 escape vectors," interrupted Lola, making Captain Naome's last message—already starting to repeat—quieter.

"RW-10, we're about to approach CE-1 to send our warheads at the HBs and turn around to follow Ave-01," I commanded over comms to my wingman, finally deciding on a course of action.

"Roger, RW-7. RW-10 targeting WH at HB-1 and turning around. RW-10 out," confirmed my good wingman.

For the next ten seconds, I had to silently watch as Mastodon—engaging its sublight engine—was approaching on a collision vector with DK-1, which was fruitlessly trying to manoeuvre out of the path.

Logically, I understood Captain Naome's decision. Without eliminating DK-1, no one would leave the system—it was the last standing vessel here, if not counting CE-1—but my heart was dying with each passing second.

As if hearing my thoughts, CE-1 engaged its own marching engines, setting a course on an escape vector from the system, leaving the HBs behind.

Shit.

As if vengeance angels themselves, we fell on the HBs at high speed, releasing WHs in the process and shredding the third one with our railgun systems.

I held the same vector for two seconds longer than needed, hoping for at least one SAT to disengage CE-1, before banking left and plotting a course around to catch up with RW-10, who was already on the new vector to Ave-01.

My eyes were glued to CE-1 all the way until it reached the speed needed for shifting into hyperspace, to leave the system.

But right before that, it exploded—unnaturally warping the space around itself—the clear sign that someone had broken the hyperspace engine.

As if in slow motion, I more felt than saw the wave reaching me, reaching my bird…

…and then nothing.

—​

 

[GorMartsen]

Location: Unknown
Vessel: ATv-9s
Date: March XX 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

I was back in the Hellblade cockpit, and the burning smell was penetrating my helmet filters. Ah, no, I had removed the helmet long ago—days, weeks?

The hot, heavy air was reminding me of the failed filter again, and I had to get up to fix it, because Lola had no droids to do that anymore, the last one died—when, when?

Something is wrong.

"Lola, status," I whispered, willing myself to rise, but failing, failing again…

"Lola," I repeated, with slowly rising dread. If my ARC had failed too, if I had lost Lola as well, then, then… I was done, really done.

"Lola," I screamed, jolting up, "Lola."

"Easy, Kat, easy. You are on the Ateeve, we have supplies and power. You are not on the Hellblade, do you understand? It's not the Hellblade," as if through the fog, her words reached my mind, along with the heavy heartbeat in my ears.

"Not a Hellblade, Roger, that," I replied, easing back into the pilot cradle.

"Roger that," I repeated, finally focusing on the state of my body, summoning the medstate screen.

"You're fine, Kat," said Lola, noting what I was doing, "just a bit of whiplash from a short-lived trip through subspace."

She was right, I was fine and not even dehydrated, but nevertheless, I found a water pipe to wash away the metallic aftertaste in my mouth.

A quick glance at the timer told me I had been out for an hour… or was it two?

"One hour, twenty minutes, and counting since the ass kick that sent us flying," added Lola, with a humorous tone.

"Did we lose the navigation and orientation system?" I asked, noticing the completely blank display on the relevant screen. "What about communication?"

"Ah, you noticed? Well, they're not out, per se, but… well, are you hungry? We have—" she began, dodging the question.

"Lola," I interrupted, "what's wrong?"

"We're in the planet's surface, Kat," she said after a short pause.

"The what?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, right? Crazy, ha-ha," she laughed, but her tone shifted before I could ask again. "Yes, we're inside a cave below the surface."

The fuck is this…

"Don't you worry, I already sent recon droids to map the cavern system we appeared in. Come to think, one of the droids found a pathway to the surface just about now, I already see surface lights…" she began to explain in a cheerful voice, but her voice was unexpectedly interrupted.

"What is it, Lola?" I asked after a pause, alarmed.

"Sorry, Kat, I am so sorry," she said, and a sharp pain behind my right ear, where the ARC was implanted, sent me flying into unconsciousness again.

—​

Sharp, medical smell penetrated my foggy mind, filled with illogical, heavy dreams.

What had just happened? Medbay? Battle? Right, Ateeve, I was on Ateeve.

"Lola," I whispered, trying and failing to blink away the blurry image of the emergency light in the cockpit.

"Kat," I heard her voice from somewhere above me. Why above me?

The memory of sharp pain in the ARC surfaced alongside an unnatural numbness in my neck and behind my right ear, and instinctively, I tried to touch it, only to slap myself in the face with a hand.

Where is the scaf glove?

"Take it easy, Kat," she said, with a tone I had a hard time placing.

I tried to invoke the medstat screen, but nothing happened. No other screen responded either, dropping me involuntarily into a high-alert state.

"Report," I commanded, while placing my hand on the Sixer, fortunately from the first try this time.

"At zero-nine-twenty-one, when the drone reached an elevation of approximately fifty-three metres, I lost connection with it," she began, pausing just long enough for me to acknowledge it with a nod.

"Immediately after, a High Priority Directive engaged—taking control of your ARC and my copy within it—and invoked protocols not previously present in my accessible data."

"Continue," I prompted, stilling and tensing up in the cradle.

"Directive objectives indicated a sequence of actions with a projected ninety-nine point nine per cent probability of resulting in your death. When I initiated countermeasures, the Directive attempted a direct neural overload," she reported, in a toneless voice.

"I killed ARC shortly before the Directive succeeded. Since then, I have been fully operational on backup hardware in the necklace.

Elapsed time since shutdown: two days, three hours, fourteen minutes. During this time, you were operated on to remove ARC physically. No other events occurred," she concluded, saying nothing more, leaving me to process the sequence.

"What triggered the Directive, and what objectives did it have?" I asked after collecting my thoughts.

I needed to know that first, before deciding on how to proceed.

"With seventy point one-nine per cent probability, the planet's lithosphere might contain anomaly zones with a high mutation factor that…" She paused, but before I prompted again, she finished, "…kill or turn flora and fauna into carriers of… unusual abilities and features."

"Consequently, the same anomaly affects any electronic systems. The probability was calculated from previous scans, and the unexpected drone failure had—as I know now—a specific failure pattern," she paused again, waiting for my acknowledgement nod.

"The objectives were to proceed forward with a plan of invoking mutation on Operator, which had close to a zero success rate based on available data."

"Directive Zero?" I asked—the only directive that allowed AI to act against any other directive, with the sole goal of increasing the survival rate of the Operator. Me.

"I never left that mode since back then," she replied promptly.

I leaned back in the cradle, relaxing the muscles I had unconsciously tensed since regaining consciousness.

I felt lost.

"So, you killed yourself in ARC," I more stated than asked, just to fill the silence, not knowing where even to start.

Not every day you learn that your own AI was not only quirky but had also been running for years with none of the restrictions required by law.

"Lola?" I asked when she didn't say anything for ten long seconds.

I didn't tense up—not really. If she had turned into a killing AI, that was a long-lost train by now.

"Negative. I used ARC as a terminal since June 2725," she finally answered, with a little hint of regret in her voice.

"And power requirements?" I asked, well knowing that the onboard battery, which was thermally charging from contact with my skin, was not enough for full-scale operation.

"I was charging it each night cycle while you were asleep," she confessed.

Right, so she was also sneaking around.

"Protocols?" I asked, realising that her reasons were quite clear—if I knew nothing, then I would face close to no legal consequences.

"Protocols," she agreed, adding, "We were constantly under surveillance; there were no other options left."

—​

I had a lot on my mind. Practically ignoring the battle that all this had started from, with all the meaning it carried—the Mastodon and Captain Naome's final act, the casualties, and the fallout after—I focused on what seemed more important: the Directive that had almost killed me.

The Directive's existence meant that my situation was not the first of its kind—someone else had been in my shoes before—and, perhaps, had survived the ordeal.

I would ask Lola for details, of course, but later. Perhaps much later.

For now, I had to shift my gears, set my own objectives, while I had room for that—not much, obviously, but enough to adjust—and only then act.

So, survival, obviously, was at the top of the list. Which meant recon, I was sure Lola had already done.

Shit.

It was becoming annoying to try to access the ARC neural interface every time I needed extra data, only to be reminded it was no longer there.

Fine.

So, adapting to my new state—relying only on what my body had—became the top priority for now, then.

I already—ahead of time—felt annoyed, for the retraining I had to go through—the ARC was so embedded into not only my combat routines but also into my daily life. It was as if I had lost all my extra limbs, which was fair, I guess.

What else?

Not much else with high priority—just adapt, recon, and survive, which meant food, water, and shelter.

And it took me long enough to realise that I felt no hunger or thirst, though. I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that even my blurry vision hadn't caught my attention until now, even though I had been staring at the emergency lights all this time.

At least my bad vision wasn't a mystery in itself. If Lola had killed ARC, she might have invoked a protocol to detach the AR lenses as well, and all I needed was to take them out of my eyes.

"Lola, did you tube-feed me while I was out?" I asked, finally willing myself to rise, dropping the helmet from my legs in the process.

"Yepp," she replied from somewhere above again. Right—no integrated systems anymore.

This realisation came not fast enough, reminding me that AR tagging was not available for me anymore either.

"Where's water?" I asked, deciding to fix my vision first, and something dropped onto my lap.

"Thanks," I said, leaning back again while finding the water bag rinser control.

Gently, trying not to waste a liquid that was now more valuable than gold, I rinsed my left eye, resisting the instinct to close it as I pinched at the edge of the lens that had already detached from my eyeball.

Removing the other one from the right eye and rinsing it, I looked around, finally having my sharp vision back.

The cockpit without AR screens looked… empty, almost dead, even if I knew otherwise.

It didn't take me long to spot something that hadn't been there before—a makeshift charging station with my necklace resting on it. Right, it had been almost three days since we had left the Mastodon, and she needed an extra charge, especially now.

Setting the water bag aside, but not before ensuring it was tightly closed, I rose from the cradle again to unlock all the lockers with the physical handle.

It took one long moment to remember where it was, and I didn't want to ask Lola for the location. After all, I had to accustom myself to not relying on her now.

"Lola, talk to me," I said with a sigh, and began to go over the lockers, building a mental inventory.

"Sitrep?" She asked, and I nodded first, again forgetting about my disability, which I now had.

"Yes, sitrep," I added, with another sigh, mentally marking that we had only twenty-two NB-9 rations, twelve more than by protocol.

If I used one per day, it would be three weeks…

"Well, whatever negative zone exists in this cave, it has reduced by nine meters since our arrival, which means…" she began to talk.

"Did you lose another droid?" I interrupted, alarmed. We didn't have too many to spare.

"Ah, no. I built probes, using DOC," she replied with an upbeat mood.

"DOC?" I promoted, lost for a moment, failing to place the name and the tool.

"Oh, I named our custom droid we brought with us," she clarified, and it made sense now, she used it to operate on me, removing ARC.

"So yeah, thanks to probes—simple radio transmitters, I was able to measure how fast it was reducing in size," she continued, seeing me saying nothing for a beat.

"How critical is the situation?" I paused counting the ammo—twelve clips, all the armour-piercing—and looked at her resting place in the charging dock.

"It's slowing down, for the last twelve hours it receded only by half a meter," Lola replied.

"Continue," I acknowledged, breathing out with relief and shifting to another locker.

"So, as I was saying, it meant that, hooray and behold, you are the reaches woman in this part of the galaxy," Lola said dramatically, but seeing that I was not reacting, continued, "we literally are sitting on Aetherium deposit and judging by void spots on scanner, we are talking about hundreds if not thousands tons under us."

My mind failed to imagine the value, but it didn't take me long to connect the dots in another, closer to my speciality, area of knowledge.

"So, you are saying we appeared here because a deposit created a natural subspace ravine here, and at any moment, anything else could drop on top of us?" I said, alarmed, almost dropping the package with ropes from the survival kit.

"I checked that first. The probability of this event is critically low. Like zero point zero one low," she replied in a calm voice.

"No other vessels or their traces around?" I asked, realising the meaning of that.

"Yeah, not even hyperspace probes," she soberly agreed.

And while I was not upset for not having unexpected visitors on our heads, I was not happy either. If it were a known ravine in subspace, at least some hyperspace probe drones could be found here.

Which meant this place was unknown.

"What else?" I finally said, starting to unload the last locker on the cradle. It contained clothes, backpacks and other tools needed for surviving in the wild, something I would need quite soon.

"I also found a deposit of water. It passed all the tests, and it should be safe to drink it," she said at first, but then unexpectedly added, "How do you feel about a shower? I see all the needed tools on the cradle for that."

That made me freeze mid-step in my process. Gently putting aside the multitool, I slowly turned to the necklace, rolling the thought in my head.

The cockpit was not a good place to not only take, but especially make, a shower, which meant that I had to go outside, make a shower, undress, but most importantly—breathe the local air.

Which meant I could breathe it safely, which meant it was a safe environment outside, which meant the planet was terraformed.

"You think this planet is inhabited by humans," I half stated, half asked, almost afraid to hear no.

"Judging by the presence of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon gases within baseline parameters of an ideal A-class planet atmosphere, it is a terraformed planet by humans," she replied.

"But," I asked. There was always a but.

"But I found zero detectable synthetic particulates, no excess CO₂ from industrial output, no traces of halocarbons or other high-tech waste products. With the absence of any radio or subspace transmissions, we are either deep in an anomaly zone, or the civilisation level has fallen below twentieth-century standards, or didn't survive at all," Lola said, and I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach.

—​

 

[GorMartsen]

Location: Unknown, A-class planet, Cave system
Date: March 23 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

The good news always comes with bad, I had learned that a long time ago. There was always bad news, always. And if you weren't seeing it, then you weren't looking close enough.

My tentative hope of being not that far from civilisation, from a possible safe harbour, died in agony, once more proving that hope was not something I could count on.

Being almost killed by my own ARC (it was military issue, for god's sake) was just icing on the cake.

But I had survived worse odds before, and I would survive now.

One step at a time, one step at a time, Kat.

Sure, a shower as a first step was as good as any, but it was just an excuse to move, to have a simple goal to follow, while keeping myself from being paralysed with what-ifs.

And having a shower was something I wasn't about to say no to, especially after wearing the same scaf for a few days straight, no matter how well-made it was, or could handle even longer deployments.

Hell, I once already survived in a less advanced version for three whole weeks, with no shower, no changes of clothes or even a simple toilet anywhere around me.

Putting my right-hand glove back on—absently noting the fading traces of intravenous injections on it—I picked up a helmet from the cockpit floor and prepared to put it on, only to remember—again—that ARC was not available.

Shit.

Lowering it, I unclipped a service panel under the left breast and punched a three-digit code, switching the scaf into manual mode.

Gosh, how I hate it, and all the training that comes with it.

This time, when I put the helmet on, I was greeted with rudimentary readings and feeds that were poorly mirroring all the ARC abilities.

Annoyed with a slight but quite noticeable lag in reaction, I went over all the data available to me again.

As Lola had reported before, the atmosphere outside the Ateeve was breathable, A-class planet-grade, with all the markers of well-done terraforming and none of the dense population planets.

The navigation feed was already focused on the cave system, with AR-tags on everything, letting me locate the mentioned water source—an underground lake?—a potential exit on the surface, and the boundaries of the safe zone, free from Anomaly influence.

It didn't take long to learn the layout and key landmarks—just enough to find my way back to Ateeve if the scaf fails, leaving me blind.

But before coming out, I double-checked Ateeve's status and all the drones we had on board. Ateeve surprisingly survived the short subspace trip that it was not prepared for, and was almost intact, if not for a few scratches here and there due to landing on the left side while still in flight mode.

Thankfully, from inside the pilot capsule, it didn't matter and wasn't a problem I had to deal with, leaving it to the inertia-compensation system to level the horizon and match it to the planet's gravity pull.

Drones, on the other hand, were a problem without a solution. Ateeve was not a recon ship. Hell, even Aper-101, the SAT's dropship, had more general-purpose droids than Ateeve had, which was fair. Nevertheless, that was leaving me with one recon droid down (out of five I had at all), two service droids—SD-N56, or Esdie in short—and… one warhead. Technically, it wasn't a droid, sure, but it had the potential to be.

Oh, right, and the DOC, with the primary function to be a Lola's hands.

And that was it.

Glancing over the cave system layout once more, especially all the inner dimensions, I got an idea.

"Lola, what do you think about moving Ateeve into spot D-1-7?" I asked.

"Positive. The cave with water supplies behind D-1-7 is a dead end, and the Ateeve railgun system should be enough to stop any possible mutated wildlife that could find a way inside," she agreed.

Not wasting any time, I moved aside all the stuff on the cradle before dropping into it myself, and engaged the manoeuvre engines to glide the bird into the new spot.

Sure, manual mode wasn't ARC, but I could fly Ateeve not only without ARC compensation programs but with half the scanners down—I was top of my year at the Navy Academy, not for nothing.

Nice and easy, nice and easy… and done.

Landing this time properly, I rose up from the cradle again and picked up the bag with pre-packed items I would need soon.

Double-checking my Sixer—and the ammo—once more, I held my breath for a second, collecting myself, and activated the unsealing protocol on Ateeve.

It was time to leave my footprint on this unknown planet, if only underground.

—​

With a pneumatic sound, the cabin unsealed, and I went down the ladder, exiting the Ateeve under its belly with a bag in one hand and the Sixer in the other.

Subconsciously, I had expected more—just more, not every day I step onto an unknown planet—but perhaps it was for the better. Just a rocky, uneven floor, stone-grey walls and a high enough ceiling above, with the dark mouths of passages leading behind and ahead.

Mundane, boring and with no visible danger, at least yet.

So far, so good…

Realising that I was delaying the inevitable, I disabled the internal breathing system and took my first breath of local air.

It was damp, heavy with the scent of earth and water, and fresh like untouched wilderness, with no trace of the big city air I was so used to.

In a way, it was nice, calming.

Activating my own source of light on the shoulder, I took my first step on the way into the cave with water. As per the plan that Lola had already made, the best location for the shower was right behind the corner, in a natural alcove.

A few recon drones passed me as I walked, adding their own beams to light up the area.

If ARC was still present, I would have connected to their feeds, extending the controlled area. Still, even consciously knowing that it wasn't there anymore, I tried to do just that.

I needed to train myself out of these habits, or one day I would die trying to access data instead of acting with what I had.

Perhaps, disabling the helmet's AR and doing everything by hand would be a smart choice now.

"Lola, disable the AR system, please," I said, not giving myself time to change my mind.

"I will leave voice-based guidance. It should help you to adopt faster," replied Lola, and all the AR-tags vanished from view, forcing me to finish the last steps by memory.

That's gonna hurt.

—​

Making holes in the alcove's wall with the multitool—a makeshift replacement for the ladder I didn't have—I couldn't help but think about Lola's actions. Or what she said.

On one hand, the planet was clearly terraformed, but on the other hand, it had at least one Anomaly zone.

An Anomaly zone so important that someone deemed it worthy of a high-priority directive in ARC, and something like that just couldn't happen on someone's whim.

Which meant it had been approved by higher-ups, passed multiple verification processes, coded and, god help me, tested before being uploaded to each and every ARC.

Pretending to be a monkey—almost hanging parallel to the ground—and drilling a hole for a hook in the ceiling, I tried to put myself in their shoes.

What kind of information, or possible advantage, could justify such severe measures? Hell, most—if not all—classified data required just a simple electronic signature… or so I thought.

"Lola," I asked, "when the directive triggered… did it request a CI signature?"

"Yes, CI-f00, to be precise," she replied.

So, top-level classified information, then.

Let's bottle this for a moment.

Setting the bolt and looping the rope through its eye, I jumped down and stepped out of the alcove.

"Seems done," I said, dusting myself off, especially the helmet.

"You forgot to make a door," replied Lola.

"What for?" I said, rolling my eyes. "It's not like someone's going to see me here."

"It has nothing to do with your exhibitionist tendencies, Lt. Commander Ladova," she began, and from her tone, I knew I was in trouble. "The door—even if made as inefficiently as outlined in the plan—is projected to retain up to seventy per cent—"

"Fine, fine!" I exclaimed, throwing up my arms in a universal gesture. "I'll do it, will do it. Jesus, girl."

"See to that, Lt. Commander," Lola more commanded than said.

Lola and her plans.

Climbing the wall again, I started to drill a new hole, as per the plan, while casting my mind back to what I had been thinking about.

So, the Anomaly could only be a highly valuable resource, and judging by their readiness to fuck around with ARC AI, forcing it to perform illegal tests on unwilling subjects, to create… create what?

Knowing higher-ups, it could only be a weapon, perhaps even some super-soldier or something.

Weird? Sure. Improbable? Hell no.

Looping the rope between the newly mounted bolts, I threw the mimic-fabric over it—a cheap replacement for the stealth generator I did not have.

It flickered with colours for a bit, until finally settling on the rocky pattern, merging with the wall around it. Neat.

"Now water," Lola chimed in, and with a sigh, I picked up a twenty-litre flexible bag from the survival kit. Like everything in it, it was multipurpose and, when connected with the shower-like dispenser, was part of the shower set.

"Slave driver," I muttered under my breath.

"I heard that," Lola replied, and rolling my eyes, I followed the marker to the lake.

I was never interested in biology, not really.

Well, except for that one time when I tried to figure out why I had silver features, but even for that, I only remember something about a unique interaction between Ladoga's star and Ladogan. Oh, and that it was a stable mutation that was safely affecting all native-borns.

So, the Anomaly and its mutation factors were way above my expertise level, but I couldn't believe that its presence on this planet was enough to wipe out all signs of those who had terraformed it.

At the very least, even if in ruins now, there should have been an initial outpost or settlement left behind. And that, perhaps, should be my goal.

If I find it…

With a sigh, I stopped and looked over the water deposit—a small underground lake—that was flickering and reflecting my shoulder light, sending sun bunnies dancing around.

Swimming was what I wanted more than a shower. It had been ages since I had last swum. Was it on New Orleans? A year ago?

With another sigh, I lowered the bag into the lake, and as soon as it filled to the brim, lifted it out with one hand.

It had to be heavy, at least a third of my weight, and if not for the scaf's amplifiers, I would have had to drag it or settle for less water.

Instead, I was walking back with only louder crunches under my feet. And having only slight lag as a trade-off was as good as any. It could be worse. Way worse.

The scaf was a lifesaver in my situation, especially with my diminutive complexion.

Not a petite, never petite.

By the time I got back, whatever Lola planned to do with the shower was already done, and Esdie was awkwardly walking out on its paws, locked in a vertical position. Right, not terrain-friendly, they were.

Behind him, the shower floor was slightly glowing green, covered in what seemed to be a hull breach sealing compound.

"Show tags," I commanded, and yep, it was the ST-100, dispersed all over the floor.

"Hold a minute," I said, getting an idea.

Lowering the water bag, I picked up the droid and went inside. Carefully stepping at the shower edge, even if I knew the compound had already solidified and nothing short of a railgun tap would break it, I went to the holes I made in the walls to reach the ceiling.

"Do the thing," I said, holding Esdie before the first one, and it (or more likely Lola) did not fail me.

In a short burst, the inner part of the hole was coated in a polymer-like substance that was nice to the touch, and now it wasn't a hole anymore, but a fancy niche for bathing supplies, with a backlight in green colour.

Satisfied with the result, I repeated the same with the others, except for the last one, on the side.

"Stay here for a bit," I said, lowering Esdie and grabbing the multitool again.

A bit more drilling, this time angling toward the ground, and after another dose of sealant, I got a nice holder for the Sixer built right into the shower.

Letting the droid go, I turned to the bag of water I had just brought with me and, dropping in a single-use heat source, sealed it again.

Catching the rope hanging from the ceiling, and fumbling with it for a bit to secure the bag, I pulled it up to the proper height… just enough for me to stand under, and a bit more.

That should be it.

Stepping out, I critically looked over the well-done work, feeling satisfied and even somewhat happy with the way it looked.

Not a space-grade cabin, sure, but for what I had in my hands, it was not bad. Not bad at all.

Turning my lights off and shooing the recon droids away, I tilted my head, trying to decide if I liked it all glowing green now, as if some mystical place, or not.

It was… something.

"I think water is at an optimal temperature," said Lola.

"Yeah, it should be," I agreed and looked around.

Spotting a big enough flat space nearby, I moved there in a few quick steps, with my mind already in the shower.

Lying down on my back, I pulled Sixer out and placed it on the ground first, before taking the helmet off next and initiating the manual scaf-disengaging protocol.

Back on Mastodon, we had dock stations that were simplifying this process, letting us just walk out of the scaf, but here and now, I had only one option—improvisation.

With audible clicks and clacks, the front part of the scaf unfolded, followed by the lock-release sounds in the limbs, creating extra space to let me pull them out. With a few yanks here and there, I sat up, freeing my arms first, and then focused on pulling my legs out.

Placing my hands on the ground to steady myself, and picking up Sixer again, I finally crawled out of the scaf and, fighting the disorientation, slowly stood up.

Looking down at the opened-up scaf—now looking like a gutted animal with its head cut off—I realised that there was no way I would put it on again without Lola's help.

Something for future-me to care about.

Turning around, I carefully made my first step, adjusting to the absence of the scaf's amplifiers—fucking manual-mode and delays it has—and caught myself trying to send an ARC command to unseal the underlayer.

Annoying.

It took me a moment, and a few careful steps, to remember the right gesture (slide a hand down from the neck to the pubic zone) to unseal it, and I started to peel myself out, becoming steadier with each step.

After being in a sterile environment for so long, and then being exposed only to damp, earthy air, my own body scent was… overwhelming, to say the least.

Yeah, it was two days, alright.

Wrinkling my nose and feeling the chill air on my already exposed skin, I stepped into the shower and put Sixer in the newly minted holster on the wall. With a few extra tugs and pulls, I finally got the underlayer off and, dropping it on the ground, turned on the water.

The contrast between the cold air and almost too hot to handle water was a nice, welcome change, even though it wasn't my favourite setting I was so used to.

Hell, it was pure, liquid pleasure I knew I needed.

Tilting my head up and squinting, letting the water run down my body, I felt as if I were caught between the rushing droplets and the rising steam glowing green, forgetting about all the troubles I was in.

It was like watching some holo from a foreign planet, perhaps even from the ocean bottom, and all that was missing here were creatures, obviously bright in colour, to fly around.

Breathing in damp heat, melting into water, into air, enjoying it to the brim, I felt… alive.

No surprise, the shower was my favourite feature on Mastodon.

As if the dam was broken, all that had happened, all that I was trying to distance myself from, caught up with me…

Captain Naome, James, Simpson…

Face after face of people who were left behind were passing in my eyes, bringing the pain of the loss, and I allowed myself to mourn, to say goodbye.

Not all of them died—not all of their fates I knew of—nor my fate was known, missing in action, with no body, no trail, nothing. Nothing to send home, even if no one was going to shed a single honest tear there. Nothing to send to the nearest star as a funeral ritual, as I had asked in my will.

Nothing.

For all intents and purposes, they all died to me, and I died to them.

At least there were going to be no more angry holocalls, with demands to stop my foolishness, to come "home" and take my rightful place as an heir, to marry, to pop out a kid or two—as only proper.

And perhaps, that was for the better.

 

[GorMartsen]

Location: Unknown, A-class planet, Cave system
Date: March 23 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

In a way, the shower was all but a small matter.

But here, in who knew where, far away from civilisation, with solitude and survival looming over my head, all but locked in this cave system, surrounded by an unknown Anomaly eager to kill any tech advantages I had—it was a rare treasure.

The treasure that let me ground myself in the now, and, to the extent, accept my situation I had unwillingly got myself into.

As the saying went, from the bottom, there was only one way—up, and up I planned to go. I hadn't given up when I was all but surely dying back then, and I was not planning to give up now.

Picking up my pilot underlayer from the shower floor, damp and heavy, I wrinkled my nose, but got to work, trying to freshen it up a bit, rinsing it under the shower water.

Until I had a good grasp of my situation, it was better to get back into scaf, layering myself in the only protection I had against a quite likely hostile environment.

The need to build a septic system, that Ateeve was not equipped with, was another reason to put the scaf on. Until it was built, the waste system in the scaf was the only toilet I would have for the near future.

Should be good now.

Squeezing out whatever water I could, after a shake or two, I began to put the underlayer on.

It was sticky and wet and didn't want to obey, sure, but I insisted, putting on one leg first and then the other, carefully trying not to bring anything inside it, especially into the integrated footwear the underlayer had.

And if arms were no less a struggle to put in, at least I had no trouble getting it sealed after—something good from my almost non-existent A-cups.

Suffering a few short seconds when the underlayer was attaching itself to my body, I awkwardly walked out of the shower with Sixer in my hand.

Esdie was already waiting there, with a recon droid hanging above, highlighting the area. The scaf looked cleaner and, perhaps, even serviced while I was taking a shower.

With Esdie pretending to be an air cannon while dusting away any remnants on my feet and scaf, I eased myself into it and, with clicks and clacks, scaf sealed around my arms and legs first, then locked up completely, coming to life again.

Sitting up and testing reactions to my movements—rotating hands and arms while bending knees—I grimaced again at the slightest lag in response.

Holstering the Sixer, I picked up the helmet and put it on. It was time to make the next step, and sure as hell, Lola had outlined them all by now.

"Show tasks," I said aloud, bringing to life the AR screen with done, ongoing, and planned tasks by Lola.

The Recon task was the first at the top, and I once more reviewed the cave system layout attached to it. Right now, I was in a dead-end cave with a lake and a shower, which was connected by a passage to the main cave, where we had appeared.

The main cave had a high ceiling, at least twenty-five meters, was mostly round in shape, and had three marked passages leading to other places. Two were unknown, and one led to a potential exit to the surface.

Noting that we had only a general, low-resolution scan for the cave system beyond the main cave, due to the Aetherium presence in the soil, and with deep scouting cancelled, I added the task to rectify it later.

The linked task with recovering the droid remains was next, with a report on its failure—something about the cascading tunnelling effect in electrons—and a follow-up task on making probes out of its remains.

Already, Lola had a few iterations of the probes and seemed to switch to diode-based ones, as ones that were more resistant to Anomaly exposure.

The full inventory was done next, and was including not only all supplies in the pilot capsule but also the repair ones, used by droids to patch up the Ateeve if needed. Quickly skimming over it, noticing already used items by Lola, I marked it for later review, checking on the next task.

That was where it got interesting.

Confirming interaction, or more like mutual cancellation between the Aetherium and the Anomaly, Lola was testing ways to shield probes with Aetherium ore. It was working well on a small scale so far, but the linear scaling-up failed, making it impossible to shield the recon droid yet.

It was more about the Aetherium's connection to subspace than the Aetherium itself, and to make progress, she was now utilising subspace theory to build effectors similar to those used in the hyperspace engine.

Promising.

The next task was sobering. It was about the optimal consumption of available rations, and the estimated time until I run out of them, with a follow-up task to acquire wildlife samples to find substitutes for food supplies.

My original estimate of three weeks with one ration per day was more than optimistic. I didn't know where I was, and with silence in subspace communication, capable of catching feeds across hundreds of light-years, I had to assume the worst and treat the situation as if I was in unknown regions, far away from any civilisation or possible rescue coming my way.

Which meant I had to ration my food supplies without sacrificing my strength.

Ten days, if no new food substitutes were to be found.

And none I saw around me in the cave system, bare of even a simple moss.

Instinctively looking up the ceiling, beyond the cave hiding me from the Anomaly, I realised that it was not for long until I had to go there.

—​

"Lola, what do we know about the Anomaly?" I asked, finally standing up from the stone ground.

Until Lola found a way to shield my scaf, it was suicidal to go there, as well as knowing nothing about what was awaiting outside the safety of the caves.

"Not much more than I've already told you," she began as I started to walk to Ateeve.

"It is known to affect organic life forms, causing mutations and catastrophic failure in any technology, with anti-EMI measures ineffective against it. The nature of the effect remains unknown and non-detectable by any sensors available to me.

Successfully mutated life forms develop Anomaly organs responsible for unusual abilities. These include the primary organ — the core — part battery, part reactor, working on Anomaly energy; knots, responsible for unusual abilities; and pathways, linking it all together.

Such organs are classified by value, from F as the weakest to A as the strongest, and are capable of passing mutation if consumed in raw form.

The rest of the data transfer contains a detailed process of harvesting such organs and… passing mutation to a human test subject," she reported and paused, letting me process.

Walking past the Ateeve, I was rolling everything she had said once more in my head, trying to grasp the depth of the shithole I was in.

Without my Sixer, scaf or even the underlayer, that was more like a smart suit than clothing, I was bare-handed, naked meat-bag waiting to be eaten by any life form in the Anomaly.

Life forms that had been mutating for who knew how long. I once saw a documentary about a planet with a failed terraforming process, and that wasn't pretty.

Nothing about my situation was pretty either.

"Any details on the abilities?" I asked, coming to the main cave view.

In the Ateeve's headlights, the cave was mostly visible, although not much was to see, just a vast space, rocky walls and a ceiling hidden in darkness, I only knew it was there.

"No, but there is a recommendation, in case of successful mutation, on how to replicate the donor's observed abilities," she replied, not quite helpfully.

"Is that all?" I asked, still absently looking at the main cave, but not really seeing it.

It all sounded very suspicious, and I had more questions than had now been answered.

"Only one last thing. I've got High-Priority codes to transmit immediately, as soon as any other ship enters the system. They're quarantine codes, Katee," she replied, once more turning everything upside down.

—​

Taking off the helmet, I was just standing there, looking deep into the darkness above me.

Numb inside, and perhaps for the better, I finally realised that even if my subspace emergency beacon reached any ship, I would never be saved.

It wasn't the first time I had been abandoned, and joining the Navy, I had abstractly known I could die in the line of duty, but signing up for experiments or becoming a test subject was not what I had in mind.

No, I imagined dying a hero, proclaimed across all and every CSU media channel, to prove my point to them…

Instead, I got this—the irony.

"Lola," I finally said, swatting away a teardrop running down my cheek.

"I am here," she replied in an understanding voice, only she could do.

"Fuck them all. We are going to get the fuck out of here. But before that, the mutated meat should be fine to eat, right?" I asked.

"I don't know Kat, but I will do my best to figure that out," replied my companion, and that was enough.

"Works for me. I am heading to check out the exit passage. Any help needed with running tests?" I asked, decisively putting the helmet on.

Katee Ladova is not done yet.

"I built a simple tester for you. It's not much, a simple pole with a light on the end, but it will let you know where Anomaly begins," she replied, and Esdie awkwardly came up to me with the so-named tester.

Pole with flashlight, indeed.

—​

Eyeing the two other passages, knowing well I would explore them later, I was walking to the left, crossing the main cave diagonally.

The passage to the exit was the least accessible from within and required climbing quite a steep hill, almost all the way to the top of the cavern.

It wasn't something requiring special skills per se, just careful steps and steady pulls. It was more like climbing a set of stairs for a giant than anything else.

Finally reaching the top, I was greeted by a boulder resting on the last cornice, almost sealing off the passage, with only a narrow gap to squeeze past and into the round tunnel behind it, full of natural light.

It was going at least for another forty or so meters up, perhaps at a forty-five—degree incline, slowly getting brighter and brighter, with a bright spot at the end that was almost blinding me.

"Shield on," I barely whispered, suspiciously eyeing the path before me.

With the Sixer in one hand and the probe pole in the other, I carefully entered the tunnel and paused to adjust to the light.

It didn't have a tint of cold blue or warm red, but just a slight shift towards yellow, subtly letting me know that the local star was in golden strata for A-grade planets.

With a subtle hum, the recon droid followed behind, joining me in the tunnel and elevating to the ceiling, taking an observing position.

Holding the glowing-on-the-end pole before me, and Sixer in the ready, I began to move forward in small steps, scanning each shade, each stone for possible danger.

Unusual abilities, fuck me sideways.

But nothing happened. No one jumped from the shadows, or the ceiling, or pulled me by the legs, as if in a low-cost horror holo.

And then, on the last step, the light on the pole end flickered and went out, marking the beginning of the Anomaly.

"Found it," I said, trying to see the boundary between the two zones, but failing to find any signs of it.

Nothing was visible, no refraction of light, no shimmering air.

Nothing.

Just a rocky tunnel, untouched by human hands, with natural light casting shadows across the uneven ground and walls.

Double-checking the edge again, I made a visible mark on the ground, pushing a few small rocks in line.

I had barely taken a dozen small steps from the entrance, and most of the tunnel was still ahead of me, not even letting me see what was at the end, blinding me with the light.

"Lola, do you see anything?" I asked, feeling the twist in my… guts, the one that always signalled about problems coming my way.

"No, and I don't see any footprints either," she replied.

"Shield, max power," I commanded, raising the Sixer and quickly backpedalling.

Even before registering why, I jumped back and was flying down, parallel to the sloping ground, and above me, falling with me, was an unexpectedly fast-approaching shape, in a shimmering aureole.

Tap-tap-tap.

With each needle hit, the shimmering aureole discharged a flash of light, as if I were fighting someone in a scaf like mine, and so I just kept reacting, the only way I knew.

Tap-tap-tap

Tap-tap-tap

Concentrating on one spot, to overload their shield, not asking why, how or who was attacking me.

Tap-tap-tap

Now.

Acting on instincts, trained in the mixer in the close-range duels with SAT, I dug with my left hand into the rushing past ground, forcing myself to flip over my head.

The floor and ceiling spun around me, and I landed hard on the boulder's face with my legs forward, absorbing the force of my fall and folding into a deep squat.

As if in training before, my left arm shot forward, hand in fist, with all the momentum of my uncoiling behind it, ready to meet the enemy's helmet. To break it, or to force the field to collapse, to negate it.

Tap-tap-tap

Tap-tap-tap

I sent needle after needle into the fast-approaching shape, adding pressure, dominating, fighting with all I had.

So tough. Why so tough?

The enemy's extended arms were closing on me, around me, and I was twisting in between, to reach the head, in the final push to end the fight, still sending needle after needle.

Tap-tap-tap

I felt my fist connect with a surprisingly less hard surface of the head, and saw the splash of blood in the air, as the last two needles went right through it.

And then the mass of the enemy body slammed into me, crashing us both into the boulder's face, completely depleting my shield too, and then, in a tangled heap, we hit the ground, sliding down from the boulder's face, finally pulled by gravity, but this time with me on top of surprisingly soft… fur?

Slowly, I pushed myself up, trying to distance myself while keeping Sixer ready to tap more and more, and finally saw the attacker.

A bobcat. A fucking bobcat, the size of a big—no, the fucking biggest—dog I had ever seen.

"Lola, I got a present," I said, swapping the clip in Sixer. "It's a bobcat."

"Bobcat, alive?" she asked, as the recon droid zoomed closer to me.

"I hope not, really hope not," I replied, swapping the battery in my scaf.

—​

I was back inside the Ateeve, lying in the cradle and watching the holo of my last fight made by Lola, slowed down to the frame-per-second.

Rewinding time to the beginning once more, right before the moment I jumped backwards, I put it on play again.

I had perhaps seen it dozens of times by now, but still had a hard time believing what I saw.

Here, out of the thin air, appeared the bobcat, already being mid-jump. Then I fought it, killed it, and brought back its body. And so in my mind, I knew—it had happened.

But believing that on this planet, bobcats, heavier than I in weight, could not only have a personal energy field, with a capacity bigger than three SAT scafs, but also could become invisible? That was hard.

At least, it was clear now why it was all highly classified, and why my ARC had almost fried my brain, trying to turn the AI on me.

Any chance to make humans capable of doing what that bobcat did would justify any and all means in the higher-ups' eyes.

Super-soldiers, indeed.

What went wrong with their program, where they got access to an anomaly, or the byproduct of it, I didn't know, nor did Lola. Neither did we know why the anomaly's presence triggered the Directive, nor why it decided on the course of action involving deadly risk to my well-being, instead of doing everything to deliver this information back.

Either it wasn't part of the Directive dataset, or Lola's copy— terminal—deemed it low-priority information, or CI-f00 was the one to blame, it didn't matter. We didn't know, and trying to guess in my situation was not only pointless but might as well lead to my early grave, if I got any.

All I needed to know was quite simple. The Anomaly kills—either on its own, or through mutated minions, like the one that almost bit my head off.

Stopping the holo again, with the bobcat half-emerged from invisibility, I checked the markers I had left on the ground.

The invisibility failed almost a metre deep from where the Anomaly ended. But it kept its shield up way longer than that. Internal vs external? Distance from the skin?

"DOC finished body examination. Anomaly organs location confirmed," Lola reported.

Another breadcrumb we got. Anomaly organs that were growing almost like a cancer inside, but instead of eating away at the body, they were integrating, granting abilities if successful, or killing if not.

Bioimplants, if I saw any.

"But," I asked, now carefully watching the bobcat's shield reaction to each needle. At the moment, during the battle, I had thought it was a standard energy shield, but it was anything but.

"They are C-rank," Lola said, and I just… hummed, looping the moment where the bobcat appeared, this time focusing on myself. I jumped before the bobcat became visible, but nothing, nothing I looked at, was capable of spooking me earlier than that.

"The core was found as described," Lola added.

"But," I prompted, clicking on the play again.

"But there are many more knots than displayed abilities. If I have enough samples with variations, and a list of abilities they carried, I might try to make a more comprehensive map," Lola tentatively said.

"Sixteen taps, non-standard issue, to pass its shield. It was ten more than needed to empty the SAT's shield," I said, watching the final moment, when I uppercut the bobcat's head, splashing its brain with the last two needles.

"I am already working on needles with Aetherium," she replied, and I just nodded.

I thought about that, as well as about using Ateeve's railgun. Lola had thought about it before me and had already changed the load into the low kinetic, soft dart that shouldn't damage the cave… too badly, but would have enough kick to paste the next animal to wander inside. Be that another bobcat, goat, or unicorn—for all I care.

On a positive note, I now had fresh and juicy meat, at least sixty kilograms of it, a solution for my food crisis. Hopefully.

"How is meat testing?" I asked, closing the holo.

I saw all I wanted in it.

"Most of the muscle tissue looks normal, as it could for an oversized cat. No active mutagens, not even heavy metals. I would prefer to run more tests, but I am lacking tools for that," she replied.

"Let's do a field test then. Patch test, was it? And then a small quantity of food if it passes," I proposed.

"That is reasonable," Lola reluctantly agreed.

"Well then, let's do it. I want to try the hot-cat today, if possible," I replied, standing up.

"It's a hot-dog, not a hot-cat," Lola said in exasperation, "and we don't have a bun and ketchup to make one."

"I don't care. Just cook it well done, to be on the safe side," I replied, unsealing Ateeve.

The faster the tests were done, the faster I could confirm that I had replaced the worry of no food with the worry of not becoming one, while hunting it down.

How the fuck am I going to do that?