Returning to the shuttle with a new slave in tow caused a
bit of a stir with the girls, but I simply shrugged, and told them that she was
the ‘Hidden’ reward from the original notice on the job board, so there wasn’t
anything for it. Plus, it would be good to have a backup pilot and mechanic in
case either Shearah or I get hurt. Or we have to do things in two places at the
same time.
I left the Stepford protocols on, to keep Nyna compliant
until we could get back to the Raven and I figured out what to do with her on a
more permanent basis. I didn’t want her coming up with a two-bit escape attempt
while we were chasing the missing harvester and whatever else we might find out
here. Sure, I’d respawn from a backstabbing slave killing me, but if whatever
she pulled took out some of the others, they were done.
Now we were flying over the desert, heading for the last
known coordinates of the missing harvester. Honestly, I didn’t know what to
expect from this. The best reasonable outcome was that we’d find a derelict,
probably destroyed harvester, and have to repair the radio to communicate to
the owners. The crew was probably long dead by now, or ran off (especially if
they were slaves). It had been almost two days since the harvester went silent,
and we were the first ones who could get out to see what had happened.
We were flying low over a rocky area about 10 kilometers
from the last known location of the Harvester, when Raven called out. “Captain,
I think we have them.” She pulled up an image from the rear cameras in our HUDs,
and we saw the Harvester, tucked under an outcropping that almost completely
shielded it from prying eyes. There were also a couple points of light in what
looked like a natural cavern behind it. “I think we may have found a raider
base.”
I didn’t slow down to take a look. “Mark it on our maps,
Raven. If there’s anyone alive down there, they’ll have definitely heard us
passing so close overhead, even if their sensors can’t see us. We’ll set down
out of sight, and then walk back.”
“And what about the shuttle?”
“Fortunately, we have a new, very loyal pilot who can stay
behind.” Eyes turned to Nyna, before I continued, “We’ll wait until we’re out
of sight, and then come around slow. Nyna will stay in the shuttle, ready to
come when we issue the order. Carissa, you’ll be with her, as an extra set of
eyes, and to help on the weapons if they’re needed. I know you haven’t done
that before, but I need Jaynie and Cali with me, where most of the fighting
will be.”
Carissa nodded. She was the weakest of the girls in terms of
actual combat, and she knew it. And it was good to have a second person on the
shuttle, just in case Nyna somehow managed to overcome the Stepford protocols
and do something stupid. It was a big, hot desert, and I didn’t feel like
getting left in the sun.
We set down at the edge of the rocky area, on the far side
from the cavern where we had caught a glimpse of the harvester. Honestly, if we
hadn’t been flying low on this exact trajectory, it is doubtful that we would
have spotted the thing. Even still, the only reason we caught it was because
Raven was here, and reviewing the sensor data with AI speed.
It was only a little after our landing when we came across
the first sentry. As the one with the best stealth skills in the party, I was
leading the way. I doubted I could have hid from a trained Freemen scout, but I
wasn’t dealing with a Freemen scout. I wasn’t dealing with a Freeman at all, as
his stilsuit was clearly of ‘city’ make, rather than ‘desert’ make. It was an
inferior model, but invested more in things offworlders liked, such as armor.
All the body armor in the world doesn’t do you any good if
it doesn’t keep you from getting your throat slit in the night. And between
Widowmaker’s Bladeshimmer effect and the ability it got when I hit level 20,
the poor bastard never even got a chance to call for help.
Widowmaker
|
|||
Type
|
Dagger
|
Rank
|
Unique – Scaling
|
Damage
|
20 – 40
|
Damage Type
|
Piercing/Slashing
|
This dagger is made of a rare Gycep
Blood Crystal. When bonded with a wielder by tasting their blood with an
infusion of their Psy, the dagger allows the wielder to channel their Psy
through the dagger, causing it to grow in power as they do. Blood Daggers are
each unique, and can carry unusual powers. The wielder does not choose what
powers the dagger develops, but the way they use the dagger may influence the
dagger’s development.
+20 STR, +20 DEX, +20 CHA
Bladeshimmer – 100 PP. This Weapon
ignores all armor and defense for 5 seconds.
Silent Death – Sneak Attacks cause the
victim to be Silenced for 5 seconds.
Scaling
– This is a scaling item. Item improves with character level. Gains abilities
every 10 character levels.
Soulbound
– This item is soulbound to you. It cannot be stolen, traded, or lost while
you live. If you die, there is a 10% chance the item will lose its binding
may be looted from you.
|
|||
“Sentry neutralized.
We’re in the right place. Everyone keep low, and keep quiet. There might be an
entrance near here.” I hadn’t really had any use for the telepathic
benefits of the Torc of Dominion, but I’d marked all my older slaves anyway so
that I could communicate with them telepathically, if I needed to. But for the
moment, I was sticking with subvocalizing into our comms, so I could talk to
everyone. I hadn’t marked the Princess or Jaynie, since they were free people,
and despite getting Raven’s consent for the experiment, it seemed that it was
impossible to mark an AI with the Torc’s power. So if I wanted team comms, I
needed to use the comms.
We were wraiths against the rocks as we moved out, quietly looking
for more sentries, or an entrance to the caverns beneath the rock. Three more
sentries were found, and neutralized, and we still hadn’t found the concealed
entrance that must be somewhere in the middle of the four. Whoever had designed
this place had clearly not wanted to have unexpected visitors, and had done a
good job hiding the front door.
I was about to give up on finding the entrance, and just
move directly to the Harvester, when a piece of rock moved in front of me! Ok,
so it turned out to not be simple rock, but a camouflage curtain that blended
in well enough that in the darkness I could not tell the difference. The simple
ways are the best, after all. No one has the patience to go searching for
things under the desert sun, when the curtain could be seen for what it was
from the ground, and at night the curtain was the same temperature and color as
the surrounding rock, making it hard to spot.
Very tricky. I was again reminded that, if we hadn’t managed
to spot the Harvester in the dying light, we would have already failed this
quest, or at least been far behind where we were now. It was good to have luck
and a sentient AI on your side.
Desert Raider
Human Male
Level 20
Titles: Thug, Scout
|
As for why the curtain was now moving? Well, that would be
one of the raiders coming out to check on his buddies. He’d already seen me,
since I was literally standing right in front of him as he came out of the
hidden entrance, so a stealth kill was out of the question. As the startled man
moved to bring up his rifle, I hit him with a Charm Person power. The way the
man suddenly stilled made me breathe easier. Yes, I was specialized in mental
Psy powers, but the risks when they failed were pretty high.
After confirming that there were no others coming out the
passage behind him, the girls gathered around me and my new best friend
(temporary), and I did a bare bones interrogation.
I started off with the basics. “How many of you are there?”
“Four outside, plus me. Twenty more inside. Some guarding
the prisoners.”
“Prisoners? Where did you get the prisoners from?” That was
a problem. Prisoners turned into hostages very quickly, and I wasn’t too keen
on just letting a whole bunch of innocents get killed because some idiot used
them as shields.
“Some from the Harvester. Others are Freemen we caught while
coming back from the Harvester raid. We’re going to sell them as slaves when we
head back to port. Freemen make for good exotic goods, even if they’re human.”
“How many prisoners do you have?”
“Six from the Harvester. Eight Freemen, all women and
children. The men didn’t let themselves get captured.”
“What is the status of the Harvester? Is the communication
gear operable?”
“Still works, despite a few blaster holes in the hull that
need to be patched to keep sand out. Just turned off the transponder so they
couldn’t find us. We’re waiting until the heat dies down, and then we’ll have
our own spice production ready to go. Easy money after that.”
“And the flier?” A harvester was all but useless without a
flier to get it to processing stations or get it out of harm’s way if things
turned ugly.
“Boss captured one a few months back, but didn’t have a
Harvester to go with it until now. This is the ticket to the big time. We’ll
get to move from raiders to actual smugglers.”
This was the first mention of the Boss. Whoever they were,
they were clearly planning on being more than simple raiders. That meant
ambition, and the charisma to convince others to play the long game instead of
going for quick scores. “Who is your boss?”
“Sana Olana is her name. She’s a Knelfi bitch, and a real
cutie, but she knows her stuff. Used to be Confed Marines, they say, before she
and her captain had a ‘disagreement’ over her duties on ship that ended up with
him dead and her on the run. Now she’s good and dirty like the rest of us. Would
love to have a piece of that ass.”
Ah, and I guess I was right in assuming that the raider who
had appeared on the mission boards as a target for hitting both smuggler and
legit spice harvesting operations was related to the most recent attacks on
harvesters. I really hadn’t wanted to go searching the whole planet for her, so
it was lucky we’d found the trail.
Turning my attention to the lackey again, I asked, “How long
until someone misses you inside?”
“I came to get reports from the sentries. Communications
gear doesn’t work well between the rocks and the camouflage systems blocking EM
transmissions. Outside it is fine, and inside it is fine, but going outside to
inside is no good. So the Boss has one of us step outside every half hour to
check with the sentries and make sure everything’s good. Then we step back in,
and report. Another hour, and we’ll be doing shift changes.”
“Good, good. Now, I want you to close your eyes and relax.”
When the man did so, I quickly drew Widowmaker across his throat, killing him.
Looking to the others, I said, “Twenty enemies, fourteen potential friendlies.
Looks like we’re in store for close-quarters fighting.”
Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/
Volume 3 - Wyrmwood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072QKVBYV
Volume 4 - To the Deeps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073QSD9S4
Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Book II - Choson Ring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071X3LL9D
Book III - Alpha Centauri https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073X8J9GF
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
LitRPG facebook group:
