The entrance to Caliburn’s mine was bustling with activity.
Evantra stared at the massive, yawning tunnel, the entrance lit by powerful floodlights. Caliburn vehicles and personnel swarmed the area. It seemed like the megacorporation’s employees had been working around the clock in preparation to begin mining. Evantra’s eyes lingered on a massive drill parked outside the tunnel, likely responsible for the cavernous entrance Caliburn had created.
Evantra watched as a familiar woman flanked by two Ghostslayers approached them. Familiar, pointed ears, this time, wearing an elegant red shift that brought out her gleaming, ruby red eyes.
Elaine Hallewell, her face contorted into a scowl.
“Idiot brother. What do you think you’re doing bringing one of them down here?”
Evantra blinked in response to Elaine Hallewell’s words, filled to the brim with vitriol. Clark Hallewell, the thoughtful golden retriever of a man, had brought her right into the heart of Caliburn’s mining operations.
She was currently surrounded by Caliburn executives and their Ghostslayers.
Evantra tried her best to maintain her expression of mild disinterest as Calibirn execs and Ghostslayers alike stared at her.
Lancelot was the tall Ghostslayer Evantra had seen upon the siblings’ first appearance in Juno’s office. Just like the first time she saw him, he wore grey, plated, hexagonal armour that didn’t seem to impede his movement. His bright blue eyes, likely custom optics, had instantly picked out her cheap earbuds, which he had taken the initiative of removing from her person.
Guinevere was shorter than her compatriot but with long, raven black hair tied into a firm bun. Her cybernetic specialty was obvious – having likely undergone the painful process of grafting artificial skin onto her person which gave her the ability to turn invisible. Her bright green eyes had not moved from Evantra’s the moment she had accompanied Clark into Caliburn’s area of operation.
The final Ghostslayer, at least of the ones currently present, was a hulking man who bore the codename Galahad. He was dressed in familiar pseudo-plate armour, and carried a Liberty corporation light machine gun that looked like it had been ripped from a tank.
As imposing as they were, Elaine Hallewell still managed to instil more fear in her than all of them taken together.
Choosing to accept Clark Hallewell’s request to accompany him and Caliburn’s Ghostslayers into a Veilsruge was the furthest thing to a calculated risk that Evantra could think of.
Why had she done it, in that case?
As much as Clark had the demeanour of a giant, bipedal golden retriever, Evantra knew all too well just how people changed when they didn’t get what they wanted. Kindness could turn into cruelty at the drop of a hat, and that was a risk that she wasn’t willing to take.
The best thing she could do would be to bore them to the degree where she was nothing but a forgotten memory to them. That, and discreetly determining whether their operations were legitimate.
All I have to do is present myself as an unwitting victim of Clark’s boredom and—
“Evantra wants to sign up for our Ghostslayer program!”
Evantra tried to avoid choking as she turned incredulously towards Clark. Before she could respond, Elaine’s dark red lips drew into a vicious smile.
“Oh? Is that so? We have a potential recruit on our hands? Then by all means, throw caution to the wind! Forget my concerns, they’re rendered irrelevant. Welcome to Caliburn,” the woman’s red lips twisted into a smile that revealed immaculate, gleaming teeth.
“I—”
Elaine inclined her head towards her brother as her smile abruptly dropped.
“Never mind that the girl looks like this is the first she’s hearing of this. I’m leaving you there if you get stranded out there, you twat. You’ve got the attention span of an infant.”
With a final lingering glance, Elaine Hallewell retreated, leaving them with Caliburn’s Ghostslayers, Guinevere trailing her in her wake.
Clark strode up to Galahad, giving the man a hearty smack on the back, to which the man returned a gap-toothed grin.
“Steve! You’ve finally arrived. How’s the missus?”
Steve enveloped Clark in an exceedingly manly half-handshake half-hug, which frankly, would have been quite heartwarming were Lancelot’s piercing blue eyes not penetrating into her very soul.
‘Steve’ broke out into such a thick Scottish accent, which she initially struggled to decipher, but Evantra could sense that the man sincerity in returning Clark’s greeting.
“Master Clark! She’s alright, doing just fine. Hello there lass!” The gargantuan Ghostslayer greeted her a small wave.
Clark nudged her gently as they trailed after Lancelot and Galahad as they made their way down the tunnel into Caliburn’s mine. The tunnel eventually opened up into a sweeping cavernous space.
A cave system, beneath Juno’s Junkyard.
“When we first drilled in here, we had to clear out a ton of Veilcreatures. One of the perils of mining in this day and age… Couldn’t even escape the damn things in space.”
Evantra tried to prevent her jaw from falling open as Clark continued, undeterred, as if he hadn’t just suggested that Veilsurges appeared beyond earth. The worlds’ governments and megacorporations alike had all been intent on keeping all space related incidents from public knowledge.
Though it wasn’t exactly hard to infer that something had been out there to cause the moon to explode.
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“Steve over there is one of our promising rookies, he’s just hit [draugr] rank, just above [imp]. Isn’t that right Steve?”
[Draugr] rank…
That must mean Steve is operating in the level 15-19 range by my system’s standards, assuming 5 level increments.
The man returned Clark’s grin, waving to Evantra from where he strode ahead of her.
“Clark… uh, is it going to be a problem telling your sister that I’m joining Caliburn.”
“Nah, she saw right through me. She’s just chucking a hissy fit. Wants the credit for a good mining expedition, no doubt. Anything to impress our uncle.”
Lancelot snapped around towards Clark, giving him a sharp glance.
“Sir—”
Clark just casually waved away the man’s stare.
“Roderick, it doesn’t take a genius to guess it.”
Clark Hallewell snorted as he turned to Evantra.
“Evantra, if you can ever manage it, try never to get mired in this corporate bullshit,” Clark’s smile softened slightly. The man cast a tentative glance towards Lancelot and Steve who had begun to make towards the familiar black tear in the distance.
“I’ve always envied them, you know? A good, honest living, guarding the world from the horrors that would end it,” Clark chuckled softly to himself, “even if they are saddled to megacorporations and their bloody agendas.”
Evantra barely concealed her surprise, as Clark continued.
“You’ll find it in every corp. The bollocks with rank and loyalty—”
He gestured to the Ghostslayers.
“—giving them ‘codenames’, likening them to King Arthur’s knights of the round. Don’t get me wrong, you won’t find finer gents around, but it’s all so… shallow.”
Clark let out a heavy sigh as they came to a halt before the familiar black tear in reality.
He seems like he’d like nothing more than to return to his family.
Unless he’s playing me for a fool, Clark Hallewell seems like an ordinary, decent enough guy.
That’s perhaps the biggest surprise of today.
Still don’t trust him an inch. There is such a thing as being too unassuming.
The man shook his head, giving Evantra a grin.
“Look at me yapping on about myself. Haven’t even asked you about yourself. We’ll change that after the dive, over a pint aye?”
One of Caliburn’s security personnel approached Evantra, handing her an assault rifle. She blankly accepted the weapon as the man spoke to her.
“Armour-piercing rounds. The congregation of a couple of earth elementals caused the rift to trigger. Kill them, and the tear should dissipate.”
She nodded to the man, awkwardly holding the rifle, attempting to mimic how Lancelot was holding his. She watched as the man hesitated, as if remembering something, reaching into his pack to withdraw what looked like a scarf.
“This is for the sand. It leads to the Sahara.”
Don’t want to get stranded there. Carmen would kill me.
Lancelot’s piercing blue eyes drilled into hers.
If Caliburn doesn’t get to me first.
---
Of all the things that Evantra Wraithmarked would have expected to be doing in the heart of Caliburn’s mysterious mining expedition, having an enormous Scottish man gingerly secure a scarf around her head to ward off sand from the Sahara, was last on her bingo card.
“You’ve got to join the guild, lassie! Killed a mimic as an organic, that’s admirable! I joined Caliburn’s program and they wanted to shape me into a bruiser – got the full skeletal transplant, and subdermals are next to round out the build if I hit my targets, aye Clark?”
“Of course, ye wee fecker.”
Clark gave the man a wide grin, to which Steve returned a pained, belabored expression that Evantra was confident was sarcastic.
“Don’t do that Clark, it’s racist, aye? There ye go lass, all done!”
“Steve” or Galahad, had finally finished securing the scarf around her face. She turned towards the tear, watching Lancelot walk through it, having returned from scouting.
“Six or so earth elementals. Small group, I’m surprised they triggered a Veilsurge. Keep an eye out for stray Veilcreatures.”
The man turned towards her, finally addressing her directly for the first time since her arrival.
“If you get lost in there, or separated, you’ll be stranded,” the man paused, turning away to look at the entrance to the Veilsurge.
“This close to the archliches in Egypt? Caliburn wouldn’t risk a rescue operation for one of their execs, let alone for you. Now’s your only chance to turn back.”
“Ahh cut the girl some slack will ye Rod? It’ll be a quick one – one and done. Won’t take more than a couple of seconds. C’mon lass.”
Evantra nodded her assent and trailed Steve as he lead the way into the Veilsurge.
They emerged into howling harsh desert winds on the top of a sand dune to the morning sun. Raising a forearm to ward the particles from her vision, Evantra could see a massive sandwall in the distance. Her father had taught her about tornados – and how if they looked as if they weren’t moving anywhere, it was a certainty that they were making their way towards you.
This sandwall looked like it was stuck right in place. If they operated anything like tornados, it wouldn’t be long before it covered them.
Like her, Steve raised a massive forearm to ward off the sand from his face, but she watched in awe, as the sand particles which touched the surface of Lancelot and Clark’s eyes glowed briefly with heat before burning to ash upon contact.
The pair of them looked like they were out for a casual stroll on the beach.
Cybernetics really are a gamechanger.
“Take point, Galahad.”
“Yessir.”
At Lancelot’s instruction, Steve lumbered forwards, hefting the enormous Liberty corporation light machine gun in his hands. They pressed down the dune together, Lancelot pointing towards a nearby cliff about three hundred metres away.
Evantra’s eyes widened as she glimpsed the earth elementals in the distance. Clark tapped her on the shoulder.
Evantra flinched at his touch.
“Oh, you’re alright. Sorry. Just wanted to say, they’re nasty buggers, they’ll try to get you off your feet before making the ground cave in beneath you and crushing you where you stand. We’ll pick them off at a distance. It’ll be over in a jiff.”
Evantra nodded, her eyes regularly darting to the two Ghostslayers ahead of them, but none of her party had made any motion to undermine her in any way.
Well… it’s too late now.
If they wanted to kill me, frankly they could have done it the moment they saw me.
“Let’s get this done quickly.”
Evantra frowned, detecting an undertone of urgency in the man’s voice.
Something has Lancelot shaken? I thought earth elementals would be a piece of cake for him?
Still, it was something to ask Clark about later, especially with their targets right in front of them.
IONIAN MIMIC QUEST: OFFERING DETECTED
Rank: Level 7 [Ghoul]
Description: Slay the lesser earth elemental
All of a sudden, this risk is paying off.
The earth elementals were comprised of discrete blocks of solid stone, tied together by an unknowable force that gave them a humanoid form. Up close, each would have towered at least two or three meters above Evantra, and she didn’t doubt that any one of them could have squished her into a fine paste.
Evantra scrambled to pull her gun upright into position, when Lancelot and Galahad readied their weapons without warning.
They unleashed a hail of bullets into the earth elementals crowded at the foot of the cliff. Never having used an unsilenced, automatic assault rifle before, Evantra tried not to flinch at both the recoil and sound from the chorus of gunfire that greeted her.
The earth elementals didn’t really stand a chance.
The armour piercing rounds tore through the stone of the earth elementals’ bodies, rending them into inanimate clumps of dirt and rock in a matter of seconds. The tracer rounds from Steve’s light machine gun carved a visible path through an elemental. Every shot from Lancelot’s weapon, with its long, elongated barrel physically kicked up the sand bordering the man with every shot. Evantra assumed it was some sort of sniper, or some variant of it. Each time he fired, she watched an earth elemental explode into shards of rock.
Evantra felt like she was there for moral support.
Level up: Level 7 [Ghoul]
Veilsouls: 15
Hmm.. some creatures seem to give me more than one soul when I kill them.
Clark’s boisterous laughter rang out, as the hail of gunfire came to a halt. The beaming man gave her a gentle nudge.
“Nothing quite like it, huh?”
Evantra smiled, giving the man a nod.
Now I’m just left with the small hurdle of sacrificing one of those earth elementals without Caliburn noticing.
Piece of cake.
