Jordan gave a great yawn as he sat up, blinking rapidly at the morning light pouring through the open windows. The mattress of his four-post bed gave way ever so slightly, the bed firm enough to give him excellent support yet soft enough to be comfortable. Silk sheets shifted as he got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, the Pioneer cracking his neck and stretching his arms as he moved. Not a hint of soreness or fatigue remained.
“That has to be the best sleep I’ve ever had in my life.” Jordan mused as he stepped into the scalding hot shower, exactly as he liked it. As he rinsed, his thoughts turned to the shower itself, “I wonder how many places in the city still have hot water? Hopefully they still have running water, at least.”
Most of the city’s intact power supply was bound to be diverted towards the barrier and the defenses, leaving only a sliver for civilian use. Despite that, the portion of Ankara still in human control should still have running water. Without it, the city would find itself staring down a massive humanitarian crisis, since people could die of dehydration very quickly, and there was only so much emergency bottled water to go around. But as the siege dragged on, the city’s energy reserves would begin to diminish, meaning they’d need to start rationing further power. And if humanity lost more ground, they’d begin to have fewer power options under their control, with nearly just as many mouths to feed as before.
“We won’t let it come to that.” Jordan firmed his resolve and pulled up his stat sheet:
User Name: Jordan Markus Haraldson
Age: 19
Pioneer Class: Epsilon
Rank: Sergeant
Status
Strength: 212 -> 230
Dexterity: 274 -> 294
Constitution: 178 -> 216
Adaptability: 202 -> 211
Psyche: 259 -> 281
Psionic Capacities:
Slot 1: Teleportation (Epsilon) (MP=1/10)
- User can Teleport using Psionic Energy.
- Travel through space nigh-instantaneously to a specific location, determined by User’s gaze.
- User moves through any obstacle, so long as vision is not obstructed.
Slot 2: Hypersight (Epsilon) (MP=1/10)
- User massively increases visual processing speed using Psionic Energy.
- User’s perspective slows, allowing them to examine or react to anything in front of them more easily.
- Despite a slowed perspective, note that this doesn’t increase user movement speed. This Capacity cannot save a User from something they cannot evade at standard speed.
Personal Attributes:
Slot 1: Eyes of the Hound (Delta) (MP=0/15)
- Considerably improves the quality of User’s vision.
- User can see much further and can more easily spot details and weak points on their target.
- Scales with Adaptability (D).
Slot 2: Warrior’s Physique (Delta) (MP=0/15)
- Significant enhancement of User’s natural Strength.
- Significant enhancement of User’s natural Dexterity.
- Scales with Strength (E) and Dexterity (E).
Slot 3: Reactive Mind (Epsilon) (MP=4/7)
- Improves Psionic Capacity activation speed and User reaction time.
- Modest enhancement of User’s natural Psyche.
- Scales with Psyche (E) and Adaptability (F).
Integrated Technologies:
Slot 1: Empty
Jordan gave a low whistle as he read, impressed by the results of his recent dinner. Getting this much in one sitting, without using a Morphic stone, was pretty impressive. It was made possible by the quantity and quality of the food he’d eaten, since it had all been from D class creatures. He was right on the edge of Delta class himself, though still a while away from upgrading his two abilities. It was common practice to upgrade attributes first, since there was virtually no downside to improving them whatsoever. The same couldn’t be said for Capacities, which increased in mental energy cost as they increased in class.
His audit complete, Jordan stepped out of the shower, dressed, then left the room. As he stepped out into the hallway, he received a sudden message, “Come to the basement. Bottom floor.”
It was from his father, so Jordan eagerly hurried downstairs and over to the basement. On the bottom floor, he found his friends and family gathered around the safe that he and Stan had found. Nearby, they’d set down the metal crates that’d been dropped off with the injured guys: they were further filled with the supplies that the government had allotted them.
Jordan exchanged a few greetings with the other men, then they got to business.
“All right, that’s everyone.” His father spoke in a terse, focused tone, “We need to divide up the more potent resources, but we don’t know exactly what we’ve got until we open the safe room. Once we do, we can open the crates, and we’ll know what we’re working with. Figured I’d wait until we were all together before we did.”
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“How’re we gonna open the room?” Stan piped up, before giving the room’s door a dirty glare, as if it had offended him personally, “You have a code?”
Markus folded his arms, face deadpan, “No.”
With that, he turned around and reached toward the safe door. With the squeal of metal, his fingers dug into the metal around the edges. With little apparent effort, he wrenched the safe door wide open with a SCREECH that tore at the eardrums of the onlooking Pioneers. Jordan stared in open-mouthed amazement as his father dislodged the obstacle and strode into the saferoom without missing a beat. The veterans were right behind him, largely unfazed by the feat of strength, though the rookies stared at the now-ruined door for a few moments. The door was several meters thick and apparently made of blacksteel that had been heavily treated and reinforced. Nothing but disfigured metal remained of the multiple locks. To tear that so easily…
“Did you know your dad could do that?” Ramirez queried. Jordan silently shook his head. He’d known his father had been a Pioneer, but the old man had stayed very low-key. Watching his grizzled father do that was a little surreal, even if it should be easy for a Beta-class warrior in theory.
Stan muttered, “No paintings for me, but the door gets turned to scrap? This is bullshit.”
“Da probably got permission,” Jordan muttered back, though a part of him sympathized. He gave a quick cough and gestured to the doorway, “Well, shall we?”
With that, the rookie Pioneers followed their elders into the vault of treasures.
…
Daniel’s vision swam around the concerned faces of his friends as he finally came to. When his gaze eventually focused, it locked onto the concerned sea-green eyes of Emily Sillica. Her voice was the first thing Daniel heard, puncturing his haze-like mental state and bringing him back to reality, “Danny, are you okay? Was it another overdose? Do you need to be taken back to medical?”
Reggie tersly interjected, his voice much less soothing on Daniel’s ears, “Ye’ need to be more careful, ye’ blindin’ aekor. We’d be in a right fix if our Golden Boy overdosed and died.”
Leka the Forsica hissed in agreement, then Praxis weighed in, “As I have observed already, I strongly doubt that this was an overdose. Danny should be G class by now, and he only had a B class stone to absorb. Even if was a Kharnidd stone-“
“Then ‘ow did he overdose with a Gamma class, ye’ slippery pointy nose?”
“…That I do not know. If it were a problem with Danny’s constitution, it should have shown up in his medical exams. You don’t happen to have a receptor deficiency, do you Danny?”
Daniel was feeling better by the second, his body rapidly recovering as his friends talked. He sat up, answering, “No, I don’t think so. They didn’t tell me about anything like that in training camp. Also, this didn’t feel like an overdose.”
His body was in much better shape than it had after the overdose. In fact, he felt basically fine now, despite his recent bout of unconsciousness. Praxis nodded knowledgeably, “Yes, you’re right. You woke up much faster than you would’ve if it had been an overdose. Perhaps the pain from absorbing the stone was a bit too much?”
Daniel nodded back, and Praxis continued sympathetically, “Those Kharnidd stones are brutal, aren’t they? I’ve only absorbed one, and it burned like hell. I suspect it only gets worse as they get stronger.”
He was right. The pain from the stones did get worse as you went up in classes. Daniel had been hoping he’d be able to endure, but he hadn’t been as tough as he’d thought.
Shaking off the observation, Daniel refocused on what really mattered: “How long was I out?”
This time, it was Forsythe who cut in with the answer, “Only around 30 minutes. You looked bad at the beginning, but you recovered quickly.”
Daniel breathed in a sigh of relief at the answer, grateful he hadn’t been out for hours. His body was sturdier than it had been in the past, so that’d probably helped. In a moment of eager curiosity, he pulled up his stats again,
User Name: Daniel Sylvester Hardgrave
Age: 18
Pioneer Class: Gamma
Rank: Sergeant
Status
Strength: 527 -> 685
Dexterity: 555 -> 733
Constitution: 473 -> 603
Adaptability: 462 -> 650
Psyche: 600 -> 731
Psionic Capacities:
…
Slot 4: Sky’s Mastery (Beta) (MP=0/126)
- User creates two wing constructs made of Psionic Energy on their back.
- Wing Constructs allow User to take flight and enhance User’s speed, whether they are flying or not.
- Sky’s Mastery has no duration limit and can be dismissed and resummoned with little delay and no penalty.
Personal Attributes:
…
Slot 7: Vicious Hunter (Beta) (MP=0/90)
- When hunting or fighting, User receives a powerful adrenaline rush at opportune times.
- The rush goes far beyond normal biology, enhancing Strength, aggression, and pain tolerance, among others.
- Scales with Strength (A) and Constitution (D).
…
Daniel was basically numb to the stat increases at this point, though this was easily his biggest one yet, which made sense given the context. He was also glad to obtain both Sky’s Mastery and Vicious Hunter, since the former would synergize well with his other abilities and the latter seemed pretty strong. However, his gains did raise another question, so he typed a message to Nuntius, “How much Psionic poisoning have I accumulated?”
“Between the supercharged Gamma class Morphic stone, the Delta class stones, and the Beta class stone, you have accumulated enough damage to shorten your lifespan considerably. Were you to do nothing, you would likely not exceed 50 years of age. Please note that absorbing that many Morphic stones in a short period of time is dangerous, even with Litradia.”
Daniel frowned, then typed, “But Litradia can heal me, right?”
“Indeed, it will fully heal you. You possess top-grade Litradia, capable of healing nearly any amount of Psionic damage. Using it now would heal you and improve your ability to resist Psionic damage. However, it is still somewhat dangerous to accumulate damage recklessly.”
Something about that statement prompted another thought, so Daniel continued to question, “How difficult is it to make top-grade Litradia?”
Daniel had always assumed that the Empire would be able to replicate Litradia relatively easily, but it occurred to him now that that wasn’t guaranteed. Nuntius calculated a bit, almost seeming uncertain, before responding, ”Litradia’s manufacture is complicated and expensive, especially the top-grade version. Creating top-grade Litradia was relatively easy for the Eternal Collective in its final days, but I do not have perfect knowledge of humanity's technological abilities. However, based on my limited information, I suspect it will be extremely challenging. I have notes on the manufacture of Litradia from the underwater Aeterna facility I hacked into, yet those will only improve the process. Much of the Empire’s ability to replicate Litradia will depend upon its scientists and their abilities, which I have limited insight into.”
That assessment disturbed Daniel, for obvious reasons. He’d been willing to use most of his remaining stockpile of Litradia on this mission, but what if the Empire couldn’t replicate it at all? Wouldn’t it be vital that he hold onto this stuff for as long as he could?
As he agonized over this new development, Captain Moravan called out to the whole company, “Alright, soldiers, we’ve rested for as long as we can. The rest of our Division needs our help. They’ve seen an uptick in attacks, and it’s up to us to provide relief. Now, gather ‘round so I can tell you the plan.”
Well, Daniel was a while away from 50, so he had some time to make a decision. He followed the captain’s orders, the man waiting for the whole company to get close before he continued, “Ok, so here’s the plan…”