68 Tasting Deception (1/2)

I pulled the person closer, glancing at her hand. A glowing dagger was there, with the air fizzling around it. She whipped it towards my neck, the air whistling as she did so. Off reflex, my armor shot out and pierced through her forearm.

The guards aimed their rifles at me, but I shot my armor out towards the barrels. My armor pierced the rifles, tearing them apart before the guards ran away. Turning back to the girl, I grabbed he plasma knife from her hand. I snapped the handle, shutting the blade down. With the same hand, I grabbed her helmet, my hands big enough to wrap around her head completely.

I frowned, “Now tell me why I shouldn’t crush your skull like an egg full of red?”

My armor retracted from her forearm, a high-pitched voice screaming. A second later, she answered in a soft, squeaky voice,

“I…I’m not here to kill you…Just protect camp. Doing my job.”

I identified her,

FearFighter Rogue, Francis Favari (lvl 597) – An upper level FearFighter, this specific kind of FearFighter is usually sent out to kill would be intruders. They often use pathetic looking defenses as cover-ups for their assassination style guarding. This allows them to catch the unaware off guard. Too bad for Francis you aren’t just a big bad brute.

Beating higher level enemies isn’t normally a problem for them either, mainly because their damage specced builds allow them to burst most targets down. Not the best matchup versus a high damage tank build.

I rolled my eyes, “I’m not a dumbass. You FearFighters need to learn when to fuck off.”

From her armor, a speaker sounded out, “We have you surrounded. Let her go.”

On my chest and face, green laser pointers jittered on me. I glanced out in the distance, and along several trees, FearFighters were set up. Instead of rogues, the snipers covered themselves in leaves and brush, making them hard to see. None of them were above level 500 though. I sighed,

“Why not try talking instead of firing first eh? That’s why you all lost your last group of scouts.”

From the speaker, the gruff voice replied, “You’re the one that took down party D-6? Here we thought it was Bloodbull…Alright, we’ll talk. Why are you here?”

I moved the woman in front of three lasers on my chest. She squirmed in my grip, but she made an effective shield nonetheless.

“To get the Freedom Fighters to join the Steel Legion.”

“You want them to join those slave drivers? They barely escaped whatever mutant experiment that went awry. Why do you want to send these humans back to them?”

I shook my head, “I have several of those mutants along my back. You fire, and they may get out. Trust me when I tell you they’re a lot more dangerous than I am.”

Several seconds of tense silence passed. The green dots appeared on the ground beside me. The voice continued,

“Fine. We’ll have it your way. Set her down, and we’ll negotiate.”

I sighed, “I’m trying to be reasonable here. Don’t ask me to give away my only bargaining chip.”

“Damn…Can’t blame me for trying.”

I glanced at the sky,

“You FearFighters are supposed to be about espionage and intrigue, but you swallowed the bullshit these supposed freedom fighters fed you? Mutant experiments…really now?”

I tossed the woman aside, pounding my chest with a fist, “Do you see my title? Have you read my name? I am a messenger of what’s to come. Ignoring my message would turn you from being ignorant to being dumbasses. I wish I had time to dance around the issue, but I don’t. Neither do any of you.”

The green lasers popped back up on my chest. I flared my ascendant mana, my armor sliding back onto my face and grinning. I leaned forward with my fists balled into clubs of iron,

“Unless you want to fight. You’ll find I’m more than willing.”

My intimidation skill leveled several times before the lasers lowered. The woman tried running away, but I lifted my right arm and lowered my hand. A telekinetic wave of energy slammed her to the ground. I raised the arm while clenching my hand, lifting her into the air. From the speaker, the voice ebbed,

“Ok, ok. We get it. We’ll meet at the village head. We aren’t the only guards here, so don’t try anything funny.”

I let the woman drop and stood up straight. She scrambled away from me as I shrugged,

“Eh, don’t aim a gun at me and I won’t raise my fist at you. This is pretty basic guys. Not that hard to understand.”

I walked into the camp, looking a for the biggest tent in the group. I passed by several ragged, dirty looking people. None of them were above level 50. In my eyes, they were stunted. It was like they hadn’t even tried to adjust to Schema. Combine that with their refusal to accept the steel legion’s help, and they were as useless as they could be. Give them a gun and a bit of training, suddenly they become a force to reckon with.

At the same time, them escaping the city had let them live. It wouldn’t let them live forever though. As I reached a shitty looking log cabin at the center of the camp, I vowed to get that message across.

Once I neared it, a long head alien materialized in front of the door. With an overgrown back filled into the suit, it pulled off its helmet, revealing a lion’s mane. It grew all the way down the skull, both golden and majestic. On its furred face, three eyes with the pupils of cats starred at me. Its bottom jaw could split in half, meeting on its nose. At the ends of each jaw bone, a long tusk raised upward. At least it stood on two legs with two arms.

It caught me a bit off guard. Up till now, most aliens looked pretty damn human. This thing did not…Not one bit. It looked as monstrous as any eldritch I’d ever seen. Ignoring it though, I removed my own helmet and reached out a hand,

“I’m Daniel Hillside. Who are you?”

He glanced down at my hand, then back up at me. The gruff voice that spoke over the intercom came out of his weird mouth,

“I’m Tralis, the captain of the FearFighter squadron stationed here. Come in.”

He opened the door, pacing inside. I followed suit. The inside of the cabin changed from rustic to futuristic. Clear slates of polymer covered every surface, letting you see the dirt through like clear plastic panels. A spiral staircase headed deeper down to a lower floor, and scientific trinkets covered the various benches laid out on the surface of the place.

Tralis walked down a spiral set of steps, motioning me to follow. I didn’t.

“I’m not going down there.”

He turned to me, his eyes narrowing, “Why not?”

I tapped my head in frustration before turning back to him, “Tell me why I should trust you first? All I’ve gotten is a few bullets and a plasma blade coming for my throat so far.”

He blinked, all three eyelids snapping shut. He grinned, a grisly visage on his face,

“I’ll do a little introduction then. We are a team of FearFighters contracted to protect a group of Enigmatta. They’re a large faction of scientists. They’re here on this mud ball to study some spacial anomaly or something like that. We are here to help them. After seeing the natives in such bad shape, they decided to help them.”

Tralis leaned against the railing of the spiral stairs, the clear polymer holding his weight easily, “They ended up just using them to make a base of operations. Now the natives do the labor and the Enigmatta are giving them the food and medicine they need to live. You-“

Tralis pointed a finger at me, his suit ending in a sharpened claw, “Are a very hostile entity demanding we listen to some message you have. I understand, being a fighter myself. We attacked first. You defended yourself. It’s a basic misunderstanding. The Enigmatta don’t see it that way. They want you dead.”

Tralis shook his head, “They don’t get it though. Earth is a new planet. There shouldn’t be anyone over level 300. A 740 unknown? I told them it was a death sentence, but they tried sending our top operative to kill you. She accepted like an idiot because she wanted the huge exp boost. You know the rest. Now we’re bending to your demands because you called our bluff.”

His sudden spill improved my trust by at least tenfold. It fit together in my head all nice and neat to, so I walked forward,

“Good enough. Thanks for letting me know.”

He nodded, walking down the steps. As we did, I identified him,

FearFighter Captain, Tralis Navi(lvl 576) – A captain member of the FearFighters, his experience gives him a higher position then most operatives at the same level. Having been tasked with defending several Enigmatta scientists, Tralis is trying to fulfill his mission with few casualties. So far, you’ve been making that difficult.

His Hellion race and lineage also give him access to stealth well beyond the normal person of his level. Their species have elongated skulls for two reasons. One is for balance to offset the musculature of their overgrown back musculature used for leaping. The other is for storing fat during winter months. These enlarges skulls held enlarged brains, owing to their eventual rise to sentience.

Though most Hellions can’t kill you outright, be aware of their trapping, stealth, and burst abilities.

Tralis turned to me as we walked down the staircase, “Does my status line up with what you were thinking?”

I raised an eyebrow and grinned, “You could tell I was reading it?”

He turned forward, “Either that or staring into nothingness for twenty seconds. Figured one was more obvious. Keep your head up and your eyes on these slippery fishmen. They’ll try to put you under the knife if you let them.”

I nodded, “Thanks for the tip.”

At the roof of the underground room, lamps full of white worms offered light. The clear panels lined the entirety of basement as well, the room being much more expansive. About the size of a convenience store, several long steel tables lined the central room. Over them, surgical tools, chemistry beakers and tubes, even holographic panels were floating over the shiny steel.

Six scientists spread out around them, each of them covered in tight fitting suits. Sleek, lean, and with black, tinted panels on their faces, the scientists looked like the embodiment of efficiency. They interacted with holograms and their status with seven fingers, two of them thumbs. The only thing visible underneath their suits were giant, glowing circles.

They could have been eyes. I didn’t know. Regardless, I walked up with Tralis. One of the scientists turned to me. He fiddled with his screen for a moment. I identified him during that time.

Arlo Melak, Enigmatta Scientist(lvl 761) – A scientist in the utility based Enigmatta faction. They focus almost entirely on discovery and exploration, being a premier observation guild. While not the most combat savy, they make up for their lack of might with their minds. Arlo is particularly gifted, having been given the highly sought after Earth mission. He and his hired mercenaries weren’t ready for what was on Earth.