Ch22 First Hunt

Reaching the outer gates took far longer than Ryan expected.

The glowing navigation route made getting lost nearly impossible, but it couldn't make the city any smaller. For more than two hours, the five of them followed one enormous avenue after another, descending through crowded market districts, crossing elevated walkways, and squeezing through streams of alien pedestrians who rarely bothered moving aside for humans. More than once, Ryan caught sight of the distant fortifications between the towers and assumed they were almost there, only for the route to turn and reveal another entire district between them and the wall.

By the time the outer gate finally came into full view, even Ben had stopped making jokes about the walk.

Ryan had seen the walls from the plaza, but distance had hidden their true scale. Up close, the black fortifications towered hundreds of feet above the surrounding buildings, thick enough that the passage through them resembled a tunnel carved into a mountain. Alien guards watched from elevated platforms while automated weapons tracked movement from recessed emplacements. Above the gate itself, a translucent barrier shimmered faintly beneath the twin suns.

Ryan craned his neck.

"Okay. I understand why the monsters stay outside."

Raven followed his gaze. "I wouldn't bet on that stopping everything on this planet."

Ryan looked at her. "Why would you say that?"

"Because I enjoy watching your optimism die."

Ben snorted. "I like her."

The outbound checkpoint moved quickly compared to the lines on the opposite side of the gate. Leaving the city was free, exactly as the City Lord had promised, and the bored-looking guard stationed at their lane barely glanced at them before scanning their wristbands.

Five green lights appeared.

The barrier opened.

Ryan stepped through.

And the world changed.

Heat struck him with enough force that he stopped after only a few steps. It wasn't the comfortable warmth he'd expected beneath two suns. The air was dry and oppressive, the climate-controlled coolness of the city disappearing so completely that it felt as if he'd stepped through the gate and directly into an oven.

"Whoa."

Ben emerged behind him and immediately recoiled.

"Oh, that's disgusting."

Jessica shielded her eyes against the glare. "How hot is it?"

Skynet answered before Ryan could ask.

[AMBIENT TEMPERATURE: 41.3°C]

[ELEVATED THERMAL STRESS DETECTED]

[HYDRATION RECOMMENDED]

"Forty-one degrees."

Ben stared at him. "In normal numbers?"

"That's Celsius."

"I know what Celsius is. I mean numbers that don't sound fake."

"About a hundred and six Fahrenheit."

Ben grimaced. "See? Horrible."

Dezzy stepped through last and studied the landscape rather than complaining about the temperature.

"The city is definitely using environmental regulation."

That much was obvious.

The wilderness beyond the walls looked like two ecosystems that shouldn't have been able to exist together. Cracked, sunbaked earth stretched away from the city, its surface shifting between pale brown and deep rust beneath the light of the twin suns. Yet from that dry soil rose an astonishingly dense forest.

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Massive trees with smooth, pale trunks towered overhead, some wider than houses. Their branches spread into broad interlocking canopies packed with thick emerald leaves, while heavy vines wrapped around their trunks and clusters of waxy vegetation pushed through fissures in the ground.

There shouldn't have been enough water to support any of it.

Yet the forest thrived.

The larger golden-white sun blazed overhead while its smaller crimson companion hung lower against the horizon, tinting portions of the sky a faint red.

Ryan activated Skynet.

"Local time."

[LOCAL CYCLE: 08:47]

He blinked.

"Still morning."

Jessica looked up at the suns. "That's morning?"

"Apparently."

Raven stepped beneath the nearest tree. "I'm going to hate afternoon."

Everyone followed her without argument.

The temperature beneath the canopy was still uncomfortable, but escaping the direct sunlight helped immediately. Ben tugged at the collar of his tactical uniform while Ryan checked the emergency water attached to his gear. They had enough for a short excursion, but not enough to spend an entire day wandering through forty-degree heat.

Dezzy crouched and pressed two fingers against the cracked earth.

"We need more water if we're staying out for long."

"We aren't," Ryan said. "Three Rank One beast cores for the directive. Anything extra we can safely get after that is a bonus. If we find a safe water source, good. Otherwise, we don't stretch this out."

Raven nodded. "Works for me."

Ryan looked toward Jessica. Her particle sidearm was still holstered, but of everyone in the squad, she was the one he most wanted firing it.

"Deadshot makes you our best shot."

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Obviously."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I."

Ryan ignored the smile threatening at the corner of her mouth.

"If all five of us start shooting every time we see something, we're going to burn through ammunition. You take the opening shot whenever you have a good angle. Nobody else fires unless you miss, the target charges, or we find something you can't put down quickly."

Jessica's expression settled into something more focused.

"Works for me."

"Dezzy handles close range when it's safe. Raven keeps anything from reaching us. I'll have a barrier ready before we engage whenever possible."

Ben raised a hand. "And me?"

"Rear watch. Storage. Try not to get eaten."

Ben stared at him. "Excellent leadership."

"You wanted a job."

"I wanted a heroic job."

"Surviving is heroic."

"That's better."

Dezzy nodded toward Jessica. "Concentrating ammunition expenditure through Deadshot is statistically efficient."

Raven looked at Jessica. "How much do you have?"

Jessica checked the ammunition pouches attached to her harness.

"Fifty-one rounds. Three magazines total."

Ben checked his own. "Same."

Ryan had the same loadout, and Raven and Dezzy quickly confirmed theirs.

"Two hundred fifty-five rounds," Jessica said.

Ben nodded solemnly. "Two hundred fifty-five opportunities to avoid getting bitten."

Ryan pointed at him. "I like that version better."

"If I run low, we redistribute," Jessica said.

"Exactly."

Dozens of recruit squads were already leaving the city. Some vanished directly into the forest while others remained on the broad dirt route leading away from the gate. Arguments broke out over directions, and somewhere ahead a particle weapon cracked loudly enough to make several groups flinch. A second later, someone started shouting at whoever had fired it.

Ryan frowned.

"We're not following that."

Raven was already studying the terrain to the east, where a low ridge of dark stone rose through the forest and separated them from the largest concentration of recruits.

"That way."

Ryan followed her gaze. "Why?"

"Elevation. Fewer people. Less chance of getting shot by somebody who discovered their Talent yesterday."

Ben nodded solemnly. "She continues making excellent arguments."

Ryan smiled. "East it is."

They left the main path.

The forest swallowed them quickly.

Within minutes, the enormous city walls were difficult to see through the vegetation. The canopy protected them from the worst of the sunlight, but the shade came at the cost of visibility. Broad leaves, dense shrubs, twisting vines, and waist-high grasses reduced their sightlines to a few dozen meters in places. Every rustle pulled someone's attention. Every shifting branch looked suspicious for half a second too long.

Their conversation gradually faded.

Ryan moved near the front, not because he considered himself the group's best tracker—he definitely wasn't—but because if something came charging through the undergrowth, he wanted his barrier between it and everyone else.

Jessica stayed several steps behind him with her sidearm drawn. Dezzy watched the ground as much as the surrounding forest, while Raven divided her attention between the undergrowth and the branches overhead. Ben kept turning to check behind them.

Twenty minutes passed without seeing anything.

Then thirty.

By the time they approached an hour, the tension of expecting an attack had begun to fade into irritation.

Ben finally whispered, "I thought this place was supposed to be full of monsters."

Raven didn't turn around. "Keep talking. I'm sure something will appreciate the invitation."

"I was just saying—"

Dezzy stopped.

Everyone froze.

She crouched beside a narrow fissure in the earth, where three long depressions had been pressed into the dry soil.

Claw marks.

Dezzy followed them toward a cluster of damaged vegetation and touched a thick green stalk that had snapped close to its base. Moisture still glistened inside the break.

"Recent."

Ben blinked. "You track?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

Dezzy pointed at the exposed interior of the stalk.

"Oh."

"Observation."

Ben leaned slightly toward Ryan. "She's terrifying."

"I heard you," Dezzy said.

"I know."

Ryan raised a hand, and the group fell silent.

They followed the trail slowly.

Twenty meters.

Thirty.

Then Ben stopped.

His head turned toward a cluster of moss-covered rocks.

Crunch.

The sound was wet and heavy.

Another crunch followed.

Ryan's pulse accelerated.

Something was feeding on the other side.

He looked at Jessica.

Her weapon was already in her hand.

Ryan reached for his core.

X Energy responded, flowing outward as sapphire particles gathered several feet in front of him. The energy wove itself into glowing threads, then into the familiar geometric lattice.

One second.

The pattern spread.

Two.

The lattice solidified into a translucent blue barrier large enough to protect Ryan's torso and head, its sapphire edges glowing softly beneath the forest canopy.

Four X Energy disappeared from his reserve.

The hollow sensation behind his heart returned immediately.

[X ENERGY: 5/9]

Ryan kept his attention on the rocks.

The barrier hovered ahead of them.

Ready.

They advanced.

Dezzy moved slightly left while Raven took the right. Ben remained behind Ryan, and Jessica edged far enough to one side to establish a clear firing angle.

Then the creature came into view.

Ryan's first thought was that someone had taken a lizard, given it six legs, and armored it for war.

The beast was roughly the size of a large rhinoceros, though lower to the ground and considerably longer. Thick gray scales overlapped across its body like slabs of chipped stone. Jagged ridges protruded along its spine, while six muscular legs ended in broad feet tipped with hooked claws.

Its head was blunt.

Its jaws were not.

Ryan watched it bite through a tree root thicker than his arm.

The wood snapped with a sharp crack.

Some of his excitement disappeared.

'Right. Monster.'

"Skynet. Classification."

[UNKNOWN FAUNA]

[ESTIMATED ESOTERIC CLASSIFICATION: RANK ONE]

[DETAILED BIOLOGICAL DATA UNAVAILABLE]

Of course it was unavailable.

Ryan was beginning to suspect Skynet would charge him for the color of the sky if it could.

The beast lifted its head.

Its nostrils flared.

Jessica moved.

The change in her was subtle enough that Ryan might have missed it if he hadn't been watching. Her breathing slowed. Her shoulders relaxed. The barrel of her particle sidearm rose as a faint blue-white shimmer appeared in her eyes.

Deadshot.