Vivid Stars Online

“It’s a good start,” Captain Hendricks said after staring at my map of the caves for several minutes. I had transferred him the data, which was now displayed on a portable projector set up in the command tent.

“It’s far from complete,” I agreed with a nod. “Really, it only shows a couple of winding paths down. But it gives a sense of the size at least.”

Even from the limited map I had, it was clear that the caves were simply massive. Just traveling from the surface down to the rift had taken days of travel. I wasn’t even sure if that was the deepest you could go, let alone how far it extended outward from there.

“It does indeed,” the captain responded with a heavy sigh. “At least we’ll be able to keep updating it as we go. As long as the repeaters last, we can get real-time updates from the squads as they advance.

The signal repeaters had been the Captain’s idea, being small devices that would route signals over short distances. While rarely used because of the planet’s excellent satellite coverage, they were cheap to produce and had been easy to get shipped in from Elendes.

As long as each squad placed them within range of a previous one, we could keep in contact with them. Despite my limited funds, I’d been happy to allow the expenditure as it would greatly decrease the danger of the operation.

It wasn’t like they would be useless in the future, either. Having contact with the surface would only help the mining operations I had planned.

At my go-ahead, the captain began organizing the troops into squads of five. This was half the size of a normal patrol group, but with the confined space of the caves, it would work better.

Even five men would have trouble moving through in some places and ten would be a nightmare. With the number of troops we’d brought this gave us eight squads to work with.

The remaining few men would guard the command tent initially, then later take the place of anyone too injured to continue. With the quality of medical supplies on hand I hoped that none of the troops would die, but had to expect that many would be injured to some extent or another.

It was something I tried to avoid thinking about but knew that I would have to face it eventually. All I could do was go in with them and be ready to respond to any calls for backup.

This would mean staying in reserve mid-way between the squads. I didn’t particularly like the idea of sitting out the bulk of the fights, but the captain had convinced me that having our strongest members in reserve would do the most to save lives among the troops.

Despite the former militia members having more actual training than Linnea and me, none of them could match our combat ability. They simply didn’t have the quality of gear or the base level of strength we had.

Hopefully, this operation would help with their strength in the future, leaving me with a hardened group to take over patrols at the end. Gear would be more difficult, however, as I simply lacked the funds to outfit them in anything better at the current time.

Manufacturing it ourselves might be possible in the future, but even then the materials would be costly The fabricator might make it possible to cheat on that somewhat, but it was currently being used for more important things.

It was hardly free to run either, using significant amounts of power to work its wonders. Power that ate into my dwindling supply of fuel with every use.

That was planning for the future, however. Now it was time to follow the squads already moving into the caves.

We were using the same cave entrance I had for each of my previous visits, and it loomed in front of us as we approached. I could hear murmurings among the soldiers, but it didn’t sound like they were too afraid yet.

I could even see a soft glow coming from deeper within. It wasn’t anywhere near the level of my previous trips, but it was still a surprise to see that the moss had recovered even that much.

Torches would still be required, but the soft luminescence helped to take the edge off what would otherwise be complete darkness.

Squads split off at each intersection as we advanced. While I had already fully explored a few of them, it was still best to check each for beasts. Catching every single beast might be impossible, but I wanted to get as many as we could.

Armed groups of miners could deal with an odd one here or there, but any significant quantity would be enough to shut the work down entirely. Given how important this mine was becoming to my future plans, that wasn’t something that I could allow.

Linnea and I settled into waiting after the fourth squad had peeled off, putting us roughly in the middle of the formation. She looked no more pleased to stay out of the action than I was, despite having agreed with the captain when it came up.

I soon found that simply waiting was somehow more tiring than actively exploring. Staying still, yet constantly on alert for problems, was exhausting and the urge to relax was difficult to overcome.

Particularly when the call never came on the first day, with the soldiers not encountering anything beyond their ability to deal with. That made the wait not just tiring, but boring as well with us only moving forward after several squads had finished with their tunnels.

It was partway through the second day that the call came. We were in the middle of lunch when we were interrupted. “Squad Six calling for backup. We're facing a massive mole-like creature. Our weapons are barely bothering it, but we’re retreating in good order.”

Linnea was on her feet before the call had even finished and I wasn’t far behind. With my map synced to the command tent still on the surface, I soon received directions from the Captain.

The man was running the entire operation from up there, showing a level of tactical ability that I wouldn’t have been able to match. It was impressive to see, and I hoped to get lessons from him in the future if I ever had the time.

We raced through the tunnels, ducking under rocky outcroppings and dancing over rough ground. Even my limited stats put me, leagues, beyond what I could have done before VSO. With her much higher Dexterity, Linnea had the grace of an Olympic gymnast, allowing her to keep up despite her heavier gear.

Racing as we did, we made it to the squad in record time. All five of them had holed up part-way down a tunnel. Three members were keeping watch while a fourth treated the final soldier.

The lookout on our side spotted us first and alerted the others with a shout. They all turned their rifles on us for a moment, before relaxing as they got a better look at us. Even the wounded soldier held his rifle in one arm, while he held his other clenched across his chest.

“Good to see you, Sir,” one of them responded crisply, the insignia of a corporal visible in the torchlight. “The immediate situation is secure, however, we have an injured member and will have to either return to base camp or wait for him to heal.”

“Understood,” I responded, still a little unsure about what protocols the soldiers used. “Please explain the encounter to me.”

The man nodded, pulling up his watch and forwarding me a map location. “We encountered a massive Beast roughly a mile further down the tunnel. It looked to be a mutated mole, though it was the size of a truck.”

“It barely fit down the tunnel, but that didn’t seem to slow it overly much. In fact, given how close it was in size, I’d wager that it might have dug this section,” he continued with a frown at the nearest wall.

I glanced over as well, soon realizing that the walls looked rougher than in other places. Here and there indentations could be seen, as if something dragged claws through the rock.

“We began a firing retreat, but our plasma seemed to have little effect. Even strikes to the face did little as it was blind with flesh covering the eyes. When it hurled a chunk of rock at Stevens I called the retreat. We threw flash bangs and turned to run.”

“Thankfully, its hearing seemed vulnerable enough as it was stunned despite its lack of sight. With Stevens injured, we dragged him as far as we could before we began treatment,” he finished, gesturing over to the medic.

The man had returned to wrapping bandages tightly around the injured soldier’s waist. I winced at the sight, before turning back to the corporal.

“Good work getting your men out,” I said with a nod. “We’ll advance to take the Beast out. Get in touch with Basecamp for further orders. The captain will decide whether you should return to the surface or fort up.”

That kind of decision was well beyond my command abilities and I was happy to leave it to Captain Hendricks. Despite my nominally higher rank as a count, I’d left him in overall command.

“You don’t need help, Sir?” the corporal asked, despite clear reluctance on his face.

“We should be fine,” I responded with a shake of my head. The man’s resolve to help impressed me, but with the report of their guns being ineffectual, it was best to leave them behind.

His face relaxed as he nodded in response. “Understood, Sir. Good luck with your fight. We’ll hold this position if you need a fallback point.”

I thanked him before moving forward with Linnea, who leaned in to whisper at me once we were out of sight.

“Sounds like a hard fight. If its skin is that tough, we should hit it hard and fast with everything we’ve got. Can you hold it if we need to retreat?”

“Should be able to,” I whispered back. “Ethereal Roots was able to hold the Dire tentacle beast, so it should be able to hold this.”

She smiled in response before leaning back and swapping her rifle for the plasma cannon. With the massive weapon in her hands, she had more firepower than anyone else we’d brought.

We advanced through the tunnels carefully, ready for anything. I had a vague hope that we could surprise the Beast, but that was dashed as a chunk of rock shattered against the wall to my right.

The tunnel curved to the left just ahead, and it looked like the Beast had just missed with its opening salvo. Grimacing at the insane force that the projectile had contained, I began triggering my abilities.

Enhance Cognition came first as the world seemed to slow done around me. Then Technokinesis activated, empowering my rifle with glowing purple energy. I almost activated Skin Hardening, but decided that with my enhanced thought processing I could save on energy until I saw an attack coming.

Using Enhance Cognition when it was safe had been one thing, using it in the heat of battle was another entirely. With adrenaline pumping through me the effect was magnified even further, giving me plenty of time to react.

It wouldn’t help too much with my physical reaction time but with my mentally triggered abilities, it would work wonders.

I watched in slow motion as the massive beast advanced around the corner. It was just as large as the corporal said, looking like a mole the size of a small bus. Its face bore tiny scorch marks from their earlier engagement, clear signs of the impressive toughness of its skin.

Less than a second passed before I launched my fully empowered rifle blast, with Linnea following a moment later. The crack of her massive cannon echoed through the tunnel alarmingly, almost overpowering the sound of my bolt exploding against the beast’s face.

Then her cannon's blast hit with an explosion that seemed to shake the entire tunnel. Small chunks of rock fell from the ceiling as the mole recoiled, smashing its head against the rock as it went.

I cursed, thinking that the tunnel was about to collapse, before relaxing as it subsided. If the tunnel had been any narrower, we might have been in trouble, but it looked like we made it through safely.

My distraction almost cost me as a boulder ripped free of the wall and flew straight toward us. It sped through the air too fast to dodge, but not so fast as to overcome my enhanced thoughts.

With a mental command, I triggered Ethereal Roots with the rock as my target. In an instant, the glowing tendrils ensnared the rock as it passed. Its momentum allowed it to smash through the first dozen tendrils before it finally crashed to the floor.

Wasting no time, we followed up with further flurries of plasma. I fired two more empowered shots, while Linnea swapped to her rifle and fired bursts with it.

Whatever strength or Psi power had allowed it to return fire failed it under our continued shots, and it soon collapsed to the ground.

We’d won the battle, but it seemed there were still far more dangerous monsters in the depths than I’d expected.