Vivid Stars Online

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath as thoughts swirled through my mind. It being Adam changed things as I desperately tried to remember everything Linnea and I had ever said around him.

While I couldn’t be sure, I felt like I had probably let slip that I knew where more facilities were. That would have given him time to prepare, and then I went and gave him the date for the new expedition to see if he was free.

That certainly locked down the how of him being here, though it didn’t entirely explain the why. Adam had seen pretty much everything we pulled from the previous ruin. Unless he’d wildly overestimated its value, then he couldn’t believe it was enough to break even with a six-man team, let alone make a profit.

That only left the facility itself and unless he was going to bypass me to sell the info to the Duchess, I just didn’t see how this all worked out for him. I had to imagine he had some plan worked out as he’d never been a stupid man, I just couldn’t see what it was.

“While that sucks,” I finally said as I calmed done. “It doesn’t change much. We get there first and we're good, we get there second and we lose out on everything. It might actually be better that he’s here, as a registered member of the Mercenary guild, I can’t see him resorting to violence like some group of bandits might.”

“Trying anything would blow back on him hard and ruin everything he’s done so far. Hopefully, that means he’ll just let it go and cut his losses if we get there first. If not, well, it’s going to get dangerous against the six of them.”

Linnea nodded, her face troubled. “Adam’s a dangerous fighter by himself, if the rest of his guys are even half-competent, a fight with them would be rough.”

“Well, there’s no time to lose then, right?” Elana gasped from beside us while still trying to catch her breath. “Don’t mind me, we need to push on so I’ll manage.”

I nodded at her in thanks before we began moving out again. While we had a short head start, it would be hard to maintain while fighting any Beasts we found. As the first group up, I expected we would meet the most Beasts which would slow us down and let the other group catch up.

Much as I had anticipated, we lost our lead after the fifth fight that day, only to get it back a few hours later after Adam’s group encountered a group of Yetis. While they had the combined firepower to handle it, they took long enough for us to regain our lead.

The race continued over the next two days as we swapped the lead position back and forth while never coming within a mile of each other. I got the feeling that Adam was just as reluctant to start something as I was, leading to a silent agreement to keep separated.

It was only during the darkest parts of the night that both of our groups stopped to rest for six brief hours before continuing. Given that we had potential human enemies nearby, we kept watches rather than lighting a fire, with Linnea and me splitting them to let the exhausted Elana rest.

While this led to us only getting three hours of sleep a night, our superhuman stats kept us functioning in the short term. It wouldn’t last for long, however, by the end of the second day I knew we were nearly there.

Our breakneck speed had turned a trip expected to take nearly four days into one that would be done before the end of the third day. We would be tired by the end, however, it was the only way to keep up with a group that could split the watch six ways.

By the time we had made it an hour into the third day, the facility came into view in the distance. Its bright metal gleamed in the sunlight, providing an obvious target throughout the valley we were climbing out of.

That’s what I was worried about, I thought with a sigh as I encouraged the other two to speed up. While the overhanging cliff they built it into would hide that from above, from down here, it’s obvious to anyone with eyes. If it wasn’t for this area being uninhabited, someone would have found this years ago.

A glance to our right showed the other group speeding up, demonstrating to me they had spied it, too. “Last push,” I said to the other two, particularly focusing on Elana, who looked exhausted. “We make it there first and we can all rest, I doubt Adam’s going to pull anything.”

With how far apart he’d stayed the whole time, I was now almost sure that he didn’t want any trouble. He could have ambushed us on either night and drowned us in plasma fire while there was only one of us awake. That he hadn’t taken the easy way out showed me he was still planning on doing this legally and convinced me he would back off if we made it first.

Elana nodded back despite her clear exhaustion and sped up to a jog with a muffled groan. Linnea and I flanked her as we focused on looking for Beasts, which we found only a short while later.

We blew through them as fast as possible, only for Elana to pause afterward. I almost broke and shouted at her, before she gasped out that she was leveling up. That gave me pause, and I left her alone for a minute, hoping it would help.

While she didn’t get a lot of XP from combat, we had still killed a lot of Beasts on the way up. After three days, I guessed it had finally added up. Just over a minute later, she gave me a thumbs up, looking noticeably better.

“Put both points into Toughness,” she said, her breath noticeably more under control. “Should let me finish this,” she continued as she broke into a faster jog. I followed her while staring out over the valley for the other party.

I thought they’d vanished for a moment before I swore as I saw them already climbing a switchback up the side of the valley. That put them at least a mile in the lead, possibly more.

All we could do was push forward and hope that something slowed them down. I almost ask Linnea to try using her gun to cause an avalanche or something, however, I restrained myself.

If Adam could prove I had done that intentionally, I would be in all sorts of trouble. Trouble that I wasn’t sure I could get out of with my normal routine intact. As much as I wanted to reach the facility first, it wasn’t worth that kind of long-term impact.

By the time we had reached the bottom of our cliff, they were already at the top. Only the echoing crack of plasma fire in the distance gave me hope we might make it in time.

We all scrabbled up the cliff, using goat trails and climbing holds as we could. It was far too slow for my taste, only for me to sigh in relief as I looked over the top of the hill.

Further across the snowy slope, Adam and his men were performing a fighting retreat against half a dozen furry shapes that I thought were yetis. Thank god he made it up first, I thought with a tired laugh in a direct contradiction of my earlier worries.

It looked like he’d drawn the attention of everything on the slope, leaving us with a straight shot to the end. Just like in the earlier days, the one with the lead had drawn the most heat.

With renewed vigor, we pushed on, even as Elana’s fresh energy flagged and Linnea began panting in exhaustion. Even I was feeling it, with a level of tiredness creeping in that I only ever felt from combat these days.

I felt my Psi sense trigger as we jogged up the hill with the feeling coming from Adam’s direction. A glance over showed what I thought were purple energy flashes, though it was hard to tell from this distance.

It looked like the increased danger, or perhaps the possibility of losing the race had forced one of his men to show their hand. I was sure it wasn’t Adam as I would have noticed if he was a Psion, so it must be one of the others with him.

Even with this additional help, we were halfway up the hill by the time they had finished the fight, giving us a lead that they just couldn’t close. Even when they broke into a last-minute sprint, we still slid into place at the door with a couple of minutes lead.

Not wasting any time, I slammed my scanner into boost mode, grabbed all the data it could catch, and uploaded it to the explorer database as a private claim. This would back the information up without revealing it to anyone else, thus allowing me to prove that we found the facility first.

“We made it,” I gasped in relief as I turned to face our pursuers. Besides me, Elana collapsed to the ground, while Linnea turned and drew her gun despite her ragged breathing.

While Adam’s betrayal had annoyed and saddened me, she’d taken it particularly badly after fighting with him as a comrade on the same job. While I thought he would end this peacefully, Linne had revealed that she had far less confidence in his morals.

Adam and his crew stopped a few hundred feet away and despite the clear slumps in most of their postures, none of them collapsed or sat down. Instead, they arrayed themselves in a loose line while Adam and another individual strode forward.

“That’s far enough,” I called after they had come close enough to easily hear me. “This is a claimed site and you cannot enter without permission. I don’t know why you're here, Adam, but it’s over.”

“I guess you're right, Boss,” the man said, his tone taunting, yet someone sad on the last word. “It was a good run, but you beat us here in the end,” he finished with a shrug.

I almost thought that would actually be it before his companion spoke. They were a tall individual outfitted in heavy armor that almost reminded me of the royal guard I’d seen back at the palace. This close my Psi sense tingled as I felt the signature of a powerful Psion.

“No,” the figure said in a dark, feminine tone. “I paid you for a job Adam Johnson, you will finish it or suffer the consequences.”

Adam winced at the response, seeming to shrink as he looked over at his companion, or perhaps employer. “Ah,” he said, tilting his weight back and forth. “Murder’s a grade-five crime, you know. Sure, you're scary and all, but our lives won’t be worth living if we get caught.”

I inched backward as they spoke, frantically gesturing to the sisters that they should get into cover. While the area was mostly exposed, I could spy a few rockfalls that must have collapsed from the overhanging cliff above.

I didn’t like the way this was going, and I wanted every advantage we could get if it came to combat.

Before me, the woman turned to Adam as purple sparks began springing from her armor. “Follow my orders and my backer will protect you from the local authorities, even the Duchess if needed. Disobey and I will see if your second in command will be more compliant.”

I swore under my breath as Adam’s posture slumped for a moment before he straightened and turned to me.

“Sorry, boss,” he said with the same odd twist to his voice. “I didn’t want it to come to this, however, my hand’s been forced. I’ll try to make it quick.”

With that said, he raised his shotgun, and the battle was on.