Gale sat at the round table in Protection Sector’s living halls in front of Erin’s console. The display showed a bunch of blue and red sectors in different shades. Harmony Sector, in particular, was more blue than green.

The twins, Rachel, Ollie, Lily, and Erin all sat around the table as well having a conversation that had nothing to do with the current state of the rift. From Erin’s expression, it was hard to tell what she was feeling, but by the way she kept glancing at the terminal, it said it all.

She didn’t like fun, but she was being forced to absorb it.

“What you guys doing to do after you get back home anyways?” Kyle suddenly asked.

“Meditate,” Lily said.

“Boooring. Next,” Clyde said.

“Excuse me?”

“You know what we mean. Real plans, not normal routine after coming back from a rift,” Kyle said.

Lily flipped him off. “What the fuck. You asked what I was going to do after the rift. Meditate and probably reach Late Resonant.”

“Probably also reach a boring level of 70 too,” Clyde said.

“Why 70?” Rachel asked.

“70 is usually when kids start bragging about their levels in a specific MMO,” Kyle said.

“You idiots just used my account, and you still bragged,” Ollie said.

“Would do it again,” Clyde said.

“What about you, fire eater? Plans?” Kyle asked.

Rachel leaned back in the chair, glancing at Gale before looking back. “I’m probably going to hang out with my best friend. It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen her. Shopping, eat at a restaurant, probably. Maybe even drag Gale along and get him some actual clothes that don’t look baggy.”

“Actual clothes?” Gale said. The clothes he wore at the Ann Family dinner were definitely not for casual. “Like what?”

“We’ll see. Isla and I can dress you up.” Rachel smiled, then glared at Ollie. “But basically normal clothes that aren’t from a donation bin.”

“Eh, that’s not my fault. Talk to asshole #1,” Ollie said.

“Gale, what you gon’do after?” Clyde asked.

Gale shrugged. “After we’re done here, I’ll read some of those books Rachel told me about. Also catch up with my school friends, I guess?”

“Huh? Books?” Ollie leaned forward. “What kind of books are we talking about here?”

“Yeah, Rachel. I loved that previous book you told me about. Come on. Tell us what kind of books,” Lily said.

Rachel’s face flushed red, the temperature of the room took a turn up as well. “Nothing. Just books. Regular books.”

“Oh, but what kind of regular books?” Lily asked, egging her on.

“Bet she likes her books spicy like the way she likes her food,” Kyle said.

“But you can’t eat books. How can it be spicy?” Gale asked.

“It’s. Just. Regular. Books.” Rachel glared at Kyle.

Kyle laughed it off with a grin. “What about you, bossman? What’s the plan after?”

Ollie sighed. “Research, mostly. Dust research. Maybe figure out which dust strains produce less lethal effects to mundanes and then go from there. The usual.”

“You’re still hung up on the shard thing, eh?” Kyle said.

“I’m not blaming Gale.” Ollie took another sigh. “It’s just that I keep thinking about it. We could’ve gone to that memory hivestore and gotten more info. You know? Instead, we had to run. I’m just…”

“Frustrated?” Kyle cut in. “You’ve been holed up in your office ever since we got back from that rift shithole at Lakeshore West, barely eating, barely sleeping. You need some chill.”

Clyde cleared his throat. “What Kyle means is we’re sorry for giving you a hard time after you came back. We didn’t understand what you were going through, but we’re here for you now. Now don’t make that more sappy than it should be. This isn’t some third rate oscar winning movie.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I just need to get through some stuff in my head. It’s fine,” Ollie said.

Gale cleared his throat, mimicking Clyde to get everyone’s attention. “We could go back to Harmony sector. Get the documents from the Awakening procedure?”

Lily frowned. “Might not be a good idea when we’ve got targets on our backs. Those freaky tekmen are probably hunting us.”

Erin’s eyes opened for the first time since she’d started floating there, and Gale realized she’d been listening this whole time with her eyes closed. “For what reason do you seek the Awakening procedure? You all already have ether flowing through your veins.”

Ollie reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small blue vial. “Dust corruption. It’s a disease that affects mundanes and crystallizes their body over time. Fatal if left untreated. 11 days to death. The inhabitants of Harmony sector had these horn-like crystal growths on their heads, but they seemed to be doing well and living normally.”

Erin telekinetically grabbed the vial from Ollie’s hands. She examined it as it floated in front of her, turning it over. A circle of light formed on all sides of the vial for 3 seconds, then disappeared. The vial then floated back to Ollie.

Then she spoke, “The Cryil species is of the horned variety. For their awakening procedure, the horns themselves were used as a catalyst to draw the harmful crystals away from vital organs. This prevents the corruption which you have spoken of. It is but a form of Origin crystallizing due to misuse of the mortal body.”

“What even is Origin?” Lily asked.

“Does water need an explanation to be called water? It does not. An explanation of Origin is redundant as it just is,” Erin said.

“Fair point,” Lily rolled her eyes.

Erin continued. “Once the Origin matures within the flesh, the procedure encodes a process that allows host awakening, thus allowing natural pathways to form. This will halt the crystallization entirely. The host either awakens to their dormant power or remains mundane, trapped within mortal limitations.”

“Does it need to grow externally?” Ollie asked. “Like, does it have to be visible on the body, or can the procedure work with internal crystallization?”

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“It must be external. Origin cannot be suppressed by mere flesh. For races lacking horns, the back of the hand is usually used for this procedure as it is aesthetically pleasing and gives homage to the divines of the cosmos. When matured and unencoded, Origin seeps outwards through pathways which do not exist within mortal flesh. The crystals which you speak of then break the flesh from the inside. Origin follows the path of least resistance if not directed, as do all things,” Erin said.

Gale nodded. It sounded like he got some extra lecture out of this from his own pathways. Though thinking about going back and having to redo his pathways was not one he wanted to think about right now. The pain of just reconfiguring made him hope that Erin would forget. But apparently, from the way she was staring at him, she hadn’t forgotten…

Erin’s lips curved into a smile, a rare occurrence. “This technology was designed by my own hand, before your kind was even born. You should consider yourselves fortunate that the Grand Researcher of the Weber Conglomerate deigns to share this knowledge. Now I am waiting for you to thank me.”

Kyle laughed, and so did Clyde. Soon, the whole table was laughing, yet for some reason, Erin did not even show a hint of humility as she proudly still held her smile.

When the laughter quieted down, Gale quietly said, “Erin. Thank you.”

“Your gratitude is a given,” Erin said, still smiling.

“How big is Weber Conglomerate?” Ollie said, now leaning even more forward.

“Yeah. How big is it?” Kyle and Clyde said in unison.

Lily sighed, and Rachel shook her head.

“I’m glad you asked.”

Erin went on a tirade about the expanse in which the Weber family operated.

It went dead on Gale’s ears, though. Rachel’s too, as he saw her wave at him with a smile from the other end of the table.

As the conversation continued, even Lily started to get interested in the sigil and language formations used in what Erin called ‘Weber Artificing’. The name itself made one of Gale’s brows go up.

When the conversation came into another lull, Gale spoke up once again. “What are we waiting for? We still got to go back home. We got 2 cores. One more core in this sector. I’d say this would be planning and gear up time.”

“Very well,” Erin nodded. “We must now plan the swift valiant assault on the Wisdom sector.”

Kyle and Clyde coughed.

“We have two cores in storage. The third core remains in this sector’s Core Chamber. We take it and move immediately. The designation for this will be Kyle, the loud one. The rest will hold the elevator at the top floor just before the inner defense hall.”

“What’s the enemy this time? Those big ones can’t possibly just push up with their size,” Lily asked.

“The guardian Units in this assault are expected to be the human-sized combat models. They will converge on our position once a breach within the Core’s outer frame has been detected,” Erin said. “In case none of you understood, that will be immediate.“

“So I grab a giant spiky ball while you guys fight off murder robots,” Kyle said. “Got it. Why me again?”

“Idiot. You have that dagger and you’re the best at it apart from Gale. We can’t have a vanguard be doing that,” Ollie said.

“Man’s right though. You like stealing shit,” Clyde said.

“Fine. But fuck you in particular,” Kyle stared at Clyde.

“Once Kyle has secured the core, we shall retreat to the transit hub through the deactivated defense hall. Worry not, as I supersede the guardian’s authority access.”

“Famous last words…?” Gale said.

Rachel sighed, “At least you used it right.”

Kyle and Clyde grinned while Lily just rolled her eyes, also with a sigh.

“All must prepare for the guardians or the Tekanimantus to pursue us during the escape,” Erin said. “They will most likely target key components of the train. I have already diverted a combat train model to head to Protection Sector. It will arrive in less than 12 hours. We must begin then.”

“Cool. Epic train fight,” Kyle said.

“Of course there’s a train fight,” Clyde muttered.

“Stop commenting on everything! This isn’t a movie!” Lily said harshly.

Kyle and Clyde just shrugged her off. “Might as well be.”

Ollie rubbed his temples. “How many guardians are we talking about?”

“Exactly 64 guardians are garrisoned in Protection Sector as of now. However, there are over 60,000 combat guardians in reserve apart from the current 30,000 in combat in multiple sectors.”

“So we could be fighting ten or a hundred or worse,” Lily said.

“Correct.”

“That’s suicide with extra steps,” Ollie said.

“Do you have an alternative that does not involve us remaining in this tomb until we die a slow death?” Erin asked.

“That’s not what I meant,” Ollie said, shaking his head.

“Right. We’ve already done a suicide mission. There’s no difference now,” Lily said.

Gale caught Rachel’s eye contact. Both of them weren’t really part of the people that usually did the strategy. Maybe he would if this was a forest, but it’s the complete opposite of one.

In the wild, the dark hunter is the one that hunts the best with his legendary strategem-

Rachel waved at him with a smile, interrupting his inner monologuing. He waved back, also with a smile.

“Once we reach Wisdom sector. We proceed directly to the Rift Aperture System chamber. I will repair the system using all three Origin Cores. There will be 3 different inner chambers I must insert the Origin Cores into after finishing repairs. Once repaired, we exit. Simple enough.”

“How long does the repair take?” Lily asked.

“The system was built to withstand catastrophic failure. The repair should not exceed one hour.”

“Should,” Lily repeated. “Which usually means it’s going to be at least twice that.”

“Incorrect. Have you not heard my earlier statements about the Weber Conglomerate? I have not failed even once in repairing unknown technologies. This specific system is my design. I shall not fail.”

Lily nodded, but then glanced at Ollie. “What you think?”

“The plan is sound and there’s really nothing else we can do anyways,” Ollie said.

“The plan is sound,” Erin said. “The execution requires discipline and coordination. Both of which everyone demonstrated in Unity sector.”

“Well, technically,” Ollie said. “This is a smash and grab followed by a fighting retreat into one of the most dangerous sector in the tomb.”

“I feel like I just heard my three favourite words,” Kyle said.

“Smash and grab,” Clyde said. Both earned an elbow to the flank from Rachel.

“That is the nature of the operation and our situation. There are no other strategems we are able to use,” Erin said.

Lily crossed her arms. “What about fallback positions? Choke points? Anywhere we can bottleneck them if things go wrong?”

“There are natural choke points all laid out. The Tomb was designed to be a fortress against the corruption. Each sector is designed with the intention to hold the line. Have you not seen the funnel design of the transit hub to the outer defense hall? Each defense hall itself is a firing line. And then there are the elevators, once destroyed, enemies would have to drop,” Erin said.

“So you’re saying we explode the elevator after we use it?” Rachel asked.

“Exactly.”

“Timeline. How fast do we need to move?” Lily asked.

“Once the Origin Core’s frame is penetrated, we have approximately 6 minutes and 32 seconds before the guardian forces climb up the sector’s elevator. The train will arrive exactly at the 7th minute exactly 712 minutes from now.”

“That’s tight,” Lily said.

“Survivable though,” Ollie said. “Kyle, you think you can get it out fast enough?”

“I’m fast as fuck, boy. I’ll get it out in 2 minutes,” Kyle said.

Ollie then looked at the terminal. “And once we’re in Wisdom? What’s the opposition?”

“The Tekanimantus forces have been distracted on multiple fronts. The Wisdom Sector has been emptied of most of the abominations. We shall use this gap to get to the system,” Erin said. “However, once we are in, there are no guarantees the enemy will not fall back to the sector to oppose us from escaping. The Tekanimantus’ goals remain to capture what they call premium flesh.”

“Right,” Lily said. “I’d die before I fucking turn into one of them.”

“Everyone’s in agreement on that one, scout lady,” Clyde said.

Erin’s gaze turned to Gale. “The plan is sound. The variables are manageable. Gale, is the plan of adequate logic to your senses?”

Everyone turned to look at Gale.

“Yeah, Gale. What you think? We giving this a shot?” Ollie asked.

Guide, strategy assessment? Gale mouthed as steadily as he could like a ventriloquist while pretending to think.

[Query accepted.]

[Tekanimantus’ aim is to capture the current group for their resource production. High probability of constant skirmishes during sector transitions.

guardians’ aim is E_W. Probability increases if guardian forces cooperate with the group if the group chooses to let the guardians take her back to the pod. That is an option when cornered by guardian units.]

[Protection Sector Origin Core heist -> Transit hub train to Wisdom Sector -> Rift Aperture System defense. Chronology of tasks is sound.]

[Host currently has: 295 Origin grains available for allocation and 1 available skill point to freely allocate. Host is recommended to apply these before the mission.]

[The current team’s equipment and gear are inadequate for the whole mission. Consider creating: turrets for the defense, forcefields generators for portable deployment of cover, battle armour replacements, traps for soft targets, traps designed for guardian units.]

[Send data to E_W?: Y/n]

Gale took a deep breath before saying, “If there’s ever any issues, we adapt. Always. And if anyone gets hurt, you fall right the hell back. No more conserving gun syringes. I got several more of the vials if you need them. Everyone got that?”

After speaking, he pressed the Y button immediately, and everyone nodded except Erin.

Erin cleared her throat. “Then, let us head back to the Star Forge once again. We must prepare combat resources to be expended on this mission.”

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