Chapter 7 – Bump in the Night

                The kilometers fell away behind them as Matt jogged forward. He did slow from the full out sprint so a more sedate pace that didn’t jar his vision and was much more sustainable. They were at about the halfway point when Matt saw bushes rustling and a trail of dust running an intercept course on the mech. He came to a stop in an area with much less dense vegetation, an area a few hundred meters across. He watched the dust trail change direction, reorientating on them and coming in fast.

                “Contact, 2 o’clock, coming in fast.” He called out to Tobias, not that his friend had anything he could actually do in the rear seat. It was mostly habit and it didn’t exactly hurt to call out. He got a word of acknowledgement from Tobias and readied the cannon. What came out of the brush was the worst thing that Matt could imagine.

                Matt hated the jungle for many reasons, chief among them was the plentiful and massive insects. Not only were they often toting some sort of venom, but they were also just creepy. While he tolerated them and could adapt to being constantly surrounded while in the jungle, he still had a visceral hatred of them. That is why when the 12-meter-long centipede reared up at the edge of the clearing, he didn’t hesitate. Selector to auto and trigger pinned to the rear was the play of the day it seemed.

                The bug realized is made a series of mistakes. Its first mistake was to stop its undulating movement, the second mistake was to rear up in a threatening pose, its third mistake was existing. 15 high velocity, explosive projectiles streaked toward it. A line of impacts and the following explosions stitched their way up its body wreaking havoc on its underside. The centipede was flipped over from the force of the impacts, flopping onto its back from the barrage. It was wounded and bleeding heavily but at least its armored top side was facing the right way now. The bug knew that it could now limp away and – Crunch.

                Matt had advanced the entire time he was firing and, when the centipede turned to flee, he stomped down on its tail section. This pinned the barbed tail to the to the ground, removing one of its possible weapons. Matt then fired directly into it from point blank, stitching another line up its back. The rounds completely ignored the chitinous plates, blowing right through them and into the gooier core of the beast. The creepy crawly spasmed as Matt finished off the rest of his magazine, making sure to hit every section of it at least once. He didn’t stop until his bolt locked back, magazine empty.

                “Well, that’s one way to handle it.” Van commented.

                “I hate bugs, ok. They are disgusting and creepy and I just don’t like them.” Matt said, changing mags and backing away from the corpse.

                “Yeah, no shit. I’m pretty sure its ancestors felt that smackdown.” Tobias added, not one to miss some clutch commentary.

                Matt realized that the fight was over before he even identified the creature. He almost didn’t even bother, not wanting to soil his mind with the information. In the end he relented and did the right thing, knowledge is power as some like to say.

Acid Barbed Centipede Level 32

These creatures grow at alarming rates, often growing long enough to completely encircle their prey. They rely on their hard shells to get close enough to sting their prey with their barmed tails, injecting them with acid to partly dissolve them.

                Huh, I guess you get some flavor text if you ID an enemy you kill. Matt thought to himself. He opened the system message that was vying for this attention and told Tobias about his discovery.

 

You have killed Acid Barbed Centipede Level 32

Experience earned.

 

Class Pilot – Skirmisher is level 5.

Stat points awarded.

Skill selection options available.

                Matt was surprised at the level up but then figured he must have been close after the birds. He was more surprised about skill options, assuming that his class would only get upgrades at a forge. As much as he wanted to pick some sweet skill, they were not in a position for him so dive into that. The edge of the forest was close, so he pushed on, wanting to get out of the open as soon as possible.

 

 

                They made the tree line not an hour later, pushing through the smaller growth at the forests edge to emerge under an emerald, green canopy with trees hundreds of meters tall. This forest was not dense with undergrowth and few of the trees had low hanging branches. Matt was happy to see that the trees themselves were spaced far apart, the upper canopies reaching for dozens of meters in every direction from the crowns. He moved to a position at the base of a particularly large tree, circling once to make sure there wasn’t anything lurking nearby.

Matt told Tobias what was going on and they elected to take a short break after Matt was done. Tobias likely wanted to know what it was like and grill him about the details afterward, so Matt dived in and opened the System message.

Pilot – Skirmisher Class skills available

Sharpened Sight (Common)

Increases the users’ sight and allows the user to see father. Affords the user better vision in adverse lighting conditions.

 

Dodge (Common)

Allows the user increased dodging ability. only activates when evading attacks.

 

Crushing Stomp (Uncommon)

Pin downed enemies, preventing them from moving or deliver a final blow. Can be used to unbalance smaller enemies in close proximity.

 

Repost (Uncommon)

Deliver an attack at increased power and speed after successfully evading or blocking an attack. May only be used with melee weapons.

 

Imbue Weapon (Rare)

Imbue your weapon with your affinity granting additional abilities and power to your attacks. Weapons may suffer damage depending on affinity if not enchanted with Affinity Imbuement.

 

                5 skills to choose from was more than Matt had hoped for and they seemed pretty straight forward. He wasn’t sure how they would work if he selected one, but he knew which one he was leaning toward. He remembered that several of his weapons had the enchantment Affinity Imbuement ability added to them. This also confirmed that not all skills were equal judging not only by the rarity tags but also by how awful the first two were. So, without further ado, he picked the Imbue Weapon skill.

                  A warmth spread to Matt’s extremities, starting at the weird spot between his heart and spine. When the warmth reached his brain, knowledge started trickling in, telling him exactly how to use the skill. It wasn’t like learning something in a classroom, having to take notes or repeating a process to make it stick. This knowledge was firmly rooted in place once it settled in, and he knew that nothing could make him forget.

                The entire process was over in less than a minute. Matt told Tobias that he picked his skill and that it was one of 5 options. Tobias, not to be denied his due, proceeded to interrogate the poor pilot about every little detail. With night falling faster in the forest due to the dense canopy above, they set up camp. After eating dinner, Tobias began a new line of questioning.

                “So, what did you put your free points into? I put mine into Constitution and intelligence mostly, a few into perception. I think that it… will… Why are you looking at me like that?” Tobias said, halfway through a lecture before seeing the look on Matts face.

                “I forgot to allocate mine. Fuck I forgot all about them being a thing.” Matt mumbled before pulling up his status sheet. Sure enough, there were the 25 points sitting in the “Free Points” column. He reviewed his stats, seeing they were mostly balanced and had a long think about how he fought or in this case, would want to fight. He also considered his complaints and failures from the past 2 days before making his decision. After allocating the points by willing them into the individual categories, he took another look to review.

Name: Matt Shultz Level: 5 (F)

Race: Human-Veiled

------

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 29

Endurance: 24

Constitution: 22

Perception: 22

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 17

Free Points: 5

 

                Matt decided that he would continue his method of being fast with a lot of stamina but also put points into Intelligence to help with all the mana he was using for ammunition. He put a token 2 points into each of the other stats so they wouldn’t sit stagnant. He wasn’t sure if this strategy was going to work but he could always adjust later at his next level ups.

                After telling Tobias his allocation, Matt broke out his books. He wasn’t a big reader in an educational sense, he read for entertainment and for when he had to fix something but needed instruction. The book he chose to read first was Piloting a Construct, for Idiots and despite the insulting name, it was just like the publication of a similar series on earth. No assumption was made on behalf of the reader, and it was written with a clear and linear path to build knowledge. It was a very engrossing read to say the least, time flew by as he learned some very important facts about his construct and its core.

                Saying a construct was made based on its pilot was a serious downplay on the enormity of the situation. A construct was named such because it was a physical manifestation of the pilot’s soul and given form by their subconscious will. The core of the construct was an even more complex creation, being an actual soul. The cores all had a personality that was meant to mesh well with their pilot and could even project their influence on them without being fully awakened. It was a partnership made to be perfect, but it was not without risk.

                A pilot could influence the nature of the core through their subconscious thoughts and emotions leading to as the system put it “adverse consequences”. Pilots that held joy in their hearts could make rather chipper cores and ones that harbored deep seated fear could end up with timid cores. What all this boiled down to was, the power amplification effects of the constructs and cores could also amplify the nature of the pilot. If a pilot was an insidious bastard, he or she may slowly be corrupted to an even worse person as they grew with their construct. Matt paused after this section, looking over to Van and Tobias.

                “Toby, I need a favor from you. A favor that might be an ongoing thing.” Matt started, waiting for Tobias to look up from his own book before continuing. “If I ever start going off the rails, I’m going to need you to set me back on the right path. A real deep dive, come to Jesus, reality check.”

                “Uhh, Sure. Can I ask why?” Tobias said, setting his book back down.

                Matt explained what he had just read as Tobias nodded along. He outlined some of his worries, but also admitted he didn’t know the full extent of this given that Van was awakened, and they had a different starting relationship than most. Tobias swore that he would personally pimp slap Matt if he ever had delusions of grandeur. After that followed a brief tangent on if Tobias needed to have a fur coat and gem encrusted chalice behind glass with a warning about uppity pilots.

                Matt was about to dig back into his book but glimpsed something in the darkness. The tell-tale reflection of eyes, dozens of sets moving back and forth between the trees on the opposite side of the mech. He was about to alert Tobias when Van suddenly boomed over the external loudspeaker.

                “Contact. 200 meters, ranging from my 11 to 3 o’clock.” Van called out the contact as he leveled the cannon.

                “Shit, Tobias let’s go.” Matt said as he shoved his helmet back on his head. He toggled to his Night vision setting with a thermal overlay and identified the shapes in the trees. Tobias spinning around and backing up to form a triangle with Matt and Van.

Forest Wolf. Level 10

                All of the wolves he used identify on were in the level 9 to 13 range which they knew they could handle, but oh boy were there a lot of them. Matt counted at least 11 of them on his side and knew there were likely more that the other 2 were looking at.

                “Let’s start shuffling our way to the most open area we can and get away from the tree. We don’t need any of them using it as cover to get close.” 2 affirmations later and they slowly edged their way to an open area, the wolves keeping a set distance away on Matts side. Well, the humans shuffled while the mech took much larger strides before reaching an area he thought would work.

                “Van, please don’t crush us.” Tobias said, trying to remind the core that he was standing over some very squishy humans. “Matt, I think now is our moment. If we start off, then we might gain the initiative instead of waiting on them.”

                Matt didn’t say a word as he picked a target that happened to hold still for a little too long. His rifle barked and the wolf flinched, running a few meters before dropping. Matt could see the gouts of blood, hot in his thermals despite the lack of light. From behind Matt, Tobias clicked on his rifle light and fired twice before everything went to shit.

                The wolves rushed in toward them in pairs, one slightly behind the other as they arced in. Matt pivoted and dropped the front runner with a shot to its lower jaw. Its tumble and the flash of his rifle must have spooked the one behind because it changed course, leaving its partner to slide toward the group as it ran away. Matt got a good look at the dead wolf, and they were big, well tall was a better word. They were narrow in the chest like most wolves but must have been a meter and a half tall at the shoulder and weighing more than Matt out of armor. He focused back on the fight taking single shots at the ones circling in the distance and double tapping any that came close.

                The wolves mostly attacked Tobias and Matt, using charges of 2’s or 3’s wolves but always losing at least one before they broke away. None seemed to be going after the mech, staying far away from it as Van tracked them back and forth with the cannon. Matt and Tobias talked back and forth, calling out downed enemies and any large group movements that they could see. It was pretty steady until Tobias had to change his mag. Magazine changes only took a couple seconds, but the wolves capitalized on that as a group of 6 rushed in from Tobias’ left, intent to do a literal dog pile. It was unfortunate for them that Van had been tracking this group and fired a 5 round burst as they crossed the halfway point.

                The concussion from that cannon up close and when not buttoned up shook the teeth in Matts head. The noise was dampened by his helmet and earcups for the radio, but that didn’t do anything for the blast. Bits of dirt and wolf rained down after the cannon stopped firing, a series of small impact craters all that marked where they had been. Matt fired at a passing trio of wolves before his bolt locked back and he had to do a mag change. Once again, a trio of wolves rushed in, this time as Van was facing away, not being able to cover Matt like he had for Tobias.

                Matt’s mag change was fast, he was proud of his sub second reload but it only allowed him to bring his rifle level to fire a double tap before the wolves were on him. Only 2 made it in, the third having a smoking hole in its face and powder burns on its fur. The first wolf went for his calf while the other went high, taking him in the chest. The first was unable to pierce he armor on his lower leg but that didn’t stop it from gnawing its way up toward the exposed knee joint. The second hit Matt like a hammer, seeming to speed up at the last moment to take him to the ground. Matts hands found its throat as he tried to hold it away from him while he kicked his free leg at the first one using him as a chew toy.

                Trying to punch the wolf in the face wasn’t working for Matt but as he considered trying for his tomahawk, he felt a stabbing pain in the back of his knee. the first one found the edge of his greave and tasting blood, tried to double down on its biting. Matt roared in pain as he heard a burst of round from Tobias and the wolf on his leg went slack. Switching tactics, he rammed his hand a forearm down the second wolfs throat, causing it to gag and pull away as he freed his tomahawk. He choked up on the handle and rammed the spike side into the wolf’s neck, trying to do a clapping motion with the hand that was down its throat. After a couple hits, he found spine and the beast went slack, letting Matt roll onto a knee and level his rifle again.

                While the two wolves were going at Matt like the family dog trying to get the squeaker in a brand-new chew toy, Tobias and Van had been laying down some grade-A hatred. The wolves had started moving in after Matt had gone to ground trying to capitalize on there being one less person to deal with. This tactic only opened them up to more continuous fire from Tobias as he didn’t have fleeting glimpses at his targets, able to engage more at a time. The closing wolf circle had also brought them into tighter packed groups for Van and the cannon. The bursts were short at only 3 to 5 rounds, but the explosive nature of the ammo meant that each round had a kill radius, rather than individual targets.

                Matt pulled the fragmentation grenade from his pouch, finally having a group dense enough to use it on. He jerked the pin out and side armed it toward a cluster of wolves, giving plenty of lead for the fuse to burn down and detonate. Another brief flash, and a slightly bigger crater than the 25mm rounds lead to a rain of dirt and wolf bits. Matt had expected them to break off and retreat after loosing so many, but it seemed that they were all committed to bring down the trio. Matt thought it was strange but didn’t question it as he picked off the stragglers, short bursts downing each.

                Matt ran out of targets and saw in his rear overlay that Tobias and Van had also stopped firing, leading him to assume they were in the clear. He once again swapped in a fresh magazine, scanning the trees for any more lurking wolves but didn’t see any. His leg was on fire, pain flaring at every twitch of his leg muscles. He called over to Tobias and told him he was wounded as he clicked on his helmets white admin light to inspect the damage.

                Tobias and Van moved to cover Matt as he tended to his wound, each taking up a position on opposite sides of him. The light revealed that his base layer was punctured in several places, quiet the shock since it was partly composed of a Kevlar weave and Matt knew it was resistant to puncture from his own testing. Dark red blood was running from the wound, telling him his artery wasn’t punctured at least. He pulled off his helmet and fished out one of the healing potions from his storage ring, deciding now was the time to test it.

                “Cheers you bastards.” He said to the wolf corpses around him. He pulled the cork and downed the red potion that tasted like nothing but water. He then turned back to his leg, holding his helmet to shine a dim light on his rapidly healing wound.