NOVEL NEXT Chapter 122 - Survey Work
Luca woke to the sound of acid rain drumming against the Centurion's hull.
For the first time since landing on this toxic hellscape, he'd actually slept well. The bed was surprisingly comfortable with Emily curled against him, her warmth cutting through the constant hum and vibration of their mobile base. He stretched carefully, feeling good despite their circumstances.
Emily stirred beside him, then poked him in the ribs. "Stop hogging the covers."
"There's like six inches of blanket," he grinned, poking her back. "How exactly am I hogging it?"
She poked him again, harder this time, right in the spot that made him squirm.
"Hey! Stop it!" he laughed, rolling away from her and nearly falling off the bed.
"That's what you get for being a blanket thief," Emily said smugly, pulling the thin sheet around herself.
Luca swung his legs over the side of the bunk and immediately stumbled, a cascade of pins and needles shooting up his left leg. "Jesus," he hissed, grabbing the edge of the bed for support.
Emily looked over, a smug, sleepy grin spreading across her face. "What's wrong, blanket thief? Forget how to walk?"
"Your leg pinned down my thigh all night," he grumbled, trying to shake the feeling back into his numb leg. "Cut off my circulation. I'm lucky I don't have gangrene."
"You're so dramatic," she purred, stretching luxuriously.
He limped toward the shared bathroom, each step a tingling reminder that even sleeping next to Emily could be hazardous to his health. Through the thin walls, he could hear the familiar sounds of their crew waking up around him.
***
In the main cabin, Ryan and Chris were hunched over Ryan's laptop at the dinette, both looking like they'd been up all night. Empty coffee cups and energy bar wrappers littered the small table around them.
"What's for breakfast?" Luca asked as he settled into the dinette with Emily.
Zoe looked at him deadpan from across the table. "Energy bars."
"Seriously? Did nobody bring down waffles from the Triumph? Who was in charge of restocking the Centurion?"
"JOEY!" everyone screamed in unison.
The criminal's head popped up from his station, looking slightly hurt. "What? I packed medical supplies! You said food was handled!"
"By who?" Emily demanded.
Joey's face went through several expressions before settling on mortified realization. "Oh. Oh shit. I thought... I assumed..."
"You assumed wrong," Ryan said, holding up another energy bar wrapper. "Hope you like chocolate-cardboard flavor, because that's breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"I packed plenty of MREs," Chris offered. "Don't get so hung up on gourmet choices."
"The reconstituted beef?" Danny asked, making a face. "I'd rather eat the energy bars."
"At least they're chocolate-cardboard and not mystery-meat-cardboard," Zoe pointed out pragmatically.
"Any luck with the data extraction?" Luca asked Ryan, gesturing at the laptop to change the subject before Joey started crying.
Ryan looked up with bloodshot eyes but nodded. "Actually, yeah. We figured out the interface protocol around three this morning. The data's there, we can get it out."
"That's great news," Emily said.
"Well, sort of," Chris added. "It'll take a while to decrypt and render on our computers. The TL9 multitools pack everything into compressed formats."
"How long is a while?" Luca asked.
"Hours, maybe days, depending on the data size," Ryan replied. "But it's doable once we're back on the Triumph with proper processing power."
Joey looked skeptical. "You sure you'll be able to export everything? What if we lose data in translation?"
"Oh no, the data's solid," Ryan explained, gesturing at his screen full of code. "These multitools are basically quantum computers disguised as scanning devices. They're recording everything... molecular structures, electromagnetic signatures... It's just encrypted in formats our current hardware can barely handle."
Luca leaned back, processing this. "So we can run a full survey using just the multitools, we just need time to process the results."
"Exactly," Chris confirmed. "No physical samples needed. The tools are recording data that's better than what we could get from traditional collection methods anyway."
"Alright," Luca said, feeling the pieces of a plan coming together. "Emily, can you set up modified survey objectives that work with just multitool scans?"
Emily nodded, her eyes unfocusing as she accessed her interface. "I'll create new objectives based on multitool capabilities. But the survey charter does call for samples."
"We can't get any from here, so we'll do what we can."
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Within seconds, notices started appearing in Luca's display:
[Objective Assigned: Toxic Sludge Source Survey] (0/5)
Task: Analyze a minimum of 5 unique liquid sources (surface, depth, sediment, microbial). Tests Required: pH, salinity, heavy metal content, DNA/RNA sequencing
Contribution Reward: 15,000 CP
[Objective Assigned: Inorganic Mineral Survey] (0/24)
Task: Scan a minimum of 12 mineral samples from 2 biomes (2 per biome). Log coordinates, soil temp, magnetic signature.
Contribution Reward: 510,000 CP
[Objective Assigned: Atmospheric Survey] (0/15)
Task: Conduct microbial sweeps at 3 sites, including caves, aquifers, crater lakes, thermal vents, forests, and anomalous zones. Scan and log 5 atmospheric readings per site.
Contribution Reward: 20,000 CP
[Objective Assigned: Flora Survey] (0/60)
Task: Catalog 30 plant species per biome across 2 biomes. Tests: Cell imaging, photosynthetic analysis, genetic sequencing.
Contribution Reward: 75,000 CP
[Objective Assigned: Lifeform Survey] (0/20)
Task: Document and scan 20 distinct non-plant lifeforms across identified biomes. Include behavioral patterns, habitat preferences, and biological markers.
Contribution Reward: 85,000 CP
"What the hell?" Luca stared at the mineral survey payout.
"Did you set the contribution points?" he asked Emily.
"No, you know I can't. I create the objectives according to charter requirements, and the System assigns rewards automatically."
Ryan leaned forward to look at Luca's display. "Why does the mineral survey pay out so much more than everything else?"
"The System must think there's something important here," Emily replied. "That payout suggests critical strategic value."
"Right," Luca said. "So we run these modified objectives. The question is, who's got upgraded multitools that can handle the workload?"
A moment of awkward silence settled over the table.
"I've kept mine current," Danny said, pulling out his sleek TL9 device. "Mine's optimized for atmospheric and liquid analysis."
"Mostly," Ryan added, though he looked embarrassed. "I don't have the armor integration... but I did get the rest of the upgrades. It can scan for mineral and metal analysis."
Emily held up her multitool. "Mine's fully upgraded, all medical though."
"Same," Joey added.
Luca nodded, checking his own device. "Mine's set up for biological scans, flora and fauna documentation. What about you guys?" He looked at Zoe and Chris.
Chris winced. "I've been focused on armor mods. My multitool is... functional but not exactly cutting edge."
"Yeah, I may have neglected the upgrades," Zoe admitted, scratching Pixel behind the ears. The midnight blue nyxocatus seemed completely unbothered by their equipment discussions. "But it still works, right?"
"They'll work," Ryan confirmed. "For basic scanning they're fine."
"Good enough," Luca decided. "We've got three survey multitools tools and two backup units. That should cover our survey requirements."
He looked around the cramped cabin at his crew. They had a plan that might actually work, food that barely qualified as edible, and a planet outside that wanted to dissolve them.
"Alright then," he said. "Let's go see what Midnight Veil is trying so hard to hide."
Emily and Luca moved with increasing confidence through the corrosive winds, finding their steps as they ventured closer to the portal roughly a kilometer from the Centurion. The toxic gusts whipped around them, but their TL9 armor held steady, giving them the protection they needed to press forward.
The heavy storm had passed, though another one was forecasted in a few hours. This planet kept surprising them.
Emily kept her plasma blaster ready while Luca worked his multitool, scanning the waxy vegetation as they walked. Each twisted plant got catalogued. Its cellular structure, photosynthetic efficiency, and risk assessment. His multitool was working overtime, building a comprehensive biological database of Midnight Veil's flora while slowly draining his Scout Suit's battery.
"Getting good data?" Emily asked over their private comm, her eyes constantly scanning their surroundings for threats.
"Yeah, these plants are fascinating," Luca replied, pausing to scan a particularly large fungal growth. "The waxy coating is actively neutralizing the acid. Incredible adaptation."
They pushed forward, their confidence growing with each step. The alien landscape was hostile as hell, but they were finally getting the hang of this toxic wasteland. Each gust of corrosive wind still made Luca's skin crawl despite the armor's protection, but they pressed on, scanning everything that wasn't a bubbling pool of acid.
A faint hum, a shimmer in the air... the first portal. It hung like a swirling vortex of energy, a cosmic anomaly right here on Midnight Veil's surface, vibrating with ominous power.
"There it is," Emily said, her plasma blade now at her hip, ready to draw if needed.
The portal flickered, intensified, and with a crackling surge, it spat out a group of creatures. Armed Varnathi. The weasel-faced aliens stumbled through the dimensional gateway, their wiry frames looking confused and desperate as they clutched their face masks, choking on the toxic environment.
"Holy shit," Emily whispered over their private channel.
The Varnathi didn't last long. The corrosive atmosphere ate away at their flesh, skin bubbling and sloughing off as they clawed at their throats, gasping for breath that only brought more poison into their lungs. Within seconds, the entire squad collapsed, dissolving into grotesque, steaming puddles that seeped into the gray dust.
Luca exhaled slowly, his voice grim. "Guess that's why we haven't had any surprise visitors."
"They don't stand a chance out here," Emily said, her voice tight with a mixture of horror and relief. "We're probably the only ones who can even survive in this atmosphere."
They exchanged a look through their helmet visors. This planet was designed to kill everything that wasn't prepared for this level of environmental hostility. Whatever Midnight Veil held, it wasn't meant for the Varnathi... or anyone else who couldn't handle the toxic conditions.
"Guess that portal leads somewhere less toxic," Luca said, trying to inject some optimism into his voice. Despite the gruesome display, the thought of a new portal, a new challenge, got his blood pumping.
He raised his hand toward the dimensional gateway, feeling slightly ridiculous. The interface message appeared immediately:
[System Message: Operation Site]
Scenario: The Toxic Outpost
Gateway: Stable
Recommended Level: 72
Maximum Level: 86
Mission Objective: Defend researchers from hostile creatures and escort them to the research outpost.
[End of Message]
"Level 72 portal," Luca swallowed.
Emily's gaze flicked between the portal and his face. "We're still level 67," she reminded him, her tone cautious but not dismissive. "Maybe we should have stayed in New Dawn longer before coming out here."
Luca nodded, studying the portal's swirling energy patterns. "Yeah," he replied, biting his lip. They were good, but were they that good? "Feels like we're just shy of where we need to be for this one."
He hesitated. Could they take on a mission that was way above their level? Maybe. But the last thing he wanted was to get Emily killed because he was being reckless. Again. He tapped his comm, hoping the radio signal would transfer over the toxic wind. "Chris, how far is the next portal from here?"
After longer than he'd hoped, Chris's voice crackled over the link. "The next portal is approximately two kilometers south of your position. The energy signature matches a similar pattern."
Luca looked at Emily, a glimmer of resolve in his eyes. "Alright, let's head south and check it out. Maybe we'll find one more suited to our level."
Emily nodded, casting a last wary glance at the toxic portal and the steaming puddles of the dissolved Varnathi. "Let's hope so. If this planet's got anything easier for us, we'll need it. Let's move."