Destiny Among the Stars - Scifi - LitRPG - Adventure

The sunlight pouring through the Peregrine's windows was soft and golden. Outside, the alien forest glowed lavender and crimson, but inside, everything was warm leather and the low murmur of voices.

He leaned back against the dinette bench, tablet in one hand, a cup of actual coffee in the other, and watched as the crew slowly filtered in.

Emily padded into the dinette still half-asleep, her blonde hair a tousled mess and her pink flannel pajamas wrinkled. They were soft and baggy in a way that clung just right when she moved, ridiculously cute, complete with little bunny patches.

She plopped herself onto his lap without a word, curling an arm around his shoulders. Her body was warm against his, melting into him. He slipped one arm around her waist and leaned back as she took a sip from her mug.

She gagged immediately. "Ugh, Ryan, this is tar."

"Told you," Luca muttered, grateful for the distraction. "It's not coffee."

Ryan, leaning against the counter, shrugged. "It'll put hair on your chest."

"Yeah? Hope it chokes you," Emily said, scrunching her nose and pressing her forehead against Luca's. "Your taste buds are broken."

Luca buried his face in her hair for a second. She smelled like she'd just walked out of a dream.

Zoe strolled in a minute later. "Morning, lovebirds. Who finished the waffles?"

Danny sat down across from them, glaring directly at Luca. "I swear there were six. Now there's one. One."

Emily raised a hand. "I had one. Ryan had one."

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Which leaves you, Luca."

He stared.

Luca raised a brow. "You think I waffle-thieved with Emily in my lap?"

Danny's eyes narrowed further. "I think you're suspiciously full for someone who claims innocence."

Emily giggled. "It was Luca."

"Traitor."

Danny sighed and slumped into the bench beside Ryan, stealing half of his protein bar. "I killed a guy in power armor yesterday. I deserve waffles."

"Dude," Ryan said, mouth full. "We all killed people in power armor."

"Yeah, but I hit him with a hammer," Danny muttered. "You just shot the wall with that rifle."

"Speaking of," Luca said, tapping the tablet. "Let's recap. Total XP gain from the delve put everyone at level 64. And the credit haul... nearly 800,000." That kind of cash would have taken twenty delves back in Sol. They'd been scraping for years to build the Triumph, and here, they'd pulled over five million from a single run.

"And that's not even counting upgrades," he said, projecting the summary list in the center of the table.

He squeezed Emily gently, and she tilted her head back to kiss him.

They were about halfway through breakfast when his interface pinged.

[Bonfire Protection Expired]

Well, shit. So much for lounging around, it was now time to go.

He tapped the edge of the table. "Alright, gear up. Signal's not getting any closer."

Emily sighed and kissed his temple before slipping off his lap. "Go play Captain, lover boy. I'll clean up."

He climbed into the Peregrine's cabin, flicking through the vehicle's dashboard as the vehicle began retracting its outpost mode. A few seconds later, the engines rumbled to life. The Specter was tethered and floating behind them.

The passenger seat creaked as someone dropped into it.

Chris.

Not Emily.

Figures, Luca thought, fighting a sigh. Emily probably wanted time with Zoe or to help Joey with med kits.

He pulled up the nav overlay. The signal was still active, pulsing faintly about 300 kilometers northeast.

He throttled the Peregrine forward. The Specter followed close behind, hovering smoothly. He glanced at the path ahead, then over at Chris.

Chris smirked slightly. "So... wanna talk about the bloodbath?"

Luca groaned and hit the windshield wipers for no reason. "Can we not?"

Whatever happened what happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon? he thought bitterly.

Chris chuckled, kicking his boots up on the dash. "Nope."

And just like that, the day was off to a perfectly normal start.

Until it wasn't.

The sky darkened so fast he thought something was wrong with the window tint.

A second later, Ryan leaned into the cockpit. "Looks like rain," he said, eyebrows raised.

"You think?" Luca muttered as the first heavy droplets splashed against the windshield.

Danny poked his head into the cabin, pushing Ryan aside, his tablet in hand. "The weather satellite says we're getting hit for a while. There's a stalled pressure system over the southern ridge."

"Oh no," Chris said, deadpan. "Not the weather!"

Luca stared at the windshield as the downpour began in earnest. No sun. No dry firewood. No dry anything. And worse?

No [Bonfire Protection] out here.

The cabin lights flickered as thunder cracked somewhere off to the east.

The Peregrine crawled along the muddy trail, tires churning through the thick muck as rain pounded down from above, rattling against the vehicle's armored hull in a steady, deafening drone. The darkened forest around them loomed high, ancient trees with thick trunks and gnarled roots stretching up into the stormy sky.

Rain had begun to pool in the dips on the ground, turning the forest floor into a network of streams that reflected the sparse moonlight filtering through the clouds. They had been driving all day, each kilometer harder than the last as the terrain grew rougher, the trail narrowing between towering trees. And Luca's ass was getting numb.

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He leaned back, his hands on the wheel while focused on his interface, half-distracted. They'd leveled up, pulled off one of the bloodiest missions yet, and he hadn't even looked at his stat screen.

Luca stared at the screen, rain blurring the edges of the world beyond the glass.

Jesus.

The XP gain from that last portal was obscene. Back in Sol, hitting level 60 had felt like reaching Olympus. Now? They were tearing past it. Two years of grinding to hit the cap, and they were picking up 1.5 million XP in a single mission. It didn't feel real.

And yet here they were.

The portal had been brutal, yeah, but they were alive. More than alive, they were thriving. Stronger. Sharper. Faster. Maybe a little more unhinged.

Still, that left him with a problem.

Ten attribute points. Just sitting there. Begging to be spent.

His thumb hovered over Perception. It was his bread and butter; every combat skill he had relied on it. Higher Perception meant more XP gain for using those skills, tighter accuracy, sharper reactions. It was the obvious choice.

But...

It also meant the next level was even further away. Each attribute point cost more XP to level. That 10-point dump now would hurt later.

Intelligence boosted his professional skills in piloting and ship maneuvering. Memory had synergy with Intelligence, and also boosted learning speed. If he wanted to start expanding into more leadership perks, he'd need to level that up too.

Then there was Willpower. His poor, neglected little stat. All his cooldowns and resistances lived there. Not sexy, but useful. The kind of stat that didn't matter, until suddenly, it really, really did.

He exhaled through his nose and focused on his interface.

[Perception increased: 66 → 70]

[Willpower increased: 33 → 39]

There. Done. Four to Perception. Six to Willpower. A compromise. Keep his edge sharp, but maybe try not to spiral the next time the blood started feeling good.

"TREE!"

Chris's voice snapped him out of it.

Luca jerked the wheel just in time to swerve around a massive, bark-covered trunk that had fallen across part of the trail. The Peregrine jolted, tires spitting mud.

"Thanks," he muttered.

Chris shrugged. "Maybe save your midlife crisis for when we're not hydroplaning through a damn forest?"

Luca sighed and pulled up the skill queue, eyes scanning the unspent XP like it was a to-do list he didn't feel like touching.

[Unassigned Skill XP: 350,000]

Screw it. He dumped the whole batch into the queue. Emily had crafted this, and he had helped, yeah. He did.

[Intel Gathering: Familiarity Level 4 → Proficiency Level 10] (166,312 XP spent)

[Stealth Infiltration: Familiarity Level 5 → Proficiency Level 10] (143,022 XP spent)

[Critical Strikes: Proficiency Level 9 → Level 10] (7,419 XP spent)

[Starship Operation: Familiarity Level 4 → Level 5] (9,549 XP spent)

[Starship Systems: Familiarity Level 4 → Level 5] (16,649 XP spent)

[Starship Maintenance: Familiarity Level 3] + 7,049 XP

That did it. Queue cleared. Brain not melted. And for once, the Professional Path stuff finally got some love. His skill queue got a whole lot shorter. He'd have to add more skills in there.

[Ability Unlocked: Pattern Recognition, Level 1. Reveals predicted pathing or vulnerability zones for up to 10 seconds, increases by 2 seconds per level. Cooldown 5 minutes, -10% cooldown per level.]

Okay, this was actually cool. He wasn't just spotting movement; he'd be reading behavior.

The dashboard jolted, a loud thunk reverberating under the floor.

"Big-ass rock," Chris said casually, eyes on the rain-streaked windshield.

Luca grunted, adjusting course slightly. "Appreciate the warning, co-pilot."

"Hey, you were the one staring at your stats like you were in a trance."

"They're really good stats," Luca mumbled, focusing back to the interface."

Pattern prediction. Combat math in real-time. This wasn't instinct anymore. It was science. Tactical edge through intel, not just gut feeling. He liked it.

[Ability Unlocked: System Bypass, Level 1. For the next 10 seconds, gain a 20% increased chance to manually identify and exploit a vulnerability in a digital or physical security system, increases 5% success chance per level. Cooldown 5 minutes, -10% cooldown per level.]

He leaned back in his seat, eyebrows raised. No magical "hack the door" bullshit. Just… sharper instincts. An eye for seams and access gaps. A flicker in the field. An exposed port. This was infiltration, not wizardry. It felt good.

[Ability Unlocked: Weak Point Focus, Level 1. For the next 10 seconds, gain a 30% increased critical hit chance, +2 crit chance per level, +5 seconds per level. Cooldown 5 minutes, -10% cooldown per level.]

That one made him grin. Finally. A way to capitalize on all the stupid-fast reflexes and hyperfocus. Spot the weak spot. Strike it. Done. This was the finishing move he didn't know he needed.

And just like that, he was starting to feel like a real infiltrator.

He had the stealth, the burst damage, the escape tools, the battlefield intel. Hell, he even had the suit to match, skintight and wedgie-prone, but flexible as hell.

The only thing lagging?

[Blade Expertise: Level 4]

Luca glanced down at the stat and snorted. He didn't need a blade. He had a tomahawk. Heavy, loud, brutal, beautiful. What was he going to do with a dainty little dagger?

Anyway. Time to focus. The skills were stacking, and the kit was finally coming together. He wasn't just playing operative anymore.

He had two out of the five pieces of the Centauri Phantom Mk-64 set, the next level up in Light Armor tech. Once complete, it offered active integration, just like his TL8 set: sealed environment, reactive dampening, and stealth field harmonics.

Wearing just the vest and shin guards didn't cut it. He'd lose the suit's ability to shift surface texture and color on the fly, and without a full set, Ghost Protocol couldn't even engage. That ability was literally tied into the circuitry woven through the suit.

Besides... there was Zoe to consider.

They had to put together a full set between them if they ever managed to find the rest of the damn parts. She was a scout class too. Same role. Same paper-thin armor. Same danger zone.

It was about need. Priority.

Zoe had taken a hit to the thigh last delve. Emily's left gauntlet was scorched through. Joey's shield had cracked. Danny's Warhammer took a chunk out of the floor and his boot when the stabilizers misfired.

They needed gear.

Real gear.

And this suit might be the only thing keeping one of them from getting turned into red mist.

In the front seat, Luca adjusted his grip on the controls, his knuckles aching from the constant vibration of the steering wheel. Chris had taken the last shift, but even after a short break, exhaustion was creeping into his bones. He glanced at the dashboard, noting the slicked mud plastered across the vehicle's sensors, and grunted. "We've gotta stop soon or we're gonna drown in this mud."

This was the kind of weather that deserved hot chocolate, a roaring fireplace, and Emily curled up next to him under a warm blanket. He could picture it now: the two of them, cuddled up close, listening to the storm rage outside.

Instead, he was stuck in this tin can, driving over every goddamn root, rock, and ditch the planet had to offer. The drive had been a slog, navigating around fallen trees and flooded ground with shit for visibility. And the peanut gallery in the back? Non-stop commentary on his driving.

Chris, seated in the passenger seat, gave a tired nod, peering out the rain-splattered window. "Agreed. I think we're all overdue for a break."

The rest of the crew was huddled in the back, trying to keep their spirits up as the rain hammered down. Zoe was chatting idly with Danny, her voice barely carrying over the din of the storm. Probably plotting something, Luca thought wryly. Ryan and Joey were playing cards. At least someone's having fun.

A light lit up in the console, a weather alarm from their satellite. "Severe weather conditions detected." Just great.

Luca sighed, glancing at Chris. "Well, that confirms it. Let's find a spot to pull over and bunker down for a bit."

With some effort, they managed to maneuver the Peregrine into a slightly drier spot beneath a cluster of thick trees. The rain continued to pour, hammering down on the roof and washing mud over the Specter tethered behind them, which hovered silently in the downpour. At least that thing's getting a bath, Luca mused.