Flux Core [A System Apocalypse LitRPG Adventure]

+ Reid +

Reid tightened his grip on a specifically made, weak bone sphere. It was one of twenty he'd crafted in preparation for the wave - a throwable strong enough to break a spider, but not so strong that it would also sail through half the city after the first impact.

He swept a cautious gaze over the continued fighting. It was, in truth, going far better than he'd hoped. He expected to have to step in and stop deaths nearly immediately, and anticipated he would be as busy as he had been back when he was playing artillery with the Vicipods near the end of their battle in the warrens. In reality, the armored and armed individuals were putting on a good performance. The bolt throwers Reid had managed to pull out from inventory were far fewer than he initially wanted, and those with the ranged weapons were using them to proper effectiveness. More than half the spiders were dead, and most of the rest had at least been grazed by the defenders. The least wounded were closing in quickly.

"Alright, Zeke. They proved they can operate at range. Have them switch to melee."

Reid's chosen leader for Dayo Norte glared at him out the corner of his eye, and tightened his grip on the bone spear Reid had given him. He muttered under his breath, then shouted orders.

"Listen to the stranger from the woods, Zeke, what a great idea. Goddamn headcases, both of us. Fuck... ALRIGHT! Bolt throwers back! Close Quarters Defenders, front of the line! Use numbers, trust your squads, and pull back wounded as soon as they get hit! Show me you're worth the weapons in your hands, people!"

Reid watched on as they formed tight groups. Many were still unused to the new osteal weapons they held, but none of them shied away from the incoming enemies. It was polished, organized, and smooth. Completely unlike much of the last ten hours.

He bit at his lip.

Things started out simple enough.

Back in the 'interview' room, an hour had passed by with Reid pulling two crossbows a minute from his storage, and then another hour where he focused on summoning out armor sets. His other hand was set to a constant crafting of simple osteal spears, and the focus required to keep both going was a good distraction from where his head had wanted to go. The worry about Dayo Sovni and Dayo Evni still wormed its way through in between each craft or summoned item. They would be fine. They had all the resources they needed. If they had all that and still didn't succeed... well, Reid couldn't be everywhere at once. And he definitely didn't have the time to make it to a whole other settlement.

His crafting and summoning had been unceremoniously interrupted by what Reid could most succinctly describe as a group of uppity, upper-crust morons. As it turned out, the idiots still residing in the expensive, tall towers that rose in the middle of the city were not fans of Reid's decisions. After a fair bit of blustering on their side, the complaints piled up. They were angry that Reid had named Zeke the leader of this area within the Osteal Empire. They were upset that he wouldn't consider naming one of them above Zeke, "as it should be". They were incensed that Reid had a faction and they didn't. They were annoyed that he wouldn't allow anyone not in his faction to take or use the osteal equipment. They were confused that Reid wasn't interested in the bribes that followed in an attempt to secure themselves sets.

Every passing minute was a wasted one, and at a certain point, Reid had completely lost his will to entertain the idiots any longer. If there was something they hated more than all the rest of the issues that had built, it was being ignored. THAT had been where things really went off the rails. One particularly flush-faced man decided to shoot Reid. It did not go as the gunman expected.

The bullet did no damage to Reid, but it did ricochet off the plain bone armor he still wore. That ricochet hit one of Zeke's people in the leg, and Reid responded to that development with a bit of enthusiasm. The idiot gunman was still alive, but getting thrown through a door had knocked him out an broken more than a few bones. The other morons present quickly agreed to Reid's demand to be taken to the rest of their 'leaders'. A fairly long walk, strongly worded explanation, and show of force later, Reid had told the idiots where they could stuff their self-importance, and exactly what the situation would be for them if they had any more bright ideas or hurt any of Zeke's other people. He'd walked back to the room satisfied in the belief that they were done causing trouble.

That belief turned out to be incorrect.

The upper-crust morons launched an 'attack' to try to seize the new weapons and armor, failed, chose to try and force a stand-off to still get what they wanted, and eventually ended up restrained, jailed, or hospitalized. It had to be some kind of record for the shortest civil war in Vuxarinan history.

Still, it chewed up enough pre-wave time that Zeke's forces had almost no window to try on and test out their new osteal-crafted kit. Some of them were tired from the hours of stress-inducing tumult brought upon the city by the now-incapacitated 'leaders'. And yet - through all of that, they came out the other side and fought with no complaint.

The first spider came into range, and a bone spear caught it in the abdomen. The spider screeched, spittle flew from its mouth, and another three spearheads shot forward and connected. They held the spider in place, out of the range of its legs, and impaled from multiple angles to keep it from flying away. It bled to death as others closed and engaged.

Soon, nearly every squad deemed ready to fight with the new gear was in some level of combat with the beasts. Reid smiled, and turned to his newest ally - and one that was tied with Rongo for his favorite person so far on Dayo.

"See, Zeke? I told you they had this. With more training, they'll get even better. Man, keeping myself out of the action here was the right call. We helped make some great strides today, and now I'm confident I can move on to my next destination. Everything's going to work out here."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Zeke slowly turned his head to face Reid.

"What?"

"Serroc, I appreciate everything. I do. Honestly. I get what would've happened here without your help, and I'm gratified by your vote of confidence to put me in charge of the city. But the past half day has been too fucking much. You managed to wrangle me into the biggest goddamn mess I've ever seen, and it's going to take me weeks or months to diffuse all the issues here. I don't even know if I'd rather have you here to help clean up, or if your brand of crazy would prevent me from getting things back to normal. Or, well... some kind of normal."

A scream came from the front line as one of the spiders managed to sink fangs into a spearman. It dragged the screaming man skyward as it flew towards the center of the city. Reid instinctively pushed power into his arm, and threw his projectile at the beast. The spider popped in a cloud of gore, and the defender dropped hard to the ground - injured, but alive.

The bone projectile continued on, carried by its own momentum and the power of Reid's throw. It slammed hard into one of fancy buildings and carried straight through to the other side. Reid watched as windows on four separate skyscraper-like buildings shattered, and plumes of items and debris rose up from the damaged areas. Reid nodded to himself. He'd made the projectiles too powerful, on the assumption of a level of strength the buildings didn't possess. They were, by all rights, still just unawakened-level structures. The bone ball was meant to be impeded by something in mid G grade... and it was also thrown a bit harder than anticipated.

"Hey, Zeke?"

The man grunted.

"I should really get going, places to be and all that. BUT - before I do, can I get a pot of coffee or two for the road?"

Zeke let out a single chuckle, then a laugh as he rubbed his forehead. He gave Reid an evaluating look, even as he smiled.

"Gasten's ashes, I've known you for half a day and I think I might end up missing you. Come on, let's get you some shitty coffee... and get you the fuck away from this city."

).-. Beatrice .-.(

She ran a finger down the side of the letter while re-reading the text once more. What fated luck, after so much challenge and so many problems. She contemplated a frame, and which wall to place it on.

An infiltrator had stumbled across the target within an hour of entering the quiet section of the local's rat city. Completely improbable and outlandish. A blessing fit to celebrate all on its own. And she had let herself revel in that joy, relieved stress and relaxed in ways she'd kept herself from for a long while. It was necessary, and she came back to her office afterwards more clear headed than she'd felt in weeks.

But to be brought another message of good tidings, so soon after the first? She could hardly believe the luck. They hadn't even needed to bring their leverage into play yet. What a foolish, stupid local. His animosity would be the entire planet's unraveling. The turning point to her proper takeover.

The locals were plotting an attack. Half raid, half attempt to control territory, it would see a massed force plunge themselves into one of their most productive crystal mines. Of course, the first orders of business were to limit losses if something improbable happened. All prior mined crystal was getting removed from the location, processed or not, verified or not. They wouldn't even be able to stuff their pockets and run.

Next was a charade. Misinformation and an act to promote the idea of the mine as one still in use. Their new asset had already been instrumental in separating out the two active iceboxes, from what she had been told. The Soulcrusher was slated to stay within his rat city, with the Tiny Tyrant tapped to travel to the mine and attempt to overtake it. She preferred things this way. The vermin's king had a known fondness for his people, and so should be easier to manipulate over time. The little one - she didn't want to give him more room to grow. And especially didn't want to actually let him have access to a resource like the mine. There was no telling how that might alter the balance of power on her world, and she had no intention to find out.

Amidst the other messages and plans she'd kicked off upon the letter's receipt, there was one known only to her, her aide Uzochi, and the crew of an orbital platform. Soon, their battery would assume a geostationary orbit over the mine. It would be a high price to burn out one of the infections plaguing her world - but she considered it worth the loss. Especially in the short term. The corks wouldn't be held off much longer, and she wanted pieces of resistance off the board before she had more enemies and more fronts to worry about. Another reason the past few days had truly felt a blessing made especially for her. It solved two of the three threats lurking on her planet.

Her eyes were drawn to the worn couch. The barbarian's position eluded her, but she would find him in time. And once she did, she would spare no expense to realize justice for Travis.

She forced her focus back to her working monitors, and the seemingly endless slew of written notes updating her on preparations. It was time for some more good news.

<+=/ Jenna \\=+>

Her breath fogged against the inside of a helmet she would've rather gone without. She preferred her eyes to be free and her ears to be open to the world around her. But full equipment was one of the compromises they'd come to in the planning phase of this operation. She trudged forwards, alongside Lycra, with nearly a hundred and fifty fighters at their backs. Overkill for the level of enemy activity the scouts had reported - but fewer than King Hugo had wanted them to take.

The good King was back in the city, ready to lead defenders against any incursions, just in case. Those three words carried heavy implications. Just in case, if something went wrong in the attack, the Vuxarinan leader would still be alive. Just in case Belar had something prepared for them, there was someone left to reinforce them. Just in case the Undercity came under attack from beast or Belar, someone powerful would be there to defend it.

She looked back at her genius. His confident strides took him forward and let his sword clack softly against his osteal armor with every few steps. She knew he was only still walking because he understood the rest of the troops were following him, and he wanted to set a good example. No one was more excited for this mission than Lycra, and he wanted everything to play out flawlessly. His backpack sagged with a heavy load of prepared crystals, and his yellow eyes carried the hard glint of determination.

Jenna idly patted the railgun over her shoulder, and the more traditional energy rifle that hung down at her waist. She was ready for what would come next. And they had another powerful card to play here. She glanced over at the third armored form with them in the front of the line. Another compromise, to bring someone else along with strong combat potential.

Ahead, the tunnel they followed narrowed and brightened like a light collar of rock. On the other side, Jenna could see light playing over the reflective surface of crystals embedded in the walls.

This was what their scouts had found. The launching point for the first real counterstrike against Belar on Vuxarina proper.

With barely a word, their force narrowed to a single file line, and stepped through the narrow passage.

It was time to conquer a crystal mine.