Misbegotten Memories

The cartilage and skin pill sucked down about a quarter of his reserves while he was on wall duty. Its consumption was even more than that since he cultivated with his domain the entire night, causing the familiar halo to spread around him as he drew in cosmic energy.

Though he let his body enhancement happen passively, Hector observed the changes. His tendons, which had already been partially enhanced from the bone and gelatin pill he consumed months ago by this point, improved further. Likewise for his skin, which was no surprise. A mild improvement happened throughout his entire body as well – body enhancement was never perfectly targeted to its intended tissues.

He slept after breakfast, deciding it wasn't wise to stay awake for days at a time when he had a mission coming up. That didn't last long, however. Increasingly, he felt that any time not spent pushing himself forward was wasted. Hector was over a month into his three month deployment already. Almost halfway through this amazing opportunity.

Hector wanted to extend his term another three months, but he dreaded having the conversation with Riley and Darius where he revealed that decision. The tension he felt wasn't a matter of virtues but rather the understanding that he would be choosing the path of power over maintaining relationships. He'd formed a family of outcasts as a reaction to the loneliness he felt. Now the lure of chasing goals was drawing him in a different direction.

This was how he'd lost Jen. The big blowup at the end that led to her moving out had only been the spark. Years of neglect piled up the fuel that let their marriage burn to the ground. If he disregarded the needs of his closest friends, then he'd learned nothing. Which might be way things were. Whether or not his lifespan had been extended, Hector was no kid with a brain primed for dramatic changes in personality.

After a time, Hector shook his head in refutation of his fatalistic thoughts. He wasn't approaching this problem the right way. What would his parents have done? His mother would sacrifice her goals for the happiness of others without a second thought. His father would find a reasonable compromise to balance competing interests.

So what was the compromise here?

He couldn't be a part time soldier. Could he? Hector frowned. The System had thrown enough money at him that he didn't need to be paid for a tour of duty on Aes. What was stopping him from negotiating a custom deal with the leaders of Stronghold Gamma? Would they really be opposed to having him commute here from Union Central? If he offered his services for free, how could they not agree? Of course they wouldn't be enthusiastic about a soldier who came and went. But the Reconquest needed bodies pretty badly. Hector would just need to convince them that he was useful enough to make exceptions for. This upcoming mission sounded like a good opportunity to make a name for himself.

Fighting a monster that had taken out another Stronghold…. It was certainly ambitious. Then again, Hector was rapidly reaching the point where he could hold his own with the powerful. He just had to be careful not to make those people worry about the speed of his advancement. Maybe that was paranoid of him, but the lessons of Volithur's tragic life were never far from mind. People could be wonderful or terrible depending on how they chose to view you in relation to themselves.

"Attention!"

The rumbling command brought everyone in the bay scrambling to their feet. Hector stood at the foot of his bed while Lieutenant Ringo entered and marched the length of their space, his face puckered in a sour expression. "Soldiers! Effective immediately, the rules against eating and drinking inside the bunker are being eased to align with general guidance of the Stronghold. Everyone should understand that this does not mean you are allowed to make a mess. If this bunker gets pests, there will be hell to pay."

Ringo stopped his imperious march exactly once. It was in front of Hector and his eyes narrowed suspiciously, causing Hector's heart to lurch in his chest. He knows. Then the lieutenant continued his stroll, leaving the bay altogether.

As everyone was left scratching their heads in confusion, Hector approached Raven.

"What is going on with Ringo? He's obviously not fired."

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Raven leaned close to speak in a quiet bass rumble. "Major Emily instantly knew he was being set up with the porn. She's not so emotional as we hoped."

Hector scowled. "So now what?"

"She is convinced there has been a serious failure of leadership if his subordinates would betray him like that. The lieutenant is on probation. Any counseling he does going forward has to be done with one of his superiors present. We neutered Ringo the Dingo. For a few months, at least."

He would be gone in a few months. Maybe. Hector returned to his cultivation determined to let events play out as they would. If he managed to get permission to be a commuter, then it wouldn't matter if a bunker leader didn't like him. He'd be sleeping in Tian Tower on Union Central.

A messenger fetched Hector to a mission briefing late afternoon, where he met up with Rover Fred in a large garage. He'd just exchanged greetings when a familiar Titan sauntered up. "The Stalwart Xian joined the Reconquest? We'll win for sure, now."

"Hey, Ugur. It's good to see you again."

The Titan who had once guided Hector to where Zelda grieved over the fresh corpse of Rodrick looked like he'd seen better days. His face carried age lines that had not been there a little over a year ago and his coloration looked sickly. "Wish I could be prettier for our reunion, Hector. Unfortunately, I don't shrug off miasma so easily as a Xian."

Hector studied the large man closer, noting the rheumy eyes, missing teeth, and wasted muscles. "Maybe it's not my place to say, but I think you might need to take some time to recover before you go on a mission, Ugur."

"Good advice, Hector. If my soul wasn't in the process of collapsing I would definitely take it. As things stand… I'm going out fighting. I will trust the rest of you to retake this world after I'm gone." Ugur spoke in a casual tone that raised red flags for Hector. How common was death by miasma poisoning among the more active members of the reconquest?

"I'll do my best, Ugur." His own voice carried a large amount of solemnity. He didn't think he could be quite so cavalier about someone suffering from soul collapse. Hector never actually witnessed such a thing happen. He suspected that the Sergeant from the fifth household long ago succumbed to that ailment, having cultivated chaos to break into the fifth level. But never had he been there for the actual end stage.

The Jinn named George strode to the front of the group, feet stomping powerfully on the pavement as his gleaming steel cyborg body sent reflected sunlight into eyes. "Hello, soldiers. Because Malcolm is still recovering from his last outing, I'm running this special operation for the Saber Unit. I'll keep the briefing short. The mission is to eliminate a target designated as mountain size and class four strength. We kill the monster before it gets close enough to take out Stronghold Gamma. This is a critical task, so there will be no delays or cancellations. However bad conditions get outside, we are going.

"Now, onto the specifics. We're taking Wendy on the trip. For those of you not familiar, Wendy is a Jinn antimatter containment unit from Mercom. She's the only one of her function who ever volunteered for the Reconquest and we're very honored that she has agreed to this mission. Her sacrifice will not be in vain.

"To make certain of that, we need to protect her on the trip out to the target. Rover Fred is her ride. There is going to be a box formation around the two of them, every member of which will be expected to give their lives before allowing harm to come to Wendy. Most of you will be assigned to the box formation. A few will be placed as vanguard or rearguard. No matter your role, the mission is very clear: you get Wendy to the target at all costs."

Jinn George than got to work breaking the assembled soldiers into their various teams. There were five squads for the box formation: one for each side of the box and another to defend attacks from above. These squads were made of mostly Jinn who'd uploaded into machinery, with a couple of Titans and Arahants filling out the ranks. Then came the rearguard, which George populated with mostly Arahants and regular Jinn.

Up to this point, Hector hadn't been picked for anything, so it was no surprise when he ended up being assigned to the vanguard, which would be led by George himself. The Jinn commander gathered their squad together and briefly studied his men. Hector looked around himself, somewhat curious about who rated this dubious distinction.

There was a single Arahant who wore a formidable suit of armor covered in nasty-looking spikes. Then there were two Jinn commandos outfitted similar to how Conrad looked when delving the dungeon, plasma rifles held at the ready and bandoleers of grenades slung across their torso. George the RoboCop cyborg. Hector, of course. And a tiny rat-faced man whose strange energy identified him as an Orisha.

"The six of us are the vanguard because we're best suited to handling the miasma. Our particular purpose is to scout the way forward. That can take many forms. If there is a lot of miasmic mist in our path of travel, we might need to identify the least dense patch for the main body to pass through. There may be terrain features it is faster to navigate around. We might need to clear out monsters before they can endanger Wendy – or, at the very least, draw any surprise attacks to ourselves. This is an essential function for our mission. Please treat it as the sacred duty that it is."