Misbegotten Memories

The colonel made Hector and Leah sit through a mission planning session regarding their upcoming test run. They slotted the new recruits into the mix, with the sergeant major observing that they needed to know if any of the Xian contingent could actually fight. There were fewer mechanized Jinn on this trip than usual – the reason being that few vehicles could fit the footprint of his domain at one time. They decided on a single Jinn tank, with the remainder a mix of Arahants, Titans, and Xian.

Their hope was that the miasma mitigation method would allow Arahants to contribute more to battles away from the Stronghold. For a while now the Jinn had taken on far more of the burden of combat due to the superior miasma resistance of mechanical bodies. The strategy had relied heavily upon mechanized Jinn and Titans beyond the rune wall, with Arahants and biological Jinn taking on more of the duties inside the Stronghold. It was a division of labor contrary to what the recruiters on Union Central advertised, made necessary due to the increasingly hostile environment.

Once the mission planning completed, Hector was sent to brief the Xian. They did not seem able to absorb any of the tactical details due to their fixation on a particular item.

"You and the Arahant woman are going to make cosmic energy."

"That's what I have told you five times already. Please stop asking about it."

A woman, one of only two who had joined, expressed the second most popular sentiment. "But that's impossible. Cosmic energy isn't made. It's just there."

"Let's forget about that bit, then, and focus on the mission parameters."

"How do you do it?"

"Can you teach me to make cosmic energy?"

They didn't believe he could do what he claimed, wanted him to teach them anyway, and couldn't focus on anything else. Eventually Hector gave up and instructed them to cultivate while he went to his private room to do the same.

An hour after dawn the next day, they emerged from the gate an uncoordinated mass. Hector's contingent of petty noble Xian either didn't understand the instructions he gave them or didn't believe in the value of strict troop formations. The fools were flush with cosmic energy and believed utterly in their superiority over all of existence.

Zelda once explained her theory about the pride of Xian to him. Cosmic energy enabled them to stand apart from reality and inflict their will upon it. The veracity of her idea was an open question in Hector's mind, but he could not deny that many of the stereotypes around Xian had a kernel of truth to them. Even he, a man who lived fifty years prior to touching cosmic energy, had traces of the infamous pride in him.

Leah walked at his side, the weight of her realm pushing outward. It felt stronger even though little time had passed since her advancement. "Is your realm strengthened already?"

"Not strengthened, no. I haven't had time to invest in it yet. What I've done is improve it. Every level gains me more real estate with which to paint the truth of my insight."

Hector reached out with his domain and began to transform the miasma. It broke apart too easily for his preference. He wanted to once more feel that strange stiffness he used to shatter the will of the miasma storm. He was certain that there was something there. Something he could use to refine his technique. The Xian began to cultivate, exclaiming among themselves about what was happening. Hector put the noise out of his mind.

They advanced behind the Jinn tank, following a predetermined course that was a large loop around the Stronghold. They approached the nearby miasma pond that spawned the rat deviants which had been a minor annoyance to the Stronghold for almost a year by this point. Swarms of the winged creatures flew at them in response.

Slashes from an Arahant sword sage lashed out hundreds of meters to drop dozens of the rats from the air. Gunfire erupted from the tank to slay even more. Titans swung clubs. Xian whipped out poorly formed, weak cables that leaked like sieves. Hector kept up his efforts to transform the miasma with Leah, trusting their escort to handle the rodents.

The members of the task force moved forward to make their attacks and then retreated within the safety of Hector's domain to escape the miasma. At least most of them followed the game plan they'd been briefed on. His Xian contingent were all over the place. A few had rushed forward and outpaced everyone else. A few never left the safe zone and were positioned to interrupt the flow of soldiers following the established procedures. The rest darted about the battlefield to attack or retreat at random – they didn't seem to care about miasma exposure at all.

It took fifteen minutes for the task force to fight through the swarm of flying rats. There were occasional wounds from the tusks growing from the upper lips of the rats, but the soldiers could manage those by entering Hector's domain to have the miasma cleansed before it penetrated too far. They finally stopped because they lacked any means to eliminate the miasma pond and the rat monsters weren't more than a minor annoyance.

When Hector's domain finally intersected the fell liquid, he exhaled in a pained grunt as if someone had driven a fist deep into his gut. The denser form of miasma resisted his efforts to transform it far more than the mist. The strain of his failed effort made him sway on his feet. A familiar conceptual battle echoed in his head.

It wasn't his battle he overheard. Familiar emotions and distorted truths came from the miasma. Hatred and malice. Destruction and oblivion. The response from Leah was different to how Hector fought back. Rather than stubbornly negating each concept of the miasma, she attacked at a more fundamental level. The miasma was a stain upon existence. It didn't belong. It was wrong.

There was only one problem with her approach. She lacked the might to enforce her truths on reality when forcefully opposed by liquid miasma. Hector attempted to reinforce her efforts, but his own insight was too different for him to gain any traction. He could only provide a generic refutation of the miasma's arguments, which was laughably insufficient. This wasn't a couple of motes of gaseous miasma dragged into his soul for battle – it was a large liquid puddle sitting at a distance.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

They circled about the small pond a couple of times before having a quick discussion. "We can't cleanse it," Leah said. "There is no point lingering here any longer."

"Agreed." Hector spat his acceptance of their failure.

They informed the task force about the return to base and everyone formed up to march towards the Stronghold. They entered inside and met with medical to be cleared. As usual, Restoration did a quick check of Hector. Also per usual, she had no need to assist him. When she turned her attention to the twenty Xian from New Mart, however, she hissed.

"You bunch are not strong enough to handle these kinds of missions." Restoration labored over the team before dismissing them to speak to Hector alone. Technically she was overstepping her bounds by issuing orders to his direct subordinates like that, but he suspected it was for his own benefit, given the thunderous expression she wore.

"Your Xian are as susceptible to miasma as unempowered humans. I'm sure that the colonel won't mind sacrificing untrained Xian, but I refuse to let any human needlessly die. I am placing you on notice, lieutenant. Do not place your soldiers into harm like this until they are able to handle it. I won't tolerate this kind of behavior from you even if you are in the midst of things."

Hector hung his head in acceptance of her point. He wasn't sure what she could do to enforce her ultimatum, but he didn't want to argue that point. She was right. He brought the Xian into this war and now had a responsibility for them.

Once the enlisted ranks were settled, Hector joined the officers for an after action review in the commander center. Colonel Quinn asked about the health of the troops first, which surprised Hector – then he felt guilty for assuming the colonel wouldn't care. The man was voluntarily dedicating his time to serving the Reconquest, after all.

Then they began watching video of the operation. Comments were made about the efficacy of rotating in an out of the miasma-free zone. An Arahant Sage who had been swinging a sword throughout the test run folded his hands together as he reported on his experience.

"Results were better than expected. Miasma that had yet to penetrate deep into my wounds or lungs was removed when I retreated momentarily. This massively expands our operational range. We should see a lot less casualties even with longer missions."

Colonel Quinn nodded as if he'd expected all of this. "It appears the miasma mitigation is only effective on gaseous or mist phases. That is a minor consideration since liquid is rare, but we want to keep it in mind for mission planning. Were either of you exhausted at any point?"

"I could do it all day, Colonel," Leah said.

"Other than the puddle, it barely registered as effort," Hector added.

The colonel tapped a rhythm on the table. "Good. This test has gone about as well as I hoped. The only negative is the performance of the new recruits. Lieutenant Hector, your Xian were not only ineffective in their role, they were an impediment to their peers. I'm inclined to remove them from the upcoming mission altogether. Thoughts?"

The sergeant major cleared his throat. "With respect, colonel, the Xian give every impression that they want to see action. Being involved in a major battle has the potential to correct our problem with them. They either shape up during a trial by fire or fail to return."

Those callous words irked Hector. Rather than jump in with his own objections, he brought up those of their healer. "Restoration warned me that there would be consequences if the Xian were put into harm again with their current level of body enhancement."

Colonel Quinn turned to Purification. "Does her insight contain a moral component?"

Purification sighed. "It does, colonel. If she's threatened consequences – even ambiguous ones – then we don't want to provoke her."

The sergeant major scowled. "What would she do? Quit the Reconquest?"

"That seems likely," Leah said. "What you need to understand is that a Sage whose insight contains a moral component will not be part of a cause that contradicts their beliefs. This goes beyond just personal integrity. Her beliefs have been verified by her glimpse of ultimate reality."

The sergeant major sniffed. "Then why are we hosting a contingent of Xian we cannot use?"

Colonel Quinn shrugged. "I don't want them either. But… they are twenty more bodies. Transit sent word that the next troop rotation is going to be even lighter than the last. We're hemorrhaging manpower. What would it take to get them enhanced enough to resist typical miasma levels?"

Hector thought back on his own history. He'd been largely immune when his body was at the peak of level four. The real magic happened upon reaching the equivalent of level one, though. That was when superhuman capabilities unlocked. "It shouldn't take too much. They need better resources than what you have here, though."

He really did not want to donate his level seven pills to the cause….

The colonel stood. "The Xian aren't joining this mission. Let's keep them on base, though. Lieutenant, figure out a supply line for resources. You obviously have ways of getting what you need for your own purposes. We can trade away some cases of wine for other things."

Hector stood with everyone else. "I have contacts on Tian who might be willing to help." Hopefully Zara would be willing to sell some grain or meat or even vegetables in exchange for a few cases of bad wine. She hadn't been very pleased with him the last time they parted, but their interactions were generally positive.

First, though, he checked in with his subordinates. The Xian were celebrating their 'victory' with bottles of wine liberated from the supply depot. Hector suppressed a groan. From the way they were talking, they apparently felt they'd impressed everyone with their contributions. Maybe the right course of action would be to get these people back to their own world as soon as possible.

Two things stopped him. First, Colonel Quinn thought keeping them might be worthwhile. That said a lot, given the fact that the base commander didn't care one bit for Xian. As always, things on Aes continued to get worse. Second… the System recently told Hector that the externalities of human souls were the barrier between primordial chaos and human universes. However unintuitive that may be, Hector understood that there was a critical mass of humans necessary for the universe of Aes to continue existing. Even if the Xian didn't contribute much to the war effort, they were human souls who could help hold back primordial chaos.

Using them like that felt a little icky, but it wasn't without their consent. The fools loved being here. They gobbled up such resources as were shared with them and dreamed of lofty futures for themselves. Their presence was willing and they weren't being sacrificed any more than the other volunteers on the Stronghold. If anything, their lives were safer than most due to the degree of concern raised by Restoration's threat of consequences.

Hector informed them he would be gone for a few hours to look for body enhancement resources, which raised raucous cheers in his audience and the start of a tension headache in him. Their nominal leader, Dan, former member of the family council, listened to Hector's orders to keep everyone from causing trouble with a smug smile on his face. No doubt the man was already dreaming of elixirs.

Sensing further words would be wasted, Hector summoned his transit sphere. It was time to go beg Zara for a deal.