The Original Beefcake

"I really thought we were done for until you swooped in and put your sword right through that monster's giant eye!" Marcus said to Grace, and shook his head. The Paladin was lying on a bed, still recovering by the Priestess order. "To have the guts to stay still and wait until the bastard was close enough is even more insane in my opinion." Rita said, and gave Grace a fist bump and a smile. "I really didn't do anything special, Light Soul did all the work. If the ability of the monster hadn't been a mental attack, but some kind of physical effect, we would have been screwed. In the end you all helped take it down," Grace said, far too humble for her own good.

It had been only a few hours since the big battle, but the mood in the raid had turned completely around. Only now it became obvious how much they all had suffered from the constant threat of the third stage monster. The other good thing that their victory had brought was a lot of level ups. They all got two or three levels from the massive battle and the stage three monster. It was a testament to how dangerous that evolved monster had been, even though it had been comparably small.

To be frank, you got lucky. If it had been a straight combat type you might not have been able to defeat it, and definitely not without deaths.

You are most likely correct, still the beast was a formidable enemy. Sensor abilities, control abilities and a massive AoE paralyze. This could have ended in a catastrophe. What matters is that you won and gained valuable experience in fighting evolved monsters. Next time you will be better prepared to deal with a third stage.

Marcus shared another beer with Grace and the others before he returned to his own truck. He found Janette sleeping, still with half her clothes on. She had suffered the most over the last days, and with the Big Bad dead she could finally relax. Marcus decided to rest only for a short time and then join the guards later on. When he opened his eyes again, it was already morning and a rather horrible noise blasted through the truck.

Janette was dancing in her underwear and eating a large chocolate bar. Unburdened by social norms she was singing to, what Marcus now realized, was her music.

It seems you too needed some time to recover.

Apparently, but this was dangerous. Why did you let me sleep for so long?

If monsters had made trouble I would have woken you up.

Thanks, Xeen. Marcus got up and made some coffee, while Janette refused to get dressed. "I have a day off. I am not going to do anything besides celebrating the death of that motherfucker!" She shouted over her own music. Marcus sighed and decided to drink his coffee somewhere else. This truck had become a different kind of danger zone.

As the day progressed work on recovering artifacts from the holds continued on a rapid pace, as was loading the trucks to the brim. Marcus used the time to prepare for the demise of the ship by blowing up the drive core. Under the pretense of checking for information and monitoring the radiation levels, he (actually Xeen) modified some commands from the control console.

Once we start this, it can not be stopped.

Okay, we will continue as planned, Marcus thought.

The thought of lying to everybody and destroying such a valuable source of scientific information heavily weighed on Marcus' consciousness. To ease his mind somewhat he spent extra time with Carmen, Malcolm and Bianca in the evening. He offered them to ask him more questions about Xeen and they took the opportunity without a moment's hesitation. After an hour of tea, biscuits and the meaning of life, Marcus felt the need to remind everybody that all of this needed to stay secret for a while. "Don't worry Marcus. We can keep a secret or two. It isn't like you are the only one who knows restricted information," Carmen said, with a special kind of smile. Marcus had never considered that they too might know things he wasn't aware of.

Bianca chuckled, "Just based on the technologies that have been found over the last years, Earth will change a lot over the next decade or two," she said. Marcus became rather curious what they were talking about, but Carmen intervened. "No teasing Marcus. We should be thankful that he shared his secret with us. Let's talk about something else… like Azaa," Carmen said, with a fiendish smile and suddenly the temperature in the room jumped up by several degrees.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I don't mind talking about the secrets of the universe or the katakara… the eshfa…." Marcus tried, but scientists were people too. They liked to gossip like everybody else, and Marcus + Azaa was a hot topic in certain scientific fields. In the end Marcus got saved a few minutes later by Grace, who asked him to join her for guard duty. Bless her heart.

There were still groups of Gropers coming in from time to time, but they were nothing compared to the attacks a few days ago. Marcus actually felt safe enough to make some tests with his Impulse Wave and burn through some of his endurance without need. Under two bright moons Marcus charged up a 20% Impulse Wave and prepared to blast a group of five Gropers from the distance. The goal of the test was to get a feeling for the power reduction over distance. In the past he had fired his Impulse Wave mainly against close up targets. "Grace can you stand back a bit? I would like to blast the lot. For science," he said, and Grace agreed while laughing.

Marcus watched the Gropers move over the white snow field and tried to keep about thirty meters distance to them. Satisfied with his decision he fired his Impulse Hammer through the imaginary red disk. The blast made him fly, like always, and he landed with his ass in the snow. An unexpected painful sound came from the com line and seconds later he found Grace lying face first in the snow.

She got up and turned to him, "Is this some kind of payback?" She asked, but Marcus denied it. They quickly dispatched the two still moving Gropers and then Marcus analyzed what had gone wrong. The snow clearly showed the path of the shock wave and it was obvious that it had started to spread the further it had traveled. To the point that it had clipped Grace, who had been more than ten meters away from the slow Gropers.

"It spread. I thought your attack was a straight line," Grace observed. "I had thought so, too," Marcus admitted. How was this possible? There was no doubt that the empowered Impulse Hammer had been a straight line before, when he had tested it with Kim in that scrapyard. The only thing that had changed was the mental picture he had used. Excited, Marcus wanted to make a few more tests and Grace was also interested to see the results. A 15% Impulse Wave from a small red orb produced a nearly straight line in the snow. The same power and his red disk and the result was a spreading wave. Baffled by this realization Marcus said, "I can influence the form of the Impulse Wave based on the mental picture I choose for it," he said and Grace looked at him, "And that is news to you?" She asked.

"Heck ya! This is news! The form of the trigger influences the result….," Marcus mumbled, and started to think about the consequences. "Well, I am happy to have been part of this discovery," Grace said, with a bright smile under her helmet. Marcus thanked her and once again apologized for hitting her.

It seems you have taken another step in understanding your new ability.

Yes, I feel silly for not realizing this until now. Still, this ability is much more flexible and universal than I first had expected and understood. I have to think about this some more.

Do that, I am confident you will figure everything out in time.

In spite of the generally good mood and how well things progressed, Marcus felt weighed down by his own secret scheme to destroy the wreck. A day later, with the truck-loading nearly finished, Marcus made up his mind. He suddenly called everybody together for an emergency meeting next to the trucks. He had prepared his cover story and he was confident nobody would be able to catch him on any detail.

In only a few minutes the whole raid assembled around him, together with the three scientists. "What is going on Marcus? Has something happened?" Alistair asked, and Marcus nodded. He looked around and saw a lot of worried faces. Carmen looked at him and Marcus felt a heavy weight on his chest. But it needed to be done! "Marcus?" Grace asked, visibly worried. Marcus took a deep breath and exhaled hard. The weight didn't reduce. This wasn't right… I am sorry Xeen.

Don't worry Marcus. I know you well enough. Go ahead and do what you think is right.

I will.

"We need to destroy the ship," Marcus said with a dry voice, and a wave of surprise went through the people around him. After a moment of shock Janette was the first to speak, "Is it that bad?" She asked, showing she knew Marcus well. He nodded, "This ship is carrying weapons of mass destruction, which we can't allow falling into the hands of any nation on Earth. The drive core itself is a technology that could cause the end of humanity. It is far beyond our comprehension and a single failure to handle the technology correctly can have catastrophic consequences. Xeen told me about it."

The news caused a lot white faces and dropped jaws. The one recovering the fastest was actually Carmen. "How do we do it?" She asked, ice cold, and the other two scientists seemed to have made up their minds too. "Xeen has found a way to overload the core until it will blow up, destroying everything around it. It is a cascading process and once it is started we can no longer stop it. It should be obvious, but by the time this blows we should be nowhere near this area. Best case, we should be through the portal," Marcus said, and waited for the reaction. To his surprise nobody argued against it. Instead they were discussing what they needed to do before this happened.

"You could have told us earlier. It feels rushed now," Hammond said out of the blue. "You are right, but I wasn't sure how you all would react. It is a big loss but…," was Marcus' reaction. Alistair waved his answer away and said, "Nonsense Marcus. You shouldn't try to bear the burden of such a heavy decision. You are by far the youngest here, Xeen or not. People with a lot more life experience should carry the responsibility. Try to share such information earlier!"

Rita suddenly clapped her hands. "Okay people, let's wrap this up. Scientists gather whatever you want to keep, because the rest goes to hell. In the meantime we will finish the loading and make sure everything is secured for the journey home," Rita said, and people started to move. "How much time will we have once you press the button?" Grace asked Marcus, before everybody moved away. "According to Xeen, about twenty four hours plus minus an hour or two," Marcus said, and Grace nodded.

As people rushed to get things going, Marcus quickly caught up to the group of scientists. They were deep in discussions, while walking towards the wreck. "Are you three really okay with this?" Marcus asked, somewhat awkwardly. Carmen smiled, "You see… not all alien technologies have made it back to Earth in one piece over the years. Things got lost or got broken on accident. Sometimes scientists just overlook things… it happens," she said. The scientists smiled like innocent little lambs and continued their way to the wreck.