“So… this is Relédiaka.”
“I had heard that the trees were big here, but– wow! You can barely see
the ground from the tops!”
“Well of course you can’t see the ground. We’re stuck in an office,”
Kevérin grumbled.
“…” Kaoné glanced over at the Pyrotechnic, who was sitting slouched in
a chair, sulking.
About a day had passed since the two were inducted into the NSD. They had
attempted to contact as many of the five Chaotics as they could the morning
after speaking with Nikéyin, but they succeeded only in reaching Christeané,
who claimed that he would meet the two of them in Nimaliaka once he finished
“urgent business.” With no method of directly contacting the other Chaotics,
Kaoné and Kevérin decided to visit the capitals of the other continent-nations
where they would be able to ask the local military headquarters for the
locations of the Chaotics in that nation. So they hopped on the next
inter-capital flight out of Nimaliaka Central, which happened to be directly to
the Relédiakian capital of Lédia; three hours later they arrived in the famous
“Capital in the Trees”, so-called for its position in the higher elevations of
Relédiaka’s massive forest. They had little time for sightseeing, however –
almost as soon as they arrived, they were met by a Relédiakian soldier who led
them to the nation’s military HQ, where they found that Siyuakén had an office;
they decided to wait for her in the reception area.
That had been four hours ago.
“Why the hell are we still here?” Kevérin scowled, glaring at the blank
far wall.
“We’re waiting for Siyuakén. She should be with us soon…”
“That’s what they said an hour ago. They also said that two hours ago.
Oh, and three hours ago, too.”
“True…” Kaoné frowned, “I wonder what’s taking so long.”
“We could have gone to Riverana and back in this time. Who was in
Riverana? Some… Kiev…”
“Kievkenalis Yumach,” Kaoné stated, pulling up a digital version of the
roster on her glasses. “…he’s a Chaostechnic.”
“A Chaostechnic!” Kevérin exclaimed, “Well why didn’t we go get
him first?”
“You’re the one who barged onto the first inter-capital transport you
saw, not me.”
“…Touché.” He then glanced at the personnel listing on the wall next to
him for the tenth time that hour. “Why do we have to wait for Siyuakén?” he
complained again, “She’s the same age as us, right? 20? There’s no way she’s so
far ahead in the ranks that we have to wait this long for her.”
“She’s a Lieutenant,” Kaoné replied, smiling. “Like me!”
“What?!” Kevérin jumped to his feet, “What are we waiting for a Lieutenant for?
I’m a Transfer Captain! I–“
“Outrank Lieutenants in any military, I know,” Kaoné rolled her eyes,
“you’ve only told me that at least twice a week.”
Kevérin gave Kaoné an unamused look.
“Why are you complaining so much all of a sudden, anyways?”
“…Nnh.” Kevérin grunted and sat back down. “I’m just bored. There’s
nothing to do.” He glanced over at Kaoné. “Aren’t you bored?”
“Sorta,” she replied, and then tapped her glasses. “I downloaded a
couple AR games, though. That helps.”
“…What games?”
“Have you heard of Dessert Destruction?”
“Sounds familiar–“
Kevérin stopped mid-sentence as he locked eyes with a short-haired
young woman, laden with several files and folders, who had just stepped into
the reception area. She glanced between Kevérin and Kaoné, and then over at the
door with the nameplate that read “Siyuakén Wanléon”.
Kaoné caught the glance. “Are you Siyuakén?”
“I’m Lieutenant Wanléon, yeah…” she looked between Kevérin and Kaoné
again, this time with a level of confusion in her expression. “…Who are you?”
“Figures she’s not even in her office. And no one told her we were
waiting for her. Of course, I should’ve known,” Kevérin grumbled under his
breath.
“…I’m Lieutenant Kaoné Densalin, from Nimaliaka,” Kaoné took it upon
herself to do the introductions, “And this is Transfer Captain Kevérin Tyrion,
from Tekdecé.”
“Nice to meet you,” Siyuakén replied as she stepped forward and held
her palm up to a metal plate by the office door. A second later something
clicked and the door swung open. She stepped inside, gesturing for Kaoné and
Kevérin to do the same. “So… what brings you here?” she asked as she set the
stack of files and folders on her desk and began flipping through them.
“If you didn’t know to expect us, you might not believe what we have to
say,” Kevérin frowned.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Siyuakén shrugged, “I won’t know until you tell
me.”
“So… it’s not official yet,” Kevérin started, “but Nimaliaka and
Tekdecé are cooperating to form the Nimalian Systems Defense, a non-national
organization that’ll handle all extrasolar matters.”
“My CO actually just mentioned that to me…” Siyuakén commented, “…oh,
so the two of you are who he was talking about.”
“So you know that we came to ask you to join Hazardous Momento?”
“That’s not our name,” Kaoné looked over at Kevérin, unamused.
“What? It’s better than Hero Machina,” Kevérin snorted.
“Not by a lot,” Siyuakén replied.
“…So d’ya want to join us or not?” Kevérin crossed his arms.
“I hope you’re not expecting me to just say yes and drop everything.”
“No, but it’d definitely be easier.” Kevérin then glanced between Kaoné
and Siyuakén, both of whom were staring at him disapprovingly. “…What?”
“We know it isn’t that simple,” Kaoné stated, turning back to Siyuakén,
“I’ll admit that neither of us even knew about any of this before yesterday.”
“So the two of you did just say yes and drop
everything?”
“Whatever we’ll be doing as ‘Hero Machina’ has to be more exciting than
sitting around on stand-by,” Kevérin stated, “I know we weren’t
busy at all. What’re you doing that’s so important?”
Siyuakén sighed and gestured for Kaoné and Kevérin to take a seat. She
then crossed her office, closed the door, and walked back around her desk
across from her two guests before sitting down in her chair.
“…That serious?” Kevérin questioned uneasily.
“Yeah…” Siyuakén responded, “I’m going to guess that the two of you are
looking for my friend, Rebehka, as well?”
Kaoné checked her roster quickly before asking, “Rebehka… Tchiréon?”
“Yeah,” Siyuakén nodded, “Well, she and I have been working on a
classified project for the past few years–“
“Whoa, wait, classified?” Kevérin interrupted, “Can you really just up
and tell us about it then?”
“Sure it’s classified, but it isn’t top secret,” Siyuakén
replied, “The two of you, me, Rebehka – it’s not hard to tell that you’re
looking to recruit the Chaotics born during the Chaos Energy Quake.”
Kaoné and Kevérin glanced at each other warily. “I guess that is pretty
obvious, huh…” Kaoné admitted.
“I suppose now is a good time to point out that He– ehm, that HM’s
‘official’ task is to investigate the Quake,” Kevérin stated.
“That’s good to know. That increases my chances of joining you,”
Siyuakén smirked, “the project – well, the situation Rebehka and I are
investigating, we believe it could be related to the Quake.”
“Wow. We’re making progress already!” Kevérin exclaimed.
“What’s going on?” Kaoné questioned.
“As far as we know, it all started about ten years ago…” Siyuakén
began, “Animals with metallic body parts have been showing up the world over.
But it doesn’t look as though the metallic parts grew with the animal, or as if
they were surgically inserted in place of the original body part. It looks more
like an infection, almost. Like giant rashes. Giant metallic rashes… yeah, that’s
probably the best way to put it.”
“That sounds… uh… pretty gross,” Kevérin grimaced.
“You can’t even imagine…” Siyuakén sighed, “The poor things look like
they’re in so much pain… but any animal infected with the metallic rash seems
to go mad. They become extremely hostile and attack everything in sight. Even
normally docile creatures will go crazy. It’s far from easy to subdue them, and
there’s no known way to cure them, so usually… we have to put them down.”
“Aww…” Kaoné frowned.
“That’s sad…” Kevérin nodded slowly, “but… if these animals have been
appearing all over the world, why haven’t we heard of them?”
“Because the governments don’t want a panic,” Siyuakén snorted,
“They’ve tried their damnedest to make sure the public doesn’t learn about it.
It’s not hard, either. On any other continent-nation the infected animals are
easily spotted and put down by local teams, and nothing is heard from them.
Here in Relédiaka, though, there are huge forests to hide in. The infection is
a bigger problem here since we can’t find the infected animals quickly enough
to put them down and stop whatever this ‘disease’ is from spreading. But most
of the towns are tree-borne, so people rarely see the animals anyways…”
“I’d heard stories, but I never imagined that the forest floor is
actually that dangerous!”
“It’s pretty nasty down there, I’ll admit. Only Chaotics are allowed on
the forest floor, and never alone,” Siyuakén stated, “General policy is to put
down the animal on sight, but Rebehka and I are part of a group that tries to
capture them and see what’s wrong.”
“Why you two?”
“Because I’m an Electrotechnic, and she’s a Cryotechnic. Our powers
allow us to more easily subdue animals.”
“By shocking or freezing them?” Kevérin snorted.
“It’s got to be better than… er,” Siyuakén paused for a moment, “…what
kind of Chaotic are you?”
“He’s a Pyrotechnic, and I’m a Materiatechnic,” Kaoné replied.
“Well it’s definitely better than burning them,”
Siyuakén retorted before looking over at Kaoné. “Wait… you’re a Materiatechnic?
Like, actually?”
“I don’t lie,” Kaoné huffed.
“Hmm…” Siyuakén mused, “…how good are you?”
“Huh?”
“Like, how finely can you control matter?”
“Um…” Instead of a verbal response, Kaoné held up her right hand. Her
sleeve cuff detached from her sleeve, rotated 360 degrees, and then reattached
itself.
“…Wow,” Siyuakén replied as she inspected the sleeve, “…no seam. You’d
never even know you pulled off the cuff…”
“It took a lot of practice to be able to do that,” Kaoné commented,
“And, even then… I’ve got a long way to go, as a Materiatechnic.”
Kevérin snorted.
Ignoring him, Siyuakén asked, “How well can you use your power on
moving objects? …Living things?”
“I don’t like where this is going…” Kaoné frowned.
“But, just think about it!” Siyuakén urged, “We’ve never had a
Materiatechnic help us before. Your power could be key to helping get rid of
the metal infection!”
“And what if I kill the animal on accident?”
“It’s what would have happened anyways.”
“I hope you aren’t ‘putting them down’ so gruesomely as removing matter from
a random part of their body!”
Siyuakén drew away from Kaoné slightly. “…Sorry, I didn’t know this was–“
“No, no, I’m sorry,” Kaoné quickly apologized, “I just… …I won’t do
it.”
Kevérin pursed his lips as he glanced between the two girls who were
now sitting in awkward silence. Choosing to break said silence, he questioned,
“So what does this ‘metal infection’ have to do with the Chaos Energy Quake?”
“That’s a little harder to answer,” Siyuakén turned away from the
Materiatechnic, “Our ‘evidence’ is pretty qualitative. This infection thing has
only been a Nimalian issue – that we know of – for the past decade, but we’ve
received reports of similar infections on planets in CSA space. Those reports
go back as far as twenty years… but no farther.”
“Yeah, that’s not a very firm connection,” Kevérin agreed.
“Which is why I’m actually considering joining you guys. If you’re
going to investigate the Quake, you may discover some things about this
infection. If nothing else I’m sure I’d get a chance to check out the
non-Nimalian reports. Hmm…” she paused for a moment before suddenly standing
up.
“Where’re you going?” Kevérin questioned as she briskly walked around
her desk and to her office door, “…after all that, you’re not just dropping
everything and joining, are you?”
“No, not just yet, at least,” Siyuakén replied as she opened the door
and gestured for the other two to follow. “An Electrotechnic, a Pyrotechnic,
and a Materiatechnic… we should be safe enough.”
“…You want to show us one of the infected animals,” Kevérin deadpanned.
“So you’ll at least know what to look for, whether I come along or
not.”
“I don’t feel too good about this…” Kaoné frowned.
“Don’t worry,” Siyuakén replied, “…as much as I don’t want to, if it
comes down to it I’m sure I can stop anything that decides to attack you. I’m
sure you can help too, uh… Transfer Captain.”
“My name’s Kevérin.”
“Right. So, are the two of you with me?”
“…Will you join us if we go with you?” Kaoné asked.
“That remains to be seen.”
Kaoné and Kevérin glanced at each other uneasily. Kevérin followed the
glance with a shrug and turned back to Siyuakén. “Sure. We’re in.”
“Alright!” she exclaimed, “Let’s go!”
*
* *
“Er… the ground didn’t look quite so far away when we flew in…”
“Relax,” Siyuakén replied as she readied the lift to the forest floor,
“This lift may not see much use, but it’s still reliable.”
“How often do you go down there?” Kaoné asked.
“Probably once a week or so,” Siyuakén answered, “But Relédiakians
don’t use the lift. The lift is for foreigners like you who don’t know how to
use the swinging gear.”
“The what?”
Siyuakén held up her arms, forearms forward, showing off the metal
prism strapped to each forearm. At the end of each prism closest to the elbow
was a cylinder, mounted with its bases parallel to the sides of her arms; the
other end of the prism was sloped away from her hand, and a single spike
appeared to be mounted within.
“Oh, so that’s what those are…” Kevérin nodded, “…wait, how do you
swing with those?”
Siyuakén glanced at the lift control panel to see how much longer they
had until it arrived. Seeing that there was still plenty of time, she held her
right arm out toward the dense forest, away from the city behind them. There
was a small spark and the spike shot out, revealing that it was attached to the
prism by a cord. Then, almost as soon as it had shot out, it retracted,
snapping back into its mounted position.
“So it’s like a grappling hook.”
“It is a grappling hook. Once it extends out a certain
distance hooks open outward, out of the spike.”
Kevérin whistled. “Not bad. How do you power something so small, though–?”
“KRAAAAAAAWWWW!!”
“Wha–!” Kaoné jumped.
“Damn it!” Siyuakén glared into the distance, “I just had to
go and wake up a dragonbird, didn’t I–?!” She froze up as the creature dived
out of the leaves some distance away and began rocketing toward the three
Chaotics. She then scowled.
Kevérin caught the expression. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s infected!” Siyuakén replied, “…the infection’s reached the birds,
too? Damn– hold on!” She then stretched her arm toward the bird. “Avert your
eyes!” she exclaimed just before a bright bolt of lightning jumped from her
fingertips to the dragonbird. It immediately seized up, all of its muscles
contracted; however, while its wings were no longer flapping, it still
maintained its forward momentum.
“It’s coming this way–!!” Kevérin yelped.
“Watch out!” Siyuakén shouted, grabbing both Kaoné and Kevérin by their
shoulders and pulling them to the side. She succeeded in keeping all three of
them out of direct harms way, but she wasn’t quite fast enough to keep the
giant bird from scraping against Kaoné, who stumbled over, unprepared for the
animal’s surprisingly large mass.
“Whoa, whoa–!”
“Kaoné! Get– shit!” Kevérin exclaimed, quickly reaching out for the
Materiatechnic. But he was too late; she tripped on the walkway and toppled
over the low railing, falling straight down to the ground below. However, as a
Materiatechnic, she had nothing much to fear – when she judged she was within a
couple seconds of hitting the ground, she quickly liquefied the dirt and made
it reach out to her, disabling all surface tension as she fell into the
liquid-like blob. As soon as her downward speed slowed to nil she ejected
herself from the dirt blob, allowing it to re-solidify as she hastily removed
the leftover dirt splotches on her body.
“Eugh…” she groaned, “Disgusting–“
“KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWW!!”
“It’s not dead?!” she whipped around just in time to see the dragonbird
throw itself at her. She quickly dove to the side before rolling over and
jumping back to her feet, unconsciously reaching her hand toward the
bird. No, wait, no–! she panicked, no, don’t kill…
it?... Her panic turned part-way into confusion as she noticed the
dragonbird stomp the ground and turn back to face her. Wait, just now… she
thought to herself uneasily, my… power…
It didn’t work!
Data Entry: AR Vision
With the many advances in technology throughout the ages, the vast majority of biological defects have become curable. In the CSA and Nimalian civilizations, genetic diseases (and in fact, diseases and physical disabilities in general) have all but disappeared; among the first to be cured was the deterioration of the ocular organs. That is, the eyes – no galactic inhabitant who has lived past their first year of birth has any issue with eyesight for the rest of their lives (the only exception to this are the Earthians, who are new enough to the galactic stage that they have not widely adopted such medicinal and biological advances). As such, glasses – for the sake of correcting vision – have become obsolete.
However, glasses themselves are still widespread. They are now cheap every-day Augmented Reality (AR) devices: essentially computerized screens that are capable of displaying relevant information as if it were present in the real world. More expensive but more advanced versions have limited brain-interface capability, allowing the user to more actively interact with displayed data instead of passively consuming it. In-eye variants of the AR technology are available, but the technology and implantation process are remarkably expensive.
Few people operate without the AR glasses or in-eye device, collectively known as AR vision. It is usually only Chaotics who don’t possess AR vision, and only a few types of Chaotics at that – namely Transtechnics (shape-shifters), who find the physical object bothersome to keep up with; Electrotechnics, who accidentally but consistently blow out the devices by applying too much current; and Chaostechnics, who have so much Chaos Energy running through their body that it rejects most technology.
========================================================================
Author’s
Note: Italics
I just want
to spend a little bit of time to clarify my use of italics in my stories. I use
italics for three things, and three things alone:
1) Ship names are always
italicized. A real-world example would be the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier.
2) In dialog, italicized words
represent emphasis.
3) In the narrative, italicized
words represent the thoughts of a character – what they are thinking, but not
speaking.
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