Spring Mutiny: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Adventure (Space Seasons Book 2) Page 4

  I actually didn’t have a team. This might be more difficult than I thought.

  We’ll be your team for, now, Hiroto said. Though we can’t take hold of you physically while you sleep, we can monitor everything.

  That sounds like you’ll be awake for a long time?

  We don’t really require sleep like you do. Our minds can be active the whole time, Xirob said.

  I struggled with that. Isn’t it driving you insane to be stuck in here?

  Life is a funny thing, Xirob said. Actually, no. It’s quite peaceful, and I have Hiroto to talk to.

  I don’t hear you talking.

  We can talk without you, he said.

  That kind of shocked me, and pangs of jealousy washed over me. Before I could stop them, the words tumbled out, trying to make me feel better. Oh, I guess that’s good. If you chose to, can you block out the other?

  Of course. Sometimes there’re private things we only want to tell you, Xirob said.

  I’d never even thought it was possible. What do you talk about? I asked, still jealous.

  Mostly sciences and theory. I guess you could say I’m learning more and more from Xirob than I thought possible, Hiroto said.

  I left my quarters and headed down to the next deck. Xirob guided me, and I soon found myself in the belly of the freighter. The twin engines that held energy to power her were massive. I stood before them and gawped.

  Solar sails? I asked. Like on a sea fairing vessel?

  No, they’re energy absorbing. We have four, fully functional, Hiroto said. Power is being stored at present because our speed is nice and steady.

  I nodded and moved to the consoles around the room, checking and touching individual ones. They were all lit green across the board. Xe’s got control of all this?

  Yes. Xirob guided me out of the room and through the next, into the main hangar bay. This was the room that excited me the most. I wanted to spend all my time in here. I walked straight for the mech bays.

  The space around them was large, and again with plenty of green lights across the board, for two of them. The others when I touched them just flashed the once in red.

  All we’re missing is a couple of mechs. I sighed.

  “Thought I’d find you down here,” a voice said.

  I looked back to the main doors to see Tyto heading my way.

  “Wanted to get a good feel for it before I went for food,” I said.

  He gave me the once over and settled beside me, looking up into the first two mech bays. “They’re in good condition. I spent a few days tinkering with the relays and commands. Making sure we had them ready to go.”

  “You think we need them?”

  “I do. That’s my first job. I think Jai has some other ideas, but I want the ship capable of drop and defence if the right jobs come our way.”

  “We’re a long way to go before that’s possible though, right?”

  “We’re a few months off funding any kind of mech program. Really we need crew first.”

  I looked to the lone fighter. “Not sure what we can do to crew up, barring going back to Tolsa. I knew some really reliable people who would love to join us.”

  “Rytin?”

  I nodded, but Tyto looked away. “We’ve never had the best relationship.”

  “I think neither of you knew you were on the same side, so it was no wonder.”

  “You think he’ll trust me after Delta 81?”

  “He trusts me, and I am more than sure he would trust Jai.”

  “Yeah, General Trix. I never thought…” a frown crossed Tyto’s face.

  “We’re in the dark here. Though I am more than sure they know we’re here, they don’t know where we are or what we’re doing. They are waiting for us to make some moves, and then they’ll come down hard.”

  “Arndale?” he asked me.

  “Yes, they’re not going to wait for us to come to them.”

  “No.” Tyto moved to the panel beside me and brought up a viewer. “But we’ll do everything we can to thwart that. Like these. I’ve got my eye on these two. They’re cheap, in need of repair and work, but if we clear a few runs with cargo or just planet to planet transfers, I think we could pick them up.”

  I stared at the screen and then read the mechs’ stats.

  MECH MODEL 1073 x 2 for Scrap - Decommissioned 12 months prior

  Price - 50,000 each.

  Class – Brawler

  Operational Level Required - 100

  Overall Personal Level required - 300

  Internal = AI chip - NONE

  Nanites x 0

  Structural Integrity = IRON, SILVER, TRION, COPPER

  Hull Strength = 311 and 218

  Mana Core = 18% and 12%

  Strength = 327

  Speed = 244 and 188 - Upgrade Available

  Weight = ??

  Cockpit = SMASHED

  Heat Tolerance x 121s and 98s

  Heat Sinks on board - 0

  Weapons = NONE – Can be added.

  They were still way over my operational level, one at 100, and one at 50. I had to gain that rank and grow personally. Over 300 for personal level, crap. I would gain it; it wasn’t far off, honest!

  “I need a job, something that’s going to assign Quick Points as a reward,” I said. “There’s no way I’m getting in those mechs without it.”

  “Can’t you learn off Xirob?” he asked.

  “Some, I guess. It’s not going to be that easy for him to give me knowledge. I earn points or maybe we can find manuals maybe?”

  “I’m sure we can pick those up at some of the stations, yes.”

  “Sounds good. But jobs would help.”

  “I’ll make sure we’re scouting for those kinds of jobs, but they’re dangerous. You realise that.”

  I tapped the screen. “Nothing worth that kind of reward ever comes without danger.”

  I watched as Tyto’s eyes flashed. I could almost see him access his messaging system, and he motioned back towards the main doors. “Jai’s requesting our presence in the mess.”

  “Food time!” I rubbed my belly. I was hungry.

  “No better place to debrief. At least while there’s so few of us.”

  I could agree with it for now. But I hoped we wouldn’t have to wait too long before we could start to fill the cabins.

  Walking to the mess, I could smell the food being cooked, and my mouth literally drooled, it smelled like bacon and coffee.

  I was going to be spoilt if there was bacon here…or something that smelled like it.

  Opening the door, Tyto strode into the galley and picked out a tray. I copied him, and within a moment we both sat eating in front of Jai. Sipping coffee, and enjoying some pleasant conversation.

  Jai waited while we cleaned the tables. “There’s a few things I want to broach. Crew and first mission.” He looked to Tyto. “I understand we need the higher calibre jobs, so I’ve found these two. I actually think we could complete them all within a decent time frame if we pushed it.”

  I waited for him to pull out a data pad, but he brought up a 3D image for us all to see. It displayed on the wall beside us.

  CARGO HAUL - FROM PERGELLI STATION IN SECTOR SEVEN TO VOLTO

  PAYMENT = 150,000 GOLD

  BONUS FOR EARLY DELIVERY = 50,000

  PENALTIES IF LATE = -50,000

  CARGO HAUL - FROM VOLTO TO CINIA

  PAYMENT = 275,000 GOLD

  NO BONUS, PENALTIES IF LATE.

  Both were really good payouts. I could see that.

  “Why are they dangerous?” I asked.

  Jai brought up a star chart then with a projected trajectory. “We’re shorter on supplies than we thought, so we need to check into this area to reload.” He tapped a flag, which then lit up Roastol. “We’ve enough funds to buy a good chunk of the things I think we need in this area. But it’s Black Dog territory.”

  Naylar cursed under her breath, and when I looked at her, she mouthed to me, “Pirates.”

  “Yes, the Black Dogs are known pirates,” Jai admitted. “As much as Arndale like to think they own and keep this whole area secured and safe, they don’t. There are species out here they don’t control, and then there’s denti like us who have kind of slipped off their radar.”

  Hiroto was the one who voiced my concern. How did they kind of slip off their radar? I mean, I know what you had to do, but how did they?

  “How are you off Arndale’s radar?” I asked.

  Jai regarded me for a moment, then answered simply, “Some of my conditions for certain missions were that they would remove all monitoring equipment.”

  “What?” I think I paled before him.

  “What they didn’t take out, we did.” Jai tapped the screen again. “We need to pass through both these sections of space.”

  To the side of our trajectory were red lines. I swallowed. “What can we do to get the ship in better shape?”

  “Naylar has some stores I think you can use, and a few of our weapons are offline. If we could get back one of those, I’d feel much more comfortable heading in.”

  I glanced to Naylar. “I’ll come down and take a look, see what I can do.”

  “I want Rei with you. We’ve not got long to get this sorted. As much as I’d love to take our time, if I take these jobs, we don’t have it. We’re on a tight schedule.”

  “How tight?” Rei asked.

  “We pick up, then two months to deliver, reload, turn around and get our asses to Cinia. It’s a four-month trip we need to do in three.” Jai then looked to me. “I know Xirob has skills we don’t, but I need you to go with Naylar first and see if you can’t wake Denn. We need her to reprogram and calibrate the engines. I think we can get another fifteen percent from them, which would give us the leeway to push for the four-month trip.”

  I finished my drink. “I’ll head there right now.”

  I waited for Naylar to stand.

  She glanced to Jai before he said, “Yes, dismissed.”

  Then I moved to follow Naylar from the mess. I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure on protocol. Military, salutes. I felt out of place.

  “You’ll get used to him,” Naylar said. “Just because you know his title doesn’t mean he won’t give you some leeway. You’re not military-trained. He knows that.”

  “I want to learn,” I said. “I want the respect, the knowledge you all have from that background.”

  “I’m not military.” She laughed.

  “Oh. I guess I thought you all were, the fact you work so well together.”

  “We trained hard, but there’s only Rei and Jai with actual experience.”

  We entered the med bay, and she led me over to where Denn was resting. The screens around her indicated she was at full health, but she still wasn’t awake. Something hadn’t gone to plan.

  “You can’t find anything wrong?” I asked, moving in closer.

  “No. I have healing capabilities, but I can’t see anything. Do you think you three might?”

  I shrugged and took hold of Denn’s hand. Xirob, can you see or do anything?

  I do not know if I can see what I would need to, but I will try if you let me take the helm for a few minutes.

  I knew it was hard to hand this body over fully, more so on Xirob than me. It was his body, after all. But the more I did it, the easier it was for us both. I mentally stepped aside. Jai was right; we needed Denn awake, and if she needed Xirob, so be it.

  Xirob accessed her character sheet.

  Everything for her was the same as before, but she’d gained a level, as far as I could see, and her nanites were seriously low. I needed to fix that, for a start.

  Name - Denn (Momma Bear)

  Species - Human/Denti

  Date of Death - 2598

  Class - Cleric

  Age = 23 + 31

  Level = 63 Journeyman

  Respawns = 38

  Memories = 58% Sold 4%

  Health = 99%

  Mana = 543

  Nanites x 10,278

  Body Type = Model 212 A Class

  Structural Integrity = Tong and Silver

  Internal AI Chip = D47 B Class

  Skin Strength = 64

  Blood Capacity = 77

  Healing Speed = 84

  Strength = 50

  Dexterity = 63

  Constitution = 62

  Intelligence = 36

  Wisdom = 77

  Charisma = 23

  Luck = 32

  “Why didn’t you get her anymore nites?” I heard Xirob ask.

  “She’s been showing a full hit, why?”

  “Well, I can only read she’s got just over ten thousand.”

  Naylar moved in beside us, and she pulled up a physical copy of Denn’s sheet for me to see. Clearly, it wasn’t what I was looking at. Her numbers didn’t match, and according to Naylar’s she was still level sixty-two.

  “Okay, well, something is wrong with the med bed for a start. I’ll have to pull it apart to figure out what at a later date, or maybe Denn can.” I felt myself smile at Naylar. “See if you can find us a few injections of nites. I think Denn’s, once activated, can program the new ones, but at the moment they’re not activated. I’ll remedy that first.”

  She looked at us and frowned. “Seems you can see a lot more than us. Thank you, Xirob.”

  I felt him move aside, and I took the reins back. When Naylar returned a few moments later with two vials full of basic nites, I took them from her and injected Denn.

  What do I need to do to get them kick-started? I asked Xirob.

  You have Kenosi. I am going to walk you through how to give out a base electric pulse. They’re essentially paused and need a jumpstart.

  That was really interesting, and for me to learn more of their magic system also excited me. I knew I was grinning when I looked up into Naylar’s starry eyes.

  Place both your hands over her body, Xirob instructed, and I complied. Then you’ll need to focus deep within yourself to first locate the healing you already know. You need to join that with your Kenosi. The spark. I know you don’t have the experience, but once you see it, you’ll need to feel it and then see what she needs. You then can engage the spark instead of trying to use the mana pool you know is non-existent.

  I remembered Keedo had told me that. Though I had used healing and what the system said was mana, it had worked. Now I needed this to be more. I needed to use Kenosi. The real magic the universe had around it.

  I moved my hands to hold them above her body. The natural position for me seemed to gravitate towards her head and lower abdomen, and I let them settle about a foot off her. I could almost feel the heat from her. She was vibrant and alive; that was something I could feel easily enough.

  Naylar stepped back, and I watched as she put a hand to her mouth. I looked back to Denn and then closed my eyes, imagining her body, her nites inside, just sitting there. Dormant.

  They needed me to get them moving. Denn needed me to wake them and, in turn, wake her.

  I could see in my mind the glowing colours around her. There was something that didn’t feel right about it, a darkness almost. If I could have, I would have pushed the darkness aside.

  Xirob encouraged me. That’s it, Kyle. Keep going. You can see what I mean—follow your instincts. You might not be a master, but you have a natural ability with the nites. That’s what you’re good at. It’s not about healing this time. This is about spark, control. Command them.

  I thought I could. I knew I could.

  Across her body, the darkness started to blink. There were tiny lights. Hundreds. And then there were thousands.

  Denn’s eyes flickered open.

  KENOSI RANK ACCOMPLISHED! – RANK 4

  Chapter Four

  Naylar rushed to Denn’s side and kissed her deeply. I didn’t want to intrude anymore, but when I turned to leave, Denn held onto my hand. Naylar let her go, and Denn spoke gruffly. “No, stay, I need to talk to you.”

  I sat down on the end of the bed, and Denn let my hand go. She nuzzled into Naylar and then Denn too sat on the side of the bed.

  “I was so worried,” Naylar said.

  “I know.” Denn looked around the room. “I presume I have a lot to catch up on?”

  “Do you—” I laughed. “Sorry, we do have a lot to tell you, but I still think you really need some more rest.” Free of her grip, I stood and moved around to look at the two of them. “We’re on a freighter of a friend of mine. We’ve left KronoS.”

  Denn nodded, and I could see her eyes misting over. She was accessing what nites she had left and her systems. “Seems I levelled up while I was out for the count too.”

  Naylar nodded at her, moving a strand of her hair out of her eyes. “Kyle and Jai completed our mission. Even though we weren’t there, we were still part of the team.”

  “Thank you,” Denn said, then she yawned. “Sorry, I appear to be more tired than I thought.”

  “You need food, too.” I pointed to her chart at the end of the bed. Though her health and stats were all stable, they could be a lot better.

  “I am hungry,” she said to Naylar.

  “I’ll go fetch you some food.” Naylar slid off the bed. “Anything you want in particular? We have a decent stockpile.”

  Denn beamed. “Anything sweet and dessert-flavoured would be lovely.”

  I watched as Naylar left, and then Denn turned to me, her eyes slowly roaming my physique. “Seems you’ve grown quite a bit. Care to fill me in on most of the details?”

  “We really don’t have time for all that.” I laughed. “I can give you a brief summary, though.”

  She smiled. “Okay, as long as someone tells me everything later.”

  It didn’t take me long, and Denn nodded in all the right places. “I knew there was something different about you. Seems you came to us at the right time for all the right reasons despite putting our mission on hold.”

  “Yeah, I think it turned out okay,” I said.