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Ignition Broker: Chapter 10 Disappointment
🕑 Added 2024-11-04 16:10:56 +0000 UTCChapter 10
Disappointment
The Past
<13 years ago, a five-year-old Arla>
Arla had studied. Worked out, not just her body, but her mind.
She had pushed herself, forced her eyes to focus beyond the visible light spectrum of humans and force her mind to see the images and colors that most Cerusians can.
With her training, she learned to read, and write the language of the Cerusians.
Of course, she couldn’t understand the words when spoken by a Cerusian, how was she to know that the whispering lilts in the air were their speaking instructions to her. Instructions in Cerusian, a language no one had apparently thought to record.
Whisper-whisper.
“Candidate must ask to move ahead before going onto the next section.”
“Candidate has gone ahead without permission. One point deducted.”
“Candidate has read the subject for flames but must now explain what the passage was about. Candidate has failed to respond to verbal questions, five more points deducted.”
On it went.
Like a bad dream, Arla only now realized what all the silent whispers were, and worse she realized she was meant to fail that test.
“Perfect marks in reading. Perfect marks in writing. 100 points deducted for verbal communication skills. 100 points deducted for failure to follow instructions. 100 points deducted for failure to verbalize true understanding of the Cerusian language.”
Arla’s small form stared up at the Cerusian who had administered the test.
“You are such a bastard child, that you probably don’t even realize how or why you have failed. Just staring up at me with that same pitiful glare of wanting to be accepted.
Hearing that, something inside Arla broke.
Only now, with her gift of foresight, or maybe reflection could Arla truly understand the gravity of what transpired that day. Only now, that she felt the Cerusian system awaken within her, did she realize that there was no way she could pass the test.
There was one way she could prove this to herself, but for the moment she ran through everything that was said. Her mind long since able to recall this key memory with crystal clarity thanks to her evolved Mind stat. An Attribute that didn’t seem to fit, and for most people it didn’t, as Attributes rise up, hit a base threshold and then evolve, just like skills do, but in odd and unique ways based on the class of the individual and the way the individual uses their Attributes.
For Arla her Mental Attributes, or rather those linked to Memory and self-reflection evolved as follows.
Intelligence: 1 -> 50; Processing: 1 -> 75; Perfect Recall: 1-> 100; Mind: 1 -> 222
Wisdom: 1 -> 50; Understanding: 1 -> 75; Making Connections (AKA Deductive Reasoning): 1-> 100; True Insight: 1 -> 157
With those two Attributes well above most mortal limits, Arla was able to look back into her past with near perfect clarity. Now, aided by her newly awakened split consciousness from Mr. Fortuna, Arla could see this moment with perfect clarity, as if she was reliving the moment.
Better still, she could interact with the moment, now that she had finally awoken her Cerusian system. She wouldn’t change the past, or rather she couldn’t, but she could use this moment to see what exactly happened. Why offer her the chance at a test, if they knew there was no way she could pass. They had given her everything she needed, books, resources, and even energy stones to practice with. Yet, they didn’t give her any recordings knowing that three fifths of her testing would require oral comprehension of the language.
Worse, they spoke at purposeful whispers, so that a young girl not wishing to bother the instructors who appeared to be mumbling or practicing their whistling at sub-audible levels wouldn’t respond.
“Bastard filth of the cosmos, do you understand why you have failed? Note, failure to respond now will be seen as recognition as your inability to fit into the fleet.”
The Cerusian test proctor stared coldly at Arla.
Arla stared back, remembering being frightened of the man, but now she saw him for the coward he was.
“I do.” Arla responded, her tone cold as she fought to center herself and her broiling emotions. This was her chance to tell the people what she truly thought of them, about how she was abandoned by them. It was shallow, and ultimately meaningless, but in this moment, it felt real. In this moment, she could get her justice, especially now that she was older and more aware of the world.
Hearing that, the proctor looked visibly flustered, as Arla actually responded, something that was clear she wasn’t supposed to know.
“I know that you are a dead and dying creature, limping off to hide in space. Trying to avoid the superpredators that stalk you in the void. I know that when you die, your weak and pathetic blood will not taint and dilute my own. I know that you are nothing but a shadow of a once proud race. A proud race that now sustains itself by mocking the children born from your own lascivious desires.” Arla hissed back, but her words were sharp.
Hearing the words, the proctor looked shocked, going so far as to stand up from his chair.
“Superpredators?” He asked, then clarified, “you have heard of and seen the great message?”
Hearing the word, Arla realized that what she spoke was not superpredator, at least not the term that the Federation used. Rather this was an older word, one that in Cerusian was closer to Stalker of the Void than superpredator, but both definitions seemed to fit.
Trembling.
“You fool, you brought them here?” The proctor hissed.
Hearing the words, it was clear that the Proctor was frightened about something. But what?
Then the reality hit her, as she realized that the Proctor was frightened by the fact that she had clearly seen the Cerusian system message for superpredators and was now here.
Realizing the mistake, Arla just smiled coldly.
“No, I faced my challenges. This is just me reminding myself how I am so much better without you all. Goodbye, you won’t see me again.” Arla stated, this time it felt good for her to be in control of the situation, if only for that moment. A moment that she was now stretching beyond its normal limits. A memory that would bounce back, once this memory sequence was complete.
“Wait, if you have defeated a superpredator, then how are you only a child?” The proctor pondered. Then his eyes seemed to glow golden, though it was a shade of gold that Arla herself had never seen before. But she was certain that it was a form of Light Magic, likely focusing on time.
Arla just smiled coldly, “die slowly in your own self-created prison of darkness. Forever looking over your shoulder for when the monsters of the void will find you and devour what’s left of your carcasses.”
It was cathartic in an odd way that wouldn’t matter, as that bubble in time never occurred and its effects would never be felt.
At least, that is what Arla thought.
***
The Present
The Fortunas exited the protective cube an hour after Arla fired her last round. It was a single point burst that took down a space-hound, apparently the creature got stuck and mangled during the mass exodus of the boarding ship. The creature was stuck, clearly frightened, but angrily snarling and revealing rows of jagged teeth.
Having seen the creature multiple times before, Arla didn’t even hesitate to end its weak and pathetic life. There was no saving the monsters, those born to the Harbingers invariably die when their Harbinger handlers die.
That was the way of life for them.
Seeing the dead creature, Arla paused and before she could feel pity for the creature she had killed, she once again found herself uttering what was often her catch phrase.
“Rule number one,” and like that Arla was back to action scanning the alien vessel and finding secret compartments and bulkheads that could be used to hide even more creatures.
Nothing else remained, well nothing living.
There were components that could be used. Odd Harbinger energy cores and processors that could be sold on the Federation Black Markets.
For a moment, Arla contemplated stealing a few.
They were monitored and catalogued for taxes and special handling. Arla of course knew how to handle the odd components. Normally they would melt a hand off that came too close, which again was where Arla’s Spirit Infusion came in handy.
Dealing with old and derelict Harbinger ships was how Arla learned to practice the coating she used to take down the Behemoth.
Giving a quick glance around, Arla realized that she was safe, and that according to the comms channel, Mr. Fortuna was already calling in for help.
For a moment, Arla had a crazy dream of taking control of the enemy ship.
With everything she saw, the ship was fully functional, with maybe a few cosmetic problems from the ramming portion of the ship being scraped up due to the less dense Federation construction methods.
Theoretically, all Arla would need to d was close the hatch, disembark from the hull of this vessel and sail off.
How she would sail a ship meant for clearly multiple Harbingers working in unison, she didn’t know.
Finally, it was her want to always have available trading pieces on hand that caused her to act.
Taking a quick look around she saw that no one was in the ship. Not that many would dare to venture into a Harbinger ship, occupied or not. This was why Arla felt confident with her approach.
Also, having a power source nearby was never a bad thing.
For all these principles and more, Arla worked. Moving quickly she coated her hand in a thin film of Spirit Infused protection. From there, she grabbed the core, lifted up, and twisted.
The entire process was routine by now, as she had done it dozens of times, scavenging parts for Marcon. Now she was doing it for herself.
Whoosh.
As soon as she too the primary power core, the main lights of the enemy vessel dimmed momentarily, but were quickly replaced by the secondary power sources.
If Arla had more time, she would work her way back to those hidden generators.
This was a standard raiding vessel, which meant it would likely have three minor power nodes and the one large primary power core.
Theoretically, if caught now, Arla could just say she was disabling an enemy vessel so it couldn’t be used against them.
That said, she did go about stealing a few of the primary power cords. Especially the cords and resting nodes that were used to house this larger than average Harbinger power core.
While Arla was fairly confident she could rig Federation items that could handle, or at least disperse the extra energy of such a large stone, there was no point, when the components were all right there.
This was why Arla quickly began cutting and carving away sections of cord and power node housing units.
Her method was simple.
Originally, she had tools for such operations, but over time she learned to adapt her Spirit Infusion to be more precise. She could wield it like a blade at the end of her fingertips, which was what she did now to carve away sections of cords. She could strengthen it to make it a protective glove. Or she could thoroughly wrap her hand to make it a weapon meant for disabling an electrically charged system, while completely protecting her from danger.
Having been through hundreds of Harbinger ships, she mainly understood their construction. Though she did like the fact that this one was still completely intact before she started. This made gutting it for vital components easier, as she was certain they would be there and mostly in their original shape and form.
There was also something else that was crucial for Arla to do, now that the main power supply and primary components were taken off and stored in her space suit pockets. That is the layers between her body and between the open exposure to space, Arla began disabling the communications systems of the Harbingers.
From her understanding, she was fairly certain that most of the people of the Federation were unaware of the blockers or communications methods that the Harbingers had.
Which was odd, as they all but radiated energy.
Though it was on a spectrum that most would consider to be dangerous if exposed to, unless utilizing an enhanced space suit capable of resisting radiation from space.
For these reasons, and the fact that Arla actually wanted security to come, sometime soon, Arla went about disabling one of the three secondary clusters. In particular, she focused on disabling the communications node.
There would just be two nodes remaining, the biocontrol node, which would have to be recalibrated for humanoids if they were to be used, and then the weapons systems. While the biocontrol node was a convenience at this time, leaving it active was better than the alternative of gutting it for parts, then having to recalibrate and repair the gutting procedures.
Being in space, Arla was already plotting and planning contingency plans of escape.
While the Fortunas would be safe in their weaponized suits, Arla would have to plan ahead. While she could continually refresh her air purification runes, that plan would eventually turn out to be sub optimal in a month.
Not that Arla planned to be out here a month, but she knew she had a month to either get back to civilization, or to find a temporary gap measure that could produce or otherwise capture oxygen and other elements and reprocess them in a usable form for humans.
None of the options seemed optimal.
Waiting for others was the same thing as avoiding the true spirit of what Rule One meant.
Also, waiting for others would be the same thing as saying that Marcon didn’t give her enough skills or opportunities to learn how to survive in space.
This of course wasn’t true, which was why Arla decided to break way from the Fortuna’s and any surviving guards they might have.
Taking a moment, she evaluated where she was with her experience levels and decided that she had just enough to start a new Skill Tree.
Remaining Experience: 15,097 / 1,791,097
Pausing for a moment, Arla realized that even after ruthlessly slaying every member of the raiding party she hadn’t gotten any experience. This again was due to the way the universe seemed to turn a blind eye to all things Harbinger, making it so no one profited from their existed.
Still she had kept enough in reserve for just such an event.
While she couldn’t truly specialize, she had enough to gain a completely new Skill base and bring it up to the full Intermediate level. Which was exactly what she did.
Focusing her mind, she pulled up a list of skills she had already used or studied.
Skinning
Tracking
Foraging
Smelting
Alchemy
Metallurgy
…
On and on the list went of skills she had been exposed to. Again, getting a skill locked in by the system didn’t mean those were the only skills she could use. But once locked in, these were skills she couldn’t forget or atrophy in from lack of use.
Taking a moment to center herself she focused on the primary skill that suited her needs.
New Basic Level Skill Identified: Mechanical Movement. Would you like to lock in this Skill as a new basic level skill?
The skill was better overall for what she wanted as it was a catch all for helping not only with moving machinery, but also helped with spatial awareness that involved the movement of complex machinery in tight spaces.
Seeing the message Arla mentally accepted the prompt and then proceeded to pump the necessary 1,000 experience to raise the skill from level to 10.
New Skill Learned: Mechanical Movement (Max):
Advanced Upgrades available. Would you like to choose the primary skill evolution path? Note, some skill evolutions might be blocked off or otherwise hidden from you until you meet certain requirements. Do you wish to continue?
That message was clear. It was a warning that with this being my primary trunk for Mechanical Movement, the evolution would both limit future branches of this base skill. While also making a veritable bottle neck until I could unlock a proper upgrade.
Mentally accepting the change, Arla then looked through the list of Intermediate level skills that were available to her.
Mechanical Flight
Space Flight
Mechanoid Suit Piloting
Driving (Basic)
Piloting (Loaders)
Piloting (Vessels- Aquatic)
Piloting (Vessels- Subterranean)
…
There were so many options related to the movement while in various devices that it almost seemed like overkill. Still, Arla knew what she wanted.
You have chosen Space Flight as your Intermediate level Primary Path, is this correct? Note: Choosing this path will require you to complete an advanced Space Flight related skill progression before you are able to move further along.
Not even taking the time to challenge her decision, she went ahead and bought the skill progression path she had been working on for a while.
Then with applying the necessary 10,000 experience points, Arla maxed out the Intermediate skill of Space Flight.
Skill:
1) Mechanical Movement (Max) -> Space Flight (Max)
a. [Future Growth branches Available, but locked due to experience restrictions]
Remaining Experience: 4,097 / 1,791,097
Now she was in the big leagues of experience costs, at least for this new skill as the Advanced version of the skill and each subsequent level of that Advanced skill would now cost 10,000 experience points each.
Still, she had just enough experience left to be dangerous, if she wanted to.
Arla was so focused on her own contingency plans, that she failed to recognize when she was no longer alone in the alien space craft.
“Ms. Proma, is that you?” The voice of the female asked, at the same time a bright spotlight shone directly on Arla’s spot, revealing her to be at the heart of a communications cluster node.
“Yeah,” Arla answered, feeling like she momentarily lost vigilance by letting the girl get too close to her.
“Oh, that’s good,” the daughter said, a note of hesitation in her voice. “Might I ask what you are doing?”
“Disabling the enemy jamming device, so we can get a distress signal out.” Arla replied, and with that, she made a quick Spirit Infused swipe with her hand at the minor node couplings and disabled the device. Instantly, faintly glowing green lights that had been illuminating the room suddenly went dim.
Gasp.
The girl gasped, at the sudden action of the ship going dark. It was clear that she was not comfortable with her being here.
Seeing her, Arla could only note these peculiarities down.
Still, Arla decided to play nice, for now.
If she was to leave on her own, she wouldn’t want those two to counter her plans. Similarly, she might be brought up on abandonment charges, if she left these two and they somehow survived.
Clip.
The communications channel that had been mostly muted finally came to life.
“Oh, thank goodness, we have a clear channel again, I repeat we have a clear channel. This is Urisiah Hylinch, repeat Urisiah Hylinch of the transport Vessel Audentes Fortuna Iuvat, can anyone hear me?”
Silence.
And like that, Arla realized that it was looking more and more like plan B would be the only plan to get out of here.
***
The Future
<6+ Years from Now, a 24-Year-old Arla>
Knock, knock.
This was becoming a common occurrence of late, but Gerund the XO was always punctual with his briefings, apparently.
“Commander?” Gerund began, before Commander Hylinch could even dignify the knock with an enter.
“Go on,” Commander Hylinch stated, gesticulating with her hand to hurry up.
“We have received reports…” Gerund began.
“Look, if it is about the new Lieutenant rummaging through the Harbinger materials of the recently destroyed squadron, it is likely best that you turn a blind eye to that.” Commander Hylinch noted, already trying to cut off one avenue of trouble.
“No, I was not currently aware of that,” Gerund stated, looking momentarily flummoxed by that new set of details.
For a moment Commander Hylinch chided herself for giving away too much, but figured it was best to nip that in the bud before it became a thing, to begin with.
“Okay then, what is it?” Commander Hylinch asked, straightening up as she realized this might actually be important.
“It seems that we have been given a hailing message from the Cerusians?” Gerund noted.
Hearing that Commander Hylinch just paused as she tried to understand what this all meant.
“The Cerusians?”
“Yes, it seems that they have recently reached out to broker an alliance, though there is one catch.”
“A catch?”
“Yes, it seems that they are particularly interested in a soldier under your command…”
And like that, what had been a regularly terrible day at the end of Federation occupied space suddenly became a lot worse.
Comments
CherMi
Thank you for the chapter. When I saw the title, I feared the worst, but thankfully no - Arla isn't disappointed in new system. She straight up ignored it though! Come on Arla, you're in space, this system is for space people, at least check it out! The past is disheartening, but that last line is terrifying. If her precognition power has hidden clauses, like the awakening one, there's no telling what might happen. Still hope for system box with power, though, it should at least clear up whether Arla's future is fixed or she can change her current actions to change it.
