Chapter 62 - The Ambush

Zoe’s scream still echoed across the water. Danny scrambled backward from the lagoon edge, his folding chair collapsing under him with a metallic crash. The mantis-stalker’s chitinous head tilted, predatory eyes locked on Danny’s retreating form.

Luca moved without thinking.

His energy tomahawk was three steps away, leaning against their gear pile. He lunged for it, bare feet slipping on the moss. The weapon’s familiar weight settled in his grip just as the creature hauled itself fully from the water.

Fucking hell, it was massive. It stood on two legs, armored in chitin that looked wet and wrong in the moonlight, like someone had built a praying mantis out of tank plating. Its forelimbs ended in serrated blades made for gutting people.

The TL8 energy tomahawk crackled to life in his hand. He had no armor and too much skin. Dirt and gravel sliced into his bare feet as he sprinted toward a Level 64 killing machine in nothing but wet boxer briefs.

Luca charged.

The creature turned toward him, mandibles clicking. Its blade-arm swept down. Luca rolled left and brought the tomahawk up in a diagonal slash across the thing’s torso.

Sparks flew. The chitin held, but cracks spider-webbed across its surface. TL8 energy weapons weren’t designed for Level 64 armor.

Five more shapes emerged from the forest perimeter. Same species. Same level. All of them moving with that same horrible, liquid coordination.

“Oh, shit,” he said.

Six Level 64 creatures. His team half-naked and scattered, with no backup plan.

A plasma bolt sizzled past his ear, wide by at least two meters. Ryan’s voice carried from the camp. “Luca, get down!”

Another shot. This one hit a tree.

“Ryan, your aim sucks!” Luca shouted, ducking as his creature’s other blade-arm swept overhead. He spun, tomahawk carving a burning line across its knee joint. The creature stumbled but didn’t fall.

Ryan’s rifle whined twice more and went quiet.

Zoe opened up.

She’d found her TL9 plasma rifle, and Luca caught the shift in posture from his peripheral vision. Feet planted. Shoulders squared. The panicking girl from the lagoon was gone.

Her rifle cracked, and the creature flanking left, forty meters out, lost its head in a spray of chitin and fluid. TL9 plasma punched through Level 64 armor like it was wet cardboard.

Her rifle cracked again.

The one charging Danny’s position dropped the same way. Two shots, two kills, both through gaps in the head plates that Luca couldn’t have found with a magnifying glass.

“That’s how you fucking do it!” Luca yelled, parrying another strike from his opponent. The impact sent vibrations up his arms. The adrenaline was singing in his veins, which was the only explanation for why any of this felt like fun.

Emily appeared at the edge of his vision, TL9 plasma sword igniting with a brilliant blue hum. Sports bra, underwear, and a blade that could cut through starship hull plating. She took another creature through the neck in one clean stroke, and the thing’s head hit the ground before its body figured out it was dead.

Goddamn, I love her.

His creature pressed its attack, both blade-arms working in coordination. Luca gave ground, keeping the tomahawk up. The thing was fast, but it telegraphed its moves. He waited for the opening.

There it was. Overextended on a downward strike.

Luca stepped inside its guard and drove the tomahawk’s energy blade up through its chest. The weapon bit deep, then stuck. The creature convulsed, mandibles clicking frantically, but it wasn’t dead. Not yet.

A high-pressure gout of green-black ichor sprayed across Luca’s chest, hot and stinking of copper and ammonia.

“Fuck!” Luca yanked on the tomahawk. It wouldn’t budge.

The creature’s blade-arm came at his head. Luca ducked and slammed his palm against the end of the handle, driving the blade deeper. Once. Twice. The third strike cracked something vital, and the creature finally went limp.

He wrenched his weapon free, breathing hard.

The corpse dissolved into black smoke and left a gleaming loot container.

One left, and it was heading straight for Danny.

Danny stood by his gear pile, TL8 war hammer in both hands, looking way too calm for a guy who’d been sitting in a folding chair ten seconds ago. The last creature swung its head toward him.

It took a step forward.

Danny’s grip tightened, and then the bastard smiled.

“Fuck this,” he said.

The TL8 war hammer came up in a massive overhead swing that caught the creature center mass. Pure kinetic force didn’t care about tech levels. Chitin cracked, fluids sprayed, and the thing folded like someone had hit it with a car. Danny stood over the corpse, still gripping the hammer, and Luca could see it on his face. He’d enjoyed that.

That corpse went to black smoke too and left its own loot container.

The camp went quiet.

Luca’s bare feet throbbed where the gravel had opened them up. His hands were shaking around the tomahawk grip. Nobody had been on watch while they were all in the lagoon, and he’d been right there in the water with them.

[+19,285 XP]

[+15,669 credits]

Emily was beside him, plasma sword still lit, grinning like she’d just had the time of her life. Zoe had her rifle trained on the treeline, but she’d let it drift lower. Danny hadn’t moved from his kill.

Ryan emerged from behind the Peregrine, TL9 plasma rifle smoking. “Everyone okay?”

“Define okay,” Danny said, looking down at the wreckage of his folding chair. “That was my favorite chair.”

Luca started laughing.

“It’s not funny,” Danny protested, but he was grinning too.

Emily leaned against Luca’s shoulder, still catching her breath. “Well, that was invigorating.”

“Speak for yourself,” Zoe said, lowering her rifle. “I’m getting dressed. Fighting in underwear is not my idea of tactical advantage.”

“Loot check,” Luca said, and walked over to the nearest container.

As he opened the first container, System notifications flashed across his vision:

[Item acquired: Neural Boost Capsule (x3)]

[Item acquired: Auto-Seal Patch (x2)]

[Item acquired: Smart Fragmentation Grenade (x1)]

The second container yielded more:

[Item acquired: Energy Stabilizer Vial (x2)]

[Item acquired: Hyper-Coag Spray (x1)]

The System was generous with high-level kills.

Joey appeared at Luca’s side like a vulture spotting a carcass. His eyes went straight to the medical supplies. “Yes. Those are Auto-Seals and Hyper-Coag,” he said, barely above a breath.

He scooped up the sprays and vials with unsettling care, cradling them against his chest. “These alone are worth more than our entire medbay.”

Ryan reached toward the Neural Boost Capsules.

Joey’s hand shot out. “No!”

Ryan froze mid-reach.

“Don’t touch those!” Joey snapped, pulling the capsules away. “Neural Boost can mess with your brain chemistry if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ll handle the medical stuff.” He tossed the Smart Fragmentation Grenade to Ryan instead. “This is more your speed.”

Ryan caught it. “Now we’re talking.”

Ryan glanced at his PAC, then paled. “Uh... guys? That wasn’t a random patrol.” He turned his wrist so they could see the new red dot blinking on the tactical display. “Portal just went live. Three clicks east.”

So much for portal-free. The damn things were spreading faster than the sensors could track them.

“Next time, maybe the sensors could scream or something,” Joey said, still clutching his medical supplies.

“Yeah,” Luca said. “Our sensors suck. Ryan, get the bonfire going before something else shows up.”

“On it,” Ryan said, gathering up his scattered firewood. “Good thing I already had everything ready.”

He rebuilt the log circle, arranging the kindling below the larger pieces, and touched the plasma lighter to it.

The fire caught fast, growing from a flicker to a proper blaze that pushed the dark back to the treeline.

That’s when the System message appeared:

[Bonfire Protection: 8 hours]

Bonfires post-System were a different animal. Once the fire hit a certain potency, a safe zone locked in around the flames, and for eight hours nothing got through, not prowling creatures and not stray mobs. They didn’t have to power up the Peregrine’s shielding or sleep in shifts. For one night, nobody had to keep one eye open.

Luca sat down hard on the nearest blanket. His shoulders dropped about three inches. Emily settled beside him, close enough that her shoulder pressed against his arm.

“Now that,” she said, “is what I call perfect timing.”

Joey walked over to the med pod and helped Chris out, supporting his weight as he got his bearings.

He was finally up and sitting, firelight on his face. He looked tired, his bandaged arm resting in his lap.

“Chris!” Emily was off the blanket and across the camp before Luca could blink. She threw her arms around Chris’s shoulders, careful with his arm, and Zoe was right behind her, ruffling his hair before pulling him into a hug. Seriously, does the guy have a gravitational pull or something?

“Look who’s back from the dead!” Zoe pulled away. “How’s the arm, tough guy?”

“It’s better than it was.” Chris’s voice was hoarse but steady. “The med pod worked. It feels stiff, but I’ll take stiff over missing any day.”

“You scared the hell out of us, you know that?” Emily stepped back, eyes dropping to the smooth new skin peeking out from under the bandages.

“Yeah, yeah.” Chris waved her off with his good arm. “I wasn’t going anywhere. I had to stick around to see you all worry about me.”

Luca walked over, letting the others have their moment first. “Good to see you up. Feeling alright?”

Chris flexed his hand and winced. “It’s still sore, but it’s all there. Joey did a hell of a job.”

Luca looked over at Joey, who was already organizing their gear like the fight hadn’t happened. “I mean it, Joey. Thank you.”

Joey’s ears went red. “Thank the med pod. I followed the instructions.”

“You kept him stable until we got him into the pod,” Ryan said. “That’s more than most could’ve done.”

Joey shrugged. “Someone’s gotta keep you all in one piece.”

Chris looked around at the mess of their camp, then at his half-dressed, weapon-wielding teammates. “Uh... did I miss something exciting?”

“Just a little welcoming committee,” Luca said. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“You know what?” Chris said, settling more comfortably by the fire. “I think I’m going to need the full story.”