Vivid Stars Online

Despite the exhaustion rapidly catching up with me, I forced myself to pay attention to my surroundings.

The frontline soldiers near me were visibly wavering on their feet, clearly even worse off than I was. It was hardly surprising, given that they'd been fighting in melee considerably longer than I had.

Beyond them was a scene of pure carnage. Mountains of corpses filled the corridor, growing taller as you moved further away toward the intersection. The swarm must have diminished over time, even if it hadn't felt like it.

Even so, the sheer number of dead enemies was ludicrous. It was well beyond what we had expected to find and even a little past our worst expectations.

But we'd won nonetheless.

Surely, that has to be the worst of it as well; I mused as the medics rushed forward to check all of us over. There's no way there could be another swarm of that size down here.

If there were, then the attack would have just kept going on until we were swarmed under or fled. Of course, that's what I thought about the last battle, and yet they came in even greater numbers this time.

The thought ticked over in my tired mind as Linnea helped remove my armor so the medics could bandage me up. I'd barely even noticed the minor injuries as they happened, too caught up in the desperate battle to pay attention.

Thankfully, my armor and toughness had prevented the worst of the damage, leaving me with just a myriad of tiny puncture wounds from spider fangs. The small holes they left in my armor were more annoying than the actual injuries.

The enemy had clearly been growing and adapting at an insane rate, well beyond what should have been possible. Unless there was a vast supply of food somewhere, I just couldn't see where all the mass could be coming from.

Then it hit me; they devoured all the bodies from the last battle. That had to be part of the puzzle. From what I knew about normal biology, it didn't make much sense, but these things were hardly normal. With Psi energy in the mix, anything could be possible.

A bone-deep chill went through me as I turned back towards the corpse mountains, drawing a muttered curse from the medic treating me as I did so.

Suddenly, they didn't look like piles of gore or valuable cores. Instead, I saw a vast quantity of resources the enemy could use against me.

It seemed insane to consider that anything could breed, grow, or whatever in the next few days, but it was still a risk I couldn't take. Extra work was the last thing I wanted to do right now, but I had to deny the enemy as many resources as I could.

I waited just long enough for everyone to be treated before beginning to bark orders again. "Listen up, everyone. I know you're exhausted and that you've already done more than it would be fair to expect, but we need to get the area secured before I can let you rest."

"Medics, I want all the seriously injured moved to the surface where they'll be safe." Pausing, I carefully examined the team before continuing.

"Linnea, I need you, the scouts, and the heavy weapon operators to provide overwatch on the intersection and the corpse piles between it and us. Shoot anything that moves. Once the injured have reached the surface, I'll bring two-thirds of the surface team down to replace you."

There were a few tired groans, but to the soldiers' credit, no one complained out loud. A moment later, Linnea took over, organizing the troops into position.

I paused her for a moment as she moved past. "If it looks like another wave is coming, even a much smaller one, drop the shield generator and run to the elevator. We'll try and hold there until it comes back down," I whispered into her ear.

She nodded back, her face weary but focused.

As much as I wanted to secure the corpses here, and I really wanted that, I wasn't going to risk everyone if the enemy somehow mustered a follow-up attack before we could regroup.

We were in a critically dangerous position until I could get the backup squad down here. If we were attacked while the elevator was unavailable, our only hope was to activate the shield and pray it would hold long enough.

With that message passed on, I continued over to the more senior of the two medics. He was stabilizing one of our portable stretchers as the other medic lifted an unconscious soldier onto it.

With a start, I realized it wasn't the man I'd thrown back from the fight earlier. Instead, it was the woman who'd been fighting to my left. I hadn't even realized she'd gone down.

In fact, I could have sworn she'd hung on to the end despite being heavily pressed. With the immediate security concerns handled, it was time to find out. The health of the squad was my responsibility as well.

With a nod to the senior medic, I took over the stabilization effort so the two trained individuals could lift my unconscious soldier onto it.

The stretcher itself was a marvel. Despite the built-in hover tech that allowed it to float at the level of my hips, it could still be folded up and carried by a single soldier.

Expensive, but more than worth it for situations like this.

Once the woman was secured, I grabbed the senior medic's attention when it became clear he had nothing else urgent to take care of.

"How are they doing," I asked, jerking my head towards the woman and the second stretcher beyond her.

"She'll be fine with the medicines we have on hand and a week's rest," the tired, blood-stained man responded with a sigh. "Two more of the close-combat squad will need two to three days, but Private Hawkins is much worse.

"He's stable for now, but we need to get him to a real hospital. We might be able to pull him through with what we have on hand, but it would be touch and go," the man finished with a tired shake of his head.

"I'll make it happen," I responded seriously, despite the relief flowing through me. When I'd seen the spider spear Hawkins through the stomach, I'd been worried he wouldn't make it.

If it weren't for the rapid attention of the two medics in front of me, he likely wouldn't have. "And thank you for your work," I finished, my voice choking up a little as I reached out to clasp one, then the other on the shoulder.

I let them sit for a moment to make sure they knew how much I meant it before continuing. "Get everyone who can't shoot a gun into the elevator; I'll ensure they're ready with more help when you arrive."

The two of them nodded and began lightly pushing the stretcher as I moved past them to the last person I needed to speak to.

Elana was leaning against the left wall with her eyes closed. Her drawn face and the two grounded drones with flashing red battery lights were testaments to her efforts to help.

The implant she used to mentally control them could be a strain to use even with a single drone; with two, she was likely almost as tired as the rest of us despite never firing a shot or swinging a weapon.

"How are you doing?" I asked softly, leaning against the wall beside her.

"Tired, but who isn't?" she responded with a weary laugh. You don't need to worry about me, Jared. Focus on the people who were actually hurt," she finished, cracking her eyes open to glance at me.

"That's not the only reason I'm here," I said, shaking my head. The injured have all been taken care of as well as we can down here. I'm here to ask for a favor if you're up to it."

"No rest for the wicked, hey?" She laughed, but I could see I had her at least intrigued.

"There's all that old Arkathian equipment upstairs. The hover-loaders and so on. Do you think you could get any of it working? I want to start moving the corpses upstairs."

Elana pursed her lips, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "It might be possible. I haven't had a good look, but some of the stuff under the intact roof sections didn't look too badly damaged."

"But is this really the time to be thinking about profit?" she asked with a soft groan.

"It's not just about money," I responded with a frown. "While the cores would certainly be nice, I'm more worried about something else." Leaning in, I continued in a whisper, "They ate all the bodies last time; I think that's part of how they managed to multiply so much."

"Some kind of rapid reproduction fueled by bio-mass?" she responded in the same tone, clearly realizing I didn't want this to spread just yet. "Sounds crazy, but then, everything's pretty crazy around here."

She took a deep breath and pushed herself upright. "I'll go up with the wounded and have a look around. If there's anything salvageable, I'll get it working and send it back down. Though it's going to attract Beasts if you leave a pile of corpses lying around up there."

"Thanks, Elana. I really appreciate the help, both this and coming along in general. And don't worry, I've got a plan for the corpses." I responded with a smile. An answering grin flashed across her face for a moment before she walked off with a tired nod.

With everyone organized down here, I turned my attention to my watch and began making calls. The same signal repeaters we'd used before allowed me to contact the surface and, with them as a relay, reach anyone on the regular network.

First, I organized the backup team above. To begin with, I tasked the two extra medics with helping with the wounded. They had the bulk of our medical supplies up there, so hopefully, they would be able to help even Hawkins until I could get him picked up.

The rest I split between keeping watch up there and coming down to help. The two scouts I left on the surface where their greater mobility would be best used. It wasn't a great deal of protection for an entire camp, but once the troops down here were relieved, I'd be sending them back up as well.

Ideally, they would rest and recover, but they could help defend the base camp in an emergency.

I called down the remaining six troops to help with my plan. With the two heavy weapons troops providing overwatch, the four close-combat troops could help me begin filling the elevator with corpses.

It was far from the most pleasant job, but I'd seen enough from these individuals to know they were a lot stronger than the human average. And while my strength stat wasn't anything impressive, the boost from my armor would help me keep up once I got it on again.

Even the exhaustion was slowly starting to fade as I rested against the wall in my flurry of organization. If there was any silver lining to losing my powers, it was the return of my full Toughness stat.

I was once again filled with the vigor that used to let me travel and fight all day, and even my wounds were barely bothering me. By the time everyone was in place, I'd be ready for more hard work.

That wasn't even considering the many notifications I was ignoring. A crowded tunnel wasn't the place to check them, but I expected at least one level when I did. The XP gain had to be massive, even with so many people here.

It was something to look forward to checking on the surface. Before that, however, I had to set up my plan for dealing with the insane mass of bodies I planned to drag back to the surface. Since Hawkins needed evacuation as well, it looked like it was time to call in the Frigate.

I'd been leery of bringing it over and risking another attack, but a short trip should be fine. It was faster than any VTOL I'd heard of, so the chance of my enemies getting anything in position to make a move seemed tiny.

As long as it was here for less than twelve hours or so, I figured it was a safe enough bet.

With it here, we could get Hawkins help as fast as possible, bring back a massive load of cores, and perhaps even refill our fuel reserves. From our previous experiments, I knew that you could render Psionically active matter down into the Psi fuel both it and the gunboat ran off.

Most Beast corpses lacked enough energy to meet the complete requirements but were still valuable for creating the bulk of the liquid. If the spiders were just that good, I could throw their cores in to finalize the process.

If they were better, I might not even need to use any of the cores. These things were far more unnatural than the usual beasts I'd run across, so I wouldn't be surprised to find out they had much more energy than most.

As much as I'd told Elana this wasn't just about the money, and I'd meant it, this expedition had drained most of my ready funds yet again. Any short-term influx of profit would be greatly appreciated.

Even better if it denied resources to the enemy as I expected. We just had to get the bodies out of here first.