Colt felt Toyahdoh squeeze. Then his eyes grew brighter.
The brighter they got, the harder he squeezed. Colt’s shoulders ached under the grip. He wanted to yell out but his jaw was locked tight, his teeth grinding against each other.
He looked at the white-haired girl.
Her face had changed. Those blue eyes showed concern, her mouth held open just a bit.
The room filled with light.
“Oh shit,” Clay said. “Here we go again.”
Then they were at the HUB.
Just there. No pulling apart. No streaming through the whirl. One second the lodge, the next the cold floor and the hum in his teeth and the bright lights pressing down on him.
Colt noticed two things at once.
Pa on the bed, laid out the way Colt had left him, and the display in Colt’s vision.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.01
Shinki: 1
Power Bank: 1006
“Oh my god,” Colt said.
He staggered at the sight and his knees almost buckled under him. The number didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be right.
Clay grabbed him by the arm. “What is it? What’s wrong, Colt?”
Colt smiled. Clay steadied him, confusion all over his face, his grip tight on Colt’s sleeve.
Colt looked around the room. Kevin stood by the platform with his head tilted, that metal face with that single little light in the middle, watching them the way it always did.
Clay drifted over to Pa. He set his palm on Pa’s shoulder through the blanket and gave one slow squeeze. He pulled his hand back and looked at Colt. His mouth opened, then shut.
“Kevin.” Colt’s voice cracked. “I did it.”
“Acknowledged. Your power reserves have increased significantly. This is most favorable.”
Colt turned to Clay and punched him in the shoulder hard enough to make him step back. “A thousand of ’em. The chief gave me a thousand of that shinki, or puha, or whatever.”
Clay blinked and rubbed his arm. “A thousand? Of them little crystals?”
“No. I just have it. Like… he put it in me. In my power bank.”
Clay stared at him for a second, trying to work it out in his head. “I’m not even gonna pretend to understand that.” He dragged his hand across his face and then glanced at Kevin, leaned in close, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Hey man. Is there a toilet here?”
Colt looked at Kevin. “Is there, Kev? A toilet. Clay’s gotta shit.”
Clay straightened up and looked at Kevin, trying to act like he hadn’t just asked that, his face going flat and serious.
Kevin raised one arm and pointed to the third door. The one Colt hadn’t even thought of opening yet.
Clay walked to it and pulled it open. A light flickered on inside, bright and white like everything else in this place. His eyes went wide and a grin spread across his face.
“Okay.” He nodded slow, looking at whatever was in there. “Maybe I can get used to this.”
He stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
Colt shook his head and walked to the table. He sat down on the chair and looked at his wrist, found the seam where the skin didn’t quite meet right, and lifted the flap. The socket stared back at him. He grabbed the plug and lined it up with the hole.
“Hey!” Clay’s voice echoed from behind the door, bouncing off the walls. “There ain’t no paper in here! Colt!”
Colt turned to Kevin. “Where’s the paper, Kev?”
“Instruct him to press the blue button to his left.”
“Clay! Hit the blue button on your left!”
A second of silence from behind the door.
Then a scream.
“What the hell! Colt!”
A moment later Clay came out stumbling through the door, his pants barely up around his hips, his face twisted into something between shock and rage.
“Holy hell, somethin’ just sprayed my asshole with some cold ass water.”
Clay curled his upper lip and his eyes went to Kevin. “Kev tell you to tell me to hit that button?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Kevin with his jaw set.
Kevin’s head tilted to the side. “The bidet system is optimal for hygiene. The water is filtered and recycled through a seven-stage purification process. Studies indicate a ninety-nine point nine nine nine reduction in bacterial—”
“I don’t care about studies, okay.” Clay jabbed a finger at him. “You gotta warn a man before blastin’ him like that. Jesus.”
He tightened his belt with an angry yank and walked over to where Colt sat at the table.
“Okay. Where are we with this thing?”
Colt held up the plug so Clay could see it.
Clay grimaced and looked away, his nose wrinkling. “I hate this part.”
Colt slid it in and it went with a wet click.
Clay made a fake gagging noise and stepped back. “That’s disgustin’, man. I don’t know how you do that every time.”
Colt didn’t know either. But he knew it was the first step to killing those bastards. He wasn’t gonna hesitate.
The screen on the table lit up, flooding the surface with glowing letters and words.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.01
Stats
Status
Map
Armory
Module Bay: LOCKED
Skills: LOCKED
Help
?????
?????
?????
Same as before. The locked sections just sitting there. The question marks at the bottom still a mystery he hadn’t figured out yet.
His eyes stuck on the locked lines. They’d been sitting there since the first time he’d plugged in, grayed out and useless. But now with a thousand Puha in his bank, maybe things were different.
“Hey Kev. What’s a Module Bay anyway?”
Kevin’s head tilted. “The Module Bay is a storage and integration system for artifacts and technology that were distributed across multiple Earths prior to the current conflict.”
“Distributed.” Colt frowned.
“Correct. During the initial Oni incursion, operatives scattered critical technology across various Earth designations to prevent enemy acquisition. The artifacts were concealed in locations deemed unlikely to attract attention.”
Clay scratched his jaw. “So there’s a bunch of fancy weapons just sittin’ out there somewhere?”
“Not exclusively weapons. Modules include defensive systems, reconnaissance equipment, medical technology, enhancement gear, and various other implements designed to aid operatives in combat and survival scenarios.”
Colt leaned back in his chair. His eyes slid to the bed for half a second, then back to Kevin. “And you know where all of ’em are?”
“I maintain a partial database of module locations and specifications.”
“Partial?”
“The full database was fragmented as an additional security measure. When you reach version one point one oh, five module profiles will be randomly selected and made available to you. Each subsequent upgrade tier unlocks additional random selections.”
“Randomly selected.” Colt didn’t like the sound of that. “So I don’t get to pick which ones I see?”
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“Correct. The randomization protocol was implemented to prevent predictable acquisition patterns. If an operative were captured, they could not reveal the location of high-value modules they had not yet been assigned.”
Made sense in a paranoid sort of way. Didn’t mean he had to like it.
“Each module profile includes a recommended software version for retrieval. You may attempt acquisition below the recommended threshold, but survival probability decreases significantly.”
“How significantly?”
“That depends on the module and the discrepancy between your version and the recommendation. A version one point five operative attempting a version one point seven retrieval faces moderate risk. A version one point five operative attempting a version two point five retrieval faces near-certain termination.”
Clay snorted. “He’s sayin’ you’d die.”
“I got that.” Colt shot a look at Clay.
“What about the ones you can’t see? You said partial database.”
“Approximately sixty-three percent of logged modules are designated classified. I can confirm they exist within the system. I cannot confirm what they are, where they are hidden, or what version is recommended for retrieval. This information remains encrypted.”
“Over half of ‘em,” Colt said. “And you got no idea what’s in there.”
“That is accurate. It is possible that decryption keys are stored within certain accessible modules. Retrieval of one may unlock information regarding others.”
Clay let out a low whistle. “So you gotta find the ones you can find, in order to find the ones you can’t.” He looked proud that he understood.
Kevin’s head tilted. “That is an adequate summary.”
“What about Skills?” Colt asked. “That one’s locked too.”
“The Skills interface provides access to combat techniques, passive abilities, and specialized training protocols. Like the Module Bay, Skills require a minimum software version to unlock.”
“And you said that version one point one oh.”
“Correct. Version one point one oh unlocks the basic Skills tree. Higher versions provide access to advanced techniques and specialized combat forms.”
Colt stared at the locked lines on the screen.
Module Bay: LOCKED
Skills: LOCKED
Hundreds of artifacts scattered across different Earths, handed out at random, most of them mysteries even to Kevin.
But he had the shinki now. He had what he needed to start climbing.
“Alright. Where’s the upgrade at, Kevin?”
“The software upgrade is located in Status.”
Right. Status. He’d forgotten how this worked in the time since he’d last done it.
Colt focused on Status the way Kevin had taught him, wanting it instead of just looking at it. The screen shifted and new information filled the space.
Status:
Shinki Reserves: 1
Power Bank: 1005
Software: v1.01
Class: Frontier Operative
Lineage: 3 (1 Primary, 1 Secondary, 1 Corrupted)
Next Upgrade: v1.02 — 50 shinki
Effects
Clay leaned in over Colt’s shoulder. His eyes moved across the glowing words on the screen.
“What’s all that mean?”
“Means I got enough to upgrade.” Colt focused on the Next Upgrade line, letting himself want it the way the system needed him to.
Upgrade to version 1.02 — 50 shinki
Yes. He thought.
This may take a few minutes…
The HUB disappeared around him. The cold floor under his boots, the hum that lived in his teeth, Clay breathing next to him, all of it went away like someone had blown out a candle. He went back into that world of dark, it felt like he was floating on his back, staring into a black sky without a single star.
INSTALLING PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.02…
That same long empty box appeared under the words, stretching across the darkness. It started to fill with a thin strip of light that crawled from left to right, slow enough to make him want to reach out and push it along.
The bar crept forward. Halfway across. Then three quarters.
Then it finished and the darkness cracked open.
Colt opened his eyes and he was still at the table with his hands flat on the surface. His fingers were shaking a little and there was sweat on his forehead.
“That’s it?” he asked, looking up at Kevin.
“No.” Kevin stood in the same spot he’d been in before, like he hadn’t moved at all. “Now you must install version one point zero three.”
“What?” Colt sat up straighter in the chair, his back stiff. “Why can’t I just do ’em all at once? I got the shinki for it.”
“System overload. Incremental installation improves stability and reduces risk of neural cascade failure.”
Clay was leaning against the table with his arms crossed, watching the screen. “He’s sayin’ yer brain would melt if you tried to cram it all in at once.”
“Another adequate summary.” Kevin nodded.
Colt rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and let out a long breath. “Well, shit. This is gonna take a while.”
He looked at the screen again.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.02
Stats*
Status
Map
Armory
Module Bay: LOCKED
Skills: LOCKED
Help
?????
?????
?????
He started to go to Status, then stopped himself. Something was different.
He went back to the main menu.
Stats*
There was a little star next to Stats. That hadn’t been there before, he was sure of it.
“What’s the star mean, Kevin? The one sittin’ next to Stats.”
“Each software upgrade grants one allocation point. You may distribute these points to enhance your base attributes according to your preferences and combat requirements.”
Colt opened Stats and the screen filled with a new set of numbers.
Stats:
Strength: 15 (?)
Speed: 20 (?)
Endurance: 15 (?)
Perception: 15 (?)
Willpower: 10 (?)
Resonance: 5 (?)
Luck: 10 (?)
AP: 1
A new line sat at the bottom of the list, glowing the same as the rest.
AP: 1
That definitely hadn’t been there when he was running v1.01.
“Allocation points,” Colt muttered, turning the words over in his mouth. He looked at Clay. “I can make myself stronger?”
Kevin looked at Colt, then at Clay, like he was waiting for Clay to give his summary.
Clay cleared his throat. “Oh, um. I—uh, have no clue what the hell any of that is.”
Clay studied the screen with his brow furrowed, his eyes moving down the list of stats. All of it laid out in glowing letters like a bill of sale for a horse.
“How much stronger we talkin’ here?”
Colt looked back at the screen. At the 1 sitting next to AP.
“This can wait. Let’s get to upgrading my software.”
He had a lot of upgrades ahead of him and a lot of points to earn.
“Guess we’re gonna find out,” he said.
