Present Day

  When Daniel placed his hand on the door, something strange happened. His Codex’s shining blue light blinked once, then twice, then it changed colors. Its sapphire hue shifted, growing brighter until it was a brilliant, white-gold. The light moved, suddenly streaming through Daniel’s body, up from his navel and through his arm, flowing into the door. It moved with the speed of a lightning bolt and felt like one too. Daniel felt his muscles seize as the current of energy ran through his body, and he wrestled to jerk his arm away. Panting a little, he checked his body for injuries, before looking back at the door. There was no obvious change in either, and he began to wonder if he’d imagined things.

  Unable to make forward progress, Daniel backtracked to the open cavern. Standing underneath the opening in the ceiling, he peered up toward freedom. And saw two beady black eyes staring down at him. The Dunid let out happy noises in response to finding his friend, and soon a half dozen other men were gathering around Daniel’s little hidey-hole. They threw him a rope and pulled him up, giving a small cheer as their de facto leader emerged into the waning sunshine. Daniel was the first to get down to business, asking:

  “What happened with the others? Is anyone hurt?”

  A thin, tan looking man name Ramirez responded:

  “Johnson took a bolt to the chest, but he was stunned, not killed. Some of the rest of us got knocked around, but nothing too serious.”

  Alvin, the wan faced family man, chimed in:

  “You look pretty beat up yourself, sir.”

  He was right. Daniel had taken a long tumble, but he was just bruised and dirty. Nothing to worry about, so he indicated he was fine. Looking around at the disheveled, battered group, Daniel gave a thin smile:

  “Let’s go home.”

  Their expedition had lasted most of the day, but backtracking was much faster since they weren’t focused on hunting for more resources. Still, the long tendrils of night had fully embraced their surroundings as they wandered back to base camp. They were greeted by the delectable smell of grilling fish, and the Pioneer’s stomachs let out a collective rumble as they stumbled upon the rest of their group. All ten men of the other group were alive, though each one looked as tired as Daniel felt. One man had his arm in a sling, and Sergeant Gulliman looked even grimmer than usual. The bad-tempered CO seemed too exhausted to yell at them, so the returning group silently waddled in and found their seats around several individual campfires that had broken out. Daniel found Jordan sitting with Omar, of all people, and a tall, black-eyed, tough looking man named Ajax. Neither of those two acknowledged Daniel as he sat down, but Jordan gave him a quick, gleaming smile, before muttering:

  “No girls found yet, Danny boy, but let me ask you this: How do you feel about tentacles?”

  The crack only earned him a raised eyebrow from Daniel:

  “So, you ran into a Harlac as well, huh?”

  Jordan nodded sagely:

  “Indeed, and an adult no less. I think Sarge is an E class, or at least high Zeta. We never would have gotten out of there alive without him.”

  That made sense. Normally, Pioneer Sergeants were either from well-off families or had survived at least one mission. Either way, they were usually approaching the peak of Zeta, if not Epsilon already. If Gulliman had been telling the truth about growing up poor, then he was a veteran, a fact which simultaneously comforted and concerned Daniel. If the Sergeant was both strong and experienced, then his antagonistic CO could rip his head off with ease. He would have to be careful around the man in the future. Remembering Gulliman’s dour face, Daniel ventured to ask:

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “If you didn’t lose anyone, then why is the CO all bent out of shape?”

  Omar took the opportunity to interject. In a slightly nasally voice, one that indicated he felt the answer should be obvious, Ibrahim remarked:

  “Sergeant Gulliman says that the information will be less valuable to high command with a significant Harlac population living nearby. Not to mention the wandering packs of Sparkhooves as well. Sending regular retrieval and mining operations would get expensive.”

  Daniel gave the man a stiff glare that Ibrahim reciprocated, and it was up to Jordan to play peacemaker:

  “Yup! It sucks that we’ll get hit on the info side of things, but we’ve got these fish as consolation! You do any fishing, Danny?”

  Daniel nodded and pulled out some of his bounty. Jordan helped him gut and clean the fish, and their silvery scales were soon roasting over the open fire. It might have seemed like a waste to any outside observer, eating such valuable goods, but any Pioneer knew the truth. One of the only ways to get stronger in this business was to eat the flesh of Xenomorphs. The Codex would help their bodies process the nutrients of the powerful animals, leading to an increase in their Status. Which stats received a boost depended on the type of Xenomorph and the stat values themselves, among other things. A stronger Xenomorph would help especially with Strength, a hardier one with Constitution, etc. Lower stats were easier to raise than higher ones. And the more one exercised, the more efficient this process would be. Strength training was thus very necessary for poorer Pioneers. Their official training had involved a lot of conditioning, as well as the very limited consumption of low-grade Xenomorph meat, and it had brought them up to the limits of what humanity was capable of without the Codex. All in just 6 months.

  Daniel still wasn’t terribly happy to literally eat away at the fortune he had gathered today, but there would be more fish in the future, and he would need to get stronger if he wanted to survive going forward. That said, Jordan’s adroit help in skinning his fish had triggered a thought:

  “You think you’d be able to skin and gut one of those Sparkhooves, blondie?”

  The blondie in question shrugged matter-of-factly:

  “I could probably skin a Beha-Moth if you gave me the time and the tools. Been doing this kind of thing since I was tiny.”

  “You’re still tiny.”

  “Keep that up I might just skin you instead, beanpole.”

  Both men glared mockingly at each other before breaking out into a few chuckles. Daniel had already decided to ask Jordan for help with processing the Sparkhooves. He and his team had agreed to meet up later and divvy up the spoils of their Sparkhoof hunt, since there wasn’t enough for each man to get an individual corpse. With Jordan around, they would be able to separate things off cleanly for each other, without harming the corpses’ value. They could even pay Jordan for his help, which would be nice extra income for Daniel’s friend. The only reason he didn’t suggest it now was the prying ears. He especially didn’t want Omar or Gulliman to hear about their successes. Stealing from your fellow Pioneers was a serious crime, but that didn’t stop some people from trying. People in authority, especially, often found ways to get their charges to hand over choice pieces of loot with lesser compensation. Said authorities were often responsible for protecting the whole group from the major threats, a power imbalance whose abuse could never be fully curbed.

  The grilled Silverfish was soon done, and Daniel tore into one with a voracious appetite. The tender meat was sweet nectar in his mouth after the day’s exertions, and he couldn’t help devouring one, then another. There would be more, Daniel consoled himself, as he bit into a third fish, consuming nearly half his stock in total. It was unlikely they would stray from the river for a while. Despite the danger, the Briconium samples alone could contribute heavily to their Quota. Xenomorph meat was more filling than normal food, so Daniel was totally stuffed after that dinner. He blinked away the onrushing, after-meal fatigue as Gulliman stood up and gave their camp a short speech to explain their long-term plan. As Daniel had expected, Gulliman told them that they would play things as safe as possible. They would move their camp further from the riverbanks while staying close enough to the water that they shouldn’t be spotted by deeper jungle predators. They’d move up and down the stream, sifting for more Briconium and hunting what Silverfish they could. With any luck, they should be able to meet Quota with just this plan.

  He also warned the team that they should avoid Sparkhooves, or any other dangerous Xenomorphs they may spot. Daniel exchanged a few meaningful glances with the men from his group, and everyone got the message. They shouldn’t tell Gulliman about their hunt. With that, they were dismissed, and they headed off to bed. Before he went to sleep, however, Daniel did one last thing.

  He still carried around the Meta Diamonds that the old man had left him. Occasionally, before going to sleep, he would take one out and admire it. It wasn’t smart, as the valuables might be discovered by one of the others, but he almost couldn’t help himself. The soft glow was calming, reminding him of his home and his family, and it was inconspicuous enough that it shouldn’t draw too much attention from outside his tent. Pining for the psychological comfort, he retrieved one in the privacy of his shelter in a flash of blue light. And only blue light. In the dark, it took Daniel a moment to register what was happening. He could feel the cool, faceted surface of the stone from the palm of his hand, but it emitted no light. In a panic, Daniel retrieved another stone, then another, then finally the whole bag. Not one of his Meta Diamonds were shining in the darkness. All of them were inert.

  This realization hit Daniel like a ton of bricks. Meta Diamonds could only be recharged under extreme heat, over a substantial period of time. Without their charge, their value would drop enormously, especially because you could only recharge them so many times. He’d just lost a small fortune, and he had no idea why. The force of that fact was so great, that the Pioneer practically deflated. The last of his energy spent, Daniel re-stored the Diamonds and turned over to go to sleep. He would think about it in the morning.

  Further into the distance, within an underground tunnel, the door with the cryptic mural sat unmoving. Then, in a few short moments, its central circle flashed with a dim ivory light. It flashed once, twice, three times. Then went silent again. Simultaneously, a certain Pioneer’s Codex did precisely the same, unbeknownst to its’ sleeping host.