Mantle, less than three months before the Volta job.

  Grunt.

  Clink.

  Clank.

  Grunt. Clink. Clank.

  Seras watched with bored amusement as the heavy metal plating rose, and then slowly went down. “I still don’t see the point of this Heavy, you’ve already swapped out your arms.”

  The man kept lifting the bar, his face filling with strain. “Aint, huh, aint about the arms. Its about all the muscles I got left.” He said with a deep grunt.

  Seras watched with idle horror as the few remaining organic parts of Heavy’s flesh twitched and spasmed. “Then just replace them.”

  He let the bar down and slowly sat up, “not all of us hate our meat like you do.”

  “Its not hate, its just that steel and wire will always out preform that gooey mess of poorly optimized meat. How often do you have to do this just to keep up?”

  “Twice a day,” he admitted.

  “And there’s the crux of it, hours wasted everyday, just to prevent your body from thinking you’ve got too much muscle and starts eating your gains.”

  He frowned, “I never went to school Blackiron, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

  “I may have exaggerated some of that, but the core still remains. Our bodies are hardwired to shed excess muscle when its not being worked on constantly. Machines don’t do that, they keep their peak strength all the time. And they’re far more efficient than meat.”

  For emphasis she leaned over the bench and lifted the enormous weight he had been struggling with. It wasn’t a fair comparison since the bench press was designed for targeted workouts and Seras was using all her strength, legs, core, back, and arms. But it still got the point across.

  “Point made Blackiron,” he grunted as he began to towel off. It was an interesting process since only some of his body was covered in sweat while others were completely dry. “Look, even if I wanted to go for the full conversion I don’t have the chits to make it happen. You and I both know full conversions are a whole different beast.”

  Oh, Seras knew. Letting people slowly work their way up to a full conversion by slotting in new gear piece by piece wasn’t as profitable as making the individual augs incompatible with each other. If you wanted a full conversion you needed to buy it as one ultra pricey set. A proper full conversion was nearly 250% more expensive than buying all the individual cyberware. But damn was it worth it.

  “I’ve been talking with Frost-,”

  “-Bad idea,” he interrupted.

  Seras scowled, “she’s our teammate,” Seras said pointedly.

  “Yeah, and she’s good with murder. Slit you’re your throat and watch the life leave your eyes. But beyond wetwork I wouldn’t trust her. That girl aint right Blackiron.”

  “Anyone who makes it this far in merc work is piece of work Heavy. Nothin’ behind us but blood and death.”

  “And nothing ahead but fame and glory. Don’t quote Nightmare to me, I get it. But even for a merc somethings not right with her.”

  “Look, call me an idiot, but I actually trust her.”

  “Okay, you’re an idiot. What does the snake want us to do this time? If its another purge you can tell her to fuck off, the money ain’t worth the nightmares.”

  Seras grimaced, “no, it’s about the Volta job.”

  “We told that chump to fuck off.”

  “And he’s dead. His replacement however still needs this job to happen, and the kind of price they’re willing to pay is appropriately conciliatory.”

  “How appropriate?”

  Seras gestured to herself, “enough for the whole crew to afford something like this.”

  Now he looked interested. Seras’ upgrades had been enough to elevate her to a whole new level, on some level she almost didn’t need the crew anymore. Not that she’d ditch them.

  “The hell is on that station?” He asked after a long moment.

  Seras shrugged, “been looking into its specs and history. Alfred Moris used every resource at his disposal to make Volta. Something up there has the smartest nerds on the planet frothing at the mouth. They recently finished a new installation to the station, this giant modified particle accelerator. I don’t know why though.”

  The Moris group was the most developed private space program on Ruin. But unlike all the other space agencies out there who are more interested in deep space mining and potential exo-colonies, the Moris group was solely dedicated to their research. Said research had already been successful in producing something as incredible as the Net generators and taking over the whole planet’s internet access.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “This will be it then, the big one?” he asked.

  Seras grinned, of the whole crew only Heavy and she got it. Every one of them were going to die, it didn’t matter how rich they got. Legends were the only real way to become immortal, to live on in hearts and minds until the end of the world. That’s why she had approached him first.

  “No one’s hit any corpo in their glittery space palaces, this will show them that even sewer rats like us can reach that high.”

  Heavy nodded his head, he put out a fist for Seras to bump, “to glory and fame.”

  She grinned, “glory and fame,” she agreed.

  ~~~*~~~

  Biolite artificial muscles have exceeded their parameters, repair time 2 hours and 11 minutes.

  Seras set down the weight, they thumped to the ground with a solid thud. Seras reached up and rubbed her sore muscles. Sore, as in they felt like they had gone through intense physical exertion and needed to rest. That shouldn’t have been possible, they were artificial, she should have been able to just turn down their sensitivity and be done with it.

  But she couldn’t, just like in the cave she couldn’t just turn down her skin sensitivity. It reminded her of the time the magic poison of the desert bees bypassed her pain controls.

  Seras glanced around at her companions, “well, I’m not getting stronger, but somethings changing. The repair time is speeding up, and I have less control over my sense of pain.”

  Athena cocked her head, “so you don’t get stronger from working out, you just break yourself, get better at repairing that damage, and can’t ignore pain. I’m sorry Seras, but I think normal ‘meat’ has the upper hand on your metal in this case.”

  Petra let out a loud barking laugh, “finally. She’s been so smug about being a superior being. Glad we have one thing she can’t match.”

  Seras scowled, “Petra, those were your dumbbells. Magically denser than they should be. I just matched you rep for rep at Iron rank.”

  Her face fell, “oh yeah. that’s really unfair.”

  Athena grimaced, “its not that unfair. That boost in power comes at a cost, as someone who’s personally experienced it myself I wouldn’t want that power for that price.”

  Petra glanced at Athena. Petra was big for a Leonid woman, and Leonids were usually bigger than humans, even still Athena was only a little shorter than Petra. “You really can just… take her pain?”

  “Yes, it's not fun. Especially right now.”

  “I told you I didn’t need you to take my pain for just a workout session.”

  In a single instant Seras felt the familiar pain return. It was like putting the very essence of her being in a vise grip while an army of thugs hit it with hammers. Her optics glitched and Seras stumbled.

  “You were saying?” Athena said, some of the color returning to her face.

  “A warning would have been appreciated. What if I lost control of my essence advancements again.”

  Athena looked away in shame, “oh, sorry.”

  Petra glanced between the two of them, “you two got really close down there huh?”

  Seras put her hands to her head and massaged her temples, though it didn’t help. Dead gods this sucked!

  It was the day after the Caravan crew had arrived at the Akemi camp. The day before Petra, Athena, and Seras had gone for a long ride. One which predictably ran into trouble, a pack of Ostryx’s. This time however, Seras’ rifle had fared a lot better, both the bullet hardening and the magically infused powder dropped the monsters in one hit.

  They weren’t the hardiest bronze rank monsters and were classed slightly below some iron ranked monsters in terms of toughness. It was still a mark of progress and a point of pride for Seras and her developing powers.

  Today they were evaluating her growth.

  “Your strength hasn’t changed much,” Dustin commented from the side, “but that’s to be expected. What’s more impressive is how well your aura is developing.”

  “Its still rough and unrefined,” Flint groused.

  “Yes, but can’t you feel that jump in potency? That’s good growth for someone holding back her essence advancement,” Dustin countered.

  Flint nodded slowly, “its uncanny really. And the other girl too, she’s got the refinement Seras lacks as well as the power.”

  Athena blushed, “I’ve been training with my aura for a while though. Its not that impressive.”

  Flint scowled, “take the compliment girl, I don’t give them out often.”

  Dustin put a hand on Flint’s shoulder, “the girl’s just humble Flint, gods know we could use more of that in our crew.”

  Seras had absolutely no idea who he was talking about, couldn’t be her. “So you’ve accepted my suggestion?”

  Dustin nodded, “I don’t see a reason to exclude her from our group,” he glanced at Athena sidelong, “even if she wants to keep her background a secret.”

  Athena wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  Seras rolled her eyes, “everyone’s got secrets Dust.”

  “Everyone except you,” Flint grumbled, “for a supposed merc your far too open.”

  Seras shrugged, “they’re not technically secrets, not on my world.” Plus she hadn’t ever told them any of the real secrets. Cash, Frost, Heavy, all of them, they were too hard to think about.

  Only Athena had gotten one of them out of Seras, and she still refused to tell her the whole story.

  “When do you think we’ll be on our way anyways?” she asked to change the subject.

  “Next group over the mountains leaves dawn tomorrow. So one more day of lazing about here.”

  Athena grimaced, “I’d recommend not looking too lazy. Otherwise you might be put to work.”

  Rohan nodded, “she’s right. No one gets to laze in busy camp like this. My parents have already roped me into chores and craft work.”

  Seras glanced over at him, “how’d meeting your folks go?”

  He shrugged, “it was fine. They still don’t get why I left, and they were disappointed with my essence choice. But they’re still my family.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask about that, why’d you leave anyways? I’ve seen some of the younger Akemi practicing their archery, and you’re just as good as they are. Shouldn’t you have been a shoe in for a warrior’s essences?”

  He grimaced, “its not that simple. The tribe always says that the essences are for anyone who earns them, but there’s nuance. My parents are leather workers, normal ranked ones, the most I could hope to earn would have been an artisan’s essences, not a warrior’s.”

  “Unspoken caste-ism?” Seras guessed.

  He grimaced, “something like that. Warrior kids have warrior parents, and they’re the ones who earn the bulk of those stones, they’re also the ones who judge kids like me. Its not a complete corruption, but there’s a thumb on the scale. But now that I’ve returned with my own essences my people are claiming pride at how far I’ve come, I’ve been offered a few good awakening stones for my fortune, and they want me to return to join one of their teams.” He sighed.

  “Is that not what you want?”

  He shook his head, “I don’t know, its all messed up in my head. What my people want, what I want. I’ve missed home so much this past year, but I like being with the crew. I feel like I’m being pulled in two directions.”

  Petra glanced around the at assembled people, “well then why not form our own team then?”

  Rohan chuckled, “funny.”

  “Naw, I’m serious. With the four of us we already have a decent composition, I’m a mobile defender, you’re a long-ranged marksmen, Seras can swap between close and mid-range, and Athena’s a healer who can actually heal Seras with her weird Outworlder traits. We’d only really need one front liner, and they’re a pretty easy to find.”

  An awkward silence filled the air around them.

  It was Athena who broke the silence first, “look, I don’t think I’m a good fit for any team. You haven’t really seen what the full effects of my abilities are, but they aren’t pretty. I’m basically mutilating myself every time I use them.”

  “You used them just now,” Petra pointed out.

  Athena held up a hand and began to tick off points as she spoke, “yes, a pain I was familiar with, knew wouldn’t do irreparable damage, didn’t cause me to bleed, and even still I needed a minute to work myself up to the idea. In a real combat situation I won’t have those luxuries. Plus I don’t get to choose what I take on, and enough damage could either kill me, or make me slow enough to get hit by whatever we’re fighting.” she took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, “I’ve had my essences since I was seventeen, and I’ve had a long time to get used to them. So I can say with confidence that time alone won’t let me get used to what I have to do to be an effective teammate. I’d be more liability.”

  Petra nodded her head, “I get it, I wasn’t really considering how you felt.” Petra glanced towards where Seras was standing, an implicit question in her brown feline eyes.

  She sighed, “look Petra, I’m flattered, but with all my own issues I don’t think I could commit either.”

  Athena blinked in surprise, “really? I thought you wanted to be an adventurer?”

  “Getting a certification to access adventurer society resources and forming a team are two different things. I think that once I get back to Cupric my efforts are going to be focused on researching a fix for my soul/body disconnect.”

  It was time to stop wasting time on side ventures and distractions, the pain was getting worse, and more and more of her essence abilities were crawling towards the next stage. She was currently holding back three, and that took a considerable amount of effort on her part.

  Rohan gestured outwards, “see Petra, I don’t think forming a team out of the caravan crew was ever a real option.”

  Petra deflated like a popped tire, “yeah, I guess so.”

  Seras felt a twinge of pain in her heart for her friend. But that’s just the way things were. No point arguing.