After getting Maddox briefly up to speed, Gideon left Mia and Red while the Chief Technician spoke with Bullseye and attempted to solve the System integration issue. It turned out Maddox was intimately familiar with both Bullseye and Elysia, the newer AI and favored the former because of his more variable and unpredictable emotive programing.

  That programing was one of the main reasons why Bullseye had been shelved in the first place, but in this instance it had allowed him to work outside of standard parameters and adapt Gideon’s echo to synergize with the Artemis System in this new environment. Once the little turtle understood that Maddox was a fan rather than his enemy, the little AI bent over backwards helping to solve the issue.

  Meanwhile, Book walked Gideon over to the armory and picked out a set of Mk I armor, complete with a bullet-proof vest, steel capped boots, and even a helmet. In combination the armor added +2 to his overall defenses and +1 to stability because of the boots. It wasn’t much, but the armor would do a better job of deflecting a Stalker claw than the tshirt and pants he’d been wearing.

  While the others were working talking with Maddox, Gideon quickly pulled two of the talon blades from his inventory and laid them out on the floor in front of him. He picked up one of the weapons, taking a good long look at its shiny black surface. Basic stats appeared in his HUD, hovering just to the side of the weapon.

  ** STALKER TALON **

  Base Damage: 105%

  Critical Chance: +15%

  Armor Penetration: +10%

  “What are you doing?” Book asked, sitting on a bench nearby.

  Gideon shook his head. “Trying to see if there’s something I can do to enhance these. I don’t really have any other components I can integrate with them, but I thought maybe if I put them out like this something might come to me.”

  “You could try directly augmenting them with your ether stores. Just go for a general quality increase.”

  “I thought about it, but honestly, holding the ether to use with Shadow Step or Stealth Strike seems like a better idea. I use ether while I’m a novice it’s not gonna do much with this, but the buff to a single strike is pretty incredible.”

  Book nodded. “I suppose the trick is to use it at the right moment then. It would be a shame to channel the ether with a strike and miss.”

  Gideon’s mind returned to a hundred different fail videos he’d watched over the years. Dozens of hunters had their worst blunders played one after the other. I was devastating for the hunters themselves, but hilarious for everyone else.

  Burning through all of your ether, then missing a vital stroke and ending up getting impaled by an Artemis native was one of the most common ways to die on the planet. It was also one of the most gut-wrenching experiences to witness and therefore insanely funny when you were thousands of light years away watching from the comfort of your own apartment.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Gideon admitted. “Maybe I should put the ether I’ve got into the weapons. It would only give them a slight increase, but at least I won’t be able to mistime an ether surge.”

  “I think you should trust your instincts,” Book said. “I saw you back there with that stealth Stalker. It was incredible to watch how you predicted where it was going to be and struck at exactly the right time. I’ve honestly not seen anything like that before.”

  Gideon snorted. “Then you haven’t watched many Great Hunt replays.”

  “I mean in person, here on Lunar. You probably don’t realize it yet, but this is very different to Artemis, and I don’t just mean because you’re not on an alien planet. The rules in that place are different. You choose when to fight and there are crystals everywhere to resurrect you when you die, as long as you’ve got enough echoes stored up. Here you don’t always choose when to fight, there’s no resurrection, and you’re fighting for the fate of your planet. That changes things.”

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  Gideon considered the other man’s words. He’d been so caught up in everything since the moment he awoke on the crashed ship that he hadn’t really had time to reflect on what was going on around him. Book was right. This was different.

  “My advice,” Book said, “for what it’s worth, is to trust your gut. You’ve got great instincts, and you lead well.” He pointed to the adjoining room where Mia and Red were standing. “They’re already following you because they trust you, they can see that you know what you’re doing.”

  “I really don’t” Gideon protested.

  “But you have enough confidence to seem like you do and, more importantly, you’ve got the ability to back it up. I’m just saying that you should go with your gut and not doubt yourself. Over the next few days, you’re gonna have a lot of people throwing advice your way. You need to learn when to listen and when to just trust yourself and block out those other voices.”

  51:18

  “Shit!” Gideon blurted. “How long have we been here? Has it been five minutes yet?”

  Book shrugged and Gideon picked up his blades and started running. He moved into the other room where Maddox was still talking to Bullseye while she tapped away on a computer terminal. Gideon whistled sharply, drawing Mia and Red’s attention.

  He motioned toward the door.

  “We gotta go. Once we’ve got the generator we can come back and sort everything out.”

  Red walked over, looking Gideon up and down. “First you gotta get me a set of that sweet gear, bro.” He tapped Gideon’s helmet, grinning. “Sweet!”

  “It’s in back. Hurry up and get geared up.”

  Neither Red nor Mia seemed particularly upset with the order. They moved into the other room and started putting on the armor. Book raised his eyes at Gideon as he walked past, nodding toward the others in a told you so kind of way.

  A leader.

  That was something Gideon had never wanted to be. All he’d ever wanted was to get out of that damned burger joint, make it to Artemis and then dominate. He’d join the odd hunting party here and there where he had to, or where there were outsized benefits. But he’d always assumed that he’d be a solo hunter, like Samson Graves or Killjoy Jackson.

  He wanted to grind his way to the top, making smart choices, stacking the odds in his favor and pouring everything into a class so devastating that he could one shot apex monsters and thrill the millions of viewers back home. That was the life he’d so desperately wanted, but it seemed like fate had different plans.

  He was going to have to lead. He could still be a rogue, of course, could still grind and work his ass off to increase his skills and maximize damage, but he also had a crew to look after now. A party.

  Tank, healer, damage dealer. It was a classic trio, but they were a long way from working together in any kind of efficient manner. So far a mixture of blind luck and timing had kept them alive, but they would need to lean on each other a lot more in the days ahead if they wanted to survive.

  48:28

  He walked over to Maddox and Bullseye, speaking directly to the turtle.

  “We’ve gotta go get this generator. I think you should stay here until we get back.”

  The turtle’s little face looked up at him, mouth opening and closing uncertainly. “But, I am your tutor, Gideon?”

  “I know, but it’s not real safe out there right now and we really need to sort this System shit out. When I get back, we’ll work out if there’s a way to get you back into my head safely or build some kind of harness or something to keep you safe. Right now, though, I’m more likely to get you killed than keep you safe. You’re lucky you’ve survived this far.”

  “Well,” Maddox said. “Here’s the thing, champ. I don’t think you’re ever gonna be able to get Spud here back into your noggin. He’s already changed too much to make it a comfortable fit and it would likely take weeks of work to figure out how to do it anyway. Your crew should be fine. Give me a couple of hours and I will have sorted out their AIs and integrated them into the Artemis System. But you’re a different story.”

  She tapped Bullseye’s shell.

  “Weird thing is, I think Bullseye here has kind of done the impossible. Not only has he figured out how to pull himself out of your echo and lock you into the System, but he also integrated himself into the damned thing too.”

  Gideon blinked. “What? I don’t understand.”

  “I’m saying that he’s carrying ether! Not much, just a couple of points, really, but it shows that he’s actually integrated into the Artemis System himself. That means, if this goes the way I think it might go, he’ll be able to choose a class, develop abilities, supercharge them with ether, the whole thing.”

  “You’re kidding?” Gideon blurted, looking down at the turtle, hardly able to believe what he was hearing.

  “I’m really not. It might take a little time, but Bullseye here has basically made his own echo. Although admittedly he’s gonna be somewhat limited physically, but that doesn’t mean he can’t buff up his defenses or cast spells. Who knows. There are dozens of different classes and thousands of abilities that might be applicable. The Artemis System is pretty fluid, and it adapts to the individual.”

  Mia and Red walked back into the room, wearing their new armor and looking like they were ready to go.

  Maddox waved Gideon away. “Leave the turtle with me. We’ll keep working on the other problem and, when you get back, we can figure out exactly what’s going on with Spud her.”

  Gideon did as she suggested, leaving the turtle and trying to untwist the knots in his mind as he considered how on earth a turtle could function as a legitimate echo. Turtles couldn’t fight! They were too slow, too small, too…

  Cowabunga!