Vivid Stars Online

Despite the lifelessness of the cavern, we still made sure to secure it properly. As much as I was itching to investigate the ore deposits, I’d learned to be ready for anything down here.

The cavern was large enough that it took nearly half an hour to fully clear it. The area proved to be as empty as I’d initially thought, with only half-devoured bones showing that anything had ever lived here.

It looked like the ants had eaten everything, right down to the moss on the walls. This was the only place I’d been so far that was missing the soft glow from it, and I could only assume that they were the cause.

With the area secured, I directed the soldiers back to watch the entrance while I moved forward to examine the deposits lining the walls. Linnea followed along behind me and could provide more than enough security if anything went wrong.

Stepping closer, I found hints as to why the deposits were so openly displayed. Scratches upon the exposed ore suggested the ants had tried to dig through it without success.

So they hollowed out the cavern as much as possible, I theorized, after finding the same result in several places. I would guess they were looking for food, perhaps some kind of tunneling animal or insect.

Does that mean they mutated in here and eventually went the other way to break into the main cave network? Or did they come here through it and then setup here? I’ll probably never know, but it’s certainly intriguing. I still don’t know enough about how Beasts come to be.

It was yet another thing to add to my ever-expanding learning list, and I made a note of it before moving on. The deposits themselves were the most important thing right now, and I eagerly focused my scanner on them.

“Damn it,” I cursed as it failed to detect anything. It was far from the first time that the scanner had been unable to detect things I felt it should have. Most of the time it was stronger beasts and with this, I had a solid clue why.

“What’s wrong,” Linnea asked from beside me, her voice concerned.

“Nothing dangerous,” I hurried to say as I turned and spotted her hand on her rifle. “But my scanner’s refusing to pick up the deposits. I’m guessing it’s because of their inherent Psi energy. I can try the booster mode, but even that might not work.”

“That’s going to make it hard to work out what they are,” she responded with an amused snort. “I’m guessing you’ve tried Technokinesis on it?”

I blinked for a moment before rubbing the back of my head. “Ah, no actually,” I said with a wince. “I’ll give that a go now.” My scanner had been such a ubiquitous piece of equipment since I’d bought it that I’d never even thought to try.

Turning back to the wall, I focused my will on it. It sprang into my awareness, its purpose and design gradually becoming clear. I could feel what it sensed and could confirm that it saw the walls in front of us covered in normal rock.

It was like the psionic deposits were entirely invisible to it, just like the beasts it had missed before. With a thought, I triggered its booster mode, only to shake my head as nothing changed. It could now cover a much larger area and even extend several feet into the wall, but it still missed the deposits.

Maybe you need psi-tech to sense psi energy? I mused as I dug deeper into the workings of the device. As far as I could tell, it was working fine, with only minor wear and tear from the several months I’d been using it.

That suggested it was an inherent flaw with the device, but potentially one I could work around. Drawing on my energy reserves, I tried empowering it just like I would a weapon.

A soft purple glow surrounded the device before it began beeping as it picked up unusual energy readings. A string of error messages ran past, the software unprepared for interpreting Psi readings, before the device finally settled down.

It still couldn’t make heads or tails of the energy readings, but it could now pick up the composition of the deposits. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they matched nothing on its onboard database, but I was able to take the readings and forward them to Elana.

She’d mentioned doing some research into the materials we needed, so I hoped she’d be able to recognize what I’d found. Only a few minutes passed before she responded with an excited message.

She confirmed the deposits contained one of the metals that she’d been looking into. It wasn’t the one required for the frigate’s hull plating, as I’d first hoped, but it was a primary component in some of the more complicated technology we had.

The metal, named Altheium after the planet, was the material she’d been missing to fix the shields on the gunboat. It was also present in many of the systems she’d scanned on the frigate, and would no doubt be needed to manufacture the missing shield generators and warp drive on it.

Even better, it was rare and thus valuable. Everything on the market was rapidly being bought up to repair the other capital ships, driving the prices up even further. While the frigate repairs came first, any excess would make a tidy profit if sold.

“Sweet,” Linnea whistled as she read over my shoulder. “That’s going to make any village you set up here pretty rich, just on its own.”

“Yeah,” I responded with a sigh of relief. “Even if we find little else down here, this alone would be worth it.” From my previous visit, I knew there were deposits of more common minerals such as iron and copper, but I didn’t really know if there were enough of those to be profitable.

With this, the village would have an excellent start, even if it ran out fairly quickly. Satisfied with the find, I marked the area as critically important on my map before turning to leave.

We might have had a lucky find, but we still had plenty of the cave system left to clear.

Days turned into a week, then a second, as we steadily worked our way into the depths. By the end of the second week, we’d cleared all the way down to the rift I’d used, only to find that it went deeper still.

Rather than straight down, it moved deeper on a slope, mirroring the side of the mountain above. Small streams and even a few rivers flowed in places, all leading down toward the massive lake at the mountain's base.

I almost called it there, before I remembered my interest in seeing if there was a way to travel down underground. If we could build an underground rail-cart network, it would make transporting ore and supplies a lot safer.

The only risk was that we might overshoot the date for us to take over patrols of the town. With the initial objective I'd set cleared, and a wealth of further mundane ore deposits found, I sent the captain back with the bulk of our forces.

With them returning to secure the town I could move forward with Linnea and fifteen troops. The once-green soldiers had improved tremendously in the two weeks of almost constant fighting.

While still hampered by their gear, their speed, toughness, and accuracy had improved to a whole other level. The fifteen we took showed the best improvement, and I hoped they wouldn’t just survive the further adventure but thrive even further.

Not only would this create an elite core among my troops, but it would give me ready access to a squad or two of people strong enough to support me when needed.

With no way of knowing how far the caverns would go, or if we would even find an exit, I coordinated a resupply with the Captain before we left. That gave us another two weeks of supplies, enough even if we got stuck and had to double back.

With the comm beacons running out, we’d be going out of contact as we advanced, so there would be no chance of calling in more supplies or support. Having learned that a period of quiet concerned people, I notified everyone important about the continued trip.

Part of this was responding to interested messages from potential investors. I’d had more than a dozen such messages in the last few weeks, and so far I’d indicated that I would meet with them when I returned from my current mission.

With that extending further out, I decided to set a concrete date so they didn’t lose interest. After a little thought, I began slotting people in three weeks from now. With only two weeks of supplies, we would be back by then, and it would give me a bit of time to prep.

“Ready?” I asked Linnea as I hit send on the last message.

“Yeah,” she responded with a nod. "Elana’s a little annoyed that I’m going to be away even longer, but she’s also really excited about getting fresh materials back. If we can find a way to make the ore transport smoother, she’ll be happy enough."

She paused, glancing around for a moment, before leaning in to continue. “And I’ve heard from my father again, he’s eager to meet you,” she finished in a whisper.

“Ah,” I responded, realizing that she was probably talking about the shadowy group she was part of. It sounded like they might be getting impatient. “I’ll check on the passport situation tonight, then.”

She nodded, leaning back with a smile before pulling her pack up. I followed suit before turning and gathering the soldiers. We had three squads of five with us, each led by a corporal who’d shown they could lead under pressure.

Rather than all clumping together in a single small tunnel, I planned for us to move separately but close enough that we could regroup if needed. Many of the tunnels down here were partially, or even fully, filled with water, so there was an even greater chance than usual of hitting dead ends.

Having the group spread out would allow us to scout multiple routes at once, so if any group got stuck, they could backtrack to another path. It would also get eyes on more areas, as I still hoped to find more ore deposits as we went.

The Altheium had been an excellent find, but we were still missing the metal I needed for the frigate hull. Without that, we couldn’t fix it and still maintain its stealth capabilities.

Finding a deposit for that wasn’t the primary purpose of the extended exploration, but I was still hoping that we might find it.

I explained all this to the assembled squads for a second time, ensuring that they were clear on the details. Without continuous comm contact, there was no guarantee that we would hear a conflict if it occurred.

That meant it would be up to each squad to retreat if needed and work its way back around to another group. The risk was high, but I’d only brought troops that had proven themselves over the last two weeks.

Thankfully, we could still independently create maps as we went, so it was unlikely anyone would become lost down here. At worst, we would be separated, and each group had orders to turn back after consuming five days of supplies.

If we hadn’t found a lower exit by then, that would leave enough for us to backtrack to the surface via the previous cave network. There, enough supplies were being cached at base camp for us to make it back to the town.

Once I was certain that each squad knew the plan back to front, we split into four groups and proceeded down the tunnel. Three squads of soldiers, and Linnea and me on our own.

The trip was surprisingly easy for the first day, with few enemies and easy-to-navigate tunnels. I wasn't sure why we encountered so little resistance but hoped that it was a good sign for my transport plan.

That night I spent an hour out of the game checking my email. Halfway through the built up messages, I found the important one. My passport was ready, and I only had to fill out a final few details before it was linked to my digital identity.

I handled that quickly, before looking into flights to Sweden. I didn’t want the trip to interfere with my current mission, so I booked a flight for sixteen days in the future. That would give me time to return, but allow me to fit it in before my investor meetings.

I didn’t know how long I’d be over there, but I was sure we could find time for me to handle the meetings in VSO. In fact, I let Linnea know that was a condition when I got back into the game.

She assured me it would be fine, and that she would get a message through to her father to be ready to pick me up. While she didn’t come out and say it, I was sure she also meant that the hidden society she and her father were part of would be ready.

Just after midday the next day my Psi senses twitched as I sensed something in the distance. It was almost like another rift sending out energy, but one that felt far darker than any I’d sensed before.

Far from the normal chaotic energy, the pulses that I sensed now felt horrifically corrupted.