Preview of a potential story (Patreon)

Now, this would be something that I'd work on after Blue Core was finished, and this is pre-first-draft levels of writing. But I do want to know what people think. The background on this one is that with all these System Apocalypse stories, there's an unfulfilled moral imperative - destroy the system. So I thought that I'd start with that idea.

Anti -- System Apocalypse

Chapter One

The world below looked terrible.

Like all worlds taken over by the System, it was no longer a blue-green marble floating in the void. Instead it was a patchwork of land, sea, and atmosphere that bore no resemblance to anything natural. Here, a blazing desert was perched on a plateau in the far north, there an icy wasteland butted up against a rainforest, and ocean depths stretched into what had been the planet’s mantle. Worst of all, if the System was here, there was a native species somewhere in all the ruin and chaos.

“What’s the score, Marcus? Are we too late?” Cole sorted through the feeds from the drones Marcus had deployed in orbit, looking at the remnants of older, technologically-based cities and the current civilization that had been forced to alter itself to deal with the System.

The Alternate Physics Overlay – APO, since an acronym was more objective than calling it magic – created by the System was one of the most brutal tools of subjugation that humanity had run into. Species weren’t simply conquered, their entire understanding of the universe was upended, subordinated to the whims of an uncaring god. Biology was twisted to rely on the APO, ultimately resulting in monsterization. Monsterized races couldn’t even reproduce naturally, and had to be created by the system.

Naturally, monsterized races had no real civilization, no ability to change, and no ability to resent their role.

“I’ve found a number of infants, so I’d venture we are not.” The quantum intelligence known as Marcus, a splinter of the greater one that protected Terrasol, pulled up images from the world below. The race in question had grossly reptilian physiology with fine scales, a short tail, plantigrade feet, and stood maybe four feet tall on average, but were clearly not reptiles. They had mammaries, birthed live young, and the infants in question were tiny and adorable.

“Oh, thank goodness. Also, seriously? Kobolds?” They weren’t kobolds, of course. They were an alien race, their resemblance to fictional creations entirely coincidental, but bipedal physiology had only so many options so it was hardly surprising it happened on occasion.

“Designating native species as Kobold,” Marcus said.

“No, wait, I didn’t mean it that way!”

“It’s too late. You know nobody is going to call them anything else anyway.”

“I suppose not.” Cole sighed. “Look, the poor bastards had steam power before the System came along.” One of the satellites had spotted what was clearly rail, overgrown but still visible where it cut through the countryside. It was a wider gauge than human rail had been, but parallel metal tracks were pretty obvious. Unfortunately he couldn’t find a locomotive or any railcars, despite following the rail to where it cut off at the ends of the patch of climate, so it was difficult to say how advanced the rail technology actually was.

“So they were hit after steam but before electricity,” Marcus mused, a conclusion drawn from the lack of any radio presence from the planet in the surrounding hundred light years or so. “That’s actually fairly late for the System. I don’t know if that makes them lucky or unlucky.”

“Well, they’re lucky now,” Cole said. “We’re here. Start it up.”

“Sir yes sir,” Marcus drawled, activating the drones they’d seeded in the local asteroid belt as they’d flown in. It would take time, but the resources would flow into planetary orbit, building an orbital ring and ultimately providing the infrastructure to connect to Terrasol and cut off the influence of the System. Even if something destroyed the orbital ring, even if something down on the planet killed Cole, Marcus would still exist, dispersed among the drones seeded throughout the system.

If things got that bad, they’d bring in heavier guns than a single agent.

While Marcus was busy playing with his toys in the outer system, Cole sorted through the feeds from the satellites, trying to figure out the state of the world in general. They had a lot of information on how the System worked, its pattern of assimilation. It called it uplifting, which was painfully ironic considering that it wound technological innovation backward. Even basic metallurgy didn’t act the same under the System’s APO.

It seemed like the kobolds – and Marcus hadn’t been joking about registering the natives with that name – had been under System control long enough to regroup and start a halting attempt at civilization, but not long enough to encounter any non-monsterized races. Somewhere in the neighborhood of one to two hundred years, by the usual span of things. The overall threat level of the world was higher than he would have expected for that, though, to judge by the APO energies involved.

Cole would need a more robust sleeve than usual to deal with the world.

“Really, Cole? An Impact-class sleeve?”

“They have kaiju down there!” He defended himself. “Besides, we can scavenge all the materials we need from the planet’s ring.” By the look of it, the System had shattered a small moon when it arrived, and while the ring was accreting back into a single body it was still easy enough to pull resources from.

“Fiiine,” Marcus said, then laughed. “Actually I think it’ll be fun. We don’t often have a reason to go higher than Sniper-class.”

“There’s even an argument to be made for a Godzilla-class sleeve, with the kaiju,” Cole pointed out. “But they’re not near the natives yet and it’d take months to print one.”

“Then we’ll start now and upgrade,” Marcus said, which was unusual for him since he was rather unimpressed by the physical threats the System provided. If he felt that a Godzilla-class sleeve was worth making, with all the potential System attention it’d create, the degree to which the system APO had twisted the planet below was even greater than Cole had estimated.

While it was technically true that they could break the System hold over the planet without ever landing, that would just create a greater mess and probably result in the total collapse of the ecosphere, if not the full annihilation of the planet. Properly rescuing people from the system took groundwork. Not everyone would be happy about such a rescue, as some people had massive power under the System and wouldn’t want to lose it, but considering the System’s focus on combat Cole had little sympathy for them. They were rarely more than glorified warlords.

“So where should we start?” Cole started sorting through the various native locations the satellites had found. Some of them were larger towns or cities, but heading into them in a humaniform sleeve would cause issues. He could have made a sleeve that looked like the natives, but that was the sort of deception that would cause other, worse issues down the line. No, the best place to start would be a border town or village where people were familiar with danger and the unknown, and less likely to think they knew everything.

“Looks good to me,” Marcus said, peering over Cole’s digital shoulder. “Actually I think it’s perfect. Seems like the village boundaries have shrunk recently, meaning they’ll be more likely to accept help.”

“Then we’ll head down as soon as the sleeve is done,” he decided.

?—?—

Cheea pulled her spear out of the tik-bird, feeling a surge of relief as the System confirmed the kill.

Level 16 Tik-Bird killed. 228 Experience gained.

She was barely level ten herself, with the simple class of Spear User, but Hiayel Village didn’t need more complicated classes. They just needed people who could defend it and gather food. Cheea tapped the bird’s corpse with her fingers and activated [Butchery], the remains dissolving as the loot was deposited in her inventory.

Received Drumsticks x2

Received Meat Cuts x6

Received Feathers x16

Received Bone x8

Received Lucky Feather

The notifications made her raise a fist in silent celebration. The last drop was uncommon, and while she already had one, there were always more people who could use a luck boost. She was almost out of inventory space, so it was about time to head back home despite the early hour. Not that she wanted to be out late. Monsters were bad enough in the daylight, but some truly horrible things came out after night fell.

She crept back through the tall grass, keeping low so she wouldn’t get spotted by any more Tik-Birds. The higher-level ones weren’t too bad one-on-one, but too often they came in flocks large enough to make short work of any stray kobold spear users that got their attention. Her caution showed itself to be prudent only a few minutes later, when there was a loud boom, and the squawking of at least a dozen Tik-Birds came from a place not too far away.

That seemed like a good time to go the other direction, but there was a short hissing noise and all the squawking stopped instantly. That was not a good thing, and probably meant there was something very nasty that’d come out of the wildlands. Cheea wasn’t so dumb as to go look herself, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t curious. She spotted the crown of a tree nearby and slipped over in that direction, relying on [Stealth] to keep her hidden.

Cheea ducked behind the tree, digging her claws into the rough bark as she climbed a few feet, peering out to see what had killed the flock. It wasn’t a huge beast, or strange elemental, but a being that Cheea had never seen before. It was taller than a kobold, flat-faced with a mop of black fur on the top of its head, with pale skin and blue clothing. She couldn’t see it wielding any weapons, but a dozen Tik-Bird corpses lay in the grass in front of it.

The results of [Analyze] nearly knocked her off the tree.

Hello there!

She blinked, and even as she watched the Analyze box changed.

Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you. You can come loot these things if you want.

The thing was just standing there, looking in her direction, which was horrifying because so far as she could tell she was still in [Stealth]. If it knew where she was, it should have broken the [Stealth] effect! The only reason she didn’t simply run in the other direction is that it obviously wouldn’t help. Anything that could talk through Status boxes was something like a god.

Cheea took one breath, then another, and slowly climbed down the tree. The thing stayed there, waiting patiently as she crept toward it. When she got in range of the Tik-Bird corpses, she gave them a quick [Analyze] to see if she could figure out what the god had done to them.

Level 17 Tik-Bird Corpse.

Killed by misadventure.

“Hello there, little lady,” the thing said, jolting her attention to it. “My name is Cole.”

She boggled at it, completely speechless. Cheea certainly wasn’t a lady, and while she was little compared to the thing she felt a little put out by being called that. Not that she was going to protest. If it could kill an entire flock of Tik-Birds in an instant it was more dangerous than any but the worst monsters.

“What’s your name?” It asked, and she jolted to attention. She felt it very odd that it – that Cole – would ask that when [Analyze] would always tell someone a person’s name, but she assumed the god knew that it was doing.

“Cheea, Lord Cole.”

“Oh, I’m no lord,” Cole chuckled. “I’m guessing you’re out hunting for your village?”

“Yes, Lord Cole,” she said, then flinched as she realized it already told her it wasn’t a lord, even if she wasn’t sure what else she could call it. Him. She got the impression Cole was definitely a him.

“Well, you’re just plain adorable,” he said, squatting down to put his head level with hers. His eyes flickered, looking at something only he could see. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud. I guess your inventory is too full to get all these back to the village, huh?”

“…yes?” Cheea felt totally off-balance, barely registering that Cole somehow knew what her inventory was. Being called adorable made her flush, but also made her worry about what Cole wanted. She’d heard stories from her father about high-level types coming by and taking whatever – or whoever – they wanted.

“Well, I don’t have an inventory so we’ll have to haul them the old-fashioned way.” Cole stood up and looked around while she tried to understand that. Who didn’t have an inventory? Even children had a single inventory slot, not counting their basic clothing slots. “Can I use that tree?”

“Um, yes, sir.” It was just a tree. It would probably respawn, but if it didn’t, there were plenty more around. She watched as Cole strode over the tree, walking around it once and studying it up and down. Then without any spell or skill or any kind of invocation she could sense, he reached out and grabbed a piece of perfectly cut wood from the tree. Then a second, and a third, slotting them together with cleverly cut angles until in less than a minute he had crafted a wooden sled.

Cheea stared at it, reflexively trying to [Analyze] it and getting nothing. It was like she was trying [Analyze] air. Cole pulled it through the grass, the wood cut so smoothly it made barely a whisper of noise, and nodded at the corpses.

“How about we load these up and take them back to your village?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, jolting into motion and glad to have something to do other than gawp at Cole’s antics. Still, she studied him from the corner of her eye as she hefted Tik-Bird bodies onto the sled. He wasn’t just tall, he moved like the one high-level adventurer she’d seen did. All casual grace and controlled strength. That made sense, since he was obviously a being of some power, but the fact that nothing about him or his actions registered with the System gave her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. It made her think that there was something forbidden about him.

Forbidden or not, coming home with all those intact corpses meant that the entire village would probably be able to eat for a week. Huacin’s [Butchery] Skill was near maximum and sometimes would generate more meat than could have possibly fit in a corpse, but for independent scouts like her to drag back every corpse would mean she wouldn’t level up fast enough to be useful. When she heaved the last body onto the sled, Cole took the handle and looked down at her with a smile on his strange, flat face.

“Great, let’s head to your home.”