Mask of Humanity

‘Chosen are busy today,’ Maxine had spoken that morning, over the Radio. ‘Real bee up their bonnet. Dawns just broke but they’re all streaming out across the bridges. I hear shooting already. I’d recommend people stay indoors today… not a good one to be going wandering.’

Not a good day for trading, he’d told the others. This lent credence to his decision that instead, they would go on a little extra-curricular trek outside the castle. John had told him about an elevator they’d found some time ago, which wasn’t located far from their safe place. An elevator which took one down to the jungle.

Nicolai was eager to do so, as it would serve numerous ends. He needed a Lotus Blossom Symbiote, and the jungle seemed the best place to find one. He also wanted any other Symbiotes he could get his hand on, as well as food for his Blue Hornet, Beth’s Centipede, and to see if he could find something that the Symbiote in the rock would be willing to eat.

Lastly, the close, pressing confines of the jungle, and the likelihood of them encountering dangerous creatures and other obstacles, would give him plentiful opportunities to enact the primary purpose of the trip.

His eyes lingered on Karl, who was sat at the table eating his breakfast.

He’d posted Threat Analysis to keep an eye on Karl during the night, accomplished via Nicolai extending his Soul Sense tendril which the Modules then maintained overnight. It hadn’t woken him, because Karl hadn’t made his decision. He’d tossed and turned on it all night.

But this very morning, he sensed that Karl had chosen what he would do. Karl was sitting there furtive, casting looks at Nicolai who he thought wasn’t watching. The man had risen to face the day with a sense of clarity and purpose. He’d decided on the only course of action available to him.

Nicolai had seen it when the man reached for a radio, and held it. His mental state had been that of dismay, disgust, but also rising determination and angry certainty. Nicolai had known then that the deadline had arrived. He’d been quick out his room to knock on everyone’s door, getting them out and knocking especially hard and demanding on Karl’s door. The man had put the radio aside, stymied, and was now out here eating his cereal. Peeking at Nicolai who he thought wasn’t peeking back. Wondering, perhaps, about the pounding Nicolai had given his door just as he went for the radio. Wondering if he knew. Worrying, then, about what he ought to do.

No time to waste. Best way to stop someone doing something you didn’t want them doing was to keep them busy doing something else, something that’d make them think they were needed, they were safe, they could just wait until it was over then get on with their business. Then you stabbed them in the back before it was over. Not a strategy he’d needed to employ particular often, but it was one that’d always worked out well.

He spoke up. ‘We’ve got a job to do, everyone. Get equipped.’ He left a pause, let it stretch. Just seemed fitting. ‘We’re going into the jungle.’

###

Nicolai, along with Beth, John, Cait, Karl, and Elena, stood before an opening that led into a small circular room. There was a lever set into the floor, and on either side of the room great chains emerged from holes in the ceiling to move through and disappear out of matching holes in the ground.

‘This it?’ asked Nicolai, peering within.

‘Yeah. Found it a couple weeks ago. Goes straight down,’ confirmed John.

‘Did you have a look around down there?’

‘We went down and came straight back up,’ said Cait. ‘Didn’t seem like a safe place. I’m still not sure what you hope to gain with this.’

‘There’s plenty of useful things to be found down there, from what I’ve heard,’ replied Nicolai, stepping into the elevator room, the rest following. ‘Give it a tug,’ he said to Beth, gesturing to the lever.

She stepped over and set her hands to it. She pulled, grunted, then with a heavy clunk it moved.

The chains rattled and Nicolai felt his stomach rise, the stone walls around the room creeping upwards, faster and faster. Then in a flash, they were in open air and sunlight poured over them. Spreading out before them was the glittering green expanse of the jungle, disappearing into mist in the far distance. The chains hissed and rattled as they crept down the wall.

Nicolai performed a quick check of his weapons. He had ammo and grenades in the pouches of his tactical vest. His pistol was holstered on his belt, alongside one of his knives. On one hand he wore his Imbued glove, and on the other a Charge Glove, which was effectively a very powerful taser. He thought it might be able to work in tandem with his Blue Hornet. His rapier was sheathed on his hip.

He didn’t wear his shimmer poncho, but it was folded into the small belt-bag it had come with. It would come out later, but only when none of the others could see him.

In his hands he held a pump-action shotgun, a Mossberg M500, for which he had a sheath-like holster on his back. He tugged a stubby silencer from one of his pouches and screwed it onto the shotgun, instructing the others—who all held the same model of shotgun—to do the same. Opposite the sheath on his back hung a bolt-action, scoped rifle. A fairly ancient variant, as Nicolai’s current tier of market didn’t provide even early modern types. Its silencer was tucked into his tactical vest.

Nicolai had decided to switch to guns with more penetration and stopping power after his experience facing the knights, and because he also believed stopping power would be more important against what he anticipated within the jungle—animals. The stopping power would be of use against larger creatures, and the spreading pellets would make it easier to hit smaller things moving quick.

There were two new additions. Beneath everything, tight around his chest, was his first attempt at an Oma vest. Ten crystals worth, chopped into pieces and spread over him, affixed to an actual vest. On his right shoulder there was also a Rejuvenating Orb which he’d fixed in place on the strap of his tactical vest. It was reasonably easy for him to tilt his head to the side, grip its funnel with his teeth, pull it up, then seal his lips and breath from it. Still an imperfect solution, but a good enough start to be getting on with.

These were both for emergencies only. He’d only use them if he had no choice. If time wasn’t pressing and his hands were free, he’d just pull out one of the many Oma crystals or one of the two Rejuvenating Orbs he had stashed in his pockets.

‘Could be anything down there,’ murmured Elena, clutching her own shotgun tight, peering over the edge. She, like everyone else, wore techno-camouflage fatigues in addition to a bullet-proof vest and lightweight military helmet. They all looked the part, but some, like Elena, held their guns with obvious inexperience.

‘Don’t worry—‘ began Karl, stepping closer to her, then he paused, frowning for a moment at the others and especially Nicolai. Karl looked back to her and began to speak again, but whatever else he’d intended to say was never heard.

They’d reached the bottom, the elevator slowing abruptly. While the others steadied themselves, Nicolai tensed his legs and let his knees bend, maintaining balance as he scanned the area before them. The elevator settled into the ground with a thump, and he started moving, readying his shotgun.

He stepped down an expanse of cracked, aged stone, flat at the top around the elevator then turning into wide steps into the jungle. The jungle itself clustered close, infringing on the stone. Grass and bushes sprouted from the stonework, a network of green reaching toward the castle.

Large trees cloaked in dark bark rose beyond, densely packed, growing in strange, curving shapes, all gnarled and odd, topped by dense spreads of branches resting heavy with thick leaves, the area beneath them dim.

The sounds of life surrounded him. The trilling of birds and the calls of other things, the creak of branches swaying in the wind, leaves rustling.

Nicolai took point, the other six spreading to his sides. He felt a faint thrill twine through him as he peered into it, that of exploring a vibrantly dark and dangerous place. A smile wormed onto his face. Four drones rose above them and sped out, one going above the treeline to give a view from above, the other three diving into the jungle and beginning the investigation of this new world. He suspected they would need to use their guns, and soon. But until the moment that was necessary he would rather they stick to melee weapons; even with silencers, the shotguns would be noisy. That in mind he held a finger to his sheathed rapier and began charging it, making it ready.

‘Move out, and talk only over Local,’ spoke Nicolai via Link, gesturing the others to follow as he descended. ‘Keep your guns ready, but only fire them as a last resort. Leave anything minor to me.’ With Soul Sense he kept an eye on Karl, ever wary the man might attempt to shoot him in the back. However, he sensed that Karl had no such designs.

The man was too concerned about the area they were entering, most of his focus appearing to be on Elena, driven by the protectiveness he felt for the woman. In fact, so focused was he on her that he was barely watching where he was going. Seemed he was convinced Nicolai wouldn’t, couldn’t make a move on him. Not here, not with everyone else about. Sadly deluded, but Nicolai had no intentions of letting him in on that.

They stepped down and found a way into the brush, forming a line as they moved through the trees. It was hot and dense and pressing, the bushes slick with fat beads of condensation, and hanging vines criss-crossed between the trees.

As Nicolai crept forwards something shifted in the dark a short distance away and he saw a large frog staring at him. Its mouth gaped and it let out a croak. His Soul Sense immediately moved to focus on it, investigating it, and he felt a weaker kind of Soul Sense from it in turn, and hunger, hunger that focused and turned into vicious intention.

He twitched to the side at the same moment as a tongue exploded from its mouth. It missed him by inches and it snapped back to the surprised looking frog. His rapier spun out from its sheath and impaled the frog through the head. The frog fell, convulsing.

‘Fuck!’ someone yelled, and he turned to see Cait shaking her leg. There was something on it, a nasty looking bug. ‘Get it off!’ she cried, and he saw blood.

John was there in an instant, grabbing it and ripping it away, throwing it to the ground where it squirmed and he stomped on it.

Something entered Nicolai’s Soul Sense sphere and he twisted his head to avoid it, a sudden whining sound filling his ear ear as what resembled a gigantic mosquito flew past his face, missing him with its extended proboscis. His hands moved without bothering to consult the rest of him, a quick drawn knife punching it from the air.

He paused, as did the others, staring around at the hostile environment surrounding them, at the mosquito big as a very big rat impaled on his knife.

‘Are you ok?’ John asked Cait, peering at her leg.

She gritted her teeth. ‘It’s painful, but not much more than a scratch.’

Nicolai checked on the wound with his Soul Sense and found something nasty inside. ‘We wait here a moment, keep your eyes turned out and keep the moving,’ he said, having Threat Analysis pull the drones closer to them. He flicked the mosquito from his knife and tucked it away.

He took the red water bottle from Beth as he approached, sinking to his knees then washing Cait’s wound out with it. It was an ugly series of scratches and tears on her leg, one deeper than the rest. The cleaning water did some work, but not enough from what he could tell. There was something in there, something he was able to find with his Soul Sense, something that interested him.

‘This’ll hurt,’ he told her, pulling a clean knife and gently pressing into the wound, where he found the object.

He got a grip on it with his fingernails and pulled, and Cait let out a groan. He cut a little around it, ignoring Cait’s groan that had now become a steady hiss of agony, and out it came. A little dark piece of insect. He didn’t know what it was meant to do but presumably nothing nice. He tossed it away and found that Beth had anticipated his needs, already pulled out, opened and presented a medi-kit to him.

He sprayed some coagulating, anti-bacterial wound healing sprays around the area then fitted a self-sealing, self-tightening silicone bandage around the wound. It would keep it all closed and still, and—just as important to his mind and in this place—prevent the smell of blood from leaking out.

‘Can you walk?’ Nicolai asked. Cait put some weight on her leg then nodded an affirmative. He glanced around at the faces of the others and knew they were all hoping he’d call an end to this. ‘We push on,’ he said, unmoved by the worried and unhappy faces. ‘Remember to communicate over Link, to ensure everyone hears easily, and so that we create less noise.’ There was much he wished to do down here and he would not be turned away so easily.

They pushed through the trees, more slowly now, watching out for bugs and other nasties, and encountering plenty. This time, they managed to kill the things before they could be bitten. Nicolai dealt with the majority, keeping his rapier in the air; it was ideal for dealing with such minor threats. Even so he sensed how it wore at the others, everyone busy looking around at the plants they passed and the ground below.

He kept his Soul Sense roving, as did Beth, and had the drones stayed close. Nicolai and Beth with their slightly improved physiques, alongside Cait with her bionic arm and John with his artificial muscles, did most of the work, all of them now wielding some kind of melee weapon, shotguns hanging on straps.

As they moved Nicolai’s Soul Sense roved around, working alongside Beth’s to detect the parasitical bugs before they could strike, but also noticing other things. Now and then he would find plants or trees that shone a little brighter to his Soul Sense.

These, he believed, were plants Infused with more than average Oma. From what Kleos had said, some of them might be good as Symbiote food, or for refining Symbiotes. However, none of them matched with his memory of how the Symbiote in the rock had felt, nor did he notice anything that felt like the spiritual honey his Blue Hornet desired.

They passed some interesting areas; a pond with yellow water, a mass of thorns hundreds of metres wide, the bones of something big. Nicolai skirted by it all, searching for something that seemed worth taking.

After twenty minutes, they came upon a clearing of knee-high grass. The sun shone down, washing it in light. In the centre of the clearing rose a great tree, almost a hundred metres high, sprouting thick limbs wreathed in branches of faintly blue leaves.

‘What is it?’ Beth peered past him.

‘Big tree. We check it out.’

They advanced forward through the clearing and drew quickly closer. After pressing beneath the tree’s outer branches Nicolai’s Soul Sense was close enough to play over some of the blue leaves, and he felt a shock of recognition, one that put a grin on his face. They felt similar to the Symbiote in the rock, very similar. This would do as food.

‘Keep watch. I’m going to harvest some leaves,’ he told the others, activating one of his Pegasi rings and floating up into the canopy. He drew close to a branch then reached out and gripped one of its limbs, running his hand along and tearing off the leaves.

As he reached to push them into a pouch, he felt a sudden pulse in the neighbouring Aura. That was all the warning he had as something spiritual slammed into him. Nicolai grunted, a spike of pain shooting through his head as his Soul Sense was instantly broken, falling back into him. The moment his Soul Sense was out the way something seized him, a force that wrapped around his body and pulled.

The world wheeled around him, branches scraping and breaking as he was spun wildly through the air, higher into the canopy, toward the ambusher.