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Alex’s new Stress-Tolerance Awareness lit up as minor stressors appeared throughout the ship, and he was momentarily awed at the fidelity the ship-enhanced and augmented version was.
He could practically feel every singular shield emitter as it either protected them or lay unstressed, and in the ship?
He grinned at the feel of it, knowing that it could become addicting if he wasn’t careful.
Nothing was painful—as nothing was truly harmed—but it was akin to suddenly standing under a heavy rain.
“Meteor shower!” The words came to him even within flight mode, coming from John, somewhat unnecessarily.
A small, pedantic part of Alex wanted to correct the man. After all, Alex hadn’t flipped the table so completely as to land them in an atmosphere, so this was decidedly not a meteor shower, but most of him knew that it was hardly the time.
The shields were holding up admirably, and from the readings he was getting—
“Shields down ten percent and holding.” Lenka’s voice cut through his thoughts. It seemed that they were designed to recharge more quickly the more damaged they were. So a steady state would actually reflect the level of incoming damage to a fair degree of accuracy.
He began shifting and rolling the ship around larger asteroids as soon as he sensed them. It wasn’t always enough—even when he was just focusing on the biggest—but it helped. His vision was clouded by just how much mana was swirling around, seemingly spasmodically creating fields that repelled asteroids from one another with disparate force if they got very close, at least the majority of the time.
A moment later, data streamed into his mind, clearly coming from Natasha.
The most pressing part was a lower resolution look at what was coming their way and potential paths through the magically maintained slurry. Added in to his own, more precise-but-close-in sense, he was able to reduce impacts even further. That let him get a picture of what they’d landed in.
From the sensors, it was something about twice the Earth’s diameter, pre-System, and if he had to guess, it was filled with about as much roiling, tumbling, churning matter as would make up a planet, if it were all squished back together. Again, it probably should have done just that, given the physics of gravity and such, but the mana shining throughout was preventing that from occurring.
As to what that magic was?
Well, it was far too complex for him to get a perfect grasp quickly, but he was able to pick up the highlights.
Quake.
Quiver.
Be Sundered.
It was old too, seemingly having been here for a long time, and that realization actually let him look it up in the ship's databases with a thought. Oh… This is the mining location we were explicitly going to this star system for…
So, rather than being inaccurate, he was too accurate?
Yeah. That was his story, and he’d stick to it… He sighed even as he spun the ship around another mountain-sized chunk. No one would actually believe that.
He threw himself fully into the task at hand, working to improve his abilities as he used them.
Then—less than a minute after they’d arrived—point defenses came online, arriving along with a softly spoken apology from Lenka that she hadn’t fired them up sooner.
Alex was surrounded by a light tac-tac-tac as miniscule packets of energy launched forth to take out some of the more dense, smaller threats.
“Shields rising. Condition stabilizing."
And it was.
They were working together, and it was keeping them in a better state than any of them could have managed alone.
A moment later, the bigger guns momentarily flickered, and the largest nearby asteroids vanished in waves of blue fire.
A simple lesson from the first jump but an important one. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that this was supposed to be a tutorial, and other times—like this—it became far more evident.
Alex was having to maneuver less and less, so he was able to process the second part of what Natasha had sent over.
Coordinates to the closest ‘trove.’
He smiled, turning his previously frantic maneuvers into an arcing trajectory in that direction, not needing any skill to see that she’d highlighted one of the larger clusters of tumbling space-rock near at hand.
Interestingly, it wasn’t the nearest large one—not by a fair margin—so blind mining likely wouldn’t have allowed them to find this one either.
She was the right choice for that position. He recalled that while she had a huge range with her skill in terms of a city, in space? It would have been incredibly limited without the connection and augmentation through the ship.
He kept in flight mode as they moved ahead, point-defenses handling the small, dense threats; ripples of fire obliterating the larger free-flying issues; and Alex simply piloting the ship around what little remained, being the biggest and medium sized asteroids.
“Starting the next spin up.” Alex said, knowing the others would hear him. There was no reason to waste time. After all, it wasn’t like they had to jump the instant the drive was ready.
It took nearly half an hour to navigate through the debris, which felt like a short span, but given that such was half the time it had taken them to cross half the last system?
Yeah, it was glacial.
Alex let his training take over and instinctively brought them into a holding pattern near something that looked a bit like a tumbling, churning, glittering mountain. It wasn’t the only bit of rock that glittered, but that was one of its most distinctive features.
That done, he moved into bridge mode, and jerked slightly.
Everyone was staring at him.
“What?”
Pilar’s eyebrow was twitching. “You jumped us into a death-trap.”
Alex frowned. “Hey, now. First off, we survived just fine. Secondly, I just got us close to where we needed to mine.”
He let that statement stand, trying to subtly gauge the other’s reactions.
When John raised an eyebrow, Alex sighed. “Fine. I’m not a Navigator. I did the best I could. We’re in the right system after all.”
Kaylee sighed in turn, chuckling. “All in favor of me spending what upgrades I have for more precise jumps instead of faster?”
Everyone signalled their assent.
Kaylee then quickly qualified. “This will only be about a five percent improvement at this stage, mind you.”
There was some grumbling, but no one changed their opinion.
Alex let out a long breath. “Man, that was… a bit stressful.”
Bev chuckled from her station in the back of the bridge. “You better get used to it, Helmsman. Piloting a drop-ship will be much more… stressful.”
Alex snorted. “Yeah, yeah.”
He glanced around and found confusion on the other Initiate’s faces.
“The drop ship, on Dorgon?” he prompted.
No comprehension.
“We already talked about this before the scenario. We said that we were going to take a ship to the planet, then drop on the planet, and fight in close.”
Natasha grunted, clearly remembering that part at the very least.
Alex had a sinking feeling. “So… when I was offered incentives to agree to do what we’d already decided to do?” He shrugged. “I negotiated and accepted.”
He gave a bit of a sheepish smile, realizing that he seemed to have made a few assumptions.
“So… You might want to do that too. It might be advantageous to wait, but I’m really not sure.”
Bev had a wry smile, and she took a moment to explain generally what was being offered and that it would be a bit different for each position and skillset. She was clearly happy to make the pitch as was her role as the senior Imperium official on board.
Alex comforted himself with the fact that it had been her job to tell the others… Still, he could—and probably should—have informed them himself earlier.
Regardless, it took less than five minutes for all the others to schedule their times to chat with Bev—for those without appointments already on the docket—and Alex made sure to emphasize the bio-clean-up to each of them, earning another set of flat stares.
Yeah… I dropped the ball on informational sharing… He sighed. What’s done was done, and he could only move forward.
Thankfully, despite the mild grumpiness, no one was actually angry. After all, this scenario was less than a day into its span.
There was time.
Finally, Audry interjected, “While you all take care of things you really should already have handled, I’m going to get to mining.” She rubbed her hands together. “From the looks of this—and considering our last haul—we’ll finance our taxes for this mission within the week! Everything else will be pure profit.”
Alex opened his mouth in confusion, but then, the information slotted into his mind from the System provided training.
The Imperium treated ships as separate entities, responsible for their own maintenance and required to pay the Imperium for the privilege of operating within its borders. In return, the Imperium coordinated various fleet movements and had generous payouts for various completed missions.
That included duty stations for Imperium security that functioned a lot more like Alex assumed most militaries worked. In this case, however, every assignment was voluntary—with very rare exceptions, such as their obligation to come to Dorgon’s aid—with the most dangerous or difficult missions paying significantly better, thus often being the most sought after.
As to why it was done this way?
Well, from the training Alex hadn’t actually had, it was because most people lived for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and any sort of ‘mandatory’ service that was overly controlling didn’t tend to sit well with powerhouses as they got ever stronger through the centuries.
All that to say, they’d have to pay their ‘operation’ tax upon arrival at Dorgon, and while that was greatly reduced due to the mandate on their participation, it was not waived.
Alex sighed. Of course not. That would be too easy.
Something tickled his memory from his recent training, and he pointedly did not try to remember specifics. Still, he recalled that whatever they earned here would have to be paid out in some way by someone, so this ‘tax’ was likely also a way to reduce those costs in the end as well.
Regardless, his task was done for the moment. So, he checked with Bev, and they still had their planned meeting.
Juba also sent him a message, confirming their next spar was to be when he finished up with Bev.
Alex smiled, disconnecting from his duty station. It was going to be a full day.
It didn’t take him long to return to the med-bay, and Bev was already there… as made sense. “This is your duty station, isn’t it?”
She gave him a puzzled look. “Of course it is.”
He chuckled. “Just checking. So? What do you recommend for my other augmentation?”
“Well.” She smiled, diving right into it. “To start, let’s consider mechanical integration: Bones are levers; muscles are the engines. Enhanced bones—in this case, we’ve made them stronger, a bit heavier, and more biologically useful to the rest of your body—are wasted without proportionally stronger muscles to generate force against them. Super-strong bones with normal muscles will likely yield only marginal gains, but you’ve already seen that. Conversely, improved muscles on normal bones would have risked fractures and tears. Pairing the two augmentations creates the potential for true super-strength, speed, leverage, and durability.”
Alex nodded, leaning back a little and settling in for what seemed a bit like a scripted info-dump.
“Let’s not forget the blood-marrow synergy: Muscles are the body's largest consumer of oxygen, glucose, and nutrients. Enhanced marrow like you’ve elected for—higher red blood cell production, better oxygen-carrying capacity, faster immune response, improved clotting factors—directly supports sustained high-output muscle activity, rapid recovery, and resistance to fatigue and lactic acid buildup.
“During intense activity or injury, muscles signal the marrow. As such, enhanced muscles could drive more efficient blood cell production and mobilization on demand.”
Alex grunted. He hadn’t considered that aspect of things.
“Now, let’s consider healing: Muscles have good regenerative capacity. Paired with enhanced marrow and strong bones, you would get dramatically faster repair of strains, fractures, and micro-damage.” She smiled. “And remember, this is all improvement to your base state, before stats come into play to supercharge that foundation. This means that wounds to your bones will have lower cost to heal, maybe dramatically so as you advance. This choice would include your muscles in that improvement.”
Alex found himself nodding along.
“So, this triad—bones, marrow, and muscle—forms the core of the musculoskeletal system, which underpins nearly all physical performance, protection, and metabolic demand.” She shifted back, giving him a long look before continuing. “That said, it isn’t the only reasonable option. Cardiovascular and respiratory systems are both excellent runner-ups. Enhanced blood from your altered marrow means better delivery and oxygenation. Stronger heart and more efficient lungs with improved-blood? That would mean extreme endurance and explosive power. However, this is more ‘supportive’ than foundational when compared to muscles.”
Alex… still liked that idea. He liked it a lot.
Bev smiled, seeing his continued interest. “We’re not done yet. Your nervous system—especially motor neurons, neuromuscular junctions, and those parts for proprioception—are utterly critical for control. Augmented-muscles and bones without faster, denser neural wiring could lead to clumsiness or injury. Augmented neurology, in contrast, enhances precision, reaction time, and the learning of new movements.”
He hadn’t considered that potential pitfall. Could he fill that gap simply by upping his Agility Stats?
Bev cleared her throat, drawing his attention back. “Then, we have the endocrine system and metabolic regulators—liver, thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, and such. Optimizing hormone balance, nutrient partitioning, and energy production would fuel the enhanced tissue long-term, and work to prevent burnout or imbalance.
“Connective tissue and fascia are often overlooked but also vital. They transmit force, store elastic energy, and reduce injury risk between muscle and bone.” The medical officer leaned back, clearly done with what she had to say up front. “Oh, skin is a popular thought, but most skin augmentations on their own effectively make it feel like you’re in too tight leathers. In case you were considering that one.”
It was funny, much of what she’d said came across like a script of some sort, but he supposed it didn’t really matter, so long as it helped him choose. In that vein, he grimaced. “So, muscles are likely the best choice, but honestly? I’d be concerned for the connective tissues’… endurance.”
She nodded in understanding. “I can understand that. For you? I would aim for a ‘fast-twitch’ enhancement rather than one focused on raw power. It would still put strain on the tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissue, but it would be less, and what damage did occur would more easily be healed than if you focused purely on power.”
He grunted. “What about balance? Meaning my sense of balance.”
Bev shrugged. “Much of that would be neurological, but there are some pretty cheap enhancements to do with inner ears that are often taken by pilots, helmsmen, and zero-G combatants. We could do that instead, but it would be among the cheaper things to buy with your pay or merit, or to earn through some other task.” She chuckled. “That one’s cheap enough that it’s often just given to those who volunteer for zero-G, manned missions.”
He grunted and considered. This was turning out to be a far more nuanced decision that he’d have guessed, if he were being honest. He glanced toward Bev with a thought. “I have an Attribute for my bones… How likely is it for me to be able to expand it to include other systems? Or to gain one for other parts of my biology.”
She seemed to give the question some serious thought. “Expanding it? Not likely. You’ve already upgraded it once, and nothing in any option nudged its scope outward even marginally. As to other attributes? Possible… but even if you could get other attributes as your question implies, you’d be starting to struggle with the weight on your race.”
He frowned at that. “What?”
She gave him a puzzled look. “You know that your class advancement is heavily dependent on the rarity and power of your skills and spells, right?”
“Yeah…?”
“Well, your race is similarly tied to your attributes.”
Alex’s eyes widened. Well, racially charged logic problems…
“You didn’t know…” She sighed. “What do they even teach in the Academy these days?” Bev rubbed her temples and groaned. “Alright. First, remember that weak attributes are easy to pick up. As I said, you can even pick up negative ones through various paths. Just like skills and spells can hold back classes, underdeveloped attributes can hold back your race advancement.” She gave a rueful smile. “It’s one reason that negative attributes are so toxic. You basically have to develop them or you’re crippling your race, but doing so increases their detraction.”
“Yeah, you just said that.” He hesitated before amending. “Or at least part of it.”
“But you aren’t hearing it. You need to push your attributes as high as possible, or you’ll get stuck in this tier. No one wants to be level capped, and while it’s possible to overcome having a single class that’s under-tiered or more common than others, your race will lock you out of advancement in its entirety.”
Alex groaned. “Of course… Nothing’s ever a pure benefit.”
She gave a small smile at that. “True enough. What’s the grunt saying? I’d be grateful for all this ammo if it weren’t so heavy?”
Alex huffed a laugh. “That’s a new one on me, but I can see it.”
He groaned, rubbing at his own temples. He had eight attributes, and the ability to gain more. Three legged dogs, he’d been planning on getting more.
He glanced at her in hope. “You said that attributes could be combined?”
She shrugged. “That’s right, if you happen to have compatible ones.”
“How do I know?”
Her grin was full of humor. “If they will combine.”
He gave her a flat look.
She chuckled. “Fine. Get them to an equivalent advancement and max out their level. Then, you should get the option to combine them in a unified upgrade, if they’re compatible.” After a moment, she added. “Some things become compatible at later advancements, and it is generally believed that the more advanced that separate attributes are when combined the more powerful and useful their combined result will be. If you can combine two attributes at ‘Basic’ then so long as you don’t purposely diverge them, they should be able to be unified at every level above that.”
Alex nodded slowly. “Understood. Thank you.”
She smiled. “That's why I’m here. So? What do you want to have done?”
He grimaced, but then had a thought. “I’m not sure what your scans showed, but if my Physical Fortitude is 50% higher than my Physical Power, does that affect your recommendation? Physical Agility is even higher.”
Her eyes widened a bit. “Honestly, yes, though you’ll want more pervasive spread augments before that ratio levels out too much.”
He nodded again, gesturing for her to continue.
“With stats like that, muscles become the clear and obvious choice. How’s your Mental Agility?”
“It’s my highest Mental stat, but still below Physical Agility.”
She nodded. “Neurology could be very helpful, but I think muscular will be best. Especially if you go with the Blood Basher set. It’s meant to mesh with the bone template you used, and if we do the bio-clean-up after? You’ll likely get close to twenty-five percent of the connective tissue enhancement just by the magics trying to level out your physiology… maybe close to ten percent of the neurological as well, but probably less.”
That… was a pretty good point. He frowned though. “Wait… I thought you knew my stats.”
She shook her head. “I don't. I can see many parts of a stat-sheet—though less of yours—but I cannot see specific stats without explicit permission, and it’s rude to ask. I can see if you’re out of balance, but mostly, I deal with the foundation that we’re working on now. Beyond that, the stats are a more personal matter.”
He grunted. It seemed a bit odd and backward to him, but he supposed he was still new to all this. “Alright. Let’s do it.”
She nodded, then gave him a shrewd look. “Unconscious?”
He laid down without hesitation. “Oh, absolutely.”