He looked around and then at Jason.
“Where did that ute go?” Woolzy asked. “That’s pretty short-lived for a conjured vehicle.”
42
NOT THE MONSTER
“Here’s the situation,” Koen said through voice chat. “The ADEs are river hydras. Big ones. Lots of regeneration, lots of poison, lots of heads. We’ve got two that are ideally placed. Far enough apart that we can take them on separately but close enough that we can take out one and intercept the other before it gets near the camp. The other one is more of a problem. It lies on the other side of the camp and seems to be moving in that direction.”
“What’s the approach?” one of the silver-ranked section leaders asked.
“We’re going to need both platoons to hammer our way through all that regeneration, even with fire powers to slow it down,” Koen said. “All sections will meet up at the designated rendezvous point. The camp will need to fend for itself against whatever else comes its way and I’ve already issued orders for the camp to withdraw from the incursion space.”
“What about the other ADE?” Nigel asked.
“We have two options for that,” Koen said. “Option one is we carve off some of our forces to stall it, buying time for the camp to fully extract. I do not like this option, since it diminishes our strength and distances the second group from the healers. Both of those factors will increase the chance of casualties, given that these things spew clouds of category-three poison gas. I don’t want to lose anyone today.”
“What’s option two?” another of the section leaders asked.
There was a pause, as if Koen was reluctant to say.
“It’s probably a worse choice,” Koen said finally. “Asano, how strong are you? No flexing, no bullcrap. Honest assessment. How good are you, really?”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Nigel said.
“Asano,” Koen said, “you took on a category-three essence user alone.”
“He lost,” Nigel said.
“Do you think you’re strong enough to stall out the other ADE?” Koen asked.
“Koen,” Nigel said, “you can’t be serious.”
“By which you mean Director of Tactical Operations Koen, right, Nigel?” Koen asked. “We may not be in the military anymore, but there is a chain of command that I will use to beat the English out of you if you interrupt me one more time. Mr Asano, can you do it or not?”
“Director Koen,” Nigel said, his anger held back behind clipped, disciplined speech. “Sir. Mr Culpeper directly and personally ordered me to keep Asano safe and you want to send him into danger.”
“I have complete operational authority for a reason, Section Leader Thornton, because sometimes the man on the ground has to make the call. My current options are to balance casualties in our own forces against casualties in the withdrawing camp against one man that isn’t one of mine.”
“Does the man in question get a say?” Jason asked after letting the two men argue amongst themselves.
“Go ahead, Mr Asano, although let me be clear that Nigel isn’t wrong. I am looking to put you at risk in order to keep my own people safe.”
“I appreciate the candour,” Jason said. “I came here to see what the Network is capable of and I am impressed. I’ve also seen the weaknesses, though. I know how to help you, and now is the time to show you what that means.”
“I don’t want you getting yourself killed in an attempt to raise your value in our eyes,” Koen said. “Unless you’re genuinely confident of surviving, I don’t want you anywhere near that thing.”
“This is the point I’m trying to make,” Jason said. “You need to see that we view these circumstances very differently. This situation might seem exceptional to you, with all these category-three monsters running about, but I have a word for days like today.”
“And what’s that?” Koen asked.
“Tuesday.”
Against Nigel’s protests, Koen sent Jason after the third hydra. His concession was conditional on Jason taking the scout with the strongest sensory powers they had in order to warn him away from critical danger. For that reason, Jason went to the rapidly evacuating camp to pick her up. She was a scout from one of the harvest teams, her stealth only exceeded by her perceptual abilities.
Kylie Chen was bronze rank. While she did have abilities and training that could be turned to combat, she was not a primary combatant. Her skills and abilities were best suited to quietly scouting out potential opportunities for the harvest teams. Her kit included strong perceptual abilities that allowed her to find plants, minerals, and other materials with magical properties.
She had a dark essence, like Jason, and could hide herself even from silver-rank monsters. Although he had been reluctant to bring her along, Jason was less grudging after his own senses couldn’t pick her up until she was almost close enough to touch. The silver-rank assassin from France had not accomplished better.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jason asked her. Around them was a storm of activity as the support teams were evacuating the camp back through the aperture.
“I might not be much help in a fight,” Kylie said, “but I’m confident in not being caught.”
“Alright,” Jason said. “Let’s go.”
They left the camp on foot, Jason getting out of sight before having Shade emerge. He didn’t want the commotion of his familiar taking a monstrous form and disrupting the evacuation. Darkness exploded out of Jason’s shadow, coalescing into a pair of mantis beetles. Jason was experienced at riding this form during his time in another astral space jungle.
“I hope we mix up the environment next time,” Jason muttered to himself as he used his cloak to lightly jump into the saddle. He was surprised at the lack of trepidation from Kylie; she curiously climbed onto the dark carapace of the other beetle and settled herself.
The beetles scurried into jungle too thick for more conventional vehicles, moving swiftly through difficult overgrowth. Sweeping blade-arms opened up otherwise inaccessible pathways. Gordon floated next to Jason, keeping up with the swift beetle by transforming into his nebula state to make rapid dashes. He used his force beams to dispatch any low-rank monsters fast enough to keep up with the beetles or dashed right through them to the same effect.
Twice along the way, they stopped for Jason to deal with bronze-rank monsters. One was a mud elemental that fell to Jason’s sword, while the other was a pack of simian-shaped lizards. They were loaded up with afflictions and quickly handled.
“It’s up ahead,” Kylie announced, showing off the perceptual powers of a scout. Soon after, they heard something large and heavy forcing its way through the jungle. Kylie pulled out a hand camera from a small belt bag.