Chương 269: Volume 2 - Chapter 84 - Administrative Tasks

To: Private Ash Ellia 👍 Message from: Private Ash Ellia 👌 (Friendlink request accepted.) To: Corporal Drim Litec"You owe me that other Class Ability! I was stuck guarding a dead-fucking-post, Drim! NOTHING happened on the eastern front the entire damn time! I wanna see Duke go full-power mode! Add me, and we run it back soon! You owe me that!" Message from: Corporal Drim Litec"I'd like to point out how I'm a drastically higher rank than you at this point in time… But what's the point? It's been a pleasure, Thea.

Duke loved your ear-rubs quite a bit. We'll gladly run it back in the future, but keep in mind that boring assignments and waiting around is essentially 99% of what any real Battlefield will look like as well. Don't get cocky out there, kid." (Friendlink request accepted.) To: Private Seltz Jackson"Your movement was quite interesting to look at when we made our way up to the outpost. I'd appreciate some more opportunity to take a closer look—maybe get some pointers from you in the future?"

Message from: Private Seltz Jackson"It's not my job to teach Recruits the basics. Take the [Advanced Stealth] Skill Training." (Friendlink request declined.) To: Corporal Vytali Koval"We didn't get much of a chance to talk during the DM, but I was very interested in your Build! I'd appreciate the chance to group up again and maybe exchange some ideas.

The benefits of befriending me are manifold: I have a 2-star Medal, so upscales are more likely when I'm included, netting more Contribution Points, Credits and Merit for the time spent in each. I am also a proficient Scout/Sniper, as well as a fledgeling Psyker, that can break Stealth/Illusion tech and Abilities with my Powers. Furthermore, I bring quite a bit of firepower, especially against the Stellar Republic, as my Psychic Powers also allow me to accurately pick out Duplicators from a crowd of enemies.

Please consider it." From: Corporal Vytali Koval"Was this written by an AI…? I have no problem befriending you, Recruit Thea. It was a pleasure to work with you, brief as it was. Competent Recruits are a rarity and I see no reason to deny. I look forward to upscaled missions in the future—if we get lucky, yes?" (Friendlink request accepted.) 4 Friendlink requests successfully sent. 0 requested Friendlinks found. Full Friendlink Update completed.

(Excerpt from: Friendlink Update of Recruit Thea McKay after Malthezar Oranis Digital Mission, UHF Digital Mission Archives, PFC943) ====== ====== Thea found herself back in front of the DMD's datascreen, after her short post-mission conversation with the Sovereign.

'Three out of four, at least,' she thought, turning over the Friendlink results in her head.' Could've been a lot worse. Shame about Seltz—Really would've liked to get a proper look at how he does what he does up close. But at least now I've got something concrete to aim for, I guess. [Advanced Stealth] is going on the priority list… Not like it wasn't already there, but it's moving up!'

She started walking back to the Alpha Squad dorms, but as she did so, figured she might as well get the rest of the administrative tasks out of the way that were waiting for her. Mainly: System Notifications.

'Been a while since I actually sat down with the System properly.' She pulled it up and let the notifications scroll through. [System]: You have successfully completed Faction Mission "Malthezar Oranis Assault: Point Assault". [System]: Notice: Contribution Point rewards omitted, as the Participant is already at the Threshold. Contribution Point rewards will continue once Tier-Up is completed. [System]: You have received 45 System Merit and 130 System Credits.

(Mission) [System]: You have received 12 System Merit and 68 System Credits. (Combat) [System]: You have received 88 System Merit and 245 System Credits. (Objectives)"Wow," she muttered.

"That's really not a lot. Is that what a normal DM payout actually looks like?"

"Technically, you received more than the average Marine would have for the same mission," the Sovereign's monotone voice suddenly replied next to her ear.

"Your participation level during the first phase of the mission placed you quite far above the standard bracket. The average Marine would have received roughly one fourth to one fifth of your Objective-based payout, and less on the Combat side as well."" Damn …" That was really all there was to say about that. She turned her attention back to the Interface and let the rest of the notifications continue scrolling. [System]: Psychic Reversal has reached Level 2. [System]: Sensory Overdrive has reached Level 10.

[System]: Quick Draw has reached Level 2. [System]: Focus Retention has reached Level 2. [System]: Focus Capacitor has reached Level 2. [System]: Major Alterations unlocked for Abilities: [Sensory Overdrive] Thea's eyes snapped to the last line and went wide.

'Riiight—! I completely forgot that was coming up!' She felt her heart rate kick up immediately, excitement bubbling up fast.

'Finally… Actual Build decisions. It's been way too long—show me what you've got, System!' She navigated to the Abilities section of her Profile without wasting another second and pulled up the [Major Alterations] screen for [Sensory Overdrive]. [Active (Silver) - Sensory Overdrive | α - Level 10] Description: Allows the participant to use up a certain amount of Focus to drastically heighten their own Perception and mental capabilities for a short time.

Minor Alteration α: At the end of the active duration, gradually decreases the Perception bonus to zero, instead of abruptly falling off. Cost: 50 Focus - Factor: 500% -> 1, 000% - Effect Duration: 0. 5 -> 1. 00 seconds - α Duration: 0. 1 -> 0. 2 seconds Growth: Factor+50% Duration+0. 05 αDuration+0. 1s/10lvl [Major Alterations: Sensory Overdrive] [Sensory Overdrive - Focus]: The Perception increase is no longer applied to the entirety of the Participant's Perception equally.

Instead, it is focused on a singular sense, applying the full effect to that particular one: Sight, Touch, Hearing, Smell. [Sensory Overdrive - Burst]: When the Effect Duration expires, enemies within a short range suffer a Perception penalty proportional to the Participant's active Factor for the same Effect Duration. Range: 5m + 0. 5m/lvl [Sensory Overdrive - Toggle]: The Ability becomes a toggle with no Effect Duration, instead draining Focus passively while active.

The effect is permanent until the user runs out of Focus or deactivates it manually. The Toggle Interval is 0. 5s. Cost: 20 Focus [Sensory Overdrive - Charge]: The Ability becomes free to use, once every 24 hours. [Sensory Overdrive - Major Alterations Re-roll (0/3 Used)]: Currently available Major Alterations will be discarded. A new set of Major Alterations will be presented to the Participant.

Cost: 500 System Merit There were a lot of thoughts hitting Thea at once as she looked over the list, but the loudest one by a significant margin was surprise.

'There's a Re-roll system for Major Alterations?! What the fuck…' She cupped her chin mid-walk, and took a slower look at what was actually on offer.

'Okay… None of them increase the cost. That's probably the System doing that thing the Professors mentioned—adjusting the options to fit the user. It already knows I'm running low on Focus constantly, so it didn't bother offering me anything that made that worse. That's very good. Means I can't really make a genuinely bad call here, at least.' She barely registered any of the walk.

By the time she was already moving through the corridors close to the Alpha Squad dorms, she was fully running on autopilot, her attention still mostly inside the Interface.

'The Focus one is interesting,' she thought, scrolling back to it.' Mostly because I've barely ever used anything other than Sight with [Sensory Overdrive] so far to begin with—which is something I probably need to fix going forward.... But if I just take this and cut the overhead on the other senses anyway… assuming it works the way I think it does, that's effectively a 3x multiplier on top of the Perception boost I'm already getting on Sight alone if I focus it there…

That's an absolutely ridiculous amount, what the fuck?'

But that wasn't the only tempting option on the list, of course.

'Burst sounds really fun for sparring with Ela,' she thought with a devious smile she couldn't quite hide.' A Perception-bomb right over the head might actually be enough to land a hit on her for once—and if I can land a hit on Ela with that, I can probably beat anyone up close with it. It's a one-trick kind of upgrade… but it's a really, really good trick.'

She'd made it back to her room by the time she'd gone through the full list for the fifth time, reading each option carefully—the exact wording mattered with the System, and she wasn't going to skim something this important.

Which was why "Toggle" was sitting at the top of her datapad, she had opened to keep track of her thoughts, as the current frontrunner.

"Toggle seems stupidly strong, doesn't it," she muttered, pulling up the description again.

"It directly lowers the cost of [Sensory Overdrive] for at least the next five Levels before the original version winning out on that front again—but that's almost secondary to the other part.' The effect is permanent until…' That means it can't be dispelled, as long as I have it active and don't trigger either of the two "if" clauses to get rid of it. That's probably the strongest part of the whole upgrade by a wide margin." She paused, pacing a slow loop around her room.

"Still wouldn't help me if I don't have it active before something hits me with a restricting effect… but that's a small caveat. Overall it's just really, really good." She scrolled to the next one inside her own mind.

"Charge is the ' I like what I already have, just make it better' option, for sure," she said.

"Which is honestly very fair. I do like [Sensory Overdrive] as it is—so there's no real downside to taking it. Less flashy than the others, but the non-flashy options are usually the right ones… And having it be free once a day would make leveling it a lot easier too—I'd stop rationing it for emergencies and just use it daily, every day, without thinking about it. Get it to Level 20 faster." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. She tilted her head slightly.

"Not that I'm in a rush on that specifically. But still… Worth factoring in at least to a small degree." She dropped into the grav-chair and set it rocking, the way she always did when she was working something through.

"The real question is whether any of these are actually great, or whether I should risk a re-roll," she said to the ceiling.

"Re-rolling might get me something better. But it might also just land me with whatever the System already filtered out—the cost-increase options, for example…" She tilted her head back slightly.

"Sovereign, are Major Alteration re-rolls worth it?"

"They have been known to produce more unconventional options than what is initially presented," the ship's AI replied immediately.

"Whether they are worthwhile depends on the individual and their specific build intentions." Thea rolled her eyes.

'Not really the AI's fault it doesn't have much to go on for something like this,' she figured.

"Thanks, Sov," she said anyway.

"Alright. Time to actually crunch the numbers properly and figure out which one wins. I'll start with—" The door chiming interrupted her.

"Recruit Sylarion is at the door, Thea," the Sovereign offered helpfully. Thea's brows pulled together—and then her eyes went wide as she checked the clock.

"Fuck! I'm coming, Corvus, one second!" she called through the door, already moving toward the wardrobe.' Clean uniform, medals…!' Alpha Squad had agreed to go check the Public Leaderboard's opening together, which meant Dress Uniform—or as close as any of them could get to one until they were actually issued proper ones. The Alteration decision was going to have to wait until after… PoV: Major Zephyr Quinn"Remember the rules," Zephyr said, giving the three men in the room a sharp look."

Nothing goes out until the Sovereign's been gone for at least four hours. You do not want me coming back here because someone got impatient. Four hours after we're gone. Are we clear?" All three directors nodded—hard enough that she was mildly concerned for their necks. She let them sit under her gaze for a few more seconds, then slid the datashards across the table, one in front of each of them.

"Pleasure as always, gentlemen," she said, and got up and left before they could do anything more than shout a surprised amalgamation of "Likewise, Major/Proprietor!" at her back… On her way back to the Sovereign, fresh out of the broadcasting headquarters of Kovalsk Station, Zephyr found herself quietly laughing.

"Haa… I really wish I could be there when it goes live," she murmured.

"What kind of chaos is this Drive going to cause in the Inner and Core Regions, I wonder? It'll be absolute pandemonium…" The idea of every stuck-up career-politician and self-appointed military analyst completely losing their minds over a Cyan Undercity Midworlder sitting at the very top of the UHF's Recruit Assessment Leaderboards was deeply satisfying to her. The mountain of paperwork that would inevitably follow was significantly less so.

'If only I could go back to just worrying about my own problems,' she sighed internally. It had been decades since she'd taken the role of Proprietor. If she'd known back then that the vast majority of the job would turn out to be reading and filing reports, she probably would have—"No… I still would've done it. The UHF needs me here, doing exactly this. Even if I hate it." What she definitely didn't hate, though, was the current Recruitment Drive. Quite the opposite.

"Things haven't been this exciting in forever…" If a little extra paperwork—or a lot, given the presence of the Emperor-damned Harbinger's kid—was the price she had to pay for that? Worth it. Absolutely worth it. She boarded the shuttle that would take her back to the Sovereign and looked out the window as it pulled away from the station, letting her eyes settle on their new escorts.

The three ships Horatio had requested during one of their emergency meetings about the Harbinger's kid had finally arrived, and not a moment too soon. With confirmation having just been submitted via the galaxy-wide broadcasting station, that there really was a Titanicus-level Void-entity operating somewhere in the Sector-cluster, having a triplet of escorts alongside them put her mind considerably more at ease.

She let her gaze drift over the hulls—taking in the scale of them, the clean lines that only a proper UHF warship ever really managed to get right.

"Nobody can deny that they're gorgeous, can they…" The Fanged Viper sat closest to the Sovereign's current position, and even at distance it was immediately clear why it had earned its name. It was the smallest of the three—Frigate-class, as Zephyr knew from the look of it alone. It was lean and angular in the way that purpose-built warships tended to be when nobody had wasted a single meter of hull space on anything that didn't contribute to killing something.

Its profile was long and tapered, the nose coming to a pronounced forward edge that split the visual line of the ship like a blade, the rest of the hull sweeping back in clean, flowing angles—nothing hard that could potentially snag projectiles. The gray of its plating was slightly matte, with the characteristic purple accents of the UHF Navy's colour scheme appearing along the recessed paneling near the mid-section, tucked into the channels between hull plates where weapons fire was unlikely to ever reach.

And there were, Zephyr noted with some appreciation, a lot of weapon systems visible. Numerous turrets were placed along the dorsal and ventral lines with overlapping fields of coverage that made approaching the Fanged Viper from any angle seem like a genuinely bad idea, while larger cannon housings further back along the mid-hull were obviously built for a different weight class of problem entirely.

PDW mounts clustered across the flanks in dense groupings, each one on an independent housing—a layered close-range defence. But the two massive turrets at the fore were the part that truly held her attention—as it would anyone's. Heavy and deliberately placed on the upper hull, each one housing a pair of massive railgun barrels long enough to fundamentally change the ship's silhouette around them.

The turret housings were thicker than most of the surrounding hull sections entirely, reinforced hard at the base—specifically designed for the recoil management systems underneath, as Zephyr knew—and the barrels extended well past the ship's forward edge.

'Pretty little thing,' she thought, in the way she'd always found purpose-built warships pretty. Compact, capable of annihilating her enemies, and completely uninterested in being anything other than exactly what it was. Her eyes moved over towards the second ship of the bunch. The Valiant Radiance was a different kind of beast entirely, and it very much showed.

Where the Fanged Viper was all tapered aggression, the Valiant Radiance was wide —noticeably, almost stubbornly wide, which broke the usual visual logic of UHF ship design. Zephyr had always found Auxiliary-class ships slightly odd to look at for exactly this reason. Every other ship in the Navy kept itself long and narrow by necessity—minimise the attack angle, keep the mass manageable for hard manoeuvres and present as small a target as possible.

Auxiliary-class ships, however, had looked at that logic and decided their job was different enough to ignore almost all of that. The result was something that read as almost square from certain angles, the hull expanding laterally in a way that no combat-oriented ship would ever allow itself to. Same deep gray plating, same purple accents in the same protected recesses—but the overall impression wasn't "predator," or "warmachine".

It was more like a wall—something specifically built to absorb, to deny, to sit between whatever was coming and whatever it was protecting and simply refuse to move. The weapon systems, if they could even be called that, made that philosophy very clear. Micro-rocket silos in long, orderly rows across the upper and lower hull faces—Zephyr caught herself mentally calculating the volley capacity before she stopped herself.

"Old habits…" She muttered, shaking her head with a chuckle. The innumerable laser batteries mounted in clusters along the wide flanks were clearly not designed for ship-to-ship work. They were anti-ordnance systems. They were meant for missiles, for torpedoes, for whatever an enemy decided to throw at the thing the Valiant Radiance was assigned to protect—and the sheer density of them across the hull suggested that whatever came in was going to have a very hard time arriving in one piece.

She didn't know the exact loadout beyond that. Nobody would, except the crew and whatever desk at Command had signed the assignment. Auxiliary-class ships were built to spec and then kept changing over their service lives, and no two were ever identical by the time they'd been in service long enough to matter. What she did know—what she could reasonably assume given the very specific circumstances of Horatio's request—was that somewhere inside that wide, stubborn hull there was Anti-Void-Breach technology.

Current-generation, most likely. Because Horatio hadn't simply asked for an escort without understanding exactly what this particular escort needed to be able to do: Being able to delay enemy ships from jumping in on your location mid-engagement. It was the difference between a fighting retreat and being simply overwhelmed. Whoever was commanding the Valiant Radiance understood that, Zephyr had no doubt.

'Not the prettiest ship I've ever seen,' she thought, watching it sit solid and unmoving in the dark.' But I'm very glad you're here, girl…' Then, finally, there was the Black Sword, and Zephyr took a moment—as she always did with ships of that size—to just let the scale land properly before she tried to assess anything else. The Sovereign itself was not a small ship.

She knew its dimensions well enough by now that she'd stopped consciously registering them, the way you stopped noticing the size of a building you worked in every day.

The Black Sword, however, made the Sovereign look like it was still figuring out what it wanted to be when it grew up. The Destroyer-class hull stretched out across her view in one long, ridged line, the forward section narrowing into a reinforced prow that led back to the spine of the ship without interruption—one unbroken structure from nose to stern.

Same gray, same purple accents in the same protected channels, but the sheer surface area of the hull gave even the restrained colour scheme a presence that neither of the other two ships could ever truly hope to match. Long stretches of deep gray, and then those precise lines of purple running along the mid-hull channels, visible even at this distance—' It's beautiful…' And then there was the Annihilator-cannon housing, running the entire upper ridge of the ship's spine…

She'd seen spinal-mount Destroyers before, of course, but it wasn't the kind of thing you ever quite got used to. The sheer scale of it all was simply too impressive to truly comprehend, even for her.

The housing itself defined the Black Sword's profile from roughly a third of the way back from the prow all the way to the aft section—a long, raised channel of reinforced plating and heat-management architecture that announced the ship's primary purpose to anyone looking at it, clearly and without the slightest hint of apology.

The firing mechanism itself ran through the structural core rather than sitting exposed on the hull, as Zephyr very much knew from touring several of these beasts over her service time, but the housing made the visual point just as effectively.

'Built to punch through Heavy Cruiser armour at range,' she thought with awe. Then she started chuckling as she quietly added, ' And then somebody realized they'd need a way to actually move the weapon to get it into a position where it can be useful, and maybe protect it a little on the way there...' Most spinal mounted ships of its make were Heavy Destroyers by now—reclassified after years of upgrades and additions had changed what they were fundamentally.

The Black Sword, however, had stayed as it was, and looking at it, Zephyr found she was very glad that someone had made that call. There was a clarity to the design that she suspected heavier modification would have ruined.' Can't only field Heavy Destroyers… You need something more mobile too, at times. Just like we don't only field Heavies on the ground-based Battlefields either. Sometimes you need your lightly armoured scouts to take out a priority target.'

For any enemy fleet grouping unlucky enough to cross its path the math was going to be straightforward with the Black Sword around: You didn't engage it if you had any choice in the matter. And if you didn't have a choice, you hoped the first shot went wide. From everything she knew about the ship's service record, however, it didn't go wide often. She sighed quietly as the shuttle banked into one of the Sovereign's hangar bays, the view of the escort ships sliding out of frame as the hull closed in around them.

'I should see about getting an observation post for a proper space engagement after this Drive wraps up,' she thought.' It's been far too long since I've watched these ships actually do what they were built for…' Now back inside the Sovereign, Zephyr knew well enough that the break was over.

"Sovereign, how long until the Public Leaderboards go live?"

"Approximately eighteen minutes, Major," the ship replied immediately.

'Just enough time to knock out some of the other busywork, then.'

"Sovereign, use Kovalsk Station to patch me through for a live call with the Executive Editor of Aquila Prime News Network," she said, already moving through the corridor toward her office.

"Blow up his place if he doesn't accept the call right away— figuratively. No actual explosives. Just… Make sure he knows he really doesn't want to miss this call." She'd have to be back inside the DDS before the Leaderboards went live regardless. It was the kind of thing the face of a Recruitment Drive didn't get to skip—show up for the moments that mattered, make sure the Recruits felt the weight of what they'd earned. It was a small thing, in the grand scheme of everything else currently sitting on her desk.

But small things had a way of mattering more than they looked like they should, though. She'd learned that one the hard way, a long time ago.

"You're connected," the Sovereign said. A beat of silence, then a groggy voice in her ear.

"H—Hello?"

"Vega," Zephyr said, warm and easy.

"It's Zephyr."

"Z—Zephyr…?" The slow, half-asleep repetition of someone trying to place a name through the fog of being woken up at an inconvenient hour.

'Three, two, one…'

"Z—Zephyr!" The volume jumped sharply, followed by a series of heavy thuds from the other end of the line and a muffled, pained "—Ouch, Emperor's balls —!" She gave him a moment to collect himself.

"Major Quinn." His voice came back through smoothed over and professionally warm, the grogginess tucked away where it wouldn't show. Still there though, if you knew to listen for it.

"It's good to hear from you. It's been... difficult, getting through to anyone at the UHF recently. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"I'm a mere Major, Vega. I wouldn't know anything about anything," she said, and allowed herself to smile at the rough chuckle that came back.

"Now—I'd love to catch up properly, but I'm short on time, so I'll get straight to it: The UHF has reviewed your agency's offer and we'll accept. Roughly one month out—exact date to follow once we're closer. Exclusive interview with Thea McKay. I'll be present." A sharp intake of breath.

"T—Thea? Who is—Oh! The Recruit?! Is that her name? They're a she, yes?"

"Good day, Mister Hunn," Zephyr simply said, and cut the call. She laughed to herself as she walked into her office and started pulling off her uniform and clothes, folding them away neatly, "Always a pleasure doing business." It was high time for her to get back into the DDS, and back to her Drive…