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Chapter 282: The Difference of Ambition
🕑 Added 2024-08-30 15:11:01 +0000 UTCAn endless expanse of dirt stretched across the interior of the planet, adding another plane to the basics of geography. The subterranean level was essentially undisturbed by anything except a corrosive breeze of mana, though the invaders had been content to temporarily make themselves comfortable with the system’s permission.
The Underlayer wasn’t entirely featureless, but specific characteristics were difficult to distinguish without closer inspection. When compared to the surface, the Underlayer was a completely blank canvas, lacking the effects of weather and erosion, like a freshly plowed and unused field. It was the type of landscape that would put a passenger to sleep if they were on a road trip.
Slight hills rose here and there, contouring to natural fluctuations in the subterranean surface, creating a rolling effect across the boundless stretches of dirt. Insignificant ridges ran across nearly imperceptible channels beneath the soil, bumps that might grow over time persisted, and clods of fresh dirt that naturally stuck together gradually formed fist-sized clumps, increasing one speck of debris at a time.
One of those small clods of dirt exploded into dust as a gleaming beam of light sliced into the soil surface. The light beam solidified as it dragged its summoner across the vast emptiness. Platinum was flying through the Underlayer, heading West with renewed purpose. She had no time to dawdle.
It had already been several days since she met the Champion of Ghost Reef, but his dependable presence was still on her mind. That stupid amount of power had lit a fire within her, having so clearly exposed the extent of her deficiency.
Even with the amplification of strength caused by combination attacks that she and Neon used to ensure their position in Neon Park, they couldn’t hold a candle to what had been demonstrated by Coop. He crashed through armies of invaders like a tsunami, demolished Field Bosses with masterful ease, and crumpled Siege Bosses as if they were discardable sheets of paper. He left nothing behind before he drove forward in search of more. On the other hand, the combined efforts of her entire alliance had left thousands of people defeated in order to accomplish the same feats just one single time.
She was thankful someone with the personality of Coop had been the one to climb so high. The things that motivated people weren’t always so honest, but he was clearly just unwilling to let an alien invasion kill his vibe. Platinum didn’t know what was going on inside his head, and everyone carried their own internal baggage, but Coop’s composure never broke while she observed. He was solely devoted to his cause and seemed to revel in his niche of responsibility, unbending in his urge to grind the enemies into dust and earn himself a vacation.
Coop displayed a level of commitment that Platinum couldn’t claim she had even attempted to reach. To her, it seemed like Coop was shouldering responsibility for all of humanity, while she ran away from anything beyond what Neon could force upon her. She had tricked herself into thinking she was doing her best when she was really burying her head into sand by ignoring anything beyond her immediate challenges.
The fact that Coop was reaching such highs meant that others not only could, but outside of Earth’s assimilation, already had. Platinum felt like she needed to increase her own efforts, because while Coop was content to ask nothing of them, she could easily imagine the demands that would come in the future from alien overlords if not human tyrants.
She needed to climb higher, independent of any relative comparisons to her peers, essentially broadening her horizons. Being a big fish wouldn’t work when their small pond was swallowed up by a galactic ocean. The system’s limitations on the assimilation had caused people like her, who had more potential, to grow complacent. It was weird to consider Neon Park, or even North America as a small pond, but it simply was.
Keeping ahead of the Primal Constructs, who were restricted by the system, wasn’t the end goal for humanity. It was the bare minimum to survive the introductory period of the galactic community. Ghost Reef had wisely set their sights higher.
In a way, Coop was like the breakaway rider in a bike race. The rest of humans on the leaderboard were in the peloton, conserving their energy with the expectation that the leader would exhaust himself. His pace was too extreme to maintain when compared to everyone else. However, now that Platinum had witnessed that leader with her own eyes, she knew he wasn’t slowing down. If anything, he was speeding up, taking advantage of the indolence of others. He was the only one straightforwardly chasing the true potential of humanity.
She had been frustrated by her inability to make a truly meaningful difference in the battles against the Primal Constructs, but she only had herself to blame. If it wasn’t for Neon, she wouldn’t even have done enough to maintain her position as a regional power, let alone become someone, who like Coop, was properly representing their planet.
There was a reason Neon was always sending her off on her own, where she might encounter what she previously viewed as annoying difficulties, but was coming around to the idea of them being genuine opportunities. It wasn’t because he was trying to get rid of her. She looked at all the incomplete quest chains that she had planned to abandon, thinking that was a project she needed to work on once returning to the surface.
With things like the Eradication Protocol and further encounters with hostile alien life on the horizon, they all needed to rise higher. She had to give Coop credit; he had what appeared to be incredible foresight and strength of purpose. Platinum could admit that she had been small-minded, but she was turning a new leaf thanks to his influence. Coop may have come out of the gate sprinting, but she would make him work if he wanted to keep ahead; that was the promise she made to herself as she herself sprinted across the continent.
That’s why, when she reached the Heartland settlement’s control points, she didn’t bypass the idle Primal Constructs that were defending their small strongholds in a sea of otherwise undisturbed dirt. The Heartland was a tiny settlement, and it was well within her capability to secure the objectives. It may have been difficult to do on her own, but it was also an opportunity. Most people might need to return to the surface and start from the beginning, fighting the normal monster variants that occupied tamed settlement territory until they grew strong enough to challenge more advanced enemies, but Platinum was among those that were a step above. The Elites weren’t too far beyond her capacity.
The golem-like Field Boss was her first target as she shot across the surface of dirt. It was a familiar boss enemy that she had already defeated with the help of Alex Nova and the others of the Heartland settlement on the surface. This time, she would face it alone, while it had the backup of 2,500 Elite Primal Constructs.
She tagged the monster with a cascade of solidlights that arced from above as she whipped across the empty expanse. Each beam sliced through the Construct’s body, causing it to lurch in surprise, ready to counterattack, but when the lights solidified, it found itself pinned.
It jerked its body while the Elite Primal Constructs shifted their attention, recognizing that they were under attack by a solitary individual that bore down on them like a silver bullet. The Field Boss desperately tried to free itself, but Platinum slid into range, wielding a reinforced solidlight sword in one hand while using her other to continue summoning an aerial bombardment.
When she landed in the battlefield among the alien enemies, kicking up a wave of dirt, she rushed forward, transitioning the solidlights that would have been propelling her into the deadly projectiles that cut their numbers down. She was already experienced with the weaker variants of the Primal Constructs, and slicing through their formations as they rearranged themselves to defend against her assault was well within her skills. Her weightless light blade sliced through them like they weren’t even there, easily clearing her path while their comrades fell in the backlines.
Her off-hand was repeatedly pointing to the sky, causing more of her store of solidlights to manifest from above and shoot down. The effect was as if a localized meteor shower was concentrated on her surroundings. Beams of light smashed into unaware invaders like shooting stars, coming from an unexpected angle that was difficult to account for under normal circumstances, let alone while she bore down on them. The lights solidified before shattering from within their bodies, giving her spinning sword attacks the cover necessary to be unyielding and aggressive.
Platinum fought like a firework, with a dazzling, bombastic assault that would certainly burn out over time as she exhausted her resources.
Platinum’s swordplay was inelegant, lacking the kind of practice demonstrated by the Champion of Ghost Reef, but that didn’t stop her from wildly swinging at the Elites who had to contend with the aerial bombardment at the same time. If not for the distraction, she would have been outmatched by the more organized parties of invaders.
She took advantage of momentum with her abrupt assault, copying the Champion of Ghost Reef in that way. When she reached the pinned Field Boss, a rising slice bisected the metallic monster, spotlighting her with another of several levels already gained. The rest was just a matter of cleaning up the chaff.
The organized parties of Elite Primal Constructs converged on her, but she vaulted among them, dragging her light sword through their metallic bodies as she dodged forward. Her light shields slammed into the ground, corralling her targets while segregating the ranged attackers into their own pens. From there, she picked them apart, one squad at a time.
By the end, she had exhausted her solidlights, but all four of the control points were hers to claim. 10,000 Elite Primal Constructs and a single Field Boss had fallen to her skills. To someone unaware, it would have seemed amazing. Embarrassingly, Coop would have defeated ten times as many, without using any skills, in the same time frame, and done it with no injuries.
Platinum scoffed at herself, hissing as she tested the welts forming on her limbs where glancing blows had landed, watching as layers of bruises formed around scrapes and cuts. She had gotten the job done and she would be stronger for it, but it was disappointing to be unable to come away unscathed and ready for the next. To immediately seek out the next battle was still firmly within the realm of the Champion of Ghost Reef and no one else. She had to let herself feel satisfied with her much smaller achievement while she let her solidlights regenerate and captured the objectives. The battle had taken her nearly a day.
She didn’t expect to find many other Primal Construct invasions that she could take on at once, but after she left the Heartland behind, the next settlements caught her by surprise. She was too weakened to take on any more battles for the time being, but that didn’t matter when the control points were all already captured, displaying the cool blue of team humanity.
Among the control points of the second settlement she encountered, a temporary camp had formed, full of tanned people dressed vaguely like cowboys. The older men had the kind of weathered faces that came from hard work outdoors underneath the unforgiving sun, completely lacking any hints of beards, and the women turned toward her with discerning eyes behind straight black hair that could have featured in conditioner commercials for all the shininess.
Platinum blew air out of the side of her mouth to separate some split-ends that stuck to her cheek as she walked forward, completely unselfconscious. The groups stood up, one after the other, as they noticed her approaching, and a man in the lead raised both arms up toward the sky, like a double wave, and shouted a greeting.
Platinum returned the wave with just one arm, though she prepared to run, given that she wasn’t sure who this was and she was thoroughly outnumbered. Thankfully, the group held back and only one man walked out to meet her, calmly adjusting his worn cowboy hat as he went. When he stopped, he held the hat against his chest, and Platinum noticed his own silky smooth hair held in a knot with a white wooly tie at the back of his neck, as he tucked his other hand’s thumb into a belt loop.
“Greetings little lady.” He spoke kindly. “Where have you come from?”
“Howdy,” she responded, confidently slipping into conversational ease with the stranger. “I’m from Neon Park - that’s New York. Uh, where am I?” She added, realizing she wasn’t exactly sure. For some reason, the group of people didn’t present like she expected General McCallister’s troops, but she was definitely beyond Kansas.
“This is Navajo land.” He stated. “You’ve come a long way.”
Platinum hummed like she understood. This was one of the two settlements that had avoided joining the Pacific Republic in favor of remaining fully independent. That meant she was around the border of New Mexico and Arizona.
“Do you need treatment?” He gestured to a particularly nasty bruise on her arm. ”There’s a medicine man among us.”
“No, I’m alright.” She moved her arm to show it was fine. Then glanced past the man’s shoulder at the blue rings that indicated human control of the objectives. “I was going to offer our help with the invasion, but it looks like you don’t need it.”
He nodded once in agreement. “We appreciate the effort, but those people from Ghost Reef swept through like a thunderstorm. There are no invaders on our land to help with.”
Platinum raised her eyebrows, thinking there was no way Coop had ended up ahead of her, even with his head start, since he had gone practically the opposite direction. Her one stop hadn’t really delayed her that much either compared to the trip as a whole.
“Ghost Reef?” She inquired, hoping he would elaborate.
“Yes.” He shifted his body to the side to point past his camp. “They continued that way, two days ago, hunting monsters, they said.” He turned back to Platinum. “They invited us to visit their home and to share their invitation freely. We were preparing to take them up on the offer, so I will extend it to you as well.”
“Was it more than one man?” She continued.
“Probably about 2,000. Men and women. Young and old.” He explained, not finding the question strange. “Very organized, but unrestrained in a way that made them seem unsoldierly compared to our other neighbors.”
“Huh.” Platinum muttered, somehow not surprised that the tiny settlement had so much reach.
The Navajo man chuckled at her reaction. “Are you that disappointed you couldn’t help us?”
“No, no, it’s just that they helped us as well.” She admitted. “I’m just kind of impressed.”
“If you’d like to journey to their base with us, you are welcome to.” He added, smiling as if he knew the feeling. “We want to see what they have built to so openly beckon outsiders to their home.”
Platinum was tempted, but decided against it. “I think I’ll try to catch up and see them for myself. You said they went that way? So they came from over there?”
The pair freely shared information, feeling the kinship of humanity, possibly brought on by the actions of Ghost Reef’s residents and its Champion. Before she left, she remembered to give them Neon’s spiel about working together in the future, but given how underwhelming her presence was relative to the impact that Ghost Reef left on them, she felt like they were just politely acknowledging her effort while promising to meet again. On the bright side, she could share some news with Neon once she got back, having networked with two more settlements, just like he would have wanted.
As it turned out, the Navajo Nation and Apache Bands were the two holders of civilization shards, but their mini alliance actually had half a dozen other tribes included, as well as the survivors of several cities. People from Santa Fe and Albuquerque, all the way to Phoenix and Tucson were members if not necessarily official residents, and they had grouped together in resistance to pressure from the Primal Constructs on their eastern flank.
Geographically speaking, the southwest alliance didn’t lose to Neon Park, though they held fewer civilization shards. As a consequence of a smaller starting population and less safe territory, they had far fewer overall residents, but other factors had given them a chance to survive.
The local monster variants hadn’t given them many problems in the early days, which allowed them to get organized and coordinate quickly. As a consequence, their territory stretched to the Grand Canyon. Apparently, the Primal Constructs found the Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts unpleasant, even overheating as the days grew hotter. The way they saw it, that was the key to their continued success and what prevented the Fallen Zone from growing further. They had an easy onramp to leveling up and getting established and comfortable with contending with the aliens, entirely thanks to the ungodly environment of the desert basins.
Platinum left them with a good sense of what was going on in a section of North America that she had only heard rumors about, though that hadn’t been her mission this time around. She informed them of the meeting in the Heartland, feeling like it was only fair that they would be included if they so desired, but it seemed like they had already heard about it and would be sending a small party to witness the conference. They seemed a lot more excited about working with Ghost Reef than the continent as a whole. She couldn’t blame them.
When Platinum reached Silvervalley, all four control points were already captured by humans, once again. Another temporary camp had been constructed, separate from the objectives, though it was completely different from the Navajo gathering point.
The camp was a sprawling, chaotic place, in stark contrast to the orderly behavior of all those within it. The place was extraordinarily active, with runners carrying messages to and fro, kicking up a consistent cloud of dust as they went. A patchwork of hastily erected structures, their desert camouflage color clashing with the dark surfaces of the Underlayer, spanned what seemed like miles.
The atmosphere was relatively tense, despite the lack of nearby enemies. A palpable sense of purpose permeated throughout, and Platinum did her best to fit in, fixing her posture and moving with intent baked into her steps. She approached the obviously fatigued guards lining the perimeter of the base and introduced herself.
They eventually found someone that could confirm her identity and would take her to General McCallister’s tent. Once inside, the scale of Silvervalley’s operation grew more obvious. Rows of tents stretched into the distance, each housing a variety of different functions, from communications to logistics. They consciously avoided drawing nearer to the control points, as if they had been prepared for a proper siege on the castles of the Primal Constructs before their plans were suddenly turned upside down.
The difference between Neon Park and Silvervalley couldn’t be more drastic. The gangs of Neon Park were nothing like the orderly divisions of the Pacific Republic, but power-wise, she didn’t think they fell behind.
She was ushered toward the General’s tent, where she found him surrounded by maps with pins guiding strings between them and symbols that indicated relative strengths. Several advisors rushed out to make room for her, as if she was a VIP. She reminded herself that she pretty much was.
“Miss Platinum!” The cigar-chewing military man bellowed. “It’s good to see you alive and…” He hesitated as he noticed her injuries. “...well?”
“You too.” She responded, noting that his level increased since she first met him, though his subordinates had been steadily progressing even further. “I came as quickly as I could to offer our help and advice, but it seems like you’re doing just fine.”
McCallister nodded, though the wrinkles on his forehead deepened and the way his bushy eyebrows shifted made it seem like his feelings were complicated. “I’ll say things worked out for the best. Before we fully committed to an all out battle, Ghost Reef showed up and cleaned house.” He shook his head, apparently amazed. “Our loss projections weren’t low, but they took small squads and defeated the invaders without a single serious injury. Made those alien bastards look as brittle as dry leaves. It’s like every one of their residents is as elite as my top guys.”
Platinum snorted. “I think I know that feeling.”
She and the general spent some time commiserating and reconfirming the continental conference before she left to seek out Ghost Reef’s army as it progressed through the alliance’s settlements.
When Platinum caught up, she stood in the distance with her hands on her hips, gawking as golden domes of energy climbed across enormous sections of the Underlayer, engulfing the pathetic attempts of the Primal Constructs to create their own shields. The inside was filled with flaming dragons that charged like freight trains, screaming through the monsters while leaving a trail of black smoke to rise inside the bubbles.
From within the obstruction, purple clones of pleasant seeming ladies leapt forward, desperately grabbing onto Constructs before they self-destructed into swarms of butterflies that ripped through the monsters as if they were made of knives. Three matching iron men pushed into the gaps, physically punching holes through masses before viciously tearing the legs off of a hapless Siege Boss that failed to penetrate the golden dome with its tactical lasers and drone volleys. Platinum almost felt bad for it as the uniformed soldiers of Ghost Reef dismantled its collapsed form, swarming its exposed body while its allies were crushed by roaming squads of people.
Other individual soldiers strolled along the flanks in matching black leather equipment, conserving their energy in a battle that should have matched the intensity of Neon Park’s first foray into the Underlayer, but instead felt routine.
When a clearly elderly lady, complete with tight white curls of hair on her head, summoned evil spiked black armor that included a full cover helmet, and planted a thick metal mace into the face of a Field Boss cousin of Felrog, ripping through the monster that had given her people so much trouble, while destroying it in one shot as it attempted to ambush the army from behind, Platinum gasped.
She blinked slowly, a baffled expression cemented on her face as random residents of Ghost Reef set a pace that wasn’t too far behind their Champion. When they were done, a single person remained behind while the rest rushed toward the next objective.
“Guess I should just go home?” She mumbled. “I need more levels.”
She looked to her side and noticed a dozen different scouts from Silvervalley, spread throughout the Underlayer, watching with the same combination of awe and confusion that she felt. Ghost Reef just kept moving, completely indifferent to the spectators, like a single-minded machine designed to defeat the invaders.
Comments
Logan
Granny juggernaut is the best
Heather Serra
I love the badass little old lady of Ghost Reef… makes me feel like the watchers would double think if they’re wasting a portion of their population
