“Ahhhh!” William let out a scream that was part warcry as the giant scorpion charged at him, more scream than anything. He pulled the trigger but nothing happened. He looked at the weapon while he ran away but couldn’t find the safety. He tried pulling the hammer back and it locked in place.

BANG!

William jumped as the sound erupted from the weapon. He’d been an idiot in his panic and pulled the trigger. The recoil almost ripped it out of his hands and one of his four rounds beings spent on a bush. He tossed his bag and sprinted before he turned his head to check on his pursuer.

His eyes went wide when he realized the scorpion was just behind him. He pointed at its face and pulled the trigger, nothing happened. An idea hit him and he used his other hand to pull the hammer back before firing again. He'd never dealt with a single action weapon like that.

BANG!

He breathed a short sigh of relief and slowed to a stop as the big bug’s head erupted from the large projectile piercing its carapace. It dropped to the ground and slid through the dirt, coming to rest as it slid into a bush. William watched it as it twitched a few times before it finally stopped moving.

“Fucking A,” He breathed rapidly. William was a marine, he’d been shot at, been on a ship that had been breached, even had to abandon a ship whose core was ruptured, but he’d never gotten the chance to play with alien wildlife like that before.

He thought about checking on it to see if he could use any part of it but decided he didn’t want to risk going close to it in case it wasn’t fully dead. The carapace could be useful and the spike on its tail could be venomous but he could just wait till morning. Plus he had no intention of eating dead bug.

He made it back to his butte and climbed back up. Before he lost the last rays of light from the suns he piled the wood in a way to make it easy to light and then walked around the edge of the butte to check on his perimeter. He wasn’t sure what was out there but he knew he didn’t want any surprises at night. Particularly the dual-clawed, multi-eyed, multi-legged with a stinger variety.

When he was certain there weren’t any more strange looking trees or anything moving in the area he sat down in the center of his high ground. He debated about staying awake and sleeping the following morning but that meant he would have to suffer under the suns while he slept and have to travel while hoping he didn’t run into more scorpions in the dark.

He laid down on his bag stuffed with his spare clothes and covered himself with his blanket without even lighting the fire. If it got cold enough it would probably wake him up but unless he needed it, he didn’t want to light a beacon for any creepy crawly to see. There was no telling if they would be drawn to the light. After a while, he dozed off.

He opened his eyes the following morning, groggy and sore. He was fully awake mere moments later though as another window popped into his eyes, startling him and reminding him of where he was.

Primary Class available!

Gunman- common

You know how to wield the ultimate instruments of death and fear nothing as long as a firearm remains in your hand. You’ve shown you can handle among the most powerful of its type and in the dangerous world you would never willfully be caught without it.

Dexterity +2

Focus +1

Vitality +1

Unlocks basic class skill: [Unimpeded Draw]-Passive

Unlocks utility skill: [Firearm Maintenance]- Knowledge based

Accept as Primary Class? Y/N

William stared at the screen and read through it. He wasn’t sure what a class was but he looked at the ‘knowledge based’ part of the text after going over it a few more times. If the nanites had taught him an entire language, did that mean they could teach him how to care for an antique weapon?

“Yes?” William said, accepting the class. It wasn’t like it would hurt anything to try. Well it could, the nanites could fry his brain but he doubted that would happen, they usually had fail safes. Then again, they weren't usually in people's brains without consent...

Class Accepted…

Detecting firearms training…

Class upgraded… Trained Gunman-Common

Detecting excessive use of firearms…

Class upgraded… Trained Gunslinger- Uncommon

Detecting feats…

Class upgraded… Prodigious Gunslinger- Rare

Attribute gained: Marksman. Stat unlocked: Perception. Perception +5

Primary Class applied:

Prodigious Gunslinger- Rare

You have been trained in the art of war with firearms being your tool. You have shown to be resilient and capable so long as you are armed. You have taken life at close range and at distance. With the right weapon, all fall when you take aim.

Dexterity +3

Perception +2

Focus +1

Vitality +1

Unlocks basic class skills: [Unimpeded Draw]-Passive, [Firearm Proficiency]-Passive, [Quick Aim]-Active

Unlocks utility skill: [Firearm Maintenance-advanced]- Knowledge based

William groaned as he felt like he just read an entire book about a wide variety of antiquated weapons. Revolvers, bolt action, lever-action rifles, break-action shotguns, Gatling guns… He knew it all like it was something he’d always known but it was a head-splitting experience that only led to confusion.

The confusion only grew when he opened his eyes again and dismissed the window and looked around. He had to blink a few times as the world around him seemed slightly more in focus than it had ever been before. He looked out over the landscape and could see the bushes and grasses more clearly like he was actually standing a few meters closer than he was.

“Now the fucking nanites are really messing with my head. Are they putting a high res feed into my optic nerve or something?” he shook his head at the thought. Prosthetic eyes were a thing and nanites could repair nerve damage but if the nanites were messing with his sight he couldn’t do anything about it.

Instead, he packed up his belongings and climbed down from the butte. After a moment of hesitation, he walked over to the dead scorpion from the previous night. When he got there he looked over its tan carapace. The bug’s body was the size of an ATV with eight segmented legs sticking out from its body, slightly curled in on themselves. In the front was a pair of large claws coming from either side of its head and the back was a two-meter long barbed tail that looked deadly even without the idea of venom.

He picked up a rock and threw it at the monster but it didn’t move. He did it again and still nothing. He then tried to [Identify] it but nothing happened.

“Right… ten feet. So… half a step past three meters,” He said to himself and cautiously moved forward, looking at the terror while keeping his hand on his reloaded weapon. When he was around nine meters away he tried again.

Juvenile High Desert Scorpion- Level 8 (Deceased)

Details: A native inhabitant of the high desert region of the Bovath subcontinent of Cradus. Highly venomous.

Age: Unknown

Durability: Unknown

Damage output: Unknown

Estimated value: Unknown

Stats: Unknown

“That thing’s a fucking juvie?” He looked at it again and hoped he didn’t run into its parents. He hesitated for a second and walked up to the bug and gave it a kick in the side. After a moment longer he pulled out his knife to try to cut off the barb at the end of its tail. The carapace was too hard but he fixed that by placing a rock under it and slamming another rock down on it. A minute later and he held the barb in his hand.

High Desert Scorpion Stinger-Lesser

Details: Contains the venom gland of a juvenile High Desert Scorpion.

Composition: Unknown

Durability: Unknown

Damage output: Unknown

Estimated value: Unknown

He looked at it for a moment but decided to keep it. The venom could be useful if he needed to coat his knife with it. That and if he were to get stung by one and somehow survived long enough to get medical treatment, he was pretty sure they needed a sample of the venom to synthesize the anti-venom. He carefully attached it to the back of his bag and made a mental note not to sit down while it was on his back.

Not wanting anything more to do with the bug, William took a long drink from his canteen and made his way to the watering hole. On the way, he spotted a strange lizard that was cut in half. He looked back towards the scorpion and realized the meter long lizard must have been what was making the clicking noise but found its end after running into the scorpion.

William identified it and it came back as a ‘Brown Spotted Monitor’ but he didn’t get anything else useful from it. He kept his eyes out as he walked but didn’t see anything else of note until he got to the watering hole. There he could see a large number of tracks, most looked like the lizard but he realized he should have inspected it more closely the day before. Some prints looked like they belonged to a dog, though he highly doubted it was someone's puppy both because of the location and the size. There were also deep impressions stabbed into the mud. After looking at them for a second he realized it was a spider or a scorpion roughly the same size as the one he’d already killed. A shiver went down his spine as he realized he’d slept unguarded and there was another one less than a hundred meters away from him.

He took another long gulp of water, finishing his canteen, and again used his spare shirt to filter as he filled it back up. He then pulled out the whiskey and shrugged before taking a swig and pouring the rest on the ground. He filled that up as well and sealed it with the cork.

“Alright, time to find civilization,” He pulled out his map and reoriented himself to the distant hills. They were the only mountains in the area and there were only a few hills marked with peaks on the map that even vaguely looked like mountains. From there he also looked towards the massive plateau in the distance, the two roughly giving him his location. “Alright, head northwest and… No go north and find the river then just follow that west, I don’t wanna walk right past the settlement.”

He had no idea what the scale of the map was. He was experienced in boarding combat and being dropped in with advanced navigation equipment. All of that training only included a little concerning ground-side navigation and survival. So he couldn’t even guess how far he had to go, it was kilometers at least.

He began to walk through the cool morning air. He relished it but realized he should pick up the pace before it got hot. It was harder going thanks to his still weakened state but he didn't stop. He made his way through the desert, looking ahead and to the sides, watching for any threats while glancing behind but he didn’t see anything.

By midday, he was forced to slow down as the temperature rose. It was also then that he spotted his first living creatures out during the daytime. A flock of birds flew up as he approached them. He drew his weapon but they didn’t attack and flew high above before beginning to circle.

“Water?” William walked slowly to where they’d been congregating, hoping it was another glorified puddle to refill his canteen and soak his clothes.

Instead of a watering hole, he found a corpse. It was a human male and judging by the look, the corpse was fairly fresh. He didn’t recognize him but the birds had started to pick him clean. His skin looked sunken and dry and his lips were cracked. William bent over to inspect the corpse further and didn’t see any obvious wounds other than from the scavengers. He sighed.

“Don’t worry, If you're like me, I’ll make sure whoever did this to us gets tossed from an airlock,” he informed the corpse. The man was wearing clothing similar to William and had been within twenty kilometers from him in the wilderness. He could only assume it was another victim of whatever was going on. He knew there was a possibility it wasn't but he felt it could have been.

He debated about staying there until they came to collect the body but decided against it, it could be days until they did. If they even did it at all with him sitting there. Instead, he started going through the man's possessions.

The man was carrying an empty canteen, spare clothes, knife, shaving kit, flint, whetstone, more whiskey, more currency, and two weapons with ammunition. The first was a revolver that was smaller than his own. He guessed it around a 7.6 mm but quickly identified the revolver ammo and saw it was 0.3. The other weapon was a lever-action rifle with 0.3 caliber ammunition as well, though it was a longer cartridge produced for a rifle.

He tucked it all away, taking a few minutes to balance the load in his bag and making sure he could quickly reach his ammo, the rifle and smaller pistol could at least hold five rounds each. Once he was done he surveyed the area and after a passing thought with a few moments of hesitation, he pulled the man's boots off. They were similar to his own cowboy boots and about the same size. He thought it might be a good idea to have a spare set.

A quick salute and promise to seek justice were all he could give the man when he departed with both revolvers at his waist and rifle in his hand. It was a tragedy, no soldier should have to die like that and to leave him there to be eaten by buzzards… Tossing those responsible out the airlock might be too quick, better to lock them in and thin the air till they suffocate. Put a round in their leg first for good measure.

All he could do was keep going. He wanted them to sneak in and take the man's body and although he was hungry he wasn’t about to eat a bird that had just eaten a person. That was too close to cannibalism for his liking. There was simply nothing else for him there.

The journey drew on and on as he crossed the barren landscape and he soon found himself on the top of a high ridgeline looking down on a wide valley. He felt a weight lift from his shoulders at the sight. It was far from paradise but it at least had green trees and patches of green and golden grass. It looked far better than where he was.

“Okay… so if that’s there, and that’s there… then I’m here!” William went back to the map to figure out where he needed to go. He looked at the nearest settlement and then squinted in the direction he thought the map indicated. He couldn’t really tell if there was a town there but he could see what looked like fields in that direction. He looked to where his previous mark was from where he started and sighed in annoyance. It looked like he was less than halfway there, which meant he’d have to spend another night in the wilderness or risk traveling in the dark overnight.

He looked back at the arid landscape behind him and the lush one below him. Then he looked at the two to three-kilometer long slope he’d have to make his way down that separated the two landscapes. He checked the suns' location and chewed his lip. He had a few hours of light left, which should be plenty of time to make it down the rocky slope and get distance from what he’d decided was the ‘High Desert’. He hoped the scorpions named after the region didn’t venture into the lowlands and that there wasn’t anything else to worry about below.

“Okay, get down this hill and get out into that… It looks like some trees over there bunched up so maybe another mudhole… hopefully, water minus the mud. Get there, fill my canteens and get the hell away before nightfall. Find a tree to climb up that’s not by water and sleep there… tomorrow I get to the settlement and see if they can put me in contact with the Coalition,” William laid out his plan as he made it carefully down the slope. It wasn’t very steep but it was steep enough and full of loose rocks. He had to be careful as his boots didn’t exactly support his ankle very well and the soles were smooth thick leather that had absolutely no tread.

He made it though, and ended his day sitting fifty meters away from a copse of trees cooking the doe he’d shot. It seemed like a lot of meat but he could eat his fill and have some leftover for the following day and shooting a rabbit would just be a waste of a bullet. He'd already wasted one blowing the head off a damned snake, its skin now hanging from his bag.

He cooked some cuts medium-rare while he put some higher up to slowly cook to well done and then some, hoping they’d last a little longer. He even skinned the deer, hoping the pelt would make the wide tree limb he’d found be a little more comfortable while he slept. That night he climbed up into his tree and closed his eyes.

“Not a fuckin’ move, got it!” Williams's eyes shot open and he started reaching for the rifle before he froze and slowly put his hands in the air. Below him were four men and a woman on horse-like animals. The four men were pointing various weapons up at him, “Open the chamber and toss it down… revolvers too.”

William did as he was told, making sure to move slowly and keep the muzzle of his weapons pointed away from the men who had a bead on him.

“I’m Sergeant Will-”

“Shut it!” a man wearing a green vest yelled and stopped William from giving name, rank, and service number. He doubted he was technically a prisoner of war, most humans lived in the coalition but that didn’t mean all did and it would look bad if he caused an incident or ran his mouth while the spooks were watching.

“That it?” a man asked as the older woman walked up picked up the smaller revolver.

“Yep, that’s my grandpappy's!” She said and glared up at William, “Ya gonna hang him, sheriff? For thievin' or should I handle it?"

“Whoa, I didn-” William stopped his outburst as one of the men aimed his rifle right at William's face. He tried again a bit slower, “I didn’t steal it.”

“Oh really, suppose it flew up there and crawled into bed witya last night!” The woman snorted angrily.

“Now now, let's hear him out. Would want to know if he’s innocent,” the sheriff said, putting his revolver away in a shoulder harness.

“And if he ain't?” the woman asked.

“Short drop, sudden stop,” William's neck hurt when he realized what the sheriff was implying, “Get your ass down here first…”

William nodded and dropped his bag down before he made his way down the tree as three, nope... four guns pointed at him. The woman took up her grandfather's weapon. He got on the ground and approached them with his hands in the air until the sheriff held up his hand.

“So, Mister Tempest. How’d you get ahold of that revolver if you didn’t steal it?” The sheriff asked in a calm voice while Will focused on another member of the posse that was making a noose out of thick rope.

“Ahh… I found it,” he said and the woman snorted and pointed the weapon in question right at his head, "in the high desert! There were buzzards flying around a corpse… I went there and he had it on him. I took it but didn’t know it was stolen!”

The sheriff reached out and pushed the woman’s gun, “What were you doin’ up in the high desert? Dangerous place up there.”

“Ahhh… I’m not sure how I ended up out there…” William wasn’t sure how to explain it. They were using antiquated weapons and dressed in a style that hadn't been popular since precoalition days. They were either play actors that knew more than him or primitive locals that were clueless.

“Sheriff,” one of the others called out and everyone looked. He was holding up the scorpion stinger in one hand and two bottles of whiskey that had been filled with water. William understood the implication. He’d just been accused of getting drunk and wandering off. He’d take it.

“Good enough… Miss Margret, looks like the desert did the thief in. Was it just the revolver?” the sheriff asked and received a shake of the head from the woman. William saw her glaring at him, staring at his waist.

“Oh! Sorry,” he quickly undid the buckle and removed the holster. She snatched it out of his hands and continued to stare at him.

“Got ‘em right here Margie,” the oldest posse member walked up and slapped a fistful of ammo down in the woman’s hands. She glared at him for a moment before she crawled up onto her mount and turned it to ride away.

“Damn sheriff, did she have to come with?” one of the men laughed nervously, which was joined in by everyone except William. If he had bet money on getting shot by any of them, he would have put his money on her pulling the trigger, it wasn’t funny to him.

“Where you from boy?” the sheriff asked.

“Ah.. little town called Amarillo,” he answered, intentionally trying to be vague. The sheriff looked thoughtful and shook his head after a moment.

“Never heard of it… Sheriff Theodore Red. Pleasure to meet you, Mister Tempest,” William was confused for a second on how the man knew his new identity but realized he could have nanites too. He surmised [Identify] would give him William's name and for whatever reason, it showed as William Tempest. He tried on the Sheriff but nothing happened. It took him a moment to realize it must have to do with the level part of the description… maybe it was a clearance thing?

“Ah… A pleasure to meet you too Sheriff,” William tried to force a polite smile.

“Alright let’s go. You can talk to Teddy later,” a posse member slammed his bag into his stomach with a considerable amount of force. More than his light build implied. Another handed him his weapons, “Guessin’ we’re leading this one back to town, boss?”

The sheriff gave a nod and climbed up onto his mount. William stared when he realized why it looked like a horse but not really. The fucking thing had a mouth full of sharp teeth and instead of hooves, it had two clawed fists on its front legs where it crawled around on its knuckles, the four-inch long claws pointing backward.

“Let’s get goin', can’t ride fast so it’ll take most the day to get back to Silverstead.”