The dreams still flickered across my vision as I stretched my joints, tender flesh where biosteel meshed with regular, fragile tissue going taught. As I moved to stand in front of the mirror, I remembered every detail of the mines once more. The failures of that day would be etched into my mind for a long time to come. Yet, at the same time, I found myself surprised by the light smile on my face. I wasn’t happy about the outcome, but I’d come to accept it. If nothing else, I suppose that being able to go through a scenario and beat it to death with logic made for great treatment for any kind of guilt I might have had.

Yes, we could have done things differently. That was a fact now, at least as far as I was concerned, given that I could - and did - simulate hundreds of different tactics going down into the mines. If we were better trained, worked in formation, responded faster, had better equipment, spotters on our flanks… The list went on.

A list that I would also most definitely be calling to others attention.

‘First order, get an update for our ranging squads and see if we’ve gotten anymore information on these biotics.’ I finished some minor stretches, stripped down naked now that it seemed that Fran and Daniel wouldn’t be here at all times. I’d miss being around them more, but it wasn’t as though I needed to have someone around me all the time.

‘More importantly, second order of business: We need a research and development division. We’re working with too much of a sporadic setup and whatever anyone happens to want to buy and set up for themselves. Some people are doing great at that, but others…’ As I thought that, I envisioned the people who must have stockpiled a large amount of their M.E. instead of investing in armor, weapons, or tools. 100 M.E. should have been more than enough to set most people up with some decent quality gear. We’d need to look into options that either worked on existing tech, or figure out how to get there. Obelisk access gave us high-tech examples, and with the right intermediary tools we might be able to reverse engineer high grade technologies that would be out of reach.

‘Then we can start actually training people. I’m sure we have enough military and reserve here to be able to get something put together. Most of the Legion are military or good enough to be, but we’re not fighting people anymore. It’d be good for everyone to be able to train in exercises anyways… Damn, we’re going to need a lot of space.’ I groaned, looking out the window to the obelisk. We obviously couldn’t take over the plaza, so the next option would simply be to extend behind us.

Luckily, most of our guys had taken to living in the buildings immediately adjacent to HQ, so if nothing else we wouldn’t have to chase out other people. We could convert some to full blown living quarters, change one building or two to R&D, and then put together a training field somewhere. Maybe we could knock down a few buildings?

Would underground be better?

‘Ugh, this planning thing sucks,’ I shook my head, chagrined at the situation. Certainly, I’d count myself as pretty smart, but that didn’t mean that I thought I was good material for being a leader of an organization. Well, it was far too late to be regretting anything like that now. After all, I’d firmly planted this responsibility at my own feet, nobody forced me too.

After fitting my armor back on, I took a moment to inspect my image. Narcissism was never something that I really understood. Now, though, seeing my own appearance, I had an inkling about why someone could be so self-absorbed. My body somewhat less so, probably the bits of blackened biosteel in some places, but those were hazards of the job at this point, I guess.

Beyond that, I still marvelled at the fact that I could stow weapons in some kind of storage space on my body. A pocket dimension, if that was indeed what it was, that could hold certain types of gear. I’d tried already, but it seemed that I couldn’t keep regular gear in it, only reaper-issued weapons and the like. How much could it hold, and for how long? That was something I couldn’t really test thus far, I had already stuffed my reaper assault rifle, my trench gun, my blades, a collection of about two dozen mines and another set of grenades, somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty extra cartridges of ammunition. I hadn’t gotten any kind of notice that I was nearing some theoretical critical mass, but even so I was worried that there would be less of a warning and more of a sudden expulsion of all of my gear from a storage space that I’d damaged.

It was 60 M.E. for that storage space, so not exactly cheap, but its versatility was insane. So far, Daniel had let me know that he had no such access to such a thing, but that it was a moot point with his armaments. Apparently he carried tens of thousands of rounds into battle in streamlined compartments.

I looked back at my face, predominantly still flesh with exception to a streak of the blackened metal coming down from my eye. That was a new bit, not sure why it was there. I’d ask Smith but I had the feeling that it was more or less cosmetic. My eyes, on the other hand, were black and red, clearly no longer of human make. I briefly wondered how my body would hold up to a standard human being anymore, I was clearly more powerful than I was before, but I hadn’t really run into a way to test that.

Taking a deep breath to steady myself, donned my helmet, a flat red line pulsing across the opaque surface before becoming just barely visible, a pulse in the middle of the line like an eye. It followed my own focal point, and was more than mildly unsettling when it lowered into the barely visible empty eye socket of the skull beneath the semi transparent material.

“Alright, business time.” The doors opened, revealing a room that had gone from moderate food and gathering area to a dedicated personal effects hall. Several work benches say around, many of which were encased in transparent and bullet-proof glass, some of which were also fitted with metal plating in the rare event that someone decided to work with some mildly explosive material.

Already some people were working on gear, some of the workroom-cubicle bastardizations already bearing names. Designations had been standardized by rows, ‘A’ through ‘J’ for ten of them, all numbered up to 30. The building was big enough to allow that, and the second floor had transformed almost entirely here. Still, this was something I would rate as suitable only for general technologies, maybe some modifications. Although, I did see people working with bits and pieces of technology clearly above what humanity had access too previously. That, combined with several rooms that had screens with instructions that taught the basics in a few general fields and tutorials on how to customize gear, allowed some of the more industrious Legionaries to upgrade both their own gear and that of their teams. It was more expensive than a regular weapon, but with the upgrades that I could see them adding, I could safely say that their firepower would increase dramatically.

One such station had several individuals crowding around it. I walked up to it, curious as to what could be drawing the attention.

“Dude’s a wizard.” Someone said with a chuckle.

A taller, burly fellow smirked, “I wonder if we can get something like that for our team.”

“Wouldn’t that be something? I don’t think I’d want to risk getting electrocuted, though.”

I stood beside the three men, looking over their shoulders at the scene. One of them noticed me out of the corner of his eye and immediately shuffled over with a jolt.

“Jesus, hey boss, I didn’t notice you come up.” He stood just a bit straighter, as did the eight others looking in on the man’s work.

I caught them as they began with a varying response between salutes and resounding ‘Sir’ greetings, “Relax, we’re not in the field.” I chuckled, seeing what was going on.

Perhaps I should have guessed it, but I watched as the man carefully put together parts and machined them, the noise barely getting through the reinforced walls. A headset protected the wheel-chair bound man’s own ears as the worked with the complex looking object he had on the workbench.

Terry had what looked to be a modified limb for his mech on the table, mystifying in its own way right off the bat as I wondered how he even got it up here. Even more so, I saw the various dark blue power cells being slotted into a dozen holes, screwing them in by hand.

“Hmm… electrical. I guess he is an engineer,” I mumbled to myself. “You guys know what he’s making?”

“Uh, something with the arm of his mech?” A man next to me supplied somewhat unhelpfully, “He had a couple of us help detach it and move it up here.”

‘Well, that answers how it got up here at least,’ I nodded, reaching up and tapping on the glass of the room loudly enough to get Terry’s attention.

His expression twisted from total focus to sharp annoyance as he looked up from a set of diagrams and information provided by the obelisk. “Guys, I literally just said I need to focu- Oh, Matthew.” He blinked, annoyance vanishing and replaced with a more positive expression, almost like a kid wanting to show off a new toy.

“Terry,” I greeted him in turn, “Swapping out parts?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” He cleared his throat, “I’ll tell you later, I gotta finish this quick and get these power cells set, otherwise they’re going to exp--I mean short out. Yeah.”

I paused at that. He was going to say explode? A power cell? How much of an explosion would that be?

Shaking my head, “Well, carry on. One thing first though.” I reached over and touched a button, watching as the steel shutters of metal dropped down to encase the room slowly.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Terry scoffed, but had a smile on his face as he said it.

I started walking away, waving over my shoulder, “Talk to you later, Terry. Show me what that is if it works.”

Whatever he said next was lost as the plates closed tightly, protecting the floor in the case of dramatic mishap - hopefully - and at least giving the man some peace of mind. As I made my way downstairs, I noted that there were more people here, a great deal more. No major expansion had taken place, but just ahead I could see a new booth, octagonal and ten meters across with space in the middle for people to stand and a shared file system in the middle. Computers were back, thankfully, allowing for us to record keep again. It wasn’t the internet, of course, but it would unify our organizational information at the least.

Currently, I watched as Doug himself was providing support for six others, two of the locations as of yet unfilled. All around them were clusters of people walking up to the counter.

I walked up to the gathering, and almost stopped when I realized that the chatter that was coming from the many people I didn’t recognize seemed to stop and turn into an excited buzz. Many of them were looking at me as they spoke, and in spite of the hushed tones, I could clearly hear some of the more careless ones.

“That’s him, The Reaper,” one man spoke, “he was the one that made that badass speech and light show.”

Another woman’s voice bordered on something akin of adoration, “I heard that he’s killed hundreds of biotics alone already.”

“Probably, I mean look at him,” her companion responded, “the guy looks a little like the fucking terminator.”

Other comments streamed through, some wondering if I was really all that, or if I was just a figurehead. I shook my head, distinctly uncomfortable with the extra attention. Doug noticed the commotion quickly, though, and I approached wordlessly to the counter as he moved to one of the empty spots on the counter.

“Doug, is this what I think it is?” I looked around at the people, a disparate bunch that shared only a few key traits. Each of them was armed in some way, some of them even pretty decently. There was an energy to them all, excitement clear in their chatter and in the mixed ways they watched me. If I had to wager a safe bet, I’d say they were here to join the Legion. There were nearly two hundred of them, though, far more than I’d expected.

“Yeah, they’re here to join up,” Doug smiled broadly, cutting to the core of the subject, “We’re going to be testing them, of course, but I’d say that this will allow our operation to work more efficiently.”

I looked back over the many people, and Doug’s smile wavered fractionally as I remained silent for several seconds. These people didn’t seem to be especially impressive, save for a few that stood out to me, feeling like they were no strangers to hunting biotics. Those were the minority unfortunately, the rest seemed to lack something key, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

Even so, I couldn’t rightly turn them away without giving them a chance. “I’ll give my go-ahead on evaluating them.” I nodded, and the closest people to me seemed to beam happily.

“I have a few things that I need added to that evaluation,” I informed Doug, who breathed out, looking perplexed but likely having expected that. The others didn't seem to notice what that meant, and their murmured words that ‘The Reaper’ was going to let them try-out spread like wildfire.

“Walk with me, I’ll tell you my requirements and then I’ll need to check on our wayward teams.” I gestured, walking away slowly as Doug nodded and hobbled out of the side gate for the desk, intersecting the room perfectly.

He came up to my side, “Alright, Matthew, what were you thinking?”

I answered after a brief moment of contemplation, “Well, I don’t want to chase off good hands, especially if they have potential. But, I also want them to be familiar with the types of biotics out there. For now, we’ll have a practical test, headed by one of the top ten teams - not one of the ones currently looking for Louis’ team though. They’ll be tested on marksmanship if they’re gunners, or in melee combat if that’s what they’re looking for. If they decide that the trainee is good enough, they can become a provisional member of the Legion along with several others. I’d like each provisional team to have a leader, and then a watcher assigned from one of the top thirty teams or so. Take five or so teams out of rotation and put nine trainees together with one of their mentors. The Matter Energy gains will be lower, but so will risk.”

Doug nodded, jotting down notes as I went on a tablet, “Sounds good so far. Honestly thought you’d try to chase a lot of them away.”

I opened my mouth to refute that when I remembered my first recruiting session. ‘Well, he’s not exactly wrong.’

“I’m not done yet, though, so you might hold off on that assessment,” I chuckled. “The practical will also involve some general fitness testing, I want people to be able to at least run a mile in 8 minutes, not unreasonable. Anything else that you want to add is fair game. I want to expand general team sizes to ten in light of recent biotic activities. Six will still be the average, especially as people figure out how they want to run their teams, and who knows what some people will come up with. Encourage that, push the envelope, I want to see crazy ideas tested.”

“That’s probably going to be risky,” Uncertainty carried in his words, “You’re sure about that?”

I shrugged, “I’m a half-cyborg human at this point, Alice has a bow and arrow and uses some frame-suit to make herself faster, Fran uses magnets to kill things and fly, Daniel is a walking tank, and Terry’s being called a wizard and tinkers with electricity. We’re also the highest kill count team by a mile. If that doesn’t say ‘Creativity Kills,’ I don’t know what does.”

Doug chewed that over for a moment, “Duly noted. Alright, I’ll be subtle about it, maybe you guys appear on some of these banners here. I want pictures of the bunch of you at work, though.”

I cringed at that, and Doug seemed to somehow notice as his grin turned into a smirk, “Come now, surely that’s not such a big deal for the big-bad ‘Reaper,’ is it?”

“That’s not necessary,” I huffed, “Is what I’d like to say. But I guess you can use some if you really think you need too.”

“Appreciate it.” He thanked me, “anything else you can think of?”

“Creativity aside, I do have some general things I’d like new recruits to study up on. Set up classes, some of the other Legionnaires are already sharing a lot of information, find someone who can turn that into a more streamlined codex. Biotics, tactics, tips, everything. I want people armed with knowledge on the way out. I also want them all put through the ringer with their teams, get some expert opinions on this if you don’t know who would fit well together, reach out to James, even. Maybe our Bulwark liaison will have some suggestions.” I continued, moving to one of the circular tables, tapping it as I brought up information that had been submitted to the Legion database since last night. Some of our teams were nightcrawlers, it seemed, because there was plenty of new data on Biotic movement at night.

“I’ll ask him. So, to recap, we’re testing their mechanical prowess, putting them through tactics training, getting them up to date on information through classes on what all is out there, and then trial running them out for hunts to see if they can take it. Also, subtly encourage ‘creativity,’ sound about right?” Doug looked up from his notebook scribbling.

“One last thing before other business. Be sure to include the Unique’s in the classes. I don’t mind if you emphasize that they’re rare, but they deserve to know what’s out there. I’ll leave the specifics of all this to you though.” I brought up the last screen of importance as Doug nodded emphatically.

“Absolutely. Though, I won’t be surprised of people drop out after they hear about Wolven. That thing is a nightmare in the flesh.” Doug made a disgusted face at that, looking to what I was working on. “Ah, yes, I did want to mention that there are five teams up north right now, they’re clearing wolves out. It seems that their density increased suddenly last night.”

“Mmm. Any leads on our missing team yet?” I traced my finger over the area, zooming in on data and confirmed sightings of biotics fed to us live from the obelisk, updating regularly now.

“They’ve found some tracks, but they’re having difficulty navigating the wolf hordes. There really are a lot of them. Some of the packs are a few hundred strong, we’re not really sure what’s going on with that.” Doug answered, to which he then said more upbeat, “On the other hand, we haven’t found any evidence that they’re dead. No blood at all.”

“Which means they’re alive or they’re needed alive.” I murmured, not liking the implications there.

Doug swallowed hard, “Err… yes, that’s possible. But I’d prefer to remain optimistic here, better for morale.”

I shook my head and smiled, “You’re right. Assign some more teams, I want to know one way or the other about that. I plan on heading east and swinging up from the north, I want to see if we can find out anything.”

“That has been rather quiet of late.” Doug looked thoughtfully at the map, “We can put some of our new teams to the west, it’s a bit better than up north, but the south and east are practically empty.”

“We’ll look for Wolven then… it’s been missing ever since we almost got it. I don’t like not knowing where that thing is. Once the others are here and Terry’s done upstairs, I plan on setting out to look for it.” I tapped the screen at the corner, clearing everything I’d brought up as I looked back to the gathering of people in the middle of the room. Doug excused himself shortly thereafter, both to work on the new projects I’d given him and likely to appoint more personnel for the positions. Our flow of Matter Energy into the Legion would be paying them, no doubt, but it’d definitely be an improvement overall to the Legion. If people weren’t up to par for what the reality beyond the city limits was, they’d be wiped out.

But, that would be for later. Today, we would be hunting Wolven.