AN: Miraculously, the planet was left too long in the dryer and shrunk, making it roughly the same size of Earth, even that is more than enough space for everyone and I won’t need to resort to too strange things later.

When they got back to the building Scarlet had woken up in, the doctor was waiting with two others, one a female of amazonian build, tall, broad in the shoulders and muscular, the other a guy of average build, making him look a little weedy next to the statuesque woman next to him. But what both of them had in common was the feeling of strength that distinguished Psions from normal people. In a reversal of the physical, the guy felt stronger than the woman, not by an order of magnitudes, but there was a clear difference. Nedri, who had followed along silently, apparently just as disturbed by the previous events, slotted neatly between the two, leaving Scarlet to wonder how she measured up. It was a slight annoyance that estimating one's own strength was almost impossible without the right tools, almost like it was impossible to see one’s own eyes without the help of a mirror. There were tests that could give absolute figures but it was hard to compare the absolute figures with the internal, subjective perception at any given time.

“Ah, good, now that you all are here and awake, we can go over your duties from now on. But first, introductions.” The doctor greeted them and continued to introduce the Amazon as Keera and the guy as Mendar, both gave a polite nod to the other and the doctor made them sit and started to lecture.

“Now, let me welcome you again, to our wonderful town of Albertina, a currently unaffiliated town under direct Federation rule. It is our job, meaning your job, to gather the crystals we call Monster Crystals, or a rather long, scientific name that doesn’t really matter all that much. As I have shown each of you, Monster Crystals resonate with the radiation field of Verdun to manifest strange creatures that we call Crystal Monsters, creative, right? To harvest a Monster Crystal, you need to mentally overpower them and if you weaken them beforehand, it gets easier, but you will see that, later.

“The deal is thus, I will help each of you to get your first Monster Crystal so you can get going and afterwards, you go out and gather Crystals so we can make the quota and in turn, you get food and shelter. Doesn't that sound great?” his tone of voice made it clear that he was just as enthusiastic as one would expect, he sounded as if he was about to get an exam that one only spoke about with trusted friends, after drinking enough to lose the ability to speak their native language.

“Anyway, in addition to the first Monster Crystal, you’ll get a portable detector, it’s one of the few pieces of actual technology that we have hardened to the point that it is useful on Verdun, it allows you to get a reading of the radiation-strength that influences the strength of Crystal Monsters. It also allows you to get a reading of a particular Monster Crystal but only at very close range and it takes a bit, so trying it in the wild is a rather bad idea, the monsters are generally hostile to humans and it will get you ripped to shreds.” Doctor Oak finished his explanation and handed out small, hand-held devices, looking almost like a museum-level mobile phone with a hard-screen, a small solar-cell and a few buttons before explaining how to operate them. It was incredible simple and the shape made it obvious that the case was mostly shielding, making Scarlet wonder if she could use it as an improvised blunt weapon or hammer if there was ever a need for it. Just from the heft of it, she decided that yes, it could do some damage if she smacked someone with it.

Part of her assessed the others that had been transferred, wondering if she could trust them. From what Aida had said, she got the impression that Verdun was where Psicom put those that were problems for the organisation, possibly even outright criminals, what better way to make sure that criminal psions won’t reoffend than to put them onto a remote and hostile planet and control the very resources they needed to survive? It made her realise that while the outside world was a jungle like the one she had visited for a few survival exercises over the year, the inside of the compound was much more like the slum she’d grown up in. Old instincts, partially buried during the training, came to the front. During training, she had been forced to work with others, to play nice with them, now, she would have to watch her own back, or a knife would be planted in it.

“Excuse me, Doctor Oak, where are our personal effects?” she asked, caring less about the few memorabilia she had brought with her but caring a lot about the slender knives she had acquired during training.

“Nurse Aida will show you. For now, I will take one of you out into the forest, so they can get their first crystal. As a warning, don’t move about in groups in the forest, we are not quite sure what draws the crystal monsters but if we move about in groups, they gather and are generally much more hostile. Two, maybe three can move together but more is plain and simply suicide. The first to join me, in looking for his first monster is Mendar, then it will be Scarlet, followed by Nedri and finally Keera. Yes, we go in the order of you slackers shaking off your unconsciousness.” Doc Oak answered and moved towards the door with Mendar in tow.

Scarlet, on the other hand went to go after Aida who had vanished into another room, possibly to put away the uniform she had taken from Roger. It took her only a moment to trace her to a store-room and what she saw there, made the question superfluous. She recognised her bag, sitting on a nearby shelf with other pieces of luggage sitting next to it.

“Excuse me, could you let me pass?” Scarlet asked, startling Aida a little but the Nurse stepped aside, letting her get to her bag but otherwise ignoring her. Feeling not very welcome, Scarlet just opened her bag, using her body to hide what she was doing with it. The clothes she was wearing were similar enough to the original uniform that her sheaths fit under them, allowing her to conceal her knives on her person. Feeling that hiding knives was something best done in private, she just put them under her shirt, hiding them but in a way that they couldn’t easily be accessed and looked for the most private place she could think off, the privy.

It took her a few moments to find it and as she searched, she realised something she had not considered. If there was no modern electricity, was there running water? The answer to that question was provided by Aida, whom she asked when she was unable to find the facilities. To her horror, it turned out that it was no, there was no running water, other than a nearby stream. She was directed to a row of actual outhouses, set in place near the spot where they had buried Roger. The implications of that left her shuddering in disgust and the state of the facilities did not improve her mental state in any meaningful way. For a second, she wondered if it was possible to avoid using the facilities for the next four years, if she was actually allowed to simply leave at that point and it was not just a ploy by that Colonel, but no, she could put off the inevitable but it was just that, inevitable.

A few minutes later, she left the outhouse, knives hidden under her clothes in such a way that she could pull one of them from nearly any position and walked over to the flowing water, washing her hands there. It was quite obvious that the running water was just a small channel, used to guide water from a stream outside the wall around the town into the enclosure with grates installed to make sure nothing ventured inside the protected space.

As she walked around, she noticed that there were almost only guys out and about, making her wonder for a moment. But it made some sense, most people around her were normals and most likely chosen at least partially to do physically demanding work, something normally left to machines. When it came to supervising robots doing the work, the physical strength didn’t matter but here, without machines to fall back on? Here, strength did matter for the normals. She felt a slight headache creeping in.

After her excursion into the wonderful experience that was the local plumbing, she ran into the Doctor and Mendar on the way back, coming from the forest. Mendar’s face was in a pained grimace and she could feel his mental strength fluctuate a little. In addition, there was a bleeding scratch on one of his arms.

“Ah, good, I won’t need to go back to the clinic now. Mendar, go back by yourself and let Nurse Aida treat your arm. I’ll go with Scarlet here and we will look for her crystal.” the doctor announced, sending Mendar on while gesturing for Scarlet to follow him, guiding her outside the conquered, man-ruled space for the first time.