Directly after Integration, humanity was still recovering from both the Great Dark Age and the Ganbaatar Event. Our infrastructure had mostly survived, but any specialised knowledge not already in print was lost. There was plenty of physical backup, as the isolation of the clusters meant that residents knew it was only a matter of time until something broke in a place they could not reach, such as a distant autonomous server farm or a Starlink satellite and the internet went down for good. The problem was, the majority of this physical backup took the form of hard drives, whose contents had been irreversibly corrupted during the inauspicious geomagnetic storm. Isolated, technologically barren and having a dearth of applicable farming knowledge, the clusters were forced to send people out to hunt for food. With the advent of Seeds and a strange energy from the Sun making them faster, stronger and tougher than normal humans, the hunters initially saw a lot of success against the natural fauna. Of course, this was not to last.

Excerpt from “A History of Humanity, Pre- and Post-Integration”

Juggernaut raced past the vegetation, following the flashing dot on his map. His surroundings blurred with a slight red tint as he shot through the trees. This signal has been stationary for a while. More kids either dead or injured. The amount of energy leaking into his soul continued to rise, his Roots picking up the still increasing ambient energy. After I help my students, this Burrow has to go. The rate it’s increasing in power is too anomalous, we’ll not be able to farm this one. He pushed past a bush and came upon a small clearing within the trees. The girl with the strange pink hair and the young Elvan prince were on the ground next to a tree, with what seemed to be a large, spiky boulder? His eyes widened. Dire bear!

Come on, girl, don’t fuck this up.

Birgitte had been treating Jas’ leg as best she could when she heard the loud, wet explosion behind her. She whipped her head around and saw Mr McLeod standing where the dire bear had been, absolutely drenched in blood and viscera. She looked at the pieces of bear spread around the area with a shudder, but still brought the gigantic man up to speed quickly and efficiently.

“Sir! Jas has been unconscious and bleeding heavily for the past five minutes. I’ve been replenishing his blood with my Seed, trying to keep ahead of the loss. He has a broken leg and what I suspect are fractured ribs going by the severity and extent of the bruising. Mike was taken by some sort of largeshadow bird and Musa went after him.”

He acknowledged the information with a grunt and came over to look at Jas. His thigh bone was no longer poking through his trousers but there was a worryingly large red stain soaking through the makeshift bandages and colouring his once brilliant white clothes. He touched the prince’s leg and the blood instantly stopped spreading, a slight red nimbus appearing around it.

“I’ve immobilised his leg and stopped the bleeding, but he needs proper medical attention. Head back to the buses as quickly as possible, I’ve cleared a path free of beasts. Do your teammates have their maps on them?”

“Mike does, but he was taken before he could send a distress call and now his position no longer shows up on my own map. Which reminds me, our earpieces haven’t worked since the bear showed up.”

As far as Birgitte knew, this was an impossible state of affairs. Their earpieces and maps were all ILC brand, which sent signals through the Grapevine, a graft-chimera. Being not of physical origin, after years of use not one method had been found to jam or disrupt signals sent through this network. Either today is just a really bad day, or there’s something wrong here.

Dire beasts were classified as relatively normal Burrow critters, just massively increased in size with no exotic abilities other than basic protection and regeneration. They were still much faster and tougher than they should be at that size however, thanks to the influx of energy from the Drasil. The only problem was, this Burrow was only supposed to be a few weeks old. Dire beasts of any kind would usually only show up in the second month, the ambient energy finally dense enough to support their mass. Of course, now that she had a chance to think about it, a Burrow this young should be filled with beasts of similar characteristics to the wolves, simply being a bit faster, stronger and fiercer than normal with a healing factor. Shadow hopping owls weren’t even in the curriculum yet. But looking at the lecturer, he seemed inundated with problems, so he had probably noticed as well.

“I see.” He said, looking pensive, “Take your teammate and get out of here, don’t worry about his leg, it won’t move. I’ll find the rest of your team.”

Birgitte nodded, resolute. Even if everything was going to shit today, Jas would not die in her hands.

“Link! Care to fucking explain this fiasco?”

Anger. Helplessness. Frustration. Desperation.

His Flower informing the man of the emotions behind the harsh words, he turned towards the speaker, whose shoes were squeaking down the hallway.

“Madam Fletcher. I understand your grievances, but I just arrived and this is just as new a situation to you as it is me. I suggest we resolve the situation before we start slinging blame.” He was in full professional mode, defending his company but focused on helping the students. “Do we know anything that’s going on over there?”

The Academy Chancellor shook her head, also recognising the importance of swiftness. “We sent a few movement Buds, but lost contact when they approached the Burrow. Whatever is happening there, it’s localised to that specific area. Juggernaut is with the kids but considering he could zip in and out of the dead zone any time he wants, either something’s keeping him there or something’s killed him.” She didn’t have to say that both options implied terrible things for the students.

Resolve. Regret. Guilt.

“Okay, they’re within range from here, I can try link with one of their minds. But if they’re not under Sunlight, it’ll be a very shaky Connection.”

“Do it. Any information is better than what we have now.”

Impatience. Determination. Hope.

Link closed his eyes and retreated into his mind, activating his Flower. His consciousness left his body, going up through the roof and soaring through the sky on waves of Sunlight. He shot off towards the Burrow, it appeared as a vortex of energy in the distance. He flew above the verdant hills, always amazed at how green New London was considering every other population centre had to keep its flora out of the Sun or remove it entirely. The journey was incredibly fast, with him arriving in one minute. The Burrow looked… weird however. All Burrows appeared as large vortices centred on the Drasil in his soulsight. This one though, was angry. Not in the sense of physical rage, but the vortex was spinning unusually furiously, little streamers of radiant energy being flung outwards in its ferocity. What the fuck is going on down there? He sank down into the Burrow proper, soulsight getting fuzzy as he entered the shade of the forest. He searched around for a student, eventually seeing a young Seed running out of the Burrow at speed with another, slightly dimmer soul on her back. An Elvar. Human and Elvar souls looked different, Link’s sight letting him see them along with the Seed within. Wasting no more time, he sped towards the girl and entered her body.

Birgitte felt a pronounced wrongness as the foreign entity slid into her soul, nestling in next to her Seed. The entity seemed to be a mass of energy, which coalesced into a slim, olive-skinned miniature man she could see in her mind. She panicked and started splashing her meagre Seed energy against him, trying to force the man out of her soul.

“Whoa whoa rela-“ his outline fuzzed and blurred before sharpening again, “Ugh fucking Burrow. Listen, girl, I am Link, you’re probably famili-“ Birgitte stopped running, bemused at his actions. The foreign power was still in her soul, but the man had disappeared. Is this whole day a fever dream? I can’t even any more.

The man reformed and looked around. “Wait uhh, Birgitte, right?” he seemed to be reading something in her mindscape, what appeared to her as an inky black void. “Yes, Birgitte. Okay, Birgitte, I’m burning Sunlight hard to fortify this Connection so we don’t have much time. Your Chancellor sent me to take stock of the situation. What’s going on there?”

Birgitte hesitated, but only for a second. She realised that with the Grapevine somehow shut off, they would have no other chance to contact the world outside for help. “The Burrow’s out of control. The beasts are way stronger than they should be for one this young. I’ve already lost a teammate and I might still lose two more. I imagine it’s the same for most teams. Mr McLeod is going around saving those he can, but I fear he won’t reach everyone in time. Something’s fuc- messing with our comms so we’re unable to contact each other. 9 of the 12 strike teams have sent out distress beacons, and the remaining three are probably dead to a man.”

Shock registered on the man’s face for a split-second, before he regained his professionalism with a focused frown. “Do you have any clue as to what caused this? Did McLeod know?”

“Sir, today has been one impossible thing after another. I don’t even know how we’re talking right now. Mr McLeod seemed to be heading towards the Drasil though, so either he knows or is going to find out.”

The frown got deeper. “Thank you Birgitte, you’ve bee-“

The man and the foreign energy in her soul, winked out in an instant.

Just one more thing to add to the list, I guess.

The tall, olive-skinned man was leaned against the wall for support, eyes closed but glowing through the lids. That will never stop being weird. She had known Link, and his more famous twin, Internet, for the better part of two centuries. There weren’t many Flowers in the world after all, and living considerably longer than most everyone else tends to push people together, so as not to keep losing friends. Sun knows anyone who’d reached Flower had lost enough of them.

Link opened his eyes with a gasp, as though surfacing from deep waters.

“Well? Did you manage to find anything?”

He shook himself and got off the wall, giving her a level look. “It’s… bad. Losses are estimated to be at least 25% and rising.”

“At least?? We’ve lost three full strike teams? That’s twelve Shade-damned students, Link! What’s killing my people?”

“The Drasil is somehow accelerating its intake of Sunlight and mutating the surroundings with much more energy than it sh-“ he stumbled, then caught and righted himself “Than it should be able to.”

Barbara noticed, but said nothing, pulling his arm and starting off down the hallway. She walked slightly behind him so the Sun could hit his whole body.

“The students are facing a threat far above their level. Juggernaut has been doing damage control but he can’t just level the entire Burrow with students still inside, so he’s making the rounds and pulling the kids out of fires. The communications are disrupted within the Burrow too, though it looks like their maps still work so McLeod will find them all, dead or alive.”

“Shit.” She cursed emphatically, “Shit. What’s causing this?”

Link looked surprised to see her swear like this, which in all fairness was a very rare sight since she’d converted. This was a special case however.

“No clue yet, though Juggernaut is apparently investigating.”

They turned a corner into a large open seating area where many students were eating and chatting, oblivious to the plight of their brethren. “You did me and these students a good turn, Link. I know you didn’t have to be here yourself. I won’t forget this.”

Link, understanding why they were here, sat down at a nearby bench, and relaxed into his seat, presumably extending his Roots and drawing off the Connection in the air. “I didn’t just do it out of the goodness of my heart, Barb. Whatever this is can stymie a graft-chimera created by two Flowers. Granted, we were researchers instead of adventurers, but only a Gardener should be able to reach the level of power needed to do this. A few-week old Burrow shouldn’t even come close. Whatever this is, it’s a big fucking deal.”

The man was too sharp for his own good. Barbara didn’t know for certain, but she had a sneaking suspicion as to what could be causing this. And, as much as she cared for him as a friend, this was simply too sensitive to share. “Recharge. We’ll talk later.”

She wasn’t usually so brusque, but she didn’t want him sensing enough of her emotions to realise she was keeping something.

“Okay, Barb. Go save your students.”

She walked off, intending to do just that.

Sun give me strength.

Birgitte finally reached the edge of the Burrow, glimpses of the buses flashing through the trees. You’ve got this. Final stretch, then this nightmare can end she thought to herself as she ran as fast as she could with the man on her back. His leg was oddly club-like, stiff and not even bouncing up and down with her motion. Completely immobilised. Guess his Flower’s the real deal.

She broke through the forest line, at last feeling the soothing rush of Sunlight rejuvenating her, only to stop in shock. A group of students and what seemed to be Academy staff were desperately fighting against a herd of deer flinging ice bolts. Several torso sized shards of ice materialised above a majestic white stag’s crown, screaming off towards the massed crowd. Everyone dodged, but it seemed they weren’t the actual targets. The bolts separated and targeted each bus individually. They each hit the front of a bus and disappeared on contact. But soon after, ice started spreading from the point of impact. It slowly subsumed the buses, growing thicker with each passing second. Once the buses were completely encased in large blocks of ice, the stag snorted and kicked at the ground. The blocks shattered violently, spraying shrapnel everywhere and impaling or crushing a few unlucky people. The buses were in pieces.

Birgitte almost teared up in frustration, but after glancing back at Jas, laid him down next to a tree in the Sunlight and unholstered her two pistols with a sigh. Come on, girl, she thought, running towards the fray. Better not fuck this up.