True to their word, the course Noir had chosen was largely devoid of any large groups of beasts. Val had rapidly descended the mountain pass back into the forest, taking a mere two hours to scramble down the elevation that she had worked so hard to gain through the night. The light mist had slowed her in the early morning, but it burned off as the sun rose higher in the sky and soon Val found herself cruising through familiar woodlands at relatively high speeds.

That was not to say that the trip was entirely combat-free. A giant constrictor snake had surprised Val early in the morning, metal scales turning away her bullets as its bulging muscles threatened to snap her limbs and asphyxiate her even through the exosuit. Luckily, her armor held up just long enough for her to stab desperately into the snake with both of Noir’s needles. The nano disruption had weakened the snake’s ability to squeeze the life out of her, and eventually she had impaled the creature through the base of the skull to end the threat.

Shortly before lunchtime, Val had run into a pair of territorial badgers as well. They had burrowed through the ground with incredible speed, but unfortunately for them, she had not forgotten the lessons she had learned from fighting the granite mole the prior day. The terrain was more favorable for Val as she jumped up into tree branches to avoid the badger’s charges or earthen attacks.

Noir had more difficulty sensing the creatures through the soft earth, but Val only needed a rough guess before she thrust her spear into the ground. She had missed several times in the beginning, but she eventually managed to make contact on a lucky stab. With that first contact, she had loaded a modified version of the nano echo subroutine into her opponent, which had simplified the rest of the encounter greatly. With her nano giving away the beast’s subterranean position, it was no issue to end one of the badgers. With less conflicting signals in the ground, Noir was able to predict the second badger’s movements more precisely and Val ended the fight quickly.

After half an hour of travel after fighting the badgers, Val came across a small creek. Sitting down alongside the creek’s edge, she pulled out some more trail rations from her belt. With Noir watching her surroundings, she felt comfortable enough taking her helmet off for a quick break. She idly brought up the previous encounter summary as she crunched on some nuts.

Encounter Summary

Enemies: 2 earthen badgers

Difficulty: F6 (estimated)

Time: 3 minutes, 12 seconds

Resolution: All enemies terminated

Performance: F2 (expected)

She had immediately become addicted to scrolling through all the data Noir collected after every fight. This encounter had been simple enough that there was nothing too surprising: she had used the spear form for the entire fight and the majority of her nano usage was with the armor-piercing subroutine to get the spear through the ground. But even in such a straightforward encounter, she could start to see ways she could optimize her nano usage.

Val was also extremely gratified to see that Noir’s grade of her performance had finally risen back to the F2 level, which was also where the Peakpoint mission board had evaluated her after the one mission with the Defects. The ranking system was not perfect so she wouldn’t be surprised if Noir’s ranking would not always match the centralized one. However, Val took it as a good sign that she had adapted to Noir techniques well enough to match her previous combat effectiveness.

She finished off her handful of nuts, brushing away the crumbs from her lips before replacing her helmet. Pulling her helmet back on, she took a sip of water from a tube inside the exosuit before glancing at the map in the display. One more hour would put her in familiar territory at the base of the mountain containing Peakpoint, and if she pushed hard, she could make it to the city limits by mid-afternoon.

Which was a good thing, considering that she had been awake for over 30 hours at this point. Val was surprised to feel that she was physically fine. The passive body enhancement support from the exosuit did more than increase her strength and speed. She could feel the nano coursing through her body and replenishing her energy, resetting some of the same biological systems that rest normally did.

However, it was no substitute for true rest. The long active period was especially difficult on her mind. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate, which would eventually become dangerous while she was still out in the wilderness. Shaking her head briefly, she focused on the path Noir traced out for her through the forest ahead and set off again.

I should have known we’d run into trouble.

Less grumbling, more running. We’re almost to the city limits.

Val lifted her legs as she hurdled over a downed tree before landing in a full sprint. The forest was already starting to thin, and she could see the break in the treeline mere hundreds of feet away that marked the start of Peakpoint’s defensive zone.

What is it with all these wolves?!

A snarl from her right caused her to glance that way just in time to see an angry bundle of fur, claws, and teeth lunging out at her. Without breaking stride, Val brought her rifle to bear and emptied the remainder of the magazine into the beast. The wolf crashed to the ground behind her with a pained yelp. Not dead, but distracted for a few key moments that Val used to slip ahead.

Practiced hands started to reload the rifle but her left hand grabbed only empty air. Her eyes flicked up to a corner of her display where Noir kept track of her supplies. Her heart sank as she confirmed that she was out of universal magazines. Shaking her head, she stowed the rifle and pulled out her pistol. Losing track of her ammo was an amateur move, but there was no time to linger on her mistake.

A couple of well-placed rounds deterred another wolf as Val pushed forward. Several more powerful strides were all that was needed to finally break free of the forest. Her display immediately darkened as the unfiltered rays of the sun glared down on her. Val could hear the multitudes of snarling wolves behind her, but she tuned them out as she finally took in the welcome sight of Peakpoint.

The city’s defenses were coming to life before her eyes. The mole’s abilities to manipulate earth had been impressive, but they paled in comparison to what Peakpoint’s Daemons could achieve with unfettered access to the city’s power supply. One moment, the barren mountainside had gently sloped upwards to the ruined outskirts of the city. In the next moment, gleaming nano-infused metal scaffolding burst from the ground to form a solid wall over two stories tall.

By itself, the height was not a sufficient deterrent. The normal direwolves may have difficulty scaling these walls, but the more dangerous Enhanced variants could easily leap over the physical defenses. Luckily for the citizens of Peakpoint, the wall was only the first of several layers of defense that attackers had to contend with.

Small groups of Guardians leapt to the top of the wall as soon as it had finished forming. Many seemed to be normal protection details, but a few specialized squads stood out as they began mounting large guns to prepared stations scattered along the length of the wall. Despite her bad experiences with the Guardians recently, Val had to give them credit for the speed and intensity of their response. It was less than ten seconds between the formation of the wall and the full deployment of the defensive force.

Stay within this corridor as you traverse across the defensive zone.

Noir’s comment was accompanied by the appearance of a blue highlighted lane in her display. It cut nearly directly across the rocky field but was only several feet across. Valcomplied despite her confusion, taking several steps to the right to fall within the blue lines.

Her curiosity about Noir’s instruction was immediately sated as the Guardians opened fire. The cacophony of many weapons going off reached her ears just before a veritable storm of metal and crackling energy whizzed by her. She flinched as some of the rounds came within inches of her, but she came out completely unscathed.

The same could not be said for the wolves on her tail as she heard an outburst of high-pitched whines and yelps behind her. The barrage ended just as abruptly as it began, leaving Val’s ears ringing as a tense silence fell over the field. For several moments, the only sounds Val heard was her own heavy breathing and the crunch of her boots on the rocky ground.

We are finally close enough that I can link up with the Daemons coordinating the defensive response. It appears that the first salvo eliminated most of the wolves, but two directly behind you survived. We’ll have you suddenly dodge right to expose them. Dodge in three… two… one…

Val planted her left foot firmly on a rock and pushed off to the right. She took another step before throwing herself into a forward roll to get even further out of the way. A short burst of gunfire from the wall followed immediately afterwards. From the corner of her eye, Val could see the pair of direwolves who had been gaining on her. They started to follow her before their bodies jerked backward as the defender’s bullets impacted.

Lunging to her feet, she risked a glance over her shoulder as she started towards Peakpoint again. Seeing a lack of enemies behind her, she settled into a steady run across the defensive zone. Apparently the Daemons had also decided the danger had passed as the Guardians were packing up as well. Each section of the wall sank back into the ground as it was vacated of its defenders, slowly revealing the city outskirts again.

By the time Val had crossed the majority of the distance to the city, the last section of wall had collapsed back into the ground. The majority of the defenders trickled back towards the city center casually, giving Val the impression that this was a reasonable common occurrence. A pack of wolves was a deadly danger for her alone in the wilderness, but apparently not enough to concern an entire battalion of Guardians.

However, her attention was drawn to a small group of Guardians that had split off from the masses. They made their way towards Val purposefully, jogging out towards her slowly. She raised her hand in greeting as they neared, but the lead Guardian didn’t return the gesture. In fact, they spread out before coming to a stop between Val and the city.

Val frowned as she recognized the procedure from her rotation with the Guardian Guild. She hadn’t expected a friendly welcome party on her return to the city, but she thought that she’d at least be able to enter without any hassle. Instead, these Guardians were arranged in a way that indicated they still considered her a potential danger.

What’s going on here, Noir?

I should have expected this. I was hoping we could just sneak back in, but bringing a wolfpack to the city’s border brought attention to our return. If you were in their shoes, what would you do with an unexpected visitor wearing an outdated exosuit that brought an attack to your city?

Val winced as she thought through the situation.

I guess I wouldn’t let them in unless they had an explanation for all of that. But exosuit aside, can’t they verify you as a friendly Daemon?

I’m sure they have, but it appears they are being more cautious than usual. Likely they want to verify the User’s identity as well. I’m in contact with the collective, but you’ll need to defuse the situation until help arrives.

Great.

Val slowed to a stop several dozen feet before the interception party. She knew from her training that it was a comfortable range for them, easy enough to communicate while leaving enough time and space for them to react if she made any aggressive movements. She gulped nervously as the back line of Guardians leveled their rifles at her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to slow her racing heart. It was one thing to know that she was no threat to them or the city, but convincing them of that was another matter. She briefly considered trying to tell them the truth, but images of Kriven’s smug face as he lowered his rifle after shooting her flashed through the mind.

Too risky, Val decided. I don’t know which Guardians are trustworthy, even if they did just help me get back to the city safely. Better to come up with something else that would be a plausible explanation… It doesn’t have to hold out forever, just long enough for Noir’s help to arrive.

Her three Guild rotations had been with the Technicians, the Guardians, and the Scouts, so she’d have the greatest chance to get away with claiming one of those guilds. But the Technicians rarely left the city, and considering she was currently trying to lie to a group of Guardians, claiming to be one of them seemed a little too foolhardy. Which left only the Scouts. In theory, this sounded like a good idea; after all, the Scouts were the group most likely to be in the wilderness in the first place. Unfortunately, their expeditions were rarely done solo, so it was suspicious to return alone.

A different idea suddenly came to Val as she struggled to think of a good cover story. There was one other Guild that she knew a lot about, and it wouldn’t be too suspicious to arrive at the city alone. In fact, there was a way to spin her story that would make it incredibly difficult for them to quickly verify, which was exactly what she needed now.

She immediately hated the idea. Having spent the last few years distancing herself from this part of her past, it irked her greatly to rely on it so heavily now. However, as the lead Guardian stepped out from the party and prepared to speak with her, Val pushed aside her reservations. This was her best option to get past these Guardians without too much hassle, and she prided herself on using every tool available to her advantage, even if it involved trudging through painful memories.

I’ll just have to deal with the fallout later. Shouldn’t be too bad. I hope.