Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Six: The Darkness (Patreon)

My explanation to the ultras assembled around me had been short. Very short. 

There were quite a few confused faces. That was fine. With who-knew-how-many Gellatoids present somewhere on the planet, the need for operational security trumped the need for understanding. 

The only ones who knew what was going to happen - and why - were me and Nanocloud. 

<Nanocloud>: The plan’s a bit risky.

<Belessar>: I’m open to suggestions.

<Nanocloud>: Oh, I didn’t say it wouldn’t work. You’ve pulled off bigger ones before. Like catapults.

<Belessar>: They were trebuchets.

<Nanocloud>: I stand corrected, brother mine. Everyone’s ready on your order.

I turned my head to look at my newest passenger.

Unlike Devilmade, Rahuket seemed a bit nervous about his position on my shoulder. Maybe it was because he couldn’t teleport away if things got hairy. “Are we sure this is really necessary?”

“It’s the fastest way to get you close to where you need to be.”

“I’m just saying, we don’t know if it’ll work.”

“Hence, we try now.” I switched on the Resonant Shield Generator module, surrounding the Shadowcat in a thin, low-power shield. “Begin.” 

Rahuket concentrated, and a surge of inky blackness began to surround me. 

Black as night, blocking all vision. 

The cloud of darkness concentrated rapidly, its zone of operation limited by my shield barrier.

“Can you hold it?” I asked.

“.... think so…” a muffled voice from far away. “.... never tried a shield before…”

“Okay, switch it off.”

Gradually, the darkness faded away.

Devilmade winked into existence on my other shoulder. “Whoa. You looked pretty cool there.”

“Cool?”

“Yeah, you turned into this inky black shadow robot thing. Very edgy. I like it.”

“That was my Fog of Darkness,” huffed Rahuket. 

“Sure, Foggy.”

“My name is Rahuket, not Foggy!”

“Enough,” I barked. “Fight the enemy, not each other. Everyone knows their part?”

The ultras around me nodded. 

NEW QUEST ALERT: CRIPPLING ATTACK.

YOU ARE LEADING A SORTIE ON THE HIERARCHY’S FORCES. BRAVE, THOUGH SOME MIGHT CALL IT FOOLISH. 

NONETHELESS, COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP DESERVES ITS REWARDS. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE ODDS ARE AGAINST YOU.

FOR EACH 10% OF HIERARCHY FORCES DESTROYED BY YOUR COLLEAGUES IN THIS SORTIE, EVEN IF YOU DID NOT TAKE DIRECT ACTION, GAIN AN XP BONUS.

DESTROY 10%: +200,000 XP.

DESTROY 20%: +400,000 XP.

DESTROY 30%: +600,0000 XP.

DESTROY 40%: +1,000,000 XP.

DESTROY 50%: +1,350,000 XP.

DESTROY 60%: +1,800,000 XP.

DESTROY 70%: +2,200,000 XP.

DESTROY 85% OR MORE: +3,000,000 XP.

Interesting. Although given the forces against us, even ten per cent would be a significant number. 

<Belessar>: Fire smoke.

<Nanocloud>: Orders relayed. Smoke in five, four, three, two….

The whistle of shells streaking through the air was a sound that had become familiar. These ones, unlike their predecessors, were mostly harmless - unless they hit you on the head, that is.

The shells landed midway between us and the enemy. Grey, blanketing smoke spread across the battlefield, the thickness of it obscuring vision.

To the aliens, it mattered little, as the smoke was nearly a kilometre away from their position. Still, some alien squads detached and started moving towards the perimeter. Perhaps trying to investigate if this was some new trick.

The next round of shells bounced off the tops of the outer shield. Coloured smoke began to spread. 

The alien squad leaders, almost as one, looked up. Red smoke erupting on top of the shield, drifting down gently, just after grey smoke had fallen short.

The conclusion one would jump to was obvious. Or at least what we hoped was obvious.

Human artillery was trying to hit them with some sort of toxic smoke bombs, and the first shot fell short. Foolish humans. Didn’t we realise that the Hierarchy troops wore fully encasing armour with self-contained breathing systems? A toxic fog wouldn’t hurt soldiers equipped to fight in space. Except the Carnotaurs, who were totally naked, but those big brutes could handle a little bad air. 

Foolish humans, indeed. 

The smoke that fell short of the enemy lines perfectly concealed the portal I opened up. Close enough to bring us within two hundred metres of the shield boundary. 

My fellow ultras marched through with me, the fog obscuring everyone’s vision. 

Two hundred metres sounds like a lot. Practically speaking, the average human can cover that distance in forty seconds at a run. 

The ultras with me were far beyond average. 

A gentle wind blew the grey smoke before us, even as the eyes of the aliens were fixed on the red smoke exploding above them. Smoke that dispersed through the Hierarchy’s shields, drawing the eyes of our foes even as we marched right up to the edge.

And passed through.

The Shadowcat was the first to reach the shield boundary, mere seconds after emerging. (Giant robots are a lot faster than humans, after all.) I pushed through the taffy-like feel of the shield, with Rahuket and Devilmade on my shoulders. 

Rahuket shivered as we went through. “Feels like an octopus is wrapping itself around me.”

“Fog first,” I ordered. “Complaints later.”

The elemental shot me a look of betrayal, then started to invoke his power.

Black tendrils of fog raced out from us. They streaked across the distance between us and the first Hierarchy shield tower, filling the space with a rapidly coalescing cloud of darkness. 

The first to notice - and react - were a squad of Grizzeloids standing by the tower. One of them barked out a command, and the squad rotated as one, aiming for their enemy. 

Beams splattered on the surface of the Shadowcat, as one by one the Grizzeloids aimed at the centre of mass on a huge target. A target which was difficult, at best, to spot, given the cloud of darkness that had begun to fill up the space around them. 

Grizzeloid portable weapons do 100 damage. The Shadowcat had a damage negation of 500.

Naturally, the Grizzeloid fire bounced off me harmlessly. 

My counterstrike, however, was not harmless. The Mass Driver Rifle in my hands barked, high-velocity rounds slamming into the squad where they stood. One round, one Grizzeloid, repeat. 

22x GRIZZELOID WARRIORS DEFEATED! +16,500 XP!

In the seconds it had taken to eliminate the Grizzeloid squad, other enemies had turned their attention towards me. A group of Lesser Carnotaurs - at least six of them - were headed in my direction, as well as a dozen Lynxian Rovers. Their weapons, unlike those of the Grizzeloids, actually posed a threat. 

But in the same seconds, Rahuket’s fog had blanketed the dome in a cloud of night.

It wasn’t perfect. Rahuket’s power needed a surface that would push back against it, even if mildly, and the shield boundary met that condition. The darkness was limited to the range of a single shield tower, and couldn’t cross the boundary to the next.

But within the boundaries covered by a single tower, the darkness was absolute. 

None of the enemy could see where we were. 

Smoke bombs can obscure vision, but not other signals - infrared and night-vision goggles, along with a variety of exotic sensors, can give a unit back their vision. Rahuket’s fog had no such restrictions. In effect, the enemy was completely and totally blinded. 

To a certain extent, so were we. There were only two things that could sense enemy locations in the darkness….

Rahuket himself.

And the nanobots. 

Swarms of nanobots dispersed through the cloud, seeking solid surfaces. Each relaying feedback to Nanocloud when they landed, detecting the surface and identifying it as friend, foe, or firmament. 

And as the nanobots identified targets, other nanobots - designed for speech - whispered in the ears of our ultras, telling them where to strike.

A Lesser Carnotaur, marching towards where it had last seen the large metal robot, suddenly felt absolute certainty that the enemy was to its right. It struck out, claws and tail stabbing at the foe.

The screech from the darkness as its claws sank into another Lesser Carnotaur rang of both shock and betrayal. Before it could apologize for its error - not that Carnotaurs ever apologized - its victim had retaliated, and two Carnotaurs were at each others’ throats in an deadly struggle in the darkness. 

All thanks to Hypnoscar. The fastest hypnotist in the world. 

The other Lesser Carnotaurs continued their walk through the darkness, occasionally stepping on an unfortunate Grizzeloid or Rover, closing in on the position they had last seen us.

Only to be ambushed, as Ogarr stabbed one with Giant Spear Number Seven - sorry, Gae Bolg - and rocked the second backwards with a mighty punch. 

The third Carnotaur felt a gentle pressure on their shoulder. Before they could swat what seemed to be a giant annoying fly, the pressure vanished. 

The next second, the twenty kilos of TNT dropped off by Devilmade exploded. Right next to the Carnotaur’s head. 

Shields - such as the ones Carnotaurs were equipped with - can mitigate some damage. However, the secondary effects of high explosive going off right next to your ear are not something that can be ignored.

<Nanocloud>: Lesser Carnotaur’s on the ground, howling in pain. Shields half down.

<Belessar>: Anyone finishing the job? 

<Nanocloud>: Chaincaller has it wrapped up in a nice set of giant manacles. It’ll take several minutes to break them.

<Belessar>: And the two Carnotaurs in the furball?

<Nanocloud>: Both bleeding and wounded, cutting each other up. Coordinates for you are - two o’clock, three hundred metres. No friendlies in zone.

<Belessar>: Firing.

Once again, a Starfall missile lanced out, aimed at the battling Carnotaurs. 

For a moment, the cloud of darkness was suffused by white. 

OVERKILL! LESSER CARNOTAUR -5,000,000 HP! LESSER CARNOTAUR -5,000,000 HP!

2 x LESSER CARNOTAURS DEFEATED!

+50,000 XP!

One missile, two targets. Always nice to be economical.

<Nanocloud>: More of the Lesser Carnotaurs are entering the cloud of darkness. They’ve figured short-range melee will work best against you. 

<Belessar>: Time to move to the next.

I began to sprint for the shield boundary, plowing through the darkness. The remaining ultras, warned by Nanocloud, began to make their own way. 

<Nanocloud>: Feline Queen’s tigers are having a lot of fun.

<Belessar>: They aren’t affected by the darkness?

<Nanocloud>: Tigers are nocturnal hunters. A full-grown tiger can take down a Grizzeloid or a Lynxian in seconds. She has forty of them out now, and each is making a kill every minute or two. 

<Belessar>: But the fog should be interfering with their senses too.

<Nanocloud>: Feline Queen has some way of directing them towards a target. I’m setting up target locations for her.

<Nanocloud>: It helps that the infantry are badly spaced. Close enough for a tiger to take one down and move to the next swiftly, not close enough to support each other.

<Belessar>: Grizzeloid infantry don’t usually screw up their spacing.

<Nanocloud>: Oh, their spacing is perfect for bombs and explosives. It’s completely wrong for tigers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second I passed the boundary, light flooded in. 

Rahuket’s fog of darkness had blackened the area within the range of the first shield tower. The second shield tower didn’t have that problem.

At least, not yet.

Black streaks of fog raced out from Rahuket, flooding the area in seconds. The cloud of darkness now extended to the zone of Hierarchy shield tower number two. 

The Hierarchy forces assembling in the area were taken aback. It’s one thing to be psychologically ready to plunge into a zone of complete darkness. It’s another to have the darkness expand to swallow you. 

<Nanocloud>: Who’s the primary ultra for this one?

<Belessar>: Kalthor.

<Nanocloud>: Ooh, I like what you have planned. 

Kalthor Coldstar was with the second group of ultras to enter the new zone, with the first group consisting of me, Rahuket, and Devilmade. He had stayed behind in the first zone, in line with my instructions.

In the first zone, I’d relied heavily on Devilmade, Hypnoscar and Feline Queen to wreak damage on the foe. Their powers benefited most from the element of surprise; a prepared enemy could easily counter them. 

Which was why we’d spent less than a minute dealing with the first shield tower zone. The more time we spent there, the easier it would be for the enemy to come up with a counterattack. 

Like, say, sending a dozen Grizzeloid Stealth Tanks to deal with the pesky intruders. There wasn’t much that could scratch the surface of those things.

However, the Grizzeloid Tanks - because of their size - needed decent visibility to move forward. Otherwise they might run over the very squishy support infantry. 

Rahuket’s clouds of darkness kept them from moving close to the action. And the Hierarchy’s Shield Towers kept them from shooting at us for the few seconds we were visible. 

After all, tank fire can’t penetrate a Hierarchy shield. 

The second zone was pitch dark when Kalthor made his move. A series of bombs, launched from a mortar carried on Kaltor’s jeep.

Well - technically it was the British Army’s jeep. However, when I’d realized Kalthor had nearly four hundred bombs and was trying to carry them around manually, the jeep had been requisitioned on an urgent basis.

Too many inventors spent their time building suits and trying to carry things themselves. Instead of doing the logical thing and buying a car. Or a jeep. 

At the back of the jeep, Kalthor’s mortar launched bomb after bomb, aimed at pre-determined targets. A cluster of Grizzeloid infantry. A dozen Lynxian Rovers, all assembled to probe the fog. 

The flash-freeze effect of the bombs killed most of the enemy infantry outright. The vehicles fared little better, as their component metals contracted at different rates, breaking apart under the shearing forces of thermal contraction. 

Doubtless the enemy would come up with a counter for that as well. However, it would take time. 

<Nanocloud>: Grizzeloid tanks moving. 

<Belessar>: Where?

<Nanocloud>: They’re evacuating the shield zones around the two you’ve darkened. Normal troops are pulling back, and Grizzeloid tanks are being moved forward. It’s a slow process, but they seem to be trying to put an all-tank force against you.

<Belessar>: There’s six zones we could break out into. Which are being reinforced?

<Nanocloud>: Right now, only the ones inward. They’ve got thirty - no, forty - tanks moving forward. 

<Belessar>: Four inward zones and two zones that will take us back to the edge of the shield boundary.

<Nanocloud>: Exactly. So you want to mix it up?

<Belessar>: Yes.

With Kalthor’s bombs freezing everything in the second tower’s zone, our movement was rapid. It took less than a minute to cross the boundary to the third zone.

The Grizzeloid tanks might have been on their way to reinforce it, but the zone was still in chaos. Infantry were leaving their positions and falling back, there were no Lesser Carnotaurs in this zone, and the few remaining Lynxian Rovers were in the middle of a traffic jam.

Orders given in haste from their commanders, but not properly explained. It was natural that there would be some chaos in the withdrawal. 

Which got worse the minute Rahuket flooded the area with his darkness.

Kalthor still had plenty of bombs remaining, so we let him continue to freeze the enemy. 

<Nanocloud>: The first two Grizzeloid tanks arrived in the zone next to you. The others will be in their zones in less than a minute.

<Belessar>: Is Zorka Bousch ready?

<Nanocloud>: Waiting to go. They’re watching for you to break through, and before Rahuket starts spinning up the fog, they’ll fire.

<Belessar>: Tell Feline Queen to send a tiger as a probe.

<Nanocloud>: The tigers are still bogged down in the first zone. 

<Belessar>: Verschwiden, then.

<Nanocloud>: Copy that. He’s walking through the boundary with his invisibility on. Nobody spotted him.

<Belessar>: He’s carrying the loadout?

<Nanocloud>: And he’s firing now. Two missiles, courtesy of Zorka Bousch, from a shoulder-mounted launcher. 

<Nanocloud>: … and the Grizzeloid tanks just shut down. Complete engine failure. 

<Belessar>: Just as advertised. And Adelaar?

<Nanocloud>: Entered the shield zone. Firing his special weapon. Ooh, that’s a big explosion.

Inwardly, I smiled to myself. Adelaar’s ‘special weapon’  was a modified kinetic penetrator, with an explosive core that triggered when it dug deep enough into a hardened target. In other words, a small cruise missile.Unfortunately, it could be dodged quite easily by any target faster than a building. 

So we’d planned a standard one-two punch for Grizzeloid tanks. Verschwiden would stroll up to a firing position, covered by his invisibility, and launch Zorka Bousch’s anti-Carnot bombs - effectively shutting down all power systems on the tanks. After that, Adelaar had eight seconds to emerge and shoot the tanks. 

It would have been difficult for a normal inventor to keep up, but Adelaar was a flight specialist. Like Jetstream and Falcao, his armour enabled him to soar through the air at blinding speeds. Or crawl through it, if he was weighed down by heavy ordnance. 

Said heavy ordnance had just turned two Grizzeloid tanks into vapour. 

Which left the zone clear - at least for now. Clear enough that we could breach. 

<Nanocloud>: Update from Hifara. She’s done.

<Belessar>: That was fast. 

<Nanocloud>: Fall back?

<Belessar>: Fall back. Tower coordinates?

<Nanocloud>: Five o’clock, six hundred metres.

I fired my next Starfall missile. Overkill for a mere Shield Tower, but my hardpoints had only been equipped with Starfalls for this sortie.

The blast lit up the fog for a second in a cascade of white. Then, the darkness began to dissipate.

Not fast enough, though, as the portal I’d spun up opened. 

I sprinted through, the rest of the ultras behind me. 

Our sortie had included twenty-two ultras, including me. I’d left behind some of the less combat-effective ones such as Kalachakra and Shadow. Summoners such as the Feline Queen and Lafayette had also stayed behind, since they could control their summons at range. 

We still had something of a mad scramble coming through the portal. Timing was critical - we couldn’t afford to still be there when Rahuket’s clouds of darkness finally dissipated. 

‘Fighting withdrawal’ is one of the hardest maneuvers to pull off, even for a trained military force. After nearly three years, it was evident to me that ultrahumans were anything but that. 

Still, they managed. 

The last ultras through the portal were Adelaar, carrying a less than amused Veschwiden in a bridal carry. Devilmade, from her perch on my shoulder, snickered. “They make a cute couple.”

“Is everyone through?”

“Near as I can tell.”

“Can you go check?”

Devilmade pouted. “Sure. My awesome powers will now be used to do roll call.”

“I’m sure your teachers would be proud.”

<Nanocloud>: Everyone’s through. You should be asking me that question.

<Belessar>: I know. I just want her off my shoulder for a bit.

<Nanocloud>: Ah. And your other tenant?

<Belessar>: I think he wants off more than I do. 

<Nanocloud>: Hifara’s back, too, and we’re ready to execute. Everyone’s waiting on your order.

Grinning to myself, I shut down the portal. 

<Belessar>: Execute.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My orders to Hifara had never been spoken out loud. Gellatoids could be listening.

So Nanocloud had explained what needed to be done. Via visual messages appearing before her eyes. 

Instructions to dig a tunnel. One that led below the Hierarchy’s layers of shield towers, to the centre of their formation.

The trouble with digging tunnels fast is the noise. And the vibrations. And the trembling of the earth beneath your feet. It’s why sappers - those who dug below the earth to topple fortresses - would work slowly, over months, to breach walls.

We didn’t have months. 

That was why we’d launched the whole sortie. A distraction. When the enemy is flooding your positions with a wicked, gloomy darkness, when missiles are exploding at close range, when the very earth shakes from the movement of your massive hundred-ton tanks as they close on the foe?

A little extra trembling in the earth below can be explained away. 

Hifara had dug a tunnel to the edge of the shield, nearly four hundred feet below us. Then, as we’d started the attack, she’d dug upwards at a frightening pace. 

Upwards enough to reach as close as thirty metres - a hundred feet - below the centre of the Hierarchy formation. And then, she’d retreated as quickly as possible, leaving an empty tunnel at the disposal of our hosts. 

According to Pemberley, the Indian armed forces had two unhealthy obsessions. One was a fascination with rocketry and missiles. Another was a disproportionate number of nukes.

Pemberley had made some muttered comments about ‘nuclear Gandhi’ which I’d never gotten around to researching - a small gap in my education, as it were. Nonetheless, when our hosts had dropped the N-word around Nanocloud?

That nugget had started me on the path to the plan. 

As soon as Hifara had left the tunnel, a special unit of Indian troops had launched a short-range missile through it. Although it would be less accurate to call it a missile and more accurate to call it a drone carrying a very large hydrogen bomb.

Which had reached its desired destination undisturbed. And then Hifara had collapsed the tunnel, sealing it in.

Along with a small number of nanobots, which were still under Nanocloud’s control, and which - at the moment of my order - did the equivalent of ‘pressing the button’. 

The nanobots had been programmed to send a short-range electronic signal to the bomb. They did.

And the ground erupted.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A hydrogen bomb dialled to a forty-kiloton yield went off just beneath the feet of the Hierarchy forces. 

A hundred feet below the ground. What, one would ask, should happen?

The blast wave lifted the packed earth into the air, and everything that stood on it took flight.

Grizzeloid Stealth Tanks, each weighing hundreds of tons, found themselves flung into the air. Gravity reasserted itself moments later, and they came tumbling down - but not the right way.

Turrets shattered, barrels broke, and hundreds of alien warmachines found themselves little more than wreckage.

The unfortunate infantry troopers on the ground were worse off. The first warning they had of anything amiss was when the earth below their feet suddenly began to burn.

Very few survived the heat of the blast, most cooking in their armour before they even knew what was happening.

The Lynxian Steath Rovers were just as badly hit. Lightly armoured, they were meant for hit-and-run tactics, not to survive a battlefield where the rifle had given way to the atom. Hurled into the air, most found their end smashing into their compatriots or larger cousins. More than one Grizzeloid tank found itself decorated with the smashed corpses of the much smaller Rovers. 

The few that survived the ascent did not fare well on the descent. Crashing down to earth, most took disproportionate quantities of fall damage, and an unlucky few found themselves in the path of a tumbling Grizzeloid tank.

And yet, those were not the largest pieces to fall. 

The bulk of the blast’s power had been channelled into the Hierarchy’s shuttles.

Two hundred and ninety-plus shuttles were tossed, turned, and hammered against each other, and against their compatriots. 

What of the shields, one asks? What of the much-vaunted Hierarchy shield towers?

The Shield Towers held for a fraction of a second against the thermal blast effects, weathering them. Then, the ground-based shockwave hit them. 

A Shield Tower can’t maintain its shield when it’s being violently hurled through the air. 

The Towers fell, along with the shields they were maintaining, mere seconds after absorbing the thermal shock of the explosion. 

Amidst the Hierachy troops, chaos reigned. Their neatly ordered formations were shattered and bleeding, their tanks were a mess, and their surviving troops were disorganized and disoriented. 

Our formations had weathered the blast much better. A forty-kiloton nuke, going off nearly five kilometres away and a hundred feet underground, has the impact of a small earthquake - worst at ground zero, but exponentially dropping off the farther out you get. 

Sheer bad luck for the Hierarchy that they happened to be at ground zero, while we were far enough away to be virtually unaffected. 

<Nanocloud>: Tansy reports mild shaking among her tanks. The remaining units are mostly unaffected. 

<Belessar>: Are we ready for Phase Three?

<Nanocloud>: You bet. Incoming now.

Phase One had been the sortie and the underground tunnel. Phase Two had been our retreat, ending in the nuclear detonation.

I mentioned earlier that our hosts, the Indians, had two obsessions. Nukes and rocketry. 

Indians love rockets as much as Americans love guns. They shoot them into the air every year at Diwali, or to celebrate a cricket match well won, or the results of a hard-fought election. Fireworks are a celebration and a passion, and rockets? They even had a rocket scientist as their President once upon a time. 

That passion manifests itself in the Indian armed forces having a disproportionately large supply of rockets - and rocket artillery. 

From the hills and valleys around Lonavala, shielded and secured from the Hierarchy and the effects of the nuclear blast, thousands of rocket launchers opened fire. Tens of thousands of rockets, equipped with far more lethal warheads than the average firework, soared through the air, hurtling down on the beleaguered Hierarchy forces like shooting stars. 

Stars of fire and destruction. 

With their Shield Towers down, their tanks and armour in disarray, and the very ground below their feet collapsed, the Hierarchy troops were sitting ducks. Explosion after explosion slammed into them, the weight of rocket fire unceasing. 

It was beautiful. And deadly. And sang the song of victory.

QUEST COMPLETED: CRIPPLING ATTACK.

RESULTS: 

478 GRIZZELOID STEALTH TANKS DESTROYED.

892 LYNXIAN STEALTH ROVERS DESTROYED.

19,372 GRIZZELOID WARRIORS DEFEATED.

9,376 LYNXIAN COMMANDOS DEFEATED.

53 RAKTURAI VANGUARD WARRIORS DEFEATED.

147 RAKTURAI LANCERS DEFEATED.

1,563 RAKTURAI HUNTERS DEFEATED.

76 LESSER CARNOTAURS DEFEATED.

2 MEDIUM CARNOTAURS DEFEATED. 

66% OF ENEMY FORCES DEFEATED OR DESTROYED. 

REWARD: +1,800,000 XP.

LEVEL UP! YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 80.

LEVEL 80 BONUS: PARTY SIZE EXPANDED. +1 TEAM MEMBER SLOT.

ATTRIBUTE BOOSTS AVAILABLE: 1.

<Belessar>: I finally got a level up. And, um, it comes with the ability to add one more member to our team.

<Nanocloud>: Huh. That’s been a while coming. 

<Belessar>: Also, two-thirds of the enemy are defeated. It looks like things are starting to swing our way.

<Nanocloud>: Yeah, I can tell from the cheering here in the command centre. Things are looking up.

At that point, a voice boomed in my head.

OH YES, VERY WELL DONE. VERY WELL DONE INDEED.