16.1: Battle with the Corporates pt 1

When Lusac finished his meal, he slid his bowl back in satisfaction. It turned out that a recipe tasted a lot better when it was made exactly as it was supposed to be. To add to his enjoyment, a small notification popped up in his vision.

[Quest Complete: Perfect Soup]

With all the [XP] he'd gotten as of late from his time spent in the kitchen, he was actually going to level up again. Lus was hopeful that with the recent mission, he was due for some better stat boosts.

All the rest of the crew had eaten already, so Lus added his bowl to the mass of dirty dishes which the cleaning golem would take care of during the night and started back towards his quarters. He had a check up with Doctor Fusi scheduled for the next day to ensure his shoulder had healed properly, and then he'd be back to maintenance work. Becky had already informed him multiple times how miserable she'd been trying to manage all the tasks herself for the past few days.

Back in his quarters he was greeted by a chirpy Avil. The cat had been even more needy since Lus's return, though Becky claimed she spent at least an hour a day with the cyclops cat during his absence. As much as he hated to admit it, Lus enjoyed having a creature so dependent on him. It was something he hadn't experienced since the loss of his childhood dog seven years prior.

"And how's my favorite cyclops?" Lus asked as he bent down to scratch Avil's chin. The cat purred as he rubbed against Lusac's legs, pressing his head firmly into his calf.

"Alright, alright. I'll hold you. Don't go shoving me down," Lus said as he bent down to scoop up the lump of black fur. Keeping his load, Lus then went to his beat up couch and flopped down. Avil quickly moved to curl up in the crook of his arm, still humming away.

"Time to get that level up." Lusac called up the screen and navigated to the [Quests] tab where he officially completed [Perfect Soup] to get the last [100 XP] he needed for the level up. He noted that there was also a miscellaneous reward, but he decided to look at that after seeing how his stats changed.

Upon properly completing the quest, two new notifications popped up as Lus eagerly navigated back to the home screen.

[XP Gained: 100]

[Level Up: Level 2 -> Level 3]

On his stats page, Lus got the usual notification about the system choosing for him and discovered his new array.

[Stamina: 6]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Strength: 4]

[Charm: 6]

[Health: 9]

[Speed: 8]

[Common Sense:0]

[Luck: 19]

He was both happy and unhappy at the same time as he noted what it chose for him. [Stamina] increased up to 6 and [Health] up to 9, both ones he would have chosen for himself. But his [Charm] also increased by 1 to be at a 6. At least [Common Sense] was at 0 now instead of -1. [Luck] skyrocketed for some reason to be 11 points higher.

"That's strange. I guess that last mission relied a lot more on chance than I realized," he muttered to himself. He didn't have much time to question the strange occurrence as yellow emergency lights began flashing alongside a set of four warning beeps.

"That's the battle alarm," Lus said as he shot up, dropping an unhappy Avil to the couch alone. "I gotta go. Sorry, Avil. We can hang out later."

The corridor was crammed full of other crew members rushing to their stations. While technically he wasn't on full duty, an emergency like this would require everyone in their proper places, regardless of injury leave so Lusac went to the Systems Control alongside about ten others from the quarters.

Yrqw was already there, shouting orders around to everyone who wasn't already engaged with something. Becky was waiting nearby, pulling on the gear for the tubes.

Lusac went to her and began dressing in his own equipment. If the ship took any hits, it would be on them to keep the systems operational from inside. While being one of the more vital jobs in a battle, it was also the most hazardous due to the damage they would be diving into as well as the risk of being in the direct line of fire since most of the systems fsylan tubes were near the walls of the ship.

"Do you know what's going on? Who are we getting into a firefight with? I thought we were going to enter the Highway tonight," Lus voiced as he tightened his headlamp.

"I'm not sure. I got here only a couple of minutes before you, but no one's told me anything," Becky confessed.

"Corporates," Yrqw explained. Dre-Shawiv finally showed up and had taken over the job of yelling at the crew. "Apparently they've been tracking us for a couple days. They caught our scent back at Vipor from what I heard."

The blood drained from Lus's face. That couldn't be his fault, right? Surely this had nothing to do with his run-in with Shent. Vipor was a Corporate stronghold so there were a million other ways they could have latched onto the Runners' trail.

Yrqw stared at him with wary eyes. "Are you sure you're good to be in the tubes, Lus? I can't have you stuck in there, blocking the way for others if your injury starts to inhibit you."

"I'm fine, Yrqw. It's healed already. I was supposed to see Fusi about going back to full duty tomorrow," Lus promised.

The Kremel dipped his head, accepting the story. Lus didn't mention that there was still the occasional twinge of pain that probably should keep him from fyslan tube for another day or so, not when there was a chance this was his fault anyway.

He slid on a slim backpack that was designed to be worn close to the body while crawling through the tube. It held every tool imaginable in it since he would need to be prepared to make every kind of repair.

"Alright. Here are your comm units. They're tuned to listen to the general band so you can stay on top of repairs as they come, but we'll only communicate directly with each other. I'll give specific orders if we get overrun with repair requests, but for now use your best judgment." Yrqw held out the radios to both of the Humans. "Becky, stay here in Systems for any engine or shield trouble we may have. Lus, head up to Deck Four so you're in position if any of the weapons systems take a hit."

Lus took the unit from the Kremel and hooked it to his belt. He then placed the accompanying ear piece on his right ear, giving it a tug to make sure it was secure.

"Good luck, Lus," Becky said, patting his shoulder. "Keep yourself in one piece, okay? You owe me a lot of favors that I intend to cash in at some point."

"Yeah. Yeah. You only get to do that if you manage to survive this yourself." Lus grinned before diving back into the chaos. Making it up three levels to the fourth deck might be a little hard with everyone running around handling other emergencies, but it gave him time to listen in to the comms and get a sense of how the Argo was faring.