CoJoGo

CH 214: Fresh Air

+ Reid +

On Nyx's insistence, Reid stumbled his way into the shower in Dr. Ferber's sparse bedroom, and let the water wash him clean of the blood and gore. He emerged clean, and laid down the doctor's towels and some clothing to make a semi-dry path through the bloodsoaked room. Reid gave the mad, malformed doctor one last hateful glance before he closed the door to the man's room and ripped off the handles.

Standing over the bed, a few things were clear. First wa...

CH 213: Analogue

+ Reid +

Reid gently ran a hand over the mutated Vuxarinan child's head.

In one of those amusing, ironic situations that life was so full of, Susan was often out traveling or pulling double shifts as a nurse when Sara came down with something. So Reid found himself caring for their sick daughter more often than not. He was no medical professional, but he'd gotten quite good at reassuring and comforting gestures. He was also a pro at stovetop cooking canned chicken...

CH 212: Tilt

./\.+ Lycra +./\.

Hirv and Vidita grabbed onto the side of Lycra's cart to stabilize themselves, then both looked at the mouth of the tunnel where light was spilling through the defenses. It intensified and drew closer as the rocks and defenses gave way with a series of popping noises.

Vidita snatched his backpack off the cart and sprinted towards the growing noise and heat. Hirv and Lycra ran after her.

As soon as she was past the carts, she turned the pack...

CH 211: Better Plan, Part Six

+ Reid +

For a brief moment, the room was silent. The scarred man and his fellow black-armored bastards lowered their heads as they watched Reid's dropped weapon and shield clatter on the floor.

He didn't waste it.

Reid plucked a slug off his right tasset and whipped it at the man holding the pistol. He threw the left one a fraction of a second later at the man holding the sedative tube. He wasn't taking any chances. Not here. Not about these black-armored f...

CH 210: Better Plan, Part Five

+ Reid +

Requiem's ivory flanges smashed their way clear through another wall. Thick chunks of the reinforced glass and twisted metal were thrown into the room, where they obliterated a set of delicate looking equipment aimed towards a low-leveled spider fang. Reid slammed his mace into each wall in that room in turn, hopeful that his impacts would reveal a new hidden space or corridor. Something to investigate. A sign that he still had a chance of finding Randal Ferber...

CH 209: Better Plan, Part Four

+ Reid +

Light grew from the bottom of the elevator shaft as Reid's descent carried him past the named floors. He caught glimpses of each. Imagination was a hall full of glass-front rooms filled with assortments of plants, or furniture, or toys. Each room seemed to be color-coordinated to a single shade. Fun was painted with cotton candy colors, and had a bucket of toys a few feet past where the elevator would've opened, had it stopped. Healing was another space filled ...

CH 208: Better Plan, Part Three

+ Reid +

The Ferber Compound was a truly massive complex. From the air, Reid could see four separate layers of walls and defenses that surrounded the entire area. Inside, there were two runways next to a sizeable aircraft hangar, which itself was then dwarfed by an L shaped building made of concrete and glass. A number of smaller structures dotted the landscape, including one mid-sized square building near the old main access road that Reid pegged as a hotel. It seemed ...

CH 207: Better Plan, Part Two

<+=/ Jenna \=+>

Jenna sprinted across the crystal sorting room to the far wall, between the two freight doors on the right side. She let her back slam into the metal structure, where it groaned and bent slightly under the force. Back at the crystal pile, Lycra was steadying his breathing and holding both hands out in front of him. Jenna tried to steady herself as well. Her genius was struggling, and there was something deeper to that than his worry about the delay...

CH 206: Better Plan, Part One

./\.+ Lycra +./\.

Inside the belly of the digger, it was a tedious fight.

Every narrow hallway and corner was a stronghold. Every door was a reinforced gate. The enemy held on like every inch of ground lost would be the end of their entire defense.

They weren't far off.

Ahead, a single long corridor connected two sides of the digger's internal structure in a H-shape, and a pair of Belar guards were taking turns firing blindly from either side of the fa...

CH 205: Bubbles

<+=/ Jenna \=+>

Magic swelled from the third member of their squad, and Jenna had to shield her eyes as its intensity grew with tremendous speed. Visible arcs formed and leapt out to six separate points further at the edges of their attacking group's formation. Where each landed, the glow intensified. With another pulse, The space between each point was covered with a partially translucent shield made of magical light. It formed a rough dome overhead that covered ...

CH 204: Contact

<+=/ Jenna \=+>

A memory of the final pre-mission brief was still vivid in her mind as Jenna stepped foot through the narrow gap, and out into the mine.

---

Hirvonen had briefed a room set deep with chairs - the scouts and forces involved in the operation, as well as higher-ups in their combined armed forces that would not be taking part in the assault. He pointed to a slab of rock shaped to be a top-down, 3d model of the mine. It contained more intric...

CH 203: Plans and Operations

+ Reid +

Reid tightened his grip on a specifically made, weak bone sphere. It was one of twenty he'd crafted in preparation for the wave - a throwable strong enough to break a spider, but not so strong that it would also sail through half the city after the first impact.

He swept a cautious gaze over the continued fighting. It was, in truth, going far better than he'd hoped. He expected to have to step in and stop deaths nearly immediately, and anticipated he woul...

CH 202: Sandwiches, Two

./\.+ Lycra +./\.

He watched on with rapt attention as Norton concentrated and his magic flared. Before Lycra's eyes, chopped up sections of worm morphed into thick cuts of red and white meats. The newly altered food was quickly hauled away by one of the other helpers. It was headed to the prep line, where other helpers worked. Lycra watched the deliciousness leave the room, and turned his attention back to the benevolent breadgiver. His magic flared again as he worked ...

CH 201: Sandwiches, One

+ Reid +

Clouds formed and swirled against the barrier of the massive mountain range to his left. Each peak rose imposingly into the sky, with steep slopes and often jagged sections of rock that appeared as though they would make traversal a harrowing exercise. Then there was the spiders.

Thousands of the overgrown arachnids swarmed over vast webbed sections of the landscape. They seemed to be hunting North of the range, and brought their spoils back to the top of...

CH 200: Lost

/-__+ Talcinor Debrine Jr. +__-\

He walked along the familiar streets of the undercity with uncertain steps that echoed off the sealed stones. His head was fogged, and he had long stopped thinking about what he was trying to do, or where he was trying to go. The answer was, Tal didn't know. He couldn't know. The excusion to the surface was a tragedy that had somehow seen them still return safely home. He should have been happy, he knew. But he still felt everything was ...

CH 199: Nuts

+ Reid +

After an hour long shower that pruned his fingertips, Reid was almost entirely certain he'd washed all the gore off himself properly. He emerged to find a fresh set of clothing, and a note that food would be delivered to the room next door. He spent some time summoning weapons and armor out of his storage devices until Isobel knocked and entered, a tray with three steaming hot dishes in her hands.

Reid barely heard what she said, but she left the tray wit...

CH 198: Headache

+ Reid +

His fingers rubbed against both temples. Dayo Evni was proving to be a goddamn headache.

Its former 'leader', Hester, was bound with a series of custom-made bone manacles, and had been fitted with a solid bone muzzle after he wouldn't shut the hell up while Reid was trying to put together all the pieces of this problematic town. Ironically, his muzzled presence seemed to make most people open up to Reid more freely.

A series of 'interviews' conducte...

CH 197: New Towns

+ Reid +

In the days of travel since his revelation - and the resulting confirmation from Nyx - Reid hadn't been able to relax. The system was overloaded, and it also for some goddamn reason had a grudge against Reid.

She had tried to lead him somewhere else, he was certain of it. The minute blips of negative emotion she tried to hold in were proof enough that he had failed to grasp everything she wanted him to know. But between her restrictions and Reid'...

CH 196: Shadows on the Wall

^+ Nyx +^

She shuddered at his words. He wasn't... wrong, per se. But he also hadn't come nearly close enough to what she wanted him to understand. It wasn't his fault for being off the mark. Not at all. It was hers.

Still, he scraped at the far outer edges of what she so desperately desired to reveal, to offer, to apologize for. Her mouth parted and the intent to form the words welled within her, only to push against the limitation which punished her for...

CH 195: Teacher

+ Reid +

[ Time is a bitch. It changes everything. There's not enough in a day, and there's too much in a year. This last quest took me a decade to complete. People died while I was gone. People were born - now they're old enough to walk. And people started moving on from things I haven't had the spare time to process. I think I need a break. Maybe I'll take Mark's advice. ]

-

-
The first message he'd unlocked in a while was another ...

CH 194: Student

..+.. Quinlan ..+..

Quinlan chewed his meal - and his face twitched a smile. It probably felt bigger than it was - but it felt... good.

'Do you want to take a break, or keep going?'

'I want to take a break.'

'Do you want a water?'

'No, but I'm hungry.'

Those two responses were innocuous, but it was twice in a row where he'd spoken up for himself and his own desires. He was sure his teacher's story had been more tool than reality - mor...

CH 193: The Boring Story, Three

<+=/ Jenna \=+>

**In The Tutorial**

Lycra was a liar.

The thought came unbidden, amidst a raging torrent of pain that sent her body convulsing and twisted her throat in a silent scream.

Getting clipped by one of Belar's rifles hurt. Crash landing a broken airframe hurt. Getting slammed by the tutorial's impossibly dense rain had hurt.

Evolving to F grade was torture.

She tried a...

CH 192: The Boring Story, Two

<+=/ Jenna \=+>

She eyed the large, generator-like contraption on the cart. It had wires snaking out from various points, connected to the control in her hand and the cannon set atop her shoulder. Lycra was behind at the power source's controls, finely tuning the configuration for 'optimal output'. Around them, a large mass of fighters wore the telltale patchwork armor of their combat forces. Some was discolored from use - but not broken. Hirvonen and the rest had...

CH 191: The Boring Story, One

<+=/ Jenna \=+>

Jenna watched on with rapt attention, mesmerized again, as Lycra's fingers moved and flexed with deft precision to carve the final crystal into its necessary composite shape. He looked at the completed product with his gleaming eyes, and gave a content nod as he slotted it into place and closed a cover on a long bench covered in tools and controls. He flashed Jenna a fang-toothed smile, and then focused towards the object of his real attention.

CH 190: You know, when I was in prison...

+ Reid +

Another airborne arachnid accelerated towards their group, and Reid casually tossed a slug-powered marrowbomb into the oncoming beast. It deformed around the sphere and popped into a puddle of smoking goo. Behind him, the group was decked out in simple, somewhat ill-fitting bone armor, and each held a bonecraft spear. Everyone but Rongo was screaming. He turned to the weathered sailor.

"What about that time?"

The man shook his head, and Reid sighed....

CH 189: Breakfast

+ Reid +

He stirred to the indistinct sounds of activity in the street below, and the smell of grilling fish wafting up and through the window to his room. Reid slipped himself out of his dreamroll - yes, he had used it on top of the bed, and yes it was the best idea - and put his always-perfect temperature sleeping bag back into storage. He summoned his armor out next, and spent a few minutes on some light cleaning before he put it on. Requiem followed, with extra time...

CH 188: Casual Conversation

The storefront he'd haphazardly chosen for the meeting with Dayo Sovni's leading trio was a bar. A long, L-shaped wooden bartop dominated the space, with a band of wide-hole, perforated metal near the floor dirtied by hundreds or thousands of shoes resting there. The stools at the bar were made like bicycle seats, with a single vertical metal piece to act as a backrest. The sticky floor stretched out from the bar, to where a series of tables were set against the wall, with lower, more standar...

CH 187: Help

+ Reid +

His original plan had been to fly in fast, and take down as many beasts as possible to save the most lives he could. When he slowed and opened his eyes to take in the situation, he instead found himself faced with an... odd scenario. Most of the spiders were already dead, save for a pair that floated oddly far from the group of locals huddled on the sand next to a dark ocean that set small, soft waves against a crescent beach.

He flapped in midair for a f...

CH 186: Terror

+ Reid +

Air rushed over his exposed face under the cool light of two intact moons. Flying without a helmet made everything better. It gave him a better sense or orientation and speed, expanded his peripheral vision so he knew when to expect an incoming enemy, and made identifying his path forward much easier. It also let him feel the full wind on his face. He shifted for another forward stroke, and dirt shook loose between the seams of his armor.

It fell...

CH 185: Hard Counters, Four

)+\( Hugo )/+(

Hugo stumbled back on unsteady feet, and looked down at his shaking hands. The bone armor that covered them was beset by a series of harsh cracks, and he knew Serroc's bone gauntlets would not last much longer. The rest of the armor was strained as well, worn and damaged from its arduous task to keep him alive, despite the golems' best efforts.

His gamble had worked - for a time. Relying on the stats granted by his level, and the armor gifted by his...