Outside The Wall Part 1: Energy Beasts

“See, this isn’t so bad, is it, Jane?”

Jane leaned on the railing as she surveyed the land passing underneath them. They were still in the city, but had already picked up the cargo and several missing supplies Jane knew they would need. “Steve… we are still in the city. You’ve never been outside the city, and neither have I. This still seems like a bad idea…”

Spoon scoffed from his station at the powering crystal. “But I have. I’ve been to several major cities, and many places in between. This trip is just a little outing, that’s all. It will fly by before you know it. Though I’m still confused why they are offering such a high price for a simple errand…”

Steve shrugged, though carefully keeping his four arms steady on the control levers. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Both Jane and Spoon gave Steve a questioning look. He realized they did not know the expression. “It means don’t question a gift from someone. Does… this world have horses, then?”

Synchronized perfectly, Jane and Spoon burst into laughter. Jane managed to answer through laughter choked words while Spoon just face palmed, face red with mirth. “Of course, horses exist! I can’t believe you don’t know that! There are pressure steeds, shimmering prancers…”

“Wait, what? Those don’t sound like average horse breeds to me. Do they have some special properties or something?”

Jane explained further. “Sure, most energy beasts do. Pressure steeds can store momentum to leap great distances, shimmering prancers can bend light in order to blend into their packs to confuse predators.”

Steve was going to ask about energy beasts in general, but he refrained  in order to avoid further ridicule. He assumed it was something like casters, but with animals instead of people. That was as much information as he needed at the current moment, and hopefully he could pick up more as they traveled through casual conversation.

To Steve’s dismay, the conversation mostly ended as both Spoon and Jane went back to silently watching the buildings go by. They were quickly approaching the airspace above the outer Tempora wall, and on cue a message came through the ship’s cheaply made communicator from a Drone below. “Seeking confirmation from pilot 223, confirm identity and purpose.”

Steve let go of one lever momentarily to press the button to respond. “This is Steve Lyon, transporting cargo outside of Tempora on behalf of Bin.”

“Acknowledged. You are cleared for departure, godspeed.”

With the formality out of the way, Steve gave the rig some more throttle. They lurched forward at a slightly increased speed, though the local gravity field mostly prevented anyone from stumbling by the increased acceleration.

“So, Spoon, how long can you keep this up? I assume we are going to be making stops, but I want to make sure we plan ahead.”

Spoon did not answer, and Steve asked again thinking he had not heard him. Instead of Spoon responding, Jane walked over and handed Steve a contraption that looked like a mask meant to cover only the bottom part of the face. It was built in a way that it would fit Steve’s more angular face. She explained as Steve attached it as she had already done with her own version. “I forgot to mention this, since we left so suddenly... Drones naturally communicate with electromagnetic waves. Non-Drones can still hear us with specialized equipment, but that only works while in Tempora, where all the supporting infrastructure is located. Once we leave… only other Drones can hear us. So we need converters. Which reminds me…”

Jane turned to Spoon. Her voice echoed slightly as the inner sound could be heard by Steve as well as the now audible sound. “Hey, Spoon. You can remove your H-DNA now, it won’t be doing you any good now.”

Spoon nodded, and pressed a finger to his forehead. A metal circlet faded into existence on his head, which he promptly removed and carelessly tossed into a wayward sack. Jane chided him. “Spoon… put it away properly. I won’t be responsible for breaking it.”

Spoon rolled his eyes, and waved his hand as the metal device floated out of the sack and down the hatch to somewhere underneath the deck. “There. Happy?”

Jane gave a wry smile, displayed on her auditory adapter with a series of little lights.

The quiet moment was cut short by multiple pterodactyl-like creatures swarming around the ship. They had some sparse patches of feathers along their leathery wings, and sharp fangs extending off their long beaks. The skin was a orange tinted tan, while the feathers were a deep lavender. Spoon swore, almost forgetting for a moment that he could not leave his station if they wished to keep the ship flying. “Steve! We’ve got sky slashers. We need to lower our elevation if we want them to leave us alone.”

Managing his anxiety and trying to remain calm, Steve gradually reduced their power output, causing the ship to dip towards the ground. The air-based predators lost interest, flying away in a loose pack formation and out of sight.

They were now only a dozen feet above the ground, flying along a path leading between sparse groupings of lush green trees. Below, there were several rhino creatures that were entirely dark blue with glowing green lines along their horns. As they saw the ship, arcs of lightning sparked between them, as they roared with aggressive intent at the hovering mass. Spoon waved a hand, and the beasts immediately turned and scattered. Both Steve and Jane looked at Spoon in confusion, prompting an explanation. “Sky slashers can sense gravity casting, as well as resist it, so using it on them would just make them angrier. But armorarcs? Drop a quick gravity spike nearby, and they won’t test your patience.”

An explosion rang out from the direction they were currently heading. A cloud of smoke rose slowly into the sky, as birds fled from their perches by the flock. Steve watched the ominous smog dissipate, wondering what they would be encountering further in. “Spoon… any idea what that might have been?”

Spoon looked both intrigued and concerned as well. “No idea. There are practically no fire based energy beasts around here, given the foliage would all be ashes in short order if there were. We will need to keep an eye out for something not part of the usual fauna.”

Steve was unsatisfied with the answer, but understood that Spoon was unable to offer him anything more. To his surprise, a holographic list sprung up in front of him, listing schematics in alphabetical order. It had auto filled the search criteria fire energy beast, and was showing the relevant results.

“Jane, didn't you say the usual Drone technology doesn’t work outside Tempora?”

Jane shook her head. “No, I said the H-DNA don’t work outside Tempora. They are networking devices with required resources in the city. All your normal local functionality should function exactly the same.”

Steve didn’t even need to take his hands off the controls as he perused the listing using only his mind, frequently altering the search criteria to get different results. It had all kinds of devices related to energy beasts that told him plenty about the beings they were designed to deal with. Specially constructed cages that prevented captive sky slashers from extending gravity manipulation outside the enclosure, a special light that attracted friendly creatures only referred to as glitterspecks, and even an energite tipped harpoon made for taking down… pyrohemotons?

“Steve, keep it steady! You’re getting awful close to the trees!”

At Spoon’s comment, Steve snapped back to full attention on his piloting. They were relatively close to the ground now, but the trees they were flying between were growing denser. He corrected course back along the center of the path, and resolved to look through the rest of the schematics later. Even though he was receiving it through a roundabout secondary method, the information was extensive and incredibly enlightening.

Now that he had his mind firmly focused back on his surroundings, he noticed the colors had been subtly changing. Though the sun was indeed setting on what had been a very active day, which must have been only beginning as Steve had entered Tempora, this sunset was not like any he had seen in his simulation. The trees now had a muted gray accent to their green leaves, and the shadows looked much sharper. The air felt thick, like they were in a fog, though actual visibility was still high. Nothing distinct and observable had changed, but something definitely felt off. “Spoon… do you feel that? The… fog?”

“Yes… I know what you mean, but I don’t know what to call it. Just a cloud of omen, but… physical. And that isn’t the worst part.”

“What’s the worst part, then?”

Spoon looked Steve directly in the eyes with grim expression. “It reminds me of Vorpals. I’ve fought no small number of them, and the similarity is indefinable, but unmistakable. Steve… exactly what did you rope me and Jane into?”

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