I started our little rest break by sinking the first 2 skill points I had into Howl of Courage. When Kaiser used the ability, it would increase damage caused by the whole EDGE Force team by 15% by 5 seconds, and he could use it once every 2 minutes. I told Kaiser to use this as often as he could during combat, and he indicated that he understood.

Xiphos invested her couple of points into an ability which increased the team’s accuracy with firearms while we were within a certain radius of her. Stiletto went for a burst damage ability which made him more deadly coming out of his Cloak & Dagger ability. Xiphos was of the opinion that Stiletto would be our main striker, and that we should focus on his high burst damage capability. Nobody argued with that.

Naginata invested in a skill which gave an edged weapon damage boost to any partner she fought back to back with. Khopesh was undecided.

“I have two abilities that will help, but I don’t know which to choose,” he explained. “One will increase the defensive capabilities of Desert Shield. The other will let me cleave limbs from enemies more easily, which lets me cut off areas of infection.”

“What is in your Support skill column?” Xiphos asked, which echoed my own thoughts.

I thought we were all supposed to be focussing on abilities that increased the team’s power. Stiletto was different, but that was Xiphos’s call.

“It is a useless ability,” Khopesh spat, then cast a pointed look at Stiletto.

Was Khopesh jealous of Stiletto?

“What is the ability?” Xiphos asked.

I had to chime in. “I chose my Support skill because it benefitted everyone. Not just me.”

Khopesh grumbled. “My Support skill just gives people a 1% chance to dodge enemy attacks. It is worthless!”

“How many ranks is it?” Xiphos asked, staying pointedly calm as a counterpoint to Khopesh’s growing frustration.

“Five!”

“Then at its most potent, that increases the collective dodge chance of our entire team by 25%,” Xiphos explained. “You want to focus on your own strength, which is ultimately worth less to the team as a whole.”

Naginata and I shared a knowing look, while Stiletto got up and walked away.

“I’m just going to go look in the back for supplies,” Stiletto said.

Khopesh was being selfish, and the rest of us could see it.

“Okay,” Khopesh finally relented. “It’s done.”

“Good,” Xiphos said. “We are stronger together than we would be apart. If these nemorti are just the first stages of this infection, then we are likely to have a fight on our hands once we reach the next village.”

“I’m going to head out with Stiletto,” I said as I got to my feet. “Lots of supplies back there.”

“Good. See if there’s anything worth taking,” Xiphos said. “Crafting is going to work a little differently this time around. It always does on team missions. There are no crafting levels or different rarities. The components you use to make something defines the level and effectiveness of anything you make.”

“Can any of us craft?” I asked.

“Of course. Just try it out and you’ll see what I mean. Find yourself a workbench back there if there is one.”

“I will,” I said.

Last mission I’d used crafting to power level and worked out how to take a crafting space with me wherever I went. Hopefully I could employ a similar strategy here.

Kaiser sat next to Naginata, who kneeled on the floor. Her hand rubbed the back of Kaiser’s neck, then she slowly worked her way up to scratch behind his ears. The look on Kaiser’s face was pure ecstasy.

“Stay here, you big lug. Don’t love him up too much, Naginata. He’ll never leave you alone.”

Naginata smiled, which completely changed her entire look. Normally serious, her smile lit her whole face up.

“I would be okay with that,” she said.

Kaiser is a god-damned heart throb and he knew it. I swear he winked at me as I walked away.

Rho’s voice crackled into my earpiece as I followed Stiletto. “EDGE Command is still detecting anima signatures that match the nemorti in the village around you. Cleanse the village of their corruption before moving on and we’ll send down a supply drop with some useful gear for the mission ahead.”

Xiphos replied. “Understood.”

New Mission Received: Search and Destroy

Objective: Destroy all aberrant anima deviants that remain in the village

Reward: 500 experience points and a supply drop

That supply drop was something new. There was nothing like that on Mori Island. The cult must have known about EDGE Force and their interest in the happenings on the island to be able to block communications and supply drops.

This situation in the Romanian mountains was different. Nobody had expected us to be here, so nobody blocked our access. This was a freak occurrence. A disaster in the making. Something still rolling forward that we didn’t fully understand yet.

My writer brain descended into a spiral of dread possibilities, each more horrible and reality-threatening than the last as I followed Stiletto back into the storage room.

I expected to have to walk over the bodies of the nemorti in the hall, but they weren’t there. Piles of what appeared to be dust or ash lay where their corpses once had.

“Damn, will you look at that,” I said. “They’ve all crumbled to dust.”

“You and Naginata kill some back here?” Stiletto asked.

I nodded. “Three of them. Another back in the other room. They must have disintegrated into this after they died.”

“Do they still have loot?” Stiletto asked.

We hadn’t even tried to loot the corpses earlier. There had been no time. I held out my hand towards one of the dust piles and was happy to see a loot table appear.

Loot

Armour parts (Insulated)

9mm rounds x 3

Healing Herb

A few bullets, and some other survival supplies. I’d need to experiment with the crafting interface to see what I could do with the other items. The armour parts were probably for warm gear with resistance to the cold, which we’d need if we went back out into the elements.

The other two dust piles provided similar loot. Two more insulated armour parts, a few shotgun shells, and this time some firearm parts.

It looked like crafting components were broken down by type and use. They had no scaling quality categories like last time, like Xiphos had said. I’d probably have to use firearm parts for guns, armour parts for armour, and so on and so forth. Would there be edged weapon parts too? I’d have to wait and see.

“Spaghetti. Nice,” Stiletto said as he picked up a can from one of the shelves. He slipped it into his inventory.

“We should take as much food as we can,” I agreed.

It was unfortunate that our inventory was so limited. Finding another bag or container to expand that inventory space would be very important.

“Lots of food back here,” Stiletto said into his mic. “Too much for me to carry by myself though.”

“We’ll base ourselves out of this village for a little while longer,” Xiphos replied. “Until we finish the search and destroy mission. Just gather all the non-perishable food up and we’ll take what we can carry when we leave.”

So it was ordered, so it was done.

I closed the door Naginata had shouldered open earlier. The cold and the snow had blown into the other end of the room and was freezing everything.

The shelves were chock a block full of useful stuff. I found a bunch more armour scraps and a couple more weapon parts. There was a workbench towards the back of the room, too. The outline of the bench flashed as I approached, almost as though the EDGE Force augment was overlaying something on top of it.

The crafting interface appeared as I approached.

The interface was broken down into a number of item types and subtypes. Armour broke down into different slots, like head, torso, gloves, pants and so on. Edged weapons and firearms were their own individual categories, but the edged weapons section only had upgrades available.

EDGE Force were really keen on this whole callsign weapon matchy matchy thing. What if I wanted a sword? Or a spear? Or something other than the tactical hatchet they’d thrust upon me?

I’d spent long enough as Hatchet now that I felt like he was almost like an alter ego. JD Rideout was this awkward Dad cosplaying as a successful writer who was just living off past glory, but Hatchet wasn’t like that.

Hatchet was King Shit.

He’d saved the god-damned world once, and if things went the way I thought they were going to, he’d do it again.

Maybe compartmentalising that aspect of my own identity wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

My tactical hatchet could be upgraded a number of ways. I could spend generic edged weapon parts on it to increase its stats, or I could add mods that changed the way it worked. I hadn’t seen a mod yet, but the fact they were referenced in the crafting system meant they were out there.

The same went for Gravedigger and Ironbark. They could be upgraded or modded, but I didn’t have enough material to do anything significant.

Armour parts could be used to make clothing and bags, which was exactly what I wanted to see. I’d started this mission with an inventory containing 10 slots, only half of which were filled. Ammo, parts and the single healing herb left me another 5 slots free. Making myself a new bag was top of my list.

“Have you got any armour parts?” I asked Stiletto, who was busy ransacking the shelves for food.

“Nope,” he replied and continued stacking cans of food in a central place as Xiphos had asked.

“Back in a second,” I said, then headed back into the main area.

Xiphos, Khopesh and Naginata were on their feet.

“Heading out?” I asked.

Xiphos nodded. “We’re getting started on the search and destroy mission. You and Stiletto gather supplies. When you’re done, jump on comms and let us know.”

“Before you go, I just want to run my strat by you,” I said. “I’m going to gather all of the armour parts from the loot tables out here and make some bags. More storage space means more stuff we can take with us in our magic video game inventories, right?”

“A good strategy,” Xiphos said.

“Grab as many crafting parts as you can while you’re out there. Stiletto and I will do the same here. We’ll upgrade as much of our gear as we can before we head out, then grab that supply drop after you’re finished with the mission.”

Kaiser barked once. Yes.

“You stay with them, okay?” I asked Kaiser. “I’m sure you’ll be able to sniff out any of these things that are hiding in the snow, right?”

Another bark. Yes.

“I will take care of him,” Naginata replied.

“You’d better,” I said.

She offered me a smile, followed by a quick bow.

I didn’t know the proper etiquette for bowing in Japan, so I tried to match her movement.

“We’ll keep in contact,” Xiphos said. “Stockpile as many crafting parts as you can and we’ll prioritise upgrades when we’re done with the mission.”

“Righto. See you ‘round like a rissole,” I said.

Khopesh screwed up his face. “What did you call us?”

“Sorry, it’s an Aussie thing. When you say goodbye to mates, see you ‘round like a rissole is just something we say. Sorry, I’ll try to keep the slang to a minimum.”

Xiphos grinned, then spoke in the most god-awful Australian accent I’ve ever heard. “Righto, cobber. We’ll put a shrimp on the barbie, hey?”

With that, she turned and walked out of the hall, leaving me to laugh to myself.

“We don’t call them shrimp in Australia! They’re bloody prawns!” I called out after Xiphos, but they were already gone.

I looted the dusty remnants of the nemorti in the hall, including the prykolic. It had crumbled too, but the dusty remains covered a much larger area. The prykolic had one piece of higher quality loot on it, along with the normal loot I’d expect to see. The Sharpshooter Scope was a rifle mod that increased critical hit firearm damage by 10%. It would be a perfect fit for Stiletto’s sniper rifle.

The other enemy remains contained some more herbs and other baseline crafting parts. When I joined Stiletto I handed the new mod over to him.

“I think this is for you,” I said.

“Whoa, this is great. Look at this, Tasha. You’re getting an upgrade,” Stiletto said over his shoulder at the butt of his rifle.

“Your weapon’s name is Tasha?”

Stiletto smiled knowingly. “Yes. She is a Barrett M82A1 semi-automatic rifle, and she has taken many lives in the service of my country. Now? In service of this world.”

“Why Tasha?”

The smile remained. “Named after a ghost I once loved.”

That was how I felt about my ex-wife, Emily. The woman I knew now was not the same one I married all those years ago. They say that on a cellular level you become a brand new person every seven years as each and every one of your cells is replaced by a new version. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. I don’t know. I’m no scientist.

What I do know is that people who grow up together, fall in love in high school, have kids and a life, can still grow to be two completely incompatible people as the years drag on.

The happy, fun-loving Emily I fell in love with turned into someone that I barely recognised. I guess I did the same, so it’s not all her fault. We just grew apart.

“Are you okay, amigo?” Stiletto asked.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about a ghost I loved once too.”

Stiletto nodded. “Come on, let’s get prepped to leave.” He lifted a finger to his earpiece and switched it on. “How are you going out there, Captain?”

“Good, but we could use more eyes. There are lots of buildings in this village, and we need to sweep them all. How far away are you?” Xiphos asked.

“Just making some bags now to store the supplies,” Stiletto replied. “We’ll be there soon.”

“Just follow the sound of gunfire,” Xiphos said before letting the line go quiet.

Stiletto and I finished our task. We made five 10 slot bags and equipped one each. We loaded as much food and crafting parts as we could. I suggested that Stiletto should upgrade his rifle while we were here, but he dutifully reminded me that Xiphos wanted a say in our upgrade pathway, which I respected. Stiletto was a real soldier. Not like me, who was just pretending.

The rest of the group were easy to find. We followed the trail of bodies which were in various phases of breaking down. No loot tables appeared when I checked them, so the others had probably looted them as they went.

The team stood outside a single storey house with their guns raised at the doorway. Kaiser burst from the door, trailing two nemorti. The team gunned them down once Kaiser was clear, then stepped forward to loot the bodies.

Naginata raised a hand as we approached, then Rho’s voice came through the earpiece.

“All traces of aberrant anima have been eliminated,” he said.

“Really? That’s it?” Xiphos asked.

“That’s it,” Rho confirmed.

Another notification appeared as I handed the new bags out to Xiphos, Naginata and Khopesh.

Mission Complete: Search and Destroy

Objective: All aberrant anima deviants destroyed

Reward: 500 experience points and a supply drop

A bright spot appeared in my view, way up in the sky. A distance metre counted down as the supply drop fell until it slammed into the ground just over two kilometres away. That experience total jumped up to 625 after it glitched out for a second, which elevated me to Level 4, bringing another skill point with it.

“I tried to get it to drop as close as I could,” Rho said. “We’ve got a new waypoint for you all, with a better way to get to our facility on the other side of the valley. There’s a ski resort up ahead with some ski lifts that should get you pretty close to where you need to go.”

“Once we sort out our upgrade situation here, we’ll be on our way,” Xiphos said.