We prioritised upgrades in a straightforward way. The cold was going to be just as dangerous to us out there as any nemorti might be. We focused on making sure that our gear was resistant to the cold, even if the upgrades wouldn't increase the armour value of the item itself. We didn't quite have enough of the warm armour scraps to coldproof every piece of armour, but we managed a decent amount before we ran out.

We prioritised boots, gloves, and chest armour, which would keep our extremities from getting frostbite while protecting our core.

Stiletto got the scope upgrade, just as I thought he should. The other guys did find a couple of edged weapon parts, which they distributed to Stiletto and Naginata. Stiletto would be using his daggers for sneak attacks from stealth, so they needed to be as powerful as possible.

Naginata had the advantage of being able to keep enemies at range with her edged weapon, which was an advantage that no-one else had. For the rest of us, relying on our edged weapon meant an up close and personal fight.

“Hatchet, I have some concerns about your loadout and your strategies,” Xiphos said as we were finishing up.

“Oh?” I asked.

“Your class skill and your weapon choices don't really add up,” she continued. “Your skill increases Kaiser’s offensive and defensive capabilities, while also taking the enemy’s focus. Now I know you don’t want Kaiser to be a punching bag, and neither do I, so listen up. Handgun ammunition is always common in these missions. Shotgun ammo, not so much. But for you to use your shotgun, you need to get up close and personal, which is really what your hatchet is for. Do you see where I’m getting at with this?”

I did, but I didn’t like it.

“You want me to use a different weapon,” I said.

Xiphos nodded. “At least something with a mid range, like an assault rifle or an SMG. Stiletto’s the best damn shot I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s because he’s been killing with a long range rifle for years. I’m going to use some of these parts to make you an assault rifle or an SMG. Do you have a preference?”

I shook my head. “No, sir. I trust your judgement.”

Xiphos nodded again, this time with a smile on her face. “Well all right then. An SMG will give you flexibility when you need it. Here, take this.”

She crafted the weapon, then handed it to me. It had the same basic shape as a Heckler & Koch MP5, with a long barrel, curved magazine in front of the trigger guard, and a lightweight stock.

Submachine Gun (Crafted)

Ammo: 9mm rounds

Dual fire types: Burst and Full

Damage: 0.5

Rate of Fire: 0.2

Capacity: 15

It felt weird to have a weapon with a generic name and appearance like this. I was so used to having Gravedigger and Ironbark as my only two weapons, and both had a little personality. The rate of fire on this SMG was insane though. Five rounds per second was better than either of my other weapons, and that was at the base level.

Before we left, I checked the upgrade pathways for the SMG, and confirmed that the fire rate could be upgraded multiple times, as could the capacity of the weapon. It could turn into a bullet spewer without much effort at all.

Arguably the best thing about the SMG was that it used the same ammunition as Ironbark.

“There’s one more thing we need to do before we leave,” I said as I grabbed a small segment of offcut wood hiding between two shelves.

I put the piece of wood down on the workbench as the rest of the team huddled around.

“What are you doing?” Khopesh asked.

“He’s breaking down the wood,” Stiletto added. “But I’m not sure why.”

“That’s not what I’m doing. Watch this,” I said, then placed Ironbark on top of the wood. “How many firearm upgrade parts do we have left?”

“Half a dozen,” Xiphos replied.

“I need them,” I said.

To my surprise, Xiphos handed the parts over without question.

I upgraded Ironbark’s damage from 1 to 1.1. A minor upgrade, but it did the trick. It convinced my EDGE Force augment that this piece of wood was a part of the crafting bench. I lifted the newly converted tiny workbench away from the big crafting space and put it down on a nearby shelf. I repeated the process and showed the rest of the team that I could use this as a crafting space now.

Xiphos’s eyes went wide. “How did you do that?”

“This system that they’ve inflicted upon all of us can be exploited,” I explained. “Many triggers are based on our own perceptions of how that system should work. Crafting can only be done at workbenches, but during my last mission I figured that there was no way EDGE Force could get down onto that island and designate workbenches to allow crafting. Something in the augment had to do that of its own accord. So I figured out a way to convince it that a little piece of jagged metal was a crafting space that I could take with me and used it to break the system.”

Everyone’s eyes went wide as I recounted the events on Mori Island. Everyone but Naginata, who just smiled.

“Very clever,” Naginata said.

“So like, we can break the system?” Stiletto asked.

“Every system has flaws and exploits,” I said. “I used to write video games as well as books and screenplays. One of my favourite things to do was sit in with some of the testers while they tried to break the games we worked on. Trust me, you can idiot proof things as much as you want but the universe is more adept at creating spectacular idiots than humans are at creating infallible systems.”

Stiletto laughed at that. “Amen.”

“So we’ve got one mobile crafting platform. I suggest everyone makes one for themselves and keeps it in their inventory,” I said.

The rest of the team broke into action, finding flat sections of wood and metal they could use to convert into their own crafting platforms. We quickly ran out of firearm parts, but Xiphos just broke down some other garbage from around the room to make some miscellaneous stuff, which still activated the conversion. Once we all had our upgrades and our mobile craft spaces, we were ready to move out.

The cold outside was nowhere near as bad as earlier. Our newly insulated armour kept it at bay for the most part. The only piece of armour I wore that wasn’t insulated were my pants, but that was fine. It was more important to keep my feet, hands and core warm. We’d upgrade the bits we missed when we could.

Heading out of the village on foot left me feeling very exposed. The waypoint for the supply drop was only 1.3 kilometres from the edge of the village, which wouldn't take us very long to reach at all. The forest grew in close to the side of the road, the bare branches looming over us like reaching phantoms from a nightmare.

It wasn't just the nemorti we needed to worry about here. There were all manner of natural predators in this part of the world that would be just as dangerous as the red eyed nemorti were. Bears and wolves were two of the biggest threats, but you couldn't discount the damage that a full-grown moose could do. A lot of people thought of moose as just upsized deer, but that wasn’t giving the moose much credit. Both moose and elephants can reach a height of over 3 metres.

I was on the lookout for antlers and movement as we headed toward the waypoint. The longer we walked without ambush, the tighter my grip grew on my new SMG.

Eventually we reached the supply drop without encountering any further threats. It had landed in the middle of the road, in a relatively clear spot between the reaching boughs of the trees. The supply drop was a simple cylinder which was covered by a light dusting of powdery snow. Xiphos knelt next to it and looted it.

“Excellent. We have a half dozen flame shells,” Xiphos said, handing a small box of shotgun shells to me. Fire shells would imbue my shots with an elemental affinity which would light my enemies on fire. “Five sets of climber’s gear. That will come in handy. Rope, pinions, carabiners. Yes, very good.”

“Why didn’t they just give us that stuff before we deployed?” Khopesh asked, which was a question right on the tip of my tongue.

“I can’t speak for EDGE Command,” Xiphos said. “This was meant to be a quick recon mission, but it’s clearly turned into something much more involved. They’ve sent it to us now.”

“I’m just saying,” Khopesh continued. “Why wouldn’t they have given us everything we needed to survive right out of the gate? They send us into each of these missions with shitty weapons and basic abilities and expect us to fight for them.”

“We are expendable,” Naginata said.

“You can end your tenure with EDGE Force whenever you want, Khopesh.” Xiphos’s tone grew serious. “You chose to come back. You chose to fight. You know how this works, and you’re questioning this now? Why?”

“I thought that things would get better!” Khopesh yelled angrily. “After so many missions, they still give me no reward. Nothing!”

Naginata levelled a cold glare at Khopesh. “If you fight for a reward and a reward alone, then you are fighting for the wrong cause.”

“She’s right,” Stiletto added. “Come on, man. People kill each other every damn day for the stupidest reasons, and we’re chosen to fight for everyone who can’t. This isn’t just some game where you get to play super soldier for fun. You want power, you earn it like the rest of us.”

That seemed to quiet Khopesh down, but I could tell that he was still pissed off. Xiphos handed out the climbing gear to everybody, then pulled a couple more items out of the supply drop.

“This one’s for Stiletto,” Xiphos said as she handed a pair of gloves to the sniper.

“Oh nice!” Stiletto said. “These gloves steady my grip when I’m aiming down the sights, reducing drift. Awesome. They’re not insulated though, so I’ll keep them in my inventory for now.”

“One last bit of loot,” Xiphos said. “An enhanced combat vest. Reduces melee damage received. Khopesh or Naginata, this is for either of you.”

“Give it to me,” Khopesh said and reached out for the vest.

“Are you sure that’s the best choice?” Xiphos asked. There was a test in that question.

Khopesh’s upper lip curled in frustration. “When my Desert Shield fails, I will be in close quarters combat. This will reduce the damage I receive protecting the rest of the team.”

“I don’t have the luxury of invulnerability,” Naginata said. “I can counter melee attacks for a brief time, yes, but I am still vulnerable. I believe I should receive this vest.”

Khopesh’s eyes darted from side to side, almost like he was searching for an argument that might allow him to claim this item for himself.

Eventually he relented. “Fine. Naginata can have this combat vest.”

“A wise choice,” Xiphos said. “Let’s continue.”

The supply drop container started to break down into motes of white light once we’d taken all items from it. That was interesting. The same white light was used to infuse us before we were deployed. Was this the colour of the anima that EDGE Force had access to?

The blood of Altrighus, the anima that had given me power on Mori Island, was purple. This was something else. Did that mean that the anima EDGE Force used came from a completely different source?

What about the red anima that seemed to bleach the skin of the nemorti and spread underneath like clusters of glowing lights? Did that come from somewhere else too?

Or was anima really so common in our universe?

Those questions were too big for me to answer. But what about the others? They might know something I didn’t.

“What do you know about anima?” I asked as we started walking in the direction of the ski resort.

“The moment I took command of an EDGE Force squad, Command told me to keep an eye out for any information I could find about anima,” Xiphos said. “I’ve been on the hunt for six years now, and I’ve barely found any useable information.”

Wait, that didn’t sound right. EDGE Force hadn’t told me anything about anima or the energy powering the cult I’d been sent in to fight before I’d been deployed. They hadn’t even given me training. It was Miranda who was the first to call it anima, wasn’t it?

I remembered back to the picture I’d found of Arthur Cullen, Robert Forge and Madeline Cato together in their college days. Arthur was the leader of the Fellowship of Cosmic Truth cult, Robert Forge, the founder of Mnemtech, the other company on Mori Island that was also experimenting with anima, and Madeline Cato, who remained a mystery.

Miranda Cullen probably learned what was anima was from her father. That meant that Robert and Madeline probably already knew the term. Was Madeline involved with EDGE Force somehow? She had to be if they were hunting anima too.

I took up weapons and fought for EDGE Force, but I knew barely anything about who was pulling the strings in the background.

Naginata broke me out of my spiralling thoughts. “My first mission was to cleanse a small village of yōkai. That’s what we Nihonjin call evil spirits. I thought they were just stories invented to scare children, but they were real. I found a place of power, a painting made by an ancient onna-musha-”

“That’s what your class is called, right?” I asked. “What does it mean?”

“Hai. The onna-musha were the women warriors who fought side by side with the samurai in defence of their household, family and honour in times of war,” Naginata explained. “I am honoured to carry that title now. The yōkai were sealed away inside a painting by a powerful warrior woman hundreds of years ago, but somehow found a way to escape. They were ghosts of pure energy that brought normal things to life and twisted them into obake. Shapeshifters. I am sure that this was caused by a similar kind of energy as what has changed these villagers.”

“I’m sensing a theme here,” I said. “Anyone else have any similar stories?”

“The dust devils I fought in the desert were supposed to be unleashed from an ancient sealed casket,” Khopesh said. “From the tomb of a long forgotten vizier to the pharoah.”

“I just killed a lot of zombies,” Stiletto said. “Plain old garden variety walking dead.”

That made me slow my pace for a second. “Real zombies?” I asked.

Stiletto shrugged. “Dumb shamblers that eat brains? Sounds like a zombie, right?”

“I see where you’re going with this, Hatchet,” Xiphos said. “I’d never given it much deeper thought, but you’re right. EDGE Command clearly has a wider view of what’s going on across the world.”

“There’s something else,” I said, wondering whether it was wise to go down the rabbit hole even further. Despite my trepidation, I pushed forward. “I encountered an ex-EDGE Force member on the island. He initially introduced himself as Sabre, but when I reconnected with EDGE Command they told me the truth. There had never been a warrior called Sabre. He was actually a defector called Bastard. He was on the island looking for a source of anima himself. We ended up fighting. I won, but it wasn’t really him on the island. Just a simulacrum made of blue anima.”

“White, red, blue… How many kinds of anima are there?” Khopesh asked.

“The energy that powered the yōkai was dark, almost black like smoke,” Naginata said.

“It’s a damn rainbow of what-the-fuck,” Stiletto said.

That made me laugh. “Yeah that pretty much sums it up. All I’m trying to say here is that there’s obviously something connecting all of this. If we can figure that out, then maybe we can stop this. It’s escalating, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Xiphos said. “It’s all leading to something they call the reality crash. I don’t know what it means, but I know EDGE Command are terrified of it. That’s what they’re working against.”

“That defector I mentioned earlier, Bastard?” I said. “He said it was inevitable. The crash is coming, and all we can do is try to control how it happens.”

“Now that’s interesting,” Xiphos said. “Have you been listening to all of this, Rho?”

Rho’s voice came through the earpiece clear and bright. “You know it, Captain.”

“Send the intel up the chain. I want to know all I can about this Bastard person and who he works for,” Xiphos said. “We need to be prepared for all eventualities.”

“It’s already done,” Rho said.

“Good. We’ll touch base again once we reach the ski resort.”

We continued on, but the atmosphere felt more oppressive than it had only moments ago. Almost as though the discussion of anima and cults and Bastard had somehow manifested a dark shade that now followed us.

I got the distinct feeling of being watched. Like the forest itself was glaring at us as we walked under its boughs, devoid of leaves. Like the roots beneath our feet were just waiting for the chance to rise up and drag us down into the dirt like the nemorti.

More than once I thought I saw movement off to either side. The clear impression of antlers, long spindly briar legs and a couple of flashes of bone white gave the impression of being stalked by an ancient protector of the forest.

The quicker we reached the ski resort, the better.