The Star 11

Sonny was woken up by a telepathic communication. As the man on the other end of that droned an echo of the overseer's words, the young adept added another drop of emotional glycerin to his bottle of suppressed outrage. Whitewashing their own involvement in the needless deaths of nearly three dozen people, they somehow managed to simultaneously condemn Sonny further.

He had already been expecting that. But, what he hadn't expected was the sheer audacity of making him the figurehead for taking the blame while giving credit for the potential nuclear material mine's discovery to a dead person. It hadn't even been verified yet and he'd already been undercut to such a severe degree, he might as well have been sitting on his thumbs since he arrived for all that it would have mattered.

"Tell the overseer that I quit. I refuse to work as a volunteer for someone so under-qualified for their position that they lose nearly a hundred people in less than two months. Regardless of who they try to blame for their incompetence, it doesn't change the blatant fact that they have squandered a significant portion of human resources and failed to provide the proper equipment for the site they cleared for habitation," he said blandly.

It was no surprise that the next missive was filled with citations and threats.

Sonny mentally sneered. "The overseer forgets, we may not have any ability to retaliate but when evaluations come, they'll be the one crying. Maybe I should migrate to another overseer's domain and make a report to hasten the process."

The telepath's communication cut out for a moment before returning unstably. The messenger had been struck by someone. That meant there was aggressive staff world side and the telepath was one of the condemned. Sonny apologized for not realizing what kind of situation he'd put the man in before refusing to communicate any longer.

Turning to his two waiting companions, he found that Oliver had suddenly sat up as he was listening to a silent message of his own. Not waiting to hear how that would go, the young adept started walking down the incline after giving Wade the option to come or stay. With Chris dead and no new insights on the small sliver of familiar energy the archer had, Sonny was ready to wash his hands of the whole mess and be on his way.

He walked slow enough for the archer to catch back up, if so inclined, but the person that came into view was the sniper. "If you took him back the way you came in, he'd be dead before you could get to the other side."

Sonny said, "If he had the courage, I had the confidence. Looks like that doesn't matter anymore."

Oliver chuckled as the young adept made his way down. "A simple explanation might have been enough to change his mind."

He looked back at the sniper. "Maybe in his head, he was trying to figure out if he wanted to take a chance on me. But the two months I had originally planned was to give me the time to decide if I wanted to take a chance on him. It's a sad truth that we don't always get enough time to make informed decisions. A leap of faith is scary, maybe even foolish, but sometimes the reward is worth it."

Continuing to follow as Sonny started walking again, Oliver said, "Pretty tall order you're asking for. He's only known you for a couple of days. And technically, not under the friendliest of circumstances. You might be strong but you could just be overestimating yourself. It's too easy to look at you and only see a boy who's barely stepped into the wider universe and thinks he can take it on without really having a clue how impossible that is."

Sonny shook his head, "I'm not trying to take on anything more than the challenge in front of me right now. This is the challenge I chose to face rather than having someone else chose for me."

The sniper continued spitting out random facts and possible things that could go wrong walking away from the comfortable known evils of a settlement for the greater, hellish unknowns of the Enigma Plains. Wrapped up in his own thoughts, the man didn't seem to notice he had followed Sonny far past the elevated danger zone of sure death from the mazuku, the pocket of dense co2 gas, that had grown to cover the entire depression area around the shallow underground lake and beyond for quite some ways. By the time he did, he continued on as if he didn't notice that he was mysteriously lacking any signs of exposure to low oxygen, much less asphyxiation.

As they passed the lake, Sonny looked around and said, "So, that's how you made it past this on the way in. Must have gotten your hands on some decent supplements before you were were taken into custody. Free hand rock climbing in 3G is pretty hard core."

The sniper replied, "I was black ops for territory affairs. Like you, I signed up to be a volunteer. Don't know if it was for the same reasons but I did it to escape being made the scapegoat for someone else. Didn't stop them from doing it anyway and forwarding a pirate bounty notice to Blue Zone administration. Didn't find out I was a lifer til I was getting ready to be assigned a drop point."

The young adept cocked his head to the side and covertly gauged the man. "So, what bait did they use to get you to be a plant?"

"I never said... Away team security after five years. I'm not dumb but I thought I could work it, make them want to make it a legit offer. I'm not completely convinced I couldn't if I kept it tight laced and in line," Oliver started to protest but ended up muttering.

Sonny nodded slowly. "Too bad you got the overseer you did. Maybe you would have."

The sniper looked at the young adept sharply before quickly looking away, reminded of the foolishness of staring at any part of his suit for more than a moment. "What makes you say that?"

He glanced at Oliver and laughed. "Too heavy with the stick to keep the sheep motivated. There wasn't a shred of even fake condolences either. A stone cold psychopath will at least imitate sympathy. This...thing... doesn't even care enough about appearances to even try that hard. What does that sound like to you?"

Oliver said, "I haven't personally seen enough to start throwing guesses."

"Yes you have. Then again, maybe not. Someone on the ground was ordered to strike the telepath for merely repeating what I said. Accuracy is far more important than ego for an overseer's interaction with their assets. If it isn't a spoiled second or third generation, it's a favor hire with little skill and even less chance for upward mobility." Sonny informed.

Oliver took a turn at shaking his head. "I only have your word on that but you haven't given me a reason to think you'd be lying. That is... unless you're trying to recruit me or sow some discord on your way out?"

He stopped and watched the cocky hit man keep strutting right out of the breathing zone his suit's circle of influence and a little telekinesis kept in place. The sniper walked a few steps before suddenly letting out a couple choking coughs and quick stepping back into the invisible circle of breathable air, looking at the younger man in confusion and a little fear.

Sonny said, "I didn't ask you to follow me. The person I asked didn't come. I've entertained your lecture and I'll get you to the other side of this death trap but don't get confused. It's not an open invitation, it's an evaluation. And, I'm going to be blunt. You're doing a really bad job at convincing me I should let you keep following me regardless of why you started or why you might keep doing it."

The man grew quiet and subdued as they continued their walk.

To give an opening for some kind of reconciliation after what might have been a lot more intimidating of a flex than he intended, the young adept said, "To be fair, I wouldn't be beyond sowing a little discord before I left. I'm not interested in doing that but I'll admit your read wasn't THAT far off what I'm capable of. That goes doubly if some petty turd of an overseer pulls anymore spite crap on my way out the door."

More than happy to snatch up the olive branch, for peace of mind if nothing else, Oliver said, "You can bet on that. How are you going to handle it?"

Almost cheerily, Sonny replied, "Depends. If it's lame threats and executive actions, I'll ignore them for now and deal with them if I run into another settlement later. If someone tries to capture or kill me, I'm going use them to give this place a little colorful scenery. Pity there's only around one and a half gallons of blood in a single body. Maybe I'll get lucky and there'll be more than one that tries."

He didn't catch the delayed response from his walking companion because a handful of motes made of vaguely familiar and nearly memory evoking energy came to him before sinking into the depths of his spiritual gravity. Along with it, a few snaking tendrils of grudge filled dark energy swirled around the invisible ring of his suit's influence. Under his deep scrutiny, that curse-like energy seeped into and was devoured by his over robe, converted to something more helpful, if not entirely wholesome feeling.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. I was distracted by someone murdering Wade," he tried to say casually.

It wasn't entirely successful. There was a crack in his voice and some heat to it. He hadn't been particularly attached to the archer but he didn't think badly of the guy. Such a blatant and unnecessary disregard for life distilled another drop of suppressed rage in his imaginary bottle.

He wasn't the only one affected. After giving Sonny a heads-up to avoid potentially lethal misunderstandings, the sniper manifested his rifle and looked through the scope back the way they came. His face turned expressionless as he donned his 'work mask'.

In a cold voice, he said, "Now I believe you. I think the overseer plans on wiping the slate clean so they can control the story. I'd have a hard time convincing them to spare me for cooperation when they already have collaborators. We're about to become fugitives, Sonny."

The young adept laughed with a slight edge of madness in it. "Least problematic and funnest outcome that idiot could create for me..."

"I'm sorry for what that might mean for your, uh, friends," he added somberly afterwards.

Oliver ran a hand over his head, producing a light crackling sound from his course and wiry low fade. "I don't have extra heart to spare at the moment."

Sonny dug out the last remaining small line of chocolate squares.

After a few seconds of silent apologies to who they had originally been meant for, he handed them to the sniper. "There's no hard limit on how much heart a person can have... But if I have to watch you eat these like you did with that one square, I might actually go crazy. You already have your stash. Eat it like there's a damn convenience store across the street."

Narrowing his eyes at the young adept, Oliver shoved the whole piece in his mouth, chewing and smacking obnoxiously. Once he was done, he even made a display of showing the inside of his mouth to Sonny like he was proving to a nurse that he took his medication. As annoyed as he was and annoying as he was trying to be, Sonny noted the small smile before the poker faced mask slid back into place.

All bluster aside, they found themselves in a situation where cooperation wasn't only the logical option, it was the best one available. In a silent agreement, both of them put the mind games away and started discussing things like actual companions. By the time they finished passing through the dangerously low oxygen area, a plan was in place that they could both live with for the time being. However, as they got closer to the cave entrance to the tributary, Oliver became more tense, checking through his scope in both direction every few seconds.

"You know better than anyone how far my passive life sight is. And, what you know isn't even my max distance. Why are you so wound up?" Sonny asked.

Oliver grumbled, "See, it's statements like that... You do know that there is tech, even other esper sh*t, that will make you regret relying on that alone."

If the young adept was a regular psionic that would have been completely true. He wasn't but there also wasn't any good reason to argue. Two sets of sensory abilities with different strengths and weaknesses were only a good thing to use as a pair.

"You're right but I'm worried you're burning your reserves too quickly at the wrong time... For the record, I don't even know why you brought up tech, though. The only kind that works down here is WAY out of operations budget." Sonny retorted.

Oliver snorted. "You'd be surprised what a person can randomly have for some stupid reason. It's those kind of surprises that get you killed. And when you live your life strolling from one dangerous situation to another, it's the kind of surprise that's going to happen again and again."

Once again, Sonny found it hard to argue the logic when he was a walking textbook example but he also saw the hole in it. "This is a long term situation, not a fifteen minute mission. What good would it do to exercise everything you have to keep safe and be exhausted by the time a dangerous situation rose up? Let me handle obstacle course situations and you take point in open ground."

The sniper paused. "That... makes sense. I'm used to being the eyes whether I'm alone or in a team. So, it's going to take some time to get used to sharing that responsibility."

To fill in his own holes in understanding, the young adept asked questions in a round-about way. Things like how long the sniper could keep his manifestation out on standby, as an example. Seeing as how the man deflected to a few semi vulgar references in an attempt to use humor to distract from detail, Sonny realized that his companion didn't want to reveal too much too fast. He felt the same. So, even though it was frustrating, he got the gist of how things would be until they trusted each other more.

Having won the observation argument, Sonny was the first to see the man waiting on the other side of the opening and the two to either side blocked by the cave lip. The one standing in the open behind a clear shield was on the high side of yellow level and had some comparisons to the psionic energy when it was in an active kinetic state. He was also tossing a small object up and down while holding another in his other hand that was slightly larger.

As much as he didn't want to, he had Oliver take a look through the scope. "The object he's tossing is a little clear blue rock. Maybe a diamond? The other is..."

The sniper's rifle sagged for a moment before his hands tightened on it.

In a strained voice, he said, "The other is a woman's head. I'm not sure which one's but... likely Yessamin's."

Pushing some effort to boost range, Sonny said, "The outside is biological but the inside isn't. Something's been hidden inside."

Oliver said, "Probably a blaster cap. It's the most economical explosive that's output can be predicted and controlled. They plan on luring us into range and burying us, I think."

Sonny added ominously, "Barring that, sealing us in until whatever they have prepared behind us can catch up."

"There's a few shrapnel scars of varying age on his hands, arms and face. He has to know that I'm here. I'm guessing he's a shield specialist kinetic," the sniper said stonily.

Seeing that Oliver was about to try to shoot the guy anyway, Sonny said, "Hold up just a second. Succeed OR fail, we could end up trapped in here. Let me explore another option."

He tried to mentally shake the Cole impression. It moved sluggishly at first but roused from its lengthy slumber. Most of the colored stones it collected were completely digested but there were still some remnants left that it had lost interest in and had spit back out into his head space.

Communicating what he desired, there was a slight protest of inability from the shadowy impression. Lowering the bar on expectations a little, the impression seemed willing but not confident. He expressed the desire to have it try but switch to a standard snatch and run if it didn't look like his idea would work out. The dark and smoky essenced cat emerged from his space and detached from Sonny's shadow before slinking away rapidly.

"What do we do now?" Oliver asked.

"We wait and keep an eye out behind us," the young adept replied.