Chapter 55: Making a New Plan

Lus sighed in relief as he stood up, untangling himself from Zer-Dasht who remained in a moaning heap on the ground. The door was closed, saving him from having to think about the mutant bear that had just been chasing him which Nippy managed to kill just in time.

"Thanks for saving us," Lusac said. "I'm happy you got my message."

"I didn't hear most of what you said, but we could hear the roar of the monster, so I gathered you were in trouble," Nippy replied. He patted Lus's shoulder. "Did you get any of the parts you needed?"

"No. We were looking for you and then ran into the creature. What was wrong with it?"

"Radiation." The Kremel grimaced. "This part of the ship is heavily irradiated, but luckily the engine room is shielded."

"Barely," Hwnlr said from where he leaned against the wall. "Nippy and I might make it a few days in here, but you and the Nemarian are toast if you stay longer than a couple of hours."

"I think Zer-Dasht could use a small break, but maybe we can find somewhere safer for him to rest while I go scavenge the parts," Lus suggested.

Nippy shook his head. "No. The bears will tear us all apart if we separate. I can't protect you and the injured."

"There are more?" Dasht said from where he now sat on the floor, checking his bandages.

Scratching sounded from the door, the pawing of a creature outside.

"Worse than that–they come back to life. As far as I can tell, they're unkillable," Nippy said, his lips in a frown. "Suns knows how we'll make it out of here with that one outside our door. We'll have to figure that out in addition to planning our escape, but the good news is that Hwnlr and I found the artifact piece."

"It doesn't matter if we make it out of the wreckage if we don't get the parts to contact the Argo," Lus reminded them.

"Can't you rig something from what the shuttle has? Or use a substitute that we might be able to find in the other wreckage?" Nippy asked.

"Not a chance. Maybe if we had a real mechanic here, but I'm not capable of rigging something like that. I need those parts if we're going to repair the shuttle comms," Lus answered.

The Kremel sheathed his large sword. "Very well. Everyone get a little rest while I come up with a plan."

As Lusac was bending down to help Zer-Dasht to his feet, a notification popped up from his system.

[New Quest Unlocked!]

[What Makes a Leader]

[Description: help Nippy regain his confidence]

[Time limit: 1 day]

[Reward: 500 XP, New Recipe]

[Punishment: death]

"That's not good," Lusac muttered.

"This situation? Yeah. Tell me about it," Dasht said as he leaned against Lusac and they crossed towards one of the walls.

Lus looked around making sure there was no one else within earshot. "Not that. I just got a [Quest] about helping Nippy regain his confidence."

"Is that really a priority right now?"

"Apparently so. If I don't complete it within the next day, I die," he said. "If I had to bet, we'll all die if Nippy doesn't get his mojo back."

"That sucks," Dasht replied flatly. "Just what I wanted to hear: another impossible task we have to pull off if we want to escape this blasted planet."

"Sorry. You should rest. I'll figure it out," Lus encouraged him as he released the Nemarian's arm and allowed him to sink down against the wall.

"Good luck, Lus. Don't mess this up." Dasht smirked up at him and then leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

"Yeah. I'll try," Lus murmured. He was exhausted after all the climbing and running, but he didn't dare rest yet until he figured out how Nippy was doing with everything. He'd never known the Kremel to be anything but confident, overconfident if anything.

Leaving Zer-Dasht to rest, Lusac wandered over to where Nippy sat against one of the broken consoles, staring absently at the closed door keeping them safe from the mutant bears.

"Hey Nippy. How are you doing?" Lus started up casually.

"Hi Lus," the Kremel replied. "Fine. How are you? Did you get hurt at all?"

"Nah. Zer-Dasht got a small bite, but he'll be fine. How is Hwnlr?"

"Not great. He got some pretty deep slashes on his stomach from when we ran into the mutants."

"Crazy that the radiation did that. But the bears–at least the normal ones–seem fairly intelligent. They wouldn't follow us into the radiated part of the wreck."

"Smarter than me," Nippy sighed.

"I wouldn't go that far," Lusac chuckled. "You've never led us astray before."

"Except on Aschir Alpha. And now here," he said sullenly.

"Neither have been your fault," Lus assured him. "Nobody knew what to expect on Aschir Alpha nor here. How could we have predicted the Shaquine or blasted mutant bears?"

"I've been in charge of both missions, Lusac. When things go completely wrong, and people get hurt, someone has to take the blame."

"I was on both missions and so was Zer-Dasht. Let's blame him."

Nippy placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks for cheering me up. Why don't you go get some rest? I'm going to check on Hwnlr."

Lus exhaled heavily as the Kremel walked away. This was going to be harder than he thought, and if he didn't come up with a way to get Nippy to believe in himself again, they were all going to die and rot in this radiation cell. Or worse, become the mutant bears' next meal. Neither was a pleasant thought.

He watched as Nippy knelt down next to Hwnlr and delicately checked the bandages along the other Kremel's body. Then he noticed that he was getting hot all wrapped up in his coat this close to the engines which were giving off massive amounts of heat and radiation.

After taking his two packs off, he took off his coat and set it on top of them, leaving a mound of stuff sitting near the broken console.

Lus then sat down against an empty wall and thought about how to escape this disaster. He thought hard, considering everything from cooking a meal for the mutant bears to serve as a distraction to trying to cook something then and there to level himself up. But maybe he didn't need to level up. He had enough [XP] to buy a new [Skill] as it was.

With a thought, he called up the blue screen of his system, not caring if the others could see it and clicked on the [Skill Shop] tab.

The same three [Skills] as before sat there, though [Sixth Sense] was already purchased leaving [Night Sight] and [Dash].

[Night Sight] wouldn't be much help in this situation since the bears were very easy to spot, but [Dash]... That might be worth something. The [Shop] didn't present any information about it, but luckily he knew just the guy to ask.

Swiping the screen away, Lus stood up and went to where Nippy now sat alone, gazing emptily at a wall.

"Nippy, maybe I can buy a new [Skill] to help. What does [Dash] do?" Lusac asked as he sat down in front of the Kremel.

Nippy blinked several times as his focus returned and looked at Lus with a half-smile. "Exactly what it sounds like. It gives you a short burst of speed, making you exceptionally fast."

"For how long?"

"Depends on the level. For someone at your level, maybe a minute."

"That would be helpful, right? Then I can easily outrun the bears," Lus suggested.

The Kremel shook his head slowly. "No, Lusac. Your system isn't going to buy our way this time. You'd be able to outrun the bears for a minute, but the [Skill] would have to cool down before you could use it again, and then you'd be mutant chow."

"Oh. Yeah, that wouldn't be good," Lus muttered, disheartened to hear that it wasn't quite as easy as it first appeared. "So I shouldn't buy that one yet?"

"What are your other options?"

"Just [Night Sight], but I'm hoping when I level up again, I'll get access to at least one more option," he explained.

Nippy nodded. "I'd suggest waiting. There's no going back once you buy a [Skill], right? So you need to make sure you spend your [XP] wisely."

"Can't your system do anything?"

Again, the Kremel shook his head. "Not beyond what it has done. I'm a [Raging Warrior], but it's not very good for defending others, just killing. I'm confident I could get myself out of here in one piece, but it's you and the others I have to worry about."

Lusac bit his lip. "Good point. I wouldn't want to face those bears without you. You're our only chance of surviving this."

"As if we have any chance left," Nippy murmured. "I'm going to get a little rest, but maybe we can talk system stuff later."

"Alright," Lus replied as he stood up to return to his own section of the engine room, giving the Kremel the space he wanted.

As everyone sat in silence, Lusac turned the problem they faced over and over in his mind. Nippy was their only chance of escaping from the bear mutants, but until he had his confidence back, he'd never be brave enough to take the necessary risks. Zer-Dasht and Hwnlr were both basically out of commission for fighting purposes, which left just him and Nippy.

Not to mention they still had to find the parts if they were ever going to escape. He supposed they could try waiting for the Argo at the wreckage, but dying slowly of radiation poisoning seemed worse than freezing to death.

"The bears can't go everywhere I can," Lus said quietly. Talking to himself could be helpful in times like this. "So I don't need to outrun them forever, just long enough to get somewhere safe. Then Nippy can get the others out, using my run as a distraction, and once those two are to safety, he can come back to help me once I get the parts. That would work."

He waited a while before he approached Nippy again, mulling over his plan and ironing out at potential wrinkles to make sure it was perfectly presentable. Even with his coat off, he was getting hot again. Glancing at Zer-Dasht, he noticed a clear sheen of sweat on the Nemarian's brow, something that wouldn't be from the injury.

The radiation. It was killing them both, and after it was through with them, it would take Nippy and Hwnlr too. They couldn't wait any longer.

Lus stood up once more, his body complaining about its break being cut short yet again. Nippy was just where he left him, staring at nothing with an unamused look on his face.

"Sorry to bother you again, Nippy, but I have an idea," Lusac said.

The Kremel looked up at him with a face of annoyance but gestured for him to continue.

"I'll get [Dash], and then I'll leave the engine room first and use it to run and distract the bears so you can–"

"No," Nippy cut him off. "I learned my lesson this time. No more splitting the team. We're sticking together, and that's final."

"But–"

"No," he shouted. "Enough, Lus. I don't want to hear anything else from you the rest of the day."

"Nippy–"

"Loser, go sit down and leave me alone. That's a blasted order!" Nippy roared.

"Yes, sir," Lus said softly as he turned away. Just because the Kremel was unhappy with how the mission was going didn't mean he needed to take it out on Lusac for trying to help.

Watcher curse him. Couldn't Nippy see that they needed to be doing something if they were going to get out of here? Lusac's mind grasped a new idea. A version of his old plan but with a certain modification, one that Nippy couldn't say no to. It was probably a horrible idea, but it was better than wasting away in the engine room, waiting for the radiation to kill them.

Instead of the wall he'd been resting at, Lus returned to his stuff, put his coat back on despite the layer of sweat he already wore, and dug through his pack to pull out a ration kit. Once he had that safely stored in one of his coat pockets, he double checked that his two pistols were at his sides, ready for action.

Keeping his back to the others, Lusac called up his system screen and navigated to the [Skills Shop] where he spent [1000 XP] to buy [Dash]. As with the last time, a new screen popped to give him a run down of his new [Skill].

[Dash]

[Type: Active]

[Usable Time: 50 seconds]

[Cooldown: 5 minutes]

[Description: Gives the user a burst of speed equal to their level multiplied by 10 seconds with a cool down of 5 minutes between uses.]

"Exactly like Nippy said," Lus breathed. He wasn't quite sure how to activate the [Skill], but he didn't want to waste it yet.

Swiping away the screen, Lusac scanned the room to see that everyone was still lounging about, waiting to die. That wouldn't do.

"Everyone up," Lus yelled. "It's time to eat." He pulled open his backpack and held up one of the many rations waiting there. "But you guys have to come get them. I'm no waiter."

"Lus," Nippy growled.

"It's good to move around a bit," he replied with a smile. "It'll help us think of ideas."

Grumbling, both Zer-Dasht and Nippy pushed their feet.

Good. They didn't suspect a thing.

"That's it," Lus encouraged them, dropping the rations on the broken console. "Let's feast." The fewer of those he was carrying around, the better.

Once he was sure the rest of the team was awake, with Nippy and Dasht both prepping their rations, he slunk over to the door. There was no scratching against it which meant he might not die immediately.

"Here goes nothing," he whispered to himself. He then turned back around to where the others ate.

"Nippy," he called out. The Kremel looked at him in confusion. "This is for your own good. Get the others out, and I'll meet you at the wall of the crater with the parts we need."

"Lusac, no!" Nippy cried, but it was too late. Lusac's fist slammed on the button next to the door, opening it. Before anyone could stop him, he ran into the hallway, ignoring the calls from his companions.