I woke up in a panic. I could feel my muscles tighten to try and send a spasm through me like waking from a falling dream, but I couldn’t move. Everything was black. It became apparent I was being held almost upside-down in a contorted position, completely restrained by the safety foam. There was a roughness against my skin where it contacted the foam. Warm wetness soaked in to my shirt. But I was alive and uninjured.
The foam lost its rigidity over the span of a few minutes. I just had to wait patiently until I could wiggle enough to right myself, then waited longer for the foam to soften and melt towards the new bottom of the capsule. Everything – every inch of the walls, every part of us passengers, the seats, Etsuko’s clipboard – was covered with a thin mustard yellow film. The cabin reeked of soiled clothes, but the film did a good job of obscuring who the perpetrators were. I felt a pang of guilt when I realized I felt glad it wasn’t just me.
“Everyone okay? Any serious injuries?” Oryx asked, speaking up for the first time. A few people start to sob as the adrenaline flushed out of them. Big choking snotty sobs.
“Looks like we’re ok. Kade’s knee, obviously, but nothing new.” I said.
“Ok, that’s good! That’s good!” Oryx said. “Everyone just try to stay calm. Take deep breaths. Etsuko can you get the doors open?”
Etsuko was staring off in shock until Oryx clapped her hands in front of her eyes, sending a little spray of foam film into Etsuko’s face. She nodded slack-jawed and tried to find her clipboard.
“Chodely, can you help her please.” It was a command, not a question. “I’m going to check everyone over in just a sec. The rest of you, see if you can’t figure out where we are and what you can do to help.”
I was thankful for Oryx’s initiative. It was enough to snap me out of my daze and get moving. I stripped down to my underpants and undershirt and turned my jumpsuit inside out. I enlisted Gary to help me rip off strips and patches, then did the same to his sport coat. We handed them around for people to wipe their faces clean before moving to the walls of the capsule to look outside.
We were definitely in the jungle. It didn’t take much clearing of the glass to see thick, dark green leaves and vines all around our capsule. We were partially buried in broken tree limbs and detritus. Clearing more portholes, it looked like our capsule came to rest on the banks of a slow moving stream.
“I have the emergency handle for the doors. Should I open them now?” Etsuko asked. All confidence and surety had vanished.
“Yeah, seems fine, right?” Oryx asked. “We’re not under water or anything?”
“No, but everyone shut your eyes and cover your heads. Move to that side.” I said. “Some tree branches and stuff will probably fall in when she opens it.”
They all moved and covered up immediately. I smooshed against the opposite wall and Etsuko pulled the emergency handle. It levered the door outwards instead of its normal slide, popping it off its rail. The door slid off the side of the capsule and hit the ground with a wet plomp sound while wood chunks and dead leaves rained down on us. Warm, moist air flowed into the compartment replacing some of the sewage smell before really making it stick to the inside of my nose.
“Um. Ok. Good. I just took paramedic as my profession.” Oryx told us. “It came with some reference materials and bonuses to medical acumen. So everyone line up and I can give you a once over.”
“Wait, did you really choose your profession just to help us out? Why would you do that?” I asked, gob smacked.
“Only kind of. I knew I was going to be some kind of medical person in here. This forced my hand a bit. Get in line please.” She said.
“That’s…” I couldn’t come up with the words. You shouldn’t have - I’m touched - You’re out of your mind? - nothing seemed to fit what I was feeling. I just stared back at her while she looked me up and down.
When she had finished she informed us “Most of you have minor concussions but no new injuries I could see. Still, our first step should be the hospital when we get back. And we should get cleaned up. We can get a bath in the stream and wash our clothes once we’re sure its safe to go outside.”
I continued wiping new viewing holes in the yellow slime until the blinking light in the corner of my vision got the better of me.
ACHIEVEMENT(S) UNLOCKED!
BABY STEPS
YOU MADE IT OUT OF THE ORIENTATION ROOM!
5 EXP
NO LOOT AWARDED
BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS
YOU’VE CHOSEN A CAREER-BASED PROFESSION, AND
A BLUE-COLLAR ONE AT THAT! STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM IS
A NOBEL ENDEAVOR!
5 EXP
2000 REV AWARDED
GOING DOWN!
YOU FELL OVER 100 FEET WITHOUT A PARACHUTE
AND SURVIVED!
20 EXP
PARACHUTE AWARDED
LOOK OUT BELOW!
YOU KILLED A CREATURE BY DROPPING A HEAVY OBJECT
ON IT!
20 EXP
+5 BODY UNTIL NEXT REST
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
YOU HAVE TRAVERSED IN TO THE JUNGLE!
BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!
10 EXP
MACHETE AWARDED
Huh. That was pretty cool. Should be more than enough experience to get a level or two. I wasn’t sure what we killed though, or how to get my loot as it hadn’t appeared on my equipment list. I imagine if something dangerous were outside we would have heard something by now.
ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST
LEVEL - 0
INTELLECT - 10 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT:
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
CHARM - 10 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM
BODY - 10....................................................................................................................................................................________________
AGILITY - 10...............................................................................................................................................................________________
DURABILITY - +2.....................................................................................................................................................
HEALTH - 10/10.......................................................................................................................................................CURRENCY
UNASSIGNED POINTS - 25................................................................................................................................REV - 2600
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433..........................................................................................................................
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE LEVEL 5!
REST TO COMPLETE LEVEL-UP
“Oh shit!” I blurted. A couple people jerked at that and started to get worried. “Sorry. Umm… everyone check your stats. Between achievement experience and I guess credit for a kill from landing on something I’m already level 5.” Everyone got a dazed look that was quickly followed up by looks of shock and delight. In a moment of terror we were all too happy to engage with that silver lining. Everyone adopted blank expressions as they got to tinkering with their stats.
ROANE MORIZU.....................................................................................ANIMAL CONTROL SPECIALIST
LEVEL - 0
INTELLECT - 15 ......................................................................................................................................................PRIMARY EQUIPMENT:
CHARM - 20 ...............................................................................................................................................................ACS UNIFORM
BODY - 18....................................................................................................................................................................___________________
AGILITY - 23................................................................................................................................................................________________
DURABILITY - +2......................................................................................................................................................
HEALTH - 10/10 (38/41).......................................................................................................................................CURRENCY
UNASSIGNED POINTS - 0 (25)..........................................................................................................................REV - 2600
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - 433..............................................................................................................................
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE LEVEL 5!
REST TO COMPLETE LEVEL-UP
I didn’t feel any different, but maybe something would change when I rested. I could close the window and reopen it to juggle the points around, so they weren’t set yet. That’s good to know. It also didn’t take too long to find the pending loot tab of my inventory. It had the two items I got from the achievements as well as a couple humane traps I assume came when I selected my profession.
PARACHUTE - ENABLES SLOW FALL. REQUIRES 50 FEET FOR FULL DEPLOYMENT.
THIS IS A SINGLE-USE ITEM. – MEDIUM - COMMON
MACHETE - MEDIUM BLADE WEAPON – COMMON – DURABLE
*ENHANCED DAMAGE AGAINST PLANTS AND PLANT-BASED CREATURES.
BOX TRAP (x2) - HUMANE TRAP FOR CATCHING SMALL SIZED CREATURES. BAIT REQUIRED.
MEDIUM - COMMON
I selected the machete hoping it would appear in my hand or on the ground nearby, but that didn’t happen. It just displayed more information like its 10 Rev value and 100/100 durability. It also had an option that said, “Delivery Service: 198 Rev.” When I focused on it, a confirmation window popped up, but I rejected it. The number dropped to 197 Rev in only a few seconds. Kinda bullshit I got loot but couldn’t get the loot.
Blaze Firestalker was in a daze still so I just asked the room in general, “Hey what’s with the delivery service? And how do I get my loot in my hand?”
“Its more like you have a coupon for a free item.” Etsuko told me. “There’s mini-printers all over the place hidden in the scenery, or in clearly marked buildings in the habitable zone. As long as it’s not a real big thing you can sign in to the station and collect it there. When you get a map you can set it to always show you the closest one. It’s annoying at first, but it basically gives you infinite item capacity.”
“Oh, that’s a lot. Ok. And if I request delivery, someone brings it to me? Like are gig workers a thing?” I asked.
“No, a drone brings it. But yeah, it’s a lot faster. The mini-printers can take a minute to make the thing, but the delivery ones are made at a full-size hub so they can do it a lot faster. And the mini ones can’t do large items at all. It can be expensive but it gets cheaper sometimes if multiples are being made or if you wait a while. I think it bottoms out around 50 Rev or so.” She told me.
I brought my loot page back up and sure enough it had dropped to 161 Rev. “You have a map? How close is the nearest thing?”
“Couple hundred meters that way.” She said, pointing in a direction that meant nothing to me.
That was enough for me. I didn’t want to walk 10 meters away from this capsule defenseless, never mind hundreds. I brought it up again and selected “Confirm” and 159 Rev was deducted from my account. A new box appeared with a timer saying my machete should arrive in 90 seconds.
Not bad. I let everyone else know what I was doing as they likely had the same achievement and the same reward for completing it. Not everyone was willing to spend the money for whatever reason, but soon we had a small squadron of packages being delivered, each locked with some form of bio-metrics. I had received my machete and parachute – I figured it couldn’t hurt to have that much fabric especially if we needed to carry Kade a long way and the sack could be a backpack for anyone who needed one.
All in all, I saw 3 machetes besides my own, as well as a first aid kit for Oryx. Others had also chosen to get some things dropped in but I couldn’t tell what they were. Blaze Firestalker had flown in some kind of small leather pouch he tucked in to one of his overlarge sleeves. Chodely Whipplespurt also had his parachute brought in. He almost certainly intended to use it as a backpack because when I offered mine up he had a very clear look of disappointment on his face. Regardless, it’d be better to have it and not need it.
“Ok does anyone know where we are and which way the habitable zone is? Do we know what we landed on?” Morrighan asked.
Blaze had relished his position as the all knowing wizard of information in the group to this point, but even he sounded a bit uncertain, “We landed in the jungle somewhere. The biomes are anywhere from 6 to 12 miles wide, and the jungle and forest are the widest ones. And the mag-line had barely crossed the boundary. So best guess we’re a mile deep in the jungle. Maybe a little more. But there’s tons of stuff in the jungle, so maybe we got lucky and landed near a tribe or small settlement?”
JuneBug720’s head snapped up at that. “A mile?!” she asked, snapping out of her uselessness and in to an actively pessimistic stance.
“Yeah I think so. But getting out should be easy. Or at least navigation should be. Etsuko has a map and the core runs starward to sunward. The hab zones are all starward. So we just need to follow the core and figure out which way is starward. Should be easy enough.” Blaze Firestalker seemed please with himself again.
The other passengers perked up a bit now that we were making progress on a plan to get us out of here. I, however, was firmly in JuneBug720’s camp. A mile through thick jungle wasn’t exactly a jaunty hike in a meadow. And none of us – not even our illustrious docent – had any experience in the actual biome spaces. We also had to account for Kade who needed to be carried. It would likely take the better part of a day if we went nice and slow to avoid walking in to some bio-engineered jungle demon or whatever people - Mad Scientist was a selectable profession after all - had been cooking up over the last however many generations.
“Do we know what we landed on? Once we get cleaned up maybe we should get the door back in place and get some rest so our levels can process completely?” Kade said from the ground, offering his first contribution since boarding the mag-line. He was sweating more than the rest of us. The pain in his leg must be excruciating, but he was doing his best to not be a distraction.
“Once the door is off, there’s no putting it back on.” Etsuko informed us. “We could try to prop it on there, but it won’t, like, lock in place again.”
“It’s better than nothing. We can do our best to fill in the gaps with the parachutes. Hopefully keep the bugs out.” Kade suggested, picking a hand-sized insect out of the goop next to him. The group’s response was a mixture of submissive nods and averted gazes. It was clear none of us wanted to be here longer than we needed to be, but at present the idea of walking out in to the jungle was just terrifying enough to keep everyone else quiet on the matter.
“In worse news…” Morrighan started. She had been sitting on the ground with what remained of my jumpsuit, wiping at the floor. By now she had cleared enough space to see what we had landed on. Outside of the fleshy pudding that made up the bulk, we could all clearly make out two pairs of legs. Human legs. Cleanly shaven, very broken human legs, complete with knee-high brown leather boots.
