Point of Documentation: Marshall

  A week passed like a snap of the fingers, melting into nothing more than grains of sand in the wind to his already irritated mental state. He had been stuck in that place until the doctors had decided he was well enough to leave. They predicted his bodily health wouldn’t be there until nearly a month, but after a week he was up and moving around. With motion returned to him and some manner of stability to his body he was allowed to choose to leave or not. Without hesitation, he chose to leave this purgatory of indecision.

  When he exited into the main lobby of the White Tower of Bogushevsk, it was like walking out of one of the hospitals on the Castle to a mustering yard of clean marble. The place was swarming with activity and caused Marshall’s head to swim trying to keep track of it all. He may have recovered physically, but mentally he was still making baby steps.

  Waiting for him in said lobby was the HMW engineer Cadence, the elf from the scrap shop Valentine, an annoyed looking man in clean and tight Guard uniform, a scrappy person about the same age as Cadence who he couldn’t put his finger on, and the entire crew of the HMW Betty in tow. Whilst the new faces made him pause, the returning ones of the Mule names Betty made him stop and stare. They hadn’t seen him yet, making his way from one of the elevators into this open space, so he had a moment to collect himself at least.

  By the time he had regained his senses and had fixed his hair, a mess that would never be tamed again by naval code, they had spotted him. Cadence raised a hand and waved towards him. Rather than waiting on him to make the approach, the group as a whole moved forwards to greet him. Marshall tensed against the idea of being swarmed by people, but it didn’t end up shaping that way. Instead, really only the crew of the HMW Betty actually had close enough distance to be physical; something Robert capitalized on with a hand on his shoulder and an immediate dressing down of his state.

  “Look at you! You look like a man dragged through the mud and wire with nothing on you but a loincloth! I swear, if I ever see the man who did this to MY patient…” the traveling doctor spoke with a harsh tone aimed towards Barns.

  “At least he’s in one piece. You should have seen him coming in. I thought our transient crewmate had died in that ruin outside of town. And it would have been all my fault. Damn Petrov and his gang.” These words were like venom from Cadence’s lips, but her words turned warmer as she looked him over too. “They cleared you to leave, right? Those doctors said you had a week free of charge due to it all, but we weren’t really sure what they all entailed.”

  Marshall was about to answer, but the Captain took his thunder. “Of course he’s cleared! They handed his suit back and everything. Otherwise he’d be walking down here in a robe with his hind-quarters hanging out for everyone to see! And that is no shape for a man aboard my vessel to be.” The Captain nodded, looking all the more sure of himself at his statement. “And with that, he’ll be joining us again in health and we’ll strike forwards to the Wall, yes?”

  Marshall felt a pit well up in his stomach at the words. Would he continue forwards as he had? But even as the question came to him, the answer that had always been there showed itself. The answer that Aaiden had handed him in his stupor. Marshall cleared his throat and spoke. “No. I’m sorry Captain, but I need to recover and… well, how much did they tell you about what happened?”

  The Captain raised a hand and rocked it back and forth. “Some and less. They told me you were involved in a gang abduction and then were tortured for a time. Then they assaulted the place and you ended up being caught in the middle. Past that, it’s all been very hush-hush.” He looked to Cadence as if to signal her confirmation.

  Cadence did just that by shaking her own head. “Honestly, the most I heard was from Aaiden, and he just mentioned that the Void Scourge had a horrid effect on you during it all. That’s why you were laid-up with barely any physical mark left and mostly superficial. Past that, even the doctors seemed to be confused at what happened to you.”

  A nod was all that Marshall replied with their words. He looked past the crew to the others behind them and gestured. “Are they all friends and confidants?”

  Cadence looked back. “Yes, these are all people who helped move boulders to get you back. I can introduce them if you–”

  Marshall shook his head and limped forwards. “No need. We’ll have introductions and pleasantries when we’re somewhere without prying eyes and ears. Less public. Do you know a place like that?”

  The Captain gave a low laugh and said. “Oh, do we? We’ve been staying at Cadence’s old family’s place. Down in the lower districts. We can move there for the time being.”

  This seemed to cause an idea to pop up in the head of Robert as he once more reached out to Marshall, halting him. “Hold on, where is your mask? You need it to go outside into the atmosphere. You don’t want to make your Void Scourge worse.” Worry painted the man’s voice, but the stern note of the Doctor was always bleeding through when it came to health.

  Marshall seemed to steel himself as he replied. “I don’t need it anymore. It’s one of the things I want to talk to you all about.” He stepped forwards again, the temporary cane he was allotted helping his gait. “Let’s get going. Cadence, please lead the way. The only part of the town I know is a couple back alleys, Valentine’s place, and the inside of a burlap hood.”

  Whilst it was meant in jest, Marshall could see that the comment seemed to make Cadence recoil slightly before she was able to correct herself. He frowned, but decided to shelve that question till later. First, he needed to level with everyone with what he had decided.

  “I’m sorry, but fuck no.” Cadence said, pacing around the table. The conversation had not exactly gone in Marshall’s favor so far, but he was only building steam.

  “I know my goal is to return and all, but with this new power I can’t go back. They’d actively reject me and send me to serve in an outpost for the rest of my life if they even let me back in.” Marshall said, a downcast to his voice. He leaned back in the chair that was provided to him, one of the few left in this operations room for the warehouse. “So instead, I’ll settle here for now. Grow my power, and challenge Petrov and his gang. They seem like assholes, and frankly I have a massive bone to pick with them.”

  Cadence threw her hands up, Martinez looking at her in shock. Marshall figured she must not be this expressive, as a number of people who knew her in the room were surprised by her actions so far. “And what skills do you have? Sure, you’re a fine shot with cannons and vehicle weapons, but you’re not exactly going to get much business done with that. Can you weld? Craft? A green thumb? You’re a fighter pilot, Mr. Outworlder, not a sodden mechanic or scientist.”

  Arnold made a snort and chimed in. “That is literally my job, and it pays well enough to have a small house outside the slums.”

  “You are so bad at your job that your boss uses you as an emergency healer when he catches the clap instead of your actual job!” Cadence retorted, pointing a finger at him. “So I don’t want to hear it from you.” Arnold bristled at that, but said nothing back.

  “Maybe we all just need to take a breath and clear the air…” Came the cautious words of Valentine. “I can understand why you might want to take revenge on Petrov and his men for what they did, but why not leave it to the White Coats? Captain Albatross and his gang of white-clad bruisers may be a hammer, but these problems are nails now unhidden from the board you pulled up. Besides; you’re still wounded. The best thing for now is to rest, yes?”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Marshall let out a breath and, with it, a flinty laugh. “There is no getting better with rest from this.”

  Robert raised a brow, speaking. “The wounds you suffered were all superficial from the doctors. In fact, I’m not even sure why you’re limping with a cane. Or what is under that dressing on your eye. So what exactly are you not telling us?”

  Marshall paused as he remembered that the dressing was still on him. He sighed again and started to lift his hands to his head. “I was suffering from the Void Scourge, this much is correct. I have little knowledge on all of this and basic understanding of most of this, but I know that it isn’t the end of the line for some.” He began unwrapping his bandage around his head, the cold air touching the now bare skin causing gooseflesh. “When I was in that place, they removed all my protective equipment and stripped me down to my skivvies. When that happened, I had too much intake and… awoke.”

  As the wrapping fell away, a wave of shock went through the room. Gasps and exclamations of alarm were met by the sight of Marshall’s head. The right side of his head was littered with wires and mesh that made the right temple and forehead look like a computer’s terminal. The eye that was there was now more of a metal sphere with a red dot in the center of it. His hair from under the bandage was all gone, making it look as if heat had seared off all hair follicles on the right side of his head. From the bridge of his nose to the top of his right cheek and stretching back to the center of his right scalp was all a mess of metal and skin now, and looked like a robot more than a man.

  While a look of shock and horror took most, Valentine and Arnold stiffened slightly at the reveal. Marshall took note, a suspicion of his gaining traction. He continued after a second of reflection for everyone present. “I awoke within the bowels of that place and used my new abilities to fight my way out. I found an ally down there, but he was fated to not make it out it seems. Not with all those monsters down in that dungeon of a ruin. I overstressed my new power and it backfired on me. What they called a ‘Blowback’. Without the VI that I stole down there, I’d be dead and my brain melted. Probably.” He gestured to the side of his head and spoke. “Meet Archie, the VI.”

  There was a moment of hesitation as everyone waited for something to happen. The two who reacted oddly earlier only got more uncomfortable looking. Archie, for all it was worth, did actually respond. In Marshall’s head. “Conductor, I must remind you that our form of communication is limited to the vibro-conductor near your ear. I cannot cast my voice due to limitations in hardware.”

  Marshall held the gaze for another moment before the Captain slowly spoke. “Are.. we supposed to be hearing something? Or was that a rhetorical ‘meet this thing’?”

  Marshall’s face went a shade of red as embarrassment hit him. He had forgotten the thing was only in his head. Literally. “Right, I forgot that it was damaged too.” he lied as naturally as he breathed. “So for now, I’m just showing it. You all can meet when I repair it, and by extension myself, as well. For now: just know that it is a highly analytical Virtual Intelligence that can speak to me through an earpiece now buried in my head. Technically.”

  The looks he got were between confused, worried, and skeptical. The latter coming from the less technically inclined of those gathered here. Cadence cleared her throat and spoke. “Right… so, say this thing is real and not just trauma from a wound that they couldn’t remove. What does it do?”

  Marshall went to speak, then stopped himself. What could it do? He had only really known the thing to act on its own and try to make his life last longer. From identifying things and enemies to weak spots and power assistance. It felt like it was some form of assistant, but why would something like that be in a machine trapped underground for an unknown amount of time? That seems like something that would be yanked during The Fall and used for war machines. So what other things could it do that he hadn’t discovered yet?

  The hesitation lasted for a few seconds before Marshall continued with his words. “Well; it’s basically a machine that helps me do tasks. When I used it, it was able to give me descriptions of things and access technology remotely. That and battle-assistance. Kinda like the VI I had in my fighter. Why it was down there, I have no idea.” He gave a shrug and gestured to his eye. “But for now, it’s basically inactive. I’m still too wounded internally for it to work, and will need to recover by actively using my powers and exploring what I can still do. And that,” he said, once more gesturing at the room, “is why I need to take a breather and settle. I don’t have the knowledge-base that I need to survive here. Sure, asking someone every time something comes up would technically solve the issue of lack of knowledge, but that’s a liability in and of itself.”

  The Captain nodded to this. “True. You came to this planet with barely an idea of how things work on the surface. You came with preconceived notions and a general misunderstanding of how the world was even still alive. Which bit you in the ass multiple times already. So I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but the question Cadence asked is still in the air. How?”

  Cadence seemed to gain some wind in her sails as the Captain revisited her question. One that Marshall had time to think on and answer. “I get it.” Marshall started off. “I don’t have many useful skills when it comes to just living here. I’m more of a hired gun and goon than a farmer or techie. But I’m not technically alone now.” He gave a gesture to his head. “I showed this because I plan to use Archie to run a restoration business. If she knows how to bring up details of things and analyze them, then I’ll just need to follow it and cheat my way into doing things. Maybe help out around the town and repair things for people or do odd jobs here and there. Hell, maybe I can get into the scrapping business since she’d be able to point out where things are?”

  As Marshall spoke, Cadence’s face became more confused. Eventually, she asked “Did you just call it a she?”

  Marshall stopped fully in his explanation and stared for a moment. “The voice is feminine. I guess I must have…”

  Robert stepped over and placed a hand on Marshall's shoulder. “It’s perfectly normal, in times of trauma and responses to it, to personify things that are non-gendered and artificial. We do it to boats out of love, and guns out of frustration.” The smile that crept onto his face was shared by the Captain and Martinez, but Cadence just looked confused still.

  Marshall, with all the grace of a galloping elephant, shrugged. “Better than calling her an ‘it’. Maybe she knows snark and would weaponize it against me?”

  The Captain looked like he was having a seizure from holding something in, and Roberts had the look of a doctor looking at an unwell patient. Martinez shook their head and the other two near the back held nervous glances between them. Cadence just looked lost. “I get the whole ‘personification’ thing, but most voices for military tech is male. Feminine voices were relegated to calming roles like medicine and waiting rooms.”

  Marshall nodded along with that line of thought. “It was a research area, so it kind of makes sense. It wasn’t military, more so paramilitary. It had more of a civilian mask to it that I saw.”

  Cadence raised an eyebrow and retorted. “Saw? As in: it was still operational?”

  With a shake of his head, Marshall went into a description of the place as it was. The hired brains, the goons in old gear, and the appropriated weapons they were working on. “They seemed to have gear from before The Fall, but it was all so broken and outdated that they had to malform the tech to functionality with materials they could scrounge. Most of what I learned from them was nothing compared to what my power showed me; with the help of Archie that is.”

  Marshall’s eyes landed on the two in the back of the room, who seemed to grow more concerned as this conversation went on. “Which leads me to my big reveal and question. I’m able to manipulate tech to a certain degree, I think. I thought it was probability, but I can interface with Archie more than I think I should be able to. I can alter how the guns they were using operated, even causing some to misfire since they were already nearly broken as is. Yet, that only expanded as Archie and I worked against that higher-grade asshole Barns.” His look leveled on the two like a guillotine. “And this is something I shouldn’t be talking about to those not under a contract. Isn’t that right, my fellow Void-Scourged?”

  All eyes turned to Valentine and Arnold, who froze under the spotlight. They each cleared their throats and looked ahead at him. Valentine was the first to speak. “That’s… technically correct. If we talked openly about it, we’d lose the contract. Those that don’t know, can’t know. Those that do are under the same.”

  Marshall nodded and looked around. “Since I just flapped my gums, you’re all now able to actually talk as equals and not looked down the nose by those with Void-Cores. So let’s talk. Tethel?”

  Everyone not in the know looked around like they were searching for an extra person in the room they hadn’t seen till now. Yet, the words were aimed at a small little blue butterfly hanging out in the rafters of the room. It departed from the ceiling and landed on the table they were all roughly gathered around. Some turned in confusion at the odd bug, but that confusion turned to surprise and, in the case of Cadence, reaching for a weapon. Before their eyes the butterfly shifted into a blue little goblin-like creature who stood regally on the table. The look on his face was anything but friendly.

  “I hate these self-igniting cores. Contracts are made for a reason, mortal.”