Chương 43: Arc 1 - Chapter 22 - Squad Cohesion

When the laughter had calmed down, Corvus continued his recounting of the day.

"After that revelation, we were told all about the different rarities, which I believe is part of all System 101 lectures, so you should know about them as well, I assume?" Corvus stopped briefly, looking at the affirming nods of the rest of Alpha Squad before continuing.

"Those true rarities seem very powerful indeed. We were shown an Ability called 'Eyes of the Stellarch'. I wrote down what it does, if anyone wants to take a look later on, just let me know. Then we were told all about how to acquire Abilities, how to keep them for later, and so on. I'd imagine those are pretty much the same topics across all our lectures.

"At the end of the lecture we spent about an hour talking about different build archetypes and recommendations on how to invest your points. That part was particularly interesting, in my opinion, and something we should emulate as a squad. I'd like to put all of our collective intelligence together, to find the best possible setup for each of us going forward, how does that sound?"

Posing the question into the room, the other members of Alpha Squad contemplated it for some time, as half of them continued their meal. The first to speak up was Karania, in between a few bites of her food, "Ah, great! We actually didn't have that part in our lecture, because the Professor went into a lengthy Q&A session instead, answering questions on the message board. I'm definitely down to do this, although I'll need some information beforehand, such as what archetypes there are, etc."

Quickly chiming in to affirm her squad mate's assertion, Thea sounded her agreement, "Hmmh!", while nodding and giving a thumbs up in Karania's direction. She was unable to talk, as she had just filled her mouth with another full spoon of delicious stew. Amused at the sight, Corvus nodded in affirmation at Karania's stipulations with a smile, before starting to divulge some general information on the archetypes.

Thea paid close attention to the conversation, as she was equally as interested in this topic as Karania was. Corvus disclosed that in general, there were a couple main types of builds that existed: Offence, Defense, Hybrid, Scout, Support and Psyker. Builds were generally created by following one of these main paths, and dipping into other aspects when necessary.

Someone like Major Quinn, who had been used as an example by Professor Vesper apparently, would have gone down the Offence path, with a strong dip into the Psyker line of things. This would generally be referred to as an Offence-Psyker build, naming the main path first, with the subpath after. A flip of that build would have been the Psyker-Offence, which would have put more emphasis on the Psyker line of Abilities and Attributes, with Offence being a more secondary thought.

Builds generally consisted of two of these keywords, to categorise them, but some rare ones would also end up with three, in order to properly convey the breadth of the build in question. The exact makeup of the builds were, of course, left to each individual Marine, as there was an infinite number of combinations possible within the Allbright System. How exactly they would invest their level-ups, which Abilities they would choose and later retain, which classes to go for, etc.

, were all things that were not governed by this categorization. It was merely used to provide a general framework for the UHF to create functioning squads, platoons, divisions and the like. A typical UHF squad consisted, generally speaking, of at least one Defence, one Scout and one Support, with the rest of the slots being wildcards. They were often filled up with one additional Support and at least one Offence-type, but not always.

Thinking about her own squad, Thea put the information she had just learned into work, ' Hmm… So in our squad, I'd be the Scout, Karania would be the Support. Isabella is definitely an Offence and Lucas looks like he'd do well as a Defence… That leaves Corvus and Desmond for the wildcards, which makes us a fairly reasonable squad right from the get-go!'

Interrupting her thoughts was the voice of Desmond, who spoke up for the first time since Karania and Thea had entered the room, "I'm fine with talking about our builds together. Better to have more eyes looking over our decisions, lest we mess something up, right? I'd prefer if the cyan didn't take too close of a look, but I'm willing to work with everyone, for the sake of the squad."' How magnanimous of you…'

was the only thought going through Thea's mind, as she did her best to ignore the snide remarks of her squad member.

"Great, thanks Desmond. I really appreciate that. How about you, Lucas, Isabella?" Corvus prompted an answer from the last two members of Alpha Squad. Both of them simply signalled their approvals with a nod, seemingly having no further objections or stipulations to Corvus' idea.

"Fantastic! Then I'd say we should start off with the Abilities, as discussed yesterday. Isabella and Desmond, your concerns have been noted and you do not need to take part in this. The same applies to everyone else that feels uncomfortable, of course. Thea, if you would like Isabella and Desmond to leave the table while you reveal yours, just say the words," Corvus led them into the next stage of his, seemingly well-put-together, plan. Thinking about it for a moment, Thea shook her head, before she answered "Nah.

I'm fine with both of them seeing my Ability. I, for one, trust the UHF to have done a good job with the vetting of their Marines, especially Alpha Squad. Isabella, Desmond, feel free to take a good, close look at my Ability." She had prepared those words ever since the incident of the previous day, but her delivery had ended up being a bit more bitter than she had hoped. Regardless, Thea meant those words. So what if two of the members of Alpha Squad doubted her?

She'd be the best damn Marine the UHF had ever seen, so why worry about them seeing her Ability? Looking over at Desmond and Isabella, Thea saw that Isabella had raised one of her eyebrows and stopped just short of biting into another piece of meat, before she briefly nodded in Thea's direction. Desmond, on the other hand, simply scoffed at Thea's remark.

"Thanks, Thea. I really appreciate that. Let me start off then…" Corvus replied, before his voice trailed off, an uncharacteristic frown appearing on his face.

"So… I actually have to make a confession first. I've lied to all of you, since the very start… I don't actually have a Silver-rank Ability. I was told by the inspection Officer to keep it a secret, lest it might lead to issues with the other Marines or Alpha Squad, before we really got to know each other…" Eyebrows raised in surprise, the rest of Alpha Squad simply looked at their de-facto leader, waiting for him to continue.

"I actually am the only Marine of this drive with a Gold-rank one, instead. I wanted to keep it a secret until the time was right. I didn't want it to influence how you would see me or have the feeling that you owe me some kind of false-sense of inferiority or anything like that, so I didn't say anything earlier. I apologise for that. I promise there are no more secrets than this, from my side," Corvus finished, bowing his head low before the rest of the squad. A brief moment of silence fell over the dining table.

Thea could not help but think to herself, 'He… He has a gold-rank Ability?! That's so lucky…! I'm so envious…' The silence was quickly broken by Isabella, who slammed her left hand on the table, startling everyone with the comparatively loud noise.

"So? What the fuck is the Ability? You think I give a flying fuck about Gold, Silver, Iron or even fucking Galactium? I didn't object to your bid for squad lead, cause I don't want that void-forsaken role, not cause I thought you had a Silver-rank Ability. Get that stick out of your ass and move on with the conversation." Taken aback by the blunt retort, Corvus looked helplessly towards the rest of the members of Alpha Squad, who all simply nodded in agreement with what Isabella had stated.

None of them had ever had any ambitions towards squad leadership. The fact that Corvus had a Gold-rank Ability mostly filled them with anticipation and maybe some envy, but nothing more. Stammering slightly, Corvus addressed the squad, "Ah… Thank you, guys… I… I was actually quite worried how this would go down. I wasn't expecting it to be such… a non-issue, I guess…? Ah, right! My Ability, then."

A moment later, a familiar blue box appeared in front of Corvus' outstretched hand, the rest of Alpha Squad eagerly leaning forward in their chairs to get a better look at their very first Gold-rank Ability. [Active (Gold) - Direct Order - Level 0] Description: Allows the Participant to use focus and stamina to designate a command as a [Direct Order], affecting a certain number of friendly targets in a limited radius. Once affected, friendly targets may freely leave the initial radius, without losing the benefit.

The less specific the command, the more expensive the use of this Ability becomes. Any friendly, affected targets, have their Attributes raised by a certain percentage, as long as they are actively working towards fulfilling the [Direct Order]. The effect lasts until the command is rescinded, the command has been fulfilled or the user of this Ability has died. The user of this Ability only receives 50% of the effect. Only one [Direct Order] may be active at any given time.

Minimum Cost: 50 Focus + 50 Stamina - Effect Radius: 5m Effect Strength: 10% more - Maximum Targets: 6"Well… That really does suit you, as the squad leader," was the first thing said by Karania after a moment of silence, in which everyone intently read through the Ability, again and again. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"No kidding, that seems really fucking good," agreed Lucas.

"See. Told you. No big deal," Isabella chimed in, reiterating her earlier point. Thea could do nothing but agree with her squad mates assessments so far. This Ability absolutely screamed SL, no matter how you tried to cut it. The fact it only had half effectiveness for the user, pretty much shoe-horned it into a supportive-type Ability, rather than something to be used leisurely.

"I actually did some testing on it today, during Isabella and my Practical. Here's a very interesting point: The 10% raise, which is listed as '10% more', is actually multiplicative with other increases, from what I was able to tell. I had a fellow Marine, Joshua, help me out with this, as he had already spent some level up points.

"The 10% from Direct Order actually gets applied after everything else has been calculated together. Joshua has some kind of surge-type Ability that raises his Strength by 10% for around 2-3 minutes. He had a baseline 3. 76 Strength, with three points invested, that ended up at a 4. 32. I asked him to activate his Ability and it came out to 4. 75, as expected.

"Next, I asked Delmika to use her buffing-type Ability on him, which raises Strength by 15%, for a short time, but the result ended up being a 5. 40, not 5. 46, as I had expected. That's because these increases are additive, not multiplicative.

"I figured out that your Base Attribute, increased by your level-ups, forms the basis of other increases. But further increases simply get added together, before they are applied. So instead of getting a 10% and then a 15% increase, the System simply applied a 25% increase, instead.

"Now here comes the interesting part: When I used Direct Order on him, his Strength rose to 5. 94, which would only be possible, if the '10% more' was applied after everything else. Pretty awesome, huh?" Karania had pulled out a data-pad from basically nowhere, as Corvus had started divulging numbers and tests, and was rapidly writing down everything the SL was saying.

"Agreed. That's pretty awesome. Going to be a huge boost for us as a squad going forward, for sure," Desmond chimed in, before falling into deep contemplation. Another moment of silence followed, as every member of Alpha Squad seemed to consider the implications of what Corvus had just explained. After around five minutes, Lucas spoke up with his naturally mellow voice, "I guess I'm next then?"

"Right. Let's keep going through this, we can discuss things more in-depth once we've had some time to sleep over it and think of things. Let's just get through the Abilities first," Corvus agreed, before motioning Lucas to continue. Almost immediately, another blue box appeared, this time, in front of Lucas' outstretched hand.

[Active (Silver) - Lighten Equipment - Level 1] Description: Allows the Participant to use stamina to designate a certain number of pieces of their equipment, up to a maximum combined weight. Designated equipment that is carried by the user of this Ability has its weight drastically reduced, for as long as it remains in direct contact with the user. Containers cannot be designated as equipment. Cost: 75 Stamina - Effect Limit: 11 pieces of equipment Effect Strength: 52.

5% reduction - Weight Limit: 550kg With a goofy smile, Lucas announced, "I'm basically a pack mule, hehe."

"Or a weapons platform…" Isabella mused, before falling into quiet contemplation once again. Lucas looked surprised at the thought, but quickly caught himself, before elaborating further, "Right… or that. I could definitely carry some mighty large weapons with this. Considering my 4. 54 Strength, I can definitely do that… Oh! Are we actually sharing our Attributes? My bad…" Thea could not help but smile at Lucas' antics.

He was the archetypal gentle-giant, that she knew from so many video games and movies that she had enjoyed as a child. They had always been among Thea's favourite characters, as they would always be friendly and welcoming, often granting a helping hand to her in her adventures. Having a real-life representation of that character archetype right in front of her felt strange, but oddly calming and reassuring, nevertheless.

"I was going to suggest that after we're done with the Abilities. We'll need to get an idea of what people's Attributes are looking like, in order to properly help each other find the right builds, after all," Corvus answered, before gesturing towards Karania and Thea.

"Alright, it's your turn now. You sure you're fine with this, Thea? You really don't have to, if you don't wa—" Before Corvus could finish his sentence, a blue holographic box had appeared in front of Thea's outstretched arm, in the centre of the table.

"Got it. I'll shut up, then. Thanks, Thea," he ultimately conceded with a gentle smile and a nod. [Active (Silver) - Sensory Overdrive - Level 3] Description: Allows the participant to use up a certain amount of focus to drastically heighten their own Perception and mental capabilities for a short time. Cost: 50 Focus - Factor: 650% - Effect Duration: 0. 65 seconds"You know… This explains a lot," came the immediate response from Karania to Thea's right.

"I did feel like your counter during that second round was way too fast, considering that my feint was damn-near perfect. Curse this overpowered Ability… I would have easily gotten that second round without being harmed if it wasn't for it!" Karania stomped one of her feet on the ground, before looking up at the surprised faces of the rest of Alpha Squad.

"Ah… Right. We fought each other during the Practical. We had a round-robin with the winners going up against each other. Thea won the whole thing, of course… If it wasn't for that Ability though… Who knows!" She dejectedly threw her arms in the air, unwilling to pretend that she wasn't upset. The rest of Alpha Squad simply grinned at the display of child-like dejection, before returning to study Thea's Ability description further.

"Level 3, huh? I can see how you have gotten a lot of mileage out of it already. I'd imagine this is part of the reason you managed to dodge the Major too, huh?" Isabella mused, before raising an eyebrow at Thea.

"Yeah, part of it. Main problem with this Ability is that it doesn't really help me move faster. Just gives me more time to see an attack coming, but if my baseline Attributes aren't enough to get me out of Dodge, all it does is prolong my death. Karania here cut off my head during our second round, while it was active… That was not a fun experience…" The members of Alpha Squad looked at Thea in a mixture of disbelief and abject horror, especially Karania, who immediately blurted out, "W… What the fuck?

Why didn't you tell me?! That sounds absolutely horrifying!" Thea simply shrugged, not seeing why the rest made such a big deal out of it. She explained her thought process, hoping that it would keep the conversation moving, "I mean… What would that have done for anyone? It wasn't a great experience, for sure. But it's not like this won't ever happen again, right? I'm bound to die while under the effect of this Ability at one point or another, so better get used to it now, right?"

A stunned silence followed her explanation instead, the exact opposite of what she had hoped to achieve. A quiet mumbling from Isabella's side however, just barely loud enough for Thea's massive Perception to pick up, gave her some much needed relief, "I might have misjudged you after all…" Before she could figure out a way to naturally address Isabella however, to potentially get her to elaborate on that involuntary statement, Karania chimed in again, genuine concern audible in her voice.

"Listen, I understand wanting to explore all kinds of horrifying experiences, but getting your head cut off while under the effect of a Perception enhancing Ability? That is downright insane. Are you sure you are okay, Thea? Should we go and get you a psych eval, make sure that nothing got… damaged, on the way?" Thea was severely taken aback by this line of conversation. Why were they all making such a big deal out of this? Especially Karania, who had shown some…

less than normal behaviour herself, during the Practical. Looking around, Thea realised that the rest of Alpha Squad had similarly concerned looks on their faces. Even Desmond seemed more mortified than usual.

"Ehh… No, really. I'm fine. It ran out very quickly, so the whole experience was over before I even knew what was going on. I promise, I'm fine," Thea deflected, trying to get out of this awkward situation as soon as possible. An uncharacteristic flash of social-inspiration hit Thea in that moment. Quickly, she added, "Speaking of that fight, by the way, I really wanna see your Ability, Karania." With a toothy grin, Karania leaned back in her chair, "Ha! Bet you do! Did a real number on ya, didn't I?"

Purposefully mumbling her response, Thea replied, "More on yourself… but sure." With some obviously fake outrage, Karania pouted before shooting back, "You wish you had this aptitude for surgery! I could've even sewn your head back on, after I sliced it off!" Palming his hand over his face, Corvus shook his head every so slightly, before interjecting, "Ladies, please. Karania, would you be so kind?"

With a triumphant raise of her chin, Karania activated the holographic blue box of her System, displaying her Ability for everyone to see. [Active (Silver) - Surgeon's Toolkit - Level 2] Description: Allows the participant to use up a certain amount of stamina and focus to freely transform their hands into surgical tools. These tools can be fashioned after tweezers, forceps, scissors, retractors, clamps or scalpels. The tool sizes can be adjusted up to a certain minimum and maximum length, at the user's discretion.

Cutting and stabbing implements can easily penetrate any materials up to a certain tier. Furthermore, the user may use the skin, as well as the sinew, muscles, blood, fingernails and hair from their hands to assist in the surgery. Any of the aforementioned pieces taken will regenerate rapidly, as long as sufficient stamina and focus is supplied to the Ability. Anything created by this Ability is perfectly sterile and can be accepted by any recipient of the same species without fear of rejection.

Cost: 70 Focus + 70 Stamina - Secondary Cost: 5 Stamina per 20 square mm of recovery Effect Duration: 12 minutes - Minimum/Maximum Limit: 55% - Tier Limit: Up to Tier 1 Materials A long silence followed the appearance of Karania's Ability description. Likely due to a combination of shock, as well as the attempt to parse the overly long description of the Ability itself.

"So… You're the medic…?" Lucas finally posed, scratching the back of his head.

"Yup! I can fix all of you right up, even if you're stuck in your armour! Pretty neat, huh?" Karania cheerily answered.

"What… What does that look like, exactly?" Desmond chimed in, his face uncharacteristically pale. In the next moment, the tearing of flesh and the breaking of bones could be heard, as Karania's hands transformed into an array of surgical tools, ranging from the scalpel-like implements, which she had used to defeat Thea during the second round of the Practical, over tweezers down to clamps.

Thea had already picked up her plate of food beforehand, anticipating something like this would happen, before the violent transformation could drip blood and pieces of flesh into her food. Satisfied with having a better understanding of how Karania's Ability worked now, Thea decided to chow down on her food, mostly ignoring the rest of the conversation. Much to the chagrin of the rest of Alpha Squad, which seemed more than taken aback by the odd couple of girls sitting next to each other.

One, with a severely mangled, transformed pair of hands that was actively dripping blood onto her side of the table. The other, simply eating food as if nothing weird had just occurred, at all.

"I… I don't even know what to say to this, honestly. I'm glad to have you on our side, Karania," Corvus barely managed to squeeze out, clearly flabbergasted by the situation before him.

"That's pretty hardcore… But I guess, better that, than dying in the field," Isabella concurred with a shrug of her shoulders. She did push away her still half-filled plate of food, however. Lucas, surprisingly, seemed to be the only one not horribly mortified by what had just happened to Karania's hands. Moreover, he looked excited.

"That is so cool! How does the System even do that…? Does it hurt, by the way?" He posed to Karania, who simply shook her head in response.

"That's super cool. I'm glad we have a medic and a surgeon with us, at the same time! That'll undoubtedly come in handy. Hehe. Little joke there, for all of you," he finished with a smug grin on his face, as if to say 'I worked hard on this joke'. Karania giggled at Lucas' antics, while the rest of Alpha Squad mostly groaned or tried to ignore the joke, instead.

"Well then… With the Abilities out of the way so far, how about we jump into Attributes? I assume everyone's still fine with sharing the Attributes, so we can help each other come up with what builds to go for, yes?" Corvus interjected the silence that had followed Lucas' attempt at humour. Looking around at the other members of Alpha Squad in turn, everyone gave their nodded approval. With a smile, Corvus started off, "Very well, let me go first then, as per usual…"