The Wolves

Earth

Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies

August 14, 2019

06:50 PDT (09:50 EDT)

"The ship itself is complete, so you can board it," Abi said as the ramp at the back began to lower. "There are just a few more things to take care of, but they'll only take a few minutes."

"What sort of things?" I asked following after Ben who was already making his way up the ramp.

"I am linking up my own dimensional storage with this shuttle to increase its capabilities. When I'm done, anyone on the shuttle will be able to access the storage, as will the missile pods. The shuttle will effectively have the firepower of a ship many times its size."

"You can do that? What happens if the shuttle is say a galaxy away. Will we still be able to access the storage?"

"Yes and yes," she replied. "When I was created, a pocket dimension was also created and anchored to my core, which is the small crystal I grew from when we bonded. Since both this shuttle and the Beacon I gave you contain a small part of my core, both allow access to the pocket dimension."

"Can you do the same thing with fighters increasing their capabilities as well?"

"I could, but every time I split my core, it reduces the amount I can grow. With this shuttle and the Beacon there isn't much of an impact, but if I continue to split it, then it will add up quickly. I can easily create fighters and bombers that don't use a piece of my core, they just won't be as capable as this shuttle will be."

"I see. Well that answers one question I had."

"What's that?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you could split into three additional ships, one for each of my sisters, but that would decrease the size of each and make them grow four times slower, right?"

"Yes. Since each one would still be bonded with you, the growth would depend on your mana instead of their own, and then each ship would grow at 25% of the normal rate."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to find the rest of the crystals that were left in the Sagittarius galaxy," I replied, finally taking a look around the ship.

The inside was split in two by a bulkhead door leading to the cockpit. The back of the ship had two benches running along either wall with walking space in between. Above where people would sit were storage compartments like you would see on commercial jets. Besides that, there wasn't much in the back to speak about.

Walking to the front, I caught up with my friends who were all in the cockpit, sitting at one of the six chairs I could see. There were two chairs at the consoles at the front, and then the other four were in situated in lines of two just behind them. The twins were seated at the back row, while Ben and Mason were both sitting at the controls, seemingly looking everything over.

"So, what do you think?" I asked Ben after walking up behind him.

He spun the chair around to face me. "Well, it definitely doesn't have the mental component that the Puddle Jumpers had on the show, but it's still pretty damn cool. Both this console and the one Mason is sitting at are identical, so it can be piloted from either one. Every button is labeled, and I was just reading over them while you were chatting with Abi."

"I see the missile controls, but don't see anything about the energy weapons," Mason said, having finished his examination of the controls.

"I think that's because they're back here," Sonja said, her chair swiveled towards a screen on the side of the ship, with some controls just behind it.

"Over here, too," Anja said.

Mason got up and walked back to take a look over Sonja's shoulder. "Why are they back here and not with the controls up front?" Mason asked after a moment. "Why are they split up?"

"Because the energy weapons are primarily defensive weapons," Abi answered. "They can be operated automatically, or two of you can each take control of one of the turrets in case of pursuit. That doesn't mean they can't be used offensively, because they absolutely can, but the missiles are better suited for that."

"Oh," Mason said before turning and walking back up front and sitting down. "Well, I call dibs on co-pilot!"

I chuckled. "That's fine with me. Is everything sorted, Abi?"

"Just about, there is just one more thing to do," she said. "Can you take the Beacon out of your storage, please."

"Sure," I answered, lifting my hand up in front of me. The Beacon appeared on it and then began to hover over my palm. After a moment, it fell back down.

"That's sorted, you can put it away again. You may want to sit down for the next part," she said.

"Sit down?" I asked while putting the Beacon away.

"Yes. I'm going to be downloading everything you need to know about piloting spacecraft, as well as everything you need to know about this shuttle. It will probably take a minute or two to complete."

"Alright," I said, sitting down in the chair now vacated by Ben. "You can start whenever."

"Here we..."

I didn't hear anything else as I felt the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced begin coursing through my mind. It was hundreds or thousands of times worse than even the strongest headache I had experienced growing up, feeling like someone was taking nails and hammering them into my head.

After what felt like a lifetime, the pain slowly started to cease, allowing me to take in my surroundings. My friends were all standing around me, with Mason and Ben standing beside me, each with a hand on a shoulder. They all wore concerned looks on their faces, and it took me a moment to realize their mouths were moving, and then another moment to understand them.

"...alright Jonathan?! Are you alright?" I heard Anja ask.

"What... what happened?"

"Abi was downloading information to your mind. As soon as it started, you began screaming and holding your head. Mason and Ben had to grab hold of you to keep you from falling or hurting yourself."

"My apologies, Jonathan. I didn't think it would cause you so much distress. Once started, I had to complete the download or it could have damaged your mind.

"I think I will take the slow approach to learning in the future if it is going to be anything like that," I said rubbing my temples.

"It will never be like that again, I assure you. I transferred too much data at once and I am absolutely confident that lesser amounts at small intervals will cause you no harm."

"That's good. So I can fly this now?" I asked, swiveling my chair back to the console and looking over everything in front of me.

"Why don't you tell me?" Abi asked. "I've activated it now. Try turning it on."

Without even thinking about it, I looked over at the console in between the pilot's seat and co-pilot's seat and flipped a switch and then leaned forward to turn a knob. As I leaned back, lights all over the ship turned on and I could hear the whirring of the engines thanks to the ramp still being open. I leaned forward and flipped another switch and soon we were bathed in silence.

"Well, you know how to transfer power from the Mana Core to the rest of the ship, turn it on and raise and lower the ramp, how about raising it off the landing bay deck," Abi said.

"Alright," I said, reaching over and hitting another button on the console which extended the engine pods and then grabbed the steering-wheel-like controls which rose out of the floor. I lifted the wheel slightly, and the ship rose a few inches off the deck where it remained, hovering.

"Perfect. Now rotate the ship around three hundred sixty degrees."

This time, I pushed on the right handle while pulling on the left which immediately caused the ship to yaw counter-clockwise at a sedate pace. After ten seconds or so, the ship made a full rotation and then pushed on the left handle while pulling on the right, stopping it from rotating any further.

"It's not the best idea to try to pitch or roll the ship under gravity, so how about moving the ship out of the landing bay. Once you've done that, I'll have the hangar doors opened and then you can head back down to Earth."

"Got it," I replied.

I used my yaw controls to rotate the ship until it was facing the exit of the landing bay and then gently pushed my controls forward. The ship slowly crept forward until I was sure we were out of the landing bay, at which point I pulled the controls back to halt forward movement. I lifted the controls again, and the ship began rising.

Up above us, I could see the hangar bay doors slowly opening, so I piloted the ship out of the hangar with one hand while reaching over with the other to activate the shroud. When I was sure we were hidden, I lifted the controls a bit higher, increasing the speed at which we were rising, while also using my yaw controls to rotate the ship once more. Soon we were high enough that I could see Earth, so I lowered my controls back down to stop us from rising any further.

"Abi, can you plot us a route to the Algonquin Park dungeon, please?"

"This time, sure. Next time I expect you to show me that you can do it on your own, though."

A moment later, a chart of Earth and The Moon appeared on the crystalline window. Following the course she laid out, I rotated the ship slightly and then began accelerating for forty-five before killing the engines. The display said that we were now moving at almost two thousand meters kilometers second, which would have us arrive at Earth in just over three minutes time.

"Why did you shut off the engines?" Mason asked.

"We don't need them right now," I answered, pointing at the display. "We're moving at almost two thousand kilometers per second, meaning we'll arrive at Earth in a few minutes. If I kept accelerating, it would be very hard to slow down, and we'd either impact the planet or shoot past it. When we're about forty-five seconds out, I'll flip the ship around and begin to decelerate. With the course Abi calculated, we'll enter the atmosphere over the Atlantic, and be able to fly the rest of the way to the dungeon. If this was the Apollo 11, I would never do it this way because the crew had to operate with limited fuel. We can afford to do it this way because this ship has unlimited fuel at the rate the five of us are generating mana."

"Won't it be obvious to anyone on the ground when we enter the atmosphere?"

I nodded, "There will be a sonic boom, that is why we'll be entering the atmosphere over the Atlantic. Significantly less people will end up hearing it. Even if people do end up noticing it, there are other aircraft that can break through the sound barrier."

My friends asked questions and I answered them for the next two minutes or so. It was really amazing how much I now knew about spacecraft. I had watched a lot of Sci-Fi when I was younger, and it made me realize how rarely the showrunners actually get it right.

Beeping brought my attention back up to the display and I saw that it was almost time to begin decelerating.

"Strap yourselves in," I told everyone while securing myself. "We're going to start slowing down soon, and then it might get a little bumpy when we enter the atmosphere. Make sure your seats are all locked so they can't spin as well."

Once secured, I used my controls to pitch the ship one hundred eighty degrees, so the nose was pointing towards The Moon, and the engines towards Earth. When there were forty-five seconds left on the timer, I throttled the engines forward, slowing down the ship. As the ship slowed, the dotted line showing our projected course began to move before finally showing us impacting with the Earth. After more time decelerating, it projected us landing East of Ottawa, though we would be entering the atmosphere approximately one thousand kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland.

As soon as the deceleration burn was finished, I pitched the ship back around so the ship was facing the planet again, which now covered a lot more of our vision. I hit the button to draw the engine pods back into the ship so they wouldn't be damaged by heat or atmospheric stresses. Now, it was just a matter of keeping the ship facing the right direction and waiting until we were through the atmosphere.

While the deceleration burn slowed a lot of our momentum, we were still going almost eleven thousand meters per second by the time we entered the atmosphere. As soon as the front of the ship started glowing red, I reached forward and pressed a button, making the crystalline window opaque, while allowing me to keep track of our altitude, speed and course.

Despite the fireball that the ship was now, there was near dead silence inside. The only noise that could be heard was the very quiet sound of someone breathing. My eyes stayed locked on our altitude and speed, watching and waiting until I could extend the engine pods and begin to slow us down further.

That moment occurred about five minutes later when we had slowed to Mach 4, or nearly five thousand kilometers per hour. I quickly hit the button so I could see through the window again. By now, we were gliding approximately eighteen kilometers over the surface and would arrive over the Algonquin Park dungeon in mere minutes. I reached forward and hit the button to extend the air brakes located all around the ship, which rapidly began slowing us down.

When we were at close to two thousand kilometers per hour, I extended the engine pods as well, which would produce more drag and slow the ship down even further. I could have began flying much earlier, but the important thing now was to bleed off enough speed so we wouldn't overshoot.

After we were finally at around one thousand kilometers per hour, I throttled up the engines just enough to keep us airborne, but not to accelerate the ship, and proceeding to fly in large circles as we descended. After a few minutes of this, we were low enough, and moving slow enough. that I could do a flyby and find somewhere to land. I was surprised to see a fairly large gravel parking lot relatively close to the dungeon, so I circled back and slowed the ship until we were hovering over it.

"Abi, can you take the controls? I think it's best if we teleport from here, rather than land and appear out of nowhere."

"Sure, I've got control."

"Thank you," I said, letting go of the controls and undoing my harness so I could get to my feet. "So where are you going to take the ship while we're in the dungeon?"

"There is a facility in Toronto owned by the Adventurer's Guild. It has a large runway and a few hangars, so I'll bring it there and park it. When you need it again, you can contact me or use the Beacon, and you'll be picked up after approximately fifteen minutes."

"Okay, cool," I replied, looking back to my friends who were undoing their own harnesses. "Are you all ready?" I asked.

"Yup. That was surprisingly fun," Ben said as he stood up and took his staff out of his storage.

"You're right about that!" Sonja laughed. "I can't wait until I can fly something like this."

"You would be well suited for it with your focus on Agility as well," Abi said. "The best pilots and gunners are often those who have Agility as their main stat."

"Shit...I just want to blow stuff up, does that mean I need to put points in Agility as well?"

"You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't eventually start putting some points in Agility," Abi answered. "You won't be using a melee weapon all the time, and points in Agility will increase your reflexes."

"Makes sense," Mason said.

"Alright, I think we're all ready," Anja said.

There were nods all around.

"Let's go," I said, turning around and teleporting down to the parking lot below.

There were four pops and then we all looked up trying to see if there was any sign of a ship above us. I was expecting there to be shimmers or something, but the sky looked normal. We couldn't even hear the engines keeping it airborne, though the leaves on nearby trees were being blown all over.

[See you later tonight,] Abi said, as the nearby trees went still.

"She just left. Let's head to the dungeon," I said as I turned and started walking towards where I had seen it. "Ben, you're sure we'll be able to enter the dungeon even though we're a level lower than its rating?"

"Positive," he answered with a nod when he caught up with me. "The ratings are more of a guideline than a rule. We could enter the dungeon in the Amazon Rainforest, though it wouldn't do us any good. We can't get experience from anything over ten times our level, after all."

"So we'll need to do our evaluations again, and then we'll go in. Hopefully they don't take as long as they did last time."

"It won't," Ben replied. "The first evaluation was to ascertain our base attributes, while this one is just to get an idea of how strong we are now. Our levels and attributes will be taken into account and we'll be put through the same tests as before. I'll give the bench press as an example. The first time you started at an easily weight and then increased it every ten repetitions until you couldn't lift it anymore. This time, it will take your result from last time and then calculate how much you can lift based on how many attribute points you have assigned to Strength."

"That will speed it up a lot then. I must have spent thirty minutes or so just on the weightlifting part."

"Remember that time is relative inside the evaluation. What was thirty minutes inside the evaluation is probably a fraction of what it is outside of it. I doubt it takes more than twenty minutes of real time for us," Ben said. "Yours will take a bit longer though, since you need to have your base Constitution calculated. It should only add a few minutes, though."

"I'll probably lose the first round and then win the others," I said as the start of the building built over the dungeon came into view. "I'll be happy to get that part of the evaluation over with so I don't have to do it again."

"Why are we still walking?" Mason asked before I heard a pop.

I didn't bother looking back because he appeared several hundred feet in front of us. I looked over to Ben who shrugged and teleported away, followed by Anja and Sonja. I teleported after them and we walked inside.

The inside of the building looked exactly the same as the one at Gatineau Park, so we continued on to the room on our right. This time, there was a woman sitting there doing something on a tablet. She must have heard us coming, because she looked up and a big smile appeared on her face.

"Good morning!" she greeted. "Are you here for an evaluation?"

"Yes...Carlee," I answered after looking at her nametag. "We got booted out of our first dungeon earlier today and we were told we had to go through an evaluation every time we get to a new dungeon, so here we are."

"Ah, you guys must have just come from the Gatineau Park dungeon. I don't need to explain to the five of you on how to get through your evaluation, so I'll open the rooms for you," she said, typing on her computer. "Rooms one through five are open, you can enter whenever you're ready."

After thanking the woman for her help, we split up and each went into one of the rooms. Once inside, I took my phone out of storage and plugged it into the socket on the wall before walking to the middle of the room. I turned back towards my phone and then said, "Initiate evaluation."

There was a similar delay before the room darkened and the computerized voice started the same spiel from last time. I went through everything practically on autopilot. I got slightly better numbers for the tests based off of Agility, but significant increases in Endurance and Strength. Before long, it was time for Stage 4.

"Stage 4: Combat. Advanced equipment was detected, so you have been given the same equipment you were using for your last evaluation. Any skills you have acquired are eligible to be used. This is a duel between yourself and a similarly equipped opponent. There will be three rounds, each lasting three minutes. To win a round, you need to earn more points than your opponent, force them out of the ring, or kill them. You will gain one point for striking your opponent's body, and lose one point if your body is struck. You will gain three points if you manage to disarm your opponent, and lose three points if you get disarmed. Win at least two of the three rounds to continue on to the next stage. When you are ready, step just inside the ring. You may begin when the horn sounds."