The cold had seeped from Jace Mercer's bones hours ago, replaced by the familiar ache of overworked muscle and frayed nerves. He'd been moving since the creek, since the ground last hummed with that blind, hungry predator. Days of skulking through this strange world, boots grinding over unseen roots, each step a silent wager against whatever else this place hid beneath its skin. Now, at last, a break—a jagged overhang of black-barked tree sheltered him from the silver-veined canopy's gaze. He slumped against the rough trunk, breath shallow to mute any sound, Mara resting across his lap like the only constant left.
His gaze drifted downward, past the worn fabric of his uniform, to a faint glint against his chest. Something hard and angular pressed beneath the tactical vest, tucked into a holder he hadn't noticed in the chaos of survival. A device, matte-black and rugged, no larger than a smartphone but thicker, with reinforced edges scuffed from use—or something more. It looked like the ATAK rigs he'd humped on Earth with the 75th, the Android Tactical Assault Kit, all digital grit for mapping ops and calling shots. But this… this was off. Angular ports glowed faintly with a cold, cyan hue, and unfamiliar etchings—almost runic—flickered across its surface, a ghost of static in the dim light. What the hell? He'd carried this since waking here, and only now, in this fractured reprieve, did it register.
He tapped it, instinct over thought. A semi-transparent grid sprang to life, hovering over his chest like a battlefield hologram, lines and waypoints sharper than any ATAK he'd known. A sterile, monotone hum buzzed in his ear: '-Tactical Adaptive Command Kit online. Resolve Marks: 10.-' His gut clenched—familiar, yet wrong. A tool, not a savior. But in this alien hell, it was something to fight with. A lifeline, maybe, if he could trust it. He needed to move, a plan. Now.
Jace exhaled, the ache in his chest not just from fatigue. No backup. No squad. Just this… TACK thing, and Mara's weight across his lap. He tapped the grid again, watching menus unfold—maps, supply drops, quests. A faint grey patch on the display caught his eye, marked as '-unexplored zone, southwest quadrant, reduced tree density.-' No names, no intel beyond raw data. Just a direction. Good enough. Anywhere but back toward whatever that entity was that hunted him by vibration. "Now I need to plot a path to the southwest quadrant," he muttered, expecting nothing as he messed with the TACK. The grid shifted suddenly without him interfering, a jagged line tracing through the digital void. '-Path logged. Distance: 1.2 klicks. Terrain: Valley.-' Jace's jaw tightened. Familiar, like calling coords for a raid. But wrong, like everything here.
He moved, boots light on the uneven soil, following the path TACK carved through the endless black-bark maze. The canopy above filtered light into fractured shards of gold and green, an alien dusk that refused to settle. Every few steps, the grid flickered, a band of red static slicing across the display. '-Warning: Aether Interference – Source: Unknown resonance.-' Jace grimaced. More of this magic bullshit. He dismissed the alert, relying on the raw input of his senses—damp earth underfoot, the faint musk of unseen life, the weight of Mara in his grip. The TACK was a crutch, not gospel. He'd learned that much on Earth.
Hours bled into dusk—or what passed for it in this endless twilight. The path angled upward, a low ridge rising from the forest floor. Jace crouched at its crest, hidden by a thicket of silver-veined leaves, and peered down. Below, A settlement. Smoke curling from stone chimneys, thin tendrils against the darkening sky. The trees parted into a wide clearing, cradling a cluster of wooden structures built into the trunks themselves. Shapes moved—humanoid, People. Or close enough. Some had fur and pointed ears, others bore glints of scale or feather. He hadn't known until TACK pointed him here, until this grey patch on a grid became something real.
His Ranger brain kicked in, cataloging with cold precision. Defensive positions: natural barriers of dense thicket on the north side, elevated platforms in trees for lookouts. Escape routes: a narrow path winding east, likely a hunting trail. Vantage points: this ridge, plus a taller outcrop to the west. But then, his gaze caught on motion—a larger figure, furred and powerful, guiding a smaller one through a mock chase. The small one yelped, a sound of pure, unburdened glee that hit Jace like a stray round. 'Ramirez's kid. First steps. Laughing.' The memory sliced through the void in his chest, raw and uncalled. An ache, unfamiliar, sharp. 'Why not me? Why nothing?' He shook it off. 'Just recon. Intel. Nothing more.'
Mara's grip pulsed, a faint warmth against his palm, barely registered as he adjusted his stance. 'Nerves. Just nerves.' He tapped TACK again, imputing, "Log: unidentified settlement. Population: unknown. Threat level: assess further." The grid updated, a waypoint pinning the clearing as "Observation Point Alpha." '-Logged. Resolve Marks potential: 5. Awaiting action.-' Jace's jaw ticked. Potential. Like it knew more than he did.
He spent the next hour watching, unmoving, as the settlement breathed life below. Furred figures—Wolfkin, maybe—hunted in pairs, their movements silent, predatory. Others, foxlike with sly grace, tended to strange, glowing plants near the largest tree-homes. He noted their rhythm, their patterns. For defenses they had subtle barriers of woven vine that shimmered faintly, like heat over asphalt but cool. Aether, whatever that was, probably. TACK didn't flag it, but the static on the edge of the grid hinted at interference. '-Warning: Unidentified energy signature-' He dismissed it again. Useless against whatever this magic was.
A smaller shape broke from the routine—a cub, grey-haired, stumbling from a platform with a clumsy boldness. It laughed, chasing something unseen, until a larger figure scooped it up, muzzle scarred but motion gentle. The cub buried its face in fur, safe, wanted. That ache flared again, sharper. 'Ramirez's little girl. Met her twice. Same damn grin.' Jace's grip on Mara tightened, a tether to something colder, something he knew. Just intel. Needed to know if these… things were hostiles. Needed to know if they'd turn on him like everything else here.
Mara pulsed again—slow, steady, almost insistent. He ignored it, eyes locked on the settlement. He'd watch. He'd wait. No contact, not yet. He updated TACK's grid silently, mapping more of the grey void. No names, no history. Just data. But beneath the cold analysis, beneath the void, something stirred. An echo of a life he'd never had. He pushed it down. 'Just recon. Nothing more.-