A Leaguer's Fount of Monstrosity
1
Lukas Larna stood on the upper most balcony of his town. He could see the wall of mist blocking the sky at the edge of the shield created by the glow stones buried at the edge of the village. Shapes moved in the mist, but they didn't try to come closer.
"What are you looking for, Lukas?," asked his sister, Lisas. They were within inches of each other's height, with the same fiery hair, and golden skin. "There's nothing beyond the border."
"You know that's not true." Lukas shook his head. "The caravans used to come here across the Serven Road for a long time. We're just cut off from it for now."
"There's nothing we can do about that." Lisas frowned at him. "Until someone can figure out how to get through the Glow Wall, we're trapped in here."
"I'm sure there's a way to get by and get to another town." Lukas stared at the boiling fog. "Uncle Lupas would know something. He has all those books in his house."
"If he did, he would have given everything to the town council." Lisas put her hands on her hips. "There won't be anything valuable left."
"Sooner, or later, the Glow Wall will collapse." Lukas turned from the barrier and walked to the outside steps that led up to the balcony. "The glow stones won't last forever."
Lukas descended toward the twisting streets that led to the town's central plaza. He wondered what the mayor and the council were doing. Someone must have an idea on how to beat the Miasma back. If the Glow Stones failed, the Miasma would drown the town in monsters before anyone could hope to escape.
He imagined most of the town would be wiped out in the attack. Very few of the town had weapons, or the skills to use them. Help from outside seemed like a faint hope at best from where he stood. No one had come from the other side of the wall in years. The last visitor had brought them enough food to last on for a while, but it couldn't last much longer even with the rationing the village was doing.
He expected that soon they would be told they were out of the food they were sharing out. Then things would really get worse. People could do horrible things when told they were about to die.
His uncle must have something they could use in his old books. There had to be some kind of clue where the Miasma came from, and how to fight it. He didn't want to lose his friends to some phenomena that might be opposable.
He knew he was hoping against hope his uncle knew something, or had possession of something that might be usable. His uncle might not have anything they could turn into a weapon to fight the Miasma.
Lukas didn't want to die without at least trying to save the day. They didn't have that much to lose.
He followed the twisting roads to the eastern edge of the town. His uncle had a cottage facing the Glow Wall on that side of the village. If that side collapsed first, his home would be the first one hit by whatever monster chanced to come through the breach.
The rest of the village would follow soon after.
Lukas knocked on the door with the back of a hand. He listened as he waited. He doubted his uncle had gone anywhere. There wasn't that many places for him to go, and he seemed fascinated by the Miasma.
If someone told him his uncle had turned off the Glow Stones in the area so he could study the monsters better, he would not doubt that at all.
The man could not help himself when he was researching some problem.
Lukas knocked again. He hoped his uncle wasn't doing something that was dangerous and foolish.
The door opened with a jerk. Lupas Larna looked around with dim eyes and skin bleached pale by lack of sun. Hair flopped from his bald spot in white orange streaks.
"Lukas?" He paused before giving the rant he was obviously thinking to do. "Why are you bothering me?"
"I was hoping to look through your library for an answer to a question I have." Lukas smiled. "I'm sure one of your books knows the value of resistance divided by velocity."
"Come in." Lupas waved a hand impatiently. "I am researching. Find your book and leave me alone."
"What are you researching, Uncle?" Lukas stepped inside the cottage. He frowned at the dimness of the lighting. "Maybe I can help you with that."
"I don't need help." Lupas headed for his small office separated from the main room by screens depicting Shambri foxes dancing and playing musical instruments. The color of the paint shifted as Lukas moved to keep an eye on his uncle. One seemed to wink at him with golden eyes.
"Put everything back where you got it when you are done." Lupas settled at his desk. He pulled out a glass and began inspecting the papers scattered about in front of him.
Lukas walked to the shelves of books. He ran his hand over the narrow spines as he read the titles. There had to be something here that could help them with the Mist. Where should he start looking?
He glanced at his Uncle's work. He realized the older man was pouring over a map. He picked up a book at random and approached to look over a shoulder. He realized that the map was of their village. He noted markings for places that still stood, as well as some that had collapsed, or been torn down.
"Are you looking for something?" Lukas opened his book to a random page and made sure that it looked like he was reading it. "The marked area looks like where the old winery used to be."
"What do you mean?" Lupas looked up from his papers.
"This spot circled on your map looks to be about five buildings away from the town hall." Lukas handed him the opened book, using a piece of paper to mark his nonexistent place on the page. "It's big on the paper but it's not there anymore. That looks to be where the Brutans had their winery, but it burned down when they died."
"What's there now?" Lupas moved several maps to look at them with one hand while holding the book open with his finger in the marked page with the other.
"Part of it is the public garden." Lukas searched his memory. "I think the rest is the Café."
"Oh, oh, oh!" Lupas placed the book on his desk and gathered his maps and papers together in a pile. He placed them in a narrow bag. "I have to look at this in person."
"I'll be glad to walk over with you." Lukas smiled. The signs indicated his uncle was up to something. It might be interesting to see what it was.
"Yes, yes." Lupas hung the bag across his body with a belt through the handle. "Come on. This is what I have been looking for all my life."
"I don't understand." Lukas frowned as the older man pulled on his jacket and grabbed a cane from where it leaned against the wall. "It's no secret that the winery has been gone for years."
"I didn't know." Lupas went to the door. "I didn't know what that building was. I thought it was a house of some kind, but I couldn't figure which one. All that was there was stores. I have been over that ground for a few years. It's why I came home in the first place."
"You came home looking for whatever it is?" Lukas followed his uncle out of the cottage. "Why?"
"Because it is a weapon." Lupas headed down the street, not quite trotting. He had to slow down after three houses. "It might be the mightiest weapon we have ever seen if we can find it."
"A weapon?" Lukas followed, keeping pace with his uncle. "What kind of weapon?"
"I don't know." Lupas paused at the next corner and then picked a street running off in the direction he wanted to go. "It's supposed to be magic in some way."
"What do you know, Uncle Lupas?" Lukas tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He wanted a real solution to the Miasma. Some dream weapon buried in the earth sounded like a flight of fantasy.
"I know that Magnas Alarna wore it for a time before he died at the Rift of Exlsora." Lupas paused to look at his relative. "I traced that through the public record. No one knows what he did with it when he was broken by the Summoners of Kasas."
"I thought that was a tale." Lukas wracked his memory for stories about the legendary hero. "That's what you have been looking for all this time? His armor?"
"Not his armor exactly." Lupas paused when he realized he had lost his sense of direction. "It had a power source no one has been able to duplicate. If we can figure out what that was from the remains of the armor, we might be able to build better things than glow stones."
"That is a big if, Uncle." Lukas pointed out the way to the area from the map. Lupas nodded and started walking again. "What if you're wrong?"
"We have nothing to lose." Lupas paused when the Café came into view. "I have been studying the Wall. It is getting thinner. It will collapse sometime in the next year, maybe two. We need something we can use to push back the Mist."
"And this legendary armor might be the only thing we can use?" Lukas wondered when his normally staid uncle had lost his mind.
"The Council say they are working on some kind of solution." Lupas pulled out his papers. He handed some to Lukas as he looked at the ones he still held. He frowned at the lines he had drawn. He wondered what they meant.
"I think we need to go around to the other side, Uncle." Lukas started walking, carrying the papers in his hands.
2
Lukas looked for anything that might link the real world with the paper designations he held. His uncle trailed behind him, looking at their surroundings with a monocule in hand. He muttered to himself in thought.
"I think what we are looking for is up there, Uncle," said Lukas. He pointed to a small hill in the middle of the public garden. "I don't know if I am reading your notes right, but it looks close to what you wanted."
"Let's take a closer look," said Lupas. "We might have to bring a sifter up to show us whatever is under the ground there."
The two Larnas walked through the carefully arranged flowers. They paused at the edge of the hill. Lupas bent an aged knee to take a closer look at the top of the hill. He stuck his finger in the dirt, trying to push into it.
"There's something here," said Lupas. He wiggled his finger. "It feels like metal of some kind."
"Do you want to get a sifter and try to see what's there?," asked Lukas. He looked around. No one seemed to be paying much attention to them.
"We have to know something before we try to dig up anything," said Lupas. "The town council will deny me access unless I can show them proof the dig was necessary."
"We can come back tonight and look at it," said Lukas. "Everyone will be asleep and we'll only have to contend with the local constable on his rounds."
"We can bring the equipment we need also," said Lupas. "That sounds better than digging up a public park in the middle of the daytime."
"How big of an excavation are you talking about, Uncle?," asked Lukas.
"I don't know," admitted Lupas. "We don't know how big the armor is, or if this the right place, or anything substantial other than what I could glean from my travels. We have to run a sifter over this to see if my notes were right."
Lukas nodded. A sifter would dismiss his uncle's claims easily enough. It would break the old man, but it had to be done so he wouldn't chase after some fantasy.
Their world was ending, but false hope wouldn't do anyone any good. It was best to work on real solutions to their real problems.
Lukas would help him dig up the hill to show him nothing was there. After that, he would recommend his uncle research how to keep the Wall up against the miasma outside the town's borders. If he could solve that problem, they could expand the wall and push the miasma away from the town.
Uncle Lupas knew more about the Wall than anyone left in the town. He must know how to build up its power and expand it outwards.
"Let's get something to eat, Uncle." Lukas looked up at the cloudy sky. "Then we'll get the sifter and come back here."
"All right," said Lupas. "I am feeling a bit hollow."
"We'll eat at the Café," said Lukas. He gestured at the nearby building. "It's close, the food's good, and the tables will let us keep an eye on things until we get the equipment we need."
"You had me convinced at food," said Lupas. He put his maps and notes away in his travel bag as he walked over to the eatery.
Lukas followed. His thoughts focused on how to keep his uncle going after he failed to find the armor he wanted.
The Larnas settled at a table where they could watch the mound. A waitress arrived. They gave their orders. Lupas took out his notes and started reading while they waited for their food.
"What makes you think this power source was buried here?," asked Lukas.
"I have studied history for a long time before this killing fog took over," said Lupas. "When I discovered the archive about Magnus and the fact he was a distant cousin, I thought that's interesting. A lot of the archivists of the time agreed that Magnus hid his armor somewhere before he died. He said his replacement would come eventually. The armor had to go back to the people whom gave it to him."
"So someone should have picked up the armor by now," said Lukas.
"Exactly," said Lupas. "No one has reported that has happened. It should be still where Magnus left it since no one has started using it since his death."
"It's been hundreds of years," said Lukas. "The chances are better than average that someone came and got it without letting anyone know."
"I doubt it," said Lupas. "We would have heard of a man in golden armor flying around."
"Maybe," said Lukas. "It's just as likely as it's sitting somewhere waiting for the right man to activate it again."
"We'll see which one of us is right soon enough," said the older man.
Lukas nodded. He wondered how his uncle would handle it when he was wrong. Would he crack and retreat to his cabin? Would he try to do something else?
They ate their food in silence. Lupas traced notes with his fingers as he chewed. He compared what he had with what was around him. He frowned at the lack of similarity.
"Do you need anything else to eat, sirs?," asked the waitress as she made her rounds.
"I think we're done," said Lukas. "Can we have the bill?"
"I'll be right back," said the waitress. She stopped at another table before going inside. She returned with a paper with the bill on it. She exchanged that for script from Lukas.
"Let's get the sifter and come back," said Lupas. "It'll be dark by the time we return."
"All right," said Lukas. "Let's go."
They returned to Lupas's cabin. He searched the shelves until he found a board with a handle. He pressed the switch on the handle. A stone lit up with green light to show him it was active. He pressed the switch again.
"Let's see what's buried there," said Lupas. He led the way back to the hill. He looked around to see if they were alone.
He knelt down. He turned the sifter on. He ran it over the hill. He paused when he saw something glinting in the glow from the instrument. He smiled.
"There's a chest here," he reported. "We can dig it up and open it."
Lukas winced. He had thought his uncle had been wrong. Digging up the park was prohibited. He looked around. It was better to get this over with as fast as possible.
He looked around for a shovel he could use. He crossed the park to a little shed the groundskeepers used to store tools to work the flowers. He found a small shovel that should do for what they wanted.
Lukas took the shovel back to the hill. He began to dig with care. He didn't know how deep the thing was buried, or how big it was. He didn't want to accidentally hit the lid and hurt himself.
Eventually Lukas uncovered a box encased in the ground. He reached in and pulled it out of the hole as soon as he had enough room to reach around. He set it down and started filling in the hole. The caretakers would realize something had been dug up, but that didn't matter as long as they didn't know what was going on.
"Let's get this chest back to my cabin," said Lupas. "We can open it there."
Lukas wanted to open the chest right there. That would dispel his uncle's certainty. He decided he could wait in case his uncle had some kind of breakdown. He didn't want anyone else dealing with this for him. Chances were things could go bad for both of them if that happened.
And if part of the armor was in the box, he didn't want anyone knowing he had it.
Magnus Alarna had been a hero to a lot of people. He had become a myth after death. Anything they discovered could be a help against their current enemy.
If his uncle was wrong, there was no way to look for a hiding place anywhere else. The fog beat on the Wall, and the things outside ate people before they walked two steps away from the shield.
If they could change that, it was worth the risk.
Lukas looked around when he was done replacing the dirt. The hill had a divot in it. He couldn't fix that.
He picked up the metal box and slung it on a shoulder to make it easier to carry. He placed the shovel back where he had found it on the way back to Uncle Lupas's place.
"We need to know what's inside," said Uncle Lupas. "The armor should provide protection from the fog."
"Should provide protection?," said Lukas. "What do you expect to do with the armor?"
"I plan to find the source of the fog and try to close it," said Lupas. "If I can do that, eventually the fog will be pushed back by natural weather patterns."
"Are you serious?," asked Lukas. "That's impossible."
"The fog is impossible," said Lupas. "Wind should have pushed it away months ago. Instead it's remaining in place and blotting out the sun. It has already started killing certain crops. It has to have a source. We can find that and stop the fog."
"What could cover the world in fog and monsters?," said Lukas.
"The kind of thing Magnus fought against before he died," said Lupas.
3
The Larnas placed their prize on Lupas's cleared desk. All the papers and books were stacked on the floor beside the desk. The uncle looked around for his glass. He didn't want to damage the box unless he had to because of what was supposed to be inside of it. He would rather examine the lock and pick it if he could.
If he had to bust the box open, he would do that with some regret.
"I don't think all of Magnus's armor is inside the box, Uncle," said Lukas. "It looks too small."
"We need to open it, Lukas," said Lupas. "I need to know if I am right after all these years."
"Let me look at it," said Lukas. He approached the box. He went over the outside carefully with his eyes and his hands. He frowned at the small opening that might be for a tiny key.
He decided that maybe he could get a pin inside that hole. If he could manipulate the lock with it, that might open the box.
He looked around the cottage until he found a needle. He examined the point. It was just small enough for him to use.
He inserted the pin inside the hole and shifted it around. He thought he heard a click. He tried the lid. It opened to his touch. He examined the contents of the box. The prize laid on a cushion inside the bottom of the box.
"It looks like we recovered Magnus's bracelet," said Lukas. He took the piece of jewelry out of the box to show his uncle. It felt almost alive to him.
Lupas looked inside the box. He pulled at the cushioned lining. He frowned at its emptiness.
Lukas examined the bracelet. He frowned at the lines that seemed to break it into sections. He supposed they were decorative.
He put the bracelet on his wrist. It would be something to show around for his troubles.
"System activated," said the bracelet. "State password."
"We don't have a password," said Lupas. "We found you buried in the ground in a box."
"Leaguer Typa?," said the bracelet. "Where is he?"
"Leaguer Typa?," said Lukas. "Do you mean Magnus Alarnas? He's been dead for a long time."
"What happened to him?," asked the bracelet.
"He died of old age," lied Lupas. "He retired from service and lived the rest of his life as a gardener."
"He was supposed to pick a successor." The bracelet hummed furiously.
"A successor?," asked Lupas. "What do you mean by that?"
"At the end of his service, Leaguer Typa is required to pick a successor to carry on his mission," said the bracelet. "The new Leaguer Typa would be required to act as the League's agent and protect the planet and keep off planet interference to a minimum until the planet is ready to join other planets. Leaguer Typa is responsible for keeping the peace between the civilizations."
"Can you help us with our current problem?," asked Lukas.
"I don't know," said the bracelet. "What is your current problem?"
Lukas felt like the thing in the bracelet wanted to help, but had its own rules. How far could they push it? They should have known that the armor of Magnus Alarna was magical in some way. Why hadn't he picked a successor?
"The world is enshrouded in a mist. Inside that mist are maneating monsters. Towns such as ours have retreated behind glow walls. Free travel and communication have been cut off," said Lupas. "I think that's the main problem."
"We're also running out of supplies to keep alive behind our wall," said Lukas. "If something isn't done, we'll all die within months."
"I shall ask permission from the League," said the bracelet. "I may be recalled and have to leave. I don't know if another System will be assigned to your planet if that happens."
"Can you help us now until you can call your master?," said Lukas.
"Working," said the bracelet.
Lupas opened his mouth to say something. His nephew held up his other hand to silence him. They almost had a compromise worked out. One wrong word could spoil it for everybody.
"Message sent," said the bracelet. "Waiting response."
"That was fast," said Lukas. He glanced at his uncle. Whatever magic was empowering the bracelet's intelligence, it wasn't slow and indecisive.
"Response given," said the bracelet. "Temporary aid can be given to solve your planet's problem."
"So your League will help us?," asked Lupas.
"Temporarily," said the bracelet. "The League has given permission to evaluate the problem and propose a solution. An agent will be necessary to act."
"You can't act yourself?," asked Lukas.
"Systems provide technical assistance, a link to the greater library, and necessary equipment starting with mark one armor and sensory capability," said the bracelet. "It is up to a representative of the planet to provide guidance and motivation."
"All right," said Lukas. "I'll be your agent until you leave."
"Activating armor," said the bracelet.
Gold sparks erupted from the bracelet. They covered Lukas in a gold shell. His face became featureless as they cut him off from the world.
"Lukas!," shouted the older man. He reached over to try to stop the transformation somehow.
"Don't," said Lukas. "I'm fine. I can breathe and see. What does it look like from the outside."
"You look like a gold statue with some kind of rune on the chest piece," said Lupas. "Can you move?"
Lukas flexed his fingers. He made a fist. He mock played a strinset, plucking the strings with one hand while working the neck.
"Let's see what you can do about the fog," said Lukas. "The quicker you do your evaluation, the faster you will be put back in service somewhere else."
The bracelet said nothing. Reassignment was not its decision. That was up to Command. Until it got those orders, it would do what it could to follow out the standard protection guidelines all Systems operated under.
Preventing the extermination of a planet by forces unknown fell into that protocol.
"Why aren't you going anywhere?," asked Lukas.
"You have to provide motivation," said System. "You are in control, Temporary Leaguer Typa."
"So I have to walk," said Lukas. "Can I walk in this armor?"
"Affirmative," said System.
"All right," said Lukas. The inside of the helmet gave him a perfect view of the world. He took a step. The armor moved just as fast as he did. He almost fell over before he caught his balance. He concentrated and walked to the door, practicing on trying not to fall over.
"Uncle Lupas," said Lukas. Everything seemed to be under control and working well. "We're going to take a look around."
"What do you plan to do?," Lupas asked. He held up a hand as a gesture to forestall any leaving without him.
"I'm going to take this armor out and see what it can do about the Miasma and the monsters," said Lukas. "I don't think it can do a lot, but we'll see."
Lukas stepped out of the cottage and approached the closest part of the Wall. He grimaced at the tarnished Stone in place. It wouldn't be long before it collapsed. If it did that before a new stone could be put in place, that section of the wall would open.
He didn't want to think about what would happen if the Miasma got inside the Wall. The loss of life might be total if something like that happened.
He had no doubt Magnus's armor would protect him. What about the rest of the people living in town and waiting for the end? He didn't want them to be hurt.
"You see anything you can use?," asked Lukas. He paused. Could the voice in the bracelet see?
"Standard force wall," said System. "Detecting lifeforms on the other side."
"Those are the monsters," said Lukas. "How do we drive them off so we can get supplies?"
"I don't know," said System. "We can start with an energy weapon and see how that goes."
"Do you have weapons?," asked Lukas. "How does that work?"
"There is a catalogue of every known weapon known to the League," said System. "Which would you prefer to use?"
"What would Magnus have used in this situation?," asked Lukas.
"He would have tried to disperse the fog with something that produced a high wind," said System. "Weapons were the last resort."
"Do you have anything like that in your catalogue?," asked Lukas.
"Jets can be constructed outside the walls to blow on the fog," said System. "Scans indicate the air is lethal to Typians."
"Will I be able to survive exposure to it if we went outside?," asked Lukas.
"League armor is fully self-contained," said System. "Life support will be maintained as long as the armor is not breached."
"Understood," said Lukas. "The gate is to the left and around the curve."
The armor lifted off the ground and flew around to where the arch formed the seal between the town and the Miasma outside. The road faded away the further it ran from the gateway.
"You can fly," said Lukas. "What else can you do?"
"All capabilities are listed in the catalogue," said System. "Your access is restricted until final judgement is rendered about my status."
"Once we're outside, things are going to be dangerous," said Lukas. "Will you be able to handle it?"
"I can only act autonomously to defend myself and my agent," said System. "You will have to make decisions about what has to be done, and how to deal with the impact on your species."
"Let's start with this jet," said Lukas. "What do you need to construct one?"
"A small amount of time," said System.
Glowing sparks leaped from the armor. A machine constructed itself in front of the gate. The material resembled the armor the bracelet had extruded.
"Let's move it outside the gate so we can use it," said Lukas. "It won't do us any good inside the Wall."
System took over the armor and picked the engine up. It placed the machine on the other side of the gate and turned it on. It stepped back.
Twin fans at either end of the jet spun up. A small area of clear air appeared as it pushed on the fog. The rest of the world stood behind that screen of gray.
"It's not doing that much," said Lukas. "How many more jets would be needed to get rid of all this?"
"Millions," said System. "We are not doing anything but pushing the air away from the village Wall. What is the source of the Miasma?"
"No one knows," said Lukas. "It started a few years ago as streamers that wouldn't go away, and just kept expanding from there."
"There has to be a source for it," said System. "Do you know where the first vapor was reported?"
"The Kelchin Valley," said Lukas. "It's went under first. As far as I know there were no survivors."
"What do you want to do?," asked System.
"I suppose we should look up there and see if we can find something to explain this," said Lukas. "I will need some protection from the Miasma once we start out."
"The armor will protect you in flight," said System. "I will engage a small weapon system to supplement the protective field commonly used."
"We're flying to the Valley?," asked Lukas.
"That is the fastest way," said System. "Don't be afraid. I will protect you."
"All right," said Lukas. "Let's go. Watch out for the creatures outside. No one knows how strong they really are. The Glow Stones have been keeping them out of the village, but that won't last forever."
"Understood," said System.
Lukas walked through the gate.
4
"Hostiles approaching," said System. "Powering up defensive field. Powering up laser system."
Lukas looked around. The fog covered everything like a shroud. He didn't see anything closing on him.
Then something huge slammed against him, sending the armor caroming to the ground. He rolled into a ditch and laid stunned.
"What was that?," he asked, bringing his arms down to the sides of the ditch to pull himself out of the channel.
"Unknown lifeform," said System. Laser beams cut into the fog. "Unknown damage done to target."
"Get us into the air," said Lukas. "Get us above this cloud cover if you can."
"Affirmative," said System.
The armor took flight. Things ran at it, reaching for it with their different limbs in the hopes of bringing the gold down and trampling it. They were too slow as the suit streaked straight up. Monsters in the air tried to swoop in on the glowing comet but it sped pass without slowing.
"Any damage?," asked Lukas. His life depended on System's abilities. If the armor was cracked, he was good as dead.
"Minor," said System. "Repairs are underway."
"Seen anything like that before?," asked Lukas.
"Negative," said System. "The Library has no match for what I recorded."
Lukas didn't know what the second statement meant, but thought his new friend was able to consult others like itself, and none had heard of the things that had come out of the fog.
"How did your fire beams work against them?," asked Lukas. He was unable to tell if System had scored any direct hits on the beasts as they charged the suit.
"Minor damage observed," said the aid. "I will have to move up in power if you wish to combat all the monsters that might be at loose in the environment."
"Let's see if we can cut things off at the source," said Lukas. "What's the point in killing monsters if they can be replaced by whatever caused the Miasma?"
"Affirmative," said System.
The suit lifted Lukas above the fog. He looked down and saw a gray ball with nodes of light burning through the cloud cover. The stars shone down from above. It had been a long time since he had seen stars. He smiled as he studied the night from his spot on the edge of the world.
"Course?," asked System.
"Take us over the Kelchin Valley," said Lukas. "I don't know which direction it would be from here, but the early reports of the fog came from there first."
The suit picked up power as System plotted a course to the Kelchin. It didn't have to worry about atmosphere where they were, so it was only a matter of seconds before they were hovering over the valley.
Lukas took a deep breath. The nodes that marked towns and cities had flashed by from his point of view. He had never considered how fast the machine from another planet could be before he put it to the test.
"We are approximately above the midpoint of the Kelchin Valley," reported System.
"I don't see any lights in play," said Lukas. "There used to be a city at the north end."
"Scans only show the foreign lifeforms, and no Typians," said System. "There is an energy source on the north end of the Valley."
"Really," said Lukas. He turned his head. He didn't see anything in the fog. "I don't see anything."
The aid superimposed its scans on top of the visual spectrum. A tiny circle of black spun in place. Wrecked buildings surrounded it from what the machine could image.
"We need to examine that without problems from the monsters." Lukas spotted massive things moving around, with lesser creatures hovering close by. "What do they eat if they have eaten everything in the Valley?"
"Unknown," said System. "Tactics?"
"Can you cut off the area around that circle with glow walls?," asked Lukas. "If we can do that, we can get rid of the fog and protect ourselves from the monsters while we try to figure out what's going on."
"Affirmative," said System. "I can create a field of projectors around the area to cut off anything from interfering while we research the problem."
"Go ahead," said Lukas. "The more we can push the monsters away, the better I'll like it."
System shaped the armor to produce a cannon to shoot the specialized ammo it was going to use. It loaded the shells from the factories onboard. It targeted a wide circle around the site. It fired the shells into the ground.
Metal rods sprouted from the impact sites. Pieces of machinery assembled around the rods. A wall of light snapped into place.
Monsters slammed into the wall from outside. More machines deployed to create a thicker shell that redirected impacts along the field.
System brought them down in the circle. It signaled the rods to close the top off from the fog. Now they had their haven.
"The things are in here with us," said Lukas. "Can you get them outside of the wall so we don't have to fight them while we're trying to fix our problem."
"Gravity controllers should be enough to move unwanted lifeforms out of the way," said System.
"Go ahead," said Lukas. "I'll try to get us closer to your energy source while you're doing that."
Lukas started forward, eyeing the beasts that shared his workspace with him.
System fired pods from the small cannon mounted on the shoulder of the armor. They struck their targets and embedded in the tough skin of the beasts. It activated the munitions. The monsters flew upwards. The roof of the dome flickered to let them through.
"More of them," said Lukas. He paused outside of a demolished pile of stone. "Where are they coming from?"
"It is possible that the energy source we are detecting is an extradimensional gate," said System. "If that is the case, the fog and unknown lifeforms are coming from there."
"Can you close it?," asked Lukas.
"Unknown," said System. "I will have to examine the technology."
"That's not good at all," said Lukas. "Create a wall to block any more of the Miasma and the monsters from getting out. Then clear our space. Then we go in and look around."
"Affirmative," said System.
It created more of the force wall generators and dropped them around the wreck they needed to investigate. Rapid fire gravity generators cleared the area of general threats as Lukas jogged over to the walled entrance.
"Let us in," said Lukas. "Then it'll be up to you to find some way to plug things up. We have to stop the Miasma somehow."
System triggered the field to let them through before closing it. Blocking the entrance to the pile of rubble should keep the fog in with them until the problem could be evaluated.
A roaring head with too many eyes and tentacles from a maw of circular teeth tried to grapple with Lukas. He punched it in the face with a metal fist augmented by the armor's protective field.
"Get them out of here," said Lukas.
System fired the gravity controllers into the targets as Lukas held off two things that resembled birds but had saws for mouths. It dragged the monsters out of the building while Lukas moved forward.
"Elevator shaft," said Lukas. He pointed at the smashed open doors.
"Not safe," said Systems. "Unknown lifeforms present."
"Clear the shaft," said Lukas. "Then we'll go down and look for the gate."
"Affirmative." System dropped a gold warhead inside the shaft. A column of flame burned the inside of the shaft away in a silent explosion. "Shaft clear."
"The thing is below us, right?," asked Lukas. He didn't touch the glowing sides of the shaft. He just looked down at where an elevator cab should be standing in the way.
It was there, but the roof was gone and the edges of the walls glowed.
"Affirmative," said System.
"Take us down," said Lukas. "We don't want any more of those things trying to get in the way while we're looking around."
"Affirmative," said System.
It used the gravity control in the armor to drop them to the bottom of the shaft slowly. They landed lightly in the wrecked cab. Lukas punched through the soft doors, pulling them out of the way.
He looked around as he stepped out of the elevator. Fog covered the area, but he saw a variety of apparatus from the lights on the panels. A clawed appendage poked at the air from some invisible hole.
Lukas rushed over, propelled by his armor. He pushed the limb back. A wall went up around the area.
"Analysis," said Lukas. "How do we close that thing?"
"I don't know," said System. It activated every suite of sensors that it could make. The world broke down to particles as it took things apart.
"Are there dimensional gates in your library," asked Lukas.
"Affirmative," said System. It showed Lukas a list of files on his visor. "Nothing like this has been encountered by the League."
"Let me see them," said Lukas.
The files opened one by one. Lukas scanned them quietly. He had time as long as the walls held up. If they went down, he would be in combat.
"Hold this one," said Lukas. "Can you shrink it so I can see?"
System complied with the request. The file filled up the lower quarter of the screen. The other three quarters showed the wrecked room around them.
"This looks similar to the file that you showed me," said Lukas. "Can you run a comparison"
System scanned the file. It overlaid the old file with the empty room. In its opinion, there were more similarities than differences.
"This looks almost the same as the gate used on Bendine," said System. "There was an off switch there that I don't see here."
"Where did the power come from there?," asked Lukas,
"A system of generators using copper and silver connections to a generator gate," said System. "I only see one bundle of wires and what could be the gate."
"What would happen if you cute the wires," said Lukas.
"The gate should close down," said System. "Unless we're wrong about the power lines."
"Cut the power," said Lukas. "Let's see if that does anything at all."
System targeted the cable in question and fired a small bolt of energy into it. The cable snapped apart under the blast.
Lukas looked at the scans reading into his visor. The gate energy was still there. They had made a mistake somehow.
How did they go about fixing it?
"It looks like we didn't cut through the power cable at all," said Lukas. "Suggestions?"
"Negative," said System.
5
Lukas considered his problem. He had a doorway in space to some plane of hell that was letting loose an unbreathable fog and deadly monsters on the world. The Miasma covered everything that wasn't shielded. The monsters hunted anything that wasn't them and killed their prey. The villages and cities were running out of livable air and food to keep going.
He had to shut down the door, clear the fog, and hunt down the monsters if he wanted to save the survivors.
The first step was cutting the power to the door. The fire bolt should have cut the power unless the cable didn't hook to a power source at all and was the control cable.
He winced at the idea they had misidentified the cable and had shot the easiest way to close things down.
It was time for an alternate plan.
"System," said Lukas. "Follow the cable back to whatever it hooks to so we can know for sure it was a power source, or not."
"Affirmative," said System.
The armor carried them down the length of the cable into a room full of energy orbs plugged into a design on the floor. The center part of the design spun as the sparks in the orbs faded.
The cable plugged into a socket at the base of the steel drawing.
"So cutting the cable should have worked," said Lukas. "I have seen something like this in my uncle's drawings."
He crouched over the design. He didn't touch it. That seemed to be going too far in his opinion. There was no telling what would happen to him and the armor if the power was still running.
And he didn't want to share space with the noxious Miasma, and any tiny monsters that might be able to use the design to get into the golden suit.
"What do you think about this?," asked Lukas.
"Source of the power running through the severed cable," said System. "There are two more leading back to the doorway."
"Cut them," said Lukas. "Let's see what happens when we do that."
System armed its laser array. Red bolts of energy sliced through the two cables it had spotted. They sparked and then died.
"Any effect?," said Lukas.
"Dimensional door is closing according to scans," said System. Graphs of power outlays and ratios sprang up in front of Lukas's eyes. "No evidence of a secondary door as far as I can see."
"So as soon as the door shuts, we can start cleaning up the air," said Lukas. "We might be able to save the rest of the planet if this is successful."
"Affirmative," said System. "I will be able to get an extension to the end of the project."
"The monsters represent the most danger," said Lukas. "We need to move them away from the cities while we try to move the Miasma somewhere that nothing lives can be bothered."
"I suggest a combination of jets and force walls," said System. "Once an area is clear, we can keep it clear with force walls."
"And that will push the monsters away as we expand the walls," said Lukas. "I like it."
The monsters would attack. It was in their nature. All he could do was hope System was up to the task of blasting the brutes out of the way as they expanded the connections between the cities and villages around the cities.
How much of the old government survived? He would need their aid in clearing the roads of monsters. The authorities would also have to make sure food was rationed and ready to use for anyone they found outside the walls.
Once the threat was done, he and System could try to work out a partnership.
He didn't know if he could make a deal with the tiny golem, but if he could, he would. He didn't know why Magnus had given up the suit, but the world needed it now more than it had when his ancestor had kept the peace.
Why had Magnus stopped using the construct?
Maybe he had decided that he didn't need to use the machine any more, but had wanted it around for someone else to use it if they could find it.
"What would have happened if Magnus had decided to stop being a Leaguer?," asked Lukas.
"I would have been recalled and reassigned to another planet," said System. "The League has billions of candidates for protection."
"How do you feel about that?," asked Lukas.
"My duty is my duty," said System.
Lukas smiled at the non-answer. It was a machine, but it had a preference for staying on this planet. He let it lie. It didn't help him to try to coerce the truth.
Magnus hadn't wanted to let the machine be reassigned, but he hadn't picked a successor. If Lukas knew why, that would bring things into focus. It made it look like he didn't trust anybody with the System, but didn't want to leave Typa defenseless.
"Secondary dimensional door opening," reported System.
"Where?," asked Lukas. He cursed inwardly. He should have known things weren't going to be as easy as he had thought.
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble. A second door to replace the first one if it closed spoke of redundancy. How many more would open as he shut them down?
He frowned inside the faceless visor. A door for monsters looked like the end product for whatever was going on.
The population wouldn't survive if he didn't do something. Every day the glow walls weakened against the monsters roaming loose in the Miasma. How long did he have before they were in the surviving cities and villages? How many more had to die for whatever was going on?
System painted an arrow to indicate direction on the readout. The length in rods marked out the distance.
"Let's get over there and see what we can do about stopping it before it gets big enough to cause problems," said Lukas. "Be ready to target power boxes, or unidentified lifeforms."
"Affirmative," said System.
The armor carried Lukas toward the constructed force wall. It blinked to let him pass through to the foggy sky beyond. Things descended on him as he headed for the other end of the valley.
"We don't have time to fight," said Lukas. "Give me the biggest solidest explosive ordinance you can so we can keep ahead of the things."
System went through its files, discarding anything it couldn't build with its factories in seconds. It loaded a shoulder cannon with explosive darts after making its final decision.
"Ready to fire," said System. A crosshair lit up the visor readout.
"Fire at will, targeting the closest one first," said Lukas. "We don't need to kill them, but we can't let them stop us from shutting down the other door."
System fired the darts as it maneuvered among the horde. Explosions cleared the fog for brief instants as the distance closed to the other door. The smaller monsters blew up and became one with the fog, the bigger ones suffered hammer blows that tore chunks out of them. They fell out of the way as Lukas passed.
"This doesn't look as much of a wreck as the other place," said Lukas.
"Secondary location that wasn't used," said System. It guided the armor into the building. The cannon spoke regularly as they tried to get around the milling things in the way.
They crashed into a wide open space. Lukas looked around. This area was big enough to open a door half the size of his village. The thing that would come through would make the rest look like younglings. They had to shut the door down before he personally saw an example of a dangerous giant.
System fired explosive darts into what looked like power cables. That tore up the section of floor and wall. It stopped firing when the door stopped opening.
"Any other cables and power orbs around?," asked Lukas.
"Negative," said System. "Threat averted."
Lukas smiled. They had stopped a second attempt to doom the planet. All they had to do now was clean up the planet.
Clean up the planet seemed so simple to say. He knew it would be anything but with the presence of the monsters that had already arrived on Typa and their unnatural hatred of Typian life.
"Can you reverse the flow?," asked Lukas. He looked around at the mostly undamaged building.
"Unknown," said System. It lapsed into study silence as it went over its scans of the room. Occasionally, the shoulder cannon would fire at something coming too close as it thought.
"More data is necessary," the aide finally decided. "This design work wasn't in use the last time I was activated."
"There should be work books," said Lukas. "Let's see what we can find in all this fog."
"Affirmative," said System.
Lukas started around the layout, searching for any papers that might be laying around. He expanded to the nearby offices, scanning the books for anything that might be a clue to the design. He found the supervisor's office and went through it carefully. He found nothing but notes on initial firing.
"Let's go back to the first door," said Lukas. "Maybe what we need is there."
"Affirmative," said System.
The suit floated into the air. System lined up with the other building and poured on speed. It absently fired darts at anything that got in its way.
They landed inside the building where the first door had opened. Lukas looked around at the wreckage. How did they find what they wanted in all of this?
"Let's see if they used memory tablets to record what they were doing," said Lukas. "Then we can branch out to books and papers."
"Affirmative," said System.
They started their search around the original design work, before expanding out to the rest of the derelict building. Eventually they amassed a pile of rectangular stone plates and design books.
"Which do you want to start on first?," asked Lukas.
"The memory tablets," said System.
6
It took a few hours of listening to recordings, and going through journals, but Lukas and System felt like they had a plan at the end of it.
They decided to test it on the valley. If it worked, they could move to the cities and villages and repeat things until they had pushed things closer to normal. If it didn't work, they had the research materials and a makeshift base to keep trying until they did have a success.
Lukas was sure that his idea was sound. All it needed was the proper mechanism. His first idea of just reversing the process had been a little shortsighted, but was still sound. They had to get rid of the fog. The best way to do that was send it home. He hadn't counted on the effect stripping the air as it stripped the Miasma.
System felt it had a filter that would strip the fog out of the air and push the clean air out the other side. Figuring out the gate mechanics had taken a little longer, but it had designed a reversed symbol set to cause the gate to push instead of pull.
Then they had manufactured everything with the fabricators System used to change the armor around. It was a casing built around the gate with the filter separating the gate from the opening in the case. A battery sat at the bottom of the barrel to power the thing.
All they had to do was test it and see what happened to their test subject.
Once they were done with the fog, then they could deal with the monsters that roamed the land. Daylight should let regular hunters destroy them. He could sit back and let everyone else do things.
System would be gone, so there was no way that he was going to attack any of the beasts he saw without power armor and a big gun.
Clearing the Miasma would give the planet a chance to get back on its feet. There weren't any animals other than what the farmers held. If any still survived, then clearing the air might give them a fighting chance to repopulate the planet.
Anything else was letting everyone and everything left become extinct.
Lukas looked at the finished product of their studies. It didn't look like much to him. If it worked, it didn't matter how it looked.
"You ready to see what your brainchild can do?," said Lukas. He picked the casing up in his arms.
"Affirmative," said System. It carried them into the air. It took them to a spot just outside of the test building. "Activating gate."
Lukas hastily placed the barrel down on its bottom and stepped back. He kept his eye on the area. He didn't see any monsters, but he didn't want any problems while they ran their test.
The Miasma moved around him. He could see the eddy pattern with the help of the armor. He smiled as he detected clear air leaving the device through the exit hole cut for the air to be handed back by the filter.
"It's doing something, but not as much as we hoped," said Lukas. "A bigger gate, or more tiny ones?"
"Many bigger gates," said System. "It will take some time to clear the air, but it will be done."
Lukas smiled. It felt good that this machine was so much more certain than he was. It made things doable in his opinion. They just had to plant their air cleaners so the monsters couldn't wreck them.
"We should move this one down to the other end of the valley," said Lukas. "We can put it in the facility building there. Then we can build more and place them close to the towns."
"Affirmative," said System. It floated the armor close so Lukas could pick it up in his arms. Then the suit took off under its control. It landed on the roof of the school.
Lukas placed the cannister next to what he thought was a vent of some kind. He pulled part of the metal away from the hood to wrap a fence around the air cleaner so that it had some protection behind the loose barrier.
"Let's get the next one together," said Lukas. "I would like to put it next to my village."
"Affirmative," said System.
They put together several of the cannisters. Each one was ten times as big as the one they had left on the roof. They carried them out of the valley and planted them. The first was the one for Lukas's town. They set up a wooden barricade from the dead trees killed by the Miasma cover just outside the wall for that one. They found places where protection could be set in place for the others when they set them up.
"I need to take a break," said Lukas. "Let's go home. A bit of food and some sleep will do me some good."
"Affirmative," said System.
The pair landed in front of the gate. Lukas hit the switch so the glow stones would allow him to pass. He stepped inside the dome covering his village. The gold armor broke apart in a cloud of fading sparks. He looked at his hands with a small amount of relief they were still there after all he had done.
He decided to walk to his uncle's cabin. The older man had the right to know what they were trying to do. It was his idea to find the artifact and try to use it to save the planet.
Lukas knocked on the door when he reached Lupas's home. He leaned against the door jamb. He felt tired and wrung out.
"Lukas," said Lupas when he opened the door.
"Hello, Uncle Lupas," said Lukas. "Can I come in?"
"Yes," said Lupas. "Tell me everything."
The two men settled by the small fire in Lupas's study. Lukas told him everything that he had discovered in the Kelchin Valley, and what they were trying to do with their gates.
"Do you think those air cleaners will work?," asked Lupas. "We don't have a lot of time left."
"I don't know," said Lukas. "I plan to get some sleep, and something to eat. Then we're going back up there and build more cannisters until we have the air cleared. Then we are going to try to do something about the monsters."
"You can sleep here, then get something eat out of the cabinets before you leave," said Lupas. "Do you think System will stay with us?"
"We don't know, and we can't count on it," said Lukas. "We have to make sure this solution will help us before System can be recalled."
"I can't believe the university at Kelchin was so reckless," said Lupas. "They had an excellent reputation before the world almost ended."
"Someone will have to go up there and look around when the world is open again," said Lukas. "That might be something you can do."
"I'm too old for that," said Lupas. "I'll leave it for younger men to do."
"I understand, Uncle," said Lukas. "When this is over, you'll be a hero."
"I doubt that," said Lupas. "I need to get some sleep myself."
"Have a good rest, Uncle," said Lukas. "I need to go home. I'll come by before we try to build more of the filters. I hope to see a positive change in a few days."
"If you don't, what then?," asked Lupas.
"I'll come to you and ask for a better way of doing things than what I have right now," said Lukas. He stood. "I'll be by later."
"I'll be here," said Lupas. He waved the younger man out as he went to the door to his bedroom.
Lukas pulled the door shut behind him as he stepped outside. He glanced at the Wall. He squinted. Did things look lighter beyond the barrier? He shook his head. It couldn't be easy to tell a difference yet. Maybe in three, or four, days would it be easy to tell.
He walked across the village to his own place. Once he had some sleep, maybe a faster way to filter the Miasma out of the air would come to him.
A monster slammed into the wall from the outside. He looked at it struggling to get through the field. The field almost warped under the pressure. Then the thing was gone.
"I'm coming for you next, my friend," said Lukas. "As soon as we know who well the filters are doing, I'm going to be removing monsters next."
Lukas continued on his walk. He reached his cabin and stepped inside. He hoped the wall would hold up one more day. He didn't want to get killed in his sleep.
Then he had a thought.
"System, are you there?," he asked the bracelet on his arm.
"Affirmative," said the aide.
"Can you build an invisible fence inside the wall like you did at the Valley?," asked Lukas.
"Affirmative," said System.
A set of sparks broke from the bracelet. They flew to the base of the wall. They joined together and a chain formed on the ground. As each section completed itself, a piece of wall appeared inside the dome. Eventually the chain became a ring inside the dome. An adjustment formed the top of the walls into a dome to copy the original protection.
"Tomorrow," began Lukas. "We'll add a protective layer to the other surviving places so they'll last until our plan is deemed done one way, or the other."
"Affirmative," said System.
"Good night," said Lukas. He shut the door and went to his bed. He went to sleep as soon as he touched the straw mattress.
He woke with an aching head, and a dry mouth. He made his way to his cabinets. He found a small bottle of beer. He opened the bottle and sipped while he searched for food. He frowned when he found he only had a piece of half-rancid cheese.
He would have to go down to the pub and get something before he started his day's work.
The gold bracelet on his arm reminded him of everything that he had already helped with before he went to bed. At the very least, his town would not be eaten by the things outside.
He had to see what he could do for the rest of the world.
He went to the pub after tidying himself up. He smiled at the others present. They looked grim with every right to be. He asked for some eggs and a bottle of beer. He took his food to a table and ate quietly.
Uncle Lupas walked into a pub and smiled when he saw his nephew. He joined him at his table.
"Have you looked beyond the wall yet?," asked Lupas.
"Not really," said Lukas, finishing his eggs. He sipped his beer. "What's going on?"
"I think your idea is working," said Lupas. "The sky looks less grayer to me."
"Don't get your hopes up, Uncle," said Lukas. "It should take weeks before we see any real change. I was about to go out and do what I can to strengthen village defenses until we do see a change. I want you to keep everything under your hat. I don't want people thinking we're doing something and then have it fail. That will cause them to lose hope faster."
"I agree," said Lupas. "I assure you that this is not the ramblings of an old man. The sky is lighter. Your device is working, maybe faster than you thought it would."
"Then I'll make some more to speed things up," said Lukas. "I also put a wall inside our wall to keep the things out. It should hold for a while against the monsters."
"Splendid," said Lupas. "So we might have a chance after all."
"We have a certainty," said Lukas.
7
Lukas walked down to the gate. The sky looked lighter, but that might be wishful thinking. He needed to go out and take a look around.
"System, I need the armor," said Lukas. He raised his arm with the bracelet on it. Gold sparks surrounded him in the golden suit. "How is the force wall you created doing?"
"Optimal," said System. Nothing had been able to penetrate the glow wall already in place, so the secondary wall had not been tested yet.
"Let's go through," said Lukas. "I thought about something while I was eating."
System waited as the brain part of their partnership walked out of the protection of the glow wall. Things attacked from every direction. It put up a personal buffer to hold them off while it decided on the best course of action.
"Lift us out of the cloud cover," said Lukas. "We'll shake them off when we're above the Miasma."
System activated the flight systems and gave the generators full power. The struggling mass headed straight up out of the cloud covering the planet. The beasts still tried to get through the armor's skin as they were carried along.
The sun shone down on that part of the world. When it touched the monsters, they turned to ash and drifted away from the golden hero. Lukas smiled inside his helmet.
"Do you have the positions for our reverse gates?," asked Lukas.
"Affirmative," said System. It marked the spots on the visor as Lukas looked around. To his uneducated eye, those areas seemed less obscured.
"How much of an effect are they having on the Miasma?," asked Lukas.
"Negligible," said System. "We would have to make a thousand reverse gates to have a noticeable effect."
"I have an idea." Lukas rested his chin on a fist as he considered the planet below. His other arm supported that arm. "How big can you make a wall?"
"The limitations are material needed to construct a device and time for it to build," said System.
"I would like to encircle the reverse gates with force fields," said Lukas. "I want to trap a pocket of fog in the wall, then expand the wall as each pocket is cleared."
System considered the problem. It mapped the terrain. Most of the animal and plant life native to the planet was dead. The only things that would be affected were the monsters.
And the monsters had to be cleared if the Typans wanted to eventually leave their shelters.
"I could plant a growing network of generators to encircle the area around the reverse gates," said System.
"Go for the biggest area you can so we can use all of them at the same time," said Lukas.
System readied a launcher. It needed to place generators in various places so the ring could be connected together faster. It doubted the monsters would attack the generators. They seemed attracted to bigger movements by living things.
System took control of the armor and flew in a circle outside of the fog. It fired pellets at designated spots on the ground. Telemetry came back to it from the generators as they activated and started to work.
It returned to their start point, waiting for things to do what they were designed to do. A line appeared in the fog. It glowed as it expanded into the circle Lukas wanted.
"That looks promising," said Lukas. "It looks like we have vortexes with the outside air cut off."
System noted the spinning air. It agreed that the small amount of cleaners worked better in an enclosed area. The Miasma sank as lighter air rose to the top. Finally the sun touched the ground for the first time in a long time. One of the smaller things fell into the cleared area with centipedal legs twitching as it tried to right itself. It exploded and joined the shifting fog.
"This is working better than I thought," said Lukas. "The wall rising to the edge of the air helps our adjustment as best I can tell."
System said nothing. Its sensors watched the area being cleared as the gates kept their work going.
After a few minutes, a small area was clear of the Miasma. Everything was dead and buried in black, but the Sun lit it up as it rode the day sky with abandon.
Monsters caught in the clearing area retreated to the wall as much as possible. When the last of the cover went up, so did they.
"It looks like the plan worked," said Lukas. "We have cleared an area of the enemy. People can come out of their prisons inside this expanded focus to try to resettle things. We need to check the soil to make sure no one dies from plants set down."
"Affirmative," said System. It dropped them to a soft landing inside the ring wall. One check of its scanners noted that the new ash on the ground should be safe to use as fertilizer.
"What do you think?," asked Lukas.
"Farming should be safe." System made sure with a deeper scan. "Cattle ranching will need to be supervised."
"It looks like we have a good start here," said Lukas. "How do we keep this up?"
System loaded ideas on the visor as it considered the question. How could they help the whole planet? The area they had cleared covered three villages and hooked them to the nearest major city.
How did they improve on that?
"Can you expand the ring?," asked Lukas. He considered the Miasma trying to get inside the field. "We need a way to push outward from this while draining the Miasma. Maybe we can create more filters and use that to expand the ring outwards as they clean the air."
System considered the action. It felt it was doable under the circumstances. The filters would be attacked when they moved, but if enough of them popped up, it might clear the air while they walked forward on robotic legs.
The other solution was to fire individual gates into the wilderness. Let them set up their force rings to clear the air around them. Eventually they could link up when the field chains reached each other.
That would create pockets that could be drained by existing gates when a wall was withdrawn.
It set out the two solutions for Lukas.
"Go with the small individual gates," said Lukas. "We want the cannon to move to the outside of the field wall once they link up."
"Affirmative," said System. It sent directions to the field generators. The factories shifted focus to extend mortar tubes in all directions. Fabricated ammunition began filling the foggy air, limited by the time it took to make the shell before it was used.
"Take us up so we can watch how things are going," said Lukas.
The suit carried them to the edge of space again. Lukas watched as small dots appeared in the fog. He smiled as those dots expanded into actual holes in the Miasma.
"I think that the idea is working," said Lukas.
"Affirmative," said System.
"How long will the process work?," asked Lukas. He didn't want to have a patch of ground cleared only to lose the architect when they needed it the most.
"Indefinitely," said System. "Everything will shut down when the Miasma has been cleared."
"There will be places underground that it will linger," pointed out Lukas. "Some of the monsters will be able to hide down there too."
"As long as the Miasma is in detectable range, the gates will still work to deport it," said System.
Lukas frowned as he thought about the expanding rings. They were baby steps, but the air was slowly clearing as he watched.
How did they sped that up?
He smiled. He just needed to create more networks. The flying ability in the suit made that easy.
And he didn't need to do much more than plant them since the generators could work on their own.
"I would like to head back to the Kelchin Valley," said Lukas. "I would like to randomly drop more network packages on the way."
"Affirmative," said System. It readied field generator/mortar/reverse gate munitions to bomb the landscape as they flew north into the mountain range bordering the lowlands where most of the villages and cities rested.
Lukas glanced back over his shoulder. Small dots rewarded him.
It was working a little faster. They just had to keep the pressure on. The land would be cleared out soon. Hopefully it would be fast enough to keep the rest of the population from starving.
Lukas knew his world would never be the same. The animals, except the ones behind the glow walls, were all gone. Most of the humans were gone. Rebuilding would be a long job.
"I want to drop a network up and down the valley," said Lukas.
"Affirmative," said System. The suit went to work.
Epilogue
Lukas Larna sat in the shade of a tree. A bucket of bottles of beer sat beside him on its wooden bottom. An open bottle rested in his hand. His eyes were closed as he listened to the voices and animal sounds around him.
It had taken a while but things were looking better than a few years ago. Blue grass covered the ground. Fresh trees had not reached their maturity, but they would grow as tall as the ones they replaced eventually. Somewhere a bird belonging to a species thought extinct made its call for a mate.
"Lazing around again, Lukas?," asked his sister, Lisas. He opened his eyes to her smile.
"I suppose," said Lukas. He smiled back, then sipped from his open bottle. "Beer?"
"Thank you," said Lisas. She took a bottle and pulled the lid off with a snap of her wrist. "Did you see the memorial?"
"Yes," said Lukas. "How did you arrange that?"
"I didn't," said Lisas. She sipped her beer. "The account of him finding Magnus Alarna's armor and using it to save the planet was in his diary. Some assistant and his pack of do nothings found it while sorting things out up at Kelchin."
"He always loved that school," said Lukas. "He didn't like the fact they had almost killed everyone with their research."
"At least the man who did that was the first one who died," said Lisas.
"How do you know that?," asked Lukas. He knew from the memory tablets he and System had pulled apart to figure out how to reverse things and save the planet.
"They found some tablets that recorded everything," said Lisas. "I went up there with Uncle Lupas's papers and saw them. The first monster ripped the inquiry people apart."
"That's not good for them," said Lukas. He finished his bottle and replaced it for a full one.
"Fooling around with things men weren't meant to know will do that for you," said Lisas. "What are you going to do after you get done with all this beer?"
"I thought I might walk it off and then head for home," said Lukas. He sipped the fresh beer. "I have some things to do tomorrow, and then I plan to fish the day after unless something comes up that needs me."
"Fish?," said Lisas. "What fish?"
"The fish survived in the water better than the plants and the unprotected animals," said Lukas. "And they're untainted for the most part."
"Did Uncle Lupas find Magnus's magic weapon?," said Lisas.
"Sure," said Lukas. "He had to get rid of it at the end. That's what happens when you let things overheat."
She gave him a look of disbelief.
Lukas smiled and closed his eyes. His uncle had held on to see clear sky again, but had died shortly after. Lukas had carried him out to the edge of the world to show him the night sky one last time before he went.
When the village found out, they had turned out for his funeral and cremation. His stone was the biggest in recent memory. Lukas had stood out of the way. It was his uncle's moment to shine despite not being there. He would be forever known as the savior of the world.
Lukas didn't begrudge him that. His work had uncovered System, and placed a weapon of great power in their hands. The rest had come from that.
Enjoying clear sky after so much gray death spoke for itself in his opinion.
He had to take some ribbing about being useless, but that didn't matter. Only three people knew what had happened. One of them was dead. One was a machine and not inclined to brag. And he didn't want anyone to know what he had done for them.
He could do without that.
"Are you coming to Losas's birthday party?," said Lisas. "We want you to come."
Lukas opened his eyes. He smiled even wider.
"I'll be glad to come by and spoil my nephew," he said. "It'll be a treat for me."
"Remember, he's only two," said Lisas. "Don't go overboard."
"Me?," said Lukas. "Overboard?"
"Yes, you," said Lisas. "Last year, you got him a toy animal that he was scared of for months."
"That was a great felinous," said Lukas. "It was life-like, and soft."
"It was too life-like," said Lisas. "And he cried until we put it up where he couldn't see it."
"I will try to think of a suitable present," said Lukas. "I'll be there."
"Remember what I said," said Lisas. She started walking away with her beer in hand. "Don't make me clout you over this."
Lukas waved at her back as she walked across the meadow back to the village. A dangerous woman was his opinion. She was probably better as an agent for the League on Typa than he.
It was his job now. He might as well take it easy while he could.
Sooner, or later, he would get a message that some of the surviving monsters were rampaging. Then he had to deal with it.
Four years wasn't a long time, but he had done for most of the things when he had cleared the fog. They couldn't stand sunlight. It had been child's play to copy that into weapons and cause the poor beasts to explode without having to get close to them in their lairs.
He didn't know how many were left, but he flew patrols to make sure they didn't overwhelm villages who had to replace their glow stones. One time he had failed, and a village had been destroyed by the things.
They couldn't afford many losses like that if they wanted to rebuild.
The monsters stayed underground for the most part. He had sealed some of the obvious tunnels, but hadn't gone in after them. Some of the soundings done by System indicated he would be chasing nightmares for years with no way of knowing if he had got them all.
He had better things to do with his life.
He sipped at his beer until he finished it. He put the empty in the bucket and pulled out a third one. This would be the last for a while.
He had to fly later and was at his limit of acceptable lapse time. If System performed some wild maneuver, he didn't want to lose the contents of his stomach inside the suit.
Lukas sipped his beer. Who would have thought that the future could be changed so easily? They could have been wiped off the map. No one would have known the planet even had a people if it was visited by others. All anyone would have found were those shapeless monsters moving in the artificial night shielding them.
Now the next generation would be able to tell their next generation that one day a man and a magic weapon had saved the world and allowed it to regenerate from its wounds.
He finished his beer. It was time he got moving. He still had a responsibility to keep him busy for the next few years.
The League had never reordered System to another planet. He was happy about that. They needed the aide for the next few years. After the planet was as good as they could expect it to get, then the mysterious council could recall the machine brain without a protest.
Lukas put the empty in the bucket and stood. He picked up the bucket. It was time to get moving.
System wanted an alert system in place so emergencies could be addressed faster. He didn't have an objection to that. Helping people went hand in hand with using the armor. He didn't want to lose it by being irresponsible now.
When he was gone, it would be up to the next generation to use the Leaguer as they saw fit until it was recalled and they lost it for good, or they retired and their progeny took over.
Lukas carried the bucket into his house. He had taken over his uncle's place, and kept most of the place like his uncle had left it. The exception was his quarters and the hidden area dug under the floor.
He put the bucket on a kitchen counter and pulled the lid in the floor open. He slipped downstairs. He pulled the lid down on top of him to hide where he had gone.
He smiled at his lair as it lit up around him. In the years since his defeat of the Miasma, he had worked to protect the growing population against things that had been released during the Kelchin Valley destruction that wasn't tied to the gate accident. He had set up monitors to warn him of problems.
Everything looked fine. No one was raiding, no one was suffering from a monster in a hole, nothing attacked from the remains of the monsters that hadn't yet cleared away from the land. He had time to set up the overhead eye to look outward like System wanted.
He had been reading the files in the library about the other Leaguers in action. Some of them had lost their planets entirely, some had been as close he had been, and some had been threatened but had saved the day. The history stretched back almost to the beginning of time.
He felt a little humble to be included in their ranks.
"Activate armor," said Lukas. He walked to the secret tunnel he had dug for his exit from his home. He still wanted to keep his actions secret from the others in the village as much as possible.
Magnus had suffered from everyone wanting him to solve their problems their way. They hadn't wanted fairness and equity. They wanted to use the biggest stick on their neighbor.
And a System and a suit was the biggest stick seen on the planet. Nothing Typa had could match against what the machine could create in a few seconds and raw materials.
The gold sparks settled into a gold skin as Lukas reached the end of the tunnel. He opened the lid to launch out of it. The lid shut behind him as he headed for the edge of the sky.
"Where do you want to plant this outpost?," Lukas asked his aide.
"Topa," said System. A course plotted to the farthest planet in the solar system.
"Take us there," said Lukas.
The Leaguer flashed into the black.