Before Iggy left to go back to the workshop and get a jump start on their backed up custom orders, he had worked with Jax to hack into the census satellites as they had discussed to scan the nearby region for the Pirate Lord’s base. Even Jax was surprised at the relative ease with which Iggy could hack into such a secure system to use it for their minor needs. Iggy used the portal network to return home, leaving Jax to scan the planet alone. He was confident he could manage without him, but Iggy had become Jax’s mentor, and he relied on him to make up for his gaps of inexperience. This wasn’t the first time Jax had supported the team alone, but this was by far the biggest mission they had undertaken where Jax would be left to manage it alone.
The primary operations desk in the belly of their ship was a powerful supercomputer built by none other than Iggy himself. Though it functioned as a normal computing machine at first glance, to the trained eye its custom programs and interface proved its true capabilities as one peeled back its layers. A blue screen trilled before Jax as he scanned vast swaths of the Calpentross ocean near where the attack on the ship occurred. The scans quickly isolated islands with populations that had a mix of species on them that met the additional condition where the land had some semblance of a rocky structure.
Jax had found ten separate island systems that matched their specific criteria and got to work creating a three-dimensional mapping of each of the islands to look for any structure or natural formation that resembled the shape of a skull. Once the imaging was complete, Jax forwarded the files to each of the team’s Links to make quick work of giving each island a closer look. The three-dimensional rendering wasn’t a high-definition image of the island because they were using a census scanning satellite made for picking up signs of life, not for taking high resolution photographs of the life it was scanning for. The Union long banned high-resolution satellite photography once they found how easy they could be hacked into and used for nefarious purposes. Ironically, they were doing the same thing with the census satellite, but it had been stripped of its camera long ago.
The team could still make out the structure of the landscape they were tasked with investigating, though, and diligently did so for almost a whole day to make sure they missed nothing. Each team member took a couple of islands to survey every inch of them, eventually narrowing the search down to two. Where all the islands had rocky formations, none of them resembled the shape they were looking for. One had a skull-shaped structure, like Tony the Tigran had said there would be, and another with a skull-shaped rock formation. To be sure of which island to infiltrate, Jax recommended they surveil both before making battle plans.
Gemini and Donna were the stealth specialists of the team, so determining which island was the right one fell to them. While Gemini was a long-range specialist, she also had the ability to turn invisible to the naked eye. While Gemini had an easier time stealthily infiltrating enemy-occupied territory, Donna’s skill was not to be discounted. She couldn’t turn invisible, so she had to be exceedingly careful when sneaking around. This is where her super agility came into play. She could run along walls, complete impossible feats of parkour and was faster than most Master-level attuned. Since Gemini could become invisible, she was picked to go to the more heavily populated island, while Donna was selected for the rougher terrain.
Donna and Gemini were dropped off on their respective islands under the cover of night. Gemini became invisible and made her way to the settlement where the team had found evidence of the skull-shaped structure. She was a little suspicious at first as the nightlife was lively with many people celebrating around several fires. Loud music from over a ridge just a quarter mile away drew her senses. Gemini worked through the crowd, past the booths selling food and other merchandise, and arrived at the top of the hill. She quickly realized that one thing that Jax’s three-dimensional model didn’t do was use current satellite imagery to show what was really taking place on the ground.
Gemini looked out at a sea of people. Hundreds of thousands of people were screaming, cheering and singing along at a concert of a rock band on a stage shaped like a human skull. Her head started bobbing to the beat of the music, looking around at the immense crowd of many different species that had gathered for the show.
“Mine’s a bust. It’s a metal concert. Their stage is shaped like a skull, must have been built a month ago.” Gemini reported.
“Copy, Donna, what’s your status?” Dane asked.
Donna was dropped on the second island, which had what appeared to be a more natural stone structure formed like a skull instead of something built. The island was a dense jungle, and the signs of life were considerably less apparent than on the one Gemini was sent to. The scent of this island was sweet from the evergreen wildflowers and fresh from the amount of vegetation that grew undisturbed compared to the corporate-developed beach they were relaxing on the other day. Donna hiked about a mile inland until she found a thin path in the soil that she assumed was formed by wildlife or pirates repeatedly traversing it. She followed the path that led up to a tall cliff. Donna smiled; rock climbing was one of her favorite pastimes. She checked her gear to make sure it was secure and tight so it wouldn’t throw her off balance once she started her ascent.
Since Donna was a Cattan, a Pantheran like Dane and Jarris specifically, she already had a natural proclivity for agility exercises. On top of this, her passively enhanced tendons made climbing a near effortless task for her. The rock face appeared to be around a hundred feet tall, but Donna made it seem like it was only ten with how fast she scaled it. Once at the top, she had a decent view of the entire island. It was a tiny speck of land compared to some others on Calpentross, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in plant life. She started a full rotation, looking in every direction from the top of the cliff until she could spot the skull formation that Jax’s imaging captured. Though it wasn’t perfect, there was a smooth rock formation jutting out from the dense jungle about five hundred yards away. Thinking it might be the forehead of the skull, she decided to investigate.
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Donna made her way through the jungle by jumping from tree to tree, finding it easier to traverse the upper canopy than ground level, where there was a thick underbrush that overtook the trail she had found earlier. As she got closer, she saw faint lantern light marking a small clearing in the thick jungle vegetation. She slowed her pace and crawled more carefully from one tree to the next, selecting thick branches carefully to use until she reached the light source. Donna stayed still and surveyed the area for some time, looking for any sign of a trap, guard, or other sign of life that could be a potential threat to her. A scraping sound came from an unnaturally thick bush next to the lantern. If it weren’t for that sound, she would have missed the now clear guard post that was well camouflaged to blend in with the jungle.
Now that Donna had a target, she needed to get the guard out in the open so she could take them down with one strike and avoid alerting the rest of the potential pirate base. The air was calm and silent. Only the rustling of the jungle could be heard, something she could use to her advantage. Donna lowered herself down from the higher section of the tree, closer to the guard post. Once she was closer, she broke a branch clean off of the tree and waited for the Guard to react. A small door opened, and the guard awkwardly poked their head and gun out to check their surroundings.
The Panthera channeled a primal instinct within her and stalked her prey; waiting patiently for him to reveal himself just a bit more. Once he was halfway out of the door, she unsheathed her daggers and let herself drop from the tree. Her weight caused the guard to collapse straight onto the ground without being able to pull the trigger on their gun. Without wasting another second, she plunged her dagger straight into the guard’s throat, leaving them unable to scream or call for help. Donna watched as the guard died in slow agony as they choked on their own blood.
“I think I got it. I’m going to go further in and drop coordinates. Donna whispered into her comms device in her ear.
“Copy.” Dane responded.
Donna got back to work. Before she infiltrated the entrance further, she hid the guard back in their post and mixed the blood into the ground with loose soil. She looked up and could now see the skull that the three-dimensional imaging captured that brought her to investigate the island. Skeletal structure wasn’t Donna’s strong suit; she only cared about the soft, vulnerable targets on someone’s body. Looking closely at the rock before her, though, she could swear that it was in the shape of a Gorillan skull. Most of the rock was covered in jungle overgrowth, but everything she could see was one solid continuous piece. One giant boulder, a hundred to a hundred fifty feet tall, and a hundred feet wide. Carving this alone would have taken years of hard manual labor. Or one very skilled attuned with a specific skill set.
Donna waded carefully into the mouth of the skull, looking for signs of life, other guards, and any other threats, but there was nothing, just more rock. Realizing she was now in the throat of what could be the beginning of a giant skeleton, she found her way into a large cavernous room with sections of it clearly designed for specific purposes. She observed sleeping areas, a large gathering area filled with cushions, furniture, fire pits and televisions, and a cafeteria with many large tables with bench seating and a fully decked out kitchen. It was all completely empty though, not a single soul to be found. That was until a bellowing laugh echoed through the entire chamber. Donna slunk behind a wall and peeked toward the noise.
Staged on a loft was a large television mounted to the smooth rock wall, and in front of it was a couch that housed one of the single largest beings Donna had ever beheld in her life. She had met some of the biggest Yorgan athletes, who towered over her at eight to almost nine feet tall, but this Gorillan was in a league of their own. Donna dropped her coordinates to her team via link and exited the structure completely before being noticed. Fighting a supposed Master-level attuned would be hard enough with the complete team, but fighting this guy by herself would be impossible. While she waited for the team, she wondered where the rest of the pirates were and why they weren’t at their hideout.
After a short flight from the island where they picked up Gemini, the team arrived at the Pirate lair to confront the pirate lord. One by one, the combat-ready members of the team hopped out of the vehicle and onto the sandy beach, where Donna was waiting for them. Jax stayed back on the ship, and Jans piloted them away to safety. The team needed them and the ship to be clear so they wouldn’t have any distractions while taking on one of the most dangerous fights they’ve ever faced.
“This place is so sick. Definitely Pirate Lord energy.” Nate looked up at the megalithic rock formation before him.
“Shhh, keep your voice down. This is why you don’t get picked for the stealth stuff.” Donna hissed.
Lindy punched Nate in the arm before turning back to listen to Donna.
“It’s only him in there. As far as I could tell, there isn’t a single pirate in there except for him.” Donna whispered.
“One guy, so what’s the catch?” Dane wondered.
“He’s the biggest living humanoid I’ve ever seen. Truly gigantic. And if he is a category four, then this is going to be challenging, to say the least.” Donna said.
Dane laid out the battle plan for the team. “Okay, Gem, let's get you in position on the ceiling. I want you to have a bird's eye view of the fight and shoot down to minimize friendly fire. Nate and I will be upfront, Donna, Lindy strike where you can. Lindy, make sure you top off our goo cans, please.”
They had competed in a few tournament fights since they had formed the team and found their two by two by one strategy to be fairly successful. Nate and Dane had nearly impenetrable protective abilities that made them perfect for frontline assault and defence for every attack anyone had to throw at them. Lindy stayed at mid range alternating between healing and ranged attacks, while giving Gemini a bunker to fire her deadly long-ranged shots from, unless there was a better tactical advantage. Donna played utility with a priority of protecting Lindy.
The new Arcane Operators had fought many enemies in their short time together, but this Pirate Lord had the potential to be their toughest. They were confident but would be foolish not to recognize the concern crossing their minds. They huddled together, like when the youngest of the group were just Team Arcane, putting their heads together to be close to each other one more time before facing their new foe.
