Unchosen Champion

Abithik sputtered, staring at the book that Coop placed on his otherwise empty reception desk. At least, Coop thought he was staring. His bony face was aimed at the book, but the lich had no eyes, just dimly glowing orbs inside his otherwise empty sockets, so Coop was making an assumption as to where his attention was focused.

“Is that a tome of pre-mana knowledge?!” The lich finally found some words and barked them out, sounding like he needed a drink.

Coop angled his head to read the cover. It was a faded and dog-eared copy of 'The War of the Worlds,’ by H.G. Wells.

“Hmm…” Coop wondered if it would actually be okay to introduce human literature to the aliens. “No, that's a science fiction novel.” Coop pulled out another book, choosing more deliberately while ignoring Abithik’s visible confusion at the genre.

Coop made his new choice and placed the second book on the desk. It was a children’s encyclopedia with a picture of Earth superimposed over a collage of various animals. Abithik rattled as he did a skeleton’s imitation of a gasp and slid backwards at being confronted by twice the number of books as before.

“That one has basic knowledge in it.” Coop offered, tapping his finger on the cover, but the librarian was ignoring him. He subtly reached for one of the buttons situated on the switchboard on his side of the wide reception desk and pressed it repeatedly, at least a dozen times, in rapid succession.

A moment later, Lakan, the dark blue haired zombie that looked like he was a prince that died of hypothermia appeared from the reserved sections behind the reception. “Yes, Abithik? Emergency?”

Abithik pointed at the pair of books, still keeping his distance to avoid touching them.

Lakan looked surprised as well, but he immediately moved closer. “Are these the so-called human books?”

Coop nodded. “I was seeing if you guys would take care of them. No point in me keeping them in my pocket.”

Lakan hesitated with his hands hovering over the encyclopedia before he finally flipped open the hardcover of the book, taking care to feel the texture before he pulled away as if it stung him. “We aren’t equipped to handle such valuable items.” He stated firmly, squeezing his eyes shut as if he was in pain, and sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

Coop looked around the impressive library feeling a disconnect between the facility and the value of a few used books. “You could just put them on some shelves.” Coop offered, feeling like it would be a waste to keep them in his spatial storage. “That’s how humans would have kept them.”

“You underestimate the importance of such artifacts. A pre-mana society with such an advanced method of maintaining knowledge is extraordinarily rare, even unheard of, frankly. Either one of these would justify an entire museum dedicated to its history that culminated in its prominent and secure display.”

Lakan looked up at Coop and gave him a stare that he clearly meant to convey he was serious. “Even spoken language is rare among new members of the community. I have heard of these books from your residents, but I naively believed they were boasting in an effort to impress us. I am not personally aware of a species as advanced as humanity joining the galactic community.”

Coop took the statement as further evidence of the existence of the eradication protocol while Lakan returned his concentration to the reverse title page of the children’s encyclopedia. “I would like this for the special collection, but we are not equipped to have them transferred to system oversight, nor for the preservation of physical copies. I suggest constructing a museum or perhaps the absolute highest level scriptoria.”

Coop shrugged, accepting the zombie’s advice. “Alright.” A scriptoria sounded like a place Charlie could apply her profession, and he had previously considered a museum for Jones. Maybe they could build both, but then again, why involve the system at all? They could start their own human library as well.

“Can you read that?” He asked Lakan as the librarian continued to gawk at the book.

“Kind of. The common language struggles to translate alphabets before they have been approved by the system, but I have some experience, additional authorization, and skills thanks to my position and profession.” Lakan responded without looking back up.

“Are there many alphabets?” Coop felt like that would contradict what Lakan had just said about language being rare and he pondered how he would introduce some of the different languages from Earth. A few of the residents and many of the phantoms weren’t English speakers in the first place, but the universal language abilities did such a good job, even the aliens hadn’t noticed.

Lakan continued to browse the encyclopedia, doing his best not to touch too much while flipping a page before he explained absentmindedly. “Enough newcomers establish their own alphabets upon joining the community, as a rite of passage, for there to be multiple examples.”

“Huh. I see…” Coop mumbled, distracted by the reverence the librarian continued to show for the encyclopedia. “You can borrow that if you want.” He offered since the alien was so keen on the book.

“I absolutely could not. My immortal life wouldn’t even be worthy collateral.”

“It’s alright, there’s probably thousands of copies of that specific book, even after everything that’s happened.” Coop waved away his concern.

Lakan snapped his attention back to Coop before he stuttered a bit as he strove to articulate his thoughts. “You- The-” He paused and started again after taking a dramatic breath. “I know you are working hard to deal with the assimilation. The fact that you survived such a challenge assessment is testament to your gallantry, and we all saw you take responsibility and defeat the Construct projections to protect the lives of your people, but you should consider prioritizing the preservation of as many of these as possible. It would be a laudable effort.”

Coop frowned at the thought of additional responsibilities being put on his shoulders. “I’ll do my best, but there’s a lot more than books out there, and a lot of other things that should be protected.”

Coop considered the respect that aliens put on the fort and wondered how they would feel about something actually ancient structures, or even modern skyscrapers. Would they want him to forget everything else to protect the pyramids? As Coop’s goals solidified, it was more like he wanted to preserve as much of the planet and the life on it as possible anyway. There was no reason to feel guilty about continuing on his path.

He put the novel back into his spatial storage, leaving the encyclopedia for Lakan, whether the zombie was comfortable with it or not.

“Abithik, could you direct me to where I can learn about factions, starting from the basics?”

The lich snapped out of his stupor as soon as Coop gave him a task. “Of course.” He flipped another switch. “Please head to the third floor. Asha-Kali will guide you from there.”

“Thanks.” Coop left quickly while Lakan hesitated to touch the book in order to return it to the fleeing Champion while feebly calling for him to wait.

When he reached the third floor, Asha-Kali was impatiently waiting. A few lavender streaked strands of hair spilled over her shoulders and her dark red brooch glittered as she shifted to the sound of Coop’s footsteps.

“Oh. It’s you.” She stated monotonously upon observing Coop, seeming vaguely disappointed.

“Yep.” Coop responded happily.

“This way.” Asha-Kali turned and swiftly marched toward one of the rear corners of the stacks, paying no heed to whether or not Coop kept up. When she stopped and indicated multiple shelves, she continued. “I trust you can navigate the collection from here.”

“Sure.” Coop answered with a smile.

“Then, I’ll leave you.” She stated firmly, marching back the way they came. Coop watched her go, and shook his head. She just had that kind of personality. There was nothing to worry about, so he concentrated on the shelves to find tablets that would be helpful.

Coop naturally began from the left, checking the very first tablet and finding that it would be useful based on its title. He swept along the shelves and ended up with five different items to explore. Starting with ‘Factions: What?’ and ending with ‘A Comprehensive Deconstruction of The Faction Criterion and How to Evaluate Them.’

He sought a comfortable spot, and decided to sit on a couch in front of a wide table. A floor to ceiling window was adjacent to the table, facing west across the fort. He had a view of the canal as it cut through the fort’s courtyard and connected with the ocean. The huge wild pig was visible even from all the way across the settlement, treading water in the perimeter moat, happily swimming with his herd. The brand new hospital reflected light from its new position north of the canal.

For a moment, he felt like something was missing and he tapped his fingers while he tried to figure out what it was. After a moment, he realized it was the constant presence of all of the phantoms. Compared to when they had so many more people wandering around, relaxing while off-duty or patrolling the ramparts, the settlement seemed relatively empty. A handful were moving here and there, several different groups of a dozen or more people were setting up for repairs on the fort’s walls, and the construction project at the edge of the town circle had drawn a crowd, but the loss was obvious from his vantage.

It wasn’t even that long ago that seeing anyone other than Jones around the fort would have felt bizarre, but now, a few hundred people wasn’t enough, especially after briefly having over 8,000 bustling around the fort and courtyard. Coop thought it was strange how quickly his perspective could shift.

Done checking the view and figuring out what was off, he turned his attention to researching factions, starting with the almost offensively simple sounding ‘Factions: What?’

To start with, factions weren’t the only organizational structure in the universe, but they were distinguished by being the only ones recognized by the system. This fact alone was enough to elevate their relative importance to the top. There were unofficial governments, alliances, religions, associations, consortiums, institutes, brotherhoods and even things as simple as clubs that still found ways to exist and rise to prominence within the galactic community, but when it came down to it, factions were at the center of everything.

The formation of a faction was presented like the legendary holy grail. Outside of a new assimilation, the methods of obtaining a faction chip were vague at best, and the actual act of forming a faction was completely glossed over. The strategies to obtain a chip sounded almost like myths, with unconfirmed reports making up the bulk of the ideas. Lists of impossible sounding feats were deemed as possibilities, but nothing was ever confirmed. The vast majority of factions had existed for so long, their own formations were lost to time, and none had any incentive to guide others into becoming their rivals even if proper records were kept.

When it came to an assimilation, only a maximum of one faction chip would be distributed at the end of the entire process, though most of the time none were obtained. The requirements were considered inordinately demanding, especially when just surviving the assimilation was far from guaranteed.

The only well-documented method was for it to be rewarded to the Champion of the top ranked settlement, if any, to survive an accumulated 111,111 Challenge Assessment points at the end of a successful assimilation. This was described as a feat that was almost never achieved. Even with all of the events that would take place in 111 years, earning the cumulative assessment was extraordinarily rare, but Ghost Reef beat it in one.

Coop shook his head in amazement. He wondered if they lucked out having the first, and presumably easiest event be so overwhelmingly stacked against them, or if it was a sign that future events would only continue to escalate in danger. According to the tablet, he shouldn’t have received the final reward until the assimilation was completed, but Coop just shrugged since it seemed like the settlement score had been all kinds of bugged out.

The only reason why the Challenge Assessment reward was known at all was due to assimilations that ended up being reduced to a single settlement for the entire planet’s surviving population. These ended up being difficult for invaders to crack and had resulted in a handful of recognized factions by the end of their assimilations.

It was a good way for a faction to start. A united bloc of members forged together through the crucible of a difficult assimilation. They were typically recognized as courageous by the rest of the galactic community and allowed some leeway in establishing themselves before being challenged by other proven factions in inter-faction conflicts.

While skimming ‘You and Your Faction: A Handbook,’ Coop found information about the benefits that factions provided. Most beings in the universe were in a faction, and virtually all beings started in one. It was supposedly a mutually beneficial relationship where factions enjoyed additional benefits based on their population and individuals received opportunities through the faction.

To Coop, the opportunities sounded similar to settlement events, except they allowed people to voluntarily opt in to participate, with a fee, and compete for rewards and experience in the name of their faction. It seemed like that was the primary way for people outside of an assimilation to level up and otherwise collect rewards and experience. It was no wonder the factions emphasized events, it was something they knew well.

Generally, a faction’s influence could be measured by their member population and their physical territory. Individual strength would always be a factor, but it seemed like numbers trumped all when it came to direct competition between factions. This incentivized factions to collect members and refuse to let them leave. An individual that achieved sufficient power would be difficult to keep under control, which is how factionless people even existed. Coop had renewed respect for the factionless aliens he kept recruiting. They needed to earn their independence from the factions they had defaulted into by presenting enough strength to resist the collective power of their faction.

One important aspect that was going unsaid, but Coop was piecing together, was that the galactic community was completely dependent on the system. Since factions were affiliated with the system by default, they were afforded greater privileges than would otherwise be attainable. The main reason for this dependence appeared to be that there was absolutely no other way of traveling between planets except using the system’s ability to project, and apparently, under certain circumstances, transport their bodies. It was a galactic community with no space travel, where factions competed to control entire planets, and the system regulated the factions.

Looking at it another way, assuming the Avatar of the System was telling the truth, the system was empowering victims of mana to a certain extent, but it was extremely limited. Without the system, mana would have successfully isolated every single planet from the start.

Coop put aside the tablets and relaxed while he organized his thoughts. He was basing his decisions on what he saw as best for Ghost Reef. Right now, his focus was local, where settlements were the main piece in the game, but he could see how, as the board expanded, factions would become the main pieces. Most of what he had learned about factions wasn’t immediately relevant to him.

Creating a faction in order to integrate into the greater universe was something he could delegate in a hundred years, assuming they survived. The real reason to rush was to deal with this supposed eradication protocol, but there was no real corroboration for the Avatar’s warning. It was just simple risk mitigation to establish it early, using the Purification Chip to do it. That was probably fine. He hadn’t found anything to discourage his inclination to just get on with it so far, other than his general cautiousness wanting to avoid some kind of trap. Even then, he felt like they would have to go forward with the Purification Chip.

The worst case scenario for not using it was guaranteed death.

Before he got into the next tablet, Asha-Kali gracefully slid onto the sofa next to him. Coop jumped at her surprising appearance, she had moved so silently and appeared without warning. Then, Shalatha and Charlie sat down on the other side of the table.

“Hey, Coop!” Charlie greeted cheerfully as she sat down, bouncing onto the plush sofa opposite Coop.

“Hey Charlie, what are you doing here?” Coop asked as he welcomed the company.

“I made friends with Shalatha back before we went to get my parents. I was just visiting since the library had been locked up during the siege, and Asha-Kali let us know you showed up.” Charlie explained brightly.

Coop glanced at Asha-Kali, but she just expressionlessly stared back at him underneath her arched eyebrows.

“I was just looking up some stuff about factions…” Coop began.

“Did you decide to start one?” Charlie asked excitedly. “You know, I never got to see the visitor or the disk since I conk out when my mana gets drained.” She stated, obviously wanting Coop to show her. The two librarians exchanged a quick glance, but didn’t seem to be sure what Charlie was talking about. Apparently, news of the Avatar and the faction chips hadn’t reached the contracted residents.

“I think I’ll wait and give others a chance to weigh in before going through with it.” He shrugged and pulled out the Faction Founding Chip rewarded by the system at the end of the event to show her. Both of the zombies reacted immediately.

“By the Pale Lady, don’t go waving something so valuable around like that!” Asha-Kali exclaimed as she actually recoiled away from the miniature blue disk while grabbing Coop’s forearm to make sure he kept it away. Coop appreciated that she was careful with her extremely sharp, black nails as she held his arm firmly. Shalatha was nodding in agreement so vigorously that her straight bangs became disheveled with her eyes locked onto the disk.

Coop put the blue disk back into his spatial storage with a mental nudge.

“Do you humans not know the meaning of envy?” Asha-Kali asked rhetorically. “That represents the seed of true independence. Do not take it lightly.”

“Independence from what?” Coop wondered.

“Other factions.” Asha-Kali stated, still grasping his arm. He guessed having access to the faction benefits really was valuable if even the ones who fought to be factionless held them in such high regard.

Shalatha was looking closer at the tablets that Coop had collected. “You’re really starting a faction? Is that even possible? So soon?”

“Probably.” Coop responded, “We’ll be taking some input once there’s been some time to think about it.”

“What’s there to think about?” Asha-Kali asked from his side, recovering her composure with her grip on his forearm finally releasing as she placed her hands into her lap.

Coop decided it would be better to try and get advice from those who were steeped in the system than not. “Well, we also received a warning - that we were facing judgment of mana and failing. I’m not sure if it was entirely trustworthy, but we don’t know enough to properly judge credibility.”

Shalatha’s eyes widened, but Asha-Kali was the one that responded. “It’s far too soon to make such a claim. The judgment of mana is a colloquial term for what determines if a planet will be accepted into the galactic community or not. There is still the entire duration of the assimilation remaining, and a true failure is unusual. Sponsorships and contracts would be far less appealing if it was common. In any case, it’s never fully decided before the end.”

Coop shrugged. “If it’s not true, someone tried to manipulate us for unknown reasons. If it is true, we’ll need to use the faction to secure territory to survive the eradication protocol.”

Both of the zombies had clearly never heard of an eradication protocol, exchanging a glance with each other. Shalatha asked, “What’s that?”

“Apparently, what comes next after a judgment of failure.” Coop explained, glad that both the system and mana were impersonal enough for them to have potentially taboo conversations after the information restrictions had been released. “We were told to use this to give ourselves a chance.” Coop stated as he risked another overreaction by pulling out the Purification Chip, but hoping they would have some expert advice.

When the red chip appeared in his hand, both of the contracted residents looked at it briefly, then looked back at him with no change in their expressions, as if nothing about it was particularly interesting. It was in complete contrast to the instantaneous reaction they had when seeing the chip provided by the system. Other than the color, Coop couldn’t see any major differences.

Asha-Kali was the first to give her input, yet again, nonplussed by the appearance of the Avatar’s gift. “That appears to be some kind of shard empowerment chip, they aren’t uncommon as rewards during faction events. It should add a buff to a faction’s settlements.” Coop looked at it with some disappointment, expecting it to have the same impact as the Foundation Chip.

The Avatar really laid into establishing a position of authority, but her mask hadn’t been that convincing in the first place. Then, she had given them a dud while selling it as something so valuable even the contracted residents were shocked by the genuine item. He supposed the point of the Purification Chip, to create safe territory from the judgment of mana, could still be achieved as a simple settlement buff, and he could understand wanting to guarantee its use after they had gone through the trouble to deliver it. If even the factionless aliens would jump at the opportunity to establish a faction, the logic was probably the same for most Champions. Despite the thin manipulations, he was feeling inclined to believe in the Avatar’s purpose.

Asha continued her thoughts on the judgment of mana. “It isn’t common knowledge what happens to planets rejected by the galactic community. The assumption has always been that mana is revoked and they are forced to exist in true isolation. Doomed after being shown enlightenment. Eradication is certainly a possibility. As far as the factions are concerned, losing mana would effectively be the same thing.” Asha-Kali stated coldly.

Shalatha was upset by the idea. “That’s terrible.” She mumbled. Charlie also had concern written all over her face.

Asha-Kali didn’t seem as moved, but she offered her perspective. “At least securing territory with a faction follows logically. That is what they do, after all. A faction capital is simply a settlement with the limitations on subordinate settlements removed.”

Coop understood the difference between designations as factions being like nations and individual settlements more like city-states. The civilization shard remained the base component with its fundamental properties determining the overall structure, so he wouldn’t need to learn new concepts. Faction territory was just the combined settlement territory, and so on.

“We should go for it, Coop!” Charlie suggested encouragingly.

Coop slid the tablet that was in front of him toward the rest of the pile and leaned back against the comfortable sofa and sighed. “There’s definitely a lot of ‘ifs,’ but the way I see it, if there’s any possibility of this eradication protocol coming, then we have to take whatever chance we have to survive.” He eyed the red disk in his spatial storage. The only reason to start early was to follow the Avatar’s instructions to prepare themselves. Really, they were preparing anyway; accumulating power remained the most important aspect for their survival, regardless of the strength of their opponents.

The more Coop deliberated on their situation, the more convinced he was that they were at the advent of a new stage in the assimilation. Like other random humans after he had defeated the Zombie Lord, the Primal Constructs didn’t seem that threatening anymore. They remained limited by the system. In a weird way, Coop was looking forward to moving onto the next challenge.