To paraphrase Tannis, the Eridian script is a mockery.

  Well, maybe the Eridians had a normal writing, but no samples of it could be found; what survived were mostly mental impressions written on peculiar patterns in stone - sometimes on the walls of ruins, but also on rocks. And this stuff was almost untransportable.

  It's not even about the difficulty of carving them out of solid rock. Although eridian architecture is extremely strong, but even it is quite possible to cut it with the right tools, and with ordinary stone it even easier. The problem is that it appears that although the center of the writings is the pattern, they are at least partially spread throughout the supporting object. And to transport a whole rock... I, at least, was obviously unable to do that.

  So my task as "archaeologist's assistant" was extremely simple: arrive at the site, kill anything around that might be dangerous, find the imprint, report back to Tannis.

  Archaeology is such an exciting science....

  Theoretically, it was possible to offer the same Roland to mop up one of the points while I mopped up another. In practice there was no sense in it: while Tannis would do her work in one place and get to another, there might be new beasts or bandits there, so this work could be done only slowly and in order. And two of us on one point is too much, this is not a corporation base, and not even a large bandit camp ...

  - Electricity is blue, fire is red, corrosion is green, you are dead... - I muttered, blasting another bandit with a shot from the Nutcracker. I still didn't understand how the rifle worked; when it hit a man in the head, it exploded, but not in other parts of the body, so at first I thought it would somehow detonate brains, but it didn't. Shooting a spider ant's abdomen had the same effect, and it's obviously very different from human brains, even bandit's brains. Perhaps it was better to just ignore it, writing it off as a special Pandoran magic like the one that makes saws fly in a sine wave, but... Not only curiosity was gnawing, but also purely practical considerations. You need to know the properties and features of your weapon to use it effectively. So I wasted ammunition trying to understand this phenomenon. No lab rats were harmed, so it's okay.

  By the way, that shotgun, which had a proper name, "The Wave", also had an inscription on it. "O waves, gentle waves..." Level 30 sarcasm, my ass.

  Or just black humor.

  In any case, having cleaned up the one location Tannis had specified - I chose from the list the one with an order in the ECHONET - I reported the completion to the archaeologist and the hitchhiker's customer, and then headed for another point of interest through the FTS: the weapons container Angel had specified.

  Unfortunately, it was not easy to take the loot: there was a camp of bandits on the spot. A small settlement among the rocks - a few houses made of standard garbage structures, a pen for skags, where a couple of these large Pandoran endemics finished off their smaller brethren, and three outdoor toilet stalls - settled with a luxury. Hee.

  Dreamily imagining myself throwing a grenade down the chimney or at least through the window, I sighingly gave up the Santa career: you still have to earn a grenade, and these bandits were bad boys, as evidenced by the human, child's hand found in the pen. Another New Year's fairy tale, the Nutcracker, will do.

  It's easier to deal with bandits than with corporations. Mega-corporations would have taken into account the possibility of a sniper's visit, and at least they wouldn't have left the windows open... Thank goodness for negligence.

  Anyway, I killed them.

  But my conscience didn't bother me; this delicate animal was not adapted to life on Pandora at all, so it died first. Or was it humanity? Probably it was, considering my quite moderate rates for the work.

  With these thoughts I looked around, made sure that there was no threat - I decided not to touch the skags, I was sorry for the ammo, and they were asleep anyway, having eaten enough - and started collecting trophies. Well, I didn't have enough ammo for my sniper, and I don't think this group will have any... I should probably get a good revolver to replace my sniper at mid-range. They even come with optics.

  Thinking about it, I hastily scoured the cabins for anything of value, being careful not to get too dirty from the debris of the exploding bandits... oh. A weapons container, slightly bruised by the attempts to open it, someone was using it as a bed.

  The damage made me a little uneasy, but the locking system still worked, and responded to the electronic key - which I'd sent remotely. Even without a catch on Angel's part, corps occasionally booby-trap their shipments, in addition to locking them, or gassing the container. And the airtightness and air recirculation system in my armor is only in the character's memories...

  There was no catch with the one-and-a-half-foot container, though. The lid flipped open, revealing the contents secured inside, and I felt a smile curve my lips. My cutie-pie...

  A shield. Finally a proper shield...

  ...Well, "normal" is obviously a vague term, but this somewhat outdated model is still better than the one I have now. The power is noticeably higher, the processor is a bit more powerful, so it stabilizes faster. No extra features that corporations often add for "individuality" and "specialty", but better protection than the one I'm using now, and that's enough - I don't really need options like an explosion when the shield destabilizes, even if harmless to the user, or adrenaline injection.

  Though an "aggressive shield" that hits those who hit it would come in handy against the varkids, for example. Well, whatever.

  In addition, the container contained an automatic rifle and a pistol from Atlas, quite decent guns, but nothing outstanding (although the pistol, perhaps, can be used), plus some ammunition and a block of grenades. Always useful.

  If Santa Claus doesn't bring me presents, I'll do it myself.

  Treasure (well, as much as a container of weapons can be called such), archaeology, the oddities of the world - but even with all that, I haven't forgotten about making money. On Pandora, there's always someone to shoot for money, or someone to fix something after someone's been tried.

  I don't usually take jobs with vague descriptions. If you need to kill someone, tell me who, why, and where to find them. If you need to fix something, what kind of device, at least take a picture. So to the announcement "there is a strange monster near my house, do something about it, I'll pay" I would not have reacted, if not for the addition of "at least find out what the hell it is". It's one thing to prove that you killed the unknown something that was bothering the customer, and quite another to look around and take a picture of the animal you caught. Both safer and much easier.

  The problem was that I wasn't a hunter, but I'd learned something from my conversations with Mordecai - he wasn't exactly verbose, but there was a lot of useful information to be gleaned from his words - and it wouldn't hurt to practice those skills, at least the basics. The work of shooting certain animals, mainly the leaders of skag packs, is quite common, but you need to find them first.

  Anyway, given that the job was more or less around one of the areas on Tannis' list, I took it. After all, it's not an obligation, and at most I'll lose time, which isn't exactly a tight squeeze.

  Perhaps the main problem in tracking a beast on Pandora is the dusty, rocky ground, the tracks on which are quickly blown away by the wind. Nevertheless, even so the skags are easy to track: their claws leave well-distinguishable traces even on the stone, and near their lairs skags leave similar marks on purpose, plus piles of droppings. Most of the other Pandoran fauna also leave their tracks, by which you can recognize their presence. There's even an ECHO app that identifies them; in fact, there are even hunting bots used in place of hound dogs and bird catchers. Not sure about their effectiveness, but still.

  Anyway, the bottom line is that, at the level I needed, it was much easier than I feared. It was fairly easy to pick up the trail; the scratches were large, deep, and even despite the dust and sand were clearly visible in places. The app reported that it was "Trace of a large alpha male skag, 90% probability," and even plotted in augmented reality the path the beast had traveled, adjusted as additional tracks were found. All I had to do was move along that path, looking for new claw marks.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  While "alpha claw" was not the only option for what had spooked the client, it was the most likely and obvious. Take a picture, send it to the client, and if he agrees, which is similar to what he saw, kill the beast and get the password to the archive with payment (since I didn't take any guarantees, the archive itself was in a vault on the net). The job looked easy, and nothing, as they say, did not bode unwell.

  - Did you see it? - I asked the emptiness under my nose. I could understand, the sight was quite unexpected even for Pandora: a girl was tied to a large stone, sticking out of the ground like a fang. - Who ties people like that? Either tie them up properly, or don't tie them up at all!

  Even from a distance it was noticeable that the ropes were wrapped as they were and not tightened. And the ropes were junk - they looked like they were ready to come apart if you looked too closely.

  That was the main reason why I didn't hurry to approach and help: judging by the way and with what the girl was tied, she could get loose at any moment by will. And, accordingly, I with my attempted "rescue" would just look stupid.

  So instead of foolish chivalry, I settled down, covered myself with a maskset, and began to watch through the scope of the Nutcracker.

  The girl was... pretty, I had to admit. About... twenty years old? It was hard to tell, people on Pandora tended to look older than they were until a certain age, and then considerably younger. Moxie... I wouldn't risk asking her age, but I got the impression from some hints and reservations that she was considerably older than she looked.

  In any case, this "sacrifice to the dragon" was slim, trim to the point of thinness, but by no means emaciated; her ragged and shabby clothes were complemented by armor plates on her shins and forearms, once again confirming the dubiousness of the whole scene: who would leave armor and weapons to a victim? And judging by the ECHO on her thigh, she was not unarmed.

  Unfortunately, I was on the side, so I couldn't see her face, but her figure was very nice. Her breasts were noticeably smaller than Moxie's, but they were also attractive, especially since she was generally a little smaller than Jim's ex; and when my eyes moved away from her breasts, her red hair was... dusty, unfortunately, but still colorful.

  I'll have to offer to organize a shower for her, for a modest fee. I have a digital construction scheme and enough resources. Enough, right?

  I took my eyes off the observation to do a revision, and when I looked through the scope again, the situation had already changed.

  There was a skag running towards the girl tied to the rock. A common occurrence on Pandora, but this particular individual stood out in a big way.

  It was the fucking craziest planet in the foreseeable vicinity a true megaskag. This thing was as big as if it had single-handedly devoured an entire pack of its kin, if not two.

  It also had a single, short and crooked, horn on its head, so I even doubted for a couple of seconds that I was correct. The echo, however, confirmed, "Megaskag, threat level: 13." Judging by that number, I was very right not to go near the rock... but on the other hand, one would hope that the girl knew what she was doing. Perhaps i should help her escape...?

  I glanced over at my nearby parked buggy - and almost missed the fire show.

  Skag, who was frozen in the distance and sniffing at the "victim", slowly rushed towards her, and when he was a couple of meters away from the girl, she - exploded...?

  The wave of fire was very similar to the effect of some shields, and my first thought was that the skag had grabbed her, activating that particular property of the shield. However, I immediately noticed that the girl was not in the epicenter of the explosion, nor anywhere in sight.

  Before I could even process it - a doll with a bomb, like the one Jim had made...? But she was moving... - the girl appeared out of nowhere behind the megaskag with another blast of flame around her. Immediately, flashes and the clatter of SG began to come off one of her hands, and the other... some sort of shock weapon, a pistol probably? A blue flash, though noticeably more voluminous than you'd get from a pistol, but flatter than a shotgun.

  Whatever it was, the megaskag wasn't impressed. The series of attacks definitely did some damage to it, but not enough; the hide of even regular skags isn't easy to penetrate, alphas are even thicker and more durable, and this monster could probably withstand a hit from a small cannon.

  The beast spun around quickly, especially for such a big body, and tried to claw the girl; she barely had time to bounce back, and immediately jumped to the side again, avoiding the skag's jerk. In the meantime, she kept firing, but only with the SG; I found her other hand empty.

  Strange, but not important for now.

  Beautiful tit... girls are a value I wouldn't want to lose, much less turn into skag fodder. So it's time for me to step in.

  A skag's basic speed, whether in a spurt or a run, is developed by pushing off the ground with powerful hind legs with large support claws on them; that's why they leave scratches on the stone. These claws are not weapons, but tools of mobility.

  Consequently, damaged hind legs severely limit that mobility.

  I took aim at a relatively vulnerable spot on the right hind leg, not covered by the horny plates on the hide, chose the moment when the skag was preparing for a new leap... shot!

  There was no explosion, unfortunately. But at least there was a penetration.

  The wound wasn't as serious as I would have liked - my weapon is a "gun", not a "cannon" - but the megaskag's jerk had gone sideways; the wounded leg had failed him. I grimaced as I assessed the amount of ammo I had left, but took aim again. After all, this was an opportunity to get a good chunk of exp - there should be plenty for such a beast.

  I hit again, which with a beast of this size wasn't surprising, but the effect was regrettably weak. At least higher than the SG bullets in the girl's hands, but I wouldn't say that was much consolation.

  The third shot again thwarted the megaskag's attack on the hastily reloading girl, and my cartridge block was depleted as well. Man, that's a good gun, but only three rounds...

  Instead of reloading, I ran to my car. Hopefully the tit... girl would last a few more seconds.

  - The cavalry has arrived! - I yelled, pointing my car straight at the beast. It swerved toward the bigger threat, but I swerved a little, and slammed into its side.

  I couldn't accelerate properly on the rocky surface, and the thing was probably more massive than my transport, but the impact was still significant; the megaskag was knocked off its feet and tossed aside, while my turret continued to blare its war song.

  ...I rejoiced early. A large lump of acidic saliva, gastric juice, or whatever the skags regurgitate, shot out of the creature's mouth as it struggled to get to its feet, and the turret fell silent. And then I found a beam of light falling on the top of my head, and the sky above me....

  I jumped out of the car faster than a lover gets out of bed when husband rings the doorbell. I knew I shouldn't get involved with strange girls, it wouldn't lead to anything good... Tits lead to ass. And in what way, that's up to you.

  I opened fire with Wave shotgun before I even jumped. Ricochets are a threat, but skag is even more dangerous, and here is an open space - almost, there are boulders - and this is the most powerful gun in my arsenal.

  There were no ricochets: the disks were stuck in the hide. The wounds were less deep than I would have liked, but definitely painful: the beast roared in pain as it opened its strange maw.

  The next moment a scene unfolded before me, perhaps even more badass than when Brick had taken out the bandit buggies. The girl, at close quarters evoking the now familiar feeling of familiarity, reappeared in plain sight. In her hands, instead of a useless SG, were three grenades - which she shoved into the open mouth of the skag, sticking her hands almost shoulder-deep in it.

  And the next second she exploded.

  This time, though, I managed to see her disappear, as if fading into a hologram. It was like being digitized, but not in parts, but all over my body evenly.

  The wave of fire wasn't really an explosion; there was no blast wave, only a fire wave. The heat, however, was palpable, so I recoiled, still firing.

  A second more, and with another wave of fire, the girl appeared on the other side of the beast. A blue flash struck from her empty hand, and as if that were a signal, the skag swelled up.

  With a resounding pop, its belly swelled to twice its size, if not three times, and I expected it to burst - but no, the strength of the hide was monstrous, and the grenades were budget-friendly.

  Black smoke erupted from the skag's mouth, and it slumped to the side again.

  It didn't move again.

  I shifted my gaze to the girl staring at him.

  "Lilith, Siren," the augmented reality device reported. - "Tis witch is hot..."

  She shifted her gaze to me.

  And complained.

  - This is some kind of wrong unicorn...

  "What a virgin - such is a unicorn," I might have said.

  If I wasn't afraid of being roasted.