CHAPTER 25: THE EMERALD OUTPOST

  [STATE: STABILIZED]

  [MANA RESERVES: 32%]

  [NEW OBJECTIVE: ESTABLISH JUNGLE OUTPOST]

  The ash from the 'Defoliation Protocol' lay like a gray shroud over the blackened soil. It was a dead zone, a mile-wide circle of silence in a world of noise. I stood in the lobby, watching through the open gates as the first of the Imperial sailors—now my 'Reclamation Team'—started building the first perimeter wall.

  "I didn't authorize a break, Admiral," I said into the loudspeaker.

  Admiral Vane, who was currently carrying a heavy basalt block, looked up at the observation deck. He didn't shout. He didn't curse. He just wiped the soot from his forehead and kept moving. He had learned the lesson of the Oasis: work or starve.

  "Gray," Lilo said, walking up to me. He looked better today—the extra rations and the steady mana-flow were helping his body recover, though the white hair remained. "The clearing is done. But the jungle isn't dead. It’s growing back. Fast. I’ve seen vines sprout six inches in an hour."

  "I didn't expect a single burn to kill a primordial ecosystem, Lilo. I expected it to provide a window. And in that window, we’re going to build the 'Emerald Outpost'. We need the rare resins and the mana-conducting wood from the interior. If we want to fix the 'Resolute' and build the new floor, we need those materials."

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  "Ami says the temple she found is still active," Lilo warned. "The swarm was just the first layer. There’s something in the center of that grid. Something that’s been there since before the Empire was an idea."

  "I didn't come here to worship, Lilo. I came to extract. If the temple has a core, I want it. If it has a guardian, I want its mana-signature."

  "You're going to push it too far, Gray. One day, you're going to find something that doesn't care about your ledger."

  "I didn't build my ledger on luck, Lilo. I built it on a complete understanding of risk. Speaking of which, I’ve decided on the new currency exchange rate for the jungle theater."

  I handed him a new parchment. Lilo looked at it and his eyes narrowed.

  "One 'Soul-Credit' for a pound of Jungle Resin? Gray, the men will have to kill ten of those cats just to buy a beer!"

  "I didn't say it was an easy market, Lilo. I said it was the rate. High risk, high reward. If a man wants to retire early, he goes into the deep green. If he wants to stay safe, he stays on the wall and earns the base rate. It’s called a 'Free Market'."

  "It's called a death trap," Lilo muttered.

  "I didn't ask for a critique of my economic model. I asked for a deployment. Take the first squad. We’re going to the temple."

  I didn't go with them. I stayed in the office, monitoring the black box. It had stopped humming. It was now pulsing with a steady, green light that matched the frequency of the jungle. It was adapting. It was trying to connect with the local network.

  I didn't allow it. I tightened the containment field.

  "I didn't bring you here to make friends," I whispered to the box.

  On the screen, I watched Lilo and Ami enter the shadow of the jungle. They looked like ants entering a cathedral. The trees loomed over them, their leaves blocking out the sun.

  [MISSION STATUS: ACTIVE]

  [MANA DRAW: STEADY]

  [CURRENT EQUITY: 100%]

  I sat back and picked up my quill. I had a whole new world to audit. And I wasn't going to stop until every leaf in this jungle was a line item in my book.