[Timeline Deviation Confirmed]
[Early Deviant Emergence Detected]
[Intervention Opportunity Identified]
Arty frowned.
"Intervention?"
[Mission Available]
[Mission Initialising]
Arty didn't move for several seconds, the body of the dog lay twisted on the concrete where it had fallen, its momentum gone, its violence ended, but the pressure in the air hadn't eased.
If anything, it felt sharper now, cleaner than before, like the world had just admitted something it had been trying to hide.
He crouched again, slower this time, studying the corpse without touching it. The distortion beneath the skin was faint, almost invisible unless he was looking for it.
More like unstable interference wrapped around dead tissue, threaded through nerve lines and muscle fibers that had already started becoming something else.
"Variant seed,"
[Designation Accepted]
He straightened, his gaze shifting toward the street beyond the lot, then toward the warehouse interior again. The food, the structure, the entrance, the weak points, the routes in and out.
Everything he'd planned an hour ago was still useful, none of it was sufficient now.
Because one variant dog this early meant pressure was already leaking forward through the timeline and that meant others wouldn't be far behind.
His jaw tightened.
"How many?"
[Localised Instability Detected]
[Early-Stage Deviant Emergence Probability: Rising]
[Population Density Risk: Moderate]
[Recommended Action: Containment]
He stared at the words hanging in front of him. "Containment huh."
That told him everything, Arty had spent every previous reset reacting.
The System wasn't asking him to hide from what was coming. It wanted him to interfere.
The pressure in his chest settled into something colder, more focused.
"Define containment."
[Prevent Deviant Escalation]
[Reduce Active Threat Spread]
[Delay Cascade Events]
[Mission Available]
The first real mission, not just passive guidance or reactive support, this time it offered objectives with a clear line in the sand.
Arty breathed out once through his nose, then gave the smallest nod.
[FIRST CONTAINMENT]
[Objective: Neutralise 3 early-stage variants within local zone]
[Objective: Prevent civilian exposure events: 2 minimum]
[Objective: Maintain operational secrecy]
[Bonus: Recover viable Deviant cores]
[Time Constraint: 18 Hours]
[Failure Risk: Local escalation increase]
[Reward: Structural Integration Package I]
[Reward: Sensor Sweep Unlock]
[Reward: Adaptive Reserve Points +5]
Arty read it once more three variants and two civilian exposure events that required secrecy and prevention, his mind was already moving through the implications.
There were Deviants active nearby, or soon would be, civilians were at risk of crossing paths with them before the wider collapse even began.
That meant public incidents, emergency services, police presence, traffic disruption, reports, footage, confusion.
Each one would accelerate instability, each one would drag the timeline closer to open fracture, starting the apocalypse early, he looked back toward the dead dog.
"Local zone radius?"
[Approximate operational radius: 5.2 kilometers]
That covered too much and not enough at the same time, industrial lots, side streets, petrol stations, small shops, residential spillover, possible school routes.
His eyes flicked toward the Ute no wasted movement, he crossed the warehouse quickly, stepping past the grain stacks and spare materials before reaching the driver's side door.
"This comes with me,"
[Confirmed]
He leaned slightly against the tray, thinking, blunt weapons were simple, but he needed reach and reliability. Improvised tools would work for one target, maybe two, until something went wrong.
He needed something he could direct with speed and precision, his gaze shifted toward the warehouse interior.
He moved back inside and began sorting through it without hesitation, selecting pieces not for what they were, but for what they could become.
A steel rod about the length of his arm, a heavier pipe section, two flat brackets with enough rigidity to mount or reinforce, he laid them on the concrete and rested a hand on the first piece.
"Refine."
The weight distribution changed in his hand as he lifted it again, the thing no longer feeling like scrap, now it had intention and new use, his eyes flicked to the next piece.
"That'll do."
[Improvised weapon quality increased]
He took both, loaded them into the Ute, then went back for one more item, a length of reinforcing mesh from the side wall, this would be for trapping.
For blocking a corridor, fencing a choke point, sealing access if he needed seconds and not minutes, all items went into the Ute's tray.
He started the engine, just the ordinary growl of a Ute turning over while the world quietly edged toward ruin.
He pulled out onto the road and drove slowly at first, eyes scanning constantly, attention split between physical space and the strange undercurrent he was beginning to recognise.
A service station three streets over lit the first warning hard enough that he felt it in his teeth. He slowed before the intersection, keeping the Ute partially shielded by a parked delivery truck.
The servo looked normal at a glance, all the lights where on, it looked open and ready for business, there were even two cars at the pumps.
One older man stood near the front counter while a teenager waited beside the slushy machine, apparently deciding on a flavour.
With nothing obviously wrong inside store, he looked around outside, then Arty saw the woman near the air pump station.
One hand braced on the metal post, her body jerking in small, wrong movements, these movements weren't even like a zombie's.
No, these movements… Were like a transition as though a puppet master was taking control of the strings it was clunky and unnatural.
"Exposure event."
[Confirmed]
The teenager inside the station had started moving toward the door, probably curious, probably thinking someone needed help.
That would be civilian exposure number one, Arty was already out of the Ute before the thought finished.
The teenager pushed open the door and started toward the forecourt.
"Oi!"
The kid stopped and turned.
"You forgot your drink."
The teenager instinctively looked back toward the counter.
It delayed him by barely a second.
The woman's body jerked violently as the transformation completed.
Behind him, the teenager froze.
"Wow..."
The kid looked from the woman to Arty.
"That bloke just saved my life."
He moved fast, weapon in hand, crossing the forecourt at an angle that kept the pumps between him and the woman.
She lifted her head at the sound of his boots scraping concrete, her eyes were wrong clouded but not completely blind, her glasses where crooked.
Veins darkening beneath the skin around her neck, her jaw working too hard, too fast, like the body had forgotten how to wear a human face properly.
The man working the station counter, pushed the glass door open.
"Miss?"
Arty didn't look at him.
"Get back inside."
The man froze at the tone alone, ultimately though he went back inside.
The woman twisted toward the voice and lunged, she was way too quick and sharp even though not full variant, though close no longer human anymore.
Arty stepped in before she could redirect, the refined steel rod came across hard and low, smashing into her knee with a crack that took the leg out from under her.
She hit the ground badly, snarling now, the sound wet and broken, Arty brought the rod down again, this time into the side of her skull putting a stop to all movement.
Arty crouched beside the body, checking for the now-familiar distortion, there it was again, much stronger than the dog's.
A tiny shard of darkened crystalline matter pushed upward beneath split skin, half-grown and unstable, he extracted it carefully and wrapped it in a rag from his pocket.
[Variant Core Recovered]
[Bonus Objective Progress: 1/3]
He stood.
"Has the civilian exposure prevented?"
[Confirmed]
[Progress: 1/2]
"Good… One and one."
He dragged the body around the side of the building, out of immediate sightline, using the mesh as a crude screen once he fetched it from the tray.
Temporary concealment only, though that was enough for now, anyone finding it later would be part of a different timeline problem.
He washed the visible blood from the rod with the station hose, ignoring the stare from behind the glass, then returned to the Ute.
The second pull came stronger and lower, dragging his awareness toward a drainage corridor running behind a row of light industrial units.
He drove there in silence, tyres crunching gravel as he eased off the road and killed the engine, this time he heard it before he saw it, he stepped out and moved around the rear of the nearest unit.
A man in a hi-vis shirt was halfway over a chain-link fence, kicking wildly as something below pulled at his boot.
Too broad across the shoulders, too low to the ground, more like a feral pig, except not one Arty had ever seen before.
Its hide looked stretched too tight over muscle that had no business being there, one ear was gone, with one eye glowing with the same feverish distortion he'd already learned to hate.
The fence was starting to buckle under the pressure, the man saw him and shouted, "Please help me!"
Arty was already moving, the pig turned at the sound, releasing the boot and charging with brutal, stupid speed.
He sidestepped at the last possible second, bringing the weighted pipe down across the side of its head. The impact caused it to stagger, but it didn't drop it.
It wheeled immediately, tusks gouging sparks from the concrete as it came around again.
He reached out with the part of himself that had stopped feeling impossible and started feeling inevitable, the post bent.
The chain-link snapped inward across the pig's path a fraction early. It hit the twisted section at full speed, lost alignment, and exposed the side of its neck for half a second.
Arty struck, by the third blow, the strike crushed through its head, the pig collapsed in a violent heap and stayed there.
The man on the fence was still breathing in short, panicked bursts, Arty looked up at him.
"Did you get bitten?"
The man looked down wildly, checking himself, then shook his head.
"No. No, I don't think so."
"Then you can get off the fence and leave… Now." Arty said.
The man hesitated.
"Move there might be more coming."
That was enough to set the mans desire to run, he scrambled down the far side and ran without another word.
[Civilian Exposure Prevented]
[Progress: 2/2]
[Mission Sub-Objective Complete]
Arty turned back to the carcass.
"Core."
He found it faster this time, this one was much larger and appeared more stable than the previous ones, it was much harder to extract, the pig skin and skull were thicker.
It came free slick with blackened fluid that evaporated into a foul metallic smell before it hit the dirt, he wrapped that one separately.
[Deviant Core Recovered]
[Bonus Objective Progress: 2/3]
Two kills.
Two prevented exposures.
One remaining Deviant.
The System remained silent for several seconds, then another line appeared.
[Cascade Delay Achieved: Minor]
Arty stared at the words. "Minor?"
He looked up toward the darkening sky between the warehouse roofs, breathing slow and even as the day tilted toward evening.
"Time to find me the third one."
The directional pressure hit him like a hook under the ribs, Arty turned slowly toward the unit at the end of the lane, the roller door half open.
The interior was dark, but he could see a shadow moving inside and then came a sound, it wasn't human anymore, a low choking sound that cut off fast.
His grip tightened on the pipe, the third one wasn't outside hunting blindly, it was already inside with people.
Arty stepped forward, every instinct narrowing into a single line, Slow it down. One kill at a time if that was what it took.
The collapse could wait a little longer, he was going to make sure of it.